A/N: Yay! A cross over between my two favorite fandoms! Usual apologies for typos and grammar and stuff. Please review and I hope you enjoy!
The Scoobies arrived in Princeton, New Jersey, prepared for a battle. What they found instead was the aftermath of one, or so it seemed. "What the hell happened here?" Xander mumbled as the gang stepped off the bus from the airport.
A passing EMT heard the question. His brow was soaked with sweat and his face flushed from the exertion of moving debris in order to reach the injured. "That crane collapsed on a parking garage. Caused a heck of a mess. The hospitals in the area are all at full capacity." He ran off, obviously having a job to do, leaving the interlopers from Sunnydale quite perplexed.
"Where's the Big Bad?" Buffy pouted, turning to Giles. "I kind of thought we had some demon ass to kick."
Giles sighed at his slayer's uncanny ability to take any serious situation and de-intensify it. "Soon, Buffy," he replied in a manner that was impeccably British. "We're a few days early. But just a few. We still don't have much time." The intrepid group began to make their way from the wreckage and to their hotel.
Everyone was worried. A demon was gathering an army, and a large one at that. Giles' books told them that his name was Oray, Great Marquis of Hell. Legends stated that he commanded thirty legions of demons and wielded a bow and arrows that caused wounds of gangrene. From what they could tell, he planned to subdue man and bring about the underworld above ground, and eventually eradicate the human race in favor of demon kind. And they thought taking care of Glorificus was difficult. Buffy couldn't help but think that maybe they should have listened to those doomsday missionaries, just this once.
The Scoobies arrived at their hotel, and Buffy, Willow and Dawn parted ways with Xander, Giles and Spike and ventured into their respective rooms. In the girl's room, Dawn quickly drifted off to a world of dreams as the other two watched her.
"I'm kind of worried about this one, Buffy," Willow whispered, careful not to wake the slumbering teen.
"Me too, Will," the slayer replied. "Me too." She hopped into bed beside her sister and the witch took the other mattress. The occupants of both rooms slept uneasily, their rest plagued by visions of demons. Little did they know, these were not nightmares.
Oray sat atop his throne and brushed his long, dark hair from his eyes as he probed the minds of his enemies. One mind in particular intrigued him, and to his pleasant surprise, it was not the slayer's. No, the mind he wanted was the witch's. She held power, a great power, that she herself would never realize within her life time without his aid. But he wouldn't awaken it. The girl was smart. He couldn't risk betrayal. If one made a pact with the Devil, it could never be broken. But Oray was only the Devil's advocate. She could undermine him. However, acting as advocate gave him privileges, one of which was the elimination any possible threat. The witch would meet her death, and he would ensure that when it came, she would beg for it on hands and knees. The demon picked up his bow and quiver and closed his eyes, laughing inwardly.
Willow tossed violently in her sleep. A man riding a griffin chased her, and when she looked back, all she could see was the glint of his arrow's tip as he nocked it. He appeared young and strong, with flowing dark hair and bloody eyes that shone with purpose. He rode shirtless, but wore a green cloak and black leather pants; a stark contrast between Willow's mother earth and her tryst with dark magic. At least, that was how she interpreted it. It was her subconscious attempting to tell her something; it had to be. It was a dream after all.
Willow continued to sprint at a frantic pace, desperate to escape her hunter. Just as she began to think she could shake him from her tail, she stumbled and fell. She turned to face him as she felt her ankle throb with the pain that only arises from the sensation of breaking bones. The griffin came to an abrupt halt before her, and the man let his arrow fly. The sharp, crippling burst of hurt erupted not in Willow's chest like she had expected, but in her side. She cried out, her scream bloodcurdling as she realized that what hit her was not and ordinary arrow. The man smirked a terrible, malevolent smirk as he rode off, leaving the witch to rot.
"Willow!" Buffy shouted. "Will, wake up!." Willow did as bidden, though upon attempting to sit upright, pain exploded in her torso and she grunted, and Buffy pushed her into her previous position. "Lie down," the frantic slayer breathed. "This...This is gonna hurt." And sure enough, Willow felt as a long shaft was torn from her right side.
"Gahhhh!" She cried as the full extent of her injury was assessed.
"Buffy," Dawn began to ask tentatively. "What's that?" She pointed to the place in Willow that the arrow had penetrated. It was black with what appeared to be frostbite, but the small wound had begun gently oozing yellow pus.
"Ick," Buffy said under her breath. "I'm not completely sure, but I might have an idea. Get the guys down here." On cue, Dawn already had her cell phone and was waiting for Xander to pick up. In the mean time, Willow passed out with the intensity of the pain.
"This is bad," Giles said as Willow came to. "This is very, very bad."
The witch found herself in the bed of a hospital, robe clad and all. "Where..." She started to ask, but was interrupted by a chorus of relived sighs.
"Will!" Xander smiled, though the upturned corners of his mouth also spoke a sadness. In fact, all of Willow's companions shared the same solemn expression.
"Guys," she said, "what's wrong?"
"Oray's arrow," Buffy replied. "That thing we pulled out of you was Oray's arrow. You've got gangrene Will, and it's spreading fast. We couldn't tell the doctors how it happened, I mean, they wouldn't believe us if we tried. And the rate it's spreading, well, they said it's 'alarming'. They don't know if they can stop it, Will."
"I saw him," the witch said as if she had not been informed of her impending doom. "I was running, and he was riding a griffin. He had the arrow at the ready the entire time, and I bet he could've hit me while chasing me, but he didn't. He waited until I fell, and then he got me."
"But why you?" Giles speculated. "Why not the slayer?"
"My bet," Spike said, "is that he knows that Red here is pretty strong. I think he caught a whiff of your dark streak and gets that if you felt like it, you could really pop him one hard. Or at least give him a run for his money."
The group nodded and settled into silence as a doctor strode into the room. Willows eyes were automatically drawn to her. The brunette was tall and stunningly beautiful, with icy blue-grey eyes that looked as if they could have been the instrument that penetrated Willow the previous night. Her smile contrasted with her cold stare, as if the latter was the result of years of isolation. Her cheekbones were high, and her nose petite, and her lips desirable.
"Hey," the doctor said. "You're up."
"I guess I am," came the reply.
The woman glanced over some charts as she continued to speak. "I'm Dr. Hadley, from diagnostics. My boss, Dr. House is interested in your case. If I were you I'd be grateful, because he's probably the only person who can save you. But also be concerned. The man's insane."
The room's occupants stared at her briefly before Dawn spoke up. "What do you mean?"
"The man's a genus, but he'll do anything, and I really mean anything, to get to the truth. And he thinks you're all withholding something vital about your friend." She turned to look at Willow before setting her gaze back on the others. "Anyway," she continued, smiling, "you should leave. I need to change her bandages." And it was then that Willow came to realize that she did indeed have bandages wrapped around her torso.
"And don't the nurses usually do that?" Xander inquired, suddenly suspicious and deathly protective of his best friend.
The doctor smirked, though it was not a sinister smirk like Oray's, but a gentle, knowing smirk. "She's kind of special," was all she said in reply.
The Scoobies, sans Willow made their way from the room and ventured down to the cafeteria. "Something's up with the chick," Spike observed, breaking the silence.
"I can't believe I'm saying this," Xander said, "but I agree. She's too smooth." The group nodded in sync.
