Chapter Two

Everything either belongs to Joss or it should, no infringement is intended and no profit is to be made. When you get right down to it I’m not really worth suing anyway unless you want a share of an underpaid civil servants wages and it just wouldn’t be worth the hassle trust me.



Hyperion Hotel - Los Angeles - July 2004

‘Buffy it would take me months to properly skim through that much data’ Willow responded with a sigh. ‘We’ll be going through it for years’ she continued. ‘Some of the base technology the R&D sections reference won’t even be invented for fifteen years, or at least it wouldn’t have been, because Knox is planning to patent everything he can before the real inventor invents it.’

The Chief Slayer frowned. ‘But have you found anything to contradict her story?’ she asked.

‘Not so far’ Willow replied. ‘If anything the sheer volume of files makes it unlikely she was lying to us, there’s just too much corroborating evidence’ she said. ‘They must have downloaded their entire database into that black box Enyo gave us, your electronic appointment diary from 2015 onwards is on there for Hecate’s sake!’

Buffy‘s eyebrows raised, then she pursed her lips. ‘Do I ever get a social life?’ she asked.

‘I’ve got to assume you do because on February 7th 2017 you have to take your son to the paediatrician’ Willow told her, tapping the screen of her laptop which was connected via an Ethernet cable to the small nondescript database their latest time-jumping god had provided.

My son?’ Buffy blurted out.

‘Hey don’t go thinking you’re the only one getting shocks like that’ Willow told her. ‘Kennedy is listed on the database as Kennedy Rosenberg, we must have got married and she took my surname.’

Buffy frowned. ‘I’d ask more but I’d like to keep some mystery in my life’ she said.

‘You do realise that none of that is actually likely to happen now anyway’ Fred interjected, walking in carrying one of Knox‘s high-tech PDA units. ‘At least not in the same way’ she continued. ‘We’re already changing history, the ripple effect gets more and more pronounced as you get further away from the point the timeline diverged’ she told them then turned the PDA screen around to show Buffy. ‘We used the point of a scythe to get a sample of blood and tissue from Rebecca, or Enyo depending on what you want to call her’ she said. ‘After sifting out the demony bits the DNA was a match for Wesley and Faith, she was, or will be… would have been?…oh hell whatever the right words are, she’s their daughter.’

Buffy nodded. ‘Given the story she told about huge demon armies and the end of the human race I’d have been happier if you’d told me it was a pack of lies’ she told Fred.

‘Sorry’ Fred apologised. ‘I guess the future is kinda sucky.’

‘Hey we’re already changing it right’ Willow noted in an upbeat fashion. ‘We don’t need to make the same mistakes we did originally.’

‘You heard what she said Willow’ Buffy responded. ‘The corporeal First Evil, hundreds of millions of Turok’Han… we could make no mistakes and still lose’ she pointed out.

Fred grimaced. ‘You never met The Beast’ she said. ‘Turok’Han were nothing compared to him.’

‘Did you tell Wes and Faith about the results?’ Buffy asked.

‘Just before I came to see you’ Fred replied. ‘I don’t think they were surprised but I don’t think Faith has managed to get to grips with it yet’ she opined.

‘Having a daughter that looks maybe five years younger than you might take some getting used to’ Willow suggested.

‘At least we’re in LA’ Buffy replied. ‘People will just ask Faith who her plastic surgeon is when Enyo calls her “Mom”, they look enough alike that people won’t automatically assume she’s her step daughter instead.’

Fred grinned. ‘Well Illyria seems happy enough anyway’ she said. ‘Except for the Mexican Food thing.’

‘I have so got to ask Rebecca… Enyo… whatever it is we’re going to call her what it was like growing up with Wes, Faith and Illyria’ Buffy declared. ‘Can you imagine the family dynamics?’ she asked rhetorically.

Willow smiled. ‘I’ve got visions of a little girl doing a finger-painting of “Mummy and Me and Daddy and ‘Lyria” and her parents being called in because the school shrink is concerned about the imaginary blue-haired woman “who’s a god and daddy’s girlfriend”.’

‘Aw cute’ Fred responded with a sweet smile. ‘Knox took a look at that “Pathfinder” device that lets Dawn open portals’ she told Buffy turning towards her, ‘Dawn might be less keen on it when she finds out what it does when it’s activated’ she said.

‘What does it do?’ Buffy queried.

‘Two big needles spring out and stick themselves in her arm’ Fred told her. ‘That’s how it accesses the power in her blood.’

‘Ouch’ Willow said cringing.

