Mist of Shadows
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Travels in the Multiverse Part 9
🕑 Added 2020-09-26 01:33:05 +0000 UTCHarry Potter jumped as Myst appeared in the lounge with a collection of people that he'd never seen before, several of them covered in blood, and a strangely familiar red haired girl that he couldn't place. "You're going to give someone a heart attack one of these…" he trailed off when Ivy twisted her head to look at Hermione and her hair moved, giving him a look at the lightning bolt shaped scar on her forehead. "What's going on?"
Ivy glanced between Hermione and Panacea. "Polyjuice?" she asked, while feeling strangely good, like a large weight had been lifted from her shoulders. Hell, even the headache she’d had since Voldemort’s resurrection even seemed to be fading.
Hermione focused on Ivy, noticing that she'd been crying recently and her hair was a bit of a mess. "No, she used a shapeshifting crystal."
"Nice choice," Ivy replied with a smile as she noticed that the other girl that looked like her friend had larger breasts and smoother skin.
Myst gestured towards the new arrivals. "Long story short, the Sunnydale crew had a bit of an emergency that would have caused a lot of problems for our section of the multiverse and I didn't want to leave a trace, so I blind jumped and ended up in Ivy Potter's living room."
"Not my house," Ivy muttered, wanting nothing to do with the Dursleys or their house anymore unless it involved a can of petrol and a match.
"Sorry," Myst offered, catching the edge of the girl's rage with his telepathy. "I ended up in the Dursleys' house, Ivy needed a bit of a vacation because her world's Ministry of Magic is worse than Harry's." He turned and looked at Panacea. "Can you heal everyone before we get to introductions?"
Panacea pulled her attention away from Xander and Tara who looked like they needed some attention and focused on Ivy. "Injuries and scars?" she asked as she glanced at Ivy's lightning bolt shaped scar.
"Yes please," Ivy replied, looking forward to getting rid of her scars but mostly the lightning bolt scar that marked her as the Girl That Lived, the girl that just about every witch and wizard wanted a piece of, one way or another.
"What did the Ministry do?" Hermione asked, her mind going to weird places.
Ivy snorted. "They decided to try to force a bunch of teenagers to get married so they could rebuild the wizarding population. Naturally the purebloods were in the ones in charge of the selection process."
"I need your hand," Panacea said, trying not to invade her personal space.
Ivy held out her hand, not sure why the healer would need her hand but not seeing a point in arguing. "I'm guessing self delusion or a ton of love potion spiked pumpkin juice was their plan. If Puck hadn't already snagged Neville I would have, if only to stop the idiots from trying to sell me off."
"Neville?" Harry asked in surprise.
"I'm not sure about your world but he's the only decent bloke in my year and most of the upper years are already taken or working on it," Ivy explained, doing her best to ignore her forehead sort of itching or maybe moving.
"Ron?" Willow asked.
Ivy turned to look at Willow, a look of disgust plastered on her face. "I'd rather geld Draco, dose him to the gills and fake a marriage, then kill off his family in interesting ways until I could collect."
"I like her," Anya said cheerfully.
"Later," Xander whispered, fairly sure Draco deserved it but not wanting Anya to go on a vengeance related tangent before they had a chance to get to know her.
Harry raised his eyebrows. "That's rather specific."
"Draco thinks he's Merlin's gift to witches and tried to potion me on multiple occasions," Ivy explained with a shutter as she felt the pain from her beating vanish. "The only reason he isn't dead is because Snape would take it personally."
"You care?" Harry asked in surprise.
"Done," Panacea said as she stepped back.
"Hell no, but he is a potions master and a sneaky bastard, I'd rather not give him an actual reason to want me dead, Draco is his godson after all," Ivy explained, brushing at her scar and causing it to flake off.
"Fair," Harry admitted, fairly sure he wouldn't survive if Snape was actually trying to kill him.
"Can you check Tara first?" Willow asked Panacea hopefully.
"Of course," Panacea replied as she held out her hand towards the girl that looked like she needed a hug and the blood washed off of her.
"T-thank you." Tara took Panacea's hand.
"Let me guess, Ron was worse in your world?" Harry asked, curious what her version of Ron was like.
Ivy turned to look at Harry. "He was a prick to Puck back in first year, she punched him in the nose and we've never really seen eye to eye because he refused to apologize for being a prick."
"Who's Puck?" Willow asked, keeping her attention on Tara as the healer did something that caused her to relax.
Ivy gestured towards Hermione with a grin, feeling better now that she wasn't in pain and wasn't going to have to deal with the Dursleys for the rest of the summer, if ever.
