The Glitch 2.0

Willow stopped murmuring encouragement and guiding as she saw the girl’s skin start to glow. Her eyes widened in alarm as she heard her charge groan and whimper in pain, still trying her hardest to make it work. Taunie had moaned softly in pain the last time, when she’d almost fully manifested her claws, and Willow had had to pull her back from trying further. Then, Nataunia had only been trying for the claws, and hadn’t had to push so hard… and Willow had thought that, perhaps, it had hurt because the girl wasn’t pushing everything out at once… that perhaps the pain was because she was holding the wings and tail back. This, however, sounded, and actually looked, like it was worse.

She stepped forward to try to stop the girl, insisting quickly, and loudly, for Taunie to stop, but the girl didn’t seem to hear her. As the glow intensified, and a thin sheen of bluish-white fire, the same color that the energy manifestation had always been, broke out over Nataunia’s entire body, Willow reached forward to try to shake the girl out of her attempt. The contact with the fire, though, was nothing like it had been when she’d been allowed to touch the energy that Taunie brought forward. The energy had a tingling, almost tickling feeling that left her skin itching and tight after the contact. This was something more like sticking her hand into fire and having the layers of skin peel away. Willow jerked her hand back, startled, and cried out, more loudly, for Taunie to stop.

Her words fell silent, however, when she saw Nataunia arch forward with a loud groan, and two points on her back, near her straining shoulder blades, start to push upward. She heard the thumping sounds of running feet, and just as the points started pushing up more, stretching the skin and seeming to grow underneath it, she spun to anxiously wave Faith away, so that the Slayer wouldn’t see. The brunette glared, looking concerned and anxious, but after a second harried gesture, hesitantly walked off again. Willow turned to look at the grown points, eyes just as concerned as she watched on, trying to feel the flow of energy and magic around the girl and not fully able to keep up.

When the skin at the tips of those strange points split abruptly, and white, spindly forms shot up and along the shape that the energy wings had stretched into, Willow gasped. It looked almost ivory-like, except for the energy sparking around it, and she realized after a second of startled staring that they were the bones of the girl’s wings. The hesitation only lasted for another several seconds as they flexed there, straining, before red strands quickly followed the path of the bones, waving wildly before finding places to attach on the white surface, and a long, slender imitation of vertebral bones shot out from the very bottom of the girl’s back. Willow watched in horror as first bone, then muscle and vein, the various components of the necessarily anatomy, emerged in wild array from the girl’s body, like some sick version of a movie’s special effects, and attached themselves in the proper arrangement. Her stomach flipped, and turned, and she almost felt as if she might vomit from watching the entire display. Before she’d known it, thin, fragile skin seemed to grow at rapid speed over the whole of the newly growing appendages, and then scale formed over the areas with bone while the skin webbing the wings toughened to a weathered, leathery consistency.

Another moment passed, and as it looked as if everything was finally finished, Taunie strained just a little further, stretching her neck out and groaning, before the crackling of magical energy dissipated, and she collapsed onto the floor, whimpering. Willow gasped and surged forward, reaching for the girl. “Taunie? Taunie honey, are you okay?” Willow carefully touched her, knowing that the fire was gone, but still feeling a tingle on her hands from where she had touched it before. “Taunie, speak to me, please.”

“That…” the girl coughed and started to push herself up, her wings flopping a little uncoordinatedly, and she shuddered, shaking her head weakly. “Well… that… that was certainly… a peachy walk in the park…” Her voice was croaking, and she spoke with the slightest of slurs, as if something impeded her from speaking quite properly, and she grunted out a small chuckle as she managed to push herself to her feet, with Willow’s help. The soreness was quickly ebbing, though she was surprised that she’d survived the ordeal, and she could feel her muscles starting to twitch as they became accustomed to the new additions to her body. Willow still looked at her with the worry of if she’d nearly died, and Taunie chuckled again, feeling something brushing against her lips strangely as she moved her mouth. Hesitantly, she reached up, and felt along her teeth with a knuckle, mindful of the obvious presence of her claws now. “Well, fuck… whadyaknow. I got fangs!”

“Are you alright?” Willow still looked completely stricken, staring even more now that Taunie was behaving as if nothing had gone wrong. “You… that…”

“Hurt like fuckin’ hell, yeah… but…” She stretched a little, and felt her wings flex and spread slightly, before putting forth the effort to make sure they were comfortably closed. She felt her tail lash against something, and sent it to the other side, where Willow couldn’t step on it accidentally. “… but I think everything’s in working order. It might… maybe it was just cause they were growin’? I mean, no one’s done this before… you think it was supposed t’ hurt?”

