ff The Synchronicity Solution 3

[Carol.Clarke@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Title: The Synchronicity Solution
Chapter Three: Red Skies 
Rating NC-17/R
Disclaimer: All BTVS characters belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy.
Timeline: The Story bounces around in time from 2003 to 2019.
Summary: Catherine Finn likes to help people, human and non-human alike. But
can she save her own granddaughter?
Thanks: Cheryl Hill
Warning: character death, forced drug taking, NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH 

The Synchronicity Solution
Red Skies

Des Moines, Iowa 2019

Alex opened Dawn's apartment door with her key while holding Buffy up with
her other arm. Entering the apartment Alex kicked the door shut and moved
Buffy over to the couch. Pulling the blanket off her then her leather
jacket. She needed to get the slayer into dry clothes. She pulled Buffy's
shirt off and was a little shocked. Her arms had dozens upon dozens of track
marks. Her chest still had the IV port in place. There was a fresh
laceration with staples holding the surgical wound closed. This was far
worse then she had ever seen Buffy after the bastards had worked on her. She
began to lower Buffy to the couch when she looked at her back. Stopping her
forward motion before she pulled Buffy back up and looked at the dozen or
more lash marks across her back.

"They did more pain threshold tests again." Buffy explained lowering
herself back on the couch and trying to undo her pants. Alex moved her
shaking hands out of the way and undid Buffy's jeans. Her clothes were
soaked through; Alex wondered how long Buffy had wondered around in the
rain. Pulling her jeans free Alex pulled the afghan over Buffy and moved
toward the linen closet. Taking out blankets she returned to the sleeping
slayer and covered her. She then went into Dawn's room and found a change of
clothes for Buffy. Sweat pants and a tee shirt. She returned to her car for
Buffy's bag. Carefully she placed her few clothes into the wash along with
Buffy's rain soaked outfit. At least the slayer would have clean clothes
when she left Alex thought."

(((((((((*****)))))))))))

Des Moines, Iowa 2019

Kimberly Rosenberg took the note out of her pocket again and looked at it
and groaned. Parent Teacher conferences. She was in high school. A new
school, her teacher didn't know her parents.... yet. Her mom never could
resist a parent teacher conference. At least Alex wouldn't come with her she
hoped. The two of them together could just be plain embarrassing. 

Why the hell did she have to get them as parents? She might have been able
to live down lesbian parents or even a witch mother with a demon lover but
she had to deal with all of it. All of them. Her parents were just so damn
weird it wasn't funny. Since Kindergarten the kids had teased her about her
parents. Didn't her dad look funny? Hell she didn't even have a dad, why the
hell had the kids always teased her calling Alex her dad. And of course
sometimes Alex lost control of her human shape and started glowing in the
dark. Now that was a sure fire way to loose friends. She didn't want to even
remember the Halloween when Alex had walked through the kitchen wall and
spread her wings, to scare her and her friends. Ok her friends had thought
it was cool but still her parents were just so damn weird.

And her mother. Her mother drove her crazy. It seemed all she ever did was
argue with her mother. At least when her mother was around to argue with.
Mostly her mother worked like a dog at some computer company. Sure she
pulled in the big bucks but she was still never around. And when she was she
was always protesting something. Gay Rights, Animal rights, dolphins, it
seemed her mother never failed to find something to work herself into a
frenzy over. And then there was the Wicca stuff. Oh sure she and Alex were
just working spells, but did they have to do it in the nude. Or nude in a
forest, she absolutely hated camping for that exact reason. How do you
explain to your third grade friends why your mom keeps chicken feet and
black candles in a chalk circle in the living room? Sometimes she just
wished she could go live with her grand parents out on the farm. At least
they were normal. Ok, sappy but they were normal. 

And then there were the fucked up stories her mother told about her own
child hood. Most of her friends had to listen to stories about how their dad
had to walk to school in snow four feet deep up hill, both ways, or how they
didn't have remote control or MTV or some other bullshit. No her mom talked
about the time she and her best friend almost got burned at the stake by
their parents. Or how they blew up their high school because the mayor
became a giant snake. Or how her first boyfriend was a werewolf. How do you
deal with that! Not that her mothers stories weren't true. Hell her mom's
girlfriend was a real banshee with glow in the dark skin, blue in blue eyes,
and gossamer wings that looked like a baggy old white dress when she wrapped
them around her body. When Alex held an old time oil lamp and wrapped her
wings the right way around her body she looked like one of those old time
ghost from books. Not that Alex was really scary. Alex was a push over. A
few pouts and puppydog looks and Alex always caved. Her Aunt Dawn always
said she looked just like her Aunt Buffy when she pouted. Oh well at least
they loved her, Kimberly thought.

