Alternate Universe Cleveland, November 23rd 1997
Spike had just escaped the battleground, as Buffy pushed her Watcher's body off of her. She picked up Jack's gun and went to the broken, boarded-up window. To her annoyance, Spike was nowhere in sight.
"Damn it! Well, at least I know where Billy Idol junior is going..." Buffy sighed to herself.
Not far away, Spike got into the parked DeSoto that had brought him and Drusilla to this city, not so long ago. "Bloody hell!" He slammed the driver side door closed, infuriated. Starting up the engine, the one-eyed vampire took off into the night, wiping away the blood in annoyance.
Buffy left the old building with the Council agents, who by this time had cleared out the vampire nest. "Guys?"
"Mission accomplished, ma'am. Where are you headed now, Miss Summers?" asked one of the hit team.
"I'm going to go get my things, pack for the trip to California," she told him simply. "Jack's dead, by the way – so, can you make the arrangements to have his remains sent back to England for burial?"
Nodding, the head agent then told her that everyone would soon be ready for her trip to Sunnydale…
Giles residence, Alternate Universe Sunnydale, November 24th 1997
Giles, Oz and the others were still making plans on how to deal with the Master (and send Harmony home), when Buffy and her entourage arrived at the Watcher's residence.
The reactions to this were somewhat varied; for example, Harmony wasn't too happy to meet this version of Buffy Summers. Oz figured he would be glad when this was all over, more or less. Cordelia just knew she would miss this version of Harmony, when she returned to her own world; not holding out any hope for the reappearance of the Wish-verse Harmony. Amy was just glad that she'd been able to find the last thing that she and Giles needed for the ritual, before the Slayer and her backup had arrived.
"So, have ever you done this before?" Harmony asked Amy, hoping that the nightmare of the last two days would soon be over.
"Sending someone to another world? Nope. It'll be my first time," she smiled.
"Yeah, uh, what exactly are you guys talking about? I thought you people needed help with a vampire problem," Buffy frowned.
Cordelia beckoned her over. "We do, but it's not that simple. Listen up..." The brunette then started to explain everything to the Slayer.
Elsewhere, within a holding cell in the Bronze's basement, Angel lay on his side on the ground. He wanted nothing more than to kill the Master himself. Oh, and the Willow and Xander vampires as well, of course. { Not damn likely at this point, though. }
Not far away, the Master was holding court, sitting on his throne chair. Luke walked up to him and said, "My sire. It is my duty to report Drusilla has been slain, and Spike is on his way to Sunnydale."
"And the Slayer, Luke?" the Master demanded, knowing that one of them would be killed.
"She still lives, Master."
"I see. Luke, inform me when she arrives into my domain." The Master smirked for a moment. "And I need to know when Spike arrives as well – inform me of that immediately, when it happens."
The minion nodded. "What about the white hats' pet witch, Master?" Luke asked him.
"Find her and kill her, Luke." The Master laughed, watching the Xander and Willow vampires feeding on some human slaves. Then Vamp Willow started to ride one like a pony...
Elsewhere, Spike had picked up some blood bags to feed from. He had placed an eye patch over his wounded eye as well. { Hope the Master won't be too annoyed with me. But then again, that putrid-looking wanker *does* have a low tolerance for failure, and no ruddy sense of humor! } He lit a cigarette, put it in his mouth then got back on the road, thanking all the dark gods out there he'd been able to sun-proof the windows with dark grease and paint. { Won't rest until I kill that Slayer fer you, Dru. Count on that, luv! }
At Giles's home, Buffy finished listening to Cordelia's story. She couldn't and didn't believe it, of course, but her imagination betrayed her – what if it was true? A world where she hadn't slain not just her undead mom, but her dad as well...
It had been back when she'd first found out she was the Slayer, her dad had been turned some years ago. Then Joyce had gotten vamped after they'd moved to Cleveland. She'd dusted them both, and good riddance to them.
And yet – what if it hadn't happened that way? If this Harmony person wasn't completely insane, then in another world – her mother was still alive. Maybe even her dad, too. What would Hank Summers be like, there? { Damn that girl for not knowing! It's enough to drive a Slayer nuts... }
By this point, Giles and Amy had finished setting up the ritual to send Harmony home. "You think this will work, Giles?" Cordelia asked.
"Err, I'm as sure as I can be. Where's Miss Kendall?" the Watcher asked absently.