Willow continued staring at her, looking worried, and stared at the perfectly formed wings, and the working tail and claws. It looked amazing, true, and had to be one of the most magnificent sights of the redhead’s life… which was saying something, considering how much she’d seen in her life in Sunnydale. It was something like seeing an angel, only with scaled wings and a writhing tail… and claws and fangs glinting in the room’s light. Alright, so maybe it wasn’t like seeing an angel, but it was amazing. “It doesn’t hurt anymore?”

“Yeah… they’re fine now… but I think I need to stretch them. The muscles keep twitching.” She looked over her shoulder skeptically at the wings, and noticed a slight twitch in their placement every few seconds, then smiled wearily at Willow. “But, hey, it worked.”

“Yeah.” Willow smiled a little skeptically and nodded, then stepped back and looked the girl over. “Well, other than spreading them or folding them, any stretching will have to wait until nightfall… I don’t think we want anyone phoning in anywhere to say they saw a girl with wings flying around.”

“Heh, figured that it’d be same ol’, same ol’ in Sunnydale, home of the Hellmouth.” Nataunia joked, hearing the back door close, probably Faith coming in. “I mean, come-on, really. Vampires all over the place; demon stuff’s been done… Fucking-a, you don’t think I’m part demon, do you?”

The girl’s eyes got wide with fear, and she heard Faith enter the livingroom, chuckling. “Doubt it, Taunie-girl. You’re not settin’ anything off on my Slay-dar, and I don’t get any baddie-tingles from you.” The Slayer smirked at her, eyeing her up and down, and shook her head. “That’s fuckin’ Wicked though, T. Can I touch ‘em?”

“Faith…” Willow admonished, frowning at the other woman’s bluntness, and Nataunia chuckled, nodding.

“It’s okay. I’d probably say the same thing.” Taunie nodded, turning slightly to give them both better access. “You guys can touch them, just be gentle. I don’t know if they’ll still be tender.”

“Shit this is Wicked, T.” Faith said in awe, gently running her hands over the wings while Willow did much the same, helping her to spread them a little and checking as much for the feel as for if anything seemed out of place. “And you’re gonna be able to fly with these thi…”

“Oh my GOD!” Taunie moaned, collapsing on top of Willow as Faith dragged her fingers along where the wings were joined to the girl’s back. Willow and Nataunia were both blushing brightly as Faith stared in confusion. “D- don’t do that.”

“What’d I do? All I did was…” as Faith reached to demonstration, still in confusion, Taunie jerked forward, nearly clinging to Willow, and had to keep in firm mind that she couldn’t clutch because of the claws. “Sorry.”

“Don’t do that.” Nataunia reiterated, still bright red and staring with wide eyes over her shoulder at the brunette Slayer. Faith giggled lightly, and though Willow was blushing too, she smiled as well.

“We’re gonna have to remember that one, Red.” Faith joked with a broad smile, and Willow tried not to laugh along with her.

“Remember what… Holy Shit!” Buffy’s voice drifted to them, and the blonde Slayer stopped short of coming into the living room as she saw her two friends and a pair of large, dragon-like wings. The couch blocked off the view of Nataunia’s legs and tail, and she started groping behind the coat rack for the sword they typically kept there for emergencies. “Willow, get away from there…”

Taunie dropped one of her wings slightly, enabling her to look over her shoulder at the other Slayer and giving a view of her face. “Hmm… well Faith’s reaction was a bit more enthusiastic.”

“Taunie?” Buffy stared, hand half on the sword hilt, and Faith nodded, laughing. Willow glared slightly at the obvious drop in her apprentice’s confidence, and Buffy slowly approached. “Damn, what happened? Spell gone wrong or something? I thought you two were sticking with simple stuff for now.”

“Damn, B, haven’t ya been paying any attention? This is what Taunie and Red have been workin’ for since she first came here.” Faith chuckled, waggling her eyebrows. “This is on purpose. Wicked-awesome, right? You can touch ‘em… ooh! And check this out.” Abruptly, Faith gently dragged her fingernails along the area where the scales met skin, trailing it down toward where the tail emerged and was still writhing. Nataunia nearly collapsed forward again, moaning.

“Faith stop that!” Willow scolded, hiding a smile, as she blushed and helped to support Taunie. “If she keeps it up, just snap your tail at her or something.”

“Damn, Red, what’d I ever do to you?” Faith grumped, then jumped and squirmed away when Nataunia experimentally wriggled her tail closer to the Slayer. She looked like a woman that had just seen a rat. “Shit, that thing’ll hurt, Taunie-girl Don’t even think about it…”

“No more playing with the sensitive spots.” Nataunia shamed, stepping away a little, and the blonde slayer and Willow laughed at the face that Faith made.

