August 25 - The Pain of Knowledge (BtVS/Loki)
Title: The Pain of Knowledge
Author: Glitterangelem
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Loki
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1,378
Summary: Explanations don't always make things better.
Stephen Strange felt like a referee for a sport he knew nothing about.
On one side of the table sat America and the small group he had hosted in his home for the last week, though he still knew frighteningly little about the power they held. Kid Loki’s display with the magical doubles was enough to underscore that lack of knowledge. That did not even take into account Alligator Loki’s abilities - other than eating shoes - or Buffy’s. From what he was beginning to understand about the Void, it would be almost impossible for her to have survived living there with just the superhuman speed she used at their first encounter.
Plus, there was the electronic device that Buffy called ‘Giles’, though the technology seemed oddly similar to Stark robotics.
The other side of a table was even more of a mystery. The older looking Buffy, and the woman with dark hair, had the same supernatural feel to them. Willow, as he had heard her being called, was clearly a rather powerful witch. And the older British gentleman was Giles.
Like the electronic device.
Part of him wished Wong could be in his place instead, but the nosy part of him overruled that notion. Plus, the timing of the visit was too convenient. If someone was tracking his life, he needed to know.
“Introduction seem to be in order,” Giles, the British gentlemen, said as she took his glasses off and wiped them clean with a handkerchief. “As this is not at all what we expected when we arrived.”
“I think you should start,” Buffy - Void Buffy - said, glancing over at Stephen before continuing, “My part - our part - will make more sense if we start at the beginning. All the way at the beginning, with the earth being older than most people know.”
The newer set of visitors glanced at each other (Stephen could swear they were conversing somehow, with the range of facial expressions), before Giles nodded and cleared his throat.
“To be succinct, the Earth is older than most know it. For untold eons, demons walked the Earth. But in time, they lost their hold on the Earth, and made way for man. Remnants of the original demons managed to eek out a way of life, some coexisting with humans, but most determined to wipe out the interlopers. To combat those demons, vampire in particular, Slayers were created. The First Slayer was a young woman, and when she died, another took her place. Another, and another, running from early history until modern times. There used to be one Slayer called at a time, but after a rather…difficult battle, all potential slayers were called. And now, when a potential hits a certain age, she becomes a Slayer.”
“And we,” Willow chimed in, gesturing to herself and the others, “Have a way to track them down, to give them the option of training with us. It’s always the Slayers choice, whether or not to join this life. Some choose to join us, some don’t. Either way, we help them learn about their new powers and abilities. And that’s why we came here. We thought there was a new slayer called but…clearly that wasn’t the case.”
Their explanation opened up a thousand news questions, but in the interest of time, Stephen forced most of the questions away, mentally taking notes to ask Void Buffy later. Instead, he asked the burning question he could not avoid, “How did you stay under the radar for so long? For that matter, how did the demons not get noticed? All of what you are talking about requires a great deal of energy, of magic.”
Willow shrugged. “We’ve been working on that, and the simple answer is we don’t have a true answer. But, we’ve wondered that too, and my working hypothesis is that since a Slayer used to require a level of secrecy to her, to keep demons from hunting her down, we believe there’s another magical element to the spell, a bit of a ‘notice me not’. We always joked a Sunnydale Syndrome, where people didn’t remember the supernatural things that happened to them.”
“Wait, Sunnydale?” Dr. Strange interrupted, bolting upright. “The town that - “
“Not important right now,” Void Buffy said firmly, glaring at Stephen for a moment before continuing, “So basically, my Slayerness caught up with one or your spells, it seemed like a new Slayer, and you came here to talk to me about it.”
The others stared at her for a minute before Older Buffy said reluctantly, “Yeah, that sums it up decently.”
Void Buffy nodded, looking down for a moment, as if it collect herself before turning to stare at the other her. “When you were 17, did you face off against the Judge? And Angel, after he lost his soul?”
The question, seemingly out of left field, surprised the entire group from the Council. For a moment, Older Buffy stared at her younger looking counterpart before nodding slowly. “Yes. What does that have to do - “
“I did too,” Void Buffy interrupted calmly. “The Judge came, I blew him up with a rocket launcher. Then, afterwards, in a fight against Angel, I staked him. If he was anything like the vampire Giles told me about, I knew he would hurt everyone I loved. So I killed him.”
The blood drained from Older Buffy’s face, her hand flying up to cover her mouth. Not waiting for a response, Void Buffy turned to the brunette. “You’re Faith. You were called when Kendra died. At some point, you and Buffy switched bodies, so you were in her body and she was in yours. And one version of Buffy decided to not switch back and run away, selfishly leaving everyone behind.”
