In For A Penny

by regertz

-Sunnydalopolis sequel-Spike, now an accepted Scoobie member as Buffy's and Dawn's "protective Brother-in-Law" attempts to reach his beloved BR's spirit with Willow's help... -While Darla plots to destroy Buffy and Dawn with Hank Summers as her tool..

In for a Penny...

Prologue...for those who missed Sunnydalopolis I-XXVIII

Spike has fallen in love with and lost the robot copy of Buffy Summers, Buffy Rebecca Summers

created by Warren the robot maker and "cybergenius" for him using a neural recording of Buffy

and perhaps a little help from the powers that be...

Realizing now that Buffy Rebecca was a genuine soul, the one Buffy Summers of all potential

Buffy Summers across the infinite universe that had called out to him in pity for his suffering,

Spike waits in hope that he will, if he can preserve the humanity he has partly regained, one day

find her again...

Despite the method in which her twin was created, using her mind without her knowledge, Buffy

has gradually come to acknowledge Buffy Rebecca as a true soul...her sister...in the course of

which she has also dealt with her mixed emotions regarding Dawn...likewise created at her

expense by the fanatic monks who wished to prevent the loss of the Key...

She and the gang have come to forgive Spike for his action in creating the robot and to regard

him in light of Buffy Rebecca's faith in his redemption as almost a brother-in-law...Albeit one

who must still, even by his own admission be watched carefully...

Part I

'Dr.' William Walthrop (aka Spike) was holding court in his office at the cybernetics

firm he and Warren the "cybergenius", his partner in the creation of Buffy Rebecca,

had founded after the destruction of their former employer, the immortality-seeking Dr. Severn

and his company, Xortox Labs...

His hours were, admittedly, unusual...But the remnants of the old Xortox Labs staff who had

been recruited by Warren were used to ridiculous schedules and crazed demands, having

long worked for a dying, demented maniac...

Of course they generally had their suspicions about the limits of

'Dr.' Walthrop's genius...

Spike clenches his pipe firmly between his teeth, his eyes firmly set...on the future...Time to

inspire the troops, he thinks...

"Bionetics...Ladies and gentlemen...is the wave of the future..."

They nod in agreement...Yeah, so?...

"If we follow through to our proper course, holding firmly to our ideals...Overcoming the

obstacles blocking our way..."

I just wanted to ask about stock inventory...one assistant thinks...

"To the bright future our products can offer..." Spike has picked up some of

Severn's bombast...

Warren enters, saving the staff...

"Spike?...er Walthrop..."

...Spike!...The staff loves that nickname...Where did he ever come up with that one...

Tweedy, pipe-puffing Walthrop...Spike?...

Must be that hair...

"Ah, Warren..."

"Umm...time for our conference...If you're not too busy..."

Nothing will get done tonight if I don't get them out of here...Warren sighs...Nothing...

"Just inspiring the gang...Alright..." Waves a fist in the air...

"Folks...lets to it..."

They look at each other...To...?

Warren looks at 'Dr.' Walthrop , his friend...the vampire...more or less

reformed...but still...

"Spike, you realize we have to get things moving here?...We have schedules to

keep, even if they must be adjusted to suit...your needs..."

Spike is a little hurt...He's been doing his bit, after all...And it was the missus who

was really the expert on cybernetics in the Walthrop family, naturally...he just does

what he can...Just doing his bit...

Warren can't help feeling sympathetic, a feeling which has gotten him into quite a

lot of trouble in the past few months...

After all, Spike was educated in the last century...It's taking time to catch up...

"Say, how was patrol last night...?"

Spike brightens...Now you're talking...That he can handle...Well, ok...Buffy handled

most of it...

"Grand time, Warren...Sis was in excellent form..."

It's nice she tolerates him coming around Warren thinks...

Perhaps he should encourage him to join her more often, say...almost every night...

Giles was in a rather foul mood at the same time...

He was speaking on the phone to the long-delayed Mr. Hank Summers...

Hank Summers...who had been unable to attend his ex-wife's funeral...who had called

his elder daughter the day after that funeral to encourage her to sell her home as quickly

as possible...who was now graciously planning to make a visit...No doubt to speed real

estate arrangements...

"Well...Mr. Summers...We'll all be looking forward to meeting you...Yes, I know

Buffy and Dawn have been a little hard to reach..." Just risking their lives to save

the miserable necks of worthless wretches like you, you ridiculous piece of... Giles thinks...

"So glad you're finally able to come...Must go...I will certainly tell the girls that you're

coming...Ah, yes...Well...two days, then...Ah yes..." Good-bye, you loathsome little...

He called Buffy to let her know the glad tidings...

Normally it would have been Giles' first thought to ensure that Hank Summers was properly

watched during his journey to Sunnydale from the Los Angeles airport where he would be

arriving...But having suggested to Summers that he would be safer in LA, traveling by day

only, to avoid the criminal element...Somehow he couldn't bring himself to care...

In for a Penny...

Part II

The next day found Willow visiting Spike...in his apartment...In Warren's building...

A vacancy had opened up and "Dr. Walthrop", cybergenius and businessman

had to have a permanent address anyway...

She'd come to discuss a request Spike had made of her...

"A seance...for Buffy Rebecca?..." Willow is intrigue but...still...a seance

for a robot?...

"I need to know...what's happened to her..." Spike tries to seem casual...But

clearly his future is hinging on this one...

"I...don't know...Spike, we might not be able to reach her...even if..."

"I believe she's out there...But I have to know...I can wait if I know...As long as it

takes...But..."

She nods...

"I believe she's out there too...Let me see what I can do...But, Spike...I have to

have your word...You won't give up if we fail..."

"Certainly not..."

No one impugns Walthrop's Brit pluck...Besides it would be just like BR to tease him

by not saying anything...The first time...

"We'll be back tonight..."

Red's a peach...Glad I didn't kill her that time...Spike thinks as Willow leaves...

Los Angeles, that night...

Darla was fretful, angry, and sorrowful by turns...She'd failed to win Angelis

back...And he'd...failed to save her...

And yet...one night with that foolish girl, that Slayer...

That Slayer, now by repute the victor over the Goddess of Glory and Victory...The

Greatest Slayer of all Time...even vampires who had fought with her were

sheepishly praising her glories now...Excusing their failures...

"Well, we ran into the Slayer and..."...disgusting...

Even that fool Spike, an idiot from the day Dru had turned him...Even he was

hers now...

Not that Darla had ever concerned herself with that fool...A poor job of transformation

by Dru if ever there was one...But she was too young when they'd allowed her to do it...

Not to mention...

Dru comes over...Sighing...

"My Spikey boy...all lost...all lost...Daddy Angelis all lost too..."

"Enough, Dru...Enough..." I should never have let her go to Sunnydale, Darla

thinks...Depression on top of homidicial psychosis does not make for a fun companion...

"The Bad One took him...all away...But?..." Dru pauses in confusion,

something's wrong...

"Not our Bad One?...And our Bad One?..." She's sensed Buffy Rebecca's

hold on Spike...

Psycho...Darla thinks...This is what I'm going to be putting up with for all eternity?...

She pulls Dru up sharply...

"Well, my love...What do we do about our Bad One?..."

Dru grins...She likes this part...

"We...make her cry..."

"Yes, my love...Yes...We make her cry...But how?..."

"Mommy all gone...No fun for us...The little one?..." Dru puzzles again...

"She's all...blank...No coloring in the spaces..."

I wonder if Wolfram and Hart could refer me to a good shrink, Darla thinks...

"The Slayer's got a daddy...He's all slippery, slippery...ooh..."

Darla has had quite enough with Drusilla's rambling...She's as weak as that human

soul of hers...hiding in terror in the farthest corners of limbo from what she has

become...

She grabs Drusilla and backs her up against the wall...

"He's a stupid fool..." Dru...

Suggested theme...Darla and Dru (Girls Just Wanta Have Fun)

Drusilla grins...Darla pulls back...Finally, a sensible remark from her...

"He's com...ing..." Drusilla sang to her...

"He's coming?...To Sunnydale?..." Darla looks at Drusilla, who smiles

and puts her hands to her

face...

"Hee..re.."

In for a Penny...Part III

At the Magic Shop, Buffy and Dawn were sitting with Giles...The sisters trying to avoid the

other's eyes...Dad...coming at last...

Do we embrace him?...Or lead him on a night tour of Sunnydale's favorite demon haunts

and lose him...

Willow dropped by with some news following her meeting with Spike...

"A what?.." Buffy and Dawn were startled by Willow's announcement...

"Spike wants me to do a seance for Buffy Rebecca..."

Giles was not especially surprised...It made good sense to him...If you're going

to spend eternity waiting for your lost love...Besides Spike was the impatient type...

Back at Will and Tara's dorm...

Tara had fully recovered from her brief encounter with Glory...

"Will, I don't know, reaching a dead robot's soul?..." Tara is uncertain,

though interested...

"I've reached some pretty interesting characters...you have to admit..."

"But if Spike learns she's not out there?...That she was just...well...

a dream...a fantasy?..."

"No, there was something real there...I believe it...Anyway I promised to try...

And he's promised not to give up if we fail..."

"Well, she did have a nice aura...I'll try if you want to..." Tara grins

sheepishly... "It is romantic, I admit...Just your style..." She beams...

That's my girl...

Flat failure...

Tara, Willow, and Spike...at his apartment...gave up after four tries to reach

Buffy Rebecca...They'd exhausted everything they could think of that might have

attracted her spirit...

Besides, Spike was "needed" at his office...

But Willow had an inspiration...Buffy Rebecca's body was at the Greenwood

crypt, placed in an empty chamber...They should give it a try there...And perhaps

if Buffy could be persuaded to come along tomorrow...

No, tomorrow was Dad arrival night...Buffy was sure not to be available, even

if she were willing...Still, Spike was so desperately eager to continue...Will and

Tara agreed to try there again...

Buffy called about the time they gave it up...Spike was touched that she wanted

to know if they'd succeeded...All the times I wanted to rip her throat open, he thought...

She couldn't be there tomorrow night but...she was willing to let them use

something of hers...in hopes that BR would be attracted...Dawn would bring it

by Willow's in the morning...Something she knew BR would be fond of...

She couldn't help admiring Spike's determination...It wasn't exactly returning

from Hell, but...

Xander decided to join them for the next attempt on Buffy Rebecca...He couldn't

quite face the idea of encountering her again at first...He didn't think he could

stand to lose a sister a second time...

But he thought it over...Maybe if he was there too...and they had chosen the

right place...

Anya thought it was a good idea...The dead, from her experience, love to have

the family around...Well...maybe that was the evil dead...No, no...good dead

like it too...

Hank Summers arrived in LA the next day a little ahead of schedule...He had

places to go, babes to meet before he would be off to meet his little girls...

And help them with their financial arrangements...

In for a Penny...Part IV...

Hank Summers was a happy man...A day to kill in LA, West Coast metropolis...

If only cash flow wasn't a minor problem...

But for a wheeler-dealer like Hank, there are no obstacles to having a good time...

Especially if your daughters have real estate ready to go on the market...

Not that he doesn't feel bad about old Joyce...But...

After all, life must go on...rolling...

Drusilla was pouting...She did not like Grandmother Darla's plan...No...

To let the Slayer have her daddy more or less intact...and join their family...With

them...forever?...Didn't seem fun at all...Would that make her cry?...Not likely...

She sulked...

She'd been hoping for something nice...To leave the Slayer her daddy's body...As

a present...

And Buffy Summers seemed such a bore...Even if she joined them...Still the

little one, so strange and blank...No coloring in the spaces...

She'd be fun to have around...A dolly for Drusilla to play with...

And hee...what fun on old Spikey...that silly boy...

Darla's cryptic card to Angel fell flat as he was not available, having left for Tibet

to consult with learned monks on the Wolfram-Hart efforts to bring about the

Apocalypse...

Cordelia got it and looked it over...Just a blank card...A smiling dad and

daughter...and the words inside... "Condolences on your dear friend's loss..."

"Anyone we know die...recently?" She asked Wesley...

"No one we would care about...unless it was Mrs. Summers up in Sunnydale...

But not likely anyone would send Angel a card about that..."

"You don't suppose he lost a dear friend...and didn't tell us...Maybe some demon or thing we'd

rather not know about?..."

Wesley shrugged...

"We'll find out when he gets back..."

They forgot about the card...

Tibet, Wesley thought...What a loony idea...Sometimes Angel just...

Xander, in the Magic Shop, stares at the pictures Dawn had brought that morning...

for Buffy Rebecca...

Young Joyce and Hank Summers...and their two girls...before divorce and Slaying

had done their work...

And, in the corner of the frame, a small photo of Buffy Rebecca...given to Buffy by

Spike...

Yeah, he thought...She'll like it...

He'd been relieved to see Dawn that morning...As he was every time he saw her now...

After all, who knew what would happen to her after Glory was vanquished...Maybe

Keys dissolve when they're no longer needed...

As the day wore on, Dr. Walthrop paced his apartment, shrouded in darkness...

a necessity under the circumstances...

He stops...

He has so much hope in tonight's efforts...Just to hear from Buffy Rebecca

again...To be told he was a worthless coward for not having faith in her...That

she always knew he'd wuss out and run to Willow for a little spirit help...That

when she caught up with him, his miserable unlife would be worth...

Oh, the joy...

At the Summers' home, pandemonium...

The sisters race around, stumbling over each other, fighting constantly...

determined that the house will be in each other's version of apple-pie

order for the coming of the long-awaited Hank...

A man who prefers not to change his underwear more than once in a

week unless forced...

Darla was quite put out... She, who had gone to considerable risk, entering

the airport terminal in daylight by sewer and basement tunnel, during the

time when she, presenting on the phone as Buffy, had learned Hank

Summers' original flight was due... And now, no sign of the fool...At least

in the areas she could safely venture...

But she'd arrived well ahead of the flight...and positioned herself where

he would have to pass?...

She used a phone to reach the flight desk...Where she could not yet go...

