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KAPITI COAST, NEW ZEALAND, JANUARY 2003:

There was a startled yelp in the surf, as Doug moaned: "Oh, Danny, not again!"
"Sorry,' replied the shameless werewolf, who had once more gotten too frisky and shredded his partner's leisurewear in all his excitement,"but you will wear speedos and get me all hot and bothered. If you simply wore boardshorts like Lindsey does, I wouldn't have this problem."
From the beach, Lindsey pitched a new pair of speedos at Doug who caught them gratefully. Buffy, under a beach umbrella, sighed:
"I don't think I agree with Oz. I think speedos look better on men."
"Would you like a personal fashion show tonight?" Lindsey said as he returned to the cool shade of the beach umbrella and gratefully cracked open a beer.
"I can't believe that things are so quiet down here. I haven't sensed a vampire over the entire holiday break." Buffy exclaimed.
"And this is a problem how, exactly?" replied her significant other, as she leant back into him:
"I hope Dawn's okay."
"Will you relax? If something was up, Willow or Tara would call us."
"I guess you're right. Doug, are you decent out there?" Buffy called.
"I am until Danny gets carried away again and destroys my latest swimwear."
Buffy laughed as she and Lindsey ran into the pounding surf, hand in hand. For once, Sunnydale and all its paranormal cares and anxieties seemed a world away. Which, in a sense, they were. Alessandra Norton had suggested New Zealand to them after their ordeal over Jordy Osborne's murder and Angel's self-immolation in Los Angeles to prevent the permanent release of Angelus, his unsouled darkself.

Doug had been reluctant at first, but then, as he relaxed in the summer light, he showed his companions around the nearest large city to his own birthplace, Upper Hutt across the bay. There were no vampires here, apparently. Feeling at a loss, Buffy monitored local police communications, with special attention paid to adjacent cemeteries or forest areas. However, there were no reported incidents of throat slashing or exsanguination that usually indicated the presence of vampires. Perhaps New Zealand was simply too small to support a decent vampire population. Even though he'd been a rent boy six years ago, Doug hadn't encountered any vampires in the Hutt where he'd grown up, or in neighbouring Wellington, given that vampires tended to prey heavily on street people.

Back at the condominium that the Watchers Institute had lent them, the two couples were busy enjoying music, beer and wine as Buffy leant back while Lindsey and Oz jammed together. Doug joined her, handing her a nicely chilled wine:
"Ah. Thank you, mister. I'll almost be sorry to go home at this rate."
"I know the feeling. The 'Dale is home to me now. I feel like a tourist myself at the moment."
"Yeah, I feel the same way about LA. This is a beautiful country, Doug. Cute men. You had no chance, did you?"
Doug laughed: "I couldn't possibly comment. Danny's said so, too. Hey, those two play well together. Why the hell didn't we think of this before?"
"I wish Willow and Tara could have joined us. They'd love it too."
"Well, someone had to stay and keep the home stakes sharpened." Abruptly, there was a scream from the hills:
"Oh, no. And things were going so well." Buffy pulled on a houseshirt and her cut-off jeans, as Doug joined in, handing her stakes.
Oz and Lindsey looked at each other: "Damn. And I'd only just gotten that chord right too."
"Come on. Time we provided the muscle to their brains." Lindsey said, pulling on a denim jacket.

