(Same excuse)
"Daughter of Rosenberg..."
Summary: One year after the events of "Groom of Rosenberg" Buffy
the Rosenberg Monster and her honey have returned to ask a special
favor of their creators Rosenberg and Praetorius...While Tara faces
the
more or less Big Bad...
Disclaimer: Would Joss want his name associated with this? I think
not...But anyway all BTVS characters remain the property of Joss
Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the
Vampire Slayer series...Though his brother Mort gets nothing...
Archived at the Cicelyverse page of the BR verse,
www.geocities.com/buffyrebecca/Cicelypg.html...
Prologue...
That same evening in 1891...Darkness...We find ourselves again
outside
a large English manor house appearing out of the mists...Well
isolated
from intruding eyes...
A heavy rainstorm, accompanied by severe gusts of wind, punctuated by
blasts of thunder and lightning continues to tear the fabric of
night...
But the glow of a warm and cheery fire is spied through a large side
window...We hear strains of music playing as we move up to that
window...And see, scattered in chairs about the large
fireplace...Angelis, Spike, and again diligently working at
needlepoint...Drusilla...
All in rather elegant clothes of the era...
Drusilla has just completed the horrifying tale of the mad Willow
Rosenberg, her even crazier fellow mad scientist, Andrew Praetorius,
and their joint project in resurrection...
Which oddly enough had managed a rather pleasant ending...Which to
present company probably constituted the most horrifying ending
possible...
Though the loss of the truly evil Mr. Mears was indeed a tragedy,
Angelus noted...
And Spike was finding himself oddly intrigued and contented to hear
of
his...possible...future with a dead and hideously resurrected
Slayer...
Though, as Dru pointedly reminded him...It was only a potential
future...One of the infinite possible in an infinite universe...
The arrival of a rather dark and stormy Darla, rather matching the
night she'd endured outside, back from a somewhat less than
completely successful hunt...One lousy gatekeeper and I drank him
myself, go and find your own damn dinner, she groused...Brought a
sudden end to further discussion...
"What the devil were you all gabbing about?..." she
demanded...Grabbing a glass of Angelus' "special" vintage
"wine" from the bottle on the table...
"I was telling my new story, Grandmother..." Dru eagerly began...
"Lovely..." Darla cut her off...
"A grand tale, dearest..." Angelus noted... "Dead but horribly
resurrected, embittered Slayer turning on and threatening all
Mankind,
brutal raging mobs, mad scientists, fair amount of violence and
bloodshed...I gave a big thumbs up..."
Uh-huh...Great... "Somebody get these damned boots off me..." Darla
growled...
Damn well time I reminded these idiots who the goddamn Queen of this
pride is...
"And our William burned to death..." Angelus grinned...
"Hey, I was the hero...And then some, I'd say..." Spike
frowned... "Say, Dru...Just how and when the hell did I...?"
"...Become such a dim-witted wuss...?" Angelus finished
brightly...Spike snarling at him as Dru pulled the boots of a
frowning
Darla...
"No doubt you get your pathetic soul back sometime between now and
then..." Angelus continued...As Darla stared a bit at the boys...Then
Dru...
Soul?...Noble?...What the hell have you been telling them?...
Though Spike burning to death does sound entertaining...
"Oh, no Angelus..." Dru interrupted politely... "It's the
effect of a device restraining Spike's nature and allowing
William's partial resurfacing...Placed in his brain by a future
government organization in the United States...Operating covertly in
one of those states or whatever there..."
In my...? Spike blinked...
"The hell you say?...Really?...Damned American barbarians..."
Angelus shook his head... "Though it couldn't happen to a more
deserving fellow..." he sneered...
"You seemed pretty chummy with that Slayer's
gang...'Angel'...Before you got a look at the dead Slayer creature
and ran off..." Spike noted...
"Oh, yes...Father will have his soul back by then...I have seen
it..." Dru nodded eagerly...
Brrh...Ha...Spike chortled...Darla blinking...
Say wha...? Angelus stared...
"Well, I think we've had enough horror for one..." he began...
"Wait a minute..." Darla put up a hand...
This is beginning to get interesting...
"Dru, what happened to Angelus...How'd he get
a...Eehew...soul?..."
Dru pondered, closing eyes, brow furrowing...
"Hmmn...Sorry, Grandmother...I can't see much on that...Something
to do with him murdering some powerful person's relative...It will
happen within the next decade, though..."
Note to self, Angelus thought...Avoid capitals, large cities, country
estates for next ten years...
Try sticking to the open road, the countryside where the sometimes
sturdy, if fearful and ignorant, but generally nourishing peasant,
bold
highwayman, and gypsy wanderers roam...
Ah, gypsies...Delightfully entertaining people and such a spice to
their blood...
"But of course, it's only a possible future, not definite..." Dru
noted...
"And the Slayer could come in in the next five minutes and kill us
all..." Darla frowned sourly...
"So even without a soul, I'm a noble and romantic hero...?" Spike
asked, rather obviously pleased at the notion...
