"Anne"
Based on the Episode Written by Joss Whedon
The following story is copyright © 2022 by Mark Moore.
In Sunnydale, Tara, Amy, and Katrina were patrolling the cemetery at night. They arrived at Andrew Hoelich's gravestone and waited. A bouquet of fresh flowers was there. A hand came out of the freshly-filled grave and clawed for solid ground. Slowly, Andrew pulled himself out of his grave, now a newly-made vampire. He growled when his head cleared the earth and continued to climb out on his stomach. He crawled along the ground, pulling out his legs, and stopped when he saw a pair of wide-spread legs standing before him. He looked up to see who it was.
Tara smiled mischievously and kicked him in the face. While he was dazed, Amy and Katrina each grabbed one of his arms and pinned him to the ground. Tara crouched down, drove a stake through his back, and hit his heart, killing him. Amy and Katrina let go of his arms. The three girls stood up.
Tara smiled at her friends. "Great job, team."
The three of them started walking.
"Have you heard from Buffy?" Katrina asked Tara.
"Yeah, she called me yesterday."
"How is she?" Katrina asked her.
Tara shrugged. "Okay. A bit distant and distracted, but she says she's doing all right, all things considered."
"Any chance you'll tell us where she is?" Amy asked her.
Tara shook her head. "Buffy doesn't want anyone finding her right now."
"Did she say when she's coming back?" Amy asked her.
Tara nodded. "When she works through her shit, no sooner."
Amy marveled at her. "You're the most patient girlfriend ever."
Tara smiled, a bit embarrassed.
"But she is coming back, right?" Katrina asked her.
Tara nodded. "That's what she says." She smiled at Katrina. "Why so eager? You got a crush on her?"
Katrina smiled. "Well, we did share a kiss."
"She was dead."
"Details."
Tara rolled her eyes. "Anyway, I guess we should pack it in. Big day tomorrow."
On a beach, a wave crashed on the sand. In the far distance, a pier stretched out into the water. Cordelia walked naked across the sand. She stopped and looked out over the ocean. She closed her eyes and raised her head to just feel the sun on her face and listen to the waves come in. A pair of hands reached around her waist and clasped in front, and she covered them with hers. She looked back at Angel leaning his head over her shoulder.
Cordelia reached up with her hand and brushed it against his cheek. "How did you find me here?"
"If I was blind, I would see you."
Cordelia lowered her hand to take his again at her waist and closed her eyes. She embraced his arms tightly to her. "Stay with me."
"Forever. That's the whole point. I'll never leave." Angel leaned close to her ear. "Not even if you kill me."
Cordelia's mood turned from contented to dismayed.
Cordelia woke from her dream and looked around her bedroom sadly. Slowly, she settled back down and wept.
She didn't fall asleep again for a long time.
Buffy opened the door to her mother's bedroom as quietly as possible and tip-toed inside. She tried very hard to not wake her.
She saw her mother fast asleep in her bed, face down, helpless.
Buffy climbed onto the bed and on top of her mother. Joyce woke suddenly, but Buffy straddled her mother with her legs and put her hands around her mother's neck. She started choking her.
"Buffy...do you love me at all?" Joyce asked sadly.
Buffy woke up with a start. She looked around. She was lying in her bed in her tiny apartment in a run-down neighborhood on the south side of downtown Los Angeles, near 11th Street.
Slowly, she got up and went over to the window overlooking the street below. She didn't particularly care if anyone saw her naked. She looked past the sidewalk and into the street. A police siren got louder as it neared, and, an instant later, an LAPD squad car raced across the intersection at the end of the block against the red light.
Buffy sighed and, feeling dirty after her nightmare, went into her tiny bathroom and took a shower in an attempt to cleanse herself.
The next morning, Buffy went to work her shift at a small, sleazy diner known as Helen's Kitchen.
The cook put two burgers with fries up on the pick-up counter. A waitress walked past the counter to hang an order on the spinner. Buffy walked behind her to pick up the two burgers. She had cut her hair short due to the heat and to prevent it from getting in the way. She was sad and bored. She took the two plates, walked them over to a nearby table, and set them down in front of two roughneck types. They both eyed her lecherously.
Buffy took out her order pad. "Anything else?"
"That'll do us, Peaches."
Buffy tore off their bill and put it on the table. "Pay at the counter."
"Sure you don't want me to work it off for you?"
The other roughneck laughed at that. Buffy walked away, and, as she went, he reached out with his hand and slapped her on the ass. Buffy stopped in her tracks. The two men just chuckled. She turned her head slightly but thought better of doing anything about it. She walked up to another table, where a young couple was sitting. They were too into each other to notice Buffy.
"You guys ready?" Buffy asked them.
The guy was still looking at his girl. "Yeah. I think we're good. Um..." He looked at Buffy's name tag. "Anne."
Buffy glanced at them briefly, then looked down at her pad to take their order. "What'll you have?"
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of change. "Well, okay..." He paused. "What can we get with this?"
He dumped the change onto the table. It was mostly pennies plus a few nickels and dimes.
Buffy stared at it. "Um..."
The blonde girl looked at her boyfriend. "Can we get cake?"
"Don't be stupid. We gotta eat healthy. We can't have cake." He looked at Buffy. "Can we get pie?"
"We've got a peach pie." Buffy wrote the order. "I can't guarantee there's a peach in it."
The girl looked at her boyfriend. "We shouldn't have blown all our money."
"Come on, it was worth it."
She smiled. He looked up at Buffy as the two of them held out their forearms.
"Hey, check this out."
