by rory midhani

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the most requested Fan Fiction Friday topic ever, but I’ve always balked at curating a list of fics for fear that I would leave out the fandom’s most iconic stories. Buffy fandom goes deep. Deeper than FF.net and AO3, deeper than Tumblr, deeper than LiveJournal, deeper, y’all, than Yahoo! groups. Buffy and The X-Files fan fiction is basically the genesis of the internet! But now that we’ve spaced out Fan Fiction Friday to a biweekly column, I’ve had a little more time to dig into my personal archives and ask around for other folks’ favorite stories. This is by no means an exhaustive list. It is not even the tippy top of the iceberg. It’s a springboard to a magical, undead wonderland.

Here are a couple of Buffy fic websites you won’t find with Google: AltFic, The Mystic Muse, BuffyNFaith.net.

And here are ten fan favorites!

Private Conversations

Pairing: Willow/Tara
Plot: A magical bedroom experiment gone awry.

“Willow? Baby? Don’t you think-.”

“No, let’s just wait awhile longer and see what happens. Everything should go back to normal.” Willow paced in front of the bed. Feeling distracted by the movement, Tara reached out and pulled her lover down to sit next to her.

“But the spell was only supposed to work for two hours. It’s been two days now. I think we need help.”

“From who?”

“Well, Mr. Giles-.”

“No way am I going to Giles with this.”

“We may not have a choice.” Tara began to stroke Willows leg. After about 4 seconds, the redhead shot to her feet and away from Tara’s touch.

“Okay, no fair touching.”

“But all I did was-.”

“That’s all it takes apparently.” Willow gave a defeated sigh. “Alright. You win. We’ll go see Giles but you’ll have to tell him.”

It Starts With Faith

Pairing: Faith/Cordelia
Plot: Faith is the first Slayer to come to Sunnydale.

“So,” began Faith as she looked out the window of what Giles liked to call a car. “Why me?”

It had been several hours since their talk at Denny’s and Faith had been told the exact reasons behind the strange events of the night. She was the slayer, the chosen one that was meant to snuff out every last vampire in existence. If she would have heard his story on any other night Faith would have dismissed Giles as a nutcase but tonight was different.

Tonight she’d seen, battled, and killed the creatures that he spoke of. That was why she decided to go with Giles.

That and for the first time in her life Faith was needed. Giles needed her and so did this Watchers Council. They needed her in this town, Sunnydale, to battle the vampires there. She thought that it was a nice feeling… to be needed.

Besides, she had nothing to keep her in Boston. She was planning on leaving soon as she got some money. And Faith wanted to go someplace far away from Boston so she could have some distance between herself and her mother. Now because of Giles and the Council it seemed like Sunnydale was just the place.

Unexpected Consequences by Lisa Countryman

Pairing: Willow and Tara
Plot: An angsty novel-length delight.

“Pregnant?” Willow staggered backward and would have fallen if Xander hadn’t caught her.

“Okay, put me in the shocked category,” Xander said as he settled Willow onto unsteady feet.

“Oh, good lord!” Anya exclaimed. “We’re gonna’ need the really dark books.” She spun and ran to the counter.

Dawn stared at Tara and blinked.

“Are you sure?” Willow asked. She wanted to go to Tara, but she couldn’t seem to make her feet move.

Tara nodded. She wanted nothing more than to fall into Willow’s arms and have the redhead swear it would all be okay, but she stayed seated and kept her face impassive. Losing herself again wouldn’t help anyone.

“And while two chicks having a baby is way off the believable scale, I’m not seeing the apocalypse angle here.” Xander leaned toward Tara. “This, uh, um… this is Willow’s doing, right?”

“Yes!” Tara glared at Xander.

“How can you even ask that?” Willow yelled. “Tara would never be unfaithful.” She moved closer to her maligned lover. “This is my fault,” she added quietly. “It’s because of the dark magic, isn’t it?”

Tara frowned and nodded. Her lower lip quivered and her eyes brimmed with tears.

“I’m so sorry, baby.” Willow couldn’t fight the urge to go to Tara any longer. She went to the blonde and dropped to her knees in front of Tara. “Tara…”

“Oh, Willow.” Tara ran her hand through her ex-lover’s hair and then pulled Willow to her.

