Quickened
by P.H. Wise
A Buffy crossover fanfic
Chapter 1: Coming Back Wrong
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A voice speaks in the darkness, echoing through those vast, unlit chambers beneath the earth. “...the warrior of the people... let her cross over!” And with the voice came life. Her corpse, decayed, desiccated, suddenly filled with life. Above ground, lightning surged up around those who had cast the spell. Headstones shattered, and sparks erupted from the earth in great fountains. .
“Is this supposed to happen?” asks a voice.
“I don’t know!”
Silence.
Darkness. Warren comes storming into the yard at the Summers’ home, pistol in hand. Buffy and Xander whirl around as he approaches. He fires. Buffy falls. A voice echoes in the long night: “Willow… your shirt…”
Silence.
Darkness. Willow, her eyes pools of infinite, empty darkness, stands before Buffy’s hospital bed. She gestures, and the bullet floats out of the wound and drops to the floor. Buffy flatlines. Willow gestures, and electricity jolts Buffy’s pulse back into place for a few seconds before flatline returns. Enraged, Willow storms out of the hospital as Buffy’s corpse grows cold.
Silence.
Darkness. Buffy lies dead on a cold slab in the morgue. Xander and Dawn stare at her body in stunned silence. Suddenly, Buffy gasps for breath, and sits up. Xander’s jaw drops open, and Dawn rushes to her sister’s side. “Buffy? BUFFY!”
Silence.
Darkness. Dark Willow faces off against Buffy at the Magic Box. Buffy fights to protect Andrew and Jonathan, as Anya chants a counter-spell to block Dark Willow’s magics. “Just because I can’t use magic on you doesn’t mean I can’t use it on myself.”
Silence.
Darkness. Xander embraces Willow before the ancient temple of Vocipaxa. Willow’s weeping echoes endlessly into the distance as Xander whispers assurances of love.
Silence.
*********************
The Magic Box looked like a bomb had gone off within it, and that wasn’t far from the truth. Broken glass was everywhere, and not a single piece of merchandise remained intact. Shelves had been torn to pieces, and the upper level of the store had collapsed on the lower. Amidst this destruction, in a little circle that had been cleared of glass and broken merchandise, Buffy, Giles, Dawn and Anya sat. It was now an hour since Xander had stopped Willow from destroying the world, and these four had been talking for about half an hour now, mostly about what was going to happen to Willow now. The red-headed witch in question was nowhere to be seen. She couldn’t bring herself to face her friends after what she had done. Not yet. Well, except for Xander. Nobody ever seemed to have trouble facing Xander. Funny syphilis and bug-eating doesn’t generally lend itself to intimidation.
“Giles,” Dawn began, glancing at Buffy, “There’s one more thing you need to know about.”
Buffy shifted uneasily, but said nothing.
Giles looked at Dawn expectantly.
“.... Buffy died in the hospital.”
Giles glanced at Buffy, and at her confirming nod, said the only thing that he could think to say.
“Oh dear.”
“You’re not a vampire, are you?” Anya asked.
Buffy pointed up at the hole in the roof through which the sun was beaming into the ruined shop. “Oh,” said Anya.
“Oh, again, dear.” Giles took off his glasses and cleaned them with a cloth before replacing them. “Buffy,” he said, “I’d like to try something. It will hurt, but you must trust me.”
Buffy nodded. “I trust you.”
Giles produced a small pocket knife and stabbed Buffy through the palm of her hand.
“OW!” Buffy yelped, yanking her hand away with enough force to dislodge the knife. “GILES!” The bloody knife clattered to the ground.
Dawn stared at Giles in disbelief. Anya didn’t react.
“Just watch. Hold out your hand, Buffy.”
Buffy held out her hand, and for a long moment nothing happened. And then a little band of electrical energy coursed across the wound. Instantly, the wound was gone.
“Buffy…?” Dawn asked, staring at her sister as if she’d just sprouted another head.
“This isn’t another Slayer power, is it?” Buffy asked, staring at her hand.
Anya frowned. “Isn’t that against the rules?”
“Oh dear. Oh, dear.” Giles cleaned his glasses again.
“What? What’s wrong with Buffy?” asked Dawn.
“Giles, the Slayer isn’t allowed to be Immortal.”
Anya’s words hit Buffy like a freight train, and it took her a long moment to recover enough that she could speak again. “… immortal?” she asked, and it came out as a near squeak. “Are you telling me that I’m immortal?”
“Well, mostly,” said Anya. “But the Slayer’s not supposed to be immortal. It’s against the rules.” She looked closely at Buffy. “You ARE still the Slayer, right?”
Buffy promptly put her fist through one of the few remaining pieces of unbroken furniture in the room. “Still the slayer.”
Dawn frowned at Anya. “What do you mean, ‘mostly?’”
Giles took a deep breath. “It’s a long story.”
“You can’t die unless someone cuts off your head,” said Anya, smiling brightly. “Oh!” she held up her index finger, “Oh, and if another immortal cuts off your head they get all your skills and knowledge.”
Giles gave Anya an annoyed glance. “But apparently not that long.”
“Wait,” said Dawn, shaking her head. “Buffy can’t be immortal. She’s died three times!” The others turned and looked at her, and after a long moment, she flushed red. “One of those times she didn’t come back! Well, not until we made her come back, that is.”
Giles nodded thoughtfully. “Did you notice anything, well, strange, during the resurrection?”
“You mean besides the Buffy getting resurrected part?”
“Well, yes, besides that.”
Anya thought for a moment. “Well… there was that peculiar electrical disturbance. It sent sparks all over the place, and blew up a few headstones. It was actually very pretty. It reminded me of this time I was in Prague. I was taking vengeance for this noblewoman whose newly wedded husband had cheated on her with their maid. She wished that his insides would explode like Chinese fireworks, and…”
“ANYA!”
“What?”
“The electrical disturbance.”
Anya frowned. “Say, you don’t think that was…”
Dawn and Buffy exchanged glances, neither of them understanding the significance of this exchange. “Care to explain for those of us who don’t get it yet?” Buffy asked.
“I apologize.” said Giles. “Buffy, this is difficult. Nothing like this has EVER happened in all of the history of the world… when you were resurrected, your friends must have, somehow, invoked the primordial power of the Quickening. Instead of just restoring you to life, they restored you to *eternal* life.”
“Quickie-what?”
Anya turned to Buffy and smiled a fake smile. “Congratulations, Buffy. You’re immortal.”
Silence descended then, and held for about thirty seconds.. Finally, Buffy spoke. “Are you saying that when I came back… I really did come back wrong?”
No one had an answer for her.
(End Chapter One)
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Like it? Love it? Hate it? Want to make my insides explode like Chinese fireworks? Tell me about it at stillwell_phw@hotmail.com
Disclaimer: I don’t own Buffy. I don’t own Highlander. Please don’t sue me. I’m only a poor starving writer. I have no money.
