Strangers Will Come (PG: MIld Profanity)

[Altoz]

"What the hell...did she commit suicide, overcalculate or what? Why is her house a write-off?" Buffy, Willow, Tara, Doug and Oz stood outside the remains of the Madison residence, now only burnt and collapsed beams of wood, broken glass and twisted metal. Tara shook her head:
"It got hot enough to distort and melt metal. This was no ordinary housefire, nor was it an accident."
"I don't smell a charred human body inside, either." Oz added.
"Added to which, there was a powerful cast in here several hours ago. Focused on a magical artifact...ah. Doug, if you'd impose a ward around the artifact in question..."
Buffy whistled: "A necklace? Hang on, that's Anyanka's necklace. I thought Giles had destroyed it, so it couldn't be used as a portal to that weird parallel universe where Willow was a vampire and I wasn't in Sunnydale?"
Doug ran his fingers over it: "It's been molecularly reassembled. And it's still functioning for exactly that reason- Amy's gone sideways, over to that Wishverse place, as Cordy called it when she encountered it."
Willow nodded: "I remember. She said there was no Buffy in that Sunnydale, that Buffy's old enemy the Master had turned Xander and me into vampires and that Giles led a Sccobies type group called the White Hats that staked lots of vampires. And that there was a final battle against the Master and that Buffy, Vamp Xander, Angel and I were all toasted during it. But why go there?"
Tara scrutinised it more closely: "No wonder the house blew up- that must have been a major effort, getting to that Sunnydale's past and altering it."
"Why would she want to do that?" Doug asked.
"Nothing good. Tara and Oz, could you look after Dawn and guard the city while we're gone? Doug and Willow, with me."
Oz hugged his partner: "Take care, loverman.:
"You too, Danny."
Willow kissed Tara: "You're turning into quite a forensic witch, sweetie."
"Be careful, Willow honey. Amy's got some major bad mojo because of all the darkmagick she's stolen over here."
Doug drew a salt circle: "Take us across."
With that, the three of them dematerialised.

WISHVERSE SUNNYDALE: SEPTEMBER 2002.

As they rematerialised in Sunnydale's graveyard, Doug looked around him:
"Something's badly wrong here. If the Master and his other vampire entourage were staked, then why are there still so many newly dug graves in the vicinity?"
"Someone wicked this way comes" Buffy said, grasping her crossbow.
Willow and Doug warded, but they weren't quite ready for the three newcomers as they broke through the dessicated and ruined woods of Hammerfell Park:
"Well, well. Looks like we have some unwelcome visitors. Wondered how long it'd take you to work out what happened over here." Vamp Willow replied, as Buffy and Willow stood aghast at whom they saw:
"Xander?"
"Alexander. I'm not that weakling from back in your world. And I'm no friend of yours."
Doug stepped forward: "You got that right, mate. Keep away from these two, or else. Yeah, I know, Wills. But this leech long ago ceased to be anyone with the real Xander Harris' compassion, inner strength and fortitude."
Vamp Xander gamefaced: "Watch your mouth, little Watcher boy. Yeah, I know who you are, even if you've got four or five years on the Doug Mercer that I fed on and killed."
The third figure emerged from behind a bush: "Hey, Alex. Who's the stud witch guy?"
Doug did a double take: "Oh bloody hell. Why does every conceivable version of Andew Wells want to get into my pants?"
"You turned Andrew Wells into a vampire?! What, were you that desperate at the time?" Buffy exclaimed.
:Vamp Andrew's eyes narrowed: "You do realise you're dead here, slayer? And that we don't take that sort of shit from your kind here anymore?"
"Enough of this. These arrogant non-entities want to intrude within our Sunnydale? Let's teach them a lesson, boys..." Vamp Willow said, running toward the three "Buffyverse" companions. Willow triggered a powerful ward and started grappling with her twisted mirror image:
"Uh!!! Hey, you've improved from the timid mousie I met in your Sunnydale last time..."
"You haven't. Still the same tarty skank as ever. Still as arrogant and overconfident."
"Whereas you...you've gone all kick-assy and determined. Def not as timid. Someone's had an infusion of guts."
"Why aren't you permanently dead? You should be."
"Amy sends her regards." Vamp Willow taunted, trying to get a lock onto Willow's neck and overpower her, but startled at the power evident within the wiccan. Truth be told, she was also somewhat secretly pleased that her alternate universe counterpart was putting up such a determined battle.

