Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer, nor do I own Battlestar Galactica. They are owned by Joss Whedon and Ronald D. Moore respectively. I merely play with their toys while they're away. Also, this series entirely ignores anything not directly mentioned in Battlestar Galactica, so ignore anything from Caprica. This was conceived before that, so I'm not letting it hamper my creativity.
The Wicces are one of the few groups who actively fight against demons; secret rituals and initiation rites work to ensure that their magicks are used for good, and innocents remain protected. Sometimes, when the Watcher allows, Wicces assist the Slayer in her battle.
-Vampyr 12:13-15
One year ago
"Sounds like your mom's in a state of denial," Willow said, sympathetic to her friend.
Buffy sighed to the nerdy witch she called her best friend. "More like a colony of denial. She just has to realize that I can't go away."
"Well," Willow said, "maybe not now, but soon, maybe! Or, maybe I, too, hail from Denial-land."
Buffy sighed again, "Faith's turn to the titanic side pretty much put the proverbial kibosh on any away plans for me. UC Sunnydale – at least I got in. You! I mean, I can't believe YOU got into Yunnan!"
"It's pretty exciting," Willow said, blushing modestly.
"That's some pretty deep academia there," Oz said, in his normal lack of verbiage.
"That's where they make Gileses!" Buffy said, grinning, her Valley Girl accent in full force.
"I know!" Willow said, babbling, "I could learn, and, and eat Tauron food. Although I-I don't know how I feel about going to school on a foreign colony."
"Everything in life is foreign territory," Xander said, from a tree he was leaning against, reading a book. "Bretan. He's my teacher. The open road is my school."
"Making the open dumpster your cafeteria?" Buffy said, smirking.
"Go ahead, mock me."
"I think she just did," Oz commented, succinctly.
Xander put on one of his more amusing faces, "We Kivani anti-establishment types have always been persecuted."
"Well, sure," Oz said, "you're all so weird."
"I think it's neat," Willow said, "you doing the backpack, trail-mix, happy wanderer thing."
Xander smiled, "I'm aware it scores kinda high on the hokeymeter, but I think it'll be good for me. You know, help me to find myself."
"And help us to lose you," a new voice added, "Everyone's a winner."
"Well, look who just popped open a fresh can of venom," Xander said, standing up, "Hey, Cordelia, did'ya hear about Willow getting into Yunmore?"
"Yunnan," Willow corrected her best friend.
"Yunnan," Xander said, correcting himself, "And D.I.T., and Karnataka and every other college in the Colonies. As in your face I rub it."
"Yunnan?" Cordelia said, condescendingly, "Whoopee! Four years in teabag central. Sounds thrilling. And D.I.T. is an acne medicine ad with housing. And Karnataka is a dumping ground for those who didn't get into Maharashtra."
"I got into Maharashtra," Willow said, matter-of-factly.
"Any clue on what college you're going to," Xander asked, "so we can start calculating minimum safe distance?"
"None of your business," Cordelia said, bitchier than usual. "Certainly nowhere near you losers!"
"Okay, you guys," Buffy said, trying to be peacemaker, "don't forget to breathe between insults."
Cordelia turned to the blonde, "I'm sorry, Buffy. This conversation is reserved for people who actually have a future." Buffy's face went blank, and Cordelia, her task complete, stalked away from the Scoobies.
"An angry young woman." Oz could be counted on for a short, simple summary of any event.
"Oh, Buffy," Willow said, comforting her friend, "she was just being Cordelia, only more so. Don't pay any attention to her."
"It's alright," Buffy said. "And now, I have to go back and see what it is my wildly gesturing Freshman-type sister wants," she said, frowning, as she stood and walked back toward the school.
"Cordelia's definitely got a chip going," Xander commented.
"Maybe if you didn't goad her so much?" Willow asked
"I can't help it," Xander said, "It's my nature."
"Maybe you need a better nature."
"The Box of Gavrok," Buffy said, looking through the stack of books pushing Xander out of the way in her search, "It houses some great demonic energy or something which his honor needs to chow down on come A-Day."
Giles and Willow came into the library-over-Hellmouth, Giles carrying several large drawings.
"What's that?" came the question from Buffy's new watcher, Wesley Dobunni, asking toward the two coming in,
"Maps," Giles said, "and," Giles stopped, searching for a word, finally settling on, "stuff."
"Plans for City Hall," Willow said, "They were in the Department of Water and Power mainframe."
"The box is being kept under guard in a conference room on the top floor," Buffy said, pointing at the map, "there. Unfortunately, that's all I could get from my 'informant' before his aggressive tendencies forced me to introduce him to Mr. Pointy."
"Well, now," Wesley said, "here's what I think we should do-"
Buffy interrupted him, as though he hadn't been speaking, "I figure we can enter through the skylight. I'll take Angel with me."
