Chapter 1: Oops.
Willow and Xander were drunk. Xander had been hitting the bars surrounding good old Wolfram & Hart and the Hyperion Hotel for the past three nights trying to forget he'd lost Anya. The others mostly left him alone to deal. They mourned the eccentric ex-demon too, but they'd learned from long experience consoling usually did little more than make you angry or feel guilty because you were depressing everyone around you.
Faith joined him that first night. She'd been worried about Robin and didn't want to be sober enough to think about him not recovering. But, as soon as she'd heard he was going to be okay, she started spending all her time with him at the hospital. He couldn't blame her.
Besides, he had a different drinking partner tonight. Kennedy was taken out last night when she made a rookie mistake and dropped her guard enough for a Torak demon to literally stab her in the back. The long dagger had grazed one lung and sliced straight through her heart. She didn't have a chance. He'd never really liked the girl, but he'd mourn her. The death of a good, if somewhat overly gung-ho, slayer and loved one of his best friend always deserved that respect.
He and Willow had done their mourning over beers and shots of Jack Daniels at a little dive of a bar three blocks from the Hyperion. The owner finally kicked them out after he'd insulted the largest of five truckers and nearly started a brawl. It'd been too close to last call to bother trying anywhere else, so they were walking … well … staggering back to their temporary home.
"What good have I done, Xander?" Willow asked. The way she was slurring her words was kinda funny, in a cutesy drunk pixie kind of way, and Xander had to bite his bottom lip to keep from giggling. "I made all these slayers, but what good is a bunch of pint sized slayers who just go out and let the bogeymen kill 'em?"
"Awww Will, that Torak was just lucky," Xander answered. "The rookies will be just fine with a little training." Willow didn't look convinced. "Just wait a few years. You'll see."
He knew he'd said something wrong the moment Willow stopped walking and her eyes took on a thoughtful look.
"I want to see now," she said and immediately began mumbling.
As if this wasn't enough to get the "danger" message through his thick skull, her hair began to fade to white and her eyes glazed over with a milky film. He barely had time to squeak out a weak, "Wills?" before a shimmering vortex opened in front of them. There was a split second where he thought everything would be okay when he saw images playing across the surface like a TV before the thing swelled and engulfed them.
There was a blinding flash and immense pain, like he was being torn apart. Then, he had the enormous thrill of skidding across the ground on his butt. It took a few moments before his vision cleared enough to see, and he immediately hoped this was all some liquor induced hallucination because the Willow currently sprawled on the ground, rubbing her eyes, looked exactly the same way she had that first day in kindergarten. He glanced down at himself and groaned. He was five all over again!
"Willow!" he whined. "What'd you do?"
