Part 2
#
Watch your back, Anne's voice called out in Buffy's head and she immediately twisted around and threw a high kick at the Vampire that had come up behind her. She hadn't noticed him, but nothing much escaped her mental roommate, it seemed.
Two more kicks and a stake to the heart finished off the last of the Vampire gang she had been fighting and Buffy remained still for a moment, listening for signs of more opponents.
The area around us is clear. Anne announced confidently. No more bloodsuckers for at least 500 meters.
"What's that in yards?" Buffy asked. "And why did they have to program you with the metric system anyway?"
Because it makes more sense than those antique Imperial measurements? Anne asked, amused.
Buffy chuckled. Just two weeks and there were times when she was almost used to the presence of the artificial intelligence inside her head. It helped that Anne, as Buffy called her, was a more or less identical duplicate of Buffy's own mind. The AI had taken her as a blueprint and so they got along quite well for the most part.
A lot of times she still creeped Buffy out, though.
All this is new for me as well, remember? Anne said. I was born just two weeks ago, after all.
"Yeah, I know. Sorry, but I'm afraid I'll need a lot more weeks until I'm comfortable with this."
It went unspoken that Buffy secretly hoped for some way to separate them. Willow was busy looking for a spell that might extract Anne from her head, but this was complicated by the matter of where to put Anne after that. Buffy didn't want her to die, after all. It would be like sending her own sister to death.
"Think we should do another sweep?" Buffy asked as she casually strolled out of the cemetery.
I think we put the fear of God in the Vamps for tonight. You staked seven of them. That a personal record?
"No, but close. Busy nights as of late."
Buffy briefly wondered what someone watching her might think of her right now. Talking to herself was considered a sign of insanity, wasn't it? Too bad no one but her could hear Anne. Buffy didn't need to speak out loud in order for Anne to hear her, of course, but conversing someone by just thinking things without speaking them was an art that needed practice.
She wondered if she'd ever get used to it.
Knowing Buffy's thoughts, Anne also knew that Buffy was frustrated in more ways than one. Just two weeks had passed since she had almost died. Two weeks since she had been betrayed by someone she had considered a friend, maybe even a possible lover. Two weeks since the love of her life, Angel, had come back to Sunnydale to help her, only to take off again once the trouble was over.
On top of that she now had to share her head with a separate personality. Anne wasn't much surprised that Buffy was on edge. Still worse, they hadn't been able to go down into the remains of the Initiative base again since the night they had shut down Walsh's little hell machine. The site was constantly swarming with people. FEMA, by the letters on their jackets, but Anne suspected they were really military, here to clean up their mess.
Which was fine with her, of course. It wouldn't do for Buffy to find out the truth about what had happened to her down in the Initiative lab too quickly, after all.
#
Rupert Giles had been a worried man these last two weeks. It had begun with those long, painful hours in which he had feared that his Slayer, his daughter in all but flesh, had died. Died in a fiery explosion that had leveled half of Sunnydale university campus.
Buffy was not dead, thank God, but neither was she the same girl she had been before. The presence of the mysterious 'Anne' inside her head was only the most obvious change in her since that incident.
Unlike all the others, except maybe Angel, he had not been blind with joy at finding Buffy alive and seemingly well. There were a lot of things that didn't add up.
First of all, if Buffy had been right in the center of that gigantic explosion, why hadn't she suffered even a single scratch? Giles had seen the fireball from halfway across town and yet Buffy hadn't even been singed.
Another matter was Anne's very selective knowledge of the events inside the Initiative. She knew of the presence of that energy converter, as well as what Walsh had attempted to create down there, yet she professed to know nothing more about what else Walsh might have been up to or what possible dangers might yet lurk within the Initiative wreckage. Nor could she say how it was that Buffy was completely unharmed.
Giles knew that Angel was currently in the process of finding out more about the Initiative. Giles was glad that they had the assistance of the souled Vampire, no matter what personal dislike he might still harbor for the creature whose evil twin had killed the woman he had loved. Angel was a good man and wouldn't rest until he found out more.
As for Giles, he hadn't found out much on his own so far. On top of that, a third matter of worry had just presented herself on his doorstep.
"Thank you for the tea, Mr. Giles," Rose McNamara said, sitting down on Giles' couch.
The Watcher was a woman in her late thirties, Giles estimated, with long red hair and prominent cheekbones. Her eyes were a little too hard to make her face really beautiful, but, dressed as she was in a simple gray pants suit, the cup of tea cradled elegantly in her long-fingered hands, she made quite the picture on his couch, Giles had to admit.
"I hope you won't mind, Miss McNamara, if we skip the pleasantries. I doubt you came here to drink tea with a former member of the Watchers' Council."
Rose sipped from her tea and regarded Giles with her hard, green eyes.
"That was not the reason for my coming, no." She placed the tea cup on the couch table. "It is quite a serious matter, to be precise. Serious enough that I am asking for your help."
