Title: Back to the Uncharted Territories
Author: Paradox761
Email: Paradox761@mail.com
Website: members.tripod.com/~Paradox761
Disclaimer: Joss Whedon owns Buffy; SFC, Jim Henson Productions, and Rockne S. O’Bannon own Farscape; and Universal Pictures owns Back to the Future. No copyright infringement is intended, so please don’t sue. I don’t have any money anyway.
Summary: Sequel to “A Sympathetic Ear”, John Crichton finally makes it home only to discover that the life he left behind is no longer there. His father, DK, and Xander Harris are all dead. Then he meets an extraordinary man in a bar, a time traveler, with an extraordinary proposition. Will John risk it all to go back in time to save his father’s life? And what happens when the consequences are much worse than he ever could have imagined?
Author’s note: Takes place directly after the third season of Farscape, after that it’s an AU. Also, for the sake of this story, Farscape takes place in the near future (2017), and some of the modifications made to the DeLorean in the second movie, namely Mr. Fusion, came from further into the future then when the movie took place (2015). Also, some dialogue has been lifted directly from the Buffy episode “Grave”, no plagiarism intended.
Dedication: To Jordan and Jessica, my angels. May they rest in peace.
Special thanks to A. Grandt, greywizard, Wayne, Rob Clark, Danielle, Goblin, Calen, DaBear, Obi, Gareth, Troy, David, and Lafe for the feedback and support.
(Farscape/BtVS/BttF, Xander/Chiana, John/Aeryn)
Rated R for language and violence
Guest Cast:
Guy Pearce as Dr. Julian Martin Brown, PhD.
James Remar as Lakas

Xander was a block away from the Magic Box when he saw the broken front window, and debris littering the walkway out front. He quickened his pace and tightened his grip on his sword. He could feel a sense of dread in the pit of his stomach. He tried to ignore it as he pressed on.

Xander pushed the broken door aside as he stepped inside. The inside of the shop looked like a tornado had hit it. Broken glass and debris covered the floor. Books and assorted magical items lay scattered everywhere. “Buffy!” Xander called out. There was no answer. “Giles!” Still nothing. “Willow?” he asked, in a much quieter voice. Xander cautiously walked in further, his sword at the ready. It wasn’t until he walked past the end of the counter that he saw her, laying on the floor, off to the side. Her hair was covering her face, but he could tell that it was her.

“Buffy!” he yelled again, running to her side. His sword clattered to the floor as he hit his knees next to her. He turned her over as gently as he could, brushing the hair away from her face. Cold, unfocused eyes looked up at him. “Oh god, no. Buffy!” The tears were streaming down his face before Xander even realized it. He felt for a pulse, even though he knew that he would not find one. He pulled her up into his arms, holding her as tight as her could, like he was afraid to let her go. And he cried, whispering ‘I’m sorry’ over and over again into her hair. When he finally gathered himself together again, he placed a feather light kiss on her forehead and lowered her back onto the floor. He brushed his hand over her face, closing her eyes. He didn’t have time to grieve right now. He needed to find out what happened. He needed to find Giles and Willow.

It was at that moment that he heard something. When he looked up, Xander could see the pile of debris where the table once stood was starting to move. He crossed the room in three steps and started pulling pieces of the table off the pile, to uncover whoever or whatever was beneath. Under a half a dozen books with blank pages and a few broken table legs, lay the closest thing to a father than Xander had ever had. Rupert Giles.

“Giles!” Xander said. He could hear that the other man was still breathing, though faintly. “Giles, can you hear me?”

Giles stirred, his eyes squeezing shut in pain before fluttering open. “Xander,” he said, his voice barely a whisper.

“Giles, what happened? Where’s Willow?”

“Gone,” he answered. “She killed Buffy…drained her life essence.”

“I saw her,” Xander answered. “We have to get you to a hospital.”

“No,” Giles insisted. “No time, you have to stop her.”

“Giles, I don’t want Willow to kill those two anymore than you do, but we have to take care of you first.”

“No,” Giles wheezed. “Don’t understand. I performed the spell, I tapped into the universal magic flow. I tried to use it to bind her, but I couldn’t control it. She drained me, the same way she did Buffy, and she absorbed it all. She could feel it, their suffering, their pain.”

“I don’t understand, feel what? Whose suffering? Whose pain?”

“Everyone’s,” he answered simply. “Everyone in the world. It’s overwhelming her. She’s going to end it, she’s going to end it all. You have to stop her Xander. You’re the only one left who can. Kingman’s Bluff. You have to go. You have to go now.”

