Chapter Text
Up Claws And Fursonal
Wake up, my child…
…the world awaits…
When Willow stirred into consciousness, she felt like all the strength had been sapped out of her, that… and she could swear that the world was bouncing. Or she was. There was also the distinct feeling of wind moving over all her body except the portions that were very warm and cradled against someone's soft chest.
It only took a moment more to piece together that she was being carried princess style in someone's arms. Strong, yet slender arms.
Furtively opening her eyes, she caught sight of blonde hair, and… fur? Squinting in confusion, she tilted her head a bit and got a better look at the face of the creature that was carrying her. Because, yeah, it definitely wasn't human.
So, what… had one of the demons from the Initiative cages grabbed her in the confusion and run off with her like some kind of to-go meal?
Except, this thing didn't even really look like a typical demon or monster you would see in Sunnydale, more that of an animal. In fact, it looked kind of like a mix between a lynx or cheetah… one that walked upright and possessed decidedly human-like traits, such as the aforementioned blonde hair which framed the things face like a mane.
And yet, even if this wasn't a creepy demon-like monster, it would have been impossible for Willow to miss that there was blood and gore spattered all over every inch of the thing.
Its focus seemed to be entirely on wherever it was running to, although its ears—which sat upon the top of its head rather than the sides—were swiveling backwards over and over, as if listening for pursuit.
Her appraisal must have somehow caused the thing to realize she was awake, because some very large, green feline eyes snapped down to meet her gaze at that moment and Willow suddenly felt a surge of instinct to get away.
Twisting with all her might and shoving hard away from the chest cradling her, Willow found herself dropping to the dirt, the feeling of two legs tripping on her coming immediately after.
Rolling for a moment and coming to a stop on her stomach, she groaned and turned her head to find the cat-person-thing pushing up off the ground nearby.
“Probably should have expected that reaction.” The thing mumbled to itself, its feminine voice oddly familiar, but Willow was panicking too much to try and suss out why. She started to scramble backwards on all fours as the thing looked over at her with a scowl, or possibly a frown.
“Stay back!” Willow demanded, trying to think of a spell she could cast in a hurry to get herself away from this thing. The problem was, she felt like she was still way too drained to cast anything at all.
“Willow, calm down.” The thing insisted as it climbed to its feet, the familiarity of its voice washing over her again, which had her freezing.
Weird… that had sounded an awful lot like—
“Buffy?” She squeaked in surprise, finally taking in the fact this creature was actually wearing the same clothes Buffy had been the last time she had seen her. And yeah, now that she was looking for it, she could pick out a resemblance of her best friend's face through the feline features. But that still begged the question— "Why are you a cat-person?”
Buffy huffed out a defeated breath.
“Seems that our enjoining ritual had an unintended outcome."
Willow's eyes widened and she pushed to her feet as she began to ramble. “Oh my God! Buffy! I'm so sorry! I swear I had no idea the ritual would do this to you! But I'm going to fix this! I promise—”
“Willow.”
“I just need to go over the ritual again, line by line, I'm sure there is a reasonable explanation as to why this happened. And once I do that I'm sure I can find a way to undo your transformation and—”
”Willow!”
“Huh?” Willow abruptly cut off as Buffy grabbed her arms.
“Wills, it wasn't your fault, and there's no way to fix it, it's permanent.” Buffy stated with such certainty that Willow couldn't help but scrunch up her brow. Before she could ask how she knew that, Buffy added. “And… I’m afraid it wasn't just me who got transformed.”
Willow blinked as Buffy lifted the arms she was gripping into sight and Willow took in the short red and white fur that she herself apparently had.
Gasping, Willow pulled free of Buffy’s grip and began to frantically look at her own arms and hands before reaching up and patting at her face to find a muzzle, wet nose and even whiskers. She then slowed her movements to a crawl as she found her ears were gone, but then checked the top of her head to find they had relocated there, much like Buffy's. Except, she got the impression she wasn't a cat-person like her best friend.
“What am I?” She found herself asking hoarsely.
“I'm not sure… I want to say you're a mix between a ferret and fox.” Buffy answered, tilting her head. “Whatever you are, I don't think it's any kind of animal that actually exists, or it could be that maybe you're some mystical version, because you have two tails.”
“Tails?” She yelped and started to spin in a circle, catching sight of the two fluffy tails Buffy had mentioned poking out from the waistband of her pants and awkwardly standing up in the air.
