Angel Island
Author: Late White Rabbit
Rating: G
Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from Buffy: the Vampire Slayer, but if I did Xander would be married to Faith, Spike would be less whipped, the potentials would all be in an unfortunate 'accident,' and Tara, the best character ever, would still be alive.
(AN: I wrote this a billion and a half years ago. At the time, the characters and relationships in the story were all current. I don't really write this poorly anymore. I think. Please be kind.)
White Star Ferry, destination Angel Island, early morning
"I'm the king of the world," shouted Xander Harris as he perched precariously on the bow of the ferry.
"Stop, the first time I saw that movie was traumatic enough," Buffy said as she yanked him back into the boat by the collar of his shirt.
"Look, guys," said Willow to Buffy, Xander, and her boyfriend Oz, "We're almost there!" She said it with just a bit too much enthusiasm for a school trip.
"Oh, yay," Xander quipped, "time for a visit to the rinky-dink little island of historical facts and no fun."
"It might be interesting," Willow said in a hopeful voice.
"Will, what is it with you and this island?" Oz waited for her answer.
"Well, I was being research girl for Giles, and I discovered all these neat, well not neat, more like bloody, um, supernatural-type thingys that could all be traced back to Angel Island."
"Great," Xander said, "Hellmouth to Hellmouth transportation. Ah, a slayer's work is never done."
"No," Buffy said firmly, "this is my boring class trip and I'm going to be a normal teen if it kills me."
***
Outside the S.F. Legacy House, dusk
Giles, who was leading the tour of the island, stopped in front of the impressive house and turned to the group of exhausted teenagers. "This house is the final stop on our tour. It belongs to the prestigious Luna Foundation."
As Giles droned on about the historical significance of the house, somewhere near the back of the group, Xander said to his friends in an exaggerated voice, "Must...kill...Giles...for...taking...us...on...death...march."
"I didn't think it was that bad," Buffy said.
"Yes, well not all of us have super-human powers," Xander replied. Buffy and Xander verbally sparred for a little while longer.
Willow pulled Oz away. "You know," she said, "There was one other thing I wanted to see on this island."
"Yeah, well, it looks like Giles isn't gonna be done anytime soon. Let's go check it out."
"Really?! It's kinda, um, creepy."
He thought for a second. "You're a witch, I'm a werewolf. Will, we are creepy."
"Huh, I never thought about it that way." The two of them hurried off.
Buffy and Xander soon grew tired of verbally abusing one another and noticed their friends or total lack thereof. "Great," Buffy said, "our friends have disappeared." She looked up at the sky. "And now it's raining. With our luck, some vampires have decided to get away from it all and come to Angel Island for some fun in the sun, or, um, dark, I guess."
Just then the door of the house opened and a young woman stepped out and walked toward Giles. He appeared to be expecting her and stepped toward her. "Lovely to see you, Ms. Moreau," he said as he shook her hand.
"Hello again, Mr. Giles. Another school trip, I suppose."
"Yes, in fact. Since you're here, would you care to enlighten the students about the work of the Luna Foundation?
"Of course." Alex then launched into a fair imitation of Giles during one of his long speeches. Fortunately, before the students begun passing out from boredom, one of the ferry's crewmen rushed up to the weary group.
"Mr. Giles, I'm afraid we'll have to cut the trip short. With the storm, the waters are getting dangerous. We'll have to leave immediately.
"Oh, yes, of course." Giles turned back to the group. "Students, the trip is over. You should all head back to the boat." Turning back to Alex, he said, "Well, we have to leave. It was nice to see you again." He started to walk away.
"Wait," she stopped him, "have you seen a little girl around here?"
"Why no, I'm afraid. Is she missing?"
"Yes, she's my friend's daughter, but she does this sort of thing a lot, so I wouldn't worry." At this point, Buffy and Xander rushed up.
Giles, a bit surprised, said, "Oh, hello. Alex, this is Buffy Summers and Xander Harris. Buffy, Xander, this is Alex Moreau, a member of the Luna Foundation."
He was about to continue, but Buffy interrupted, "Um, problem. We can't leave cause Willow and Oz aren't here."
"Well, may I ask where they are?"
"Well, if we knew that, wouldn't we be there by now?" Xander said sarcastically.
"Oh dear, I do remember Willow mentioning a cemetery on this island that she was very interested in."
Xander spoke up again. "Wow, a cemetery where the dead might actually stay dead."
Buffy elbowed him in the gut. "Don't mind him, he forgot his medication this morning."
"Um, okay," sputtered Alex. "I can take you guys there if you'd like."
"Thank you. That would be wonderful of you." Giles sighed.
"I'm sorry, sir," shouted the crewman from the dock, "but we must leave this minute to outrun the storm."
"Alright, fine," said Giles, obviously at a loss for ideas. "Go on ahead. I can't leave the students, so we'll," he stuttered, "we'll figure something out." The man shrugged and followed the last student onto the ferry.
"Oh, Rupert, you and your students can stay here at the house tonight after you find your friends. No one should wait out in this terrible storm," offered Alex.
"Hello? Missing people? Lots of 'em," reminded Buffy.
"Come on I'll take you to the graveyard," Alex said.
***
Meanwhile at Angel Island Cemetery
Oz and Willow stumbled through the cemetery guided only by Oz's high- powered flashlight.
"How did you know to bring one of those, anyway?" Willow asked.
"Think about it, Will. When have we ever gone anywhere where we didn't end up in a dark, somewhat life-threatening place?"
"Oh."
"What are we looking for anyway?" Oz wondered.
"Well, there are all these family plots here, and one particular family were rumored to be witches in the last century."
"Yet again, why are we here?"
"See, these aren't just any witches. They're supposed to be like the Corleone family of witches." Willow continued her explanation of the family, but was cut off by Oz.
"Hey, Will, is it safe for little girls to be out in a thunderstorm?"
"Hey! I'm not a little girl!" Willow said defensively.
"No, over there," he said pointing to two girls talking in front of a large gravestone. The couple approached the two girls.
"Hey," said Willow quietly as she put her hand on one girl's shoulder. She gasped as it passed straight through the girl.
Oz, stunned, said, "Oh, its a supernatural little girl. Wow, its like we never left Sunnydale." To the other little girl, he said, "Do you know your friend's a ghost?"
Kat Corrigan, which was the girl's name (the solid non-ghost one) told them, "I was lonely and I wanted a friend, so I cast a spell to bring someone who would understand me. You guys are here to be my friends too, aren't you? By the way, I'm Kat."
"A spell, like, a witchy-spell?" Willow asked hopefully.
"Yeah, but don't tell anyone that I cast a spell. My mom would be real mad," she whispered in response.
"Okay, I'm Willow and this is Oz. Maybe you should go home cause it seems kinda dangerous out here, with the storm and, you know, the ghost," she whispered.
"No! She's my friend!" Kat said loudly.
"Yeah, Kat, follow me," the ghost shouted as she ran towards the woods at the edge of the cemetery. Kat followed her, but as soon as she reached the ghost, they both vanished into thin air. A second later the ghost reappeared, saying ominously, "Now she's mine!"
