A/N: Again, I do apologize for my sucking at action scenes. Enjoy.
Initiative HQ, Sunnydale, Alternate Reality, 2000 hours.
"Shut those alarms off" shouted Maggie as she walked toward one of the computer terminals on the main floor as soldiers were running all around her, scrambling for weapons and others just preparing for missions.
"Who did we lose?" asked Maggie as she looked at Dr. Angleman.
"Hostile Seventeen escaped along with that mysterious girl" he said, "Dawn."
"I see" said Maggie, "how is our other guest?"
"It's still in its cage" said Dr. Angleman, "we will be starting to examine it tomorrow morning, right now I'm trying to finish up our other side project."
"How is my dear Adam?" whispered Maggie.
"Just a few more pieces to his puzzle and we're done" smiled Dr. Angleman.
"Alright" replied Maggie nodding as Dr. Angleman walked away. She then caught the arms of a soldier who was running past her.
"Get me Agent Finn and his team" said Maggie.
"Yes, ma'am" replied the soldier as Maggie walked away to her own office where she sat down and watched a live feed on a small creature in a cell.
"Ummm…." said Maggie to herself, "you are very interesting. I'm sure my contacts at the NID would be very interested in you but, for now, you're mine. After I get everything from you, I'll hand you over to them."
Just then Maggie noticed a flash coming from the room that contained the mirror.
"It's happening again" Maggie told herself as she ran to the room, "if anyone comes through again, they'll be in for a big surprise."
Storage Room 212, Initiative HQ
"Ouch!" said Willow to herself as she hit the wall that the Quantum Mirror was facing before she turned around and looked at Colonel Carter who was staring back at her in concern.
"I'm fine" said Willow as she used sign language to relay her message, "I'll go find Dawn."
"Be careful" signed Colonel Carter just as the Mirror suddenly deactivated.
'Damn' thought Willow as she looked at the Mirror in front of her, 'it looks like the traditional Quantum Mirror. So this mirror does connect to the Geode variety, cool. Now I just need to find Dawn and then hopefully find the way back to our reality.'
As Willow was making sure her holographic disguise was working properly, she stared at the two cameras' that were in the room and mentally disconnected them from the base feeds by pulling them out of the housings and tearing them apart.
'They can get new ones' thought Willow to herself. She then looked straight at the door when she heard a commotion outside.
"Get that door open" shouted Maggie as she pointed at the four soldiers who were guarding the outside of the storage room, "we have an intruder in there, and he is not to be harmed, is that understood? Non-lethal takedown only."
"Yes, ma'am"
"Ok" said Maggie as they pointed their taser blasters at the door.
Inside the room, Willow took out one of her flash bang grenades, ducked behind a table and waited for the door to open. Once she sensed that the guard had finished inputting the correct code onto the keypad outside, Willow pulled the pin and once the door was open she rolled it towards the soldiers who were pointing the taser blasters at her before she returned under the table, and closed her eyes and covered her ears.
"Take cover" shouted one of the soldiers as they ran to all sides while one tried to cover Maggie just as the grenade released a loud bang and intense light that had everyone dazed. Willow looked over the table she was hiding behind, and walked slowly towards the door since her balance was also slightly affected due to the loud notice.
Once she was out of the room, she saw that the soldiers were slowly starting to get up.
'Must be that super soldier thing that Riley told me about' thought Willow to herself as she kicked one of the soldiers in the face as he tried to get up, before sensing another soldier coming up behind her. She spun around, ducked the punch that she already knew was coming her way thanks to her telepathy and placed an uppercut to his arm joint before she elbowed the man's throat.
'You guys got nothing on Faith or Teal'c' thought Willow to herself as she took down the other two soldiers, who were luckily more dazed than their compatriots, but she couldn't find Maggie anywhere.
'She must have run away' thought Willow to herself as she ran towards the monster cells, which was where Riley said that Dawn would most likely be put, 'if Professor Walsh's gone, it means I don't have much time here.'
Willow stopped running when she saw two soldiers heading her way.
