"The Girl of Your Dreams…"
Archived at the Buffy Rebecca verse, . .
Disclaimer: All BTVS characters remain the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series...
Summary: Another unholy alliance of Amy and Warren Mears creates another doorway for Buffy's demon Anne to escape Hell…Unfortunately…They miscalculated slightly…
"*$H$!ing, stinkin' human?"
But our Annie will find her way…
Six months after the Great Battle of LA with the Senior Partners…
New Sunnydale, California…The old decrepit Crestwood edge of old Sunnydale, filled out with some additional county land…
Not quite a roaring success as a new planned community, despite the adjoining famed new tourist attraction of the Sunnydale Crater…With the Hellmouth permanently sealed even most of the occult world has lost interest in the place despite the trace energy left from the old Mouth…
Making the perfect locale for a supervillain of somewhat limited superabilities though excellent technical skills to hang out…
A swarthy little man sat in a booth of the only coffee shop in town…A local, even Starbucks having passed on this one…His hair greasy and thick…Though a rather obvious wig…And the swarthiness, only too clearly the effect of heavy make-up…Though as the just-past middle-aged owner quietly sniggered to a regular customer at the front bar…In this place, so long as he's not the type likely to be hard to handle, who gives…?
"You never know…" the regular smiled at the balding, perspiring owner… "Surprises can come out of these oddball types…Remember the old place…?"
"God, kid…" sigh… "Don't remind me…You never knew when some freak might pop out…Especially that girl and her collection of wierdos…"
"Pretty hot collection at the end…" the regular smiled… "You were there when those girls fought the First after all, Bringer…"
The owner frowned… "Kid…I thought you had the brains to keep that quiet…Besides, I'm…Mostly…Human again…And I was a victim like the others…"
"Hmmn…A little bird…A Tule demon, really, in little bird form…They make great spies, by the way…Tole me some of you were voluntary…And you might be one of the volunteers…The Slayer and her people might be interested in that…Maybe their Council at least…"
"The Slayer might like to know the witch who corrupted her best friend is still around, girlie…" the owner glared… "I thought you were all right, Amy…"
"Just messin' with your bald plate, Fred…" she grinned… Stretching on her stool… "Now don't be like that…" another grin at his hard stare… "I know you have some protection and I'm just teasin'…Besides…You shouldn't cover for a guy like that…" she indicated the man seated, quietly eating his sandwich with rather ravenous appetite… "…Or try to deceive…Me…" she frowned…
"Or you may find your stuff isn't quite up to me…" hard stare, followed by warm smile… "But, we're ole pals, Fred…After all you gave me my chance to hook up with the First…It was only my lack of faith that kept me from joinin' in for that fiasco…"
Fred winced…But kept a guarded stance, eyeing her…
Not really sure if his stuff could hold her off if put to the test…
"Not to worry…I know you were sincere in the offer…" she put up a hand… "And I almost regret, win or lose, that I didn't sign on…"
"Looks like you made the right call…" he shrugged… "We lost…"
"Sometimes win or lose doesn't matter…" she noted with smile… "Sometimes it's just whether you anty up and kick in or no that's what counts…And, to be sure, I didn't…Introduce me to your friend, Fred…" she eyed him…
"No friend of mine…He just likes to eat here…I don't even…"
"You're overdoing it, Fred…" she serenely patted his hand… "Next time just say he's nobody you know…"
Fred reddened… "Look…He doesn't like to be bothered…And he's…"
"Dangerous?..." warm smile… "I like 'dangerous'…You oughta know that from the First's reports on me, Fred…" Amy grinned…
"Fine…I'll ask him… But I mean as in with the machinery, not the other world stuff…And I don't need my place shot up…"
"Oooh, a gangster…A drug lord…?" she chuckled, keeping voice as low as Fred's but with an edge of mockery… "He don't look like much if either…But keep what's left of your hair on, Fred…If it is your hair and you didn't steal a body to hide in…I'll intro myself…" she rose off her stool and moved toward the man in the booth who caught sight of her and eyed her as she approached…