"Alex? Mom? I'm home. I got this thing from school for you." Kimberly called
out to the empty house. 

"Figures, no body home." Kimberly said as she dropped the paper on the
counter and hit the fridge for after school snacks.

(((((((((((*******)))))))))))))))

June 17, 2003 Location Unknown

Buffy tried to focus her eyes while she tried to move her arms and legs to
get up. Her head hurt like hell but she didn't think she had hit it. Then
she remembered the dart hitting her chest. Looking around she tested the
chains that held her to the floor. The most she was able to do was rattle
them. 

"Buffy are you ok?" Willow's voice rang out. Trying to follow the voice she
realized she was in a jail cell chained to the floor on her stomach. She
could just barely see Willows legs in the cell across from her own, but she
knew those Red high top Keds anywhere. 

"Other then being chained on the floor I'm fine, you ok?"

"They have Dawn too, Buffy."

"Who are they?" Buffy asked still pulling her bonds.

"I think they're watchers but I am not sure."

"British guys in tweed suits that were old when Queen Victoria reigned?"

"Most of them yeah? I still don't know what they want."

"Got a clue where we are?" Buffy asked as she tried to focus her still fuzzy
mind.

"In the hull of a ship, It has to be a big one because I can't feel the
whole sea sick up and down thing."

Buffy focused her senses, which were still pretty fuzzy and confirmed what
Willow had said. She could feel the movement of the ship. "Has to be a ship,
planes don't move like this and we are moving. Where is my sister?"

"Safe as long as you co operate Ms. Summers." A voice Buffy recognized at
once said. 
"Quentin Travers, why am I not surprised. What you forgot the ritual
beheading test on my Twenty-first birthday last year and need to catch up?
Time for the cold metal floor test? Or do you just like pissing me off?"

"Colorful girl, always. No, we need to do some DNA tests now that you're
pregnant?"

"When I get out of this trust me you are going to wish you were dead you
weasel livered fuck head."

"It's for you own good. How long do you think you will last in Sunnydale
once the demon populous knows you're with child? We will not harm your child
and you may even be allowed to see it once it is born."

"You bastard." Buffy said wielding all her strength. The sound of bending
metal loudly echoing off the hull. 

"Mark" Quentin, said as the second watcher fired another dart into the
slayer. Buffy managed to pull one of her arms loose before she was hit with
a second then a third and forth dart. With a thud she collapsed back to the
floor.

"Amazing girl." Quentin said as he opened her jail cell. Willow could be
heard screaming Buffy's name as the four watchers entered Buffy's cell. 

"We will need stronger chains." One of them said examining the damage done
to the one she had pulled loose from the floor.

"No, just move her to the next cell and chain her in there. Once the muscle
relaxant potion kicks in we will keep her on it until the baby is born. She
will loose her strength without hurting the baby. Can't say the same for her
though, long exposure to the drug and organic compound sometimes weakens the
slayers permanently. Never kept one on it for more then a few months before.
Stitch up her wrist, don't want her getting infected before the child is
born." Quentin said coldly before he left the cell.

"You bastard." Willow said as he passed her cell. Quentin stopped and turned
to address Willow. "Make sure you keep the Witch drugged as well. Rupert
often said she was the most powerful witch he had even seen. Wolfbane and
Soma should keep her from using her powers. Don't worry girl, as you can
already see there is little effect other than the loss of your magic
skills."

"And the sister?" One of the watchers asked.

"Keep her in the cabin. She is powerless; it's just her DNA we want to
examine. That and to insure a little more cooperation from the slayer." With
that Quentin left the cell. 

((((((((((((((((***********((((((((((((((

Des Moines, Iowa 2019

David Richards wanted to impress his girlfriend. So he used his key to open
her apartment door. Juggling the groceries, he managed to get them in the
house and close the front door. Quickly picking the bags back up he head for
the kitchen. Dropping the bags on the kitchen table he started back out to
his car to get the dozen roses he had picked up for the center piece when he
noticed the sleeping women on the coach. A two second look at the track
marks in her feet and arms and his gun was drawn, any thought of roses gone.


