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Time frame: This story assumes that the stuff that I liked about
"Becoming" did happen and
the stuff I didn't like didn't happen. (What can I say?
I'm fickle.) Okay, so Dru killed Kendra.
Willow wound up in the hospital where Xander told her he loves her.
Angelus IS still Angelus,
the spell didn't work. No vortex thingy opening up to swallow
the world either. Spike and Dru
are still around. All righty then, on with the show.
December 24, 2013
8:00 pm
Sunnydale, CA
Looking out the window of the guest room she
was staying in at her grandparents' house,
Melissa sighed. "No snow," she thought. "I can't believe
it's Christmas Eve and there's no
snow." Not that she'd ever seen snow before on Christmas, though.
Growing up in San
Francisco, California she had never had a white Christmas. She
had just watched "A Charlie
Brown Christmas" with her parents, though, and she wanted very much
to see snow here,
too. Her mother walked into the room just in time to hear her
sigh again.
"Why so sad?" she asked cheerfully.
"There's no snow, Mommy," Melissa said very
seriously.
Her mother held back her laughter. She'd
never seen a five year old look so serious
before and she didn't want to make fun of her. "Well, sweetheart,
it doesn't snow here. I'm
sorry." Pulling back the covers on the twin bed, she patted the
soft mattress. "Come here
and get into bed and we can try to figure out what to do about it."
Melissa crawled into bed and smiled contentedly
as her mother tucked the covers in
around her chin. "Daddy said it used to snow here all the time,
though. He said that he had
to walk to school in the snow every morning. Even in the summer.
That's what he said."
"Well, Daddy was just joking with you, angel.
I promise you that it doesn't snow here. I
lived here my whole life so I know what I'm talking about."
"Okay, Mommy," Melissa said, giving up for
the moment on having snow for Christmas.
She decided to settle for her favorite story instead. "Mommy,"
she muttered sleepily as the
warmth of the bedcovers started making her drowsy, "can you tell me
the story of how I got
my name again?"
"Oh, sweetheart," her mother replied.
"That story is way too long to tell you tonight. It's
already 8:00 and you need to get to sleep so Santa Claus can bring
you lots of nice presents."
"Pleease, Mommy! I promise I'll go right
to sleep after. . ." Suddenly her voice trailed
off as her eyes got wide and she giggled with delight. "Daddy!"
she squealed as her father
walked in carrying two wrapped boxes.
"Hey, you two!" he laughed. "How are
my two favorite ladies? I forgot that we have a
tradition in my house that everyone gets to open one present on Christmas
Eve. I brought
yours up to you."
"Thanks Daddy, but I don't want to open a
present. Instead, will you tell me the story of
how I got my name again?"
"Sure, honey, but are you sure that's what
you want?"
"Yup, I'm sure." Melissa glanced at
her mother and smiled mischievously.
"Xander! I already told her that there
isn't time to tell her the story tonight so she's just
going to have to wait until tomorrow morning."
"Sorry, Wil, but a promise is a promise.
I said I'd tell her so now I have to. Besides, it's
just one story."
"One long, complicated story! But, since
you're not going to take no for an answer I
might as well stay and make sure you get it right. I don't want
you messing any of the parts
up! And if you, young lady," Willow said, tickling her daughter,
"are tired and cranky tomorrow
when we go see Aunt Buffy, don't come complaining to me. I warned
you! Okay?"
"Okay, Mommy," Melissa giggled.
"All right, then," Xander started, situating
himself on the bed on the right side of his tiny
daughter while his wife nestled in on the left side. "You know
that your name is Melissa Buffy
Harris and that you're named for your two aunts who aren't really related
to us in any way, but
that's not the point. The point is that they're really good friends
of mine and Mommy's and this
is the story of how we decided that our first daughter, you, would
be named after them. You
see, it all started the week before Christmas, fifteen years ago.
It was a bright sunny day, like
it usually is here and. . ."
Willow Rosenberg gave her father a quick kiss
on the cheek as she gathered her things
and stepped out of the car. "Thanks for the ride, Dad!" she said
cheerfully. "I'll see you
tonight." Glancing around the school, she quickly sighted Buffy
and ran towards her. "Buffy!
Wait up!" she called breathlessly as she hurried to catch up, dragging
a giant poster board
with her.
"Hey, Wil," Buffy said with a hint of a smile.
"What's that?"
"Oh, I have to do a presentation for my English
class. You'll never guess what it's on."
"What?" Buffy asked.
"Dracula," Willow said, smiling.
"Well, I guess you know a thing or two about
that, huh?"
"Yeah, only I can't say that vampires are
real, they're here in Sunnydale, and my friend
Buffy kills them every night. I kinda have to make do with the
whole "vampires don't really
exist, people just made them up" thing," Willow explained.
