FF...Iris 1/?

["gussihoo" <mattiesilver@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Title: Iris
Pairing: B/W
Rating: PG-13 for a little violence, some f/f and a dry sence of 
humour.
Spoilers: None, really..this fic lives in and around season 4. 
That's about it.
Disclaimer: Joss owns all..except for Iris, who belongs to me. 
(Though I don't think SHE would like to hear that..) :P
Summary: Buffy comes up against a foe she can't defeat, and 
Willow steps in.
Author's Note: I began this a couple of years ago, and never 
finished it. I'd actually forgotten about it. I found it again a few 
days ago, and I have decided to finish it. I have taken some 
liberties with the back story, and omitted two entire seasons. Hope 
y'all don't mind. ;) It is not beta read, so if there are mistakes in 
it, I am profoundly sorry. Also..I don't have a lot of time on my 
hands, so I may not update very often. I WILL, however, try. :) 
Anyway..hope you like.



Iris: Part 1


Buffy Summers delivered a thudding blow to the midsection of a 
female vamp, knocking the creature unceremoniously onto its backside.
"Honestly. You'd think you guys would learn. I mean, I'm the 
Slayer...the Chosen One. You don't stand a chance..." Buffy pulled 
Mr. Pointy from her jacket and in doing so noticed that her passion 
pink nailpolish was chipped beyond any repair. She narrowed her eyes 
and advanced on the vamp slowly, pinning her with her gaze. "And my 
nailpolish is ruined. Do you know how long it took me to put it on? 
No, I guess you wouldn't..being DEAD and all.." On the word "dead", 
Buffy slammed Mr.Pointy into the vamp's heart, effectively ridding 
Sunnydale of another of its life-challenged citizens. 
The Slayer brushed the vamp dust from her pants, damning the 
Hellmouth for what could have been the millionth time. Her 
drycleaning bills were attrocious, and she was getting tired of 
coming up with explanations for the lady at the cleaners as to why 
her clothes were constantly covered in dust and maggots.
Being the Slayer was hard, and though Buffy tried to make light 
of it as much as possible, it was becoming harder. Though she was 
getting stronger and more skilled, she felt more alone than she ever 
had. Being the Chosen One..emphasis on the word "one"..was a very 
lonely situation. The only thing that made Buffy's life less 
impossible was the knowlege that she had friends who understood what 
she was, and loved her for who she was. 
Buffy sighed and resumed her patrol. She hadn't seen her friends 
in days. Giles was busy with Olivia, Xander was busy with Anya...and..
"Wills?" Buffy was suddenly alert. The air nearly crackled with 
Willowness, and Buffy spun around, coming face to face with the 
person she missed most.
Willow looked surprised.
"How did you know it was me?" she asked, her eyebrows threatening 
to disappear into her hairline.
Buffy engulfed the little wiccan into a bone crushing hug, 
thrilling at the feel of Willow's arms wrapping slowly around her 
waist.
"Guess I have a Willow-sense, too." Buffy mumbled into her 
friend's neck. 
"Oh," came Willow's muffled, not to mention witty, reply. Buffy's 
breath on her neck was very distracting.
Buffy reluctantly pulled away from Willow, but kept hold of her 
hands.
"When did you get back? And why didn't you tell me sooner? "Buffy 
scolded gently.
"I..well..I got back an hour ago..Mom just dropped me off. I 
dumped my stuff in our room, and came looking for you." Willow stared 
at the ground, trying to hide the faint blush that had crept up into 
her cheeks. Willow had been able to think of nothing but finding 
Buffy. In fact, her stuff had narrowly escaped being thrown into the 
dorm room due to her eagerness to see the Slayer.
"Well...spill..did you have fun?"
Willow frowned and shook her head emphatically. 
"I didn't see a lot of it. I spent a lot of quality time with my 
laptop, while my parents went here and there." Willow replied wryly.
"Bummer, Wills." Buffy pouted.
"I looked out the window a lot."
Buffy shook her head.
"Always looking on the bright side, aren't you?"
"There was nothing bright about it. It rained the whole 
time"...*and I missed you...horribly*, Willow tacked on in her head. 
Impulsively, Willow pulled Buffy in for another hug, somehow not 
capable of stopping herself. "I had a lot of time to think while I 
was away, and there's something I kinda want to talk about with 
you..."
Buffy was unaware Willow was even speaking at first. She was 
still completely caught up in the cuddliness of Willow's hug. Willow 