"Warren?...Sorry if I'm late…" she said, glancing back at Fred who gave a grimace…
"Yeah, we had an appointment, sorry Fred…"she chuckled, moving to the booth where Warren in his makeup continued to eye her coolly…
"Scoot over…I prefer to sit next to you…" Amy urged…
LA, same time…
Offices of Angel, Burkle-Wyndham-Price, Gunn, and Walthrop…
The somewhat slimmed-down yet (barely) profitable successor to Wolfram-Hart, Inc…Risen like a phoenix from the ashes of the mysteriously devastated global conglomerate…A corporation destroyed after decades of astounding success built on those of predeaceassor firms in a space of a week by a combination of overwhelming if amazingly localized natural disasters, corruption allegations, and bizarre disappearances of senior staff…Only US CEO Liam Angel able to keep his name and rep intact in the aftermath…
Though a few questions raised regarding his own and his staff's credentials as lawyers and even as US citizens in several cases had been quietly shelved by the US government, acting, it was rumored, very faintly, at the urging of its own intelligence and mysterious global agencies…
Mr. Angel in fact occupied with yet another intrepid reporter seeking to delve to the bottom of the mysterious events…Localized earthquakes and volcanic activity…Strange reports of hordes of unknown creatures appearing and as strangely, vanishing before daybreak…And of hordes of lovely young women likewise appearing and disappearing…And the disappearance of so many leading executives and politicians connected with Wolfram-Hart world-wide…As if someone had been cleaning house on a global scale…A St. Valentine's day massacre, the young woman noted to Angel, on a epic, even Hitlerian scale…
"Well?..." Dr. Winifred Illyria Burkle-Wyndham-Price, head of the firm's scientific department eyed her junior partner, William S. Walthrop, who knelt at the office door, hand to a cup lain against the said door …Ear to said hand…Asked…
"She's comparing him to Hitler, now…" Will noted… "A bit much…"
"Yeah…" Illyria, in her favorite red Winifred suit nodded, frowning… "Hitler killed 50 million if Fred remembers right…A paltry number but hardly to be compared to Angel's pitiful record…"
Ummn…She stared at Will's look… "Sorry…It's terrible…" she nodded…Winifred apologetic look…
"Where he only killed demons to protect…Us…" she continued, nervously…
"It's all right, Lyri…" Will, kindly… "And it is terrible…Though she isn't directly sayin' he did it…Just hintin'…"
"Maybe we could capture her and do a mind probe?..." she suggested… "Find out if she really knows anything?..."
Lyri…
"No, right…That would be wrong…"
"If she's not a snoop…Though, bein' unquestionably human…We gotta take her word for it…"
"We have a truth serum that doesn't…"
"Lord, no…" Charles Gunn, her senior partner…Decked out in formal "power" suit had entered the outer office were Will and Illyria awaited the outcome of Angel's latest attempt to deflect an investigator… "We don't truth serum, Lyri…And no mind control or thrall, if either of you were considering it…"
"It wouldn't hurt her…It's a risk-free, non-harmful formulation…" Illyria insisted…
"No…" Gunn shook his head… "And get rid of it from the company stocks…In a safe, environmentally-friendly way…"
"Meanin' don't flush it…" Will grinned, back to listening now… "Unless you want the entire population of LA telling the truth for several days…God…The unimaginable horror…Even Spike couldn't conceive of it…"
"You guys…" Illyria sighed… "But Fred says you're right…I'm sorry…" she looked downcast…
"You're just trying to help, we know, Illyria…" Gunn stepped forward, patting her arm… "We've all made our share of mistakes…"
"Exceptin' us innocent victims, of course…" Will grinned… "We are as pure as the driven…" he ducked as both Gunn and Burkle-Wyndham-Price tossed pens at him…
"Next time those will be pencils, you…" Illyria mock-frowned…She pausing as he put up his free hand …Wait a bit…Developments…
He had put a look of intense concentration on… "They're about…"
"Well, good day, Ms…" Angel had opened the door for his guest, Will failing with glass into the room…Illyria and Gunn quickly taking advantage of the confusion to beat a quick retreat…
"…Anderson…Spike!...What the hell?..."
