Princess of Twilight
Part One: Gone Past Cleveland
A Post-BTVS Fanfiction By Doc Stewart
Description: The "unique" Willow-centric spin-off comes to Fanfiction.net in series form. As promised, it's an old-fashioned "girl goes to hell dimension, girl conquers hell dimension, girl says 'what now?'" story. W/T (eventually).
Copyright: All characters copyright of Mutant Enemy; I'm just borrowing them under the good graces of ME and Fox. Original story copyright 2003.
Distribution: Please ask first (dr_stewart@hotmail.com), but I will generally grant permission to redistribute this story, with proper credits.
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Through the end of S7
Author's Note: Several months ago I released a "teaser roll" (Fanfiction.net story ID 1315750) for a... ahem... highly original, Willow- centric spin-off of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I'm pleased to announce that the "spin-off" has been "greenlighted" (at least on Fanfiction.net, anyway), given (1) the positive interest in the teaser roll (I had asked for sacks of cash as encouragement, but I'll take some good reviews instead), and (2) the fact that I think the concept just might be worth pursuing. If nothing else, I certainly haven't seen any concepts for spin- offs quite like this - or anywhere near it, actually. New chapters will appear roughly once a week.
The invitation to provide support for this series by sending me large amounts of money still applies. To find how you can help me live a lifestyle to which I'd like to become accustomed, e-mail dr_stewart@hotmail.com.
Chapter 1: "I've Made All Your Travel Arrangements"
Kennedy:
9 a.m. Time for somebody special to head off to her final college exams. I follow her across our room, kissing her briefly, but long enough for me to use my pierced tongue for an instant. She giggles and blushes slightly.
"Be good, Willow," I say. "Don't embarrass us by getting under a 99 percent, or anything."
Willow laughs. "No problem. See you later, sweetie." Her green eyes look at me, filled with growing affection that could soon be love.
Could is the operative word, of course. I see the slight glazing around her irises that tells the truth. She's being controlled, being forced to fall for me.
Her Scooby colleagues are also being controlled, but not as much. They're just forced to accept me as a slayerette at face value, who just happens to know so much more than any other SIT and who is suddenly Willow's new girlfriend, despite everything that happened last May. They all have the same slight glazing, too, but so far I'm the only one who's noticed.
Not that the mind control spells being used are easy to detect, by any means. I should know. I've spent months putting them in place, slowly upping the strength. Have to be careful with love and other mind control spells, especially with competent people like this crew. Jack up the power too fast, make someone swoon too quickly, and people will notice.
But I'm good, so they don't.
I've grown quite fond of Willow Rosenberg. She's a sweet, caring girl, beautiful and smart as hell (although with terrible self-esteem problems and lacking in wisdom - but hey, she's been through a lot and she's only 22) and as for the sex - well, that's been far from the worst part of this expedition. In more time she could really be something special. We could be something special - I've yet to find the right consort. But that's decades in the future.
What's more important is right now, defined as the next 24 hours. I'm on a tight schedule here.
This morning, Willow will take her final exams. She will get A's on all of her tests, ruining several curves. That's the most certain part.
This afternoon, Willow and the others will learn that the First has raised another army of uebervamps, and is preparing to smash its way through the hellmouth in Cleveland. Tonight, they'll catch a rush flight to the city. That's almost as certain.
Early tomorrow morning, Willow and the others will begin to battle the army of uebervamps in the Cleveland hellmouth. The trick that worked the last time - the Amulet of Miraculous Ass-Saving (actually it's the Amulet of I Slipped It to Wolfram and Hart) - won't be available, since it's currently buried under millions of tons of rock. This is good, since it meant that I didn't have to break the thing surreptitiously. They will quickly realize that without the amulet, twenty half-trained slayers are of almost no value against twenty thousand uebervamps.
Now, of course, there are thousands of slayers out there now, but as they're all hundreds to thousands of miles away, and have no idea what's going on, most of them will be occupied kneecapping their fellow peers for their lunch money. What an 'effing mess that's going to be - I just hope that we can to fix the situation quickly enough it doesn't become a Truly Major Problem. And, what a crying shame about Spike.
But, I digress. Anyway, once the realization that they're ueber-chow sinks into them, Willow will have a sudden epiphany. She will realize that she can cast an equally good spell to burn all the uebervamps to ash and crush the cavern. The spell will work just like the last time with the amulet, since it will be applied to another hellmouth cavern filled by the cerebrally challenged First with another horde of uebervamps. Cause, hey, it worked so well the last time. That's also pretty certain.
