The innocent child stares up at her, those liquid pools of brown just taking her in. It’s maybe a smile. It’s definitely not a grimace. It may be wind. But it doesn’t matter. She still speaks with that stupid squeaky voice all adults use when they see a new baby.

She always wondered how that happened. But it turns out, she’s prone to it. “Who’s the cutest little nugget? Wait for it… You are!”

Now she realises she’s fallen for the trap too late, and she’s already picked the cooing child up in her arms, holding her close to her chest.

Buffy Summers kisses the baby girl on the forehead and apologises. “Sorry I kept you in suspense, but when you get older, you’ll figure out it’s always you, so I have to milk it while I can. Speaking of milk, it’s time for mommy to feed you, isn’t it? Gotta keep those cheeks fat and pinchable…”

As Buffy hovers around, bobbing up and down, baby giggling in her arms, a voice screeches from the other room. “Buffy! Are you wearing your Scythe around the baby again?”

Buffy remembers the blade strapped to her back and now she’s the one grimacing. “Aw, crap.”

Dawn comes into the room, reaching for the child and taking her into her arms, smiling. Glowing. “Give me my child. You are banned from baby privileges until you respect the no-deadly weapon rule!”

“You ratted me out, didn’t you Joyce?” Buffy smiles down at the baby. “It’s okay. You’re too adorable for me to stay mad at.”

Dawn smiles, but then seriously turns to Xander as he enters the room. She instructs him to show her sister that they “have a new weapons cabinet in their new house for a reason.”

Going into the garage, Buffy admires the house. She wonders if they miss the city, but Xander tells her that the only thing he and Dawn have been missing lately is uninterrupted sleep. He has lots of construction work and the prices in San Francisco were getting too high for them. But he has another confession – he needed her help, not with the weapons cabinet, but with another guest.

“Listen, I asked you to come a little early to make sure you’re gonna be okay with Spike being here and all.”

Buffy scoffs at him. “Xander, we’ve seen each other since the breakup. It was mutual. We’re not mad at each other or anything.” She takes one more step towards the next room. “Wait, is he mad at me?”

Xander shakes his head. “Of course not. It might be, y’know, still a little raw…”

With that, Spike walks through the front door, bottle in hand. He looks at Xander with a smile. “You have a ‘come on in’ sign on the door. That counts as an invitation for my lot. Think you would’ve learnt by now.”

   
Buffy regards him curiously. Stands apart from him. Unsure what to say. “You’re early,” is all she manages and immediately kicks herself.

“Yeah, I was just…”

He pauses.

Unsure what to say. And then he smiles. A broad, cavalier sneer on his face. “Out. For. A. Walk,” he counts out on his hand. “Bitch.” He finishes.

She stares at him.

“I wasn’t really calling you a bitch, I was referencing that time when…”

“I remember. I was just trying to decide if I should punch you in the nose, but that’d screw up the order.”

They both stop. The gap closes. They hug. “It’s good to see you, Spike.”

“And you, Slayer.”

Xander is delighted. Now the party can begin.

Giles is still explaining it, for the second time. “Yes, all done and dusted. The spell could only restore me to my true age. Pity that. I’d have loved to shave off a few years.”

“I think you look distinguished,” Buffy chimes.

“Distinguished means ‘ancient’ you realise,” Spike chuckles as he turns to grab another glass.

On the sofa, Willow and Dawn are discussing her latest blog. Willow has been quite the busy bee. “The blog’s really the least of it. The Centre is about fostering women’s empowerment and a connection to the natural world. I’m kinda surprised how many Slayers have joined, which is handy considering all the threats we get.”

Xander nods. “Speaking for the patriarchy, we do not appreciate having our uselessness pointed out.”

“We can handle trolls. I’m worried the government will see us as a threat, like when we had the Slayer army going. But Riley assures me he’s not letting that happen. And the days of letting other people’s prejudices stop me from doing what feels right are long gone.”

