October 16, 2016 - There are Always Consequences
Title: There are Always Consequences
Characters: Buffy Summers, Willow Rosenberg
Prompt Choice: Gone (Horribly) Wrong
Rating: PG
Medium: Fic
Word Count: 893
Fandom: BtVS
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy or anything related.
Summary: They never meant for the resurrection spell to have these consequences. Not a happy fic.
It started with the best of intentions.
Intent was key, for if the act had been done with selfish intentions, perhaps it would not have succeeded. The spell needed a noble purpose, required whoever was casting it to truly believe they were doing what was right. That they were saving someone a lifetime of being condemned to hell.
Ironic, really.
Buffy and Willow don’t talk about it much these days, though the act haunts them everywhere they go. In fact, it took years before any of them really recognized the consequences of the resurrection spell. After all, Tara - rest her soul - had studied the spell carefully, had been confident the side effects of the spell were minimum. Buffy’s soul was not altered, her personality was not affected. The soul had not come back wrong. What they failed to study, however, was the body itself, the body that had once been moldering and rotting underneath the ground, the body that had been magically altered to take back the decay of time.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
Back to the realization of the consequences taking years. Slayers, as it turns out, aged slower as they got older. The essence of demon forced into the first slayer retarded the aging of the body, causing an increased lifespan. Of course this was not known earlier; most slayers died in horrific fashion before the age of 19. Hard to study those that lived and died young. But with slayers numbered the hundreds now, they were living longer. They could share the burden of danger, decrease the chance of dying young. And so, as time passed, those in the newer version of the Watchers Council studied the aging of the slayers, using physical and genetic testing to really see the effect of the demonic properties of humans.
So it made sense that nobody realized earlier that Buffy was not aging.
It was Faith who noticed it first, Faith who was always watching what the other Head Slayer was doing. How could she avoid noticing, as she aged at the same rate as the other Slayers, while Buffy seemed to stay the same, no matter how much time passed. There were no gray hairs on her head; the added facial wrinkles the younger slayers were getting never appeared on her face; her body always healed from scars while the others started showing signs as they grew older.
Dawn was the first person Faith approached. Their research was frenzied but quiet, not wanting to alert the others of their concerns. Once they were sure of their findings, they gave the others their bleak report.
The resurrection spell had brought Buffy back to life, but it also included a more sinister portion to its spell. Her life-force was now tapped to her body, a body that had once had the process of rot and decay reversed. A body that could not age.
Immortality.
What some people would long for, hope for, Buffy did not. Even now she remembered the feel of heaven, remembered the peace, the contentment. It was a memory she would have to hold onto, as she could no longer reach that plane of existence. She was forever doomed to life upon the Earth, watching friends grow old and die, watching the world slowly evolve as she watched.
Except.
While the spell had been shared, the majority of the magic was from Willow. In doing so, she tied herself to the Slayer, tying her own life to that of the now-immortal woman. And so the two researched with their friends and loved ones, watched as the step of time slowly caught up to the others. Cried as all those that could help research succumbed to the reach of death.
The first few centuries were at least bearable. They still had friends in Angel and Spike, and together the four of them traveled the world, searching every library, every museum in the world for a cure. In fact, it was almost enjoyable, as the shackles of needed to save the world was left to the every evolving Watchers Council, with well educated and trained slayers who could take care of those demons and vampires attempting to destroy the planet. But good things only last so long, especially when there are those that cannot withstand all dangers.
These days, Buffy and Willow barely talk, and even despise each other most days. But who else can ageless remnants of the past stay with? The current world of space travel and a dying atmosphere have no place for those that remember when getting to trying to get people to Mars was the greatest accomplishment of mankind. And why go into space, even with a planet that could barely sustain the life that was left? The answers had to be somewhere on Earth, somewhere in a library or museum, a temple or church, or ruins that they missed.
And so the two former friends, not really enemies, travel with each other on a never-ending quest to take back the spell that was cast, to put things right. Purposefully ignoring the spell that was once cast to save Buffy from the depths of hell. Ignoring that they have, in fact, created their own version of hell as wanderers of a dying planet, knowing that even if the planet dies, they never can.