"Upstairs, Oz went to get her," Cordelia shrugged. "Can you believe that the blond ditz was bored, and wanted to go outside for a walk? I swear, it's almost like she's trying to get herself killed!"
"She still can't accept the fact that the world she used to live in is gone, that it's no longer safe to walk the streets," Amy shrugged. "Not deep down where it matters, anyway. You have a point, though; Harmony's going to end up a statistic, if this doesn't work and she's trapped here along with the rest of us!"
Back at the Bronze's holding cells, two human slaves had somehow escaped their confinement. Their names were Warren Mears and Jesse McNally; curious historical sidebar, but Jesse was still alive here in the Wish world.
"You think the vampires are still asleep, Warren?" Jesse asked him. He didn't want to run into his former friends, Xander and Willow.
Warren rolled his eyes and hissed angrily, "Shut up and move!" They tried to stay quiet while leaving the basement, but they ran into some vampire guards guarding the stairwell.
"Well, looky here. We got some humans trying to escape, have we?" laughed one of the guards.
"No, we were just going to the restroom," Jesse quipped.
The undead guards laughed again in genuine amusement. "Nice try, bozo. We're taking you both to see Luke," one of the guards said. "He'll know what to with you two -"
But Jesse had a wooden stake with him, something he'd picked up outside of Angel's cell (it was useful threat against the ensouled vampire after all). McNally then used it to stake the mouthy vamp, which exploded into dust. At the same time, Warren tackled the other vampire to the floor, and then rolled out of the way for Jesse to lean down and dust that one as well. The intrepid duo then ran for the front doors of the club, only to be stopped again by Vamp Xander and Vamp Willow.
"You two flesh bags are going nowhere!" Vamp Willow growled. She pushed Warren into the wall, licking her lips in anticipation of an unexpected meal.
For his part, Vamp Xander grabbed the stake from Jesse and snapped it in half, tossing both pieces of wood aside. "Dude, you really thought that was going to work on *me*?"
"Guess not. Can't we talk about this, Xander?" Jesse tried to get past him, but failed.
Vamp Willow walked towards Warren with an evil grin. But she didn't know that Warren had one last trick up his sleeve. He hit her with a mix of potassium permanganate and glycerine, both chemicals previously in separate pockets, and Vamp Willow quickly collapsed into dust after instantly bursting into flames.
"NO!" Upon seeing this, Xander vamped out! He picked up one of the two wooden fragments that had landed on the floor. Enraged, he jabbed it into Warren's neck in the blink of an eye. "You son of a bitch!" he growled.
Warren fell over - dead in an instant, bleeding out from the neck. Then Vamp Xander returned his attention to Jesse, catching him just before the desperate prisoner made it out the front door into the safety of the daylight. "Goodbye, bud..." Vamp Xander growled as he twisted Jesse's neck, before he tossed the dead body to the floor.
{ Damn it, damn it, damn it! Who am I going to spend the rest of eternity with now? } "Willow!" Vamp Xander screamed in heartfelt pain.
Not all that far away, Angel heard him in his cell – and smiled to himself in weary pain and delight.
Back at Giles' place, Oz and Harmony finally came downstairs. "Amy?" Oz called out.
"You guys came right on time! Me and Giles have finally finished preparing for the ritual," Amy told her with a proud smile.
"Great! I can finally go home now," Harmony was glad to be leaving this hellhole version of Sunnydale.
Oz and Cordelia decided to take a seat on the couch, as did Buffy; her backup had left the apartment by now, the Council agents wanted to scout the town for the Slayer's first patrol tonight. Giles and Amy began the ritual, while Harmony stood with a sacred circle of sand with some nearby chicken feet placed in strategic places.
"Eyrishon. K'shala. Meh-uhn," Giles started to chant.
"Diprecht. Doh-tehenlo nu-Eyrishon," Amy chanted next.
"The child to the mother," Giles added.
"The river to the sea," Amy replied back.
"Eyrishon, hear our prayer and return this lost soul," the two then chanted together.
Giles and Amy cast the spell, calling on Eyrishon the Endless One to return Harmony to where she'd come from. But nothing happened – the ritual failed. Which was hardly surprising, of course; Harmony's original reality no longer existed, thanks to her Wish, and there was nowhere to send her to that fulfilled the criteria of the spell.
"Why am I still here?!" Harmony demanded, looking around at everyone in annoyance.
"Because the spell didn't work, you silly little girl," Giles shot back, looking equally annoyed. "Why else would you still be here?"
