AGOL
2006-08-06 15:39:33 UTC
Title: "A Prospect of Whitby".
Part: 4/5
Author: 'A Gentleman Of Leisure'.
E-mail: <***@btinternet.com>
Summary: What happened immediately after 'Chosen'?
Story Type: In Canon Buffyverse. Or is it?
Rating overall: G. (or K if you insist)
Spoilers: None, if you've got this far!
Distribution/Archiving: Ask first please.
Disclaimer: No one here belongs to me - I've just
borrowed them to play with. All other Patents, Trademarks and Copyrights
acknowledged. Thank you.
------------------------------------------
Part 4. 'The Long Way Round'.
People looked up in surprise as a strange brown haired girl dragged a
vociferously protesting Andrew up the steps of the bus.
"Ow! Leggo! Help! Help! She's tearing my ear off!"
The girl handed his camcorder to the nearest person, who happened to be
Giles.
"He was showing the scientists his video of Sunnydale collapsing," she said,
"including a nice dramatic shot of Buffy running along the rooftops. I
didn't think that was such a very good idea."
She turned to Buffy.
"And what," she continued, "is he doing with you guys? You don't want to
have anything to do with him, surely - you know he's a friend of Warren's,
don't you?"
"Er, excuse me," said Giles, passing the camcorder on to someone else, "but
who are you? You're not one of our group. Are you with the USGS people?"
"No, of course not..."
"And how do you know about Warren Mears?" said Xander. "Who is very dead, by
the way."
"And good riddance!" said Kennedy, putting an arm round Willow, who had
suddenly gone rigid at the mention of Warren's name.
"Oh, I agree. He was a... er..."
"Unladylike adjective? Expletive deleted?"
"Exactly. Thank you, Mr Giles. May I ask what happened to him?"
"He killed someone - one of us," Buffy said, "someone very special. Why? Did
you know him?"
"Did he? I'm sorry. It wasn't his first time though, was it?"
"What? You know about that?" Buffy said in surprise. "How?"
"He came to a very nasty end," said Xander quietly, actually answering the
girl's question.
"Good!" said the girl, firmly. "Just exactly what he deserved."
"What did he do to you, then?" Willow asked, but the girl didn't answer her
directly. Instead she looked round the group.
"Who was it? Who did he kill? I can see that several people who used to be
with the Scoobies are not here, but there are a lot more of you now who I
don't recognise."
She looked at Willow and seemed to study her expression for a moment.
"Oh. Oh, I see. It was Tara, wasn't it? I should have realised immediately.
I'm so sorry, Willow."
She leaned forwards and touched Willow very gently on the arm. Xander tried
to stop her, to hold her back, but somehow he found himself being
irresistibly moved aside.
"Hey!" he exclaimed, confused.
"Just a minute please. Who _are_ you?" Giles said again. "You seem to know a
lot about us, but we don't really know anything about you yet."
"No, that's true," the girl said. "And yet it's not true either. I was here,
well, in Sunnydale, but I've been away for a couple of years," she added
nonchalantly. "Travelling. Seeing the worlds - you know the sort of thing."
She turned to Buffy who looked tired and drawn, and smiled.
"I'm so glad you weren't dead after all, Slayer. You know, I thought I saw
you that night, but I wasn't in good shape, so I was never absolutely sure.
I guess you really dealt with those motorcycle demons once you returned. Was
that some of Willow's magic then, bringing you back? Pretty neat."
Stunned into silence, everyone looked at her in astonishment.
"How in the hell did you know about all that?" said Xander hoarsely.
"Wait, wait!" Dawn pushed her way through to the front of the group and
peered at the girl with brown hair, examining her face closely. After a
moment she started to smile, a big broad smile, the sort of smile that says
'I know something you-all don't know'.
"You've changed - a whole lot!" she said. "You don't even seem to talk the
way you used to any more! You're like... it's as if you're a real person
now!"
"Hello, Dawnie, dear. Guess you're right. And so have you changed too. Must
be a good eight inches, right?" Then, to everyone's amazement the two of
them put their arms round each other and hugged, patting each other gently
on the back.
"Oh, I was sure you were dead!"
"Live and kicking, Buffy's little sister!"
