Chapter Two: West End Girls
Things were different then they had been just a few hours ago. It wasn't just the vampires sudden disappearance from the factory that had changed dramatically, but out here on the streets everything was different as well. People walked along the streets without a care for all the vampires that no longer roamed the streets in packs, some of which were large enough to be a minor threat to her if she wasn't careful.
Something she found nearly as troublesome as the lack of vampires on the street was how everyone was acting towards her. She felt as if she had stepped into a stranger the usual episode of the twilight zone. People were smiling at her, some even said hello, or other greetings, as if they knew her. A few of them even waved to her. All the time laughing and caring on like their lives couldn't be snuffed out in the blink of a hungry vampires eye.
Buffy didn't have the vaguest idea who any of them were. She was the slayer and slayers didn't go around making friends out of people they might have to kill one day. Especially if they were dumb enough to go walking around vamp central at night.
She had lost the redheaded vampire that had manage to escape from the factory awhile ago. It was okay though because she knew where the bloodsucker was likely to head back to. The same place all of them had to have gone to. How they had managed to get out of the factory was still troubling her. The only one she had seen leave was the leather clad redhead.
It had been strange one moment she was fighting with the master of this area, then there had been a slight moment of disorientation, and only her and the one vampire had been in the factory. If they had some kind of magic that was capable of leaving her dazed while they escaped then they should have been able to kill her just as easily. Only they hadn't. Just one more thing that was bothering her since coming to Sunnydale. First there had been the vampire.
He had called himself Angel, claimed that she was suppose to have come here three years ago. Three years ago her parents had tried to have her committed because she told them about vampires and slayers. That she was the slayer for this generation. Only god knows what might have happened if Merrick hadn't been there to help her escape. She probably would have spent the rest of her life so pumped full of drugs she wouldn't have been able to think clearly never mind function as a slayer.
Her slayer senses kicked in as she came within range of a pair of vampires. It was at least a pair with how strongly she could feel them, either that or just one really strong vampire. Leaping upwards she lands on top of a fifteen foot high brick wall that ran the length of the road. Her eyes immediately locked in the scuffle taking place at the far end of the alley that ran parallel to the brick wall. Why anyone would build a brick wall just to hem in an alley baffled the young slayer, but she ignore the senselessness of the architectural blunder as she ran down the top of the wall to aid the red hair girl that was wearing the pink fuzzy sweater and fending off two vamps with a small cross. She wasn't really sure if someone with that bad fashion sense really deserved to be saved but it wasn't her destiny to chose who to save it was hers to save them.
Dropping down from above she crashes on top of the two vampires bringing all three of them to the ground. Rolling over the back of one vampire she stakes him through the back not wasting a single opportunity to get rid of an undead monster. Playing with a vampire was a good way of getting yourself hurt, better to put them away quick before they were ready for you. That was what Merrick had taught her and that was how she fought.
The second vampire was on his feet as she came up to hers. He moved in with a hard right that she simply ducked underneath driving her stake through his heart. He turned to dust with that dumbfounded expression plastered across his face that so many of his kind have when the end finally comes to them.
"Thank god you showed up when you did Buffy," Willow gasps more then just a little grateful at her friends timely arrival. Buffy turns around face to face with the vampire she had been hunting. Without thinking she punches her square in the face sending her crashing to the ground some five feet away. "OOWWW!" Willow cries out as her hands fly to her nose that's now pouring blood. "What was that for?"
Buffy narrows her eyes trying to sense the vampire that was before her, only there was nothing. "You're human," she says coming closer to Willow still fully on guard just in case the vampire had figured out a way to mask herself from a her slayer senses. It still didn't explain the amount of blood flowing from her nose though. Vampires never bled like that.
"Nice of you to notice," comes Willow's nasally retort as she rises back to her feet. "You couldn't have done that before you broke my nose?" She sarcastically questions her friend, or the person who looked like her friend but didn't dress anything like her.
"You were just a vampire," Buffy points out coming closer to the redhead. Once she got within a few feet she knew the girl in front of her was human, but she had just seen her as a vampire less then half an hour ago.
"Are you okay Buffy?" Willow questions confused by Buffy's behavior. It was scary enough having Faith go kind of psychotic a few weeks back but seeing Buffy right now she'd rather have psycho Faith standing in front of her.
