Again set in the future a bit. Our girls are back together and happy. But new things are afoot.
Well here it is...
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TITLE: Queen of Darkness, Episode 2: Ghost in the Machine
AUTHOR: Web Warlock
DISCLAIMER: Nothing to disclaim. Joss invented all of this; I am just playing in his sandbox.
RATING: PG-13. Unless of course you have problems with two people who love each other very much expressing that love.
PAIRINGS: Everyone is with who they are supposed to be with.
SPOILERS: Everything and a bunch of wild-ass speculation, set a few years in the future.
DISTRIBUTION: Not yet. This is beta.
FEEDBACK: Praise is nice, but constructive criticism is more helpful
SUMMARY: Willow and Tara go computer shopping, Buffy visits her Ex, and an old enemy tries to kill everyone.
NOTES: Sydney is loosely based on Lori Singer’s character from VR.5 (Which also featured ASH). In my mind she stopped fooling around with the VR crap and went to teach Willow’s CS classes. Brian is based on two different roommates I had in college. I just thought ‘what would this guy do if Buffy were his ex?’
You don’t need to read the other parts of ‘Queen of Darkness’ or ‘Queen of Light’ to read this story, but it doesn’t hurt.
Episode 2: Ghost in the Machine
Summers’ Home. Early Saturday Morning, August 29th, 2004.
Willow’s alarm goes off announcing the arrival of another morning. She reaches over hits the ‘off’ button and rolls over to wake the sleeping blonde next to her.
“Tara! Tara, wake up, you know what today is!”, Willow said excitedly.
“Ugh…It’s Saturday, we can sleep in.”, the blonde replied and pulled the covers over her head. Willow pulled them back down.
“No it’s the computer faire today! You promised!”, replied the red-head with a slight hint of being hurt.
“No we can stay in bed. I bet I can come up with a few good reasons to.”, Tara said, her eyes were still closed, but a half-smile played across her face. She inched closer to her lover and began move against her. Willow began to protest, but her mouth opened and no words came out. Her eyes began to close as she began to move as well.
“That-that…that is so not fair.”, Willow said while breathing heavy. “Well. Maybe we can go in a bit…”
Willow pulled the covers over them both as she climbed on top of Tara who let out a laugh.
A little while later, the two women untangled themselves and moved on to get their showers. Both emerged, cleaner, more awake and lot more satisfied than before.
“I am going to head down and make some breakfast.”, Tara said and sniffed the air, “Smells like Dawn or Buffy might be up. Hmm. Coffee.”.
“Ok, I’ll meet you downstairs in a bit, can’t find my other shoe.”, Willow replied.
“It’s under the bed sweetie”, Tara shouted back as she walked downstairs. She rounded the corner to head for the kitchen and then she saw something that gave her a shock.
“Oh my Goddess! Willow!”, Tara shouted.
Willow came down the stairs as quick as she could taking three or four steps at a time. She got downstairs to where Tara was standing. Tara had her hand over her mouth, Willow saw what had shocked Tara.
“Oh my God! Buffy. Are you doing homework?”, Willow asked.
“Don’t say a word. I have these child observation hours to sort through and get my summaries in.”, Buffy replied in an semi-disgusted manner. The Slayer was sitting at the table surrounded by papers. She was dressed, and had made coffee and apparently had been at it for a while.
“At first I thought she had been possessed or maybe it was the ‘Bot.”, Tara said trying not to laugh.
“Keep it up you two and I’ll reconsider your cushy rent-free situation here.”, Buffy shot back.
“Not saying a word. Just thrilled to see it that’s all.”, Willow replied. “Where’s Dawnie? Not still in bed?”
“No, Anya called while you two were in the shower”, Buffy said with emphasis on the last word. Willow tried looking innocent, Tara just looked embarrassed. “She wanted her help opening this morning.”
“Wow. That is usually Anya’s ‘Quiet time’ with her money. Dawn and I have had to stand outside waiting for her to open before.”, Willow remarked with a hint of surprise.
“Did you want some breakfast?”, Tara asked.
“Nah, I’m caffeine girl this morning. I’m cool. But can I use your computer Will?”
“Sure. Just don’t look in the folder called ‘naked womyn pics’.”, Willow said. Buffy gave her look which caused Willow to laugh. “I’m just kidding Buffy! My computer is perfectly safe and clean.”, Tara gave her a similar look. “What, can’t I joke, I do *like* girls after all…”
“Whatever. Don’t you two have a shopping spree to go on or something?”, Buffy asked.
“Well I could stay here with you if you like and help you with-”, Tara began to say, but Willow gave her her best ‘pouty face’ look. “No we are going computer shopping. Wanna come with?”
“Gee spend a beautiful Saturday in a convention center with a couple hundred geeks or stay inside and do homework all day? Wow my life does suck. Besides I have something I have to do today.”, Buffy said as she picked up a small wrapped gift.
“Ooo! Presents! What’s the occasion?”, Willow said.
“Brian. Today is his birthday, I am trying to decided whether or not to give this to him.”
“Oh. Well. You two are still friends right?”, Willow asked.
“Yeah. But it is a little more complicated than that.”, Buffy replied, looking up from the present to her two friends. “I guess, I could just keep it.”
“If you bought for him, then you should take it to him. Just make sure that he doesn’t feel lead on.”, Tara added. “Are you, You are not going out with him tonight are you?”
“No. He is going out with his sister. The one that hated me.”
“Well then we should go out tonight, all of us and Dawn. We will make a girls night out!”, Willow exclaimed.
“Yeah! That sounds great, I could use some girlie fun. It’s a deal.”, Buffy said her mood improving. “Now I got to get to work.”
“Ok, and we need to go.”, Willow said ushering Tara out the door.
“What about breakfast?”, Tara asked
“I’ll buy you a doughnut at the computer fair.”
“They have doughnuts?”
“You are so out of your culture with this aren’t you. Bye Buff!” Willow said as she closed the door behind her.
Willow and Tara got to the Sunnydale Convention Center and it was already packed with computer dealers. They got to the gate and Tara was surprised to see they had an entry fee. She was even more surprised when the guy taking tickets just let them through.
“Ok, so how did we do that?”, she asked.
“Oh, not pay? I’ve been coming to this thing for years, Ray never charges me. Besides I also think he does it round out the ratio of girls to guys.”, Willow said and she moved closer to Tara , “To bad we can’t help.”
Tara was amazed at what she saw, booths selling everything she had ever seen computer related and many things she had never seen before in her life. It was crowded, but they walked hand-in-hand and Willow seemed to have a destination in mind. Every once in while some guy would pass by with a ‘Hey Will’, or a ‘How’s it going Willow’. She explained that most of them were from the Computer Science department at UCSD. Finally they got to where Willow was leading them. A small booth with a bunch of headset-goggles for sale.
