Disclaimer: Characters, and some dialogue, belong to Joss...I own the story, and nothing more.
Spoilers: If you haven't seen the movie, you're going to be lost.:-)
Summery: What would happen if Willow suddenly found herself confronted with a Cordialesque Buffy, and Buffy's former life at Hemery High?
******
"Slug those Monsters!" Buffy rolled her eyes for what seemed like the hundredth time. Here she was trying to forget the strange things that had happened to her today...from the strange appearance by that girl at school...a girl that she could swear she had never seen before, not that it was all that unusual in itself being in a large school like Hemry, but the girl dressed so funny that she was sure she would have recognized her if for the only fact that her friends would have picked on her instantly. That was also the other funny thing about her...although she had never seen her before...she felt like she had known her all of her life. Also there was that strange dude that had stopped the elevator and had looked at her funny, she didn?t even want to know what that was about. He was probably a child molestor or something.
Buffy shook her head, realizing that she had gotten lost in her thoughts at some point, but the point was she was trying to distract herself from those strange happenings by losing herself in a somewhat average horror movie...and she was being prevented from doing that by two scruffy looking drunk losers who were sitting right behind her. She had asked them politely to shut up...well, she had threw a piece of licorice at one of them, but they were being way obnoxious.
"God...like we don?t have rights too." Kimberly complained.
"Ignore them...just ignore them, okay?" Buffy said, turning her attention back to the action on the screen. Her friends started laughing again, and the loser behind her acted up again.
"I can?t believe these people. We paid good money to see this."
"No, we didn?t." The other one said in a hushed voice, trying to avoid getting attention directed to him.
"No...we didn?t." The first one, repeated, as if the realization had just sunk into his drunk brain. Buffy would have liked nothing more than to report the two losers, but they shut up after that and she lost herself in the movie again...thinking of what might happen with Jeffery later...if he was lucky.
*****
The jerks ran into them again, litteraly, on their way out of the Pavilion, and they exchanged a few choice words with them, but then Buffy saw her boyfriend pulling up to the curb, and her attention span was completely taken up by his adorable face. Two of his friends were in the car with him, Andy and Greuller, although it looked like Greuller was getting out and was saying something about booking it, but she only had eyes for her hunky boyfriend. She moved away from the pack and made her way to the car, straddling across Andy, who was riding shotgun, to reach Jeffery and share her licorice with him.
Andy took a long look at the sight Buffy had unwittingly presented to him...her polka dotted covered bottom, and started drooling. "Jeffery, I don?t want to sound sexist or anything. But, can I borrow her?"
"Andy!" Buffy said in disgust as she crawled out of the car and gave him a dirty look.
"No way. You?d get her dirty." Jeffery said, although he was somewhat amused. "He would, honey. He?s an animal."
Buffy rolled her eyes at the antics of the two stooges. "See you at my house." She said, as she started to walk back to her friends.
"Don?t look." Jeffery said, slapping Andy upside the head, as Andy?s eyes followed the curvaceous form as it walked away.
*****
Greuller walked quickly through the amusement park, his hands stuffed in his pockets as he tried to avoid the cold breeze that chilled the night air. He wasn?t in the best of moods, having gotten razzed at by his friends for sucking on the basketball court. It wasn?t his fault he wasn?t exactly the MVP of the year. Coach always gave him mixed signals. What was worse is that Jeffery never seemed to want to hang out and party anymore. All Jeffery seemed to want to do these days is party privately with busty Buffy.
As he walked, he got the eerie feeling that someone was following him. He stopped for a second, looking around at his surroundings, but he couldn?t see anybody. The uneasy feeling was still pulling at his belly, but he started walking again, faster than he had been before. He took a few steps before he heard somebody start to laugh behind him, and he froze in place.
"Oh man. I am so not in the mood for this." He said, fear and anger swimming around inside him. "Okay. Whoever?s behind me better be gone when I turn around." He hoped that he sounded forceful, and not the scared chicken that he felt like he was. He waited a second, taking a deep breath, and then turned letting the air out in a soft gasp as he saw a strange man, sitting side-saddle on a carousel horse, grinning menacingly at him.
"What are you, some kind of wierdo or something. Huh?!" The strange man just grinned at him, and he felt the anger turning into unrelenting fear. Before he could question his own manliness at running away like a little girl, he turned and ran across the park toward the far gate.
