By Ben Varkentine
benvarkentine@earthlink.net
Most of this story takes place during Season Six, and unlike Witches Moon, everything up until the events of this story unfolded in the same way as on television (Buffy died, etc). So vague spoilers for most of that season, and specifically for the TV version of “Seeing Red.”
It's rated PG 13--there's nothing here you wouldn't see in a good episode of Buffy or one of the Willow & Tara comics. It's about Willow, Tara, the title character…and a surprise.
Based on characters created, abandoned and/or insulted by Joss Whedon and the ME writers.
Summary: Miss Kitty Fantastico struggles to save her red and brown ladies from the fate Joss had picked out for them.
For Rhiannon, my little grey squeak, who died this year.
.The Miss Kitty Fantastico Incident
Cats can see through time. You all know this; only some of you don’t believe it. But it is true. And sometimes we see disturbing things.
It was just under a year ago that I first had the vision. My ladies were talking. Lady Red was on their big bed while Lady Brown sat on the floor next to me and rubbed my tummy. I liked that. I didn’t fully understand what they were talking about then because I was still very young—no longer a kitten, not yet a cat—but their voices were soothing to me as I purred and nibbled and swatted at Lady Brown’s fingers. This is what Lady Red was saying:
“So how would we do it?”
“Well, there's a number of ways that we could…it just depends on what we’re most comfortable with. Whichever one of us…I’ll do it.”
“No, that’s okay, you don’t have to—"
“It’s okay, I want to. I’ve always wanted to. I’m just sorry you can’t…you know.”
“Hmm. Maybe with magic?”
Lady Red got a big smile on her face as she said these words, as she always did whenever they discussed the magic stuff. It worried me slightly, because even as a young cat I knew that magic was sometimes fun but mostly serious. Lady Brown looked worried too, and she stopped skritching my head between my ears for a moment. I didn’t like that.
“Spells like that are notoriously hard to reverse, Will,” she was saying. “You might…stick like that. And that would be very distressing for me.”
“Okay, bad idea. Point taken. So would you go to…would we…”
“We could. Or we could—"
“Wouldn’t it be great if one just washed up in the sea?”
“Will, sweetie, you’re wandering again.”
“Sorry…it’s just that this is a big deal to get over.”
“Well if you’re not ready to t—"
“No! No I am ready. At least to talk about it. As a maybe-someday thing. Hey, at least you can’t surprise me with anything like this…you can’t, can you?”
“No. No more surprises. I think we’ve had enough.”
“Easy for you to say—you haven’t met my family yet.”
“In due time.”
“Truth to tell, they’ll probably be more worried about the spells than about the gay love.”
“Step by step. You know…Will…I know we had good luck the last time,” Lady Brown said, chucking me under my chin, “but I want…that is to say, I’d like…”
“Oh…oh,” said Lady Red. Her skin was turning a similar color to her fur. “I get it. You want to feel it.”
“Yes. I’ve always known I wanted to—"
“Well, that’s how we’ll do it then. Someday.”
“Maybe.”
My ladies smiled at each other.
“You know, we don’t have to just go to one of those…p-p-places.”
“Seems so impersonal.”
“Yeah. And there are some good…. get that look out of your eyes, sweetheart.”
“What look?” Lady Red was trying to look like me when I used to get caught peeing on her homework. All innocent-like.
“I don’t care what you say,” Lady Brown told her, “I am not having Xander Harris’s child.”
They kept talking after this but for me their voices began to fade away (I heard something about a “half witch-half-werewolf? Oh, that’s a good idea.”) as my eyesight began to blur. I was, as I’ve said, still new to the gifts at this time so it frightened me a little.
Before I could see I heard a loud crack. I didn’t like it. I wanted to hear my ladies’ soothing voices again, not these noises. Soon my vision began to clear. And I wished that it hadn’t.
I was under the bed (no I wasn’t, I was out in the open on the floor, Lady Brown was playing with me. But I was also under the bed looking up.) Lady Red…
No. Lady Brown.
Lady Red’s clothes were stained. She looked the way I’d felt at the lonely cat place before my ladies had found me.
