BTVS & Angel:The Epic New Series
by buffyfaith19
Rating: NC-17
Wolfram & Hart's Archives.
Angel made his way through the dark, demon filled vault, meticulously going through section by section until he came across 22B. He moved down a long corridor until he found box 199.
After entering the combination, he slowly opened the large metal box and pulled out a number of folders, each filled with detailed information about Gwen Raiden's life, from her early years as a baby, up until she was sent to the institution.
It was the last folder that Angel was really looking for, an in depth analysis about the pros and cons of recruiting Gwen into the Wolfram & Hart family. It was signed by Dr. Erdrick Smithson, CEO of Tranquil Night's Psychiatric Facility.
There were seven pros listed and only three cons, but each con was listed in bright red letters. The first was that she had a connection to Faith the slayer and that bond could be too hard to break. The second was that she was Lilah's sister and might cease to become useful if they needed to dispose of Lilah at some point. Lastly, they listed her personality and health as a concern. She was young, wild and prone to impulsive acts and her health was an issue, after so many lightning strikes, her vitals were off the charts and there was no telling when that could come into play.
On the pro side were two rather interesting points listed as number one and two. One was that she knew Faith and could be influential in recruiting the slayer to Wolfram & Hart. Two was that her connection to Lilah could prove useful, if the she ever wanted to opt out of Wolfram & Hart. The rest were about her powers and the different ways they wanted to use them and her for their own gain.
Below Gwen's box was another with Lilah Morgan's name on it and below that was another with Winifred Burkle's name on it. All three had the same color coding and numerical code as well.
Curious about this connection Gwen and Lilah had to this other woman; Angel morphed into his vampire form and used brute force to pry the lock off the box. Reaching inside he found a personal history of Winifred "Fred" Burkle and began to read.
Fred Burkle had a normal childhood with wonderful parents supporting her in everything she did as she grew up. From ballet to horseback riding to her passion for creating things, they were by her side every step of the way.
As she entered high school years, Fred became involved in the science club, entered countless science fairs and made quite a name for herself by winning numerous events with different projects each time.
There are only two blips on her personal record. The first being her birth, which was that she was adopted as a young baby, but the circumstances of her adoption were kept secret as were her biological parents.
The second strange occurrence, took place in her senior year of high school. According to our records, she went missing for three days near the end of her senior year. Her explanation was that she went away for the weekend with a friend and forgot to tell her parents. It just never fit with her profile and her friend was very shaky when asked about the details.
We did a history on this girl Fred was with that weekend and she came up clean. We spent another year watching her afterwards and still came up with nothing. In the end, we ruled out any conspiracy theory and stopped tracking Eve Simpson soon after.
After Fred took one year of the graduate's physics program at UCLA, she was recruited by the Watchers Council and continued her education on the job. That is where she works to this day.
Still not finding any reason the file was mixed up with Gwen and Lilah, Angel flipped through the remainder of the file until her came across an interesting document. It said page 2/2, but the first part wasn't anywhere in the file, but he decided to give it a read.
Marisella's history picks up in the USA in the late 1970's. She attended Texas Tech and met a beautiful woman named Ashley Dwyer, an English major and the two became inseparable.
In the fall of 1978, using Marisella's DNA, Ashley gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. Tragedy would strike that wonderful moment, as Ashley would fall victim to a mysterious infection and would die before ever seeing her little girl.
Devastated, Marisella returned with the baby to her home in west Texas, but she became overcome with grief and with changes happening to her own physiology she to fell ill with a mysterious infection.
With nowhere else to turn, Marisella put the little girl up for adoption. Trish and Roger Burkle adopted Fred a couple weeks later.
Stuck in the bottom of Gwen's folder was a videotape. It was marked, Release Tape: Use if Needed.
Angel had no idea what the tape was for or who any of the people were in this document, but he knew it was all important as were the other files, so he stuffed them into his jacket, fought his way out of the vault and took his personal jet to San Diego to get Gwen released.
Outside the Summers' House.
Fred snuck out of the house while the others were busy and made her way to Riley's lab. Outside the lab, she noticed the many surveillance cameras above the door and throughout the main lobby, so she looked around until she found a large rock on the ground, took aim and tossed it towards the closest camera.
Missing completely, she picked up another and another until finally she was rewarded as the camera lens smashed into a million little pieces. It wasn't long before a swarm of security guards rushed out, grabbed her and brought her inside.
Riley entered the room about 15 minutes later, sat down across from Fred and held the ring up in front of her, "I'm guessing you're here for this?"
"That's right and I'm not leaving until you give it back." Fred demanded.
"Well, I have no problem with that." Riley acknowledged, "We've done our research and have come empty trying to figure out where the power originates from. So, here you are Miss Burkle."
Taking the ring from Riley, Fred quickly put it on her finger and almost instantly, it began to glow. Feeling the power surge through her body, Fred soon felt an overwhelming desire to hurt Riley.
With no control over her actions, she leaped across the table, grabbed Riley by the throat and began choking him violently. As she felt the power increase as she choked Riley harder, she pulled off Riley and jumped back against the wall in shock at what she'd just tried to do.
Riley sat up in his chair, holding his throat and still gasping for air. Fred removed the ring and rushed over to him. Doing her best to comfort him, she helped him to his feet and frantically rushed through the long corridors until she came to a medical lab and two doctors helped take Riley to a bed and hooked him up to an oxygen machine.
It took a good 10 minutes of pure oxygen being pumped into his system for Riley to get his vitals back to normal and as he sat up in his bed looking over at a terrified Fred, he smiled, "Well, you pack quite a little punch in that delicate frame of yours. I'm impressed. Now, if you could tell me why you did it I'd really appreciate it."
"Oh god I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I don't know what happened. I put the ring on and felt this urge to hurt you and before I knew I was choking you. I have no idea how I stopped, but I'm so glad I did. Are you sure you're okay?" Fred asked, almost afraid to ask.
"I'm fine." Riley nodded, "My guess is the ring was not happy with me and channeled that anger through you. It's amazing technology to have a ring so in tune with someone it's able to empower the person instantly. Brilliant is all I can say." Riley said, heaping praise on the ring.
Fred was curious about Riley's reaction, "I'm surprised you are so calm about this. I thought you'd want to smash the ring in half for what it did."
"I can't say I enjoyed being choked like that, but I'm a scientist now and the technology imbedded in this ring is a work of genius and I tip my hat to whoever designed it." Riley said, continuing to gush about the ring. "Listen, I know this is your ring and I would like to know more about where it's from and who gave it to you. I don't know much about the Glascoph's. I know a small amount about Millicent and Marisella, but not your connection to them. We never figured that out. Seeing the power this ring possesses, it does make me wonder just what purpose these people had and what they might want from us."
Uncomfortable with Riley's questions, Fred put on her big smile and did her best to work on her double talk, "There's not much to tell. We are still investigating this as well. I believe there are people working on this all over the world now, but so far, we've come up empty as well. Somehow there must be a connection between me and this race or species, but I just don't know anything about what they might want. I'd like to believe they are a good people. If they weren't, wouldn't they have tried to take over earth by now?"
"There's nothing saying they haven't tried and failed. Not all battles are fought out in the open." Riley explained as he hopped off the bed, "Follow me, I'd like to show you where the Glascoph's originate. As best we can tell from history and other methods."