Elsewhere on the field, Vamp Xander and Doug were hammering away at each other:
"So what happened to the weakling? Why are you here instead of him?"
"Because the real Xander Harris, the one you're a sick distorted leech parody of, gave his life to save his friend the slayer."
"I killed the real Doug Mercer."
"No, you didn't. I don't know why my alt version was here before he could power up and effectively get his powers under more conttol, but I'm more experienced and a lot more deadly." To emphasise his point, Doug sent a searing heat blast which Vamp Xander only just had time to sidestep:
"You're good, I'll grant you that."
"Shut up and die, leech." Doug countered, kickboxing hard into the vampire's midriff with a metabolic enhancer spell.

Buffy was having considerably more luck:
"All right, both of you! As you can see, I've got your green little sidekick, Vampire Andrew here, in a compromising position. One more move on either of my friends and I stake him."
"Don't listen to them. Finish them off."
Vamp Xander hissed and nodded:
"Do as he says, Willow. Andy, get back over here."
"This isn't over, any of us." Buffy shoved Vamp Andrew forward, as he fell into Vamp Xander's arms:
"Nice try, young hellion."
"Did I ever mention I love it when you call me that, Alexander?"
"You're not experienced enough to take on someone like that slayer. She's more experienced than the Buffy Summers that Willow and I killed.'
'Oh, get a crypt, both of you!" Willow called as their attackers retreated:
"What gives? I thought Cordelia said they'd been staked years ago." Doug remarked, dusting off his leather jacket.
"Amy. She's interfered with this world's timeline, so Vamps Willow and Xander have survived and my alt self still died. Along with Angel, Giles and by the sound of it, an alternate younger version of you, Doug." Buffy said as Willow alighted next to them:
"And I would've been willing to do that and still would anytime, Buffy." Doug commented.
"Andrew Wells? They turned Andrew Wells?" Willow commented as the three of them trudged toward what seemed to be a main campground.
"Wonder if there's an Initiative here...?"
"You got that right, leech! Hands up where we can see you!"
Willow gasped in disbelief: "Tara, baby?!"
"We're not on first name terms, leech. You can call me Lieutenant MacLay." Clad in army fatigues with short shorn hair, nevertheless the gun toting female soldier was still recognisaly Tara MacLay, but angrier, more disciplined and intent on detaining these questionable newcomers. Suddenly, an equally familiar dimunitive form came barrelling from the tents and almost knocked Doug over:
"Oh thank god. I knew you weren't dead. I knew it. You've come back to me after all this time, Doug..." An alternate Daniel Osborne, also clad in battle gear, sobbed as he held onto Doug as if he'd been missing from his life for a long time. And, in a real sense, his alternate self had been. Doug gently prised them apart:
"Danny, I'm so sorry. But I'm not the Doug Mercer you knew and loved. I'm an alternate universe version of him. This is our Buffy Summers. And that's our non-vampire Willow Rosenberg."
"How can we be sure you are who you say you are?" Lieutenant MacLay said, still suspicious.
"Read my mind. You couldn't do that if I was a vampire or immortal, could you?"
MacLay did so: "Unbelievable. We're...my alternate self...is lovers with you?!"
"So. Oz. you and the lieutenant here are with the Initiative? Is there anyone else we can talk to? Riley?"
Alternate Oz shook his head: "They got Captain Finn shortly after they killed our Buffy Summers, Giles and Doug."
"What else has happened here, Oz? Why is this Sunnydale a war zone?"
"They know something they aren't telling us..." MacLay stated, still glaring at Willow.
"We'll remedy that now. Our Amy Madison is a powerful darkmage. She must have come across Cordelia's record of this place, this Wishverse of yours. So, she decided to take herself here and ...what? Recruit Vamp Willow and Xander?" Buffy asked.
"Through changing your world's history. They got staked here originally."
"So you're it? The New Initiative?"
"Or the core of it, anyway. Have you folks eaten? We were just about to."

