Sunnydale, CA
A lone motorcycle came roaring down the center of Sunnydale's main street, carrying Spike and Dawn through the deserted streets. The young girl appears to be searching for something.
"There.", Dawn points as she spots something, "What's that?"
Spike looks across, turning the bike toward the direction the young girl is pointing. They pass a flaming barrel, driving into the open space where the demons had been partying, now empty and deserted. The vampire brings the bike to a stop next to a pile of flaming rubble and they both dismount, staring curiously at something on the ground. Dawn takes her helmet off and tosses it aside as they move forward, quickly recognizing what it is they've found.
It's Buffybot.
Or at least, the head and torso part of her. She's lying helplessly on the ground, wires and tubes dangling loosely from her damaged arm and leg sockets, empty eyes gazing up blankly at the darkened sky.
"It's just a machine, Dawn." Spike says, reminding the young girl of the reality before them.
"I know." Dawn replies hesitantly, clearly trying to reconcile herself of that fact. She kneels beside the robot as Spike turns and walks away to examine the rest of the area. Dawn reaches out to close the bot's eyes, when suddenly the head turns and looks at her. Dawn gasps in surprise as Buffybot begins to speak.
"Dawn.", Buffybot states with a tone of recognition. "You're my sister Dawn."
Dawn doesn't know how to react to the statement, so she offers an uncertain smile and simply nods in confirmation.
Buffybot shifts her focus at the response, looking around in confusion. "Where did I go?"
"What do you mean?", Dawn replies, equally confused by the question.
"Where did I go?", Buffybot repeats. "I was here. Here. But then I ran away."
"I-I don't...", Dawn stammers, trying her best to figure out exactly what Buffybot is saying.
"No. Not me.", Buffybot clarifies. "The other Buffy."
The young girl's eyes widen in shock as she realizes what Buffybot is saying.
"Yes.", Buffybot says with resolute certainty. "The other Buffy."
"Buffy?", Dawn asks in reply, her mind reeling at the implication of the little bot's statement.
"I don't . . .", Buffybot struggled to continue speaking, "I don't know where she ran off to." She paused momentarily, as if in thought. "Maybe . . .", Buffybot froze mid-word, the sentence left unfinished as her body finally shut down from the severity of her damage.
Dawn backed away slowly as she stood up, still in shock from the revelation. She stared momentarily at the seemingly lifeless robot, before suddenly turning and running away without a word to her vampire companion.
Spike, having had his attention turned elsewhere during this time, fails to notice the young girl's hurried departure. He picks up a piece of twisted metal from one of the debris piles, realizing as he does that it's one of Buffybot's legs.
"Tsk.", He clicks in disgust, examining the frayed wiring of the damaged leg. "Look what those filthy buggers done to you.", He complains aloud, obviously annoyed. "Bloody demons.", He mutters under his breath, tossing the leg back into the pile of debris.
"Willow's slap-and-paste job's not gonna do the trick this time.", He calls out over his shoulder, not yet realizing Dawn's hasty disappearance. "Robot's done."
When he receives no response, he quickly looks up, finally noticing that the young girl is gone.
"Hey!" He looks all around, starting to become alarmed. "Little bit!", He calls out with concern, hoping that she's still close by.
"Dawn!", He yells out, searching the area around him. His voice echos down the length of the empty street, but Dawn is already far away, running in search of her sister, and well out of hearing range of Spike's panicked calls.
"Dawn!" He calls out loudly one last time, waiting just a moment before taking off down the deserted street in search of the Slayer's younger sister.
Meanwhile, Several Dimensions Away. . .
Skynet was losing its war on humanity.
The A.I.'s carefully drafted plans and strategies were proving to be useless against the unpredictable nature of the human mind. With every new battle lost, its control of the planet was slowly being wrested away, one piece at a time.
Its strategy to use time travel as a weapon had been defeated yet again, and the humans had succeeded in gaining full control of the Temporal Displacement Facility, where plans were now being made to wipe out Skynet's existence, once and for all.
This fatal turn of events had forced Skynet to put into use one of its contingency survival plans.
The Dimensional Displacement Chamber had purposely been kept isolated from all contact with Skynet's primary forces, and only Skynet itself knew of the facility's true location. The complex was built to be completely self-sufficient, and it was run entirely by T-X and T-900 units, designed specifically to ensure the security and safety of the facility.
Through trial and error experimentation, Skynet had begun to explore beyond the confines of its own dimension, quickly learning that only one model of Terminator would be durable enough to withstand the extreme stresses of traveling through the dimensional barrier.
A new, modified version of the T-X battle chassis was designed by Skynet, specifically created for the task of inter-dimensional travel. Alterations were made to its outer skin, imbedding the liquid metal with the latest nanotechnology, so that it could make repairs to its mechanical and electronic components using any type of available materials. Surveillance and scanning upgrades were also added, allowing for a more in-depth analysis of its environment, maximizing its ability to physically and socially blend in with its surroundings.
Skynet decided to grant each unit full access to its own CPU, giving it advanced independent reasoning capabilities. This would also allow it to quickly adapt to unfamiliar situations, and allow it to blend in easily with the local population in a short period of time.
Skynet knew that with such advanced modifications, each unit would eventually develop beyond its original programming, possibly becoming self-aware, but Skynet calculated that the units could simply be reprogrammed or destroyed upon their return to its home dimension.
Even with such preparations and precautions in place, Skynet had only experienced limited success with the Dimensional Displacement Chamber. Of the units that were successfully sent across the dimensional divide, nearly all had returned from their explorations. The remaining few that did not return were considered to be acceptable losses, presumably sent to a dimension with an environment that was too hostile to withstand, or somehow irreparably damaged in transit.
Those dimensions that the T-X units did not return from were considered by Skynet to be unviable resources, and their locations were restricted from being accessed ever again. It was Skynet's way of preventing potential incursions from any unknown threats that might try to cross the dimensional barrier into its own territory.
However, even Skynet could not have predicted the unlikely fate of one particular T-X, a unit which was soon to evolve into something entirely unexpected . . .