The rest of that day pretty much resulted in mixed feelings for the girl as she went from feeling like a science experiment with Willow constantly prodding at her and testing what her abilities were with everything manifested, and then feeling like a sideshow attraction with both of the Slayers peeking around corners to watch in interest. Couches and furniture was moved to test the movement and reach of her wings, which once Willow had actually measured them, they made sure several times that everything moved properly, and nothing was out of place from how they grew. Willow made her make tiny adjustments to the positioning of her spread wings, cup them, and various other movements that she explained later, in a very lengthy lecture, were how Taunie would later be attempting to control her flight. They tested the strength and abilities of her tail, which was apparently able to move and be used like a whip, but prehensile and strong enough to lift what one of her arms could. Faith had been watching, again, at that point and suggested that they’d be getting weights for her to work on that strength. They’d also found that her claws were strong enough to slice through steel, though it had only been an old platter Buffy had been willing to spare.

Tests continued, time passed, and even after Dawn had gotten home, Willow was explaining the concepts and mechanics of flight as she did various magical tests to check Nataunia over. It lasted up until dinner, at which point Taunie was put through the embarrassment of having to be fed, as her claws didn’t allow her handle utensils at all. Her joke that she now knew how Edward Scissorhands felt met with the laughter of the three adults, and the confused look from the teen. Apparently, Dawn had never seen the movie. Nataunia was just grateful that that pop-culture reference hadn’t missed its mark too, after her offhand comment about Austin Powers had flown wide with the teen before.

“Alright… Taunie, Faith and I will run along with you as you fly, for if you can’t manage a good landing yet, or if you lose control.” Buffy offered, nodding, and looked around again for any sign of other occupants of the graveyard they’d snuck out to. “You remember Willow’s talk about how to fly?”

“All of them.” Nataunia offered, staring at the pock-marked wall of the mausoleum they’d chosen to use as a take-off point for her. Climbing on top of it would give her some measure of height to start out with, but its roof was low enough that the two Slayers could catch her safely enough if she didn’t get it the first time or few. As she flexed her claws a little, nervous that though she should be able to use them to climb, she might not be strong enough to do so, the breeze picked up. It carried with it the faint smells of turned earth, leaves, and car exhaust, which she guessed were normal for a graveyard, and she had to wonder if maybe her sense of smell, or any other senses, had increased with the change. Breathing out a sigh, Taunie jabbed her hand and claws forward, bracing herself for the pain she half-expected to follow meeting the wall with.

Instead, there was slight resistance, and then a crumbling feeling, as her claws landed into the wall, crumbs of stone and dust dribbling down from where they stuck into the surface. She tensed her hand, and felt her grip strengthen, and reached up, digging her other hand of claws in further up, and pulled. It wasn’t as hard as she thought it would have been, though she did feel the pull on her hand and arm muscles. The most trouble she had, really, was getting her boots to grip on the damn wall. When she’d finally scrambled up onto the roof, to the hoots of Faith and the worried comments of Willow, she breathed a sigh of relief, catching a multitude of other scents from higher up.

“I think my sense of smell is stronger.” She called down, absently, and stretched out her wings experimentally. The wind felt wonderful against them, and it made her tail lash around a little bit. Willow was saying something again, but she hadn’t really caught it, so she gave her wings a preparatory, strong flap… and was nearly carried directly off of the building with it. Her eyes widened and she scrambled a bit again, shifting her wings and flailing slightly to remain put. All three of them exclaimed, talking at once, in attempts to warn her to be more careful. Taunie smirked, and forcing herself not to clench her hands nervously, bent a little before jumping forward as strong as she could, flapping at the same time.

Willow yelped, squealing something about being careful, and the other to made similar, if quieter, outcries as they jumped into action, following her on the ground. Taunie flailed a little in the air, trying to get the hang of coordinating her movements, but managed to stay aloft. It was a strange feeling, the flaps creating a strange up and down motion to her movement, the flow of her wing-beats not quit smooth enough to keep her moving steadily yet, and after a few moments, she called down that she was ready to try her first landing. Faith and Buffy ran along with her, barely avoiding tombstones as they went, Willow trailing after by several yards, just barely keeping up. Experimentally, she angled her wings a little differently, and cupped them, then spilled air, then cupped again. It was a jerky descent, and certainly not timed well, because though she was low to the ground, and going much slower than before, she still ended up falling more than landing, with Faith as the unfortunate cushion to her impact.

Buffy laughed, and Nataunia shifted herself into a less awkward position, folding her wings a little and smiling down at Faith. “That was fun!” She’d been surprised at the thrill, and the amazing feeling of flight. It’d been so free.

Willow came running up as Faith growled, trying to push the girl off of her playfully. “Fun! She calls floppin’ around in the air and crashing onto me fun!” Willow smirked slightly, and Buffy laughed again. “Ya gotta be kidding me, Taunie-girl!”

