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SPOILER STATUS:
This story is a sequel to LULLABY, and is set after season 4.

Most people walking through a graveyard felt sad, or creeped out, or even contemplated their own mortality; perhaps only Buffy Summers could feel nostalgic. Over there was where she had teased Xander about dating Cordy, just before he turned every female in Sunnydale into his love slave. That grave was the one she had fallen into arguing with Angel one night, and somewhere not far from her was the grave of Jenny Calendar. Buffy felt a twinge of guilt, it had been a while since she visited it, she was sure Giles went sometimes, but it still wasn’t something she felt comfortable asking him about.

Patrols had been quiet since the battle at the Initiative; it would probably be a while before the demons could make up their numbers, which was fine by Buffy. It gave her an excuse to be alone and think about things, well one thing really. She couldn’t shake an image of Jessica Brennan, scared to death, clinging to her daddy for all she was worth while Buffy battled the Polycoron demon that wanted to take her away and do god knows what to her, just because Jessica was the daughter of a Slayer. Which was where the real problem came from. Before the Polycoron died it threatened its kind would come back, but not for Jessica, they would wait for another Slayer’s child. Buffy sighed, and the implication had been not just any slayer's child, they would come for hers. When Angel left he had said a lot of stuff about how she deserved a future, career, family, the whole bit, and she had gotten so mad, the idea that a slayer could ever have any of that seemed ludicrous, and then she met the Brennans and discovered it was more than possible. She couldn’t get away from the big question, was the Polycoron just trying to spook her or did it know something, have some knowledge of the future, of her future?

Buffy was so preoccupied with her thoughts that she was completely oblivious to the sounds of something scraping its way up through the earth, pushing its way out of a freshly dug grave. The woman had simply left her broken car and to call for a tow and next thing she was falling to the street under the weight of a vampire. Her last mortal memories were of a sharp searing pain at her throat, and an odd metallic taste in her mouth. Waking in the coffin there had been moments of confusion before new instincts took over driving her to escape and find food to assuage her growing hunger. Seeing the blonde girl standing in the middle of the graveyard simply staring out into space seemed an amazing stroke of luck.

It was pure instinct that caused Buffy to drop to her knees, sending the lunging vamp sailing over the top of her to land heavily against a tombstone. Buffy scrambled in her bag for her stake, she had abandoned the Initiative zap gun in her closet, the thing was too prone to shorting out or simply not working, Buffy had decided to rely on something tried and tested. The vamp saw Buffy leap to her feet with the stake clutched in her hand and decided to look else where for a meal. She ran off in to the darkness, only for a strong arm to grab her and spin her round, landing her practically at Buffy’s feet. The slayer didn’t need anymore of an invitation, she struck down and drove the stake home, then stepped back to avoid the choking cloud of dust that rose up as the vampire disintegrated.

"Nice to see you kept busy while I was gone." Riley smiled as approached.

"Hey there, I thought you were going to be at your folks for another week." Buffy put an answering smile on her face, and hoped that it didn’t look as fake as it felt.

"Well we pretty much said everything there was to say." He slipped an arm on to Buffy’s waist, "Besides I missed you too much." Riley lent over to kiss her, but she suddenly ducked down to retrieve her bag, leaving him to almost fall over. As she straightened up Buffy saw the hurt look on Riley’s face, and she felt even more awful than she had before, but if she kissed him, then they would kiss some more and then they would, well they just would, and that was the last thing Buffy needed right now, she needed to get out of here in a hurry.

"Is there a situation here?" Riley asked, slipping back into army speak. Buffy seized at the out.

"Not sure, but maybe, I need to go talk to Giles, like right now, but we can catch up in the morning ok?" The words poured out in a torrent, Buffy didn’t want to think about how lame they sounded.

"I guess ok." Riley couldn’t keep the disappointment out of his voice, and it hurt Buffy to hear it, but she smiled, gave him a peck on the cheek and disappeared amongst the gravestones.

Riley’s knock at the door was answered by the sounds of bodies in motion, feet hitting the floor, clothing being grabbed up, and the muffled sound of voices. The door swung open after a moment to reveal Tara standing there with a baggy towelling robe pulled tightly around her.

"Riley Finn? Uh Will, it’s Riley Finn." Riley heard a zipper being pulled up and Willow entered Riley’s field of view wearing a sweater and a pair of jeans, her hair was mussed up, so was the bed behind her, and Riley’s recon training wouldn’t let him pass over the fine detail of the room, including several articles of underwear only partly hidden by the bedclothes. Riley had dealt with the reality of demons walking the world, he had dealt with friends dying in battle, but he found himself at an utter loss as he faced these two young women standing in the doorway, with a casual intimacy.