Buffy looked at their arms as they held them out together and saw they each had a tattoo of half of a heart with a ribbon across it. On their respective halves of the ribbon, they had the other's name tattooed. He had "Lily", and she had "Rickie".
"It's nice. It's nice and, uh, permanent." Buffy smiled weakly, thinking it was a bad idea.
Rickie looked at Lily. "Yeah, forever." He put his arm around Lily. "I mean...that's the whole point."
Lily looked at him and smiled. Buffy looked at Lily, and there was a spark of recognition in her mind.
Lily looked up at Buffy and thought she also recognized her. "Hey, do I know you?"
Buffy stared at her, thinking about it. "I don't think so." She wasn't sure.
Lily looked harder. "Really? Where're you from?"
Buffy avoided the issue. "I'll get your pie."
Lily watched as Buffy went to the cash register. Rickie distracted her, and they were in their own little world again.
At the register, Buffy put down the order and gave Rickie and Lily another look.
The other waitress looked at her. "Friends of yours?"
"I'm not sure."
In the Sunnydale High School library, students were busy looking for books that they would need during the semester. Tara and Giles walked out of the stacks on the mezzanine level. Tara had several books in her arms.
"So...any luck at the cemetery?" Giles asked her.
They walked down the stairs.
Tara smiled and nodded. "We staked a few."
They split up as Giles headed through the door to go behind the check-out counter.
"For God's sake, be careful."
They met at the counter.
"I mean, uh, I appreciate your efforts to keep the vampire population down until Buffy returns or the new Slayer is located, but, uh..." Giles paused. "Well, if anything should happen to you and...you should be killed, I should take it somewhat amiss." Giles scanned Tara's books to check them out.
Tara smiled sweetly. "Well, we try not to get killed."
The phone in Giles' office rang. Tara took the books and stacked them together again.
"Good." Giles went to get the phone.
Tara picked the books up and started out of the library. Before she could take more than a few steps, Cordelia walked up to her.
Tara smiled sweetly at her. "Hi, Cordy."
"Hey, Tara." Cordelia put her bag on the counter.
"How are you?" Tara asked her.
Cordelia shrugged. "Shitty. You?"
Tara felt awkward and didn't reply. She just smiled nervously and shrugged.
After her shift was over, Buffy walked along the street in front of Helen's Kitchen. She went over to a nearby taco stand.
The vendor looked at her. "Hey, Anne."
Buffy smiled. "Hey. Pork today."
"You got it."
A homeless man was sitting on the curb.
Another man approached the man and crouched down beside him, holding out one of his leaflets. "Hey, how are you? Can I talk to you for a moment? I have something you might be interested in."
"$2.00."
Buffy paid the vendor.
He handed her a corn tortilla taco stuffed with ground pork and topped with onions, cilantro, and salsa. "Buen provecho."
Buffy took the taco. "Thanks."
Buffy continued walking to her van, munching on her taco along the way, and passed a store with a recessed entryway.
A homeless woman was cowering there. "I'm no one."
Buffy looked at the woman.
"I'm no one."
Buffy looked away from the woman. She felt bad about it.
"I'm no one."
In the library, Giles was on the phone in his office.
"Yes? Thank you, thank you." Giles put the phone down, grabbed his coat, and quickly walked out of the office. "I have a lead."
Tara and Harmony looked up from doing their homework at the table.
"A friend in Oakland has a-a-a sketchy report of a...young girl fending off a group of vampires...about a week ago." Giles grabbed his overcoat and bag and looked at his watch. "There's a plane out in about an hour."
Tara and Harmony exchanged a look.
"And what makes this different from the last nine leads?" Harmony asked him.
"Well, there's a meal on this flight."
Harmony rolled her eyes. "Look, I don't mean to shit on the party here; it's just...you get your hopes all up, and then it's nothing, and I feel bad."
Tara gave Giles a hopeful smile. "But it's good that you're looking, though. You shouldn't give up."
"Yes, one must try. Well, I-I-I should go." Giles rushed out.
"You think maybe he'll find her?" Harmony asked Tara. "The new Slayer?"
Tara shrugged. "Who knows?"
They went back to doing their homework.
Buffy parked her van on a street at night and got out. She locked the door and closed it. Buffy slowly walked to her apartment.
Behind her, Lily followed her. "Anne?"
Buffy didn't respond.
"Anne?" Lily called louder.
Still no response from Buffy.
"Buffy?" Lily asked.
Buffy stopped in her tracks.
Lily caught up. "Don't be mad. I won't turn you in or nothing. I guess you don't recognize me."
Buffy thought for a moment. "Lily?"
"I mean from before. I was calling myself Chantarelle then. I used to..." Lily sighed. "Well, I was in this cult that worshipped vampires. So lame, I know."
Buffy suddenly remembered her. "Yeah...I, uh, I remember."
"But...you kinda saved us. I never thanked you or anything."
"Did you tell anyone who I was?"
"Oh, no! Not - Not even Rickie. I mean...I was so surprised to see you here, waiting tables..." Lily paused. "But I wouldn't tell. I know how it is when you gotta get lost."
"It's not that. It's just..." Buffy sighed. "I had to take a break from my life, figure out what I'm gonna do next."
They started to walk again.
"Do you, uh, do you live nearby?" Buffy asked her.
"Well, there's a couple of places. Uh, they're abandoned, and a lot of people stay there." Lily paused. "So how come you came up with Anne?"
"It's my middle name."
"Lily's from a song. Rickie picked it. I'm always changing, anyway. Chantarelle was part of my exotic phase."
