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by Chris Kenworthy (scoobyhq@fcmail.com)
Disclaimer: None of the characters or worlds of the Buffy show belong to any of us.
Spike knocked impatiently on the door, then caught himself and broke it down with a single punch. Must act just as he normally would. "Lenny, you good-for-nothing sod! Get your undead bones up, it's nearly midnight."
A pile of dark blankets jerked suddenly on a Queen-sized mattress. In a few seconds one of Spike's old junior aides emerged from underneath them. A scarlet-haired vampire doxy could be seen, still unconscious beside him on the makeshift bed. Looking around the cottage, Spike suddenly noticed a lot of the paraphernalia for breathing Nigus fumes, a potent vampire narcotic. Lenny groaned.
Spike sighed in honestly felt exasperation and grabbed his subordinate's face, looking deeply into the eyes. The news wasn't as bad as he had feared. "Lenny, you sober?" Spike barked out quickly.
"Um?" was Lenny's first word. After a few seconds of self-evaluation, he turned to look at Spike, silently asking for permission to speak freely. Spike nodded quickly.
"Yes, sir, I think so," was his decision, confirming Spike's own diagnosis. "Got something of an aftermath, like a hangover, only more so..."
"Never mind that," Spike told him brusquely, then "Can't be helped," more sympathetically. "Lenny, I've got an important job for you."
"Yeah??" Lenny was quickly growing more alert - a very good sign. "What is it?"
Faced with that blunt query, Spike reviewed the best plan he had been able to come up with before laying it out to Lenny. "There is a demon shapeshifter who has impersonated me. He's taken over City Hall, and he's managed to convince my guards that he's the real Spike. He's got my family there, man, but if I try to rescue them myself, he could have me staked."
The wheels in Lenny's head turned a bit. "But, if there's an impersonater, how do I know it isn't you!! You could be using me to try to kill the real William the Bloody!"
Spike smiled. "Very sound reasoning. One, I don't want to kill the doppleganger - I want to eventually capture alive so I can find out who, if anyone, he's working for. If he had any allies in his effort to take over my life. That sort of thing. That might or might not help convince you that I'm genuine, I don't know." Actually, Spike was assuming that he couldn't afford to kill his 'doppleganger,' since the vamp was really his past self. By taking his own life, he might end up... actually taking his own life.
"Second, would a shapechanging demon know how I saved your life from a vampire hunter in Prague? Or about that Gevers' fools trick I played on you last year, with the plastic crosses and the artificial sunlight??"
Lenny was smiling now, conviction in his face. "Okay. So what do you want me to do then? And who's the babe??" Vampire Buffy had wandered in during this last exchange, and captured Lenny's attention in a second. Spike relaxed slightly. Part of the reason he had chosen Lenny, (beside the fact that he was generally pretty obedient and competent,) was the hope that he had never really encountered the Slayer and wouldn't recognize vampire Buffy as her lookalike. Also that, as the complete horndog that he tended to be, Vamp-Buff would find him easy to manipulate for the sake of the mission.
"She's a friend," Spike said with careful casualness. "Mercenary vampire agent, specializing in covert ops. As soon as I had found out what had happened, I went and found ol'..." Suddenly he blanked. What was he to call Buffy?? The name 'Buffy' would certainly be recognizable.
"Black Annie," Buffy supplied seamlessly. "Anne for short. Nice ta meetcha." And she somehow managed to offer her hand to Lenny in a way that made Spike's blood rise, just a little. (A sexy handshake??)
Lenny seemed to be affected the same way, so Spike continued on with the plan. "Lenny, you're going to escort Miss Annie into City Hall, under the assumption that she's a special emmissary to see Mayor Spike. My double will be willing to meet with her - oh, and don't worry. No matter what anybody says about her or calls her when she gets to City Hall, it's all part of the plan." (At that point, the fact that she at least looked like Buffy would certainly be recognized by someone - that was the reason Spike's double would want to talk with her, but it was important that Lenny not freak about it.)
"I'll handle the negotiations for the big meeting," Buffy, or 'Annie' supplied. "You just fade into the background. I'll try to get a lot of the other 'very important vampires' occupied by having Mister Spike take them along..."
"Which should leave you one of the ranking people in City Hall, which will help," Spike finished. "Find Drusilla first, then Cordelia, and Xander if you can. Don't imperil the safety of the girls by looking too long for the boy. Umm... he can take care of himself."
"Gotcha, boss." Lenny said. It was no secret that Xander wasn't really a favorite of Spike's. But Dru adored him, and Cordy too, and 'the girls' were Spike's life. Quite an incestuous family they were - each parent making time with his or her childer, and the two kids screwing around together. Then again, human standards didn't apply - this was natural for vampires. Spike and Dru themselves were both of Angelus' brood, (of whome the soulless, mopy Angel wasn't worthy of the same name...)
"...But chances are, if I find both Dru and Cordelia, Xander'll be with one of them, huh?" Lenny was saying. Well, thanks for that reminder. Spike nodded shortly and got ready to continue on with the plan.
"Yeah. Take them all to the old abandoned factory on Sundown. You know it??" Lenny nodded, yes, he had been in Spike's posse even back then, of course. "If Dru's being difficult, tell her anything you need to, just get her there. The kids too. Hopefully, I should be able to get to the factory soon after you arrive. In any event, I'll leave further instructions." Spike took a breath. "There's a magical portal in the factory, to a safe haven - go through it if I'm not there by noon, or if the imporster finds the factory." Spike was pretty sure he'd made the wish and ended this world after noon. "Do you have a watch??"