Characters: Buffy Summers, Willow Rosenberg
Prompt Choice: Gone (Horribly) Wrong
Rating: PG
Medium: Fic
Word Count: 893
Fandom: BtVS
Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy or anything related.
Summary: They never meant for the resurrection spell to have these consequences. Not a happy fic.
It started with the best of intentions.
Intent was key, for if the act had been done with selfish intentions, perhaps it would not have succeeded. The spell needed a noble purpose, required whoever was casting it to truly believe they were doing what was right. That they were saving someone a lifetime of being condemned to hell.
Ironic, really.
Buffy and Willow don’t talk about it much these days, though the act haunts them everywhere they go. In fact, it took years before any of them really recognized the consequences of the resurrection spell. After all, Tara - rest her soul - had studied the spell carefully, had been confident the side effects of the spell were minimum. Buffy’s soul was not altered, her personality was not affected. The soul had not come back wrong. What they failed to study, however, was the body itself, the body that had once been moldering and rotting underneath the ground, the body that had been magically altered to take back the decay of time.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
Back to the realization of the consequences taking years. Slayers, as it turns out, aged slower as they got older. The essence of demon forced into the first slayer retarded the aging of the body, causing an increased lifespan. Of course this was not known earlier; most slayers died in horrific fashion before the age of 19. Hard to study those that lived and died young. But with slayers numbered the hundreds now, they were living longer. They could share the burden of danger, decrease the chance of dying young. And so, as time passed, those in the newer version of the Watchers Council studied the aging of the slayers, using physical and genetic testing to really see the effect of the demonic properties of humans.
So it made sense that nobody realized earlier that Buffy was not aging.
It was Faith who noticed it first, Faith who was always watching what the other Head Slayer was doing. How could she avoid noticing, as she aged at the same rate as the other Slayers, while Buffy seemed to stay the same, no matter how much time passed. There were no gray hairs on her head; the added facial wrinkles the younger slayers were getting never appeared on her face; her body always healed from scars while the others started showing signs as they grew older.
Dawn was the first person Faith approached. Their research was frenzied but quiet, not wanting to alert the others of their concerns. Once they were sure of their findings, they gave the others their bleak report.
The resurrection spell had brought Buffy back to life, but it also included a more sinister portion to its spell. Her life-force was now tapped to her body, a body that had once had the process of rot and decay reversed. A body that could not age.
Immortality.
What some people would long for, hope for, Buffy did not. Even now she remembered the feel of heaven, remembered the peace, the contentment. It was a memory she would have to hold onto, as she could no longer reach that plane of existence. She was forever doomed to life upon the Earth, watching friends grow old and die, watching the world slowly evolve as she watched.
Except.
While the spell had been shared, the majority of the magic was from Willow. In doing so, she tied herself to the Slayer, tying her own life to that of the now-immortal woman. And so the two researched with their friends and loved ones, watched as the step of time slowly caught up to the others. Cried as all those that could help research succumbed to the reach of death.
The first few centuries were at least bearable. They still had friends in Angel and Spike, and together the four of them traveled the world, searching every library, every museum in the world for a cure. In fact, it was almost enjoyable, as the shackles of needed to save the world was left to the every evolving Watchers Council, with well educated and trained slayers who could take care of those demons and vampires attempting to destroy the planet. But good things only last so long, especially when there are those that cannot withstand all dangers.
These days, Buffy and Willow barely talk, and even despise each other most days. But who else can ageless remnants of the past stay with? The current world of space travel and a dying atmosphere have no place for those that remember when getting to trying to get people to Mars was the greatest accomplishment of mankind. And why go into space, even with a planet that could barely sustain the life that was left? The answers had to be somewhere on Earth, somewhere in a library or museum, a temple or church, or ruins that they missed.
And so the two former friends, not really enemies, travel with each other on a never-ending quest to take back the spell that was cast, to put things right. Purposefully ignoring the spell that was once cast to save Buffy from the depths of hell. Ignoring that they have, in fact, created their own version of hell as wanderers of a dying planet, knowing that even if the planet dies, they never can.