r***@aol.com
2006-04-17 21:50:25 UTC
"The Buffy Effect..." VII...
A shortie...
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 A...
"So...What do we do now?...And when are you two getting me
home?..."
Buffy eyes the recently resurrected Buffy she and Previous Buffy had
found themselves encumbered with when they'd arrived on Caprica along
with the Warren Mears of her world...Their transit coordinates thrown
off by the additional passenger..
"Just be glad those Cylon girls were decent types, sis..." Previous
cuts in... "Or we'd be dead right now, thanks to you butting in."
"You two crash my world..." the third Buffy begins, angrily...
"Enough..." Buffy puts up a hand... "At least we're off Caprica
and back to Earth..."
"Really?...Well that may be what Warren says, but this sure don't
look like my home...God..." Third Buffy frowns... "A week ago I was
in Heaven...I think...Then Willow drags me out to save my friends'
and the world's...Our world's...Collective asses...And now,
this..." she sulks, kicking away a few rocks to take a seat...
"Look at this place..." she waves at the rubble and ruined
buildings... "Looks like it was nuked..."
"Maybe it was..." Previous notes... "We're still protected from
radiation by that stuff the robo-ladies gave us...We wouldn't know
for a while..."
Ah...Third Buffy glares, and rising, stalks off... Stopping just a
moment...
"All I can say is!...You two clowns better get me home...Tout
sweet!..." she turns and heads off...
Geesh...Previous turns to Buffy...
"Were you like this post-resurrection?...I couldn't've imagined I
was such a whining little..."
"Just don't let her run off too far...It's bad enough we've
gotta find that clown Mears before he gets himself killed..."
"Can't believe he'd run off without the transit disc..."
Previous shook her head... "Without that and us to protect him,
he's toast if there's anything dangerous alive here..."
"He probably figured he'd try and make a break when a couple of us
were still out...See if there's anyone here he can bargain
with...Just lucky you were conscious enough to keep him from getting
the disc...When he runs into something he'll be running back..."
"If he lives long enough...We'd better get after him...And Her
Highness, Ms.
'Oooh-I-Was-Resurrected-Last-Week-Everybody-Pay-Attention-To-Me..."
"It was a rough time...You remember..."
"I remember we coulda saved William that year...We coulda got off our
asses...Ass...And reached out to him instead of spending the year
moaning over our fate..." Previous frowned...
"We coulda helped him...The soul quest could have been with us..."
"We didn't know..." Buffy pointed out...
"We shoulda known...Our Will..." Previous looked out over the
blasted, desert-like landscape...
I shoulda...If I'd just taken Mears myself and gone...God, we'll
never do it now...Oh, Will...
If I get the chance...She turned back to eye Buffy...
If God or whoever...Heck, the First...Gives me the
chance...Nothing...No one...Will stop me...
Buffy eyeing her...Absolutely aware of her thoughts...
And rather thinking the same...Though...
"We can't turn on each other, sis..." she told Previous
quietly... "I'm sure we have to work together if we're gonna get
him back..."
"For you?..." Previous stared back...
***
"Bitches...Worthless, treacherous...!" Warren fumed as he staggered
across the bleak landscape on what vaguely appeared to be the remains
of Highway 47 on the east side of Sunnydale...
Hell, not even a blade of grass to be seen...Let alone signs of
intelligent life...Just ruined, burned out shells of uninhabited,
thoroughly looted buildings and...
Well, there at least had been people here once, he grimaced at several
partly scattered but still recognizable skeletons along the cracked and
weed-overgrown sidewalk...More bones loose in the street...
"They tricked me!...Led me to this shit-house of a Earth...Probably
faked the whole unconscious thing...Wanted me to head off like
this!..."
Night now beginning to fall rapidly...Along with the temperature...
Well their wagon'd be fixed when he was dead and they were stuck...
Ummn...Not exactly the way he'd hoped his revenge scenario would've
played out...
And dammnit, he didn't deserve this fate...His goddamn weasel of a
counterpart was the one who should be suffering here...
Dark now...But not a sound, not even an insect...Just a faint sound of
wind picking up across the hills...
Then...Just the faintest...
He stumbled over something on the dark ground...
Someone, he realized...Covered by something...He managed to move the
cover and found an opening, slipping it back to reveal...
"Summers?..." he knelt by her...And pulled back...
Nope...At least not one of the three he knew...Her face dry and
ravaged, hair bleached and brittle...And the dress...All wrong...
Nothing to mention the not breathing thing...Damn...The one time he'd
not have minded to find one still breathing and she has to be dead...
Does explain the sit round here though...Hmmn...He looked round as far
as he could...If someone or thing killed this world's Summers and
left things as trashed as this...He looked back at the corpse...Well,
long dead, obviously...Just lucky to have dried out rather than
rotted....
