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Entry tags:
Happy Development 1/20, 2/20 & 3/20
Title: Happy Development
Fandoms: Buffy the Vampire Slayer & Firefly
Pairing: Buffy/Willow, Faith/River, Mal/Inara, Kaylee/Simon
Rating: PG-13 (mostly, there maybe some more adult language and themes, nothing that you would see on say the higher numbers of cable TV)
Disclaimer: Due to the slightly off chance that Joss or a legal suit type person may read this and in their anger, sue, I will say that this little piece of work is for fun. The characters contained below belong to Joss, ME production, and others that I don't know. The Chinese from this story is taken from the book, Finding Serenity.
Summary: The Scoobs and The Crew meet up in Cleveland a few years after Sunnydale became a landfill. Hijinx ensue.
A/N: 3 chapters a day for the next few days...Thank you, read and enjoy!
Ch. 1 – Well, Ain’t This Just…
“Heya Buff, we had a big bang out by the lake,” Xander’s voice rang out through the intercom. “You want me to send a team or do you want to check it out yourself?”
Buffy was in her room with a bottle of coral pink nail polish in one hand and her right little toe in the other. “How big, Xand?”
“Big enough that we have to intercept the cops en route.”
Buffy sighed and capped the polish in her hands. “Great, at least my tootsies are done.”
“What?” Xander asked confused.
“Nothing, I can check it out. Hey is Will back? Maybe she can go with.”
Just then a knock at the door was followed by the door opening to reveal the redhead in question smiling over at Buffy. “Hey there nail polish girl, Dawn just let me know. Come on we’ll go check it out, slay if needed, then mochas”
“You buyin’?” Buffy queried, putting the nail polish down on her dresser and finding a pair of socks for her feet.
Willow walked all the way into the room and sat on the bed swinging her feet. “No, but Xander is. He lost a bet.”
Buffy smiled and slipped her feet into some boots. “All the better.” She picked up her standard issue weapons: stake and holy water, and went for the door. “Come on slow poke. I’ve got a peppermint mocha with my name on it.”
Willow let out a breath dripping with playful exasperation, “Yes, General Summers, whatever you say.”
“That’s General Goddess Summers to you, General of the Witch-Fu Rosenberg.”
“If we’re that, what’s Xander?” Willow asked mischievously.
“He’s,” Buffy stopped and put a serious face on, “he’s General of the Moon Pies Harris.”
Willow rolled her eyes. “I’m sure the title will please him.”
“It better!”
The two women continued down the hall, chuckling as they went. They picked up a truck at the garage and made their way out into the night. It was fall and Cleveland was absolutely beautiful this time of year. The leaves were changing color and although it was night Buffy could easily discern the difference. Sheloved Cleveland in the fall. The winter sucked, but she felt it was worth the price to see the autumn colors. While Willow was driving out to the lake shore Buffy let her mind wander a bit. It was September, nothing major going on, and 2007 had shaped up to be a really great year. She noticed though that after Sunnydale, all the years just seemed to get better. Things were routine and she could plan her life months in advance. That took getting used to, but once it was established that Buffy could plan and plan well, she did it all the time. She was currently working on a 6 month outline of her life and even though she felt 6 months was stretching it, she took the advice of Faith: ‘Go big or go home.’
When they reached the lake Willow pulled the truck to the curb and followed Buffy down a path to the shore.
“I don’t see why I couldn’t drive.”
Willow raised an eyebrow in response and nothing more.
“What? My driving has improved! And, and we could have gotten here quicker!”
“You mean to say we could have gotten here so much deader.”
“Is that even a word? Deader? Come on, Will.”
“You’re one to talk Buffy.”
The blonde’s lips formed a tight line and she shut up the rest of the way to the lake side. They were both plugged in to the command center and turned on their COM links.
“This is Wicca 1 and Slayer 1 checking in. Over,” Willow’s voice hushed as they made their way to the lake side.
“Roger that you two,” came Xander’s voice through the earpiece. “It seems like the big boom is over in the Southeast corner. No visuals, just a lot of electro-static feedback. Proceed with caution. Over.”
Buffy just rolled her eyes at the army speak. She wasn’t happy at the similarities between their way of doing things post-Sunnydale and what she went through with the Initiative. Willow noticed Buffy’s annoyance and stuck her tongue out at the blonde. They moved quickly towards their destination, but stopped about 100 yards out when they saw the source of the big boom. On the shore stood what could only be described as a space ship. Mouths hung open, flies got in, it was not pretty.
The witch motioned for Buffy to turn off her COM Link and found her voice in the process, whispering, “Buff, now I know in the past 10 years you and I have seen loads of stuff. Probably more stuff than we should have. So I am going to ask this very slowly and seriously: Is that a spaceship?”
Buffy could only nod at her friend’s question. The slayer rubbed at her eyes, blinked, then rubbed her eyes again. The one girl in all the world who’s stopped more apocalypses than anyone should have to, the girl who’s died twice and come back for more, and coincidently the one girl in all the world who used to have a taste for the undead of the male persuasion was so awestruck at the sight before her that she was only able to grunt in response.
Willow grabbed her friend’s hand and pulled her along. They approached slowly using any available cover and as they got closer saw a group of people standing in front of the ship talking. Willow took in the sight of the people in the group. There was the leader, or at least what she assumed to be the leader, he was standing in the center wearing black boots, brown pants and a long brown coat waving his arms about. There was a dark skinned girl as tall as Willow dressed similarly to the man, but she had on a leather vest instead of the coat and her hair was braided down the back. There were two other men with them; one was kinda dirty looking. Big gorilla with a gun popped into Willow’s mind as she took him in. The other man had on slacks and a button down shirt, well kept and very neat. Along with this group were three girls. The first Willow took notice of was the one the leader was yelling at, she was wearing what appeared to be mechanics overalls and she had black smudges covering her body. The next girl was in a flowing off white dress and combat boots. The third woman, yes definitely a woman not a girl Willow thought, was dressed in what looked like a sari and sandals. Willow shook her head at the oddity of the group standing before her. She motioned to Buffy and they moved closer to eavesdrop on the conversation.
“What in the sphincter of hell are you playing at, Kaylee!?” Mal had given up on all pretense of being cool and calm. His wonderful boat, his home was currently unable to fly and his crew was stranded on God knows what rock with God knows who around. He clasped his hands behind his head and continued to pace back and forth.
“Capt’n I’m tellin’ you, I don’t know what happened.” Kaylee was clearly upset and she was unable to keep up the bravado any longer. Tears spilt over and created tracks down her grease and grime smudged cheeks.
River watched the scene play out and decided that she’d had enough. “Navigations are secure, nowhere we are and nowhere we’ll stay as this continues.” She slipped her arm around Kaylee’s waist and led her away from Mal.
Mal turned to Zoë and asked, “Do we have any power?”
“Yes, but it won’t do much good if she can’t fly. We’ve got some electrical, but no power from the engine. It looks like the converter got fried on entry.”
Simon stepped up and tried to add some sense to the situation the crew found themselves in, “Mal, perhaps we should find some of the local inhabitants; it would be prudent to see if we are in friendly territory.”
“Doc’s got a point Mal. We could talk to the locals and find us some supplies,” Jayne said, spitting out the lugee that had been lodged in his throat.
“Liou coe shway dug biao-tze duh bun ur-tze. Fine, but only Zoë and I are going. I don’t want anything happening to you guys while we’re gone, getting into that kinda bind is never something I feel like dealing with. River, Kaylee, you guys try and figure out what in the tyen shiao duh is going on here. Dong ma?”
The girls nodded and continued to look around. Without saying anything, Zoë drew her weapon and pointed it to an outcropping of rocks 10 feet to their right. Mal and Jayne quickly followed suit and pointed their weapons in that general direction.
“It’d be a might good idea of whoever’s out that way to show themselves, ‘fore my first mate gets trigger happy,” Mal hollered.
Willow and Buffy exchanged a glance appearing to come to a decision. Buffy made the first move and stepped out from their hiding place with her arms raised. Willow followed, half hiding behind the slayer with her arms in a similar position.
Mal didn’t notice any weaponry and holstered his gun, motioning the other two to do the same. He tried to give the two girls before him a winning smile, but by the looks on their faces failed miserably. “Good evening, ladies. Sorry about that. You can’t be too trusting sometimes and it seems like now is one of them times.”
Buffy and Willow both nodded and lowered their hands.
“You two wouldn’t mind tellin’ me where me and my crew‘ve landed would you?”
“Cleveland,” Buffy answered.
“Huh? Come again?” Mal asked, clearly confused.
“Cleveland, Ohio,” Buffy tried again, speaking slower.
Simon stepped up and asked for clarification, “What planet are we on?”
Buffy looked at the 7 people and shrugged giving up, “Willow, you want to take this one?”
Willow smiled. “Uh, you guys landed on Earth. You are in Cleveland, Ohio. Ohio is a state in America.”
She hoped she was being clear enough but by the looks on the visitor’s faces she knew that was clearly not the answer they were expecting.