As they entered the forest, Doug frowned:
"Hey, there's something weird about this. Why is the vamp here active, given that it's still daylight?"
Oz sniffed: "Doesn't smell like a normal vampire either."
As the startled creature ran into daylight and didn't combust at all, Buffy raised an eyebrow before she clasped her stake and gave chase to the creature.
"Over here! I've got its spoor!" Oz yelled, as the others crashed through the undergrowth in pursuit. Doug frowned:
"That's like no vampire I've ever seen, except in the movies."
Lindsey nodded: "Yeah, exactly. Most of the ones I've encountered have at least been humanoid. What about you, Buffy?"
"They lose human form and definition over time. One of the first vampires I encountered, the Master, was somewhat gargoyley. From what I've been told by Alessandra and the Institute, though, this Orlok class vampire is largely restricted to Hungary and Romania. They do have some greater daylight tolerance. But what the hell is it doing here, half a world away?"
Lindsey snapped his fingers: "Hey, some research I did just came to mind. In 1837, the Direwolf, a whaling vessel, sank nearest this area. Except it only went out at night and there were no reported survivors..."
"But how could any Orlok vamp have eluded detection and capture for almost two centuries, in that case?"
Ozwolf leapt into the clearing and snarling, it advanced into the wilds:
"Be careful, Danny. That's a probable older vamp out there."
Then a horder of red eyes flickered into existence around them. Buffy whispered:
"Hell, How can there possibly be that many of them?"
Doug powered up, traceries of green witchlight around his hands: "More to the point, how could they have survived, given the low population density here?"
Lindsey hefted his broadsword: "Looks like they're about to rush us..."

TO BE CONTINUED
 
PART TWO:

Back to back, the four of them readied themselves to fight, when a magisterial voice ordered them to "Halt!"
Doug's face broke into a smile: "I'd know that fake leopardskin blouse anywhere! Tui!"
"Dougie! It is you, isn't it? You've grown and put on a lot of muscle. I approve. When you went missing after Kiri was killed, a lot of us feared the worst."
"It's good to see you again, old friend. Manners. Okay, Buffy Summers, vampore slayer. Lindsey MacDonald, immortal. Daniel Osbourne, werewolf and my main squeeze. This is Tui Te Makete, sworn taniwha protector of Poneke/Wellington."
Oz dropped to his knee:
"He kaitiaki o te kokoru, ka tono ahau ki te urunga me te urunga haumaru mo ahau me oku hoa."
Tui gasped: "Oh, Dougie, he's perfect. All this and a gifted te reo speaker as well. But yes, as guardian of the bays, I do grant access and safe passage for you and your companions. As for these fellers, don't let them phase you. Their bark is worse than their bite- and they're failry much carnitarians- they only eat non-human meat and drain its blood. There was a timequake a few years ago. They're from tuhinga ka whai mai- an alternate future, you'd call it. "
Doug frowned: "That alternate future? The one where Rupert, Alessandra and I ended up for a while? The one where Amy Madison killed Stanislav Petrov so he was unable to warn the Red Army about a mainframe malfunction so nuclear war broke out on September 16, 1983 and none of us survived infancy or childhood. But humanity and vampirekind were on the path to extinction there. No babies survived pregnancy and it poisoned vampires when they fed on irradiated humans, so how...?"
"Over time, dormant vampires mutated to adjust to the high radiation environment. They're what you call Orlokians. The problem is, they're being hunted."
Oz' expression darkened: "Bring it on, Kaitiaki Tui. I know what that's like." Involuntarily, his incisors elongated and his face took on its pre-lycan aspect.
"It's odd you should mention the darkmage, Amy Madison. We know about her down here."
Buffy nodded: "Yes, my late Watcher Rupert Giles told me about the strong indigenous magick that still exists in Aotearoa-New Zealand. So. these... neo-vampires...here are not preying on humans, they're the last survivors of their kind, and Madison is trying to hunt them down. Why? Wasn't bringing their world into existence and then discarding it enough for her?"
"Ae, slayer, as you say. She's porangi, that one. She tried to hijack Kai te mutunga o te ao- "
"You mean the Deeper Well? The one with an entry point at Lake Taupo and the Cotswolds in England? Blazes. Given the number of interred elder demons there. that would have been an endgamer. Tui...Kaitiaki...what happened?"
"The local tohunga from the Ngati Tuwharetoa iwi were able to bind the powers there and keep the elder demons sealed. Some of them didn't make it."
"Did the Watchers Council do anything about this?" Buffy asked. As Tui shook her head, she made up her mind:
"We need to split up. Doug, you know the terrain and you and Oz can handle any incursion from the Warped Wiccan of the Northern Hemisphere."
Oz frowned: "That's a gratuitous L. Frank Baum reference, Buffy. I thought I was the only copyright holder for that?"
"I'm going to have a good talk to Alessandra when we get there."
"Not necessary, slayer." From out of the woods came an unexpected but familiar figure:
"Chris? So the Institute knows about this?"
"Aye," said Father Chris Lonnergan, "and Doc Norton an' Travis 'ad a right blazin' row about it. Anyhow, the Doc prevailed and they dispatched me an' a group of other Special Operations old 'ands so we could help out the Ngati Tuwharetoa kaitiaki. Tui... lost some family, didn't you, luv?"
Doug noticed the way that Chris Lonnergan and Tui te Makete were gazing at each other and suspected that the relationship between the two of them had deepened to something more than mutual respect and admiration for combat expertise. Well, Tui was also a whakawahine, or transwoman, but that didn't make any difference to Chris, who didn't listen to the church hierarchy when it came to sexuality and gender identity. He was happy for both of his old friends, as Buffy cleared her throat:
"Doug? Can you teleport Lindsey and I over to Westbury? This has all the stench of a Madison diversionary tactic. Father Chris? Have there been any excavations near the Cotswold end of the Deeper Well?"
Chris Lonnergan shook his head: "No, slayer, not on the Institute end- hang about. Relationships between the Council an' Institute are frosty these days, like. It might have been a Council initiative- hellfire. The Council. They've got a sarcophagus in their London office and it ain't Egyptian. I remember seein' it. None of the hieroglyphics looked remotely like it."

