Future Intensive (PG: Profanity)

[Altoz]

GALACTIC FEDERATION VESSEL DAWN, CE 3321.

Commander Lindsey M'Donell stepped through a warper portal, watching the play of stars across the sky. It was almost hard to believe that he was two million light years from Earth, dealing with the evacuation of a planet under threat from an imminent nova. The galaxship's name almost amused him, but then he'd have to explain the irony and disclose the fact that he'd actually known the third female President of the United States, Dawn Summers-Levinson. And then he'd have to explain what the United States was, if the questioner was from one of the Terran third and fourth-generation colony worlds. Not for the first time, he thought about Buffy, the woman he'd loved for most of the twenty first century. But then, she'd been dust for the past eleven hundred years and had died in her bed. And Doug. And Oz. And Willow. And Tara. And Sunnydale itself, victim of a Theocracy nuclear attack twenty years or so after those events within his one thousand three hundred year life.

SUNNYDALE CRATER, 2036:

"Hard to believe that it's all gone, now." Tara commented.
"Yeah, I know. All those times we had there. When Buffy was still alive. Damn it, Tara, I still miss her so much."
"I know. I wish Doug and Oz could have made it. You can hardly remember her, can you, Lexy?" Tara said to their daughter, now in their thirties.
"Uncle Doug and Uncle Dan are still busy with the Florida situation, aren't they?"
"Damned climate change, unearthing buried vaults and tombs that should have been left that way."
"Life and slayage goes on, Moms." Alexandra MacLay-Rosenberg sighed.
"Why do I feel weird about us being here?" Tara said, frowning as she looked at the polarised glass of their hydrogen-powered car.

MIAMI GYRE. 2040:

"Okay, so the new slayer is a young woman in this area? Have you looked outside, Doug?"
"I know, Danny, but there's apparently an undersea negative thaumaturgic interdimensional area about twenty kilometres offshore and it seems to be the new Hellmouth."
"After all this time? After the Hepatitis V mutant virus killed almost all of the world's vampires fifteen years ago?"
"I know, and we've had time to just be ourselves and adjust to the changing world. When did things get so complicated?" Doug signed.
"Yeah. We're being called conservative by all those younger LGBTIs for not being polyamorous. I doubt whether they've even heard of the thing, here."
"Damn, I miss Buffy."
"She may have lasted longer than all of the others, but she fell eventually. I couldn't protect her forever, Danny. I don't think I'll ever forgive myself for that."

TO BE CONTINUED

 

[Altoz]

PART TWO:

WASHINGTON, DC: 2038:

President Dawn Summers-Levinson looked around her office, brushing a strand of grey hair from her hair. She came to focus on an image of her late mother Joyce and late sister Buffy and her eyes filled with tears. It wasn't fair. She'd just found the true love of her life in '03 and then she had only twenty years more with him before that final deadly confrontation with the Whirlwind. She still saw Lindsey from time to time to mourn their mutual loss. But she'd had thirty years of marriage herself to Jonathan, still by her side after all this time and all they'd been through together. And of course, Doug, Oz, Willow., Tara. Faith, Drusilla, Luke, Alexandra and Akatya as well. There were so many new and unexpected crises now- from the zombie apocalypse, Darkwillow against their own Willow, to her rise as a Caifornia state representative to that state's Governor to federal US Senator to finally, the third female US President after Elizabeth Warren and -
"What is it, Jonny?"
"Trouble, Madam President. There's a Hep V outbreak in Memphis. The vampires are rioting."
"Call Doug on the Redline, tell him about our situation and get whoever the current slayer is over there, with some practical support."
Dawn looked up at Buffy, wondering how her sister would have dealt with this. And how much she'd missed her.

WESTBURY, 2003:

"How bad is she, Alessandra?" Buffy asked.
"It happened shortly after she was evacuated over here." Doctor Alessandra Norton said, trying to ignore the insistent messaging from Quentin Travers asking why she wasn't at the fundraising committee meeting:
"Cordelia. I haven't seen her since our Sunnydale days together and Willow has only talked to her once or twice since then."
"Alessandra, is there any suggestion what this might be? Is it connected to her precog abilities?"
Alessandra Norton ran a hand through her auburn and grey hair: "I wish I could tell you for certain, Buffy and Doug. I know she had surgery because of neurological damage in the early days, shortly after Francis Doyle died and transmitted his Brachen demon abilities to her. However, she's been stable since then, although there have been some epileptic seizures as Fred Burkle told me. Damn it, Quentin, not now!" Provoked beyond measure, Alessandra flung her cellphone to the floor and stamped down hard on it:
"Why is it some things never change around here?" Doug sighed.
"It could have been a delayed embolism" Tara suggested.
"Fortunately, before our beloved presidolt engaged in his latest round of reckless cost-cutting, I managed to insure that we didn't end up giving away our CAT scanner. Good point, though, Tara. No, that was the first thing I thought about, too. There are no residual signs of venous damage to the heart or neck that would justify that diagnosis. What I did pick up was that she's dreaming. Look at her remote eye movement activity."
Tara nodded: "And the activity in the reticular activation system, all through the brain from the stem to the thalamus and cortex. I can see that on the scan. Would some empathic input help her to recover?"
"No, Tara, that would be far too dangerous for you or any other empath. Look at the intensity of her brainwave activity. You'd be swamped, lose your identity inside there. Willow?"
"So, is she dreaming of the future, Doctor?"
"The short answer to that is I don't know. Doug?"
"It may not be a question of 'the' future. I'm getting mutually exclusive telepathic side content from her. You'll like this, Linz mate,.. you're still around in the 33rd Century. There are some clues that these may be hypothetical potential futures- your daughter is in one of these, Willow and Tara, but her outline is hazy and her face isn't visible, and the intonation of her voice constantly varies. Dawn is US president in some of them, but the background switches from Washington DC to Cheyenne from minute to minute. Also, there's apparently a Hepatitis V epidemic amongst vampires."
"Given the collateral risk to humans, the Watchers Council would never sanction the use of such bacteriological anti-vampire warfare-+
"Doctor. What's happenng?"

