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By: PatriciaTepes (AKA Patricia de Lioncourt @ fanfiction.net; PatriciaLouise @ TTH)
Chapter Title: Open Phone Line and Information Exchange
Links to Other Chapters: ONE TWO THREE FOUR FIVE SIX SEVEN EIGHT TEN ELEVEN TWELVE THIRTEEN FOURTEEN FIFTEEN SIXTEEN SEVENTEEN EIGHTEEN NINETEEN TWENTY
Fandom: Darkwing Duck/Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer:I do not own Darkwing Duck or Buffy the Vampire Slayer or any of their related characters. Darkwing Duck belongs to Disney, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer belongs to Joss Whedon. Also, I don't own the images used in the art. All is done for fun, not profit.
Author's Note: So I have this view for NegaBuffy. Does everyone remember how vampire Willow and Dark Willow was sort of nutso? Well, in my head, NegaBuffy is not exactly full out crazy, but she does have a tipping point. You saw it last chapter. Betrayal… doesn't sit well with her, in case you didn't notice. Well, on with the show.
Chapter Nine- Open Phone Line and Information Exchange
It was not an easy task to sneak by a witch whose powers were nearly on level with that of a goddess. But Dawn was managing. It helped that Willow was a bit preoccupied with the task of trying to get Buffy back.
Willow's room was pristine, bed made, and done up in jewel tones, with a rich, plum-colored canopy covering her bed with shelves upon shelves of spellbooks, and she had only been occupying the Cleveland House for a few hours. Dawn had an inkling that magic had played a major role in decorating the room. Dawn closed the door behind her, as softly as possible, and slipped inside. Currently, Willow was in the main room with Giles, Xander, and the slayers of the House, hashing out orders and working on spells. But that did not mean anything, time wise. Willow could randomly poof into her room at a moment's notice to retrieve a book, or an herb. She had to be quick.
Dawn crossed the room in four strides, stopping to finger through the spines of the dusty tomes that sat upon the nearest darkly-stained oaken shelf. She sniffed, instantly wishing that she had not done so. The room already smelled of dust and musky herbs, and she had to try hard not to sneeze. She shook her head, and began to avoid breathing through her nose, pulling out book after book just far enough to catch a glimpse of its cover before shoving it back into place.
Of course, she did not know the exact book she was looking for. She had tried doing research online for the spell that she wanted, but had come up with zilch. It was unheard of, well, because she was unheard of. Several websites had information on an inter-dimensional Key, but the last time they had been updated had been when the monks that had made her fleshy casing for her Keyness were still alive. After all, they had been trying to hide the Key from Glory… advertising information on the web, especially information involving the fact that it was hidden inside a human form, would not have been the smartest of ideas.
Finally, she decided that it was an "all or none" situation. She picked three books—one with a red leather cover with thick black letters on its cover, one with a black leather cover that had no writing on its outer cover whatsoever, and one that seemed to be covered by plain parchment… but the lettering looked like blood. Dawn did not want to think about it. Working quicker than ever, she sat the books on the floor, shoving the dummies she had made to replace them into the empty spaces. Thank God for the internet. A simple cereal box whose side was made to look like the spine of a book, but hollow inside to hide, well, whatever: jewelry, notes, candy bars to cheat on a diet. Willow would not even notice the books were missing…
…unless she needed them. But Dawn put that thought out of mind, scooping the three heavy tomes up into her arms. She rushed to the door, stopping only long enough to check and see if the coast was clear. It was. She made a short dash up the hall, and all but dove into her own room at the Cleveland House. She groaned, tossing the books onto her bed, and flicked on the light.
It was going to be long, hard research simply because she had no starting point. Like she had already found out, no one knew that the Key was anything but pure energy… so there was a real possibility that a spell to separate the Key from its host—while leaving its host intact—did not exist. But she had to try.
So the spell to bring her sister back was a well guarded secret? Only certain demons knew it? Then how was it that Buffy just ever so happened to cross the path of every demon that Willow and Giles had said knew the spell? Dawn was a liability, and no one was acknowledging it. She was a danger to her sister, to any slayer she was with. But no, nobody was talking about it.
