Title: The Consequences of Time Travel
Author: Arjen
Length: About 36.000 words
Summary: When going back in time to fix a problem you really should try not to mess up the time-line.
Pairings: Xander/Dawn, Xander/Faith, the rest is fairly as in canon. Sorta.
Rating: This story might not be suitable for young children.
Fandoms: Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Disclaimer: All characters and other recognizable things are property of Mutant Enemy, ADV films, and whoever else wants to lay claim to them. Everything that I thought up is made using their property so I won't claim that either.
Feedback: Be critical, and my writing improves. Praise me, and I will feel good. A combination of these is my favorite.
My thanks go to Era and The Unicorn, for their help in ensuring that this story makes sense and is readable.

Stretching her body, Faith made herself more comfortable on the couch. Hanging out here with the Scoobies was pretty relaxing, and gave her the time to think some stuff over.

As usual, she first turned her attention to her current situation. Her life was pretty good at the moment and she really had no reason to complain. So she didn't. Sure, looking back she knew that there had been some pretty shitty moments, but most of the time these last couple of years had been great. She also knew who was an important reason for that, and looking at the young man she realized that the time had come to finally receive some answers.

Of course, he'd kept his secrets for years, but she knew that he was finally close to spilling them. And while asking the most important question would have to wait until she'd buttered him up some more there was another question that she wanted the answer to, and he would answer that one tonight. "Hey X," she started.

Xander turned around from where he was talking to Red and her girl, and smiled at her. "Yeah F?"

"Remember how you promised me that you'd tell me about the chick who plucked your cherry?"

"Oh, ew. I really don't want to hear that story," B joked while throwing a pillow at her. "Can't you ask that when the two of you are alone or something? There are some things I really don't want to know."

"Shit B, I didn't know you were that jealous of the chick. I'm sure if you'd asked him nicely, the X-man would have given you a ride as well. It's not like he's been celibate since you know."

"Faith!" B screeched.

"What?" Fath smirked. "Trust me, he's good at what he does. The things he can do with his tongue are simply-"

"Faith!" This time it wasn't just B who wanted her to stop as Red reacted the same way.

Faith only shrugged though. The two of them might protest as much as they wanted, she knew that they wanted to hear the story as well. "Either the X-man talks, or I do. Your choice."

The room was silent for a few seconds as the others weighed their choices. In the end though, Buffy and Willow looked at each other and with a resigned nod gave into the pressure. After all, they had heard her talk often enough to know what the subject would turn into. Not that X would be talking about something else, but he'd probably use other words. Ones they were more comfortable with.

It was Buffy who voiced their decision. "Okay. Xander? Please? For me? To preserve my sanity?"

"Hey! That's not nice," Faith protested.

"Your threats weren't nice either."

"They weren't threats. Red would want to hear about Xander's tongue, I'm sure she would love to get some pointers." Wiggling her eyebrows at Red's girl, Faith was happy to see how her face turned completely red. Oh yeah baby, she still had it.

"I-I do not."

"Oh come on Red, we both know that ain't true."

"Xander's my friend. I do not have to know how he can use his tongue, or anything else for that matter," Willow told her with a determined look. Yeah right.

"Whatever Red. It doesn't matter anyway. We'll talk about it later, but right now it's time for the X-man to tell his story."

"I don't think there's a way I can still get out of this, is there?" Xander asked with a resigned sigh. Not that he had any right to complain as he'd been the one who promised to tell her.

And considering the way the three others gave a big "No" as well it meant that she'd been right about them wanting to hear it as well. Even if they needed to be pressured a bit.

"Alright then," Xander acknowledged while getting up. "In that case I'm first getting a drink. You've waited this long, and can wait a bit longer to prevent me from dehydrating."

Of course, she couldn't let that go without a comment. "Fancy word X, where'd you pick that up?"

"My word of the day calendar of course, where else?" Xander shot back.

"Yeah right," she told him. "Like I'm gonna believe that."

"Believe what you want," he smiled back. "Anyone else want something?"

When only Red indicated she wanted a refill, X collected her glass and made his way to the kitchen. The moment he got there, B could no longer keep quiet. "He's actually going to tell us about everything, isn't he?"

