Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Sunnydalopolis Part XIII

Sunnydalopolis Part XIII...

***
Spike and Buffy Rebecca managed to escape the threat of a evening with Harmony by leaving the restaurant at once...

Buffy Rebecca was silent on the ride home...Ignoring Spike's heroic efforts at conversation, she watched the road thoughtfully.

"I should have staked Harmony then and there..." She finally said as they neared the crypt.

Jealous?...could she be jealous?... Spike happily wondered...

"But then, Spike...who else could you possibly have sex with?..." she smiled at him sweetly...

***

Despite the near panic caused on Spike and Buffy Rebecca learning of Warren's ride with the gang, they mutually agreed that Spike should go ahead with his interview at Xortox... Warren had been sure he hadn't given them any useful information as their whereabouts... In addition to her flattering concern for poor 'dad', Buffy Rebecca was far more concerned with the reaction of her friends and family to her existence than in Buffy's intention to destroy her. She expected that...she was Buffy after all and that was how Buffy would feel.

But now was no time for either Buffy to be off her stride...

***

Warren felt it was safer to have Spike go alone to Xortox that night... The gang would not be interested in the company if they knew Warren was at home...

"Dr. Walthrop... A pleasure to finally meet you..." Severn pointed Spike to a chair.

Dr. Walthrop nodded pleasantly, and took a chair...This would be a piece of cake he told himself...Warren had assured him that Severn was no great genius...just the administrative type... Spike could handle the administrative type...

No doubt the cold look Severn fixed on him was meant to intimidate. But William the Bloody, who had faced down demons, Slayers, killers of every description was hardly to be frightened by some little overblown human with delusions... By the way, boss that 100 foot etching of yourself on the side of the lab building...real class, megalomanic style... Glory herself couldn't have done it better... Still, he was a family man now...and one had to show an appropriate amount of trepidation with the boss... As he went over the gist of points on the project as Warren and Buffy Rebecca had couched him, Spike did his best to look slightly unnerved...No, don't overdo it...The fellow will be walking all over you...

"I understand Dr. Walthrop that you're a maverick...like our boy Warren... Yes, that's the kind of man after my own heart..." Severn.

Hmm...doc, seeing as you put it that way...your heart'd look nice under some barbecue sauce right now... Lucky for you, the chip and a steady blood supply from your boy Warren's little girl is keeping Spikey polite...

"So Warren owes some major breakthroughs in his work to you, eh?...We were impressed by his test construct, weren't we, Willes..." Willes nods.

"Brilliant, sir, brilliant..." Severn continues.

Willes, the usual bullying toady...Didn't I see you at Leningrad, mate...SS corps... NKVD?...God, I must remember to tell Buffy Rebecca about the time...

Attention, Spikey, attention...the boss is reaching his stride...Keep up that slightly intimidated look Spikey, think...Giles...

There, just enough to keep that smug look on his face...God, is this what people had to do to earn a living nowadays?

...Poor Warren...

***

By now Giles and Willow had been on patrol together for two nights...Giles and Willow? Xander naturally accepted that with Buffy heavily sedated and finally sleeping off the last terrible days they had to cover for her...but it seemed to him that it was a strange division of the team... Still they were to be covering an easy area, and Giles had seemed anxious for the chance to continue reviewing what they had on Glory with his best researcher... Best researcher?!...Well, yeah. And it was best to split up...but why the insistence that Tara man the shop phones?... Still, the Watcher knew what he was doing...

He might have been less confident if he knew where they headed this night and what was on Giles' mind.

***

Giles had learned enough from Warren to know that the new plan he been forming ever since he'd learned of Buffy Rebecca's existence was likely to work... For the first time since he had learned of Dawn's existence he could see the smallest chance of avoiding the terrible price he was prepared to pay to save Buffy Summers... The price of losing the love of the only child he had ever had. But before he risked it, he had to know... And to find out, he was as willing to risk dear Willow as he had been to sacrifice the Key...

They were reaching an area very popular with Sunnydale vampires...

"Giles?...We're heading quite a ways further than you told Xander and Anya...Are we by any chance...robot hunting?" Willow looked up at him.

"Willow, I want to find that robot...while Buffy is sedated and unable to destroy it."

"Ah...so we're the bait...I thought so..." She smiled at Giles. "And robo-Buffy is going to save us?..."

It was kind of her to let him know that she knew, Giles thought...

"Well, I think we'd better get used to calling her Buffy Rebecca as Warren did..." he said.

