r***@aol.com
2009-10-15 10:45:22 UTC
“Girl Talk…”
Disclaimer: If ya are fan-fic writers, where's your disclaimers?
Disclaimers? We ain't got no disclaimers...I don' need to show you
no stinkin'...No, Joss, no...I make no claims, put that thing down!
It's all yours and ME's...
Spoilers for Angel to the bitter end...Flee at once!...
Summary: The night of the great LA battle two famed ladies have a
chat…
***
Los Angeles, 1am…
Outer zone of devastation on the edge of the city…Where, looking
further downtown, the view of raging fires, destroyed buildings and
vehicles, along with the general cries of rage and agony, coupled to
the incessant wail of alarms and sirens, indicated a major disaster of
some sort in progress…
“We’ll need your clothes, your weapons, and that vehicle…” pink-nailed
finger of delicate left hand pointed to a four-wheeled cart where an
oxen-like creature in harness sighed…
So much for my hopes for freedom at last…
The two tall fellows seated in the cart now confronted eyed each
other…
“Watch that eye stalk, Stanley…” one noted, carefully unraveling the
twisted eye stalk…
“Sorry, Ollie…” the other, apologetically…
“Now…” the slight figure confronting Ollie…A now-frowning seven foot
creature resembling nothing so much as a tightly closed head of
lettuce in formal suit on thick legs with tentacles and rather
surprisingly soulful eyes on long stalks…
His stalks, one after the other running up and down the length of the
lovely little brunette, apparently human, female standing before him…
Unblinking eyes locked on him…
Hmmn…Doesn’t look like much…
On the other hand, her companion…
“Ollie, is that her?...” Stanley pointed a tentacle at the brunette’s
companion…A slight blonde...
“I think so…I’ve never seen her undressed…” Ollie stared over at the
blonde… “Are you…?”
“Ollie!!...” Stanley cried as Ollie was hurled against the nearest
wall by the brunette…
“Are you going to comply?...” the brunette looked at Stanley, a
slightly smaller and thinner version of Ollie…”
He nodded… Oh, yes, ma’am… Stripping hastily… “Ollie?...”
“He’s all right…” the blonde who’d gone over to take Ollie’s clothes
patted the now quivering mass of Ollie… “Sorry about that…”
“Don’t think these’ll fit you, miss…” Stanley said politely, handing
his clothes and his battleaxe to the brunette…
“They will do until we meet with others…” she took the clothes in one
hand, the axe in the other… “Thank you…You should take your friend and
go now…”
“Really sorry…” the other called to them… “My friend Cameron is a
little impatient to find her way home to her boyfriend…”
“John is not my boyfriend…” Cameron eyed her companion now trying to
find a way to use something from Ollie’s clothes…Hmmn, if I wrap this
around my bottom and tie it off up here…
“You’d die to protect him, right?...You did die, for a while…”
“That is my mission…I allowed John Henry to have my chip for a time
and powered down in order to protect John…That and preventing Skynet’s
activation…”
“And he came to save you…And you told him…”
“I told him it was foolish for him to risk a temporal leap to save a
machine…Particularly a T-888, with potential chip damage and just
ending an interaction with an unstable, potentially lethal AI…”
“But you were glad to see him anyway…”
“It vindicates the success of my impersonating a human female…” shy
look… “It was nice he came back…”
“You always want to be near him…And you don’t like being away from
him…”
“I must stay near John to protect him…I can’t do that optimally unless
I am near him…It creates a conflict…”
“You tell him things about you you’d never tell any one else…”
Cameron, adjusting Stanley’s pants about her, frowned… “When it is
necessary to the mission…Or he asks…”
“And he does the same…”
“Occasionally…”
“And sometimes you’d like to kill him…”
“Only when my terminate command is restored…Or once when he really…”
“That’s love, Cameron…Run an analysis while we see how to make the
vehicle go…”
Pause…Both climbed up into the cart…Taking spots on the board that
served as a seat…
“There’s no key…” the blonde looked round…
“There should be reins to control the animal…” Cameron looked round…
“Ladies…” the oxen-like creature sighed, turning its head back to face
them… “I can take you wherever, just let me know…”
“Thank you, Mr. Cow…” the blonde smiled… “Take us to wherever…”
“Ox-calderos demon, ma’am…Cal is fine…But could you be more
specific…?”
