Warning: I do not own the rights to the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, its spin-off series Angel, its dark horse comics continuation series, or any of the characters created by Joss Whedon and others in the Buffyverse.
15 years +, Mild to Strong Violence, Sexual References.
F/F, F/M, M/M, Other +
LEVEL NINE HERE
Level 10 - Sunnydale Mall
Willow Rosenberg found herself walking out of a portal and into the clearly shutdown Sunnydale Mall as she quickly took in the scenery of the place she, Buffy and Xander used to frequently visit in their teen years before her and Buffy began taking Buffy’s younger sister to in their early adult years.
The Sunnydale Mall brought back a lot of good memories for the red headed witch and unlike everywhere else within Sunnydale 2.0 it held no bad memories that she could think of, in fact one of her friend Buffy Summers’ early victories happened in this very mall when Buffy blew up The Judge with the help of Xander’s military knowledge courtesy of a spell that Willow did not cast.
As Willow walked towards the center of the mall she found herself shocked to see the back of a dark haired man sitting on a bench but this did not alarm the witch as she believed it was a friend not foe and proceeded with walking over to him, until she was stood in front of Angel much to the witch’s delight.
“Well we were wondering when you were going to show up to help out with this trip to some hell dimension’s version of Sunnydale!” Willow greeted the dark-haired vampire, who quickly stood up to face her. “You missed a nostalgic trip back to the Summers household not to mention a rather awkward return to the blood factory, oh, and your son got this really cool luminous sword before we all got separated and I wound up here.”
“My son?” Angel asked the witch. “You mean Connor is here too?”
“No, your other son, you know the one you and Buffy miraculously had without you losing a soul or anything.” Willow replied before realising that Angel was not filled in on his son Tristan being alive again. “Oh, I probably should have led with Tristan’s alive again and he’s not a demon, vampire or behind all of this…that we know of anyway.”
“Yeah you definitely should have started by telling me my son is no longer dead.” Angel stated with a genuine smile, more than delighted to learn his son was back to life. “But I will forgive you on the whole count of my son is alive!”
“Unfortunately, the back from the dead party is going to have to wait until we figure out why the heck the shadow demon has taken us here.” Willow informed the vampire with a soul. “Which means I should probably catch you up on what we know so far…”
Angel had very little time to wrap his head around the sudden revival of the son he shared with Buffy or how the hell he had come to be back in Sunnydale despite it no longer existing, as he and Willow began to search the Sunnydale Mall in search of whatever it is they had to face or find before being transported somewhere else.
“Buffy never said she went to the astral plane, actually nobody even said there was an astral plane.” Angel confessed to Willow as they stopped outside a boarded-up bookstore. “Once we all find a way out of this does Tristan get to come with us or is, he back to this astral plane?”
“Apparently a certain higher being I went to school with and you used to solve cases with moved heaven and earth to bring you back your kid,” Willow informed the good vampire. “I’m guessing before he got a chance to fully be alive again the shadow demon got a hold of him and well here, we all are.”
“You mean Cordy brought my son back?” Angel asked, genuinely touched by his former love’s never-ending dedication to him. “I wish she could bring herself back…”
“I know you miss her but clearly she’s making big waves up there, Cordelia always did have a sense of being above us all…now she really is!” Willow replied to Angel, attempting to comfort him. “I’d love to chit and chat with you all day, but first can you kick the doors down?”
“What makes you so certain whatever we are looking for is inside a bookstore?” Angel asked the redheaded witch.
“I was more thinking there’d be a book or something I could use to find some way out of this mess considering the books back at the magic box were a bust but hey if the answer is behind these doors that would be super cool too!” Willow answered before Angel began attacking the planks of wood boarding up the door.
After a few punches and kicks from Angel, the vampire and the witch walked through the now dismantled front doors of the bookstore only for Willow to be left completely shell shocked to see Tara stood there waiting for them both.
“Tara…” Willow struggled to say, lost for words by the shock revival of the love of her life.
“I do not get it; you’re meant to be dead.” Angel said to Tara, only for him and Willow to be further shocked when Tara’s face turned into full vampire mode.
“Oh, I very much am!” Tara replied sinisterly. “Just a little less dead than your world’s Tara.”
Tara Maclay was a bewitching beauty, a powerful witch and the love of Willow Rosenberg’s life and the day she died tore Willow apart, sending the redheaded witch spiralling out of control as she went from the heart of the scooby gang to the fearsome Dark Willow.
Losing Tara changed Willow’s world forever and there was not a day that went by that she did not miss her with all her heart. Willow may have moved on to a couple of romantic entanglements, but she never quite loved anyone like she loved Tara and a part of her had began to believe she never would.
So, for Willow to be standing there within the bookstore of Sunnydale Mall with Angel by her side, both of them looking at an alternate universe’s version of Tara, the pain became all to real as she saw the face of the woman she loved before it turned to that of a vampire’s, instantly knowing this was not that Tara she loved more than anything but some twisted version of her.
“What’s wrong Willow sweetie? Do you not think I am pretty like this?” Tara asked while flaunting her vampire face, getting off on the pain her existence inflicted on Willow.
“Stop it!” Willow pleaded, as tears began forming in her eyes. “Stop it, you are not her! You are not my Tara.”
“No, I am so much better darling, you see your version could never match your power whereas my power has only grown more and more since I turned into a vampire.” Tara revealed to her.
“Willow step outside, you do not have to handle this!” Angel told his friend. “I will do this for you.”
Tara laughed at Angel’s somewhat kind gesture he had just made to Willow before raising her right hand in the air, before a bolt of black lightning appeared from out of her right hand, flying through the sky and attacking Angel, sending the vampire flying out of the bookstore.
“I just cannot stand when a man pushes his way into girl talk.” Tara told Willow.
“I do not want to have to hurt you, I know you are not her, but I do not want to hurt any version of her.” Willow stated, as tears began falling from her eyes.
“Oh sweetie, you’re used to being with the shy Tara but this one likes to be the dominant one.” Tara informed the redheaded witch before releasing another bolt of black lightning from her hand, the lightning bolt heading straight for Willow, forcing her to think fast as the two witches began a deadly showdown.
The alternate reality version of Tara Maclay was not wrong, she was a very powerful witch even more powerful than the Tara that Willow knew which was probably down to the vampirism however, Tara’s powers were no match for Willow, no other witch ever was.
Despite managing to overpower Tara 2.0, Willow just could not bring herself to dust the vampire version of the woman she loved, having already lost a Tara once before, unable to lose another, even if this was not her Tara and perhaps that is exactly what the shadow demon wanted from her because as soon as she knocked out vamp Tara a bright blue portal appear within the bookstore, right in front of the redheaded witch.
Willow looked outwards from the bookstore quickly noticing Angel was still passed out on the floor outside of the bookstore, and without hesitation she grabbed a hold of a passed out Tara’s arms and began dragging her towards the portal, until Willow and Tara disappeared into the portal, unknowingly leaving Angel behind in the process as the portal closed behind the two of them.
