BTVS: In League
Fandom: BTVS / Multiple
Pairing: (Poly/Multiple - See Disclaimer for a general listing; Disclaimers may count as spoilers.)
Rating: NSFW/Mature/NC17
Summary: Willow Rosenberg returns home, but she's not the same girl she was years ago. Then again, her world isn't quite the same either. Stupid Ethan. (YAHF)
Words: Beta. No word count yet, as this story is not yet complete. It constitutes a beta version until such time as the work is done and may be subject to change. Since this story is BETA expect big chapter shifts as needed.
THIS FICTION IS ALSO POSTED AT TWISTING THE HELLMOUTH UNDER THE SAME TITLE
Note: If you don't read the disclaimer and are surprised by events or bed hopping in this story, I'll have no sympathy.
Disclaimer: This is a work of fanfiction, which pretty well guarantees that " ownership, " of the characters belongs to others and that this work is entirely based on affection. This work is an interpretation and not for-profit, (though it may be for praise and enjoyment) Reference to persons, places, or events are made in a fictional context, and are not intended to be libelous, defamatory, or in any way factual.
Fandoms either obviously used or subtly referenced are:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Scoobies, past and present)
Dr. Who (Donna)
Stargate SG-1 (Sam, Jack, Janet, Charlie)
Sanctuary (Magnus)
League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Mina)
Girl Genius (Agatha)
Resident Evil (Claire, Alice, Jill (?), Chris (?))
Harry Potter (Some references in the text (The book titles), maybe some witchy support types)
Devil Wears Prada (Slayers - the twins, and by extension, Miranda and Andy)
Ghost Busters (Mention of existence in Helen's reality)
Tenchi Muyo (Mihoshi - galaxy police)
Glee (Lima, OH - the Hellmouth not yet awake)
Devil Wears Prada (Miranda, Andy, Lily, Doug)
101 Dalmations (Cruella, Alonzo)
Others may be added as the story goes on. The adds will be edited into the body of the list in this Disclaimer.
Beta Readers: Thank yous go to - Melanacious, GypsyDruid, Shesgottaread, Bonnie, Blackgrl71, and many others - my extraordinary friends.
In particular, thanks must go to Melanacious, because this story would not exist without her inspiration. She wanted a Willow / Mina story. I've officially probably mashed that a bit, but she's forgiven me, so it's all good. And who knows, maybe I'll manage a Willow / Mina short (hahahahah short... a ahahhahaha... I so rarely manage "short" stories... But anyhow... who knows what the future holds...)
Email: bearblue1
Website: .
A/N - This is a "get 'em together" story, as most of my stories start out that way. We'll see if it goes other places too.
A/N - This fiction likely draws from several sources for inspiration - it mostly uses BTVS TV canon as a starting point, however.
A/N - I hereby label this story AU. Just in case. Because this definitely involves magic. And while I personally believe that magic exists, there are those among us who need this disclaimer. So for purposes of respect to the cooperative multi-verse in which we live: *stamp* AU *endstamp*
A/N - This story involves appendages and physical transformations and happy bits connecting. If phallai offend, perhaps this story is not for you. *stamp* CRACKFIC *endstamp*
A/N - Age is a convoluted thing in this story. But that said, those who have been aged back to childhood or are starting from that point in the story will either have to age gracefully back up or be magicked forward before adult fun times can begin for them, while those who have been aged back to look like they could be high school / early college days are technically well past the age of consent. They just don't look it. And yes, they're gonna have fun with it. Thank goodness for state IDs, even if they're a touch modified. *stamp* Yes, They're Old Enough *endstamp*
A/N - This story is about adult human beings who are gendered. Expect sex and love to cross the streams. *stamp* HET-SAME-OTHER SEX*endstamp*
A/N - This story has some hints of "bad things that happened to good people." *stamp* TRIGGER Warning *endstamp*
A/N- Plural/Poly relationships happen to be one of my favorite playgrounds. This fiction enters that territory and really gets digging in it. *stamp* POLYAMORY *endstamp*
Normally I just leave it at that, but some were interested in the potential pairings / groupings / etc.
Sunnydale Slayer Pack / Family Unit / Slayer Team
General Pairings:
Giles / Agatha (Parental types)
Jame / Joyce (Parental types)
(These are the main pairings, but "bed hopping" is happening in Slayer Pack. See below -)
Cordy / Faith / Xander
Tara / Willow / Mina
Sam / Buffy / Donna
Dawn / Andrew / Kit / Carlos
Jenny / Anya / Helen
Spike / Dru / Oz
Mobile Slayer Pack
The Ultimate MAC attack (A greater family Unit of the Slayer Pack / Slayer Team - don't try to read as pairings per se)
Adults:
Miranda / Andy / Cruella /
Alice / Claire
Rachel / Quinn / Santana / Brittany /
Puck / (His Cheerios) /
Kids (no adult fun for them..., but kid prank fun = heck yeah):
Caroline / Cassidy
Family, but not Pack (as in, no bed-hopping)
Jack / Judy
Janet / Diana McClay
Sue / Shelby
Hiram / LeRoy
Maribel / Dr. Tomás Lopez
Annalies / Brittany's Dad (pick another guy name)
Diana Dormer / Stephen
Lily /
Doug /
Others as they crop up, but those will generally not be of the Pack and thus won't be the focus...(barring a surprise twist, I suppose...)
