A/N Buffy spoilers.
9:30 P.M. on Thursday, June 5, 2008, Buffy, Willow, Xander and Amy were being introduced to Dawn's son, Hunter Aaron Carter. Dawn's father-in-law Aaron Senior was slightly upset that Hunter wasn't named Aaron Brody Carter the third.
Early the following morning in the other reality, a helicopter landed in a field not too far from the camp. Military helicopters landing and taking off were a frequent sight so not too many people paid attention to it.
Xander was sitting and eating his rations along with a large group. Like usual the rations were small and once Xander swallowed the few bites there were, he tossed his trash in a trashcan and wandered aimlessly.
Xander stopped next to a tent that was holding early morning Mass. As he was gazing in through the mesh-nylon-screen, he heard a male voice hollering, "Harris!" He turned and saw an American Air Force specialist approaching him from thirty feet away. "Alexander Harris, you are to come with me."
As the specialist got closer Xander asked, "And where might that be?"
"To the gate," the specialist said. "There's a Mr. Rupert Giles from England and a young teenager name Verna here to see you."
"All right," Xander said while rubbing his hands together. He then gestured for the specialist to go first. "Lead the way."
Giles and Verna waited inside the camp at the entrance. The two saw the specialist returning with a twenty-seven-year-old man from off in the distance.
When the Specialist and Xander were close enough, Giles asked, "Mr. Harris?"
"It's Xander and yes," he said.
"You said a few things yesterday that intrigued me," Giles said.
"I was hoping to grab your attention, but then the person in charge of the communications cut us short." Xander said. "Out of curiosity how did you find me?"
"The operator was able to tell me that the call originated within this region," Giles said. "Since you sounded America I took a shot of you being in this uh… this camp. Let's go somewhere where you, Verna and I can talk privately."
Xander made a gesture with his head for them to walk in a certain direction. After walking for a short time he looked around and saw that the closest person was a good distance away.
When he faced Giles, he said, "This Adam situation wasn't supposed to have happened. You and I along with Buffy and Willow were supposed to have stopped this before it even got started."
"You mentioned Buffy to me yesterday," Giles said.
"That's right," Xander said.
"You said that she was the slayer and I was her watcher," Giles said.
"Yes," Xander said. Giles showed a slightly disappointed expression. "You weren't her watcher in this reality?"
"Xander, obviously you have knowledge of me, the Watcher's Council and slayers," Giles began. "I'm not going to speculate where you picked up this knowledge, but there was never a slayer by the name of Buffy Summers."
"There has to be," Xander said. "She was chosen in the year 1996 at fifteen. She lived in Los Angeles at the time and her first watcher name was Merrick. A vampire killed Merrick a few days after Merrick had told Buffy that she is the Chosen One. Weeks later, she ended up in Sunnydale and you became her new watcher."
"Timika was the slayer from 1995 to 1997," Giles said. "Her final year as a slayer was in Sunnydale, but Nancy Caldwell was her watcher. After Tamika it was Kendya. After Kendya came Faith in 1999."
"Buffy was skipped," Xander said. "In this messed up reality the Powers That Be had skipped her."
"The Powers That Be?" Verna questioned.
"It's a term that Angel picked up from the Powers themselves," Xander said. "They're the ones who choose which potential slayer becomes the Chosen One."
"Really," Verna said before looking up. "Thinks a lot TPTB."
Giles ignored Verna's sarcastic attitude and asked, "Who's Angel?"
"That's right you wouldn't know about that since Buffy wasn't chosen in this reality," Xander said. "In 1898… or was it 1899." Xander shook his head. "Anyway, the vampire Angelus bit a gypsy girl… a favorite among her clan." Giles had heard of Angelus and the story instantly grabbed his attention. "For vengeance her clan cursed Angelus with a soul. The curse was meant for him to be forever tormented from guilt of his past killing spree as a vampire. For almost a hundred years Angel ate sewer rats. He eventually took the name of Angel. Then after Buffy, as the slayer, ended up in Sunnydale, she and Angel teamed up; professionally and romantically."
