The Iron Coin Chronicles: The Silver Summer

by KyliaQuilor

Freshman year of college is over, and ADAM is defeated, the Initiative ended. Meanwhile, Xander still has the Coin, and still seeks to use it to help his friends - while Fate comes up with a newer, far more dire plan to rid themselves of the nuisance he represents. The Jester, however, isn't ready to lose his fun just yet - and so the Silver Summer must begin.

8. A Goodbye to ICC

So, as I warned might be possible at the end of Silver Summer, though I really hoped it wouldn't be the case, this...

This is goodbye to Iron Coin Chronicles.

There's a lot I could say about how we got here, about how Iron Coin Chronicles has been a part of my life - and an important one, frankly - for a decade. It's over 650,000 words, for the whole series as it stands. God only knows how it would have ended up from Season 3 alone, let alone all the other plans I had for the universe.

I could ramble in great detail about the experience of writing this fic, this series, and provide a lot of detail as to exactly why I'm stopping and part of me wants to. But that would in the end be several thousand words and who would care?

Iron Coin Chronicles just... isn't fun to write any more. It's a chore, and the parts I do still want to get to just... aren't worth the chore. I only have so much time to write, and I just... I can't bring myself to make time for this series any more. I'm just not the same person I was, I'm not the same writer, I don't relate to the characters in the same way, and...

Yeah. It's goodbye to ICC.

But as I promised, I don't want to just abandon you guys, with no sense of conclusion at all.

So I will address where the story was going. Both in what would be ICC Season 3 (covering BtVS Season 5) as well as what would have been added to The Flip Side (covering Angel Season 2) and then beyond. Because I did have plans with varying degrees of specificity into even 'next generation' fic, featuring people like Amy and Faith's daughter Alicia Lehane, and Xander and Cordelia's kids Daniel Chase-Harris and Jennifer Joyce "JJ" Chase-Harris, and so forth.

So.

With one final thanks to all the time Starway Man and Deiticlast put into beta-reading the fics for me, over the years (They did not beta-read this, for the record, beyond the correction of one canon detai),

Here we go:

Iron Coin Chronicles: Season 3

At the end of the day, the biggest picture, the thing the whole season would be building up to, is Buffy not dying at the end of the season. At the end of the day, every change was meant to implicitly build up to this, to where things align right and Glory gets beaten and Dawn gets saved before the portals open. It's still a near run thing, but in the end, the good guys win, Buffy never dies, and things like the First Evil trying to exterminate the Slayer, or the Nerd Trio just never happen. Buffy never has to deal with being brought back from the dead.

I did not have every intimate detail planned out, but we can take this roughly, episode by episode of Season 5, and explore what I would have done with it.

5x01: Dracula: So this... this doesn't happen. At all. I was intending to just butterfly it away. I hate the episode and everything in it, and I didn't find any way to make it useful. So Dracula is butterflied away and the first episode of ICC Season 3 would have just been catching up with people, providing some context, and building up some of the things happening in the season: Wesley and Faith's deepening Watcher-Slayer dynamic, Cordelia needing a new job (which ultimately would lead to her filling Anya's role in canon at the magic box), Xander rising in construction, Willow and Tara dancing around each other, and Buffy and Riley starting to have gaps form in their relationship, trying to portray their breakup more naturally and less... of a mess than canon. Ensouled Spike and Drusilla would be now out and about, helping fight the baddies, and Amy would still be working with Du, trying to help her, bonding, in a sort of way. Buffy having to deal with Legionnaires - and them not all being the same way to defeat, though ultimately she starts to get a better idea of how to use the Silver Sword against them. All these plot threads would have been woven into the other episodes, building up and developing ongoing narratives.

And of course, the sudden and unexpected arrival of Dawn.