"But how? I saw you there on the ground torn into pieces, and then you said
you'd seen Buffy, and I ran off to look for her. I'm so sorry we just left
you, and forgot about you, even."
"It's OK."
"What happened to you?"
"Long story."
"Two years long?"
"Who knows - maybe a lot longer. Be shorter in the telling, I expect. I had
some help, of course."
"Of course. How else? Rescued by a knight in shining armour?"
"Close. No armour, just a long scarf and a big floppy hat, but he's a dab
hand with a screwdriver."
"Huh?"
"Would someone please, please like to tell me what on earth they're talking
about?" Giles asked plaintively.
"Seconded," Xander said.
"Thirded," said Willow.
"Oh, hold on. Hold on. I think I got it," Faith said. "I think I've just
figured out who you are. Or were. Did we ever meet? I forget."
"Do you really not know who she is?" Dawn asked. "Come on, guys. She may
have changed her appearance, but she knows all about us. How difficult can
it really be? She simply had a makeover is all."
"A makeover?" Xander echoed.
"Yes. Look," and she reached up and pushed the girl's long wavy brown hair
back from her face.
"I think they've found you out, Bibi," said a voice from the back of the
bus, and the older man they'd supposed was from the USGS group turned round
briefly and waved to her. He then sat down again beside his patient and
resumed his bandaging.
"Bibi? Is that your name?" asked Giles, still sounding confused. "We never
knew anyone by that name did we?"
Dawn laughed.
"Not Bibi, Giles. B.B.! Get it? Just look at her - she's the Buffybot!"
There was another moment of dumbfounded silence. Then...
"What?! But... Holy cow! It's impossible!" Xander exclaimed. "I thought you
said she was destroyed - torn to pieces."
"She was, at least it looked like she was, but..."
"Oh, I certainly was, but hey! I'm ba-ack! And a lot's happened to me since
then!"
"Botty? Is that really you?" said Willow quietly, uncertainly, and the Bot
patted her on the arm again, to reassure her.
"No way. You're kidding, right? You really are the Buffybot?" Buffy asked,
suspiciously. "Can you prove it?"
"Sure can. How about I tell you why I was made in the first place? And who
for, and who by! Would you like me to whisper it in your ear?"
Giles took off his glasses and polished them vigorously, put them back on
and examined the Bot's face closely.
"She doesn't look much like me," muttered Buffy, still sounding
disbelieving. "How's she going to really prove she's what she says she is?"
Giles put a hand on her shoulder.
"Of course she'll be able to prove it, if she's the real thing, but I think
perhaps not within earshot of all our good, kind, helpful friends outside?
Hm?"
*
"So you've been travelling?"
"Ha! You'd better believe it. I've seen things and been to places you
wouldn't believe!"
"And who fixed you?"
"That's right," the Buffybot said confusingly, with a smile. "Of course he
had some help from an even more advanced robot than I am now. It's
complicated - you see I really don't think I should say too much about where
I've been, or when. Or how."
"Why on earth not?" Xander asked. "You're just creating more questions than
you're answering."
"Because I don't want to risk causing a chronoclasm," she said, as if that
explained everything.
"What the whichy-what is that? Giles, do you have any idea what she's
talking about?"
Rupert Giles looked at her, then at Xander, and then shrugged.
"Not the faintest idea, I'm afraid. I have to admit I'm completely out of my
depth with anything scientific. That sort of thing has always been Willow's
department. So far as I'm concerned, scientific terminology is like an alien
language to me."
"Oh, it is English," said the voice from the near the back of the bus. The
original Scoobies, and Faith, were now in a close huddle, trying to keep
their voices down so as to avoid disturbing the casualties, who were waiting
for the arrival of a medivac helicopter to pick up the two most seriously
injured Scoobies - Robin Wood and Rhona.
"It is English?" Giles frowned and thought for a moment. "Chrono? That's
from the Greek for 'Time', surely?" He looked over at the speaker
thoughtfully.
"Would you care to come and join us, sir?"
"Delighted, Mr Giles. Thank you. I've heard so much about you all from B.B.
here, that it's almost as if I know everyone already."
The Buffybot drew him into the circle.
"It's funny," said Xander, "but I could swear I've met you somewhere before.
I just can't quite figure out where."
"You know, I've been thinking that, too. You seem strangely familiar," said
Giles.
