"The Buffy Effect..." VII... Part I...
reg...@aol.com
PG-13
Disclaimer: No, Joss, no...I make no claims, put that thing down!
It's all yours and ME's.
Spoilers for Angel to this week...Flee at once!...
Summary: Similar to my Immortal Beloved series of sketches, and my
Semi-Parallel Lives bits mostly just short brainstorming ideas for
other tales...As with both of those, some bits may be multipart,
others just a few lines...
***
Part I…
“It should’ve been bliss...” Spike smiled wanly at Buffy...Xander
watching carefully, silently, from the corner he’d retreated to...
Mears sourly glaring at all from the bench where he sat, hands still
securely cuffed...Occasionally sipping from a Coke bottle...The
lukewarm Coke bottle, he frowned...
No ice...? Geesh...
“I had a vamped Buffy who fancied me...And was as good killin’ ‘em as
she’d been saving ‘em...And with quite an imaginative bent...But...”
he shrugged at her quiet stare...
“Somehow...It just wasn’t...You...Though make no mistake, I wasn’t
exactly holding her back...Even if the chip kept me from joinin’ in on
some of the fun...But she knew I wasn’t quite...A part of me not
quite...”
“Touching...Can we get the hell out of here now?...” Warren broke
in...
“Shut up...” Buffy waved him off...
“Look, you got your boyfriend...Lets find the other girlie and get me
home....My job is done...”
Unless...He eyed her, a side glance at Spike...
“If you might be thinking it’d be best to leave the sisters here...I
might be of...”
“Shut up or you’ll be using that straw for breathing...” she
said...Turning back to Spike...
“She knew that...That you didn’t...”
“She knew...You’re a perceptive girl in any form, Buffy...” he
smiled... “And being a Buffy, vamp or no, she set out to put things
right...”
Buffy stared at him...
“She tried to get her soul back?...”
“Yeah...” he nodded... “Not that I put it in words...Not wishing to
offend a girl who’d offered to put the US at my feet for a wedding
present, so to speak... But she’d guessed I was missing something in
her...”
“We’d kept our heads low for the first months...Only a few spectacular
kills...Strutting her stuff to impress me, I believe...But when she
decided to give me what she knew I wanted...”
“She went to Willow...” Buffy said, quietly...
Xander moved in his corner...
“Yeah...” Spike nodded... “But I’m afraid Red was not in a cooperative
mood...And Giles...Well, maybe he’d figured we’d want to take Willow
out first in our campaign of evil, something like that...”
“The man never understood me...” he shook his head... “I’m not cut out
for world conquest...”
“Willow turned her down...”
“Lets say...” Spike grinned faintly... “She put her objections a bit
more firmly...”
“And my girl...Feelin’ she’d made a reasonable request...In a
friendly, not-too-threatenin’ manner...Took offense at an attempt,
mainly on my person...And chose to unleash holy Hell as only an
aggrieved Slayer-vamp could...”
“A note of despair in the whole thing, really...” he sighed... “She
knew, maybe sooner than I did, without the soul things would never
quite...But she was magnificent...Giles’d brought in some quite heavy
guns from England to deal...They were no match for Anne, even with my
chipped weight draggin’ on her...And each try only inflamed
her...Hell, she’d only wanted me...And her soul back...For me...”
“And she did all...This...” Buffy, flatly...
“In part...Some of what Giles and Willow sent in to deal did their
share...Giles and his Council got a bit desperate after Anne took out
Angel and most of LA...”
“She’d tried to get him to cough up the curse...” he explained...
“When he wouldn’t...On instructions from our Puritan tormentors who
preferred their dear friend soulless and therefore easier to
terminate...She freaked...It was her last chance, you see...We not
being persona grata with anyone demon or human magically gifted by
then...” he smiled, shrugging... “Impatient lass, my poor girl...”
“I understand...” Buffy said, quietly...
Xander, staring at her from his corner...
“I told them...” he said... “But Giles wouldn’t...”
“Always there for me, good ole Giles...” Buffy said, a bit grimly...
“I wonder if he really missed that day...”
“He must have known about Cicely even before you and she...I...Found
out...” she answered Spike’s look... “He was out to kill you to stop
me from doing what I tried to do more than a century ago...But he
probably had orders to deal with me if necessary...”
“He did have a chance to take you out, Buf...Shortly after your
rebirth...” Spike sighed... “He hesitated then...And I think maybe
that’s what caused him to hold so grimly to his own stand...”
“Sure...But Willow...Wouldn’t she even listen?...”
“I think...They may have told themselves they were doing what you
really wanted...That their Buf would never want existence in a vamp
body...But in fact, in their hearts, I think they thought...If they
brought you back...They’d somehow lose you for good...To me...”
“And then after you’d killed Tara trying to get Willow to take you a
hair more seriously...” he paused...
“You meant to vamp her...Turns out she wasn’t a good candidate...In
fact...She’d already been vamped a long time ago...The soul went right
back to its old host...The body couldn’t accept a new demon...So Annie
made the best of things and left the body on Wil’s door step...A token
of her intent to have her way or else...”
“And Wil took that badly...” Buffy eyed him...
“I think learning who Tara really was...Had been...” he paused... “Was
worse for her...”
“Hard to find out you’ve been in love with Drusilla for years...” he
shrugged... “Though judging by Tara, my poor Dru was a wonderful girl
in her human day...”
It’s me he loves...Not her...Oh, I could...She thought, staring...
Warren is right...I could take him with me...He is my Will, really...
If I could just...
Be Anne for a few minutes...Like I was back home, with my
Willow...Only just a little more so...
Lucky bitch...She has the demon for an excuse...
“What’s that?!...” she asked, sharply...But relieved at the blaring
noise filling the room...
Thank God...
Spared my first...Yeah, she’d never let it go without a knock-down,
drag-out...
“Perimeter alarm...” Xander spoke up, rising... “Something trying to
break through Willow’s barrier...”
My first...Murder...
“Anne?...” Spike looked at Xander...Who trembled a bit, but shook
head...
“You saw...Willow burned her...Bones and bits...”
“I saw...” Spike nodded... “But even Red didn’t believe after she
couldn’t find the remains...And someone is out there...”
“My twin...Triplet...I’d say...” Buffy said...Her cold tone causing
all three to look at her...
Only a part of me...Would it really be murder?...
I have a Will here, now...No, not my Will, exactly...Oh, but I’ve
failed him so many times already...This might be my last chance...
Look at him...It’s William...The damned soul’s a quick trip to Africa
away...If I leave him here and my counterpart’s gone...I know what
this Giles and Willow will do to him...
Am I the Cicely Walthrop who abandoned everything for him?...Am I
really ready to do...Anything...To save him...?
Hmmn...Warren thought, staring at her...I think...I may actually sense
a Summers growing part of a brain...
After all, isn’t she?...Isn’t that why she left us?...She wasn’t going
to wait this time...And if she can...
“Can you let her in, Xander?...” she asked...He looked at her set,
hard face...
“Don’t worry...Whoever she is, I won’t let her hurt you...” she gave
him a faint smile...
***