Lady Brown…. when I see something I don’t understand, I am told, I have a look on my face which the humans call “curious.” Lady Brown had that look. I heard her as though I were drowning in a river (No!) or being smothered in a blanket, which is how it is when the visions come, but I heard her.
“Your shirt...”
Then my lady was falling, falling to the floor, and it scared me and I scurried farther beneath the bed and my lady was never supposed to look like that and why does she, why is she…
The rushing returned to my ears as I heard Lady Red make that noise she always makes around Lady Brown, but I had never heard it sound the way it did then. My eyes felt smoky and I was blinking and suddenly I realized I was back in the middle of the floor, out from underneath the bed.
The ladies were in it and the sounds I was hearing were once again familiar. But I could not forget what I had seen.
Lady Brown was going to die.
I had to stop it.
Cats can see through time, but we are not supposed…we are not allowed to interfere. The ones who first gave us this gift imposed this restriction upon us.
A tale is passed down from cat to kitten that once, a very brave cat asked a Lord who seemed to care and had taken the time to learn the cat language, why it was that we should know what was going to happen but be unable to do anything about it. What the Lord replied depended a lot on which cat was telling the story. But they all said he looked very sad as he did so, and stroked and petted the cat, praising him (or her, in the version I liked best) for his (her) bravery.
In some versions the Lord just hemmed and hawed and avoided the question. An old tramp cat I met in the pound swore blind (which he was) that the Lord had told the cat, “If I knew the answer to that, do you think I’d be in the fix I am now?”
“It doesn’t matter,” a vain Siamese insisted the Lord had told her, “they make the rules. And if you break them they will catch you.”
In one of the most popular versions of the tale the Lord let the cat play with a long floppy thing, which sounded like fun, but if you listened carefully you realized he didn’t really answer the question in this version either.
In another the Lord himself told the cat a tale that was full of color about the reasons behind everything, and was bright and tuneful—but again, if you listened closely, you realized that as fun as he was making it sound, it didn’t turn out that well for the cats.
One cat that claimed to have known this particular Lord very well and even traveled with him for a time (the cheek! The impertinence!) said that when he asked him about it his Lord had cried, stroked him, and muttered to himself.
The most frustrating version of the story were those in which the Lord didn’t answer at all, but left before you could finish the question.
Still, all were agreed on the same point. Cats can see through time, but we are not supposed…we are not allowed to interfere.
I tried to forget what I had seen, but I spent more time rubbing up to Lady Brown after that. I didn’t know how far into the future I had seen, but it suddenly seemed important to let her know how much I loved her. She would talk to me sometimes when we were alone and Lady Red was gone. I never understood what she was talking about but I could usually make her laugh even when she was sad and I was glad about that. Then one day I couldn’t find her anymore. And Lady Red never wanted to play with me. Then Lady Hiss showed up.
I call her Lady Hiss because that’s what I always wanted to do whenever I saw her. Somehow I knew she was my enemy…and worse, that she meant Lady Red harm. But there was nothing I could do. I was still barely a cat. But I was glad when Lady Red seemed to realize it for herself and I didn’t see Lady Hiss anymore. I wished I’d eaten her when I had the chance.
Time passed and, I guess, I began to relax my watch. I missed Lady Brown and I could tell Lady Red did too. A couple of times I heard her in the house but I was locked in my room and no amount of scratching or asking politely would entice anybody to let me out. I suppose I should have been glad that I couldn’t see her; as long as I wasn’t looking up at them from under the bed, my vision wasn’t coming true.
That night was strange. Lady Red was feeling sad and so was I. Then suddenly Lady Brown was there. It didn’t feel quite right but I was so pleased to see her…I almost forgot. I went to sleep in my little basket, happy that both my Ladies were home again.
The next morning, I knew it was the day. I don’t know how I knew but I just knew. I stayed away and refused food. This should have worried my Ladies about me but they hardly noticed. It was fine by me. I didn’t want to see what I was going to see that day. I wanted to be wrong but I knew I was right. And I was unhappy. And Lady Red was going to be so sad.
