Title: Divine Intervention

Pairings: mainly Spike/Xander and Gunn/Wes, Willow/Tara, and others

Warnings: AU, slash, angst, violence, language, major character death (though I'm not really sure if it actually counts as character death) etc. I'll put warnings on those chapters when I get to them.

Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy or the characters.

Summary: The timeline broken and history rewritten, seven individuals find themselves remembering events that have never happened and people they have never met. Willow thinks this is their chance to save humanity. Xander thinks she's insane.

AN: Okay, this is basically a re-write of an uncompleted story that hasn't really gotten anywhere, called So Not Disneyland, which I'm hating. And if anyone cares and actually counts up the fighters that are indirectly mentioned in this one part and then wonders where everyone else is, I'll tell you. Angel and Cordelia came to Sunnydale after she had a vision of some guy doing a spell. This not being a huge thing really, only those two went, Wesley and Gunn stayed back in LA and kept an eye on things there. Cordelia having done her duty and describing the vision stayed home with Dawn and Anya, again because this wasn't some huge deal that needed tons of people to fight. Spike was sent off to patrol somewhere else because the wizard was human and he couldn't do anything to help without the chip acting up.

Prologue: Outside of Reality

-

Looking down at the battle currently being played out on Earth, the male and female representations of the Powers that Be frowned, displeased with how the situation was unfolding.

The chosen battlefield was a small clearing in the woods, fortunately located a good few miles from the actual Hellmouth. Surrounded by trees, there was just enough space for the large protective circle that had been drawn around the complex system of runes written in the dirt and the multitude of candles that had been spread deliberately throughout. And sitting in the very center of all this was a single human, a wizard, his eyes closed as he chanted loudly and lifted his arms to the sky.

Surrounding the human at all sides but unable to penetrate the protective circle, six others stood just at the edges of the clearing. Brute force had already proven useless, the Slayer and their Champion hitting the barrier and being violently thrown back, as had the crossbow arrows fired by the human boy. The Slayer's Watcher and the two witches had taken to trying to bring down the barrier through magic but, unfortunately, all attempts so far had been largely unsuccessful, and the group suspected that they would need to wait until the caster's magic was more focused on his spell than his own protection, allowing for weak-spots to appear. They didn't know when this would occur though, and figured that a constant barrage would speed things up a little, so the current plan seemed to be to throw whatever they could at it and hope for the best.

Frustrated with the overall incompetence being shown here, the male narrowed his eyes at the lower beings. "Things are not going as planned."

"No, they are not," the female agreed, expression one of calculation as she watched, "The situation has proven far more difficult than expected."

Down on Earth, the wizard continued to chant as the runes surrounding him began to glow softly. Noticing this, the fighters outside of the protective barrier stepped up their efforts to break through, using spells, weapons, and force to no avail.

"The mortal is playing with forces far above his own control. He cannot be allowed to finish that spell," the male continued, ignoring the other's comment.

"And yet, I can find no other way for this to go."

The male turned his narrow-eyed gaze on her, obviously unhappy with the assessment, "This will only bring chaos and destruction. All plans will have been for naught."

"Yes," she agreed simply and nodded, knowing it to be true.

"Those Above Us will not be pleased," he persisted.

"Yes," the female agreed again, but her frown deepened at the thought and she studied the battle even more intently for any possible moves to prevent both a demotion and the sure destruction of the world. They were not going to win, that much was certain, but it may be possible for the situation to be salvaged in some way. Maybe if she . . . .

Down on Earth, the protective barrier had been broken too late. The spell was cast and the six fighters were unsuccessful in their attempt at bringing the wizard down before he could escape. Injured by a crossbow bolt but determined, the wizard had managed to slip by them, falling into the now active portal. Grabbing him by the ankle at the last moment, the human boy had been dragged forward by the sucking pull inherent in all magical portals of that particular nature, but was ripped away by the Slayer before he could actually fall through.

Safe in their viewing place outside of the strictly forward-moving reality, the two Higher Beings watched as the wizard's shoes vanished from sight and everything changed.

Whole universes shifting as the timeline was broken, for a single moment there was confusion. Everything free floating, the female simply reacted, instinctively reaching out to grab hold of what she could, and effectively isolated for that one brief second the individual consciousnesses that had once been housed in the bodies of those that had been under her watch. And this one second was all that was needed. The timeline managing to quickly straighten itself out, the individual consciousnesses were immediately lodged in their respective owners.

Seeing this, the male looked at her in question. "Did you have a plan?"

Not quite sure herself as to how her actions would be helpful, the female still managed to give her companion a composed and secretive smile. "We re-build."

TBC. Hopefully this is better than the last one. If not, please tell me.