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The vampire licked her neck, and Willow shivered, but didn’t move. It wasn’t that she had frozen up in fear, or that the vampire with her face was holding her tightly enough that she couldn’t let go. No, it was that she didn’t want to move. She knew that she should, that she would get killed, or worse, turned into a vampire, but Willow couldn’t quite bring herself to tear her body away from the vampire’s grasp. And then it was too late, and teeth had sunk deep into the base of her neck. The feeling of blood being drained from her body wasn’t as… painful… as she thought it would be. In fact, if she removed her inevitable death from the equation, it was actually quite pleasant. Then the fangs were removed from her flesh, and air passed over the wound, and she cried out in pain. It wasn’t loud, and it wasn’t for long, because the vampire quickly cut herself and shoved the bleeding hand into Willow’s mouth, but she knew that somebody had heard it, and, based on the rapid footsteps, was running towards her to find the source of the noise.

“Sorry, puppy,” the vampire said, dropping Willow’s body to the floor. “There’s been a change of plans.” Leaning down towards Willow, she added “When you wake up… Find me.” And with that, the vampire retreated into the shadows, and Willow’s vision faded quickly to black.

~*~

Buffy’s head whipped up. She had heard a cry, and soft as it may have been, and far away as it may have been, it came from the direction of the library. The direction of Willow. She took off, running, hoping against hope that she had simply imagined it, but soon enough she reached the library doors, and stopped dead in her tracks. Willow was lying, eyes closed, on the library floor, as if she had fallen, or been dropped.

“Willow?” Buffy asked, hoping that Willow was just asleep, or playing a prank. “You know I don’t like it when people do this!” She pushed open the doors, walking towards where Willow lay, unresponsive to her comments. Buffy knelt beside her, knowing that something was wrong. She reached out to pull Willow’s head onto her lap, and gasped when it simply lolled to one side, exposing her neck. “Willow?” Buffy was definitely panicking now. How had a vampire managed to get Willow? And more importantly, why? But Buffy couldn’t focus on that now, not when her best friend was bleeding out on the library floor from a bite by a vampire that had somehow gotten past Buffy’s defences. It’s all my fault, she thought, staring at Willow’s neck in pure shock. There’s something I have to do, she realised, somewhere I need to take her. A few seconds passed in blank shock, confusion, and grief, until the word came to her mind. Hospital. She picked Willow up, bundling her close to her chest, in such a way that Willow’s head was resting on her shoulder, and Buffy could feel Willow’s pulse. The stain from Willow’s blood would never leave her shirt, which was cream-coloured, but that didn’t matter right now. All that mattered was getting Willow to somewhere where she would be safe, and getting her there as quickly as possible. And so, for the first time in a long time, Buffy was genuinely glad to see Cordelia.

Cordelia narrowed her eyes when she saw what Buffy was doing. “Why are you carrying Rosenberg like a child that fell asleep on the couch?”

“Hospital.” Buffy responded, juggling Willow in her arms so that Cordelia could see the wound on her neck. Cordelia’s eyes widened in shock, and she pulled her keys out of her pocket.
“I’ll drive.” She said, turning and motioning for Buffy to follow her. Buffy returned Willow to her previous position, as she was easier to carry that way, murmuring silent apologies as they exited the school and walked towards Cordelia’s car.

~*~

Cordelia found the predicament she now was in rather awkward. She sat uncomfortably on a plastic chair in the hospital room they had been directed to, watching Buffy, who clutched Willow’s hand so tightly that Cordelia half expected her wrist to snap.

“So… should we call someone?”

Buffy’s eyes flicked briefly to her, before returning to Willow. “Call someone?”

“Yeah, like her mother, or Giles.” When no response seemed forthcoming, Cordelia huffed, and left the room, going to find a phone she could use to contact Giles.

Buffy watched Willow like a hawk, only slightly reassured by the faint pulse she could feel from Willow’s wrist. “It’s okay, Will, you’re going to be okay.” She said quietly, more to herself than Willow. “The doctor said you lost a lot of blood, like a scary amount of blood, but that you’ll be fine.” Apart from probable brain damage, she thought but didn’t say aloud. If I say it out loud, that makes it real. She could hear Cordelia’s muffled voice, talking to who she assumed was Giles.“Buffy found her in the library…Vampire bite… Buffy thinks she’ll be fine, but she’s being delusional… Yes, you should tell Xander, I don’t want to call him!… You should probably hurry.” Then a sound, like Cordelia had hung up, followed by footsteps.

