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!

"She's here," River said.

The door opened and revealed Buffy. Xander smiled when he saw her hesitate. She wasn't expecting him. He grinned. "Heya, Buff," he said. "How's tricks?"

Her eyes narrowed to mere slits.

"I'll give you this," she said. "Whatever you are, you're good at copying my friends."

"Thanks," he said.

"Not going to try to convince me you're who you look like?"

Xander shrugged. "You'll convince yourself, eventually, and you're not gonna trust anything I just tell you, anyway. So I'm going to let you run the show, and prove to you that I am Alexander… Lavelle Harris."

Buffy raised an eyebrow. "Who's the girl?"

"Her name's River Tam," Xander said. "And she's a Slayer."

"There hasn't been a Slayer called in 500 years."

"Certainly not on this planet."

Buffy frowned. "If she's a Slayer, why hasn't she gotten out of those cuffs? They're not that tough."

"I asked her not to," Xander said. "Once you realize that we are who we say we are, we won't be in any danger here. But if you need a demonstration…" He nodded to River.

With a slight flexing of her muscles, River snapped the chain between the cuffs and brought her hands around the front of her chair, but remained seated.

"The first words you said to me," Buffy demanded.

"Can I have you?"

"Senior Prom."

"Tucker Wells," Xander said.

"Not what I was going to ask."

"Sorry."

"I was given an award."

"Class protector."

"Are you going to let me get there?"

"Sorry," Xander said. "But you're taking a while, and the cuffs chafe a little."

"Who gave me the award?"

Xander smiled. "Jonathan Levinson. Who had previously asked you to prom after you stopped him from killing himself with a high powered rifle, which you were able to do because you had recently gained telepathy from a demon – and I can't remember what demon, sorry – and were then fed the heart of that demon's buddy by your then-boyfriend, Angel."

"My pig."

"Mr. Gordo."

"Why did Willow break up with you when you were five?"

"I stole her Barbie."

"What base did you get to with Cordelia?"

"I never told you," he said, smiling. "But third."

She knelt down in front of him. "What did you say to me in the Bronze when I was just starting college?"

Xander looked down at her and straight into her eyes. "When it's dark, and I'm all alone, and I'm scared, or freaked out, or whatever, I think, 'What would Buffy do?' You're my hero."

Buffy closed her eyes, and he could see tears leaking from her eyes. "Xander," she whispered.

"Buff," he said. "Could you uncuff me? I'd kind of like to hug you now."

Buffy laughed through her tears, reached behind him, snapped the chain on the cuffs and he immediately swept her up in a huge bear hug, holding her as close as he could. "Okay, sometimes, I think, 'What is Buffy wearing?'" he whispered.

He felt her laughing as he held her in his arms. He put her back down on the floor, and she smiled brightly up at him. "Let's get you out of those cuffs. How did you get here?"

"That is a long and crazy story," he said. "But basically, this isn't our future. This is an alternate dimension, and we hopped over here to bring you back."

"Well, it's not a nice place you've hopped to," she said. "There's a huge demonic presence here, and we're only just starting to push – wait, did you say we?"

Xander grinned.

"The best of friends," Inara said, rubbing her wrists slightly as she watched Buffy Summers, the Chosen One, crying like a giddy little girl, hugging her friends and refusing to let go of their hands even for a moment.

"This is an historic occasion," Book agreed. "As much as I've read about them, it's sometimes hard to remember how young they are."

Mal stepped up beside him. "Damn. You know, honestly, I still wasn't sure that this whole thing was real, but… once I saw how she responded when you called her Buffy… I mean, that name is something I could never dream up."

"Excuse me, ma'am," said a young man who Mal thought was taking his life in his hands by interrupting this Buffy woman. He looked around the room, and was surprised to find River and Jayne leaning against a wall together. Zoë was inspecting their weapons, making sure they hadn't been tampered with.

"Everybody gear up," Buffy said, her tears now dry and her face hard again. Xander headed over to the table where their weapons were laid out and picked up his sword, his hatchet and his gun.

"Where are we going?" Mal asked, stepping up.

