Disclaimer - I don't own the characters, and the quotes aren't mine either. So basically, I own jack-diddly.
Time Bomb by Seven Sins
Chapter 1 - If You Could Change It All
Posted: 7.31.04
"The flapping of a single butterfly's wing today produces a tiny change in the state of the atmosphere. Over a period of time, what the atmosphere actually does diverges from what it would have done. So, in a month's time, a tornado that would have devastated the Indonesian coast doesn't happen. Or maybe one that wasn't going to happen, does." -- Ian Stewart 'Does God Play Dice? The Mathematics of Chaos'
"The Chaos model, which comes out of a hodge-podge of late-twentieth-century physics and philosophy, says that the smallest change in the past, like stepping out of your time machine and stepping on a beetle, produces a total and devastating revision of the future." -- 'The X President' by Philip Baruth
"You can't change who people are without destroying who they were." -- 'The Butterfly Effect'
Rome -- The 26th of April, 2004
"Dawn!" Buffy's voice floated down the hall, "Dawn! Get up, you're going to be late!"
Dawn pulled the covers up over her head and muttered, "So?"
Suddenly, the door flew open, "Dawn! Get up," Buffy said, walking over to the side of her bed and shaking her, "Come on, you need to get ready for school."
"No," Dawn said, "No school today," she groaned, pulling the pillow over her head.
"Get up, now," Buffy said, "Or you're not playing magics with Willow this afternoon."
Dawn shot up in bed, "Fine," she said, glaring at Buffy, "God, you're so pushy."
Buffy rolled her eyes and walked out the room, "Be ready in fifteen minutes, or no magic."
Dawn gasped, "Fifteen minutes?!"
"Should have gotten up when your alarm went off," Buffy called down the hall.
-----
Dawn sat in a hot, compact classroom, tapping her pencil against the desk and staring at the clock.
"Come on, come on..." she said quietly.
The teacher's voice droned on, but she wasn't listening to a word he said.
Finally, just when Dawn was about to scream at the clock for going so slow, the bell rang.
"Thank God," Dawn sighed, standing up and rushing out of the classroom.
She ran down the hall and burst through the main doors, her head flying in all directions in search of Xander's car.
She spotted him, his car parked on the curb outside the school, and he was leaning on it with his arms crossed over his chest, scanning to crowd of high school students for Dawn.
She smiled and raced down the steps, running in his direction.
Xander spotted her rushing towards him and opened his arms, just as she jumped into them.
"Hey, Dawnie!" he said, "How are you?"
Dawn let go of him and slid down to the ground, "Not too bad, you?"
Xander shrugged, "All right, I guess."
"Did Willow come with you?" she asked eagerly.
Xander smiled, "Yes, she came with me this time," he said.
Dawn's smile grew wider, "Awesome! Now I can practice magic and Buffy won't have a fit and say I'm going to blow the house up!" she pushed past Xander to open the passenger side door, "Come on, let's go!" she said.
Xander walked around the car and slid into the driver's seat, "Okay, okay. Calm down. It's not like Willow's going anywhere."
-----
Dawn threw open the door to the apartment that her and Buffy shared. Andrew would be arriving in a few days to stay until he could find his own place again.
"Dawnie! Hey!" Willow said, looking up at her from the couch.
"Willow!" she ran forward and gave her a hug.
"So how's the magic going?" Willow asked when she pulled back.
Dawn shrugged, "You mean when Buffy actually let's me do something?" she glared over at her sister.
"I let you do stuff," Buffy retorted, "Just nothing big that I don't think you can handle."
"Which is everything," Dawn said, turning back to Willow, "She wouldn't even let me levitate a pencil."
Willow smiled, "Well, levitation can be..."she looked over at Buffy who was staring at her expectantly, "extremely dangerous!" she said.
Buffy smiled, "See?"
Dawn rolled her eyes, "Really? How?" she asked.
Willow opened her mouth to speak, "Um...well. You never know what the pencil could do, you know?" she tried.
"Yeah," Xander piped up from behind them, "It could fly around and poke my other eye out," he said, trying to joke.
Everyone just stared at him.
"Sorry, not funny. I'll stop speaking now," he said, shoving a handful of chips in his mouth.
Dawn looked back at Willow, "But now that you're here, Buffy said I could do whatever as long as you 'supervised me'."
Willow smiled, "And I'm expecting you want to get started right now?" she said.
"Uh huh!" Dawn said, letting her back pack fall to the ground with a loud 'clunk', "Let's go!" she raced off into the kitchen.
Willow smiled and shook her head, standing up to follow her.
"Willow," Buffy said. Willow turned around and looked at her.
"Don't worry, I won't let her do anything big. I'll just teach her flashy stuff. Kids always love flashy stuff," she assured her.
Buffy smiled, "Okay."
------
"Oh, Willow, what's this spell do?" she asked.
She didn't even wait for an answer before she started reciting it.
"Dawnie, no!" Willow said, reaching across the table and slamming the book shut.
"What?" Dawn asked, looking disappointed.
