Disclaimer: I don't own BtVS or Dollhouse.
A/N: Hey, I'm back! I managed to write the 50,000 words required for NaNoWriMo, and now I'm going to dedicate December to trying to finish this story (I plan for it to end when season five of Buffy does, and then I'll start the sequel, "What You Don't Know Won't Hurt You", set in season six. After that season seven will be the third and final installment… the title I have in my head as of now is "Calls Me Home" , referring to Echo regaining all her memories as Faith and Caroline) and to try and get at least halfway through Colorblind (A Vampire Diaries fic).
I hope you like part two. In my head this is taking them through episode "No Place Like Home" so the whole monk/Glory/ "Dawn is the Key?" thing will happen later and in a slightly different way.
On to the story! Keep in mind that I can't write for Lorne very well. And this was not spellchecked.
Last month:
"They're coming back!" Emily whimpered. Two me were walking towards her, steeling themselves to grab her. "I just want my baby back…"
"You'll get him back, I promise." Buffy assured her, gently placing a hand on Emily's arm. "When I count to three, you run that way." she gestured to the left of a less bulky man. "Try to get past him and you'll see a van outside, with those people—" she pointed out the other Scoobies and then motioned for them to get to the car "—in it. I'll try and keep the other men and police away from you."
"O-Okay." Emily said. Buffy was surprised by the trust shining in her eyes.
"Ready? One…two…three!"
On "three!" the blond woman next to me sprang at the guards and dropped one to his knees in about five seconds flat. The other tried to pull out his gun but found that his arm had already been twisted behind him and Buffy had him crushed under her foot. "Go!" she instructed. I looked back wildly to where the man who I thought I could trust was holding Jack. "Go, Emily, I'll get Jack!"
"But—"
"Go!" she screamed, letting the man up and sprinting towards Jack.
I finally did what she said and ran, attention drawn away from me as she leapt over a desk and plowed through the crowd of civilians. I went the other way, out the door and into the bright morning sunshine. I looked around for the people she had come with—they were a large group, and I remembered one having distinctly red hair—when I spotted them standing by a van. "Hello? Hello? Excuse me, that girl in there said to come to you, she said you would help me—"
"Echo!" The man with a British accent said. "Echo, are you alright?"
"Why does everyone call me Echo?" asked Emily. She was starting to doubt the sanity of this entire group, but it was all she had at the moment. "My name isn't Echo, it's Emily! It's always been Emily, as long as I can remember."
"Er…. Yes, of course." He said. "So… any chance that you miraculously remember our names?"
She shook her head, looking back anxiously at the police station. "No, I don't. What is taking her so long?"
To answer the question the woman came bursting through the doors, shouting "Get in the van, NOW!" to them, police right behind her. She had Jack in her arms. "Giles, start the van!"
Emily found herself being unceremoniously shoved to the floor of the van and squashed by everyone as the scrambled in. The British man, Giles, started the ignition and hit the gas, speeding down the road as fast as he could. The whole van shook and made ominous growling noises, clearly not built for the kind o f speed it was at currently.
"Can't… breathe…" Emily gasped. She heard similar complaints from the other passengers. She heard crying, Jack's crying. "Jack!" she struggled to get to her hands and knees. "Please, let me have him, please…"
The blond woman leaned from the front seat and carefully transferred Jack to Emily's arms. "Here."
"Oh, thank God!" Emily cried, tears flowing from her eyes and blurring her vision. Jack's cries quieted. "It's okay, Jack, I'm here. I won't let Daddy hurt you, don' worry. Don't worry."
O.o.O.o.O.
Buffy had never seen Echo, or Faith for that matter, so emotional over anything before. It touched her to see Echo/Emily crying over her child (that she didn't understand—how did she get a baby that fast? And where did she get him?) like she was really his mother. For all I know, maybe he is Faith's. She's only been with us for a while, maybe she came back here for him.
"Um… excuse me?" she ventured after Emily's crying slowed. "Emily?"
"Yes?" Jack was still held tight to her chest.
