Chapter 3 – Dreams come true

"GILES!"

The red hurricane stopped the moment she noticed the scene, Giles calmly picking up his glasses from the floor, while Xander was seating in one of the tables, two boxes and several books on it.

"Hey, Wills, what's the hurry?" Xander asked, with that lopsided grin of his in place.

"IwascomingherewhenIsawsomelightinghittingtheceilingsoIrushedupherethenIsawanotherlightning
departingIthoughtitwassomethinghellmouthyorthatGileswasbeingattackedbysomeonesoIraneven
moreImsohappytoseeyouguysareok!"

"Breath, Wills, breath." Xander understood the rapid-fire speech, he was accustomed to it, but Giles kept looking at her, impressed with her ability to speak so quickly and without stop. Her face was redder than a tomato.

Willow took three deep breaths, eyes still scanning the surrounding. She looked at the ceiling, hoping to find a charred hole in it, but it was unscathed.

"Now, Wills, again, in slow-mo, please." Xander asked, and motioned for her to sit.

She sat at his side, still worried.

"Well, I was coming here, when suddenly I saw some clouds forming. It was too quick to be natural, so I thought, Hellmouth. And it was right atop here, so... Anyway, clouds, then the biggest lightning bolt I've ever seen. And it hits right up here." She said, pointing the ceiling right above her head. "I thought, 'Better call Buffy', then I remembered Giles and decided to run. When I was entering the school, I saw another lightning, this time it seemed as if it was departing. Didn't you guys see anything?"

Xander and Giles looked among themselves, guilty expressions on their faces. Xander spoke first. "No, Will, not a thing. Sure it wasn't natural?"

"Didn't look like." She was still looking around, perhaps waiting for a giant demon to jump from somewhere, so she didn't noticed the guilty looks.

"Anyway Willow, what brings you here in the first place?" Giles asked, glasses back in his face, trying to defuse the situation.

Willow finally stopped looking to the room, and looked to them. Her face changed all over again, to one of doubt.

"Well, you see, I wasn't..." and she noticed the beautiful sword lying in a box on the table. Her attention vanished, focusing entirely on the sword.

"Wasn't what, Willow?" Giles asked.

"Coming here...Beautiful sword, Giles. Where does it come from?" She moved to pick it up.

"Council sent it. Where were you going, Willow?" he asked again, trying to regain her focus.

She focused on him again, if only for an instant. "Oh, Buffy. We agreed to come here together before patrol, so I was going to go to her house first. But I had this strange feeling I had to be somewhere else..." and her attention vanished again. She picked the sword up, looking at them. Xander was smirking lightly, as if surprised. "Can't you hear it?" she asked them both.

"Hear what?" Giles asked. Xander remained mute.

"The sword. It's singing to me." Willow pushed the sword all the way to her, eyes focused on the jewel. Xander looked at Giles and grinned, nodding once.

"Willow." Xander spoke with such serious voice that the redhead focused on him instantly. "Remember when we were younger, the Saturday cartoon fest we used to have, you, me and Jess?"

"Yeah, sure. Happy times." She gave him a full grin.

"Do you remember the talks we used to have, about which characters we wanted to be?"

"Yeah, I remember. You wanted to be He-Man, Jesse wanted to be Lion-o and I wanted to be She-Ra. She was so cool. I used to dream about being her." Her mind returned to those times, and she remembered the discussions, she absolutely loved the winged horse, named Swiftwind, with his rainbow colored wings. In all this time, she never let the sword go. And she was still grinning.

Xander did something she wasn't expecting. He placed his hand over his right shoulder, and from apparently nowhere, he pulled a sword.

"Dreams do happen, Willow." And he showed her his sword. Willow noticed it was an exact copy of the sword she was holding, with the exception of the jewel. It was the same...

"Oh, no. Nononononononononono" She backed up, but her hands never left the sword. "It was a cartoon, for Christ's sake!"

"My thoughts exactly." Xander looked into her eyes, and spoke again. "For the Honor, Willow."

Willow stopped. She looked at the sword. And to him. He nodded. She grinned. And she lifted the sword.

"FOR THE HONOR OF GRAYSKULL!"

While Xander's transformation was all about power, Giles noticed, Willow's was all about beauty. There was no lightning bolt, the sword released some kind of magical field from the jewel, that encompassed Willow fully. The Watcher also noticed that the girl grew in size almost like Xander's, going to a six foot three woman, her body becoming not so muscular, like a bodybuilder, but more like the sculpted body of someone who spent her entire day doing aerobics. Her hair also grew, to the middle of her back, and became all wavy, but without losing its fiery color. Her skin color darkened a bit, but not as much as Xander's. Her clothes were changed to armored boots that went to the knee, braces made of something that looked like gold, a bodysuit made of leather with an armored breastplate, and a tiara that kept her long hair away from her face. She approached the sword to her body, yelling "I AM SHE-RA!"

When the transformation ended, Willow, or better, She-Ra, became mute, eyes fixed on the sword.

"Wi...She-Ra, are you all right?" Xander asked, quite concerned, approaching her.

She-Ra, after a long moment, looked back to him. She murmured something he didn't understand.

"What, She-Ra? I don't understand."

"Tell me...tell me I'm not dreaming." She spoke, more loudly this time, but not much above a whisper.

Xander looked at her face. It still remembered Willow somewhat, but the differences would protect her identity. How would he look?

"Well, you are, and you aren't. It's a dream come true, Wills. You ARE She-Ra."

"And you are He-Man?" she asked, looking at his sword.

"Yeah, I am. Wanna see?"

She-Ra perked up. "Sure."

He walked a few steps back, and raised his sword. "BY THE POWER OF GRAYSKULL!" Thunder hit him again. "I HAVE THE POWER!"

She-Ra looked at him again, her mind drooling at the sight of a very muscular and much more beautiful Xander Harris.

"Wow" was the only thing she managed to say.

- To be continued -