Immortal Beloved..." LIX...
A shortie...
PG-13
Disclaimer: 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: Various outcomes following "Girl In Question" and /or "Not Fade Away" on Angel...
Ok, I lied about stopping at 50...But me poor ole mum would just say, "so long as I like it, it's ok..."
Sides, after the last one, I had to do another nice one to balance things out...And there was that mistake with the numbers earlier...
I mean there's no choice but to press on (over your pleading screams to desist, no doubt...)
***
Angel and Will stood, watching their seated, disheveled, somewhat frantic, just admitted to their new offices, guest...Who'd run in, disguised in wig and long coat, begging for them to keep her presence secret...
"Guys, ya gotta help me!..." Buffy pleaded... The Immortal...
What, now we gotta rescue her boyfriends?...Angel eyed William...Who sighed...Natch...And the pathetic thing is, I'll probably do it too...
"What's happened to your latest?..." Angel turned back to her... "My...What?!!..." she stared...Then at Will... "You think...?"
"We were in Rome, Buf...Andrew told us how things were between..."
"That moron!..." she rolled her eyes... "William, you can't believe I'd...I mean without even checkin' on you?...Though you were a jackass coward not to come to me as soon as you went solid...Oh, is that what you thought...What an ass you are!...Oh, Will..." she sighed...
"But we saw you with..." Will began...But a light had flashed in his eyes...
"That wasn't me...And that's why I'm here...Guys I just escaped from the Immortal's castle...Two days ago, to be precise...The Buffy you saw in Rome is not me..."
The boys stared at each other... "She's a clone...An evil clone, no less, though that bastard was clever enough to train her to play me preety well...She even fooled Dawn for a while..."
Evil clone, naturally...I knew that...Angel nodded...
"He...Well, ok..." she eyed William sheepishly... "When I thought you were gone for good back in October he showed up and did the 'tormenting and suffering one seeking redemption' routine...Angelus' favorite game..." Not to mention...she did not say but frowned at Angel... "I fell for it...For a little while...But all he wanted was to get close to me...To gather some genetic material...Hair samples, skin scrapings...Ummn...Other things...So with help from your Senior Partners, Angel...He could build an anti-Slayer army to oppose ours...He's had me in his place since November..."
And now he's nearly succeeded...There were 1,000 Buffies in training and 10,000 more in prep when I escaped...
11,000 Evil Buffies...Hmmn...The boys eyed each other...Maybe not Angelus' but certainly Spike's view of Paradise...
"God, William...Why didn't you come?...You've guessed and we coulda stopped this..."
"Now wait a minute, Buffy..." Will eyed her... "I find it a little hard to believe you couldn't escape the Immortal in all this time..."
Unless...he paused...She nodded...
"His test prototype's in position to kill Dawn and all my family...She has my strength...What could I do?...Plus he had me drugged and guarded 24/7...I only managed to make my break the other day...I couldn't even risk trying to contact Giles..."
Hmmn...Having to kill 11,000 Buffies...In a way kinda cathartic...Angel desperately repressed the thought...
"Well, we'll do whatever we can, Buf..." he noted... "Of course our resources are more limited these days since we kicked the Partners' asses...But we'll do what we can, naturally..."
"Thanks, Angel...And congrats on the Big Win...Well?..." she eyed Will... "Are you gonna stand there like a log or are you gonna kiss me?..."
"How do you know these clones are evil?..." he stared at her... She stared at him... "Will, I was there for months...He naturally ranted his plans to me every chance he got...Besides, what?...You think he's going to use them as Peace Corps volunteers?"
He continued to stare...Ok, she sighed and gave a hard smile... "I see you figured it out..." she pulled a stake...Angel blinking...
"I know...Cause I'm one of them..." a malicious smile...Which suddenly was replaced by an anxious look... "But one sent by Buffy...Not under his control..."
"Uh-huh..." "Fine..." she lowered the stake...And handed it to him...Will quietly putting it on Angel's desk...
"Buffy sent you?...And got you free of the Immortal's control?..." Will gave her a hard look... "Isn't that unlikely...?"
"We all carry her memories...A benefit...And a drawback..." the clone noted coolly... "Unfortunately most of us are pretty well imprinted to serve His Benevolence..."
But, a few of us early prototypes were a tad...Defective...And, while not exactly world-saving compassionate heroines...We prefer to think for ourselves...
"And all of us, even the controlled ones...Love our William..." she beamed at him...
"Being an early model, I was assigned to guard our prized prisoner...With about 100 others...But when we had a moment alone, Buffy pointed out to me that the first thing His Asinine Pomposity would do is kill you, Will...Remove a potentially dangerous focus for my sisters..."
So I agreed to come...And tell you what's up...
"Course being evil...My thought was to kill her and claim she'd been trying to escape...Then slip out, come here, and play Buffy for the rest of my life...But...I guess I knew you'd figure me out in time, Will...Or Angel would have me exposed via genetic testing...And I'd rather share you with the original idiot than have you hate me..."
All I ask is that you consider me after we save Buffy and destroy my sisters...As the one Buffy who came to you without hesitation, I figure I got a leg up over ole 'he's got a place in my heart but the cookies ain't baked'...
"Sides...I got no family hanging on to give us trouble...No prob with a vamp husband, soul or no soul...And I shag a lot better, it's the extra dose of evil..." she grinned...
***