"Maybe there's something about her in the books," Giles theorized as he sat down with a steaming cup. "She may be more than just a doctor."
"You're right," Buffy replied. "She could work for Oray." The slayer paused upon realizing who she may have left her best friend with and frowned. "Oh noes."
"Damn!" Giles said in disgust as he began to drink. "Doesn't anyone around here know how to brew tea?"
The doctor closed the room's blinds and gestured for her patient to sit up. Willow did, however it was agonizing to the point of causing nausea. She steadied herself by focusing on the fluid motions of the other woman's hands as they lifted the hospital gown over her head and began to gently unwrap the bandages. It was so frustrating, needing another person to do this for her. Willow knew she could easily remove the binding with magic, but she would not. She could not. If she did, she risked losing control again, and she feared that the second time around, Xander's yellow crayon story wouldn't be enough to quell her raging storm.
"So," the doctor began, "you're not really into the entire letting someone else dress your wounds thing, are you?"
"Hmmm?" Willow replied, mid-wince.
"You really, really seem to want me gone now."
"Oh. Sorry Dr. Hadley, I just..."
"Call me Thirteen."
"What?" Willow asked, puzzled.
"Everyone around here calls me Thirteen, and it looks like you're going to be here a while, so you and your friends might as well, too."
Thirteen grinned a very genuine grin that make the witch want to extend friendship. "Williow," she said. "I'm Willow."
"Well Willow," Thirteen grimaced as she removed the last of the bandages, "I'm sorry to tell you that you probably won't leave this place alive. How is this spreading so fast? Two hours ago it was just this little infected gash and now it's taken the entire right side of your stomach."
"I take it the antibiotics aren't working?"
"Not in the slightest. We have the OR booked for later. We're going to cut off as much of the necrosis as possible and test some of it. But, gangrene doesn't just appear at random, and nothing in the history your friends gave us remotely suggests that you could have been exposed to something that would cause this. You see why my boss has issues. I do get that not everyone tells their friends everything, and anything that you may be hiding will be kept confidential if you tell me."
Willow sighed. "I know what you're doing. And I can honestly say that whatever they told you is the truth. Nothing more, nothing less."
"Alright," Thirteen teased, obviously still skeptical. She then finished patching up the witch, replaced her hospital robe, and was on her way.
As she walked out the door, it occurred to Willow for the first time that she had just been alone and naked with one of the most gorgeous women she had seen since Tara. And she didn't even spaz out.
"What's with the smile, Thirteen?" Kutner asked, sporting a knowing smile of his own.
"Hmmm?" His coworker mumbled as she sipped her coffee. She placed the cup back on the table in the diagnostics office and looked back up at Kutner. "What do you mean?"
"You haven't smiled like that since the time you had it off with that nurse in the supply closet."
"I wasn't smiling because of the nurse; I was smiling because of the cash I won from House for doing it."
"Sure you were," he laughed. "But really, how pretty is she?"
"Who?" Thirteen ask, feigning ignorance.
"The patient. With the weird gangrene. Foreman said she's cute."
"Foreman can go to hell."
"He wants ask her out if she pulls through."
"Well, if she has half a brain, she'll say no."
"Jealous much," Kutner replied. Thirteen simply glared.
Just then, the tip of a cane entered Thirteen's peripheral vision. It's owner, a raggedly handsome man, slung a backpack from his shoulders and onto the floor before disposing of his jacket. He looked around the room. "Where are the rest of my minions?" he asked.
"Who knows, House?" Kutner replied.
"Even more importantly," Thirteen said, "who cares? Taub's probably trying to patch things up with his wife, and I bet Foreman's hitting on the patient, who by the way gives off a strong vibe of the very lesbian kind."
"Why didn't you mention that!" Kutner exclaimed. "I was sitting here, teasing you about the patient, and you think she's gay? You are so into her."
"I spent seven minutes with her. I'm not into her."
"Sure you're not," House joked. "Sure you're not."
"You're picturing she and I naked together aren't you?"
"Damn straight," the diagnostician replied. "Speaking of the patient naked, gimme some symptoms."
"Gangrene," Kutner said.
"We already know about that. It's not a symptom."
"It's what she has," Thirteen explained. "It just appeared this morning, totally spontaneously, and it's spreading like wildfire. When she came in, it took up maybe a square inch of skin, but now, the whole right side of her stomach is infected. It's not pretty."
"But she is?"
"Shut up."
"Okay, schedule her for surgery to remove the infected tissue so we can at least see if healthy tissue will grow over the damage. Then test the stuff. This is not normal gangrene."
"Already done," Thirteen supplied. "She'll be in the OR in fifteen minutes. Chase is working on her."
"Then, to the viewing gallery?" Kutner suggested.
"Totally," House replied. "I wanna see this chick." The three doctors departed to watch dead and damaged tissue being cut from their patient. Always a pleasant sight.
"Buffy," Willow said as the orderlies were preparing to wheel her into surgery. "After this the damaged tissue will be gone, so I was thinking that I could, well, try to grow healthy tissue back, like I did before. Would you maybe let me borrow some slayer strength?
"Anytime, Will," Buffy grinned as she friend was carted off. "Anytime."
After Willow was knocked out for the surgery, her vision became invaded by images of a smiling Oray as his arrows struck her over and over again, leaving her fragile and on the cusp of death. It was then that he chose to defile her. Willow screamed.
Upon reaching the surgical gallery, Thirteen found Foreman and Taub, who had obviously been paged. "Sorry I wasn't here before," Taub explained. "My wife and I were talking."
"What's your excuse," House asked, turning to Foreman.
"I was doing your clinic hours, House," came the answer.
"Fair enough."
"She is cute," Kutner whispered sideways to Thirteen. "Good luck."
Thirteen ignored him.
The doctors watched on as their patient was operated upon, and samples taken. The surgery was routine until the very end, when a glass-shattering cry that suggested both great pain and great fear erupted from Willow's mouth and her heart rate skyrocketed.
Thirteen could barely make out Chase's voice as he shouted "What the hell!" before attempting to stabilize her. It took time, but she ceased her screams and her heart rate returned to normal.
But there was a physical difference, something that the Australian doctor knew had not been there when the patient had been brought in. Her coverings had been forced askew and fresh bruises coated her inner thighs. There was blood, diluted with what appeared to be semen. "How...?" Chase whispered as he motioned for the other surgeons to clear off. He made is way over to the intercom. "Something weird's happening, House. You should come look. All of you."
And so, House and his team scrubbed up and filed into the OR. Thirteen was the first to see the damage. "Oh my god," she whispered, her voice fragile. "But it looks..."
"Fresh?" House finished for her. "So fresh that the time frame in which it took place would have had to have been between now and four minutes ago? And that's an impossibility because we were all watching. "
"Yeah."
"I'll get a rape kit," Kutner offered solemnly. He exited the room, and no one stopped him.
Minutes later, he returned as the others left, not sure of how to deal with the situation. All except Thirteen, who volunteered to stay. They pair of doctors performed their tests and cleaned her up, and were at least able to verify that she probably had not contracted anything from her attacker, whoever it might have been. The still had time before a pregnancy test could be done, and both hoped that their patient would not need need it. The two prepared to cart her back to her room, and when the orderlies offered to do it, neither doctor budged and inch.
"The things that have happened to her, just today, are so bizarre," Kutner said, breaking the uncomfortable silence.