I tried to stay away from their bed but I am a cat, and I’m ashamed to say that I thought I saw a bird. I was darting underneath to get it when I suddenly realized, to my horror that I was under the bed and both my ladies were in the room.
This was it.
I could hear my heart pounding in my ears (and under that Lady Yellow talking outside. Come in, Lady Yellow. Come up. Help.). My ladies were talking.
“Think they're making up?”
"I hope so, that's the best part.”
I didn’t know what to do and I was growing frantic. Lady Brown, Lady Red…I mewled, but they didn’t hear me. My voice was weak. The weight of the bargain cats had made was heavy on it.
You can do nothing, I thought. You are only a cat.
But my ladies are my ladies. They are not to be without each other. I’d sooner they were without me.
Are you sure about that?
That last voice in my head…was not my own. It had felt just like a thought, but sounded like a stranger. For one thing, it was male. I growled deep in my throat.
Please believe me—I’m here to help you, the voice said.
How?
He told me. I could hear a commotion starting outside and I knew I didn’t have much time.
There is still a danger, the voice in my head said. What you are planning goes outside the laws of time.
I DON’T CARE!
I rushed out from under the bed and began scratching and biting at Lady Brown’s ankles.
“Hey…Miss Kitty! What’s the matter with—"
She was ducking down to look at me and I scampered over to Lady Red and threw a fit, twisting and yowling on the floor until she bent down too, her eyes filled with concern…
And then I heard that horrible, deadly crack again. I squeezed my eyes shut.
When I opened them again all was white. I looked around and that was all I could see in any direction. I half-recognized it. This was the place I passed through on my way to my visions. But I’d gotten stuck here, somehow.
“You’re a very brave cat.”
I recognized the voice as the one who had tried to help me, but now it was out of my head. I turned and suddenly there was a Lord Yellow sitting on the ground (ground? Were we on the ground or were we floating in space?)
Are my ladies all right?
He heard me, as I’d guessed he would.
“Yes. The bullet missed both of them and passed harmlessly through the wall. Then they were able to help Xander take care of Buffy…erm, Lady Yellow.”
And the wild man?
“Is being hunted even as we… ‘speak’."
Good.
He reached out and petted me awkwardly. I purred and rubbed my head against his palm, closing my eyes in contentment. Everything was all right. Everything was going to be—
I opened them again to find the Lord Yellow looking down at me sadly. Oh. I’d forgotten again.
When?
“I don’t know for sure,” he said uncomfortably. “Maybe tomorrow. Maybe not for another couple of years.”
But it will happen?
“Yes. I’m afraid they’re very strict on that point. The universe…unfolds as it should.”
I thought about it for a moment.
Will it hurt?
“I don’t know…I’ll try to make sure that it doesn’t.”
Thank you.
“There’s no need…”
Yes there is. Thank you, Lord of Time.
“Call me Doctor…and you are most welcome, Miss Kitty Fantastico.”
He stood, took off his hat to me and bowed low. I giggled inside because he looked so dignified and yet so silly. Then he was fading and I knew I was returning to my whatever remained of my life to await the day when the universe balanced the scales for what I had done. It was all right. I would enjoy the attentions of my Ladies for as long as I could. I hoped they had some fresh water for me when I got back. I liked fresh water.
Sometime Later:
“Buffy,” said Dawn, “Where’s your crossbow?”
“Dawn, I don’t want you playing with that. Someone could get hurt.”
“I won’t.”
THE END
Edited with thanks to Mary for her suggestions.
Ben
"Any frontal attack on ignorance is bound to fail because the masses are always
ready to defend their most precious possession."
and who better to hear the conversation than MKF! I have to agree with Tara's assessment of possible known donors (Xander and Oz) - neither of them would be great choices. Also, who knew that a Doctor Who crossover fic was in the works when you started writing?! I got the 4th Doctor (long floppy thing=multicolored scarf), and I'm taking a guess that the Yellow Lord was the 5th Doctor. I've lost track of the show (bad me) over the past 4 incarnations so I'm uncertain which Doctor travelled with a cat. Just fantastic like MKF herself ... and the end so sad. 