Two hours later, Giles is listening to Xander explain his latest video game. Spike stands next to him, clearly wishing he was less sober.

Willow and Buffy are sitting on the other side of the room, with Dawn passed out on the couch, exhausted. Buffy is explaining the breakup to Willow. “We’re fine. I think the quiet of the past year made us both realise we didn’t really work as a couple when nothing’s going wrong. And I’m starting to think it’s not me and Spike that doesn’t work…” She looks down at the floor from where she’s sitting, Willow standing with a glass of wine in her hand. “Maybe it’s just me,” Buffy continues. “I mean, I’m thirty. Everyone’s growing. You with the Centre. Giles, literally. Dawn and Xander have a life, a house, a baby. And I’m consulting for the police. Still.”

Willow scoots her over and joins her sitting. “Well, police work is what the guidance counsellor said you should do.”

Buffy sighs. “I know. And they asked me to come aboard full-time. But would having a normal job mean I’m being a normal person? Normal person stuff never works out for me. Does that mean I’ll inevitably screw it up? Or is this different because I’d still be able to hit monsters and occasionally people? It’s a grey area, and grey is not my colour.”

Willow’s nose wrinkles as she smiles. “Buffy, I’ll tell you a secret: normal people are just winging it too. Don’t pressure yourself. Take some time, figure out what you want, what will make you happy. You’re in a good place for that.”

Buffy sighs again. “You’re right. I need to take some Buffy time. And it is nice to be able to do that, without relationship stuff complicating things…”

She’s interrupted by what she thinks is the door. A bell ringing. “I thought Andrew couldn’t make it,” Willow asks.

Buffy gets up with a drag of her feet, and smiles at Willow. “Who?” Willow does not respond with a happy look. “Kidding! He said he’d try to catch an earlier flight, so it could be…”

She swings open the door and stops.

Part of her wants to close the door.

She stares, immediately wishing she’d taken a deep breath.

“It’s Angel and Illyria, because of course, people who live in England just show up without calling.”

Angel, standing in the doorway, coat billowing – all business. Doesn’t look happy either. “Phones keep changing. I find it confusing. I saw the sign on the door, but didn’t want to be rude. You should really take that down. Anything could just walk right in.”

Spike appears in the doorway next to Buffy. “Just what I said. Hello, Wanker. Blue Bonnet.”

Angel looks taken aback by Spike for a moment. He asks if this is a bad time, but then says he doesn’t really care. “We have a crisis on our hands.”

Illyria tilts her head. She regards Buffy with almost a smile, but Buffy can’t really tell. “There is no need for conflict, Slayer,” the blue-haired Ancient One states, with almost no feeling. “That your former paramour is my lover may offend your mortal sensibilities, but as one Warlord to another, arrangements can be made. Perhaps brief loans, in return for hair products. The Fred creature’s mane continues to vex me.“

Angel has his hand over his face. “That’s – No one cares about any of that. She’s with Spike now.”

Both Buffy and Spike hold their hands up and retreat slightly. “We broke up,” they both say in unison. “It was mutual and the right decision and we’re all fine with it.”

The whole sentence sounds rehearsed or at least likely to have been said more than once already this evening.

As they walk past the threshold into the home, Angel whispers to Illyria. “Do I look smug? I’m trying not to look smug.”

Illyria doesn’t even look at him. “You primitives. Such complex mating rituals. In my day, it was simpler. Of course, few of my conquests survived the process. The tentacles you see…“

Buffy shouts over her and raises her hand to get everyone’s attention. “Hey! Who wants to talk about the apocalyptic event? Raise your hand!”

Angel looks at everyone and smiles, warmly. It’s been a while. “Hi, everyone. Sorry to crash the party, but my sources tell me dark forces are merging near here. And where there’s an evil merger, there are lawyers. My old co workers at Wolfram & Hart are coordinating an attack on Willow and the Slayers working with her.”

A cry of “I knew it!” comes from Willow’s direction.

