FIC: The red headed Slayer 11b/?

["jend1205" <jend1205@xxxxxxxxx>]

Willow just stood in the doorway looking at the older woman, "Miss 
me?"

Joyce jumped at the Slayer pulling her into a hug, "Willow, I'm so 
glad to see you again. Where have you been and why the hell are you 
holding a cross in your hands? Where's Dawn?"

"Well I figured after my absence it would be easier then everyone 
checking my pulse when they saw me. Where I've been&it's a really 
long story and you won't believe it. Hell I lived it and I sometimes 
can't believe it. Dawn's across the street at home. You have no idea 
how good it is to see you again after all this time," Willow answered 
and hugged her again. "Where is everyone?" Willow inquired but no 
sooner had the words escaped her mouth the wet, rowdy group came in 
the back door.

"By herself?"

"Not exactly," Willow mumbled.

"Mom, where's the hot chocolate?" Buffy yelled from the kitchen.

Willow sighed and went into the kitchen, "Um, hey guys."

Silence fell over the room as each one took in the sight of the 
missing Slayer standing in front of them.  Buffy was the first one to 
break the silence, "Will?"

"In the flesh," she answered.

"Oh god. Is it really you?" Buffy whispered. 

"Yeah, Buff."

Buffy launched herself at the Slayer only to be sidestepped by 
Willow. "Huh?" Buffy asked confused by the action.

"You're wet," Willow proclaimed pointing to the blonde. "Why doesn't 
everyone get cleaned up, then we can all sit down and I'll explain 
everything."

"I'll finish the hot chocolate, maybe find some cookies," Joyce 
mumbled gather cups from the cabinet.

"I got it, Joyce. Go get dry," Willow said and took over for the 
older woman.

Giles watched the group file out of the kitchen and turned to his 
Slayer, "It's good to see you home, Willow."

"Two weeks, Giles. I've only been gone two weeks here," Willow 
uttered shaking her head.

"Here? Willow where have you been?" Giles questioned.

Willow pours the drinks and threw some cookies onto the tray before 
turning and asking, "How much do you know about alternate universes?"

"Not much, I've heard theories of their existence. No one has ever 
proven any of them," Giles answered, clinically.

"Oh their real, very real," Willow confided. Seeing the Watcher's 
brow raise in confusion, she told him, "Why don't we take this in and 
see if everyone's ready."

"Of course, I'm sure you would prefer not to have to repeat 
everything twice."

Willow sighed, "Yeah, I think this is going to be hard enough to talk 
about once."

"Were you hurt?" Giles questioned, his voice taking on a concerned 
tone.

"Not really&maybe a little but it wasn't exactly the person's fault 
who took me there. It was something that happened many years later."

"Many years?" Giles choked on his tea. "How long where you there?"

"Time moved differently there," Willow vaguely answered and moved to 
stand in the window, glancing out to keep an eye on her house.

After everyone had reassembled back in the living room with dry 
clothes on and had settled down Willow looked over the group. "God 
you look so young," Willow whispered.

"So you were kidnapped to a Alternate Universe?" Giles asked, 
starting the conversation.

"Yes, one very much like this one, with a few adjustments," Willow 
answered. "You guys understand what an A.U. is, right?" Willow asked 
and then waited for the nods. "Good didn't want to have to explain 
that one. Why too time consuming."

"How long?" Giles questioned his Slayer again.

"Time moved faster there, then here. Dawn and I have been gone for 
two weeks here but we were in the AU for fourteen years," Willow 
announced and then waited for the outbursts.

The silence in the room became deafening to the Slayer until the roar 
of questions erupted in the small room. 

"What?" Buffy yelled, her voice carrying over everyone else's.

A high-pitched whistle plunged the room back into silence. Everyone 
turned toward the sound, "Ok, now that I have everyone attention 
again, maybe we could do this one question at a time. Giles?"

Giles took a calming breath and a sip of tea before beginning, "So 
you were kidnapped and taken to this alternate reality, by whom and 
for what purpose?"

