Fic: Magical Mishap 1/1 (Death-by ficathon request)
Okay, so killing Kennedy was actually harder than I thought it would be. Actually I think it was the involving Willow in a humorous way of killing her that was a problem.
Title: Magical Mishap
Author: Shannon
Characters: Faith, Dawn, Kennedy, Willow
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: They belong to Joss Whedon, ME, UPN, WB, and FOX.
Distribution: Death-by-athon, my LJ, My site, anyone else let me know first.
Summary: Kennedy tries to color her hair to surprise Willow.
Author’s Notes: Thank you, Gabrielle, for betaing this for me.
Requirements for fic:
Character You Want to See Die: KENNEDY!
Death By (Pick a Noun [or noun phrase]…the more creative the better!): hair removal
Prefer angst or humor?: humor
Other characters involved in the death? (yes, no, who? or don’t you care?): PLEASE! (willow involvement preferred)
Anything you absolutely do NOT want to see: just make her dead!
***
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Dawn asked, looking skeptically at the small bottle in Kennedy’s hand. “You don’t know what’s in it.”
“It’s hair color.”
“That you got from a demon,” she insisted. “They generally aren’t considered trustworthy. At least show it to Willow first. Let her make sure it’s safe.”
“No, I told you I want to surprise her,” Kennedy answered, “It’s not like I have to drink it or something; what’s the worst that can happen?”
“I still don’t think…”
“Are you going to help me or not?”
***
Not even she thought this would happen, Dawn thought, staring at the girl lying in the casket. This was weird even for her life…which was really saying a lot.
“Her hair’s crooked,” Faith said, coming up behind her.
“I know, but…”
“Where’s Will?” Faith asked, leaning forward and reaching toward the casket.
“Giles is bringing her in a few minutes,” Dawn answered, “She’d been here for two days, Giles convinced her to let Buffy and I come early today so she could sleep.”
“I still don’t understand how it happened,” Faith whispered, trying to straighten the wig without attracting attention, “When Giles called he said he didn’t have the details, but it was something about hair dye and a spell gone wrong.”
“Hey, Buffy wants to know what you two are doing up here?” Xander interrupted, as Faith pulled away from the casket. “Giles and Willow are on their way in and…”
“And she thinks I’m going to talk her little sis into doing something embarrassing?” Faith asked, smiling.
“Yeah,” Xander returned the smile. “But we should go and sit down before we lose our seats to hundreds of little slayers.”
Faith and Dawn looked back toward the empty seats between Buffy and Andrew, then at Buffy who was glaring at them.
“She thinks we aren’t taking this seriously enough,” Xander whispered, as they walked toward Buffy.
“She killed herself dyeing her hair,” Faith smirked, “It’s hard to take that seriously.”
“It wasn’t actually dyeing her hair that did it,” Dawn whispered. “Not that it’s any less funny but…”
“What were you two doing up there?” Buffy whispered angrily as Dawn took the seat between her sister and Xander, and Faith sat on Buffy’s other side.
“Paying our respects, B,” Faith responded easily, fighting back a smile.
“I saw you leaning into the casket,” Buffy responded.
“She was fixing the wig, Buffy,” Dawn sighed. This attitude was exactly why she had come to Brazil instead of staying in Italy with her sister. “What did you think she was doing?”
Before Buffy could answer, Giles and Willow walked in, “Just stay here, okay?” Buffy said as she walked away to go speak to Willow.
“You really have to tell us what happened,” Xander told Dawn once he was sure Buffy couldn’t hear them.
“Are you guys staying overnight?”
“Yeah,” Faith said, “We have rooms at a hotel. Giles booked them for all of us.”
“Right, I forgot,” Dawn smiled, “I’m staying there tonight, too. Buffy is going to stay with Willow so I said I’d take her room at the hotel, because the apartment isn’t big enough for all of us. I’ll tell you tonight.”
“Here they come,” Xander whispered, as Giles, Buffy, and Willow started to head in their direction.
