+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Willow moaned and absently scratched at her hand, as
her mind tried to start working coherently again. Her body didn't want to cooperate and the witch wasn't sure she
wanted to force it. She ached
everywhere from being prodded, probed, stuck with needles and being held down
for so long.
"Willow?" a familiar voice questioned and
the witch realized someone was holding her uninjured hand. Extending her sense a little further, it
felt like a bed of some kind and the scent of the person there was familiar.
Willow slowly opened her eyes and tried to yell in
surprise but only a croak came out of her throat.
"Easy, please!" Oz urged. The young werewolf was sitting on the edge
of her mattress on a metal cot. Willow
immediately noticed the bandage wrapped around his eyes and head.
"I won't hurt you, I swear it!" he begged
and she resisted whacking him alongside his head with the cast.
Willow whimpered when nothing came out of her
throat.
"They did something to temporarily paralyze
your vocal cords," Oz explained.
"They brought you in a bit ago and told me to have fun with
you."
Willow whimpered again and Oz's head dropped down to
his chest.
"Willow," he said softly. "I'm sorry. I know you can't ever forgive me for what happened but I'm
sorry."
Willow sat up slowly, pulling her hand away from the
musician. Oz now had a full red beard
and his hair was scruffy. He also
looked like he had been through hell.
She reached out and took his hand. Then she slowly wrapped his hand around hers
and began twisting her fingers. After a
moment, he grinned.
"I get it!"
Willow found herself smiling in return and was
amazed at her own reaction. Two days
earlier and she would have gladly put a silver bullet through his chest, now
she felt like she was talking to the old Oz.
She moved her fingers slowly as his lips followed
along.
**what happened to you?**
"My pack tore my eyes out when I went blind and
then left me for dead," Oz began explaining. "Someone threw a net over me and then I was
unconscious. I was told later I was
captured by the Initiative."
Willow held his hand to her cheek and let him feel
her nodding.
"They drugged me, gave me shock treatments and
questioned me over and over again about what happened with you and Buffy,"
Oz continued, hanging his head. "I
told them everything, I think. It’s a little fuzzy. When I woke up three days
ago my head was clear. I mean like
before I left Sunnydale, before I left you.
I've been throwing up ever since, remembering what I was like."
Willow reached out to gently touch his cheek as
tears escaped from under the bandage.
"Willow, I'm so sorry!" he whispered. "I remember you finally got together
with Buffy. I'm okay with that. I know you've been in love with her for
years. I don't know what happened to
me, Willow."
**Oz, if this is a line, I'll kill you**
Oz nodded easily.
"I know, I swear it’s not a line.
All I want is to get out of here, find my van and I'm gone."
**eyes?**
"Oh yeah, well," Oz said softly. "Maybe a seeing eye dog instead of my
van or maybe someone to drive me."
**Oz, about the eyes**
"It was a spell wasn't it?" he
whispered. "I knew it was when it
hit. I could hear your voice shouting at
me."
Again, Willow let him feel her nod and her tears.
"No, don't cry, Wills!" he protested. "It was all my fault! I forced you into
that! I can't believe what I was like!"
**about Buffy**
Oz frowned.
"When they brought you in they whacked me around a little. They said I lied to them and had bitten you
not Buffy. They said she tested clean
and you are infected. What happened?"
**spell**
"You found a spell to cure Buffy and not
me?" he whispered with a frown, his shoulders sinking lower.
**just found the spell from a new internet
friend. Took the curse myself** Willow
answered.
"Damnit!" Oz shouted and jumped to his
feet. Willow watched as he paced back
and forth, smacking only once into the bars holding them in the small
room. "I was hoping you both
escaped that when they said Buffy wasn't infected."
Willow wanted to shout at him and cursed her silent
throat. This was too much like the time
when the Gentlemen stole everyone's voice.
She rapped against the steel wall and Oz worked his way back to her cot
and sat down, holding out his hand for her.
**My choice, Oz.
I chose to take that from her.**
"Your choice, my fault," he growled.
**Yes, and you'll have to live with that and so will
I** Willow said bluntly. She was tired;
talking with sign language with her fingers was long and exhausting. It was like an amateur translating Morse
code or something. **the main thing is
to first get through this**
"Okay, how do we do that?" he asked.