"A slayer dating a vampire?" Giles questioned.
"Oh, not dating," Xander began. "In spite of my daily routine of reminding Buffy that Angel was a vampire that should be staked, she and him had fallen mad passionate in love with each other, which proved to have been problematic; especially when the curse had an unseen clause. At the moment of pure happiness, Angel loses his soul and reverts back to Angelus. Which he did in my reality in January of 1998 right after Buffy and Angel made love for the first time."
"Good lord," Giles said. "Angelus was one of the most viscous vampires if not the most viscous."
"And he picked up right where he left off a century before, and to torture Buffy he focused on her friends," Xander said. "Your girlfriend during this time was Jenny Calendar. She was the computer teacher at the school and one of the descendants of those gypsies. In fact, it was found out later that Jenny was sent to Sunnydale to watch Angel and to find out why the curse was weakening. Anyway to give Buffy peace of mind, she attempted to duplicate the curse and restore Angel's soul, but before she could Angel killed her. Then Willow found Ms. Calendar's computer disk with the spell's translation on it."
"You mentioned Willow before," Giles said. "Who is she?"
"In my reality she's a good friend to me and Buffy," Xander said. "During the time of Angelus unfavorable return, she was a high academic achiever and an amateur witch working under your counterpart's guidance. A few years later, she became one of the most powerful Wicca in this dimension. Anyway after Willow found Ms. Calendar's spell that could restore Angel's soul, she did it. She restored Angel's soul, but not before Angelus was able to open a portal that would suck our dimension into a hell dimension. Angel's blood was what opened the portal and Angel's blood was what closed it, so to save the world, Buffy sent the love of her life to hell by ramming a sword through his chest."
"So in your reality Angel's in a hell dimension?" Verna questioned.
"We don't know how, but Angel returned from that hell dimension a few months later," Xander said. "In fact, The First Evil was taking credit for Angel's return."
"The First Evil?" Verna questioned.
"There's a small reference to the First Evil in the Watcher's library," Giles told Verna. "Nothing you need to be concern about right now."
"Oh, I can tell you everything you need to know about the First and then some," Xander said. "Buffy had faced that army too."
"How many years has Buffy survived as the slayer?" Giles said.
Xander smiled before saying, "Interesting enough, Buffy had died twice and came back both times. She drowned at the age of sixteen at the hands of the Master in 1997. I was there to resuscitate her two… three minutes later, but not before Kendra was activated as a slayer. She died a second time saving the world while fighting Glory…"
"Wait, Buffy and Kendra both lived at the same time as slayers?" Xander asked.
"In my reality there are now three Chosen Slayers chosen by the Powers That Be and even more charmed slayers," Xander said.
"What are charmed slayers?" Verna asked.
"Willow figured out a way to activate the potentials' ability without them actually having to be chosen," Xander said.
"Now that's an interesting idea," Giles said. "Why didn't anyone think of that before?"
"It was done in the battle against the First," Xander said.
"Xander, you have convinced me that you are indeed from another reality," Giles said. "Tell me how you defeated Adam in your reality."
"Well, in my reality, Adam was just getting started," Xander said. "We came to the conclusion that to defeat Adam, we needed a slayer who could perform a paralyzing spell, speak Sumerian, which only you knew Sumerian… well between you, me, Buffy and Willow anyway. In short, the four of us each had one of the four qualities needed to defeat Adam. All four qualities had to be in the slayer though. Then your counterpart Giles came up with the solution. Your counterpart, Willow and I performed a ritual that allowed our essences to merge with the slayer's essence. The four of us essentially became one and together we defeated Adam. We ripped out his power source. "
"Unfortunately, with most of Adam's monster-cyborgs scattered throughout most of North America defeating Adam this way is pointless unless we can figure out a way to defeat his army as well," Giles said.
"Ooh, the scythe," Xander said. "The slayer's weapon of choice that was hidden away for hundreds of years by the Guardians."
"I never heard of it," Giles said.