Buffy regarded them warily, and Xander placed his hand on her shoulder. "They're good people, Buff. If they can help, we should let them."

Buffy nodded. "Saddle up," she said. "We'll fill you in on the way."

They piled into a small school bus with windows that were, with the exception of the windshield, blacked out. They were in the first of a line of three buses.

"How do you guys keep these things running?" Xander asked.

Buffy shook her head. "No idea. They must have a wizard of a mechanic or something, but they keep them going."

"So what's this situation we're headed into?" Mal asked.

Buffy nodded. "The demons are making a large push against our forces about twenty miles west of our base. We've got people on the ground who are holding them off, but they don't seem to be able to push them back. The demons' attacks have grown frenzied in the past few weeks, and we're not really sure why. Luckily, they haven't been able to push us back, either."

She pulled out a rough, hand drawn map and started pointing.

"This area here is where our forces are. They're a little more spread out than we'd like, but they're holding. The demons came in from the northwest in huge numbers, and are throwing themselves against our defenses."

"What defenses?" Mal asked.

"We have two walls up at all times," Buffy said, "about half a mile apart. For every half-mile we take, we leapfrog the back wall, then reinforce. Obviously, we're also constantly extending the wall, until we reach a city. When that's done, we sweep the city. Clear it out completely, and reinforce it until the wall can be extended around it. We're approaching D.C. now, and should be there by the end of the month."

"What's the terrain we're facing?" Zoë asked.

"Largely forest land," she said. "It's not the dense forest of a jungle, but it's definitely largely wooded. There are a lot of areas where it's easy to get ambushed, but also a lot of clearings."

"What kind of demons?" Xander asked

Buffy shook her head. "All kinds. They used to split up and attack by faction, but apparently since pretty soon after I showed up, they've abandoned that and are now just attacking together. Polgaras, Fyarls, vampires, hell hounds, Nahdreh, Dursler beasts, Grimslaws, Howlers, Yarbney… I even killed another Toth, though there don't seem to be a lot of them around. But yeah, it's a cornucopia, as Giles would say. How…"

"Giles is fine," Willow assured her. "So is Dawn. And Tara and Anya. And even, God help us, Spike."

Buffy nodded and took a deep breath.

"Uh, one more thing," Xander said.

"What?"

Xander smiled. "I'm engaged."

Buffy's eyes bugged out. "Xander! Oh my god!" She leapt at him and threw her arms around his neck. "Congratulations! When is the wedding?"

"Haven't set a date," he said. "Haven't set anything except that it's happening."

"Oh my god, that's so great," she said. "And a little weird."

Xander nodded. "And a little weird. But what have I done that wasn't?"

"Fair enough," she said. A little red light began blinking at the front of the bus. "We're almost there. Arm yourselves."

Everybody strapped on their gear.

"Hey, Willow," Buffy said as she pulled on her sword belt. "Were you always this… glowy?"

Willow sighed. "Apparently not. Everybody's been commenting."

"And is everything okay with that?" Buffy asked. "I don't remember where glowyness is on my chart of magically mystical mumbo jumbo."

"It's fine," Willow said with a sly smile. "It's all fine."

A minute later, the bus stopped and they all got out.

"I don't see any fighting," Mal said, looking at the large wooden wall in front of them. It was maybe twelve feet high and made of huge shaved logs that were sharpened to points at the top.

"This is the back wall," Buffy said. "We've still got half a mile to the outer wall, but the buses can't get through. And after that, we've still got about another half mile until we come to the fight. We're going to be coming up from behind the demons and trying to catch them in crossfire."

Around them, about sixty more people were strapping on weapons and armor.

Buffy started moving to the left, towards what looked like the outline of a door. "I hope you guys brought your running shoes," she said. She flung the door open and started running. The other troops just shook their heads and followed as best they could.

"Damn," said Mal. "Guess we better get on, then."

The crew from Serenity started running, and River quickly outpaced them, leaving them behind and passing the troops as well.

"Why do I suddenly feel inadequate?" Mal asked as they ran.

"Because you just got beat by two girls who weigh less combined than you do," Xander said. "Don't worry. You get used to it."