"Just checking to see if you were available…" Will quickly attempted a plausible recover, failing miserably…
Though…He caught the smile from Ms. Anderson, a rather attractive young brunette of short…er, exactly proper…stature…At him as he rose…
"…Harmony was off to lunch…" he continued his feeble explanation…
"And you were what…Taking my door off its hinges?..." Angel asked…
It the way you back us up at all times, along with your known penchant for being utterly open with all employees at all times that endears you so to us, boss…Will frowned at Angel…
"Really sorry, miss…" Will concluded, a bit desperately… "No offense intended…"
"None taken…" Ms. Anderson smiled warmly… "You're William Soames Walthrop, right?..."
"Guilty as charged…Though old pals call me…"
"Don't you have something important to do, Spike?..." Angel frowned… "As in, right now?..."
"My schedule is clear all afternoon…" Will smiled… "It's rare but today I just happened to manage to catch up on just about everything in my all-too-full work basket…"
Cut to shot of office of junior partner WSW, out basket full of tossed mostly blank, some scribbled on paper wads in airplane form…
"Great, then you can help Illyria with our new project…In the lab…" Angel eyed him… "I know she needs you…Now…"
"Oh, but I wanted to speak to Mr. Walthrop as well…" Ms. Anderson insisted…A slightly pleading tone… "And if he's available…"
"Utterly…Completely…" Will nodded… "I'd say this afternoon was the perfect time…One never knows when my busy schedule will be overloaded once again…"
Cut to shot of junior partner Walthrop snoring in office…
"Great…" Ms. Anderson beamed…
"Great is hardly the word…" Will beamed…
"Mr. Walthrop…Could I have a word with you?...In my office…" Angel, coldly…
"We're in your office, mate…" Will smiled pleasantly…
"Inside my inner office, Mr. Walthrop?..." Angel…Quietly… "Please…"
"A boss so versed in the magic word…Who could refuse him anything, eh, Ms. Anderson…?" Will grinned to the woman…Who grinned back…
He followed Angel into his inner sanctum… Picking up a picture from the huge desk…Talk about ego gratification, mate…As Angel closed the door to the outer office with a friendly smile… "Just a moment, Ms. Anderson…"
"Nice one of Nina, Liam…"
"Spike…" Angel hissed… "What the hell are you thinking?...Or rather, doing…Since I know it's pointless to ask if you think about anything…"
"Just ready to put my incredible social skills at the service of the greater good, Liam…My duty and my pleas…"
"You are not going to take that reporter anywhere, Spike…In case you didn't notice while you were listening at my door…She's damned good…"
"And what could she possibly get out of me?..." Will frowned… "Even if I weren't possessed of an unshakable will and skillfully adept mind…"
" 'Well, Miss'…" Angel did a reasonable mimic of Spike's voice… " 'I didn't mean to say I was born in 1857 and only started mass killing in 1881 after Angelus trained me…'"
"That was a regrettable slip…Probably Freudian guilt as I contemplated Spike's crimes…I've dealt…"
"Spike, I nearly had her satisfied and…"
"What…?" Angel stared…
"Well, thought you were a proper family man, Liam…"
"Shut up, you idiot!..."
Reporteray on the outsideskray…Will hissed…Waving for lowered voice…
"You know I mean I had her convinced there was nothing more to the story…"
"Didn't sound or look, just now, that way to me…" he put up a hand at Angel's furious stare… "I'm just sayin'…In all seriousness…I don't think she was convinced…She's still looking for something on us…"
"And letting you spill everything to her will solve all problems, eh…Mr. Stark?..."
"I don't mind sayin' I think sometimes Tony had the right idea, puttin' it all out there…What good does it do to cover up like this…?"
"It helps to keep a lot of nice unsuperpeople safe…Fred's family for instance…Charlie's folks…And my kid…Not to mention a certain girl we know…"
"Not that I'm not over that…" Angel hastily added…
"As am I…" Will, grandly, but with equal haste…
"Fine…" he continued… "But Liam, there's no point in not letting me speak to her…She'll just be more suspicious, you running everything through you…"
"And you sleeping with her will solve all problems?..."