Fred smiled and nodded as she followed Riley down some more long, but bright corridors until they came to a large metal door, with a heading above it called, "Demonology Studies." And walked in.
As soon as Fred walked into the gigantic room, she noticed more video screens, computers and other high tech equipment in a room than she'd ever seen this side of NASA.
Riley moved through the crowded room, nodding politely to the many scientists mulling about and then sat down at a computer terminal, pushed numerous keys and soon the screen directly in front of him lit up.
It looked like an ordinary solar system to the untrained eye, but Riley got out a large pointer and with his left hand on the mouse he double clicked on a planet and as the screen changed it showed the planet from a much closer view.
"This is our last satellite photograph of Glascoph. Although rumored to be deserted for hundreds, if not thousands of years, we started picking up signals from this quadrant about 6 months ago. We sent a probe out to that system, but it's still a week away from arriving. What we hope to find out is, if there's life on this planet again, if so, who is it and what do they want."
"Wow, this is where my mom lived." Fred said with a wide-eyed smile, unaware of what she'd just said.
Riley took note of what she'd said, "Your mother is from Glascoph?"
"Oh god, I didn't mean to say that." Fred groaned, her face turning white with fear, "I don't want anyone to know about this. I can't trust anyone right now. Sorry, not even you Riley. Please, don't make me regret saying this."
"I understand Fred. I know it's hard trust and I would do exactly what you're doing if I were in your shoes." Riley said calmly, "Listen, if you don't want to talk about this, that's fine. One day, I hope you'll see that I'm not the enemy. I want the same things as you do. To rid the world of vamps and demons, even we know that not all vamps or demons are what we'd classify as evil or serious threats, so if the Glascoph race is no threat to us, I have no problem with them."
"What if they are a threat? What if I've become a threat now because of this ring? Are you gonna lock me up and perform tests on me?" Fred questioned bluntly, yet still mesmerized by what could be her home planet.
Riley paused and chose his words carefully, "What I hope is that since you have a connection to these people, that alone would help make our two races find a way to work through any differences we might have. Again, that's an unknown right now. I believe the ring was designed to protect you and give you power you didn't know you had. I don't consider that evil, I see that as a brilliant creation."
"You talk of the science of the Glascoph's, but I see no signs that you care about the people, or demons if that's what they were, that made up the planet. Do you even care about them or just the knowledge they might bring?" Fred asked as she looked up at the screen again, "I don't know much about my mother, but what I do know is that she's a warm, kind and loving woman who wanted the best for me. I know she's not human and yet somehow found a way to become human, but to me, it's how I see her now. I can't imagine her being evil. It's not possible. Just because they aren't like us, doesn't make them some threat."
"Fred, you are assuming way too much here. I know you have a personal interest in this situation, but so do we. We are not setting up some massive offensive to go destroy whoever might be on the planet. In fact, what we want is to contact them. Find out what they want or if they even want a thing to do with earth. From our database, we found that the Glascoph's were attacked and destroyed by a violent, warrior type race. But, we do know that something from their planet reached earth, perhaps as long as a thousand years ago, but we don't know what was. It might be nothing more than a fragment from a battle long ago. It could be any number of things, but it could also be a Glascoph that came to earth all those years ago. If so, if it was your mother, we'd like to talk to her. That's all."
Those were the last words Fred wanted to hear, "OMG Riley, why are you just like the Watchers Council? You only care about science and facts and don't care about the emotional impact of anything. I've seen what goes on in the, so-called interrogation labs and it's not pretty. They are treated like prisoners. It's so unfair. You will not talk to my mother ever, if this is all you care about. I have to go now."
"Don't leave like that." Riley said as he stood in front of Fred, "Here's what I promise. If we can talk to her, you can be here the whole time. She will not be kept in some cage or prison, she will simply come in with you and talk to us. That's all we want. Yes, we want some answers, but if you want my gut feeling about this, I believe your mother and the Glascoph race are harmless and present no real threat to us. Until we can verify this first hand, they and any other unknown demon race are treated with caution. I'm sensing that the Watchers Council has your mother right now and is locking her up. If so, I can help free her. Just say the word and I can have her in your care in a matter of days. Something of this magnitude would take some negotiations and would require some kind of compensation and assurances that your mother won't be a threat. I believe you are the only person who can decide that. Which means, you need to talk her about this. I can get you in to see her within hours if you want."
"How can you do this? It's a huge facility with armed guards and a very elaborate security system." Fred wondered as she continued to think about the offer, "I don't want her to become some fugitive. She's old and weak and I want her to be able to relax and enjoy the rest of her life, not be on the run. Can you promise me we can do this without causing problems for her?"
"Yes I can."
"If you're lying to me this will be the last time we ever walk."
"I'm not lying. I can get us in there as soon as I make a couple phone calls. It's up to you." Riley said as he reached for the phone and looked up at Fred, "Just say the word."
Fred didn't have time to think and quickly motioned for Riley to make the call, "Okay, I can't pass up a chance to see my mom, so set it up."
Riley took the cue and began setting it up.
Buffy Summers' House
Joyce got up from her seat and managed to lead Giles into the kitchen, "I'm glad you're here. I know it's probably not the best time to get into this, but I need to know everything you told the girls about us, their father and anything else really."
"Well, welcome home." Giles said with the tiniest of smiles, "Seems like it's just one surprise after another with you anymore."
"I'm sorry Giles, but I couldn't tell you what happened. The council was watching my every move." Joyce explained softly. "So, after the accident, it was the only chance I had to get through this. Riley thought I should stay remain dead to everyone until I was well enough to get by on my own. I know it was a horrible thing to do, but at the time, I thought it was the only way."
"I can't begin to understand what you were going through when you made this decision, but I don't think you understand how it affected your children, especially when they had to bury you." Giles' voice rose slightly as he finished his sentence. Calming down slightly he continued, "It's one thing to create a clone, but you should've stopped this charade the moment that clone was killed. My god, Riley knew about this, so there's no excuse to put your daughters through a funeral for no reason."
"I wasn't aware that my clone had died and I have told Riley how upset I was he didn't inform me, but I can't hold this one thing against him when he helped get me back on my feet." Joyce explained, "When other doctors had given up on me, he was the one that brought together the best medical minds in the world and together, they all worked their magic and found a way to bring me back from the brink of death."
"Okay, let's move onto another detail that the kids are now aware of, your relationship with Glory. How are you going to explain this to them? They've been through so much so soon and now they have to find out their mother had an affair with a god. A psycho evil god I might add. Just how many other secrets are you keeping from me or them?"
Joyce stood still, stunned at Giles' accusations, "I can't believe you are treating me this way. I guess it was silly to believe you'd be happy to see me. At least I am quickly reminded of why we aren't together anymore. You are just so cold and heartless now."
"I think that's just your way to avoid answering the question. No matter, in time you'll have to answer to your daughters. Some things you can't keep hidden forever. This is one of them." Giles said, staring right through Joyce, "I need to get back to work. Oh and whether you want to believe it or not, I am happy you are alive Joyce. I just hope things work out for you and the girls."
With no response coming to her lips, Joyce stood and watched as Giles walked out of the room and then out of the house. Before she had time feel bad, Dawn walked in and stood in front of her, "Hey, what's the matter? You look sad."