Buffy brushes Willow's hands out of the way, "let me," she says grabbing hold of Willow's nose. The girl seemed to know her. Treated her like a friend, something she hadn't had in quite a long time. Three years worth of time. "This might hurt so I'm gonna countdown from three," she explains to a wide eyed Willow. "Ready?"
Willow tries to nod her head but with Buffy holding on it doesn't budge so instead she gives a muffled, "yes."
"Okay, deep breath now," Willow breathes in. "Three," Buffy says and quickly sets the broken nose with a sharp twist.
"OW!" Willow cries again.
"There you go," Buffy says to her. "You should probably get inside. That bloods really gonna attract the vamps," she explains turning away.
Willow quickly grabs hold of Buffy's shoulder, "where do you think you going?"
"There's an evil you out there I have to kill," the slayer answers not sure why she was bothering to tell this girl anything.
"Do you even know who I am?" Willow questions as scenes from the vision she had during Anya's spell flicker through her mind.
Buffy looks at her blankly, "somebody I just saved."
"We're going to see Giles," Willow announces firmly pulling Buffy along by her arm.
Buffy could have broke the girls grip anytime she wanted to but she didn't finding it strange that someone was actually concerned for her. "Why would you want to go see him?"
"Because something really strange is going on and when strange things happen we go see your watcher," Willow explains shortly.
Willow moves through the bronze feeling discontent. The building was far too calm for what she was use to. There were no humans hanging in cages waiting to be fed on. Nobody was tied to the back wall being tortured. There wasn't even a small orgy going on anywhere within the building.
People were actually hanging out. They were talking and drinking and playing pool, enjoying what was suppose to be her playground. As she stops by the pool table she takes in the situations she currently finds herself in. Everything she knew and loved had been obliterated in the blink of eye and had been replaced by this human world. It was like it had been before the Master had turned her.
As she begins to wind her way back into the crowd she notices she's attracted the eye of a human in a dark leather jacket. Willow walks around him appraisingly with an open leer before moving on. She didn't like how things are now, she wants them back to how they had been.
Suddenly someone bumps into her, "hey!" Percy grunts at the jarring contact. "Rosenberg?" He mumbles his expression going quickly from startled to amuse. "What are you doing, trick-or-treating?" He points at her derisively, "You're supposed to be at home doing my history report. I flunk that class, you're in big trouble with Snyder. Till we graduate, I own your ass," he finishes smugly.
Willow quirks her eyebrows at him with disdain, she was only slightly amused with the human in front of her. "Bored now," she says a beat before the flat of her hand smashes into his chest sending him flying onto the pool table. His back hits the table hard, but the force of the blow sends him rolling over backwards to land on the floor.
Willow smiles inwardly as the crowd watches her saunter towards Percy. With a pensive frown she comments, "I'm having a terrible night," before reaching down and grabbing hold of Percy by the throat. Digging her fingertips into his flesh she inquires expectantly, "Wanna make it better?"
Percy attempts to punch her in the face, but Willow blocks it with barely any concern weather the blow had hit her or not. She looks up into his eyes as he tries to pry her hand from his throat, her lips turning from a frown to an amused smile as he slowly realizes he can't budge her fingers. Deciding that if he can't pry her hand off he could choke the life out of her like she was doing to him.
"What's going on?" Xander questions as he pushes his way through the crowd. "Is there a funny thing?" He asks hopefully as some guy points to Percy and Willow both of whom now have two hands wrapped around each other's throats. He quickly rushes up pulling Percy off Willow, "back off!" He shouts at his fellow senior. "You stay the hell away from her!"
"Okay! Sure!" He shouts in a panicked voice as he scrambles to his feet backing away the entire time.
Xander turns back around concerned for Willow, but is stunned at how she's dressed. Willow brightens seeing the lover she thought lost to her, "Xander!" She shouts joyously.
"Will, changing the look not an idle threat with you," he remarks trying to get over his shock.
Smiling brightly she shouts, "You're alive!" As she wraps herself around him.
"Uh... Will, this is verging on naughty touching here," Xander says as her hands run sensuously over his neck and back. As her hands slide further down his back he continues, "Don't wanna fall back on bad habits." He jumps as she grabs hold of his butt, "Hands! Hands in new places!"
