In 1998, Spike helped Buffy defeat Angelus and Acathlea, accidently dusting Dru in the process. In his rage over losing Dru, Spike fought with Angelus and inadvertently got his soul restored at the same time Angel did when Willow did the spell. When Buffy and Spike took comfort in each other's arms and fell in love, the monks entrusted them with 'The Key', a child made of them, their first daughter, Annie. Spike and Buffy were married just before her birth and Spike claimed her at that time, bringing the Slayer into the clan (she's still the Slayer, not a vamp). They share dreams and can communicate telepathically through the bond, but both of them must open it in order to do so. They later learned that there were many different dimensions and pieces of their souls were spread across them; weighty decisions caused the dimensions to splinter off and create even more worlds.
In May of 2003, a Buffy from one of these splintered dimensions (we call it the 'Evil Joss Dimension', which splintered into the 'Rome' dimension) had a huge decision to make: leave Spike in the Hellmouth to burn alone, or stay with him, make him understand fully how much she loved him. When part of her soul chose to stay and burn with him, the dimensions splintered again and the pieces of their soul, along with the memories from that dimension, were folded back into the the Unexpected Universe's Spike and Buffy as dreamy recollections. As a reward for their bravery, the PTB blessed them with two more children, twins: Danielle Dawn and William Rupert.
After another vamp went after the Gem of Amarra, Spike retrieved the it from it's hiding place in Sunnydale and it is now embedded in his chest, next to his heart, protecting him at all times.
To help with the care of the babies, Buffy and Spike hired a live in nanny, a friend of Anyas and ex-vengeance demon: Hallie. When Hallie (who Spike knew as Cecily from his human life) made a move on her husband, Buffy and her friends retaliated and Willow accidentally turned Hallie into a rat. Hallie-rat was kept as a pet for some time, before escaping its cage and disappearing a few months ago.
**
Time Line/History and notes:
Now: January, 2005
**
History:
Joshua "JJ" Harris was born on April 21st, 2004
The twins (Danielle, "Dani" and William, "Billy") were born on February 12th, 2004.
Annie was born on February 14th, 1999
Spike and Buffy were married in February 1999
Buffy was born January 19th, 1981
William/Spike was turned by Dru in 1880; first came to Sunnydale in September of 1997
All the Potentials were endowed with full Slayer power in February 2003.
Buffy and Spike learned of the other dimensions and got the memories from the 'Rome' Universe in May, 2003.
**
Keep in mind that both Buffy and Spike have the memories from both the 'Evil Joss' universe (basically BtVS canon, which in my world went off canon in S5 of Angel and turned into what I called the Rome!Universe) and the 'Unexpected' universe, despite them not actually having lived in the 'Evil Joss' universe since very early on (S2). A part of their souls from the 'Evil Joss' universe were combined with the 'Unexpected' universe at the end of the main story. Does that help or just make it more confusing? Not sure. Some people were confused as to how Buffy knows who Dawn is ...thus the explaination/reminder.
**~**
Wednesday, January 19th, 2005 – Buffy’s Birthday – early morning:
Buffy and Spike walked leisurely, hand in hand, along a winding path that circled a crystal clear lake. The warm air was filled with the sweet fragrance of the tropical flowers that covered the valley for as far as they eye could see, and the soft sand of the path was warm beneath their bare feet. There were flowers of every color and shape imaginable, and butterflies flitted lazily from flower to flower, back and forth across the path all around them. The sun tingled the lover’s bare arms and faces and felt amazing … unlike any sunlight they’d ever felt before – as if it was infused with magic.
When Buffy stopped to smell a dusty pink rose, one of the butterflies landed on her shoulder.
“Don’t move, pet,” Spike whispered to her as he watched the butterfly open and close its wings slowly as it rested on her shoulder.
“What is it?” Buffy asked, trying to look to the side to see what he was looking at.
“A butterfly … some say butterflies are the souls of those who have died as they wait to pass through purgatory … waitin’ to get into heaven – or not,” Spike explained, keeping his voice even.
“May the wings of the butterfly kiss the sun, and find your shoulder to light on; to bring you luck, happiness and riches today, tomorrow and beyond,” Spike recited an old Irish blessing.