***
Seconds before, Alex, Giles, Buffy, and Xander had arrived at the cemetery. They caught only a glimpse of Kat and the ghost before they disappeared. After the ghost's second disappearance, they ran over to Willow and Oz.
"Kat! Where did she go? What did you two do to her?" Alex looked accusingly at Willow and Oz.
"They didn't do anything to her, I assure you," Giles said.
"Then where is she?" Alex yelled, grabbing Willow. She suddenly got visions of Willow and others gathered around a pentagram on the ground, during a sabbat. (This clearly drove her off the deep end.) "You! You're a witch, you kidnapped Kat!" she said accusingly.
"She's not a witch," Giles lied.
"Actually..." Willow began.
Buffy cut her off, "Will, you have the right to remain silent, and I suggest you exercise that right."
"Oh, right," Willow said quietly.
"Well, if she's not a witch, why is she wearing that?" Alex pointed to Willow's necklace, which displayed a pentagram pendant.
"What?" Willow said innocently, "It's just a pentagram."
"It's a witch's symbol. You're from the Dark Side," the Legacy member accused.
"Willow is certainly not from the dark side, whatever that is," Giles reassured.
"Wait," the ever-clueless Xander cut in, "You think Willow is Darth Vader?"
"She's not talking about Star Wars, man," Oz replied.
"Oh, I knew that."
"Sure you did," Buffy told Xander. Then to Alex, she said, "Willow is our friend. She's not evil."
"How do I know that? Maybe you're all from the Dark Side, even you, Rupert." Alex looked at them suspiciously.
"Well, even if we were evil, which we're not, accusing us of it in a rainy cemetery is not going to help get your friend back," Buffy said rationally.
"You're right," Alex agreed, "Evil, but right. I have to contact Derek and the others and get help." This last part she said to herself because, as I mentioned before, she kinda went of the deep end. Then she said to the Sunnydale gang, "I'm going back to the house for help. You will all have to wait here until we determine if you're dangerous or not."
"Of course," Xander said sarcastically, "The cemetery is the perfect place to camp out on a dark and stormy night. Especially if you're in a horror movie."
"Come on, Xander, our lives are nothing like a horror movie. They're much gorier," Buffy quipped.
"And more violent," Oz put in.
"And all around creepier," Willow offered.
Giles cut in, "Regardless of that, Xander is right."
"Yeah," Buffy interrupted, "In his own special Xander-like way."
"I'll take that as a compliment," Xander said.
"Anyway, Alex, you can't leave us out here in the middle of the storm," Giles pleaded.
"Plus, there does seem to be that pesky ghost problem around here," Willow said timidly.
"Alex, please trust me," Giles said, "We pose no threat to you and we'd like to help you, if we can."
"Well, I'm still pretty sure you're evil, but I guess you can come back to the house with me, on the off chance that you're not from the Dark Side," Alex told them.
"Great, just what I need. More people who think I'm the wicked witch of the west," Willow said unhappily.
"Don't worry. I'll protect you from any falling houses," Oz assured her as they all left the cemetery heading for the Legacy House.
***
Back at the Legacy House
Rachel, Nick, Kristen, and Derek were frantically searching the house for Kat and Alex when Alex burst through the door, leading the Sunnydale group behind her.
"Did you find Kat?" Rachel, Kat's mother, asked desperately.
"Well, she appeared to be kidnapped by a ghost," her friend replied.
"A ghost!" Nick said, "I can't shoot a ghost! I need something solid to beat up."
"I also found this group of stranded students. They needed to stay somewhere, but..."
Alex was cut off by Buffy, who said, "Look, I know what you're gonna say next, so before you do, let me just say: We're not evil! Just because Willow's a witch does not mean-"
"A witch!" Derek cut her speech short, "Um, I think we need to discuss this in private," he said as he slowly backed toward the door. "Now!" he shouted. The entire Legacy group broke into a run and sprinted for the conference room.
"Hey, wait," Oz remembered, "Wasn't that kid, their friend, a witch, too? What hypocrites!"
***
In the Conference Room
"That girl, the red-haired one, I saw it, she's a witch! I saw a vision of her performing unholy sacrifices, well not sacrifices per se, but she's evil, definitely evil!" Alex declared.
"We have to save Kat from them!" Rachel said.
"Well, I'm not absolutely certain they have Kat," Alex reconsidered, "But we have to stop them anyway."
"Let's just go out there and kill them all," Nick suggested unhelpfully, "They look solid enough for bullets. I'll go get my gun."
"Now, Nick, stop being so drastic. We can't just shoot them," Derek, the House's precept, reasoned. "It's never that easy to kill beings from the Dark Side. We'll probably have to find some kind of special incantation."
"Wait," Kristen said, "Even if we knew how to, we can't just kill a bunch of high schoolers because we believe they might be evil."
"Sure I can! Watch me!" Nick said with a crazed look in his eyes.
Just then, Oz came up to the conference room's door and knocked. "Um, guys, you know there is a little girl still missing out there," he said.
"Stop trying to confuse us with the facts, you witches!" came Nick's crazed reply.
***
Back in the Foyer
Giles paced up and down, muttering, "She seemed so normal last year."
Xander, fed up, declared, "I'm beginning to think they're evil."
"Or at least mentally disturbed," Oz put in. "You shoulda heard that guy yelling at me."
Meanwhile, Willow searched through a couple of massive bookcases in the room. "Uh, Will, what are we looking for?" Buffy asked.
"Something to get rid of that ghost and save that little girl. Somebody has to do it!" was her friend's reply.
*** A Little While Later...
"Ohh!" Willow cried, "I found a spell to bring Kat back from the ghost's limbo state and send the ghost on its merry way."
"Great," Buffy said, "Then why do I sense an impending problem?"
"Well, the only thing is," Willow paused, "we need to know Kat's full name to cast the spell."
"Leave that to me," Xander said in his take-charge voice. "Yo, crazy people," he yelled toward the conference room, "What's that girl's full name?"
"We'll never tell you!" Rachel shouted back. "Satanists! Witches! Kidnappers!... Wait," she reconsidered, "I don't believe in witches, so you're just satanists and kidnappers!"
"That's still plenty of reason to kill them," Nick's voice shouted.
"Then we'll just have to break the door down," Xander said loudly. Then, quietly, he asked, "Does anyone know how to do that?"
"Oh, I can!" Willow volunteered. Her pentagram pendant began to glow.
"Allow me, Will," Buffy offered. She kicked the door hard, causing it to fall into the conference room. The Legacy group was clearly stunned.
"Hmm, note to self," Derek muttered into a tape recorder (I'm not sure where he got a tape recorder.), "The witches are displaying superhuman strength, must remember that."
Buffy got straight down to business. "Which one of you is the parent?" The Legacy group all pointed to Rachel out of fear. Buffy walked over to her, pinned her to the wall, and held a stake up in front of her menacingly. "Name?" she said commandingly.
"Don't worry! I'll get my gun!" Nick shouted.
"Oh no!" Rachel said, anticipating what might happen if Nick got his gun. "Its Corrigan!" she said quickly, "Kathryn Anne Corrigan. Just don't let Nick get his gun!"
"Now that you have the information you need," Alex said, "Are you going to kill us all horribly?"
"Uhh, no," was Buffy's reply, "I wasn't planning on it."