Buffy wasn't sure how to put it. "Well… would you mind very much going back to Sunnydale with us?"
"Why?"
"Because the person I know that looks like you is actually you. See, you keep having this memory problem where you think you've been other people. The names I remember are Alice, Taffy, Eleanor… anyway, something completely hijacked your brain, because you never have gotten his bad… or gotten an actual person."
"What?" Emily looked alarmed. "You mean Jack? He's mine, I know that."
"Never said he wasn't." Buffy said quickly. "I'm just saying that you aren't Emily, you're Echo… technically, the first name I knew you by was Faith, but you seem stuck on Echo."
"It's not so bad though." Willow jumped in. "You're pretty nice… you don't try to kill anyone anymore as Echo, and you're friends with Dawn. You don't have super Slayer-y powers anymore either…"
"Sweetie?" said Tara.
"Yeah?"
"She probably doesn't know what any of that means, especially the Slayer part."
"Oh."
Buffy sighed. "Perfect. Well, we'll have to go to Angel's anyway."
"Angel again?" Riley groused. "I thought we only needed to ask him where she was, and we found her."
"We need somewhere to stay." Buffy said. She could see how much Riley was hating the idea. "I know you and Angel aren't on the friendliest of terms after the fight and the thing with the beating up of Initiative people… but we can't stay at a hotel, and we still don't know what's wrong with Echo, so that means that Angel is our best bet."
Riley gritted his teeth, but finally nodded in reluctance. "Fine. We can have his little Fang Gang research stuff for us."
"What are you all talking about?" asked Emily, rocking Jack. "Not to sound mean, but you all sound kind of crazy."
"We are kind of crazy." Said Xander. "Courtesy of Sunnydale."
"Oh… okay. Is… is 'Angel's' a safe hotel?"
"Yeah." Said Buffy. "It's also free."
"Sounds good, I guess." said Emily. Buffy wondered why she wasn't less terrified than she should be. She had just gotten into a car with people she didn't know. Was it because she subconsciously knew they wouldn't hurt her? "That's about the only price I can afford right now."
O.o.O.o.O.
The first time that Buffy had gone to see Angel and ask him about Echo he had been the only one there, saying that the others were out working. Now she could see that Cordy, Wesley, an African-American man, and a green demon were all in the lobby. Wesley and Cordy both looked up and spotted her, saying, "Buffy?"
"Hey, guys."
"Buffy?" the green demon asked. "So you're the one that broke Angel-cake's heart? Well, you are very pretty."
"Uh... thanks." Said Buffy.
"That Buffy." The other man said suddenly, apparently having heard of her before. "I'm Gunn."
"I'm Lorne." The demon added.
"Hi, again, and I'm Buffy… obviously, because Wes and Cordy already called me that." She said. "Do you think it would be alright if the Scooby gang stayed here a few days? We have a bit of a problem with echo… has Angel mentioned her being here? Or me being here?"
"You came here earlier?" asked Wes.
"Yeah." Buffy said. "I guess it makes sense that he didn't tell you."
"You are welcome to stay." Cordy said. "Maybe it will cheer Angel up and get him to stop brooding for more than a minute at a time… of course, it's you we're talking about. He'll just brood even more than usual."
Buffy shrugged. "Let's hope for the best."
She went out and told the others to come in, taking the rear with Emily. "So, the people we're going to see have… met you." She explained, keeping it light as possible. "And you've done some pretty horrible things to them, so they might act hostile towards you…"
"What did I do?" asked Emily with "deer-in-the-headlights" eyes. "Did I kill some they loved?"
"No, you just weren't very… er… friendly when you came to visit. It's best you don't know the details." Buffy said, remembering her promise to Dawn that she wouldn't hurt Echo anymore. "But you might want to steer clear of the brown-haired girl, Cordy, and the other British guy, Wesley. I can promise you that they won't hurt you, but I can't promise that they won't tell you things you don't want to hear."
"Alright." Emily hugged Jack closer to her. He had long since fallen asleep. "And will Jack be safe?"