"Bizarre indeed," Thirteen whispered.
They brought Willow back to her room, and informed her worried friends that the surgery was a success, though immediately followed the good news with the bad. She had been out cold. She screamed. She was bruised and bloodied and defiled. The youngest of the group, a girl, shed silent tears. The blonde woman's eyes became cold. The older man and the Billy Idol wannabe placed their hands in their pockets and looked downward in a chiefly British manner. The dark-haired man looked as if all he wanted was to hold his friend. A blanket of sorrow had coated the room.
Thirteen and Kutner left, though before she was out of earshot, Thirteen heard the blonde girl give an angry sigh before stating, "Oray did this."
Her interest had been piqued.
Willow's eyes cracked gingerly open. Her friends crowded her hospital bed and simply stared. She tried to get up, but Xander pushed her back down. "During the surgery," she breathed, "I had this...this nightmare where..."
"Oray hurt you," Buffy finished.
"Yeah," the witch replied, her voice trembling. "Really bad."
"The doctors, Willow, the found the physical evidence on you in the middle of the surgery. The two who brought you back seemed quite disturbed."
"I-I bet they were," Willow stated, as if to no one.
Buffy gave the gang a silent cue to leave as she hopped up on the bed next to her best friend and took her in her arms. "It's okay," she crooned. "Everything's going to be okay." Willow simply nodded as her eyes began to swell with wetness. The slayer began to wipe the tears away, and they simply held each other in the silence.
Willow broke the calm. "I'm going to destroy that demon," she whispered. "I'm going to make sure he feels the sting of his own arrow."
"You will. But you need to get healthy first."
The witch nodded and assumed a meditative position opposite of Buffy. The pair joined hands as Buffy felt her friend gently probing her spirit for the energy needed to heal. It would take a few days, but they could do it.
Thirteen sat in her apartment with her laptop and a glass of wine. The hundreds of search results for Oray flashed before her eyes, and she chose the first, from an encyclopedia of demonology. She cocked her head. It couldn't be a demon. Demons weren't real.
The article said: In demonology, Leraje is a mighty Great Marquis of Hell who has thirty legions of demons under his power. He causes great battles and disputes, and makes gangrene wounds caused by arrows. Some authors say this demon belongs to the zodiacal sign of Sagittarius.
He is depicted as a gallant and handsome archer clad in green, carrying a bow and quiver.
Other spellings: Leraie, Leraikha, Leraye, Loray, Oray.
Thirteen continued her research, noting that this would at least explain the unusual gangrene. But even so, this was all remarkably unbelievable. Though the more she thought about it, the more it made sense, considering what happened in the OR. Thirteen was thoroughly perplexed, but what she did understand was that this what out of the jurisdiction of modern medicine.
Willow collapsed back on her bed, and Buffy almost fell atop her with the exhaustion they both felt. "That was kind of nice," Willow sighed. "It took a lot, but it doesn't hurt anymore."
"If you want," Buffy said, "I can check under the bandages." Her friend lifted her gown enough for her to tear away some of the binding. She smiled. "This might not take as long as we thought, Will. It looks good."
"Good," the witch grinned. "Now, I'm sleepy." Willow drifted off, and Buffy eventually did beside her, and both slept without restlessness.
Willow felt someone nudge her shoulder, and her eyes bolted open. "Huh?" She asked as her movement awoke Buffy.
"It's just me," Thirteen said, her face entering Willow's vision. "Are you okay?" Immediately, she knew the question was stupid.
"Fine," Willow replied, surprisingly with a smile. "I'm fine."
"Alright. I need to re-bandage you again though." Buffy took the statement as a signal to leave, but before she did, she embraced her friend.
"I know we'll pull through." She exited the room, leaving Willow and Thirteen alone.
"So," the doctor said as she began the tedious act of unwrapping bandages. "How long have you and that Xander guy been together?"
Willow looked at her quizzically. "What makes you think he and I are together?"
"The way he looked at you when we told your friends about what happened in surgery. It was like he wanted to comfort and hold you while simultaneously beating the shit out of whoever did that to you."
The witch laughed. "He and I grew up together. For the longest time we were our only friends. I love him a lot, and he loves me, but like siblings. There was a time in high school when we thought maybe, but...things went wrong. Anyway, it doesn't really matter. It's all in the past."
Thirteen repealed the last of the binding and gasped at what she saw. "It's almost gone. That's not possible. If anything it should be spreading over the rest of your stomach. The tests we did, they didn't tell us anything except that this is not normal gangrene, but we already knew that. What the hell is going on, Willow?"
"Nothing. My body's doing weird things, and this is a hospital. I'm the patient, you're the doctors. You tell me." Willow was suddenly very glad that she had grown better at lying, though she still feared that under Thirteen's scrutinizing eyes, she would be caught out.
"I don't believe you."
"Of course you don't."
Thirteen seethed momentarily before exploding. "Then who or what is Oray, and what does your friend think it has to do with all of this?"
Willow froze. This woman couldn't possible know. She was just a doctor, a very beautiful doctor who could probably use her good looks and charm to force the information out of her, but still only a doctor. "How do you...?"
"I heard your friend talking. She didn't say much, just 'Oray did this'. I took it upon myself to look it up. According to..."
"Judeo-Christian mythology, Oray is a Great Marquis of Hell who commands thirty legions of demons, is an archer who rides on a griffin, and his arrows cause gangrene?"
"Pretty much, yeah."
Willow sighed. "Listen, I know this must sound ridiculous."
"Not really," Thirteen replied. "You see, I did some more research and found some information about a group out of Sunnydale, California. They're not an organization, just a group of friends who have the abilities and resources to fight supernatural threats. I figured they're the same people who spend all of their time with you, in this room."
"You figured right."
"But that's not the end," the doctor smirked. "I came across another phrase: vampire slayer. I read up on it. Oray wanted to take you out, meaning that you probably have some power. That leads me to think that you're the slayer."
Willow began to laugh hysterically, even though it still hurt. "The slayer? You think I'm the slayer? Do I seem remotely cool enough to be the slayer? Haha, no. Buffy's the slayer. But you got the rest of it right. I'm actually a witch. That's why I'm healing so quickly. It takes time, and I needed to wait for you to get rid of the dead tissue, and I had to borrow some slayer strength from Buffy, but something similar happened before and I made it work."
"I don't believe you," Thirteen said, raising an eyebrow.
"You believe in a demon that causes gangrene but not a witch?"
"No! No. I don't believe any of it."
A smile crept up Willow's features. "Watch this." She looked at the chair across the room, and using her power lifted it several feet off the ground and caused it to flip a few times before setting it down."
"There could be strings attached to it," Thirteen reasoned.
"Okay..." the witch mused, "I can't really do much without a circle or the right ingredients but I can still do some things." Soon, the doctor's lab coat was no longer on her, but suspended in the air. "Burn," Willow whispered, and the lab coat caught fire. Thirteen glared at her wide-eyed and angry.
"Put it out!" She shouted.
The witch simply sighed and cocked her head playfully. With a look, the fire was extinguished. "If you say you don't believe me again, I might just have to burn it all the way through."
"Okay. I believe you."
Willow hadn't put out the fire quickly enough, and the smoke reached the ceiling, setting off the room's sprinklers and thoroughly soaking it's two inhabitants.