***
“It’s not that bad,” Dawn offered, trying not to laugh. It wasn’t smart to laugh at an upset slayer. It’s one of the things you learn quickly when your sister *is* one.
“How can you say that?” Kennedy shouted, “It’s…it’s three different colors, where there’s hair at all.”
“You could tell Will that you’ve decided to go with a different look?” Dawn suggested. She wasn’t feeling very sympathetic; she had tried to warn the older girl not to use something she bought from a demon. Something the demon admitted had magical properties. She should’ve just paid the prices at the salon they had tried first. It was expensive, but she wouldn’t be in this predicament now.
“Right, she’ll believe that I wanted my hair to be pink, green, and orange.” Kennedy frowned and examined her head in the mirror again. “Magic caused this, maybe there’s a spell to fix it.”
“Kennedy, I don’t know…” Dawn said nervously, “Magic is dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing and…maybe you should just tell Willow.”
***
“You’re kidding, right?” Xander asked, laughing. “Three colors?”
“Yeah,” Dawn grinned, “And these big bald spots scattered around her head.”
Faith handed drinks to Xander and Dawn and flopped onto the bed next to Dawn. They hadn’t been at the hotel all that long; it took quite a while to convince Buffy that nothing horrible was going to happen to her little sister if left with them.
Finally logic won out, Willow had a two bedroom apartment, Giles needed to stay, Willow’s control had been exceptional since leaving Sunnydale but the last time one of her girlfriends died…And Buffy was staying. There was a twin bed in the spare bedroom and a couch. Dawn didn’t want to sleep on the floor, and neither did anyone else.
“Don’t suppose she listened to you, then?” Faith asked. “Being dead and all, I assume she did something stupid.”
“More stupid than buying an unidentified bottle of…something from a demon?” Xander asked.
Dawn tried to hide her smile, but like the other two, she didn’t particularly like Kennedy or think she was good for Willow. “She tried to fix it.”
***
“Are you going to help me look, or just stand there?” Kennedy asked as she re-shelved one of Willow’s magic books.
“I’m going to stand here,” Dawn responded, glancing around nervously. “I can’t stop you from doing something stupid, but I don’t have to help you either.”
“What choice do I have?” Kennedy countered, gesturing to her hair. “I can’t let anyone see me like this.”
“I know, but Will…” Dawn argued.
“I’m not telling Willow.”
Dawn sighed, she understood the embarrassment of something going horribly wrong with magic and not wanting anyone to know. She had tried a few spells herself that year after leaving Sunnydale and they had all ended in disaster. Disasters that required Willow to fly to Italy to fix things; that’s why she had stopped. On the other hand, her spells were always things like trying to clean the apartment, or make pretty party decorations…this was more dangerous, she couldn’t stand here and do nothing.
“Found it,” Kennedy said loudly, smiling. “It says it can remove an unsightly problem.”
“Kennedy, I don’t…”
“This is unsightly,” she replied. “This has to work, and I think we have everything we need here.”
Before Dawn could object further, Kennedy picked up the book and left the room, Dawn assumed to gather the necessary supplies. She had to do something, and she didn’t have much time. Willow was out running errands and wasn’t supposed to be back for hours. And she had left without her cell phone, so Dawn couldn’t call her.
They used to be able to communicate telepathically. When Buffy had been gone. They had fought that way. Well, she hadn’t, they hadn’t let her anywhere near the fight back then, but Xander, Giles, Spike, and Willow had. And she and Willow and Xander had used it occasionally at meetings to occupy their time while Buffy and Giles talked. Of course, she had never tried to communicate with Willow this way without her knowing first, or from this distance but she had to do something.
***
“So the word ‘remove’ didn’t give her a clue then?” Xander asked. “Even I could’ve figured out what could go wrong with that spell.”
“No, she was so intent on fixing it she didn’t want to hear any objections,” Dawn said. “I did try to warn her, first when she found it, and then just before she started it.”
“So, the mind mojo didn’t work?” Faith asked.
“It did, but that’s actually when it all went really wrong,” Dawn answered.
