Rating: PG
Feedback: That would be very nice, thank you. Melpomenethalia@aol.com
Spoilers: Up to "The Gift"
Distribution: Here. If you're interested, please let me know.
Summary: My take on what happened to Buffy after diving into the portal.
Disclaimer: All characters are owned by Mutant Enemy (Joss Whedon), a wonderfully creative company whose characters I have borrowed for a completely profit-free flight of fancy. Kindly do not sue me, please, as I am terrified of you. Thank you.
Part 5
Buffy nodded in reply. "I haven't crossed over completely is what Kendra said. Is it for the same reason you and the others are here?"
"Not exactly. Bother, this is all rather complex. You haven't studied Plato by any chance, have you?" he asked hopefully.
"No, sorry," she apologize, wondering if even in the afterlife she was going to get in trouble for not paying attention in Philosophy class.
"He's not the most thrilling writer, anyway," William said to her kindly. He took a deep breath and dragged his fingers through his longish brown hair in frustration as he tried to think of a simple way to explain interdimensional dynamics. Inspiration struck him so quickly, he actually leaped to his feet.
"Taffy!"
"Taffy? Who's he? I don't think I've read anything he's written either," Buffy said, wondering if he was going explode in excitement.
"No, no. The candy! Please, pardon my outburst. You've eaten taffy, haven't you?" he said as he sat down next to her again.
"Well, yeah. I guess so," Buffy said, wondering if he'd gone insane.
"Well, the soul is actually a lot like taffy. When you're living your mortal life, it's like the taffy is still in its wrapper. The wrapper is what everyone sees," he said, unconsciously clasping her hand in his as he spoke, "just like when you're alive, what you see is the physical, mortal substance of life."
"Okay, I think I've got you so far," the Slayer said as she began to roll the idea around in her mind.
"The thing is, what actually makes you who you are is the soul inside: the taffy, if you will. If you were to go into a store and buy a pound of candy and all you got was a pound of packaging, you'd think yourself cheated."
"Sure. I wouldn't really be getting anything," she agreed.
"On the other hand, if the confectioner plopped a pound of taffy into your hand without any wrapper at all, that wouldn't be any good either," he continued, his eyes lighting up happily as he saw she was beginning to understand.
"No. That would just be weird."
"That's how it works in the physical world, as well. People can't just be souls bouncing around down there. Hence, they have bodies," he explained triumphantly.
"Okay. So, body dies, it's like the wrapper gets yanked off the taffy?" Buffy ventured carefully.
"Precisely!"
"And the taffy gets eaten?" she asked, slightly horrified.
"Well, no, the parallel rather breaks down there." William deflated a bit at this. "The taffy usually either winds up someplace quite wonderful or someplace highly unpleasant."
"But we didn't." The blonde chewed her lip thoughtfully. "I mean, Limbo's pretty and all, and I'm really, really happy I didn't wind up you-know-where, but, come on, I jumped through a portal to my death in order to save the entire known universe. I'd kinda think that was a Get Into Heaven Free card. And you and Dru seem nice enough."
He noticed that she left Darla completely out of the equation, but he said nothing about it.
"Well, in the case of someone who dies through siring, there's a bit of a glitch, if you will. The wrapper isn't merely thrown away but gets filled with something else, something that makes it look like the taffy is still in there when in fact…" William began.
"It's not," Buffy finished.
"Yes and no," he said, surprising her.
"But vampires don't have a soul. Except for Angel, of course. Giles has said so more times than I can remember."
"When a demon takes over a vampire's body, it's a little like the taffy has been left out in the sun all day. When it's opened, most of it comes away from the paper, but a bit of it gets, for lack of a better word, gummed up in the wrapper and sticks there," the blue-eyed man said sadly, a far off look in his eyes.
"You're telling me vampires have souls in there? Oh my God. No wonder I'm in Limbo." Her eyes filled with horrified tears at the idea. "Dracula is right; I really am nothing but a killer."
"No, no, dear heart! It's not like that at all," he exclaimed gently as he grasped her hand. "What you're doing is getting rid of the demon that's holding that completely helpless piece of a soul prisoner and allowing it to rejoin the rest of itself in Limbo so it can go to its final home. You can hardly have any idea how happy they are to move on. After only a short time here, you're anxious to leave. Poor old Bertie was stuck here for about five hundred years before he got to go home, and it was you who sent him there. I've never seen a spirit look happier."
"Bertie?"
"His vampire called himself the Master," William said dismissively.
Buffy stared at the man as though he'd gone out of his mind. "His name was Bertie?"
"Not too fear-inspiring, is it? Probably why he never used it." He gave her a smile that lit up his entire face, and, in spite of herself, Buffy couldn't help noticing that, dead or not, William was pretty easy on the eyes. She blushed slightly as she realized he still held her hand, and she rapidly drew it away as she fumbled for another question.
"Why does part of the soul stay behind when there's a demon in there?"
William hadn't missed her momentary distress and, being the Victorian he was, he immediately started to internally berate himself for encroaching upon her personal space too much. "We're not exactly sure. It seems to have something to do with the soul knowing the body is still walking around and part of it thinking it has to be in there. Of course, more or less taffy can be left on the wrapper, if you understand."
"Not really."
"Some vampires have more of a remnant of a soul in them than others do. We're not certain why, but in a few cases, the demon in the vampire can be influenced by the soul. Not controlled, precisely, but swayed, at times. That's where Drusilla and Darla are now," he said, gesturing vaguely towards the floor.
"Huh?" It wasn't the most intelligent reply, but it summed up her confusion quite nicely.
"In addition to being able to create our own surroundings, we can also return at will to earth. Our influence is rather limited, but we do what we can when we see an opening. If you like, we can go see them. It may help you understand better," he suggested.
Buffy thought about this for a moment. Who knew what kind of disgusting things the vampire half of Dru and Darla might be doing at that moment. Still, it did sound interesting.
"Okay, I'm willing to give it a shot."
No sooner were the words out of her mouth than she found herself in the last place she expected.