Chapter 1: Empty Places Pt 1
Sunnydale was falling: The Hellmouth's jittery pressure cooker had finally boiled up into panic as the inhabitants of Sunnydale fled for their lives. Chaos raced up the street screaming alongside women, children, shop owners shutting down for the last time.
Surrounded by throngs, Buffy Summers walked alone.
Behind her a Jeep carrying three witches pulled onto Main Street passing the mass exodus that was leaving town.
"Everyone seems to be getting the hell out of town," said Phoebe. "Are you sure this is where the crystal hit, Billie?"
"Yeah, positive," said Billie. "I'm going to need a Sunnydale street map to get better pinpoint. You guys didn't have one."
The passed a blonde who was talking to someone in a red VW Beetle and pulled into a convenience store just down the block. As Phoebe hopped out and ran inside to get Billie a map of Sunnydale, Billie looked back down the street at Buffy.
"What," asked Piper as she followed Billie's gaze back down the street.
"I don't know, something about that girl," said Billie as Phoebe came back out and hopped back into the Jeep.
"Here, Billie," said Phoebe as she handed Billie the map of town. "The owner said we were lucky to get here today. He's closing up the store and going on vacation in a few hours."
Billie unfolded the map and pulled out the scrying crystal and Christy's necklace out of her pocket. She began scrying.
At that same moment Buffy walked down the street toward the convenience store and the Jeep that was still parked there.
Billie watched as the crystal dropped pretty much right on top of where they were at. "She's nearby," said Billie as she looked out the window at Buffy that was walking down the street toward them. "It has to be."
"Has to be, what?" asked Phoebe, confused as she followed Billie's gaze out the window. "Her?"
"Maybe," said Billie as she got out of the Jeep and walked over to Buffy. "Excuse me, I'm looking for someone and I was hoping you could help me."
"I can try," said Buffy. "Who are you looking for?"
"Her name is Christy Jenkins," said Billie. She could see in Buffy's eyes there was no recognition of the name.
"I'm sorry I don't know anyone by the name of Christy," said Buffy. "It's possible she left town."
"What's going on?" Piper asked as she walked up beside Billie.
"Something big is going down …" said Buffy as she looked back at the line of traffic heading out of town. "Something bad. If you excuse me I was heading to visit a friend who's in the hospital." She started walking away from them.
"Have you seen this before?" asked Billie as she held up Christy's necklace.
Buffy turned to face Billie and looked at the necklace, her eyes instantly going wide. She had dreamt of that necklace for fifteen years.
"I can see you do," said Billie.
"I … I have dreamt of that necklace off and on for a very long time," said Buffy. "Where did you get it?"
"It belonged to my sister, Christy," said Billie. "My name is Billie Jenkins. These are my friends Piper and Phoebe Halliwell."
"I'm Buffy," said Buffy as she stared at the necklace.
"Piper, I think there is one way to find out if this is indeed Christy," said Phoebe as she made a hand gesture.
Piper nodded in understanding. If this was Christy and she was indeed a good witch then she wouldn't freeze. She raised her hands and froze the street around them.
Silence suddenly assaulted Buffy's hearing as she looked around at the street. Cars were no longer moving. The noise of engines and people no longer heard. Even the sounds of birds had suddenly disappeared. Buffy looked to the three women in front of her. "What did you do?"
"Oh, she just froze everything," said Phoebe. "Everything will be fine."
"If that is true," said Buffy. "How come I'm not frozen?"
"Because," said Piper. "Good witches don't freeze."
Buffy began to laugh. "I'm not a witch, seriously. Beside witches can't freeze time. My friend Willow is a witch and she can't do that."
"Must be a progenitor," said Phoebe as Buffy looked at her. "A progenitor is the beginnings of a new magical line. They can cast spells but otherwise don't have powers. I have the power of premonition. Piper has the power of molecular immobilization and molecular combustion. In another words she can freeze time and blow things up. Billie here has the power of telekinesis and projection."
