The Glitch 2.0

By the time dinner had come around, predictably, Dawn had returned, and as soon as she entered the house, she was nagging for information. The excited “Yes!” and bouncing had amused everyone else, and surprised Nataunia no end, before the girl had turned red and run upstairs to ‘change for dinner’. Buffy’s comments had been along the lines of it making sense, as her sister obviously had a thing for Faith, and the pair could practically be sisters, if not twins. Other than Nataunia protesting Faith’s adoption of the nickname “Mini-me” for her, dinner had gone well. It was only delivery, but the girl found herself in an almost easy camaraderie with them, when she wasn’t spazzing internally over the fact that she was really having dinner with the women she’d been a huge fan of for the past six years.

As the evening ended, and Willow instructed the girl to be back at some point the next day to set up her ‘records’ for Sunnydale High, Nataunia had to heave a sigh at what was, honestly, the best night of her life so far. Not only was she somewhere that was, frankly, more welcoming and comfortable than she’d ever experienced, and she was to have daily involvement with superheroes she’d gushed over all of her teen years, but she also had a mentor and beginnings of real friends. She went to sleep in the ratty little motel room happier than she could ever remember being.

“So, what was the last school you went to, and your full name?” Willow asked, perched at her computer with a smile, cracking her knuckles in an exaggerated motion to signify she was ready to get down to business. Nataunia paled, and remained quiet, unable to really think of anything, at all, to say. Willow waited, still looking at the screen and ready to type, for about a minute before she realized that no information was going to be forthcoming. Looking up, she quirked a brow. “I won’t be transferring all of your records, but it’s easier to have something to start with.” Nataunia still looked panicked, unable to meet her eyes. “Maybe just your full name, then?”

“Um…” She blushed and mumbled inaudibly, fidgeting in place in a way that did, indeed, remind the redhead of Faith. Perhaps Buffy had been on to something there. “I… need to use the bathroom! I’ll be right back.” Nataunia jerked and shot out of the room, eyes wide, and Willow nearly flinched at the slamming of the bathroom door. She could have sworn that the girl had been doing her best not to rub at the large scar on the inside of her arm, but wasn’t quite sure.

As she flipped the lock behind her, Nataunia huffed, nearly hyperventilating. Shit… she’s going to figure it out. I can’t tell her… I mean… he said not to tell her the truth so I can’t tell her what’s really happening. If I give her my name, nothing will happen. She won’t find anything. There’ll be a big old nothing… or it’ll be someone else, that’s still currently somewhere else, and they’ll know that something’s up and then they’ll think that I’m evil or something and I’ll lose all of this! She was fairly sure that she was going to pass out again, and wanted to hit herself for the fact that she had basically become a pierced, modern version of a swooning lady.

“It’d help if you calmed down and breathed a bit smoother, yeah?” The voice behind her nearly made the girl shriek as she spun to stare at the man standing in… well… the bathtub. Not the most common, or least comical, of locations for him to appear. She swallowed the yelp of surprise and stared at him, pushing away the desire to giggle almost hysterically at the situation. “Guardian guiding spirit thingy at your service. That’s somewhat like what you called me yesterday, right kid? Smooth move then… not so much now. Look at you, bad as Angel was almost. Sad really.”

“The fuck am I supposed to say?” She hissed, ignoring the fact that he was speaking loud enough to easily be heard by anyone passing by. If, somehow, he had weird rules about being seen or heard because of his… condition, whatever it was… she was not going to have them thinking she was completely bonkers.

“Start with name, continue with hesitation, finish with insistence that you’re fine.” He shrugged nonchalantly, bending to pick up and sniff at some of the shampoo in the tub, still not coming out. She wanted to smack the thing out of his hands. “Or you’re goin’ by Taunie now, ain’t ya? Start with Nataunia Laurant, continue with hesitation, finish with insistence that you’re fine. Which one do ya think uses this one? It’s vanilla and cranberry.”