**not sure, what do they have planned for us?**
"I don't know, they said something about
changing you back to stick shift, whatever that means," Oz grumbled.
**it means they want you to rape me** Willow said
bitterly.
"No!" Oz shouted. "No way! Never! That wasn't me!"
**Oz, calm down!** Willow held tightly to his hand,
forcing him to 'listen' to her. **Buffy
and the gang will find us. I mean me;
the Initiative dumped a redheaded body on Buffy’s doorstep. They had one of their werewolves rip him
apart, including the eyes.**
“You thought I was dead?”
**Yes.**
“The world thinks I’m dead,” he muttered. “I might as well be dead! I tried to kill Giles, I hurt your friend, I
bit Buffy just to make her part of the pack and I tried to…I wanted to…hurt
you!”
Oz curled up around her hand, lying down next to her
legs as he began to weep.
"That wasn't me!" he sobbed. "I hurt you, I bit Buffy. That couldn't be me! Please don’t let it be
me!"
Willow reached down and gently stroked his spiky
hair.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
November 28
Mulder turned to and met anxious faces watching him
as he clicked off his cell phone. The
FBI agent shook his head slightly and pulled the blanket back up over Scully as
she lay on the sofa.
Giles glanced at the clock on the mantle and sighed. It was going to be a long three days, he
knew. Both he and Joyce had been unable
to get either Buffy or Tara to go to sleep, they were both still hovering over
the computer print outs of the plans Langley had sent them of the Initiative
Center.
“Langley can’t get past their systems and override
our clearances into the place,” Mulder answered the question in Giles’ eyes.
“Willow could,” Xander mumbled from the floor.
“I think our best bet is to wait until they transfer
her,” Mulder said softly, so as not to wake Scully on the sofa and Joyce in an
easy chair. “They’ll hand her and
several others over to a team in Barstow before heading out across the desert.”
“Desert?” Tara asked. “Where are they taking her?”
“Area 51,” Mulder answered slowly and wasn’t
surprised when Xander and Anya raised their heads up off the floor and Buffy
and Tara stared at him. “They reopened
it for testing on ‘hostiles.’”
“Oh man!” Xander muttered. “That is like the Holy Grail of security! UFO nuts have been
trying for years.”
Mulder grinned a rueful smile. “I know, I tried once. Didn’t get too far and whatever I saw they
wiped out with some kind of drug.”
“How did you get out?” Buffy asked with a frown.
“Scully took one of their people hostage and
exchanged me,” the agent grinned.
“I heard that, Mulder!” Scully snapped from under
the quilt. “I deny that every happened
and so does the government.”
“Yeah and that was before she really discovered how
loveable I am,” Mulder teased.
“Don’t count on, Mulder,” Scully mumbled.
“That would leave Willow in their hands and in
testing for another four days,” Buffy complained. “They won’t move her or the other werewolf until after the full
moon, Sunday morning. It’s only
Wednesday.”
//Tara, Buffy!//
Tara suddenly grabbed Buffy’s arm tight enough to
hurt and when the Slayer turned to protest she found Tara’s eyes closed and her
head slightly lifted back. Buffy
removed Tara’s hand and glanced at Giles.
The Watcher, seeing the interaction, quickly got to
his feet and rushed over to the table.
“Close your eyes, Buffy, and imagine a door opening
in your mind,” he instructed in a soft voice.
“Just like they taught me,” she mumbled and closed
her eyes and pictured the steel door opening.
//Tara! Buffy!//
///Wills?/// Buffy asked in her mind.
///Buffy, Willow, I’m here/// Tara answered.
//Guys, I can’t do this long// Willow’s voice
reached them. //They keep drugging me.
Took my voice, can’t do magick. It’s Walsh.
Help me! Help us!//
///Hang on, Wills! We’ve got help here/// Buffy
urged, tears streaming down her face.
///Willow, calm, think calm/// Tara instructed. ///Let our love flow into you.///
//I can’t get out of here!// Willow’s mental voice
began to panic. //Please help us!//
///Willow, we love you and we won’t rest until we
get you back// Tara assured her lover as she reached across the table to grab
Buffy’s hands, strengthening the connection.