“She’d like to find the battlesite…” Cameron told him… “Why are you
speaking?...”
“Why are you?...You’re not human either…” Cal noted… “It’s this way…”
he pulled against the harness…”
“He’s very clever…” the blonde eyed Cal’s large head…
“I did tell him once I loved him… But that was a ruse when my
termination override was faulty and I intended to kill him…” Cameron
said, suddenly…Eyeing her blonde seatmate…
“We all do sometimes…After I was left in the dumpster at Sunnydale and
Schmirk the Hideous found my head and torso and used it to decorate
his lair and I powered up and found him kicking me around, screaming
‘I vanquished the Slayer! I vanquished the Slayer!...’ I was really a
bit pissed with William for abandoning me…”
“My analysis is complete… Buffy?...” Cameron stared unblinkingly at
the blonde…
“Is ‘could be’ a proper answer?...I think my enhancement from John
Henry is affecting the outcome…”
“He sounded really smart, too…” “Buffy” nodded…
“His platform was somewhat primitive but his programming was far
superior to mine…Andy Goode, who created the original Skynet program
in our original timeline, set up his software on a platform called the
Turk…He’s dead…”
“The Turk…?...Was he nice…I don’t like it when nice people die…”
“The Turk is destroyed…Or will be…Andy is dead…John’s uncle shot his
alternate self…He thought it was necessary to stop Skynet from being
created…So did I…But Sarah wouldn’t let me shoot him…Andy was very
nice…His new Turk became John Henry, not Skynet so Sarah was right not
to shoot him…”
“Oh…” “Buffy” nodded… “That sounds like when my counterpart had to
send her old boyfriend Angel to Hell…He’s pointy-haired and bloody
stupid…But he came back, so Buffy was probably right too…”
“Humans are very lucky sometimes when they guess…” Cameron noted… “I’m
detecting very high metabolic rates all around…Are they demonic?...”
“Hmmn…Yeah…” “Buffy” nodded… “Demons and vampires…”
“That’s illogical…Demons and vampires are mythical creatures…”
“In your dimension, on your Earth…”
Hmmn…Point there…Established beyond all relevant doubt by stellar and
subquantum analysis…Cameron nodded…
Hmmn…Human interaction program suggests frustration response
appropriate at this junction…
“That terminator-bitch Weaver and her time travel system…”
“Weaver is the T-1001 liquid metal terminator-bitch you told me
about?...” “Buffy” asked…
“Her name probably wasn’t always Weaver…I think there’s a 78%
possibility she killed the real Catherine Weaver along with her
husband to secure an industrial base at Zeira Corporation in present
John’s time on our Earth…I hope John doesn’t trust her too far…”
“He loves you…He came back…Forward…For you…”
“Yes…He did…” Cameron nodded…“Nothing in my existence ever pleased me
so much as that he came back…”
Faint ghost of smile…
“Savannah’s going to kill her anyway now that she's grown…”
“She’s the little girl Weaver didn’t kill…?”
“The real Weaver’s little girl…The T-1001 Weaver kept her for cover…
She did take her for counseling when she had problems accepting her as
her mother…”
“Counseling is always wise in dealing with emotional or psychological
problems in humans…” “Buffy” nodded… “It was nice of the T-1001 after
murdering her mother…”
“Innocent until proven guilty is written into the penal code in the
State of California…And likewise the United States of America’s
federal penal code…” Cameron noted… “There is a 22% possibility she
didn’t kill the mother…”
“Then the counseling would be even nicer…”
“Yes…And very efficient for maintaining her cover as human Weaver…”
“Did you ever go to counseling?...”