‘Good’ Buffy said. ‘That might put paid to her wanting to play with it for a while’ she said with relief. ‘I wouldn’t trust Dawn to read a map let alone navigate the multiverse.’

‘The other Dawn used it’ Fred pointed out.

‘The other Dawn was years older’ Buffy replied evenly. ‘We’ve got the Portal Orb, Illyria and now Enyo, we don’t need the Pathfinder thing.’

‘Enyo isn’t great at portals, not inter-dimensional anyway she told me’ Willow told them. ‘She can’t teleport very accurately either or do any magicks too well for that matter’ she continued. ‘I thought that might be the case so I asked her.’

‘Why not?’ Buffy asked.

‘The basics of using the magicks is focus and control’ Willow explained. ‘If you had two distinct personalities sharing your head that would be tricky wouldn’t you think?’ she asked. ‘She can do stuff, pretty high-end stuff, but it’s not reliable and she has to pause to concentrate’ she continued. ‘Oh and she also said that she can’t spar with most people either for the same reason, she hasn’t got the self-control and mental discipline to guarantee she’ll pull her punches.’

Buffy frowned. ‘To quote you earlier, “ouch”.’

‘Yeah’ Willow agreed. ‘She said she broke a slayers jaw finding that out’ she said. ‘After that she only sparred with Glory usually, nobody minded how hard she got hit.’

‘Hell, Glory getting hit full-contact is a positive’ Buffy opined.

‘So not the super-weapon they were hoping for’ Fred observed.

‘I guess not’ Willow replied. ‘On the other hand can you imagine what someone with Illyria’s strength can do swinging a scythe?’

‘Not enough’ Buffy pointed out, ‘the First Evil survived it.’

Willow shrugged. ‘Guess we’ll have to figure out a new plan when it’s our turn’ she said. ‘We’ve got twenty years.’

‘Not necessarily’ Fred replied. ‘Changing things could push that schedule forward, or maybe even back’ she told them, ‘but I doubt we’re that lucky’ she added fatalistically.

‘They tried some pretty desperate things’ Willow observed. ‘There’s a reference to me, alternate future me I mean, coming up with a plan to take out a good chunk of Jasmines Army by destroying an entire world.’

‘You’re kidding?’ Buffy exclaimed.

Willow shook her head. ‘No I’m not’ she responded. ‘The idea was to draw the bulk of the opposition onto a world that had already been depopulated by the First Evil and for me to activate the statue of Proserpexa on Kingmans Bluff, burn the whole planet to a cinder like I was going to do… you know when I was kinda evil’ she said.

Buffy blinked. ‘We’ll put that one in the “last resort” category’ she decided.

‘They were already throwing nuclear bombs around like confetti by then, stole the things from a dozen different parallel worlds’ Willow told her. ‘They used Nerve Gas against Jasmines Insect Demon Troops’ she continued. ‘One time they even tried that “Black Tomorrow” Plague but the bugs had really good immune systems so it was a total bust.’

‘Nuclear, Chemical and Biological’ Fred noted. ‘They really covered all their bases on the WMD front.’

‘I can’t imagine ever doing something like that’ Buffy stated.

‘If you push somebody to the edge they’ll come out fighting and they’re likely to fight dirty’ Willow opined. ‘I guess you decided it was victory at any cost because the cost of defeat was too much higher.’

Buffy sighed. ‘I don’t want to ever be in that position’ she said, eyes cast downwards for a second before she raised them and straightened up, fixing Willow and Fred in her sights. ‘We are not going to end up in that position’ she declared. ‘We’ve got a head-start on the technology and the magicks’ she continued. ‘I don’t care what it costs, I want options, I want new weapons and I want solutions.’

‘We’ll need more R&D Staff’ Fred told her. ‘I mean Knox and I are pretty sharp, all false modesty aside, but we need more peoples input’ she said. ‘If you let us approach David Nabbit his company has some of the best computer people in the business, we can see about granting him the rights to develop some of the future tech for us, we get results faster than we would on our own’ she noted ‘and we’ll negotiate a good share of the profits when he drives Microsoft and Intel out of business… because with our two decade beyond state-of-the-art technology he will.’

‘Fine do it’ Buffy replied. ‘Tell Anya to sell our shares in any business we’re going to destroy first though’ she told her.

‘Same thing with the Spell Book’ Willow announced. ‘I can cast some of them already and they’re really neat, but it’ll take me ages to figure out the patterns of others let alone try to improve on them’ she said. ‘I’ll need Amy for a start, she’s the best non-me Witch I know.’