“I don’t care.” She hissed, rubbing her face. “You said I’m from another place, right? How the hell am I supposed to be able to be found in there.”

“Nataunia Laurant of this world had a similar experience to yours in her school out in Indiana. Only thing in her records is her grades, which are passable,” he paused to sniff something else, cringe, and put it back, before looking at her again, “and that she was found in the bathroom, having broken a mirror and attempting to introduce its glass to her arm. She exited the hospital a bit after, and ran away. Hasn’t shown up since.” He sighed sadly at the flinch it caused in the girl. “Her parents died in a car accident when she was just a kid, was jumping from foster place to foster place. A vampire got ahold of her about two months back, when her stitches tore and the blood attracted it to where she was living, homeless. She’s one of those rare few we intervened with, to make sure that she wasn’t found until she ‘rose’… which happened to be about a minute before sunrise got her. Your picture has been replaced with hers… so as far as the legal system is concerned, you’re her.”

“That’s a really big damn coincidence.” Nataunia whispered, shaking a little at the memory, and truly rubbing her scar this time. “Why did she…”

“She had a… um… run-in with a boy that didn’t end well for her.” He provided not-quite-delicately. “And if I remember well, yours wasn’t a mirror.”

“Bad luck to break one.” She mumbled, still looking awkward and unhappy and rubbing at the ugly scar. “We done?”

“Sorry kid. Ain’t nothing I can do to change the past, but I’m still sorry all that happened to ya.” He said, looking softer, and saddened, as he started to disappear again. “Don’t let it weigh ya down too much… you’re here now.”

She looked up at where he had been, and shivered. With an effort, she pressed back her memories again, finding it easier to blunt their edges now that she was, indeed, in an entirely different world and reality. Letting out a ragged breath, she splashed some water on her face, and then went out to where Willow was still sitting, looking concerned. “Sorry… collected now. Ya wanted… a name?” She paused and Willow nodded, putting her hands on the keyboard again. “You’re… not gonna turn me down when you see my records? Or insist to know a whole bunch of stuff?”

Willow frowned, but let out a breath. “We’ve all made some mistakes, Taunie. So long as you haven’t made a habit of hurting people, and never made up for it, I think we’re pretty safe to say that it’s not going to change my mind.” She paused again and tilted her head. “I am very curious now, though…”

“Um… Taunie’s for short. My name is, um… Nataunia Laurant.” She swallowed and turned. “Indiana. I was in… um… Indiana… I’m gonna go get a drink now. Are you thirsty? I’m thirsty. We could do with drinks. Yes, water’s good. I’ll go get us some water bottles… you don’t think Buffy would mind, do you?”

“I’m sure she’d be fine with… it…” Willow stared after the girl as she rushed from the room again, this time holding tightly to her arm where the scar was. She had tactfully not said anything about it, nor had either of the Slayers, though she knew they’d noticed. Luckily, Dawn had remained oblivious to the scar, as far as she could tell. With determination, Willow turned to her computer, and quickly began working at the records of Indiana State’s school system.

Thirty minutes later, her erstwhile apprentice still hadn’t come back up with the proposed water bottles, and Willow was staring at the recently opened records. There wasn’t much: her records as a ward of the state, the sketchy details of what foster parents she’d been with – mostly incomplete in their records due to negligence on the part of her case-worker – and her school and medical records. The school and medical records she’d started going through after she’d discovered what she could of the surprising information that the girl was an orphan. She had wondered, a little, where the girl’s parents were, that she could just show up in Sunnydale when a ‘spirit guide’ told her to, but she hadn’t expected to find that. Within a few weeks, maybe just a month or two, the girl would be eighteen, and thus no longer ward of the state anyway, so there was a minimum of effort being put to find her. When Willow saw the records for the school, and hospital, and how she’d ended up no longer attending, her worry grew.