***
“Kennedy,” Dawn tried again, “That spell doesn’t sound like it’s going to do what you think…”
“I’m doing it, Dawn,” Kennedy said, kneeling on the floor in front of the ingredients she had gathered.
Dawn frowned, but stopped arguing. It wasn’t doing any good anyway. She had tried to contact Willow but she didn’t know if it worked. She had done her best to tell Willow what was happening, but there hadn’t been a response.
“Okay, I need to concentrate on this, so no noise,” Kennedy said, once again reading over the words of the spell. “It says if I mispronounce anything it could have dire results.”
Dawn sighed. Someone with no magical experience should not be performing a spell that warns that one mistake could have dire results. She kept her mouth shut though as Kennedy started to read the words in the book while she combined the ingredients.
Dawn listened to the words Kennedy was saying and tried to translate, but it wasn’t a language she was particularly good with. The words she did understand were not encouraging though. She watched as a blue light began to surround Kennedy’s head. The word remove kept popping up in the spell. Remove, not change, not fix, Dawn thought as she listened. If the problem was Kennedy’s hair and the spell said to remove…
“Kennedy, No!” The bedroom door was thrown open and Willow ran in, shouting for her to wait, she didn’t understand what the spell did.
Kennedy jumped to her feet at the sound of Willow’s voice.
***
“Damn, just getting to the important part,” Faith scowled, reaching for the ringing phone.
Dawn smiled, what happened was funny, but at the same time, Willow felt unbelievably guilty about the whole thing. If she hadn’t come in when she did…
“No, B,” Faith said into the phone. “I’m having fun hanging out here with Xander and Dawn. There’s 200 slayers in town; send one of them.”
Xander and Dawn both laughed when Faith set the phone on the bed and got up to get another drink. She came back and picked up the phone again, “Great, you go then, bye.”
“Did you just hang up on her?” Dawn asked.
“Yeah.”
“She’s going to be very…unpleasant tomorrow,” Xander pointed out, “You know that, right?”
“She’ll get over it,” Faith pointed out. “All the girls here tonight; someone else can patrol. It isn’t like we’re here because some big bad killed Kennedy.”
“True,” Xander grinned, “It was a spell that she did herself.”
***
“Willow, what are you doing…” Kennedy stopped as the blue light that had been surrounding her head was now making its way around her chest. “What’s happening?”
Dawn’s eyes widened as she saw Kennedy’s head. She had been right about the word removed. The spell had indeed removed the problem; Kennedy’s hair was completely gone.
“Kennedy, don’t move,” Willow said quietly, not wanting to startle her. “You didn’t finish the spell but you interrupted it. I think I can stop it.”
“Why don’t I feel…?” Kennedy stopped talking as she felt her head. “My hair!”
“Don’t mo…” Before Willow could finish the sentence, Kennedy had turned to run to the mirror; the blue light burst and disappeared as Kennedy fell to the floor.
“What happened?” Dawn said, staring at the fallen slayer as Willow ran to kneel beside her.
“The spell,” Willow’s eyes filled with tears. “When it was interrupted it…changed and it tries to compress itself and…why is she bald?”
Dawn explained what had happened to Willow and then called Giles and Buffy to tell them the news. They had called for an ambulance and Kennedy was taken to the hospital, but no cause of death could be determined, and they had eventually said it was some sort of heart condition.
***
“Oh God, Willow is responsible for the spell going wrong?” Xander asked. “That’s why she kept saying it was all her fault. I thought she had done the spell or something but…”
“Red’s magic is better than that now,” Faith pointed out. “It is kinda funny that Kennedy’s own vanity killed her though.”
“I know,” Dawn agreed. “If she had just left her hair alone, or let Willow check the stuff, or even went to Willow after the potion had gone wrong.”
“Hell, if she had listened when Willow told her to not to move,” Xander pointed out. “But Will’s okay with this now? She’s not going to go all black magic Willow again, right?”
“Well…” Dawn admitted, “She did happen to stumble across the demon that sold Kennedy that potion last night on patrol.”
