Buffy the Vampire Slayer || Buffy/Spike
Buffy paused for a moment, again surveying the faces around her. They looked like they were struggling to take it all in, but were slowly getting it. “So I’m going back, memories in tact, to see if I can keep it from happening, keep any of you from ever having to go through all this.”
Rona shook the dumbstruck look from her face. “Ok, if –and that’s a big if- this crazy idea can even work, do we have time to try it?”
Willow piped up again. “If the spell works and Buffy is able to change what happened, we have all the time in the world. None of this will have ever happened. If either part fails, we’ll have only lost the time we’ve spent getting ready and performing the spell. They’ll be caught back up to our time almost immediately after the spell is complete from our perspective, but in the past, they’ll have lived through just under three years.”
“I don’t think I want to know how that works.” Kennedy shook her head. “So if it’s not Faith, who’s going to be your back up?” She lifted her chin defiantly, trying to look as strong and capable as she could, hoping to be chosen for this, at least.
“She can’t take any of us, Kennedy,” Vi said. “Faith said she can’t help because she was in prison. I think that means Buffy needs someone who was here at the time.”
Willow nodded at the other redhead, looking like a proud schoolteacher. “Exactly. None of you girls were with us back then, so you’re all off the hook. Buffy’s back-up person has to be someone who already knew us then, and can interact normally with past-me, and past-Dawn, and past-everyone. Otherwise, past-us will know something weird is going on. It might make an even bigger mess than the one we have. It has to be someone we already knew.”
“So it’s a Sunnydale local, a Scooby,” Kennedy sniffed, feeling left out of Willow’s inner circle yet again. “Your back-up person is one of the people who resurrected you in the first place? That’s who you’re trusting to not bring you back?”
“I’m taking someone who would have stopped the resurrection, had he known about it. And he can help me prevent even needing to make that jump.” Buffy watched the girls’ eyes swivel around the room when they caught on to her choice of pronouns, sizing up each man. She let them guess for a moment, smiling to herself as a couple of them even scrutinized Andrew.
“I’m taking Spike.”
From Echoes of Beljoxa by myrabeth