5x02: Real Me: So here, of course, is Dawn. As an episode it's here to give us Dawn's POV, which I wouldn't really do quite as much. We would see that she kind of hero worships Cordelia (a common theme in a lot of fics I've read, actually) and unlike in canon when she crushes on Xander, she thinks Xander and Cordelia's relationship is totally awesome and like #relationshipgoals. What would also happen is that because Xander is increasingly not entirely human any more, he would start to have... flickers of dual memory, where he remembers events both with and without Dawn. I was intending to have a couple flashbacks to moments in either the show or ICC where Dawn is inserted, to give us a look at how things didn't really change substantively, but did at least change, or look different, with Dawn. For instance, I was going to have her kick Wesley in the shins at some point in ICC Season 1, some kind of scene of her and Cordelia bonding. Maybe she gets kidnapped by Spike at some point. Not everything had been decided.

5x03: The Replacement: This one went through several iterations, but in the end, I decided to go with Drusilla actually getting split. The idea was that I wanted Spike and Dru to leave for a while, and the best way to do that was to give them a scare about losing their souls. Neither of them want to go evil again, and Dru being split into a borderline feral vampire half, and a weak human half (both varying levels of mad, but Dru having a soul actually helps her a little), and of course the need to merge them back together before they die. Dru and Spike don't leave yet, but it does leave them both worried - they aren't as worried about moment of perfect happiness (as them having sex, as Spike predicted, didn't give them that) that much, but still, something could happen. While Spike isn't like Angel about it, he does feel enough remorse about his sins as a vampire, and such, to not want to lose his soul, and same with Dru, but more so.

5x04: Out of My Mind: So this episode just doesn't happen. As I kind of alluded to and hinted at in ICC Season 2, Angleman discontinues Walsh's drug experiments much more smoothly, so there's just any material to use here. With this space, I probably would have tried to focus on Riley and Buffy and their relationship, the way that Riley was... disconnected and without a proper place in the Scoobies (or so he felt), and Buffy, while she loved Riley, just wasn't into the relationship as much as he was (I've always felt that for Riley, the relationship was much more intense than for Buffy, who seemed to view it as a nice, fun, normal relationship, not an intense one. This miscommunication/clash of expectations is what destroyed them in canon). I think I'd have had Xander's use of the Coin have him get some glimpse of what was happening, and try to get them to communicate better. In the end it doesn't save them, but things start to seem to do better, in the end of this episode.

5x05 No Place Like Home: So this is where Xander finally starts to understand why he keeps having these split memories and realizes that Dawn is... new. Buffy also realizes it, much the same way she does in canon, and she discovers that Dawn is the Key. Xander approaches Buffy about it, worried Dawn is something evil, but she tells him what she is - the Key. Giles opens the Magic Box, and Cordelia starts to work for him. She quickly finds out she actually likes it, and over the course of the season, starts being an assistant manager, not just an employee, and decides to make her major at UC Sunnydale Business. (This doesn't necessarily happen all in this episode, as I said, the whole season). Faith and Buffy both go up against Glory and fail just about as badly as Buffy did in canon.

5x06 Family: So, this was going to be a pretty important episode. By now, Willow and Tara have been dancing around their feelings for eachother (and Amy has been driven increasingly mad about how she can't just break their confidences and tell them 'yes, both of you like the other'), but when Tara's family shows up and tries to take her home, the prospect of losing Tara for good - even if, much as in canon, the whole Scooby Gang tells Mr. Maclay, etc, to fuck off - is what convinces her to confess her feelings to Tara, Tara confesses hers back after a long moment of shock (which of course has Willow starting to apologize for making things weird, or whatever), and then Amy saying something like 'FUCKING FINALLY' in the background as Willow and Tara have their first kiss. The vision in my head is of something funny and heartwarming at the same time, here.

