Switcheroony
by alicorn
Chapter 11
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Anya had re-opened the Magic Box because Giles had decided that the next 'vision rod' attempt would be made after five o'clock. Xander left promising to return at five with coffees, donuts and other sugary goodness.
Giles and Willow decided to use the time to concentrate on her training. Buffy had stayed for a while watching her dearest friend go through the exercises she knew so well but eventually she just felt so useless that she decided to leave them to it.
Walking through the shop she acknowledged Anya with a "See yah later." She hadn't really expected a response; so when Anya did speak she was only half listening.
"She's really scared, you know. So are you." Anya offered her insight to the back of the Witch's body with Buffy's brain.
"What?" Buffy said, more than a little unsure as to what Anya was going on about.
"You're both scared. You're both freaked but you're not doing anything about it." She made an exasperated noise. "I've wreaked vengeance on many a man for being just this thoughtless and inactive; for just letting things fester. After all these years..." She shook her head from side to side before adding, "Women are just as bad." Anya thought she had explained matters quite clearly. But from Buffy's expression it was obvious that she might as well have actually spoken in another language. 'I have this same problem with Xander.' She sighed.
"Well, there's not really a lot we can do right now, is there?" Buffy replied.
"It's a trust thing. You're both pretending that everything is okay; that you're coping. Well, it shouldn't have to take a newly mortal and valuable member of society like me to tell you that you're both lousy liars." Anya huffed.
"We're doing okay." Buffy answered, defending both herself and her best friend.
"You are not. You're lost without your Slayer powers. Being a normal mortal doesn't sit well on you, Bullow. And Wiffy is riddled with guilt because she has your powers. But both of you are faking being fine with this. How honest is that?" Anya questioned. "Maybe Faith..."
"What did you just call us?" Buffy exploded at Anya.
This outburst shook the former vengeance demon a little. "Well you are Buffy in Willow — Bullow and she's Willow in Buffy — Wiffy. Helps to keep it straight — remembering who's in who. Xander thinks they're cute names." She added by way of defense. "He was gonna use name badges."
Buffy glared at the ex-demon but then she found herself smiling. "Name badges?"
"I told him that ogling your breasts for a name badge, whenever he had to check who he was talking to, would very quickly get him into trouble. I like him looking at mine. Besides you two would just get a pained look on your faces and threaten to hit him." Anya explained, somewhat relieved that Bullow was now smiling.
Buffy had to admit that Anya had a point. She often forgot that she didn't look like herself. She wondered how Giles was coping with remembering whom he was speaking to.
"Yes, well." Buffy really had nothing left to say. "See yah later." She moved swiftly to the door before Anya could return to her earlier topic.
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Buffy sat in the park. She'd needed some space and alone time. She had begun to feel as though the walls of the Magic shop were closing in around her. She was so aware of everyone's eyes which felt so heavy upon both of them. And then there was Anya's brutal honesty. Here she could feel the sun warming her back, breathe in, stretch and be ignored by just about everyone who passed her. But she knew that in just two more hours they would try again.
The faint voices of people laughing down by the lake washed over her. Looking across towards the lake she noticed an old couple walking hand in hand. Sadness filled her. She would never be like them. She would never find someone to be with her for the rest of her life. But knowing that if she didn't get her powers back she could probably grow old made her feel suddenly very vulnerable. She hadn't studied for this. She wasn't ready for this. Surprise! Surprise! She had always lived with the fact that Slayers didn't get old. She had realized a long time ago that she was now far older than most of the previous Slayers.
In her self-imposed solitude her mind was flooded with images of Willow; her Willow. Now she was the Slayer; doomed to die young; doomed to never know love or happiness; never to be able to plan too far ahead. Willow had gained such control of her new found strength. But did she realize what baggage would come with it if they couldn't fix this body swap? Buffy's physical strength and power had seemed easy for Willow to deal with. Leaving Buffy with what? — Slayer dreams. 'Great all I get to keep is the title 'weird dream girl'. I never thought Cordy and I would end up in the same club. Who would have thought?'
She couldn't let Willow take on her very short life expectancy! She couldn't let that happen! Not to her Willow! Willow had been hurt enough already by the thoughtlessness of others. 'Oz' Buffy suddenly remembered what he had said. He had left Willow because she was falling in love with another woman; someone he liked. It made no sense. He hadn't even met Tara back then. She didn't move to Sunnydale until the start of the College year. Was there someone else? Someone who had first opened Willow to the 'I kinda like a girl, I'm kinda gay' thing long before she had realized that she was.
