A/N: I really need a BETA for this story.
A/N: This story is not finished. I only have another chapter written that is nowhere near ready for posting. It will be slow going because I have so many other unfinished stories that take attention.
I do not own Buffy or Willow I just wish I did.
Wildfire-Working Title
Welcome To Fairberry Nebraska
Population 4,236
Seriously, the green highway sign says that, welcome to Fairberry Nebraska! I know that almost every town in the country has a sign like that one and that a sign really doesn't affect whether or not the Vampires can enter a town. It's just after of years of dealing with the supernatural it's the idea of inviting anything into your city grates on my nerves.
Actually, everything is getting on my nerves at the moment. Despite the blazing glare of the high summer sun shining in my eyes, I find the turn off to the town where I'm supposed to meet Buffy. To be honest it wasn't hard to find, there had been signs every few miles for the past fifty. And on top of the signs, I could see the town coming closer with every hill I crested for the past ten miles. I always thought Nebraska was flat, not hilly. In all the old westerns Nebraska and the Oregon Trail was always flat.
'She comes down from Yellow Mountain
On a dark, flat land she rides
On a pony she named Wildfire'
The lyrics to the old Michael Murphy song float through my head. The hills I've been driving through since Lincoln certainly match the yellow mountain theme because they are huge and golden with ripening wheat. I guess if I consider how long and flat the valleys and the top of the hills are we could go with flat...Maybe? The narrow two-lane highway is like a straight ribbon through the "yellow mountains" of the wheat.
With a whirlwind by her side
On a cold Nebraska night
Um, maybe the whirlwind is a tornado? Or maybe not? As my rental SUV physically passes the town's official city limits, I feel some kind of earth magic rising up behind me like a giant wall. It's old, old magic and more than likely Native America in origin. Just the brief exposure to it tells me that it's not a threat to me. It felt protective and I would be willing to bet that no tornado had ever touched down within the city limits. A lot of the Native American magic in the Midwest was geared towards the weather.
My guess is that somewhere in the middle Fairberry there is a valley created out of seven of those enormous hills where an American Indian tribe would camp for a full summer of Buffalo hunting. I had run across this before in Texas and again in Oklahoma. Some tribe camped in the same place for thousands of years and each spring the Shaman probably put up protections against evil entering the camp and against a storm blowing things apart. It was a testament to how rich the land was and how full of life it used to be that the protections still stood. The amount of energy it took to create a protective circle this big had to be incredible and to have it still be this active and strong hundreds of years after the tribe died? It amazes me that I'm supposed to be the strongest witch since Merlin and yet, a Shaman of a forgotten tribe was able to generate and use more power for this simple protection spell than I could in three lifetimes.
Hmm, I wonder why Buffy didn't mention the protections when she called the Council for help?
Oh, damn it, I missed the turn into the Susan Vogel Softball and Athletic Complex. Instead of slamming on brakes and backing up I decide to go the next cross roads and turn around. I hate driving these huge SUVs, I'd much rather drive a Ford Fusion, but small cars have a nasty habit of being blown off the road in states like Iowa, Nebraska, and Kansas so I decided to rent something heavy, which also means big. The roads in the Midwest tend to be laid out in a classic straight line grid pattern, thus I know there is a good chance that the next intersection will be a crossroad with enough clearance for me to make a U-turn. Trying to make a Y-turn on this tiny two-lane highway would be even more nerve racking.
As I turn the SUV around and head back to the entrance for the Softball Field I try to prepare myself to see my former best friend for the first time in over ten years.
I turn down a surprisingly tree lined lane that wraps around the complex and it is a complex because I count at least eight fields or are they considered diamonds(?) in which has some kind of game. These are the first real trees I've seen since I left Lincoln. I have to say that Nebraska is tree lite or at least the small part of Nebraska that I've seen so far is tree lite. It's kind of a relief to be under the shade and out of the sun.
As I drive the lane that circles around the complex and I begin to understand the strategic value of meeting here. Buffy will see me before I would even have a chance of seeing her. So my former best friend is as worried about this meeting as I am. To be honest I'm not sure why I insisted on being the one who met with her. Almost any one of the Slayer/Watcher combinations stationed in the Midwest could have handled the meeting. I didn't have to drop everything in London and hop on the first transatlantic flight out of Heathrow. I guess that after ten years and not hearing a word from her I wanted some answers. I knew the last operation she had gone on ended badly, but why did she have to run? I thought we were working our "Sunnydale" issues out until I got the phone call from her saying she had to retire because she couldn't handle it any more.
I park the monster SUV at the outer part of the gravel lot. It's not so much that I want to be able to get away fast, it's just easier than to try to search for space. I take a deep breath trying to center my emotions because it just hit me-I am going to be face-to-face with Buffy. The woman I owe so much too, the woman who took a shy nerd and helped me become The Red Witch. Buffy is also the woman who broke my heart, or not really broke it so much as ripped it out of my chest. I was so in love with her that last year in Sunnydale and Scotland. The problem was she couldn't get over what she thought of as my betrayal in kicking her out of the house.
'The Betrayal!' in my mind I hear Xander sing, Dum, de, Dum, Dum, da! And of course quotation marks go around the words. The thing is: I don't feel like I betrayed Buffy that night.
I know that I was right in siding with Giles, Xander, and Dawn, it was the way everything just got out of hand that made the difference. None of us were used to telling Buffy no when it came to slaying. She had been our leader for seven years! So when we tried to ask her to just stop and think about planning the attack on the Vineyard, the entire situation just went bad.
And I have to admit that my sleeping with Kennedy didn't help matters. I still can't believe Dawn asked Buffy to leave the house and wander the bringer infested streets.
Still I really thought we were working it all out in Scotland until she just called us up from the airport and said she was retiring. She was taking her money out of her bank accounts and she didn't want to be found.
At first we couldn't believe it. Then we were furious that she would abandon us-again. Then as the years started to go by and the stress of saving the world firmly planted itself on all of our shoulders, we began to understand. Buffy had managed to keep us and the world safe for seven years, without money, without slayer back-up, without a witch as "powerful as Merlin." She did it with grace and in the name of love... Until the final year in Sunnydale.
The gravel of the parking lot crunches under my feet as I walk to the path that will take me into the heart of the complex. Buffy said she would be waiting for me at the center where all the picnic tables are and where there are shelters . I try to walk briskly, as if I belong, down the paved path between two fields. What appears to be to a Little League baseball game is to the right and a youth softball game to the left. I have a moment of satisfaction when I notice that girl's in the fast pitch softball game are throwing harder that boys.
"Hi Will," and suddenly, there she was standing before me.