///Wills, I swear we will get you back!/// Buffy
promised. ///Mulder is here///
//Thank the goddess// Willow’s voice calmed
slightly. //They think I’m asleep. I
love you both so much. No, damnit! Not
yet!//
///Wills?/// Buffy yelled mentally.
///Willow? Willow!/// Tara screamed silently.
“Willow!” Buffy snapped vocally and opened her eyes
as she felt Willow yanked from them.
Tara’s head jerked and the witch opened her eyes as well, staring deep
into Buffy’s blue eyes while filling with tears.
The Slayer rushed around the table to kneel next to
Tara’s chair as they held each other and were crying once more.
“Did you make contact?” Giles asked softly, glancing
around to see that everyone was awake and listening.
“Yes,” Tara answered between sobs. “She’s so scared.”
“It is the Initiative and they’ve done something to
her voice so she can’t do magick,” Buffy added.
"I know we're not going to get much sleep but I
think everyone should call in sick today and try to get some sleep. It’s obvious that we're not going to get
anything done this morning," Joyce suggested.
"Not without Willow!" Buffy snapped.
"Buffy, be reasonable," Giles said
wearily. "First rule of a Slayer,
stay alive. You can't do that going exhausted into a battle. You and Tara split one of Willow's pain pills
and get some sleep. We'll all try and
be back here at 3pm."
Mulder leaned down and helped Scully stand up.
"We'll be at the same hotel I stayed at last
time," he said simply.
"Agent Mulder," Giles called to the
agent. "Please help, Willow is
very important to us."
Mulder nodded as he opened the door for Scully.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Well #52, you're in much better shape than we
thought," Professor Walsh said, wiping away the tears from Willow's eyes
as the young witch lay on the gurney from the day before. "I'm considering not sedating you for the
change tomorrow night."
Willow's eyes widened in fear and she closed them
quickly.
"Your heart rate is still a little too rapid
but Atenol should slow that down without drugging you," Walsh commented.
Willow wanted to plead, to reason, to rant, to scream,
to swear but knew it was useless, especially when they had taken her vocal
cords out of commission.
"I am disappointed in Hostile 49 though,"
Walsh said thoughtfully, more to herself than to Willow. "The reports were that he wanted you as
a mate, I was hoping you two could make up and play nice."
Willow resisted the urge to shout or spit on the
doctor. She had seen one demon beaten
to death when he dared to fight back and clawed one of the commandos handling
him.
"Well, we'll see what happens when both of you
are wolves and in the same cage tomorrow night," Walsh grinned
sadistically.
Willow screamed inside herself. Locking Oz in a cage with a female werewolf
on the full moon had led to him breaking up with Willow in the first place,
when she had found them both naked together the next morning.
"For today and tonight, we're going to test
some of your limits, pain, heat, cold, things like that," Walsh informed
the test subject and Willow shivered.
"We don't get too many female werewolves. Now that we don't have to
sedate you to keep that heart rate down and your mind fuzzy, we can get some
clean and accurate readings."
//Stick your readings, doc.//
The orderlies, technicians or whatever they were,
appeared on either end of the gurney.
"She's behaving, mostly but don't
under-estimate her," Walsh warned them.
"Testing of limits today."
"Right, Professor," one of them nodded.
"Start with electric shocks and see what point
she either passes out or changes:
involuntarily or voluntarily," Walsh ordered.
//Buffy! Tara!//
Buffy and Tara whimpered in their sleep and reached
for each other.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"You want us to wait here for the next three
nights?" Buffy demanded when they all returned to the Summers’ dining
table.
Mulder looked as unhappy as the rest of them.
"I'm afraid so," he nodded.
"Okay, say we grab Willow and whoever else
they've got in chains, what do we do with them?" Xanders asked.
"First, how do we grab them?" Giles
pointed out.
"We need someone to take the place of the
transfer team in Barstow," Scully pointed out on the map. "The transport team is two commandos
and one medical technician. Mulder,
Buffy and myself are all on their 'Red' list."
"Red list?" Giles questioned.