5x07: Fool for Love: Another episode that just... doesn't exist as canon, because Spike has no weird crush on Buffy, etc. And the 'lessons' Spike gave Buffy in canon don't suit the needs of the season here, since Death isn't Buffy's Gift in ICC. This episode would involve Spike and Dru, probably with research help from Wesley and Amy, figuring out a way to anchor their souls more safely - but it does require a long, risky trip, away from the Hellmouth. I hadn't settled on the specifics. Spike doesn't really seem that bothered by leaving the Hellmouth and the Scoobies, but Amy is actually a bit upset to see Dru leave, and vice-versa, but Faith and Buffy are both happy to see the back of the two vamps.

5x08: Shadow: Joyce would still be going to the hospital and having much the same experiences in canon as she did here. We'd also have the same sort of Riley wanting to be there for Buffy and her not letting him comfort him. They would handle it a bit better, since they're communicating better, but ultimately the same problem. Riley is also now facing the fact that the Army is going to be calling him back to duty soon, and he's not sure what he wants to do about that. The whole letting himself get bitten thing does not happen, however.

5x09: Listening to Fear: Honestly, this would go fairly similarly to canon, and the actual written text of the chapters would focus on side-scenes, side-developments and ongoing relationship threads. Things I've touched on above - Xander/Cordelia, Faith/Amy, Willow/Tara, Cordelia working for Giles, Faith and Wesley's slayer-watcher dynamic, some Dawn to round things out, et cetera.

5x10 Into the Woods: So here's where Riley gets off the train. The Army comes back and basically says 'either you're back on duty, or you're discharged, we want you on demon-slaying ops outside the country'. And the thing is, the Army is really important to Riley. But so is Buffy. So in what I think would be a fairly Riley-centric episode, Riley and Buffy would have a real, honest and reasonably calm heart to heart about their relationship. Riley would be more open about how he feels Buffy isn't as into the relationship as him (which Buffy would not accept, at least not as such) but in the end, they would part on better terms - not necessarily broken up, per se, but Buffy does know Riley isn't totally happy in Sunnydale, and he does love the Army, and so they sort of accept that they're... on a break, of sorts. No commitments to get back together, but not formally broken up, yet. Yet. I've never felt that, as they existed in canon, Buffy and Riley were ever going to really last (though it still says something that it was her healthiest relationship in the show), but the way they were broken up was so cruel to both characters - especially Buffy.

5x11: Triangle: I'll be honest and admit I had and have no firm idea what to do with this episode. Buffy would of course still be dealing with the end of her relationship with Riley, but coping better because it ended less unhappily for everyone. Not ideal though. Willow and Cordelia aren't going to be fighting over Xander - I don't see any context where Cordelia would be insecure enough in her relationship at this point (which has been going strong for nearly 3 years now) to fight with Willow (who still has that new relationship smell with Tara) over Xander. But having Olaf's hammer show up is still useful, for later plot points with Glory. So perhaps I'd have Anya, out of yet another attempt to get her powers back, accidentally summons Olaf, or he comes here, looking for her. Another thing I wanted to introduce was Buffy using the Silver Sword against Olaf - and discovering how useful it can be against non-Legionaiires. Because it can make every possible strike, because it can deal with greater force than a normal sword - it is what lets her beat Olaf, or at least stall him properly until he can be banished without his hammer.

5x12 Checkpoint: So this is again, an episode that's pretty obsolete. Travers was Reassigned to Siberia (metaphorically) after the Gem of Amara disaster, and Nigel is dead, and Buffy and Faith, while not fond of the Council, are not on the outs with them as in canon. So here'd we have the Knights get introduced, and the Council would come with their intel on Glorificus - such as it is - but they wouldn't be putting Buffy and Faith through some kind of stupid run around. As a plot point in canon, it was another one of those times where Joss was putting themes and narratives above coherent storytelling (which is a running problem for Joss any time the Watcher's Council comes up, in particular). So we'd probably have Wesley's dad fill the role of Travers, and see Wesley reduced to uselessness thanks to daddy dearest (which would probably lead to Faith actually being all standing up for Wes, though at the end of the episode, she'd threaten Wesley with a broken arm if he ever brought it up again, not entirely seriously, of course). And of course, the big reveal that Glory isn't a demon, she's a god.

