Note: Hello all! Soooooo sorry for taking so long to update! I was bombarded with final exams and final papers and all that jazz. Plus I had a slight case of writers block. I had the ideas in my head, but no motivation to write them down for some reason. I hate when that happens. Anyway…school is out for the summer so hopefully I'll have more time to write. Here's the next chapter, I hope you all enjoy.
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Chapter 7 – Formulating A Plan
As the three new Faiths got situated with the others from their worlds, the original Buffy, Angel, Spike, Faith and the others of their world began to converse and try to formulate a plan as to what they should do next. All fourteen of them gathered in the largest room of the Wolfram & Hart building, the wide open space of the lobby.
Before deciding to leave the alternate reality people to their reunions, and have a meeting of their own, the gang first wanted to make sure that they knew when the changes in each world had occurred.
They had already figured out that the first alternate reality change was that Faith hadn't killed the deputy mayor back during Buffy's senior year of high school. They also knew that the second world change was that Angel had become human a little over four years ago, and that Faith hadn't taken the Orpheus when facing Angelus in the third world. The only one they didn't know of was the last world, which they knew very little about.
Even though that world was one that they all knew little about, it wasn't hard for them to figure out when the change occurred and what that change was. Buffy, Angel, and Spike had spoken with Angel4 during their little ride to the warehouse. They quickly learned that the change in his reality was that Buffy and the others had failed to destroy The First.
Angel4 explained to them that Willow did perform the spell to make all potential slayers into actual slayers and that it had worked, but they had been overpowered anyway. The turok-hon had been too powerful and there were too many of them.
After a little more discussion they learned that Angel4 had decided not to take the deal with Wolfram & Hart, which meant that he was never given the amulet that Spike was to wear the day of the battle. Without it the gang was unable to finish their assault against The First. The battle had still taken place and Sunnydale was overrun.
He informed them that Buffy and about a dozen of the others were able to escape and retreat to LA for Angel's help, but by then it was too late. The First had taken over and their lives now consisted of simply trying to stay alive.
They arrived at the warehouse before Angel, Buffy and Spike could get anymore information from him, but what they had gotten proved to show exactly what had changed to make the last reality so different. When they got back they had informed the others on what they had learned, and that was when they all decided it would be best if they all got together away from the alternates to decide what they should do next.
"Wesley, Fred, how's the research coming?" Angel asked his friends.
The former watcher and the scientist glanced at each other with disappointed looks, and then turned their attentions back to Angel. "Not good I'm afraid," Fred answered. "The most informative thing that we've found so far suggests that we need to get to know their realities more, and then it should just come to us, like we've already said."
"We've found no other, more immediate, solutions thus far," Wesley added.
"Well that sounds like a good plan," Kennedy responded. "I mean, I don't know about the rest of you but I'm pretty damn anxious to shed some light on some of these situations."
"She has a point," Willow agreed as she smiled at her girlfriend and lightly squeezed her hand.
"Right," Buffy replied, "I think it's safe to say that we all have a lot of questions for these alternate usses, but I think we've also all realized how crazy it gets when all of us are trying to talk at once."
"She's right," Robin agreed. "We have to figure out a way to coordinate this better, possibly by splitting us up into small groups."
Fred shook her head slightly at the idea. "Even small groups might be too much. I think one-on-one's would be our best bet."
"I concur," Wesley nodded.
"Alright," The blonde slayer replied, "We'll set up one-on-ones then."
"We don't have enough people," Willow countered. The other's looked to the red head for an explanation as to what she meant. "Well if you count the four vampires that we currently have on lockdown there are sixteen alternate reality people here."
"Right," the former watcher agreed as he began to understand what Willow was trying to say. "There are only fourteen of us."
Willow nodded her head in agreement and then finished up what the man was getting at. "The eight of us that showed up yesterday, you, Fred, Angel, Spike, Gunn and Lorne."
"We're two short," Dawn stated as she too began to understand along with the others.