A/N - This story uses a buffy-world setting, which means that some events are darker and more dangerous and possibly unfriendly. *stamp* MAYHEM! *endstamp*
A/N - I have decided, just for my sanity, that family and really good friend names shall remain generally consistent, even if they're wrong or I invented them for the purpose of expanding the characters' lives.
A/N- This story may end up being a little goofy, perhaps with tiny touches of angst, but it will end well.
Part 1
-BTVS multi-
Out in the Multiverse
-BTVS multi-
Willow Rosenberg, Power of Powers, The Red Witch, and World Walking Interdimensional Traveler had no expectations for this new hop. Changing worlds, shifting through time, space and myriad realities had become a sort of necessary hobby. The lithe redhead was slowly making her way back to her world of origination; gaining knowledge, understanding and a rather hefty personal arsenal (among other collections) along the way. The slowness of her travels did not have anything to do with location, per se, so much as she was putting effort into finding a weak spot in a surprisingly durable spell of warding around her home universe and planet. She suspected that someone of a higher order was doing the actual interfering.
She'd gone willingly, of course. The coven had seemed innocuous enough, even slightly fan-personish; right until they tied her up and then things went to all heck. Once she was in their not so careful care, the people who had captured her had made it clear that they had tried her and found her guilty. Not that they'd given her any sort of decent trial and of what she had been tried for, she was never quite clear. She'd once attempted to end the world, but as that never got past Sunnydale and she'd never tried it again, she could not see how that might have been the reason. Any other possibility, except the positing of "she is too powerful" and she had to go, wasn't really given and by the time she'd made her one sole argument for herself, without quite knowing what the accusation really was and perhaps in a manner that was a little more spicy than her normal way of speaking, things had just gotten worse. One moment Willow was telling an unfamiliar and now completely unfriendly coven to shove it and the next she was being sucked into a portal.
She imagined Buffy had a few words and possibly a scythe of punishment for them later, but it did her no good. She had been thrust elsewhere, to make or stumble her way across the vast territories of infinite possibilities. She fully intended to go home; to her proper home and time. And by then, Buffy would seem like small potatoes as far as pain and gruesomeness was concerned.
She believed that people had a right to defend themselves, to protect their stuff, and do what had to be done. Her belief was that as long as it didn't hurt an innocent unnecessarily, do what you will. The key word being unnecessarily. Sometimes even the not-so-innocent needed to be cut a break. She was okay with that. But in this case, hurting the bastards who had separated her from Buffy and her friends was very much a thing that needed doing. Especially as she was worried at who else they might be judging, scorning and "punishing."
Really, if the baddies had been thinking, they probably should have tried to off her. But then she would have fought back a little more fiercely and perhaps might have understood the danger she was in and wouldn't be in this predicament anyhow. Despite her earlier thoughts of ineffectiveness, given who had been doing the casting, they'd actually managed to stump her; and she was someone who had saved the lives of most people on the world, more than once.
Even so, Willow did not think of herself as a hero. She thought of herself as a hacker, a techie, a nerd, a magic user, a witch, a spell caster. She was not a soft and fluffy pagan and she was not a dark and doomed worshiper of the dark. She was Willow, who started off floating pencils in mild circles and who later, when it came time, cast a spell so wide, it affected the whole world and saved a goodly portion of it; except for Sunnydale.
She knew real heroes, however; people so remarkable and amazing that sometimes it still shook her emotional foundations when she really thought about it. Her friend, Buffy was a Slayer, someone who fought against the dark with a dogged persistence and who, through unique circumstances had died twice, maybe three times even, and lived. Xander, who had been transformed and possessed and grown and maimed and yet (usually) retained the essence of his humanity and humor through it all. Faith, who had lost her way and then found it again, walking in the light and one of two "Chosen" Slayers. Giles, who was their mentor and friend and now was the Watcher of Watchers of a reformed council. Dawn, sister of Buffy, a power of her own and brilliant, like a star. And there were more who had lived upon the Hellmouth, who had taken up the cause of defending life. She missed them all, her familiar friends and faces. She missed her heroes.
And not just because they had all been part of something amazing. They destroyed the Hellmouth and opened up new possibilities of light for the world. It was too bad that to do so, her hometown, Sunnydale had become a crushed pit in the earth, covering up and sealing a portal to dimensions dangerous.
It was for the best, but despite the days and nights where life sometimes hung by a thread, she kind of missed it. After all, it once had one of the greatest malls in California.
-BTVS multi-
Another near earth, another California where Sunnydale never existed; she'd found all kinds of variants of the theme: Sunnyville, Sunnyvista, Sunnyway. It just went on and on. Willow had taken to using longitude and latitude rather than names of places and even that wasn't always reliable. She more than once found ocean where California should have existed.