The butterfly suddenly took off and circled twice around them before flying out over the lake and out of view. It was the most beautiful iridescent blue she’d ever seen – well, perhaps not the most beautiful, but second, right after the color of Spike’s eyes.
“So a dead person landing on my shoulder is good luck?” Buffy questioned as she watched it fly away. “Doesn’t sound very lucky for them,” she pointed out.
Buffy turned to see why he hadn’t responded with some smart remark, but as she glanced around she found herself alone. “Spike?
“Darn …” Buffy moaned, she had been looking forward to spending more time here with him. An agenda of skinny dipping and naked Marco Polo in the clear, cool water of the lake had been the plan that she’d come up with when they found themselves in this paradise within their shared dream.
Buffy waited there a little while longer, but when Spike didn’t come back, she willed herself awake to see where he’d gone. Maybe he heard one of the babies crying and had gotten up to check on them.
Buffy rolled over in bed and stretched her arm out to feel for Spike next to her, but what she felt wasn’t Spike. Her hand met a warm body in the bed next to her – a rather large, warm body – definitely not Spike. Buffy’s eyes flew open to see who or what it was. Her eyes went wide in surprise and shock – her throat closed up as she tried to scream – she couldn’t get any sound to come out. Buffy scrambled off the bed, tangling in the sheets and falling on the floor as she tried to get away – to put distance between herself and Riley Finn.
Buffy looked around for a weapon – a stake, a sword – a brick, anything, but couldn’t find anything at all. All the commotion had awoken Riley and he looked at her with confusion.
“What’s the matter? Another dream?” he asked her sleepily as he stretched his arms up over his head and yawned.
Buffy’s mouth opened and closed as she tried to form words, but nothing came out – she looked around the room in a panic – her brain trying to process what was happening.
How could Riley Finn be alive? Spike … Spike killed him years ago!
Why is he in my bed? Buffy’s eyes darted quickly around the room - a room she didn't recognize. Wait, this isn’t my bed! Why am I in his? What the fuck is going on?!
“Riley Finn?” Buffy finally managed, backing towards the one door in the room as she continued looking around for some kind of weapon.
“Buffy – what’s wrong?” Riley asked, getting up out of the bed.
Buffy was glad to see that they both at least had pajamas on. What the hell is going on?!
“I… What…? How...?” Buffy stammered, unable to form complete thoughts or sentences. Finally she managed to ask, “What have you done? Where am I? Where are the babies? Where’s Spike?!”
Riley looked at her with confusion and then smiled. “That’s a new name for ‘Your Little Soldier’ … 'Spike'? Hmmm… I like it …”
“What!? NO!” Buffy screamed at him, shaking her head back and forth. “Where’s Spike!? My husband … Spike!”
“Buffy, what are you talking about? Did you stop taking your meds again?” Finn asked her, concern now creasing his features.
“You know we talked about this and you promised that you’d take them every day like the doctor said. You can’t just decide to stop – you know what that does to you,” Riley said, his voice bordering between pleading and resigned.
Riley started moving around the bed towards Buffy and she tensed, ready for an attack, but Riley stopped at a dresser on the wall and began pulling bottles of pills out of one of the drawers. He dumped pills out of six different bottles onto his palm and held them out to Buffy. “Here, just start back today – everything will be ok again in a little while,” he assured her.
Buffy looked from his face to the pills in his hand. Had he totally lost his mind? Had she lost hers? Maybe this was a dream … a totally fucked up dream. Buffy pinched herself on the arm to try and wake up … but nothing happened except for raising a red welt on her skin – Riley was still here; she was still here.
“Where is Spike?” she asked again through a clenched jaw, her hands balling into fists at her sides.
“Buffy, please just take your meds …” Riley suggested again, moving a step closer to her, the pills in the palm of his outstretched hand.
Buffy swatted the pills out of his hand; they flew into the air and scattered on the floor.
“Goddamnit, Buffy! You know you need those!” he admonished her. As Riley turned to get more pills from the bottles, Buffy launched herself at him, shoving him against the dresser and knocking everything that was on it down with a loud clatter – shattering the mirror and lamp that were atop it and scattering a rainbow of pills across the floor.