Zoë and Mal both hissed out, “Taikong suoyou de zingqiu saijin wo de pigu!”
“Mal, I think the redhead’s kinda squirrelly, maybe we should just shoot ‘em and find some people that are gonna talk sense,” Jayne said eyeballing the two girls standing there.
“Bi zui! Jayne, don’t make me shut your mouth up for you. River! Get back on the navsat and see if there’s anything at all comin’ up. Move girlie,” Mal barked the order out and River ran off.
“Uh, you guys wouldn’t like to keep this in English please. We don’t speak whatever it is that you’re speaking,” Buffy asked, annoyed.
The crew of the ship just looked at Buffy as if she was simple. River came running out of the ship a few moments later and whispered in Mal’s ear.
“Well now, zhen shi ge kuai le de jin zhan. River, talk crazy speak to these two please?”
River stepped up to the two strangers and smiled. “What year is it?”
“2007,” Willow said.
“Oh, existing is going to continue to be a problem.” River turned and walked back to her brother.
Buffy was fed up with all the weird talk and stepped into Mal’s space. She’d eyeballed him for the leader and was glad when her estimation wasn’t wrong.
“Look, I don’t know where you guys are from, but me and my friend will be more than willing to help out if one of you would explain to me what in the hell is going on.” Buffy placed her hands on her hips and waited on a response.
“Look little girl…” Mal started.
“Little?” Buffy grew angrier than she was only a few moments ago.
“Gorram it, will you let me finish.”
“Insulting me isn’t getting you anywhere faster.”
“Okay there, hot pants, as I was saying, me and my crew here were being chased by some Alliance ships and flew into a black hole. Next thing I know, we lose control and land on this rock. So let me wrap my head around this a moment. We are on Earth That Was and it’s the year 2007?”
“The time is about right, but Earth That WAS?”
“Tama de!” Mal threw his hands up in the air.
Ch. 2 - Einstein Was Right
Introductions were made all around with both the blonde and the redhead snickering when Jayne was introduced. It was a common twist of fate the two had grown used to, after all, the slayer was named Buffy. Cussing, Mal led everyone, including Buffy and Willow, into the cargo area of Serenity. Of all the things that had happened, of all the weirdness that was his life; he could not wrap his head around being thrown back in time and crashing on Earth That Was.
He took a look at the two girls from this time and noticed the wonder with which they not only climbed aboard, but also took in his home. He had a hard time not trusting them. Both girls had a look about them that made him jumpier than a cat in a dog pound but that set him at ease because that look, he knew, was one that was often found on himself and Zoë.
Buffy stood, hands on hips looking at her surroundings. She smiled at Willow. “Xander should be here for this.”
“He would definitely flip out. This is just wow!”
“Capt’n,” Kaylee called from the stairs. “Can I see you a moment?”
Mal looked up and nodded. “Tell me you’ve good news little Kaylee?” Mal asked after meeting her up near the engine room.
She shrugged. “It’s not so bad. The core containment is cracked, but it’s not like I can’t fix it. The trouble is the stuff I need we may not be able to get.” Kaylee looked down at her feet and said, “The other thing is, I found the major problem.”
She glanced back up cautiously meeting Mal’s intense gaze. “I ran a better check of the wiring. Seems it got partially fried. I’ve run tests and it may be that the electrical storm we passed through after coming out of the hole fried parts of the converter and some secondary circuits.”
“So how long, ‘fore we get runnin’ again?” Mal asked, hopefully.
“Don’t rightly know. If we can get the materials, it may only be a day or two, but even when we get Serenity airborne again, how are we gonna get home?”
Mal saw the fear in his mechanics eyes and shrugged. “I don’t yet know, but maybe our new friends might be able to do somethin’ for us. Good work.” Mal turned and walked back down to the cargo bay.
“Alright, everyone gather up. Kaylee said that she needs some stuff to fix the boat up with, but the bigger problem is how we get to our own time.” Mal turned to River. “Nyen ching-duh you think you might be able to figure something out?”
River shrugged and went back to peering at the two new people and holding on to her brother’s hand.
“Okay, then, while Kaylee gets a list of supplies in order I suggest we all just get some shut eye.” Mal turned to the two new girls and asked, “Where do you two call home?”
“A school about 10 minutes from here,” Buffy answered. “What are you guys planning to do with your ship?”
“Can’t we just park it here?” Mal asked.
“Sure if you want the government to confiscate it and then turn you and your friends into a bunch of lab rats,” Buffy said.
“Not on my list of things to do. You got a plan?” Mal eyed the little blonde one up; sure that she had something up her sleeve.
“Will.” Buffy turned a thoughtful gaze to her friend. “What do you think? Can we get this thing moved to a storage facility close to the school?”
“How? It’s not like we came equipped to move a space ship.”
“How about a truck, like one of those big flatbed thingy’s that haul stuff?” Buffy asked, knowing what the answer was going to be.
“Nope, I think the best thing to do would be to take everyone back to HQ. They can stay there.” Willow looked at the assembled group and knew that if they doubled up the school would have enough rooms.
“And the big hunk of metal out in the open?”
Willow shrugged, “I think maybe I can come up with something to cover it up. A spell or two that will ward anyone away from coming within 100 yards of the place, they crashed in an area not really visited that much this time of year.”
“And what if we get curious people?”
“We can set up a perimeter and have two slayers patrol around the clock.”
Buffy smiled and slung her arm over Willow’s shoulder. “Did I ever tell you I like the way you think?”
“No, in fact last week you were cursing my name.”
“That’s ‘cuz you weren’t being all agreey with me.” Buffy smiled wide and only received an upturned eyebrow in appreciation of her attempt at humor. Buffy looked at the rest of the people and said, “I would pack some clothes. You guys can stay with us.”
“Why can’t we stay on the ship?” It was the first time Inara had spoken in all of this and the question had taken Buffy and Willow off guard.
The redhead and slayer exchanged a look. “Because it’s not safe,” Buffy answered. “The ship will be fine, but you guys won’t be safe here.”
Mal had gone off to get Kaylee, so Zoë stepped up and said, “Inara, this isn’t our world. I suggest we do what the blonde one says.”
Inara only nodded and went to her shuttle to collect some clothes. Jayne just stood around while everyone left to pack a bag.
“What?” the man asked, as he noticed both Willow and Buffy looking at him expectantly.
“Nothing, but aren’t you going to, ya know, go pack?” Willow asked.
“Whadda I need to do that for? I’ve got a few guns on me and I just put these clothes on yesterday.”
Willow had to turn around to keep from laughing while she pinched her friend’s arm so that she wouldn’t comment. As Willow regained control, Mal appeared followed closely by River, Kaylee, and Simon. Zoë showed up shortly after and Inara came a few minutes later.
“Is everyone ready?” Buffy asked.
“Let’s move,” Mal hollered. “Kaylee shut the bay doors and meet us outside.”
They walked through the cargo bay and waited as Kaylee followed Mal’s instructions. She came out a second or two after the door shut and joined Simon.
“You need anything for the hocus pocus?” Buffy inquired.
“Nah, just give me a few minutes, it’s a big ship.” Willow turned back to the ship and began muttering in Latin.
As she continued the incantation, the ship began to fade from view. Five minutes later and with more sweat than Willow remembered ever having produced; the ship was not only warded, but completely invisible. She turned smiling to Buffy. “One invisible ship for you, General. Would you like fries with that?”
Buffy just stuck her tongue out at the witch.
“Whatdya do with my boat girl?” Mal asked eyes wide with shock.
Willow shrugged. “Nothing, it’s fine, you just can’t see it. We can’t have people knowing it’s here. Even on a hellmouth, this thing would draw a lot of attention.”
“What?” Three voices asked in unison.
Willow wasn’t sure who said what so she supplied a general answer, “The ship would cause too much attention. I bent the light around the ship to make it appear like nothing was there. It’s fine. Trust me.”
“Oh,” Mal let out. He approached the area of where he thought the ship was cautiously. He took a shaking hand and pressed it against the cool metal of the now invisible Serenity. “It’s all here?”
“Yep,” Willow confirmed.
“Alright then, as long as it stays that way everything’s shiny.”
Buffy had grown increasingly nervous standing out here in the open. As inactive as this hellmouth was there were still beasties roaming and she didn’t want a conversation that she would have to take the time to explain the downside of living on a hellmouth. It would be better to do it in the morning when she was not as disgruntled. “Ok, is everyone ready? Our truck’s just up the way.” Buffy turned and started walking ahead of the group.
Mal looked to his crew and nodded towards the blonde. “You heard the girl, move!”
Willow took up the rear and watched as the strange group of people followed her best friend, thinking that she and Xander were going to have a lot of fun with this. She also gave a small thanks to the gods that Andrew wasn’t here with his endless supply of annoying questions and quips.
Inara held back and began to fall in step with the witch. “That was a pretty impressive trick you pulled with Serenity,” the companion complimented.
“Uh? Serenity?”
“The ship.”