WESTBURY:

"Buffy? What brings you here?" Alessandra Norton asked as Buffy and Lindsey materialised at the Institute offices across the Atlantic:
"An emergency, Alessandra. It looks like the Council excavated a sarcophagus from the vicinity of the Deeper Well. We suspect that it was placed there by Amy Madison. I know you dispatched Chris Lonnergan down to help the local mages at the Lake Taupo end, but that was a diversionary tactic."
Alessandra Norton closed her eyes and gritted her teeth: "Quentin and his bloody executive authority! He must have authorised this without clearance from the rest of us. Or one of his Council faction."
"Father Lonnergan told us the sarcophagus was in London. He described it as being pre-Egyptian in design and configuration."
Alessandra's face went pale. She crossed to her computer: "Did it fit this description? This is the Devandrine Sybilline Codex and those characters are Primordial Sanskrit, a language used at the time that the Old Ones stalked the Earth."
Lindsey raised an eyebrow: "Hey, I thought that Rutherford Sirk stole that when he defected to Wolfram and Hart?"
Alessandra grinned: "Ah. We managed to place a corrupted version where we knew Rutherford would abscond with it. It's worthless. Oh. hell. Winifred Burkle is on the analysis team. I'm coming with you."

LONDON:

Charles Gunn and Winifred Burkle turned as Buffy, Lindsey and Alessandra materialised between them and the sarcophagus:
"Don't touch that sarcophagus!"
Fred frowned: "Alessandra? What are you doing up here?"
"It's primed to release an elder demon to occupy the body of whoever touches it. You haven't, have you?"
"No. Basic scientific procedure. I've been subjecting it to various wavelength radiation, but it seems impermeable, inert. Should you even be in there- Charles?!
Gunn had entered the room and had now produced a gun:
"Mistake, dude." Lindsey said, brandishing his broadsword:
"No mistake, Lindsey. Sorry. I know you'd be impervious to this and so will the slayer. And it was originally intended for Fred there. Well, sorry. Ain't gonna happen." With that, Gunn placed his hand on one of the crystals that were embedded on the surface of the sarcophagus and winced as it cut into his skin. As Buffy and Lindsey ran from the room. Fred yelled: "Charles! No! Not you too! I couldn't bear it if-"
"Hush now, Fred. This was a sting. Wolfram and Hart. They wanted to create... a hybrid creature... with its instinct and your intellect. I...intercepted the message."
Alessandra checked the readings: "Hermetically sealed. Fight it, Charles. Please. You're too good and valuable an Institute member to throw away your life like this."
Through his increasing pain, Gunn managed a shaky smile: "It's getting stronger. Can't...hold on much longer. Don't... don't mourn me." And with that, Gunn's eyes calcified to something akin to crystalline and threads of blue wove themselves through his hair. When the body of Charles Gunn got up from the floor, something alien and immensely old stared back at them:
"I am Illyria," it intoned, "I perceive that I am on the site of Vahlaha'nesh but that millions of years have passed. I have not even a Qwa Ha Zahn to serve as my intermediary. The being you knew as Charles Gunn has fused with me and is contained within me. I know of your conflict against the First Evil, Buffy Summers. It is not of my concern. I also know that you sought to thwart my release. However, it matters not to me in this transcendent state, nor does your human species. Nevertheless, you will be able to ask me a single boon on behalf of the one who willingly gave of himself to resurrect me."