TO BE CONTINUED.

 

[Altoz]

PART TWO:
After having consumed army rations, Buffy, Willow and Doug continued a conversation of their own:
"First impressions? Apart from the fact Amy Madison has tampered with this place's history?" Buffy asked
"I think she might be trying to harvest people from across a possible multiverse of worlds. Which explains why she's suddenly best friends with that awful vampire version of me. And Xander. It breaks my heart to see that creature looking so much like him but so strutting, arrogant and posturing."
"The question I've asked myself is why did Madison choose this particular world?" Doug said, stirring the fire.
"It's connected to our own Earth. You know about Cordelia Chase visiting here and then Vamp Willow's reciprocal excursion back to our own world?"
"Yeah, I met Cordy in Los Angeles one time. Is it because this world is somehow darker?"
Willow shivered, despite the relative warmth: "They haven't mentioned the Master. What d'you two make of that?"
"At a guest, Vamps Willow and Xander didn't want him resurrected when Amy reset this timeline. They wanted this Sunnydale all for themselves. So, Amy produced a mirror universey situation where the worst possible case prevailed- no slayer, no senior or junior Watcher personnel, and minimal resistance to their domination of Sunnydale. So where's the next slayer in line, Buffy?"
Buffy shook her head: "Either Kendra or Faith. I'm guessing they're detained elsewhere."
"If they're still alive, although I didn't see any graves for them, so I suspect that means that they're stull alive and slaying." Willow concluded.
"And vampires would be telepathically impervious, so I can't eavesdrop on their plans, bugger it." Doug said.
"I suggest we discuss this tomorrow after a good night's sleep"

Several miles away, in bed, Amy Madison lay awake considering her own current situation. How had this all gone so wrong, so quickly? Obviously, MacLay had tracked her here and the slayer, Willow and Mercer had come here to retrieve her and contain her abilities. As if she'd let that happen. She liked it here, but it wasn't her own world and she didn't care what happened to it, even if Vamp Alexander Harris was excellent in the sack... even if she had to share him with that oversexed vicious little whelp of his, the vampire version of Andrew Wells, however.
Still, she intended to abandon this world if the slayer and her associates prevailed. The problem was, Willow was probably more powerful than she was and Mercer was a cunning bastard who'd been around for a while. She didn't underestimate either of them. However, their first loyalty was to Sunnydale and fighting whatever came up from the Hellmouth, so they wouldn't stay here for long if she disappeared offworld to yet another alternate Earth. And this time, it would be one that had no direct association with their world of origin.

Vamp Willow was out on patrol that evening while her associate and his new flame slept. She was curious about her alternate self- she'd had the beginnings of a quite gifted wiccan when she'd met her a few years ago during her involuntary visit to their whitebread goody goody universe. By the looks of her now, she'd continued down that path and had blossomed into a powerful and confident witch. And she'd come out, judging from that reaction to Lieutenant MacLay- although from what Amy Madison had told them, an alternate Tara MacLay was her other self's lover. Speaking of which, though, she definitely didn't trust the darkmage. The other complication was Mercer. He wasn't the brash, cocky late teenager that Alexander had killed several years ago with his mentor, Giles. He was different and older and more guarded and focused on what he was doing. She watched her whitebread self sleep and saw the slayer and Mercer slumbering as well. Unfortunately, their additional mojo had produced a near impregnable wardshield around the camp. She silently made her way back to their fortress and wondered if Amy Madison was the messiah that Alexander thought she was... or the harbinger of the end of their existences, who might bring doom on them all. It wasn't a comfortable thought.

