Realm of the Unseen - August 9th
Twisted Shorts August Fic-a-Day Challenge - Day 9
Title: Realm of the Unseen
Author: hermione2be
Rating: PG/FR13/K+
Crossover: BtVS/Star Trek
Disclaimer: I do not own any of BtVS/Angel or Star Trek people, places, or ideas. This fiction is done simply for pleasure and I receive no profit.
Summary: Buffy celebrates with her friends and family.
Notes: Part 26 of “Immortal Kelvin Slayer” - Links Page
Seasons: Post-Series/Beyond
Word Count: 2500
Buffy smiled as she checked herself in the mirror.
Uhura grinned from the chair she was watching her from. “So your wedding date, was that intentional?”
Buffy raised an eyebrow at her friend. “What do you mean?”
“The seventeenth of January… 17-01.”
“You haven’t told anyone, right?”
Uhura chuckled. “That you agreed to two weeks so that you could remember your anniversary better?”
“I’m old, there are a lot of dates that…” Buffy threw a pillow at her. “Shut up.”
“How many anniversaries have you forgotten?” Uhura asked as she put the pillow behind her back.
“None, actually. I’ve never been married.”
“Several lifetimes and you’ve never…?”
“Expectation to die young, a war, space, Vulcans, a few bouts of depression, Klingons, and a lot more time spent observing life than participating in it.” She sighed. “I can’t believe I’m doing this.”
“And yet, you seem to have jumped into this without much argument.”
“You really think that between Leo and me anything is done without a lot of arguing?”
“Well, no.”
“I just…I haven’t had this much momentum in my life in years.”
“Is that what you plan on naming the baby?” Uhura asked, “Momentum.”
Buffy chuckled.
“My niece gets a better name than that,” a voice interrupted.
Buffy and Uhura turned around in surprise, both going on alert.
“Who are you?” Uhura demanded.
Buffy, however, sat heavily on the closest chair. “It’s not possible.”
“My name is Dawn, I’m Buffy’s sister.”
“You’ve been dead two hundred years,” Uhura said.
Dawn kneeled next to Buffy’s chair. “That Ambassador of yours was very thoughtful.”
“Spock?” Buffy said in confusion. “What does he have to do with this?”
“He got one wish and he wished for me to get a day with you.”
Buffy stared at her. “Why?”
“Because he pleased someone.” Dawn smiled. “And it was impossible to wish you mortal, though several have tried.”
“Your family-”
“Shh, I know that you took great care of my children and made sure my grandchildren were set. And I know they lived and died more than a hundred and fifty years ago. But I’m not here about them. I’m here for you. To see you married.”
“I thought you were older when you died,” Uhura said.
“I was,” Dawn agreed. “But magic allows us some leeway.”
“Uhura,” Buffy said. “Could you give us a few minutes? Let the guys know we’ll be one more for dinner tonight and for the ceremony tomorrow?”
Uhura looked like she wanted to argue but nodded and left the room.
Buffy pulled her sister over to the couch and sat down next to her. “How are you…you’re supposed to be in Heaven.”
Dawn pressed her hands over Buffy’s. “Nothing is wrong, this was simply the Ambassador’s wish for you.”
“Why?”
“You know that not everything has an answer that will make any sense to you.”
“Intimately,” Buffy agreed.
“Then just accept it.” Dawn smiled. “We don’t have long, just a day. And I want to see you get married.” Her gaze turned mischievous. “Threaten my brother-in-law with a shovel.”
“There is no need for that.”
“I told you the same thing and yet Henry still got the speech.”
“Oh, god,” Buffy laughed. “I haven’t thought of that in years.”
“It makes you think of Willow and Xander,” Dawn guessed.
“It makes me think of that first life,” she agreed.
Dawn placed a hand on her sister’s shoulder. “It’s okay.” She squeezed gently.
“I am having a hard time wrapping my brain around this.” Buffy pulled Dawn into a hug. “But I am glad we have a day.”
