Willow and Xander sat in the corner of the gym watching the cheerleader tryouts. They really weren't interested in it, but neither wanted to go to their so called homes and be either alone or yelled at. Going to the library was out until Giles got of his rant about them "going out" with vampires, souled or not. They had already sat there for two hours, at least, on this day alone, watching him clean his glasses and say how they couldn't see William or Angel because they were evil. *Evil salty goodness,* Xander thought with a grin.
Willow watched the girl Amber Grove take her turn at trying out, "What's the point of cheerleading? Honestly? I mean, it's degrading to woman, saying that we are just here to provide men with an excuse to drool. It says that we are brainless trolls living in a male dominant world and trained, like dogs I may add, to wear short skirts and jump around. No offense, Xander."
Xander laughed at Willows rambling. In the past week she had progressed so much from this shy computer nerd, to a girl with confidence and grace, but there would always be part of the little girl with pig tales beneath the cool demeanor. Part of him wished that she would just slow down and give him a chance to catch up.
"No offense taken, I have no interest in the cheerleaders if that makes you feel better. Though I wouldn't mind seeing Angel jumping up and down in front of me, though not in a short skirt, that's just.I think disturbing a good word."
It was Willows turn to laugh, but it was cut short by the new visual entertainment Amber was providing. She had caught on fire. *Fire pretty* Willow thought before jumping up and running with Xander where the screaming crowd was gathered. She thought it was amazing that with about 50 people here none were trying to help, they were either staring or running away screaming. She couldn't help but notice Cordelia was one of the ones running and screaming, *there goes some of her coolness points.*
Willow stopped and stood by Amy Madison, one of her childhood friends, while Xander grabbed a banner that was waiting to be hung and tackled Amber the ground. He smothered the flames on the girl, then tried to comfort her without physically harming her. Amber sobs destroyed the silence that had rolled through the gym. Willow looked at Amy just in time to see her smug grin right before she had turned and walked out of the gym
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"So you are saying that she was caught on fire." Giles asked the two teenagers before him.
Xander let out a loud sigh of frustration causing Angel to put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "No, it wasn't like she was playing with matches, she was standing there, by no one, being perky, then suddenly she was fire, poof. It's all supernatural. You are supposed to know this stuff. What the hell happened?"
"I wasn't there, so I couldn't tell you, exactly. I may be trained in this type of stuff, but I am not a mind reader."
Angels eyes glowed yellow and he growled at the watcher, making him step back even farther from the vampire than he already was. "He told you everything that happened at least ten times since I've been here. It's your job to do the rest. Don't you dare blame my Xander if you are to incompetent to do your own job." He took a few steps towards the watcher but was stopped by both Xanders and Williams hands on his arms. Looking at the two of them plus the worried red head calmed him considerably.
Xander inwardly sighed a breath of relief when Angel sat down and took his hand. He was still tense and Xander could feel it in the way that he held his hand so rough, but he wasn't going to say anything until he felt that he was doing serious harm to his hand.
"Giles, we'll help you with anything you need to figure this out. But we need you to try and actually figure it out. Also, I know you don't like nor trust William and Angel, but we need their help. Without this slayer coming, we all need to work together, especially if this is the Hellmouth. You don't have to like them, but try and trust them." Willow said all of this with a weary tone in her voice while watching William unconsciously drawing designs on her hand with his fingers.
Giles looked at the four of them, Angels pist off look, Willows tired look, Xanders worried and pained look. William, well he just looked amused, and Giles could see the look of adoration he had each time he looked at Willow, it was the same that Angel had when looking at Xander. Giles felt his insides twist each time he saw that look, but so far he was able to keep his lunch down. "Very well, I'll be civil, as long as they do the same. I shall also begin researching the fire. I would appreciate it if you and Xander would help me research. William, why don't you and your sire do a patrol?"