“I can’t just leave you here.”

Giles tried to shake his head. “I’m already dead. You must…you must go, now.”

It was the urgency in his voice that ultimately convinced Xander. He ran out of the Magic Box, picking up his sword on the way out. He ran as fast as he could toward the bluff. He ran until his lungs burned and his legs felt like they would give out any moment, then he ran even further. He wouldn’t let himself stop, he couldn’t. He had to get to her. He didn’t know what he was going to do when he got there, he just knew that he had to get there.

When he finally made it, Xander saw Willow standing near the edge of the bluff, a grotesque looking statue jutting out from the ground stood before her. He could see that it looked like she was drawing power from it, whatever it was. There were arcs of energy flowing between her outstretched hands and the carved figure. Xander did the only thing he could think to do, the first thing that came to his mind. He stepped into the energy stream, interrupting the power flow. Willow looked up.

“Hey, black-eyed girl. Whatcha doing?”

“Get out of here,” Willow hissed.

“Oh, no. You’re not the only one with powers, you know. You may be a hopped-up uber-witch but this carpenter can drywall you into the next century.”

Willow ignored him, concentrating on the idol once again. Blasting it with another stream of energy. Xander crawled to the base of the spire and stood up, his body once again cutting off the energy stream.

“You can’t stop this!”

“Yeah, I get that. It’s just where else am I going to go? You’ve been my best friend my whole life. World gonna end…where else would I want to be?”

“Is this the master plan? You’re going to stop me by telling me you love me?”

“Well, I was going to walk you off a cliff and hand you an anvil but it seemed kind of cartoony.”

“Still making jokes.”

“I’m not joking. I know you’re in pain. I can’t imagine the pain you’re in. And I know you’re about to do something apocalyptically evil and stupid and hey, I still wanna hang. You’re Willow.”

“Don’t call me that!”

“The first day of kindergarten you cried because you broke the yellow crayon and you were too afraid to tell anyone. You’ve come pretty far, ending the world not a terrific notion, but the thing is, yeah, I love you. I love crayon-breaky Willow and I love scary-veiny Willow. So if I’m going out, it’s here. You wanna kill the world, you start with me. I’ve earned that.”

“You think I won’t?”

“It doesn’t matter. I’ll still love you.”

Willow’s face twisted in anger. “Shut up!” she commanded, slashing at the air. Xander winced as three large cuts opened on his face. He reached up and touched the cuts, looking down at the blood on his hand and then back up at Willow.

“I love you,” he repeated. Willow slashed the air again, nearly knocking Xander off his feet. His face twisted in pain as the slashes ripped his shirt open. Again, he looked up at her. “I love…”

Willow reached up and blasted him again with a bolt of magic before he could finish. Xander fell to the ground, clutching his midsection. Willow looked on, her expression of anger slowly changing into sorrow at what she was doing to her friend. Xander staggered to his feet, picking his head up to lock eyes with her again. He stumbled closer to her on hesitant legs.

“I…love you.”

“Shut up,” Willow commanded again, her voice far less steady than it had been. She blasted him again. Xander grunted in pain, but he didn’t fall. The blasts were getting weaker.

“I love you, Willow.”

“Stop,” Willow said weakly, as her tears started to come. She hit him with another blast, but it seemed to barely affect him. He kept walking toward her.

“I love you,” he said again. As he reached her, Willow struck out with her fists, hitting him on the chest as he drew her into his arms. The tears were coming full force now. She collapsed onto the ground with Xander still holding her, and cried into his chest. Her black hair slowly changed back to its original red. “I love you,” Xander whispered softly as he held her. Somewhere behind them, the glowing effigy began to fade.

Willow started sobbing harder. “I killed them,” she cried. “Buffy and Giles…they’re dead.”

“I know,” Xander said simply. He fought back his own tears that threatened to come. He didn’t know what else to say.

“Goddess, what have I done?”

“It wasn’t you,” Xander insisted. “It was the magic. It’s not your fault.”

Willow just shook her head. “It was me. I’m the one who practiced dark magic, I’m the one who lost control.” She choked back more tears. “And I’m the one who killed two people I love, and nearly destroyed the world.”

“I’m still here, and so is Dawn. We’ll get you help, Willow. We’ll get through this, I promise you.”

Willow just shook her head again. “Can’t change what’s been done, no matter what happens to me. Buffy, and Giles, and Tara will still be dead.”