She got the R in, with a neat twist, Willow thought...Just like Buffy would've...

***

"Success in the Xortox bionetics program will benefit thousands of those requiring bionic limbs and other organs...especially children..." Severn went on...

...and on...Spike thought... Yeah, I get the picture, boss...Save the Nibletts with Science...But you sure don't look like a niblett-saver to me... Eat the Children, maybe...Save the Children...I don't think so...

Family man now Spikey...family man...keep that servile, eager young cybernetist look on your face...well, a Brit-style eager, servile look...not so doglike, a little Brit dignity...

Hope Buffy Rebecca has charged up on her blood supply...

***

Buffy Rebecca staked the two desperate vamps attacking Giles and Willow so quickly she was nearly gone before they caught sight of her.

No wonder the vamps of Sunnydale are lying so low...Willow thought...There goes my "maybe they're showing a little respect for the Slayer in mourning" idea...

"Buffy Rebecca?...Please wait..Willow and I have someone whom you should meet coming to the store..." Giles called to her.

He does?...I mean we do?...Gi-les, you've been holding out on us...

The robot came back to them... She won't harm us...I'm surrre of it.. Of course, you know...this has been a really bad week and maybe Warren isn't all that bright... Maybe...we...should...think...about...this, eh, Giles....

Giles,...Warren and Spike designed her brain...Giles?...Warren and Spike...?

"Will, it's so good to see you...and...Giles, oh..." the robot held her hands out to them...

She was embarrassed?

"Giles, did you get the hole fixed ok? You know I will pay you back for it, every penny..."

***

Giles led in a slender middle-aged man, dapperly dressed... Professorial type, Willow thought. I've seen his picture somewhere, Buffy Rebecca thought...He's teaching a seminar at college here...

The professor?...smiled... Nice twinkle in his eyes, thought Willow...

"May I introduce our guest...Professor Constantine Drages of the University of Athens.. The Professor is here at the College on a sabbatical..."

The Professor bowed.

"Ladies...Ms. Summers I have very much wanted to make your acquaintance."

Willow looked at Giles...Greek professor...oh...Knights of Byzantium...expert advice...I get it.

"The professor contacted me through the Watchers' Council... He is an expert on Roman, particularly Byzantine-era, history... He is also Constantine XXX, hereditary Emperor of Byzantium and Rome...and Commander of the Knights of Byzantium..."

***

The Emperor continued his story...

"In 382, the Emperor Gratian ordered the removal and destruction of the Altar of Victory...and Glory..." Oh-oh, thought Willow...Glory. "...from Rome."

He paused.

"Gratian was a fine young man, but a bit too zealous in his piety for the new Christian religion...I fear... He failed to consider the consequences of antagonizing even the minor deities once worshiped by Rome..."

Glory was pissed...thought Willow...

"Fortunately Glorificus, the goddess of Glory and Victory had a counterpart... Benedictus, god of Healing and Mercy...we might call him an angel if we used Christian terminology..."

So...

"With the help of his priests, Benedictus restrained his counterpart and prevented her from reaching through to our dimension to wreck havoc on a world which had denied her..."

Glory was really pissed...

"He held this violent goddess between dimensions...But to do so, Benedictus had to remain in our dimension, immortal but essentially powerless..."

Stopping up Glory like a cork in a bottle...Her getting pissier and pissier...Until...

"The Gates of Hell were briefly opened several years ago, giving Glory enough energy to weaken Benedictus' restraint for a time, contact her surviving worshipers, and seek the Key..."

The Master...Willow sighed to herself...Gee...thanks old pal...

"And what is the Key? I know it's some kind of energy..." Buffy Rebecca asked.

" It was contained in the remnants of the original Altar...It consists of the neural energy of thousands of worshipers...enough stored to smash open Benedictus' restraints and loose Glorificus upon the world...and maintain her vital energy connection to her own dimension..."

Gotta keep that energy connection maintained...Else...glory goes out...

"Then...why..?" Willow asked.

"Why did the monks not destroy it?...They honor Benedictus as a saint and feared his time on Earth would end with the destruction of the Key...This was not a difficulty until Glory became more powerful."

To have the good brother over, you gotta tolerate the mean sister...Until she gets too big...

"So if the energy of thousands of minds is used...Glory could get out or...she could be sent back?" Buffy Rebecca asked.

"She would fight to remain here until her vengeance is complete..."

A goddess scorned... Whoa...Sent back?...hmm...where is Buffy...Buffy Rebecca going with this?...Willow wondered...