Willow broke the embarrassed silence that had descended.

"Hey you came back early, Buffy’s out on patrol, if you want to find her."

"Actually I did find her, that’s why I need to talk with you."

Now Willow looked worried, she glanced at Tara who gave a gentle nod of her head.

"Come on in." She gestured Riley towards a chair, from which the cat lazily slid only just ahead his dropping into it. Willow and Tara sat on the edge of the bed, taking each other’s hands as they did so, sending a fresh flush of blood into Riley’s cheeks. Willow was more than a little annoyed by Riley’s obvious discomfort, and only the fact that there was apparently something up with Buffy kept her polite.

"So what’s the problem, the government isn’t coming after us is it?"

"No actually they seem happy just to pretend Sunnydale doesn’t exist. Willow I saw Buffy out on patrol earlier and it was like she couldn’t wait to see the back of me, she didn’t even want me to touch her."

Willow nodded, "I don’t think it’s you. Actually she’s been kind of freaked for a couple of days, ever since the Brennans passed through."

"Who exactly are the Brennans?"

"A dad and his little girl, her mom was a slayer, they came looking for Buffy’s help when a demon got on their tail. Buffy slayed it, they left." Willow reduced the tale to its bare bones, leaving out all the angst over the attitude of the Watcher’s Council.

"That’s the whole thing? That’s what freaked her?"

"Well I think it was more the whole slayer having a baby thing, you know?"

Riley smacked himself on the forehead, "Way to go Riley, missing the point of the whole thing again." Willow had to work hard to stop herself nodding, and then Riley’s eyes grew wide.

"Oh god she couldn’t be, I mean she couldn’t be pregnant could she?"

Willow looked horrified, "No! Well I don’t know, I mean you would know more than I would."

Tara had stayed as quiet as usual, but now she steeled herself and asked,

"Uh what about that time at Lowell House? You know with the spirits and all."

"We were, uh, careful. I’m pretty sure we were, things did get kind of fuzzy for a while though."

Willow had been thinking, "It can’t be that we would have seen some sign, or she would have told me, I mean I would be the first person she would tell right?" She looked straight at Tara who hesitated for a moment and then nodded vigorously.

"I guess she would've," Riley commented sadly.

Willow was mortified, "I didn’t mean that Riley I mean of course she’s going to tell you."

"But maybe she would want to talk to you about it first, get things clear in her head." He sounded as though he was talking to himself.

"Well maybe, just to figure out exactly what to say."

Willow got up and walked over to Riley, "But truly I’m sure if she was having your baby she would just tell you. It has to be something else."

After she got back to the dorm room Buffy grabbed a quick shower and climbed into bed, she had taken a long involved route home to ensure that she didn’t run into Riley again, and she was pretty sure that Willow was staying at Tara’s so she wouldn’t have to talk about her evening. Unfortunately her luck held for less than half an hour before there was a key in the door and the light went on. Immediately Buffy was on edge, Willow was usually a lot more considerate.

"Hey Will, thought you were staying out tonight?" Buffy’s tone added so why did you just come back and wake me up?

"That was the plan till your boyfriend turned up and started crying on my shoulder." Willow was equally unhappy, but she didn’t like how harsh she had sounded, and the idea was to get some answers out of her friend.

"Well ok, not actually crying, but sitting in Tara’s room grilling me about why you were treating him like well, like something nasty you wouldn’t want to be around."

Buffy hauled herself up on to her elbows, "Riley did that? God Will I’m sorry, that’s so embarrassing."

Willow sat on her bed, "Buffy it’s not embarrassing, it’s worrying because he’s right, you’ve been wigged out for days. Riley was hoping you had told me what was going on. We did promise Buffy, no more not talking right?"

Buffy swung herself out of bed and took a deep breath, Willow was right, and the truth was she needed to get this weight off her shoulders.

When Buffy had finished Willow was still concerned, but relieved, she was glad she hadn’t mentioned Riley’s theory. Still there was the question of what she could do to ease Buffy’s mind. Trying to create a moments space to think she picked up a pile of Tarot cards and began to tidy them together, it was the same pack she taken the cards for the enjoining ritual from.

"It’s kind of a pity you don’t do fortune telling." Buffy joked rather weakly.

"Well it’s not that easy actually, seeing into the future takes some pretty serious magic." Willow gave the lie to her own words, because as soon as she spoke them she knew exactly what Buffy was going to say next.

"But you could do it? Actually see into the future?"

Willow stood up and began to pace, "No Buffy it’s a really bad idea, all the books say so."

"The spell is that bad?"

"Not exactly, its more that it tends to be ‘messy’"

"Will if it’s possible then it’s possible that these demons have done it, they weren’t just trying to psych me out." Willow said nothing; she couldn’t deny the logic of that.

