"The Days of Youth, The Things of Dreams" By Shadow Master
(Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Multiple Cartoons of the 80's and 90s)
A Rough Cut Diamond Story
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the copyrighted materials contained herein. They are the rightful property of their respective creators and/or associated companies. I make no profit from this whatsoever and I have no intention of changing that in the future. I write because it's fun and because there are those who enjoy reading my stories. Therefore it'd be appreciated if no one sued me or took legal action against me. I can promise you that I don't have anywhere near enough money or valuable assets to make a trial worth it. You'd wind up spending more money paying your lawyers than you'd get from me.
Note: Got the motivation to do this when an author I respect, Sithicus, chose to take one of his old stories "Horde Prime" and reimagine it recently. I believe it to have a promising start and eagerly await a new chapter. I personally hope this'll be the beginning of the author reviving more of his paused works either redoing them from scratch or simply posting a new chapter to what is already there.
Note 2: If there are some cartoons that you do not recognize I recommend looking for videos on YouTube or googling the title with the term 'wiki' at the end. There should be enough there for you to gain a better understanding and thus enjoy the story more.
Note 3: Positive reviews will be received gratefully, constructive criticism will be considered but not necessarily acted upon and negative/bashing reviews will be ignored entirely.
The Days of Youth, The Things of Dreams
The Office of the Mayor of Sunnydale
Two Months Before the Day of Ascension
Richard Wilkins the First, Second and Third's POV
All would seem to be in readiness but that is usually when the careless get struck down. He thought as he contemplated what was to come, I might be invincible for the next two months but that doesn't mean that I can afford to take matters too lightly.
Indeed Slayer Summers and her friends had proven to be surprisingly resourceful in their past conflicts with his 'nighttime' citizens. More than once he'd thought that her next battle would be their last only for them to prove him wrong by not only surviving but slaying their foe of the week. Indeed the young man, Alexander Harris, had done what had previously been considered impossible by shattering a True Prophecy. Thus while history told him that there were none capable of standing against him once he became an Old One he had to consider the possibility that his foes might once more manage the impossible.
The question then became how to remove the threat to his Ascension without making it look as though he was considering the possibility of failure. It was not just the White Hats that would be watching his actions closely but also his rivals and enemies on the nightside of the world. If he acted the wrong way he could draw unwanted attention to his plans especially from Wolfram & Hart in Los Angeles. Much like him they had their own plans for the future and for the most likely apocalypses so they wouldn't appreciate his plan getting in the way of their plan. Add to that others whose work would be imperilled by the emergence of a newly ascended Old One and keeping his methods covert still served him best.
Should he simply have them killed?
No.
None of the local talent who'd be capable of such a thing were amicable to fulfilling his request. They might have reached an 'understanding' concerning their desire to reside in Sunnydale but make no mistake they were not his allies or his subordinates. As for outsourcing to the likes of the Order of Taraka or mercenaries elsewhere in the world that ran the risk of making people suspicious. After all up until now he'd almost exclusively handled things in house with only a few exceptions in instances where what he needed could not be found in Sunnydale. If he began to actively seek help from those outside of Sunnydale they would inevitably make inquiries as to why he'd done so. Such questions might very well lead to them learning of the preparations he'd undertaken over the past century and those with the academic knowledge would begin to perceive the truth.
THAT could not be permitted.
Not when he was so close to achieving a goal that warlocks the world over would've given anything to succeed at attaining.
However there were methods that would make them incapable of opposing him without killing them and thankfully due to the numerous demons, vampires and warlocks who'd challenged him in the past he always kept the needed ingredients in storage. Everything from curses to make them physically weak to enfeebling spells that would render them not much more intelligent than your average six year old.
Still he'd always taken a measure of pleasure in making his methods poetic or ironic when it came to dispatching those who threatened his primary goal. However what would prove to be a suitable fit for the Slayer and her friends?
Picking up the latest surveillance report filed just a few short hours ago he leafed through it in the hopes of getting some measure of inspiration. After almost finishing the report he was worried that he might have to look a bit further back into the records of the 'Scoobies' for what he sought but then he came to the last page and something caught his interest. Apparently in a few days the Scoobies along with Missus Summers and her youngest daughter would be visiting Hama, Halperin and Hanna's Cartoon Emporium. Mister Harris and the youngest Summers would be going since the former had successfully addicted the young lady to several cartoons that were popular in the eighties. Missus Summers would be going in order to pay for whatever her youngest wanted as well as to provide adult judgment and restraint. Slayer Summers would be going in order to slow the advance of her sister's desire to reenact Nabokov's most infamous work. Miss Rosenberg would be going along with her boyfriend Mister Osbourne to indulge in a little nostalgia and Mister Giles was going for his own reasons.
The owners of the Emporium often sold arcane and occult supplies under the table or in the back to supplement their income when old cartoons weren't enough to lure in customers.
Hmmm…this could be promising. He thought as his mind began to evaluate various possibilities before whittling them down to an actual plan.
It COULD work.
It was no small truth that when selling various arcane odds and ends exacting care needed to be taken when storing them from their containers all the way to where they were placed in the room. Some items reacted poorly to others especially if they were in close proximity to each other while others could have an enhancing effect on certain spells of a specific type. It wouldn't take too much to arrange an 'accident' for the group and if done right it'd be Hama, Halperin and Hanna's fault rather than his own.
However he would need to do some research in order to find a suitable spell that would react with the Emporium's inventory and achieve the results he desired. Fortunately all businesses doing work involving the occult were required to submit a full inventory of their stock on a bi-monthly basis so he'd have all the data he'd need on that end. It'd likely take every hour of time he'd have from now until the night before their trip to the Emporium but it would be worth it if it meant he could Ascend without opposition.
"Miss Sands? Something has come up and I'll need you to reschedule my appointments for the next few days. Extend the usual apologies and assure all of them that I will give them my full attention afterwards." He said after pressing the transmit button on the desk intercom, "Oh! And be sure to put make a fresh pot of coffee since I'll be working late."
