AUTHOR'S NOTE Again, sorry for the delay! I keep saying that I'll update more frequently, but who are we kidding? I'm just really bad at posting, I guess. So thanks to all of you who put up with me and keep reading!
DISCLAIMER Not mine.
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Chapter Ten: In Which Buffy First Encounters a Transgenic"Hey!" Buffy called, days later. She, Willow, and especially Illyria had to be careful when they left the warehouse, as they were now wanted for questioning about the roof-leaping thing. They usually only went out at night and even then only Buffy and Willow. So far, Illyria didn't seem to mind being cooped up. Buffy and the others only hoped that lasted.
"Hello?" Buffy tried again. "Have something important here?"
"What's up?" Willow said, not looking up from the newspaper she had found on the street.
Newspapers had been a huge help. By reading very, very deep into the stories, the group had managed to piece together the sixteen years they'd missed. Something that everyone called the Pulse had destroyed America's government and economy in 2009. It had fried everything electronic and thrown the country into instant and utter panic. Ten years later, it still hadn't recovered in the slightest.
"This is up." Buffy held up the cover of a tabloid that she's spotted lying in the street.
"Whoa!" Willow dropped the newspaper she was reading and rushed over to look at the page in Buffy's hand.
Spike laughed. "Dog boy. Should make you happy, Red."
Willow rolled her eyes. "Dog boy, not really my type anymore, Spike."
Angel and Spike got up to examine the page as well. "You think this is one of the Manticore creations?" Angel asked.
Buffy looked down at the picture of a snarling dog/man creature under the headline Mutant Attacks Continue. "Are you kidding? This is too tame to be a demon. And it has to have werewolf DNA in it."
"Looks like it." Willow looked around Buffy's hand. "Where's the article?"
Buffy shook her head. "No article. This was all I found."
"Oh." Willow frowned. "Well, it's definitely Manticore. If we had the article, I might be able to find something out, but…"
"Sorry," Buffy said.
Willow shrugged. "Don't worry about it. Just from looking at it, I can identify werewolf at least. Maybe some hell hound also?"
Buffy squinted at the picture. "No. Hell hounds don't actually look like dogs."
Willow nodded. Buffy took one more glance at the clipping before sighing in frustration. Illyria glared at her sharply.
"I tire of this existence," she muttered, gazing around the warehouse with disdain. "There is nothing for me here."
Buffy rolled her eyes, but Willow approached the Old One slowly. "What do you mean?"
"This world, it is full of misery and destruction. But it is not joyful to me. I do not enjoy misery that I have not caused."
"Gee, sorry about that," Buffy said sarcastically. "Next time we bring you along, we'll try to find a world where you can make everyone miserable all you want."
"Buffy," Angel said. "Illyria can't help what she is. She's been helpful to us in the past."
"Yeah, I guess." Buffy glared at the demon, who glared back coldly. "But she hasn't proven herself to me yet."
Angel sighed. Winning Buffy's trust was a difficult thing to do, especially if one was a demon. Buffy opened her mouth as if to say something, then thought better of it and curled up in a corner.
"I'm going to bed."
Spike laughed. "Good luck with that, pet." Buffy just glared and pretended to be fast asleep.
Logan's Apartment
Logan watched Max pace endlessly around his living room. "Max, please," he said. "Please sit down."
"I can't, Logan. I have to do something!"
Logan walked over to her, reaching out to touch her, but pulling his hand back just in time. "Pacing around my living room isn't doing anything to find those girls." God, how he longed to comfort her. "Look. There hasn't been anything on the news about them again. I'm sure they found somewhere safe to hide."
"They're stuck out there hiding somewhere because I let them out."
"You can't blame yourself for that forever."
Max whirled around to face him. "I did let them out! If it wasn't for me, they'd all be safe back at Manticore, being – "
"Being trained to exhaustion to be the perfect soldiers?" Logan supplied. "Being forced to breed with others in their series?"
"Also my fault," Max mumbled.
