Disclaimer: I don’t own any characters or shows appearing on the WB, or any members of the BCS extended community appearing in this fic.  This part is the bleak nasty future which is so bad that it must be prevented at all costs, so no offense to anyone suffering a fate worse than death which is to be prevented by the changing of the future.  (In non-legalese, sorry to anyone who dies, but you’re all going to get better in a future part! :) )  All trout appearing herein, however, are my own......

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20 Years from now.....

 

It is a bleak war-torn future.  Those members of the BCS board who survived the great board war are hounded by cybernetic enforcers of the Dawson’s Freaks.  The enforcers are controlled by a chip implanted at the base of the neck which broadcasts reruns of shows such as Felicity, Dawson’s Creek, Popular, and other non-Buffy WB shows directly into the brain, destroying the subject’s minds and allowing them to be controlled as part of the collective.  Removal of the chips is fatal, and all too many have seen friends turned to the Dawson’s Side.....

 

Somewhere in New England....

 

Amidst the wreckage of the many skirmishes, a lone figure can be seen, searching the landscape for anything that can be salvaged.  Slowly, cautiously, she proceeds across the field, until suddenly, she hears a sound.  Without a word, she carefully pulls out a very worn flame thrower out and powers it up. 

 

Talia:  *whispers quietly to her mom’s old flame thrower*  Well mom, maybe I’m coming to join you now.... but I won’t go without a fight.  *Points the flame thrower in the direction of the noise, yells out defiantly*  Throw down your weapons, Freaks, and come out NOW, or you’re going to be TOAST!

 

A large trout is thrown to the ground from behind a pile of wreckage.  Out steps a worn figure, hands above his head.

 

Green Armadillo:  It’s been a while, Talia.

Talia: Green!!!!!  *runs up and hugs GA*  We thought you were dead for sure.  But.... What brings you here?

GA:  I need to speak with Fred.

Talia: *stops, holds in a sniffle*  Green, Fred.... She.. was taken.  She’s one of them now.

GA:  *bows head in sorrow for a moment*  I see.  Who’s in charge now?  I’ve got some very important information.  The only hope for all of us is that we work together on this.

Talia: Oh, Ozzie is running things now

GA:  Okie, take me to him then.  It’ll be like old times, I’m sure.

 

Talia escorts GA back to the DS’ hidden base and the pair arrive before Ozzie.

 

Ozzie: *holding the tip of his light sabre inches from GA’s face* Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kill you right now.

GA: Cause that would make for a pretty stupid fic, wouldn’t you say?

Talia: He HAS got a bit of a point there.

Ozzie:  Okay.  So what brings the leader of GLR to DS headquarters?

GA: I have proof that the Dawson’s Freaks have been manipulating both our sides from day one, because they wanted us to be too busy fighting each other to oppose their takeover.

Ozzie: That’s the silliest thing I heard since they said a 14 year old would be joining the Buffy cast!  Waitaminute......

GA:  *looks Ozzie in the eyes*  You really believe it was a coincidence that your first counter-strike ambush took out Greeneyes and Lindsers?  Or that we somehow discovered the location where the entire DS council was meeting by accident?  Don’t you see, if it hadn’t been for the evil one... *voice breaks off, a tear coming to his eye*  if it hadn’t been for f=j.....

Ozzie: *cuts him off, angrily* If it hadn’t been for my daughter’s sacrifice, you’d have killed the whole DS council and won the war.  That would have made you happy, I’ll bet.

GA: *shouting back*  Don’t you see, it was all a plot to make sure we didn’t have any leaders left!  If there wasn’t SOMEONE to negotiate the ceasefire, the war would have continued until the Freaks had taken over everything.  We’d ALL be dead right now.

Talia:  And we’d have Joey and Pacey running around in our brains?  Ick!

Ozzie:  Ok, so what DO you want?

GA:  The question is what do YOU want.  Don’t you want to know who’s behind all this?  *pulls out a folder, tosses it down on the table*  Photos taken outside WB headquarters two days before they made the decision to have Riley cross over into every show on the network. 

Ozzie:  *shakes head*  They thought he would bring all their shows the same controversy he brought to B:TVS, and thus boost ratings.

Talia: Boy, did they get their controversy.

Ozzie: *looks down at the photos, suddenly his jaw drops in shock*  Is this.... who I think it is?

GA: I’m afraid so.

Talia:  *looks at the pictures*  Who IS that?

Ozzie: *in a quiet voice*  Larry.  Our greatest enemy.  Are you telling me he set this all up?  Pitted us all against each other like this?  WHY?!

GA: Because he wants to destroy everything he sees, especially the board?

Talia.  Oh.  Good point.

Ozzie: So he made Riley cross-over to provoke a war between GLR and the Dark Side?

GA: And he had our leaders assassinated, because they were the only ones who might have realized that there was a common threat and stopped the war....

Talia:  BM, Jackson, Kurupt, Riv.... Larry was responsible for that chat room bomb?

Ozzie:  It all makes sense now.... I never did understand why the GLR would possibly want to do something like that, but we all thought they did and given the Riley situation, war was the only option...  Larry played us all from the start.  And there’s nothing we can do about it now.

GA: Don’t be too sure of that.

Talia:  And you think you can stop him?  How?!

GA:  We’ll need the central programming grid.

Ozzie:  The computer the Freaks use to hypnotize their followers by constant broadcast of DC and Felicity reruns?

GA:  The same.

Talia:  How is that going to help us?

GA:  Well, as you know once the world realized what the Freaks were trying to do they tried to wipe out DC and Felicity by deploying nuclear weapons against the WB. 

