From: owner-buffyfic@lists.xmission.com (buffyfic-digest) To: buffyfic-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: buffyfic-digest V3 #10 Reply-To: $SENDER Sender: owner-buffyfic@lists.xmission.com Errors-To: owner-buffyfic@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk buffyfic-digest Sunday, January 10 1999 Volume 03 : Number 010 In this issue: BUFFYFIC: Admin: One more note Re: BUFFYFIC: Admin: IMPORTANT. Please read. BUFFYFIC: Can't Hide the Past (3c/?) See the end of the digest for information on (un)subscribing to the buffyfic or buffyfic-digest mailing lists and on how to retrieve back issues. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1999 13:37:12 -0600 (CST) From: Jill Kirby Subject: BUFFYFIC: Admin: One more note Sharon and I have gotten a number of questions (understandably) regarding the lists. To reassure some people and as an FYI to others, please note the following. 1. The lists will no longer exist as of January 23. 2. We will not-- repeat, not-- give out our s*bscriber list to anyone. Please don't ask us for it. As we've said, we feel very strongly that giving out the list would be a breach of our listmembers' privacy. 3. As stated previously, if you have a list, or are starting a list, please post information about it to this list before January 23. People may then make their own informed choices about where, if anywhere, to go from here. Neither Sharon, Lisa or me will be "authorizing" or "recommending" that current Xmission Buffy listmembers go join any other specific list(s). Any questions, please let us know. We want very much for this transition to be as painless as possible for everyone, and we'll do whatever we can to make that happen. We have been touched by everyone's good wishes and good feelings about the list (both what's been posted here, and the many notes sent via private mail) and, again, feel very proud to have run this list for the past 2+ years. Jill Jill Kirby - jtkirby@mcs.net www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/4107 "Hhhmm... maybe THAT'S what's missing from my life: health-threatening sex with household appliances." --AC ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1999 19:01:20 -0500 From: fanofsw@juno.com (Marc E Goldberg) Subject: Re: BUFFYFIC: Admin: IMPORTANT. Please read. Jill, Lisa Rose, and Sharon, As a long-time lurker, I would also like to add my thanks for what you have done. When all of us were wondering what had happened after Becoming, you provided that opportunity. When we wondered what the characters were thinking, you were there. When we desired two characters to get together, there was always someone who wanted the same thing and you let them "publish" their work. When we wondered what's up with Washington, CNN took your place. Somehow, I don't see anyone crying over that, the historical-making moments aside (g) I would also like to thank the many wonderful writers who have contributed and given me, and many others, many hours of fun-filled grammar corrections (g) They provided stories that made us (please don't ask why I'm writing in the plural) laugh, cry, shake our heads in anger at the characters, and wonder why Joss didn't hire them. I would also like to thank Joss himself for providing us an entertaining series that provided so many opportunities for us to make his work better (g) If you're reading this, Joss, remember...nothing thanks a fan like doing 32 new eps a year (g) May the future be bright, may the Hellmouth not open, may the economy grow even stronger (hey, I'm a graduating college student--I need a strong economy if I want a job! (g)) To our list managers, we'd proudly offer you a copy of "How Computers Can Ruin Your Life, a.k.a. Why Books Are Gonna Make a Big Comeback," but, uh, we can't figure out how to steal it from Giles (g) He's got that Slayer, you know, and we like the no-bones-broken thing (g) Good luck! Marc ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866] ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1999 21:13:13 EST From: Titanic437@aol.com Subject: BUFFYFIC: Can't Hide the Past (3c/?) Title: Can't Hide the Past Author: Anna Perez (Shadows) E-mail: shadows@buffymail.com Feedback: Please? Rating: PG-13 to R Disclaimer: Characters seen on the Idiot Box belong to Joss Whedon & the WB Distribution: Just ask for permission Summary: 15 years after my own season 3 finale, the characters of BtVS find themselves thrown back together under unusual circumstances. Note: The last episode that I have seen is "Amends". I will follow the show from up to there, and then it's my playground. ***** Can't Hide the Past Chapter 3, Part C He wasn't sure he should go in. He wasn't sure about anything anymore. God had it hurt when he saw Willow with Xander, kissing each other on the bed like that . . . his heart had broken into a million little pieces. What was