The woman was covered with a blanket and Dawn's favorite afghan that she
kept on the back of the couch. Her feet were uncovered and bare and her arm
extended out making it easy to see the track marks. Hell there were a few
festering spots were broken needles looked to be working their way out of
the skin. The woman was blond and in a bad need of a bath. Even this close
he could smell her stench. He guessed she was between twenty-five and thirty
but with that kind of habit you aged quickly, she could be as young as 18 or
19 for all he knew. With his gun still extended he moved toward the woman.
Reaching her he kept his gun aimed and tapped the woman's shoulder. She just
continued to snooze. Still holding the gun in the ready position he shook
the woman lightly. She moaned a little and continued her soft snore. He
lowered the gun and holstered it then he went to shake her a little harder.
Buffy's muscles may not have been at slayer power, but she could still throw
a punch. 

David fell back and Buffy leaped on him, taking his gun out of his holster
in a second. Aiming the gun at the man she tripped back on to the floor
shaking like mad from the effort. Alex had heard the fighting and was
running upstairs in a flash walking straight through the walls on a direct
path from the laundry room. Buffy lost focus for a second and stared to drop
the gun, David kicked her hard in the stomach and dove for the gun. Buffy
tried to fight back and roll out of the way but she was to strung out to put
up much more of a fight. 

Holding the gun to the woman's head, David pinned her to the floor and was
reaching for his cuffs when he was hit hard across the head. Seconds before
passing out he could have sworn he saw a ghost. 

((*()*)*()*)*)*)

July 2, 2003 Somewhere at Sea.

They had at least moved them into the same cell, she and Willow. They had
needed each others help just to take care of their basic needs. Buffy was
now roughly four months pregnant and they only took them to the restroom
twice a day. Buffy was kept in diapers to her own humiliation, as was
Willow. Diapers and tank tops was the only clothing they were permitted.
Just one more way of controlling them. 

At least they had given them sleeping bags to sleep on. Buffy had spent most
of her first two weeks aboard the ship naked on the cold metal floor chained
on her stomach while they injected her with a stronger formula then the one
they had used on her eighteenth birthday. 

Willow too was kept drugged. They were adjusting her medication so much
during the first few weeks that Willow was like a barometer of emotion.
Sometimes so drugged she couldn't walk, other times so hyper she couldn't
sit still. Spending the day pacing the cell. They took blood from them both
everyday. They also allowed Dawn to visit their cell twenty minutes each
day. Never letting her in the cell itself just letting her stand close
enough to be seen and heard. 

Dawn was being treated fairly well depending on their cooperation. Buffy had
learned that Dawn was locked in the captains cabin with a TV set and a game
boy. She was cared for by a cabin boy named Ben. This man, Ben, worried
Buffy. Mostly because her sister clearly liked him. She was teaching him to
play chess. Dawn was a few months short of 16 and she had never had a
boyfriend, so naturally Buffy was worried sick about this person taking
advantage of Dawn. Willow had called it Stockholm syndrome. Apparently
Willow was worried as well.

((((((((((((((((***********((((((((((((((

Des Moines, Iowa 2019

"Alex are you crazy. You could have killed him. What the hell possessed you
to knock him over the head and tie him up? It's no wonder I can never
managed to keep a boyfriend. God and I thought Buffy was bad when I was a
teenager." Dawn shouted at Alex. 

David groaned as he regained consciousness. "David honey are you ok?" Dawn
quickly said from beside him. He was lying on the bed with his hands cuffed
to the headboard.

"Other than my head hurts like hell and I am cuffed to the bed the world is
peachy." He replied.

"Sorry, but I don't know where you keep you hand cuff keys otherwise we
would have untied you." A woman he didn't know said from his other side of
the room. He had seen her face before in photographs Dawn had around the
house. She really was odd looking and the dark mirrored glasses she was
wearing didn't help. 

"Right front pocket, on the key chain." He said as Dawn reached into his
pants to find them.

"I am going to check on Buffy, she has been in the bathroom a long time she
might need help." Alex said slipping out of the room using the door.

As Dawn found the key and was fumbling with the cuffs he asked, "Want to
tell me what is going on here, who are those people?" 

"Alex hasn't gotten around to telling me what happened yet, to be honest I
walked into the house a few minutes ago as she was cuffing you to my bed.
Alex does have a wild idea about romance but even this is a little much for
her." Dawn said handing him back his keys and cuffs.

"And the junkie on the coach?" David asked.

"I am her sister." Buffy said freshly showered but still shaking and in
withdrawal.

"Well you smell better." Dawn said quickly joining Alex and helping Buffy
into the over stuffed chair in the corner of her bedroom. 

