Chapter 2: New Horizons
Buffy blinked, once, twice, as her eyes adjusted to the dim light. Sitting up, she looked around her. For a minute, she was confused, before she remembered the portal. Great. So this was what an alternate dimension looked like. All rusty metal. At least there weren’t any demons around keeping people as slaves. Wait. Better not speak too soon. Buffy explored the room cautiously and quickly realised that she wherever she was, she was locked in. She pulled at the door experimentally, but it wouldn’t open. She then beat at it with her fists, shouting out.
“Hello? Anyone there? I’d love to stay but I have a rather important mission, so if you’ll just let me out I’ll be on my way.” No response. Buffy sighed and sank down to the floor. At least if she was being held captive by demons they would probably be along quickly to cook her…or whatever they planned to do. She hoped it would be sooner rather than later, she stood a better chance against a demon than walls of solid metal.
When she heard footsteps finally approaching, Buffy was shocked to see not a demon but a young girl with dark hair and sad eyes.
“I know why you’re here,” the girl told Buffy before Buffy could open her mouth to speak. “They’ll never let you have it, you know. Tear you up.” She giggled, a high pitched, manic giggle that disturbed Buffy. The girl was clearly crazy. Briefly, Buffy wondered whether she was back in the asylum she had believed herself to be in the previous year after an attack by a demon with poisonous spears, but one glance at her surroundings was enough to dispel that thought.
“River!” the girl turned to look at a handsome young man with dark hair who was beckoning to her. Buffy peered through the grille on her door to get a better look. “River, quickly!” The crazy girl, who suddenly reminded Buffy of Drusilla, went over to him and the two disappeared.
“Hey!” Buffy called out after them, “Come back, you can’t just leave me here!”
“Wasn’t planning to, bao-bei,” Buffy jumped at the voice and turned to see a tall, muscled, bearded man watching her with a smirk. “Say, you’re even cuter than the other one. But, captain’s orders, no touching…” he sighed, and looked her up and down in a way that made Buffy feel uncomfortable, before unlocking the door. Buffy stepped through warily. “Follow me.” The man said. Shrugging, Buffy obeyed. It seemed the quickest way to fin out where she was and how she could get out. She followed him through narrow passages, walls and walk ways everywhere of the same dull metal. “Here we are, sweet thing,” said the man. Buffy stepped forward to go through the door and the man took the opportunity to pinch her ass. He soon regretted it as Buffy whirled around, landing a punch on his jaw, a kick on his shin and another aimed squarely at his groin, leaving him crumpled in pain on the floor as the door opened.
Standing before her in the next room was a tall, well-built man with brown hair, dressed in tight beige trousers and a shirt, holding but not pointing a gun. Next to him a slim black woman took one look at the bearded man crumpled on the floor and raised her gun at Buffy.
“What happened?” the woman demanded, indicating her fallen crewmate.
“He tried to get a little too familiar,” Buffy said, holding her head up high, “Which one of you is the ‘captain’ and where the hell am I?”
The woman with the gun lowered it and turned to whisper to the man beside her.
“I like her.”
The man showed no emotion but stepped forward.
“I’m Captain Malcolm Reynolds and you are aboard my ship, Serenity. Now would you care to tell me your name and how it is that we came to pick you up floating around in space so far from land or ship?”
Buffy blinked. Space? Well, it made as much sense as anything else.
“Was there a blue light? When you picked me up? There was a blue light and I stepped into it…that’s all I can tell you.”
“Who are you? Where are you from?” asked the captain.
“My name’s Buffy Summers, I’m from Sunnydale, California.”
Captain Reynolds and the woman beside him exchanged blank looks. Great, Buffy thought, an alternate dimension where Sunnydale doesn’t even exist…wait, actually, that’s kind of cool.
“You’re not from the alliance?” Captain Reynolds asked, suspiciously, keeping his gun trained on her.
“The what?” Buffy shrugged. “Look, I don’t have time for this.” She stepped forward. The captain raised his gun. In a flash, Buffy had it knocked out of his hand and him pinned to the ground. She kicked the gun away out of his reach.
“Those things? Never helpful,” she said. “Now, you listen to me, Captain Reynolds,” she addressed the captive man beneath her. “I am Buffy Summers…” she hesitated before deciding to leave out ‘vampire slayer’, “And I am looking for something very important. I need your help to….Spike?!” Buffy looked up and saw the blonde vampire appear in the doorway, followed by an out of breath man in a Hawaian shirt.
“Sorry, Captain, Zoë,” the man panted, “He was very…insistent.” The woman – Zoë – rolled her eyes.
“Where is she, you….Buffy?” Spike’s angry demand trailed off as he spotted her. Relief showed on his face. “Buffy, love…you’re ok?” There was no mistaking the tenderness in his voice or his eyes as he looked at her. What surprised Buffy, though, was the way her heart skipped a beat when she saw him. She told herself that it was just relief at seeing a familiar face, but she couldn’t deny that she was glad it was his familiar face.
“Spike…” forgetting about the captain completely she ran over to him, stopping short just inches away from him as she realised she wasn’t sure what she meant to do next. They didn’t hug. She stood, embarrassed, in front of him.
Spike curled his hands into fists by his sides. He wanted so much to gather her into his arms, to stroke her hair and touch her skin. But he didn’t. They stood looking at each other awkwardly for several long seconds until the Captain’s voice behind Buffy startled them.
“Well, not that this little reunion ain’t touching, but would someone mind telling me just what the HELL is going on here?”
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