Iretheri: This is my first (internet posted) fanfic, I do not own BtVS nor do I own AtS. I only answer ownership to the plot and if thereby this story actually is similar to yours, then it was done so unintentionally and I would just reply that great minds think alike.

Summary: How far will He go to fulfill a prophecy that had no beginning and no end? The prophesy that will either break bonds or bind them throughout the rest oftheir counted days in the world. Two souls, that were not destined to meet, are now twisted grostequely in the web of lies. They thought that the worst has flown before them, but they did not notice the gaping wound it left inside and out. People say that time can heal the wounds,the only thing that they don't have is time.

(This is a crossover between BtVS & AtS, the story takes place in BtVS after Normal Again and in AtS just about the ending of Provider. It goes somewhat non-canon from there.)

Complacent Strangers

Chapter One- Complicated Lives

In the dimension of Arashmaharr, moaning echoes of woe were abundant throughout the great father's chamber. It tore his heart out to hear one of his children go through the heartache again, Anyanka now had another different story to tell. But as she sat there in her wedding gown in the realm of her demonic roots, human or not it was a home filled with memories dark and dreary, crying her eyes out for the past few hours, D'Hoffryn had set his mind to ask her yet again.

"Are you okay?"

She shakes her head, the shattering scream of her human heart craves for a stop to the bad feelings she's experiencing. "I'm tired...," she sniffles, "-of crying." The great father of vengeance weeps for her from within and yet she mentions it again, "I'm just so tired, D'Hoffryn." The fresh new trail of tears on her cheeks made her look like she was drowning in her own sorrows and the father of vengeance sighs, "Oh, Anyanka. I'm so sorry."

She gazed back at the demon father she has looked up to ever since her turning of a vengeance demon as well as her abrupt departure from the business and being becoming human again. She thought, 'I just want to make the hurting stop, why did he have to leave me? Xander. Xander...'

D'Hoffryn was cautiously gentle but firm in his saying, "But you let him domesticate you."

'It was not like that, Xander and I were in love and it was very baffling, I was, I-', she shut her eyes.

"When you were a vengeance demon, you were powerful; at the top of your game. You crushed men like him."

D'Hoffryn was replied in silence by Anya's unreadable face with her mind filled with thoughts she needed to say. She gradually realizes where he was taking this, it made her doubtful. "As much respect I have for you and considering you as my father, and-and that I would love to become what I truly am good at..." She bows her head down in embarrassment of the refusal she has yet to invoke. "I just need time to think, things have gone weird for me." She was met with a raised brow, "Okay, things have taken into a stranger direction..."

She stands up and displays herself, "L-look at me, I'm a fat human woman whose boyfriend r-ran off on our wedding day; I'm supposed to be having my honeymoon tonight in the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas having many orgasms with him but it ends with my heart is shattering into a million tiny pieces."

D'Hoffryn sighs yet again as he lets Anyanka's weakness take over -the inability to stop talking. He loves his girls but there was no shame in admitting that there was no such thing as a perfect vengeance demon. "-my breasts feel so sore and swollen, and don't get me started on my nipples! They're getting darker, they've gone from rosy pink into this hideous colour of dark brownish-red. I feel so horrible like a fat four-hundred year old demon and I've been vomiting. Did anybody notice? Hell, no!"

Thoughts from D'Hoffryn were, 'This is going to take a while.'

Her ranting takes a crescendo, "-too many trips to the toilet, I don't even remember urinating for almost a thousand times a day and to end my tirade on a good note, I haven't gotten my mortal monthlies yet, meaning I'm twelve weeks late and I still have the underlying feeling that something is wrong with my body!" She forces out a crooked smile, "No menstrual cramps yet for me, isn't that great!"

It did not occur to Anya that there might have been another reason as to why she was having those pains but to D'Hoffryn's account, his patient manner of waiting for an all-time favourite to be back on the roster was cut short as he finds out that little miss mortal Anya has another life inside her mortal body. The last logical thing that came into his mind was: "What!" Then all he found Arashamarr was fading away; he did a very un-demonic thing and fainted.

"D'Hoffryn?"

A furious ring of mechanical contraption, invented by Mr. Alexander Graham Bell, had woken Willow Rosenberg up, dragging herself out of bed and answering the phone with a groggy and inaudible, "Hello?"