"Is it important?"
Xander shook his head doubtfully, still puzzled.
"So you must know a whole lot about robotics, then?" Buffy said. "You and
Willow would have a lot to talk about."
"Oh, Marvin was the real expert. The two of them reassembled me in the first
place, and gave me my first upgrade," said the Buffybot.
"Marvin?" murmured Xander to himself.
"And after that there was no stopping the girl, was there, my dear? I've
never seen anyone like her, you know. She's not really a robot now - an
android perhaps, but even that scarcely applies any more, does it?" the man
said.
"You know, you and Giles sound very alike - very British. But you said
before that you aren't," Buffy commented.
"I have visited there a number of times. London seems to be a favoured
destination of mine for some inexplicable reason," he added with an
enigmatic smile.
"And the Bot - sorry, B.B. - seems to have started to sound like you. And
Giles. Both. If you see what I mean."
"Not really surprising, though, is it? We've been travelling together for
some little time now."
"I'll soon get my American accent and speech pattern back now I'm home,
Buffy. Don't worry," said the Buffybot, "you'll see. I'll be just like a
sister..."
"Oh, God! Not another one!" Buffy exclaimed, aghast, and everyone fell about
laughing.
*
"Well, if you can't tell us where you've been, for chronological, excuse me,
I mean 'chronoclasmic' reasons, can you at least tell us where you were
going?" Giles asked.
"Well, sure - home, of course" said the Buffybot simply. "I am - I was -
going home. Though I suppose you could say I seem to have taken the long way
round. Sorry, private joke," she added.
"Well, at least, I was taking her home," said her companion, "but when we
arrived there was nothing there."
"Just a bloody great big hole, with this vast dust cloud hanging over it."
"And away down the road in the far distance, a yellow school bus doing a
runner as fast as it could go. Very sensible, in the circumstances - in
fact precisely what we did too. We didn't wait around to admire the view
either." He smiled. "I take it that was this bus carrying you and your young
friends, Mr Giles?"
"Well, I suppose so. You must have just missed us, but I don't understand
how we failed to see you," said Giles, now sounding even more confused.
"There definitely wasn't anyone else there. We were absolutely the very last
people out of Sunnydale. How can you have been at the crater? It's not
possible - we'd have seen you for sure," Buffy said aggressively.
"I can prove it," said the Bot. "You dropped something. I suppose it
probably got left behind in your rush to get away when the crater lip
started to collapse with the aftershocks. I'd say we arrived about two
minutes later."
The Scoobies all looked at each other, surprised. How was that possible?
Then Willow said hesitantly, "W... where's the Scythe?"
Buffy's jaw dropped. "I was carrying it. Wasn't I? When I jumped down off
the roof of the bus?"
"I don't remember seeing it, B.," said Faith, dubiously.
"Me neither," Willow said, and Xander and Kennedy both shrugged and shook
their heads.
"You could check my video footage," said Andrew sulkily from the back of the
group, but of course no one took any notice of him.
"Nothing sharp around when I hugged you, Buf," said Dawn.
Buffy's expression was rapidly becoming a picture of anguish.
"NO! I can't have left it behind! I don't believe it! Oh my God! I must have
left it on the roof, and then when we drove away it fell off into the road.
Giles, we've gotta go back and look for it! Now!"
"Slow down, Buffy. You know we can't. Anyway it'll be too late by now - the
road was already cracking up with the aftershocks. I'm afraid the Scythe
will be long gone," said Giles. He sighed. "Maybe it was meant to happen
this way - after all, it had done its job".
"But we can't just leave it. It'll be buried in the debris, or fall into a
crack in the ground and be lost for another five thousand years!"
"Buffy, if that's what's meant to happen, then by this time it almost
certainly has already."
"But what if someone else finds it?"
"Er... excuse me. How big was this Scythe thing? What did it look like?"
asked the Buffybot casually.
"Actually it was really like a rather ornate hand axe with a long wooden
haft ending in a sharp spike," said Giles, ever precise as usual.
"Oh!" The Buffybot swung her own weapons bag onto her knee and unzipped it.
"Do you mean this?"
------------------
END OF PART 4.
TO BE CONCLUDED.
------------------
AN: To understand the chronology of events it is necessary to have already
read my story 'Last Bus From Sunnydale'.
