Title: Back to the Uncharted Territories
Author: Paradox761
Email: Paradox761@mail.com
Website: members.tripod.com/~Paradox761
Disclaimer: Joss Whedon owns Buffy; SFC, Jim Henson Productions, and Rockne S. O’Bannon own Farscape; and Universal Pictures owns Back to the Future. No copyright infringement is intended, so please don’t sue. I don’t have any money anyway.
Summary: Sequel to “A Sympathetic Ear”, John Crichton finally makes it home only to discover that the life he left behind is no longer there. His father, DK, and Xander Harris are all dead. Then he meets an extraordinary man in a bar, a time traveler, with an extraordinary proposition. Will John risk it all to go back in time to save his father’s life? And what happens when the consequences are much worse than he ever could have imagined?
Author’s note: Takes place directly after the third season of Farscape, after that it’s an AU. Also, for the sake of this story, Farscape takes place in the near future (2017), and some of the modifications made to the DeLorean in the second movie, namely Mr. Fusion, came from further into the future then when the movie took place (2015). Also, some dialogue has been lifted directly from the Buffy episode “Grave”, no plagiarism intended.
Dedication: To Jordan and Jessica, my angels. May they rest in peace.
Special thanks to A. Grandt, greywizard, Wayne, Rob Clark, Danielle, Goblin, Calen, DaBear, Obi, Gareth, Troy, David, and Lafe for the feedback and support.
(Farscape/BtVS/BttF, Xander/Chiana, John/Aeryn)
Rated R for language and violence
Guest Cast:
Guy Pearce as Dr. Julian Martin Brown, PhD.
James Remar as Lakas

“Willy!” Xander exclaimed loudly as he entered the bar, slapping his hand down on the bar for emphasis. Like he was announcing his presence to the whole room. When John looked around the establishment at some of the obviously non-human patrons, he began to understand why. Most of them looked up nervously at Xander, a few even got up and left. Xander pretended not to notice as he set his sword down on the bar, but John could see him scanning the room from the corners of his eyes. “My usual please, and a beer for my friend.”

Willy nodded, getting the drinks. “Good hunting tonight?” the barkeep asked.

“I’m still here, aren’t I?” Xander said with a smile. John took a moment to look at his friend, and the changes he had undergone since the last time he had seen him. Only a little over a year had passed for him, but for Xander it had been closer to five. He was dressed all in black, just like John. With a short sleeved tee shirt, jeans, and a pair of combat boots. He had at least ten more pounds of muscle on him, and a few days growth of beard on his face. But the biggest change was in his eyes. Once in a while he could see a glimpse of the old Xander there, his sense of humor, his zest for life. But mostly they were cold, calculated.

“One beer,” Willy said, putting a bottle on the bar and popping the cap off with a bottle opener. “And one usual,” he said, handing Xander a Mountain Dew and a first-aid kit.

Xander nodded his thanks as he picked up the items along with his sword and lead John to a nearby table, near the wall. Xander sat with his back to the wall, facing the bar’s only entrance. John took the seat opposite him. Xander took a long swig from his soda and opened the first-aid kit.

“You want to tell me what we’re doing in a demon bar?” John asked.

“Actually, it’s more like…neutral territory,” Xander said, taking off his shirt. John noticed a medallion on a chain that hung around Xander’s neck, under his shirt. Xander pushed it over his shoulder and out of his way. He opened the bottle of alcohol in the first-aid kit and started dabbing it on the cut on his chest. “In return for the occasional piece of information, I hooked Willy up with a protection spell to keep his bar from getting trashed every other night. It reverses any act of violence.”

“What does that mean?”

“I’ll show you. Slap me.”

“What?”

“Across the face, as hard as you like.”

John looked skeptical. “You sure?” Xander just nodded. John reached out and gave Xander a slap across the face. At least, that’s what he thought he did. There was a small flash of light, right where his hand would have met Xander’s face, and John’s head jerked to the side as he felt a painful sting across his own cheek. Xander’s expression didn’t change at all. John rubbed his cheek. “That hurt,” he complained.

“Don’t look at me, you did it.”

“Very funny. So why do the demons still come here then?”

