Happy Development 7/20, 8/20 & 9/20
Title: Happy Development
Fandoms: Buffy the Vampire Slayer & Firefly
Pairing: Buffy/Willow, Faith/River, Mal/Inara, Kaylee/Simon
Rating: PG-13 (mostly, there maybe some more adult language and themes, nothing that you would see on say the higher numbers of cable TV)
Disclaimer: Due to the slightly off chance that Joss or a legal suit type person may read this and in their anger, sue, I will say that this little piece of work is for fun. The characters contained below belong to Joss, ME production, and others that I don't know. The Chinese from this story is taken from the book, Finding Serenity.
Summary: The Scoobs and The Crew meet up in Cleveland a few years after Sunnydale became a landfill. Hijinx ensue.
Ch. 7 - Kidnapping Schmidnapping
River had assured her brother for what felt like the bazillionth time that she was okay and in no way traumatized by the kidnapping before he would let her leave the room. She was hungry and wanted to see if there was anything in the kitchen to eat. It had been funny the past year or so, her brain after sharing some of the secrets that she knew, had begun to quiet. There were still the memories of the things she knew. Of the secrets she had gleaned, not only from the parliament of the Alliance, but also the people she came into contact with and her family. Simon had done the best he could and she loved him for it. The entire crew, except maybe Jayne, had all watched out for her and continued to do so, but there was a small part that just wanted to begin to live a normal (whatever that meant for someone like her) life. She loved flying Serenity. It gave her something to do and kept her mind from going to too many places at once.
Letting out a frustrated sigh River entered the kitchen and stopped as Faith looked up from a huge bowl of cereal. She gave a small wave and received a huge grin in return. Images flashed through her mind as she neared the brunette. There was one of an angry woman standing over her with belt in one hand and a cigarette in the other. The next was of a woman being tortured by hoofed vampire looking guy. She stopped the flow of imagery with as much control as she could muster and sat down across from the slayer.
“Heya,” said Faith around a mouthful of Captain Crunch.
“Hi. I…was hungry?”
“It’s cool; I always get hungry after fighting. You okay with the kidnapping and all?”
As lucid as she felt now, River decided to try and maintain a conversation. Faith had peaked her curiosity the first time she saw her. As it was this was also the first time they were alone together. Thanking the universe for her clear-headedness, River nodded and asked, “You were kind of gone there for a while, are you okay?”
“Got a headache the size of Nebraska, but I’ll live.”
“What’s Nebraska?”
Laughing, Faith shook her head. “It’s a state. Like Ohio.” Faith watched a look of confusion flow over the girls face. She tipped her chair back and smiled, “How much do you know about America or now that I think about it, how much did they know that they taught you?”
“They know more than they let on I think, but it’s all kind of muddled with fiction. People rewrite the past to suit the needs of the future.”
“Uh, yeah. So you were hungry. What’s your poison?”
“N-no poison, uh, if you have any of the chicken from dinner, that would be good.”
Smiling Faith pushed back from the kitchen island and nodded. “We do, but have you ever tried Captain Crunch?”
“I don’t eat captains...”
“It’s a cereal, made of wheat or something.” Faith shoved her bowl at River and urged, “try some. I promise if you don’t like it, we’ll find somethin’ else for ya.”
River eyed the bowl and its contents for a moment and then picked up the spoon. She got a few pieces of the cereal on the spoon and cautiously brought it up to her mouth. She was surprised by the sweetness first and then the way the crunching cereal mixed with the refreshing milk to make it taste better. Nodding her head, she looked at Faith. “Is there any more of this?”
“We’ve got tons. It’s a staple in this place.” Getting up, Faith turned to make River her own bowl. She came back to the counter a moment later with a bowl half the size of hers and pushed it towards the dark haired girl. “Eat up kiddo.”
The two girls sat in the kitchen for sometime talking. Conversation flowed naturally for River for the first time in what felt like forever. Despite a few of the emotions she picked up on from the slayer, River felt like they had known each other for a while and was happy to just have a conversation with someone with out them worrying about her health or mental stability. Sure she knew that there were things wrong, but she didn’t need the coddling. Faith proved to not be the coddling type while also being open and easy to talk to.
Willow woke to a vaguely remembered sensation. A body was pressed into her back and it was a small one at that. She craned her aching neck and head around and was met with blonde hair covering the face of her best friend. She looked around more closely and realized that she was in Buffy’s room. Doing her best not to disturb a restful slayer, Willow extracted herself from the bed and turned around to pick up her shoes lying on the floor. It was when she looked up that she noticed Buffy. A robe clad Buffy who at the moment in time had one breast neatly exposed and who had just been spooned to Willow’s back. Blushing a healthy shade of red, Willow quickly turned and made her way out of the bedroom as quietly as possible.
She walked the five feet to her room and opened the door. She needed a hot shower, a change of clothes, ten aspirin, and some breakfast preferably in that order. Thinking about it she added a large cup of coffee to the list. Deciding on the most efficient way to go about it, she was done in the shower in less than 10 minutes and dressed by 15. Willow was halfway to the kitchen when she changed course deciding to stop and see if Inara was awake and had eaten yet. She glanced down at her watch; it was still early 9am.
Willow knocked quietly and was rewarded with the sound of Inara granting access. She pushed the door open and grinned. “Hey, mornin’, I just wanted to know if you’ve eaten yet?”
Inara sent a sheepish smile to the redhead. “No, I just woke up.”
Willow looked the woman over. The make up was perfect, the hair was down and flowing over her shoulders in a way that caused feelings in Willow that she thought were long since buried and the companion’s sari was a deep burgundy then made her skin glow or so Willow thought. She then looked over at the bed that too was made and immaculate. “Well if this is you waking up, then I don’t think my heart could take it if it saw you ready to go out.”
Inara laughed at the hidden compliment and motioned Willow to sit down. “Were you going to go get something to eat?”
“Yeah,” Willow answered, taking a seat in a recliner off to the side. “I figured I’d stop by and see if you would like to maybe eat me, er, ah, grab something to eat with me. Sorry, my brain’s still all jumbly from last night.”
“It’s quite alright. Are you feeling okay? Buffy looked really worried and I must admit, that I too was concerned. What you did…I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen anything so surreal.”
Willow ducked her head embarrassed. “I…” The folded hands in her lap began to fidget, “It was kind of an accident. I tend to get upset when things beat up on Buffy.”
Inara only nodded and waited on Willow to continue.
“I haven’t done anything like that in a while. Magic wise, it’s pretty hard on the system.”
“Why?” Inara pulled up a chair next to the redhead and grabbed a hand.
Willow looked up into concerned brown eyes and felt her pulse pick up as she answered, “It’s…that type of stuff, the hurting and maiming and the…the killing comes from a dark place. Touching that now… just… it leaves a stain that I can’t ever seem to remove.” Willow looked at the confused face in front of her and realizing that this was probably her first real introduction to magic, tried to explain to Inara, “You can think of magic as energy transfer. Have you heard Energy can not be created or destroyed but is transferred from one system to another?”
Inara nodded her head.
“Well, that’s like magic. Magic is the connection between everything. It exists and we can use it to perform acts. Intent is also a major player in magical use. It’s like knowledge neither good nor bad, it’s the user that defines the label. Last night, despite the why of the intent, my intent was clear.”
“And that was?”
“To Kill. They were going to kill Buffy and probably everyone else. So, I killed them instead and that, regardless of the why, leaves its mark that can’t be easily washed away.” Willow ducked her head back down trying to reign in her emotions.
Inara cocked her head to the side in confusion. This side of the world, the vampires, and demons and magic was all still hard to understand, but after last night, after she had cried herself to sleep in the privacy of this room, she couldn’t deny the truth of what these people had said. “I’m not sure I completely understand, but if it hurts you, then why do it?”
“The alternative is death.” Willow scrunched her brow together and tried to clarify the statement, “The alternative to me not doing stuff like that means that someone I care about can die. Buffy told you guys I brought her back to life. That wasn’t a lie, but the price I paid for her, well, I’m not entirely sure that didn’t earn me a spot in a special place in a hell dimension when I die.”
“A hell dimension and why would the price be that?” Inara was growing more confused as this conversation continued. She had thought that this would be easy, in the realm of listening to a client easy, but the pain etched in the redhead’s features spoke more than the words she used to try and explain.
Willow answered the simple one first, “A hell, yes there is more than one dimension that is hell like, each unique and possibly limitless. The why well, that’s a long story and a bit heavy for morning, especially before coffee, can we maybe revisit this later?”
Inara just nodded and stood pulling Willow to her feet. “Breakfast it is then. What do you like to eat?”
Willow smiled, thankful that Inara had dropped the topic. “Uh, coffee first, aspirin and then maybe some fruit.”
“Fruit?”
“You do know what fruit is don’t you? Do they not have stuff like that in the future?”
“Yes, we have fruit, but traveling the way we do, we eat flavored protein. On the core planets I was telling you about, it’s a tad more common, but still a delicacy. Truth be told, I haven’t had a piece of any type of fruit for quite some time.” Inara sent Willow a heart warming smile and followed her to the kitchen.
Mal rolled over and sat up in an empty bed. He stretched his sore muscles and looked around to find his pants and shirt. Taking a quick glance at the clock he moved slowly to the bathroom. After last nights patrolling fiasco, he had barely made it to the room upright after checking on everyone. His head hurt, his stomach was growling and Zoë had obviously been awake for some time. The shower looked to have been used a while ago.