Suddenly dizzy from the spinning, or maybe the situation, Willow stopped and shook her head to try and let her brain catch up. She scarcely wanted to believe what she was seeing and hearing, and yet it seemed far too real to dismiss.
Her eyes rose to meet Buffy’s feline ones and found an expression of pained understanding. Obviously her friend had gone through a similar freak out whenever she had realized what had happened. However, Willow had to wonder when that had happened and how they had gotten from the Initiative caves to wherever they were now. Because there seemed to be a lot of story missing, especially given Buffy’s earlier declaration.
“What exactly happened, Buffy? How did the ritual cause this?” She asked, and before Buffy could answer, she added. “And why did you sound so sure that this is permanent?”
Buffy frowned and her gaze moved off toward nowhere in particular.
“Well, the ritual did exactly what we expected… at first. I got all in touch with my inner Slayer and started speaking in another language and using magic and everything.” Buffy explained, wrapping her arms around her own stomach. “But after the fight was over, and I had finished teleporting Adam's power source away… that's when things went sideways. I felt the power we called on leaving me, but then something else seemed to rush in and take its place. I almost passed out when my body started to change, making all with the Animal Planet midweek special. It hurt so bad… and when it was all said and done, I freaked out because I found that I had fur and a tail. Riley… I could tell he was freaked about what happened to me too, but he was at least level headed enough to suggest we get back to you guys and see if you were still chanting or something.”
Willow furrowed her brow as she tried to think back. She honestly didn't remember much after the part of the chant where she had given each of the Scoobies their place in the enjoining ritual. Heart, Mind, Spirit, Hand. For a moment, now as she thought back, she vaguely recalled her words suddenly becoming laced with power and speaking in a wholly unfamiliar language. Part of her wondered if she had gotten pulled into a trance by the magic itself, much like she had when re-ensouling Angel.
“Well, when we got back to where you guys had set up, we found that you and Xander were unconscious, and that I wasn't the only one who had been changed.” Buffy continued. “Giles was some kind of wolf-coyote, you were whatever you are, and Xander… well. Whatever was happening to us, it seemed to be struggling to change Xan the same way, because he kept shifting between being what looked to be a mixture of a raccoon and bear, and another completely different animal… a hyena.”
“He was possessed by a Primal Spirit in Sophomore year!” Willow blurted out, slapping her forehead. “I didn't take that into account when we chose to include him in the enjoining ritual!” She gasped as she connected the dots. “Is that what caused this?”
“No.” Buffy said, shaking her head. “Thats what Giles thought at first too, but it wasn't that. I mean, it's similar and related and obviously affected Xander's final shape or whatever, but his history with that wasn't what caused our transformation.”
Willow noted she sounded very sure again and asked, “How do you know?”
“Because Whistler told us.” Buffy whispered, sounding pained.
“Who?” Willow asked, trying to recall if she knew anyone with that name, but drew a blank.
“He's this messenger from the Powers That Be… who are supposedly the Slayers bosses on high.” Buffy explained, furrowing her brow. “Whistler, he, uh, showed up once before, back before I fought Angelus and closed Acathala. But he was so much a part of the awfulness that happened that I guess I never really felt like mentioning him.”
Willow nodded in understanding. That had been a bad time for Buffy, and Willow had to concede that they hadn't really ever given her a real chance to open up about everything that happened. In fact, they had all almost come to an unspoken agreement to not bring that period up at all.
“But basically, when I saw him again, I knew he was about to tell us some bad news.” Buffy lamented with a defeated sigh. “Turns out, there's a reason the Hellmouth is where it is. Because there are certain places on earth where the veil or whatever is weaker, and that means cracks can appear between various realms and dimensions, even whole other realities. As such, various kinds of beings have created permanent doorways in those cracks to make travel easier for their kind. Apparently not all of them were bad either, and long before there was ever a Hellmouth in Sunnydale, there was a very opposite kind of ancient doorway present. A Spirit Door. According to Whistler, it was one of the ways that a lot of the Primal magics and spiritual deities originally found their way into our world, and without that doorway and many others like it, no magic would have ever existed on Earth.”
Willow had to admit that she was fascinated by what she was hearing, even if the situation itself was dire.
