Prologue "The End"
Author's note: This story takes place after BTVS: "Chosen" & Dr. Who: "The Age of Steel"
The TARDIS whined and groaned as it spun through the corridors of time and space, that weaved from the extreme dawn of time, from before the time of man…from before the time of the Earth time was there, to the ultimate end of time itself. Mankind likes to think that time began when they came into existence, and it will end with their final departure, whenever that would be. But that is only true from a certain perspective.
There are a million billion planets out there that lived out their lifespan long before Earth even came into existence, and there will be a even more planets that will come into existence long after Earth will breathe her last breath. And while each of these planets may perceive time in their own manner, one thing is true; it all flows together from one point to another.
But while most people see time as a flowing constant, for one man time isn't quite as fluid, he's seen things definitively happen, only to have it change with the alteration of some event in the past. He takes these fluctuations in historical events into consideration as he moves about in the 5th dimension.
He is known by many names to many people, but there is one name that he prefers over all others; one that was given to him quite by accident by an early companion, yet it was the one that had seemed to have stuck. The name sort of described who he was, rather than what he was. Since then he had become the subject of prophecies, curses, salvations and destructions. He is simply known as: The Doctor.
At present he was in his 10th incarnation, with the appearance of a 30 something male with dark hair brown eyes and a sort of an impish charm. Rose his blonde haired, blue eyed barely out of her teens companion that most referred to as his girlfriend (which was more of an accurate description than he liked to admit at times) seemed to like this incarnation a lot over his previous incarnation. It wasn't that he wasn't attractive in his own right in his previous incarnation; it just seemed as if this was more palatable to the eyes to most people.
He spun at the dials and flipped at the switches as the TARDIS had a rough time of this particular journey. It was almost as if the TARDIS herself didn't want to land as if she were saying; sorry, not here, not this time, not this place.
"Come on," The Doctor yelled out, he picked up a rubber mallet and bopped the side of the console with it, "materialize, you stupid idiot!" He was glad that Rose was standing in the background watching his actions silently for once, because right this very second wasn't the best time for small talk, flirtations or questions, even though the questions may have been the right ones to ask, and her gentle flirtations would have settled his nerves.
The TARDIS sputtered, almost as if feelings were hurt.
"I'm sorry," he caressed the console, "but you know when you get temperamental, I get the same way, I just wish you could tell me what the problem is."
Rose did in fact watch on, letting out a gentle smirk at the antics of the Doctor, but he seemed to know what he was doing. Well, most of the time anyway. She took a look at several wires that had come loose on the bottom of the console. "I'll tell you what the problem is."
"Be quiet, please, Rose,"
"But…" she stepped forward and placed her hand on the console, she leaned down and took too pieces of wire that had been separated, "I think if we were to fix these wires…"
"Rose, don't…" the Doctor protested as he helplessly watched Rose touch the two wires together.
There was a mild spark, and almost immediately, and with a sputter of protest, the TARDIS let out her distinct groans of materialization, and the Doctor smiled sheepishly, "I…was…going to try to see if that…was the problem…eventually."
"Uh-huh," Rose smiled coyly, "of course you were."
"I was," he smiled, "as soon as I would have noticed it." He scratched his head. "Where'd you learn that trick anyways?"
"Mickey. He worked with cars…sometimes."
"Worked with them, or stole them?"
"Worked with them," Rose said, as her smile quickly turned into a frown, "god, it seems strange talking about him in the past tense,"
The Doctor placed a hand on her shoulder, "he's not dead, you know, just elected to stay in the alternate dimension to fight Cybermen,"
"Yeah, but it still means I'll never see him again," she placed her head on the Doctor's shoulder.
"It's what he wanted, besides I think he's found something that's given his life meaning,"
"I gave him meaning," Rose looked up into the Doctor's eyes.
"Yes, probably at one time, but you do have to admit, from his perspective, you were away for months and sometimes even years."
"I guess you're right, just you and me, then, right?" Rose asked. "It is just you and me, right? No other past girlfriends going to show up?"
