Birth RightBy Alecca
100% gasolineSunnydale
2003Mina blinked several times before she realized where she was. She felt like she had been asleep for a few good hours, lost somewhere in a time and place she could not comprehend. She looked around: the same Summers home, the same old Sunnydale, the same old day she had leaped into two times before. But this, she realized, wasn’t where she was suppose to land. She was leaned down next to the open basement door listening in to Spike and Angel’s conversation.
“I guess our connection isn’t all that special, huh? You know, for a moment there...,” she stopped, realizing she was talking to a ring. She sighed and closed her eyes for a moment. What was she suppose to do now? Spike and Angel would have her thrown out of the house. Willow would do her little magic trick and poof the world would be slayer full. Again. Maybe she had been wrong in thinking the whole slayer kind was a mistake. The thing was she had never been wrong before. She got up and opening the door to the basement fully, she went downstairs.
“Yeah, but apparently we already screwed up once. For her sake at least...” Angel’s words trailed off when he saw Mina coming into the basement.
“What do you want?” Spike asked a little surprised to see her there.
“I’m done here,” Mina said and the two vampires looked at her confused. “Time is just too fucked-up to be messed with. I tried my best and both times I wound up screwing up on a major scale.”
“Both times?” Angel asked rising his eyebrows.
“Yeah. And believe me, the second time was so much worse,” she assured him and then went on: “All things aside, I am a slayer. I wanted to be *the* slayer, but I came to the conclusion that that’s stretching it. I want to save the world and just a few hours ago I practically destroyed it.”
“So you’re giving up? Just like that?” Spike asked incredulously.
“Yeah, just like that,” Mina nodded.
“We can go home then?” Spike smiled. “Well, this was bloody easy. Sure you don’t want to axe us as soon as we turn our backs?”
“I don’t really have a reason to,” Mina pointed out. “But you can’t go home yet.”
“Why?” Angel asked curious, partially realizing that he and Spike wouldn’t be able to travel back to their time by themselves as they had been sent there by the Hur’dha and he assumed only he could bring them back.
“The cycle isn’t complete,” she explained and Spike shot her a confused look. “Usually, a trip in the past is cut short when you alter something drastically. I already did that. Twice. If then the same timeline is accessed again by the same individual - namely me - he leaps back into his own body still present in the past. If I use the ring to leave now, the old version of me might reappear and continue doing what I did before. And believe me, you don’t want that. So I have to stay here until the moment I was transported back into the future. That would be shortly before the battle of the hellmouth,” she concluded.
“Okay, that’s you, but what about us?” Angel asked not understanding where their place in her explanation was.
“Well, since you were sent here to watch over me and probably to stop me in case I try something funny,” she smiled. “I assume the big blue guy won’t take you back until I’m gone.”
“Good point,” Spike said, suddenly feeling very excited by the prospect of staying in Sunnydale for another day without having to worry about the rogue teenage slayer.
“And since I’m here anyway, I was thinking maybe I could actually do what I told Buffy I came here to do. Fight the good fight. I owe her at least that much after everything I’ve done,” she looked down at her feet and then stumbled to say: ”You can still watch me, of course.”
“Like that did us any good the last two times,” Spike noted.
“I don’t know if I should believe you or not,” Angel said pondering her words. “You’re not exactly the most trust worthy person in the world.”
“I know I’m not, but I’m laying all my cards in front of you. If you tell me to stay put right now and not raise a finger, I won’t,” she promised. There was a moment of silence. Angel looked back at Spike.
“What do you think?” he asked, not really feeling up to making a decision by himself.
“Let the girl fight. We can sick Lonny on her. She won’t leave her alone for one instant and I...uhm, we, can take a little break,” Spike smiled.
“I think we’ve been taking too many breaks,” Angel pointed out, saddened.
“Think you’ve lost the old edge, do you?” Spike immediately read his thoughts. “It’s all right, old timer, I’m here to back you up.”
“Your kind of help I don’t need,” Angel frowned and headed towards the stairs. “We have to talk to Lonny.”
The Hollow Crossroads
Absolutely nowhen“Why am I letting you carry on like this?” the Hur’dha asked frustrated.
“Cause ya love me?” Willow smiled amused.
“Love,” he smirked. “Let’s not get into that argument again.”
“There was an argument? I remember me trying to be persuasive and you constantly shaking your head in utter denial,” she reminded him.
“Willow,” he frowned.