At least somebody'd had the decency to cover her with some kind of a
bag or something...
Hmmn...He rubbed at his knee...Whacked against some rocks when he'd
fallen...
Wonder the hell she'd been doing out here...Caught in some nuke
attack?...Died after days of agony from radiation poisoning?...Or some
kinda demonic assault that devastated the planet, leading to her dying
of thirst and starvation?...
God, he hoped so...
Course that meant the whole damned world here was possibly
trashed...And unless he...
Damn...Knee's bleeding now...Pretty good too...
Well, best to press on...See if anyone was alive...Preferably a
counterpart of his...Or, if worst came to worst...Try and circle back
to the weird sisters...Claim he'd just wanted to check the lay of the
land...For the common good...
Heck, he wasn't the one who screwed them before, after all...Lucky
bastard...
He staggered on...
On the ground the withered form of Buffy Summers under her plastic
tarp, stirred faintly...
After so long...The faintest whiff of real, human blood...Her eyes
opened slowly, painfully...Her lips pulling back ever so slightly to
reveal fangs...Her hands clawing a bit in the dirt, one feeling the
slightest sensation of fast-fading moisture from a few drops of blood
Warren had left...
Her arm dragging the hand across the dirt to her chest, then her
neck...Finally up to her parched lips...
Which, dry as a bone, responded to the feel of the hand and the tiny
bit of blood on it with an eager sucking...
"William...?" the faintest whisper across her trembling lips...
***
"I don't wanna hear it, Mears..." Third Buffy growled as she
dragged him across the ground back toward the arrival site...Ignoring
his pleas of innocence...And howls of pain as his legs encountered
various resistant obstacles in the form of rocks and what appeared to
be as she paused to pick one up, some kind of charred wood...
Just trying to get da lay of da land... For the good of all...he
tried...
Wait a sec...she looked at the 'wood' more closely...
That's not wood...
"Just be glad I found you before something else did...Including those
two crazed sisters of mine..." she tossed the charred bone aside...
Human from size, shape, and her vague sensation...
In fact, she realized, kicking several more aside...
A lot of human...
"Yeah, they are crazy..." Warren nodded... Shut up, she
replied...Scanning the horizon...
Something distinctly unnice about this world, wherever it is...
"Lets move..." she pulled at her companion/burden...
"Say...Buffy..." Mears tried again...
"Er, Miss Summers..." he corrected hastily at her glare...
"We both hail from the same Earth, right?...And you don't know when
these two are gonna stop their wild goose chase and take you home,
right?..." Attempt at subtle leer...
"Can it..." she shook her head, pulling him along... "We have
enough of a history with April and your Buffy-bot that I know you're
a skunk...And from what my sisters say about you, you're a bastard
foe-in-training...Move it!..."
"What they say...C'mon, Bu...Miss Summers...They're from
different worlds, right?...And how do you really know they're not
evil?..." attempt at shrewd look as he stumbled along...
"Mears...If they were evil you'd be dead or minus several
moderately important but not vital body parts long ago...Now..." she
paused, staring at the strange figure in front of them...
What appeared to be a man, covered in long hair, but otherwise
naked...Who stood staring back at them in the middle of a field empty
but for the bones...
"Xander?..." she gasped...
"No...No!...You don't want me!...Not ole Xander...Cause he's
crazy, make you not right in the head..." he spoke in a mixture of
hysterical fear and an odd kind of logic... "He's crazy, not what
you want..." he repeated, waving one arm at her frantically...
Suddenly pulling out his hand, bearing a cross from under his long
hair... "This'll fix ya!!..."
"Xander!...Put that thing down?...What the hell's going...?" she
backed away from him a little as he stopped and sniffed at her and
Mears...
"Used to the two sticks, huh...Used to 'em now?..." he eyed them
warily, still keeping the cross up... "You smelly...?" he stared at
her...Then Mears...
"You could use a bath yourself, pal..." Mears glared...
"You smell..." he paused... "Eh, try to fool ole Xan...Crazy ole
Xander..." the wild man shook a fist... "But I got more...See..."
he put his hand under his hair and brought out a canteen...
"You won't like this, no...You get now!...."
"Is that...Holy water, Xander?..." Third Buffy stared at him... "You
think I'm a vamp?..."
"You smelly...But you not fool ole Xander...No, he's the
last...He's not gonna go...NO!!..." he backed off and ran to a
small rise and climbed a boulder as she tried to carefully approach
him...
Pouring out a capful of water or whatever was in the canteen into its
cap, then his hand and sprinkling it at her...
"Xander...I'm not a vampire..." Third Buffy pleaded... "I'm not the
Buffy you know..."
"Anne-bitch ya are!...My Buf, she's gone!...Don't you say
you're my Buf..." he cried...
A crossbow arrow buried itself in the ground near her feet...She jumped
back...
