BtVS || Spuffy || BtVS || Spuffy || Keeping Up With the Scoobies || Spuffy || BtVS || Spuffy || BtVS
Title: Keeping Up With the Scoobies – The Long Way Home
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Disclaimer: All rights reserved to Joss Whedon. This fanfiction on the other hand is entirely mine. No money is made with this, though reviews are more than welcomed.
Tags: m/f, f/f, hurt/comfort, survivor's guilt, fluff, found family
Main Pairing: Spike/Buffy
Side Pairings: Tara/Willow, Xander/Renee, Robin/Faith, Connor/Dawn, Dowling/Dylan, Angel/Cordelia, Wesley/Fred, Oz/Bay, Buffy/Satsu (briefly), Willow/Kennedy (briefly)
Buffy Characters: William 'Spike' Pratt, Buffy Summers, Dawn Summers, Rupert Giles, Willow Rosenberg, Alexander 'Xander' Harris, Andrew Wells, Tara Maclay, Renee, Faith Lehane, Robin Wood, Robert Dowling, Dylan Turner, Satsu, Kennedy, Daniel 'Oz' Osbourne, Bayarmaa 'Bay'
Angel Characters: Angel, Cordelia Chase, Connor Angel, Harmony Kendall, Winifred 'Fred' Burkle, Wesley Wyndam Pryce, Charles Gunn, Lorne
Summary: Buffy shared her powers with all potential Slayers. But that was only the beginning. Now, she has to deal with all the new Slayers, with the aftermath of LA going to hell – and coming back. The world knows about the supernatural, there's no going back.
Keeping Up With the Scoobies
The Long Way Home
7. Hell to Pay
"What do you mean someone took Los Angeles? How do you lose an entire city?"
Xander sounded a bit frantic as he paced up and down in front of Willow and Buffy. The two women exchanged a look. At least Xander paced in a different pattern than Andrew did, who had also been pacing since he got here, though with more wild gesturing.
"It means what I already told you when I went to get you," commented Willow. "Los Angeles has been shifted into another dimension, it is... no longer in this dimension."
"You know, I was expecting a big thing to bring the band back together, but I didn't think it would be the disappearance of Los Angeles," noted Andrew, in full story-telling mode now. "But oh, the additional layer of damsel in distress! Buffy can swoop in, save Los Angeles and with it, Spike-"
"That's quite enough now, Andrew," interrupted Giles sternly. "You have time for your little fantasies later on, for now we have to focus on the problem at hand, yes?"
""Why are we here, by the way?" asked Xander. "I mean, to find LA, yes, but why here?"
"San Francisco is physically the closest base we have to Los Angeles and whatever we're going to do, it will be easier closer to the location. Finding any left-over traces of magic, performing rituals... It'd be much harder from all the way across the pond," replied Willow.
At that, Buffy turned toward Robin Wood, who stood lingering in the doorway. "Thank you. For having us. I know this isn't... But we appreciate being here."
This felt awkward, especially with Andrew already having brought up Spike. Buffy very vividly remembered what had happened. How he had kidnapped Spike. How she had taken Spike's side and threatened Robin in return. She understood his anger and he had every right to feel the way he did. But Spike, this Spike, was a different person than the one who had killed Nikki Wood.
"All of Los Angeles is a lot of innocent lives that need saving," commented Robin. "But more importantly, will your squads be alright with you all gone...?"
"Mh, oh yes, Renee is taking over leadership duties," Xander waved a hand dismissively.
"That's his girlfriend," pointed Willow out with an impish smile. "Because he has a girlfriend now."
Xander flushed and huffed, while Giles took off his glasses to polish them. And oh, how much this felt like the good old days. Major crisis, all of them gathered in the same library, trying to figure out how to save the world. Or at least Los Angeles, in this case. Buffy tried to hide her smile.
"I left Leah in charge. She is a... good and diligent Slayer. I thought I was training Satsu to take over for me one day, but she's now leading the Tokyo squad. I... But Leah's good. This is more sudden than I expected, but a Slayer has to be adaptive, so we'll see how well she does," stated Buffy. "I guess this will be the big test for all the second-in-commands."
