Authors Note; Here's the final installment in this interlude. I won't be posting the second story immediately, but hopefully you won't have to wait too long for it :)

Hope you guys enjoy xD

Puppet.

Fifteen year old Buffy Anne Summers was twisting and turning in her bed, wracked with terribly nightmares and horrid images. Monsters and death and young girls fighting for their lives.

She had no idea that this was the night that the Slayer died.

The night she was Chosen.

Before she could be forced awake by the scream building in her throat, something took siege of her dreams; controlled them to their desire.

Her sheets wrapped around her body and sweat clung to her exposed skin as the first image flashed by her sleeping mind.

A handsome man, a stone statue and a declaration of love.

Followed by the murder done by her own hands.

She wanted to wake up, wanted the nightmares to stop, wanted to run to her mothers embrace and will all the pictures away.

But she couldn't.

All she could do was keep watching.

The pain in those brown eyes as something blue sucked him away from her. Falling to her knees as the sorrow and grief overtook her and she sobbed until her entire body was numb. Sunlight burning her eyes as she stepped out into the morning, sure that nothing would ever be the same again.

What had she done? Why had she murdered a man in cold blood? Why had she done it, if it was killing her now?

What was happening to her?

The flashes changed and suddenly she was standing on a rickety tower, an unfamiliar, yet familiar, girl by her side. They were speaking in hushes, but she couldn't hear what was being said. She could only feel the invisible string of feeling passing from the young girl to herself, and back.

They loved each other deeply.

The next thing she knows is running away from the brunette girl, throwing herself off the tower and being wracked entirely by the excruciating agony of a blueish, crackling ball of electricity.

A portal, a voice whispered in her mind.

Before she could consider the added horror of this second flash, it happened again and she whimpered in her sleep.

If someone had been in her room, they would've heard her whimper out loud.

But no one was there.

A third image appeared in her mind and she pleaded with it to stop.

But this one wasn't painful.

It was... breathtaking.

A gorgeous man with bleached hair, stunning blue eyes and prominent cheekbones was kneeling before her, speaking words she never thought would be aimed in her direction.

And it would have brought her to her knees, had she not been lying in her bed.

"You listen to me. I've been alive a bit longer than you, and dead a lot longer than that. I've seen things you couldn't imagine, and done things I prefer you didn't. I don't exactly have a reputation for being a thinker. I follow my blood, which doesn't exactly rush in the direction of my brain. So, I make a lot of mistakes, a lot of wrong bloody calls. A hundred plus years, and there's only one thing I've ever been sure of; you."

She watches herself look away and wants to scream profanity at her twin. But it's unnecessary; the strange beauty pulls her by the chin, until he catches her eyes again.

"Hey, look at me. I'm not asking you for anything. When I say I love you it's not because I want you or because I can't have you. It has nothing to do with me. I love what you are, what you do, how you try. I've seen your kindness and your strength. I've seen the best and the worst of you. And I understand with perfect clarity exactly what you are. You're a hell of a woman. You're the one, Buffy."

She came awake with a gasp, shooting up in her bed and accidentally throwing a few things off her nightstand with the swipe of her hand.

"Oh god, what was that?"

Her eyes blinked in rapid succession as she tried to conjure up a valid and logical reason for what she had just witnessed. Heart pounding in her chest, she lay a hand over it and closed her eyes.

But all she saw was an ocean of blue.

And all she heard was a deep, baritone voice.

"You're the one, Buffy."

Was it possible?

Could this gorgeous man be her future?

One month later...

"What do you think of this one?" She asked, laying a picture out on the table.

Buffy's face wrinkled and she shook her head. "Nah, that one's kinda lame," she said, urging her mother to get on with the next one.

The two Summers women were going over inventory from Joyce's art gallery, of which she was part-owner. It was something that never would have happened last month.

But the blonde girl had changed.

"But what is lame, Buffy? You have to explain to me why you think this doesn't fit?" Joyce spoke, looking at her daughter with searching eyes.

The teenage girl leaned back in her seat and chewed on her bottom lip as she thought, while staring at the picture of a piece of African American art. She tilted her head slightly to side and then put the photograph into the pile of unwanted pieces.

"This is a Moroccan showing and not only is this piece not Moroccan, it is obviously not Moroccan," she finally said in response to her mother's question.

Joyce smiled; that's exactly what she herself had thought when she saw it. "Alright, that's gone. I'll save it for another exhibit we've got coming up. Now, let's continue."

