New Chances
Chapter 1
Blast from the Past
Nathan picked Shilo up and brought her to the couch that seemed to be there, ignoring his surroundings and the sudden silence as he pulled her medicine from her bag, pulling out a pill to slip into her mouth. He made sure she swallowed it before putting the medicine back in her bag. He sat on his knees next to her until she woke. He sighed, slightly relieved. She immediately searched for refuge in his arms, whimpering in fright and crying. He held her as he looked around at all of the staring eyes. He turned around slightly and saw that they were in a strange living room with a few girls, a young man with an eye-patch, and a man who seemed to look like a younger version of himself. He realized what happened and cursed his luck.
"Giles?" A young blonde that he recognized stepped forward, and then looked back at the man who practically mirrored him, and he turned back to Shilo, putting his fingers to her wrist and looking at his watch. When he knew that her blood pressure was stabilized, he sighed, putting his hands on his knees then pushed himself up. He didn't know how he happened to get into his past, especially with Shilo.
"What year is it?" He asked his voice raspy. The redhead (Willow, his mind remembered with clarity) stepped forward.
"It's 2003." He closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose. He exhaled before opening his eyes. It was the year that all of the potentials found refuge in Sunnydale, the year they fought the First. When Buffy took control. It hurt every time he thought of Buffy, his love. His Marni, as he was her Nathan. They picked out the names that they'd go by after the Organ Epidemic. After all that they went through, all that she fought, and he was the one that killed her. He felt a tear gather in his eye as he saw Buffy standing before him now. He fought the urge to gather her into his arms, she didn't know who he was, and probably thought that he was a demon, he thought bemusedly as he saw her defensive posture. He chuckled and pointed at her.
"Fix your elbow and you'll be able to follow through." Her jaw dropped as she looked between him and Giles, who was looking at Nathan completely confused. Anya stepped forward and stuck out her hand to shake. He smiled at her and knew that she figured it out already. He shook her hand.
"It's been a many years Anya. How are you?" She shrugged.
"I do what I do and I thank you for that." He knew that she knew her fate had now changed because of his entrance. She looked him in the eye.
"How long was it before he died?" No one else knew that she was talking about Xander. Nathan smiled at her.
"About thirty years. He didn't suffer." She gave him a bright smile, happy that her love didn't die too horribly in the alternate universe that stemmed from a different choice in the future. Giles looked like he was in shock and Buffy stepped forward.
"Who are you and why do you look like an older version of my Giles?" Nathan watched as Giles seemed to brighten at the possessive tone of her voice. Nathan looked at Anya and she shrugged. The alternate timeline had already taken over.
"That's because I am an older version of your Giles." This seemed to shock Buffy and push Giles out of his own shock. He stepped up to Nathan and looked at him critically.
"How much older?" He asked, supposing it was five or ten years. Nathan shrugged.
"Almost sixty years." Nobody in the room moved and the scoobies weren't moving, practically not breathing. Xander stepped forward. "Sixty years? That's not physically possible!"
Giles looked at Nathan. "Sixty years would make me over one hundred. You look ten years older than me."
Nathan shook his head. "I'm the Watcher. My age shifts when I meet my Slayer and when she dies; I live the rest of my life with my age fixed to the normal timeline. It was 2056 when Shilo and I left." Buffy's eyes widened.
"2056? Am I still alive for another fifty years?" Nathan visibly clenched his jaw, his eyes closing in bitter pain. Giles' eyes flitted over to Shilo's stirring form as Buffy's eyes watered.
"When did I die?" She whispered. Nathan wasn't sure if he wanted to respond. His eyes fell to the floor.
"Seventeen years ago." He muttered. He felt a small hand on his shoulder.
"It wasn't your fault." He turned and Shilo stood there, conviction in her eyes. Somehow she knew that they were talking about her mother, even if they didn't say the right name. He pulled Shilo into his arms and buried his face in her wig, trying to hold his tears in.
"I swear! I'll-" Shilo pulled away from him and put her hand on his cheek, staring at him determinedly.
"You can do nothing! Rotti killed her, and he died horribly, shamed by his children and shunned by his heir, knowing that he failed to kill you." She put her hand on his chest where the bullet had gone. He shuddered and pulled her close again. She snuggled deeper into his arms amidst the raised eyebrows. Giles hated to break up the moment, but they had no idea who she was.
