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A Look At The Future
Author:
Bill the Bloodless
Rating: PG
In response to the challenge set by Margot to write a fic of no more than 1500 words, to
include a dream sequence and a snow globe.
Tbh I'm not sure it really works but I've just had enough of tweaking it so this it. It's unbeta'd, so if you spot any mistakes shout them
out. :)
Set
just before The Replacement s5.
Disclaimer. All familiar characters are owned by JW and ME.
Willow sneezed. If there was one thing that the basement of The Magic Box had in abundance it was dust. With a thick layer covering
everything it looked as if no one had been down here for some time.
It wasn't the dust that Willow was interested in though, it was the large number of jars and boxes. Or more precisely their contents.
Having just purchased Sunnydale's only magic shop, Giles was in the process of checking his stock and Willow had volunteered to help.
As she sneezed again she wondered why she'd let Giles talk her into it. She'd known it would be an unpleasant job, she'd already seen at
least a four or five enormous spiders, and it wasn't as if she had nothing better to do. Indeed she had a mountain of college work
waiting for her when she got home. Ok, mountain was a slight exaggeration and she'd already finished most of it, but still she
hadn't become a super nerd by slacking off.
It hadn't taken much persuasion on Giles' part either. The opportunity to rummage through some of the shop's stock of magical
supplies had been all it had took. She sighed. So far though, her rummaging had yielded little of interest.
Hoping that this one would contain something more exciting than dried up liverwort or scented candles Willow opened yet another box and
cautiously looked inside. A moment later her lips curved up in a smile of triumph, it did.
The cover of the leather bound book she pulled out was cracked with age and, though much of the writing had faded away, she just knew
that it had to be a spell book.
Her curiosity piqued Willow quickly cleared a space and put the book down. Then picking a page at random she opened it – and frowned. The
page was blank. As was the one after that, the one after that and, she flicked through the book, every other page as well. If it was a
spell book it was missing a key ingredient, her eyes lit up, unless of course the spells were invisible.
Putting the book to one side for later study Willow took another look in the box to see if there were anymore inside but there wasn't.
Stuck underneath the flap at the bottom, there was something there though. Reaching inside she wormed her hand around the object and,
after a brief struggle, pulled out – a snow globe. And not very pretty one either. The glass was all stained, the water was dirty and
the scene inside was rubbish, just what looked like a sign post sticking up from the base. How that had gotten in there was any one's
guess.
In the act of throwing it away though something caught her eye and when she took a closer look she saw that the sign post had writing on it,
a rhyme of some kind. Holding the snow globe up to the light she read it out loud.
"Give me a shake,
And as the flakes fall,
Take a look at your future,
And be held in its thrall."
Willow looked at it with a new found respect, well that was interesting. Could the globe have some magical properties, could it
be something like a tacky crystal ball maybe? She smiled. If it was it would be her first real find. Her smile faded. If it didn't
though, then it was just a piece of junk. Maybe she should test it first, just to be sure. What harm could it do? None, she
decided and her mind made up she shook it.
Disturbed, the flakes shot upwards. For several seconds they swirled about madly in the dirty liquid but then, as the water calmed, they
began to fall and it was then they started to glow. The lower they fell the brighter the glow became until finally, as the flakes
settled once more on the bottom, the whole basement was ablaze with light. Then suddenly the glow was gone and Willow found herself in
the gloom once more. She snorted. Well, that had been disappointing. For a moment she'd actually gotten quite excited. Still it was lucky
she hadn't gone running up to Giles with it, she would have looked a right idiot.
Tossing the snow globe on to the growing pile of useless junk she'd found, Willow moved on to the next box and continued her search for
anything magical. Which by the time she'd had enough, a couple of hours later, turned out to be not much at all. She looked at her pile
of magical items unhappily. Several statues she was unsure about, a dozen or so bags of assorted herbs and a small silver dagger was all
she had to show for her hard work. She just hoped tomorrow would be better.
Willow looked at her watch and grimaced, she'd lost track of time as well. She had less than an hour before she was supposed to meet
Xander and the others. Xander would kill her if she was late, having finally decided to move out of his parent's basement he was going to
look at his very first apartment tonight. She started across the basement towards the stairs, maybe Giles would give her a lift.
Standing with her friends on the edge of the crater that used to be Sunnydale, Willow couldn't help but feel a little sad. Yes, they'd
stopped the army of Turok-Han and had probably saved the world but it hadn't been without a price. Anya and Spike were dead, as were a
number of the potentials, some of which she didn't even know the names of. And though that was terrible enough, it wasn't all.
Willow had been born in Sunnydale, it was where she'd grown up and it was where she'd first met Xander and Buffy. Nearly all her memories,
both good and bad, were of things that had happened in Sunnydale. She shook her head sadly. And now it was gone.
"Willow!"
Coming from behind her the shout had been loud and urgent but when she turned there was no one in sight. All she could see was the
yellow school bus. With a frown she looked at her friends. "Did anyone hear that?" she asked but nobody had.
"Willow! Willow!"
There it was again. This time Willow turned quickly and, fighting off a moment of dizziness, saw that it was Giles who was shouting her,
which was strange because only a moment ago he was standing by her side. It wasn't the only strange thing either. Looking around she saw
that she was no longer on the edge of the crater with the sun beating down but standing in what appeared to be a basement, surrounded by a
load of boxes.
Standing at the bottom of the stairs, Giles was looking at her curiously. "Are you ok?" he asked. "You've been down here for hours."
"I've been…" Willow stopped, just what had she been doing? Her gaze alighted on the object in her hand and she frowned. Why was she
holding a snow globe?
"Well I'm about to close up," the ex-Watcher told her, "and aren't you supposed to be meeting Xander to look at apartments."
Willow grunted, only half hearing him and continued to look at the snow globe. A moment later her eyes widened, she remembered. And then
realising what that meant she gasped. Oh God! The globe did work, and just as it had said.
The First and the Turok-Han; Tara's death and her own descent into power crazed madness; Buffy's resurrection and indeed her death; none
of it had happened yet.
"Are you sure you're alright?" Giles asked, his voice full of concern. "You've gone quite pale."
Willow looked at him with tears in her eyes. "Giles, I've never been happier. It hasn't happened yet." It was still in the future and now
that she knew about it maybe she could do something about it. Maybe, she could make it better somehow.
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