"Of course Mister Mayor. I'll get right on it." Miss Sands said from the other end before hanging up.
Hard worker she is. He thought with a satisfied grin, The fact that I provided her with a more refined form of Lisle's eternal life and everlasting youth potion probably has something to do with it.
He'd encountered the apparently young woman during the seventies when she'd come to the Hellmouth seeking ingredients for her potion. The lady had made quite the nest egg for herself selling the potion to fading Hollywood stars and fashion models even with its primary drawback. The potion was not a one time deal but rather something that needed to be consumed every ten years lest the drinker's body begin degrading. Given that Lisle was the only one who knew how to make it and guarded the secret with everything she had it provided an indefinite flow of funds. Those that refused to abide by her rules were cast out and forced to seek other means to survive with most of the outcasts falling to pieces within two decades or so.
With his version though there would be no need for concern where degradation was concerned.
After all disintegration would be so much quicker than degradation and it eliminated whatever faint light of hope might exist that those he gave it to might find an alternate solution elsewhere. Unlike Lisle he had no intention of granting those he provided the potion to a long leash since secrets were best kept when the ones threatening to tell them were within arm's reach. His refined potion put the drinker's in their physical prime and best of all any physical damage could be undone simply by draining the life-force of a living being. Humans worked the best of course but lesser creatures could be used for quick touch up jobs or minor injuries.
Miss Sands believed that if she worked long and hard enough that he would eventually let her leave to pursue her own agenda.
A lie but even if his secretary suspected it to be so her hope would keep her from accepting it for a good few years yet.
So long as it lasted until after his Ascension the woman would go the way of the rest of Sunnydale as far as he was concerned.
Never make a deal that you don't already know how to get out of. He thought with a grin as he walked over to his bookshelf, First lesson every warlock is taught.
Two Blocks Away from Hama, Halperin and Hanna's Cartoon Emporium
Three Days Later
Xander's POV
"This better not take long." Buffy mildly griped as the group moved to the store in the distance, "The Prom's next week and it's gonna take all the time we've got to get ready."
"Chill Buff'! We're just going to look through Mister Hanna's videotapes and pick out a couple." He said trying to placate his friend, "It's not like we're gonna try to buy out the whole store."
"Not the whole store but if a few things look interesting we might get them." Dawn said before turning to her mother, "Right mom?"
"Only up to a hundred dollars Dawn and only if you do ALL your chores for the next week." Missus S replied firmly yet fairly, "Money doesn't grow on trees and the sooner you learn the value of hard work the better."
"Yes Mom!" Dawn groaned like only a kid could whenever their parents tried to pass on some wisdom.
He of course didn't need to be told that since he'd learned years ago that money wasn't easy to come by and that you needed to stretch every dollar you could to get by. Even if Tony and Jessica spent as much time employed as unemployed they still didn't manage their savings properly leading to him scraping and scrimping for every dollar he could get. While some might call his Twinkie fund an unnecessary expenditure the rest of his savings either went to the strict necessities or his graduation vacation road trip.
This trip to the Emporium? It was more for Dawn than for him no matter how much he still loved the cartoons he'd grown up watching. Attached to every episode was a memory he had of Jesse and Willow enjoying stories of heroes as well as fantastic places far, far away. For him and he suspected Willow it'd been a sort of escape from the less than stellar home lives they had but for Jesse it'd just been a good way to have fun with his friends. With his hand-me-down TV and VCR he'd done his best to tape every episode he couldn't watch in person so when Missus S first asked him to babysit Dawn while she went out he'd known exactly what to do.
It'd been a little rough getting started, convincing her to give the 'oldies' a try instead of going for something a little more current but once she got hooked the littlest Summers couldn't get enough. It was part of the reason that they were going to the Emporium since he was down to his last tape and needed fresh material if he was going to satisfy the bottomless pit that was Dawn's starving imagination. He'd known about the place for awhile and had even gone there a few times to grab some comics from their discount section so it'd seemed like the perfect place to go. However after he'd mentioned it to Dawn she'd insisted on going with him to check it out and thus Missus S joined them to form a trio.
From there it kinda snowballed until all the Scoobies plus the Summers family had the same destination in mind leaving only the right day to go to be decided.
A few minutes later they were in the store allowing him to take in all the merchandise ever put out by the various cartoon making companies the owners could afford to get in stock. From posters to toys to clothes and VHS tapes everything was arrayed about the store in a comfortable yet orderly manner. Almost immediately Dawn took off to explore the place with her mother not far behind her chuckling at her youngest daughter's enthusiasm. He on the other hand navigated his way to the videotape section to see what was new, what was old and most importantly what he could afford.
Let's see…G.I Joe…nah seen almost every episode… he thought going through the shelves one at a time, …Kidd Video…Dawn might get a kick out of it but knowing my luck she'll want to sing some of their songs and I can't carry a tune to save my life…
Honestly he was beginning to think that he'd already seen most of what the Emporium had to offer but eventually he found some new ones. Some of them he was clueless about while others he remembered seeing commercials for in the breaks while watching the latest episode of one cartoon or another. Checking out their prices he began to do some mental math to see how he could get the maximum number of tapes for what money he was willing to spend on this trip. He was just about done when Dawn finally arrived and began to grab almost everything she set her eyes on. Obviously the lesson about money not growing on trees and needing to work for it hadn't quite taken in the young lady yet.
Either that or Dawn just enjoyed messing with both him and her mother and was just pretending.
"Slow down little miss!" Missus S declared as she began taking some of the tapes out of her daughter's arms before they could fall out, "Take your time to read the summaries on the back. I'm not paying for tapes if you're only going to watch the first few minutes before deciding you don't like them."
"But those summaries barely tell you anything!" Dawn complained even as she reluctantly did as her mother asked, "It's much easier to just watch them."
"Well sometimes easier isn't always better." Missus S said glancing purposefully in his direction, "Sometimes it's the things you have to work at that make you the happiest in the end."
