Time and Time Again

by Lady Dawson

Chapter One: A World at War

With a grunt, Katherine Summers dove behind a piece of debris, moving into a protective position as a bomb exploded nearby. Coughing as dust and debris flew everywhere, she got to her feet, making sure that the street was safe before she took off at a run, racing as fast as she could, which for Katie was very fast, thanks to her being half-vampire.

"Slayer!"

Glancing over her shoulder, Katie came to a stop, turning around to face the three vamps that were trailing her, lifting her head high and giving them an award winning smile. "All right, guys, let's get this over with, I've got a war to fight here," she told them. One of them growled, his golden eyes fixed upon her, but another one, clearly the leader, raised his hand to stop him and Katie turned her green eyes onto him, wondering not for the first time what they wanted and why they were stopping her from getting back to base.

The leader was tall and muscular with curly blond hair that was plastered to his head. His eyes were dark and there was something about those eyes that seemed familiar, but Katie couldn't put her finger on it. Besides, she didn't have the time to think about familiar vampires. People were getting killed/turned seven days a week. She could have seen him anywhere.

But she couldn't shake the feeling that there was something really familiar about him, something that she should know, but didn't.

One of the fledglings laughed, his golden eyes fixed upon Katie. "I like her," he said through his fangs, turning towards the leader, whose eyes were cool and collected. "Can I please have her? She'll make a tasty meal or even better—" Here, his eyes lit up—"I'll make her one of us. I think I'd like to have her forever."

"Dream on, flyboy," Katie returned, taking a fighting stance. The vamp snarled and moved towards her, but with movements faster and more fluid than the average Slayer and more powerful than an average vampire, Katie sent him flying into a hunk of debris, landing on a piece of wood and he turned to dust.

"All too easy," Katie remarked before turning her green eyes towards the remaining two. "Now, who's next?"

The fledgling ignored his master's order to stay where he was, darting forward and was about to attack her when Katie pulled a stake out of her pocket, jamming it into his heart.

"It's so hard to find good help nowadays," the leader commented, shaking his head at his two dusted vampires. "But on the bright side, at least we're alone, Katherine Summers."

For a moment, she was surprised, but she kept it masked. Breathe, Katie, she told herself. In and out. Keep your calm, remember. If you lose your head, it might be the last thing that you ever do.

Keeping her emotions in check and making sure that her voice was completely calm before she spoke, Katie chuckled, surprising the master vampire, because his confident smirk faltered.

"I'm afraid you've got me at a disadvantage," she told him. "You know who I am, but I don't know you."

The smirk was instantly back in place and his dark gaze narrowed slightly. "You don't know me, but you're going to," he assured her. "Because I'm going to be the last thing that you ever see before you die. It'll be a treat, destroying mankind's last hope. The daughter of the legendary Buffy Summers and her vampire lover, the infamous Angelus."

"Angel," Katie snapped, her temper getting the better of her. "My father was Angel, not Angelus."

She was really sick of demons constantly calling her Angelus' daughter, but really, she wasn't. Her father hadn't been the murdering demon that had been known as the Scourge of Europe. She hadn't even met her father's demonic half, because the curse had been permanent by the time that she had been born. Angel, her real father, had been a kind and just man that had done everything in his power to keep his family safe. Often times, it was that kind of self-sacrificing that had driven her mother insane. They had died when she was twelve, when the war first began and Faith, the other Slayer, said that Buffy and Angel being killed was what gave the demons the initiative to begin the war in the first place.

The vampire laughed, his dark eyes actually amused. "Angel, Angelus . . . it really doesn't matter, does it? What does matter is that you're the vampire hybrid, the daughter of the Slayer and the vampire with a soul," he drawled, folding his arms across his chest and smirking at her.

"Let's get this over with," Katie snapped. "I've got things to do, places to be, the world to save, you know the gist."

"Oh, I don't think so." That smirk was really annoying. "I think we're gonna keep playing this awhile longer."

Turning on his heel, he began to walk away, heading away from her and towards the alleyway, pausing briefly. "The name's Nomad," he told her over his shoulder. "I'd suggest that you remember it, Slayer . . . because you're gonna be seeing me a lot. And I assure you that I will be the last thing that you see on this planet."

"We'll just have to see," Katie returned. He chuckled and leaped up on top of the nearly demolished building and vanishing from sight.

Katie watched him go before taking a quick look around to make sure that nothing was coming before she broke into a run, hurrying through the streets and heading straight for the base, praying that nothing had happened while she was gone. Nobody had been killed, nothing had been destroyed, the base was still intact.

Relief flooded through her as she saw the abandoned church up ahead of her. Taking a quick look over her shoulder to make sure that nobody was watching, she hurried up the steps and rapped twice on the cathedral doors, waiting for Patrick to reply.

"Password?" the teenager on the other side whispered.

"We help the helpless," she answered with a small smile. It had been her father's detective agency's motto when he had been here in L.A., fighting demons and saving people. Now, the city that he had defended for so long was in ruins and people were starving and being killed every day. People no longer had the innocence that being normal brought. They knew about demons and worse, they were forced to fight them because the demon army was catastrophic and there weren't enough demon fighters in the world to handle something this big.