"And what is Benedictus doing while all this is going on?...Do you have contact with him? Can he help?"

"He seeks to restore his restraints on Glorificus...We respect his intentions but his power is very limited...outside his benevolence. We do not have direct contact with him..And we fear he would hesitate to do that which might destroy his counterpart..."

Can't expect the guy to ace his own sister for us...Unreasonable...He's done his bit for a millennium...Now we gotta get off our butts and...

The Emperor looked at Buffy Rebecca "...as you would hesitate to destroy the Key."

Uh, oh...He's starting to sound...and look...like a Roman Emperor...well, Eastern Roman Emperor...

He fixed Buffy Rebecca with his eyes... He really is one of the Caesars, Willow thought...Impressive, especially considering that suit...

"The Key must be destroyed, Ms. Summers...There is no way to control its energy and be sure that Glory will be cut off from her source of power... I realize that you feel it your duty to carry out the wishes of the monks..."

"I've never really even known what they are..." Buffy Rebecca said.

"Then let us destroy the Key...Together if possible..."

"What will Glory do?...Will she be sent back? Powerless?"

"We believe she will be cut off from her source of power and unable to do more than immediate damage..."

Whoa..."Immediate" damage, your highness...What does that mean..?

"She will of course be capable of destroying those of us who have defeated her...but that is a small price to pay..."

Define "small price"...

"And should I perish in the fight as well...my successor is already chosen..."

Oh...Willow looked at the Emperor, sadly...Glory must be pissed at you... personally...you Gratian-descendant... Poor Emperor...she thought...

"Constantine XXXI?" she asked.

"I think not..." The Emperor smiled. "Thirty Constantines is quite enough...I believe the next chosen will be a Basil..."

He looked at Buffy Rebecca.

"There is comfort in the fact that there is always another Byzantine Emperor, chosen and waiting to take one's place...Just as there is always another Slayer waiting to be chosen... We will await your answer..May God guide you in your final decision, my dear Ms. Summers." He rose.

Buffy Rebecca couldn't help liking the brave little Emperor...He was ready to die too.

But she would never let him reach Dawn alive...

"Ms. Summers?..." the Emperor was a dapper little professor again. "I understand you and your friend attend the College here?...I hope should things work out for the best that you will both consider attending my seminar on Byzantine history...I will do my best to make it entertaining."

Buffy Rebecca nodded... Should we bow, curtsy?...Willow wondered.

Giles led him to the door.

"A brave and intrepid young woman, Mr. Giles..." Professor Drages hesitated. "I hope it will not come to what I fear..."

"Well, sir...there is always another Slayer.." Giles replied.

***

Stopping on the doorstep for a moment to hold the door for a late customer just entering, the Emperor reflected that he had now confirmed what he had needed to know. As he had suspected, the Slayer was protecting the Key out of more than a sense of duty...The monks, curse them, had chosen the Key's form all too well... Human...and dear to the Slayer. And with the poor girl's mother dead, there was only one person that it could be...

***

Alone with Buffy Rebecca, Willow tried to think of things to say...what do you say to a robot double of your closest non-lover friend?

"Well...Good-bye, Will..." the robot said wistfully...

She doesn't want to leave us...her 'friends'... Willow thought.

Oh, we can't do this...I can't...Giles... But he was already in the rear of the shop...He can't face her either, she thought.

"I guess I'd better be going..." She hesitated. And hugged her.

Going home?...thought Willow. To Spike?...

Sensing her thoughts, Buffy Rebecca looked at her quietly...

"It's not so bad, Will...He's...trying...Besides so long as I'm with him, he'll never harm anyone...And, well, eternity is a long time, you know...to be alone..."

So she loves him...Willow thought mournfully...Warren, you...bastard...

Then the robot grinned at her... "Aren't you going to ask me what you've been dying to ask all evening, Will?..."

Willow looked at her...

"Not with a ten foot pole..." Buffy Rebecca smiled at her.

Poor Spike...That's my Buffy...Willow thought happily...And with sorrow...

She called to Giles in the back... He was now busy with the customer let in by the departing Emperor. "'Bye Giles..." She waved at him.

"Good-bye, my dear"... he called, looking away from the customer who had never received such scrupulous attention in any store before...

No..no..Willow thought...We can't do this...We mustn't...Giles, stop her...

But she let the robot leave...There really was nothing else to do...

She turned to look back at Giles. The customer had nervously escaped him at last... and he was looking at the door where the robot had left. He looked back at Willow.

There was sorrow... and anger in her look...

***

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