"I know," Red answered excitedly. "Do you think he'll tell us everything?"

"Well, personally I'm kinda hoping for the nice and hot details of when he lost his cherry, but that's just me," Faith decided to chime in.

"We know that," Buffy told her, "but he's never told us about any of the other stuff either. I mean, I know that something happened besides the thing I don't really want to hear about, but he never wanted to talk about it and it was about then that he started with the cryptic stuff as well."

"Yeah, like when he to- Oh, Xander. You're back. Tell us. We wanna know," Willow switched tracks halfway through her sentence.

"Sure Wills. Here," he said while handing over the filled glass. "And now it's time for me to tell you about my angel."

"Angel? I thought it was a chick?"

"Not THAT Angel, thank you very much," Xander said with a horrified expression on his face. An expression that quickly changed to one of happy remembrance. "No, I'm thinking about my beautiful angel."

"Isn't he cute when he looks like that?" Faith asked the other girls.

"Which 'that' do you mean? The moment where he considered Angel, or his angel?" Buffy asked as she played along.

"Hey! Ix-nay on the Angel-nay."

"But you'd look so cute together. All manly and stuff."

This time the horrified expression on Xander's face was even funnier."Yuck! That's disgusting Faith."

While teasing him was fun, that wasn't what she wanted to do so Faith decided to cut him some slack. "Okay, enough fooling around. Let's get on with the story."

"I forgive you," X replied with a straight face, although she recognized the slight cracks in the mask that told her he was trying hard not to laugh.

That wouldn't do of course, there was nothing to forgive, so she threw a pillow at him. The same one that Buffy had thrown at her earlier in fact. "Oh shut up."

"I thought you wanted to hear this? I can stop you know."

"I don't, but Faith blackmailed us remember?" Buffy said while glaring at Xander, who wilted under that expression and recanted his statement.

"Alright, don't get your panties in a twist."

"Xander!" Buffy said, shocked that he would say something like that. Until she suddenly realized who must have influenced him to say something like that. "Faith!"

"I'm impressed X, I never thought you'd actually say that," Faith beamed. "You have learned well, my Padawan."

"Thank you master," he said with a mock bow. Playing along although he was obviously a bit ashamed that those words had slipped from his mouth. "Anyway, back to business. My beautiful angel."

"Yes, let's hear it."

"A long long time ago, in a Bronze not far away, I was sitting at a table waiting for my friends to arrive. Friends who for some reason were held up. Anyway, this all happened not long after that whole deal with what we thought was the Anointed One. So, there I was sitting. Waiting for my friends who didn't show up."

"You know X, if I didn't know better I'd think you're angry about the fact that they didn't show up."

"Hey, I was worried about my friends!" Xander explained. "Now then. While I was sitting there. Alone."

Faith could see B roll her eyes at the obvious theatrics of it, but they all remained quiet while Xander kept talking about how he had been sitting there for over an hour. Alone. Without his best friends. Who he had been worried about. "Okay X. Let's skip to the chick."

"And then suddenly," Xander said without skipping a beat, "she was there. The most beautiful vision of beauty that I've ever seen. A diamond hidden in the rubble. A rose among daisies. A-"

"Okay Xander, we get it. She was pretty," B interrupted. "Can we now get on with the story?"

"Am I telling this story, or you?" he asked. Without waiting for an answer, he continued. "Anyway, I couldn't look anywhere else when this creature of pure beauty walked into the Bronze. But then the most amazing thing of all happened: after looking around for a minute or so, she suddenly spotted me and walked straight at me. It was like a scene from a movie. There she was, looking like some kind of goddess, with the wind blowing her beautiful dark hair all around, and those tight clothes showing off her every asset."

"Xander?"

"What?" Xander asked when Willow interrupted him.

"There is no wind in the Bronze, so her hair couldn't have been blowing all around."

"Well, yeah, maybe," he hesitated. "That's how I remember it though, and I don't want anything like common sense or reality to interfere with my memories of that day, so please keep quiet."

Faith only smirked at that. If that was the kind of fantasies that the X-man had, it might be a good idea to invest in one of those small fans. Especially as it wasn't just hair that could be blown around. Thin cloth reacted to wind in a similar way, and could make for some very interesting times.