It was amazing how much could change in thirty days.

Buffy had, like the other four that Fate had intervened with, tried to deny it at first. But when a man called Merrick approached her and she noticed her heightened senses and strength, not only did she realize that her horrific dreams were real...but that it meant the chances of the rest being real as well were pretty high.

She didn't tell her Watcher about it; she didn't know or trust him enough, yet.

Not to mention having no idea what the visions she had experienced in her dreams meant. She knew she needed to figure that out, before she could figure out her next move.

But that didn't mean that changes couldn't happen, all on their own.

In light of that amazing speech, by someone who wasn't her boyfriend, Buffy promptly dumped Tyler; she wanted the kind of love she had felt emanating from that bleach blond hunk from her dreams. And for once, one of her dream men might actually not be out of range for her.

That thought still sent shivers up and down her spine, even a month later.

Without even meaning to, Buffy had slowly but surely phased out of her popular crowd of friends. It certainly wasn't done on purpose, but with her new responsibilities as the Slayer, on top of the heavy thoughts of her dream visions, there just hadn't been time and the girls had fallen through the cracks.

She had felt bad for all of two seconds, and then those same so-called friends turned their backs on her; Margo even went to the dance with Tyler.

Exes were supposed to be off limits.

Thoughts of the dance brought her back two weeks; to a night that became as memorable as the night of the dream visions.

The night she had lost her Watcher to the Vampires, the night she had set fire to the school gymnasium in order to destroy the Vampires, the night she had dusted Lothos, and the night she was expelled from Hemery High.

It was quite the night.

Unfortunately her parents saw it the same way.

At this moment in time, sitting at the kitchen table and going over pictures of art for the gallery opening, Joyce could honestly say that she was proud of the changes that her daughter had gone through. But she hadn't exactly felt that way two weeks prior to this day.

It was a testament of Buffy's strength and determination that it had only taken ten days to regain her mother's trust; even if she was sure she'd never do the same with her father, even if she lived to be a hundred.

She did her best to shrug off the emotional pain of that, though, and move forward in her relationship with her mom. She clung to it, knowing it was all she had, for however long.

She had seen the dream visions and knew that even the first one, the earliest one, was still years away; she definitely hadn't looked fifteen in it.

But she hadn't really had too much time to focus on such things, far too busy with her life and the mess she had unintentionally made of it in recent weeks.

The Council had yet to send her a new Watcher, but she had gotten a letter saying that they were working on it. Apparently the tweed-Monsters didn't grow on trees over there in the land of tea and crumpets.

Who'd have thought?

Buffy's confusion caused by her dream visions had kept her from telling her parents the real reason why she had burned down the gym; the Slayer had no idea that it had saved her from a stint in a mental institution.

She would also not be making the trip to Las Vegas to slay Vampires, as she would have originally.

The Fates had really screwed with the order of things.

Joyce gathered the photos together and placed them back in her briefcase, giving her daughter a kiss on the cheek before she left the house. She had a meeting at the gallery in half and hour, before Buffy would meet her at the grocery store so they could make dinner together.

Buffy's father had left them after the debacle with the school fire and the divorce papers had come in the mail three days ago. Joyce thought she had kept them hidden, but her daughter had found them.

She wasn't sure how to feel about it; sad, guilty, relieved...

So she just pushed her emotions to the back of the pile and decided to figure it out later, when time had begun to heal some of the wounds.

It may not be healthy, but Buffy had never claimed to be smart when it came to matters of the heart.

She looked around the kitchen and realized that she had nothing to do until it was time to meet up with her mother in about three hours. Her shoulders fell and she sighed; she hated being bored.

She cleared the table of the cups they'd been drinking out of and put them in the sink to be cleaned up later, before making a quick run to her room to grab some essentials and her lightest summer coat.

Stuffing some stakes and knives all around her body, she placed her grandmother's cross around her neck and locked up the door behind her.

If there was anything living (and slaying) in Los Angeles had taught her, it was that Vampires were the only creatures who only came out at night.

Which gave her something to do.

"I can't believe I'm actually wishing for a Watcher right now," she mumbled to herself as she followed the Demon down the alleyway.

She had stabbed it in the heart with a stake and it had just kept on going; she really needed to know how this species were supposed to be killed.

