Disclaimer: I wish I owned everything…but that dream has yet to be realized.
Chapter 15
Edging closer to the heated battle at hand, in complete contradiction to her aunt's warning, Willow focused her energies on mentally rehearsing the plan she had come up with. She would crawl towards the muscled college student and the frightening monster she fought, dodging their kicks and punches, until she got between them. At this point, she would bring her hands together, say the few mumbled words she remembered from her mothers' teachings, and unleash a reign of terror via evil-slicing magic energy! It couldn't fail.
"Take that!" Buffy delivered a powerful jab at the demon's chest, knocking it back a half-step.
'Arlene' snickered. "Weakling," The Slayer landed another blow at the creature's abdomen, "I hope you realize how futile your 'poking' is; I'm not at my usual youthful strength, and once I drain-"
"Danielle! I told you to get out of the way!"
The teal-eyed child was undeterred, and, taking a deep, calming breath, careful not to betray the terror felt within, she closed her eyes and began her pre-prepared ritual. Unfortunately, as with most things in life; her valiant effort to save herself and the blonde college student did not go according to plan. She uttered the few words she remembered, mispronouncing those that had the accursed letter she was incapable of properly verbalizing, and brought her hands together as if to seal the spell. Smiling triumphantly the small girl opened eyes to find that...nothing whatsoever had occurred.
The 'social worker' could have sat and ridiculed the child, who was slowly realizing the gravity of the situation, to the best of her toddler-esque brain's abilities, but she was not the type to gloat when an opportunity was at hand. Seeing the look of shock on her blonde opponent's face, and the delay in the doubtlessly eventual rush to grab the child and hide her from sight, 'Arlene' acted, taking a swipe at the unsuspecting Slayer's torso, knocking her to the floor. Another quick arm-blow to the young head and she was out cold.
"Alone at last, Miss Maclay. Or is another one of your 'friends' going to show up?"
Tears ran down the red-blonde child's face as she came to terms with her inevitable demise. Her magic was ineffective; she hadn't a hope.
Grinning madly, the scaly demon shrank back to human size, retracted her talons, and allowed skin to re-envelop her scales.
"Now don't struggle; this won't hurt a bit…" The now-woman dug her clear-polished nails into poor Willow's soft, fear-paled skin, and once they hit the blood in her arms, Arlene's fingers began to glow. The little girl could do nothing but stare through foggy eyes as the social worker's silver hair began to take on a dark gray hue, which slowly turned auburn. Through her tears, she could make out the old woman's wrinkles fading, the liver spots disappearing, the skin tightening, the drooping nose straighten; the demon-woman was de-aging. Willow, on the other hand, felt older, and older…
"Danielle! Honey?" Tara burst into the building, panting from her sprint across the grounds, "Are you in he…"
A burst of memory returned to the blonde witch; Arlene, her mother pushing the demon away, the mirror she looked in before her mother shielded her eyes-she had looked older! That was it! The demon drained children's youth! As a social worker, she encountered children that weren't taken care of properly, so no one bothered to investigate her as the cause of the emaciated, aged corpses she left behind once she was through. No wonder Tara remembered-she might have been the only child ever to survive. Now, she was witness to her own faux-child falling victim to the same creature that had tried to drain her own youth years before. She would not-could not, let that happen.
"Don't you touch her!" Arlene barely looked up, so lost was she in the ecstasy of the youth she was gaining.
"It's too late, Tara," A beautiful brunette took the place of the aged government-employee, "I've drained the last of her."
The college student rushed to Willow's side, using her shirt to wipe the blood dripping from the puncture marks as Arlene's nails evacuated from them.
"You can't do anything, you know? I'm sure Mr. Burns and little miss 'hits a lot' over there," She motioned to Cale and Buffy's limp bodies, "Will recover nicely, but there's really no way you can help your little girl now." She grinned; her de-aged teeth glistening anew.
Tara watched helplessly as Willow's childlike frame evolved from the aged 7-year-old body she saw when she came in to a pre-teen, then a teen-she wasn't sure she could bear to watch her girlfriend go through her twenties, thirties-nineties all in one go. The tearing young woman covered the aging child with her sweatshirt, as the girl's clothes were not growing with her, and then averted her eyes and focused on the evil creature's milky smile, to be greeted with a very strange sight. Instead of remaining in her mouth, Arlene's teeth had begun to rapidly fall out, being replaced with a newer, smaller set. The long brown hair began to shrink and soften into baby curls, and her body began to shrink to about the size of the child she had drained mere moments ago.