"Well, are you gonna drag Kat to Hell with you?" Rachel asked.
"No," the slayer told her, "We're pretty much gonna save her and return her unharmed."
"Wow," Derek said, taking in this new information, "maybe you're really not evil and you have been trying to help us all along. Oh well, live and learn."
"Wow, what a revelation," Buffy said sarcastically. "Now that you believe us, will you help us save Kat?"
"Sure," Alex reassured them, "We'll do anything we can. Right, guys?"
Nick, still looking suspiciously toward them, said, "Well, I still think they're evil, but I guess if it'll save Kat, I can wait till later to send them back to hell."
"Okay," Willow declared, "First we'll need a coven to perform the spell."
"Anyone got one of those in storage?" Buffy said dryly.
"Um, no," Derek said, "But perhaps we can be of some assistance. We have some, ahem, experience with this sort of thing."
"What do you mean?" the until-now silent Giles inquired.
"Well, considering the circumstances," Derek said thoughtfully, "I might as well tell you the truth. You see, we are all members of the Legacy, an organization that operates under the cover of the Luna Foundation. Our mission is to seek out evil and destroy it."
"The Legacy?" Giles questioned, "Why does that sound so familiar?" He had a sudden realization. "Oh my God, you can't mean that Legacy? I had no idea it even existed any longer."
"What? How do you know about the Legacy?" Derek asked, suddenly suspicious.
"Yeah, Giles, what gives?" Buffy wondered.
Giles explained to everyone, "Several hundred years ago, the Legacy was a sort of radical group within the Watchers. They broke away, because they had a rather different philosophy than most Watchers. Instead of working through the slayer, they wished to take the task of fighting evil into their own hands."
"But watchers and slayers are just old Legacy legends," Derek interrupted, "They aren't real.
"They most assuredly are," Giles told him, "I am a member of the Watchers."
"Yeah," Buffy said quickly, "And I'm the slayer."
"Wow," Alex marveled, "They're even less evil then I thought."
"Ha!" Xander said triumphantly, "That'll teach you to jump to conclusions."
"No it won't," Kristin told him, "She already wrote the book on jumping to conclusions."
"Hey!" Alex shouted defensively, "That's Nick, not me!"
"In my experience, none of you are all too good at this rational thinking thing," Xander put in.
"Also, your communication skills suck!" Willow told them. Everyone, even Nick, became quiet. Crickets could be heard chirping. "Hey, I wasn't getting enough lines!" Willow said defensively.
"Great," Oz spoke up, "You fight evil, we fight evil. We're one big happy family. Now can we get to work on saving that kid?"
"Right, the kid, I knew I was forgetting something!" a frustrated Rachel said.
***
At the Cemetery
The ten of them were gathered in front of they grave where Kat was last seen. They were preparing for the ritual to bring her back. Willow held a large book and a piece of chalk. She began to draw a large circle on the ground.
"We only need 7 people for the ritual," she told the group, " but, the more, the merrier. Everyone sit down around the circle." She continued to draw.
"Wait, what are you drawing?" Nick asked suspiciously.
"A pentagram," Willow told him nonchalantly, "We'll need it to perform the ritual."
"No," Derek told her, shocked, "We can't have you drawing a pentagram. That's a symbol of pure evil."
"Just sit down!" Giles shouted, annoyed.
Alex, still doubting them, asked, "How do we know she's not going to screw up and send us all to hell?"
"Because compared to you people, she's bloody brilliant!" Giles shouted, now very angry (if that's possible). Willow, to prove his point, menacingly floated a pencil toward Alex. Alex ran behind Derek.
"She's a witch!" Alex sputtered.
"Well, DUH!" came the unanimous reply from Buffy, Xander, Willow, and Oz.
"She's trying to kill me with her pencil of death!" Alex persisted. Willow relented and brought the pencil slowly back to her hand.
Giles was now really, really angry. (I've never seen this, but it must have happened at some point.) "Would all of you bloody fools sit down and be quiet!" They all immediately dropped to the ground in a perfect circle formation.
"Good," Willow said, pleased, "Now everyone join hands." They did as she said. Derek, who was sitting next to Oz, reached his hand toward him and promptly got the wiggins.
"What?" Alex said, worried, "What did you see?"
"What?" Alex(ander) said, worried, "What gave you the wiggins?"
Derek, shocked, replied, "He's a werewolf! And what's 'the wiggins'?" At this revelation (the one about Oz being a werewolf, not the one about Xander's weird teen-speak), the Legacy group became frightened, jumped up, and started screaming.
"A werewolf!" Nick said, "Good thing I got this gun and these silver bullets. I'll kill it."
"Yeah, I'm a werewolf," Oz walked up to him, "What's it to you?" Then he saw Nick's gun and ran behind Willow. "My girlfriend's a witch, remember? She'll turn you into a frog!"
Giles took charge. "Everyone just calm down."
"But you're friend is a horrible creature of the night," Derek said, confused.
"Yeah, but only during the full moon," Willow defended him in her own special way, "And the night before the full moon...And the night after the full moon...And if he is forced to listen to country and western music."
Oz shivered. "Country and western music..." he muttered, and shivered again.
Buffy elbowed her friend, "Will, this is one of those quiet times." Willow shut up. "Oz isn't evil, okay? Chill," Buffy told the Legacy group.
"But werewolves kill people," Kristen said nervously.
"Not if I kill them first!" Nick began to load a silver bullet into his gun.
"He never killed anyone," Willow spoke up again, "Maybe mauled them a little, but-"
"WILLOW!" Buffy, Xander, Oz, and Giles shouted.
"Right," Willow whispered.
"Just sit down. All of you," Giles commanded, "We have to finish this ceremony. Remember, save the kid?
This time the entire Legacy group looked like they had a revelation and muttered, "Right. The kid!" They all sat down. This time Buffy ended up next to Derek. She reached for his hand, but thought better of it.
"Okay," she declared angrily, "F.Y.I., on my off days, I make out with a vampire! Anyone got a problem with that?"
"But vampires are inherently evil!" Derek said.
"No. He's a good vampire," Buffy said.
"That's impossible," Derek challenged, "There's no such thing as a 'good vampire.' That's like saying there are 'good witches'!" He quickly looked at Willow and remembered her pencil trick. "Uh, sorry, I guess."
"No way," Alex cut in. "I don't believe this. Vampires are evil! They tried to make me one of them."
"Yeah," Nick remembered, "And then she tried to kill me!"
"Sorry about that."
"That's okay," Nick said, "But the point is there's no such thing as a good vampire. I won't believe it till I see it." To make their point, Willow pointed her finger at the ground in front of them. Angel appeared on that spot in a puff of smoke.
"What am I doing here, guys?" the vampire asked.
"Proving a point. Just be your oh-so-pleasant self," Xander joked.
"Will," Buffy asked, "What did you do?"
"They said they needed to see him to believe it, so I arranged it."
Meanwhile, Nick had been frantically searching his pockets. "I was sure I had a stake around here somewhere."
Xander decided to speed things up. "Quick!" he said to Angel, "20 questions: Are you a good vampire or a bad one?"
"Xander, I thought we talked about this," Angel said impatiently, "I'm not going to kill you in your sleep!"
