"Sunnydalopolis..." Part XXIV

Sunnydalopolis part XXIV

Warren and Buffy at Xortox have been "greeted" by Dr. Severn and his welcoming goons...

Severn smiles at her...
"Ms. Summers, you're a triumph of cybernetic design..."

Before Warren can correct the mistake...

Buffy beams at Severn and pats Warren on the arm...What...is...she ...doing, he thinks...

"Isn't my 'dad' wonderful?"
***
Severn had them escorted to his office and waved them to chairs...

"Congratulations, Warren...She's a pert little minx..."

Pert little minx?...Do people really talk like that?...

Buffy does her best to seem as pert a minx as possible...

***
Willow was reviewing notes on Glory with Giles at the store...When Buffy arrived...

"Giles, I need to see you for a few minutes before I get over to class..."

Giles had been expecting this since the evening of the Battle of Sunnydale Mall...He ushered her
into his office...Will watched...Buffy, I thought we settled this...Don't start with Giles now...He's
been on your side with Dawn and Buffy Rebecca...He'd have done anything to save you...

She could hear Buffy's voice getting angry...Giles' pleading...

It was Willow's turn to reach the boiling point...Buffy had no right to carry on like that with
Giles and she was here to let her know... It wasn't Giles who had let her friends...continue
working in danger with her all these years...kept her mom around...

"...My mom...Mom..." Willow vaguely hears Buffy say to Giles..

Her mom?...was Giles' responsible for that, too, now?... Enough is enough...Willow goes to the
study just as there's a crash...She runs in...

Giles is on the floor...Did she hit him?...Buffy...You...Buffy is blinking at him, horrified...

"I'm...I'm sorry, Giles"

... She looks at Willow, ashamed...confused...?

"I have to get to class..." She hurries out the door...Willow lets her pass, and is too busy
helping Giles to see Buffy pause in confusion in the store before dashing out...
***
Giles looked up at Willow...

"I didn't realize what she was talking about until a moment before you came in.. It was a
conversation we had the first month Buffy and I worked together...She accused me of putting
her mother in danger... I was sure she was talking about Dawn..."

"That wasn't Buffy, then?..."

"No...I think we'd better call Spike and Warren..."

***
On the street, a man by the traffic light...and Buffy Rebecca...

"My mom won't let me cross by myself..." she smiles nervously at him...

Six years old...and lost...

***
"She left for class this morning...She had a little headache but she seemed...fine..." Spike paces
the crypt not looking at Giles and Willow who'd come to tell him of Buffy Rebecca's strange behavior...

Giles looked at him..."It may not be serious Spike...If we can get her to Warren..."

"He was worried about that electrical discharge...I should never...I should have broken that
damned cable..."

Somehow, Giles thought...I never thought I would be trying to comfort William the Bloody...
over Buffy...even in robot form...

"I can't reach Warren..." Willow came to them... "His phone doesn't answer..."

"Giles...Willow...can you help me get to my car?..."

"Spike, you're no help to her if you burn to death..." Willow looks at him...A distraught
vampire...in love...not an easy person to deal with...

"We'll all help you, Spike...And we will find her..." Giles said, putting a hand on his shoulder...
***

Buffy Rebecca's mind cleared for a moment and she found herself in the middle of Sunnydale...

She grabbed a cab and headed out immediately for Xortox... She had to get to Warren...
***

Dr. Severn has a little favor to ask of Warren and his remarkable achievement...
"Disassemble her...You want me to disassemble her..." Warren looked at Buffy in shock...

"Not permanently, son...I would never allow such a remarkable work to be destroyed...If I can
help it...But I must know the details of how her neural system works..."

"You can't open up the brain...It's...similar to a human's...if you damage any component...It
would be murder..."

Severn leans back in his chair...

"Need I remind you son that this machine was constructed at Xortox, using my facilities, my
materials...I have every right to do as I please with it..."

Warren glares back at him...

"She's strong enough to throw you and your thugs out the window of this building...No
problem..."

Severn leers at him...

"Difficult when she's incapable of killing people...You see I have looked over what design notes
you had in your lab..."

Buffy interrupts, smiling sweetly at Severn...

"I may not be able to kill you, but I sure can hurt you..."

"I have no doubt of that my dear..."

Severn signals a guard who shocks her with a high charge weapon...She collapses...
convulses and is still...

Warren cries out... "You've killed her..."

"Nonsense, don't be sentimental...It's just deactivated for a time...

He bends over Buffy...Thank God...Still a heartbeat...

Human or robot, Buffy Summers is hard to kill...
***