Chapter Two
2001
The burned out school was a dark place where people could easily get lost if they did not know where they were going. It looked nothing like the place of higher education that it once had been, but, when a bomb goes off in the middle of it, that could be understood. All that was left now was the shell of a building, and a large hole that had once been the school library.
A warm breeze from the late spring night blew through the crater, pushing along a burnt piece of paper that had been resting on the ground. It danced along in the wind, swirling and twirling in large circles with pieces of dirt and soot that had been collected along with it in a strange ballet that only nature could fully appreciate. But the show was disturbed when small lightening bolts began to rise and build in the middle of the room and a bright flash of light followed.
Summers grunted as she fell from within the light to the ground with a loud thud. She hit her shoulder hard, and had been momentarily blinded. A second after she had exited, the light drew in on itself and left her alone in the dark.
The brunette groaned as she lay there, unable to move. Her whole body hurt from the trip and was screaming at her to rest for just a moment on the cool ground, but she knew she couldn't. She wasn't exactly sure how much time she had to stop all this. A few minutes? Days maybe? All she did know was that she had to find the others.
Slowly, and with some difficulty, she pushed herself up onto her knees and felt her heart stop when she realized exactly where she was. Her old alma mater, the one she had blown up on graduation day to save her town: Sunnydale High.
Somewhere in the back of her mind she recalled Giles telling her that performing the spell over the Hellmouth would take her to the old active one, but she never really believed him. Part of her had been sure she would wake up and find herself back at the college in Cleveland with some professor screaming his head off about this mysterious girl that had suddenly appeared in his office. Instead, she found herself in the one place she thought she would never see again, and really hoped she wouldn't.
Summers glanced around the room until her eyes came to rest on the place she knew well. She could feel it; that was where the seal was buried. That would be the place she would lead those girls and Spike. Down to the very belly of hell itself to take on the First and its army. That was where lots of them would die… where he would die.
She drew in a sharp breath, not wanting to think about it any more. Still, she had to wonder, were they already down there? Were they already waiting? No, forget about that, Summers. That's not what you're here for.
Swallowing hard, she turned away from the still buried seal and began to climb out of the crater. She needed to find the others. The very thought of seeing them again made her heart soar and sink at the same time, but she knew she didn't have a choice. If she had any chance of stopping the hell of a future she helped create, she needed the Scoobies… and her old self.
**********
Summers stood in front of the Magic Box, staring at the sign and front entrance that read closed. The lights were burning brightly from inside, and she could see they had gathered already. Each bore a different expression of worry and dread, like they had just been given the worse news of their lives.
Just wait a few years, she thought with a humorless snort.
Then she saw herself march across the room, all high and mighty, like the Magic Box was her kingdom and the Scoobies were her troops. Well, they are…were, she supposed.
The brunette took a step closer, straining to hear what was being said. Maybe, if she could recognize what they were talking about, she'd know exactly how much time she had left.
"Dawn's blood," she heard herself say.
"Yes," her old mentor answered. "Once the blood is shed at a certain time and place… the fabric which separates all realities will… be ripped apart. Dimensions will… pour into one another, uh, with no barriers to stop them. Reality as we know it will be destroyed, and… chaos will reign on earth."
"So, how do we stop it?" her younger self asked, not letting the news she had been given get to her.
"The portal will only close once the blood is stopped… and the only way for that to happen is, um…" There was a long pause as the room held a tense silence, waiting for the watcher to deliver the answer. "Buffy, the only way is to kill Dawn."
Summers leaned back away from the door and frowned.
She remembered this night well, when Giles had told her she was going to have to kill her sister. That didn't give her much time, but she supposed it was better than being dropped off in the middle of the battle field. Two Buffys were confusing enough, let alone adding a sudden, unexplainable third. Well, she might as well go in and introduce her-
A scream for help caught her off guard. She turned just in time to see a young man being chased by a vamp run down the neighboring alley.
Damn it, I don't have time for this, she thought with a frown, but took off after the pair.
She ran down the alley and found that the vamp had the young man cornered. The boy looked terrified, and was continuing to scream for help, never noticing the young woman that had come to his aid.
