The End of Days

1. Prolog

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

“We are the avatars of the Destroyer because we created the Destroyer. We built him from our sprit. We are both the recipient and the source of the power. We are not the slaves of heaven. We are gods.”

Surayya Atraties
The Slayers of Dune: Trinity.

It started over four billion years ago on Earth and other places in the galaxy. In the new oceans and the hot places and the secret crevices of infant world’s life appeared in the fragile zone between being and nothingness. The battle to survive was brutal. Tender cells grasped at anything that could boost their ability to survive the molten fires and toxic atmosphere of Earth.

It floated alone in the dark. It had no mind, no soul, and no awareness of itself. It was a simple cellular machine made out of the building blocks of life and it was dying. Tendrils a million times smaller than the width of a Human hair searched for anything that could save it. It failed and died. Others came after it. They struggled in the dark looking for a power to save them. Billions of them failed.

A million years later a single cell succeeded. It found a power it could use as a weapon against the world. In its own blind way it had discovered magic. It knew nothing of spells, and hexes and signs. All it had was the will to survive. Others came after it. They began to bend the world to their simple cellular will. The ice that covered the planet began to melt, oxygen levels began to increase. In one generation they had conquered the world.

Then the others came. In sleek ships tens of kilometers long the beings that one day would become the Senior Partners arrived on Earth. They saw that life had taken a hold here and that life had a grasp of the power they coveted for themselves. So they took it upon themselves to blind life to magic. They spun a damping spell of such proportions that life would have to evolve along mostly physical limitations. The effect was immediate. Trillions of life forms died. The Earth was cast into another ice age. But in the darkness, a few cells that held on their magics learned how to share their power for the greater good. Over time, life healed itself and learned other ways to survive. It only took life an additional three hundred million years to conquer the Earth. A small sliver of them still had access to the magics and the ability to share that power. Billions of years later this ability to share would be spread to all life including the women who would become the slayers.

The room was a battlefield. Buffy stood with her friends against the Master. The white hats she had found had convinced her to stop the master from embracing the horrors of mass production. He had found a way to drain humans on a rapid scale using machine best fit for killing animals.

The Master flinched to snap Buffy’s neck but exploded into dust before he could kill her. Liam walked through the dust cloud to look upon his mothers face.

“I couldn’t let him kill you.” He said.

Buffy observed the young man’s face. He had dark tanned skin and raven black hair. His face was round with delicate features. Buffy could swear that from an angle he looked a little like her with his short pug nose and compact frame.

“Ok, thanks.” Was all Buffy could say. “Appreciate the not dying.” She was in no mood to make new friends. Still, there was something about the boy that touched her. He felt familiar and strange at the same time. She turned to speak with him and saw the strangest thing. She saw Liam Atreides disappear in a puff of blue light.

“Looks like I’ve got myself a guardian angel.” Buffy thought to herself. She stood over the ashes of vamp Willow and vamp Xander and after a moment walked away.

From a place far away, the gods were heard to wispier to each other.

“You see, you see what he does?” They spoke among themselves. “The weapon is spreading. It is changing the history of the multiverse. Our plans will come to nothing. The continence of the weapon is an abomination!”

The Gods agreed and began to draw their plans against the emperor of Dune.

Buffy watched the people below.

The coronation of the new emperor was only days away. Her son, the blend of hers and Paul Muad’dib’s genetics, would ascent to the throne as the third Atraties emperor. He had been given a commission by the Destroyer to share the power of the slayers with the rest of the human race, to turn all mankind into a race of slayers. He would need power to do this, to sheppard the slayers and Humans peacefully together. He had used that power to slaughter thousands of Fishspeakers who refused to serve his throne.

“He’s killed more people than any monster I’ve ever met.” Buffy thought. “And he’s the good guy?” Buffy ran her fingers across the shatter proof plaz that enclosed the observation chamber. She felt very small and meaningless against the pageantry she watched being practiced before her.

Liam had been built to serve another purpose. He had been built by the powers that be to kill the First. He was the Kwisatz Haderach, the shorting of the way. Liam had access to both higher and lower spatial dimensions. He was not limited to mental travels like his father Muad’Dib but he could travel to any point in space time in this universe and beyond. He embraced alternate realities. He was the voice of the multiverse. He was connected to places and possibilities that had never existed here in this universe. He had stopped the massacre at Trellian, he had come to her as a child, and he had even seen a world where there was nothing but shrimp. Buffy remembered seeing him when worked as a waitress in Los Angeles thousands of years ago. At the time he was just some kid who ordered a slice of apple pie from her.

“That kid get’s around.” Buffy thought. Then she remembered. That was the first thing she had said about him when he had traveled back to the past to show them how to birth the Destroyer.

“And now my boy is the emperor of the universe.” Buffy smiled. She was a proud parent.

2. chapter 1

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

You cannot avoid the interplay of politics within an orthodox religion. This power struggle permeates the training, educating and disciplining of the orthodox community. Because of this pressure, the leaders of such a community inevitably must face that ultimate internal question: to succumb to complete opportunism as the price of maintaining their rule, or risk sacrificing themselves for the sake of the orthodox ethic.

 from “Muad’Dib: The Religious Issues” by the Princess Irulan

Liam met with the Tleilaxu ambassador early that morning. He had a full day. His ascent to the throne was within the week. He had a million details to handle between now and then. He entered the conference room accompanied by his honor guard made up of two fish speaker commandos and his private security detail made up of slayers. Every since he had raised the Fish speakers from the dead they had followed him around like puppies.

The slayers didn’t like it one bit. Liam was theirs and they didn’t want to share him with the women that had given them grief for twenty years. Colette, the captain of his honor guard and his childhood friend, eyed the fish speakers with contempt. She always managed to keep her body between the fish speakers and Liam. The fish speakers didn’t seem to mind. They regarded the slayer’s jealousy with amusement. They remembered what it was like to serve a living god once. They were learning to leave those feelings behind.

Liam entered the room. The women spread out around him. They scanned the room for threats. Colette stood by his side directing the slayers. Liam looked at her out of the comer of his eye. Colette was half an inch shorter than him with brown curly hair, a round face, firm breasts and carefully trimmed fingernails. Liam noticed she had decided to paint her nails a glossy black. Colette was thoroughly freman. Black was the color used by freman to mark high holy days. His ascension to the throne was considered by many to be a religious event.

“Maybe it is true.” Liam thought. “I was designed by the powers that be and evoked into being by the Destroyer, the sprit child of the slayers.”

“The weapon has no use beyond its function. Its function has been fulfilled.” Liam remembered the words of the Oracle in the white room. He was supposed to die along with the First. He survived by the grace of his unborn daughter. And for that, the Gods hated him.

Liam watched the fingers of Colette gesture. He was fascinated by their movement. She spoke entire chapters of thought just by moving her hands as she directed the slayers in their security sweep.

“She should have been the one.” Liam thought as he grieved over what might have been. “I’ve loved her since we were kids. She knows me better than anyone else. “

He was to marry Ashoka Lang a former slayer commando and avatar of the First. The marriage was originally intended to cement the bond between him and the slayer fleet. But recently he had begun to have feeling towards her. He knew from his visions of the future that he would come to love Ashoka and that she would be the mother of his child. He thought once more of Colette. The demands of the throne had destroyed their childhood dreams of being together forever.

“I’m so sorry.” Liam thought. Colette suddenly looked at him. She could always feel his moods.

“No regrets.” She said as if reading his mind. “We live to serve.” She said quoting the slayer credo. Colette waved her hands. The slayers retreated to the corners of the room. The security sweep was complete. The room was safe. Liam approached the Tleilaxu.

Twenty years ago a rouge face dancer had stolen slayer DNA from the fish speaker data banks. The Tleilaxu still had copies of that stolen data. There was no way Liam could stop them from using it. Liam had seen enough of the timelines to know that digital information was impossible to contain. He sat across the conference table from the Tleilaxu ambassador. They sat in silence. They were waiting for someone else to arrive.

There came a sound of hurried footsteps from the hall and the rustlings of papers. Duncan Idaho, golem of house Atreides rushed into the room. He was nearly two meters tall with a rich dark goatee and warm brown eyes. He stood beside Liam who looked at him briefly and smiled. Liam turned to the Tleilaxu ambassador and said.

“I present to you the ambassador to Tleilaxu from the court of the black dragon.” The Tleilaxu took Duncan’s papers and examined them carefully.

“Everything appears to be in order.” The Tleilaxu Master said. His eyes, colored in ridges of blue and yellow stared at Liam intensely. His rubbery hands folded the papers carefully.

“We have information you may be interested in examining.” The Tleilaxu ambassador said flatly. Liam knew he was referring to the genetic scans of the slayers stolen by the face dancer Swanson over twenty years ago. He had to make them understand. Liam slammed his fist on the table and raised voice to a roar.

“You will not touch, manipulate or distribute that information as long as you exist!” He rose slightly for emphasis. “If any of that information is used in any way, I will personally kill you all!” Liam growled at the ambassador. They all knew he could do it. They had read the reports of the Machine attack on fish speaker command. They showed no emotion. Such weaknesses had been bred out of them thousands of years ago.

“As you wish my lord.” The ambassador said. Liam knew he was lying. His visions had shown him that a much more vulgar display of power would be needed in the near future.
“Excellent.” Liam said as he stood to leave. His security guards snapped to attention.

“DNA is the language of God.” Muttered one of the ambassadors. Liam pretended not to hear him. He knew the Tleilaxu were excellent geneticists with a religion of their own. They believed the mind of God could be understood by studying and manipulating DNA. The data stolen from fish speaker command was both irresistible and a godsend. They would be helpless to examine it. They already had twenty years of work on the stolen data.

“There’s a reason why some things must be resisted.” Liam thought as he gathered his entourage. “It’s so that they don’t destroy you.”

Liam took one last look at the doomed Tleilaxu. A day was coming soon when the dragon of Arrakis would have to roar and melt worlds into nothing.

3. chapter 2

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

Governments, if they endure, always tend increasingly toward aristocratic forms. No government in history has been known to evade this pattern. And as the aristocracy develops, government tends more and more to act exclusively in the interests of the ruling class — whether that class be hereditary royalty, oligarchs of financial empires, or entrenched bureaucracy.

- Politics as Repeat Phenomenon: Bene Gesserit Training Manual

The Bene Gesserit were up next. They represented a group of women who founded their power base on knowledge of self. Their only flaw was that they believed in nothing beyond their self interests. Augmented with spice, the Bene Gesserit became a formidable force in the galaxy. Women from the sisterhood infiltrated almost every aspect of human activity on dozens of worlds. The Bene Gesserit were given the mandate of creating the Kwisatz Haderach by the powers that be as a binary weapon consisting of flesh and magic.

The Bene Gesserit rejected the magics but kept the flesh and attempted to breed a way to spy on the great houses. They failed. They got Muad’Dib one generation too soon and three thousand years of the tyrant. Now the weapon built by the powers that be, in its true form, was becoming the emperor. The Bene Gesserit practiced their litany against fear as they waited for the son of Buffy Summers.

Liam knew there was no way to escape them. The Bene Gesserit were everywhere. He couldn’t fight them. The Bene Gesserit counted themselves clever and above moral restraint. A lie to them was just a way to maintain power. Even when they agreed with you, they did it so that they could betray you later.

Liam aimed to make a deal with them. His hope was that they would not get in his way. Then he remembered his own origins. These women were arrogant enough to lie to the gods and twist their sacred designs to meet their political goals. There could be no escape from the machinations of the Bene Gesserit.

Liam walked into the room. Supreme Reverend Mother Paloma and Reverend Mother Bastra greeted him. Both women had decades of experience with the slayers. Bastra had met the slayers aboard “Her Graceful Measure” during the assault on Leto’s planet killer which had been taken over by vampires. Paloma had joined them during the first resurrection of Dracula. She had also been a charter member of the Human Defense Alliance and had sat in on some of their most secret meetings.

His security team ringed the room as Liam made his way to the conference table. The women smiled and greeted him warmly.
“So this is how they attack.” Liam thought. “Hiding behind the cloud of familiarity.” Liam knew that he must to be careful now. Bastra had known him since he was a baby. She believed she knew him better than he knew himself.

“I am a wave front stretched across trillions of universes.” Liam thought. “I embrace every possibility. What Prana-bindu training could sublimate the power of that?” Liam smiled back at them. The women mimicked a casual friendlessness.

Bastra slid papers across the conference table to Liam. He scanned over them. He knew what they were going to say. He had already made up his mind before he entered the room.
“Congratulations Bastra. You are now the Bene Gesserit ambassador to the court of the black dragon.” He said.

“Have you considered our request?” Paloma asked him.

“So they are taking the direct approach?” Liam thought. If they only knew how close to death their request had placed them. When Ashoka, his future wife, found out about their request it was all he could do to talk her into not flying off to the main chapter house on Wallach IX and killing them all.

“Have you reconsidered our request for a sample of your genetic material?” Paloma asked.

“No, never.” Liam said flatly. “You had your chance thousands of years ago when the Powers-that-Be choose you to carry the mandate of heaven. You failed.” Liam’s eyes were cold. All pretense of warmth had disappeared from the room.

“I am a holy weapon.” Liam said. The slayers in the room found themselves nodding in agreement. “My flesh is not for sale. I am the last Kwisatz Haderach there will ever be. I’ve slain the First, I’ve fulfilled the reason I was born. I will not allow you to defile this holiness by making it a weapon.”

Colette flipped the safety from her Lexan knife. If one of the Bene Gesserit so much as rolled her eyes or showed any sign of contempt she wouldn’t be able to help herself. She could plant her knife into the throat of any one of them from across the room.

The Bene Gesserit sat very still. They knew the unspoken tension in the room.

“What would you have us do my lord?” Paloma said.