"My male alternate is named Puck?" Hermione asked, a touch surprised that her parents would have named her Puck but not especially, considering their taste in literature.
"Technically ‘her’ name is Hermione Granger, but Puck fits better," Ivy explained with a grin.
"Why?" Xander asked.
"She likes pranks and is always coming up with some new mischievous idea," Ivy replied as Sirius walked into the room, wondering if her friend's alternate was just better at hiding her prankster nature. "For instance, Puck came up with some interesting ideas for things to do with time turners, but meeting yourself is never a good idea."
"You might get erased," Hermione agreed, curious what her alternate had come up with.
“Yeah, a bit far too go just to see what snogging yourself is like,” Ivy agreed with a smirk.
"But what a way to go," Sirius said as he glanced over the group, focusing on the girl that looked a bit like Lily, except taller and less impressive in the chest. Same mischievous light in her eyes that Lily always had when she was getting revenge for one of James' pranks, not that she'd ever admit it.
"What?!" Hermione sputtered.
Ivy laughed. "You can't tell me you've never considered a way to have a threesome with only two people."
Hermione froze, mouth half open for a second before closing it and looking deep in thought.
Harry blushed slightly as his mind conjured images of two Hermione's kissing and realizing he really liked the idea even if it was unlikely to ever happen.
"Been there, done that," Anya said smugly. “Xander is even more impressive in stereo.”
"Too much information," Buffy grumbled as her friends turned to look at Xander who simply shrugged, not the slightest bit embarrassed.
"We'll have to trade spells," Sirius said thoughtfully, figuring the ability to be in two places at once would come in useful.
"They're insane," Buffy muttered.
"I don't know, I wouldn't mind," Willow said, thinking about having two Taras in bed.
"Sanity is overrated," Dawn said then glanced at Tara. "Until it's not, sorry."
Tara shook her head. "I'm almost back to normal, just a little fuzzy."
"Your system should stabilize in a couple of days," Panacea said as she stepped back, not sure why someone had drugged the girl with antipsychotics, but the broken arm and numerous bruises had taken a moment to fix before she had started in on old damage, minor breaks and sprains that had never healed properly.
"We should probably do introductions," Myst suggested, changing the subject. "The redhead is Willow Rosenberg, no relation to the Weasleys, the adorable girl next to her is Tara Maclay," he said as he gestured to the people in question, “Anya is a devil of a shopkeeper and Xander is her fiance."
"So no stealing him," Anya stated firmly.
'We'll see,' Dawn mused as she glanced at Xander.
Myst gestured towards Dawn. "And the girl in the purple dress of doom is the one and only Dawn Summers." He brought his telekinetic shield up. "The short blonde is her sister, she's a Vampire Layer."
"Slayer," Buffy sputtered.
"That's what I said, Vampire Slayer," Myst said sarcastically, still a bit annoyed about getting sucker punched.
"And I'm Ivy Lily Potter," Ivy said with a curtsey, feeling like being a bit dramatic as it helped hide her worries and concerns, something she had too much practice doing.
"Amy Dallon, otherwise known as Panacea, this world's best healer." Myst gestured towards Panacea then gestured towards Harry. "Harry Potter and just in case anyone missed it, the distinguished gentleman joining the party is Sirius black." He gestured towards Hermione. "And last but certainly not least, Hermione Granger."
Hermione pulled her wand out from behind her ear as she looked at the Scoobs. "Do you want me to hit your clothes with a cleaning spell?"
"Please," Xander said.
"It's not going to eat our clothes is it?" Anya asked as she glanced at Willow, wanting to make sure Hermione was actually competent before she let her cast a spell on her clothes.
"No. Scourgify," Hermione said as she waved her wand in the couple's direction, removing all of the blood and bits of flesh covering them, before moving on to the rest of them.
Xander looked down at his clothes. "Thanks."
"You're better than Willow," Anya said happily.
Willow frowned at Anya but kept her mouth shut, mostly because there had been a couple of mistakes made with her cleaning spells.
"I've had a lot of practice cleaning up after people," Hermione said, thinking of Ron's tendency to leave messes everywhere he went. "What happened?"
"A couple of lunatics tried teleporting through my interdiction field, they didn't make it," Myst explained.
Hermione winced. "Ah."
"How long are you staying?" Harry asked Ivy, looking forward to getting to know his sister from another world.
"No idea," Ivy admitted. "I want a vacation and I need to go shopping but I don't really have a firm plan for the rest of the summer beyond kidnapping Puck and Neville after gleefully torching Voldemort's horcruxes."