"Umm... somewhere around here," Lenny mumbled, jumping to one side and rooting through some dresser drawers. Finally he pulled out a little toy timepiece he had probably stolen from a seven-year old, with some cartoon bird on the clock face. Spike checked it to make sure it agreed with his gold pocketwatch - only to find he didn't have it, only a rolex on his wrist that his Wishworld 3 alternate had probably stolen from a businessman in the same way.
"What's that ring, boss?" Lenny asked, his gaze fixed on the Gem of Amarra. "Looks cool."
Uh-oh - couldn't play that up. "Just part of the costume, Lenny. It's time for you to go."
"Yeah," Buffy agreed, jumping up and taking Lenny's hand. "The boss has spoken." She led him off into the night. Lenny's doxy chose that moment to wake up, stretching and staring at Spike.
"Boy, Lenny, you look a lot better without the Nigus fumes," she opined. Spike knocked her back out cold and headed for the corner of Sunnydale that the Resistance had some control over.
* * *
(1st March, Wishworld 4.)
"I-I'm so glad you c... called," the thirtysomething man stuttered nervously. "I was b-- beginning to think that no-one would ever help me."
Buffy Anne Summers smiled lazily at him, emoting a confidence that she certainly didn't feel, meeting with a stranger in this kind of sleazy bar. "Well, I'll see what I can do. Tell me more about your little crusade."
He gulped. "Umm... I'm no crusader, Miss... Uh, um, I'm sorry. What should I call you?? I'm Dave Watson, by the way."
Buffy grinned again. "Pussy. Pussy curious. I get my cute little paws and tender whiskers into most of the interesting things about this town."
"Uh??" Dave was flushing slightly, and Buffy bet that he'd recognized the double entendre in the name she gave him. "Oh... well, that's good. If you know the dirt on Sunnydale, that is."
"Go on," Buffy said quickly, leaning over the table and putting a finger quickly to her lips in a request for less volume.
It took a little while for Dave to stop checking out her neckline and get back to the point. "I... my wife passed through Sunnydale a few months ago. Just an overnight stop, seeing an old friend of hers on her way to a business meeting in Los Angeles. But she was never seen again!!"
Buffy nodded. "What did you do about that??"
"What do you expect?" Dave shot back. "I tried to track her down, I hired a private investigator even. Finally, after a lot of non-cooperation from the Sunnydale police and medical examiners, I was able to ascertain that my wife's body had been found in your Weatherly park. She was buried as a Jane Doe, and her killers were never found."
"Well, we do have a lot of crime in Sunnydale, and the police department is underfunded and overworked..." Buffy began.
"I don't believe any of that," Dave burst out. "I'm sure of this. Something horrible happened to my wife, something even worse than your regular druggie murder - a blood-drinking cult, a ritual sacrifice, a terrorist-like guerilla squad or something. The local authorities know whatever it is, and they're choosing to keep it a secret from the public. And I will not rest until I uncover their secret and expose it!!"
Buffy's breath caught in her throat with sudden panic, but she forced herself to not show it. "Well, I think I can help you, Mister Watson. But not here. If you'll come with me??" She unobtrusively signalled Angel, who had been sitting at the next table over. No-one else would even guess he had been listening, much less ready to be in Dave's face at the slightest sign of trouble.
"S-sure!" Dave exclaimed, seeming stunned by the prospect of success. He didn't shift his line of sight as Buffy pushed her chair back and stood up. That motion brought her crotch into the approximate space that her face had been, and Dave spaced out again. The navy silk pants in Buffy's ensemble didn't leave everything to the imagination in that region...
After a few seconds, Buffy called out his name. "Dave?? Hello, Mister Watson!??" Finally he snapped out of the trance and brought his attention up past Buffy's chest to her face again. He smiles somewhat sheepishly.
"Pussy got your tongue??" she joked. Dave blushed again, and Buffy led the way out of the bar, not caring that Dave was staring at her butt.
After leaving the Blue Swanza, Buffy took Dave down into a nearby alleyway, relaxing when she saw that Angel was following them, and that no-one else was about.
"Kill confirmed. Do it," a voice whispered in her head. Suddenly, Buffy's body whirled into action. Her navy silk blouse, (matching the pants,) was cut short, not just to show off her belly and make idiots like Dave Watson even easier to manipulate. That also made it child's play to reach the sheath strapped to the side of her chest, and bring out the dagger she had to keep there.
Dave saw her coming, and though pure terror was in his eyes, he didn't scream. Buffy purposefully slashed as awkwardly as she could with the knife, first mangling his neck a little, then cutting again and again into his chest. Dave coughed up blood and lay still, his pulse fading. Soon, it was done.
"What was that supposed to be?" Angel said scathingly, coming up from behind her.
"A junkie murder," Buffy explained, removing Dave's wallet and valuables, as the junkies would have. "It seemed appropriate." One tear got out of her eye before the voice in her head interrupted again, damming up the grief she felt at Dave Watson's lost life.
"Scoobies spotted coming up State street, looking for the two of you. Better get ready for inspection."
Buffy hated how the voice she most despised, even over a cranial transmitter radio, could make her respond so completely the way it wanted to. But at least this was pleasant duty - becoming Buffy Summers, champion of goodness and friend to some of the best people in Sunnydale, rather than secret warrior Slayer, forced to commit evil.
Angel had received the same message. "Come on - we can leave the body here, Buffy. I'll wash the blood off your hands, but I don't think we'll have time to get changed. Think of the trouble the guys could get into in this neighborhood, looking for us."
"Yeah," Buffy muttered, following Angel and knowing that he would lead her to some place appropriate for cleanup. "I wonder what they want that's so urgent that they'd try to find us on the job."
To be continued...
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