Something seemed to click in Dawn and the energy that she'd been putting into arguing in favour of a spending spree decreased noticeably. This struck him as odd since in all the times that he'd had to oppose her when she tried to argue something with him she hadn't given up until he'd literally used everything INCLUDING the kitchen sink.
Was he missing something?
"You've got a point. Want to help me pick some out?" She asked looking to her mother for help.
"Sure. Maybe we'll even get that one Buffy always watched." Missus S said with some amusement, "The one with that blonde woman who was like Supergirl."
"You mean the one that had her beg you to change her best sundress and dye her hair impossible blonde?" Dawn asked with an amused smile on her face, "She wouldn't leave her room for the whole weekend after getting home that Halloween night!"
"Why? What happened?" He asked even as he put together a few possibilities for what cartoon Buffy might've watched.
"It was called-" was as far as Dawn got before Buffy showed up in a blur of movement and placed a hand firmly over her little sister's mouth to silence her.
"Not another word. You signed a contract that you'd never tell ANYONE about that." Buffy said with a mix of firmness and anxiety, "Unless you want to give up mom's chocolate chip cookies FOREVER you'll keep quiet."
Seeing Dawn's eyes go wide at the possibility he could now say for certain that he wouldn't be finding out anything about the mystery Halloween night from her. Turning to Missus S, the only person who wouldn't be afraid to tell him, he found that with a slight shake of her head the woman made it clear that she had no intention of blabbing. It was a bit disappointing but with a shrug he resumed looking through the VHS tapes for possible purchases.
Once those were out of the way he moved on to the comics and posters figuring they might make good birthday presents for Dawn. If she asked he'd of course claim that they were form him but it'd be a lie since while he still loved to watch the cartoons of his youth he was a little too grown up to go much further than that. Dawn however was still on the edge of being a kid and taking her first steps into the life of a teenager so she could get away with having a He-Man poster on her wall or reading comics.
Looking at the door to the backroom he wondered how much longer Giles would be back there hashing things out with the owners. He'd been a little surprised to find out that the owners of the Emporium also did some mojo business on the side but only a little. Personally he thought that any lover of cartoons would have an easier time picking up on the fact that Sunnydale was not your ordinary sleepy town. HELL! Put the right way the entire background of the town sounded like a great backdrop for a cartoon lacking only a good cast of heroes as well as villains.
Made him wonder how hard it'd be to take the truth that he knew and spin it into a decent script.
Nah! Probably bring G-Man's old bosses and some demons down on my ass if I tried it. He thought as he looked away from the backroom door, Would make for a killer show though.
The Backroom of the Emporium
Rupert Giles' POV
"I trust the goods meet with satisfaction Mister Giles." Mister Hanna asked politely after a minute had passed.
"They do indeed Mister Hanna." He said finishing his appraisal of the items he'd requested, "I'm impressed you were able to acquire quality Nagon scales. My former employers have all but cornered the market on them given their usefulness."
Indeed it was something of a trend for Travers since the man had risen to become the leader of the Watchers Council to monopolize any resource useful 'to the cause'. Officially the argument was that only the Council could put the resources to optimum use and that it was only right to safeguard them against possible demonic attack. Unofficially he suspected that Travers just wanted to make things harder for the other demon hunting groups around the world to acquire what they needed. By doing this it would force governments seeking aid to come to him rather than someone else and at the same time it would allow him to blackmail the other groups into paying ridiculous sums of money for the resources they needed.
Pure arrogance and greed!
"There are many who are displeased with your former employers and a few sympathizers within the Council ranks." Mister Hanna explained somewhat vaguely, "While not enough to allow for a free flow of certain ingredients in their clutches a small amount can be smuggled out if one is careful enough."
He suspected as much.
While he could only hazard a guess as to who the sympathizers in the Council ranks might be he could understand the need for caution and restrained ambition. It was no secret that Travers didn't take it well when a member of the Council defied a decision he or one of his inner circle had made. If the person was lucky they were merely reassigned to some out of the way task where any chance at glory would be denied to them.
If they were unlucky it was arranged that they would cease to be a problem one way or another.
He suspected that the only reason Travers hadn't arranged for his demise upon being fired was because the bastard had been confident that the dangerous nature of Hellmouths would do the job for him. Cut off from the resources of the Council and those beholden to the organization the man no doubt believed that it would only be a matter of time before he and Buffy perished.
If the Mayor succeeded in his Ascension Travers might indeed get his wish to the detriment of the entire world.
There's still time old boy. He thought to reassure himself, Time enough to figure out how to do the thus far impossible.
It was a fact that a great many of the books with information about pure demons or Old Ones painted them as beings of incredible power with existences that didn't follow the same path as the mortal races. Their one breath of hope had been the fact that despite the best efforts of the Mayor they'd managed to locate proof that an ascended Old One could be killed. Granted it'd taken the dangerous forces of a volcano to do in the last one but it had still been more encouraging than anything they'd learned previously. He was hoping to use the ingredients he procured today to cast a divination spell just outside the Hellmouth's influence in order to gain some insight into the path they should take to foil Wilkins' scheme.
Given the quality of the ingredients it should go well so long as there are no interruptions. He thought even as his lessons informed him of what those consequences would be.
He would have to make sure that Buffy stood guard and perhaps place a ward around the area to obscure what he was doing from prying eyes.
"Regardless I'm grateful for your wares and hope we can continue to do business." He said before turning over the agreed upon payment.
"So long as you continue to pay and don't bring any…unpleasantness…our way I see no reason why not." Mister Hanna said with a polite smile, "There are so few people living here who know the truth and are safe to do business with. It is good for both our souls and our bank accounts to have you as a customer."
Packing his purchases into a bag he brought he nodded politely to the man before exiting into the main area of the Emporium open to the uninformed as well as those interested in cartoon merchandise. While he would not say he never enjoyed such things when he was a boy he believed that such things needed to be set aside once one became an adult. There were more important things to be concerned with and with the exception of a few recluses most adults did not want to befriend someone determined to restrict their entertainment to their childhood favourites.