"He's cute!" Alex remarked, seemingly dazed.
"Don't you start that again!" Nick shouted, "We already established, vampires do not make good boyfriends!"
Buffy took this moment to speak up and set them straight. "Hey! First of all, yes they do, and second, lay off, he's mine!"
"Okay," Derek clarified, mostly for his own sake, because at this point no one was listening to him, "So they're definitely on the Dark Side."
"Hey," Angel said, "I saw that movie!"
"Wrong dark side," Oz put in.
"Maybe that wasn't so helpful," Willow reconsidered. She pointed at Angel and he disappeared in another puff of smoke.
"Dang!" Nick said, "And I just got my stake out!"
At this point, Rachel was just mad at everyone present and kinda wanted her kid back, so she decided to take matters into her own hands. "Guess what!" she shouted over everyone else's conversations, "I think we've established that they're not evil. They're just a bunch of confused teenagers who could probably use some therapy! By the way, here's my card." She handed her business card to Buffy.
"Hey! We don't need help!" Buffy said and threw the card right back at Rachel.
"Buffy," Giles warned. "Thank you very much for the support, Ms. Corrigan."
Rachel continued, "We need to finish this ceremony, get Kat back, and get dry, because in case you people forgot, it's still raining!" They all sat back down for the second time and joined hands.
Willow opened the book in front of her and began murmuring in Latin. She finished and looked expectantly at the middle of the circle, nothing happened, so she tried again. Still, nothing happened. "Well I'm all out of ideas," the amateur witch proclaimed.
"I think you're pronouncing it wrong," Derek said, "Let me try it." He took the book from her and murmured the same words in Latin. Nothing happened.
"No," Willow argued, "See, that part really should be said like this:" she told him as she tried to say it once again. They argued for a few more minutes, each of them trying the spell several more times. Nothing at all happened.
Finally, Giles cut in. "You're both doing it wrong. You have to say it forcefully." He grabs the book and shouts the spell in Latin. The wind whistled, the ground shook, lightning crashed, small trees toppled, and finally, Kat appeared in the middle of the circle. "There," Giles declared, "I saved your friend. Now do you believe we're not evil?"
Both groups appeared to be a strange mixture of awed and frightened. Finally Xander spoke. "What'd you know? That English accent is actually good for something." Suddenly, lightning crashed five feet from where the group sat.
"Guys," Buffy reminded, "Lightning, rainstorm, 'nuff said." The entire group got up and ran for the Legacy house.
***
Back at the Legacy House
The entire group was gathered in the conference room, drinking international coffee. Giles and Derek were discussing the proper pronunciation of Latin and other things that would be of very little interest to anyone but them. Willow and Oz were talking to Kat. Kristen was coming on to Xander. Buffy and Nick were talking weapons. Alex was daydreaming about Angel. Rachel just was.
"Maybe now," Giles said to Derek, "The Legacy and the Watchers can come together to combat evil. And maybe your group won't be so sure that everything that crosses your path is evil."
"Unless it's a black cat," Derek joked and then laughed. At least Giles thought he was joking.
Giles laughed politely, then said, "But black cats aren't evil."
"That's what they want you to believe," replied Derek in a slightly conspiratorial way. Giles was wondering who they were when Rachel walked up to them.
"So," she began, "You're really not evil. Why didn't you just tell us that in the first place?"
"Oh, for God's sake!" Giles shouted and walked away, disgusted.
***
"So you're a real witch?" Kathryn asked Willow excitedly. "But then you must be evil!"
"No, I'm a good witch. There are lots of good witches," Willow explained.
"Wow!" Kat said, "My mom was really wrong! I'm never gonna let her forget this! Can you teach me to use my powers?"
"Yes, but, remember, you must always use your powers for good, never evil," Willow told her. Then she whispered to the girl, "Or I think that guy with the gun will shoot you with a silver bullet."
"You can also use your powers to get back at people you don't like," Oz remarked. Willow elbowed him, then turned back to Kat, pulled the pencil out of her pocket, and started to teach Kat how to make it float.
***
"So you're the only normal guy in the group, huh?" Kristen asked Xander.
"Yeah, my only special power is my razor sharp wit," he joked, rather lamely.
"Wow, that's really special," she said ditzily (if that's a word.)
"Well, I try," he told her as Alex walked up.
"Hey, um, Xander," she said, as if trying to remember his name, "Do you think you could give me that Angel guy's phone number?"
"Yeah! I want it too!" Kristen suddenly said.
"No way! I asked first!" Alex argued.
"Why," Xander asked, "Why does he get all the girls? What does he have that I don't?"
"Well," Kristen told him, "He's a lot cuter."
"Plus, he does have that aura of mystery and evil going for him," Alex said.
"Oh, what is it with you and evil?" Kristen asked angrily, "Sometimes I think you've gone to the Dark Side."
***
"So, what do you use to fight vampires in Sunnydale?" Nick asked Buffy.
"Well," the slayer said, "Usually a crossbow or Mr. Pointy here." She pulled out a stake.
"Oh, I usually prefer weapons with triggers," Nick said, looking slightly disappointed.
Buffy thought for a second, and finally said, "Well, one time I got to use a rocket launcher!"
Nick, clearly excited, said, "Really? They never let me use heavy artillery around here. Something about bullets not really phasing the dead."
"Oh, it always works for me. Hey, can I see the weapons you use?" Buffy asked.
"Sure!" The two of them ran off to check out the weapons.
***
They all got a good night's sleep, which was odd considering that it was three a.m. by that time. The next morning, the Sunnydale gang left on the first ferry. The Legacy group watched them leave from the dock.
"Wow," Alex commented, "They were pretty nice for a witch, a werewolf, a vampire slayer, and a heavily medicated teenage boy. At least Buffy said he was."
"Yes," Derek agreed, "I suppose they really were on the side of good."
"I think we all learned an important lesson about rational thinking and not jumping to conclusions," Rachel added. "Right, Nick?"
Nick, still looking as skeptical as ever, said as sincerely as he could, "Yes, I guess we did." He patted his pocket to make sure he still had his gun, just in case.
"I think we're going to look at the supernatural a lot different from now on," Kristen told them.
*** The Legacy House, the Next Day
The group sat at the breakfast table. Suddenly, they heard a noise from below them, in the basement, a sound like footsteps.
"What's that?" Alex asked, frightened.
"I bet its a witch," Nick said, demonstrating his lack of rational thinking.
"Yeah," Kristen decided, "A whole coven of witches!"
"Or maybe its a vampire!" Derek suggested.
"Maybe its Angel!" Alex said hopefully.
"What?" Nick said, jealous.
"Nothing," she lied.
"I'm sure its not supernatural," Rachel said thoughtfully, "But it could be a serial killer!"
"Whatever it is," Derek told them, "Let's go kill it!"
"I've got my gun, complete with silver bullets," Nick said, "Let's go!"
They rushed down the stairs to find that a cat was making the noise. Fortunately, Nick did not shoot it. They were about to head back upstairs when the door opened. Kat stood there, holding a pencil. She slowly let it go and held it suspended in the air with her powers. "Look what I can do, Mom!" she shouted. The Legacy group screamed and promptly fainted. "What a bunch of wimps," Kat said.