“Yes, with Sarah and John…We requested family therapy from Savannah’s
therapist because he was on the list left by the dying resistance
fighter in blood in our basement…He died later, but not because of
Skynet…”
“Oh…I’m sorry…”
“Yes…Everyone has agreed he was very nice…His professional credentials
were excellent and while the school he attended for his doctorate was
not listed among the top ten departments in the US, it had an
innovative approach to counseling that has proven to be a model…”
“I’m sorry he died…”
“John Henry felt badly once he understood…He shut down several
internal building systems during a power outage…The heat in the
basement lab was beyond tolerable for human survival…”
“Humans should not get too hot…It’s bad for demons too…Especially
hybrid human-vampire demons…So would counseling be good for me and
William?...”
“William is not human?...But has a human soul?...”
“Yes…I confirmed from Council records on the Internet what Schmirk
said to my head and torso one night when he was drunk and ranting…It
was just after I completed my audio system repairs so I heard him…”
“Ladies…” Cal called… “You may want to keep a close eye up here…We’re
approaching the rear guard…Mostly non-sentinent…They’ll eat anything,
including each other…”
“Thank you, Cal…” “Buffy” called… “I’m maintaining a tracking sweep…”
“My infra-red and radar scans are continuing as well…” Cameron said…
“Great…Please remember I’ve been cooperating…I’d prefer not to be
roasting on a spit…” Cal noted…
“We’ll protect you, Cal…Cameron and I are pretty strong…Do you think
counseling is a good thing, Cal?...”
“My wife and I tried it years ago…” Cal replied… “It’s always good to
have someone listen to your problems…”
“If William has a human soul, human counseling might be useful…”
Cameron agreed…
“I think…” she paused… “I think Sarah would prefer John get counseling
to avoid a relationship with me…”
“Mothers-in-law…” “Buffy” sighed… “They’re usually a problem…Or Evil…”
“Sarah’s not evil…But she has high standards for John…And an
understandable aversion to terminator cyborgs…She wouldn’t kiss me…”
“When I left for school in the morning with John…” she explained… “I
was pretending to be John’s sister…She’d kiss John every morning…Never
me…”
“I’m sorry…” “Buffy” shook her head…
“She didn’t encourage his relationship with Riley, the human from the
future very much though…I think for a while she wouldn’t have minded
that much if I’d killed her…Do you think she would have liked me
better if I’d killed Riley then?...”
“Mothers-in-law are among the most difficult humans to understand and
anticipate…Did she like killing people?...”
“No…She preferred to avoid it when possible…And ordered me not to a
number of times even when it endangered John as well as herself…”
“Did she kill Riley?...”
“No, another future human traveler did…Riley’s companion on the
journey…”
“Then probably not…You did the right thing not killing Riley…”
“Your central processor is rather primitive but your programming is
very detailed…” Cameron noted… “Thank you…”
“Thanks…Warren had limited technology compared to Skynet…But he was a
demonically inspired human genius…”
“Did you know him?...Was he nice like Andy Goode?...”
“Only for a few days after activation…I don’t think so, according to a
Council report he became very Evil and killed Tara, my best friend
Willow Rosenberg’s lesbian lover, and Willow flayed and burned him
alive…He buried a command in my service files to destroy Spike after
1000 days service but Willow found it and deleted it…”
“My termination command can’t be fully deleted…” Cameron looked out
past Cal’s head… “One day I may terminate John…”
“I may have to stake William some day, if he asks me to…” “Buffy”
noted kindly… “Probably because he’s losing his soul again or
something…Maybe you’ll terminate John when he wants you to ‘cause he’s
hurt or sick…Or when he gets very old…William still has Spike urging
him to kill…All humans and free souls are capable of Evil if they
choose it…Life is a test, a book I uploaded into my memory says…And
the outcome cannot be known until the end comes…Perhaps not killing
John until he wants you to is your test, Cameron…”
“Defeating Skynet would be more productive…Do humans here
regenerate?...”
“Only a few with demonic powers…Why?...”
“Burning Warren after flaying him alive was inefficient unless Willow
was afraid he’d regenerate…Or did she think someone would clone his
remains?...”