With a little tearful persuasion... from a young woman lost in LA,

desperate to hook up with her dad...the attendant told her that her

'father' had been a passenger on an earlier plane...

And had taken a bus into the city...

On hanging up Darla felt quite unconcerned...A silly fool, loose in LA,

wandering around...She was certain he would not be heading out to

Sunnydale until the last possible moment...and it would soon be dark...

Drusilla would find him, no doubt about it...

In for a Penny...Part V...

Back "home"...the Greenwood crypt where Buffy Rebecca

and Spike had lived their "common-law" married life for a

few short weeks...

And where her robot body lay...Not too far from the grave of her mother...

The gang...Willow, Tara, Xander, Anya...and Spike...

The thought was plaguing Xander... He had to get it out...But Spike

anticipated him...

After all, Xander'd been staring at the space where BR's body lay for

the better part of fifteen solid minutes...

"It wouldn't be her..."

"Umm?..." Xander looks at Spike...

"Yeah, Warren has that last neural recording of Buffy's...but that's

Buffy not Buffy Rebecca...Not the memories we had..."

He grins...

"Besides...he says the odds are overwhelmingly in favor that we'd

wind up with another April...Can you imagine what BR would do to me?...

Let alone Buffy..."

Willow is ready to go...The candles are set...Buffy's gift to her sister

dominates the center of their circle...

Xander can't resist giving Spike a pat on the back...reassurance...

"Why, Harris...I didn't know you cared..." Spike winks at

him... "Later..."

Anya looks nervously at them...Spike grins at her...Leering at Xander...

Xander glares...Same old Spike...

And what's worse this dead guy makes more money than I ever will...

At the Summers'...

Dawn looks at Buffy...Buffy looks at Dawn...Zero hour...All right, where is he?...

The door bell rings...

"Well...the candles are flickering..." Tara notes hopefully...

"I think it's the wind..." Willow.

So far...nothing...

Spike, as a "scientist" can't help feeling he should express

a little skepticism, show a professional attitude, a little reservation...and

yet...he is after all a vampire...Hard to be skeptical about the supernatural

if you're supernatural yourself...

He sighs...Buffy Rebecca is determined to make him work for this...

Still, Harris is always available for a little amusement...

"Xander, would you hold my hand?...You've such a strong, manly

grip...And I'm afraid of the dark..."

"Spike!..." Willow hisses...

I am gonna bop that vampire if he doesn't knock it off...thinks Xander...

Chip or no chip...Well, preferably chip...Definitely preferably chip...

"Spike, leave Xander alone..."

For heavens' sake Buffy Rebecca...Spike thinks...Harris can care of

himself...He doesn't need...

He looks at the gang...

"Did any of you hear that?..."

Xander is annoyed...

"Very funny, Spike...We get it... 'Gee, Spike..Hear what?'...

Will you now tell a Bloody William campfire story?..."

"William...am I dead?...Oh God, I'm dead aren't I..."

Spike jumps up...

Suggested for Buffy Rebecca's Theme...(Here Comes the Sun)

"I hear her...You hear her don't you...?" He looks hopefully at

them...They look at each other...Well...

"I'm telling you idiots...I hear her..."

"What did she say?..." asks Willow...She looks a little nervously

at Tara...What do we do if he's getting a little...

What do you do with an insane vampire in love?...

"Some nonsense about Harris...beat him soundly I think it was..."

"Spike...!" She is putting her hand to her head to glare at him...

spiritually...causing him to put his head to his head...

The gang nervously recognizes the gesture as typically Buffy...And

Buffy Rebecca was Buffy, after all...

"Alright, alright...she wants me to lay off him..."

Xander ponders...He can either believe that Spike is going insane,

probably a curable condition, or... that Buffy Rebecca is inside his head,

berating him perhaps for the rest of his eternal existence...

"Congratulations, Spike...Guess we did it..."

"Hi, girls..." Hank grins at his daughters...

"Dad...come in..." Buffy tries to sound reasonably welcoming...

He enters, a little sheepishly...

"Dad...Hi..." Dawn says nervously...Will he know who I am?...

she wonders...I remember him, but maybe the monks didn't get everybody...

"Dawny...My little girl..." Hank hugs her...

Buffy starts to close the door...

He looks up from Dawn...

"Oh, wait, honey...There's someone with me...I hope you don't

mind my bringing her...She's out in the car..."

Gr...eat, Buffy thinks...Dad brought a girlfriend...Comes home late for

Mom's funeral...and brings his latest...

Suggested theme...Come Softly to Me

This was driving 'Dr.' Walthrop crazy...

Buffy Rebecca was fielding questions from the gang via his mind...No

external evidence, no proof that he wasn't heading out over the deep

end, just an increasing steady stream of chatter which he was to relay

to Willow and the others...

Now she wanted to chat with Willow about Giles...How's he getting

along?...Did Buffy go easy on him over the negotiations with the

Knights before the fight with Glory?...Was Spike making sure he

got reimbursed for the wall she had smashed through in the Magic

Shop the day the gang had learned of her existence?...

And Xander...she remembers how sad he was when he learned she

could not be saved...Oh...

And couldn't forget dear Anya...Oh, no...

And Warren...her dear 'Dad'...

On and on...He hadn't counted on this...

What about old Spikey?...Remember...the guy who was ready to spend

eternity waiting for you...Hey...

She was busy...She'd get to him...

But she was definitely there...

He sighed...Oh, well...

If you love a Summers girl, Walthrop thought...Much is required of you...

Well...In for a penny, in for a pound...

In for a Penny...Part VI

It had occurred to Giles that perhaps he had been a little remiss in not

taking a few more pains regarding Hank Summers' safe arrival in

Sunnydale...He decided to call Buffy and see if her dad had come...

He was relieved to hear from Buffy that her dad was newly arrived...

Safe and sound...

After all, the loathsome little thing mattered to her and Dawn...

Though Buffy seemed a bit piqued about something...

At the Greenwood crypt...

The gang, Tara, Willow, Xander, plus Warren had decided...well it had

been delicately hinted to them...by Buffy Rebecca via Spike...to let

the Walthrops have a few minutes of seance time to themselves...

Not that they completely accepted the idea of Buffy Rebecca speaking

through Spike...but it seemed better than trying to restrain him if he

was indeed losing his mind...The group being pretty evenly split on

the issue...

While Xander by nature favored insanity as an explanation...He couldn't

resist the pleasurable idea... Spike...with Buffy Rebecca in his head...he...

desperately trying to get a word in...she...explaining the correct course of

action in every social situation, describing and correcting his every flaw,

emphasizing the need for improvement in his treatment of a certain

brotherly figure in their lives...Forever...

Yeah, he voted for BR...

Warren found himself leaning in the BR direction as well...much to his

own surprise..."Dad" winning out over scientist...

Tara and Willow were surprisingly skeptical...But they were used to a

little more pizzazz in a successful seance...Where were the light

dimmings, the moans, the wind, the flash?...

Still they hoped...

Anya felt Spike fit the classic pattern of a vampire going over the

edge...If there were a classic pattern of a vampire going over the

edge...If not...well, Spike was breaking new ground...good for him...

They had gone outside...while Spike...and Buffy Rebecca?...if she was there...

"What is...are they...doing in there?..." Warren asks...

"Oh...the usual..." Anya helpfully puts in the benefit of her

experience...

"The usual..." Xander wisely nods...

"The usual...?" Tara asks...

"Oh, going over finances, composing letters to friends, intense

mental sex, letting him know where she put things he'll need..."

"Intense mental sex?..." Xander asks...Hmmn...Insanity for

Spike is looking like a more pleasing option after all...

Whoa...intense mental sex with a copy of my friend Buffy...Spike...and

a copy of my practically sister Buffy...

"Well, if I understand what you people said...Spike and Buffy Rebecca've

never really..." Anya looks at Xander who is running for the crypt entrance...

"This is Abigail..." Hank smiles as he introduces his daughters

to a lovely, shy, please-I-don't want-to-intrude-but-he-made-me-looking...

Carefully madeover and quite unrecognizable...Darla...

"Hi, girls...Your dad's told me so much about you...Buffy.." She

nods at her...

"And you have to be Dawn..."

Dawn nods...smiling a little...Well, she looks fairly classy...Just

the right touch of proper nervousness at barging into a family event...

Darla "Abigail" twists a little shyly...

"I really feel terrible coming along like this unannounced and all...

But your dad thought it was time we all met..."

Buffy smiles a little...Well, could be worse...This one seems

house-broken...

"So you know Dad...from Spain?..."

"Well...there and here as well...See I travel there on business

from LA pretty frequently... In fact Hank had stopped to see me for

a few minutes before he headed out here...Then he just insisted..."

Hank smiles...

"Of course...It was nice of him to bring you..." Buffy

tries another smile...

Yes of course...too much to ask that he visit us for a single day

without dragging his West Coast girl along...Buffy thinks...

Still, she doesn't seem too bad...A little anxious to please but that's

understandable...

At the meeting place in Sunnydale appointed by Darla, Drusilla

tries to drum up some enthusiasm among the few members of

Sunnydale's surviving vampire population who'd worked up the

nerve to come out...

Thanks to the activities of Buffy Rebecca over the past month,

times have been very tough...And everyone's heard their fill of

"We've got the Slayer...we're gonna get the Slayer..." tales...

In fact proposals for peace negotiations with the Slayer have been

floated...They could get used to feeding on cattle...It's not all that

bad really...Long as it's not English cattle...

And so they're just a wee bit skeptical...Especially after seeing and

listening to Drusilla...

Still, free blood is provided...And everyone's scoped out their quickest

exit routes...Just in case the Slayer actually does put in an appearance...

"In the cycles of time, you will find the answers you seek, my

son" The Lama nodded wisely...

The seeker of wisdom bent his head in awe at the profound answer and

glowed with an inner...

"Wesley...This is what Angel is doing?..." Cordelia asked

as they watched the movie he had rented...

Well, she wanted to know what Angel would be doing in Tibet...And

this was the best Wesley could come up with...

"Pretty much, I'd say...Though hopefully he's asking questions

more specifically dealing with Wolfram and Hart..."

"Seems pretty loony to me..."

"Well, at least we managed to get the trip charged to Wolfram

and Hart..." Wesley has a new hobby...Computer hacking...

"How come we didn't get to go on vacation?..."

"Well, now... it was vital that the two most experienced human

team members stay on...I mean with the firm down to half-strength..."

"We're half-strength?...Just us two?..."

"Well...perhaps...quarter-strength..."

Spike was running out of the crypt almost as fast as Xander was

running in...

"Willow, we have to get home...Buffy and Dawn are in

terrible danger..." he calls...

Xander pulls up flat next to him...Home?...

Willow and the others look at Spike...Home?...

"I've got to go...Hurry..." Spike tells them...

He looks at them...What?...

"William, I love you..." A faint whisper as Buffy Rebecca

fades away from him...

"Spike, you need to go home...?" Willow asks...very gently...

"What are you talking about?..." This isn't the crypt...he thinks...

"You just said we had to get home...That Buffy and Dawn were

in danger..."

"Did I?..." But he is preoccupied...She said it...She

actually said it...He could just leap over...

Wait...Buffy and Dawn?...

But she actually said it...

Seeing the exultant look on Spike's face...The gang has decided

that insanity is definitely in the lead...However they decide to

check out the Summers'...Just in case...

In for a Penny...Part VII...

"Abigail" did her best to seem causal but shy as they

drove along in Hank's rental toward the great new restaurant he

wanted to try...

Trust old Hank to spot the hot new place in Sunnydale...

Dawn was sitting beside her...and commented on the beautiful

pendant "Dad's West Coast girl" wore...

She smiled at Dawn...

"It's an heirloom, passed down...oh, longer than anyone

in my family could say...It's said that it blocks hurtful or

negative feelings coming from the wearer..." She beamed...

"So you're only seeing my best side..."

Dawn chucked a little...She was warming a little to Abigail...

Buffy was in front with Hank...She had a slight headache...

understandable given all that was going on...In addition she was

feeling a little...lethargic...

Nice girl, thought Darla looking at Dawn...I wonder...will she

retain any humanity?...Or will she be another innocent like

Drusilla...hiding forever in a corner while her demon rules triumphant...

Before they headed out to Buffy's, Willow called Giles who

assured them that all had been well at Summers' Central when

he called a few moment before...Still...He agreed it never hurt to

check things out...Especially if Buffy Rebecca's spirit might be

giving the warning...

He felt a little uneasy on hanging up...Perhaps he should head over as

well...One never knew...Besides...

If Spike was losing his mind...They'd need all the help they could get...

Just a few minutes more...

The plan was full of weak links, Darla realized...Dangerous in the

extreme...Which was why Dru had been won over to it...

Dru...The weakest link of all...

But it was exhilarating...

To risk everything in a confrontation with the Slayer at her own home...All

hinging on Wolfram and Hart's little contributions to the effort...A full

make-over...and the Montir pendant...

But so far...so good...

The make-over was working...Buffy hadn't recognized her...Perhaps

no great problem there, but a concern...The pendant was working...

She hadn't sensed the vampire presence...Definitely a major hurdle overcome...

And both of them were in her grasp...

Of course the poor girl's agitation over her mother...and her father's

thoughtless behavior...didn't hurt...Strengthening the effect of the pendant...

But...she'd soon have a new mother...Why Darla felt positively maternal

already...She could feel those vengeful thoughts just fading away in the glow

of upcoming motherhood...

Just one question...

How had poor mourning Buffy been able to defeat Glory in her

condition?...They'd have to have a long talk about it after her

transformation...

Dru was trying her best to be businesslike...Grandmother was counting

on her...

She had been disappointed at not getting to use the Montir pendant...

Imagine being able to go right up to someone like the Slayer...And

no trace of the vampire showing...So jolly...

But Buffy knew her too well, so Grandmother said...And she had

important things to do here...If she wanted to earn her dolly...

"The Slayer will be here shortly...We must have things nice

for her..."