"I hope not," the Doctor said.
"No more Sarah Jane Smith? No more Princess Amoramudura?"
"No, besides," the Doctor smiled, "they're all P.R.,"
"P.R.?" Rose inquired.
"Pre Rose."
"Oh," she smiled, "although, you know, though I would have liked to see Sarah when she was in her prime,"
"Hey, don't count her out; she still has a lot of good years left in her,"
"I don't mean it that way, and you know it," she wanted to change the subject and rather quickly, she seemed to have picked out a sensitive subject by bringing up Sarah Jane again. "So, when are we?"
The Doctor looked at the time monitor, "May 10, 2003, 2:55 pm."
"Why does that date seem familiar to me?"
The Doctor mused. "Birthday of someone you know?"
"No, nothing like that," she shrugged.
"Well," the Doctor suggested, "why don't we go out and take a look around, maybe you'll see something that will jog your memory."
"Ok," she pushed the lever that opened the doors, and followed the Doctor out, he always seemed to want to pop his head out first, and it was like it was some sort of an unwritten rule.
"Wow, a nice town, southern California I think,"
"An area famous for its…," all at once, as if on cue, the ground began to shake, "earthquakes!"
The Doctor looked around, and then he saw it, the sign. It was a simple, harmless sign giving the name of a modern school: Sunnydale High School. "Sunnydale, California…May 10, 2003."
"I remember, at 2:56, the town was swallowed by an earthquake,"
"Rose, it wasn't an earthquake, all Hell broke loose, and I mean that in the literal sense."
"Doctor, whichever way," she looked at her watch, it read 2:56, she looked up to see a cute blonde only a few years older than her all tarnished with bloodstains racing out the door and leap onto a building with almost superhuman strength.
"Rose, get in the TARDIS NOW!" He pulled her into the Police Box frame of the TARDIS.
"What about the girl?" Rose looked back; it was unlike the Doctor to not help somebody who was in dire straits, but maybe he knew something she did not. He always did, or at least tried to make her think it was that way.
"Can't stop to worry about her right now," the doors shut and the dematerialization process began, but the ground was ripped out from underneath them before dematerialization was complete, and the TARDIS began to tumble into the crater that was beginning to take form.
Buffy looked back curiously at the two people who stood to the side of the school just moments before, except for those she immediately needed for her final battle in Sunnydale, she thought she had evacuated everybody to a safe distance away from the town, but she also knew that evacuations were a tricky thing, there would always be people who would be left behind. A brief pang went through her heart for them, but where they once stood no longer existed, so there was no chance of even going back for them. She leaped across Main Street from 100 feet above.
Calculations ran through her head, the school bus on which Dawn, Giles and the other Slayers were only was only mildly a safe distance ahead of the growing crater in the earth, and she was running parallel to the bus. She glanced behind; the buildings were beginning to fold in on themselves like the town was built like a precariously built town of cards. She had no time to screw this up, if she missed her target, which was the roof of the bus, then she would have no time to recover, and like the man and the girl who stood outside the Police Box she too would be swallowed into the earth below.
Dawn Summers was scared. A few short years ago she had lost her mother, a shadow on her brain had caused complications, thanks to a miracle of modern science…or hell, just a miracle the shadow was gone, and she had begun to think that her mother would be able to live out the rest of her life normally, going on about how she survived brain cancer. Hell, she even had a few suitors, even on the day she died, there were flowers sent to her. But a future for her was not to be, she still died of an aneurysm or blood clot.
She lost friends to vampires and demons. She lost Tara to a stray bullet that was meant for Buffy. Technically Tara was Willow's girlfriend, but there was still times when she and Tara would wake up together cuddled on the couch with a bowl of popcorn between them. In their short friendship, they had found a connection and a bond that even Willow couldn't take from them. She even lost Buffy to death for a while, but thanks to the otherworldly nature of her death and Willow's ability to resurrect the dead under certain conditions had brought Buffy back to her.
