FIC: The Two - [5/?] - R

[Andy Stoffel <see2go4me@xxxxxxxxx>]

TITLE:  The Two (5/?)
AUTHOR: -Andy- see2go4me@xxxxxxxxx)
RATING: This part: PG-13, R overall
STATUS: WiP
DISCLAIMER: This is a derivative work. All characters belong to
Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Fox Television, and others. I don't
own any of this, just the words gluing my story together.
SUMMARY: Buffy meets a different kind of Willow in an alternate
universe. (It's gonna be a B/W folks. Eventually. But not right
away.)
SPOILERS: All seasons of BtVS. AU after "Chosen" so no Angel
Season 5.
DISTRIBUTION: buffywantswillow, ikoly, and my blog fanfic pages.
Anyone else, e-mail me please. I probably won't say no.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: 
[1] Do I need to repeat the part about the possible posting
frequency of parts 6 thru X ? It might be tomorrow, it might be
June before I finish the next part. Sorry.

- - -

Part 5 - "Coffee and Two Wiccans to Go"

Buffy spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the shops in
Sunnydale as she attempted to correct her lack of a wardrobe
with her meager remaining funds. It felt much like the weeks
after the Sunnydale collapse when she'd tried to replace closets
full of lost clothes. But that time she'd had a larger budget
and other people to shop with.

She was finding that shopping alone, with no-one to share the
experience with to be boring. And she couldn't really buy
everything she might need. She needed to save some of her money
so that if she found a job that required her to purchase
specific clothes she could do that. But she did make an effort
to find several things to lighten her image. Dark colors were
fine in cemeteries but she knew they wouldn't get her a job. She
really needed to appear less threatening.

While she shopped she kept running over her meeting with the
Rosenberg woman with some bemusement. She couldn't get it out of
her head. It wasn't just that she'd neglected to find out her
name or that she resembled Willow more than she'd expected her
to. No, what really confused her was how just touching her had
been calming. The simple physical contact had lessened some of
the anxiety that had been slowly building in her mind over the
past two days. She didn't know why but somehow she felt less
lost than she had before their brief encounter.

And Buffy really wasn't quite sure why she'd done it. The
physical gesture had felt oddly appropriate at the time, even
though she rarely touched anyone if she had a choice since
coming back from the dead the second time. For some reason she'd
felt the need to physically connect with this person she'd just
met. At least she hadn't given into the embarrassing impulse
she'd had to hug her.

And while she hadn't explicitly offered her help for the slayer,
she might as well have. She knew the girl needed some kind of
assistance with her training. She obviously wasn't getting
enough of the right kind from her coven. But Buffy's plan had
not been to become involved herself. She felt it was too
dangerous in ways she couldn't quite articulate. She was going
to have to watch out for that impulse to jump in and interfere
in the future.

Noticing a nearby clock, Buffy brought her shopping trip to an
abrupt halt. She had just enough time to take her things back to
the loft and change before her meeting. Fortunately she'd
managed to find an appropriate outfit. She had no plans to try
to blend into the background but sticking out was also not in
her plans.

- - -

Willow hadn't allowed Dawn to come with her, leaving her in a
funk back at the coven's house. She didn't think the potentially
explosive combination of her often temperamental slayer and this
aggressive woman would provide her with any useful information.
While she hadn't seen them together yet she had the distinct
impression that they would clash.

But Willow was able to convince a visiting member of the coven
to attend the meeting with her. She'd been friends with Tara
since college. They'd joined the coven at the same time and
though they now lived in different towns they still worked well
together. Tara was much better at reading people, both
psychically and emotionally than anyone else she knew. Willow
felt she would need all of the help she could get to figure this
woman out.

Normally, in situations where they worked together like this,
they would communicate using telepathy. From the few things Dawn
had been able to tell Willow and what she'd observed herself,
they were fairly certain this person was sensitive to such
things. Walking from the coven house, Willow and Tara had both
agreed that they didn't want to risk the possibility that she
might hear them or become suspicious so they planned to keep
their use of telepathy to a minimum. 

They entered the 'Coffee Garten' several minutes early. Looking
around they found her already there, sitting at a secluded table
near the back. As they headed towards her, Willow noticed how
she seemed to startle and pale slightly when she saw Willow's
companion, recovering quickly as if nothing had happened. But
she also didn't miss how she was dressed less aggressively in
softer colors than she'd worn earlier and relaxed slightly. 

The woman gracefully gestured towards the empty seats across the
table from her. "Have a seat ladies. Let's get you something to
drink." She turned in her seat as they gingerly sat down and
motioned to a waitress to come over and take their orders. She
raised an eyebrow at their choices and Willow wondered what she
was seeing.