Author: Late White Rabbit
Rating: G
Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from Buffy: the Vampire Slayer, but if I did Xander would be married to Faith, Spike would be less whipped, the potentials would all be in an unfortunate 'accident,' and Tara, the best character ever, would still be alive.
(AN: I wrote this a billion and a half years ago. At the time, the characters and relationships in the story were all current. I don't really write this poorly anymore. I think. Please be kind.)
White Star Ferry, destination Angel Island, early morning
"I'm the king of the world," shouted Xander Harris as he perched precariously on the bow of the ferry.
"Stop, the first time I saw that movie was traumatic enough," Buffy said as she yanked him back into the boat by the collar of his shirt.
"Look, guys," said Willow to Buffy, Xander, and her boyfriend Oz, "We're almost there!" She said it with just a bit too much enthusiasm for a school trip.
"Oh, yay," Xander quipped, "time for a visit to the rinky-dink little island of historical facts and no fun."
"It might be interesting," Willow said in a hopeful voice.
"Will, what is it with you and this island?" Oz waited for her answer.
"Well, I was being research girl for Giles, and I discovered all these neat, well not neat, more like bloody, um, supernatural-type thingys that could all be traced back to Angel Island."
"Great," Xander said, "Hellmouth to Hellmouth transportation. Ah, a slayer's work is never done."
"No," Buffy said firmly, "this is my boring class trip and I'm going to be a normal teen if it kills me."
***
Outside the S.F. Legacy House, dusk
Giles, who was leading the tour of the island, stopped in front of the impressive house and turned to the group of exhausted teenagers. "This house is the final stop on our tour. It belongs to the prestigious Luna Foundation."
As Giles droned on about the historical significance of the house, somewhere near the back of the group, Xander said to his friends in an exaggerated voice, "Must...kill...Giles...for...taking...us...on...death...march."
"I didn't think it was that bad," Buffy said.
"Yes, well not all of us have super-human powers," Xander replied. Buffy and Xander verbally sparred for a little while longer.
Willow pulled Oz away. "You know," she said, "There was one other thing I wanted to see on this island."
"Yeah, well, it looks like Giles isn't gonna be done anytime soon. Let's go check it out."
"Really?! It's kinda, um, creepy."
He thought for a second. "You're a witch, I'm a werewolf. Will, we are creepy."
"Huh, I never thought about it that way." The two of them hurried off.
Buffy and Xander soon grew tired of verbally abusing one another and noticed their friends or total lack thereof. "Great," Buffy said, "our friends have disappeared." She looked up at the sky. "And now it's raining. With our luck, some vampires have decided to get away from it all and come to Angel Island for some fun in the sun, or, um, dark, I guess."
Just then the door of the house opened and a young woman stepped out and walked toward Giles. He appeared to be expecting her and stepped toward her. "Lovely to see you, Ms. Moreau," he said as he shook her hand.
"Hello again, Mr. Giles. Another school trip, I suppose."
"Yes, in fact. Since you're here, would you care to enlighten the students about the work of the Luna Foundation?
"Of course." Alex then launched into a fair imitation of Giles during one of his long speeches. Fortunately, before the students begun passing out from boredom, one of the ferry's crewmen rushed up to the weary group.
"Mr. Giles, I'm afraid we'll have to cut the trip short. With the storm, the waters are getting dangerous. We'll have to leave immediately.
"Oh, yes, of course." Giles turned back to the group. "Students, the trip is over. You should all head back to the boat." Turning back to Alex, he said, "Well, we have to leave. It was nice to see you again." He started to walk away.
"Wait," she stopped him, "have you seen a little girl around here?"
"Why no, I'm afraid. Is she missing?"
"Yes, she's my friend's daughter, but she does this sort of thing a lot, so I wouldn't worry." At this point, Buffy and Xander rushed up.
Giles, a bit surprised, said, "Oh, hello. Alex, this is Buffy Summers and Xander Harris. Buffy, Xander, this is Alex Moreau, a member of the Luna Foundation."
He was about to continue, but Buffy interrupted, "Um, problem. We can't leave cause Willow and Oz aren't here."
"Well, may I ask where they are?"
"Well, if we knew that, wouldn't we be there by now?" Xander said sarcastically.
"Oh dear, I do remember Willow mentioning a cemetery on this island that she was very interested in."
Xander spoke up again. "Wow, a cemetery where the dead might actually stay dead."
Buffy elbowed him in the gut. "Don't mind him, he forgot his medication this morning."
"Um, okay," sputtered Alex. "I can take you guys there if you'd like."
"Thank you. That would be wonderful of you." Giles sighed.
"I'm sorry, sir," shouted the crewman from the dock, "but we must leave this minute to outrun the storm."
"Alright, fine," said Giles, obviously at a loss for ideas. "Go on ahead. I can't leave the students, so we'll," he stuttered, "we'll figure something out." The man shrugged and followed the last student onto the ferry.
"Oh, Rupert, you and your students can stay here at the house tonight after you find your friends. No one should wait out in this terrible storm," offered Alex.
"Hello? Missing people? Lots of 'em," reminded Buffy.
"Come on I'll take you to the graveyard," Alex said.
***
Meanwhile at Angel Island Cemetery
Oz and Willow stumbled through the cemetery guided only by Oz's high- powered flashlight.
"How did you know to bring one of those, anyway?" Willow asked.
"Think about it, Will. When have we ever gone anywhere where we didn't end up in a dark, somewhat life-threatening place?"
"Oh."
"What are we looking for anyway?" Oz wondered.
"Well, there are all these family plots here, and one particular family were rumored to be witches in the last century."
"Yet again, why are we here?"
"See, these aren't just any witches. They're supposed to be like the Corleone family of witches." Willow continued her explanation of the family, but was cut off by Oz.
"Hey, Will, is it safe for little girls to be out in a thunderstorm?"
"Hey! I'm not a little girl!" Willow said defensively.
"No, over there," he said pointing to two girls talking in front of a large gravestone. The couple approached the two girls.
"Hey," said Willow quietly as she put her hand on one girl's shoulder. She gasped as it passed straight through the girl.
Oz, stunned, said, "Oh, its a supernatural little girl. Wow, its like we never left Sunnydale." To the other little girl, he said, "Do you know your friend's a ghost?"
Kat Corrigan, which was the girl's name (the solid non-ghost one) told them, "I was lonely and I wanted a friend, so I cast a spell to bring someone who would understand me. You guys are here to be my friends too, aren't you? By the way, I'm Kat."
"A spell, like, a witchy-spell?" Willow asked hopefully.
"Yeah, but don't tell anyone that I cast a spell. My mom would be real mad," she whispered in response.
"Okay, I'm Willow and this is Oz. Maybe you should go home cause it seems kinda dangerous out here, with the storm and, you know, the ghost," she whispered.
"No! She's my friend!" Kat said loudly.
"Yeah, Kat, follow me," the ghost shouted as she ran towards the woods at the edge of the cemetery. Kat followed her, but as soon as she reached the ghost, they both vanished into thin air. A second later the ghost reappeared, saying ominously, "Now she's mine!"