"Absolutely." I don't know, to tell you the truth. Buffy couldn't know if the baby—no, his name was Jack—was even Emily's.
Inside there were the sounds of greeting being passed and mindless chatter beginning to work it's way up to full volume when Buffy entered, slightly in front of Emily, and the entire room became quiet.
"You…" Wesley hissed. "Why is she here?"
"I thought she was in jail." Cordy said, glaring at Emily like she thought looks could and would kill.
"Jail?" Emily whimpered softly to Buffy. "Why would I be in jail?"
"No reason." Buffy whispered to her. Out loud she said, "Guys, she... she isn't Faith."
"Yeah, and I wasn't tortured by her a year ago." Wesley snapped. Emily shrank further behind Buffy.
"It's true." Tara said softly. "What Buffy said is true."
"She doesn't know who she is." Buffy explained, venturing a few steps into the lobby. "She showed up during the summer and she said she was 'Echo', and she doesn't remember us. She remembers being other people, and she can remember some memories of being Faith. Right now she thinks she's Emily… so, say hi to Emily."
"Um…" Emily mumbled. "Hi, guys?"
"Am I supposed to believe this crap?" Cordy asked, incredulous. "She's faking, Buffy, she has to be."
"She's never tried to hurt anyone." Buffy said shortly. "If you're not okay with her being here then you can leave."
Cordy said, "Does Angel even know about this?"
"Yes. I came earlier, and I told him what happened."
Angel chose that moment to walk in the front door, mouth open and about to say something, but he was drowned out by Cordelia protesting over the idea of the Scoobies and Faith staying with them while the Scoobies all tried to explain why it wasn't a bad idea at all.
"Hey! HEY!" that was Gunn.
"Buffy?" Angel said, noticing her. Before she could stop him he had embraced her, earning a scathing glare from Riley. Buffy hugged back as quick as she could, backing away and whispering "Riley". Angel sighed, but nodded. "Hey, you found Echo?"
"Emily, as of now." Emily corrected. "Hi, Angel. Is there any chance I did something horrifying to you that I can't remember?"
Angel looked at Buffy, then shook his head. "A few unfriendly words now and then… I believe you called Buffy and I 'lust bunnies' once."
"Oh. Sorry."
"I didn't mind that much." said Angel. "So, you're staying?"
"Is that okay?"
"Always." Riley couldn't look any angrier. Buffy was almost afraid his head would implode.
O.o.O.o.O.
Emily was very confused.
So far she had learned she had been some "psychopathic bitch" (Cordelia's words, not hers) that had tortured Wesley, hit Cordelia, poisoned Nagel (almost to the point of death), and tired to help start an apocalypse. There was also the part where Angel was a vampire—she had walked in on him drinking blood with his game face—but she accepted it. If the first part was true then the vampire thing didn't seem to crazy.
"It's like in those books…" she told Jack as she gently rocked him, trying to get him to fall asleep. She was in the one of the guest bedrooms of the hotel that Angel and his friends apparently owned. "You know, where an ordinary girl gets thrown into a world that she never would have guessed could exist, and then she wonders if it's all it's cracked up to be." Jack yawned. "Of course, it would explain why Daddy was acting so weird. He probably knew I was dangerous. I almost can't believe that it's true…"
She just couldn't wrap her head around all the things she had been told about Faith Lehane. The snarky, self-confident, sexy, dangerous, and slightly neurotic Slayer that had almost ended the world but had instead been put it a coma by Buffy. It didn't seem real… it didn't seem like anything Emily could imagine being. She remembered being that age; she had an obsession with Joey Greffeta then. She could remember hanging out with him, praying he would ask her on dates, crying for hours when she found out he had a girlfriend and no interest in her. She didn't remember spending time with Buffy in graveyards killing vampires.
How could she have forgotten something like that?
O.o.O.o.O.
Outside Boyd and Paul were peering into the second story window, Boyd using binoculars. "Is she there?"
"Yes." Said Boyd. "And she has the baby."