“He’s uh…?”
“Dead,” Dawn finished. “Slowly and painfully.”
The end.
Title: Magical Mishap
Author: Shannon
Characters: Faith, Dawn, Kennedy, Willow
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: They belong to Joss Whedon, ME, UPN, WB, and FOX.
Distribution: Death-by-athon, my LJ, My site, anyone else let me know first.
Summary: Kennedy tries to color her hair to surprise Willow.
Author’s Notes: Thank you, Gabrielle, for betaing this for me.
Requirements for fic:
Character You Want to See Die: KENNEDY!
Death By (Pick a Noun [or noun phrase]…the more creative the better!): hair removal
Prefer angst or humor?: humor
Other characters involved in the death? (yes, no, who? or don’t you care?): PLEASE! (willow involvement preferred)
Anything you absolutely do NOT want to see: just make her dead!
***
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Dawn asked, looking skeptically at the small bottle in Kennedy’s hand. “You don’t know what’s in it.”
“It’s hair color.”
“That you got from a demon,” she insisted. “They generally aren’t considered trustworthy. At least show it to Willow first. Let her make sure it’s safe.”
“No, I told you I want to surprise her,” Kennedy answered, “It’s not like I have to drink it or something; what’s the worst that can happen?”
“I still don’t think…”
“Are you going to help me or not?”
***
Not even she thought this would happen, Dawn thought, staring at the girl lying in the casket. This was weird even for her life…which was really saying a lot.
“Her hair’s crooked,” Faith said, coming up behind her.
“I know, but…”
“Where’s Will?” Faith asked, leaning forward and reaching toward the casket.
“Giles is bringing her in a few minutes,” Dawn answered, “She’d been here for two days, Giles convinced her to let Buffy and I come early today so she could sleep.”
“I still don’t understand how it happened,” Faith whispered, trying to straighten the wig without attracting attention, “When Giles called he said he didn’t have the details, but it was something about hair dye and a spell gone wrong.”
“Hey, Buffy wants to know what you two are doing up here?” Xander interrupted, as Faith pulled away from the casket. “Giles and Willow are on their way in and…”
“And she thinks I’m going to talk her little sis into doing something embarrassing?” Faith asked, smiling.
“Yeah,” Xander returned the smile. “But we should go and sit down before we lose our seats to hundreds of little slayers.”
Faith and Dawn looked back toward the empty seats between Buffy and Andrew, then at Buffy who was glaring at them.
“She thinks we aren’t taking this seriously enough,” Xander whispered, as they walked toward Buffy.
“She killed herself dyeing her hair,” Faith smirked, “It’s hard to take that seriously.”
“It wasn’t actually dyeing her hair that did it,” Dawn whispered. “Not that it’s any less funny but…”
“What were you two doing up there?” Buffy whispered angrily as Dawn took the seat between her sister and Xander, and Faith sat on Buffy’s other side.
“Paying our respects, B,” Faith responded easily, fighting back a smile.
“I saw you leaning into the casket,” Buffy responded.
“She was fixing the wig, Buffy,” Dawn sighed. This attitude was exactly why she had come to Brazil instead of staying in Italy with her sister. “What did you think she was doing?”
Before Buffy could answer, Giles and Willow walked in, “Just stay here, okay?” Buffy said as she walked away to go speak to Willow.
“You really have to tell us what happened,” Xander told Dawn once he was sure Buffy couldn’t hear them.
“Are you guys staying overnight?”
“Yeah,” Faith said, “We have rooms at a hotel. Giles booked them for all of us.”
“Right, I forgot,” Dawn smiled, “I’m staying there tonight, too. Buffy is going to stay with Willow so I said I’d take her room at the hotel, because the apartment isn’t big enough for all of us. I’ll tell you tonight.”
“Here they come,” Xander whispered, as Giles, Buffy, and Willow started to head in their direction.
***
“It’s not that bad,” Dawn offered, trying not to laugh. It wasn’t smart to laugh at an upset slayer. It’s one of the things you learn quickly when your sister *is* one.
