Chapter One
Disclaimer: I refuse to accept responsibility for making up these characters. I give Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, etc, the legal right and claim to them since they made them up.
Willow sighed, looking at the young blond girl in front of her. The four year old had gotten bored with just sitting there and was beginning to run around the house, looking for a towel or a blanket or something to tie around her neck so she could be "Super Buffy". She smiled widely, her arms sticking out like she was an airplane, making little airplane noises as she ran around the room.
Tara frowned, glancing over at Buffy. She sighed, turning to Willow slowly, a helpless expression plastered on her youthful face. "How are we supposed to get out of this?" she asked, her voice hinting that she was worried something bad might happen to Buffy because of it.
Willow gave Tara a shrug in response, not knowing what else she could do. Nothing like this had ever happened before. "I'll call Giles, but She sighed, walking into the kitchen, carefully as she tried to avoid accidentally bumping into the hyperactive Slayer running around the house. Considering that Buffy still was the Slayer, that is.
She frowned again, wanting to keep the information about vampires and demons away from Buffy for as long as she could, if such a thing was possible. It would be too much for a four- year- old girl to handle. Sometimes she still wondered if she was even ready to handle it. Sure, she had been growing up with it for years, but still. It was weird and no matter how much experience she gets with it, she will never fully be used to it.
The redhead sighed, reaching for the white cordless phone on the kitchen counter, pausing for a brief moment as she recalled Giles's number. As her fingers lightly touched the number buttons, she felt someone tugging on the end of her shirt. Looking down, she groaned quietly to herself as to not upset the girl. "What is it, Buffy?" she asked, her tone of voice semi-impatient.
A huge smile overcame Buffy's face as she looked up to the witch with wide eyes, doing her best impersonation of puppy dog eyes, but failing horribly. "I want ice cream," she demanded clearly, pointing at the humming freezer on the other side of the seemingly large room.
Willow sighed deeply, growing very annoyed with the young Slayer. Giving a mental sigh of relief as she heard Giles's English accent greet her, all of Willow's attention was focused on the conversation. Well, she tried to keep it that way, but obviously it wouldn't work. She sighed once more, placing the phone so that it was balanced between her head and shoulder while she tried her best to calm Buffy down. "Giles, we kinda have ourselves a problem," she told the Watcher, though she was almost certain that Giles would have figured that out since she had woken him up at one in the morning.
Giles gasped, various thoughts of vampire attacks and demons that might be at Buffy's house racing to his mind. "What is it?" he asked while trying to keep his tone of voice calm.
Willow exhaled slowly, mentally picturing Dawn's room in case a Dr. Suess book would be in there so that Tara could read it to Buffy, in effort to calm her down. She knew that Dawn had outgrown those, but they might still be around. And if they weren't, Tara and herself were looking at about thirty minutes of sleep that night, if that.
"Willow?" Giles's voice asked through the phone, causing the witch to jump up, startled.
"Oh, sorry," she apologized lamely, her focus going back on the conversation. "Giles, Buffy's kinda four years old now," she began to explain, her gaze drifting into the other room as Tara was trying to calm Buffy down by playing various hand- clapping games quietly with her, as to not wake up Dawn.
"Oh dear Lord!" Giles exclaimed loudly, nearly dropping the phone in shock. He clutched it tightly in his left hand as to make sure that he wouldn't do it again. He sighed, drawing in a deep breath. "Are you sure?
Willow nodded, peering into the other room cautiously as to make sure that Buffy did not see her. She sighed, turning her attention back to Giles. "I'm positive, Giles," she assured him. She sighed again, remembering what had happened before. "We were just trying to figure out what might have knocked her out. We walk over to look at her and she was just four. Like magic.
She sighed again, looking over at Buffy once more. "And she thinks that she has been four forever. Willow frowned, thinking that her statement made absolutely no sense whatsoever. "I mean, not forever, but she's acting like a regular four- year- old," she stated before she was distracted by someone tugging at the bottom of her shirt once again. She sighed, sounding a little annoyed, which she thought was understandable. "Yes Buffy?" she asked, looking down at the little girl.
Buffy smiled up at Willow, her young face filled with anticipation and excitement. "Are you on the phone with Uncle John? 'Cause I want Celia to come over an' play with me. She began jumping up and down excitedly, looking around the room happily.