"And you said that the girl… Buffy… you said that she helped Echo escape?" asked Paul. He wondered what Echo meant to her. He hadn't been told, but he had theories that it was a previous client who just couldn't let go. The idea made him feel sick.
Boyd nodded slightly. "Yes."
"Why?"
"She knows Echo." Said Boyd.
Paul hated how vague Boyd was all the time. "Meaning…?"
"She knew Echo when she was a real person, Paul."
"As Caroline?" Paul said. Could he have just found his way to saving Caroline? "So she took in Echo all this time because she knew Caroline?"
"No." said Boyd. He adjusted the binoculars, letting Paul get edgier and more impatient. "She knew Faith."
"But Caroline… she's…"
"Not real." Boyd confirmed. "She came from another Dollhouse, and we were told her real identity was a security issue. We were to let her go as Caroline when she was free to go."
"And you would just do it? Like that, just throwing away an entire person?" Paul was dumfounded. All this time he had been looking for someone that wasn't there.
Boyd sighed. "Yes, we would. It's not like we could get her original personality… it was all we could do."
"So who's Faith?"
"Ah, that's the catch." Boyd said, laughing. "We don't know. She doesn't exist."
"Oh."
Paul stood there in silence, watching as Boyd adjusted the binoculars once more. Who was Faith? He was determined to ask the girl—Buffy—as soon as he got a chance to.
"She's there." Boyd confirmed. "I know the tracking device confirmed it, but I can see her , in that room… alright, everyone move in, but try not to confront the blond girl, Buffy. She's incredibly strong and there's no way you can stop her. "If you do run into her…" he motioned to his tazer. "These might slow her down a little."
At his signal they all headed for the doors.
O.o.O.o.O.
Angel saw the men first, and launched himself at them. They took him out with about eleven or twelve tazers, all at maximum power. What really stopped him was when he was shoved against the wall and a piece of wood splintered off and tore through his stomach.
Wesley yelled, "Wolfram and Hart's attacking!" at the top of his lungs, and to the men's surprise, drew a sword from a case on the wall. He also got taken down within moments.
In a corner Willow was fiercely battling two of the men, muttering under her breath. "Convertimini. Ventus Inter Aquilonem et terram vertere eos. Fac locum relinquat. Ventus Inter Aquilonem et terram vertere eos. Convertimini. Convertimini."
Tara, a few feet away, was having problems. The man she was against growled in frustration as she kept him at bay with wind, similar to Willow's spell, and he broke through as she began to weaken. She screamed as he pinned her to the wall.
"Tara! NO!" shrieked Willow. She whipped to face the two men attacking her and shouted, "Aliquam erat volutpat!" they flew away, hitting the floor and not moving. Then she turned to Tara, screaming, "Ventus Inter Aquilonem et terrae libera eam. Lorem ejus ab eo."
The man flew away from Tara, who stumbled and collapsed on the floor. "No! Tara, no!"
Upstairs Gunn and Lorne were fighting for their lives, but they were outnumbered. Both were tazered and shoved aside.
In Emily's room the person that met them at the door was Buffy. "You're not getting past me." She hissed. One of them men advanced, tazer out. "Ooooh, real scary." She knew Emily was shaking in her shoes, but she wasn't afraid of a tazer. "The Initiative had worse. Oh, them? Just a government group that you don't know about. You should look them up sometime."
With that she dropped the first man to his knees and proceeded to take the rest out. Eventually, though, their sheer numbers started to outweigh her strength, and she was electrocuted by the tazers so many times her vision began to blur and she couldn't stand properly. The last thing she heard as she finally fell was Emily screaming and Jack crying.
O.o.O.o.O.
Hours later the Scooby gang regrouped in the lobby. Angel was bandaged around the middle, and Wesley, Gunn, and Lorne also had various burn marks on them. Willow and Tara were streaked with grime and sweat, Tara with an ice pack to her head. Cordy had slept through almost all of the fight, only coming downstairs when Emily was being dragged away, so she was unhurt. Giles, Riley, and Xander had all been out when the hotel had been attacked.