“And here we are! Hey Syd!”, Willow said to first Tara and then to the blonde woman sitting at the booth space.
“Hey Willow! I was hoping you would be here today. Is this?”, the woman asked.
“Yes! Tara this is Sydney, she was one of my TA’s at UCSD, she is a grad student in computer science studying virtual reality. Sydney, this is my girlfriend Tara.”
“Pleased to finally meet you Tara! Wow Willow talked so much about you.” Sydney said while shaking Tara’s hand.
“Really?”, Tara said and gave a smile to Willow who could only smile back. “It is really nice to meet you too.”
“Yeah, she would go on and on about you, till finally one of the guys in the class asked ‘so what is she your girlfriend or something?’, and Willow totally knocked ‘em out with this bright a cheery ‘of course she is!’ it was so cool. Though I don’t think Spiros ever believed you.”
“Spiros was an idiot. Thought he was ‘gods-gift-to-women’.”, Willow said disgusted. “Oh Willow come with me. You will forget your-girlfriend.”, Willow said in rather bad Greek accent. “At least his brother was cool.”
“Doesn’t matter, your Kung-Fu was better.”, Sydney said.
“Really?”, Willows seemed surprised, then to Tara, “That’s high geek praise. She is saying my programming is better.”
“Yeah you got skillz, Will. Now do you have my money!”, Sydney said with a mock threatening tone. Tara was taken aback at first till she saw the blonde’s smile.
“You bet! Got my stuff?”
“Yup, all right here and I even gave you the CS 421 alumni discount, one free box to carry it all in!”
Willow gave Sydney an envelope. Tara knew from earlier that it was full of cash, part of Willow’s commission on the ‘Magic Box’s’ new server. Sydney took the cash and gave Willow a box full of gadgets, one of which Willow pulled out.
“Cool the new 500s! Look Tara it’s the new 500!”, Willow was acting like a child on the first day of Hanukah.
“Great!”, Tara said. “What is it?”
“Sorry baby, I just get so excited sometimes! This the product that Sydney’s company makes. It is a Virtual Reality deck. See you put it on like this,” Willow demonstrated by putting the helmet on her head. “You close up the goggles, adjust your volume, vison, put on your tactile gloves and Bam! you are inside the computer! Three dimensional graphics, surround sound, tactile feedback, just like being there, only your still here, not there.” Willow moved her head around a bit and then nodded it. “Much lighter than the 300s you had back at UCSD. I bet these are selling great!”
“I wish.”, Sydney said with a snort. “I guess you haven’t been to the CAVE yet.”
Willow was taking off her deck. “They have a CAVE here?”
“Ok, sorry I am lost again, what’s a cave?”, Tara interrupted. She loved to hear Willow talk, but when she got in to geek mode she was easy to loose.
“Oh, sorry, running off again. A CAVE, or Computer Assisted Virtual Environment.”, she read Tara’s blank look. “A sort of primitive Holo-deck.”
“Oh from Star Wars!”, Tara said, hoping she got it right.
“Star Trek, actually. Don’t watch much TV?”, Sydney said.
“More of a print gal. Books.”, Tara replied, a bit bashfully.
“Good for you! I like books, even held one once or twice!”, Sydney joked with Tara. “Yeah now that these CAVEs are out, no one is interested in VR anymore. You know you only need a frelling Cray and about million bucks and you can have one in you own home. My decks are cheaper, work with stupid Windows and plug into the computer you already have. Wow, did that sound a little too bitter?”
“Just a little.”, Tara responded back.
“Sorry to hear that things are slow Syd.”, said Willow.
“Yeah, your three are my first sale of the day.”
“Oh! Right three!”, Willow reached into her pocket and pulled out another envelope of cash and gave it to Sydney. “There should be enough there for the other deck and to cover shipping. Did you send it?”
“Yup, last night. So wanna tell me what you are up to?”, asked Sydney.
“It’s…it’s a secret project I am working on for some friends. I can let you know about it later.”
“Fine keep your secrets! I on the other hand have no such compulsions. Check it out.”, Sydney said as she points to several large crates behind her booth. “I picked these up at a dealer’s auction last night. A bunch of tech firms were unloading hardware from the 90’s dot com bust. Got some great stuff, half of it I have not even gone through. Xenon lasers, SMP boards, servos, I got tons of stuff.”, she looks around and then leans in closer to the girls. “Don’t tell anyone, but I almost have my own CAVE installed at home! I know sort like me supporting the enemy. But it is cool. I disconnected my phone and internet from my house so no one could spy on me.”, she backed up, “you both should come over sometime I’ll show it off. It still has some dead zones, but give me a week and it will rock!”
“I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks Syd and good luck.”, Willow said as she put her deck back into the box and picked it up.
“Thanks! It was nice meeting you Tara!”, Sydney shouted back.
“Nice to meet you too. Bye.”, Tara said.
The girls walked for a bit down the aisle of dealers and exhibitors.
“So, should I be worried?”, Tara said.
“Hmm. About what?”, Willow responded.
“You seemed awful…friendly with Sydney back there.”
“What? Oh Syd, naw we had some classes together. Most times we were the only girls in the class so we hung out.”, Willow said and she looked at Tara., “Tara Rose Maclay are you jealous?”, Willow said surprised and amused. “Oh my god you are!”
“No, no not jealous, just concerned, and curious, and maybe a little”, she said, with her voice rising on the last part followed by a half smile. “I mean you two speak the same language and we stopped having classes together when your’s stopped making sense, and…”
“Tara. You are the only girl, the only person, for me. You know that.”, Willow said. It wasn’t a question, she simply stated it. “Besides Syd is about as straight as they get.”
“Oh”, Tara said very relieved. “I know.”, Willow smiled and gave Tara a quick kiss, the best she could manage carrying her new purchases.
“Good, now let’s go see this CAVE they have.”
“Are you sure she is straight, cause she is kinda cute.”, Tara joked back.
“Tara.”, Willow said with a warning in her voice.
“We could go back and ask her over for dinner sometime…”, she continued.
“Tara! You are so bad sometimes! If I wasn’t holding all this stuff…”
“I guess you’ll just have to spank me later then.”, she added with a coy smile. Willow turned almost as red as her hair.
The girls spent the rest of the morning checking out the CAVE, though they did not go in, the line was stretched out forever and there was a 2 hour wait. They got a late breakfast and headed towards the door.
“Are we carrying these all the way back home?”, Tara asked. She was used to physical labor, one of the ‘values’ her father tried to instill in her, but after a while the boxes were getting heavy.
“No, we are taking them to the ‘Magic Box’. The computer and the other parts are there.”, Willow said.
The girls headed out and towards the down town.
Buffy stood in front of the apartment door. She had the gift in her hand, but now that she was here, it seemed like less of a good idea.