“Me too.”
The door opened, pulling their attention.
“I tried to stop them,” Uhura said.
“Yeah, I was pretty sure that was never going to work,” Buffy admitted, smiling. She watched as Jim, Scotty, and McCoy shoved and fought through the doorway.
Dawn laughed. “Earth boys don’t change, do they?”
“Not from what I’ve seen.”
“Which of them gets the shovel story?”
Buffy waited until they had all made it through the door followed by Spock and Uhura. She turned to them first. “Lieutenant Nyota Uhura. Commander Spock.”
“Hi,” Dawn greeted.
“This is Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott. Our fearless leader, Captain James T. Kirk.” She grabbed McCoy’s hand and pulled him closer. “This is Doctor Leonard McCoy. Leo, this is my sister Dawn Summers.”
“Nice to meet you,” he said before looking at Buffy, “How is she here?”
“You send good things out into the universe and sometimes they come back,” Dawn said.
“The Ambassador felt he had some unfinished business.” Buffy gave a helpless gesture. “You’re going to have to get used to the lack of explanations.”
McCoy seemed unimpressed with this answer.
“Why don’t you guys introduce Dawn to the others,” Buffy said. “It’ll give me and Leo a minute to talk.”
“How about we take Dawn to the restaurant and we’ll see you there in an hour?” Jim suggested.
“Enough time to get new embarrassing stories or tell her all the ones you know?” Buffy asked.
Jim and Scotty grabbed Dawn’s elbows and led her out without giving an answer.
“I’m almost afraid of what the three of them can get up to.”
“We’ll see you shortly,” Spock said waiting for Uhura precede him out of the room.
Buffy sat as the door closed. “Everything is feeling a little surreal.”
“Are you okay?” McCoy asked as he sat down next to her.
“I…for the first time in a long time I’m surprised. The demon, the pregnancy, and now my sister. It’s a supernatural hat trick.”
“And here I thought exploring the galaxy was going to be the most excitement I saw in my life.”
“I’m pretty sure Jim will always give me a run for my money in the whole ‘who made your life stranger’ equation.” She sighed. “I came to a decision today.”
“About what?”
“I’m going to trade in my gold uniform for blue.”
“You’ve decided to redirect your efforts into sciences?”
Buffy picked up a packet of papers and handed it to him.
“This is an application for the Academy’s School of Medicine,” he said in surprise.
“It’ll take me some time to complete, especially from a distance, but I’m using the good will saving the starbase generated to push it through now.”
“Are you sure?”
“I think that’s my question for you. I know how you feel about other doctors.”
He placed a hand on her cheek, so she wouldn’t look away. “Will this make you happy?”
“You make me happy.” She kept his gaze. “But when we were working on Spock, it was the first time in a while… I felt like I was doing what I was meant to.” She moved her face back to gesture to her middle. “Fetus-induced nausea aside.”
“Just continuing where you left off thirty years ago?”
Buffy leaned forward to kiss him. “Just choosing my path.”
88888888
Buffy hoped her hands weren’t shaking as bad as she thought they were. It was hard to tell, she felt like she was vibrating.
“He’s actually scowling,” Jim whispered to her.
“What did you expect?”
“It’s his wedding,” he hissed.
“A plan hatched two weeks ago,” she reminded him.
Jim looked back at her. “I saw a cruiser nearby, I can have you out of here in a minute, just say the word.”
Buffy pulled him away from the door were the ceremony would shortly begin. “Will you stop?”
All teasing faded from his expression, he looked her over. And despite her age, he was the one who felt old. “Are you sure?”
She rolled her eyes. “Jim-”
He gently grabbed her chin, keeping her eyes. “Buffy, are you sure?”
She swallowed. “I know he’s cranky most of the time and grumpy the rest. And we are going to drive the entire ship nuts with our arguing and some days you are going to want to blast us out an airlock…but I love him. And as scared as I am, I want this.” She touched her stomach. “All of this.”
