Disclaimer: All of the characters are owned by Joss and Co.
Note: I am writing this as if it were the first episode of a new series called "Willow." This story picks up at the same time as "Bargaining." The only difference is that in this story, there is no attempt at a resurrection of Buffy. It is simply the Scooby Gang continuing to fight evil without the help of the Slayer.
Format: This story will be written in several parts. Check back regularly for new installments.
Story Title: "Willow"
Cemeteries creeped Xander Harris out. It's not that he wasn't used to being in them; as a close friend and sidekick of the Slayer, that was far from the case. There was just something entirely too creepy about a piece of land dedicated to storing the dead. He didn't have any better idea for where the deceased could be kept, but the fact was cemeteries were spooky. He would have thought so even if he weren't out on that particular night searching for some newly sire vampires.
Xander couldn't help but feel nervous on his mission. Even with his close friends around him, he no longer felt safe creeping through the cemeteries without the Slayer. Not that he'd ever give up the eternal fight against evil, but he found he was quite a bit braver when in the presence of the Chosen One. And despite the fact the Buffy-Bot looked and sounded exactly like Buffy Summers, it didn't fill him with a sense of security as his close friend had. Now that Buffy was dead, he knew he'd never feel secure in that sense again.
Behind him were three of the people he cared most about in the world. The first was the one he had known the longest, Rupert Giles. Born and raised in England, Giles was one of the finest Watcher's you could find. He had trained Buffy in her duties as a Slayer; he doubted any of them would be alive if not for his help. Next to Giles was Tara Maclay, his best friend's girlfriend. Tara was relatively new to the group, having entered his life less than two years earlier. While originally he hadn't known all that much about the witch, they had gone on to develop a close friendship that he truly appreciated. He would risk his life to save her in an instant, and he knew she would do the same for him.
And the third of those close to him was by far the most important, at least to him. Anya Emerson, an apparently young woman that had lived for over 1100 years. Anya was an ex-vengeance demon, monsters that traveled the world and caused havoc by granting wishes. Anya's expertise had been in punishing those who had scorned women; the thought still gave Xander a wiggins to this day, but that was all in the past. While Anya hadn't willingly given up her powers, the fact was she was now as mortal as he. And like the rest, she had risked her life for all of them. Despite everything she had done, he loved her. She was the woman he was set to marry.
Not counting the Buffy-Bot, there was one more soul (not entirely an accurate description, Xander realized) close behind his friends. William the Bloody, aka Spike, was a vampire who had also done terrible things in his lifetime. He would probably continue to do those things, Xander knew, if not for a chip implanted in his head. Spike had been careless, which resulted in his capture by a government branch known as the Initiative, a military type group that captured and experimented on demons. They had implanted a chip in Spike's head that prevents the vamp from harming another human being. Spike had become a sort of neutered vamp, but he still had some use in him. While Spike is no longer capable of committing violence against a human being, there was nothing stopping him from fighting demons.
There weren't many people Xander could say this about, but he truly hated Spike. Sure, Spike had done a lot of good in the past year; he had sacrificed his life to protect Buffy and her younger sister Dawn, but that was out of a sense of loyalty to Buffy. The vampire had fallen in love with the Slayer, despite the fact she never reciprocated the feelings, and he would have done nothing to convince her not to put a stake through his heart. But as much as it saddened him to say, Buffy was gone, so there was nothing keeping Spike loyal. If Spike could just find somebody to remove the chip from his head, Xander doubted there was anyone left in Sunnydale that could put a stop to the vampire's rampage.
Xander considered putting a stake through Spike's heart right then and there, but he didn't. Willow, whom was also in the graveyard, argued that Spike should be kept alive. Xander didn't know why, but he didn't want to piss his friend off. Not that Willow would ever harm him, but the truth of the matter is that Willow is one incredibly powerful witch. He didn't know where she was in the cemetery, but he knew she would raise hell to prevent another of her friends from dying.
They had all taken Buffy's death hard, but aside from Dawn Willow had probably taken it the worst. His friend, normally jovial and smiley, had become quite moody since Buffy's departure. He tried to avoid an argument with her at all costs for fear of being turned into a three-legged toad, but Anya and Tara didn't appear to share his fear. Tara appeared to not be afraid of her lover; Anya, on the other hand, probably was afraid of Willow, but that didn't mean Anya wouldn't say what she thought. That's one thing he loved about his fiancé; she always told the truth (or her version of it), no matter whose feelings it hurt.
