Chapter 3 – Different Lives

"Well I guess we should find out a little more about each other then," Buffy4 suggested, "Figure out just how different our lives really are."

"Right," Buffy agreed. "So where should we start?"

"I might have an idea," Fred said quietly from the crowd.

"Any suggestions are welcome," Buffy responded.

"Well maybe Lorne could read them," Fred continued. "I mean you could probably find out a lot about them if not exactly what made their lives so different right?" she asked Lorne who was standing right next to her.

"Most likely cupcake," Lorne responded with a small smile.

Buffy3 practically started cracking up. "Oh no…definitely not! I'll have you guys stake me before I'll sing even one little note!"

"Well I guess that means she knows who I am in her reality," Lorne pointed out since Buffy3 knew exactly what she would have to do for Lorne to be able to read her.

Buffy3 smiled. "Yeah…I knew who you were," she responded putting an emphasis on the words 'knew,' and 'were.' That statement frightened Lorne slightly as he started to look very uncomfortable at the thought of being dead in her reality.

"Well there's another good idea right there," Willow said ignoring Buffy3's comments and Lorne's uneasy tension. "We can see who they know out of us and stuff like that. Maybe we can figure out at least around when the big change happened that made their realities different from ours."

"Sounds like a good plan," Faith agreed.

"Ok well vampire girl over there obviously knows Lorne what about the rest of you?" Buffy asked.

Buffy4 raised her hand slightly. "I…knew him," she said with the slightest bit of sadness in her voice. "I never really got to know you all that well but I'd met you before. I know everyone here actually, some better then others."

"I don't know a lot of you actually," Buffy1 responded. "I know Angel, Spike, Dawn, Xander, Willow, Wesley, and uh…Faith." She looked down to the ground awkwardly as she said Faith's name. Things weren't going very well between the two of them in her reality and seeing her standing right there wasn't helping.

As people started to give her weird looks at her obvious uneasiness, Buffy1 continued what she was saying. "The rest of you I've never seen before in my life."

"Same thing here," Buffy2 added. "I only know those seven also. I've never seen the rest of you before."

Buffy rolled her eyes and then looked towards Buffy3. She didn't really want to talk to her at all. Just the fact that she was turned into a vampire in an alternate reality bothered her way more then she'd liked. "What about you?"

Buffy3 just sighed and rolled her eyes. She considered the possibility of just ignoring her or messing with her a little bit but she didn't like this world so she decided she would just play along if it could possibly get her back to her own world that she greatly missed.

She glanced around the room at everyone looking for people she recognized or didn't recognize. Finally she responded, "I know all of them."

Buffy nodded her head. "Well everyone knows Faith and we didn't meet her until senior year so all of the changes must have happened after that unless we met her in a different way."

"We died when we were 16, Kendra was called, Dru killed her, Faith was called, she came to Sunnydale, turned evil and worked with the Mayor we put her in a coma, destroyed the Mayor blah blah blah," Buffy3 recapped with annoyance.

Buffy looked arount at the other three and they all nodded their heads to show that this was the same thing that happened in their realities. That is, all of them except for Buffy1.

"So the changes all happened after Graduation," Angel concluded before Buffy1 could interject.

"I was with you all the way up until the Faith turning evil part," Buffy1 interrupted. "I did die when I was 16, Xander gave me CPR and I was brought back, Kendra was called and killed by Drusilla. Then Faith was called and came to Sunnydale but she never went evil or worked for the Mayor. She helped us take him out."

For a moment Buffy1 looked really confused at what the other's had said. She couldn't believe that in four other realities Faith would do such a thing. Sure she was a bad ass but in Buffy1's reality she just couldn't imagine Faith doing anything to hurt her, well physically at least. Mentally hurting her, Buffy1 knew Faith was capable of. She had experienced it first hand.

"Did I…did she kill a guy?" Faith asked nervously. "The uh…the Faith in your world…did she accidentally kill a guy?"

Buffy1 looked at her with confusion. After thinking about it for a moment she shook her head. "No, never."

"The Faith in my world accidentally killed the deputy mayor and that was what kind of pushed her over the edge," Buffy2 explained slightly saddened by the bad memory.

"Same thing happened in my world," Buffy4 confirmed.

"Here too," Faith admitted with slight disappointment in herself.

"No," Buffy1 challenged. "The deputy mayor helped us. Faith and I were in an alley one night and these vamps kept coming at us one after another and then Finch came out of nowhere and Faith almost…" she trailed off as she began to realize what the change in her reality was.

"She almost killed him," Angel finished for her putting an emphasis on the word 'almost' as he put together the same conclusion.

"I guess that was the difference in my world," Buffy1 confirmed. "Faith never killed anyone. She had her stake in hand and she was about to use it but she realized he was human when the stake was inches away from his heart."

Faith's eyes fell at the thought of this. She was glad to know that in at least one reality she hadn't been a screw up but she only wished she would have allowed herself to make the same realizations back then. If it hadn't been for that fatal moment her whole life could have been completely different.

"Well there we go," Xander said cheerfully, breaking the somewhat awkward silence that was beginning to build. "At least we're making some progress here."

"What about College?" Willow asked in an attempt to find out more information and also to change the subject. For some reason Buffy1 was acting a little weird when talking about the Faith of her world. Willow wasn't really sure what happened between them to make her react that way but she could see the uneasiness was making her fidgety.

"Did all of you go to UC Sunnydale?" Willow continued.

The Buffy's all nodded their heads.

"Well what about Dawn?" Willow continued to ask. "You all said you know Dawn so the changes obviously must have happened after she was sent to you. Either that or she was sent to you regardless of the changes."

"Must have been regardless of the changes since my change was before that," Buffy1 pointed out.