Jim let her go and nodded. “Okay.” He offered his arm. “I cannot believe you convinced me to allow this.”
“I’ve raised teenagers, Slayers, Vulcans, and Klingons - how hard can a fully-human child be?” she asked.
“I guess that depends on if it gets your temperament or Bones’.”
He led her to the door.
“Which one are you rooting for?” she whispered.
“Classified,” he whispered back.
McCoy struggled not to fidget. Uhura kept shooting him looks to stop. Commodore Paris stood next to him, completely amused by the entire thing. In fact, most of the crew appeared to have come just to watch the spectacle.
The sound of the doors opening at one end of the hall had them all looking to where Buffy and Jim were. Buffy was dressed in a pale blue dress. It was simple, with finger-width straps, no lace or flowers, and ending at her knees. Her long hair had been braided in a complicated pattern and wound into an elegant bun. Her eyes were narrowed on Jim as though they had walked out while talking.
Then Buffy’s eyes had met his and she smiled. The need to fidget subsided, but now he just wanted the ceremony over so he could hold her.
There was a strange buzzing in his ears. He was aware of Jim escorting Buffy to him. He knew that Buffy’s hand had been steady and gripped his in a vice. The commodore had said some things and the crew had chuckled.
88888888
Jim leaned against the balcony, watching the reception. It wasn’t much more than the wedding party and the crew. And Dawn.
“Captain Kirk,” a voice greeted.
Jim straightened. “Commodore Paris.”
“Relax, captain. Your crew knows how to throw a party almost as well as they save starbases.”
He grinned and leaned his hip against the railing.
“I didn’t want to distract from the festivities, but I wanted to let you know that Lieutenant Winters’s application - in light of recent demonstrations on her part - has been approved.”
“So they are going to be the doctors McCoy.”
Paris chuckled. “It would appear so.”
“They are going to be unbearable,” he noted.
“And yet you didn’t ask for them to be reassigned, together somewhere else or one of them off your ship.”
“I wouldn’t do that to them,” he admitted. “Even for the headache it would save me every day…”
Paris smiled.
88888888
Dawn laughed, watching as Buffy and Chekov danced around the floor.
“You are one of my ancestors,” a voice stated next to her.
Dawn sighed and looked over. “How do you figure that?”
“Buffy introduced you as Dawn Summers, but your married name was Dawn Grayson.”
“Still two hundred and fifty years and a dozen lightyears between you and me.”
“Buffy sharing her katra should not have worked.”
Dawn grimaced.
“We both assumed it was her Vulcan study that gave her a katra, but it’s not what allowed her to save my life. She was able to save someone of her own bloodline.”
“You can’t tell her.”
“It was not my intention to. Except to alleviate her worries about my katra if she were to regenerate.”
“You can’t do that either.” Dawn gestured to where Buffy was dancing with McCoy. “She never would have considered her own safety if she didn’t think that your life was tied to hers.” She looked at Spock’s dark eyes. “You’re aware of Doctor McCoy’s telomere theory?”
“Yes, he postulates that if she foregoes regeneration for the length of a natural lifetime, that she will die of old age.”
“He’s wrong,” Dawn replied. “I mean she can age, and when she dies she does return to the exact physical state she was in the first time. But there is no way out of this for her. Willow, Xander, Tara, and Anya…they didn’t understand what they were doing and it cannot be undone.”
“She deserves to know.”
“I know, but she can’t.”
Spock looked her over. “There is little logic in keeping the truth from her.”
“I know you will likely return to this logical conclusion, but for now, let her have this life.” Dawn raised her hand and snapped her fingers.
Spock’s memory of the conversation and his revelations, faded into the fog.
“Excuse me,” Dawn said as she moved away, “I need to say goodbye.”
Buffy smiled as Jim spun her around the floor. Something caught her eye near the door. She distangled from her friend and turned.