"Shoot on sight if interfering with Initiative
business and dump the bodies," Mulder informed the group.
Joyce looked over at her daughter, her face
reflecting her worry.
"What about me?" Xander asked.
Giles frowned and Mulder looked thoughtful.
"I know you mean well, but they're trained
soldiers," he pointed out.
"So am I," Xander countered and everyone
looked confused. "A few Halloween
nights years ago some of us got caught up in some cursed costumes. We became whatever we dressed as. I was a military type."
"Yes, Ethan's costumes," Giles
muttered. "You remember
that?"
"I remember everything," Xander
nodded. "Just like I went through
the training. I didn't go through it
physically but I remember mentally. I
know ranks, saluting, everything."
Mulder looked thoughtful and Scully shrugged that it
might actually be a good idea.
"Okay, the second commando?" she
asked. "I don't think Mr. Giles
could pull that off."
"Anya if she keeps quiet?" Xander
suggested.
"No, they only take males, Buffy was an
exception because she's the Slayer," Giles responded.
"Is Detective Santiago on their 'red'
list?" Joyce asked with a beginning smile.
Mulder smiled in return and quickly reached for his
cell phone.
"That leaves the medical technician or doctor,"
Scully commented.
"What about Joyce Mom?" Anya
suggested. "She's an authority
type and older, wouldn't male military types respond well to such
parameters?"
Scully raised her eyebrows and Xander merely
shrugged.
"English wasn't her first language," he
explained.
"Weren't my words correct? I didn't mention anything about sex and that
we haven't done it in three days," Anya protested.
"Anya!" Xander snapped and turned red.
"I can do it," Joyce said firmly, bringing
the conversation back to Anya's suggestion.
"Mom, I can't let you do something dangerous
like that," Buffy protested.
"Well, living with you, I've already had a fair
share of dangerous things," Joyce pointed out. "From being bitten by vampires, choked by zombies, dating an
android, and having someone else in your body, I think I can handle a little
make believe to get Willow back."
Buffy blushed and glared at her mother for a moment
but then nodded.
"Okay, but we're there as back-up, right?"
she asked, turning to Mulder.
"Actually, I thought you and the others might
attack the Initiative Center that morning after they've transported Willow and
we have her," Mulder said slowly.
"What? Won't they be expecting us?" Tara
questioned.
"Yes, but I don't see a choice," he said.
"He's right, Buff," Xander nodded. "Even if we get Willow, what do we do
with her? They have Initiative teams
all over the States and units that go all over the world. If Willow stays on their list, they'll never
stop hunting her."
Buffy and Tara frowned, trying to think around the
problem.
"Exactly, we need to take out their computers
and maybe the Center itself," Mulder agreed. "I have a disk here that will connect with some friends of
mine, they'll download a virus that will wipe out everything and cause the
computers to feedback on themselves and destruct."
"Like in Independence Day?" Xander asked
with a grin.
"Exactly like that. It may not explode the Center, but it'll take out their computers
all over the world within ten minutes and Willow's records will be
erased," Mulder explained.
"But Riley and Walsh know about Willow, they'll
just report her again," Tara complained.
"We'll see if we can find something to
blackmail them with to keep them quiet," Mulder said.
"Mulder, you're advocating, encouraging and
planning on the mass destruction of government property, breaking and entering,
possibly injuring someone during the commission of a felony, sabotage, possible
violations of National Security and now blackmail," Scully pointed out.
"Hmmm," he shrugged and turned back to his
phone. Scully picked up a pen to throw
at him but changed her mind with a scowl.
After a moment he clicked off.
"Detective Santiago isn't on any of their lists," he smiled at
Giles.
The Englishman reached for his phone.
"Xander, can you put together uniforms like the
Initiative’s at the local surplus stores?" Mulder asked.
"Easy, if I had money," Xander shrugged
and Mulder pulled out his wallet and handed the young man a credit card. "Done!" Xander grinned and grabbed
Anya's hand. "Brad's just a little
shorter and thinner than I am, no problem.
Shoe size might be a problem though."
Giles said something into his phone and then looked
over at Xander. "Size 9."
"Cool!"
Xander leaned down and kissed Buffy and Tara on
their cheeks and grabbed Anya's hand as they headed for the door.