"It's nothing sweetheart. I was just catching up with Giles." Joyce smiled as she spotted Sigmund poking through the front of Dawn's shirt. "What is that and why is it under your shirt?"
Sigmund didn't like the tone from Joyce, "Oh man, are all the Summers women this bitchy? Well, it's nice Dawn didn't get that gene. Anyway, I am under her shirt for comfort, not that it's any of your business."
"What on earth?" Joyce screamed, "You better explain yourself young lady before I take that filthy little thing and toss it in the trash."
"Mom, he's not that bad. He's just got a bit of temper and lashes out at people he doesn't know. He's really very friendly to me. He even helped save my life when you were gone."
"Excuse me. When was your life in danger?"
"Oh right, you don't know about that. Um, well, I guess some bad guy named Ethan Rayne wanted to make a point so he kidnapped me. But, it wasn't that bad, I was only gone for a couple hours. Anyway, Sigmund came to the rescue when one of Ethan's thugs tried to touch me."
Joyce's eyes lit up again, "Touch you? Did he do anything to you? If he did, I will find him and teach him a lesson he won't soon forget."
"No mom, that's what I'm trying to tell you, he tried, but Sigmund came to the rescue and saved me. He's my hero." Dawn smiled and gave Sigmund a kiss on the forehead.
"See, I'm a hero." Sigmund said proudly and then sneered up at Joyce, "Now, could ya get me some mustard and make yourself useful."
"Sigmund, stop that. I told you to ask. You know, say the magic word, please. Okay, now say you're sorry for being rude." Dawn ordered and the pulled him out of her shirt and held him out in front of her mom.
"Oh fine." Sigmund sighed, rolling his colorful eyes around and around until he let out a big moan, and then tried his best to smile, "I am terribly sorry for what I said. I hope you accept my apology and I will try not to do it again."
Joyce leaned down so she was eye level with the mischievous little pet, "You better do more than try."
"Yes mommy." Sigmund nodded, hiding his sarcasm just enough to let it pass.
"Okay, I'm keeping my eye on you." Joyce said as she stared down Sigmund. Standing back up she turned her attention to Dawn, "As for you, from now on whenever Sigmund gets into trouble, you will share his punishment as if you were the one who said it. That should be a very good incentive to keep him in line."
"I will teach him better manners. I promise. Can I have a hug now? Cause I've really missed you."
Joyce smiled and moved in and put her arms around Dawn, "I've missed you so much. I know you probably have a million questions about the things you've learned about me and I want to answer them. I do."
"I'm just glad you're back. I love you mom." Dawn said softly, giving her mom another warm hug.
Sigmund grinned as his eyes were once again inches from another woman's chest. He was beginning to enjoy being caught in the middle all the hugs Dawn liked to give out, it just wasn't quite enough to curb his sarcasm, "Great, now that we have that lovely Harlequin moment out of the way, may I please have some mustard Mrs. Summers?"
Joyce looked down at Sigmund, gave it a nasty look and then back at Dawn, "Get that thing out of here."
"What? I said please didn't I?" Sigmund asked as politely as he could, but as he saw the look on Joyce's face, he ducked back under Dawn's sweater and muttered, "Women!" as he disappeared from sight.
Ethan Rayne's hideout.
Sitting at the end of an elegant dining table, Ethan Rayne sipped his coffee as he read the paper. Calmly flipping through page after page, his eyes grew wide and his face turned red with anger as he looked at the picture on the entertainment section.
It was a picture of Gwendolyn Post attending a special screening of a new movie with Lindsey McDonald by her side.
Furious was an understatement as Ethan stood up, walked over to the wall speakers, pushed the button and screamed for everyone of his associates to get into the room.
Knowing something was seriously wrong, the room filled up with dozens and dozens of his henchmen.
Ethan walked to the front of the room and pulled out a glowing magical staff from under his desk. He waved it in the air as he looked at the room full of people, "It's come to my attention that the lovely Miss Post was at some idiotic movie premiere last night in Los Angeles, with none other than Lindsey McDonald. This upsets me and I don't like to be upset. I want you to bring her here and you can do what you want with Lindsey, I simply don't care about that insignificant bug. Do not harm Gwendolyn; that will be my job. Is that clear? Do not fail. I want her here within 24 hours. Now get going."
A room full of yes's and nods were proof that his men understood the situation clearly. After dispatching them, Ethan sat back down and was about to have another sip of tea when Spike walked into the room.
"Did I catch ya at a bad time?"
"Spike, it's always a pleasure to see you." Ethan said with a cheerful smile.
"I bet it is." Spike laughed, "I hear you went and got all powerful since the last time I saw ya. How's that working out?"
"Quite well I must say." Ethan acknowledged with a nod, "I hear you were turned into a woman? How did that work out?"
Spike sneered back at Ethan, "Word gets around fast these days. Trust me Ethan old boy, it takes more than a two-bit magic spell to keep me out of action. Why don't we get to the point here. It seems like we both have the same goal in mind, so what I'm gonna do is make you an offer."
Ethan stood up and casually walked back over to his desk, "I am a fair man, I'll listen to your offer. Somehow I don't sense it being all that interesting, but please continue."
Walking slowly towards Ethan's desk, Spike stopped and hopped up on the dining room table, "Well, I happened to catch your little tirade about Gwendolyn, I see you still can't keep her under control. Never really could now that I think of it. Wonder what that says about you." Spike said as he turned from Ethan with a big smile on his face, "Anyway, as I was saying, I have some information about the lovely Miss Post that I know you will be interested in."
"Somehow I doubt that Spike, you're rarely on top of things anymore. To busy with your lightweight schemes that always, always fail." Ethan said with a sneer, emphasizing the word fail the most, "Now, if you don't mind, I've got things to do."
"Let's just see about that." Spike said and then turned to the doorway and waited a couple seconds and then Lindsey walked into the room with Gwendolyn on his arm, "Well, you were saying?"
Ethan couldn't hide his shock, surprise or anger at being shown up by Spike, "If you are delivering her to me then perhaps we can work out a deal. If not, I think our business is over and you have just made another in a long line of big mistakes."
"Maybe, maybe not, but what I do know is right now I'm in control and you are about to be rendered useless." Spike turned to Gwendolyn and gave her a simple nod.
Gwendolyn then held out her hands, one holding a Porshalic gem and the other a combination of pig's blood, brimstone and valerian. She began shaking the ingredients almost violently, moving her hand in a bizarre pattern for a good 45 seconds, when she was finished, she held out the portal gem, chanted some bizarre words, then tossed the ingredients onto the gem and from the gem a surge of energy exploded out of it.
A long stream of energy flew towards Ethan in a flash. Entering him from his mouth, the energy seeped through his blood stream and sucked up every ounce of power he had before he could turn into his demon form.
As the energy pulsated inside Ethan, Gwendolyn took out a long, sharp serrated knife and walked over to him, "Now who's got the power? Doesn't feel so good to be on the other end of the power play does it?"
Ethan was defiant to the end, "You better kill me now because if I ever get out of this you will be pay dearly. You all will."
"If you want to die, I think that can be arranged." Gwendolyn said with a sadistic laugh.
"Not just yet." Spike said as she got between Gwendolyn and Ethan, "We still might be able to use him."
"What? That's not part of the deal. You said I could kill him."
