A/N: I'm so sorry! I went on spring break and then I forgot all responsibility, lol. I'll try to update often again :)


~*~*~*~


“Why are there two spots on the map?” Tara frowned in confusion.


“Don’t care. You don’t see her around here, do you?” Spike’s voice rose in impatient anger. Without wasting another second, he started to gather some weapons and storm out the door.


“Spike! Wait for us!” Willow, Xander, Anya, and Tara were running after him, grabbing weapons hastily.


“Um, right. I’ll just wait here and research a dot,” Giles said to no one.


He ignored them behind him - his only thought was to get to the caves. With each quickening step, he began to worry more. ‘This wouldn’t have happened if…,’ he closed his eyes as he cracked his tense neck, and moved faster, the gang trailing after him. The guilt from the way he treated her earlier ran through his mind. He couldn’t lose her. Not now.


~


She groaned in pain as her eyes began to flutter open. Her face felt like it was pounding and she felt a sharp pull at her wrists. Buffy opened her eyes to find herself in a dimly lit cave.


Confusion spread over her face as she pulled and looked up to see the chains above her head. ‘What the hell?’ Her eyes shot around in panic, searching for any signs of her assailants, but it was dead quiet, except for the burning of a torch and the occasional echoed drop of water.


She pulled on her restraints, but the chains only creaked and jangled in resistance. After it wouldn’t seem to budge, Buffy gave it one last heave as she scrunched her face in effort. She slumped in defeat.


Buffy closed her eyes and exhaled. Then she heard a noise. Her eyes shot open as a humming/vibrating noise reached her ears. Looking over to her right, she saw a jewel of some sort, sitting in the wall of the cave, and it seemed to be glowing. She furrowed her brows in confusion, as the intensity of the light grew.


The sound of a footstep made her head snap up to look in front of her, at the opening of the cave. Standing just beyond the arch of the ‘doorway,’ was the dark, hooded figure.


Buffy instinctively began struggling with her chains as she demanded, “Who are you? Why the hell did you bring me here?”


The figure didn’t answer. It began to step forward across the arch, and a force field wavered as the form entered the main room. Buffy’s brows furrowed, and she began to panic inwardly. Obviously, she wasn’t just dealing with vampires, she was dealing with magic – two things she couldn’t handle on her own.


The figure’s hands went up to its hood, and slowly lifted it backwards, taking off the robe and revealing a raven-haired woman. She had sleek, long hair, and piercing grey eyes. She appeared to be an exotic-looking Indian woman. In a strange way, she seemed familiar, and Buffy couldn’t put her finger on why. Buffy glared at the woman suspiciously as she began to move toward her.


“Who are you? ‘I Dream of Jeanie?’” Buffy asked sarcastically as she eyed the woman’s outfit. She was wearing something that resembled the risqué outfits of a belly dancer.


“I’m Kerala,” she answered with a calculating smile. “And I’d be careful of what you say to me.” Her eyes darkened in warning.


“What the hell do you want?” Buffy spat out.


“A lot of things. World domination…the death of all petty do-gooders…which means, you, dead.”


“What?” Buffy looked annoyed. “What are you talking about? How do you have anything to do with me?”


“Oh plenty, slayer,” Kerala answered as she came to stand a few feet away from Buffy.


“Well do you mind explaining??” Buffy rolled her eyes in irritation. ‘This chick has got to be kidding me.’


“But it’s so much more fun to watch you reel around in confusion,” she answered with smirk, “I’ve gotta say, I do brilliant work.”


Buffy looked confused for a moment, until the words registered their meaning. Her eyes widened in disbelief. “You’re the one that did this to me? That sent me here??” Buffy’s voice was incredulous.


Kerala gave her a bitchy smile, “You’re welcome.”


Buffy lunged forward, only to be yanked back by her chains. She was glaring icily at Kerala. “Why are you doing this??”


“I told you. Rid the world of pesky humans,” she replied with annoyance.


“So what the hell are you supposed to be then?”


“I’m not a human, I’m the Goddess Kerala,” she snapped.


Buffy’s eyes seemed to scan the air as her mind tried to figure out all the conflicting thoughts. She looked up at her with furrowed brows, and asked, “Are you supposed to be that one goddess and her stupid gem thing-y?” She turned to look at the jewel that was still glowing in its place. “That…that Agenda Gem?”


“It’s Rajendra, you brainless human,” Kerala snapped.


“So what, you just did some magic with a gem and managed to suck me into an alternate dimension?” Buffy looked unconvinced.