Riley yelled out before Buffy grabbed him by the throat and shoved him further back against the wall. “WHERE. IS. SPIKE!?” she demanded again as Riley tried to free himself from her grasp. “WHAT. HAVE . YOU. DONE?!”
“Buffy…STOP!” Riley choked out past her grasp. He hooked one leg around hers and pulled with all his strength, knocking her to the floor and away from his throat. Riley backed away from her as he rubbed his throat and tried to breathe.
Buffy jumped back up and started slowly towards him again. “Where is Spike?” she asked again.
“I don’t know any Spike…” Riley insisted, holding one hand up in the air, silently signaling for her to stop.
“You do! … Hostile 17,” Buffy amended. “Where’s Hostile 17?”
Riley finally stood back up straight and looked at her with confusion. “Buffy … you dusted all the hostiles when we shut down the Initiative years ago. Are you back on the magicks? Is that what this is?”
Buffy’s throat tightened and she felt all the air leave her lungs. “No…no that’s … I would never do that. I would never dust Spike – even when…even before… NO! You’re lying!” she accused, moving towards him again.
“I’m not lying, Buffy … you insisted on dusting them all personally,” Riley insisted, backing against the wall and holding both hands up in the air in front of him in surrender. “If you’ll just take your meds, everything will be okay in a little while.”
“NO! NO MEDS! Where’s Spike?! Where are my kids? What have you done!?” Buffy screamed at him, launching herself at him again and landing a hard roundhouse kick in his stomach. When Riley bent over in pain, Buffy wrapped her arms around his neck and tightened down. “Tell me what you’ve done! Fix it and I won’t kill you!” she screamed at Riley as he struggled to get free from her hold.
Buffy heard the door behind her open and she turned just in time to see Dawn with a tranquilizer gun. It seemed like time slowed down as she watched Dawn bring the gun up to her shoulder and pull the trigger. The first dart hit Buffy in the arm and she screamed out in pain, releasing Riley so she could pull it out before she was injected with too much of the drug.
Before Buffy could get the first dart out, another one hit her in the hip, then a third in her thigh. Buffy felt herself losing control of her body as the drugs in the darts started coursing through her system. She felt dizzy and nauseous … her legs gave out and she fell to the floor in a heap – unable to move, barely able to remain conscious.
Buffy battled the drugs with sheer willpower to remain awake … she was in a fog, but she fought to listen to what was going on around her.
Riley picked her up off the floor and laid Buffy back down on the bed, pulling the darts out and handing them back to Dawn before covering his wife up with a blanket.
“What happened?” Dawn asked, taking the darts back from him.
“I don’t know – she just went berserk – again! I think she’s off her meds – also again! Maybe even back on the dark magicks!” Riley ranted, pacing back and forth next to the bed. “I can’t handle her when she’s like this – you better call Andrew and have him send a couple of Potentials over here to help until we can get her stabilized again.”
“You know Giles doesn’t like doing that – he says it’s bad for morale for the girls to see her all Looney-Tunes like this …” Dawn pointed out.
“Which is why I said to call Andrew!” Riley yelled back at Dawn.
“Hey! Don’t take it out on me – I just saved your ass! Next time I could just let her put you back in the hospital!” Dawn retorted as she turned to leave the room in a huff.
“Dawnie – look, I’m sorry,” Riley sighed, rubbing tiredly at his eyes. “I’m just … just tired. I don’t know how to get her to stay on her meds. She gets pissed if I try to watch her take them, she gets pissed if I ask her if she’s taken them – counting them doesn’t work, she just takes them out of the bottles and flushes them.
“Now she’s raving on about Hostile 17! As if I could remember one hostile out of all the ones we dusted down there…" Riley lamented.
“I’m just at a loss – I don’t know how to help her anymore. It’s like being married to a grizzly bear … and I’m a salmon swimming upstream – she’s just waiting to bite my head off.”
Dawn sighed and rolled her eyes. “I know … she’s pissed with me 50% of the time, too – the other 50% I don't think she knows I exist. She’s never really been the same, has she?”
Riley sat down heavily on the end of the bed and rested his forehead in his hands. “No … she never has. I blame myself for that…I just – Willow said she could do it and … well, I guess she did, didn’t she? But I shouldn’t have let her even try to bring her back – we should’ve found another way.”