"It's okay, Dawn. It's not your fault, Dawn," Dawn mimicked, sitting on her bed and grabbing the red leather book.
She was not going to take any chances. She knew that destroying the Key was too risky, for everyone—never mind what it might do to her. And she knew that they needed it to bring her sister home. But if she wanted to stay with Buffy and the slayers—and she knew that Buffy would not have it any other way, adult or not—then she had to get rid of it, for their sake. So she wanted it out of her, hidden someplace only a select few would know. Maybe she could even give it to another order of monks. But one thing was certain.
No one was safe around her until the Key was gone.
#
Something felt… out of place. Wrong. But Willow could not put a finger on it. With a dismissive sigh, she turned back around, sticking only her head out of her bedroom door.
"Okay, I need to be left completely alone for this. This spell I'm about to do requires the utmost concentration. So unless someone's dying and cannot be fixed by basic medical knowledge, don't knock."
"Gotcha, Will," Xander said. But before the witch could close her door entirely, he put out a hand, his single eye narrowed in confusion. "Um… what spell, exactly, are you doing now? I mean, we're not exactly any further along in Operation: Return Buffy."
Willow smiled. "I just have to check some things. And who knows? I might get some answers out of this. Now, remember. No talky to Willow, okay?"
"Right. Do I need to guard the door from the other slayers and Giles? You know how, um, persistent Giles can be when he wants to share some huge breakthrough in any given problem."
"Just stress the point. I mean, I don't think that it'll come down to you needing to tackle Giles… which, by the way, would fall under the category of "concentration breakers." I think, though, if you spread the word, and make it sound life threatening, people ought to listen. Now, I'm off."
Willow shut the door, and with it, shut out the rest of the world. She put that nagging feeling of "someone has been in my room" behind her, and took a seat—cross legged—in the center of her carpeted floor. She folded her arms in her lap, closed her eyes, and began to chant in Latin. It was the same phrase, over and over, and she was careful to keep the intoning even and strong.
"Through the walls, I implore thee, speak. Through the walls, I implore thee, speak."
Over and over she chanted the sentence, until finally she could feel the world around her change. Even through her eyelids, she could feel her room grow dark, mystical energies thickly flowing all around her. She opened her eyes and smiled to see that her entire room was black. The shapes of the objects that had been in her room—her bookshelves, her bed, her chair—were still there, but they, too, were black. It was like the entire room was made of the blackest ebony and caught in that moment in time between when the sun has fully set and before the stars come out.
Willow pulled herself to her feet and walked, very deliberately, to her room's far wall… or, where the room's far wall would have been. Instead, now, it seemed as if the wall was made of the thickest pane of glass Willow had ever seen in her life. She placed a hand to it, and closing her eyes once more, she willed herself to push through. It did nothing, save to make her palm ache. She reopened her eyes and looked into the room that was beyond the glass. The person occupying the other room shook her head.
"You know that it doesn't work that way, Willow. It takes a lot more power than either of us has at the moment to break through the dimensions," she said, walking to her side of the glass.
Willow grinned as she came into full view, the blackness no longer shadowing her form.
"Morgana. I have a problem of the inter-dimensional sort… I thought I'd try."
The figure on the other side of the glass, now in clear view, had surprised Willow the first time she had tried this spell, which had been several years ago. When Buffy had decided that she would not return to the life of a slayer, Willow had immediately realized the huge responsibility—being one of the original Scoobies—that this placed upon her. And it had been taxing. There always seemed to be a problem that, no matter how hard she researched it, she could not solve… at least not on her own. She had been studying the Key's properties when Dawn began to secretly help the slayers. And that's when she had stumbled upon the idea. An inter-dimensional witches' coven… what better way to gain access to information that seemed so out of reach? And Morgana had been the first witch she had been able to contact when her spell had worked.
Of course, Morgana was a duck. Not only a duck and a witch, but a duck and a witch with a severe hairstyle. Morgana Macawber—as she had introduced herself upon their first meeting—now drew her white feathered hand up to her chest, a part of her crimson red dress following, as she shook her head again.