Dawn gave her a small smile and a wave. Buffy raised her hand and waved back. Before she could take a step forward, Dawn was gone.
“Are you okay?” McCoy asked.
Buffy nodded. “Yes. I’m glad I got to see her.”
88888888
Dawn stepping into the realm of the unseen.
“Was it everything you thought it would be, Ambassador?” Dawn asked.
He nodded. “Why did you remove that memory?”
“Because a Summers is a Summers is a Summers, no matter how many generations removed. And she doesn’t need to know - not now, not yet.”
Unsatisfied with the answer, but knowing his time was limited, he instead focused on the future. “What awaits her now?”
She touched the air and the reception faded out. “Buffy will give birth to a daughter - Georgia Amanda McCoy.”
“Named for her father’s home.”
“And for the memory of a woman who reminded Buffy that pain was a testament to a life lived. And she will carry those truths - these memories and the pain that will follow through all time.”
“Her own many times great-niece Can her family not be made immortal?”
“To what end? She would never wish that on another, to trap them as she has been. Endless youth in a universe where time will continue to march on, stealing those they love from them until their hearts harden and they become darkness.”
“She does not.”
“She is still the Slayer whose soul was in Heaven. That light, though it is so far removed, has still touched her. Her soul will take a hundred thousand years to become bent and twisted, if left alone to rot. Yet, I suspect that will never be a problem.”
“And what leads you to such a conclusion?” Spock asked.
The woman pointed to the window where Buffy was being spun around the room by her groom. “Because even when she is ornery and stubborn and completely uncooperative, there is always someone who finds it charming and loveable. And has the strength of character to stand up to her and her fears.”
“In my timeline, her husband was not Doctor McCoy.”
“Nor did she join Starfleet before Jean Luc Picard’s Enterprise. Now there will not be a Picard, or at least not one who lives to become a Starfleet officer.” She gave him a soft smile. “In this unseen realm, we can return you to your own timeline.” She hooked her arm through his. “Come, Ambassador, your McCoy, Scotty, and Uhura await.”
Title: Realm of the Unseen
Author: hermione2be
Rating: PG/FR13/K+
Crossover: BtVS/Star Trek
Disclaimer: I do not own any of BtVS/Angel or Star Trek people, places, or ideas. This fiction is done simply for pleasure and I receive no profit.
Summary: Buffy celebrates with her friends and family.
Notes: Part 26 of “Immortal Kelvin Slayer” - Links Page
Seasons: Post-Series/Beyond
Word Count: 2500
Buffy smiled as she checked herself in the mirror.
Uhura grinned from the chair she was watching her from. “So your wedding date, was that intentional?”
Buffy raised an eyebrow at her friend. “What do you mean?”
“The seventeenth of January… 17-01.”
“You haven’t told anyone, right?”
Uhura chuckled. “That you agreed to two weeks so that you could remember your anniversary better?”
“I’m old, there are a lot of dates that…” Buffy threw a pillow at her. “Shut up.”
“How many anniversaries have you forgotten?” Uhura asked as she put the pillow behind her back.
“None, actually. I’ve never been married.”
“Several lifetimes and you’ve never…?”
“Expectation to die young, a war, space, Vulcans, a few bouts of depression, Klingons, and a lot more time spent observing life than participating in it.” She sighed. “I can’t believe I’m doing this.”
“And yet, you seem to have jumped into this without much argument.”
“You really think that between Leo and me anything is done without a lot of arguing?”
“Well, no.”
“I just…I haven’t had this much momentum in my life in years.”
“Is that what you plan on naming the baby?” Uhura asked, “Momentum.”
Buffy chuckled.
“My niece gets a better name than that,” a voice interrupted.
Buffy and Uhura turned around in surprise, both going on alert.
“Who are you?” Uhura demanded.
Buffy, however, sat heavily on the closest chair. “It’s not possible.”
“My name is Dawn, I’m Buffy’s sister.”