"Shit," Thirteen muttered as she made to leave.
"Wait!" Willow called after her.
"I know. None of this ever happened."
"Right."
The doctor left, ignorant of the fact that her patient was not going to ask her to keep a secret. She had simply wished to thank her.
Oray had not expected the witch to heal herself as quickly as she did. He couldn't try the same tactic again. She'd be expecting it. No, he needed to get creative. But in the meantime, the army was ready. It was only the matter of waiting for the right moment to strike, and that moment was coming.
"She's different," Thirteen said to Kutner while in the elevator. Both doctors were on the way to their respective homes, and the tall brunette couldn't help but wish she had someone like the witch to go home to. She quickly altered her thoughts. That little display in the room had been pretentious. She was overly confident, even cocky. But Thirteen couldn't know that Willow wasn't cocky, that she lacked self confidence, and that all she wished to do at that moment was prove herself to someone who wasn't in Sunnydale when she had attempted to bring about the apocalypse and end all human pain. The doctor certainly didn't understand that if Willow wished to impress, she had much more up her sleeve. But Thirteen was ignorant. All she saw was a girl who appeared to be showing off.
"Different like crazy?" Kutner asked, knowing that his coworker had been referring to their patient.
"No. Well, maybe, but not in a bad way. There's just something different about her." Thirteen's mind automatically thought about magic, but that wasn't what she meant. "I can't pick it out, but it's there."
"Is this a good something?"
"I'm not sure. I hope so, because I don't think bad would be good for anyone."
Kutner nodded, and the pari rode the rest of the way down the elevator in silence.
Lisa Cuddy, Dean of Medicine, sat at her desk, working late. She wanted to go home, she really did, but being the dean meant responsibilities. She had just leafed through a set of law suits against House when she heard something that sounded quite a bit like a cough. At first, she passed it off as a patient, but then realized that she was in her office. She couldn't help but think about how much she needed a vacation. The sound came again, and again Cuddy couldn't imagine what it might be. She shrugged it off and returned to her work, quiet, efficient, and soothing.
Meanwhile, the demon scout vanished from the office soundlessly. He waited to give Oray a detailed account of the hospital layout.
"Look at all this blood!" Spike exclaimed as he raided the blood bank. "This is great!" The vampire used his teeth to rip open one of the bags and drank from it deeply.
"Be quiet!" Buffy hissed. "We can't let that doctor find us before we find her."
"The bitch isn't here!"
"You have a point. Let's go back to the foyer." And so, the intrepid duo quietly made their way up from the basement and to the hospital's exit.
"Hey!" Shouted a male voice from the elevator. "You're not supposed to be here!" Buffy and Spike dared not turn around.
"Wait," said another, decidedly feminine. "You're some of Willow's friends, right?"
"Yeah," the slayer saved as she looked to see Thirteen and Kutner. "We were, uh, just in the cafeteria. And then were were going back upstairs. To see Willow. Who is our friend."
"I'm sorry guys, but visiting hours are over."
"Okay," Spike replied flamboyantly. "We'll be on our way."
As the vampire and the slayer made their way out, Kutner turned to Thirteen. "Is it just me or were they acting like they just robbed a bank?"
"It's just you. I was thinking more dirty fun in a broom closet." And with that, she too departed.
Willow sat cross-legged on her bed the next morning, meditating. She was sure that she was almost there; just a few more hours and she'd be fit for battle. She had been working at it all night and was eager to leave the hospital, for within its walls, she felt helpless. However, a rapping at her room's door interrupted the calm. She opened one eye, trying to keep her focus while simultaneously seeking out the intruder.
Sure enough, in stepped an older man with a cane. He walked to the end of Willow's bed, stopped, and simply stared at her until she acknowledged him. Eventually, she did. "Hi," she said, somewhat uncertainly.
"Willow's a dumb name."
"Take it up with my parents," Willow said.
"You're weird," the man replied.
"I don't deny that."
"Not you. Your body. It's doing weird things. Things that can't be explained by medicine."
The witch's eyes lit up. "You're Dr. House, aren't you?"
"Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!"
"Why are you here?"
"Just telling you that you'll probably die before we figure this all out." House smiled.
"I don't know," Willow replied with a knowing smirk. "I disagree."
"No, you will. There's no medical precedent for any of this. I'll figure it out eventually, I mean, I'm kind of a genius, but it'll take too long and you'll be dead by the time it happens."
He simply looked at the girl before him as she began to smile. "I'm sorry, but I don't think you'll ever figure this out."
"What makes you think so?"
"Look at what's under the bandages."
House sat down by her bed and began to unwrap the dressings. Upon doing so, he was met with a surprise. "Hmmm," was all he could say. "Either your case wasn't worth taking, or," he paused, flinging his hands in the air in mock horror, "magic!"
"Willow sighed. "You don't know the half of it," she whispered under her breath. "Or the other half, so really you don't know anything."
"What was that?"
"Oh, um, nothing. It was nothing."
"Sure it was." House began to walk away, but his patient stopped him.
"She told you, didn't she?"
"You bet she did. But don't flay her alive; she was under high scrutiny."
"I actually did that once." House looked at her, wide-eyed. "The guy killed someone I loved. I'm- I'm not proud of it or anything like that."
"Hardcore," the snarky doctor replied approvingly before making his exit. House, the king of logic and reason, couldn't believe that he had just bought into the idea of magic. But then again, the security video depicting the witch setting Thirteen's lab coat on fire was quite convincing. Thirteen didn't need to know that he had destroyed any trustworthiness the patient may have thought she had with her, especially since the young doctor very much seemed as if she wished to pursue that Willow woman. This would be fun.
"Willow!" Dawn called out. "They're discharging you!" She ran to the witch and gave her and enormous hug.
"Hi Dawnie!" Willow grinned as her friends entered the hospital room. She was out of her robes and back into her street clothes, packing the few possessions she had on her person.
At that moment, Thirteen walked in. "Hey," the doctor greeted. "Going home?"
"Not quite home," Willow replied. "I guess not really home at all."
"Hmmm, that's right. You're all from California. Except for the British guy."
"Well, he technically lives in California too."
Thirteen whipped out a sheet of paper and handed it to Willow. "Listen, here's my cell number. If you guys need anything when you're in Princeton, call me."
"Will do." She turned back to her friends and smiled.
"Let's go Will," Xander said.
And with that, she followed them out.
"You just got a hot doctor's number!" Xander said excitedly as the Scoobies made their way back to their hotel.
"I...I guess I did," Willow replied. "But do you really think she wants me to call her for that?"
"Maybe not on the first date, but..." her friend joked.
"You know what I mean."
"I think she's into you, and if you don't take advantage of it, I might."
"So, you're not over Anya yet?"
"Not at all."
"It's okay," Willow said. "And maybe I will call her; just after we get rid of the baddies."
"So you really didn't mean anything else by giving her your number?" Kutner asked.
"Nope," Thirteen replied. "I just wanted her to know that if she and her friends need help fighting that demon thing, I'm there to assist."
"So you don't want a romantic candlelight dinner with her?"
"Not at bit."
"Or you don't want to grind with her at some club?"
"Never crossed my mind."
"You don't want to get to know her over coffee?"
"No."
Kutner smiled "Then I bet you don't want in her pants."
"Definitely, definitely not that."