Willow hummed in confirmation. They all had been scouting who had the most talent for a while now, honing that person's skills in particular, having them tune in on decision making. Because ultimately, this was where Buffy and the others wanted to get back to. To each other, together.
"Where's Faith?" asked Dawn with a frown, looking around. "Did you forget to bring her?"
"I'm afraid Faith is on a very important mission herself," replied Giles, still focused on his glasses.
Mh. He did that when he was annoyed with them and wanted to tune them out, but he also did that to avoid eye-contact. There was something he wasn't telling them. Buffy narrowed her eyes, but decided that for now, Faith's whereabouts weren't as important as the whereabouts of Los Angeles.
"Okay, but how can LA just... disappear? I mean, without anybody noticing?" Dawn spoke up. "Sunnydale was just a small-town and the media might have covered it up with some 'giant sink-hole', but its disappearance was still all over the news. LA is a bit bigger than Sunnydale. Or was."
"That is an excellent point, Dawn," praised Giles, putting on his glasses.
"Whoever took LA is covering it up with a glamour," explained Willow. "Hold on."
"Hold onto wha—at," Xander's voice turned more shrill as they were teleported.
Andrew held his stomach and his mouth and turned sideways to hurl once they manifested again. Buffy smirked just a little bit, the first few times Willow had done that with her, she had been squeamish too. Everyone's attention was on what was before them. Or rather, what seemed to be in front of them. They stood just outside of Los Angeles, right in front of the city sign and before them, Los Angeles stretched out in all its bright and shiny glory.
"Uh... So... I'm confused," admitted Xander, frowning. "Because that looks like LA. Right? Personally, I've never been to LA, but this looks like all the Hollywood movie shots...?"
Willow held one finger up before walking toward the city. And then she stepped past the city-line – and disappeared from their sight. Xander screamed and immediately lunged after her, because that was what Xander did. Wherever Willow and Buffy went, Xander would follow.
"It's a protective glamour," explained Buffy to the others remaining. "It looks like LA is still there, from any side around it. But if you step inside... Let's follow them."
She led the way and Giles, Dawn, Andrew and Robin followed. The decline was sharp, but Buffy could brace herself for it. The others, not so much. Giles landed indignantly on his butt, which Buffy tried not to laugh about. She caught Dawn by the arm, holding her up. Andrew somehow managed to end up in a heap at Xander's feet, who was staring around in mortified silence.
"Okay, this looks more like Sunnydale did," noted Dawn in awe. "It's just... gone."
"Magic residue suggests that it was taken. Not like Sunnydale, which was swallowed up," offered Willow, waving her hands, and her magic, around. "Someone took the entire city and shifted it... slightly to the left, so to speak. We don't know who, why or how yet."
"Okay, okay, okay. Not to be Captain Obvious here, bu—ut," Andrew huffed as he got up. "Evil, soulless lawyers that are actually like ancient god-like demons, ring any bells...?"
"Andrew got a point," agreed Xander. "It physically pains me to say that, but Andrew got a point. Angel's crew was last working for the actual evil of this world, weren't they? Seems..."
Buffy heaved a deep, tired sigh and rubbed her forehead with her fingers. "Yes, our most likely suspects. The question is why and also how. And how we can undo it."
Giles was still on the ground, though for a reason. He was gathering up dirt in little vials. "We'll have to run a lot of tests. Read a lot of books. Do a lot of research."
"Giles. People are missing, a little less enthusiasm," teased Buffy.
Giles flushed and straightened. Of course did research make him giddy. That was just who Giles was. Buffy crossed her arms over her chest, grasping her upper arms with tight fingers as her gaze wandered to the crate in front of her. Oh, Angel, what did he get himself into...? Himself and all of Los Angeles? She just hoped they were alright. That Spike was alright...
/break\
Spike was living his best demon-lord life. Make the best of a shitty situation, was his motto. It had been enough weeks, or months, or years. Time had no meaning here. Which had one upside, because without days, there was no sun. He could walk outside wherever and whenever he wanted.