"It's nice. It's a mushroom."
"It is? That's really embarrassing."
"Um, well, i-it's an exotic mushroom, if that's any comfort."
"Well, before that, I was following this loser preacher and calling myself Sister Sunshine."
Buffy made a face. "I like Lily."
"It's cool for now. Hey, do you have any money?"
They stopped, and Buffy gave her a surprised look.
"I didn't mean that like..." Lily paused. "Well, I just mean...I know this guy; he's gonna have this kinda rave thing in his basement. We could go. I mean...I could show you if you had..." She paused again, embarrassed. "'Cause I'm broke."
"I-I don't think so. I just kind of...I want to be alone."
"I didn't mean to bug you."
"No! I-I didn't - I didn't mean that; it's just..." Buffy paused. "Well, a-a lot of people like that, it's - it's too much."
Lily crossed her arms, very disappointed.
Buffy looked down, took out her wallet, and started to dig through it. "I-I do have the money, though, so...why don't you and Rickie go, and then maybe I could meet you some other time-"
Lily raised her hands and waved off the offer. "No. It's okay, it's okay. Forget about it. Just-"
A homeless man rudely pushed his way between them. The two girls both stared after him.
Lily frowned. "That's not very polite."
The man turned around and looked blankly back at them.
"Are you okay?" Buffy asked him.
"I'm no one." He turned back around and walked into the traffic in the intersection at the corner of 11th Street and Broadway.
Buffy's eyes widened with concern. The man stopped in the middle of a lane in front of an oncoming pickup truck and faced it, arms stretched wide. Buffy rushed into the street. The pickup driver honked his horn and slammed on the brakes. The truck started to skid. Buffy pushed the man out of the way in time to save him - but not in time to avoid getting hit herself. She got hit hard in the legs by the bumper. Her body snapped down hard onto the hood of the truck, and she slid into the windshield. She bounced back and slid off the hood as the truck screeched to a halt. She hit the pavement, flipped over backward, and rolled to a stop in the middle of the street.
The driver quickly got out of the pickup cab and ran over to Buffy lying in the street, but Lily reached her first. Buffy was on her hands and knees, trying to get up. People from all around came rushing into the street.
"Are you okay?" Lily asked Buffy.
"Jeez, I didn't see you." The driver took her by the arms and helped her up.
"Oh..." Lily paused. "Maybe - Maybe you shouldn't move."
The driver nodded. "Maybe you should lie down."
Buffy looked around at all of the people gathering. "No, I'm fine."
"Somebody call an ambulance!" the driver yelled.
Buffy held up her hands to fend off everyone's help. "No! I'm okay, I just...I need to go." She ran off, not the least bit hurt.
As she neared her apartment further down the street, Buffy walked at a brisk pace as she went around a corner. There, she bumped into the man from earlier and knocked all of his leaflets onto the sidewalk.
"Whoa!" He saw his leaflets. "Oh..."
They both crouched down to pick up the papers.
"Where are you running to?"
"Sorry."
"Maybe I should ask...where are you running from?"
They finished gathering up his leaflets and stood back up.
He took a good look at Buffy. "You're pretty new around here. Uh, you've got the 'look', though."
"The 'look'?"
"Like you had to grow up way too fast. What's your name?"
"Anne." Buffy pushed past him to go.
"Hey, um, I'm Ken. Here, go ahead, take one of these."
He held out a leaflet, and Buffy looked at it. It read "Come home to Family Home" and had a drawing of a house and a silhouette of a man reaching out to hug a child. The address given was on Hill Street, which was nearby.
"Don't be shy about stopping by. I mean...I guess you're not starving, but...we're not just interested in feeding the body. You might find something you're missing."
Buffy looked at him. "I'm all right."
Ken gave her a look of disbelief. "Then why are you here?"
Buffy looked away.
"This is not a good place for a kid to be. You get old fast here."
Buffy looked at him knowingly.
"The thing that drains the life out of them is despair. I mean...kids come here, and they got nothing to go home to, and...this ends up being the last stop for a lot of them. Shouldn't have to be that way."
Buffy looked down the street. She saw a woman alone in the street, a boy and girl huddling together on the curb, a young boy begging from a businessman that rejected him as he walked by, and a woman with a dirty face. Buffy felt sad.
A while later, Buffy was back in her apartment. She showered and then opened a can of SpaghettiOs for dinner. She got a spoon from a drawer. She went and sat calmly on the edge of her bed, naked, holding the can of SpaghettiOs in her lap. She just stared blankly into the room, breathing calmly.
Once her nerves were calmed, she ate her meal, set the can on her night stand, lay down, and waited for sleep to come.
The next morning, Giles walked up to the Summers' house, climbed the steps to the front porch, and knocked on the door.
Soon, the door opened, and Joyce was standing there.
Joyce was surprised to see him. "Uh, hello."
"Hello. Um, may I..." Giles gestured inside.
"Oh, uh, of course." Joyce waved him in. "Come on in."
"Thank you." Giles slowly walked into the living room. "I've, uh, just come back from Oakland. A friend of mine called with a lead. Stories about someone fighting vampires." He took off his glasses. "It, uh, didn't pan out, I'm afraid." He started to clean them. "No new Slayer. No vampires. Bunch of school kids in heavy mascara listening to extremely silly music."
"Well, thank you for going. The sooner that you can get a new Slayer in Sunnydale, the sooner that our lives can get back to normal."
Giles frowned but ignored her remark. "How are you doing?"
Joyce stepped into the living room and crossed her arms. "I can hardly, uh..." She sighed and smiled weakly. "I can hardly leave the house. I'm just afraid she'll call, and she'll need my help."