"So where are these bloody vampires Red warned us about?" Spike asked after a moment. Xander turned and hushed the vampire. Not that Spike didn't already know, but vampires had enhanced senses; if there were any vampires in the cemetery, they could hear just about anything that was said.
"Yes, where are these wicked vampires?" the Buffy-Bot asked. "I am ready to give them a wicked pounding. Vampires are evil." Then she turned and looked at Spike, and her facial features became apologetic. "Except for my Spikey, of course. He is good. Very good." The way she emphasized "very" sent a shiver up Xander's spine. While they now used the Buffy-Bot as a weapon in their fight against evil (and to hide the truth, that the Slayer was no longer among the living), the Buffy-Bot had originally been created by a robotics genius named Warren Meers to be used as a sex slave by Spike.
Willow had altered the Buffy-Bot to be used for better purposes, but Willow wasn't an expert at machines the way its creator had been. The witch had tried to fix the machine to act just as the original Buffy had, but the Bot was like Anya in the sense that it would say whatever it "thought." Unlike Anya, however, the Bot didn't actually have the ability to think; instead, it would spout off whatever it was programmed to know. For example, the Bot would occasionally mention that Willow is a lesbian as of the end of 1999, and apparently it had been instructed to complement Spike whenever given the chance. That was something else Willow would have to work out.
[Gang, they're starting to rise. Get your weapons ready.]
The "voice" was as clear as day to Xander, though no one had spoken. It was Willow, communicating with the group telepathically. It was scary how powerful Willow had grown in strength in the past few years. Willow often found herself in danger thanks to her relationship with the Slayer back in high school, but things had changed since Willow had taken up witchcraft. At once the weakest (at least physically) member of the team, she had grown to become the most powerful.
"Where at?" Xander asked out loud. Willow had tried to instruct the gang how to communicate with her telepathically, but it wasn't as easy as it sounded. It required a great deal of concentration, and so far only Tara and Giles had mastered it. Of course, they could only do so if Willow kept the communication open; though both Willow and Tara are witches, Tara was nowhere near as powerful as her lover and unable to communicate by telepathy.
[Four o'clock, about 1500 feet.]
All the Scoobies turned in various directions, not sure where Willow was talking about. "This way," Giles said, taking the lead. Xander was glad the Watcher was with them; Willow would have had to have drawn them an arrow otherwise. Xander followed behind, and Anya joined him at his side.
"This is all making me kind of horny," she replied. Thankfully it was low enough for none of the others to hear, save Spike and his enhanced hearing (and the look the vampire gave him made Xander put a stake through his heart, whether Willow liked it or not). And perhaps Willow, Xander thought, as she was telepathically linked with them all. Maybe it wasn't such a good thing Anya said whatever came to mind. Her honesty acted as both a blessing and a curse, he supposed.
Spike walked to the front of the group and peered around a mausoleum wall. "I see them," he whispered back. "Two of them, helping a third from the grave. This shouldn't be too difficult."
Before the Scoobies could muster up a plan of attack, the Buffy-Bot leaped around the side of the mausoleum into plain sight of the vampires. "Halt, evil vampires," she said. "I am here to make witty puns and Slay you."
The vampires, who had just finished helping the third member of their trio from the grave, turned to the gang. "Looks like dinner is here," the largest, a rather rotund vampire whose clothes were too small for him, smiled. "Let's get 'em."
Before Xander even knew what was happening, the fight was on. Spike and the Buffy-Bot went after the largest member while Tara and Giles went after the smallest. This left Xander and Anya to take on the one that had just been released from the grave.
The large vampire proved to be quite strong, but he ultimately fell from a stake to the chest from the Buffy-Bot. As Spike ran to help Tara and Giles, the Bot stood in place and quipped, "I just Slayed a vamp. Go me!"
The smaller vampire appeared to be deceiving in looks, as he was even stronger than the already dusted leader. He threw Spike into Giles's waiting stake, sending both men tumbling to the ground. Fortunately the stake didn't pierce the vamp's heart, so he wasn't sent on a one-way trip to Dustville. It wasn't until she saw Spike injured that the Bot finally moved, but only to help Spike to his feet.
The attacking vampire then turned its attention toward Tara. Unsure of what to do, Tara muttered something in Latin. This caused a smoke screen to block Tara from his sight. "What?" the vampire questioned. Behind him, Giles pulled out a crossbow and aimed it at the vampire. Before the vampire could try to step through the smoke screen for the kill, Giles shot a crossbow bolt through his back, dusting him.
