Make It Better: Harder to Breathe
by Psyche2
A/N: An Update! Yay, wow...this story is really getting good and I have a lot in store..muah ha ha ha! Lol...I'm glad that people are reviewing, Thank you for that and keep it up! I hope you enjoy this chapter!


Ch. 8: Harder to Breathe


The Hyperion

“What the bloody hell do you mean she’s not there?” Spike yelled as he stood staring at Angel who had his fists clenched.

“She’s not.” Angel said, looking like he was going to punch someone. He turned to the others. “She wouldn’t just walk away like that.”

“Yeah.” Spike said. “Unless…”

“Someone took her.” Willow* whispered.

“Why would someone take her? Who would take her?” Xander asked leaning against the couch in the lobby.

“Buffy would take herself.” Dawn blurted out. When everyone looked at her she shrugged. “If you were a vampire and you saw another you, wouldn’t you take yourself.”

Everyone nodded but Dawn continued. “There’s a problem though.” Dawn said her voice shaking a little. “Your Buffy’s a vampire, ours is not.”

“Would she turn her? I mean Will, you had an encounter with yourself as a vamp, what do you say?” Xander asked quickly.

“I don’t know.” Willow said shaking her head.

“I remember that.” Willow* said and smiled for a minute but then frowned.

“What?” Giles* asked.

“Angel, uh our Angel, when you said the Buffy back there was their Buffy do you mean the Buffy that you locked down in the cellar?” Willow* asked.

“Yeah, why?” Angel* asked.

Willow* drew in a breath. “We need to find her fast.”

“Why?” Angel asked.

“Because the arrows they hit her with can kill a human, even if it’s a slayer.” Willow*

“What?” Spike almost screamed.

“We didn’t know this would happen!” Willow said.

“Wait guys…” Cordelia* said then grabbed her head.

“What’s happening?” Dawn asked.

“She’s having a vision.” Almost everyone in the room answered at once.

“What’d you see?” Angel* asked.

“I saw Buffy, and well Buffy.” Cordelia closed her eyes again and when she opened them she widened her eyes. “As vampires.”

Dawn’s eyes widened. “But that’s why you get the visions right? To stop them?”

“Yes, Dawn.” Angel reassured her.

“So we go and stop it and find her, right?” Dawn asked.

“Yeah.” Angel* answered.

“Cordelia, do you know where?” Wesley* asked.

“Umm…yeah.”

“Ok, then let’s go.” Angel* said.

Angel* and Angel went in a group, Xander and Xander* in another, Willow and Willow* and Giles and Giles*, Gunn and Gunn*, Wesley and Wesley* and then everyone else stayed at the Hyperion.

Buffy

“Don’t wake up.” Buffy mumbled.

“Huh?” someone asked.

“Oh My God” Buffy said as she pulled the cover off.

“Hey!” The other girl said pulling the cover over.

Buffy stood up and looked at her clothes. They were different.

“Uhh…can’t you wear something, I don’t know, more fashionable?” The girl asked smirking.

Buffy looked around her. She was in her old room in Sunnydale. Everything was the same but different.

“It’s my room.” The girl answered standing up and Buffy got a good look at her. Short, blonde hair, yep that was her.

“I know why you’re here.” Buffy* told her.

“Why am I here?” Buffy asked herself.

“Simple, to make it better.”

“Oh God that again.”

“Look, I’m not going to be cryptic. We hate cryptic, but you need to help. I don’t know why, you know those PTB’S they don’t tell you squat. But I just know that it’ll be good if you help.”

“Yeah, but how?” Buffy asked her doppelganger.

“If I knew don’t you’d think I’d tell you?” Buffy* smirked.

“Probably.” Buffy smirked back.

“Look I gotta go. You know when you’re dead, you’re destiny’s not over yet? Think they’d give me a break!”

Buffy smiled.

“I’ll see you later. We’re not done talking yet, but remember one thing.”

“Yeah, what’s that?” Buffy asked herself.

“Run!”

