A Charmed/Buffy Crossover
By JewWitch
Chapter 2
Author's note: Sorry for the long delay! My muse was on vacation…but she brought me back some lovely Jamaican rum, so I had to forgive her. Thanks to everyone who sent reviews! On with the show!
Tara was in the midst of trying to explain to Paige and Phoebe the basic essence of their problem with Glory. How she was a hell god who was kicked out of her own dimension by her fellow demon deities, and she was now after Buffy's little sister Dawn, who wasn't even really a little sister at all, but an ancient ball of energy called only "the key" which had been formless for millennia, and would allow Glory access to other dimensions, with the unfortunate side effect of crumbling all the dividing walls between realities and plunging the universe into chaos. Only recently, an order of monks sworn to fight Glory (or "the beast" as they called her) had made the key into a human girl named Dawn, and sent her to the slayer for protection.
"So basically," Phoebe piped up when Tara stopped to draw breath, "this Glory chick is seriously bad news and requires a magical smackdown."
"It's a good thing we're here then, cause we happen to have some expertise in the hell-goddess arena," Paige remarked flippantly, with a wink for Phoebe, who gave her an adoring smile. Tara looked away, blushing at even this chaste show of affection. She wished Willow were here. She wished they weren't fighting so she could take comfort in the redhead, the way Phoebe and Paige took comfort from each other. The training room door opened then, but it wasn't Willow who walked through. The entire tenor of the room changed in an instant, as all eyes turned to the blonde who strode forward in a powerful state of agitation. Neither Phoebe nor Paige needed to be told that this was Buffy; there was a chemical shift in the air as all the assembled Scooby gang recognized their alpha dog.
"What happened? Is everyone all right? Dawn said Glory attacked her."
"It's all five by five, B," Faith assured her. Paige noticed the subtle, but palpable shift fall over the dark slayer as her counterpart entered the room. In one smooth motion, an almost invisible shift to the set of her shoulders, she went from smooth-talking, easygoing player to no-nonsense slayer.
"Tara's witchy buds here showed up an' saved the day. Bought us some time to regroup, anyway." Buffy looked from Faith, to the new arrivals, who were giving each other the customary quizzical expression as they pondered the meaning of Faith's favorite expression.
"Um…" Paige raised her hand slightly, as if she were sitting in class. "Five what by five what?"
"That's just Faith's way of saying it's all good," Buffy explained succinctly, her attention now focused on the two dark-haired women before her. "So, which one of you saved my sister's ass?"
"Hi." Phoebe gave Buffy a small wave. "Phoebe here."
"Thank you, Phoebe." Buffy's hazel eyes were fixed on the small witch; Phoebe could see an ocean of warring emotions clashing in her gaze, but all were tightly contained. Phoebe thought she could see a little bit of Prue peeking out from the slayer's eyes; an older sister fighting a world of evil to keep her little sister safe.
"It's, um, five by five," Phoebe assured her, noticing Faith's smirk out of the corner of her eye. "I've got sisters, too." The still-smirking dark slayer gave another appreciative whistle.
"Single sisters?" Phoebe chose not to dignify that particular question with a response. Tara, however, gave her a rather withering glare.
"Can you keep it in your pants for five minutes, Faith? We need to figure out what we're gonna do before Glory comes back."
"Well," Paige ventured hesitantly, "I'm not exactly the captain of this ship, but it seems to me that if she's coming here, the best thing for us to do is be elsewhere."
"Us?" Tara raised an eyebrow at her ex-girlfriend.
"Well, Phoebe and I got those premonitions for a reason, Tar. We're supposed to help. Besides, this is what we do…right baby?" The last part was addressed to Phoebe. But Phoebe appeared distracted, gazing up at the ceiling with her head cocked as if listening to something only she could hear.
"Does she have, like, supersonic hearing or something?" Dawn asked, gazing at Phoebe wide-eyed.
"No, it's part of our power," Paige explained patiently. "It's how we get to you if you need us…you just call, and we can hear you, and orb wherever you are."
"Cool!" Dawn grinned, still gazing at Phoebe with a star-struck expression on her face.