While they waited for the waitress to return with their coffee,
Willow silently observed the small woman for a few minutes, not
quite sure how to start. "Who are you?" she eventually blurted
out when nothing else occurred to her.

With a slight grin, as if she was letting them in on a private
joke, she replied, "Summers, Buffy Summers." her tone suggesting
that they should already know who she was.

Willow was confused. While she knew she was missing something
important, she could almost feel an implied title in the way
this woman said her name. She glanced at Tara for a moment for
inspiration and just received a thoughtful frown from her before
beginning. Tara was obviously seeing something she wasn't.

"Okay... Buffy..." Willow wasn't sure this was really her name
and couldn't keep the doubt out of her voice. "I'm Willow and
that's Tara. You wanted to talk? Go right ahead. Now's your
chance."

Buffy looked at both of them for a moment as if measuring them
in some way. "I hate to interfere in something that shouldn't
concern me but your slayer so obviously needs help that I can't
stop myself."

Tara and Willow looked at each other in surprise, Tara shrugging
at her before continuing in her role of silent observer. "Why do
you think she needs help?" Willow asked her. "And why does it
matter to you?"

"I've been watching her for a couple days now. From what I've
seen so far, the first experienced vampire she runs into is
going to beat her. She doesn't really have what it takes yet to
fight a very determined enemy." She shook her head. "And why am
I making it my concern? Does it matter? If you really need a
reason, think of me as a very distant relative." She smiled at
that idea as if it amused her. 

"What's wrong with her fighting skills?" sputtered an offended
Willow. "She's been trained the same way the Coven has trained
slayers for centuries."

"And how long does the average Coven slayer live after this
training?" Buffy asked with apparent interest. 

"Most of them... that we have records of... usually survive into
their late 20's."

"That seems a long time for a slayer." she mused quietly. "How
many vampires and other demons does an average slayer kill
during their career? It can't be that many if they live that
long."

"No, they kill a lot of vampires." Willow protested in a hushed
voice to avoid attracting attention. "If Dawn keeps it up she'll
be one of the best in over a century. It's her first year and
she has already staked 20 vampires. That's twice as many as the
previous three slayers in their first year." The woman across
from her had a sudden coughing fit at the pronouncement. Willow
glanced at Tara who raised an eyebrow at this.

Buffy wasn't able to completely mask her surprise at this
information. Once she'd moved to her Sunnydale she'd fought a
steady stream of vampires and demons until the town was
destroyed. Twenty vampires would have been an average week
there. Either the vampires and demons of this world kept a very
low profile or there just weren't that many of them. Or the
Powers That Be were coddling the slayers of this universe by
keeping them away from evil. Though she felt that was unlikely
given the tendency for the Powers That Be in her home dimension
to throw slayers into suicidal situations almost on a whim it
was still a possibility to consider.

But no matter what the reason, as far as Buffy was concerned,
their slayer wasn't getting enough of the right experience. "I'm
sure that is impressive but it really isn't a lot even for a
town on a closed hellmouth. I've staked ten vampires myself
since coming to Sunnydale. And I've been here less than a week.
If the vampire population has increased so much that she's
already run into twice as many as her predecessors your slayer
obviously needs to be trained better to improve her chances of
surviving."

Willow gasped. "Ten? In a couple days? Why isn't Dawn seeing
them if there are that many. And what does the hellmouth have to
do with it? It's been closed for over a century"

"Why didn't she see them? Well... they've obviously been
watching her long enough to know her patrolling patterns. They
must be intentionally staying out of her way. Or they aren't
locals. And the hellmouth here in Sunnydale? It might be closed
but it still attracts more vampires to this town than one
without a hellmouth." Buffy was amazed that they were so unaware
of it. "Can't you feel it? The subtle hum? And even closed it is
still attracting evil. Your slayer isn't going to be ready if
older vampires attracted here decide to attack her. They
actually think first, have a plan. She isn't prepared for that.
And if there's an apocalypse she isn't the only one who'll die."

"An apocalypse? Here?"

"Yes here. If you look closely I'm sure you'll notice the
signs." Buffy knew she was making a big assumption. She hadn't
exactly been looking for such signs herself. She'd been too
busy. But there had to be a reason she'd ended up in this
Sunnydale. Her life really didn't have room for coincidences and
an apocalypse seemed like the most likely candidate for her
being there. 

"Are you offering to help with her training?" asked Willow. "If
you don't think she's good enough to stop an apocalypse..."