“How can you say that?” Kennedy shouted, “It’s…it’s three different colors, where there’s hair at all.”
“You could tell Will that you’ve decided to go with a different look?” Dawn suggested. She wasn’t feeling very sympathetic; she had tried to warn the older girl not to use something she bought from a demon. Something the demon admitted had magical properties. She should’ve just paid the prices at the salon they had tried first. It was expensive, but she wouldn’t be in this predicament now.
“Right, she’ll believe that I wanted my hair to be pink, green, and orange.” Kennedy frowned and examined her head in the mirror again. “Magic caused this, maybe there’s a spell to fix it.”
“Kennedy, I don’t know…” Dawn said nervously, “Magic is dangerous if you don’t know what you’re doing and…maybe you should just tell Willow.”
***
“You’re kidding, right?” Xander asked, laughing. “Three colors?”
“Yeah,” Dawn grinned, “And these big bald spots scattered around her head.”
Faith handed drinks to Xander and Dawn and flopped onto the bed next to Dawn. They hadn’t been at the hotel all that long; it took quite a while to convince Buffy that nothing horrible was going to happen to her little sister if left with them.
Finally logic won out, Willow had a two bedroom apartment, Giles needed to stay, Willow’s control had been exceptional since leaving Sunnydale but the last time one of her girlfriends died…And Buffy was staying. There was a twin bed in the spare bedroom and a couch. Dawn didn’t want to sleep on the floor, and neither did anyone else.
“Don’t suppose she listened to you, then?” Faith asked. “Being dead and all, I assume she did something stupid.”
“More stupid than buying an unidentified bottle of…something from a demon?” Xander asked.
Dawn tried to hide her smile, but like the other two, she didn’t particularly like Kennedy or think she was good for Willow. “She tried to fix it.”
***
“Are you going to help me look, or just stand there?” Kennedy asked as she re-shelved one of Willow’s magic books.
“I’m going to stand here,” Dawn responded, glancing around nervously. “I can’t stop you from doing something stupid, but I don’t have to help you either.”
“What choice do I have?” Kennedy countered, gesturing to her hair. “I can’t let anyone see me like this.”
“I know, but Will…” Dawn argued.
“I’m not telling Willow.”
Dawn sighed, she understood the embarrassment of something going horribly wrong with magic and not wanting anyone to know. She had tried a few spells herself that year after leaving Sunnydale and they had all ended in disaster. Disasters that required Willow to fly to Italy to fix things; that’s why she had stopped. On the other hand, her spells were always things like trying to clean the apartment, or make pretty party decorations…this was more dangerous, she couldn’t stand here and do nothing.
“Found it,” Kennedy said loudly, smiling. “It says it can remove an unsightly problem.”
“Kennedy, I don’t…”
“This is unsightly,” she replied. “This has to work, and I think we have everything we need here.”
Before Dawn could object further, Kennedy picked up the book and left the room, Dawn assumed to gather the necessary supplies. She had to do something, and she didn’t have much time. Willow was out running errands and wasn’t supposed to be back for hours. And she had left without her cell phone, so Dawn couldn’t call her.
They used to be able to communicate telepathically. When Buffy had been gone. They had fought that way. Well, she hadn’t, they hadn’t let her anywhere near the fight back then, but Xander, Giles, Spike, and Willow had. And she and Willow and Xander had used it occasionally at meetings to occupy their time while Buffy and Giles talked. Of course, she had never tried to communicate with Willow this way without her knowing first, or from this distance but she had to do something.
***
“So the word ‘remove’ didn’t give her a clue then?” Xander asked. “Even I could’ve figured out what could go wrong with that spell.”
“No, she was so intent on fixing it she didn’t want to hear any objections,” Dawn said. “I did try to warn her, first when she found it, and then just before she started it.”
“So, the mind mojo didn’t work?” Faith asked.
“It did, but that’s actually when it all went really wrong,” Dawn answered.
***
“Kennedy,” Dawn tried again, “That spell doesn’t sound like it’s going to do what you think…”
“I’m doing it, Dawn,” Kennedy said, kneeling on the floor in front of the ingredients she had gathered.