“Well played.” Liam thought. “Just the right amount of humbleness combined with illusion of compliance.” Liam knew damn well the Bene Gesserit cared only for their own ambitions. They had survived Muad’Dib, they had survived Leto. They would survive him.

“Work with me.” Liam pleaded. “We both seek the future.” The Bene Gesserit lowered their head to him signaling their compliance. Liam stood up to leave. He knew that they couldn’t see it, but he knew that all the Bene Gesserit would ever care about was their pride and the sisterhood. The human race be damned.

“I just hope I don’t have to kill them all.” Liam thought as his entourage collected around him and left the room.

4. chapter 3

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

Xander: Well, the Hellmouth, the center of mystical convergence, supernatural monsters: been there.
Buffy: Little blasé there, aren’t you?
Xander: I’m not worried. If there’s something bad out there we’ll find, you’ll slay, we’ll party!
Buffy: Thanks for having confidence in me.
Xander: You da man, Buff!

BTVS “Nightmares” S01E10

She watched the women around her. Buffy did a panoramic scan of the room as she waited, along with the other slayers, for Liam to arrive. To her right was a small cluster of ship captains from the slayer fleet. There was a compact dark skinned woman named Wanda who was the captain of the “Xander Harris”. She had fought alongside Surayya at Tailos three. She was talking to a couple of Valkyrie class commando’s who were here as friends of Ashoka. Those women looked both battle worn and feminine. They were a curious mixture of pony tails and scars. One of the commandos was just released from a holding cell following a wild all night party for the bride. Apparently, the fish speakers had placed limits on the tonnage of fireworks that could be released inside the city limits. The young girl spread her hands apart wildly as she described some explosion on some distant world that was a part of some slayer battle.

Panning left, Buffy saw Motorria talking with Surayya and Lisa. Those three had a lot of history between them. They were members of the first generation of slayers resurrected by Leto. They were the only generation that could teleport. They were the generation that was made from the essence of Spike after the amulet. So much of the recent history of this planet could be traced backed to them. They had saved the world countless times. They had changed the world forever.

At the south pole of Arrakis was a brand new mountain barely over twenty years old. It was an asteroid Surayya had dropped there to close a Hellmouth.

“They had to update maps because of her.” Buffy thought.

She was in awe of these women. Her eyes rested a moment on Motorria. She was Liam’s birth mother. The Destroyer had asked her to extract DNA from her and Muad’Dib during the final assault on “Her Graceful Measure.” Motorria had carried the baby to term just as she was being resurrected from her ten thousand year death.

As she carried the child, Motorria used her Bene Gesserit training to audit its memories, to audit Liam’s memories. They had chosen the name Liam and the persona of her former lover before he was murdered and transformed into an agent of death.

“We can’t escape the past.” Buffy thought. “We carry it with us.” She thought of Angelus. “That boy carried the memories of a demon nearly to the throne. “ Buffy let her anger pass. “Liam and I are going to have to have a conversation soon.” She thought.

Her eyes turned to Motorria. They had decided that once Liam got a certain age, to leave all of his combat training to Buffy and Surayya. Buffy had taken the lead in raising him. Outside of Liam and being slayers, she and Motorria had very little in common. Motorria spent her days practicing the black arts and operating her own slayer academy. There was a growing consensus that slayers should not be tools of the state. Motorria created her own school for all the orphan and wild slayers popping up throughout the galaxy. Conflicts between the two schools have been minimal to date.

“Just another sorority.” Buffy thought. “All sororities, all single sex societies are a ghetto, and all ghettos are power bases. Is Motorria building a power base?” she thought. Buffy rolled her eyes. She had been hanging around the Bene Gesserit too much. Still, the question pricked at her.

There was some movement near the door. Liam had arrived. Buffy saw the top of Colette’s tightly trimmed afro as she tried to peek over the heads of some of the taller women.
“Fine way to treat the mother of the emperor!” She thought. The crowd parted as if they could read her mind. Buffy quickly made her way to the corner of the room that held the royal party.
Liam spoke to the slayers.

“As my first act as emperor, I hereby grant all slayers, past present and future the legal status of members of the royal family. Any assault against any slayer is considered an assault on the throne. Any law that affects slayers, in the execution of their duties, is impacted by royal status. Liam remembered what he told a fish speaker in a parallel universe after the Trellian massacre.

“You might as well place handcuffs on a sandstorm. “ Liam had told the fish speaker that wanted to arrest and execute fleet commander Guerrero. There was no way he was going to allow that. Slayers could not be contained by the authority of those that did not share their commission. Slayers are an act of god, literally. Slayers were only bound by the laws that created them.

“Additionally, I am refitting the slayer fleet. We’ll only be using human made parts this time.” He said. Several of the slayers looked disappointed. “This means no more dimensional jumping.” There was a collective moan.

Liam watched the women in the room. He recognized the sheer power they represented. He understood just how dangerous they truly were. “But I think we can keep the anti-matter based weapons.” The slayers giggled and smiled. They loved firepower.

“How am I going to stay on top of them?” Liam thought and then smiled. He always did like double entendres.

A universe away, wish-verse Buffy paused to moment to consider the piles of dust that were vamp Willow and Vamp Xander. She thought about the strange young man that had come out of nowhere and saved her from the Master who just missed killing her. He had the strangest blue within blue eyes. She couldn’t stop thinking about him. He provoked powerful maternal instincts within her. She wanted to nuzzle the kid next to her and keep him safe and warm. She thought about her feelings.

“That was weird.” was her final thoughts.

A steel axe came out of nowhere and cut her head off. The blade sliced through skin, muscle and bone without slowing down. Buffy’s head bounced twice on the ground before she knew she was dead. The demon crossed one of the names off his list. He realized that there were hundreds of names that still needed to be processed.

“Great.” Sahjhan thought. “I’m going to have to spend all day killing Buffy.”

5. chapter 4

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

Mesektet: “Nowadays you can walk right through ‘em, but in the past they were something else… They were all about torture and death. [...] They caused a lot of trouble. Don’t get me wrong, I like trouble—but I hate chaos. So we changed ‘em.”
Angel: “You made them immaterial.”
Mesektet: “Smart boy. Now they watch. And they can no longer touch.”

— “Forgiving” Angel S03E17

Worlds bled before him. Liam could see the walls between worlds come down. His extra senses painted for him a horrific vision of the multiverse being torn apart. His auntie Dawn had made it bleed. She stood there, on a tower build by madmen. Her sister Buffy spoke to her.

“Live Dawn, for me.” And then she said “The hardest thing about this world is living in it.”

With that, she turned and ran to the edge of the platform. Buffy lunged herself into the void and into certain death. A second light flared around her. A boy with blue within blue eyes appeared directly beneath her. He looked just like her. The light flared again blinding her. Buffy opened her eyes and found herself back on the platform next to Dawn and a strange young man.

“Those mid air grabs are the hardest.” Liam said. He took the blood bomb and dropped it into the gash between universes made by Dawn’s blood. Buffy’s blood exploded into the gap. The hole between worlds closed.

“Thank the powers for the Tleilaxu cloning machines.” Liam thought. He turned to Buffy. “You know mom, the only thing that was needed was your blood. You didn’t have to die.”

“Who are you?” Buffy asked. Her body was telling her something her mind refused to acknowledge. He had called her mom!

“I am you son.” He said.

Buffy didn’t believe him but she knew he wasn’t a bad guy. He had snatched her out of mid air! He had closed the rift created by Dawn’s blood.

“My son?” Buffy said with doubt in her voice. She could feel her sarcasm coming on. “You know, I would have remembered passing a whole person out of my body.”

The boy approached her. She could see his blue within blue eyes and raven black hair. His skin was tanned and smelled of the cinnamon of spice. Buffy remembered the blue flash of light that appeared when he snatched her out of thin air.

“Clearly you’re not human.” Buffy said.

“I am the voice of the multiverse.” He said. “I am more human than all the humans in the world.” His voice was warm and without guile.
“Uh, I think we need to get down from here.” said Dawn. The tower swayed and creaked in the breeze.

Liam agreed. He accompanied Buffy and Dawn to the ground level. The scoobies were all over him. He lied smoothly for hours. When he had finally gotten them to trust him, he sat and talked to his mother for the rest of the night.

Two days later, Buffy was found dead. She had been killed by magic. Sahjhan crossed another name off his list.

“Liam is such a momma’s boy.” He said. The image of Sahjhan wavered as he phased out of that reality. The multiverse blossomed before him. In his incorporeal form, Sahjhan could see the whole of creation. Trillions of universes, like small dots swam before him. He knew that the totality of the pattern of the multiverse displayed itself as a face none were permitted to see. He knew worlds without end and the endless pattern of replication that formed all possibilities of all things. The rush of time through him felt like water along his skin. One of the universes of the multiverse came into his view then lunged at him at an impossible speed. It almost made him sick.

“I bet she gets off on this.” Sahjhan thought. He was thinking of the monster that liked to wear the form of a little girl. She was the one that had made him incorporeal. She was the one that made him not flesh.

His movement stopped. Sunnydale high appeared.

“Old school, literally.” He thought. He knew his next assignment. Buffy was soon to be killed by the master under Sunnydale. This was where the kid was really going to screw up. True, Buffy died but she came back. Her death unleashed Kendra. Kendra’s death unleashed Faith. Those two slayers would leave footprints in time that would affect thousands of generations.

Liam’s soft heart would put an end to that.

“Kid’s got to learn to let people go.” Sahjhan thought. He made his way to the sewers of Sunnydale. It took him hours to find the lair of the master. Buffy was already there. The master had his hand around her throat. His fangs were out he was ready to bite.

Liam came out of nowhere. His crysknife flashed milky white in the dank room. He was aiming for the masters’ neck.

Sahjhan’s flesh flashed solid. He was no longer immaterial. Sahjhan was a Granok demon. He had slaughtered entire armies with his bare hands. Sahjhan threw himself across the room and slammed into Liam. The master and Buffy looked up surprised. They were expecting a quiet little murder. Liam hit the side of the cave wall and fell to the ground. Sahjhan kicked his crysknife away as he swung his broad axe.

“One dead Kwisatz Haderach coming up.” Sahjhan said as he brought his axe down.

6. chapter 5

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

Luke: [onstage at The Bronze] “Ladies and gentlemen… there is no cause for alarm. Actually, there is cause for alarm. It just won’t do any good.”

BTVS S01E02 “The Harvest”

Rock exploded where his axe hit ground. He had missed. Liam pushed himself forwards then got to his feet. His sword as meters away. He had to think quickly. Sahjhan flinched. Liam’s reflexes kicked in. He inhaled sharply spiking the oxygen in his blood. Faster than Sahjhan could follow, Liam did a spin kick to his jaw. It dislocated. Bone shattered inside his skin. His neck snapped to the side. Sahjhan fell backwards. Liam sprinted to his sword made from the long tooth of the Destroyer. He snatched it from the ground and ran towards the Master.

“That’s a hell of a punch you’ve got there, kid.” Sahjhan said as he pulled himself from the ground. “Not as much as flak 88.” Sahjhan said referring to the 8.8 mm anti-aircraft guns used by the Nazi’s. “Slaughter a few forward bases and suddenly you’re an enemy of Reich. “ He muttered. He noticed how close Liam was to the Master.

“Oh, crap!” He muttered. Sahjhan heaved hi s axe at Liam. The axe sliced through the air turning end over end, its razor sharp edge slicing the air.

He had eyes in the back of his head. Liam was the skin of all possible futures. He had seen this moment a thousand times before. He knew the axe was in the air. Yet, it was his Bene Gesserit training that saved him. He pivoted. His sword flashed down cutting the axe in half

Sahjhan was impressed.

“If you do this kid. You’ll destroy the future!” Sahjhan shouted.

“Not my universe.” Liam replied. “I’m doing this as a favor.” He said. That’s how time travel worked. No one changed their own past. It worked by the mutual co-corporation of an infinite number of Liams willing to travel to any point in another universe.

The Master was growing increasing interested in the conversation between the two strangers. Still, Buffy was alive and warm in his hands. He hated that. He had his ascension to attend to. After he was free and the Earth was made a hellscape he would deal with the demon and the warrior.

“Dude, people live here!” Sahjhan screamed. “The powers that be won’t let you do this!”

“The what?” Liam thought. His prehistoric memories recognized some of the terms. “Your powers that be cannot contain me.”

Sahjhan understood just how naive Liam really was.

“You idiot!” He said. “These are the guys that defeated the First before they got around to creating you. Compared to them, the First was the runt of the litter. The First was the baby! Imagine the power they have and you son have made their shit list!”

This was not news to Liam. Something wearing the face of Conner, Angel’s son, came to him in a vision. The tension between them was broken by the sound of intruders. Angel and Xander ran into the room. They stopped suddenly when then noticed Sahjhan and Liam.

“Hey, is this a private apocalypse or can anybody just show up?” Xander said.

“Who are you?” Angel asked.

“So we meet at last.” Liam muttered to himself. He didn’t have time for interruptions.

“Save Buffy! Stop the Master!” Liam said. His use of the Voice was excellent. Both Xander and Angel leapt to obey.

The cave was getting crowded. First the two strangers, now these two. He didn’t have time for this. The Master sank his fangs into Buffy. He drank deep. She gave him the power he needed. He released her body and she fell into a shallow pool of water face down. Buffy lay drowning.

The Master thrust his full form through the binding spell that had held him prisoner for centuries. He spotted Angel.

“So the prodigal son returns.” He said. “I had such high hopes for you once, Angelus.”

“Sorry to be such a disappointment.” said Angel. “I can’t let you leave.” He said.

“I just drank a slayer. Try to stop me.” The Master’s voice dripped with menace.

“I think I will.” Angel said as he leapt at the Master. Liam could hear the sounds of violence behind him.

