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!

"So I guess tomorrow is it," Anya said, her arms folded across her chest.

Xander smiled at her and nodded. He picked up another stack of folded shirts and put them in his suitcase.

"And you're going to be back when?" she asked.

Xander sighed. "I still don't know, any more than I did four hours ago, or yesterday, or last week, Ahn. But I'll be back."

"I still don't understand why we can't get married before you leave."

Xander laughed. "You mean other than the fact that it's 2 am and there's no way we could find a justice of the peace to do the ceremony?"

"Yes! I'm sure we could find one, if we went far enough. Las Vegas is only a few hours away!"

Xander sat on the bed and patted the mattress next to him. Anya grudgingly sat next to him, and Xander wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "Ahn, we've been over this. We're not getting married until after we get Buffy back. I promise you I will not die before we get married. I will come back, in one piece, and we will plan the hell out of this wedding."

He stroked her hair lovingly and looked in her eyes. "We're gonna get married. Believe that. But it's not happening now if for no other reason than Buffy would kill me if I got married and she wasn't invited."

Anya sighed. "I know. I just hate waiting."

"I know you do, sweetie. But it's all going to work out fine."

"You promise?"

Xander smiled and kissed her forehead. "I promise." He stood up and started packing more clothes into his suitcase as Anya headed into the bathroom, and he heard the shower turn on. He filled up the suitcase, zipped it up and placed it on the floor next to a couple of other bags and wondered, not for the first time, how exactly one packed for 'the future.'

Xander looked up from his bags just as Anya stepped out of the bathroom wearing… well, nothing. He scanned his eyes down her body greedily. With a determined look on her face, she pointed to the bed.

"Orgasms. Now."

Xander saluted and jumped into the bed. He loved it when she got assertive.

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"I know, we're late, sorry, sorry," Willow apologized as she, Tara and Dawn bustled into the Magic Box hauling Willow's luggage with them. She looked up to see Giles leaning back in a chair at the table, sipping a cup of coffee from the Espresso Pump.

"No need to worry," he said. "You're the first to arrive."

"The first?" Tara asked. "But where are –" Willow nudged Tara with her elbow. "Oh. Right."

"We should get set up," Willow said.

"What?" Dawn asked. "Where are Anya and Xander?"

"I'm sure they'll be here any time now," Tara assured her, smiling calmly.

"Yeah," Willow agreed, almost believably. "Any time. Dawnie, do you want to help me get the symbols aligned correctly, and circles drawn, and candles placed and everything?"

"Sure!" Dawn said, ecstatic to be allowed to help in some way. She picked up Willow's sketch of the designs that needed to be placed on the floor, grabbed a compass and oriented herself toward magnetic north and got to work.

Tara sat next to Giles. "Is Faith coming?"

"If she awakens in time, I imagine she might," he said. "Though she's said nothing to me about it. Not that she's overly talkative with anybody these days. I do sometimes worry that she's purposefully cutting herself off from us, though I suppose I can hardly blame her, what with… circumstances being what they are."

Tara nodded. "Maybe I should call, see if she wants to?" she asked. "Sometimes… people like to be invited."

Giles sipped his coffee again, considering the idea. "I'm not actually certain she's ever answered the telephone."

"Sorry we're late!" Xander said as he dragged his luggage into the store. "Sorry, sorry. Got tied up."

Giles and Tara exchanged a quick glance, but said nothing.

"Xander?" Tara said. "Can I borrow your car for a few minutes? I have a quick errand to run."

Xander looked surprised, but shrugged and tossed his keys to her.

"Sweetie?" Willow asked.

Tara smiled at her and rose. "Just something I need to do."

A few minutes later, Tara was standing outside Giles's door, which she had just knocked on, wondering what she was going to say. The door opened and a half-dressed Faith squinted at her.

"What?" Faith asked.

"Oh, hi," Tara said, a little nervously, averting her eyes from Faith's scantily clad form. "I um… was just wondering if you were coming down to the shop. For the ritual?"

Faith rubbed her eyes. "That's now?"

Tara nodded. "Soon."

Faith turned from the door and waved Tara inside. Tara followed the Slayer inside and waited as Faith went back to her room.

"So what is this thing, anyway?" Faith called out.

"It's um… a ritual to – to send Xander and Willow to a um. A different dimension. The one where Buffy is."

"Can't just bring her back?" Faith asked.

"No," Tara said, shaking her head though Faith couldn't see it. "There's a… a magical barrier around Earth in that dimension. Willow can't penetrate it."

Faith snickered as she re-entered the living room. "Lack of penetration… sounds like it's right up her alley."

Tara blushed a bright red, but smiled shyly.

"So what's the deal? If they can't get to Earth, why are they going at all?"

"There are um… other humans. In a different galaxy. They're going to steal a ship a-and take it to Earth to bring her home."

"Damn," Faith said, shaking her head. She grabbed her cigarettes and slid them into her pocket. "Heaven and Earth, right?"

"Pardon?" Tara asked. Faith led Tara out of the apartment and locked the door behind them. Once outside, she lit up a cigarette.

"Those two, Red and Harris, they'd move Heaven and Earth to help B."

Tara smiled and nodded. "It's nice."

"Nice?" Faith asked acidly. "It's disgusting. They're like lap dogs, doing whatever she says."

"No –"

"I mean, they're somewhat mature, semi-adults. You'd think they'd grow some stones over the years." She spat on the sidewalk and tapped out some ashes. "It's pathetic."

"It's not like that," Tara said.

"And you're okay with this?" Faith asked, ignoring Tara's protestations. "Your girl hopping dimensions to go rescue some little hottie damsel in distress?"

"Why are you doing this?" Tara asked.

"Doing what?" Faith asked.