"Will I have to know. If they’ve done this, I have to do it I have to know what they know."

"Buffy it’s just such a bad idea." Willow was desperately trying to come up with a better argument.

"Will if these fiends are going to come back I have to know, I have to be able to protect my child." It was the first time that Buffy had used the words out loud, and they sounded strange to her, but she knew they were true, she wasn’t going to see another little girl left like Jessica Brennan, left without a mother, left at the mercy of monsters.

Willow could see further argument was pointless, "Let me look in the books, see how we might do this with the least pain."

Buffy hugged her, "Thank you, thank you, but please don’t tell anyone let’s keep this between us unless it’s absolutely necessary ok?" Willow had been planning to talk with Tara, but she nodded her agreement.

The mansion had remained largely untouched since Angel’s departure. It was a dark brooding place, perfectly in tune with its most recent tenant, and it was an atmosphere that even the most aggressive and inventive realtor couldn’t overcome. Willow had beaten Buffy there and was laying out magical symbols on the floor, a big square of four runes, each with a blue candle set in the middle of it. At the centre of the square was a small circle of runes, with a familiar object lying on a cushion in the centre, the orb of Thessalius.

"We’re using a crystal ball?"

Willow looked up from the rune she was drawing, "Hey these things get to be clichés for a reason you know."

"How come you picked this place?" Buffy didn’t enjoy coming back here; she couldn’t honestly say that most of her memories here were happy ones.

"We won’t get interrupted, and if we burn the place down nobody's going to come complaining about it." Buffy thought Willow was joking, but the look in her eyes was deadly serious.

"Ok Will are we exaggerating the danger here in the hope that Buffy will give up her dumb idea?"

"No." Willow paused and chewed her lip, "Maybe, but only a little, I mean this was the only divination spell I could find that didn’t involve us doing bad things to defenceless animals."

"Definitely makes this one my favourite."

"But it’s not an easy spell, and the book says it could do some pretty weird stuff."

"It will let you see into the future?" Willow simply nodded, knowing that this admission would override all her best efforts to put Buffy off.

"Then tell me what I have to do."

Buffy sat cross legged, staring into the orb whilst Willow moved around the candles, reading lines from a rather battered looking spellbook as she went.

"Spirits out of time heed us."

"Spirits eternal attend us."

"Spirits beyond the universe we call you to this place."

"Spirits for whom now is all grant us your wisdom."

As Willow spoke the candles began to behave strangely, the flames grew brighter, and the body of the candle seemed to draw up into the flame, as though being consumed from the bottom up. Finally all that was left was four brilliant stars that hung above the runes.

"All you spirits hear me, open the way, light the darkness, show us that which is yet to be."

The points of light rose and circled the runes three times before they dived into the orb. To Buffy it seemed as thought the glass split apart in a shower of sparks. The sparks didn’t fade away however, they began to swirl forming a bright vortex that seemed to pull on Buffy. She tried to turn, to call out, but the room was gone and the light of the vortex consumed her.

The vortex stretched, expanded, reaching out seemingly to infinity and then the consuming light faded and shattered into brilliant points, revealing a room with pale coloured walls. Each point flared and coalesced, a chair, a table, a screen, filling the room with furnishings. Then the last few lights flowed into one another and faded into the form of a woman.

Buffy had a vicious headache, and the bright light pouring down on to her face wasn’t helping it. After the dizziness faded she realised the light was no longer an ethereal blue, it was warm sunshine yellow, which was unsettling since they had begun the ritual at dusk. Buffy stretched out her hand and found the arm of a chair. She pulled herself to her feet and rubbed her eyes to try and get them to focus. As the last of the blue sparks faded away Buffy realised she must be a long way from the mansion, she was in the middle of a well furnished apartment with a huge screen hanging on one wall with a spinning logo in the centre of it. She didn’t need to explore any further to know she had never been here before, and try as she might she couldn’t recall how she had gotten here now. Her head was starting to pound, a couple of aspirin seemed in order, and maybe it would revive her absent memory.

The kitchen was practically non-existent; everything was chrome and built into the walls with only a sink and a small counter sticking out. The cupboards were practically invisible, it was only as Buffy ran her hand ran over them that one popped open, and as it caught her reflection Buffy forgot all about aspirin, staring back at her was the face of a stranger. The hair and eyes were dark, and the shape of the face had a faintly oriental cast to it. It was an exotic and pretty face; it just wasn’t hers, the words ‘pretty weird stuff’ began to echo through her mind.

Buffy went back to living room and settled into the chair facing the big screen.

"God what am I going to do now?" She leapt back out of the chair at the unexpected answer.

