Fic: The Island (1/?) B/W PG

Title: The Island (AKA Buffy and Willow Vs. The Hurricane)

Author: Ivy Gort

Spoilers: Seventh Season

Email: Ivygort@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Rating:PG

Feedback: Yes, Please! I live on it!

Archive: Please Ask.

Pairing: Buffy and Willow

Previous Parts: http://www.fanfiction.net/profile.php?userid=30044

Disclaimer: I don't own them, I'm just torturing them for you.

Summary: Nine years after Chosen Willow needs Buffy help.

BETA: Ann Marie is the Great Goddess. She has to be a Goddess there is no other answer. I feel like you guys should send the feedback to her.

The Island

Prologue

The Slayer Prime looked up to see Giles standing at the doorway to her office.

"Buffy, could I see you for a moment please?" He asked, and she noticed how weary he appeared. ?It just never ends,? Buffy thought as Giles took off his glasses and started cleaning them.

When they had arrived in Cleveland nine years ago the first thing they did was set up a new Watcher's Council in one of the many empty warehouses dotting the waterfront. It had been a simple matter to refurbish it into offices, a training center, and living quarters.

"Sure Giles what do you need?" Buffy answered, motioning for Giles to come in and sit down. ?I wish just once we could take a break. It?s impossible. Even though we now have an army of Slayers, the forces of evil are stronger than ever.' The Slayer Prime thought of all the young slayers that helped defeat the First. Only Faith was left in the fight. It was so exhausting to Buffy to think about all the girls never got a chance to see their twenty first birthdays.

"This matter would be better discussed in my office." Giles' told her grimly and as she watched he stood straighter as if expecting her to argue. "I have all the details set out." He finished in what Buffy could only describe as a lame manner.

"Can it wait? I have to get this report read and the funds authorized before five this afternoon Central Europe time." Buffy asked. 'I wonder who else has died? Going into his office means someone died. I know I'm being rotten about it, telling me who is was is hard enough on him.'

"I mean Faith has to be able find secure housing for her team." Buffy said as the acid raced into her stomach nearly causing her to get sick. 'Gods I am so not cut out for leadership! Why does it have to be me that sends young girls out to die? Why do I have to live while everyone around me dies?'

"No one has died," Giles told her quickly as if he was reading her mind. "Or yes, people have died, just no one you know." The Head of the new Watcher's Council amended, putting his glasses back on and standing straighter as if trying to push his shoulders up against the pull of depression.

The relief Buffy felt was surprising because she knew it was temporary. The First might had been defeated and an army of Slayers activated but the good guys still were outnumbered and outgunned. It was only a matter of time before someone else close to Buffy fell in the battle. 'Thank God Slayers aren't called until they reach puberty; so the girls know what normal is for a little while.'

"Buffy?" Giles questioned, still patiently standing in the doorway.

"Sure Giles, just let me read this report." She said, picking the report up off of her desk.

"No, I must insist that you accompany me now. You will need to leave within the hour and I feel it would be better if I briefed you before you left." Giles insisted. He was still the only person that could order Buffy to do something. And he did it only under dire circumstances. ?But he said we weren't with the dire ? so why is he so insistent? Either way it doesn?t matter? The Slayer thought.

Buffy pressed the call switch on her phone, "Andrew I need you authorize any and all funding for the team in Budapest; make sure Faith has what she needs."

"Yes Miss Summers." Andrew?s whiny voice hadn?t changed in the past fifteen years. But one thing about the boy?man now?was that he was a genius at running the office.

"I?m all yours." She told Giles, getting up from her desk and following him the two doors down to his office. As promised she saw he did indeed have everything set out ? in the form of Willow Rosenberg sitting in the huge chair behind his desk. Buffy felt like she had been punched in the gut as all the air left her body.

"Giles what's the meaning of this??" Buffy questioned, backing away from the office door. ?Gods what's going on here! I thought I had dealt with Willow's betrayal.' She thought, as all the emotions from 8 years ago came rushing back and she was furious. 'Unresolved issues much?' She questioned, as the desire to bolt back to the safety of her office was at war with her need to finish the argument that had started on that night so long ago. Buffy stood, frozen with indecision, as she watched Willow rise from the chair. The red head's face paled as if Buffy was a ghost back from the dead and not her former best friend.

"Giles I thought?." Willow started.

"That you?d be dealing with Faith, yes." Giles finished for her. "Buffy arrived late last night from LA and Faith was called out. Buffy is simply the only Slayer I can pull away from an assignment." He told Willow, walking over to the world map that covered half the wall of his office. "You sounded quite troubled over the phone so I felt that only one of the more experienced Slayers should be sent on this assignment."

Buffy tried to ground her wild emotions in Giles' calm essence as she listened to the Watcher's even voice.

"Yes, of course." Willow agreed, and just as Buffy sought to quiet her anger she saw the Witch taking deep breaths to gather her wits. "I should have known that things would not go according to plan." The bitterness in Willow's words stung Buffy and at the same time added fuel to the fire of her anger.

'If I don't stay mad then I'll be in tears? I didn't realize that Willow's abandonment could still hurt so much!' Buffy couldn't help thinking back to that snowy night 8 years ago. Everything about that night was permanently etched in the Slayer?s mind. She had gone out that night knowing that Willow might never forgive her, but it was still her job. What Buffy didn't realize was that it would be the last time she saw Willow. Her best friend was gone before Buffy was released from the hospital.