Buffy shook her head as she looked at the three girls in front of her. "So I guess I'm supposed to be this Christy. Nice try. I know who I am."
"Fifteen years ago you were kidnapped," said Billie as she explained what she knew. "I had thought originally by demons. But it turns out she was kidnapped by this group of men." She held up the necklace again. "I was able to use my projection power to project myself back to just after she was taken and managed to bring this back with me. We've already ascertained that you recognize it. And the fact that you didn't freeze. Which means you are Christy."
"But I'm not," said Buffy. "I remember back when I was six years old when my mom brought my baby sister home from the hospital. That was sixteen years ago. That means I can't be Christy."
Billie, Piper and Phoebe looked at each other. They wondered why the men that took Christy would cast such a spell. If Christy was a Potential Slayer wouldn't that mean they would have stripped her memories of anything like that?
"There is a way to find out," said Piper. "If you consent to it that is. We have a memory spell that may awaken your memories as Christy. It was used actually a couple years ago by me, Phoebe and my other sister Paige with success. We reworded it to be used on Christy only. If you're not Christy it will do nothing as you will have no buried memories. If you are Christy as Billie seems to think, then it will awaken memories that may have been buried by a memory spell cast by your abductors."
Buffy sighed. "Look I have to think this over."
Piper moved back to her Jeep and pulled out a pen and pad from her purse and jotted down her cell phone number. "Call me at this number when you've decided."
Buffy took the number and stuffed it into her pocket. "Alright." She took off heading for the hospital. She hopped Willow had her laptop. It would make everything easier to do from there.
Billie watched as Buffy walked away and then she turned and walked back to Piper's jeep with Piper and Phoebe. She sighed and shook her head. "I'll scry again. But I'm almost certain it's her."
"Phoebe did you get anything from her?" Piper asked. She remembered that Phoebe had only recently earned her empathy power back after having all of her powers stripped away at the tribunal that would have killed Darryl Morris to clean up potential exposure risks.
"She believes every word she said," said Phoebe. "She truly remembers her mother bringing her baby sister home."
Billie sighed as she got out the map and laid it on the hood of Piper's Jeep as she began to scry. This time the crystal did not land almost immediately. It was twenty minutes later and Billie's arm was getting tired. Finally the crystal landed on Sunnydale Memorial Hospital. The exact place Buffy had said she was heading for.
Xander lay in his hospital bed, bandage over his eye … where his eye should have been, and Willow could hardly stand it. She couldn't bear to see him so wounded. It terrified her.
"... and that you should expect to see some bruising when you remove the bandage," Buffy was saying to him as Willow tried to focus, try to stay present. "Bruising around the ... area. The … musculature and bone structure took a heavy hit."
"Okay," Xander replied.
"Also, the meds may cause some stomach discomfort," Buffy ventured, "so we're gonna have to be, you know, careful." She took a breath. "About your diet."
"Can't really taste anything, anyway," Xander confided. "I keep waiting for all my other senses to improve by fifty percent, should kick in any day now."
"And we're looking at a possible release as early as tonight," Buffy soldiered on. "Once your labs are back. Doctor Kallet says they should be a couple hours."
"Great," Xander said as he and Buffy looked at each other.
Buffy sighed, she wondered why she was procrastinating. "Guys there is something I wanted to talk to you about. Well more Willow, but. On my way here. I ran into some people, they were looking for this girl named Christy Jenkins."
"We don't know a Christy," Willow said.
"I know," said Buffy. "But according to them. I'm Christy. They had some convincing stuff such as this necklace I've only seen in my dreams off and on for fifteen years now. I was wondering Will, do you have your laptop here?"
"Yeah," said Willow as she leaned down and opened her bag, pulling out said laptop. "You want me to look them up?"
"Yeah," said Buffy. "Start with Christy Jenkins."
Willow nodded as she got on the internet. One thing she had done before going off the deep end had been to magically increase the range of her Wi-Fi. She could practically get on the internet from just about anywhere in town.
