(Yes, at last new...)
"The Buffy Effect..." VII...
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 F
"Xander?!..." Buffy called to the wild looking, still mostly naked but
for a sort of loincloth he must have put on while she was out or more
likely Willow had persuaded him somehow to don...He was staring at the
immobile Willow whose only move in the past ten minutes had been a
steady blink...Shaking his head...
"Xander?...What's Willow done?...Listen to me, Xander!..."
He gave her a brief glance, barely looking at her...And taking Willow
by both hands placed on her shoulders, gently turned her toward the
hallway...
"Xander?!...What's she done to the other Buffy?...Xander, please!..."
He tried to push the frozen Willow to move down the hall but she
remained rigid and nearly toppled from his grip...He shook his head,
muttering, and turned her around, putting his arms under her armpits
to drag her back...
"You can't let her do this, Xander!!..." Buffy cried...Straining
against the chains holding her arms...
"Don't talk to Buffy...This is no good, Willow..." he replied... "No
good..." And started off, pulling Willow back...
***
"Well?..." Warren, impatiently...
Third Buffy was silent...Apparently lost in thought...Hmmn, remote-
control spell jamming-up?...
"Hello?...Lady, do we have a deal?...Only under the forced
circumstances, Buffy!...Or no?..."
"What?..." she suddenly spoke, staring at him...
"Are you gonna let me out of these some time today?" he held up his
shackles...
"Yeah, sure...Just a mo..." she turned away and went over to the
cavern wall where a series of keys hung from imbedded hooks...
"You havin' trouble holding her?..." he asked, carefully...Balancing
in his mind the options...Help Summers III by distraction and win a
few points with the Slayer who most wants to get home...Home as in my
home...Risking a little red headed Wiccan wrath...Or offer sage
counsel on possession stabilization to the new partner and risk a
little blondie Slayer wrath...
Hmmn...Frying vs arms ripped out of the socket...Perhaps here a little
patient nonintervention was the best policy...
"Not quite...Though she is fighting me, this particular spell gives a
pretty strong hold, thanks to the blood and flesh bond...I was trying
to access her memories..." she eyed him...
Ya...Churn my stomach reminding me of that bit of disgusting
cannabilization before dinner, thanks...Warren sighed...
"It seems...From what I could get so far...Your story checks out..."
"Great...Then would you be so kind..." he held up his wrists...
She came over with the keys and unlocked his shackles on the
ankles...And the chains to the wall for his wrists but leaving his
hands cuffed together...
"Hey?...The hands?...Can't work my brand of wizardry without free
hands, lady..."
"Those memories also suggest you're as slimy as the other sister
said...So I'd prefer to keep you a bit restrained, Mears...I can do
any instrument manipulation we need..."
"You're not exactly breeding trust, Ms. Rosenberg..."
"Trust isn't important here, Warren...And it's Summers while I'm in
here..." she frowned...Opening the door to the hallway outside...
"Come on...I miss my boyfriend...And I know he's pining...If he's
conscious..."
Warren glared but got up...
Vague sounds of muttering from down the hallway...Accompanied by
sounds of scuffing shoes...
"Be careful with me, Xander!..." she called... "And don't strain your
back again!...Just lay me down in my sleeping quarters, I'll be
fine..."
"He's gonna ruin your shoes..." Mears noted, watching beside her...
***
Previous, impatiently eyed Anne who, bearing a thoughtful expression,
was carefully picking through a heap of blouses hastily left behind on
the floor of the battered Nordstroms by one or more of the many
previous looter gangs plundering the ruins of this Earth's Sunnydale
Mall...
"Can we go now?..."
"Just a sec...How's this look with my skin?..." Anne held up a tawny
colored blouse...
"Fine...Lets go..."
"I need to see it in a mirror..."
"You have five already...That's plenty...We'll never get to Warren at this
rate..."
"...And Spike...My Spike..." Anne noted carefully, looking up at her
twin...
"Lets remember whom I'm doin' this for...And that's why, we're not going
till I find the right..."
"Five minutes, then I stake you and find him myself..."
"Bad move against Willow..." Anne shook her head... "She's well protected,
I can tell you from past tries..."
"If she's got him..."
"She's got him...Believe me...No little human is gonna go scooting round
here without her catching a whiff...Ah..." she tugged at a silky, red long
sleeve now revealed among the pile...
"You said she wouldn't care about Mears..."
"I said 'little human'...Generalization...Whatdaya think?...I know red
didn't suit me that well human, but with this pale skin..." she held the
blouse to her face...
"There are that few humans left...?"
"Honey, if my guys left any, I will be very surprised...Look around, you
see anyone?...Undead or alive?..."
"The others might..."
"Maybe, if they found him first...But why aren't they lookin' for
you?... My money's on the red Wiccan...And I'd say she probably bagged
them all..."