While all of this was going on, the newly created vampire had Anya pinned against a tombstone. Xander ran to his fiancé's aid, but the vampire just swatted him away like he was a fly. "Anya!" Xander screamed from the ground. Just as the vampire lowered its head to bite the former demon, a flash of lightning arched across the sky, striking the vampire in the back. The vampire was engulfed in flames, and in no time was dust.
Xander turned his head to where the lightning had struck from. There, on top of the mausoleum the gang had been behind before the fight struck, was Willow. Xander was glad for the witch's rescue. Despite the fact Willow and Anya were hardly close, Xander's earlier thoughts about his best friend were correct; the witch truly would do anything to prevent another of her friends from dying.
Willow stepped off the mausoleum, and for a moment Xander thought the witch had a death wish. Instead the witch merely floated to the ground, where she was met a moment later by Tara.
"That was certainly a barrel of laughs," Xander chimed in. "Who's up for another round?"
Willow, who had become all business since Buffy's death, ignored the crack. She walked straight to the Buffy-Bot, which was standing there with a bewildered look on its face. She reached under its shirt and opened the compartment to the wiring. "Why won't this damn thing work properly?" Xander heard the witch mutter.
"Why don't we take it home and give it a good looking at, sweetie?" Tara responded. She put an assuring hand on Willow's shoulder, but Willow hardly seemed to notice. Tara looked at Giles as if for some help.
"Tara's right," Giles said, stepping forward. "There's no need to worry about it now. Perhaps we should all go home and get a good night's rest, hmm?"
"Not until I fix this thing," Willow said. "Anya was almost killed because it's too busy standing around to bother helping."
"It's no biggie, Red," Spike tried to assure her.
"That's easy for you to say," Anya argued. "You weren't the one almost bitten."
"Willow, I insist you head home and get yourself some rest," Giles instructed. "You've been working on that thing for several weeks now. Don't worry about it, at least not until tomorrow."
"Fine," Willow sighed in agreement. "I guess I am kind of tired." She turned towards Tara, who seemed to beam at her lover's attention. "You ready to go home, baby?"
"You know it."
And with that, the Scoobies were on their way out of the graveyard.
Credits role: Alyson Hannigan Nicholas Brendon Emma Caulfield Michelle Trachtenberg James Marsters and Amber Benson as Tara.
Note: I am writing this as if it were the first episode of a new series called "Willow." This story picks up at the same time as "Bargaining." The only difference is that in this story, there is no attempt at a resurrection of Buffy. It is simply the Scooby Gang continuing to fight evil without the help of the Slayer.
Format: This story will be written in several parts. Check back regularly for new installments.
Story Title: "Willow"
Cemeteries creeped Xander Harris out. It's not that he wasn't used to being in them; as a close friend and sidekick of the Slayer, that was far from the case. There was just something entirely too creepy about a piece of land dedicated to storing the dead. He didn't have any better idea for where the deceased could be kept, but the fact was cemeteries were spooky. He would have thought so even if he weren't out on that particular night searching for some newly sire vampires.
Xander couldn't help but feel nervous on his mission. Even with his close friends around him, he no longer felt safe creeping through the cemeteries without the Slayer. Not that he'd ever give up the eternal fight against evil, but he found he was quite a bit braver when in the presence of the Chosen One. And despite the fact the Buffy-Bot looked and sounded exactly like Buffy Summers, it didn't fill him with a sense of security as his close friend had. Now that Buffy was dead, he knew he'd never feel secure in that sense again.
Behind him were three of the people he cared most about in the world. The first was the one he had known the longest, Rupert Giles. Born and raised in England, Giles was one of the finest Watcher's you could find. He had trained Buffy in her duties as a Slayer; he doubted any of them would be alive if not for his help. Next to Giles was Tara Maclay, his best friend's girlfriend. Tara was relatively new to the group, having entered his life less than two years earlier. While originally he hadn't known all that much about the witch, they had gone on to develop a close friendship that he truly appreciated. He would risk his life to save her in an instant, and he knew she would do the same for him.
And the third of those close to him was by far the most important, at least to him. Anya Emerson, an apparently young woman that had lived for over 1100 years. Anya was an ex-vengeance demon, monsters that traveled the world and caused havoc by granting wishes. Anya's expertise had been in punishing those who had scorned women; the thought still gave Xander a wiggins to this day, but that was all in the past. While Anya hadn't willingly given up her powers, the fact was she was now as mortal as he. And like the rest, she had risked her life for all of them. Despite everything she had done, he loved her. She was the woman he was set to marry.