could hug with her entire body. Even her scent seemed to wrap around 
Buffy, like comforting arms. It was a smell she hadn't even been 
aware she'd missed, until she smelled it again. Then it dawned on 
Buffy that she was being spoken to, and that Will's voice was 
becoming more and more tentative.
"Buffy...I...if you don't want to talk, we don't have 
to..really...some other time.." Willow began to pull away, but Buffy 
caught her hand and pulled her back.
"What did you want to talk about Wills?" Buffy queried 
earnestly.
"I..well..I wanted to tell you that..." Willow began, but was 
interrupted by a fierce snarling coming from the woods on her left.
Buffy was instantly alert and standing between Willow and the sound.
"Stay back, ok? Don't move. I'm gonna see what's in there." 
Buffy hadn't even taken a step, though, when someone leapt from the 
bushes, and landed, cat-like, on all fours in front of her.
Willow gasped and grabbed hold of the back of Buffy's jacket, 
peeking over Buffy's shoulder at the creature. There was no doubt 
about the fact that it was female. Very female, and very beautiful. 
Achingly so. Willow caught her breath as the vamp stood up and smiled 
a fanged smile.
"Slayer," it hissed. "I've been looking for you."
Buffy, who had been temporarily taken aback, jumped into action.
"Oh, really?" She began to stride coolly toward the intruder. 
"Well, it looks as though you've made a huge mistake. I don't know if 
you noticed, but I slay vampires..and it looks as though you are a 
vampire.." Buffy did not finish her sentence, due to the fist that 
landed squarely on her mouth. Buffy hit the ground hard, and Willow 
bent down to help her up.
"Are you..?"
"Yeah, I'm fine..I just..how did she.." Buffy began absently, 
and then lunged at her attacker full force. She landed blow 
blow on the creature, but none of them had any effect at all. 
Buffy was getting really pissed off and soon, Mr. Pointy made 
his inevitable appearance. The vamp giggled.
"What do you think you're going to do with that?"
"I'm going to wittle it...what do you think?" Buffy
answered testily.
"It won't work, you know."
"I'd still like to find out for myself, thank you."
Buffy thrust the stake into the vamp's heart, and the vamp 
simply smiled her fangy smile.
"Told you. It won't work." The stake had gone in, and now it 
stuck out of the creature at a 90 degree angle.
"What the..." was Buffy's oh-so-eloquent exclamation.
"YOU can't kill me, Slayer," and with that parting remark, the 
creature was gone. 
Willow had no idea exactly which moment her jaw had dropped, 
but her tongue was dry, so her mouth must have been hanging open 
throughout most of the encounter. She shut it with a click, and then 
poked a very stunned Buffy.
"Giles?"
"Uh..yeah..I think so.." Buffy managed.


Buffy, Willow, Xander, Giles, and a very unwelcome Spike sat 
around Gile's livingroom rehashing the incident.
"It was like she was completely immune to Buffy.." Willow was 
saying, her eyebrows knit in confusion.
"Yeah. I even staked her. She just laughed at me." Buffy added 
indignantly. 
"Now Buffy," began Giles in a tentative voice "are you sure it 
was a vampire? Could it have been another type of demon?"
"It was a vamp. I know vamps."
Willow nodded in agreement.
"Well, I'll have to look this up. I can't think of an explanation 
offhand." Giles rose from the couch and went in search of a book that 
might hold the answer to the latest riddle.
Spike, who had been very silent throughout the entire exchange, 
finally gave in to his curiousity and asked the question that had 
been occupying his mind.
"Don't think I'm trying to help. I wouldn't help you lot if I 
was living on rat blood.."
"Which you just may be if you keep it up, bucko." Xander 
interjected. Spike just glared at him murderously and continued.
"But, what did she look like...and did she tell you her name?"
"No...no name.." Buffy glanced at Willow "but she was definitely 
beautiful, wasn't she Wills?"
Willow nodded emphatically at the memory.
"She was red-headed; darker red than mine, and she had the 
whitest skin, blue eyes...."
Spike looked as though he'd been hit in the gut.
Xander couldn't resist.
"What's the matter? Rat got your tongue?" 
Spike ignored him, growing paler, if that was possible.
"Iris." Spike breathed.
"Who?" came the collective question.
"Iris. The vampire Buffy and Willow met tonight. I...she.."
At that moment, Giles came rushing into the room holding an open 
book, and looking very nervous.