Last night, they hadn’t even had a chance to talk about what in the hell happened. He still reeled at the things he saw. He had been in war, he had seen some of the worst man had to offer, but watching Willow do the things she had done had unnerved him. It just wasn’t natural to him. The more he thought about it the more he needed to see to it that he and his crew got back to where they belonged. He didn’t feel that they fit in here. He was out of place in this world and this time. He raked a hand through his floppy mass of hair and left the room to find some grub.
Buffy groaned as her ribs audibly creaked when she moved to get up. Willow was obviously gone and she had overslept. Cursing, Buffy rolled out of bed, dressed and made her way to get a sorely needed cup of coffee. She walked down the hall thinking about last night events. Hopefully Xander had some information for her. She was also still worried about Willow. She needed to make sure that the witch was okay with what had happened.
Buffy froze when she walked into the kitchen. Willow was apparently up and feeling okay, because there she sat in a huddled conversation with the time traveling companion. They were sitting knee to knee and giggling like schoolgirls. A flash of jealousy flared as Buffy was taken back to a time where a scene similar to this played out, but the girl next to Willow had been Tara and Buffy had yet to realize what her feelings had meant. She coughed to let her presence be known.
Willow looked up startled and then sent her friend a smile. “Mornin’ Buffy, you sleep okay?”
Buffy nodded and made a dash for the coffee pot. She needed to clear her head before she said something she would regret later. Kicking herself once again for having these thoughts she turned from the two girls and excused herself to the back yard. Sitting down on one of the benches that riddled the backyard she took a long drink of the coffee that she’d hastily made and grimaced, too much sugar and not nearly enough half and half. She threw the contents in the grass and rested her head in her hands.
She couldn’t seem to stop the thoughts about Willow that had been plaguing her for the past year. It had started a bit after Willow had come back from Rio. Buffy began to see Willow in a whole new way and it scarred the living shit out of the slayer if she were honest with herself. She had never been attracted to Willow before then or had she? The slayer got lost in thoughts of the redheaded witch and completely ignored Dawn sitting down next to her.
“Buffy?” Dawn nudged her sister’s shoulder and waited on a response.
“Uh.” Buffy looked up startled. “Oh Dawnie, hey. What’s up?”
“Giles, Xander in the war room. They want your assistance.”
Buffy nodded. “Anyone else?”
“Willow went in with Inara and Faith was sent to go get the rest of the people from the future. How weird does that sound? People from the future, as if our lives weren’t complicated or strange enough?” Dawn sighed out loud and stood, waiting for Buffy to follow.
“Well squirt, it’s the life we live.”
Ch. 8 - Trust in Faith
Buffy walked in to a full room. Along with their new friends, the Scoobies were spread out with Giles and Xander near the head of the table. Buffy groaned internally and hoped that Xander hadn’t had time to prepare a slide show. He’d discovered the joys of Power Point a few years ago and every time something big happened, he had to put one together. She nodded to Giles for him to begin and took a seat opposite Mal.
“Good day, everyone.” Giles cleared his throat and shuffled through some papers on the table top. “I take it everyone is comfortable with regard to the situation that arose yesterday?” He waited to receive confirmation and then continued, “Xander and a few slayers went back to the place where Malcolm and the two others were taken. Not much was left, which isn’t surprising. However, from the data we collected at the scene, the accounts of all involved and the type of demon that seemed to be the leader of the group, we’ve come up with a possible scenario.”
Xander stepped up and hit the remote in his hand. As the lights dimmed, a picture of the demon Buffy and Carrie had killed appeared on the screen behind his head. “This is a mid-level chaos demon; the species name is Lekakolo, rough translation to Bringer of Destruction. Supposedly, they came up here to throw an end of the world sacrifice and party. Red team came upon one of a clan of 8. There are 6 more and from what other Intel we could gather, they are using some of the other demon populations to help out. They’ve targeted our little burgh because Slayer Central USA is here.”
Xander removed a cross from his back pocket and slid it towards Mal. “I told you so,” he remarked, a smirk playing at the corners of his mouth. He only got a glare from the captain and was about to start again, but Giles interrupted.
“I’ve been in contact with headquarters in Scotland, Beijing, Rio, Sydney, Paris, & Rome. None have reported sightings of the demons. Cleveland is by far the most active hellmouth worldwide, so, I’m to assume that they came here because of the energy pull. However, we would be remiss to not check around a bit more. I’ve organized our teams worldwide to do sweeps for the creatures and hopefully, in the process, glean more information.”
“So that’s it?” Buffy looked between Xander and Giles confused. “We interrupt their little sacrifice ritual and they go home with their tails between their legs?”
Giles peered at Buffy over his glasses and pleaded with her to be quiet, “Buffy, if you would allow Xander and I to continue?”
“Sure, drone away.”
“Now,” Xander clapped his hands together and started again, “I have Delta, Tango, & Green teams doing sweeps as we speak. We need to find the remaining 6 demons and slice and dice.”
“Why wasn’t I included? Or at least my team?” Buffy asked, glaring at the two men.
“You were exhausted and there are matters here that need attending to” said Giles simply. “Delta and Tango teams have four slayers each along with their patrolling witches and Green team is competent with their rotating members of six. Surely Buffy, you can see it was well taken care of.”
“And since when has my exhaustion ever stopped you from putting me out there? Hell, when has it ever stopped me from going out there myself?”
“Buffy as non-threatening as their,” Giles waved a hand at their visitors, “presence is, we need to concentrate on getting them back to when they belong. I need you rested and able to take care of this. Also, I had thought you wanted to be less active, which is certainly understandable and if you are in semi-retirement, this gives you the perfect opportunity to act as liaison for our guests. They need help in our time and you of all people are the most adept at attending to this need.”
“Yeah, come on Buff, it’s not like we’re sayin’ never slay again.” Xander said, trying to lighten the situation.
Buffy just folded her arms and glared. She knew that the conversation she’d had with Giles a month prior was going to come back and bite her in the ass. She pouted as she witnessed the ass biting. It wasn’t supposed to be a major deal. She just wanted to be taken out of routine patrol and possibly learn more of the administrative side so that when she was too old to go out and slay, she could do the stuffy suit thing and lend a hand with the strategizing when needed.
“So where’s that leave us?” Mal finally interjected.
“It would appear stuck here waiting until we can find you suitable parts for your ship and, as it were, a way back to your own time.” Giles looked to Willow to get her attention. “Willow, perhaps you should contact the Devon coven and see if Althanea might have a suggestion to set us off in the right direction?”
“Sure. It’s still talk-able hours there I’ll call as soon as we’re done here.” Willow smiled at Giles and then looked over to Buffy. She had been acting a little funny and Willow shot her a ‘what’s going on look’. Buffy just broke eye contact and went back to burning holes in Giles.
“Good.” Giles glanced down at his papers. “Now, on to our second order of business, it seems that while you were all engaged last night, Bravo team ran into some trouble over by the space craft.”
Kaylee sat up and asked, “She’s okay right?”
Xander nodded. “Didn’t get touched, but we need to move the ship.”
“And that would be where?” Willow asked. The city offered no suitable housing for the ship and while they could keep it on the grounds, transporting it to the school would be impossible.
“I’ve been in contact with one of our watchers and we could perhaps move it there, but we need to be able to find transport for it as well.” Giles turned to Kaylee and asked, “Is there anyway t-that it would be possible to, in a sense, break the ship down to be more, er, ah, shippable?”
Kaylee’s face scrunched up and she looked to Mal. She couldn’t read the look on his face, but she knew he expected her to answer. “Well, let’s see, the main body can’t be taken apart. The engines can be taken off, along with the expansions on the side. That’s all though.”
“How difficult would it be to do so?” asked Giles.
Kaylee scratched her chin answering, “Well, not too seeing as how we done it before, but we’re gonna need a crane to do it.”
“We can do that. I’ve got a buddy that owes me a few favors.” Xander nodded already figuring the way it was going to go down.
“So we are going to where?” Willow asked.
“It appears that the most conducive place to get things in order would be in New Mexico. Just outside of Tohachie to be more specific. It’s secluded, yet only a few hours away from Sante Fe and Albuquerque.”
“And who’s going?” Buffy inquired, not liking the sound of what was coming.
“Malcolm and his crew, naturally, you, Willow, Xander, Faith, and the rest of the Red and Alpha Teams.” Giles met Buffy’s stare and waited for the blow out.
“Fine. We done here?” Buffy replied.
The ease at which Buffy accepted the request took Giles back for a moment, but he quickly recovered. “If you wish to go Buffy, please feel free.”
Buffy didn’t wait for him to finish as she pushed back from the table and walked out the door. She made her way quickly to her room. Slamming the door, she pulled out her suitcase and began to get the things together she would need. She wasn’t upset about leaving Cleveland for a few weeks. That was fine by her. Gave her a chance to relax and not have to worry about the other girls in the school. What had gotten to the slayer was Willow and Inara. They had been sharing glances the entire time and Buffy’s jealousy burned a bright green as she continued to sit there.
She went back to her earlier ruminations about Willow before Dawn had interrupted her. To Buffy these feelings shouldn’t have been happening. That was not the case though. It took Inara showing up for Buffy’s thoughts to click fully into place. She thought back to how she and Willow had relied on each other since the witches return from Rio. Willow had only been gone 6 months, but there hadn’t been a day that had gone by Buffy didn’t think of her. She emailed the witch constantly and learned to use those instant messaging programs to chat with Willow at odd hours of the day.
