The Butterfly Effect (Buffy story)

Fanfiction
Title:	The Butterfly Effect
Author(s):	cousinjean
Date(s):	2004 or earlier
Length:
Genre(s):	het
Fandom(s):	Buffyverse
Relationship(s):
External Links:	Adult-Fanfiction.org, Author's Personal website
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The Butterfly Effect is a Spike/Buffy story by cousinjean. This was originally posted at cousinjean's Lj and later hosted at Dancing Lessons, a Redemptionist fanfic site, not to be confused with the fic of the same name Dancing Lessons which was also hosted on that site and co-written by cousinjean.

Both The Butterfly Effect and Dancing Lessons were mentioned when cousinjean asked fans to donate money so she could take a year off of work and finish her WIP fics. While The Butterfly Effect is complete, its sequel Ripples remains incomplete as cousinjean left fandom due to the controversy surrounding her attempt to profit from her works. See Cousinjean and Profit Wank

Five months after the events of "Chosen," a still grieving Buffy must follow a time-travelling demon back to 1997 (circa Season 2) Sunnydale to prevent him from destroying the timeline--and try not to destroy it herself in the process.

Reactions and Reviews

A very beautiful fic where a post-Chosen Buffy travels back in time to Season 2. Buffy and Spike end up connecting in a sort of inevitable, visceral way that show how truly drawn to one another they are, regardless of the timing of their meeting.

At first glance, the Butterfly Effect seems to be one out of many “what-if”, time-travel stories, but Cousinjean's execution renders the piece into a real gem. Set five months after "Chosen", Buffy returns to S2's Sunnydale on a mission. There, she meets Spike again and has to convince him to help her. Revisiting the past gives Buffy a chance to see Spike as he is, sans soul, chip or the burden of loving her. And Buffy is finally struck by an epiphany... The Butterfly Effect is a classic. Tight and compact, it's an easy read with a polished emotional and structural resolution few other stories can boast of. In case you are wondering about that one niggling plotline at the end, Cousinjean did embark on a sequel titled "Ripples", but it's not likely to be completed.