Nevertheless he would not begrudge his charges a chance to act their ages and enjoy the time they spent together. Too often those who made the decision to fight against the demonic and the dark supernatural became totally absorbed in their quest to the point of ignoring all else. This led to their end coming sooner than it otherwise would have due to the lack of anything tangible to live for. It was all well and good to dedicate oneself to a cause but a human being needed REAL people to truly tie them to the world of the living. His charges had each other and through those bonds they would find the strength to survive even when the odds said they shouldn't.
He only wished that Faith had allowed herself to form a bond with the rest of the 'Scoobies' instead of keeping them all at arm's length. If she had then she wouldn't have defected to Wilkins' side and they would have one more able fighter on their side when the day of Ascension arrived. While a part of him wanted to blame Wesley for the defection a more honest side of him had to concede that they'd all played a part in her fall. Whether it was their disapproval of the girl's devil may care attitude and 'want, take, have' mindset or simply their repeated comparing of her to Buffy they'd contributed nonetheless.
Sadly with her officially being named a rogue Slayer by the Council it was likely that once her sole means of protection was killed she would be either captured and imprisoned or assassinated.
Travers would not hear of any talk of mercy or rehabilitation especially not from a recently fired Watcher or a failure of a replacement.
Especially when Faith's death would provide the Council with a newly Called Slayer.
It would take a miracle for her life to be spared.
A Minute Later
The Backroom of the Emporium
"About time they left." Faith muttered pushing the back door to the place open as quietly as she could, "It's gonna take long enough to get everything set up before B and the others leave."
She didn't know why the boss asked her to do the job instead of hiring a local and she didn't buy the bullshit about wanting to keep it all on the down low. The man owned this town and either he owned all the people in the know or scared those he didn't into staying out of his way. The fact that he'd managed to get this close to his big day without anyone being the wiser was proof enough that he had the chops to pull it off.
Still orders were orders and she had to admit that it made sense to get B and her posse out of the way before the big day. Seeing as how most Slayers didn't last a year after being Called B had already shown she could beat the odds and she wasn't about to see it done again when the cost would be her job as the boss' right hand getting dusted. If that happened she was sure that Wussley and the Council would go on the hunt for her either to drag her into their kangaroo court or just save themselves some time by putting a bullet in her brain.
She'd blow and screw every guy in Sunnydale before she'd let that happen!
Setting the bag of stuff she'd been given she did her best to remember everything the boss had told her to do. He'd had sense to send instructions with her since she knew next to nothing about working the mojo but it was still a pain to get it right. One by one she put the jars and boxes where the boss had told her they needed to go. Luckily for her the idiots who ran the place labelled their inventory in English so it wasn't hard to do. After that she took out a small jug of smelly ink the boss had prepared himself and started making like a little artist drawing shit on the walls and the floor. Nothing people'd pay money for but rather a drawing that'd get all the stuff she'd laid out to do what the boss wanted it to do when he wanted it done.
Don't know why the boss was so stressed. She thought as she used the brushes she'd been given to draw out the design she'd been shown, It's not like I'm doing a Picasso.
The Mayor had been wicked hardcore on her making sure everything was drawn the way it had in the book and she'd told him she'd do everything perfect. Even then though he'd told her that the consequences of messing up wouldn't be pleasant but to her she just took it as a sign that he didn't think she could do the job in her sleep. He might've been a step up from the Scoobies and the best shield she could have against those Council assholes but STILL she wasn't getting the props she deserved. She didn't grow up in a cozy home like B with friends. She'd grown up pretty much on her own until her Watcher had found her and learned to survive by any means necessary.
There was no such thing as fair.
Honour was something that held you back.
Friends didn't exist. Just people who wanted to use you and who you had a reason to use in return.
These were the things she'd learned growing up in Boston and STILL, for a little while, she'd actually entertained the idea that she might've found a real crew she could trust. She'd even reigned in some of the thing she figured they wouldn't like in order to fit in but it'd all been shit in the end. One screw up, one loser being where he shouldn't have been, and they'd thrown her to the wolves. She would've been carted off to England, put through a fucking kangaroo court and probably had her head chopped off the next day.
TO HELL WITH THAT!
She'd broken free and gone to the one person with the power to keep the Council from chaining her up and tossing her in a crate postmarked for the U.K. Since then he'd treated her better than anyone else and just asked for a few jobs to be done and she didn't mind that. She wasn't some freeloading bitch or a couch potato that couldn't do a day of hard work. Give and take. One way or another that's how things worked in the world.
Well she'd show the boss that jobs like this were as easy as breathing for her and that he was worried over nothing.
Little by little she drew out the diagram while at the same time she kept an eye on the lock on the wall to make sure she wasn't behind schedule. She needed to get this done before B and her crew left the shop or it'd all be for nothing. According to the Boss this mojo would drop kick the White Hats out of this entire reality while making it look like sloppy organizational skills on the part of the owners. With B and the others gone it'd be smooth sailing for the boss to ascend and become a badass pure demon that could steamroll over anyone that got in his way. From what he'd told her he'd be as big as King fuckin' Kong and have some wicked mojo under his belt once he'd scarfed down enough stupid sheep.
And she'd be his right hand Slayer.
You didn't get much higher up the food chain than that and as long as she didn't get sloppy the Council'd have bigger things to worry about than dragging her ass in for a trial.
She had to smile at that.
Too bad it didn't last.
She was almost done with the final part when she hit a snag: she'd run out of ink.
That wasn't good.
"Fuck!" She grumbled only barely remembering to keep it quiet.
She still had another three inches of line work to do and one more symbol that needed to be done for the whole thing to work. Getting more worked up with every second that went by she tried to figure out what she could do to salvage the mess. She couldn't run back to the boss for more ink 'cause by the time she got back B and the others'd definitely be gone making it pointless. If she just abandoned the whole thing she'd be admitting she was a screw up and she'd be damned to hell before she risked screwing up the new place she'd made for herself.