"Sir…" William straightened… "May I remind you I am a recovered souled gentleman…"
"Is that the suit talking?..." Angel glared…
"…And I only do a bird if she's up and ready…" Will concluded… "Come on, Angel…I'll just give her my patented song-and-dance, play the executive playboy type…She'll put on some kind of feminist huff, slap me silly and stalk out, convinced we're nothing but the usual corporate assholes…Look, she's been round three times and you haven't managed to drive her off…Give me a shot before you have to consider besmurchin' your pristine record of no-thralling…"
Hmmn…Angel frowning, but pondering…He has a point…
And he is the corporate sexist jackass junior exec type…
"All right…But mind you don't overdo it and get us into a sexual harassment suit…Just convince her you're a shallow idiot with one thing on your mind…Which being 99% true, should be easy…And that we're just another bunch of jerk lawyers out to make a buck…"
"…And never killing anyone without Mob assistance…With everyone we have hit deservin' to be hit…" Will nodded…
"Go…Just go…And remember not to rely too much on Fred's…" Angel paused…
"She loves it when we forget, you know…" Will noted quietly…Solemnly… "It's not betraying Winnie, Liam…"
"Right…" Angel sighed… "Anyway…Don't rely too much on that daylight protection spell, ok?...W-H never gave something like that away without a catch or a sinister fail-safe…And I'm sure I was starting to smoke a bit the other day at that state conference…"
"I'll wear extra sunscreen…Should we venture out at all…" Will smiled… "Don't sweat it, O'Angel…The Brit partner has the situation well in phlegmatic hand…"
Lord…Angel sighed as he went out…Catching just the start of Will's pleasant chat with Ms. Anderson before the door closed again…
I'll just claim Angelus took over for a micro-second when Charlie and Lyri come after me…
Now…William thought…It's not that I didn't expect this to end up at my digs or hers…He glanced about his living room where Ms. Anderson sat rather over-comfortably on his rather expensive white sofa…Smiling at him as she wiggled her now shoeless feet…
Nor that I didn't expect to be makin' full use of my rather nice amenities…He inclined ear to listen to the soft, mellow jazz playing through his excellent home theatre system…And eyed the darkened lights and the silver tray on which lay a bottle of fine old bourbon and two glasses…
Just didn't expect it to end with her not stalkin' out…But rather seeming, if anything, inclined to push things along…
Of course in Spikean times…Pretty much the norm, adding the hideous suffering and death at the end…But as restored soul William…One woman (at least in spirit) Unman William…Rather rare…
In fact, rather non-existent…
Interesting…If a bit worrisome…The past three visits had shown Ms. Anderson to be a very capable reporter…He carefully reflected on the last two hours…
Had he given anything away?...
Nah, not a thing…After all they'd spent the first hour touring the office with a nervous Illyria and Charlie at their tail, summoned hastily by Angel's call…Until she'd suggested it might be useful for the mysterious Mr. Walthrop…A source of such fascination to her readers since his emergence on both the corporate and social scenes…To show his home off and let the public see how this incredibly fast-moving, dynamic young exec lived…
And she'd been so interested in Will Jr…Seemed rather startled by him in fact…Or at least by the fact that the lad stayed strictly in the hands of his dynamic young exec/social whirl of a dad…The boy's existence being a biographical fact in the public record…And not in the care of nanny/governess in some fancy version of a one-kid orphanage…
"It's just so unusual for a man like you to not only raise a child alone…In your own home…But to have adopted him…" Ms. Anderson had noted…
"He was the offspring of dear friends now deceased…" Will had replied… "But I can't go into that…A bit too much to dwell on…Hopin' you understand…"
No…Couldn't be anything dangerous there…He'd given nothing away…
Utter phlegmatic…Truly Brit…
Though…She was movin' a bit fast for a new acquaintance…
Though on the other hand…His last date of sorts having been a nervous dinner with Illyria urged by their "friends"…At which conclusion both had eagerly agreed previous claimants still retained too much of a foothood for the moment for things to progress just now…And before that a brief romp with poor Harmony…Pre-soul recovery…Making her angry, bitter Harmony at least for the first few months…He honestly wasn't quite sure if a normal date might actually progress so quickly…
His memories of Spike not providing much in the way of argument, Spike having been rather quick to get to the point once the lady had accepted the initial advances…
And as for human William…Sigh…
No help there at all…
Though…At times a stray memory did suggest he'd not been totally inexperienced even as poor Will the Bloody Awful…
In fact, a rather troubling stray memory or series of such had been persistently bothering him for some time now…
But…Matters at hand…He eyed the smiling Ms. Anderson who'd so efficiently papered over his obvious slight awkwardness to make herself firmly at home…In his home…
Indeed, he'd not even known the lights could dim like that…
"So…William…Sit back down and tell me all about how you got to be the hottest young lawyer in LA…" Ms. Anderson, cooing a bit at the end…
Well…
Phone rang, mercifully…
"Is that Mr. Angel?...Again?..." she asked…
"Very sorry…Yes, Angel?…Yes…Fine…" he smiled at Ms. Anderson, who leaned back, smiling…
"In fact excellent…Anything else?..."