That sort of thing hinked a person up. She'd learned not to let her feet touch ground until she knew it was there. Fortunately, aside from the need to grind her assailants' bones to dust, she'd developed a sense of humor about the whole experience. So in a way, despite the fact she'd been pushed out of her own world, the coven had done her a favor. Where before she'd become a very serious girl, there was now a more lackadaisical, if slightly morbid, wit to her personality. She had been changed by the journey and even now wondered what her friends would think when she finally returned.
It was never if. She did not allow herself to think "if" she returned. It was always when. Though now and then she had been tempted to stay at near-homes. Some of them were so very close to what she knew that they hardly rang any different. It might be they even weren't at all different and she was being too picky.
Willow was aware that latching onto Sunnydale and tracing its line rather than the Cincinnati Hellmouth or even someplace much less dangerously energized might have been a mistake, but she knew that crater and she knew that vibe like the back of her hand, and, well, it was where the coven had pushed her through the portal. They'd used the remnant energy available from the closed fissure, standing not quite exactly on the Hellmouth, but near it; a still not-good thing. Energy was energy, but the Hellmouth tended to tilt and skew it like a magnet. If one did not adjust for the direction of the skew, and it took skill to do so, well... there were reasons that magic had some odd effects there.
Nevertheless, whichever world, whatever circumstances, she knew what her Sunndydale felt like, past and present; could recognize it like her own heartbeat. After all, she'd tapped into its earth often enough to get to know that part of the world, and its bowing power, very well. The difference was now she knew how to manage it.
Time, and experience, did lend perspective.
Not that location mattered that much when it came to her using power these days. She drew from her own well of strength quite adequately and had plenty of it. More, she wasn't on worlds very long. She blipped through realities like flipping the pages of a book; pausing only long enough to check the feel of a place. She stopped only when she needed to rest or something really unusual caught her vision or a new idea on how to approach things flashed to mind.
So Sunnyglen was there and gone and Willow left no mark of herself to show she was even there and she was off to another world.
-BTVS multi-
Willow had finally, finally found the crack, the way in and was chiseling a spell that would shift the reality just enough to let her slip in. It was a bit of time trickery, but all she needed to be was a few steps away from where they pushed her to make it right. The ground she chose had been cleansed very thoroughly and was already made sacred. As she drew sigils in the air, her eyes filled with power, and her hair went bright like fire. She'd only meant to go back a year or two, take a sidestep from one reality to the other and wait a bit. Then, when it was time, surprise the numbskulls who had done this.
However, things started clean, but went wonky. It wasn't any one particular event which alerted her, but from a cosmic point of view, by the time the magic had stirred and she'd pushed toward that chosen point, it was like a bomb went off. Chaos, already in the works and not done by her hand, lit the myriad realities, shockwaving through worlds and possibilities.
Well, really, she should have expected this. Stupid Ethan Rayne and his Halloween tricks.
-BTVS multi-
Halloween - After 6pm - Sunnydale, California
-BTVS multi-
Willow didn't think it was possible that she would show up as herself that long ago Halloween night. A part of her was horrified to realize that she'd arrived just in time for the terrible festivities. The other part was fascinated by the mix-up of her circumstances.
She felt around, letting her senses and magic push, to get a feel for where she was, how she managed to be in this particular moment.
She had a few expectations. One of which was a planned connection, which she meant to hide, with herself. Except hiding was not necessary.
She couldn't find herself at all, except, well... where she was standing.
She wondered, briefly, what happened to her other, younger self and then set aside that concern for a later examination as the chaos around her registered. As worrisome as it might be, there could be many reasons, including the fact that, if this was the night she thought it might be, then she was very possibly a ghost and thus she was using the wrong means of contact anyhow. Or, worst case, it might be she had simply replaced herself, fallen back into her previous life, older and wiser. In which case, she might fake a sixteen if she needed to, but at the moment, she was too occupied with carving a bit of order into the mayhem, just so she could cross the street. After all, she had a role to play, and if she were a bit more tangible than her past costumed incarnation, well, who was going to notice with everything going on anyhow.
Then she grimaced as "reality" set in. Buffy would notice. That young lady was not as oblivious as she liked to pretend she was. After all, Willow knew her test scores, both before college and after.
Buffy would notice the difference. She'd see it in Willow, noting posture, intensity, hair and make up; possibly even scent. Willow hadn't visibly aged much since the scythe awakened her, but she had seen and lived much. It would be there in her eyes. Buffy would also scope the jeans and the leather jacket and her boots and sundry other pieces of apparel and goodies that a younger Willow would not have attempted to wear. That is, once she snapped out of whomever she was this go around.
On the other hand, Buffy would be pleased that Willow had worn something out of character, so there was that. And if she was lucky, maybe Buffy wouldn't be the scream queen of the past. It was a good possibility that her friend, the slayer, hadn't chosen the dress and had, instead made some other decision. That was how the game was played. It was even why she'd found the crack in the seam of reality. Chance was everywhere and that was what had appealed to her in the first place, which had been sort of an oops now that she looked back on it. But she had taken the chance or perhaps it had taken her. And now, here she was, invoking and casting, wordlessly hobbling mini-demons and warriors on the move with flicks of her fingertips.