"Anne!!..." Willow's voice...Stern and cold... "We still have
William!!...We'll destroy him if you don't get out of here!!..."
"Wil?..." Third Buffy called... "Listen!...I'm not..."
"Help!!..." Mears cried...Pulling away from her... "I'm
human!!...Don't let her kill me!!..."
"Mears...You bastard..." she whirled on him...And groaned as a
second arrow caught her in the shoulder...
"Ha, ha!!...Good one!!..." Xander cackled, hopping up and down on
his boulder perch... "Another one!...Kill the Anne-bitch for
good!!!..."
"Yeah!..." Mears called as Third Buffy struggled to pull the arrow out
and make out her attacker... "Kill the bitch, she's a
monster!!!..."
"I surrender, Wil!!..." Third Buffy put up hands as best she
painfully could, having decided it was no use trying to run or fight...
"Give me a chance...I'm not what you think!!..."
"That's what she says...Anya, it's me...Help me...She says..."
Xander said, half to himself... "Shoot the bitch, Willow!..." Third
Buffy
staring at his sudden burst of rational speech...
"On the ground, flat, both of you!!..." Willow's disembodied
voice again... "Don't move a muscle or I swear I'll kill you both
and worry if one of you's human later!!..."
Warren threw himself on the ground, third Buffy following suit more
slowly...Groaning as she did...
"No!...No, no!!...Kill the Anne-bitch!!...Kill her, Wil!!!...Kick her
ass!!..." Xander cried...Hopping down from his perch and running
over...
"Stay back, Xander!!..." Willow called...Stepping out of the
darkness now, dressed all in black...Her hair bunned tightly under a
black cap, her face blackened by greasy make-up...Crossbow at her side,
large cross and canteen hanging from her neck...She pulled a large
flashlight out from a hip belt and shined it at the two on the
ground...
Xander moved a few steps back, then grabbed a large rock from the
ground...
"Not yet!!..." Willow shoved the light in her belt and went to
him... "You can have her later!!..." she told him...He holding his
rock with a grim look... "You can, Xander..." she said, more
gently... "Just let me ask her some questions..."
He gave a grim, tense look...
"I'll let you have William...You can take care of him right in
front of her, then her..."
Anya'd like that, Xander...Willow eyed him intently...
"Yeah..." he nodded carefully... "Make the Anne-bitch
watch...Vengeance for vengeance demon...She'd like that...My An..."
he looked down a moment...Letting her take the rock...
"Willow, please..." Third Buffy groaned from where she lay, face
down on the ground... "Check me out, I'm human..."
"That's nice...Shut up..." Willow told her coldly...
"She's lookin' good..." Xander noted, eyeing Third Buffy as she
lay...
He looked up at Willow... "How'd she get so good?..."
"I don't know, honey..." Willow shook her head... "I was sure
we got her...But if this guy's her human cow..."
"Excuse me?..." Mears turned his head up...
Xander suddenly gave a choked cry, pointing to the left...Willow
tensing and grabbing for her crossbow as Buffy stepped forward...
"Willow?..."
"Don't move!..." Willow had the bow pointed at her heart...
Nice moves, this Wil's got...Buffy thought...Then saw Third Buffy on
the ground, groaning...Clearly wounded, despite the darkness...Warren
groveling as pathetically as he could manage beside her...
"Wil?...Why did you...?"
And why the hell is Xander naked but for that hair?...she stared at him
as he trembled at the sight of two fiendish Anne-bitches...
"Get on the ground with the others!!...Now!!!" Willow
shouted...Finger on the bow trigger...
***
My God...Previous Buffy, the fury that had possessed her when she'd
stalked off from Buffy having cooled a little...Though the thoughts
still pressed on her mind...
Either them or me...And they don't love him enough...One doesn't
know him or herself yet...And the other failed him...Neither cares
enough to pull this off...
...Had come a to startling realization, despite the darkness of the
night unleavened by any kind of artificial lighting or a shining
moon...The ground about her was one vast bone pile, stretching on all
sides for several hundred feet...Thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds
of thousands and maybe more...Human bones, scattered as though
something had carelessly tossed chicken bones after making a hearty
meal...
Something tells me my counterpart here didn't do such a good job of
defending Humanity...she thought...Moving back to what looked a little
like old Highway 47...
Ohhh...A soft groan on the wind...
"Who's there?...Buffy?!..." she called... "Tell me who you
are..."
"Help..." a faint cry...
Familiar...
"Buffy?..." she headed over, carefully, trying to make her eyes
see...A vague form, writhing?...No, crawling on the ground...
She halted...Senses telling her to beware...
"Help me..." the form called weakly...
She pulled stake and advanced...If it was true...And one of them
who'd been turned...
One little problem solved without risk to her soul...
William would appreciate that...