“No, we can’t change the past, you’re right. But we can build a future. There’s always hope, and forgiveness. The people we love will always be with us, as long as we never forget them.”

Willow’s tears began to subside. “There is no hope for me,” she said in a somber tone. “No forgiveness.” She looked up and saw through the whole in Xander’s shirt, his amulet. The one she and Tara had given him, infused with part of themselves. The one he never took off. Xander saw the look on her face. If she had been a cartoon, a light bulb would have appeared over her head. She reached up and wrapped her hand around the amulet. “But you’re right about one thing. We will always be with you.”

Xander never got a chance to ask her what she meant. Before he could open his mouth, he felt this sudden rush of energy. His body was tingling all over. When he looked down, at Willow’s hand wrapped around the amulet, he saw a bright white light. It was beautiful, and so unlike anything he had ever seen before. When he looked to Willow’s face, he saw her eyes closed in concentration. After about a minute of this, Willow finally let go of the amulet. It gently fell back against Xander’s bare chest, and as soon as it touched him, Xander’s head began to swim. It was the same feeling that he had gotten when he first put the amulet on, the night of his birthday party, only twice as intense. It was as though love were a substance, and he was wrapped in it from head to toe. It was every kind word ever said to him. Every smile, every hug, every kiss. All rolled into one. By the time Xander shook the cobwebs loose and got his bearings again, Willow was rising to her feet.

Xander picked himself up as well. He was no longer in any pain. And when he looked down at himself, he saw that the scratches on his chest were gone. He touched his face, and found the wounds there to be gone as well. “What did you do to me?” he asked.

Willow just smiled. A true, genuine, just for him, Willow smile. “I love you too, Xander,” she said. “Never forget that. I’m sorry, for what I’ve done, and for what I’m about to do.” A single tear rolled down her cheek, and there was this sad acceptance in her eyes that Xander didn’t quite understand. “I hope one day that you’ll understand.” She reached out and cupped his cheek with her hand, before leaning in and kissing him ever so gently on the lips.

Willow broke the kiss, and he could feel her brush past him before it opened his eyes. He realized too late what was happening. He turned to grab her, but she slipped out of his grip. He was just too slow. He screamed her name, like he had never screamed before in his life. It was a sound filled with rage, and pain, and sorrow. It grated his throat, and rang in his ears. It was the only thing he had left to do, except watch.

Willow ran to the edge of Kingman’s Bluff, and jumped to her death.

*

“I failed.”

“How can you say that? You saved the world.”

“But I couldn’t save the people I loved. When it came down do it, it didn’t matter how good my sword skills were, or how many protection amulets or demonology texts I had. I still wasn’t good enough.” He paused. “I was still too late.”

“I’m sure Dawn doesn’t see it that way. You didn’t fail her.”

“Actually, I’m not sure how she sees it. I know she hates me.” Xander paused again. This was definitely an uncomfortable subject for him. “After…they died, I made all the funeral arrangements. I called Giles’ family in England to tell them what happened. I called Buffy and Dawn’s father, I talked to Willow’s parents. I was going to call Tara’s family, but I figured they didn’t seem to care too much about her when she was alive, why should it matter to them that she’s dead. I did everything that was expected of me. But it was like…I wasn’t even really there, you know what I mean? I was on autopilot. Emotionally, I was closed off. I wasn’t there for Dawn when she needed me the most. Physically, I was there. But in every other way that counted, I may as well have been in China. Dawn’s father took her to LA with him after the funerals. That’s the last time I saw her. I tried writing a few times, but she never wrote back. I saw it in her eyes that day, and it’s an image that will be burned into my mind until I die. I don’t know if it’s because I couldn’t save them, or because I wasn’t there for her, or because I just let her father take her away without even a fight.” He paused. “Or maybe it’s just because I survived and they didn’t. I don’t know. I did fail her, even more so than the others. Because I was in a better position to help her than I was for them. But I stood by and did nothing.