Giles put his glasses back on. "Buffy is the most capable child I've ever known. I mean...she may be confused, unhappy, but I honestly believe she's in no danger."
Joyce lowered her arms. "I just wish I could talk to her. The last thing we did was fight." She fidgeted with her hands.
"Joyce, you mustn't blame yourself for her leaving."
Joyce nodded. "I don't." She took a breath. "I blame you." She exhaled.
Giles was taken aback.
"You've been this huge influence on her, guiding her. I feel like you've taken her away from me."
Giles was speechless for a moment while he considered his answer. "I am far from being a parental figure to Buffy, and I haven't had much of an influence. If anything, she's taken her training into her own hands and is now mentoring a team of extraordinary young women. I didn't make Buffy who she is."
"And who exactly is she?"
Giles just looked at her for a moment. "She's your daughter, and you're damn lucky to have her."
At Helen's Kitchen, Buffy was filling the sugar dispensers at the counter.
Lily entered and walked up to her. "Buff...um, Anne? Can I talk to you?"
Buffy glanced up at her but didn't stop her work. "Look, this really isn't a good time. Can it wait?"
"Rickie's gone. I haven't seen him for more than a day. I...He's never left for that long. I think something's...happened. Maybe something's happened."
"Well, did you call the police?"
Lily sighed. "Rickie skipped out on his parole. Uh, they would just cause more trouble."
Buffy sighed. "I don't know, did you - did you ask around?"
"Can you help me?" Lily asked her. "That's who you are and stuff, right? I mean...you help people, and...you know...you know how to do stuff."
Buffy stared at her in sympathy.
"Please." Lily was on the verge of tears. "I don't know what to do."
Buffy nodded. "Okay. After my shift is over, we'll check around."
Lily smiled in appreciation. "Thank you."
Lily and Buffy walked into the blood bank.
"We gave blood lots of times, 'cause you get a few bucks. And they have cookies!" Lily told Buffy.
Buffy smiled. "You're a fan of the sugar rush?"
Lily smiled. "It's nice."
"Hi. Are you here to donate blood?" a nurse asked them.
"Uh, we're looking for a friend."
"Rickie T.? We come in sometimes."
"Rickie, sure. Uh, he's not here."
"Well, do you know if he's been in the last day or so?" Buffy asked her.
"Well, let me check the sheet."
"Ow!" a man exclaimed.
Buffy felt squeamish as she looked over and saw him being stuck with a needle. "This'll probably go faster, if we split up."
Lily nodded in agreement. "Can I come with you?"
"Okay, where did I lose you on the whole splitting-up thing?" Buffy asked her.
Lily smiled. "Oh. Sorry."
"I was thinking we could check out some of your hangouts and, um, I guess...meet later at my place."
"Okay."
"Sorry, guys. He hasn't been here."
Buffy nodded. "Thanks."
"I'll tell him you were looking."
Buffy smiled. "Great."
They left the blood bank.
That night, Buffy walked into an abandoned building. A homeless man stirred from his sleep as he heard her but soon went back to sleep. Buffy made her way through the building, being careful not to step on anyone. Some of them watched her as she went by. She walked slowly along a dark hall and turned a corner. She was startled by a man with his arms full walking the other way behind her. She continued along and soon noticed an old man lying on the floor, dead. Next to his head was an empty bottle of drain cleaner, an apparent suicide. Buffy kneeled next to him and felt for a pulse. Nothing. She put his arm down and saw there was a tattoo of half of a heart on his forearm with a banner across the heart and the name "Lily" tattooed on it.
Buffy looked at the old man, confused. "Rickie?"
Lily was in Buffy's apartment, waiting for her to return. She found Buffy's stuffed duck and picked it up to stroke it.
Buffy opened the door, walked in, and closed it behind her.
Lily put the duck down and stepped closer to Buffy. "Did you find Rickie? I thought of..." She paused. "Well, he likes to go to this movie house; you can get in around the back-"
"Lily...I think he's dead."
Lily was suddenly very sad and lost. "But...he takes care of me."
"I'm sorry."
"We're gonna get a place. His cousin can get him a job at the car wash."
"Lily, there's..." Buffy sighed. "There's something else." She sat on the bed. "The - The person that I found...was old. He - He looked about eighty."
"Well, that's not Rickie!"
"I'm sure it was. I-I don't know how, but...it was like something drained the life out of him."
"Do you mean like a vampire?"
"No. A vampire couldn't accelerate the aging process. Maybe it was something in his blood." Buffy had a thought. "When was the last time you guys gave blood together?"
"I don't understand. Maybe it's not Rickie, okay?"
Buffy stood up. "Lily, this is something you're just gonna have to deal with."
Lily was flustered. "But he didn't do anything wrong! Why would this happen to him?"
"That's not the point."
Lily calmed a bit.
"These things happen all the time. You can't just...close your eyes and hope that they're gonna go away."
"Is it 'cause of you?" Lily asked her.
Buffy was confused. "What?"
Lily stared at her. "You know about monsters and shit. You could have brought this with you."
Buffy was very annoyed. "I didn't bring anything with me. You came to me with your problems. I agreed to help. It was Rickie. I'm sure of it. He had the same matching tattoo. If you can't deal, then I'm sorry."
Lily couldn't take it. She held up her hands to deny what she was hearing, opened the door, and walked out of the apartment. She slammed the door shut behind her. Buffy sighed, worried for Lily.
Out on the street, Lily stopped walking and leaned against the iron gates pulled across a storefront.
