A/N: Yet another challenge fic, this one is (again) a bit of a first for me. This is relatively canon 'til the beginning, but there are some vast differences that should become apparent as we go along. I'm not going to ruin anything here, but I'd like to firmly blame Casey for this one. Damn addictive ideas. I also have to acknowledge Jules, who gave me a delightful idea that has made this fic unique in more than one respect. It's still em that makes it this good though:P
Disclaimer: For a change, some of these characters are actually mine. Of course, most of them I've stolen from the oh-so-sexy Joss, but can any of you blame me? Is it my fault his sexy genius is so stealable? Or that I'm such a sucker for a chance to try something new? Well, okay, so maybe that last one is my fault but you're the one reading this. If you didn't encourage me then I'd probably stop. Well not really. I don't want to test that theory. Show me you love me, pwease?
.:Progeny:.
Buffy felt an overwhelming sense of dread as she looked at the glowing violet portal. She was too late, always too late. Too late to save Jenny Calender. Too late to stop Riley from leaving. Too late to save her mom. Too late to save Dawn. Too late to save the world. What was that saying? A day late and a dollar short. That was her. Always too late, not enough. Never quite enough.
Dawn's blood had opened the portal. Dawn's blood would close it. Summers blood would close it. Life was hard, a struggle to be happy, to feel joy, to feel. It would be so easy, so blissfully easy to slip into oblivion. She could do this. She could jump. She'd save Dawn, save the world. She wouldn't be a day late or a dollar short. She'd be exactly what was required, Summers blood. Death was her gift. It was what she gave night after night, and it would be a relief to give it one more time. One last gift. So easy, just enough.
"Buffy, no," Dawn pleaded softly.
The Slayer looked at her sister sadly, her green eyes hollow, unable to feel, like they'd been for too long. "Dawnie," she tried to explain. "I have to -"
"NO!" Dawn shrieked. It was clear that she didn't want to lose someone else, didn't want to lose her final bit of family. Couldn't she see? Buffy was broken. If she wasn't, the things she'd done with- it would be better by far if Dawn survived. Buffy needed to make her see that.
"Listen to me!" Buffy yelled over the creaking whine of the tower. "Please, there's not a lot of time, listen." Buffy blinked as the wind suddenly gusted. Dawn's face was shining with tears, and Buffy's own face was wet with them. It was almost a relief to know she was still human enough to cry. "Dawn listen to me. Listen. I love you. I will always love you. This is the work I have to do. Tell Giles," here Buffy paused, unsure. "Tell Giles I figured it out. And... I'm okay. Give my love to my friends. You have to take care of them now. You have to take care of each other. You have to be strong. Dawn, the hardest thing in this world is to live in it. Be brave. Live. For me."
Remembering the pain and the shame of these last months made the jump easier. It was so easy to fall. Energy pulled at her, scalding, freezing, crushing. A maelstrom of sound wrapped the falling Slayer in it's grasp, demanding to be heard, refusing to be ignored. Agony lancing through her body, surpassing all that had come before it, greater than the Master's bite, Angelus' bite, Spike's-- Spike. The sensation of her eyeballs melting into her skull, her organs rupturing into a fine mist, revealing one fact with crystal clarity - she did not want to die - then… nothing.
Buffy didn't move. Still nothing happened. No more noise or light or pain. It was actually kind of boring. She'd expected something a little better from the afterlife. The Slayer tentatively cracked open a single eyelid. She saw an azure sky. Nothing happened. Buffy opened both eyes widely and waited. Nada.
As far as an afterlife went, this was a bit anticlimactic. No choirs of angels or demons with pointy pitch-forks. No reincarnation, no light, no comforting warmth. It was actually a touch chilly. There was a subtle something else, too, but she couldn't pinpoint it exactly. It made her a little uneasy. Other than
that, this was really boring.
Buffy sighed and shifted her view to the side. The top of a building came into view. Whoops. Maybe not so much the afterlife. Getting to her feet and dusting herself off, Buffy looked around. She was in the courtyard for a church. She'd been lying in the driveway, looking up at the stars. Well, that explains the chilly sensation.