TO BE CONTINUED

 

[Altoz]

PART THREE

"That. Arrogant. Wiccan. Guy. Who does he think he is?" Vamp Xander snarled
"A highly experienced Watchers Field Agent, with six years training under his belt who once beat up ... say, do you have a cutish blonde vampire named wither William Pratt or Spike in this world?"
"Oh, him. Gave him a good spanking once."
"Ah. Do you have that on DVD?"
"Proving once again that there is some continuity between pre and post-turning." Vamp Willow commented.
"Well, you should know, Willow." Vamp Andrew commented.
"Enough banter. We need to work out how to get those interlopers from that whitebread alternate universe out of here." Vamp Willow commented.
"Can't you zap them back, Amy?" Vamp Xander asked.
"Unfortunately, Willow is in my power league and Mercer is too deadly to turn your back on."
"I'd like to turn him on his back.." Vamp Andrew commented.
"He wouldn't let you. And apparently back in my universe, he and the werewolf are an item."
"Can he be corrupted?" Vamp Andrew persisted.
"No, thanks to Captain Peroxide's alternate self almost beating him to a pulp and resulting in him having a vendetta against anything undead for the last seven years."
"Gak. How nauseating. At least my alternate self has some intriguing dark side."
"That's just narcissism." Vamp Xander retorted.
"You just don't like Mercer because of your thing against potential alpha males." Vamp Willow laughed.
"Uh, hello? What's past is past? I am the alpha male here now?"
"That's only becsause Andy is a... gamma? Delta? ...Omega?"
"Hey! I took on the slayer, remember?"
"And lost." Amy pointed out.

"I wonder what those monsters are talking about?" Alternate Oz asked.
"Probably nefarious ways to disembowel and slash our throats" Buffy observed.
"Thank you for that mental image, Buffy..." Willow said, putting down an omelette:
"We've got our work cut out for us. They abducted Larry Blaisdell last year. I ...can't tell you how we found him."
"Good point, Lieutenant. We need to strategise about how we take on the fortress."
"At least we have a chance with you both here." MacLay responded.
"I'm sorry, I..." Willow retreated to the tent.
"Tara, was that really necessary?" Alternate Oz chided her.
"I was only doing my job."
"Who did Vamp Willow kill, Tara? Was she someone close?"
"Rose. She was the first woman I ever loved. I had to watch as that leech drained the life from her."
Doug nodded: "Hey, I've been there too. That was how I got my mojo activated, only I was on the receiving end. Her name was Kiri. She was a trans street hooker. And my best friend back in those days."
"But Lieutenant? That Willow isn't ours. She's not a vampire. And she's in love with your alternate self." Buffy added.
"Have you any idea what your presence here is doing to Daniel, Doug?" MacLay quietly replied.
"I know, and I wish I'd known before coming here. I would have done anything to spare you that, Daniel." Doug said softly.
"It's cool, Doug. I know you're not him. You're what he would have become if he'd lived longer."
"I wish he had, Daniel. For you sake and peace of mind."
"You, at least, Doug, are a lot like him. Which is comforting and reassuring."
"So, does anyone have plans of that fortress of theirs?"

TO BE CONTINUED
"

 

[Altoz]