"I've found something that may be what we're looking for. There 
is a vampire by the name of Iris, and it seems.." Giles adjusted his 
glasses, and then adjusted them again. "It seems she slays Slayers. 
Her strength is second to no Slayer, in fact, she is completely 
invicible to a Slayer's attacks, while she has the power to kill a 
Slayer easily."
"So..you mean to say that she is sort of the vampire Chosen One? 
Kinda like the champion of darkness?" Willow shivered as she spoke.
"Yes..exactly," Giles frowned. "The watcher's council have come 
up against her a few times during history, and have lost dismally. I 
never expected..."
"How do I kill her?" Buffy wondered aloud.
"You can't," Spike said in a strained voice before Giles had a 
chance to answer. "She's not like other vampires. As much as I hate 
to admit it, you could kill me in a second..but you couldn't even 
harm her."
"Spike is right. Buffy, you can't kill her. In fact, it would be 
best if you didn't patrol until we're rid of her."
"Well, how long will that be? I can't just not patrol." Buffy was 
becoming annoyed.
"I don't know Buffy. It doesn't say in here how she can be 
killed..but one thing is for certain. Sunnydale will be permanently 
without protection if you die," Giles pointed out, a flicker of pain 
shadowing his face. "I may not be your watcher anymore, but I'm not 
going to let you risk yourself needlessly."
"What are we going to do?" Willow choked out.
Giles kicked himself mentally. What he was about to do went 
against his grain, but he would have done anything to help Buffy.
"Spike.." Giles began. "You seem to know her. Do you know of any 
way she can be killed?"
Spike crossed his arms and glared around the room.
"I said I wasn't helping." came his grumpy reply, but then he 
caught sight of Xander making a rat face and seemed to change his 
mind. "Ok, ok! I hate the bitch anyway. She was my first. I
turned her, and showed her how to live as a vampire. When she 
discovered that she was special, she didn't need me anymore...she..
"Spare us the sordid details and get to the point." Giles 
interjected, his tone testy.
"Fine. The person who kills her must be pure of heart, and must 
genuinely love, and want to protect, the Slayer." Spike sing-songed, 
looking as though he wanted to be sick. "But, that kind of thing is 
very rare."
Everyone considered Spike's solution, and then turned and stared 
at Willow. Her arm was around Buffy, and Buffy's cheek rested on her 
shoulder.
"What?" Willow was startled. "Do you really think I could..I 
mean..honestly..look at me. I'm a wimp...and my spells aren't even 
advanced enough to give her a nosebleed. I want to help, but I don't 
think I'd be any use."
"She has to be staked. Nothing else will work." said Spike.
Buffy lifted her head and stood up.
"Look, this is my problem. I'm not going to put Wills in danger. 
I'm the Slayer..all of this is my problem."
Willow made a sudden decision. She couldn't stand to see Buffy 
taking another huge weight on her shoulders, feeling as though it was 
her duty to lug it around herself.
"You wouldn't be putting me in danger," Willow whispered. "It's 
my decision whether I do this or not..and I am going to do it."
"But, Wills..I.."
"It's final. Tomorrow you show me how to use a stake." Willow 
grabbed Buffy by the sleeve and pulled her toward the door.
"Where are we going?" Buffy asked, surprised.
"Home. I'm tired, and we need to talk."