Wanted: A Werewolf and a Superman by Frau Hunter Ash

Disclaimer: The characters and show all belong to Joss Whedon, Fox, Mutant Enemy, Kuzui, and God only knows who else. The X-files characters and show all belong to Chris Carter, Fox and possibly others. No copyright infringement was intended and suing me will not make you any money! The storyline, however, is the sole property of the author. This story cannot be sold or used for profit in any way. Copies of this story may be made for private use only and must include all disclaimers and copyright notices.

Summary: It's a full moon, Willow is a werewolf and there's an earthquake.

"It's been two weeks, Giles!" Buffy shouted, breaking another board between his hands. The Watcher barely pulled back in time to avoid the pieces smacking him in the nose or glasses.

"I know but Agent Mulder hasn't learned anything new," he repeated. "Wherever Willow disappeared to, she's done a good job of it. Rather surprising, actually."

"Why? I managed," Buffy frowned, turning her anger and frustration into a punching routine against the punching bag.

"You took a job that paid under the table and dealt in a neighborhood of runaways, I'm not sure Willow took that route," Giles commented, watching his Slayer work out.

"Meaning she's smarter and probably has a nice computer job somewhere with a new ID," Buffy said sarcastically.

"Can't she be traced through a new ID? They take your prints now for a driver's license," Buffy asked.

"Yes," Giles said softly. "We have another week and a half before the full moon. I suggest for now that we concentrate on the cyborg problem."

"This sucks, Giles," Buffy grumbled. "I should be looking for Willow, not playing soldier against some tin plated demon."

"He's not a demon, Buffy," Giles said impatiently. "And you're not playing 'soldier,' you're being the Slayer. You're doing your job."

"Oh right, my job," Buffy said bitterly. "That thing that takes precedence over my life, even if it means losing one of my soul mates."

"No, Giles," Buffy snapped, verbally shrugging off his concern. "Just let me practice alone for awhile, okay? Go do some planning with the Gang about Adam or something."

"Alright," Giles agreed reluctantly, not sure how to help his Slayer's emotional pain.

Buffy continued whacking the punching bag until she heard the door to the kitchen click shut. Then the Slayer turned into a run across the floor, through a series of gymnastic moves that put her up against a wooden wall they used to practice climbing.

With a shout of anger, Buffy began punching the wall as hard as she could, letting all of her frustration, anger and pain flow through her hands until the boards gave in under her assault and cracked.

Carson felt the familiar figure next to him twitch in her sleep and heard her moan. He figured she must be really caught in a nightmare to be able to wake him up out of a sleep during the day. <"Not a morning person" did not even begin to cover his sleeping habits,> he thought with a smile.

"Hey, Scarlet," he said softly, using his pet nickname for the red-haired witch.

Willow nodded and curled up around the stuffed fox he had brought home for her one night. As her breathing evened out the vampire drifted back into sleep.

The two weeks hadn't been bad, he reflected. Willow had proven more than adept at surviving; surprising him and herself. She had quickly gotten false IDs for both of them and illegally sold her parents car. That money had been spent on securing a studio apartment in a miserable part of town.

By magick, theft, barter, and creative inventiveness, furniture had been acquired. Typical of a studio apartment, some of the furniture consisted of plastic milk crates and boards but the bed was queen sized and comfortable. Heavy black material covered the windows and a curtain blocked off any light that might come in from the front door opening but that wasn't out of place in the neighborhood of college students, struggling musicians, junkies and slackers.

Within days, the hacker had a job with a group of fellow hackers and computer geeks putting together computers for clients and hacking into and testing programs. Willow figured most of the computers they took in were stolen but it didn't matter to her. The guys paid well, respected her skills, didn't ask for identification and didn't ask questions about her past.

Within a week, Carson had a job as a bouncer at a Goth bar, his pale skin fitting in quite well with the wanna-be vampires.

Carson figured it hadn't been a bad move to hook up with the red-haired witch. The girls at the club were fascinated with his fangs and more than willing to have sex with the handsome "vampire," especially when he could use his fangs, Carson just made sure not to let them see his 'game' face. <The girls never missed the blood and enjoyed the sex immensely, everyone got what they wanted,> he reflected.