“You’ve been dead two hundred years,” Uhura said.
Dawn kneeled next to Buffy’s chair. “That Ambassador of yours was very thoughtful.”
“Spock?” Buffy said in confusion. “What does he have to do with this?”
“He got one wish and he wished for me to get a day with you.”
Buffy stared at her. “Why?”
“Because he pleased someone.” Dawn smiled. “And it was impossible to wish you mortal, though several have tried.”
“Your family-”
“Shh, I know that you took great care of my children and made sure my grandchildren were set. And I know they lived and died more than a hundred and fifty years ago. But I’m not here about them. I’m here for you. To see you married.”
“I thought you were older when you died,” Uhura said.
“I was,” Dawn agreed. “But magic allows us some leeway.”
“Uhura,” Buffy said. “Could you give us a few minutes? Let the guys know we’ll be one more for dinner tonight and for the ceremony tomorrow?”
Uhura looked like she wanted to argue but nodded and left the room.
Buffy pulled her sister over to the couch and sat down next to her. “How are you…you’re supposed to be in Heaven.”
Dawn pressed her hands over Buffy’s. “Nothing is wrong, this was simply the Ambassador’s wish for you.”
“Why?”
“You know that not everything has an answer that will make any sense to you.”
“Intimately,” Buffy agreed.
“Then just accept it.” Dawn smiled. “We don’t have long, just a day. And I want to see you get married.” Her gaze turned mischievous. “Threaten my brother-in-law with a shovel.”
“There is no need for that.”
“I told you the same thing and yet Henry still got the speech.”
“Oh, god,” Buffy laughed. “I haven’t thought of that in years.”
“It makes you think of Willow and Xander,” Dawn guessed.
“It makes me think of that first life,” she agreed.
Dawn placed a hand on her sister’s shoulder. “It’s okay.” She squeezed gently.
“I am having a hard time wrapping my brain around this.” Buffy pulled Dawn into a hug. “But I am glad we have a day.”
“Me too.”
The door opened, pulling their attention.
“I tried to stop them,” Uhura said.
“Yeah, I was pretty sure that was never going to work,” Buffy admitted, smiling. She watched as Jim, Scotty, and McCoy shoved and fought through the doorway.
Dawn laughed. “Earth boys don’t change, do they?”
“Not from what I’ve seen.”
“Which of them gets the shovel story?”
Buffy waited until they had all made it through the door followed by Spock and Uhura. She turned to them first. “Lieutenant Nyota Uhura. Commander Spock.”
“Hi,” Dawn greeted.
“This is Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott. Our fearless leader, Captain James T. Kirk.” She grabbed McCoy’s hand and pulled him closer. “This is Doctor Leonard McCoy. Leo, this is my sister Dawn Summers.”
“Nice to meet you,” he said before looking at Buffy, “How is she here?”
“You send good things out into the universe and sometimes they come back,” Dawn said.
“The Ambassador felt he had some unfinished business.” Buffy gave a helpless gesture. “You’re going to have to get used to the lack of explanations.”
McCoy seemed unimpressed with this answer.
“Why don’t you guys introduce Dawn to the others,” Buffy said. “It’ll give me and Leo a minute to talk.”
“How about we take Dawn to the restaurant and we’ll see you there in an hour?” Jim suggested.
“Enough time to get new embarrassing stories or tell her all the ones you know?” Buffy asked.
Jim and Scotty grabbed Dawn’s elbows and led her out without giving an answer.
“I’m almost afraid of what the three of them can get up to.”
“We’ll see you shortly,” Spock said waiting for Uhura precede him out of the room.
Buffy sat as the door closed. “Everything is feeling a little surreal.”
“Are you okay?” McCoy asked as he sat down next to her.
“I…for the first time in a long time I’m surprised. The demon, the pregnancy, and now my sister. It’s a supernatural hat trick.”
“And here I thought exploring the galaxy was going to be the most excitement I saw in my life.”