"Hey" said the larger one, "you're not from here."
"Yes I am" said Willow, "I'm on my way to meet Professor Walsh."
"Where's your I.D?" asked the shorter soldier.
"I…. Well… I know it sounds stupid, but I left it in my room" said Willow as the two soldiers raised their taser blasters at her.
"No?" continued Willow.
"We need backup on level two, corridor B" said the shorter soldier as he spoke into his radio.
"Guys" said Willow, still in her holographic disguise, as she walked towards them.
"Stop where you are" said the tall soldier, "don't move."
"Oh come on" said Willow as she put her hands up and looked at the red lights of the security cameras. Smiling she disabled all the cameras in the section before she put her hands down.
"Hands up" said the taller soldier.
"Ok" said Willow as she put her hands up again, "would you believe me if I told you my dog ate my I.D card? Come on, that always works."
"Lay down on the floor and surrender" said the shorter soldier as Willow heard footsteps coming from behind her and in front of her, from behind the two soldiers. Willow could sense that there were a total of six additional soldiers coming her way.
"The floor's dirty" said Willow as she telekinetically grabbed the taser blasters and took out two of her Zat guns and pointed the fours weapons at them, "ok, now you guys put your hands up."
Willow smiled as the two soldiers looked at each other confused before they reached for their sidearm's, which was when Willow zatted both of them once.
"Crap" shouted Willow as the four soldiers behind her started shooting their taser blasters at her before she could start to run, "this sucks."
Willow managed to outrun her pursuers before she ducked into another corridor to take cover as the four soldiers behind her almost caught up to her again.
"They're finding me through the cameras" sad Willow as she mentally disconnected every camera along the corridor that she could see, "now try to find me, you blind bastards."
Sensing that the soldiers following her were right on top of her, Willow turned and angled her body so that she could fire her Zats from the corridor. This way, she managed to get two of the four soldiers just as the other two returned fire, before they themselves took cover. Willow peeked at their cover, which happened to be a large metallic box and she smiled. She fired one of her Zats three times at the box which made it disappear, making the soldiers exposed. Willow then fired another bolt at a female soldier who collapsed onto the floor stunned, while she telekinetically pulled out all the weaponry from the last remaining soldier and flung him onto the wall.
"What the?" said the soldier confused as he hung in mid-air against a wall.
"No more cameras here" said Willow as she approached him from behind her cover, "and I wouldn't try for your radio. If you go for it, I'll break your arm. Understood?"
"Another team is coming for you" said the soldier.
"Where's the girl?" asked Willow as she approached the soldier in the hologram of the man as she re-holstered her zats.
"What girl?" asked the soldier.
"Brunette, about so high, a bit loud but very spunky" said Willow, "just came today."
"I don't know what you're talking about" said the soldier, "this is a government installation, you just committed treason against your own country."
"Right" said Willow, "anyway, you gave me everything I needed to know. Thanks."
"Huh?" said the soldier as Willow took out a Zat again and stunned him in mid air before releasing him.
"You were thinking about what happened" smiled Willow, "so Dawn escaped with hostile seventeen? Why don't I like that?"
Willow knew that by this time, everyone was looking for her current disguise so she took off the mimic device from her chest and replaced it with another one. Using her tablet screen as a mirror, she saw that she was now a brunette woman, someone she hadn't seen before at the SGC, "one of the rogue NID maybe?"
Willow slowly walked out of the corridor she was in as the team chasing her previous holographic form passed right by her.
"Ok" Willow thought to herself as she continued walking calmly towards the stairwell, "let's try not to use more weapons than I have to."
When no one was looking, she ducked into another corridor and took out her tablet again.
"Looks like the closest exit is somewhere on this floor, on the south side end" said Willow to herself as she put away the tablet, and peeked out of the corridor she was in, "should be fun. Everyone's looking for my previous disguise and, with the cameras all disconnected, they wouldn't know I changed disguises, at least not yet. Unless they really look closely at the tapes. Should give me the time I need to slip out and find Dawn."