------------------
Part: 4/5
Author: 'A Gentleman Of Leisure'.
E-mail: <***@btinternet.com>
Summary: What happened immediately after 'Chosen'?
Story Type: In Canon Buffyverse. Or is it?
Rating overall: G. (or K if you insist)
Spoilers: None, if you've got this far!
Distribution/Archiving: Ask first please.
Disclaimer: No one here belongs to me - I've just
borrowed them to play with. All other Patents, Trademarks and Copyrights
acknowledged. Thank you.
------------------------------------------
Part 4. 'The Long Way Round'.
People looked up in surprise as a strange brown haired girl dragged a
vociferously protesting Andrew up the steps of the bus.
"Ow! Leggo! Help! Help! She's tearing my ear off!"
The girl handed his camcorder to the nearest person, who happened to be
Giles.
"He was showing the scientists his video of Sunnydale collapsing," she said,
"including a nice dramatic shot of Buffy running along the rooftops. I
didn't think that was such a very good idea."
She turned to Buffy.
"And what," she continued, "is he doing with you guys? You don't want to
have anything to do with him, surely - you know he's a friend of Warren's,
don't you?"
"Er, excuse me," said Giles, passing the camcorder on to someone else, "but
who are you? You're not one of our group. Are you with the USGS people?"
"No, of course not..."
"And how do you know about Warren Mears?" said Xander. "Who is very dead, by
the way."
"And good riddance!" said Kennedy, putting an arm round Willow, who had
suddenly gone rigid at the mention of Warren's name.
"Oh, I agree. He was a... er..."
"Unladylike adjective? Expletive deleted?"
"Exactly. Thank you, Mr Giles. May I ask what happened to him?"
"He killed someone - one of us," Buffy said, "someone very special. Why? Did
you know him?"
"Did he? I'm sorry. It wasn't his first time though, was it?"
"What? You know about that?" Buffy said in surprise. "How?"
"He came to a very nasty end," said Xander quietly, actually answering the
girl's question.
"Good!" said the girl, firmly. "Just exactly what he deserved."
"What did he do to you, then?" Willow asked, but the girl didn't answer her
directly. Instead she looked round the group.
"Who was it? Who did he kill? I can see that several people who used to be
with the Scoobies are not here, but there are a lot more of you now who I
don't recognise."
She looked at Willow and seemed to study her expression for a moment.
"Oh. Oh, I see. It was Tara, wasn't it? I should have realised immediately.
I'm so sorry, Willow."
She leaned forwards and touched Willow very gently on the arm. Xander tried
to stop her, to hold her back, but somehow he found himself being
irresistibly moved aside.
"Hey!" he exclaimed, confused.
"Just a minute please. Who _are_ you?" Giles said again. "You seem to know a
lot about us, but we don't really know anything about you yet."
"No, that's true," the girl said. "And yet it's not true either. I was here,
well, in Sunnydale, but I've been away for a couple of years," she added
nonchalantly. "Travelling. Seeing the worlds - you know the sort of thing."
She turned to Buffy who looked tired and drawn, and smiled.
"I'm so glad you weren't dead after all, Slayer. You know, I thought I saw
you that night, but I wasn't in good shape, so I was never absolutely sure.
I guess you really dealt with those motorcycle demons once you returned. Was
that some of Willow's magic then, bringing you back? Pretty neat."
Stunned into silence, everyone looked at her in astonishment.
"How in the hell did you know about all that?" said Xander hoarsely.
"Wait, wait!" Dawn pushed her way through to the front of the group and
peered at the girl with brown hair, examining her face closely. After a
moment she started to smile, a big broad smile, the sort of smile that says
'I know something you-all don't know'.
"You've changed - a whole lot!" she said. "You don't even seem to talk the
way you used to any more! You're like... it's as if you're a real person
now!"
"Hello, Dawnie, dear. Guess you're right. And so have you changed too. Must
be a good eight inches, right?" Then, to everyone's amazement the two of
them put their arms round each other and hugged, patting each other gently
on the back.
"Oh, I was sure you were dead!"
"Live and kicking, Buffy's little sister!"
"But how? I saw you there on the ground torn into pieces, and then you said
you'd seen Buffy, and I ran off to look for her. I'm so sorry we just left
you, and forgot about you, even."