William grinned at the watchers skip of saying Angels name, "sure thing mate." He gave Willow a peck on the check then grab his sires hand and began to drag him out the door. "Come on daddy, we have a world to save. There is evil afoot, and you are almost out of that nancy boy hair gel you like so much." Williams comment was followed by a string of curses from Angel that made Giles wince.
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Willow sat in her bed later that night after five hours of research her and Xander had managed to escape. Not that Xander had done much research, he ate and talked for the first three then slept the last two. They still got nothing accomplished. They found a list of at least 8 demons that can set. Plus there was the whole possibility of witchcraft. Apparently, it's not just for the movies.
Something was bugging Willow in the back of her mind. She didn't know what it was, but it was there. Like she was half way to work and trying to remember if she left her hair dryer on. Her focus kept coming back to Amy. It was that smile that was causing her mind to do this. But Amy had smiled lots of times, not liked it was something new. Just, what was it?
It suddenly clicked in Willows mind. A couple of months ago, Amy did a complete about face in her actions. Her sudden urgency to lose weight, to be popular and athletic, but most of all to be a cheerleader like her mother. *Why though, why the sudden change?*
Willows musings were interrupted by a knock on her balcony doors. She went and opened them, coming face to face with William. She grinned and any dark or depressing thoughts about Amy fled. Hell, all thoughts about Amy fled. William had that power over her. When he was around, the lights everywhere else dimmed.
"Hello, my fair lady, I have heard that there is a lady in distress here and hoped that I could be of service."
Willow giggled, this was a game they played often. "I am sorry kind sir. There is no damsel in distress here. If you wish you may try the next door over."
"I'm not a sure Red, those looked like dark thoughts you were having. No one a bright as yourself should have to deal with thoughts such as those."
"They're not dark, just deep."
Willow moved to the side to let William into her room. He sat at her desk as she resumed her position on her bed. "Seriously, though, you just left an hour ago, why are you back so soon? Not that I don't want you here. Just.why?"
"My bloody sire won't shut up. I'm glad he's happy, just, it's always Xander this and Xander that. Xander is great, but there is only so many times that I can hear how great he is before I want to rip his tongue out."
"Actually, I was about to start talking about Xanders many wonderful attributes, maybe you can tell me any I missed," Willow teased.
William growled playfully at her. "You are just trying to change the subject, what were you thinking about before?"
"I think I may have a theory on the fire, maybe, I want to check it out before we act on it."
"Will you get hurt, cause you bloody well tell me now before you go and get yourself killed."
"No, daddy I won't get hurt. Promise."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Willow yawned as she leaned against the lockers. William had left her house at 3:00 that morning. She loved the fact that they could sit for hours, comfortably, and talk to him. About nothing, everything, it didn't matter.
However, there was a down side, she had to make it through the school day on only four hours of sleep. That was no way to live. But she did it, because the concept of staying home from school was downright blasphemous. Also there was no way she was giving up any time with William. She'd have to suffer.
Willow straightened up as she saw Amy turn the corner and approach her locker. The one that Willow happened to be leaning against. "Willow! Hey, what are you doing here?"
"I wanted to talk to you."
"What about?"
"Witchcraft." At that word Willow saw Amy's body tense up. She saw Amy's fingernails dig into her palm. Rage was emanating off of her body but she forced a smile onto her face and simply replied, "Witchcraft? What about it?"
"I know you're not Amy. I don't know how or why you changed her, or even who you are, but I will figure it out and stop you."
At this statement Willow saw Amy's eyes turn solid black then human again. Her anger was radiating of her body in waves to the point where the other students in the hallway were steering away from the two girls. Then as suddenly as her anger started, it disappeared. Amy smiled a sugary sweet fake smile. She leaned forward, placing a hand on her shoulder, then muttered a Latin, or some other dead language, phrase in her ear.
"What was that?"
"You'll see," Amy answer grinning maliciously at Willow. She closed her locker and turned leaving Willow in the middle of the hallway, slightly dazed and extremely confused.
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Willow walked into the library where Giles, Xander, and the two vampires were researching. She was muttering to herself. All day long she had been forgetting stuff. She even fell asleep in two of her classes. She never fell asleep in class. It was against her guidebook.