Giles raised an eyebrow.
"My help? Does the Council know about this?"
"They do," Rose said. "They authorized me to make contact with you. It concerns the Slayers, as you no doubt guessed, and seeing as Buffy Summers would probably not be very open to a member of the Council after what happened a few months ago, I decided to speak to you first."
"What is this matter?" Giles asked, sitting down across from her.
"The Council's Seers registered the Slayer's demise."
Giles just stared at her for a long moment, his face unmoving.
"It happened about two weeks ago," Rose continued when it became obvious that Giles would not speak first. "It took us some time to make certain, that is why I am this late."
She looked at him. "Judging by your lack of reaction I assume it is not Buffy Summers who has died?"
Giles shook his head. "She is alive. I saw her just a few hours ago."
Rose sighed. "Well, then one of my questions is already answered. Faith is ..."
"... fine as well," Giles interrupted her. "I last saw her three days ago."
The younger Watcher stopped talking and Giles could see the wheels turning behind her forehead.
"Two weeks ago," Giles continued, "Buffy was caught up in an explosion that did a lot of damage to this city. She ... doesn't quite remember what happened to her."
"Well," Rose said, "it seems history repeated itself then. Buffy has died once before, hasn't she?"
Giles nodded. This was not one of his fondest memories.
"The strange thing, Mr. Giles," Rose said, "is that we have found no signs of a new Slayer being called. The last time Buffy ... died, her return from the dead notwithstanding, Kendra was called as the new Slayer. When Kendra died, without returning, unfortunately, there was also a new Slayer called. Faith."
Giles nodded, understanding her dilemma.
"And you are quite certain about the death signs?" he asked Rose.
"Quite certain, Mr. Giles. One of the Slayers died, we have no doubt about that."
Giles nodded again, trying to think things through rationally. It was quite possible that Buffy had died in that explosion and then been brought back somehow. Maybe by this Anne persona inside her head, maybe simply by her stubbornness. He would put almost nothing past her. And seeing as her replacement had already been called in Kendra, maybe her new death would not necessarily result in a new Slayer.
It made some sense, Giles though, yet at the same time it did not. Not together with everything else he knew. If something had managed to kill Buffy down there, it made the fact of her total lack of injuries that much more incredulous. Not to mention that Anne might just have thought to mention a little fact like Buffy being dead for a while down there if she had really been telling them the whole truth.
Things didn't add up.
Giles didn't like that at all.
TO BE CONTINUED
#
Watch your back, Anne's voice called out in Buffy's head and she immediately twisted around and threw a high kick at the Vampire that had come up behind her. She hadn't noticed him, but nothing much escaped her mental roommate, it seemed.
Two more kicks and a stake to the heart finished off the last of the Vampire gang she had been fighting and Buffy remained still for a moment, listening for signs of more opponents.
The area around us is clear. Anne announced confidently. No more bloodsuckers for at least 500 meters.
"What's that in yards?" Buffy asked. "And why did they have to program you with the metric system anyway?"
Because it makes more sense than those antique Imperial measurements? Anne asked, amused.
Buffy chuckled. Just two weeks and there were times when she was almost used to the presence of the artificial intelligence inside her head. It helped that Anne, as Buffy called her, was a more or less identical duplicate of Buffy's own mind. The AI had taken her as a blueprint and so they got along quite well for the most part.
A lot of times she still creeped Buffy out, though.
All this is new for me as well, remember? Anne said. I was born just two weeks ago, after all.
"Yeah, I know. Sorry, but I'm afraid I'll need a lot more weeks until I'm comfortable with this."
It went unspoken that Buffy secretly hoped for some way to separate them. Willow was busy looking for a spell that might extract Anne from her head, but this was complicated by the matter of where to put Anne after that. Buffy didn't want her to die, after all. It would be like sending her own sister to death.
"Think we should do another sweep?" Buffy asked as she casually strolled out of the cemetery.
I think we put the fear of God in the Vamps for tonight. You staked seven of them. That a personal record?
"No, but close. Busy nights as of late."
Buffy briefly wondered what someone watching her might think of her right now. Talking to herself was considered a sign of insanity, wasn't it? Too bad no one but her could hear Anne. Buffy didn't need to speak out loud in order for Anne to hear her, of course, but conversing someone by just thinking things without speaking them was an art that needed practice.
She wondered if she'd ever get used to it.
Knowing Buffy's thoughts, Anne also knew that Buffy was frustrated in more ways than one. Just two weeks had passed since she had almost died. Two weeks since she had been betrayed by someone she had considered a friend, maybe even a possible lover. Two weeks since the love of her life, Angel, had come back to Sunnydale to help her, only to take off again once the trouble was over.
On top of that she now had to share her head with a separate personality. Anne wasn't much surprised that Buffy was on edge. Still worse, they hadn't been able to go down into the remains of the Initiative base again since the night they had shut down Walsh's little hell machine. The site was constantly swarming with people. FEMA, by the letters on their jackets, but Anne suspected they were really military, here to clean up their mess.
