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 Post subject: "Might Have Been" 1/6 (Buffy fanfic)
PostPosted: Tue Dec 16, 2003 5:54 pm 
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Joined: Mon Jan 27, 2003 1:14 am
Posts: 92
Title: "Might Have Been" 1/6
Author: Zahir
Website: zahir.150m.com
Feedback: zahir@brainlink.com
Rating: PG-13
Couples: W/T (kinda sorta but also definitely)
Spoilers: Through to the beginning of S7.
Synopsis: Reality starts to go bye-bye, and the reason is really very interesting. But as a result, everyone gets a major glimpse of alternate realities.
Distribution: Just ask is all.
Disclaimers: Joss Whedon & Mutant Enemy own everything here but the story. I'm just borrowing and promise to give them back, none the worse for wear.
Notes: This story takes place soon after Willow returns from England in early S7. Its just a little something I've been playing with in my imagination for awhile.

* * *

"There's no way this could be good, right?"

Buffy didn't answer her sister's question immediately. For one thing, it was pretty much rhetorical. Dawn had issues when it came to ending up ignored, but odds were she didn't really expect an actual answer to this one. So Buffy just stared at the street, at the cars breaking as fast as they could. Not that she blamed them. Sunnydale, California
was not a place renowned for any snowfall, but less a blizzard. When said blizzard literally appeared with zero warning surprise quickly gave rise to shock. Even, from the look in some
drivers' eyes, panic.

She knew how they felt.

"No," Buffy finally said, "I'd say this is not good."

"But there was that time," Dawn noted, "when it snowed and saved Angel."

"Not in August."

"Yeah, well." Dawn could usually be as voluble as any sixteen-year-old, but not this time. Or at least not much. "This probably has to do with what-ever-is-up at the Hellmouth."

"Probably."

Behind them, the front door to the house creeked open.

"Uh...Buffy?" It was Willow. Moving awkwardly, still healing from her wounds, and with an even more worried expression than usual. "There's something wrong. Really wrong."

"No kidding!"

Dawn stepped to Willow's side. "Is it your stomach? Are you bleeding again?"

Silently Buffy cursed herself. Of course Willow might have meant herself, her own genuine physical pain! Having strips of yourself sliced off and eaten wasn't something Buffy herself had ever had to endure, but even if she had Slayer-strength would have sped up her healing. Willow was human. A witch--a scarily powerful witch--but human. "Willow?"

"No, I'm okay. It's just..." Willow shook her head as if tossing away cobwebs. "The ebb and flow--its been interrupted, somehow."

"The ebb and flow?" Buffy had no idea what her friend was talking about.

"Of the world. Time and life and magic and...well, everything." Willow said this last with little more than a whisper. At the same time she looked around her. The sun was shining. It was a bright fall day. Two minutes ago the temperature had been hovering near eighty. Since
then a full inch of snow had fallen. No more flakes were falling, true, and what had reached ground was now melting, but the fear in Willow's eyes was just as real as that of the drivers and neighbors. Actually, to Buffy, Willow's fear seemed greater.

"Damn," said Buffy.

* * *

Hours later, as Buffy prepared to go out on patrol, Willow and Dawn were watching the local news. Sunnydale's reporters had long ago managed to make the bizarre sound no more than peculiar and today that skill was in full display.

"Freaky weather" continued the grinning anchorman "has come in several waves today. In some cases the sudden thundershowers actually gave rise to rumors of snowfall here in Southern
California." He laughed at the idea. His co-anchor smiled sympathetically. She managed to convey a tolerant bemusement with the poor local citizens.

"We do seem to have a healthy imagination here, Bob," she said.

"That's certainly true" chuckled the man on the t.v. screen.

Willow snorted. "Sunnydale, with the highest number of crack addicts in the western hemisphere."

"All of whom act exactly like vampires for some reason," agreed Buffy.

"Not to mention all those rabid racoons," added Dawn knowingly.

"What racoons?" Buffy's face scrunched into what Willow thought was really an exageration of being puzzled. Personally, she thought it a defense mechanism. Buffy was oftimes too
busy to study, and her academic studies suffered. It had even taken Willow years to realize her friend was far more intellectually inclined than she seemed. At first, anyway.

"The rabid ones people keep mistaking for monsters," said Dawn.

"Oh. Right." Buffy nodded. Yeah, folks in Sunnydale did a have a way of explaining away the extraordinary. There was a honking of a horn from the street. Buffy picked up her bag of weapons.

"You sure you don't want me along?" Willow hated being useless.

"I want you along, but I want you home and healing even more." Buffy spoke in a tone of command. She'd been getting better at it for years. "Besides, I don't like leaving Dawn alone."

"Hey!" Teenage indignation rose to the surface.

"No heys, no buts, no arguments." Buffy headed for the front door. "See you guys later."

"Right-o," Willow called after her as the front door swung shut. Dawn just looked at Willow, managing to convey the vast angst of having a sister who just didn't take her seriously. "You don't mind spending time with me, do you Dawnie?"

"Its not that, its just..." she hesitated.

"You'd rather make your own choices?"

Dawn sighed, then nodded. Yeah, Willow remembered that feeling. She smiled in sympathy, then undid the mute button. For the next several minutes they listened to the official explanation
of strange events today. A few patients at the local hospital had left without permission, and without being seen evidently. The police had arrested a con man (or maybe a mental patient) at city hall who'd insisted he was the deputy mayor. A child's birthday party had
become a mini riot when the local magician's bag of tricks went haywire (but at least the fire was put out quickly).