"Maybe I could help with that," a male voice from the direction of the elevator interrupted.
Angel, immediately recognizing the voice, shot his head in his direction. "Connor," he stated with surprise. "What are you doing here?"
The teenage boy smiled at his father as he walked in towards the large group of people. "I was just stopping by to say hi and caught a little bit of what you guys were talking about. I'm not exactly sure what 'alternate people' are but I did hear the part about you being two people short for something. Maybe I can help."
As rare as it was to see, the souled vampire smiled slightly at his son's offer to help. Ever since Connor's new family had come to him asking for his help, which ultimately ended in his original memories being restored along with his fake ones still in tacked, the vampire wondered if his son would attempt to live in both worlds.
He had chosen to live in the world that Wolfram & Hart created for him, but that didn't mean that the boy couldn't stop in to see his real father every now and then. As much as Angel wanted to keep his son out of the horrors of the real world, he was extremely happy to see him, and even happier that he was offering to help.
Those who knew Connor all had bright smiles plastered on their faces as well. They knew what it must mean to their boss to see his son once again after all that had happened. Those who didn't know Connor, however, only showed expressions of confusion and wonder.
"Hey squirt," Faith greeted the boy. She recognized his voice the moment Angel had. She was unaware of the full details of what had happened with him the previous year, but she knew enough to know that his presence was welcome and that he had changed a great deal. "Long time no see."
Connor nodded his head towards the dark haired slayer in hello. "Good to see you, Faith." Then he turned his gaze to Willow and smiled at her as well. "Hey, Willow."
The red head smiled at the teen. "Good to see yah, Connor." She had also recognized the boy's voice.
"Wait a second," Xander interrupted the happy reunion with a look of realization. "Connor? As in Angel's son Connor?" he asked as he looked around the room at the others.
"Yup," Gunn answered. "Angel's illegitimate, supernaturally born, memory of us erased and then put back in again, super powered son."
The others tried to fight back their laughter as Angel sent the bald man an annoyed look. Connor simply laughed slightly and waved to Xander and the other's that he didn't know. "That's me."
"Right," Angel said as the realization dawned on him that not everyone in the room had met Connor before. "Connor, you've already met Faith and Willow," he said as he pointed to the girls respectively. "This is Xander, Kennedy, Dawn, Robin, Andrew, and Buffy," he added as he pointed to the remaining six respectively as he said their names.
"It's nice to finally meet you all," the teen greeted with a smile. His eyes then lingered on Buffy as he continued, almost as if what he was about to say was directed souly at her. "I've heard a lot about you all."
As odd, and unhealthy has his and Cordelia's relationship was in the past, they had been extremely good friends. When she first got her memory back after being a higher power she would sit down with Connor and tell him stories of her past. As soon as the teen had heard Buffy's name he recognized her as being the slayer that his father was madly in love with.
He had to admit, his father had good taste. The blonde slayer was beautiful and he could almost feel the love that was still inside both of them, after all the years they'd been apart, just by the way they looked at each other. He would have to remind himself to get more details on what went on there. Cordy wasn't really the best at story time when it came to giving all of the facts.
The blonde slayer wasn't the only one of the people he had just met that caught his eye. He couldn't help but noticed the tall, dark haired girl that looked to be about his age or possibly slightly younger. Dawn, her name was. Being a teen age boy and all, he couldn't help but think about how much he would like to get to know that beautiful girl a little better.
"Likewise," Buffy responded to Connor. She was slightly weirded out by the whole idea of Angel having a son, and it was clearly shown on her face, so as an attempt to change the subject she got right back to business. "So, I guess we're only down by one now."
"Hold on," Angel halted with his hands up. He turned to his son and looked him straight in the eyes as if he was searching for something. "Connor, are you sure you want to help? We don't know how long this will take and it's kind of a complicated situation."
The teen simply shrugged his shoulders as if he didn't mind. "Summer break just started. I've got nothing better to do."
"Are you…" Angel started to ask again before he was cut off.
