AUTHOR'S NOTE I've decided that I'm going to actually make a conscious effort to be better with posting now! And you'll also note that this chapter marks the return of the trivia question. Yay! Oh, and I don't know if there were Wanted posters ever made up for Buffy, but I liked the idea, so I went with it.

DISCLAIMER I don't own anyone. If I ever did, you'd be the first to know.

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Chapter Twelve: In Which Logan Researches Buffy's Past

Logan's Apartment

Logan, Alec, Original Cindy, and Max sat silently in Logan's living room. "That was the girl on the news," Alec mentioned needlessly. "And the blue-haired girl and the redhead were with her."

"Yeah, and two guys with yellow glowing eyes," Original Cindy added. "Those were some trippy contacts."

Logan turned to Max. "Did you get a chance to talk to her at all?"

"Yeah," Max replied bitterly. "Right before she tried to kick my ass. She's not Manticore, but she held her own."

"You're sure she's not Manticore?"

Max nodded. "But she knew who I was. She knew about Manticore and me letting everyone out and the bar codes." Her tone hardened. "She said something about another 'thing with a bar code,' so I'm thinking I'm not the first transgenic she's come across."

"Anything else?" Logan pressed.

Max shook her head. "Then we fought. She was pissed about me dragging her out of her happy life."

"That's it?"

Max stood up and started pacing. "And something about Watcher morons."

"What's a Watcher moron?" Original Cindy asked.

"Beats me."

Logan settled himself at the computer. "I'll see if I can find anything on these girls. Maybe then we can figure out why the blonde one is at least as strong as you, Max."

Alec stood up. "Well I'm going out to look for them."

Max shot him a glare. "If she can kick my ass, then she can sure as Hell kick yours."

Alec just laughed. "I'm just going for a little reconnaissance, no interaction, I promise." Max snorted. Alec grinned and turned for the elevator.

"I hope he gets his ass kicked," Max grumbled.

Original Cindy walked over to Logan. "Find anything?"

Logan shook his head. "Nothing on Watchers, whatever they are. And none of the girls match any of the police composites I've found so far. Give me some time, I'll see what else I can dig up."

Max sighed in frustration. "Well let me know if you find anything useful. I'm going home." She shrugged her leather jacket on. "OC, you coming?"

Original Cindy glanced at Logan, who stared resolutely at the computer screen. "Yeah Boo. Let's go."

Warehouse

"Why are they always girls?"

"Buffy, what are you talking about?" Willow asked.

"Will, think of how many girls I've fought over the years! I'm tired of the abundance of super girls. I'm supposed to be the only one," Buffy pouted.

"This is why women still belong as bar maids."

Buffy glared at Angel's teasing eyes. "Thanks, Mr. 1800's Ireland. Start living in 2020, Angel."

"I'll try my hardest."

"Ponce," Spike muttered.

"Guys, can we please pay attention?" Willow snapped. "We need to find the girl again as soon as possible."

"What do we do when we find her?" Spike asked.

"Kill her."

Three heads turned to Buffy. Illyria was uninterested in their conversation. "Buffy, are you sure?" Willow asked. "She is human."

"No. She has demon in her. Our mission is to kill her. That's what the Council wants. When she's dead, we can go home."

Seattle Police Department

Logan waited patiently at a long gray table. The door creaked open and Matt Sung, Logan's friend and contact on the police force, walked in. "Sorry for keeping you waiting so long, Logan."

"Hey, it's no problem."

Matt dropped a large brown box on the table. "This was all I could find. Not a lot of stuff from Seattle."

Logan got up to examine the contents of the box. "Where's it from then?" he asked as he pulled old and yellowing "Wanted" posters out in stacks.

"California, mostly."

Logan paused and looked Matt, confused. "California? Why does the Seattle PD have wanted posters from California?"

He shrugged. "After the Pulse wiped out all of the computer databases, a lot of prisoners escaped from California prisons. The Governor got together these sketches of the worst criminals going back twenty years or so and distributed them to the largest cities on the west coast. I guess he expected us to round them all up." Matt headed back for the door. "I've got a few things to do. Just let me know when you're done."

"Yeah, sure." Logan sat back down at the table and began leafing through the posters.

He wasn't exactly sure what he was looking for. An hour went by and the afternoon began slipping away. Just as the setting sun's rays slanted in to fall on the opposite wall and the police composites had long started looking the same, Logan sat straight up in his chair.

He blinked and glanced again at the badly damaged piece of paper he held. Under bold block letters spelling out "WANTED" was a drawing unmistakably of Max's blonde assailant. Excited, Logan pushed the other posters out of his way and smoothed out the one he'd been searching for.

It had been issued in a California town he'd never heard of called Sunnydale. "Sunnydale," he repeated to himself. There was a crater by that name in California. Maybe the town was nearby.

The 17-year-old's name was Buffy Summers. It said that she'd been found at the scene of a grisly murder and fled before police had had time to question her. She was considered extremely dangerous. There was a number for the Sunnydale Police Department to call with any information. Logan quickly jotted it down, along all of Summers' other information. But he cocked his head when he caught the line at the bottom of the page.

The date on the poster read as May of 1998. This girl looked exactly the same then as she did now. With a shake of his head, Logan grabbed the piles of paper and dumped them back into the box. Buffy's composite in hand, he left in search of Matt Sung.

The detective was at his desk. "Did you find what you were looking for?" he asked.

"Yeah," Logan answered. He held up the paper. "Is it alright if I take this?" he asked.

Matt shrugged. "Sure. I can't imagine one out of that entire box will make a difference."

"Thanks." Logan waved and headed for home.

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Today's Trivia Question Is:

Buffy has voiced the complaint about super strong women before. When did she first say this and name three superwomen that she's faced before Max.

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Review Responses

Perfect Darkness Yay for author alert!

Allen Pitt No, Gunn won't be showing up in 2020, but he will be mentioned later on. And Dawn will make an appearance, but not for a long time. It is an interesting moment when Buffy and friends are captured and have to explain what's going on.

Slash-a-holic Don't worry, here's more trivia! And yeah, Faith would have been a cool addition, but sadly she isn't here. Although she and Max and Alec would have had a great dynamic.

LittleDrusilla Yes, Max will get quite a shock!

Anna Okay, here's the thing. Buffy has reached the point where she doesn't care anymore. She believes Max is a demon, plus she can't go back to her life in 2004 until Max is dead. She wants more than anything for the Council to leave her alone and she thinks that killing Max is the only way that's going to happen.