Dawn laid the tranq gun down on the dresser and sat down on the bed next to Riley with a heavy sigh. “I remember that night – God! I was so happy to see her! I just knew that everything would be alright with Buffy back. We could all stop cowering in the basement of City Hall … she would get rid of those motorcycle demons that had taken over Sunnydale and we could all go back to a normal life. Everyone would come back to town and everything would be ok again.”
“Yeah …” Riley agreed, thinking back. “I was just awestruck seeing her again … I mean we all did what we could to keep the peace in town that summer she was gone, but, let’s face it, an ex-soldier, an ex-vengeance demon, an ex-librarian, a teenage girl, a couple of witches, and Xander don’t strike a lot of fear in the hearts of demons.”
Dawn snorted softly. “Yeah … but Buffy did! She ran them out of town so fast… God, it was so great!” she enthused, smiling at the memory of Buffy kicking the demons’ collective asses.
“Maybe I should’ve swallowed my pride and called Angel to help us…” Riley offered. “It would’ve been nice to have someone on our side that had vampire strength to fight those demons.”
“You know Giles wouldn’t have let you – not after what Angelus did to him …” Dawn offered. “He barely tolerated Angel when Buffy was there – he might’ve staked him if he had shown up without her to intervene.”
Riley sighed. “Yeah, you’re right,” he agreed. “That was one long summer. I don’t know how they found out so fast that we didn’t have a Slayer in town. Those demons were like a swarm of locusts in a cornfield…they devoured everything in their path.”
Dawn gave him a funny look and rolled her eyes.
“Sorry – my ‘Iowa’ is showing, isn’t it?” he asked with a small smile.
“Just a little,” Dawn agreed, holding up her hand with her thumb and forefinger close together.
The demons had taken over Sunnydale that summer Buffy had been dead – running most of the citizens out of town. The ones that dared remain huddled together in the basement of City Hall for safety at night – only venturing out in groups during the day to launch counter-attacks, set booby-traps for the demons, or search for food. It had been a very dark time in the history of Sunnydale, and in the life of the Scoobies, without anyone with Slayer or vampire strength on their side to help them fight.
Buffy remained in the bed, unable to move, fighting to stay conscious and concentrate on what was happening with all her strength. She tried to piece things together – to figure out what was going on. Obviously, this wasn’t her dimension – since Dawn was here – this had to be one of the other dimensions. How had she gotten here? And still she wondered where was Spike? Riley acted like he didn’t even know Spike – and certainly he did. But, of course, if he was behind the scheme, he wouldn’t admit to knowing Spike, would he?
Her foggy brain worked to bring the memories from the other dimension that had been folded into hers all those years ago back to the forefront of her mind, but still what they were saying didn’t fit. Nothing seemed to fit … nothing made sense.
Buffy tried to listen to what Riley and Dawn were saying – but their words started to slur … or was it her hearing that was slurred? She felt them get up off the bed and heard a door close … had they both gone? She couldn’t tell … she tried to listen, but didn’t hear anything. She tried to move, but her body still would not function. She felt a black veil descend over her as the drugs finally won the battle and sent her into a deep sleep.
**~**
Buffy found herself walking in a canyon or a crater, surrounded by high walls made of rock and sand. Some of the walls had plateaus on top of them, while others were jagged, rocky points. Everything was red it seemed – the ground, the sand, the rocks – even the sky was red with purple swirls of what appeared to be clouds. There was a cold wind that whipped through the canyon, swirling and sending sand and dust into the air, making it hard to see or even breathe. Buffy found a rock outcropping and ducked behind it to get a reprieve from the wind and get her bearings.
She had never seen this place before – it looked like the surface of Mars – barren, desolate, apparently void of life – and cold, extremely cold. She shivered as she pulled her thin sweater closed and wrapped her arms around her body. She tried to will herself out of this place – to change the dream, to go back to the tropical paradise she had been in with Spike just before waking up to the bizarro-world she’d found herself in with Riley and Dawn, but nothing changed.