"You really, really at least want to do that last one."
"Oh hell yeah," Thirteen said, want dripping from her voice.
"I knew it."
"Shut up."
"You really want her to call."
"I really do."
"Oh no," Giles said as he flipped through his books.
"What?" Buffy asked, concerned.
"See that?" The watcher pointed to a map in his books that marked magical medians. "The midpoint of that line is where Oray's army will appear. Look at what's on it."
"Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital?" Spike wondered. "What's the significance?"
"It's the hospital I was just in," Willow said. "I should call Thirteen, tell her to get everyone out of there now."
"I very much think that you should," Giles said.
Willow grabbed her phone from the bedside table in her hotel room while fishing in her pockets for the doctor's home number. She dialed gingerly, double checking each digit as she went along, praying to the goddess that Thirteen would pick up. The dial tone rang through her ears like the morbid groan of church bells on a funeral day. It seemed to go on forever. "Hadley," the voice at the end of the line finally chirped.
"Thirteen?" the witch half asked uncertainly. "It's Willow."
"Hey. I was kind of hoping you'd call."
"No time for friendly banter or-or flirting or whatever this is. Oray, the demon guy, his army's preparing to assemble at the hospital. You need to get everybody out of there, and fast."
"How do you expect me to do that? No one's going to believe me."
"Well, House knows, doesn't he?"
Thirteen sighed. "Our dean won't take the word of a Vicodin-addicted misanthrope and an equally self-destructive doctor with a part-time death wish. The woman already thinks we're both nuts. I've been fired at least three times, and House, well, it's in his personality to make shit like this up to piss her off. She's not going to believe us."
"But she keeps both of you on. She must trust you to some degree."
"She trusts us as talented doctors. Not people. It doesn't matter how in love with House she is."
"Listen," Willow said, "I'll be down there ten minutes with Buffy and Spike. We can persuade her."
"Which one's Spike, just for the record?"
"The vampire."
"You have a vampire with you. Yet Buffy's the slayer?"
"It's complicated. Just be there to take us to the dean."
"Okay."
Willow could tell that Thirteen was about to hang up, just as she realized she forgot something. "Wait!"
"Yeah?" Thirteen asked. The witch let out a breath of relief.
"Is she squeamish?"
"Not particularly. See you in ten."
This time it was Willow who hung up first as she looked to her companions. "Buffy, Spike," she said, her personality becoming surprisingly dominant in the room. "We need to go. Grab some things in case we're too late. We may need to fight." The two addressed nodded and did as told. The trio then promptly left for the hospital.
"Thirteen, it's late. I don't have time for this," Cuddy said exhaustedly, though without allowing her professional reserve to falter.
"I'm sorry," the younger doctor replied, "but I wouldn't be telling you this if it wasn't important."
The dean looked from her employee to the three strangers at her side, each of the latter appearing somewhat battle hardened. "And you're telling me that there's a demon army preparing to infest my hospital?"
"Pretty much." This time, the speaker was not Thirteen. Cuddy turned to glance at a blonde girl who couldn't have been older than twenty. "Buffy Summers by the way."
"I don't believe you, Buffy Summers."
"You will. You see, we have brought a real live demon into 'your hospital'. His name's Spike, but he also goes by William the Bloody in the history books."
Everyone looked expectantly at Spike.
"What are you waiting for?" Willow chided. "Just do it."
"Do what?" The vampire asked. You never told me to do anything. Just to be here."
Willow huffed. "You know. Go all fangy."
And he did, his face growing ridges and canine teeth carving themselves into razor sharp points. Cuddy jumped.
"What is that thing?"
"A vampire," Thirteen replied just a tad smugly. "Aren't you gonna suck her blood or something?"
"I would, but I'm all soul-having. I'd feel guilty afterwards."
"Ah."
"He's not the only unique on in our little group," Buffy continued. "I'm the slayer. It's my job to protect the human race from vamps, demons, and, well, other stuff. That didn't sound as good as it did in my head. Anyway, Will's an extremely powerful witch. I mean, she almost destroyed the world."
"That," Cuddy said in a panic while motioning to Spike, "has to be make up and prosthetics. And the rest of you are just lying. Did House put you up to this?" As if on cue, the diagnostician entered the dean's office.
"Cuddy, I..." he began, though stopped upon noticing Thirteen. "Am I interrupting something intimate?" He teased.
"Kind of," Thirteen replied, gesturing to the room's other occupants.
"Ah. Witch girl and posse. I see you have a vampire friend, and I'm assuming that the blonde chick's a succubus, because then I don't even have to persuade her to sleep with me."
"I'm the slayer," Buffy retorted in disgust. "So this is the hospital's big genius?"
"Yep," Thirteen and Cuddy replied simultaneously, as if it were nothing new.
"Anyway Cuddles," House went on, wearing an enormous grin, "listen to these people because they kind of know what they're doing. I mean, have you ever halted an apocalypse in its tracks?"
"Okay," the dean said. "Let's get everyone out." And with that, she called down to the nurses' station and gave her order, not unlike a military commander.
"That's it?" Willow asked. "We come here and show you evidence that these things exist, and then he just barges in like he owns the world and just tells you to trust us and you do? There's something wrong with that."
"That's just how things work around here," Thirteen answered.
Buffy whipped out her phone and began to dial. "I'll get Giles and Xander down here. I don't want Dawn around this though." The other two Scoobies nodded in agreement. "Yeah, Giles," she said. "We're ready."
"Oh! But I think you're a bit late," came a smooth, masculine voice from a corner of the room. Out from the shadow stepped a handsome, well built man wearing a green cloak and ebony pants, his dark, shoulder-length hair partially hiding his eyes, which Willow knew were the color of rubies. A bow and quiver were strapped to his back, like a sinister Robin Hood. "Finally, we meet in person, witch. My names are Leraje, Leraie, Loray, and Leraikha, but I believe the one you prefer to use is Oray." He bent onto one knee and kissed the back of Willow's hand. She wrenched it away and he stood in response. "I understand that I'm unlike demons you have faced before. I look human. I feel human. I even act human on occasion." Oray chuckled. "I am a prince of Hell. Formalities are a must, witch. Please, grace me with your name."
A civilized demon. Memories of Dracula were raised in the minds of the present Scoobies. "You don't need my name," Willow replied, her eyes becoming ice. She wished that, for the first time since Tara, she could become stronger. She wanted again to be engulfed in the type of power that would allow her to dispose of the demon before her once and for all.
"Be rude then," Oray snarled. "My men are already here. The rise of the underworld cannot be avoided." The demon swiftly reached for his bow and had an arrow at the ready, aimed directly at Willow's heart. "And I need to eliminate our greatest threat." He was so close to the witch that he could have simply stabbed her if he so chose to. Instead, the entire room cringed at the twang of the bow as the arrow was freed. However, instead of a corpse on the floor of the office, the occupants of the small space saw someone very different standing where Willow had been moments before, and the arrow's tip a breath away from the girl's chest, stuck in the air as if lodged into an invisible target.
"Oh no," Buffy whispered, her expression becoming more and more worried by the second.
"What is it?" Thirteen asked. "Where's Willow?"
"That is Will," the slayer replied. "That's the Will who feels nothing but rage and pain and loss, the Will who lacks a heart and soul and destroys anyone who gets in her way. This is the Will who nearly killed us all and almost succeeded in destroying the world. This is what she was when Tara died."
