DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT: This story cannot be sold or used for profit in any way.
Copies of this story may be made for private use only or posted in fanfic
archives
for general distribution, but must include all disclaimers and copyright
notices.

SPOILER WARNING: Occurs before the last season of SWAM and between the first
and second seasons of BtVS.
RATING: PG13
CONTENT WARNING: This story depicts scenes of violence and/or their aftermath.
If depictions of this nature disturb you, you may wish to read something other
than this story.
SUMMARY: The new girl at Sunnydale has a weird secret all her own - one that
Willow will soon share.
DISCLAIMER: Buffy, Giles, the Slayerettes and all other characters who have
appeared in the series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" together with the names,
titles
and backstory are the sole copyright property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy,
Inc., Kuzui Enterprises, Sandollar Television, 20th Century Fox Television and
the Warner Brothers Television Network. Alex Mack, her family, Danielle Atron
and all other characters who have appeared in the series "The Secret World of
Alex Mack" together with the names, titles and backstory are the sole copyright
property of Viacom International, MTV Networks, Nickelodeon Television Network,
Nickelodeon Productions, Hallmark Entertainment, and Lynch Entertainment. No
copyright infringement was intended in the writing of this fan fiction. All
other characters, the story idea and the story itself are the sole property
of the author. I'm too broke to be sued, anyway. (But if anybody thinks my
literary
skill presents that much a risk, feel free to *HIRE* me!)
A/N: Remember, this was written long before I ever heard of Spike or Mayor
Wilkins
or how deeply stupid Sunnydale cops could be.

* * * * *

The Secret World of Willow Rosenberg
(a BtVS/SWAM crossover)
by Dalton S. Spence <dalton.spence@...>

"I guess I'm not so ordinary anymore." - Alex Mack

*Part 4*

Alex moved to the window. "First rule: ALWAYS check for witnesses." She'd done
this so many times that she had closed the blinds and turned away before her
brain registered the sight of a dark figure leaning against a lamppost watching
her house.

Waving Willow into silence, Alex zapped the light switch to darken the room,
then peered through the blinds at the intruder. The sky was still light enough
out so that the streetlamp was not yet lit, but the sun had definitely set while
they had been talking, and the figure below was further obsured by the
overhanging
branches of a nearby tree. Suddenly the streetlight came on, and Alex could
see him clearly for the first time. "Wow," she gasped in delight, "that guy
*HAS* to be a vampire! Nothing mortal could look that good."

Intrigued, Willow joined her at the window. She smiled in relief as he
apparently
sensed their observation and sketched a brief salute. "You're right, but don't
worry, he's on our side," she informed Alex, "His name is Angel, and he's a
.. friend of Buffy. She probably sent him over to keep an eye on us."

Alex was skeptical. "A `friend', huh? And just how does a vampire become a
`friend'
of a Slayer? From what Mr. Giles said, I thought they were all evil incarnate."


Willow was a bit startled to hear the librarian referred to so formally, then
a bit more so when she realized that *she* hadn't done so in a very long time.
//The old Willow wouldn't have dreamed of speaking to or of a staff member by
just his last name. I guess fighting the forces of darkness leaves little room
for formality.// Remembering Alex's question, she answered, "Well, most of them
are. He used to be, but about eighty years ago he killed a gypsy girl, and her
clan cursed him with the return of his soul. Since then, he's been one of the
good guys."

"And now he helps Buffy `to repay society for his sins' I suppose," Alex sighed.


"Well, there *is* that," Willow admitted, "but these days I think it's mostly
Buffy."

"Does he have a master who's constantly trying to bring him back to the fold?"


"The Master ... oh, you mean the one who brought him across. That would have
been Darla. He dusted her when she tried to kill Buffy."

"Eww, way harsh!" Alex grimaced.

Willow looked at Alex, feeling a sudden sympathy with Giles and his dealings
with Buffy. "Harsh is the way life *is* on the Hellmouth," she said seriously,
"This isn't some TV show you can turn off and write fanfic about to change the
ending. Friends, people I've known my entire life are *DEAD* because of
vampires,
and they won't be coming back -- and if they did, they'd just be demons in
disguise,
and Buffy would have to drive a stake through their hearts. You *HAVE* to
understand
this is real, or it could kill you too."

//Wow, she's not only as smart as Annie, she sounds like her too.// As Alex
looked into Willow's haunted eyes, she felt a little ashamed at her dismissal
of this situation as merely a different kind of weirdness. For the first time
since she had moved to Sunnydale, she was *GLAD* Ray and the others had stayed
behind in Paradise Valley, and that her sister was on the other side of the
country. At least in Paradise Valley, the enemy was human, and the danger was
hers alone. "I'm sorry, I didn't know."

"Nobody does, except for us. Oh, they know people have died or disappeared,
but no one else understands how or why. I've had to go to their funerals, watch
their families grieve, and remain silent. That's the hardest part sometimes.
Knowing, and not being able to explain."

