Fiction AtHwA04- Impending Something

Title: All That Heaven Will Allow

Chapter Title: Chapter Three- Impending... Something

Author: Restive Nature

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to BtVS. They belong to Whedon & Mutant Enemy. I also do not own the rights to Charmed. They belong to the WB. No infringement is intended and this fiction is for private enjoyment only.

Rating: PG-13

Genre: Crossover

Type: Angst, Action, Humor

Pairing: canon pairings in both shows

Summary: Slayer dreams and Whitelighter-Witch hybrid powers collide when the veil between worlds come close to collapsing. Can baby Wyatt survive life on the Hellmouth?

Spoilers/ Time line: Season 4 (after “Harsh Light Of Day”) of Buffy and Season 6 (after “Forget Me... Not”) Of Charmed.

Feedback: Always welcome!

Distribution: Ask first please.

A/N: This was one of my contributions started for NaNoWriMo 2012. The story was by no means completed in that month and I am looking forward to continuing it.

A/N2: There is a definite time difference between these two worlds and the seasons that I am using. This will hopefully, be explained within the fiction itself.

All That Heaven Will Allow

Chapter Three

Impending... Something

“Anything Giles?” Buffy demanded as she watched wearily as her mentor and father figure hung up the phone.

“That was a coven I've worked in the past with,” Giles explained, crossing something off his list on the pad of paper before him. He rubbed at his forehead, his frustration easy to see before he turned to the Slayer. “They said that they were unable to locate, pinpoint, or otherwise sense an innocent of the nature you described in or around Sunnydale.”

Buffy deflated slightly, her shoulders hunching, her arms crossed and tapping her forefinger against the crook of her elbow. “I'm not making this up Giles,” she warned. The feeling of impending... something, had been growing all day. From the moment she had rushed out of her classroom to make it to Giles, looking for help, assurances. And as the feelings had grown, it was almost like the urgency was taking hold of her, the fear that a baby, a helpless infant was somewhere dark and scary, needing her... It was almost like she was connected mystically, emotionally to the baby and she couldn't understand why, other than a need to save him, as she would save others. “Did you mention his name?”

“Yes,” Giles nodded sharply once. “And while it's not that common of a first name, they were still, unable to pinpoint it in that manner. Buffy,” he exhaled heavily, “they also said that the energies of the Hellmouth, even from a distance, can and will interfere with any spell they can try.”

“So the baby might be here and they just can't be sure?” was what Buffy extrapolated from that. She threw her arms up. “Well, that's just great! Giles, I need to get out there. It's getting late!”

“We get that Buff,” Xander assured her from his seat between his best friend Willow and the girl that seemed to want something of him. The ex-demon Anya that had been on the fringes of their group before. Oz, who luckily had no band practice or performance that evening, and it not being a full moon that would transform him to his werewolf state, had come as well. He had been witness, while getting coffee with the manager of the Bronze, discussing the scheduele of performing again at the club, Buffy's near miss with the vehicle when she was heavy in conversation with Xander. She had been trying to convince her friend of the urgency with which she had to find this child, which was her only explanation of why she had missed the ca heading for her.

He had excused himself from his meeting to check on her, seeing from across the street, how shaken she was, even though Xander had pulled her out of harm's way. When she had explained the situation, he had volunteered to go get Willow, since he knew her class schedule as well as Buffy. They had agreed and gone on to get food to fuel their research session.

Anya had simply shown up at Giles when she couldn't find Xander at any other location. When she had complained about the time her search had taken, Xander had coolly informed her that he was busy for the evening. If she wanted to spend time with him, to grab a book and join in. If not, he'd see her later. With a huffiness, Anya had stared around at the group before taking the book that Xander held upm, without looking at her, mind you and plopped herself down onto the sofa beside him.

“You know it's not as simple as that,” Giles sighed, tossing his glasses onto the table before turning back to the others. “Unless you recognize where the baby or innocent was,” he stressed heavily, still not convinced that it was a literal child that was in danger, “then there are hundreds of miles of caverns to search and that's inside the city limits.”