Okay…okay…chill! There's a way through this! She thought before looking about the room, This place has magic ingredients in it right? Then I'll just borrow some of their ink to finish things up. They gotta have some of the stuff bottled up here right?
With a way to save her ass and still come out smelling like roses she began to look on every shelf for something that looked like the bottle she'd seen the Boss' ink come from. When that came up dry she looked at the see through bottles under a nearby table for what she needed and a minute later she hit pay dirt. It looked a little darker than the stuff she'd used up until now but she figured that just meant it was older or the quality was a little shoddy.
Good enough. She thought picking the bottle off the table and taking it over to where she needed to finish drawing.
Popping the lid she dipped the brush in and resumed work her simmering anxiety prompting her to be extra precise with her work. When the last bit was finished she put away her stuff and put the bottle she'd borrowed back where she'd found it before heading for the door she'd used to get in. Before opening the door though she took one final item out of the bag the Boss had given her and threw it into the centre of the diagram she'd managed to finish.
Like the mini-bottle had been made of the most fragile of glass it shattered releasing its contents onto the central drawing sparking a chain reaction she was almost tempted to stick around to see through to the end.
Almost.
No way am I gettin' caught up in this shit. She thought reaching for the doorknob and getting a grip on it, See ya on the flip side B
In the blink of an eye everything changed.
She felt a wave wash over her and the second it reached the door she felt a force knock her hand off the doorknob like two magnets repelling each other. Worried she reached out again and using some Slayer strength to force it she tried to once more grip the doorknob so she could turn it, open the door and get the hell outta dodge. However whatever force had knocked her hand back the last time only responded by pushing back just as hard making it impossible for her hand to get closer than an inch to the doorknob.
"Fuck, fuck, FUCK!" She exclaimed not knowing what else to do besides keep trying to get to the door in order to get out of the shop.
There weren't any windows for her to try to smash through and running out through the store would just cause her to run into B and her friends. Boss wouldn't like that even if everything else went according to plan. He'd been crystal clear that this op couldn't have any of his fingerprints on it or have anyone connected to him spotted. He had a rep to maintain after all.
Screw his rep! I ain't getting blasted off to some hell dimension! She thought finally prioritizing her own safety over the job.
She'd make it up to him somehow.
Do some other job and get it done in a way that'd make him smile.
Turning around she sprinted for the door leading into the shop determined to blow right past B and the others before they could do anything. Knocking it down without breaking her stride she could see briefly everyone looking her way but she ignored everything aside from a shocked look on B's face. She was doing it! Just three more steps and she'd be at the front door!
Two more steps and she could yank it open and slip through into the open air!
She never made it.
The storm of blue and white light made sure of that.
Sunnydale Town Hall
The Office of the Mayor
Richard Wilkins' POV
"Um…sir…there's been a development…" one of his demon staff members said peeking their head into his office.
"Oh? And what might that be?" He asked hoping to get this out of the way before Faith returned.
The little go getter was always quick to report back to him so he could compliment her on a job well done. He'd been able to tell from the beginning that she'd received precious little praise growing up and even her Watcher in Boston had been sparing with it. However he knew better than to lay it on too thick. The girl had trust issues, issues that he'd used to tie her even further to his side, and praising her too much would only cause her to grow suspicious. It'd still be a bit before she trusted him enough that she wouldn't need such a light touch but until then he'd be careful with his compliments.
"Um…one of the guys you sent to monitor things at the Emporium…you know to keep an eye out in case the Slayer or one of her friends got out…" the demon replied looking like he was afraid that he might lose his head at any moment, "…well…it…it looks like Faith didn't get out before the place vanished. He saw her go in and saw the spell starting but she didn't come out the back door like she was supposed to. And…"
He was not pleased.
Not pleased at all.
However he knew better than to act before having all the facts. Too many reckless warlocks jumped the gun as it were and acted hastily only to be completely ruined because of their poor judgment.
"And?" He prompted hoping that the demon didn't force him to drag out every word.
"Well he's had a few warlock bosses in the past and saw what dimensional banishment magic is supposed to look like." The demon replied before taking a moment to gulp in fear, "He said the magic working on the Emporium looked…off. Like something wasn't workin' like it was supposed to."
Hmmm.
While not all magic could be identified and measured with ones eyes with enough experience a person could intuitively determine if something was 'off'. He would have to have one of the minor warlocks under his employ go to the site and examine it in order to determine the particulars but at present he had a disappointing idea of what'd happened.
Faith had made a mistake or had improvised something.
It'd been a bit of a gamble sending her to perform the deed instead of someone more familiar with the particulars of sorcery but it'd also ensured that the number of people who knew the truth numbered four alone. He'd done his best to stress to the young lady that the instructions for the banishment spell needed to be followed to the letter. He'd even tested her a few times to make sure that she'd been paying attention and while a little annoyed with his lack of trust in her Faith had indeed committed the details to memory.
However if she had followed his instructions to the letter she would've had a full three minutes to to escape the building and find a nice spot to view the light show. Therefore something had gone wrong and he was certain that it'd not happened on his side of things. He had been quite thorough with his research to find the perfect spell to dispose of the Slayer and the 'Scoobies' while keeping his involvement a secret. The only possibility hat made any sense was that the young lady had done something that deviated from his instructions. Either she'd done it of her own free will or had been forced to do so due to an unforeseen development but in the end the results were all that mattered.
He had succeeded in dispatching the primary obstacles to his ascension and it had only cost him some moderately expensive ingredients and one operative.
Faith.
With a single gesture he caused the head of the demon to explode and for several moments he didn't care about the mess he'd made or how unsanitary it was. He stood up from his chair and walked over to a cabinet that only he could open and should anyone else try they would find themselves consumed by entropy fire. Tracing a very specific pattern of runes on each door he watched as a glow extended out from the seams before retreating back inside. Then with a click the cabinet opened to reveal some of his most important possessions as well as the focal points for every demon, vampire or human who had a contract with him.