Ken came up behind her. "Are you okay?"
Lily shook her head, barely able to keep from crying.
"Hey, it's okay. Maybe I can help."
Lily sniffled. "You can't." She breathed deeply.
"Look, I know you all think I'm a big square handing out leaflets about hope. But hope is a real thing, just like despair. And hope can fill up a part of you that's missing."
"But Rickie is-"
"Rickie? Say, are you Lily?" Ken smiled. "Right! He was talking about you."
Lily faced him. "You've seen Rickie?"
"Oh, sure! Rickie's with us now."
"She said he was dead."
"Well, someone's sure handed you a tall tale. Rickie's no more dead than I am. Why don't you come to Family Home? We'll get you taken care of."
Lily considered for a moment. Ken smiled at her, and she nodded in agreement. He took her by the arm and led her away.
Buffy returned to the blood bank, broke in, and looked through a filing cabinet to find Rickie's records. She grabbed it and a few others, closed the cabinet, and took the folders over to a desk. She turned on a lamp and began to go through them. First, she pulled out Rickie's and opened it. She scanned his latest donation form. It looked normal - except for the word "candidate" in the comments box.
"Candidate for what?" Buffy opened another record and saw "candidate" again.
"What are you doing?"
"Breaking into your office and going through your private files." Buffy looked at another file. "Candidate for what?"
"I'm calling the police." The nurse stepped toward Buffy to get to the phone.
Buffy reached over to the phone and yanked it off the wall. It fell to the desk with its wires torn.
"Now, you've got a whole shitload of candidates here. I wonder if any of them are missing like Rickie." Buffy faced the nurse. "Goddamn, I bet they are."
"You're getting yourself in a lot of trouble."
"I don't want any trouble. I just want to be alone and quiet in a room with a chair and a fireplace and a tea cozy. I don't even know what a tea cozy is, but I want one. Instead, I keep getting trouble, which I am more than willing to share."
The nurse looked at her nervously.
"What are you doing with these kids?" Buffy asked her.
"Nothing. I just...I give him the names of the healthy ones."
"Give them to who?" Buffy asked her.
At Family Home, Ken looked at Lily, who was wearing only a simple long tunic.
"Well, don't you look nice?" Ken asked her.
"I guess."
"Well, you don't want to wear your own outfit to the cleansing. It'll get soaked."
"A cleansing is like a baptism? Right?" Lily asked him.
"Not quite the same." Ken indicated the way.
Lily followed him. "Will I see Rickie after?"
"Oh, of course. He's waiting for you. He's very excited."
They walked for a while in silence. Then Ken opened a door.
Ken and Lily walked into the room, which had at its center a small rectangular pool of what looked like black tar. Ken closed the door.
"We come to this station to wash away the past. Go ahead, kneel." Ken indicated the edge of the pool.
Lily kneeled down.
Ken squatted next to her. "We let the water run over the sin and the pain and the uncertainty."
"It looks kinda...dirty."
Ken smiled. "Yeah."
Buffy walked up to the front door of Family Home and knocked. The door opened. A man was standing there.
"Yes?" he asked.
"I...I need help."
"Oh?"
"You know, I just...I woke up, and I looked in the mirror, and I thought 'Hey, what's with all the sin? I need to change.' I'm...I'm dirty. I'm - I'm bad with the...sex and the envy and that - that loud music us kids listen to nowadays. W..." Buffy could tell that the guy wasn't buying it. "Oh, I just suck at undercover. Where's Ken?"
The man tried to slam the door closed, but she kicked it open, and it slammed into his face instead. She marched in.
Lily reached down to the black water in the pool. For a moment, she hesitated, but then she put her hand in. The liquid was thick and pitch-black, and her hand disappeared in it.
Buffy swung open the door, banging it loudly into the wall.
Ken looked at her and stood up. "This is a private moment. If you could just-"
"How do you make 'em old, Ken? Do you feed on youth? What's the deal?" Buffy asked him.
"Do you really wanna know?" Ken asked her.
Lily looked back. "What's going on?"
Buffy was surprised to see Lily here. Suddenly, something grabbed Lily. She screamed as she was pulled into the pool and disappeared into the black slime. Buffy ran to help, but Ken grabbed her and choked her with his arm around her neck. Buffy grabbed his arm and tried to snap her body back to make him release her, but instead they just both fell into the pool as well.
Buffy and Ken fell out of a black pool in the ceiling and into a dimly-lit passageway. Buffy briefly looked up at the pool, then looked around to see where she was. She saw Lily leaning against the wall, holding her head.
"Lily..." Buffy rolled over onto her hands and knees and quickly crawled over to Lily.
Lily was in pain. "Oh..."
Buffy looked up at the pool in the ceiling. The waves from her fall through it were beginning to dissipate.
"Oh, my face!" Ken exclaimed.
Buffy looked over at Ken.
"Ow! My face!" Ken turned toward them and began to pull it and his hair off. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to glue that thing on?!"
Beneath his mask, Ken's face was red, and his head was bald. There appeared to be pieces of skin missing from his forehead, revealing the even redder flesh beneath. Lily began to panic. Buffy started to get to her feet and tried to pull Lily up with her.
Ken stood up. "Guards!"
Buffy took Lily's hand and began to run, pulling her along. Buffy and Lily ran through a maze of halls and came out on a ledge that overlooked what looked like a large iron works.