"What?..." he gripped the phone…
"When…?"
"All right, I'll be over shortly…" he hung up…
"Anything wrong?..." Ms. Anderson eyed him…
"An old friend had an accident…I'm afraid we'll have to resume our talk another time…I've someone coming over to stay with Will…"
"I'm sorry…" she nodded sympathetically… "I hope it's nothing serious…?"
Yeah…I wouldn't want her dead too quick…Warren thought, smiling at William…
***
"The Girl of Your Dreams…"
Archived at the Buffy Rebecca verse, . .
Disclaimer: All BTVS characters remain the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series...
Summary: Another unholy alliance of Amy and Warren Mears creates another doorway for Buffy's demon Anne to escape Hell…Unfortunately…They miscalculated slightly…
"*$H$!ing, stinkin' human?"
But our Annie will find her way…
Part II…
"So…?" Amy regarded her partner…Still sitting in the booth with her…Though quiet for the last two hours, much to the restrained annoyance of Fred at the bar…Though the amount Amy had tipped him for her coffee and Warren's meal had inclined him to keep his annoyance so restrained…
"Field test 10…Completely successful…" Warren smiled at her… "But I've got to get out of Spike's place, so hang on…" he went quiet again…
She drummed fingers on the counter…
Well, at least he doesn't seem inclined to follow through on his plan to seduce William the Bloody…We'd either be here all night or I'd have to cart him to his place or mine…
"Ok…" he suddenly spoke again… "Our fair lady is out and heading for her car…I think I can leave her to get home ok…" he grinned…
"I had him goin'…Showin' interest in the brat really had him eatin' out of my hand…Is it really that easy?..."
"Oh, yeah…" Amy said dryly… "In fact it's usually easier…"
"You better restore the soul tonight…We don't want Ms. Anderson to be out of circulation for any length of time…"
"I thought you were going to go through with it…" Amy noted… "Was it a bit too much?..."
"Nah…" Warren shrugged… "But something came up…I would say our friends have had a little success with dear ole Summers…"
"What?...Those idiots?..." Amy blinked… "Buffy Summers defeated the First…I thought at best they'd get the sample we needed…"
"Never underestimate the power of human villains, Am…The underworld makes that mistake all the time…"
"What happened?...They didn't…" she paused…
"I doubt it…They had orders not to…But we'd best get in touch with them and get a report…"
Geesh…Oh, don't let her be dead…Amy thought…
Not yet…
The former operations room of Wolfram-Hart Inc…Now a bit reduced…
No longer the network of death-ray and spy satellites…Though two rented telecommunications satellites, Angel liked to point out, still kept them in the global network…And allowed use of the big wall map in real time…Over much of the globe if no longer every corner, instantaneously…
No longer the series of instantaneous reports from agents of Evil in every corner of the globe…Though still a good number on the payroll, happy enough to switch to surveillance for the Light side so long as the paycheck remained steady…Though if anything their tendency to exaggerate the importance and the veracity and accuracy of their reports had grown without the threateningly restraining hand of the Senior Partners to keep their imaginations in check…
Still, a valuable asset, Angel liked to point out…Keeping them a global player…And in some cases, talented agents, kept down by the Evil glass ceiling, had blossomed under the new regime…
Ok, a very small blossoming…But still, Angel liked to point out…A sign for the future…
"So we have piddling little from either our satellites or our people…If we could trust in what little we're getting…" William noted to his fellow partners, supplemented by Angel's son and, holding Will Jr in her lap, Angel's fiancée, the lovely Nina… "Do we know anything at all…?"