TO BE CONTINUD

 

[Altoz]

PART THREE:

MIAMI GYRE, 2040:

"Oh,,, my head,,, hey, you make an excellent silver wolf, Danny."
"Any idea what happened? I know this is some sort of future Miami after a tsunami or massive flooding."
"Or looks like it. Incidentally, Gileishness is also a good look for you."
"'President of the Watchers Council?' Looks like we're in hell. No, on second thought, if we were, I'd be tormented by a forced song and dance routine like last year,"
"And also hippos in tutus." Oz commented
"I thought you told me you didn't find them frightening at all now?"
"Ah. A convenient cell phone. January 31, 2040. Checking its memory- we seem to be here to identify the next potential slayer. Buffy's been dead for about ten years."
"Uh, Danny? If climate change has happened and Miami has presumably gone the way of Atlantis, then why are there still internal combustion powered cars in that beach parking lot?"
"Also, fashions seem frozen in the nineties. Fishiness, and I don't just mean in the context of climate change."
"Back to your initial question. I suspect we got zapped here by Cordelia through some unforeseen expansion of her abilities. Thing is, these anomalies seem to suggest that this is only a projection and not a bona fide future."

SUNNYDALE CRATER, 2038:

"Looks like Doug was right about "Alexandra" Our 'daughter' is actually a consensual hallucination."
"What are you talking about, Mom Tara?"
"Knock it off, Cordelia, or should I say Amy?" Willow chided, as both witches did an illusion banishment spell:
"Damn it. Well, you. the wolf, the slayer and her new studmuffin are still captive inside her. Why else do you think Chase is in a coma? I'm tapping her Brachen demon abilities and she's quite a powerful adept precognitive."
"Keep this up and you'll kill her, you evil bitch!" Willow snapped.
"Well, yes. Nothing personal, but when the opportunity presented itself, I decided to take advantage of it."
"Is there no-one you won't manipulate or kill to achieve your goals?" Tara asked.
"Nope. "
"Only your control over this hallucination isn't complete, is it, Amy? Otherwise, you would have been able to erase our independent point of view when you introduced us into it. Face it. After all this time, you're still second rate" Willow said, as she and Tara grasped hands and dematerialised.
"Damn it!" Madison snapped.

TO BE CONTINUED

 

[Altoz]

PART FOUR

GALACTIC FEDERATION VESSEL DAWN, CE 3321

"Oh, this is too cute. I hope no one tells Dawnie about this once we get back."
"Hey, why did you end up with me? According to this viewscreen, you're supposed to have been dead for the last thirteen hundred years." Lindsey pointed to a holographic sensor.
"'Third female president of the United States?' Oh thank goodness- we finally get someone sensible after Bush."
"And then a fake-tanned orange millionaire game show host?! Seriously?! Someone obviously didn't put too much thought into the reality of this. Any idea who?"
"We'll probably know better when we get back with the others. Or wait for them to catch up with- hey, Willow!"
"Buffy. Lindsey. It's Amy- she's hijacked Cordelia's precognitive abilities and she's trying to make us believe that these aren't consensual hallucinations of possible futures. Hello, boys."
Doug looked around: :"Nope, not hell, No sign of evil song and dance routine demons anywhere around here. Nice starship."
Oz gasped: "Ahhhh! A hippo in a tutu!! Are you sure?"
"I've got a theory about this, anyway. Lessa and I talked about it at the beginning of the year. We call it Cassandra Syndrome- it means that humans weren't intended to develop precognitive abilities and those that do get driven insane, corrupted or die from neurological damage. Which is what's happening to Cordelia now. She's fighting the hijacking though."
"I should have realised it a few years ago, when I met Cordy for the first time over in Los Angeles after Angel needed someone to sub for him while he went after Wolfram and Hart. Damn Amy for putting her through this."
"We need to get back to Westbury. Could you three witches do the sorcery thing and click your ruby slippers together or whatever?" Buffy reminded them.
"Hey, nice suit, buddy." Lindsey commented.
"Cheers, mate. Yeah, Danny said it looked Gilesish."
Oz raised an eyebrow: "And Buffy? I'm the only one licensed to be ironic or make pop culture references round here. Especially those related to a certain forties classic children's movie."
"I'm not sure about the provenance of that one. I prefer Oklahoma, myself." Lindsey commented.
"Enough cheap musical jokes! Let's get back to where we all belong. Now you've got me doing it!" Buffy said as the six of them disappeared from the hallucinatory future starship surroundings.

WESTBURY: 2002:

"Oh, thank goodness!" Lessa said, as the groggy Scoobies rose slowly from their beds, nursing not inconsiderable headaches.
"It's Amy, Alessandra. She's hijacked Cordelia's precognitive abilities or tried to."
"Which suggests that she couldn't manage to materially manifest back into our particular sequence of events, so she tried to corral all of you into consensual virtual realities instead. Not that she was able to do even that properly, anyway. There's something else. At the very moment all of you returned to consciousness, Cordelia suffered major neurological and cardiovascular infarction. It looks like she expended the last of her energy expelling Amy from her mind."
Willow swallowed and Buffy stepped forward and hugged her: "Easy, amiga. I know. I'll miss her too."
"How many more, Buffy? How many of us are going to die before this confrontation against that murderous bitch Madison is over?"

THE END