12Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel the Series, and their characters and settings are not mine. The many variations found within this fic could be considered mine, but only in the sense that I imagined and wrote of them. And I can't imagine that line of thinking standing up in court, so please don't sue?
Rating: T
Warnings (fic): moderate violence & language, mild sexual references, moderate spoilers.
Summary: The usual suspects …But not necessarily from the usual places! The PTB are recruiting for a long-term mission to a distant, uncertain future – and this time, they're actually desperate enough to ask first. Their first recruit? Buffy Summers, from the end of "Chosen".
A/N: The initial inspiration for this one came from an Honorverse (Honor Harrington book series) crossover posted on Twisting the Hellmouth by 'DeacBlue', in which the Scoobies and mini-Slayers on the bus are transported into the future right at the end of Chosen. Nice idea, I thought – but why the hell does Xander, or Giles for that matter, get invited to a time and place where man-made viruses can hijack people? Is this not inviting disaster? So some thought went into how that could be fixed, and the shit just rolled downhill from there.
The future this mission-team is off to is 'uncertain' and unspecified, and will remain that way. The PTB's brief could work for Honorverse, but also for something like Firefly, Babylon 5, March Upcountry, Lensman or a bunch of others. Either way, I honestly don't care to write that far. This is meant to be a fairly short work, and enough characterisation and canon fact-checks are needed as it is without trying to fold another, completely separate bundle of canon into it. Someday I will do a proper crossover, with all that work sunk into it to the best of my ability – but this is not that fic.
As the title and summary hint at, not all the usual suspects (i.e the Scoobies and A.I. crew) will be from the same realm, or the same timeframe. Some, such as Buffy, will be from something that might as well be the canon-realm. Several of them will not. TUS also serves as a vehicle in which to load some alternate characters from divergences I can't be arsed writing up in full right now – most of which are not from Xander-specific divergences like I've tended to post thus far. But read on and you'll see…
Feedback: Yes, please! Especially should you desire to adapt your own versions of the offered divergences – they'll be popping up soon enough.
The Usual Suspects?
Chapter One: We Want You, Buffy Summers!
—ox-oxo-xo—
'…And once again, I'm basked.'
Flush with satisfaction she might be, and for good reason – hey, she'd just helped close a Hellmouth! – but that didn't stop her from feeling extremely tired. And dirty. And sticky. And feeling in general like she'd been beaten on by Turok'Han and then run through with a sword. What a coincidence, huh?
There were things to do still, as much as she approved of Faith's suggestion about just sleeping for a week. Getting to a place with beds, and showers and food, kinda required finding them first. Not to mention professionals of a medical persuasion – Buffy was pretty sure she'd walk off being impaled by this point (ah, the quips yet flow!), but ex-Principal Wood was going to have problems. And Slayer healing or not, a bottle of Advil was still queen. King being the preferred bed-size. Alone. Without having to share with a bunch of teenage girls.
At least Angel had a whole hotel for them to crash in – according to Willow and Faith, at least. She'd never actually seen it. Maybe she should call ahead, give them time to change the bedding?
Maybe she was a little out of it. Her thoughts were going all over the place.
Buffy closed her eyes for a minute. Inhale, hold, exhale…
She opened her eyes. And froze.
…
Literally. She couldn't move. Couldn't even blink.
And what with who was standing before her, she knew exactly who to blame.
::Hey there, Slayer.:: The telepathic greeting bypassed the ears and sunk into her brain like grease into skin, the nasal Brooklyn accent grating on her nerves. She tried to glare at him, but her face was still frozen.
'Whistler…' she mentally ground out.
::Ease up, girl,:: Whistler replied. ::Nothing suspect here. I'm just here with an offer…:: There was a short pause. With nothing else to do but panic or try to gather what she could, Buffy noticed that Whistler seemed to be frozen as well. She also noticed that the others had stopped talking. And that she no longer felt the breeze on her skin. Even the sun's warmth was absent. ::Oh, and yeah – I can hear you thinking.::
Answers? Yay, she guessed… 'What's going on? What are you doing here?'
::Okay, first up? Time's frozen, or at least slowed to a really slow crawl. We're thinking at the speed of thought here, toots. But that's the only thing we're doing at the speed of thought. Not as complicated – not as obvious, neither. Just us chatting for a couple minutes without anyone noticing.::
Buffy wanted to frown. The Balance Demon was being suspiciously nice. Far nicer than he'd been the last time they'd crossed paths…
::What, you're surprised? I'm here to offer you something. An opportunity…::
And there it was. The dust not even settled on Sunnydale, and the PTB wanted even more from her.