Buffy had been wandering down the part of town that wasn't quite wrong, but not quite right either. A place in between Hollywood starlets and gangs who did drive-by's. It hadn't taken her long to find her first Demon, which had led her here, hunting her third.

And not even an hour had passed, yet, since she left home.

Her steps were silent as she made her way down the surprisingly dark alley, considering the sun was still high in the sky. She could hear the Demon but couldn't quite figure out where it was and worried that it might jump out at her when she wasn't prepared.

It didn't help that Buffy had gotten a bit overconfident after taking out Lothos.

Thankfully for the Slayer, this Demon was dumb enough to let out a battle cry before it attacked, giving the blonde girl more than enough time to brace for the coming onslaught and protect herself.

She kicked and punched and sliced but the damn thing just wouldn't die.

"Argh," she cried out as she was tossed through a rusted door into the building behind her.

She landed harshly on the dust coated floor of the abandoned warehouse, cringing against the pain and trying to prepare herself for the following attack. She grabbed up her longest, sharpest weapon; a knife from Merrick's personal collection.

A few minutes later a heavily panting Slayer stood over the body of the Demon, holding its head in one of her hands.

Apparently decapitation was the way to go.

Finally.

She slowly moved backwards, dropped the head so it rolled away from her, and collapsed against one of the walls. She may have Slayer stamina, but she was still so new to her Calling that there were some parts of training that simply wasn't complete yet.

The correct breathing patterns during a fight wasn't something her and Merrick had worked too much on, probably because the Watcher had assumed there would be time for that later.

Buffy leaned against the wall, wincing when she cracked her back, laying the knife down on the floor beside her. She would need to clean it before it could go back in its scabbard, considering it was now almost completely drenched in Demon blood and goo.

Ew.

She lay her head to rest against the wall and breathed deeply, in and out, doing her best to calm herself down. She now wondered if maybe she shouldn't just go back home, take a shower, and wait until she had to meet her mother at the grocery store.

She'd done pretty well for herself, after all; three Demons dead and in the daytime, too.

When she nodded to herself, choice made, she suddenly heard a strange noise from somewhere in front of her and to the left. Her brows furrowed and she slowly rose from the ground, blinking open her eyes to find out what was happening.

It quickly became clear to her that, at the other end of the room, a light was slowly building.

She recognized its purpose from her dreams; it was a portal.

It didn't take long for it to grow to very amazing and large proportions and Buffy somehow knew, instinctively, that the only reason she was safe from being pulled in, was because she stood so far away. Before long, the portal filled the entire back wall and was swirling like some kind of vortex.

And then, more suddenly than it had arrived, it was gone.

But the room now had one more occupant.

Buffy stared at the emerald green skin, the long dark hair, and the red horns, and pulled out her weapons; a knife in one hand, a stake in the other. And then she approached the Demon that was slowly rising to its feet, a confused look on its face.

But confusion turned to fear when it saw her coming.

Which made her pause, slightly.

Why would a Demon be afraid of her, especially before it even knew that she was the Slayer? Buffy may not have studied other dimensions, but she'd seen movies and understood that that's where this being came from. And she was guessing that Slayers probably didn't exist in that world.

So why was he now looking at her like she was the monster?

"Please," it spoke, holding up its hands in a universal sign of peace. "Do not hurt me, please. I mean you no harm."

Buffy tilted her head to the side and frowned. "You're a Demon," she said, as if that explained it all.

But it just kept staring at her. "Yes, I know, but I am not evil, I give you my word."

She wanted to tell it that its word really didn't mean that much to her, but two things made her stop; the fact that this conversation was nothing like how Demons usually spoke to her, beyond death threats really, and that look in its eyes.

It seemed almost...gentle.

Buffy let her hands drop a little, trying to show the Demon that she was, at the very least, willing to listen to it. It seemed to sigh for a moment, though still kept as still as possible, probably afraid that to move a muscle was to indicate a threat and it had no interest in dying.

Buffy could understand that.

She backed away a few feet more, but kept her eyes on both the creature and the two exits, just in case. This left the frightened Demon to relax enough to take a look around, at this strange new world it now found itself in.

"Where is this?" it whispered, amazed and a good deal scared as well.

"Los Angeles," Buffy answered, keeping her voice cool and detached from the situation.

It turned to look at her again, its crimson red eyes somehow not as scary as Buffy felt they should be. "And where is this...Los Angeles?"