"What is this?" Arlene felt the change in her stature, the way her cheeks plumped and how her voice got substantially higher, "What did she goo!" The child-demon slapped a pudgy hand across her tiny mouth. She tried again, "Gaa-gaa…goo-goo?"
Tara observed, fascinated, as baby-Arlene tried to transform herself into the great beast that fought the Slayer, but her transformation yielded only an equally-as-defenseless baby demon. She was almost…cute. Not so much the adjective she was aiming for, as you can imagine.
Turning back to the girl whose hands she clasped, the blonde undergraduate was astounded to find that, as Willow approached her true age, her aging slowed and her features were returning to normal; her eyes more green, her hair a pure red; and her physical mannerisms as she held a weak hand to her head were hers alone. The demon's age-sucking powers had counteracted whatever curse Willow had cast to turn herself into a little girl, turning the demon little herself!
"Wha-what happened to me?"
"Willow!" Tara kissed her full-sized lover's plush lips. The red-headed woman responded with as much enthusiasm as she could muster, despite the fact that her entire body ached from such rapid growth, which, luckily, had stopped. She looked around, surveying the unfamiliar surroundings and her fallen friend.
"Is Buffy-"
"She'll be fine." Tara cut Willow off, covering her mouth with another smooch. The Sunnydale native gently pushed her girlfriend away.
"What happened?"
The blonde one could have told her the entire story. She could have just fallen asleep from all the stresses of dealing with a 4ish-year-old, knowing it was finally over. She could have completely ignored her and satisfied some very pressing lust-issues that had been plaguing her since her girlfriend's 'disappearance'. But instead, the older witch's initial anger at the real-sized Willow, who doubtlessly caused her own shrinkage and by default the entire mess before them, returned to her full-throttle.
"What, in goddess's name, were you casting on yourself to turn yourself into a four-year-old?"
"Huh?" The Slayer awoke, her golden-haired head pounding as she groggily got up from the ground, "Where's Danielle?" She asked, searching in vain for the child.
"She's right here." Tara uttered, through slightly gritted teeth.
Buffy looked at Willow, who waved back at her, "So…Willow's back from…" She saw the baby demon. She noticed the unconscious classmate. She pointed to the first, "Is that our creep?"
Tara nodded.
"Right. I'll just…take care of them…" The Slayer picked up the baby in one arm, and Cale's leg in the other, dragging them both outside.
"I asked; what spell you were trying to cast?" Tara returned to the topic at hand in a scolding tone.
"Spell…?" Suddenly the memories of the past few days flooded back to her. Tara's hair, her blood, Miss Kitty Fantastico. It all came back, "I was casting a spell…"
"Go on."
Willow scowled at her partner's harsh tone, "…to make a cat-buddy to hang out with Miss Kitty Fantastico."
Tara didn't quite understand, "I don't get-" The red-head cut her off.
"I know Miss Kitty doesn't socialize too well," This was true; every time she'd met other cat's she'd immediately hissed and turned to the offensive, "but she seems to like us, so I thought I'd make a second kitty that was a mix of the two of us."
"That explains the hair and the blood I saw and why you looked like both of us…but the memories? You had memories from my past, and your past, and our past, which didn't happen!" Tara struggled to understand.
"That's because I was going to add some manifested ones so Miss Kitty would think the new kitty had always been there; that they had always known each other."
The blonde was not 100% on how any of this related to the situation they had been put in, "By which you mean what, exactly?"
Willow sighed. It was so simple, "We had a fight while I was doing the spell, and you said 'little gal' and I said 'baby' and I had begun saying the incantation, so..."
"I messed it up with the added words." Her girlfriend shook her head.
"Not just you-we." Tara smiled.
"I-I'm sorry for calling you a little girl. That was uncalled for." She had to admit; dealing with a true child version of her girlfriend had opened her eyes to how mature the adult version of her beloved was. "But what is called for; is a major room clean-up."
Willow furrowed her brow, puzzled.
"I came back to my room last night to see all of my sheets ripped by your 'magic-mares'." Tara chastised.
"Magi-what?"
"When I was a kid, I used to have nightmares where I'd 'use' magic in my dreams, but it manifested in the real world while I slept. I went through so many mattresses-my father was infuriated." The blonde laughed at the memory, "And your room, for that matter, isn't much cleaner. I expect you to clean up-" Her fully-restored girlfriend silenced her with a kiss.
"Yes, Tawa deawest." Willow slapped a hand over her mouth as Tara chuckled, kissing her back.
"I think you mean 'Tara dearest.'"