“Apparently, when the Old Ones found their way into the world and rose to power, the Spirit Doors were all purposefully blocked up so that the dimensions beyond would not be invaded. At that point, the Hellmouths became the primary entry for all things supernatural going forward. The Spirit Doors kinda fell into myth and legend after that and no one even knew where to look for them.” Buffy shook her head. “Seems though that the Initiative built their base right on top of the blockage keeping our local spirit door closed. So, when we set ourselves up to do a little ritual right over that plugged up doorway…”
“We knocked something loose?” Willow guessed.
“More like we got something’s attention. Several old and powerful somethings. So powerful, in fact, that there were apparently no ways to predict their interactions with our plane.” The Slayer scoffed. “Not even the Powers who guide prophecy, destiny and fate saw any of this coming. Basically, the big guys upstairs got caught flat footed and couldn't do anything to stop what was happening to us once it started. Nor could they undo it. Apparently, these Primal Spirits that have ‘claimed us’ are like pure concentrated magic, and not the diluted stuff that's been kicking around on Earth for hundreds of millenia. So, just like their inability to predict them, the Powers also didn't have any way to manipulate or control them directly either.” Buffy paused and looked devastated suddenly. “And because they realized they couldn't ever hope to control these Primal Spirits, or force them to ‘give us back’, then it meant their plans, and the balance they had spent millions of years cultivating, were in danger of being thrown way way off. So, Whistler said that they were gonna try some kind of Hail Mary last ditch effort thing and force a reversal of the energies coming from the Spirit Door. Their hope was that it would draw the Primal Spirits back into the dimension breach like a big ol vacuum cleaner… us along with them.”
“What?” Willow asked in shock and then looked around to finally take in their unfamiliar surroundings. How hadn't she noticed before? It was colder here, too cold for California, and there were trees of breeds she had never seen before. Heck that bark in the tree over there was BLUE. So, did that mean—
“They kicked us out, Will.” Buffy hitched out brokenly. “And we can't ever go back.”
Willow felt an immediate ache hit her chest at the realization of everything in her life that she had just been sundered from.
“Oh, God.” She gasped out and then fell to her knees, Buffy following suit and pulling her into an embrace. “Tara, I didn't get to...”
“I know.” Buffy breathed into her shoulder. “I didn't get to say goodbye to my mom either. But Riley was there, so he knows what happened to us, so he'll let them know so they won't be left wondering… or waste any time hoping that we'll ever come home…”
Buffy began to sob, and Willow could do nothing but join her.
******
Buffy had no idea how long they had cried there huddled on the forest floor, but it had probably been a while seeing that eventually Willow pulled back and mumbled that she had to use the bathroom. Buffy decided she might as well use the little kitty’s room as well and they both parted ways to do so.
A few strange minutes later, Buffy returned to the little clearing and found Willow sitting back in place with her knees pulled up to her chest. Her friend’s shoes were sitting on the ground beside her, the redhead obviously having opted to shuck them like Buffy had done to her own way back at the Initiative. Between the claws, fur and the padded bottoms, their feet were just too different now to be comfortable in them. Although, to be fair, it had felt natural running without any shoes, so she doubted they actually needed them anymore.
Buffy moved to sit beside Willow, but before she could make it halfway, her friend spoke up.
“There’s still stuff I'm missing. Like… where are Giles and Xander?”
Buffy felt her heart lurch again and she looked off in the direction she had been running away from. How long had she been running? Hours? She was pretty sure it had been dawn when they had arrived, and now it seemed to be mid morning based on the position of the sun. It honestly had felt like she had shut down and just let her instincts take over.
As for why…
“When we popped into… wherever it is we are now, we were in the smack middle of a huge battle of some kind.” Buffy explained as she finally sat, her mind lost back in the chaos of that first moment in this world. “I was still dazed from being told that our forms were permanent and that we were being exiled, not to mention the jarring trip through the portal, which trust me, you'll be glad you were unconscious for. But basically, I was taken completely off guard when suddenly there were all these soldiers and demons fighting each other all around us. Thousands of them. I didn't see Xander or Giles anywhere, but out of some stroke of luck, you were right at my feet.” She swallowed hard and looked down at the blood spatter all over her clothes. “Then some soldier’s head was smashed and exploded all over me and I freaked out. All I could really think to do at that moment was to get you out of there. So I picked you up and just… ran.” There was a lump in her throat now as the realization hit. “God, Will, the others, I left them… how could I just leave them like that?”