One of his first purchases had been a strong set of shackles, thick chains and industrial locks.

Willow had looked at the silver items with a clenched jaw and didn't say a word but nodded her thanks.

The computer geeks weren't surprised when she worked most of the night and slept most of the day. Almost all of them kept the same strange schedule and the main workshop was out of a rented warehouse, so no one noticed the odd hours.

"Things are looking good here, Red," Carson mumbled. "But you still should have stayed with your girlfriends."

Joyce frowned and looked over at the clock on her nightstand and her frown deepened. What had awakened her at 2:25 in the morning? She sat up on her bed and grabbed for her robe when a thump sounded again on the stairs.

Alarmed, Joyce moved quickly to her door and rushed down the hall, switching on the light.

The Slayer looked like she had been in a car wreck. Joyce knew she would never get used to Buffy coming home battered and bruised but this was one of the worst. She rushed down the stairs to wrap an arm under Buffy's and began helping her daughter up the stairs.

"Buffy?" Tara's voice greeted them from the top of the stairs, her voice cracking at the sight of the Slayer.

Tara and Joyce helped Buffy move slowly down the hall to her room and onto her bed. Buffy winced as she sat down on the bed and Joyce helped her out of her jacket.

The Slayer's left eye was swollen shut, her nose had been bleeding, and her arms were covered with bruises. Joyce also noticed that Buffy was holding her right arm close to her body and gently raised Buffy's t-shirt. Both Joyce and Tara winced at the sight of the massive bruises along the Slayer's ribs.

"Looks like he found you," Tara countered, bending down to unlace Buffy's Doc Martin boots.

"No, Mom, really," Buffy assured her. "I'll be all better by morning, only a few bruises by then. Right now I need a shower and some sleep."

"I don't think you can stand up long enough for a shower," Joyce commented and caught a look between Tara and her daughter. "All right, good idea."

"Tara helping you with a shower, of course," Joyce said calmly. "Just make it a quick one, you both have school tomorrow."

"You sure you don't need a doctor?" Joyce asked again, ignoring Buffy's protests.

"I'll be okay, Mom," Buffy said, a little more calmly. "I've got to see Giles in the morning before school."

"Yeah, I ran into one of the Initiative commandos, they're hunting Adam as well," Buffy said. "He said that demons and vampires are flocking to Adam and they can't get near the place. The Initiative has only a skeleton crew since we destroyed the Center."

"Total agreement," Buffy agreed as her mom and Tara helped her sit in the bathroom while Tara started the shower. "Now if we can find Wills and convince her that they aren't a threat to get her home!"

"I'll be gone to Los Angeles for a couple of days to oversee the shipment of a new show at the gallery, I could cancel if you need me here," Joyce commented.

"No, Mom," Buffy shook her head. "It's probably better if you're out of town. Riley knows who I am and Adam could come after any of you to get to me."

"Well, I will see you girls in a couple of days then," Joyce said, hugging Tara and then Buffy. "I love you."

Tara waited until Joyce shut the bathroom door and turned the Slayer around to unhook Buffy's bra.

"What's up, Tara?" Buffy asked, leaning with one hand on Tara's shoulder to work her way out of her jeans. "It's freezing out there this time of night and I'm really hurting here."

"Something you said," Tara said, pulling Buffy's underwear down and steering the Slayer towards the shower.

"What? About coming after my mom?" Buffy tried not to moan with the mixture of pain and relief as the warm water hit her aching body.

"Well, I'm grateful that he hasn't," Buffy muttered, leaning one hand against the shower wall and letting Tara clean her tired body. <Her mom shouldn't have worried,> Buffy thought, <she was too tired and hurt to think of sex, even with Tara's naked body right behind her.> She frowned, realizing she had missed what Tara was saying.

"We need to prepare for that possibility, Buffy," Tara repeated. "This Adam thing is computer based in his logic, right?"

"Then logically, he might plan on attacking your friends and family to throw you off your game."

"Just like Angel did," Buffy said, suddenly thoughtful. "He taunted all of us to keep me off balance. Let's go see Giles."

Willow glanced up at the clock and stretched. The program she was working on was being difficult and she was getting frustrated.

