INCOMPATIBLE

DISCLAIMER: I don't own the characters of BTVS or W.I.T.C.H. and I earn no profit in writing this.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This takes place in the same continuity as 'I'm Done' but is not a sequel and stands alone quite well. If you have any comments or preferences, please don't be shy. RandR.

"The spell should tell us what we need to know without having to approach her. It's a variation on the one Miss Rosenberg used to locate potentials in Sunnydale."

Danielle looked dubious. "And you can keep it from zeroing in on us? I mean that'd be kind of useless if it just pointed to the nearest slayer."

"I've got it covered," Maria assured her patiently. "Now all we need is the opportunity to test it."

"Shouldn't do it when she's at home. Her mother might notice."

"If this works right, Will won't notice, but we'll wait regardless."

The wait wasn't long, and the young redhead they had identified as Will Vandom was soon spotted leaving her apartment. She started up the street toward the bus stop where the two waited inconspicuously.

OOOOOOOOOO

Will had greeted her mother with deliberate casualness when she came home. After all, she wasn't supposed to know that Susan Vandom had been kidnapped by a creature from another world. Will had asked why her mother had been out all night and about her boyfriend. This gave Susan the excuse she needed to be indignant and not answer. Neither was happy with the outcome, but each, for similar reasons, accepted it.

Susan didn't want to worry her daughter, or to involve her with demons or whatever those creatures had been. It was better, she concluded, that Will believe she had been out all night with Dean. The girl would be angry, but she wouldn't worry.

For her part, Will didn't want to think about how her mother would react if she found out about her activities as a Guardian, it would be bad enough if she found out that her 13-year-old daughter hadn't been at home all night, worrying. Having never been one to find humor in irony, Will, nevertheless, appreciated the strangeness of the situation they found themselves in. No, she reflected, nothing at all funny about this.

That wasn't the only frustration. The Guardians had been forced to return to their families to avoid panicking them. The Oracle had been uninformative, Raythor had been uncooperative, and the still unnamed sorceress had been busy. Two villages had fallen victim to her pranks. She had used the Heart of Meridian to level one outright and had conjured beasts of some sort to drive out the residents of another. There seemed to be no specific goal or pattern to her actions. Caleb had promised to stay in touch and let them know what he learned.

The last thing Will wanted was to argue, so she settled for asking that her mother call in the future so she wouldn't worry, and then headed for the Silver Dragon to see Hay Lin.

OOOOOOOOOO

Maria spoke a few words of Latin, and opened the small, ornate box. To all but the caster, the effect of the spell was nearly invisible. A small puff of smoke rose from the box before seeming to dissipate. Instead of drifting apart, however, it moved with a purpose toward the oblivious redhead. There were a few other people on the street, but none of them would notice the spell being worked.

"Well?" Danielle asked after a moment.

"Shh. I have to concentrate." Maria directed the spell toward her target, watching carefully for the reaction. If the spell worked, the other girl's aura would become briefly visible to her, and whether or not she was a slayer would be obvious. Variations on the spell had been designed for different situations. There was a spell that could locate new slayers in a city using a map. There was a spell that worked like the one she used now without the complications of concealing the effect. The circumstances required subtlety, though. The target of the spell was unaware, and there were other people around.

The smoke quickly reached Will, but when it made contact with her, there was an unexpected reaction. Her aura became visible, just as intended, but it became visible to all. A bright pink light flared around her, dancing wildly like a candle flame someone had tried, unsuccessfully, to blow out. Will Vandom screamed in pain, drawing the attention of everyone within earshot. There was a bright flash of light, and she vanished as if she'd never been.