PART FOUR

As they headed through the dessicated and worn undergrowth, Buffy turned to Doug:
"So why isn't there a slayer assigned here, or a Watcher?"
"Because Alt Buffy and Giles died here and because there's more than one Hellmouth on Earth. And because the Watchers Council are a pack of totally useless fossils when it comes to strategic thinking. In this universe, they don't even have a cellphone number or Internet access."
"All right, both of you. Why did Amy choose this particular alternate Earth, other than ease of transit?"
"It provides a base of operations from which to strike at our Sunnydale and it has past connections to it." Willow rejoined the conversation.
"Hey, Willow, didn't your probability calculations also work out that this is a particularly adjacent Earth in those terms?" Buffy asked.
"It did and it is. Even so, we owe it to them to catch Amy and get her back to our world. Look at the damage she's accomplished here."
Back behind them. Lieutenant MacLay caught sight of Willow's eyes and managed a brief smile. It was the first sign of trust and belief that Willow had seen from her lover's alternate world counterpart since arriving in the "Wishverse" as they had named it. Willow grinned back.
For Doug, it was far more difficult: "It'll be over soon, Daniel. You'll be able to get on with makin' music."
Alternate Oz shrugged: "I wish. I had some thoughts about forming a band with Devon and Sam, but those bastards killed them before I could get rogether."
"Trust me, you're a natural with a bass guitar if you're anything like my Danny."
"It's been good having you here. Doug."
"I wish they hadn't killed Alt Doug here, Daniel. But there'll be a new life for you, new opportunities, perhaps even someone to fall in love with at the end of all this."
"If we live through this." Alternate Oz replied.
"I've got every faith in Buffy. She's survived through seven years of slayage back home. That's almost twice as long as most others."
"Behind every slayer is a devoted support group. Actually, not., But I've been lucky with my Willow, Doug here, our Oz, our Tara and...Xander..."
[Hey, you two do realise Alex is mine, don't you?]
[You're welcome to him, Doug. Mine is that vampire parody of me. Every time I look at her, it's like seeing myself in a twisted obsidian mirror."
[Tara and I will tackle Amy. Speaking of which, she's really gone dark, hasn't she?]
[Blame Catherine. She contaminated her daughter's mind with her own susceptibility to darkmagick and ... damn it all, I should have foreseen that turning her back into a human would mean that she'd take up where she left off. And we played right into her hands, didn't we?]
[You did the right thing taking the light path and renouncing darkmagick yourself, Willow. If Amy's strong, it's because she's also ruthless, unscrupulous and has no remnant of warmth or empathy left in her. You're a stronger, more ethical person than she is. Never forget that]
[Thanks. Buffy. Ah. Almost there. Uh oh. Doug, wards up!]

Amy raked the area with fire, but Doug, Willow and Tara warded Buffy and Deniel, then Doug blasted down the gates:
"You're back. Good. I get to slit your throat the way that I did your younger self."
Doug rolled his eyes: "Yeah, right. Big talk, leech. You're living on borrowed time and it ends here."
Buffy backhanded Vamp Andrew as he rushed them, before Willow cast a very familiar spell:
"Huh? Willow, that almost sounded like the Kalderash vampire ensoulment spell. I thought that only worked on Angel?"
"I've tweaked it. It now works on other vampires than Angel, although that took some effort. I wasn't sure it'd work, but I had to try."
Doug nodded: "One down, two to go."
"Famous last words, Watcher boy." Vamp Xander said as he rushed Doug and tried to get his hands around his neck.
"Whatever. leech. You're not going to survive past this night, so you'd better get used to it."
"You're making a lot of assumptions. I'm not the weak and vulnerable Xander Harris that those two are used to."
"No, he wasn't an arrogant, psychotic mass murderer who lives for his appetites."