5x13: Blood Ties: I'd like to try to prevent Dawn from finding out she's the Key, if I can, or at least, in the way she did. On the other hand, everyone else does need to know, so... who knows? There's obviously the whole Ben is Glory thing that no one can talk about. Even if not entirely human, having Xander be able to remember Ben is Glory would kind of end-run the whole season, so probably he never gets the opportunity to see it.

5x14: Crush: Here, I've got nothing. Presumably, by the time I'd have gotten this far, I'd have thought of some plot threads and complications from earlier in the season to make the centerpiece of the episode, since obviously nothing remotely like Canon would happen here. Maybe something more with the Legion of Necessity, making a more concerted effort on Xander, Buffy saves him from them in a more direct fashion, but she still can't tell him what tf is going on.

5x15: I Was Made To Love You: So here... I dunno. No reason for the key events of the episode to go that differently than Canon, so broad strokes, it goes about the same, so the written chapter would once more focus on people like Faith and Amy and Cordelia reacting to things, as well as ongoing relationship dynamics (maybe buffy and riley do a definitive break up over the phone around now). And then...

Well...

5x16: The Body: It's not a particularly new thing to say that this episode, in canon, is a masterpiece. I have no idea how I could approach doing it justice. At the end of the day, very similar themes are met as in canon, but obviously we don't have Anya or Spike here, and we do have people like Wesley and Cordelia and Amy and Faith, who would have things to say about Joyce and her passing, to some extent, but what? And how much would it be worth showing on screen? I really have no idea what I'd do with it. But I would be killing Joyce, because her cancer and then eventual aneurysm is not at all connected to the changepoints. Nothing would prevent it.

5x17: Forever Similarly with The Body, I don't think I'd have anything to really add with this episode. Maybe some Buffy and Xander (separately) railing at the Jester, trying to blame him for Joyce's death, but it's not his fault. It's not even Fate's fault (they knew Joyce would have the brain aneurysm, of course, but they didn't plan it). I have mixed feelings about Angel showing up, given what I'd be doing with his narrative over on the Flip Side, by now (see below) but it still does fit. I'd probably at least address what is going on with Hank Summers too, because I hate how Canon just had him be off in Spain with his secretary. But obviously he can't come and take Dawn, because that would kind of throw off the whole season. So he'd at least maybe show up in this or the previous episode, and help out financially, and have plans to take Dawn at the end of the school year and otherwise be more present for his daughters, but something better than canon, at least. Maybe he rents the place next door short term, or something. The Doc subplot doesn't happen here, because Spike isn't in town to tell Dawn about him.

5x18 Intervention: The problem with this episode is, apart from the lack of a Buffybot, the whole spirit quest Buffy goes on is all about setting up the eventual self-sacrifice of the canon finale, which isn't happening here. But all the reasons for the spirit quest still probably happen. So she still probably goes on it. What happens? I don't know. Maybe the Jester hijacks it. As for Glory trying to figure out who the Key is, without the Buffybot hanging with Spike, who knows. Again, presumably, by the time I got here in writing, I'd have come up with some plot threads to use, or something. Or it might have just been some short scenes developing ongoing relationships and stuff.

5x19: Tough Love: I'd like to have Buffy avoid dropping out of university here, if I can, so I'd probably, building on Hank being more helpful, or more involved, she doesn't have to. As for keeping Dawn on the straight and narrow, perhaps the whole, enlarged Scooby gang, is able to help more with that, or Hank contributes somehow. I admit, by this point some of the particulars become increasingly nebulous. Tara doesn't actually get brain sucked by Glory, I think. I'm actually leaning towards the idea that Hank does, if he's sticking around (or visiting again, maybe he can't move to Sunnydale permanently or even for a few months, but he can come by regularly while Dawn finishes out the school year or something), and he's the one that reveals that Dawn is the key inadvertently.

