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Title: Changing Worlds Pro/? (Title subject to change as soon as I can think
of a better one.)
Author: Charity a.k.a. BOB1 (charibob@aol.com)
Rating: Probably nothing higher than a soft R, mostly in the PG-13 range.
Disclaimer: Joss owns the Buffyverse, GGC and Paramount own Now and Again.
Spoilers: Everything through season 4 on Buffy, all of Now and Again.
Distribution: My site (Bite Me... Please?) Anyone else, ask and you shall
receive.
Dedication: To bob3, even though she said she'd help me with this and then
promptly disappeared FIVE MONTHS AGO!!!)
Anti-Dedication: To CBS and Les Moonves in particular, you are evil and must
be destroyed!
Notes: To any N & A fans; after the finale the doc and co. caught up to
Michael and family shortly after they escaped. They managed to convince Lisa
that 'Mr. Newman' was a complete whack-job and that Michael being alive at
the hospital was just a hoax. A few weeks after that, Lisa accepted a
proposal from Gerald Mizenbeck (I'm sorry, please don't kill me) to get away
from the insanity that is Mr. Newman. The doc is rather wary of Michael now
but things have pretty much returned to normal otherwise. Also, the Eggman is
still running loose but is laying low at the moment.
Notes 2: The first part is boring, I know. It's all set-up though and it's
all needed.
Thoughts in [ ]
*********

"Why exactly am I here?" Asked Dr. Morris to the four star general and the
Secretary of State that he was currently in a meeting with.

"You are here, Dr. Morris, because your project is very possibly a disaster
waiting to happen. I'll thank you to remember that Mr. Wiseman has already
escaped on more than one occasion, exposing his rather unique abilities and
leaving the government with quite a mess to clean up." The Secretary of State
leaned in, "And quite frankly, we are tired of cleaning up after Mr. Wiseman
and yourself. The only reason that we have not terminated this project all
together is that when he can be brought to heel, Mr. Wiseman has proven
effectively that the project works. And it would be rather cost-inefficient
to rebuild from the ground up using another brain at this point. But you and
your prototype cannot continue to run around doing whatever you both please.
This sort of behavior is causing us to rethink that position at the moment."

"And so," the general added, "We have decided to bring in an outside
observer. An uninvolved third party if you will."

"General," Dr. Morris replied, "I really don't think that's necessary. Now
that Mrs. Wiseman has remarried, I don't anticipate any more problems with
Mr. Wiseman. He has no more reason to attempt to escape."

"Nevertheless," the Secretary of State answered, "A great many people have
put a lot at stake for this program so far and we will all feel better
knowing that there is an objective party keeping an eye on things."

Dr. Morris smirked a bit at this point and leaned back in his chair. "And
where, gentlemen, do you intend to find this 'uninvolved third party' with a
high enough clearance to learn what we are doing here?" He knew damn well
that anyone who had clearance for this project was already involved with it
and had a firm opinion one way or the other.

"There is a young woman who has knowledge of a slightly similar project that
we had going elsewhere. She's got a genius IQ, will have no trouble with the
technical side at all and probably very little difficulty with the biological
side either and has proven to be trustworthy so far." The general replied.

"Where was this project and why was I not informed about it?" asked Dr.
Morris, feeling rather rattled.

"You were not informed because though both projects shared some similarities,
they also had some fundamental differences. There was no point in informing
you or your counterpart as the projects were incompatible. As to where it
was, it was in a little town called Sunnydale."

***********

It was night in Sunnydale. Not a good time to be out wandering aimlessly but
Willow couldn't bring herself to care. After finding out that Tara was evil,
Willow had drunk half a bottle of vodka and decided to go out for a walk to
clear her head. Not that it was working though, all she could do was brood.

[ It figures. It really just figures. Oz rips my heart into teenie-tiny
shreds so I decide that men suck and go for a woman. Then it turns out that
Tara is an evil half-demon witch who's just interested in me to steal my
powers and try and open the hellmouth. Women suck... Men suck... And I can't
forget Moloch. Demons suck too. Maybe I'll just live alone and raise cats.
Cats don't seem to suck. Dogs suck though, dogs are related to wolves and
wolves suck. Everything sucks. Gee, I'm using the word sucks a lot. I need to
get a new word. But I can't think of any new words. I need my thesaurus.
Where's my thesaurus? I didn't bring my thesaurus. Thesauruses suck. ]

She was so busy in her thoughts of suckage, she didn't notice the van pull up
behind her, or the three men that got out of it. In fact, she didn't notice
anything until she felt the hypodermic needle in her neck. But the blackness
quickly overcame her, insuring that she wouldn't notice anything else for a
while.

*************

She awoke in a small room. It was very gray. The walls were gray, the blanket
on the bed was gray, the carpet was gray. For a moment she thought there was
something wrong with her eyes until she caught sight of her neon green tennis
shoes sitting by the bedside. That reassured her... until she noticed that
the clothing she was no longer wearing the blue and green flowered top nor
the white and green skirt with the ivy patterns that she had been put on
before she went on her drinking binge. Instead she was clad in some sort of
loose-fitting jumpsuit in (what else) gray. Then she started to panic.

[ What happened? What did I do?!?!? Oh Goddess! This is so not good! I'm not
liking this at all! ]

She kept on in that vein until the door opened. [ Arrgh! There's a door there
and I didn't even notice it! Real smart Willow! You could have been out of
here before anyone even knew you were awake if you'd just paid a bit more
attention to your surroundings and a little less attention to your inner
babble. Way to go! Good job there! How the hell could I have missed an entire
door? What kind of dork am-- ]

*a-hem*

Willow was pulled out of her thoughts by a muscular looking man who had
entered the room unnoticed while she was busy berating herself for not paying
attention to her surroundings.