“Giles said he’s on his way.” Cordelia appeared in the doorway. “How’s she doing?”

Buffy ignored her. She was far more interested in Willow’s continued survival than whatever Cordelia had to say.

Cordelia huffed. “Well, I did my best.” She left the room, instead sitting in a chair on the opposite side of the wall.

After what seemed like forever of nothing happening, and nobody showing up, Buffy realised that she couldn’t quite feel Willow’s pulse anymore. Thinking that her hand must have moved off of the spot, Buffy moved her fingers across Willow’s wrist, trying frantically to find her pulse. When she found nothing, she felt around Willow’s neck - still no pulse. Buffy crawled onto the hospital bed, trying to find Willow’s heartbeat, thinking that her pulse must just be faint. Willow can’t be dead, she thought, but something deep inside of her knew that she was.

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She watched from the window, protected by the inky blackness of the night. Blood dripped from her left hand, falling with soft splatters onto the ledge she stood on. Her other hand caressed the window, watching the panic she had caused. It worked. She almost laughed, but that would have given away her presence. She retreated further into the shadows, leaping down from the ledge into the hedges below. As she disappeared into the darkness, the light from the window reflected in the droplets left on the ledge, casting the silhouettes of bloody fingerprints out into the night.

~*~

The vampire with Willow’s face returned to the Bronze, lipstick smudged and hand dripping blood. Now that it was confirmed that she was a different Willow to the one he knew, Oz wondered how he had ever mistaken her for his girlfriend. He took a deep breath of relief when he saw that Willow wasn’t with her, but immediately realised that that would mean she was probably… but he didn’t get the chance to finish that thought when Anya spoke up.

“Where is she?”

The vampire with Willow’s face smiled. “Oh, she’ll be coming by soon enough.”

So she isn’t dead. Oz felt some of the tension lift, but his concerns weren’t entirely alleviated.

“Why couldn’t she come now?” Anya retorted, visibly irritated. “We want to leave sooner rather than later, don’t we?”

The vampire smiled again, languidly. “There’s been a change of plans.”

“What do you mean, a change of plans? A change to what?”

“I’d originally planned to just use her as a means to an end,” the Willow-vampire replied, “But then I met her, and I realised how much fun it would be to stay here, the two of us.”

Oh, please don’t mean what I think you mean, he thought. “What changed?”

Both Anya and the vampire turned to look at him, although Anya’s gaze quickly shifted back to the vampire. “Good question. What changed?”

The Willow-vampire stared right at Oz like she could see into his soul. “You love her, don’t you?” She queried. “You want to be with her forever, have her by your side?” When he nodded, mute, she smirked, pacing quietly towards him. When she reached him, she pulled him up sharply, so that she could talk directly into his ear. “Me too.” She whispered, quiet enough that only he heard her. She smiled at his shocked face, let go of him, then turned around, addressing the room. “Let them go.”

The vampires complied, some scowling at the thought of letting go of their prey, but they were all too scared of her to go against a direct order. The Bronze quickly emptied of people, who presumably would think twice about ever coming back there, but then again, this is Sunnydale, where critical thinking is quite unlikely. The Willow-vampire blew a kiss at Oz as he left, delighting in his inner turmoil.

~*~

It had been twenty minutes since Buffy had realised that her best friend was dead. Twenty minutes of crying, of desperately trying to prove herself wrong, of cradling Willow’s head against her chest. Twenty minutes of internally yelling at everyone who had let this happen. Including herself. Twenty minutes of cursing Cordelia for never returning from the phone call, of vowing vengeance on whatever vampire had taken Willow from her, when she heard a muffled noise that, if you tried really hard, you could almost make out words that sounded suspiciously like “well this is new”, coming from somewhere in the vicinity of her chest. Looking down, she saw Willow, who looked like she was attempting to break free of Buffy’s grip.