“Now you can save her, kid.” Sahjhan said. “Just remember, there are some things you can’t save her from. “ Sahjhan looked at Liam for a moment. He had seen that dogged look of determination on the faces men he’d killed.

“You remind me of Holtz.” Sahjhan said. “Both of you have that ragged sense of self righteousness.” Sahjhan shook his head. “Didn’t turn out so well for him either.” He mumbled.
They both heard a loud snap. Liam risked a look back at Angel who lay on the ground with his arm broken.

“I’m outta here.” Sahjhan said. His body phased out of existence. Behind Liam, the Master ascended.

Later, in a room beyond the sky, a little girl sat with a monster.

“Well, that went barely well.” Mesektet said. She looked to be a girl eight years old with a freckled pale complexion. She wore a dress the color of human blood, her favorite color. Sahjhan approached her desk. He was tired and bruised. His jaw still ached where Liam had kicked him. He looked at her desk. It was ridiculous. Mesektet was a vile and destructive creature yet, her desk was clean and organized. She held a file in her hand labeled “Arrakis.”

“We have another window opening soon.” She said. The Powers want the universe where the boy is new to the throne.”

Sahjhan told her he wanted to get back in the field.

“Rest a while. This next mission is a little more complex. You get to kill a lot of people on this one.” Mesektet placed the folder on her desktop and sighed. She had hundreds of folders to work through before the next major meeting.

“This paperwork is a killer.” She said.

7. chapter 6

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

“You cannot fight the future. What will be will be.”

Liam Atraties.

There were thousands of people there. Leto had banned mass media generations ago. If he had not, trillions would be watching the event. Fish speakers, Slayers, Bene Gesserit, Ixians and thousands of citizens of the empire had shown up to witness the coronation of Liam Atraties. Hours had passed. Long dry speeches had been made by every self glorying sycophant in the galaxy. Even this was a political necessity. Liam had to give every little power group in the galaxy their fifteen minutes of fame.

They were at the last part. Liam had to be anointed by the slayers. Surayya Atreides, his cousin, had been chosen to perform the duty. She was the first of the resurrected slayers. She was created by Leto II, along with thousands of others to fight the Old Ones at Tailos III. She had communed with Sineya, the first of the chosen and had resurrected the Destroyer from his ancient grave. She had called mountains out of the sky and changed the maps of the world.

Surayya was dressed in the old freman robes. She was a reverend mother which made her Sayyadina, a Freman term for women trained in spiritual matters. The word also meant “Friend of God.” Her robes were brilliant white covered in broad black stripes with a oversized hood that hid her face. That morning she and several of the slayers had taken a hand full of spice secreted from the Destroyer and transformed it into the water of life. He held the pale blue liquid in one hand as she remembered the selected passages from the Orange Catholic Bible. She approached Liam and Liam knelt before her.

Liam caught sight of both of his mothers. Buffy was standing next to Motorria in her white battle armor. Her eyes scanned the crowd and sky. She was ready to act if anyone tried to spoil the moment. Motorria did the same. She scanned the crowd searching for dangerous body language or the metallic glint of weapons. Liam smiled to himself. Deep down inside he wished for nothing more than the three of them to be home safe back at Stiech Kindle, just one big happy family playing in the desert. He let those thoughts go. The old days were gone. He would soon be the emperor and all that entailed. At that moment Liam promised himself to hang on to whatever scattered moments of happiness he could find. The shadow of Surayya fell over him.

“Son of Summers, weapon of fate, this is the hour.” Surayya said. Her voice sounded firm and grim just like they practiced. Liam and the slayers wanted to send the clear message that Liam was here at the bidding of higher powers and that he and the slayers were the manifestation of that power. The Missionaria Protectiva branch of the Bene Gesserit had helped them with the symbolism.

“We bless you with the water of life given by the Slayers of Dune. With this, and all of our faith we christen you “The Dragon of Arrakis.”” Surayya said.
She poured the water of life on him. It ran over his hair and dripped down the side of his face. The pale blue liquid pooled on the ground before him. The amount of wealth it represented was easily enough to buy a planet and a few small moons.

“My father came here for spice.” Liam thought. “What he found here killed him.” The fumes from the evaporating water caused him to have a spice vision. He saw himself on a tower between desert earth and black sky. He was fighting something or somthings. They were moving at a blur. The scene flashed. He saw his daughter, Annie, screaming as she reached out to him. Her tiny hands were unable to bridge the gap.

“Daddy nooooo!” The echo of her scream resonated through him.

“Rise Liam Atraties, Emperor of Dune and assume your throne.” It was the last command Surayya would ever be able to give him. Liam rose. He was the emperor now.
He paused a moment before he spoke. Above him the smaller moon of Arrakis had risen. This was one of the reasons he had chosen this day to assume the throne. He would give them a vulgar demonstration of power. Today the Dragon of Arrakis would roar to let the world know that the new order had arrived. High in the deep blue sky, the pale moon of Arrakis shone ghost white. This was the moon from which the Machines had launched their sneak attack. The Machines still had assets buried deep beneath the moon’s surface. Liam had seen it in a vision. He would destroy those machines now. He would sterilize the smaller moon of Arrakis. He would show everyone how great he was.

Before:

Sahjhan liked to watch.

This was his favorite place to watch the kid. Across from him, the old and grey form of Buffy Summers lay dying. Sahjhan watched her from her bedroom closet. She was surrounded by all the people that loved her. In small groups they came to see her. She was down to her great grand children now. Her children and their children had wept over her hours ago. Angel and Spike were on the other side of the world. They couldn’t make it in time. She did spend a tender moment with a handsome dark gentleman named Charles Gunn. They discussed secret agreements from long ago and sighed over what could have been. Both of her ex-husbands had arrived and made a big show over who loved her the most. A young girl with red hair and a round face separated them and asked them to leave. She joined her mother, Willow Rosenberg, to begin the execution of Buffy’s last will and desire.

“I wish Giles was here.” Buffy said between heaving breaths. Her old lungs were giving out.

“I know, Buf.” Willow said. She was only slightly younger than Buffy. She had grey in her hair as well.

Willow held a gold cylinder. Inside of it was a promise signed by Illyria. Willow spread three crystals around the bed. They would capture Buffy’s soul when she died.

“Mom!” yelled Willow’s daughter from the living room. “There’s some guy here. Sez he’s a friend of Buffy.”

“That’s ok sweetie. Let him in.” Willow said.

Liam walked into the room. He was tall, dark with raven black hair and the strangest blue within blue eyes. Willow felt his power as soon as he walked into the room. The protection spell she had placed around the estate implied that he wasn’t a demon. Yet, Willow could feel the man radiate incredible power. Willow observed the curves of his face. He looked a little like Buffy.
Sahjhan shook his head. The kid was like clockwork. He always came to the point of his mother’s final death.

“I’m sorry.” He said. “There’s nothing I can do. “ He said.

“Don’t be silly.” Buffy said. “I’m old, I’m dying.” Buffy looked at the young man. There was something familiar about him. She had a strange compulsion to connect with him.

“Who are you?” Buffy asked.

“Someone who loves you very much.” Liam said

She exhaled her last breath and gave up the ghost. Willow ignited the crystals around the bed to capture her soul. Afterwards, she would hollow out a boulder and lock Buffy’s flesh inside securing the whole thing with a binding spell. In ten thousand years Buffy would be resurrected on a strange planet named Arrakis. One day she would find her future son. Liam stood outside the house of Willow Rosenberg. This moment always got to him. The words of Sahjhan fell on him like a million bricks striking him with a truth he could not deny. “You cannot save her from everything.” He had said. Liam had to acknowledge that the demon was correct. There were some things he could never do.

Sahjhan liked coming here just to see the kid humbled.

Now:

Liam rolled his eyes back into his head. He let “The Liam” emerge. The unified mind of the multiverse became his. He grasped the quantum strings of the atoms and invoked the power that lay between them. Fire came out of nothing and licked the smaller moon of Arrakis. Liam clinched the power tightly and guided it to the secret places where the machines hid. Liam carefully unreeled more of the power then something happened. The power moved. It jumped; it wiggled like a living thing. And when Liam had thought he had a firm grip on it, it surged. The vacuum energy Liam invoked tripled in intensity, then spiked at million times the desired power. The effect was immediate. The moon flashed white then shattered. Before it’s pieces could make it a thousand meters the energy spiked again and incinerated every single bit of the moon. All that was left was a tiny cloud of dissipating vapor.

Liam was stunned. He had not seen that in any of his spice visions. All eyes in the Imperial court was staring at him, some with awe, some with fear. The Dragon of Arrakis had roared and destroyed one of his moons.

8. chapter 7

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

“The unspoken assumption of prayer is that the powers that control our lives are not malevolent.”

Leto II

“He blew up a moon?!” Mesektet said to herself. She was at her desk when the report came through. It was a vision sent from the powers that be. Sounds and images poured into her head. She was floored by the scale and the clarity of it. The kid had actually blown up a moon! The powers would want every detail of this. She took out the folder marked “Arrakis” and made a note.

“Arrakis has only one moon.” She wrote then placed the folder back on the pile. She was sure this issue was going to be raised in the next staff meeting. But then again, they let him live when he melted half the Machine fleet. Liam had gone to the synchronized Worlds on the eve of their invasion of Arrakis and had melted their fleet with a wave of his hand. The Machines used fleet carriers the size of planets. The powers almost killed him right then but waited. The Machines would one day evolve into one the powers. They couldn’t have Liam threatening one of their own.

“We gave the Machines Sahjhan to start them down the path of dimensional engineering. Who could have foreseen they would give that technology to slayers?!” She still remembered what they did.

“Those idiot slayers punched clear through to Quor’Toth and freed Angel! They ruined a perfectly good apocalypse!” She thought. All because their precious Destroyer had sent them on a mission. Mesektet looked at the mystical monitors on her desk. They automatically turned on. No sign of the Destroyer anywhere in the multiverse.

“Come out, come out wherever you are.” Mesektet sang. “So that we can kill you.”

And now, the slayers had convinced the Machines to create a real time backup file of all the slayers. This “heaven” was going to be a problem for the powers. It was not a part of the multiverse. It was a separate space of its own. Whatever powers the rulers of the multiverse had could not affect this “heaven.”

This was a thing the gods had not planned for. To make matters worse, the Destroyer had planned for all humans to eventually become slayers.

“Ta’ih Musaafir, you are a clever boy.” She thought. Mesektet thought of the Destroyer by his given name. Her mind came back to the mundane issues at hand.

“He blew up a moon!” She thought as she rolled her eyes. She couldn’t wait for Sahjhan to start killing them all.

They were still going ahead with the coronation dance. During his christening, Liam has destroyed the smaller moon of Arrakis. It was the one that held the symbol of the small mouse, the mouse named Muad’Dib.

“What does this mean?” Liam thought to himself over and over. The word had gone out quickly throughout the empire. “Arrakis has only one moon.” The Fishspeakers had confirmed that the moon had been totally obliterated. All that was left was a trace of cooling plasma.

He looked out upon the crowd of well wishers and sycophants. His eyes dropped on Surayya and her family. Her husband Amir and her daughter Colette stood around her talking. Liam was envious of them. They seemed so happy together. He couldn’t wait to start a family with Ashoka.

“I told mommy I wouldn’t let the bad man get you.”

The voice of his unborn daughter echoed in his mind. He feared he would never have the comfort of a normal life. His father had told him that there would be precious little comfort as emperor.
“If you do this there is no turning back, there is no half measure.” Liam heard his father say. “All you will ever have is this moment and the moment of your death.” Maud ‘dib said to him. “Your life will belong to the empire.”

He had managed to avoid the futures of war and death but still the unknown tomorrow lay before him. He had not seen the shattering of the Arrakis moon in any of his visions.

“There are forces in the universe to which I am totally blind.” Liam thought. He knew the gods were after him.

Dracula and Buffy entered the room. It seemed they were an item now. Buffy had explained to everyone that this was not really Dracula. The slayers had incinerated Dracula to resurrect the Destroyer. This was a restored demon given the memories of Dracula until his boss could finish her project. Demons in their restored form were called angels. It seemed that, “Kat” Hollinger, the current interface to the slayerverse would need a replacement in a few dozen years. The being that called itself Dracula would be that replacement. This Dracula existed because his unborn daughter had tapped into the energies released by the death of the First to restore a fallen sprit. It seemed that while the Machines were the engineers of Heaven, Annie was the Architect. She made it human; she made it a full space.

“What a band of vivid flowers we are.” Liam thought.

His mother approached him. She had Dracula in tow.

Buffy stood an inch shorter than Liam. She always had. She had raised the boy as the Destroyer had told her to. There were days when she loved it. There were days she wanted to stake him. Only a few days ago Liam had stood by and let thousands of Fish speakers die. How could her boy do something as evil as that? She had an answer that made her blood boil. He was possessed by Angelus, the same monster that had murdered her friends and tortured her watcher for hours. This was the Angelus that had forced her to send Angel to hell. Liam had given his powers over to a monster!

“What the hell is wrong with you?!” Buffy screamed at him. Several of the guests turned to look. “You let Angelus murder thousands of people!” Buffy had originally planned to confront him and give him a good but brief scolding. But as she began to speak she began to realize the depth of her anger. For weeks, the monster Angelus had stared out at her from behind Liam’s eyes.
“It was necessary…” Liam said with a slight trace of contempt in his voice.
Buffy slapped him.

“How dare you presume to play with such forces?” She said. She was furious. Her skin glowed slightly with a yellow white energy as her body responded to her rage.
The room was dead silent.

Liam ignored the assault and turned his eyes coldly towards his mother. He had seen her like this before but not since he was a kid. He was an adult now. He would have to make sure she respected that.