Thicken was such a useful spell.
-BTVS multi-
Mina Harker had experienced many things in her extended lifetime. She'd seen arcane and profound things, bizarre and unusual things, simple graces and beautiful sunsets. She'd battled madmen, sucked monstrous vermin dry, applied science and mysticism to solve mysteries and had watched her ex-husband and his new wife die of old age. She, however, remained the same. Auburn-haired, blue-eyed, statuesque and same apparent age as when she received her first bite from Count Vladimir Dracula.
Her husband had never forgiven her for it, as unfair as that might be.
More, it had taken her a long time to forgive herself; years, decades, a century or two. It helped that she had found purpose outside her early misery and companionship on a journey that made heroes out of monsters.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, a club of people who defended the world from darkness, had been started as a ruse by a madman, who wished to start an endless war. It had become something more, something of which to be proud. Despite the false history which they'd let remain for the newer recruits (for inspiration was just as important as veracity, and who was to say that somewhere the history that had been cobbled together wasn't true in spiritual form at least), she was a founding member. It seemed as if she'd been with the league for always, though truthfully, that was an impossibility. It was long enough that it was hard to imagine a different life, though she did take a few years off now and then, when the battles waned or the heroes who were gathered were many. The League had grown over the years, breaking off into subgroups, which monitored and covered events through the world. Every country had at least a member or two within them, able to call upon the full body if necessary. That was rare, these days. It had been years since the last apocalyptic event.
As Mina stood on the balcony of her apartment and gazed at blue sky and fluffy clouds, she couldn't help but think things had gotten a little boring.
-BTVS multi-
Out in the Multiverse
-BTVS multi-
In retrospect, Mina realized the whole debacle harked back to that instance of boredom. Even though she hadn't said the words out loud, there was no doubt her attitude had been transparent to those around her and that was like waving a red-flag at fate and saying, "I dare you." Of course, her friends had simply tried to entertain her with dinner. It was the uninvited guests, the ones casting spells and wielding swords, which made things exciting.
Her friends and herself being what they were, took the fight to the enemy mages and their warriors, battling with fists, weapons and their natural or, in one specific case where technology had gone wrong, unnatural, extraordinary talents. Mina transformed, becoming a woman of fang and claw. Her blue eyes turned brighter and more azure and her form took on a dangerous shadow. Her fellow heroes were somewhat used to the change, and so disregarded it; as she disregarded their changes.
The enemy, powerful as they were, however, were not used to it. She flowed with preternatural speed, faster than most eyes could track and in no time at all had in her grip one of the foul trespassers. Her teeth grew even longer and she smiled with a predator's happiness. Her growl was almost a teasing purr, rather than it's usual warning to the dead. "Ah. Dessert. Thank you. Just what I needed to top off my meal."
Her victim's eyes widened as her hand at their throat cut off the air that would have supplied voice to their incantation. Then, without any more waiting, she drew him forth, bit and gloried as blood and power and knowledge flowed through her veins and mind. Her eyes turned blood red as she feasted and in a matter of heartbeats it was over.
She was not a neat eater when it wasn't a lover. Blood covered her mouth, spattered against her face. Crimson faded into her skin as she took the briefest of moments to wiper her lips and lick her fingers, to neaten her hair, adjust her outfit; in this case black boots, a flattering navy blouse, black linen slacks. She did love this era, where women's liberation had taken hold and shaken the world-tree. She liked dressing both fashionably and comfortably. By the time she was back in the fight, hardly even seconds really, she looked as pristine and presentable as ever.
Until her next victim and her next; each one strengthening her as she took in their life essence and made it her own. Not that she needed them. She was already very, very, very powerful. Her friends considered her a "heavy hitter," though a subtle one in usual circumstances.
With each soul she partook, she learned new things, some more useful than others. When she finally found a minion who wasn't just fodder, she discovered the reason for the attack. It seemed it had nothing to do with the people (herself included) who had been enjoying dinner and everything to do with the need for blood and sacrifice. she and her dinner companions had just happened to be in the "right place, right time;" depending upon ones perspective.
Now she knew that, while the "footmen" battled, the real work was being done deeper in the building. This was where Mina began to truly hasten, breaking only long enough to take the life of those who got in her way. She had enough time to mentally reach out her awareness to the closest other hero and then she was gone through a set of double doors and rushing through the kitchens, down into the dark cellar.
She made it just in time to see a group of thirteen individuals in robes, chanting. Twelve rode the circle, with the last one in the middle. She rushed forward, grabbed the first person she could, dragging them into the everlasting. Even as they died they kept chanting, and it tried to spin in her head, to voice itself through her mouth, but she was a Lord and Master vampire, venerable and powerful. She swallowed the essence with nary a blink and cast herself toward the middle, intending to break the circle, to stop what they intended.