"So, how come the poster board is blank if
you're using it for a presentation?"
"Oh, that was Xander's idea. He said
that since you can't really take a picture of a
vampire, and it's not likely I'd have time to draw a picture of one,
I should just use a blank
poster board and say I couldn't get any pictures."
"You do realize that you'll probably fail
the assignment if you do that, don't you?" Buffy
laughed.
"Of course, and I'm not going to really do
that. I'm just going to tell him that I am to
make him feel guilty. By the way, have you seen him yet this
morning?"
Buffy smiled. Willow could never go
more than ten minutes in the morning without
knowing where Xander was. "I think she doesn't even know she's
doing it," Buffy thought to
herself. "Nope, haven't seen him," she said in response to Willow's
question. "He's probably
with Cordelia, though," she said, then wished she hadn't when she saw
her friend's face fall.
"So," she said, changing the subject, "any big plans with Oz tonight?"
"Oz and I aren't going out any more," Willow
answered quietly.
"What? Why not? I thought you
two were getting along really well together."
"We were. We are. It's just that
I don't want to make him think that I feel something
about him that I don't. As hard as I try, I just can't make myself
like him as much as I like
Xander. I want to, really. He's so nice to me and he doesn't
want to date Cordelia, but I just
can't."
"You don't have to Wil," Buffy said as they
reached the door to the library. "There's no
reason you should have to go out with Oz if you don't want to," she
continued, walking through
the door. "By the way, why are you so cheerful if you just broke
up with Oz and Xander's
dating Cordelia?"
Willow smiled as her heart started pounding just
a little bit harder. "Because he loves me!"
she wanted to scream, but she couldn't. If Xander wanted to keep
his feelings secret, that was
his decision. "Okay, so maybe he shouldn't keep his feelings
a secret from me," she
reflected, "but maybe he just needs some time to be convinced that
I don't want to be with Oz.
Maybe I shouldn't have said Oz's name when I 'woke up', but I wanted
Xander to feel for just a
little while what I've felt for years. It's his turn to be the
one in love with no hope of having that
love returned."
"Willow?" Buffy asked, her voice intruding into
Willow's pondering.
"Oh, umm, I don't know," Willow stammered, trying
to keep from blushing so that Buffy
wouldn't be able to tell she was keeping something from her.
"It's just such a nice day and I'm
here, alive, and I'm just...happy." Happy, ecstatic, joyous.
Xander loved her, he had told her
when she was laying in the hospital bed in a coma. Okay, so technically,
at this point she
wasn't in a coma anymore, but he didn't know that. When he said
it she wasn't sure if he'd
meant as a friend or something more, so she'd tested him. The
look on his face when she
said Oz's name assured her that it was true. He loved her.
He loved her the way she had
loved him for most of her life. Her heart was full as she rested
her backpack on one of the
tables in the library.
"Well, I've gotta train with Giles during my free,
so I'll see you after school. Okay?" Buffy
said as the bell rang.
"Sure," Willow answered, "I'm helping the new computer
teacher work on a project right
after school, but I should be done by 4:30. I'll come by here
as soon as I'm done."
"Okay, see you later."
*****
Willow attempted to whistle a song on her way to
the library after school. She wasn't doing
very well, though. “Okay, so I can't whistle,” she thought.
She was happy, though. Her
presentation had gone well. She had even managed to not tell
the entire class that vampires
were real. She glanced at her watch and was shocked to find that
it was almost 5:30. “I must
have been working on that computer project longer than I thought,”
she said to herself. The
new computer science teacher had been so impressed that Willow had
taken the place of Ms.
Calendar that she had asked her to help her with a new program that
she was writing. “I
could have sworn it only took about half an hour.” Increasing
her speed, she walked towards
the library where she knew Buffy, Xander, and Giles were waiting for
her. “They're probably
worried about me,” she said aloud to herself.
“Well, now, I wonder why they would do something
like that,” a chilly voice said from behind
her. Willow whirled to see Angel, “Angelus” she told herself
emphatically, step out from the
shadow of a row of lockers. “They wouldn't be worrying about
me hurting you, now would
they? I'm very ashamed of them. Don't they know I like
to play with my victims before I
actually hurt them? They'll have all night to find you before
you actually die. If I were you, I’d
start screaming now, though. Otherwise they won't be able to
find you and that wouldn't be
much fun for either one of us.”