The door opened and she slipped inside, looking back at Patrick as he shut the door quickly behind her. Patrick was one of the first orphans from the war, rescued from being slaughtered with a bunch of his orphaned friends and brought here. He, along with so many others, barely knew how to handle the fight and with people being turned every day, the end was looking like it might be all too near.

"Glad you're okay," Patrick said with a shy smile towards her. Katie knew that he had a little bit of a crush on her, despite the fact that she had a boyfriend and was very much in love with Sam.

"Yeah, me too," Katie said with a sigh. "Do you know where Sam, Hope, and Alex are?"

Patrick pointed towards the upper balcony, where she could see the three people she considered her family were talking amongst themselves.

"Thanks," Katie said, hurrying towards the steps and climbing up them as fast as she was able, stopping when she reached her three friends, relief going through her as she saw them alive.

Hope Osborne, the daughter of Oz and Willow Rosenberg-Osborne, was a seventeen-year-old witch with long red hair that fell to her shoulders. She looked a lot like her mother did at that age—at least, she did from the pictures that Katie had seen—but there was more of Oz in her face than there was Willow. But Hope was more than just one of the many powerful witches that they had in the resistance; she was also half-werewolf, which meant that she had to wear an amulet during the full moon to prevent her from becoming a werewolf. But already being part of the supernatural meant that Hope's spells were a lot more powerful than some of her sister witches.

Alex Harris was not just the son of her mom's friend Xander, but his mother was none other than Katie's Aunt Dawn, making the two of them cousins. From the pictures, he was a replica of his father at age seventeen, but he had his mother's bright blue eyes. He and Hope, however, had achieved what his father and her mother had not; they had found their way into each other's arms and into each other's hearts.

Katie smiled as she watched her two best friends holding on to one another before turning towards her own lover, who had stilled the second that she had arrived, his head turning towards her. A smile spread across her face as she looked at him. He was a tall, slightly muscular young man of seventeen, with light brown hair framing his face in a chaotic mess. His blue-grey eyes, which varied in their hues depending on his mood, focused themselves on Katie as she stepped further into the balcony. Those eyes had looked at her when she was fourteen and had really seen her, right down into her soul. He had seen what a burden being the daughter of Buffy Summers and Angel had been and had helped her to carry it, shouldering some of the weight even though it wasn't his burden to carry.

Sam Hilliard was the newest member of their circle, the only one of them that they hadn't known since they were babies, but Hope and Alex had welcomed him in with open arms. All it had taken was the way that he had looked at Katie and the way that Katie had looked at him for them to accept him, despite the fact that Sam was half-demon and his father was serving as a general in the demon army.

But Sam wanted no part of the demonic army and had run away at fourteen to get away from his father. He had chosen to reject his demonic half and found his way to Katie. The two of them had become fast friends and somewhere along the way, love found their way to them.

Standing up quickly, Sam moved over to her, wrapping his arms around her and drawing her against him. Katie inhaled his scent, her eyes fluttering closed as she held on to her lover. It was only in his arms that she felt safe and protected, like nothing could ever harm her so long as she stayed right there in Sam's arms.

"Did you get it?" Hope asked quickly, effectively destroyed the two lovers' sanctuary. Katie glared at her as Sam slowly pulled away, glancing towards Hope, who blushed. "Sorry . . ."

"Never mind that, did you get it?" Alex repeated his girlfriend's question, his blue eyes anxious.

Katie sighed, knowing that there was no point in trying to scold him; it just blew in one ear and out the other. "Yeah," she answered. "I got it." Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a small, old-fashioned key hanging on an extremely old chain. Both the chain and key looked as though they might fall apart if someone touched it wrong.

"Great!" Hope grasped it, her dark eyes gleaming with anticipation as she held one hand over it, power emitting from it. "Yes! This is the one!" she said triumphantly. "Okay, this is really it, we're really going to do this. Or I should say, Katie's really going to do this," she added, looking at the Slayer-vampire sheepishly. Katie rolled her eyes. "Look, it's gonna be fine. It'll be no big deal. You go there, you warn your mom about what's gonna happen when she dies and you come back here, no big deal. In twenty-four hours, we'll all be living in a peaceful future. No problem," she said happily.

Katie raised an eyebrow before looking at Sam, who was trying very hard not to smile, and then glanced at Alex, who was looking anywhere but at his cousin or girlfriend. Hope gave an aggravated noise, standing up with her arms crossed, eyes blazing.

"Hey, why don't you all have a little bit of faith in me?" she demanded. "Just because I've messed up a few spells doesn't mean that I am going to send Katie through a one-way ticket through time unless I was absolutely, positively sure that I knew where she was going to land. Now come on, are we going to do this or not?"

"It's not the spell messing up that I'm worried about," Katie responded, shaking her head. "It's the fact that I don't think this is going to be as simple as you're making it sound. Time-travel is risky business and if one little thing goes wrong, then you could screw up the entire future."