Hmmmm….this one and this one. Definitely. He thought plucking out two of the focal points before closing the cabinet and sealing it once more with magic.
While some might call him reckless for what he was about to do he did have a practical reason for his chosen course of action. Randomly executing minions often proved effective in keeping the rest on their toes and reminding them that he held the means of destroying them utterly at the drop of a hat. In truth though he was using this as a way to vent his anger at losing Faith who despite the lessons of the past he'd been unable to keep from developing a fondness for. With a few quick phrases the focal points began to fragment into pieces the size of grains of sand glowing briefly fiery orange before drifting off into the air to vanish never to be seen again.
Just like the ones they were connected to but with the process being decidedly more painful for a living organism than it was an inanimate object.
Feeling much better he walked back to his desk before sitting down and contemplating what he should do now. On the plus side Slayer Summers and her group were no longer in this dimension even if Faith had made a mistake with the spell. Even if it failed to drop them in the dimension he'd originally picked out for them the odds of them being able to navigate the multiverse and return were astonishingly small. Different realities after all worked on different rules whether they be rules of science or sorcery meaning that much of the knowledge the group might possess would be all but useless. Assuming that the inhabitants of the dimension didn't kill them outright Mister Giles and Miss Rosenberg would need to start over from scratch. It would be years if not decades from their perspective before they'd become competent enough to even attempt travel between realities.
Granted time passed differently from one dimension to another but he was still confident that he'd be ascended and fully empowered before they could return.
At that point there would be nothing left for them to do but collapse in defeat and wait to die at his pleasure.
Reality-091586
An Underground Facility
A Remote Area of the Nevada Desert
Dawn's POV
"Uhhh…anybody get the…name of that warship…ow…that ran us over?" She asked even as she acted to push herself off of the cold stone she'd awoken to find herself on.
As with some people she did her best to figure out what precisely had happened by recalling the last clear memories she had. She'd been with Xander and the others trying to decide what she'd get without going overboard but there'd been so many cartoons that she'd never seen or even heard about. Some of them looked silly, some looked like they might've been based on movies and others were definitely of the type Xander had said had been brought over from Japan. In all honesty though while watching cartoons was fun most of the enthusiasm she felt had more to do with who she'd been watching them with instead of the cartoons themselves.
Every time her mom asked Xander to keep her company (she REFUSED to call it babysitting) he did what he could to keep her entertained. Sometimes this came in the form of getting her food her mother would never let her have outside of special occasions but most often it was by dipping into his own library of video taped shows. Everything from TV shows to movies to cartoons was brought to bear and as amusing as they were what she enjoyed the most was watching how Xander reacted to them. Sometimes it was something small like a small grin when something interesting happened to explanations about parts of the show. If the tape he brought over was several episodes into the show he did what he could to explain to her what'd happened beforehand. Sometimes he'd even explain to her some tidbits of information about how the show came to be that he'd read in a magazine or learned of through an interview on TV.
She liked this because it made him happy and gave him a feeling of being an authority on something instead of being the guy that barely understood something.
She knew he didn't let it show often, not around the others, but she could tell how much being the 'normal one' hurt Xander. Buffy was the Slayer, Giles was the mentor Merlin of the group, Willow was the promising apprentice who could write her own college ticket and Oz was the quiet one with an IQ almost as big as Willow's. Xander on the other hand was physically only human and while he might be in a lot of Willow's advanced classes only the redhead thought he belonged there.
The rest never failed to let Xander know that if it wasn't for Willow he'd have been booted back to the standard issue classes with the rest of the mediocre people.
Especially that troll Snyder!
How a man like that ever got chosen to replace Flutie she'd never know.
Xander, bullheaded as he was, didn't let it get him down or make him believe any of the slander sent his way. Instead he used it as motivation to push even harder to prove them wrong and value those he called friend even more. Nevertheless he was only human and therefore it was impossible for him to completely keep the harmful effects of the insults at bay.
Someone tells you you're a worthless waste of space often enough and long enough it's no surprise if you gradually start to believe it.
So even if it was only in a small way she was determined to make him feel worthwhile however she could.
It'd been a minute after she'd made her last choice that they'd all felt something powerful wash over them and then a short while someone came stampeding out of the back room. She'd only caught a glimpse of who it was but that'd been enough for her as well as everyone else to identify the surprise guest.
Faith.
The bitch that'd dared pop Xander's cherry before she got the chance to!
All of them had been ready to act, either to enter the room the traitor had come from or chase her down, but before she could choose one or the other something happened.
What that was she didn't know but it succeeded in throwing her for a loop so bad that she got knocked out.
"No but if you find out who was piloting it make sure to let me know." Buffy said from a place off to her right, "I've got a thermal detonator I'd LOVE to shove up their asses!"
"You got a what?" Xander asked sounding as confused as the rest of them.
Opening her eyes more fully she found herself nowhere she could remember visiting before and she got the impression that the former owners hadn't been around in a long time. Dust, rust and lightbulbs that looked like they'd give out inside of a week made her wonder what the point of getting dropped here might be.
"What're you talking about Buffy?" Willow asked getting the attention of the group.
"I…I don't know…" Buffy said sounding like she was joining the confusion camp, "…it just came out. It felt…natural."
How the hell could THAT feel natural? She thought turning to her sister to find out more.
What her eyes found upon locating her sister was not the Buffy she remembered clad in fashionable yet affordable California style clothes. In place of those clothes was pitch black military fatigues covered in strategic places with black and red armour that looked suspiciously familiar as well as something on her back with antenna sticking out of it. When you added to that Buffy's natural brunette hair colour was done up in a tactical bun that left few handholds it was almost the complete opposite of how she usually looked.
And unless she missed her guess her sister was noticeably older than she'd been beforehand.
Looking about the room she could see that Buffy wasn't the only one to receive a new look both in terms of clothes as well as physical appearance.