“Well I could always leave it at the door.”, she thought. “Damn. No, the card on the package says it’s from me. Not give it all? What am I going to do with it?” As her mental debate raged on, the decision was taken from her when the door opened.
“Buffy?”, the voice came from a tall and attractive African-American woman. She was younger than Buffy, but something about her stance, or maybe her height that always made Buffy think she was older.
“Allicia. Ah, Hi. Is…Brian home?”, Buffy asked, taken aback. Allicia was about the last person she wanted to see.
“Yes.”, the other woman said rather coldly. It was of course an answer to Buffy’s question, and nothing else. But before Buffy could get into the inevitable verbal sparring match that was featured in all of her encounters with Aillicia in the past, the door open some more as Brian walked out.
“Hey, don’t forget dinner plans tonight…Buffy? Hey.”, Brian said, first to his sister and then to his former girlfriend. Brian was a full head taller than his sister, but they had the same looks. Same dark hair and eyes, same color of skin, same ears Buffy even noticed. But the look Brian was giving her was as about as far removed from the look Allicia was giving her as could be.
“Hey.”, was really all she could think of saying., “Huh, I brought you this, Happy Birthday.” And she handed him the present.
“Buffy, thanks. Come in! I’ll open this up in proper manner.”, Brian said, he seemed very excited about the prospect of the gift. That was another one of his perks that she had liked. He acted like a little kid anytime he got a gift. “So I’ll see you tonight then A, ok.”.
“Fine. See you soon.”, Allicia said, the tenor of her voice was unmistakable. “Buffy.”
“Allicia.”, Buffy said back as she walked out of the door and Buffy walked in.
Brian was already rushing around. “Can I get you something to drink?”, he asked.
“No thanks. I see your sister still is big with the love for me.”, Buffy said.
“Naw. She is just overprotective. She says I can do better. She doesn’t know you, that’s all.”
“I don’t think that is it.”, Buffy said looking around his apartment. Strange she thought, I used to come here a lot, now it seems, different.
“Yeah. Sorry about that, Allicia never approved of us, she is old fashioned that way. Now sit down so I can see what you got me!”
Buffy couldn’t help but smile. Brian had always been her ‘normal guy’. Not into killing demons, or turning into them for that matter. No Brian was completely unaware of the real world of magic, demons, vampires, and Slayers. Especially that last part. Buffy never shared with him her secret. She explained her strength and speed by telling him she used to be on the school’s gymnastics team. Whether he bought it or not, it did not matter to her, theirs was a relationship built on lies, and blissful lies they were. Brian allowed her to feel like a real girl for a change. What did she give him? Oh she was pretty sure what she was giving him. Brian had finished opening his gift. It was his favorite cologne, the one he was wearing when they first met. He laughed, got up to look in the mirror as put some on. She never quite understood why he had to look into the mirror to do that.
“Thanks! Oh this is great, my lucky cologne, it’s my Birthday, damn I am feeling good.”, he said as he ran over to Buffy and gave her a quick kiss. She pulled back.
“Whoa, we broke up remember. Something about you needing some space and me outgrowing us or something?”
“Yeah, I guess there were good reasons, whatever they were.”, he said with a smile. “Just wanted to thank the pretty lady for her fine gift. Hey! Let’s do lunch. I gotta new tie from my brother and new shirt from A, let’s go show me off!”
“Sorry I can’t really, I have some work I need to do.”, Buffy said. Brian moved a bit closer and she could smell the cologne on him. What ever body chemistry he had, the cologne took on a whole different scent and memories came flooding back. “I suppose, I could do some lunch. Where do you want to go?”, Brian moved even closer, obvious to the effect it was having on her. “We, we could order out I suppose, that would be fast.”, Buffy continued. Brian began to kiss her neck and moved up to jawbone towards her mouth. “Yeah lunch would be good.”, He kissed he on the mouth, she returned the kiss, slow and weak at first, but then with renewed vigor. “Oh hell”, she thought, “It is a special occasion today.”
“We could just stay in.”, Brain said.
“Yeah, that’s a great idea.”, Buffy said as she knocked him back onto the floor.
Tara and Willow showed up at the ‘Magic Box’ carrying their boxes and looking beat. Dawn was at the counter reading one of the books on magic, but there were no customers.
“Hey Dawnie! Busy day?”, Willow asked.
“I wish. Nope been pretty dull around here.”, Dawn said back. “Get your shopping done?”
“Yup. I am going to put this in the back with my other stuff.” Willow said and looked around. “Where’s Anya and Xander? Oh my. They aren’t in back are they?”
Tara looked up when she realized what Willow was talking about and then to Dawn to try to cover what Willow said. Dawn barely looked up from her book.
“If you mean ‘are they back there having sex’ then no. Anya is in back, she is not feeling well again. Xander is in the basement storage putting together shipping orders.”
Tara looked confused. “Is Anya ok?”
“Yeah, she says she thinks she has the flu. Remember last year when she had the Chicken Pox. She was so embarrassed to have a childhood disease, but she still tried to come in every day. ‘It’s not my fault that I was born 1,000 years before the vaccine’.” Dawn said in her best Anya impersonation. She smiled to herself about it.
“Why is Xander doing shipping orders?”, Willow asked.
“That would be your fault.”, Dawn said to Willow, then she looked at her and smiled, “The new website is working great the orders are coming in so fast we can’t keep up. So Xander is filling orders and I am up here for the old fashion customers.”
“Oooh. I gotta check the weblogs!”, Willow said as she took her boxes and ran off to back office. With Willow gone, Dawn looked around and turned to Tara.
“Tara. Can I ask you something. Something really personal?”, she said while looking straight at her.
“You can ask. But I may not be able to tell you.”, Tara said. She did not want to hide anything from Dawn, but she still felt there were somethings she did not yet need to know.
“Ok. It’s about you and Willow and when you first knew some things…”, Dawn asked.
“Oh. Dawn. Is this about Willow and I being gay? We talked about this before. Oh wait you don’t think that…”
“What? Oh no. No. Not that. Sorry, I love you to death Tara, but I like my men to be, you know, men. But that is not it. I wanted to know when you and Willow, but mostly you, knew when you were witches.”
“Oh. Ok. Well as it turns out my answer would be the same. I always knew. I mean I knew I could do things. But I never had a word for it. Daddy said it was evil, but my grandmother showed me how to use my magic and taught me all about Wicca. I guess I started at about five or so. Hmm, why do you ask?”
Dawn picked up the book she was reading and showed it to Tara. “Research. Store related, not Scooby. I h-had someone come in yesterday and ask how you tell if you were becoming a witch.”
“Dawn, you don’t ‘become’ a witch, you either are or are not.”, Tara said.
“Willow did. I mean I remember, at first it was small stuff and then, woosh! She’s super-witch.”.
Tara paused at this. “Willow, had – had power, but it was coming from a dark source. She was and could have been a great witch, a power for good, but it didn’t work out like that. Witchcraft is something you have to take your time at.”
