The bell above the door sounded as Buffy, Dawn and Riley entered the Magic Box. The three made their way over to the table where everyone except future Buffy and Willow and Tara had given up on research. Xander was reading a comic book, and Giles was behind the counter whilst Anya had taken Anne and Alice to the shop next door to buy some sweets. Dawn's mouth dropped, as she looked between her sister, and a slightly older version of her sister.

"Whoa," she laughed. "Okay, this is pretty cool."

Buffy smirked. "Ha, told you. Much cooler than Melinda." Dawn glared at her sister, before turning to face Buffy and Willow from the future.

"So you guys are from the future right? What's it like?" She asked eagerly, sitting in a chair opposite the duo and leaning on the table.

Buffy and Willow both laughed at the version of Dawn that they hadn't seen for years – she was happy and carefree, not having had to experience the events of the coming years.

"Well, I mean there hasn't been a plague that's wiped out humanity yet, so I'd say pretty well." Buffy replied, smiling.

Dawn was about to ask another question, when she noticed the delicate band on the finger of her left hand. She squealed in a way that only teenage girls can, and pointed at the ring. "Oh my god! You're married!" She beamed.

Buffy was about to reply when her two daughters came barrelling in through the door.

Riley's heart sank when the children ran straight past him, clearly not recognising him. It was clear that not only was he not with Buffy in the future, but her wasn't even around as a friend or ally.

Dawn's heart, on the other hand, soared when she saw the two girls running towards the table.

"Mommy!" The younger one giggled. "Auntie Anya let us both get a chocolate bar!" Buffy smiled at them both.

"Well I hope you both said thank you," she hinted. Both girls looked over at Anya and thanked her in unison. Anya shrugged.

"It's not like they were expensive - if they were, I wouldn't have."

Dawn completely ignored Anya. "Oh my god you have kids?" She couldn't stop smiling. They both looked over at her as she spoke and smiled. Alice, upon recognising her, jumped up on her lap and hugged her.

"Auntie Dawnie!" She laughed. Buffy hadn't thought it possible, but Dawn's smile widened even more.

"Hey, uh…"

"Alice," Buffy supplied. "And Anne."

"Hey guys," Dawn laughed, smiling at Anne over Alice's shoulder.

The three girls conversed, instantly connecting. Buffy could see how excited Dawn was about having nieces, and it was clear to everyone that the two girls were enjoying meeting the younger version of their Aunt.

Other Buffy, noticing her boyfriend's glum mood, tried to cheer him up. "Hey Riley, why don't we go train in the other room?"

He nodded, and they both walked in. He immediately went to the punching bag and began pummelling it.

Buffy sighed. "Riley," she began, but stopped talking immediately when she noticed a tingling at the base of her neck telling her that demons were nearby. She looked around the room, ready for a fight, frowning when there was nothing out of the ordinary. "I-" She managed to say, before being knocked off her feet by… nothing.

She began to lash out blindly, her fists sloppily connecting with a solid body

"Giles," She yelled. "There's something in here!"

In the other room, Buffy panicked, immediately worrying for the safety of children. She pulled them both behind the counter. "Both of you stay here and don't come out until I tell you to, okay? If you need my help, then yell for me." Both girls nodded, too afraid to do anything else, and sat huddled together, hoping the ordeal would be over soon. Their memories of their last encounter with demons was fresh in their minds.

In the training room, Spike had joined in the fight, unbeknownst to everyone else. After the demons in there were taken care of, Buffy and Riley ran into the main part of the shop, unable to hear Spike's sarcastic comments as they did so.

Buffy, unable to concentrate with everyone's babbling, ordered them to shut up. She was almost able to estimate where the remaining demon was, when she heard Tara shout, "Buffy, behind you!" and was thrown onto the table.

Anne put an arm around her sister when she heard her begin to sniffle. "Hey, it's going to be alright. Mom will get rid of them, you know she will." Alice nodded, burying her head in her sister's shoulder, trying to block out the sounds of the fight.

Buffy quickly regained her footing, and with the help of her future self, she was able to easily kill the demon once Tara had lifted her spell.

Tara's family walked into the shop, stopping in front of the dead demon, whilst Buffy went behind the counter to get Anne and Alice. The two girls followed their mom out, whilst Willow dragged the body out of their sight.

Spike, now visible to everyone else, walked in from the training room. Alice immediately recognised her father and gasped happily.

"Daddy!" She yelled happily and threw herself at him for a hug. Spike frowned in confusion and quickly grabbed the child after she launched herself at him to stop her from falling. Anne, having realised that this was her dad from the past, and that he had no idea who they were, stayed back, behind her mom.

All eyes turned to Buffy.

She laughed nervously and walked over to Alice and a very confused Spike. She quickly picked her up from Spike's arms and walked back over to where Anne was. "Wait a minute," he mumbled, frowning when he realised there were two Buffys and two Willows.

Dawn was grinning, the demon attack and Tara's very confused family completely forgotten. "No way," she whispered.

"Um, Buff," Xander said. "Please tell us you just married a guy who happens to look a lot like Spike?" Buffy just smiled apologetically. "Oh my god," he said, horrified.

"Oh my god," Dawn whispered excitedly.

"Will someone tell me what the bloody hell is going on?"