"The Groom of Rosenberg…"
Part XII...Conclusion...
Anya and Dawn help a still-slightly wobbly Xander as they conduct yet another search of the estate grounds for Tara...
And now for Willow as well...She having disappeared with Praetorius the other day.
"It's getting dark." Xander notes. "And a storm is coming on..."
"I think we'd best give it up for the evening...And hope that Willow knows what she's doing." he sighs.
Knows what she's doing? The woman who stuffed my sis' brain into a body of dead rotting parts and fried her with lightning? Dawn thinks, glaring...
Say...? she points at the old tower, far off in the distance...Barely visible in the dark and storm but with the Cosmic Diffuser now raised for testing, gleaming in the reflected occasional lightning bolt.
"What the hell's that?"
"The old tower Willow's dad brought over years ago from Europe." Anya notes.
"I think they use it for storage and such. It's mainly ornamental...To make the estate look more European."
"We oughta check it out...It's the largest other building besides the castle I've seen on the whole place." Dawn notes.
No real roads to it...And it's several miles from the estate road...Anya points out.
"Maybe tomorrow...?" she suggests.
The lightning flashes again. Hmmn...Xander thinks...
"Didn't Willow use lightning to get Buffy up and going again?" he looks at Anya...
Lightning and cosmic rays...Anya corrects.
And she never did tell us where on the estate the other lab was...Where she got Buffy up and running...he notes.
"Lets go!" Dawn insists.
"But what would that matter...?" Anya points out.
Willow wouldn't be frying Buffy again...Why would she need another lightning storm?
"Unless...?"
They stare at each other...
…
Willow and Andrew stand by the new creature, wrapped in bandages, stretched out on the operating table slab...
"Isn't it amazing, Willow...?" Andrew beams. Still fishing for compliments about his wonderful cloned brain...
"Lying within this skull..." he pats the bandages. "Is an artificially developed human brain...Cloned from a vampire's remains no less. Each synapse, each convolution, ready...Waiting for life to come."
Touch of the poet in him...Willow can't help noting to herself. Will would be pleased to be know his brain was cloned by a poetic type.
"Say...?" Willow pauses. Listen to the speakers...
"What's that music?"
"The creation scene from the 'Bride of Frankenstein'." Andrew notes.
I thought it most appropriate...he smiles.
They hear a loud thunderbolt crash...
"The storm is coming up over the mountains..." Praetorius looks at Willow.
"It will be here soon..."
"You're on Rosenberg..." he smiles at her.
Willow flips up giant electrodes around the creature's head. Andrew helping her pull a large spark generator over. They switch it on and a large electrical discharge begins coursing across its surface. Lighting the room with an eerie glow...
Willow rushes over to where the implements for the soul retrieval portion of the Wolfram-Hart ceremony lay. Next to getting the body in working order, and the brain cloned, the key part of the whole project...
"Warren! Jonathan!" she cries up to them above...
"Get the kites ready...!"
"The kites!...the kites!...Get 'em ready!" Warren hollers to Jonathan over the storm on the tower rooftop...
"Open the roof!" Willow calls. They work a crank to open the large tower roof to the skies...
"Lower the Cosmic Diffuser!" They work winches to send the huge assembly down...
"Wires...Send down your wires!" she calls. They drop large cables which she and Praetorius secure to the electrodes about the new creature...
"All right..." she cries. Grabbing the W-H implements...
"I'm coming up...!"
I could just kiss her now...Praetorius thinks. She's so beautiful when she's creating life from the dead...
Well, perhaps later...
"Stand-by the main generators, Andrew!" she points over. He rushes to the bank of generators...
She hurries up the stairs to the tower...
Eyeing Jonathan and Warren...Ready guys?
So excited she didn't even put on a raincoat, Jonathan notes.
"Jonathan, you take number two!" Warren cries over the storm...
"Have you checked your connections?" Willow calls to Warren...
"Yes!"
"Are you sure?"
Hell, lady we helped you get the first one going...We know what we're doing. Warren thinks, a bit miffed.
"Yeah, yeah...!"
"Ok...Release number one…!" Willow orders.
The first of two huge metal kites soars into the rising storm...
"Number two!" she cries to Jonathan...
And the second...
Neat...thinks Jonathan as he eyes the huge kites. Really quite beautiful design...Willow's an artist at heart, I'd say.
But then no reason we can't do this with a little style...
She begins the first part of the soul retrieval ceremony. Warren and Jonathan watching attentively...
"Look!" Dawn points up at the huge kites soaring into the night sky...
Whoa...Xander eyes them.
Don't think Willow would be playing with giant kites in this weather without a damn good reason...