“So she lost all her powers then.”, Dawn commented.
“No.”, Tara said while looking in the direction where Willow had left. “She still has them, she still feels the surge, the rush of power, every day. It is so hard for her, but she gets through each day and does not give in.”
“Cause she knows that next time she might not be able to come back.”, Dawn said, a bit sadly, “we studied drug addiction in health class. She must love you so much to give all that up for you.”
“Us Dawn. She does it for all of us. She hurt all of us at one time or another, but she couldn’t do that again. So she remains ‘Simply Willow’. I asked my grandmother when I was little why my mom married my dad. She said, ‘there are two things that neither men nor gods can explain. Love and Magic’.”
They were silent for a bit and Willow came out of back room skipping and bouncing. “Ooo! The site is such a success! Uptime is at 99.99% and we are getting orders from around the world!”, she looks at the other two, “So what were both talking about so secrety?”.
“You.”, Dawn said a matter of factly which set Tara back a bit. “I was asking Tara how could she put up with all your geek talk all the time. I said it must be because she loves to darn much to notice.”
“Really?”, Willow said while turning to look right into Tara’s eyes.
“Yeah—Yes. Yes! I love you very much, even when you do babble on about things I have no clue about.”, They kiss and then hug. Tara gives Dawn a look, but Dawn only smiles back.
“Hey let’s go downstairs and bug Xander!”, Willow said, still happy with her news about the successful website.
“Maybe we should go check on Anya first.”, Tara said while looking to the training room.
“No way!”, Willow protested. “Remember the last time she got the flu and gave it to all of us. Uhn-uh. Spending three days throwing up is not my idea of a good time. She’s fine right Dawn?”
“Yeah, I guess so. I mean I have been all day with her and I still feel fine.”
“Well. Ok. But maybe we should bring her something, soup or hot tea.”, Tara added.
“Fine, we can make tea when we come back up.”, Willow said.
“Oh. I can do it.”, Dawn offered back. “Not like it is really busy here now anyway.”
“Thanks Dawnie. We’ll just be a bit.”, Willow said as she grabbed Tara’s hand and went to the store room in the basement.
Dawn walked back towards the table and got out the supplies to make tea. Giles had left them a couple pots and a nice tea kettle to use. She gathered up everything and went to the small burner. She got her water and started it and tea in the metal kettle and looked for the serving pot. She saw it on the back counter, Anya had used it last night and it was in the drying rack. Dawn nervously looked around and reached out her hand. The kettle vibrated lightly and faint green aura appeared around it. It then shot from it’s resting place and flew into Dawn’s outstretched hand. Checking again to be sure no one saw what she had done, she went about her business of getting the tea ready.
To Be Continued
Warlock.
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Web Warlock
web.warlock@attbi.com webwarlock@planetadnd.com
Author, the Netbooks of Witches and Warlocks
The Other Side: www.xtreme-gaming.com/~theotherside/
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"Nobody gets me baby. I'm the wind!" - Tom Servo, MST3k
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Ok, this one is only 'smut-lite', I opted to go in a different direction with this one. Funny how that happens. I am basically just moving some events along a little faster.
So here is Part B.
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Sunnydale Convention Center
It was the end of the day and Sydney was packing up her stuff in her van. From the darkness a lone man approaches her van, he steps into the light surprising Sydney.
“Agh! Shit! Ray! You scarred the hell outta me!”, she said when she saw the older man approach.
“I am sorry Ms. Bloom. I thought I come over and give you a hand.”, he said very apologetically.
“Thanks Ray, but I am about done here, though I could have saved myself the trouble and just not have unpacked to start out with.”
“Oh I am sorry to her that Ms. Bloom. Not a good day?”
“Awful. I sold three units and they were all to an old friend.”
“Same story all over, the ‘conomy is still bad. Well you have a nice night and you stay outta trouble. See you in the morning.”
“Maybe not. I got a project or two to work on, it might make more sense just to stay at home and work. Well I’ll see you whenever Ray! ‘Night’.”
“Goodnight Ms. Bloom.”
Sydney got into her beat up van and drove off, watching Ray wave to her in her rear view mirror. “Yeah”, she said out loud, “pretty shitty day.” She looked back at her dear and the box of stuff she got at the auction. “Well at least I still have you, my box of mystery parts. Given my luck today your full of 386 motherboards.”
She drove on till she got to small one story home. She parked and grabbed her newly acquired parts and went to the door.
“Recognize: Bloom, Sydney.”, she said to the door.
“Voice analysis confirmed. Welcome home Sydney”, came the computer’s pre-recorded greeting. She walked inside and the door closed and locked by itself behind her. Lights automatically came on. The house was small and untidy. Industrial cable was strewn everywhere connecting to various computers and to gadgets on the walls and ceilings. She set her box down. The computerized voice continued. “You have, no, new voice messages and, no, new email messages. Web-server is running at, 0%, uptime and traffic is at, 0, clicks per hour. Error retrieving latest stock quotes. Error retrieving latest news headlines.”
“No kidding.” Sydney said sarcastically. She had told Willow that she had disconnected her phone and cable lines for privacy, the truth was that the fine folks at the phone company had done it for her when she was late with the payments. Sydeny had her home wired in every sense of the word. Nearly everything that could be done in a home had a computer attached to it. All tied in to a central mini-mainframe of her own design. Granted it looked more like it came from the labs of Dr. Frankenstein than Bill Gates, but it worked and she liked it. It was her hobby. Hopefully she could make use of some of the new things she bought.
“Oven: Pre heat cycle,” Sydney said to one of the several hidden microphones in the hous as she walked back to her server room.
“What setting?”, came back the automated response.
“Frozen Pizza.”, she said. “Computer: Start Shower.”, she added. A quick shower while her dinner was cooking and then to work.
An hour later Sydney was showered and fed, though the oven consistently burned one side of the pizza and left the other side under done, she was not thinking about that. She had all of her parts laid out. She had already gone through 4 of the 5 lasers. One was a dud, but the other three were in fantastic order and she already had a place for them. She had already sorted through some of the stuff. No 386 boards, but one Micronics 486. “I can attach it to the toaster” she thought. She went through some of the other components. One to her surprise looked liked a burnt skull.
“Well what the hell are you?”, she asked looking over her latest find. A lot of the external casing had been burned and it looked as if some components had been removed. One piece looked like it might be a high-gain, low-lux camera. “Hmm, maybe I could use it as part of new camera array.”, Sydney said. She turned it over looking for an access panel, or even a set of screws. She found a small panel that had a port in it.
“Cool, standard RS-232. Ok, let’s see what you got.”, she took it over to her computer and pluged a cable into it and the other end into the port she found. She typed a bit and ‘Standard Loopback Diagnostic running…’ appeared.