Buffy and Lily took in the scene. There were huge vats of molten metal, sparks were flying through the air from one side, and it was hot and smoky. Buffy looked closer and, in the shadows, saw people being used as slave labor, kept in line by more guards with whips. Zombie-like humans pounded the metal on anvils, pushed wheelbarrows from place to place, and swung sledgehammers. Some of them coughed hard as they worked. The guards watched and cracked their whips every so often.
"Welcome to my world. I hope you like it."
Buffy and Lily looked back at Ken. He hit Buffy hard in the face with a club, knocking her out.
Ken looked at Lily. "You're never leaving." He smiled and licked his lips.
Buffy regained consciousness, rolled onto her side, and felt her head where Ken hit her. No blood, but she was still a bit dazed. Buffy was lying on the floor in a cell. Lily was sitting on the floor, behind her, leaning against a pillar.
"Oh. Unh..." Buffy slowly sat up. "Lily..."
"I always knew I would come here...sooner or later. I knew I belonged here."
Buffy looked around. "Where?"
"Hell."
Buffy turned her head toward Lily. "This isn't Hell."
"Isn't it?" Ken asked.
Buffy spun her head around to look at Ken but quickly regretted moving it so fast. She was in pain. "Unh..." She rubbed her forehead.
"What is Hell but the total absence of hope? The substance, the tactile proof of despair. You're right, Lily. This is where you've been heading all your life. Just like Rickie."
"Rickie...?" Lily asked him.
"He forgot you. Well, it took him a long time. He remembered your name years after he'd forgotten his own. But, in the end-"
"Years? But-"
"Oh. Uh, interesting thing: time moves more quickly here than in your reality. A hundred long years will pass here. On Earth, it's just a day."
Buffy nodded in realization. "So you just work us till we're too old and spit us back out."
"That's the plan. See, Lily, you'll die of old age before anyone wonders where you went. Not that anyone will; that's why we chose you."
Buffy stared at him. "You didn't choose me."
"No. But...here you are."
The huge steel door of a personnel elevator split open, the upper half rising, the lower half sinking. A group of young slaves, including Buffy and Lily, was herded out. Buffy tripped and fell to the floor. The other slaves stopped walking. A guard started to explain things to the new recruits as Buffy slowly got back to her feet.
"You work, and you live. That is all."
The guard had even less skin on his head than Ken, just a few patches around his eyes and across the top of his head sewn together. His chin and cheeks were exposed flesh and muscle, and he had no lips covering his teeth. Buffy was standing again, holding her head in pain.
"You do not complain or laugh or do anything besides work. Whatever you thought, whatever you were, does not matter. You are no one now. You mean nothing."
The guard walked to one end of the group and faced the boy standing there. Behind them, the elevator doors closed with a slam.
"Who are you?"
The boy was afraid. "Aaron."
The guard whaled hard on him with his club, and the boy grunted in pain and fell to the floor, unconscious. Buffy immediately sobered and stared intensely ahead.
The guard advanced to Lily. "Who are you?"
"No one."
The guard continued to the next person, a boy. "Who are you?"
"No one."
The guard reached Buffy. "Who are you?"
Buffy looked at him for a moment and then smiled, friendly. "I'm Buffy. The Vampire Slayer. And you are...?"
The guard was incensed at her insubordination and roared as he wielded back his club to strike her. He swung at Buffy, but she sidestepped him and grabbed his arm as he bent over from his follow-through. Buffy slammed her other forearm down on the guard's, breaking it. He fell to the floor in pain. She picked up his club and swung it at another guard, striking him in the head. She swung again the opposite way at a third guard, hitting him in the gut. They both fell, unconscious.
Buffy looked over at the group of would-be slaves. "Anyone who's not having fun here, follow me."
She started to run, and the group followed her.
The vats of molten metal glowed brightly. There were sparks flying everywhere. On a ledge, two guards were watching the slaves work. Another guard was walking down a metal staircase. Buffy and the small group hid beneath it.
Buffy looked up at the guards. "There's no way we can get back up there without meeting new people." She looked at Lily. "Okay. Lily, when those guards leave, and they will leave, I want you to take these people and get them up there, okay? Fast and quiet."
"You're leaving me? But-"
"Lily...you can handle this. 'Cause I say so."
Suddenly, a siren began to wail loudly.
"We've gone public. Okay, quick, get them up. Go! Quiet!" Buffy ordered.
Lily began to lead them away but then went back to Buffy. "I'm sorry I said this was your fault before."
"Lily, this can wait."
"Well, in case we die-"
"Go! Go!" Buffy told her.
Lily ran off to lead the group out. Buffy saw two guards coming for them and led them away at a run. She wound around through the slaves still blindly working away. The guards were big and bulky compared to her relatively slim figure darting through the maze, but they managed to keep up. She saw a pole jutting out of the floor and grabbed onto it, swung around once, and knocked one of the guards out with an aerial side kick. She let go of the pole and began to run again. She reached a platform, shoulder-rolled onto it, and rose to a standing position. Her pursuer jumped up onto the stage and tried a backhand swing at her with his sledgehammer, but she ducked and blocked his second swing. The guard kicked up with his knee and got Buffy in the stomach, stunning her. He punched her, making her fall to the floor. He took a swing at Buffy's head, but she clamped her hands around the hammer's handle and yanked him up and over her. He slammed down hard onto his shoulder and rolled off the platform. Buffy still had his hammer and quickly got to her feet. The two other guards on the ledge left their post and began to approach her.
Lily led the group to a set of stairs. She ushered them up. "C'mon, c'mon, everybody go! Go!"
One after the other, they quickly climbed the stairs. Lily brought up the rear.