The floor opened underneath her and it was a pool of light. She grabbed the man in the middle, and plunged her teeth in. It was only then that she realized it wasn't human, but by then she was drinking, and drinking, stemming the tide as the creature tried to open a portal. It screamed in rage as she finally broke it, but the portal was suddenly wide open. And, because the creature wasn't there to chant anymore, instead of thrusting out and bringing death with it, the portal pulled in like a great, inescapable whirlpool.
She tried. Oh, how she tried, breaking into various forms, bat and mist being her most usual, things that might have scattered, but the entity that was the portal, had one calling and if it was not to do one thing, then it would do the other.
Mina was dragged in, screaming, away from her old world and to someplace where she never had been.
-BTVS multi-
Halloween 1997 - Sunnydale, California
-BTVS multi-
If it weren't for the fact that she felt the need to protect her friends during the beginning of the mayhem, among a few other things, Willow would simply have gone straight to Ethan's; that and she couldn't quite remember its original location. Trying to sense where he was, was an exercise in futility until she could manage to get centered better. Sunnydale's Hellmouth, specifically, was notorious for its ability to muck with "finding" people via mystical energy signals; though all Hellmouths had their complications.
She did, however, remember where Buffy, Xander and herself had lived. And she knew where the school was located. Worse comes to worst, she could find her friends from there if need be. Heck a part of her thought she should simply head to the school anyway, as she knew Giles was there, organizing his beloved library.
She also remembered, however, that Buffy was a screamer the last time Willow had encountered this night. Therefore, the "right" thing to do was go to rescue Buffy and then find Xander and then Giles. A little outside the order of the past, but either way, find and save first. Then stop Ethan.
She had a bit of a trek ahead of her, as she hadn't exactly been dropped close-by. It wasn't onerous, but she didn't have a car and didn't want to chance teleportation just at the moment. Floating maybe, but, the energy around Sunnydale was flexing and pulling and pulsating madly, partly because of Ethan's magic, partly because it always did and partly because of something she could not quite identify. It was as if another set of spells were in the works; which wasn't an impossibility, given Sunnydale. It was simply an unexpected addition to the puzzle. Either way, she would hate to be above ground and suddenly be dropped because the "gravity" changed. Uncomfortable that. Almost as bad as nearly drowning because the ground wasn't there.
Choices, choices.
Thus she trotted, not quite running or walking, but making some good time in the direction she was heading.
-BTVS multi-
In retrospect encountering the youngest Summers first made a bizarre and instructional sort of sense. No one had questioned how the Monks had altered memories, as at the time no one thought to go back to the past to actually experience it. Willow, however, was more than a little shocked when she laid eyes on a younger, shorter version of Dawn, whom she thought of in terms as an adopted daughter and sister and friend. In short, Dawn was family.
Willow's astonishment might also have been based on the fact that the brown-haired girl was tied to a lamp-post with random tiny monsters whooping and dancing around her as if in enthusiastic magical ceremony. For all that, Dawn was surprisingly calm, not once yelling out and hardly even struggling. On the other hand, the redhead could see that Dawn's hands were busy worrying at the knotted sheet that tied her hands together.
As Willow recalled, Dawn hadn't really encountered the sort of trouble that led to arcane or deadly consequences until she'd found out about Buffy. So, this was definitely new and unusual; which meant that things were already changing in this world. She did not know if it was because of her presence or because Ethan was an ass of a Wizard.
She actually felt quite fine laying all the blame at his chaotic feet.
Willow cocked her head and absorbed the scene for a few moments longer. It had been awhile since she'd seen helpless Dawn, and even then, she now realized, the young woman wasn't so entirely helpless. She was making good headway with the knot, complicated by the fact it had been tied by monster-tykes and was likely quite Gordian in nature. Even though this wasn't Tuesday, Dawn was holding her own. For some reason, that really tickled Willow.
She moved closer, careful not to step into the ring, which was definitely building power despite it's random nature. "Say Dawn. Whatcha doing? Babysitting gone wrong? Need a hand?"
Dawn's attention snapped to Willow. Her eyes widened fractionally and the older woman saw the girl's glance rake up and down. Then she attempted that aplomb she'd been working on mastering since she'd turned twelve, leaning against the post as if she meant to be there; hands still working the knot. "Oh. Uhm. Hi." She shouted slightly to be overheard atop the whoops and growls, yet her posture continued to play as if they were just talking normally in a hallway somewhere. Then girl shrugged and glanced at the little monsters and then back at the redhead. "Wait. You know who I am?"
A smile graced Willow's face and she decided a tease was definitely in order. "Yes. I do believe we've met by now, haven't we?" She let her expression turn puzzled, all the while keeping her smile friendly. She propped her hands on her hips. "I seem to recall knowing you since you've arrived, but I could be mistaken…You are Dawn Summers. If not, I suppose I could just go…"
"No! No. Don't go," Dawn wilted a little and offered a hopeful glance. Then, as if it would make sense, she said. "You know who you are?"
Willow grinned. It made sense to her. She knew this night all too well. Still feeling playful, she waved a hand. The tiny monsters stopped, frozen midstep, whoops caught in the air. "I am the Red Witch."
Dawn's eyes went really wide.