"I'm sure," Connor cut in. "Just give me a short run through of the situation and I'll figure it out as I go. It sounds pretty interesting, and I wanna help."
Angel smiled slightly and nodded his head in understanding. "Alright," he gave in. Then he turned to the rest of the group. "We've got a fifteenth. Gunn, take him into your office and give him a quick run through?"
"Sure thing, Boss," Gunn responded as he began to walk towards his office. Connor nodded his head to his father and then fallowed behind Gunn.
"Well that will be a big help," Willow said, "But we're still one short."
"Who else could be trusted for something like this?" Fred questioned as she tried to think of another person who could help them out.
"There's not too many trustworthy people in this joint, that's for sure," Spike chimed in.
"He's got a point, cupcake," Lorne agreed.
"I could help, boss!" a perky voice offered from behind a desk in the lobby.
"You're joking right?" Spike responded to the girl.
Angel rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Harmony, no offence, but I don't think this is really something you should be involved in," the vampire replied.
Harmony's face fell in disappointment. "Oh come on boss," she tried to reason. "I've been so good ever since I started working for you. I've worked for you for over seven months and I've had no complaints, and I know almost all of you, and I know the situation and everything."
"As much as I know I'm going to regret saying this later," Willow offered, "She kind of has a point."
The soulless vampire smiled brightly at the witch. "Thank you, Willow." Then, as if an idea struck her, she added, "Oh! I could talk to one of the vampire's. Their all soulless like me. I can get into their heads, understand them and all that stuff."
"I hate to say it, Angel," Wesley began, "But I think she's our best choice."
Once again, Angel rolled his eyes as he knew that the others were right. Everything Harmony had said was true. She was familiar with nearly everyone in the room and being a soulless vampire herself might make the other vampires speak more freely with her.
He sighed briefly and turned his attention back to the hyper vampire. "Alright, Harmony, you can help."
The blonde nearly squealed with excitement. "YAY!" she responded. "Don't worry, boss. I won't let you down."
Buffy rolled her eyes at the annoying voice of the blonde vampire. She wasn't any happier about Harmony helping them out then anyone else was, but she was also aware that the vampire was pretty much their only choice if they wanted to have one-on-ones with all sixteen of the alternates.
"It's settled then," the blonde slayer said with a nod. "Sixteen of us, sixteen of them. We'll all sit down with one of them each and figure out all we can about their realities."
Angel nodded his head in agreement. "Sounds like a plan."
"Now we just need to figure out who's going to take who," Fred pointed out.
"Good point," Wesley agreed. "How should we decide who has a one-on-one with who?" he asked as a general question to everyone.
Robin shrugged his shoulders and responded, "I guess we could all just pick. I'm sure there's a few of us who are more curious about one world then about the others."
"If we're doing it that way then I want the Buffy that's a mom," Dawn offered. "I am dying to figure out what the heck happened there."
Buffy shot her sister an annoyed look, but ultimately decided to let her have that one. As curious as she was about that world, she was equally as curious about what had happened in a certain other reality.
Angel had known which of the sixteen that he wanted his one-on-one with before they had even started talking about it. He couldn't get the thought out of his mind that in a different reality he had stayed human and was now married, and had a child with Buffy. The oracles had told him that if he would have stayed human, Buffy would die, but there she was sitting in his office with the Angel of her reality very much alive.
As much as he didn't want to be one of the first to 'call someone,' he also didn't want to lose the opportunity. "I'll uh…I'll take the human me," Angel offered after Dawn had voiced who she wanted.
Wesley smiled at the souled vampire. "I figured you might."
If Angel were human he would definitely be blushing. As all eyes were on him he desperately hoped that someone else would speak to take the attention off of him. Luckily for him, it wasn't long before his wish was granted.
"I want the Buffy that's with me in her reality," Spike voiced.
"You don't want to have a one-on-one with one of your alternate selves?" Dawn asked with confusion. She had been convinced that all of the four originals would want a one-on-one with their own alternate selves. Angel had already proven that true but now the other souled vampire was contradicting her theory.