“Idiot..” Liam mumbled as he turned to walk away. Buffy snapped. She said the word the Destroyer had taught her years ago. She said the word that activated a spell built into the magics of the Kwisatz Haderach. It was a failsafe in case the weapon got out of control.

Liam froze. He could not move. In her anger, Buffy had revealed a weak spot. The emperor had an off switch.

9. chapter 8

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

This was Muad’Dib’s achievement: He saw the subliminal reservoir of each individual as an unconscious bank of memories going back to the primal cell of our common genesis. Each of us, he said, can measure out his distance from that common origin. Seeing this and telling of it, he made the audacious leap of decision. Muad’Dib set himself the task of integrating genetic memory into ongoing evaluation. Thus did he break through Time’s veils, making a single thing of the future and the past. That was Muad’Dib’s creation embodied in his son and his daughter.

 Testament of Arrakis by Harq al-Ada

Willow looked out of the screen door of her house to the world beyond. She was tired both emotionally and physically. They had buried Buffy this morning. Her best friend, the woman she had loved most of her life, was laid to rest at a secret place that Willow blessed and made holy ground. She knew the forces they had dealt with over the years. She would not stand to have her friend’s body desecrated by a monster.

She had placed Buffy’s body in a boulder on the edge of Lake Sunnydale. She gave a gold cylinder to Illyria. Inside which was her sacred promise to awaken Buffy at the appointed time. Willow recalled Illyria’s chalk blue eyes. They creeped her out to no end.

“They have my son!” She remembered Buffy’s words from years ago. They made a pact to get her to a place named Arrakis. Willow had kept her word. She had carried out the plan they had hatched decades ago. Still, something bothered her. It felt wrong to leave Buffy all alone, to leave her a stranger in a strange land. Willow swept the wooden floors and cleaned away the plates and cups left by grieving visitors. She focused her attention on cleaning her house. Still, the thought of abandoning Buffy to the future bothered her.

A stranger in a strange land.

Something occurred to her. Who was that handsome young man that had visited her? He was too young to be a lover. Perhaps he was an acquaintance, someone she had slayed with. Willow recalled his face. He bared more than just a passing resemblance to Buffy.

“Her son?” Willow thought. She stood still in the living room under the full shock of that thought.

“There’s one way to find out.” She mumbled.

Willow walked into the room where Buffy died. It had been less than twenty four hours since she had passed away. The room still held the memories of everything that had happened within it.

“Reveal!” she said as she waived her hand.

Ghosts appeared in the room. The spell she had used revealed the activity of the last day. Willow scrunched down near the death bed. She listened to the words Buffy and the boy spoke to each other.

“I’m sorry.” He said. “There’s nothing I can do. “
“Don’t be silly.” Buffy said. “I’m old, I’m dying.” Buffy looked up at the young man.
“Who are you?” Buffy asked.
“Someone who loves you very much.” Liam said

Willow was sure of it now. This was the boy Buffy was looking for. This was Buffy’s son! He was handsome and totally devoted to her. Now Willow was hooked. Buffy’s quest now had flesh and bone. She had to see how things turned out. She needed closure on the story of Arrakis. Her door bell rang. Her oldest daughter answered the door. Willow could hear her talking to someone, then the screen door opening. Willow heard footsteps. She could feel the newcomers boot steps through the wooden floor. Before she could erase the ghost images in the room the newcomer poked his head in and spoke.

“Hello red.” He said.
“Hi ya Spike.” Willow said back. She smiled. It was good to see an old friend. It was strange. Spike hadn’t aged a day since they’d met. He still looked like a twenty something kid. Of course, the leather jacket he took from a dead slayer was gone. His hair was still blond but not punk. His dress was relatively conservative. He wore a simple black shirt and stone washed jeans. He preferred to be called William nowadays. He watched the ghosts play out Buffy’s last moments and the strange young man that spoke to her. Spike frowned and then decided to cover his grief with humor.

“Looks like the slayer is trying to rob the cradle one last time before kicking the bucket.” He said. Willow ignored him. She knew he was hurting. The second time Buffy came back Spike had told Xander that no matter what shape she was in, human or zombie, he would keep her. He loved her that much.

“It’s done.” Willow said. “The thing we talked about is done. Willow waived her hand. The images disappeared. She stood and turned to Spike.

“When she next opens her eyes it will be on a planet named Dune.” Willow said. She frowned. Her lips turned downwards for a moment. “You know, I wish there was a way I could verify that everything went ok. I hate to think we did all this for nothing. I hate to think she never finds her son.”

Willow decided to let it go for now. She and William had been working on another project in secret. Willow snapped her fingers. A green display board appeared in mid air. It had yellow writing on with complex equations and a diagram consisting of spheres within spheres. This project was so interesting that Willow went back to school, again, and got her PhD in quantum mechanics.

“As far as I can tell you’re still quantum entangled with the magics of that amulet.” Willow said. “It is spreading you out in both space and time. From what you’ve been describing, it sounds like the effect is increasing in strength and range. “

William ran his hands through neatly cut blond hair.

“There are days red, when I wake up in some strange places. Yesterday, I woke up on a planet surrounded by women who wanted to use me for something called the Kwisatz Haderach.”
Willow stepped up to him and held him in her arms. She looked him in the eyes. Over the years, she had developed a type of affection and protectiveness for this lost boy.

“We’ll fix this.” She said. Her humor kicked in. “Hey, if this thing gets any stronger you can help me check in on future Buffy.” Willow smiled.

“Well, Red if I ever find a way to do that I will.” Spike said.

She floated in a sea of memories. Motorria Swatti, witch mother of Liam Atraties, practiced her daily Bene Gesserit mediation. She was a dark, round young girl in her late twenties. She sat crossed legged in the cave floor covered in her black aba robe.

Years ago she had decided to remain at Stiech Kindle to focus on her magics and the training of wild slayers. There were thousands of slayers popping up throughout the galaxy. Leto’s academy was not always the best place for them. Besides, she and a growing cadre of slayers were beginning to feel that slayers should not be used as tools of the state.
Her son had assumed the throne of Arraksis and on this very day had shattered its smaller moon. That disturbed her. She needed to know if the magics of his creation were becoming unstable. The energies of that explosion still resonated with the planet. Motorria focused on that energy to see if she could understand why it had become unstable.
Liam contained elements of magic and physics. No one knew exactly how the Kwisatz Haderach worked. But Motorria had an advantage over other slayers in understanding what Liam was. She had access to memories of both science and magic. She was the one with the most vivid memories of Willow Rosenberg. Her knowledge had saved her at Tailos III. It would help her now.

She followed the memories and went where they took her. Her thoughts were of Liam so she remembered the day the Destroyer had reached through time and unveiled Buffy’s future memories to her.

“They have my son!” Buffy said as she slammed her fist into the side of her home. She recalled that scene through the eyes of Willow. The scene flickered. Now, she was in the research department of Wolfram and Hart before the fall. Angel stood behind her.

“Are you sure this will do the trick?” Angel asked. He had watched Willow performing a powerful binding spell.
”Pretty sure.” Willow answered. “I’ll document everything before I leave.”

“So, that’s how they got the idea for Tailos III!” Motorria thought. She reached the obvious conclusion. “The senior partners moved the deeper well off Earth! They got the idea of a prison moon from Willow!” Motorria continued to let the memories guide her. A particular memory leapt out at her. It was the memory of the day Buffy died through the memories of Willow. What she saw shocked her.

“He was there!” She thought. Liam had crossed his own timeline! Spike was there as well. That’s where the memories fell apart. She had only a hazy feel for what was discussed between Willow and Spike that day. She only knew it had something to do with the amulet. The magics of that amulet lay within her and all of Leto’s slayers. That’s why they could teleport.

“Willow, what have you done?” She asked herself as she opened her eyes. Motorria stood to get her old books. Tonight was going be a long research night.

10. chapter 9

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

When the true motive is love, there are no other explanations. Searching for them is like chasing grains of sand in the wind.

Fremen proverb

“Ready?” Liam asked his men.
“Yes sire, lead us into battle!” Someone said.
“For glory and house Atreides!” Liam roared as he led his men into battle. They streamed down the halls of the Imperial mansion.

“Here they come.” Surayya said. She peaked around the corner. “It’s four of them. I see Liam, Duncan, Amir and Karif the watcher.”
The slayers in the room readied their weapons. This was the old war, the first war, back in full flame. Four of them were there. Surayya stood next to the edge of the wall running recon. In back of her, stood Ashoka and two members of Valkyrie Squadron. The slayer next to Ashoka looked very young.

“How old are you kid?” Ashoka had asked her.
“Old enough grandma.” The kid sneered.
Ashoka rolled her eyes. “The fleet’s full of smart assess these days.” She said.
“Yeah, not like in the old days when you used to fight dinosaurs.”
“Quiet you two.” Surayya said. She watched the men approach. When they got to the kill zone she yelled “Now!” The slayers ran out into the hallway.

Ashoka was a traditionalist. Her family kept the old freman ways. She insisted on an old fashion courtship from start to finish. The Freman were a people of the deep desert, as such water was the only wealth that mattered. Despite the freman being civilized by house Atreides for thousands of years Ashoka insisted he follow all the rituals. This morning Liam had paid a huge water dowry to her family. Now he was here to claim his prize by the ritual of combat, that is, if he could get past her maids of honor. Their job was to defend her from the grooms raiding party and to ensure an honorable transfer of the bride if they were defeated in battle.

The men and women clashed in mock combat. None of the slayers really stood in Liam’s way as he captured his bride. She was his now forever and ever. Liam held Ashoka and kissed her.

“Will you by my wife?” He asked.
“Yes.” She said. “Will you be my husband?” she asked.
“Yes.” Liam answered. Ashoka smiled. They held hands as they turned to face the two parties.
“Valkyrie division, House Atraties and slayers assembled, bear witness to the unification!” Yelled Ashoka. Her voice echoed in the room. In the background, false panels rotated allowing the hundreds of other guests to join them. In the back of the crowd stood Buffy and Dracula. Buffy still had her arms crossed. She was still pretty angry. Liam caught a quick glimpse of his mother. He would make it a point to speak with her later.

The guest lifted their glasses to the new couple. Hundreds of voices spoke as one. “Shai-Hulud bless you. May the Maker clear your path. “They said. Their voices were one. It was a simple and elegant ritual. Even Buffy was moved. She held her head down and became very silent. Dracula noticed her mood. He gently lifted her chin up and spoke to her.

“What is wrong my Láska.” He asked. His warm brown eyes sought to capture hers. “Are you afraid of growing old alone?”
Buffy smiled. “Not hardly.” She said. “I was married twice with more grand kids than I could count. “ Dracula followed her gaze to Liam. He understood her sadness completely.
“I see now.” Dracula said. “They grow up so fast. Look on the bright side. You haven’t lost a son you’ve gained an army of supernatural killers.”
Buffy smiled. She liked this version of Dracula. He had a sense of humor. Buffy raised her glass and saluted her son along with everyone else in the room.

Sahjhan met him in a quiet place. The representative of the Bene Tleilaxu met him at a secret base drilled into the innards of a lonely asteroid. The representative stood next to three black cylinders each the size of a man.

“Well, you guys run like clockwork.” Sahjhan said as he approached the merchandise. “Nice to know nothing’s changed in the last ten thousand years. Everything is still for sale.
The technician showed Sahjhan the data pad which indicated that the merchandise was alive and well.

“They meet all specifications?” Sahjhan asked. “These clones are exact copies of Liam?”

“Yes.” The technician said. “However, as we indicated before, without the magics they cannot be activated as a Kwisatz Haderach.”
Sahjhan held a small crystal in his hands. “Not to worry kid.” He said. “I get my mojo directly from the source.” The Powers that hunted Liam gave him access to the magics of the Kwisatz Haderach.

“Concerning the payment of the balance due.” The Technician said.
“Yeah, about that…” Sahjhan leapt. He wrapped his powerful arms around the technicians head, twisted and broke his neck. The technician fell dead to the floor.
“I’ve decided not to pay. You guys charge way too much for bootleg biology.” Sahjhan took his cargo and loaded it aboard his ship.

Willow listened to the news report on the radio. President Obama had declared that the American invasion of Brazil was nearly complete securing a new source of fresh water for American citizens. At the most she could see only a few more weeks of heavy bombing and that later this month she would find some free time to visit her ailing father at Walter Reed Medical Hospital. Willow turned the radio off. The world around her had gotten too strange. There was too much activity on the global stage. She felt as if she was living in interesting times.

“I bet every generation feels like that.” Willow thought as she concentrated on the green note board that floated in the air before her. Yesterday, after Buffy’s death, she had reopened files she hadn’t looked at for months. Spike was still entangled with the magics of the amulet used at the battle of Sunnydale. That amulet had connected Spike with the sun. It basically cut the distance between Spike and the sun to zero. That amulet was the shorting of the way. The word Kwisatz Haderach echoed in her mind.

The green board showed a set of equations that gave a conventional description of the effect. Willow suddenly realized that she had analyzed the equations in only four dimensions, three in space and one in time. She realized that they described something that existed in an infinite number of dimensions and universes.

“These magics could open a door to a parallel universe.” She thought. Then she realized. “They could open a door to all the universes. That amulet could give access to the entire multiverse.” Willow ran the equations again visualizing the flow of polynomials in n-dimensional space. It wasn’t until hours later that something hit her. In all her equations, the speed of light was a constant. She just remembered that it wasn’t. Back in 2011 researchers detected subatomic particles moving faster than the speed of light. Willow swirled a finger. A report was magically pulled up from research computers around the world. Willow ran the equations again and smiled.

“I think I can turn the magics off!” She thought.

Ten thousand years later Motorria uncovered that memory. “That crazy witch is going to kill us all.” She thought.