‘Go get her then’ Buffy replied evenly. ‘She’s not safe running around free anyhow, we’ll call it community service.’

‘Sounds better than kidnapping and indentured servitude’ Fred agreed with a wry smile.

Buffy crossed her arms. ‘We tried brawn’ she said, ‘and brute-force didn’t cut it’ she told them. ‘We’ve got the edge now and if we’re going to do better this timeline around it’ll be brains that does it’ she declared. ‘You’re the smartest two people on the team, the future of the human race could be dependent on what’s between your ears so I expect you both to use it to the best of your ability’ she told them.

Willow noted the pained expression on Fred’s face. ‘But you know, no pressure’ she told the physicist before grimacing herself.


Park – Los Angeles – July 2004

‘This is the same park where the angst-laden half-breed met his werewolf mate’ Illyria stated, taking a seat on a stone bench. It was a hot day and although it would have needed to be several hundred degrees warmer for her to have to bothered by the weather she was dressed in a seasonally appropriate outfit, a summer dress that Wesley seemed to like her in, likely because it was fairly short she realised.

‘Love at first bite’ Wesley couldn’t resist saying, earning a groan from Faith who was regretting the amount of dark colours in her wardrobe because she was roasting her ass off out here. Wesley wasn’t exactly a fan of the LA summer either but he was dressed better for it in a loose cotton shirt.

Rebecca grinned at her Dads bad joke and took a seat next to Illyria, facing Wesley and Faith who had positioned themselves on another bench. ‘I just thought we needed to get out of the hotel’ she said. ‘Sorry if it’s making you uncomfortable out here Mom’ she said, noting the beads of sweat on Faith’s forehead. ‘I’ve been merged with Enyo so long I’ve started to forget what it’s like to be too hot, or too cold for that matter’ she told them. It had become apparent that by some sort of mutual agreement if Rebecca was “driving” the shell, the girls hair and eyes were brown, all bright red hair and crystalline blue eyes meant it was purely Enyo, and a mix of the two, such as brown hair with red streaks and ordinary human blue eyes could be either, or somehow both, and was the girls default appearance.

‘I’m just more of a night person’ Faith replied, taking a swig from an ice-cold can of coke Wesley had just bought for her from a vendor. ‘But I guess you know that?’ she added after swallowing.

‘No not really’ Rebecca replied with a shrug. ‘You were always taking me out to parks and the beach and stuff when I was little that’s why I said about coming here.’

Faith looked up into the clear blue sky. ‘I guess having a kid scrambled my brains because they’re being boiled out here’ she said.

‘We could move up to the next benches where there’s shade’ Wesley suggested.

‘In a minute’ Faith told him then gave Rebecca her full attention. ‘So I’ve got to know’ she said. ‘What was it like having us two for parents?’ she asked nervously. Faith had never put much thought into ever having children, probably because her own childhood had sucked beyond belief and she was scared of being as crap a mother as hers had been.

‘It was more like you three really Mom’ Rebecca replied. ‘Illyria was always around too’ she explained. ‘She was my godmother you know, before she became my God-Mother I mean’ she joked. ‘That caused a lot of arguments though’ she added.

‘Arguments?’ Wesley queried.

Enyo nodded. ‘Illyria was kinda critical of Mom sometimes’ she told him, ‘you know, parenting wise’ she explained. ‘And everything else for that matter’ she added.

‘That would be understandable’ Illyria stated. ‘The shells parents provided a far superior upbringing to Fred than either Faith or Wesley’s managed for their respective offstring’ she noted. ‘I likely have a better understanding of proper childrearing than either of them’ she declared. ‘Plus my innate intellectual superiority would surely help.’

‘And it was saying things like that which caused a little friction’ Rebecca responded noting Faiths reaction. ‘I soon found out how to stop the arguments though’ she told them. ‘I went crying to Dad and he bawled you both out’ she said. ‘I got so good at crying on cue that way’ she admitted with a smile.

Wesley frowned, mainly because he knew he’d be easily manipulated in that fashion by a little girl, especially his own. He’d watched Giles usually iron resolve buckle many a time when confronted by one of the twins.

‘I just can’t imagine myself as a Mom’ Faith remarked then pause. ‘And I’ve been thinking about something you said about not expecting a hug from me’ she continued in an uncertain manner. Faith wasn’t big on that stuff, it made her uncomfortable although she had developed more tolerance for it lately thanks to all-too-frequent hugs with Dana, the idea that she might not give her own daughter enough physical affection because of that hang-up bothered her though.