Ummn…Well…Angel sighed…
"Not much…Giles called to say Buffy'd been attacked in a location he couldn't identify…"
"So much for the trust he places in us…I thought we were workin' together?..." Will frowned…
"We don't tell him everything; he doesn't tell us everything…It's for the best, Will…" Angel noted… "The Black Thorn and Partners had spies in the Council and could have learned all about our plans months ahead of time…Our people aren't exactly known for selfless loyalty to the Light…"
"But we have people monitoring…" Will eyed him…
"We do…At the Council and at every major Slayer training facility…With and in a few cases not specifically with, Chairman Giles' consent…"
"And?..."
"She was in a guarded location where we don't have agents…"
"So…We know nothing…" Will rose from his seat…Pacing…
Illyria, Gunn, Nina eyeing him…
Harmony frowning in her seat…
Always back to Buffy Summers…
"We know she was attacked by what seem to have been human thugs…Possibly ordinary criminals…She was wounded…She's alive…" Angel, patiently…Worried look to Nina…
"Buffy Summers, mugging victim…I can go now, I've seen everything…" William, bitterly…He paused…
"Where was her back-up, damnit…I thought Giles was doing everything he could to protect her from glory seeking demons and the rest…Wasn't the whole thing with the Immortal so much crap for cover?..."
"So he told us…" Angel nodded… "But I don't have much more information than that…And…" he sighed…
"That Giles would like you to come…" wan smile…
"Big of him…What would be the damned point?..." William glared…
"Because she needs a reason besides Dawn to care whether she lives or dies, Mr. Walthrop…"
William looked up to see the slight figure of Andrew Wells, trademark wild hair but in suit, flanked by four Slayers, two local LA lasses he recognized from the great Slayer charge that had saved the day…Night…At the LA battle…
"All right…" Warren sat at Amy's computer…Her small house in New Sunnydale being a considerably better temporary center of operations than his own grubby motel…And it being important to his thinking not to carryout any surveillance or other telecommunications activity from his lab complex in an old warehouse near the edge of town…Someone on the Net from home stumbling into Watcher or Wolfram-Hart communications, etc…Not entirely impausible and probably not worth more than a quick check…Someone in an abandoned warehouse, recently renovated doing the same…A bit of a sore thumb…
"…Lets consider where we stand…" he tried to spin the chair around to face Amy as she brought over a couple of beers and some salad…It jammed and he struggled until she set down the stuff and helped him turn a bit…
Thanks… Note, bring a new chair from the lab…He frowningly noted to himself…
"Fine…" Amy sat down on the couch next to the desk where he sat…Regarding him a bit sardonically…
Still…He was all she had…Her last hope of getting back at Summers and her crew…
"Field testing of our soul removal system and mental control transmission has worked perfectly…Not even Angel or Spike could detect the lack of a soul in our subjects and the memory integration even at a distance worked beautifully…Thanks to your spell…" he nodded her way… "I had complete access to memory and after the first glitchy tests in subjects one and two…"
Both pictured the now insane subjects one and two…A young prostitute and a middle-aged postman…Well, at least to all extents and purposes, insane…Lacking souls and now subject to any wandering spirit temporarily taking possession…
Well, these things happen in Science…Warren hastily noted… And it's not like their lives were going anywhere special…
Besides, the souls are probably having a ball in Heaven now…All things considered, we did them a favor…
"Even Ms. Anderson's friends and family accepted her…Though some of that was the hardest part…" he frowned… "Running her with that creepy father of hers and that psycho brother…How'd she ever become an ace reporter with a family like that…?"