"Come on!" Dawn insists as they track their way through a road now of near impenetrable mud...
Miles yet to the tower...
God...The things I do in my dual career as part-time servant and scooby...Anya sighs.
Of course there's always my time in the Magic Box...And my Xander…To make life worth living...she notes.
Gosh...Maybe I have been a leetle hard on Buffy this week...she thinks sadly. She has no one now...
Plus major deformities and brain-damage...
Though...She probably does appreciate the new height.
…
Willow descends the tower...Joining Andrew back in the main lab...
She continues with the next part of the ceremony as Andrew works the electrical part of the process...
Slamming a series of circuit breakers, throwing switches...Huge bolts of current flashing around the room as Willow chants and causes a blue glow to appear around the bandages of the creature's new brain.
She halts and joins Andrew for more switch-throwing...
"We're sending it up!" she calls up to Warren and Jonathan...
The great machine lifts to the tower rooftop. The new, completely bandage-wrapped, body on its slab. Lightening starting to strike the huge kites, and now the main diffuser itself at its tip...
Neither the preoccupied Willow or Andrew see Buffy awaken and rush up the stairs to the roof, seeing her honey rising up on his slab...
Can't let those two bozo lab assistants screw this up now...she thinks, hurrying up...
By the way, Andrew...Me little bit pissed at the drugging...she glares down at the busy Praetorius as she reaches the roof door.
Still...He does seem hard at it...
She emerges on the roof platform. Rain's nearly stopped but lightning and thunder and wind are worse than ever...Staring at the slab where...William?...Now lays...Lightning smashing at the tip of the Diffuser above...Oh...
God...How I hate lightning...she thinks.
Warren comes over...
Damn...What a time for Buffy the brain-dead Slayer to make an appearance...
"Go back!" he cries.
She glares at her former tormentor and all-around robot-girlfriend-making jerk...
Grrr...! She's in no mood to concentrate on speaking clearly...
"Go Back!" he pulls a flaming torch from its socket. Waving it at her...
Warren...Geesh...Jonathan shakes his head from the other side of the roof platform, cut off now by the open space in the roof where the Cosmic Diffuser has emerged...
You know how she hates fire, man...God, she nearly killed you over it that last time in her dungeon cell.
She rushes him, grabs the torch and whacks him with it...
How do you like it, schmuck!...she glares at him as he falls to the ground, howling in pain...
Hey, Jonathan...she waves a bit.
"How it going?" she tries to call...
He guesses her question and gives a wan thumbs-up. Looking over at Warren now crawling desperately away...
She contemptuously looks back...Ah, he ok...Just got leetle of what he been dishin' out...she thinks.
Bitch...Warren groans. Looking for his pistol...He pulls himself up for a shot...
Waving to Buffy, Jonathan points. "Behind you...!" To Buffy who whirls back and hurls Warren back...
He falls against the cable to kite number one. Just as a lightning bolt destroys the kite...
ARGGGGGHHH!
Eehew...Buffy and Jonathan look at the burning remains...
She shrugs at him. Sorry...
"Eh...He had it coming!" Jonathan hollers back...
They stare at the Diffuser as the second kite is destroyed and the main assembly crackles with energy...
Beautiful, eh...? Jonathan calls over. Pointing to the Diffuser...
Yeah...she nods.
Oh, Will...My sweet Will...Please God...she nervously prays...
I sure deserve break for this week.
Say...she calls...As the storm lulls a bit...
"What that music?" Hearing Andrew's recording playing from below...
"'Bride of Frankenstein', 'Creation', I think." Jonathan calls back...
Nice...she beams.
"Very a...pro...pro..priate..." her Cicely side helps out...
"I think he's done...!" Jonathan calls to her. "We oughta go down..."
Ok...she nods...Wait a minute...she eyes him.
Done?.
Hey...Buffy glowers...That better be Warren's burning flesh I smell...she thinks...
…
"Lower it!" Willow calls to Andrew in the lab below...
The great machine lowers to the lab floor...
Willow and Praetorius rush over...Hesitant...
A low moan is heard. Praetorius eyes Willow in exultation. What a fellow scientist! What a woman!
Pity about the gay thing...
The left hand of the creature moves...
Andrew rips a bandage from the face...Exposing two open eyes...Blinking eyes...
"He's alive! Alive!" Willow cries.
"Oh.." A gasping..."What the bloody hell?!" They hear from within the bandages...
And we've got our target soul, I'd say...she beams at Andrew.
…
They hastily crank the slab upright and begin unbinding the straps...
The bandaged creature raises its arms. And staggers, collapsing...