She didn't want to lose Buffy again, this time her death would be forever, no resurrection spells would be able to bring her back.
Her eyes scanned the outside of the bus as the theater came into view, then she looked up in the sky, Buffy was flying. Ok, technically she wasn't flying, more like making a flying leap and was attempting to swim her way through the air to get a few more inches. She gulped as she watched Buffy, and looked intently for more to follow her. She too had seen the man and the girl next to the Police Box, and she had hoped that they had found a way to at least attempt to follow Buffy.
Buffy landed with a thud and Dawn looked up with a faint smile, she reached out and touched her hand to the roof of the bus, the thin layers of metal and paint were the only things that separated them, as long as Robin didn't jerk the bus around, then Buffy would be OK. As the town disappeared behind them, she had given up all hopes of the man and the girl following them.
Faith watched and listened with a great intent. Her slightly heightened sense of hearing had made it possible for her to distinguish the rumblings of the bus, the groaning of the wounded slayers, many of which were wounded and had experienced a wound for the first time in their lives. But they were Slayers, each and every one of them, there was no more arguing over who was the true Slayer whether it was her or Buffy, and Slayers have an uncanny ability to bounce back in vivid crystal display color. She looked at one of the new Slayers, Chloe, a cute red headed girl who was around 18 who fought with a vengeance; she had received a knife wound to her cheek, and was looking at her scarred face in the reflection of the rear view mirror.
"You'll be OK," said Faith.
"I know," she said as she felt a strange warm energy come up from inside of her, "I can feel it healing over even as we speak."
Faith watched the scar almost glow with energy. "Wow babe, give it as few days, and you won't even know you had a deep cut to your face."
"Ya think?"
"Yeah," Faith heard the rumbling of the earth stop. "Ease off, we're clear," she said to Robin in a low tone. She wondered if his slayer abilities would begin to kick in. Certainly, he was a male, and all male, and traditionally the slayer ability went to a girl. But he was also the only known son of a slayer, and it was a known fact that certain codes were written into his DNA that could possibly turn him into some sort of a sub-slayer, complete with the healing power. And he needed it bad, while Chloe had only a minor wound; Robin was wounded bad; possibly to the point that it would be a mortal wound. Under the rules of the old order, even if he did have power, he would have been relegated to a watcher, but starting now, the old order was out the window.
As the bus came to a stop, Buffy could feel it jerk around underneath her, trying to roll her off, she continued to hold onto the only thing she could grab on too; the running lights along the back of the bus towards the top. She strained with every effort of her being to keep a hold of it. She was glad when the bus came to a rest, for the very second it came to a stop she leaped down from the roof of the bus and began to stare blindly. She was safe, so were Dawn, Willow, Chloe and all of the other new slayers.
She looked at the hole that was once Sunnydale, she then turned her head 180 wondering what lay on the road head of them. She knew there were several options; Cleveland, New Orleans, the Middle East. Hell, she figured that a lot of those creeps in that freaky terrorist cult had to have been demons.
Dawn thrust the back door to the bus open, leaped out and threw herself into Buffy's arms.
"Buffy, you're OK!" She said.
"Yeah," she said.
"Hey, did you see that man and girl?" Dawn asked.
Buffy nodded her head still on Dawn's shoulders, she didn't want to let her go, and she knew that Dawn didn't want to let go either, "there was nothing we could do for them."
"I know," Dawn said.
"I don't understand," said Giles as his eyes focused on the crater, "who did this?"
Buffy forced herself out of Dawn's arms, and moved the few feet towards Giles. "Spike," was her reply, as she moved away, it wasn't as if she were looking for someone to blame, but there was truth in what she said.
Faith looked at Robin, who was sitting uncomfortably in the driver's seat, with a stab wound that went straight through his gut, and out the back. "It's not bad, you just sit here, I'll just get someone to…" her eyes settled on Chloe, who was looking on in concern.
"Hey," Robin replied, as Faith uncomfortably froze in her tracks, his words came out with great effort and pain, "did we make it?"