"That seems to be the problem of the moment. As it turns out, I was looking for you as well," she said, sighing.
Willow's eyes narrowed. "What's wrong?"
"Well, my dearest Dark just brought someone who looks as if she's the same… forgive my choice of wording here, but species as you to my manor tonight. It seemed as if she was transported to our world by a demon that used a very ancient spell, one I'm sure that you have heard of as well. I'm afraid that I'm at a loss as to how to even begin to help her return home."
Eyes wide now, Willow's smile threatened to break her face. She leaned her entire weight upon the glass—the physical representation of the barrier between their dimensions—and laughed.
"This woman… is she blonde, stands about yea tall? Wearing blue jeans and a white t-shirt that has a picture of a glittery skull on it? Hair in a ponytail?" Willow asked, holding one hand up to indicate height.
Morgana gasped, nodding.
"Is she also a vampire slayer?" Willow added.
"So Buffy is from your world?" Morgana asked, leaning against the glass as well.
"Yeah! Congratulations, Miss Macawber, you've found our missing slayer! Now… any way to give her back?"
Morgana chuckled. "I'm sure you're encountering the same problem that I am."
Willow stepped back, shaking her loose red hair. "Super massive uber-secret inter-dimensional spell?"
"Not to mention the issue of the Key. I mean, for all the dimensions in all of creation—and that's quite a lot, infinite—there's only one Key. How do we even begin to find it?"
Willow laughed, crossing her arms. "Uh, yeah… we have that. Long story."
Morgana's eyes now threatened to pop out of her head. "Really? Well, that's quite a head start!"
Willow shook her head. "Not really. You see, I've been thinking. The Key was in possession of some monks before we had Dawn. Now, you and I both know that inter-dimensional hopping was still happening while she was not-human."
"The Key's in human form?" Morgana asked.
Willow waved her hand. "Buffy's sister. Not important, but yeah. She's nineteen. But, to get back on point, the demons or whoever was hopping dimensions while Dawn was just pure green energy didn't have to get the key. There's only one spell that needed to have the Key right there… and that one's not a problem at the moment. Another long story."
Morgana cupped her beak, crossing her other arm low across her torso. "You have a point. So… we really have nothing to go on except what we already know about this spell."
"Hello, square one. But! You do have our slayer, which solves a big problem on this end."
Morgana sighed and rolled her eyes. "So glad that I could help."
The two witches fell silent for a moment after that until, finally, Willow shrugged.
"Well, I may not be able to get Buffy back home right now… but it's nice to know that two witches are working on this problem. Not to mention that I have all my Wiccans here working on it too."
Morgana nodded. "Yes. I have all my books out, and I've placed a call to my father. He may be able to help as well. Other than that, I'll do all I can… which, at the moment I'm afraid, is not much."
"Thanks. But there is one more thing you could do for me."
#
"Slayers… there are slayers in this world?" Buffy said, pacing back and forth.
Darkwing, Buffy, Launchpad, and Mindy had fled the lights and the cameras to return to Darkwing's—or rather, Drake Mallard's—home. Darkwing had been a little uneasy, at first, to let Mindy in on his secret identity so quickly, but Buffy had reassured him, reminding him that slayers are some of the best secret keepers in the world. Mindy had agreed, and so they had rushed back to 537 Avian Way as fast as the Ratcatcher could carry the four of them.
Now, Buffy and Darkwing—still in costume—were both busy pacing circles in the carpet before his coffee table, while Gosalyn and Launchpad stared on, fascinated by Mindy, who sat with her feet propped up on the table. On one circle round, Darkwing had grimaced and batted her feet off. Mindy gave a small smile and apologized.
"Why are you so shocked that there are slayers in this dimension, Buffy? I mean, we should all be much more shocked that you're here, being the, uh, human that you are," Mindy said.
Buffy stopped, eyes narrowed. "How did you know that I was from another dimension?"