Sam chuckled weakly, wrapping his arms around her. "That's my girl," he said brightly. "Always jumping to the worst possible conclusion."

Katie shot a look at him and he grinned sheepishly at her. She sighed, shaking her head. "You are impossible, you know that?" she complained. "And this sucks, I can't even get mad at you for very long." Hope and Alex laughed. "Fine, let's do this, but before we do, I should probably warn you guys, there's a new vampire hanging around."

"Yeah?" Alex deadpanned. "So what else is new?"

"There was something different about this one," Katie told him. "Something . . . powerful and strange. His name's Nomad."

"What did he want?" Sam asked, his blue-grey eyes reflecting the worry within him.

Not wanting to worry him more, but knowing that he would pick out the lie of her words if she tried, Katie decided just to go with the truth. They needed to know, anyway. "Apparently . . . me," she answered, heaving a sigh. "Dead," she added to clarify.

"Again, how's that different from any other demon of any other day?" Alex pointed out. All three of them looked at him and he held up his hands to pacify them. "Just making a point."

"Yeah," Katie sighed. "And the scary thing is that you're actually right, but we'll talk about that one later. Right now, we've got a spell to do. Hope, what do we need to do?"

--

Hours later, when they were in the vicinity of their room, Hope was sprinkling magical dust over the key, which was glowing as the power absorbed it. The glow began to brighten further and further until at long last, the key shuddered and light shone over it, transforming it into a very old key into a very powerful magical tool.

Beads of sweat were on Hope's forehead as she turned towards Katie, handing the key over to her. "Okay, all you need to do to use this is say the words Tempus peregrinari actuousys," she said, saying the Latin words slowly and clearly. Katie had to say the words half a dozen times until she was satisfied. "Here, I've wrote it down in case you forget. Once you say the words, concentrate on when you want to go, the exact date and the portal will open. Step into the portal and you'll be sent to the date that you want to go to. Or possibly, you'll be blown to pieces," she added. Katie, Sam, and Alex stared at her. "What? It's not an exact science."

Heaving a sigh, Katie looked towards her lover, grasping his hand as he pulled her closer. Hope and Alex were tactful enough to move themselves into a corner, giving them a little bit of privacy to say goodbye. "I don't want to go," she whispered painfully. "I don't want to leave you."

"You never will," Sam promised her. "No matter what happens, no matter what the new future is like, I will find a way to you. You and I are soul mates, Katie, and that's what counts. We'll always find our way to each other. Just remember that." He pulled her into a kiss, filled with passion and longing and hope and Katie had to stop herself from crying. When they pulled apart, he cupped her face tenderly. "We will find our way back to each other, Katie. I promise," he added fiercely. "I love you."

"I love you," she whispered, pressing her forehead against his for one last moment that seemed altogether too short. With a small sniffle, she looked back at her friends, hugging both of them. "I love you guys. Stay safe, okay?" she whispered before they took a step back from her. All four of them were crying, tears streaming down their faces.

Knowing if she didn't do this now, then she would never go, Katie raised the key to the sky and concentrated on the date she wanted to go to as she said firmly, "Tempus peregrinari actuousys."

The portal opened up behind them and Katie stared into the blue and white portal with trepidation. Not daring to risk looking back at them, Katie walked into the portal more boldly than she felt and the second that she entered into it, she was sure that she was going to be sick and it was all that she could do to hold her breath and pray that she wasn't going to be sick at least until she landed.

She was flung into a very tight tube that felt too small to hold her. Colours swirled around her in a mixture of different tints and Katie could barely even recognise them, they were moving so fast. Finally, she closed her eyes to block out the sight, hoping very much that she was going to land soon, because she really did think she might be sick.

After what felt like forever, Katie felt herself being flung out of the portal and landed in a heap onto the floor of the same cathedral that would be the headquarters for the resistance in the future. Groaning slightly and massaging her head, Katie looked around, slowly getting to her feet.

Hearing the sound of running feet, no doubt alerted by her noisy arrival, Katie hurried to the window, unbolting it all too easily and slid out the window, landing in the rose bushes outside of the window.

Used to the future and being attacked every few feet until she found safe cover, Katie took off at a run, not stopping until she realised that nobody was coming after her. Slowing to a stop, Katie looked around her and saw a newspaper stand.

Walking towards it carefully, she picked up the newspaper and checked the date to make sure. "December 19th," she said in relief, silently thanking the Powers for making sure she got to where she was supposed to be.

Setting the paper back down, she looked towards the vendor, who was busy guzzling down a beer. "Excuse me," she said. "But can you tell me where the Hyperion Hotel is?"

"Sure," he said drunkenly. "Go down that street then turn left. Go down about two blocks, turn right and it'll be on your left. You can't miss it."

"Thanks." Katie took off at a run, ignoring the scandalised people around her as she raced towards the Hyperion Hotel.

Where her father, Angel O'Conner, lived and worked.