Unknown Woods, Alternate Reality, 45 minutes later.
"Damn it" said Dawn as she run as fast as her legs could carry her, "how can not Spike recognize me…? Me…. His little bit… what the hell's going on here? I know it's an alternate reality and all, but still….."
Dawn had recalled escaping the Initiative base through a secret exit that the black shirt wearing vampire had told Spike about. That was before Spike pushed him towards a group of Initiative soldiers who immediately dusted the poor vampire, leaving Spike and Dawn to run as fast as they could and reach the woods on the north end of town.
"Now" said Spike as he turned around to face Dawn after they had exited the Initiative HQ, "who are you? I've never seen you before in my life…. Well, unlife anyway."
"Spike" said Dawn, "It's me….. Your little bit…. You know…."
"No" said Spike, "I don't know."
"It's me, Dawn"
"Dawn? Nice name, but doesn't ring a bell" said Spike as he approached her slowly and put on his vampire face, "but you can do me a favour, I helped you so it's only proper that you help me."
"Spike" said Dawn as she stepped back, "there's a time and place for jokes, and this isn't it."
"Who's joking, Pet" said Spike, "come on, let us have a taste."
"I'm warning you, Spike" said Dawn as she quickly picked up a sharp tree branch, "my sister trained me well, don't make me hurt you."
"That's sweet" said Spike as he moved really fast towards Dawn and grabbed her arm that was holding the branch and twisted it behind her, before he moved behind her and pushed Dawn onto a tree, "you can tell your sister how proud she must be of you after I turn you."
"You can tell her yourself!" said Dawn as she snapped her head back and head butted Spike who staggered back as he held his forehead.
"Hey" said Spike as he stared back at Dawn how was running towards him before giving a hard kick onto his shin, "Hey! What the hell?"
"Sorry" said Dawn as she then kicked Spike hard in his groin.
"I was just hungry" said Spike as he held his groin and collapsed on the grass as Dawn ran as fast as she could.
All Spike could do was look at Dawn run away, 'I'll get you, little bit'.
Back to the present, Dawn had spent the last fifteen minutes running through the woods until she reached a street. Knowing that since the Initiative was still around, Dawn figured that her best chance would be to run, just run as fast as she could. She didn't want to but all her instincts were telling her to run away from Spike and away from U.C. Sunnydale.
'Buffy always told me to follow my instincts' thought Dawn to herself, 'and that's exactly what I'm going to do.'
Looking around she found herself near her home, at least the closest street near her home where if she started running, it would lead her home in about five minutes. As she turned around, she heard shouting from the area she just ran out of before she turned around again and began running.
'Willow' thought Dawn to herself, 'where are you? Do you know I'm missing? Please come quick, or else I'll die.'
U.C. Sunnydale Quad, Initiative exit, thirty minutes later.
"Yea" said Willow to herself as she climbed out of a grate near the quad, "not doing that again, already used up another three flash bang grenades. Now where am I?"
Willow looked around and saw that she was right outside Stevenson Hall.
"Ah" said Willow smiling, "home sweet home, such memories."
Willow: "Dawnie, can you hear me?"
"Hope she's close by" said Willow to herself as she ran to the parking lot near the dorms.
Willow: "Dawnie, I'm here to take you home. Where are you?"
"Still nothing" said Willow as she reached the far end of the parking lot.
Looking around to make sure there were no cameras or people, Willow mentally unlocked an old sedan and slipped in. Reaching into her back pocket, she took out a pair of gloves and put them on.
"I know the Sunnydale police are incompetent" said Willow as she proceeded to hotwire the car, "but no sense in causing trouble for my alternate self by performing grand theft auto. Anyway, who'll miss this junk heap."
Once Willow managed to start the car, she reversed it out of its lot and drove slowly by the U.C. Sunnydale campus.
"Umm…." Said Willow as she passed Stevenson Hall when she suddenly slammed on her brakes, "I sense my alternate self in the room but I also sense… no…. she's scared…. It's Spike. Oh no, I remember this. Spike tries to bite me but cant because of some chip in his head, later the Initiative comes to take him away but he escapes. Then they tried to take me away too but Buffy saved me."