“They won’t admit it, but I think they appreciate the break. I try to make an appearance at least once a week, to let them all know that I’m still alive,” Xander said with a smile. “It’s terrible for their morale, that they can never seem to kill little old me. Drives them crazy.”

John smiled, taking a sip of his beer. Xander pulled a piece of bandage out of the kit and ripped it at the length he wanted. “So where is everybody?” John asked.

Xander seemed to freeze for a second, his eyes going cold again. “They’re dead,” he said simply. “Except Dawn, she’s with her father now.”

John looked a little shocked. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean…”

Xander waved him off, shaking his head. He ripped off a piece of medical tape and started putting the bandage over his chest.

“How did…how?” John asked, not sure what to say.

Xander finished bandaging the cut on his chest, stretching his arms at his side to make sure it would stay. He took another drink from his soda, and blew a breath out from between his lips. “I don’t even know where to begin.”

“Begin wherever you like,” John said.

Xander took another deep breath. “Glory,” he said. John waited for him to continue. “She was a exiled Hell-Goddess, trapped in a human body. Until she learned how to manifest herself again. She was searching for a mystical talisman called The Key. With it, she could destroy the fabric between dimensions and return to her home dimension. The result meant Hell on Earth, literally. The monks that had The Key gave it to Buffy to protect from Glory. But they had to make sure that Buffy would defend it with her life, so they sent it to her in the form of something that she would never abandon, never desert. A sister.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Dawn is The Key, in human form. Complete with false memories of a childhood that never happened, for all of us. Buffy tried to keep it from Dawn when she found out, from us too. Dawn ended up finding out on her own. She freaked out, ran away, almost got herself killed. Buffy told her that it didn’t matter where she came from, it didn’t make her any less human, and it didn’t make her any less her sister. It took a while, but she coped. We all did.”

“Incredible,” John said. Xander nodded.

“Glory eventually did get a hold of Dawn. We stopped her, but not before she opened a rather large portal to her home dimension. The books said that the only way to close the portal was with Dawn’s blood. Since Dawn was created from Buffy, Buffy realized that her blood would work too. She jumped into the portal, and closed it.” Xander paused. Reaching out, he wrapped his hand around the handle of his sword, which rested on the table. “She was killed.”

“I’m sorry.”

“That’s not the end. The next year, Willow, Tara and I brought her back. We thought her soul was trapped in that Hell dimension. Giles was back in England, Willow knew a ritual that could resurrect her.” Xander paused. “Looking back, it was stupid and careless. We were messing with forces that we couldn’t have begun to understand. But all we were thinking about was Buffy. When she came back, we could tell that something was wrong. We thought that she was just having trouble adjusting, but I had a feeling that it was more than that. We found out later that we hadn’t pulled her out of Hell, we had pulled her out of Heaven.”

“Oh my God.”

“We ripped her away from a long deserved peace, and plunged her back into the Hell on Earth that is Sunnydale. She hated us for it. She never said anything, but how could she not. That’s why she had been so distant with us, so depressed. Willow was falling deeper and deeper into a pit of dark magic, trying to deal with her own guilt. Giles came back when we brought Buffy back, but he was thinking about leaving again. He thought that Buffy was growing too dependent on him. Dawn felt ignored, neglected, unloved. And Tara and I were stuck in the middle of it all, worried about the people we loved and not sure what to do about it. We talked and decided that we had to do something.

“It wasn’t easy. There was a lot of yelling and screaming, a lot of accusations and hurt feelings. Willow finally admitted that she had a problem with magic, and she quit cold turkey. With Giles’ help, we talked to Buffy. More yelling, more screaming, more hurt feelings. We didn’t fix everything over night, but we made steps in the right direction. I was just glad that I was in a position to see what was happening to my friends, so I could help them. They were all I had in my life. My parents never cared all that much, and I haven’t had a girlfriend since Anya left me.