Not counting the Buffy-Bot, there was one more soul (not entirely an accurate description, Xander realized) close behind his friends. William the Bloody, aka Spike, was a vampire who had also done terrible things in his lifetime. He would probably continue to do those things, Xander knew, if not for a chip implanted in his head. Spike had been careless, which resulted in his capture by a government branch known as the Initiative, a military type group that captured and experimented on demons. They had implanted a chip in Spike's head that prevents the vamp from harming another human being. Spike had become a sort of neutered vamp, but he still had some use in him. While Spike is no longer capable of committing violence against a human being, there was nothing stopping him from fighting demons.
There weren't many people Xander could say this about, but he truly hated Spike. Sure, Spike had done a lot of good in the past year; he had sacrificed his life to protect Buffy and her younger sister Dawn, but that was out of a sense of loyalty to Buffy. The vampire had fallen in love with the Slayer, despite the fact she never reciprocated the feelings, and he would have done nothing to convince her not to put a stake through his heart. But as much as it saddened him to say, Buffy was gone, so there was nothing keeping Spike loyal. If Spike could just find somebody to remove the chip from his head, Xander doubted there was anyone left in Sunnydale that could put a stop to the vampire's rampage.
Xander considered putting a stake through Spike's heart right then and there, but he didn't. Willow, whom was also in the graveyard, argued that Spike should be kept alive. Xander didn't know why, but he didn't want to piss his friend off. Not that Willow would ever harm him, but the truth of the matter is that Willow is one incredibly powerful witch. He didn't know where she was in the cemetery, but he knew she would raise hell to prevent another of her friends from dying.
They had all taken Buffy's death hard, but aside from Dawn Willow had probably taken it the worst. His friend, normally jovial and smiley, had become quite moody since Buffy's departure. He tried to avoid an argument with her at all costs for fear of being turned into a three-legged toad, but Anya and Tara didn't appear to share his fear. Tara appeared to not be afraid of her lover; Anya, on the other hand, probably was afraid of Willow, but that didn't mean Anya wouldn't say what she thought. That's one thing he loved about his fiancé; she always told the truth (or her version of it), no matter whose feelings it hurt.
"So where are these bloody vampires Red warned us about?" Spike asked after a moment. Xander turned and hushed the vampire. Not that Spike didn't already know, but vampires had enhanced senses; if there were any vampires in the cemetery, they could hear just about anything that was said.
"Yes, where are these wicked vampires?" the Buffy-Bot asked. "I am ready to give them a wicked pounding. Vampires are evil." Then she turned and looked at Spike, and her facial features became apologetic. "Except for my Spikey, of course. He is good. Very good." The way she emphasized "very" sent a shiver up Xander's spine. While they now used the Buffy-Bot as a weapon in their fight against evil (and to hide the truth, that the Slayer was no longer among the living), the Buffy-Bot had originally been created by a robotics genius named Warren Meers to be used as a sex slave by Spike.
Willow had altered the Buffy-Bot to be used for better purposes, but Willow wasn't an expert at machines the way its creator had been. The witch had tried to fix the machine to act just as the original Buffy had, but the Bot was like Anya in the sense that it would say whatever it "thought." Unlike Anya, however, the Bot didn't actually have the ability to think; instead, it would spout off whatever it was programmed to know. For example, the Bot would occasionally mention that Willow is a lesbian as of the end of 1999, and apparently it had been instructed to complement Spike whenever given the chance. That was something else Willow would have to work out.
[Gang, they're starting to rise. Get your weapons ready.]
The "voice" was as clear as day to Xander, though no one had spoken. It was Willow, communicating with the group telepathically. It was scary how powerful Willow had grown in strength in the past few years. Willow often found herself in danger thanks to her relationship with the Slayer back in high school, but things had changed since Willow had taken up witchcraft. At once the weakest (at least physically) member of the team, she had grown to become the most powerful.
"Where at?" Xander asked out loud. Willow had tried to instruct the gang how to communicate with her telepathically, but it wasn't as easy as it sounded. It required a great deal of concentration, and so far only Tara and Giles had mastered it. Of course, they could only do so if Willow kept the communication open; though both Willow and Tara are witches, Tara was nowhere near as powerful as her lover and unable to communicate by telepathy.
[Four o'clock, about 1500 feet.]
All the Scoobies turned in various directions, not sure where Willow was talking about. "This way," Giles said, taking the lead. Xander was glad the Watcher was with them; Willow would have had to have drawn them an arrow otherwise. Xander followed behind, and Anya joined him at his side.