The wretched remnants of Sunnydale's vampire legions sulked

visibly...Another wacko with another wacko plan...

Pretend to be waiters...waitresses...customers?...In the Slayer's

presence?...Ridiculous...

The peace plan...now there was an option with a little sense...

"Tell the weirdo we'll do it...When the Slayer gets here...We

hand the nutcase over as a peace offering..." one hissed to his mates...

Now you're talking...

Dru was pleased to see that the group was suddenly showing a little

enthusiasm...

All quiet on the Summers' front...

Front yard, that is...

The gang had found the house empty...Well, out to dinner with Dad...

But one strange thing...

Buffy had left the door unlocked...She'd have to have been...Well, maybe she

just was so excited about Dad...

They sheepishly strolled in...All but one...Who could not get through the

barriers still in place against him...

"Oh, bloody hell!..." yelps Spike as he's thrown back by the

force of the barrier...

I thought Buffy was going to clear things for me...How can I protect them if I

can't get through to the house?...

He wonders...What, am I still on probation?...Well...I suppose if you

consider past history...up until a few days ago...And I warned her not to

trust me blindly...Can't be 100% sure of the chip and all...Sensible

precaution if you think about it...Be terrible if I blew redemption over

a quick snack...

"Spike!...Stop standing there and come in..." Willow

calls... "I dropped the barriers five minutes ago..."

Well, if you're asking...

Giles recognized Buffy in the car stopped at the light across from

him...He honked but she didn't see him...

So that's Hank Summers...About what I expected...

Well...looks like Spike will be needing a sedative after all...

Still...Can't hurt to follow...No sign of the others...They'd probably

appreciate knowing for sure...

"So...Buffy Rebecca?...Any vibes we should know about?..."

Xander grins at Spike who glares back at him...

"Harris...Remember the other night at Xortox?...Mr. Willes?...

Me ready to crash through the chip like it was a mosquito bite and

tear him limb from limb?..." Spike smiles at Xander...

Willow looks...

They all look at him, even Warren...

"Come on, you know she'd kill me..."

He sniffs...Something's not right here...I smell...Harris?...Nope...

Oh, God...

"Darla..." Spike looks at them, shocked... "Darla...

has been here...Inside..."

They look at each other...

And frantically begin searching for some clue as to where the

Summers' might have gone...

"You alright, honey?" Hank asks Buffy as they leave

the car...She is wobbly...Something is definitely not right...Maybe

dinner out was a bad idea...But she doesn't want to disappoint Dad...

"Here, Buffy, why don't you take my arm?..." Darla

offers her an arm...and leads them into the hottest and newest

restaurant in Sunnydale...

Only about an hour old, as a matter of fact...

Giles pulled up and looked the place over quickly...Seems fine,

they're headed inside...

Must be a new place...

He went to call the Summers' in hope of reaching the gang...

Willow should have a key...Just to let them know all's well...

And to tell them to keep Spike quiet and happy until he got there...

In for a Penny...Part VIII

Giles reached Willow at the Summers' from a gas station down

the street from the "restaurant" where Hank had

taken his daughters and his girl...

She told him what Spike had said...He dropped the phone before

she'd finished and nearly ran out...But pulled himself together

told them where to meet him...

Then he ran for his car like a wild man...

Spike tried to get Willow and Tara to stay...Nothing doing...

Willow paused only long enough to restore the barriers she'd

dropped to let Spike in...No sense in letting any old vampire

stroll right into Buffy's home...All secure...

Xander had to remind her to lock the door...

Oh, yeah...Willow thought...sheepishly...

Spike feared the worst...If Darla could have gotten inside

the Summers' home, she'd either disguised herself or...

they were already too late...

And odds were that was true in any case...

Still...Buffy Rebecca was somewhere around...trying to

protect them...He knew that and it gave him some hope...

He was rather anxious not to fail on the first serious

"protective brother-in-law" challenge...

Service was a little slow...at the hottest new spot in Sunnydale...

And Buffy's headache was steady getting worse...

Dawn couldn't help noticing the staff seemed a little...well,

nervous...plus extremely inexperienced...

Buffy got up and asked to be excused a minute...Hank

seemed a little anxious that she not rush off, but simply

smiled again when Darla eyed him...He was just so eager

to have his daughters with him, she told Dawn...

Well...we weren't on Pluto...Dawn thought...

Buffy reached the ladies room...and felt a little better...But

now rather uneasy...She emerged...

Still blocked from the view of the dining room...

Suddenly a small "waiter" came forward...She

faintly sensed...vampire?...She drew back instinctively...

He puts up his hands... "Slayer...I mean you no harm..."

She looks at him...Do I have to kill someone now?...With dad

thirty feet away?...

"We want peace between us...We have an offering

for you..."

Peace?...They want peace?...

He motions her to the back...the kitchen area...

Well, it sure will be easier to kill him there...

She follows...

Giles' car has died...He really should have listened to Spike

about it...Blasted thing...

He runs toward the "restaurant"...

"I am Leto...chosen emissary to you..."

Buffy tries to seem diplomatic...He does seem to mean it...

He leads her to the kitchen...

Where Buffy finds Drusilla...bound and gagged...And a host of

extremely nervous vampires dressed as staff and customers...

First Angel...then Spike...Now this...Where, oh, where have

those simple days of Slaying gone?...

Darla was nervous seeing Buffy disappear...She didn't know

the range of the Montir pendant...Wolfram and Hart had loaned

it out without much information besides that it had been successfully

used in assassinations...to cover that instinctive feeling one gets

when a maniac is looking at you or the person you're protecting

with an I'm-gonna-kill-you look...

Or to cover the traces of a vampire...

Still...it had worked for Lee Oswald...

"Slayer...we beg our lives...Take this unworthy offering...We

pledge to harm no human if you will spare us..." Leto pleaded

to Buffy, gesturing at Dru...who was struggling desperately as she

eyed Buffy...

Not jolly...No...

Buffy was not quite ready to trust them...but with Dad so close...

she made the best of it...

"I'll accept your offering...If you leave immediately...And I

don't find you hunting humans...I'll consider your proposal..."

Leto nods gratefully...His followers begin to slink out the kitchen door...

"Wait..." She stops Leto... "Why is Drusilla here?...

Why were you all here?..."

He points to Dru...who is now truly hysterical...but still gagged...

"She told us you were being brought here...helpless...a ready

victim..." He quickly continues..."We had no doubt of

your proving victorious over her schemes...And thought to

demonstrate our trustworthiness..."

He smiles, but as there is a little blood on his teeth...Buffy

grimaces and he quickly resumes his humble expression...

"Maybe peace succeed between us..." He ducks out

the back doors with the others...

Leto, formerly George Letos, Chamber of Commerce booster...

Sunnydale City Councilman...

Now..the Gandhi of Sunnydale vampires...

A trap...Buffy thinks...But who...

Dru continues to struggle...

Buffy shudders...It has to be Abigail...Something was wrong about her...

The thought scrapes at her...No, no...it's not true...He's just being

used...Some kind of hypnosis...Whatever Abigail had used on her...

No...no...Oh, God please no...Please don't do this to me...Oh please...

My dad is not dead...

The gang was rushing as fast as they could...

Suggested theme...Extremis...(Adagio for Strings)

Giles, on foot, was still a mile or so away...Berating himself...

How could he have been so careless as to let Summers go

unwatched anywhere near Sunnydale?...Just because they'd been

so lucky over the years with Joyce...And Dawn...

He didn't need to consult his books to know that relatives

were the prime cause of Slayer death...

There was no point in trying Drusilla...even if she could get her

outside for questioning with any semblance of quiet...Abigail was

bound to suspect something if Buffy did not return soon...

And Dawn...And Dad...she forced herself to include...were there...

She left Dru...And entered the dining room...

Empty...

The jig is up...Darla had realized...seeing the staff and customers

vanishing into the kitchen, all but a handful...

Sunnydale vampires...once...vanguards of the Apocalypse...

now...worthless cowards...

"Upstairs..." She ordered Hank...And grabbed Dawn...

before she could cry out...Or even begin to realize what was going on...

The few remaining loyal followed them...

There might be a plus to this, Darla thought as she dragged Dawn

upstairs...if Buffy should kill Drusilla before her own transformation...

"Buffy...they're upstairs..."

Buffy hears the voice in her head...Mom?...Oh please help me...

"It's me, sis...Mom can't come unless she's summoned...

But I'm here..."

Her own voice...Buffy Rebecca...Heard only once...Just before

the fight with Glory...When she told me Dawn was safe...

They went up the stairs together...

In for a Penny...Part IX

Suggested theme...Extremis...(Adagio for Strings)

The gang is driving to meet Giles...Well above the speed limit...

"It'll be alright..." Xander tells them... "Darla...old news...Buffy can handle her..."

No one wants to argue...

It's not really Darla I'm afraid of...thinks Spike...

He, even better than Giles, is aware of the leading cause of Slayer death...

Two vamps attack desperately as Buffy reaches the top of the stairs...She's smashed a chair leg

before coming and uses it to stake them...

She enters the room...still feeling Buffy Rebecca's presence...

"Dad?...Dawn?..."

The room is pitch black...

"Buffy...I'm so sorry we had to meet again under such sad circumstances..." Abigail...

"Who are you?..." I know that voice now...Buffy thinks...But her head is beginning to ache

again...

"The one who is going to reunite you with your family...And after you did so much to destroy

mine..."

"Darla..."

She struggles to see in the darkness...But she can feel the lethargy creeping over her again...

"It's so good to be remembered...I was beginning to think you'd forgotten me..."

Buffy Rebecca flows over her... "Buffy, don't get too close to her...She's protected somehow..."

"Where's my dad...my sister?...Give them to me and I'll let you go..."

A soft laugh...

"They're right here..."

A light snaps on...She can see Dawn on a table...not moving...

Something...someone is bending over her...

She runs towards Dawn...Two more vamps attack from the shadows...She stakes them barely

stopping...

And now she can see what...who is attacking Dawn...

She hears a scream and knows it's Buffy Rebecca...And herself...

She raises the stake...trembling...At Hank...

He moves toward her...and she can see Dawn's blood on his teeth...

"Buffy get out of here...Buffy..." Buffy Rebecca faintly pleads with her...But she is as much in

despair as her sister...They have failed...

"Dad...Dad...I love you..." Buffy pleads...Hank grabs her firmly...She can do this...She can kill

this thing...It is not her father...

Darla watches, hidden in the shadows...

But Hank Summers' soul makes one desperate effort to save his daughter...For just one moment

she can see him in his eyes...

"Buffy...go..."

It was exactly what Darla had been hoping for...Counting on...Even a weak fool like Hank, she

knew...Instinctively?...A last memory from her old life?...Had her father tried to save her?...

She couldn't remember...but somehow she knew he'd try...And that would be the Slayer's death

knell...

"Daddy!...Oh...God..."

Spike had once warned her that Slayers die when the loneliness, horror, and despair catches up

with them...And when death becomes a release...

Now Buffy Summers had reached that moment...Buffy Rebecca as well...She was after all,

Buffy...

He pushes the stake from her trembling hand...Dawn is motionless, already dead?...

"I know sweetheart...I know...It's all right...all right..." He bites her...

I'm sorry Daddy...I'm so sorry... was her last thought before she became unconscious...

Suggested theme...Darla's Triumph...Buffy's Demon (O Fortuna)

Darla pulled the slow Hank off his unconscious daughter...He'd never finish the job if she left

him to it...Besides...this was her moment of triumph...She threw him back and he returned to

Dawn...

Darla bit Buffy firmly but almost gently...Drusilla, released by the others, came over slowly,

pleading gently...Just for a taste...a little, little taste...Spikey always found Slayer blood

soo...Darla waved her in and Dru bit Buffy as well...Then Darla opened a vein and completed the

process...

Buffy died ten minutes later...Dawn, still fed on by her father, continued to linger, slipping

away...

In for a Penny...Part X

Drusilla was nervous...Something felt wrong about the new sister...to be borne so

soon...Something...

The Bad One...and...another Bad One...Not ready to go...No...

And her dolly...Still not dead?...

Darla let her open a vein and feed Dawn...She was puzzled by Dawn's resistance to death as

well...

Well...Hank Summers...failure as a vampire as well as a man, she thought...But still...Even after

she and Dru...She looked at Dawn...Strange...

Buffy transformed...

Giles had nearly reached the "restaurant"...

He could see that most of the lights were out...And he spied Hank's rental car in the lot...All of

the others had disappeared...

Sunnydale vampires liked their cars...And had had no intention of leaving them behind...

Dru approaches...Buffy draws back...

Dru screams in fright...No...

She looks at Darla who is shocked...Dru is just too spoiled she thinks...It's time she had to share

the attention with someone else...

"She won't go...The Bad One...and the other Bad One..." She shakes at Darla...

"Forgive Dru, Buffy..." Darla gently tells the quivering newborn vampire... "She's just afraid of

your old self..." She tries to touch Buffy who pulls back...frightened...

Not surprising, Darla thinks...My soul fought a little last time as well...Just a little patience and

her demon will win out...as always...

A few good kills will settle the matter...

And it will be nice...her retaining some humanity...Not like crazy Dru...Someone to talk to about

the bad dreams...the attacks of shame...

Someone who'll understand those flashes of humanity that are so painful...

She brings a cat she's kept just for her new daughter over to Buffy...No need to push her too

fast...

"You need to feed, sweetheart..." She offers the cat...Breaking open a vein with her nail...

She can see the demon rising in Buffy's eyes...But...even she can sense...Something unusual...

Buffy grabs the cat and drinks...

Dru, still frightened...The Bad Ones will not go...She crouches by the back window...

And spies Giles in the parking lot, making his way to the front door...

"The Watcher..." Dru calls out...

Darla goes over to her window...Buffy remains...trembling ...

Suddenly she jumps over at Dawn, throwing Hank back...

"Buffy..." Darla calls...Well, if she wants to start with Dawn...but she can't be allowed to try and

finish her...It's too soon...