"I can't believe they took Buffy." Willow mumbled, soothingly stroking Tara's back when the blonde witch moaned. "Are you getting a migraine, baby?"
"I'm fine." Tara said. "Really. What we need to know right now is where Buffy was taken, and why."
"Yeah." Xander agreed. "Because from what I've heard Echo say, where they're going most people come out as someone else."
O.o.O.o.O.
When Echo woke up, in the chair with Topher staring down at her, she knew it was wrong. She was trapped. She was a prisoner.
Buffy needed her.
It was a base instinct. She barely knew who Buffy was, or who she was, but she knew Buffy was near, and Buffy was very scared. She quickly answered Topher's questions, routine and ingrained in her mind, and then went straight to the bedroom. Inside she could hear ragged breathing. She knew it was Buffy.
Buffy turned out to be a battered and bruised blond woman, shivering as she hunkered in Echo's bed. "Buffy." Said Echo. It was a fact, not a question.
"Emily?"
"Echo." Echo corrected. "You're Buffy. I… I think I know you." The familiar face was bringing back memories to the surface. "You took me in and kept me safe. Why are you scared? You're so strong."
"Because…" Buffy gulped. "Because there's no way out of here. I've been trying for hours and it's not possible. There's too many people to fight my way out, so I'm stuck." She looked up, face tearstained and bloodstained. "Echo, I don't want to forget who I am."
"You won't." Echo promised. "Come with me… I remember getting out."
And she did. She retraced the entire route, but without getting seen his time. She knew where to go and how to go, and Buffy knew how to drive. They were speeding away in minutes, Echo never knowing that as they hit speed bump after speed bump her GPS chip in her neck was shut off again.
Hours and hours later, they were back at the Hyperion and safely with the Scoobies.
Echo had never been so proud.
O.o.O.o.O.
Buffy had never been so grateful to someone she had hated before. At the Hyperion she had literally broken down and cried in Echo's arms. It had been a little awkward, but she got over it fast enough. Riley didn't let her out of his sight for the rest of the night. Buffy had a feeling if it hadn't been for Riley Angel would have done the same thing.
They went to Sunnydale the next day, hoping that maybe whoever wanted Echo back would stop following them. On the way Echo explained tearfully how she knew that Jack wasn't hers, even though she loved him with her entire being. Buffy wondered who would be cruel enough to put someone through what Echo was going through just to give their child a temporary mother.
She was mulling over this as she wandered to an abandoned building. There were crashed coming from it, making her sigh automatically. Great, another vampire.
O.o.O.o.O.
Buffy pressed a hand to her forehead. Echo noticed how she had been doing that ever since she got home. "So, she's 'the Key' to something, and this woman, Glory, wants her. What are we going to do?"
"I don't know." Said Giles. "I just don't know."
A/N: YAY! LONG UPDATE! (Nearly 4,000 word, to be exact). I hope you like it :)
On a second note, could everyone reading this do me a favor? I have a friend named Chloe that is a singer, and she posted a video called "Original" – by Chloe… any chance that you could go look at it? If you can't find it her username is DoULilacit2, and you can find the video there. Please, please check it, she's an amazing singer and she hasn't gotten a lot of views or comments.
And no, she isn't me… though I will be starting a YouTube channel soon and doing some things similar to what meekakitty and Nanalew do.
Translations of the spells (yes, they are lame sounding in English):
Convertimini. Ventus Inter Aquilonemetterramvertereeos.Faclocumrelinquat. Ventus Inter Aquilonemetterramvertereeos.Convertimini. Convertimini.
Aka
Turn back. Wind and Earth, turn them away. Make them leave this place. Wind and Earth, turn them away. Turn back.
Aliquamerat volutpat!
Aka
Leave now!
Ventus Inter Aquilonem et terrae libera eam. Lorem ejus ab eo.
Aka
Wind and Earth, free her. Free her from him.
Yeah, my spells are lame.