"Mulder!" Scully snapped.
"Scully, you've got to trust me. I know you haven't seen any evidence of
anything we've said, including that the Initiative needs to be destroyed, but I
need you to trust me," Mulder urged.
"Mulder, we're federal officers," Scully
protested.
"How do we convince her by Sunday
morning?" Mulder complained to Giles.
"Fresh grave?" the Watcher suggested.
"She'd just grab the vampire and want to
dissect him," Mulder grinned.
"Mulder!" Scully protested with a
smile. "I wouldn't dissect him!
I'd autopsy him."
"Autopsy?" Giles questioned.
"I'm a medical doctor as well as an
agent," Scully explained.
"How about she goes out slaying with Buffy
tonight?" Mulder suggested. "Scully can handle herself."
"Good idea," Giles agreed.
"Slaying?" Scully asked. "I don't 'slay', I arrest people."
"These aren’t people anymore and I do the
slaying, you just watch," Buffy smirked.
//Tara! Buffy!//
"Willow?" both of them whispered, closing
their eyes. Buffy grabbed the edge of
the table and everyone fell silent.
Joyce screamed and Giles jumped up so quickly that
he knocked his chair over as he attempted to grab Buffy before the Slayer hit
the floor. Joyce tried to grab Tara as
well, as both girls stiffened and then began to spasm in their chairs.
Joyce and Giles lowered the couple to the floor and
the Englishman moved aside as Scully moved around the table and began examining
them.
"No!" Buffy cried out and jerked to
consciousness.
"Willow!" Tara screamed and opened her
eyes a moment later.
Both looked stunned as Giles and Joyce helped them
sit up.
"This connection thing is beginning to be a
pain in the ass," Buffy complained as she rubbed her back where she fell
out of the chair.
"You connected again?" Mulder prompted.
"Willow, they're doing something to her,"
Tara mumbled, grabbing onto Joyce and the table, trying to get back into her
chair.
"Shocks, electric shocks," Buffy muttered,
using the wall and Giles' arm to stand up.
"Do people still do that?"
"Apparently," Giles said bitterly. "Is she alright?"
"I don't know," Buffy complained, holding
onto his arms. "They had already
done it quite a few times before she reached out to us."
"That last one was out of instinct, I
think," Tara nodded. "She's
trying to keep her shields up and not let us see. The pain snapped her shields open."
"I can't take much more of this, Giles,"
Buffy whispered and let the Watcher wrap his arms around her.
"I know, Buffy, I know," he muttered.
"Let me see if I can move things up a
bit," Mulder commented and pulled out his cell phone.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Willow felt someone wrapping a blanket around her
and holding her tightly and whimpered, snuggling closer to whoever it was. After hours of electric shocks, intense heat
in a steam room, another IV bag connected to her veins to prevent dehydration,
now she was suffering from nearly being frozen to death.
The redhead clenched her teeth to try and stop them
from chattering as someone ran their hands over her arms.
"Damn you all to hell!" Oz shouted as he
stumbled over to his own cot and pulled his blankets off and added them to
Willow's.
"I may not be able to see them but I sure as
hell can smell them," he growled.
"I'm ripping out the throat of the next person that steps through
that cage for you."
Willow merely nodded and squeezed his hand as she
tried to get warmer.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
It was early evening when Mulder finally got a
return to his earlier telephone call.
Buffy and Scully were out patrolling a graveyard, hoping to find at
least one vampire and maybe a demon to demonstrate some of what the gang was
talking about.
Mulder knew that Scully was having a hard time with
this case, especially since it wasn't an official case. Mulder was about to commit outright
sabotage. Scully had learned to ignore
his illegal entry into a lot of places, his trespassing habits, Mulder's
computer hacking, and his unorthodox methods, but sabotage was stepping beyond
her limits. Mulder knew he needed to
convince his partner that they were doing the right thing and quick.
"You looked pleased," Joyce commented as
she set the table for a late dinner as Xander showed Giles and Brad Santiago
the uniforms he had picked up.
Fortunately, Brad was a National Guardsman and knew the uniform and
equipment even better than Xander.