Spike walked up to Gwendolyn, grabbed the knife out of her hand and looked her right in the eyes, "And you can, when I say so. Not before. Got it?"
"Don't make me wait Spike, I don't like waiting. Ethan's put me through hell and he's going to pay. With or without your help, so don't try and double-cross me." Gwendolyn said with a demented glare and then looked over at Ethan, "He tried to double-cross me and look where it got him."
Lindsey was becoming impatient with the whole thing, "Look, while you three psycho's decide who's gonna die, let me know. I'll be in the car. I don't have time to watch this little soap opera unravel."
Spike walked up to Lindsey, "I think you've served your purpose. You can go anywhere you want. I don't like you and I don't trust you and the only reason I'm not killing you is because you did help, a little."
"Wow, such a friendly dismissal from a fool." Lindsey laughed as he leveled Spike with a right hand. "Now, let me just set a few things straight. You aren't in charge anymore. You think you used me? Wrong."
Gwendolyn turned to Spike, raised her hand and tossed a fireball right at him. Spike dodged out of the way and got up in the corner of the room, "Well, well, I should've know not to trust the likes of you. So, what's the deal? You think killing Ethan will help you achieve your goal? You're as stupid as Lindsey."
"Such bravado from the little dead man." Gwendolyn shot back and tossed two more fireballs towards Spike, causing him to jump, dodge and fly out of the way yet again.
Jumping up in the other corner of the room Spike dusted himself off and started yapping again, "Are we gonna do this all day? If you want I can kill you both. I just figured we'd have more luck if we worked together on this, but it sure isn't a deal breaker for me."
"Why should we?" Lindsey asked as he stepped back towards Gwendolyn.
"Why? So we can win. That's why." Spike said as he walked boldly up to the other three, "Look, we are all capable of causing some problems for the slayer and well, I've even killed a couple, but now there are two now and that's a whole new problem. We don't have to like each other to work together. When we succeed, there will be more than enough space for all of us to be quite happy. So make a decision. Either we fight and you can all die or we put aside our petty little feuds and get to work on destroying the slayers and the Watchers Council."
"You always did talk a good game Spike, but the problem is, nobody trusts you mate." Ethan said as he finally spoke up, "I don't see how this can work unless we all share the same risk and have the same reward when we accomplish our goal."
"Rubbish." Spike replied, "Trust is overrated. But, you were right about one thing, we need to all have the same risks involved, so that if one of us goes down, we all go down. That way we have more incentive to see this thing through. What's it gonna be? All for one or all alone?"
"I'm in." Ethan said quickly.
"Of course you are, I just stripped you of all your power. You've got nothing to lose." Gwendolyn laughed.
Ethan nodded his agreement and walked into the center of the room, "True enough, but you must also know that when I'm in my demon form I'm the best chance we have of defeating the slayers and crushing the worthless Council."
Spike rolled his eyes, walked up and looked Ethan over from head to toe, "What's so blooming special about this demon Ethan's somehow become?"
"Even I have to admit he was an imposing presence." Gwendolyn added as she sat back down and took a sip of Ethan's wine.
Lindsey walked up to each of the three people in the room and then grabbed the bottle of wine on the table and smashed it against the wall, "Can we just get this over with. Either kill each other or let's get on with it. I'm tired of this endless yacking."
"Can someone tell me what Lindsey brings to the group, aside from being a pain in the ass?" Spike asked as he bumped passed Lindsey.
"I have connections in Wolfram & Hart that none of you have. I can bring manpower or should I say demon power the group. Anything you need done, I can get it done faster." Lindsey stated loudly as he glared at Spike, "Besides, I also seem to be the only sane one of the bunch. Can't have enough of that can we?"
Ethan wasn't impressed with Lindsey's attempted joke, "Your humor is droll and the things you can bring to the group can be found pretty much anywhere, so I'd watch your mouth young lad."
Lindsey walked over and got up in Ethan's face, "Right, this coming from a washed up old man who had his powers stripped from him without a fight. Sorry if I don't take ya seriously gramps."
"Okay, if there's no objections, can I kill this insignificant little rat?" Ethan said as he grabbed Lindsey around the throat.
"Bring it on." Lindsey said as he backed off and got into a fighting stance.
Gwendolyn sat back and got ready to enjoy the fight, but Spike wasn't the least bit impressed, "Oh god, everywhere I go I get stuck with idiots. Enough."
"Spoken by the biggest and oldest idiot of the bunch." Anya said as she entered the room accompanied by Gunn, Drusilla and a swarm of vamps and assorted security people. "Well, now that we've identified the idiots, I'll get to business."
Lilah's Apartment in downtown LA.
Angel stood in front of the elevators and then checked his notes to see if he had the address right and then hopped in and rode it up to the penthouse suite. With only two rooms on the top floor, it was easy to find Lilah's.
Knocking on the door as he casually looked around the spectacular artwork in the hallway, Angel heard a scream from inside the room and called out Lilah's name and got a cry for help in return.
Stepping back from the door, Angel lunged towards it with his shoulder leading the way. Smashing it to the ground, he spotted two men trying to get a hold of Lilah.
Unable to enter without an invitation, Angel grabbed a large vase from the floor and tossed it towards one of the men, who simply ignored it as they struggled to subdue the tall feisty woman.
"Lilah, invite me in now!" Angel yelled.
Lilah was about to speak when the other man covered her mouth with his hand and laughed towards Angel, "You can stay there vampire boy. We'll be done soon."
Pissed off at the attitude of the punk, Angel continued to search for a way inside as did Lilah, who lifted her jaws and dove her teeth into the man's hand, causing him to rip it away from her mouth and as he did, she yelled at Angel, "Come in Angel."
Angel smiled, morphed into vamp form and rushed into the room. It was a short, but decisive battle and in the end, the two men were lying on the floor out cold.
Checking the wallets of the two men, Angel found they worked for Wolfram & Hart security and tossed them over to Lilah, "Well, I'm guessing your stay at Wolfram & Hart's penthouse just came to end."
"It's just as well, I was tired of sleeping with the lights on and looking over my shoulder every 30 seconds." Lilah said as she put the wallets down and thanked Angel with a hug, "I'm glad you showed up when you did. I guess I owe you another one."
"I don't think we keep track of things like that on the good side, do we?" Angel asked, unsure of the proper etiquette of being good, "If we were, you might have to add another to the list after you have a look at this."
Lilah took the folders from Angel and sat down at the table. "What are they? Who's Winifred Burkle?"
"I don't know, but they were all linked together so I'll let you figure that out." Angel said with a shrug and then walked over to where the door used to be, "I'm on my way to get Gwen out of that place. I don't want to bring her here, but I know a couple safe places I can take her for now. I'll let ya know when we're back in LA."
"I should be there when you get her out." Lilah added as she walked over towards Angel.
"No, I don't think that's a good idea. If this doesn't go smoothly, I'm gonna need to move fast and it's best I work alone on this." Angel explained calmly and then paused and looked over at the folders on the table, "Besides, you do need to read those files, I think you'll find them fascinating. I only glanced at them, but I think they are going to prove very valuable. I need to look at this tape first, it may be the key to Gwen's freedom."
Lilah took the tape and slipped it into her VCR and they sat down and began to watch.