"Umm, so who is this?" Nathan looked up at Giles and Buffy, who were standing close to each other. It suddenly hit him that Shilo could meet her mother for the first time and he had to struggle to breathe for a moment. He looked down at Shilo for a second, and then lowered his head to her ear to whisper.
"Our relationship is forbidden here, no one would understand." Shilo nodded, she was just the loving daughter she understood. She just knew that there was a man who looked like an identical copy of her father and a bunch of girls and a guy. They were talking about her mother, at least a minute. She turned her big eyes to the man like her dad and the blonde who stood with her hand on his forearm. Her eyes widened at the blonde. She knew that face. She saw it every day when she woke up or walked through her house, she wore it on her necklace. She looked up at her father in surprise, and he nodded.
"Shi, we're in the past. Do you remember what I told you about magic when you were younger? It's true. We're back when I was younger." She looked at who she realized was her father also, and her eyes crossed.
"You're Nathan also?" Giles looked confused. "Nathan?" Nathan chuckled.
"I am Nathan Wallace. Shi, this is Rupert Giles. That was my birth name. Your mother chose my name after the Organ Epidemic and I chose hers." Shilo nodded.
"Nathan Alexander Wallace and Marni Willow Rose-Wallace." She said matter-of-factly and he nodded. He looked up at Giles and Buffy, noticing that not only were the Scoobies in the room, so was Dawn. He hadn't seen Dawnie in years, she had moved with her family before the Organ Epidemic and they didn't know what had happened to her. He looked at them all.
"This is Shilo Wallace, my daughter. She's seventeen years old." He looked at Dawn.
"Almost the same age as you, Dawnie." He gave her a small smile and she smiled back. Buffy looked at Shilo then Giles, who was having problems breathing. She put a hand on his forearm in support. She knew that he thought that he would never have a child. If she couldn't have one, she felt peace at least with him having one. She looked at Nathan.
"Who's her mother?" She asked out of curiosity. "Anyone we know?" Nathan's eyes dropped to Shilo's. He could already tell that she had recognized her mother, but was waiting for her father to introduce her. She was shy still. He looked at Buffy and swallowed.
"She's yours." He said. Buffy's and Giles' eyes widened and there was a crash, the bowl in Willow's hands falling as her jaw dropped. Xander put his hands over his ears, saying that he had to go wash out his ears and Willow decided to join him. Anya was laughing hysterically as she left the room. Buffy and Giles looked at Shilo in complete disbelief. Dawn shook her head and left her sister alone with the two Giles' and her daughter. As she left the room she realized she was an aunt. Shilo looked at her mother and bit her lip.
"I hated you for my whole life." She said bluntly. Buffy and Giles looked at her with wide eyes. Nathan clenched his teeth, afraid of what his daughter was about to say. He never knew that she resented her mother. Buffy looked like she had been shot, her hand covering her heart that suddenly hurt.
"What?" She asked, looking at Shilo with lowered eyes. Shilo shrugged.
"I hated you. You died and left dad all alone. He's gone through so much raising a sickly daughter, living in your memory. I know that every time he looked at me before I knew the truth, all he saw was you in me." She felt like a weight had been pulled off her chest, the anger at her mother since she was young being voiced at last. Nathan closed his eyes. He hadn't told her the full truth. She didn't know his true age, or about Slayers and Watchers.
"A sickly daughter?" Giles asked, clasping Buffy's hand unconsciously. Shilo nodded, and took the wig off of her head. Nathan gave her a small smile and rubbed her bald head. Shilo smiled up at him sadly.
"I got mom's blood disease and a little while ago daddy found my cure. I'm gonna grow my own hair soon! I haven't had my own hair since I was eight!" She smiled at her mommy, excited like the young girl that she was. Giles saw as Nathan flinched, his eyes darkening a second before he straightened himself, grabbing Shilo's bag and his own. Buffy looked sad.
"A blood disease? I get a blood disease? And I pass it on to my only child?" Buffy finally moved forward, pulling the surprised Shilo into her arms, who was smaller than her. Buffy was holding her daughter in her arms. She never thought that she'd have a child as a Slayer. She swallowed down the lump in her throat. Shilo blinked back tears as her mother held her to her breast for the first time in her life. Giles felt tears gather as he looked upon his Slayer holding their future daughter. It was like a dream come true, even if most of what it seemed they went through was horrible. Nathan felt pride as he knew that Marni-Buffy, he amended, finally got to see her daughter. He coughed, and the women pulled apart.
