Part 10: Buffy
#
"Talk to me," I tell whoever it is inside my head.
About time you started paying attention to me, girlfriend!
I have heard this voice in my head from the moment I woke up after the explosion. At first it was just a whispering somewhere in the back of my head, like background noise. I thought I had a headache and it was just the buzzing.
Then the voice started getting clearer, no longer a noise, but words. Sentences. A voice talking to me, no matter how hard I try to ignore it.
Okay, so either I'm mad - and I'm speaking padded-wall-type mad here - or there really is someone in my head. Right now I'm actually leaning toward the second alternative, though I'm not sure it's the one I'd prefer.
We are standing in a cavern below what once was Sunnydale High School. I spent three years of my childhood up there, right above a nexus of mystical energy. It nearly opened twice and both times the world came pretty close to ending. I died the first time I came down here, drowned, and was brought back just in time to save the world for what proved to be just the first time.
This is different somehow.
"Amazing," Giles says by my side. Angel just stares, his face unreadable as always. Faith is making a joke, I think. Or maybe the attempt at a joke, I'm not really listening. Too busy staring myself.
This was once a church. Buried in a big quake sometime in the 30s, along with a Vampire called the Master. He remained stuck down here, bound to the Hellmouth, until the day he killed me and got free. Then I killed him. Complicated, I know.
The church is gone. In its place is something else.
It's called a pan-dimensional energy converter, my mystery voice says. Maybe we should call it PaDEC for short, what do you think?
Pan-dimensional ... whatever. It fills the cavern to capacity. Someone did some excavating here, that much is for sure. It wasn't this big a place the last time I came to visit. Now it's big, as in very big. Big enough to house the technological monstrosity I'm looking at.
"It ... it seems to be some kind of generator," Giles says, carefully moving closer.
"Pan-dimensional energy converter," I say without wanting to. Everyone is looking at me again. That weird look that people get when you say something strange and they try to figure out whether you are mad or they just didn't pay enough attention.
Now I know how Anya must feel all the time.
Angel comes over and gives me a look. Angel-look, I guess. The one that says this is no time for jokes or evasions.
"Buffy! How do you know all this?"
I swallow, trying to think of a way to explain something I don't understand myself.
Just tell them about me already, the voice says. And stop thinking about me as 'The Voice', okay? Even though it does sound kinda cool. If you think of it with capitals, that is.
"There is ... I am hearing a voice inside my head," I tell the others. "Have heard it ever since I woke up. At first I thought I was going mad, but now..."
"Now?" Giles asks, inquiring further.
"It ... it led me here. Told me which corridor to choose. It also told me that a military outfit called the Initiative built this place. And this," I gesture toward the techno thing, "is where they got their power from."
Everyone is looking at the thing again. Pan-dimensional energy converter. Guess it would make sense to some super-scientist guys. I, for my part, ...
It siphons the energies emanating from the various dimensions that are converging in this place. Some of the lower demonic planes give off energy like a nuclear reactor on crack. Only thing they have to do is plant this thing right on top and it sucks up the energy like nobody's business.
Super-scientist guy that talks like ... well, like me. I'm really getting tired of this.
"Who the hell are you?"
Took you long enough to ask that question. I would love to answer it, but it's kind of a long story and if you would be so kind as to swivel your head about ten degrees to the left you will see that we have more immediate problems.
Reluctantly I do as my mystery voice asks. This converter thing is huge, big as a house, all shiny steel and glowing runes. Like something out of the Matrix, only with a touch of Alien, H.P. Lovecraft, and the Death Star thrown in for good measure. It's looks like a cancerous growth, actually, buried in the ground like some kind of techno-parasite.
I can feel it humming with power.
I have no idea how much ten degrees are, really, but suddenly my eyes lock in on something. A part of the machine is not looking all that together. It's looking wide open actually, like something exploded right beneath it. Girders, wiring, technological ... stuff, it's hanging out like innards from an open wound.
Something red and very shiny is leaking out from it.
"Guys, will you look at that!" I direct everyone's attention to the broken spot.
Angel stays hovering at my side, as does Faith. Spike has retreated to a corner, looking pissed at being here. Or maybe at being forced to help us. Who knows? Giles, though, he walks toward this converter thing and takes a closer look.
"It seems damaged. A-and that ... that energy leaking out, is that ..."
"Demonic energy," Angel says, growling underneath his breath. "I am not sure exactly what it is, but ... my demon responds to it."
Only the slightest faltering before he speaks about his demon. He truly has changed. When he was still living in Sunnydale he was always majorly uncomfortable when talking about that thing inside of him.
Has his time away from me truly been good for him?
Don't start the tortured love routine now, okay? This is starting to get annoying. Yeah, love you, too. Now can we start dealing with the important things?
"What is that stuff?" I ask my know-it-all voice.
