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With This Ring...

by Lilachigh

Chapter 3 Just Come Home


Veering away from end of Something Blue. The problem with magic - there are always consequences. Willow has made Buffy and Spike disappear!




‘But Xander, they couldn’t have just vanished!’ Giles was sounding thoroughly exasperated. He was polishing his glasses so hard, the others were afraid the lens would fall out.

‘Giles, believe me - not a joke - in the cemetery, watching them, then big flash, all orangey-purpley with fizzing sound effects and then poof, they’d gone.’

Xander had stumbled back from the to Giles’ house to tell a horrified Scoobie gang what had happened.

Willow’s face was whiter than pale. ‘It must have been some reaction to the last spell. Maybe it was too soon to mix it with the first one. I thought it seemed a bit unstable towards the end. Maybe one of the penguin eggs was bad. It can happen. They don’t travel well.’

Giles was almost tearing out his hair in exasperation. ‘But where have they gone? Was it a time warp of some sort? Have you sent them, I don’t know, back a couple of centuries, perhaps?’

Willow shook her head doubtfully. ‘I don’t think so. I wasn’t moving time at all; you know I can’t do that yet, Giles. This was just a spell to make them dislike each other again. Wipe the slate clean of the getting-all-cosy effect and bring them back to what they ought to feel for each other. But something’s gone wrong, obviously.’

‘So what do you do to get them back?’ Anya asked. ‘I’ve had a lot of experience of these sorts of spells. They always have nasty consequences if you’re not very careful. You might have turned Buffy into a fish, or a toad, or something slimy.’

She went very pale. ‘Oh no, you might have turned Spike into a bunny. You didn’t see any white haired, blue eyed bunnies in the graveyard, did you Xander?’

‘No, An, no bunnies, no toads, no fish. Nothing. Nought. De nada. Just a great big empty nothing.’

Willow jumped to her feet. ‘I’ll hit the books again. What we need is a locator spell. If I can see where they are, I can probably open a portal and then work out how to get them back.’

Giles’s face was grim. ‘I just hope you can, Willow. I keep telling you how dangerous it is to play around with witch craft when you’re not very experienced. I just hope
Buffy is OK. And Spike, too, I suppose, although I must admit, if he’s lost in the past, he’ll feel quite at home!’

‘Oh, no,Spike has to come back, too. He went with Buffy; I don’t think I can bring one back without the other.’

Xander looked gloomy. ‘Well, Giles, there is a bright side to all of this. At least we don’t have to worry about them getting married! Let’s just hope Willow can magic them back. And let’s hope that wherever they are, they’re not in any danger.’

Buffy came downstairs in her pyjamas, yawning widely, her blonde hair tousled, tied back loosely in a ponytail. She stretched luxuriously as she came into the kitchen. She was tired. Well, it had been quite a night! She vaguely wondered if it had all been a dream, but then she remembered quite clearly the marks she’d spotted on her body when she woke and knew that it had been no dream.

She poured herself a glass of juice and perched on a stool, wondering what to do with the rest of her day.

Suddenly there was a loud sizzling noise and a bright purple and orange flash and Willow appeared in the kitchen, her face screwed up, eyes shut.

As the sizzling stopped, she opened her eyes, saw Buffy and gasped. ‘Buffy! I’ve found you! Where have you been? Oh, it’s your kitchen. You mean you’ve been here all the time? I just sent you home? ’

Buffy’s lips twitched. When her friend went into rant mode, nothing made a lot of sense. ‘Willow. Slow down. Yes, my kitchen. My home where I have been in bed all night. And why are you transporting when you could just walk down the road or pick up the phone and speak to me?’

‘We couldn’t find you, Buffy. We were so scared. Well, I was scared. Xander is just upset because he saw you go and Giles is angry, in that dreadfully British, stiff-upper-lippy way he has.’

Buffy stared at her as if she’d grown two heads. ‘Willow, have any of Oz’s weird friends been giving you anything odd to eat or drink? You haven’t tried any peculiar looking cigarettes, have you? You’re out of it.’

‘Oz?’ Willow’s voice trembled. ‘That’s mean, Buffy. You know Oz has gone. Don’t bring him up, please.’

‘Oz has gone? Gone where? He was sitting in your family room playing guitar yesterday. He didn’t say anything about going anywhere.’

‘Buffy, what are you talking about. Oz left Sunnydale because of the wolfy business. You know he did. And what family room?’