"It's OK."
"What happened to you?"
"Long story."
"Two years long?"
"Who knows - maybe a lot longer. Be shorter in the telling, I expect. I had
some help, of course."
"Of course. How else? Rescued by a knight in shining armour?"
"Close. No armour, just a long scarf and a big floppy hat, but he's a dab
hand with a screwdriver."
"Huh?"
"Would someone please, please like to tell me what on earth they're talking
about?" Giles asked plaintively.
"Seconded," Xander said.
"Thirded," said Willow.
"Oh, hold on. Hold on. I think I got it," Faith said. "I think I've just
figured out who you are. Or were. Did we ever meet? I forget."
"Do you really not know who she is?" Dawn asked. "Come on, guys. She may
have changed her appearance, but she knows all about us. How difficult can
it really be? She simply had a makeover is all."
"A makeover?" Xander echoed.
"Yes. Look," and she reached up and pushed the girl's long wavy brown hair
back from her face.
"I think they've found you out, Bibi," said a voice from the back of the
bus, and the older man they'd supposed was from the USGS group turned round
briefly and waved to her. He then sat down again beside his patient and
resumed his bandaging.
"Bibi? Is that your name?" asked Giles, still sounding confused. "We never
knew anyone by that name did we?"
Dawn laughed.
"Not Bibi, Giles. B.B.! Get it? Just look at her - she's the Buffybot!"
There was another moment of dumbfounded silence. Then...
"What?! But... Holy cow! It's impossible!" Xander exclaimed. "I thought you
said she was destroyed - torn to pieces."
"She was, at least it looked like she was, but..."
"Oh, I certainly was, but hey! I'm ba-ack! And a lot's happened to me since
then!"
"Botty? Is that really you?" said Willow quietly, uncertainly, and the Bot
patted her on the arm again, to reassure her.
"No way. You're kidding, right? You really are the Buffybot?" Buffy asked,
suspiciously. "Can you prove it?"
"Sure can. How about I tell you why I was made in the first place? And who
for, and who by! Would you like me to whisper it in your ear?"
Giles took off his glasses and polished them vigorously, put them back on
and examined the Bot's face closely.
"She doesn't look much like me," muttered Buffy, still sounding
disbelieving. "How's she going to really prove she's what she says she is?"
Giles put a hand on her shoulder.
"Of course she'll be able to prove it, if she's the real thing, but I think
perhaps not within earshot of all our good, kind, helpful friends outside?
Hm?"
*
"So you've been travelling?"
"Ha! You'd better believe it. I've seen things and been to places you
wouldn't believe!"
"And who fixed you?"
"That's right," the Buffybot said confusingly, with a smile. "Of course he
had some help from an even more advanced robot than I am now. It's
complicated - you see I really don't think I should say too much about where
I've been, or when. Or how."
"Why on earth not?" Xander asked. "You're just creating more questions than
you're answering."
"Because I don't want to risk causing a chronoclasm," she said, as if that
explained everything.
"What the whichy-what is that? Giles, do you have any idea what she's
talking about?"
Rupert Giles looked at her, then at Xander, and then shrugged.
"Not the faintest idea, I'm afraid. I have to admit I'm completely out of my
depth with anything scientific. That sort of thing has always been Willow's
department. So far as I'm concerned, scientific terminology is like an alien
language to me."
"Oh, it is English," said the voice from the near the back of the bus. The
original Scoobies, and Faith, were now in a close huddle, trying to keep
their voices down so as to avoid disturbing the casualties, who were waiting
for the arrival of a medivac helicopter to pick up the two most seriously
injured Scoobies - Robin Wood and Rhona.
"It is English?" Giles frowned and thought for a moment. "Chrono? That's
from the Greek for 'Time', surely?" He looked over at the speaker
thoughtfully.
"Would you care to come and join us, sir?"
"Delighted, Mr Giles. Thank you. I've heard so much about you all from B.B.
here, that it's almost as if I know everyone already."
The Buffybot drew him into the circle.
"It's funny," said Xander, "but I could swear I've met you somewhere before.
I just can't quite figure out where."
"You know, I've been thinking that, too. You seem strangely familiar," said
Giles.
"Is it important?"