Then she sees Buffy's face...Human with hideous anger...Even Darla feels a clot of fear...

Buffy picks up Dawn...

"Get away from my sister..."

Hank cowers and runs to a corner...

"Buffy...Buffy...She's our sister too now..." Darla tries soothing her and Buffy calms a bit but

her anger is still visible...

"It's all right...You can have her..."

Buffy looks at her, and holds Dawn tightly...

Darla is surprised to see that Dru makes no protest about her "dolly"...She is still really

frightened...she notes...

Buffy lays Dawn down gently...

"Let it come Buffy...Just let it come...Let go..." Darla tries again...

Buffy jumps at them, in a killing rage, and Dru screams...

Not a jolly time at all...

Suggested theme...Darla and Dru (Girls Just Wanta Have Fun) ***

Giles is rattling at the front door...

No luck...

Suggested theme...Darla's Triumph...Buffy's Demon (O Fortuna)

Darla realizes now that something is definitely wrong...And in her fright, Dru becomes a little

more lucid...

"She won't leave for our sister...Neither of them..." She jumps back from Buffy...Who lunges for

her...But stays near Dawn...

"We're going to kill you, Darla..." Buffy says to her...

We?...Someone else is there?...Her mother?...Darla has heard of deceased relatives summoned to

a new vampire, helping the human soul to fight for a brief time...But there was no time to

summon Joyce...

Still whoever it is...no one outlasts their demon...even with help...

And a Slayer's demon at that...

However Darla also knows the better part of valor...And backs far off...

No one without a chip that is...

"Dr. Walthrop" and his assistants had reached the "restaurant" parking lot...

Giles had broken into the building...No sign of anyone so far...

They heard him moving around...Looking for more light...

Darla thinks...A good kill...that all she needs...Besides...the more human...the more

suffering...All the better...Let her mother or whatever it is prolong her agony...

"Buffy..." she calls to her...Still protectively hovering over Dawn...

"Giles is here, Buffy...Don't you want to see him?..."

Buffy looks at her...Giles?...

They watch her run to the stairs...

But Dru is still shaking in fear...

Cordelia and Wesley were closing the office for the evening...

Wesley showed her the card Angel had sent... from Nepal... "Greetings to you...From

Kathmandu..."

"Cute..." Cordelia said...Nepal...I thought he was in Tibet...

She had a vision...

Buffy, a vampire...attacking Willow...Spike...defending Willow?...Spike?...

The sad story of Spike's redemption had not yet reached them...

She told Wesley...

"If Spike is defending Willow against Buffy...Your vision must be backward...Willow must be

the vampire..."

"But...Spike's chip?"

"I never had much faith in that thing myself...At the Watchers' Council you heard about things

like that all the time...People are always trying to cure their vampire relatives...Never works

permanently..."

He pauses...Well...

"Excepting the boss of course..."

"Either way...We'd better call Giles..."

In for a Penny...Part XI

"Giles!..." Buffy and Buffy Rebecca screamed out to him from the stairs...

Suggested theme...Extremis...(Adagio for Strings)

He didn't need her to tell him what had happened...One look...

He approaches her...She waves him back desperately...The demon is rising inside...

"Go back, Giles!...It's too late..."

But she was still there...Not off to limbo...Could there still be a chance?...

"Buffy...let me help you..."

"Buffy Rebecca is here..." She points at herself... "Buffy is trying to hold on...She's helping

me...We can't hold the demon down..." Both were trying to speak at once...

"Dawn is upstairs...Not dead yet...But you have to...get help first...I can't..."

Her face distorts...

"Giles...go now!...I'll try to keep Dawn safe..."

He nods and moves back slowly to the door...I've failed her, but this is not the time...not now...

"Giles...my father...he tried...please...help him..."

"I will, my dear child..."

She runs back up the stairs...

She and Buffy Rebecca may not be able to hold the demon...but they can redirect its rage...

After all...it just wants...survival first...and, second, to hunt and kill...And is not particular about

who or what it kills...

The gang found Giles at the door...shaking...

Spike knew immediately...but...Giles was still alive...

He told them...

Buffy Rebecca inside her...helping...

There might...just might be hope...

Darla hadn't survived for so long in her first time by not taking precautions...She and Dru had

moved to the window...To await Buffy's return...If she had made her first human kill, all well

and good...If not...

"Grandmother...I want to go...She's the Bad One still...And the other Bad One..." Dru pleads...

Buffy comes running back...And halts, looking for them...

She sees Dawn...still motionless...So helpless...So...

"No..Buffy..." Buffy Rebecca pleads...They force the demon back, trying to focus only on Darla

and Dru...

Hank is still cowering in his corner...

Seeing Darla and Dru...The three Buffies in one... leap at them...the demon sister happily in the

lead...

Darla and Dru break through the window, and land on the grassy field below...They run off to the

nearest trees, pursued by Buffy...Buffy Rebecca...and their demon...

The gang charges up the stairs, hearing the breaking glass...

Dawn...somehow still alive...Barely...

Spike sees Hank in his dark corner and motions quietly to Giles...Don't let them see this...

Giles has them take Dawn downstairs...and returns to join Spike, "searching" the upper floor...

And they fulfill Giles' promise to Buffy...

Darla and Dru lost Buffy in the woods and, killing a passing motorist who stopped for

them...returned to LA...

Darla was still fairly pleased...She had all but destroyed the Slayer...In fact, her agony would be

even greater than her own...And, in time, with kills...The demon would win out...

Dru sobbed...A very bad night...And no dolly...

Darla cheered her by reminding her how terrible Spike would feel...And Buffy's friends...

Besides...they'd be coming to them...They'd want to try to save Buffy...not just to release her

soul...And there was only one way known...

Proprietary property of Wolfram and Hart, Inc...

They took Dawn to the Magic Shop...She needed more than medicine could provide...But there

was someone they could call...Who was a trained doctor...

Benedictus was still at Sunnydale Hospital, arrangements for him to join Glory and Dreg in the

Byzantines' monastery in Greece not yet complete...

If ever there was need for a god of Mercy and Healing...

In for a Penny...Part XII

Ben had hurried over to the Magic Shop...He was understandably nervous but they greeted him

as warmly as they could under the circumstances...

After all, he'd spent over a thousand years trapped on Earth as a mortal to prevent its destruction

by his raging sister...And here he was again, ready to help in any way...Even if his sister was a

maniac...

You had to cut a guy like that a break...

While Ben did what he could for Dawn...

Suggested theme...Scooby March (The Great Escape)

Giles, Tara, and Willow began tearing books and computer records apart to find anything that

might help Dawn or Buffy...

And Spike consulted with his fellow "cybergenius", Warren...

They had Buffy's last neural recording...Was there any way they could help strengthen Buffy's

hold over her demon...Could they somehow block the demon...A chip, maybe?...

All of this left Xander feeling helpless...And enraged...

He'd known this would happen...someday they'd lose her...And what help we all were to her...

Anya tried to comfort him...

He pulled away and went over to Dawn and Ben...

Ben looks at him...He's not a god of Mercy for nothing...And one didn't have to be to see what

Xander is going through...Able to do nothing...

"What's your blood type?..." he asks...

"O negative..." You keep track of things like that when you work in the Slayer business...

"Then we're in luck...get on that table..."

Buffy found herself back in Sunnydale...walking down a street she didn't know well...

She'd lost Darla and Drusilla...And gone blank to find herself here...But...

Maybe...maybe it was all a dream...

She felt like Buffy...Not like a monster...

Then she heard Buffy Rebecca speaking to her...No dream...

"Buffy, we should go to the crypt...wait for Spike...He'll come...While it's quiet..."

She knew what "it" was...Now at last...she knew...

There was a movie house on the street...showing older films...

Suggested theme...The Godfather

Somehow she couldn't bring herself to follow BR's advice just yet...She needed...No...

She looked at the posters... "The Godfather" was playing...

"Neat film...you going in?..." A short guy...about her age...looking at her...

She brushed a little grass off her dress and smiled at him...

The demon was raging...demanding...Buffy Rebecca's pleading voice faded...

The film was running...

Stu, who had met Buffy outside...was only to happy to take a seat with her in the back row...Not

often a pick-up worked out so well for him...

She seemed a little nervous...He decided to take it slow...

Dawn was fighting for life...

"Her life force must be exceptional...To lose all that blood..." Ben reflects to Giles who had

come over...

The unquenchable force of Glory's Key...now strengthened with two pints of grade A Xander...

But still contaminated with Drusilla's blood...

Suggested theme...Darla's Triumph...Buffy's Demon (O Fortuna)

Buffy was weakening...She couldn't hear Buffy Rebecca...And it was the demon's time...

Stu could see that this girl was ready...for a little Stu action...He reached over...

That stupid grope was perhaps the smartest thing Stu was ever to do in his life...

"Let go of me!...Get out of here!...Get out!" Buffy raged at him...Tossing him out of the seat and

to the floor...

"For Christsake!..." Stu looked at the gaggle of grinning faces...The crazy...She was gone...

Buffy had run to the ladies room...Buffy Rebecca calling to her...But the demon was strong and

raging...

In the ladies room she looks at the mirror...and a demon face appears...Her demon... "This time is

mine..." It says to her...And Buffy Rebecca's voice faded, pleading...

A horrified shriek...A large middle-aged woman looking at her "face" in fright...Buffy returns to

normal and looks coldly at the woman...large...frightened... The demon exults...

She killed the woman and leaving her body in the room, headed for the street...

Giles had gotten Wesley's message about Cordelia's vision from his answering machine...It

made sense...If the demon won out, even for a brief time...It would only be logical for it to try to

destroy those most likely to have any hope of driving it back...

As Angelis had killed the gypsy leader to prevent him from restoring Angel...

The demon was quiet again...Buffy could hear Buffy Rebecca...not accusing, just frightened for

her, pleading...Blocking her from slipping away...

"Let me go..." Buffy begged her... "Let me die...I want my mother...My dad...Just let me die..."

"It won't be that way, Buffy...We know that...You'll be trapped in limbo...Watching it use your

body...Until...someone releases you...or they can restore you..."

"Buffy, I can't hold it back alone...It's not my body...You have to stay and fight with me..."

They headed for the Greenwood crypt...Dawn was not that far away...

Warren had gone to get his blood synthesizer from their office...The model he'd constructed for

Spike, based on the one he'd installed in Buffy Rebecca...In case Dawn needed more blood...

Spike stood by Dawn, watching her...

He couldn't lose her...Fail Buffy Rebecca on his first time out...

But...Drusilla's influence was still strong...Dawn's teeth had sharpened...

And she remained unconscious...

Willow was watching him...As she paused from the frantic search...

Poor Spike...So desparate to save Dawn and Buffy...From the same curse...

Now she knew why William the Bloody constantly baited Slayers...Threw himself in their

path...Hoping that one would be strong enough...

And why he had called out to Buffy...

Would Buffy be like that?...soon...Attacking them constantly...Doing whatever she could to get

them?...To release her...

Giles had warned her of Cordelia's vision...She agreed...It was only logical that demon Buffy

would come after her...

After all she knew one way to drive the demon down...Not that she wanted to put Buffy through

Angel's torment...Now that she understood it better...

Even with Spike and Drusilla, Willow hadn't been able to bring herself to do that...

But maybe there might be a way to use the curse...temporarily...

Warren and Spike meant well...but it wasn't likely they could catch Buffy long enough to install

a chip...Even if the "cybergeniuses" could come up with one...

If she could help Buffy...And Buffy Rebecca restrain their demon sister...Just until they could

find an answer...

No, she couldn't call "it" that...Not a sister...And yet...the demon was Buffy, too...

She knew in her heart it was true...

In for a Penny...Part XIII

Suggested theme...The Greenwood crypt (Love Shack)

Buffy and Buffy Rebecca had reached the Greenwood crypt, BR's old home with Spike...The

demon had not fought them, it being near dawn...Its primary interest, even over killing, was

survival...

As much as it was pure instinct, the demon was clever enough to wait...and listen...

BR feigned confidence to Buffy...But they were both Buffy and both couldn't help

wondering...would he figure on them being here?...

He could be a little dense at times...

Buffy and Buffy Rebecca waited...for Spike...

Wesley had reached the office early that morning...And looked through the mail...

A letter for them...from Buffy...? Wesley was startled...But, probably a thank-you for the

flowers...

To all of them, but especially to Angel...Telling them of Buffy Rebecca...And Spike...

Spike?...Redeemed?...By a robot copy of Buffy?...Think of him as Buffy's "brother-in-

law"...?

This is as crazy as Angel's Tibetian excursion...

He checks the answering machine...Giles, calling for any information on Darla...Buffy

transformed...Watch out for her...Dawn near death...

A lot of news to pass on to the boss...

Buffy Rebecca was getting impatient...Where was that idiot vampire of hers, anyway?...Where

else did he think they would be hiding?...

"Buffy...I may have to go...to get Spike...Find out what's going on with Dawn...Can you hold on

without me?...You've got to..."

"I can try...But if someone else comes?..."

Buffy Rebecca decided to give Spike a few minutes longer...

His willingness to wait for all eternity for her was all well and good...But a little common sense

right now...

Darla returned the Montir pendant to Wolfram and Hart, reaching them via sewer and basement

tunnels...

She reported her success with the Slayer but held back most of the little details...Like the Slayer's

soul's refusal to hand over control...

She didn't mention the possible actions of the Slayer's friends...No need to get the firm all stirred

up...She wanted Buffy's friends...especially Spike and with luck, Angelis...to get a chance...Just

enough to put them in her...and Buffy's demon's power...

Besides, a periodic shake-up of personnel at Wolfram and Hart seemed good for the company...

Buffy Rebecca's "confidence" in her former in-live was actually justified...He was planning to

check out the Greenwood crypt...In daylight...when Buffy would be trapped...

Courtesy of Willow and Xander...and a bandaging worthy of "The Invisible Man"...