"Hey Wills," Xander called excitedly. Willow looked at her long time friend and gave him a weak smile in return.
"Something wrong Willow?" Giles asked as William began walking towards her.
"I don't feel so good" she answered as the world before her became a blur, then darkness. William barely managed to catch her before she hit the ground.
*****
William grabbed Willow before she hit the ground and carried her over to the table and laying her down as if she was fine china. He began petting her face gently and cooing at her. " Come on luv, wake up. You have to wake up." Giles, Angel, and Xander crowded around the table watching the scene and waiting for Willow to wake up.
Willow stirred on the table and her eyes began to open. "That's it, baby, open your eyes." Willow looked at William leaning over her and pulled away from his grasp. She looked around the room, her eyes finally coming to rest on Xander.
"Xander, hey, what's going on? Why are we in the library, since when do you even know where the library is? Oh, my god, look at the time! My Napoleon paper is due tomorrow and I haven't edited it yet."
She began to gather her stuff when Xander spoke up. "Willow, the Napoleon paper was turned in about a month ago." The worry and fear was evident in his voice. Angel walked to him and put his arm around his shoulder in a silent form of comfort.
Willow looked confused, "What do you mean a month ago? And, why didn't you tell me you got a boyfriend?"
"Pet, what's wrong with you? Don't you remember anything? Anything from the last month?" William grabbed onto her arm, which she gently, but not to subtly removed from his grasp.
"Evidently not. And you are?" William turned so she wouldn't see the hurt that passed over his face. "Apparently I'm no one important, at least no important enough to remember." At that he walked out of the library. Trying, but not succeeding in hiding his hurt.
Angel turned to Xander, "I'd better go after him before he does something stupid. I'll bring him back and we'll figure this all out." He gave Xander a kiss on the forehead and gave Willow an awkward and unsure smile before leaving to go after his childe.
Willow looked at the two remaining people. "So I already did my Napoleon paper? Did I get an A?"
"Will, you honestly don't remember anything from the past month? William? The Harvest?" Xander questioned.
"William who? And the harvest? I didn't know that we already had planting season."
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Angel caught of with William about a block from the school where he was sprawled on the ground staring at the stars. That's when Angel began to worry, William hadn't looked at the stars since Drusilla left. He said he was over Drusilla, and Angel had no doubt he was. But there would always be a part of him that would love Drusilla. Same as Angel would always love Darla even though she deserted him when he needed her the most.
William spoke from the ground when he sensed his sire. "Remember how Drusilla had entire conversations with the stars? I hated those conversations, not because she was crazy, but because I felt that was a part of her world that I didn't exist in. I blamed the stars when she left, just because I needed something to blame, I suppose. It's not their fault though is it? Stars are beautiful. Almost as beautiful as Red." Angel cringed at that. He knew that William was detaching himself from feeling for Willow by not saying her name. "It hurt when she cursed me you know. So much. Not the fact that I got my soul back, I can live, well, unlive, with that. But the fact that she could and would put me through so much pain. What happened back there, that was worse, so much worse."
William finally turned to Angel. "Bloody hell, sire. She accomplished in five minutes what is took several lifetimes for Drusilla to accomplish. And it hurts worse now. It's always going to be fucking humans that do me in isn't it?" Angel noticed for the first time that William was crying. He didn't think that ever happened before. "You know Angel, It's a good thing we don't need or hearts anymore because mine was just torn apart." With that William stood and walked away.
Xander walked up to Angel and grasped his hand. Angel turned and kissed him firmly but gently. "Don't you ever do anything like that to me."
"Never."
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The next night they were all gathered in the library. William was in the far corner. Willow was sitting next to Xander looking uncomfortable. Xander and Angel wanted to end the discomfort between the two, but didn't know how. William hadn't said a word since he entered the library. Giles was just plain unsure of what to feel. A part of him was glad that Willow wasn't with the vampire. However, the tension and the sadness was coming of the other people in the room in waves.