Xander shook his head doubtfully, still puzzled.
"So you must know a whole lot about robotics, then?" Buffy said. "You and
Willow would have a lot to talk about."
"Oh, Marvin was the real expert. The two of them reassembled me in the first
place, and gave me my first upgrade," said the Buffybot.
"Marvin?" murmured Xander to himself.
"And after that there was no stopping the girl, was there, my dear? I've
never seen anyone like her, you know. She's not really a robot now - an
android perhaps, but even that scarcely applies any more, does it?" the man
said.
"You know, you and Giles sound very alike - very British. But you said
before that you aren't," Buffy commented.
"I have visited there a number of times. London seems to be a favoured
destination of mine for some inexplicable reason," he added with an
enigmatic smile.
"And the Bot - sorry, B.B. - seems to have started to sound like you. And
Giles. Both. If you see what I mean."
"Not really surprising, though, is it? We've been travelling together for
some little time now."
"I'll soon get my American accent and speech pattern back now I'm home,
Buffy. Don't worry," said the Buffybot, "you'll see. I'll be just like a
sister..."
"Oh, God! Not another one!" Buffy exclaimed, aghast, and everyone fell about
laughing.
*
"Well, if you can't tell us where you've been, for chronological, excuse me,
I mean 'chronoclasmic' reasons, can you at least tell us where you were
going?" Giles asked.
"Well, sure - home, of course" said the Buffybot simply. "I am - I was -
going home. Though I suppose you could say I seem to have taken the long way
round. Sorry, private joke," she added.
"Well, at least, I was taking her home," said her companion, "but when we
arrived there was nothing there."
"Just a bloody great big hole, with this vast dust cloud hanging over it."
"And away down the road in the far distance, a yellow school bus doing a
runner as fast as it could go. Very sensible, in the circumstances - in
fact precisely what we did too. We didn't wait around to admire the view
either." He smiled. "I take it that was this bus carrying you and your young
friends, Mr Giles?"
"Well, I suppose so. You must have just missed us, but I don't understand
how we failed to see you," said Giles, now sounding even more confused.
"There definitely wasn't anyone else there. We were absolutely the very last
people out of Sunnydale. How can you have been at the crater? It's not
possible - we'd have seen you for sure," Buffy said aggressively.
"I can prove it," said the Bot. "You dropped something. I suppose it
probably got left behind in your rush to get away when the crater lip
started to collapse with the aftershocks. I'd say we arrived about two
minutes later."
The Scoobies all looked at each other, surprised. How was that possible?
Then Willow said hesitantly, "W... where's the Scythe?"
Buffy's jaw dropped. "I was carrying it. Wasn't I? When I jumped down off
the roof of the bus?"
"I don't remember seeing it, B.," said Faith, dubiously.
"Me neither," Willow said, and Xander and Kennedy both shrugged and shook
their heads.
"You could check my video footage," said Andrew sulkily from the back of the
group, but of course no one took any notice of him.
"Nothing sharp around when I hugged you, Buf," said Dawn.
Buffy's expression was rapidly becoming a picture of anguish.
"NO! I can't have left it behind! I don't believe it! Oh my God! I must have
left it on the roof, and then when we drove away it fell off into the road.
Giles, we've gotta go back and look for it! Now!"
"Slow down, Buffy. You know we can't. Anyway it'll be too late by now - the
road was already cracking up with the aftershocks. I'm afraid the Scythe
will be long gone," said Giles. He sighed. "Maybe it was meant to happen
this way - after all, it had done its job".
"But we can't just leave it. It'll be buried in the debris, or fall into a
crack in the ground and be lost for another five thousand years!"
"Buffy, if that's what's meant to happen, then by this time it almost
certainly has already."
"But what if someone else finds it?"
"Er... excuse me. How big was this Scythe thing? What did it look like?"
asked the Buffybot casually.
"Actually it was really like a rather ornate hand axe with a long wooden
haft ending in a sharp spike," said Giles, ever precise as usual.
"Oh!" The Buffybot swung her own weapons bag onto her knee and unzipped it.
"Do you mean this?"
------------------
END OF PART 4.
TO BE CONCLUDED.
------------------
AN: To understand the chronology of events it is necessary to have already
read my story 'Last Bus From Sunnydale'.
------------------