Willow's face turned pale as she considered her
options. She knew that Angelus was not
really after her. He wanted Buffy. If she started screaming,
she'd be giving him exactly what
he wanted. On the other hand, if she didn't scream he'd probably
just kill her right now and
she couldn't bear the thought of dying before…
“Xander! Buffy! Giles! Anybody!”
she screamed at the top of her voice as Angelus lunged
at her, carrying her away so fast she could hardly see the corridor
go by. “Help me! Angel
has me! HELP!”
*****
“Did you hear something?” Xander asked, looking up
from the homework he was working
on.
“You know, Xander, I think you're paranoid,” Cordelia
laughed. “Every five seconds you
think you hear someone coming.”
“Hey, in this town paranoid is the way to be.
If I weren't paranoid, I’d be dead by now.
Anyway, I don't hear anybody coming. I hear somebody screaming!”
he answered heading
for the library door. As he opened the door and headed out into
the hallway, he distinctly
heard his best friend's voice wafting down the corridor. “Help
me!” it said, and that was all
Xander needed to spring to action. He opened the door of the
library and called for Buffy. “It's
Willow,” he screamed, panic flooding through him. “Something's
wrong. I swear to God, if
Angel has her, he's dying tonight!”
“All right Xander,” Giles said quietly, trying to
calm him. “We'll find her. Don't worry. Right
now we aren't even sure what's wrong. Tell us what you heard
and then we'll figure out
where to go from there.”
“She said, ‘help me!’” Xander cried. “Why
would she say that if she weren't in trouble.
Something's wrong,” he repeated, not knowing what else to say.
He didn't know how to
explain the connection that he and Willow had. After growing
up together, spending practically
every moment of their lives together, they knew each other inside and
out. He knew when
she was in danger and she knew when he was in danger. And right
now, his danger meter
was screaming off the chart. He knew that whatever had happened,
Willow was scared and
he had to help her. "If those stupid vamps hurt her one more
time..." he thought angrily. He'd
almost lost her once and he wasn't about to let that happen again.
“Well, perhaps she just fell and can't get up, or…something,”
Giles answered lamely.
“Oh, so she's fallen and she can't get up?!?” Xander
screamed. “I don't think so! We're
wasting our time standing here. We have to find her! She's
in trouble!” he could tell by the
looks on the others’ faces that he was getting hysterical, but he didn't
care. Willow was in
trouble and they were all just standing there!
He turned and started running down the hallway,
running headlong into a petite, blonde
teenager. “Xander?” she asked, her voice a mixture of curiosity
and concern.
“Melissa!” he yelped as relief washed over him.
She would understand that they had to
help Willow. She loved Willow, too. "Okay, maybe not exactly
the same way I do," he
thought, but Willow was her friend. Besides, if anybody could
help him, Melissa could. She
might be tiny, but she was tough. She wouldn't be too scared
to help him find Willow.
“Willow…She’s in trouble. We have to help her.”
Melissa Baldwin was confused. “Okay, slow
down Xander. What happened? Where's
Willow? What do you mean she's in trouble?”
“It'll take too long to explain. Besides,
you wouldn't believe me. Let's just say that
somebody took her and we have to get her back.”
“Who took her Xander? It's important that
you tell me,” Melissa said in a calm voice even
though her heart was racing. If anything happened to Willow…
“No, Melissa,” she
admonished herself. “That's what you're here for. Nothing
will happen to Willow. You just
have to make Xander tell you where she is.” She took hold of
Xander’s shoulders and forced
him to look at her. Calmly she said, “I’ll believe you.
I promise. I've seen things that you
couldn't even imagine, so you can't surprise me.”
“Angel has her. He's a vampire. He took
her. We have to find her. He'll kill her,” Xander
said in a rush, his fears pouring out of his mouth.
Melissa gasped. Okay, so he had surprised
her, but not in the way he thought. She could
not believe that Angel, her friend, would do anything to hurt Willow.
He had promised to
watch over them. She was pretty sure that this did not qualify,
though.
“All right,” Melissa said quietly. “It looks
like we both have some explaining to do. I know
Angel, at least I did. He won't do anything to Willow until tomorrow
night. He always used to
like to play with his victims before he actually killed them.
We've got time, so let's go in the
library and figure out what to do. While you're at it you can
explain what happened to Angel.”
Walking into the library, Melissa smiled wanly at
Giles. “Hey, Giles,” she said quietly.
“What's going on? Xander said that Willow's missing.”
Giles sighed, seeing the tired look on the teenager's
face. It made him feel slightly better to
see that she at least attempted a smile, but he could tell that she
was not happy. “If only she
had been able to stay in Sunnydale,” he thought. He was certain
that she had come close to
being actually happy there. “Hello, Melissa,” he said.
“Yes, actually. Angel… well… he took
her… we think.”