"That one's a bitch, isn't it?" he asked, brushing his greasy hair out of his eyes.

"Yeah, I know it's in one of the lines of code, I just can't find it yet," Willow answered. "Where's Rusty?"

"Oh, he went on a Taco Bell run. You had your headphones on and was looking very intense so he's bringing you back two supreme burritos and an ice tea."

"Cool," Willow smiled and stood up from her table to walk and glance over the other geek's shoulder. "That circuit is totally fried, it won't hold the connection."

"Yeah, I know," Tulsa drawled. "But the dude that's buying this one is a real jerk and ripped us off two months ago. It'll hold together for about four days and then totally short circuit everything."

"Yeah, total Darkside stuff!" Tulsa agreed with a laugh. "Find a girlfriend yet?"

"Right, when am I going to find a girlfriend?" Willow tried to laugh but it was unconvincing. "I'm here every night and sleep all day, doesn't exactly make a lively social calendar, you know?"

"Yeah, that's why most of the computers we get in here have so much porn downloaded they've crashed their systems," Tulsa grinned.

"If I see one more manipulated picture of Brittany Spears, I'm going to scream," Willow agreed.

"Not your type?" Rusty teased as he opened the door, his arms filled with Taco Bell bags.

"Just because she's female doesn't mean I'm automatically attracted to her. You guys aren't turned on by every single woman you see in a bathing suit, are you?"

"Males!" she complained with a laugh, reaching for food, trying not to think about Buffy and Tara.

"Giles?" Buffy called as she cautiously pushed the battered door open more. Tara stood back once they arrived at the Watcher's home and found the door kicked in and could see no movement inside the condo.

"Giles?" Buffy shouted. She held the shotgun in a ready position as she walked into the living room cautiously.

Buffy was across the room in a flash and switched on the light to the hallway and stopped, stunned for a moment.

Giles had been beaten, worse than when Angelus had tortured him and he had been tied to the banister of the stairs. Buffy whimpered. The Englishman was hanging by his wrists, his shirt had been ripped off him and someone had beaten him from behind, focusing on the lower back. What really worried the Slayer was the puncture wound in the Watcher's back that was still bleeding freely.

"Tara! Call 911!" Buffy shouted and ran up the stairs, grabbing one of the knives from the many displays of weapons on the walls.

"Get over behind him and lower him down when I cut these ropes," Buffy instructed and Tara moved behind the wounded man. Buffy quickly cut through the ropes holding him in the air. Tara managed to catch and lower him to the floor without too much tripping. She helped turn him over onto his stomach as he moaned in pain.

Buffy grabbed the first aid kit from the den area and ripped it open impatiently. She tossed a large gauze pad to Tara and the witch placed it over the puncture wound and pressed down hard, despite Giles' moan of pain.

"He wanted me to bleed to death," Giles whispered. "Didn't think you'd be here so soon."

"Good thinking, actually," Giles praised and then cried out with the pain. "I'm having some problems with my legs."

"Hurts," he admitted, closing his eyes. "He wants you alone, then he'll make more like himself."

Xander and Anya found Buffy pacing restlessly and Tara sitting on a hospital waiting room sofa, hugging herself and looking worried.

"How is he?" Xander demanded as Buffy quickly hugged him. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "About earlier, what I said about Willow."

"The paramedics said he lost a lot of blood," Buffy added, sitting next to Tara.

"Okay, who is like totally pissed off at this point and getting damned tired of this wanna-be Terminator?" Xander growled.

"I'm game, everything feels off without her," Buffy agreed and reached out to hold Tara's hand. Together they closed their eyes.

"You okay, Robin?" Rusty called from across the room, glancing up from the computer he was rebuilding.

"You've been working like crazy on that damned program," he commented and yelped as he was shocked when he touched the case. "Goddamn piece of…"

Willow shook her hair out of her eyes and turned up the stereo, trying to drown out the voices of her lovers with the sounds of Nine Inch Nails.

//No, I'm too dangerous!// she shouted back mentally and slammed her shields down tighter.

"Damnit!" Buffy muttered, slamming her fist against her leg. "She's blocking us!"