Xander glanced to his right and saw Willow barely keeping up.

"You gonna make it?" he asked.

In response, her feet lifted off the ground and she shot forward.

Xander laughed. "Showoff."

A few minutes later, they had stopped at the base of a hill, on the other side of which they could hear the battle.

"Our people are holding them off," their radio man said, "but in about the last ten minutes they've had to engage hand-to-hand, so we're not going to be able to use ranged weapons."

To a man, the troops started abandoning their guns and crossbows.

"Give us five minutes," Buffy said to a young man who appeared to be somewhat in charge. "We'll circle around to the other side and catch the demons in a pincer. Give me the flare."

The young man handed her the flare gun. "Just this group, ma'am?"

"We'll be fine. Five minutes."

She signaled to the Serenity crew to follow, then took off into the forest.

"Keepin' up, Shepherd?" Mal asked.

"I'll be fine," Book said, panting. "Just take care of yourself."

Mal nodded, and a few minutes later they were on the other side of the battle.

"Everyone here?" Buffy asked. Xander did a quick head count and nodded.

"Okay," Buffy said. "Now for most of you, this is going to be unlike any fight you've ever been in. Remember to stay close together. If something doesn't look human, kill it."

She turned to River. "Are you ready for this?"

River looked at her. "Are you?"

Buffy laughed. "Okay," she said. "Let's do this." She lifted the flare gun toward the sky and fired, then dropped the gun and the whole group charged.

Mal watched in stunned awe as Xander, Buffy and Willow moved through the demons. At first he had concentrated on River, on keeping her safe. He had, after all, promised the doctor he'd take care of her. But she seemed perfectly capable of taking care of herself, and Mal more than once found himself almost overwhelmed by the sheer insanity of the scene before him. Men, human men, were fighting real, actual demons.

It seemed like there should have been some sort of announcement.

In any event, Mal had turned from watching River's back to watching his own, and in doing so had gotten turned around and seen his newest acquaintances in action. And what a sight it was. They each had a role, they each knew it and played it to almost to perfection.

Willow was the firepower. Long distance. She picked off demons like a sniper, only a sniper who shot fire and magic and all sorts of craziness instead of bullets. As he watched, a little ball of light left each of her hands. One of the balls zoomed straight ahead, plowing into and through the chest of a demon that was rushing her. The demon fell dead in its tracks. The other ball circled around her defensively, waiting for something to approach. As Mal turned his head to see more action, a blast of flame shot from Willow's hand and incinerated a couple of demons that were approaching Buffy and Xander.

Buffy and Xander, who were taking on another group of demons on their own. Xander was doing little more than holding the demons off, keeping them away from Buffy's back. Buffy was, as quickly as she could, dispatching the demons in front of her. Each demon was a battle in and of itself, but her speed and power were unlike anything he'd ever seen.

His eyes unable to turn, Mal saw Buffy decapitate one demon and eviscerate another in the space of a few seconds. Without a word, she and Xander moved in unison. He allowed another demon entry into the melee and stepped aside so Buffy could kill it as he shifted to continue holding back the others. Hold and attack. Hold and attack. Over and over until the group was gone, and then they moved on to a new group.

And they hadn't seen each other in months.

Mal shook his head, turned and blasted an approaching demon in the face with his pistol, and thought not for the first time that if he was going to keep doing this, he needed to learn how to use weapon that didn't need reloading.

"It's a thing o' beauty!" Jayne said, nodding at the new battle Buffy, Xander and Willow had engaged themselves in.

"It's a well-oiled machine," Book said. "A knowledge of each other gained through years of working and fighting together, and a complete trust that each member will hold up their end of the deal."

The Serenity crew cleared an area around them, and watched the three best friends at work. Willow sent a wave of flame towards the group surrounding Buffy and Xander. At the last possible second, Buffy handed her axe to Xander, grabbed him by his shoulders and jumped the two of them out of the way of the fire. They landed together, and immediately started finishing off the demons that hadn't completely died yet, as Willow erected a wall of solid, shimmering air around them to keep them, for the moment, safe.

Zoë shook her head. "Wow."

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End Chapter 17