The redhead smiled. "Also known, to you, as Willow Rosenberg. Though it has been awhile since I've been back here. Got a bit sidetracked in the multiverse. You don't happen to know which way Buffy went, do you? And did she pick the noble woman outfit again? I hope not. She doesn't do so well with that one and we really need to find her if she did. Oh, and be careful where you step, Dawnie. That's a circle of power you're in. I doubt it was intentionally generated, but there's so much chaotic energy, I have a feeling that any order seems like good order at this point and the energy wanted to go there. Say, why are you still dressed as you? I thought you had a costume." Willow babbled slightly as she waved her hand again. The ropes around Dawn's hands dropped.
Dawn's next phrase was one of abject wonder and awe, said slowly and with feeling. "Wow."
Willow smiled despite herself. "I'm probably breaking some rule of causality, but it's just so good to see you that I couldn't outright lie. Are you okay with that?"
Dawn blinked and then suddenly nodded sharply. "More than okay. And I did have a costume, but the make-up got squished and Mom said I could go buy some more and when I started back from the store things went all to heck. You're different, though. What happened to the you, you?"
Willow interpreted. "No idea. I have a feeling I may be me, me. Just older."
"Buffy is going to freak." Willow held back the giggle that threatened to erupt at the nearly wicked gleeful expression on Dawn's face.
"I was thinking about faking it. Just pretending to be me, me while I'm here. Hadn't quite settled on the idea." She raised her arms in open invitation. Dawn tended to like hugs and cuddles after a capture and rescue. Well, needed more than like.
The invitation was accepted with a careful alacrity. Dawn navigated between still forms, avoiding pointy objects and then wrapped her arms tightly around Willow, who returned the hug just as sharply. The girl eased back only enough to say, "Wait a minute, you're not treating me as dumb."
"No. I suppose I'm not." Willow's smile was whimsical. "I've known you awhile, you know."
The young girl blinked and then grinned. "How faking it?"
"I was thinking a glamor or simply an age reversal. Not my favorite plan, but I hate to see my grades go down when I worked so hard for them in the first place and can't imagine myself testing out with a GED." She drew away, but kept one arm circled around Dawn's shoulder. She gazed at the circle of power thoughtfully. It would be a shame to let that go to waste. "Do you think it's cheating if I've already taken the tests?"
"Oh heck no. I mean, you could get a different version of the test and it's not like you didn't study for it before. Do you have a photographic memory?"
Willow's eyes twinkled. "I might." Then she gently pulled Dawn back. "Can't just leave that there," she nodded toward the circle. "That much of a pool is just asking for it, especially tonight of all nights."
"So what do we do?"
"Well, Dawn, as you are not yet trained, you stand over there."
Dawn squealed. "I'm going to get trained! In magic? Real magic? Are you gonna do it?"
"I don't know yet. I don't even know if I'm staying. You may be stuck with other me if I can't catch a break, in which case, definitely not; for awhile. And don't pester anyone about it. You'll just have to wait to the right moment and people show up. Now shoo." Willow waved Dawn in the direction she wanted her to go. "But don't go too far. Stay where I can see you and you can scream for me and, remind me to give you a knife when we're done. Just in case. Lots of these little miscreants out here, after all. And some big one's too. Wouldn't want you to be a snack, now would we?"
"No, we would not," Dawn said very sincerely.
"I'm glad we understand one another." Willow's smile tightened and then her eyes turned to light, causing Dawn to gasp. Then the redhead turned, facing the pool of power.
Willow tucked a hand in one of her pockets and then drew out a large polished crystal. It gleamed, but was otherwise see-through. "I think you'll do," she said to it with a bit of contemplation in her tone. Then she tossed it with casual ease into the air, where it "landed," suspended in the middle of the circle. "Ah, that's quite larger than I realized, but that's alright. The containment will hold."
"How did you get that out of that pocket?" Dawn was referring to the size of the crystal, which was technically larger than the opening of the jean's pocket.
"Dimensional shift, Dawn. We can talk theory later if you'd like, but probably not tonight. Tonight, is a night for action." Willow lifted her hands and then, began to chant The timber of her voice rolled with power and her hands glowed; as did the crystal.
The intention was that the energy would, with a little tug here and a little tug there, "unplug," from the binding and then spiral into the crystal, like a tub draining. Simplicity and it was working.
"Willow! Watch out!"
-BTVS multi-
Out in the multiverse
-BTVS multi-
Every now and then Donna Noble would experience flashes of brilliance; the kind of brilliance that mad scientists and mages would envy and try to suck out of a person for their own nefarious use, if they knew. As it was, the temp service she worked for thought she was a gold-mine. Not that they told her about their very careful application choices. If she knew that they always sent her to the bad-luck-no-one-ever-managed-it before cases, she might have gotten a little mad.
And Donna Noble angry was not a pleasant person to be around. She could verbally flay a person, leaving them bare to the universe and themselves, in heartbeats. She could physically flay them, after a little bit longer. Though, fortunately, that only happened the one time and she promptly forgot about it and her penchant for being smarter than the average bear immediately after.