Too bad there's a cost. The equally good spell will involve Willow letting herself be incinerated and crushed to death by the falling cavern (just like Spike - sigh). This means she will have to choose to sacrifice herself. This is the less certain part.
Of course, I'll try to make it as certain as possible. Willow will have had this epiphany since I will beam it into her head, carefully modifying it to disguise the fact that the burning and crushing part is totally unnecessary. I'll also hit her with a sudden urge to redeem herself by sacrificing her life for the planet, and a surge of unbearable grief over her deceased lover, Tara Maclay. If all goes well, there were be pleas, and hugs, and tears, and a great and noble sacrifice to Save the World.
So, tomorrow morning, Willow Rosenberg will die. And I will have killed her.
Hey, it's not like I have much of a choice. It's why I'm in this forsaken dimension anyway. I'm not here to be cannon fodder to Bat Boy, or even fight Its Wussiness. The Scoobies can do that mostly on their own. (You'd think that an ancient entity woven into the fabric of space and time wouldn't be such a wuss, but you'd think wrong.)
I'm here to deal with the real apocalyptic threat - Willow. Should the redhead really catch fire, the Scoobies will not be spending months bickering with her; they'll be dead in minutes. Plus the whole planet being dead, and that's just for starters. And, the risk is far too great to ignore - her power's just too strong for her body. Hell, her power would be a stretch for my body. Every time I look at her, I'm amazed that she hasn't gone boom already.
I first saw Willow two years ago this May, when I was sucked into this world as a side effect of Glorificus's dumb-ass attempt to use the Key to get back to her own dimension. Circling overhead, wings fixed in attack position, I was about to launch a wicked aether blast at Glorificus, when I realized that the people fighting her on the ground seemed to have the situation more or less under control. And then I saw that there were three god-like entities on the ground - Glorificus, the Key, and a red-headed girl intermittently spouting forty-foot high fountains of dark energy without realizing it. Never seen anything like it.
I next felt the presence of the fireball a year ago, when she was about to burn this dimension to a cinder. Proserpexa, whose knowledge Willow was seeking to start the barbeque, was supposedly quite taken with the now black-haired harbinger of the apocalypse. She seriously thought about helping with the incineration, until she realized she had a pile of Earth investments about to go up in smoke. To this day, Xander Harris has no idea how he got to that field so fast. That Proserpexa, always looking out for number one. Not like there wasn't already a huge line that day, but the Queen of Blades sure can be effective when she puts her mind to it.
Of course, even the start of Willow's spell managed to make a mess of the barriers between the dimensions. They required a major amount of resources to repair. Resources that could have been better spent upgrading my wing of the palace. That's why I'm here, to figure out what the hell is going on with this girl, and what do about her. I've figured out enough to make her die tomorrow. May is turning into a crap-ass month.
The plan is simple. Temporarily stabilize the witch, stop the acute power bleeding, stop the destructive urges, then kill her as soon as it's safe - where "safe" is defined by what could happen both in Willow's current life and in her next. The nice thing about having her die on a hellmouth is that her soul will be captured and reincarnated in a local dimension, probably the Morcalthian Mines. The mines are a downright nasty place, but she shouldn't have a problem handling it in the short term.
We'll find her and rescue her. Then we'll upgrade her body, putting all that power in something that might actually contain it. It should be a piece of cake. She's already got a complete set of the Books of Ascension in her head, courtesy of her vengeance binge last May.
Then we'll figure out what's what. We'll figure out where she got all that earth-shaking power from, because right now we sure as hell don't have a clue. Someday, she'll even thank us.
To date, everything's gone okay. Stabilizing's gone fine. She's no longer spending every waking minute fighting urges to give into the grief, guilt and rage. She even has some happy moments, here with me and the others. Too bad that can't last.
So, now just the killing remains. Did I say I hate to do this? But I have to. Besides, that's what I need to do to go home.
Home, with tall mountains and vast plains and beautiful white skies. Home, with my half a palace, all of a realm, and a phalanx of servants (I've even had to do my own laundry here - WTF is that?) Home, where I can stop pretending to be a human and be myself.
Home, where I can fly. Home, where I can burn.
I'm shaken out my reverie by soft hands and worried green eyes.
"Kennedy? Are you okay? You really spaced on me, there."
I look at her and smile. "I'm fine. I was just thinking about what a hot babe you are."
Willow blushes and smiles. Did I mention that I'm damn good?
