Title: From Here to Serenity
Author: Bastard Snow
Rating: PG-13

Summary: Buffy's fall through Glory's portal took her somewhere nobody had ever imagined. Now, it's up to Willow and Xander to get her back.

Disclaimer: I don't own either of these.

Author's Notes: Much, much thanks to Drake, without whom this story would not exist. Also, obviously, thanks to Joss Whedon for coming up with two universes that have nothing to do with each other. Makes it a challenge to make them have everything to do with each other.

Feedback: Yes, please!

"Where did you get these coordinates?" Wash asked. Xander watched him punch the coordinates in manually. Though Wash said he had done it many times before, it was still no easy feat. These days, all coordinate updates were done automatically, by connecting with the Cortex. After all, the only reasons somebody would need to enter their own coordinates were exploration (which was not done in cargo ships like Serenity) and various illegal doings (which were done almost exclusively in cargo ships like Serenity).

"Got 'em from someone I know." It was not technically a lie, as Willow had given him the paper with the coordinates written on it.

"We often get things from people we know. Like this one time, I was eating some food in the mess, and Jayne gave me this nice, big bruise, right on my shoulder."

"Awfully considerate of him."

"Wasn't the only one wanted to do it," added Mal. He was watching over Wash's shoulder as the pilot finished entering the coordinates. "And you're lucky it was just your shoulder, not your eye or somethin'."

"Aww, Mal. You know Jayne's too afraid of Zoë to really hurt me."

"Yeah. That makes about a thousand of us," muttered Mal.

Wash punched a few last buttons on the screen. "Okay. That should do it. The location comes up on the screen and…"

Mal frowned. "That's the middle of nowhere. Way out on the spiral arm, ain't nothin' even special about the place. Hell, there ain't even a star there, accordin' to the chart."

"Oh, there's a star there. And two more special things. My friend, and the birthplace of the human race. And anyway, what do you care? We're paying."

Mal glanced at him. "Reason I care is because I gotta protect my ship, and my crew. That comes before everything else. How do I know you ain't got a buncha Reavers out there waitin' for us?"

"You don't. Same way we don't know you won't take our stuff, kill us, and throw us out the airlock."

"I wouldn't do that."

Xander adjusted his arm in its sling. "And we wouldn't ambush you with Reavers. You're just gonna have to trust us."

Wash held a finger up to be recognized. "It is the wrong side of known space for Reaver territory."

"It's in known space?" Xander asked.

Wash shook his head. "A few systems out of. Known space goes out pretty far past civilized space, and we're going out past that, so it's not like a trip around the block. Anyway, Reavers are still pretty far away from there."

Mal tapped the screen a few times, bringing up different portions of the map. "Well, we'll have to refuel again, once we hit that mining colony."

"Actually, we can get all the way out there on what we've got," Wash pointed out.

"I wanna make sure we can get back, too. Okay, Wash, I guess it's time to make for Earth."

Wash tossed a lazy salute. "Yes, sir."

Mal turned to Xander. "Care for a snack? I'd love to pick your brain about what you expect to find out there."

Xander grinned. "Eating is one thing I'm always up for." He and the captain made the short walk back to the mess, where they found Willow and Shepherd Book discussing religion.

Mal listened in for a few moments as he retrieved a couple glasses of water and some protein bars. He put one of each down in front of Xander and pulled up a chair across the table from them.

"She must know her stuff if she's talkin' to him about religion. What do you folks practice?"

"Willow… she kind of picks and chooses. Mostly, uh… Jewish and Wicca."

Mal raised an eyebrow. "Not familiar with Wicca."

Xander shrugged. "It's kind of a fringe thing, I guess, but it's very good hearted."

Mal nodded and bit into his protein bar. "What about yourself?"

Xander took a sip of his water. "Not much for practicing."

"Lack of faith?" Mal asked.

Xander shook his head. "Overabundance of proof."

"Oh?"

"Do you believe in the existence of dogs?" Xander asked. Mal looked at him oddly. "Right. You don't have to. Same deal, more or less. I know there's a God, I'm just not sure if I like the guy. Just because He came up with creation doesn't mean He's nice."

Mal stared at him for a moment. "That's an interesting way of looking at things. Don't suppose you'd be willin' to share any of this 'proof'?"

Xander smiled. "Wouldn't believe me if I told you. Maybe when we get to Earth, you'll find some proof of your own."

"So what do you believe in? Man's gotta believe in something, otherwise he's not rightly a man."

Xander nodded as he chewed up some vaguely meat flavored protein. "I have a very strong faith in my friends, and the ability of man to choose to do the right thing. I also believe in being prepared in case man doesn't."

Mal nodded. "There's sense in that, I think." He paused for a moment and seemed to be considering his words carefully. "So, you think there'll be anything out there worth selling? More'n a few folk's have gone out searchin' and not come back, or come back broke."

Xander leaned back in his chair and thought for a moment. "Humpback whales and Captain Kirk."

Mal looked at him blankly.