“Okay, so the truth is things haven’t been going exactly as I planned,” she confessed. “A person lost in time here, another there, but it’s all coming together quite nicely. If you think of the big picture.”
“This is time we’re talking about. There isn’t a small or a big picture,” the Hur’dha glanced at her.
“I just need one properly placed pawn and...,” she snapped her fingers, “check mate. Domino effect. Call it what you want.”
“And which pawn are we talking about?” the Hur’dha asked rising an eyebrow.
“Do you even have to ask?” the witch smirked. “And to think I could’ve solved it all so simply from the beginning.”
“You didn’t want to,” the blue creature pointed out. “I asked you to.”
“You practically begged me to,” she smiled.
“Did not,” the Hur’dha complained at the usage of that word.
“Did so,” her smile widened into a grin. “But the past’s the past and let’s face it, it’s just too fucked-up at the moment to risk any further intervention.”
“True,” he nodded. “But your plan better work out.”
“Don’t worry, in case it doesn’t work, I have a back-up,” she assured him.
“I’ve heard those words before. I don’t particularly like them. What was it you told me once about your so- called back-up plan? Ah, yes, extreme, but efficient,” he remembered. “Two words, I again, don’t enjoy hearing. Especially from you.”
“Oh, what are you afraid of?” she chuckled and her eyes flashes black for an instant before returning to normal.
“What am I not afraid of at this point? Destruction of all time?” he smiled. “Been there. Done that.”
Sunnydale
2003“You have got to be shitting me!” Lonny yelled at the two vampires angrily.
“Would you keep it down? People are actually sleeping,” Angel pointed out.
“Do I look like I fucking care at this point?” Lonny shot him a dirty look. “She just destroyed time and you’re here telling me she’s suddenly grown a fucking conscience? Give me a break! How exactly gullible are you two idiots?”
“Hey!” Spike protested. From the living room, Dawn looked curiously towards the kitchen where all the screaming was coming from.
“That’s the whole point,” Mina stopped Lonny before she continued her rant. “I wasn’t suppose to destroy the world, but apparently by stopping the slayer line that’s exactly what I’d be doing.”
“Bullshit, this is all just some twisted plan you came up with to do god knows what,” Lonny told her harshly.
“It’s over, Lonny. I’d go home right now, if I could, but that’s not an option for another ten hours or so,” Mina said regarding the vampire.
“Did she even tell you exactly how she destroyed the world?” Lonny stared at the two vampires. Mina looked away. “She didn’t. Figures.”
“How come you know about this?” Spike suddenly realized the strangeness of it all. While they couldn’t remember any of the alterations of the past, Mina and Lonny both seemed to be aware of them.
“Who, me? I’m just another time anomaly trying to cope thanks to that bitch over there,” she gestured towards Mina. “It’s a whole weird story. But let’s get back to her, destroying the world. She stabbed your precious little Buffy through the heart. Literally. She put a knife through her. It sent the world spiraling into hell central. Actually, non-existence.”
“You killed her?” Spike stared at Mina coldly.
“She had to,” Angel let out an unnecessary sigh. “Destroying the slayer multitude wouldn’t be enough to continue with the old slayer line. She’s still alive.”
“What?!” Spike looked at Angel shocked.
“Buffy, she’s still alive. In our time,” Angel repeated.
“She’s like a 105,” Mina nodded.
“And you...you bastard!” Spike lunged towards Angel, but Lonny stopped his blow midair. “You knew about this?”
“Yes and no. I was suspecting it. I saw some of the paperwork. The house...” she began, but Angel gave her a look that made it clear she should stop.
“I never thought you really meant it,” Spike gave his grandsire a disgusted look. “That you’d keep her away from me. Not after everything that happened. You told me she was dead!”
“It wasn’t my choice to make,” Angel said calmly.
“She...,” Spike’s voice choked. “She told you to let me think she was dead?”
“She didn’t want you to see her grow old. Not as old as she is now. She knew I’d understand, but that it would break your heart,” Angel told him.
“Didn’t she know the simple thought of her being dead would break my heart?” Spike asked looking absently at the floor.
“Can we get back to the issue at hand?” Lonny interfered. “So everyone’s moping cause Buffy’s old, boo-hoo. It’s just the way it is. If you wanted it any other way you should’ve turned her a long time ago, but you didn’t. Get over it,” she hadn’t brought herself to turning her father either, not even when he had been on his death bed. She loved him too much and she knew he would hate himself for becoming a vampire, the thing that had most traumatized his youth and that had taken away from him too many people close to his heart. Her own transformation had been a very low blow for him, but in time he had grown accustomed to it. “This is exactly the kind of thing she’s been taking advantage of. Your bickering, your slobbering over Buffy. One moment of distraction and poof, the world can go haywire...”