The Sunnydale Detective hadn't been surprised to be
called in by the Scooby Gang, just highly upset that it was Willow who had been
taken. During her time in the hospital
after Oz' attack; Brad had come to like the young woman. He actually liked all of the Gang and was accepted
as a member when he wouldn't go away and kept insisting on answers.
After working with them for a month on various
cases, Brad had no regrets about keeping the existence of werewolves, vampires,
demons and other things quiet in Sunnydale.
He quickly realized his superiors didn't want to hear it and didn't seem
to see it, either. Working with the
Gang helped the detective feel like he was doing something to counter the heavy
influence of darkness over Sunnydale.
"I am," Mulder said, attracting the
attention of everyone else in the room, including Tara who was researching Giles'
books for any spell that might be of use.
"I got my friends to hack into the Initiative's
computer and warn them that we planned on intercepting the transport Sunday in
Barstow," Mulder grinned.
"And that helps us, how?" Xander
questioned.
"They're moving up the transport date to Friday
morning and the transfer site to Las Vegas," Mulder responded.
"That helps us, how?" Xander repeated.
"They won't know we're coming, they'll think
they're ahead of us," Giles answered.
"And they won't have as long to mess with
Willow," Tara smiled.
"Las Vegas will easier to disappear in,"
Mulder nodded.
"Okay, lets get planning troops," Xander
suggested. "Who is going
where?"
"I suggest Scully and I go with Xander, Brad
and Joyce to Las Vegas," Mulder said.
"The rest of you hit the Center after you get a call from me or
Scully and find a way to get a disk into one of their computers."
"I don't like being away from Xander,"
Anya complained.
"It'll be okay, honey," Xander reassured
her. "I'll be okay and I'll bring
Willow home," he said as he held her.
"Or Riley's head on a platter," Tara
mumbled.
"Okay, we'll need for the cell to be ready for
Willow and whoever else we bring back," Mulder suggested.
"It will be," Giles nodded.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Willow had no idea how much time passed. It seemed like an eternity to the frazzled
young woman. Endless 'testing' meant
endless pain. First some sort of
testing of her pain threshold, then some rest and then more testing. Endless breaks with more blood being drawn
for testing, EKG monitoring, EEG monitoring or some sort of machine tracking
something.
Whenever they gave her a moment to recover, they
threw her in the cell with Oz. Willow
was slightly amused with herself as she clung to him for comfort in-between the
rounds of testing and pain. She knew he
was the cause of the mess in the first place but she also welcomed the human
warmth and believed he was sincere in his regret over what had happened.
The witch whimpered as she shifted her body on the
cot. Instantly, Oz was by her side and
attentive, despite his blindness.
"What's hurting?" he asked softly.
She moved her good hand into his.
**Everything.**
He managed a small smile. "I understand. They
'tested' me for two weeks. I'm a perfect werewolf, they say."
Willow could hear and see the bitterness of that
statement on his face and in his voice.
**I'm sorry, Oz.**
"Don't be," he shrugged. "I don't know what they have planned
for me after these full moon nights."
**Probably a mindless killing machine that they can
turn off and on.**
"Yeah, looks like I'm capable of it, doesn't
it? I hurt you so easily."
**Oz, no talk about that.** Willow hesitated. Not having her voice sucked, she thought
once again. **Does the change hurt?**
Oz' frown deepened.
"Yes, every time," he admitted. "It gets easier over time and the body gets used to changing
back and forth. Fortunately, you won't
remember the change and what you do as a wolf the first few months. Never, if you're lucky."
**What happened to you?**
"I don't know," he shrugged. "I was traveling, heading to
Alaska. I was hoping to find some
shamans up there that might be able to help me. I hit a small northern Oregon town and felt the connection when I
entered a small coffee shop. I knew
immediately that a small group of kids were like me and they knew me."
The young musician hesitated. "We met and I agreed to stay for a
couple of days; who wouldn't? I found
an entire group like me and they welcomed me.
They told me they lived together, kinda like hippies. They had a cabin up in the woods and let the
wolf loose. They swore they didn't hurt
humans and had learned control on their own."