When Willow came back, Buffy’s heart soared and for the first few months the two could not be separated. To the blonde, it felt like sophomore year all over again. The two friends had reconnected and Buffy remembered how much she missed Willow’s company. She had also realized that the distance between herself and her family had been nothing but her own doing. Since Willow’s return, everyone was happy to see the softer side of the slayer. Xander had even made a few comments here and there, but these were met by a stony glare from his friend.
Buffy turned at the knock on her bedroom door. She called in whoever was there and was surprised when it was Faith who walked in.
“Hey B.”
“What’s up Faith?”
“Just comin’ to make sure you aren’t destroying your room.”
Buffy turned to look at the girl and cocked her head to the side. “And I would be all rampagy because?”
“’Cuz you nearly took the hinges off the conference room doors.”
Buffy’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh, I didn’t…”
“Yeah, I know you didn’t mean to. So what’s the what, you that pumped to go to the middle of nowhere?”
“Just packing,” Buffy let out and went back to rummaging through her drawers.
Faith took the seat by the window folding her feet underneath her. She watched a moment, as Buffy opened and closed various drawers, smiling. Something was up with the girl and Faith being all reformed and now a solid part of the core group wanted to know what was bugging her friend. “Buff, if you had stayed for the last three minutes, you’d have found out that not only are we not leaving today, but it’s proly gonna be about a week to take apart, crate and ship their craft.”
“Oh.” The blonde turned to Faith and let her shoulders drop. “So packing, not so important right now?”
“Not so much.” Faith smiled and shrugged. “Although B, what I really wanna know is what’s got your panties in a twist.”
“And you care because?” Buffy asked, letting some of the anger drain out of her as she sat on the edge of the bed.
“’Cuz I’d like to think that over the past few years, you and I have gotten to be sorta on the friends level and well, as friends do things together, they also have these things called conversations especially when something is bugging them. So out with it B. What’s got your knickers in a twist?”
Buffy gauged the sincerity of Faith’s words and tried to sort out how much to tell the brunette. She knew Faith to be trustworthy and from previous Buffy blow outs none of the things she and Faith had talked about had gone anywhere but between them. She also knew that Xander couldn’t help her, Dawn she didn’t want to talk to about this and the only one she did she couldn’t because it was concerning her.
“Heya, B. It wasn’t such a stumper. Sure, if I asked you who the current Secretary of Defense was you’d look at me funny, but this wasn’t it so…” Faith trailed off at the un-amused glare coming from the bed. She back peddled and held her hands up in the air as concession to shutting her trap.
“I…” Buffy stopped trying to find the words. “I…”
Faith leaned forward curious as to what Buffy was actually going to say. In her memory the blonde had never been at a loss for words. Whatever was troubling her friend had to be huge? As the ex-rogue watched the play of emotions contorting Buffy’s face, she idly wondered if she bit off more than she could chew and was half tempted to go get Willow.
“Okay, so the sitch, right, well…I guess, it’s really simple, although simple isn’t necessarily a word I’d use to call it, because it’s far from simple and it’s really uber confusing for the most part. I mean you spend 10 years of your life with a person and it takes what, some one coming from the future to get you to fully realize the enormity of your feelings towards them. So, you sit and you watch and then there’s jealousy, big raging jealousy, that makes you want to rip arms off and beat people senseless. How does this happen? Why does it happen now? Xander…”
“Whoa, hold up, I got lost mid babble. Jealousy? 10 years? Xander?” Faith’s eyebrows shot up as she queried, “You got a thing for X?”
Buffy’s face scrunched up wondering if she heard Faith right. “Xander, huh?”
“You’re jealous… Xander? You want our X-man?”
“Faith stay with me. I don’t want Xander. A world of no to Xander. I want Willow.”
Faith’s mouth dropped open and she starred at Buffy.
“I can’t really figure it out. I mean best friends for so long and then she leaves for Rio and then she comes back and the missing her and then the time we spent together when she came back, add that on top of the fact that for the past 4 months, I’ve had naughty dreams starring her at least 3 times a week and I’m just a big ball of confused slayer mush.”
“Oh.” Faith uttered, trying to regain composure, but the shock of Buffy essentially coming out to her left her floored. She could have kinda sorta seen her digging Xander. He had turned out to be a great guy, but her falling for the redhead. Faith thought there was more of a chance that she’d see the pearly gates of heaven before that happened. Her brain did a quick sort through and couldn’t help question, “So you went to automatic when?”
“Huh?”
“You got gayed up when?”
Buffy sent a sour look to her friend. “No to the gayed up.” She paused and thought for a second and said, “Okay, I mean yes, I guess it was, or I am. I guess yes, to the gayed up, but I don’t know. Two years ago or 10 years ago, I don’t know Faith. You and I had a few close calls if I remember right. It’s Willow though. I have no urge to be gay except with her.”
“Oh, so what’s the problem? You two are both single. I know you can throw down. Spike told me some stories…”
“F. haven’t we had this conversation about Spike?” Buffy’s tone warning Faith to stop.
“Right, no mentioning of the vampire that shall not be named. Christ, you’d think the Brit was Lord Voldemort or some shit.” She winked at the look Buffy was giving her. “So is this just you wanting to have some bump and grind time or are you on the whole moving to Vermont and not shaving your legs shtick to raise your kids in an excepting environment of gays?”
“Huh? Vermont? Where the hell do you come up with this stuff?”
“I’m asking, are you just wanting Willow for a screw or are you talking about a house in the ‘burbs 2.5 kids, fences and stuff?”
“Is everything about sex to you? Never mind, don’t answer. I know that one.” Buffy ran her fingers through her hair. “Okay, no it’s not just about sex although it’s been a while, but no, not just sex. I want it all. Well, not the kids and not the suburbs, no to your crazy Vermont theory. I just want…” Buffy trailed off trying to put into words what she wanted. “I want what I have with her now, but I want the cuddles and the kissing and the sex.”
“Gotcha. So what’s the problem again?”
“Have you not been paying attention?! Willow and Inara joined at the hip the past two days! They’re gonna get together and I’m gonna get screwed…”
“If they hook up you won’t.” Faith had to get the shot in, it was too easy.
“Uh?” The double entendre registered and she threw a pillow at the girl across from her.
“But Inara isn’t staying. We’re gonna ship ‘em back to their own screwed up future. So I’m still not seein’ the problem.”
“There’s a list. Shall I name them for you?”
“If it’ll help all of us avoid psycho Buffy for a few then feel free.”
“One: It’s Willow. Two: It’s Willow. Three: she doesn’t feel the same way. Four: She’s making goo-goo eyes at another girl. Five: I’m a chicken. Six: It’s Willow.”
“Okay since three of those were the same, we are only counting them as one. That’s four reasons and really none of those matter. Sure it’s Red, but she loves you, maybe she just doesn’t know how much yet. The other girl will be going away shortly and then it’ll be you two joined at the hip, again, so that’s five by five. I can’t help you with the chicken bit though.”
Buffy flopped back down on the bed. It was hopeless. She closed her eyes in frustration and felt the bed sink down next to her.
“B, it’ll be cool. You’ll see. I’ll help. By the time this is over, we’ll have Red beggin’ for ya.”
Buffy turned her head to Faith and quirked and eyebrow. She had feeling things were going to get interesting. More so than they already were.
Ch. 9 - Slayers With Wings
The week had been long and hard for all involved in taking apart the ship. Kaylee spent the time directing supernaturally strong girls wielding pulleys and ropes while Xander manned a crane. Buffy and Willow had to take the time travelers shopping for clothes that would not stand out in a crowd. Most of them had opted for jeans and t-shirts except for River who stuck to dresses with River wearing the combat boots Kaylee had given her when they first met. Everyone was now at the airport getting ready to board the cargo plane Giles had organized.
“So G-man, where’d you find this monster?” Xander hooked a thumb in the direction of the massive plane.
“Xander, I’ve asked you numerous times to not call me that.” Giles looked over his glasses at Xander and sighed. “As for the plane, well, I happen to know an old school friend who runs cargo for various governments and he was kind enough to not ask questions when I called for his services.”
Buffy stepped over to her ex-watcher and Xander asking, “So we are landing this where?”
Xander draped an arm over her shoulders and smiled. “No landing Buff. We are dropping it over a predetermined spot via parachute.”
“Ookaayy, but where do we land to go where we need to?” Buffy asked.
Xander smiled and shook his head. “Buffy, Buffy, Buffy, we are not landing. We are parachuting down with the spaceship.”
“HUH?” Buffy’s eyes grew wide and she looked back and forth between Giles and Xander.
Giles removed his glasses and said, “We can’t land the plane at the airport. So we had to devise an alternate plan. The lot of you will be riding down with the crates.” He couldn’t help the smirk that turned the corners of his mouth up.
Buffy paled, sputtered and then shook her head no. “Not gonna happen. What if the chutes fail to open? Or, or what if we fall off? Didn’t think about that didja?”
“Yeah, Buff, we did. Don’t worry about it okay.” Xander smiled and his eye twinkled in the moonlight. “We’ve got rigs for everyone. The landing may be kinda rough, but we figured that once you’ve lived on top of a hellmouth, jumping out of a plane would be easy.”
Buffy paled further. “Did we all miss the big header I took off the tower a while back? Have we forgotten the Buffy doesn’t jump off of really high things rule?”
