Travels in the Multiverse part 10 (Patreon)

Myst sighed as he felt someone jump into the world outside of his interdiction field but within the range of his senses followed by a precog flash of someone destroying the town if they stayed. 'At least we had time to finish lunch.' He pulled out his wallet and dropped two twenties on the counter and created a thumbnail sized ruby for the waitress that would love to get the hell out of the strange town. "Keep the change," he said as he put his wallet back in his pocket.

"Thanks," the girl behind the counter said, not glancing over to see how much he'd left because she was busy making a shake for the local Buffy.

"Visitor coming, ready to brave the storm?" Myst asked as he reached down and tapped his bracelet, turning the interdiction field off.

"Ready," Buffy agreed.

Myst grinned at the Xander alternate who was the only one looking their way then jumped worlds, aiming for a world where they could get some help or at least keeping it firmly in mind that they needed help on the off chance that it would help.

Buffy smiled as they went from the diner to a gorgeous cloudless day on a tropical beach then frowned slightly as she noticed a little girl walking a strange blue dog on a leash. "Any idea where we are?"

Myst raised his eyebrows when he spotted the dark haired girl in shorts and a t-shirt that said, 'My dog ate my homework!' walking a strange looking blue creature with way too many teeth. "I'm guessing Hawaii."

"Why Hawaii?" Buffy asked.

"Just a hunch," Myst replied as he turned to look at the slightly overweight white guy staring at them that had just lost his ice cream cone. "Yeah, definitely hawaii."

"Did you just…?" the man with the empty cone trailed off as he realized that asking someone if they just appeared out of thin air was a bad idea.

"No, these are not the droids you're looking for," Myst replied then turned and walked down the beach the opposite way as the girl and her 'dog', figuring they could always come back later when they weren't being chased by a homicidal lunatic. "It shouldn't take all that long to dry out then we can make another jump."

"Not that I'm complaining but why a beach?" Buffy asked as she followed him.

"No clue, I was probably thinking of somewhere warm and dry," Myst replied as he tapped his bracelet and turned the interdiction field on, figuring they had at least twenty minutes before the red eyed bastard found them. 

"And the attractive half dressed girls had nothing to do with it?" Buffy asked with amusement as she watched a group of bikini clad young women playing volleyball.

"It's possible," Myst admitted, "I am male."

"How long do you think it will take him to show up?" Buffy asked.

"Twenty minutes? Less? He seems to be getting better at finding me," Myst complained as they continued walking, enjoying the heat, the gentle breeze and the sights.

"Do you think we can find a copy of my book?" Buffy asked.

"Your book?" Myst asked.

"You said Ivy's life was like a book you knew and you know way too much about mine, so book?" Buffy asked.

"Show actually, seven seasons," Myst replied after a couple of seconds of thought.

"Which season were we on?" Buffy asked, not sure how to feel about her life being a show or having a show match her life.

"End of Season Five, you were supposed to die," Myst replied.

"From the portal?" Buffy asked warily, thinking of what he'd said earlier.

"Yeah, you decided to take a swan dive instead of tossing your sister's bloody dress through the portal," Myst explained.

"Would that have worked?" Buffy asked, not terribly bothered by surviving when she 'should' have died as it was getting old hat at this point.

"Maybe yes, maybe no," Myst admitted, “but it still should have been your first response rather than jumping to your death.”

"Wait, if I died how was there two more seasons?" Buffy asked.

"Would you believe zombies?" Myst asked, trying and failing to keep a straight face.

Buffy laughed when she noticed his attempt at humor. "Normally maybe, but not when you say it like that."

"How about you got stuck as a ghost?" Myst asked.

"Try again," Buffy said, strangely amused by the banter given the situation.

"Honestly, you died and went to purgatory or heaven and your friends went looking for solutions, Willow realized she could bring you back and didn't really consider if bringing you back from the dead was the best idea."

Buffy opened her mouth to defend her friend then closed it as she considered the question for a couple more seconds. "I can see that," she admitted reluctantly.

Myst shrugged. "I'm not saying she made the wrong call or the right call but it certainly caused some issues and the version of you in the show didn't take it well, whining about being ripped out of heaven and your reward."

"Ouch," Buffy muttered.

"Yeah, there was a musical episode where people found out a lot of secrets and the Buffy in the show whined about being in heaven, never mind that she couldn't remember a single conversation with her mother and let's be honest, if your mother isn't in heaven, it's not a place I'd want to be," Myst pointed out.