"Yeah, I got her on her cell phone. She's on her way home," Buffy said wearily. "All we can do is wait."

Willow slammed the door shut and threw her backpack onto the sofa. Carson walked out of the bathroom, toweling his hair dry.

"Good hunting tonight?" Willow snapped, taking in his flushed appearance and contented expression.

"Is it your time of the month or are we close to a full moon?" he snapped back. "What bug crawled in and infected your systems?"

"Sorry, Car," Willow said softly and threw herself down on the sofa. "I…there's a program that's giving me problems."

"There's more than that," he commented as he slipped on a t-shirt and lay down on the bed in his boxers, ready for bed as the sun began to rise.

"I don't know that!" he snapped back. "They love you and that's damned rare. They'll take care of your wolf side and whatever that power you have can be used to help them."

"I thought we agreed, there aren't any like me," he grinned, revealing his fangs. "Don't tell me you're beginning to be sympathetic for vampires? Haven't you figured out some of the vampire thing?"

"What about it? When you die the demon takes over and your soul is lost," Willow frowned, taking off her army fatigue jacket and slipping out of her combat boots. Next the baggy jeans were tossed aside and she crawled into the bed with the vampire. She momentarily reflected that even her wardrobe had changed in the last couple of weeks. Instead of the bright, cheery clothing she favored, now she was wearing dark and baggy clothing, looking very much like the computer geeks and skaters she was hanging with.

"You know, good thing you're gay and I'm a gentleman," Carson growled. "You are incredibly sexy and don't even know it do you?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Willow smiled, wrapping her arm around her stuffed fox. "You also know I'd fry you if you tried anything."

"Well, there is that," he grinned. "Now, about the soul thing. It's true that the soul is set aside and the blood lust hits, leaving very little of the original morality left. There's a lot of the basic personality left though. Especially over time, the vampire becomes more like their old self the longer they live."

"Yeah, he was also a decent guy at times, comes through in the vampire," Carson explained.

"Yeah, she was totally evil though," Willow protested. "I'm not evil, except for the werewolf thing and I don't remember what I do as a werewolf…so I'm not sure that counts as being evil. It is evil but I don't know that I'm being evil…"

"Oh that would be way kinky," Carson agreed. "Would that be considered masturbation?"

"Same thing, your vampire double, if she lives for a few hundred years, might be more like you are now," he grinned.

"For a while," he admitted. "Took about fifty years before I started wanting more than just the hunt."

"Yeah, about a 100 years ago," Carson mumbled, beginning to get sleepy with the coming daylight.

"Well, a couple of years ago he reverted back to Angelus and he was like totally evil, I mean really really bad," Willow explained. "He went out of his way to torture and torment Buffy and the rest of us, he delighted in torturing Giles, really hurting him."

"He was a bastard, from what I heard," he muttered. "He like to party, didn't want to work, kinda cruel and arrogant, he loved the women, a real love 'em and leave 'em type."

"That tortured soul thing again," Carson growled. "The guilt makes him a nice guy and maybe he grew up a little when he got his soul back."

"So you were a total nice guy before you died? Is that why you became a nice vampire so quickly?" she asked.

"I guess you could say that," Carson grinned with his eyes closed. "I was a priest."

"Mr. Giles is out of surgery and is in stable condition," she informed the group.

"Well, it's too soon to tell the exact effects of the injuries," Dr. Karen Wang said slowly. "The puncture would caused massive internal bleeding and he's currently in a coma from the blood loss and then there's the question of his spinal injury."

"There is a great deal of swelling of the tissue surrounding the spinal cord from the beating. The cat scan doesn't show any breakage or bulging of the disks but we've ordered a series of MRIs to rule that out."

"For the moment, we're hoping that when the swelling goes down that motor function will return to his lower limbs," Dr. Wang explained.

"Then we'll try surgery to repair what damage is there," Dr. Wang said confidently. "But you must be prepared, there is a chance that the spinal cord itself was damaged."

"There is that possibility," Dr. Wang confirmed. "I'm sorry, I need to get back. There's nothing any of you can do right now. Why don't you go home and get some rest. He may not wake up for hours or even days."