On the platform, Buffy continued to fight another guard. She quickly hit him in the head with a full spinning out-to-in crescent kick. He took the blow hard and fell off the platform. Still another guard took a swing at Buffy's legs with his sledgehammer, but she jumped high to avoid the swing. Buffy swung her hammer into the guard's face, knocking him down. As he tried to get up, Buffy knocked him down again with a snapping roundhouse kick to his arm, kicking his hammer away in the process. The guard got to his feet. Buffy swung her hammer in an uppercut, striking him in the jaw and sending him flying off the platform in a backflip. Yet another guard jumped up onto the platform and tackled Buffy, struggling to get the hammer out of her hands.
Buffy did a roundhouse kick to the guard's face, and he stumbled backwards. Another guard came up to the edge of the platform, holding a battle-ax with a curved blade. He looked at the fighting for a moment, then moved to jump up onto the platform.
The guard on the platform tried to pound Buffy's head with his club, but she held her hammer high, blocking his attack and making him drop his weapon.
Buffy swung down with her hands, carrying the guard's hands as well. She grabbed him by the neck, spun around once, and threw him through the air. He hit a steel beam and slumped to the ground. The guard with the battle-ax was up on the platform now and took a wide swing with it at Buffy, but she leaned aside, and he missed.
Buffy managed to duck the guard's next swing, avoiding decapitation. He swung again from above, but she blocked his attack with her hammer, and the head of the ax embedded itself in the handle. Buffy performed a front snap kick that dislodged the ax and knocked the weapon out of the guard's hands and spinning up into the air. She kneeled down and knocked his legs out from under him with her hammer. While she was crouched, she looked up at the battle-ax as it fell and caught the airborne weapon. She got to her feet, as did her assailant. Buffy did another roundhouse kick to his face, and he went flying off the platform.
Buffy looked around, temporarily without an opponent. Suddenly, a guard jumped up. Buffy swung a backhand punch at his head, but he blocked it and shoved her arm out of the way. He punched her with a backhand fist. She stumbled a little but recovered in time to duck his second swing at her head. She did a side kick to his rear that sent him off the platform. Two more guards tried to climb onto the platform. Buffy crouched and quickly threw her battle-ax spinning end over end at one of them. It sliced deeply into his chest, and the power behind her throw sent him falling off the platform. The other guard tried a wide swing, but Buffy blocked it, grabbed onto his arm, and sent him somersaulting through the air and off the platform. Another guard attacked. Buffy smashed her elbow into his nose and followed it up with a full spin and a backhand punch to the head. He fell down awkwardly. Another one leaped up and caught Buffy unaware with a high punch to her face. She stumbled backwards but didn't fall. Two more guards joined him and tried to surround her. Buffy snap-kicked one in the face and side-kicked another. Buffy did a full spinning hook kick to the third, smacking him soundly in the skull. One of the guards punched Buffy hard in the face, and she staggered. He grabbed her by the neck while she was trying to regain her balance and yanked her head up fast and hard. He held her while two other guards punched her in the stomach.
The group of slaves ran down a dimly-lit corridor, trailed by Lily. They rounded a corner. As Lily was about to follow them, Ken grabbed her from behind, pulled out a large knife, and held it to her neck. She didn't struggle as he led her off, back to the ledge.
On the platform, the guards kept on punching Buffy. Finally, she was able to retaliate and swung an arm out, backhand-punching two of them and high-punching the third, knocking him down. She swung her arm out in a wide arc and hit the first two with the one blow, knocking them down as well. A fourth guard roundhouse-kicked her in the stomach, and she stepped back to regain her balance. He latched onto her arm and tried to throw her, but Buffy reversed the move and managed to throw him off the platform instead. A guard dove head-first for Buffy's legs. She leaped up and pulled her legs up into a tuck-jump over him. He dove right underneath her. Buffy ran and jumped off the platform, grabbing a pole. It bent under her weight, and she rode it down to the floor below. She began to run, and the chase was on again. She didn't get very far when she looked up and saw Ken coming back out onto the ledge, holding his knife to Lily's neck. Buffy stopped in her tracks. The guards chasing her quickly caught up and grabbed her by the arms.
"One of you fights...and you all die!" Ken let go of Lily and pushed her aside. He stared intently down at Buffy. "That...was not...permitted."
"Yeah, but it was fun."
Ken smiled. "You've got guts. I think I'd like to slice you open and play with them." He held up his knife. "Let everyone know!"
Lily cowered behind him. Ken seemed to have forgotten she was there.
"This is the price of rebellio-"
Lily pushed him from behind, and he fell screaming from the high ledge to the floor below. The guards holding Buffy just watched as he hit bottom with a loud thud. Buffy gave Lily a surprised look and then quickly took advantage of the distraction and backhand-punched her captors, one in the face and the other in the penis. While the second one was dazed, she shoved her weight against him, and he fell backward onto a barrel. The first one punched high, but she blocked, grabbed his arm, and flipped him over onto a pile of burlap sacks. Buffy jumped up onto the pile and stepped across her fallen attacker. He tried to grab her but missed. She jumped high into the air and grabbed hold of a heavy chain hanging from above. She climbed it hand-over-hand as quickly as she could to the ledge where Lily was still standing.
The two of them ran through the door and quickly found their way to the others, who were struggling with a heavy iron gate.
Lily looked at Buffy. "They'll be coming."
Buffy crouched down and took hold of the gate, bracing herself for a very heavy lift. She began to raise the gate, straining as she went. She grunted. "Okay...this...works...the abs...and...the glutes." She grunted again.