Hey, I don’t make this stuff up:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/sep/22/faster-than-light-particles-neutrinos

11. chapter 10

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

The future, the past and the present are intertwined, a weave that forms any point in time.

-The Legend of Selim Wormrider

This was the reason she had missed her son’s wedding. The slayers were smart. They knew there were forces in the universe that wanted to kill them all the time. They had to keep their guard up. So they drew straws, actually a random number generation program assigned slayers to premier and off site security. Motorria was glad she had taken tonight to meditate. She’d discovered something that was a threat to the slayers and to the galaxy. Ten thousand years ago the witch Willow Rosenberg was attempting to figure out a way to turn off the magics of the amulet used by Spike at the battle of Sunnydale. Spike was just beginning to feel the effects of the amulet’s magic. It was making him a connecting point between places separated by space and time. The Bene Gesserit would come to call this “The Shorting of the Way.” It would take the form of the Kwisatz Haderach.

It was Spikes power that allowed Liam to conquer the First. It was Spike’s power that allowed slayers to teleport. It was Spike’s power that prevented the galaxy from being incinerated by the trillions of bits of green energy unleashed by Dawn’s descendents. Now Willow was going to take that power away. Motorria explained this to her circle.

“I hate to point this out.” A slayer said. “But nothing’s changed. We’re still here.”

“You’re thinking in linear time.” Motorria answered. “Faster than light effects travel backwards in time. Willow is building a doomsday. If she can turn off the magics of the amulet, the effects
will start billions of years in the future and rush backwards in time until it reaches her. We won’t be able to stop the incineration of the galaxy by vacuum energy because Spike won’t be able to spread the effects of the Dragon Scepter or send Surayya back in time to retrieve it. “

Motorria had been building her own following using slayers outside of Leto’s academy. There were only twenty of them so far. They sat in a circle listening intensely to her. Their loyalty was not to the emperor. Their loyalty was to Motorria

“How much time do we have?” One of the slayers asked. She was the oldest of Motorria’s students. Motorria had met her just before Liam was born. She was the one that made Motorria remember the thousands of lost slayers spread throughout the galaxy. She was the one that awakened Motorria’s purpose on Arrakis beyond the Destroyer.

“I don’t know.” Motorria said. “The world could explode at any moment.”

Willow thought it was simple. Spike had been complaining to her about the effects of the amulet for years now. He came to her right after he got back from the hell dimension Los Angeles had been cast into by the Senior Partners.

“I woke up in Rome the other day.” He said to her once. “The real Rome, the one filled with Romans, with lions and bears and a coliseum. They wanted to make me a gladiator in the circus maximus. Can you imagine me stripped to the waist, swinging a sword with a glistening six pack?”

Willow found that she could. And she couldn’t decide which was more disturbing; the image of a half naked Spike or how she felt about it. Buffy had been in the ground for a month now. Willow had been spending a lot of time talking to scientists around the world. She had described the physics of the amulet to them trying to find out if anyone had any ideas on how to close a multidimensional nexus in space time. She got one interesting idea.

“Do you have access to the original signal source?” Someone asked.

“Yes.” Willow answered the green board that floated in her living room. It was serving as a video conferencing whiteboard. The floating heads of five of the world’s top scientists appeared on it as shimmering icons.

“Since you have access to the source, why not build and transmit an anti signal that would dampen out the effects of the original? Of course, the anti signal would have to move faster than light in order to catch up to the original signal.”

They could all see Willow roll her eyes backwards into her head as the idea got a hold of her. “That sounds like something I can do.” She said.

“How do you plan on doing that?” The scientist smirked. “Are you going to use magic?””
Willow hesitated a moment then smiled. The world had yet to know her secret.

“Maybe.” She said coyly. A week later she was running test trials. She performed a simple locator spell to find the amulet and bring it to her.

“Venerunt ad me!” Willow had said. “come to me” in Latin. A green white glow filled the center of the room. She could feel space itself tear. Yellow fire flashed at her. Willow felt something huge and ancient stir. She smelled the cinnamon of spice and the clean fresh air of desert sand. The house vibrated. She could swear she saw something that looked like an impossibly large worm hundreds of meters across. A voice came to her.

“Let it go Willow!” a woman said to her. Something yanked. The fire exploded. She was hurled across the room slamming her head against the far wall. Willow woke groggy minutes later. The house computer had already scanned her. She had no concussion.

“Next time I’ll just try something bigger.” She thought.

They caught her when she fell. Her students tenderly held Motorria and helped her back to the sitting position. They fussed over her some but she would not have it. Motorria went back to chanting. She knew just how close they had come to the end of all things. The first time she was in Stiech Kindle she swiped the object. She knew what it was. Her pre born memories had informed her. Spike was too busy putting on a light show to misdirect them and sending Surayya back in time. Motorria held the object up and tenderly wiped the dust from its surface. The amulet that started all of this was hers and no one would have it.

Buffy and Ashoka stood next to each other, so did Liam and Dracula. Buffy was speaking to her new daughter in law. She was glad to have her in the family. It made her feel good to know that someone else was looking after Liam and loved him as well. Buffy was about to complement Ashoka when Liam looked at her and said something weird.

“I feel funny…” He said as he faded away into nothing. Buffy looked at the empty space where her son had been. Her brain was struggling to make sense of it when hundreds of men burst into the room. They were blind monks waiving jeweled handled knifes.

“Bringers?” Buffy thought. “The Bringers are back?”

A head floated in the middle of the room. Its face was fierce and pure evil. Its eyes scanned the crowd. It spotted Buffy.

“Kill the slayer!” it roared. Buffy recognized that voice. It was the First.

12. chapter 11

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

“I’d love to ice-skate at Rockefeller Center. And I’d love to see my cousins grow up and see how they turn out, ’cause they’re really mean and I think they’re gonna be fat”

- Cassie

“They cracked time!” Mesektet thought. She jumped slightly when she had realized what Willow had done. “Those idiots broke the timeline for that universe!” Was all she could think. Immediately, the Powers that Be held that universe as stable as possible with all the power that had. It was not nearly enough. The fractured time line wiggled in their grip like a living thing. History frayed at the edges. The timeline they had spent billions of years shaping changed into something they couldn’t recognize.

Buffy was the last slayer of Dune.

Years ago the stars were right, the Old Ones rose at Tailos three. The slayers Leto sent to destroy them failed. Something went wrong. They weren’t fast enough or smart enough or lucky enough. Most of the fleet was wiped out by a terrible weapon fueled by the dead star at the center of the Tailos solar system. The rest were torn apart by the dark mind that waited for the Old Ones to arise. Only Motorria was left alive because her best friend, Surayya Atreides, had slammed her into an escape pod moments before demon tentacles tore her apart splattering red the walls of the “Memories of Dawn.”

Less than a year later, the sky flashed green. Worlds burned. The stars caught fire. Trillions died. Dawns dimensional energy scattered in the flesh of all of her descendants broke the bonds holding back the fires of creation. The galaxy burned in a hell storm of vacuum energy.

Few planets survived. Fewer humans still. The Old Ones had been wiped out of existence except for the few that hid in the dark places. Motorria spent years as a ragged survivor in the deep desert with the few humans that survived the Old Ones. She was gaunt, dirty and half mad with hunger when the machines dropped out of the sky. She hoped they would kill her quickly. She was tired of living. They took her to the home world of the Machines. The Old Ones had left them alone for the most part. The machines had no supernatural ability, the Old Ones found them too useless to destroy. They took her before Omnibus, the over mind of the synchronized worlds.

He asked her: “What do you know of this slayerverse, this heaven?”

Motorria was surprised. She had no idea what Omnibus was talking about. When Motorria investigated it she cried. All the answers were there. She could reset the timeline to a better state. It was not too late to save Surayya and all the other people she loved. It seemed that the universe had a boot disk and on that boot disk was all the powers of all the slayers through all time.
This was the part that gave her hope. The Machines could impose the memories of anyone from the slayerverse on to her brain. The slayerverse and the human brain were both quantum computers.

“Will I have any memory of who I was before this?” She asked Omnibus.

“I don’t understand.” The Machine answered. “Who are you now?” It said. From the Machine point of view all realities were provisional.

“Do it!” Motorria said from the operating table. Omnibus had peeled back her skull exposing her pink brain. Needles stabbed into her injecting nanobots which maintained a wireless connection to the slayerverse. Omnibus filtered the data until it found what it was looking for. Thousands of microseconds later the memories of a woman that never existed slammed into the brain of Motorria Swati. The power of it made her scream. This Motorria was a reverend mother. This Motorria had absolute control over every bodily function and the complete memories of Willow Rosenberg. This Motorria had a son.

“My boy!” she cried out.

Motorria didn’t have spice. She didn’t need it. The memories of what she could have been were so strong that she transformed herself by the sheer act of will. She saw her cells and how they moved and how they could not be restrained by space. Motorria blinked. She disappeared in a flash of light and reappeared next to the operating table.

“I can teleport!” She thought as she giggled. Spike’s power was now her power. Her mind was racing into overdrive. She was dancing with possibilities.
Looming forefront in her mind was the threat of the Old Ones. She needed a Kwisatz Haderach to fix the universe.

“We don’t have time!” Motorria thought. She was smart enough to do the math. The probability of both her and a child surviving the years it would take to raise him hit zero pretty fast. She had another idea, one that would require sacrifice on her part.

“Omnibus, how good are you with quantum calculations?” She asked.

“I have absolute mastery of all mathematical formats.” It said.

“Can you perform a particle set replacement based upon template iteration?” She asked. She had to explain it to Omnibus twice.
When the machine had said yes, she had to make sure that it could do the calculations in real time. When Omnibus had finally understood what she wanted, it may not have been too much to say it was moved.

“This is profound.” Omnibus said. “This has never been attempted.”

“Actually, I got the idea from the ancient writings.” Motorria said. “A man once turned water into wine.”

Motorria laughed to herself. She understood what she was asking the machine to do. “Thank you.” She said to the lord of the synchronized worlds. After a moment, she said. “Let’s do this.”

Motorria placed herself on the table. It took Omnibus a moment to place all the equipment into place. It was well versed in the ways of quantum entanglement. Everything was already connected to everything else. In the slayerverse there was a set of particles that needed to be flesh. Motorria said the spell given to her by her memories. Her flesh burned as she was torn apart molecule by molecule. Her Bene Gesserit training helped not at all. In the time it took for her mind to focus, her flesh was torn open and incinerated.

Omnibus stepped in. Parts of it were a quantum computer the size of a planet. It could perform an infinite number of calculations at once. It scanned the enchanted plasma that was Motorria Swati and the selected data from the Slayerverse. Before the light from her exploding flesh could reach the other side of the room Omnibus had already started weaving the equations of creation. Machines rushed in to spray the new mass with nanobots to stabilize its form. A few days later Buffy looked up past her breasts to the small child lying next to her.

“What the!” Was all she could think. “And why am I always naked?” Motorria had turned herself into Buffy.

Motorria’s memories guided her. Motorria had sacrificed herself so that Buffy could be born. They needed a Kwisatz Haderach. They needed one enchanted with the magics of the amulet.

“Why me!” Buffy asked herself and the memories of Motorria.

“It’s because of your relationships. “ The memories of Motorria answered. “You know both Liam and Willow better than I do. Raise him well.” The memories had said. “Train him in what he must do.

Two years later Liam was ready. Buffy had stayed with the machines of the synchronized worlds. It was the safest place in the galaxy. She squatted down before the boy to give him his final mission briefing.

“Honey, mommy needs you to go see Willow.” The boy looked up at her. He had dark skin, raven black hair and the deepest blue within blue eyes she’d ever seen.
“Remember the house I drew for you, the one at 1630 Revello Drive? I need you to find the girl with the red hair. Find her with this.” Buffy said as she held up a hand drawn image of the amulet. “Find the girl with the red hair and the amulet in the same place at the same time, ok sweetie?”

The boy pointed to the amulet and Willow and smiled. He understood.

“God, he’s too young!” Buffy thought. But she and the memories of Motorria both agreed. It was only a matter of time before the remaining Old Ones found out about the slayerverse and would come to destroy it. Buffy hugged her son one last time then sent him on his way. Liam slipped on something and almost fell. Buffy used every ounce of self restraint to keep herself from going after him. Her fingernails dug into her palm. Drops of her blood hit the floor. Buffy held her breath as she watched her little boy disappear into the dark.

13. chapter 12

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

The Master: You’re dead.
Buffy: I may be dead, but I’m still pretty. Which is more than I can say for you.
The Master: You were destined to die! It was written!
Buffy: What can I say? I flunked the written.

BTVS “Prophecy Girl” S01E12

“This is it!” Sahjhan thought as he grabbed his battle axe. The powers that Be had given the go ahead for a strike on little Liam. Sahjhan would intercept him at Willows.
“Looks like I won’t need you boys after all.” He thought as he looked over the clones of Liam he’d ordered from the Tleilaxu. Sahjhan summoned his power then shifted into another dimension.

Willow was ready. She had found the necessary magics needed to negate the effects of the amulet. In the center of her living room, were seven crystals in a sacred circle. Tonight, Spike would be free of the plague of space and time. Spike looked up at her while he worked. He was sprinkling golden powder blessed by Eyrishon, the endless one over the pattern drawn by Willow. How he got that powder was an epic story unto itself. He wasn’t sure this was going to work but he appreciated Willow trying. They stood and looked at each other a long moment. What they were attempting was dangerous. If the spell went bad, it could punch a hole in space-time killing everyone on Earth and beyond.

Spike looked down then back up at Willow. “Who’s your friend?” He asked as he pointed to the little boy who suddenly appeared next to Willow. He looked to be all of five years old. He had olive skin, raven black hair and blue within blue eyes. Willow looked down. She was surprised. She recognized him.