Confident that Buffy would save her alternate in this reality, Willow drove the car off-campus.
'Now if Dawn isn't on campus' thought Willow to herself, 'there could only be Giles' place, Xander's house which I'm certain she'll never, ever go to and her own house. And if this is my past in an alternate reality, it would mean that Joyce is still alive. She'll keep Dawn safe along with the alternate Dawn. Although two Dawn's in any reality would be a headache for anyone.'
Willow drove the car to Xander's house just in case but couldn't sense Dawn anywhere. She then drove down to Giles' apartment and got the same results.
"Guess I'll be going to Joyce's house" said Willow as she drove off, "please be there Dawn, we need to get home quick."
Initiative HQ, twenty minutes later.
"I'm sure you'll understand if I seem far from happy" said Maggie as she faced Riley, Forrest and Graham who were standing at attention after their failed mission to get Spike, or Hostile Seventeen as the Initiative called him.
"Yes, ma'am" said Riley.
"Hostile 17's found an accomplice who's smart, aggressive, and somehow escapes description" said Maggie as she paraphrased what Riley had put down in his report, "how about the girl? What about Dawn?"
"She wasn't there ma'am" said Riley.
"So we lost her too?" said Maggie.
"Yes" said Riley, "sorry ma'am."
"Damn it" said Maggie as she slammed her fists onto the table in front of her, "we lose two HST's into the civilian population, the third gets dusted and we have an intruder who just simply vanished into thin air."
"Riley" said Maggie as she looked straight at him, "I'll be activating the tag we implanted in that Dawn girl, I want you to get her back. If she's with someone, bring them in as well."
"Ma'am?" said Riley as he looked at his team.
"She could have infected them with any number of otherworldly viruses" said Maggie, "they need to be quarantined and examined before they can be let go."
"Yes…. Ma'am" said Riley with some hesitation in his voice as he looked at Graham before looking at Maggie again.
"Still no luck finding the intruder who came through the mirror, ma'am?" asked Riley.
"No" said Maggie, "and that mirror's been deactivated again."
"Professor Walsh" said Dr. Angleman as he came running to where Maggie was standing, "you need to see this."
"What is it?" asked Maggie as Dr. Angleman placed a tape into a player.
"Our intruder somehow deactivated all of the cameras in a few areas, but there were one or two that were hidden" said Dr. Angleman as he stepped back while Riley and the others looked at the video playing on the screen.
"My God" said Maggie as she looked at the man they were after ducking behind one of the corridors before he fired some strange weapons at the soldiers chasing him. They looked on as he defeated the soldiers before lifting one of them into the air just by pointing his hands.
"What is that?" asked Riley, "what's he doing?"
"Some sort of telekinesis or levitation ability" said Dr. Angleman as he looked at a smile from Maggie before he looked at Riley, "it's not over yet, watch."
"No" said Riley as the man took off something from his chest, and then seemed to simply dissolve away leaving a certain redhead behind who placed something on her chest before she became a brunette female, "Willow…. but how? I saw her at the party, I was sitting right beside her when the call came in about the escape. She said she was going home because the music reminded her of a bad breakup or something."
"I know" said Maggie, "I saw the feeds from her room before they were suddenly cut, due to the power outage."
"Then…." said Riley.
"She's from somewhere else, she's the one who came through the mirror" said Dr. Angleman as she pointed at the Willow on the tape, "maybe the first in a HST invasion of our planet."
"Agent Finn" said Maggie, "your orders are to bring in both Willow's."
"Ma'am" said Riley confused, "you said that the other Willow… our Willow was in her room."
"Riley" said Maggie, "this other Willow used some sort of mental powers to push a soldier against the wall and raise him into the air just like a rag doll. Do you think that's normal?"
"No ma'am" said Riley, "but…"
"It's more likely that our Willow is a HST hiding her true nature from the public" said Maggie, "which means that she could go out of control at any time. We want her to work for us, we can train her to help us in capturing HST's, thus saving lives. We can use the other one to gauge what our Willow's abilities would be one day."