"Please specify topic. Recreational activities. Employment opportunities. To do list." The voice had the same English tones as Giles, but it was flatter, artificial. The logo on the screen broke up into smaller icons.

"You can hear me?"

"Audio input mode is operating correctly." The voice was coming straight out of the screen; the screen was talking to her! It wasn’t a TV then it was some kind of computer terminal.

"I wish Willow could see this, she’d love it."

"There are eighty seven references to the name Willow in the Sunnydale directory, please specify."

"You can locate people?"

"I have access to all local business and personal directories, as well as personal databases."

"Whose personal databases?"

"Yours." Buffy’s headache seemed to be getting worse.

"Exactly who do you think I am?"

The computer wasn’t designed for puzzlement or sarcasm, so it simply answered the question.

"You are Joanna Winters, sole current resident of this apartment."

"When exactly did I arrive here?"

"There is a database error, that information is not filed."

"Well when did I come in last?"

"There is a database error, that information is not filed." Buffy snorted in exasperation, this piece of high tech junk wasn’t working any better than any of the computers she had used in high school, even it seemed a lot more advanced. A thought that had been nagging away the back of her brain pushed its way to the front, Buffy was no gadget freak, but she was usually sort of aware of what was in the store windows. She was pretty sure she had never ever seen anything like this chatty TV set.

"What is today’s date?"

"It is June 8, 2006."

Buffy fell back into the chair. She remained silent, afraid that anything she said might prompt the computer to tell her something that would actually make this situation worse. Knocked unconscious and woken up in a strange place? That had happened before. Found herself in someone else’s body? She had painful experience of that. But suddenly finding herself zapped into the future? That was a whole new category of disaster. Buffy was surprised how calm she was staying, maybe she was in shock, or maybe this was a very calm body. Ok, ok, she had to focus; she had to figure out a solution.

"Do you wish to continue with previous queries?"

Buffy had forgotten about the computer, "What?"

"Do you wish to pursue enquiries as to activities and Willow database entries?"

"Skip the activities just find Willow Rosenberg."

"Willow Rosenberg, two entries, one home, one business. Shall I put them on display or hardcopy?"

"Can’t I just have them on paper?"

The computer was also not configured to answer dumb questions, it simply printed out the information, which slid out onto a table beneath the screen. Buffy grabbed the sheet and walked towards the front door, the computer piped up again.

"US weather service advises that maximum safe sun exposure for Southern California is forty five minutes today."

"Yeah well when they figure out maximum safe exposure to Sunnydale let me know."

It took Buffy a little while to find her way out of the maze of the apartment complex, and she passed by plenty of people en route, but all she got were blank stares when she tried to make eye contact, seemed no one around there knew Joanna Winters. There was a wallet in the pocket of the jeans, but its contents were anonymous, couple of credit cards, a photo ID card with some kind of mini disc built into it, all of which were valid from June 2006. As far as Buffy could tell this person she had been shoved into didn’t exist until she woke up in the apartment. That actually made Buffy feel a little better, there wasn’t some poor girl out there freaking out, or at least there wasn’t some other girl out there freaking out. She managed to orient herself to the town when she realised that the apartments were built on the site of the mansion, she had moved in time but not in space it seemed. The town itself seemed to have sprouted screens from every wall and lamppost, a police car made its way past her, well if you could call a Humvee sporting a big machine gun attached to its roll bar a police car, Buffy guessed Sunnydale had gotten a little rougher while she had been ‘somewhere’.

The business address the computer had provided was familiar; it was the old magic shop where Willow used to pick up her supplies. Buffy supposed that it might come in handy with her Wicca studies, but still she had somehow imagined her best friend going on to do something, bigger, with her life. The shop looked reassuringly familiar as Buffy stood across the street, hugging what little shade there was in the fierce sunshine. The only real change in the store was the empty windows; the former displays of ingredients and paraphernalia had gone. The shop seemed quiet, customers were few and far between, but Buffy still hesitated to go in, she couldn’t decide exactly how she was going to play this, just walk in and tell Willow the exact truth, or play it cagey, and go in and do some scouting? Someone coming out of the shop and locking the door interrupted her musings, it took Buffy a moment to recognize her, she was shocked at the change in her best friend.

Willow Rosenberg was a pale shadow of the girl Buffy had known, with pale being the operative word. Her face, her hair, all seemed to have had the colour washed out of them, and the energy that always seemed to characterize her was gone, her face was lined and tired, as though it had been a lot more than six years for her. Buffy couldn’t move, what had happened? What had done this to Willow? It was more than the passage of time, and Buffy had the guilty suspicion it had something to do with her. As Willow set off down the street a group of men dressed in what seemed like a uniform of shirts and ties emerged from a car. Despite their formal attire they seemed oblivious to the heat, and the four of them spread out across the pavement, barring her path.