"My sisters are calling," Phoebe finally said, shaking her head as if coming out of a trance.
"You go ahead, I'll take care of the Partridge family here," Paige gesticulated to the motley crew around her.
"'Kay," Phoebe smiled up at Paige and, wrapping her arms around her girlfriend's neck, kissed her for all she was worth.
"Be careful," Paige murmured.
"Always," Phoebe agreed, as she disappeared from Paige's arms in a haze of white lights. Dawn stared open-mouthed. She had never seen Willow and Tara kiss like that. She'd always just assumed that lesbians were shy as a general rule.
"Okay!" Paige clapped her hands together. "Let's get you all out of here, yeah?"
"Whoa, wait a minute." Buffy held out her hand. "We can't just let you put yourselves in danger like this. I'm the slayer; I'm supposed to be the one doing the protecting."
"They wanna help, B," Faith pointed out. "This slayer says, bring it on."
"And they already saved Dawnie and me," Tara added somewhat timidly.
"Exactly!" Buffy exclaimed. "More than enough danger for you for one day." She made shooing motions at Paige with her hands.
"Look, Phoebe and her sisters have been protecting innocents for years, they know what they're doing. We can really help you here, Buffy."
"We are not innocents!" Buffy exploded.
"Geez, B, unclench for a minute why dontcha? I'm with angel-girl on this one. As much as I hate to admit it, the traditional ass-kicking method hasn't worked with this one…maybe a magical approach is just what we need. I mean, between the Charmed Ones, angel-girl here, and red and blondie, we kinda got that corner solid…ya know?" There was a tense silence between the two slayers.
"Fine," Buffy conceded tersely. "Let's get out of here then."
"We n-need to get Willow first," Tara blushed at the stutter that crept into her voice. It hardly ever surfaced anymore, except when she was feeling nervous or out of sorts.
"Of course we're getting Will," Buffy nodded at the blonde witch. "And Xander and Anya, too." Looking to Paige, she asked, "Can you, um, stop to pick somebody up or whatever?"
"No problem, Cap'n." Paige gave Buffy a brisk salute, making Dawn giggle despite the severity of the situation. "Everyone ready? Grab somebody's hand."
"I knew this was gonna turn into some big love-fest sooner of later," Faith groused.
Two stops and many questions, complaints, and explanations later, the entire group had arrived safely at the manor.
"Wow," Dawn breathed in awe as she looked around the sunroom. "This is your house?"
"Not mine," Paige corrected the teen, "It belongs to Phoebe and her sisters. It's been in their family for three generations."
"Doesn't exactly look like a great place for demon battles," Buffy observed, immediately scoping out the layout for strengths and weaknesses.
"You'd be surprised," said Prue as she came into the room. "We've vanquished over a hundred demons here…and that's just on the first floor." The Scooby gang stood speechless, staring at the imposing brunette with the penetrating blue eyes.
"Vanquished," Dawn murmured under her breath. "Cool."
"So," Prue continued, turning her attention to Paige, "Phoebe tells us we've got a serious demon situation on our hands here."
"Got that right." Faith stepped to the front of the group. "We've thrown everything we've got at this bitch, an' she just keeps coming."
"I'm sorry," Prue said in a no-nonsense, I'm-in-command voice. "You are?"
"Oh," Paige shook her head, "where are my manners? Prue, this is Faith." She gestured at the dark-haired slayer. "And, this is Buffy…they're the Vampire Slayers."
"I thought there was only one slayer?" Prue remarked with a frown.
"Long story," the two slayers said in unison.
"Um, right…" Paige shrugged. "Anyway, this is Tara, Willow, Xander, Anya, and Dawn. They all fight evil down in Sunnydale, just like us."
"Not like you, angel-girl," Faith said flatly. "We live on the Hellmouth. It ain't no rainbow parade on the Castro."
"Whatever," Paige dismissed the sullen slayer with a roll of her eyes. Then, to Prue, "Where's Pheebs?"
"Upstairs with Piper, trying to figure out sleeping arrangements for all our guests. Some of them can crash down here on the couches, but the rest will have to bunk up in the attic." Prue cocked her head thoughtfully. "Actually, that's probably the safest place in the house, with the Book of Shadows for protection."