A long groan escaped from Willow's mouth as the witch felt herself sinking to the floor, her bottom resting along the ground, her back still up against the wall. She stretched her legs out slowly, wondering how much energy a four- year- old has. It was unfair, seeing someone this hyper at this hour of the night. Or, technically morning, but still. Whatever it was, it was late and Willow was growing very tired, her eyes just wanting to give in and remain shut.
Buffy was bouncing with excitement as she looked down at Willow, her eyes filled with eagerness and anticipation. "Well, can Celia come over?" she begged as she grabbed hold of Willow's left hand, attempting to pull the witch up to the ground. She groaned, looking down at the witch, finding she couldn't move her more than a few inches off of the ground. "You're cheating!" she yelled at Willow as she dropped the witch's hand. She stuck her tongue out at Willow before turning around and running joyfully into the living room to be with Tara.
Willow sighed again, turning her attention back to Giles. "So...yea," she began tiredly, a yawn escaping from her mouth. She frowned, knowing that there was nothing on the earth that could keep her awake for much longer. She would fall asleep if Giles had anything important to say, which definitely would not be good seeing as the man was much smarter than she was and could get them lots of information.
"Giles," she began again, resisting the urge to let another yawn out since doing so would definitely cause her to fall asleep. "If you can't tell, I'm really tired so could we just talk about this in the morning?" she asked, her tone of voice practically begging the Watcher to do such, her eyes already closing.
Giles sighed. "Oh, yes, of course," he told Willow honestly, trying not to let a yawn out himself. With that being said, the English man hung up his phone and tried to fall back asleep. Finding that he could not do something like that with the information he now knew, the Watcher decided to go over to his large bookshelf, in search of any demon group or vampire that might want Buffy to be four years old once more.
"Can Celia come over an' play?" Buffy asked once more as she ran back into the kitchen, over to the freezer. Clearly she was not going to rest until she knew that her cousin would be over there in the very near future. She giggled as she pulled the freezer door open, scanning its contents in search of chocolate ice cream.
Though she knew it would be wrong, the only solution to the problem that sprang to Willow's mind would be for her to somehow magickally make the ice cream invisible, there was even any in the freezer. Hating herself for sinking that low, Willow quickly blurted out the Latin word under her breath, hoping that Buffy hadn't spotted the ice cream before that and that she didn't hear her.
"Where's my ice cream?" Buffy demanded at the top of her lungs, angrily turning around to face Willow, her thin arms crossing her chest as she stamped her foot against the linoleum of the kitchen floor. Her hazel eyes narrowed in anger, focusing on the witch. "Want ice cream!" she stated between clenched teeth. "Want it now!" she yelled as Willow ran over to her, covering the girl's mouth with her right hand as her left hand went to the girl's shoulder. She knelt down so the two of them could look at eye level and faced the younger version of her best friend.
"Why can't I have ice cream?" Buffy whimpered, her bottom lip trembling a little as large tears filled her eyes. She turned her head away from Willow, not wanting anything to do with the witch anymore. She broke free from Willow's comforting hug, running into the living room, into Tara's open arms, short but loud cries escaping her mouth as she cried into Tara's shoulder.
Tara patted Buffy on the back gently, her hand moving in slow, circular motions on Buffy's upper back. She sighed deeply, looking over at the doorway and, more importantly, at Willow. She didn't know what the two of them were supposed to do, but she knew that she couldn't stay awake much longer and something had to be done about Buffy. They could not just leave her there in her sobbing misery. Plus, she was four, so she would most definitely cause trouble if left unattended for even one minute.
But, lucky for the witches, Buffy's eyes were growing heavier. A few seconds later, Tara looked down at the Slayer, picking her head up gently while checking if she was really asleep. The girl's eyes were closed, and small snoring sounds could be heard coming from her mouth.
A sigh of relief shot out from both of the witches' mouths at the same time. Not wanting to risk any chance, however small it may be, that the Slayer might wake up, Tara just covered Buffy with the large blanket from earlier. Once that was done, she and Willow tiptoed upstairs, collapsing down on Joyce's suddenly very soft and inviting bed. Within instants after that, they were out, peacefully sleeping the way they would have normally been hours ago.
