Whatever happened, their world turned into a sci-fi nightmare. None of them knew how anything worked. It took all four of them an hour to open the door, only to find that they were infringing on the space of a family of cyborgs.
Outside Buffy gasped. "It smells so nice."
"It does, but we've got big problems." Oz took in their surroundings. "We don't exactly fit in."
Angel and Xander said the same thing at the same time. "They're all robots."
"Well parts of them are." Oz noticed all the biological bits on the people staring at them. They weren't menacing, but they were all surprised to see people without metal bits.
"Is this even Earth?" Buffy asked.
"Well the foliage looks like Earth," Oz said as they all swiveled their heads around to take it all in.
Xander had a war going on in his heart. His inner sci-fi nerd was ecstatic, but his wife wasn't here and her loss took all the wonder and joy out of things. They had no place in this world and while he'd love the challenge, without Margret he didn't want to bother.
Angel didn't think he'd see this kind of world so soon. The buildings were metal and glass with green tiles covering half them. The pavement was made of some material he'd never seen. This was a metropolitan and yet there was plant life everywhere. The air smelled of dozens of different types of flowers. The cars made soft sounds like a cat's purr, and the bubbling noise was water and people talking in a language he'd never heard but reminded him of the Gaelic he'd grown up with.
Buffy couldn't take her eyes off the clothing. Some people wore next to nothing while others were covered head to toe, and yet they all looked comfortable and gorgeous at the same time. There wasn't a high heel in sight, and the more she absorbed the more she saw that the metal parts of the people here were perfect. Everything here was both ornamental and functional at the same time. There were sleek and minimal in their designs stuff, and other complex and intricate things with everything in between too. This place for all its science felt magical.
Oz took it all in stride since no one attacked them or said anything to them. "This could be cool."
Anya and Giles sat in the middle of the square, finding it amazing that no one appeared to be oppressed suddenly. The technology was far beyond what either of them had ever seen before.
"Huh," Anya said. "I think someone ended up really really far back. Willow probably since she's got that eidetic memory."
"But why the change? Wouldn't the world have been like this already if she ended up that far back?" The eyes on them weren't threatening, so he ignored them.
"Something magic happened. Could be anything. A witch, or a demon, or she killed the wrong demon, or she hit a thin spot and got sucked back." Anya sighed. "So what do we do now?"
"We need to blend in."
"Why? No one seems to care that we don't look like we belong here."
A person of indiscernible gender approached them and said something. They smiled in a questioning manner, but Anya and Giles did not understand what they were trying to say.
The communication devolved into pantomiming until Anya figured out what the person was trying to say. "They want to know if we need help. And we do so maybe we should go with them?"
Giles rubbed his forehead. "They could be luring us into a trap."
"Well what do you propose?"
"I don't know."
"They're friendly. We should see where they take us. If it looks suspicious, we'll bolt." Anya nodded at the person and pulled Giles along as she followed them down the gleaming street.
The Wills sat in their mansion, wide awake and eating ice cream. Spike asked, "How'd you two remember all that stuff?"
"Eidetic memory." The Willows said in unison.
"And more time reading than doing anything else." Will said, her hair still short and her bionic eyes gleaming. "The only reason I couldn't skip grades was because I spent so much time studying things that weren't for class."
"Are we the only demons left in the world, you think?" Spike asked.
"Mostly. Angel's probably around somewhere, but the Old Ones are still in their tombs. And then there's the random portals." Willow sighed. "But we're better than we ever were before, don't you think?"
"We're perfect now and getting more perfect with every upgrade." Spike grinned. "Who thought me with white hair would be even sexier."
Will groaned. "Still cocky as ever though." She flung ice cream into his face.
He wiped it off and licked his fingers. "Mm, raspberry, perhaps I should eat yours too."
The Willows laughed. "Still trying to get into our knickers?" the vampiress asked.
"Isn't he always?" Will asked.
"I'll get there someday, mark my word."
"In your dreams."
"So what say we search for the others again? It's been a few centuries since last we looked."
"Whatever you want, Will." Willow licked Will's fingers clean. "Just don't forget about us. We're family these days."
"Even though I haven't let you kill anyone since offing the Master?" Will asked her tone coy.
"Whatever you did to us to make us not want to anymore, worked, so shh, and let me take care of my girl." Willow licked her cool saliva up Will's neck to her ear. "Should we let William watch?"
Will giggled. "Why not. It's as close as he'll ever get to heaven."
Sunnydale: Modern Times
Angel felt them before he saw them. Vampires, the first he'd encountered since the big change. Buffy felt them too. Her body on alert in that Slayer way for the first time in over a century.
When Spike and two Willows walked into view, Buffy's jaw dropped and her heart soared. "Willow!"
The two old friends ran to each other, metal parts clinking as they crashed into an embrace. "Buffy!"
Xander heard the commotion and came running. "Willow!"
More metal clanging and hugging. "You changed the world!"
"Oz figured out it was you almost immediately," Angel said. "You're the only other one with a photographic memory. So what's with the vamps?"
"Well, Willow turned Spike into Spike when we first showed up in England. But when we ended up at the end of the Old Ones' reign, I had the time and inclination to tame them. Can't use magic but I was a science girl long before I ever knew magic existed. Where is Oz?"
"Right here." He said from behind Willow.
Their greeting while also an embrace was more subdued. "Missed you wolfy." She kissed his cheek.
"Missed you too."
"Any word on Giles and that Anya person?" Buffy asked.
"No. We were hoping we'd all have the same thought and meet up here today." Will said. "This is the day and place we did the spell that sent us back."
Xander smiled. "I told you she'd think of it!"
"Well we've known each other since kindergarten, Xander. And any time we ever got separated, we met back up where we'd last saw each other." Will punched him in the shoulder. "I'm just glad you didn't forget."
"Never."
"Oh balls, they're all here like you said they would be, Rupes." Anya's venom was undercut with her grin.
Giles pulled Buffy into his arms first. "How have you been?"
"Things were rough for a while, but Willow here created paradise, so other than missing my friends and family, I've been great." Buffy didn't want to let go.
"Has anyone else noticed that there aren't any shrimp here?" Oz asked.
"You noticed that too?" Will smiled.
"I figured that out forever ago. It's a dimensional thing." Anya shrugged.
The long lost friends and enemies went to a restaurant to catch up, smiling and laughing the entire time.