"She's that good?..."
"Oh, yeah...Comes from takin' on the Queen..." Anne grinned...
"And she'd be that anxious to help even Warren...?"
"Help?...That's debatable...More like...He'd make great bait...Just in
case
when I crawled off to die or whatever after our last get-together, I
didn't quite shrivel up and blow away..."
Previous stared at the vampiress now fiddling with a display stand of
cosmetics...The bastards took all the gloss...They love the shiny stuff...
"So it's personal..."
"Hmmn?...Oh, yeah...I killed Tara...And her mom, I think...Well, no...I
had
her killed...One of my guys...But Tara I did myself..."
Though I won't say anything against Wil's sense of duty...I'm sure
she'd've done the right thing and stayed on to fight me even without
my leaving Tara's severed head by her front door...Anne noted...There, she
smiled, pleased...
"Red does suit me now..."
***
Mears stared at the battered figure in its cell...But despite
obviously quite a going-over, he couldn't fail to recognize his ex-
best customer and the object of his crazed interdimensional
companions' affections...His blonde hair faded and matted with blood,
where not torn out in clumps...His face raw as fresh beef from
beatings...
The figure, remarkably, stirring a bit in its chains... "Anne..." it
whispered to Third Buffy, she standing by Mears, a set look on her
face, arms folded...
"No, Spike..." she said coldly... "Willow's recovered my soul and
restored my humanity at last...Your bitch whore's gone...For good..."
Burning eyes in a shattered, broken face stared a moment...Taking her
in carefully, viewing everything, pausing to look hard at her own grim
face...Finally...
"Thank God..." a sigh, punctuated by a groan... "I knew Red would come
through..."
She stared...Mears catching a tremble...
"No thanks to you, you son of a bitch..." she hissed at him...
"Mears?...What the hell are you..." the figure asked...Third Buffy
banging on the cell bars to drive him off...
"He works for us now, Spike..."
"A noble addition to the cause, I'm sure..." a gasp as Spike tried to
shift about a little... "But I was sure you'd finished him just
before..."
"Not quite, obviously..."
Finished?...As in...Quick neck twist?...Or, before retiring to the
parlor for coffee and dessert?...Well, hardly matters, so long as my
feeble-brained counterpart here won't be rising to say hi sometime
during my visit...
"Looks like Willow and Xander've been giving you a rough time..." she
noted... "Though nothing like you deserve...You bastard..."
"So they've told me...You at least, Red..." he smiled at her...
"What do you take me for, girl?..." he eyed her glaring face... "You
think I don't know the woman I love through and through...How's about
ending the little game and getting on with our usual..."
"You think I'm Willow, using some kind of glam?..." Third Buffy,
coldly... "Take my hand..." She put hers through the bar... "Take it..."
Ok...When he jerks doofus wiccan into the bars...I go to Buffy and play
hero?...Or await developments?...Warren thought...
Spike released the hand after an instant's touch... "Fine...Great morphing
spell, Red...Or did you go all out for possession?..."
"You can't take the idea I might hate your guts, Spike?..." she
smiled... "You turned me into a vampire, got me to kill people I loved..."
"You didn't kill them...And I didn't tell Anne to...And, sorry to shatter
your illusions about your heroine friend, Red...She begged me to...Which
if this is a possession you should know or be able to confirm pretty
quickly..."
"That's a lie...William..." she suddenly gasped... "Will, I'm...Not..."
she
stepped back from the cell...Tensing and trembling...
Hmmn...Either fine acting...Or...Warren thought, watching carefully...
"...Your Buffy...Warren, get the key..." she turned to Mears, indicating a
key hanging on the wall to her left...
Uh... "Lady?..." he raised his cuffed hands...
"NO!!...Mears, if you..." she began, growling, eyes turning black...Then
back to normal...Breathing heavily...She staggered toward the key on its
hook...
"Buffy?..." Spike called...
"I...Can't...Xander!!..." she cried... "Mears, get...Don't, Warren!!..."
she
took a few more steps and reached for the keys...
On the one hand...It could be a trick...She wanted to hurt him...And a
test
for her new pardner...As in if I try and get the other...Deep fried Mears
on the menu...
On the other hand...I call caveman Harris...I might find myself a
permanent resident...
Best to play the waiting game, I'd say...Just be ready to back the
winning team...
She grabbed the metal loop the key hung from and headed for the cell,
stepping slowly as if being held back by wind...Or angry Wiccan, Mears
thought...
"Will...Here..." she reached the loop through the bars to Spike's
outstretched hand... "Hurry..."
"Not my Buffy?..." he stared at her...
"No..." she gasped... "None of us..."
"Three..." Mears helpfully offered to Spike's stare...
***
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