About this story: It's a stranger idea, I know and even if the plot will
eventually lead to B/A, this is a bit of a B/S fic too, if you take into
consideration the future world Buffy and Spike's daughter comes from. It
will also include C/A and C/C. I am a B/A shipper, but I'm not anti-B/S or
anti-C/A and will not make Spike or Cordy look stupid. I won't deny Buffy's
feeling for Spike or Angel's feelings for Cordy. I do advise any rabid
shippers (the B/S, C/A mostly) to avoid this story, because I don't feeling
like getting rants in my review box for what this story is not, because I
stated the obvious from the beginning: it's B/A. With that settled, on with
the story:
A time for everything and everything at a time
Prologue
The arrival
It was a beautiful cheery autumn afternoon in the City of Angels, but one particular angel in this city wasn't feeling so cheery, actually he was feeling pretty miserable. More than just a few days had passed since the return of his beloved, but yet he could not be together with her. Why? Because she couldn't remember anything, not the world, not the agency, not her friends, not him, not even herself. The situation had been frustrating for him for more than one reason....he wanted her to remember, but he also feared what she would remember. Was she really in love with him? Or had it all been a passing figment of his overzealous imagination? Maybe she had just wanted to reject him that night or gently push him away even she wasn't usually the type that went for gentle break-ups. There wouldn't have been a break-up, he corrected himself, because they had nothing but a strong friendship and a night of possession, not a relationship. He let out an unnecessary sigh and looked towards the shut window. The sun peaked in, leaving the shape of the window to reflect itself on the rug of the office. He walked on the edge of the make-believe window pondering the complications of his life. A green friend with a hole in his skull because of something he had seen inside his Cordelia, a son that had become the prodigal he had been in his own youth - something he had promised himself to never let happen, and his son and the woman he loved living under the same roof, not *his*, apparently in the same bed ...in some ways he thought it was harmless, but still he couldn't help but wonder.
Somehow, life seemed easier when he was just another vampire looking for blood-play. He couldn't even imagine how his life would change in the next few days...
Far away from the confused and troubled vampire, somewhere in an abandoned warehouse outside of Los Angeles, an earthquake seemed to manifest itself, strangely enough only inside this particular building. The ground rumbled, the empty crates laying around breaking under the pressure, leaving scattered wood all over, then it stopped. A thunder sounded above, even though the sky was clear and was followed by another and another, soon seeming as if the skies were beating some kind of celestial drums, then the thunder stopped. A ray of blinding light hit so fast that it wouldn't have been caught by the human eye and then an empty scream was heard followed by a moment of total silence. To those outside the warehouse everything returned to normal, but inside, under wood and splinters, down in a freshly formed crater a female form squirmed in pain. She was wearing a long mantel over a white and black skirt that looked like a chess board rip-off, black boots, a sleeveless red top with the symbol of a bird imprinted on it and black gloves up to her elbows. Her long hair - remarkably white - was covering her face. Her chest was moving up and down, slowly trying to return to its normal rhythm. Suddenly she gasped for air, her back arching off the ground, her hands desperately trying to clutch the earth beneath, then she collapsed back down. She seemed to be more in control of her body now. She pulled the hair away from her eyes, revealing the face of a teenager, with piercing green eyes, black tainted lips and something like a red lightening painted on the left side of her face.
With an effort she managed to stand up, still feeling shook up by the experience she had gone through. She started noticing her surroundings and understood something must have gone wrong. It didn't look like the place she was supposed to be in. She sighed, this was all she needed now, to be in the wrong place! After trying to get the dust out of her mantel she stepped outside the warehouse. She immediately fell to the ground trying to cover her eyes. The sun was still up. Exasperated she reached down to her right boot and pulled a pair of ruby red glasses from inside and put them on. Everything was red, but at least now she could keep her eyes open. She looked around, it still didn't look like Los Angeles to her.
"Jacques, you cajun freak, where did you send me to?" she asked out loud, but no one seemed to want to answer her question. "Jacques?" she called again, but who ever this Jacques was, he wasn't answering. She gave up on trying to get him to answer and simply headed for the street. She saw a few cars heading out in different directions but didn't quite know how to stop them so she just put herself in the way of one. The jeep stopped abruptly, almost hitting her.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?! If you want to hitch a ride, do it the old fashion, sweetheart," the driver yelled after lowering his window. She didn't pay attention to him.