But first...they had to have a plan of action...And...the strain of the night was getting to his

human compatriots...

"Willow, can you do anything with that curse?...Can Buffy's demon be restrained?..." he asks

her...

Willow is exhausted but hopeful...She has some ideas...

But Xander has reached the edge...Buffy's demon?...Buffy's?

"That thing is not Buffy!..." he yells at Spike...

Anya tries to calm him...After all, honey...

Spike looks at him coolly...

"That thing knows everything about everyone of you...Everything Buffy knows...It knows...And

it will use that knowledge anyway it has to to survive..."

Xander has had enough...

"You oughta know... I'm surprised you're not with her right now...It's what you've always

wanted isn't it?..."

"Xander..." Willow tries to stop him...

"You and your Darla...your Grandma...You did this to her..."

He pulls up to Spike...

"You thing...you..."

Spike grins at him...

"Harris, you can be such a clod..."

Xander whales him one...Spike goes down...

He turns to the others...

"I've had enough...Buffy is dead...I don't want anymore of this...If I see her, I'll stake her...That's

it..." He heads for the door...

Giles tries to stop him but he leaves too quickly...

Anya runs after him...

Spike staggers up, regaining consciousness...The bandaging at least offered some protection...

"Is Harris feeling better now?"

Giles decided to take Spike over himself...It was best that Willow keep working and Ben might

need help with Dawn...

Besides...Xander would return...and it would be easier for him if he only had to apologize to

Willow and Tara...

"We both failed her, Rupert..." Spike says quietly through his bandage cocoon as they drove

toward the crypt...

"I appreciate your concern, Spike but I have no intention of drinking myself to death, or any other

form of suicide, if that's what your thinking...At least not until we've exhausted every possible

avenue..."

Brit pluck...thinks Spike...Nothing like it in the world...

Giles agreed to wait outside while Spike checked...

Inside he found a trembling Buffy...Again in mourning...

But as sad as she also was...Buffy Rebecca couldn't hide her joy at seeing him...

Suggested theme...Come Softly to Me

Especially in those ridiculous bandages...

"If Wolfram and Hart could resurrect Darla...We can save you..." Spike tells Buffy...

Buffy Rebecca does her best to support the idea and strengthen her sister...

"I killed a woman last night..." Buffy says quietly...

"No..." Spike says firmly, looking at her...

"No..." Buffy Rebecca echoes...

"Can you just stake me?...Let me go...To Mom..."

"What about Dawn, Buffy?..." Buffy Rebecca inside...

"What about Dawn?..." Spike asks, not able to hear...

"If she lives...you'll all take care of her...It would have happened anyway...It's my fate..."

"Girl, if I chose to believe in fate..." Spike looks at her, frowning...

"Listen to him, Buffy..." Never thought I'd say that about Spike...Buffy Rebecca thinks...

"You aren't a killer, Buffy Rebecca...I'm a monster now..." Buffy looks in despair at her hands...

Spike is having some difficulty following the Buffy-BR talk as he can't hear BR when she

doesn't speak through Buffy...But he makes the best of it...

"If you were a monster...you wouldn't know it...The killing would be perfectly natural to you..."

Spike tells her...

After all, he is an expert...

Buffy Rebecca thinks...She is Buffy after all...

"Did you ever think Spike would be trying to comfort us over our killer instincts?..."

Buffy laughs a bit...

"You know...Willow is right...You two do make a nice couple..."

Willow is speaking to Wesley over the phone from the shop...

"But can you tell me anything about how they resurrected Darla?..."

"Only that she was human when their ceremony was finished..." Wesley tells her...

"We have to get that ceremony...Whatever it takes..."

"Can you still control Buffy?...Will she come here with you?..." he asks.

"I don't know...But we'll find a way...We'll come soon as we can..."

"I'll try to reach Angel...He's still trying to get information on Wolfram and Hart from the

Tibetian monks..." Wesley says good-bye and hangs up...

Tibet?...thinks Willow...

In for a Penny...Part XIV

Suggested theme...Scooby March (The Great Escape)

Xander sheepishly returned from his "walk" a few minutes after Willow had finished her call to

Wesley...

Ben, still tending the unconscious Dawn, did his best not to notice anything...

Anya, tactful as always...

"Willow, Xander wants to apologize for abandoning all of you..." She pushes Xander...

"Xander would never 'abandon' us, Anya...We understand how he feels..." she grins at Xander...

He swallows... "Will, is...what's his name around?..."

"Giles took him over to Greenwood...But he did want to know if you felt better after socking

him..."

Wouldn't mind another chance actually...Xander thinks...

Giles called to say that they've found Buffy...with Buffy Rebecca still protecting her...

He has a construction job for Xander...

Giles cautiously enters the crypt...Spike and Buffy are talking...

He makes a short throat clearing sound to alert them...

Buffy runs back to the ladder descending into the depths of the crypt...She can't face Giles...And

she fears for him...

Giles halts and tells Spike that Xander is on his way...And that Wesley and Cordelia have been

alerted...He calls to Buffy that Dawn is still the same, but no worse...

Then he leaves to await Xander...

Spike is finally getting a chance to tell his Leningrad war stories...Buffy is so desperate for

distraction...

"You met a Soviet Slayer?...And Stalin?... You never told me..." Buffy Rebecca speaks through

Buffy...She is a little guilty...Maybe she should have listened to his stories before...But she didn't

think they'd be so...

"Well, sweetheart...you didn't have time to listen before..." Spike is getting a little back...

So...she didn't think his stories would be quite so...

Buffy, feeling a little better, can't help making a wordless crack to BR... "Starving Russians...no

wonder he went after Nazis..."

Although it's exactly what she had said to Spike when he had tried to start his story in earlier

days...BR can't help being a little defensive...

"Well, Buffy...he still could have been killed..."

Just what I would do...if it were Riley or Angel...Buffy thinks...My God, she is me...

Xander arrived with enough materials to build several homes...He and Giles set to work at once...

If Buffy was to be transported to LA...With a raging demon inside her...They would need

something sturdy...preferably wooden...

Warren had returned to the shop...

Ben was suitably impressed by Warren's blood synthesizer...Perhaps it might offer a chance for

Dawn...If they could remove all the blood tainted by Drusilla...And if she could survive the

procedure...

With Warren back...Willow gave her notes to Tara and headed over to the crypt...She had a

procedure of her own to try...

Wesley briefly reached Angel by phone in a small town on the Nepalese-Tibetian border...

"Wes...Great to hear from you...How's things..." Wesley could hear Angel shouting...

Over a very static-filled connection, Wesley tried to give Angel the bare details...

"Buffy's been what?...Say that again Wes..."

"Transformed, Angel...Transformed..." Wesley shouted into the phone...

"Sounds great...Glad she's recovering from her Mom's death...Well, gotta go...The Lama is

giving me an audience in..."

The connection broke down...

Inside the crypt, Buffy had grown quiet...Spike could sense a battle was beginning...

He tried to keep her talking...Or at least to keep Buffy Rebecca talking...

Not a difficult task...with two Buffies on hand...

Buffy was still curious...Did Spike sense his own demon? He seemed to have only one person

within...Yet...even before the chip...He had an unmistakable degree of humanity in him...And

now, even considering the change in him...He was still Spike...How was that possible?...

Buffy Rebecca found herself interested in that as well...

"I don't know...I've never really sensed a separate person within me...Maybe I was a bad lot from

the start...Maybe my demon has been so much a part of me that I've never noticed..."

"But...you were a good person, Will...And you are now..." Buffy Rebecca, supportive spouse...

"Sweet, if I knew the answer to these questions...I could probably help Buffy right now..."

Buffy resumed the conversation...

"Will, does that mean that I will merge with my demon?..."

"We won't let that happen, Buffy..."

"But I can feel it pulling inside...And when it's dark again or I need to feed..."

Spike grinned...Dr. Walthrop the "cybergenius" can handle this...

"Here, whenever you're ready...Courtesy of Warren..." he hands Buffy a blood packet...

She looks at it...fearful...

He's goofed?...He reassures her quickly...

"It's artificial, Buf...Same system Warren designed for my own true...To keep me in line..."

A great man that Warren...

Willow arrived at the crypt to find Giles and Xander hard at work constructing...a coffin?...And

not an ordinary coffin...

"The outer box has secured stakes running to the inner coffin...er..chamber...After we perform a

sealing ritual no vampire would try to break through it...It should even hold a Slayer's demon..."

Giles told her...

"You may not have to, if this restraining spell works..."

Willow entered the crypt...Buffy backed away...

Spike motioned to Willow...Careful...

"Hi, Buffy...and Buffy Rebecca..." Willow called to them...

Buffy looked at her... Spike...and Willow could sense the demon rising within her...

Before they could do anything to calm her, she attacked...

In for a Penny...Part XV

Suggested theme...Buffy's Demon (O Fortuna)

The demon within had sensed the threat Willow represented and was determined to survive...

Spike managed to throw Willow off to the side and grabbed Buffy...

To his surprise the chip fired...mildly...

Buffy Rebecca was calling to Buffy...But the demon was enraged and determined...

She threw Spike off and lunged at Willow...

Giles and Xander, hearing the sounds had run over to the entrance...

Buffy, in "demon" face was on top of Willow...Spike threw her off...And Willow rolled over to

the side...

Giles sprayed the area in front of Buffy with a small spray gun...Water?...thought Willow...Oh...

Holy water...

Buffy dropped back and the face receded...

"Will?...I'm sorry...I couldn't..." Buffy looks sadly at her friend...

"It's alright, Buffy..." Willow shaken, moves a little toward her...

Spike rushes in and blocks her...No...

Buffy charges with a hideous snarl...But she can't get through Giles' barrier...

Willow drops her head, horrified...and sorrowful...

But she has a job to do...

Willow met with Giles and Xander outside...Spike remained inside with the shaken Buffy...now,

seemingly, herself again for the moment...And in despair...

"It's based on the gypsy curse...but it should only help to hold the demon down...not drive it

out...And it won't last..." Willow told them...

"But it could help us get her to Los Angeles..." Giles nodded...

Xander wonders...He has to ask...

"Why not just do the curse?...At least...She'd be free of that thing..."

"She'd still be a vampire, Xander...Is that what you want?..." Willow looks at him...

"Well, can't you remove it...when we find out what the folks at Wolfram and Hart did?..."

"The curse was meant to be permanent...There's no guarantee we could remove it...And whatever

the Wolfram-Hart people did, it's almost certain the curse would screw it up...In ways I couldn't

imagine..."

"Spike...I'm sorry..." Buffy Rebecca...back and ashamed at her failure...

"Nothing to be sorry about, dear heart..." Spike smiles at her...

"I didn't realize how weakened Buffy was...And how prepared the demon was...for Willow..."

"Can Buffy speak?...Let me talk to her..." Spike asks...

"Spike...thank you..." Buffy, weak but Buffy still...

"Slayer, I expected more from you than that...BR can't do it all alone, you know... And after all

that self-righteous Slay speech down through the years..."

She manages a weak grin... But she's angry now...The Slayer is not about to surrender to a

vampire demon, even her own... She will not give Darla that satisfaction...

Willow re-enters, cautiously and begins the ritual...

Buffy smiles at her...Willow grins back...And the demon is held...

Just before dusk they crated Buffy in her new coffin and box and loaded it into Xander's truck...

Spike came out just after dark...

And they headed out to LA...

Lilah Morgan, dressed to kill, as always...headed for her car...was congratulating herself on her latest coup for W-H, the acquisition of a Scroll of Immortality...guaranteed by its vampire discoverer to confer immortality on any human reader...

She never noticed the gentle-looking young red-haired woman across the street...Or her pale,

blond-haired companion...

Willow knew that this was crossing a line...To help Spike put a human being in thrall, even an

employee of Wolfram-Hart...

But she was determined to save Buffy Summers...If it could be done...And these were the people

who had made Buffy's suffering possible...In many ways worse than Darla herself...

And Spike, while possibly, with concentration...and at considerable cost in suffering...able to bite

Lilah...could not fight and restrain her...

Buffy was in the basement of the building of Angel Investigations, secure for the moment in the

specially built coffin Giles and Xander had built...Her demon repressed by Willow's temporary

version of the gypsy curse...And her robotic sister with her...

As was her ever-faithful Watcher...

Cordelia was present as well...and reeling from the weight of events...

Spike, now a trusted ally, Buffy's "brother-in-law"...Risking his existence to save Buffy...

"Husband" to her robot sister...now dead but guarding her transformed sister in spirit...

Buffy, a vampire...Killed in part by her own father...Barely restrained by Willow's efforts and her

"sister"...

Buffy's sister Dawn...facing her own death and transformation...

Well, at least Cordelia didn't know about the Key thing...

In for a Penny...Part XVI

Ben was hopeful...He'd replaced Dawn's Drusilla-tainted blood with Warren's artificial cocktail

four times...And included a few cleansing rituals for the victims of vampires that he had run

across in his plus 1600 years of medical practice...

Dawn's teeth had returned to normal...and she was sleeping, again, normally...He and Warren felt

she could be moved to Sunnydale Hospital where Ben could continue to control her care...

With Dawn relatively safe in Ben's charge, Warren felt free to act on his own initiative to help his

friends...Locked in their terrible struggle with the forces of evil...

He had decided his friends needed a powerful ally...One with three times the normal strength of a

Slayer...

The Greatest Slayer of All Time was about to rise again...

Giles and Cordelia tried to speak to Buffy in her box...She and Buffy Rebecca called out to them

from time to time, trying to reassure them...

But Willow's spell was fading...

Giles could sense Buffy becoming more tense and agitated...He was prepared for this...The

demon knew all too well the danger it faced...

"Giles!..." Buffy screamed... "I've got to get out...Let me out!..." She banged against the coffin...

"Please, I can't stand it in here!..." On and on...

Cordelia couldn't take it anymore...

"Giles, we have to help her!..." She went to the box...Buffy screaming for help...

Giles pulled her back...

"Cordelia, I will break your arm if you try to open that box..."