"Musical number?" Buffy asked, fairly sure he was messing with her about that part though she had to agree about her mother and heaven.

"There was a singing and dancing demon that wanted to marry Dawn because he thought she'd summoned him, he caused a decent section of the town to burst into song," Myst replied, wishing he could take his shoes off for a bit and enjoy the water but knowing the red eyed bastard would be arriving soon.

"How did I kill it?" Buffy asked.

"You didn't, it was a demon lord and had magic. Xander claimed to have summoned it and the demon lord said that he had to go and that the whole thing was a tragic mistake and to forget the whole thing rather than marry Xander. I’m not sure whether Xander has a curse keeping him from getting married, but I’m not ruling it out at this point. We are seriously going to have put in some effort to make sure he and Anya’s wedding goes off with a hitch."

Buffy laughed. "Let me guess, he was lying?"

"Probably. Unfortunately some secrets came out and Tara and Willow broke up, Willow sort of went spiraling down, Amy hooked her up with a warlock that gave her tainted magic and things went sort of bad as you had to deal with a trio of troublemakers and some forgettable demons while your friends lives fell apart."

"Trio of troublemakers?" Buffy asked. "Shouldn't I have been helping Willow?"

"Your alternate's idea of help was talking her into going cold turkey. Of course, that version of you was busy trying to find a job and keeping things from exploding while dealing with the trio so I can sort of understand how things started slipping."

"Seriously?" Buffy asked in confusion. "Why didn't she ask Giles if he had any suggestions?"

"Hell if I know considering he actually had some decent suggestions later. Sadly. Warren Mears, Tucker's brother, and your friend Jonathan kept her a bit busy."

"Johnathan?" Buffy asked in disbelief.

"He didn't realize how nuts the other two were until things went sideways. Warren ended up shooting you and Tara, you survived, Tara didn't. Willow lost her shit."

"Lost her shit? How bad?" Buffy asked warily.

"She tried to bring her back but she'd died a mortal's death so Osirus wouldn't or couldn't bring her back. Willow lost it, hunted Warren down and ripped his skin off then went off to destroy the world."

"Ripped his skin off?! Destroy the world?!" Buffy sputtered in disbelief.

"She was in pain and high as a kite on dark magic," Myst replied with a shrug. "I can't really blame her."

"How did I stop her?" Buffy asked warily.

"You didn't, you tried but she dropped you in a pit with zombies, I don't think she was trying that hard because if she'd wanted to kill you, she would have," Myst said.

Buffy stopped and stared at Myst. "A pit of zombies?"

"She'd just got done fighting you and tossing you around. Even as crazy as she was, I don't think she really wanted to hurt you so she went with a pit of zombies so it would slow you down and she could continue uninterrupted."

"Tossed me around? Willow? How?" Buffy demanded.

"She's actually decent at self defense and she was using magic to boost her strength and durability."

"So I got out to stop her, right?" Buffy asked.

Myst shook his head. "Nah, Xander took care of it. They have one hell of a bond and he got through to her, after being blasted with enough dark magic to fry the mayor."

"How?" Buffy asked.

"He's Xander," Myst replied with a shrug. "Either way, things got slightly better after that, you got hired by a possibly evil principal as a school counselor and there was a ghost/dead eldritch demon thing with delusions of importance that was killing potentials and you eventually destroyed the hellmouth at the end of the seventh season after a fair amount of trouble."

"That's it?" Buffy asked.

Myst shrugged. "I'll buy you a copy of the show, just try not to hold things that haven't happened yet against your friends or yourself for that matter."

"What about Warren?" Buffy asked.

"Considering he was playing around with mind control on his ex, I don't really care if you get him sent to jail or have Spike snap his neck. I'm planning on giving Willow and Tara mental defense gems and dropping them somewhere they can work on their magic, because the hellmouth is a bad place to learn magic and Willow could do with some time away Sunnydale."

"What about the warlock?" Buffy asked.

"I'm fairly sure he's at least part demon, he's on my list of supernatural threats that would be better off dead," Myst said, not sure if the wiki was accurate about him being part demon but Rack needed to die and Buffy had a thing about killing humans. "On second thought, we should probably get the entire group decent defenses considering all the crap you have to deal with."