She eyed the form now near her...Which struggled to raise its
head...Nope, not of ours...
But it did help explain why this Earth wasn't fairing so well...
"Whoa..." it whispered...A faint smile coming to dry, weathered
lips...
"Who the hell are you?...Sister?..."
"Not yours, bitch..." Previous unlimbered her stake...
"William..." the other stated quietly...
"Where?..." Previous replied before she could stop herself...
The smile again, faint... "They took him from me...Like they took him
from you, right?..."
Such good friends we got, huh?...Sis?...
"Good-bye..." Previous told her quietly, raising stake...
"I'll help you if you help me..." the other hastily...Feebly
putting up an arm... "We both want the same thing..."
"No...How?..." Previous hesitated... "Don't..." she growled
as the other moved slightly...And paused...Staring at her...
"He made you his...But you didn't tell them..." the other smiled
at her... "I can feel him in you..."
"No..." Previous shook her head... "He bit me once, I got a
little of his back...It was voluntary...I shook it off like Dracula and
that's all..."
They didn't need to know...she said...More to herself...
"You never told anyone...I feel your pain, sis...You're bound to
him like me..." the other grinned...Head raised on one arm now, an
almost coy smile...
"It didn't matter...It wasn't evil...He'd got his soul back and
he needed..."
"He did?...The soul?...Huh...Whatdaya know..." faint shake of head
in wonderment...
"Don't think I have to ask about yours..."
"Guess not...But he loves me as yours does you..."
"I'll send Spike to you...In Hell..." Previous noted, stake
raised again...
"They'll take him from you..."
"No...But thanks for the concern..."
"Only I can help you...If you help me...Look at me, Buffy...William
is flowing in me..."
"No...Not my William..." a grim tone...But...
"All I need is a little from you...Help me to save my Spike and
I'll help you...Buffy...Cicely..."
"You know..." Previous paused...
"Course I know..." a faint nod... "And when I found out...I let
him take me...Nothing would keep me from him...Help me...We're the
ones who have the right, Buffy...You know it's true...Look at me,
sister..."
"No..." Previous pulled back...
"Not your way..." she shook her head...Then suddenly slashed with
her stake...
Opening a vein on her arm...
"No thrall, sister..." she eyed the other... "We keep this
strictly business...And we play by my rules..." she offered her
slashed arm to the other who reached for it...
"No fangs or it's no deal...Lick up what you need..."
"Glad to see I'm not a push-over in any dimension..." the other
chuckled... "You're transdimensional, right?...Spike was trying to
find a way to cross to another Earth after we'd plucked this one
dry...God, that hits the spot..." a stronger tone as she licked and
swallowed...
Enough...For now...Previous pulled the arm away...The other sitting up
now...
"So...You did this?..." Previous waved to indicate the bones...
"More or less..." the other shrugged...Her skin softening, hair
becoming blonde and supple... "What can I say...We took the George
Bush quick profit now, forget about global warming tomorrow
route...We'll be more careful next time..."
"Not part of the deal..." Previous shook her head... "I'll help
you get Spike back if he's still kicking if you help me get away
from here without the extra Buffies...But they remain breathing...After
I save my Will, I'll come back for them and they can have their own
chances..."
"Hmmphf...Well that sounds like a helluva deal...Ok, I accept..."
the other put up a hand as Previous eyed her coldly...
"So since we're leaving them pathetically short-lived...Which is ok
by me, I don't want Immortal twin competition...How are we handling
this, boss-lady...?" the other rose, slowly and stiffly...
Whew...Long time since I could stand...she noted wearily...
"Warren Mears?...You know him?..."
"Warren the robo-pimp boy?...Sure...We used to use his copy of me as
our housemaid till I tore her apart one day when I caught Spike
diddling her..."
All in the family, he was missing me when I was away trying to see if
me and our minions could break through the Watchers' defense
system...
Giles had the Americas magically blockaded after our Undead army
overran the US...she explained... "So, what's with ole
Mearsy...God, you know I shouldn't have eaten and run with him...He
probably coulda got us through to Europe..."
"Ours is about the same...But he's the one who can run the transit
system...And one of my sisters...The one in the tan pants and
Aramani whites..."
"Aramani?...Nice..."
"...Has the controller..."
"Well, if you'd let me kill her...Just kiddin'...Would I kill a
sister?..."
Ok...I would...she nodded to the frowning glare... "But a deal's a
deal...If you keep your end..."
"I'll keep my end...Just do what I say when the time comes...And no
more..."
"Hmmn...Well, I am an independent type...But, if it's for my Willy,
ok..."
"Natch you know I'll stake you if you cross me..."
"Would you be my soft-headed human twin if you wouldn't?..."
"So what do you call yourself...?"
"Not Buffy, for God's sake..." the other wrinkled her now quite
flexible nose... "I'm Anne...Nice to meet ya sis..."