Suggested theme...Extremis...(Adagio for Strings)

Lilah found she had made a ridiculously wrong turn...into an blind alleyway...Without thinking...

Two idiots blocked her way out...A young red-haired woman and a pale, blond young man...

They weren't moving...She got out and stared at them...

"Do you know who I am?" Lilah looked contemptuously at the young woman...Who simply

stared back at her...

Yes, Willow thought...I know who you are... Someone who caused all of this suffering...Buffy,

Dawn, their father, even Darla...And not even for anger or revenge like Darla...Only for a little

money and power...

Do you even remember my friend's name?...

She smashed at Lilah's jaw and knocked her unconscious with one blow...

Spike was quite impressed...

Willow smiled at him as he stared at her...Gentle Willow...

"In for a penny, in for a pound..." She grinned at him...

What a vamp Red would have made...he thought...

Spike bent over the unconscious Lilah...Paused...and paused...What had happened to him?...He

could do this...He just needed to get in character...He had to do this...

Thank the powers that be...Those lovely...characters...Their delightful, jovial boss...who seemed

to love this...Sentencing William Walthrop to eternal hell for bad poetry, condemning Buffy

Summers for succeeding all too well in the fight against evil imposed on her...Robbing them of

their loved ones...And now, not even allowing Walthrop to make use of the curse placed on

him...to save the innocent woman God had demanded so much of... What a charmer...What a

card...

"If you won't let me do this...Give me five minutes alone in a room somewhere with You...so I

can smash your smug, self-satisfied face in, You miserable..."

His "demon" face came back to him and he was able to bite her...

After she had recovered a bit, Lilah moved her car and then came back with them to Angel's

building...

She was extremely eager to impress her new employers...And was quick to suggest ways to

penetrate Wolfram and Hart and obtain the information on the resurrection ceremony...

And naturally she was quite enthusiastic to be fighting on the side of right and good...

So much better than evil...

And if Spike asked her to murder a room full of five year olds, she'd do it happily, sighed

Willow...

In for a Penny...Part XVII

Suggested theme...Scooby March (The Great Escape)

Dr. Walthrop was pretty battered by the chip's assault as a result of his biting of Wolfram and

Hart's brightest star...But after some rest he joined the group...and his new recruit to the team...

Lilah was naturally pleased to be in the boss' presence...And did her best to make a strong,

potentially successful proposal...Which placed her in the principal role...

Anything for the cause of right and good...

Willow winced at Lilah's enthusiasm...Spike had been all too successful and in spite of her

anger, she was feeling guilty...

But from the basement she could hear Buffy's screams and pleadings...

She decided to leave the planning to Spike, Xander, Wesley, and the new teammate and to try to

restore the spell on Buffy's demon...

Dawn was awake...And quite happy to see anyone, even Warren, whom she barely knew as Buffy

Rebecca's "father"...

She was not aware of her own father's death...Or Buffy's...

Warren explained carefully that Buffy was busy with the others...And she would explain why her

dad had had to leave so soon when she got back...

Yes, Buffy Rebecca had come back in spirit...And Spike had been overjoyed...

Yes, he thought Spike was going to make a fine human being too...

Lilah was well aware of the need for caution as she left the building to head home...And followed

her instructions regarding security to the letter...

But as dedicated to the cause of right and good as she now was, she had a few ideas of her

own...Concerning a certain British "cybergenius"...

She had no intention of betraying his trust in her...In fact, she would happily risk her life for him

now that she knew him...But...

She saw no reason why she would have to protect the life of the red-haired woman he seemed

rather too fond of...

Buffy was calm now, thanks to Willow's efforts...

Giles was ready to collapse from the nervous strain and she got him to finally rest...

She, Cordelia, Buffy, and Buffy Rebecca talked as best they could through the box...Buffy

Rebecca was deeply concerned regarding William's attack on Lilah...Though she understood it

was absolutely necessary...She could guess the strain it had put on him...

"And here he is..." Willow tries to sound bright as Spike joins them...

Cordelia is still a bit nervous about him...Which gives the distinguished Dr. Walthrop a bit of

pleasure...

Nice to know you can still frighten the occasional human...

Although Warren didn't know Tara well, he needed some help and guessed that she was anxious

to join the gang now that Dawn was well on her way to recovery...

She was quite enthusiastic...And agreed with his plan to provide additional help to the gang

completely...

Besides, if Spike could learn enough cybernetics in a couple of weeks to assist in the construction

of Buffy Rebecca...

There was no other way now...Except to risk everything...

Suggested theme...Operation Wolfram-Hart (Mission:Impossible)

To enter Wolfram and Hart...With Lilah's assistance...And remove the items necessary to make

use of the resurrection ceremony that had briefly stored Darla to humanity...

Willow could not maintain her spell over Buffy's demon much longer...And Buffy Rebecca

could only offer limited help in strengthening her sister...

At that, it was amazing Buffy's soul had hung on for so long...Refusing to be cast aside into a

corner of limbo while her vampire demon reigned...

Willow had reviewed the information Lilah had been able to obtain so far...She had some ideas

for a modified ceremony...But she had to have the correct implements...

Lilah, new convert to the cause of good, courtesy of Dr. Walthrop, "cybergenius" and semi-

reformed vampire, was enthusiastic about the plan...She was sure she could smuggle Willow and

Walthrop into the building...And with their skills...And justice on their side...Success was

certain...

Willow went to tell Buffy the details of their plan...

She found Walthrop...Talking to the two sisters...

Thank God...She's still calm, Willow thinks...I couldn't bear another time like last night...

But she can't help wondering...Is Spike's heart really in this...?

If we save Buffy, Buffy Rebecca's spirit may be lost to him...for God's knows how long...

Can I count on him?...Or, will he have his own agenda?...

Still...BR would kill him if he did it any other way...

Thank goodness for true love...

In for a Penny...Part XVIII

Lilah...Wolfram and Hart star...Corporate double-agent in the battle against

evil...

Although Xander and Wesley and the rest all wanted to go, it was vital to keep

the group to the barest minimum...Willow and Spike...The rest would have to

wait...and hope...

In the early evening she slipped Willow and Spike in past security to her

office with ease...

But then no one expected much trouble getting into Wolfram and Hart...

"The little ones are here..." Drusilla tells Darla...She isn't sure which of

Buffy's "little ones" but she knows who one is...

Her silly little boy...

It was a bit of a pain to get this knowledge in their sewer crypt, far from any

phone...But at least Darla knew where the gang would eventually be

headed...Wolfram and Hart...

And Buffy?...Dru wasn't sure...The two Bad Ones were blocking their demon

sister...She couldn't be quite sure where Buffy was...

But she was in LA...Somewhere...

And Darla had a good idea of where...

"Hi, this is Warren..."

Wesley had no idea of who "Warren" was...But he seemed to know a good deal

about what was going on...Much more so than Wesley as a matter of fact...

He was bringing Willow's friend, Tara...and some help...And needed directions as

Tara had never been to Angel's offices...

He did provide some good news...Dawn was safe...and well...

Wesley knew Tara slightly and politely got confirmation from her that it was ok

to give out the requested info...

"All the materials on occult operations are locked up in basement storage..."

Lilah told Willow and Dr. Walthrop...

"We should wait until the building clears as much as possible before going

down..."

It was a simple plan...Lilah, shining star of W-H, checking on some items after

hours, on an important but not immediate matter...perfectly reasonable that she

should pick through storage a bit...True go-getter that she was...No details

left unattended...

And not unusual that she should bring along a little help... She wasn't the

type to crawl through a dirty basement...

Wesley had taken over the job of talking to Buffy...and her sister...from

Cordelia...Who was going crazy from trying to keep track of which sister was

speaking...

They were both Buffy, after all...

"Hi, Wesley..." She or they calls...

"Well...Buffy..." He calls through the box...What do you say to a poor innocent

woman who is losing her humanity, a courageous fighter of evil defeated by her

own love and compassion for her father?...Not to mention the robotic deceased

sister...

"Have you heard about Angel's trip to Tibet?..."

Suggested theme...Darla and Dru (Girls Just Wanta Have Fun)

Darla and Dru carefully circled around Angel's building...Dru could sense

Buffy's presence...All three sisters in fact...The two Bad Ones and their

demon...But the demon was weighted down...struggling...

Darla decided to contact her allies at Wolfram-Hart...No need to let things be

too easy for Buffy's little friends...

Lilah, fortunately, was available in her office and quite pleased to get

Darla's call...Yes, indeed...she would alert the company that Buffy Summers'

friends might even now be attempting to carry off the resurrection ceremony

material...Yes, of course, they'd certainly hold Buffy's foolish allies for

Darla...No problem at all...

Lilah was rather enjoying her double agent status...She never did like those

psycho vampiresses anyway...

With all things secured on the Wolfram-Hart front, Darla and Dru could

concentrate on freeing their new sister...

An obliging tenant let them into the building...

Suggested theme...Willow and Spike at Wolfham-Hart (Secret Agent Man)

"We may not have much time..." Lilah warned her new employers...She explained

the situation...

On Walthrop's instructions, she called Wesley to warn that Darla was

prowling...

As they left for the basement area, Willow couldn't help noticing Spike trying

to conceal a slight pride at his prowess in "thrall"...He hadn't tried it in

ages...Generally he left that sort of thing to the creepier sort...like that

Euro-trash, Dracula...Still, nice to know you've still got it in you and all...

Willow, a little irritated, still didn't have the heart to tell him she had

helped a bit...Just a little love spell based on the one that had worked a

little too well for Xander once upon a time...

She'd known Spike was out of practice and all...

Blocked...

Darla and Dru could not get into the basement area of Angel's building where

Buffy lay in her coffin box...Giles had taken no chances and provided as strong

a barrier for the offices and basement as he and Willow could...

But Darla had expected something like this...Concealed, an opportunity would

arise...Sooner or later...And she could wait...

Dru however...

"This is it..." Willow tells Spike, both deep in Wolfram-Hart's occult storage

area...

"Can we manage the stuff?...Is it a lot?..." He hadn't been quite sure exactly

what Willow would be taking...

"Just these two boxes...A little heavy but...not much for a vampire with such

an ability with the ladies..." Willow grinned at him...

He could handle that...

Suggested theme...Darla and Dru party with Buffy April (Macarena)

Dru did not like waiting...No...

And she still wasn't any closer to getting her dolly...Just that boring

Buffy...And she didn't like the feel of the two Bad Ones...

She wanted to go home...Or at least to have a little fun...

Someone was coming...Headed for the offices...Darla waved Dru back...Several

people it seemed...Dru could feel them...One she vaguely sensed was a friend

of the Slayer...female...Then a male...Didn't know him at all...And the

other...

Dru's eyes bulged and she screamed...It couldn't be...No...

Darla grabbed at her...And found herself grabbed from behind...And tossed

effortlessly against a wall...

By Buffy Summers...Who did not seem especially angry or upset...

In for a Penny...Part XIX

"Careful, Warren..." Tara warns him, waving him back... "Let her handle them..."

Dru shrieks and cowers...Darla was once again in space...

Striking the wall, she pulls herself up and backs off, running into an open office...Leaving the

field to Ms. Summers...

She calls out to Buffy... Perhaps not much hope, but it's worth a try... "Buffy?... Come with us..."

Dru runs for the back door and smashes through the door window...

"Darla?..." Buffy calls... "Here is the deal...You come out now and we'll talk..."

It's odd how stilted her voice sounds...Almost mechanical...

What's wrong with her?...And why isn't she attacking her two human friends?...Some spell by

that witch of hers?...The Watcher?...

Oh, God...Is she already all but cured?...After all I've been through?...

Not a good night for Darla...

Lilah was, of course, pleased that her plan was working out so well so far for her newly beloved

Dr. Walthrop...

And that she was proving herself a true champion of good and right...Worthy of his trust and

affection...

However...there was the little matter of the annoying red-haired woman, Walthrop's friend...

Lilah, even in thrall, hates competition...

Giles and Cordelia had heard the commotion, but made sure Wesley stayed with Buffy in her

coffin...They suspected a trap after Lilah's warning on Darla and had no intention of losing

everything over a little hastiness...

They peered from the safety of the offices entrance to see...

Warren, Tara, considerable damage in the hallway...and Buffy...grouped around the office door

where Darla was hiding...

"Giles!..." Tara calls happily... "I think we've got her!..."

"Mr. Giles..." Warren nods...

"Giles...Hello..." Buffy smiles... "Hello...Cordelia...It's very nice to see you again..."

The humans had moved out of Darla's earshot...

"So...I thought...we might as well make use of the tools we've got..." Warren explains...

"So this is Buffy Rebecca's body...but April's brain?..." Giles asks, regarding the smiling Buffy-

April...who maintains a careful watch on the office where Darla still cowers...

"Well, supplemented with memory engrams from Buffy's last neural recording...Of course it's

not an independent artificial human brain like Buffy Rebecca's was...She's programed..."

Warren is a little nervous...He knows both Buffies will be a little...with him...But it was all in a

good cause...

And temporary...

"We figured we should enhance her with as much Buffy info as we could...So she could deal

with Darla..." Tara adds...

Tara is rather pleased with their success...Her first time out in cybernetics...

"Also we thought it might throw a wrench into Darla's plans if she thought Buffy was more or

less back to normal..." Warren...

"Better than normal..." Tara grins... Well... "I mean...strength and all..."

Suggested theme...Scooby March (The Great Escape)

In an alley near the entrance of Wolfram-Hart, Xander waited with Anya who had come out just

that day...

Nothing to do but wait and try to look as inconspicuous as possible...

Up in the Wolfram-Hart building, a high-powered meeting has begun...Thirty Masters of the

Universe are in the middle of major decisions...Affecting the lives of millions...mostly,

negatively..

Willow and Dr. Walthrop, returning by elevator to her office to obtain computer records before

leaving with the resurrection ceremony materials gathered in the basement, had not been

informed by their new employee that things would be so busy tonight...