"Sounds like he's the one with the soul...And I smell the stink of
it and Humanity on him..." Angelus said, lip curled
disdainfully...Spike donning face for combat...
"Boys...Hey!!..." Darla hissed, then bellowed...Likewise taking
face... "Morons?!...We have an excellent human staff asleep upstairs,
whom if we want to retain their services and this fine home we must
not
allow to become suspicious of us..."
Beyond thinking we're the usual sort of English countryside
degenerate aristocrats with the typical perversions...
Hell, we're generally quieter and better behaved than most...
The boys, rather accustomed now to the finer things and equally eager
to retain them for as long as possible, relented...
"So was this more of your monster story from the other night?...The
dead Slayer resurrected as a demented, bitter fiend by her flaky
lesbian friend and her..." Darla paused...In 1891 a bit much even for
her...
"Companion...?"
I asked you if I should drop the unholy love story...Dru hissed to
Spike...
"Do she and Spike go off to lay waste and kill?..." a happy ending
to a tale with a Slayer for once...
"Oh no, Grandmother...You see, Spike gets killed and she has him
resurrected...Sort of immortality and relatively indestructibly human
(indestructibly?...Spike beams) with soul...There's a blast at the
mad wiccan's laboratory and they slip off when no one's
watching..."
Oh...Darla shrugged a little...
Charming...
"People do get killed, though?..."
"An innocent woman by her evil husband, the evil husband, Spike, and
several vampires..." Dru noted...
Hmmn...Well...
"But I am the hero, right?...And got the girl?" Spike eyed her...
Ye...ah...Dru, curtly... "A deformed, seven foot, brain-damaged
ex-Slayer with green skin..."
"All yours, boy..." Angelus beamed...
Heh...Even with a soul, I've still got a brain...
"Well, she seemed very loving...And she was getting better by the
end...Say I was tall as well by then, right?..."
"Yeah..." Dru, even more curtly...Darla rather amused now...
"Say what was that about her being...What was that name?..."
Angelus, eyeing Spike who'd missed one vital section, went for the
kill...
"Ah, Cicely reincarnated...Right..." he beamed...Dru looking a bit
concerned as Spike stared...
Cicely?...
"Oh, right...You knew a girl of that name, didn't
you...William...?" a wider beam...
"This...'Buffy?'...Was Cicely?...My...er...The Cicely I..."
Spike looked at Dru...
Ummn...
Darla ever more amused...This was sounding better all the time...
"It's only a potential future..." Dru feebly noted...
"You're saying Cicely...Didn't hate me?...Comes back for
me?..."
"No doubt your soul's pathetic whining forced her to try and shut
you up..." Angelus smiled...
"Was she a Slayer, then too?...Is that why...?"
Dru looking so pathetic herself now, even Darla was a little torn
between sympathy and savage amusement...
Naturally, savage amusement easily winning out...
"Is there any more...?" she asked... "I could use some
laughs..."
"Yeah, is there, Dru?..." Spike, eager...
"And does Spike get brutally killed again?..." Angelus, hopeful...
"I don't think I've any more for tonight..." Dru frowned at the
general group...Looking away...
"Now, girl..." Spike came over...Patting hand... "As you say,
it's only a potential future...Like Angelus turning gay and getting a
soul..."
"She never said I turned gay..." Angelus stared...
Would explain some things...Darla thought...
"You gave up a beautiful Slayer even before her resurrection...I'd
sure wonder about you...And like Dru says, an infinitely possible
universe..." Spike grinned...
"Dru?...I did not turn gay...Right?..."
Well...Father...Dru began, diplomatically...
"Might as well have, soul boy..." Spike noted...
"Tell us more, Dru...Sit down, morons and be quiet!..." Darla
hissed... "C'mon, dear...We're all attention...Tell us what
disasters followed..."
"I must be true to my visions, grandmother..." Unfortunately...Dru
thought, sighing...And glaring a bit at Spike who was far too eagerly
attentive now...
"Oh, very well..." All took seats...
"It was a night, much like this...A fierce rainstorm and its howling
winds raging through the little town of Sunnydale, California, USA,
one
year after the monster and her mate had been presumed lost in the
terrible explosion at the Rosenberg laboratory...Only two aware that
her fate had not been as tragic as the others presumed...When an old
friend from that tragic past decided to pay a call on Ms. Willow
Rosenberg..."
"Ms.?..." Angelus, Spike, Darla looked at each other...
"I'll explain later..."
***
Part I...
2003...The Castle Rosenberg...Imported from Europe...Sunnydale,
California...
A dark and naturally, stormy night...
A solitary figure wending its way up the long driveway...Rather
content
despite the weather...
Singing...Yes, in the rain...In fact...
"I'm the Missus...the pregnant...Missus..." newly married...And
contentedly pregnant Anya Harris happily sang, hopping puddles...
Of course something cautious future father Xander would never
allow...But what Daddy...Ha, hah she hugged herself...Didn't know,
wouldn't hurt him...