"That would have helped a couple times," Buffy admitted.

Myst sighed when he felt several people teleport in outside of his interdiction field but within his sensing range. "We should probably go."

Buffy frowned slightly as she thought she heard a shout a good distance behind her. "Trouble?"

"He brought friends or maybe it's a different group," Myst said, wishing he had a clairvoyance power that would let him check.

"In that case, let's jump, we can always come back," Buffy suggested.

Myst tapped the bracelet and jumped with Buffy, neither of them hearing the confrontation between a couple of hunters and a dog. He shivered as they went from a tropical beach to a beach covered in a light layer of morning fog. 

Buffy blinked as she saw a girl in her early teens flying through the air on a broom. "Huh."

"Get back here! You stole my chocolate!" another girl shouted as she chased her friend through the air, sparkles dancing away from her glowing blue wings.

Myst turned and stared as saw the girls flying through the air chasing each other. "I'll second that."

"Any idea where we are?" Buffy asked.

"Not a clue, but it looks interesting," Myst replied as he pulled his remote out of his pocket dimension and saved the location data then put it back.

Buffy smiled when she spotted a path that went up the hill. "Shall we?"

Myst pulled his gaze away from the kids chasing each other through the air and started walking towards the path. "We might as well explore a bit before jumping."

"Do you think they sell brooms?" Buffy asked, fairly sure the look on Willow's face if they gave her a magic broom would be hilarious.

"Probably," Myst replied. 

"What's the weirdest world you've been to?" Buffy asked.

"Probably Amy's world," Myst replied after a couple of seconds of comparing the worlds he'd visited.

"What's weird about werewolves?" Buffy asked.

"Parahumans get powers from massive crystal computers designed by an alien race to create conflict so that they can use sentient life as researchers and test subjects because they're not particularly creative. In that same world, you also have incarnations of worlds that should be able to splatter the aliens running around destroying worlds," Myst explained. "It shouldn't work and yet, it obviously does."

"Can you kill the aliens?" Buffy asked.

"In theory, in practice, I'd need a really large bomb and some high end magical stealth gear before I'd even bother trying. We have at least a couple of years before it turns into a large problem."

"Let me guess, another show?" Buffy asked as they reached the top of the hill and saw the fog shrouded road and a couple of buildings poking out of the fog in the distance. "Looks like a bit of a walk."

"Do you want to fly?" Myst asked, not seeing a point in wasting time when some of the locals were flying around.

"Sure," Buffy replied.

Myst grinned as he lifted her up with telekinesis, put up his force field to stop the wind from chilling them to the bone and flew towards the town he could see in the distance. "Beyond just being able to jump worlds, I think flight might be my favorite power."

"I could get used to it," Buffy agreed as she watched the town quickly grow larger as they closed the distance. She blinked as she noticed a collection of people flying through the air on brooms as well as several people with purple skin walking around town. "I don't think we're in Kansas."

"One would hope," Myst replied with amusement as he read the sign on the strange open air area that looked a bit like a track that everyone was flying over. "Zoomsweeper Test Track." 

"At least it only has one cemetary," Buffy pointed out.

"That you know of," Myst replied as he glanced over the park where he could see a number of people with glowing wings flying around, along with some women in witch hats practicing magic. "Yeah, I'm definitely coming back when I have more time."

"Do you think the whole world is like this?" Buffy asked as she spotted a brightly colored shop labeled Aleister's Elixirs and Sundries.

"No idea," Myst admitted as he spotted Aleister's shop and flew down to land.

"How are you flying without glowing?" a boy with a witch's hat asked.

"Magic," Myst replied as he studied the boy. "Where are we?"

"Moonlight Falls," the boy replied. "Are you lost?"

"A bit," Myst admitted as he skimmed the kid's surface thoughts, looking for details about the town. 'Moonlight Falls, a place of magic and secrets, vampires and werewolves, genies and fairies, why does that sound familiar?'

"Whatever," the boy said as he walked off.

"We might as well see what they're selling." Myst glanced at the windows of the shop that were filled with various glass vials and potion bottles as he walked up to the door, noting the open sign in the window.

"Might as well," Buffy said as she followed him into the shop, mentally comparing the various items for sale with the stuff from the Magic Box. She glanced at the man behind the counter dressed in an old fashioned suit with dark shoulder length hair, that reminded her a bit of Ethan Rayne.