"You were told to close your heathen business." One shouted at her, Willow tried to ignore him and shove past, but his friends made it impossible.

"There is no place for your pagan ways in this town, leave it now!" The leader pulled out a bible and brandished it as though he expected Willow to shrink before it. Buffy started to run across the street, but ground to a halt as Willow spun round and delivered a kick that sent the bible flying from the neatly dressed thug's hand. This prompted his friends to lunge at Willow, she slammed the palm of her hand into the chest of one, knocking the wind out of him and sending him staggering against a wall. The second tried to go round behind her, and got a reverse kick in the shins for his troubles, leaving him squealing and hopping. The last of them seeing his friends nursing their wounds back-pedalled, and settled for shouting insults.

"God himself will strike you down, you witch freak!" He began to run and his friends joined him, piling into the car and driving off. Buffy began to move once more, almost getting a fist in the face as she reached Willow’s side. Willow’s face was flushed; her eyes were like burning coals, filled with a manic energy. She just stared at the unfamiliar face for a moment, and then ran off into the shadows of an alleyway.

Tara's day hadn't been good, the whole point of having a terminal in her home was to create a relaxed working environment, instead it had become a one eyed monster gobbling up every waking moment of her day. She was contemplating her emergency bottle of vodka when a knock at the door made her jump out of her skin, the other reason for her willingness to work from home was that she still found being with people, most people anyway, terribly hard.

The face that confronted Tara as she opened the door was a complete stranger, cute, but no one she knew, and yet...

"Hello Tara."

"B..Buffy Summers?"

"Thank god. Can I come in?" Tara nodded and a foot weary Buffy gratefully got in out of the sun.

Tara hadn't really needed to hear the answer to her question, the aura of the slayer was unique, a flux of primal power that was awesome and awful at the same time. It was a blend of fire and quicksilver, Willow's had been the ocean and the sky, powerful but serene.

"What h...happened to you?"

"That was going to be my first question." Buffy prowled around the room nervously, "I searched for everyone, Xander, Giles, Riley. They're just gone, I found Willow, but she was so, changed."

"After you just vanished it got pretty bad, no new slayer came. Willow got sort of obsessed, she thought she had to try and fill the gap. So she started using magic. It gave her power, but she drifted apart from everyone. She couldn't keep up her class work, so she dropped out. When I wouldn't help her work the spells anymore she broke up with me." The story poured out of Tara, she was afraid if she paused or stammered Buffy would interrupt, and Tara wanted her to hear everything.

"I'm sorry Tara, I'm sorry you two broke up." Buffy's comment was absent minded as she digested the news. Tara grabbed her full attention.

"N...no you're not."

"What?"

"You're not sorry, you thought Willow would 'get over it', that what we had wasn't real. You never believed we were in l…love."

The accusation stung Buffy, all the more because she knew it was true, she hadn’t truly accepted Willow’s choice. She had said all the right words, but deep down she had believed it was some kind of weird magic thing, or a major case of rebound. Now she looked into Tara’s eyes and saw an expression of hurt and loss, a look she had seen in the mirror when Angel had told her of his plans to leave Sunnydale. Buffy felt more guilty than ever, whatever would have come of the relationship she had robbed Tara of the person she loved and left Willow to torment herself for an act of selfishness on her part.

"Tara I know it isn’t much but believe me this time when I say I am truly sorry."

This time Tara saw the truth of it in Buffy’s face, but still there were questions she needed to know the answers to.

"What was it you to were doing? How did this happen?"

"Well the how is pretty much beyond me, but the why I’m clear on, I wanted to see the future." Tara’s eyes grew wide.

"That is so dangerous why did she agree to do that." Tara stopped and frowned, "Just before you disappeared Riley came to my room, he was worried about you, he thought you might be p…pregnant."

"He wasn't completely wrong, I was worried about a child." Buffy clued Tara in about the Brennans and the demons threat. She felt increasingly uncomfortable under Tara's piercing gaze; the witch’s eyes seemed to bore through her.

"...I just had to know if the demons were just jerking my chain, or..."

"If they were going to come back for your little girl." Tara shook herself and looked away from Buffy blushing.

"Tara what is it? You know something?"

"Sometimes when I look at someone’s aura I can see things, like if two people are in love its like their auras mix, stuff like that."

"And you can see another aura mixed with mine? Could be Riley's or maybe Joanna Winters."

Tara shook her head.

"It's not like that, it's like a p...part of you, but separate." She stopped, frustrated, there weren't really the words to describe what she saw; she just knew it was so.