A Post-BTVS Fanfiction By Doc Stewart
Description: The "unique" Willow-centric spin-off comes to Fanfiction.net in series form. As promised, it's an old-fashioned "girl goes to hell dimension, girl conquers hell dimension, girl says 'what now?'" story. W/T (eventually).
Copyright: All characters copyright of Mutant Enemy; I'm just borrowing them under the good graces of ME and Fox. Original story copyright 2003.
Distribution: Please ask first (dr_stewart@hotmail.com), but I will generally grant permission to redistribute this story, with proper credits.
Rating: PG-13
Spoilers: Through the end of S7
Author's Note: Several months ago I released a "teaser roll" (Fanfiction.net story ID 1315750) for a... ahem... highly original, Willow- centric spin-off of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I'm pleased to announce that the "spin-off" has been "greenlighted" (at least on Fanfiction.net, anyway), given (1) the positive interest in the teaser roll (I had asked for sacks of cash as encouragement, but I'll take some good reviews instead), and (2) the fact that I think the concept just might be worth pursuing. If nothing else, I certainly haven't seen any concepts for spin- offs quite like this - or anywhere near it, actually. New chapters will appear roughly once a week.
The invitation to provide support for this series by sending me large amounts of money still applies. To find how you can help me live a lifestyle to which I'd like to become accustomed, e-mail dr_stewart@hotmail.com.
Chapter 1: "I've Made All Your Travel Arrangements"
Kennedy:
9 a.m. Time for somebody special to head off to her final college exams. I follow her across our room, kissing her briefly, but long enough for me to use my pierced tongue for an instant. She giggles and blushes slightly.
"Be good, Willow," I say. "Don't embarrass us by getting under a 99 percent, or anything."
Willow laughs. "No problem. See you later, sweetie." Her green eyes look at me, filled with growing affection that could soon be love.
Could is the operative word, of course. I see the slight glazing around her irises that tells the truth. She's being controlled, being forced to fall for me.
Her Scooby colleagues are also being controlled, but not as much. They're just forced to accept me as a slayerette at face value, who just happens to know so much more than any other SIT and who is suddenly Willow's new girlfriend, despite everything that happened last May. They all have the same slight glazing, too, but so far I'm the only one who's noticed.
Not that the mind control spells being used are easy to detect, by any means. I should know. I've spent months putting them in place, slowly upping the strength. Have to be careful with love and other mind control spells, especially with competent people like this crew. Jack up the power too fast, make someone swoon too quickly, and people will notice.
But I'm good, so they don't.
I've grown quite fond of Willow Rosenberg. She's a sweet, caring girl, beautiful and smart as hell (although with terrible self-esteem problems and lacking in wisdom - but hey, she's been through a lot and she's only 22) and as for the sex - well, that's been far from the worst part of this expedition. In more time she could really be something special. We could be something special - I've yet to find the right consort. But that's decades in the future.
What's more important is right now, defined as the next 24 hours. I'm on a tight schedule here.
This morning, Willow will take her final exams. She will get A's on all of her tests, ruining several curves. That's the most certain part.
This afternoon, Willow and the others will learn that the First has raised another army of uebervamps, and is preparing to smash its way through the hellmouth in Cleveland. Tonight, they'll catch a rush flight to the city. That's almost as certain.
Early tomorrow morning, Willow and the others will begin to battle the army of uebervamps in the Cleveland hellmouth. The trick that worked the last time - the Amulet of Miraculous Ass-Saving (actually it's the Amulet of I Slipped It to Wolfram and Hart) - won't be available, since it's currently buried under millions of tons of rock. This is good, since it meant that I didn't have to break the thing surreptitiously. They will quickly realize that without the amulet, twenty half-trained slayers are of almost no value against twenty thousand uebervamps.
Now, of course, there are thousands of slayers out there now, but as they're all hundreds to thousands of miles away, and have no idea what's going on, most of them will be occupied kneecapping their fellow peers for their lunch money. What an 'effing mess that's going to be - I just hope that we can to fix the situation quickly enough it doesn't become a Truly Major Problem. And, what a crying shame about Spike.
But, I digress. Anyway, once the realization that they're ueber-chow sinks into them, Willow will have a sudden epiphany. She will realize that she can cast an equally good spell to burn all the uebervamps to ash and crush the cavern. The spell will work just like the last time with the amulet, since it will be applied to another hellmouth cavern filled by the cerebrally challenged First with another horde of uebervamps. Cause, hey, it worked so well the last time. That's also pretty certain.
