Willow sat in her bedroom, her legs drawn up to her chest, her arms wrapped around them with her chin resting on her knee. Everything around her was packed away, everything she was taking with her to New York. She ignored the feeling of tears rolling down her face, knowing that the moment she wiped the tears away more would fall from her eyes. Willow closed her eyes and sniffed when she heard the car pull up outside her aunt and uncle's house, knowing that it would be the car that took her away from Sunnydale for at least the next two years.

Willow still remembered the vicious tirade she had received from her aunt the night she stumbled through the door, the night that they had defeated the Master, before waking up to overhear her aunt talking on the phone, telling her mother that Willow was no longer welcome in her aunt's household.

It had been the first time Willow's aunt and uncle had been home to witness the aftermath of Willow's new extracurricular activities. Previously they had been out of town for long enough that Willow could heal or that she could simply hide any injuries she had. Willow couldn't help but scowl at her bad luck. The one time she had received injuries to her face (a shallow gash to the forehead and a split lip), her aunt and uncle had been sitting up waiting for her to come home... actually deciding to even pretend they were good guardians for once.

Willow heard her mother's voice drifting up the stairs, calm, but at the same time firm. Willow instinctively knew just from her mother's voice how angry Pepper was. It wasn't like she was talking to Tony and she was mildly frustrated or annoyed about something not working out right. No, this was a whole new level of anger... and it was all directed at Sheila and Ira. For a moment, Willow actually pitied her aunt and uncle... but only for a moment.

Slumping back against her pillows, Willow listened as her mother's conversation downstairs ended and she heard the sound of footsteps coming upstairs. Willow knew she should get up and at least look mildly presentable to her mother after almost a whole year apart but she couldn't muster the energy. The toll physically and emotionally of the past few traumatic days had been great and Willow's body was feeling the effects.

It was, after all, not every day that you found out that your best friend's death was prophesied to happen very shortly and wss directly involved with an apocalypse... as in an event that could well lead to the end of the world. It wasn't every day that one of your best friends actually died and was resuscitated back to life by your other best friend before coming and preventing said apocalypse. It also wasn't every day that you yourself fought against an army of vampires and almost got dragged through the mouth of hell itself by a tentacle demon.

Almost unconsciously, Willow rubbed her leg where her skin, currently hidden by her jeans, was bruised and burnt. Giles had examined the injury and concluded that it was not serious and that there was little he could do. It wasn't painful, so Willow didn't mind. She only hoped that she would be able to continue to hide the injury until it had completely healed. She didn't want to have to try and explain the supernatural to her mother, after all... even though, considering that her mother now lived with Tony Stark and the Avengers, the truth about the supernatural really wouldn't be that much of a surprise from what Pepper had told Willow during their phone calls and emails.

Willow was drawn from her musing by the sound of a footstep outside her room and she hastily lowered her leg, making sure her pants and socks covered her injury. There was a knock on the door.

"Willow?" Pepper asked in a soft voice and Willow felt her eyes well up with more tears at the gentle sound of her mother's voice.

"Yeah?" she croaked out and the door swung open, revealing Pepper. Pepper's gaze rested on Willow and she rushed to Willow's side, sitting on the bed beside her and hugging her. Willow sobbed and wrapped her arms around her mother, snuggling close, just like she used to do when she was small and had been frightened by something.

"I'm so sorry," Pepper told Willow. "If I knew they were going to do this, I would never have let you stay with them. I would have kept you with me... always. I would have found a way to make it work. I never thought that they would hurt you like this, that they would treat you like this."

Willow shook her head, aware that she was dampening her mother's shirt with her tears.

"You couldn't have known. I shouldn't have caused trouble. I'm sorry, Mom. It's my fault... I was the one that broke the rules. They were right to want to punish me."

Pepper ran her fingers through Willow's hair.

"Maybe they were right to punish you but not like this... not by casting you out of their home like this, not by tearing away from all your friends, from your school, from the town you've grown up in. You're young... this is what being young is all about. You've always been such a grown-up, even when you were a little girl. It's okay to want to rebel... it's all part of growing up. Trust me, Tony is still rebelling and he's far older than you are."

Willow quirked her eyebrow at her mother's comment.

"Are you the psychologist, or is Sheila?" she asked.

Pepper laughed. "I read her college textbooks during the summers when I was growing up. I actually learned some things off them. It was actually useful... it helped me learn how to deal with Tony."

Willow let out a laugh at her mother's joke.

"Did Tony come with you?" she asked.

"No. We thought that... given everything that's happening, it would be best if it was just me. He's looking forward to you coming and living with us, though. He's happy that he'll have his favorite little lab partner back. The others are, too... Steve and Thor just haven't interacted much with teenagers before... modern day teenagers, anyway."

"Please tell me that Tony isn't showing them movies to give them an idea of what to expect... because you know just as well as I do that I don't really follow the stereotype of a teenaged girl."

Pepper laughed, "No, nothing like that. He's already been raving about how great you are. though. You know how Tony is."

Willow snorted and nodded, her cheeks coloring slightly. Even though she and Tony Stark had known each other for years, Willow still couldn't believe that she knew the famous inventor and businessman and that he actually liked her and didn't brush her aside like she wasn't important. From day one, Willow and Tony had gotten along and the inventor had taken her under his wing, teaching her what he could about areas of his work that she was interested in (within reason). Willow remembered when Tony had been kidnapped in Afghanistan and how she had cried when she had found out he was missing and again how she had cried when he had returned. The first time she saw him after that was after he had publicly announced his identity as Iron Man. At the tender age of eleven, Willow hadn't thought twice about running up to Tony to embrace, sobbing into his shoulder. She remembered how his arms had felt as he hugged her back, greeting her with a cheerful smile.

