Birth RightBy Alecca
Ashes II: Of TomorrowThe Hollow Crossroads
Absolutely nowhenLonny landed with a hard thump on the ground. As she got up and dusted herself off she told herself:
“I gotta work on my landings.” She froze when she looked up. The crossroads were darker, as if under the threat of an unknown menace, some swallowed by an impenetrable blackness. “What the...” Her legs suddenly seemed to fall out from under her and she jumped back a few steps. In the place she had just been, there was now a dark hole. She wanted to see if there was anything in it, but was afraid of going too near. She spotted the Hur’dha and Willow in the horizon and running up to them, asked, petrified: “What the hell is goin’ on?”
“I’m afraid the world is ending, Lonny,” Willow said sighing.
“What?!” she couldn’t believe it. “But how?”
“Buffy died. Spike wasn’t there for the battle. Faith led a desperate attack against the Turok-Han army and lost. They all died. All, but one. Me. The First was free to roam the earth. He awakened the Old Ones and in time they wiped out most of humanity. But then a crazy physician, in her efforts to resurrect humanity to its former glory, accidentally created a shock wave that undid the existence of our entire dimension,“Willow explained.
“Okay, so our dimension is kaput, but there are a hell lot more out there. Isn’t this place linked to all of ‘em?” Lonny asked confused.
“Not quite. There are probably different versions of me and the crossroads in every dimension,” the Hur’dha answered.
“There’s a scary thought,” Lonny said looking at the dark horizon worriedly. “Okay, second question. Let’s think of time as a movie. If it ends, the two hours that came before it still exist...”
“You want to know why the crossroads are destroying themselves,” Willow understood where she was going.
“Bingo,” Lonny nodded.
“You’re right, time does not end with one dimension, but something worse happened because of all of your trips into the past. Because there is no more year 2083, all of the events that lead to your incursion into the time stream never happened. Time can correct some anomalies or even overlook them, but in this case the changes were all too complicated to be solved, so it did what everyone does when they come across an error, time erased it. It created black holes across time that are sucking every inch of matter into themselves, slowly consuming the essence of time itself,” the Hur’dha said in his usual calm peaceful voice.
“And...we can’t do anything about it?” Lonny asked frustrated.
“Yes, we can. I will, but I need you to stay put,” Willow told her.
“What?” Lonny wanted to protest.
“You proved that you couldn’t change the outcome of the situation, now it’s my turn to try and I don’t need you standing in my way,” Willow warned her. “Look, this isn’t a game. The entire world is at stake and you’re a little overzealous when it comes to these things. Screwing up is not an option anymore,” she stated firmly.
“Have it your way,” Lonny shrugged. “But you better save the world.”
“Don’t worry, I will,” Willow assured her with a smile.
“Are you gonna kill her?” Lonny asked curious.
“Nah, that’s just for seriously extreme cases,” Willow answered.
“Extreme cases? You’ve gotta be shitting me! What’s more extreme than this?” Lonny rolled her eyes.
“Mina is just too cocky to understand some things, that’s not a good enough reason to kill her,” Willow told her.
“The hell it isn’t! She just destroyed the world and killed your best friend. Doesn’t that make you angry?” she couldn’t believe her.
“I’ve given up on anger, it’s such an annoying feeling,” the witch smiled. “Besides Buffy’s not dead, not for good. I can still save her. The world too.”
“I can’t believe you’re still considering your plan,” the Hur’dha said looking towards Willow.
“Why not?” she grinned. “After all this time and you still can’t trust my judgement. I’m shocked.”
“Human nature is your territory,” he made a gesture with his hand.
“I’ll be back,” Willow told them as she prepared to leave. “If not, it’s been nice knowing you,” she smiled again and disappeared in a flash of light.
“Why am I here?” Lonny asked the Hur’dha turning towards him. He looked at her questioningly. “Angel, Spike, that bitch, they all turned to ashes, but I got sent here.”
“You were categorized as a time anomaly before, now you were treated the same,” the Hur’dha explained.
“There’s that word again,” she shook her head and let out an unnecessary sigh. “So what do we do now? Just wait?”
“I’m afraid we have no other alternative,” the Hur’dha answered her staring into the dark horizon that drew closer with every passing moment.
Sunnydale
2003“Tell me something... doesn’t the thought of spreading your powers to all these girls bother you in any way?” Mina asked fiddling around with the knife she held in her hand, behind her back. Buffy couldn’t have noticed it - it looked like she was leaning on the wall. Besides, the slayer was too busy staring into the horizon to pay any attention to her. Mina wasn’t very happy she had to do this. Killing people wasn’t her thing, but she had to make this one sacrifice if it was absolutely necessary and apparently, it was.