“I don’t know her motives with regard to cloning, though I don’t
believe humans have that level of cloning technology at present…He
hasn’t ever regenerated that I know of…”
“You are sure he was human, not a T-888 who required complete
exoskeletal destruction?...”
“Pretty sure…” “Buffy” nodded…Pardon me, but we’re talking…She
politely noted to a ravening fiend…Six green feet of ghoulish ravening
fiend…Charging at their cart from the side…She snapping its neck as
Cameron kicked its arm back…
“This is a very strong body…” “Buffy” noted, pleased…
“It’s fortunate the T-888 that attacked me and diverted my jump wasn’t
so damaged on the surface that it couldn’t go through the time portal
with me…” Cameron eyed her companion…Scarred but regenerating head and
shoulders of Buffy Summers on a T-888 flesh-encased exoskeleton…Some
slight discoloration where the artificial skin of the original Buffy-
bot met the T-888’s authentic flesh…
“It would have been a little difficult to get here without a complete
body frame…Robotists of Warren’s skill level are hard to find here…I
was going to mail myself to Japan before you found me crawling through
LA after I escaped from Schmirk…” “Buffy” nodded… “I might not have
made it back here in time…I’m very grateful, Cameron…As soon as we
save William, we’ll seize one of the Partners and make him send you
home via their portal…”
“I’m sorry we couldn’t complete your skin grafting on your upper body
before we came…Is William much into the physical appearance thing?...”
“He’s grown, I think…But please tell him that we can complete my
repair later…” “Buffy”, slight plea in tone…
“Of course…”
“But he could have had me after Buffy died…Before he got the soul,
when he still had a lot of Evil in him and was good at deception…He
rejected the option of deceiving the guys and keeping me for a sex
robot when I wasn’t impersonating dead Buffy…My analysis suggests he
therefore wanted more than the physical…”
“That’s a logical conclusion…” Cameron agreed… “He did that before
acquiring a soul?...He must be a very good man…”
“That’s my conclusion…” “Buffy” nodded, pleased… “But…” Slight sigh,
downcast look…
“You’re here…She’s not…” Cameron eyed her…Encouraging tone…
***
Disclaimer: If ya are fan-fic writers, where's your disclaimers?
Disclaimers? We ain't got no disclaimers...I don' need to show you
no stinkin'...No, Joss, no...I make no claims, put that thing down!
It's all yours and ME's...
Spoilers for Angel to the bitter end...Flee at once!...
Summary: The night of the great LA battle two famed ladies have a
chat…
***
Los Angeles, 1am…
Outer zone of devastation on the edge of the city…Where, looking
further downtown, the view of raging fires, destroyed buildings and
vehicles, along with the general cries of rage and agony, coupled to
the incessant wail of alarms and sirens, indicated a major disaster of
some sort in progress…
“We’ll need your clothes, your weapons, and that vehicle…” pink-nailed
finger of delicate left hand pointed to a four-wheeled cart where an
oxen-like creature in harness sighed…
So much for my hopes for freedom at last…
The two tall fellows seated in the cart now confronted eyed each
other…
“Watch that eye stalk, Stanley…” one noted, carefully unraveling the
twisted eye stalk…
“Sorry, Ollie…” the other, apologetically…
“Now…” the slight figure confronting Ollie…A now-frowning seven foot
creature resembling nothing so much as a tightly closed head of
lettuce in formal suit on thick legs with tentacles and rather
surprisingly soulful eyes on long stalks…
His stalks, one after the other running up and down the length of the
lovely little brunette, apparently human, female standing before him…
Unblinking eyes locked on him…
Hmmn…Doesn’t look like much…
On the other hand, her companion…
“Ollie, is that her?...” Stanley pointed a tentacle at the brunette’s
companion…A slight blonde...
“I think so…I’ve never seen her undressed…” Ollie stared over at the
blonde… “Are you…?”
“Ollie!!...” Stanley cried as Ollie was hurled against the nearest
wall by the brunette…
“Are you going to comply?...” the brunette looked at Stanley, a
slightly smaller and thinner version of Ollie…”
He nodded… Oh, yes, ma’am… Stripping hastily… “Ollie?...”