Angel continues. “Not just demons. Factions in the human world – dictators, plutocrats – people who see the increasing power and influence of your movement as a threat.”

Buffy listens to what Angel is saying. “So it’s a big bad team-up? Seen it before, stopped it before. Xander, where’s the key to the weapons cabinet?” She heads in the direction he showed her earlier.

She stops when Angel raises his voice slightly. “This is different.” He has everyone’s full attention now. “They’re getting intel from someone – a vampire from the future. For him, it’s all ancient history.”

Buffy almost snarls. “I have a bad feeling I know who that is.” She turns and faces the gang assembled in front of her. “Guy named Harth. Twin brother of a 23rd Century Slayer. Some kinda cosmic twin-glitch gave him the ancestral Slayer memories… so he doesn’t just know the history, he remembers it.”

Giles finds this troubling. He suggests Illyria could send Harth back with her temporal powers, but the Old One shakes her head. “My temporal abilities in my current form are limited. And have proved difficult to control.” Giles decides from the palpable difficultly in the ancient Gods’ voice that she’d rather not go into detail.

Dawn has begun to panic slightly. “If he knows everything we’re going to do, how can we stop them?”

Willow gets up from her seat now, her anger level rising. “This vampire coming here changes history, maybe enough to give us an edge. If we can take them by surprise…”

Xander agrees, “We can shut them down before they can get the evil gang together, while they’re still making the seating chart.”

Angel nods at him. “Faith has eyes on them now. It’s a good time.”

Buffy looks at Xander. “Like I said, weapons cabinet.” Xander nods and follows her, asking Dawn to stay with baby Joyce. Dawn objects, until Xander says that only she can feed the baby. “And only you sing the sleepy song the way she likes it.” He hugs her and she orders him not to do anything stupid.

When Buffy re-enters the room, her hands are full with weapons, the Scythe strapped in place on her back. “My favourite part of a party: the favours.” She grins. And then she puts them down, seriously and tells her friends: “Gear up people. Let’s change the future… by hitting it really hard.”

The sun is setting low on the horizon in Silicon Valley, but despite the creepy fading of the light, the heat still fills the air, sticky and uncomfortable. As if the fires of Hell are burning somewhere.

A tall, looming and stark building sits there, looking inconspicuous in the dim light, but it’s black tinted windows let no one see in. This is the permanent office of Wolfram & Hart, Silicon Valley. And its appointment calendar has exploded.

On the top floor of the building, which looks identical to the ones seen in Los Angeles and Italy, Harth looks impatiently at the gathering demons, species and creatures surrounding him. There’s a fire behind him, doubtless started by some disagreement. This is the past?

They all look at him now, standing there in the centre, demanding respect. One of them hands him a file – the blueprints to Willow’s centre. He nods, graciously. “Beautiful.” He acknowledges the crowd. “I’ll map out everyone’s attack point based on my best recollections.”

One of the larger demons, Harth doesn’t know which, tells him that it would be an idiotic plan to attack the Slayer and the Witch in their own place of power, but Harth shuts him down. “We do it there because that’s where I remember it happening, and where I remember you winning. That is what you want, right?”

Another demon jabs at the one who spoke. They’ve verified he’s from the future using magic. “He speaks the truth.”

Harth sighs before he continues. “Of course, if you think you’re so rocket ship you want to purposely change history just to feed your ego, and throw away a guaranteed win…”

He’s halted in his sentence by a voice from the doorway, coming from the elevator. As the bell dings and the door opens, Buffy, armed and ready, smiles at him sarcastically. “I like that plan. Let’s do that one.”

Buffy yells to her companions and she roars into battle. “Take them out!”

The demons race in all directions, some trying to flee from the Slayer and the Blue Goddess next to her, others daring to try and take on the ensouled vampires. Harth still stands in the middle, watching it all, getting pushed around in the melee. One demon runs for an exit, calling for security, when the door he was heading for bursts open.