Xander winked at Giles and steered her towards the loading bay. “No, I didn’t forget, but I promise, Will and I will be right there with you. I’ve got it all taken care of.” Xander hugged her and walked her into the plane where everyone had already been seated. He secured himself as did Buffy then signaled the pilot they were ready for take off.
Resting his head against the wall, he went through the plan one more time with Buffy. “We’ve got two planes. The first is us. We have the main body of the ship packed up in a crate large enough to fit the population of San Diego in. With the rigging we have in place, we climb up on top, strap ourselves on, the doors open and we drop out. Will and River did the calculations so that the ‘chutes are big enough and we don’t plummet to the ground and die. All is good.” He leaned his head back and cast a quick glance at Buffy. Sometimes freaking her out was worth it he thought to himself.
An hour or so had passed with idle chit chat among everyone; the blonde slayer was having a not so good time of it thinking about the upcoming jump. Twitching on the uncomfortable bench seating, she smiled over at Willow. The redhead wasn’t too fond of flying, but seemed to be holding up pretty good. The slayer reached out and grabbed her hand and rested her head on Willow’s shoulder, drifting off to sleep.
Inara had spent a good two hours talking with Kaylee and Simon when she looked over to see Willow being used as a human pillow. Excusing herself from the couple, she walked over to the witch. “Comfortable?” asked Inara, as she sat on the non-occupied side of the redhead.
Willow nodded her head yes. “Surprisingly enough, yes. Not really one with the flying. Buffy usually keeps me calm though. A few months back we had to fly to Rome and usually I just take a few Tylenol PM and pass out to avoid the anxiousness, but Buffy flew with and it wasn’t bad. She kept me entertained the whole way.”
“It’s good that you have someone like that. From all that you’ve told me, you, Buffy and Xander seem as close as friends could be.”
“We are. Although,” Willow dropped her voice to a conspiratorial whisper, “Xand’s been very General-ly lately and not so much with the bonding. Buffy’s been making up for it.”
Inara just smiled and then looked at the napping blonde one more time before turning her head and looking at Mal talking with Kaylee. She looked around a bit more and found River and Faith in a deep conversation and Zoë had taken to talking to Xander. Looking at her family, she shrugged off the un-ease and turned back to Willow.
“Will?” Buffy’s groggy voice asked.
“Yeah, Buff?” Willow turned her head and whispered in the blonde’s hair. From their positioning, Willow still held a firm grip on the slayer’s hand and the blonde’s head was nestled neatly in the crook of Willow’s arm.
“We there yet?” Buffy blinked and sat up rubbing at her eyes.
“Nope. I think we’ve got another hour or so.”
“Oh,” Buffy looked around and then her gaze settled on the companion to her left. “Hi Inara.”
“Hi Buffy. Nice nap?”
Buffy blushed a bit and then looked at Willow. “One of the best. Thanks.” She took a quick look around and asked, “Am I the only one that’s wigging because of the impending jump?”
Willow shot a confused look to the blonde. “Jump?”
“Xander said that we are going to be parachuting down with Serenity.”
Willow broke out into a grin and started laughing. Trying to get through the fit of laughter, she was able to choke out, “I can’t believe he told you that. We talked about it, but no, no jumping for us. We dump the ship and then land at an abandoned airfield about 10 miles from there.”
Buffy’s eyes narrowed and she sprang up, yelling, “Xander!”
The man’s head whipped round and he knew the jig was up. Holding up his hands in surrender, he watched an annoyed slayer stomp in his direction.
The entire team reached their destination a few hours later. Buffy had only threatened her friend while Willow watched on amused and amazed that Xander could have been so dumb. The watcher they had met up with, Tami, had readied the place for their arrival. The slayers she had with her, Nicole and Joanna, were pretty nice girls and helped the crew get settled in. The new visitors were currently pairing off rooms and the two young slayers couldn’t help but be mildly awe struck that they had the original Sunnydale gang staying with them.
After getting the rest of the slayers settled, Tami left the rooming situation for Xander to organize. The house, if it could be called that, had a total of 14 bedrooms and sat on 10 acres of land. The slayers there were in charge of patrolling the town the house sat on, the outskirts of said town and another 50 mile radius on top of that. Xander, Buffy, Willow, Faith, Carrie, and the remaining crew were in the east wing finishing off room assignments.
Mal poked his head in a room and nodded. “I found my space.” He smiled back at the rest of the group.
“Sir, I think I’ll take that single if they still got it,” Zoë said. She had put up with bunking with Mal for their stay in Cleveland, but her need for personal space far outweighed her concern for the other’s sleeping arrangements. One more night of hearing the captain snore and she was certain that she would, at the very least, strangle him. For a time she could handle it, but now that they were able to rearrange everyone, she was going to get some alone time if she had to kill someone to do so.
Mal looked at her hurt. “Zoë, why don’t you love me?”
Inara smacked Mal in the chest and looked to Zoë smiling.
Faith being the most vocal of the bunch looked between Mal and Zoë and asked, “You two have a fight?”
“Ah, no, can’t say we have Faith,” Mal let out slightly confused.
“Oh, we just thought that since you two were an item, the sleeping arrangements would be a bit different.”
Zoë covered her mouth with her hand and Mal turned a funny red color. The brunette slayer looked at their reactions and smiled.
“So you two aren’t doin’ the horizontal cha-cha?”
Inara spoke before anyone had a chance to, “No, they most certainly are not. Why don’t we do it this way, Mal, you and Jayne take this room. Zoë you take the single. River and I can take the one next door and Simon and Kaylee can have the room opposite Zoë.”
River smiled, but shook her head no. “I’ve got my room with Faith. You and Carrie, I think, were rooming together.”
“Awe, now just wait a minute. I ain’t sleepin’ in the same quarters as this one. He snores,” Jayne pouted.
“Jayne Cobb, how can you say things like that about me? I do no such thing,” Mal’s voice was laced with mock hurt and he barely contained his smile. “’Sides which, I wanna know how you know that I snore? You been gazin’ at me all longin’ like while I’m asleep?”
Jayne’s jaw set and he was about to say something when Xander interrupted, “How about Mal, you take the other single and I’ll bunk with Jayne.”
“How ‘bout this Cyclops, you bunk with Cap’n Tight Pants and I’ll take your room.” Jayne shoved his way though and went to the other single room slamming the door as he went out of sight.
“So…” Faith turned to Willow and Buffy. “Red, you take our blonde princess and have a good night.” She waved and winked at Buffy and turned her attention back to the remaining group. “Everyone here is settled then? Good. River, I need to go check on the rest of the girls, you want to come with?”
River nodded then kissed her brother goodnight. The two dark haired girls dropped their bags off in the room and headed off to see the rest of their traveling companions.
Willow and Buffy stepped into the room and were both shocked to see only one bed. Not that either had a problem sharing a bed with each other, but Buffy was more than nervous. The last week in Cleveland had proved to the blonde that Willow, over the course of their friendship, had rubbed off on her more than she would have liked to admit because she was, in her own mind, queen of the spazzes.
“Right or Left?” Willow had looked at the blanched face of her friend and was wondering what was going on with the blonde. “Buffy? Earth to the slayer?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah sure, whatever you want Will.”
Willow’s eyebrows rose and she tossed her bag on the floor by the left side of the bed. “Okay Summers, you’ve been acting kind of weird the past week.”
Buffy slumped and set her bag down. “Nothing major, just been thinking.”
Willow snorted and asked, “Hmm, this doesn’t have anything to do with Giles and your semi-retirement blow out does it?”
“Ah, no, not really.” She took a glance at her friend and realized that the redhead thought that she was really upset over the way Giles had been leaving her out of the loop on a few major things going on at the school. Not only was the whole shipping her off to New Mexico mildly annoying, but there were a couple of problems within the ranks that Giles had purposefully kept her out of. Sadly enough for the blonde these all played second fiddle to her problems surrounding her best friend. Deciding this was not the conversation she wanted to have, she agreed with the false assumptions. “Yeah, it’s just that I can see why we had to move everyone out here for a bit, but couldn’t we ’ave I dunno talked about it first.”
“Well, it’s not so bad. We got a shopping trip out of the deal and we’re closer to where we need to be to pick up the wiring for the ship.”
Buffy snorted, “Yeah, about that, do you think this is the best shot we have?”
Willow grinned. “I think so. We’ve all been through the plans more than enough. It’ll be fun to say the least. We don’t ever get to do stuff like this. Our plans all usually revolve around trying to keep hell from coming to town. This is going to be fun.”
“But it’s kinda major. Nothing else that we could do besides try and break in to what was it, Lockhead and Marin?”
“Lockheed Martin and no, their Space Division is in Denver. This is probably our best shot unless you want to go and try to break into NASA?”
“How about we stick to Denver.” Buffy began unpacking and pulled her usual sleeping gear from her bag. They were both getting ready for bed and Buffy was thankful that she had been able to switch the topic. Willow had changed into babble mode on their plan.
She was to work on securing security clearance for herself, Buffy, Mal, Zoë and Jayne to gain access to the warehouses of the company that held the largest defense contract with the U.S. Government. Once inside, they were supposed to load up a ½ ton roll of the wiring Kaylee needed to finish fixing up their ship. Buffy didn’t think they had a snowballs chance in hell of pulling this off, but everyone but her had seemed to think the plan would go off ok. Mal insisting that something like this was no big deal and then launching into a story where they broke into a hospital whose security was tighter than most government buildings. The two girls finished getting ready for bed and soon after drifted off to sleep.
