Disclaimer: I own no one, most especially the characters in this story. I'm merely borrowing them and deliberately confusing them.
Dedication: For all the heroes, both known and unknown, that fight the demons of this world that sometimes are so much more frightening than the fictional kind.
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December 10, 2000
"Willow!" Tara and Dawn both screamed in unison as Giles slammed on the brakes. Before the car had rocked back from the abrupt start all the doors were open and the four remaining occupants had scrambled out of the car. Giles took a second to put on the hazard lights before joining them.
"Willow! Anya! Where are you?" Tara called out in a loud voice. Her companions jumped a little; they'd never heard her like that before. But from the darkness there was no response other than the almost mocking chirping of crickets. The road was devoid of working streetlights. Buffy rooted around in the glove compartment. Finding two flashlights, she slapped one into Tara's hand and flicked on the other one.
"Stay close, Dawn." They started walking up the shoulder of the road. Hearing the sound of moaning, they broke into a run. They found Anya lying on the ground, groaning and making feeble movements.
"Anya! Don't move," Giles called. Buffy reached her first and checked her quickly for injuries, relieved to find nothing more serious than scratches and bruises. She helped the frightened girl into a sitting position.
"Are you okay? Where's Willow?"
"Do I look okay? My boyfriend's sick and missing, and I'm fragile and mortal and in pain and I was just thrown from a moving automobile and I thought I was gonna die." Giles put a comforting hand on her arm, and Anya took a deep breath. When she continued she was calmer. "I don't know where she is. We got separated, and I fell wrong. I couldn't breathe, I was dying."
"You had the wind knocked out of you," Giles soothed. Buffy, Tara and Dawn were searching the area for signs of the missing witch. He heard Buffy cry out.
"There!" She shined her light on someone lying face down about fifty feet away. Everyone's hearts leapt into their throats as they ran. Buffy reached the body first and knelt beside it. It was Willow, and she was unnaturally still. Buffy choked back a sob as Dawn and Tara reached her side.
"Is she okay?" Dawn asked in a small frightened voice. Buffy shook her head.
"I think...I think she's...I don't think she's breathing." With a small cry Tara knelt by her girlfriend and reached for her with trembling hands.
**********
*Oh. Kay. This is weird.*
*Willow!*
*Xander? Xander, is that you?*
*Yeah, I'm here.*
*I can't see you. It's all misty. Like a sauna, but without the heat, which is good, cause if it was all hot and stuff I might think I, maybe, went to, you know-*
*Will-*
*Except I wouldn't, you know, because, because I was a pretty good person, and if I was, you know, in Hell, then you wouldn't be there, cause you wouldn't go to Hell-*
*You're not dead, Will.*
*Oh? Oh! That's good! Not being dead is good.*
*Yeah, I'm pretty happy about it too, although it's a bit different for me.*
*Different? Different as in really being dead different? Please say no, cause we're coming to rescue you. Cause you called me, which is weird, but hey, effective!*
*No. Not dead. Not in the traditional sense of lacking a pulse, no.*
*Oh. There's another kind?*
*Well, I suppose you could call me dead in the sense that as things stand I never existed.*
*Oh. I see. No, no, I don't. That sense makes no sense, Xander. I know I felt something different about you before, like you were a different you than the you that you were, you know? What I mean to say is, what's going on?*
*It's complicated, and really hard to explain. Let's just say I didn't exactly use a DeLorean to get here, but the same basic idea applies.*
*You're from the future?*
*Yeah, except my being here has changed the future already...not to mention I've been infected with HVE. And I think Amy's still a rat?*
*I'm working on it! Deratting is pretty darn hard...say, the doctors said you were mumbling about Amy.*
*She figured out the cure to HVE, with the help of you and Tara. And she's the one who did this to me, although it wasn't really her. And I'm just confusing you even more, aren't I?*
*Well, yeah, if you mean I have no idea what you're taking about. You keep saying HVE, that's a disease right? Something from the future?*
*That's my Will. You understand more than most would. Definitely more than I would under the same circumstances.*
*Thanks for the affirmation, but I still don't-*
*I know, I know. And we don't have much time. At least I don't think we have much time.*
*Much time for what? Xander-*
*Listen, Will, do you trust me?*
*Of course I trust you, Xander. You're Xander. I mean, you're a different Xander, you're Xander from the future, but still Xander, you know?*
*Okay. Good. I can't tell you much about how and why I came to be here, cause frankly I don't really understand it myself. But there's a demon behind this, think ultra-Big Bad, and he has to be stopped. Somehow he brought me back in time, and it seems like he took the me that's meant to be here and brought him to the future. He must be stopped from doing...whatever it is he's doing, I'm not really clear about that part. The PTB apparently agree with me, because, well, here we are.*