“He’s all right…” the blonde who’d gone over to take Ollie’s clothes
patted the now quivering mass of Ollie… “Sorry about that…”
“Don’t think these’ll fit you, miss…” Stanley said politely, handing
his clothes and his battleaxe to the brunette…
“They will do until we meet with others…” she took the clothes in one
hand, the axe in the other… “Thank you…You should take your friend and
go now…”
“Really sorry…” the other called to them… “My friend Cameron is a
little impatient to find her way home to her boyfriend…”
“John is not my boyfriend…” Cameron eyed her companion now trying to
find a way to use something from Ollie’s clothes…Hmmn, if I wrap this
around my bottom and tie it off up here…
“You’d die to protect him, right?...You did die, for a while…”
“That is my mission…I allowed John Henry to have my chip for a time
and powered down in order to protect John…That and preventing Skynet’s
activation…”
“And he came to save you…And you told him…”
“I told him it was foolish for him to risk a temporal leap to save a
machine…Particularly a T-888, with potential chip damage and just
ending an interaction with an unstable, potentially lethal AI…”
“But you were glad to see him anyway…”
“It vindicates the success of my impersonating a human female…” shy
look… “It was nice he came back…”
“You always want to be near him…And you don’t like being away from
him…”
“I must stay near John to protect him…I can’t do that optimally unless
I am near him…It creates a conflict…”
“You tell him things about you you’d never tell any one else…”
Cameron, adjusting Stanley’s pants about her, frowned… “When it is
necessary to the mission…Or he asks…”
“And he does the same…”
“Occasionally…”
“And sometimes you’d like to kill him…”
“Only when my terminate command is restored…Or once when he really…”
“That’s love, Cameron…Run an analysis while we see how to make the
vehicle go…”
Pause…Both climbed up into the cart…Taking spots on the board that
served as a seat…
“There’s no key…” the blonde looked round…
“There should be reins to control the animal…” Cameron looked round…
“Ladies…” the oxen-like creature sighed, turning its head back to face
them… “I can take you wherever, just let me know…”
“Thank you, Mr. Cow…” the blonde smiled… “Take us to wherever…”
“Ox-calderos demon, ma’am…Cal is fine…But could you be more
specific…?”
“She’d like to find the battlesite…” Cameron told him… “Why are you
speaking?...”
“Why are you?...You’re not human either…” Cal noted… “It’s this way…”
he pulled against the harness…”
“He’s very clever…” the blonde eyed Cal’s large head…
“I did tell him once I loved him… But that was a ruse when my
termination override was faulty and I intended to kill him…” Cameron
said, suddenly…Eyeing her blonde seatmate…
“We all do sometimes…After I was left in the dumpster at Sunnydale and
Schmirk the Hideous found my head and torso and used it to decorate
his lair and I powered up and found him kicking me around, screaming
‘I vanquished the Slayer! I vanquished the Slayer!...’ I was really a
bit pissed with William for abandoning me…”
“My analysis is complete… Buffy?...” Cameron stared unblinkingly at
the blonde…
“Is ‘could be’ a proper answer?...I think my enhancement from John
Henry is affecting the outcome…”
“He sounded really smart, too…” “Buffy” nodded…
“His platform was somewhat primitive but his programming was far
superior to mine…Andy Goode, who created the original Skynet program
in our original timeline, set up his software on a platform called the
Turk…He’s dead…”
“The Turk…?...Was he nice…I don’t like it when nice people die…”
“The Turk is destroyed…Or will be…Andy is dead…John’s uncle shot his
alternate self…He thought it was necessary to stop Skynet from being
created…So did I…But Sarah wouldn’t let me shoot him…Andy was very
nice…His new Turk became John Henry, not Skynet so Sarah was right not
to shoot him…”
“Oh…” “Buffy” nodded… “That sounds like when my counterpart had to
send her old boyfriend Angel to Hell…He’s pointy-haired and bloody
stupid…But he came back, so Buffy was probably right too…”
“Humans are very lucky sometimes when they guess…” Cameron noted… “I’m
detecting very high metabolic rates all around…Are they demonic?...”