Angel's got it right, of course. Scientist geeks built this thing, but they underestimated the kinds of power they would have to channel here. When they cranked it up all the way to power the 314 experiment ...
"What experiment?" I ask her.
... they blew a fuse, the voice continues as if it didn't hear me. Come to think of it, it doesn't sound like an 'it'. More like a she, actually. That's what caused the explosion, I'd wager. Walsh bit off a little more than she could chew.
"Walsh? As in Maggy Walsh? My psych professor?"
The others are staring at me again. I guess it has to sound rather strange, hearing but one side of this conversation. Hell, I'm hearing both sides and it's still strange. Lots.
Walsh! As in Professor Margaret Walsh, biggest brain the government has. Or had. Biggest ego, too. Never did understand why someone like her doubled up as a psych TA. Must be something to that whole secret identity gig that I'm just not getting.
My head is spinning. This is just too much. There is some kind of generator sitting on top of the Hellmouth, broken now, and my psych prof apparently built it. This is just too much.
I haven't even gotten to the good parts yet.
"Oh, don't let me keep you from telling," I reply. I'm getting sarcastic with someone who is talking in my head. Qualified for nuthouse yet?
Getting there. But the good parts are actually that this thing is going to continue leaking demonic energy. The funny thing is that smart Maggy Walsh, by siphoning the energy from this thing, has actually opened it a bit. The converter has pried it open and now it is the only thing containing it. But, seeing as it's broke, it won't do the job much longer. And then, presto! The demonic equivalent of Tschernobyl. How does that sound for good parts?
I'm too stumped to even think a good comeback line for that.
"Guys, we have a problem," I tell the others.
After relaying what my little voice said Giles is pale, Angel stoic, and Faith looks uncomprehending. Spike whistles some kind of merry tune.
"We, we have to fix it," Giles says, looking very confident as he says it. Not.
"Sure," Faith says. "We'll fix this super-science futurama thingie. No problem."
"We have to do something." Angel turns to look at me again. "Buffy, that voice you are hearing, does it know how to repair this machine?"
Sorry, it says. I should come up with some kind of name, I guess. Especially since it sounds awfully female. Maybe I should really start thinking of it as 'her'. I'm not a pan-dimensional plumber, you know? Not really.
"No go," I tell the others.
"Great," Faith says. "Now what?"
Of course you could try hitting the button labeled 'Emergency Shutdown' on that control panel over there!
Again, too stumped.
TO BE CONTINUED
#
"Talk to me," I tell whoever it is inside my head.
About time you started paying attention to me, girlfriend!
I have heard this voice in my head from the moment I woke up after the explosion. At first it was just a whispering somewhere in the back of my head, like background noise. I thought I had a headache and it was just the buzzing.
Then the voice started getting clearer, no longer a noise, but words. Sentences. A voice talking to me, no matter how hard I try to ignore it.
Okay, so either I'm mad - and I'm speaking padded-wall-type mad here - or there really is someone in my head. Right now I'm actually leaning toward the second alternative, though I'm not sure it's the one I'd prefer.
We are standing in a cavern below what once was Sunnydale High School. I spent three years of my childhood up there, right above a nexus of mystical energy. It nearly opened twice and both times the world came pretty close to ending. I died the first time I came down here, drowned, and was brought back just in time to save the world for what proved to be just the first time.
This is different somehow.
"Amazing," Giles says by my side. Angel just stares, his face unreadable as always. Faith is making a joke, I think. Or maybe the attempt at a joke, I'm not really listening. Too busy staring myself.
This was once a church. Buried in a big quake sometime in the 30s, along with a Vampire called the Master. He remained stuck down here, bound to the Hellmouth, until the day he killed me and got free. Then I killed him. Complicated, I know.
The church is gone. In its place is something else.
It's called a pan-dimensional energy converter, my mystery voice says. Maybe we should call it PaDEC for short, what do you think?
Pan-dimensional ... whatever. It fills the cavern to capacity. Someone did some excavating here, that much is for sure. It wasn't this big a place the last time I came to visit. Now it's big, as in very big. Big enough to house the technological monstrosity I'm looking at.
"It ... it seems to be some kind of generator," Giles says, carefully moving closer.
"Pan-dimensional energy converter," I say without wanting to. Everyone is looking at me again. That weird look that people get when you say something strange and they try to figure out whether you are mad or they just didn't pay enough attention.
Now I know how Anya must feel all the time.
Angel comes over and gives me a look. Angel-look, I guess. The one that says this is no time for jokes or evasions.
"Buffy! How do you know all this?"
I swallow, trying to think of a way to explain something I don't understand myself.
Just tell them about me already, the voice says. And stop thinking about me as 'The Voice', okay? Even though it does sound kinda cool. If you think of it with capitals, that is.
"There is ... I am hearing a voice inside my head," I tell the others. "Have heard it ever since I woke up. At first I thought I was going mad, but now..."