Who had Willow been friendly with back then? Okay there was Anya, former vengeance demon Anya, for a while — Oh right, because that had ended so well and she likes her so much. Then there was Amy [whose mother had wanted her to be a cheerleader]. They had been chummy --- until she turned herself into a rat! But Willow still took care of her. Nah. In love with a rat? That's not my Willow. Buffy's brain ached as she tried to think of anyone that Willow had grown close to back then whom Oz had known and liked, and who Willow might care for.
How had Oz noticed while she hadn't?
For short periods of time Cordelia would be nice to Willow, mostly when no one was looking. Nah, they hardly talk now. Willow said so herself. But Cordelia had been extra protective of Willow with Faith and she had really wigged out over the whole Xander/ Willow kissing incident. Maybe that had more to do with how she felt about Willow than Xander. Willow had tried so hard to apologize to both Oz and Cordy --- but she had always said that she didn't care what Cordy thought of her. Maybe Willow had changed only after screwing things up so royally with Xander. She used to do homework for Cordy, put up with her nasty remarks and she had seemed really pissed with Xander when he started seeing Cordy. Ahh Hah!!
Buffy wasn't sure if she had pinned it down but Cordy was the only person that made any sense. What really confused her was that this would mean that Oz had liked Cordy. Maybe he had seen something in her, something that the rest of them had missed, and something that would have indicated what she was capable of. After all she was now fighting the good fight with Angel --- being vision girl and all.
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Beyond the lake a truck approached an old building on the far side of the park. Pulling up, two men emerged in green overalls and proceeded to unload several large crates, carrying them up the broad steps to the main door of the building.
Nothing would have struck anyone as unusual about this scene — that is without the knowledge that each of the four large cases contained soil and a body....
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After two hours of training Willow and Giles moved to the table in the shop, where she now sat engrossed in her laptop. Giles had installed an Internet connection there just for Willow. She had thought that so sweet of him at the time but she had later realized that although Giles disliked modern technology with a passion - he was no fool to the resources it opened up to him.
Willow found her mind wondering from the screen of her laptop. Giles had asked her to get in touch with various cyber covens in the hope that someone could assist with the translation of the curse. They had all been very supportive and eager to help but so far no one seemed to have a different interpretation from the one that Anya had voiced only this morning. This really did nothing to lift her spirits.
She wondered what Buffy was doing. She had been concentrating on Giles' instructions earlier and had failed to notice when Buffy had left. Buffy had seemed so distant today; lost in her own world. Willow missed connecting with her. A simple eye contact, a smile and they would be in each other's minds. She was missing her best friend.
But this body swap had been hard on both of them. She had seen Buffy feeling frustrated and useless. She knew that having the Slayer's powers on loan was a heavy responsibility; a responsibility that she wished had not been given to her. But she didn't want to let Buffy or the gang down. She had played along with the training sessions, surprised at how much she had enjoyed them, hoping that if they could just keep everything normal -- that's how everything would end, back to normal. But it wasn't working.
She had read and re-read the curse and each time her fear had grown that Anya was right. She and Buffy would need to sleep together to get back into their own bodies.
She wanted to scream; she wanted to hunt down Faith and put her in a world of badness, pain and then more badness. 'That's the Slayer stuff talking — right?' What had she ever done to deserve this?
Fear gripped her at the thought of having to make love to Buffy. Okay in her dreams was one thing. There it had always gone well, beyond well, so blissfully. But reality - so much more with the scary, freaky cold shivers and stuff. In her dreams Buffy had wanted her; had needed her touch. She was welcomed.
But the real true-to-life Buffy liked guys, even dead guys and had never shown anything but friendly love and affection towards Willow - let alone any other woman. Plus Buffy wasn't really into the 'touchy feely' thing. 'Let's face facts. You have shared a hug with Xander more times than you have Buffy'. She had bandaged many a knee and shoulder over the years, but there had been no closeness. Nope, no physical closeness; let alone comfortable physical closeness. 'You're not even used to her touching you'.
She must have had a strange expression on her face because Giles gave her his old hairy eyeball look. "Anything?"
"Nope." She replied, shrugging her shoulders. "Nothing yet."
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Giles sat waiting for Xander who, as usual, was late. The young man somehow felt that turning up with food always excused him. Buffy and Willow were already waiting in the back room while Anya took Xander's delay as an opportunity to recheck her cash register receipts.
Meanwhile in the training room, Willow stretched her shoulders.
"Are you okay, Will?" Buffy asked her voice a little concerned.
"I'm okay. Too much laptop time I guess." She grinned. "You know, I have this sneaking suspicion that this body is really not used to the recognized study positions."
Buffy laughed. "I do most of my studying lying on my stomach or cross-legged on my bed. No desk-sitting for me."
"You should definitely try it -- ergonomics and all that." Willow responded, stretching herself once again. Although she could feel some slight tightness she was pleased that she was in Buffy's body and not her own. She had serious doubts she would be anything more than a crumpled heap after just one of Giles' training sessions. Moving to the mat, she smiled at Buffy, noticing the slight stiffness in her own shoulders.