Next>>>
Fandoms: Buffy the Vampire Slayer & Firefly
Pairing: Buffy/Willow, Faith/River, Mal/Inara, Kaylee/Simon
Rating: PG-13 (mostly, there maybe some more adult language and themes, nothing that you would see on say the higher numbers of cable TV)
Disclaimer: Due to the slightly off chance that Joss or a legal suit type person may read this and in their anger, sue, I will say that this little piece of work is for fun. The characters contained below belong to Joss, ME production, and others that I don't know. The Chinese from this story is taken from the book, Finding Serenity.
Summary: The Scoobs and The Crew meet up in Cleveland a few years after Sunnydale became a landfill. Hijinx ensue.
Ch. 7 - Kidnapping Schmidnapping
River had assured her brother for what felt like the bazillionth time that she was okay and in no way traumatized by the kidnapping before he would let her leave the room. She was hungry and wanted to see if there was anything in the kitchen to eat. It had been funny the past year or so, her brain after sharing some of the secrets that she knew, had begun to quiet. There were still the memories of the things she knew. Of the secrets she had gleaned, not only from the parliament of the Alliance, but also the people she came into contact with and her family. Simon had done the best he could and she loved him for it. The entire crew, except maybe Jayne, had all watched out for her and continued to do so, but there was a small part that just wanted to begin to live a normal (whatever that meant for someone like her) life. She loved flying Serenity. It gave her something to do and kept her mind from going to too many places at once.
Letting out a frustrated sigh River entered the kitchen and stopped as Faith looked up from a huge bowl of cereal. She gave a small wave and received a huge grin in return. Images flashed through her mind as she neared the brunette. There was one of an angry woman standing over her with belt in one hand and a cigarette in the other. The next was of a woman being tortured by hoofed vampire looking guy. She stopped the flow of imagery with as much control as she could muster and sat down across from the slayer.
“Heya,” said Faith around a mouthful of Captain Crunch.
“Hi. I…was hungry?”
“It’s cool; I always get hungry after fighting. You okay with the kidnapping and all?”
As lucid as she felt now, River decided to try and maintain a conversation. Faith had peaked her curiosity the first time she saw her. As it was this was also the first time they were alone together. Thanking the universe for her clear-headedness, River nodded and asked, “You were kind of gone there for a while, are you okay?”
“Got a headache the size of Nebraska, but I’ll live.”
“What’s Nebraska?”
Laughing, Faith shook her head. “It’s a state. Like Ohio.” Faith watched a look of confusion flow over the girls face. She tipped her chair back and smiled, “How much do you know about America or now that I think about it, how much did they know that they taught you?”
“They know more than they let on I think, but it’s all kind of muddled with fiction. People rewrite the past to suit the needs of the future.”
“Uh, yeah. So you were hungry. What’s your poison?”
“N-no poison, uh, if you have any of the chicken from dinner, that would be good.”
Smiling Faith pushed back from the kitchen island and nodded. “We do, but have you ever tried Captain Crunch?”
“I don’t eat captains...”
“It’s a cereal, made of wheat or something.” Faith shoved her bowl at River and urged, “try some. I promise if you don’t like it, we’ll find somethin’ else for ya.”
River eyed the bowl and its contents for a moment and then picked up the spoon. She got a few pieces of the cereal on the spoon and cautiously brought it up to her mouth. She was surprised by the sweetness first and then the way the crunching cereal mixed with the refreshing milk to make it taste better. Nodding her head, she looked at Faith. “Is there any more of this?”
“We’ve got tons. It’s a staple in this place.” Getting up, Faith turned to make River her own bowl. She came back to the counter a moment later with a bowl half the size of hers and pushed it towards the dark haired girl. “Eat up kiddo.”
The two girls sat in the kitchen for sometime talking. Conversation flowed naturally for River for the first time in what felt like forever. Despite a few of the emotions she picked up on from the slayer, River felt like they had known each other for a while and was happy to just have a conversation with someone with out them worrying about her health or mental stability. Sure she knew that there were things wrong, but she didn’t need the coddling. Faith proved to not be the coddling type while also being open and easy to talk to.
Willow woke to a vaguely remembered sensation. A body was pressed into her back and it was a small one at that. She craned her aching neck and head around and was met with blonde hair covering the face of her best friend. She looked around more closely and realized that she was in Buffy’s room. Doing her best not to disturb a restful slayer, Willow extracted herself from the bed and turned around to pick up her shoes lying on the floor. It was when she looked up that she noticed Buffy. A robe clad Buffy who at the moment in time had one breast neatly exposed and who had just been spooned to Willow’s back. Blushing a healthy shade of red, Willow quickly turned and made her way out of the bedroom as quietly as possible.
She walked the five feet to her room and opened the door. She needed a hot shower, a change of clothes, ten aspirin, and some breakfast preferably in that order. Thinking about it she added a large cup of coffee to the list. Deciding on the most efficient way to go about it, she was done in the shower in less than 10 minutes and dressed by 15. Willow was halfway to the kitchen when she changed course deciding to stop and see if Inara was awake and had eaten yet. She glanced down at her watch; it was still early 9am.
Willow knocked quietly and was rewarded with the sound of Inara granting access. She pushed the door open and grinned. “Hey, mornin’, I just wanted to know if you’ve eaten yet?”
Inara sent a sheepish smile to the redhead. “No, I just woke up.”
Willow looked the woman over. The make up was perfect, the hair was down and flowing over her shoulders in a way that caused feelings in Willow that she thought were long since buried and the companion’s sari was a deep burgundy then made her skin glow or so Willow thought. She then looked over at the bed that too was made and immaculate. “Well if this is you waking up, then I don’t think my heart could take it if it saw you ready to go out.”
Inara laughed at the hidden compliment and motioned Willow to sit down. “Were you going to go get something to eat?”
“Yeah,” Willow answered, taking a seat in a recliner off to the side. “I figured I’d stop by and see if you would like to maybe eat me, er, ah, grab something to eat with me. Sorry, my brain’s still all jumbly from last night.”
“It’s quite alright. Are you feeling okay? Buffy looked really worried and I must admit, that I too was concerned. What you did…I’m not sure that I’ve ever seen anything so surreal.”
Willow ducked her head embarrassed. “I…” The folded hands in her lap began to fidget, “It was kind of an accident. I tend to get upset when things beat up on Buffy.”
Inara only nodded and waited on Willow to continue.
“I haven’t done anything like that in a while. Magic wise, it’s pretty hard on the system.”
“Why?” Inara pulled up a chair next to the redhead and grabbed a hand.
Willow looked up into concerned brown eyes and felt her pulse pick up as she answered, “It’s…that type of stuff, the hurting and maiming and the…the killing comes from a dark place. Touching that now… just… it leaves a stain that I can’t ever seem to remove.” Willow looked at the confused face in front of her and realizing that this was probably her first real introduction to magic, tried to explain to Inara, “You can think of magic as energy transfer. Have you heard Energy can not be created or destroyed but is transferred from one system to another?”
Inara nodded her head.
“Well, that’s like magic. Magic is the connection between everything. It exists and we can use it to perform acts. Intent is also a major player in magical use. It’s like knowledge neither good nor bad, it’s the user that defines the label. Last night, despite the why of the intent, my intent was clear.”
“And that was?”
“To Kill. They were going to kill Buffy and probably everyone else. So, I killed them instead and that, regardless of the why, leaves its mark that can’t be easily washed away.” Willow ducked her head back down trying to reign in her emotions.
Inara cocked her head to the side in confusion. This side of the world, the vampires, and demons and magic was all still hard to understand, but after last night, after she had cried herself to sleep in the privacy of this room, she couldn’t deny the truth of what these people had said. “I’m not sure I completely understand, but if it hurts you, then why do it?”
“The alternative is death.” Willow scrunched her brow together and tried to clarify the statement, “The alternative to me not doing stuff like that means that someone I care about can die. Buffy told you guys I brought her back to life. That wasn’t a lie, but the price I paid for her, well, I’m not entirely sure that didn’t earn me a spot in a special place in a hell dimension when I die.”
“A hell dimension and why would the price be that?” Inara was growing more confused as this conversation continued. She had thought that this would be easy, in the realm of listening to a client easy, but the pain etched in the redhead’s features spoke more than the words she used to try and explain.
Willow answered the simple one first, “A hell, yes there is more than one dimension that is hell like, each unique and possibly limitless. The why well, that’s a long story and a bit heavy for morning, especially before coffee, can we maybe revisit this later?”
Inara just nodded and stood pulling Willow to her feet. “Breakfast it is then. What do you like to eat?”
Willow smiled, thankful that Inara had dropped the topic. “Uh, coffee first, aspirin and then maybe some fruit.”
“Fruit?”
“You do know what fruit is don’t you? Do they not have stuff like that in the future?”
“Yes, we have fruit, but traveling the way we do, we eat flavored protein. On the core planets I was telling you about, it’s a tad more common, but still a delicacy. Truth be told, I haven’t had a piece of any type of fruit for quite some time.” Inara sent Willow a heart warming smile and followed her to the kitchen.
Mal rolled over and sat up in an empty bed. He stretched his sore muscles and looked around to find his pants and shirt. Taking a quick glance at the clock he moved slowly to the bathroom. After last nights patrolling fiasco, he had barely made it to the room upright after checking on everyone. His head hurt, his stomach was growling and Zoë had obviously been awake for some time. The shower looked to have been used a while ago.