"You're late," Anya informed Giles as the sound of the bell on the Magic Box rang, announcing the Watcher's presence. Her voice was harsh as she glared at her boss, arms folding over her chest in anger. Giles hadn't exactly said it earlier, but he had hinted before that he didn't quite think she could handle the Magic Box alone. A smile came over her angered face as she took Giles's tardiness as a sign of his trust in her. But, nonetheless, he should never have done it. "What took you so long?" she asked curiously as she sat down on the stool behind the cash register.
"I'm aware that I am late, Anya," the English man managed to say with a yawn. His outfit was the same suit he had been wearing the day earlier, only with more wrinkles on the stripped shirt. Large, dirty volumes of demon texts were positioned underneath his arm as he tried to support them up while walking down to the table, slamming the two books down with a large banging sound.
Xander jumped up in shock, small crumbs of jelly donut flying out of his mouth. "G-man, you can't do that," he blurted out in his shock as he could sense that the man was glaring at him.
Sitting down across from Xander, Giles groaned. "How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that?" he asked, his tone of voice matching Anya's from earlier. "And the answer to your question," he continued, turning his head in the general direction of the cash register, "is about to walk through that door.
Before Anya could even question the Watcher on his words, the door opened slowly, ringing the little bell as three people walked inside. The first thing Anya noticed was Willow's hair. Sure, it was still red the way it had been the day before, but that was the only familiar part of it. The hair itself was going in fifty thousand different directions at once, held up by a little child's hair clips. Anya couldn't see them exactly, but they looked like little horses or possibly Care Bears.
Right beside Willow was Tara, though she was barely recognizable behind the enormous bags of stuff that came from Toys ÔR Us. The exact number of bags could not be determined, but there had to be at least three of them, possibly even four.
Finally, emerging out from behind the sleepy couple, was a young girl, barely over the age of four. Her blond hair, though it had been neatly combed in the morning, was now a chaotic disaster. Over half of it was pulled out of the two hair bands that had once been holding it into pigtails. The girl looked around the store nervously at first, stuffing her hands into the pockets of her jeans that Willow had miraculously dug out from Dawn's closet before Buffy had woken up. Unfortunately, the only shirt they could find was still three sizes too big for the girl.
Buffy looked cautiously around the room as she clung to Tara's right leg tightly with her left arm. A large teddy bear was stuffed under her right arm, and she pulled it up to shield herself so no one else would see her face. She gave a few quick tugs to Tara's shirt, getting the witch's attention.
"What is it Buffy?" Tara asked as she bent down onto one knee, with one hand going onto Buffy's shoulder comfortingly. With one look at the girl's frightened face, she knew what was going on. "Shh, Buffy," she began in a soft, comforting tone of voice. "It's ok. These people are friends o-of mine. They won't hurt you.
Buffy gave a quick nod in response before peering out into the store once more, gathering up the courage inside of her to go and walk in a little further without Willow and Tara standing right there next to her. She smiled, taking two steps forward, and then another one back.
"Wait a sec," Xander began, leaning over in his seat to take a closer look at the child. Her blond hair, hazel eyes. He knew those eyes. Whether they belonged to a four-year-old or a twenty-year-old, he could tell that they were Buffy's. "ButÉthat can't be," he continued in confusion.
"Oh, but it is," Willow announced exhaustedly, her tired legs moving over to the table, where she plopped down next to Xander happily with a huge sigh.
Anya frowned, looking over at the Slayer, who had wrapped her arms around Tara's left leg, clinging to the witch tightly in uncertainty of where she was. "What did you do?" the ex-demon bluntly accused, turning to Willow expectantly for an answer.
"I didn't do anything- I swear!" Willow blurted out as she glared at Anya. She frowned for a second as she turned to Xander, giving him the ÔWhat do you see in her' look before continuing to prove herself innocent. "I mean, you guys were the one who found her; maybe you did this! All Tara and I did was look after her, see if she would wake up while doing research to see what was wrong. We did our jobs and nothing more than that, so" Willow paused for a second, once hearing the various Scoobies, with the exception of Buffy, telling her to breathe.
"It's not your fault," Xander assured his best friend as he shot Anya one of his ÔNot now' looks. He loved Anya to death, maybe even more, but she still had a thing or two to learn about tact and what right thing to say is verses what the wrong thing to say is. He sighed, turning back to Buffy. "So, welcome!" he greeted the girl.
With a triumphant smile present on her face, Buffy stormed over to the counter, standing quietly as she admired the rack of pendants sitting there. Her attention was focused on the green one in the middle, her young face lighting up with joy similar to that of a child who comes bouncing down the stairs on Christmas morning to find that Santa had bought them what they asked for. "I want it!" she added a minute later, looking up at Anya with her eyes wide with hope.