Rebecca pursed her lips for a second. ‘When I was about eight maybe I worked out you didn’t like to hug so much, not like Dad or Illyria, so I stopped going to you for them’ she said. ‘You always would, if I was hurt or something, but you always seemed happier if you were doing something else’ she continued. ‘Like combing my hair, you liked doing that, or at least I think you did.’

‘Oh’ Faith replied, looking down at the ground, feeling bad that she couldn’t even learn to enjoy hugging her own little girl. ‘Wait’ she said looking up again, ‘you went to Illyria for hugs?’

Rebecca nodded. ‘If I had a bad dream or something, rather than wake you or Dad I tracked down Illyria because she was always awake anyway’ she replied.

‘But she’s... well she’s Illyria’ Faith stated, mildly dumbfounded.

‘I am extremely huggable’ Illyria declared with a definitely aggrieved tone at the implication she wasn’t. ‘Tell her Wesley’ she insisted. ‘Tell her that I am the better of us at displays of physical affection’ she ordered.

‘Oh there’s no way I’m going to get involved in another conversation that’s going to escalate into a major argument with me stuck in the middle’ Wesley replied quickly, ‘like the one where you two were trying to get me to say who was better in...’ Wesley trailed off as he remembered the company ‘martial arts’ he said.

‘Smoothly done Dad’ Rebecca told him, ‘nice save’ she continued sardonically. ‘Never would have guessed what you were going to say’ she told him, tongue firmly in cheek.

Wesley blushed despite himself then grinned. ‘Well at least you turning up now means that I’ve avoided the difficult questions when you were growing up’ he said.

Rebecca looked thoughtful. ‘Well you said you’d tell me where babies came from when I was twenty-one and that’s happening soon’ she told him.

‘Funny’ Wesley responded, flatly.

‘So was it “when a Mommy and a Daddy and Daddy’s skinny blue demon girlfriend love each other very much...’ Faith asked with a grin.

‘Something like that’ Rebecca told her, grinning back. ‘You did the talk, Dad got too flustered and you wouldn’t let Illyria.’

‘You had affection for me then?’ Illyria asked, changing the subject.

‘You were always my weird second Mom’ Rebecca told her. ‘Although I always thought my friends families were weird because they weren’t like mine’ she said.

‘So these feelings would have been in the shell when Enyo was created within it’ Illyria reasoned. ‘She will have the same regard for Wesley, Faith and I as I do for Fred’s parents then?’

‘She says to say yes although the feelings make her uncomfortable’ Rebecca replied. ‘I’d turn over the shell to her but there’s other people in the park and the colour switch is kinda involuntary sometimes’ she added.

‘You have limited control over your powers’ Illyria noted. ‘This is unfortunate.’

‘Hey I can teleport and you can’t’ Rebecca replied evenly. ‘I, we, have to concentrate hard to do it at all accurately so it takes a while, but we did find a work-around if we have to leave in a hurry.’

‘Yes?’ Wesley asked curiously.

Rebecca nodded. ‘If I teleport without concentrating I only end up in roughly the destination I intend to be at, the longer I thing about it the better the aim’ she explained. ‘If I just go without getting my head clear and focused, which is hard with two of us in here, I only get within the rough vicinity, sometimes a few feet, sometimes it’s yards away.’

‘That doesn’t sound too bad’ Faith opined.

‘That’s a few yards in any direction’ Rebecca noted. ‘I could end up inside a wall’ she noted with obvious discomfort. ‘Air moves out of the way when you teleport somewhere, solid objects not so much.’

‘Messy’ Illyria remarked.

‘Not something I ever want to do’ Rebecca agreed. ‘So like I said I found a work-around for if I need to teleport out fast.’

‘Which is?’ Wesley asked.

‘Teleport to a point fifty to a hundred feet above where I want to be and fall from there’ Rebecca told him in a somewhat embarrassed tone. ‘Even if I’m still out by a few yards I’m still not inside a solid object and it’s not like the fall is dangerous, my bones take a lot of breaking.’

‘That is a highly undignified means of transportation’ Illyria told her. ‘Not befitting of a god.’

‘Yeah’ Rebecca agreed, ‘Enyo gets embarrassed about it’ she said. ‘As for me I’m just stoked I can teleport at all’ she said. ‘Which does give me an advantage over you Mother’ she noted with a wink at Illyria.

‘You are not so powerful that I could not put you over my knee young lady’ Illyria replied evenly. ‘You will show me due deference and respect’ she informed the girl.

‘You’ll be threatening to send me to Vahla ha'nesh without dinner for a time-out next’ Rebecca responded with a grin. ‘I kid, I kid’ she said hurriedly in response to a definite flash of annoyance in Illyria’s eyes.