"Who's Tara?"
"Tara was the woman Willow loved more than anything in this or any universe."
Willow reached out a hand to grab the arrow, then crushed it and let it fall to the floor. "You've been naughty," she said to the demon, turning away from him and towards the otherd. Her voice was the ideal combination of seductive and sadistic.
Thirteen gasped when she saw the witch. Her skin had become almost paler than that of a vampire, a stark contrast to the black of her eyes and hair. Even her attire was the color of night, a feminine companion to Spike's all dark ensemble. Veins crisscrossed over her cheeks and forehead in an eerie manner, causing Thirteen to question whether or not it was possible for the creature who stood before her to be the one she had met but a few short days ago.
Willow turned back to Oray, releasing a blasting stream of ebony and violet from her palms, engulfing the demon in a tight coil. He simply laughed. "Well done, witch. Well done." His laughter continued as Spike looked to Buffy.
"He wanted this all along," he hissed.
The slayer nodded. "He wanted Will out of the way and something to distract us from stopping him. Two birds with one stone."
"But there's a big gaping hole in his plan," House cut in. "He can't exactly lead a demon army if he's restrained by little miss Dark Magic over there."
"Release me, witch," Oray commanded.
"Why should I?" Willow replied.
"Because I'm not the one you want dead. You still want to avenge the death of your lover."
"I killed Warren. It was fun."
"Not him. Your beloved wouldn't have perished if a certain slayer hadn't of made him angry. He was pointing that gun at her, remember? Oh yes, I know what happened. All three of those bullets were meant for the slayer. If that boy hadn't wanted her dead, one of them wouldn't have hit your dear lover. The worst part? You even dug the bullet out of her while your girlfriend lied dead on your bedroom floor. You aren't done reaping vengeance, don't you see? So, let me be and kill the slayer."
Buff held her breath as Willow appeared to contemplate her options. She didn't wish to fight her friend again, especially since the slayer had no doubt in her mind that this time around, the witch was stronger. She feared for Willow, but also herself. Unlike their last encounter of this nature, Buffy knew that she might not come out alive.
Willow smirked manically as she let released Oray, and then faced Buffy. "What should I do with you, slayer?" The girl in question felt as if the world around her had simply come to a halt. She had no wish to relive this.
Meanwhile, the demon made a run for the door, but Spike blocked his path. "Think you're tough. vampire? We'll see about that." Spike made to punch Oray, but instead found himself on the floor, and his adversary gone.
"Look at all of these!" Xander shouted to Giles, both of whom were in the middle of combat.
"Buffy said to meet her and the others in the office of the Dean of Medicine," the watcher replied. "It's just that way!" He gestured with his sword to the left before using it to decapitate a demon.
Sure enough, Xander saw the plaque that marked the office. "That is if we can make it there."
"That's surprisingly grim for you Xander."
Xander noted that he was in a grim mood. As a matter of fact, the only positive thought he beheld was that the patients had somehow escaped in time.
Suddenly, a cry came from the dean's office. He'd know it anywhere. It was Buffy. Xander glanced at Giles, who too had heard it, and both began hacking madly away the creatures from the underworld, feeling a deep sense of duty towards the world and a deep sense compassion towards their friends.
Eventually, the pair had cleared the ER of demons and made it to the office. However, upon opening the doors, something shockingly unexpected greeted them. Willow stood before Buffy and began to back the slayer against the wall. With a palm held high, the witch caused the rapid growth of a potted plant on the dean's desk, and wrapped it's branches around Buffy's wrists and ankles, not unlike how she restrained Warren the night she killed him.
Xander nearly cried upon seeing that Willow was again dark. He saw them as children, wearing footy pajamas and sleeping over, never having a care in the world. He thought of how terrible he felt when he hadn't realized she loved him, and how nice it felt to kiss her when he finally did. He recalled the surprise he experienced when she came out, her squabbles with Anya about what she could and couldn't take from the Magic Box. But most of all, Xander contemplated the occasions when he thought that his own love for Willow stemmed beyond that of the platonic and the sting at knowing that he very much missed his chance, imagining that she must have felt similarly when she found out about him and Cordelia. Seeing Willow like this, at this time, almost rendered him devoid of all hope.
"Willow!" Glies shouted. "Stop!"
The witch turned to glance at the interloper, and upon seeing the watcher, she cocked her head to the side and stared. "It's you," she said simply as her hand darted to Buffy's throat. "You can't stop me." Buffy squirmed beneath her grip and grunted with the exertion of attempting to move. "Don't you like this?" Willow asked, again facing her prey. "I figured you would, considering what you did with that." She gestured to Spike. "Oh, I bet you'll like this better." The slayer screamed as two perfectly round holes, resembling the bite marks of a vampire, appeared on her neck. Blood did not geyser up from the wounds or even seep slowly. Instead, Buffy thrashed about, desperately trying to shake off her invisible vampiric assailant. Willow sported a bored grin. "It's all the pain of a vampire drinking from you. Just without the mess. Convenient, is it not?"
Buffy tried desperately not to cry out as the sharp, painful pull of liquid running in the wrong direction through her veins and arteries overtook her. She couldn't believe this was happening.
"You doctors should leave now," Xander said frantically. "You don't need to be here, especially if it gets worse."
Cuddy stood from her desk, but Willow's magic kept her down. "No one leaves," she snarled. "No one leaves."
Giles turned to Xander. "How did you stop her last time?"
"I told her the story about the yellow crayon, from when we were kids. Then I said that she was Willow, and nothing she could do, no matter how destructive, could make me stop loving her and that she was grieving and upset and that I was there for her. But I don't think any of that will work this time. The situation, it's completely different."
"You could try," Thirteen interrupted. "I can't hurt, can it?"
"I guess not," Xander muttered. "Alright! I'll try." He then focused on Willow. "Will! Hey, Will!" The she twisted her neck to look at him.
"What now?" She replied, her voice coated in annoyance.
"Will, I get why you're feeling this way, but it's not Buffy's fault. Oray put the idea in you head, but using his logic, well, it could just of easily have been my fault or even..." Xander flew back against the office doors and was left lying in an unconscious heap.
"Shut up, Xander," Willow grinned as she moved to rummage around the dean's desk. "It's too bad I don't have the original bullet. You know, the one that would have killed you if I hadn't been there. But this," she said, holding up Cuddy's house key, "will have to do." She shoved the key into Buffy's chest, as close to where the bullet had been as she could. Before the room, the object appeared to melt into the slayer's chest. She could feel it twisting and writhing inside her, the sense not unfamiliar.
"Remember that?" Willow asked rhetorically. "You do, don't you. The thing is, Warren fired three bullets, all of which were meant for you. But two missed. One hit my Tara. You need two more bullets inside you now, Buffy."
She strode across the room, ignoring her friend's screams, and found a letter opener. "This works," she smirked. "Now, this bullet is the one that missed everything. None of us know where it is, even now. But I think it should have found its mark here." Willow stabbed Buffy in the side, not far from where she herself had been struck with Oray's arrow. Again the object disappeared into the slayer's body, eliciting a pained gasp. "The last bullet was fatal," Willow continued. "It killed my Tara, and so it will kill you."