"Where's Los Angeles? Is it suppose to be here?" she asked and the man burst into laughter. "Uhm..." she was beginning to retreat thinking the man was insane.
"Look behind you," the driver told her after controlling his laughter. The girl turned around and suddenly noticed the city rising above the horizon. It was so much smaller than she remembered it. She realized why she had gotten there, the LA *she* knew was bigger, so much bigger. It hadn't been Jacques' fault after all. She asked the driver to take her to LA and after thinking it over he accepted. She had to be in LA that night because she had a certain angel to meet.
* * *
The city didn't impress her, it seemed small and humble compared to the gigantic freak-shows they called cities in her time. It didn't take her long till she managed to track down the Hyperion Hotel. If she could manage in her hometown, LA was a synch. She stood outside the hotel for a few moments, pondering on what would happen when she would enter. She could practically hear Cordelia Chase's cheery voice saying 'we help the helpless' just like in her mother's stories and she could see the fashionable figure walking towards her...it seemed like a dream, like suddenly she had stepped out of her life and into a book of stories, the stories she had grown up with.
She didn't even manage to put her hand on the doorknob because the door flew open and a green skinned demon stormed out. She tensed for a moment, as she did around any demon, but then remembered who that particular demon was. It was Lorne, the soul reader. Another character in the many stories she had been told, but these weren't her mother's stories, they belonged to someone else. She looked after the demon for a moment before she took a deep breath and entered the hotel.
It was silent inside. No one seemed to be there. Where was Cordelia and her cheery smile? Wesley with his dusty old books? Gunn and his famous homemade weapons?
"Hello?" she asked the empty lobby in hope of an answer. Suddenly she sensed a presence, a supernatural presence and instinctively made a quick turn and attempted a punch. Luckily the 'presence' caught her fist before it hit his face. She stared at him, somehow not believing he truly existed. The fabled vampire ensouled by gypsies. "Angel?" she asked in a weak voice.
"That's me. Can I help you?" he asked lowering her fist and walking over to the couch. He felt uncomfortable under her stares.
"You're different from what I expected," she eventually spoke again. Angel noted her British accent.
"Well, what you see is what you get," the vampire assured her before turning his attention on her. "So who are you? A paid killer from Wolfram & Hart? If that's true I had a tough day and I'd *really* just like to skip the friendly 'I'm dangerous, you're dangerous' conversation and get to the fight."
"I'm not a paid killer, sorry to disappoint you," the girl said a little twinkling light in her eyes. "I'm actually looking for help."
"Too bad, I think I could've gone for a good fight, would've made me forget half my problems," he let out an unnecessary sigh. "What kind of help do you want?"
"A family matter," she was intentionally vague.
"Do you usually wear glasses at night?" she had forgotten to take them off after nightfall. She liked to keep them on sometimes even at night because they helped her see better in the darkness too.
"Oh, sorry, I guess you want to look the person you're talking to in the eye," she smiled and took off her glasses. Angel froze. "Is something wrong?"
"No...just your eyes, they remind of someone," a brief remembrance washed over him, but he quickly put it aside. "What's your name?"
"I'm Joy," she almost slipped out the name the demons had christened her with, 'Bloody Joy'. The vampire awaited a second name, but by the way the girl held his gaze he realized he wasn't about to get one.
"So do you want to tell me about your 'family matter'?" he asked when he saw he was going nowhere. He doubted she would explain why she was dressed that way or why her hair was white or her strange glasses. He just hoped she wasn't a stray from some other dimension looking for a helping hand. He had his full of dimensions for that day and possibly for the rest of his life. Meanwhile Joy was analyzing him wondering if that brief moment he froze was because her eyes were like her mother's? She was snapped out of her reverie when she heard his question. She let out a small scream when she noticed a figure behind Angel, a very familiar figure.
"Jacques!" she let out and Angel looked around himself not noticing anyone. He looked back towards Joy.
"Is something here?" Angel asked thinking maybe it was some sort of ghost that was haunting her. He couldn't see the red haired teenager standing behind the couch, casually leaning on the wall.
"You miss me, chere?" the cocky Cajun asked and Joy held back a torrent of curses at his expense.