It opened with a shot of Gwen lying on the soft psychiatrist couch, eyes closed as the doctor asked her numerous questions about her childhood, her family, her friends and other such things.
Impatient as always, Angel grabbed the remote and fast-forwarded the tape until another person entered the room.
Gwen sat up as the man began yelling at the doctor, pulled out a gun, aimed and fired 6 times, hitting the doctor with every single bullet.
The man then turned the gun towards Gwen, but she jumped out of the way in the nick of time and then grabbed the man's arm and tried to shake the gun loose. A brief struggle occurred and Gwen was pushed backwards and as the man took aim at her and pulled, pulled the trigger, nothing happened.
He started pulling the trigger over and over again but the gun was empty. He dropped it to the floor and attacked Gwen with his bare hands. Quickly putting them around her delicate neck, he began choking her violently.
With no choice but to defend herself, Gwen put her hands up against his chest and sent a minor shock through his body. He fell backwards onto the floor, grabbed his chest and stared at Gwen in shock.
Still reeling from the jolt, he took off and ran out the door. Moments later a guard rushed in, saw the doctor on the ground, blood everywhere and Gwen sitting on the chair still holding her neck from the previous attack.
Gwen knew exactly what the guard was thinking and got up and started pleading her case, explaining about the other man. The guard wasn't buying it and called for help. Soon the place was swarming with doctors, nurses and security guards.
They gave Gwen an injection that knocked her out and during the fiasco one doctor, picked up the gun with surgical gloves on, wiped the prints off and as Gwen was being taken away, he put the gun in her hand, put her hand on the trigger and slipped the gun back on the floor just before the police arrived.
"Well, this proves Gwen is innocent. I need you to make copies of this. Numerous copies. Send a couple to Sunnydale, either to the mayor or some guy named Wesley, I'm sure you'll figure out his address. I need to get Gwen out of there now."
"Okay then, take care of my little sister. Call me when you get back." Lilah said and then turned back towards her table and stopped and rushed into the hallway, "Oh, do you anywhere I can stay for a couple nights? I need to get out of here now."
"You can stay at my place. Well, it's one of my places. It's one nobody knows about. Here's the address." Angel said as he handed Lilah a business card, "There's a key in the third row of petunias, just lift it up and you'll see."
Lilah couldn't help but laugh, "Petunia's?"
"Don't ask." Angel smiled and then took the stairs down to the main floor and took the sewers back to his car and headed for the airport.
Lilah went back inside and began reading.
Outside the Bronze.
Buffy and Faith walked up the Bronze, looked around and instantly knew something wasn't right. It wasn't more than a few seconds before there instincts were proven correct.
Glory stepped in front of the two slayers and she didn't look very happy.
Faith walked right up to her, "Oh what the hell do you want now? Can't ya go piss off some demons or something?"
"I didn't come to talk to you, so be gone." Glory said with an annoyed look and then smacked Faith across the side of the head, sending her flying backwards against a fence, "Why don't you go save your friend Gwen. I hear a vampire is on his way to help her escape, but she doesn't know why. I do."
Faith got up mad as hell and with rage in her eyes; she ran towards Glory but promptly got knocked on her ass by Buffy.
Getting up with a look of confusion and anger mixed together, Faith gave Buffy a push backwards, "What are you doing? Are you on her side now?"
"No, I just didn't want to see you do something stupid." Buffy said as she moved up close to Faith, put her arm around her shoulder and walked away from Glory a few more feet, "Listen, let's not forget she's a god, okay? I think she's being honest about Gwen. Maybe you should go see if she needs help. I'll take care of Glory for now."
"Not until I get one shot in. No way is she gonna put me on my ass and smile about it." Faith said, staring over Buffy's shoulder at Glory.
"Listen, if I help you get your little revenge out of the way, will you go check on your friend?" Buffy asked as she put her hand on Faith's chin and made her look at her.
"Fine."
"Okay, then let's get this over with. Follow my lead." Buffy said as she led Faith back over to Glory.
"I have something I need to talk to you about, but I'm not doing in front of your unstable little slayer friend." Glory said as she glared back at Faith.
"Well, I think we can work something out, but first, Faith has something for you." Buffy said and then stepped aside and waved Faith forward.
Glory tapped her heels as she looked over her fingernails with a child like wonder, "I hope it's an apology for her rudeness."
"Nope." Faith said shaking her head as she planted her left foot firmly on the ground and sent her right fist flying through the air until it landed squarely on Glory's left jaw, knocking her hard to the ground with a big heavy thud.
Buffy jumped in the middle of two women and nodded her head at Faith, "Now you're even. Go take care of your friend. I'll be fine."
"Thanks." Faith said with huge smile, "I'm gonna miss ya. You owe me a night of dancing. I won't be long." Faith looked down at Glory, smiled and waved as she took off down the street.
Glory hopped to her feet with one quick leap, took aim at Faith with her right hand and got ready to send a fireball her way when Buffy stepped in front of her, "I can't let you do that."
"You think you can stop me?" Glory asked, turning her hand towards Buffy.
Buffy pushed Glory's hand to the side, "Could ya stop being super bitch for like one minute? Good, now you said you had something you wanted to tell me about? Here I am."
"I don't know what to make of you. You're either very brave or very stupid, but you're right, I do want to talk to you about something." Glory said and then walked up to the front door of the Bronze, "Care to join me?"
"Might as well." Buffy nodded and followed Glory up to the front of the Bronze.
Glory opened the door and led the way inside. It was empty, but Glory wasn't surprised as she had set it all up.
"Welcome to my little home." Glory said as she hopped up on one of the many tables in the club, "Did ya want to dance or talk first?"
"I didn't say I was here to dance, so just say what you need to." Buffy said, standing with her arms folded and doing her best to look unimpressed.
"So be it. You're no fun." Glory sulked and jumped down and stood in front of Buffy, "Where do I begin?"
Out of the back of the Bronze a voice called out, "Wait for me."
Glory and Buffy looked on as Dawn came running out from the dark. She ran over and stood beside Buffy, "Why is she here again?"
"Oh goody, the little one is here, well I might as well tell you both the story of me and your mother. Sit down, get comfortable, it's a very long and exciting story of love, adventure and what might've been. Did you want a drink? Scotch, whiskey or maybe you're just a beer drinking gal?" Glory asked as she walked towards the bar.
"Thanks for the offer, but why don't you tell me how you met my mom." Buffy said as she sat back down and tried to be as objective as possible.
"Okay, but just remember, you asked." Glory chirped in with a big smile, "Well, I don't want to bore you with all the details, but just to set the stage I'm going to take you back to when I first arrived in Sunnydale."
Buffy lowered her head to her lap at the thought of hearing Glory's life story, "Fine, just don't get so caught up talking about you that you forget why we're here."
Glory wasn't phased by Buffy's lack of interest, "Let's see, I believe it was the summer of 77', I had just heard about this beautiful slayer who was turning heads with her quest to rid the world of those lowly vampires and I just had to see who they were talking about. It didn't take long to find Joyce, she was still in school at the time, I believe it was close to graduation for her, but she was more interested in doing her job than being prom queen. When I first met her I had to pretend I was someone else, so I told her I was graduating from another school and also planned to go to Sunnydale U."
"Why would she believe you?" Dawn asked as she fed Sigmund some more mustard.