That forgetting happened on a regular basis, because of the meddling of a timelord, who really should have known better. But then, he had been somewhat caught up in the idea that he was dying at the time and, even though really, he wasn't, he was and so… yeah. He made a tiny mistake and wiped her mind and memories, telling everyone close to her that should she remember, she would die. At the time, he really believed it. She had, after all, started out human.
Dr. Martha Jones might have called that declaration of death a bit of emotional and psychological transposition, had she been there. However, she hadn't and there was no way for her to examine the patient until after the timelord had mucked about with the woman's memories and by then, well, Donna Noble didn't really run in Dr. Jones' circles for investigation and a health check. Torchwood had its own problems and the Temp Agency had their own mandates.
In the meantime, the woman who had a head for numbers, a tall, curvy, smart-aleck redhead, had saved Britain, the world and the universe several times while under the employ of the agency; even after she married and won the lottery. Donna did not like to be bored and she did like to feel useful. Sure, she and her husband took time to sail around the world, but she kept her hand in the temp business, taking on a job or two so her resume stayed up to date. After all, one never knew.
In the meantime, she grew two hearts; though she didn't know it. And her brain changed. Again, without her knowledge. Her cells recomposed themselves and one day she jogged farther than she ever had in her life, faster than she ever had. That had been a great day and she attributed it to being happy and a great fitness regimen.
She still wasn't quite sure when she took up running, but she found that she liked it.
About two years after she was married, her husband was killed in the line of duty, dying bravely.
She made a beautiful and agonized widow, but she was British, so she also kept a stiff upper lip and chose to remember their love as a thing of beauty. So it was. That, at least, she could remember freely.
In a glass shelf, at the back of beyond in the Temp Agency, there were numerous awards and certificates. She did not know about any of these. The Temp Agency, in their wisdom were saving them for the day she "retired." After all, she had earned them, but some of those certificates were titles and some of them were in alien writ and thus they were state secrets until such time as she was ready for them.
Her family knew she wasn't a ditz, but she thought she was and that was a travesty to her grandfather. Yet, for some reason her mother was content to let the young woman think it, because it felt and seemed normal. She was a woman who preferred the simple things in life, even if her daughter thought herself to be slightly dumb. However, the redhead really was Dr. Donna Noble and really was quite, quite bright.
In the meantime, The Temp Agency treated her as their best come-and-go hired hand and problem solver that she was and she earned a little (really more than she had any idea about) pocket money.
Thus, one day, she found herself standing in front of a giant, blue round thing in the basement of a warehouse. The basement was quite plain, except for the army of geeks and soldiers that trooped about, looking busy and as far as Donna could tell, doing absolutely nothing useful. She'd already filed a whole room and they just walked back and forth a lot with grim determination.
She was taking a break in the main room, where gizmos and gadgets were strewn about with people looking importantly at them; which she ignored. She stared at the blue round thing, which had sigils lined up on the edges in three rounds and none of them matched, though some of them were the same.
Donna loved puzzles and that is what this reminded her of, so she felt it worth her time to at least look at it. She had folders and a digital clipboard, which she had personalized with little sticker-hearts on the back, in one hand and a coffee cup in another. She and the other secretary, a blonde American man named Daniel, who had been organizing a library and had his own opinions on things, were standing close together, chatting idly. Though they both could speak a mile-a-minute, and Daniel sometimes threw in the big words, they managed not to talk over one another, but with one another.
Daniel, it seemed had seen one of these puzzles before, but with much different sigils. He did not recognize the lettering.
Donna didn't think that one had to know what the letters meant to solve the puzzle, as it was simply a matter of filing the numbers correctly.
She had a good head for numbers, acknowledged by anyone who managed to get past her gossipy talk and really get to know her. She finally shrugged at Daniel who was still stuck on the language and said, "Well, you may be right. I am sure smarter people than me will figure that one out."
"You have to quit knocking yourself. I think you're pretty smart."
She grinned at him and bumped his shoulder. "Too bad you're taken, I'd snatch you up just for that. Hey, you and your soldier-boy doing anything Friday?"
Daniel most carefully did not look at the man in question, who had gone a few shades of red. "I guess we do now."
"Excellent. Well Ta. Good luck. I've got yet more records to set in order. You would not believe how they left this place. Everything tossed willy nilly. It was as if a pitched battle happened in that room."
Daniel's brows rose to his hairline and he offered a squeaky little smile, which she blithely accepted and then she left.
Then General who had been multi-colored from lack of air and outrage came to stand beside the doctor of archeology, working toward his aplomb. "That's the woman they sent to help us? Her?"
"Well, she does have a brilliant filing system. Quite remarkable actually."
Two days later and one day before Friday, Donna Noble solved the puzzle. She intended to tell Daniel, but decided to check her numbers on the closest available computer; which accidentally opened a gate. Her body, so near the whirling pool of energy that occurred because the gate was opened, was flooded with that energy and filled with light and epiphany after epiphany.