She looked at the position they were in, as she’d adjusted herself, and quickly moved up, tail lashing a little, and blushed. “Yeah, well, it was. I think I need to work on my landing coordination, though.” Buffy nearly fell over in laughter this time, as Faith stared at her incredulously and Willow rolled her eyes. “Maybe I’ll land on the blonde this time.”

“Hey!” Buffy complained, her laughter stopped, and probably would have said more if someone hadn’t come running up, flailing a crossbow around as he attempted to load it.

“Buffy, Willow, duck out of the way! I got it!” Nataunia looked at the dark-haired man curiously, the moonlight flashing slightly off of both her eyebrow piercing, and her fangs, as she did so. Faith chuckled, standing, and looked at Xander, as well as the just-catching-up Anya, as he fumbled with the crossbow bolt again. “Shit, stupid bolt… don’t worry guys… I used to be better at this…”

“Damn good thing ya aren’t anymore, eh?” Taunie growled, and looked him over. “What the fuck are you trying to do, anyway? The string isn’t even cocked yet.” He stopped, and realized that the reason the bolt hadn’t wanted to stay in place was that, of course, he’d forgotten to pull the string back. Anya tilted her head, frowning in confusion as well. “Guys?”

“Hey Xander.” Buffy smiled, and Willow waved. Faith chuckled again and leaned an elbow on Taunie’s shoulder. “This is Taunie, Willow’s apprentice. No need for crossbows here.”

“What?” Xander paused halfway through the process of finally pulling back the string, and looked up again. Nataunia waved, wiggling her claws a bit, and Willow nodded, still smiling. “She is?”

“We thought she was a Succubus.” Anya offered less-than-helpfully. “From a distance her skin looked a little gold, and it made sense with the wings and tail. As she pounced on Faith when she landed, and I am given to understand she is the one with the most orgasms in your group, it was understandable. She doesn’t feel as if she is a demon though, and has a soul.”

“The fuck?” Nataunia snapped, eyes wide, and stared at them, then at Willow and Buffy.

“I second that with another what the fuck!” Faith added, staring at them.

“I’m not a fucking sex demon!” Taunie provided, still glaring, much to the blushing, and amusement, of Willow. Buffy was just amused. “I’m fucking not! The hell!”

“It would explain your like of the word fuck.” Buffy giggled, and Taunie glared at her. “Awe, don’t be mad.”

“Fucking Zeppo and his fucking girlfriend with the fucking succubus accusations…” Nataunia grumbled to herself, tail lashing a little, and she glared at Xander and Anya. Xander still looked a little uncomfortable, with the vengeance demon seeming disinterested.

“We thought we’d catch you on patrol.” Xander offered awkwardly, his crossbow pointed down, and Anya huffed in annoyance. “Anya has your pay for helping with the shipment today, Buffy.”

“Thanks.” Buffy smiled, and Anya grumbled more, handing over an envelope. “Thank-you for parting with your money, Anya. I know you like money.”

“Yes, I do, and I don’t see why I must pay you. You helped with shipments last year, when Mr. Giles was managing the shop.” Anya huffed, eyeing the slayer unhappily. “Money is good, and it takes money away from me to pay you.”

“Giles is in England, so if you want my help, or Faith’s help, you’ll pay.” Buffy said with a roll of her eyes. “It’s cheaper than letting the delivery-men do everything, and breaks less of the delicate things.”

“Yes, it does.” Anya conceded, still frowning. “But I don’t like it.” Xander indulgently patted her shoulder. “So why is Willow’s apprentice pouncing on Faith, and why does she have wings?”

“I wasn’t pouncing on Faith, I was trying to learn how to land!” Nataunia snapped, growling. It startled Xander a little, but Willow, Buffy, and Faith had all gotten used to it from the girl’s previous arguments with Buffy. Anya looked unaffected by the growl, probably from her thousand years of experience with other growling creatures. “And I grew them. It’s an ability. I’m just learning to use them… I’m not a fucking succubus.”

“In literal terms.” Anya quipped, and then seemed to frown in thought. “You… grew them?” When Willow nodded proudly, and Nataunia snorted at her, Anya seemed to grow a little nervous. “So… you’re the Winged…”

“Yes, I have wings. We’ve covered this.” Taunie interrupted, still frowning. “I’m going back home to see if I can get rid of them before school starts again.”

“I’ll go with you…” Willow offered, looking both worried and sympathetic. “I’ll see you later, Xander. Um… bye, Anya.” The both of them waved a little nervously, for very different reasons, as the redhead trailed after her apprentice to assure nothing went wrong in the girl’s attempts to change back.

TBC