This time, the witch found Buffy's bag and turned it upon the floor. Out came weapons, meant to destroy the demon horde, and among them was a single wooden stake. Willow plucked it from the floor and laughed. "Should I slay you, like a vampire? Or shove this through the back of your brainstem? Either way, you're dead. Come on slayer; choose your poison."
"Why don't...you...do it...for me," Buffy breathed, her words dripping with sarcasm.
"Hmmm," Willow's grin only grew more sadistic. "Fun. I think I'll go the slayer route. You know how much I enjoy a bit of tragic irony." The witch pulled back her arm in preparation to shove the stake through Buffy's heart, when a hand on her shoulder stopped her.
She turned to face the interloper, and when she did, she found Thirteen's icy eyes staring back at her. "I'm not letting you do this Willow. You're not killing her. Shove that thing inside me if you need to, just don't kill her. She's your best friend. Xander was right. Whatever happened, it couldn't have been Buffy's fault. The jerk who pulled the trigger is to blame, and I hear you killed him. So stop this madness."
Willow raised the stake to the doctor. "You did say to kill you if I had to."
Thirteen was unfazed. "Then do it. I'm dying anyway."
"Thirteen, you're an idiot," House said, speaking for the first time in awhile. "Yes, you're dying, but so am I and Kutner and the guy who makes your coffee in the morning. The only difference is the where and when. So yes, you have a shortened life span, but it doesn't mean you have to throw away what life you do have."
"As if that actually means something coming from you," the younger doctor replied bitterly. "So come on Willow, kill me."
"You want to die?" Willow asked. "You want to die? I can't kill you then. I'd really be doing you a favor, wouldn't I? And there are so many other things I could do with you; so many fun things."
"She's starting to sound like Drusilla," Spike said. "Exactly like Drusilla."
"That's frightening," Giles replied. "So frightening."
"I won't kill you," Willow continued. "No, I'll deal with you later."
"Ahhh," Xander groaned as he came to. "Jesus, Will, that hurt."
The room stared at him. "Will, none of us can deal with this. Please, just stop, if not for our sake, yours. This will destroy you."
The witch looked from Xander to Buffy to Thirteen, and then back again to the slayer, her facial expression becoming sad. She then crumbled into a heap on the floor and began to sob as the natural color was restored to her eyes and hair and the veins receded from her face. Simultaneously, Buff was released and fell from her restraints; the keys and letter opener were expelled from inside her rather painfully. "Buffy!" Willow cried, gathering her best friend into a tight embrace. "I-I almost, goddess, I can't even think of it, I really almost did that to you, I-I let that demon get inside my head and make me think those terrible things, and I hurt you and Xander, and what would have stopped me from doing more?" She almost began to cry harder upon being wrenched away from her friend by none other than Thirteen.
"I'm sorry," the doctor explained, "but look at her. She needs medical attention."
Willow nodded in understanding, trying to calm herself. "Okay. I think I can fix her."
"No!" Giles exclaimed. "You are not using anymore magic, Willow. Not now at least. Your powers are sensitive right now, and exerting just the smallest bit of them might be enough to trigger your darker side again."
"But, the demons," Spike replied. "You know, the big bad things. We need a slayer to face them, and conventional operation isn't really an option at this point, is it?"
All the Scoobies turned to Xander, looking for his opinion. "I say we risk it," he said.
Giles frowned. "If you lose control Willow, what then?"
"Then I guess you'll have to kill me," she replied, noting how she sounded not unlike Angel when speaking of his Angelus personality. "If this is something that's going to keep happening, I'm too dangerous to be allowed to live. I'll try to do it, but someone needs to be behind me with this," she said, grabbing Giles sword. "If you see even the teensiest bit of black hair, do it. Make it quick."
The watcher finally nodded in defeat. "Alright." With that he passed the sword to Xander.
"Me? You want me to do it?"
"Why, yes."
"I don't want to kill her. I couldn't."
"Neither could I, Xander."
"I'll do it, you ninnies," Spike butt in, wrenching the weapon from Xander's grasp. "Nothing against you Red, I've just got the stones." Willow nodded.
"I get it."
She bent down by Buffy and began to whisper an incantation while passing her hand over the slayer's wounds. A white light became cradled in her upturned palm, and not a hint of darkness settled over the room. After awhile, Spike set down the sword, seeing that he clearly didn't need it. In a matter of time, Buffy lifted her head.
"Will?" She asked groggily. "What...?"
"There's no time," Giles said. "We must stop those demons." The Scoobies, sans the witch and the slayer, jumped into action and exited Cuddy's office.
Willow sighed. "Again. It happened again. It's going to keep happening until I've hurt everyone I love. And I'm gonna go all evil and crazy and I'm not gonna be able to stop it, Buffy. I don't think I can."
Buffy propped herself up on her elbows and looked at her friend. "That's what you said about curbing the addiction, Will. And you did that just fine. I think it's just a matter of control."
"I don't have that. I need an anchor."
"Will...,"
"Stop, Buffy. Just stop. I'm dangerous and I don't have anything to tether me down. You're the slayer. It's your job to get rid of dangerous things."
"What are you saying?" Buffy asked, her voice full of worry.
"You know what I'm saying," Willow replied.
A quiet fear settled over the room as the reality of Willow's morbid statement set in. House and Cuddy both made their way to the door, and finding that there were no demons to be seen, made their escape. The diagnostician didn't wish to get caught up in something sappy (which was inevitable) and the dean simply feared for her life.
"Do you want to die?" Thirteen spoke up, looking at Willow.
"No. I-I don't," she admitted begrudgingly. "And neither do you, even though you make it look like you want to."
"Oh believe me, I've gotten pretty used to the idea."
Buffy got to her feet. "You're nuts! Both of you!"
"Says the person who spent the better part of last year wishing she was still dead." Willow argued. "My fault by the way."
"Will, we've been over this. You couldn't have known."
The witch hung her head. "It's just, I've done so many bad things. I brought you out of heaven, I choose you over Tara and in the long run it killed her, I almost got Dawnie killed, I almost killed you and Giles, I did kill Warren... The list goes on. Thirteen's right. I don't want to die. But in the interest of everyone else, I probably should."
"Honestly Will," Buffy said, "I'm not sure we could survive without you. You've gotten us all out of some difficult situations. If anything we owe you. I owe you. For last year when I was so preoccupied with my Spike issues that I didn't see it. Any of it. You, my best friend, were drowning, and I couldn't tell. Hell, even Anya saw it. And that kind of makes me the worst best friend ever."
"No you're not," Willow said. "Trust me on that one."
"There're some demons out there that need an ass kicking."
"So there are."
"You ready?"
The witch shook her head. "As much as I hate to admit it, Giles was right. It's too soon. I can't go out there like this. I'll stay here with Thirteen."
"Sure," Buffy smirked knowingly. "Come and fight when you think you're ready." And with that, she left.
"So," Thirteen began, turning to Willow. "When you were all evil and said that you'd have fun with me later, what exactly did you mean?"
"Oh! Well I, uh, meant that, uh, evil me is kind of naughty."
"I see."
"Yeah. Please don't take offense or..."
"I didn't. It was flattering, in a strange, sinister way."
"Oh, in that case..."
Thirteen smiled. "Willow, I've had my eye on you from the moment you entered this hospital."
"Really?" Willow asked.
"Really."
"Then I guess I should probably tell you that I have too. On you, I mean, not on me."