"Are you really happy with this?" asked Fred concerned, looking around.
What a way to kill the mood. He put the bottle of liquor down, a bit harder than necessary. Fred was important to him, she was a friend. He'd wanted to keep her safe. After he became lord of Beverly Hills, he made sure to find them. Her and her pet Watcher. Wesley was a bit too stiff for Spike's taste, rubbed him the wrong way alright, but he made Fred smile like the sun was rising.
"No, sunshine, I'm not happy," Spike heaved a sigh. "I'm surviving. What you and your Watcher were doing, was that working out for you? On the run? Hiding? This. This allows me to keep people save. I'm a hero to them. I protect them. So I throw a party every now and again. Have some fun. Drink a bit. Drink a lot. What's it to anyone, really?"
Fred heaved a sigh, looking at him so sadly. "Have you spoken to Angel?"
"Fred," Wesley injected, his voice gentle. "You know they don't talk. Regardless of how much you and Cordelia are trying to smooth things over. Give it... Give him a rest, mh?"
Huh. Maybe Wesley was going to grow on Spike after all. They'd been separated, after everything went to hell, after the demons and monsters attacked. They had to fight their way out and as always, Spike had survived. And fought. When Los Angeles was split up between the demon-lords, who decided to 'protect' them but only oppressed them. So Spike came up, took the lord of Beverly Hills down and became the new ruler. He made his home in an abandoned villa of some starlet.
Harmony was off living her best life, she ran a gossip pseudo-news show on what was the only channel available in this literal hell. Became an actual star, sweetheart of the masses. Good for her.
Charles was mostly with his girl, though he didn't call her that. Anne Steele, a tough young lass who had taken charge of a shelter for homeless teens and boy did she have her hands full now that they were in actual hell. People had died, parents had died leaving their children behind. Spike tried to keep an eye on them. So did Angel; one thing they seemed to agree on.
Going to hell had really soured their relationship. First thing Spike did after the fight ended was punch Angel square in his smug face. That bastard and his one-man-show infiltration act had gotten them here. He hadn't just gone and risked himself, he'd gotten them all involved and now all of Los Angeles was suffering the consequences and Spike was just done with that. Angel thought he was all that, was such a great hero and savior, when more often than not, he only saw himself. It was just the same as the stupid amulet again; Angel wanted to be the champion, not because it was what was being needed but because he didn't want Spike to be the champion. Angel had this inherent need to be the hero, the savior, consequences be damned. Well, now the consequences had damned them.
/break\
It was late. Or early, depending on how one looked at it. Buffy ran her hands through her hair, getting her fingers entangled in it because she had it put up in a bun actually. A messy one, now even messier. She startled some when a mug was put down in front her.
"Coffee," offered Robin softly. "If you won't sleep, at least keep yourself awake."
Robin focused most his time into training the Slayers. Trying to keep the newbies out of this, because they all knew the Slayers were eager for some action. This was too big to have them get involved, at least not just yet. Sighing, she picked up the coffee and took a long drink from it.
"Willow's off to talk to her... snake goddess hook-up. Don't ask. I try not to either," Buffy licked her lips. "Giles is... off putting spells onto the books in the Watcher HQ."
"Why is he spelling books?" Robin took a seat opposite her, arms resting on the table.
"Nifty little thing Willow reported back that she'd seen at Wolfram & Hart. Yes, yes, evil lawyers. Clever magic though. They managed to link their entire library to... blank books. So if you speak the name of whatever book you want to read in front of that blank book, it fills with exactly that content. With how many squads we have and how few volumes were published of many books, this seems like something that'd benefit the entire Slayer network. If every squad would just need some blank books and we could keep the collective library together, to be accessed by any Slayer and Watcher around the world, instead of... dividing our knowledge, keeping some books here, others there... It'd save us so much time? Make the research part much easier."
Robin hummed intrigued, picking up one of the books on the table to help Buffy with the research. Her eyes wandered toward the old clock standing against the wall. It was nearly five AM.