Ozzie: Yeah, the master tapes of all those shows were wiped out when the nukes generated an EMP which destroyed all magnetic recording medium....

Talia: Right.  So the Central Programming Grid distorts time so they can run re-runs from the PAST, before the tapes were destroyed.

Ozzie:  And you think you can use the grid to send some message back into the past?

GA:  More than a message.  A person.  But there’s a catch.  It’s GOT to be someone who WASN’T actively posting the week the war broke out.  The distortion employs high energy and can be very unstable.  If we send someone who was already there...

Talia:  All the energy will discharge, and who knows what THAT would do.....

Ozzie: *shakes head*  But EVERYONE was there that week though.  I mean, that was the week the spoilers started coming out for the new season.

GA: I know, that’s what I found at our camp too.

Talia: Uh.... I wasn’t there.

GA and Ozzie:  Huh?

Talia: *grimaces*  I was grounded.  AGAIN. 

GA: Talia, you may be the world’s only hope.

Ozzie:  But how are we going to get her into the central programming grid?  Someone would need to take out the shielding substation, and we don’t have anywhere NEAR that much manpower left.

GA:  GLR strike teams are coordinating a strike on the substation as we speak.  The attack will begin in 2 hours, and the shields will come down for 10 minutes.  You in?

Ozzie: To save the world from Larry and DC?  What choice do I have?  We’re not all going to be able to sneak into the grid.

GA:  Great.  I’ll go in to cover Tal.

Ozzie: Why?

GA: I think you know.

Talia: Huh?  What are you guys talking about?

Ozzie: I guess you’re right.  I can better coordinate my people from the outside anyway.

GA: Then let’s go.

Talia: Hey!  What’s going on?

 

The attack went forward as planned two hours later.  Ozzie and his team fought valiantly to allow GA and Talia to sneak into the grid facility, even when faced with the greatest threat of all.... Former board members converted to enforcers of the Dawson’s Freaks.....

 

GA: *reconfiguring the grid to send Talia back*  Okie, Tal, you know what to do, right?

Talia: I have to warn the people on board that Larry is behind the Riley crossovers, and prevent the assassination of the board leaders.

GA: Right.  Above ALL else, your priority is to keep GLR and the DS from fighting.  Not an easy task, what with their ideologies, I know.  *sets small packages around the room, as the generator powers up and the portal begins to open*  And I’ll... *doesn’t finish the sentence for a minute*

Talia:  What, GA?  And what were you and Ozzie talking about?

GA: Nothing Tal.  I’m going to stay and take care of things on this end.  Good luck.

*The portal opens*

Talia: *steps towards the portal, looks back* Thanks.  Take care, Green.

GA: You too, Tal.

 

Talia steps through the portal and is sent back to the present.  GA finishes with what he was doing and is getting ready to leave when he suddenly hears a voice behind him.

 

Voice 1: I guess you’re planning to blow up the grid so we can’t follow her, huh?  In the process freeing all of our troops from our control?  Gotta hand it to you, you sure aim high... twin brother.

GA: *without turning around* Roxy.  Guess it figures they’d send you to stop me.

Roxymoron: You know that even if you succeed here, she doesn’t have a chance.

GA: Talia knows what she’s doing.  All she has to do is warn the boarders and they’ll stop Larry’s plot.

Voice 2: Oh, you just don’t get it, do you brother dear?

GA:  Fred..... What do you mean?

Fred: How do you think we managed to get close enough to assassinate the board leaders?  We had... *gestures to the chip on the back of her neck* help.

GA:  Dear god.  You were controlling the boarders back then?  But wait, the chips weren’t as sophisticated in those days.....

Roxy: True.  The mark one chip could be removed without killing the wearer, and they lacked a surge protector.  But that isn’t going to help your dear friend Talia since she doesn’t suspect that the people she’s going to help aren’t all on her side......

GA: Oh... I think she’ll know what to look for.  *Holds up a tape recorder to show them, throws it into the portal as it closes*

Fred:  Clever gadget, brother dear.  Now let’s see how you like mine.... *cracks her whip*

GA: *hit by the whip, feels a sting, starts to get a headache*

Fred: My whip just implanted you with the mark 3 chip.... You’re about to join US, brother.

GA: *falls to knees, mind being flooded with images for DC, screams*

Roxy:  Let go brother!  Yield to the hypnotic power of James Van Der Beek’s massive forehead!

Fred:  That thought scares even me.

GA:  Me too, actually.  *reaches into pocket, pulls out a small transmitter with a switch on it*  And believe me when I say I’d rather die..... *pushes switch*

 

Outside the complex, Ozzie and his fellow DS’ers are being pushed back when suddenly the night sky is lit up with an explosion.  The blast wipes out the command center, and hits the reactors, causing a chain reaction and destroying the whole facility.  Deprived of their flow of Felicity and DC, the Freak enforcer suddenly regain consciousness and are back to normal.  As the survivors pick up the pieces, Ozzie looks at the remains of the grid facility.

 

VampyrSlayer:  *comes up to Ozzie to report*  Looks like we got off pretty lightly.  And we’ve regained some old comrades.  *pauses for a minute*  GA isn’t coming out, is he?

Ozzie:  No, he isn’t.  He knew that from the beginning.  That’s why he went in himself instead of letting me go.

VS:  I guess we have a fighting chance now.

Ozzie:  Yeah.  And who knows, maybe Talia can prevent this whole mess.....

 

The Present

Talia puts down the tape recorder, crying slightly. 

Talia:  Thanks, GA.  I’ll handle the rest...

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