"Good, we can trade stories," Hermione said, curious what her world was like.
"I'd love to," Ivy said, looking forward to relaxing and having fun for a change.
"Shopping?" Buffy asked with a pout, realizing that she didn't even have a change of clothes.
"I'll get you some money and a lift to the Market," Myst offered as he glanced at the Sunnydale crew and realized they were all a bit ragged looking.
“What the hell happened to your DNA?!” Panacea demanded as she examined Xander.
0o0o0
"How the hell am I supposed to target specific worlds?" Myst muttered in frustration, wishing his ability had come with more of an instruction book.
"You're probably overthinking it," Amy pointed out, causing Myst to twitch as he hadn't realized anyone else was in the office with him.
"What do you mean?" Myst asked as he turned to look at Amy, fairly sure she'd snuck up on him intentionally judging by the slight twist of her lips. ‘Way too many catlike traits.’
"You ended up exactly where you needed when you jumped to Harry and Ivy's worlds and when you saved Taylor and Emma," Amy pointed out. "The odds of that happening at random is the next best thing to impossible."
"I know," Myst admitted. "It still doesn't change the fact that I'm not sure how to find what I'm looking for."
"What are you looking for?" Amy asked.
"A way to stay off the red eyed bastard's radar," Myst admitted. "I got a flash of precog earlier when I was at the market with Buffy and Dawn. I teleported back and activated my interdiction device, but I have a feeling he's tired of waiting, which means I need to figure out a way to hide before he decides to rip the city apart."
"Or find a way to kill him," Amy suggested.
"If you have any idea how to kill him, I'm all ears, he managed to kill the Traveler and he had defenses I don't," Myst pointed out.
"From what you said the Traveler was also less willing to get his hands dirty and wasn't a native of Earth, you might need to embrace your geek if you want to have a chance. In other words, aim for somewhere that being an asshole doesn't pay, like My Little Pony or a world where the good guys always win."
"Do you want to come with me?" Myst asked.
"Yes, but I should probably check in with Taylor and everyone, raincheck?" Amy asked as Buffy walked into the room dressed in senseable jeans and a sweater.
"Sure," Myst replied as he turned to look at Buffy.
"Where are we going?" Buffy asked.
"We?" Myst asked with raised eyebrows.
"You're obviously going somewhere to fight, I want to make sure we can get back to Sunnydale, so I'm tagging along," Buffy explained, as if her tagging along was a foregone conclusion.
"Just like that?" Myst asked, not sure why she thought he'd let her come with him.
"You obviously need help and you saved Dawn, so I'm helping," Buffy said. “It’s only fair.”
"I'm not sure where we're going, we might die," Myst pointed out as he pulled a pair of shades out of his pocket and put them on, wanting to hide his eyes.
"I might have died against Glory, it didn't stop me," Buffy said firmly.
"Fair point," Myst admitted as he shut off his interdiction field and focused on Amy's idea. "Jumping." He jumped with Buffy, trying to hit a world that might give him an advantage. He stared in disbelief as he saw a flying army of things that looked like giant salt shakers with plungers, flying over the city, blasting random buildings and people.
"Exterminate, Exterminate!"
"What the hell?!" Buffy blurted as she looked at the strange metal creatures.
"Nope!" Myst shouted and jumped a second time, not seeing a point in dying and not trusting his shield to stop whatever strange energy the flying salt shakers used. He stumbled as he landed on the side of a road and slipped because of the mud.
Buffy caught herself before she fell into the ditch filled with water and scowled as she looked up at the thunderclouds drenching them. "What the hell was that?!"
"Daleks…" Myst trailed off as he spotted the sign on the side of the road, suddenly not sure bringing the Slayer was the best idea. "Welcome to Forks, Washington." It looked like Amy was right about his jumping, as it took him to places he’d at least heard about and didn’t drop him in places he had no knowledge of.
"Which means what?" Buffy asked warily, catching the tone of his voice.
"No idea," Myst grumbled as he pulled a ten gallon hat out of his pocket dimension that he'd picked up to hide his runes and put it on. "Maybe nothing or maybe we'll have to deal with dark fairies that can toss trucks like they're five pound exercise weights," he said as he started walking down the road.
"Toss trucks?" Buffy asked in disbelief, not wanting to fight more people in Glory's weight class, especially since she hadn't brought her hammer. "Shouldn't we be leaving?" she asked, slightly distracted by his over the top hat.
