Story: Past/Future Visions (chapter 5)

Authors: darkwoofe

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Chapter 5

Title: Chapter Five

Past Future Visions part 5

Real World

“Okay, I’m ready” Willow called out. They had the Buffy-bot, the spell to exchange it for the other Buffy, and they had cast the delusion spell on the Buffy-bot to fool everyone into thinking it was the real Buffy. The delusion spell was yet another great idea Tara had come up with. Everyone who came near the Buffy-bot would think that it was the real Buffy thanks to the spell based on the one Glory had used to keep her human identity hidden. She watched as Tara finished drawing the last of the ruins and encircled them with the white powder.

“I’m done too” the blonde Wicca called as she stood and brushed the remaining powder from her hands. She looked over at her girlfriend with a serious expression. “We only get one chance at this, so lets do it slowly and get it right”

Willow nodded in agreement, “I know. Now let’s save Buffy” she said moving to where the base of the tower used to stand.

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She was falling to what she knew would be her death and yet she felt no fear. She was doing what was right and in the end that was all that mattered. Yet while she felt no fear, she did have regrets. The biggest one being that she hadn’t had a chance to say good-bye to her lover. She hadn’t been able to press her lips to Cordy’s one last time…

All thoughts of regrets were lost as she fell through the energy of the gate its pain searing her skin. She could feel the unlimited power burning painfully through every vein, every nerve in her body and she knew that had she been anything less than the Slayer she would have already been dead. And then she had absorbed all the energy and the pain had passed.

Yet still she was falling faster and faster to what she knew would be death. But it was worth it because the world was saved and Dawn was alive. What was her pain and death to that? Suddenly she saw a second portal form beneath her vastly different from the one she had just come through. Despite herself tears came at the thought of going through yet more pain like that of her passage through the first portal.

Then something unexpected happened. As she looked into this new portal she saw something begin to take shape. It didn’t take long for her to realize it was a person. Then she was overcome with shock to realize…it was herself. She felt herself sucked into the portal as it spat out an exact copy of her. But her attention turned to more important things as the energy from this portal chased along the path of the energy from the first causing the raw nerves in her body to once again burn. The pain this time was so intense that no matter how she tried, she could not stay conscious. Too tired to fight it, she gratefully allowed herself to pass into the blessed painless darkness.

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“We have her!” Tara shouted excitedly as she felt the spell grab hold of its new target and release its cargo. “Do it now!”

Willow nodded and began to chant the word of power finishing just as the portal, two hundred feet above them, ejected its passenger and closed. The figure above them fell rapidly for another hundred feet before it hit the area where Willow’s spell took effect and its rate of decent slowed to almost nothing.

Tara and Willow quickly made their way to the alternate Buffy as she touched the ground with no more force than that of a feather. Tara kneeled next to the fallen girl and checked her pulse nodding to Willow as she felt the steady beat of Buffy’s heart.

“We did it!” she added unnecessarily her voice filled with disbelief as what they managed to accomplish.

Willow grinned at her and said cockily, “Like there was ever any doubt!”

Alt-verse

“…of course you can bet I was pretty pissed!” Cordy told Buffy as they moved through the cemetery. Giles had approved Buffy’s request to start patrolling again and ever since, Cordy had made it a nightly ritual to accompany the Slayer and she trolled for vamps around Sunnydale.

“I mean, I was already jealous of Faith and then I find out that not only was Angel back but that you… I mean my Buffy told her and not me…I guess I completely ignored the fact that every time she called I would hang up on her” She looped her arm back through that of the blonde Slayer as they continued to the next stop on the patrol route, telling her of the relationship she had shared with her counterpart.

She stopped talking when she had finished telling Buffy about the end of their high school years and walked along next to her in thoughtful silence. Finally she turned eyes filled with tears to her silent companion. “Do you think she’s really dead?” she asked, her voice full of hope. “Willow says it the only reason she can think of for her spell not to work” she added.

In her time in this strange new world Buffy had grown to know and like the counterparts to her friends back in her own world. As time had passed she and the Cordelia of this world had developed a special friendship that continued to grow daily. Cordy’s concern for her missing love was very like Buffy’s worry over the safety of her friends back home. She had no idea if her Giles had taken the same path as the one on this world and killed Glory when she hadn’t. She knew that the Hell God would want revenge if he hadn’t and with her stuck here her friends would have to fend for themselves.