Faith Lehane, with a large grin on her face and the demon security guard’s head on a pike in her hands, winks at him. “Security’s taking a break.” She kills the demon and turns to the others, yelling loudly. “What’s up, y’all. Thanks for saving me some.” She grins even more wildly, and jumps right in.

Illyria tackles a winged creature that she’s quite happy to punch. Willow fires a blast of flame at the horned creature. “You’d attack my home, my people!” She’s not asking a question.

Buffy heads straight for Harth, Scythe primed. “You messed up, Harth. So eager to get a piece of the action, you made it possible to change history, just by coming here.” She stabs a demon through the heart with her Scythe as Harth cackles at her. “We’re ready for you,” he says and points to a wall behind him. A booming sound comes from the other side of it, as if something is burrowing towards where they are, through the solid building as if it were paper.

Suddenly, the wall gives way, causing everyone to run from the rubble. Angel, Willow and Faith look up as a huge snake-like demon charges into the foyer of the office, and then rises itself up so that it can speak. His voice is familiar. Instantly.

“Oh my goodness, if you could see your faces! I so love a good surprise. Sorry, I’m bring rude to the newcomers – hello, blue lady, I’m Dick Wilkins. Used to be the Mayor of Sunnydale. Buffy, Faith and I go way, way back, don’t we girls?”

Buffy stares up at him, her face full of anger and confusion. “We blew you up!”

Olvikan looks at her and tuts, which is strange coming from a demon the size of a two storey building, Buffy thinks. “Oh please,” he scoffs, “You think that can kill a pure demon made flesh? It wasn’t pleasant, I’ll give you that. After I pulled myself together, I figured ‘Hey, if the people of Sunnydale don’t appreciate me, nuts to you. Figured I’d go make some money in the private sector. And, not to be an ‘I told you so,’ but the old town really went to Hell without me, huh? Ha! Get it?”

Faith has been silent for a minute, taking everything in. She’s dreamt of this moment in so many different ways, and yet here he is, talking to them as if he never died. Her boss. Richard Wilkins III. And he sounds crazier than he ever sounded before. She grips the pike in her hand and thinks clearly for the first time in a while. The more she thinks, the angrier she becomes and her grip on the weapon intensifies.

“You,” she spits. “You made me a murderer.”

The snake regards her, as if pretending he didn’t recognise her. “Well, Faith, that’s not quite true. I offered advice and guidance. I tried to instil my values in you. That’s all a father figure can do.” His face seems to make some sort of shape, almost like a smile. “Then, I’m proud to say, you made yourself a murderer.”

With that, Faith’s temper boils over it’s threshold like a volcano gushing lava. A long, guttural roar comes from her mouth as she grabs an axe from Xander and rages.

The Old One simply flicks her backward with his tail. “Be prepared!” he singsongs. “That’s what the boy scouts say. And when you have a pal from the future, it really helps.” He rises up again, his head now charging through the top of the ceiling and into the now starry night. Buffy looks at him and then at Faith, cradled in Angel’s arms. “The intel we got, Harth planted it to draw us here. And we walked right into it.” More debris falls from the ceiling.

Willow fires another blast. “So let’s walk out. Through anyone who gets in our way.”

The Scooby Gang are now encircled, surrounded by creatures of all kinds. Xander thinks that if he has a minute, he can help. Angel knows the layout of the building and directs them towards an exit point. Buffy nods and orders Illyria, Willow and Giles to cover them while they escape.

Giles tells her that he can only give her seconds. Illyria says she can give more and projects a time bubble. “I can extend that. I am able to slow time in close proximity.“

Finding the exit inside a storage closet, Spike tells Xander to talk. “You’ve got a plan that isn’t utter bollocks, Harris, now’s the time for it. Hell, even if it is bollocks, I’ll take it!”

“I’m texting as fast as I can. I have fat fingers!”

The Mayor bursts through the door, still singing, still crazy. “Here’s Mayor Wilkins!” He laughs, stretching the opening word. “Get it? From that movie. I don’t see many R-Rated films but that was a corker.”