“Oh Taunie…” The words were soft, and worried, and the redhead swallowed. No wonder the girl hadn’t wanted to tell her anything. “Damnit… I’ll take care of the transfer later.”

Willow found Nataunia sitting at the dining room table, two bottles of water in front of her. One of them had been opened, but seemed to be pretty much untouched otherwise. The girl was just sitting there, staring down at her arm, and Willow frowned at having pulled out memories that caused the girl pain. “I’m okay, Willow.” The words made the redheaded Wicca squeak in surprise, and Nataunia still didn’t look up. “I’m just, trying to push y thoughts away. Are you done?”

“I wanted to check on my water.” Willow offered lightly, happy when a wry smirk tugged at the girl’s lips. “I guess you don’t want to talk about it?” A snort answered her. “Alright. Well, I’ll take my water then… and go finish enrolling you. I’m going to talk to Principal wood, and see if we can get you tested out of junior year.”

“Doubt it.” Nataunia sighed and finally shook her head, looking away from her arm. She was glad of the distraction that Willow provided, especially as she was able to concentrate on the amazingness of being where she was, in the new situation she was in. “I don’t think I could pass the tests anyway. A lot of the classes are… um… fuzzy now.”

“Well, you should have enough credits that you’ll only need to re-take the major things anyway.” Willow said with a smirk. “I can see to that at least. I need you to promise to not tell Dawn I fudged a bit for you, though.”

“Lips are zipped, Red.” Nataunia winked, making Willow blush and huff at the name.

“Not you too.” Willow groaned, and then reached to pull Nataunia up the stairs with her, careful to take the arm that didn’t hold a scar. “Be careful or I’ll make you memorize all of the uses of mugwart as your first lesson.”

“Powers forefend.” Nataunia teased back, smiling now, and tried to suppress the desire to hug the witch for helping her to forget for the moment. “So where is Faith, anyway?”

“It’s still afternoon, so she’s probably helping Buffy to make Dawn make up for missing her training yesterday.” Willow smiled back at her and gestured her bed for Nataunia to sit on, returning to her computer and carefully minimizing the folders with information on what the girl had done to herself. “They’re working on her cardio endurance.”

“So they’re runnin’ her ragged and calling it teaching her to run away?” Nataunia asked with a broad smile. Willow laughed lightly. “Remind me to never miss any of my training… from any of you. You’re probably as bad as the Slayers.”

“Worse.” Willow smiled at her mischievously, and Nataunia gave a fake shiver, making the redhead laugh again. “Now, Principal Wood knows what all of us are… mostly… and is aware of special circumstances for most of us. Since I don’t know where you’re at right now,” she turned to eye Nataunia suspiciously, but received no clarification, “I had to put down our address as your home and emergency contact. If he says anything, that’s probably why. You don’t have to explain anything to him, he won’t know about your past more than your grades, and doesn’t have to know anything about why you’re with us now.”

“I don’t intend to tell him anything.” It came out as almost a growl, and Nataunia felt a slight tingle start at her hands and back, as if she were going to manifest her energy appendages without effort. Willow looked back at her, and the girl made herself calm down. It wasn’t like she could tell the redhead that she knew what Wood had done, and she had no real reason, herself, for animosity toward him. “Thanks for letting me use this address.”

“Mhmm.” Willow eyed her a bit more, the turned to finish typing. “I’m going to try to see if I can find anything useful that will help with your… ah… special ability… before we start your lessons. We won’t get into that immediately, as you need to learn the basics and rules first, but it may help me know what I’m working with as far as abilities are concerned. For all I know, most of the Power that I feel may be from the fact that your wings etc aren’t fully manifested yet, but are capable of it… or you may just be magically powerful and need coven work once you’ve got your basics covered. We’ll concentrate mostly on control and understanding at first, of course.” Nataunia simply leaned back a little, listening to Willow babble about the lessons with a smile, all thought of her past gone for the moment.

TBC
*Looks skeptically at the Hit-count vs. number of reviews* Cookies?