"We discovered it while fighting the First," Xander said. "It was used by the slayer to drive out the remaining pure demons from this dimension and it's in Sunnydale."
"Along with Adam's monster-cyborgs and possibly Adam himself," Verna said.
"We can duplicate the spell that defeated Adam in my reality and once the spell is active, you can retrieve the scythe," Xander told Verna. "Wait; what am I saying? All we need to do is end the spell that Amy had cast and everything should shift back to normal."
"Xander, I would love for this world to be this way because of a spell that we can simply break in order for things to go back to normal, but I'm afraid that Adam and his army marching across North American is what's normal," Giles said.
"But I had convinced you that I'm from another reality," Xander said. "You said so yourself."
"There are countless of realities, so when I said that you had convinced me of you being from another reality, I was just referring to you and you alone," Giles said. "Most likely there is another reality that where Adam was never created."
"Ah, I see," Xander said. "It kind of falls back on what Anya was saying when she would say that there could be a world without shrimp or a world of nothing but shrimp."
Giles slightly hesitated before saying, "I'm going to venture out and say yes. In any case, we should continue on the assumption of this being the real reality."
"In that case, the first thing we need is Willow Rosenburg," Xander said.
"Great, where can we find her?" Giles asked.
"I haven't a clue." Giles was about to respond when Xander continued to say, "Oh, wait. This world is a world without Buffy and pre-Buffy, Willow had chosen her colleges in eighth grade that she would like to have attended."
"And those colleges would be?" Giles asked.
"Yale, Harvard, Stanford… and I believe Oxford is on that list," Xander said.
"You're just saying Oxford because I'm here," Giles commented.
"No, actually I believe Oxford was on her list of choices… at least it was put on it before high school ended," Xander said.
"Well, in any case, those colleges you just named off are hard to get into without a high GPA…" Giles was able to get out.
"Oh, Willow graduated in the top five with a high GPA," Xander said. "In my reality Willow could have gone to any… and I mean 'any' college of her choice."
"Where did she end up going?" Verna asked.
"She actually thought that demon fighting was a cause worth pursuing and she stayed in Sunnydale with Buffy and me," Xander said.
"So in your reality, Willow didn't go to college even though she could've gone anywhere in the world?" Verna asked.
"She went, but at Sunnydale University," Xander said. "Her thing or study was chemistry and the boundaries between chemistry and magic potions for her were pretty much non-existent."
"Right then," Giles began. "The Watcher's Council should have some pull to where we can look at Yale's, Harvard's and Oxford's attendance records for the past nine years. Hopefully we'll get lucky with one of those."
"Don't forget Stanford," Verna said.
"There is no Stanford anymore," Giles said.
"Why? What happened…" Verna was able to get out.
"Stanford was in California," Giles said.
"Oh," Verna embarrassingly said. "If she went there then she's most likely…" Verna saw the concern look on Xander's face. "I'm sure she didn't attend Stanford."
Xander grinned before saying, "Let's go contact the council."
At a government research facility in Pittsburgh, Willow was a lab assistant to Dr. Patrick. Most of Dr. Patrick's work was top secret, so Willow's job mostly consisted of cleaning the lab and other meaningless work. However, Dr. Patrick made the mistake on Willow's first day as his assistant by underestimating Willow's knowledge and allowing her to take notes. When Willow strongly voiced her concern on one of the experiments and rattled off an accurate conjecture before the test was even conducted, he made sure that Willow didn't see anymore of his work. What Willow didn't know is that her conjecture was actually the desired outcome.
Within a short time the Watcher's Council obtained a Pittsburgh address for her at a twelve-story apartment complex.
After several hours on a helicopter and a few more minutes in a taxi, Xander, Giles and Verna were walking towards the entrance to the apartment building.
Xander was describing his reality to them and before they were able to step up to the entrance Giles commented, "With Buffy dating two vampires and you an ex-vengeance demon, it's a wonder that your reality isn't being overrun with demons."
"Well, how little I would like to admit this, Angel and Spike turned out to have been a big help for the cause," Xander said.