"Every day that passes, I feel like... someone is dying because I'm not solving this," whispered Buffy after a moment. "They're in some hell-dimension probably. Maybe being tortured. Innocent people. Children. I'm not worried about Angel or Spike, well not much anyway. I know they can fight for themselves. But all the... all the innocent people that were dragged along with them?"
"You also know that you won't be of much help to anyone if you're too tired to stand upright."
"It has to be here somewhere. Some kind of answer," Buffy groaned frustrated.
"Go. Sleep some. I'll take the next shift. I'm an early riser anyway," offered Robin.
She smiled, just a bit, before she gave in and nodded. Getting up, she stretched wide. Just a nap. Maybe in the morning, everything would be clearer. Maybe the answers would come to them.
/break\
Oz had been surprised to get a call from Giles. Ever since he had left Sunnydale for the second time, he hadn't really heard from any of them again. Which was hardly their fault; he was in a temple in Tibet. Not exactly a wifi hot-spot. Besides, he'd mostly been a Scooby because of Willow, hadn't he? And Willow had moved on. Not that he could fault her. He still hated how things had come apart, but it had also been somewhat predictable; they'd never been the same after Willow and Xander had slept with each other. Not that he put the blame for his own cheating onto Willow. No, what he meant with it was that they hadn't worked in a long time. Not the way he'd wanted them to.
Sometimes, he missed them. When he sat outside and gazed into the valley, he liked to think back onto their adventures with the fondness of retrospect. Back then, things had simply been terrifying.
"So... there's something that Giles forgot to mention in his call," noted Oz with raised eyebrows.
"Hi," Faith quirked her lips into a snarky smirk, leaning one arm against the doorway and resting her other hand on her very extended stomach. "Got room for two and maybe got a nursemaid?"
Oz shook his head, before catching himself and nodding while stepping aside. "I mean, yes. Of course. Come... in. Long time no see, Faith. How have you been...?"
"Prison. Helped save the world co-parenting a bunch of mini Slayers with B. Pregnant now. You?"
A small smile spread over Oz's lips as he led the way to the living room of their house. "Married. A husband and father now. Learned to control myself. I'm an... alpha wolf now, I suppose."
"Congrats on the promotion," offered Faith amused. "So... Is this really okay? It was G's idea. Get me off the radar. Been laying low for... a while... now. But he thinks a regular hospital might be risky or that someone might try to steal the baby because baby Slayer, right? Not that that's how it works. I think at least. We've never really... had this before. Other Slayers, that is. You caught up?"
"On the army of Slayers? Yes. Cordelia told me," replied Oz. "And yes. You being here is okay. You're not the first one we're taking in. Last year – that's when Cordelia updated me, she asked me for a favor too. They'd run into a young werewolf who was afraid she'd hurt her family. Angel's idea of helping was to offer her a cell at his... law-firm... still a bit unclear on that part... but Cordelia suggested calling me. She, Nina, stayed with us for months to learn control."
"Huh. Who'd have thought," Faith hummed to herself, letting her gaze wander.
"This is... rather unexpected," noted Oz after another moment.
"You're telling me," Faith huffed, a sneer on her face. "The world was ending. Everybody in that house was having sex – not an orgy. Just... with their partners. Not that he was my partner. That night though. It was good. Good sex. We just... weren't as careful, because the world was ending."
"Will... he join us too?" asked Oz, looking at her sideways.
"Oh no. No. He... has no idea about this," Faith motioned at herself. "I know, I know. I'll tell him. Eventually. When the baby's out. But I already had G try to dictate my life these past months, 'for the baby', I didn't need him hovering or trying some relationship. I'm not relationship material. ...I'm not mother material either though."
So she hadn't told the father yet because she didn't know what she wanted to do. The two reached his wife, sitting outside behind the house, with their son on her lap. Smiling to himself, Oz walked over to her and leaned down to kiss her cheek, burying his nose in her hair.
"Our guest is here," Oz informed his wife. "Bayarmaa, Faith Lehane. Faith, Bayarmaa."