"She seemed a happy person, basically…" Amy noted…A tad wistfully…
For a mo, when I was running her on that second test…I could've been happy to stay with her…Let Amy and her miserable…Heck her no-life…Amy not really existing anymore anyway…Not since Daddy agreed I was dead, signing me off without even a question…Go…
"Well, except for maybe a few odd memories and a mild headache, she's back to that happy existence with the incestuous father and the brother who'd love to cut everyone's throat…But now, assuming all recordings show it really went well, we move to the next phase…We've proven we can run a human body with an ersatz soul and utilize its memories without demonic occupation…And undetectably…More or less…Though I coulda wished that jerk Angel hadn't blown everything with Wolfram-Hart…It would've have been a much tougher test with their monitoring…" he sighed… "But, I doubt the Council of Watchers has much in the way of advanced wireless biometric monitoring…And even if they do…"
"They do have good occult types…"Amy noted…
"We'll get past 'em…Besides…Once our girl is up and running, she won't need control transmissions…And your spell and my body will mask her…Until she's ready to join with us…The perfect anti-Slayer…And anti-Summers…And then it won't matter…" he grinned…
"Worth…Almost…All the misery I went through all this time hiding out after clone boy bought it…" he eyed Amy…
"Though this won't just be a revenge…For both of us…" he hastily noted to her slight smile…
Thanks for remembering I'm involved…She thought, wryly…
"This is gonna be an artistic creation…Something that will even surpass my poor Buffybot…The ultimate match for Buffy Summers…And the perfect rival…Run by her own darkest side…"
"Who might very well decide to dispense with our help…" Amy noted, carefully…
"We're taking the steps to see that she understands she'll need us…And the failsafes to protect us if she chooses to ignore her best interests…." he shrugged… "But she'll act in her own best interests…I've watched Summers for years…There's a part of her that's as ego-driven…Selfish…Vicious… Cruel…Sadistic…Jealous… She can play holier than anybody but… As any one of us who've fought her knows…It's in there…She knows it, too…"
"So you're the expert on all things Summers…"
"I've learned to be…Had to…" Warren said, grimly… "I don't deny St. Elizabeth the soul her halo, but she's got a demon in her like the rest of us…And thanks to the Slayer, it bubbles up quite frequently…"
He smiled at Amy's stare… "You think I'm talking out of my hat…That it's just sour grapes…Well…" he shrugged… "I've hated her a while, so I've studied her equally long…She took the only girl who ever cared for me away…Showed her my worst side…Turned me into what I am…A killer…Kat would never have died if it weren't for her…She took everything from me while mouthing crap…The same sort of crap she mouthed to her boyfriends…But talk is cheap...As you know all too well, kiddo…She could have had compassion for me…Helped me…Helped others…But it's always easy for her to mouth the words while she kills you…"
"But she's no better…She enjoys the hunt and the kills as much as any vamp or demon…When did she ever help a trapped soul like Spike or that other, Drusilla or the guy she used to run with, Angel?...The power went to her head a long time ago and she can't find it in her heart to have mercy on them or on a little nerd who just wanted to have a girlfriend…Hell, she's had the means to help vamps for years and never bothered…What a piece of work…She and her Council…They have a curse that could free every vamp…Spike decides one day to pick up a soul and bang…Don't tell me about her noble soul…It's no wonder the First loved playing her…That hypocrite soul is the worst of all…"
"We aren't exactly on a mission from God, Warren…" Amy noted…
"No…We are what we are…And honest about it…Out for ourselves and revenge…While she and her friends claim to care…And her compassionate Willow leaves you for years while she enjoys having power…Yeah, they're better than us, sure…And Summers abandons Spike…And all the others to suffer…Well, let her see how she likes seeing her other half in charge of her very own Buffy…An honest Buffy…One who'll show them all what she really is…"
"It's a half-truth at best, Warren…" Amy calmly noted… "Lets not go overboard and pretend Right's on our side…"
"Isn't it?...Well…Half's enough…It's tearing at her already, has been for years…She knows she's losing her humanity…And the Slayer's winning…And that is the key, Amy…That's what will destroy her…Is destroying her slow even now…"
"Like all of us, she's her own worst enemy…Somewhere inside…"
"Jealous, you said?…Of her friends…?" Amy asked…
"In a general way, sure…Of anyone who crowds her out of that spotlight…The Chosen One, never to be seen with anything but poorly supporting cast…Or better yet, comic relief…But in a specific way, too…" he tapped finger to his nose…
"Ah, Love…Ain't it grand?...Especially when you keeping killing and betraying the object of your affections…" he chuckled… "Think of the rage that must build up…The self-loathing…"
"Love?..."
"Love, our ultimate weapon…"
"And here I was thinking I was on the Evil side with Hate the big bang…"
He smiled…Amy, darling…