"I hung out with them, a couple of them were
musicians too and we jammed," he said wistfully. "I was accepted into the pack and ran in the woods with
them. The leader taught me how to focus
so intensely that nothing else got through and I could control the change,
eventually. I focused on you."
The redhead male's head dropped. "I don't know how things got twisted
but they did. Drugs, sex, power plays
in the group and blood. At first it was
from deer and raccoons, things like that.
Then they took down a hitchhiker near the highway and bullied me into
drinking some of the blood. The next
night they attacked me."
**Oz.**
"It was either submit to all of them and be low
man in the pack or resist," he continued.
"I fought back and fought my way up the hierarchy in minutes. The leader wouldn't let up though and wouldn't
let me stop at submitting to him.
Something snapped, I tried to submit and I saw in his eyes he wanted to
kill me. I fought back for my life and
I lost my soul somewhere when I won and became Alpha wolf of the pack."
**Oz, I'm sorry**
"I know, but it's still my fault. All I could think of was you and came
back. You know the rest," he
finished.
**can you still control the change?**
"I don't know.
I'm going to try and stay human when we change tomorrow night and
protect you. I owe you that much,"
he said firmly. "I know you're a
werewolf now, I can tell by your scent.
I also remember Buffy mating with you.
Are you happy with this or was it to protect her and you from me?"
**Happy, very happy with Buffy** Willow answered.
Oz nodded, as if expecting the answer. "You both were too blind all that time
and she was so blinded by Angel. I
remember someone else with you, who is she and how does she fit into this?"
**Tara, fellow witch and student. Also mate.** Willow admitted.
"Really?
Wow! You drop guys and get two girls? I'm jealous," he said, trying
to tease and Willow lightly whacked his hand in response. "As long as you're happy, Willow. I can never make up for what I did but I'll
die trying."
**hope it doesn't come to that for either of us.**
"Me too, a blind man can still play
guitar," he grinned.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
“So, you go out nightly and
hope you run into vampires and kill them?” Dana Scully asked the small blonde
as they opened the gate to one of the local graveyards.
“That’s usually the game
plan for a typical evening,” Buffy said easily. “Sometimes I can get some quality dance time in at the Bronze or
some study time with Wills and Tara.”
“And you go to college?”
Scully continued questioning the girl and unbuttoned her jacket for easier
access to her gun. The FBI agent might
not believe everything Buffy, the Scooby Gang or her own partner had told her,
but Scully wasn’t a fool. If something
was going to jump out at her in a spooky graveyard then she was going to test
the theory whether vampires could be killed with a Glock automatic pistol or
not.
“Yeah, take classes during
the day, slay by night, that’s me!” Buffy said cheerfully but Dana Scully
detected a note of bitterness.
“When do you sleep?”
“Fortunately, Slayers don’t
need a lot of sleep,” Buffy shrugged.
“It’s one of the side effects of being The Chosen One.”
“You don’t like being the
Slayer?” Scully asked, genuinely curious.
“No, I didn’t choose this, I
didn’t ask for it and I didn’t ask to put my friends in danger all the time,”
Buffy growled. “I was ‘chosen’ when I
was fifteen and told my destiny was to fight the forces of evil until I died,
then someone else would be chosen after me.”
“Doesn’t sound like much of
a future,” Scully commented.
“It’s not and now I’ve cost
Willow part of her soul,” Buffy fought to keep back the tears.
“It’s not your fault. From what Mulder tells me, her ex brought
all this on,” Scully said softly.
“Maybe if I wasn’t the
Slayer, Willow could have had a normal life,” Buffy whined. “Hell, I know she’d be with Oz and running
around howling at the moon and probably killing people. I’m just worried what those bastards will do
to her.”
“What will all of you do
with her when we get her back?” Scully asked.
“What will I do with my
werewolf girlfriend?” Buffy asked bitterly.
Scully fell back and
stumbled onto the grass as Buffy spun around, whipping a stake out of her inner
jacket pocket and lashing out with it.
Scully blinked as she watched a figure move out of the shadows at a dash
and be impaled on the stakes.
Before Scully could protest
a possible murder, the body exploded into dust.
Buffy acted like the
incident was a common as swatting a fly.
She smirked as Scully got back to her feet.