Reaching into the pockets of a very old coat that had once belonged to Willow, Buffy dug around until she found something precious to her. She pulled her dirt-covered hands out and extended them to the ex-demon. "I'll trade you all of these rocks an' this penny for it," she began excitedly as she stood on tiptoe so she could see over the counter.
Not knowing what to do, Anya looked nervously up at Giles, who was shaking his head Ôno' at her. She sighed, getting off of the stool and turning back down to Buffy, a sorrowful expression on her face. "I'm sorry honey, but these cost more money than you have there," she began honestly.
"But I want it!" Buffy screeched as she ran back behind the counter, glaring daggers at Anya. "Want it," she repeated, her fist pointed at the pendants.
Anya shrugged honestly as she backed away a little frightened. "I'm sorry," she began as she looked over once again at Giles, hoping that her boss would do something about the situation. When that attempt was failing, she turned her hopes to Xander and Willow, both of whom were lost in their own discussion about something or the other.
"Want it!" Buffy yelled again, louder this time, as she kicked Anya's lower left leg as hard as she possibly could, causing the ex-demon to fall backwards against the shelf. Luckily, nothing fragile was on it, but her short shriek of pain drew the attention of everyone in the room, Xander rushing over to his girlfriend as Willow followed, pulling Buffy back into the main part of the store.
With a disappointed look, Willow turned to the young Slayer, shaking her head as though she was trying to calm herself down a little. Also, she hoped that Giles would catch on and do something about the situation, since clearly she had no idea of what to do. Sure, Giles had never had any children on his own to Willow's knowledge, but still. He had been their school librarian, and also Buffy's Watcher, ergo scolding methods that might work on a four-year-old.
She glanced up at Giles once more, frowning when she saw that he was still lost in research or something like that. Which must have meant that nothing could distract him. If he were an animal, Willow would guess that he would be a watchdog or something similar to that. If Buffy's insistent "Want it"s as well as a few pained expressions coming from Anya as Xander helped her move over to the table could not distract him, Willow clearly could not decide what could.
"Buffy, why did you do that?" she asked tiredly. It was way too early in the morning to be dealing with the annoyance of having to discipline a child, especially since she and Tara have been watching the girl all night. She knew that Giles should be doing something about that, but he wasn't. He was too busy doing research, muttering "Oh dear Lord", and being Giles to even notice.
Buffy giggled as she ran over to the main entrance, picking up the largest of the three toy bags. She quickly began tossing its contents out onto the Magic Box floor. A wide smile appeared on her face once she had found the item she had been looking for. Happier than ever before, she ran over to Willow and Tara, shaking the Barbie doll while begging the two witches to open it.
"Open now Willow!" she commanded harshly, shoving the doll into Willow's open arms. Her hazel eyes narrowed as she glared at the redhead expectantly, waiting for her toy to be opened. When she found that the only response she was getting from the witch was a blank stare, she stuck out her tongue at her and yanked the doll from Willow, dragging it over and shoving it into Tara's arms. "Open!" she commanded sternly.
Tara sighed, picking up the small blond doll in her hands, wondering why something like that attracts so many little girls. If this is what they grew up thinking a woman had to look like, then things just wouldn't be right. She had her own opinions about a woman's body. Most of the time, she just kept them to herself, though if any one were to question her on them
Another sigh escaped the blond witch's mouth as she began opening the Mattel product. Such a pain it was. All this work just to make sure no one could possibly steal a small Barbie. Tara groaned in frustration as she struggled to open the doll. It was hard, and she had no idea what she was even doing. The bribe to use magick temped her, but she fought back, for both her sake and Willow's. Her doing spells for mundane things had gone wrong before; she wasn't about to let it happen again.
"Tara," the young blond girl began impatiently, "when am I going to have my Barbie? I wanna play with it. ÔCause I'm Super Buffy an' she's my Super Hero sidekick!" she exclaimed excitedly. She smiled, looking Tara in the eye in a serious manner. "Every super hero needs a side kick. I know 'cause I'm a superhero!"
Tara nodded sweetly at the young girl. "I'm sure you are," she responded in a caring tone of voice as she tried to wrestle the doll's feet free. She smiled proudly, handing the doll to Buffy after a moment. "Here you go."