Willow pulls back as she realizes that he is alive. A look of distraught horror crosses her face as she says, "You're alive."
He eyes her cautiously as he replies, "you mentioned that before." Concerned for her he asks, "Will, are you okay?"
"No! Everything's different," she says in despair still hoping Xander can make it better.
"Oh. There you are," Buffy remarks stepping up to Xander.
Without taking his eyes off Willow Xander replies with a casual, "Hey, Buff."
"Aren't you gonna introduce me to your..." She stops as recognition lights her face, "Holy God, you're Willow."
"You," Willow spits out venomously as she recognizes the slayer.
Buffy smiles at Willow as she says, "You know what? I, I like the look," trying to sound supportive of Willow's choice. "It's, um... it's, it's extreme, but it, it, it looks good, you know, it's a," she takes a deep breath, "leather thing, and, uh..." Looks to Xander, "I said extreme already, right?"
Willow takes a step forward coming close to Buffy, her eyes narrow with hatred, "I don't like you," she snarls at the slayer.
Buffy looks at Willow with a hurt expression in her eyes, "Will, I'm sorry about today. You know how my foot likes to live in my mouth. But you know... Y-you really didn't have to prove anything."
Willow glares at both of them with hatred before saying, "leaving now," a moment before she brushes past them.
"Will, gotta say, not lovin' the new you," Xander calls out as Willow steps by him.
Buffy quickly goes after her. If this was what Willow really wanted then it was her place to be supportive of her friend just as Willow had always supported her. "Will, wait..." She says grasping Willow by the arm and turning her around.
"Get off me!" She roars in full vamp face. Rocked to her core Buffy doesn't even try to hold onto Willow as the vampire shakes off her grip and makes a hasty exit out the door.
Buffy couldn't believe that she was still being dragged around by this slight redhead. She could have put a stop to it anytime she wanted to only each time she thought about it Willow would turn her head back to her, gazing at her with those large eyes as if she could tell exactly what she was thinking. The tiny slayer wasn't use to somebody having any kind of control over her. The last person had been Merrick, but he was gone now, died saving her life.
Kakistos hadn't out lived him by more then a couple of minutes. Seeing Merrick cut down had driven her into a beserker like state. A state in which she had wiped out Kakistos and his entire clan in a matter of minutes without remembering one single second of it.
Since then she hadn't allowed herself to get close to anyone, not that she had really gotten close to anyone before that time. Nobody except for Merrick. The Council had sent other watchers to replace Merrick, an entire litany of tweed clad Englishman. She had gone her own way as often as not for no other reason then they wanted her to do something else.
She thinks about coming to a stop again and just like all the other times Willow looks back at her, "we're almost there," she assures her.
Buffy looks around her but the only thing she can see is a large building looming before her. "Where going there?" She asks Willow a trace of shock in her voice. As far as she can tell the building standing before her was a high school.
"The library actually," Willow answers. "That's were Giles is. He should be able to figure what's going on."
"Jeeves," Buffy smirks, "last time I saw him he was going on about how this wasn't how the world was meant to be, something about a vengy demon. Having to destroy its power center."
Willow nods her head silently. It fit with what she had come with. If Anya was this vengy demon Buffy was talking about then the necklace she had been trying to retrieve was her power center. How did this Buffy figure into it had Willow stumped. She couldn't think of anything that could have brought this Buffy from that reality into this one.
The two girls remained silent the rest of the trip to the library. Willow trying to find a reasonable explanation that would account for this uber Buffy's presence here. Buffy still trying to figure out why she was going along with Willow when she didn't want to. There was still the vampire version of Willow out there causing who knows what kind of havoc.
"Giles!" Willow calls out loudly as she pushes open the double doors to the library as she drags a reluctant Buffy inside behind her.
Giles glances up from the text he's reading for a moment. Seeing Willow and Buffy striding in through the double doors Giles sighs slightly. He had been hoping for a semi quiet night to catch up on cataloguing his latest text. He frowns slightly as the two girls approach.