Too bad there's a cost. The equally good spell will involve Willow letting herself be incinerated and crushed to death by the falling cavern (just like Spike - sigh). This means she will have to choose to sacrifice herself. This is the less certain part.
Of course, I'll try to make it as certain as possible. Willow will have had this epiphany since I will beam it into her head, carefully modifying it to disguise the fact that the burning and crushing part is totally unnecessary. I'll also hit her with a sudden urge to redeem herself by sacrificing her life for the planet, and a surge of unbearable grief over her deceased lover, Tara Maclay. If all goes well, there were be pleas, and hugs, and tears, and a great and noble sacrifice to Save the World.
So, tomorrow morning, Willow Rosenberg will die. And I will have killed her.
Hey, it's not like I have much of a choice. It's why I'm in this forsaken dimension anyway. I'm not here to be cannon fodder to Bat Boy, or even fight Its Wussiness. The Scoobies can do that mostly on their own. (You'd think that an ancient entity woven into the fabric of space and time wouldn't be such a wuss, but you'd think wrong.)
I'm here to deal with the real apocalyptic threat - Willow. Should the redhead really catch fire, the Scoobies will not be spending months bickering with her; they'll be dead in minutes. Plus the whole planet being dead, and that's just for starters. And, the risk is far too great to ignore - her power's just too strong for her body. Hell, her power would be a stretch for my body. Every time I look at her, I'm amazed that she hasn't gone boom already.
I first saw Willow two years ago this May, when I was sucked into this world as a side effect of Glorificus's dumb-ass attempt to use the Key to get back to her own dimension. Circling overhead, wings fixed in attack position, I was about to launch a wicked aether blast at Glorificus, when I realized that the people fighting her on the ground seemed to have the situation more or less under control. And then I saw that there were three god-like entities on the ground - Glorificus, the Key, and a red-headed girl intermittently spouting forty-foot high fountains of dark energy without realizing it. Never seen anything like it.
I next felt the presence of the fireball a year ago, when she was about to burn this dimension to a cinder. Proserpexa, whose knowledge Willow was seeking to start the barbeque, was supposedly quite taken with the now black-haired harbinger of the apocalypse. She seriously thought about helping with the incineration, until she realized she had a pile of Earth investments about to go up in smoke. To this day, Xander Harris has no idea how he got to that field so fast. That Proserpexa, always looking out for number one. Not like there wasn't already a huge line that day, but the Queen of Blades sure can be effective when she puts her mind to it.
Of course, even the start of Willow's spell managed to make a mess of the barriers between the dimensions. They required a major amount of resources to repair. Resources that could have been better spent upgrading my wing of the palace. That's why I'm here, to figure out what the hell is going on with this girl, and what do about her. I've figured out enough to make her die tomorrow. May is turning into a crap-ass month.
The plan is simple. Temporarily stabilize the witch, stop the acute power bleeding, stop the destructive urges, then kill her as soon as it's safe - where "safe" is defined by what could happen both in Willow's current life and in her next. The nice thing about having her die on a hellmouth is that her soul will be captured and reincarnated in a local dimension, probably the Morcalthian Mines. The mines are a downright nasty place, but she shouldn't have a problem handling it in the short term.
We'll find her and rescue her. Then we'll upgrade her body, putting all that power in something that might actually contain it. It should be a piece of cake. She's already got a complete set of the Books of Ascension in her head, courtesy of her vengeance binge last May.
Then we'll figure out what's what. We'll figure out where she got all that earth-shaking power from, because right now we sure as hell don't have a clue. Someday, she'll even thank us.
To date, everything's gone okay. Stabilizing's gone fine. She's no longer spending every waking minute fighting urges to give into the grief, guilt and rage. She even has some happy moments, here with me and the others. Too bad that can't last.
So, now just the killing remains. Did I say I hate to do this? But I have to. Besides, that's what I need to do to go home.
Home, with tall mountains and vast plains and beautiful white skies. Home, with my half a palace, all of a realm, and a phalanx of servants (I've even had to do my own laundry here - WTF is that?) Home, where I can stop pretending to be a human and be myself.
Home, where I can fly. Home, where I can burn.
I'm shaken out my reverie by soft hands and worried green eyes.
"Kennedy? Are you okay? You really spaced on me, there."
I look at her and smile. "I'm fine. I was just thinking about what a hot babe you are."
Willow blushes and smiles. Did I mention that I'm damn good?