“I’m pretty sure Jim will always give me a run for my money in the whole ‘who made your life stranger’ equation.” She sighed. “I came to a decision today.”
“About what?”
“I’m going to trade in my gold uniform for blue.”
“You’ve decided to redirect your efforts into sciences?”
Buffy picked up a packet of papers and handed it to him.
“This is an application for the Academy’s School of Medicine,” he said in surprise.
“It’ll take me some time to complete, especially from a distance, but I’m using the good will saving the starbase generated to push it through now.”
“Are you sure?”
“I think that’s my question for you. I know how you feel about other doctors.”
He placed a hand on her cheek, so she wouldn’t look away. “Will this make you happy?”
“You make me happy.” She kept his gaze. “But when we were working on Spock, it was the first time in a while… I felt like I was doing what I was meant to.” She moved her face back to gesture to her middle. “Fetus-induced nausea aside.”
“Just continuing where you left off thirty years ago?”
Buffy leaned forward to kiss him. “Just choosing my path.”
88888888
Buffy hoped her hands weren’t shaking as bad as she thought they were. It was hard to tell, she felt like she was vibrating.
“He’s actually scowling,” Jim whispered to her.
“What did you expect?”
“It’s his wedding,” he hissed.
“A plan hatched two weeks ago,” she reminded him.
Jim looked back at her. “I saw a cruiser nearby, I can have you out of here in a minute, just say the word.”
Buffy pulled him away from the door were the ceremony would shortly begin. “Will you stop?”
All teasing faded from his expression, he looked her over. And despite her age, he was the one who felt old. “Are you sure?”
She rolled her eyes. “Jim-”
He gently grabbed her chin, keeping her eyes. “Buffy, are you sure?”
She swallowed. “I know he’s cranky most of the time and grumpy the rest. And we are going to drive the entire ship nuts with our arguing and some days you are going to want to blast us out an airlock…but I love him. And as scared as I am, I want this.” She touched her stomach. “All of this.”
Jim let her go and nodded. “Okay.” He offered his arm. “I cannot believe you convinced me to allow this.”
“I’ve raised teenagers, Slayers, Vulcans, and Klingons - how hard can a fully-human child be?” she asked.
“I guess that depends on if it gets your temperament or Bones’.”
He led her to the door.
“Which one are you rooting for?” she whispered.
“Classified,” he whispered back.
McCoy struggled not to fidget. Uhura kept shooting him looks to stop. Commodore Paris stood next to him, completely amused by the entire thing. In fact, most of the crew appeared to have come just to watch the spectacle.
The sound of the doors opening at one end of the hall had them all looking to where Buffy and Jim were. Buffy was dressed in a pale blue dress. It was simple, with finger-width straps, no lace or flowers, and ending at her knees. Her long hair had been braided in a complicated pattern and wound into an elegant bun. Her eyes were narrowed on Jim as though they had walked out while talking.
Then Buffy’s eyes had met his and she smiled. The need to fidget subsided, but now he just wanted the ceremony over so he could hold her.
There was a strange buzzing in his ears. He was aware of Jim escorting Buffy to him. He knew that Buffy’s hand had been steady and gripped his in a vice. The commodore had said some things and the crew had chuckled.
88888888
Jim leaned against the balcony, watching the reception. It wasn’t much more than the wedding party and the crew. And Dawn.
“Captain Kirk,” a voice greeted.
Jim straightened. “Commodore Paris.”
“Relax, captain. Your crew knows how to throw a party almost as well as they save starbases.”
He grinned and leaned his hip against the railing.
“I didn’t want to distract from the festivities, but I wanted to let you know that Lieutenant Winters’s application - in light of recent demonstrations on her part - has been approved.”
“So they are going to be the doctors McCoy.”
Paris chuckled. “It would appear so.”
“They are going to be unbearable,” he noted.
“And yet you didn’t ask for them to be reassigned, together somewhere else or one of them off your ship.”