Myst felt a bit like a kid in a candy store as he looked around at the various potions as well as a lovely alchemy workstation in the corner. He stared as he noticed a bottle with a purple shimmering liquid behind the counter. "Vial of Bottled Genie?"

"Of course, I sell nothing but the best if you can afford it," the man said with a grin that didn't quite touch his eyes. "It turns you into a freed genie, you can't grant wishes but you'll have the rest of their powers and live a lot longer."

"Do you buy gems?" Myst asked.

"Depends on the gem," the man replied as he studied his potential customers then smiled when he noticed Buffy's necklace. "I'm sure something could be arranged."

"Excellent," Myst replied as he reached into his pocket and created a robin egg sized ruby. He pulled the ruby out of his pocket and showed it to the man.

"Where did you find that?" Aleister asked.

"In a dark place," Myst replied as he pointed towards the genie potion as well as the potion labeled, 'Bottled Blessing of the Fae' that claimed to change the user into a fairy. "Both of those and the alchemy station," he said, feeling a bit stupid as he cought the merchant's thoughts about money and finally realized he was in a version of the Sims or at least in a world that was vaguely related as it seemed a lot saner and the people could actually talk.

Aleister winced as he counted up the price and realized he didn't have enough cash on hand to cover the difference. "Can I interest you in alchemy recipes? Maybe a potion to change your friend into a witch? Or some ingredients to get you started? You're most certainly going to need Basic Alchemy, Secrets Motions and Super Potions and Omnimustericon: The Ultimate as well as Morte's Guide to Immortality if you're serious about becoming an Alchemist."

"Of course," Myst said as he let the man load him up with books and supplies, knowing that none of it really added up to the 'value' of the gem but not really caring because making the gem hadn't taken more than a couple of seconds. "I don't suppose you have anything that will let you look normal despite any supernatural traits?"

"What type of traits are you trying to hide?" Aleister asked as he rummaged through his collection of rings under the counter, looking for the concealment ring he remembered buying a couple of years ago.

Myst took off his hat, showing the floating arcane words floating over his head and tipped his shades up, revealing his glowing purple eyes.

"I haven't seen that before, you might try a potion to remove curses," Aleister suggested as he found the correct ring. "This should do the trick." He said as he dropped the ring in the basket. "It was designed to hide supernatural features so the people outside of Moonlight Falls wouldn't freak out about magic."

"Sounds useful," Myst said thoughtfully, not remembering anything like that from any of the games, of course they had plenty of magical items that you couldn't make as players, so it wasn't really out of the question.

"A couple more things," Aleister mused as he started adding various common ingredients to the basket, trying to make it look like the man was getting a decent deal.

Buffy had a feeling Anya could take lessons from the man as he added various ingredients to a basket that was larger on the inside, trying to come up with enough cheap crap that Myst would let him have the gem. "Is that enough, dear?" she asked doubtfully.

Aleister glanced at Buffy, quickly hiding his glare behind a smile. "Let's see, I have a slightly used magical mirror in the back that should make up the difference, I'll be right back."

Myst barely resisted the urge to laugh as he caught the merchant's thoughts. 'Sure, I'll take a slightly perverted magic mirror that doesn't like you, the girls should get a kick out of her ability to give people a magical makeover.'

Buffy eyed the large antique looking silver framed mirror, wondering why the shopkeeper seemed in a hurry to part with it. "Wands?"

"Sure," Aleister said, hiding his grimace as he tossed in a couple of low quality wands. "And that should do it."

"Sure, where do you want the alchemy station sent?" Aleister asked with a smile as Myst handed him the ruby.

Myst gestured and levitated the alchemy station with the sticker on it over. "I’ve got it."

"Impressive," Aleister admitted.

"I try," Myst replied as he dropped the basket into his pocket dimension then did the same for the alchemy station. 'I should probably deal with Umbridge and the dementors, I'm running out of space. Or figure out a way to boost the power.' He sighed as his precog flashed and he saw someone teleport in and obliterate the shop while trying to kill him. "Shit!" he cursed as he grabbed Buffy and jumped worlds, tossing up his force field once he appeared in a grass covered plain with countless human-like animals and a massive lion. 

“Definitely not in Kansas anymore,” Buffy said, glancing nervously at the massive lion. “I really hope that isn’t the Nemean lion,” she muttered.