Which was fine with her, of course. It wouldn't do for Buffy to find out the truth about what had happened to her down in the Initiative lab too quickly, after all.
#
Rupert Giles had been a worried man these last two weeks. It had begun with those long, painful hours in which he had feared that his Slayer, his daughter in all but flesh, had died. Died in a fiery explosion that had leveled half of Sunnydale university campus.
Buffy was not dead, thank God, but neither was she the same girl she had been before. The presence of the mysterious 'Anne' inside her head was only the most obvious change in her since that incident.
Unlike all the others, except maybe Angel, he had not been blind with joy at finding Buffy alive and seemingly well. There were a lot of things that didn't add up.
First of all, if Buffy had been right in the center of that gigantic explosion, why hadn't she suffered even a single scratch? Giles had seen the fireball from halfway across town and yet Buffy hadn't even been singed.
Another matter was Anne's very selective knowledge of the events inside the Initiative. She knew of the presence of that energy converter, as well as what Walsh had attempted to create down there, yet she professed to know nothing more about what else Walsh might have been up to or what possible dangers might yet lurk within the Initiative wreckage. Nor could she say how it was that Buffy was completely unharmed.
Giles knew that Angel was currently in the process of finding out more about the Initiative. Giles was glad that they had the assistance of the souled Vampire, no matter what personal dislike he might still harbor for the creature whose evil twin had killed the woman he had loved. Angel was a good man and wouldn't rest until he found out more.
As for Giles, he hadn't found out much on his own so far. On top of that, a third matter of worry had just presented herself on his doorstep.
"Thank you for the tea, Mr. Giles," Rose McNamara said, sitting down on Giles' couch.
The Watcher was a woman in her late thirties, Giles estimated, with long red hair and prominent cheekbones. Her eyes were a little too hard to make her face really beautiful, but, dressed as she was in a simple gray pants suit, the cup of tea cradled elegantly in her long-fingered hands, she made quite the picture on his couch, Giles had to admit.
"I hope you won't mind, Miss McNamara, if we skip the pleasantries. I doubt you came here to drink tea with a former member of the Watchers' Council."
Rose sipped from her tea and regarded Giles with her hard, green eyes.
"That was not the reason for my coming, no." She placed the tea cup on the couch table. "It is quite a serious matter, to be precise. Serious enough that I am asking for your help."
Giles raised an eyebrow.
"My help? Does the Council know about this?"
"They do," Rose said. "They authorized me to make contact with you. It concerns the Slayers, as you no doubt guessed, and seeing as Buffy Summers would probably not be very open to a member of the Council after what happened a few months ago, I decided to speak to you first."
"What is this matter?" Giles asked, sitting down across from her.
"The Council's Seers registered the Slayer's demise."
Giles just stared at her for a long moment, his face unmoving.
"It happened about two weeks ago," Rose continued when it became obvious that Giles would not speak first. "It took us some time to make certain, that is why I am this late."
She looked at him. "Judging by your lack of reaction I assume it is not Buffy Summers who has died?"
Giles shook his head. "She is alive. I saw her just a few hours ago."
Rose sighed. "Well, then one of my questions is already answered. Faith is ..."
"... fine as well," Giles interrupted her. "I last saw her three days ago."
The younger Watcher stopped talking and Giles could see the wheels turning behind her forehead.
"Two weeks ago," Giles continued, "Buffy was caught up in an explosion that did a lot of damage to this city. She ... doesn't quite remember what happened to her."
"Well," Rose said, "it seems history repeated itself then. Buffy has died once before, hasn't she?"
Giles nodded. This was not one of his fondest memories.
"The strange thing, Mr. Giles," Rose said, "is that we have found no signs of a new Slayer being called. The last time Buffy ... died, her return from the dead notwithstanding, Kendra was called as the new Slayer. When Kendra died, without returning, unfortunately, there was also a new Slayer called. Faith."
Giles nodded, understanding her dilemma.
"And you are quite certain about the death signs?" he asked Rose.
"Quite certain, Mr. Giles. One of the Slayers died, we have no doubt about that."
Giles nodded again, trying to think things through rationally. It was quite possible that Buffy had died in that explosion and then been brought back somehow. Maybe by this Anne persona inside her head, maybe simply by her stubbornness. He would put almost nothing past her. And seeing as her replacement had already been called in Kendra, maybe her new death would not necessarily result in a new Slayer.
It made some sense, Giles though, yet at the same time it did not. Not together with everything else he knew. If something had managed to kill Buffy down there, it made the fact of her total lack of injuries that much more incredulous. Not to mention that Anne might just have thought to mention a little fact like Buffy being dead for a while down there if she had really been telling them the whole truth.
Things didn't add up.
Giles didn't like that at all.
TO BE CONTINUED