Earlier That Day-Our Universe
Willow woke up, and to put it mildly, she felt awful. And worse yet, she didn't understand why. The demon wasn't that strong, she thought as she stretched her weary joints. Then, she realized that something was very wrong about her surroundings. She was in Buffy's house for some reason? And in Buffy's room? But the things in the room looked like they belonged to her…sort of. Her romance novels were in a modest-sized bookcase, and her laptop was in its case on the floor, but why? And where was Xander? "Xander?" she shouted. "Are you here?" Unable to wait any longer for answers, Willow opened the door…..and was nearly bowled over by a half-panicked Xander.
"Jeez, Will, you had me frightened!" Xander looked weary, as if he hadn't gotten much sleep last night. Willow was sadly used to it, but this time it seemed…..different. "The Vishnu demon-"
"Vishantrai," corrected Willow affectionately.
"Whatever. Anyways, it smacked you and Buffy around pretty hard last night. Dawn and I were worried."
Willow embraced Xander warmly (a bit more so than the latter was expecting, to be honest) and said, "I've been hurt worse. My Slayer healing doesn't seem to agree, though."
Now Xander was confused, big time. "Your what?" He didn't have an opportunity to ask further, because Buffy emerged from her bedroom, and she looked completely different. Her body language was totally different, and it looked to Xander as if most of the past six years worth of stress and strain of being the Slayer had just evaporated. However, that didn't mean that she wasn't worried about something.
"Hey Will, Xand," she said.
She even sounds like a totally different person, thought Xander.
"Have you guys seen Tara?"
Xander's blood went cold with the mention of Tara's name, and the sharp intake of breath and step backward he took on pure instinct clued in both women that something was wrong.
"Xander," pleaded Buffy, "where's Tara?"
"Buffy, Tara's been dead for over six months. You both were there." Giving Willow a knowing but reassuring look, he added, "And for everything after."
Buffy fell to her knees, sobbing. And Willow felt as if she had been punched in the gut. Again. It's my fault. I could have prevented this. What kind of Slayer am I if good people keep dying? "H-how did she die, Xander? Was it the Vishantrai?"
Xander was beyond confused now. "What? No, it was Warren! I was talking with Buffy outside and you were here with Tara, and Warren, he came at us with that gun, and then he started firing shots everywhere. One got Buffy, and another, it went through the window," Xander pointed at the very window for emphasis, "and through Tara's heart."
Willow and Buffy gave Xander horrible death glares. "That's not funny, Xander," hissed Buffy as she regained her composure. "We captured Warren after he tried to kill his girlfriend. He never shot me, or Tara. You're lying!"
"How can you say something like that, Xander?" asked Willow. "You know how much Buffy loves Tara."
Now it was Xander's turn to be incredulous. "What?! What are you talking about, Will? Buffy's not gay! You are! And," Seeing the confused looks on Buffy and Willow's faces, Xander realized what was going on. "And that demon did its mind-scrambling thing on you guys last night."
"So, let me get this right," asked Xander, pacing in front of the living room couch, "as far as you guys remember, Willow's the Slayer, and Buffy's the Witch, and I'm…."
"Married to me," finished Willow, helpfully.
"I gotta sit down," replied Xander, who sat down between Willow and Buffy.
"If you think that's wild, wait until we tell Mom that I'm kinda gay," offered Buffy helpfully.
Xander grimaced again. "Buffy…."
Buffy was again on the verge of tears. "Xander?"
Xander answered tersely, "Joyce died about two years ago. It was an aneurysm."
Understandably, Buffy started sobbing, and there was little Willow and Xander could do to comfort her.
Thankfully, Buffy-Xander's Buffy-kept some tranquilizers on hand, and after giving her a Slayer-sized dose, Willow and Xander put her back to bed and retreated back to the living room.
"Xander," declared Willow, putting on her practiced brave face, "you've got to help Buffy and I get home. She can't handle all of this. She's not the Slayer."
"How do you know it's not a hallucination?" asked Xander. "Warren and his toadies sent that demon after Buffy that had her believing she was in an asylum."
Willow winced. "That happened to me, and I can assure you that that was a lot different. You weren't there telling me that everything I knew was a lie, for one thing."
"Sorry," answered Xander. "It's just that you're both like you usually are physically-"
"No Slayer healing factor for me, though I do feel strong, just not in the 'bash demons in the face' sense, and you had to dope up Buffy with enough tranqs to put an elephant down. Is that what you mean?"
"Exactly, answered Xander. "Plus, all the research says that this thing drives its victims crazy, and nothing about making for some crazy version of Sliders."
"The books have been wrong before," countered Willow, before punching his arm. "And that's for mentioning Sliders after what the show did to Wade."
"And here I thought I was going to be able to get away with that."
A/N: Well, that has to be the longest hiatus ever. I blame a deficit of ideas (especially of the sequential kind) for much of the delay, and listening to the Dusted podcast by Story Wonk, interacting with people on their forums, and just plain re-watching the show for giving me new ideas. (I'll probably also do some dialogue revisions and whatnot for the previous chapters of this and other stories at some point, as well as time permits.)