"If you can foresee the future, then tell us- how can we defeat Amy Madison?"
"Gather together other champions of your morality and pit yourself against the Hellmouth. And now it is time for me to depart this planet. Farewell. I will not return here for billions of your years, long after your species has crumbled past extinction to dust and even its ruins have faded from recall. My quarry is far distant and this world could not survive such a battle." With that, Illyria ascended, smashing his way through the floors above, into the air above the Watchers Council brownstone, and then out into space, moving at a velocity too fast for humans to track it in its path. Then there was norhing, except Fred Burkle curled in a corner, sobbing sofrly.

TO BE CONTINUED
 
Warped Wiccan of the Northern Hemisphere. I really like that description of Amy . Good story so far .
 
PART THREE:
SUNNYDALE: JANUARY 2003

Willow strode toward the tombstone, stopped and knelt alongside it, touching it:
XANDER L. HARRIS: 1980-2002

A moment later, she felt the gentle touch of someone she desperately needed at a time like this on her shoulder:
"Oh, baby. Don't do this to yourself."
"I keep wondering, Tara. Did I do this? Did my darkmagick place my best friend in the path of Warren Meers' bullet?"
"No good can come of this. It's like Dawnie telling both of us about Jonathan over in Westbury. He feels survivors guilt because of what happened to Andrew Wells and that man. He was the one who had enough decency and common sense to break away from them before they consumed him too. Besides, Xander was good and gentle and protective. He was the one who made that decision and it saved Buffy's life. You had no responsibility for what happened."
"It's just,,,the Wishverse, that obscene, twisted dark vampire perversion of him."
"If anything's dark, obscene and perverted around here, it's you, Rosenberg." From behind a tree stalked Vamp Xander:
"Get behind me, Willow."
"What, hiding behind your piece of skirt, now?" Vamp Xander sneered
"What an unpleasant coincidence. I see Willow was absolutely right about you. You're nothing like the real Xander Harris." Tara said icily.
"A man who was so weak he threw away his life to save your precious slayer." Vamp Xander retorted.
"Says a man who's so weak he relies on vampire macho and bluster and depends on an emotionally crippled darkmage for his survival." Willow rejoined.
"Where is the bargain basement Malificent anyway?" Tara added.
"Taking care of business in New Zealand with your friends. Shame. I would've appreciated a rematch with Mercer. Oh, that face when we cut up the mirror of his little wolf bitch. Ah well. I got the weaker parties. And don't try that whole Sol Invictus spell on me, Rosenberg. It may have killed my Willow, and by the way, I owe you for that. You didn't think you'd get away with it, did you?"
"I think you're making some assumptions here."
"The hell I am. Time I broke your necks. Goodbye, ladies." Vamp Xander rushed them, then, startled, he was thrown back, hard:
"Sorry. Little legacy of Willow's visit over there. I'm pregnant and I've really come into my own. The Mother is a sacred aspect of the Goddess, so that means my warding power is really amped up. So sorry, no touching."
"You don't belong here. Go back."
"To what? You murdered the woman I loved, you freak. You and your sanctities of the Craft. You're a mockery of my Willow and I want you dead."
"I don't want to have to do this, Alexander. You're a doppelganger of my dead best friend. He's lost to us through his own bravery and sacrifice, but I still miss him. But you're a desecration of his memory and everything he stood for and you're trespassing here. You won't even let us mourn in peace, will you. even when we've been through hell the last year? I am sorry for this. I am truly sorry. But I can't accept it, or you." Willow's eyes shone white, but she never got the chance to turn her energies on the defiant vampire as a familiar figure stepped from concealment and crash-tackled him. With a snarl, he gamefaced:
"You? The pretend human? The Key, masquerading as a whining little girl? Buffy's fake-"
Dawn backhanded him: "Buffy's potential slayer sister. You have no business being here."
"The day that I get staked by a child like you-"
"Do you never shut up, Alex?" Willow said as she prepared for the inevitable while Dawn pummelled Vamp Xander
"That's the issue here. Listen to Dawn. You're frozen in time and habit. You only exist because Amy Madison tampered with your world's timeline and you and Vampire Willow were granted a few years of existence you should never have had and killed with impunity as a result. Well, Tara's best at warding. And my strength is defensive zappery. Time to get carbonised." Willow marshalled her energies and hit out at Vamp Xander, who unexpectedly confronted it with a ward of his own. Willow realised that it was Madison. She gritted her teeth and increased the power and focus of her casting, intent on obliterating the creature before her. He laughed, but then the nearly blinding pulse of light began to break through the darkmage's eldritch protection. For the first time, Vamp Xander began to recognise that for all his bravado, even the dark strength of the woman he loved might not be able to win him a further reprieve. But to his satisfaction, he realised that the witch was faltering. Tara could only stand there, horrified, as Willow fell to her knees and started to sweat as she panted with the effort:
"Too strong for you-" And then it happened. Willow's power finally broke through and Vamp Xander screamed aloud as he was incinerated where he stood. But Willow collapsed, and was uneasily breathing as Tara and Dawn reached her.

