Willow La Fey

Summary: When Snyder orders the gang to wear costumes from mythology, nobody knows the tragedy it will cause. WARNING: Eventual character death(s).

Challenge: personal request from Harry, who has faithfully R&R a lot of my stories.

Timeline: starting in season 2 'Halloween', but going wildly AU from there.

Warning: ehh, probably not for Willow fans.

Thanks to my betas: none this time. I barely managed to get it done in time without sending it off to them. I'll try to get the rest finished within a week.

Disclaimer: BtVS and AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon / Mutant Enemy. Don't own Camelot characters either, but don't have the slightest clue who does since I'm not using a particular book or movie about them. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.

Chapter 1: The Merger

Streets of Sunnydale

Morgana gave a half-smile when she rose to consciousness again. She was happy to be free once more, but seeing as how she wasn't in her own body, that freedom was limited to somebody else's whims. First things first, how did she get here?

Searching through her host's mind, Morgana was surprised, delighted and a touch concerned at what she found. This Willow girl lived on a Hellmouth, was practically obsessive about learning things and had a friend who was the Slayer. The first two could be used to her advantage, while the last one could be a problem if not dealt with properly.

She felt for the magick responsible and almost laughed when she figured it out. A chaos mage…what a fool for attempting a spell like this on a Hellmouth! He wasn't even careful enough about what costumes he allowed to be part of it. If he were, Morgana Le Fay would never have been in the mix.

That begged the question of whether Merlin was roaming the streets somewhere as well.

Unfortunately, that issue had to be set aside until she took care of a bigger problem: what would happen to her when the spell finished or broke apart – depending on how skilled this mage was. Chances were he designed the spell to only have temporary effects, which meant she would be cast back to oblivion for who knows how long. She couldn't allow that to happen.

There was a way around that, however. All she had to do was convince Willow Rosenberg to share her mind and body…at least until Morgana was strong enough to take over and evict her.

The girl's thirst for knowledge and power should work wonders in achieving that goal.

'Miss Rosenberg,' Morgana began. 'A spell has been cast which has the most wonderful side effect.'

'What's that? And who are you?' Willow questioned, sounding suitably scared.

Using her most soothing and seductive tone, Morgana replied, 'My name is Morgana, and we have the opportunity to save the world together. I just need your help in staying here to do it.'

'I thought you were evil, though,' Willow said without thinking. 'At least that's what most of the stories I read about Camelot claimed.'

Rather than take offense, Morgana simply brushed the accusation aside, 'And who writes the stories you read? Men, that's who. Men who didn't want to admit that King Arthur – my beloved brother – would need the help of a woman when he had Merlin on his side.'

Willow never considered herself as vehement a feminist as Gloria Steinem, but she did hate how women were marginalized in society. She could imagine it was worse in Morgana's day. That's why she was willing to believe the ancient sorceress. 'So you didn't fight Merlin?' she inquired.

'I had to once,' Morgana admitted, seemingly reluctantly. She knew that a half-truth went a long way to clouding a lie. 'He was poisoned by the blood of a dragon, which drove him insane. To save my life and the lives of others, I had to fight him.' That much was true, but she left out the part where she was the one who poisoned her nemesis.

Sensing that the young woman was almost convinced, Morgana pushed just a little more, 'Think of how much help you could be to your friend, Buffy, if you knew magick as well as I do. In fact, you could be so powerful that you could take over for her if you wanted. Wouldn't that be a relief to her?'

'Well…she has said before that she hates having the weight of the world on her shoulders,' Willow confirmed. The thought that she could be as powerful as Buffy was appealing…very appealing. And not necessarily for the reasons one might think. If Willow was 'superhero-ish' like Buffy, maybe Xander would look at her differently. 'Okay. What do I have to do?'

A/N: I'm hoping that by putting this part out and getting some feedback, it will help get Musie more interested in the next part(s).