"Willow, there is such a serious problem." Eyes perked up to hear Wesley's voice on the phone, the former watcher and once classed as a pompous idiot who proposed the Box of- but Willow wasn't going to go back for a glimpse of the past, "C-Cordelia has gotten a-a vision and, and though it is utterly ludicrous on my opinion, I-" She could hear somebody screaming: "Get on with it!" in the background, a woman's voice -Cordelia, who was much in serious pain.

"To the point, yes, yes, I have called to inform you that Cordelia has gotten a vision of Dawn is in very, very, very dangerous peril. Get her out of Sunnydale, it is a must; says Cordelia and-" A sudden lengthy pause was apparent as well as the muffled voices; a struggle with the phone. "Hello? Hello? I-"

"Scorn the witch, kill the slayer.
Take the heart, love the vampire.
None of it matters…"

"Cordy?" Deep breathing was all she could hear, a strong feeling in her own guy made Willow feel edgy about answering the phone in the middle of the night.

"Believe that the end is nigh.
Believe it when they say it's the time to die…"

"What's going on! Guys?" It sounded like Cordelia but it also had someone else, something tied itself with her. Whatever it was, Willow deep did not want to know.

"A Hellmouth to be opened, it was fated.
The death of a girl who was not supposed to be…"

Goosebumps piling up on her body, Willow could not find her voice anymore.

"Destined. Death. Dawn comes, mated with destruction.
She was, is and always will be the key. He, who is lost,
Miracle he is, shall make her conceive…"

The line went dead and the Wiccan didn't want to go back to sleep.

"He, who is lost,
Miracle he is,
Shall make her conceive-"

Breathing deeply, speaking with primal voice that Angel started to think of things he was not supposed to. He kept chanting in his mind that she was still out of bounds, 'Cordelia Chase is the sun, get to close and you'll just end up destroying a vampire's everything. Sun, sun, sun, sun! And besides friends never stay just friends when they start going on about dreaming about ravishing each other…' His mind has gone into coded mode of unintelligible thoughts of urges.

"Miracle he is, shall m-make her c-conceive…", she stutters. The guttural voice gone; the possessed Cordelia back into the world. "Miracle he is, shall make her conceive…-miracle…..miracle. Oh, oh no." A strong sense of realization had clamped Cordelia silent, "No way."

Her hand instinctively rushing up to touch her lips for a moment and then bursting into rush, taking two steps at a time while walking up the stairs, her mind set on seeing the little baby she sometimes wishes to call her own.

Her heart set at ease when she finds that he was still asleep, alongside the crib was Lorne drifting back and forth from the land of the wake and slumber. She smiles and backs away slowly closing the door. Another sigh and her eyes blink in confusion as she sees Angel with worry etched deep in his visage.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't understand, Buffy?" The flashes of her memories taking plight in her mind; the days that gave grown hectic ever since her very own sister had come back from the bands of death, after being pulled away from heaven by her own friends. She calls out to her sister, the Slayer, in a silent plea unvoiced by emotions but projected by the glistening of her eyes.

"Could you go and relay that to me one more time?" She laughs it off, thinking it might have been some kind of joke that Xander suggested to lighten up the mood within the Summers' household. "Because in my sad little world, I want to believe that I got the wrong end of the stick with you all saying that you wanted me to move away to a 'better place' -to live with Cordelia to live a life close to normal, away from Sunnydale."

"Dawnie…", Her sister's voice whispers but to Dawn it was unrecognisable and distant; she slipping farther and farther until she came and held her close. "It's for the best."

"No." She pulls herself away from her sister's embrace. "No, no, no. This is just a dream; tell me it's a nightmare. Ha, ha, ha, it's a joke, right? Anyone?"

The silence in the room was deafening, she turns to her friends that were present in the room. She looks at Xander and he replies in hung-out silence. She turns to Willow as her insides scream in protest for anyone, anyone to voice out concern, to disagree with the decision.

"Well, it's either that or you could go to our estrange father who also happens to be in Los Angeles." Buffy forces out a soothing smile but she could not hold the same facial expression while she was disheartened herself. "If you ask me, I'd rather you choose to go with the first choice."

"Guys?" A nervous laugh chokes her, tears that have occasionally rose, came crashing down and everyone just let her cry. "I can't believe this," she mumbles. "You're making me leave after…. Did you guys even think about this?"

"Well actually Dawn, we've been thinking 'this' ever since we found you were a key but then we overcame that after you know, Buffy jumping off the portal and that phone call Cordy made to us saying that you're going to die…," Surprised, Xander suddenly found his voice and inappropriate time to mention something that wasn't supposed to be in the discussion. "What I meant was when Cordy called Willow about saying you were taking too much of a diet, that's it!"