At the side of that conflict, Vamp Willow was fighting a losing battle:
"Ow! Damn it, girly, you're going to hurt for that! Badly!"
Willow shook her head: "What's the matter, can't you take it? Oh, poor baby."
"Yeah, you're good, I'll grant you that. But you're no slayer, even if you are a damned shit-hot witch. Except you won't go that extra distance. Look at you, casting that ensoulment spell against Andy, How utterly passive. Let's see how you fare when I grab that Initiative bitch and drain her dry."
"Get away from her, you bitch."
"Ah, so it's like that, is it?" Vamp Willow turned and sprinted toward Lieutenant MacLay, who had crushed Amy Madison's stolen travel device beneath her boots. At which point, Willow came to a decision:
"Doug! Buffy! Daniel! Tara! Get down! Now! Sol Invictus!"
Doug recognised the nature of the spell when Willow uttered its first syllable. He grabeed MacLay and signalled to Buffy to break off her conflict against Madison to duck beneath loose rubble. Vamp Andrew was still engaged in existential self-torment from Willow's ensoulment attack, so he was hidden from scrutiny as he clutched a head suddenly full of self-recrimination and accusing, screaming faces inside his mind, progeny of the people he'd slaughtered over his last year of existence as a vampire.
Unfortunately, however, Amy had prepared for such a contingency and warded darkness around Vamp Xander. But he was the only one who was within the effective radius of Willow's spell as she shone with blinding light and directed heat. Vamp Willow wasn't so lucky. With a banshee screech, she was exposed to her counterpart's lightmaking spell and was consumed in a pall of ash, fire and smoke as she combusted into non-existence.
Vamp Xander stood paralysed for an instant, until he regained his wits:
"Amy, ensilver this for me."
"Good plan, lover."
"Mercer! An eye for an eye, you pig!!" Vamp Xander closed the distance between himself and Alternate Oz, and plunged a silver dagger deep into his heart.
As Alternate Oz fell to the ground, Buffy tried to make up the distance between her and the portal that had suddenly opened up:
"This isn't over, slayer. Did you really think I came here without my own prepared 'casts? Exuent!" She grasped Vamp Xander's hand and together, they entered a portal. Buffy tried to follow, but in an instant, it had closed.
"No!" Then she turned, realising that there were more important things to tend to than pursuit right now.
Doug, Willow and Tara were crouched over the collapsed Alternate Oz and although Lieutenant MacLay was covered in sweat and convulsing with the effort, she could only delay the inevitable: "No! No, Daniel, I will not let this happen! I will not lose you as well."'
Willow was sobbing: "Tara? I'm sorry, You're an excellent healer, but this is argentotoxosis we're talking about. Silver poisoning is fatal to werewolves. It's killing him. If you don't stop, you'll get an empathic feedback reaction when he does pass over. I wish this wasn't happening. Damn Amy for doing that. Damn her to hell."
Doug was cradling the dying Alternate Oz in his arms; "Daniel? Daniel, it's me. Don't go. Please. Not like this."
"It's...okay, Doug. At least... at least our world is rid of them now. Thanks to the three of you. ...Tara and I ...always knew... something like this wsa...on the cards for us. Don't mourn me. I died meaningfully... to free this...world..." And then Alternate Oz's head fell back as Douglas Mercer sobbed over the body of this man who was so achingly like the Daniel Osbourne he knew and loved so much.

An hour later, Buffy, Willow and Doug prepared to take their leave from the "Wishverse."
Buffy said softly: "Are you okay, Doug?"
"No. I know that wasn't my Danny, but he fought to free this Sunnydale from those bastards and he died doing it. Wherever Alexander Harris and Amy Madison are now, we'll track them down and make them pay for this."
"We will, I swear it. You big lug, you carry on like gangbusters but really, you can have your heart broken like the rest of us." Willow hugged her fellow wicca.
"Thank you, Willow. I was so wrong about you. You played such an essential part in this." Lieitenant MacLay kissed Willow on her forehead.
"Tara, we're all so sorry about what happened to Oz and all those others." Willow responded, blinking back her tears.
"Don;t be. You came here and freed us. Now it's up to us to rebuild and reconstruct.:"
Buffy glanced toward the hills, where she could see Vamp Andrew, curled into a fetal ball, sobbing to himself:
"Will he be okay?"
"From what you told me about your Angel, Buffy, yes. It'll take time for him to recover psychologically, but he'll be a useful weapon if Harris and Madison ever return here."
Willow cleared her throat: "I'm not sure that's possible. When you destroyed that dimensional transit thingy, it meant that Amy couldn't use it to return to our world. Ah, perhaps not at once, anyway. But she'll never be able to return here."
Finally, Buffy, Willow and Doug joined hands and teleported across the interstitial space that separated the alternate universes from each other.
Oz and Tara were waiting for them. Wordlessly, Willow closed the distance between the arrival disc and the woman she loved in an instant, She held on for grim life and Tara, although initially perplexed, realised something must have happened on that alternate Earth. Doug clung to Oz, sobbing: "Never let me go, Danny. Ever."

But the event would also have unforeseen consequences...

THE END