“Why should it?” Buffy began speaking startling her out of her thoughts. “Actually, I think it’s the best idea I’ve ever had. I’m happy thinking that starting tomorrow no slayer will ever have to go through what I went by herself. Don’t get me wrong, there were some great things along the way, great friends, but I wouldn’t wish it to anyone...” Mina was only half-listening to what she was saying as she neared her, careful not to make a sound. The blow would have to be quick and powerful. Buffy wouldn’t have any time to react or fight back. As the slayer continued her speech, Mina took the knife from behind her back and prepared to strike. A hand suddenly covered her mouth and pulled her back next to the wall.
“Mina, Mina, when will you learn?” Willow asked and in a flash of dark green light, they found themselves in the hallways of Sunnydale High. Only then, the witch let her go.
“You idiot! I was this close to fulfilling my destiny!” Mina yelled angrily.
“And destroying the world in the process,” Willow continued her phrase.
“What are you talking about?” she asked confused.
“If she dies now, so does the world,” the witch told her.
“The hellmouth,” she realized.
“Now you’re finally starting to use your brain,” Willow smiled.
“This is more complicated than I thought,” Mina sighed.
“Really?” the witch chuckled. “I’ll give you a free tip: never mess with time, the tables turn too easily around. It’s like a really complicated code, it’s tricky to get the right combination and even if you do, things will never go as planned.”
“Gee, thanks for the insight, but I think it’s a little late for that,” Mina said rising the ring of Batt- Hura in the air. “Are you gonna try to stop me?”
“How could I?” Willow smiled mockingly.
“What the hell are you planning?” she asked suspiciously.
“Me? I’m just here for the ride. It’s a nice show you’ve been putting on,” she answered her. “Best I’ve seen in years. I just want to see how it ends.”
“You are one fucked up individual,” Mina said before yelling, tightening her grip on the ring: “Nema esta, nema deo, nema tempo ecco jero, vero nento, quera lento, en e tempo mera uno!” As she disappeared in a flash of light, Willow suddenly felt something strange, a disturbance in the spell that had just been made and yelled, too late:
“NO!”
Anytime and nowhen
The subalternative translation time streamTime was beginning to rearrange itself to its initial order, but it was a more difficult process this time around. In its reevaluation of its anomalies, time threw Lonny back into the past alongside Spike and Angel. Rupert was returned to Angel’s office in 2083 and it is here that things went wrong. Angered, Rupert had used the ring of Batt-Hura at the exact time that, 80 years into the past, Mina did as well. As the existence and therefor the use of the two rings was an anomaly, the two spells clashed with one another. For a very brief moment, in this subalternative translation time stream, Mina and Rupert passed one another and their rings touched. They both felt a jolt of pain pass through their bodies and the events of the last few days - those they had known and not known about - flashed before their eyes like a brief nightmare. Looking back to see what had caused it, they spotted each other.
Mina frowned - she had no idea who he was and how he had gotten this second ring of Batt-Hura, but he looked oddly familiar. Rupert’s lips formed the word ‘you’ before they disappeared from each other’s eyesight.
This clash had caused some changes in the rings. While Mina’s received the ability to transport into the past without having to pass through the Hollow Crossroads, Rupert’s had been caught in the other ring’s spell and the young watcher was sent because of this further into the past than he had wanted. Combined with the nightmarish visions - or so he thought as it was in fact time itself rearranging at that very moment - he landed in a very familiar place.
Los Angeles
2053
Willow Rosenburg’s penthouse apartment
Rupert landed with a thud on the soft rugs laying on the floor. He looked around. He had no idea where he was. He stood up and felt a dizziness overwhelming him. He suddenly remembered the odd encounter he had had somewhere in between the future and the past, a place as far as he was concerned, did not exist. Time travel was a direct trip from A to B with no other stops or a clear trajectory between them. The truth was such a place existed but it was far too fast and intense for a human being to perceive with his natural senses. When the spells of the two rings clashed with one another, the passage way was slowed down considerably for a few moments, giving the two bearers of the rings enough time to be conscious of their surroundings and each other’s presence.Rupert looked around the luxurious apartment and wondered in what way this place was connected to Willow Rosenburg or the girl he had seen - Mina Parker no doubt - and what exactly had caused this spell error to occur. He suddenly heard glass smashing in the other room. He was going to get an answer sooner than he had expected. He walked carefully over to the door and cracked it open. He couldn’t see anyone inside. Another glass smashed to the floor, this time followed by a rather desperate:
“Damn it!” It was the voice of a woman or a girl. At least, he could tell, it was definitely not Willow. He opened the door fully and entered the room. He could now see who had spoken. It was a girl, with her back turned to him, fiddling with something at the bar of the living room.