"Oh yeah, that true," Willow said sheepishly.

"Can we get back to this whole Buffy being married thing?" Xander interrupted with curiosity.

"Yeah, that's a good idea," Dawn agreed as she turned to Buffy2. "Who? When? How?" she began to ask not really knowing where to start.

Buffy2 smiled and then looked to the ceiling as she thought about it "Angel, almost four years ago, and…well I don't really understand the last question."

"Well I think how is an excellent question considering Angel is a vampire," Xander pointed out.

"He isn't in my world," Buffy2 responded. "He was turned human when his blood mixed with the blood of a Mohra demon. It's blood is regenerative and somehow when it mixed with Angel's it kind of jump started his heart and made him alive."

Angel's eye's widened as he realized exactly what the big change was in Buffy2's reality. He hadn't gone to the oracles to ask them to change back time. He had stayed human. He had stayed with Buffy.

"Well I guess that means that, like with the other Buffy, Dawn was sent to you regardless," Willow pointed out, "Because they've been married for four years and Dawn was only sent to you about three and a half years ago. The change happened before Dawn showed up."

"So for this Buffy the change was sometime between graduation and when Dawn was sent to her," Faith added.

Buffy, still shocked about the whole Angel being human thing, pretty much ignored the others and got back to the topic at hand. "So…in your reality…Angel is human?" Buffy asked.

Buffy2 nodded her head, "That's right. He has been for a little over four years now."

"Well that was a quick engagement," Xander pointed out.

"Well with the baby coming…" Buffy2 started to say but was cut off at the mention of a baby.

"Baby?!" All of the other Buffy's said at the exact same time as everyone's mouths dropped to the floor.

Before Buffy2 had a chance to explain, the others noticed that there was some activity coming from the portal. It was getting louder again and the lights were getting brighter just as it did when the Buffy's came through it.

"Oh great," Spike said sarcastically. "If these are more alternate reality Buffy's there had better be some more that are with me."

Just as when the Buffy's came through the portal four bright lights started getting brighter and then four figures dropped down to the ground from those lights. Everyone shielded their eyes until the light dimmed. When it did they realized that this time the figures weren't women. This time they were men.

"Oh this is just bloody brilliant," Spike said angrily. "Five Buffy's I can handle but five of this ponce," he said as he pointed to Angel, "That's just not right."

"What the hell?" one of the Angel's asked as he looked around at the others.

Buffy3 smiled from her spot on the floor as she recognized the only one without a soul. Then she realized that they were going to do the same thing to him as they did to her so she figured that she should warn him. There was no way she was going to get out of this if he was in the same position she was. "Angelus…run!" Buffy3 yelled.

Angel3 didn't even hesitate. He looked for the nearest exit and took off running.

"Don't let him get away!" Angel yelled to the others.

Unfortunately for Angel3 it was the same situation that happened with Buffy3. It was four Angel's against one.

"Shit," Angel3 said.

"It was a good try baby," Buffy3 yelled to him.

Angel3 turned to her and smiled and then turned back to Angel who was bringing him towards his lover. "Ooo do I get to be tied up too?"

Luckily there had been chains on Buffy3's legs as well so Angel just took those off of her legs and chained Angel3 to the same pipe.

"I knew you'd come find me baby," Buffy3 said as she kissed Angel3 fiercely, devouring his entire mouth.

"That's just gross," Xander pointed out.

Dawn raised her hand slightly with a disgusted expression on her face similar to Xander's. "I second that."

"Buffy!" Angel2 yelled as he ran to the Buffy with the ring on her finger. "I was so worried about you," he added as he pulled her into a tight embrace.

"I'm ok honey," Buffy2 responded with a smile as they broke away from their hug and just held each other in their arms. "How's Connor…is he still with Giles?"

Angel and Angel4 both turned to them at the same time and asked, "Connor?!"

Buffy2 and Angel2 turned back to them and smiled. "Our son," Buffy2 responded.

"Angel?" Buffy1 said to Angel1. Everything going on with the other Buffy and Angel was very interesting and all but she wanted to see if one of these Angel's was the one from her reality.

Angel1 simply smiled slightly and responded, "It's me. It's been a long time," he added awkwardly. Things seemed to be a little uncomfortable between these two.

"It has," Buffy1 responded as the two uneasily stood in front of each other trying to figure out what else to say.

"So I'm going to take a wild guess in assuming that these four Angel's are from the same realities that the four Buffy's came from," Xander pointed out.

"Are you ok?" Angel4 asked Buffy4.

Buffy4 smiled back at him slightly. "I'm fine. I just want to figure this whole thing out."

When Angel3 and Buffy3 finally stopped sucking face and Angel3 started looking around. "Wow…I don't like this world," he said out loud. "They're all…alive. It's just no fun."

"I know," Buffy3 agreed in a disgusted ton, "And you and Spike still have souls. No fun at all."

"What's that supposed to mean pet?" Spike asked with a confused look on his face.

Angel3 rolled his eyes, he was extremely annoyed. Buffy3 rolled her eyes along with him. "We might as well just play along baby…the sooner we figure this whole thing out…the sooner we can get back to our world and finish off what we started."

The others looked at the two vampires awaiting an answer. Angel3 sighed and began to explain. "You had a soul in our world captain peroxide…but we fixed that little problem after turning the others."

"The others?" Buffy asked.

Angel3 began to laugh. "Are we really going to have to tell this whole boring story?"

"You know I really wish someone would," Gunn responded. "This is just getting kind of freaky."

Angel3 and Buffy3 looked at each other and smiled. It was as if they were having a mental conversation with each other. Finally Angel3 turned to the rest of the group. "Alright kiddies…you want the story…we'll tell you the story."

To Be Continued…