Author: Wiccan Wolfe

Disclaimer: Do not belong to me! They belong to the god Joss Whedon! *bows to Joss*

Rating: PG13 would be my best guess. Maybe some cussing, I don't really know.

Paring: Willow/Tara, Xander/Anya, Buffy/Anna

Summary: Buffy finds out what it's like to be in battle with Anna.

A/N: Contains female loving another female. Should this bother you. then leave. This is the second part of the series. It's best if you read "The Past Can Fly" first.

Battle One:

Part One

*Summer's Home, the night before*

Anna and Buffy walked to the door and out to her car. Buffy linked her hands with Anna's as a smile crossed her face at the thought of 'her girl.'

"What are you smiling at?" The smile on Buffy's face made Anna smile and she didn't know why.

"You're my girl do you know that?" Buffy stopped and looked at her.

"I do know that." Both girls were looking at each other with loving eyes.

"I feel like I've known you for my whole life, and I barely know you. It took Willow and Tara a couple of months to even admit it to themselves much less to get together. But I feel like... we are meant for each other." Buffy took Anna's hand in her hands and placed it on her chest. "You feel how fast my heart is beating?"

"Yes." Anna whispered, not trusting her voice to work for very long.

"It's never beat like that for anybody else that's how I know. We are meant for each other, and you saw the future, you know how we'll turn out."

"Well, before we go off declaring our love to the whole world, I think that we should have a first date don't you think?"

"Sure, how about tomorrow night? We can go to the Bronze."

"No, let's go to a movie. A movie and dinner, that sound okay?"

"Yeah, where to do want to go for dinner?"

"How about something quick to eat?"

"Is pizza simple enough?"

"Perfect, I'll come and pick you up at seven and we'll go to an eight o'clock movie. Okay?"

Anna leaned in and kissed Buffy once on the lips. "I'll see you tomorrow o' girl of mine."

"Where did that come from, o' girl of mine?"

"Hey I'm part Irish, what else can you expect?" Anna waved her goodbyes as she got in the car. Buffy ran happily back in the house, waiting for tomorrow.

Part Two

*Summer's home, morning after*

"Good morning Buffy. Want some cereal?" Dawn offered the box to her sister.

"No I have to go shopping today." Buffy was excited about her date.

"What for?" Dawn had a puzzled look on her face.

"Dawn we need to talk." Buffy's happy face turned to concern. How was she going to explain this? "You know about Willow and Tara and about their lifestyle don't you?"

"Yeah, I'm fifteen Buffy, not stupid." Dawn said cautiously.

"Well and I don't want you to get freaked out or anything but, I am dating Anna. Are you okay with that?" Buffy put her hand on her little sisters shoulder.

"Yeah, I just don't know if I trust her completely though."

"Why not?" Buffy was getting a little worried. She wanted to be with Anna but not if her sister didn't approve.

"She said so herself, she has a secret life. What if this secret life brings trouble with it?"

"I agree with Dawn, Buffy you should find out about her before you do anything drastic." Willow and the rest of the Scooby gang walked into the kitchen.

"I'll ask her tonight. But I like her; we are going to be together for a long time." Buffy smiled as she remembered what Anna said about seeing the future.

"How do you know that? She might be here for a few days..." Willow asked.

"...Or a few months. Besides she told we were going to be together for a long time."

"Just because she said that doesn't mean that it will be true." Willow gave her a pleading look.

"Well, what about you and Tara? You said that you are going to be together forever. Doesn't mean that it's true." Buffy kind of wished that she hadn't said that.

"That's different, we know each other, you know nothing about her and you want to marry her."

"Look, she told me that she is sometimes granted the power to see in the future. And in our future she said that this would be the longest relationship that I've ever had." Buffy was now a little irritated.

"I think that you need to learn a little more about her first." Willow looked down at the counter.

"Tara, what do you think about her? She is your friend after all." Everybody had forgot about this one little fact. Now Willow was ashamed that she had spoke so badly about Anna in front of Tara.

"She is my friend, and she has a lot of secrets. But we all do, you can't expect to know everything about someone on the first date. I would trust her every word, just like I would trust every word that Willow or Dawn or you would say." Tara pointed to every person that she named off.