"So, to sum it up, we have a young lady who to caught fire, and Willow who had her memory altered. Anything I'm forgetting?" Giles asked the group.
"Someone caught on fire? Who?" Willow asked as Xander said "oh, yeah, Cordelia lost her eyesight today."
"Miss Chase? Pity. Is there anything else?"
Willow sigh and realized they were ignoring her question so she designed to help them, even thought she didn't know what was going on. "There was a rumor going around that one of the cheerleaders lost the ability to speak today."
"Of course, cheerleaders!" Xander exclaimed. "Someone's going after the cheerleaders."
"But why would anyone want to go after the cheerleaders?" Angel asked. William scoffed in his corner. "Yes, Spike, was there something you wanted to say?" The only response he got was a raised eyebrow that quickly returned to it's stationary position.
"Again the question is not why, but who, is going after the cheerleaders?" Giles sighed and wiped his glasses.
Willow shrugged, "people like Amy."
"Amy?"
"Amy Madison?"
"Who?"
And another raised eyebrow was the responses she got. She looked around at all the startled expression. Her eyes settled on the man in the corner. Everyone said that they were together. And she couldn't deny the fact that he was a hottie. But she didn't want to get into a relationship she didn't remember. She could feel the twist of guilt when she saw him. He was abnormally pale, even for a vampire *Although, I don't remember seeing any other vampire, besides Angel, Angel could just be darker than normal. And I wonder if William realizes he twists the buttons of his shirt? Can vampires be obsessive compulsive?* Willow finally realized she was staring at a person, well, vampire that was ignoring her. She ripped her eyes from him, guilt forming again.
"Yes, Amy. I may not remember the last month, but for a couple months before hand she was all obsessed with losing weight and becoming a cheerleader. She wanted to be as great as her mother. It was a complete 180 from this past school year, where me and her would have brownie pig outs to escape our parents. Well, she was escaping her mother, I was escaping the fact that I don't seem to have any parents."
"Amy? She's using witchcraft to blind Cordelia? She couldn't have done the mouth sealing spell on her? I thought Amy would know better." Xander joked. Amy was his friend, and he really did not want to believe his friends were evil. *Nothings sacred anymore.*
"Xander, please, I assure you this is no joking matter. Is there anyone else that you two can think of that is as desperate to get on the team?" Giles reprimanded all of them with a glare.
"Nah, just Cordelia, but she's blind."
"Okay, you say it's her mother that is pushing her into cheerleading. We, however, cannot approach them without being sure, I propose a stakeout of sorts at the Madison house. We need to know what we are dealing with. It could very well be her mother that is casting the spells."
Xander spoke up at this point, "William and Willow should take the first watch."
"What?" Willow exclaimed as William let out his first words of the evening. A nice long, multicolored string of curses, that would want to make any rap singer blush.
"Okay. Now that is settled. Angel you promised to take me to the movies, and it starts soon. Let's go." Angel and Xander exited the library with Angel muttering about him being over two hundred years old and going on dates to the movies.
William stood and walked towards the door. "Let's go Red."
Willow let out a breath she didn't even realize she was holding. She followed the vampire knowing this was going to be a very long and uncomfortable night.
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Angel and Xander sat in the back of the theater not really watching the movie. They spent the first half kissing and having a little make out session. Angel wanted it to go farther, but he knew that Xander may be comfortable with being gay, and really like him, but he wasn't ready for what Angel wanted.
They spent the second half talking about Willow and William. And as they left, they hoped that one or the either wasn't dead. And they really hoped that they could get Willows memory back because seeing them both in pain wasn't what they wanted for their friends. They decided to go and take over their shift at Amy's house.
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William and Willow sat in the Firebird watching the house. Well, William was watch the house. Willow was watching him. Willow felt guilty that she could bring this hurt to a person. She wanted to make it up to him but she didn't know how. She couldn't pretend to love him when she didn't know him. Could she? No, that was wrong
"Someone arrived, is that her?" William asked.