"This is all making me kind of horny," she replied. Thankfully it was low enough for none of the others to hear, save Spike and his enhanced hearing (and the look the vampire gave him made Xander put a stake through his heart, whether Willow liked it or not). And perhaps Willow, Xander thought, as she was telepathically linked with them all. Maybe it wasn't such a good thing Anya said whatever came to mind. Her honesty acted as both a blessing and a curse, he supposed.
Spike walked to the front of the group and peered around a mausoleum wall. "I see them," he whispered back. "Two of them, helping a third from the grave. This shouldn't be too difficult."
Before the Scoobies could muster up a plan of attack, the Buffy-Bot leaped around the side of the mausoleum into plain sight of the vampires. "Halt, evil vampires," she said. "I am here to make witty puns and Slay you."
The vampires, who had just finished helping the third member of their trio from the grave, turned to the gang. "Looks like dinner is here," the largest, a rather rotund vampire whose clothes were too small for him, smiled. "Let's get 'em."
Before Xander even knew what was happening, the fight was on. Spike and the Buffy-Bot went after the largest member while Tara and Giles went after the smallest. This left Xander and Anya to take on the one that had just been released from the grave.
The large vampire proved to be quite strong, but he ultimately fell from a stake to the chest from the Buffy-Bot. As Spike ran to help Tara and Giles, the Bot stood in place and quipped, "I just Slayed a vamp. Go me!"
The smaller vampire appeared to be deceiving in looks, as he was even stronger than the already dusted leader. He threw Spike into Giles's waiting stake, sending both men tumbling to the ground. Fortunately the stake didn't pierce the vamp's heart, so he wasn't sent on a one-way trip to Dustville. It wasn't until she saw Spike injured that the Bot finally moved, but only to help Spike to his feet.
The attacking vampire then turned its attention toward Tara. Unsure of what to do, Tara muttered something in Latin. This caused a smoke screen to block Tara from his sight. "What?" the vampire questioned. Behind him, Giles pulled out a crossbow and aimed it at the vampire. Before the vampire could try to step through the smoke screen for the kill, Giles shot a crossbow bolt through his back, dusting him.
While all of this was going on, the newly created vampire had Anya pinned against a tombstone. Xander ran to his fiancé's aid, but the vampire just swatted him away like he was a fly. "Anya!" Xander screamed from the ground. Just as the vampire lowered its head to bite the former demon, a flash of lightning arched across the sky, striking the vampire in the back. The vampire was engulfed in flames, and in no time was dust.
Xander turned his head to where the lightning had struck from. There, on top of the mausoleum the gang had been behind before the fight struck, was Willow. Xander was glad for the witch's rescue. Despite the fact Willow and Anya were hardly close, Xander's earlier thoughts about his best friend were correct; the witch truly would do anything to prevent another of her friends from dying.
Willow stepped off the mausoleum, and for a moment Xander thought the witch had a death wish. Instead the witch merely floated to the ground, where she was met a moment later by Tara.
"That was certainly a barrel of laughs," Xander chimed in. "Who's up for another round?"
Willow, who had become all business since Buffy's death, ignored the crack. She walked straight to the Buffy-Bot, which was standing there with a bewildered look on its face. She reached under its shirt and opened the compartment to the wiring. "Why won't this damn thing work properly?" Xander heard the witch mutter.
"Why don't we take it home and give it a good looking at, sweetie?" Tara responded. She put an assuring hand on Willow's shoulder, but Willow hardly seemed to notice. Tara looked at Giles as if for some help.
"Tara's right," Giles said, stepping forward. "There's no need to worry about it now. Perhaps we should all go home and get a good night's rest, hmm?"
"Not until I fix this thing," Willow said. "Anya was almost killed because it's too busy standing around to bother helping."
"It's no biggie, Red," Spike tried to assure her.
"That's easy for you to say," Anya argued. "You weren't the one almost bitten."
"Willow, I insist you head home and get yourself some rest," Giles instructed. "You've been working on that thing for several weeks now. Don't worry about it, at least not until tomorrow."
"Fine," Willow sighed in agreement. "I guess I am kind of tired." She turned towards Tara, who seemed to beam at her lover's attention. "You ready to go home, baby?"
"You know it."
And with that, the Scoobies were on their way out of the graveyard.
Credits role: Alyson Hannigan Nicholas Brendon Emma Caulfield Michelle Trachtenberg James Marsters and Amber Benson as Tara.