“After the funerals, I crawled into a bottle of Jack Daniels. I stopped eating, I stopped sleeping, I stopped going to work. Overdue bills piled so high on my doorstep, you couldn’t even see the welcome mat. But I didn’t care. I wasn’t even really alive anymore. I was just…waiting to die. Then one day, I guess about three or four months after it happened, I caught my reflection in the mirror. It wasn’t like it was the first time in three months that I had seen my reflection, but for some reason that time I saw something different. Something that scared me more than any vampire or demon ever had. I saw my father. I saw a broken, dirty, unshaven, hung over man who hated life, and himself. It was my greatest nightmare coming to life. I was becoming my father. And all I could think about was that if Willow or Buffy or Giles could see me then, that they would be ashamed of me. I was ashamed of me. I had sworn to myself my entire life that I wouldn’t be like, that I wouldn’t become him. But it was just one more thing that I failed at. One more thing that I had no control over anymore. I started crying, harder than I can ever remember crying in my life. I climbed into the bathtub, curled into a ball, and just wailed like a two-year-old. I’m not sure how long I was in that tub. Hours, days, I don’t know. I know that when I woke up, I was sober. And something inside my head finally just said enough. I wasn’t going to sit there and destroy myself anymore. I decided to take control of my life again. I decided that the next time I saw them, I wanted them to be proud of me.” Xander paused. “I decided to fight.

“And that’s what I did. I haven’t touched a drop of alcohol since that day, except for the rubbing variety,” he said, motioning toward the bottle of rubbing alcohol sitting of the table from the first aid kit. “I packed a bag, and I left my apartment for good. I’m not sure if I was starting a new life, or resuming my old one. I just knew that I needed to start moving forward again.

“When Giles went back to England after the first time Buffy died, he left the Magic Box in the hands of Willow and Tara. But he put my name on the lease too, in case anything should happen. So I was now the sole owner of the store. What I didn’t find out until later, was that when the Watcher’s Council reinstated Giles as Buffy’s watcher after Glory showed up, they bought the building outright. So there was no rent to pay. I moved in, converting the office space and storerooms in the back into living space. The place is still closed for business, but I still have all of Giles books, and all of the magical items from the shop’s inventory. Not to mention all of his weapons, and a rolodex filled with his contacts. That was four years ago, and I’ve been fighting evil full time ever since.”

“What about your amulet? What did Willow do to it?” John asked.

Xander took the talisman in his hand and looked down at it. “I’m not really sure actually. She must have…supercharged it or something. It’s a lot more powerful than it was. I’ve seen bolts of magical energy bounce right off me, I’ve seen spells cast against me backfire on the caster. I’ve walked through magical force fields. Not to mention the fact that I haven’t had so much as a cold in the last four years. Whatever she did, it’s some pretty powerful stuff. I still don’t know what its limits are.”

John couldn’t help but marvel that a tiny piece of metal could be so powerful. “What do you do for money for food and clothes, stuff like that?”

“I know it isn’t very noble like, but I steal from vampires. And sometimes, grateful humans that I save throw me a few bucks, or people I do favors for. Willy let’s me drink for free,” he said with a smile, draining the last of his soda.

“How long has the new slayer been here?”

“Six months or so. I called the Watcher’s Council four years ago after I finally got my act together, to let them know what had happened and that I was the only one left to fight on the Hellmouth. They politely thanked me for the information, and said they’d send someone to investigate. Years went by, and nothing. I called again and again, and they said the same thing every time. Finally I just stopped called. I think they were just waiting for me to get killed before they sent anyone, a little payback for being a thorn in their side for so long. But year after year I kept disappointing them, until finally they had to send someone. They told me that my help was appreciated, but no longer needed. I told them that was fine, but I wasn’t going anywhere. Ronnie and I butt heads a lot, but she’s all right. She just has the mother of all superiority complexes, which slayers appear to be born with. But she’s dedicated.”

“How do you do it?” John asked. At Xander’s puzzled glance he continued. “I mean, how do you just keep going, after everything you’ve been through, against overwhelming odds. How do you get up in the morning? How do you keep from going crazy?”

Xander shrugged. “I just do. Somewhere along the way I shut off the part of my brain that feels pain, or gets scared, or worries about things. I get up in the morning, I keep going, keep fighting because…it’s all I know how to do anymore. I don’t know how not to do it.”

John thought about what Xander said earlier, about being on autopilot after his friends’ deaths. And he wondered to himself if maybe Xander had just traded one kind of emotional numbness for another. Traded one form of destroying himself, for another.

“So that’s my story,” Xander said, breaking John out of his thoughts. “What about yours?”

“I don’t really know where to begin either.”

“How about what you’re doing here, in this time.”

John let out a long breath. “I think I’m going to need another beer. This one’s a long story too.”

“Willy, two more,” Xander hollered over to the barkeep.

“I guess it all started when we destroyed Scorpius’ command carrier, and with it all his wormhole research. Things were actually looking up for us for once. So then…”




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