"No, no, everything's fine...I just remembered something," she assured the vampire, then asked: "Could I use your bathroom?" Angel rose an eyebrow questioningly, something had happened, but she didn't want to tell him what. Seeing as he couldn't do anything if she wouldn't tell him her problem, he nodded and showed her towards a bathroom. Once locked securely inside, Joy was slightly startled by the sight of Jacques standing on the edge of the bathtub.
"Scared you?" he asked smiling.
"You stupid little shit! You' mama should've left in the bayu to the crocs!" she jumped, not trying to do anything physical though, because it was obvious Jacques wasn't there in flesh and bones.
"Now, now, Jacques know you don't mean that," he was overconfident.
"You left me in the middle of bloody nowhere!" she reminded him.
"Oh, that. Wasn't my fault. I thought time travel takes longer...You know I'd never leave you by you'self, chere," he apologized and wanted to give his friend a hug, but because he wasn't really in the state of giving hugs he kept it to himself. "How was I suppose to know how small LA was 20 or so years ago?"
"Research, genius, research," she scowled. She should've gotten more involved in the whole process and not leave it all to Jacques.
"Papa didn't raise me to be no tech genius in the bayu, Joycie," he pointed out and Joy let out a quick never mind.
"Any other surprises I should prepare for?" she wanted to know, she really didn't feel like not finding Sunnydale on the map anymore or some other inconvenience.
"Unless you count that you'll be meeting your mother and every other person you've ever dreamt of meeting! I envy you," his voice seemed shadowed by grief.
"You wouldn't be so envious if you'd have to prevent yourself from being born," Joy said somehow bitterly.
"Actually, for me it would be easy," he remembered the uncommon circumstances he was conceived under.
"Not for me, mate," she had a hard task ahead of her. "I have to get Buffy Summers of this time to leave William the Bloody and be with Angelus forever or at least for 23 years so the world won't be turned to a big pile of rubble. I'd say I'll need more than my inherited over-the-top genes or my good luck charm to solve this problem. And let's not even talk about the pressure.."
"Good luck, chere, and don't you forget, whenever you need help, Jacques always here," he assured her and throwing her a butterfly kiss he was gone.
"I'm sure gonna need it, Jacques, I'm sure gonna need it," she looked at herself in the mirror and wondered if anyone would understand or guess who she was. She laughed, the idea was just ridiculous. "Hi, I'm Joyce. I'm your daughter from the future, Buffy," she shook her head, it sounded so stupid, even if it was true. She left the bathroom deciding she would do anything in her power to stay there the shortest possible time.
End Prologue
A time for everything and everything at a time
Prologue
The arrival
It was a beautiful cheery autumn afternoon in the City of Angels, but one particular angel in this city wasn't feeling so cheery, actually he was feeling pretty miserable. More than just a few days had passed since the return of his beloved, but yet he could not be together with her. Why? Because she couldn't remember anything, not the world, not the agency, not her friends, not him, not even herself. The situation had been frustrating for him for more than one reason....he wanted her to remember, but he also feared what she would remember. Was she really in love with him? Or had it all been a passing figment of his overzealous imagination? Maybe she had just wanted to reject him that night or gently push him away even she wasn't usually the type that went for gentle break-ups. There wouldn't have been a break-up, he corrected himself, because they had nothing but a strong friendship and a night of possession, not a relationship. He let out an unnecessary sigh and looked towards the shut window. The sun peaked in, leaving the shape of the window to reflect itself on the rug of the office. He walked on the edge of the make-believe window pondering the complications of his life. A green friend with a hole in his skull because of something he had seen inside his Cordelia, a son that had become the prodigal he had been in his own youth - something he had promised himself to never let happen, and his son and the woman he loved living under the same roof, not *his*, apparently in the same bed ...in some ways he thought it was harmless, but still he couldn't help but wonder.
Somehow, life seemed easier when he was just another vampire looking for blood-play. He couldn't even imagine how his life would change in the next few days...