Everybody's eyes were suddenly found on him, "Okay, I'll go back to being Oh-the-floor-is-so-wonderful, I-love it-I'm-thinking-of-marrying-it."

Unwanted tears come glistening down the surface of her cheek, she could not understand what Xander was saying as her heart was wrenching in a struggle with her lungs to keep on breathing. The things they were telling her, the plans they thought of without her consent in the matter was making it harder and harder to breath. She just didn't understand. She didn't want to think that she was just baggage to them.

Stubborn blue eyes refused to accept it, she attacked."Yeah, like Anya. You think you love it at first and then suddenly you run out on the woman you say you love on your wedding day. I can't believe you did that, I thought you loved her!" Frustration seeking a way out, she preys on others while her heart weeps. Alexander Harris restrained himself to not make more of what happened, he leaves the room and worried Willow goes after him. "I thought you loved me and now you're sending away because of a phone call from a possessed Cordelia Chase…." Realization struck her high and she slumps down onto the floor, "…saying that I'm going to die."

A stern voice cutting through the silence of revelation, "You're not going to-"

"I'm going to die." Dawn knew life was short but now being faced with the piece of information after surviving everything she'd been through -Glory, the Key, the death and resurrection of her sister; death was inevitable but now fear was making her blood run cold.

"Dawnie, look at me." She looks at her, helpless, more confused than she had been before. "You're not going to die, I'm making sure of it. That's why you're bound to L.A. Cordelia and Angel, they're there to help and as much as it breaks my heart to see you go, I will not let my own selfish reasons make that vision come true."

Silence was music; misery accompanied with the tears of sorrow, it was a heart-rending kind of union.

She was starring at her grief-stricken reflection ever since she arrived back in their -in Xander's apartment. She was teleported by one of D'Hoffryn's minions after his display of fainting affection and she could not move. She refused the offer that was second priority on her list of things to do and she still has not changed.

'I look very pretty and glowy in this dress, I should be happy. I don't know why I should be but pretty things always make me happy, at least they used to.' Tear number two hundred and ninety-nine falls down and breaks another record for Anya, she could not remembering crying this hard and this long before.

She pouts and hastily wipes away the tears that flood, 'What was I supposed to do again? Right, Anya. You should start packing, he-who-must-never-be-mentioned-ever-again made it imperfectly clear about what he wanted; at least he implied something…' She started packing, taking out her clothes from his lot and placing them on to the bed and she kept on doing so until someone came to her.

"Anya?"

"Hallie?"

Her vengeance demon friend teleported into meet her and enveloped her in real genuine embrace, "I'm so sorry, Anya." Anya's tears start to fall. "I knew from the back of my mind that something wasn't right, men and people who neglect children should out to be banished for eternity in Quor'toth." Hallie somehow managed to continue on speaking and something struck inside Anya that made her cry even harder.

"Should I grant you wishes? Oh, this would be really good." She claps her hands in excitement, "Have him castrated? How about beheaded? Circumcised meaning actually cutting his penis off? Eaten by a Venus fly trap, one hungry Venus fly trap? Let's give him warts on his pen-"

"Stop it! I can't believe you, of all people-", Anya takes another look at her friendwho shrugs back at her. She sighs in defeat,"Well maybe I expected it from you but I don't want to hear this now. I know it what my mind is telling me but my heart is saying otherwise."

Hallie's eyes lit up in realization, from the moment she appeared to her dearly beloved friend and former competitor there was something off about her presence. 'She's grown fat and...Oh dear merciful D'Hoffryn…'

Anya shrinks back into silence, thinking. 'Some thing's wrong with me…' A feeling of loss and pain, something was flowing down her legs and she was scared. She closed her eyes as a shudder of fear came through her.

A gasp from Hallie made Anya's eyes open and emit a pained cry, Halfrek was shocked and anxiety. "Anya, honey, your bleeding…" The raging fire that usually shined in her friend's eyes froze cold and Halfrek was confused. Alongside the dawning of Anya, there was a minuscule call for help in the room that her demonic senses have lately felt.

There was life inside Anya's belly, a life weakening as Halfrek's thoughts were jumbled up in panic, it was screaming for help. The baby was somehow dying and Halfrek was set to do something about it.

Anya was confused and all she could say was, "Help me." Then drift off into darkness alone.


IretherI: Feedback surely appreciated and needed.