“Gee, Giles. That was as coherent as ever,”
Melissa giggled. “So let me see if I've got this
straight. Willow's gone and Angel took her, which I assume means
that Angel is bad. Now,
what happened?”
“Can we trust her, Giles?” Buffy asked.
Giles and Melissa laughed. “Yes,” Giles said,
smiling. “We can trust her. She knows
about Sunnydale’s unique, ahh, position. And, she's on our side.
She doesn't want the
Hellmouth opening up anymore than we do.”
“Okay, then,” Buffy said. “I guess you know
Angel, so you know that a gypsy curse gave
him back his soul.”
“I know all of that, so what happened?” Melissa
asked.
“He lost his soul,” Buffy answered wearily.
“So now, he's made it his mission to kill all of
my friends.”
“Well, no offense, but let's hope that's all this
is. Angel knows how important Willow is, and
it's possible that he's joined up with the new master to kill her.”
“Huh?” Xander asked. “Gee,” he thought to
himself, “that's just brilliant, Xander.”
“Let me give you the short version of this.
I'm guessing that you're the new Slayer,” Melissa
started, looking at Buffy. “Well, a very long time ago there
was another Slayer, the very first
Slayer actually, and she managed to outsmart the vamps long enough
to live into her
twenties. She had married when she was 14 and had a child.
When her daughter turned ten
she was supposed to become the new Slayer. After having been
the Slayer for so long she
didn't want to let this happen, though, so she took her daughter and
fled. She found
somebody to hide them away, and even though her Watcher tried for years
to find her he
never did. The vamps were still causing problems, though, so
a new Slayer had to be found.
That's how it's been ever since. When one Slayer dies, or disappears
from view as a few
have done, the next is called. These Slayers come from all over
the world and are no relation
to each other. The True Slayer, however, is descended in a direct
line from that first Slayer
and her daughter. Shortly after the second Slayer had been called,
a young woman met the
old Slayer and her daughter and instantly recognized the power in them.
She was psychic
and could see visions of the world to come far in the future.
She realized that while the
Slayer's daughter was healthy this vision was not too disturbing but
that when she became ill
and came close to death the vision turned dark and bloody. Realizing
that the fate of the world
hinged upon the well-being of that little girl, she took it upon herself
to watch out for her. As the
girl grew up, the young woman saved her life several times, so that
the girl eventually had a
child of her own. When the woman, who was now middle-aged, wearied
of watching over
her and her new child, she asked another young woman to take over the
job. Eventually it
came to be that the Watchers referred to two Chosen Ones. One
was the Vampire Slayer,
whose duty it was to stop the spread of vampires. The other was
simply called the Chosen
One, whose sole purpose in life was to ensure that the line of the
original Slayer would
continue until the one True Slayer came into the world to rid the world
of evil permanently.”
“Okay, so there's this 'True Slayer' running around.
What does that have to do with
Willow? Or you, for that matter?” Xander interrupted impatiently.
“Let me finish,” Melissa sighed. “First of
all the True Slayer hasn't been born yet. However,
her mother has been. We are nearing the entry of the True Slayer
into the world and the
vampires are getting nervous. They want to make sure that she
is never born. The best way
to make sure a child is never born is to kill her parents before she
is, right? Well, Willow is the
direct descendant of that first Slayer. Some day, as long as
I do my job, she will grow up and
have a daughter who will purge the evil from this world. It is
absolutely imperative that she
remain safe. So, if Angel has her it could be that he just wants
to kill Buffy’s friends or it could
be that he's joined up with the new Master, who is intent on killing
her. Either way we have to
save Willow, but Angel will be easier to deal with if he's acting alone
than if he has the backing
of the Master."
"But, what does all of this have to do with you?"
Buffy asked, eyeing Melissa nervously.
"I'm the Chosen One," she answered quietly.
"It's my duty to keep Willow safe. As you can
see, I've failed. This should never have happened. Maybe
if I'd just run away and come back
here months ago, this wouldn't have happened," she said, trying to
keep from blubbering like
a baby. This was more than just a duty. Willow was her
friend, one of the few she had ever
had. "I can't believe I let this happen!" she admonished herself.
"Stop that!" Giles exclaimed, walking over to her.
"First of all, you had no way of knowing
that any of this would happen. Second, you have no control over
the fact that your parents
forced you to leave town. And all of this talk of running away
is nonsense. How would you
have gotten here? None of this is your fault."
"He's right," a voice coming from just inside the
library doors caused everyone in the small
group to whirl around.
"Oh my God," Cordelia gasped.
"Spike," Buffy said ominously, taking out her stake
and preparing to fight.
"Spike?" Melissa questioned. "Umm, William?
What's going on?"
"Don't worry, love," Spike smiled. "Everything's
going to be all right."
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