"I promise you that I, we, will all get to know her. If Tara can trust her, I think that the rest of you can. Now I have to get ready for tonight." Buffy went upstairs and everyone waited for the door to slam.

"I'm sorry Tara." Willow apologized, for what she didn't know, but she felt like she should.

Part Three

*Later that afternoon, at the Magic Box*

"Giles do you trust her?"

"If course I do. Why would you ask such a thing?"

"Everybody else, except for Tara, thinks that she is hiding something major. I don't know, I mean you're on my side right?"

"Of course I am. But they do have a point."

"What do you mean?"

"Well she is my niece, but she has secrets that I don't even know about."

"Fine, whatever, I'm still going to go out with her." Buffy waved her hand as if to dismiss the conversation.

*7:00 Anna's house*

"Hey guys what are you doing here?" Anna held the door open looking confused at the Scooby gang on her front lawn.

"I'm sorry sweetheart, but something came up. Vamps are up to something, but you can come with." Buffy smiled and looked down at the ground.

"Sure, killing some vamps sounds like the perfect first date. Are we walking or driving?"

"Walking, let's go make some dust." Buffy grabbed Anna's hand and pulled her along.

"Anna can we ask you something?" Tara walked up to Anna looking a little worried.

"Sure Tara, you can ask me anything. That goes for all you guys."

"We need to know about your past." Tara looked Anna in the eyes with a pleading look.

"Why is my past of any importance to you?"

"In case there might be somebody after you."

"What kind of inconvenience will I bring you, is what you mean." Anna broke free of Buffy's hold and walked faster in front of the group. She found some steps and sat down, putting her head down in her hands.

"What happened in your past that you won't talk about?" Buffy sat down and put her arms around Anna's shoulders. The rest of the gang walked up slowly and began sitting down around Anna.

"I suppose that you have to find out sometime don't you?" Anna took a deep sigh and looked out into the distance. She fixed her eye on something far away, too far the rest of the gang to see.

"What's wrong?" Tara looked in the same direction as Anna but she didn't see anything.

Anna stood up slowly and pointed in the distance. Nobody saw anything, but Anna kept pointing. Slowly she took a few steps and then yelled, "Come on now!" She took off around a building and to a back alley. The followed to find some vamps trying to attack some college girls. Willow recognized them as girls from their old Wicca group.

Buffy pulled a stake from her jacket and began staking them. Before she could get to him, a vamp stabbed Anna with something that he picked up on the ground.

"Sorry bastard!" Buffy yelled as she attacked him. Anna hit her knees groaning in pain. Buffy rushed towards her; franticly she picked Anna up.

"Honey, are you all right?"

Anna pulled away from Buffy's arms and leaned up against the wall with one hand. She turned her face away, panting as she yelled in pain. Suddenly a blue light appeared from nowhere and attached to her back. It stayed for only a minute and then disappeared. Anna hit the ground once more in pain. Buffy ran to her side and examined her back nothing was there. It was like nothing happened. But what scared her most is what she saw when Anna looked at her.

Part Four

Anna's eyes, that were once gray, were now solid black. And the mark on her head that Buffy had never taken a notice to before was shinning like a flashlight. Buffy dropped Anna in fright and started to back away.

"What the hell is that?" Buffy pointed at her own head.

"Buffy calm down. I'll explain later but there is somewhere else that we are needed." Anna got up and walked calmly out of the alley. She made her way to the cemetery with the gang behind her. Anna pulled the slayer closer to her and pointed. She quietly whispered "There is something over there that is fixing to show up and kill. I'm thinking that it is a vamp but I don't know. Do you still have your stakes?"

"No, I dropped them when I was trying to figure what the hell is going on with you!" Buffy whispered back quietly but sharply.

"Here." Anna held out her hand and a stake appeared. Buffy took it and went in the direction of the soon to be vamp. Anna grabbed her head as if she was in pain. Then four more stakes appeared in her hands.

"Willow, Xander, she's going to need back up. Go now." Anna threw them the stakes and showed them where to go. "Tara, Anya you can stay with me. Everything should be fine now."