"If you would just follow me Miss Rosenberg, everything will be explained."

"Better idea, how about I just stand here, you explain 'everything' and then
I go home. I have classes and I don't intend to miss them just for....
whatever the hell this is!" Willow was feeling very hungover and also very
much not herself. Plus, she figured saying mean things to the guy that had
possibly kidnapped her (her recollections of the night before were incredibly
vague) probably wouldn't lose her any points with The Powers that Be.
Besides, her favorite skirt was missing and someone had undressed her without
her permission (probably). Adding all those things up made for a cranky
Willow.

The man let out a sigh. "Miss Rosenberg, I assure you, you are perfectly
safe. But there are some very important people who wish to speak with you
*now* and if you don't follow me then I'll be forced to drag you to them
kicking and screaming."

After a few moments of careful consideration, Willow chose the lesser of two
evils and followed the man under her own power.

He led her to a room with a table and several chairs, two of which were
occupied by middle-aged men, one of them in uniform and the other in a very
expensive suit.

The one in the suit looked up and said, "If you will be so kind as to sit
down Miss Rosenberg, we will explain what is going on." As Willow sat down,
he continued. "Miss Rosenberg, because of your knowledge of the fiasco that
was caused in Sunnydale by Professor Walsh, you have been chosen by your
government to keep an eye on a project we have going in New York."

"Um," Willow interrupted. "Didn't you guys learn your lesson last time? You
know, what with the havoc and people dying and stuff. I would have thought
that would have put a damper on your little projects."

The guy in the uniform answered. "Well, this project was happening at the
same time as the Initiative, so the mistakes hadn't been made to learn from.
Plus there have been no deaths associated with this one and in fact, many
lives have been saved. And the person in charge of this project isn't insane
as Maggie Walsh clearly was. But despite all of that, we have learned which
is why you are being brought in. You will keep an eye on things and if this
project starts to go the way of the Initiative, then you tell us and we'll
shut it down *before* it gets out of hand."

"And what if I say no?" Willow replied. "I have a life and school and stuff
and don't really feel like baby-sitting your megalomaniac scientists who seem
to get a kick out of playing God."

"If you say no, Miss Rosenberg, then you will be held in a maximum security
facility until we find a way to remove this knowledge from your head and we
will simply take one of your friends instead." The man in the suit answered.

"Guess I have no choice then, do I?"

"No, none at all."

***********

The next day

Willow was feeling remarkably better as she was again led into the meeting
room. A good portion of her good feeling was attributed to her hangover being
gone, some of it was because they had returned her clothing (it turns out
that it was just taken away to be cleaned) and a lot of it was because she
was about to embark on a grand new adventure somewhere where she didn't have
to play her appointed role as research girl/human doormat and Tara wasn't
going to be anywhere near her. All pluses in her book.

"Ah, have a seat Miss Rosenberg and we will discuss what will be happening
over the next few days." The man in uniform told her. The man in the suit (to
whom she had never been introduced to anyway) wasn't present. Willow sat, her
natural curiosity and optimistic outlook overcoming any misgivings that she
might still have been having (for the moment.)

"Tomorrow, you will be flown to New York where you will be met by General
Piett who will show you where your apartment is; we've arranged a nice place
for you about a block away from the project headquarters. He will then escort
you to the townhouse where we are running things, which is where you will be
spending the majority of your time. The next day, you will meet Dr. Morris,
who is in charge of the project as well as the prototype. Dr. Morris and the
prototype are currently at a military installation while we tighten up
security but they should be back by then. Dr. Morris has been instructed to
give you access to all the files regarding the project as well as the video
surveillance tapes that have been taken of the prototype so far. Over the
next few weeks we want you to go through them and get a feel of what's going
on. You will report to General Piett after you've had a chance to do so. Just
tell him any initial feelings you have about the project. You will also
continue to report to General Piett on a semi-regular basis just to let him
know how you think things are going and you can contact him at any time that
you feel things are getting bad or if you have any general misgivings about
any aspect of the project." He paused for a minute to let it sink in so far.

[ So far not too bad. My own apartment! In New York! How cool is that!
Reports icky though. Way too much like having to give a speech in front of
class or something. But on the upside it sounds like they are actually paying
attention to what's going on with this one unlike the disaster that was Adam.
That's of the good. ]

When he saw that she had digested things so far, he continued. "The apartment
will be paid for by the government and you will be given a salary as well.
After all, slavery was abolished a long time ago. As for school, if you wish,
you will still have time to take classes though you won't have enough time to
be a full time student. You will be allowed to contact your friends and
family but you can't tell them what you are doing and quite frankly, we'd be
much happier if you didn't tell them where you were. It just wouldn't do for
you to have surprise visitors when there is an important exercise on and
such." He stopped again, wondering how she would take that bit of news.

"I can't do that." Willow replied. "My friends would freak out if they
couldn't find me if they needed me. Besides, if I have time to go to classes,
I'm assuming that I'll be getting some off time sooner or later. If my
friends want to visit then I'll just visit with them then."

"We figured you would say that, which is why we didn't make it mandatory that
you not tell them where you were. But it is imperative that you tell them
nothing about the project, for national security reasons as well as for their
own well being. Everyone who knows about the project is either a government
official, personally involved with the project or is imprisoned to ensure
that there are no leaks to foreign governments. And I doubt that you wish to
see your friends in prison for the rest of their lives."

"Right. Top secret. Got it."

"The corporal will escort you to your quarters now. Get some rest. tomorrow
is going to be a long day."

***********