“That’s Buffy’s son!” She said.
“You’re killing us.” The boy said. His voice was soft with a slight lisp. Willow didn’t understand. The boy pointed to the crystals in the sacred circle.
“Your magics are killing us.” Liam said again. “Please stop.” It took Willow a moment to understand him and when she did a hand flew to her mouth.
“Goddess!” she said, She understood. The amulet’s effects occurred in both the present and future. Whatever she was doing here must be having a devastating effect on the future.
“Where’s your mommy?” Willow asked. She had to know that Buffy was ok.
“My mother is dead.” Liam said flatly. Willow was shocked. Liam had his preborn memories. He remembered Motorria burning her flesh to become Buffy and himself.
“My other mommy said to stop you.” Liam said.
“Your other mother.” Willow repeated.
“My Buffy mommy!” Liam said. He wondered if the older woman he was speaking to was retarded.

Willow quickly broke the sacred circle and placed the crystals back into their metal container. She was about to speak when she felt a vibration of power in the air. Spike felt it too. He barely managed to grab Liam and pull him out of the downward slash of Sahjhan’s bloody ax. It took Sahjhan a moment to notice that he’d missed. When he saw why he was enraged.

“Spike!” He roared.

It took Spike a moment to place Sahjhan. “Didn’t Conner cut your head off?” He said. Spike was puzzled. According to Angel; his son Conner had beheaded Sahjhan. It was Sahjhan who tried to kill Angel and had played a crucial role in Conner being kidnapped as a baby and taken to Quor’Toth, the darkest of the hell worlds.

Sahjhan looked at him puzzled. “As long as I can become unsolid, I’m undefeatable.” and then after a moment. “Who’s Conner?” Spike punched Sahjhan in the face knocking him backwards. He followed the inertia forward driving his elbow across the demon’s windpipe. They crashed into the far wall. Willow grabbed Liam. She began to weave a protection spell. Her eyes became black within black. She gave off the feel of powerful magics. Spike could feel her power across the room. They had fought together for decades. He knew what was coming up next. Spike rolled off Sahjhan a fraction of a second before he exploded into a ball of fire. The demon phased out of existence and reappeared behind Willow. The flames were out but his axe was still across the room. Sahjhan roared and punched the shield surrounding Willow and Liam with his bare fist.

“Bigger demons than you have tried to get to red.” Spike said. Sahjhan struck the shield again. This time it actually flickered. Sahjhan struck again. The shield flickered then faded. It took Spike a moment to realize.
“He must really want that kid dead.” He thought. Then he remembered. “This is Buffy’s kid!” Spike bared his teeth. Before he could leap a hand appeared on his shoulder. The room lit up in explosions of off white light. Men, dressed in black soft armor with swords make from the teeth of the Destroyer appeared.

“I am the Liam.” They said. They all looked like an older version of the boy.

Willow looked down at the kid. “What are you?” She asked herself.

They rushed Sahjhan. Their blades actually cut through his skin. Willow could feel the magics coming off of their swords. Their blades radiated pure dimensional energy. Sahjhan phased to his incorporeal state. The swords still cut at him. Sahjhan screamed then disappeared. All the men followed but one. He walked up to Willow and Liam and took them by the hand. He briefly looked over at Spike.

“Thank you old Father for your power.” He disappeared in a flash of light taking Willow and Liam with him.

“What the…” Spike said puzzled at what just happened. Before he could take a step there was a flash of light behind him. Willow was standing there. She looked different. She was wearing a white stilsuit, standard attire for deep desert travel. Her face was leathery and tanned. Her hair was cut short and she had the strangest blue within blue eyes. A crooked smile came upon her face as she collapsed into Spike’s arms.

“You’re not going to believe where I’ve been!” She said. Spikes enhanced senses picked up an odd smell. Willow smelled like the cinnamon of spice.

She blinked to chase the ghosts out of her head. She blinked and the world was normal again. Everyone began to murmur and stir as if awaking from a dream. Buffy looked up at Liam. He knew what had just happened. He was the Kwisatz Haderach. He had memories of things that never happened. Liam placed his drink down and disengaged from Ashoka.

“I’ll be back.” He said to his mother. Liam reappeared with Motorria and the amulet. Buffy and Motorria looked at each other for a long time. They remembered everything that happened. Motorria remembered every pain from the year of hell that never was. Buffy remembered Motorria’s sacrifice. They grabbed each other and hugged for a long long time.

After a while Buffy said “You did good kid.” as she patted him on the shoulder. She could never stay mad at her son.

14. chapter 13

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

“Pure power is beyond good and evil. It is simply the ability to do what is necessary. Those who have used power to achieve their ends have been called devils or saints. They are neither. They are simply people who have done certain things. Is a hurricane evil if it kills? Now you understand.”

-Liam Atreides

She sat alone in a room hundreds of kilometers wide. Mesektet sat on a chair in the middle of a pocket universe build by the Powers that Be to serve as a meeting place of the Gods. Where she sat was the edge of a cliff. Hundreds of meters below her deep blue water splashed against the granite cliffside. Her Boss appeared out of nothing waking towards her. Her boss was a beautiful woman. She appeared to be in her late twenties, with ample breasts and wide hips. Her hair was long and dark brown. They matched her eyes which were the color of dark stained wood. Her boss looked at her and smiled. It sent shivers down her spine. Mesektet was an evil thing and her boss scared the hell out of her. Something huge shaped like a cube appeared in the sky. Its golden edges glistened in the false sunlight. From its center blasted a blinding blue white light. It was the Machine god exactly on time as usual. The Machine god would arise from the Machines of the synchronized worlds in a million years or so.

This pocket universe was outside of time as it flowed in the multiverse. This space was at the same time alien to time itself and congruent to all its points. This was the all space. Past, present and future was the same thing here. Moments later something that looked like a storm of barbed wire pushed itself into this space. Mesektet saw it slice through space itself to manifest in the sky above next to the Machine cube. Two other powers appeared. One was a little girl like Mesektet herself. But this little girl had pudgy cheeks and soft blond hair just like her grandmother. Annie Atreides sat on the other side of Mesektet. And like Mesektet, she was nothing like a little girl at all. She had not even been human in tens of thousands of years. Someone called her the “baby” once. It took millions of years to find all the blasted pieces of that fallen god. No one teased her since. Annie had her cat with her. Her cat was the final member of the senate. It too was one of the Powers. It was a cat with the powers of a god that crept along the dark and lonely places of the multiverse hunting the shadows. Annie listened to her cat carefully. She rubbed her nose against its nose. She placed her cat in her lap.

The last of the active Powers appeared. It was a cloud of fire kilometers long. It floated in the air across from the Machine god. This Power favored the hell verses. It arose from Quor’Toth before life arose on Earth. Only the combined powers of all the other Powers that Be kept it in check. If it had its way it would burn every single world in the multiverse to the ground. It wasn’t evil as such. It just loved fire. There were other Powers but they had gone silent. They no longer cared about the multiverse. They simply lived off of investments they’d made billions of years ago. They left the running of the multiverse to the kids. Mesektet kept absolutely silent. Her chair sat on the ashes of the last emissary to the Powers that spoke out of turn. The meeting was well under way. Recent events on Arrakis was the only topic.

“The weapon still lives. “ The being of barbed wire said. “It is rewriting the histories we have carefully written. “ The other Powers agreed.

“It is learning to format time.” The fire being said. “It performed a forced reset of the its own timeline!”

The Machine God spoke: “They are learning the true power of the slayerverse. When the slayers and the weapon understand the power that they have they will become unstoppable. They could kill us all.”

The other Powers truly hated the fact that the Machine God did not understand death. It simply considered death just another variable.

“The slayerverse is a part of the synchronized worlds. We will not relinquish it.” The Machine god said. No one contradicted it. They had all seen its terrible powers. The lifeless blue waters below were all that remained of a Power that attempted to contradict the Machines. Annie would meet with the Machine God later to discuss humanistic upgrades to the slayerverse. She wanted the documented lives of the billions of slayers it captured to be more than just particles trapped in a quantum flux. She wanted the data to live, to have experiences beyond their flesh lives. She wanted them to be alive. Annie was the architect of heaven.

“Man is always the weakest link.” Mesektets’ boss said as she leaned forward. “We should continue to peruse the negation of the weapon.”

Annie looked at Mesektets’ boss with pure hatred. “You mean kill my father?” she said.

“Humans die anyway.” The Power said. “It is already screwing up our carefully laid plans. You were never supposed to be born!”

“But I was and here I am!” Annie spat back. Blue sparks arced between them. Mesektet sat very still. When they were like this, they didn’t care who got in their way.

“We have consensus?” The jagged god spoke. “We will continue to pursue the eradication of the weapon? They all voted yes. As usual, Annie abstained. The gods departed. The pocket universe faded. Mesektet was back at her desk. Her boss stood over her.

“Tell Sahjhan to stop his bleeding and get back to work.” Her boss gave her a look that would’ve chilled the Fire god.

“I want that boy dead!” Cordelia Chase said to Mesektet before she disappeared in a lighting flash and the sound of thunder.
Mesektet shook her head. “Drama queen.” She thought.

In a space far away from the other Powers, Annie launched her own plans. She had given final instructions to her cat. Her kitty meowed a snappy answer as usual. Annie would do anything to keep her daddy safe including challenging the Powers that Be. She watched her cat walk through the walls of her office and exit into the imperial palace of Arrakis. She never got tired of seeing that. A few minutes later she went back to work.

Buffy stirred from her bed. She really liked her apartment. The walls and floor were pure white marble covered with two inch thick plush rugs. She had a private balcony that over looked the Imperial gardens. The Arrakis sun was just rising. It was still cool enough not to need a stilsuit. There was actual dew on the railing of her balcony collected from the previous night. What she liked most was that if she wanted to she could walk out onto the balcony nude. She chose to wear a shear pink negligee today.

There was a cat on her balcony this morning. Buffy picked the cat up and looked at it, really looked at it. She couldn’t believe her eyes. She was holding her old friend Ms Kitty Fantastico.

“What are you doing here girl?” Buffy asked. She doubted she would ever see Ms Fantastico again, especially after the crossbow incident. This was the most wonderful thing to happen to her so far and she had seen the Destroyer resurrected. The cat meowed. That was its standard answer for everything.

15. chapter 14

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

In all of my universe I have seen no law of nature, unchanging and inexorable. This universe presents only changing relationships which are sometimes seen as laws by short-lived awareness. These fleshy sensoria which we call self are ephemera withering in the blaze of infinity, fleeting aware of temporary conditions which confine our activities and change as our activities change. If you must label the absolute, use its proper name: Temporary.

The Stolen Journals

Liam put his honeymoon on pause. He wanted to talk to his mother. Days ago Liam had pulled Motorria from Stiech Kindle. Something terrible had happened. History itself had been rewritten. Spike’s power, which was the power of the Kwisatz Haderach, had never been unleashed. As a result, The Old Ones rose, the stars burned and the galaxy became a hellscape. His mother survived the alternative timeline and saved the world. She did it by transforming herself into Buffy and sending Liam back in time to stop Willow. She remembered everything that happened; Liam remembered the alternative timeline as well. The implications were profound.

Liam held Spike’s dimension spanning powers within himself. He was the Kwisatz Haderach; as a result he was used to remembering events he never experienced in the flesh. But his mothers were different. They were slayers. Motorria was a slayer made from Spike and all of his powers. Liam had been trained as a mentat by his mother. He had reached an unsettling conclusion. Motorria was becoming a female Kwisatz Haderach.

“Is this what the gods feared?” Liam asked himself. There were thousands of slayers that shared Spike’s power. Properly groomed, all of them could have the multi universe spanning power of the Kwisatz Haderach. They could challenge the gods themselves.

They walked along the white marble and blue trimmed corridors that lined the outer parts of the Imperial grounds. Around them, an invisible cloud of security protected them. Tens of Fish Speakers and his own security detail watched them discreetly and recorded their every move.

“I think you are becoming like me.” Liam said to his mother. She looked at him as if he was insane. “I believe that the power of the Kwisatz Haderach is active in all of Leto’s slayers. Until now, there was never any circumstance that would draw attention to that fact.” Liam remembered what Buffy had told him on the occasion of his twenty-first birthday. Buffy had been talking to Surayya. She mentioned remembering events that never happened.

“I’m just saying, it’s weird.” She motioned her arms as she spoke. “The blood storm never happened, and since the blood storm never happened Liam never came back to help us. But I remember it happening! How is it that I remember something that never happened?” Surayya could tell she was frustrated. Nobody liked a temporal paradox. Buffy was already feeling the effects of being Kwisatz Haderach.

“That means we are all like you.” Motorria said realizing the depths of what Liam had said. “How soon will I be able to cross the multiverse?” She asked.
“Unknown.” Liam said. “We will have to start training soon.” Liam stopped suddenly. He looked at Motorria sincerely. “Mother, I want you to move into the palace with the rest of us.”

Motorria crossed her arms and glared at him. She was an inch or two shorter than Liam but she still managed to intimidate him. Liam knew that his mother cherished her independence and would not give it up easily. But she was Bene Gesserit and a slayer. She knew they battled with monsters and other forces that wished to hurt them badly. There was safety in numbers. Besides, she could see that her son was afraid for her. She defeated her pride and agreed.

“If I come, I can bring my school with me?” She said. It was a weird combination of demand and question.

“Yes mother, of course.” Liam said. He laughed to himself. Being emperor didn’t save him from the demands of the people he loved the most.

“What about the boy?” Motorria asked. It took Liam a moment to understand. The child Motorria created and sent back in time to stop Willow was not an orphan. The timeline that spawned him was gone, yet, he and his mothers persisted. Their dimensionality placed them outside of the contours of time itself.