"You okay?" She said giving Buffy her 'serious face'.
Buffy looked confused. "Yeah."
"That was my 'serious, I know there's something on your mind' look." Willow explained, realizing that with Buffy's features she was unable to 'look' a thought. People just couldn't recognize them.
"Oh yeah. Right." Pausing, Buffy tilted her head down slightly. "It's not that I'm not okay; though not exactly big on okay until we get our bodies back - but coping. But ... well ... actually it's more something I know we really need to talk about. But now isn't the time for theories. That's what's on my mind." She raised her eyes to gauge Willow's response. "Will?"
Willow took a moment and then it clicked. "Ah huh ... I see ... right ... well yes ... that would be ... aahh hmmm ... something we will need to talk about. I can just see ... well now isn't really the time to get into a discussion about ... to talk about ... private ... yes it should be private ... agreeing now." Willow finished her babble.
"I thought maybe that after this 'dream vision' stuff is done, we could have some dorm chat time." Buffy continued, hating herself for pushing to have a conversation that neither of them really wanted to have. But she knew that Giles was right. They couldn't go on not talking about this possibility. Faith's phone call, the bed, the rose, the wording of the curse left her in no doubt, no avoiding -- this was bad.
"Okay." Willow replied her voice at least two octaves higher.
As if aware that their conversation needed to be interrupted and any possible awkward silence avoided, Giles entered the room.
"I see we're still awaiting Xander." Giles said with obvious annoyance. Looking outside Giles noticed that it had suddenly become very dark. He moved closer to the window. "Very strange. We seem to have somehow missed sundown and gone straight to night. Where was Xander coming from?"
"The Baristas Coffee Company near his apartment. He says they do great mochas. You don't think he would be stupid enough to cut through the cemetery, do you?" Willow asked, already fearing the worse.
Buffy stared out into the night "When did this happen? He always cuts through it during the day." Buffy confirmed. "But dark equals dinner bell. Will, we need to be out there now."
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Xander ducked across the cemetery, mocha tray in one hand and donut box in the other, safe in the knowledge it was at least half an hour until sundown. However he noticed that dark clouds seemed to be gathering overhead. 'Great. It's going to rain.' He thought at first until he realized how very dark the sky itself was also getting. By now he was only half way through the cemetery. Rain and cheap t-shirt dye jobs became the least of his worries. 'Early for dinner time, something's up.' He began to run.
**************************** TVs********************************
Buffy ran, her lungs bursting with her efforts to keep up with Willow. She could see Xander coming towards them and he wasn't alone. Behind him were two new vamps, their clothes still layered in soil.
"Willow. Hurry." She yelled somewhat unnecessarily.
Willow did, indeed, speed up and pushing off she flipped over Xander's head to land behind him; between her friends and the approaching vampires. Her movement seemed to sufficiently surprise the vampires who slowed their approach, looking questioningly at each other as they proceeded more carefully towards her.
Willow could feel her blood pumping, totally adrenaline-wired. Suddenly she felt in control, her senses taking in every movement of the approaching 'fangies'. 'This feels so right, fits like a favorite coat.' She mused to herself, wondering if she was becoming used to the role of Slayer.
Suddenly the vamps split to approach her from different flanks. "Watch out Willow!" She heard Buffy yell and her nerves said 'hello'.
Buffy was still running towards Xander and Willow as she saw the two vamps split. They were hoping to double team Willow. She had to get there; had to help. She was concentrating so much on reaching Willow that she ran straight into Xander's waiting arms. "Whoa there Buff. Will's got it." Xander said by way of explanation, as his other arm surrounded her, holding her back firmly. Both of her arms were pinned beneath Xander's apparent tree trunk arms.
Buffy strained for release as she watched the two vampires approach Willow, her heart in her mouth. "Willow!" She called. Frustrated and mad, the desire to maim Xander built within her.
"Buffy." Xander spoke into her ear, concern filling his voice, as if realizing how not happy his actions were making her. "Will has to do this herself. Stake her first - alone. Just like you." Xander reminded her. "Giles said we have to let her do this. So that she can believe in herself, get her chi Slayer thing going and all that."
Buffy could here the words but all she could see was her Willow. She knew that this was the way all Slayers were introduced to Slaying. But she hadn't liked it then and she definitely didn't like it now. That was her Willow, her dear sweet Willow, surrounded by two angry vamps. Again she tried to release herself. But Xander held her tight.