"Hey, squirt... did you miss me?" he had said. Willow had simply nodded before cuddling close to his chest, her eyes drawn to the blue glow beneath the fabric of his t-shirt.

"Does it hurt?" she had asked at the time and Tony had been quick to reassure her that it didn't.

Not only did Willow admire Tony for his intellect and how he treated her, but what she most admired about him was the genuine way he cared about her mother. Pepper's life had been a lonely one, up until she had begun to work for Tony, and Willow had noticed how much happier Pepper had become ever since she and Tony had started dating about two years before.

While Willow was silent, obviously lost in her thoughts, Pepper looked around the room. It looked like Willow had been busy packing. It had probably helped that Willow had already been packed for her summer vacation in New York, so there had been less things for Willow to pack once she had learned that the move was going to be permanent.

"When... when do you want to leave? I have lots of time off, so if you want to stay around for a few more weeks, you can," Pepper offered. Willow, however, shook her head, drawing back away from Pepper so she could look up at her mother's face.

"No. Maybe another day or two... so I can say goodbye to my friends properly. They already know that... that I'm leaving town. I called them after I got off the phone with you. Buffy and Xander helped me pack but Buffy had to pack up her own stuff too. She's spending the summer with her dad in L.A."

Pepper nodded in understanding. She knew that for Willow the hardest thing about leaving Sunnydale would be leaving Xander behind. Pepper had met the boy on numerous occasions over the years and she found him to be a very nice young man. Pepper wondered how much the boy had grown since the last time she had seen him, the previous fall.

"Tony still has his house at Malibu. One weekend we might come down and you could invite Xander and Buffy over?" Pepper suggested. "It's not too far, we might even do it before school starts back."

"Really?" Willow asked, her voice brightening at the prospect of not being completely cut off from her friends. Pepper smiled and ruffled Willow's long red hair.

"Of course. I'm not going to cut you off completely from your life here, you know," Pepper teased gently. Willow hugged her mother, a smile spreading across her face.

"Thank you, Mom," she said. Pepper simply rubbed her daughter's back and smiled sadly.

BtVS/AVENGERS

"You better make sure that you look after yourself, okay, Willow?" Buffy said as she hugged Willow one last time, in front of the Summers' residence. Willow nodded.

"I promise. Although, I will be living with, like, six superheroes... I think I'm going to be pretty safe."

"Yeah, but because of those six superheroes there's, like, fifty million enemies that would love to use you to get to them," Buffy argued, still slightly morbid after recent events. Willow nodded.

"I know, Buffy, and I promise that I will do all I can to make sure nothing happens to me," she said in a serious voice. Buffy pulled back and clapped Willow on the shoulder. Willow almost stumbled forward at the force behind the gesture.

"Just be careful. Don't do anything that I wouldn't do," the Slayer finished.

"Well, that leaves things very open," Xander butted in teasingly and Buffy swatted him on the arm while Willow laughed.

"I'll be sensible. From what my mom's told me, things are crazy enough in that house without me being reckless to add to it. I think Mom going to need me to help control the others."

Xander smiled, pulling Willow into a hug. "Just hit them with your Resolve Face and they'll do whatever it is you want. That's your superhero ability, the Resolve Face."

Willow laughed, feeling better about the separation than she thought she would. Of course, she and Xander had promised to exchange phone calls and emails and Buffy had insisted on getting told regularly about all the gossip from Manhattan.

Still, despite knowing that she would still have contact with her friends in Sunnydale, Willow felt herself tear up a little in Xander's arms. Around the three teens, others were tearing up too. Willow had already said her goodbyes to her aunt and uncle back at their house and she had also said goodbye to Joyce and Giles, who was furiously polishing his glasses and trying to hide the fact that his eyes were brimming with tears. Willow felt moisture drip down onto her head and realized that Xander was crying too.

"You've been my best friend my whole life, Wills," Xander whispered, "and when I think of the best moments of my life, you're in them all. You've always been there for me, no matter what. I... I just want to say that you're the best friend I could ever have and even though you live on the other side of the country, you're still my best friend and no one, not even Buffy, could take your place."

"Thank you, Xander," Willow murmured, "and I feel the exact same way. You're always going to be my best friend, Xander."

"I'll see you soon, okay?" Xander asked and Willow nodded.

"You better keep in touch," she threatened, "or I'll set Buffy on you."

Xander laughed. "I'll check my emails every day and I promise that we'll talk on the phone heaps."

"Good," Willow nodded. Xander tightened his grip on her.

"I wish you didn't have to go," he said in a whisper.

Willow nodded. "I do too but I can't do anything about it. I have to go. You never know, I might be able to save the world or do something crazy like that."

Xander laughed. "Just as long as you don't get hurt or anything."

"I promise that I'll try," Willow said honestly before pulling away, having already lingered in Xander's arms a little longer than what was deemed strictly necessary.

"You look after him, okay, Buffy?" Willow called as she walked towards the waiting car, where her mother and Tony's chauffeur, Happy, were standing together, watching the farewells. Willow nodded.

"Always," she called back. Willow nodded in reply and gave a single wave before turning her back and walking the rest of the way to the car. Happy opened the door and Pepper got in, Willow sliding in afterwards, lowering the window so she could wave out at her friends.

Happy got into the car and it accelerated slowly down the street. Willow kept waving until they turned around a corner and she stopped, leaning her head back against the headrest. She felt a hand close around her own.

"Are you okay, Willow?" Pepper asked. Willow felt a few tears roll down her cheeks as they passed the sign that welcomed travelers to Sunnydale.

"Not really," she admitted, "but I will be."