"Max, you did what you had to do. No one could ask you to do more." Logan knew that his words were falling on deaf ears but he felt he had to try. Max had been different since her return from Manticore, which, Logan guessed, made sense. She never said much about what she went through while she was there and Logan never asked. He wondered, though. He missed the old Max. He missed the old times where they didn't touch only because of sexual tension and not because he would die if they did.
"Yeah, whatever. I gotta go."
Logan sat on the arm of his couch and sadly watched Max leave his apartment again.
Seattle Street
"This is nice."
Angel glanced sideways at Buffy. "Nice?" He looked around. "Sure. Nice is exactly the word I'd choose."
Buffy laughed and rolled her eyes. "No! Nice to be out patrolling again with you."
For a brief moment, their eyes met. Unspoken things flickered under the surface, but Angel broke the moment and looked away.
They were patrolling, for what felt like the first time in ages. Since the news clipping, there had been no more news of mutants or strange attacks. Buffy had declared that she couldn't stand being stuck in the warehouse for another minute and that she was going patrolling. Angel went with her, "for protection." And suddenly the two of them found themselves alone together in the ruined city. It was romantic in a really twisted way.
"So…where are all the vampires?" Buffy asked, breaking the uncomfortable silence.
Angel shrugged. "I don't know. I'd have thought that the Pulse would have made things better for demons and such."
"They should come out and play," Buffy said jokingly. "I'm bored."
"There used to be a time when you were never bored patrolling," Angel remarked.
"Never when you were around, anyway."
Buffy froze. She had not meant to say that out loud. She stole a glance at Angel. He stopped walking and turned to look at her. "No, I guess not."
"Angel…?" Her voice trailed off when she noticed just how close Angel was. They were only a few inches apart. She turned away. "No. No, this is a bad idea."
Before Angel could react to her outburst, a vampire jumped between them from a rooftop, baring his teeth. Buffy grinned. "Welcome home."
He swung at her, but she dodged, blow after blow. Behind the vampire, Angel's face shifted and he bared his own teeth. The vampire spun around and looked back and forth between Angel and Buffy fearfully. When he tried to make a break for it, Angel held him back.
"What?" Buffy asked mockingly. "Leaving already?"
She faltered when she saw that the vampire actually looked scared of her. "Uh, yeah. Bye!" she said quickly as she drove her stake through its heart.
But there was no dust. There was no small puff as the vampire disintegrated. Its eyes opened wide and it looked down at the blood seeping out from around the stake in shock. Buffy gasped as it fell back into Angel's arms. Angel fell to his knees under its weight. Its breath came in gasps as it started shaking and finally stilled.
Buffy stood staring at it. "Angel?" she whispered. "What did I just kill?"
"I…I don't know," Angel replied. He looked down at the dead creature.
"It's a vampire!" Buffy cried desperately. "It has fangs! Or, it had."
"It has no brow ridges," Angel said quietly. "Its eyes are human eyes." He looked up at Buffy. "It wasn't a vampire."
Buffy paced around, her eyes filling with hysterical tears. "But it had fangs! It growled at me! What did I kill if it wasn't a vampire?"
Angel shook his head. "I don't know."
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The Answer to the Last Trivia Question
Wow. I'm going to say that everyone got this right, because you guys came up with a lot more than what I was thinking of. What I was thinking of was when he was evil and Giles burned down the factory, when Marcus tortured him in LA, and when he set Darla and Drusilla on fire. So I totally lost on my own trivia question, but good job to everyone else!
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Review ResponsesLittleDrusilla Yeah, I like Alec as a smartass too. He is really is a good character and he's fun to write!
Anna I felt it was important to bring up the events of "I Will Remember You," as I always hated that they never really alluded to it again. Buffy understood when Angel first told her before the day was swallowed, so it's only natural that she would still feel the same. Plus, who knows what Vail had locked up in that cube?
Perfect Darkness I do go into why the transgencics are special, but it is all of them as a whole as opposed to Max. There is more to them than meets the eye. As far as the Council, look for them to do a little more meddling in the lives of our dear friends.
Samantha There will be many Buffy/Angel moments to come! They are my favorite BtVS pairing.
General Mac Here you go!
Lightdemondarkangel That's okay. I'm not that great at posting in the first place, lol.