“I didn’t know,” Willow sobbed. She clung to Tara’s waist and trembled.

“I know.” Tara ran her hand down Willow’s back. She couldn’t stop her hand from offering comfort. Even though she was terrified, seeing Willow’s pain demanded a response. “I know you didn’t plan this.”

“Well, that won’t stop the evil,” Anya said as she slammed another stack of books onto the table.

Meant to Be The New World by Hellmouth Guy

Pairing: Buffy/Faith
Plot: Faith is living like a rogue on the streets when she gets called to Sunnydale to become a Slayer, where she meets (and falls in love with) Buffy.

It was a world of magic.

A world of demons and vampires. A world of monsters, and heroes to fight them. Or one hero, to be exact. One female hero. The Slayer, the one girl in all the world who was called upon by destiny to defend humanity against the encroaching darkness, against the threats that lurked just beyond our perceptions…

Except now there were two.

“Buffy Summers became the Slayer about a year ago when Madeleine Lambert, the previous Slayer, was killed by an extremely powerful vampire named Kakistos,” Rebecca said. “Last spring Buffy was injured and was clinically dead for a short time. She was revived, but she had been dead long enough for a new Slayer to be called. That Slayer’s name is Kendra Young; she’s from Jamaica. So now there are two Slayers. The situation is…unique.”

“What kind of goofy name is ‘Buffy’?” Faith said.

“I imagine it’s a family name of some sort. Some unfortunate attempt to honor a great-grandmother or an old aunt with six cats. But I’ve read some reports…the girl is quite resourceful. She’s won some impressive battles.”

Cave Slayer by Kinetic-Kid

Pairing: Buffy/Tara
Plot: Buffy drinks some enchanted beer and gets caveman drunk.

Buffy grunts and follows the blonde up the stairs to her room, as soon as the pretty girl opens the door, Buffy barrels into the room, grunting and beating her chest once, as she hops up on the bed, grinning at the blonde. Pointing at the girl, Buffy grunts out loudly. “Girl, pretty!”

Tara stares in stunned shock at the woman grunting and swaying on top of her bed, wondering what the heck is going on.

“Ummm. Tara, sorry.” Willow finally catches up to the two, leaning against the door frame, panting heavily. “That’s my friend Buffy. She’s harmless.” Willow waves to Buffy, smiling.

“That’s Buffy?” Tara raises an eyebrow in surprise, the redhead having mentioned her friend once to her, but never mentioning that she obviously had problems.

Willow eases into the room and places a hand on Tara’s shoulder, smiling. “She’s not normally…”

Buffy growls and jumps off the bed, pushing Willow away from Tara, and placing her body in front of Tara’s, urging her backwards. “Mine!” Buffy growls loudly and starts swinging from side to side, grunting.

Tara looks down at the woman in front of her in shock and surprise. “Okay, what e-exactly is going on here?”

Willow rolls her eyes and pulls out a chair, wondering what exactly to tell the blonde Wicca.

Xander finally makes it up to the room, laughing at the sight before him, having heard what Buffy said and Tara’s question. “Might as well explain some of it, Wills. Nothing’s going to make much sense, anyway!” Xander shuts the door and waves to the blonde. “Hi, I’m Xander.” Xander holds his hand out towards Tara and yanks it back as Buffy smacks it. “HEY! That hurt, Buffy.”

College Confidential

Pairing: Tara and Willow
Plot: Tara and Willow’s college years (where no one dies!).

She pulled out her cell phone to check the time but before she could even glance at the screen she found herself colliding with something, or rather someone, and promptly fell on her butt. The notebooks and collection of pens in her possession flew everywhere and her glasses slipped right down her nose again, though her instinct was to push them right back up, so luckily they weren’t caught in the ambush.

She shook her head to get her bearings, then looked up, instantly going into panic mode when she saw she had walked straight into a girl – an absolutely gorgeous girl, she couldn’t help but think as she jumped up and pulled a pack of tissues from her pocket.

“Oh god, I am so sorry, I am so, so sorry, are you okay? Clearly you’re not okay, some lunatic just spilled coffee all over your pretty shirt,” Willow said, barely taking breaths between words as she dabbed at the blonde’s t-shirt with her tissues, suddenly realizing what she was doing, “And I really shouldn’t be touching you like this, I’m so sorry, I’ll pay for dry-cleaning and get you a new coffee, as many coffees as you like and, and a muffin or whatever baked goodness you desire.”