"Anyway. She walked over to my table, took a chair with all the grace that she exuded from every pore of her body, and said: 'Hey Xander.'"

"'Hey Xander?' You mean she knew who you were?"

Xander shrugged at that. "Yeah, I was kinda surprised myself. It isn't every day that some incredibly beautiful girl comes up to me like that. One that I don't know that is," he quickly added to the statement. Probably hoping they wouldn't take offense at that.

Not that she would, in fact she'd already dismissed it from her mind. Your first was usually special after all. Xander continued then. "Anyway, she needed some kind of help, and being the gentleman I am, I volunteered to help her. I can't really remember what it was about though. That's one of the things about that night that drives me crazy."

"Oh, so that's the reason," Faith decided to chime in.

"Very funny. Anyway, I think we went looking for some magical amulet. It was hidden by some vampires or demons or something. There was this whole complex plan that concerned her friends distracting the bad guys while we went looking. In the end we found it of course, and we brought it back to her friends. There's something off about that as well, but I can't remember what it is." Xander trailed off again, Looking a bit disconcerted.

"I know what you mean," Buffy spoke up. "I have a feeling that something happened around that time that I can't completely remember either. Almost as if I've lost some time there. Willow? Is it possible to change someone's memory with magic?"

Interesting question, although Faith had a feeling the answer would be yes. Something that was soon verified by Willow. "Theoretically, yes. I'm not sure how it would be done, but I've read that it's possible."

"Weird. Maybe the amulet thingie did something?"

"Whatever. I wanna hear about the interesting stuff," Faith said. "Come on X, continue with your description of the cherry popping."

"Could you possibly be more crude?" Buffy asked with an expression of distaste.

"Sure, but that's not the point, is it?" Faith teased before draining her glass of whiskey.

"Ladies! Before you attack each other, and fulfill one of my many fantasies, although without the mud or jelly, let's get this over with."

B obviously complied with the request, but made a demand first. "Okay Xander, but I want to talk about the whole memory thing later. I'm not sure why it's suddenly bothering me, but I want to find out what happened back then."

"Alright. Maybe we should discuss it with G-man though."

"Whatever," Faith said as she rolled her eyes. "Story. Sex. Now."

"Okay. Well, there isn't much left to tell actually. We delivered the amulet thing with her friends, and she told them she'd accompany me home but that she'd be back in time to get home. Why can't I remember what her friends looked like?"

Was he going to keep that up? "Questions later. Story now."

"Yeah, yeah. Now, instead of taking me home, she directed us towards the motel where she rented a room for the night, and when I woke up the next morning she was gone."

"A little light on details there, aren't we?"

"I don't kiss and tell Faith."

"Then skip the kissing part. That's not what I wanna hear anyway."

He sent her a glare for that. Not that she understood why. Wasn't the whole point of the story the part he'd just skipped? It wasn't like she cared about how beautiful the chick was, or how her hair blew in the wind or such romantic stuff. "Hey, what was the chick's name anyway?"

"I don't know," Xander admitted.

"You don't know? So you were seduced by a beautiful, mysterious, stranger? Damn X, that sounds like a corny script from a movie. Next thing you're gonna tell me is that she left one of her slippers or shit like that."

"She left you like that? And you didn't wake up?" Willow asked, attempting to steer the direction of the conversation elsewhere. Although she obviously had a bit of difficulty talking about the X-man's carnal adventures.

"I, ah, was a bit tired at the time."

"Now we're getting somewhere. She keep you up all night or something?"

"What did I say about kissing and telling?"

Faith chuckled at that. "I'll take that as a yes."

"Can you ever not think about sex?"

"I didn't hear you complain last night. In fact if I remember it right you were screaming for more."

Buffy got to her feet at that. "Right, and that's more than I wanted to hear."

"Oh, sit down B. X is now gonna tell us what the chick left for him."

Immediately Xander's face turned into a mask. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yes you do Xander," Willow spoke up. "We've been talking about it, and you've always given hints about things. You were the first who knew that Angel was a vampire, and the whole curse thing. Oh, and remember when you warned Faith and Buffy about Allan? They might've hurt him or something if you hadn't said that."

