Chapter Text
Despite that incredibly hectic first week, the rest of the summer passed without any further big incidents or earth-shattering reveals. Tara found herself easily fitting into Willow's old routines, even as they were adjusted to help Willow break out of the apathetic rut that had controlled her life for years. Willow did the obligatory chafing at some of the changes in her cozy - if mind-numbing - day-to-day but was very grateful for the incitements to break her own self-imposed isolation.
It wasn't even really any huge changes for her. Instead of spending the entire day in the yard or reading indoors in the darkness, she now also took daily walks with Tara and together they explored the suburbs. Willow's famous lack of interactions with the outside world meant that they were still mostly left alone as kept others at a distance but both would eventually become regular sightings in their community during their summer walks.
Gossip spread quickly - just like it always had in Revachol - and Willow wasn't surprised when she returned at the beginning of the next school year to a couple of fresh complaints of her 'immoral lifestyle corrupting the children' from parents - both known to her as well as a few new actors - who didn't want an out lesbian teacher working in the school.
Despite the recurring butting of heads between Willow and the school board they eventually decided to back her in the struggle that accompanied the complains. That many students - not just the members of the growing GSA club but also other students, teens with whom she had no personal history - vocally supported her continued employment didn't hurt their decision to stand behind the young teacher.
Other things would change a lot more slowly. Willow kept her drab choices in clothing that she had adopted following Tara's death and she would never be as talkative while they were outdoors as she were when they were in the safety of their own home. And it soon became their home - both de facto and de jure. Willow simply refused to once more put Tara in a situation where she would have no control of her living situation - which could leave her completely within Willow's control of her future - and soon the home was co-owned equally by the couple.
They contacted Dawn later during the summer. She swore - and never once broke her oath - to not talk to anyone but Faith(and Dawn's eventual children) about Willow's existence or Tara's whereabouts. Over the years, the four women met in small towns in the central states of the US but Faith never visited their actual home. She absolutely refused to retire and as such they kept their meetings elsewhere in respect of the witches' decision to bow out of the Good Fight. Dawn visited them often, especially when her kids had grown up and gone away for college many years later.
Tara did finish her art history degree as planned and, upon graduation, got hired at Revachol High to join her partner as a teacher. It was upon Sandra's urging that she were immediately appointed to the secondary faculty sponsor of the GSA club. A considerable amount of her free time was spent in a small building they had constructed in their backyard, painting for no other reason than for her love of the art. She never became rich or famous from her paintings but they were none-the-less appreciated decorations in the local bars and cafes of Revachol.
Once the US Supreme Court had legalized gay marriage nationwide they were one of the first couples in line to get married, electing to wait until the entire country had embraced the institution rather than just their own state. Despite - and partly because of - their relative isolation the Mactrista couple soon became local gossip magnets in the insulated suburbs. Rumors grew and flew as they never became the social butterflies that some had expected once it was obvious that Tara were going to stay with the introverted teacher.
Willow and Tara never adopted or had any kids of their own, not by magic or even insemination. Instead, they became the 'Gileses' of the GSA club and over the decades they watched hundreds of teenagers grow up into strong and proud adults. They actually fostered a couple of the kids over the years - teenagers who had been thrown out and disowned by their parents due to their sexual identity and/or orientation - and as the years passed and tolerance in society grew and then - eventually - became acceptance the GSA became more of a mainstream student club instead of the gathering of outcasts it had been at the beginning.
Of that first batch of members, Bella eventually inherited her uncles company and became a local power player within the political and business world. Rick moved away at graduation and eventually ended up a torts lawyer while Sapphire became an EMT nurse in Boston. Sandra tried - and succeeded - to convince the couple to teach her magic but they soon realized that she just didn't have the inherent talent necessary to cast spells or perform any but the most basic of rituals. Instead, she dove into the theoretical side of the supernatural and eventually ended up a famous and renowned professor of the history of women's studies within ancient mythology.
They never reconnected with either of their biological families. Tara had no interest in her brother or father ever finding out she was even alive. The women knew they'd be nothing but a source of resurfaced anguish and anxiety if they would become a part of her life again and it wasn't until Tara received the notification of Donny's death - he ran his truck off a bridge while under the influence of alcohol - in 2023 that she were also informed that her father had died a decade earlier. She sold all that she had inherited from her family - without even visiting her old house - and only returned to her hometown once every year to celebrate the birthday of her late, beloved mother.
Ira and Sheila Rosenberg died later that decade - still under the illusion that their only child had died after disappearing back in May 2003. Willow visited both of their funerals in Sacramento - in disguise - and as the sole inheritor of their estates she sold almost everything, keeping only a few choice family keepsakes, and used the profits to support charities in their name.