Just then Buffy yelled out, "It's Glory."

"Stay here and wear this," Anna handed Tara a necklace that she was wearing. It was a light green rock held in a small metal cage. "Tara, as long as you were it you'll be protected. You'll have to keep touching Anya for it to protect her too. Don't lose contact with her." Anna yelled the last sentence has she ran for Buffy.

When she arrived Buffy was hit in the stomach and knocked across the woods into a tree. Glory laughed her triumph as she looked at Anna.

"Hey, aren't you Fiona?"

"Goddamn! Do I know every fucking demon in this small ass town?" Anna threw her arms in the air in aggravation.

"Minions, get her, she could be of the most use to us." The minions made an attempt to run after Anna. Anna leaned her head down for a moment then said something in Latin that Willow later translated into, "Let the wings that kept down, now lift me off the ground."

Wings seemed to have grown out of her back as she floated off of the ground. She went so high that Tara and Anya saw her from their position. They rushed over to see what was happening.

"I can't believe she still has it." Tara whispered to herself as she approached the crowd.

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!" Glory waved her hands and stomped her foot.

"Glory, you know better. I can defeat you." Anna lowered herself slightly to the ground. Her eyes had turned from black to a solid green color.

"If the slayer can't then you can't!" Glory yelled at the floating figure. "Let's go home minions." Glory and her lap dogs ran for the safety of their home.

"Run now Glorficus, die later." Anna yelled out to the running figures in the distance. She lowered herself and said again in Latin, "Back within my skin, is where you must live." Anna ran over to Buffy and began to heal her.

"Anybody else hurt?" Everyone shook their head no.

"What the hell are you?" Buffy got up and dusted herself.

"I'm a white wing trying to do my job." Anna went to the steps where they had been before. She sat down, then leaned back at stared at the sky.

"When are you going to answer the question? What are you? Why are you here?" This time it was Willow who was yelling.

"I am a white wing; I am here to protect Buffy and the rest of you." Anna said through clenched teeth.

"Tell me about your past." Buffy calmly and softly said this.

"Not here, at my home."

"Why?" Anya asked, feeling a little left out from everybody else.

"I can't let anybody here this. In case Glory has someone tailing me. Let's go to my house." Anna got up and walked off.

Part Five

*Anna's home, inside the den*

"This is my den. Can I get you something to drink? I have beer."

"Sure." Everybody agreed.

Anna returned with beers for everybody. She herself opened a cabinet on the wall and fixed herself what looked like a vodka tonic.

"I am older than you would think." Anna sat down at a chair near the fireplace and stared at the flames.

"You're a demon, an ex-demon?" Anya asked.

"Sort of, I have lived through different times and different lives. Every lifetime I die and then I am reborn again. Every lifetime I do my job, whatever the elders think that I should do."

"They give a job?" Anya asked confused.

"Yes and this one was to protect Buffy."

"What other jobs have you had?" Buffy sat down in front of Anna and stared in the flames with her.

"A lot, I was born before the universe was. Like Glory." She whispered the last part.

"Do you know how to get rid of Glory?"

"I'm sorry, I don't."

"That's okay, it's not your fault."

"Yes it is everything is my fault. I should have stopped it."

"Stopped what?" Buffy laid her hand down on Anna's knee.

"The birth of demons. But my uncle convinced me that the world couldn't live on happiness alone. You need love and death. I had a chance and I didn't take it. Now look at the world! Demons, death, pain, and Glory."

"You were there when Glory was born?" Xander asked disgusted.

"Yes, I held her in my hands right after she was born. I looked into her eyes and saw pain. I could've ended that. Then you wouldn't have had to deal with this."

"But then we wouldn't have met. I wouldn't be in love with the person of my dreams." Buffy stood up and made Anna look at her. Tears welled up in both of their eyes. "You have your secrets, we all do. But here is something that isn't a secret I love you. I don't have to know about your past to know that I want to be with you." Anna stood up and kissed Buffy as tears fell down both of their cheeks.

"I love you too Buffy. But I still feel like this is my fault. If I hadn't have listened to my uncle..."

"Shh... It's okay." Buffy put her finger on Anna's lips.