Last night, they hadn’t even had a chance to talk about what in the hell happened. He still reeled at the things he saw. He had been in war, he had seen some of the worst man had to offer, but watching Willow do the things she had done had unnerved him. It just wasn’t natural to him. The more he thought about it the more he needed to see to it that he and his crew got back to where they belonged. He didn’t feel that they fit in here. He was out of place in this world and this time. He raked a hand through his floppy mass of hair and left the room to find some grub.
Buffy groaned as her ribs audibly creaked when she moved to get up. Willow was obviously gone and she had overslept. Cursing, Buffy rolled out of bed, dressed and made her way to get a sorely needed cup of coffee. She walked down the hall thinking about last night events. Hopefully Xander had some information for her. She was also still worried about Willow. She needed to make sure that the witch was okay with what had happened.
Buffy froze when she walked into the kitchen. Willow was apparently up and feeling okay, because there she sat in a huddled conversation with the time traveling companion. They were sitting knee to knee and giggling like schoolgirls. A flash of jealousy flared as Buffy was taken back to a time where a scene similar to this played out, but the girl next to Willow had been Tara and Buffy had yet to realize what her feelings had meant. She coughed to let her presence be known.
Willow looked up startled and then sent her friend a smile. “Mornin’ Buffy, you sleep okay?”
Buffy nodded and made a dash for the coffee pot. She needed to clear her head before she said something she would regret later. Kicking herself once again for having these thoughts she turned from the two girls and excused herself to the back yard. Sitting down on one of the benches that riddled the backyard she took a long drink of the coffee that she’d hastily made and grimaced, too much sugar and not nearly enough half and half. She threw the contents in the grass and rested her head in her hands.
She couldn’t seem to stop the thoughts about Willow that had been plaguing her for the past year. It had started a bit after Willow had come back from Rio. Buffy began to see Willow in a whole new way and it scarred the living shit out of the slayer if she were honest with herself. She had never been attracted to Willow before then or had she? The slayer got lost in thoughts of the redheaded witch and completely ignored Dawn sitting down next to her.
“Buffy?” Dawn nudged her sister’s shoulder and waited on a response.
“Uh.” Buffy looked up startled. “Oh Dawnie, hey. What’s up?”
“Giles, Xander in the war room. They want your assistance.”
Buffy nodded. “Anyone else?”
“Willow went in with Inara and Faith was sent to go get the rest of the people from the future. How weird does that sound? People from the future, as if our lives weren’t complicated or strange enough?” Dawn sighed out loud and stood, waiting for Buffy to follow.
“Well squirt, it’s the life we live.”
Ch. 8 - Trust in Faith
Buffy walked in to a full room. Along with their new friends, the Scoobies were spread out with Giles and Xander near the head of the table. Buffy groaned internally and hoped that Xander hadn’t had time to prepare a slide show. He’d discovered the joys of Power Point a few years ago and every time something big happened, he had to put one together. She nodded to Giles for him to begin and took a seat opposite Mal.
“Good day, everyone.” Giles cleared his throat and shuffled through some papers on the table top. “I take it everyone is comfortable with regard to the situation that arose yesterday?” He waited to receive confirmation and then continued, “Xander and a few slayers went back to the place where Malcolm and the two others were taken. Not much was left, which isn’t surprising. However, from the data we collected at the scene, the accounts of all involved and the type of demon that seemed to be the leader of the group, we’ve come up with a possible scenario.”
Xander stepped up and hit the remote in his hand. As the lights dimmed, a picture of the demon Buffy and Carrie had killed appeared on the screen behind his head. “This is a mid-level chaos demon; the species name is Lekakolo, rough translation to Bringer of Destruction. Supposedly, they came up here to throw an end of the world sacrifice and party. Red team came upon one of a clan of 8. There are 6 more and from what other Intel we could gather, they are using some of the other demon populations to help out. They’ve targeted our little burgh because Slayer Central USA is here.”
Xander removed a cross from his back pocket and slid it towards Mal. “I told you so,” he remarked, a smirk playing at the corners of his mouth. He only got a glare from the captain and was about to start again, but Giles interrupted.
“I’ve been in contact with headquarters in Scotland, Beijing, Rio, Sydney, Paris, & Rome. None have reported sightings of the demons. Cleveland is by far the most active hellmouth worldwide, so, I’m to assume that they came here because of the energy pull. However, we would be remiss to not check around a bit more. I’ve organized our teams worldwide to do sweeps for the creatures and hopefully, in the process, glean more information.”
“So that’s it?” Buffy looked between Xander and Giles confused. “We interrupt their little sacrifice ritual and they go home with their tails between their legs?”
Giles peered at Buffy over his glasses and pleaded with her to be quiet, “Buffy, if you would allow Xander and I to continue?”
“Sure, drone away.”
“Now,” Xander clapped his hands together and started again, “I have Delta, Tango, & Green teams doing sweeps as we speak. We need to find the remaining 6 demons and slice and dice.”
“Why wasn’t I included? Or at least my team?” Buffy asked, glaring at the two men.
“You were exhausted and there are matters here that need attending to” said Giles simply. “Delta and Tango teams have four slayers each along with their patrolling witches and Green team is competent with their rotating members of six. Surely Buffy, you can see it was well taken care of.”
“And since when has my exhaustion ever stopped you from putting me out there? Hell, when has it ever stopped me from going out there myself?”
“Buffy as non-threatening as their,” Giles waved a hand at their visitors, “presence is, we need to concentrate on getting them back to when they belong. I need you rested and able to take care of this. Also, I had thought you wanted to be less active, which is certainly understandable and if you are in semi-retirement, this gives you the perfect opportunity to act as liaison for our guests. They need help in our time and you of all people are the most adept at attending to this need.”
“Yeah, come on Buff, it’s not like we’re sayin’ never slay again.” Xander said, trying to lighten the situation.
Buffy just folded her arms and glared. She knew that the conversation she’d had with Giles a month prior was going to come back and bite her in the ass. She pouted as she witnessed the ass biting. It wasn’t supposed to be a major deal. She just wanted to be taken out of routine patrol and possibly learn more of the administrative side so that when she was too old to go out and slay, she could do the stuffy suit thing and lend a hand with the strategizing when needed.
“So where’s that leave us?” Mal finally interjected.
“It would appear stuck here waiting until we can find you suitable parts for your ship and, as it were, a way back to your own time.” Giles looked to Willow to get her attention. “Willow, perhaps you should contact the Devon coven and see if Althanea might have a suggestion to set us off in the right direction?”
“Sure. It’s still talk-able hours there I’ll call as soon as we’re done here.” Willow smiled at Giles and then looked over to Buffy. She had been acting a little funny and Willow shot her a ‘what’s going on look’. Buffy just broke eye contact and went back to burning holes in Giles.
“Good.” Giles glanced down at his papers. “Now, on to our second order of business, it seems that while you were all engaged last night, Bravo team ran into some trouble over by the space craft.”
Kaylee sat up and asked, “She’s okay right?”
Xander nodded. “Didn’t get touched, but we need to move the ship.”
“And that would be where?” Willow asked. The city offered no suitable housing for the ship and while they could keep it on the grounds, transporting it to the school would be impossible.
“I’ve been in contact with one of our watchers and we could perhaps move it there, but we need to be able to find transport for it as well.” Giles turned to Kaylee and asked, “Is there anyway t-that it would be possible to, in a sense, break the ship down to be more, er, ah, shippable?”
Kaylee’s face scrunched up and she looked to Mal. She couldn’t read the look on his face, but she knew he expected her to answer. “Well, let’s see, the main body can’t be taken apart. The engines can be taken off, along with the expansions on the side. That’s all though.”
“How difficult would it be to do so?” asked Giles.
Kaylee scratched her chin answering, “Well, not too seeing as how we done it before, but we’re gonna need a crane to do it.”
“We can do that. I’ve got a buddy that owes me a few favors.” Xander nodded already figuring the way it was going to go down.
“So we are going to where?” Willow asked.
“It appears that the most conducive place to get things in order would be in New Mexico. Just outside of Tohachie to be more specific. It’s secluded, yet only a few hours away from Sante Fe and Albuquerque.”
“And who’s going?” Buffy inquired, not liking the sound of what was coming.
“Malcolm and his crew, naturally, you, Willow, Xander, Faith, and the rest of the Red and Alpha Teams.” Giles met Buffy’s stare and waited for the blow out.
“Fine. We done here?” Buffy replied.
The ease at which Buffy accepted the request took Giles back for a moment, but he quickly recovered. “If you wish to go Buffy, please feel free.”
Buffy didn’t wait for him to finish as she pushed back from the table and walked out the door. She made her way quickly to her room. Slamming the door, she pulled out her suitcase and began to get the things together she would need. She wasn’t upset about leaving Cleveland for a few weeks. That was fine by her. Gave her a chance to relax and not have to worry about the other girls in the school. What had gotten to the slayer was Willow and Inara. They had been sharing glances the entire time and Buffy’s jealousy burned a bright green as she continued to sit there.
She went back to her earlier ruminations about Willow before Dawn had interrupted her. To Buffy these feelings shouldn’t have been happening. That was not the case though. It took Inara showing up for Buffy’s thoughts to click fully into place. She thought back to how she and Willow had relied on each other since the witches return from Rio. Willow had only been gone 6 months, but there hadn’t been a day that had gone by Buffy didn’t think of her. She emailed the witch constantly and learned to use those instant messaging programs to chat with Willow at odd hours of the day.