"While I do plan to stick around for a few months, I don't
recall volunteering to fix her problems." Buffy grimaced. "But
if you need help with other things I'll be around."

"And how can we trust what you've said? That there is something
bad coming?"

"I'm sure your silent friend can tell if I'm lying." Buffy
gestured at Tara, who'd managed to keep quiet so far.

Willow blinked in surprise. Tara's ability to read other people
wasn't known outside of the coven. There didn't seem to be any
possible response to this revelation that this Buffy knew she
was being tested so she ignored it. "If we took you up on your
offer of help what exactly would you be offering to do?"

"Just an extra hand to help your slayer survive what's coming."

"What do you mean 'what's coming'?" a confused Willow asked her.

First a mention of an apocalypse and now this?

"An apocalypse doesn't just happen on its own. Something evil is
headed your way and your slayer needs to be ready. I can't tell
you what it is yet but it's too quiet around here. Those
vampires the other night were just the beginning." They didn't
need to know she was making it up at this point. While her
inbuilt slayer skepticism was insisting that something bad was
going to happen she didn't have any proof yet. "But from what
I've seen in the past that low level of attention from vampires
passing through won't last for long. It'll get much worse. And
I'm sure somewhere in your books you'll find a prophecy
predicting death and destruction in the next couple months.
Something has to be drawing these vampires to your closed
hellmouth."

"Why a prophecy?"

"Because there's always a prophecy." she said sadly. Her life
seemed to revolve around them but she wasn't about to tell these
women about that. "And it almost always predicts the death of
the slayer or end of the world. If you're lucky you'll have
enough time to prepare her for it and you can stop it from
happening."

"If there is really an apocalypse coming what makes you think we
can stop it?"

"You don't think your slayer being here at this time was a
coincidence do you? It really doesn't work that way. And
besides..." she grinned mischievously at them "you have me now
and I never lose." Okay Summers, that was a bit much, Buffy
berated herself. Not only are you trying to scare them when you
don't know if something bad is going to happen yourself, but you
are promising to help them. "You'll fix up your slayer, we'll
fight some evil, save the world, party, and I'll go home."

Willow wasn't quite sure what to make of all of this. She didn't
seem to be bragging so much as stating fact.  She filed her
words away for future consideration when she had the time to
really think about them. For now she needed to learn all she
could about this Buffy person if she was going to be around for
the next few months, possible apocalypse or not. And the easiest
way to start was to involve her in the coven in some way. If she
was evil or a danger to them it would be a lot easier to deal
with her there. "I'm not sure if you are interested but we have
training sessions at the coven house after school every day.
Unfortunately you've missed today's." Willow looked at Tara,
receiving her silent approval at the idea before continuing "But
if you would like to come with us now we can show you around."

"Where's your slayer at this time of day?" Buffy asked
curiously.

"By now? Home. After her training session, she spends the
evening with her sister. We've tried to interfere as little as
possible in her regular life."

"Good! Family is important. Gives a slayer incentive." Buffy
hoped she didn't sound too enthusiastic. "Does her family know
about her being the slayer? And what it really means?"

"Sort of. Her only family is her older sister. She knows that
Dawn does things with the coven that requires her to spend a lot
of time with us. But she hasn't been told exactly what. Her
family has had connections to the covens for centuries so I'm
sure she suspects some of what is going on." Willow shrugged and
got up from the table. "But Dawn doesn't think her sister knows
anything about the coven or its real purpose."

Buffy looked at her quizzically. "I'm assuming you don't want me
to say anything to Dawn about this."

"Correct." Both Willow and Tara nodded. "We don't try to keep
secrets from slayer families. It's just too destructive in the
long run. But in the beginning they don't need the added stress
of their families worrying about them. We'll have to sit down
with both of them and explain it eventually. But for now that's
just the way it is." 

The other two women got up and followed Willow out into the
sunlight.

- - -

TBC in "Singing the Blues at the Poetry Slam"

- - -

-Andy-

=====
-
- http://radio.weblogs.com/0104508/
-


	
		
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Win a $20,000 Career Makeover at Yahoo! HotJobs  
http://hotjobs.sweepstakes.yahoo.com/careermakeover 


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

Community email addresses:
     Post message: buffywantswillow@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
     Subscribe:    buffywantswillow-subscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
     Unsubscribe:  buffywantswillow-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
     List owner:   buffywantswillow-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Shortcut URL to this page:
     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/buffywantswillow

Official archive for the list:
     http://www.ikoly.com/fanfic

Other links to Buffy/Willow fics:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/buffywantswillow/links  
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/buffywantswillow/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    buffywantswillow-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/