"Agreed," Giles said.
"And there's a fire ladder on the east side of the building, here," Xander said.
"Yes, yes, fine," Wesley interrupted, "but we need to consider whether the Mayor-"
"It won't be enough to simply have possession of the Box." Giles removed his glasses.
"Right, we have to destroy it," Willow now spoke, "not just physically – ritually, with some down and dirty black magic."
"Hang on," Wesley said, "We don't know what such a ritual would require-"
"I think the Breath of the Atropyx is standard for this sort of thing," Giles said, flipping through a book. "Fairly simple recipe." Wesley went to look over Giles shoulder, only seconds before Giles handed the book off, "Xander?"
"I know, I know, I'm ingredient getting guy."
"Alright, stop!" Wesley called out, "I demand everyone stop this instant!" the eyes throughout the library now turned on him, and he almost fell backward from the glares, "I'm in charge here and I say this is all moving too fast! We need time to fully analyze the situation and develop a proper stratagem."
"Wes," Buffy said, "hop in the fighter or get out of the launch tube."
"The Mayor," Wesley spoke, carefully, "will most assuredly have supernatural safeguards protecting the Box." There was silence, before Wesley's triumphant voice came out, "Oh, we forgot all about that, did we?"
"Looks like a job for witchy girl," Buffy said, turning to her best friend, "What do you say, Will? Big time danger."
"Hey," Willow said, "I eat danger for breakfast."
"But oddly enough," Xander joked, "she panics in the face of breakfast foods."
Buffy smiled at the Scoobies, "Let's get to work."
Willow sat quietly in the corner of the Mayor's office, reading from the Books of Ascension. After she'd been captured hours ago, during their capture operation against the Box of Gavrok, she'd escaped from the room they'd been holding her in, and had managed to get to the Mayor's office to read these books, so critical to the Mayor's nefarious plans.
This, unfortunately, meant that she was focused on the Books and not on her surroundings, and after getting drawn into the books, 'skimming' through them, she was surprised from the voice in the doorway,
"Check out the bookworm!"
Willow closed the book in her hands, letting it slip to the floor, as she quickly stood up. She swallowed, before being able to respond simply, "Faith."
"Anyone with brains," Faith said, exaggerating her accent, "anyone who knew what was going to happen to her, would try to claw her way outta this place." She grinned, "But you, you just can't stop detecting, can ya? Guess now ya know too much, and that kinda naturally leads to killing."
"Faith, wait," Willow said, "I wanna talk to you."
"Oh yeah," she snorted, "give me the speech again, please. 'Faith, we're still your friends. We can help you! It's not too late.'"
"It's way too late," Willow interrupted, confidently, "You know, it didn't have to be this way. But you made your choice. I know you had a tough life. I know that some people think you had a lot of bad breaks. Well, boohoo! Poor Gemenese immigrant. You know, some of us mithrasaries still haven't gotten over your little stunt last century. How many was it, five, six million?
"You know, you had a lot more in your life than some people. I mean, you were raised on Caprica. You had friends in your life, like Buffy. Now you have no one. You were a Slayer and now you're nothing. You're just a big, selfish, worthless waste."
Willow was stopped by an impact; specifically, the impact of Faith's fist with Willow's jaw. Willow tumbled to the floor, bleeding. She grabbed the Mayor's desk, standing back up, as Faith said,
"You hurt me, I hurt you. I'm just a little more efficient."
"Aw, and here I just thought you didn't have a comeback."
"You're beggin' for some deep pain."
"I'm not afraid of you."
Faith pulled out an engraved, carved metallic knife, raising it to Willow's eye level, "Let's see what we can do about that."
The Mayor's voice sounded in the hallway outside the office, "Faith, you can play with your new toy later. Something's come up."
After the trade of the Box for Willow last night, Buffy was sitting silently against a tree on the campus of Sunnydale High School, when her best friend walked up to her.
"Deep thoughts?" the redhead asked.
"Deep and meaningful."
"As in?" Willow asked.
"As in," Buffy said, "I'm never getting out of here. I kept thinking if I stopped the Mayor, or," Buffy sighed, "but I was kidding myself. I mean, there is always going to be something. I'm a Sunnydale girl, no other choice."
"Must be tough," Willow said, "I mean, here I am, I can do anything I want. I can go to any college on the planet, and a couple dozen offworld, if I want."
"Please tell me you're going somewhere with this," Buffy said, pleading,
"No," Willow said, smiling, handing Buffy a confirmation letter addressed in Willow's neat handwriting, "I'm not going anywhere."
"UC Sunnydale?"
"I will be matriculating with the Class of 21357."
"Are you serious?" Buffy said, the shock on her face changing to a look of complete joy.
"Say, isn't that where you're going?"