Knowing the pain Cordy was in Buffy wanted nothing more than to tell the girl that her Buffy was alive and that she’d be back home in no time, “I…I think that Willow is very powerful and very smart, but she is also still fairly new at this type of stuff. Give her some more time before you give up hope” was what she said instead.

Cordelia nodded, and then leaned her head briefly against Buffy’s. “You know, if she is right you’re stuck here?” she asked, her voice relaying true concern for Buffy’s predicament. While she knew this wasn’t her girlfriend their time together had never the less made this Buffy a confidant and she cared deeply for her.

“I know” came the answer. Buffy stopped and turned to face the other girl. Slowly she leaned forward giving Cordelia plenty of time to move away. Their lips touched pressed together for a few steamy moments and then Buffy pulled back. “I can think of worse places to be stuck.” She told her. She turned hooked her arm back with Cordy’s and they continued their way.

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“Giles! GILES!” shouted Willow.

Giles dropped his cup of tea and with a curse grabbed up one of the many weapons he kept nearby for emergencies and rushed around to the front of the shop to be joined by Faith coming from the training room both of them looking around for the attacking demon. Seeing nothing Faith snorted and returned the way she had come and Giles lowered the axe he had grabbed up and went to the table where Willow, Tara and Anya were surrounded by magical ingredients.

Straitening his glasses he asked as calmly as he could, “Was yelling like that really necessary?”

Turning to him with a large grin on her face the red haired Wicca ignored his question. “We did it! We found her, and she alive! Our Buffy is still alive!”

Giles sank down into a nearby chair for the first time allowing the weariness he’d been feeling since the discovery that the girl in the hospital wasn’t the same girl he had grown to respect and love show for the first time. His only comment for a while was a reverent, “Dear God, thank you!”

Recovering from his emotional display the watcher asked, “How did you locate her? Did you come up with a new spell?” He could do magic himself, but the spells he used were things thought of by others and had been used many times. It always fascinated him to see spells in the process of being created by those with the talent to do so.

“We did everything exactly the same.” Tara answered softly a small frown marring her lovely face. “I don’t understand why it’s working now when it didn’t before.”

“Hmm…I can only guess it has something to do with the timing” he replied after some thought. “Or perhaps the alignment of the stars or…”

Anya hit herself on the forehead with the palm of her hand, “Of course! Time! With all these worlds floating around out there of course some move in different time frames than ours. For all we know, our Buffy could only just have arrived on that other Buffy’s world.” The ex-demon looked disgusted with herself, “If I still had my powers I would have remembered that” she muttered.

“Never mind that,” Willow broke in “We can switch Buffys now. That’s the important thing. All we have to do now is wait for Buffy and Cordy to get back from patrol.

Real World

“Willow, that was a very dangerous, very stupid…and very brave thing to do.” Giles told her as circled around the two Wicca. He looked over to where an anxious Cordelia was in deep conversation with the revived Buffy Tara and Willow had arrived with. To say he was shocked at this turn of events would have been an understatement.

He shook his head and unnecessarily wiped his glasses again before turning his attention back to the two young women. “I expected better of you both” he berated them. “The books in that section are forbidden for a reason. Until I say otherwise neither of you is allowed to use any of the books or other magical equipment in the store. Further more after we retrieve our Buffy and send this one home I want you both to promise not to use any magic for a week. Agreed?”

“B…but it worked!” Willow cried, outraged. “You can’t punish us if it worked!”

Tara reached over and took her distressed girlfriend’s hand. “He right Willow,” She told her. “We were dealing with enormously powerful forces. If we had slipped up even a little the result could have been …” she shuddered. “I don’t even want to think about it. And it’s probably just as well not to use any more magic than we absolutely have to for a while. It’s too easy to become addicted to the power after doing something like we just did” She finished.

Willow looked as if she wanted to protest for a moment, but faced with Giles' worried glare and Tara’s imploring stare she finally gave in. “Fine. Save Buffy then no magic for a week and only little stuff after,” she agreed. Not so deep inside she felt a vague disappointment. Part of her wanted nothing more than to feel more power like that she had handled today again. Looking into Tara’s relieved eyes she pushed that part of her farther away. But she now knew it was there inside her lurking, waiting for it’s chance to come to the surface.

TBC

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