“It’s not some gem. It’s thousands of years old, forged by the Gods themselves.”


“And anyone who finds it can just pop it in and flip my life around for a good laugh??”


“Ha, that’s the best part. I couldn’t have done it all on my own…”


Buffy gave her an impatient glare. Kerala continued, “The gem can work for either good or evil, but it must be ordered by a wish of justice. Meaning, your vampire wished you would stop being a bitch and see how it feels to be in his shoes, loosely translated, of course.”


Buffy’s mouth gaped open. Somehow she had guessed this would be Spike’s doing, but she never had enough proof, only a hunch. “Why am I not surprised?” she asked as she looked up in the air in exasperation. Looking back down to glare at Kerala, she asked bitterly, “So all of this is some kind of twisted vengeance spell??”


“Hardly. He has no idea that he did anything. I saw an outlet, I took it.”


“I don’t get it. Why didn’t you just try to kill me in the real world. Why go to all this trouble?” Buffy asked, thoroughly confused.


Kerala exhaled and rolled her eyes. “Because I didn’t come back to kill just you, I came back so I could alter the course of events that you caused.”


“Huh?” Buffy looked at her like she wasn’t making any sense.


“Let me spell it out for you. I’m. From. The. Future.” Kerala spoke as if she was talking to a five-year-old.


“You’re from the future?? What-,” Buffy paused in disbelief. Her mind flickered back to what Kerala had said. “Wait, what did I cause??”


“See for yourself,” she said with a calculating smile as she grabbed the side of Buffy’s head with both hands. Buffy cried out as a searing pain shot through her head. When her eyes closed in reaction, an image flashed through her mind.


She was standing in a graveyard, facing a group of young girls that she didn’t recognize. She started speaking to them.


“You're right. You don't have slayer strength. But that doesn't mean that you're not strong. You have inherent abilities that others do not have. You have the potential.”


Another flash, and Buffy’s body surged up in pain.


She stood before a gaping crater, observing the flood of creatures that seemed to crawling their way over to them. The first flood of ubervamps reached them, and all hell broke loose. Her mind was anticipating the moment when Willow’s spell would work. They needed it to work. And then something ran through the air, and she felt like a weight was lifted off her shoulders.


Buffy made an incoherent sound as Kerala’s hands remained firmly grasping her head.


They were standing there, staring at the ruin. Willow turned to her.


“We changed the world. I can feel them, Buffy. All over. Slayers are awakening everywhere.”


She didn’t answer, but inside, she was smiling.


Kerala retracted her hands, and Buffy slumped down, gasping for air. The chains kept her from collapsing, and she dangled down, out of breath. With involuntary tears in her eyes, she looked up at Kerala with a look of astonishment.


“That’s what happens?” Buffy’s voice was small, almost a whisper.


“Yes. You and your gang of friends unleashed all the potentials and made them slayers,” Kerala answered bitterly.


Still dazed, Buffy tried to process all the questions that were running through her head. The intense sense of relief she had gotten from the last image warmed her heart, but there was also another feeling there. One of sorrow – like she had lost something, and she didn’t quite understand it.


She spoke again. “So…you decided to come back to change it? So you could take over the world?”


“No. They sought me out so I could take care of you for them, and the line of potentials will stay powerless,” she smiled evilly.


“They?”


“The lords of the demon world.”


Buffy’s eyes blinked and her forehead scrunched in disbelief. “The lords of the demon world??? What the hell kind of lame ass title is that?? I bet that’s some kind of nerdy demon club.”


Kerala rolled her eyes. She stepped closer and her voice became dangerously low. “Call it whatever you want. The bottom line is, everyone wants you dead, and now you’re all alone with no way out.”


Buffy glared at her, refusing to be intimated by this woman.


Kerala just gave Buffy a quick bitchy smile and turned to leave.


“Hey! You can’t just leave me here!” Buffy screamed as she struggled against the chains.


Kerala was crossing the barrier at the arch, and Buffy stopped her yelling as her eyes widened in confusion. Slowly, Kerala’s hair turned blonde, starting from the top, and as she stepped over the barrier, her skin transformed from dark to light, her clothes changing as they touched the magic field.


“What the hell…” Buffy whispered as her face remained in shock.


The woman turned around, and her grey eyes shown with amusement. “I bet you didn’t see that one coming, did you?”


Buffy stuttered, “What…How…” She was at a loss for words.


“I’ll be back…to kill you,” Leanna answered with a cocky smirk as she turned and left a bewildered and livid Buffy chained in the cave.


~*~*~*~