***
Seconds before, Alex, Giles, Buffy, and Xander had arrived at the cemetery. They caught only a glimpse of Kat and the ghost before they disappeared. After the ghost's second disappearance, they ran over to Willow and Oz.
"Kat! Where did she go? What did you two do to her?" Alex looked accusingly at Willow and Oz.
"They didn't do anything to her, I assure you," Giles said.
"Then where is she?" Alex yelled, grabbing Willow. She suddenly got visions of Willow and others gathered around a pentagram on the ground, during a sabbat. (This clearly drove her off the deep end.) "You! You're a witch, you kidnapped Kat!" she said accusingly.
"She's not a witch," Giles lied.
"Actually..." Willow began.
Buffy cut her off, "Will, you have the right to remain silent, and I suggest you exercise that right."
"Oh, right," Willow said quietly.
"Well, if she's not a witch, why is she wearing that?" Alex pointed to Willow's necklace, which displayed a pentagram pendant.
"What?" Willow said innocently, "It's just a pentagram."
"It's a witch's symbol. You're from the Dark Side," the Legacy member accused.
"Willow is certainly not from the dark side, whatever that is," Giles reassured.
"Wait," the ever-clueless Xander cut in, "You think Willow is Darth Vader?"
"She's not talking about Star Wars, man," Oz replied.
"Oh, I knew that."
"Sure you did," Buffy told Xander. Then to Alex, she said, "Willow is our friend. She's not evil."
"How do I know that? Maybe you're all from the Dark Side, even you, Rupert." Alex looked at them suspiciously.
"Well, even if we were evil, which we're not, accusing us of it in a rainy cemetery is not going to help get your friend back," Buffy said rationally.
"You're right," Alex agreed, "Evil, but right. I have to contact Derek and the others and get help." This last part she said to herself because, as I mentioned before, she kinda went of the deep end. Then she said to the Sunnydale gang, "I'm going back to the house for help. You will all have to wait here until we determine if you're dangerous or not."
"Of course," Xander said sarcastically, "The cemetery is the perfect place to camp out on a dark and stormy night. Especially if you're in a horror movie."
"Come on, Xander, our lives are nothing like a horror movie. They're much gorier," Buffy quipped.
"And more violent," Oz put in.
"And all around creepier," Willow offered.
Giles cut in, "Regardless of that, Xander is right."
"Yeah," Buffy interrupted, "In his own special Xander-like way."
"I'll take that as a compliment," Xander said.
"Anyway, Alex, you can't leave us out here in the middle of the storm," Giles pleaded.
"Plus, there does seem to be that pesky ghost problem around here," Willow said timidly.
"Alex, please trust me," Giles said, "We pose no threat to you and we'd like to help you, if we can."
"Well, I'm still pretty sure you're evil, but I guess you can come back to the house with me, on the off chance that you're not from the Dark Side," Alex told them.
"Great, just what I need. More people who think I'm the wicked witch of the west," Willow said unhappily.
"Don't worry. I'll protect you from any falling houses," Oz assured her as they all left the cemetery heading for the Legacy House.
***
Back at the Legacy House
Rachel, Nick, Kristen, and Derek were frantically searching the house for Kat and Alex when Alex burst through the door, leading the Sunnydale group behind her.
"Did you find Kat?" Rachel, Kat's mother, asked desperately.
"Well, she appeared to be kidnapped by a ghost," her friend replied.
"A ghost!" Nick said, "I can't shoot a ghost! I need something solid to beat up."
"I also found this group of stranded students. They needed to stay somewhere, but..."
Alex was cut off by Buffy, who said, "Look, I know what you're gonna say next, so before you do, let me just say: We're not evil! Just because Willow's a witch does not mean-"
"A witch!" Derek cut her speech short, "Um, I think we need to discuss this in private," he said as he slowly backed toward the door. "Now!" he shouted. The entire Legacy group broke into a run and sprinted for the conference room.
"Hey, wait," Oz remembered, "Wasn't that kid, their friend, a witch, too? What hypocrites!"
***
In the Conference Room
"That girl, the red-haired one, I saw it, she's a witch! I saw a vision of her performing unholy sacrifices, well not sacrifices per se, but she's evil, definitely evil!" Alex declared.
"We have to save Kat from them!" Rachel said.
"Well, I'm not absolutely certain they have Kat," Alex reconsidered, "But we have to stop them anyway."
"Let's just go out there and kill them all," Nick suggested unhelpfully, "They look solid enough for bullets. I'll go get my gun."
"Now, Nick, stop being so drastic. We can't just shoot them," Derek, the House's precept, reasoned. "It's never that easy to kill beings from the Dark Side. We'll probably have to find some kind of special incantation."
"Wait," Kristen said, "Even if we knew how to, we can't just kill a bunch of high schoolers because we believe they might be evil."
"Sure I can! Watch me!" Nick said with a crazed look in his eyes.
Just then, Oz came up to the conference room's door and knocked. "Um, guys, you know there is a little girl still missing out there," he said.
"Stop trying to confuse us with the facts, you witches!" came Nick's crazed reply.
***
Back in the Foyer
Giles paced up and down, muttering, "She seemed so normal last year."
Xander, fed up, declared, "I'm beginning to think they're evil."
"Or at least mentally disturbed," Oz put in. "You shoulda heard that guy yelling at me."
Meanwhile, Willow searched through a couple of massive bookcases in the room. "Uh, Will, what are we looking for?" Buffy asked.
"Something to get rid of that ghost and save that little girl. Somebody has to do it!" was her friend's reply.
*** A Little While Later...
"Ohh!" Willow cried, "I found a spell to bring Kat back from the ghost's limbo state and send the ghost on its merry way."
"Great," Buffy said, "Then why do I sense an impending problem?"
"Well, the only thing is," Willow paused, "we need to know Kat's full name to cast the spell."
"Leave that to me," Xander said in his take-charge voice. "Yo, crazy people," he yelled toward the conference room, "What's that girl's full name?"
"We'll never tell you!" Rachel shouted back. "Satanists! Witches! Kidnappers!... Wait," she reconsidered, "I don't believe in witches, so you're just satanists and kidnappers!"
"That's still plenty of reason to kill them," Nick's voice shouted.
"Then we'll just have to break the door down," Xander said loudly. Then, quietly, he asked, "Does anyone know how to do that?"
"Oh, I can!" Willow volunteered. Her pentagram pendant began to glow.
"Allow me, Will," Buffy offered. She kicked the door hard, causing it to fall into the conference room. The Legacy group was clearly stunned.
"Hmm, note to self," Derek muttered into a tape recorder (I'm not sure where he got a tape recorder.), "The witches are displaying superhuman strength, must remember that."
Buffy got straight down to business. "Which one of you is the parent?" The Legacy group all pointed to Rachel out of fear. Buffy walked over to her, pinned her to the wall, and held a stake up in front of her menacingly. "Name?" she said commandingly.
"Don't worry! I'll get my gun!" Nick shouted.
"Oh no!" Rachel said, anticipating what might happen if Nick got his gun. "Its Corrigan!" she said quickly, "Kathryn Anne Corrigan. Just don't let Nick get his gun!"
"Now that you have the information you need," Alex said, "Are you going to kill us all horribly?"
"Uhh, no," was Buffy's reply, "I wasn't planning on it."