“Oh, its name is Serenity?”
Inara nodded but didn’t say anything.
“It’s nice I like it, Serenity. And the invisible thing wasn’t much of anything really. It’s all about control. Now, like five years ago, it would have been impossible, but now it’s like nothing.” Willow smiled. “See the trick is to realize that you can’t change the ship and you may not be able to change the air around the ship, but you can manipulate the air easier than you can a big hunk of metal. So you bend the air, which bends the light which renders things non-seey. If only I could tell this to NASA and prove Einstein right,” the redhead trailed off wistfully.
Inara just looked at the redhead and nodded. Despite not being able to follow what the other girl said, there was something about her that set Inara at ease and she liked the feeling. After everything that had happened to her, feeling at ease was more of a luxury than not. The women fell into a comfortable silence and finished the walk in peace.
The ride back to the school wasn’t that bad. Willow had chosen to drive one of the trucks and luckily they were able to fit almost everyone in the cab. Jayne and Zoë had taken the truck bed as accommodations while Mal, Inara, Simon, River and Kaylee squeezed into the cab. As they pulled into the garage, Buffy saw Xander and Dawn pacing at the bay doors. Buffy hopped out of the cab first and went to go smooth things over with Xander.
“Hey guys, we have company.” Buffy smiled at the man and her sister.
Xander looked up at Buffy’s jovial tone. He had been worried sick since they turned off communications. The only thing that kept him from going out there and looking himself was Faith assuring him that she could feel Buffy was okay. He knew that if Buffy was ok then Willow was ok so he took to pacing the garage floor.
“Who?” He asked, slightly confused and miffed.
“That’s going to take longer than I want. Let’s get everyone settled and then I’ll have them explain it to you in the morning.”
Xander nodded and met Willow with a hug.
“Hey there big guy, you done freaking yet?” Willow teased. She knew he was hurt that they cut transmission, but Buffy and her needed to figure out what was going on without him freaking out 15 miles away.
“Kind of.” Xander turned to the oddly dressed group that his friends brought back and asked, “And who might you be?”
Taking time to point out his crew, Mal made the introductions. When he was finished, Willow ushered them in and showed them to extra sleeping quarters. By the time everyone was settled and buttoned down for the night, it was close to 2am. The witch had seen to everyone’s needs and was walking back to her room when she was pulled into a room by an outstretched arm. She let out a small squeak and then relaxed when she saw the arm belonged to the blonde slayer.
“For goddess sake Buff, were you trying to give me a heart attack?” Willow had her arms folded across her chest.
Buffy smiled sheepishly and nodded. “I didn’t mean to ya know attack you, but it seemed like fun.”
“Kriminey. So why did you attack one of your oldest friends?” Willow went over to the bed and plopped down on the comforter.
“Bored, I dunno. Wanted to see if you were still up for mochas and talk about getting those people back to their time.”
“Ah, the mighty slayer brain is working over time?”
“Maybe. Come on. You, me, the kitchen and chocolaty something then maybe a nap?” Buffy made sad eyes at the redhead that she knew always worked.
“Fine, let’s go. We are forgoing the kitchen though. Let’s go to Eat’n Park. They’re open 24 hours and sure no mochas but the coffee’s not half bad.”
The two left the room and headed to the restaurant. The place was moderately quiet and the ones who were there were teenagers and early twenty somethings who had nothing better to do with their time. They took a booth near the front of the restaurant and ordered. Forgoing chocolate in favor of fried cheesy goodness, Buffy had an order of cheese sticks with a diet coke and Willow took a coffee with a muffin.
“So Will, do you have any ideas on how to get them back to their own time?”
“I’ve been thinking there are some spells that create temporal folds. You know we’ve been privy to a few, but all of them are dangerous. We can’t send them back the way they came, that’s for sure.”
“You mean we can’t just say something like “let the spell be ended” and then poof they’re poofed?” the blonde hopefully asked.
Willow shook her head no. “They weren’t poofed here. They were…they were well I’m not sure really. There are a couple of theories some physicist were working on, but from all the stuff I’ve read no one is close to figuring out time travel. It’s relatively looked at as a myth. Besides magic, there’s no way to do it.”
“Hmm, how dangerous could it be?” Buffy wanted to know the answer but figured it would be on par with the usual.
“Oh, well, the usual, dimensions bleeding together, hell on earth. The standard fare really.”
“You couldn’t have lied to me?”
“No, I mean I’ve been through the possible spells that would make things as they were, but as I said, I don’t think they will work. The spaceship wasn’t magiced here; it crashed here because of a temporal fold in a black hole and that causes even my head to go all kerfloopey.”
“Well, aren’t you just chock full of fun and optimistic news?”
“I know, I know. I’m not saying it can’t be done. I’m just sayin’ that it might be a while.”
Buffy sighed and began picking at her food. “Hey Wills, I was wondering, does Mal seem familiar to you at all?” This small feeling of recognition had been bugging the slayer since meeting the man.
Willow cocked her head to the side and studied her friend. Also, she couldn’t help but smile at the look Buffy was currently wearing. Her brow was slightly crinkled and she had the patented Summers’ confused mouth, slightly down turned at the corners. The redhead would also have been lying if she said it wasn’t one of the cutest looks Buffy had in her arsenal. “Mal? No, not really. Why?”
“I…he reminds me of someone and I can’t it figure out. God, this is going to be bugging me all night!” Buffy shook her head to try and remove the thoughts. It laid there though in the back of her head as she tried to remember who Mal made her think of.
Ch. 3 - Bunk Mates & Pillow Talk
Mal decided to make one last check on everyone, except Jayne, who had opted to take a room with only a single twin bed, before turning in. Kaylee and Simon took one room, Inara decided to share with River, and Mal and Zoë took the last. It was late and the man was tired and more worried than he could ever remember being. He closed the door and saw Zoë had taken the left side of the bed. Mal removed his coat first then boots.
“Mal?” Zoë looked up into the light.
“Go back to sleep. It’s been a good long day and I don’t suppose they’re gonna get any shorter for a spell.”
“We need to talk.”
“Morning?” he asked hopefully stripping off his shirt.
“We need to figure what’s gonna happen.”
Mal slipped under the covers and clasped his hands behind his head to look at the ceiling. “Well the way I see it is, first we see if we can repair the damage. If so, then let’s get Serenity back in the air. Now, about gettin’ back to our own time? That I don’t rightly know. Maybe the little one can cook something up for us.” Mal’s voice lowered at the thought and continued, “If not then we might be stuck here.” He didn’t know what Earth That Was held and truthfully he didn’t care. He loved The Black. He liked the freedom that it gave and he loved the people he sailed with.
“Here?”
“Where else? These folk seem alright. Pretty helpful folk and they seem awful close. Maybe they got work that can be done. I don’t know,” Mal finally conceded. “Look, let’s just get some shut eye and deal with this fei hua in the morning. I got a notion it’ll be waiting on us.”
Simon held on to a Kaylee. His wife hadn’t said a word in nearly an hour and that was not like the mechanic he knew.
“Kaylee, bao bei?” Simon kissed the top of her head and waited on a response.
“Hmm?”
“What are you thinking about?”
“A whole lot right now Si. I reckon that even if I can get Serenity up and runnin’ again that we may not be able to get home. If we are able to get home, then what’s fer us there t’ain’t much but runnin’ from the law and stayin’s far away from the Alliance as possible.”
“It’s what we have been doing and you seemed ok to do just that.”
“I guess, well, awe hell I dunno what I’m gettin’ on about. I just want us back where we belong. Sailin’ in the Black and pulling the occasional caper or two.” Kaylee snuggled into her husband’s embrace and let the rhythm of his breathing lull her to sleep.
The next morning Buffy had gathered everyone up in the conference room to go over the entire situation, the crew of Serenity’s and the School’s. She paced at the head of the table as everyone gathered in and took their seats. Willow was the last to breeze in and closed the conference room doors nodding to the blonde slayer at the front of the room.
“Mal, I’m going to give the floor to you for a moment to go over the details of how you guys got here,” Buffy started. Turning to Giles and Faith, she said, “This is Rupert Giles and Faith. You met Xander and Dawn last night.”
A bit uncomfortable in the meeting, Mal stepped up and began, “Well, I can sus’ it out for you to the best of my abilities. I’m Malcolm Reynolds, captain of the transport ship, Serenity. My crew is as follows: First Mate: Zoë Washburn, Pilot: River Tam, Ship Medic: Dr. Simon Tam, Mechanic: Kaylee Tam, On Board Companion: Inara Sera, and our Public Relations Guy: Jayne Cobb.” He pointed to each of his crew as he went through introductions.
“We were flyin’ through between a few of the border planets and got tracked by an Alliance War vessel. They decided to give chase and we out ran ‘em best we could, but they got a few more bells and whistles. In a last ditch effort to not get caught, we flew into a black hole. Now the way I hear it tell is they just spit you right back out on to the other side. ‘Cept that’s not what happened. Kaylee tells me the electrical or some such doodad got fried going through. When we did get spit out, we were movin’ like a bat outta hell and then crashed here. That’s about it. Not sure what you’re lookin’ for here.”
