Title: Living Limbo

Author: Kate R.

Disclaimer: Own nothing and no one used herein. M-7. Buffy and the Silverhawks belong to their respective creators

Rating: PG-13 to R maybe a bit higher but I'm not sure yet.

Pairings: Giles (Ripper)/Will, Dawn/Bluegrass (Vin), Xander/Spike

Summary: Wishes and Portals and Keys, Oh my.

Living Limbo
By Kate R.

Prologue: 4-Year Reflections

"We've done okay for ourselves," Giles mused as he worked in the garden. In 4 years he and Dawn had turned their little corner of this planet into a real home. Giles made medicines from the herbs, Dawn worked in different places around the planet depending on what was needed on a given day, they had friends, food clothes, Giles taught the children what he could. And, he
helped fix things broken by that asshole of a lieutenant from the Silverhawks.

Giles sighed as he checked his stores of medicine. He had a feeling he would need them for some reason. Yeah, he'd become the planet healer when a child had fallen ill. They had no medicine on this planet because no one cared and the child was dying and Giles couldn't not help so he'd begun to treat the child. He'd won the war against that virus. The herbs he'd blended helped a lot of things so he named it Ethan's Heart.

It was a Medicine that helped a lot of things and he'd named it for his beloved Ethan, Dead nearly 5 years now thanks to the damned initiative.

Oh, but he'd paid them back, alright. He'd made them bleed and scream for what they'd done. After he'd buried Ethan. Dawn had been with him that day. She'd helped him get Ethan dressed and ready and then they'd buried him in a place Giles had bought. It was a small plot of land and Giles buried his Love there. His healer. Ethan had died healing someone. It was not her fault. It was the fault of the program for not letting him rest between bouts of healing.

When Riley had come bearing Ethan's body and been smug about his death, Giles had lost it. He'd hit the little bastard so hard most of his teeth had been knocked out and then he had gathered Ethan into his arms and howled out his pain. Then, Dawn had drawn a bath and they'd gotten Ethan cleaned up and dressed and then buried him.

Three weeks later, he and Dawn were here and he was finally able to grieve. Dawn had given him 6 months and then asked him to come out with her a dew times and he had. He'd first gotten involved when he saw some children making up words in the earth and Giles had sighed and sat down and started making letters for them to learn.

Once they had done that, he taught them words and numbers and sounds. He taught them to read and to write and he had become the healer and the teacher and the man who fixed things. And yet...and yet he and Dawn missed having a family. They missed the others.

Well, some of them, and they missed laughter and such.

Giles sighed though. Time enough to worry about it later. He was The Giles and his day was about to begin.

"Giles!" the children called bringing him to his door. He came out and froze at what he saw.

"What the hell happened to him?!" Giles demanded as he moved forward to check the man out.

He was one of the Silverhawks but not one of the ones who attacked and harassed his people regularly. Same as the man with him.

"Our lieutenant shot him in the back," the Cowboy muttered.

Giles cursed and had them both brought in. The young man was laid on a table and Giles immediately got to work.

"I have to undo this," Giles said. "All of it."

"Whatever needs doing," the Texan said.

Giles nodded and got to work. No herbs for this, Pure Magic Power was needed here. The glow touched his hands as Dawn came in and gasped. Giles gave her a reassuring smile and tapped his power at its most primal, elemental state: the Element of Chaos.

The bright green light built and in it there seemed to be music as Giles had received on his death, all of Ethan's power including, that which healed. He was rebuilding the man on the table from his basic genetic code on up and Dawn was impressed. She'd known Giles had this power but had never seen him use it before.

"Blend and heal," Giles was chanting. "Heal and live."

Dawn watched as when he finished the young man was healed and sleeping. Finally, Giles told turned to the cowboy.

"What is your name?" he asked. "Your real name. And who did this?"

"Told ya, the Lieutenant shot him in back. Not sure why. Actually, hell, yeah I know why. Will stopped him from harassing the people here last week. Jon shot him in the back while we were patrolling. I caught him and landed us both and well, the people told me to bring him to The Giles. The kids led me here to you and well, here we are."

"I'm sorry," Giles said. "I could have sworn you just told me he was shot in the back for saying no to your lieutenant by your lieutenant?"

"I did," the cowboy said.

"That asshole!" Dawn yelled. "Oh, I wish Spike and Xander were here. My big brothers would teach him a lesson. I wish. I really, REALLY Wish!"

"Dawn, no!" Giles yelled. He stopped as the last words left her lips. "Too late," he said as the green glow of the Key filled the room.

When it cleared there were two new people in the room. One was Alexander Lavelle Xander Harris and the other was William the Blood AKA Spike.

"Uhm... Oops?" Dawn offered.

"Oh, Bloody hell," the bleached blond vampire growled. "Bloody, Bloody Hell."

END PROLOGUE