"Nah," the bleach blonde vampire responded. "Too creepy if yah ask me. I'd much rather figure out straight from the source why the Buffy of her reality chose me over captain forehead," he added with a smug smile aimed in Angel's direction.
Angel sent the vampire an evil glance, but ultimately decided just to ignore him. Buffy simply rolled her eyes and also decided to ignore the comment. She was too busy trying to decide how she would voice who she wanted to have her one-on-one with without drawing too much attention to why she made that decision.
Clearly jealous about what Spike had just said, Harmony was the next to stake her claim. "I'll take the evil blondie bear," she said with a sensual smile in Spike's direction. "I know just how to get what I need from him," she added in the same implying ton.
Spike raised his eyebrows at the remark and smiled back at her mischievously.
"Well there's a mental image I really could have done without," Faith responded with a disgusted look on her face. Then focusing back on the task at hand she added, "I'll take the none-murderer version of me. I'm kind of curious about what my life would have been like without that whole constant guilt thing hovering over my head."
Although what Faith had said to the others was definitely part of the reason she chose Faith1, she failed to mention how extremely curious she was about how she ended up hooking up with Buffy of all people. That was definitely a piece of information that she hadn't been able to get out of her mind since she first heard it.
Robin nodded his head to Faith as he pulled her closer into his arms. "Right, I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm kind of curious about the last world that we all seem to know the least about. I'll take the Faith from that world if that's alright with everyone."
Before anyone else could respond, Gunn and Connor immerged from Gunn's office to rejoin the rest of the group. "Alright, boss, I gave Connor the short version of what's going on and told him a little bit of what we've found out so far about each of the four realities. Did we miss anything?"
"Actually you have," Wesley answered. "Harmony will be our sixteenth person. We are now in the process of deciding who will have their one-on-ones with whom."
"Cool," Gunn responded. "So who's taken so far?"
"Angel will be with the human Angel, and Dawn will be with the Buffy of that world," Wesley began to explain. "Robin will be with the Faith of the last world that we know the least about, and Spike will be with the Buffy of that world. Faith will be with the Faith from the first world in which she had never become evil, and Harmony will be with the Spike from the vampire world. The rest are all still fair game."
"Nice," Gunn replied. "Well I'd kind of like to take one of the vamps. That Angelus is a pretty interesting storyteller and I'd kind of like to hear the rest of what he started. I'll take him if that's cool."
"You sure you can handle him?" Angel asked. "He'll probably be the hardest one to handle of the four. He's tricky and he'll say anything to get under your skin."
"It's cool Angel," Gunn reassured him. "Angelus and I have met before remember? I know his games. I'll be alright."
Angel nodded his head in consent. "Alright then. If you think you can handle him, he's all yours."
"There's still uh…Angels left, right?" Connor asked in an odd ton. He was still trying to process everything that was going on and it was all a little strange.
"Two left," Fred answered. "There's the Angel from the first world, who we don't really know much about yet, and the Angel from the last world, who we also don't really know much about, but he seems to be the most similar to our Angel. In fact I would imagine that all of the people from the last world are the most similar to our true selves. The change in their world only happened less then a year ago."
"That makes sense," Connor agreed. "I'll take the Angel from the last world then if that's cool with everyone."
"He's all yours," Wesley granted.
"I'm kind of curious about that last world too," Andrew finally spoke. He had been surprisingly silent during the whole conversation, which was a relief to most. "The only one left from that world is Spike right?"
Wesley thought for a moment, and then responded, "Yes I believe so."
"Cool," the blonde boy replied. "Then I will fulfill my duty to this mission by paring up with the Spike of the last world. I will find out everything he knows," he added with determination.
Buffy shook her head and laughed slightly. "Thanks, Andrew," she said with slight sarcasm in her ton, "We appreciate your help."
Andrew, not catching the sarcastic undertone, simply responded, "Happy to help, Buffy."