"Well the whom is easy and the what is a lot more complicated. Who 
would be a guy named Ethan Rayne. Ring any bells, Giles?" Willow 
asked her Watcher. 

"Oh bloody hell I should have known. I thought I recognized the 
signature but it was different then the Ethan I knew," Giles 
exclaimed, shaking his head.

"I'm sure it was. It was the Ethan from the other world. Don't blame 
yourself; I really don't think there was anything anyone could have 
done anyway. The why, well I guess this is a longer story and from 
here on out any time I talk about someone, I'm talking about the 
other world's person. It could get really confusing. Ethan was 
working for a military group called the Initiative. It was lead by a 
professor named Maggie Walsh. The Initiative was capturing and 
studying demons. They also killed quite a few. In theory the group 
could have been a good thing but there was also a very dark side that 
very few knew about, not even the soldiers that were assigned to the 
group. The Initiative had at least two different experiments going 
on. The first and most dangerous one was a demon and human hybrid, 
named Adam. The second was what I was kidnapped for," Willow finished 
and waited for the gang to catch up.

"What was it?" Joyce questioned, softly.

"Before I go into all that, how about I give you some history about 
the world I was taken to?" Willow asked and caught her breath before 
continuing. "Well like I said the cast of characters were pretty much 
the same as they are here with the exception of a few added and a 
couple taken away. The gang there was older then you guys. When I met 
them they were in their first year of college. Buffy was the slayer 
there. Xander wasn't much different there. Willow and yes she was 
there too, was a witch. Boy was that ever confusing for both of us. 
After it was decided that I was probably going to be stuck there for 
a while I took on the identity of her twin sister Anne."

Giles raised his eyebrow and interrupted the Slayer, "Why Anne?"

"Well there's a back story to that. After the other Buffy came to 
Sunnydale, she fell in love with a vampire with a soul. Yes there was 
an Angel in that world too. He was almost the same except for his 
curse had a happy clause; if he experienced one moment of true 
happiness he would lose his soul. Apparently sex with Buffy equals a 
happy for that Angel. I'm just going to say that our Angel doesn't 
have that peculiar clause on his soul, nor does Spike. Long story 
short, he tormented her friends and family, then tried to bring hell 
to earth. Jenny of that world had been sent by her gypsy clan to 
monitor Angel and had finally figured out how to re-curse Angelus but 
he killed her before she had the chance. Willow found her work and 
tried but Angelus sent his minions to stop her.  Buffy had died 
fighting the Master, much like me except she drowned. A new Slayer 
had been called, Kendra. Angelus minions, included his childe Dru, 
she was a loony bitch and Spike. A.U. Spike hadn't been with Angel 
and therefore never cursed killed Kendra. Willow was put into a coma 
from a falling bookcase. Anyway Buffy went to stop Angelus, she was 
going to stake him. Willow woke up and finally succeeded in cursing 
Angel but not until he had opened the portal. The only thing that 
could stop it was his blood. So Buffy had no choice but send the man 
she loved to hell," Willow paused again to catch her breath.

"How sad," Tara muttered, a tear rolling down her cheek.

"Yeah, I think she kind of lost it right then. She ran away. She told 
me later how she had hide and watched her gang as they stood on the 
front steps of the school the day she left. She said that she almost 
didn't leave but it hurt so much to see how bad her friends had been 
hurt. She said she felt responsible because it had been her that had 
unleashed Angelus. Anne was the name she used in LA when she ran 
away. It seemed as good as any to me. The rest of you&well Cordy, you 
left after high school and went to work for the returned Angel. Don't 
ask it's a long story. He came back, soul and all. He left after 
graduation, went to LA and started a detective agency. Giles, you are 
much more relaxed in this world. Giles there was stuffy and wore way 
too much tweed. Buffy told me he was even worse in the beginning. You 
weren't involved with Joyce, well there was this one thing that Buffy 
called the band candy incident but she wouldn't talk about it much. 
Tara you had just came on the scene about the same time as I did. 
Willow boyfriend had cheated on her and left. She took it pretty hard 
but met you at a Wicca meeting. I got there just after something 
called the Gentlemen; I guess the whole town lost their voice. Nasty 
things from what I heard. Tara went looking for Will to do a spell 
but almost got them killed. They hid in a laundry room and between 
them managed to move a vending machine. They were still trying to 
figure out things when I came in. A.U. Tara was much more shy then 
you, Tara. They finally did hook up. Joyce, you were around for about 
a year before you died of a brain tumor," Willow chocked and stopped, 
the memories too much for her. 