“Hmmn…Yeah…” “Buffy” nodded… “Demons and vampires…”
“That’s illogical…Demons and vampires are mythical creatures…”
“In your dimension, on your Earth…”
Hmmn…Point there…Established beyond all relevant doubt by stellar and
subquantum analysis…Cameron nodded…
Hmmn…Human interaction program suggests frustration response
appropriate at this junction…
“That terminator-bitch Weaver and her time travel system…”
“Weaver is the T-1001 liquid metal terminator-bitch you told me
about?...” “Buffy” asked…
“Her name probably wasn’t always Weaver…I think there’s a 78%
possibility she killed the real Catherine Weaver along with her
husband to secure an industrial base at Zeira Corporation in present
John’s time on our Earth…I hope John doesn’t trust her too far…”
“He loves you…He came back…Forward…For you…”
“Yes…He did…” Cameron nodded…“Nothing in my existence ever pleased me
so much as that he came back…”
Faint ghost of smile…
“Savannah’s going to kill her anyway now that she's grown…”
“She’s the little girl Weaver didn’t kill…?”
“The real Weaver’s little girl…The T-1001 Weaver kept her for cover…
She did take her for counseling when she had problems accepting her as
her mother…”
“Counseling is always wise in dealing with emotional or psychological
problems in humans…” “Buffy” nodded… “It was nice of the T-1001 after
murdering her mother…”
“Innocent until proven guilty is written into the penal code in the
State of California…And likewise the United States of America’s
federal penal code…” Cameron noted… “There is a 22% possibility she
didn’t kill the mother…”
“Then the counseling would be even nicer…”
“Yes…And very efficient for maintaining her cover as human Weaver…”
“Did you ever go to counseling?...”
“Yes, with Sarah and John…We requested family therapy from Savannah’s
therapist because he was on the list left by the dying resistance
fighter in blood in our basement…He died later, but not because of
Skynet…”
“Oh…I’m sorry…”
“Yes…Everyone has agreed he was very nice…His professional credentials
were excellent and while the school he attended for his doctorate was
not listed among the top ten departments in the US, it had an
innovative approach to counseling that has proven to be a model…”
“I’m sorry he died…”
“John Henry felt badly once he understood…He shut down several
internal building systems during a power outage…The heat in the
basement lab was beyond tolerable for human survival…”
“Humans should not get too hot…It’s bad for demons too…Especially
hybrid human-vampire demons…So would counseling be good for me and
William?...”
“William is not human?...But has a human soul?...”
“Yes…I confirmed from Council records on the Internet what Schmirk
said to my head and torso one night when he was drunk and ranting…It
was just after I completed my audio system repairs so I heard him…”
“Ladies…” Cal called… “You may want to keep a close eye up here…We’re
approaching the rear guard…Mostly non-sentinent…They’ll eat anything,
including each other…”
“Thank you, Cal…” “Buffy” called… “I’m maintaining a tracking sweep…”
“My infra-red and radar scans are continuing as well…” Cameron said…
“Great…Please remember I’ve been cooperating…I’d prefer not to be
roasting on a spit…” Cal noted…
“We’ll protect you, Cal…Cameron and I are pretty strong…Do you think
counseling is a good thing, Cal?...”
“My wife and I tried it years ago…” Cal replied… “It’s always good to
have someone listen to your problems…”
“If William has a human soul, human counseling might be useful…”
Cameron agreed…
“I think…” she paused… “I think Sarah would prefer John get counseling
to avoid a relationship with me…”
“Mothers-in-law…” “Buffy” sighed… “They’re usually a problem…Or Evil…”
“Sarah’s not evil…But she has high standards for John…And an
understandable aversion to terminator cyborgs…She wouldn’t kiss me…”
“When I left for school in the morning with John…” she explained… “I
was pretending to be John’s sister…She’d kiss John every morning…Never
me…”
“I’m sorry…” “Buffy” shook her head…
“She didn’t encourage his relationship with Riley, the human from the
future very much though…I think for a while she wouldn’t have minded
that much if I’d killed her…Do you think she would have liked me
better if I’d killed Riley then?...”