And, as far as Buffy knew, it was the last time Willow had anything to do with the new Watcher?s Council, or Witchcraft, or with fighting, "The Good Fight."

The only person Willow had kept in touch with was Dawn?. It was because of Willow's recommendation that Dawn was able to enter Duke.

Buffy came out of her memories to find that Giles had stepped physically between the two women as if he was expecting the last argument they had would continue unabated. And Buffy thought it just might. ?Everything about that night is so fresh ? I can still feel Willow collapsing against me in anguish, as she watched ? No! Don't go there Buffy!' she admonished herself. Buffy couldn't change the past, she couldn't keep Willow from hurting any less, and she would never be able to repair the damage that her calling had caused their friendship.

Though, in the dark of night, the deepest part of her was actually happy that the beautiful hacker had escaped the prison her "Calling" had created.

Buffy came out of her thoughts as Willow walked around the desk and sat again in Giles' chair.

"You are right Mr. Giles." The ex-hacker stressed the title Mister. "I am here strictly for business and on the behalf of the University." She continued, sitting forward in the chair and placing her elbows on the desk. She placidly peered at Buffy. "We lost our marine research vessel last week."

'She wants us to find a boat?' Buffy thought incredulously. "I think you would do better to call the Coast Guard?." Buffy started coolly. The anger she felt still there but she was now able to at least control it somewhat.

"You come in here asking for our help in what?? there was a storm in NC?." Buffy continued, trying to reel in the emotion. She was no longer the teenager, she was Slayer Prime, the general of an army of Slayers.

"You haven't changed!" Willow shouted, standing, and Buffy had to take a step back at the fury. ?Guess I?m not the only one with unresolved issues about that night,? she thought to herself.

"In all these years, you still form opinions about things without all the facts!" The red head stood with her hands clenched at her sides. Buffy watched as her former best friend took huge breaths, trying to calm down.

"They found the boat Buffy." Giles told her quietly. "The Bahamian defense force discovered it floating three days after it left Beaufort, NC over a thousand miles away from its last GPS coordinates."

Buffy pulled her gaze away from Willow's angry face to look at Giles. "O.K. and what aren't you telling me?" Maybe if she could concentrate on Giles she could deal with Willow sitting five feet away.

"Here are the crime scene photos the police in Miami took." Giles handed the folder to Buffy. She walked over to the desk, ignoring Willow completely, and spread the pictures out. Each one told the story of a terrible death and quite of few of the pictures were close ups of two puncture wounds in the neck.

"Vampires." She breathed, looking up, and first time since she walked into Giles office she met Willow's eyes. Buffy saw the dark circles under her eyes that spoke of sleepless nights; she could see the fatigue in the way the Witch's shoulders drooped ? and all the anger ran out of the Slayer.

"Yes." Willow answered, as if the words were forced out through sheer exhaustion. "Not just Vampires though." When she didn't continue Buffy glanced up, questioning. "NOAA contracted us to take readings ahead of Hurricane Max and then circle around it and follow in its wake. Its last reported position was 300 nautical miles southeast from Cape Hatterus." The red head finished, pointing at the map on wall?

"And your point?" Buffy asked confused..

Giles cleared his throat to gain Buffy's attention and then calmly drew three lines on the map.

All Buffy could do then was say "Oh?"

"Exactly." Willow said. "The ship had just entered the Bermuda Triangle and then 3 days later it appears 1000 miles away, on the other side of a major hurricane, and with all aboard slaughtered by vampires." Willow gave an ironic laugh, "only no one knows it was Vampires. Only me. Sunnydale girl knows what true evil is ?."

Buffy turned to Giles then, "How do I get out there?"

"We go, Buffy," Willow interrupted. "I'm going with you."

"No way!" Buffy said. "I will not put a ? civilian in danger." She put as much rancor in the word civilian as she could to cover up for the fact that she almost said friend. Willow just sighed, her eyes downcast.

"We all know that I'm hardly a 'civilian.' Giles and I think that we need to retrace the Research Vessel?s path." Willow told the Slayer as a curtain of red hair covered her face so Buffy couldn't see it. "I know how to handle a smaller boat and NOAA still needs the information about the effects of hurricanes. Another tropical storm has formed and it's projected to become a major hurricane in 4 days." Willow then looked up and Buffy saw the pain etched on her old friend's face. "And I lost someone important to me on that boat."

Buffy watched as Willow's façade nearly crumbled. It only lasted a second but it was long enough for Buffy to know that she wasn't going to be able to keep the Witch from going, so she might as well give in gracefully.

"OK how do 'we' get out there?"

"My plane is waiting at the airport?." Willow answered, now that the decision was made her mood seemed to lift. ?We take sail from Beaufort NC, tomorrow.?

"You fly?" Is what the mighty Slayer Prime asked with a squeak.

"Yes." Willow said flatly and the darkness was back between them. It hurt Buffy but that didn't matter. She had a job to do and one thing she had become in the past 8 years was very good and very professional at killing things.

"I'll go pack." She tried to keep all emotion out of her voice. "You'll brief me on the way?"

At Willow's nod she left to go to her apartment. It was a shock to see the Hacker after all these years but she had a job to do and nothing would get in the way of her performing her sacred duty.