"We've got to find somewhere to stay." He said gently. Shilo nodded. Buffy stepped forward. "You can stay here." Giles wished he could agree, but practicality stood in the way.
"We don't have the room, Buffy. Where would they fit with all of the Potentials?" Shilo looked confused.
"Potentials? What are potentials?" Nathan froze as the Queen Slayer and Head of the Watchers gave him an upraised brow, mirroring each other perfectly. He coughed nervously.
"Shilo, how about I tell you later? After we've figured out where we can stay? There are actually a few things that I haven't told you about your mother and my past." Shilo's eyes narrowed at him in anger. Her whole demeanor seemed to change before them, just as subtly as his change to Ripper, who was his Repo persona.
"More lies?" She said quietly. He put a hand on her shoulder and she shrugged it off, giving him a deathly glare.
"I thought we agreed no more lies." She said, her voice rising in deadly rage.
"Precious, I didn't think that it would matter. What's in the past and all that? I didn't think that it was going to come back to haunt me." He said, shrugging himself. She tried to control her breathing, her eye color changing back as she returned to her meek and normal personality. Because of the Opera that night, she developed DID, Disassociative Identity Disorder, like her father, Repo, or Ripper, being her father's, and Mag being the name of her other personality, taking the name of her godmother. Nathan sighed, wishing that he had died instead of her mother yet again. His Buffy would've raised a daughter that would've been just like her, but without the as-of-late murderous tendencies. He shook his head with the self-guilt yet again.
"Shilo can stay in my room with me." Buffy said, decidedly. Giles pinched the bridge of his nose at the same time as Nathan, and the girls giggled. They smiled when they realized what had happened. Giles shrugged.
"You can stay with me I guess. Lucky Buffy and I are the only ones who have our own rooms in this home since the addition." Buffy shrugged.
"We're the leaders of this shindig." She laughed and Shilo smiled. Buffy grabbed Shilo's bag and started up the stairs. Nathan took a step towards them.
"Don't forget your medicine!" He said, and Shilo smiled down at him. "I will." She followed her mother up the stairs. Nathan and Giles sighed, and Giles nodded up the stairs. "I'll show you the room then." He said, and Nathan followed him up to the room. Nathan put his bag next to the closet and grabbed the sleeping bag that was thrown at him. He set it up as Giles went to grab a set of sheets and an extra pillow. Nathan wasn't uncomfortable sleeping on the floor, he was used to it from his time as a Watcher, and this set up was better than the couch at the Summers' house by far, he remembered. He sat on his makeshift bed and pulled out the picture that he had of himself and Marni when she was pregnant with Shilo.
He had to sleep in worse during the few years after the Organ Epidemic hit, but Buffy was at his side and they lived through it, probably because of their Slayer and Watcher genes, but they survived, and Marni and Nathan came out of it. Xander died just before the Epidemic hit, and Willow lived through it with them, but was blinded by the epidemic, her eyes were practically destroyed, but it didn't spread because of the spells she and Giles cast. She became Magdalene Defoe, able to pretend that she had been born blind because of her magic, and she and Marni Rose split their ways with Nathan Wallace for a small time, trying to find a way to infiltrate the new establishment.
Two or three years later Marni was engaged to Rotti and Mag was the new star of GeneCo, and Marni met Nathan again, and they realized that they were in love, and they couldn't live without each other. Marni threw her whole plan of infiltration out of the window and married her old friend, who both pretended that they were strangers. Then Marni got pregnant and contracted a blood disease. Then Shilo was born and his love Marni died. Then he raised Shilo and had to make Ripper into a killer personality so he could face Shilo each day. Then he became romantically involved with his own daughter after Rotti died.
He put his face in his hands. How can he face Buffy, knowing that he was taking their daughter into his bed, practically raping her since she didn't know it was wrong? He did love Shilo, as his daughter and as a lover, but could he ruin her life by forcing her to stay by his side? He knew that he and Buffy were already over, so all that he had was Shilo. Buffy and his past self couldn't find out or they had to leave.
A/N So, the deal is that I actually wrote two different versions of chapter one, one a Buffy/Repo crossover, and the other a Buffy/Repo/Harry Potter. I decided I'm gonna post the B/R one right now, and if there's enough individual attention brought towards it, I'll post the other one as a separate story. Please R/R! I live off of them and don't get enough!