But Lilah has no doubt that she can protect...one of them...

***.

"So you see, Darla...You've failed...Buffy has recovered...You may as well come on out..." Giles

called to her...

"Yes, Darla...You've failed...Come on out and talk..." Buffy-April called...

Quite pleasantly, actually...

On leaving the elevator, Spike sensed something was wrong...He felt the presence of a number of

human happy meals...Quite nearby...

Meeting them at the elevator, Lilah attempted to look nervous...In fact she was concerned a

bit...for her beloved Dr. Walthrop...

"There's some kind of meeting going on...I didn't know...You've got to hide in my office until

they're through..." She waves them in...and shuts the door...

"Do you have the computer files?..." Willows asks...

Lilah nods and hands them to her... Spike is still lugging the two boxes they had picked up in the

basement...

"Can't we slip back down the elevator?..." He asks...

She shakes her head..."Security will be tight for the next hour or so until they finish...You'll be

caught on the first floor, you'd have to break out of the basement...and that's alarmed..."

"Well, we can wait a bit..." Willow says...But she can't help wondering why Lilah was unaware

of such a large meeting...

"Shouldn't you be in there?..."

"It's a secret meeting of top department heads...from around the world..." She grins, a little

sheepishly... "I don't quite rate yet..."

A glass ceiling...even for Lilah...

Darla was getting desperate...Buffy was sure to come in after her in another minute...And she was

so much stronger than she remembered her...A side effect of whatever spell her friends were

using on her demon?...

Her revenge had collapsed into a fleeing hope for survival...

"I'll come...but make the others go away...let me speak to you...alone..." she calls to Buffy-April..

Who is quite pleased that Darla is coming out to talk...

The others move back to the office...

Warren stays in view of his latest "daughter"...

Darla emerges slowly...She is tense but hoping...if she can reach Buffy's demon...Just long

enough to throw her off balance...

"Hello, Darla...Nice to see you again..." Buffy-April smiles at her...

I always thought that Summers was strange...thinks Darla...

Willow reviewed the files on the resurrection ceremony which Lilah had obtained for her...While

Dr. Walthrop stood guard, occasionally peering down the hall towards the meeting room...

Fortunately the W-H elite preferred not to have security guards within earshot...

Lilah did her best to be at Walthrop's service...and of course, his sweet young friend...

Perhaps, however...given the critical situation...and her desire to further the cause of good...They

should consider...separating... She might be able to smuggle Willow down to the first floor...as

an office intern...helping her out... And, well...they'd just completely lost track of time...never

had the chance to check in with the evening desk...

They could each take a box of the implements for the ceremony...Get the stuff out to the waiting

Xander...And Willow could begin her vital task...

Dr. Walthrop could leave after the meeting adjourned...

In for a Penny...Part XX

Darla could see no demon in Buffy's eyes...Buffy-April's that is...

How was it possible?...Had they gotten the Wolfram-Hart ceremony already?...

"Darla...I think you should know I can kill you very easily..." Buffy-April, still pleasantly

smiling...

"Buffy...What did they do to you?...I can help you... Listen to me..." Darla still hopes she can

find the demon sister, buried somewhere...

"I'm very well, thank you, Darla...But I want you to tell me something...I want to know how you

were revived..." Buffy-April remains calm and pleasant...As she grabs Darla swiftly by the arm...

"Please tell me, Darla...I will hurt you if I have to..."

Darla twists in pain, but can't break the robot's grip...But if she still needs the resurrection

ceremony...

Suddenly she can hear a wild screaming from the basement...Buffy's demon is breaking through

Willow's spell...

She looks at Buffy-April...

"What are you?...You're not Buffy..."

"Darla, you really should tell me what I asked for...Or I will have to hurt you..." Buffy-April

twists the vampire's arm...

"Kill me then... I won't help your friend... She's like me now...She'll stay that way..."

"Warren..." Buffy-April calls... "Darla says to kill her...She won't answer my questions... What

should I do?..."

Suggested theme...Operation Wolfram-Hart (Mission:Impossible)

Spike reluctantly agreed to Lilah's separation idea... Willow was anxious to get the material out

in any case... They headed for the elevator...

Suddenly Lilah shoves Willow back again the wall and drops her box... A little noise and the

redhead will no longer be in her way... She backs off from Willow as the meeting room doors

open...

If the cause of good requires that Dr. Walthrop's friend be sacrificed while she remains free to

retain the materials he needs...

Spike emerged from Lilah's office on hearing the crash to find Lilah and Willow facing several

annoyed members of the elite...

"I found this woman lurking here as I was carrying some things back to my office..." Lilah tells

them... "She must be a thief, a spy..." She doesn't see Spike coming up...

But the boys in gray pinstripe do...And they know a vampire when they see one...

Spike makes a valiant effort to attack, the chip firing on a massive scale...

You would think..he thinks as he collapses in agony...with these guys it wouldn't work...

The elite have run like rats to their meeting room to call security...

But Willow had not been totally trusting of Lilah...

She throws a blinding flash into the room...A little trick she'd been playing with...Well, a failed

test...But it was showing quite a bit of worth right now...

Lilah backs away...

"I was only trying to save the ceremony materials..."

"I understand..." Willow grins at her...She nods at Walthrop, now out... "How's our hero..."

Lilah is only to happy to check out her beloved's condition...And is ko'd for the second time by

Willow...

In the meeting room, in an instant thirty Masters of the Universe had been blinded

temporarily...turning them into frightened, whining four year olds, lost in the dark...

Actually, an insult to four year olds, Willow thought...

Darla saw her chance as the robot paused to request instructions...

She broke free and tore off down the hall...

Buffy-April was awaiting Warren's answer...He frantically ordered a pursuit but Darla had won

just enough time...To leap out the same way Dru had...

BA reached the door only seconds too late but Darla had vanished...She returned to Warren...

BA was apologetic but needed new instructions...How far should she pursue?...When should she

return?...

Warren asked Buffy-April to set out in search for the two vampires... Within a two mile

radius...For one hour...Which she did in her usual calm and pleasant manner...

Suggested Spike's Theme (Wanderer)

Willow left the unconscious, love-struck Lilah a brief letter of instructions, signed

"Affectionately, William Walthrop..."

Will thought her "Affectionately" was a nice touch...

It called on Lilah to deliver all documents dealing with criminal activities of Wolfram and Hart

to the proper authorities and to make a full and true accounting of all activities she personally

was familiar with and for which other evidence could be provided...

In return, her beloved promised to dispose of the unnecessary Willow and...to wait...However

long it might take...

It was true to some extent, Willow thought...After all, Spike had been prepared to wait all

eternity for his true love...

She grabbed the unconscious vampire and dragged him to the elevator...

He had recovered enough to wobble out the front door with her...A drunken Master of the

Universe with his latest party girl...

The next day, the LA papers began to fill with Lilah's revelations of Wolfram-Hart's nefarious

undertakings...

Naturally, some of the firm's dealings with those in the highest positions of the nation and state

were quietly forgotten...

But enough was left to flatten Wolfram and Hart...

BA had failed to find Darla and Dru in her sweep of the area...Warren had her keep periodically

at it...If only to guard against their return...

Back at her sewer lair the next day...

Darla was shaken...

The Slayer's friends had brought in a powerful ally, whatever that Buffy copy was...

She had expected the Slayer's friends to penetrate Wolfram and Hart...Her allies would alert her,

there might be a fight in the halls of corporate power...She even thought the Slayer's little friends

might escape to make their effort to restore Buffy...

But she never expected to see her allies flattened with such an A-bomb...

Dru was so terrified she had become quite reasonable and lucid...

She thought it was best to abandon their revenge...for the present...

She could accept the loss of her dolly quite calmly...

In for a Penny...Part XXI

But Darla was not quite that reasonable...

She still had faith in the Slayer's demon...And her plans had been fairly

independent of Wolfram and Hart...

She just had to be in the right place at the right time...And would be, if Dru

came through...

Willow had reviewed the ceremony and studied the use of the implements they'd

taken from Wolfram and Hart...She thought she could make an attempt at adapting

the ceremony very soon...

But she had noticed an increasingly disturbing fact...Buffy Rebecca was now by

far the dominant sister...Speaking through Buffy almost to her sister's

exclusion...Not that she intended to dominate...

Clearly Buffy was weakening rapidly...And Willow knew she was in terrible

despair...Ready to give up and fly to her mother and hopefully, her

father...Hanging on only to keep the demon down...And prevent Darla's

triumph...

But she was more worried about Buffy Rebecca...

Wesley and Spike were watching Buffy's box as Willow joined them...Buffy was

conscious but it was BR who did most of the talking at their end...

Wesley was fascinated by the story of Spike and BR...Redeemed by a robot's

love?...How in...

Suggested Buffy Rebecca's Theme (Here Comes the Sun)

"Spike, I want to understand this... What is Buffy Rebecca?... A potential

soul?... A mathematical model?...I just can't get around the whole thing..."

"Wes...You'd have to ask Warren for the math...But...I've thought about it..."

Spike pauses...

"Think of Buffy...on a quiet day...after having trouble with me for a

week...But somehow she's avoided staking me...And on that day, when she has

just a few minutes...She wonders...Spike does seem to have some humanity left

in him...What if I tried to help him a little?...Would there be any chance for

him?...Maybe?..."

He smiles at Wes and Willow...

"That's Buffy Rebecca..."

Willow asked Spike and Wes to leave a moment...She needed go over the details

of the ceremony with both Buffies...

He was not unable to guess what she wanted to discuss...

He could understand...He couldn't blame Willow for not completely trusting

him...Wondering if he'd try to jiggle things his way...Even try to persuade

Buffy Rebecca...That if it was hopeless for Buffy...At least one of them would

survive in her body...And so defeat Darla...

But it wasn't necessary...He'd made his decision...

It was curious...How many of the handful of vampires in history who were known

to have won a kind of redemption could pinpoint the exact moment when it

happened?...

He could...

The night of the Battle of Sunnydale Mall...When he nearly saved BR from the

electrical discharge that she used to shatter Glory's mind...And her own...

When looking back at him, she put her trust in him...Was sure of him...And he'd

come through...Knowing he might lose her...

Besides, he knew now that she was there...No doubts, no uncertainty...It didn't

matter if he would have to wait longer...He was immortal...Baring accidents and

a new Slayer...

And he was now Buffy Summers' brother-in-law...With all accordant

responsibilities and duties...

He wasn't about to slip up now...BR would be disappointed...She, just like

Buffy, hated wasted efforts...

But, he understood that Willow couldn't help thinking he might not be willing

to wait...Only natural...

Humans, he thought...So concerned with time...

But it wasn't Spike whom Willow was worried about...

"Buffy...Can I speak to Buffy Rebecca...Well...?" She almost said...Alone...

Suggested theme...Extremis...(Adagio for Strings)

"Can't help you much privacy-wise on this one, Will...But I'll try not to

listen..."

"Will?...What do you need?"

"Buffy Rebecca?...We're almost ready to try..." Willow was nervous...She

trusted BR as much as Buffy...But...she had to know...

"Buffy Rebecca...Buffy is getting very weak...We both know how she feels...

That she has no one left, only Dawn...Who could be just as happy with you...

And you have a family... A dad, a sister, a husband of sorts...Who needs

you..."

"I know Will..."

"When we try this...You will have to let go...Before she does..." Willow had

to press...

"We love you Buffy Rebecca...but..."

"It's Buffy's body, Will...Not mine...She has a right to a life...How ever she

may feel right now...I won't deny wishing I could stay...But I won't let you

guys down... I'll go as soon as it's the right moment..." She chuckles...

"Besides...I miss my extras...That stupid supplemental memory of Warren's came

in handy..."

Never had a doubt...thinks Willow...

"Can I speak to Buffy?..."

She could almost feel the two sisters grinning right through the box...They're

enjoying this, she thought...

After all...both Buffy...

"Will?..."

"Buffy...I need to know that you'll be making an effort..."

"Will, my sister has more to live for...That's the honest truth..."

"Buffy, I put my life on the line for you tonight...and many other

times...Xander, Giles, Wesley, Cordy...especially Spike...We all did..." She

pauses...

"And I've done things I can't easily excuse..." Like put a human being in

thrall...Even if it was an evil lawyer...

"So you can't give up on us... You have no right to... However things may seem

right now...In that damn box..." Willow can't resist the tease...

"Giles might have provided some pillows and a lamp..." Buffy replies...She

resumes...

"I'll try Will...But I need you to do something for me..."

They were finished...And Willow was ready to go and set up for the effort...

"I'd like to speak to Spike..." Buffy asks her...

Willow sends the vampire in...

Spike and Buffy Rebecca Love Theme (Ebbtide)

"Spike...I want to thank you...For everything...Whatever happens...I know Dawn

will be safe with you..."

Dr. Walthrop is a bit nonplused...Thanks from the Slayer is still a new thing

for him...

Buffy continues...

"There's something I want you to know...You deserve to hear it..." She

chuckles a little...

"Even if it is ratting on my sis a little..."

"Slayer?..."

"She has considered staying...Here...Letting me go and staying herself...To be

with you again... If I couldn't make it..."

Buffy pauses...

"I was all for it...But I've made a promise to Willow and all of you...And she

would never do it if I have a chance...But you deserve to know...She definitely

thought about it..."

Oh...the joy...

In for a Penny...Part XXII

Willow had again restored the spell holding back Buffy's demon...But it would not hold for much

longer...And Buffy was steadily weakening...It would have to be soon if done at all...

Buffy Rebecca was not amused to hear that Tara and her Dad had revived her body...with that

dim-witted sexbot's brain...

Surprisingly, Buffy was...

It was rather nice to see her sister in the same situation and watch her reaction...

Spike had now fully recovered from his latest bout with his chip...

"We really should have him get a Cat-Scan..." Willow half-joked to Buffy Rebecca while on duty

tending her sister's box...

BR naturally spent the rest of that day insisting on it...At the first possible opportunity...

Just as I would...if it were Riley or Angel...Buffy thought...