Willow had her serious problem look plastered all over her face. Of course for Willow a serious problem could be the fact she was tardy for one of her classes. While the sight of Buffy in militaristic style garb, openly wearing several weapons, her face free of any makeup, and a hard gleam in her eyes, was only slightly less worrisome. "What seems to be the problem tonight?" He asks the two of them hoping it was nothing more serious then Willow, having lost one of her text books and needed a replacement.
Buffy looks Giles over. This wasn't the same frantic man barely hanging on by the edge of his fingernails she had meant a few hours ago. This man was cool, reserved, in total control of his surroundings. Yet it was the same man. "What the hell's going on around here?" She demands a heartbeat before Willow asks Giles.
"Notice anything different about Buffy?"
Giles blinks slightly annoyed that they would show up here for something as ridiculous as this. "Yes, she's changed her clothes. Very nice, now if you'll excuse me I have work to get back to," he says turning away.
"Hold up Jeeves," Buffy growls not liking the way he was just dismissing her. She closes the distance between them with several quick strides. Grabbing him around his bicep she forces him to turn around none too gently, "you're the one that had me hump my way down here from Cleveland just so I could take care of your little nest of vamps. That's done, now something even freakier is going on around here."
Giles looks down at Buffy's almost painful grip then back at the girl herself, "such as?"
"You for one thing, her," she adds pointing at Willow. "She was a vampire when I first met her only now she's not. You actually look like you're a pretty together kind of guy even if you are an uptight British assho... Watcher. Now what the hell is going on?" She demands with a slight edge to her voice.
"I think I might have an idea as to what's going on," Willow says pulling everyone's eyes to her. "Earlier Anya asked me to help her retrieve her necklace with a spell that created a small temporal fold," Giles gives her an unreadable look as she continues with the story. "I didn't think too much about it, I mean today had just gone from bad to worst and I was all mopey and depressed because I was this old reliable, dog, geyser person and then Anya asked me to help her with a spell and I was like great somebody actually wants me to help them do something and I know it was kind of dumb of me to do it without looking into it better but I wasn't really thinking with my best head this afternoon. During the spell I kept getting these strange flashes of me and Buffy, Xander, Oz, Angel, you, Anya, everybody except they were all skewered. Buffy was like you see her now, Xander and me were vampires, the Master was still alive."
"And you believe that somehow this spell brought this here Buffy from her world to this one?" Giles asks picking up with were Willow was going.
Willow nods her head as she verbally confirms Giles question with a reflective, "yeah."
"Not just me," Buffy remarks. "Your double's here as well," She informs them hopping up onto the large table in the middle of the room.
The door swings open as Faith strides into the library. Buffy's back on her feet in an instant sensing something different from the dark hair girl that just walked into the room. Not a vampire but definitely something other then human. "Well look at you B, see you finally decide to quite playing Barbie." Faith begins as she checks out Buffy's new look with barely contained desire. "Gotta say I'm liking the new look."
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West End Girls - Pet Shop Boys
(....forever)
Sometimes you're better off dead
There's gun in your hand and it's pointing at your head
You think you're mad, too unstable
Kicking in chairs and knocking down tables
In a restaurant in a West End town
Call the police, there's a madman around
Running down underground to a dive bar
In a West End town
In a West End town, a dead end world
The East End boys and West End girls
In a West End town, a dead end world
The East End boys and West End girls
West End girls
Too many shadows, whispering voices
Faces on posters, too many choices
If, when, why, what?
How much have you got?
Have you got it, do you get it, if so, how often?
And which do you choose, a hard or soft option?
(How much do you need?)
In a West End town, a dead end world
The East End boys and West End girls
In a West End town, a dead end world
The East End boys and West End girls
West End girls
West End girls
(How much do you need?)
In a West End town, a dead end world
The East End boys and West End girls
Oooh West End town, a dead end world
East End boys, West End Girls
West End girls
You've got a heart of glass or a heart of stone
Just you wait 'till I get you home
We've got no future, we've got no past
Here today, built to last
In every city, in every nation
From Lake Geneva to the Finland station
(How far have you been?)
In a West End town, a dead end world
The East End boys and West End girls
A West End town, a dead end world
East End Boys, West End girls
West End girls
West End girls
West End girls
(How far have you been?)
Girls
East End boys
And West End girls
And West End girls
And West End girls
East End boys
The West End girls
The West End boys
And West End girls
The West End girls
The West End boys
The West End girls