Parallel: Beware What You Wish For
By Maddy
Summary: 1st in the 'Parallel' series. Buffy makes a wish, it comes true and she finds herself in a parallel universe
Rating: PG13 to R for some language
Spoilers: Everything in all seasons of Buffy, and the first season of Angel just to be safe
Timeline: This starts just after Riley's drug withdrawals kick in, then goes on from there
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the BtVS or Ats characters, but some of the ones you don't recognise are mine
Distribution: If you have permission to have any of my other fic, you can take this one too, if not, just ask
Feedback: I would love some feedback/reviews with this, so, you know: read and review
Author's Notes: This gets a bit complicated with the plot, so I'm going to flush out a bit of it right now: Buffy makes a wish, and gets sent to a parallel universe where Angel turned human on Buffy's 17th birthday. The two Buffy's are now only one Buffy, meaning that the cannon universe has no Buffy at all anymore. Buffy has no memories of the parallel universe until the Oracles give them to her, then she has both sets of memories. There are some other differences between the universes, such as Dawn exists in the parallel one (but not yet), and never exists in the cannon one because Buffy isn't there anymore, the Angel series never happened in the parallel for obvious reasons. All of this will be explained in more detail in later parts. But if you want me to explain it some more later on, just tell me. The last thing I want is for somebody to get confused. Italics are flashbacks, thoughts or dreams.
PROLOGUE:
I watched Riley, he's breathing heavily. Damn those Initiative jackasses! How could they do this? People are people, not their little experiments. I then remembered Spike, and although I might hate him, they shouldn't have put that chip in his head, especially now that he's been hanging around.
I closed my eyes and wished that I were someplace else. My life has sucked lately - no not lately, ever since Angel left. I hoped that Parker wanted a relationship, but all he wanted was sex and me being the big, dumb, idiot fell for his 'live in the moment' speech and lived in the moment. But Riley, it felt different with him; he's so nice and as normal as a government agent who hunts demons can be.
I don't love him, I don't know if I ever will, but he makes me feel less lonely, that's important right?
"Buffy, how's he doing?" asked Xander, walking into the room. We moved Riley to my dorm room; it just didn't feel right to put him back at Lowell House.
"I don't know," I admitted wearily "I don't know much about drug withdrawals."
Xander nodded "Will's bringing some food. How about you go and get out for a few hours, you've been sitting here all day."
He's right, I did want to get out, but Riley needs someone to be here. Xander must have read my mind, because he offers to stay until I get back.
"I'll take care of soldier boy, you go vent by killing things."
I smiled, and gave him a quick hug, grabbed two stakes from my drawer and left.
I once said to Giles that kicking ass was Slayer comfort food, it really is. After staking two vamps I was feeling much better, a lot of the tension had left my body, I felt a bit lighter.
But I'm dreading what I know is waiting for me back at my room, a sick boyfriend. I haven't had to deal with sick boyfriends in a while, unless of course you count Angel's poisoning. But he wasn't my boyfriend at the – don't think about it. Maybe that should become my motto: "don't think about it." Maybe if I say it enough, I won't think about him. Yeah, like that could ever happen. Everything leads back to Angel – look, now you've said his name. Idiot! Now, for the rest of the night you're going to have Angel on the brain, you won't be able to focus on Riley. Riley is the important person at the moment and he needs your support. And stop talking to yourself in the third person!
At that moment another vampire leapt out at me, I easily blocked his attacks and stake him through the heart without any trouble. That almost seemed too easy. I thought as I dusted the vampire off my clothes. Effective, though sometimes messy.
I sensed another person, it wasn't a demon but it was Willow.
"Hey, Buffy."
"What are you doing here?" I asked my best friend as she walked closer to me.
"I just wanted to see you, Xander told me you went patrolling. Riley can't keep his food down; we're just going to have to ride it out. I'm sorry about this."
"Don't be silly, it isn't your fault." I told her, "It's the damn government. They are in way over their heads."
"Yeah, interfering were they don't belong."
"It should be their motto." Yeah, like: don't think about it. I needed a change of topic, so I asked Willow about her witchcraft. Honestly, I'm not all that interested. I don't understand most of it, but whenever it gets brought up; Willow's mood gets better, which in turn makes my mood better. Willow started rambling about how annoying her Wicca group was, about what spells she hasn't been able to successfully do yet.
But despite my best efforts, Willow gradually turned the conversation back towards Riley.