5x20: Spiral: I kind of envision starting the ICC version of this episode with Spike and Dru doing a Big Damn Heroes moment, maybe Spike is the one that hits glory with a vehicle. Regardless, this is when they return to Sunnydale, and this is also where we have the Knights of Byzantium figure out that Dawn is the key as well. The option of running is suggested, but the question of where to run to comes up. I did envision that Buffy might reach out to Riley here, since things were on better terms, and they had a way to stay in contact, asking for backup, or maybe getting dawn on a plane to another country to buy time, or something. Eventually the Scoobies temporarily hole up in Angel's old mansion on Crawford Street, and General Gregor gets captured much as in canon, and he reveals more or less what he did in canon. But Spike and Dru (and probably Wesley) go to Spike's old contact Doc, to see if he knows more about Glory, because Spike says Doc knows things even the Watcher's Council doesn't. (Wesley and Giles also call the Council for reinforcements), and right now the plan is to just survive, just long enough for help. Doc, as per canon, is a Glory worshiper and tries to destroy a box full of important information. An attempt to reach out to Angel for help is also made, but there's no one on the phones at Angel Investigations

Unfortunately, Doc survives his encounter with Spike Dru and Wesley, and though they get away with his box of intel, Doc is able to follow them and report back to Glory. The Knights besiege everyone at the Mansion, Willow Tara and Amy put up a force field spell much like in canon, but as in canon the Knights start having their magic-using priests try to dismantle it, and they do enough damage that Glory can power through it after slaughtering the Knights. She nabs Dawn, and now they need to stop her.

5x21: The Weight of the World: This would all be preparations for the big showdown. The problem is they don't have time to wait for reinforcements from the Army or the Council. But they at least are able to know, thanks to the info they stole from Doc, where and when. The whole 'journey into Buffy's head' thing probably still happens, because the reasons for it are still there. As with canon, Buffy is categorically refusing to kill Dawn once she gets out of it, and while Wesley and Giles both explain how much is at stake, Buffy refuses, and everyone else sides with her (It's not like Wesley and Giles want to kill Dawn, they just don't see any other solution). Buffy acknowledges (much as she does in canon) that this position is selfish, but she'll kill anyone who tries to hurt Dawn.

5x22 The Gift: So here's the big final showdown. Buffy, Faith, Willow, Tara, Amy, Xander, Cordelia, Giles, Wesley, Spike and Dru regroup at the Magic Box to prepare for the final showdown. As in canon, they realize they have the troll hammer, and the Dagon Sphere, and Buffy thinks that since the Silver Sword held against Olaf, it may be as good as the hammer against Glory. Faith takes the Hammer, Buffy has the silver sword, though she can't explain what it is or where she got. (Xander by now has guessed the Jester may be involved in Buffy's inability to share information about some things this year) but there's no time for that. As they're setting out, there's a mysterious phone call to the Magic Box that Buffy picks up, tells the location where Glory's doing her thing, and then they're off. It's revealed later in the Episode that this was Riley, with reinforcements on the way. But the reader wouldn't have realized this until later.

The final battle would obviously (or so intended) be epic. We'd have Glory and her minions, Faith and Buffy with their weapons, Willow, Tara and Amy start to (one by one) reverse her brain drain on people, to weaken her Xander would probably break out the wrecking ball again, et cetera. Someone - runs up the tower to save Dru (I was actually thinking of Cordelia and Xander for this role, with Spike and Dru down below fighting Glory's minions), and Doc is there, waiting for the right moment. Cordelia tries to fight back, but he does outmatch her - but before he can actually attack Dawn, the sound of a helicopter comes in from nearby, and there's Riley and Graham and some other demon hunters for the Army on an attack Helicopter and they shoot Doc or do something else to distract him, and then maybe Cordelia knocks him off the tower. Regardless, since Dawn never bleeds, the portal never opens, and Glory is beaten, forced back into Ben. Nobody knew Ben was Glory before now, of course, but they see it now. Giles is probably the one who kills him, as per canon.