"Now?" Giles asks, inquiring further.
"It ... it led me here. Told me which corridor to choose. It also told me that a military outfit called the Initiative built this place. And this," I gesture toward the techno thing, "is where they got their power from."
Everyone is looking at the thing again. Pan-dimensional energy converter. Guess it would make sense to some super-scientist guys. I, for my part, ...
It siphons the energies emanating from the various dimensions that are converging in this place. Some of the lower demonic planes give off energy like a nuclear reactor on crack. Only thing they have to do is plant this thing right on top and it sucks up the energy like nobody's business.
Super-scientist guy that talks like ... well, like me. I'm really getting tired of this.
"Who the hell are you?"
Took you long enough to ask that question. I would love to answer it, but it's kind of a long story and if you would be so kind as to swivel your head about ten degrees to the left you will see that we have more immediate problems.
Reluctantly I do as my mystery voice asks. This converter thing is huge, big as a house, all shiny steel and glowing runes. Like something out of the Matrix, only with a touch of Alien, H.P. Lovecraft, and the Death Star thrown in for good measure. It's looks like a cancerous growth, actually, buried in the ground like some kind of techno-parasite.
I can feel it humming with power.
I have no idea how much ten degrees are, really, but suddenly my eyes lock in on something. A part of the machine is not looking all that together. It's looking wide open actually, like something exploded right beneath it. Girders, wiring, technological ... stuff, it's hanging out like innards from an open wound.
Something red and very shiny is leaking out from it.
"Guys, will you look at that!" I direct everyone's attention to the broken spot.
Angel stays hovering at my side, as does Faith. Spike has retreated to a corner, looking pissed at being here. Or maybe at being forced to help us. Who knows? Giles, though, he walks toward this converter thing and takes a closer look.
"It seems damaged. A-and that ... that energy leaking out, is that ..."
"Demonic energy," Angel says, growling underneath his breath. "I am not sure exactly what it is, but ... my demon responds to it."
Only the slightest faltering before he speaks about his demon. He truly has changed. When he was still living in Sunnydale he was always majorly uncomfortable when talking about that thing inside of him.
Has his time away from me truly been good for him?
Don't start the tortured love routine now, okay? This is starting to get annoying. Yeah, love you, too. Now can we start dealing with the important things?
"What is that stuff?" I ask my know-it-all voice.
Angel's got it right, of course. Scientist geeks built this thing, but they underestimated the kinds of power they would have to channel here. When they cranked it up all the way to power the 314 experiment ...
"What experiment?" I ask her.
... they blew a fuse, the voice continues as if it didn't hear me. Come to think of it, it doesn't sound like an 'it'. More like a she, actually. That's what caused the explosion, I'd wager. Walsh bit off a little more than she could chew.
"Walsh? As in Maggy Walsh? My psych professor?"
The others are staring at me again. I guess it has to sound rather strange, hearing but one side of this conversation. Hell, I'm hearing both sides and it's still strange. Lots.
Walsh! As in Professor Margaret Walsh, biggest brain the government has. Or had. Biggest ego, too. Never did understand why someone like her doubled up as a psych TA. Must be something to that whole secret identity gig that I'm just not getting.
My head is spinning. This is just too much. There is some kind of generator sitting on top of the Hellmouth, broken now, and my psych prof apparently built it. This is just too much.
I haven't even gotten to the good parts yet.
"Oh, don't let me keep you from telling," I reply. I'm getting sarcastic with someone who is talking in my head. Qualified for nuthouse yet?
Getting there. But the good parts are actually that this thing is going to continue leaking demonic energy. The funny thing is that smart Maggy Walsh, by siphoning the energy from this thing, has actually opened it a bit. The converter has pried it open and now it is the only thing containing it. But, seeing as it's broke, it won't do the job much longer. And then, presto! The demonic equivalent of Tschernobyl. How does that sound for good parts?
I'm too stumped to even think a good comeback line for that.
"Guys, we have a problem," I tell the others.
After relaying what my little voice said Giles is pale, Angel stoic, and Faith looks uncomprehending. Spike whistles some kind of merry tune.
"We, we have to fix it," Giles says, looking very confident as he says it. Not.
"Sure," Faith says. "We'll fix this super-science futurama thingie. No problem."
"We have to do something." Angel turns to look at me again. "Buffy, that voice you are hearing, does it know how to repair this machine?"
Sorry, it says. I should come up with some kind of name, I guess. Especially since it sounds awfully female. Maybe I should really start thinking of it as 'her'. I'm not a pan-dimensional plumber, you know? Not really.
"No go," I tell the others.
"Great," Faith says. "Now what?"
Of course you could try hitting the button labeled 'Emergency Shutdown' on that control panel over there!
Again, too stumped.
TO BE CONTINUED