“Things were getting back on track. Buffy was finding her way again, and finding a way to start to forgive us. Her and Dawn were getting better. Willow and Tara were closer than they had ever been, and Giles was figuring out how to be a surrogate father to us all without letting us grow too dependent on him. It was strange. I mean, all my friends were getting their lives back on track again. I should have been happy for them. And I was, I was just feeling a little…unneeded I guess. The same way I was feeling before we met you, and Chiana and Aeryn. In fact, I found myself more and more thinking about the things Chiana had said to me, about showing them how valuable I am, and how valuable they are to me. That’s when I started carrying the comms pin more and more, to remind me of her and her words. And that’s when I did something that the old Xander never would have done. I went to my friends, and I told them how I was feeling.

“I guess you have to understand the way things always were with us. When you’re busy saving the world every other week, there’s not a whole lot of time to talk about our feelings. So we just let them stew until they blew up in our faces, and we ended up screaming at each other. Seems like at least once a year we had a knock down, drag out. The kind of fights that would end most friendships, but we always walked away stronger because of them in the end. Still, it wasn’t exactly what I would call healthy. So me going to them about this was a huge deal.” Xander paused, with a wistful look in his eye. He smiled slightly. “And they were wonderful. They told me how much they loved me, and how important I was to them. Even Giles said…that he was proud of me. No one had ever said that to me before. It was easily the greatest moment of my life. And while I knew for sure then that my friends cared for me, and appreciated me, I still wasn’t sure that I was contributing all that much to the cause. I mean, I wasn’t doing anything that any of them couldn’t do ten times better, you know.” Xander paused again.

“About a month after that, it was my birthday. They threw a party for me, and when it came time for the gifts, they surprised me yet again. Buffy gave me this sword,” he said, holding the weapon out for John to see. It was a smallish broadsword, it’s blade about three feet in length. Across the front of the hand guard, etched in bold print, was a single word. Hero. “The blade and the hand guard are stainless steel, electroplated with silver. Buffy even had it blessed. At the time it was a little heavier than I was used to, but she helped me train with it, day and night. Taught me ever sword technique that she knew. She said I was a natural.” A sad smiled crossed Xander’s face as he took the sword back. “I’m so attuned to it now, it just feels like an extension of my body.”

“What does the inscription mean?”

Xander smiled again. “A long time ago, when Buffy was just starting college, she was feeling a little down, and alone. So I gave her a pep talk, to let her know that she would never be alone, and no matter where she went or what she did, she would always be Buffy. I told her that she was my hero. When she gave me the sword, she told me that I was her hero too. Because despite the lack of any special abilities, or training, or knowledge, I still fought. I fought with courage, and loyalty, and heart, she said. That the fact that I was ‘normal’, is what made me so special. That what I contributed to the cause was more important than just what I did, it was who I was. But if I still wanted to become a better fighter, than she would help me. Which is exactly what she did.” Xander picked up the sword. “It’s also what I call her,” he said. “Hero. I know it sounds silly, naming a sword. But when a weapon becomes so important to you, to your survival, you can’t help but to stop thinking of it as an object, and start thinking of it as…a friend.”

John smiled to himself. “I don’t think it sounds silly at all.”

Xander set the sword back down on the table. “Willow and Tara gave me this amulet,” he said, retrieving the charm from where he’s tossed it over his shoulder and holding it out to show John. It was silver, about three inches in diameter, with a skull emblem emblazoned on the front. Xander flipped it over, showing dozens of small intricate symbols carved onto the back, none of which John recognized. “It’s a protection amulet, unlike any other. It’s actually infused with their magic, and their love. It’s…hard to explain. When I first touched it, there was this sensation…like I was being enveloped in a big warm hug.” Xander smiled. “I made a joke, that it was the closest I was going to get to getting a three-way. Willow laughed, and Tara didn’t stop blushing for an hour. They told me never to take it off, that it would protect me from most dark magiks.

“Giles, gave me a book.”

“Just a book?” John asked.

“No, not just a book. Tobin’s Demon and Spirit Guide, largely regarded as the most comprehensive demonology and spiritual text in the world. And since major publishing companies don’t exactly print books of that nature, and it’s in such high demand among those in the know, copies are extremely rare. Where Giles found it, I’m still not sure. He only asked that I keep it at the Magic Box, while he showed me how to use it, and the cross-referencing system that it used.