She glanced around the alley for anything she could use, since she had long ago given up carrying stakes and Holy Water. Wasn't much point to it after the I.O.H. had rounded up nearly every single vamp and either had them chipped or exterminated, leaning heavily toward the latter. In fact, she hadn't dusted a vamp for almost two and half years, so this should be a fun. Well, it could have been, if she didn't have more important things to do.
Summers spotted an old wooden crate resting near a wall. She grabbed a hold of one of the boards, then kicked it in the middle to form a crude stake that was too large and bulky for her to hold correctly. Still, it would do the job alright.
The vamp, who was in full game face, swirled around at the noise and growled at the young woman.
"Slayer," he hissed.
Summers just stood there, her eyes narrow as she waited for him. He lunged, his arm raised to throw a punch at her. Ducking as he swung over her head, the brunette then jammed the piece of plywood upward into his heart. When she stood up straight, he was starting to dust and looked at her with wide, surprised eyes. She grinned then watched him explode and disappear into the wind.
The young man stood there, staring at the place the vampire had just been, before slowly lifting his eyes to woman who had saved him.
"But…you're just a girl."
"No, I'm not," she told him sadly. "But thanks for saying so. Now get out of here."
He stood in place, as if trying to process what she had said to him, before hobbling slightly towards the opposite wall of the alley. He moved like he was afraid that she might attack him at any moment. Of course, that might have something to do with the even, almost angry, look on her face as she watched him inch by. When he felt he was far enough away from her, he took off into the warm, spring night.
She sighed silently to herself. Seven years into the past, with no I.O.H., and people were still afraid of her. She guessed some things really never do change.
"Faith?"
Summers froze at the voice that came from behind her at the alley entrance of the Magic Box. Damn, she had forgotten her younger self had come to investigate all the noise.
"What are you doing here?" she heard Buffy ask in an annoyed tone like she had just caught Spike going through her underwear drawer.
A smile crept onto Summers' face.
In her mind's eye, she could see the blonde standing there, her hands on her hips and a frown on her face. She would tilt her head slightly, a move that she did unconsciously and mimicked her former enemy with bleached hair a little too much for comfort.
"Faith?" Summers called back, a certain amount of amusement to the tone as she dropped the plywood to the ground. The board echoed loudly in the alleyway, the sound bouncing off the walls. The brunette slowly turned around and came face to face with the girl she had once been. "I think it's safe to say, I'm not her."
***********
The group sat around the Magic Box, their faces mirroring each others in a mixture of worry and dread from what they had just been told about their youngest member.
Giles seemed to be the most troubled by this, understanding exactly what it meant if the ritual did start. Dawn would have to die if the portal was open, there was no other way. He wished Buffy understood that he himself did not want to hurt Dawn, but, sometimes, we have to do things that we don't want to for the greater good.
Buffy was still young and didn't understand that sacrifices had to be made at times. She didn't understand about causalities of war, despite the fact that she had been fighting in the middle of one for the better part of six years. Only age and wisdom would teach her that, and unfortunately for Giles, even with a hundred-something-year-old vampire and a thousand-year-old ex-demon, he was the aged, wise one.
The beads hanging in the small hallway that connected the back and front of the store swished together, telling the group that the slayer had returned. They all seemed to look up at the same time towards her, grateful for the momentary distraction from the reality they were not yet ready to face.
Yet they found themselves worrying about something new by the look the young woman's face carried. Her brow was knit together in confusion, and she seemed deeply lost in her own thoughts as she came into the show area. Whatever she had seen, or had realized, had troubled her.
The Scoobies that took noticed stiffened slightly at the sight. General rule of thumb, when the slayer is freaked, everyone is going to be freaked.
"Something going on out back?" Xander asked nervously. God, he hoped those Knights of Backtine or whatever hadn't re-gathered or regrouped or whatever knights did before attacking again.
"Hum? What?"
Buffy looked up from the question, coming back to reality for a moment before slipping away into her own little world with a shake of her head.
"Um, no, just a vampire." She had made it out into the middle of the room before she turned back to the table where most of the Scoobies sat and asked, "None of you guys have, I don't know…reactivated the, um, BuffyBot. Have you?"
There was a long pause as the group stared at her.