"So what do you think is going on?" Dawn asked after awhile.

"I don't know. Its as if something has disrupted the flow of natural forces in the area."

"The hellmouth?"

"Maybe. Its possible." The phone rang. "Can you get that? I'm still kinda tender."

"No prob." Dawn headed for the phone. Privately, Willow was extremely worried and didn't want it to show too much. She'd noticed Dawn had a tendency to really go off half-cocked at moments of stress, and the disruption Willow felt was as serious as anything she'd ever experienced. One thing she especially didn't want to mention was what it felt most like--namely, when the hellgod Glory had tried to return to her own reality. Dawn had been a pivotal part of that ritual, her blood used to somehow open the gates between this and all other realms. That was a detail she had told Buffy, but only where Dawn could not
hear. Willow felt zero desire to see again the kind of horrified shock on Dawn's face when looking at the damage done then.

"Summers residence," Dawn said brightly into the phone receiver. She was trying to be very grown up with that voice, Willow knew. It was exactly the same kind of thing Willow herself had done at that age.

Then Dawn's face took on the exact expression Willow had been afraid of seeing. Her eyes, suddenly huge, met Willow's. She extended the phone.

"Willow? It's...Jenny."

Jenny? For a couple of moments Willow tried to remember if any of Dawn's friends were named that, then she put the name with Dawn's expression and the feeling of disruption in reality. "Jenny, as in Miss Callender?"

Dawn nodded. "She says she needs to talk to Faith."

***

"Okay, am I the only one to think something weird is going on here?" Xander leaned against the mausoleum, catching his breath.

"Right back atcha," Buffy agreed.

"I mean--that last one, he was Principal Flutie, right?"

"Or his identical twin." Buffy didn't need to catch her breath. Being the Slayer, she hardly even broke into a sweat fighting a mere three or four vampires. Xander's presence and handy
axe-wielding hadn't strictly been necessary, but had cut the fight short. She had a feeling that might prove important real soon. Not a good feeling, that.

"Identical twin! I like that theory! But no, it couldn't be that easy, could it?"

"Doubt it."

Xander grunted agreement. He took a breath, stood up straight, then hefted the axe in his hand. "Where to now, o fearless leader."

"My guess--that way." Buffy pointed.

"Any particular reason?"

Just at that moment some more familiar sounds seemed to come from the direction where Buffy had pointed. Sounds of combat. Without waiting for an answer, Xander began a quick run.
Buffy, naturally, was way ahead of him in seconds. He had the longer legs, but she was the one with Slayer strength and speed. Still, he arrived at the top of the hill and found her motionless, stake still in hand. Her gaze was fixed below, at the grassy area between two crypts. After a second, Xander stared too.

The vampire was familiar to them both. He was slender and black, in an extremely nice three-piece suit. Mister Trick, formerly chief minion of the late, unlamented Mayor of Sunnydale,
slain over three years earlier. Despite his slender frame and natty appearance, he was delivering some powerful blows, and his demonic face was actually just a little more bestial than most undead. Maybe it was the contrast between it and the suit. Anyway, the blonde woman he was fighting seemed capable of defending herself. In fact, Trick's blows hardly ever hit home. She moved too fast, almost blindingly so, and her own blows were terribly precise. In fact, with a scissor-kick she managed to bring her opponent down while nearly spinning up and astride his back. Worthy of Buffy at her best, in Xander's opinion. As was
the finale--driving a stake through his back, into his heart, changing the vampire into first a skeleton, then a rapidly dissipating cloud of dust.

She then rose up. The outfit was simple, nearly perfect. On her feet, sneakers. Loose jeans covering her legs. A green t-shirt with some kind of celtic knotwork on the front. The jacket
was also green, but tough enough to absorb blows.

The blonde took one look at them and approached warily, stake still in hand. Xander couldn't quite decide what was boggling his mind most. Obviously, this young lady was a Slayer. But that wasn't possible for a whole host of reasons.

Buffy finally spoke when the honey-blonde girl got close enough.

"Tara?"

TO BE CONTINUED "O let my name be in the Book of Love; if it be there I care
Not of the other great book above. Strike it out!
Or write it in anew. But let my name be in the Book of Love!"<i></i>


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 Post subject: Re: "Might Have Been" 1/6 (Buffy fanfic)
PostPosted: Tue Dec 16, 2003 6:30 pm 
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Master Pilot

Joined: Sun Jun 01, 2003 1:08 pm
Posts: 747
Location: Chicago suburbs
Ok, I will leave feedback here, but I will e-mail Zahir, too.

Zahir, I already read this story once on Plan C ezboard pub78.ezboard.com/bplanckittiens. But I would like to encourage your continuing to put it up here. IMO, and eventhough, everyone here is not BtVS crazy, maybe this fan fiction will give some the push they need, but I had liked this fic a lot. And hope the other folks here at the Hangar give you feedback.
taraswizard
Allan Rosewarne N9SQT/WDX6HQV
Chicago area
W/T forever, always
Plan C - http://planc.bravepages.com/main.html<i>Edited by: taraswizard at: 12/16/03 11:42 am
</i>


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