She really was Buffy...No doubt about it...

Willow and Giles had consulted and were ready to make the effort...

Suggested theme...Scooby March (The Great Escape)

It would be the four of them...Willow, Giles, Spike, and most essential of all, Buffy...in her

coffin box...

Five if you counted Buffy Rebecca...Six if you counted the demon "sister"...

Sealed in the underground vaults area near the now "closed due to federal indictment"

Wolfram-Hart building's foundation...

Behind a maze of corridors and doors...

Near as possible to the spirit chamber used by the firm to call up souls from hell...

Or limbo...

Or even...one's own body...

The others, in particular Buffy-April would be on guard in the outer corridors, ready if Darla and

Dru learned of their effort and tried to penetrate...

With Wolfram-Hart in disarray, entering the vaults would not present that much of a problem...

But it was always relatively easy to get into Wolfram-Hart...

Suggested theme...Darla and Dru (Girls Just Wanta Have Fun)

Darla had attempted to reach the senior partners of Wolfram-Hart in hell...For help in stopping

Buffy's friends from reviving the Slayer...With W-H property...On their grounds...

However, shattered by the sudden collapse of their firm and therefore their latest apocalypse

plans, the senior partners were currently behaving more like the senior partners of Ally

McBeal...

This disaster was unfair...one complained...Unfair...Who was this "Willow" anyway?...He saw no

"Willow" in his Book of Prophecy...

Adolf had always known this would happen...Another apocalypse plan shot to ...here...

Idiots!...Who had hired that Lilah anyway?...

Joseph felt they might as well give it up for now...They needed a chance to rebuild...Yes, a Five

Year Plan...Rebuild, yes...Then smash their enemies...like steel...

Another Five Year Plan?...I hate Five Year Plans, Adolf groaned...They have no poetry...Joseph

just has no artistry in his soul...

"Boys, you'll just have to try again..." Satan told them...Lunatics he thought...Like any of their

apocalypse plans will ever succeed...Still, good mental and physical therapy for the criminally

deranged...

When can I take a vacation from these idiots?...

One of their minions informed the partners of Darla's efforts to reach them...

Screw her, they all suggested...

Giles, Spike, and Xander offered well-meant hindrance to Buffy-April as she carried in Buffy's

box...

Warren wisely suggested they let her do it alone...

Then they sealed the doors for the ceremony participants and took up guard spots with

Buffy-April...

But Darla and Dru were not attempting to pass the outer corridors...

They were deep in the basement of Wolfram-Hart...Via a special tunnel...built by a senior partner

in case he ever needed a quick escape from his colleagues...

Naturally, the partners did not trust each other...

A second tunnel led into the vaults...

Suggested theme...The Ceremony (O Fortuna)

Willow began the ceremony to kill the vampire body and release the demon...

Giles read from the Boul of Souls while she chanted...To help hold Buffy in place...For her

resurrection...

Spike waited...For a chance to say goodbye...

"Grandmother...I want to go..." Fear was continuing to keep Dru in relatively good mental

health...

"The Bad Ones won't go...The New One is strange...Let's go, please..."

But Darla was pressing on...Just a bit further...And Buffy's demon would help them...

"It's time, Spike..." Willow calls out to him...She looks at him...

He comes forward...And nods at her...It has to be...

"Goodbye...Buffy Rebecca...I love you...Forever..." he calls...

Spike and Buffy Rebecca Love Theme (Ebbtide)

And she was over him like a warm mist...hanging gently...and fading...

Willow continues...Giles calls out to Buffy from the Book...

And Darla and Dru burst in on the ceremony...

Spike moves to block them...

But Willow was ready for them...She cast out the restraining spell used on Buffy's demon...

Darla dodged too quickly for her and the spell lit on the nearest remaining vampire...

Suggested theme...Extremis...(Adagio for Strings)

Darla had never...In all her previous existence...heard a cry like the one that now came...

From poor Drusilla...

Her human soul torn from its deep corner...

"Oh God have mercy on my poor soul!..."

She looked at all of them, confused but slowly, increasingly aware...And saw Darla...

"I know you..." she shudders... "His...Mother...Its mother..."

Darla tries to lunge past her...

In the corridors, the others hear the disturbance...

And Buffy-April begins methodically smashing her way through doors to them...

"Hello, I'm coming..." she calls, pleasantly as ever...

Drusilla throws Darla back again, protecting them...She looks at the others...At Spike...

And, sadly, knows him...

"For the pity of God, forgive me sir..." she begs him...tormented...horrified...

Covering her face with her hands...In shame...

Spike bows his head...Willow cannot stop but she and Giles are shaken...The real Drusilla...

This is too cruel, he thinks...She is innocent...Too cruel, you miserable bastards...

"There is nothing to forgive, Dru...Nothing..." he says gently...

"Kill me...Now...Hurry...Oh, please..."

Dru looks pleadingly at Spike...

"If you forgive me, sir...Pity me...Send me home..."

Spike looks around desperately...Nothing wooden in sight...

He looks at Giles...Rupert you must have something...

But the spell was weak...It was too late for poor Dru...She cries out a warning to them...

And with a snarl, her demon attacks Spike...

Darla now lunges at Willow...

And Buffy-April smashes through the door of the chamber...

The calvary to the rescue...

Suggested theme...Buffy-April to the Rescue(Macarena)

She tosses both vampires back against the far wall with ease...

Dru has had enough jolly times for now...She flees back down the tunnel they came...

Darla tries to slip past Buffy-April...and is held by her...

Willow ordered BA to drag Darla to the outer hallway...

Where Xander, Warren, Tara, Anya, and Wesley now waited...hopeful...

She completed the ceremony to kill the vampire body...And the demon, desperate for

survival...fled...

She sent Giles and Spike out to join the others...And began the difficult part...the resurrection...

Complicated by a special request...Which Willow is honor-bound...By love and duty to fulfill...

Not to mention her own desire...

In for a Penny...Part XXIII

Conclusion

After an hour, Willow stumbled out of the room, exhausted...

"She's pooped, but wants to see you..." Grinning...

They let Giles go in first...

Willow looked at Spike...With all his torment...he never once blamed poor Dru...Never...

She held out her hand to him, surprising him...So formal, Red?...Well, special occasion...

"I'm very proud to know you William Walthrop..." Kissing him on the cheek...

Giles came out to them, rubbing his glasses...And kissed Willow very gently...

"She'd like to see all of you...But not too long..."

Willow sent Spike and the others in ahead...

She and Giles turned to Darla, still helpless in Buffy-April's polite grip...

Suggested theme...Extremis...(Adagio for Strings)

"Darla, why did you do this?"...

"I have no reason to explain myself to you...Mortal...But she destroyed my family..."

Willow looked at her...I thought so...No demon was involved here...What does a vampire demon

care about its fellows?...This was a human revenge...

"Kill me then..." Darla stopped her struggles...And smiles at them...

"Or, curse me if you prefer..." But somewhere buried in her words is the faintest, most desperate

plea...

Giles looks at her coldly...

"We have no intention of killing you...Or cursing you for that matter..."

Willow stares at Darla...

"You did this, Darla...No demon...You..."

Willow turns away from her...

Giles addresses her...

"We're letting you go...We'll leave you to Angel...He thought you might be worth

saving...Perhaps he's right...It isn't our job to judge you...But..."

Giles pauses...If he speaks to this...Creature...Another moment...

And he has no intention of giving her peace...At least for now...

Darla looks at them...Angel wouldn't help me...And they won't...

Willow speaks...

"Darla, it's not our job to save you...We can't forgive what you did...So we won't help you...Not

today...I can't speak for Giles but...I haven't got that much compassion...Wish I did, for my own

sake..."

Darla grins coldly...And continues to struggle...Maybe if I can just...Anger them...

"You are a weak fool...No strength at all..." She tells Willow...

Willow looks back calmly...

"I'm proud of being a gentle person, however weak people may find that...It's a powerful thing

when used properly..." She smiles at Giles...

"But terrible as it may be, I can't and I won't help you today..."

She looks down...away from the vampire...

"I hope, maybe...someday...I'll have that much strength...to be willing to try..."

"So you can go...But, Darla..."

Willow motions to BA to bring her closer...Giles throws a cloud of dust over her...And Willow

lets her try to bite at her arm...

A howl of pain...from Darla...

"You see that Giles and I've protected ourselves...our friends, others too...against you...You're

quite a good influence on us, Darla...We've all done some of our best work..."

She has BA hold her to face her...

"Darla, you can't hurt us...at least for now...But you may find some way to get around this in the

future...So understand this...if you ever bother my friends or me again, I will drag your miserable

soul out of whatever hole it's hidden in...And leave it trapped right up front in this body of yours,

aware and unable to hide...Worse than poor Dru was a moment ago...Worse than Angel...No

moment of happiness will get you out of the burden you'd bear...And you know I can do it..."

Darla knew...

And fled when Buffy-April released her...

Willow and Giles looking after her...Coldly...

And at each other...

"Leave her to Angel, Willow..." Giles told her...Gently...

Willow nodded...But the grim thought crossed her mind...

What are we turning into?...

Still...She was not theirs to deal with...She could have put herself in Buffy's reach long ago...

There are limits to what compassion can do...

Besides...If Angel doesn't give her peace...Soon...

God help her when Buffy catches up with her...

Buffy was exhausted...But very much alive...

They did not want to tire her...Buffy-April would carry her out...But...

She wanted to thank Spike...And Willow...Each alone...

Before things got too busy...

Suggested theme...Come Softly to Me

"William, I'm so grateful..." Never, never did I think I would have to say this...He must be loving

this...The little...

"Any time, Slayer...Always happy to help..." He was definitely enjoying this...But...

"Buffy Rebecca..."

"I've learned what I needed to learn...How many fellows can say they know their beloved's soul

is around after death?...With witnesses nonetheless..."

"I'm glad to have finally met her..."

"Don't be ridiculous..." he grins at 'Sis' ... "You've always known her..."

The thought crossed his mind...it was strange that Buffy had called him William...Will she had

tried out one or twice since his new status...Odd...

But, after all, Willow had been near...

BA gently carried her back to Angel's offices...She was very pleased to meet her...

Back at the offices they quickly had an ambulance for her...Not that anyone doubted Willow's

skills...

It's just when you get a dead friend back a medical examination seems like a good idea...

Xander appointed himself the bearer of the news of Hank and Buffy to the recovering Dawn...

And phoned her and Ben at Sunnydale Hospital...

She had already guessed about Hank...But, as she feared Ben was keeping the worst from her was

overjoyed to hear that Buffy was doing well...

Xander made it clear that Hank had tried to save them...

She had already guessed that too...

They made plans for a return home...

But Spike had a little announcement...

"I'm going to take a little tour of Europe...Time we promoted our bionetics there..." He grins at

Warren...

"And my real skills lie in sales I think..."

"And that's where Dru is headed..." Willow says, looking at him...

He smiles at her...

"She always preferred Europe..." he pauses..."Someone has to help her..."

So I'm in the Angel business...He thinks...Well, that twit will never survive a little real

competition...Besides I have Science on my side...providing a stable income...

Warren and Tara were clearly distressed...

"You have to stay, Spike...At least a month...Until Buffy's well enough..." Tara put in hastily...

"Yes, Spike...We need you..." Giles added...Never, never did I ever think I would be saying

this... "You're the only one with enough strength to handle patrolling..."

A startled but obviously pleased Spike agreed to delay his trip...

Warren suggested he head out to Sunnydale in advance...to "check on things" at the

office...Which pleased 'Dr.' Walthrop no end...

After his departure, Wesley took a call from Angel...Finally on his way home...

The Lama had provided little specifics but a general indication that things would work out...

"No major problems, boss...Oh, Buffy and some of the old gang paid us a visit..." Wesley

shouted...

"How are they doing?..."

Suggested Buffy Rebecca's Theme (Here Comes the Sun...)

"Very well, very well...Oh, boss...We've taken the liberty of clearing your weekends for the next

month...Well, Spike will be marrying Buffy's robotic sister as soon as she can be restored...Buffy

wants you there if possible..."

Tara explained the difficulties...

"Of course you realize it may take time...We'll have to wait until Buffy gets strong enough to do

the recordings...And isolate Buffy Rebecca's pattern...from Buffy's..."

If it's a matter of Buffy...she'll be there tonight Willow thinks...She and the sister she wouldn't

let go...Merged...until a certain "cybergenius" and his new assistant get to work...

Just as BR wouldn't let her go...

Well, BR had Buffy's memories...Now...

Poor Riley...he'll have a lot to live up to...

Measuring up to Spike...Of all people...

Warren chimed in... "But we think it should work...the new brain should match Buffy Rebecca's

perfectly...All we need is her complete memory...and..."

And that's safe with her human sister...Willow thought...

"I'm sure it will work..." Warren said...

Spike and Buffy Rebecca Love Theme (Ebbtide)

It will, thought Willow...Just as it did the first time when Buffy Rebecca came to Spike...Only

better this time...Like a beacon calling her soul home...

Spike would have some company on his hunt for Dru...The Greatest Slayer of all Time...

It'll be just like the Walthrops to spend their honeymoon trying to help an old friend find peace...

Tara thinks a minute...

"Dickens changed the ending of 'Great Expectations'...No one liked it that Pip didn't get

Estella...I think even he didn't...though he grumbled about it...So he changed it..."

" 'I saw no shadow of a second parting from her' " Warren quotes...

I saw no shadow of a second parting from her...Willow thinks...Yeah, I like it...

Hmmn...she thinks looking at Warren and Tara, the "cybergeniuses"...I may have to nip my girl's

new found infatuation for cybernetics in the bud...Hope that fiancee of Warren's shows up soon...

Tara comes over and hugs her...

Nah...no problems there...

Well...I guess we'll be needed bridesmaids gowns...Hope it's green...she looks at Tara...My

honey's a knockout in green...

Of course, the Maid of Honor spot is already filled...

Lucky bastard, that Walthrop...