"That was pretty lame," Oz admitted, getting up to get something to drink. "Liquid refreshment?" he said to Buffy.
"Don't mind if I do," the Slayer nodded, following him to the kitchenette.
"Sorry, Harmony. But it looks like you're stuck here," Amy told the blond cheerleader.
Cordelia gave Harmony a much needed hug. Ignoring that, Amy asked the Watcher, "What went wrong?"
"It might have something to do with the Wish, Amy..." Giles mused, as he sat down with a look of defeat. "Or it might be something else. Who knows? It-it appears, though, that we need to go back to the drawing board, a-as it were."
"Great," Amy complained.
Later that night, Spike finally arrived in Sunnydale. It said a lot for William the Bloody that he had actually managed to drive over two thousand miles in a little over twenty-four hours, but then no one could ever accuse him of not being single-minded enough to pursue his goals when he really wanted to.
He parked the car near Hamilton Street, before getting out of the car and taking off the driving gloves he'd been wearing. Tossing 'em to the ground, Spike headed for the Bronze – not looking forward to seeing the Master, since he hadn't killed the Slayer as ordered. Spike headed to the lair anyway to meet his fate….
Elsewhere, Luke killed Amy just as she left Giles' condo in order to head on home for the night. He drained her dry with the satisfaction of a job well done, before getting rid of the body.
Back at the Bronze, Spike entered the vampire lair. The Master got to his feet from his throne chair, raising an eyebrow at the sight of the British vampire's eye-patch. "Ah, Spike, welcome. I heard that Drusilla was killed by a white hat." The Master didn't feel anything for Spike's loss, which was fairly evident from the smirk visible on his deformed, demonic features.
"She was, Master." Spike bowed to him reluctantly. "We failed. The Slayer's still coming to Sunnydale."
"I know, Spike."
William was abruptly sick and tired of this whole thing. "You gonna kill me for screwing up, then?"
"Not yet; not when it would be a... a waste to do so."
Spike shrugged. "Then what's the plan, where I'm concerned?"
The Master smiled viciously at him. "Why not join Xander, Spike, in dealing with Angelus? I have grown bored with his presence, I must admit. As much as I enjoy seeing Angelus in pain, enough is enough; I want him gone." The Master laughed, briefly. "Don't you?"
Spike grinned, evilly wicked. "Ya better believe I do!" The British vampire then took his leave of the Master, heading to the basement to meet with Vamp Xander.
Elsewhere, the Council agents met with the Slayer and told her the bad news; Giles was right, the entire town was *infested* with the undead. Buffy figured she may as well start on the streets, and thus she and her team immediately started cutting a swathe through the various undead openly hunting the human population!
Later that night, Spike and Vamp Xander brought Angel to an open area with an eastern exposure. They put two stakes into his hands and another two stakes into his feet, so that Angel was pinned to a wooden pole like a scarecrow.
"Right, that's that then. I hope you enjoy daylight, Angel!" Spike laughed.
"I just wish Willow could have been here to see this. She'd have loved to watch her puppy burn," Vamp Xander growled, still in a bad mood after the loss of his undead girlfriend. Spike just ignored the younger vampire's attitude.
"Let's go," Spike said with an evil laugh. They both took off back to the lair; leaving Angel there to be dusted by sunlight.
Clearing near Miller's Wood, November 25th 1997
Angel was sweating, sensing the upcoming sunrise. He'd been unable to escape his confinement; Spike and Vamp Xander had obviously known what they were doing. "No, no, no..."
When the sun rose a few moments later, Angel burst into flames! And then he collapsed into nothing but dust. It was a strangely ignominious end, for someone once known as the Scourge of Europe...
Elsewhere, Buffy and the Council agents arrived at Giles' place after a long hard night's Slayage. It truly had been like shooting fish in a barrel, in a sense – the undead had grown overly complacent lately, and the less smart ones had paid for that with their unlives.
The cars were parked near on the street, and the vampire hunters quickly made their way to the Watcher's apartment. Buffy knocked at the door, and Giles answered it at once.
"Miss Summers," Giles said simply, gesturing for her and the group to come inside. Even though it was broad daylight, it was senseless to take unnecessary chances. "Oz, could you go get the others?"
Oz dutifully went to get Cordelia and Harmony. And after hearing the results of last night's kill count, everyone gathered around the table – to make a plan on bringing down the Master!