Tara knew she should be concerned about the slowly-diminishing burning sensation of the coffee on her chest. She knew she should be concerned about her ruined shirt, or the fact that she would definitely be late for her class, or that a strange woman was touching very close to her breasts. But she couldn’t quite bring herself to care because at that moment she looking into the most beautiful face with the greenest eyes she had ever seen.

Those green eyes suddenly locked with hers and Willow inhaled softly, cutting off the babble.

Both felt like something had just changed for them, that something special had somehow happened.

“I’m, I’m Willow by the way. Willow Rosenberg,” Willow squeaked out after a minute, “I’m so sorry about your shirt.”

“It’s okay,” Tara replied, feeling her heart pounding in her chest, and the most sociable she ever had in her life – she just had to talk to this girl, “It’ll wash out. And I’m Tara Maclay. It’s nice to meet you.”

Tara extended her free hand – the one that had been holding her coffee – and gulped when she felt a spark jolt through her as Willow took her hand and shook it firmly. A wave of confidence washed over her.

“So…that coffee?”

“Yes!” Willow replied, a little too overzealously, making her blush, “I mean, yes, coffee, I spilled your coffee so I’ll buy you coffee. Um, I’m…I’m free now?”

After End Credits Rolled by cbscifijunky

Pairing: Buffy and Faith
Plot: Ten years after “Chosen,” the Scoobies are running The Ultimate Slayer Training and Research Facility.

It’s a dull, steady pain, sort of like a having a toothache or getting a tattoo. It’s been with her so long, she’s forgotten what it feels like not to have it. After time it became familiar and somewhat reassuring, like an old friend. But now that slow burn that took up residence in her soul years ago is a raging inferno. So many years have past, yet the ache still weighs heavily upon her. It’s more a yearning for the life that’s always eluded her then a regret of her actions. She knows this is what her life was destined to be: on the outside looking in, taking care of business, no attachments. It’s how she survived until now, she doesn’t know if she could any other way.

‘Shit – I should have stopped at that last motel, I can’t ride anymore, and getting into an accident isn’t going to help anyone’ Faith thinks to herself. Pulling over towards a row of trees lining the road she kills the engine on the Harley. She’ll make it to Cleveland by tomorrow afternoon. The rest will do her some good considering she has no idea what she’s walking into. She takes her helmet off, places it on the seat and shakes out her raven hair. “Ken, how the hell did I let you talk me into this? Too much time has past…” she speaks into the deserted night. Taking the blanket from the bungee on the back of the bike, she lays down, hoping for some much needed sleep.

As she looks up into the autumn sky she thinks about the last time she saw them, it’s been more then ten years now. She’s only spoken to Kennedy a handful of times, the others, not at all. It was the day she saw the road of her life stretch out in front of her clearly showing two paths: to stay and finally belong in someone else’s world or to go and work out the madness her life had become. It had had to be one or the other for her, it was her defining choice. But regardless of the reasons why, she will always feel she ran away. Man did she run, as far as she could go, jumping into a multidimensional plane to really get gone. Well, that came later on, after she made the deal with the Powers that Be. While she knows she’s made a significant difference these past years, her decision weighs on her every day. That ache is her constant reminder. Only the Gods know how different her life could have been had she stayed. There’s no going back, she knows it, she’s worked for the PtB long enough to know there are always consequences when you try that sneaky mojo. But she is going back in a way, back to the people she left behind and she’s scared.

Faith settles into the blanket and tries to clear her mind. Using the tools the PtB have taught her, she calms herself, and brings a protective barrier down around her. Closing her eyes she prays for a dreamless sleep, but knows it’s no use, it will come, there’s no stopping it. Only it’s not so much a dream as a memory that’s been haunting her every night as she gets closer to them, to her.

Standing on the Edge of Tomorrow by Vilandra4

Pairing: Buffy and Faith
Plot: “Buffy and Faith’s daughter is sent back in time from an apocolyptic future to save the world.”