“Willow!” Buffy loosened her grip, allowing Willow to sit up, head clearly a little fuzzy on several things, likely where she was, what she was doing here, and why she had woken up with her face in Buffy’s chest. But her freedom didn’t last long, as Buffy pulled her back into what was probably a bone-crushing hug. Willow didn’t seem to mind, not even complaining about lack of oxygen like she had been earlier, although surely Buffy was squeezing just as tight? Buffy brushed that little nagging feeling that something was wrong away, and instead focused on how Willow was alive, after all.

“Hey, Buffy. What happened? Last I remember, I was in the library, and - oh.” Willow stopped talking rather suddenly, and Buffy guessed that she had just realised what had happened. She let go of Willow, sensing that the girl needed some time to process.

“Oh, Will, I was so scared, I couldn’t feel your pulse, I thought you were…” Buffy didn’t want to finish the thought, so she let it sit there in silence. Willow stared at her, eyes wide, unseeing, like she was in some other place that only she could access, working through some problem. Willow’s hand reached up to her neck, then brushed the back of her left hand. Buffy waved her hand in front of Willow’s face. No response. “Will?”

Willow stood up, backing away from Buffy. “You might have to get away from me.”

Buffy got up, too, walking towards her. “Will? You okay?”

“I need to go.”

Now Buffy couldn’t ignore the nagging feeling in the back of her brain. Something was wrong. “What?”

“I need to go.”

“Where are you going?”

“How much do you know about the process of turning somebody into a vampire?”

“What?” Buffy was distracted enough by her question that Willow managed to get past her, and out the door.

~*~

Cordelia stood, awkwardly, by the front desk in the hospital. It had been almost half an hour since Giles had said he was on his way, and still there was no sign of him. How rude, she thought, and with one last backwards glance to the room where she had left Buffy and Willow, Cordelia walked towards the doors, planning on getting in her car and leaving, only to be stopped in her tracks by the sight of Willow, running as if her life depended on it out of the hospital. Cordelia stared in shock and confusion, but moved out of the way quickly when she realised that Buffy likely would be following. She was proven right almost immediately, as Buffy soon hurtled past her and out of the hospital. Shrugging, Cordelia decided it was probably best to stay at the hospital so that she could direct Giles and Xander when they eventually arrived.

~*~

Buffy chased after Willow, ignoring the looks on other people’s faces as she ran through the hallways of the hospital. Something was clearly very wrong with Willow, and she had to find her before she got to… wherever she was going. Buffy burst out of the front doors of the hospital, but Willow was nowhere to be seen. Frowning, Buffy walked out of the car park, hoping that she would by chance pick the correct direction. She turned a corner, oblivious of the eyes on her from back in the car park.

Willow stood in the shadows, not breathing as heavily as she should have been. In fact, she wasn’t breathing at all, just casting her senses around to try and find her other self. I made a promise, she thought, slipping further into the shadows as she caught the scent of her own blood, and I’m planning on keeping it.

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The vampire with the name of Willow sat, alone, at the Bronze. When she had refused to tell her lackeys why the mass murder had been cancelled, they had left, claiming that dawn was approaching. Willow didn’t mind. She knew that the other her had risen, and she knew that she was on her way. It wasn’t much of a premonition, just that she knew herself, and how her brain worked. As soon as her new pet awoke, she would come to find her. It was simple; there would be no waiting till dawn. It wasn’t like there was anybody to attack her, given that the slayer was apparently her best friend, and the other vampires were scared to death of their new leader. So, the Willow of this dimension would be on her way, and very shortly, would be here.

She was faster than the vampire had expected.

~*~

Buffy was lost. Not in the physical sense, but her brain was somewhat scattered. Why had Willow run off like that? And more importantly, where was she going? She hadn’t seen her since before she had left the hospital. Come to think of it, she hadn’t seen her since she ran out of the hospital room. Maybe she’s still in there! Buffy thought. With one final glance at whatever street she was on (okay, maybe she was a little lost in the physical sense), she turned around, and headed back to the hospital. There, she saw Cordelia, who was talking to Giles and Xander, who had finally shown up at the hospital.

“I don’t know, maybe ten, fifteen minutes ago? I haven’t exactly been keeping track.” Cordelia was saying as she approached.

“And they both just ran out the door? Did they tell you where they were going?” Giles had taken off his glasses, and looked like he was regretting engaging with Cordelia.