Hmmn...She paused...A sudden feeling gripping her...Residue perhaps
of
her old power...Maybe result of constant exposure of her human senses
to the occult world in her work with the former and current
Slayers...Possibly her enhanced maternal protective instinct...
But definitely a tingling of what her Mister liked to call her
"spider sense"...
Though of course currently future Dad was busily attempting to purge
all such unfatherly tendencies as comic book references from his
future
Daddly character...Going for a good combination of Alan Thicke, Andy
Taylor, and just a touch of Jim Anderson...Father not necessarily
always knowing best, but certainly making the effort...
She looked around, pulling her coat tight around her...Certainly dark
and lonely enough to attract some Thing...With capital T...
Geesh, with all their cash the Rosenbergs could install a few
driveway
lights...It's dangerous this curving long road up to the
castle...Though she was wishing now she'd chosen not to have Dawn
drop her off at the lower end on her way to her study group at
UCal-Sunnydale...
"Is anyone there?!..." she tried a bold front... "I'm a friend
of the Slayer's you know...And she don't take kindly to having
friends stalked!..."
Or rendered limb from limb...Eaten...Turned into a love puppy
servant...Vamped...
Thank God Faith's reformation had been quite sincere...Even if her
tendency to ape her deceased role model was a little unnerving at
times...
They'd just barely managed to restrain her from dyeing her hair
blonde...So far...And Anya rather suspected Dawn hadn't actually been
kidding when she'd mentioned, as a supposed joke, that Faith had
asked permission to legally change her name to Buffy Faith...
Nothing...Not a sound...And yet...Somewhere, out there in the dark...
A branch or something snapped...
Ok...Time for mommie genes to kick in...Yep, feel that adrenalin
rush...She ran for it...Not quite realizing just how loud a decibel
level her screaming had reached...
Flashlight moving toward her, a voice...Phew...She slowed, gasping
now...
"Anya?!..." Jonathan Levinson, Willow's trusted assistant and the
Rosenberg estate manager hurried down to her...A bit ridiculous in
large raincoat...But one Dawn Summers who had been taking an
increasing
interest in his general well-being since her sister had emphatically
declared him "nice" shortly before her supposed tragic demise in
last year's laboratory mishap...Had made him promise to keep properly
covered in such weather...
"Jonathan!...I think some thing or one's following me!..." Anya
ran to him, panting wearily...
After all, luggin' an extra thirty or so...
He looked back down the road...Shining his special flashlight with
the
additional useful feature of a UV setting calibrated to the solar
frequency capable of roasting certain unsavory members of the
underworld...A little idea of his own now used by both the Slayer and
her inherited supporters in their work to good effect...
Hmmn, no screams of searing agony...And no sounds or signs of pursuit
by anything...He scanned the edge of the driveway on either
side...Nothing...
"I know something was there!..." Anya gasped...
"I'm sure there was...But it's gone for the moment...C'mon,
you've got get into the house, catch your breath, and get dry..."
She continued to peer into the dark...Damn, I know what I know...
And I was right about Buffy surviving the mill fire last year...
Hmmn...She glanced at Jonathan, who was now firmly guiding her toward
the house...
I still wonder about that last night...We never did find a trace of
Buffy or William...And he and Dawn sure seemed to be sharing a little
secret that night...
Though it's true I did suggest to Xander it could've been that
they'd had sex...And then after that, things got a little busy what
with him wanting to go bludgeon the truth out of Jonathan and all...
"I did feel something, Jonathan..." she insisted as they reached
the grand entrance of the Castle Rosenberg...Jonathan nodding to the
security guards at the station Willow'd had set up after that
night...She obviously having felt a little uncertain as to the surety
of her somewhat emotionally capricious creation's demise herself...
Still after a year with no further upsetting reunions...She'd been
relaxing a bit...And enjoying her marital status with her spouse, the
beauteous Tara...
(What?...Darla stared... "Dru told us earlier...Everybody can marry
anyone by 2003..." Angelus noted... "How about animals, Dru?..."
he asked...The others looking at him...
Geesh, I just wanted a good gory family tale...Hope this isn't gonna
be some kind of bizarrely perverse thing, Darla thought, eyeing
Dru...The kid is getting a little more beyond the fringe every
night...)
"I believe you..." Jonathan patted the rain-soaked, slightly
shivering Anya... "But you've gotta get in now...We'll tell
Willow and get some help for a quick search..."
They went in...While from a distance down the driveway, just in the
shadows of the forest, a solitary tall figure looked after them...
Blinking a bit and waving arms slightly while trying to stay
hidden...That UV flash had been a bit disconcerting...Though
fortunately not long enough to cause serious eye damage...
Gee...Buffy thought staring up the driveway...A lightning
flash...God,
me hate lightning...However life-giving it might be...Revealing her
wan, greenish-hued face...And her immense, seven-foot frame in the
longest coat William had managed to find for her on one of his
cautious
shopping/snatching forays into town...
Anya looked awful happy...Just before my terrifying presence got her
going...
***
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