“Excuse me...,” Rupert said, trying to get her attention. The girl startled and spun around. He recognized her instantly. She was Fred 2, the great-granddaughter of one of Angel’s original employees, Winifred Burkle. Her face was covered in tears. In one of her hands she held a whiskey bottle, while the other, he noted surprised, was missing. It wasn’t bleeding, but it was simply not there anymore. He realized she had been smashing the glasses while attempting to pour herself a drink.
“What do you want?” she asked, not really finding his presence there a surprise.
“Where am I?” he asked confused.
“LA, city of Angels,” she said, her voice betraying the fact that she had disregarded the glass and had drunk directly out of the bottle a couple of times.
“You’re drunk,” he noticed.
“Well, trying,” she said gesturing towards the bottle. “You want some?”
“No, thanks,” he said and looked around. “What are you doing here?”
“Now there’s a long, complicated story. And come to think of it some of it is your fault. If you hadn’t been so hell bent on putting Angel away for a couple of centuries I would’ve never winded up on those crosswords,” she said as she struggled to move a glass with her wrist.
“Crossroads?” he asked even more confused than before.
“Oh, you know the ones. I mean, geez, you’ve got one of those,” she pointed towards his ring of Batt-Hura. Rupert still seemed clueless. “You have no idea what I’m talking about,” she realized. “That’s weird. Well, lucky you, not much to see anyway.”
“Tell me about these, uhm, crossroads,” he suggested casually.
“No way, there’s probably a reason you don’t know about them and I’m not gonna spoil anyone’s master plan by blabbering on about something I shouldn’t be blabbering on about. No matter how drunk I am,” she told him.
“What year is this?” Rupert gave up. She obviously wasn’t willing to tell him anything about the crossroads and arguing with a drunk wasn’t something he liked doing.
“2053,” she threw herself in a chair. “I went to a funeral. This happened afterwards,” she held up the arm with no hand. “I think it could’ve been worse though. I was lucky Willow stopped it before it took out more.”
“Willow? You don’t say,” a smile crossed his lips. “And what’s this ‘it’?”
“I have no idea. The ‘it’ that turned my hand to ashes and her into a statue,” she pointed towards the Willow ash statue somewhere on the other side of the room. Rupert was surprised he hadn’t noticed it before. “Oh, wow, look at that,” her left hand had suddenly returned.
“What the...,” Rupert couldn’t believe it.
“How do you suppose that happened?” Fred 2 asked staring at her hand mesmerized. “Hey, if the hand’s back, then Willow...” she looked up and noticed Rupert had walked over to the ash statue and was preparing to smash it. “What are you doing?!”
“I just want to see if she can get out of this one,” he backhanded the statue and Willow’s head flew off her shoulders and the rest of the statue crumbled to dust. “Well, that’s as dead as a person can get.”
“Tsk, tsk, Rupert, I’m surprised you’d think that little of me,” Willow’s voice suddenly said startling the young watcher.
“Willow!” Fred 2 said enthusiastically.
“Hi, Fred,” Willow saluted the girl smiling. “I’m sorry about what happened. I didn’t mean to leave you in the dark like that.”
“It’s okay, I found an occupation,” the teenager said gesturing towards the whiskey bottle she was still holding in her right hand.
“It’s not her,” Rupert told Fred 2. “Not that one anyway,” he pointed towards the pile of ashes on the floor.
“There isn’t more than one Willow,” Fred 2 said as she put the whiskey bottle back in the bar.
“What do you mean?” Rupert asked frowning.
“You don’t know about that either?” she looked surprised. Willow didn’t speak up. “I read my great- grandfather’s journals. He wrote an entire one only about this. He thought it was absolutely fascinating. Which, by the way,” she looked at Willow, “it is.”
“Oh, I remember,” the witch recalled talking to Wesley about what she had gone through down to the very last detail, but she had never thought that he’d write it all down in a journal.
“One Willow,” Rupert repeated finally seeming to understand some things. “I can’t kill you because there’s always going to be another Willow. Inside time.”
“You’re catching on quick,” Willow said amused.
“How could I not see it earlier? Whatever changed you made you temporally unique. All Willows will remember me, no matter the period I pass through simply because it’s always you,” he frowned, but then suddenly realized something: “You’re unique now, but you weren’t always like this...”
“If you’re Willow-Willow, do you know where my brother is?” Fred 2 asked turning towards the witch. “I haven’t seen him in days, I’m kinda worried. Is he still at the crossroads?”
“He’s fighting Mary 7,” Rupert answered her absently as his mind processed all the new information, searching for a solution. He remembered Wes 2, Harmony and Mary 7 from the whirlwind of images he had seen during the clash of the two rings of Batt- Hura.
“Mary 7,” the name sounded familiar to Fred 2, but she couldn’t quite place her.
“A slayer in an advanced psychotic state,” Rupert explained. “Held in the secret basement of Wolfram & Hart.”