So Dawn is saved, Glory is dead, and the world is saved. The Council's people arrive just an hour too late to be of any use, but it doesn't matter much.

The Jester returns and 'borrows' Buffy and Xander, revealing to both more about what was going on, while very amused at how things finally broke down. Things have gone so far off the rails now that Fate has just abandoned this entire 'theater' (the details of what that means are unclear) for other projects, and the Jester, having had his fun, takes his coins back. Xander, of course, being not entirely human any more thanks to the Coin's long influence, has been able to start to see the currents of chance and chaos all on his own, and the Jester gives Buffy a magic sword - albeit not as good as the Silver Sword - as a consolation prize, and as thanks for her not dying sending everything crazy and off-kilter. He'd say something to the effect of 'between the two of you, Fate's very nearly lost their damned minds. It's amazing really.'

One of the Running themes of the Season, as we'd have seen in various Xander and Cordelia scenes, and as we saw back in ICC Season 1, would have been how unhappy Cordelia is that they're still in Sunnydale. She would like to escape this town and it comes up more. She does count the Scoobies as friends, and it's not that she can just forget demons and vampires exist, but she doesn't want to have this be her whole life forever. But especially once she understands more about whatever it is that's going down with Xander, she understands he's probably not going to want to leave - if he could ever be convinced to abandon the Hellmouth.

But the thing is, Xander... without the coin? He knows Cordelia would like to leave Sunnydale, and as much as he doesn't want to just abandon Buffy, Willow, et al, or abandon the fight, without the coin to keep him here, and with Cordelia wanting to leave, and frankly, after everything that's happened, part of him isn't against leaving too. He's been through a lot. They all are.

And, so yeah, the end of ICC Season 3 is just that. After the 22nd episode itself, there'd have been an epilogue, which would have been Xander and Cordelia saying goodbye to everyone and Cordelia having transferred her credits to a different UC school, and Xander transferring to a different branch of the construction company, and off they go, to Sacramento (which is supposed to be fairly low in demon and vampire activity, all said and done). Both will certainly keep holy water and stakes on hand, and help out as needed, and if they saw news reports about bbq fork accidents they'd react, but they're kinda retiring.

And things on the Hellmouth calm down quite a bit in subsequent years anyway.

Crystal Mirror Memories

While Season 3 would have been the end of ICC proper, it would not have been the end of the whole universe. My plans from very early on did involved an Angel Season 3 spinoff, centering on Wesley. The Gazer, who appeared a few times in passing in Season 2 of ICC, is not happy that the rest of Fate has abandoned 'this theater' and thinks that at least some things can be done to fix it.

Because, the truth is, due to what went differently, in part because of Xander's actions, life on earth in that dimension is due for a major apocalypse in about twenty-five years that will drop the global population to about a billion, at most. Which derails things. The Gazer, projecting a solution, doesn't take as direct a hand as the Jester. He merely arranges for Wesley to acquire a shard of his crystal mirror. It has the ability to play out scenarios - you ask it what will happen if X, and it shows you, with accuracy. But it doesn't always show everything, nor does it mean someone knows the right questions to ask.

I hadn't worked out how Wesley gets his hands on it, or why he uses it, etc, not 100%. The fic would follow on from the Flip Side chapters, where things on AtS continue to diverge. Gunn still becomes part of the team, indirectly at first as in canon, while Kate and Angel get closer, since things are better for them, ish. Kate, on her end, starts to run harder up against the limits of what the law allows her to do when she has to deal with demons and vampires and so forth. They don't actually enter a relationship - yet - but... there's a lot of will they or won't they in Flip Side, and eventually Kate leaves the force, probably before the events of the Thin Dead Line, which would still happen more or less in this 'verse. Differently though.

The big change from AtS Season 2, apart from all the little ones that flow from Doyle still being alive, and Harry filling the 'demon expert' role and such, including the stuff with Kate, would be Darla. Harry and Doyle continue to reconnect and very tentatively restart their relationship.