Mindy shrugged. "My Watcher. He has a friend who's a seer, and she saw a vision of beings from another dimension causing big trouble in St. Canard. And, you know, seeing that you aren't, well, a duck or anything like that, I'm guessing that you and your negative, vampire counterpart is who she meant."
"A likely story," Darkwing said, looking to Buffy for support.
But Buffy only shrugged. "Sadly, that makes perfect sense to me."
"You don't have to be suspicious of me, Darkwing. I'm actually a huge fan of yours. I was totally stoked when my Watcher said that I was to be stationed in St. Canard, to guard its Hellmouth."
Buffy's eyes widened. "I knew it! I knew there was a Hellmouth under this city! All these villains? I knew it!"
"What's a Hellmouth?" Gosalyn asked.
"It's pretty much what it sounds like. A mouth into the big Down South, the Great Below," Mindy explained.
Darkwing, breaking his own rule, took a seat on his coffee table, leaning across it to Mindy.
"How old are you?" he asked, his face solemn all of a sudden.
"Eighteen."
His eyes widened. "What? And you go out, at night, to fight demons and vampires and stuff like that? What do your parents think about all that?"
Mindy frowned, looking away. "I… I never met my parents."
Buffy crossed her arms, shaking her head. "Let me guess. A Watcher came to them, when they knew that you could one day be a slayer, when you were really, really young, and explained to your parents that you were going to have this massively huge destiny ahead of you. That you might, one day, even save that world… but to do all that, they had to give you up to him. So that you could be trained. Am I right?"
Mindy nodded, leaving Darkwing, Launchpad, and Gosalyn to gasp and shake their heads.
"That's horrible," Gosalyn said.
"You got that right, Gos," Launchpad put in.
"You poor kid," Darkwing said, laying a hand on Mindy's.
Mindy smiled at the Masked Mallard, briefly, before suddenly jerking her hand away. Shaking her head and standing, she put her back to the group, shrugging.
"It's no big."
Silence fell. Finally, Buffy took a seat beside Darkwing.
"What about the other slayers? Did their parents give them away too?" she asked.
Mindy turned, her eyes narrowed.
"What do you mean, 'other slayers'? Do you mean potentials?" she asked.
Buffy blinked. "Yeah. That's what I meant."
"Oh. Well, no, not all of them. Some of them slip through the cracks. But that's actually the other reason I am in St. Canard."
Gosalyn gasped and leapt to her feet. "You don't mean that you're going to take some poor girl from her family, do you?"
Mindy only stared at the little duckling a moment, unblinking. Finally, she nodded.
"My Watcher's one that the Council uses to gather potential slayers, and there's one here in St. Canard. But, uh… we don't know who she is. She was hidden because her family didn't want to give her up."
"I don't blame them," Darkwing said, standing.
"I have to agree. Besides, it's been my experience that family and friends makes a slayer stronger," Buffy put in.
"You mean… you weren't taken from your family?"
Buffy shook her head. "I was one who slipped through the cracks in my world. I only know about potentials being given up because I had a friend, Kendra, whose family gave her up. Believe me, Mindy, I feel for you. I'm a better person, and a better slayer, for my family."
Mindy shrugged, muttering, "Whatever."
Before the conversation could progress further, the telephone rang. Darkwing walked to it, automatically saying, "I'll get it," as he answered.
"Hello? Oh, hi, Morg. Yeah, she's here. Heh, you haven't seen the news, have you? What? Never mind. Yeah… we'll be right over," Darkwing said, finally hanging up the phone.
"Morgana wants us over? Did she find something?" Buffy asked, standing.
"I'm not sure. But she says that it's important," Darkwing answered.
"I'm going!" Gosalyn announced, bounding towards the recliners.
"Oh, no you're not. It's way past your bedtime as it is. LP, will you stay here and make sure she gets to bed?" Darkwing said, taking a seat in the rightmost recliner as Buffy and Mindy both squeezed into the left one.
"You got it, DW."
"But, Dad…" Gosalyn began to protest.
"Good night, Gos. You have school tomorrow, remember?"
With that, Darkwing bopped the statue's head, and the three were sent whirling away. Gosalyn rolled her eyes.
"I hate school."