“Would you listen to me for one moment?” Mina interrupted her.
“Like hell I am,” Lonny gave the slayer a dirty look.
“Lonny, calm down,” Angel told the vampire. “What do you want to do? Snap her neck just in case she’s pulling some kind of trick on us?”
“Well, it’d be a start,” Lonny smirked.
“We don’t kill people, remember?” Angel reminded her.
“Maybe we could make an exception?” the vampire suggested.
“Lonny!” Angel snapped at her.
“Fine, do it your way, but when the world starts spinning the wrong way again don’t go crying to me, okay?” Lonny rose her hands up in surrender. “But I’ll be keeping a close eye on you,” she warned Mina.
“Go ahead. I have nothing to hide,” the slayer told her smiling.
Los Angeles
The Underground of Wolfram & Hart Demon Hunting Inc
Static Time - no precise dateRupert landed with a thud on the floor. He got up and shook off the feeling of coldness that had crept up inside him. Looking down at the ring of Batt-Hura he still clutched in his hand, he noticed it was missing a few feathers. Fred 2’s handy work no doubt. He sighed and suddenly realized he wasn’t where he was suppose to be, namely Sunnydale.
“Oh, great, another terrific useless jump through time,” he let out as he began walking down the empty corridors. The writing on the doors didn’t ring a bell. The place reminded him of a vampire prison. Dark, secluded, underground and locked down tighter than a federal prison. Unfortunately, none of the doors had windows, so he could neither confirm nor put aside his suspicions. He looked back when he heard the footsteps of someone approaching. The closer they came, the more obvious it became that the person coming towards him was in fact running. A blond figure dashed by him without even noticing him. The next thing he knew, he was thrown to the floor by a punch and a girl was hovering over him, pinning him down. Her face, hands and dark hair were stained with blood. She smiled at him wildly:
“I’ll be right back,” she leaned down and kissed him on the forehead before carving a 7 with her nails in it. Rupert let out a scream of pain. He tried to free himself, but it was useless. The girl was too strong. She - he immediately realized - was a slayer. Before he had another chance to struggle, the girl took off, running after the other woman. As he got up he felt the blood trickling down his face. He forced himself to touch the wound on his forehead and feel it’s shape.
“7,” he realized and let out an: “Oh no,” recognizing the girl, the time and place instantly. She had been none other than Mary 7, one of the most dangerous loose screws in the slayer line. He had to get out of there before she came back. He rose the ring in the air and spoke the incantation. Nothing happened. “Of all the times to bail on me, you picked the worst,” he said under his breath and noticed his blood had dripped down on the ring. That was never something good. Smoke suddenly began rising from the ring. It entangled around his arm and began engulfing his upper body. His eyes went wide as he began breathing hard.
The Hollow Crossroads
Absolutely nowhenThe Hur’dha fell to the ground, holding his stomach in pain. Willow looked at him strangely. She hadn’t seen him hurt before. Retrieving his hand from around his wounded abdomen, he shockingly realized it was covered in thick blue blood. He gritted his teeth.
“What’s wrong?” Willow asked worried.
“Kill him!” he told her in an urgent tone.
“Kill who?” she asked confused.
“The boy! Kill him! NOW! Before it’s too late,” he said collapsing to the ground.
“Oh shit,” the witch let out trying to help the Hur’dha back to his feet.
“GO!” he yelled at her and the witch flew backwards and straight down a distant crossroad, only the echo of her plea remaining behind:
“Hur’dha!!!”
Sunnydale
2003It was morning and the potentials were gathered outside the Summers’ home, ready to leave for Sunnydale High. Buffy looked at them from the front porch, lost in her own thoughts. Faith on the other hand seemed excited about the coming battle and Angel’s presence there gave her a self confidence boost. Spike was carrying a bag that looked awfully suspicious to Robin and they winded out bickering about it to Buffy and Giles’ exasperation. Mina watched them all from inside the house pensively.
“Boo,” Angel startled her out of her reverie. “It must be strange for you. Seeing them all like this. They’re in your history books after all,” he smiled and after a pause, asked: “You’re sure you want to do this?”
“Pretty positive about it,” she said and gave him an awkward look.