"Why?" Glory asked with an insulted tone, "I don't understand the question, why wouldn't she believe me?"
Dawn was equally surprised that she had to explain herself, "Well, I can't imagine her being all that trustworthy of strangers. You know, considering she always had to watch her back."
"Well, I can be very charming when I want to. I had no agenda towards the slayer. I was just curious about how a human woman had so much power. It intrigued me to no end to watch her fight so effortlessly. Your mother was an amazing slayer. There was nothing but business in her mind when she met a vampire. It was usually over quickly and her victory decisive. It was a thing of beauty, as was your mother."
"Can we skip the parts about you and her and whatever went on between you two. I don't know if I can listen to it." Buffy shook her head and scrunched her face up as she thought of the whole thing.
"You will hear it all or none. Please choose." Glory said, once again offended by such comments.
"Oh fine, just get on with it." Buffy sighed.
"It was at the University open house that I first had contact with her in person. Even gods have to go through certain human rituals when trying to get a place to stay." Glory smiled as she remembered that first meeting. "Your mother was late for registration and forgot to bring her purse and had no ID on her and it wasn't a pretty sight. I watched as she talked to the admissions director and begged for a place on campus, as her parent's were moving away because of her dad's job in the army. She desperately needed to stay on campus and I jumped to the rescue."
"Oh god, what did you do?" Dawn asked, assuming the worst.
"Planning ahead is a strong suit of mine, I booked a room for two and gave the name of someone I knew wasn't going to make it and then offered it to your mother. She was in a bind so she accepted my offer and we became roommates."
"Just great." Buffy said sarcastically.
"Actually, it turned out to be better than I ever imagined. In time, Joyce began to trust me. She would confide in me some of her deepest feelings. Then, in the third month she told me she was a slayer." Glory said proudly, "I had no idea how good it could feel to have someone trust you with something so big. I was at loss at what to say for the first time in my life. Your mother felt I could be trusted. It was the most amazing feeling I'd ever experienced."
"How is this possible? You're evil." Dawn said, not happy about anything she was hearing.
Glory walked slowly towards Dawn, "Such an innocent your girl you are. With that innocence, comes ignorance. Much like with humans, not all gods are the same. There are good and evil gods, just the same as there are evil humans. Many of them I might add."
"I don't believe you. Everyone says you were evil. So what, you're telling me everyone else is wrong?" Buffy said, walking up to Glory and staring up at the taller woman.
"You can believe what you want. I have no desire to change your mind. I am here to tell you what happened. If you shut up and let me continue, perhaps you'll learn a thing or two about why people began thinking of me as evil. In your human world, one of the worst qualities you possess is the ability to start rumors based on pieces of truth and twisting them to mean something they don't. I'm not going to beg you to believe me, but I will tell you what really happened to get those rumors started."
"Fine, just get this over with." Buffy said and quickly sat back down.
"Good. Now where was I." Glory sighed, "Oh right, when your mother told me she was a slayer, something inside of me changed. I know you don't want to believe it, but I do have feelings just like you. As a god I did lose touch with them for hundreds of years. I became a different person. Deep down, I longed to become more human again. When your mother told me she was a slayer, I told her I was a god and wished to help her with her job."
Both Buffy and Dawn were stunned at the latest revelation and Glory couldn't help but enjoy it.
"Yes, I'm sure you can imagine her reaction. She laughed and thought it was sweet that I wanted to help. I had to show her some of the things I could do. It didn't take long before she believed I was what I said."
"But why would you want to help her? I thought you just wanted to observe?" Buffy asked, still very uneasy about the things she was learning.
"My goals changed the moment Joyce put her trust in me. I've never had that from anyone. Certainly not from other gods, they don't trust anyone. Anyway, I'd love to go into more detail about that night, because it was so emotional for both of us. She was able to unload this huge burden and I was able to do the same thing. It's impossible for words to capture the mood of that night. You have no idea how emotional it was. That's when our bond began."
"I understand how it feels to tell people a secret. I know what it's like to bond with someone while slaying. I bonded instantly with Faith. It was amazing." Buffy said, her face lighting up as she thought of Faith, "But, we're both humans. We're both on the same side. We want the same things. You're not like my mother. I don't understand how she could trust you so deeply."
"Well Buffy, there are some things in life you can't explain." Glory said with a rare serious expression, "After we shared our secrets, I began going on patrols with your mother. We became a great team. Nothing got in our way and we had pretty much eliminated a huge portion of the vampires and demons in Sunnydale when her watcher got wind of me."
"I bet that didn't go over well." Buffy smiled, enjoying another of Glory's disappointments just a little too much.
Watchers Council's Underground Facility.
Riley used his passkey to get past the first three checkpoints, but as they came to the medical center, his passkey wouldn't work.
"Damn it, they must've changed the locks since my last visit."
"Now what?" Fred asked, looking around at the countless doctors, nurses and security personnel that filled the floor.
"Well, now it's time to become even more creative." Riley smiled and then put his arm around Fred, "How's your head? Still seeing visions of demons?"
Fred looked up at Riley as if he'd lost his mind, "What are you talking about?"
"Just follow my lead." Riley said and then led the way to main reception desk.
An attractive woman greeted them with a smile, "Hello, how may I help you?"
"I need to talk to Dr. Bannam right now. It's an emergency. My wife may have a demon inside her. He's told me to come as soon as I was sure and I am. Hurry, if it gets out you won't have a chance to leave that desk. Come on woman, do you want to die?" Riley yelled at the top of his lungs.
"But, I'm not supposed to…"
"No buts, just get your butt over to his office and tell him to meet me in the lab. He'll know where to go. We've been through this before. Hurry. There's no time for debate. I'm going there now, I just hope I make it before the demon takes over my wife. My god, she's been through so much, please help her."
Fred began to moan and growl and flail her arms in the air as the receptionist looked on in sheer horror. Within seconds she bolted from her desk and took off down the hall.
"Nicely done Fred, you had me going there for a second." Riley said with an appreciative nod, "Okay, let's get going, we won't have much time."
Fred followed as Riley led the way through a maze of corridors and labs until they came to the secured portion of the medical facility.
"From what I remember there are only about a dozen patients that warrant this kind of security, most are demons, vampires or other unidentified creatures." Riley said as he looked around the area, finally stopping in front of a locked door. "The last time I was here I had to go through some elaborate check points. They took a retinal scan and handprint as well as a voice recognition program and there's no way we can do that alone. Which means we need some help."
"Oh and you have some help lined up do ya?" Fred asked sarcastically.
Riley grinned, "Not exactly, but that wouldn't be near as much fun."
Removing a small metal device from his jacket, Riley walked up to the locked door, inserted the device into the key slot, pushed a couple buttons and presto, the door opened.
"Impressive." Fred said as she followed Riley into the next section of the facility.
There were three hallways as they entered, left, right and straight ahead. Looking up at the signs above each corridor, they saw one called, Demon patients, listed to the right, so that's where they headed.
Calmly walking past the occasional staff and assorted personnel, they made their way through a series of winding corridors and down a set of stairs where they came face to face with Dr. Bannam and a group of four armed guards.
"Riley Finn, I wasn't expecting you today." Dr. Bannam said as he walked up to Riley, looking up at the much taller man, "I see you brought the lovely Miss Burkle along as well. I'd be interested in knowing why you are here and how you got past the security to get to this point."