"Oh god," Buffy cried and took her mother's hand.

"Yeah, it just about killed us all. None of them had a very strong 
mother figure in their life and losing her was like losing their own 
mother's if not harder. Buffy was devastated, I think if it hadn't 
been for her responsibilities she had, she would have just let the 
vamps get her," Willow said. 

"Which were, well besides slaying?" Joyce asked saddened by the death 
of her counterpart and the pain it must have caused to the children 
there.

"I'll save that for later. Willow and Tara moved in with Buffy then, 
to help her. At the time we were also fighting Glory, a hell god. It 
made for a pretty tough time for the scoobies and yes they called 
themselves that too. Glory had been kicked out of her dimension and 
needed the `Key' to get back. We had the `Key'. She thought that it 
was Tara. Tara and Will had a fight and Tara went out alone. Glory 
got her and sucked her mind. I am trying to give you a shorten 
version for time so please excuse the gaps. Tara was for all sense of 
purpose a vegetable. Glory finally figured out who the `Key' was and 
kidnapped her," Willow sighed, her thoughts returning to that day and 
how scared Buffy and her had been.

"Who was she?" Giles asked.

Giles question brought Willow back to her story, "Later, Giles, it 
sort of fits in with the story of my kidnapping. Ok back to the 
readers digest version, the ritual for Glory to get back home 
required her to use the life force of the `Key' to open a portal to 
her dimension. She was now a normal person so her life force was now 
blood; she had to bleed the `Key'. Once the portal was opened the 
only way to stop it was to end the flow of blood. So the scoobies 
went to war. We found the location of the ritual, Willow was able to 
return Tara mind, which weakened Glory but it was too late. She had 
help and this guy had already started the ritual. Buffy took care of 
Glory and I went to rescue the `Key'. I made my up the platform all 
the crazy people had built for Glory. I fought the guy and threw him 
off. I stopped the flow of blood and the portal closed. World saved 
again."

"How did you stop it?" Giles asked.

"I tied my shirt around the wound, thus stopping the blood," Willow 
stated, staring at the disbelieving faces of her friends.

"That's all it took?" Buffy wondered out loud.

"I know it seemed to good to be true but it worked. Buffy managed to 
get the better of Glory and she died in her human form. The next year 
was very hard for us all but mostly for Willow. We had to go up 
against a trio of nerds. Willow became addicted to dark magic and 
Tara left her. Xander was supposed to get married to an ex-vengeance 
demon named Anya but left her at the alter. Buffy was distant to us 
all. Willow finally kicked the addiction and Tara returned to her. A 
few days later Warren after being beat by Buffy one to many times 
showed up at the house with a gun. He shot Buffy and a stray bullet 
went through the upstairs window, killing Tara instantly. Will lost 
control and went after Warren. We tried to stop her, she ended up 
kicking Buffy ass, nearly killing Giles, and then threatened to turn 
the `Key' back to her natural state. Giles had left, returned to 
England on council business and had learned about things from a coven 
there. He returned bring with him the powers of this coven. Willow 
took them; it caused her to feel the pain of the world. Will, if 
possible lost it more and tried to end the world. If it hadn't been 
for Xander talking her down, I don't think we would have won that 
one," Willow paused again, letting the group catch up.