Dawn frowned, but stopped arguing. It wasn’t doing any good anyway. She had tried to contact Willow but she didn’t know if it worked. She had done her best to tell Willow what was happening, but there hadn’t been a response.
“Okay, I need to concentrate on this, so no noise,” Kennedy said, once again reading over the words of the spell. “It says if I mispronounce anything it could have dire results.”
Dawn sighed. Someone with no magical experience should not be performing a spell that warns that one mistake could have dire results. She kept her mouth shut though as Kennedy started to read the words in the book while she combined the ingredients.
Dawn listened to the words Kennedy was saying and tried to translate, but it wasn’t a language she was particularly good with. The words she did understand were not encouraging though. She watched as a blue light began to surround Kennedy’s head. The word remove kept popping up in the spell. Remove, not change, not fix, Dawn thought as she listened. If the problem was Kennedy’s hair and the spell said to remove…
“Kennedy, No!” The bedroom door was thrown open and Willow ran in, shouting for her to wait, she didn’t understand what the spell did.
Kennedy jumped to her feet at the sound of Willow’s voice.
***
“Damn, just getting to the important part,” Faith scowled, reaching for the ringing phone.
Dawn smiled, what happened was funny, but at the same time, Willow felt unbelievably guilty about the whole thing. If she hadn’t come in when she did…
“No, B,” Faith said into the phone. “I’m having fun hanging out here with Xander and Dawn. There’s 200 slayers in town; send one of them.”
Xander and Dawn both laughed when Faith set the phone on the bed and got up to get another drink. She came back and picked up the phone again, “Great, you go then, bye.”
“Did you just hang up on her?” Dawn asked.
“Yeah.”
“She’s going to be very…unpleasant tomorrow,” Xander pointed out, “You know that, right?”
“She’ll get over it,” Faith pointed out. “All the girls here tonight; someone else can patrol. It isn’t like we’re here because some big bad killed Kennedy.”
“True,” Xander grinned, “It was a spell that she did herself.”
***
“Willow, what are you doing…” Kennedy stopped as the blue light that had been surrounding her head was now making its way around her chest. “What’s happening?”
Dawn’s eyes widened as she saw Kennedy’s head. She had been right about the word removed. The spell had indeed removed the problem; Kennedy’s hair was completely gone.
“Kennedy, don’t move,” Willow said quietly, not wanting to startle her. “You didn’t finish the spell but you interrupted it. I think I can stop it.”
“Why don’t I feel…?” Kennedy stopped talking as she felt her head. “My hair!”
“Don’t mo…” Before Willow could finish the sentence, Kennedy had turned to run to the mirror; the blue light burst and disappeared as Kennedy fell to the floor.
“What happened?” Dawn said, staring at the fallen slayer as Willow ran to kneel beside her.
“The spell,” Willow’s eyes filled with tears. “When it was interrupted it…changed and it tries to compress itself and…why is she bald?”
Dawn explained what had happened to Willow and then called Giles and Buffy to tell them the news. They had called for an ambulance and Kennedy was taken to the hospital, but no cause of death could be determined, and they had eventually said it was some sort of heart condition.
***
“Oh God, Willow is responsible for the spell going wrong?” Xander asked. “That’s why she kept saying it was all her fault. I thought she had done the spell or something but…”
“Red’s magic is better than that now,” Faith pointed out. “It is kinda funny that Kennedy’s own vanity killed her though.”
“I know,” Dawn agreed. “If she had just left her hair alone, or let Willow check the stuff, or even went to Willow after the potion had gone wrong.”
“Hell, if she had listened when Willow told her to not to move,” Xander pointed out. “But Will’s okay with this now? She’s not going to go all black magic Willow again, right?”
“Well…” Dawn admitted, “She did happen to stumble across the demon that sold Kennedy that potion last night on patrol.”
“He’s uh…?”
“Dead,” Dawn finished. “Slowly and painfully.”
The end.