"Wish I'd asked you in the first place." Tara stayed diplomatically silent and Buffy continued, "Wonder how Riley would have liked the idea?" Tara coughed and shuffled and tried to avoid Buffy's gaze.

"Wild guess, you don't, didn't, see being a daddy in Riley's future?"

"I'm s...sorry."

"Hey it was my bright idea to find out the future, guess I got it in spades." Perhaps it was inspiration, or perhaps just the fact that she didn't want to process the info she had just gotten, but a thought occurred to Buffy.

"Tara when Faith pulled her switch you could see her aura didn't fit, what about now?"

"It looks normal, like it was always there." Buffy dragged the wallet out of her pocket and looked at the ID again, brand new.

"Everything says that this Joanna Winters didn't exist before today, she just popped into existence."

"She was just c...conjured up?"

Buffy nodded, "And that means there's someone we both need to talk to."

The nights in Sunnydale weren't dark anymore; new tracts of housing and strip malls polluted the night with a dull orange glow. Sunnydale's nightlife didn't seem to mind though. They seemed to thrive amongst the densely packed housing, where there were all too many who could vanish without being missed. Willow had taken to patrolling the garbage-strewn alleyways that ran between the blocks. She had spent so much time here that it seemed more familiar than her own home, she knew all the hiding places the undead frequented. 112th Street was a favourite of theirs, a place that had to hold some sort of world record for going from newly built to slum. A street so rundown that even the cockroaches had moved out, leaving the boarded up apartments to the demons.

Willow was tired, the earlier fight had drained the energy from her, but she had to patrol, try to keep a rein on the monsters, keep the people safe.

"Nice evening out, eh Rosenberg?" The voice from the shadows had a tinge of a German accent. Willow didn't even flinch; the voice was only too familiar.

"What are you doing around here Oskar?"

"Oh I find that sometimes desperation adds a certain something to the blood, perhaps that's why I'm so keen to sample yours." Oskar stepped out. He was like a moving wall, seeming almost as wide as he was tall, with close cropped dark hair, and a face that was shaped by cruelty even in its human guise. Light glinting on his collar highlighted a souvenir, a pair of lightning strokes forming a double S.

"You've tried before, didn't have much luck." Willow's retort sounded flat even to her.

"That's true Rosenberg, but you were stronger then, but now..." The vampire sprang forward and knocked Willow to her knees, wrapping his fingers in her hair and pulling tight, forcing her to look up at him.

"My old comrades could never understand, they always thought that Jewish blood was bad, I always found it was as sweet as any other." His face twisted into a demonic mask and he bent over to sink his fangs into Willow's neck. A tap on the shoulder interrupted him. He looked up to see a dark haired girl standing next to him.

"Hi, look I haven't done this in years and I'm a little out of practice, so let’s see if I can remember this right." Buffy drove a fist into the vampire’s chest, doubling him over with pain and causing him to release Willow. Buffy swung her leg up in a kick that caught the demon on the chin, sending him flying backwards to crash into the boarded up door of an abandoned house.

Oskar dragged himself to his feet and brushed off the splinters of wood that covered him. He saw that not only did this dark haired intruder confront him, but also a blonde girl had emerged, clutching what appeared to be magical paraphernalia. With Rosenberg having regained her feet, albeit shakily, Oskar decided it wasn’t his night after all.

"We’ll finish this another night Rosenberg, and then I can get to know your friends." He leapt up and caught a section of guttering it creaked alarmingly but held as he swung up onto the roof and ran off. Willow was bemused, she was sure she had seen her rescuer before, but she wasn’t sure where. Then her attention was caught by the figure of Tara.

"H…hi Willow." Willow said nothing, she just stood in the dark alley shaking, and then tears began to roll down her cheeks. Buffy wanted to rush forward and throw her arms around her friend, but she held back, only partly because she was wearing this strange body. She looked at Tara and the witch didn’t hesitate she moved to Willow’s side and took her hand. Willow responded by locking Tara in a crushing hug.

"You shouldn’t be here, it’s too dangerous, I can’t protect you, I can’t protect anyone anymore."

"You don’t have to Will, that’s my job." Willow turned her head to look at the stranger, and then she looked back to Tara.

"I...It’s Buffy Will, it really is." Willow looked as though she was about to faint, Tara pulled one of Willows arms off her and Buffy draped it over her shoulder, with Willow practically hanging between them they set off towards her home.

Buffy stuck a mug of coffee into Willow’s hands.

"Yuck, too sweet." She made to put it down, but Buffy shoved it back towards her lips.

"I think a sugar rush would do you good." Tara was wandering around the room apparently tidying up, actually pocketing several small bottles and packets, she wasn’t going to have Willow making up anymore of the potions she had been using for a while at least. Willow gazed at Buffy as she drank the coffee; the expression on the face was full of concern, and possibly a little guilt, but the face itself…

"So you just woke up this morning looked in the mirror and there you were, Joanna Winters?"