And then Buffy was awake and being carried. Catching her kidnapper by surprise she hopped down and kicked him/her in the face. She caught a glimpse of blonde hair as she turned around and ran, just as she had told herself.






Xander and Xander*

“So I’m like fighting guy now. How did this happen?” Xander asked his doppelganger.

Xander* shrugged. “I guess after Buffy died, I realized that I needed to learn how to protect myself, otherwise I could get killed or get someone killed.”

“Oh.” Xander said as he continued walking.

“What’s it like?” Xander* asked.

“What do you mean?” Xander asked him.

“To have Buffy alive, to come from a world that isn’t as bad as this one. I mean that’s why it worked right? To make it better you have to have a world “better” than this one.”

“She wasn’t.” Xander told him.

“What?”

“Always alive, she died again two summers ago. We um, we brought her back.” Xander explained staring at the broadsword he held in his hand.

“Oh,”

“Yeah.”


Willow and Willow*

“And we lost our memories!” Willow said with a laugh. “It was um after Tara and me had that fight and I wanted Buffy to forget about where she had been…so I did a spell.”

“Whoa.” Willow* said.

“Yeah, I got really into magick.” Willow said taking a deep breath.

“Yeah me too. After Buffy died, a month or two after I think, I got so into it. I wanted to bring her back; I thought I could bring her back. I tried everything. Every spell I could find I tried, even some that I shouldn’t have. I almost went off the deep end. It took me a while to get better.” Willow* told her.

“That happened to me. After, Tara died.” Willow said.

“Oh.” Willow* whispered. “Tara’s in England with Anya. They went away when Buffy almost killed them.”

“Anya died too.” Willow said and the mood that they had started off talking with returned.

“Was it easier?” Willow* asked.

“What do you mean?” Willow asked. They were walking around downtown. They had been told to be careful and to contact anyone if they were in trouble. But seeing as they were two experienced witches no one seemed to think they’d need any help.

“Was it-I don’t know. You’re alive. So that’s good. And you seem happy. So was it easier to get up in the morning, or easier to breathe?”

“Yeah. I guess. I mean I haven’t really thought about it that way. Some days, though, are harder then others.”

“How?” Willow* asked, as they started walking down another alley.

“I guess with all the things that has happened to us over the past years, everything just seems hard and cold but sometimes everything seems okay.”

“Oh.” Willow* said.

“Yeah.” Willow answered, pitting her, it was scary to know that this was an alternate version of herself and that under different circumstances this could be her.


Gunn and Gunn*

The two walked in silence both of them keeping their eyes peeled for the blonde slayer and vampire.

“So what happened in your world?” Gunn* asked casually as they walked down the streets, passing abandon cars and boarded up shops. From the looks of it this was not the fancy part of town.

“We took over Wolfram and Hart, tried to turn it around from the inside.” Gunn said.

“Whoa…it’s a mall now. It’s a funny story how that happened too. It was right after Buffy got turned, and Wolfram and Hart were trying desperately to get her to work with them but she said no, so they tried another way. It didn’t work and lets just say the whole building got blown up…for lack of better words. So they made it a mall…don’t know how that decision was made. But that’s just the short story. If we had a couple hours…” Gunn* told him as he swung the broadsword a couple times.

“Wow, I don’t know what’s left of it now. We got the senior partners pissed off at us so they sent us an army.” Gunn said.

“And everyone survived?”

“No. Wesley and Fred…they died.” Gunn told him.

“What? But that’s impossible they’re here.” Gunn* said.

“Yeah I know, but they still died.” Gunn said and took a deep breath of air and then let it out in an explosive puff.

“Look, there's nothing here…I think we should turn back. Go the other way.” Gunn* said.

“Alright.”

Wesley and Wesley*

For a long time there was silence between the two former watchers. Until Wesley took a deep breath and looked at himself and asked, “Do you know who Connor is?”

And that’s what started the conversation that felt to Wesley like he was connecting with a long lost part of himself.