“I don’t know.” Liam said. He had not considered the child version of himself. He had not seen the child in any of his spice visions. A light breeze blew across them. Liam could smell water and a hint of the desert in the air.

“Water on Arrakis!” He thought. He looked at his mother. He could tell by her expression that she was thinking the same thing.

“What strange changes have come to us.” Liam thought as he reached the end of the walk with her. They hugged briefly. Motorria teleported out. She would return soon with her students.

“So now Buffy is Kwisatz Haderach.” Liam thought. Her new powers were added to her when she was recreated by Motorria in the other timeline. He would have to talk to Buffy about that soon and of course the etiquette of using his mystical off switch in public.

It played time over and over again like a scene from a movie. Back and forth it played the event in a loop of light and sound that only it could see. It was a shadow. It was a shade. It was a memory made flesh and given life by the god space it inhabited. A Power that Be had lured it into this space thousands of years ago, a thing called Jasmine then used the cover of her flesh as a vessel to access the lower dimensions. It gave birth to itself in a shower of blood and power that left her body hovering between life and death.

But the gods do not die like men. An impression, an afterimage, a soulless shade remained in the permanent space. It grew over time, in strength and coherency. The memory of what it was became the only thing it could ever be. It was damned to be stuck forever in the snapshot moment of a dead woman’s life. The ghost of Cordelia Chase was a god and its vengeance was on existence itself and it could not be contained. It played time over and over again mesmerized by the moment of the death of her flesh and the possibilities of her life. It long ago gave up grief. It dreamed only of destroying the gods who had betrayed her and the multiverse they fed upon. But first she would have to remove something that threatened even her.

“Liam is a slippery bastard.” It thought. “But Buffy is just a girl.” It smiled an evil smile. “If I can’t kill him I can hurt the people around him.” It had learned a few tricks from the First. She knew how to slip into the lower dimensions and she knew how to take some of her power with her.

“It’s time for a Sunnydale reunion.” It thought. It wrapped itself in a consuming fire and focused on Arrakis.

16. chapter 15

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

Xander: “You can’t just bury stuff, Buffy. It’ll come right back up to get you.”
BTVS, “Dead Man’s Party”. S03E01

She held her kitty in her arms and sang to it. Ms Fantastico had appeared on her balcony out of nowhere this morning. Buffy had not seen the cat in an age. Technically, it was Willows cat but Buffy loved it nonetheless. It reminded her of home and her long lost Sunnydale. Buffy stood on the balcony soaking in the morning sun.

“Today’s going to be a good day.” Buffy thought to herself. She turned to enter the coolness of her bedroom. She stopped dead in her tracks and stared at the visitor who sat there in the dark.
“Hi Buffy.” She said. Cordelia Chase sat on her bed. She turned her eyes and squinted at the cat. “Looks like everyone’s here.”

Her mouth opened. Nothing came out. Cordelia Chase had been dead for ten thousand years and she was here now. Buffy reached the obvious conclusion. She tucked the cat under one arm and with the other flipped the knife she always carried with her at Cordelia’s throat. Cordelia caught it in midair and crushed the blade with her bare hand.

“Ok, she’s not the First.” Buffy thought. She sat the cat down. Buffy was thinking now. “Whatever this thing is, it was not Cordelia.” She thought.
“Why are you here?” Buffy asked.
“I want to see Liam cry.” Cordelia said as she stood. She drew herself up to full height. She stood well over two meters tall. Buffy didn’t remember Cordelia being so tall. “I want to see Liam cry when he finds your burned corpse.” Cordelia snapped her fingers. Fire filled the room.

Liam stopped in his tracks. He was in his apartment on the other side of the royal palace. His honeymoon was well underway. Liam felt the presence of something powerful, something evil. The walls of the room melted as a vision came upon him. He saw the grinning face of Cordelia Chase. He saw her snap her fingers and set his mother on fire. The flames expanded. Desert sands turned to glass over an area of millions of kilometers, Ashoka had the same vision which meant that all slayers had the same vision. He was about to jump into battle and a certain death when someone grabbed his shoulder. Liam turned. It was himself. An older version of himself, with grey flecks in his beard, looked out at him.
“You’re going to need something special.” His other self said. They disappeared together.

Buffy was on fire. In a blink of an eye her white armor snapped into place. It covered every part of her including her face and eyes. She was not blind. The armor had its own built in vision system. As fire slammed into her, spikes of golden energy leapt from her fingers striking Cordelia in the face. Cordelia screamed as half of her face disappeared. She staggered backwards then regenerated. The kid gloves were off. She would beat Buffy to death with her bare hands.

Through the fire and smoke, Cordelia could see Buffy standing there in her white battle armor. The rumors she’d heard were true.
“So, you’re the emissary of the Destroyer?” Cordelia said. She didn’t know. This changed everything. Buffy’s murder was not going to be a simple assault. She would need considerably more power. She would have to incinerate half the planet.

Buffy did the math. Whatever this thing was it wanted to kill her. Buffy didn’t ask why. That was unimportant. The vision of the Destroyer was upon her. She could see half the planet burned into a puddle of molten glass.

Buffy jumped on Cordelia. Her left arm went around the back of Cordelia’s neck. Her right arm went across her throat. Buffy squeezed, pressing forwards with all of her strength. In training, she had snapped steel beams in half. Cordelia simply looked disturbed. She grasped Buffy’s arms and pulled them apart. Cordelia twitched. She whipped Buffy by one of her arms and threw her through the marble walls of the apartment. Her body flipped over the balcony and crashed into the royal courtyard tens of meters below.

Ms Kitty Fantastico looked at the balcony then back at Cordelia. She meowed.

“You would say that.” Cordelia said. The cat meowed again. “Give it a try.” Cordelia mocked. Ms Kitty Fantastico extended her claws. They glowed purple with all of Illyria’s discarded powers. The cat leapt faster than the speed of sound knocking Cordelia backwards. The kitty snarled. It showed its teeth and bit deep into Cordelia’s throat. Yellow white light spewed forth and dissipated. The essence of Cordelia bled out. The energies she used were unstable in this dimension. Cordelia grabbed the cat and threw it against the far wall tearing out a hand full of fur in the process. It bounced once then hit the ground. The cat was flesh and blood with the powers of an Old One. It bounced off the wall, twisted in mid air and landed on her feet.

Cordelia began to glow with a yellow white energy. “I should’ve just done this before.” She said. “Sometimes, the direct assault is the best assault. No need to sneak around with Sahjhan.” Fantastic energies build within her. Unlike the First Cordelia had found a way to bring a fraction of her powers to the lower dimensions. She was on an energy buildup that would kill millions.
A noise came from the balcony. Buffy was pulling herself over the balcony. Her hands were blooded. Her armor showed black streaked burn blasts. There was a cut over her eye. Her hair was a mess. Cordelia noticed her and almost had to laugh.

“You just don’t give up!” Cordelia said. Her skin glowed with energy. Something exploded from her chest. It was long and yellow and sharp. It was a tooth of the Destroyer sharpened to a razors edge. Liam yanked his dimensional sword out of Cordelia. Light blasted out of her. Her form exploded. Liam grabbed Buffy and teleported out.

They stood just beyond the imperial grounds and watched the smoke rise. A full third of the palace was gone. Her apartment was gone. Buffy felt something rubbing against her leg. She looked down. It was Ms. Kitty Fantastico. There wasn’t a scratch on her. Buffy picked her up and petted her.

“Looks like you’re my lucky charm.” She said.

In the god space, the energies that considered itself Cordelia Chase reassembled. No doubt the others would have questions soon. It didn’t care. When they questioned Cordelia the Powers ruled out a fontal assault. The Kwisatz Haderach was just too dangerous.

“We will consider our options.” The Powers said. They began to talk among themselves. A year passed.

17. chapter 16

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

The gravest error a thinking person can make is to believe that one particular version of history is absolute fact. History is recorded by a series of observers, none of whom is impartial. The facts are distorted by sheer passage of time and — especially in the case of the Butlerian Jihad — thousands of years of humanity’s dark ages, deliberate misrepresentations by religious sects, and the inevitable corruption that comes from an accumulation of careless mistakes. The wise person, then, views history as a set of lessons to be learned, choices and ramifications to be considered and discussed, and mistakes that should never again be made.

Princess Irulan, preface to the History of the Butlerian Jihad

She joined the other slayers on the practice field. The air was hot. The desert winds had been blowing in all morning. Buffy joined the other slayers in morning calisthenics in the protected yard of the imperial palace. Buffy wore her white battle armor this morning. She had spent months exploring its features and learning how to use it in combat. Her battle armor was bright white with tiny grey mesh lines that made her armor form fitting against the curves of her skin. Buffy knew she was a woman. She decided not to be moved by anyone intimidated or aroused by her presence. She fingered her scythe as she joined the other women on the practice field.

There had been a lot of changes to the imperial routine. The easy going early days were over. House Atreides was at war with the Powers that be, a war the slayers had already been fighting for thousands of years. A little over a year ago, one of the Powers, in the form of Cordelia Chase, had attacked Buffy. She barely survived. She was only saved by her son, the Kwisatz Haderach, who used a tooth of the Destroyer sharpened to a razor’s edge to attack the rouge god. Buffy ran a finger along the scar over her right eye. It was healed but it still hurt. Her pride had been wounded.

Buffy walked up to the women and stood there for a moment. They noticed her. She had decided to practice with the inner circle of the royal family. Surayya Atreides was running the women through their paces. She gave a brisk cadence to them as they twisted their waist and top of shoulders. After a fifty count, she stopped. Their skin glistened with a thin sheen of sweat. The freemen of old would have shocked to see such body moisture wasted.

Buffy took her place with them. She held her scythe in her hands. Weapon practice would be up next. Ashoka, Buffy, Surayya, Motorria and Lisa began to move together. Over the hours, they trained as a single unit, practicing for the storm to come. They were the protectors of what was most precious. Of all the thousands of slayers on Arrakis, they had the most to lose.
When it was over, they sat together in the cool of the shade talking among themselves.

“Are you sure you’re up to this?” Buffy asked Ashoka. Buffy couldn’t help notice that Ashoka was very pregnant.
“I don’t want you to break my grandchild.” Buffy said lightly. Buffy knew that Ashoka and the baby were in good health and that Ashoka was stronger than she looked.
“Ha!” said Motorria. “I was fighting off vampires when I was carrying Liam. ‘Shoka will be fine.”

Ashoka Lang, empress consort of the court of the black dragon, was originally chosen as a political necessity that would allow Liam to bond with the slayers of the fleet. But, he had come to have feelings for her. She rubbed her belly which was quite swollen. The child would be due soon.
“She makes me dream.” Ashoka said. Motorria nodded. She also had vivid dreams when she carried Liam. “Last night I dreamed of clouds made up of fire and barbed wire floating above a bright blue sea.” The slayers were listening intensely now.

“On the cliff by the sea were two little girls. One in a red dress the color of human blood, and the other with pudgy cheeks and blonde hair.” Ashoka paused a moment to look at Buffy. “Just like her grandmother.”
It took Buffy a moment to understand. “The Powers…” she muttered to herself.

When Ashoka had burst upon the scene in the old days she was terrifying in her intensity. She had fought alongside Buffy against the First when it had assumed physical form. She had slaughtered hundreds of bringers with her bare hands to protect Liam. Now she looked vulnerable, now she looked afraid. Now she was responsible for something more valuable than herself.

“What are you going to name her?” Buffy asked. She wanted to take Ashoka’s mind off her pregnancy.
“Liam wants to name her after you.” She said.
This was the first Buffy had heard of this. From the tone of her voice, Ashoka was not happy about that choice.
“He said to name her Annie. He was insistent.” Ashoka said. Buffy saw that she was afraid. “He talks like this is the end of days. He talks like he won’t be here when we’ll need him.” Ashoka’s eyes were moist. Buffy went over and hugged her daughter in law.
“No worries.” Buffy said. as she rubbed Ashoka’s back. “What can’t we face if we’re together? What’s in this place that we can’t weather?”
Motorria looked at Buffy then laughed. Her preborn memories had shown her where those words had come from.
“Buffy’s right.” Motorria said to Ashoka and then a moment later said for no apparent reason. “I hope she doesn’t break out into a song or go to war against evil bunnies.”

Buffy and Motorria laughed. After a moment Surayya and Lisa joined them. Ashoka just sat there feeling left out. Before they went back to their exercises Buffy asked. “Will anyone remember us in a thousand years?” Motorria was the only one that answered. She had spent decades studying her past life memories.

“History is myth.” She said. “When all is said and done no one will remember the things we have done.” Motorria paused a moment. She looked at Surayya and Ashoka and understood something important. “History will call us less than heroes. History will only call us wives.”

18. chapter 17

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

“In wise council you make your war.”

-BTVS, “Never Leave Me”, S07E09

Liam was on a conference call.

Hours ago he had lead his security team into the deep vaults beneath the imperial palace. There, they found Leto’s spice horde. Liam warned his security team not to stop him. He took a huge spice overdose and went directly into a spice coma. His consciousness flew free of the bonds of space and time. He was searching for something hidden in the infinite folds of space-time. He found both of them, one at a time, and brought them together in his mind.

“Leto, Muad’Dib, I need your help.” Liam said. “The Powers that be are coming for me. What shall I do?”

Leto found the boy curious. His father had been a Kwisatz Haderach but nothing as powerful as this.

“So, my father was supposed to be a combination of flesh and magic?” Leto asked.

“Yes.” Liam said. “Even now as your slayers fight at Tailos three forces are at work building the day of my creation.”

“I remember “Her Graceful Measure.” Muad’Dib said. “The slayer witch Motorria combined the DNA of both Buffy Summers and myself within her. You are that child?” Muad’Dib asked.