There were still seven left to be claimed, and the seven who hadn't picked yet all seemed to be deep in thought as to who they would like to talk to. After a few moments of silence, someone finally spoke.
"I guess I'll take one of the mes that are left," Buffy offered. "The vampire one kind of freaks me out though," she added as she scrunched up her face in disgust.
"Right then," Wesley nodded, "You can take the Buffy from the first reality."
The blonde slayer nodded in agreement as she nervously glanced in Faith's direction. "Sounds like a plan." The other slayer had a very good excuse for choosing the person that she chose, but Buffy unconsciously wondered if she hadn't done the same thing that she had just done, made up a different excuse to hide her curiosity.
"I guess I'll take vampire Buffy then," Xander said. "I was tossing around the idea of whether I wanted her or the other Buffy, but since our Buffy doesn't want her vampire self, I'll volunteer for that one. I'd like to see what Angelus meant by his little statement 'they're all human in this world.'"
"Are you sure, Xander?" Buffy asked with a ton of worry. "I don't think she'll be half as bad as Angelus, but she's a vampire and she used to be a slayer. That can't be a good combination."
"I'll be fine," he responded. "I'll stay out of chocking distance and we'll get along just great," he added with a small smile.
"Right, so all of the Buffies are taken care of," Angel began to recap. "We've got two Faiths, two Spikes and one uh…me."
"I'll take the last you, cupcake," Lorne offered. "I don't really know the two girls all that well and although I do know Spike I think I'd be a little more comfortable chatting with your handsome face. No offence, Spike," he added.
Spike simply shrugged his shoulders uncaring. "None taken," he replied.
"So now we have two Faiths and two Spikes left, with three different reality possibilities," Wesley began. "Personally, I'm equally as curious about all of these worlds so I'd be fine with taking whoever is the last unpicked."
"I'm pretty equally as curious as well," Willow agreed, "But I think I'll take the Spike that I'm supposedly 'dating' in his world." The red head actually placed air quotes around the word 'dating' when she said this.
Kennedy didn't look very happy to hear Willow's choice, but it made her feel a little bit better when she heard what Willow added next.
With a slightly disgusted look on her face, Willow added, "I'm dying to know what kind of drugs I was taking when I agreed to that."
Most of the other's laughed at Willow's comment. In fact, almost all of them laughed except for Spike himself. "Hey now, lets not get nasty there red," the blonde vampire chastised.
Ignoring Spike's remark, Kennedy went on to make her decision. "I'll take vampire Faith. That world is just oozing with crazy stories I bet. Plus I think it's the only one left that'll probably have me in it."
"Right then," Wesley nodded. "That simply leaves the Spike and Faith of the second world." He then turned to Fred with a smile. "Which would you like?"
Fred looked to the ceiling as she thought for a moment. "I'll take Spike," she answered. "No offence Faith, but I don't really know you all that well."
"It's no big," the dark haired slayer responded.
"Then I'll take Faith," Wesley concluded. He then breathed a sigh of relief at finally having a game plan. "That should be everyone."
"Right," Angel agreed. "I guess it's time to get started."
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Note: Hey everyone, I know this story can get extremely confusing with the large amount of characters so incase anyone is confused on who had who, here's how it breaks down:
Buffy1 – Buffy
Buffy2 – Dawn
Buffy 3 – Xander
Buffy4 – Spike
Angel1 – Lorne
Angel2 – Angel
Angel3 – Gunn
Angel4 – Connor
Spike1 – Willow
Spike2 – Fred
Spike3 – Harmony
Spike4 – Andrew
Faith1 – Faith
Faith2 – Wesley
Faith3 – Kennedy
Faith4 – Robin
From now it should get a little less confusing because I'll just be focusing on the one-on-ones and most of the content will consist of the stories that the alternate reality Buffies, Angels, Spikes and Faiths will be telling. It'll be set up a lot like the story that Angel3 (or Angelus) told in Chapter 4, Vampire World. Thanks so much for reading and please please please send reviews my way!!!