Darla still came back, and is still dying, Angel tries to save her, fails, and Lindsey still vamps her (though not with Dru, obviously) BUT, with what happened with Dru and Spike still in his mind, Angel asks Willow, Amy and Tara for a favor - can you ensoul Darla?

And they do. Fitting this into the chronology of ICC Season 3 might take some finagling, but it should be doable.

And Darla and Angel, at some point later, sleep together. I'm thinking there's some sort of magical whammy involved (because I don't see them choosing to do it without Angel going mauve, which wouldn't happen here), but of course, it doesn't give either of them a moment of perfect happiness. Darla still runs off after this.

Pylea and Fred's rescue would happen, though obviously given that Doyle has the visions, things are different, to say the least.

But regardless, Team Angel is in Pylea when Buffy calls asking for help with Glory, but thankfully, Buffy doesn't die in this verse.

Wesley has the Crystal Mirror, but the reason he goes to L.A. is because Faith has a Slayer dream, sometime after the end of ICC Season 3, that makes her think they need to go to L.A. Something big is happening. Wesley, Faith and Amy (who transfers to UCLA) work alongside Team Angel a lot, but not always, being separate.

The first big divergence point of CMM from AtS Season 3, though, is that instead of Connor being born, it's Kathryn. Darla still stakes herself to allow her child to be born, because there's really no way around that.

See, Jasmine hasn't given up on her evil plan. She can't use Cordy as the mother, so she'll have to try something different, and she has Angel and Darla's child be a girl, so in 20 years, that kid can be the mother. Angel names his daughter Kathryn, after his sister.

Season 3 continues on it's AU from there - but Kate and Angel's relationship continues to develop, and at some point, they get together, formally acknowledging their relationship. One of the regrets (many) I have about abandoning ICC is not being able to write this relationship arc, but maybe I'll be able to write a Lockangel fic eventually.

Regardless, Wesley still translates the Father Will Kill The Daughter prophecy... but thanks to the Mirror, he's able to check it one more way. And he realizes that running away with baby Kathryn won't work, that the prophecy is both true and not, and that his fears about Angel, in the now, are false... maybe. Again, I hadn't settled on everything.

Regardless, Wesley doesn't kidnap Kathryn, but does end up getting hospitalized after being ambushed by Holtz, Justine and Company (Holtz still shows up as per canon), which makes Faith all kinds of furious, and she gets very close to killing Holtz herself, though in the end, it's actually Lockley that fires the shot. My sort of vision for the scene is Holtz threatening Kathryn in some way (as Kate has grown increasingly fond of Kathryn, much as Cordelia did of Connor in canon, albeit not in exactly the same ways.), but like many things, it was tbd.

CMM would probably end as a fic sometime in the aftermath of that - Wesley would still have the mirror, and I envisioned maybe I might write short vignettes in the verse, for all ICC characters, maybe more slice of life-y. Regardless, those ideas would eventually bleed into the "next generation" fic ideas that I had notions of.

The Aliciaverse

I call this section of the Coinverse the "Aliciaverse" because it all started with Alicia Willow Anne Lehane, the daughter of Amy and Faith. It started from a random post on tumblr, I believe an ask meme fill or something.

Since neither Faith nor Amy seem the type to deliberately have kids, given their host of parental issues, I decided that what happened is that Faith accidentally and unknowingly imbues herself with a magical fertility idol when fighting a demon worshipping cult, and then when she goes back home and has sex with Amy (as they do most nights), she impregnates her - because magic (i.e. it's not like Faith actually grew the appropriate parts for that) Obviously, Amy finding out she's pregnant is... a surprise, but in the end, after much soul searching (and finding an explanation for why Amy is pregnant that doesn't involve an affair, since, you know) they decide to keep the kid. The middle names are a reference to Willow and Buffy, who were Amy and Faith's maids of honor at their wedding (or would be. I never decided if Amy and Faith got married before or after Alicia).