Far away from the confused and troubled vampire, somewhere in an abandoned warehouse outside of Los Angeles, an earthquake seemed to manifest itself, strangely enough only inside this particular building. The ground rumbled, the empty crates laying around breaking under the pressure, leaving scattered wood all over, then it stopped. A thunder sounded above, even though the sky was clear and was followed by another and another, soon seeming as if the skies were beating some kind of celestial drums, then the thunder stopped. A ray of blinding light hit so fast that it wouldn't have been caught by the human eye and then an empty scream was heard followed by a moment of total silence. To those outside the warehouse everything returned to normal, but inside, under wood and splinters, down in a freshly formed crater a female form squirmed in pain. She was wearing a long mantel over a white and black skirt that looked like a chess board rip-off, black boots, a sleeveless red top with the symbol of a bird imprinted on it and black gloves up to her elbows. Her long hair - remarkably white - was covering her face. Her chest was moving up and down, slowly trying to return to its normal rhythm. Suddenly she gasped for air, her back arching off the ground, her hands desperately trying to clutch the earth beneath, then she collapsed back down. She seemed to be more in control of her body now. She pulled the hair away from her eyes, revealing the face of a teenager, with piercing green eyes, black tainted lips and something like a red lightening painted on the left side of her face.
With an effort she managed to stand up, still feeling shook up by the experience she had gone through. She started noticing her surroundings and understood something must have gone wrong. It didn't look like the place she was supposed to be in. She sighed, this was all she needed now, to be in the wrong place! After trying to get the dust out of her mantel she stepped outside the warehouse. She immediately fell to the ground trying to cover her eyes. The sun was still up. Exasperated she reached down to her right boot and pulled a pair of ruby red glasses from inside and put them on. Everything was red, but at least now she could keep her eyes open. She looked around, it still didn't look like Los Angeles to her.
"Jacques, you cajun freak, where did you send me to?" she asked out loud, but no one seemed to want to answer her question. "Jacques?" she called again, but who ever this Jacques was, he wasn't answering. She gave up on trying to get him to answer and simply headed for the street. She saw a few cars heading out in different directions but didn't quite know how to stop them so she just put herself in the way of one. The jeep stopped abruptly, almost hitting her.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?! If you want to hitch a ride, do it the old fashion, sweetheart," the driver yelled after lowering his window. She didn't pay attention to him.
"Where's Los Angeles? Is it suppose to be here?" she asked and the man burst into laughter. "Uhm..." she was beginning to retreat thinking the man was insane.
"Look behind you," the driver told her after controlling his laughter. The girl turned around and suddenly noticed the city rising above the horizon. It was so much smaller than she remembered it. She realized why she had gotten there, the LA *she* knew was bigger, so much bigger. It hadn't been Jacques' fault after all. She asked the driver to take her to LA and after thinking it over he accepted. She had to be in LA that night because she had a certain angel to meet.
* * *
The city didn't impress her, it seemed small and humble compared to the gigantic freak-shows they called cities in her time. It didn't take her long till she managed to track down the Hyperion Hotel. If she could manage in her hometown, LA was a synch. She stood outside the hotel for a few moments, pondering on what would happen when she would enter. She could practically hear Cordelia Chase's cheery voice saying 'we help the helpless' just like in her mother's stories and she could see the fashionable figure walking towards her...it seemed like a dream, like suddenly she had stepped out of her life and into a book of stories, the stories she had grown up with.
She didn't even manage to put her hand on the doorknob because the door flew open and a green skinned demon stormed out. She tensed for a moment, as she did around any demon, but then remembered who that particular demon was. It was Lorne, the soul reader. Another character in the many stories she had been told, but these weren't her mother's stories, they belonged to someone else. She looked after the demon for a moment before she took a deep breath and entered the hotel.
It was silent inside. No one seemed to be there. Where was Cordelia and her cheery smile? Wesley with his dusty old books? Gunn and his famous homemade weapons?
"Hello?" she asked the empty lobby in hope of an answer. Suddenly she sensed a presence, a supernatural presence and instinctively made a quick turn and attempted a punch. Luckily the 'presence' caught her fist before it hit his face. She stared at him, somehow not believing he truly existed. The fabled vampire ensouled by gypsies. "Angel?" she asked in a weak voice.
"That's me. Can I help you?" he asked lowering her fist and walking over to the couch. He felt uncomfortable under her stares.
"You're different from what I expected," she eventually spoke again. Angel noted her British accent.
"Well, what you see is what you get," the vampire assured her before turning his attention on her. "So who are you? A paid killer from Wolfram & Hart? If that's true I had a tough day and I'd *really* just like to skip the friendly 'I'm dangerous, you're dangerous' conversation and get to the fight."