"I understand, ma'am" said Riley.
"Move out" said Maggie as Riley and the others walked away.
"This is good" said Dr. Angleman, "can you imagine if we could transfer the parts of their brains that control these abilities into Adam?"
"He'd be unstoppable" smiled Maggie as she looked at Dr. Angleman, "come, let's speak to our strange guest."
Summers Residence, Alternate Reality, 2140 hours.
"I miss Buffy" said Joyce to herself as she walked up the stairs after a night of watching some television, "it would have been nice to watch shows with her again like when she was a little girl."
Joyce stopped at some of the pictures along the staircase and stopped. She ran her fingers over one of her and Buffy on a beach with the ocean in the background.
"Those were the days right, Buffy" said Joyce, "I didn't know about Slayers, or vampires, or the violence. Kind of miss those days."
Joyce then brought herself out of her walk through memory lane and turned to walk upstairs when she suddenly heard someone pounding on the door.
'Who could that be?' thought Joyce to herself as she walked down the stairs and opened the door, only to see a young brunette girl who was bowing down, with her hands on her knees and panting heavily.
"You know, Buffy" said Dawn without even looking up, "the distance wasn't as close as I thought it would be."
"Excuse me?" said Joyce as she watched the girl slowly look up in surprise with her eyes wide open, "can I help you? Are you looking for Buffy? I'm afraid…."
"M…. mom?" said Dawn as her lips started to tremble, "mommy?"
"Excuse me?" said Joyce surprised, "I'm sorry but…."
"You're alive" said Dawn as she tightly hugged an extremely surprised Joyce, "My God, you're alive."
"Ummmmm" said Joyce nervously, "I… I don't know how to tell you this but, who are you?"
"No" said Dawn as she got out of the hug and looked at Joyce in shock, "please mom, tell me you know who I am?"
"I'm sorry" said Joyce as she shook her head, "but…. I'm sorry, maybe you have me mixed up with someone else."
"Can't be" said Dawn as she stepped back and stared at the floor before looking at Joyce again, "mom, please…. Don't kid around with me, please."
"I'm sorry, my dear…. But…." Said Joyce as Dawn suddenly collapsed onto her knees.
"Easy… easy" said Joyce as she slowly lifted Dawn up and helped her into her house.
"The pictures" said Dawn as she ran up the stairs to a certain picture that Joyce was just looking at, "I'm in the picture we took together at the beach; you, me and Buffy. I'm right… no…no… no… no…"
Dawn was in shock when she looked at the picture and she wasn't there. She then ran down the stairs and looked at all the other pictures and found that she wasn't in any of them.
"How…. How…." Said Dawn as she turned and look at a shocked Joyce who was holding a hand to her chest, "My…. My.. name is Dawn Summers. My mother is Joyce Summers. My sister is Buffy Summers. Why… why aren't I here?"
All Joyce could do was look on shocked as the young girl In front of her told her who she was and she started to tear up.
"I'm sorry" said Joyce, "but I don't have another daughter. I wish I did, but… I'm sorry."
"I don't exist" said Dawn as her legs started to tremble and she had to sit down on the couch, "I don't exist."
"Dawn, right?" said Joyce, "maybe your mother has the same name as me. There are so many Joyce Summers in this world."
"Why aren't I here?" said Dawn, "I should be here, there should be a me in this reality."
"Reality?" said Joyce confused.
"I'm so stupid" said Dawn and she cried as she covered her face with her hands, "I'm so so stupid."
"Dawn?" said Joyce.
"I'm sorry, mom" said Dawn as she looked up with red eyes.
"Dawn" said Joyce.
"Please listen" said Dawn, "I'm from an….."
Dawn was interrupted when suddenly the power cut out throughout the entire house.
"Must be the breakers downstairs" said Joyce, "I'll go down and look."
"No, mom" said Dawn, "please don't leave me again."