Willow looked at the door in time to see Amy enter her house. "Yeah, it's her. Let's get a closer look." With that she was out of the car and heading towards the house. William got out quickly and went after her.
They went over to the window that looked in the living room, which as luck had it, was open. They heard screaming coming from inside the house. They heard and saw Amy yelling at her mother. "You're a disgrace, you can't take care of anything, you should be glad that I took over your body. I can prevent you from becoming the trash you were sure to become. I'm on the team now, and no one can stop me. Not you, not the other cheerleaders, and sure as hell not Willow Rosenberg. Also, you may have escaped last night, but me and you are going to have a talk about your friends."
Both William and Willow didn't hear the rest of the one sided fight. They were in shock. William honestly hadn't believed that anything had happened to Willow, that she just didn't want to be with him. Now he knew for sure and was regretting the temper tantrum he had thrown for the past two days. It still hurt like hell, but at least he knew it wasn't completely his fault.
Willow was dumbfounded. Someone messed with her mind. Went somewhere no one should ever go and took away a month's worth of memories. Memories that she really needed and wanted. She couldn't help herself and she began crying. And she was crying as all of her memories began returning to her. William turned to her and saw her tears. He reached out to hold her but hesitated. She fell into his arms.
"I'm so sorry William, I should have remembered you."
"Shh, luv, it's not your fault. It's that stupid bints and I'm going to kill her for making you hurt."
They both looked up when they heard the laughter. Amy, well the person in Amy's body was hanging out of the window. "Well, isn't this a cozy little scene. I thought I took care of you Willow, looks like I'll have try harder next time. And, vampire, it's time for you to come in for the night." With those words they felt themselves being lifted off the ground and in turn thrown through the glass window.
William got in front of Willow trying to protect her, even if it meant her life. Willow looked around. She saw Amy in her mom's body crouching in a corner and Amy's mother in Amy's body in a face off with William. *Well, we're in some deep shit.*
Of course at this point, the plot thickened. The front door crashed down and Xander ran in, leaving Angel snarling behind the invisible barrier. Xander leapt at Amy who threw her hand up towards him. He fell to the ground mid-leap and was suddenly unable to breathe.
"Vampire, I have your brethren in here, you may as well join him." Angel ran through the doors toward Xanders fallen body. Before he could reach him, Amy waved her hands and Angel and William flew through the air into the corner that Amy was in. She managed to dive out of the way before they hit her. They tried to go back out and fight, but they were frozen in place.
Amy's mother then turned towards Willow, her eyes were solid black. "Looks like it's back to me and you Willow. I should have known it would be."
Willow backed up from the demon woman before her. She backed up until she hit the wall, or rather the large mirror on the wall. She watched as Mrs. Madison was chanting and the energy around her grew. She threw the spell at Willow, who fell to the ground quickly. They spell's energy reflected off the mirror and return full force to Amy's body.
Once the energy hit her body and she flew backwards into the opposite wall. Another tidal wave of energy flew off of her and hit everyone in the room. All of the spells reversed. Every insane act committed was set right. Angel ran to Xander who was coughing and gasping for air. William ran to Willow and pulled her into his arms.
Amy's mom, who was now back in her rightful body stood and faced the two couples. "You thing because I messed up one spell, that's it?" She started another spell, yelling loudly in Latin. However she stopped halfway through the spell. "My power, you took away my power." She fell to the ground crying and screaming about how she was just trying to improve her daughters life. Amy walked over to her fallen mother and took in her arms trying to comfort her.
Willow extracted herself from Williams arms and walked over to Amy. "Are you guys going to be okay?"
Amy nodded, "Thank you Willow, thank you so much."
Willow stood and walked back to William and kissed him deeply. "I really am sorry, I can't believe I forgot this."
William smiled, "It's okay, I'll make sure it never happens again."
"Promise?"
"Of course."
Willow smiled. She got to save the day and she got her prince. It may be awhile before she got to live happily ever after, but her life was great right now.
*****