She had some special title she forgot a long time ago. Someone once told her she was the ‘last of the line’, the ‘final stand against all that rocked and shaped the world into the cesspool of evil it had become.’ Of course, that person died shortly thereafter. Everyone did. The funny thing about the end of the world, the sun rose the next day. She was still alive; so were some other people. The problem was so were all of the demons. The survivors ran, flying through the night like ghosts of a life only remembered in songs and glances. One by one, she lost them all until she came upon the edge of the world.

She knew in that moment that the world was flat. A tiny smile lit up her face and the human still in her rejoiced at the thought of proving someone else wrong. Of course, he was long dead too. It was a smile of victory and a smile of defeat. She knew, standing on the edge of the world, that there was nothing left to run for. Dangling her legs over the precipice, she watched the demons clamoring and clawing their way over each other to try to get up the cliff side.

When she jumped, she thought there would be pain; but she’d seen enough of that to know pain wasn’t anything to fear. Instead, a little voice whispered in her ear, telling her of things long forgotten, of places wiped off the maps, of a time when the world was a little simpler to live in. She seemed to fall forever and when she opened her eyes, she was staring at the velvet sky of night with the stars smiling down on her.

It was then she noticed she was lying in the dew-covered grass next to a highway. Leaping to her feet, Kara blinked away the haze that settled on her eyes. “What the hell is going on…” she wondered aloud as her gaze landed on a metal sign planted firmly in the ground that read ‘Welcome to Sunnydale.’

After The Fall by Electra126

Pairing: Buffy/Faith
Plot: “When things take a dramatic turn in the battle against the First, Buffy wakes up to find herself in a different world where humans are slaves and Slayers are the entertainment.”

Suffice it to say, I think that we were all a bit more than shocked when we lost the battle against the First. Seven years of fighting the good fight to lose against this entity that we couldn’t even see or touch. Failure was likely inevitable, but we had no choice but to fight or die.

I know you probably have a few questions, and I probably have some explaining to do. But honestly? I don’t know what happened. One minute we were kicking ubervamp uberass, and the next minute newbie slayers were getting plowed down like weeds.

The last thing I remember seeing before I got run through with my own sword was the last bit of the slayer army being backed into a corner and surrendering. Faith was beaten unconscious and left for dead atop a pile of bloodied corpses. Spike was burning up in a corner somewhere, believing until the very last minute that the amulet was going to somehow miraculously save him.

I can’t really tell you the fate of anyone else because, well . . . I just don’t know. It’s been over a year since I’ve seen or heard from any of my friends and loved ones. Actually . . . sixteen months, eleven days, and eight hours if you’d like to be precise. I’ve tried to get info out of some of the other slayers that I’ve come in contact with, but the answers are always the same. No one knows anything for sure.

After the battle, it took me about four days to come out of the coma that I seemed to have been in. Yeah, blood loss . . . it does crazy things to a girl. While I was knocked out for those few days, I’m pretty sure I had some slayer-dreams. Or visions. Whatever you

wanna call them, they all had the same message: Dawn was alive. My friends were alive. At least most of them were, anyhow. I’m not sure how I got the messages, but I’m pretty sure that’s what pulled me out of my slumber. I knew that I still had a duty to do: I had to save them. I had to make things better.

But the world I woke up to was not the world that I remembered. Ninety-six hours and the fate of the world had been completely turned around. The bodies of humans littered the streets like debris along a highway. Houses burned, land scorched . . . the world that I had known had turned into a burnt-out shell of what it used to be.

All because I had failed at what I was meant to do.

The Resurrection Of Tara Maclay

Pairing: Willow and Tara
Plot: A resurrection two-parter.

Part of her wanted to be angry with them, for even thinking they could simply make everything ok by changing things within the room that would make everything appear different than it already was, but she couldn’t bring herself to it. She wouldn’t have wanted that, not if she were still here laying in bed with her. That wasn’t how she was, how she would have handled things if the shoe had been on the other foot.

Part of Willow wanted it to be like that, for it to be her instead laying in a grave, hidden away from the world. Anything that could have spared the world from even imagining the things she had done when she had been absorbed by the Dark Magicks. Would it have been better that way? How would she have handled it? Obviously better than she herself had handled seeing it. Would she have turned to Dark Magicks? No, of course not. She was stronger than her. Always had been. She had always been her light, her strength, her journey, her everything…

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