Chapter 2
Tara sat bolt upright in bed, heart pounding. Light flooded her eyes as she became instantly alert, scanning her surroundings. What had happened? Where was she? Captured? Injured and in a safe house?
The bizarre events of the previous night came back to her, and her breathing and heart rate gradually slowed to normal. A glance around the cheerful bedroom she was in confirmed that it had been no dream. She stood and opened the door.
There was a shower running and noise from downstairs. Tara made her way down to find young Dawn clattering around the kitchen, apparently making breakfast. The teenager smiled brightly when she saw Tara.
"Hey, Tara. Pancakes. Round ones, or funny shapes?"
Tara blinked. "That's what my mother always used to ask me. How did you know?"
"Tara—our Tara—always used to say that whenever she made pancakes. I always went for round ones. How about you?"
"I always asked for funny shapes."
Dawn slid one off the griddle onto a plate. "This one kinda mutated. Is it funny-shaped enough?"
"Just barely," Tara said, winking, "but it'll do."
Dawn kept up near-constant chatter as she and Tara ate breakfast. Tara half-listened, watching the teen's every move. So pretty, and so alive, but so full of longing. The sadness and loss in Dawn's eyes was so naked, even in this relatively peaceful incarnation of Sunnydale, that Tara wondered just what the teen had been through.
Finally, Tara got up, putting her dishes in the sink. As she did so, one of the pictures on the fridge caught her eye. In it, Tara's counterpart was giving a younger Dawn a piggyback ride.
"That's one of my favorite pictures," Dawn said. "I was fourteen, and Tara and Willow took me to the fair. Willow took that of me and Tara."
So sweet. So peaceful. Tara imagined herself in this life, with nothing better to do on a bright, sunny day than to go to a fair with her girlfriend and her friend's little sister.
"She must have loved you very much," Tara murmured.
"Tara loved everybody," said Dawn softly. "That was just how she was."
Tara thought of her own world, where you could love someone one day and stake a creature with their face the next. Young, vulnerable ones like Dawn seemed barely worth getting to know, let alone love, at times. Tara's eyes sought out those of her counterpart in the picture. To love so freely . . .
Her brood was interrupted as Buffy came down the stairs, freshly-scrubbed and dressed. "Xander oughta be here any second now," she said. "You ready to go, Dawnie?"
"I've got my backpack, and Tara and I already ate breakfast," said Dawn. "Don't worry, we left some for you."
"Good. Slayer hungry. Must eat." Buffy made a beeline for the pancakes.
The door opened, admitting Xander. "Ready to go, Dawn?" he called. "Hey, Tara." He did a double-take. "Oh, yeah."
Tara watched his eyes, watched shock fade to sadness, and it suddenly occurred to her that she could very easily like this young man. It was an odd thought.
"Hi, Xander," she said.
Dawn breezed past her, backpack slung over her shoulder. "See you later, Buffy." She turned intently to Tara. "Don't . . . go anywhere without saying goodbye, okay?"
"Okay." Tara hugged the girl, and then Dawn and Xander were gone. "She's a sweet kid," Tara told Buffy.
"She really is." Buffy took a sip of milk. "I don't know what I'd do without her. Dawn's my reason, you know? Knowing I'm making the world a better place for her when I go out to patrol each night—it makes what I do feel more real."
"I can imagine." Tara looked away from Buffy, hoping the other girl wouldn't see the pain in her eyes. It had been so long since she'd felt like she was doing any good. So very long.
Tara washed up while Buffy ate, then picked out some blue jeans and a relatively subdued blue shirt from the box. She wasn't comfortable with the other Tara's less-than-practical fashion choices. The jeans were just a little big, but the shirt looked good. By the time she came back downstairs, Buffy was ready to go. Just then, the phone rang. Buffy hesitated.
"Probably just a telemarketer," said the Slayer. "I'll let the machine get it."
The machine clicked on just as they were headed out the door. "Buffy?" said a male voice. "It's Angel. There's something I think you should know about."
That was as far as the voice got before Buffy practically leaped over the counter in her haste to grab the phone. "Angel? I'm here. What's happening?" Buffy paused, chewing her lip. Tara wondered idly just who this Angel person was. "Wow. You all right? Good . . . As a matter of fact, something really weird just happened here, too. You know how Tara was killed last spring? Well, she's back in town. Alternate-universe counterpart thing. In her world, I never stopped the Master from rising . . . Yeah, that's what she said, too, the Children of Aurelius. Sounds seriously not-fun." Buffy snorted a laugh at something Angel said. "No kidding. Bore us all to death. Anya said it looks like someone's created a portal to that universe she made. You know, the one that brought us VampWillow. Uh-huh. So you can tell Cordy this is all her fault." Buffy laughed again. "Okay, I'll tell Xander it's all his fault. Look, be careful, okay? I'll take care of things on my end. Just try not to get dead." Buffy smiled warmly. "Me, too. Thanks for calling. 'Bye."