Buffy waited as Willow searched. To tell the truth she was a tad bit anxious to find out something about these people.
"Okay," said Willow. "There are a few news reports about Christy Jenkins dating back fifteen years ago. She was abducted from her home while her parents slept in the next room. Her sister slept in the same room and woke when she heard a noise. It says that she thought she had a bad dream and moved to sleep with her sister when she found said sister gone. She immediately went and woke her parents."
"Is there a picture?" asked Buffy. She was curious to see what this Christy looked like.
"Yeah, hold on," said Willow as she pulled up a picture. "Here is Christy at age seven. Using image software developed in recent years they have …" She pulled up the second image and stopped. The second image looked like Buffy. She then looked back at the first image and frowned.
Willow remembered when she had entered Buffy's mind and saw six year-old Buffy waiting for Joyce and Hank to come home with Dawn. The image she was staring at was a mirror image of the six year-old Buffy she had seen in Buffy's mind.
"Well?" Xander asked. The suspense was beginning to kill him.
Willow turned the laptop so both Xander and Buffy could see the two images and their eyes went wide. "So," Buffy said as she stared at the images on the screen. "It's possible. Where do those images comes from?"
"San Diego Police Department," said Willow. "Which means if it is all a fake out. It's one hell of a fake out, dating all the way back to 1989 when the initial police report was filed."
Buffy sighed. "If it's true then how come I don't remember even being adopted? I remember mom bringing Dawn home from the hospital. That was a whole year before this girl went missing."
"Well," said Willow. "That could be a result of the monks. They may not have known that you were adopted and when they cast their spell to add Dawn to our memories they didn't take into account that you might have been adopted and overwrote your real history. Which now that I think about it, it explains something I felt from you, Buffy."
"What do you mean?" asked Xander as he looked at Willow quizzically. "You felt something from Buffy?"
"You both remember when you, Buffy, slipped into a coma after Glory took Dawn?" Willow as Buffy and Xander nodded. "I went into your, Buffy, mind, remember. While inside I could sense there was like maybe a block like some memories were being held back. I just assumed that it was you know typical childhood repression, from when your parents were fighting before the divorce. But what if it wasn't? What if it was a block created by the monks memory spell?"
"Okay," said Buffy as her mind reeled with that information. "Look up Billie Jenkins."
"Ok give me a second," said Willow as she did a search on the name. "Here we go. She's twenty years old. A student at the University of San Francisco. Her parents are Carl and Helen Jenkins. She's mentioned some in the stories about Christy's abduction."
"And Piper and Phoebe Halliwell?"
"Piper Halliwell is the owner of a nightclub called P3. According to her bio on the club's website she dreams of owning her own restaurant. She holds a culinary degree and worked for about a year at a restaurant known as Quake. She is married to Leo Wyatt the third," said Willow. "Phoebe Halliwell is the advice columnist for the Bay Mirror newspaper in San Francisco. According to her bio on the newspaper's website. She graduated from the University of San Francisco with a degree in psychology. She was briefly married to former San Francisco assistant district attorney Cole Turner. According to police records he mysteriously disappeared two years ago. Phoebe is now married to Coop Smith. I can find no information on him. Phoebe and Piper had a third sister, Prue that was murdered in their home in San Francisco. Her case was never solved. Now this is interesting. Until last year Piper, Phoebe, Prue and their half-sister Paige were mentioned in a lot of unsolved cases. Then the Department of Homeland Security took notice. Interesting the Department of Homeland Security later exonerated them and reportedly they even worked with the Department of Homeland Security on some unsolved cases."
"What about Paige?" Buffy asked.
"I don't know," said Willow. "It will take time to dig up on her. According to what is posted both on Piper and Phoebe's bios she was adopted as a baby and reunited with them four years ago. They don't mention what her last name is in either bio."
"Okay," said Buffy. "Try and find out what you can."