KAPITI HILLS:

As Amy Madison felt the magical backlash, she screamed: "ALEX!!!"
Doug, Tui and Oz were at the centre of a battle against the demon troops that the darkmage had summoned:
"Well, that's interesting. So the vamp boyfriend is dusted, is he?"
"You'll pay for that, all of you." Amy Madison sobbed through her tears.
"How does it feel to be on the receiving end this time?" Oz asked as he tore through the chest of one of her shadow demon servitors.
"You don't get it, Madison, do you? You've done nothing but leave a trail of corpses through Sunnydale and elsewhere over the whole of this year. Including an eleven year old kid thanks to your psycho mate Cain. That's one Danny and I both owe you."
"I don't care. You sicken me, Mercer. The slayer's little tame minion witch, slave to her wishes, loyal to her cause. You're a mockery of wild and free magick."
"Not good strategy, either. You risked the existence of your vampire boyfriend and now he's ash. You failed in Westbury and Fred Burkle's still there." Doug retorted.
"What do you owe to these freaks, anyway? Their world is extinct because the Watchers interfered with the circumstances that brought it into existence."
"You're tiring, Madison. I don't do the ripping apart and devouring thing any more. However, I will gladly dog you until you're exhausted. For what you did to Jordy and to Doug. Your henchperson almost killed the man I love more than anything in the world."
With a cry of rage and defiance, Amy vanished: "This isn't over. I will be back and I will not be alone! This world falls!"

EPILOGUE:

As Willow lay, weakly responding to Tara's ministrations in her bed, Buffy said:
"That was close. Too close. We almost lost you, Wills."
"I'll be okay in a week or so. And at least I managed to crisp hellbitch's boyfriend."
"Buffy's right, Willow. Madison's strong now. She's too powerful for one of us to deal with anymore."
Lindsey cleared his throat: "Hey, about that Wishverse you told me about. Is that the only alternate universe you guys know about?"
"Well, there was another one where magick doesn't exist and that alternate Buffy is catatonic and schizophrenic in a mental health ward. Why? Do you have intel about others?" Buffy asked.
"Several. Incidentally, I got a letter when we returned to Sunnydale. My latest appeal for early parole was successful. We can pick up Faith as soon as we want."
"So did I. And the weird part is that you're not alone, Linz. My case before the California Securities Commission against Wolfram and Hart is up for a hearing at the same time."
"Where do we go from here?" Dawn asked.

THE END
 
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