The Slayer began to walk down the road. The street seemed a little familiar. In fact, all the streets seemed a little familiar. It was a major case of déjà vu. It wasn't until she passed a street sign that she figured out why. She was in Sunnydale.
This was odd, even for a Hellmouth. First, it's night and she's fighting a Hellgod. She beats Glory, and runs up the rickety tower. She's too late and the portal opens. Dawn wants to jump in the portal, but Buffy beats her to it and jumps in. There's a lot of pain and noise and a dissolving feeling - which was really freaky - and then she's in Sunnydale in the middle of the afternoon and everything is a little bit different. Maybe she was in the Hellmouthy version of the Twilight Zone.
Buffy found herself unconsciously walking the habitual path to Revello drive and home. The nearer she drew to the Summers home the less her surroundings were different. As the stores petered out and the houses became more and more common, the more unchanged Sunnydale seemed to be. By the time she got to Revello, it was almost identical to the way she remembered it.
She trudged up the sidewalk to the reassuring image of her house. 1630 Revello Drive was the same as always. Except, Buffy noted, for the little blonde girl crouching in the flower bed beneath the window. Buffy approached slowly. The child was thin, with a pale blonde bob. Her face was plump, but she had a delicate nose and bright, blue eyes.
"Hey there," she said in a friendly tone, kneeling next to the little girl.
"My daddy says I'm not supposed to talk to strangers," she said in clear voice.
"My name's Buffy. What's yours?"
The girl smiled shyly. "Caitlin."
Buffy grinned. "There, we're not strangers any more, are we?"
An impish expression appeared on the child's face and she shook her head thoroughly. "I'm hiding," she confided in a conspiratorial whisper.
"From who?" Buffy asked, playing along.
The girl leaned even closer. "I'm hiding from my Auntie Fayt. She lives here," the girl added with possessive pride.
Buffy felt her smile falter as her heart sank. This wasn't her Sunnydale. This adorable little girl's Aunt Fayt lives in 1630 Revello Drive, not Buffy and Dawn Summers. To cover her growing despair, Buffy asked, "Why are you hiding from your Aunt Fayt?"
Caitlin giggled infectiously. " 'cause it's funny."
As she stifled a laugh, Buffy decided to do the responsible thing. Slayer duty and all, protect the innocent. "It's not nice to hide from grown ups."
It was uncanny, and a little bit scary, how fast the amusement slid off Caitlin's face to be replaced by a fierce glare. She forgot completely about hiding and rose to her full height, all 3'5" and 40 pounds of her, fists on hips and an expression of intense concentration scrunching up her pretty little face.
"There you are," a voice from inside the house said, sounding very relieved, and Caitlin's expression melted into one of dismay. "You better get in here, kiddo, or your daddy's going to kill both of us."
Caitlin giggled and skipped towards the front door, leaving Buffy to marvel at the child's mercurial temper. While kneeling in the flowerbed. Feeling incredibly stupid, the Slayer stood and dusted herself off, before looking up into the face of a person she'd hoped to never see again.
"B," Faith breathed, her eyes wide.
Buffy acted purely on instinct. She clenched her fists and lunged at the other Slayer, passing right through her and out the other side, falling flat on her face. Shocked beyond words, Buffy rose and glanced at Faith, only to see the same surprise mirrored on the dark Slayer's face. Caitlin's eyes were huge and full of awe.
"That was wicked! Do it again!"
XXX
"I've been gone for six years?" Buffy asked incredulously.
Faith nodded solemnly. Looking at Faith, Buffy could hardly warrant it. Same long dark hair, same elegant face, some athletic build, same outrageous style. To all outward appearances, the once-rogue Slayer appeared unchanged, but the way she acted with Caitlin and the easy rapport Dawn had with her indicated otherwise.
"Is that really you, Buffy?" Dawn asked for the fortieth time.
Dawn! Buffy could hardly believe it. Her little sister was older than her, in her final year of college, a full-grown woman. Buffy felt an ache in her chest when she thought about all the things she'd missed. Dawn was sitting next to Buffy, clearly in shock, with Caitlin perched on her knee. The little girl kept pushing her hand through Buffy and out the other side, grinning maniacally the whole time.
"Hey guys," Xander's voice called out from the front hallway, "what's the big-- Buffy?"