Alicia grows up to be a witch, much like Amy. She has lots of 'cousins' from the extended members of the Scooby Gang/Angel Investigations, etc, including Daniel Rupert Chase-Harris (named for Oz and Giles) and Jennifer Joyce "JJ" Chase-Harris (named for Joyce and Jenny Calendar), Kathryn Lockley (Kathryn gets formally adopted by Kate when she's around two or three, since Angel's legal existence is... messy, and he doesn't exactly have a last name to give Kathryn beyond fake ones on paperwork anyway). Tara and Willow would be adopting a kid somewhere in there, though probably much younger than the others and name undecided (I also considered them not adopting and just being foster parents, or fostering into adopting), and Fred and Gunn would have a kid named Iris Alonna Gunn. I never settled on if I wanted Buffy to have a kid (in part because I had no character to pair her off with, beyond making an OC), and who Wesley might get shipped with was an open question (since Weslah was unlikely to happen in this AU, and Faith was obviously taken) or if he'd have any kids.

The actual story of the Aliciaverse, such as it was defined, involved Alicia starting as a Freshman at UC Berkeley (still in California, but far enough from her moms in LA to have some independence), which is also where Danie (A sophomore)l is, majoring in engineering (Daniel wants to make all sorts of demon and vampire slaying gadgets). Daniel is bi, and dating his boyfriend Jack Rosado (though eventually they breakup, and the eventual planned ship was Alicia/Daniel, though Alicia isn't the one who breaks Daniel and Jack up). The real meat of the story starts when Kathryn shows up in Berkley, hunting down the warlock who killed her girlfriend. What would be discovered over the course of the story is that the warlock leads a Jasmine-worshiping Cult (not that she would be called Jasmine in-fic, but it was intended to be clear to the readers who it was), because Jasmine is now ready to make Kathryn 'The Mother', and it's all part of luring Kathryn into a trap so...

Yeah.

Thankfully, that all gets prevented, thanks to Alicia and Daniel (and some other characters, OCs not related to existing characters that I had envisioned, including Alicia's entirely human roommate and an ethno-demonologist OC who has a public face as an anthropology professor at UC Berkeley), and the cult is beaten, and Jasmine's plans thrown entirely out of whack.

The last notional idea for next generation story that I had imagined after that, was one more fic, set the next year, when JJ (who is ~16 at this point) gets called as a Slayer.

See, I always envisioned it that Faith gets her own 'clinically dead' moment, allowing a new slayer to be called. None of those successive slayers last more than 3-4 years - the Council as a whole does actually try to take some of the lessons learned from Buffy and Faith, but those two are pretty exceptional.

JJ, when called, and knowing Aunts Buffy and Faith and Uncles Giles and Wesley, etc, realizes pretty quickly she's a Slayer. Xander and Cordelia are of course, pretty horrified and refuse to let the Council cart her off to the Cleveland Hellmouth (ideally not ever, but certainly not before she turns 18) JJ, however, decides to run to Cleveland herself, because... well, she wants to be a hero like her Aunt Buffy (and boy howdy does Xander regret telling so many glowing stories of Buffy now). JJ gets in over her head, and Alicia, Daniel and Kathryn end up being the ones to save her bacon, which relocates the story (and those three characters, maybe others) to Cleveland...

And that's about where my ideas for the extended Coinverse finally peter out.

There was a time when the Aliciaverse stuff was the stuff I was most eager for. And part of me actually has contemplated keeping it, using it in some way, or the like. Nothing decided or definite, because I also have way too many other ideas for Buffyverse fics that are more recent and more current to me of today.

Regardless, that is the full conclusion of all the ideas I ever had planned for the ICC-verse. Thank you all so much for reading the series, and I'm sorry for leaving you, but at least you're not left totally hanging.

With any luck, someday I'll write another Buffyverse fic that some of you guys like. Either way, thank you, and goodbye.