Tara frowned. "Being mean. Trying to make things sound worse than they are. What's the point of it?"

"Hey, I'm just telling it –"

"No, you're not. You're purposely distorting the truth, to try to be hurtful."

Faith shook her head. "No I'm –"

"Yes, you are," Tara said. "I don't know what your issues with Buffy are, but Willow and Xander are giving up a significant part of their lives to go help their friend. Because they love her. I would never begrudge Willow that, and even though she doesn't seem like it, Anya gets it too."

"Anya ain't happy about it."

"You think I am?" Tara asked. "They're going off to a different dimension to put their lives on the line, they have no idea what they'll face or how long they'll be gone. They know just barely enough about the place to get by. I may support what they're doing… but I'm not happy they have to. "

"I thought that… goddess woman, I dunno, implanted them with all the know-how they'd need."

"They'd need to pass in the society," Tara said. "But she didn't tell them how to find Buffy, how to get to where they need to go, who to trust, how to do… much of anything. Just the basics. And the ability to get there."

Faith flicked the butt of her cigarette into a sewer drain and followed Tara to Xander's car. "That kind of sucks," she said.

Tara nodded.

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Jonathan Levinson looked up from Willow's laptop. He smiled at Willow's girlfriend – and that was something he really hadn't expected – and started to wave when his eye was caught by the woman behind her.

"Hi, Jonathan," Tara said, smiling at him.

"Hi, Tara," Jonathan said. He took one more look at the raven-haired beauty who had walked into the store and set back to work. Xander, Willow and Mr. Giles acknowledged both of them before setting back to their current tasks.

"Thanks again for doing this, Jon," Willow said, looking up from the floor where she and Buffy's sister were drawing some sort of ancient, magical symbols of great power. "I couldn't have finished the program in time if you hadn't agreed to help."

Jonathan shrugged and smiled sheepishly. "It's no problem. It's not like I was really doing anything this summer. You remember Tucker Wells?"

"Sure," Xander said. He was over to one side of the shop with Mr. Giles, discussing weaponry. "He tried to sic some Hell Hounds on the prom Senior year."

"Really? I never heard about that."

"Buffy did her thing," Willow explained.

"Oh," Jonathan said. "Well, anyway, his brother looked me up a couple of days ago, but I think he just wanted to play video games or something. But this is way more important."

"Oh, I didn't know he had a brother," Willow said.

"He's kind of a nerd," Jonathan said, "but all right in the end, I guess."

He missed the amused glance between Willow and Xander.

"Aren't you that kid tried to off himself with a high-powered rifle?" asked the dark-haired girl.

Everyone looked at her, horrified on his behalf.

"You really want to get into past indiscretions?" Xander asked.

"Wasn't sayin' nothing," Faith protested, "just tryin' to remember where I know the kid from."

"A little tact can go a long way," Willow muttered.

Everyone looked like they were about to drop it, but Jonathan decided to be brave.

"I did try that," Jonathan said. "I was… depressed about my life, and I thought nobody cared about me. But, Buffy stopped me, and I've gotten some good help since then."

"Well, I'm glad you're better," Willow told him, smiling.

Jonathan went back to working some bugs out of his program, trying, now that he thought about it, to remember where he knew this girl from. She looked awfully familiar.

Jonathan rewrote a few more lines of code, scratched his head and saved his work, then opened the program itself. A few test scenarios later, he raised his arms victoriously.

"It works!" he announced.

"You fixed it?" Willow asked. "That's great!"

"Yeah, you wanna come try it?"

"That's okay, I trust you," Willow said. "Hey, you wanna stick around for the ritual tonight? There'll be fireworks."

"Yeah, Jon," Xander said. "And if something goes wrong, there's always you to blame."

"He's joking," Willow assured Jonathan, sending a glare at her best friend. "It'll be fun."

Jonathan thought about it for a moment. He still had Andrew Wells's phone number, and the guy said he had some really good homemade D&D adventures. So he could either do that, or stay here with four beautiful women and make magic.

"Sure," he said. "I'd love to."

And then it hit him. He turned to the still-unnamed dark haired girl. "Didn't you used to be in the coma ward at the hospital? How'd that happen?"

Xander groaned. Jonathan looked at him, confused.

"What?" he asked. The others were either shaking their heads or avoiding eye contact with him. "What'd I say?"

----------

It was time. All the preparations were done, symbols were drawn and goodbyes had been both said and kissed. Xander and Willow stood on opposite sides of the circle, nodded at each other and stepped inside of it.

Xander looked around at the others, readjusted his grip on one of his bags and smiled at their friends.

"We'll be fine," he said, his voice more confident than he felt. "Don't let the world end while we're gone."

Suddenly Faith stepped forward from the rear of the shop.

"Hey," she said. Xander cocked an eyebrow at her. Her expression was serious.

"Yeah?" he asked.

Faith licked her lips a little. She nodded once. "Good luck."

Xander smiled at her, then turned to Willow. "Let's do this."

"Wait!" Dawn said. She rushed forward and handed Xander a plush pig. "Just um. Just bring her home?"

"We will, Dawn," Xander promised. Her mouth quirked into a small smile, and she stepped back.

Willow took Xander's free hand in hers, blew a quick kiss to Tara.

"This is going to be quick," she said. "All the details are in the symbols. They just need to be activated and we'll be off. You ready?"

Xander squeezed her hand and smiled. "I'm ready."

Willow took a deep breath and uttered one word. "Citare."

"What does that mean?" Xander asked.

A flash of light erupted in front of them, and they were suddenly in a large grassy area in the middle of night.

"It means start," Willow said.

A huge spaceship roared up into the sky, and Xander squeezed Willow's hand again, just to be sure of her.

"Guess we're there."

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End Chapter 12