She stared at it, clenching her weapons tightly as she tried not to relax; it wasn't going to get her to let down her guard. "It's a city in America, which is a country in the world. Though I suppose I get if you're still confused. After all, you came through a portal, which means you're in another dimension from your own." She decided just to let all the cards on the table so they could get things over with.

Its eyes widened and it took a step back, shocked and still confused. Buffy finally noticed the rest of its appearance. It wore a strangely old fashioned outfit, of what she supposed the Warriors of centuries ago wore to battle. Surprisingly enough, though, it wasn't carrying any weapons.

Weird.

The hair was long and grimy, with leaves and branches sticking to it, but she supposed that it came from the trip through the portal, because the clothing was otherwise prim and clean.

Not exactly the look of a fighter.

Buffy came to a realization. "You're not evil, are you?" She asked, relaxing inside but still staying alert on the outside.

Just in case.

Its eyes widened again. "No, no, not at all. I do not blame you for assuming that, but, no, no. I try to look at the beauty of life," it spoke, smiling a little.

And then Buffy decided to stop thinking of the Demon as it.

It was clearly a him.

She stepped a little closer. "I'm not ready to let my guard down, but I won't attack if you don't."

The Demon seemed to sigh with his whole body. "Thank you."

Buffy returned the words with a smile that, while not very big, was definitely genuine. She didn't try to step any closer, though she did feel better with each passing second that she looked at the seemingly benign being in front of her.

The silence around them suddenly turns awkward as neither knew what to say next. They were caught at a stalemate, not quite fighting but not exactly friendly, either.

Buffy chews on her bottom lip and begins to hum under her breath, trying not to let the awkwardness get to her. She thinks of the song she heard on the radio the previous day and releases a small sound as her eyes try to look anywhere but at the Demon.

Which means she misses his reaction as he reads her without meaning to.

"Wow," he breathes and she finally looks up at him.

"What?" She replies, brows furrowed and mouth frowning.

He clears his throat. "Uh, what you were doing just then...I do not know what happened, but I saw something...lovely."

Buffy thought back to two seconds ago, trying to figure out what he meant. "You mean the humming? And what do you mean you saw something?"

He didn't know how to explain it himself. "It was like...pictures in my head. I, uh, do not know how else to phrase it."

Buffy thought of her dreams last month and her silent idea that it may have been the intervention of Fate and wondered if this Demon had some kind of ability that allowed him to see something in her...when she hummed?

She shook her head. Nah, that sounds pretty ridiculous.

The Slayer sighed and finally put away her weapons, walking up to the Demon and holding out her hand. "My name is Buffy Summers." This time her smile was a bit brighter and still just as genuine.

Though unfamiliar with the gesture, he was a quick learner and put his own hand in hers. "I am Krevlornswath of the Deathwokclan."

Buffy smiled and shook his hand. "That's a mouthful, isn't it." She looked at the color of his skin and snorted as she remembered her mother's music collection. "I think I'll call you Lorne."

She walked into the kitchen and grabbed her bag from the table, quickly checking to see if she had everything she needed. She had packed some food, clothing, and other necessities to bring to Lorne, now that he'd had a good night's sleep.

They had spoken for a while the day before, until it was time for Buffy to go meet up with her mother, and she'd learned that there was definitely something about him. His job was to investigate this thing, while taking a look around the new dimension he was in, and the two could discuss things when Buffy returned today.

Unlike yesterday, the Slayer would have all the time in the world to help out Lorne. Two hours ago Joyce had gotten on a plane to go see her sister, Arlene, in Illinois. The two women were going to sit down and discuss the future for Buffy and her mother, now that the blonde was black listed from most of the schools in California State and Hank had left the small family.

Joyce's return flight was the next morning and, with no school to go to, Buffy was taking a cab to pick her up tomorrow.

She threw the messenger bag over her body and grabbed the house keys, locking up behind her. As always, the weather was beautiful and the sun was shining brightly in the sky above. She couldn't actually remember the last time she'd needed a jacket although, thanks to her mother, she always carried one with her.

Buffy made her way down the streets of Los Angeles on her way to go see Lorne. They were meeting up back at the same abandoned building where she'd found him yesterday to try and figure out what would happen next. Buffy truly felt for him and couldn't imagine what it was like to be in such a strange, new world.

But Lorne had insisted; he wasn't going back home. So the one thing they weren't doing was looking for a way to open the portal back up.

Which was a kind of relief for the Slayer who wouldn't know how to go about that, anyway.

