Somewhere I Have Never Traveled, Gladly Beyond by Strangefellows

Summary: Realizing a little too late that they might have gotten the wrong Champion, the Powers That Be decide to give Spike a do-over, as it were. Replace him -- as he was when he sacrificed himself in the Hellmouth -- into the Slayer's story, right at the beginning, and let him do his job right. Of course, that's not going to be easy. But since when was anything easy in Sunnydale?

Categories: Episode Rewrite, Season 1, Season 2, Season 3, Season 4, Season 5, Season 6, Alternate Reality, Time Travel
Characters: Ensemble
Genres: Action/Adventure
Warnings: Adult Language, Buffy/Other (Temp), Spike/Other (Temp), Violence
Completed: No Chapters: 8
Word count: 56,921 Hit Count: 14,771 ePub Downloads: 171
Published: February 27, 2015 Updated: March 06, 2015

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Okay, let's get this party started. We open in Season 1, right after 'The Harvest'.

Disclaimer: Do not own any of these characters, all rights go to Joss Whedon & sundry.

Hey, all! Wow, I did not expect people to enjoy that first chapter as much as you all seemed to, thank you so much for the reviews and for giving me confidence to continue this fic! I promise I'm going to try addressing all your questions during the course of the story. I've got a weird attention span, a near complete outline, and too much time on my hands, so with any luck a new chapter will be up at least every other day or so. :) I really hope you all continue to enjoy it.

Disclaimer: I do not own anything here in this story, it all belongs to Whedon. A lot of the text in this chapter comes from the episode 'Witch', by Dana Reston. (A good few chapters are gonna have episode dialogue in them, and I'll be sure to note when/which ones.)

I continue to start each chapter late and post it at ungodly hours of the morning. And you continue to like it! Thank you, you guys have no idea how much I appreciate all the reviews and positive feedback. I'm having a lot of fun writing this!

Disclaimer: None of this is mine, it all goes to Whedon. Some dialogue is from the episode 'Teacher's Pet' by David Greenwalt.

Wow, this one was a hell of a chapter to write. I noticed a few of you ask about Spike telling Buffy about the curse -- I had already been planning on addressing that in this chapter, given the events of the episode, but the points brought up made me do a complete overhaul on what I had originally planned. Not in a bad way! I'm actually much happier with what the redone plot point does to the story at large. I hope it answers all the questions you guys have. I am still overwhelmed by all the positive feedback I've been getting, and I promise that even though I don't respond, I read every single review.

I also kinda want to take the time to thank my beta/sounding board, Historia, who's been a massive help with characterization and plot, and without which I probably wouldn't have gotten the one Important Scene down half as well. In fact, most of our surprise guest's dialogue is credited to her, with only a few adjustments for fit.

Disclaimer: All characters, etc, belong to Whedon. Some dialogue in this chapter from 'Never Kill A Boy on the First Date' by Rob Des Hotel and Dean Batali. (As an aside, I am so glad I've been using both a transcript and the shooting script, because holy damn did this episode change from script to screen.) Exerpts are from poems by Emily Dickinson, of course.

And here's this one. I want to start off by saying that I've noticed most of the reviews so far for chapter 4 seem to be of the belief that Spike's actually going to listen to Whistler. Just gonna say that since when have we known him to ever do what people expect him to, and leave it at that. I wouldn't worry -- there's definitely going to be some differences this time around.

As for this chapter...good lord. I'm going to put a warning up here right now that I was personally really uncomfortable writing it, or at least part of it, so: !WARNING! -- this chapter contains, in case you forgot, hyena-possessed Xander assaulting Buffy, as well as some minor flashbacks to 'Seeing Red' on Spike's part. I was actually stunned at how many Xander/Spike parallels I was able to draw from this episode, and I definitely milked it. It's interesting. In fact, any anger I had at how that part of the plot was handled was balanced out by the amazing interactions between the two that it led to. (And honestly, after meeting Nicholas Brendon, I can't bring myself to do anything but try to portray Xander as fairly as possible.)

Disclaimer: All characters, etc, belong to Whedon. Some dialogue is taken from the episode 'The Pack' by Matt Kiene and Joe Reinkmeyer.

This chapter...ended up being miles away from the original plan for it. And again, for the better. I got a lot of feedback for chapter 4, and thanks to that, plot points have been changed and, well...you'll see. (And my muse deciding to stick his foot in his mouth/lose his temper helped with that too.) Makes me look forward to Season 2 all the more. Anyway, I ended up not really using much of 'Angel' seeing as the big reveal was kinda, well, revealed already. But... (I do also want to note that character intentions =/= authorial intentions. Just because Whistler doesn't want anything to change doesn't mean that I don't -- I wouldn't be writing this otherwise! His purpose in bringing Spike in is not so Spike can change events, but so he's there for them as the Champion (coughlookatwhistler'stvtropespage). Me, the author, has other plans, and my plans involve Spike screwing up Whistler's plans. I got the sense I needed to clarify that, and I definitely should apologize for not being clear. Please bear with me! ;u;)

On a different note, DAMN was 'I Robot, You Jane' tedious...I ended up skipping huge chunks of it. Blargh.

Disclaimer: Blah blah belongs to Whedon. Chapter contains dialogue from 'Angel' by David Greenwalt and 'I Robot...You Jane' by Ashley Gable and Thomas A. Swyden. Also, views expressed by Spike re; Angel are not necessarily the author's views, even if they are true-ish.

Wow, first time I missed a day -- but don't worry, chapter 8 will also be up tonight, probably. This is like, the shortest chapter so far, and I'm not that upset about it. It was like pulling teeth to finish it once I got about halfway through, jeez (which is why it wasn't up til now). Thankfully this is the last boring chapter to write, since the next one is 'Nightmares' and I have so much planned... Anyway, I do wanna apologize for the rampant recapping in the chapters that's been going on -- Season 1 is kinda the setup season, and there's not much to change, so a lot of it ends up being a rehash. Once Season 2 starts, then I can promise you a lot less of that and a lot more original/changed content. :) (In the meantime, if anyone picks up on the two references Spike makes that I'm incredibly proud of, you're awesome.)

Disclaimer: Blah blah Whedon, etc, I probably don't have to do this every chapter but I'm used to it by now. Chapter contains dialogue from 'The Puppet Show' by Dean Batali and Robert Des Hotel.

FINALLY. I've been so excited for this chapter, mostly because I confess, I love torturing my favorite characters. Who doesn't? And boy, does this chapter have some prime Spike tormenting. It is all about their worst nightmares, after all. I think a few unasked questions will be answered here, actually! Which will be fun. I hope you enjoy, because I sure did. (Also, completely not sorry for the emotional wringer I put Spike through. So worth it.)

Disclaimer: Blah blah Whedon, etc. Chapter contains dialogue from the episode 'Nightmares' by Joss Whedon. Credit for Whistler dialogue (edited for style) again goes to my lovely beta/sounding board, Historia.