“I was so blown away by all their presents, and kind words, I was speechless. I think eventually I just hugged them all until they begged for oxygen. It was officially the new best day of my life.” Xander let out a sigh as his smile slowly faded. “Still is, actually.”

John could tell by Xander’s tone and body language that the happy part of the story was over. A few moments of silence passed while he tried to gather his thoughts. “What happened?” John finally asked.

“Warren Meers,” Xander said. “That’s what happened. Him and his two bonehead lackeys decided that they wanted to be super villains. They called themselves The Trio. They put Buffy through hell, just when she was going through her own hell, trying to adjust to life on Earth again. They did a few things that were dangerous, but mostly they were just a big pain in the ass. About a month after my birthday, Warren got his hands on some magic crystals, went all Juggernaut on us. Strength, invulnerability, the whole deal. Buffy still kicked his ass, and Jonathan and Andrew got arrested, but Warren got away.” Xander paused, taking a long drink from his soda. His right hand reached up and clutched the amulet around his neck, like he was drawing strength from it. “The next day, Buffy and I were sitting in her back yard, talking. Willow and Tara were in the house, Dawn was at school. When around the corner of the house comes Warren, ranting and raving. Buffy put herself between him and me, ready to hand the guy his ass again, when he pulls out a gun and starts shooting.”

“Oh my god.”

“He hit Buffy in the shoulder, and took off running. What we didn’t know at the time, was that a stray bullet had gone through the second story window, and hit Tara. She was killed, right in front of Willow. A lot of what happened next I pieced together. While I was at the hospital with Buffy, Willow was at The Magic Box, knocking out Giles and sucking the books dry. Apparently she tried to use magic to bring Tara back, but she couldn’t. Her death wasn’t supernatural. All of the control Willow had built up, fighting her magic addiction, crumbled. But she didn’t care about any of that anymore, all she cared about was revenge. Dark magic coursed through her body like electricity. She came to the hospital and healed Buffy, and the three of us went after Warren. Buffy and I still didn’t know about Tara at that point. When we finally did find out, we realized that Willow was planning on killing Warren. She took off, and we went back to Buffy’s, where Dawn had come home from school and found Tara’s body.

“We decided that we had to stop Willow. Not for Warren’s sake, but for hers. We were too late though. By the time we caught up with her, well…” Xander trailed off. “I’ll spare you the gory details of Warren’s death. After that, she went after Jonathan and Andrew, the rest of The Trio. We managed to get to them before she did, though how I’m still not sure. She chased us until she ran out of juice. We made it back to The Magic Box, where Giles was watching Dawn. Buffy had an idea as to where she might have gone to recharge, so she left to find her. Giles and I researched a way to stop Willow without hurting her. We were looking at this one spell that invoked a lot of what Giles called ‘borrowed magic.’ He thought that maybe he could use it to bind her. When out of thin air, Buffy and Willow appeared in the middle of the room. Willow had teleported them there. They started fighting. I got Dawn and the two nerds out of there while Buffy and Giles tried to hold her off.

“We wandered around town for the better part of the night, while I tried to figure out the best place to hide. But even then I knew, there wasn’t anyplace we could have gone where Willow wouldn’t have found us. Andrew wanted to run, head to Mexico or something. Pulled a sword on me when I told him no dice. Thankfully I had Hero with me. She helped to let him know that I was in charge. We headed to the cemetery. I’m not sure why. I guess I thought maybe we’d run into Spike and he would help us. No such luck though. We were trying to find a mausoleum we could hide in when I saw it. It was…a fireball, I guess is the only way to describe it. And it was headed straight for us. I knew that it was Willow. I wasn’t exactly surprised that Buffy and Giles hadn’t been able to stop her, but I thought maybe the fact that she wasn’t there herself meant that they had slowed her down at least. I hardly had enough time to shove Andrew and Jonathan out of the way and grab Dawn and hit the dirt before it hit. I hit my head on a gravestone on the way down, and when I came to, Andrew and Jonathan were gone. Dawn told me they said something about Mexico and took off. I told Dawn to head for Spike’s crypt and lay low. I figured she’d be safe as long as she wasn’t around the rest of The Trio. There wasn’t much chance of me finding them, so I headed back to the Magic Box to check on Buffy and Giles.”




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