Twice Lucky

The Scarlet Witch

Chapter 1: No Shalam, no Shalom

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Willow Danielle Rosenberg was born in 1980. She'd lived the rest of her life in the small town of Sunnydale, California.

She was born to two Jewish parents, Sheila and Ira Rosenberg; both ordinary and unassuming. They worked hard and gave her a modest lifestyle. She was chatty and bright, but not very good at making friends; she lacked social skills that wouldn't fully develop until later in her life.

No warning bells were set off and no prophecies were made, and yet, she would - one day - grow into one of the most powerful witches in the world, capable of completely destroying it or saving it utterly. For the moment, however, she was completely normal. Until she bumped into Xander Harris. They hit it off straight away and she fell in love. Being the sort of teen that he was, he never noticed her; she wasn't pretty enough, didn't have gorgeous long hair and a radiant smile, like certain cheerleaders she knew. No, Willow was one of the guys.

Story of her life.

But then something happened: Xander changed. She noticed straight away, but being the good poker player she was, Willow didn't want to give away her hand just yet.

She watched and learned and, surprisingly, found she liked. This new version, Xander 2.0, was friendlier, chattier and flirtier. Hell, he even chattered her up.

And then, one day, he snogged her.

Not just a peck on the cheek, but a full-blown, tongue down the throat to find the missing cherry. He took her up to his room and, that very night, the two made sweet, sweet love.

She couldn't believe it.

She found she liked the change that had come over him, but then, to add to the weirdness, Angel arrived and introduced her - rather violently - to the world of vampires, demons and things that went bump in the night.

Not long after Angel, Buffy Summers, the Vampire Slayer, came to town. And then, Xander had gone all weird and pulled her into bed with a very intimidating woman known as Faith LeHane.

But, as with the new Xander, once she'd gotten to know Faith, the two had hit it off and now acted as though they were girlfriends. Faith cuddled and kissed her and did things that made her blush when she so much as thought about it.

She didn't think she was a lesbian; how could she be when she loved Xander so much? She'd gone online and looked into books to see what it all meant. She was called bisexual; liking both men and women.

Willow could live with that.

She sighed. She was meeting Xander at his new house, after the old one got burnt to a crisp. That had come as a surprise, something called The Order of Taraka had targeted him for some reason that she couldn't fathom.

Vampires… go figure.

She entered the house; the upper levels were quiet, no doubt Xander's parents were out getting drunk. She made her way to the lower levels and, as she reached the third floor, she heard voices in one of the back rooms.

When she opened the door, Willow stood there slack-jawed. The demon, Illyria, was holding a large, blue portal open and helping Xander, who was carrying large crates and other goodies.

He walked in and placed a crate on the counter and then, realising he had company, turned around in a fighting stance.

She suddenly found herself afraid and backed off slightly. His features softened when he realised who it was. "Sorry, Will, caught me by surprise."

Willow nodded dumbly, "Xan, what are you doing?"

"Xander Harris is taking weapons from a military base." Xander winced at the demon's stoic description of what was going on. Willow's eyes then wandered and widened when she spotted a full-fledged rocket launcher sitting in the side of the kitchen.

"Okay, I think we've got enough," Xander said with a grin. "Close it down please."

With a flick of a blue wrist, the portal closed and Illyria narrowed her eyebrows. "Do you need me further?"

"No, thank you Illyria." the demon inclined its head and walked out of the room. "Wills, take a seat. We need to talk."

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

"Well, that explains a lot." And it did, too; it explained the whole radical behaviour-change.

"So, what now?"

He was playing with her hair; she liked that.

"I don't know." Willow closed her eyes. "I like what we have."

"Me, too," he said quietly.

She looked at him. His face was young, but his eyes seemed older, more mature. She liked looking at them because they were warm and friendly.

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

"What I need is some blood," Willow said to the group at large.

Angel chuckled. "Aren't I supposed to say that?"

Willow smiled, Angel had become a lot friendlier since their original meeting. She now knew that Xander had partially set up the attack to allow them an introduction into the demonic world. It was no wonder Jessie didn't hang around with them anymore.

Xander and Willow walked down to the third room with Angel, who rolled up his sleeve and let her draw blood from him. She took several vials.

Angel smiled.

"When you need more, let me know." She nodded her thanks.

She went through the books, looking at the different ways to kill vampires - the old legends turned out to be mostly true. Sunlight, which tested the next morning, turned the blood to ash. She used garlic, and that had an interesting effect.

She was able to get Xander to sneak into the hospital and take certain medical products for her; as well stuff that he needed. Although he didn't explain why, she got the feeling that he would know what to do with them.

The most interesting result had been when she applied EDTA to Angel's blood. It had been explosive, and Angel had come running down when he had heard the explosion.

Blood was everywhere. At first sniff, he'd been shocked. But it was okay - it wasn't Willows, it was his… Angel found Willow on the floor and helped her to her feet.

"You all right?"

"Yeah," she said shakily.

"What happened?"

"I just applied EDTA to your blood." Angel smiled. "It was explosive."

The vampire looked around at the wreckage. "I'll say."

… … … … … … … … … … … … …

"I went dark?"

Xander nodded silently, watching her take in the information.

"I killed someone?" she asked in barely a whisper.

Xander nodded again.

"What happened?'

"Will." She gave him her resolved look. He sighed and told her about Tara; falling in love with her; about the magic addiction; about Warren taking revenge on them and concluding when he shot Buffy, the bullet flying through and slamming into the blonde.

Willow gasped when he told her about Dawn being there and witnessing the travesty. She went nuts when he described what she looked like and how she filleted Warren, then going after the rest of them.

He paused.

"What?"

"You wanted to end it all." She looked at him questioningly. "But it was our love that stopped you."

She had tears in her eyes.

She made a promise - silently - that night that it wouldn't happen again.