"That’s about it, but Tara says that it’s like my aura was always here, that there wasn’t another soul occupying this body before I got here."

"And I could still see her ch..child, when I looked." Willow drained the coffee and put the mug down.

"Which means that Buffy Summers is still going to have a baby, but Buffy Summers doesn’t exist anymore, kind of a paradox."

"All I know is this definitely isn’t the way I imagined the future would be, I figured on being in it for one thing." Willow looked surprised and bounced out of her chair. She went to her bookcase and began to pull out books, looking for one dog-eared paperback long since thrown in the back.

The front cover was dominated by a drawing of a jumble of waves and atoms, with a bright red title, 'Elements of Physics'. Buffy didn't see the connection, stayed silent as Willow rapidly thumbed through the yellowed pages.

"There, there it is." She thrust the book under Buffy's nose jabbing her finger at a paragraph. Buffy took hold of the book and read:

'One of the great difficulties in quantum mechanics is accepting the concept of the observer effect, that is that the very act of observing an experiment can change the outcome.'

Buffy put the book down.

"You just happened to remember this?"

Willow blushed, "Hey it's not like I remember every text book I ever read, just the good ones. But do you see what I'm getting at?"

Buffy had been turning it over in her mind, and she had thought she could see exactly what Willow was driving at.

"Instead of just seeing into the future we changed it, we broke the future."

Willow shook her head, "No, we just kind of bent it. Buffy when you disappeared I didn't finish the spell, it's still working!"

Buffy caught Willow's rising excitement, "If you revoke the spell then things might go back the way they’re supposed to be?"

Willow nodded, "I think so, especially if Tara will help me." Willow turned to see Tara surreptitiously looking out the window.

"What’s up?" Willow crossed over to Tara and pulled back the corner of the curtain.

"Damn." Buffy also took a peek, and saw a couple of cars sitting down on the street.

"One of those looks the car from this afternoon, actually they both do."

"That’s the church for you, not big on individuality."

"The church?"

"The Church of Revelation, they’re an old fashioned end of the world, the apocalypse is coming kind of church."

"Well they’re in the right town, what’s their beef with you?"

"They don’t like demons or w…witches." Tara interjected.

"And they aren’t real fond of Jews or gays either, so I guess that puts me pretty near the top of their burn at the stake list, figuratively speaking. At least I think it’s figurative."

"Well as long as they sit out there we can work the mojo, and poof! They're gone."

Willow was frowning.

"Ok it isn’t that simple right?"

"To give us the best chance to fix things we really should do the revocation in the same place we did the original spell."

"That means getting back to the apartment. Well I can fight them off, but I may have to dent a couple of them."

"We can do it together, if I just do a couple of incantations…"

"NO!" Tara and Buffy’s response was emphatic and simultaneous.

"Ok, ok, so what do we do then?"

Joshua kept drumming his fingers on the steering wheel in a fashion that betrayed a total lack of rhythm. The car had no radio or tape player of course; the church had no use for such fripperies. Jason would have been willing to risk the temptation of rock music for something to alleviate the stultifying tedium, but he remained stoic and kept watch on the building, he shivered as a sudden sense of cold washed over him. He reached out to turn on the heater but stopped, the night wasn’t cold. Jason opened the door and stepped out on to the pavement, ignoring the queries of his companions. He walked forward, shivering as the cold gathered around him, suddenly he thrust out his hand, and out of thin air found himself grasping Tara’s elbow, as he did so Jason also became aware of her two companions, as did the other occupants of the cars.

The spell didn’t actually confer invisibility, it just caused people to ignore your presence, unless of course you did something that drew it to you, or you ran into someone who was sensitive to such things.

"Well there goes plan A." Buffy commented as she pulled the vile smelling bag of herbs from around her neck. She threw the bag at Jason who put up both hands to fend it off, releasing his hold on Tara. His companions were pulling baseball out of the back seats of the cars.

"Run?" Willow asked.

"Run." Buffy confirmed. As Willow and Tara sprinted off Buffy grabbed Jason, spun him round and sent him hurtling into his advancing friends. Then she set off down the pavement, quickly catching up with the other two.

Willow and Tara were sweating and breathless as they came around the corner and spotted the apartment complex Buffy had left earlier that day. She ran past them once more, to the distant accompaniment of men falling over strategically placed garbage cans.

"Come on we need to get off the street." She yelled as she passed the panting witches. Willow looked at Buffy’s receding back, shook her head and broke into a trot, Tara just about keeping pace beside her, she really wished she had kept enough of her potion for one more dose. She pounded up the stairs to find Buffy standing outside the apartment trying to figure out how to open the door.

