TITLE: In Your Eyes
AUTHOR: Gaeriel Mallory
RATING: PG
CATEGORY: BTVS/Batman: the Animated Series Crossover
DISTRIBUTION: Photon's Crossing, TTH, Anyone else, just ask.
DISCLAIMER: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and all related characters are the property of Josh Whedon and Mutunt Enemy, Inc. Batman and related characters are the property of Warner Brothers and DC Comics.
NOTE: I don't know how the reception for this story will turn out, mainly because BTAS has been off the air for several years. This was written before the series finale of Buffy aired so there will be some inaccuracies in later chapters. However, in the chapters that are unwritten, I shall try to stick as close to the finale as possible.

The title "In Your Eyes" is a tribute to the 2nd season Buffy episode "I Only Have Eyes For You."


Chapter Four

Willow looked out the window of her airplane to see Gotham City spread out before her. It was not as large as Los Angeles, but it was large enough for someone who had lived in Sunnydale all her life. The four Scoobies had gone through all the books that Giles had left them before heading back to England. They had finally found out that in order for Angel's soul to be returned, his ghost needed to be bound to a physical body. That meant that they had to have the possession take place.

She had a feeling that Batman was not going to like that at all.

When the plane landed, she stood up and gathered her carryon from the overhead compartment. She got to exit the plane first—one of the benefits of flying first class, thanks to the ticket bought for her by Batman. She had talked briefly with him over the phone as they arranged the trip and even that short conversation had given her the wiggins. She had gotten the impression that he would be incredibly scary up close and in person. Willow hoped that he would not be meeting her at the airport.

She gave a sigh of relief when she saw an old guy with a mustache holding up a sign with her name on it outside of Gotham Airport. She walked over to him and smiled nervously. "Hi," she said shyly. "I think you're waiting for me?"

He returned her smile with a slight one of his own. "If you are Miss Rosenberg, then indeed I am. If all your bags are in order, we may head out."

She relaxed as he put her two suitcases and duffel bag into the trunk of the—squeal—limo. He reminded her a lot of Giles, except with a mustache and even stuffier, if that were possible. Did all guys from England act like this?

In the limo, she sat looking out the window and was a bit surprised to notice that they were stopped in front of an apartment building. The man—she still did not know his name—got out of the car and opened the door for her. "Miss Barbara was kind enough to let you stay with her," he said. "I believe that you had spoken with her over the phone."

"Oh," she could only reply. She had not thought that any of the vigilantes would give up their identity to her.

He gathered her bags plus a small pastry box and nodded to her. "If you will follow me, Miss Rosenberg?"

Willow stood rooted to the sidewalk, wishing that one of the other Scoobies could have come with her. But Dawn had had classes at the college and Xander had work. As for Spike, there was no way he could have traveled on a plane except in a box and he had glared at her for even daring to suggest that.

"Miss Rosenberg?"

She shoved her fear aside and followed the man into the building. Hey, Willow thought, she can't be that bad, right? Okay, she scares criminals shitless but she sounded nice over the phone. Right?

Willow had developed a mental picture of some tall hulking Amazon and was a bit surprised at the petite redhead that answered the door. She watched as the woman kissed the man on the cheek and greeted him as "Alfred."

She spotted Willow standing in the hallway and smiled. "Hey there. You must be Willow. Come on in." She closed the door after the witch had entered and held out a hand. "I'm Barbara."

Willow numbly took the hand, still staring. "You're Batgirl?" she asked in shock. "But—You're so tiny!"

Barbara grinned at that. "That just makes it that much more humiliating for the bad guys when I kick their butts," she whispered with a wink. "Besides," she said, "from what I've read in the Initiative reports, Buffy wasn't much bigger than me."

Alfred cleared his throat. "I am sorry, ladies, but I have to be off. If there is nothing more that you require, Miss Barbara?"

Barbara smiled fondly at the man. "Nope. We should be fine here. Thanks for everything."

He nodded at her and presented the pastry box. "Then I shall leave you this and be on my way."

Barbara took the box and said goodbye. She grinned at Willow after he had left. "If I know Alfred, he just gave us something wonderful for dessert tonight." She set the box down on the coffee table. "Why don't I show you the guest bedroom and I'll bring you up to date on everything."

Willow nodded. "Just one question though. Why show me who you are? I mean, that whole secret identity thing is pretty big to just tell some random person off the street."

Barbara grabbed one of the suitcases and headed down a hallway. Willow took the remaining suitcase and her bag and followed. "To be honest," Barbara replied, "Batman was all for putting you up in a hotel and just letting you remain in the dark about who we were. I pointed out to him that it was a pretty stupid idea, considering that there would be a lot of conferring going on between us and you. It would be pretty inconvenient to only be able to show up at nighttime, which is when the costumes come out.