Tara gasped. The Charmed Ones' Book of Shadows…she couldn't believe it was right upstairs. She glanced at Willow, who was looking back at her wide-eyed.
"Tara, Willow, why don't you come up to the attic with me?" It was as if Paige had read their minds. "You can help the magical strategy session, and meet super-witch #3."
"We usually call her Piper," Prue added wryly, grinning at Paige with a sisterly affection. Tara couldn't help but notice how close Paige was with her girlfriend's sisters, and felt a smile spread across her face. She was happy for her ex-girlfriend; after so much time alone in the world, she deserved to have a loving family—just like she herself had found with Willow and the Scoobies.
"Oh," Willow squeaked excitedly, "we'd love to help, as long as you're sure we're not intruding or anything, cause, you know, big magic, not just for any old Joe off the street, not that we're not up to it of course, but—"
"Will, breathe," Tara said gently, laying a hand on her girlfriend's back as the babblefest was cut abruptly short. Paige and Prue were looking bemusedly at the red-haired witch, who grinned apologetically back.
"Sorry," she said sheepishly. "I babble."
"Really? Hadn't noticed." Paige said glibly.
"Oh, come on, Paige, you know you babble worse than that when you get into your stride," Prue teased, poking her in the ribs.
"Yeah, she always did," Tara nodded. "Remember the first time we went to the dyke march, and saw the Lesbian Avengers eat fire? I swear I thought you were gonna swallow your tongue." Paige blushed while everyone else laughed. Willow smiled uncomfortably, looking at her shoes. She got the feeling that Tara's ex had a wild streak in her, one that Tara had obviously enjoyed. Was she missing that now?
"Okay," Prue broke in, smoothly regaining command of the group. "Paige, you take the witch crew upstairs; everyone else, come with me to the basement for sleeping bags."
"Can I go up to the attic with you guys?" Dawn asked Tara eagerly. "I wanna see the Book of Shadows!" Tara looked to Paige, who studied Dawn pensively for a moment.
"You know that magic is serious business," she said quietly. "It's not a theme park."
"I know," Dawn nodded, biting her lip. "That's why I want to learn as much as I can, so I can be as good as Willow and Tara some day, and you and Phoebe, and protect people." The young teen looked up at Paige with wide, beseeching eyes.
"All right, ya little brown-noser, come on."
"Yesss!" Dawn hissed under her breath, darting up the stairs.
The group arrived in the attic to find Phoebe and Piper setting up cots and laying out pillows and blankets. Between the six of them, the job was quickly finished, making time for a long look at the book. By the time Prue hollered up to them to come down to dinner, they had found a slew of possibilities for taking on Glory, each as flawed as the next. Still, they all felt encouraged by the headway they had made, as it was more than they'd had in the months they'd been fighting the hell-goddess.
"So," Dawn said to Paige as the book was closed, "you and Tara met in high school?"
"Sure did," Paige confirmed, grinning saucily at the shy blond. "Took me months to get more than two words out of her, of course." Tara blushed, remembering how painfully shy she had been back then, even more so than she was now.
"I was lucky to even be able to open my mouth around you," Tara admitted with a shake of her head. "You were so cool, and I had such an awful crush!" Dawn grinned, eager to learn more about Tara's life before she'd met them.
"How did you figure out that you were both, you know, magical?" This innocent question caused a deep blush to rise in Tara's cheeks, while Paige grinned and looked at the floor.
"Ohhh…" Dawn looked between them and rolled her eyes. "This is something kinky I'm not supposed to hear, right?"
"No, no. No kink," Paige assured the young girl, as Phoebe came up and wrapped a possessive arm around her girlfriend's waist, which Paige automatically leaned into. "It's, um…just that when two people who have a lot of magical power get together, there tends to be…um…floating."
"What?" Phoebe looked at Paige with an outraged expression. "I thought that was just our thing!"
"You floated before me?" Willow asked Tara in a hurt voice.
"Uh-oh," Dawn murmured.