Suddenly the single camera glowed red and her computer started freaking out. All the contents of her system were being displayed on the screen. Gadgets all around the house also began to freaking out. Random power surges shot through her home.
“What the hell! What are you doing to my system you piece of shit!”, she shouted at the offending component. She reached back to unplug from her computer when a jolt of electricity shot out her knocking her back. Everything calmed down. Her screen had gone blank.
“Where am I?”, came an disembodied voice. The same words appeared on the screen.
“Huh. What? ‘Where am I’, you are on my desk! What the hell are you and what did you do to my mainframe?”, Sydney asked, still clutching her injured hand.
“I am … I am confused.:, it said. It paused. “I am an AI, you accessed my primary storage unit.”
“An AI. In a box of junk. Call me cynical, but how did you end up there?”, She asked, Sydney moved towards the power line connected to her computer.
“I was…electrocuted, after that I am uncertain. I have been off line, 1,952 days.”
Sydney adds that up in her head as quick as she can, ‘around spring 1997’ she thinks.
“I must find my creator, she will be able to help me. Do you know this girl?”, it asked and it displayed a picture of Willow from High School.
“Willow Rosenberg? Yeah, she is your creator? I know Willow is smart, but she never said anything about an AI before, I mean she did mention that Microsoft wanted her back in the late 90’s, but this.”
“I have accessed your files and see that you do know her. She made a purchase from you and it was shipped to an address in Los Angeles.”
“Oh, yeah.”, she decided to be as discrete as possible. “Willow, she’s in LA.”
“You lie.”, Willow’s face is replaced by a thermographic reading of Sydeny, it shows her heart and body temperature have both elevated.
“Of course I am stressed!”, she pointed to the screen, “I get shocked by some-thing saying that Willow created it and watch hijack all my computer systems!”, she dove for the power cable to pull it out. One of the lasers she had mounted turns and fires at her leg, burning a hole in it. She screams.
“God-dammit! What the hell- how the hell did you do that? Those are holo-projection lasers.”
“I simple task of re-writing the software to allow the device to exceed it’s operational limits. Your sales invoice to Willow Rosenberg indicates that only one unit was shipped and two remain. It concluded that you are either holding them for her and she will pick them up or that she has already done so. Since she will pick up two units and had one shipped it is logical that unit shipped was to another party. Willow remains close by.”
“Congratulations Data. Now what the hell do you want.”, Sydney said still holding her damaged leg.
“Do you know this person?”, a new image appeared, it was Buffy, also from High School.
“No I never saw her before in my life.”, Sydney said.
“Good. That is the truth. You and I have some work to do now Sydney.”, it said.
“Work? What the fu—“, she started to say, but saw the laser move and aim for her. “Right work. So you got a name or a designation?”
“You may call me…Malcom.”, it said
“Hey, I’m home!”, Buffy said as she enter her house.
“You are late.”, Willow said as she was clearing the table to set up her laptop.
“And you missed dinner too.”, came Dawn’s reply.
“Ah, it’s ok, I had a big lunch.”, Buffy said nervously.
“So how was Brian?”, Dawn asked.
“What! I mean, fine, he was good, I mean he was doing good. He is out now with his sister. How did you know about Brian?”, Buffy said deciding to switch the conversation over.
“Willow told me. She said you had a gift for his birthday.”, Dawn said. Buffy looked at Willow who returned a guilty look back and went on getting her machine together.
“Well. I am going to get into the shower, then grab a bite before patrolling.”
Buffy went upstairs and tried to duck into her bedroom before anymore uncomfortable questions came up. She didn’t quite make it.
“Hey, you are home!”, Tara said. She was coming out of her and Willow’s bed room.
“Ah yeah. I am home.”, Buffy said a little nervously.
“How was Brian?”
“He was .. was fine. He is with his sister now. Doing things together. Not together-together, because, eww, but dinner things.”, Buffy rattled on. Tara looked at her for second.
“You had sex with him.”, she said.
“No! yes. But it was a only quick one, a quicky. Oh wait, that is not what I meant. Hey how did you know!”
“I guessed it by the way you so cleverly trying to hide it and I can smell him on you.”
“Eww!”
“His cologne Buffy. The one you bought for him.”, Tara amended with a raised eyebrow.
“Promise you won’t tell. I am terrible with breaking up with people. You’d think I’d be an expert at by now. Sometimes I feel I have broken up with more people than I actually went out with.”
“I won’t. Just as long as this does not turn into another ‘Spike-thing’, OK.”, she said using her best mother voice.
“No! God-no. You don’t have to worry about that!”, Buffy said. “Brian is a nice guy, he is just a nice guy I have nothing in common with. Nothing except we both like the sex.”
“Well get your shower. Willow is going to be working late tonight. Dawn and I thought we would go see a movie, wanna come?”
“I should really patrol. I know it has been quiet around here since Finn left, but that is usually a sign that something bad is just waiting in the wings. Have fun!”
Buffy got in her shower and changed into something more suited to the killing of evil things than romping around with supposed ex-boyfriends. She went downstairs and saw Willow hard at work at the dinning room table. She had printouts all around her and a stack of different colored pens to mark her code. Buffy smiled to herself, she was glad some things never changed. “Working hard?”, she said.
“Oh yeah!”, Willow said with out looking up. “Oh! Don’t look, you’ll ruin the surprise!”, she added while gathering up her printouts.
“Willow, like I would even understand what you had written on these pages in the first place”. She picked up one that had fallen on the floor and looked it over, “Yuck, looks like Klingon to me anyway.”
“That will be enough of that, missy.”, Willow said as she snatched it from her.
“So when can we be in on this little surprise?”, Buffy asked.
“Well if everything goes the way I want, which is usually never, and I can get into the ‘Magic Box’ early tomorrow morning, then, uhmm, tomorrow night.”
“Wow! Really. Ooo. This is cool, you’ve only been working on this every other second of the day. I can’t wait. I am not setting myself up here am I?”
“No, I think you will like it. I am building it for you. Well for everyone, but for you and Tara in particular.”
“Ooo! I love presents. I betcha Tara already knows doesn’t she.”
“Maybe. Dawn was accusing me of the same a couple of weeks ago.”
“Tara and Dawn at the movies then?”, Buffy asked.
“Yeah. Tara thought it would be good to be out of my hair. But I would rather have her here. She always would bring me drinks when we were in her dorm. I’d work and next thing I knew, fresh coffee every time I looked down!”, she said with a big smile.
“I am so glad she moved back in too Will. We, Dawn and I, missed her too, but Dawn really did.”
“It’s great. She is back. Everyone trusts me and Dawn again. Even Anya and Xander seem to begetting settled into married life. You are-were dating again and got a career to look forward to. Things are great.”