“I know Giles!” Buffy cried out, wincing at the thought. She was very familiar with the cavern and sewer systems of this town. She was the one that made a habit of regularly going into them to fight the evil. “I just,” she began, trying to breathe deeply, “I need to do something,” she offered, feeling more useless at this point in time than she'd ever felt before.

“Did you ever consider,? Anya began in a conversational tone as she idly leafed through yet another tome in Giles' impressive personal library, “that maybe the baby isn't from this world?”

“What do you mean Anya?” Giles asked sharply, reaching for his glasses and pushing them onto his face with short, jerky movements. The blond ex-demon shrugged and then turned to face the older man, realizing quickly that all attention was on her. She looped her close arm over the back of the sofa before she explained.

“Well, if your friends in this coven couldn't find this magic baby,” she began, “and they say that there's no baby anywhere in the world, which you think is something that someone, somewhere would hear about, because you know how witches like to gossip, then maybe he's not from this world.”

“Well, yes,” Giles agreed with the logic, though his opinion of her opinion was clearly lacking. “It's certainly possible. But the amount of magics required for an infant... not to mention a highly trained adept to move through dimensions... the idea is quite laughable Anya,” he sniffed derisively.

“But if he was from another dimension, since there are several that practice magic in their daily lives, without repercussions,” Anya continued, nonplussed at Giles' attitude, “and he was in danger, maybe someone sent him here for protection.”

There was quiet for a moment as the others absorbed this idea and then it was Willow who leaned forward. “Maybe that's why you've been feeling this way Buffy,” she suggested quietly. “Maybe if someone spelled this child here, they needed someone to know. I mean, if we have ways of getting information about other dimensions, you'd think they'd have ways about knowing about us. And maybe they chose you, knowing that you could protect the baby.”

“Which I guess would be okay,” Buffy sighed heavily, though the thought of anyone trusting her with a baby, especially as young as she still was, was incredible. “If they'd just have given us more clues than in a cave, somewhere, sometime tonight!”

“It would have to be a nexus,” Anya prompted with an informed nod of her head. “Otherwise, spells that rip apart dimensional fabric cause all sorts of problems.”

“Problems?” Xander repeated, looking uncomfortable with the thought. “What kind of problems Ahn?”

“Oh, things like other creatures being sucked through,” Anya began rambling, “vortexes created unintentionally that suck up everything in their path, cross breeding of creatures that find themselves in a new world, which is where the Grapohfa's came from. Nasty little buggers. They need to be squished. No redeeming qualities from those little cheats!”

“Anya, can you concentrate here?” Xander pressed, a tiny hint of humor underlying his tone.

“So if there was a nexus around here,” Willow began, glancing at Giles, who shook his head and shrugged. “What would we have to do to find it.”

“There's a nexus blanketing this entire town,” Anya told her. “That's why it's so popular with demons. Or,” she cocked her head, considering, “one of the reasons why.”

“Yes,” Giles nodded impatiently, “but Anya, nexuses are, by themselves, neutral. To say that one is... is...”

“Yes, the one that covers Sunnydale is predominantly evil now,” she agreed. “But that's because it feeds from those around it and since mostly evil things come here, that's what it's been getting. But then, it also balances out a little bit by people like her,” she pointed at Buffy. “And well, all of you really. You don't have to be magical or mystical for a nexus. It works off of intention.”

“So we're not facing demon army invasion anytime soon,” Oz concluded and Anya nodded her assent. “Good to know.”

“So,” Willow began, her words slow, her face tight as she was obviously working something out in her mind, “if there was teleporting activity going on in the town, would we be able to pinpoint that?” she glanced to Giles, then Anya, as they would be the most likely to know the answer. And then she glanced at Buffy. “I mean, you said that you saw me getting magical supplies. Obviously we're supposed to try something,” she suggested awkwardly.

“There is a ritual you could perform,” Anya agreed immediately. “Remember? We did it last year, when I was trying to get my pendant back.”

“Oh, right,” Willow winced. “I, uh, I don't know if I want to try that again. It was... it was bad.”

“Yes,” Giles agreed dryly and then cleared his throat. “Precisely what did that ritual entail? Remind me Willow.”

“We uh, had a representation of the object we wished to retrieve,” Willow explained and when she saw very little censure from the older man, her voice swelled quickly to explain the rest. They were all familiar with the episode, though not the details other than it had been a spell gone wrong. Knowing that it had brought through a Vampirized version of Willow from an alternate dimension, the results were indeed, bad.