"Well, are you gonna drag Kat to Hell with you?" Rachel asked.
"No," the slayer told her, "We're pretty much gonna save her and return her unharmed."
"Wow," Derek said, taking in this new information, "maybe you're really not evil and you have been trying to help us all along. Oh well, live and learn."
"Wow, what a revelation," Buffy said sarcastically. "Now that you believe us, will you help us save Kat?"
"Sure," Alex reassured them, "We'll do anything we can. Right, guys?"
Nick, still looking suspiciously toward them, said, "Well, I still think they're evil, but I guess if it'll save Kat, I can wait till later to send them back to hell."
"Okay," Willow declared, "First we'll need a coven to perform the spell."
"Anyone got one of those in storage?" Buffy said dryly.
"Um, no," Derek said, "But perhaps we can be of some assistance. We have some, ahem, experience with this sort of thing."
"What do you mean?" the until-now silent Giles inquired.
"Well, considering the circumstances," Derek said thoughtfully, "I might as well tell you the truth. You see, we are all members of the Legacy, an organization that operates under the cover of the Luna Foundation. Our mission is to seek out evil and destroy it."
"The Legacy?" Giles questioned, "Why does that sound so familiar?" He had a sudden realization. "Oh my God, you can't mean that Legacy? I had no idea it even existed any longer."
"What? How do you know about the Legacy?" Derek asked, suddenly suspicious.
"Yeah, Giles, what gives?" Buffy wondered.
Giles explained to everyone, "Several hundred years ago, the Legacy was a sort of radical group within the Watchers. They broke away, because they had a rather different philosophy than most Watchers. Instead of working through the slayer, they wished to take the task of fighting evil into their own hands."
"But watchers and slayers are just old Legacy legends," Derek interrupted, "They aren't real.
"They most assuredly are," Giles told him, "I am a member of the Watchers."
"Yeah," Buffy said quickly, "And I'm the slayer."
"Wow," Alex marveled, "They're even less evil then I thought."
"Ha!" Xander said triumphantly, "That'll teach you to jump to conclusions."
"No it won't," Kristin told him, "She already wrote the book on jumping to conclusions."
"Hey!" Alex shouted defensively, "That's Nick, not me!"
"In my experience, none of you are all too good at this rational thinking thing," Xander put in.
"Also, your communication skills suck!" Willow told them. Everyone, even Nick, became quiet. Crickets could be heard chirping. "Hey, I wasn't getting enough lines!" Willow said defensively.
"Great," Oz spoke up, "You fight evil, we fight evil. We're one big happy family. Now can we get to work on saving that kid?"
"Right, the kid, I knew I was forgetting something!" a frustrated Rachel said.
***
At the Cemetery
The ten of them were gathered in front of they grave where Kat was last seen. They were preparing for the ritual to bring her back. Willow held a large book and a piece of chalk. She began to draw a large circle on the ground.
"We only need 7 people for the ritual," she told the group, " but, the more, the merrier. Everyone sit down around the circle." She continued to draw.
"Wait, what are you drawing?" Nick asked suspiciously.
"A pentagram," Willow told him nonchalantly, "We'll need it to perform the ritual."
"No," Derek told her, shocked, "We can't have you drawing a pentagram. That's a symbol of pure evil."
"Just sit down!" Giles shouted, annoyed.
Alex, still doubting them, asked, "How do we know she's not going to screw up and send us all to hell?"
"Because compared to you people, she's bloody brilliant!" Giles shouted, now very angry (if that's possible). Willow, to prove his point, menacingly floated a pencil toward Alex. Alex ran behind Derek.
"She's a witch!" Alex sputtered.
"Well, DUH!" came the unanimous reply from Buffy, Xander, Willow, and Oz.
"She's trying to kill me with her pencil of death!" Alex persisted. Willow relented and brought the pencil slowly back to her hand.
Giles was now really, really angry. (I've never seen this, but it must have happened at some point.) "Would all of you bloody fools sit down and be quiet!" They all immediately dropped to the ground in a perfect circle formation.
"Good," Willow said, pleased, "Now everyone join hands." They did as she said. Derek, who was sitting next to Oz, reached his hand toward him and promptly got the wiggins.
"What?" Alex said, worried, "What did you see?"
"What?" Alex(ander) said, worried, "What gave you the wiggins?"
Derek, shocked, replied, "He's a werewolf! And what's 'the wiggins'?" At this revelation (the one about Oz being a werewolf, not the one about Xander's weird teen-speak), the Legacy group became frightened, jumped up, and started screaming.
"A werewolf!" Nick said, "Good thing I got this gun and these silver bullets. I'll kill it."
"Yeah, I'm a werewolf," Oz walked up to him, "What's it to you?" Then he saw Nick's gun and ran behind Willow. "My girlfriend's a witch, remember? She'll turn you into a frog!"
Giles took charge. "Everyone just calm down."
"But you're friend is a horrible creature of the night," Derek said, confused.
"Yeah, but only during the full moon," Willow defended him in her own special way, "And the night before the full moon...And the night after the full moon...And if he is forced to listen to country and western music."
Oz shivered. "Country and western music..." he muttered, and shivered again.
Buffy elbowed her friend, "Will, this is one of those quiet times." Willow shut up. "Oz isn't evil, okay? Chill," Buffy told the Legacy group.
"But werewolves kill people," Kristen said nervously.
"Not if I kill them first!" Nick began to load a silver bullet into his gun.
"He never killed anyone," Willow spoke up again, "Maybe mauled them a little, but-"
"WILLOW!" Buffy, Xander, Oz, and Giles shouted.
"Right," Willow whispered.
"Just sit down. All of you," Giles commanded, "We have to finish this ceremony. Remember, save the kid?
This time the entire Legacy group looked like they had a revelation and muttered, "Right. The kid!" They all sat down. This time Buffy ended up next to Derek. She reached for his hand, but thought better of it.
"Okay," she declared angrily, "F.Y.I., on my off days, I make out with a vampire! Anyone got a problem with that?"
"But vampires are inherently evil!" Derek said.
"No. He's a good vampire," Buffy said.
"That's impossible," Derek challenged, "There's no such thing as a 'good vampire.' That's like saying there are 'good witches'!" He quickly looked at Willow and remembered her pencil trick. "Uh, sorry, I guess."
"No way," Alex cut in. "I don't believe this. Vampires are evil! They tried to make me one of them."
"Yeah," Nick remembered, "And then she tried to kill me!"
"Sorry about that."
"That's okay," Nick said, "But the point is there's no such thing as a good vampire. I won't believe it till I see it." To make their point, Willow pointed her finger at the ground in front of them. Angel appeared on that spot in a puff of smoke.
"What am I doing here, guys?" the vampire asked.
"Proving a point. Just be your oh-so-pleasant self," Xander joked.
"Will," Buffy asked, "What did you do?"
"They said they needed to see him to believe it, so I arranged it."
Meanwhile, Nick had been frantically searching his pockets. "I was sure I had a stake around here somewhere."
Xander decided to speed things up. "Quick!" he said to Angel, "20 questions: Are you a good vampire or a bad one?"
"Xander, I thought we talked about this," Angel said impatiently, "I'm not going to kill you in your sleep!"