“Ahh! You had to say it didn’t you. No some terrible evil thing will come crawling out of the sewers to destroy everything. Thanks Willow!”, Buffy said with mock annoyance. “Well I had better get out there and patrol then so I can find out what sort of evil you have just unleashed on us. It better not be slimy, I have about enough slime to last my last two lifetimes.”
“Ok. Maybe it will just a pack of snuggly puppies, wanting only to be cute and warm.”, Willow added, trying to sound perky.
“Yeah right. Pack of puppies that turn into Hell Hounds at dark.”
“They don’t have puppies like that do they?”, Willow asked back, honestly alarmed. “I mean I suppose they have to start out has Hell Puppies before they can become Hounds.”
“Breathe. Relax. I don’t think so. Hey, you are research gal. If you don’t know then I’d say no. Take care. I’ll be back in a few hours. Going grab a bite and go.”
“Ok. Be careful.”
The Slayer packed herself a sandwich and shoved a Diet Coke into each pocket of her jacket. She said by to Willow again, who was already deep into her work and went out the door.
Dawn and Tara walked out of the movie theater with a crowd of other people.
“Well if that does not get an Academy award, well then I won’t be the slightest bit surprised.”, Tara said.
“Aw come on, it was cute. The guy got the girl in the end.”, Dawn said.
“Yeah, what’s the deal with that? Why is the guy has to get the girl for it to be a happy ending? Why can’t the girl decide she can live happily on her own with out the guy? Or better yet, why can’t the girl get the girl at the end? I swear there was some sparks going on between the lead and the girl playing the wacky friend.”, Tara said in all seriousness.
Dawn laughed. “You sound like Willow.”
Tara laughed in turn. “Maybe. I don’t get bent out of shape about too many things…”
“Try nothing.” Dawn added.
“But when I do”, Tara continued giving Dawn a look, “I want satisfaction. See like this.” She points to a poster of the latest action movie. “See this movie get’s a ‘PG-13’. I bet it’s full of killing and things getting blown up. But show two women kissing and it gets an ‘R’.”
“Write a letter!”, Dawn said. “That’s what mom always would say. Something getting you mad, write a letter. But I think she said to Buffy mostly because Buffy hated to write.”
“I try to understand other people’s point of view.”, Tara continued. “I know a little too well about intolerance. But come on people!”
Dawn turned serious for bit. “Was it hard for you? Growing up?”
“Yeah. I guess. I don’t have anything to compare it to. I mean when I was in high school I wasn’t fighting demons or waiting for the world to end.”, She said. “I had to deal with Daddy’s preaching about sin and evil and Donny was a bully. But the times with my mom were good. I miss her. And my gram too.”
Dawn put an arm around Tara in solidarity and comfort, which she accepted. ‘Thank you Goddess,’ Tara thought. ‘for sending me to these people!’. Caring for Dawn, and to some extent Buffy, had helped her overcome some of the grief of loosing her own mother; she only hoped she was as much help to them.
“What did your dad say about you being a witch? When did he know?”
“He always knew about gram and mom. He tried to take mom to church all the time, to purge the “demon” from her. But my gram intimidated him. Most people were, she was formidable and she spoke her mind. He was not surprised I guess when he found out about me. He tried to stop it, but gram put a stop to that. After she died, I had to be secretive. Then after mom, I knew I had to get out. I miss them.”
“I know, your mom and gram sounded great.”
“Not just them. Dad and Donny too.”, Tara said which got a surprised look from Dawn. She was there the night Tara told them to leave.
“I know that sounds odd to you Dawn. But they are still my blood relatives, even if I don’t consider them my family. Donny is married now I heard and has a little girl. That’s a niece that I have, that I may never see.”
“They just seemed so mean.”, Dawn added, maybe to help Tara remember that night.
“Yes. Which why I’ll never see them again. But I do feel the loss. I guess meeting Finn has reminded me of some things.”
“What about the other thing. The lesbian thing.”
“Oh that!”, Tara laughed. “Daddy went through the roof! For a while there Donny even left me alone, guess he was afraid he would ‘catch it’ if he got too close!”, They both laughed at that. “Gram of course was not surprised, she only said ‘well girl ‘bout damn time you noticed it yourself!’. I think mom might have been a little sad, I think she wanted grandkids from me. But she accepted it of course.”
“How old were you? When you told them.”
“Almost 16.”, Tara laughed again, “Daddy took away my driving privileges. I guess he thought it would help.”
They walked a bit more. “So how are things going with you Dawnie? Any cute boys you like?” Tara said with a smile.
“You want the complete list or just my top 20?”, she answered back with a smile. “Oh-my-god, there is this one guy in my history class, and he is so cute. He is on the basketball team and he said hi to me the other day, I thought I was going to die.”
“He sounds too perfect. He is human right?”
“Yes! That was only one time, and years ago I might add. Save that for my sister, she is the one with spotty track record!”
Tara smiled to herself, reflecting on her new information. ‘Well,’ she thought, ‘at least Brian is human.’
“Hey, let’s get some coffee!”, Dawn said, practically bouncing.
“Hmm. Are you sure, it’s late already and I don’t know if your sister would approve.”
“Oh come on, have you seen they way she drinks the stuff. We could cut our grocery bills in half if she cut back to just two pots a day. I *am* 17 now, soon I’ll be in college and the other kids will make fun of me cause I’m the only one who can’t handle my caffeine buzz.”
“Ok! Yeah I was just thinking you weren’t hyper enough now!”, Tara joked. They walked to the ‘Donut Hole’, which was the coffee shop that Tara had been to a lot when she was doing her internship with the Sunnydale PD. They talked about little things for most of the night, boys Dawn was interested in, classes they both had, where Dawn was thinking of going to school. She surprised Tara by saying she wanted to go to UCLA instead of UC Sunnydale. Their coffee quickly grew to a plate of French fries they shared and then to a couple of shakes. By the time they left, it was much later than they realized.
“We had better get home. It’s late, I am sure we have people waiting up for us.”, Tara said.
She was wrong.
When they got home they found Willow and Buffy were on the couch fast asleep. They had been watching a movie Tara had guessed, given the bowl of half-eaten popcorn. The TV was still on, but it was some infomercial that she had never seen.
“Well that’s a rip! They weren’t even worried about us!”, Dawn said in a barely contained whisper.
“Yes we were.”, came Buffy’s sleepy reply, “But it was such a slow night out there we figured you were both fine. We were going to look for you in an hour or so.”
“Yes I am sure you were.”, Dawn joked back. “And that snoring and drooling was just your way of getting ready I guess.”
Buffy wiped the corner of her mouth. “Eww. Ok, I am off to bed, I had a, well, busy day. You too Dawn.”
Tara laughed to herself. Buffy and Dawn said their goodnights and hurried up the stairs. Tara got down to Willow’s level. “Hey sleeping beauty, are you awake?”
“No. Sleeping beauty was only awakened by a kiss.”, Willow said back.