Willow and Praetorius stare at each other in gleeful triumph. And begin unpinning and unraveling the bandages...
"Umbre...lla..." Buffy happily nods at Jonathan. As they walk down the stairs to the main lab together...
Now I remember...Jon..a than give me nice umbrella...Class Protector...she thinks.
"You nice...Jona..than..." she notes.
You no hurt...I no hurt...she pats him...
Like others...she grumbles.
"Anyway...Will and I go now..." she nods.
No one more hurt...
"Well...Buffy..." Jonathan sighs, eyeing her. All seven feet of her...
"I hope it works out for you. But you can't get your hopes up too high. This kinda thing is preety experimental..."
She eyes him...
Well...he looks away. "Just don't want you to be hurt. That's all..."
"You nice...Jonathan. Kinda responsible too..." Hmmn...
"You date any? Me sis need nice guy..." she notes.
"Better off with nice slight older guy..."
Really?...Jonathan thinks.
Dawn is kinda...
"After she seventeen, course..." Buffy glares.
Course...Jonathan nods.
…
William stands almost unwrapped in hospital gown. Somewhat taller than before but otherwise pretty much the same but for a few scars, thanks to Willow's net search of William Walthrop's 1880 class picture at Cambridge and Andrew's skillful surgical technique...Perhaps a bit perturbed by his experience and by finding himself naked but for a hospital johnny, he is silent now.
"The Groom of Rosenberg!" Praetorius beams. As he and Willow stand observing him...
See what a difference a good surgeon's experience can make?...Andrew notes to a sheepish Willow. Who has to admit…
But a great job with the soul restoration and the revivifying...Andrew hastily adds, gallantly.
Gotta admit...Willow thinks, beaming back at the exultant Praetorius...
Earth did move for me, Andrew...
William blinks at them. Twisting around like a chicken with its head cut off or a nervous cat...Rather clueless as yet except for that brief episode at his birth...
Hope that brain of yours is all it's cracked up to be...Willow hisses to Andrew. Eyeing the now-rushing descending Buffy...
Or we are in deep do-do...
Buffy hastens over…And stops as William stares at her. Clearly rather...Startled...
"Friend...William...Husband...?" she pleads...Waving her hands gently...
Shock...It could just be shock...I needed some time after my rebirth, she thinks. Hopefully...
Gack...! William lets out a cry at her. And backs away...Toward...Willow...
Hmmn...Buffy glowers at her "best friend"...I always thought she had a thing for him...she thinks.
Ever since that night at her dorm... "Oh, I don't think we should destroy Spike. He seemed so human that time he came to me after being chipped..." Yeah...
Willow leads the frightened William to a bench and sits him down...
"Back..." Andrew waves an arm at Buffy...
Grrr...I'm not too pleased with you right now, friend...she glares at him. After that little drugging episode...
She pushes him back...And rushes over to the bench where William is sitting. Taking a seat beside him...
She takes his arm...He stares at her without recognition...She pats his hand...
Willow and Praetorius look at each other...
Cross your fingers...Willow thinks.
"Ahhh!..." he gasps.
"Honey? Lover? Friend? William?" she tries again...Moving to embrace him...
He lets out a clear scream and dashes off the bench. Running to Willow...
Buffy stands in raging fury...Morons! Screwed it again!
"He dumping me...Like others..." she rages. Eyeing Willow narrowly...
And for my best friend...My best...Gay...friend...
Shit!
"Back, back..." Andrew tries to wave her back...
She growls at them and shoves aside equipment Praetorius moves in her path...
She nears...The Lever...
"Look...Doctor! The Lever!" Willow cries.
"Get away from that lever, you fool! You'll blow us all to atoms!" Praetorius cries.
Hmmn...Buffy eyes...The Lever...
Well...If I've really lost my husband forever and my love-life is gonna stay firmly in the toilet...
Cries are heard at the lab ground door...Tara, Xander, Dawn, and Anya.
Tara having freed herself and joined the others on their slog to the lab tower...
"Willow! Willow, darling...Come on..." Tara cries.
Willow rushes to the lab door...
"Go, Tara...I can't leave them now...I can't!" she cries.
"Come on, Willow!" Tara cries.
I really can't...she explains. Jonathan over there has the only door key...
"Buffy...!" Dawn comes over...
"Don't do it, Buffy!"
"Go way, Dawn!" Buffy cries. Sadly eyeing the bewildered, blinking William...Now shaking his head as if to clear it...
"Jonathan...!" Buffy calls.
"Go! You nice...You, live." she points to a side door...
"And be nice to my sis..."