"He's cute!" Alex remarked, seemingly dazed.
"Don't you start that again!" Nick shouted, "We already established, vampires do not make good boyfriends!"
Buffy took this moment to speak up and set them straight. "Hey! First of all, yes they do, and second, lay off, he's mine!"
"Okay," Derek clarified, mostly for his own sake, because at this point no one was listening to him, "So they're definitely on the Dark Side."
"Hey," Angel said, "I saw that movie!"
"Wrong dark side," Oz put in.
"Maybe that wasn't so helpful," Willow reconsidered. She pointed at Angel and he disappeared in another puff of smoke.
"Dang!" Nick said, "And I just got my stake out!"
At this point, Rachel was just mad at everyone present and kinda wanted her kid back, so she decided to take matters into her own hands. "Guess what!" she shouted over everyone else's conversations, "I think we've established that they're not evil. They're just a bunch of confused teenagers who could probably use some therapy! By the way, here's my card." She handed her business card to Buffy.
"Hey! We don't need help!" Buffy said and threw the card right back at Rachel.
"Buffy," Giles warned. "Thank you very much for the support, Ms. Corrigan."
Rachel continued, "We need to finish this ceremony, get Kat back, and get dry, because in case you people forgot, it's still raining!" They all sat back down for the second time and joined hands.
Willow opened the book in front of her and began murmuring in Latin. She finished and looked expectantly at the middle of the circle, nothing happened, so she tried again. Still, nothing happened. "Well I'm all out of ideas," the amateur witch proclaimed.
"I think you're pronouncing it wrong," Derek said, "Let me try it." He took the book from her and murmured the same words in Latin. Nothing happened.
"No," Willow argued, "See, that part really should be said like this:" she told him as she tried to say it once again. They argued for a few more minutes, each of them trying the spell several more times. Nothing at all happened.
Finally, Giles cut in. "You're both doing it wrong. You have to say it forcefully." He grabs the book and shouts the spell in Latin. The wind whistled, the ground shook, lightning crashed, small trees toppled, and finally, Kat appeared in the middle of the circle. "There," Giles declared, "I saved your friend. Now do you believe we're not evil?"
Both groups appeared to be a strange mixture of awed and frightened. Finally Xander spoke. "What'd you know? That English accent is actually good for something." Suddenly, lightning crashed five feet from where the group sat.
"Guys," Buffy reminded, "Lightning, rainstorm, 'nuff said." The entire group got up and ran for the Legacy house.
***
Back at the Legacy House
The entire group was gathered in the conference room, drinking international coffee. Giles and Derek were discussing the proper pronunciation of Latin and other things that would be of very little interest to anyone but them. Willow and Oz were talking to Kat. Kristen was coming on to Xander. Buffy and Nick were talking weapons. Alex was daydreaming about Angel. Rachel just was.
"Maybe now," Giles said to Derek, "The Legacy and the Watchers can come together to combat evil. And maybe your group won't be so sure that everything that crosses your path is evil."
"Unless it's a black cat," Derek joked and then laughed. At least Giles thought he was joking.
Giles laughed politely, then said, "But black cats aren't evil."
"That's what they want you to believe," replied Derek in a slightly conspiratorial way. Giles was wondering who they were when Rachel walked up to them.
"So," she began, "You're really not evil. Why didn't you just tell us that in the first place?"
"Oh, for God's sake!" Giles shouted and walked away, disgusted.
***
"So you're a real witch?" Kathryn asked Willow excitedly. "But then you must be evil!"
"No, I'm a good witch. There are lots of good witches," Willow explained.
"Wow!" Kat said, "My mom was really wrong! I'm never gonna let her forget this! Can you teach me to use my powers?"
"Yes, but, remember, you must always use your powers for good, never evil," Willow told her. Then she whispered to the girl, "Or I think that guy with the gun will shoot you with a silver bullet."
"You can also use your powers to get back at people you don't like," Oz remarked. Willow elbowed him, then turned back to Kat, pulled the pencil out of her pocket, and started to teach Kat how to make it float.
***
"So you're the only normal guy in the group, huh?" Kristen asked Xander.
"Yeah, my only special power is my razor sharp wit," he joked, rather lamely.
"Wow, that's really special," she said ditzily (if that's a word.)
"Well, I try," he told her as Alex walked up.
"Hey, um, Xander," she said, as if trying to remember his name, "Do you think you could give me that Angel guy's phone number?"
"Yeah! I want it too!" Kristen suddenly said.
"No way! I asked first!" Alex argued.
"Why," Xander asked, "Why does he get all the girls? What does he have that I don't?"
"Well," Kristen told him, "He's a lot cuter."
"Plus, he does have that aura of mystery and evil going for him," Alex said.
"Oh, what is it with you and evil?" Kristen asked angrily, "Sometimes I think you've gone to the Dark Side."
***
"So, what do you use to fight vampires in Sunnydale?" Nick asked Buffy.
"Well," the slayer said, "Usually a crossbow or Mr. Pointy here." She pulled out a stake.
"Oh, I usually prefer weapons with triggers," Nick said, looking slightly disappointed.
Buffy thought for a second, and finally said, "Well, one time I got to use a rocket launcher!"
Nick, clearly excited, said, "Really? They never let me use heavy artillery around here. Something about bullets not really phasing the dead."
"Oh, it always works for me. Hey, can I see the weapons you use?" Buffy asked.
"Sure!" The two of them ran off to check out the weapons.
***
They all got a good night's sleep, which was odd considering that it was three a.m. by that time. The next morning, the Sunnydale gang left on the first ferry. The Legacy group watched them leave from the dock.
"Wow," Alex commented, "They were pretty nice for a witch, a werewolf, a vampire slayer, and a heavily medicated teenage boy. At least Buffy said he was."
"Yes," Derek agreed, "I suppose they really were on the side of good."
"I think we all learned an important lesson about rational thinking and not jumping to conclusions," Rachel added. "Right, Nick?"
Nick, still looking as skeptical as ever, said as sincerely as he could, "Yes, I guess we did." He patted his pocket to make sure he still had his gun, just in case.
"I think we're going to look at the supernatural a lot different from now on," Kristen told them.
*** The Legacy House, the Next Day
The group sat at the breakfast table. Suddenly, they heard a noise from below them, in the basement, a sound like footsteps.
"What's that?" Alex asked, frightened.
"I bet its a witch," Nick said, demonstrating his lack of rational thinking.
"Yeah," Kristen decided, "A whole coven of witches!"
"Or maybe its a vampire!" Derek suggested.
"Maybe its Angel!" Alex said hopefully.
"What?" Nick said, jealous.
"Nothing," she lied.
"I'm sure its not supernatural," Rachel said thoughtfully, "But it could be a serial killer!"
"Whatever it is," Derek told them, "Let's go kill it!"
"I've got my gun, complete with silver bullets," Nick said, "Let's go!"
They rushed down the stairs to find that a cat was making the noise. Fortunately, Nick did not shoot it. They were about to head back upstairs when the door opened. Kat stood there, holding a pencil. She slowly let it go and held it suspended in the air with her powers. "Look what I can do, Mom!" she shouted. The Legacy group screamed and promptly fainted. "What a bunch of wimps," Kat said.