“That was because I already knew where I had lost my pendant,” Anya explained. “It was here, in Sunnydale. So I didn't need the first part of the ritual. To pinpoint which nexus I wanted to go through.”

“But is there a way of doing that?” Buffy wondered, speaking up finally. She sort of had the idea of where the baby would be, but she knew already that others would be dismissive of or at least argue against her plan. And maybe make her too late to do anything about it. “Can you track something like that?”

“Oh easily,” Anya chuckled, waving one hand dismissively. “A map, some stinky herbs, a few chants, map lights up wherever there's recent activity. I can even charm it to show incoming activity.”

“Then, uh, why aren't we doing that?” Xander demanded of the girl and she threw him a confused look before shrugging.

“Because you didn't ask until now,” she supplied easily. Xander inhaled sharply and then, giving the others a tight grin that silently asked them to forgive him for bringing this exasperating woman back into the fold, even if it wasn't direcly or intended, leaned forward.

“Ahn, it would be... very human to speak up and provide details so that we can avoid the boring reading of the books that aren't going to help us anyways,” he explained as patiently as he could, before glancing at Giles. “No offense or anything.”

“Well, it's not like Buffy rescuing a child has anything to do with me,” she shrugged, her self interest extremely clear. And offensive.

“Until demons get a hold of the baby and turn him into an evil killing machine gunning for humans,” Oz pointed out moderately. “And since you're human now, you might be first on his list.”

“Oh, that's true,” Anya realized, taking his words at much more than an attempt at humor. She glanced around looking panicked. “That's very true. Give me that paper, I'll make a list of the ingredients we need. Hurry!”

Giles, hiding his exasperation once more, tore off the piece of paper that he had been using and then handed the pad of paper and pen over to Xander, who in turned placed them in Anya's grasping hands.

“Let's see,” she muttered as she began scribbling and then paused to look to Giles, “we'll need Dorshivan's Guide, to make sure the ritual is precise. It's been a while since I had to use the first part. When I was a demon, I could just sense the focal point of the nexus. I can't now, obviously.”

“I have a copy of that,” Giles announced, rising from his seat. “Though...”

“It can move around a little,” Anya grunted, seeming a little perturbed that he seemed to be questioning her. “It's not like it's nailed down.”

Buffy, who had been watching the interaction of her friends, felt a relief, though not a relaxing. Finally, things were getting done!

AtHwA~AtHwA

Settled in the enclosed solarium of the Halliwell Manor, Piper stared absently at the coffee table placed before the wicker chair she had chosen to sit in. Her sister's could see that rather than staring at it, she was looking through it or beyond or not even really seeing it, something weighing heavily on her mind. It was unnecessary to ask, unless they wanted to pinpoint the specific worry that was prevalent in the cycle of worries. Baby Wyatt, Leo, demons, Chris, there were all a lot on their plates. But as simply Wyatt's aunts, and Leo's sister in laws, they weren't precisely in the center of things. This time at least.

It still hurt and was still scary, but this was their life. Phoebe and Paige tried to constantly assure Piper that they were doing all they could to find the evil that Chris, the newest addition to their lives, and not an entirely welcome one, tried to warn them of.

Finding out that the Whitelighter had come from the future to protect Wyatt, to prevent the half witch half Whitelighter, not the first of his kind, since his aunt Paige had preceded him, from turning evil, they had accepted this. Knowing how close she had come, when she had first come into her powers after Prue, the eldest Halliwell sister had been killed, Paige was ever vigilant. The Source of All Evil had almost swayed her, manipulated her into using her witchy powers for personal gain, making her think that it was a good thing, to use mystical powers on a problem that they saw all too often in the world.

Little Wyatt hadn't had the benefit of several decades of a responsible upbringing, training and an understanding of right and wrong, good and evil. He was still so young and though his examples were good, he was still in such a malleable state of mind. The argument that Piper had used against the Cleaners, those beings that protected the anonymity and secrecy of true magic in the world, could only hold so much weight. She was his mother and it was her job to look after all his needs, physical, mental, emotional and magical. But she wasn't superwoman. This week anyway.

