Chapter Six

"Report." Kathryn ordered as she stepped off the turbolift. Tuvok stepped off right behind her and made his way over to his console.

"It looks like the town is collapsing in on itself." Chakotay told her.

The landmass that looked like Sunnydale was indeed collapsing. It fell in on itself, faster and faster, until it broke apart completely, disintegrating into the pale green nebula surrounding them. In its place, a ball of energy began to form, pulsing almost hypnotically. Unable to look away, the bridge crew watched as the ball grew larger and the pulses grew steadily stronger, until they were suddenly blinded by a bright flash of pale green light. By the time their vision cleared, they were looking at clear space and Dawn was on the bridge next to the Captain.

"Status, Harry." Janeway requested. "Where are we?"

Shaking his head to get rid of the halo effect that the flash caused and brought up the information. "Captain, we're another 15,000 light years closer to the Alpha Quadrant."

Kathryn's brow raised as she turned to Dawn, only to be met with a completely innocent smile. "Shall we go speak with Buffy and the others, Admiral?" Dawn asked in the odd new language.

"Yes, I think we should." Kathryn answered, wondering vaguely if she was speaking in Standard or that new language. "Chakotay, you have the bridge."

Dawn followed her to the turbolift. Neither spoke until they reached Sickbay, where the Voyager crew gathered watched as the young brunette ran across the room and leapt into her sister's arms. The others quickly gathered around the siblings as they all launched into a rapid conversation so fast that even Kathryn couldn't keep up. She watched them for a moment, then turned to Lt. Ro.

"Laren, return to the bridge. Inform the senior staff that there will be a briefing in twenty minutes."

"Aye, Captain."

"Also, send your men back to their regular posts." Kathryn raised her hand when Laren opened her mouth. "You can leave two of them outside of Sickbay if it will make you feel better, but aggressive posturing and guns make them very nervous. That's not a good thing on any kind of day."

Ro Laren studied the Captain's expression, and finally nodded. With an almost unnoticeable signal, she dispersed her men. Almost immediately, the palpable tension in the room eased. The girls stopped glancing over their shoulders and concentrated on the Summers sisters. Turning back to them, Kathryn noticed that a few faces were missing.

"Dawn, where are Kennedy, Lenora and Michelle."

It was Willow who answered. "Kennedy refused to come when she found out that this had been set up mainly for Buffy. Lenora was killed a few years ago, and Michelle refused to leave her family. This is only about a third of the Slayers that were active at the time. The others chose to stay behind. Danáe, Kylie, Sadie and the other three guys are the witches that chose to come with us. Mike was a Marine with magic ability. He came along to be with his little sister."

"Buffy, I need you to keep them all calm while I talk to my people." Kathryn said, moving through the girls to stand next to Buffy so that she could be seen and heard over the others. She began absently running her fingers through Buffy's hair. "I know you're going to start getting antsy soon, when we return, I'll take you all to the holodeck to stretch your legs."

Buffy nodded. "Do they know, Admiral?"

"Only Tuvok and Seven." Kathryn murmured. Without conscious volition, she used her nails on Buffy's scalp, causing a subvocal purr that vibrated through her.

The Doctor, watching the uncharacteristic actions in silence, pointed his tricorder at her back and ran a quick scan.

"Is there a problem, Doctor?" Kathryn asked without turning.

"Not at all." He answered blithely. "I just thought I'd take advantage of your immobility and check you over. That was quite a beating you took and, although I was told that you had been healed by the entity, I'm still your doctor, and I'd like to make sure of it."

"And what did you find?"

"You're fine." He said absently as he rechecked his readings. "Actually, you're better than fine. All indications of previous injuries are completely gone. I'd like to run a deeper scan if we have the time."

"Is it important?"

"That's what I'd like to determine." He waved to her a nearby bed. "This won't take long. I can do the scan, and review the results, then transfer my holo-matrix into the briefing room."

"Fine, Doctor." Kathryn sighed impatiently. "Let's just get it over with."

She laid on the bio-bed and watched as the outer shell closed over her. The scan only took a few minutes, but it was enough to start the girls grumbling. They understood the doctor was examining Kathryn but not exactly how, and to them it looked like their friend was being held down. Like Buffy, many of them had been hospitalized after they'd started exhibiting strange and erratic behavior, before the Scoobies managed to get the new Watcher's Council off the ground and collect them. Only Buffy's calmness as she watched over her former lover kept them from tearing the medical bed apart. Regardless, they all breathed a collective sigh of relief when the sides retracted and Kathryn got back to her feet. She took one look at the agitation on their faces and decided that leaving them here would probably not be a good idea. "Computer, site to site transport to Holodeck Two for 26. Access archives and initiate St. Croix, Virgin Islands, 20th century tourist season. Doctor, please inform the security detail outside where I've taken them. Dawn, please go with the Doctor to the briefing room. You're going to have to explain to us what we need to know about the girls."