“Yes, they both just ran out the door. They didn’t even acknowledge me! It was like Buffy was so preoccupied with finding Willow that I just didn’t exist to her.”

“Wait,” Xander interrupted the two’s conversation, “they didn’t leave together?”

“No,” Cordelia huffed. “Willow ran out first, and then a few seconds later Buffy left. You would have known this if you had been actually listening to me!” Even from a few metres away Buffy could tell that the two were now glaring at each other. She hovered awkwardly, unsure on whether to interrupt them or to leave, since now she knew that Willow had left the building. Thankfully for the part of her brain that made decisions, Giles noticed her.

“Ah, Buffy, there you are. Could you perhaps shed some light on what happened with Willow before these two kill each other?”

Buffy nodded, and walked over to join the little group. “Well, I was in the school, and I heard this noise, like a really quiet cry of pain. I noticed that it came from the direction of the library, and I knew that Willow was in there getting something, so I ran over to see of she was okay. Plot twist; she wasn’t. So I picked her up, ran into Cordy, and she drove me to the hospital. Willow was passed out, possibly dead,” Buffy neglected to mention that she had been crying over her body, “then she woke up, freaked out, and ran out of the door. Not sure where she went after that, but I thought ‘hey, maybe she never left the hospital?’ So I came back here, only to find you guys instead. Hey, how long have you guys been here? Cordelia called you like forty minutes ago! You don’t live very far away.”

Giles had a slightly pained look on his face, like he knew that she wasn’t going to like what he was about to say, but that he would say it anyway, “We had to take care of something.”

“What? What could possibly be more important than Willow being in the hospital?”

Giles opened his mouth to answer, but Xander started talking before he could say anything. “Look, Buff, there were a lot of people in the streets, and a lot of vampires in the streets, and those streets were the same streets, and we had to avoid the crowds as best as we could, hence taking the long route.”

“So, what you’re saying is,” Buffy started, “we’ve lost Willow, who was already bitten by a vampire tonight, in a town full of roaming vampires.” When both Giles and Xander nodded, she sighed. “Okay. Anyone have any idea where Willow could have gone?”

Everyone looked into the distance, presumably shuffling around in the filing cabinets of their brains, trying desperately to find a location that Willow might have run off to. Evidently, they got nothing.

“Did she say anything to you? When she woke up, I mean.” Giles asked Buffy, who frowned, trying to remember anything Willow had said that might seem odd.

“I don’t think so, it was mostly blank-eyed shock.” She paused for a minute, feeling like a lightbulb had gone off somewhere in her brain. “She said she had to go somewhere. She wouldn’t tell me where, but then…” The last thing that Willow had said finally clicked. What do I know about being turned into a vampire? Willow had used the question as a distraction, but… she had been dead for a while. Had Willow been turned into a vampire? Why didn’t she tell me? I’m not going to hate her because she’s evil now. Is she evil now? She doesn’t have a soul… Buffy realised that the others were all staring at her. Oh, right. She had been saying something. She couldn’t tell them that Willow was probably a vampire, and possibly evil. Not when they’d already been through that today. So, a cover story was needed. “But then she… ran past me and out the door. I was worried, so I followed her. At a distance. Because I was surprised.” Buffy wished that her past self had put any effort into bettering her acting skills. Nobody looked very convinced, which, from her point of view, was equally rude and fair. Her words, even to her, had felt kind of stilted. But she put her best effort into keeping her facial expression as it was, and hopefully not giving away her lie.

After a couple of seconds, Xander spoke. “…Right.”

~*~

The newly-turned Willow entered the room, surprised to find that nobody was there. Well, nobody except the other her. Who seemed surprisingly happy to see her. And also sort of surprised? But she wasn’t surprised for long, evidently, seen as she grabbed Willow and dragged her into the middle of the dance floor. Willow made a small noise of protest, but didn’t try to break out of the other vampire’s grip.

“What, don’t want to dance with me?” She asked, resting her head on Willow’s shoulder.

“No, I just - I, uh, there isn’t any music! We, we can’t, um, dance, without music.” If Willow still had a heartbeat, she was sure it’d be racing.

The vampire holding her scoffed. “We don’t need music. And besides, we have an eternity now, we can dance properly later.”