"Your uncle as in Giles?" Willow asked.

"As in Dohfferyn! I remember now, she was his niece and his personal secretary. I knew that I had seen you before." Anya was now standing pointing an accused finger at Anna.

"Anya what are you talking about?" Xander stood up as well.

"She had her own personal desk in front up his office. And we had to bring in the money to her."

"What money?"

"We got paid buy the women who had us doing the revenge spells for them.. And she would take our money, and she signed our checks. Now that I think of it she done everything while Dohfferyn sat in his office."

"So it's true?" Buffy asked hurt.

"In one lifetime yes, I told you that I done a lot of different jobs." Anna suddenly looked up at the ceiling and nodded. "They need to see me."

"Who's 'they'?"

"The elders, I'll be back in a moment." Anna looked at the group and the disappeared.

*Elders*

"What do you need?" Anna asked her bosses.

"How is it going with Buffy?"

"Great, it's going along perfectly just as planned." Anna said with anger in her voice.

Part Six

"Not so well then?" The first elder asked her.

"I think that she might leave me. Her friends hate me, I'm sure that by now Tara does too." Anna looked down and sighed heavily.

"Fiona you know what's meant to be. Don't let this discourage you. You've seen the future." The second elder said. She didn't have to look to know this; he had an Irish accent where as the other two didn't.

"I know but the future can change. I want her so much..." The third elder cut her off before she could finish.

"Look at these few glimpses into your life." He waved his hand and the clouds that were in front of him turned into a huge mirror.

In it Anna saw her and Buffy in a church getting married. Second she saw herself holding Buffy's hand as Buffy went into labor. Then the last thing she saw was herself, holding a child pointing at Buffy's pregnant stomach.

"You are positive that this is the future?" Anna asked pointing at the mirror.

"Would we ever lie?" She couldn't see it, but she knew that the three elders were smiling.

"Go now to your wife. Explain everything and then fulfill this future of yours."

*Anna's home*

"What they want?" Buffy asked turning around to face Anna.

"Just to reassure my faith in the future, our future." Anna smiled grabbing Buffy's hands.

"What else do you want to know?"

"I want to know what they said to make you so happy." Tara said smiling at the girls.

"I don't think that I can tell you." Anna looked at the ceiling as if she was asking for permission. "I can't tell you right now."

"Let's forget it for right now. As we get to know each other, you can tell us." Buffy smiled and kissed Anna on the lips, then the cheek to where her tears had been earlier. Anna slipped her hands around the slayer's waist and pulled her closer. Buffy was putting her arms around Anna's neck when she heard Xander groan.

"I hate being the only male in a room full of girls making out with... girls." Xander sat down causing everybody to laugh.

"What things have you done in this lifetime?" Buffy leaned back to look at her girlfriend.

"I was born in Glastonbury but I was raised in Avalon. I was trained to be a High Priestess."

"You'll make a great ruler Anna." Tara said proudly at her friend.

"Avalon, like King Arthur Avalon?" Willow asked confused by the whole situation.

"Yes, I was to be ruler someday but I decided against it."

"What a minute, what is up with the wing thing that you did in front of Glory?" Xander asked.

"It's one of my powers. I can see danger before it happens, I can heal, take a lot of pain, fly, and access other things at certain times."

"I bet that you can't take slayer pain." Buffy said proudly.

"And I bet that I can, but we'll save that for another time."

"We'll let's go home guys, it's late and I want some snuggle time with my Tare-bear." Willow smiled and kissed Tara on the cheek causing Tara to blush.

"Aw, Buffy can we be as cute as they are?" Buffy smacked Anna playfully on the arm.

"Are you going to go home or stay here?" Anna smiled wickedly.

"I would never go all the way on a first date." Buffy turned to the door leaving Anna standing there to laugh at herself. "If this is what you do for a first date, then I can't wait to see what you do on a second one." Buffy leaned inside the room and blew Anna a kiss goodnight.

I can't wait until we get married. If I start shopping now, I might be able to get a big ring. Anna thought to herself as she sat down in front of the fireplace to reflect on this hellish night.

________________________________________

Continued in...

Spending the Night.