When Willow came back, Buffy’s heart soared and for the first few months the two could not be separated. To the blonde, it felt like sophomore year all over again. The two friends had reconnected and Buffy remembered how much she missed Willow’s company. She had also realized that the distance between herself and her family had been nothing but her own doing. Since Willow’s return, everyone was happy to see the softer side of the slayer. Xander had even made a few comments here and there, but these were met by a stony glare from his friend.
Buffy turned at the knock on her bedroom door. She called in whoever was there and was surprised when it was Faith who walked in.
“Hey B.”
“What’s up Faith?”
“Just comin’ to make sure you aren’t destroying your room.”
Buffy turned to look at the girl and cocked her head to the side. “And I would be all rampagy because?”
“’Cuz you nearly took the hinges off the conference room doors.”
Buffy’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh, I didn’t…”
“Yeah, I know you didn’t mean to. So what’s the what, you that pumped to go to the middle of nowhere?”
“Just packing,” Buffy let out and went back to rummaging through her drawers.
Faith took the seat by the window folding her feet underneath her. She watched a moment, as Buffy opened and closed various drawers, smiling. Something was up with the girl and Faith being all reformed and now a solid part of the core group wanted to know what was bugging her friend. “Buff, if you had stayed for the last three minutes, you’d have found out that not only are we not leaving today, but it’s proly gonna be about a week to take apart, crate and ship their craft.”
“Oh.” The blonde turned to Faith and let her shoulders drop. “So packing, not so important right now?”
“Not so much.” Faith smiled and shrugged. “Although B, what I really wanna know is what’s got your panties in a twist.”
“And you care because?” Buffy asked, letting some of the anger drain out of her as she sat on the edge of the bed.
“’Cuz I’d like to think that over the past few years, you and I have gotten to be sorta on the friends level and well, as friends do things together, they also have these things called conversations especially when something is bugging them. So out with it B. What’s got your knickers in a twist?”
Buffy gauged the sincerity of Faith’s words and tried to sort out how much to tell the brunette. She knew Faith to be trustworthy and from previous Buffy blow outs none of the things she and Faith had talked about had gone anywhere but between them. She also knew that Xander couldn’t help her, Dawn she didn’t want to talk to about this and the only one she did she couldn’t because it was concerning her.
“Heya, B. It wasn’t such a stumper. Sure, if I asked you who the current Secretary of Defense was you’d look at me funny, but this wasn’t it so…” Faith trailed off at the un-amused glare coming from the bed. She back peddled and held her hands up in the air as concession to shutting her trap.
“I…” Buffy stopped trying to find the words. “I…”
Faith leaned forward curious as to what Buffy was actually going to say. In her memory the blonde had never been at a loss for words. Whatever was troubling her friend had to be huge? As the ex-rogue watched the play of emotions contorting Buffy’s face, she idly wondered if she bit off more than she could chew and was half tempted to go get Willow.
“Okay, so the sitch, right, well…I guess, it’s really simple, although simple isn’t necessarily a word I’d use to call it, because it’s far from simple and it’s really uber confusing for the most part. I mean you spend 10 years of your life with a person and it takes what, some one coming from the future to get you to fully realize the enormity of your feelings towards them. So, you sit and you watch and then there’s jealousy, big raging jealousy, that makes you want to rip arms off and beat people senseless. How does this happen? Why does it happen now? Xander…”
“Whoa, hold up, I got lost mid babble. Jealousy? 10 years? Xander?” Faith’s eyebrows shot up as she queried, “You got a thing for X?”
Buffy’s face scrunched up wondering if she heard Faith right. “Xander, huh?”
“You’re jealous… Xander? You want our X-man?”
“Faith stay with me. I don’t want Xander. A world of no to Xander. I want Willow.”
Faith’s mouth dropped open and she starred at Buffy.
“I can’t really figure it out. I mean best friends for so long and then she leaves for Rio and then she comes back and the missing her and then the time we spent together when she came back, add that on top of the fact that for the past 4 months, I’ve had naughty dreams starring her at least 3 times a week and I’m just a big ball of confused slayer mush.”
“Oh.” Faith uttered, trying to regain composure, but the shock of Buffy essentially coming out to her left her floored. She could have kinda sorta seen her digging Xander. He had turned out to be a great guy, but her falling for the redhead. Faith thought there was more of a chance that she’d see the pearly gates of heaven before that happened. Her brain did a quick sort through and couldn’t help question, “So you went to automatic when?”
“Huh?”
“You got gayed up when?”
Buffy sent a sour look to her friend. “No to the gayed up.” She paused and thought for a second and said, “Okay, I mean yes, I guess it was, or I am. I guess yes, to the gayed up, but I don’t know. Two years ago or 10 years ago, I don’t know Faith. You and I had a few close calls if I remember right. It’s Willow though. I have no urge to be gay except with her.”
“Oh, so what’s the problem? You two are both single. I know you can throw down. Spike told me some stories…”
“F. haven’t we had this conversation about Spike?” Buffy’s tone warning Faith to stop.
“Right, no mentioning of the vampire that shall not be named. Christ, you’d think the Brit was Lord Voldemort or some shit.” She winked at the look Buffy was giving her. “So is this just you wanting to have some bump and grind time or are you on the whole moving to Vermont and not shaving your legs shtick to raise your kids in an excepting environment of gays?”
“Huh? Vermont? Where the hell do you come up with this stuff?”
“I’m asking, are you just wanting Willow for a screw or are you talking about a house in the ‘burbs 2.5 kids, fences and stuff?”
“Is everything about sex to you? Never mind, don’t answer. I know that one.” Buffy ran her fingers through her hair. “Okay, no it’s not just about sex although it’s been a while, but no, not just sex. I want it all. Well, not the kids and not the suburbs, no to your crazy Vermont theory. I just want…” Buffy trailed off trying to put into words what she wanted. “I want what I have with her now, but I want the cuddles and the kissing and the sex.”
“Gotcha. So what’s the problem again?”
“Have you not been paying attention?! Willow and Inara joined at the hip the past two days! They’re gonna get together and I’m gonna get screwed…”
“If they hook up you won’t.” Faith had to get the shot in, it was too easy.
“Uh?” The double entendre registered and she threw a pillow at the girl across from her.
“But Inara isn’t staying. We’re gonna ship ‘em back to their own screwed up future. So I’m still not seein’ the problem.”
“There’s a list. Shall I name them for you?”
“If it’ll help all of us avoid psycho Buffy for a few then feel free.”
“One: It’s Willow. Two: It’s Willow. Three: she doesn’t feel the same way. Four: She’s making goo-goo eyes at another girl. Five: I’m a chicken. Six: It’s Willow.”
“Okay since three of those were the same, we are only counting them as one. That’s four reasons and really none of those matter. Sure it’s Red, but she loves you, maybe she just doesn’t know how much yet. The other girl will be going away shortly and then it’ll be you two joined at the hip, again, so that’s five by five. I can’t help you with the chicken bit though.”
Buffy flopped back down on the bed. It was hopeless. She closed her eyes in frustration and felt the bed sink down next to her.
“B, it’ll be cool. You’ll see. I’ll help. By the time this is over, we’ll have Red beggin’ for ya.”
Buffy turned her head to Faith and quirked and eyebrow. She had feeling things were going to get interesting. More so than they already were.
Ch. 9 - Slayers With Wings
The week had been long and hard for all involved in taking apart the ship. Kaylee spent the time directing supernaturally strong girls wielding pulleys and ropes while Xander manned a crane. Buffy and Willow had to take the time travelers shopping for clothes that would not stand out in a crowd. Most of them had opted for jeans and t-shirts except for River who stuck to dresses with River wearing the combat boots Kaylee had given her when they first met. Everyone was now at the airport getting ready to board the cargo plane Giles had organized.
“So G-man, where’d you find this monster?” Xander hooked a thumb in the direction of the massive plane.
“Xander, I’ve asked you numerous times to not call me that.” Giles looked over his glasses at Xander and sighed. “As for the plane, well, I happen to know an old school friend who runs cargo for various governments and he was kind enough to not ask questions when I called for his services.”
Buffy stepped over to her ex-watcher and Xander asking, “So we are landing this where?”
Xander draped an arm over her shoulders and smiled. “No landing Buff. We are dropping it over a predetermined spot via parachute.”
“Ookaayy, but where do we land to go where we need to?” Buffy asked.
Xander smiled and shook his head. “Buffy, Buffy, Buffy, we are not landing. We are parachuting down with the spaceship.”
“HUH?” Buffy’s eyes grew wide and she looked back and forth between Giles and Xander.
Giles removed his glasses and said, “We can’t land the plane at the airport. So we had to devise an alternate plan. The lot of you will be riding down with the crates.” He couldn’t help the smirk that turned the corners of his mouth up.
Buffy paled, sputtered and then shook her head no. “Not gonna happen. What if the chutes fail to open? Or, or what if we fall off? Didn’t think about that didja?”
“Yeah, Buff, we did. Don’t worry about it okay.” Xander smiled and his eye twinkled in the moonlight. “We’ve got rigs for everyone. The landing may be kinda rough, but we figured that once you’ve lived on top of a hellmouth, jumping out of a plane would be easy.”
Buffy paled further. “Did we all miss the big header I took off the tower a while back? Have we forgotten the Buffy doesn’t jump off of really high things rule?”