Through the course of Mal’s explanation Xander’s jaw dropped lower and lower until the muscles creaked in protest. He snapped it shut by the end and just couldn’t believe his ears. There’s a spaceship out at the lake. These people are from the future and the one eyed Scooby nearly wet his pants at the enormity of the situation.
“What year are you guys from?” Dawn asked.
“2507. Why?” Mal said.
“Curious is all. That puts you exactly 500 years in the past.” Dawn shrugged.
Giles just finished putting his glasses back on and stuffed the kerchief back in his coat pocket. “Then the questions are as follows: How do we repair your ship and then how do we get you home?”
“That’d be the one’s we need to worry about.” Mal sat down in a chair towards the head of the long, oblong conference table and propped his feet up.
“Giles, I’ve already started looking for a spell or something, but I’m not sure that’s going to work,” Willow piped up from her place beside Inara. “Buffy and I were talking last night and I’m not sure magic is the way to go about getting them home.”
“I think we’ll worry about that a little later on. I would like you, Buffy, and Xander to go to the ship with them today. See if you can get a list of parts that would be suitable for use. Then let’s see if we can get it repaired. Now, about this spell you put over the ship?”
“Just a glamour really, bends the air and light around the ship so it can’t be seen.”
“Right, very good dear.” Giles smiled over at Willow. Despite the distance she’d come since Sunnydale, he was wary, at the very least, of his “daughter” performing any major spells.
“Hey now, what’s all this? Magic! Girlie, what in the hell ‘r you talkin’ about?” Jayne got a little nervous when the word spell came up. “You some kinda witch?”
Willow sat back and smiled. “Yep.”
Her calm reply startled the man and he sputtered, “You just keep your conjurin’ to yourself and I won’t have to introduce you to Vera.”
“Jayne,” Mal warned. “Jayne, shut your trap.” He sent a hard look at the man and then nodded over to Willow. The last thing he wanted to do was offend the people who were helping them out of this bind. He was also pretty certain that these were probably the only people who would. “Thank you. Your help is appreciated.”
Willow merely nodded in the captain’s direction and continued to sit back unfazed by Jayne’s outburst. Willow looked to Giles and gave him a nod to continue.
“Certainly. Alright then, Buffy, I think we should fill them in on who we are and what we do here,” Giles said with a raised eyebrow.
“Sure thing. Well, you guys mostly know who we are, but not what we really do and not about the school. Do you guys know what vampires are?”
“Story book legends, myths told to keep children home at night,” Inara spoke up, slightly amused that such a serious group of people would ask such a question.
“Ah, how much do you know about this time?” Buffy probed.
“Bits and pieces, Earth That Was is a fairy tale land. There are traditions and customs in our time that are based on Earth That Was, but I’m quite certain that nothing is truly replicated only shadowed,” Simon offered.
Buffy looked to Giles asking, “Do you want to explain this part?”
“Fine,” Giles said, launching into the long standing explanation of the history of the earth not shown on the History Channel and the existence of slayers, vampires, and demons. As he finished his tale, Giles looked to Buffy to pick up and finish off the story.
Buffy nodded and stood once again. “I was called as the slayer at the age of 15. I moved to Sunnydale, California, shortly after being summoned where I met everyone that you’ve met here today. Six years ago, I died facing a hell god; three months after my death I was brought back to life by my friends. Because of that and some other vague stupid reasons the Powers that Be refused to explain, this allowed a being to slip through and try to bring forth hell on Earth. It’s called the First. We stopped it in Sunnydale, but not before taking the slayer line and tweaking it. To win that war, we gave all potential girls full slayer power. The school you guys are in right now houses and trains these girls until they are of age to go home and do it themselves.” Buffy finished the speech and sat back down waiting on the reactions of the new people.
“Dung ee-miado. What exactly do you take me and my crew for a bunch of yu buh dun dai ngoi hwoon dahns?” Mal couldn’t help but feel insulted. Sure, they seemed nice and then came at you with all this stuff about demons and vampires and slayers? “Look, if you folk don’t wanna help just say so. It’s fine we can make our own way just fine.”
He nodded to Zoë and they stood to leave signaling the rest of the crew it was time to go.
“Wait, stop,” Buffy urged as she saw them get up to leave. “I know it all sounds crazy, but if we hadn’t seen your ship, do you think we’d believe you. Give us a chance to prove ourselves at least.”
Mal looked to Zoë and saw the imperceptible nod. “Alright girl, when?”
“Tonight. I can’t show you anything until tonight. Until then, let’s get something to eat and then we can go look at your ship.”
The captain nodded and waited for Buffy to show them where the kitchen was. The crew and gang ate and then made a quick trip to the ship to try and find what parts were needed for repairs.
Willow was currently in awe of the engine room. She had brought a digital camera and voice recorder so that she could record Kaylee’s explanation of the inner-workings of the ship. Part names, coupling locks, and wiring all whizzed past the redhead as the now greasy mechanic beamed when she finished welding the core containment closed.
“See, more ‘n anything. This ship,” Kaylee dropped her voice at the word ship and patted the side of the main engine, “she’s my girl, Serenity. We’ve got an understanding. I take care of her good an’ proper and she keeps us movin’. She’s part of the crew.” Kaylee once again grinned at the redhead with a look of familial pride evident on the young woman’s face.
Willow, feeling a little inadequate and unsure of what to say, just nodded and followed her out of the engine room, across the catwalks of the cargo hold and to Inara’s shuttle all the while thinking that Kaylee had to be one of the more interesting people she had met in a long time. The grease covered mechanic knocked before entering and allowed Willow to move past her.
“Hey Inara, I’m just shuttling around Willow here and thought you would like to take over for a while. I got a few more things to look over ‘fore I hand over the final list. That okay?”
“Of course,” Inara answered. Smiling, she ushered Willow in. “Welcome to my home, Willow.”
The redhead looked around at the area. Deep rich colors of red, burgundy, gold, silver and black ran everywhere. The room was steeped in Asian culture. Willow noticed some Geisha drawings; an interesting depiction of one of the Hindu goddesses, and in the corner of the room sat a Buddha statue at the centre of an altar. The bed looked inviting, but somewhat dramatic. The room gave off an aura of a stage set and not a bedroom.
Willow took in the immaculate woman who was now staring at her curiously and really saw her makeup, the careful construction of the woman and couldn’t help the words that came tumbling out of her mouth, “What is it exactly that you do? With the ship I mean? What’s a companion and gosh, I know it’s kinda weird, but you don’t seem to really…” Willow trailed off in frustration. The last thing she wanted to do was offend Inara.
“Fit in?” Inara offered with a small smile playing at the corner of her mouth.
“Uh, yeah sort of. It’s just that you and Simon both aren’t really…”
“We’re from a different part of society. Trust me the differences are glaringly obvious, but these people are our family.”
“You guys really seem to care for each other.”
“We do, but you also seem to care for your group of friends as well.”
“I do. The Scooby Gang we’ve been through more than most.”
“You all are serious then about the vampires?”
“I know it’s unbelievable. When I first found out it, well, it took some getting used to, but things are a lot quieter now.”
“When did you find out?”
“Ah, let’s see, I was a sophomore in high school, about 10 years ago.”
“How old were you?” Inara asked, clearly confused.
“15-16 years old. It was a few months before my 16th birthday actually.”
“And you’ve been fighting this…war ever since?”
“Well, yeah.” Willow sat down on the couch Inara had motioned to and allowed herself to relax in the other woman’s company. “it’s weird I guess, but once I saw what’s out there, how can you not want to try and help? I guess it’s also for Buffy. She was so young and I couldn’t let someone I cared about go through that alone. I refused to. She risked her life for me the first day we met and to not return that type of loyalty wasn’t even a consideration. I’ll tell you more stories later if you want. You never answered my question.”
Inara smiled and leaned into the witch. “I’m a companion. In our time, they are women trained in certain arts. We are…” Inara found herself at a loss for words. She had never had to explain what a companion was before. Everyone in the planets knew what type of work she did and while she wasn’t ashamed of what she did, to try and explain it to someone was leaving her tongue tied.
“In your terms, I suppose you might find that I am a prostitute. It’s a very crude definition of what I do. We, companions, are trained at schools. We are brought up learning skills and languages and history, all to make us better at what we do. Seduction is part of it, but not all of it. Sex plays a role obviously, but it is never the focus.”
The witch leaned back in to the couch and just listened. She wasn’t shocked or appalled just really curious. “Okay, I guess that clears it up. I just saw all of this and well, got curious.”
Inara had never felt the need to defend or explain her career, but there was an unexplainable urge to make Willow understand. She didn’t know why but she needed this girl to like her. “I know, it’s unconventional here, but in our time companions are held in very high regard, sought after and given status in society. Respected.”
“That’s cool, I mean I can’t judge really, so not my place, but it’s cool. Do you like it?”