Before the doctor could respond, the Sickbay was emptied in multiple flashes of blue light. In the holodeck, she explained the parameters. She explained that although everything look and felt real, it wasn't. Eating the food would make them feel full, but wouldn't actually nourish them. How it was possible to get hurt, but safety protocols protected them from permanent damage, so they were free to take advantage of everything the islands had to offer. After that, she left them with the reassurance that she'd return for them after the meeting or send Seven or Tuvok. Nodding to the security detail outside the holodeck doors, she made her way back to the briefing room.

- - - BtVS - - ST:Voyager - - -

Kathryn knew that she was going to have to come up with a good explanation that moment she walked into the room. There were questions in the eyes of all of her officers. She exchanged a look with Dawn, who had been seated next to her, opposite of Chakotay, and Dawn inclined her head slightly, letting her know that whatever the Captain said, Dawn would corroborate.

"Let's get the important stuff out of the way." Kathryn said, taking her place at the table. "Doctor, your report?"

"Their genetic make up is 60 human, but the other 40 is unknown." The Doctor began. "There is nothing in our medical database that is remotely similar to the genetic encoding. I can only speculate that these unknown factors are what makes their hair shimmer and seem to change colors under the light. Their cells regenerate so fast that they heal almost instantly and, because of this, there is no way to tell just how long their lifespans can potential become. I have also discovered their corneas not only refract light, but also reflects it. In essence, they can see in the dark as long as there is a sliver of light somewhere, much like a feline. The three that seem to be in charge have also demonstrated an ability to produce subvocal sounds that can effect those around them. For example, when they became agitated earlier at the sight of Security, they began to growl and, although no one heard it, everyone reacted. The only reason that I detected it, is because the sonics vibrated through my matrix."

"I also detected the vibrations." Seven added. "Everyone in the immediate vicinity retreated several steps. Even Tuvok and myself were affected, although to a lesser degree. The only person that did not seem to react was the captain."

Everyone turned to Kathryn, who refrained from rolling her eyes. Barely. Thanks, Seven. She thought to herself. Taking that as her cue, she told them what she had told what she had told Seven and Tuvok, but made it sound as if it had happened while she was unconscious on the bridge earlier instead of the truth, that it had happened to her future self. They were all amazed that almost a year's worth of events had happened in the 10 minutes that the captain had been unconscious.

"This is Dawn. She is a physical representation of the energy being. She is here to tell us what we need to know about our new guests."

"The reason that you will find nothing in your databases that would closely resemble the part of them that makes them S'Terran is because there is nothing." Dawn began. "Although it is based on a species that has been extinct from this dimension for centuries, they are something completely new. Their original natures were not compatible with this dimension, and so that nature had to be altered so that it would not be rejected. Another reason is because, when The First manages to gain another foothold in that other dimension, there are those that will attempt to retrieve them to continue the fight, and they have earned their 'retirement'."

"S'Terran?" The Doctor asked. "Are they from Earth?"

"Yes, they are from Earth." Dawn looked at him. "Does it matter? The world that they knew is gone. The lives that they knew are gone. They all wanted this second chance for a better life where they didn't have to fight constantly."

"Well, they picked the wrong place." Tom Paris remarked. "We're always fighting out here."

"I gave you all glimpses I into my sister's life." The young brunette turned to face the helmsman. "Imagine that every night, and sometimes during the day, for more than ten years. Imagine that you had to sacrifice your loved ones, lose your family, even die, and still be required to fight. Does it sound like your concept of 'always fighting' is the same as hers is?" Tom squirmed under her relentless glare, and Kathryn saw that many of the others also looked uncomfortable. "Those men and women, especially Buffy, Willow and Faith, have sacrificed everything to keep their world safe, and in the end, those that they protected turned on them. They deserve whatever peace I can find for them, but they have fought too long to simply give it up. It is not in the natures. If you let them, they can help you on your journey home, or you can drop them off on a suitable planet and let them make a fresh start."

Dawn stopped to take a deep breath to calm herself. "In their dimension, the laws of reality were different. Monsters exists, for instance. Vampires, demons, werewolves, you name it, they had it. In the beginning, their Earth was a demon paradise, not a human one. Eventually, humankind rose up and cast the demons out, but not before one of them managed to mix its own blood with a human, creating the first vampire. That vampire created another, and another, and so on, until the world was full of them, along with the minor and half-breed demons that had been wise enough to hide when the uprising too place. To counter that, The Powers That Be, gave a group of sorcerers the idea to take the essence of a demon and force it into the soul of a young feral girl that they had captured, creating the first slayer. Since then, whenever the slayer dies, the demon essence moves on to another girl with the potential. The first time Buffy died was when she was 16. It activated another Slayer, but she was brought back by CPR and we found out that once a Slayer, always a Slayer. So now there were two. The second Slayer died, and Faith was called."

"What about those others?" B'Elanna asked.

"They were activated by Willow using magic to fight The First. Willow, the three men, and the two older women were witches. Willow was the most powerful witch in the world.