Giles' hair was making a comeback while also looking to be less a man that'd rarely left the library and more a seasoned soldier whose age was only just beginning to catch up with him. Clad in an American military battle dress uniform, tactical vest and aviator sunglasses he looked every bit the part of an experienced soldier.
Xander's hair had gone from its usual unkempt length to Navy regulation appearance and his Hawaiian print shirt had swapped places with a charcoal black bodysuit. With an assault vest, knee pads, hard knuckle gloves and some sort of three lensed set of goggles resting on his forehead she'd put him as some sort of special forces operative.
One that specialized in operations that didn't happen.
"I wasn't crazy about getting vaporized or whatever but I'd like a little more info before deciding if we're better off or worse." Xander said with a gruff tone before getting to his feet.
"The fact that we're alive and only a little confused is definitely pro." She said rising to stand herself only to notice several things amiss about herself.
Chief among them the fact that she was quite a bit taller than the rest of the group by least twelve inches by her estimate. Another difference was the fact that she was clad in armour she'd never seen before coloured blue, white and black. While she couldn't get a complete look at it without a mirror she imagined that she looked like a humanoid tank in terms of the level of solid metal protection her body now had. Part of her was sure that such heavy duty armour should've left her immobilized on the floor but it was no harder to move than wearing heavy winter clothes.
Another part of her though looked at her right arm with a feeling of disbelief that she couldn't even begin to understand or explain.
The best she could put it was as if something that yesterday she'd been certain was lost never to be reclaimed again suddenly showed up again good as new.
"Maybe we'd better ask the one that's behind all this." Willow said with an edge that should've been just beyond her reach, "What the hell were you planning…Faith? Where is she? She was just here!"
Looking about she couldn't see any sign of the treacherous Slayer but she was at a loss to explain how someone could've escaped the room in just the handful of seconds their eyes had likely been off Faith.
"I'll find her." Buffy growled lifting a helmet that'd been hidden by the position of her body and putting it on her head.
"Let her go." Giles said getting off the ground himself, "We don't know where we are or what's outside this building and I suspect Faith knows this too. She won't go far until she has a better idea of what her options are."
Much as she might not like the skank she had to admit it made sense.
It didn't take a genius to figure out that when you were in a dimension where you didn't know the rules or the geography it was suicide to stray too far from the people and the things you did know. Faith knew them. She knew how they thought and what they could do plus the odds were good that whoever or whatever lived in this reality didn't know they were there yet. Add it all up and it was safer for Faith to stick close to them for the time being but when the Boston girl had enough info to strike out on her own it'd be splits-ville.
"So…theories?" Oz asked deciding to get things rolling in his usual way.
"I could probably shake one of those toy eight balls and get a better answer." Giles replied his a mix of snark and dry wit, "Obviously we're not in our native dimension and we're not how we used to be. Faith's presence points the finger at Wilkins being involved especially since she's not much of a Wicked Witch herself but we'd need to ask her for any details."
A little unnerved by how much Giles' usual Brit stiffness had been absent she'd almost asked if he was feeling well but was interrupted by a large screen mounted on a nearby wall flickering on.
"Welcome dear Scoobies to the greatest adventure of your lives!" Declared an ethereal face on the screen that somehow combined the qualities of a man's face with a woman's, "Before we get too far ahead of ourselves this is just a recording so don't bother asking questions because you won't get answers. I arranged this recording in advance to be triggered when at least two of you spoke and said specific things. Now as far as introductions are concerned: I am Janus."
This caught everyone's attention since it not only explained the changes each of them had undergone but it also reminded them of the infamous Halloween a little over a year ago. That night one of Giles' old friends had come to Sunnydale with the idea of casting a spell where everyone who dressed up in his costumes became whoever they pretended to be. It'd been a little freaky and a little disappointing since she'd missed out on it all by getting her costume at the local drug store instead of Ethan's. If she'd known what was going to happen she would've dressed as Batgirl or maybe Catwoman especially if Xander had chosen to go as Batman.
Looking down at the changes made to her body she couldn't say what she thought of being included the second time around.
"As you've no doubt figured out you're not in your native dimension right now. Richard Wilkins sent Faith to get you out of the way of his ascension and thought up the oh so brilliant idea of casting you into multiverse. Honestly I can't decide if it makes him more evil or less evil that he didn't really have a set destination in mind when he handed Faith the plans." Janus said with a bit of consternation, "In any case you should be grateful that the chaos Alexander tends to cause has been enough that I check up on him from time to time. It was because I looked in on him a few minutes before the spell activated that I was able to introduce some 'variables' that would favour all of you.
"For one thing I managed to use the contents of the Emporiunm to make your destination quite a bit more favourable than it might have otherwise have been. After all casting a spell like that on a Hellmouth with no set destination is practically begging for the people caught up in it to get sent to one hell dimension or another." Janus said unveiling his actions, "Another thing I did was make it so that you'd be properly prepared when you arrived. Both for survival and for getting what you need for your trip home."
"Bugger!" Giles bit out sounding like he had a good idea of how bad an idea they'd just survived.
"Bad?" Oz asked in an effort to prod loose an explanation.
"As you all know a Hellmouth is a tear in the dimensional fabric leading to a hell dimension. The only reason the demons on the other side don't cross over into our world is because the 'fabric' of the veil between worlds isn't thin enough for them to break through unaided." Giles replied before taking his glasses off to clean them only to pause with mild confusion, "Performing spells involving opening doorways to other realities or dimensions in close proximity to the Hellmouth carries significant risk. Any sensible spell caster would take precautions to ensure that what they were doing wouldn't risk opening the Hellmouth or worse."
"Worse as in…what?" Xander asked sounding like almost didn't want to know.
"Suffice it to say that in the worst case scenario people would have a very good reason to remove quite a few stars from the American flag." Giles replied with grim seriousness, "For accuracy's sake of course."
Damn.
VERY damn!