The lunatic started laughing again, he could hear it behind him as he ran, and he felt his bowels release at the fright it caused in him.
"Oh man...oh man...oh man..." He chanted as he ran, feeling the wetness seep into his shorts, as his breath came in short pants. He had just made it to the gate, and was starting to think he was going to get away from the maniac, when he felt strong arms gripping his shoulders in an Iron tight grip and felt sharp pain erupting in his neck as sharp teeth sank into his flesh. He tried to fight it at first, his muscles pulling with futility against the madman?s strength, but he soon felt his own strength dwindling, being sucked away with every strong slurp he heard pulling at his neck. "Mommy." Was the last clear thought he had, before a red haze washed over his eyesight leaving him in darkness.
*****
Willow walked cautiously through the large spacious house that looked remarkably like Angel?s mansion had, and wondered how the Watcher?s council had managed to get Merrick such a large house for Buffy to train in, when Giles didn?t have anything bigger than a small apartment. She could feel Merrick?s eyes on her as she studied the place, he no doubt had many questions for her, but she wasn?t exactly sure where to start, or how much she should tell him.
It had made for a very quiet car ride, after that first revealing fact, Willow suddenly wondering if she should be revealing all to this man after all. She knew that he had been Buffy?s first watcher, and that he had trained Buffy in all that she had known...right up to the point where Giles had taken over. Buffy had even spoken very highly of Merrick, in the few times she had actually mentioned his name. She knew that not being able to save him was still a sore spot for Buffy, and had been one of the major reasons she had renounced Slaying when she had first moved to SunnyDale. She wondered idly if that was why she was here, was she really meant to save Buffy?s first watcher, preventing the scarring that had no doubt caused Buffy?s reluctance to slay once she had reached SunnyDale, and thereby causing the chain of events that had happened after, with the master.
Or was she merely a bystander to these events, meant merely to watch them play out for some unfathonable reason. Could she even have a lasting effect on events that had already happened. Since she wasn?t exactly sure how or why she had come to be here, how much could she really reveal without having some unforeseen consequence. There was too much she just didn?t know. The only option that remained for her was too tell Merrick as much as she did know, without crossing certain lines. She only hoped that she would know what those lines were before she crossed them.
Merrick watched the fascinating young girl as she examined his living space. There was such knowledge behind the emerald gaze, he had noticed that right off, while they had still been standing in the mall, but there was something else there as well, something he couldn?t quite put his finger on. If she were telling the truth about being from the future, that could explain the peculiar emanations that were coming from her in waves. But he couldn?t help feeling that there was so much more to be known about this quirky, young individual.
Like her name for instance, it struck him just then that he didn?t even know what her name was. He cleared his throat and waited for the young woman to turn her eyes away from the old ornate mirror she had been studying with a certain degree of fascination. When the eyes met his, he once again felt the oddness that appeared to be a permanent halo around her. "I?m sure I should have asked this earlier, but I?m not even sure what to call you."
The green eyes lit up with a certain amount of amusement, while a quirky grin lit up her face. "My name is Willow Rosenberg Su...Uh...but you can call me Willow." Merrick caught a ghost of something float across the red head?s cheeks, before she smiled it away, flopping down on the oversized couch, and looking up at him with an unreadable _expression_. Willow could have kicked herself for almost giving that vital piece of information away...the man didn?t have to know everything about her, after all...and some things were just meant to remain...private.
Merrick nodded, while taking off his coat and hat, seeming to be digesting what she had just said. Yes there was certainly more to this individual than what first met the eyes, Merrick concluded, before taking a seat across from her. "Well since you already know my name, I?d say we?ve been properly introduced, wouldn?t you?" Willow nodded, much to the Watcher?s satisfaction. "Good, then you won?t mind me asking you a few questions, then?" He watched as the somber eyes turned inward, apparently considering what he had said, before she came to a conclusion.
"You can ask...I?m not sure I?ll be able to answer all of them, though I?ll answer the ones I can." He nodded, sure that was the best he supposed he could expect to get, then thought about what he?d like to ask her first.
"You say you?re from the future...Buffy?s future to be more exact, and you seem to know a lot about Watcher?s...though we?ll get to that in a moment, how did you come to be here in this particular part of Buffy?s ?history?."