“But Buffy will… Buffy will kill us. It’s her job. Oh, god, Buffy’s gonna kill me! I don’t want her to do that. I’m her friend!”

If it was possible, the vampire held her tighter. “She won’t kill you. I won’t let her.” She pulled back a bit, looking Willow in her eyes. “She won’t want to, either. You’re her friend, remember? She knew I was a vampire, but she just let me go. If she can’t bring herself to kill me,” she tucked Willow’s hair behind her ear, “Then she won’t be able to kill you.” She kissed Willow, then smirked. “We really are the perfect height, aren’t we?”

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Think, think! Where else could she have gone? Cordelia had abandoned their little search party, as she had put it, while they were still in the hospital. It had been Buffy’s decision to split up, but right now Xander was regretting it. He felt like she was keeping something from them, based on the way she had pointed at the street as instructions, said that she would search the hospital, and run back inside. He and Giles had made eye contact, nodded, and immediately went in different directions. He just hoped that he could find Willow before the vampires got to her.

~*~

Buffy was inside the hospital, trying desperately to convince the guy at the front desk that she needed to access the room she and Willow had been in. Unfortunately for her, the guy working at the desk when she had first come in was nowhere to be seen. After a long few minutes of not being listened to, she gave up and walked past him.

“Okay, okay. I’m in the room now.” She had been hoping that after she got inside the next part of the plan would come to her, but it hadn’t. Okay. I just need to get into her head. “So, I just got bit by a vampire. I realise that I now am a vampire. I don’t want to hurt my friend. Where do I go from there?” Buffy looked around the room, trying to think. “I would… I would go find her. The vampire that turned me.” Great. Now I know who she went to find, but I have no idea where she would be. Then something caught her eye from out the window. Is that… blood? Vampires bleed, right? Buffy smiled. I just need to follow the blood.

~*~

Xander was wandering along a dark street, alone. Remind me why I thought this was a good idea? he thought, If a vampire that wants to kill me comes along, there really isn’t much that I can do about it. He jumped, hearing a rustling sound from the dark alley to his left.

“Who’s there?’ He called down the alley, trying not to sound scared. He squinted, wishing he had better night vision. “I’ll warn you, I have a wooden pointy thing!” The thing in the alley squawked, and suddenly a huge moving shape came towards him, missing him only because he tripped over his own feet in a hurry to get away. “Oh. Just a bird.” He laughed at himself, and was about to continue moving when he realised that there was something else in the alley.

“Hey, Xander.” The something said, and he realised that it was Oz. “We gotta find Willow.”

“Well I know that.” He replied, “She escaped from Buffy in the hospital.”

Oz looked surprised. Or confused. Something, anyway, that made Xander suspect that he hadn’t known that Willow was in the hospital. “Willow’s in the hospital?”

Xander winced. “No. Willow was in the hospital, but she left. Ran off, apparently. We’re all looking for her.”

“I… think I might know where she’s gone to.” And with that, Oz took off, Xander running after him one his words had properly sunk in.

“Good. Good. That’s good right?”

“Not if I’m right.”

~*~

Willow sat on the edge of the stage, side-by-side with the version of herself native to this dimension. The witch’s head rested on her shoulder, and Willow told her all about her home dimension.

“In my world, I have a pet. My puppy. He’s not really a puppy, just a vampire with a soul. Calls himself an angel.” She laughed. “So I locked him in a cage, and now I get to throw matches at him whenever I want.”

Her other self raised her head. “I know him. Angel.” She scoffed. “He killed my fish.”

“Maybe we could start with him afresh.” Willow mused. “Wanna throw matches at him with me?”

The clanging of the door opening stopped her from hearing the other girl’s answer. She glared at the girl who ran through it. Slayers. She thought. Always ruining everything.

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Buffy pushed open the door, the force of which caused the door to slam behind her. Way to make a subtle entrance, Buffy. The two Willows (who Buffy had decided to refer to as friend Willow and horrible-evil-soulless-friend-murdering Willow) were sitting side by side on the stage. She wanted desperately to never again see horrible-evil-soulless-friend-murdering Willow (and wasn’t that a mouthful? Buffy made a mental note to revise her system of reference) that close to friend Willow. Maybe just friend Willow and not-friend Willow? Or other Willow? Friend Willow and other Willow. Hmm. The two Willows were staring at her. Buffy, this is so not the time.