“Yes.” Liam answered. “I am the Kwisatz Haderach in its true form. I was built to destroy the source of all evil.”

It took Leto a moment to understand something. “Buffy Summers is here on Arrakis?” he asked. Leto had dreamed of her before he unleashed his slayers. Buffy was the reason Leto brought the slayers back.

“She is my mother.” Liam said.

“kull wahad” Leto muttered. He was profoundly moved. Buffy had impressed him with her strength of character. “In your time, do my slayers live?” He asked. Liam could hear the tender undertone of concern in his voice.

“Not only do they live, but they prosper.” Liam said. “There are thousands of them. They have their own fleet. They have families. We live in the royal palace.”

Leto understood and was pleased. His thousands of years of genetic memories gave him the only answer possible to Liam’s problem.

“All power fears the loss of power.” Leto said. His memories had told him that. “Go to the place where these Powers dwell and kill them all.” Muad’Dib agreed. “You must act decidedly.” His father had other questions. “Why do they hate you?” He asked.

“Hate is perhaps too strong of a word.” Liam said. “Let’s just say that my existence is bad for business. Any being with access to higher spatial dimensions can become one of the Powers. They don’t like me because I have the power to interfere with their plans. The Powers are parasites. They feed off the subornation of trillions of parallel universes.”

As Liam was about to disconnect something unforeseen happened. An unknown mind forced its way into the conversation.

“Why didn’t you ask me what I would do?” The new mind said.

The new mind felt familiar. Liam realized who it was and was shocked. He hadn’t felt this presence since before he was born.

“Hello Angel.” Liam said to his generic ancestor. “How …how is it possible?”

“No idea kid.” Angel said. “I just managed to pull L.A. out of a hell dimension. As we were crossing over I hear all these voices in my head.”
Liam understood. Angel had experienced the “shorting of the way”.

“So, what would you do?” He asked.

The mind of Angel leaned into the thought space. Liam could feel the sheer force of personality he possessed. Liam did not forget that Angel also carried Angelus within him.

“War is an absolute.” Angel said. “When I went to war against the Circle of the Black Thorn I held nothing back. You must hold nothing back. Friends, enemies, the things you love, the things you hate are just weapons. I killed a good man once just to gain the trust of evil.” Angel was recalling his murder of Drogyn, the keeper of the Deeper Well. “You may have to sacrifice your slayers.” He said. Leto disagreed. Liam agreed with Angel. He could tell that his half brother was far too sentimental.

“Afterwards, The Senior Partners poured their wrath down upon us.” Angel said. He remembered Gunn dying in that dark alley. “Everyone was sacrificed.”

“But did you win?” Liam asked.

“Winning was never the point.” Angel said. “We let them know we were here. For one bright shining moment humanity stood up to the Senior Partners and made them understand…”

“Just how dangerously stupid humans are.” Leto said. He didn’t know the details of what Angel was saying but he had thousands of years of genetic memories which showed him the same sad pattern.

“You got to show your pride.” Leto continued. “You got angry; you got fed up, you let your pride rule you.” Leto had just come to understand just how extraordinary dangerous some of the forces they fought were.

“You were acting out like an angry child!” Leto said. “What if your Senior Partners had decided to exterminate all mankind just to show you who was in charge? Did you think of that?”

“Who is the old guy?” Angel asked. Liam cringed. He could hear undertones of Angelus in his voice.

“My son is the protector of humanity, the creator of the Golden Path.” said Muad’Dib. “He…”

“Blah, blah, blah” said Angel. “Risk big or go home. War is not a half measure. I defeated the Black Thorn because I fell upon them like a wolf with no consideration for anything but my own goals. If you hold anything back Liam you will lose.”

“Understood.” Said Liam. Leto and Muad’Dib agreed. They spoke a little while longer about Buffy and other things. Hours later Liam opened his eyes in the Imperial medical center. Both his mothers and his security team were hovering over him.

Buffy stood there with both her arms folded. She managed to look relived and angry at the same time.

“Well, was it worth it?” She asked.

“Yeah.” Liam said. “I know how we’re going to win.”

19. chapter 18

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

“The power to destroy a thing is the absolute control over it.”

- Paul-Muad’dib to the Guild navigators, at his confrontation with the Emperor Shaddam IV.

Sahjhan was back at work.

From high in the black dome he watched his assassins play. Over a year ago, the Powers had commissioned this secret base to be built. They took an asteroid, hollowed it out and built a base of operations for Sahjhan to work. They covered the asteroid with a mystic field that blocked all prescient vision. There were many humans that still worshiped the Powers and kept the ancient ways. The galaxy was full of cults that wanted to see the end of the emperor and his slayers.

The black dome was built at the center of the asteroid. It was tens of thousands of cubic meters in size. The clones delivered to him a year ago had grown into excellent killers. They spent their time stalking the victims he had kidnapped and brought here. They were built for one purpose. The clones were grown from Liam’s cells. They were Kwisatz Haderach also. They would hunt Liam across dimensional space.

They were taking their final exams now. One of the clones was picked at random. He was designated as target. The other three clones fell upon him. The echoes of swords and daggers clanging across multidimensional space filled the arena. The Tleilaxu Master that stood next to him monitored the battle on several large screens. It made cryptic entries into its log. Sahjhan found the human creepy.

A year ago something had happened. One of the Powers had attacked Arrakis directly. The results were disastrous. The Powers had gone into a conference that had lasted over a year as time passed in this universe. The rumor was that Liam had a weapon that could actually hurt a Power. He looked at the scars on his arm. He knew from experience that Liam could hurt him even when he was incorporeal.

They appeared out of three pinpoints of light. The body of the target lay behind them. Sahjhan looked at the Tleilaxu Master who was examining the biometric data transmitted from the clones.

“Seven minutes and forty-two seconds.” The Master said.
“Too long.” Sahjhan replied. They were measuring how long it took the assassins to hunt and kill the Kwisatz Haderach. “Bring in a fresh clone. Let’s run through this again.”

Liam already knew. The Tleilaxu had betrayed him.

“I need the Bene Tleilaxu for now.” He thought. He had seen the future of his unborn daughter. He knew the terrible choices that lay ahead. He knew the deal that would have to be made in order to save his family.

The rebuilt slayer fleet appeared above the home world of the Bene Gesserit. The ships contained the latest human technology from IX. The new ships were silver white with force shields and antimatter cannons. The “Memories of Dawn” was still their flagship and Guerrero was still fleet commander. But, today he was in charge.

Liam knew from his prescient visions that the Bene Gesserit and Tleilaxu had already betrayed him. The Bene Gesserit had passed his cells to the Tleilaxu that grew them for the demon Sahjhan for purposes he could not see.

“After I warned them.” He said. He could barely contain his anger. Liam paced the command center of the “Memories of Dawn.” Guerrero looked up at him. They all knew why they were here. She was grateful she didn’t have to give the order herself. Liam stood for a long moment, his arms crossed, looking out onto Wallach IX, the main chapterhouse and home world of the Bene Gesserit.

“This is where they first met to destroy my father.” Liam thought. That memory burned within him. “These women are so arrogant. They see nothing as holy. All they care for is their own
ambitions.” Liam gave the order. He burned half the planet.

“If I can’t have respect, I’ll settle for fear.” He thought. Liam watched the planet burn then ordered the fleet back to Arrakis.
.

20. chapter 19

All characters from the Dune Universe are property of the Frank Herbert Estate. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

He was warrior and mystic, ogre and saint, the fox and the innocent, chivalrous, ruthless, less than a god, more than a man. There is no measuring Muad’Dib’s motives by ordinary standards. In the moment of his triumph, he saw the death prepared for him, yet he accepted the treachery. Can you say he did this out of a sense of justice? Whose justice, then? Remember, we speak now of the Muad’Dib who ordered battle drums made from his enemies’ skins, the Muad’Dib who denied the conventions of his ducal past with a wave of the hand, saying merely: “I am the Kwisatz Haderach. That is reason enough.”

- Arrakis Awakening by the Princess Irulan

The Bene Gesserit were furious. They had heard the news. Liam had gone to Wallach IX, the home world of the Bene Gesserit, and had burned half the planet to the ground. Twelve hours of intense planetary bombardment with antimatter cannons by hundreds of slayer ships left Wallach IX an ugly scarred lump of a planet. Planetary magma had broken through to the surface where their antimatter beams touched. Molten lava covered billions of square kilometers. The entire infrastructure of the Bene Gesserit was wiped out. Their major cities were gone, food supplies were destroyed, yet less than a million people on a planet of billions had died. That was no comfort.

The Fish Speakers moved in as an occupation force. They fed the Bene Gesserit, they saved those they could. They permitted no one to leave the planet. The Bene Gesserit were confined to the world they had made and they were furious. Unguarded, they would have fallen upon Liam and his slayers and torn them apart.

But Liam waged war like his brother. Before the scouring of Wallach IX he had carefully scanned all future timelines. He had noted and cataloged his findings as a mentat like his mother had taught him. He had sent the Fish Speakers to disarmed thousands of Bene Gesserit agents before he struck. To the Fish Speakers it felt like old times. They were back to doing holy work for the Atreides family.

On his return to his throne room, Liam demanded that Reverend Mother Paloma be brought to him in a cage. She stared at him with red rimmed eyes that betrayed neither her grief or her rage. She practiced the itinerary against fear to remain sane.

“Fear is the mind killer; fear is the little death…” She let the words thunder through her. This was her only prayer. The Bene Gesserit did not believe in higher powers or anything beyond the tip of their nose.

Paloma had been with the slayers since Liam was a baby. She was there at Stiech Kindle when the slayers gave birth to the Destroyer. She had known Liam and the slayers for over twenty years. She considered herself family, one of them. Yet, she was Bene Gesserit. She still belonged to the sisterhood.

She was the Bene Gesserit ambassador to the court of the black dragon and she was locked in a cage and wheeled before the emperor.

Liam leaned forward on his throne. He spent long moments observing the Bene Gesserit in the way that she had taught him. His Bene Gesserit training revealed everything he needed to know about her role in the thief of his generic material. Paloma was innocent of that crime but she was still Bene Gesserit. She was guilty of something.

Liam began his interrogation of her. His visions of the future often showed him what, they very rarely revealed why.

“The old ways are not dead.” Liam said. “Many still worship their pagan gods.” Liam was referring to the myriad of secret cults that infected even the home world of the Bene Gesserit. The chapterhouse on Wallach IX still carried the secret history of the people of who lived there before the planet was colonized by the Bene Gesserit.

“I am innocent.” She said. Liam knew she was telling the truth.

“But you are Bene Gesserit.” He said. “You understand the object lesson. There are forces on Wallach IX that the Bene Gesserit have ignored for far too long. There are cults, that pre date spaceflight, that worship the Powers-That-Be. Take this word back to your sisters. The Bene Gesserit have been commissioned to investigate and exterminate those cults or next time I’ll take the whole planet.”

She looked up at him. How could he know about their shameful secret? How did he know that they were riddled with cabals that worked on their secret designs?

“Your arrogance and sense of supremacy has lead you to this place.” He said. “That being the case, I’ll only take two fingers from you and subject you to only one hour of the gom jabbar at full strength.” Liam said mentioning the box she had used on him, testing to see if he was human.

“What do you say?” He asked. His voice was cold and demanding. He looked down his nose at her. His eyes were full of contempt.

“Thank you, my Lord.” Paloma said meekly. Her Bene Gesserit training was failing her. Liam could detect the sound of defeat in her voice.

He waited until the Fish speakers had wheeled her away then left his throne, exiting the throne room by way of a secret door, passing a group of Fish Speaker and slayer commandos that
guarded the pathway, Liam entered his royal apartment.

Ashoka looked up at him. She was lying on their bed which was covered in gold silk sheets. Her belly was full. She was near term. She could feel the baby move as Liam entered the room. She ignored the baby inside of her for a moment and focused on him. She could tell that he was tired and drained emotionally. She smiled as she welcomed him home. Liam sat at the edge of their bed and removed his boots. Ashoka rubbed his back and neck. Liam leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek. He lay down next to her on the bed and spooned. He placed his palm gently on her fat belly.

He closed his eyes. A vision of fire sweeping across the galaxy overwhelmed him. The fire was thick with oily flames. It rolled across the galaxy like a thick orange-red liquid. He had seen this before. It was the fires of Quor’Toth. The entire universe would be converted into a hell dimension if he failed.

“They can’t have Annie!” He thought. Ashoka could feel his dismay. She reached back and stroked his face. She pushed herself closer to him. She was giving away her energy. She was nurturing one life why not two?

“What can I do?” Liam thought. Almost every vision of the future showed him, the slayers and the entire human race swept away by the wrath of the Powers-That-Be. He had no way to fight them. As always, his visions showed him his life ending at the tip of the black tower as he was struck down by men who shifted through dimensions and looked like him.
“I have the sword.” He thought. Liam was thinking of the dimensional sword given to him by one of his other selves. It was made from the tooth of the Destroyer. Along its edge ran the dimensional splitting energies of the amulet in it’s pure form.

“I could kill the gods themselves.” Liam thought. He had used that sword to stab a Power that pretended to be Cordelia Chase.

“If I can find them, I can kill them.” He though. There was one problem. No one knew where the gods dwelled. They were nowhere in the multiverse. His other self’s had told him that. Liam was frustrated.

“Where was the Destroyer?” He thought. The sprit child of the slayers had disappeared over five years ago. It was on walk about nowhere in the multiverse.
He came to a mentat prime conclusion. “There are universes, not connected to the multiverse!” he thought. He didn’t know what use that conclusion was but now at least he felt a little less hopeless.

“Sleep Liam.” Ashoka commanded. She didn’t care if he was the emperor. There were forces in the universe even he had to obey. Liam stretched himself around her and the baby and fell asleep

The End