Her first word was "Oh!" Her second exclamation was, "That idiot! I'm going to smack the back of his head when I see him next. Stupid Doctor." Her final exclamation, as she saw tentacles reaching through the portal was "Oh. Bugger." And then, mind and body whole, but with only a clipboard to beat upon the writhing mass that had grasped and held her, she was dragged into the portal, which closed and cycled shut for another hundred thousand years.
-BTVS multi-
Halloween - Sunnydale, Calilfornia
-BTVS multi-
Willow didn't bother with ducking. She was an old hand at splitting her mystical attention and still remaining centered. It was one of those consequences of how she'd lived her life and usually it was a benefit, but sometimes, say when she was truly distracted and mentally tracking some other detail, it had other less pleasant results. For now, however, she invoked a shield, inclusive of Dawn, and barely paid attention to the slavering lizard-man, well, lizard-tyke, who was hacking away at the invisible barrier with an all-too-real miniaturized battle-axe.
"You have got to teach me that," Dawn said, and despite Willow's earlier warning, she drew closer.
The mage did not answer, as she really was busy, but she smiled at Dawn before returning her attention toward the power circle and the crystal. The crystal had begun to glow at the center and to spin. Like the gathering of stars at the center of the galaxy, it drew power. Delicate arm-like tendrils of light appeared, adding to that illusion. The rotation was consistent, but it seemed to draw more and more power, adding to the visual strength of its 'arms.'
"Ooh. Pretty," Dawn commented.
Now the girl stood very close to Willow again. The older woman glanced back at Dawn intending to warn her to stand back, for her own protection. Then she noticed something she missed the first time. "Dawn, you're bleeding."
Dawn, who had forgotten about achy wrists and nicks gotten by sharp poky sticks that had prompted her to get tied up in the first place, said, "Yeah. So? I've bled a lot in my time. You know me. The klutz."
"You are not a klutz. You just have abrupt growth spurts which throw off your innate sense of balance." Dawn's expression brightened at the declaration, so very firmly given that it had to be taken at face value. "However, when you reach your full height... wait... You're bleeding." Willow's eyes widened as she repeated herself and then she looked back at the spinning crystal. "Oh dear," she said weakly. "Oh shoot fuzzies."
"What?"
"I hate to say this, and please don't take it the wrong way, but I don't have time to explain. You're just going to have to trust me."
"Sure," Dawn said easily. "I've read a few books in the high school library when Mom had to go to the principal's office about Buffy. They have some wild books in that library, but very interesting. I didn't know they allowed those kinds of books, 'cause they weren't at Buffy's old school, but I guess Mr. Giles is all about anti-censorship and really, really old books. But my point is that I can guess." She pointed, a little lazily, at the glowing circle. " When the junior-monsters pushed me to the post, they spilled some of my blood unintentionally and because of that, the circle has more power, which means you have to focus more."
Willow blinked, considered what she might say and what ought to be and finally settled on, "Close enough." Then she really began to work, focusing on looping spirals of power over and under the crystal, planting her auric feet to the ground, so to speak. "Whatever happens, Dawn, stay in the protective shield."
"Oh, I don't plan on going anywhere. This is way cooler than getting bags of random candy corn. Besides, given what's going on tonight, I don't think there's gonna be much of a haul."
"Point. We'll just have to make do with second-day store-sale candy"
"Woot!"
Despite the gravity of the situation, the redhead smiled as she worked. Willow's hands were making motions, as if she were tying great knots or wrangling a beast or several. Then she began to chant, Now the light at her hands appeared to be streams, running from palm and fingertips, which the Red Witch tugged and pulled and tied into place. She moved with the power, dance-like. Dawn moved with her, following the shield and her older friend, for whom she now held oodles of respect.
The Lizard-tot got distracted by some noise and did not follow, opting for easier prey. He was followed in random succession by the other monster-tots who were freed from Willow's previous spell, simply because she had to focus more on what she was doing right then. Those fanged and clawed and other-kin creatures dispersed with a distracted haste, perhaps given the shyest push from Willow's magic.
It was work, definitely. A fine sheen of sweat beaded Willow's brow. Dawn had watched as the redhead's eyes had shifted a full spectrum of colors, from white to black to white again. Power thrummed all around her and a part of her basked in it, another part of her was willing success at her older friend, unconsciously adding to Willow's base and helping her efforts.
They could both see the changes as the crystal brightened and the circle's power drained.
They almost managed it perfectly.
And then, because the magic around the hellmouth really was that wonky, the power spiked hard.
The crystal hummed, only it wasn't a quiet hum, but a powerful thrum of noise that caused Dawn to bend and cover her ears. Willow had no choice but to hear it, and her chant broke into a scream, a perfect pitch of a high note.
The crystal shattered and the power rocketed back out. Most of the shards of the crystal simply dropped to the ground, lit with power and waiting, but a portion flung out and where they hit the ground they formed portals and gateways. Some stayed open mere seconds and flickered closed unused. A few of the larger ones however, stayed open just long enough that disoriented people or things began falling through.
"Crap," said Dawn. "That can't be good."
"Well," Willow drawled slowly as she recovered, "Believe it or not, I've seen worse."
-BTVS multi-