“There’s still enough time to back out, if you want. I’ll talk to Buffy for you, make up some excuse,” he didn’t want her to feel obligated to fight simply because her body happened to be in Sunnydale at the time of the battle.
“Turning back? You’re kidding, aren’t you? If this is some sort of weird tactic to talk me out of it, it isn’t working,” she assured him.
“Are you okay?” Angel asked thinking she was being a bit too defensive.
“Since when do you care?” she gave him an annoyed look and walked out of the house just as Buffy entered again.
“It’s nice to see you two patched things up,” she said as she neared him.
“Yeah, we sorted out our differences,” Angel replied absently as he stared after Mina.
“Good to hear,” Buffy said and gave Angel a small kiss on the lips.
“What was that for?” the vampire asked her smiling and turning his attention fully towards the slayer.
“For good luck,” she returned the smile. “I think we’ll probably both gonna need some.”
“Well, that wasn’t enough for the both of us,” Angel said and leaned down and kissed her. Gently. Profoundly. Passionately. Like everything they had ever shared together.
“Now that felt really really lucky,” she told him when they broke the kiss. She headed out of the house again, with a smile on her lips.
“Oh, I told you to jump on her when you had the chance, but you had to be all boy scout...,” Lonny told him grinning as she headed towards the porch. Angel shook his head.
Sunnydale
2003
Morning, the day before the great battle of SunnydaleFred 2 walked down the empty streets feeling uneasy. She never liked being alone, especially not in a place like Sunnydale. It was creepy, even when it was deserted. Her brother had always teased her about her fear of abandoned places. She sighed. She really wanted to see him, to make sure he was okay, to tell him about everything she had gone through. “One day,” she muttered, “we’ll be back home laughing about all of this.” She let out a nervous laughter. She didn’t notice the two bringers following her, on the hunt for stray potential slayers.
When the first one attacked, she was totally taken by surprise and she fell to the ground from the power of the bringer’s blow. She managed to avoid the second blow and the bringer’s knife while trying to mutter some kind of protection spell, but because of the panic that had filled each and every one of her senses, she just couldn’t get it right. She closed her eyes when she saw a second bringer standing above her, knife in hand. There was no escape. Suddenly, a sword impaled itself through one of the bringers, killing him. Then the second bringer that had been standing above her was gone and Fred 2 could hear fighting noises from somewhere near. She stood up and a look of awe and amazement crossed her features. Only two feet away from her Buffy Summers - The Slayer! - was fighting the remaining bringer.
“Are you okay?” the slayer asked her after she killed off the second bringer.
“You’re Buffy Summers!” Fred 2 said enthusiastically. “I’ve heard so much about you! I’ve studied every existent book on you and...it’s an absolute honor to meet you.”
“Yeah, that’s me, Buffy Summers, slayer extraordinaire,” she said amused. “And you’re lucky I decided to do a sweep of the neighborhood. We got a surprise visit last night and I thought I should check the streets again, see if anyone’s still stuck in Sunnydale. I guess it was a good idea. What’s your name?”
“Oh, I’m Fred, I mean Winifred, but my friends call me Fred,” the girl extended her hand politely and Buffy shook it, still amused by her giddiness.
“We should get back to the house before more bringers show up,” the slayer said and started in the direction of the house with a smiling Fred 2 by her side.
Los Angeles
The Underground of Wolfram & Hart Demon Hunting Inc
Static Time - no precise dateRupert looked around in amazement. Somehow, time was passing him by. Or repeating itself. Or both. He had inhaled the smoke from the ring and it had done something to his body. It had altered his physical presence, granting him some strange power over time. It wasn’t particularly strong, but it allowed him to transport himself in different areas of the underground maze without walking, by simply fast-forwarding or rewinding his movements. This way, he was able to annul the dreadful wound on his forehead and avoid meeting Mary 7 on the corridor, while still making sure the alteration of the ring would take place by scratching his skin and letting his blood drip down on the ring. While transporting himself through various places in the underground maze, he came across Mary 7 and Harmony fighting, Wes 2 crawling towards the dead bodies of the special ops team and with a little push further ahead in time, he was able to see Wes 2’s brilliant plan into motion and Mary 7 stuck in static time.
“Rupert!” Willow’s voice boomed through the corridors startling the young watcher as well as Wes 2 and Harmony who were still inside Mary 7’s cell. “What the hell have you done?!” she asked him, appearing before him with her eyes black and her hair rising above her shoulders, into the air. A sign, no doubt, that she was very very angry.