"Either because he feared you that much or because he's that cocky he risked dimensionally displacing an entire building along with everyone inside on top a Hellmouth." Janus said shaking his head in disbelief, "Idiot! As for where you are now a big clue is in the top left drawer in the desk five steps to Alexander's right. Pull it open and take a look 'defender of man'."
With wariness Xander walked over and opened the drawer and what he saw inside put a look of shock on his face as strong as she'd ever seen it.
"What the fuck is this?!" Xander exclaimed momentarily forgetting that he was dealing with a recording not a real being.
"What is it Xander? What's wrong?" She asked wanting to know just how screwed they really were.
In answer to her inquiry he took a folder out of the drawer and tossed it onto the floor causing the contents to spread out before the dimensionally displaced group. For most of them it did little to illuminate things but when she spotted a bit of red on the top sheet of paper that was poking out from beneath the folder a spike of familiarity hit her. Walking up to it she knelt down, ignoring what this revealed about her new body, and pulled the sheet of paper all the way out to get a good look.
What she saw was a symbol.
A symbol of the head of a cobra with its hood fully extended done in a stencilled in blood red ink.
While not to the same degree as Xander she too felt shock as she thought about what this implied.
"We're someplace where Cobra's real!?" She asked Xander wondering if she was just jumping to conclusions.
"Unless Janus is pulling a prank on us that's exactly where we are." Xander replied not sounding happy at all.
"And Cobra is what exactly? Besides a creepy looking snake." Buffy asked sounding a little impatient.
"In the cartoon G.I Joe Cobra was the name of a terrorist group bent on world conquest. This was the symbol they used." Xander explained pointing at the top sheet of paper, "If this's here then I'd bet a box of Twinkies they're here."
"I just know you'll know what the symbol means Alexander." Janus said as though he'd been listening in, "In order to give you a destination other than a hell dimension I had to introduce criteria, headings if you will, and the only thing available was the various forms of merchandise in the Emporium. However do not think that you're in a perfect copy of the cartoon you watched as a child. Much like many fairy tales told to children in modern times the cartoon was carefully edited and modified so as to be suitable for young minds. Just as the original fairy tales were decidedly darker, quite frightening and more bloody the same is true for the reality you are now in."
This made Xander's reaction all the more understandable.
In the episodes that she'd seen of G.I Joe bullets were replaced with red and green lasers, the good guys acted more like the Scoobies, the bad guys only comically evil rather than genuinely dangerous. Oh sure the people behind the cartoon depicted them as having SOME skill and power since a group of heroes needed suitable counterparts to fight against but they still made her laugh to watch them.
If Janus was telling them the truth though then the members of Cobra in this reality could very well be genuinely dangerous and that was a troubling thought.
"Indeed in this world Cobra Commander is not even close to being the arrogant fool who is the first to order the retreat when a battle takes a turn for the worse." Janus said continuing with his explanation, "In this world he is ruthless, cunning and willing to do whatever is necessary in order to see his plans for world conquest through. Fortunately by that same token G.I Joe is every bit the elite fighting force they were made out to be in the cartoon and have done a good job at foiling Cobra's plans thus far. In a way though getting involved in their struggles would benefit you all greatly."
"Get involved in a war between elite agents dead set on killing or capturing each other?" She asked with a bit of incredulity, "Getting killed isn't my idea of 'beneficial'."
"To best exemplify this hold out your right hands and say 'trudunt fecundat harena'." Janus said before going silent.
Looking at the others she could tell that they were hesitant about doing as asked but at the moment Janus was their only source of aid and he had saved them from death by hell dimension. In her mind this made her more inclined to follow his instructions for the time being until she was given a reason not to. Bringing her right hand up before her she took a breath to calm herself before speaking the latin words Janus had provided.
The results were flashy if nothing else.
In the blink of an eye the image of an hourglass appeared covering above her hand looking as though it was made of grains of sparkling gold.
"I knew from the moment I understood what Wilkins was trying to have Faith do to you that you'd need a way home and so I provided a simple spell to aid you. The hourglasses you see are meant to show you how much you have changed the future of the world around you." Janus said with a pleased look on his face, "In the seconds I had to intervene on your behalves I instilled in each of you a basic version of my own ability to draw power from actions in keeping with ones domain. Mine is mistakingly thought of as chaos when it is in fact change. By taking action to change how events transpire in this world you will harness energy the amount of which will be displayed in your respective hourglasses. Once all of them are full you will be able to use the energy to leave this dimensions behind."
Well that was good news.
If change was the order of the day then they could rack up enough energy to head home just by interacting with this world and maybe convincing enough people to turn right instead of turning left.
In no time at all they'd be home.
"Oh and before you start planning on how to gas up on the little things know that taking that approach'll take you about…oh…twenty years between the lot of you." Janus said making her wonder if she was imagining things or if Janus was lying about being a recorded message, "I'm afraid there's only one option for gathering the maximum needed power from moments of change."
"Why do I get the feeling that we're being used?" Buffy asked sounding like she'd already come to a rather hateful conclusion on her own.
"'Cause a god decided to take advantage of us to deliver him a buffet?" She asked rhetorically even as she made it clear she wasn't happy either.
"Now I don't have a lot of time left before certain movers and shakers bust me up for meddling so I have one more gift for you." Janus said with a smile that implied that the deity thought that they were 'friends', "Enjoy! I know you'll do me proud."
With that the message ended and something else began.
With speed and fanfare a wave of energy sprung forth from the large screen washing over them as well as everything else within view. The truth behind it all became clear soon enough as the room that had started out as being worn and ill maintained was swiftly brought up to code with a few additions being transmuted into existence using available materials. From existing items being restored to pristine working order to components being disassembled then reassembled in configurations that seemed to produce echoes of familiarity in everyone.
Even her.
I feel like I KNOW what that is but I've never seen it before in my life. She thought finding it impossible to deny the sensation of familiarity in her mind.
Something told her that things were only going to get stranger from here on in.