Not a day that passed where Willow didn't hate herself for and the bad choices and mistakes that she had made over the years. For her own sanity's sake, she generally didn't follow international news. Whenever the Slayer Organization did make the newsreels - which was often in cryptic ways(not unlike how the Scoobies' activities had been reported in Sunnydale) - it was often following incidents where one or more of the young women had died fighting evil. In her mind, it was all due to Willow and Buffy's decision - that fateful spring morning in 2003 - that they were suffering. Every single time she came upon such news, she were almost crippled in anxiety for the rest of the day - fearing what would come for her once she fell asleep and dreamed of their deaths.
Even when Willow didn't hear about the Slayers on the news she experienced their suffering in the nightmarish visions that always followed their deaths. One by one, she saw the end of women she had gotten to know in the war against the First Evil. Eventually even younger girls - those who had been called at the age of thirteen long after had Willow cast the spell to activate all the potentials present at the time - began to appear in her dreams. That was when she realized that it would be a curse that followed her for the rest of her life. There would always be new girls the Powers That Be would press into service. There would always be new nightmares.
Faith Lehane died in 2010 - four years after the reunion of Willow and Tara - when she was ambushed by a large cadre of aged vampires. They had managed to goad her into an unwinnable battle and she died standing, taking most of the cadre with her before reinforcements could arrive. The Cleveland Slayers organized an 'Irish Wake' for her funeral. Willow attended the wake - using a glamour and the alias Danielle Mactrista for the first time - as the quiet Wiccan partner of the famous Tara Maclay. Curiously, a few attending the proceedings felt Danielle bore a small resemblance to Tara's first girlfriend but the shy Wicca refused to comment on the matter. After the notoriously rowdy service, the Slayers and allies led an impromptu - if extremely furious - purge of the area over the next couple of days and nights. The ad-hoc army slaughtered hundreds of vampires and demons in the area and brought down three different cults with apocalyptic ambitions.
The fighting left the Ohio Hellmouth(and the entire surrounding city) free of the underworld pests for almost half a year before a number of brave demons dared to make camp in the city once more. The 'Lehane Crusade of the Faith' would be a recurring story, one of horror and warning when told to demon spawnlings for decades to come and one of strength and legend when told to young Slayers and other warriors on the side of good. The veterans of the fighting were both feared and revered for their involvement of the 'punitive' action. It was also the last time both Willow or Tara wielded any kind of magic in a combat situation as they temporarily suspended their retirement. Despite the breach of their otherwise unshakeable principles they felt it was the right thing to do, seeing no better way to honor their passionate - and(if pressed for further description) often reckless - friend's passing.
Rupert Giles died in 2014, following a fast decline into dementia as the repeated(and untreated) concussions - accumulated in the line of fire over the years - eventually made their presence felt. He was honored worldwide in secretive memorials by Slayers and Watchers alike as(for both good and bad) he soon became the ideal that the next generation of Watchers looked towards for inspiration. His death due to brain injuries acquired in the line of fire were - ironically enough - also to become the new trend as the second most common type of fatality of Watchers(death by exsanguination would forever remain the primary cause of death).
Amy Madison died two years later without anyone even finding out about her fate. She died, alone in a Los Angeles gutter and doped up on dark magic. Due to her old medical records being buried in the Sunnydale Crater Bay the pathologist weren't able to identify her and she were buried as Jane Doe.
In 2020 it was Buffy Summers and William 'Spike' Pratt that were the next of the Scoobies to fall. They died at the end of the year while killing Covidrona, a plague demon. It had attempted to cull the human population with an airborne virus that managed to shut down much of global society for almost an entire year by the end over two million people died before he was stopped for good. Buffy never did meet Willow or Tara again after that fateful summer morning in 2006 and once again Willow had to visit a funeral of a close friend in disguise as 'Danielle Mactrista.'
Danielle drew more than a few curious glances over her heavy(but quiet) weeping as - except for Tara and Dawn - nobody else attending the funeral recognized her true identity. Following the funeral it took weeks before she could start having a semblance of normal life again. Experiencing Buffy's death the night after the actual event scarred her more than she could ever have anticipated, despite getting a notice from Dawn ahead of time.
Even tougher for Willow was when Alexander Summers died in 2029 as a father of three and beloved husband to Dawn. It was an unknown - and therefore untreated - heart condition that did what thousands of demons and vampires had failed to manage in decades of fighting. He died quietly in his sleep at the respectable age of 48.
That he didn't feel any pain as he died offered little solace to Dawn in her grief - they had planned for a long and peaceful life together when their children had all finally left the nest. Willow visited his funeral - this time undisguised. With most of the 'old guard' having died over the years and with the new generation not carrying the same connections for her(as Buffy, Faith, Giles and Xander had) she thought that she wouldn't have to hide anymore. Dawn's kids were all young adults when Xander had died but they had already been informed about Willow's true identity. Despite opposition they had kept their mother's promise to keep Willow's secret from their father over the years. Willow - and Dawn - simply did not want to tear up old wounds for the one-eyed Watcher who had, after all, already grieved her death in the decades before his own death. The children themselves eventually became occasional visitors to the Wiccan couple over the years to come.