"Okay. Star Trek, not well known. I can accept that. Umm, I think we'll find some weird stuff… some weirder stuff… and my friend. To be honest, though, and maybe I should have mentioned this earlier, I think that this is going to be very dangerous. It's actually possible we might die."

Mal put down his protein bar. "I ain't scared of a fight, but I only fight for the right reasons. What's there's got you itchin' to go?"

Xander shrugged. "My friend is there."

"And that's it. Just… your friend?"

Xander looked him in the eye. "'Just' makes it sound small. It's not. It's my friend."

Mal nodded. "Well, I guess we'll just have to deal with the danger when we come to it."

"That's generally how it goes, yeah."

Mal nodded again. "So. Do you think we'll find some artifacts? Of any value?"

Xander shrugged. "I don't know."

"I wouldn't be surprised," Willow answered. She smiled sheepishly when they both looked at her, surprised. "Sorry, I don't mean to eavesdrop but Shepherd Book had to go and do something… with his hair?"

Mal laughed. "It's a chore and a half. But you were saying?"

Willow smiled and dropped into the chair next to Xander. "It's just, for a long time human beings have had a propensity for saving artifacts connecting them to their ancestors. Museums, personal collections, even just people saving things in their homes, all are ways of storing keepsakes. The fact that people in known space are willing to pay so highly for artifacts from Earth shows just how much people value their history, even if they know very little about it."

Mal nodded thoughtfully. "So there's likely to be some."

Willow smiled. "Yup. But I wouldn't be surprised if they want to keep them as much as you want to take them."

Xander laid his cup down on the table, having drained it. "Well. Doc said I should get some rest, so I'm gonna go lie down in my cabin for a while. And Captain… thank you."

"For what?" Mal asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Taking us to Earth. I know it's not uh… well, even for what we're giving you, a lot of people wouldn't do it. So thanks."

Mal shrugged. "I'm not opposed to helpin' a fella out once in a while."

"As long as he pays?" Xander asked.

Mal smiled. "Just a bonus." He paused, considered, and continued. "'Course, sometimes I am opposed to helpin' a fella out. That's where money comes in."

Xander nodded, reached across with his good arm and patted Willow on the shoulder, then headed for his bunk, lay down, and went to sleep.

----------

"Not good. Not good not good not good not good."

Simon looked up from his journal, and Xander and Willow from the odd card game they were trying to teach to Kaylee and the Shepherd. For some reason, it dealt with a fish, and an exchanging of cards by rotating request. He couldn't quite figure out the draw of it.

"What's not good, sweetie?" Kaylee asked, concentrating on the game at hand.

River was looking out the view ports and hugging herself tightly. She sounded scared. "This place. This place is bad. They're here. They're here and they're going to stop us."

"Who's here?" Simon asked, concerned. Sometimes his sister's ramblings were nonsense, but she seemed to have an odd faculty for, as crazy as it seemed, knowing things that she couldn't possibly know.

"They're coming for me, Simon. They're coming for me and they're going to want all of us." Her voice was high and panicky. She sank down against the wall and hugged her knees to her chest. "Two-by-two, hands of blue. Two-by-two, hands of blue. They're going to come."

Simon was moving to his sister when she pointed directly at Xander and Willow. "You know," she whispered. "What they are. You see them. You know. Hands of blue, two-by-two."

Xander and Willow exchanged a glance as the others looked at them warily.

Simon embraced his sister. "River. Stay calm, mei-mei. Nobody's going to get you."

"No." Simon could feel her shaking. She was still pointing at Xander and Willow. "You'll stop them."

"That's an interesting statement," observed Mal. He was standing at the entrance to the mess. "She all right?"

Simon nodded. "I think so. I'm just going to take her down to –"

"No. I want to stay here. I feel fine," she insisted.

Simon smiled sheepishly at the captain. He was still amazed at how quickly his sister could go from seeming insanity to complete lucidity.

"What did you mean, River?"

River lowered her arm and hugged her legs some more. Simon shrugged helplessly.

Mal nodded, and looked to Xander and Willow. "You two have any idea?"

They shook their heads.

"Does she often have… um… outbursts like that?" Xander asked.

"Occasionally," Simon admitted.

"Does she talk about the future much?" asked Willow.

Simon looked to the captain for guidance, but he shrugged, indicating that it was Simon's decision. Simon looked to both Book and Kaylee, and found support, but no advice.

Simon cleared his throat and affected what he thought of as his 'doctor' voice. "Some. Most of the time, she's completely lucid, like now. She knows what's going on, she knows… she acts fine. Other times, she babbles. Incoherent, words stringed together that don't make sense. And then once in a while, she says something like that. She… knows things that she shouldn't. Couldn't. She… says things about the future, or the past."

Xander and Willow exchanged another glance.

Kaylee regarded them. "Y'all know more than you're lettin' on."

"We don't know anything," Xander insisted.

"But, we might have an idea," admitted Willow.

Mal shook his head. "Just who in the hell are you?"

Xander smiled at him. "You wouldn't believe us"

"Well try me. I'm pretty gullible."