***
A shortie...
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 A...
"So...What do we do now?...And when are you two getting me
home?..."
Buffy eyes the recently resurrected Buffy she and Previous Buffy had
found themselves encumbered with when they'd arrived on Caprica along
with the Warren Mears of her world...Their transit coordinates thrown
off by the additional passenger..
"Just be glad those Cylon girls were decent types, sis..." Previous
cuts in... "Or we'd be dead right now, thanks to you butting in."
"You two crash my world..." the third Buffy begins, angrily...
"Enough..." Buffy puts up a hand... "At least we're off Caprica
and back to Earth..."
"Really?...Well that may be what Warren says, but this sure don't
look like my home...God..." Third Buffy frowns... "A week ago I was
in Heaven...I think...Then Willow drags me out to save my friends'
and the world's...Our world's...Collective asses...And now,
this..." she sulks, kicking away a few rocks to take a seat...
"Look at this place..." she waves at the rubble and ruined
buildings... "Looks like it was nuked..."
"Maybe it was..." Previous notes... "We're still protected from
radiation by that stuff the robo-ladies gave us...We wouldn't know
for a while..."
Ah...Third Buffy glares, and rising, stalks off... Stopping just a
moment...
"All I can say is!...You two clowns better get me home...Tout
sweet!..." she turns and heads off...
Geesh...Previous turns to Buffy...
"Were you like this post-resurrection?...I couldn't've imagined I
was such a whining little..."
"Just don't let her run off too far...It's bad enough we've
gotta find that clown Mears before he gets himself killed..."
"Can't believe he'd run off without the transit disc..."
Previous shook her head... "Without that and us to protect him,
he's toast if there's anything dangerous alive here..."
"He probably figured he'd try and make a break when a couple of us
were still out...See if there's anyone here he can bargain
with...Just lucky you were conscious enough to keep him from getting
the disc...When he runs into something he'll be running back..."
"If he lives long enough...We'd better get after him...And Her
Highness, Ms.
'Oooh-I-Was-Resurrected-Last-Week-Everybody-Pay-Attention-To-Me..."
"It was a rough time...You remember..."
"I remember we coulda saved William that year...We coulda got off our
asses...Ass...And reached out to him instead of spending the year
moaning over our fate..." Previous frowned...
"We coulda helped him...The soul quest could have been with us..."
"We didn't know..." Buffy pointed out...
"We shoulda known...Our Will..." Previous looked out over the
blasted, desert-like landscape...
I shoulda...If I'd just taken Mears myself and gone...God, we'll
never do it now...Oh, Will...
If I get the chance...She turned back to eye Buffy...
If God or whoever...Heck, the First...Gives me the
chance...Nothing...No one...Will stop me...
Buffy eyeing her...Absolutely aware of her thoughts...
And rather thinking the same...Though...
"We can't turn on each other, sis..." she told Previous
quietly... "I'm sure we have to work together if we're gonna get
him back..."
"For you?..." Previous stared back...
***
"Bitches...Worthless, treacherous...!" Warren fumed as he staggered
across the bleak landscape on what vaguely appeared to be the remains
of Highway 47 on the east side of Sunnydale...
Hell, not even a blade of grass to be seen...Let alone signs of
intelligent life...Just ruined, burned out shells of uninhabited,
thoroughly looted buildings and...
Well, there at least had been people here once, he grimaced at several
partly scattered but still recognizable skeletons along the cracked and
weed-overgrown sidewalk...More bones loose in the street...
"They tricked me!...Led me to this shit-house of a Earth...Probably
faked the whole unconscious thing...Wanted me to head off like
this!..."
Night now beginning to fall rapidly...Along with the temperature...
Well their wagon'd be fixed when he was dead and they were stuck...
Ummn...Not exactly the way he'd hoped his revenge scenario would've
played out...
And dammnit, he didn't deserve this fate...His goddamn weasel of a
counterpart was the one who should be suffering here...
Dark now...But not a sound, not even an insect...Just a faint sound of
wind picking up across the hills...
Then...Just the faintest...
He stumbled over something on the dark ground...
Someone, he realized...Covered by something...He managed to move the
cover and found an opening, slipping it back to reveal...
"Summers?..." he knelt by her...And pulled back...
Nope...At least not one of the three he knew...Her face dry and
ravaged, hair bleached and brittle...And the dress...All wrong...
Nothing to mention the not breathing thing...Damn...The one time he'd
not have minded to find one still breathing and she has to be dead...
Does explain the sit round here though...Hmmn...He looked round as far
as he could...If someone or thing killed this world's Summers and
left things as trashed as this...He looked back at the corpse...Well,
long dead, obviously...Just lucky to have dried out rather than
rotted....
At least somebody'd had the decency to cover her with some kind of a
bag or something...