"Thank you, Tara," Buffy thanked immediately, thought Tara had the feeling she was only speaking those words to avoid getting in trouble for forgetting her manners. But the young witch sighed it off. There were clearly other issues, more important issues, than Buffy's manners.
"THIS IS MY SIDEKICK NAMED POWER BARBIE!" Buffy screeched as she ran around the Magic Box, finally snapping Giles's attention.
"If only she had that much energy when she trained," Giles mused quietly before walking over to the table, pulling a seat up next to Willow.
"Any idea what's causing this?" Anya asked as she looked over at the former Watcher. "More importantly, any idea how we can fix this so I can run this store as a business, which would bring in more money?"
Xander smiled down at his girlfriend. "That's my girl," he whispered fondly.
"When Dawn comes home, the two of us c-could take Buffy to the park or something," Tara suggested.
"That's not for hours," Anya pouted. "Hours which could be money-making hours. Take her now."
"Anya," Xander began rather impatiently. "We talked about this. There are more important things than money."
Anya nodded enthusiastically. "There's also sex," she said. "Even better, sex with you," she said, tilting her head back to look up at Xander.
"Besides that, as well," Xander told her with a sigh. "But, back to the point, any idea what's causing it?" he asked, his face filling with concern as he turned back to Giles.
"So far, there is nothing I can think of," Giles began. "But there must be some logical explanation for all of this."
"BAD POWER BARBIE!" Buffy yelled from near the entrance as bumped into one of the displays, various scented candles spilling onto the floor and rolling off in all different directions. She looked up over at Willow. "She didn't mean to do it," Buffy began for her doll. "She just wanted to flyÉI tried to explain to her that only superheroes can fly, but she wouldn't listen!"
"Alright, what are we going to do with Buffy?" Xander asked as Tara walked over and began cleaning up the candle mess.
Giles frowned, his forehead wrinkling as he bit his lower lip trying to thin of a logical way to deal with Buffy while at the same time advancing the research. "Alright," he said moments later. "Xander, why don't you take her somewhere- I don't care where- for a little bit, hopefully let her burn some energy off. Anya, you stay here and manage the customers. Willow and Tara, you two help me with the research."
"Fair enough," Xander agreed as he stood up, kissing Anya's forehead before walking over to Buffy. "Hey there, you want to go to a park or something?"
"What park?" the young girl asked.
"A big park," Xander began. "One of the best parks you will go to in your life," he added, trying to jazz things up a bit. He knew the Sunnydale Park was not that great, but he had to work on something. Besides, to a four-year-old from Los Angeles, she might think Sunnydale Park was the best she had ever been to.
Buffy stopped, considering the notion for a minute. "Can Power Barbie come too?" she asked. I promise she won't try to fly as much."
Xander smiled at her. "Then Power Barbie can come," he said as he opened the door. "We'll be back," he called as he left, Buffy right behind him.
"And we'll be here," Willow called after him as she grabbed one of the books from the center of the table, Tara doing the same.
Hours had past before Xander came back with the sleeping Buffy held up in his arms. "We're back," he called as he entered the Magic Box. "Find anything?"
Willow groaned as she closed another book, tossing it aside with the dozens that had already been looked through. "Nothing," she said with a frown. "We've looked for everything, but there is nothing about changing the age of a Slayer."
"And no real reason on why," Tara added. "Because, as we've all seen, Buffy still has her super strength and she has more energy than ever before. She still is the Slayer."
"Maybe someone wants the Slayer dead?" Dawn suggested. She had immediately come to the Magic Box after school and was now up to date on the whole Buffy thing.
"Yes, but Buffy's not the only Slayer," Willow pointed out. "Faith is also" She stopped, cutting herself as she thought that over for a second. "Faith!" she yelled, rushing over to the phone, dialing the number for Angel's hotel.
Miles away from Sunnydale in Los Angeles, the jail guard on duty began searching through each of the cells, making sure no one had tried to escape. "Good, good," he muttered bitterly to himself as everyone was where they were supposed to be. "Hey, wait a minute," he said, going back to the last cell. He looked inside, finding a little girl, not possibly over the age of five. Her dark brown hair rolled down her slender body to a point between her shoulders and waist. The girl looked up at him with wide brown eyes, the look in them hinting at confusion. "Who are you?" the guard asked with a frown.