"Hi there doc, I meant to call, but things happened so fast I had no time." Riley being explaining in a state of mock panic, "Fred was experiencing some bizarre physical changes and I had no way to deal with such things at my lab and she kept calling out for her mother and I thought maybe she could help explain what Fred was going through."
Dr. Bannam walked over to Fred, looked her over and stepped back, "She looks perfectly healthy to me. Perhaps you were mistaken."
Fred then began convulsing violently, screaming hysterically and then she ran at the first guard, pawing at his chest as she glared at him with evil in her eyes.
"What the hell is wrong with her?" Dr. Bannam asked as he stepped behind Riley.
Riley grabbed the doctor around the collar and lifted him off his feet until he was eye level with him, "That's what I'm here to find out. Just let her see her mom for a couple minutes. It might be all she needs. We have no idea what kind of power she possesses, but if it's anything like I suspect, we are all in danger if she doesn't find out how to control it."
"Fine, but I'm not letting her out of here if she is out of control, so you can either take her now or hope a talk with her mother takes care of this." Dr. Bannam explained as he adjusted his shirt and tie.
"Lead the way, I'll take care of Fred. Let's go." Riley yelled and pushed the doctor forward, grabbed Fred and rushed down the hallway with her.
It was a long and tedious walk through the many security checkpoints, but finally they made it to the cell they were holding Marisella.
Dr. Bannam opened the door and Fred walked in, then turned and rushed towards the doctor and began choking him.
Riley pulled Fred off and pushed her into the room and closed the door. He ran over to the doctor, "Are you okay?"
"Yes, but she's crazy. She had the strength of ten men the way she attacked me. I'm lucky to be alive."
"I think you better go get someone have a look at you. I sure hope she didn't damage your neck." Riley said, having a hard time keeping a straight face, "I'll stand guard here."
The doctor grabbed at his neck and then took off down the hall.
Inside the room Fred gave her mother a big hug and then sat down beside her on the bed, "I'm so happy to be here. Are you okay? Are they treating you good?"
Marisella took Fred's hand, "Yes, I'm fine, but you shouldn't be here. I know you aren't scheduled and I don't want you getting in trouble because of me."
"I found the ring." Fred said as she held it up for her mother to see, "I wanted to know what it does and what I'm supposed to now."
"Oh this is such good news." Marisella said and then soon began shaking and coughing uncontrollably, but she fought hard to keep it under control and made sure to smile back at Fred as she continued, "This ring is my gift to you. I can't explain everything it can do for you, but it has power that you can't imagine. Power, that in the wrong hands could be devastating for your planet. Mostly it's just a pretty ring that is meant to share our legacy with you."
"I will treasure it forever. I can feel an energy coming from it. It feels warm and safe, just like I feel when I'm here with you." Fred smiled a sad smile as she touched her mother's cheek with her hand.
"I have to tell you something that is going to change your life again. I hope for the better, but only time will tell how it unfolds." Marisella said and then slowly got to her feet and walked away from Fred, "I didn't think I'd see you again and I wasn't sure if I should burden you with this news, but now I see it's not a burden at all, it's a blessing."
"What is?"
"I've lived a long time and experienced so many things that I wish I had to share with you, but what I want to share with you now is something I hope you will embrace and be happy about." Marisella paused and walked back over and sat down beside Fred again, "You have a sister."
Fred sat silent, stunned by what she'd just heard.
"I know it's hard to believe and even harder understand, but it's true. I wish I knew more about her, but sadly I've never seen her since she was born. I just hope she's had a good life."
"I don't know what to say. I can't believe this. Is she older than me or younger or what? You must know something about her."
"She's five years older than you. I'm sorry, but I don't know much more." Marisella said somberly, "I had to give her up for adoption. It's a long story, but I wasn't in a good situation back then. I was in England at the time and I needed to get out. I made sure she was safe and given to a good home. I do know the last name of the people was Raiden. I know they took her back to the US, but I lost track of them after that."
"I will find out more about them and I will find her too. I promise." Fred said as she hugged her mother tightly.
Riley knocked and entered the room, "I hate to interrupt, but we have to go now. Something's not right. I saw some guards rushing around in the back room and then there was some kind of explosion and there's no time to figure out what's going."
Fred nodded to Riley, "Okay, we're ready," and then looked over at her mother, "Are you sure you can travel?"
"Yes, I'll find a way." Marisella said softly.
Riley led the way out of the room and made his way back through the maze of doors, corridors and was pleased yet surprised at the lack of security they had to encounter.
Once outside, they were met by a trio of men in suits.
One of the three men rushed up to Riley, "You need to get back to the lab. It's Oz."
"What about Oz?"
"He's gone." The man replied quickly.
"Okay, he does leave the lab every now and then, so what's the big emergency?"
"Sampson said he was looking through your tapes and found the one where you were talking about what to do with Oz after you found out he was a werewolf. Apparently he went berserk, trashed your office and then took off."
Riley was furious, but only at himself for not destroying the tapes long ago, "You better tell me you had someone follow him?"
"We tried, but he incapacitated the half dozen men we sent after him. We are working the streets trying to find out where he might have gone."
"Fine, I'll meet you back at the lab." Riley said with a heavy sigh and then turned to Fred and Marisella, "Sorry about that. I was going to take you back to the lab, but I think that's the first place the Watchers Council will come looking, so I think it's best to take you somewhere they wouldn't expect."
"Which would be where?" Fred asked bluntly.
Riley started walking towards his van as he responded, "I have a friend in Sunnydale that will be able to keep you both safe. I just hope he's still around and hasn't gotten himself into another mess."
"That doesn't sound all that reassuring." Fred snickered, "Why don't I just take her to Buffy's house? Giles wouldn't turn her in. I trust him. They don't like the bureaucracy anymore than we do."
"I don't know, I just can't see Giles keeping something like this from his own people. "Riley said as he stopped in front of his van, "I can't force you to go with me, but I think you're taking a risk trusting anyone associated with the Watchers Council."
Fred raised her eyebrows and gave Riley a dirty look, "Um hello, I'm with the Watchers Council. We aren't all bad you know."
"Right, I forgot, you don't seem like the type. Anyway, if that's where you want to go I'll drive you there." Riley added, not thrilled with Fred's decision, but still willing to support her. "Take my card if you need anything."
"Thanks." Fred said as she put his card into her purse, helped Marisella into the van and then motioned for Riley to move out.
Back at the Bronze.
"I bet that didn't go over well." Buffy smiled, enjoying another of Glory's disappointments just a little too much.
"You're right, it didn't." Glory said bluntly, "Your mother's first watcher was very old school. He was in his late 50's and still lived in the past. He didn't believe in slayers having or needing help. He didn't believe in being friends with the slayer. He was a cold, unfeeling old man who demanded perfection from Joyce and yet was anything but perfect himself."
Buffy sat up as she heard about her mother's watcher, "I don't know much about her first watcher. I only know about Giles and I'm still trying to deal with that."
"I can tell you that Giles is a saint compared to Carlton Edwards III. He was a lazy man who enjoyed pushing Joyce to her limits. He spent his time pointing out her failings, yet never spent a second on all the things she did so well. Once he found out Joyce was working with someone, he was furious. At first he wanted to have her suspended for putting a human's life in danger, but then, he used one of his many contacts with the dark side to find out that I was a god."