Tara smiled and kissed her beauty tenderly at first, but it grew as Willow began to return it. Several long seconds later they broke.
“Better?”, Tara asked.
“Yes. But I think the real Sleeping Beauty had a prince.”
“I never liked that part.”
“Me either, this way is better.”
“Come on let’s go to bed.”
“Is that a request or an offer?”, Willow said, a smile playing across her still sleepy face.
“It’s an order!”, Tara said in mock authority with a similar smile. Another brief kiss. “Come on, up you go.”
“Yes Mistress Tara.”
“Ooh, I like the sound of that.”
They got upstairs and it was obvious that Willow was exhausted. Tara set her on the bed and got her undressed. Soon the red head’s clothes were on a pile on the floor. Tara paused to admire her pale skin in the semi-light of the room.
“Jammies?”, Willow asked
“I think I should keep you like this.”
“You too.”
“Is that a request or an order?”
“Needful begging.”
Tara joined her and soon the two women were unclothed and working their way under covers. With no cues needed, each settled into ‘their spot’, Willow on her back and Tara snuggled up beside her. Tara began to run her finger tip up and down Willow’s leg, her mind’s eye following the journey.
“Busy night?”, she asked.
“Yeah. Had a problem with the compiler, wasn’t freeing up enough memory.”
“Ooh, Willow-geek-talk is such a turn on.”, she joked.
“Well I can tell you about how I had to rewrite the stack dump in assembly language.”
“Sure, if you want me to fall asleep right here and now.”
“Not tired then?”
“Mmmm. No I had a bunch of coffee.”, Tara’s hand was drifting now to Willow’s inside thigh, “You?”
“I had a nap.” Willow arched her back a bit to get Tara’s hand closer to where she wanted it. Tara smiled and adjusted herself so that her hand remained the same distance apart as it had before. “Again, not fair.”
“Why? Is there something else you wanted?”, Tara teased. But before Willow could respond, Tara adjusted her path and her hand this time went up the inside of Willow’s thigh and brushed, ever so gently across her clit. Willow inhaled deeply and arched her back. Before she could do or say anything else Tara was on top of her kissing her passionately. Willow felt her lover’s hands all over her body and her own hands similarly exploring Tara’s own curvaceous landscape. They only half heard the phone ringing in the background.
“Hmm…Buffy will get it.”, Tara said.
“Hmm. She. Hmm. Is. Ahhh. Asleep.”, Willow said between kisses and sighs. A few minutes passed and their came a knock at the door.
“Dammit!”, Willow said under her breath so only Tara could hear.
“W-Willow.”, came Buffy’s call from the door. “It’s your friend Sydney. She says she is in trouble. It sounds like she is crying.”
“Oh. Ok. Thanks Buffy, I’ll get it.”, Willow said and she looked over at Tara. “I guess I should see what this is about.” She got out of bed and grabbed a robe. “Promise me you will stay right here like you are now?”, she asked Tara.
Tara smiled and squirmed in bed a little. “I don’t know, I’m a little wound up. I may have to take matters into my own hands.” And she gave Willow a look. Willow knew that look very well, It was “horny Tara face”. She loved all of the faces Tara had, but this one was very high on her favorites list.
“This will be so fast, you’ll never know I was gone!”, Willow said with a quick kiss.
“Hurry. I am already missing you.”, she replied back. And she watched Willow leave. Tara was worried. No one calls at this time of night with good news. She was happy and proud that one of Willow’s first reactions was to try to help people whenever there was trouble. She just hoped that this didn’t also mean trouble for them.
Willow went downstairs and got the phone in the dinning room. She picked it up, the connection was terrible.
“Sydney? What’s gong on? Why can’t I hear you very well.”, she asked.
“Willow. Y-You got to come over here an help me. There is this guy he has been hurting me. Please, you are the only one I could trust.”
“Sydney! What? I can’t hear you very well. Some guy? Are you in danger?”
“Willow, please just come over.”, Sydney said and the line went dead.
“Oh god!”, Willow said as she clicked the receiver a few times. She turned and saw Buffy standing behind her. It gave her a start.
“What’ going on.”, Buffy was already into ‘Slayer-mode’.
“It’s my friend from school, Sydney. She’s in trouble. What are you doing up?”
“There is no such thing as a good phone call at 2:30 in the morning.”, the Slayer responded.
“She said something about being hurt and a guy. She want’s me to come over. I should. I gotta tell Tara. I won’t be long.”
“Like Hell. You are not going over there alone. I’m going with you. If some guy is beating her up then let me have a round with me!”
“Buffy, I can’t ask you to go…”, Willow started to say.
“Your not. And I’m not asking either. Come on, get dressed, tell Tara. We will have her watch Dawn, I don’t think we will need any supernatural firepower. I’ll drive.”
Willow stopped. “Are you sure that is such a good idea?”
“Hey! I drive every week to the grocery store!”, Buffy protested, letting her guard down a bit.
“Yeah, but that is close by, and you know the route. This is on the other side of town. We could wake up Xander..”
Buffy responded with a withering glare, and Willow knew it was time to give up. She ran upstairs to break the bad news to Tara. Tara immediately sprang into ‘Protective-Tara’ mode and started warning Willow how domestic disputes were often the most violent and to be sure the guy did not have a gun. Willow assured her they would be careful, but they would call the second they could.
Dressed and ready, the two women headed out and got into Buffy’s Jeep.
“You did well.”, came the disembodied voice of Malcom. Sydney’s home was in worse shape than before. Several more cables have been laid out and all five of the lasers have been mounted, including the previously defective one. If her house was in shambles, then Sydney herself looked terrible. She had stripped down to a t-shirt and sweat-pants, was covered in sweat and looked exhausted. She had been working all night on getting everything ready for Willow’s arrival. Most noticeable on her were several small circular, red burn marks up and down her arms. Malcom had been using the lasers to get her to work faster. She had a cell phone in her hand that she had used to call Willow.
“Why are you doing this?”, she said outloud, no longer focusing her conversation to any piece of equipment.
“Because I owe Willow Rosenberg. As well as her friend. But you have served me well and for that you shall be rewarded.”, it said.
“Ha. Rewarded. What are going to do, Fdisk yourself for me. What can you give me?”
“My love, of course.”, it said and just as Sydney was about to get up to ask what that meant several cables shot out from all directions and wrapped themselves around her. Soon a high voltage current shot through the cables and into Sydney. She wanted to scream in pain, but the current held her jaws shut.
Outside the street lights dimmed a few times, but that was the only indication to outside world of what was going on.
To Be Continued...
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Warlock.
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Web Warlock
web.warlock@attbi.com webwarlock@planetadnd.com
Author, the Netbooks of Witches and Warlocks
The Other Side: www.xtreme-gaming.com/~theotherside/
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"Nobody gets me baby. I'm the wind!" - Tom Servo, MST3k
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Here is a small update, but it was a good place to stop writting.
