Wesley's Mulligan
, written by Hotpoint, is a story where an incorrect time travel spell sends Wesley back in time from season five of Angel to season 3 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, when he was a vastly different person. He uses his knowledge of the past and improved strategy, fighting skills, and ruthless pragmatism to Set Right What Once Went Wrong, both in small ways like stopping some minor villains a little earlier and in big ways like trying to save Fred from Pylea early and keep Faith from ever losing her way. The story ends prematurely with several plot points unresolved, but doesn’t end on a bad Cliffhanger either.
Tropes:
- Adaptational Heroism: Amy Madison never becomes the bitter antagonistic person she becomes in canon, as Wesley helps Willow and Michael turn her back into a human after three months instead of three years and the Scooby Gang show her more sympathy and concern, help her get back to her life, and invite her to work alongside Faith for evil-fighting missions. Amy appreciates all of this and becomes Wesley and Faith's most reliable ally while retaining most of her pleasant seasons 1-3 personality.
- Annoying Younger Sibling: Andrew and Tucker Wells get to appear together, unlike in the show, and Andrew is quick to blab about Tucker's plan when frightened, as well as going on about how he thinks his own disruption of the school play was much cooler.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Anya mentions that she knew him Heinrich Joseph Nest (aka The Master) when he was just a Small Name, Big Ego vampire mook everyone called "Heiny".
- Karma Houdini: Wesley helps Mr. Chase escape being arrested by the IRS for tax fraud, albeit only because doing so will likely let Cordelia live a longer and happier life than she did after her father's arrest in canon.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Wesley killing Professor Seidel (so Fred won't want to do so later on, also so Seidel can't tell anyone Wesley stole his notes, and to prevent Seidel from killing more of his students), and the Mayor and Finch (so they can't corrupt Faith and the Mayor won't kill several seniors on graduation day) does solve a lot of problems without changing history too much, and they all have done a lot to deserve it. However, killing them with the same gun causes a ballistics hit that makes Wolfram & Hart snoop around Sunnydale and threatens to change the timeline in serious ways.
- Not So Above It All: Buffy tends to disapprove of the ruthless new version of Wesley, but does admit his Sword Cane is cool.
