"Sunnydalopolis..." Part XXV...

Sunnydalopolis part XXV

Buffy "deactivated" by Severn's guards awakens to find herself chained up in the lab with
Warren tied up nearby...
"Ms. Summers...You alright?..."

"You mean aside from knowing how Glory and my 'sister' felt?..."

***
The gang had met at Giles' to coordinate for the search for Buffy Rebecca...With a new
member...Who had needed a little help in entering the building...in daylight...

"If she's able to think clearly...she'd head for Xortox...to see Warren..." Spike says...

"Yes, if she's lucid..." Giles ponders... "I think it's best if we split up...She was headed for
college initially, she might wind up there..."

College?...She was going to college?...Willow was thinking...Well, natch, even a robot needs a
college degree nowadays...

"Let's have Xander and Anya cover the college... I'll check the Summers' house with
Dawn...Then we'll sweep the town...Willow...if you wouldn't mind?..."

"Xortox...with Spike?...No problem..." She smiles at Spike...

"We'll join you there as soon as you let us know she's there..."

Spike looks at them...What to say...How to thank them?...

"Don't any of you silly people get your heads accidently kicked in...She'd never forgive
herself..."
***
Severn had turned off the security cameras in the lab...No need for witnesses to see Warren
and his robot...bound and chained...Willes periodically checked on them...

Buffy played the 'deactivated robot' quite well Warren thought as she collapsed at the sound of
Willes fumbling with the doorknob...But why was she going along with this?...

Willes left after a brief, smirking look round...

"Ms. Summers..."

"Wait..."

Buffy listened to see if Willes was still around...

"Well...Have you had any luck loosening the ropes?..." she asked him...

"Not much...a little...but Ms. Summers...Why didn't you tell them?...that you're not..."
"Not until we know exactly what he's up to...He obviously wasn't there to congratulate you..."

"He's up to disassembling you...If we don't tell him..."

"And if we do...If he doesn't kill us, he'll certainly be after Buffy Rebecca..."

Warren couldn't help smiling...Artificial they might be, estranged perhaps, but Buffy Summers
lets no one touch her sisters...

"Wipe that grin off your face Warren and try to get those ropes loose..."
***
Willow and Spike had decided to give Warren a little time to return their calls before they
headed out to Xortox...If Buffy Rebecca had reached him safely...It might be better not to try
to smuggle a heavily swathed vampire into the labs there in broad daylight...

"Tara fine?..." Spike asks Willow hesitantly...Clearly he needs something to say...

"Better, thanks...Ben says she only suffered a mild shock...not like the others..." Willow grins at
him..."I guess I owe you one, Spike...I'll subtract it from all the times you nearly killed us..."

He nods...At least you can talk to Red, he thinks...

"So..." Willow looks at him... "She loves you, doesn't she?..."

"You think so?..."

"You and Warren designed her mind...not me..."

"Warren didn't program her...if that's what you mean..."

Willow is a little surprised...Then...Why?...

"She's just Buffy...but...if I've understood any of what Warren told me...the one Buffy in this
universe...who could...Well..."

"...think kindly of me... At least of William Walthrop...I don't mean she likes killer vampires..."
He adds hastily...

The one Buffy in the universe...

"And she isn't exactly falling all over me..."

Not with a ten foot pole, she said...Willow thinks... And yet...

"I don't find it hard to believe Buffy might be capable of feeling sympathy for you, Spike...At
least for William Walthrop..." Lucky bastard that Walthrop...Willow thinks...

"Why did you do this, Spike?...I can't help wondering...You love her?...How is that
possible?...Doesn't this have to be some kind of twisted feeling...Revenge?..."

"I don't know why...I never have...I just felt somehow that she wanted...to help me...And when
she came to me..."

The infinite compassion of Buffy Summers stretching across an infinite universe to hear William
Walthrop's agonized cry...I knew my friend Buffy was special...but...

"Do you think Buffy would ever understand?...Buffy Rebecca loves her so..." Spike looks at
Willow...

"That's for Buffy to say..."
***
Buffy Rebecca had reached Xortox before her mind clouded again...But as she tried to head for
Warren's office she soon lost her way...

It was getting late in the afternoon...But from his office window, Willes could easily see Buffy
Rebecca wandering across the Xortox grounds...
***