Inara smiled and let the relief wash through her. She told Willow about her time at the academy and both women got lost in conversation and each other’s company.
Next>>>
Fandoms: Buffy the Vampire Slayer & Firefly
Pairing: Buffy/Willow, Faith/River, Mal/Inara, Kaylee/Simon
Rating: PG-13 (mostly, there maybe some more adult language and themes, nothing that you would see on say the higher numbers of cable TV)
Disclaimer: Due to the slightly off chance that Joss or a legal suit type person may read this and in their anger, sue, I will say that this little piece of work is for fun. The characters contained below belong to Joss, ME production, and others that I don't know. The Chinese from this story is taken from the book, Finding Serenity.
Summary: The Scoobs and The Crew meet up in Cleveland a few years after Sunnydale became a landfill. Hijinx ensue.
A/N: 3 chapters a day for the next few days...Thank you, read and enjoy!
“Heya Buff, we had a big bang out by the lake,” Xander’s voice rang out through the intercom. “You want me to send a team or do you want to check it out yourself?”
Buffy was in her room with a bottle of coral pink nail polish in one hand and her right little toe in the other. “How big, Xand?”
“Big enough that we have to intercept the cops en route.”
Buffy sighed and capped the polish in her hands. “Great, at least my tootsies are done.”
“What?” Xander asked confused.
“Nothing, I can check it out. Hey is Will back? Maybe she can go with.”
Just then a knock at the door was followed by the door opening to reveal the redhead in question smiling over at Buffy. “Hey there nail polish girl, Dawn just let me know. Come on we’ll go check it out, slay if needed, then mochas”
“You buyin’?” Buffy queried, putting the nail polish down on her dresser and finding a pair of socks for her feet.
Willow walked all the way into the room and sat on the bed swinging her feet. “No, but Xander is. He lost a bet.”
Buffy smiled and slipped her feet into some boots. “All the better.” She picked up her standard issue weapons: stake and holy water, and went for the door. “Come on slow poke. I’ve got a peppermint mocha with my name on it.”
Willow let out a breath dripping with playful exasperation, “Yes, General Summers, whatever you say.”
“That’s General Goddess Summers to you, General of the Witch-Fu Rosenberg.”
“If we’re that, what’s Xander?” Willow asked mischievously.
“He’s,” Buffy stopped and put a serious face on, “he’s General of the Moon Pies Harris.”
Willow rolled her eyes. “I’m sure the title will please him.”
“It better!”
The two women continued down the hall, chuckling as they went. They picked up a truck at the garage and made their way out into the night. It was fall and Cleveland was absolutely beautiful this time of year. The leaves were changing color and although it was night Buffy could easily discern the difference. Sheloved Cleveland in the fall. The winter sucked, but she felt it was worth the price to see the autumn colors. While Willow was driving out to the lake shore Buffy let her mind wander a bit. It was September, nothing major going on, and 2007 had shaped up to be a really great year. She noticed though that after Sunnydale, all the years just seemed to get better. Things were routine and she could plan her life months in advance. That took getting used to, but once it was established that Buffy could plan and plan well, she did it all the time. She was currently working on a 6 month outline of her life and even though she felt 6 months was stretching it, she took the advice of Faith: ‘Go big or go home.’
When they reached the lake Willow pulled the truck to the curb and followed Buffy down a path to the shore.
“I don’t see why I couldn’t drive.”
Willow raised an eyebrow in response and nothing more.
“What? My driving has improved! And, and we could have gotten here quicker!”
“You mean to say we could have gotten here so much deader.”
“Is that even a word? Deader? Come on, Will.”
“You’re one to talk Buffy.”
The blonde’s lips formed a tight line and she shut up the rest of the way to the lake side. They were both plugged in to the command center and turned on their COM links.
“This is Wicca 1 and Slayer 1 checking in. Over,” Willow’s voice hushed as they made their way to the lake side.
“Roger that you two,” came Xander’s voice through the earpiece. “It seems like the big boom is over in the Southeast corner. No visuals, just a lot of electro-static feedback. Proceed with caution. Over.”
Buffy just rolled her eyes at the army speak. She wasn’t happy at the similarities between their way of doing things post-Sunnydale and what she went through with the Initiative. Willow noticed Buffy’s annoyance and stuck her tongue out at the blonde. They moved quickly towards their destination, but stopped about 100 yards out when they saw the source of the big boom. On the shore stood what could only be described as a space ship. Mouths hung open, flies got in, it was not pretty.
The witch motioned for Buffy to turn off her COM Link and found her voice in the process, whispering, “Buff, now I know in the past 10 years you and I have seen loads of stuff. Probably more stuff than we should have. So I am going to ask this very slowly and seriously: Is that a spaceship?”
Buffy could only nod at her friend’s question. The slayer rubbed at her eyes, blinked, then rubbed her eyes again. The one girl in all the world who’s stopped more apocalypses than anyone should have to, the girl who’s died twice and come back for more, and coincidently the one girl in all the world who used to have a taste for the undead of the male persuasion was so awestruck at the sight before her that she was only able to grunt in response.
Willow grabbed her friend’s hand and pulled her along. They approached slowly using any available cover and as they got closer saw a group of people standing in front of the ship talking. Willow took in the sight of the people in the group. There was the leader, or at least what she assumed to be the leader, he was standing in the center wearing black boots, brown pants and a long brown coat waving his arms about. There was a dark skinned girl as tall as Willow dressed similarly to the man, but she had on a leather vest instead of the coat and her hair was braided down the back. There were two other men with them; one was kinda dirty looking. Big gorilla with a gun popped into Willow’s mind as she took him in. The other man had on slacks and a button down shirt, well kept and very neat. Along with this group were three girls. The first Willow took notice of was the one the leader was yelling at, she was wearing what appeared to be mechanics overalls and she had black smudges covering her body. The next girl was in a flowing off white dress and combat boots. The third woman, yes definitely a woman not a girl Willow thought, was dressed in what looked like a sari and sandals. Willow shook her head at the oddity of the group standing before her. She motioned to Buffy and they moved closer to eavesdrop on the conversation.
“What in the sphincter of hell are you playing at, Kaylee!?” Mal had given up on all pretense of being cool and calm. His wonderful boat, his home was currently unable to fly and his crew was stranded on God knows what rock with God knows who around. He clasped his hands behind his head and continued to pace back and forth.
“Capt’n I’m tellin’ you, I don’t know what happened.” Kaylee was clearly upset and she was unable to keep up the bravado any longer. Tears spilt over and created tracks down her grease and grime smudged cheeks.
River watched the scene play out and decided that she’d had enough. “Navigations are secure, nowhere we are and nowhere we’ll stay as this continues.” She slipped her arm around Kaylee’s waist and led her away from Mal.
Mal turned to Zoë and asked, “Do we have any power?”
“Yes, but it won’t do much good if she can’t fly. We’ve got some electrical, but no power from the engine. It looks like the converter got fried on entry.”
Simon stepped up and tried to add some sense to the situation the crew found themselves in, “Mal, perhaps we should find some of the local inhabitants; it would be prudent to see if we are in friendly territory.”
“Doc’s got a point Mal. We could talk to the locals and find us some supplies,” Jayne said, spitting out the lugee that had been lodged in his throat.
“Liou coe shway dug biao-tze duh bun ur-tze. Fine, but only Zoë and I are going. I don’t want anything happening to you guys while we’re gone, getting into that kinda bind is never something I feel like dealing with. River, Kaylee, you guys try and figure out what in the tyen shiao duh is going on here. Dong ma?”
The girls nodded and continued to look around. Without saying anything, Zoë drew her weapon and pointed it to an outcropping of rocks 10 feet to their right. Mal and Jayne quickly followed suit and pointed their weapons in that general direction.
“It’d be a might good idea of whoever’s out that way to show themselves, ‘fore my first mate gets trigger happy,” Mal hollered.
Willow and Buffy exchanged a glance appearing to come to a decision. Buffy made the first move and stepped out from their hiding place with her arms raised. Willow followed, half hiding behind the slayer with her arms in a similar position.
Mal didn’t notice any weaponry and holstered his gun, motioning the other two to do the same. He tried to give the two girls before him a winning smile, but by the looks on their faces failed miserably. “Good evening, ladies. Sorry about that. You can’t be too trusting sometimes and it seems like now is one of them times.”
Buffy and Willow both nodded and lowered their hands.
“You two wouldn’t mind tellin’ me where me and my crew‘ve landed would you?”
“Cleveland,” Buffy answered.
“Huh? Come again?” Mal asked, clearly confused.
“Cleveland, Ohio,” Buffy tried again, speaking slower.
Simon stepped up and asked for clarification, “What planet are we on?”
Buffy looked at the 7 people and shrugged giving up, “Willow, you want to take this one?”
Willow smiled. “Uh, you guys landed on Earth. You are in Cleveland, Ohio. Ohio is a state in America.”
She hoped she was being clear enough but by the looks on the visitor’s faces she knew that was clearly not the answer they were expecting.