Willow pushed the book away, "Don't do any of the ones in that book," she said, "those are big no-nos"
Dawn frowned, "Well what can I do?" she whined.
Willow set another book in front of her, "Here, try that one," she said, pointing to a spell on one of the pages.
Dawn smiled and them said, "Bara bara himble gemination."
A bunny appeared on the table with a loud 'pop' and Dawn's smiled widened.
"Cool!" she said happily.
Buffy walked into the kitchen, "So how's the magic coming?" she asked, looking the table.
"Great!" Dawn said, "Look, I made a bunny!" she pointed to the ruffled-looking ball of fur on the table.
"Fabulous," Buffy said, looking over at Willow.
"It's harmless," she assured, "Just a nice, safe, bunny."
"Okay," Buffy said, still a bit unsure, "Just don't let her make any nice, safe, bigger animals."
"Can do," Willow said, turning back around.
Dawn was staring down at the book in front of her, "What's this spell do?" she asked, pointing to the page.
Willow looked over her shoulder, "Which one?"
"This one," Dawn said, pointing to it again, "It's something about time, and changing it," she said.
Willow stared down at the pages and then gasped and slammed the book shut, "Listen Dawnie," she said, "Before you start messing with magic, you need to understand," she started hesitantly, "Sometimes, using magic to try and help people and fix things can only make them worse."
Dawn was caught a bit off guard, "I know that, Will. I was just reading it."
"I know," Willow said, "But this spell...don't ever think of doing it."
"Why?" Dawn asked, still confused, "What's it do?"
"Because," Willow started, "It takes you back in time. And it allows you to change things. Make them different," she said.
Dawn blinked, "What?"
Willow sighed, "It's only been done once before, in the 16th century, I think. Someone tried to go back, and change things that had happened in the past."
"And?"
"And it almost destroyed the world," Willow finished.
"Oh," Dawn said, looking down at the table, "Why?"
"Messing with the past is one of the most dangerous things you could possibly do," Willow explained, "Even changing something small, could lead to a dramatic difference in your future. And you don't know if its for better or worse until it's too late."
Dawn nodded, "But if you're careful, if you know exactly what to do..." she started. The thought of that spell was opening up so many different possibilities to her.
"No," Willow said, "Its a horrible spell that never should have been invented. Changing the past of one person can ruin the future of everyone on the planet."
-----
Dawn lay in her bed, staring up at the ceiling. She had been awake for hours, just thinking.
After Dawn had found that spell, Willow had ended their magic lessons for the day. Dawn didn't understand why.
She also didn't understand why that spell was so bad. With it, someone could go back and fix every mistake they'd ever made. It was driving her crazy just thinking about how different things could be.
She could change anything she wanted. Everything she ever regretted about her past. Everyone that had left..
She sat up in bed, suddenly, that thought flashing in her mind again and again.
Mom, Tara, Anya, Spike...I could save them all.
She looked around her room slowly, considering it.
I could do it. And be careful about it...
She slowly slipped out of her bed. She quietly opened her door and tip-toed down the hall into the kitchen. Willow's books were still stacked on the table.
'Good,' she thought, looking around the kitchen for some kind of light.
She couldn't turn the kitchen light on. It was too risky since Xander was asleep on the couch.
The only flashlight they had was in Buffy's room, and it was even riskier to go in there.
She sighed and walked over to the counter, quietly opening the top drawer.
"There has to be something, somewhere in here that'll make light," she whispered to herself.
She dug through the drawer. Nothing.
She huffed and opened the next drawer. She pushed a few spatulas and a pizza cutter aside, and saw it.
Spike's lighter.
She picked it up and stared at it, amazed.
'How long has Buffy had this?' she thought, the shrugged, 'Oh well, it'll work.'
She turned around and headed to the table. She flipped open the lighter and flicked it on, looking for the correct book. When she found it, she let out a triumphant 'Aha!' and then threw her other hand over her mouth.
She heard Xander's snores pause in the living room, and she froze.
Much to her relief, they started again, and she heard him roll over and mumble something.
She let out her breath, and slowly opened the book. It only took her a few tries to find the spell she was looking for, and when she did, she stopped, staring at it.
'Should I really do this?' she wondered.
Then she remembered all the nights Buffy cried herself to sleep over Spike. All the times Xander needed to leave the room when Anya was brought up. The uneasiness that fell over Willow whenever someone asked her to do magic. And the hole that was still in her chest, all these years later, after losing her mother.
'Yes.'
She held the lighter over the page, quietly reciting the spell. She was proud of herself for not getting stuck on to many words, but when she came to a part where she was supposed to say the date and place she wished to return to, she paused, thinking for a moment.
Finally, she whispered, "February 13th, 2001, Sunnydale, California."
The world spun around her and everything went black.
A/N - Just an idea I got after watching 'The Butterfly Effect'! It's taking place around the same time that Illyria starts with all her time-related difficulties. (Hint, hint) And Dawn doesn't know that Spike's back, either, if you didn't pick that up. R&R!
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