"Sorry Buffy. Orders from the G-man." Xander felt like a miserable heel. He knew the G-man was probably right; hell he hated that he was. Will needed this but doubt nagged at him. Xander understood that Willow would never believe in herself, that she could be the Slayer, until she dusted her first alone with no aid from the Scoobies. It seemed strange now to have to think of Buffy as a Scooby. But he also knew that in the same position he would hold Willow back. 'Okay so there are two vamps', he considered as he began to plan for involvement if at anytime his little Witch looked in trouble. Looking down at Buffy, he saw the helplessness on her face, the desire to save her dear friend, the sheer desperation in her eyes. 'Does she have any idea how she looks at Willow these days?' He wondered.
Willow tried to focus on her lessons with Giles as the vampires circled her, waiting for the optimum moment to attack. 'I need to concentrate. I can do this; no wiggin' out.' Clearing her mind of all else, she dipped into her knees slightly forcing her center lower. The vampires took this as their moment and both moved in.
Xander watched wide-eyed with pride as Willow shot out her left leg and her right fist. As they collided with the approaching vamps, she pushed and retracted her limbs. Judging that the one she had punched needed to be removed from matters for a while, she swivelled bringing her left leg through in an arch and launched to jump-kick him. He flew a good eight feet landing on his back across a tombstone.
"We're the back-up but only if she needs it." Xander said, trying to soothe the ex-Slayer. He knew too well, that just as she had with the Mayor, Buffy would do absolutely anything if it meant she had any chance of saving Willow from danger. Xander sighed with relief since it seemed that for now Will was in control.
Willow smiled and turning she saw the other vamp approaching her. Launching from one foot he leapt towards her, his game face leering with the anticipation of a sure kill. Willow side stepped, brought out her stake, fell to her knees and plunged the weapon into the still airborne vamp's chest just in time to see the shocked look on his face. Then dust rained.
"One down. Way to go Will." Xander yelled, unable to stop himself.
Buffy ignored him as she focused on the remaining vamp. He moved with more caution eyeing Willow suspiciously. Buffy saw the blood lust fill his game face. He moved in; raining blows at Willow.
Willow found her arms moving almost independently of her, blocking his blows until she saw an opening and shot her left palm up, pushing his chin and head back. At the same time she drew back her right hand. Reversing her pose, she plunged the stake into her retreating foe's chest area. 'Damn, missed.' The vamp smiled at her as if she was a silly child. Pulling her arm back she drove forward again but he had moved to her left.
"Will" Buffy called. "Duck roll."
Willow reacted instinctively to Buffy's instructions, ducking below his punch and rolling away from the vamp's subsequent leg kick. Regaining her feet, she turned. The vamp moved to follow her but instead of moving away from him she reached and pulled him into her and the awaiting stake.
As he vanished into dust, Buffy and Xander got a clear look at their friend. The stunned look on her face indicated that she obviously couldn't believe that she had just dusted two vamps. Her eyes grew wide as what had just happened sank in. She looked at her two friends questioningly.
Xander released Buffy, who left his arms with out a backward glance to run towards her Willow. Reaching Willow she cupped her face. "Will?" she questioned, searching her friend's face.
Willow smiled at her friend's concerned features. "I'm okay. Bit wired, but I'm good." She said placing her hand on Buffy's shoulder as further assurance of her 'okay' condition. "That was ... different." Seeing concern still in the face before her, she added. "Good different, not bad different. Kinda cool different. Kick ass, bad ass Witchy Slayer different ... in a 'hey look what I did' sort of way. I did good. Right?"
"Right. You did very good." Buffy replied. She was uncertain what else to say. She wanted to tell her best friend never to put herself in danger again; that she should have waited for her. But she felt foolish, selfish and lost as she realized Willow had done exactly what needed doing. Exactly what she would have done.
"Hey Will - dusting with 'slayertude'. Way to go!" Xander congratulated her, planting a mock punch to her right shoulder.
Buffy turned to him, refocusing her frustrations. "You held me back." She accused, anger rising within her again.
"Buff, You know Will had to dust her first alone. How many times have you pulled me back for putting myself in harm's way? I couldn't let you do it." He said backing off, Buffy was way wrong but right this minute she had Willow's really 'pissed off' face on and that scared him even at the best of times.
Buffy knew he was right but she had to vent. She moved towards him threateningly.
"Will's gotta get with the Slaying. So the bad guys don't think anything's changed. You know what that calls for." Xander said. Deciding to stand his ground he continued. "We would've been there if she needed us. But she didn't."
"Buffy." Willow said, stepping between them. "Xander's right. I had to do this alone; to know that I could."
Buffy looked from Xander to Willow just in time to catch a movement out of the corner of her eye. Instinctively she pulled Willow behind her as a massing swirl of black smoke appeared on the main path.
"What the...?" Xander exclaimed, moving to the side of Buffy and Willow, their problems forgotten.