“Fine…” she muttered to herself as she changed tactics and tried to put herself in a thick jacket or a spacesuit – anything to stop the bone-chilling cold, but still nothing changed.
Buffy slumped down on the ground in her little rock enclave out of the wind and made herself as small as she could, trying to conserve warmth as she worked to piece together what was going on. Clearly, she had been transported to the wrong dimension somehow … which meant that she could get back. If she was here, then did that mean there was some crazy Buffy who needed her meds lying in her bed with Spike? Buffy shuddered at the thought – what if crazy-Buffy went ‘grizzly bear’ on Spike and dusted him? Oh no – she couldn’t! Spike had the Gem of Amarra!
“Thank God for small favors …” Buffy muttered to herself, relaxing slightly – at least he would be ok until someone figured out how to fix this.
She wondered who was behind it? Riley Finn seemed the first choice, since it was his bed she had awoken in, but did he have that kind of power? Certainly he had the knowledge of the supernatural and probably knew about different dimensions … and he had friends in the army that might have that power…
Suddenly, something that looked like a large shooting star fell from the sky and landed with a soft thud out in the center of the canyon, sending more dust and sand flying up into the air. Buffy peeked out from behind her rocks to see what it was…
A man she didn’t recognize stood up and looked around – he seemed just as confused as Buffy was about where he was or what he was doing here. As he was standing near the center of the crater, trying to get his bearings, the sand around him began to ripple and undulate. Buffy stood up to get a better look, but ducked quickly back into her hiding place when dozens of huge, hairy, black spiders emerged from under the sand and began to converge on the man. The man screamed … he was surrounded by them … there was no escape.
“Oh God!” Buffy exclaimed, covering her ears, as the man yelled and begged for someone to help him, but she could still hear him clearly.
“Fuck!” she yelled as she ran out from her hiding place and towards the man and the spiders. They were within inches of him now … there had to be at least fifty of the hairy, giant arachnids.
“Sword!” Buffy demanded of her dream, holding out her hand; but nothing appeared.
“Stake!” Nothing.
“God damn it! Scythe!” she demanded vehemently, but still nothing appeared in her hand.
“Bug spray!” she tried, but nothing happened.
Buffy reached the outer ring of spiders just as the inner ring reached the man. She began stomping on them with her boots, sending bright purple blood and viscera squirting out of their fat bodies. She kept fighting her way towards the center of the ring, stomping, kicking, and, only as a last resort, punching and hitting the spiders with her hands, but she was too late to help the man. The spiders covered him, biting him with their large pincers until he collapsed and then dragging him under the sand with them.
Suddenly, the remaining spiders that hadn’t made it to the man all turned on Buffy at once … and more surfaced from under the sand behind her. Now she was surrounded …
Buffy began trying to fight a path through them, but for each one she killed, it seemed that two took its place. They were grabbing at her with their pincers and their many legs – which all had sharp claws on the ends, ripping her jeans and drawing blood.
“STOP! STOP! WAKE UP!” she screamed, trying to get out of the nightmare. She wasn’t sure which was worse, this nightmare or the one she knew she would face when she woke back up with Riley and Dawn…but she was sure she’d prefer Riley and Dawn to these giant spiders.
“SCYTHE!” she demanded again, as she kept fighting with bare hands and boots, but no weapon appeared for her. One of the spiders jumped up and landed on her chest, nearly catching her throat in its mandibles, Buffy grabbed it in both hands and pried it off, tossing it away from her as she kept fighting with all her strength against the onslaught. She kept moving towards the wall of the crater, if she could get the wall to her back, at least she wouldn’t have to defend that flank.
“BUFFY!” she heard Spike’s voice off to one side of her. She looked around, but didn’t see him.
“BUFFY! HERE! UP HERE!” he shouted. She looked up and saw Spike on the rim of the crater. He was running, scrambling, climbing as fast as he could over the peaks and piles of rock that lined the upper rim of the crater, trying to get to her.
“SPIKE!” she screamed as she fought her way towards him. When she got to the wall, Spike slid and scrambled down onto a ledge about ten feet above her and lay down, extending his hand to her.
“JUMP!” he instructed her and Buffy jumped as high as she could, catching his hand with both of hers.