"Please, call me Bay," Bay smiled, barely a reaction to Faith's pregnancy.
"Thanks for having me. You don't happen to have, I don't know, a hospital close by...?"
"No. But I'm a healer, I've... helped deliver a few babies before for the pack," offered Bay. "You are in good hands here, Faith. We're going to take good care of you, both of you."
A pregnant Slayer, in a world where all potential Slayers had their full Slayer-strength since the big blast. This was different. It couldn't be assumed that the child of a Slayer would also be a Slayer, but then there were very few Slayers who actually lived long enough to have children. And if all Slayers had come into their power at once, who knew how that would affect the future? Would the next generation of Slayers be born with their powers? That'd make births very dangerous, very risky. That must be the same conclusion Giles had come to too. That was why he had sounded so concerned when he had called Oz and why he had called Oz. This was going to be... interesting.
/break\
"I know what happened," declared Willow as she materialized in the middle of breakfast.
Andrew choked on his cereals. Buffy didn't even flinch; she had grown very used to this ever since Willow had honed her teleporting abilities. Even more so since she started dimension hopping. Giles slowly put his tea down and turned to watch her.
"What did you find out, Will?" asked Buffy after a beat, holding out her croissant.
Willow accepted it greedily, taking a huge bite. Dimension-hopping always left her hungry, it burned a lot of energy. She easily slipped into the seat next to Buffy and finished the croissant first.
"Aluwyn told me that there was a disturbance. A ripple that could be felt through her dimension and many others. When someone pulls something so huge out of its own dimension and into another, that... has an effect," explained Willow, stealing the buttered toast from Xander. "So we were right on track with our assumption. It was indeed pulled into a different dimension."
"Okay. That at least... says we're looking the right places, but..." Xander frowned.
But it didn't bring them much closer, yes. Buffy reached for her hot chocolate, bringing it close. There were mini marshmallows in it, which was ridiculous and sentimental, but Spike had loved those in his hot chocolate. They'd kept them at the Summers home, when they all had lived together. She had started buying them in England and drinking hot chocolate with them in it about a month after their move there. Was that very silly? Probably. But no one had to know.
"I'm not done! Let a witch eat a bite between exposition," Willow swallowed hard. "No, she can not help us. It is not in her dimension or in any other dimension she knows, to get ahead of your next question. And it's not... in one specific place. I mean, it wasn't just scooped out of ours and put into another. It was pulled through multiple other dimensions on its way down. Leaving traces in all of them. There are... dozens, or more, dimensions with traces of our world in it now."
"So we check them all," declared Buffy determined. "You can travel through dimensions, can't you, Will? We'll just go, together, and when we find them, we'll find a way back."
"It... It's not so easy, Buff," Willow's voice was soft, careful. "I can travel in our dimension. And to Aluwyn's dimension, because she let me in. But others – and to jump from one dimension to the next and the one beyond that – that's... I don't think I can do that. They're... Think of them as doors. Big, heavy doors. And they're locked. We can't open them, because we don't have the key."
Silence, the frustrated and tense kind, spread out between them, until Dawn sat up straighter. "But we have a key. We have me. I'm a key. I was made to open portals, right? I mean, I'm not suggesting 'hey, let's sacrifice Dawn!', but I was – I must be – there has to be some... residue? Right? Something Will can work with to make a key, with her magic. To open portals."
Author's note: Bay is one of the comic-exclusive characters that I really wanted to keep! I love Oz and I loved seeing him happy with his wife and son, I want happy!Oz.
Another comic thing that I absolutely ADORED was Dawn gaining portal-creating powers due to having been the key, that is so badass so I had to find a different angle to make that a thing, since I removed the circumstances that made it happen.
Also, pregnant!Faith is honestly my oldest post-series headcanon. She's always felt abandoned and never had a family so I thought up this whole plotline of her gaining someone who will completely love her through her daughter.
LASTLY, I actually CAN promise you now that the chapter after the next, Spuffy will finally be reunited! Just one more chapter before that, it's a very personally-important chapter so bear with me while they travel through the multiverse~ ;)