worse, though, was not being together with Willow. He missed her . . . half of him had gone with her, the part of him that could love, leaving an empty, cold shell behind. He needed that half, and he needed Willow. He thought, perhaps, that having her back would fill that emptiness. It didn't fill it at all; all it did was show Oz how wide it was. Whenever he looked at Willow . . . he saw not the girl that he had loved so deeply, but the girl that he could no longer trust as deeply. He still loved that smile, he still loved her touch, and he still loved her kisses, but to know that she had given the same exact pleasure to Xander made him jealous. He had been jealous before . . . but now he had reason to. And dammit, he was. So now he stood outside the library, hands hovering next to the thin piece of metal that when pushed, would open the door. Open the door to the library. The place where he and the other Slayerette's had gathered so often, chatting about how they were going to revert the next day's apocalypse. Except now there was an apocalypse of a different kind. Oh well. Tomorrow was the beginning of his days as a werewolf, and he wanted to spend this night with Willow. Perhaps try and fill the void that stood between them like the Grand Canyon. Try to reach out to her . . . try to reach out to her without instinctively drawing back, afraid of being hurt like that again. He didn't want to be hurt like again. Pain was not the top emotion on his favorite's list. Heck, it wasn't even on there. {Sooner or later I have to go in} Oz thought to himself. {If I'm going to do it, now is as good as any other time}. Slowly, he touched the door. Then, the hinges creaking, he opened the door softly. Everyone turned to him with a surprised expression, as though they were expecting someone else. "What?" Oz asked, feeling a little out of place. Then he noticed the stranger sitting on the computer desk, staring at him with a cocked head. Oz was wondering what he was staring at when the doors opened behind him. Angel came in, carrying a woman in his arms who's face was covered in hair. Her red nightgown was stained with dirt, and her slightly pale and willowy frame hung limp in Angel's embrace. Oz was forming the word "what" again when the man sitting next to Xander rose and strode quickly towards the vampire, scowling all the way. Angel looked just as confused as Oz did, and was startled when the man grabbed the woman out of his arms. Muttering curses, the strange man lay the strange woman down on the table, clearing a bunch of books out of the way first. Oz moved closer to Buffy, as much to get away from Angel as to figure out what was going on. "What's up?" he whispered in her ear. "What would you say if I told you that that man right there was Xander, fifteen years into the future?" Buffy asked pointedly, taking her eyes off from watching the man for just a second to gauge Oz's reaction. Oz was pretty cool about it. "Well, I'd guess I'd believe you, because everything else has happened here in Sunnydale, and I don't think I have much choice in the matter." Buffy nodded and turned back to F-Xander, who was sucking on his teeth and cradling the woman's head, whispering something softly in her ear. "I-I think she was waking up when I brought her in," Angel said, for the lack of having anything else to say that sounded remotely intelligent. F-Xander muttered something very vulgar under his breath and then reached up with one hand to the side of the strange woman's neck. He grabbed a bit of flesh and then pinched her, really, really, hard. The woman let out a gasp and she rose with a shriek, facing her stunned audience. Shivering either from shock or cold, she put two trembling hands towards her face and parted her long red hair. The others were not completely surprised by the sight, except perhaps maybe Oz and Angel. Since F-Xander had come back from the future, and Willow had felt the magic, then it was completely possible that she would come back too. Besides, which *other* Slayerette had red hair? What the gang *was* shocked at was the face. F-Willow seemed not to have aged a day beyond her seventeen years. The smooth, pale, oval face was still the same, and despite the increase in her, ahem, chest, this pretty much looked like young Willow, frail form and all. Pretty blue eyes blinked at the troupe, not recognizing their surroundings. Then she turned around, looked at F-Xander, looked back at everybody again, and then back to F-Xander. She uttered a moan and prepared to faint once again. "Oh-oh," F-Xander muttered, catching her as she fell into his arms. "*No way* are you fainting again. Wake up, Will, c'mon. Everything's ok. Just deep, even breaths." F-Willow opened her eyes quickly and sat up woozily. "Ok? Everything's *ok*? Xander, clue into reality here." She pointed to her younger self, and let her finger