Sunnydale
2003“I’m not worried. As long as Willow can work her spell before they -- see us,” Buffy said as the Turok-Han army turned to stare directly at them.
“Ugly little things, aren’t they?” Lonny said smiling at Spike. The blonde vampire knew that smile too well. The one Lonny used before she did a whole lot of damage. He put the bag containing his past self next to the wall of the cave, hoping the amulet would do its trick without him being conscious. He looked over at Mina and saw the look of awe on her face. She was fighting the greatest battle in slayer history. He smiled. As the Turok-Han army charged the small group of potentials lead by the two slayers, Kennedy suddenly appeared among them holding the scythe in one hand.
“It’s not working!” she told Buffy in a desperate voice.
“What are you talking about?” the slayer’s eyes went wide.
“The spell. Something’s wrong with it. It’s not working,” Kennedy repeated, this time more clearly.
“Oh, no,” Buffy closed her eyes for a moment before taking the scythe in her hand and telling the others, in a firm voice: “We’re on our own.”
“It was you!” Lonny immediately pointed an accusing finger at Mina. “You did something!”
“Don’t be an idiot! I didn’t go anywhere near Willow or her number one girl! You should at least know that since you watched me like a hawk since last night,” Mina reminded her and Lonny realized she was right. She hadn’t gone anywhere near the witch.
“This isn’t the time to fight!” Buffy yelled at them as she took out the first Turok-Han that entered their ranks. As the battle escalated, many of the potentials died and along with them Faith went down like a hero. When all hope seemed to wither away, a light began shinning from the unconscious body of the past Spike, marking the beginning of the destruction of Sunnydale. Spike sighed relieved when he saw the amulet was working. He and Angel helped the remaining potentials out of the hellmouth as Buffy, wounded by one of the Turok-Hans, along with Mina and Lonny tried their best to kill the remaining creatures that had not been taken out by Spike’s amulet yet. In the heat of the battle, Buffy hadn’t even realized that there were two Spikes or where the light killing the Turok-Hans was coming from.
“Buffy!” Mina called out for the slayer as she was surrounded by three Turok-Hans. Buffy threw her the scythe and with a set of remarkable moves Mina took out all three of them. The light coming from inside the amulet expanded taking out all of the remaining Turok-Hans. The cave began collapsing around them. Spike and Angel returned to the hellmouth to get Buffy and the rest to the surface.
“We can’t leave her here,” Lonny told the two vampires looking down at the dead Faith.
“We’ll take her with us,” Angel agreed taking the slayer’s body in his arms.
“Buffy! Let’s go!” Spike yelled after her. Buffy looked down into the hellmouth as the rock walls crumbled down into it, covering it forever.
“Buffy,” Mina called out to her gently, nearing her.
“What?” the slayer looked back at her, suddenly snapped out of her deep thoughts.
“It’s over,” Mina said and jammed the scythe into her stomach and threw her off the edge into the abyss bellow.
“NO!!” Spike could only yell helplessly. Mina turned towards them, with a glorious smile on her face and yelled:
“Suckers!” and throwing them a butterfly kiss, she jumped down into the hellmouth.
Flashback
The Summers’ home, that morning
“Hurry up!” Rona banged on the door of the bathroom loudly.
“Just a minute!” Mina said and looked down at the ring of Batt-Hura smiling. “Take me to the ancient temple of Kaman’ra! We have an incantation to misspell!” A flash of light shone, taking Mina thousands of years into the past to undo the writing of a great spell that would have ensured the spreading of the slayer powers to all potentials in the year 2003. But though Mina - the one that knew of both changes she had made before - was gone, her first apparition into the past was still present in the Summers’ home. And it is this Mina that Angel would have an awkward conversation with, not knowing that she had no idea what he was talking about.
Back in the hellmouth
As Mina fell into the endless gap, a light encircled her and she disappeared. Angel, Spike and Lonny shortly followed. Somewhere else in time, Wes 2 and Harmony vanished as well. Fred 2, because she was in a past unaffected by the time’s whirlwind of change, did not disappear.
Los Angeles
The Underground of Wolfram & Hart Demon Hunting Inc
Static Time - no precise dateWillow felt the change taking over time and surprisingly, Rupert did as well. The witch’s eyes returned to their natural color and she sighed.
“It just had to happen now,” she let out and turning towards Rupert, she told him: "Stay put. I’ll be right back,” and with a wave of her hand the young watcher froze, his features becoming stiff and his reply stopping in his throat. “I have a little something to take care of.”