Giles wasn't the only one who noticed that Amy never showed up to the meeting, though, and sent Oz to check on her. After the meeting was over, Harmony cornered the wish world version of Buffy and said, "Could we talk?"
Buffy shrugged. "Yeah, I guess. What is it?" She gave Harmony a calm, assessing look.
"Um, well... Mr. Giles explained it to me… It's sorta my fault that Sunnydale is like this." She didn't look Buffy in the eye as she said that, though.
"Okay, yeah, I heard that theory yesterday. So what?" Buffy was starting to not like this girl; the blond was wasting her precious downtime. Harmony looked around helplessly, and so Cordelia answered for her.
"Harmony made this lame ass wish, and we're thinking a demon granted it. And now, it look like the only way to undo it is to summon the scary demon lady in question. Which could get us all killed, apparently. Ask Giles, he knows more," the brunette gestured over to the Watcher.
Frowning, Buffy walked up to Giles and started demanding answers while the Council's kill team drank and talked among themselves, recharging their batteries. Cordelia simply sat on the couch and started reading a book, already bored with the whole thing. Harmony sat next to her, still struggling to deal with the pit of despair she now found herself trapped in.
With a sigh, Giles explained to Buffy in detail about the wish that Harmony made. And their lack of knowledge regarding the caster of the magicks. "There's many different types of wish granters out there, Miss Summers. Genies, djinn and the like. And a variety of demons with the power to change history, thanks to a human wishing for it." He cleaned his glasses with a heavy sigh. "I had hoped that the ritual Amy and I performed would be enough to send Miss Kendall back to where she belonged, but since it didn't..."
"You now wanna summon a demon? REALLY?" Buffy had a look of disbelief on her face.
"Believe me, I don't *want* to," Giles assured her. "It's risky. Lethally dangerous, even if I could come up with the right wards to entrap the female demon in question, once we identify her – assuming we can..."
"Listen, pal. Maybe it's just me, but I figure we already got enough on our plate with this Master vampire running this whole freaking town, you know what I'm saying? You want to risk your own neck summoning something that's going to kill you, do it *after* me and my people go back to Cleveland!" Buffy ordered him in no uncertain terms.
Later that night within his lair, the Master gave orders to his minions to take out the Slayer, her vampire hunters and the native white hats as well. Spike couldn't wait, his bloodlust now inflamed by getting rid of his grandsire. For his part, Luke kept an eye on the holding cells to make sure none of their human slaves tried to escape again.
"Oh, and before I forget..." The Master told Vamp Xander to get a group of vampires together to burn down any and all bases and hideouts, while the main army was doing battle with the enemy.
"Should I destroy Rupert Giles's place myself, boss?" Vamp Xander asked, still not having dealt with what had happened to Vamp Willow – and wanting to lash out at everyone he'd known as a human.
"His place and all others, Xander! I'm putting an end to this *pitiful* human resistance, tonight!" the Master growled evilly.
"As you command, Master." Xander bowed, and then left with a group of the best minions among the vampires.
By this point, Buffy, Oz, and the Council's vampire hunters had left Giles' apartment. They were headed to the Master's lair, planning to cut off the head of the demon and vampire community; the plan was for the Master's lieutenants to weaken themselves in the subsequent fight to take over the leadership role, and be easy pickings afterwards. Giles, Cordelia and Harmony had stayed behind, though; Rupert because someone needed to keep an eye the two female teens, and the girls because they had no role to play in the upcoming battle.
"So, still no word from Amy, Giles?" Cordelia asked with a worried look. The witch had been missing for a while now, after all.
"No, nothing. I, I think it's safe to assume the worst," Giles replied sadly, even though none of them knew that Amy had been killed by Luke.
"That sucks," Harmony whispered, still trapped in her own personal hell. But at that moment –
– at the high school ruins, Jareth appeared. The demon had finally figured out what had ruined his plans where DELOS and Westworld facility were concerned, and he was *not* happy with the way things had been going since then.
Elsewhere, Buffy's team broke into the Master's lair and started their attack. But the vampires were ready for them!
Elsewhere Vamp Xander's group came crashing down on various human residences, known or suspected resistance hideouts in Sunnydale. They made quick work out of each of them, often burning the buildings down! Vamp Xander was enjoying his victory, but again – something was missing.