Hmmn...He rubbed at his knee...Whacked against some rocks when he'd
fallen...
Wonder the hell she'd been doing out here...Caught in some nuke
attack?...Died after days of agony from radiation poisoning?...Or some
kinda demonic assault that devastated the planet, leading to her dying
of thirst and starvation?...
God, he hoped so...
Course that meant the whole damned world here was possibly
trashed...And unless he...
Damn...Knee's bleeding now...Pretty good too...
Well, best to press on...See if anyone was alive...Preferably a
counterpart of his...Or, if worst came to worst...Try and circle back
to the weird sisters...Claim he'd just wanted to check the lay of the
land...For the common good...
Heck, he wasn't the one who screwed them before, after all...Lucky
bastard...
He staggered on...
On the ground the withered form of Buffy Summers under her plastic
tarp, stirred faintly...
After so long...The faintest whiff of real, human blood...Her eyes
opened slowly, painfully...Her lips pulling back ever so slightly to
reveal fangs...Her hands clawing a bit in the dirt, one feeling the
slightest sensation of fast-fading moisture from a few drops of blood
Warren had left...
Her arm dragging the hand across the dirt to her chest, then her
neck...Finally up to her parched lips...
Which, dry as a bone, responded to the feel of the hand and the tiny
bit of blood on it with an eager sucking...
"William...?" the faintest whisper across her trembling lips...
***
"I don't wanna hear it, Mears..." Third Buffy growled as she
dragged him across the ground back toward the arrival site...Ignoring
his pleas of innocence...And howls of pain as his legs encountered
various resistant obstacles in the form of rocks and what appeared to
be as she paused to pick one up, some kind of charred wood...
Just trying to get da lay of da land... For the good of all...he
tried...
Wait a sec...she looked at the 'wood' more closely...
That's not wood...
"Just be glad I found you before something else did...Including those
two crazed sisters of mine..." she tossed the charred bone aside...
Human from size, shape, and her vague sensation...
In fact, she realized, kicking several more aside...
A lot of human...
"Yeah, they are crazy..." Warren nodded... Shut up, she
replied...Scanning the horizon...
Something distinctly unnice about this world, wherever it is...
"Lets move..." she pulled at her companion/burden...
"Say...Buffy..." Mears tried again...
"Er, Miss Summers..." he corrected hastily at her glare...
"We both hail from the same Earth, right?...And you don't know when
these two are gonna stop their wild goose chase and take you home,
right?..." Attempt at subtle leer...
"Can it..." she shook her head, pulling him along... "We have
enough of a history with April and your Buffy-bot that I know you're
a skunk...And from what my sisters say about you, you're a bastard
foe-in-training...Move it!..."
"What they say...C'mon, Bu...Miss Summers...They're from
different worlds, right?...And how do you really know they're not
evil?..." attempt at shrewd look as he stumbled along...
"Mears...If they were evil you'd be dead or minus several
moderately important but not vital body parts long ago...Now..." she
paused, staring at the strange figure in front of them...
What appeared to be a man, covered in long hair, but otherwise
naked...Who stood staring back at them in the middle of a field empty
but for the bones...
"Xander?..." she gasped...
"No...No!...You don't want me!...Not ole Xander...Cause he's
crazy, make you not right in the head..." he spoke in a mixture of
hysterical fear and an odd kind of logic... "He's crazy, not what
you want..." he repeated, waving one arm at her frantically...
Suddenly pulling out his hand, bearing a cross from under his long
hair... "This'll fix ya!!..."
"Xander!...Put that thing down?...What the hell's going...?" she
backed away from him a little as he stopped and sniffed at her and
Mears...
"Used to the two sticks, huh...Used to 'em now?..." he eyed them
warily, still keeping the cross up... "You smelly...?" he stared at
her...Then Mears...
"You could use a bath yourself, pal..." Mears glared...
"You smell..." he paused... "Eh, try to fool ole Xan...Crazy ole
Xander..." the wild man shook a fist... "But I got more...See..."
he put his hand under his hair and brought out a canteen...
"You won't like this, no...You get now!...."
"Is that...Holy water, Xander?..." Third Buffy stared at him... "You
think I'm a vamp?..."
"You smelly...But you not fool ole Xander...No, he's the
last...He's not gonna go...NO!!..." he backed off and ran to a
small rise and climbed a boulder as she tried to carefully approach
him...
Pouring out a capful of water or whatever was in the canteen into its
cap, then his hand and sprinkling it at her...
"Xander...I'm not a vampire..." Third Buffy pleaded... "I'm not the
Buffy you know..."
"Anne-bitch ya are!...My Buf, she's gone!...Don't you say
you're my Buf..." he cried...
A crossbow arrow buried itself in the ground near her feet...She jumped
back...