roam around the library. "*This* is not ok. This is definitely not ok. This is not even *close* to ok here. This is very far from ok. This is bad. This is bad and wrong, wrong, wrong. You can't get any farther from ok than this, even if-" F-Xander grabbed her shoulders and clapped one hand around her mouth. F- Willow looked suddenly very frightened as F-Xander spoke with deadly calm that he sometimes used in his line of work. "Willow, you know I hate to do this, but you're babbling. Your *really* babbling, and we don't need this right now. What we need to do is to be stop babbling and be cooperative, and find out from them how to get back where we are." He leaned forward and looked into F- Willow's eyes. "Do you understand, Will? Get what I'm saying?" F-Willow nodded, eyes wide in panic, but they were drooping to regular size. When F-Xander removed his hand, F-Willow took one look around the library, laid her eyes on her younger self standing next to Giles, and found just the right spot on F-Xander's shoulder to cry. As F-Xander awkwardly wrapped her in a hug and patted her on the back, Oz felt a surge of anger and jealously flow through him. *What had gone wrong?* After everything, Willow did end up with *Xander* after all? Was the universe up to slapping him upside the head every time the shiniest bit of happiness was in his life. I mean, there he was when he was five, the perfect family, when his dad decided to run off with the postwoman. Later, after moving to Sunnydale and all that, he had hooked up with Dingoes Ate My Baby and looked towards the bright future of getting signed . . . and then nothing. Willow entered his life, and everything seemed like bliss . . . until she started smooching and who-knows-what-else with Xander behind his back. Oh, yeah, and the werewolf thing was pretty bad too, although he was dealing with it well enough and the only thing bad was that he regularly missed Dingoes gigs. But this certainly topped the charts. You couldn't tell that Oz was angry on the outside, though. His expression remained the same, if just a bit stonier, and his clenched fists were shoved in the pants pockets. He hoped to God he wasn't made to say anything, because then he'd surely blow. Willow and Xander were surprised themselves. They looked at each other, blushing until their faces were the color of F-Willow's dyed hair. {How did we end up together} Willow thought to herself. {How could I have let go of Oz?}. Oz. Willow snuck a peek at him. He seemed perfectly fine, if not a bit tense. {But I just know he's so not ok with this} Willow thought, her emotions so confusing that she wanted to burst into tears like he double. "Um, I think this may be a bad time," Angel said, clearing his throat, "but what's going on?" He looked imploringly at the Scooby Gang. "*Very* bad time, Dead Boy," F-Xander growled, shooting a glare at the vampire while continuing to sooth a very disturbed F-Willow's hair. Angel took a step back, obviously recognizing the nickname. The vampire mouthed "Dead Boy" silently, and then his eyes lit up as he understood the connection. "Xander?" the vampire asked, wondering what the Hellmouth had done this time. F-Xander ignored the question and instead tipped F-Willow back so that she had to look at him. "Do you think you're ok now?" he asked softly, wiping a tear away with the side of one finger. F-Willow smiled weakly. "As ok as I can possibly get at this moment." She slid off the table and regained balanced on her two feet. She then turned to look at Giles, her bottom lip quivering at intervals. "Um, alright . . . since something has obviously happened, does anybody mind explaining to me how this anomaly came to pass? Or has no one found out exactly how yet?" F-Willow brought one delicate fingernail to her lips and began to chew away her nail polish. Her eyes turned away from Giles and flicked back to Xander. "Um," Giles said, unsure of how he was going to explain this over and over again to all of tonight's "visitors." "Xander was overlooking a book that contained a spell, and he must have intentionally cast it, because you are here, and in all cases, it must be connected to the spell. I don't believe that everyone's future selves would just back if they had not a push." "Well, it's not everyone," F-Xander pointed out. "Last time I counted, it was Past: 4 and Future: 2. Our side's missing some players." F-Xander glanced at F-Willow, and she nodded enthusiastically. Then F-Xander turned back to the group. Oz couldn't stand this. They both were being so . . . affectionate. He wondered if he was red, or green, or some other color that your skin was not suppose to be when you didn't feel like killing somebody because they'd stolen the girl of your dreams-twice. Why was he still standing here? Buffy blinked. "Um, uh, do you have any ideas as to how we could get you guys back . . ." Buffy, making the matching motions with her hands. She raised her eyebrows, not even wanting to look at the three very tense, very awkward- feeling people around her. "An idea . . ." F-Willow closed her eyes and sighed loudly and sharply. "I suppose I could divine something, only I wish Oz was here with me. Ever since we had our handfasting our ability to wield magick has worked so much better together." "Oz?" Willow asked, the voice coming out as a high-pitched sound. She covered her mouth self-consciously, but she then drew it quickly away. "Oz?" she asked, everyone understanding it now. "Oz, yes, handfasting, husband . . ." F-Willow trailed off, and her eyes flittered to the three people. "Oh, no way." She turned to look at F-Xander and for a moment something silent passed between them. Then they both started to laugh. "You didn't think . . . us?" F-Xander asked as F-Willow giggled cupped her hand over her mouth. "No way, we would never . . ." Then he stopped mid- sentence and mentally backed up. He grabbed the back rung of a chair and leaned a bit heavily on it. He remembered what year it was, what month it was. "What's wrong, Xander?" F-Xander turned to look at her, and then she got it. "Oh . . . *oh*." She stopped laughing. "Sorry for laughing," she whispered softly. Then she slumped down into the seat that Xander was still attached to. Willow shot a glance towards Oz, and he gave her a weak smile. Willow took that as a sign that he was able to stand her now, and she slowly inched next to him. "Ok, let me look at the spell that, um, uh," F-Willow looked up at F-Xander, "Xander did, and I'll see if I can undo it and send us back-" She was interrupted by the sudden sound of raucous barking coming from outside. The whole group turned, puzzled, towards the sound. "The hell is that?" F-Xander asked. He was soon answered as the double doors burst open and a dirty, wet, seaweed-covered dog came bounding into the library. The dim lighting shone off it's golden, shaggy coat, and it skidded to a stop right in the center of the decorative floor-tile pattern, letting out another sharp bark. Then, tongue lolling out of its mouth, it turned to where Angel was still standing. It's matted fur bristled up, and it's mouth pulled up in a snarl, showing it's long, white, sharp teeth. Angel backed considerably to the doors. He was getting no answers as to what was going on, the people in the room weren't exactly his best buddies, and the dog was ready to rip his preternatural being apart. Time to go. Yeah, time to go if the woman had not burst into the room, tripping over her tow and falling head first into the floor. Despite the fall, she rolled herself into a tight ball and hit the floor on her back, somersaulting next to the dog. Then, grunting, she pulled herself up again and grabbed the dog by the nap of it's neck, lifting the large animal off the floor. "Damn dog," she growled, and then realized where she was. She dropped the dog to the floor, and then started to edge near where F-Xander and F-Willow were, her large, expressive black eyes rolling around. "Faith?" F-Willow asked, her hands curling up to her neck, cradling herself. F-Faith turned to look at her, and nodded. "What on the Hellmouth is going on here?" Faith asked, jerking her head towards Buffy & Crew. "We're trying to figure that out right now," F-Xander answered. Then he grinned, sizing her wet, ragged-looking self. "Talk about all washed up," he added, not able to resist. He ducked as a stake-turned-missile came flying at his head. "Not in the mood, Harris," F-Faith growled, giving him a glare that made vampires cower. F-Xander gulped and just grinned lopsidedly. F-Faith, content at shutting up Xander, put her hands on her hips and turned to look at everyone. "Ok, so . . ." Her voice trailed off as she noticed that the dog was still growling. "Shut up, Giles," she told the dog, kicking it in the side. D-Giles didn't even notice, staring straight at Angel. F-Faith turned to see what he was looking at. The next thing Angel knew, he was pinned against the wall, F-Faith with a good grip on his neck and a stake held high in her right hand. "Goodbye, Angelus," she told him sweetly, bringing her arm back and then swinging it towards his heart. Angel squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for the End to come. ////****\\\\ End of Chapter 3 ////****\\\\ The rest of this story will be posted to the BBETA list. ~Shadows~ ------------------------------ End of buffyfic-digest V3 #10 ***************************** To subscribe to buffyfic or buffyfic-digest, send the command subscribe buffyfic-digest or subscribe buffy to majordomo@xmission.com. You will need to go through a confirmation process, and the listowners have to manually approve your subscription request, so it may take some time. 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