Warning: The characters that are used in this story are owned by Mutant Enemy Production.
Author's Note: I was a long time Buffy fan...and felt that the way Season 8 ended was a good conclusion for the series, leaving in a logical spot for Fray to pick up. Instead, Season 9 has started publication. To that end, I thought of a way that could continue the series, and this is that story. This chapter of the story contains no sex. This is just to a launching pad for the story.
- Harth handed the dark woman the golden chalice.
"I remember fighting you. IN the dream, you hurt me. Not just fighting--you're connected to someone I love. And that's the one, the slayer of slayers. That's who I am in the dream. That's who's coming."
"Tonight." the woman responded, looking into the fluid of the chalice. "The princess leaves her kingdom for the forest of now."
"I haven't asked why you want her here. Or why you want my sister to find her." The smoke of the fluid began to swirl around her face.
"But you want to."
"Aren't they more of a threat to us combined?" She stepped outside to the balcony and looked out over the landing pad. There were lurks loading humans into various vehicles.
"Your schemes are ingenious. Keeping your force mobile, spreading the beloved infection throughout Noram...You gnaw at the root of your world. But there is nothing a slayer can not overcome."
"Then why call for another?"
"Vampires gain strength from each other. Slayers, ultimately, don't. What happens in your time will cause your time to come."
"I..."
"Ripples, child. Everything is ripples." The dark woman walked away with the chalice, leaving Harth alone.
"Everything is ripples." Harth repeated to himself. "What happens in my time will cause my time to come." Harth rolled this idea over and over in his head, while working hard to remember these events in his slayer collective memory.
If this his how this should have always had played out, then this slayer of slayers would have already come here, so he should already have the memory. And then, suddenly, he did have the memory, and he knew what he had to do.
Harth watched as Buffy and Melaka fought upon the rooftop. He knew every move they would make before they made it. The dark woman stood close by as well. She was waiting for her chance too, although the chances they were waiting for were different, and both moments were coming.
Melaka landed a kick to Buffy's face, and then the portal appeared. Buffy moved for it, Melaka tried to stop her, but then the dark woman appeared. Harth moved closer.
"You know I"ll go through you," Buffy said calmly to the dark woman.
"And you know you'll have to." Buffy looked crestfallen as the dark woman said this.
"Why?"
"Maybe I think the 20th century can solider on just fine without you." Hart was poised to strike now. He knew for his plan to work, Buffy had to go through the portal, and once she passed through, the portal would close. Harth had to pass through with Buffy.
"I'm cute and blonde and popular but I'm not stupid, Will. You dragged me here and then told me how to get out. Everything, every lie, to get us here. Why? What happened? Why does it have to be me?"
It's a long story," the dark woman replies, looking down. With a tear, Buffy brought her scythe back, and Harth acted. Rushing across the rooftop, he tackled both Buffy and the dark woman, pushing all three of them through the portal, and onto New York penthouse patio.
The dark woman, being the first to recover, yanked Harth to his feet.
"What have you done!" she yelled. Willow, who had been standing on the patio, blindfolded prepared to pull Buffy through the portal, reached up to uncover her eyes, but Buffy stopped her.
"Slayers, stop them....both!" Buffy commanded. Before anyone could move towards Harth and the dark woman, they both vanished.
"What were you thinking?" the dark woman asked as she circled Harth. They stood in a dark forest, the full moon riding high in the sky.
"Everything is ripples," Harth replies. "You should yourself, what happened in my time would cause my time to come."
"This is no longer YOUR time! This is her time, their time. Your time has yet to come."
"You lied to me. You lied to Melaka. You wanted THAT slayer there and then for your own reasons."
"I wanted to die!" the dark woman screamed, her voice echoing through the still night. "I have lived for over two hundred years. I have been the most powerful woman, the most powerful person in the world. I have lived through that power being ripped away from me by the actions of my best friend. And then, after all that, learning that the same friend, at the height of her power, is the only way I could die.
"I needed another slayer before I could call her. I planned my death for a hundred and fifty years, and you ruined it in a single action. How dare you!"
"We are creating new ripples," Harth replied after a few seconds. "Everything that has happened to you, your experiences, they have yet to be.
"I, on the other hand, am the one who will lead. I was to lead the demons back to Earth, to lead the lurks out of the sewers, to lead the humans to slaughter. I failed. Melaka destroyed the gateway. You were to be my salvation, but you lied.
"So I led myself. I went to he rooftop, and when the time was right, I led you to your past. All so, from this point, I can lead this world to it's true destiny."
"Harth is dangerous, but that's not all, Will," Buffy said as she helped Willow up. Dark Willow and Harth had just vanished form the patio."
"Who was that with him?" Kennedy questioned. "She looked a lot like..."
"Willow," Buffy concluded. "It's Willow, dark, and from two hundred years in the future." Buffy paused as this registered to her Willow, her best friend. "Call Xander, Giles......, even Faith. Get our leaders in one spot. Harth and Dark Will together puts Twilight to the back burner. This is so much bigger than all of us now."
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