"Um, no," Willow said carefully, checking the faces of everyone present to be sure she was correct. "We haven't even had time to think about it since…"
The redhead glanced over her shoulder to the blonde girl wearing pajamas with her knees curled up to her body. Tara looked like a small, frightened child, which broke Willow's heart a little bit more. The Scooby ducked her head from sight, leaving the rest of the sentence unsaid.
Giles spoke up. "Why do you ask?"
"Cause of me," a new, yet strikingly familiar voice answered.
The middle-aged man found himself leaping to his feet by what he saw. There, leaning against the wall in the small hall Buffy had just exited from was… well, Buffy. She was different though.
Her blonde locks had been changed to a deep brown that came to her shoulders. She was dressed in a white shirt, but the rest of the outfit she had was black and leather. From the opened jacket, the short gloves, the tight fitting pants that left little to the imagination, down to the platform heeled boots that disappeared up her leg and under her pants. A gothic looking cross hung around her neck, resting perfectly against her collar bone thanks to the length of the chain, completing the look.
Even her makeup was darker than the blonde Buffy standing a few feet away, with her lips the darkest shade of crimson Giles had ever seen before in his life. The whole outfit really reminded him a little too much of the currently imprisoned slayer; this was nothing like what his Buffy would wear.
"Check out Matrix Style Buffy," Xander muttered, not believing what he was seeing.
"Who are you?" Buffy asked carefully, ignoring her friend and focusing in on her identical twin.
Summers drew in a deep breath and let it out in a loud, quick puff before pushing off from against the wall and started to sashay slowly toward the counter.
"I'm you," she answered, perching herself on the sales counter and crossing her legs. "In about seven years."
The whole group was taken aback by this. This was Buffy?! It couldn't be! Buffy would never let herself become someone like…that! Would she?
"Did you just say you are future me?" Buffy asked in a disbelieving and rather aggravated tone.
When the brunette shook her head yes, Xander asked, "Okay, who are you really and what have you been smoking?"
"She's tellin' the truth," Spike offered, studying the future form of his love with a great deal of curiosity.
Summers glanced over at him and met his eyes, which caused her to catch her breath. Part of her wanted break down and cry at seeing him alive - um, unalive - and sitting no more than ten feet away from her. She wanted to kiss him and hug him and never let go, but she was stubborn to the last.
Not now, not with the others watching or her past self. They'd never understand. So, she did the only thing she could at the moment, she smiled at him.
He was surprised by this, she could see it in his face, so she quickly let it drop and turned to the others.
"Well, um, she's right in that she's Buffy anyway," Spike added.
"How do you know?" Willow asked, oblivious to the moment that had just passed between the two.
Spike blinked several more times before stuttering, "Uh, the smell…She and Buffy have the same scent."
"Oh," the witch said, looking to Giles as if he would be able to confirm what Spike had said. But the Watcher was still too fascinated by the woman to notice, and apparently hadn't heard what had just been said to offer his opinion on it.
A frustrated growl came from the blonde slayer as she dramatically rolled her eyes to the ceiling and stated, "Great, with everything else going on, now I get to deal with future me. Well, I don't have the time right now, so, whatever it is that you want, spit it out."
"I don't want anything. Well, maybe a nice, hot bubble bath and a slice of strawberry cheesecake…" Summers trailed off dreamily, leaning back a little on the counter before bringing herself back into reality. Her tone was soft as she said, "I'm just here to make sure things go as they're supposed to."
Buffy eyes harden on her twin, then spat, "If you're here to tell me Giles was right and we have to kill Dawn-."
"I need to be somewhere!" Tara cried out suddenly. The Scoobies turned their attention to the crazed blonde momentarily, then went back to the brunette perched on the counter as Willow went to tend to her girlfriend.
"I'm here to make sure what needs to be done is done," Summers told them. Once again, her younger self looked like she was about ready to pounce on the older, so the brunette quickly offered, "But I know how to stop her. After all, I've done it before."
The group looked at one another again. Well, if she really was Buffy from the future, she did have a point. The only problem was, could they trust her? The decision fell to their blonde leader, and she didn't look as if she trusted this supposed version of herself anymore than she trusted Glory. Still, if it was really her…
Buffy drew in a breath with a slight nod, silently telling Summers she could help. The brunette smiled at this and then slipped into the take charge person she always was.
"Okay, this is how we'll beat Glory."
***********