“You have to save him!” Fred 2 looked at Willow with desperation in her eyes.
“Don’t worry, he’s fine,” Willow assured her.
“I have to see him,” Fred 2 protested. “Can you take me there?”
“I have the power to travel through my various past selves, but I can’t transport others through time. And a gateway to the crossroads can only be opened with a magical item,” Willow explained.
“Like the ring of Batt-Hura,” Fred 2 suddenly noticed the ring hanging from Rupert’s belt.
“I know!” Rupert realized where he had to go in order to kill off Willow permanently. He unhooked the ring from his belt and rising it up in the air he prepared to say the spell, but he was caught off guard by Fred 2, who tried to pull the ring out of his hands. “What are you doing?” he asked as he struggled to free the ring from the girl’s hands.
“I’m going to see my brother!” Fred 2 said determined to not let go.
“Kids, you shouldn’t be playing with a magical item as powerful as that!” Willow warned them, but the two wouldn’t listen. She tried to separate them, but it was too late.
“Nema esta, ne-nema deo,” Rupert had begun the spell and had a hard time speaking it while fighting with Fred 2 over the ring. ”Ne-ma - tempo ecco je-ro, vero nen-to, quera lento, en e tempo me-mera uno!” The two disappeared in a flash of light.
“Well, I know at least one person who won’t be too happy about this,” Willow said sighing.
Los Angeles
2003
The Wolfram & Hart ArchivesHolding a lantern above the book, Mina examined the text with a frown. It was called “Temporal displacement and disparity in the natural space continuum” by one doctor Friedrich Alexander Munsler. She was lucky Wolfram & Hart had translations of almost every existing book in the universe and she could read the text calmly without trying her best to decipher the German language.
“When several consecutive temporal changes occur, a certain disparity can appear between them, a short lapse of time in which a person would be able to keep the consequences of one temporal displacement while altering or erasing the existence of a second such displacement or even adding a new set of changes to the initial temporal manipulation The theory initially formulated for the...bla bla, don’t need that,” Mina said as she read on. This was what she had been looking for, but the question was: how could she find this time lapse between her two jumps into the past? She needed the first change she had made to still exist, but as far as she understood she had erased it when she had made the second trip. While her first jump had taken her to the outskirts of Sunnydale, the second had taken over her already present body on the hellmouth, right after the dinner the night before Sunnydale’s fall. But how could things go the same when Spike and Angel had decided to tell Buffy about her presence and Lonny was in the house? They couldn’t. She wondered if this disparity offered her some sort of backdoor to the same timeline and the alterations she had made before Lonny’s intervention. She looked at the ring of Batt-Hura. “I wish you’d have a handbook or something.”
She looked around the darkened corridors of the archives and got an idea. She searched for a source book. One that could help her browse through the gigantic archives without going insane. Most of them were up in the research department, but she knew at least one would be kept down there as a catalog. She found it on the table of the supervisor of the archives who she had knocked out after landing there. She opened it, rose it to her lips and said:
“The Ring of Batt-Hura. English version.” The pages of the book filled with text. “Used mostly for spells involving time travel. Tell me something I don’t know. When used for an extended period of time, it forms a paranormal bond with its bearer. That’s new. Bla-bla,” she skipped over the parts she knew about and after a while she came across something interesting: “If more than one major time manipulation takes place, time creates certain disparity between the alterations...There’s that word again. Disparity,” she stared at the book for a moment and then deciding it was worth a try, she rose the book to her lips again and said: “The Ring of Batt-Hura. English Version. Simplified to common vocabulary.” Surprisingly, the text appeared again but in a simpler version. “Now we’re getting somewhere. If time is changed more than once, in a very short period of time, the changes made by the last manipulations will affect time at a much slower pace, causing a difference between time periods. Definitely not what I was looking for. Overwriting a temporal spell. Hmm. When a person wants to correct a temporal spell he only needs to transport himself into his body before he altered time. Already done that. The fusion or combination of two temporal spells. When a person wants to make two time alterations at once. In order to do so, he must transport himself directly in the moment when the first alteration took place. Bingo. Ring, you and I probably have a special bond by now, so if we’re gonna screw with time again, just make sure we do it the right way, okay?” she rose the ring of Batt-Hura in the air and prepared to make another jump into the past.
Sunnydale
2003Fred 2 hit the ground hard. She hurt her right arm badly in the process. When she stood up, she was very dizzy and felt nauseous. The spell, she suspected, had done most of the damage. She realized that she had feathers in one of her hands. She had probably ripped them off the ring of Batt-Hura during her struggle with Rupert. She sighed and looked around herself. Her eyesight was a little blurry. She tried to focus on a big panel ahead. When she finally realized what was written on it she let out:
“Oh. My. God,” she was staring dirrectly at the “Welcome to Sunnydale” sign.