*And here is where?*
*Dunno, but I think you and I are here to try to do something about this. You have to help me, Will.*
*I'm trying. Xander, you're close, I know you are. Just tell me where-*
*No, Will. I know I dragged you out here, but I'm dying. You don't have the cure and Tara doesn't have the training and Amy's still a rat. You find me, you'll die too.*
*But I can't just let you die!*
*Listen to me. That can't be helped now, but there's something I need you to do. Let me show you.*
*Xander, I can save you.*
*Listen...*
*Xander...please...*
*...Willow...*
*Please tell me where you are!*
*Let me show you...*
*Xander. What...?*
*...show you...*
*...oh...wow...*
*...got to save them...*
*I see...okay...I think I know what to do...*
*********
June 19, 2010
"You've arrived! You've arrived! Here and now, now and here and now!" Wesley bounced gleefully like a small child, his eyes wild. Without dropping the crossbow he grabbed Xander by the arm with surprising strength, pulling him inside. Once his eyes adjusted to the gloom, Xander saw incredible disarray. Books were stacked with remarkable precariousness everywhere, often with forgotten plates or teacups perched upon them. Stranger still, the walls were covered with odd graffiti made with colored chalk and black markers, combinations of hieroglyphics, strange languages and mathematical formulas. Wesley pulled Xander further into the strange house and sat him on the sofa, which appeared to be the only place to sit. Spike had followed and took a seat next to him. Wesley seemed strangely unaware of his presence, all attention now focused on Xander. It was making the dark-haired young man more nervous by the second.
"Is he...all right?' Xander asked Spike in a whispered aside as Wesley wandered over to a wall and added something to a formula, humming to himself.
"Mad as a hatter, mate. Has been for years." Spike smirked at the former Watcher, but Xander saw sympathy in his eyes. Spike shook his head wonderingly. "Fell in love with some strange physicist bird Angel rescued. She was a bit mad too, you know. Then they make some kind of bleeding discovery, some kind of ancient magickal technology thing...I remember Angel told them not to do anything rash, and then next thing we knew, poof, they'd disappeared. About a day later he's back, but he's been like this ever since. Told us he'd lost her in a time thread. None of us had a bloody clue what he was talking about. Been telling us for years all this rubbish about time streams being all wonky and you were gonna show. Thought it was just him bein' off his head, but here you are, aren't you?"
"Here you are, now you are...it's all coming together, so it's coming undone..." Wesley practically sang, scribbling something else.
"Spike, this is lovely tea party, and I'm sure it's bringing back nostalgic feelings for your days with Drusilla-"
"That's low, Harris," Spike growled.
"-but how does it get us any closer to rescuing the kids from Menckar, not to mention Tara and Amy?" At the mention of Menckar, Wesley turned to them, calm and collected. Xander and Spike were struck by his sudden lucidity.
"Ah, Menckar. He's a bad one, he's not in our dimension. Locked up tight." Wesley's eyes began to lose focus, and Xander stood and gripped his arms desperately, trying to hold on to sanity. Whether it was the Watcher's or his own he didn't wish to speculate.
"Wesley, do you know where Menckar is?" Wesley nodded imperiously.
"Of course. But you can't get there from here." A high pitched giggle escaped his lips. "You need help, dear Xander. Demon help." Xander looked questioningly at Spike, and Wesley giggled again.
"Not vampire help. It has to be a demon with an understanding of different dimensional realities and who can pass between them..." Wesley trailed off, half-smiling. There was a loud knock at the door. "Here comes one now."
"Oh, sure, mate. You've got a demon who can pass freely between dimensions but has to knock on the door of your house." Spike leaned laconically back on the couch as he spoke. Wesley paused momentarily, frowning.
"It's not really polite to just pop in unannounced." Wesley hurried to the door as the atmosphere in the room seemed to suddenly become charged with some kind of energy. It seemed to be emanating from above them. Spike and Xander both looked up, tensing as they saw small golden lights start to swirl overhead.
"Magick," Spike said softly.
"Ummm...Wesley?" Xander called anxiously as more and more lights appeared. "Something's happening!" Before the last word exited his mouth, the energy suddenly seemed to form the shape of a person, who subsequently materialized, dropping unceremoniously into Spike's lap. Xander's mouth dropped open in shock.
"Ooof," Spike quickly recovered, grinning at the unexpected visitor. "Didn't think you'd be joining us, luv."
"Don't get any ideas, Spike," Willow replied, struggling out of the vampire's lap. She smiled at Xander. "Sorry for the dramatic entrance, but I had to get here fast."
Before Xander pulled himself together enough to speak, Wesley returned with the woman that had been at the door. She was indeed a demon, her face strangely veined and utterly foreign to Xander, but he smiled at her anyway. He would have recognized her anytime and anywhere.
"Anya...it's you!"
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