"I'm not a paid killer, sorry to disappoint you," the girl said a little twinkling light in her eyes. "I'm actually looking for help."
"Too bad, I think I could've gone for a good fight, would've made me forget half my problems," he let out an unnecessary sigh. "What kind of help do you want?"
"A family matter," she was intentionally vague.
"Do you usually wear glasses at night?" she had forgotten to take them off after nightfall. She liked to keep them on sometimes even at night because they helped her see better in the darkness too.
"Oh, sorry, I guess you want to look the person you're talking to in the eye," she smiled and took off her glasses. Angel froze. "Is something wrong?"
"No...just your eyes, they remind of someone," a brief remembrance washed over him, but he quickly put it aside. "What's your name?"
"I'm Joy," she almost slipped out the name the demons had christened her with, 'Bloody Joy'. The vampire awaited a second name, but by the way the girl held his gaze he realized he wasn't about to get one.
"So do you want to tell me about your 'family matter'?" he asked when he saw he was going nowhere. He doubted she would explain why she was dressed that way or why her hair was white or her strange glasses. He just hoped she wasn't a stray from some other dimension looking for a helping hand. He had his full of dimensions for that day and possibly for the rest of his life. Meanwhile Joy was analyzing him wondering if that brief moment he froze was because her eyes were like her mother's? She was snapped out of her reverie when she heard his question. She let out a small scream when she noticed a figure behind Angel, a very familiar figure.
"Jacques!" she let out and Angel looked around himself not noticing anyone. He looked back towards Joy.
"Is something here?" Angel asked thinking maybe it was some sort of ghost that was haunting her. He couldn't see the red haired teenager standing behind the couch, casually leaning on the wall.
"You miss me, chere?" the cocky Cajun asked and Joy held back a torrent of curses at his expense.
"No, no, everything's fine...I just remembered something," she assured the vampire, then asked: "Could I use your bathroom?" Angel rose an eyebrow questioningly, something had happened, but she didn't want to tell him what. Seeing as he couldn't do anything if she wouldn't tell him her problem, he nodded and showed her towards a bathroom. Once locked securely inside, Joy was slightly startled by the sight of Jacques standing on the edge of the bathtub.
"Scared you?" he asked smiling.
"You stupid little shit! You' mama should've left in the bayu to the crocs!" she jumped, not trying to do anything physical though, because it was obvious Jacques wasn't there in flesh and bones.
"Now, now, Jacques know you don't mean that," he was overconfident.
"You left me in the middle of bloody nowhere!" she reminded him.
"Oh, that. Wasn't my fault. I thought time travel takes longer...You know I'd never leave you by you'self, chere," he apologized and wanted to give his friend a hug, but because he wasn't really in the state of giving hugs he kept it to himself. "How was I suppose to know how small LA was 20 or so years ago?"
"Research, genius, research," she scowled. She should've gotten more involved in the whole process and not leave it all to Jacques.
"Papa didn't raise me to be no tech genius in the bayu, Joycie," he pointed out and Joy let out a quick never mind.
"Any other surprises I should prepare for?" she wanted to know, she really didn't feel like not finding Sunnydale on the map anymore or some other inconvenience.
"Unless you count that you'll be meeting your mother and every other person you've ever dreamt of meeting! I envy you," his voice seemed shadowed by grief.
"You wouldn't be so envious if you'd have to prevent yourself from being born," Joy said somehow bitterly.
"Actually, for me it would be easy," he remembered the uncommon circumstances he was conceived under.
"Not for me, mate," she had a hard task ahead of her. "I have to get Buffy Summers of this time to leave William the Bloody and be with Angelus forever or at least for 23 years so the world won't be turned to a big pile of rubble. I'd say I'll need more than my inherited over-the-top genes or my good luck charm to solve this problem. And let's not even talk about the pressure.."
"Good luck, chere, and don't you forget, whenever you need help, Jacques always here," he assured her and throwing her a butterfly kiss he was gone.
"I'm sure gonna need it, Jacques, I'm sure gonna need it," she looked at herself in the mirror and wondered if anyone would understand or guess who she was. She laughed, the idea was just ridiculous. "Hi, I'm Joyce. I'm your daughter from the future, Buffy," she shook her head, it sounded so stupid, even if it was true. She left the bathroom deciding she would do anything in her power to stay there the shortest possible time.
End Prologue