She forced a smile. “Hi. I just wanted to say… I know that you’re a,” she waved her hand at the sweater wearing Willow. “You know.”

Willow did not know. “A lesbian?”

The leather wearing Willow snorted. “I think she means vampire, Fuzzy.”

Sweater Willow nodded, a look of understanding entering her eyes. “Right. That makes a lot more sense. Also, Fuzzy?” She turned to look at leather Willow. “What?”

Leather Willow nodded her head at sweater Willow’s sweater. “Fuzzy. It’s what you are.”

“If I’m Fuzzy, then you’re…” sweater Willow stared at leather Willow, who smirked.

“I’m…?”

“You’re…” Willow gave up, defeated.

Buffy, who had lost the plot of the conversation the second the word ‘lesbian’ had left the mouth of sweater Willow (as Buffy had finally chosen to designate her), decided to interject. “Will, you’re a…” she stopped speaking before the end of the sentence.

Both Willows rolled their eyes. Then, sweater Willow turned to leather Willow with a look of delight. “I know what you are!”

Leather Willow eyed her trepiditiously. “What am I?”

“You’re my Gay Awakening!”

Leather Willow sighed. “Let’s pretend you didn’t just say that.” She said, then glared at Buffy. “So, slayer, you know that Fuzzy here is a vampire. Whatcha gonna do about it?”

Buffy glared back at her. “Nothing. She’s my friend.” She grabbed a stake from her pocket and swung. “You, on the other hand…”

Her hand stopped mid-swing. What? She asked herself, looking down at it. She tried staking leather Willow again, who looked just as surprised as Buffy felt. Her hand was again stopped by the invisible wall, but this time she couldn’t bring her hand back to her side. She struggled with it for a few seconds, to no avail. She looked up, and was shocked to see that sweater Willow’s eyes had turned fully black. Magic, she thought, of course. She had sort of forgotten that Willow was a witch.

“What are you doing?” She asked sweater Willow. “She killed you! Why are you protecting her?”

The black-eyed Willow stalked towards her. “Don’t you get it, Buffy? She’s my girl now. And nobody messes with my girl.” Her eyes narrowed, and Buffy got blasted backwards into the wall. Sweater Willow grabbed leather Willow’s hand, eyes returning to their usual green. She flashed a smile that was all teeth at leather Willow. “C’mon, Gay Awakening. Let’s go.”

~*~

Buffy trudged out of the door to the Bronze. Her head had mostly cleared of the ringing caused by the impact, but her thoughts were loud and unavoidable. Until, that is, she accidentally body slammed Xander and Oz.

“What are two doing here?”

“Looking for Willow.” Oz replied, gesturing at the door behind her. He shrugged. “Something she said earlier, we thought maybe she was in there.”

Buffy deflated. Now that both Willows were hostile, she was going to have to tell them that Willow was a vampire. “Yeah. She was.”

Xander gestured for her to continue. “And? Where is she now?”

“I don’t know. She kinda threw me into a wall.”

Oz looked sad. “So… she’s a vampire now, isn’t she?”

Buffy elected to not tell them that Willow had actually done it with magic. She nodded.

Xander’s face went from elated to confused to sad. Both of his childhood best friends had been turned into vampires, and to make this worse, there were now two copies of one of them. “Dibs not killing her.”

~*~

The two Willows sat in an empty store, an array of clothing surrounding them. Their first order of business (post the initial meeting) was to get new clothes. Their second order of business was to get the newly turned Willow some blood, but that could wait until she had a better outfit.

She eventually settled on a black blouse and a layered yellow skirt. She went to change into them, leaving the other Willow sitting amidst the piles of clothes. She sensed a presence in the shop.

“It’s closed.” She snapped at the presence, not even turning her head to glance at it.

A very familiar voice issued from behind her. “Wasn’t asking.”

Willow got up from her place on the floor, grinning at the vampire. “Puppy.” He looked slightly taken aback by her statement, so she took the chance and leapt at him, toppling him onto the floor. She swung a leg over his waist, straddling him, and held him down by his shoulders. He tried to break her grip, but failed, panic entering his eyes. She leaned in close. “I haven’t seen you for so long…”

Chapter Text

Willow finished changing into her new outfit. Personally, she thought she looked pretty good, and it was a welcome change from her slightly bloodstained pink sweater. She returned to the main section of the store, and saw some guy in a trench coat chained up on the floor. On second glance, it was Angel.