"What was that?" Tara asked.
"Long story," Buffy said. "Think I'll save it for when we're all together. Looks like we've got a vampire conspiracy going on, and that can't be good."
***
They met Giles and Anya at the Magic Box, and Xander and Willow soon joined them. Tara still wasn't looking directly at Willow, but she gave Xander a tiny smile when he greeted her. The whole group sat around a table.
"I just got a call from Angel," Buffy announced. "Someone tried to kill him last night."
"Okay, Buff, not to make light of the situation, but isn't someone always trying to kill Angel?" Xander asked.
"Well, yeah," Buffy admitted, "but they don't normally announce that they're from the Order of Aurelius."
Tara felt the attention level in the room go up. Hesitantly, she turned to Buffy. "Um, who is Angel?"
Buffy blinked. "So you've never met him in your world?" Tara shook her head. "Okay. Angel's a vampire who used to be in the Order of Aurelius."
"A vampire? Why would you be friends with a vampire?" Tara asked.
"Long story. The short of it is, Angel's got a human soul. He's good."
Tara was surprised. "A human soul? How'd that happen?"
"Gypsies. Like I said, long story," answered Buffy.
"Oh." Tara blinked. "This world's really different."
"Anyway," Buffy went on, "Angel was attacked by some vampires last night who called themselves 'the Remnant.' They said they were the last of the Order of Aurelius, and they were going to kill Angel because he'd betrayed the Master. Oh, and one of them said something about the Order 'rising from the dust.' Angel didn't like the sound of that."
"Angel is attacked by members of the Order of Aurelius," Giles mused. "Meantime, Tara is brought through a portal from a world in which the Master rose to power."
"Can't say I like the coincidence," said Buffy.
"Are-are you guys thinking that maybe someone's trying to bring the Master back here so he can, like, give our world a makeover like Tara's?" Willow asked. She looked not at all happy.
"I'm coming out firmly against that plan," said Xander.
Giles removed his glasses. "It is, unfortunately, as good a working theory as we're likely to get."
"Sincerely not enthused," stated Buffy. "So, all we have to do is seal the portal, right?"
"Absolutely." Giles put his glasses back on. "Just as soon as we ascertain what sort of portal it is, how it was created, how to safely close it, and what might have come and gone through it in the meantime."
"Just the little things," muttered Xander.
"It's very disturbing," said Anya. "Who knows what kinds of weird, creepy, fluffy things could be hip-hopping all over Sunnydale by now?"
***
A tall man and a teenaged girl stood on a hill overlooking Sunnydale.
"This is weird," said the girl, brushing pale red ringlets back from her face. "It's like Sunnydale, but it's not."
"I don't understand either, Amanda," said the man. "My best guess is that the dimensional portal must have taken us to an alternate Earth. Do you feel like doing some reconnaissance?"
"Sounds like a plan to me, Giles."
***
Underneath Sunnydale, in a specially-built chamber rife with symbols of the occult, a phalanx of vampires waited. All were dressed in black, and all were in game face. They stood in front of a dais with a throne on it.
At once, the doors to the chamber were opened. All the vampires inside drew into two sections, leaving an aisle between them, and went down on one knee, bowing.
Five more vampires entered. Four formed an honor guard around the fifth, escorting him to the dais, where they, too, bowed down.
The Master ascended his throne. One vampire, a male who was taller and stronger than the others, stood and approached the throne with grave respect.
"Master," he said. "We have failed you in this world. Had the Order not been weak, the Slayer would have been dead long before she could face you. Yet we, the Remnant, have remained true against the prophesied day when you would return to us, our Master, and the Order would rise anew from its dust. I ask that you accept my sacrifice to slake your righteous anger at our weakness."
"Your sacrifice is . . . accepted," intoned the Master. Another vampire, an extraordinarily beautiful female dressed in a white silk evening gown, rose behind her fellow and staked him. The Master watched impassively as the tall vampire's dust settled on the floor. Then he rose, addressing the Remnant.
"Sad indeed was the day that the Order of Aurelius fell in this world. Yet great shall be the day that it rises again, stronger than before, to cleanse the world of its infestation of the living. On that day, humans shall be as they are in my world: cattle to feed the Old Ones. We are reborn this day, my children, to spread and multiply and feed on the sun-dwellers. I shall lead you forth, and the first blood I drink in this world will be that of the Slayer!"
The gathered vampires leaped to their feet, roaring with joy.