{ I need to find a substitute for Willow, } he thought to himself, finally putting her loss aside. { Still, who should it be? Hmm, maybe my old crush Cordelia? Now that has possibilities... }
Back at the lair, the one-eyed Spike tore through the humans with evil glee. He was doing this not just for himself, but for Drusilla as well! Vampires got dusted. Humans got torn apart. It was total chaos!
The Master decided to take on the Slayer, due to the prophecy that he would kill her. Both of them began to attack the other.
"It's almost a shame that you're destined to lose this battle, Slayer!" The Master grinned evilly at her.
"Yeah, well, it's almost a shame that you're one ugly-looking vamp," Buffy mocked him.
They continued to trade blows at one another. Abruptly switching his focus, Spike watched them from the sidelines, no longer indulging his mindless bloodlust. { Maybe I could turn the Slayer. Let her weaken The Master, and then go for the kill. Then Sunnydale will be mine for the taking! } Spike smiled to himself. It was risky – but then, he hadn't gotten to where he was within the vampire community without being afraid to take a few risks!
Within the high school ruins, Jareth summoned Anyanka with a mere thought and hand gesture. And boy, was she mad about being summoned that way!
"How *dare* you do this?!" She gave him an evil glare. "Do you even know what I do to any *man* who tries to summon me?"
"I am no man, Anyanka. I'm a demon! And your lame excuse for a wish has gotten in the way of my plans. Now, are we going to do this the easy way, or the hard way?" Without waiting for an answer, Jareth attacked her – punching the demoness directly in the face.
She fought him back, but to her consternation, Jareth seemed unaffected by her physical blows. Anyanka then tried to teleport away, intending to continue the fight on a battleground more to her liking, but to her shock – she found herself unable to go anywhere. She was stuck here! { Oh, no...this is not good. Not good at all! }
For the first time in centuries, the vengeance demon was worried that she had finally bitten off more than she could chew...
Back at the Bronze, Buffy was no match for the Master. He punched her in the chest, and she went flying away into a wall. She hit that part of the Bronze so hard, it did a *lot* of damage to Buffy's body. She landed face down with a thud, collapsing in a heap of broken bones.
"That should be enough to kill even the Slayer," the Master chuckled, before turning away to see how the rest of the battle was going.
At that moment, Spike saw his chance to turn the Slayer. He went to her wounded body and started to drain the dying Chosen One.
"Spike, what-? NO! The Slayer is mine to feed on!" Instantly, the Master was really ticked off with Spike. Kicking the younger vampire away, the Master sensed how Spike had already drained her. So he bit his wrist and fed Buffy his blood!
It was a risk, though. The becoming ritual required him to both drain the Slayer and feed her his blood. Would the newly risen vampiress be loyal to him, with the job only half-complete?
"Spike, you will pay for this!" the Master growled in rage. It was too bad for him though that he hadn't noticed Spike picking up the stake that Buffy had dropped, hiding it up his sleeve. The Master simply ran at the one-eyed British vampire, slamming him hard into the wall (which almost collapsed from the impact).
"Any last words, Spike?" the Master demanded with an evil grin.
"How about 'surprise'?' Spike palmed the stake, and then shoved it right into his enemy's chest before the Master could blink.
The Master screamed, "Noooooooo!" as his body collapsed into nothing but a skeleton! Spike became the new undead ruler of Sunnydale, even as the battle continued to rage all around him; and as his first act as the new master of the Hellmouth, he looked for something to smash the Master's bones...
Back at the remains of Sunnydale High, Jareth threw Anyanka to the ground after grabbing her amulet. "The source of your power, isn't it? In order to defeat you, and nullify all the wishes you've granted, all I need to do is smash this?"
"DON'T YOU DARE!" Anyanka screamed in fury and fear.
"Shut up. No more wish-granting for you, Anyanka." He crushed the amulet in his hand, which exploded in a burst of green light; and then the entire universe vanished into a white void.
Sunnydale High School Quad, Sunnydale, November 22nd 1997
Sunnydale was back to normal. The Wish was undone. And for the first time in over a thousand years, Anya found herself human again. She glanced down at her chest, and sure enough, her amulet was gone. "NO-!"
"Yes. And be warned – get in my way again, Anyanka, and I will kill you!" With that simple warning, Jareth vanished from view.
Anya looked around, and saw that stupid woman-child Harmony walking along – it was fairly obvious just by looking at her that she had no memory of the Wish world, the last three days had been erased from her existence. She made a wish, just as before, but nothing happened this time. The blond cheerleader then walked back into the main building of the school…
While Anya had no idea what to do next.