Willow’s expression grew soft and she reached out and squeezed her arm.
“You did what you had to do.” Willow insisted. “Staying could have gotten us both killed, and from the sound of things, there was no guarantee you would have found the others even if you had looked.”
Buffy had to concede that her friend was right… there had been so much going on around her. She had fought in a lot of battles as a Slayer, but nothing like that. It had been such a huge mass of carnage and death that it had taken her nearly a full minute to reach the edge of the battle at full sprint while dodging attacks from every angle. Whatever this world they had ended up in was, obviously it was in open conflict with demonkind.
“Well, now you know everything I do.” Buffy declared after a long moment of trying to get her emotions in check. When she got no response, she looked over to find Willow staring at her new pawlike hands.
“I don't feel like there's some powerful Primal Spirit inside me.” Willow noted. “I just feel… fuzzy.”
Buffy snorted, which sounded more like a little sneeze because of her new feline features.
“Yeah, I know what you mean.” Buffy allowed as she considered how warm she felt. With everything that had happened, she hadn't really had a chance to get used to the changes in her body. Although, she was sure of one thing. “I don't think the Primal Spirit possessing us is exactly like the one that was in Xan Sophomore year. Like they don't want to control us or anything. I mean, it could be that yours has different plans, but I've gotten this extremely vague impression that mine is plenty happy just letting me tap into its power. When I was running, I could feel it surging from deep down, keeping me fresh. I could have probably run for days.”
“And you're sure that's not from you being the Slayer?” Willow asked, and then quickly added. “Wait, are you still the Slayer?”
Buffy blinked in surprise, and then admitted. "I have no idea. I mean, I think so, but I'm stronger now than I was as the Slayer, so it would be hard to test.”
“Oh! Do you think this means I'm strong now too?” Willow asked, suddenly sounding excited.
“Maybe—” Buffy began but cut herself off as Willow quickly grabbed her to try to lift her. It seemed for a moment like Willow might just manage to move her, but instead let out an annoyed huff and gave up her attempt. “Sorry, Will, doesn't look like you're all with the mystical strength.”
“Well that's not fair! So, what? I get a Primal Spirit riding shotgun and it doesn't do anything but turn me into a ferret-fox thing?” Willow griped, but her words made Buffy consider something.
“Maybe yours was drawn to you for your talents?” She surmised. “I mean, you were the Spirit part of the enjoining ritual. So, that means magic and stuff, doesn't it?”
Willow furrowed her brow at that and then looked over at a nearby boulder with a stick leaning against it. Buffy had followed her gaze until she saw a green glow out of the corner of her eye and glanced to find that Willow's eyes were glowing. There was a loud sound and Buffy quickly looked back to find that the boulder was gone and that the stick was dropping to the ground without its support.
Confused, she looked upward and spotted a quickly shrinking dot. “Wow… uh, that was impressive, I mean, that thing had to weigh quite a bit.”
“Yeah. Way more than a pencil.” Willow said, sounding dazed. Buffy glanced over to find her looking a little woozy. “Three things… one… I should have let myself recover a bit more before I tried to use any more magic after performing that ritual. Two, we definitely have a huge source of power deep in there… and three… I was aiming for the stick.”
Buffy chuckled and scooted closed so she could let Willow rest her head on her shoulder.
“Better?” She asked her best friend.
“Yeah.” Willow returned, and then Buffy raised an eyebrow when her foxy friend began to rub her face up against Buffy’s chin in a very animal-like fashion. She almost opened her mouth to ask Willow if she realized she was doing that, but she instead felt the compulsion to purr and bump back, and immediately did so. Obviously their new animal forms came with some strong instincts that they would need to get used to.
“So, what do we do now?” Willow asked after another quiet few minutes which had left them cuddled together. During that time, Buffy had been lamenting the life she had left behind more than focusing on the now like she probably should have been. Sighing she lifted her chin off Willow's head and straightened.
“We need to find the others. I just don't know if returning to the area of that battle would be a smart move. Especially if those demons won.”
“Hate to say it, but we technically have no idea how the humans would react to us either.” Willow noted and Buffy frowned. She had a point. They weren't human anymore.
“Maybe—” Buffy began, but a scream echoed from afar and cut her off. It sounded like a little girl.
Buffy was on her feet and moving before she even considered if Willow would follow.