Ringworld is property of Larry Niven. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.
The Ringworld had teleported into Earth's orbit.
Out of nowhere the checkerboard pattern of the Ringworld landscape appeared in the sky above. The Earth was clear of its atmosphere but its moon was not so fortunate. The lunar surface slammed into winds of over 770 miles per second. Huge clouds of lunar dust instantly billowed into space. Huge chunks of the moon broke off. Earth's moon was starting to disintegrate.
Willow could feel the ground beneath her began to shake. The world would soon be torn apart by the tides caused by the Ringworlds immense gravitational fields.
Willow inhaled in panic. Vamp Willow, the Buffy-baby, seeing Xander's blood on the floor was all too much for her. Her mind clamped down as it stopped time.
"I didn't know I could do this?" Willow thought.
"I helped." Ouroboros said. She could hear it in her mind.
"Ok, creepy voices in my head. Who are you?" Willow asked cautiously. Her fear was still coursing through her.
"Attend to the essence of the vampire." The voice in her head said.
Willow obeyed. She had to. She could feel the demon essence of Vamp-Willow squirming around inside of her. Willow focused her mind.
"I need the Janus bust." She said.
"Look down." Ouroboros said.
The off white bust of the god Janus was suddenly at her feet and what looked like an ordinary jar.
"The mo-ping I presume." Willow said referring to the same class of jar used to house Angel's soul after it had been extracted.
Willow waived her hands drawing the essence of the vampire out of her. She directed it into the jar. It's emitted a bright reddish glow.
The flesh is just a container for mystical forces. The Ringworld had learned this from Dawn.
"Do you want to hear a secret?" The Ringworld asked. The question was rhetorical. "Everything is already connected to everything else. The essence of that creature is already connected to your soul and everything else in creation. You simply need to tweak the nature of the relationship so that the things that are far away become near. Like in a perspective drawing. Ouroboros saw her hesitate.
"Don't be afraid." It said. "Progress requires sacrifice. "
Willow placed one hand on the bust of Janus and the other on the jar that held the essence of the demon.
"Planto duos unus." She said softly. "Make the two, one."
The magic flowed out of her. The Ringworld watched the process, recording it at the quantum mechanical level. A soft blue tendril gently flowed out of Willow. It merged with the essence in the jar. Instantly the reddish glow disappeared. The contents of the jar glowed hard white.
"It's a new form of life." Ouroboros said. "It's a vampire with a soul but without a body. Thank you for your donation. You have not been diminished. The soul cannot be divided. Any part of it is all of it.
Willow stared with baited breath at the thing she had done. She had given a part of her soul to the demon essence and used the Janus bust to merge the two together. She had created a vampire with a soul but without a body. The jar disappeared as the Ringworld claimed it.
"I knew the magics to merge the soul with the soulless existed. I couldn't get the calculations right. I couldn't pull the particles together. Every time I tried it came out unicorns." It said.
The Ringworld paused a moment. Willow could feel a subtle change in the nature of reality.
"It's done." He said. "I now have a soul. It tickles."
"Why do you want a soul?" Willow asked. She trembled at the thought of a trillion square mile artifact having a living soul. Her mind hesitated to contemplate such a thing.
"So what does that mean?" Willow asked. "What does it mean now that you have a soul?
"Put a machine and a human in a room. Tell them that their existence is threatened if they don't escape the room. Tell them that the key is hidden in the baby that occupies the room as well. The machine would simply kill the baby and remove the key. The Human would save the baby and find another way out. It would never occur to the machine that the baby could save the world after it grew up and only then if It was properly nurtured. It would never occur to the machine that the key to survival is the ability to love. That's why I need a soul. I need the power of love.
"Why?" Willow asked again wanting a simpler answer.
"The darkness is coming." He said. "And I will survive it. To me, past, present and future are just converging probabilities. I have seen a future where nothing without a soul survives. The War to end all wars is coming. Time is up for the old order. The rules are about to change. The New Gods are coming." The Ringworld said.
Willow looked puzzled. Ouroboros knew what she was about to ask.
"What, did you think I was the only Ringworld in the galaxy?"
And with that it disappeared.
Willow exhaled as time returned to normal. She looked out of the window of the warehouse. She could see the moon surrounded by a halo of dust.
The Buffy-Baby looked up at her and smiled. Drool dribbled down the side of her mouth.