"Former High School Librarian Attacked in Own Home" the headline read as Willow read the Sunnydale newspaper through the computer. The hacker quickly scanned the article and felt a familiar sensation of fear running through her system as her heart-rate climbed rapidly.

The article reported that Rupert Giles, former high-school librarian, was attacked in his home by persons unknown and was currently in critical condition at the local hospital after undergoing surgery.

Willow, ignoring the glances from Rusty, Tulsa and Skates, got up from her table and grabbed the telephone and dialed the number she had gotten from her inquiry on the computer.

"Yes, I'm his niece," Willow answered, hoping her fake English accent would hold up to a nurse in Sunnydale.

"I'm sorry, let me check," the nurse or desk clerk responded. After a moment the voice returned to the phone. "I'm sorry, Miss," the voice said. "Mr. Giles is still unconscious but in stable condition. His paralysis hasn't improved in the last twenty hours."

"May I take a message for the rest of his family?" the voice asked as Willow hung up the phone.

"You okay, Robin?" Skates asked, turning the volume of the latest by Staind down.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," she muttered and walked out of the office area into the large cavernous warehouse. The hacker sat down on a wooden crate and slowly rocked back and forth, tears running down her face.

Joyce reached over and held a plastic cup with a straw and let him drink several sips of water.

"You're talking and smiling," Joyce pointed out. "The kids are outside, they wouldn't leave."

Joyce sighed. "You lost a lot of blood but the stab wound missed vital organs. They removed your spleen, though."

"Agent Mulder?" Giles answered, fumbling with the phone and setting the controls of his hospital bed in motion to sit up. "Good to hear your voice."

"Even better to hear yours, from what they tell me," Mulder responded. "I've got news about Willow. Is anyone else there with you?"

Giles looked over at a sleepy Tara, who was sitting up and rubbing her eyes. The Watcher smiled, remembering when the Scooby Gang had kept a similar vigil next to Willow's bed and then Buffy's to protect them. Now they were doing the same for him.

"They're not sure the paralysis is permanent, I've regained some feeling in the feet and one side of the legs," Giles informed the FBI agent. "What about Willow?"

"Well, the bite patterns on the victims are from two different attackers," Mulder informed the Watcher as Giles held the phone slightly away from his ear so Tara could listen. "The bad news is that the bite pattern and DNA evidence from the male victim belong to Willow. The bite pattern and DNA evidence from the girl aren't in the Initiative records."

"I'm sorry, Giles," Mulder said sadly. "Scully ran the tests three times to be sure. The good news is that we've got a lead on where she is."

"Los Angeles area," Fox Mulder answered. "I played a hunch and we ran traces on any telephone calls coming into the hospital asking about you. All but one were either local or England."

"Apparently someone was checking up on you from your homeland," Mulder informed him. "The other call was an unidentified female claiming to be your niece."

"I know, that's why we tracked that call closer. It came from the Los Angeles area."

"Normally we could," Mulder agreed. "But whoever this was routed the phone through several trunk boxes, the records show the call came from the City Morgue."

"No, city officials are fingerprinted," Mulder answered. "No, the call was routed through several locations through the computer lines, hell of a hacking job."

"I would bet on it," Mulder agreed. "She was checking up on you and she's in LA."

"Thank you, Agent Mulder," Giles said gratefully. "That gets us closer, we might be able to track her now and we have friends in Los Angeles."

Giles clicked off the phone and looked at Tara's face and held out his arms. They were closer to Willow now but they also had confirmation that the werewolf Willow had killed.

"Hand me my address book, please," he asked Tara. "We need to call Los Angeles and then the rest of the group."

Willow yawned and stretched, glancing at the clock. Just enough time for coffee and a bite to eat before hitting the computers.

Carson was sound asleep beside her on the bed. <Sometimes it was eerie waking up next to him,> she thought. Without the need to breathe, it was very much like waking up next to a corpse. Given that he was a vampire and had actually died, Willow figured that's exactly what it was like.

She tried to shake off the thoughts of Buffy and Tara but couldn't. Night before a full moon and she wanted to be with them desperately, emotionally and sexually. A cold shower was in order since her only other option was sex with a priest turned vampire and a male one at that. Not her idea of a romantic encounter.