Playing for time to think of something to say, Alex used her TK to turn on the
lights and bring the computer box to the floor. "I wish I could say `I can
imagine'
but I can't. Not yet, anyway. At least you have your friends, so you aren't
totally alone."

"Yeah," she said bitterly, "my friends. A guy I'm totally hung up on who sees
me as just his `best bud', the beautiful blond superheroine that he has the
hots for, and a forty-something librarian whose idea of a hot time is a cup
of tea and a good book, preferably an ancient tome in a forgotten language
containing
apocalyptic prophecies. They mean well, and they've put their lives on the line
for me on more than one occasion, but sometimes I think they only want me for
my brain." She idly opened the box, and reaching inside lifted out the carefully
packed monitor with her hands and placed it down on a clear space on a nearby
table.

"I'm sure that's not true," protested Alex, remembering the times Annie had
made the same complaint.

Willow sighed. "I know that. Really, I do! I guess I'm just a little scared,
and needed to vent a bit. I'm fine now." To prove it, she lifted the CPU out
of the box with her TK, quickly stripped off the wrapping from it and the
monitor
(exposing the wire-mesh shielding encasing both components), set the CPU on
the floor beside the table and connected the monitor cable to it.

"Trust me on this," said Alex, quite impressed with the skill her protege had
just shown, "once I've trained you to control and use your powers, your brain
is the last thing they'll think about." Not about to be out done, she
telekinetically
extracted the keyboard and the mouse (which were also shielded with special
surge-protected connectors), and placed them on the table in front of the
monitor.


With a slight giggle, Willow commented wryly, "Now, isn't *THAT* a comforting
thought." She connected the keyboard and mouse, then pulled out the modem and
power cables and the powerbar and made the final connections (manually; she
didn't want to take any chances) including the grounding connections for the
shielding.

"You know what I mean," protested Alex, glad her new friend seemed in a better
mood. She watched in amused awe as Willow booted up the machine and gave it
a thorough checkout, familiarizing herself with the available utilities. When
she pulled what looked like a small address book out of her purse, Alex asked,
"What's that?"

"Oh," she responded blithely, "it's just my list of ISP accounts, with connect
numbers and user ids."

"Accounts?" Alex was impressed. "You mean you have more than one?"

"Of course. There's my school account (that's the one I use in Ms. Calendar's
class), my home account (where I get my personal e-mail and surf the public
websites), my list-admin account (I manage the `Beyond the Beyond' fanfic
mailing
list, newsgroup and FTP archive), and my Slayerette account."

"Your *WHAT* account?!?" Alex asked, laughing.

"My Slayerette account. It's a superuser account on the Board of Education
mainframe
that Giles helped me set up. I telnet from there to other systems with bogus
IDs when I need to do a little hacking for Buffy. Don't worry, I never change
anything (only snoop a bit), and I stay well away from military or federal
government
systems; they've gotten really paranoid about security these days. I don't use
it much; most of the stuff we need can be found on open websites or by anonymous
FTP." Seeing Alex's relief, she cautioned, "However, police department e-mail
is *NOT* public information."

"Are you sure you won't be caught?"

"Pretty sure. I'm using the easy way in."

"The easy way? What's that?"

"Remember that cop I told you about? The one who seemed to know what was going
on?" Alex nodded. "I memorized his name plate and badge number. Ten-to-one they
are his user-id and password. Unless he got clever and changed it, of course."


Sgt. R.D. Hutton of the Sunnydale Police Department (Badge #0640) might have
been clever about police work, but not apparently about computers. Not only
hadn't he changed his password, but he never deleted his read e-mail until he
had to either. The subject lines were (to say the least) enlightening.

-> SD #1164 - Exsanguination Attack Protocols
-> Re: Who do they think they're kidding?
-> I think I saw one
-> Status Report: The Bronze incident
-> SD #1165 - Departmental Policy on Night Attacks
-> SD #1166 - Special Protective Gear Authorized for Night Patrols
-> Yeah, but what if they aren't Christian?
-> Volunteers wanted for Special Night Tactical Unit
-> Who ya gonna call ... S.N.T.U.
-> Where's Nick Knight when you really need him?
-> SD #1167 - Special Weapons Authorized for Night Patrols
-> Where do I get silver bullets?
-> Hey, Lone Ranger, you made a miSTAKE!
-> SD #1168 - Patrol Update for Sunnydale High School Area

"Well," said Alex, "I guess that answers our question."

"They know," Willow confirmed as she logged off the officer's account. "At least
about vampires."

"That's a good thing, right?"

"At least for them. Maybe not so good for us."

"Why not? They *are* on our side, right?" Even though Alex hadn't actually
decided
yet whether or not to join the team, she certainly considered them to be the
good guys. Willow was about to reply when they were interrupted by the sound
of a car pulling in the driveway. Alex looked at the clock. "That's probably
Mom now. She has farther to come, but usually gets home fir..."

Again they were interrupted, but this time by the sound of a woman's scream
from outside. Both girls stared at each other in horror for a second, then
bolted
down the stairs.


* * * * *

--

Dalton "Hey, look at that! Another cliffie. How'd that get there?" Spence