"I'm just surprised that the council put up with that," Giles said while stepping up to the entrance and pressing the buzzer for Willow's apartment.
"Buffy really gave the council no choice in the matter," Xander said as Willow with long hair was approaching the three from behind while carrying a bag of groceries; mainly fruit. "She even told Travers off when…"
"Xander?" Willow asked as if she wasn't sure to believe her eyes.
Xander, Giles and Verna faced Willow before saying, "Will. I forget how good you looked with long hair."
Willow dropped her bag of groceries and rushed to give him a heartfelt hug. A few apples and oranges rolled out from the bag. As she hugged him, she emotionally said, "I thought that you were dead."
"Nope; I'm alive and… well at least I'm alive," Xander said.
Willow broke the hug before asking, "How have you've been? Where have you been? How did you survive Adam?" She glanced at Giles and Verna. "Who are your friends?"
"All valid questions," Xanders began with a grin. He then gestured towards the two who were with him. "Meet Giles and Verna. Giles; Verna, meet Willow Rosenburg, my bestest friend since kindergarten."
"'Bestest' isn't a word," Verna commented as Giles was offering his hand to Willow.
"Well, it should be," Xander said.
After Giles shook Willow's hand he said, "We are actually here for a reason, Ms. Rosenburg. Can we go inside?'
"It's Willow and of course," she said before gesturing towards her bag of groceries. "Let me pick up my…"
"Allow me," Giles said as he went to gather the scattered fruit.
As Willow was leading the way to her apartment on the fourth floor, she asked Xander, "Where have you been since Adam took over the western part of the United States?"
"That's actually a hard questioned to answer," Xander said.
Willow gave him a curious look before questioning, "How is that a hard question?"
"We should save that conversation until we are in your apartment," Giles said.
"Xander, what's going on?" Willow asked.
"You'll be told, but Giles is right," Xander said. "Wait until we are out of the halls." Willow just gave him a curious look.
Everyone was quiet during the remainder of their walk to Willow's door. Once everyone was inside and the door was closed, Willow turned towards Xander before saying, "Okay, Xander, we're out of the halls. Now tell me what is going on."
"What I'm about to tell you will sound like I lost my mind, but it's true," Xander said. Willow gave Xander a confused look when he paused for a moment to collect his thoughts. "Alternate realities are real. In one of these alternate realities you and I became close friends to Buffy Summers during our high school sophomore year…"
"Say, you three weren't doing drugs on your way here, were you?" Willow said.
"I can understand your skepticism, but it's true," Xander continued to say. "Buffy was also a vampire slayer…"
"Oh, her name wasn't Buffy, it was Tamika," Willow said.
"You knew that Tamika was a slayer?" Giles asked.
"Well, it was kind of obvious after she saved my life for the third time from vampires and demons," Willow said. "Ms. Caldwell was Tamika's trainer."
"Nancy Caldwell was her watcher," Giles corrected. Willow gave Giles a curious look. "Training the slayer is one of her duties."
"How do you know this?" Willow asked Giles.
"I'm a watcher," Giles said.
Willow faced Verna before asking, "Are you a slayer?"
"I'm the slayer, but Giles isn't my watcher," Verna said. "My watcher sent me to Giles and went back to England for a retreat."
"Well, for the time being I'm your watcher," Giles said.
"Fine," Verna said.
"Can we get back on topic?" Xander questioned. Giles gestured for him to proceed. "In this alternate reality, Buffy Summers is the slayer and Giles was Buffy's watcher. Will, you and I were even part of Buffy's Scooby gang."
"Scooby gang?" Willow questioned.
"We helped Buffy kill demons," Xander said. "You even studied witchcraft in this other reality. In fact, you became a very power Wicca."
"You talk as if you are from this alternate reality," Willow said.
"I am and in my reality, you, me and Giles used witchcraft to merge our essences with Buffy's essence in order to kill Adam before he was able to build his army," Xander said.
When Willow stared at Xander while trying to determine if he had lost his mind, Giles said, "I know how this sounds, Willow. When I first met Xander several hours ago, I too was skeptical, but he mentioned things that he couldn't have possibly known unless he was telling the truth."