"And this all happened in the first two years?" Joyce questioned.

"Yup, but it gets even better&worse? Anyway Will took off with Giles 
to study with the coven in England. The rest of us tried to deal with 
the loss of Tara and move forward with our lives. In the fall Willow 
returned and the next big bad showed its face. The First was just 
that, the first evil. We almost didn't win. It destroyed the council 
and was killing potential Slayers around the world. Giles showed up 
one day with three of them. The next thing we know we became Slayer 
central. There were potentials everywhere in the house. Finally Buffy 
came up with a plan. Willow was going to activate all of the 
potentials everywhere. We went, we fought, we won. Again like I said 
this is a very short version of a much longer story. There were 
losses. We lost Anya in the final battle and a newly souled Spike. We 
also gained some things, Will moved on and became involved with one 
of the potentials and we also gained a shit load of Slayers. Buffy, 
Faith and I were now not the only Slayers."

"Who's Faith?" Xander asked.

"She replaced Kendra in the Scoobies senior year, she went bad, Buffy 
put her in a coma, she eventually woke up. She went to jail for 
killing a human and finally tried to find redemption. She came back 
to help with the fight with the First. After the battle Sunnydale was 
just a big pile of rubble. The council was gone and we had hundreds, 
if not thousands of Slayers that needed to be trained. So we moved on 
to the next hellmouth. It was in Cleveland. Is it the same here, 
Giles?" Willow asked the Watcher.

"Close, Columbus, it's under a college stadium there," Giles informed 
her.

"Hmm, that explain a lot," Willow replied.

"Huh?"

"Have ever been to Columbus? Those people are fanatical about their 
college football. It's weird. Anyway&Buffy and I retired. Faith and 
Xander went off to find the Slayers and bring them to Cleveland, 
where we were rebuilding the council. Willow and Giles were in charge 
of that. Buffy trained them to fight and I was in charge of their 
education. I became a teacher. The Cleveland hellmouth was nothing 
like the Sunnydale one. It was much calmer. We had no more big bad's 
for the next eleven years. We trained and taught the Slayers. We lost 
only four to mystical forces. Buffy was killed my thirteenth year 
there. She died in a car accident. A year later Riley Finn, Buffy ex 
who had been a solider with the Initiative, called and reported that 
they had captured Ethan Rayne. We brought him back to Cleveland and 
after he told us how different time moved between the worlds forced 
him to return us," Willow sighed, missing her friends she had made in 
the fourteen years she'd spent there.

"Wow," Buffy said, her mind rolling the information around in her 
mind.

"Yes, um&wow," Giles, pronounced uncharacteristically. 

"So you're how old now?" Joyce asked.

"Well here I'm still 21 or 17 but there I was 35 or 31, depending on 
what age you consider me here," Willow said, thoughtfully.

"And Dawn?" Tara asked.

"17, she a junior in high school now."

"Oh my god," Joyce exclaimed, thinking about the toddler she babysat 
for.

"She a very intelligent young women. I'm very proud of her," Willow 
said, the pride showing on her face for her adopted daughter.

"This is just too much," Buffy said and got up to pace the floor.

"Willow what was the experiment this Initiative wanted you for?" 
Giles asked.

"Oh boy, well this is going to be weird for you all. They needed two 
Slayers for the experiment and they felt Faith was too unstable. Plus 
she was in a coma and that just didn't fit in with their plans. So 
they had Ethan bring me there. They wanted to see what a child 
between two Slayers would be like; they were hoping to activate her 
and train her for themselves. Maybe eventually clone her and creating 
an entire army of Slayer soldiers. They had Buffy's DNA from when she 
had worked briefly with them. They were going to use Dawn to force me 
to comply," Willow growled, never having completely gotten over that 
dark time.

"Did they succeed?" Giles inquired. 

"Um&well&" Willow started.




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Willow: "It's a good fight, Buffy, and I want in."
Buffy:  "I kinda love you."
                     'Choices'

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