Title: Story of a Girl
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. At all. If I did, I'd have more money then God and would never have canceled BtVS and Angel.
Summary: A teenage girl is given an impossible destiny. She's taken away from everything she knows and everyone thinks she's dead. Eight years later, she's back, and in for one hell of a fight.
Distribution: Just ask if you want to use this.
Spoilers: All of Buffy and Angel. Through GoF, and some minor ones from OotP.
a/n: Please, please, PLEASE, PLEASE review! Thanks to everyone who already did!Etoile Star can you tell me some of those Hermione is the Slayer stories? I just read one, and I loved it so much I decided to write my own… with a twist. Same goes for everyone else!
"Wow, Giles has really done a lot with the place, hasn't he?" Willow Rosenberg asked her girlfriend.
"Yeah, he has." The dark-haired Slayer agreed as the two of them walked into the main office of the Watcher's Council.
The Council- namely the Council's new Board of Directors, the Scooby Gang- had had to buy a new building for the London Headquarters after the First blew the original one up. Unfortunately, Giles was still lamenting the loss of so many precious books and artifacts, and Willow knew that everyone else would be, too, by the time of the next apocalypse.
As it was, the Wiccan couldn't help but admire what the Watcher had done in the year since they'd left Sunnydale. To her, it seemed like the office had been running for years, and Willow wondered if Giles had been getting any sleep since he moved to London. Kennedy grabbed her hand as they stepped out of the elevator. A young blonde sat at a circular desk in front of what seemed to be Giles' door. The two lovers walked over to her.
"We're here to see Giles," Willow told the receptionist, "I mean, Mr. Giles." She quickly amended, unsure of how the "stiff-upper-lippy" Englishwoman addressed her new boss.
The secretary smiled.
"Ms. Rosenberg and Ms. Carter, I presume?" she asked in a friendly tone.
The two of them nodded.
"Go right in, the others are waiting for you." She instructed.
They complied and walked through the door behind her. Giles, Buffy, Dawn, Xander, and Anya were gathered around a table. The long polished table would've been an impressive piece of furniture had it not been covered by pizza boxes, candy wrappers, books, and soda cans. It was what they all expected when it came to Giles. Not.
Kennedy whistled.
"Whoa, Giles, what happened here?" she asked in disbelief.
The girl had known him for little over a year, and in that time it had become abundantly clear to her that the Head Watcher appreciated a neat and orderly anything. It had amazed Kennedy last year when he managed to keep his sleeping space clean, despite twenty-odd teenage girls running all over the place. It was practically supernatural.
"Hurricane Research." Xander answered for Giles.
"Research? On what? Is the world ending?" Willow asked, only half-joking.
"If it was we'd have donuts." Dawn pointed out.
Willow let out a relaxed sigh, then realized something. She quickly walked over to Anya, practically pulled her out of the chair, and gave her a big hug.
"I'm glad you're back." She told the ex-demon.
Anya looked pleased.
"Thank you, I'm glad someone did." For some reason, Anya looked over at Giles indignantly.
The Watcher in question threw his hands up exasperatedly.
"I already apologized for that!" he said, frustrated.
Willow noticed that the other Scoobies were trying to hide grins. Trying and failing, to be precise.
"Apologized for what?" Kennedy asked curiously, voicing Willow's thoughts.
Giles turned red, and Anya looked even angrier then before.
"For mistaking me, connection to the Powers and 1123 year old ex-vengeance demon for a mortal secretary!" she fumed.
"It was a common mistake! You do look quite a bit like Emily." Giles retorted.
Dawn and Buffy motioned the other women to the last two seats at the table. Willow and Kennedy took the hint and sat down opposite to the giggling sisters.
"When we got here, Giles thought Anya was his secretary," Dawn explained, "she didn't like being told to get him some coffee, call down to Mystical Entities and see if there's been any activity by the first, and find out when we were getting here."
Willow and Kennedy were hard-pressed to hide their own giggles. They could just imagine the expression on the 1100 year old ex-demon's face. She'd had problems enough with being patronized as a mortal, now that she worked for the so-called Higher Powers, she'd be downright furious. The liaison had probably gone into a huge rant about the respect she deserved being what she was, and then trailed off into stories about her Vengeance Demon days that no one wanted to hear.
"What are we researching?" Kennedy asked.
"Nothing big," Buffy answered. "Just want to see what's going to happen to Anya now that she works for the Powers That Screw Us. We've found a few cases about it happening before, but they're all way screwy."