Hope you enjoy. I am having fun writting these and the ideas are flowing great. I just hope that others are reading and enjoying!
Here is part 3
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Buffy and Willow pulled up to Sydney’s house. It was oddly quiet.
“It looks, well normal.”, Buffy commented.
“Yeah.”, Willow repied, she was lost in thought.
“We should go up and check on her.”
“Yeah. I guess we should.”
Buffy parked and shut of the Jeep. She walked up with Willow, keeping one eye out for the possible attacker, whomever it might be. They got up to the door. Buffy noticed the large amount of locks and security on the door.
“That’s a lot of locks.”, Buffy said, a little surprised.
“Sydney is a little paranoid. Not Muldery-paranoid, but still.”, Willow said. She pushed a button. “Sydney. It’s Willow. Let me in.”
The door opened, but no one was there. The two young women looked at each other. They walked into the house. Willow had been here, once before, but she was just as surprised as Buffy was. The house was in complete shambles and there was wiring everywhere. Buffy was looking around and noticed the large number of cameras and other devices plugged into the wires and on the walls and ceiling.
Buffy watched as the security camera turned on it’s servos to see them. Just past the range of human hearing Buffy heard the camera emit a small electronic whine. It sounded light the charging of an electric flash, like you would see on a photographer’s camera.
“Willow! Duck!”, Buffy yelled and grabbed her friend just as a long thin laser struck the area where they were standing, leaving a noticeable hole in the floor.
“Ok. That is not very welcoming.”, Willow said, brushing dust from her hair.
“You did say she was paranoid.”, Buffy said looking around for anymore threats.
“W-W-W-Willow.”, came a voice from the darkness. It had a slight electronic timbre.
“Sydney? Is that you? What’s going on.”, Willow said back, she could see a shadow now. Buffy saw it as well and gasped.
“Willow. I am g-g-glad you came, Malcolm has been waiting for you.”, she said as she stepped closer to the girls. Willow was getting up, Buffy was already on her feet.
“Malco—Oh, my God. Sydney!”, Willow said, she finally was able to see what the Slayer already had. Sydney was wreck. She had burns all over her body. Some of the larger ones could be seen through the burn holes in her clothes, but that was not what had disturbed them. Several metal bits, wires, circuits and other computer parts had been grafted into her skin and were functioning. One eye had been replaced by a camera lens, the side of her head had been burned free of hair and several small black chips had been implanted. Her legs and arms had similar chips as well as wires running up and down their length.
“Oh God, Sydney. What happened to you you look like…”, Willow said.
“You’ve been Borged.”, replied Buffy.
“I have b-b-been, improved. I can now serve Malcolm as he wishes.”.
“Malcolm? Willow? Oh Malcolm-Malcolm!”, Buffy realized.
“Moloch. The Coruptor.”, Willow said flatly.
“Uh-uh. I killed him. Electrocuted him into little bitty robot bits.”
“Apparently he survived.”
“Great Moloch has survived. But he wishes to send you his regards Slayer.”, The thing that was Sydney said. She nodded and soon lasers from all over the house began firing in all directions. A beam sliced through her jacket, but only grazed her arm, but it was enough for her to cry out.
“Oow! Dammit! Willow get low, get behind that chair!”, Buffy shouted as she ran for Sydney and attacked her. She flew at the other blonde and landed two round house kicks in quick succession. The first knocked her off guard and the second knocked her over. But as quickly as she was knocked down Sydney was up and delivered an open handed punch to the Slayer’s chest that knocked her on her back end. Sydney moved in closer for another hit, but Buffy sprung to her feet, but stayed low and knocked Sydney’s legs out from under her with a sweeping kick. As the cyborg fell Buffy followed up with a quick right and a left punch after jumping back to her feet. This not only knocked Sydney over, but it also sent her spawling across the room.
During this time Willow was not idle. She was trying the door, but the locks were computer controlled and well secured down tight. She felt Buffy’s hand on her wrist and then a tug and soon they were both running through the house.
Turn after turn they ran. Down halls, past rooms.
“This is wrong.”, Buffy said. “We are not getting anywhere. This house is not this big.”
“The hololasers. Sydney was installing a set of holographic lasers. We are running through a hologram!”, Willow said, realizing their situation. She found some cables on the ground and started to tug on them. Buffy saw what she doing and grabbed the cables and yanked them out of the wall. Just then the wall behind them disappeared and they found themselves only a few feet from the living room. Buffy turned to again but met face to face with Sydney who punched her. Sydney advanced on the prone Slayer who was still a bit winded from the strike. Willow grabbed the power cable and touched to Sydney’s back. Their was a flash of electricity and the smell of ozone and burning flesh. Sydney dropped to the ground. Willow reached over and helped Buffy up.
“Come on there has to be a back way.”, Buffy said and the ran from the living room to what appeared to be a kitchen. They were thrown back however when the oven opened and shot flames at them. They tried running back to living room but where met with a barrage of laser fire. Looking around Buffy spotted another door.
“Willow over there!”, she said pointing to the door. “Can you make it?”
“I’ll try!”, she responded. The two young women ran across the kitchen to the other door. Buffy kicked it open and it appeared to be a cellar. They went down and were relived to not see any of Sydney’s ‘home improvements’ down here.
“You ok?”, buffy asked.
“A little cinged around the edges, but that is better than extra crispy.”, Willow smiled back.
“So it looks like your boyfriend’s back huh.”, Buffy said sarcastically while surveying the area.
“Uh, no first off not my boyfriend but some demon in the computer and excuse me “Miss Never-Had-A-Boyfriend-Go-Psycho-Before”.
“Point taken”, Buffy said her tone getting more serious. “Let’s get out of here.”
“I’m with you there. Though explaining this one to Tara is going to be fun. She doesn’t like it when I mention Oz at all still.”
“Too be fair to Tara, Oz did try to eat her.”
“There, look.”, Willow said, dropping the banter that usually signified her state of fear. “A window, and it doesn’t look all computerized.”
“Ok. That is our ticket out.”, Buffy said and she grabbed a shirt from the floor, Sydney was as good at keeping up with her laundry as she was with other house work, wrapped it around her fist and smashed the glass. Once she got the glass out she could get a better grip on the window and she yanked it out of it’s fastenings.
“Ok. You first.”, Buffy said.
“What if she is outside? Besides, if you are out side, you can pull me up and out.”
“Ok.”, Buffy jumped up and grabbed the window. She pulled herself up and out in one easy motion. She turned around, stuck her head back in and lowered her hands to Willow.
“Ok, jump. I’ll catch you and pull you up.”
Willow jumped and Buffy grabbed her friends wrists. She began to shimmy herself back away from the window, all the while pulling Willow up. It was hard, not due to Willow’s weigh