"Anne!!..." Willow's voice...Stern and cold... "We still have
William!!...We'll destroy him if you don't get out of here!!..."
"Wil?..." Third Buffy called... "Listen!...I'm not..."
"Help!!..." Mears cried...Pulling away from her... "I'm
human!!...Don't let her kill me!!..."
"Mears...You bastard..." she whirled on him...And groaned as a
second arrow caught her in the shoulder...
"Ha, ha!!...Good one!!..." Xander cackled, hopping up and down on
his boulder perch... "Another one!...Kill the Anne-bitch for
good!!!..."
"Yeah!..." Mears called as Third Buffy struggled to pull the arrow out
and make out her attacker... "Kill the bitch, she's a
monster!!!..."
"I surrender, Wil!!..." Third Buffy put up hands as best she
painfully could, having decided it was no use trying to run or fight...
"Give me a chance...I'm not what you think!!..."
"That's what she says...Anya, it's me...Help me...She says..."
Xander said, half to himself... "Shoot the bitch, Willow!..." Third
Buffy
staring at his sudden burst of rational speech...
"On the ground, flat, both of you!!..." Willow's disembodied
voice again... "Don't move a muscle or I swear I'll kill you both
and worry if one of you's human later!!..."
Warren threw himself on the ground, third Buffy following suit more
slowly...Groaning as she did...
"No!...No, no!!...Kill the Anne-bitch!!...Kill her, Wil!!!...Kick her
ass!!..." Xander cried...Hopping down from his perch and running
over...
"Stay back, Xander!!..." Willow called...Stepping out of the
darkness now, dressed all in black...Her hair bunned tightly under a
black cap, her face blackened by greasy make-up...Crossbow at her side,
large cross and canteen hanging from her neck...She pulled a large
flashlight out from a hip belt and shined it at the two on the
ground...
Xander moved a few steps back, then grabbed a large rock from the
ground...
"Not yet!!..." Willow shoved the light in her belt and went to
him... "You can have her later!!..." she told him...He holding his
rock with a grim look... "You can, Xander..." she said, more
gently... "Just let me ask her some questions..."
He gave a grim, tense look...
"I'll let you have William...You can take care of him right in
front of her, then her..."
Anya'd like that, Xander...Willow eyed him intently...
"Yeah..." he nodded carefully... "Make the Anne-bitch
watch...Vengeance for vengeance demon...She'd like that...My An..."
he looked down a moment...Letting her take the rock...
"Willow, please..." Third Buffy groaned from where she lay, face
down on the ground... "Check me out, I'm human..."
"That's nice...Shut up..." Willow told her coldly...
"She's lookin' good..." Xander noted, eyeing Third Buffy as she
lay...
He looked up at Willow... "How'd she get so good?..."
"I don't know, honey..." Willow shook her head... "I was sure
we got her...But if this guy's her human cow..."
"Excuse me?..." Mears turned his head up...
Xander suddenly gave a choked cry, pointing to the left...Willow
tensing and grabbing for her crossbow as Buffy stepped forward...
"Willow?..."
"Don't move!..." Willow had the bow pointed at her heart...
Nice moves, this Wil's got...Buffy thought...Then saw Third Buffy on
the ground, groaning...Clearly wounded, despite the darkness...Warren
groveling as pathetically as he could manage beside her...
"Wil?...Why did you...?"
And why the hell is Xander naked but for that hair?...she stared at him
as he trembled at the sight of two fiendish Anne-bitches...
"Get on the ground with the others!!...Now!!!" Willow
shouted...Finger on the bow trigger...
***
My God...Previous Buffy, the fury that had possessed her when she'd
stalked off from Buffy having cooled a little...Though the thoughts
still pressed on her mind...
Either them or me...And they don't love him enough...One doesn't
know him or herself yet...And the other failed him...Neither cares
enough to pull this off...
...Had come a to startling realization, despite the darkness of the
night unleavened by any kind of artificial lighting or a shining
moon...The ground about her was one vast bone pile, stretching on all
sides for several hundred feet...Thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds
of thousands and maybe more...Human bones, scattered as though
something had carelessly tossed chicken bones after making a hearty
meal...
Something tells me my counterpart here didn't do such a good job of
defending Humanity...she thought...Moving back to what looked a little
like old Highway 47...
Ohhh...A soft groan on the wind...
"Who's there?...Buffy?!..." she called... "Tell me who you
are..."
"Help..." a faint cry...
Familiar...
"Buffy?..." she headed over, carefully, trying to make her eyes
see...A vague form, writhing?...No, crawling on the ground...
She halted...Senses telling her to beware...
"Help me..." the form called weakly...
She pulled stake and advanced...If it was true...And one of them
who'd been turned...
One little problem solved without risk to her soul...
William would appreciate that...
She eyed the form now near her...Which struggled to raise its
head...Nope, not of ours...