"I still think we should have staked him."

"Oh come on Buffy, just because he's dating your mom doesn't make him evil."

"Oh right. Buffy's mom! You told her to have her head checked, which saved her life." Wow, Red was almost bouncing up and down. She hadn't accidentally had coffee or anything, had she? Thinking back, she couldn't remember Red drinking anything but juice so that wasn't it. Luckily Red's girl calmed her down before she got any worse.

"And every time we ask you about it you give some kind of weird answer that doesn't tell us anything. So come on, spill," Buffy added.

He remained stubborn however. "It's not my story to tell."

"The chick ain't here, lover, so it ain't gonna be her," she said while snuggling against him, and trailing her right hand over his body. Maybe a little personal persuasion like this would help.

"But I-I."

"And besides," B told X while pointing at the clock, "it's past midnight, which makes this the day that you promised to tell us."

"What?" he said, while turning to the clock with a surprised look. "Oh. Huh. I guess you're right. I mean it's not like everything actually came true."

"Tell us, X," Faith whispered in his ear, causing him to shiver.

"Like I said, we spent the night together and when I woke up she was gone. There was a letter though." At that moment he paused again.

"And? What did the letter say?" Willow asked, still a romantic at heart despite no longer actually interested in the X-man. Something Faith was pretty grateful for.

"It said that she'd been waiting for that moment for years and that she was very happy that it had actually happened. That she loved me, and couldn't wait for the moment that we could truly be together. It also mentioned that she didn't want me to forget her."

"Considering that the only fact stopping you from screaming her name when you come is that you don't know it, I'd say she pretty much succeeded," Faith snorted. She didn't have any problems with the fact that X still thought about the girl. Although she had to admit that the whole 'moment they could be together' thing didn't sit well with her. What if the chick returned? Who would X choose? She didn't want to lose him.

"In short the whole letter was about how she didn't want to leave, but didn't have a choice about it. Which made me feel a bit better about the whole thing. There was more to it though. On the other side of the letter was a list of stuff she thought that I should know. The thing with Angel was at the top, and that I should ask Jenny's uncle if the curse could be broken like that. There was quite a bit there, and some of it worked out, and other things didn't. She warned me that I should stake Spike after he'd been chipped, and that the Trio would come. Stuff like that.

"Other things didn't make any sense. Like the note that Ben was Glory. I still don't know who Ben is, or Glory, and, from what I can tell, that was supposed to happen before the Trio. Then there was some stuff about someone called Anya who I've never even heard of either. But, I don't think there's anything useful left in it. The only mentions left concern something called the First, but he hasn't shown up either. And now the whole thing is supposed to be over. Tomor- I mean today was mentioned in the letter as the day I could finally talk about it."

Okay, that was pretty freaky. "So, your chick knew the future?"

"Uh, yeah. Sorta. Although she missed quite a few things, like how that Terakan killed Kendra."

Right. That had been a bad thing, although Faith had to admit to herself that no matter how bad it had been, she didn't mind. If Kendra hadn't died, she wouldn't have become a Slayer and would probably be lying dead in some Boston gutter by now.

"Wow, what a rush," a new voice suddenly said, and turning around Faith noticed a new girl walking into the room.

"Who the fuck are you?"

"Faith? When did you get here?" the girl asked in surprised reply. She then looked around the room a bit better, and when her eyes fell on Red's girl she froze in shock. "Tara? How?"

It was the way her boyfriend froze next to her that made Faith focus on him, and she was far from happy when she heard him whisper. "Angel." The recognition, and obvious longing, in Xander's voice almost tore her heart apart, but if the chick wanted to have her boyfriend she would have to fight for it. There was no way that she'd give up on the X-man.

While she was setting her priorities right, it was B who spoke up. "Okay, and who are you?"

That made the girl react again. "What do you mean? Who am I? It's me, Dawn."

"I don't know anyone named Dawn," B replied.

Once again the girl froze in shock until she suddenly whispered something that Faith could only hear because she was a Slayer. "Oh. Not good. So 'you can't tell people about the future' didn't mean I just couldn't talk about it out loud."