Buffy was beginning to get irritated. ‘Look, Will. Is this some sort of game, because if it is, then I don’t know the rules. Oz has never left Sunnydale. And never owned a wolf, as far as I know. You and Oz are engaged, living together in your parents’ house while they’re touring Europe.’

Willow sat down abruptly, as if her legs wouldn’t hold her up. ‘Buffy, it isn’t true. I’m not engaged to Oz. He left town. And he’s a werewolf.

‘I think...Buffy, in my world - that is our world - I did a spell because I was unhappy that Oz had left me. Then I reversed it, but it didn’t work and I think I must have sent you into an alternative reality.

‘But it isn’t too late. I’ve done a spell to open a sort of portal. You come through it with me, then I can just do the reverse magic and this reality will disappear and things will be back as they ought to be. All we need to do is find Spike and take him with us, because, well, he was there when I did the spell in the first place...and you do know where he is, don’t you?’

‘Someone talking about me?’

Willow spun round. Lounging in the doorway, wearing tight dark jeans and a red shirt open to the waist stood Spike. His hair wasn’t gelled back as normal, but rioted over his head in tight blond curls. Bare-footed and yawning, he looked as if he‘d just rolled out of bed.

To Willow’s astonishment, Buffy walked across and wrapped her arms round the vampire. ‘Sweetheart, Will’s got the weirdest ideas about alternative reality thingies and Oz being a werewolf. Can you understand what she’s talking about?’

Spike dropped a kiss on her forehead. ‘Doubt it, pet, never can on a good day, but after last night - ’ He gave her a slow, lascivious smile and Willow felt she should glance away, because this was an emotion that wasn’t for a third party to witness.

Oh god, no, she thought. In this reality, Buffy and Spike were still in love. She had to get them back and fast.

‘Buffy, you both have to come with me. You don’t love each other, not really. It’s all down to a spell I did - ’

‘Not love each other? That’s an odd thing to say about a husband and wife,’ Buffy broke in.

‘H-husband and - what?’

‘Wife. You know, trouble and strife, the old lady, the old Dutch, the old chain and ball, whichever saying you like,’ Spike drawled, sounding very English.

‘You’re married’

‘Will, this is silly. Of course we’re married. It was magical. Midnight under an arch of white roses. You were there, you and Oz and all the Scoobies. You wore your green and brown outfit and Oz and Xander were ushers. Xander got very drunk, as usual - we’re going to have to do something about his drinking, you know - and Giles gave me away and Mum caught my bouquet when I threw it and got all giggly about it. You can’t have forgotten the wedding!’

‘Buffy, there hasn’t been a wedding,’ Willow whispered. ‘Not in my reality.’

Spike pulled Buffy closer still and nuzzled her neck. ‘Seems like a damn stupid one to me, Red. Can’t be any better than what we’ve got here.’

‘What about Riley?’

Buffy looked puzzled. ‘You mean Riley Finn, the psych guy at college? He left to join the Marines. You know he did. There was a big party and a load of demons invaded the room and we had a marvellous fight. Remember?’

Willow shook her head. ‘Buffy, none of this is true. You’re not married to Spike. You hate him. He’s your arch enemy. This is not how things ought to be.’

The Slayer reached up and ran a finger across her husband’s lips. He sucked it into his mouth and she giggled, remembering....

‘It all seems very true to me. How can I not be married to the man I love?’

So, are you saying you won’t come back? I can’t dissolve this reality unless you do.’

‘Look, as far as I know, my Willow is a quarter of a mile away, in bed with her fiancé. We’re going shopping later today, to the Bronze tonight, then Spike and I are going to patrol until very late. Then supper and bed. Lots of lovely bed. A good day all round. Why would I trade that for a place where you say Spike and I hate each other ?’

And as Willow watched them, entwined, their bodies melting together, she knew she would never win. And for a long moment she wondered about her other self, living with Oz, being happy. All that would vanish at her command.

‘But what about your Mum,’ she said at last. ‘She’ll be frantic when you don’t come home.’

Buffy hesitated as if she didn’t know what to say, then, suddenly, the strange sizzling noise started again and little purple and orange flashes began slanting through the kitchen.

‘It’s the spell working, taking me back,’ Willow cried. ‘Buffy, please come home. Look, I’ll leave the portal open for another hour, but that’s all I can manage. Then it will be too late. Just - come - home - ’

And with a brighter orange flash, she’d gone.

to be continued

’





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