As everyone turns to the demon, Xander turns behind him to see a circular light swirling in the air. He smiles. Dawn appears on the other side, hand on hip, phone in hand, looking annoyed and irritated. “I knew it,” she says, peering through the portal. “Next time, just call!”

As the gang run through the portal to safety, Xander points out their phone signal is awful.

The demons pile into the now empty storeroom, annoyed they were so close. Wilkins isn’t bothered. “Everything’s going according to plan,” he tells a demon before turning to Harth. “Isn’t that right, little buddy?”

Harth is in full vampire mode, looking at the spot where the Slayer and her friends vanished. “It all went exactly as I remember. Now this is where it starts to get really fun.”

He whispers then. “And don’t call me ‘Little Buddy.’”

At the Harris house, Faith is raging. “We got our asses handed to us. Which, duh, if that little weasel knows everything that’s gonna happen…”

Spike doesn’t agree. “Hell with that. I refuse to believe we don’t have a bloody choice in what we do.”

Willow speaks up. “Problem is, if we don’t know what his history says, odds are whatever we choose to do will be what we did do.”

Buffy looks up at her, slight surprise on her face. “I actually understood that. And I have thoughts.” She turns to address the others. “In his future, the Slayer sis has a mondo library. Total Giles porn. All these books full of everything the Watchers of tomorrow knew. I tried to read some of it while I was there, but there’s so much and I didn’t know where to start.”

Giles smiles. “Ah! But you are neither a trained librarian nor a Watcher, where as I am both.”

Angel places his hands on Illyria’s shoulders, bending down and looking her in the eyes. “Illyria, I know the last time we tried time-travelling it went south, but we have to risk it.”

“The risk entails being torn to shreds and scattered upon the temporal winds, to exist forever in untold agony,” she tells him, with no feeling.

Willow perks up with a suggestion. “I think I can help. Since Buffy’s been there, I can get a fix on the energies of that time and guide us to the right era. The problem is accessing the time-stream. Last time, I had to catch a very specific temporal ripple at the exact moment. I don’t know when the next one is.”

Dawn raises her voice. “Uh, Hello? I literally just portaled you. Why does everyone always forget I’m the Key?”
   
Faith looks up at her, her lip still bleeding, in utter confusion.
   
“Dawnie, you can do that? Make a portal through time?” Buffy asks.
   
Dawn shrugs. “I mean, probably not on my own, but with Illyria and Willow helping me… and knowing where we’re supposed to go…”
   
Giles thinks it sounds plausible – and besides, it’s their only option.
   
Buffy smiles. “Okay, the future Slayer’s in New York. If we can get on a plane…”
   
Illyria interrupts without any hesitation. “Unnecessary. We are not accessing a localised time ripple, but creating our own. Which is not without risk.“
   
Angel looks at her quietly. “Life isn’t without risk. Please.”

She looks at him, just as quiet. “Very well. If you ask it of me.“

In twenty minutes, the portal is open and stable. A large orange glow fills the room as the Scoobies stand on the threshold. “That should do it,” Angel says.

Dawn’s voice is shaky, but resolute as she stands, her hands wide, glowing with the same swirling energy. “It’s not easy. We need to hurry.” She doesn’t turn to Xander, but tells him to remain with the baby. “There’s milk in the fridge.”

Buffy walks into the portal with her allies and is embraced by a bright, white light “You’re doing amazing, Dawnie. Now the only question is how we find Melaka…”

Buffy’s jaw drops almost immediately after the portal deposits them somewhere.

“Summers,” an unfriendly voice calls. “Couldn’t wipe our world last time, so jaunted back to try again?”

Melaka Fray and her sister Erin are before them , weapons drawn, the sights and spires of Haddyn around them. “Turn around. Scurry back home,” Mel tells her again. “Or the Fray sisters’ll kick you there.”

Erin powers up the cannon in her hands. “In pieces if need be…”