The blonde walked past a few stores and cafes as she went through the main part of the city, never noticing the young redhead that walked unseen past her. Nor did she note the young gypsy that was getting up from a table at one of the aforementioned cafes.

But she noticed her.

"Buffy Summers?" Janna asked, reaching out a hand to touch the familiar blonde.

"Uh, hey, do I know you?" She asked, slightly unsure but knowing that her senses didn't say anything, which meant she was human.

The woman smiled and shook her head. "No, Ms. Summers, you don't, but your reputation precedes you. I'm Janna Morgan and I know that you're the newest Slayer."

Buffy's eyes widened. "Oh, wow, I didn't realize word traveled so fast. So, how do you know about Slayers and Demons?"

"I was raised a Romany," she explained, but almost chuckled at the look of confusion on the young blonde's face. "It's a gypsy, Ms. Summers. You do know what that is," she said, laughter in her eyes.

Buffy's own eyes rolled. "Yeah, I do. So I guess you grew up on this stuff. I'm still trying to get used to it. After what happened yesterday I won't be able to deny much of it anymore, though," she sighed, thinking of the feeling she had watching an actual honest to god portal opening up right in front of her.

Janna's brows raised. "What happened, Ms. Summers?"

The Slayer looked at the other woman with a calculating eye and then put her arm through the tanner elbow. "Call me Buffy and I'll tell you." The two walked down the street, heading toward the building that would someday be known as Caritas.

The board showed that her mother's plane would be landing any minute now and she put down her magazine so she could get ready to search the crowd for that familiar face.

What she wasn't expecting was the extra amount of familiar faces.

"Aunt Arlene?" She said, staring wide-eyed at her mother's sister and the three kids that followed.

"Cousin Buffy," the youngest cried out, running over to grab the blonde's leg, hugging it tightly.

The Slayer smiled down at the tiny girl and reached out to ruffle her hair. "Hi, Maggie, how's my cutest cousin doing?"

Her almost toothless grin was the only reply given.

"Hi, honey," a tired Joyce spoke, walking over to give her daughter a hug. "I know I didn't mention any of this on the phone, but it was kind of last minute. Let's talk about it when we get back to the house."

Buffy wanted to argue, but she just frowned and nodded. "Okay, mom. Need any help with the luggage?"

The trip home was full of somewhat meaningless conversation about what everyone had been up to lately. Buffy's rebellious streak was somehow awkwardly avoided, as they spoke of Maggie's start in first grade, Griffin's continuing streak of straight As, and Scout's upcoming sweet sixteen.

Buffy tried not to sulk and instead thought of the previous day, when her and Janna had gone to help Lorne find his new place in the world. Her family could brag all they wanted of their human accomplishments, but at least the Slayer actually made a difference in the world itself.

She saved people, dammit.

Buffy and Janna had talked all the way to the abandoned building and by the time they arrived to be welcomed by the emerald colored Demon, the Slayer and gypsy knew a lot more about one another and it was the second friendship that day that Janna had embarked upon.

Not aware of the changes those two meetings would make someday soon.

The three of them spent most of the day cleaning out the back of the building to make a home for Lorne. They managed to get their hands on a bed and some furniture, for the time being. For less than fifteen hours they'd also build quite an extraordinary bond, one that would extend into the future even when they lived miles apart.

She had finished the night off with a quick patrol, while she left Janna to help Lorne learn the most dangerous places in the city to avoid, considering how peaceful he was for a Demon.

She should probably look into that at some point.

The cab pulled up in front of the Summers home and the now much larger family started filing into the house with their luggage. Buffy wasn't sure how she should feel about the obvious signs that Aunt Arlene and her cousins weren't going to be leaving anytime soon.

The blonde had no idea that this part of her future had also changed, simply because Joyce wasn't too busy dealing with her rebellious daughter to go help her sister with her dangerous boyfriend who was stalking her. Joyce's presence had given Arlene the strength to pack up her kids and leave her old home behind.

Buffy's aunt and cousins wouldn't be going anywhere anytime soon.

And when it came time for the move to Sunnydale, things would surely become even more interesting.

Just you wait and see.

Authors Note; I know that Jenny didn't know about Buffy's Slayer status until Giles told her in canon, but her look of surprise could've have been as fake as her identity. Just go with it, people! :)

Hope you enjoyed it and don't forget to review.

Puppet.