Illyria turned towards Faith. ‘The insolence is indicative of your influence in the child’s upbringing’ she stated.

Faith smiled. ‘A little sass is good in a girl’ she replied. ‘Stops guys thinking they can control you.’

‘You didn’t think the sass was good when I was fourteen trust me’ Rebecca told her. ‘It was so easy to play you guys off on each other to get my own way.’

‘The Machiavellian streak is indicative of your influence in the child’s upbringing’ Faith told Illyria smugly. Christ she was glad she’d read that book Wesley had given her to try and give her an insight into the way Illyria saw things. The Prince wasn’t very long but damn if it wasn’t worth a look if you wanted to know how politics worked in the real world, or how self-serving, ambitious megalomaniacal Old Ones acted. People thought Faith was stupid sometimes, she’d been told it often enough by teachers, and her mother too, but there was a big difference between being stupid and uneducated, a point Wesley kept on reminding her.

‘So what are you planning to do now?’ Wesley asked the girl.

Rebecca looked around. ‘Get used to living in the Dark Ages’ she replied. ‘And try to get used to seeing people wearing things like that’ she said indicating Faith’s tight low-cut top. ‘Fashion was more conservative where I came from’ she said, ‘longer skirts for a start’ she continued. ‘And anyhow you’re my Mom’ she told Faith with seeming disapproval.

Wait until you see her dance, Wesley thought to himself with amusement. ‘We’ll take you shopping’ he told the girl. ‘I imagine the fashion circle keeps on turning relentlessly’ he said. ‘And now I’m concerned that 1970’s bell-bottomed trousers for men might make a revival’ he added with a shudder.

‘I bet Giles still has some in his wardrobe’ Faith responded. They might even be tartan she thought, there was a rumour he was a Bay City Rollers fan in his youth, now that was something worth a shudder. ‘That shade sounds good’ she added. If she was going to get hot and sweaty she expected to be getting more fun out of it.

Illyria didn’t bother to hide the look of superiority that flashed across her face at Faith’s weakness as they shifted to a more shaded location. ‘We will talk to Berith tomorrow’ she told the girl.

‘As soon as let him start seeing my arrival here in visions he’ll be there in a flash’ Rebecca replied, literally she thought to herself. ‘Bet you he’s wearing the same expression you were when I dropped through that portal Dad’ she told Wesley.

‘He’s an evil bastard’ Faith declared.

‘More amoral than immoral, or evil Mom’ Rebecca told her. ‘And he’s not dumb, although his shell was a serious asshole’ she added. ‘You can find his record on the database, that’s high-school, employment and criminal record’ she noted. ‘Father might get visions of the future but he badly underestimated the effect the shells memories and remnants would have on his feelings and personality.’

‘I can empathise’ Illyria responded. ‘In fact my ability to do that at all is part of the remnant’ she told them. ‘He may try to kill you as a threat’ she pointed out.

‘Yeah’ Rebecca agreed. ‘Can I borrow your scythe Mom?’ she asked. ‘That should keep him civil’ she said. ‘I lost mine.’

‘How?’ Faith queried.

‘I misplaced it in the back of the First Evil’ Rebecca answered. ‘Never got the chance to pull it back out’ she added. ‘Pity really, it was the 3.0 prototype, you haven’t got the metallurgy to make those yet’ she said rolling her sleeve to reveal a number tattooed on her upper arm underneath the crossed scythes symbol Buffy had come up with. ‘That was the serial number on my scythe’ she explained. ‘The tattoo predated me going god because otherwise you’d have needed a scythe to put it there’ she said.

‘Nice workmanship’ Faith told her, inspecting the detail.

‘At the time you told me you were going to make me get it lasered off’ Rebecca told her.

‘Oh great’ Faith responded. ‘I turn into a square’ she said with distaste.

‘That’s indicative of my influence upon you I’m sure’ Wesley remarked wryly.

‘Could be but on the reverse side Mom does get you to start shaving I think’ Rebecca responded.

Faith looked at Wesley. ‘Well you look good and all’ she said, ‘but it’s kinda itchy’ she continued. ‘I know wire wool wouldn’t bother her’ she said indicating Illyria, ‘but some of us have sensitive skin.’

Wesley rubbed the stubble on his chin. ‘Sorry the image stays’ he told her deadpan.

‘Hey I know for a fact I can break you now’ Faith told him.

‘So I guess that’s two destinies we’ve got to thwart’ Wesley replied with a smirk.