Disclaimer: All Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: the Series characters
belong to Joss Wheadon and Mutant Enemy. Like so many others, I'm just
playing in his sandbox.
Author's Notes: I heartily apologize to BloodyMiri, MadRog, Kantarya, and
all the other fic writers who helped inspire this story, and inspired the
various Buffys, Spikes, Willows, Xanders, Anyankas, and Taras who collide
in this mess I'm working on.
Author's Notes (2): And further, I'd like to apologize that these chapters
are so short, so far, and that it's so long between updates. I have to
upload these via a friends computer, lacking internet capability at the
moment.
Without Shrimp, ch. 3
Xander, Buffy, Willow, Dawn, and Faith sat in Xander's room, staring at the mirror mounted to his closet door. The silence and tension in the room was so thick, Dawn wondered if Buffy's axe, oops, sorry, 'Scythe', could cut it.
"Screw this. Let's do it." She said, walking forward, and stepped through, despite Xander, Buff, and Willow's yells of 'Dawnie, no!' The reflective glass rippled like the surface of a lake, and she was gone. With that, Buffy grabbed the Scythe and ran after her, with Willow, Xander, and Faith following.
Buffy felt a sensation like a cross between being splashed with ice water, an electric tingle, and the feeling you got when a roller coaster did the drop-off; and stepped through into somewhere she never expected to see again in all her days.
The Magic Box.
In front of her, Dawn knelt on the floor, vomiting rather messily onto the polished hardwood floor, much to the consternation of the shopkeeper. Anya Immanuella Emerson, the mortal guise of the Vengeance Demon Anyanka.
"Oh, for pity's sake, I just finished sweeping that floor, whoever you .Dawn? Is that YOU?" Anya asked the retching teen. "Why aren't you in school, young lady, or at home in bed if you're sick?"
"You, you remember me?" Dawn asked weakly.
"Yes, I remember you, Buffy's annoying little sister, of course!"
"Hey!" Dawn yelled, then paused and pulled Anya down into a fierce hug. "Don't ever change, Anya! God, we missed you!"
"Huh? We?" The ex-demon wondered. Well, just before she was caught up in a group hug by her and Buffy both.
Faith stood next to Xander, with Willow on his other side, as the once-proclaimed 'Zeppo' stood like a rock, mute. Faith turned to Willow and quietly asked "Are you gonna point out they're all kneeling in Dawn's vomit, or will I?"
At the sound of the unfamiliar voice (coming from a direction no-one had been occupying the moment before), Anya looked up.
Xander and Anya locked gazes, and Anya wondered for a split second how Xander not only had gotten into the store without her noticing, but why he wasn't at his NEW job at the construction company. Then she noticed the eye patch, and his worn, roughened appearance.
Anya pulled out of Buffy and Dawns hug, then stepped towards the future version of her boyfriend. "Xander?"
The one-eyed carpenter pulled Anya into a bone crushing embrace, then the confused ex-vengeance demon found herself all but holding the man upright as he sobbed into her hair.
TBC.
Without Shrimp, ch. 3
Xander, Buffy, Willow, Dawn, and Faith sat in Xander's room, staring at the mirror mounted to his closet door. The silence and tension in the room was so thick, Dawn wondered if Buffy's axe, oops, sorry, 'Scythe', could cut it.
"Screw this. Let's do it." She said, walking forward, and stepped through, despite Xander, Buff, and Willow's yells of 'Dawnie, no!' The reflective glass rippled like the surface of a lake, and she was gone. With that, Buffy grabbed the Scythe and ran after her, with Willow, Xander, and Faith following.
Buffy felt a sensation like a cross between being splashed with ice water, an electric tingle, and the feeling you got when a roller coaster did the drop-off; and stepped through into somewhere she never expected to see again in all her days.
The Magic Box.
In front of her, Dawn knelt on the floor, vomiting rather messily onto the polished hardwood floor, much to the consternation of the shopkeeper. Anya Immanuella Emerson, the mortal guise of the Vengeance Demon Anyanka.
"Oh, for pity's sake, I just finished sweeping that floor, whoever you .Dawn? Is that YOU?" Anya asked the retching teen. "Why aren't you in school, young lady, or at home in bed if you're sick?"
"You, you remember me?" Dawn asked weakly.
"Yes, I remember you, Buffy's annoying little sister, of course!"
"Hey!" Dawn yelled, then paused and pulled Anya down into a fierce hug. "Don't ever change, Anya! God, we missed you!"
"Huh? We?" The ex-demon wondered. Well, just before she was caught up in a group hug by her and Buffy both.
Faith stood next to Xander, with Willow on his other side, as the once-proclaimed 'Zeppo' stood like a rock, mute. Faith turned to Willow and quietly asked "Are you gonna point out they're all kneeling in Dawn's vomit, or will I?"
At the sound of the unfamiliar voice (coming from a direction no-one had been occupying the moment before), Anya looked up.
Xander and Anya locked gazes, and Anya wondered for a split second how Xander not only had gotten into the store without her noticing, but why he wasn't at his NEW job at the construction company. Then she noticed the eye patch, and his worn, roughened appearance.
Anya pulled out of Buffy and Dawns hug, then stepped towards the future version of her boyfriend. "Xander?"
The one-eyed carpenter pulled Anya into a bone crushing embrace, then the confused ex-vengeance demon found herself all but holding the man upright as he sobbed into her hair.
TBC.