Zoë and Mal both hissed out, “Taikong suoyou de zingqiu saijin wo de pigu!”
“Mal, I think the redhead’s kinda squirrelly, maybe we should just shoot ‘em and find some people that are gonna talk sense,” Jayne said eyeballing the two girls standing there.
“Bi zui! Jayne, don’t make me shut your mouth up for you. River! Get back on the navsat and see if there’s anything at all comin’ up. Move girlie,” Mal barked the order out and River ran off.
“Uh, you guys wouldn’t like to keep this in English please. We don’t speak whatever it is that you’re speaking,” Buffy asked, annoyed.
The crew of the ship just looked at Buffy as if she was simple. River came running out of the ship a few moments later and whispered in Mal’s ear.
“Well now, zhen shi ge kuai le de jin zhan. River, talk crazy speak to these two please?”
River stepped up to the two strangers and smiled. “What year is it?”
“2007,” Willow said.
“Oh, existing is going to continue to be a problem.” River turned and walked back to her brother.
Buffy was fed up with all the weird talk and stepped into Mal’s space. She’d eyeballed him for the leader and was glad when her estimation wasn’t wrong.
“Look, I don’t know where you guys are from, but me and my friend will be more than willing to help out if one of you would explain to me what in the hell is going on.” Buffy placed her hands on her hips and waited on a response.
“Look little girl…” Mal started.
“Little?” Buffy grew angrier than she was only a few moments ago.
“Gorram it, will you let me finish.”
“Insulting me isn’t getting you anywhere faster.”
“Okay there, hot pants, as I was saying, me and my crew here were being chased by some Alliance ships and flew into a black hole. Next thing I know, we lose control and land on this rock. So let me wrap my head around this a moment. We are on Earth That Was and it’s the year 2007?”
“The time is about right, but Earth That WAS?”
“Tama de!” Mal threw his hands up in the air.
Introductions were made all around with both the blonde and the redhead snickering when Jayne was introduced. It was a common twist of fate the two had grown used to, after all, the slayer was named Buffy. Cussing, Mal led everyone, including Buffy and Willow, into the cargo area of Serenity. Of all the things that had happened, of all the weirdness that was his life; he could not wrap his head around being thrown back in time and crashing on Earth That Was.
He took a look at the two girls from this time and noticed the wonder with which they not only climbed aboard, but also took in his home. He had a hard time not trusting them. Both girls had a look about them that made him jumpier than a cat in a dog pound but that set him at ease because that look, he knew, was one that was often found on himself and Zoë.
Buffy stood, hands on hips looking at her surroundings. She smiled at Willow. “Xander should be here for this.”
“He would definitely flip out. This is just wow!”
“Capt’n,” Kaylee called from the stairs. “Can I see you a moment?”
Mal looked up and nodded. “Tell me you’ve good news little Kaylee?” Mal asked after meeting her up near the engine room.
She shrugged. “It’s not so bad. The core containment is cracked, but it’s not like I can’t fix it. The trouble is the stuff I need we may not be able to get.” Kaylee looked down at her feet and said, “The other thing is, I found the major problem.”
She glanced back up cautiously meeting Mal’s intense gaze. “I ran a better check of the wiring. Seems it got partially fried. I’ve run tests and it may be that the electrical storm we passed through after coming out of the hole fried parts of the converter and some secondary circuits.”
“So how long, ‘fore we get runnin’ again?” Mal asked, hopefully.
“Don’t rightly know. If we can get the materials, it may only be a day or two, but even when we get Serenity airborne again, how are we gonna get home?”
Mal saw the fear in his mechanics eyes and shrugged. “I don’t yet know, but maybe our new friends might be able to do somethin’ for us. Good work.” Mal turned and walked back down to the cargo bay.
“Alright, everyone gather up. Kaylee said that she needs some stuff to fix the boat up with, but the bigger problem is how we get to our own time.” Mal turned to River. “Nyen ching-duh you think you might be able to figure something out?”
River shrugged and went back to peering at the two new people and holding on to her brother’s hand.
“Okay, then, while Kaylee gets a list of supplies in order I suggest we all just get some shut eye.” Mal turned to the two new girls and asked, “Where do you two call home?”
“A school about 10 minutes from here,” Buffy answered. “What are you guys planning to do with your ship?”
“Can’t we just park it here?” Mal asked.
“Sure if you want the government to confiscate it and then turn you and your friends into a bunch of lab rats,” Buffy said.
“Not on my list of things to do. You got a plan?” Mal eyed the little blonde one up; sure that she had something up her sleeve.
“Will.” Buffy turned a thoughtful gaze to her friend. “What do you think? Can we get this thing moved to a storage facility close to the school?”
“How? It’s not like we came equipped to move a space ship.”
“How about a truck, like one of those big flatbed thingy’s that haul stuff?” Buffy asked, knowing what the answer was going to be.
“Nope, I think the best thing to do would be to take everyone back to HQ. They can stay there.” Willow looked at the assembled group and knew that if they doubled up the school would have enough rooms.
“And the big hunk of metal out in the open?”
Willow shrugged, “I think maybe I can come up with something to cover it up. A spell or two that will ward anyone away from coming within 100 yards of the place, they crashed in an area not really visited that much this time of year.”
“And what if we get curious people?”
“We can set up a perimeter and have two slayers patrol around the clock.”
Buffy smiled and slung her arm over Willow’s shoulder. “Did I ever tell you I like the way you think?”
“No, in fact last week you were cursing my name.”
“That’s ‘cuz you weren’t being all agreey with me.” Buffy smiled wide and only received an upturned eyebrow in appreciation of her attempt at humor. Buffy looked at the rest of the people and said, “I would pack some clothes. You guys can stay with us.”
“Why can’t we stay on the ship?” It was the first time Inara had spoken in all of this and the question had taken Buffy and Willow off guard.
The redhead and slayer exchanged a look. “Because it’s not safe,” Buffy answered. “The ship will be fine, but you guys won’t be safe here.”
Mal had gone off to get Kaylee, so Zoë stepped up and said, “Inara, this isn’t our world. I suggest we do what the blonde one says.”
Inara only nodded and went to her shuttle to collect some clothes. Jayne just stood around while everyone left to pack a bag.
“What?” the man asked, as he noticed both Willow and Buffy looking at him expectantly.
“Nothing, but aren’t you going to, ya know, go pack?” Willow asked.
“Whadda I need to do that for? I’ve got a few guns on me and I just put these clothes on yesterday.”
Willow had to turn around to keep from laughing while she pinched her friend’s arm so that she wouldn’t comment. As Willow regained control, Mal appeared followed closely by River, Kaylee, and Simon. Zoë showed up shortly after and Inara came a few minutes later.
“Is everyone ready?” Buffy asked.
“Let’s move,” Mal hollered. “Kaylee shut the bay doors and meet us outside.”
They walked through the cargo bay and waited as Kaylee followed Mal’s instructions. She came out a second or two after the door shut and joined Simon.
“You need anything for the hocus pocus?” Buffy inquired.
“Nah, just give me a few minutes, it’s a big ship.” Willow turned back to the ship and began muttering in Latin.
As she continued the incantation, the ship began to fade from view. Five minutes later and with more sweat than Willow remembered ever having produced; the ship was not only warded, but completely invisible. She turned smiling to Buffy. “One invisible ship for you, General. Would you like fries with that?”
Buffy just stuck her tongue out at the witch.
“Whatdya do with my boat girl?” Mal asked eyes wide with shock.
Willow shrugged. “Nothing, it’s fine, you just can’t see it. We can’t have people knowing it’s here. Even on a hellmouth, this thing would draw a lot of attention.”
“What?” Three voices asked in unison.
Willow wasn’t sure who said what so she supplied a general answer, “The ship would cause too much attention. I bent the light around the ship to make it appear like nothing was there. It’s fine. Trust me.”
“Oh,” Mal let out. He approached the area of where he thought the ship was cautiously. He took a shaking hand and pressed it against the cool metal of the now invisible Serenity. “It’s all here?”
“Yep,” Willow confirmed.
“Alright then, as long as it stays that way everything’s shiny.”
Buffy had grown increasingly nervous standing out here in the open. As inactive as this hellmouth was there were still beasties roaming and she didn’t want a conversation that she would have to take the time to explain the downside of living on a hellmouth. It would be better to do it in the morning when she was not as disgruntled. “Ok, is everyone ready? Our truck’s just up the way.” Buffy turned and started walking ahead of the group.
Mal looked to his crew and nodded towards the blonde. “You heard the girl, move!”
Willow took up the rear and watched as the strange group of people followed her best friend, thinking that she and Xander were going to have a lot of fun with this. She also gave a small thanks to the gods that Andrew wasn’t here with his endless supply of annoying questions and quips.
Inara held back and began to fall in step with the witch. “That was a pretty impressive trick you pulled with Serenity,” the companion complimented.
“Uh? Serenity?”
“The ship.”
“Oh, its name is Serenity?”
Inara nodded but didn’t say anything.