"How?" Willow asked, alarmed.
Xander had been devastated without Anya, and now that she was back he finally seemed like himself again. Willow didn't want him to go back to the depression, and she didn't want to lose Anya. Through the years, she had actually come to enjoy the blonde's blunt, occasionally obscene, anecdotes and despite some past differences, considered her a friend.
Buffy guessed what she was thinking.
"None of it's bad," she assured her friend, "we just want to make sure, though. So far, she's got the vampy age thing, Cordy's brain trips, and maybe a couple of other little goodies, but not everyone gets them."
"Oh," Willow said, relieved.
"So, how are things going with Anya and Xander?" Kennedy whispered conspiratorially.
Both Dawn's and Buffy's grins grew considerably wider, and they got matching mischievous twinkles in their eyes. In moments like this, it was clearly evident that they were, in fact, sisters. While neither of them shared many common features, the expressions on their faces were exactly alike to a point where it was almost eerie.
"Well, they have been sharing a room since Xander got here." Dawn said slyly.
"And the sex talk is back." Buffy chimed in.
"Plus, Xander took her out to dinner just last night." Dawn added.
"Took them long enough," Willow muttered.
Buffy nodded emphatically. She opened her mouth to comment, but was interrupted by Xander's frantic shout.
"What the hell? Anya!" he yelled, running over to her.
At first, Willow couldn't tell what was wrong, Anya looked perfectly fine. She was standing next to Giles, and it looked like their pseudo-argument had ended. The redhead couldn't figure out why Giles was gaping at the former Vengeance Demon, either, or why Xander was tugging on Anya's arm. Then her mind registered something- Anya wasn't standing anywhere, she was floating, and her body was a good half a foot off of the ground.
The Wicca's eyes widened and she got out of her chair quickly, unsure of what she was going to do, but feeling the need to do something, anything at all to help. Her companions had clearly reached the same conclusion, as Kennedy, Buffy, and Dawn were all standing, too, and gaping at the sight of Anya's still form. Then, Anya floated back to the ground and her eyes opened.
"We have to go save horny teenagers from a whole lot of demons." She said matter-of-factly.
All they could do was gape at her, Xander was so surprised that he was still holding onto her arm.
Anya crept through the dark night, following one of the new Slayers. What was her name again? She remembered it had rhymed with penis. Oh, yes, that was it, Venus. The new liaison wished she didn't have to be here, but she clearly had no choice. After all, Anya was the only one who could make sure that they saved the right people and weren't leaving anyone to die.
The former demon wondered why she'd gotten that vision. All of the Scoobies had, actually, since this was already on the patrol route of two new Slayers- Venus and Mel. They figured that something would've happened to prevent the Slayers from saving them, though, and had left it at that, for the time being, since there were people to save, and all. Privately, Anya wondered if there was more to it then that. She'd gotten the feeling of something heavy, which was the only way to describe it. Thick and heavy, like a cloak or a blanket covering something.
The blonde let out a sigh of frustration. Why hadn't Cordelia told her how confusing the visions were? Hell, why hadn't she sent a vision that made more sense?
Because the future's unclear, you dumbass. Every choice made by every person can change it. The visions are as much as we can see. Besides, the others would probably fire me if I made something easy.
I liked the irrational, Xander-hating version of you better, Anya mentally grumbled, Still, she couldn't help the smile tugging at her lips.
Actually, when you met me, I didn't hate your boyfriend, I was just pissed off that he wanted to make out with Willow instead of me. Not to mention seriously pissed off at the lack of smoochies.
Hey! Keep your mind away from my Xander! Anya thought indignantly.
She could practically see the eye roll that accompanied the next statement.
Pfft! I am so over him! And you should be glad I didn't get over him like you did.
Shut up, Anya thought, annoyed.
Normally, I'd hang around just for that, but I've got work to do, and so do you. Just don't think that won't come back to bite you in the ass.
Anya was about to send a mental reply, but her focus was snatched by the fight going on. Especially when a large, yellow head with a horn sticking out of it, nearly hit her.
"Sorry!" Dawn yelled from across the room, where the rest of the demon lay at her feet.
Anya didn't bother to reply to her as another demon was already headed towards the Key, and an ugly blue guy was already in front of the liaison, herself. She recognized the breed from her Vengeance Demon days. They weren't too smart, or fast, but they were strong, and had one goal in life- food. This one was blue, which meant it was female, as opposed to the yellow males.