Buffy grabbed Willow and hugged her with all her strength; which, being a Slayer, was a lot of strength, and they both tumbled to the ground.
"I can't believe it!" Buffy said, "Are you serious?" Then Buffy's face fell, and she said, "Ah, wait, what am I saying? You can't."
"What do you mean, I can't?" Willow said, looking at Buffy.
"I won't let you," Buffy said, stubbornly.
"Of the two people here," Willow said, "which is the boss of me?"
"There are better schools," Buffy protested,
"Sunnydale's not bad," Willow said, "And-and I can design my own curriculum."
"Okay, well," Buffy said, "there are safer schools. There are safer prisons. I can't let you stay because of me."
"Actually," Willow said, "this isn't about you. Although I'm fond, don't get me wrong, of you. The other night, you know, being captured and all, facing off with Faith, things kinda got clear. I mean, you've been fighting evil here for three years, and I've helped some, and now we're supposed to decide what we want to do with our lives. And I just realized that that's what I want to do. Fight evil, help people. I mean, I-I think it's worth doing. And I don't think you do it because you have to. It's a good fight, Buffy. And I want in."
Present
"What do you get down there, now?" Willow called out, holding the end of a tape measure against the cargo bay's support pillar.
"29.3," Tara's voice called back in response.
"Brokh!" Willow swore, releasing the measure in anger, and it sailed back straight to her girlfriend. Fortunately, the blonde witch was more aware than many gave her credit for, dropping her own side of the tape measure and jumping away before the tape sailed back into the main part of the tool, it flying back several meters before crashing into the wall at speed.
"Drek!" Willow called, running the distance across the cargo bay straight toward Tara, "Are you alright?"
"I-I'm fine!" Tara called back, as she carefully stood up from where she had jumped out of the tape measure's way.
Willow hugged her girlfriend, "Ah mein Got I'm sorry I'm sorry I was just distracted and pished off at the idiots who built this ship and didn't think about how the tape measure would fly back and that it for whatever reason doesn't have a locking function and I didn't mean to hurt you with it and are you alright and-"
"Willow!" Tara said, her mysterious half-smile appearing on her face at the sound of Willow's babble, "I'm alright! I'm not hurt."
"Oh, thank the gods," Willow said, releasing her girlfriend from her embrace, as she smiled, and fell back from her lover, turning around and walking to the tape measure, "whoever built this ship was oysnarn. This shtub is supposed to be 32.5 in length," she said, picking it up, "You know, we could fit another half tutz people in here if it were the right size."
"Willow," Tara said, uncertainly, "do y-you realize you k-keep speaking in M-mithrasarian?"
"What?" Willow said, uncertainly, reviewing her last few statements in her head, eyes widening, "Oh my gods, you're right. I'm sorry. I haven't done that since middle school, Cordelia used to always make fun of me for it and I don't know why I keep doing it now I mean it's been so long and it was a-"
"Willow! It's alright, I j-just wanted you to know. I can tell what they mean from context."
"You can?" Willow said, uncertainly.
"Well-" Tara said, before half-smiling, "what's a tutz?"
Before Willow could explain, a voice said, "Everything alright in here, ladies?"
Willow turned around toward the door to see the admittedly attractive Captain Adama in the doorway, having, apparently, come aboard ship.
"Yes, Lee. There's no problem," Tara said, a full smile coming onto her face, "We were just attacked by an evil tape measure. There's really no problem."
"Tara Lothian," Lee started, shaking his head, "how did you and your girlfriend manage to get attacked by an evil tape measure?"
Willow blushed, smiling sheepishly, "I kinda let the tape part go, and the safety thingy wasn't working right."
"Ah," he said. Willow now noticed the very annoying tour guide was now behind Lee, trying to get his attention.
Willow said, "You'd getter go report to the Secretary. She's up with the pilot."
"Alright."
Willow and Tara wandered back up the stairwell, having finished their measurements in the cargo bay below, with a series of estimates for living space written up on a piece of note paper. Tara was smiling at a joke Willow had told as they came up, and entered the main hallway, where they were floored by a group of people, standing around, Secretary Roslin standing with another woman, the priest from the Galactica, her hand on the Sacred Scrolls,
"Please raise your right hand, and repeat after me. I, Laura Roslin,"
"I, Laura Roslin,"
"Do now avow and affirm,"
"Do now avow and affirm,"
"That I take the office of President of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol,"
"That I accept the office of the - that I accept the office of the President of the Twelve Colonies of Kobol,"
"And that I will protect and defend the sovereignty of the Colonies,"
"And that I will protect and defend the sovereignty of the Colonies,"
"And preserve the Articles of Colonization,"
"And preserve the Articles of Colonization,"
"With every fiber of my being."
"With every fiber of my being."