“It’s nice I like it, Serenity. And the invisible thing wasn’t much of anything really. It’s all about control. Now, like five years ago, it would have been impossible, but now it’s like nothing.” Willow smiled. “See the trick is to realize that you can’t change the ship and you may not be able to change the air around the ship, but you can manipulate the air easier than you can a big hunk of metal. So you bend the air, which bends the light which renders things non-seey. If only I could tell this to NASA and prove Einstein right,” the redhead trailed off wistfully.
Inara just looked at the redhead and nodded. Despite not being able to follow what the other girl said, there was something about her that set Inara at ease and she liked the feeling. After everything that had happened to her, feeling at ease was more of a luxury than not. The women fell into a comfortable silence and finished the walk in peace.
The ride back to the school wasn’t that bad. Willow had chosen to drive one of the trucks and luckily they were able to fit almost everyone in the cab. Jayne and Zoë had taken the truck bed as accommodations while Mal, Inara, Simon, River and Kaylee squeezed into the cab. As they pulled into the garage, Buffy saw Xander and Dawn pacing at the bay doors. Buffy hopped out of the cab first and went to go smooth things over with Xander.
“Hey guys, we have company.” Buffy smiled at the man and her sister.
Xander looked up at Buffy’s jovial tone. He had been worried sick since they turned off communications. The only thing that kept him from going out there and looking himself was Faith assuring him that she could feel Buffy was okay. He knew that if Buffy was ok then Willow was ok so he took to pacing the garage floor.
“Who?” He asked, slightly confused and miffed.
“That’s going to take longer than I want. Let’s get everyone settled and then I’ll have them explain it to you in the morning.”
Xander nodded and met Willow with a hug.
“Hey there big guy, you done freaking yet?” Willow teased. She knew he was hurt that they cut transmission, but Buffy and her needed to figure out what was going on without him freaking out 15 miles away.
“Kind of.” Xander turned to the oddly dressed group that his friends brought back and asked, “And who might you be?”
Taking time to point out his crew, Mal made the introductions. When he was finished, Willow ushered them in and showed them to extra sleeping quarters. By the time everyone was settled and buttoned down for the night, it was close to 2am. The witch had seen to everyone’s needs and was walking back to her room when she was pulled into a room by an outstretched arm. She let out a small squeak and then relaxed when she saw the arm belonged to the blonde slayer.
“For goddess sake Buff, were you trying to give me a heart attack?” Willow had her arms folded across her chest.
Buffy smiled sheepishly and nodded. “I didn’t mean to ya know attack you, but it seemed like fun.”
“Kriminey. So why did you attack one of your oldest friends?” Willow went over to the bed and plopped down on the comforter.
“Bored, I dunno. Wanted to see if you were still up for mochas and talk about getting those people back to their time.”
“Ah, the mighty slayer brain is working over time?”
“Maybe. Come on. You, me, the kitchen and chocolaty something then maybe a nap?” Buffy made sad eyes at the redhead that she knew always worked.
“Fine, let’s go. We are forgoing the kitchen though. Let’s go to Eat’n Park. They’re open 24 hours and sure no mochas but the coffee’s not half bad.”
The two left the room and headed to the restaurant. The place was moderately quiet and the ones who were there were teenagers and early twenty somethings who had nothing better to do with their time. They took a booth near the front of the restaurant and ordered. Forgoing chocolate in favor of fried cheesy goodness, Buffy had an order of cheese sticks with a diet coke and Willow took a coffee with a muffin.
“So Will, do you have any ideas on how to get them back to their own time?”
“I’ve been thinking there are some spells that create temporal folds. You know we’ve been privy to a few, but all of them are dangerous. We can’t send them back the way they came, that’s for sure.”
“You mean we can’t just say something like “let the spell be ended” and then poof they’re poofed?” the blonde hopefully asked.
Willow shook her head no. “They weren’t poofed here. They were…they were well I’m not sure really. There are a couple of theories some physicist were working on, but from all the stuff I’ve read no one is close to figuring out time travel. It’s relatively looked at as a myth. Besides magic, there’s no way to do it.”
“Hmm, how dangerous could it be?” Buffy wanted to know the answer but figured it would be on par with the usual.
“Oh, well, the usual, dimensions bleeding together, hell on earth. The standard fare really.”
“You couldn’t have lied to me?”
“No, I mean I’ve been through the possible spells that would make things as they were, but as I said, I don’t think they will work. The spaceship wasn’t magiced here; it crashed here because of a temporal fold in a black hole and that causes even my head to go all kerfloopey.”
“Well, aren’t you just chock full of fun and optimistic news?”
“I know, I know. I’m not saying it can’t be done. I’m just sayin’ that it might be a while.”
Buffy sighed and began picking at her food. “Hey Wills, I was wondering, does Mal seem familiar to you at all?” This small feeling of recognition had been bugging the slayer since meeting the man.
Willow cocked her head to the side and studied her friend. Also, she couldn’t help but smile at the look Buffy was currently wearing. Her brow was slightly crinkled and she had the patented Summers’ confused mouth, slightly down turned at the corners. The redhead would also have been lying if she said it wasn’t one of the cutest looks Buffy had in her arsenal. “Mal? No, not really. Why?”
“I…he reminds me of someone and I can’t it figure out. God, this is going to be bugging me all night!” Buffy shook her head to try and remove the thoughts. It laid there though in the back of her head as she tried to remember who Mal made her think of.
Mal decided to make one last check on everyone, except Jayne, who had opted to take a room with only a single twin bed, before turning in. Kaylee and Simon took one room, Inara decided to share with River, and Mal and Zoë took the last. It was late and the man was tired and more worried than he could ever remember being. He closed the door and saw Zoë had taken the left side of the bed. Mal removed his coat first then boots.
“Mal?” Zoë looked up into the light.
“Go back to sleep. It’s been a good long day and I don’t suppose they’re gonna get any shorter for a spell.”
“We need to talk.”
“Morning?” he asked hopefully stripping off his shirt.
“We need to figure what’s gonna happen.”
Mal slipped under the covers and clasped his hands behind his head to look at the ceiling. “Well the way I see it is, first we see if we can repair the damage. If so, then let’s get Serenity back in the air. Now, about gettin’ back to our own time? That I don’t rightly know. Maybe the little one can cook something up for us.” Mal’s voice lowered at the thought and continued, “If not then we might be stuck here.” He didn’t know what Earth That Was held and truthfully he didn’t care. He loved The Black. He liked the freedom that it gave and he loved the people he sailed with.
“Here?”
“Where else? These folk seem alright. Pretty helpful folk and they seem awful close. Maybe they got work that can be done. I don’t know,” Mal finally conceded. “Look, let’s just get some shut eye and deal with this fei hua in the morning. I got a notion it’ll be waiting on us.”
Simon held on to a Kaylee. His wife hadn’t said a word in nearly an hour and that was not like the mechanic he knew.
“Kaylee, bao bei?” Simon kissed the top of her head and waited on a response.
“Hmm?”
“What are you thinking about?”
“A whole lot right now Si. I reckon that even if I can get Serenity up and runnin’ again that we may not be able to get home. If we are able to get home, then what’s fer us there t’ain’t much but runnin’ from the law and stayin’s far away from the Alliance as possible.”
“It’s what we have been doing and you seemed ok to do just that.”
“I guess, well, awe hell I dunno what I’m gettin’ on about. I just want us back where we belong. Sailin’ in the Black and pulling the occasional caper or two.” Kaylee snuggled into her husband’s embrace and let the rhythm of his breathing lull her to sleep.
The next morning Buffy had gathered everyone up in the conference room to go over the entire situation, the crew of Serenity’s and the School’s. She paced at the head of the table as everyone gathered in and took their seats. Willow was the last to breeze in and closed the conference room doors nodding to the blonde slayer at the front of the room.
“Mal, I’m going to give the floor to you for a moment to go over the details of how you guys got here,” Buffy started. Turning to Giles and Faith, she said, “This is Rupert Giles and Faith. You met Xander and Dawn last night.”
A bit uncomfortable in the meeting, Mal stepped up and began, “Well, I can sus’ it out for you to the best of my abilities. I’m Malcolm Reynolds, captain of the transport ship, Serenity. My crew is as follows: First Mate: Zoë Washburn, Pilot: River Tam, Ship Medic: Dr. Simon Tam, Mechanic: Kaylee Tam, On Board Companion: Inara Sera, and our Public Relations Guy: Jayne Cobb.” He pointed to each of his crew as he went through introductions.
“We were flyin’ through between a few of the border planets and got tracked by an Alliance War vessel. They decided to give chase and we out ran ‘em best we could, but they got a few more bells and whistles. In a last ditch effort to not get caught, we flew into a black hole. Now the way I hear it tell is they just spit you right back out on to the other side. ‘Cept that’s not what happened. Kaylee tells me the electrical or some such doodad got fried going through. When we did get spit out, we were movin’ like a bat outta hell and then crashed here. That’s about it. Not sure what you’re lookin’ for here.”