"Besides, you know how to keep a secret. You kept Buffy's for years." Her eyes turned serious. "You also know how important secret identities are, having had to deal with hiding being a witch from the world."

Willow sat down the bed and looked at the other woman. "I suppose I understand. But it still blows my mind a bit."

Barbara's grin returned. "Just don't expect to learn who Batman or Nightwing are under the masks. Those two border on obsessive compulsive when it comes to their secrets. Robin might let you know his, just because you already know who I am and he trusts my opinion. But again, don't count on it."

Willow nodded. "Got it."

Barbara leaned against the wall and fixed the witch with a piercing gaze. "So, what's the plan for fixing this mess? I want to be able to look into a mirror and see me again."

"I want to restore Angel's soul. The reason this all happened in the first place was because he had lost it."

Barbara was nodding. "Makes sense, I suppose. I'm not too up on the magical side of things but I am willing to learn."

"The only problem is that in order to restore Angel's soul, he has to have a physical body."

"Which means Nightwing's going to have to let himself be possessed." Barbara frowned. "He won't like it."

"You're going to have to let Buffy take over you too," Willow pointed out. "The way it works for cases like this is for both parties to be able to inhabit a body or neither one does."

"But why didn't they take over us that first night?"

Willow shrugged. "I can't answer that. It might have been they weren't sure you two were compatible or they had to make their presence known first. The last time we had to deal with something like this, the ghosts were doing physical things so that people knew the school was haunted."

"What kind of things?"

"Moving things, hands coming out of lockers. The usual for ghost hauntings."

"Uh... Right." Barbara looked a bit skeptical but moved on. "But will it work? Restoring the soul I mean."

"I've done it before. Angel has a habit of losing his soul. I had to do it once junior year of high school and another time when evil Cordelia had taken his soul and captured it in a jar."

There was that look again! Willow watched the other woman nervously, looking for signs of—of what? Mental breakdown? Hysteria? The woman faced down costumed lunatics on a nightly basis. Surely she could handle magic.

"Uh, are you okay?" she asked Barbara. "You're looking a little pale."

Barbara shook herself. "Yeah, I'm fine," she responded. A little too quickly for Willow's liking, though. "I, uh, just need to get something to drink. And to get dinner started." She practically ran out of the room, leaving Willow behind.

"Oh yeah," the witch said to herself. "This is going to be fun." She sighed and followed Barbara to the kitchen. She found her chopping vegetables.

"I hope you like vegetable stir fry," Barbara said brightly when Willow entered the kitchen. "I wasn't sure if you had any weird food habits so I thought I'd stick to something that was meatless in case you were vegetarian or something."

"No, no vegetarianism. Though I don't eat pork. Raised Jewish and all."

"Ah, okay."

Willow stood uncomfortably in the middle of the kitchen. "Um, do you need any help?"

Barbara shook her head. "No, I'm fine."

"You want to talk about it?"

Barbara looked at Willow. "Talk about what?"

"The magic. It's seriously wigging you out, isn't it?"

Barbara sighed and put down the vegetable knife. "I've never had to deal with it before," she admitted. "Batman has, and so has Robin, but I never had to. I'm finding it a little hard to deal with." She gave a little laugh. "Funny, isn't it? I know Superman and a guy who rejuvenates himself by taking dips in Lazarus pits and I can't handle a little magic."

Willow took Barbara by the arm and sat her down at the kitchen table. "I understand. There's some scientific basis for flying aliens, and well, that guy that puts himself into those pits? Kinda creepy, but it's something you're used to. There is no scientific reasoning for magic. It just is." Willow studied the other woman. "Would it help if I did something? Show you so that you can see it's real?"

Barbara gave a shaky smile. "Maybe?"

Willow concentrated and created a ball of fire on the palm of her hand. Barbara stared at it with wide eyes. "See? Nothing to run screaming away from," Willow said cheerfully. She tossed the ball up in the air and caught it with her other hand. "It's kinda fun, actually, some of the stuff I can do." She held the ball out to Barbara. "Here, you wanna hold it?"

Barbara jumped backwards in her chair and stared at the ball of fire. "W-won't it burn me?"

Willow shook her head. "Not unless I want it to."

A bit apprehensively, Barbara reached out and touched the ball. She immediately jerked her hand back in reflex. "It doesn't feel hot," she said in awe. She then picked it up from Willow's hand and cradled it in her own.

Willow smiled at the look on Barbara's face. Looks like we got her over her magic fear, she thought smugly. That was a lot easier than I thought it would be!