XXX
Caitlin Roselyn Barclay was having the bestest time in her life, ever. First she'd been able to convince Daddy to let her spend the day with Auntie Fayt who has some of the bestest cartoons ever, and then Auntie Fayt had wanted to play hide and seek. Well, she said she wanted Katie to have a bath, but everyone in the whole wide world knows that Caitlin Roselyn Barclay does not have baths without Mr Squid-thing. Obviously Auntie Fayt wanted to play hide and seek and she was trying to be sneaky about it.
Katie had found the bestest hiding place ever, and then she met Buffy. Katie had tried to be good, she really did, but Buffy looked really friendly and interesting and she was standing in the sunlight so it wasn't as if she was a vampire so it was probably okay that she spoke to Buffy and she probably shouldn't get in trouble for talking to a stranger, because she wasn't really a stranger at all. Then the bestest thing in the whole wide world happened.
Buffy had tried to play tag with Auntie Fayt and just passed right through her! It was the wickedest thing ever. They all went inside and Auntie Fayt called up Auntie Bit and Uncle Whelp and Auntie Anya and Daddy and even Uncle Poof.
Auntie Fayt and Buffy has started talking about the most boringest things ever, so Katie decided to see if she'd go through Buffy too. She prodded a finger into Buffy's leg and it went inside her! Plus, it made her finger go all cold and funny. It was the coolest thing ever. Buffy didn't even notice.
Then Auntie Bit had got there and they were crying and talking about more boring things, so Katie kept playing with Buffy. It felt so cool when her hand went inside of Buffy. Buffy was the bestest ghost ever. Way better than that bogeyman who tried to sneak into Auntie Bit's house. All he could do is make funny faces, and Daddy could do that.
Then Uncle Xander and Auntie Anya has come over and they even brought Katie's bestest friends in the whole wide world ever. Well, except for Seth when he was being the biggest stupid-head in the world and except for Sarah when she didn't want to play the fun games Katie made up, like paint Auntie Fayt's kitchen with eggs.
Katie pulled Seth into a corner, his little sister trailing like always, and told him everything that happened.
"No way," he scoffed. "You know Auntie Fayt scares ghosts away almost as much as your dad."
"No, it's true!" Katie protested, her blue eyes shining with sincerity. "I poked her like this," Katie demonstrated with a sharp jab into the other five-year-old's ribs, "and it went straight through her!"
Seth cast a speculative eye to the grown-ups. They were all standing around the tiny blonde lady. "I don't know," he said slowly. "She's not even going 'oooOOOooo' and she doesn't have any chopped off heads or bunnies or anything." His point well made, he gave Katie a smug look. "I bet she's not even a ghost."
"She is too!" Katie growled, raising a fist to punch her friend. He was being the biggest stupid-head ever.
Seth froze, his mouth open to retort, and he watched his mom stick her hand into the short blonde lady. "Oh, that's cool!" He looked at Katie in a nonchalant fashion. "What does it feel like?"
Katie cast him a sly smile. "It feels like custard."
"I always wanted to see what a custard bath was like," Seth mused.
The pair grinned at each other at the exact same time, before charging at Buffy with a mighty "AAAAAAAAAAAARGH!"
They passed through the stunned group of grown-ups and dodged Auntie Fayt's attempt to catch them -- Slayer speed was nothing compared to the manic reflexes of an excited child -- before leaping into Buffy's stomach. It felt like they had jumped through a giant blob of jelly. They rolled as they came out the other side with the well-practiced ease of a child of five.
"That was fan-bloody-tastic," Katie breathed happily, laying on the floor next to her bestest friend in the whole wide world, who nodded.
"Watch your language, Bite-size," a familiar British voice drawled.
He was standing in the doorway with a smoking grey blanket slung over his shoulder, one hand smoothing down his white hair. Katie jumped to her feet and ran at the vampire, arms held out for a big hug.
"Daddy!"
XXX
A/N: Yes, I know. It's yet another long fic. I'm thinking about taking one of the others down, but I haven't decided yet. There's a good chance it'll be a while before I update this (same as always, eh?) but a good response will inspire speedy updates, so REVIEW.