While walking home, Willow had to fight her feelings of shock to prevent falling into a dazed fugue state. The number of surprises she'd received today was more than enough to send a normal girl her age to the loony bin for a time. Even after having her world rocked several times since meeting Buffy, Willow was having trouble wrapping her head around her newest reality.
To stave off the panic, she could feel creeping up around the edges of her mind. So Willow began to make plans. She'd always found that making plans was a good way to help her get a handle on any problem that seemed too big for her. It allowed her to break her more significant issues into smaller, more manageable pieces.
One of the things she found herself struggling with was the massive number of things she wanted to create to better protect herself and her friends. The problem she found herself facing was the lack of materials she would need. She could solve that by creating her own tools, machines, and fabricators. She would also need raw materials to start with; however, all of that cost money.
That brought her to her second problem. Although she had some money that her parents had set aside for her college fund, she wouldn't be able to touch it until she was eighteen. Even then, it wasn't anywhere close to the amount she would need.
Once she solved those problems, she still needed a place to set up her workshop and labs. The major roadblocks for this came in two parts. The first again came back to money, and the second was her age. She was too young to be buying the properties she would need, as well as many of the chemicals she would have to acquire.
That fits nicely with her next problem. Even if her parents weren't around very much, they would undoubtedly object to their daughter spending so much money. Especially on things they didn't think she needed or items that were quite dangerous if miss-handled. Up until now, she'd been able to get around the few time they were home so that it didn't affect her helping Buffy. However, the more she began working on her creations, the less she would be able to hide from her parents.
There were a large number of other problems, but those were her most immediate issues. By the time she got home, she'd already found the solutions for all of her problems. It would take her the rest of today and most of tomorrow, but she figured that she would be much closer to solving her current issues by the time school started on Monday.
After she got those problems solved, she would turn her attention to solving just what had happened to her, not to mention how.
Using her key, she unlocked her front door and stepped inside before closing and locking her door. Then, tossing her keys into the little bowl that sat on the small table just inside the entryway, she quickly made her way to the kitchen. She wanted to grab a snack before getting to work.
Absently she grabbed a Pepsi from the fridge along with a foil-covered bowl of Lazania she'd made the night before. Then, removing the tinfoil, she tossed her lunch into the microwave and set it for two and a half minutes. As she waited, she let her eyes rome absently over the kitchen counters.
She noted the TARDIS that Buffy had mentioned and reached for a glass of water to pour on the slowly growing crystal. She'd just placed the mug under the faucet before what she was doing registered. She felt the cup slipped from her fingers and crash into the sink even as she spun to get a better look at that softly glowing purple crystal.
Like her own time lord physiology, the TARDIS coral sitting on her counter shouldn't exist despite what logic was telling her. However, she couldn't deny what was seated before her very own eyes. The TARDIS coral or TARDIS seed was a small fragment of a TARDIS growth matrix. It was produced by a TARDIS and planted by a time lord to grow a new TARDIS.
The coral was fragile and took quite a long time to grow—a little over a century for most before they were ready to bond with a pilot. Trying to understand where the thing had come from, she tried desperately to remember more of last night. In the end, she was able to glean only a little more understanding.
She could vaguely recall that she'd been hit with a massive amount of dimensional energy. The amount should have killed her, and if what Buffy said was true, it probably had. Still, she could just recall that as her mind was slipping into the darkness, she'd grasped desperately onto the little bit of dimensional energy that had remained. Then, she'd used that little bit of remaining energy to reach across the void in a desperate bid to pull her TARDIS to her.
In the end, the amount of energy remaining was no were close to the amount needed to accomplish such a feat, but it had been enough to pull a TARDIS seed through.
Reaching down, she picked back up the mug and filled it with water. She quickly poured it into the pot before walking it upstairs and setting it on her desk next to her computer monitors. After that, she promptly went downstairs and tried to pout the TARDIS coral out of her mind.
Grabbing her lunch, she once more headed up to her room, this time to get to work. If she was going to solve her problems, she needed to start working on them soon. Logging onto her computer, she began opening the programs she would need. It took her only minutes to hack into the systems and networks she needed. Even as she worked, she felt a thrill run down her spine. She could get into systems in a matter of minutes, where before, it would have taken her days or even weeks to hack just one.
Some of the systems she wasn't sure she would have even been able to crack before her transformation. Willow didn't allow her shock to slow her down, though. She was aware that she needed a new identity before she could get started on solving any of her other problems. It couldn't be a cheap throwaway identity either. She would need one that could pass several stringent background checks. If she wanted to legally acquire the permits, she would need to obtain hazardous chemicals and even some radioactive material.
She would also need a new identity to create a bank account for the money she would require. She would also need to be able to use it to purchase property around Sunnydale. She intended to buy much of the properties; however, she intended to create a couple much less secure identities. If anyone tried to find her through electronic means, she wanted to make it as difficult as possible.
While preparing to create her new identity, Willow did stumble across one more surprise that almost sent her mind spiraling again. Before creating a new ID, she wanted to make sure she had every bit of information about her current ID. Willow hadn't expected to find anything she didn't already know, but she'd been wrong. Running a quick scan of her parent's computers, something she'd never bother doing before, she found several hidden files. All of them were dedicated to Willow and her apparent adoption.
From the information, she found Willow's real mother was Marry Grant, and her father was a man named Martin Riggs. The Rosenberg's files indicated that her mother became pregnant at fifteen years old. She wasn't prepared to take care of Willow.
Willow's father was sixteen, and at the time, he was in the system as a foster child himself. Her father wasn't even told about Willow's birth before her mother gave her up for adoption from what she read. Willow wanted to be saddened at the other documents she found along with her birth records. From what she read, the Rosenberg's never wanted Willow for a daughter. The only reason they'd adopted her was so they could use her to try out their theories on early childhood development.