Faith nodded. "Yeah, we made it, and we won."
Robin smiled. Then he could feel his life beginning to ebb away the last image he saw before he died was the sad look on Faith's face.
Faith looked on him for a minute. A part of her had wanted to scream, or find someone to scream at, but she mustered up all the power she could to not throw a fit. To throw the others into a panic right now would not be a pretty picture. So she took a few deep breaths and reached out to pull his eyelids shut.
Robin found himself walking down a long golden pathway. Where it lead, he wasn't sure, he was greeted by a familiar face, the face of a woman he hasn't seen since he was 8; it was the face of his mother.
"Robin,"
"Mamma?" He said. "Is that you?"
"Yes," she said, as she turned him around, "you can't come here,"
"But I died," he tried to look down the golden road to see what lie ahead, "isn't this the place people go to when the die?"
"Yes," she said, "it is, but it's not your time to be here, you are still needed down there."
"But I'm dead, right?"
"Go back, be with them…be with her," she pointed back to Faith, who was looking at the face of his dead body, "your time to be here will come, but for now you must go back."
Robin gasped for air, causing Faith to jump back. "Surprise!" He said after a few more gasps of air.
She smiled, as Chloe moved towards him with the medical kit, she looked at the girl and smiled, as she stepped off the bus. She spotted the core group gathering around the hole, and she moved towards them with a stroll. "It looks like the Hellmouth is officially closed for business!"
"There's another one in Cleveland," Giles looked at Buffy, knowing that his little comment would not settle well with them, "for the moment."
"We saved the world," Xander said. He slowly stepped back when he thought he saw something rush out of the crater at him, but with only one eye, his dept perception was still out of kilter. As soon as he realized nothing was going to come out of the crater, his stance steadied.
"No, we changed the world," Willow responded, "I can feel them Buffy, all over, and Slayers are awakening everywhere."
"We have to find them," Dawn responded, with tiredness in her voice.
"We will," Buffy said.
""Yes, because the mall was actually in Sunnydale," Giles said, "so there's no use in going there tomorrow."
"We destroyed the mall?" Dawn asked, she knew that Giles' comment had not a whole lot to do with what Willow had actually said, but she still wanted to make a remark about it, "I fought on the wrong side."
Buffy let out only a slim smile of amusement.
"All those shops gone!" Xander said. "The Gap, Starbucks, Toys R' US, who will remember all those landmarks…unless we tell the world of them?"
"We have a lot of work ahead of us," Giles nodded, sorry he brought up the subject of the mall.
"Can I push him in?" Faith inquired as she looked at Willow.
"You've got my vote," Willow responded.
Giles looked at her a bit surprised.
"I just want to sleep y'all for like a week." Faith said.
"I guess we all could," Dawn said, "if we wanted to,"
"Yeah," Willow agreed, "the First is scrunched, so…what do you think we should do Buffy?"
"Yeah, you're not the one and only chosen any more," Faith said, she knew she probably shouldn't have said that, but Buffy seemed to have let it go by, "you've got to live like a person, how's that feel?"
"Yeah Buffy," Dawn asked, "what are we going to do now?"
Buffy continued to look out at the crater, as a thin smile came to her face that gradually grew larger. She had a choice, for the first time in seven years; she had a choice where she didn't have to worry about parading around in the dark punching a whittled stick at shadows, not when there were others that could do it. A whole army of Slayers. Then she heard it, the loud ear piercing skree…skree…skree, her thoughts had turned to the source of the sound. It was a Tall Blue Police Box, the same Police Box that she saw moments ago outside the school; it was spinning out of control from the middle of the crater and towards them. "WE RUN!"
While everybody else got out of the way, Dawn made an attempt to run, but she tripped over a rock, she looked up to see the Police Box stop spinning and plummet down the dozen or so feet to the ground right where she lay.
"DAWN!" Buffy screamed out in horror, as she reached out to grab her, but it was too late, the Police Box had plopped itself down on Dawn like a hand on an insect.
TO BE CONTINUED…