As it were, no-one had expected that Kennedy - who had become the head of the Slayer Organization following Buffy's death in battle - would also attend Xander's funeral. The Slayer and the carpenter had never been close friends and the lingering resentment following Tara's retirement from the Slayer Organization eventually shredded all familiarity that had once been.
Following the dispersal of Xander's ashes, the unavoidable confrontation between Kennedy and the Mactrista couple in the cemetery parking lot became a famous and popular - if oft-exaggerated - Slayer campfire tale. In the story, the ambitious and often proud Head Slayer had loudly challenged the abandonment(and perceived cowardice) from the Wiccan couple. She was then promptly teleported - quite involuntarily - from the burial in San Francisco to her office at the Slayer Headquarters in Scotland.
Mid-sentence.
According to the most often repeated version of the tale; Willow and Tara had teleported her away and then followed her to finish the argument without disturbing the funeral of their fallen friend. They proceeded to proclaim that they would retaliate on any and all attempts towards disturbing their civilian lives, no matter the cause or perpetrator. After they left the warning they teleported themselves back to the funeral, leaving a fuming Slayer thousands of miles from her luggage. There were no further disturbances at the funeral but both Tara and Willow did get the chance to reconnect to their old friends in the Devon Coven who - once they returned from Europe - had realized their identities.
Who were in the right and who was wrong during the tale varied greatly depending on who told it. The more reluctant Slayers were often more inclined to support the witches' stance while those who fully embraced their calling saw their retreat from the front lines as both craven and irresponsible. As it were, there wasn't anyone who dared to actually make the attempt to find the pair - the magical proficiency of the couple was infamous in the organization. That there was a rumor that Willow(as a result for being the one who had activated all the potentials in the first place) were able to take away the Slayer abilities at will did not hurt their efforts to be left in peace. Nobody dared to risk becoming depowered in a world where the enemies of the Slayers were legion.
That the rumor wasn't true - or that Willow was the originator of the rumor in the first place - was a constant source of mild amusement of the couple.
Andrew Wells finally fell to a demon of his own creation later that same year. He had summoned the demon in an attempt to bolster the ranks of the(now thinning) Slayer Organization in preparation of an upcoming battle. In a fashion that were undoubtedly Andrew - he had failed to properly inform one of the local Slayers who then promptly attacked it on sight. Before she were able to finish the fight the demon had worked up a fury that led it to turn against its master and - in one swift move - ripped Andrew's head from his shoulders. It was both a shock to the organization and yet, paradoxically, nobody found it to be an unexpected end of the would-be warlock.
Kennedy died in 2041. The Mactrista couple didn't attend the funeral but sent flowers in their stead. However, many other witches and Slayers did. She was recorded in the annals of history as an efficient, if ruthless, leader of the Slayers but also as a very divisive individual. Her centralization and uniformity alienated many of her ideological detractors and led to numerous of the more idealistic or reluctant Slayers either retiring - or striking out on their own - as individuality and flexibility were stifled in favor of efficiency and militarization. By the end of her career(and life, as were still the nature of the Slayers) the Coven finally had cut all ties to the organization and the relations between the groups would take decades to thaw again under the direction of her more flexible successor.
After Xander's death Dawn finally fully retired from the 'Good Fight.' She had lost dozens of friends and family members over the years and decided to follow her one-time surrogate parents into retirement. By that time, she had been mostly inactive for years and her advanced age and lack of supernatural capabilities meant that her retirement came and went without issue. She sold the California home she had shared with Xander while they had raised their kids, moving instead across the country to a small Boston suburb of no notoriety. There she - if the local rumors were true - became fast friends with a local middle-aged couple of high school teachers across the street. She would eventually - and with their help - author the definitive chronicles of the life and death of Buffy Summers and the stories of her loyal friends that had called themselves Scoobies. 'Buffy Summers - Tale of the Final Chosen One' became a must-read for Watchers and Slayers for as long as the organization existed, in one form or another.
In the first half of the extensive tome, the lives and tales of both Willow Rosenberg and Tara Maclay were heavily featured. Their involvement in the struggle against Angelus, the rebellion against a demonic Mayor, the sabotage of the Initiative, the stand against Glorificus and the war against the First Evil - as well as the cautionary tale of Dark Willow - became guidelines for demon hunters worldwide. Both Wiccans were written out - Willow following her activation of the entire Slayer line and Tara once she left the Organization - and then faded into obscurity. Their later - and final - appearance in the 'Lehane Crusade of the Faith' was the only exception, which did little to diminish the legend of the witches.
The tales of Tara and Willow Mactrista was never recorded in the chronicles.
That story was only theirs to tell.