"So you're from this reality?" Willow asked Giles.
"I am," Giles said.
"Okay, Xander, if you are from another reality, how did you get here?" Willow asked.
"Do you know Amy Madison in this reality?" Xander asked.
"Yes," Willow said with bitterness in her voice. "We used to be good friends until she became a cheerleader like her mom and went on to be Miss Popular."
"Amy became a cheerleader in this reality?" Xander quickly asked.
"I guess Amy didn't in your reality," Willow said.
"When Amy was trying out for cheerleading, did any girls get hurt during their tryouts to become cheerleaders?" Xander asked.
"Actually there were two major injuries and one death," Willow said. "Cordelia was the one who died."
"Hit by a truck after crashing the school's driver's education car?" Xander asked.
"That's right," Willow said. "So the same thing happened in your reality."
"In my reality, Buffy saved Cordelia from being run over by the truck," Xander said. "But several of Amy's cheerleading competitors were injured and it was all from witchcraft."
"Witchcraft?" Willow questioned. "Amy was a witch?"
"No… well yes, but Amy wasn't the one who was putting the whammy on those potential cheerleaders," Xander said. "It was her mother. Her mother was a full-fledged witch then and she had switched bodies with Amy."
"Amy and her mother switched bodies?" Willow questioned.
"Actually it was more like Amy's mother stole Amy's body," Xander said. "She wanted to relive her glory days as a cheerleader. It was Buffy who figured it out. Buffy saved Amy and vanquished Amy's mother."
"I knew there was something off about Amy after she became a cheerleader," Willow uttered. "Ooh, why didn't I trust my feelings?"
"Well, anyway, Amy went on to be a witch herself," Xander continued. "It's still uncertain if Amy was swayed to the dark side. In any case, every time you… your counterpart, Buffy or I see Amy we flinch with the thought that she might be up to no good. Minutes before I ended up in this reality, your counterpart, Buffy and I was in New Sunnydale Memorial Hospital. Dawn, Buffy's sister, had gone into labor. While in the cafeteria with Dawn's parent-in-laws I saw Amy walking through the hall. I followed her to find out what she was up to. She walked into a room and began casting a spell. When I walked in on her an intense sensation came over me and the next thing I knew I was waking up in the medical tent inside a refugee camp."
"So Amy knew that you were following her?" Willow asked.
"I don't think so," Xander said. "I actually lost track of her a few times. I only knew what room she was in because when I asked a nurse about Amy the nurse knew in what direction to point me in."
"So you're here by accident," Willow guest.
"Yeah, I don't know what spell Amy was attempting to do, but like a lot of her spells, I'm thinking that it went horribly wrong," Xander said.
"And now you're here," Willow said.
"And now I'm here," Xander mocked.
"I'm glad to see you, Xander, but why exactly are you here?" Willow asked.
"In my reality, you study witchcraft and became a powerful witch," Xander said. "It was your magic that stopped Adam…"
"Whoa, I think I know where this is heading and I don't know magic… well not in this reality," Willow said.
"Will, in my reality, you went from a science nerd to a powerful Wicca in a very short time," Xander said. "You saw the scientific mechanics of it when everyone else just saw plain and simple magic. In fact, I think that was why Amy moved closer to the dark side when you became a witch. You surpassed her and got so far out of her reach in one year alone that Amy resorted to the darker magic while trying to keep up."
"Xander," Willow was only able to get out when an explosion nearby shook the apartment complex and busted out the windows. "What in hell was that?"
Giles, followed by the others, went to look out the window. They could see smoke and flames, but they couldn't tell what it was. Before anyone spoke, someone within the hall pounded on the door of the apartment while yelling, "Everyone out!"
The person who pounded on Willow's door had went to the next apartment and repeated. By the time Willow opened the door, the person was three doors down and everyone on floor was filling the hallway. When Willow turned towards the others another explosion shook the apartment complex.
"How come I get the feeling that Adam's demons made it to Pittsburgh?" Xander commented.