As soon as she got it high enough, Lily waved to the others to crawl underneath. They all scrambled to the other side.
"I'm gonna feel this for a week!" Buffy held the gate up over her head and squeezed her head and shoulders between two of the bars to get to the other side.
Suddenly, Ken appeared behind her, bloodied from his fall, and tackled her to the floor. His club went flying. The gate fell down behind him. He suddenly arched up and screamed in pain. Buffy rolled to a stop out of his reach. She got to her hands and knees and looked over at him as he continued to scream in pain. Two of the gate's bars had impaled themselves through his calves. The slaves helped each other up through the black slime of the pool in the ceiling. Buffy got to her feet and picked up Ken's club. She approached him, and he arched his back to look up at her.
"You've ruined..." Ken paused. "You-"
"Hey, Ken, wanna see my impression of Gandhi?" Buffy wielded back the club and brought it down hard onto his head, crushing his skull.
Lily walked up behind her and looked at him squeamishly. "Gandhi?"
Buffy shrugged. "Well, you know, if he was really pissed off."
The homeless people walked out of the pool room at Family Home. Lily was kneeling by the pool, helping Buffy out. She yanked her legs from the slime and rolled onto the floor. They both got up and looked at the pool.
Lily pointed. "What do we do about-"
With a flash of light, the pool mysteriously tiled itself over to match the tiles along the edges. It now appeared to be a six-inch-deep, empty ceremonial pool. The two girls just stared at it in wonder.
Back in her apartment, Buffy finished cleaning herself up in the kitchen. Lily was looking at the folding doors that separated the kitchen from the rest of the apartment.
"Let me give you the tour." Buffy walked into the main room and slowly turned to face Lily. "This concludes our tour."
Lily leaned against the wall. "It's really nice."
Buffy leaned against the dresser. "All the rent's paid up for the next three weeks." She turned around and opened one of the dresser drawers. "I spoke to Mitch at the diner." She pulled out her uniform. "He said you can start on Thursday." She stepped over to the bed. "He's, uh..." She laid down the uniform. "He's kind of...repulsive, but, uh, he won't give you a hard time."
Lily sat down on the bed and put her hand on the uniform.
"Um...I'll call and check up on you."
"I'm not...great at taking care of myself."
"Gets easier. Takes practice. But I believe you have it in you." Buffy smiled at Lily. "You're as strong as steel."
Lily looked up at Buffy, smiled briefly, and looked back down at the uniform and the name tag pinned to it. "Hey..." She looked back up at Buffy. "Can I be 'Anne'?" She smiled at Buffy.
Buffy smiled back at her. "If that's what you want."
"Thank you."
"Well, I better get going." Buffy hugged Anne. "You'll do good."
Anne hugged Buffy. "Thank you for saving my life...again."
Buffy had to make one stop before she left Los Angeles: her old house. She rang the doorbell and waited.
Soon, the door opened. Her father was standing there.
Hank smiled. "Buffy!"
Buffy smiled. "Hi, Dad."
They hugged each other.
"Where have you been?" Hank asked her. "Your mother, Dawn, and I have been so worried."
"I've been living in an apartment in the city. Got a job waiting tables."
Hank let go of Buffy. "Well, come in!"
Buffy walked into the house. Hank followed her, closed the door, and locked it.
"Are you hungry? Thirsty?" Hank asked her.
"Nah, I'm good, thanks. I'm just about to head back to Sunnydale, but I thought I'd stop by and let you guys know I'm okay. Where's Dawn?" Buffy asked.
"In her room."
Buffy headed toward Dawn's bedroom.
"You don't have to leave right away. You can stay the night."
Buffy looked back at her dad and smiled. "Yeah, okay, thanks."
Buffy knocked on Dawn's bedroom door. She heard music playing inside. Soon, the door opened. Dawn was standing there. Buffy clearly heard "Cruel Summer" by Ace of Base blaring from Dawn's boombox.
Dawn grinned. "Buffy!" She jumped at her big sister and hugged her.
Buffy hugged her little sister. "Hey, Dawnie."
"Where were you?!"
"In the city. I should have visited earlier, but I needed some time to myself. Heading back to Sunnydale tomorrow morning."
"Cool."
They released each other and walked into Dawn's bedroom. Buffy closed the door behind her. They went and sat on Dawn's bed. Dawn turned off the boombox.
"So is it true you got kicked out of school again?" Dawn asked her.
Buffy sighed. "Yeah. I dunno what I'm gonna do. GED certification, maybe."
"Mom's been worried sick."
Buffy was surprised. "She kicked me out of the house!"
Dawn was surprised. "What?!"
"Yeah, she couldn't handle the fact that I was going off to save the world, and she still resented me for mu-killing her boyfriend, so she was like 'You walk out of this house, don't even think about coming back!'" Buffy shrugged. "Since I didn't feel like letting the world end, I walked out of the house."
"Wow." Dawn thought of something and smiled. "Hey, you can live here - with us!"
Buffy smiled. "That'd be nice, but Sunnydale needs a Slayer. I guess, for the foreseeable future, that's me."
"So where will you live?" Dawn asked her.
"I'm gonna try to reconcile with Mom first. If that doesn't work out..." Buffy shrugged. "I'll see if one of my friends' families will take me in. Or maybe Giles or Ms. Calendar."
The next morning, Buffy walked up to the front porch of her mother's house and knocked. She waited.
Eventually, the door opened. There stood her mother, looking sad, tired, and disheveled. For a long moment, they just looked at each other without saying a word. Then they stepped toward each other and held each other close for a long, tight embrace.