It didn't take much effort to create a new identity and enter it into the many different government systems—every system from the IRS to the NCIC database. Not only did she proactively authorize the required permits she needed, but she also gave herself a CA conceal and carry permit. She then logged onto the CA DMV and created a file assigning her a class C driving permit along with a motorcycle endorsement.
After that, she had to go into several other government and private systems to bring Willow Tasker to life. She also ordered all of her documentation to be sent to a local PO Box. When she was done, Mis. Tasker had a complete life with years of documentation backing it up. She was a 23-year-old graduate from Harvard with a Masters in engineering. She was an orphan, her family always being relatively small, and her parents passing away years ago in a car accident. She even went to the trouble of making solid identities and backgrounds for her family, going back three generations.
She would have to talk to Jenny to cast a small spell that would add the appropriate backdated paperwork to the hard files and plant a few fake memories in the required people. Unfortunately, Willow couldn't do that as she lacked Jenny's magical abilities. After that, she also created a few quick throwaway identities. Using those identities as well as her Trasker identity, she opened several bank accounts under each name.
When she was done with all of that, it was nearing dinner time. Unfortunately, Willow didn't feel much like cooking. But, seeing as it was still about an hour until sunset, she quickly ordered a medium pepperoni pizza.
While she was waiting for her pizza, Willow decided to take a short break from her work and do a little research on the Doctor and time lords in general. She thought it would be significant considering that most of the Doctor's memories were locked away in her mind.
She found several fascinating bits of information online, and she was careful to note them. For instance, time lords were deathly allergic to aspirin while being immune to alcohol. On the other hand, ginger had the same effect on her as alcohol did on humans. So she wrote a quick note to remind her to buy an allergy bracelet letting people know she couldn't be given aspirin.
She did take some time to read up on the Doctor's ability to regenerate. But, unfortunately, she didn't learn anything new. She was already aware of the regeneration process and the limited number of regeneration given to each time lord. Although she couldn't be sure why she thought it, however, she was convinced for some reason that the Doctor didn't have a set limit of regenerations. Something to do with the timeless child, whatever that was. She tried, but she couldn't find any reference to the timeless child online.
As for herself, Willow, even if that was true, she didn't know if it would apply to her as well. Willow didn't know if she even could regenerate, let alone how many regenerations she would have if she could.
When her pizza arrived, she took some time to eat before going back to work. The next problem on her list she would need to solve was the one regarding money. The Doctor may have had no use for money, but that wasn't true for Willow. Not only did she require money, but she needed a lot of it.
It was a good thing for her that she already had a good idea of where she would get it from. First, she'd looked at the DEA system to locate the names of the most wealthy and powerful drug lords. The ones that couldn't touch due to their money and influence within their home countries. After that, she located several large bank accounts for each of them and drained them all.
Using the FBI and CIA files, she located several people that both agencies were sure worked for several terrorist groups. Again she discovered a large number of bank accounts for these scum and drained them as well. Last but not least, she found a few large bank accounts belonging directly to the governments of countries listed as terrorist states. Again she drained the accounts of a massive sum of money.
When she was done, she'd acquired over eight billion dollars altogether. It wasn't the full extent of the funds belonging to any of her victims, but it was still a substantial number. It was more than enough to begin her work. After she was done gathering her funds, the only thing left was to hide her new funds. Considering the people she'd just robbed, it wouldn't do any good for them to track the theft back to her.
Luckily for her, she was now the best at what she was doing. She routed the money through almost a thousand different banks before breaking it up and placing it into her various accounts. To make sure that she couldn't be tracked. She also planted a few viruses into several banks' computers. These viruses would completely wipe all traces of her and the money in their system.
This took most of the night, which had more to do with the systems she was working with than anything on her end. She should have been exhausted after being up for almost twenty hours, but she found she didn't feel a thing. If anything, she felt as fresh as she had when she'd woke up yesterday.
Since she still had plenty of energy, she began working on the following problem on her list. She started searching through the property listings in Sunnydale. Willow already knew the types of property she was interested in, so the search didn't take that long. The first property she bid on was the old Ford auto plant sitting just outside Sunnydale. It was a large structure with the main factory taking up almost three thousand square feet. It had two levels: the primary factory being on the first floor and taking up most of the building. The second floor only covered about a third of the factory floor and contained the factory offices.
It would take a bit of work to clear out and get the new machinery, chemicals, and materials moved in. Willow could also tell that the offices needed a bit of work, as did the building structure due to years of neglect. She would need to have a company come to help her make repairs.
After that, she bought a large mansion in the same neighborhood where Cordelia lived. But, again, her new Tasker identity would need to live up to a particular stereotype.
Willow also purchased several safe houses using her different identities if the group needed a safe house. Her final perches were that of an old abandoned military fallout bunker built by the military during the cold war.
All of her new properties would take a lot of work to bring them up to the standers she wanted for them. Until then, she wouldn't be able to use any of her new properties. She wasn't happy about that as she wouldn't begin ordering the materials she wanted until her new labs were set up.
Looking over at the clock, she found that it was already nine am so she took a moment to look up several local contractors. After a few quick calls, she'd set up a few appointments for later that day at both the factory as well as a few of her houses. The bunker she would work on by herself. She didn't want anyone knowing about it or the renovations she was doing to the place. She'd even gone so far as to release a virus into the various computer networks that mentioned the bunker's existence and had it wiped away. As far as anyone would know, she'd just bought a large plot of land a few miles outside of town.
After that, she decided she would eat breakfast and then hit the mall. She needed more clothes anyway. She thought she would also drop off all of her spare clothes at the local thrift shop on the way.