"I don't know what I should do about it, you know, the Initiative. His whole world is being turned upside-down, I know what it's like to have everything you every thought was real turn out to be a lie."
"I think we all feel that way sometimes, but that's not what I wanted to know."
"But you asked about my feelings about Riley and the Initiative, I just said them."
"What I meant," began Willow, as we stopped walking through the cemetery. "Was how you feel about Riley in general, I was trying to trick you into revealing something."
"Oh, right." I began walking again, completely ignoring her question. I don't want to think about my feelings for Riley and I definitely don't want to talk to Willow about it. I don't want to talk to anyone about it. I'm so used to keeping boyfriendly relationships kinda secret. Before my seventeenth birthday, I had no worries about telling Willow everything about Angel and I, but after…
"You're avoiding," accused Willow. Is it an accusation if they're right?
"So, I don't want to talk about it."
"Why not? Is it that bad?"
"No, oh, I don't know." I sit on a headstone. "I really don't know what I feel for him. There's this big confusion cloud and no matter how much I try to blow it away; it won't leave."
"Confusion cloud, huh?"
"Yeah," I smiled at her expression. "Not my best, but good for now."
"So, why the Cloud of Confusion?"
I gave her a look that said: 'you've got to be kidding, right? What is it always about?'
"Right…Angel."
"Yeah, Angel." I sighed in sadness, sadness mixed with frustration. "It always comes back to him. Why does it always come back to him?"
"The same reason it will always come back to Oz." She answered, I instantly felt bad for her. I didn't mean to bring him into the conversation. I know how much it can hurt. "First love, Buffy. It's a killer."
"Wonderful."
We sat in silence for about three seconds before I decided to break it, both the silence and my vow to myself: don't think about it. "I still love Angel, I think I always will. I think I always want to. Does that mean I can't love Riley?"
"No, it just means you'll love them both."
"But I don't love Riley, Will. I can't."
"Of course you can, there's nothing stopping you."
"Except that I still love Angel. I don't think I'm capable of loving more than one person at a time."
"Hey, you have so much love to give, Buffy. If you're meant to love Riley, then you will. If not, maybe you should do something about it before this gets out of hand."
"And before Riley finds out about Angel."
"True."
"I wish it wasn't so hard, you know, loving someone and not being able to be with them."
"Preaching to the choir here, Buff."
"I just wish, you know, that I don't have to worry about this stuff." I smiled at Willow. She didn't smile back, she screamed my name and I don't remember what happened after that.
(page break)
My eyes snapped open and I bolted upright, with a scream I tried to leap to my feet, but instead I fell out of a bed. Thud. I groaned and got up onto my knees. My head was swimming in circles, I let my head fall forward and that's when I saw it.
"Holy crap!" I was naked - completely undressed, "oh, god." I reached forward and pulled the red sheets toward my body. Wait a minute…where the hell am I?
"Buffy?" asked a voice. "What are you doing on the floor?"
His beautiful face came into view; I gasped and felt tears form in my eyes. He looked different. My joy at seeing him was very quickly replaced the fear and anger.
"Buffy?"
I gave myself a shake, "what the hell is going on, Angel? Why are you in Sunnydale, and why am I naked? Are you evil again? Where's Willow?"
"Huh? Willow…she'd be at the dorms."
"What did you do to me?" I yelled, getting to my feet, careful to pull the sheet with me. But when the sheet started to uncover Angel's lower half, I stop trying to get away. I really can't handle seeing him all naked when I can't be with him. What the hell is going on?
"I didn't do anything, honey, are you alright?" he sat on the edge of the bed, his chest was looking so good. Buffy, don't do this to yourself, look at his face, look at his face. Oh, yeah, that'll help; he has the most beautiful face in the entire world. Stop talking to yourself, you're not crazy; so don't start acting like it! "Did you have a dream?"
"No…I don't, what's going on?"
He reached out for me, and for some reason I didn't move away when his hands touched my arm and pulled me a couple of steps closer.
"Why are you warm?" I stared at him, trying to figure it out. Why does he look different? It's his eyes, they're…happier.
"What?" He laughed, "Is this a game? Buffy, you know why I'm warm."
"And why would that be!" I snapped angrily, Angel's eyes flashed with worry and fear.
"Because I'm human…" he said slowly, drawing out the last word. I almost had a heart attack.
"Human!"
TBC...
Okay, there you have it. The beginning of my mega epic series. I'll let you guys fester a bit over the prologue before adding the next part. Please R and R, I always reply if I'm given some way to contact you. Love, Mad