Xander winked at Giles and steered her towards the loading bay. “No, I didn’t forget, but I promise, Will and I will be right there with you. I’ve got it all taken care of.” Xander hugged her and walked her into the plane where everyone had already been seated. He secured himself as did Buffy then signaled the pilot they were ready for take off.
Resting his head against the wall, he went through the plan one more time with Buffy. “We’ve got two planes. The first is us. We have the main body of the ship packed up in a crate large enough to fit the population of San Diego in. With the rigging we have in place, we climb up on top, strap ourselves on, the doors open and we drop out. Will and River did the calculations so that the ‘chutes are big enough and we don’t plummet to the ground and die. All is good.” He leaned his head back and cast a quick glance at Buffy. Sometimes freaking her out was worth it he thought to himself.
An hour or so had passed with idle chit chat among everyone; the blonde slayer was having a not so good time of it thinking about the upcoming jump. Twitching on the uncomfortable bench seating, she smiled over at Willow. The redhead wasn’t too fond of flying, but seemed to be holding up pretty good. The slayer reached out and grabbed her hand and rested her head on Willow’s shoulder, drifting off to sleep.
Inara had spent a good two hours talking with Kaylee and Simon when she looked over to see Willow being used as a human pillow. Excusing herself from the couple, she walked over to the witch. “Comfortable?” asked Inara, as she sat on the non-occupied side of the redhead.
Willow nodded her head yes. “Surprisingly enough, yes. Not really one with the flying. Buffy usually keeps me calm though. A few months back we had to fly to Rome and usually I just take a few Tylenol PM and pass out to avoid the anxiousness, but Buffy flew with and it wasn’t bad. She kept me entertained the whole way.”
“It’s good that you have someone like that. From all that you’ve told me, you, Buffy and Xander seem as close as friends could be.”
“We are. Although,” Willow dropped her voice to a conspiratorial whisper, “Xand’s been very General-ly lately and not so much with the bonding. Buffy’s been making up for it.”
Inara just smiled and then looked at the napping blonde one more time before turning her head and looking at Mal talking with Kaylee. She looked around a bit more and found River and Faith in a deep conversation and Zoë had taken to talking to Xander. Looking at her family, she shrugged off the un-ease and turned back to Willow.
“Will?” Buffy’s groggy voice asked.
“Yeah, Buff?” Willow turned her head and whispered in the blonde’s hair. From their positioning, Willow still held a firm grip on the slayer’s hand and the blonde’s head was nestled neatly in the crook of Willow’s arm.
“We there yet?” Buffy blinked and sat up rubbing at her eyes.
“Nope. I think we’ve got another hour or so.”
“Oh,” Buffy looked around and then her gaze settled on the companion to her left. “Hi Inara.”
“Hi Buffy. Nice nap?”
Buffy blushed a bit and then looked at Willow. “One of the best. Thanks.” She took a quick look around and asked, “Am I the only one that’s wigging because of the impending jump?”
Willow shot a confused look to the blonde. “Jump?”
“Xander said that we are going to be parachuting down with Serenity.”
Willow broke out into a grin and started laughing. Trying to get through the fit of laughter, she was able to choke out, “I can’t believe he told you that. We talked about it, but no, no jumping for us. We dump the ship and then land at an abandoned airfield about 10 miles from there.”
Buffy’s eyes narrowed and she sprang up, yelling, “Xander!”
The man’s head whipped round and he knew the jig was up. Holding up his hands in surrender, he watched an annoyed slayer stomp in his direction.
The entire team reached their destination a few hours later. Buffy had only threatened her friend while Willow watched on amused and amazed that Xander could have been so dumb. The watcher they had met up with, Tami, had readied the place for their arrival. The slayers she had with her, Nicole and Joanna, were pretty nice girls and helped the crew get settled in. The new visitors were currently pairing off rooms and the two young slayers couldn’t help but be mildly awe struck that they had the original Sunnydale gang staying with them.
After getting the rest of the slayers settled, Tami left the rooming situation for Xander to organize. The house, if it could be called that, had a total of 14 bedrooms and sat on 10 acres of land. The slayers there were in charge of patrolling the town the house sat on, the outskirts of said town and another 50 mile radius on top of that. Xander, Buffy, Willow, Faith, Carrie, and the remaining crew were in the east wing finishing off room assignments.
Mal poked his head in a room and nodded. “I found my space.” He smiled back at the rest of the group.
“Sir, I think I’ll take that single if they still got it,” Zoë said. She had put up with bunking with Mal for their stay in Cleveland, but her need for personal space far outweighed her concern for the other’s sleeping arrangements. One more night of hearing the captain snore and she was certain that she would, at the very least, strangle him. For a time she could handle it, but now that they were able to rearrange everyone, she was going to get some alone time if she had to kill someone to do so.
Mal looked at her hurt. “Zoë, why don’t you love me?”
Inara smacked Mal in the chest and looked to Zoë smiling.
Faith being the most vocal of the bunch looked between Mal and Zoë and asked, “You two have a fight?”
“Ah, no, can’t say we have Faith,” Mal let out slightly confused.
“Oh, we just thought that since you two were an item, the sleeping arrangements would be a bit different.”
Zoë covered her mouth with her hand and Mal turned a funny red color. The brunette slayer looked at their reactions and smiled.
“So you two aren’t doin’ the horizontal cha-cha?”
Inara spoke before anyone had a chance to, “No, they most certainly are not. Why don’t we do it this way, Mal, you and Jayne take this room. Zoë you take the single. River and I can take the one next door and Simon and Kaylee can have the room opposite Zoë.”
River smiled, but shook her head no. “I’ve got my room with Faith. You and Carrie, I think, were rooming together.”
“Awe, now just wait a minute. I ain’t sleepin’ in the same quarters as this one. He snores,” Jayne pouted.
“Jayne Cobb, how can you say things like that about me? I do no such thing,” Mal’s voice was laced with mock hurt and he barely contained his smile. “’Sides which, I wanna know how you know that I snore? You been gazin’ at me all longin’ like while I’m asleep?”
Jayne’s jaw set and he was about to say something when Xander interrupted, “How about Mal, you take the other single and I’ll bunk with Jayne.”
“How ‘bout this Cyclops, you bunk with Cap’n Tight Pants and I’ll take your room.” Jayne shoved his way though and went to the other single room slamming the door as he went out of sight.
“So…” Faith turned to Willow and Buffy. “Red, you take our blonde princess and have a good night.” She waved and winked at Buffy and turned her attention back to the remaining group. “Everyone here is settled then? Good. River, I need to go check on the rest of the girls, you want to come with?”
River nodded then kissed her brother goodnight. The two dark haired girls dropped their bags off in the room and headed off to see the rest of their traveling companions.
Willow and Buffy stepped into the room and were both shocked to see only one bed. Not that either had a problem sharing a bed with each other, but Buffy was more than nervous. The last week in Cleveland had proved to the blonde that Willow, over the course of their friendship, had rubbed off on her more than she would have liked to admit because she was, in her own mind, queen of the spazzes.
“Right or Left?” Willow had looked at the blanched face of her friend and was wondering what was going on with the blonde. “Buffy? Earth to the slayer?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah sure, whatever you want Will.”
Willow’s eyebrows rose and she tossed her bag on the floor by the left side of the bed. “Okay Summers, you’ve been acting kind of weird the past week.”
Buffy slumped and set her bag down. “Nothing major, just been thinking.”
Willow snorted and asked, “Hmm, this doesn’t have anything to do with Giles and your semi-retirement blow out does it?”
“Ah, no, not really.” She took a glance at her friend and realized that the redhead thought that she was really upset over the way Giles had been leaving her out of the loop on a few major things going on at the school. Not only was the whole shipping her off to New Mexico mildly annoying, but there were a couple of problems within the ranks that Giles had purposefully kept her out of. Sadly enough for the blonde these all played second fiddle to her problems surrounding her best friend. Deciding this was not the conversation she wanted to have, she agreed with the false assumptions. “Yeah, it’s just that I can see why we had to move everyone out here for a bit, but couldn’t we ’ave I dunno talked about it first.”
“Well, it’s not so bad. We got a shopping trip out of the deal and we’re closer to where we need to be to pick up the wiring for the ship.”
Buffy snorted, “Yeah, about that, do you think this is the best shot we have?”
Willow grinned. “I think so. We’ve all been through the plans more than enough. It’ll be fun to say the least. We don’t ever get to do stuff like this. Our plans all usually revolve around trying to keep hell from coming to town. This is going to be fun.”
“But it’s kinda major. Nothing else that we could do besides try and break in to what was it, Lockhead and Marin?”
“Lockheed Martin and no, their Space Division is in Denver. This is probably our best shot unless you want to go and try to break into NASA?”
“How about we stick to Denver.” Buffy began unpacking and pulled her usual sleeping gear from her bag. They were both getting ready for bed and Buffy was thankful that she had been able to switch the topic. Willow had changed into babble mode on their plan.
She was to work on securing security clearance for herself, Buffy, Mal, Zoë and Jayne to gain access to the warehouses of the company that held the largest defense contract with the U.S. Government. Once inside, they were supposed to load up a ½ ton roll of the wiring Kaylee needed to finish fixing up their ship. Buffy didn’t think they had a snowballs chance in hell of pulling this off, but everyone but her had seemed to think the plan would go off ok. Mal insisting that something like this was no big deal and then launching into a story where they broke into a hospital whose security was tighter than most government buildings. The two girls finished getting ready for bed and soon after drifted off to sleep.
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