"I thought you only had the one sister, Willow?" David asked confused. Dawn
had always been very guarded about her family. She had introduced him to her
sister and niece only by accident and only the one time. He was working a
case and was undercover at K-mart watching the pharmacist who was selling
narcotics and faking the paperwork to cover it when he ran into them in the
store. 

"I'm a junkie, you're a cop do the math, would you admit you had a sister
like me?" Buffy said. She still wanted to protect her sister as much as
possible. 

David sat up on the end of the bed and looked directly at Buffy. "You in a
bad way. You need to be in a rehab center." He was trying to be as frank as
possible.

"I'm working on it. Need to do a few things first. So you a good cop?" Buffy
asked trying to change the subject. Her insides felt like they were twisting
into knots.

"Try to be. So you're her sister, who's your friend?" David asked looking at
Alex. 

"You've heard me talk about my sister-in-law Alex. Willow's wife, all legal
and everything now that they have the same sex marriage thing finally." Dawn
babbled with some pride while pulling Alex into the room. Alex always hung
back a little from people she didn't know well. Always trying to hide in the
shadows. 

"Sorry about hitting you on the head. When I got up stairs I thought you
were hurting Buffy and I just..."

"It's ok. It was probable my fault. I may have overreacted. I saw your
sister on the couch and went into cop mode." David said honestly. He really
was in the wrong. Talk first, pull gun second was the general rule of thumb.


"Still I am really sorry." Alex replied still trying to find a shadow in the
bedroom to hide in.


((*()*)*()*)*)*)

July 5, 2003 Somewhere at Sea.

It was not really the best of escape plans as escape plans went. The drugs
they were giving Willow still left her with a small about of magic. She
could levitate small objects. Buffy and Willow had been experimenting on
small objects in their cell. They just needed the keys. 

They had stopped chaining Buffy up in the cell. They still shackled her for
the twice-daily medical exams and toilet trips. They were still not allowed
to shower. A cold bucket of water was brought to them each day to use as
drinking water and to wash with. They were given a clean tank top once a
week and a stack of diapers each day. It was a cruel thing to do to a
pregnant woman. 

Their cell consisted of two sleeping bags, a couple of empty buckets. One
for the used diapers and a second as a piss/throw up bucket. With the
constant use and changes in drugs they both threw up a lot. Dawn had managed
to bring them a few magazines. Ok two playboys and a nautical magazine. At
least it was something to read, to do between breathing and being stoned.

Buffy was still a little pissed her sister had found the Captain's playboy
stash in his cabin. God only knew what else they were teaching her.

But it was the nautical magazine that had given them their plan. It had a
special article on lifeboat emergency supplies. The bottom line was, if they
could get out of the cell, find Dawn, get into a life boat they might be
able to get to shore or at least the coast guard. Remember they were heavily
drugged when they came up with the plan.

The first few steps of the plan worked out well. Willow had been able to
float the sleeping guard's keys to their cell. They had quietly unlocked the
door. Buffy had knocked the guard out. Which was noisy and hard without her
slayer power, not to mention being drugged and pregnant. They had also
managed to take out three more guards and avoid being spotted by seven or
eight other men on the search for the captain's cabin. They had even grabbed
one of the crew at knifepoint and made him lead them to her sister's room. A
knife they had taken away from one of the guards. Buffy had a deep cut on
her right arm from the same knife. 

And when they reached the cabin, they had been waiting for them. There were
eight of them all dressed in Tweed. Her sister kneeling before Quentin
Travers, gun pushed against her temple. 

"Very impressive Ms. Summers. Very impressive. And I had thought Rupert had
exaggerated your talent." Quentin said clicking back the slide of the glock.
Buffy dropped the knife and raised her hands; Willow followed suit and
raised her hands as well.

Martin Turner, an Indiana Jones wanna be opened his leather jacket exposing
his leather whip to them. "We can do this up here in front of the kid or
back down in your cell."

"Just leave my sister alone. She's an innocent." Buffy said flatly. Buffy
and Willow were tackled, chained, and dragged back to their cell. They were
both roughly chained to the bars of their cell standing up. Both their
shirts ripped open at the back.

"Just a taste for the slayer. We want her baby healthy." Quentin said as he
started out of the cell area. 

"And the Witch?" Martin Turner asked

"As long as she lives, enjoy yourself Martin," and with that Quentin left
the cell area. Smiling as he heard the lash strike and the woman scream. He
would enjoy the event from the security camera's upstairs.



"I wear the cheese it does not wear me." Bald Man, Buffy the Vampire Slayer.