Spike held on tight to her arm and pulled with all his strength to get her up onto the ledge with him. Buffy kicked with her legs and scrambled against the sheer rock wall until finally they both fell backwards onto the safety of the ledge.
Three spiders had jumped onto hers legs as he was pulling her up and they began biting and tearing into her flesh. She screamed and kicked one of them off and Spike knocked another off the ledge with a powerful kick before he stomped the third one and killed it.
“God, Buffy! Are you alright, luv? What’s goin’ on?” Spike asked her, examining her wounds and trying to stop her bleeding.
“Spike!” Buffy exclaimed, pulling him away from her legs and into a tight hug. “I don’t know – where are we? What is this place?”
Spike held her to him, burying his face against her neck and willing the dream to end … but he’d tried that before and it hadn’t worked then, either.
Buffy pulled back and looked into his eyes. “What’s going on?” she asked him the same thing he’d asked her and he shook his head – he didn’t know.
“The babies – where are the babies?” Buffy questioned and Spike shook his head again.
“Is this a dream? What is this place? Who was that guy?” Buffy threw questions out, but all Spike could do was shake his head.
Spike led Buffy away from the edge of the ledge … the spiders were waiting below – the warriors could hear the spider’s claw-tipped legs tapping eagerly on the rocks below them, just waiting for one of them to fall or venture back onto the canyon floor.
They sat down with their backs against a rock wall and Buffy started by telling Spike about waking up in the other dimension – about Riley and Dawn and crazy-grizzly-druggie-Buffy and everything that she heard them talk about.
“Why did you leave me after the butterfly flew away? What happened after you woke up?” Buffy asked Spike when she’d finished.
“I was here …” he told her, waving his hand over the barren, red wasteland.
“Where is here?” she asked him.
“I have no bloody idea…” Spike moaned, shaking his head slowly.
“Fell from the bloody sky … landed down there,” he indicated the canyon below with the wave of an arm. “Them overgrown daddy-longlegs attacked me … only got out ‘cos another bloke fell outta the sky and landed on top of half of ‘em!” he explained, still shaking his head.
Spike took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Climbed up on some rocks … just kept climbin’ … finally figured out the bloody things can’t climb with them sharp buggerin' claws, they just slide off.”
“Spike, what’s going on?” Buffy asked again, leaning against him as she began to shiver again – there was no protection from the cold wind up here on the ledge. Spike shrugged out of his duster and wrapped it around her before pulling her close to him, trying to shield her from the cold.
“I’m in some bizzaro-world – apparently married to Riley Finn and you’re here … on the surface of a red moon – with ravenous, steroidal spiders. I’m pretty sure I’m asleep, but I can’t control anything here – I can’t get out, I can’t get weapons … I can’t get warm. None of it makes any sense!” she exclaimed, snuggling closer to him and tucking tightly in against his side. “Do you think you’re still at home asleep and this is a dream for you, too?”
“Not my idea of the perfect romantic getaway with m’ birthday girl…” Spike tried to joke.
Spike’s voice turned solemn, quietly serious. “I don’t know, luv – it certainly looks and feels surreal enough to be a dream, but I can’t wake up out of it and those spiders bite like they’re bloody real.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought, too…” Buffy agreed, reaching down to touch the wounds on her legs. The bleeding had nearly stopped, but they still hurt … some of the wounds were pretty deep.
“I've a feelin’ we're not in Kansas any-bloody-more, Toto,” Spike said quietly, looking around at the desolate landscape.
“What do we do now?” Buffy asked him sadly – afraid that he had the same plan she did – which was none.
Spike tucked her head under his chin, hugging her close to him and trying to keep her protected from the cold wind. “I ‘aven’t got a single buggering clue, luv.”
**~**
{{Click here to hear "Somewhere Over the Rainbow” by the cast of Glee on YouTube }}
Way up high
There’s a land
that I dreamed of once
Once in a lullaby
Somewhere over the rainbow-
Skies are blue
and the dreams
that you dare to dream
really do come true
Someday I'll wish upon a star
and wake up
where the clouds are far behind me
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
high above the chimney tops
that's where you'll find me
Somewhere over the rainbow-
Bluebirds fly
If birds fly
above the rainbow, why
Oh, why can't I?