"Let's get out of here while we can," Giles said.
Everyone in the apartment complex calmly and quickly took the stairs to exit the building. Willow, Xander, Giles, Verna and several more residents got to a safe distance from the apartment complex when a twenty-passenger plane flew over their heads and into the apartment complex. Everyone outside threw themselves to the ground to escape the blast that shook the area. Large boulders that were on the plane were thrown in all directions from the explosion and crumbled when they hit the ground.
Willow, Xander, Giles and Verna looked up to see one of the boulders crumbling away and leaving a monster-cyborg behind.
"Bloody hell," Giles said as he, Willow, Xander, Verna and the several people around them were scrambling to get back on their feet. "We're being invaded by Adam's demons."
"Gee, you think?" Xander sarcastically uttered as people screamed and fled in every direction.
When Giles saw that Verna was preparing herself to charge, he uttered out, "Don't, Verna." Another plane flew into another building three blocks away that again shook the area. "In a very short time this city is going to be overwhelmed with demons. You won't be able to handle them so we have to get out while we can."
Willow pointed in a direction while saying, "This way."
"Where's the military," Xander asked as they took off in the direction that Willow had pointed to.
"The military is stretched so thin that they might not respond for hours," Willow said.
"And when they do, it will be to help evacuate the survivors," Giles added.
"This is the first I heard of Adam using planes to get demons passed the front-lines," Willow said. "So much for keeping them in Ohio. I knew I should have left Pittsburgh when Canton fell. I let that bastard I work for talk me out of leaving. 'A new weapon is being used to halt their advancement,' he said. Yeah; right."
As they rushed off in the direction, several monster-cyborgs came at them. On one-on-one, the demons were barely a challenge for a slayer, and Verna had very little difficulties clearing a path for their escape. Xander and Giles helped where they could. Seven men and five women saw the path that Verna was making and followed. The men helped out to fight off the demons where they could.
After running for ten minutes, they had gotten to an area of the city near a branch library that was now completely lifeless except for them and a few monster-cyborgs that were collecting the dead.
As they were trying to stay out of sight from the demons, Willow whispered to Xander, "So I was this powerful Wicca in your reality and it was me who cast the spell who destroyed Adam."
"That's right," Xander said.
"I don't know how fast I can learn magic, but I'll help wherever I can," Willow said. "So what's the plan?"
"The plan is to teach you the spell that defeated Adam in my reality and then, with that spell active, send Verna into Sunnydale to retrieve the scythe," Xander said.
"What's a scythe?" Willow asked.
Xander thought for a second before saying, "Excalibur is to King Arthur as scythe is to a Slayer. In fact, if it's in the same place in this reality as it was in mine, the scythe is trapped in stone and only a slayer can pull it out."
"You said it was in Sunnydale?" Willow said.
"Yeah, in my reality it was being kept in this old monastic building used as a vineyard," Xander said.
"Hey, I think I know where that was," Willow said before describing the building and the area.
"That's it; that's the one," Xander said.
"Guys, I doubt that that monastic building or any of those landmarks will even exist today," Verna said.
"If we had an old map of Sunnydale it could be possible to get the latitude and longitude of where the monastic building sat," Willow said. "Where can we get a map though?"
Giles saw where they were and said, "We might be able to get that information from a library."
"Where's there a library?" Xander asked.
"Xan," Willow said while pointing to the name of the facility.
"Oh," Xander said.
One of the people who had tagged along asked, "What are you guys going on about?"
Xander gestured towards Giles, Verna and himself while saying, "We three are professional demons hunters."
"I kind of seen that, but what is this about alternate realities?" the person asked.
While Xander was glancing from person to person who had tagged along he said, "We don't have time to explain. If all of you are going to tag along with us all of you will have to trust us that we might have a way to defeat Adam."
"That's good enough for me," one of the others said.
"Let's go," Giles said before walking towards the library.
The library was locked and to get in they broke out a large glass widow. They found two flashlights in a drawer inside the main desk, so as they moved around the library they kept the lights to a minimum.