Through the course of Mal’s explanation Xander’s jaw dropped lower and lower until the muscles creaked in protest. He snapped it shut by the end and just couldn’t believe his ears. There’s a spaceship out at the lake. These people are from the future and the one eyed Scooby nearly wet his pants at the enormity of the situation.
“What year are you guys from?” Dawn asked.
“2507. Why?” Mal said.
“Curious is all. That puts you exactly 500 years in the past.” Dawn shrugged.
Giles just finished putting his glasses back on and stuffed the kerchief back in his coat pocket. “Then the questions are as follows: How do we repair your ship and then how do we get you home?”
“That’d be the one’s we need to worry about.” Mal sat down in a chair towards the head of the long, oblong conference table and propped his feet up.
“Giles, I’ve already started looking for a spell or something, but I’m not sure that’s going to work,” Willow piped up from her place beside Inara. “Buffy and I were talking last night and I’m not sure magic is the way to go about getting them home.”
“I think we’ll worry about that a little later on. I would like you, Buffy, and Xander to go to the ship with them today. See if you can get a list of parts that would be suitable for use. Then let’s see if we can get it repaired. Now, about this spell you put over the ship?”
“Just a glamour really, bends the air and light around the ship so it can’t be seen.”
“Right, very good dear.” Giles smiled over at Willow. Despite the distance she’d come since Sunnydale, he was wary, at the very least, of his “daughter” performing any major spells.
“Hey now, what’s all this? Magic! Girlie, what in the hell ‘r you talkin’ about?” Jayne got a little nervous when the word spell came up. “You some kinda witch?”
Willow sat back and smiled. “Yep.”
Her calm reply startled the man and he sputtered, “You just keep your conjurin’ to yourself and I won’t have to introduce you to Vera.”
“Jayne,” Mal warned. “Jayne, shut your trap.” He sent a hard look at the man and then nodded over to Willow. The last thing he wanted to do was offend the people who were helping them out of this bind. He was also pretty certain that these were probably the only people who would. “Thank you. Your help is appreciated.”
Willow merely nodded in the captain’s direction and continued to sit back unfazed by Jayne’s outburst. Willow looked to Giles and gave him a nod to continue.
“Certainly. Alright then, Buffy, I think we should fill them in on who we are and what we do here,” Giles said with a raised eyebrow.
“Sure thing. Well, you guys mostly know who we are, but not what we really do and not about the school. Do you guys know what vampires are?”
“Story book legends, myths told to keep children home at night,” Inara spoke up, slightly amused that such a serious group of people would ask such a question.
“Ah, how much do you know about this time?” Buffy probed.
“Bits and pieces, Earth That Was is a fairy tale land. There are traditions and customs in our time that are based on Earth That Was, but I’m quite certain that nothing is truly replicated only shadowed,” Simon offered.
Buffy looked to Giles asking, “Do you want to explain this part?”
“Fine,” Giles said, launching into the long standing explanation of the history of the earth not shown on the History Channel and the existence of slayers, vampires, and demons. As he finished his tale, Giles looked to Buffy to pick up and finish off the story.
Buffy nodded and stood once again. “I was called as the slayer at the age of 15. I moved to Sunnydale, California, shortly after being summoned where I met everyone that you’ve met here today. Six years ago, I died facing a hell god; three months after my death I was brought back to life by my friends. Because of that and some other vague stupid reasons the Powers that Be refused to explain, this allowed a being to slip through and try to bring forth hell on Earth. It’s called the First. We stopped it in Sunnydale, but not before taking the slayer line and tweaking it. To win that war, we gave all potential girls full slayer power. The school you guys are in right now houses and trains these girls until they are of age to go home and do it themselves.” Buffy finished the speech and sat back down waiting on the reactions of the new people.
“Dung ee-miado. What exactly do you take me and my crew for a bunch of yu buh dun dai ngoi hwoon dahns?” Mal couldn’t help but feel insulted. Sure, they seemed nice and then came at you with all this stuff about demons and vampires and slayers? “Look, if you folk don’t wanna help just say so. It’s fine we can make our own way just fine.”
He nodded to Zoë and they stood to leave signaling the rest of the crew it was time to go.
“Wait, stop,” Buffy urged as she saw them get up to leave. “I know it all sounds crazy, but if we hadn’t seen your ship, do you think we’d believe you. Give us a chance to prove ourselves at least.”
Mal looked to Zoë and saw the imperceptible nod. “Alright girl, when?”
“Tonight. I can’t show you anything until tonight. Until then, let’s get something to eat and then we can go look at your ship.”
The captain nodded and waited for Buffy to show them where the kitchen was. The crew and gang ate and then made a quick trip to the ship to try and find what parts were needed for repairs.
Willow was currently in awe of the engine room. She had brought a digital camera and voice recorder so that she could record Kaylee’s explanation of the inner-workings of the ship. Part names, coupling locks, and wiring all whizzed past the redhead as the now greasy mechanic beamed when she finished welding the core containment closed.
“See, more ‘n anything. This ship,” Kaylee dropped her voice at the word ship and patted the side of the main engine, “she’s my girl, Serenity. We’ve got an understanding. I take care of her good an’ proper and she keeps us movin’. She’s part of the crew.” Kaylee once again grinned at the redhead with a look of familial pride evident on the young woman’s face.
Willow, feeling a little inadequate and unsure of what to say, just nodded and followed her out of the engine room, across the catwalks of the cargo hold and to Inara’s shuttle all the while thinking that Kaylee had to be one of the more interesting people she had met in a long time. The grease covered mechanic knocked before entering and allowed Willow to move past her.
“Hey Inara, I’m just shuttling around Willow here and thought you would like to take over for a while. I got a few more things to look over ‘fore I hand over the final list. That okay?”
“Of course,” Inara answered. Smiling, she ushered Willow in. “Welcome to my home, Willow.”
The redhead looked around at the area. Deep rich colors of red, burgundy, gold, silver and black ran everywhere. The room was steeped in Asian culture. Willow noticed some Geisha drawings; an interesting depiction of one of the Hindu goddesses, and in the corner of the room sat a Buddha statue at the centre of an altar. The bed looked inviting, but somewhat dramatic. The room gave off an aura of a stage set and not a bedroom.
Willow took in the immaculate woman who was now staring at her curiously and really saw her makeup, the careful construction of the woman and couldn’t help the words that came tumbling out of her mouth, “What is it exactly that you do? With the ship I mean? What’s a companion and gosh, I know it’s kinda weird, but you don’t seem to really…” Willow trailed off in frustration. The last thing she wanted to do was offend Inara.
“Fit in?” Inara offered with a small smile playing at the corner of her mouth.
“Uh, yeah sort of. It’s just that you and Simon both aren’t really…”
“We’re from a different part of society. Trust me the differences are glaringly obvious, but these people are our family.”
“You guys really seem to care for each other.”
“We do, but you also seem to care for your group of friends as well.”
“I do. The Scooby Gang we’ve been through more than most.”
“You all are serious then about the vampires?”
“I know it’s unbelievable. When I first found out it, well, it took some getting used to, but things are a lot quieter now.”
“When did you find out?”
“Ah, let’s see, I was a sophomore in high school, about 10 years ago.”
“How old were you?” Inara asked, clearly confused.
“15-16 years old. It was a few months before my 16th birthday actually.”
“And you’ve been fighting this…war ever since?”
“Well, yeah.” Willow sat down on the couch Inara had motioned to and allowed herself to relax in the other woman’s company. “it’s weird I guess, but once I saw what’s out there, how can you not want to try and help? I guess it’s also for Buffy. She was so young and I couldn’t let someone I cared about go through that alone. I refused to. She risked her life for me the first day we met and to not return that type of loyalty wasn’t even a consideration. I’ll tell you more stories later if you want. You never answered my question.”
Inara smiled and leaned into the witch. “I’m a companion. In our time, they are women trained in certain arts. We are…” Inara found herself at a loss for words. She had never had to explain what a companion was before. Everyone in the planets knew what type of work she did and while she wasn’t ashamed of what she did, to try and explain it to someone was leaving her tongue tied.
“In your terms, I suppose you might find that I am a prostitute. It’s a very crude definition of what I do. We, companions, are trained at schools. We are brought up learning skills and languages and history, all to make us better at what we do. Seduction is part of it, but not all of it. Sex plays a role obviously, but it is never the focus.”
The witch leaned back in to the couch and just listened. She wasn’t shocked or appalled just really curious. “Okay, I guess that clears it up. I just saw all of this and well, got curious.”
Inara had never felt the need to defend or explain her career, but there was an unexplainable urge to make Willow understand. She didn’t know why but she needed this girl to like her. “I know, it’s unconventional here, but in our time companions are held in very high regard, sought after and given status in society. Respected.”
“That’s cool, I mean I can’t judge really, so not my place, but it’s cool. Do you like it?”
Inara smiled and let the relief wash through her. She told Willow about her time at the academy and both women got lost in conversation and each other’s company.
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