The doctor smirked. "You're cute when you babble."
"I'm-I'm babbling? Oh, I guess that I should..."
"Shhh," Thirteen said soothingly as she took Willow's cheek in her hand and gently brought their faces closer. "Relax. I promise this'll be nice." To the doctor's surprise, the witch was the one who bridged the small gap that remained between them and caused their lips to crash like the waves of a mighty ocean. The kiss was hard and needy and enough to cause the beginnings of arousal to form in both women. Thirteen moved backwards, causing Willow to slam into Cuddy's desk and fall upon it, her counterpart then crawling atop her. Their lips never parted and the intensity of the kiss escalated even more, to the point that Willow began to slip her hand into the doctor's pants and felt wetness in what she cupped. That simple action returned her to the present.
"Wait," Willow sighed as she broke the kiss.
"Something wrong?" Thirteen asked, merely relocating her lips to the witch's neck. This elicited a small moan, causing her to smile against the soft, pale skin.
"Goddess, no. Not at all." A smile enveloped Willow's face before she remembered. "Wait, yes! The others are all fighting the demons and we're here having smoochies!" She sat up. "We have to help, Thirteen!"
The doctor wriggled off of her. "But what about your magic being sensitive? Won't you..."
"Go kablooie? Maybe. But I've got to try. And I have an idea." Willow ran to the remainder of the weapons and found a bow and a quiver of arrows. She chanted a spell over them and then slung the weapons across her back. "Let's go," she said, grabbing Thirteen's hand and leading her from the room.
"What are you going to do?"
"Kill Oray at his own game. Literally."
The pair bolted into the ER, only to see nothing but the scattered corpses of Oray's minions. "They must have taken the fight somewhere else. But they wouldn't let these things leave the hospital, so where are they?" Willow mused.
"I know!" Thirteen shouted, and this time it was her turn to drag Willow by the wrist. The doctor brought them up the stairs to the roof of the hospital where, sure enough, a cluster of demons surrounded Buffy, Spike, Giles, and Xander. Oray was on the outside, watching gleefully and had not yet spotted the witch or her companion.
"Are you a good shot?" The doctor asked the witch.
"I don't know," came the solemn reply as she nocked and arrow and aimed. "I have to reach the heart. If I miss, which I probably will, it'll give us away and we'll be done. If that happens, I want you to run while I fend him off. Got that?"
"Willow, I can't just leave you!"
"Yes you can. I kind of always figured that I'd die fighting with Buffy. You on the other hand, you're not meant to go this way. So run. Live the rest of your life." A silent tear rested in the corner of the witch's eye, but refused to fall. Thirteen saw it, and her heart broke in two. She nodded in agreement, and then kissed her.
"You can do it."
Willow raised the bow into what she figured was a shooting position from watching Buffy do it, pulled back the drawstring, and fired. The arrow seemed to hit its mark.
"What's this?" Oray asked as he looked down, yanking the arrow from his chest. "Did one of you try to do that?" The demon glanced in the direction the arrow sprung from. "Ah, the witch. That's a fair shot. Very close. But close won't cut it I'm afraid." Willow saw another opportunity, and nocked another arrow. "She's going to try again?" Oray continued. "How adorable. Let's let her." The witch looked briefly to her friends, then back to her enemy and let the arrow fly. This time it burrowed itself into his right eye, and he grunted with pain.
Oray then began to notice something with his good eye. Dead tissue emerged where the arrow had pierced his skin. "My...my arrows! How did you get my arrows?"
"I didn't," Willow replied. "I made my own. You see, I noticed something. For an all powerful demon prince guy, your craft is really weak. The gangrene doesn't spread nearly as fast as it could. I fixed it." Willow let loose another arrow and this time, it took his heart. The demon cried out as the disease began to eat away at the vital organ, until it was nothing. Oray dropped to the ground and his army disappeared, leaving no trace that demons ever overran Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital.
"I told you," Buffy grinned on the way out of the hospital.
"Told me what?" Willow replied.
"Told you that we need you. Will, if you hadn't been there they would have torn us apart. We ran out of ideas. We were dead."
"I don't think so. I mean, come on Buffy. You're the slayer. You can do anything. You don't need any of us."
"That's where you're very, very wrong," the blonde said, stopping. Willow turned back to look at her, and Buffy enveloped her in a tight hug, as if to tell her to never go. "So, we have one more night here. What are you planning to do?"
"I'm staying over with Thirteen," the witch answered, blushing as soon as the words left her mouth.
"See? I knew you were into her! You're totally going to get laid tonight."
"I was thinking actually. It might be good to have a doctor with us. I was going to ask her if she wanted to come back to Sunnydale with us, if it's okay with you. And yes, I'm also planning on getting laid tonight."
"I think it's a good idea," Buffy smiled. "We could use someone like her around." The pair broke the hug and exited the hospital to find Thirteen waiting outside, leaning suggestively against what Willow assumed was her car. "Have fun," the slayer smirked as she left her friend to catch up with the others. And of course, Willow knew she would.
The lights of Thirteen's apartment had been dimmed, candles had been lit, and two half empty glasses of wine rested in the hands of the two women on the couch. Willow could tell that Thirteen wondered if she had done too much, and so made to quell her fears. "This is nice," the witch sighed contentedly as she moved into a lounging position and rested her hand on Thirteen's thigh. "But there's something I wanted to ask you."
Thirteen's brow furrowed in alarm. "Is something wrong?"
"No," Willow said, echoing their words from earlier that day. "Not at all. I just... Well... How would you feel about coming back with me to Sunnydale? I mean, we could use a doctor on the team, and you and I obviously have some chemistry and I'd like to see where that would lead in the future and..."
"I'm in," the doctor said eagerly. "I became a doctor for two reasons. The first is my death sentence, the second a wish to help the helpless. I can do the second one on a much greater scale working with you guys. And I agree. I want to see where you and I are going. But I want to see it happen now."
Thirteen turned to Willow and kissed her forehead, then cheek, and finally lips. The pair became engulfed in a fury of desire and passion and need, the kiss deepening with each passing second. Eventually they stood and kissed their way to the bedroom, shedding clothes along the way as if shedding layers of themselves. Willow laid Thirteen on the bed gently and slowly moved atop her, resting her mouth by her ear.
"I want to lick you until you cum in my mouth a thousand times," the witch whispered, her grin devilish, her words seeming uncharacteristic.
"And I thought evil you was the naughty one," Thirteen replied, feeling the heat in her stomach grow hotter even still.
"Mmmm. And you still haven't heard about vampire Willow from an alternate universe."
"You're kidding, right?"
"Absolutely not. There was very nearly twincest."
Thirteen gasped as warm lips met the skin of her neck, images of Willow and her vampire doppleganger dominating her mind. This woman knew what she liked.
She allowed the witch to seduce her, to take her, and it was the most extraordinary thing Thirteen had felt in a long while, being dominated rather than dominating. And Willow kept her promise. The girl never seemed to run out of stamina.
Buy the time they were through, both women were thoroughly exhausted. "If that's what our future's going to be," Thirteen said, bare chest heaving under the covers, "I really want more of it."
"You'll have it," Willow replied. "You'll have it." The couple then drifted off to sleep, unsure of exactly what was ahead, but knowing that it involved them, together.
A/N: Review or I'll go all dark Willow and kill every single one of you xD