::Here's the thing, though. This? It's entirely optional. We want you, sure. But… you know Multiverse theory? The whole 'everything's gotta happen somewhere' theme? Yeah, there are at least hundreds of other versions of ya, standing round in front of their own craters. You're just the first one I happened to come and ask.::
'So go ask them,' she thought at him with as much snark as she could muster in her mind.
::Aw c'mon Slayer, at least hear me out! I haven't even got to the offer!:: Whistler pleaded.
Buffy mentally sighed. '…What?'
::Right, two things. First one: you, Buffy Summers, are key to this world. You got things to do, and you know it. And you gotta be here to do them. But… we really need you somewhere else too. Somewhere far, far away.:: Whistler rushed on before she could interrupt. ::So if you agree – and ya gotta agree first, we can twin you off.::
Buffy tried to make sense of that statement, but she was honestly too tired. And that was generously assuming there was any sense at all in what he'd just said.
'Huh?'
::Think that Ferula Gemina rod from a couple years back. Only – both of you live, just as you are now, completely separate. None of that 'one dies, you both die' stuff. The you who stays here, doesn't even remember this, not less you really want to. Same if you say no – you gotta agree for this to get the go-ahead. The you who splits off, though? Oh, there's some sweet boons on the table if you're willing to go for 'em…::
Buffy stood there and metaphorically chewed that over for a bit.
'…What, where, when, who, how— Not that I'm agreeing here!' she hastened to warn him.
::All right, I can answer that quick. You won't remember this if you say no, so no harm done.::
'What—?'
::I said ease up, I'm answering! Right – where and when, is a few centuries off in a possible future. A future that's real, and real important – remember, everything is real somewhere – but one that's pretty unlikely to happen in this dimension's future. What, is the usual – bit of a wider scale than you're used to, but you'll be given lotsa time to get used to the idea. Who, is a group who've got into the whole 'make your own genetically engineered slaves and sell 'em off to the highest bidder' schtick, and found some pretty nasty ways to do it.::
Whistler waited, as she ran all that through her head.
'Aaand… what, I'm just gonna do all that by myself?' she asked sceptically.
::Course not!:: Whistler crowed into her skull, sounding like he'd grin if he could. ::There'll be a team with you!::
'Team?'
::That's right! You can pick anywhere from six to twelve people to go with you. And, depending who you pick, you can all earn minor boons to help you out on the mission – or help out your other selves. And that's on top of the one you get for agreeing – which, just to be clear here, Slayer, that boon is the getting that say in who goes with ya.::
Buffy's head was beginning to swim. Boons? Other selves? This was rapidly spiraling out of control. And she couldn't even pace or rant!
She stopped, dredging up every meditation she'd sorta-learned to try to calm down and think without spinning in circles.
…She needed Willow. Or Giles, but she'd really prefer Willow.
Wait a minute…
'…So…there'll be no difference between the two me's? Right?'
::That's right.::
'And… The others. They'll get…twinned too, right? Just like I'll be?'
::You got it.::
Oh well. At least there would be one Buffy who could go on like this had never happened…
'Fine. I'll do it.'
::That's what I needed to hear. Here we go—::
—ox-oxo-xo—
One very complicated and gut-churning moment later, Buffy stumbled forward and looked around. The world had gone grey and washed out, kinda like she remembered that eclipse doing at her high school Graduation ceremony before the darkness fell properly. Several metres off to her right, the Scooby Gang – including what must be the Buffy who was staying – was still frozen mid-conversation. Whistler was walking over.
"Right, now we can talk properly. That spell only lasts for so long before it starts to strain…" he said.
She interrupted, "Yeah, yeah. Willow, my first pick's Willow," pointing at her frozen friend. "Maybe she'll get all this goony…twin stuff."
Whistler grinned, raising a hand. "Good choice, toots." He snapped his fingers.
She almost lost her stomach again at the sight of what happened next.
Another Willow shimmered into existence – but not her Willow. Her Willow's hair wasn't black, her face wasn't veiny, and – and this was a very important point – her head hadn't been messily hacked off her body and the back of her head wasn't meant to be missing like someone had shot her between the eyes. Which by the hole in between the really dead ringer's eyes, was exactly what had happened.
But only for a moment, as the severed head slid over to attach itself back to her neck, her skull reformed like a watermelon bursting in reverse and the bullet wound healed like it had never been there. Then as the black hair-colouring and veins faded out, the body levitated upright and the eyes suddenly snapped open.
Willow stumbled, much like Buffy had, and nearly fell over. Then she looked over at her best friend.
"Hey, Buffy! And oh wow, you look different!" She stopped at the look on Buffy's face. "What?"
Buffy looked down – to see a body younger and less thin than she'd been expecting. And a white dress she distinctly remembered dying in.
Unsurprisingly, the next thing both of them did was freak right the hell out.
Ending A/N: Teaseriffic, no? Hope you enjoy what's coming…