The blonde hefted her axe and sung at the creature's abdomen. It sliced through the flesh with a hiss. The demon moved towards her, but Anya ducked under on of its three arms and moved behind it. She slashed at the back of its knees to bring the monster down to a level where her axe could reach its head. It let out a little shriek of pain that was cut short when she swung her axe through its neck.
"Well, that was easy." She commented to no one.
The others were having the same luck. She could see five or six corpses on the floor of the warehouse, and the others were rapidly killing the remaining eight or nine, which made her wonder again, what was the point of this? She noticed one of the kids was reaching in their pocket for something. From what she could see of the handle poking out of the pocket, it looked like a knife. Anya quickly ran over to them.
"You can't fight them, get out of here!" she commanded, before turning to fight the demon that had been advancing on them.
The two teens, wide-eyed and fearful, quickly complied and ran out of the ware house as fast as they could. Anya briefly had time to think that they had probably been frozen in shock, since they hadn't attempted to leave earlier, before the he-beast attacked.
It lowered its head as it charged, the horn protruding from the top of its head in much the same manner as a bull's. She quickly dodged it and tried to decapitate the demon, but it saw what she was doing and changed direction, causing her axe-stroke to fall too wide. It charged again, and the only thing that stopped Anya from being skewered into the corner she had backed herself into was Buffy.
The blonde Slayer literally jumped on top of it in order to stop the monstrous thing from getting to Anya. It lashed out at her with its claws, but the Slayer ignored the pain and chopped its hand off. Then she back flipped off of it, with one hand still holding onto the demon's back, causing it to be pulled through the air with her, and land right behind Buffy. She spun around before the creature could get up and calmly sunk her sword into its face, letting it go all the way through the back of the skull. Once the twitching stopped, Buffy pulled the blade out of the floor where it had stuck and turned to Anya.
"Isn't it more fun when it's vamps? I mean, these things can't even talk, let alone pun. And look at all the goo on my new shirt!" she complained.
Anya nodded wholeheartedly as she saw the blackish-brown slime all over her own clothes. Then she looked up to assess the damage to everyone else. No one was seriously hurt, beyond a few scrapes, and they were clearly wondering why it had been such an easy fight. Xander came over to her anxiously.
"You alright, Ahn?" he asked, looking her over for any wounds.
"No," she answered him, "none of us are. Look at our clothes!"
"Here, here!" Dawn agreed from where she stood with Buffy.
Xander quirked a smile.
"Why don't we go heal you with the power of Council reimbursement and six-figure salaries?" he asked her, sensing that she might start one of her infamous "money is important, and fighting evil gets rid of it all" speeches.
As always, Anya perked up instantly at the thought of money. And the new clothes were always an added bonus. There was something so universal and normal about money that it always mentally soothed her, while at the same time provoking her into a frenzy of action. Be it making money, or spending it, or just looking at it. For some reason, Xander still found it endlessly funny that she kept a hundred dollars just for that. Oh well, humans were strange, and that was why she loved this human, anyway. He was perfect.
Anya beamed at her boyfriend and said,
"What are we waiting for? Come on, people, we have money to burn!"
Giles visibly cringed as he followed her out the door. With the Scoobies around, there would be no Council funds left, and with Anya, in particular, around, there would be a constant source of replenishment coming from the Anya Jenkins Capitalist Magick Stores around the world. He shook his head, at least things never got boring when he was around the people he had come to look upon as his children.
He watched the people intently as they left the warehouse. Interesting, he'd never seen anyone fight like that, and only one of them had used magic of any sort. Who were these people? And why had they saved the two teenagers? Why had they done his job for him? He wanted answers, and he wouldn't be the only one. He walked around the warehouse after the strangers were gone, the others followed him. They all fanned out, looking for clues as to the foreigners'- for they were clearly American, except the man with the crossbow and the axe- identities.
He stopped when he saw a small amount of blood on the ground. It wasn't too far from the corpse of a large yellow monster. It took a moment for him to realize that this was where the small blonde woman had saved the other one from being killed. He vaguely remembered watching her get cut, and had been about to go help before she took care of the problem herself. He used a quick spell to conjure a vial, and another to put the blood into the vial. Finally, he cast a sterilizing charm on both the vial and its contents, so as to decontaminate it. Quietly, he walked away, gesturing to the others to follow.