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snoggedTitle: The Witch Is Not For Burning
Author: snogged
Disclaimer: Joss Whedon and many other corporations own the characters and recognizable elements from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly/Serenity. I don’t. Please don't sue.
Pairing: Willow, River
Rating/Warnings: FRT/PG
Word Count: 656
Setting: Set after BtVS Season 6/Firefly Season 1
Summary: A meeting between River and Willow on the bridge of Serenity.
Beta: The always delightful![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
velvetwhip who also came up with the title. All other mistakes are mine.
A/N: written forbrutti_ma_buoni for the Willow round at femslash_minis. She requested prompted the following: Willow, River, Storm in space, black eyes, and metallic. Hope this suits you, dear. It's not often that I write Firefly fic.
The sun grows dark, the storm clouds gather, the lighting strikes, and the memories burn at the first glimpse of startling jet-black eyes staring at her from the other side of the bridge.
River remembers everything, or she thinks she does. She was taught these things, or she was injected with them.
It's hard to remember.
Slayers and witches and demons.
Yes.
Yao, xie xie.
Starships and Alliances and weaponized women.
No.
Bu yao, xie xie
The girl shouldn't be real and shouldn't be here. This is not her home, not her story, but still she's here. She's great and mythological. She is a goddess, power brimming and overflowing, flooding the ship with darkness and beauty.
Is it all just fantasy and whimsy colliding into chaos?
Or is her mind just playing mean tricks?
~
Willow reaches forward, catching herself on the iron rail. It squeaks and rattles under her fingers and she leaps backwards and stares at her hands, grimacing at the sight of her veins, transitioning from blue to black to blue. She must have gone dark again and her reflection in the metallic instrument panels on the walls confirms that.
The magic is boiling underneath her skin, changing her flesh, transforming her bones. She can feel the itch in her spine from where Warren had lacerated her with an axe a few short months ago and she wonders why that didn't make her die.
She's not a demon, not immortal, and yet she still walks with a smile and carries the shadow of Warren's murder in the dark corners of her eyes. Something or someone had been watching over her that day, had kept her from suffering once the magic vanished.
But why?
Willow shakes her head free of the thoughts. It doesn't matter how she's still alive after all she's been through these last few years. All that matters is that she's apparently mastered the fine art of time travel and that's pretty nifty.
She looks up at the woman standing across the bridge from her. She has a pretty face and is thin and pale as a wraith, all long limbs and dark hair. The girl tilts her head like a bird and Willow finds herself mimicking the movement.
~
River remembers Jiangyin and wonders if this is what they had seen in her eyes. They had seen different and it scared them. They had tied her to posts and let the fire nip and lick at her feet.
"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live."
She mimics the accent of Doralee, the hill woman who had once spoken those same words to her.
"You sound like my mother," replies the real witch, crossing her arms over her chest, her shoulders tensing at the sound of the rumbly engine. River smiles softly, trusting in the contradiction of Serenity. The ship goes against all logic, but she has been inside Serenity's skin, has breathed in the fumes of the stars, and knows it will never fall.
"…except that she was under the spell of this demon who pretended to be Hansel and Gretel from the famous Brothers Grimm stories and you don't know what those are, do you? Or do you, because this is the future and you probably know all about the Earth and its stories and how demons are real…and you're not listening. Sorry, the babble takes over sometimes."
River giggles and crosses the bridge, entering the witch's space. She extends her right hand and cups the woman's cheek.
"It's okay. They let me live. They made their witch. They made me family."
Willow lets a smile crinkle the corner of her lips.
"Yeah. People are good like that."
River leans forward, kissing Willow's forehead.
She can taste the memories on her tongue, sweet and bitter and human. The storm clouds part, the stars twinkle, and the space between them settles into silence.
The sun will come back soon.
Author: snogged
Disclaimer: Joss Whedon and many other corporations own the characters and recognizable elements from Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly/Serenity. I don’t. Please don't sue.
Pairing: Willow, River
Rating/Warnings: FRT/PG
Word Count: 656
Setting: Set after BtVS Season 6/Firefly Season 1
Summary: A meeting between River and Willow on the bridge of Serenity.
Beta: The always delightful
velvetwhip who also came up with the title. All other mistakes are mine.A/N: written for
brutti_ma_buoni for the Willow round at femslash_minis. She requested prompted the following: Willow, River, Storm in space, black eyes, and metallic. Hope this suits you, dear. It's not often that I write Firefly fic.The sun grows dark, the storm clouds gather, the lighting strikes, and the memories burn at the first glimpse of startling jet-black eyes staring at her from the other side of the bridge.
River remembers everything, or she thinks she does. She was taught these things, or she was injected with them.
It's hard to remember.
Slayers and witches and demons.
Yes.
Yao, xie xie.
Starships and Alliances and weaponized women.
No.
Bu yao, xie xie
The girl shouldn't be real and shouldn't be here. This is not her home, not her story, but still she's here. She's great and mythological. She is a goddess, power brimming and overflowing, flooding the ship with darkness and beauty.
Is it all just fantasy and whimsy colliding into chaos?
Or is her mind just playing mean tricks?
~
Willow reaches forward, catching herself on the iron rail. It squeaks and rattles under her fingers and she leaps backwards and stares at her hands, grimacing at the sight of her veins, transitioning from blue to black to blue. She must have gone dark again and her reflection in the metallic instrument panels on the walls confirms that.
The magic is boiling underneath her skin, changing her flesh, transforming her bones. She can feel the itch in her spine from where Warren had lacerated her with an axe a few short months ago and she wonders why that didn't make her die.
She's not a demon, not immortal, and yet she still walks with a smile and carries the shadow of Warren's murder in the dark corners of her eyes. Something or someone had been watching over her that day, had kept her from suffering once the magic vanished.
But why?
Willow shakes her head free of the thoughts. It doesn't matter how she's still alive after all she's been through these last few years. All that matters is that she's apparently mastered the fine art of time travel and that's pretty nifty.
She looks up at the woman standing across the bridge from her. She has a pretty face and is thin and pale as a wraith, all long limbs and dark hair. The girl tilts her head like a bird and Willow finds herself mimicking the movement.
~
River remembers Jiangyin and wonders if this is what they had seen in her eyes. They had seen different and it scared them. They had tied her to posts and let the fire nip and lick at her feet.
"Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live."
She mimics the accent of Doralee, the hill woman who had once spoken those same words to her.
"You sound like my mother," replies the real witch, crossing her arms over her chest, her shoulders tensing at the sound of the rumbly engine. River smiles softly, trusting in the contradiction of Serenity. The ship goes against all logic, but she has been inside Serenity's skin, has breathed in the fumes of the stars, and knows it will never fall.
"…except that she was under the spell of this demon who pretended to be Hansel and Gretel from the famous Brothers Grimm stories and you don't know what those are, do you? Or do you, because this is the future and you probably know all about the Earth and its stories and how demons are real…and you're not listening. Sorry, the babble takes over sometimes."
River giggles and crosses the bridge, entering the witch's space. She extends her right hand and cups the woman's cheek.
"It's okay. They let me live. They made their witch. They made me family."
Willow lets a smile crinkle the corner of her lips.
"Yeah. People are good like that."
River leans forward, kissing Willow's forehead.
She can taste the memories on her tongue, sweet and bitter and human. The storm clouds part, the stars twinkle, and the space between them settles into silence.
The sun will come back soon.
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no subject
on 2014-06-12 08:28 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2014-06-12 09:45 pm (UTC)*huggles*