When it came to the part about when Fred had died the other Wesley* had said he was sorry. Since the events that had happened in Wesley’s world had not happened in Wesley’s* world most of the things Wesley said were foreign and made no sense to his doppelganger. Then it was the other Wesley’s* turn to speak and Wesley listened to the account of what had happened to Wesley*.

“It was extremely difficult for Angel. I have never seen him like that. He was so miserable. He at one point lost it. I remember it as if it were yesterday. We were going back to Hyperion and Buffy* had written a letter to him. I don’ t know what was in it…know one does, we just know that he broke down crying, and well I think you know he never cries. That was last year a week or two after Thanksgiving. All I really know is that it was something about never forgetting. We all assumed it had something to do with what he had done as Angelus but we are starting to suspect it’s more than that. She actually has brought it up a couple of times. I really do wonder what it is?” Wesley* said, shaking his head.

“Huh, I don’t know.” Wesley said and they started to walk by Wolfram and Hart.


Giles and Giles*

“It must have been horrible.” Giles said, walking in front of the Hyperion, where they been instructed to wait until someone came to them or they saw something elsewhere.

“It was.” Giles* said rubbing his eyes.

“It was always her nightmare.” Giles told his other self.

“Yes, it was.” Giles* said remembering the time where they’re nightmares had surfaced to the real world and Buffy had turned into a vampire.

“You know I never believed in heaven but after Jenny died I knew that she must be there and I know Buffy is too.” Giles* said.

“Yes.” Giles agreed.

“I just hope we are able to get rid of the monster. I think we owe it to her to get rid of it.” Giles* said and the other Giles simply nodded.

Angel and Angel*

They took the main street, the one that everyone said that Buffy* and Drusilla traveled more than any other. No one asked when they took that street, they probably all knew that arguing with them was useless even though they were an easy target that way. So know they were walking, in silence up and down the street. They didn’t bother taking the car, because they could cover more ground on foot.

“Do you know where they stay?” Angel asked.

“No, they move around all the time.” Angel* said.

“Picking up a scent?” Angel asked.

“Trying.” Angel* told him.

Angel tried too, but came up with nothing. Buffy was a good Vampire, well he would have never doubted that but he never really thought about it. It was always just something that was impossible. “She’s covering her tracks.” Angel muttered and the other Angel* turned his head. “What?”

“She’s covering her tracks, surrounding herself with other scents.” Angel said

Angel* laughed at that. “She’s not dumb.”

“Yeah, I know.”


Buffy

What the hell? I think I’m going in circles, Buffy thought as she kept running in the opposite direction from her kidnapper.

Her whole body ached, and she felt as if she had at least ten arrows sticking out of her when she had only around three. She had pulled those out when she was running and even though all she wanted to do was give up and sleep she kept running. She had no idea what had happened or if Angel and the others were okay but she had to try to find them.

Her head pounded along with her feet on the payment as she sped up. The last thing she remembered was passing out in a cellar with Angel and she was still unclear on how she had gotten out of that cellar. Was I passed out this whole time? She took a deep breath and prayed to whatever god that would listen that there was a bed where she could sleep in this world. And please let the others be okay, she added. But right now she couldn’t think of that the more she thought about that the more she worried and she couldn’t worry because she had to concentrate on staying alive; because she was sure her kidnapper didn’t want to welcome her to this world.

Keep running, she told herself. Like she had told herself in her dream. What was that about? She had a pretty good feeling she would find out soon. She took a deep breath and continued to run, the streets were empty and she was alone and that’s exactly how she felt. Alone, confused and hurt…very hurt. She closed her eyes and thought about anywhere but here, the game she played in high school. Anywhere but here: Sunnydale! Oh god she would give anything to be in Sunnydale again. Sunnydale was so much better than here. Either that or Hawaii she wouldn’t mind Hawaii, or Bermuda. The next thing she knew she slammed into someone. When she opened her eyes to see whom she had hit she saw brunette hair, warm brown eyes, and leather duster…oh god finally!

“Angel.” She sighed and fell into his arms.











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