"Dawn" said Joyce, "alright. I'll stay with you ok."
"Thank you" said Dawn as she held Joyce's hands, "I've always been afraid of the dark."
"Dawn, I….." said Joyce when she was suddenly interrupted by the front door crashing inside as four people wearing dark coloured outfits, masks and goggles stormed in.
'The Initiative' said Dawn as she stood in front of Joyce.
"Stay away from her" said Dawn as she shielded Joyce.
"Get the both of them" said Riley as Forrest and Graham stepped forwards and grabbed both Dawn and Joyce.
"Let go!" said Joyce, "or else you'll be in so much trouble."
"We have them" said Forrest as he put a bag over their heads; however it was Dawn who was giving them the most trouble.
"Stop squirming" said Graham as he winced in pain when Dawn head butted him. This made him release her, and Dawn took her opportunity by kicking the back of his knee which made him go down. Dawn then proceeded to stamp her foot on his chest before she kicked him on his groin.
"Fuck!" said Graham as he rolled on the lawn.
"Damn it" said Riley as he grabbed Dawn from behind tightly and lifted her up as he ran towards the awaiting van along with Forrest who had a tight hold on Joyce, who fell on the grass and the bag over her head fell off.
"Let her go" said Joyce.
"Let go of me, you tool" said Dawn, "you're squeezing the twins; I'll sue you for sexual harassment."
"Right" said Riley as he handed the struggling Dawn to another soldier who was in the van.
"Get her" said Riley as he pointed to Joyce before he turned towards the sound of a car that was speeding towards them.
"Weapons ready" said Riley as he and his team took out their taser blaster and shot at the driver of the car that was drive towards them.
Willow quickly swerved the car as soon as the soldiers started firing the taser blasters at her and she used her telekinesis to form a shield around her, as well as using the car's body for cover.
'The car can take the full force of the blasters' thought Willow as she quickly got out of the car and activated her two Zats. Taking a quick peek she saw that someone, she couldn't tell who was on the grass, 'probably a civilian, and I saw them put Dawn into the van.'
"One… Two… Three.." said Willow as she quickly activated her zats before getting up and shooting two of the soldiers who were standing near the van. Taking advantage of the shock they were in after watching their compatriots fall onto the grass as blue energy crackled over them, Willow stood up again and shoot the soldier who was trying to help one of them stand up.
"I know there are four of you" shouted Willow as she came up from behind the car and walked towards the open door, "I hit three, you are the last one. So step out of the van, release the girl and you can be on your merry way."
"Drop your weapon" said the soldier as he stepped out of the van while holding a firearm towards Willow on one hand, and his arms around Dawn's chest using his other hand.
"We have orders to bring the two of them with us" said the soldier.
"I said release her" said Willow as she activated a zat.
"No" said Joyce as she stood up and looked at the brunette holding a strange weapon, "don't harm Dawn."
'Joyce?" thought Willow, 'You've no idea….. I wish Buffy could see you now… I mean the Buffy of my reality. But where's the Dawn of this reality?"
"Ma'am" said Willow as she glanced at Joyce, "where is your daughter? Is she safe?"
"She's in U.C. Sunnydale" said Joyce.
"You only have one?" asked Willow as she looked at the pain in Dawn's eyes, 'oh no… Dawnie… I'm so sorry.'
"Yes" said Joyce, "but please don't hurt Dawn."
"You should listen" said the soldier as he started to move with Dawn to the driver side, "you move and I'll shoot the woman."
"You call yourself a soldier?" asked Willow as she put down her zat and lifted her arm.
"What are you…." Said the soldier as he saw his gun switch its safety to the "on" position before it seemed to take itself apart.
"You threatened two people I care about with violence?" said Willow as she mentally flung the gun parts away into different directions before she telekinetically removed his arm from Dawn's chest, "Dawn, take Joyce into the house."
"Willow" said Dawn as she saw Willow pick up the soldier and bring him towards her, "don't do it. We're alright."
"Willow?" said Joyce as she slowly approached the brunette, "you're not Willow, I know Willow. She's my daughter's best friend."