At this point, everyone at the table, stared at Void Buffy, mesmerized by her words. Now, she turned to Willow. “You resurrected Buffy, after she died. One version of Buffy didn’t take well to the resurrection and killed everyone.”
“All of this might sound crazy,” Void Buffy continued, “But there was a Sacred Timeline, only one singular timeline that the Time Variance Authority allowed to exist. Anyone that did not follow that timeline, anyone that attempted to stray out of it, were considered variants and were pruned from the timeline. The timeline was reset after the pruning, and everything the Time Keepers determined should happen, did.”
“And the variants,” she continued, her voice turning bitter as she gestured to herself, Kid Loki, and Alligator Loki, “Were sent to a place called the Void, a place where time doesn’t exist, where you can never return to your timeline again. And that’s where we came from. Other variants we helped managed to escape the Void and from what we can gather, destroyed the Sacred Timeline and created a multiverse of endless timelines. When that happened, we escaped, and landed here.”
Pausing, she admitted, “Okay, the first time we landed by an erupting volcano. But then we ended up here.”
“You forgot about the swamp,” Kid Loki added helpfully, smirking at her glare. “You ruined your shoes.”
“Those shoes survived years in the Void,” she complained, pouting. “You’d think we’d be able to get the swamp smell out of them.”
Faith, who like the others had been staring at Void Buffy in shock and disbelief, couldn’t help but snort at that. “Gotta admit, B, even with the crazy story she’s telling, she’s clearly you. Only you care about shoes that much. And her. Who is also you.”
Shoving her chair back abruptly, Older Buffy stood up and backed away from the table, shaking her head. “This is all…I can’t….I need a minute.”
Without waiting for a response, she turned and stalked out of the room, tension in every line of her back. Willow, her own face wan, turned to Giles before pushing her own chair back and following the Slayer. Giles watched them go, rubbing his forehead with his hand in, suddenly looking older.
“So, what now?” asked America in an uncertain voice, glancing from one person to the next, as if willing an answer out of them. “What do we do now?”
Her question went unanswered. Even Stephen, usually the person with some sort of answer, had nothing to say.
Author: Glitterangelem
Fandom: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Loki
Rating: PG
Word Count: 1,378
Summary: Explanations don't always make things better.
Stephen Strange felt like a referee for a sport he knew nothing about.
On one side of the table sat America and the small group he had hosted in his home for the last week, though he still knew frighteningly little about the power they held. Kid Loki’s display with the magical doubles was enough to underscore that lack of knowledge. That did not even take into account Alligator Loki’s abilities - other than eating shoes - or Buffy’s. From what he was beginning to understand about the Void, it would be almost impossible for her to have survived living there with just the superhuman speed she used at their first encounter.
Plus, there was the electronic device that Buffy called ‘Giles’, though the technology seemed oddly similar to Stark robotics.
The other side of a table was even more of a mystery. The older looking Buffy, and the woman with dark hair, had the same supernatural feel to them. Willow, as he had heard her being called, was clearly a rather powerful witch. And the older British gentleman was Giles.
Like the electronic device.
Part of him wished Wong could be in his place instead, but the nosy part of him overruled that notion. Plus, the timing of the visit was too convenient. If someone was tracking his life, he needed to know.
“Introduction seem to be in order,” Giles, the British gentlemen, said as she took his glasses off and wiped them clean with a handkerchief. “As this is not at all what we expected when we arrived.”
“I think you should start,” Buffy - Void Buffy - said, glancing over at Stephen before continuing, “My part - our part - will make more sense if we start at the beginning. All the way at the beginning, with the earth being older than most people know.”
The newer set of visitors glanced at each other (Stephen could swear they were conversing somehow, with the range of facial expressions), before Giles nodded and cleared his throat.
“To be succinct, the Earth is older than most know it. For untold eons, demons walked the Earth. But in time, they lost their hold on the Earth, and made way for man. Remnants of the original demons managed to eek out a way of life, some coexisting with humans, but most determined to wipe out the interlopers. To combat those demons, vampire in particular, Slayers were created. The First Slayer was a young woman, and when she died, another took her place. Another, and another, running from early history until modern times. There used to be one Slayer called at a time, but after a rather…difficult battle, all potential slayers were called. And now, when a potential hits a certain age, she becomes a Slayer.”