She pushed her Vespa out the door and headed out for another day of work. Another day to ignore the fact that the next night was the full moon.

After grabbing something to eat, Willow sat down at her worktable and booted up her own laptop, connecting to the phone lines. She quickly hit the Internet and accessed the Sunnydale newspaper, just as she had every day since learning about Giles.

Willow's trained eyes could read between the lines of many of the articles. Having grown up in Sunnydale, it was common to read about missing children, disappearances and unexplained 'muggings.'

There was only one small article on Giles' release from the hospital but Willow sighed with relief. It was enough to tell her he was alive and well enough to go home. She knew Buffy and the others would protect him. She hadn't dared call the hospital after the first time but was depending on the Sunnydale newspaper for information.

Willow wanted to cry but felt too tired to even do that. She knew Carson had taken the next three nights off from his job so he could watch over her during the full moon but she was still worried. It was the first full moon since the werewolf had escaped the cell in the crypt. She had already killed at least two people, any more and Willow knew she wouldn't be able to live with herself.

The hacker smiled when Tulsa and Skates entered the warehouse office and headed for their own worktables.

After a few moments Tulsa got up from his stool and approached his fellow hacker. Willow looked up with a smile and then frowned at his serious expression.

The young hacker pulled a piece of paper out of his trench coat and handed it to her. Willow unfolded it and felt her heart skip a beat as she looked at her college identification picture under the heading of Federal Bureau of Investigations: Wanted.

"That came through on the FAX yesterday," Tulsa explained. "The others haven't seen it."

"Wanted for questioning as a material witness in a federal case, Willow Rosenberg, age 20, etc," she read softly. "Fox."

"Yeah," Willow lied easily, knowing that hacking would be something Tulsa could understand perfectly and he wouldn't understand werewolves, vampires and cyborgs.

"We won't say anything, Robin," Tulsa promised, still sticking to Willow's runaway name.

Willow keyed in a relatively unknown hacker website that routed emails to various locations, allowing them to be sent anonymously. She began to type.

"Mulder, why are you tracking me? I can't let the Initiative get a hold of me again. You know what they did to me. Please let me go. — Willow."

The hacker knew that it would take a couple of hours to route the message to Fox Mulder's email and another two hours at least to get a response back through the routing system. Willow settled down to concentrate on work.

Willow frowned at the program that was still causing her so many hassles. She glanced over at Tulsa and Skates and made sure they were involved in their own work and spread her hands over the computer mainframe. A blue light spread from her hands as she concentrated and in a moment the computer screen began flashing and the printer several feet away kicked into gear.

"Hey!" Tulsa grinned at the sound of the printer and got up to check the printout. "Score!" he shouted. "She fixed the damned thing!"

"Well, the printout shows it was a damned line error, just like you figured," Tulsa said, reading the papers. "I never would have found that!"

Satisfied with the results of the program, Willow quickly moved on to another problem, one that wasn't as difficult but it passed the time until she noticed it was almost 4 a.m. Willow went back to the website and checked her email and wasn't surprised to find an email from Mulder.

"Willow, please go home. The Initiative is in total shambles and aren't looking for you. I swear it. Professor Walsh is dead and Riley is under control of the latest monster in Sunnydale. Professor Walsh created a hybrid cyborg/demon/human super soldier and named him Adam. He's terrorizing Buffy and the group, he's the one that attacked Giles. Go home, they need you. Your friend, always, Mulder."

Willow frowned and shut down her computer, said goodnight to the guys and headed to her studio apartment.

Carson noticed Willow's distraction and kept quiet when she entered the apartment. He waited patiently as she absently pulled off her boots.

The vampire caught the change of expression and recognized the stubborn set to her jaw, he had run across it a couple of times before.

"Yes," he said easily. "That center post of the room will hold you. I had a demon friend try it out, he's huge and twice as strong as a werewolf and he couldn't even scratch the post or bend the chains."

"Good old Southern California, earthquake and werewolf proof," Willow said bitterly. "After the full moon is over, I'm going home."

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Wanted: A Werewolf and a Superman

By Frau Hunter Ash

Carrkjar@yahoo.com