"Captain," Xander began, "if we told you the truth, you would think we were crazy. If we told you the story we made up, you wouldn't believe us. I can tell you honestly we mean you and your crew no harm."

"But we might be able to help," Willow added.

"I don't like secrets on my boat," Mal told them. "And I'm wondering now whether goin' out to this place is such a good idea."

Simon scanned the faces in the room. Mal was obviously worried, Kaylee was trying not to show her absolute disbelief, and Shepherd Book was… well, he looked intrigued.

"But," Mal continued, "seein' as you're not the only ones here got secrets, and y'all ain't shown signs of tryin' to get us killed, I suppose we can give you the benefit of the doubt."

Book rose from his seat. "Excuse me. I suddenly feel the urge to… collect some readings."

"Shepherd?" Mal asked.

He opened his mouth, and for about the first time Simon had ever seen, Book looked flustered. "I have to… read a few things. But please don't make any rash decisions. I believe these two young people are of pure intentions. I … have things to check."

Mal frowned even more, but nodded.

Willow pointed toward the guest cabins. "I… actually, we should check some things, too."

"We should?" Xander asked, surprised.

Willow nodded. "Hands of blue sounds familiar." Xander looked confused. "Research familiar," Willow added.

Xander moaned. "And here I thought we got away from that."

"So, what's going on?" Simon asked. He wasn't exactly sure what had just happened.

"In a very round-about way," Xander said, "we're trying to help your sister."

"Oh. Good."

River gazed at them, her eyes wide. "You'll do it. You have the answer."

Xander and Willow looked at her. Xander's head drooped. "Yeah. We probably do."

----------

"She sounds like her," Willow commented. They were in her room on Serenity, researching.

"Who sounds like who?" Xander asked. He was flipping through the pages of one of the few research books they had brought. Giles was only willing to entrust them with the ones that they had replicas of, but that was generally okay because those were the ones most often used. They contained the more common demons.

"River. She sounds like Drusilla."

Xander agreed. "Less with the death and dolls, but I see the resemblance. You think she's got some of that? Dru was pretty crazy."

"I don't know. But it's possible." Willow tapped away at the keys of her laptop. "I really need to upgrade the search protocols of this database."

There was a knock at the door.

Willow sighed in frustration and hit a couple of keys to close the windows on her screen. "Come in."

The door slid open and Shepherd Book stepped inside.

"What can we do for you?" Xander asked, closing his text.

"I think the question is, what can I do for you?" Book slid the door closed behind him.

"I'm sorry?" Willow asked.

The shepherd pulled a Cortex reader from behind his back and began reading from it. "And with the spilling of the blood of an innocent from a rickety tower, fifty feet in the air, the sky was rent. Monsters spat forth as if from the ether. And though she slew Glorificus, the day was not to be hers." Xander and Willow sat up a little straighter. "The Slayer made the ultimate sacrifice, and with it, she saved the world. But not for the last time."

Willow and Xander sat in stunned silence. That was almost exactly what had happened a couple of months ago. Except that –

"Wait, she didn't die," Xander protested.

"She did," said Book. "I assure you, she did."

"How did you know who we were?" Willow asked.

"I guessed. I should have guessed earlier, it just never occurred to me. However, I thought it more likely that you were… there are coincidences of the spirit and the flesh that man cannot account for. I dismissed your true identities as an impossibility."

"How did you know about our 'true identities'?" Xander asked. "I mean, what, are we famous?"

Book regarded him carefully. "Within certain circles, yes. The two of you… are friends of the Slayer. Of Buffy Summers."

Willow nodded. "Yeah. Best friends."

Book's voice was full of awe. "The two of you, here. Willow Rosenberg. I should have recognized you from the descriptions alone. And Alexander Harris."

"Just Xander, thanks."

"You would have been harder to peg."

"Why?" asked Willow.

"Because you still have both your eyes."

"I what?"

"He WHAT?"

"Please," said Book. "I think… I think if we talk some things through, we can understand what has happened. Maybe if we're all well informed, we can make better decisions. Perhaps… I'm sorry, I'm still a little overwhelmed by all of this. Perhaps you could begin by… telling me how you're here?"

Willow nodded. "The long and short of it is, we're from a different dimension. Where Buffy jumped through the portal and got sent here. She didn't die."

"Yeah," Xander added. "Let's go back to that disturbing little bit of information."

"Her death only lasted for a few months," Book assured them.

"It what? But you said she died." Xander was confused.

"Yes, but," Book paused. "It was not a natural death. And your powers as a Wicca came in… very handy."

"Okay," Willow said, waiting for an explanation. "How do you know this much about us? It's been, what, five hundred years?"

"Four hundred eighty three years since man left Earth and headed out for the stars. You would call this 2517. And the reason I know of you, is because of my job."

"I thought you were like a priest," Xander said.

Book nodded once, solemnly. "I am. But originally, on Earth, we were known by a different name."

Xander and Willow waited silently, and Book smiled.

"We were called Watchers."

----------

End Chapter 6