"We should be fine, just don't piss anyone off," Myst said as he continued walking, wanting to find somewhere to ask a couple of questions and see what he could find before he started teleporting around. “Try real hard,” he emphasized.
"Hey, I can be nice," Buffy complained as she followed him.
"Good," Myst replied, making a mental note to pick up some expanded bags and some survival gear or at least a decent raincoat the next time he had a chance. ‘I love extra dimensional storage!’
0o0o0
Myst wasn't sure what he was actually expecting walking through town, a raging battle between werewolves and vampires wouldn't have surprised him all that much, sparkling idiots dancing in the rain, not a complete stretch either. Unfortunately or fortunately, there was none of that, just a nice peaceful town. Of course, it probably had something to do with the rain as he was completely soaked and Buffy wasn't any better.
Buffy dashed into the Coffee Shop, happy to be out of the rain. "Next time we go for a walk, we're grabbing an umbrella..." she trailed off as she saw Angel sitting with a younger version of herself in a booth, making her wonder if Angel had looked that damned creepy with her when she was that age.
Myst stared at the scene, his True Sight revealing the fact that Angel was a blood drinking wild fae and the younger Xander at the other table was a shamanist shapeshifter of some sort. He sighed as Buffy walked into the cafe, dripping water all over the floor and not caring as she walked over to the counter. "I want a burger and a chocolate shake, please. In fact, make it a double."
"Same," Myst ordered as he walked over and the waitress looked at him.
"Coming right up, the storm is a nasty one," the waitress said then headed into the kitchen to tell the cook.
"This is not exactly keeping a low profile," Myst muttered as he sat down next to her.
"Nothing is on fire, no one's screaming," Buffy replied genuinely confused why he thought talking to people was a bad thing. "I wonder what happened in the timeline to cause this to happen."
Myst sighed as he noticed the local Angel and Xander turn to look at them. "No idea, I'm guessing someone sold their soul," he said, thinking of the Twilight novels.
"I guess," Buffy said, thinking about Cordelia's wish that had screwed things up in the other timeline.
"Did he just say timelines?" Xander muttered.
"Maybe we should change your appearance while we're here," Myst suggested in a whisper he was sure Xander and Angel could both still hear.
"Are you saying there's something wrong with my looks?" Buffy asked, looking offended.
"You could stand a lot more burgers and milkshakes," Myst pointed out.
Buffy winced. "I'm not going to disagree, the last couple of years have sort of sucked and I don't exactly have money to blow on ice cream every time I need it," Buffy admitted, thinking about the various monsters that she'd fought and losing her mother and taking care of Dawn while trying to hold down some sort of a job.
"We should probably fix that," Myst suggested as he closed his hand and created a ruby the size of a robin's egg in his palm then turned his hand and showed her the gem.
Angel stared in disbelief at the ruby the man was holding.
"Is that real?" Buffy asked quietly.
"It exists," Myst replied, knowing what she was actually asking.
"No, I mean is it real?" she asked, rolling her eyes. It was almost like talking to Xander in one of his playful moods.
"I just created it, but it's real enough," Myst said as he handed the gem to Buffy. "That should be enough to pay the rest of the bills and then some."
“I’m an independent sort of girl, but it’s easier to be an independent sort of girl when you have lots of moolah to fund it,” Buffy said, accepting the gem and pocketing it.
“Do you want a copy of the Hope Diamond or a Sapphire?" Myst asked with a grin, happy to find a use for one of his powers that put a smile on her face.
"Both," Buffy blurted then shook her head. "The answer to ‘do I want gems’ is yes, it will always be yes. If I say no, you'll know it's not me, or it's cursed."
"Good to know," Myst replied with amusement as he created a necklace with a gemstone chain and a large ruby. "Here, you go."
“This is probably expensive beyond belief,” Buffy said as she fondled it the way Myst would a breast, “in fact it’s so expensive I don’t think anyone could afford to buy it. It’s… like being so rich you’re poor?”
“Point,” Myst conceded. “When we go back to Sunnydale we can make you rich there with something traceable. Buy a mine or something and just cram it full of lower quality gems or something. Probably take me a day.”
“Thanks… and sorry for knocking you out earlier,” she apologized, “but I had just prevented an apocalypse and defeated a hell god. I was a bit on edge. Plus those two guys exploded like a frog on a hot plate.”
“You talk like you’ve seen a frog on a hot plate,” Myst noted curiously.
“If you live with a teenage girl… don’t ever check her browser history,” Buffy said solemnly, “it’s a trap!”
Myst laughed. "Good to know."
