AUTHOR'S NOTE Merry early Christmas everyone! This chapter is the first one in which Max and Logan make an appearance. It comes in after the events of "Designate This" (the season premiere of season two).

DISCLAIMER Don't own 'em…just borrowing.

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Chapter Seven: In Which Buffy and the Others Glimpse the Future

Seattle

"I can't believe we failed," Buffy muttered miserably. She rested her head1 against the rough walls of the freight car. "The Council is going to kill me."

"It's not your fault Buffy," Willow said. "How could we have known?" Buffy shrugged. Willow looked at Angel and Spike for support, but neither had anything to offer. "We still have the Time Turner. We could just go home."

"We can't do that. The only reason I agreed to this is so they'd leave me alone forever. I don't care about the mission or demons running loose. Not anymore." Buffy suddenly sat up straight. "The Time Turner! We could just go back and do it again!"

Willow shook her head sadly. "It doesn't work that way. Not this kind anyway. This one only works in years. We could go back a year from now but then we'd have to wait around."

"Oh."

"The train's slowing down," Spike said. The others stood up, brushing dirt off their clothes, and jumped down from the back of the car as soon as Angel and Spike had pushed open the door. Buffy figured it wouldn't be wise to just jump out of a supposedly abandoned car onto the platform.

It was dusk. The journey must have taken at least a day. "Bloody good luck for us," Spike remarked.

"We're in Seattle," Willow said. "Look." Sure enough, she pointed to the Space Needle. She squinted. "Wait a minute…"

Buffy joined her. They looked at the area around the train station and a cold chill crept down their spines. "Oh my God…"

The city of Seattle spread out in front of them, lying in ruin. They wandered the streets, horrorstruck by everything they saw. "What…what happened?" Buffy whispered.

"This is no world," Illyria said in an almost human voice. "This is destruction. I remember this."

Buffy couldn't believe what she was seeing was real. "What do we do?"

Spike looked at the sky. "Find shelter."

"Spike, it's dusk. Night comes before daylight."

"Yeah, but in case you haven't noticed, it doesn't look particularly safe around here. And Big Blue doesn't look normal, does she?"

Illyria was staring at everything around her. She had an almost gleeful look on her face. "It is happening again. The humans die out and the Old Ones return."

Buffy sent a look to Angel that plainly read, "She's crazy." Angel just shrugged.

Sighing, Buffy conceded. "All right. Shelter it is."

There were several abandoned warehouses around the train station, but they found that most of them already had occupants. When they finally did find a truly abandoned place, Buffy dragged over a heavy trashcan in which to start a fire. Willow muttered, "Ignis incende," and the clump of damp newspaper burst into flames. "Much better," she said happily. The damp air had a bite to it and Buffy and Willow closed in on the fire. Spike and Angel hovered at a distance, eyeing the flames warily.

"I guess we can't do anything until morning," Buffy muttered tiredly.

"And what do you propose to do then, huh?" Spike demanded. "Leave us cooped up in here while you three girls go out exploring?"

"Yeah."

Spike glared at her. "Fine," he finally muttered.

Seattle – Logan Cale's Apartment

Max Guevara, also known as X5-452, stood by Logan's bed, watching him sleep. He didn't know she was there and she liked it that way. She'd seen what that virus had done to him. She liked it better when she could just watch him sleep. There was no chance that she'd infect him this way and she still got to be with him. He looked like he'd stopped shaving since she'd left. She smiled fondly at him, realizing how much she missed him, scruffy or no.

But her smile melted. She was furious. Furious with Manticore, with her new "friend" Alec, and furious with herself. She'd let Manticore put this thing in her, this special "Let's kill Logan" virus. And, she'd let Alec set her up to infect him. She should have known that no Manticore soldier would let her escape that easily.

Angrily, she paced around the bedroom and finally stared out the window. She wondered how many of the transgenics were out there in Seattle. How many would get in trouble? It would be all her fault.

After a few minutes of quality worrying, Max's enhanced eyesight caught something moving on the street below. Someone was skulking around the alleys across the street. Sensing something underhanded going on, Max quickly left Logan's penthouse and headed for ground level.

When she finally reached the alley, she was disgusted to see what looked like a man eating a rat. "What the Hell are you doing?" she asked.

He turned around. Even in the dark, the unnatural blondeness of his hair hurt her preternaturally sensitive eyes. "What's it to you?" he asked through a British accent.

"Well, you're sneaking around an alley pretty close to my friend's apartment," Max informed him. "Can't have you deciding to go rob it or anything, can I?" The blonde man snorted and dropped the dead rat. "Oh God. You were really eating a rat?"

He shrugged. "Got to eat something, now don't I? Good-night love." He disappeared into the darkness, his long leather coat sweeping behind him. Max stared after him, not quite sure whether she wanted to follow him and beat the crap out of him or throw up. In the end, she did neither. She cast a look back up to Logan's place, but headed for home instead.

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The Answer to the Last Trivia Question

LittleDrusilla, Samantha, Mixer, and LizaGirl all got the question right. "Understand we'll go hand in hand, but we'll walk alone in fear" is a line from "Where Do We Go From Here?" in the Buffy musical episode called "Once More, With Feeling." It's important to Buffy and Willow, because the song is sung after all the characters' secrets have come out.

Today's Trivia Question Is:

This one's more difficult. When did Willow first use the spell Ignis incende?

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Review Responses

Anna This is after everyone escapes Manticore at the beginning of the second season – not after Max and the other twelve escape in '09. And look for fun times between Willow and Original Cindy to come!

LittleDrusilla You're right! I hope you won't be too disappointed, but this isn't a Max/Alec fic. I ama Max/Logan shipper all the way, so that's what this story will be. Don't worry though, Alec definitely plays a role later on! He may even find some romance of his own…

Samantha I am definitely a Buffy/Angel shipper. I never really took to Buffy/Spike, although they definitely had their cute moments. You got the question right, too.

Mixer No such thing as too much Buffy! Mwahahahahaha…

Slash-a-holic ..sigh.. Doyle…I'm glad you enjoyed the last chapter! I really enjoyed the image of Illyria fighting the X7s.

LizaGirl Good job! Hope you enjoyed this chapter!