Willow could tell that the Watcher wasn?t sure if he believed her story or not, though that could be expected...she wasn?t sure if she?d believe it if she wasn?t absolutely sure that she was experiencing it herself, but she wasn?t quite sure how she could convince him either. "I don?t know." She answered simply, laying her biggest problem out on the table. "I don?t even know what I?m doing here, or even if there is a reason, though I?m sure there must be...this couldn?t just be a coincedence or an accident of some kind...could it?" She could see the Watcher?s eyes getting bigger and bigger the longer she talked, and forced her lips to clamp down on the words that wanted to continue spouting out. "Sorry...I tend to babble when I?m nervous."
"That?s all right. It would probably be a good idea if we shelved that problem for later, though." Merrick said, reasonably, and Willow had to agree.
"How much do you know about Watcher?s and what they do?" Once again, an unreadable smile lit up the young woman?s face giving him an idea that she was quite familiar with Watcher?s even before she commented.
"Do you want the whole story...or the abridged version?" Willow asked, knowing that the whole story would probably take until sunrise to finish.
"The abridged...please."
"Well...I know there are vampires in the world..." And demons...sorcerers...witches...Willow could have gone on forever but by the look on Merrick?s face, he was stunned to just know that she knew Vampires existed. "In every generation a Slayer is born...one girl in all the world with the strength to fight and kill vampires." The statement was not quite exact, but it was close enough to cause Merrick to stare at her in wide eyed wonder.
"You know." Merrick said at last, wondering once again just who this remarkable girl was.
"I know." She acknowledged, ruefully. "It?s kind of a side effect from living on top of the Hell mouth." Willow shrugged her shoulders, as if that explained it all.
*****
The dark vampire walked almost noiselessly across the dark crypt, toward the coffin that lay in the center of the stone dais. "Sleep my master. My own. Sleep." He knelt in front of the coffin, pledging his legience to his master. "I have already begun building you a new family. Soon we will be legion. When you rise we will claim this place as our own. Rubies will drip from your lips." The eyes took on a firey glow as he stared unseeingly at the visions of mayhem and murder that danced in his head. "Soon."
*****
Willow had told Merrick as much as she knew about the Watcher?s council, and Slayer?s, leaving out certain pertinent details from the future, like the Council?s betrayal of the Slayer...and the fact that it was possible for two Slayer?s to be called at the same time...until Buffy?s temporary death, that hadn?t been known. But she was confident that Merrick did believe her.
"There is still the minor problem of you being from the future. I?m not sure how much you should mingle with the Buffy of your past. It could have some unforeseeable consequences to your present, things we couldn?t even begin to speculate on. Under the circumstances, you couldn?t have come at a worse time. I still have a Slayer to call and make ready to do her duty. You could only get in the way."
Willow wasn?t sure if she liked Merrick?s delegation of her as a potential problem. "On the other hand, I could have been sent here to help Buffy in some way. If I can?t see her, how can I help her."
"You don?t know that for sure, though. Do you?" Merrick asked, his tone turning cold. "I can?t have you interfering with my mission. If something happens to Buffy, because you interfered..."
"How dare you?" Willow cut his speech off before he could continue any further. "You don?t even know Buffy. You?ve seen her once...at the mall...and most likely think that she?s the worst choice of a Slayer the powers that be could ever possibly make. But I know Buffy. She?s done more for me than I could ever possibly repay, and I l...I would never do anything to hurt her."
The fire that this young one possessed surprised the Watcher, and he found himself rethinking his previous position. "I?m sorry. I never meant to imply that you would do anything to hurt Buffy. You?re right...she?s not the type of girl I would have chosen, she appears far too capricious for what this job entails...but It?s not my job to choose her, it?s just my job to train her, and I will do that to the best of my ability. But that still might not be enough...she should have been told about all of this long before now, but she was somehow lost in the cracks and I wasn?t sure it was her until tonight. She has a lot to learn in a very short period of time. And she will most likely fight me every step of the way. The transition might be easier for her if I have your help."
Willow stared at the old Watcher for long moments, wondering just what would be asked of her, and if she really could be around Buffy without revealing...too much. "Can I count on your support?" Merrick asked, watching the shifting emotions that were swirling in the depths of her green eyes.
Willow nodded, almost feeling like she was making a pact with the devil.
To be continued...