“And we,” Willow chimed in, gesturing to herself and the others, “Have a way to track them down, to give them the option of training with us. It’s always the Slayers choice, whether or not to join this life. Some choose to join us, some don’t. Either way, we help them learn about their new powers and abilities. And that’s why we came here. We thought there was a new slayer called but…clearly that wasn’t the case.”
Their explanation opened up a thousand news questions, but in the interest of time, Stephen forced most of the questions away, mentally taking notes to ask Void Buffy later. Instead, he asked the burning question he could not avoid, “How did you stay under the radar for so long? For that matter, how did the demons not get noticed? All of what you are talking about requires a great deal of energy, of magic.”
Willow shrugged. “We’ve been working on that, and the simple answer is we don’t have a true answer. But, we’ve wondered that too, and my working hypothesis is that since a Slayer used to require a level of secrecy to her, to keep demons from hunting her down, we believe there’s another magical element to the spell, a bit of a ‘notice me not’. We always joked a Sunnydale Syndrome, where people didn’t remember the supernatural things that happened to them.”
“Wait, Sunnydale?” Dr. Strange interrupted, bolting upright. “The town that - “
“Not important right now,” Void Buffy said firmly, glaring at Stephen for a moment before continuing, “So basically, my Slayerness caught up with one or your spells, it seemed like a new Slayer, and you came here to talk to me about it.”
The others stared at her for a minute before Older Buffy said reluctantly, “Yeah, that sums it up decently.”
Void Buffy nodded, looking down for a moment, as if it collect herself before turning to stare at the other her. “When you were 17, did you face off against the Judge? And Angel, after he lost his soul?”
The question, seemingly out of left field, surprised the entire group from the Council. For a moment, Older Buffy stared at her younger looking counterpart before nodding slowly. “Yes. What does that have to do - “
“I did too,” Void Buffy interrupted calmly. “The Judge came, I blew him up with a rocket launcher. Then, afterwards, in a fight against Angel, I staked him. If he was anything like the vampire Giles told me about, I knew he would hurt everyone I loved. So I killed him.”
The blood drained from Older Buffy’s face, her hand flying up to cover her mouth. Not waiting for a response, Void Buffy turned to the brunette. “You’re Faith. You were called when Kendra died. At some point, you and Buffy switched bodies, so you were in her body and she was in yours. And one version of Buffy decided to not switch back and run away, selfishly leaving everyone behind.”
At this point, everyone at the table, stared at Void Buffy, mesmerized by her words. Now, she turned to Willow. “You resurrected Buffy, after she died. One version of Buffy didn’t take well to the resurrection and killed everyone.”
“All of this might sound crazy,” Void Buffy continued, “But there was a Sacred Timeline, only one singular timeline that the Time Variance Authority allowed to exist. Anyone that did not follow that timeline, anyone that attempted to stray out of it, were considered variants and were pruned from the timeline. The timeline was reset after the pruning, and everything the Time Keepers determined should happen, did.”
“And the variants,” she continued, her voice turning bitter as she gestured to herself, Kid Loki, and Alligator Loki, “Were sent to a place called the Void, a place where time doesn’t exist, where you can never return to your timeline again. And that’s where we came from. Other variants we helped managed to escape the Void and from what we can gather, destroyed the Sacred Timeline and created a multiverse of endless timelines. When that happened, we escaped, and landed here.”
Pausing, she admitted, “Okay, the first time we landed by an erupting volcano. But then we ended up here.”
“You forgot about the swamp,” Kid Loki added helpfully, smirking at her glare. “You ruined your shoes.”
“Those shoes survived years in the Void,” she complained, pouting. “You’d think we’d be able to get the swamp smell out of them.”
Faith, who like the others had been staring at Void Buffy in shock and disbelief, couldn’t help but snort at that. “Gotta admit, B, even with the crazy story she’s telling, she’s clearly you. Only you care about shoes that much. And her. Who is also you.”
Shoving her chair back abruptly, Older Buffy stood up and backed away from the table, shaking her head. “This is all…I can’t….I need a minute.”
Without waiting for a response, she turned and stalked out of the room, tension in every line of her back. Willow, her own face wan, turned to Giles before pushing her own chair back and following the Slayer. Giles watched them go, rubbing his forehead with his hand in, suddenly looking older.
“So, what now?” asked America in an uncertain voice, glancing from one person to the next, as if willing an answer out of them. “What do we do now?”
Her question went unanswered. Even Stephen, usually the person with some sort of answer, had nothing to say.