“I wouldn’t do that to them,” he admitted. “Even for the headache it would save me every day…”
Paris smiled.
88888888
Dawn laughed, watching as Buffy and Chekov danced around the floor.
“You are one of my ancestors,” a voice stated next to her.
Dawn sighed and looked over. “How do you figure that?”
“Buffy introduced you as Dawn Summers, but your married name was Dawn Grayson.”
“Still two hundred and fifty years and a dozen lightyears between you and me.”
“Buffy sharing her katra should not have worked.”
Dawn grimaced.
“We both assumed it was her Vulcan study that gave her a katra, but it’s not what allowed her to save my life. She was able to save someone of her own bloodline.”
“You can’t tell her.”
“It was not my intention to. Except to alleviate her worries about my katra if she were to regenerate.”
“You can’t do that either.” Dawn gestured to where Buffy was dancing with McCoy. “She never would have considered her own safety if she didn’t think that your life was tied to hers.” She looked at Spock’s dark eyes. “You’re aware of Doctor McCoy’s telomere theory?”
“Yes, he postulates that if she foregoes regeneration for the length of a natural lifetime, that she will die of old age.”
“He’s wrong,” Dawn replied. “I mean she can age, and when she dies she does return to the exact physical state she was in the first time. But there is no way out of this for her. Willow, Xander, Tara, and Anya…they didn’t understand what they were doing and it cannot be undone.”
“She deserves to know.”
“I know, but she can’t.”
Spock looked her over. “There is little logic in keeping the truth from her.”
“I know you will likely return to this logical conclusion, but for now, let her have this life.” Dawn raised her hand and snapped her fingers.
Spock’s memory of the conversation and his revelations, faded into the fog.
“Excuse me,” Dawn said as she moved away, “I need to say goodbye.”
Buffy smiled as Jim spun her around the floor. Something caught her eye near the door. She distangled from her friend and turned.
Dawn gave her a small smile and a wave. Buffy raised her hand and waved back. Before she could take a step forward, Dawn was gone.
“Are you okay?” McCoy asked.
Buffy nodded. “Yes. I’m glad I got to see her.”
88888888
Dawn stepping into the realm of the unseen.
“Was it everything you thought it would be, Ambassador?” Dawn asked.
He nodded. “Why did you remove that memory?”
“Because a Summers is a Summers is a Summers, no matter how many generations removed. And she doesn’t need to know - not now, not yet.”
Unsatisfied with the answer, but knowing his time was limited, he instead focused on the future. “What awaits her now?”
She touched the air and the reception faded out. “Buffy will give birth to a daughter - Georgia Amanda McCoy.”
“Named for her father’s home.”
“And for the memory of a woman who reminded Buffy that pain was a testament to a life lived. And she will carry those truths - these memories and the pain that will follow through all time.”
“Her own many times great-niece Can her family not be made immortal?”
“To what end? She would never wish that on another, to trap them as she has been. Endless youth in a universe where time will continue to march on, stealing those they love from them until their hearts harden and they become darkness.”
“She does not.”
“She is still the Slayer whose soul was in Heaven. That light, though it is so far removed, has still touched her. Her soul will take a hundred thousand years to become bent and twisted, if left alone to rot. Yet, I suspect that will never be a problem.”
“And what leads you to such a conclusion?” Spock asked.
The woman pointed to the window where Buffy was being spun around the room by her groom. “Because even when she is ornery and stubborn and completely uncooperative, there is always someone who finds it charming and loveable. And has the strength of character to stand up to her and her fears.”
“In my timeline, her husband was not Doctor McCoy.”
“Nor did she join Starfleet before Jean Luc Picard’s Enterprise. Now there will not be a Picard, or at least not one who lives to become a Starfleet officer.” She gave him a soft smile. “In this unseen realm, we can return you to your own timeline.” She hooked her arm through his. “Come, Ambassador, your McCoy, Scotty, and Uhura await.”