“How you holding up there sweetie?” Phoebe, the empathetic middle sister asked as she leaned towards Piper.

“Not only is every demon gunning for me and my sister's, but they want to steal my child and not threaten him, but turn him against us,” Piper snarked wearily. “They want to take over the world through a baby. My baby,” she stressed and then turned her eyes to her sister. “And we don't know when, or who or how...”

“We'll protect him,” Paige offered urgently, leaning forward to provide her own support. “you know that honey. We'll do everything we can-!”

“But we don't know Paige!” Piper snapped. “We don't know when it's coming or how. And we can't circle the wagons around him until it comes. How are we going to live like that?”

“We'll figure it out,” Paige tried again, glancing at their sister as Phoebe nodded quickly. “You're not alone. We love Wyatt too. We're not about to let any stinkin' slimy demon get its hands on him.”

“Easy to say,” Piper snorted with a slow shake of her head, her eyes unfocused again. “They've been trying since before he was born,” she reminded them. Like Gladys, the demon pretending to be human, having married their father just to be in the position to be around Piper when she gave birth. A prophesied birth that both sides knew of. And the demon that she was really with, trying to take the baby the moment he was born,to raise him up in evil, to rule the world. “And now, it's just gonna get worse.”

“Piper,” Phoebe protested softly. One could say that she was an optimist, but even the other sister's had their moment's of doubt. Their longing for a more normal life than this fighting demons every day to save the innocents of the world was understandable. But before she could say more, there was a sudden piercing cry from the baby monitor that startled Piper out of her slouch.

“Wyatt?” she questioned and with a mother's instinct had grabbed the baby monitor. The hiss that was not a normal part of the static of the electronic monitoring system sounded over the connection and it slid from her hands as she turned to sprint for the stairs. The howling from her son intensified, propelling his aunts from their seats as well. While Phoebe chased after her terrified sister, Paige took the expedient route of using her Whitelighter father's contribution to her genetic pool and orbed herself to the baby's room.

Paige wasn't sure what exactly she expected, but the dark figure standing before the crib, as Wyatt used the force field he had as his only means of defense, was actually one of them. What she didn't expect, was the demon to be more hyper aware of her than she was of it and the arm that struck her chest, sending her flying into the wall the very moment she coalesced in the room, took her by surprise and the last thing she knew was Wyatt's cry suddenly ceasing and the door banging open as her sister's made it to the baby.

Piper saw, heard and felt. several things altogether, immediately upon entering. The glow of her son's force field over the crib disappearing, Paige sinking to the floor, unconscious and a dark figure, laughing maniacailly. There was a moment, one of those moments where everything seemed to hang suspended, stretching out into an impossible eternity, before it all changed, drastically. There were no words, no sound, no thought but one.

“Oh no you don't!” she shrieked, flicking her hands forward before the demon could advance any closer to her son's crib. As she had come to expect since she had developed her new offensive power, the demon exploded, no longer any more and Piper had dismissed it from her mind for the moment, her maternal drive propelling her to her offspring. But when she reached into the stillness of the baby furniture, her mind reeled, panic gripping her.

Phoebe, hurrying to check on Paige, who was slumped unconscious on the floor, winced at the bloody smear across her sister's head and the blood trickling down the wall where Paige had slid. “Leo!” she called immediately, knowing that it would be necessary for their brother in law, also a Whitelighter, to heal her sister. She searched immediately for Paige's pulse and was reassured when she felt it under her fingertips. She turned to inform her elder sister, only to see Piper's hands descend into the crib in a flurry and blankets being thrown around.

“Oh God! Wyatt?” he sister shrieked and Phoebe's eyes went wide, stunned as she clambered to her feet to run to the crib. “Wyatt, baby?” her sister was crying now. “Where is he?” she screamed, demanding of her sister, her terror transmuting through the empathetic link she shared, especially with those she loved the most. One less now, she sensed, horror squeezing her heart. She couldn't sense Wyatt anywhere.

She screamed now too, to the heavens, desperation tinging her raw voice as she held her sister around the middle before Piper could collapse. “Leo! We need you!”


Chapter Four- Through The Rabbit Hole