"The, plate, put, put, put your hand on the plate." She panted out as she bent over trying to catch her breath. Buffy pressed her palm against the silver plate besides the door, and it sprang open. She bundled Willow and Tara inside and slammed it shut.

"Good evening Miss Winters, would you care to make a dinner selection for yourself and your companions."

"Not right now." Tara was helping Willow were pulling stuff out of her backpack, setting up candles.

"It is not advisable to have naked flames in a confined space."

"Thank you, but I’m more worried about the guys with the baseball bats coming up the stairs."

"Do you wish me to activate household security?" Buffy turned to stare at the computer screen, wondering if it was actually programmed for sarcasm.

"It would be nice." Metal shutters slid over the window, and there was the sound of metal against metal as bars slid into body of the door. It wasn’t a moment too soon, as a rain of blows began to fall on doors and windows.

"I have contacted the police, central system estimates response time at fourteen minutes."

"I think this will be over one way or another way before that."

The candles were lit, the runes were drawn, the fanatics outside had found something solid and were slowly crumpling the door. Willow walked over to where Buffy was watching for any sign of the doors final collapse.

"It’s time to do this if we’re going to."

Buffy walked over to the runes, but hesitated.

"Will if this does work, you’re going to be zapped as well aren’t you?"

"Kind of, but look a this way, I get to live it all over again, and maybe this time it will be better." She looked at Tara who was reading through the magic book, committing the incantation to memory, she sensed Willow’s gaze and returned it, smiling.

Buffy caught the silent exchange,

"I promise you Will, it’s going to be better."

"Spirits we implore you depart, revoke your power and go with thanks."

"Spirits end this spell, return all things to their proper order."

Just as the candle flames converged on the orb the door crashed inwards.

"Cease this blasphemy now, stop…" Jason ground to a halt as he saw the light engulf Buffy, and then the room shattered into a thousand brilliant fragments.

The light faded and Buffy was staring at the orb once again, and then she heard Willow chanting.

"Spirits for whom all is now grant us…." Before Willow could finish Buffy knocked the orb out of the runes.

"Hey, that’s dangerous."

"Not as dangerous as finishing." Buffy muttered, She dragged Willow to her feet and hugged her.

"Thanks."

"Uh you're welcome, but we didn’t finish."

"I don’t mean for this, I mean for everything else." Buffy picked up the magic book and firmly closed it.

"What do you say we forget about this and go to the Bronze instead?"

Willow was bemused, but she decided she liked the idea a lot better than messing with this spell.

"Ok sounds good to me."

"Great, so you want to call Tara or just go ask her in person?" Willow’s surprise jumped up several more notches, but seeing the sincere look in Buffy’s eyes the idea sounded even better.

"I’ll go see her."

"Ok, I’ll give Xander a call, go change," She paused, "And then I have one more thing to do."

Riley was walking through the campus grounds when Buffy found him, hands in his pockets, looking at the ground. He stopped as Buffy stood in front of him. A smile began to spread across his face as he saw her, but it stopped as he caught the look on her face.

"Is there something you need to tell me?"

"Yeah, I’m meeting up with Willow, Xander and Tara at the Bronze in a little while."

"Ok, I was expecting something a little more dramatic."

"I know, but the thing is that I don’t want you to come."

"Buffy what is it? What have I done wrong?"

Buffy put her hand on his chest, "It isn’t anything you’ve done, its what I’ve done, the way I’ve let everything, everyone, drift away from me."

"But I thought you fixed things."

"I thought so too, and that’s about all I did, thought. The truth is that when I’m thinking about you everything else just gets forgotten, and I don’t want to forget, I don’t want to wake up one morning and find that everything I care about is gone, that I can’t even recognise myself anymore." Buffy was hardly even aware of Riley at the moment, she was speaking to herself, understanding why the spell had worked out in such a strange way.

"Buffy I understand, you want to spend more time with the rest of your friends, that’s great, I want to get to know them better too."

"No you don’t get it, if your there you take up all my attention, we, I, have to cool things for a while." And besides, Buffy thought as she considered Tara’s insight, it’s not like we’re going to be together forever.

"So that’s it? We don’t see each other?"

"I’ll understand if you just want to end it, it’s a lot to ask."

"I’ll wait, I don’t know for how long, but I’ll wait." With that he walked away, Buffy watched him go, she was tempted to run after him, but she held her ground and watched him go, and when she could see him no longer she turned towards the Bronze and her friends, and the uncertain future.

THE END
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OBSERVER EFFECT

Written by MIKE MULLEN


BY THE SAME AUTHOR
LULLABY