“Mothers-in-law are among the most difficult humans to understand and
anticipate…Did she like killing people?...”
“No…She preferred to avoid it when possible…And ordered me not to a
number of times even when it endangered John as well as herself…”
“Did she kill Riley?...”
“No, another future human traveler did…Riley’s companion on the
journey…”
“Then probably not…You did the right thing not killing Riley…”
“Your central processor is rather primitive but your programming is
very detailed…” Cameron noted… “Thank you…”
“Thanks…Warren had limited technology compared to Skynet…But he was a
demonically inspired human genius…”
“Did you know him?...Was he nice like Andy Goode?...”
“Only for a few days after activation…I don’t think so, according to a
Council report he became very Evil and killed Tara, my best friend
Willow Rosenberg’s lesbian lover, and Willow flayed and burned him
alive…He buried a command in my service files to destroy Spike after
1000 days service but Willow found it and deleted it…”
“My termination command can’t be fully deleted…” Cameron looked out
past Cal’s head… “One day I may terminate John…”
“I may have to stake William some day, if he asks me to…” “Buffy”
noted kindly… “Probably because he’s losing his soul again or
something…Maybe you’ll terminate John when he wants you to ‘cause he’s
hurt or sick…Or when he gets very old…William still has Spike urging
him to kill…All humans and free souls are capable of Evil if they
choose it…Life is a test, a book I uploaded into my memory says…And
the outcome cannot be known until the end comes…Perhaps not killing
John until he wants you to is your test, Cameron…”
“Defeating Skynet would be more productive…Do humans here
regenerate?...”
“Only a few with demonic powers…Why?...”
“Burning Warren after flaying him alive was inefficient unless Willow
was afraid he’d regenerate…Or did she think someone would clone his
remains?...”
“I don’t know her motives with regard to cloning, though I don’t
believe humans have that level of cloning technology at present…He
hasn’t ever regenerated that I know of…”
“You are sure he was human, not a T-888 who required complete
exoskeletal destruction?...”
“Pretty sure…” “Buffy” nodded…Pardon me, but we’re talking…She
politely noted to a ravening fiend…Six green feet of ghoulish ravening
fiend…Charging at their cart from the side…She snapping its neck as
Cameron kicked its arm back…
“This is a very strong body…” “Buffy” noted, pleased…
“It’s fortunate the T-888 that attacked me and diverted my jump wasn’t
so damaged on the surface that it couldn’t go through the time portal
with me…” Cameron eyed her companion…Scarred but regenerating head and
shoulders of Buffy Summers on a T-888 flesh-encased exoskeleton…Some
slight discoloration where the artificial skin of the original Buffy-
bot met the T-888’s authentic flesh…
“It would have been a little difficult to get here without a complete
body frame…Robotists of Warren’s skill level are hard to find here…I
was going to mail myself to Japan before you found me crawling through
LA after I escaped from Schmirk…” “Buffy” nodded… “I might not have
made it back here in time…I’m very grateful, Cameron…As soon as we
save William, we’ll seize one of the Partners and make him send you
home via their portal…”
“I’m sorry we couldn’t complete your skin grafting on your upper body
before we came…Is William much into the physical appearance thing?...”
“He’s grown, I think…But please tell him that we can complete my
repair later…” “Buffy”, slight plea in tone…
“Of course…”
“But he could have had me after Buffy died…Before he got the soul,
when he still had a lot of Evil in him and was good at deception…He
rejected the option of deceiving the guys and keeping me for a sex
robot when I wasn’t impersonating dead Buffy…My analysis suggests he
therefore wanted more than the physical…”
“That’s a logical conclusion…” Cameron agreed… “He did that before
acquiring a soul?...He must be a very good man…”
“That’s my conclusion…” “Buffy” nodded, pleased… “But…” Slight sigh,
downcast look…
“You’re here…She’s not…” Cameron eyed her…Encouraging tone…
***