"How's about me...?!" Willow calls "Your best friend...With so much to live for?!"
"Witch bitch and mad doctor boyfriend stay..." Buffy glares.
Boyfriend?...Tara blinks at Praetorius standing by Willow near the main door as Jonathan heads to his side door...
Why that red-headed little...
Jonathan sighs and pauses.
I suppose I should try...
"We four belong..." Buffy reaches for the Lever...
"Head for the hills!" Xander cries. Grabbing Dawn and Tara with Anya and racing back from the tower...
"Buffy? Cicely? Miss Addams?...! Wait a mo!" Will cries.
William?...You know me? Cicely...Buffy..." she eyes him.
He hesitates...
"Don't touch the Lever, Buffy!" Willow cries.
"Why not?" she calls.
"Even...My own husband...Dumps me...God..."
I mean...I was afraid that electroshock might screw up his memory...But geesh...He knows me...Look at him...And...he...
She burst into tears. "Don't...Want..." She reached for...The Lever...
"Me..."
"I wasn't dumping, you sweet...For God's sake I was just resurrected in a reaminated corpse...!" Will calls.
"However, if you'd allow me a decent night's sleep...Cicely..." he pauses.
"And finish taking off these damn bandages and get me something to wear..."
"Really, Will?" Buffy beams. Backing off from...The Lever...
"Of course you blonde little sot...You know I love you."
Phew...Willow eyes Praetorius. Who shakes his head...
This is absolutely the last time I get involved in this sort of thing...Jonathan thinks, watching.
"I do look all right, right?" Will eyes Buffy.
"Beautiful as ever..." she smiles.
"And...Taller than Angel..." she grins.
Oh...Will...she beams, waving her arms.
Striking...The Lever...
Oh...Shit...she looks up at it...
Sorry...
…
Huge explosions rack the tower. Dawn, Xander, Tara, and Anya watch in horror as it crumbles. The Cosmic Diffuser back at its roof falling over into the valley below...
They stagger back, rubble all around them...Covered in dust and soot...
"Oh God...Buffy!" Dawn screams.
"Willow!" Even if you are a cheatin' insane tramp...Tara cries.
"Jonathan!" Anya cries. Xander eyeing her...
Sorry...Residual from that spell of his...
Besides he was a nice guy to stay with them...Somebody should feel bad, she notes.
Uhhh...A low moan is heard from the rubble...
Jonathan pulls himself out of some wreckage with Xander's help...
Hey...He feebly waves...
Whoa...I survived that?...he looks back at the tower.
Hey...Another feeble cry...
"Willow?" Tara calls...
Oh...
Willow is dug out, rather battered but nothing too serious. Tara hugs her, causing far more pain...
"Pardon me...?" a faint cry...
Dr. Praetorius emerges, stumbling a bit. Well-protected actually by some fallen beams...
As he points out, it was a well-built tower...And, he sighs sadly.
Truly a charming house...
Dawn looks at Jonathan and the others...Buffy? Oh...
They look amongst the rubble. No trace...
"Sad...Very sad..." Andrew notes.
Especially after seeing Willow hugging Tara...
But...As Xander echoes...Perhaps for the best...
Their souls are sure to be together in Eternity...Andrew assures Dawn kindly.
Keep that creep away from me...Dawn hisses to Jonathan.
They walk off...Around some trees...Xander watching carefully beside Anya...
As a good Big Brother ought...
"Ah...Well, Willow..." Andrew eyes her.
"At least we certainly did it..."
"And I can expect to make a fortune from my cloned organs now that they've had the...As it were...Ultimate test."
"And a new University chair is sure to be mine, now..."
"Any chance you might like to continue our partnership?" he leers at her.
Well...Willow beams.
We did do quite a job together back there...
Tara growls. A very resurrected-Buffy-ish growl...
"I'll suggest to my dad he invest in your company..." Willow backs off.
Later...she hisses when Tara turns away...
Andrew leers, and waving, heads off to his car. Four miles off through the rain-soaked mud roads...But hell, he is a multimillionaire as of tonight. Not to mention...Still a chance with the divine Ms. R...
Jonathan pauses with Dawn on the edge of the forest...And signs for her to be quiet, pointing off in the distance...
To where Buffy and Will can be seen staring back at them at the edge of some forest, hand-in-hand...
Buffy puts a finger to her lips...Don't tell...she smiles to Dawn. Waving gently with Will...
Dawn, nodding back to her, blows a kiss. And she and Jonathan turn back toward the others before anyone can see...
"Darling..." Will embraces Buffy. Darling she repeats...Darling...
Play End Theme "Bride of Frankenstein…"