“Angel?” She asked him, unsure as to why he was there, and where her doppelgänger was.

He turned to stare at her. “Willow?” There was an awkward pause as neither moved. “Could you set me free?”

Just then, the other Willow re-entered the room from between the clothing racks. “You’ve met our guest.”

Willow smiled at her. “Yup.” She ignored the pleading stare Angel sent her way. “Where’d ya get the chains?”

“Oh, you wouldn’t believe the kinds of things the owner keeps in his basement.” She smirked. “Wanna see?”

Angel had had enough. “Could you quit with the flirting and get me out of these chains?” He directed an annoyed glare at Willow, who hadn’t moved since the other her had entered the scene.

“Tsk, tsk.” Other Willow told him. She grabbed the back of his head, and yanked it upward. “You should learn to be nicer to your captors.”

~*~

The three of them made their way back to the library, dejected.

“Wait.” Buffy threw her arms out to stop the other two from moving. She turned to face them. “How are we going to find them?”

“Well,” Xander cut in, “if Willow was here, we’d get her to do a spell, but…”

“She’s not here.” Buffy finished the thought for him. There was silence for a few seconds. “So what are were going to do now?” They couldn’t just split up and search the whole town for them, as it would take too long, and none of them were a match for two Willows. They couldn’t search together, as it would take even longer.

Xander sighed. “I guess we just have to wait until they show themselves.” He was secretly glad, of course. The more time he got to have without being actively against Willow the better.

“Yeah.” Buffy echoed. “Well, I guess I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” With that final statement, she turned around and headed home.

Oz and Xander looked at each other, shrugged, and parted ways.

~*~

There was a knock on Xander’s window.

He got up from his bed, turned on the light, and pulled back the curtain, revealing the person knocking to be Willow. His Willow. He sighed, and opened the window so she could say whatever it was that she wanted to say. Don’t let her in, he told himself. Whatever she says, don’t let her in.

Willow smiled at him, her face visibly brightening. “Hey Xander! Funny seeing you here.” Her tone was so bright, so human that it hurt.

He gestured at the window separating them. “This is my house.” At her playful glare, (it’s not real, she’s not real) he met her eyes fully, and tried to smile. “What do you want?”

“So I can’t just say hello to my best friend?” Willow pouted. “I just want to see you.”

Xander smiled reflexively. “I’m your best friend?” What, no, Xander, what are you doing? She’s a vampire, you can’t trust her!

“Of course you are.” She smiled. “Always have been.”

He grinned back at her. She’s not a vampire, she’s Willow. He told himself. And if there’s one thing that’s true, it’s that you can always trust Willow. He held out his pinkie. “Promise you won’t hurt me if I let you in?”

She held out her pinkie in return. “What kind of best friend do you think I am?”

He laughed, and let her inside, and pretended for the rest of the night that Willow wasn’t a vampire.

~*~

It had been a week since they lost Willow. Not a one of them had properly smiled since she died, because if there was no Willow, what was there to smile about? The day she found out that Willow was dead, she quit her job with the mayor. She wasn’t sure how Willow died, but she was sure that at least a part of it was her fault.

Willow spent her nights at Xander’s house. Every so often, she would offer to kill his parents, but he played it off as a joke every time. She and her other half hacked into the hospital systems, and stole most of their blood from there. She would always insist that it was because they were keeping a low profile, but Xander knew that it was because she still cared about him and Buffy. After the third night she visited him, he told her about her funeral. Her parents were still halfway across the country, and he wasn’t sure if they even knew that their daughter was dead. After that night, he made sure to never bring them up again.

As far as Buffy knew, Angel had disappeared of the face of the planet. She would never guess that he was being kept in a basement somewhere in Sunnydale, held down with chains and kept down with matches.

The Willows experimented with turning animals into vampires. Angel’s basement cell had a tank by the wall, filled with vampire fish.

“What are we gonna do next?” Willow asked her other self.

The reply was immediate, but well thought out, and began with a kiss. “Whatever we want.”