But it did help explain why this Earth wasn't fairing so well...
"Whoa..." it whispered...A faint smile coming to dry, weathered
lips...
"Who the hell are you?...Sister?..."
"Not yours, bitch..." Previous unlimbered her stake...
"William..." the other stated quietly...
"Where?..." Previous replied before she could stop herself...
The smile again, faint... "They took him from me...Like they took him
from you, right?..."
Such good friends we got, huh?...Sis?...
"Good-bye..." Previous told her quietly, raising stake...
"I'll help you if you help me..." the other hastily...Feebly
putting up an arm... "We both want the same thing..."
"No...How?..." Previous hesitated... "Don't..." she growled
as the other moved slightly...And paused...Staring at her...
"He made you his...But you didn't tell them..." the other smiled
at her... "I can feel him in you..."
"No..." Previous shook her head... "He bit me once, I got a
little of his back...It was voluntary...I shook it off like Dracula and
that's all..."
They didn't need to know...she said...More to herself...
"You never told anyone...I feel your pain, sis...You're bound to
him like me..." the other grinned...Head raised on one arm now, an
almost coy smile...
"It didn't matter...It wasn't evil...He'd got his soul back and
he needed..."
"He did?...The soul?...Huh...Whatdaya know..." faint shake of head
in wonderment...
"Don't think I have to ask about yours..."
"Guess not...But he loves me as yours does you..."
"I'll send Spike to you...In Hell..." Previous noted, stake
raised again...
"They'll take him from you..."
"No...But thanks for the concern..."
"Only I can help you...If you help me...Look at me, Buffy...William
is flowing in me..."
"No...Not my William..." a grim tone...But...
"All I need is a little from you...Help me to save my Spike and
I'll help you...Buffy...Cicely..."
"You know..." Previous paused...
"Course I know..." a faint nod... "And when I found out...I let
him take me...Nothing would keep me from him...Help me...We're the
ones who have the right, Buffy...You know it's true...Look at me,
sister..."
"No..." Previous pulled back...
"Not your way..." she shook her head...Then suddenly slashed with
her stake...
Opening a vein on her arm...
"No thrall, sister..." she eyed the other... "We keep this
strictly business...And we play by my rules..." she offered her
slashed arm to the other who reached for it...
"No fangs or it's no deal...Lick up what you need..."
"Glad to see I'm not a push-over in any dimension..." the other
chuckled... "You're transdimensional, right?...Spike was trying to
find a way to cross to another Earth after we'd plucked this one
dry...God, that hits the spot..." a stronger tone as she licked and
swallowed...
Enough...For now...Previous pulled the arm away...The other sitting up
now...
"So...You did this?..." Previous waved to indicate the bones...
"More or less..." the other shrugged...Her skin softening, hair
becoming blonde and supple... "What can I say...We took the George
Bush quick profit now, forget about global warming tomorrow
route...We'll be more careful next time..."
"Not part of the deal..." Previous shook her head... "I'll help
you get Spike back if he's still kicking if you help me get away
from here without the extra Buffies...But they remain breathing...After
I save my Will, I'll come back for them and they can have their own
chances..."
"Hmmphf...Well that sounds like a helluva deal...Ok, I accept..."
the other put up a hand as Previous eyed her coldly...
"So since we're leaving them pathetically short-lived...Which is ok
by me, I don't want Immortal twin competition...How are we handling
this, boss-lady...?" the other rose, slowly and stiffly...
Whew...Long time since I could stand...she noted wearily...
"Warren Mears?...You know him?..."
"Warren the robo-pimp boy?...Sure...We used to use his copy of me as
our housemaid till I tore her apart one day when I caught Spike
diddling her..."
All in the family, he was missing me when I was away trying to see if
me and our minions could break through the Watchers' defense
system...
Giles had the Americas magically blockaded after our Undead army
overran the US...she explained... "So, what's with ole
Mearsy...God, you know I shouldn't have eaten and run with him...He
probably coulda got us through to Europe..."
"Ours is about the same...But he's the one who can run the transit
system...And one of my sisters...The one in the tan pants and
Aramani whites..."
"Aramani?...Nice..."
"...Has the controller..."
"Well, if you'd let me kill her...Just kiddin'...Would I kill a
sister?..."
Ok...I would...she nodded to the frowning glare... "But a deal's a
deal...If you keep your end..."
"I'll keep my end...Just do what I say when the time comes...And no
more..."
"Hmmn...Well, I am an independent type...But, if it's for my Willy,
ok..."
"Natch you know I'll stake you if you cross me..."
"Would you be my soft-headed human twin if you wouldn't?..."
"So what do you call yourself...?"
"Not Buffy, for God's sake..." the other wrinkled her now quite
flexible nose... "I'm Anne...Nice to meet ya sis..."
***