"I'm sorry, Willow" said Dawn, "I didn't mean to out you, as it were, but you can't do what I think you're thinking of doing."
"Of course not, Dawnie" smiled Willow as she activated the zat and fired at him from close range, "just wanted to scare him a bit."
"Oh" said Dawn as she hugged Willow tightly, "you came."
"Of course, Kiddo" said Willow, "you really think I'd leave you?"
"Who are you two?" asked a shocked Joyce.
"Joyce" said Willow as she gave the older blonde a tight hug, "Its so good to see you again, you have no idea."
"I….. I'm sorry" said Joyce as she looked at the brunette hugging her, "I don't think we've met."
"I'll explain everything to you Joyce" said Willow, "I just need help bringing them into the van and I'll drive them to the end of the street. Then I'll change their memories to make it seem that they couldn't find dawn anywhere."
"How did they find me?" asked Dawn.
"I'll find that from their memories" said Willow as she hugged Dawn again, "stay with Joyce alright? I'll be back."
"Alright" said Dawn as she led Joyce back into the house while the blonde woman looked back at the brunette claiming to be Willow get into the van as she telekinetically lifted the four soldiers and dumped them into the back of the truck, before she got into the driver's seat and drove off.
It was ten minutes later that Willow had come back into the Summers household. As she walked in and closed the door, she saw Joyce sitting on the sofa with a cup of tea as her hands trembled and Dawn seated beside her.
"Joyce?" said Willow as she took a chair and sat in front of Buffy's mother.
"Who are you?" asked Joyce as she looked at Willow's holographic disguise and then at Dawn, "who are the both of you? You come into my house….."
"Joyce" said Willow as she held her hands after she put the tea down, "the both of us are from an alternate reality."
"This is a joke right?" asked Joyce as she stood up in outrage, "alternate reality? There's someone claiming to be a daughter I've never had, I get attacked in my own home by people with guns, I have a fire fight on my own lawn, I have you claiming to be Willow and now you tell me this is all a science fiction joke? This isn't Star Trek… there's no such thing as alternate realities, it's just something people make up to make them feel better about themselves; about having another world where they always get what they want."
"Mom" said Dawn.
"Dawn" said Joyce, "I'm sorry, but I'm not your mother."
"Dawn" said Willow as she looked at Dawn and then at Joyce as she stood up, "she's right."
"Willow" said Dawn.
"Joyce Summers died a year and a half after I left Sunnydale" said Willow as she sadly looked at Joyce whose eyes were wide open in shock, "she left behind two daughters, Buffy Summers and Dawn Summers."
"No" said Joyce.
"At least that's what happened in my reality" said Willow, "Buffy and Dawn faced a lot of things without Joyce, they….. they….."
"We lost our way" said Dawn as she looked at Joyce, "sure we had Giles, Xander and the others. But mom was gone, she was our emotional rock and she was gone."
"I was gone" said Willow as she sat down in front of a very shocked Joyce, "I left Sunnydale and joined the Air Force."
"But…." said Joyce as tears formed in her eyes as she looked at Willow and then at Dawn.
"Dawn is your daughter…. But from another reality… a reality where you died" said Willow.
"How?" asked Joyce as her voice broke.
"Brain aneurysm" said Dawn, "Buffy found you…. Found mom… dead on the couch… I was at school. You had a tumour… the doctors said you.. I mean mom died peacefully, she didn't feel any pain."
"I can prove what we've been telling you is true, Joyce" said Willow.
"How?" asked Joyce.
"I don't want you to be shocked" said Willow, "after I show you what I need to, I want you to call Buffy and ask about Willow…. I mean the Willow of your reality."
"O….. Ok" said Joyce.
Joyce saw Willow reach for her chest and take something out. She looked on in shock as the brunette woman who was sitting in front of her vanished, only to reveal the familiar red hair and green eyes that she was so familiar with.
"Hi Joyce" smiled Willow with tears in her eyes, "it's so good to see you again."
TBC