"I knew it. You put my mom's life in danger. This is what I'd expect." Buffy jumped on the first chance she could to condemn Glory.
"Aren't we quick to judge? You sure want me to be the bad guy. Why is that?" Glory asked, stepping in front of Buffy.
Buffy was quick to get in Glory's face again, "I don't want you to be anything. I know what I've heard and I know I don't trust you. All I know is you put my mom's life in danger. Did you want me to smile and thank you? That's not how it works."
"I want you to listen to the whole story before you make up your mind." Glory said, resisting the urge to put Buffy in her place. "If I may continue, once Carlton found out I was a god he actually came to me and tried to buy me off. He was willing to give me money, secrets or anything else I wanted, just so I'd stay away from Joyce. I turned him down and told him to stay away from me or I'd get mad. He didn't take that well as you might expect."
"Not many people respond well to orders." Buffy added.
"Maybe not, but I wasn't concerned about his feelings. He was trying to keep me away from your mother and I wouldn't have it and neither would she." Glory paused as she thought about how Joyce used to defend her so strongly to Carlton, "It wasn't until Carlton saw us kissing one night that he really became incensed."
"Oh god, spare me the details." Dawn said as she put her hands over her ears.
"There's nothing dirty about a kiss little one." Glory smiled, "I'm not sure what motivated him the most, but he was determined to get me out of your mother's life, no matter what he had to do to accomplish it. Let me tell you something, Carlton Edwards is a very creative man."
"You say it like you're impressed by it." Buffy said, constantly looking for ways to pick at Glory.
"Yes, I was impressed, but only so I could understand him better. I had to learn what he was capable of before I could figure out a way to stop him." Glory explained, "I underestimated him. I wasn't prepared for the elaborate lengths he went to in order to discredit me and make me look bad."
"Awe, what did big bad Carlton do?" Buffy mocked.
"He created lies about me. Lies even I had trouble explaining. Even back then, 20 years ago, he had access to technology that allowed him to create some of the most elaborate and believable lies ever. It's something you both should hope never happens to you. Once the trust was gone, the relationship we had was gone with it."
Buffy was shaking her head, "I don't believe our mother would accept a lie about someone she trusted. She's the fairest person I've ever known. I just don't see her getting fooled by some made up story. It makes no sense."
"No, it doesn't make sense and I'll tell ya why, it all looked real. Everything they did. I couldn't explain it. I believed it was real and I knew it wasn't. I thought at first they had somehow cloned me or it was just a look-alike, but it wasn't. The voice was me, the body, the movement, everything. Using digital remastering, they were able to create a tape of me doing things I can hardly talk about even now. Even knowing they are lies and manipulations."
"How did one man do all this?" Dawn asked, opening up yet another packet up mustard for Sigmund.
"He wasn't acting alone. He had the help of the Watchers Council. They did not like your mother working with me any more than Carlton did. They helped create all this. It took them months to set it all up and then they brought in Joyce to see their little show. I can't imagine how seeing all that must have hurt her. They were so cruel in what they did. It was malicious. It was designed to hurt Joyce. It did. It was designed to make her lose trust in me. It did. It was designed to make her hate me and want to destroy me. It did all that."
"You still haven't said what they showed her. It had to be pretty bad for my mom to believe it and then turn against you so quickly. Didn't she give you a chance to explain?" Buffy asked, hoping to hear a yes in Glory's response.
"Yes, she did ask me to explain, but at the time I had no idea what she'd seen. She kept saying it was too hard for her to even think about. I just knew it was bad. She asked if I knew some names she tossed out. I didn't. I'd never met the people she mentioned, but of course she'd seen me on tape with these people so it looked like I was lying. Worst of all, they had created a tape of me in bed with Spike. She knew of Spike, she talked about wanting to be the one who stopped his reign of terror and make sure he never killed another slayer. Sadly, the Spike tape wasn't even the worst thing they had me do."
For a moment, both Buffy and Dawn felt sorry for Glory, but neither wanted to show it. Buffy did want to hear more though, "What was the worst thing they had you do on these tapes?"
Glory paused and sat down beside Buffy, "I don't know if I can talk about it. It shows the depth of depravity that people will go to just to get their way. It's the worst side of humans. What they showed me doing was something I still can't believe happened."
"I think we need to know everything." Buffy said softly, "In order to understand what went on with you and my mother, we both deserve the truth; all of it, even the not so nice parts. If you don't think Dawn should hear this, then I'll have her leave the room."
Dawn's face turned red with anger and she got to her feet and stomped then on the floor in front of her sister, "Oh no you won't. I'm not a child. I want to know what this is about as much as you do."
"I think she can hear it, it's not the worst thing in the world, it's just horrible that they would have me do this. I saw the tape afterwards and I don't know how they did it, but I swear, it was real, except I was never with this person." Glory said, looking at the faces of the two girls across from her, "Okay, they had me in bed with a younger girl, someone about your age Buffy, or maybe even closer to Dawn's age, she was certainly underage. Apparently, she was a neighbor's daughter, someone your mother took care of when she was younger. So the fact your mother knew her and loved her almost like her own just made it even sicker for your mother to see."
"You didn't sleep with this girl?" Buffy asked, just to be sure.
"No I did not sleep with her." Glory shouted, offended she had to answer that after her emotional speech just moments before, "I was in love your mother then, I wouldn't do that to her. I was experiencing something I'd never thought I'd get a chance to. Feelings, emotions and I was so happy when this all started. I wasn't sure what I was feeling until I started losing your mother to these lies and rumors. But the thought of not being with her was the worst pain I've ever experienced in my life. It was unbearable and it still is, because I've never seen her since. Some of it was my choice, but most of it was part of an agreement I made with this company I began working for. I wasn't allowed to have contact with your mother ever again. At the time I signed the contract, I didn't think there was any hope for us and yes, I was still angry that she believed all those lies."
"Sounds like you gave up on my mom." Dawn said, almost upset at the idea.
"There's still some things you don't know. Like why your mother banished me for all those years. At first, she just wanted me away from her. It was too hard for her to see me, so I moved out. That wasn't enough for Carlton, he wanted me dead and gone. So he took his little plan to the next level."
"How much worse can he get?" Buffy asked.
"Much worse." Glory answered as she began pacing back and forth in front of the two girls, "Joyce's mom and dad moved to Washington and they would fly up for the holidays and I even met them once at Thanksgiving and they were really nice people. It was a couple weeks before Christmas and her dad called and said they had to come early because he would be out of town on Christmas day. They arranged to visit on the Friday before Christmas and since your mother was so upset about everything, this was a perfect time for her to see them again. Only it never happened. They died in a tragic plane crash that killed everyone aboard. She thought it was an accident for the first couple weeks, but then Carlton came to her door and spun a much different story."
Dawn was visibly angry at the things Carlton had done, "I hate this guy already and I don't even know him. How did he get to work for the Watchers Council, aren't they the good guys?"
"Even good guys can do bad things. It's what makes humans so unpredictable." Glory said as she looked over at Dawn, "Carlton tried to console your mother, but she wasn't happy to see him. He told her that it was it me who caused the plane to crash and that I did it out of anger and for revenge for her kicking me out of her life. They had created yet another lie of tape where it showed me tampering with the plane's engines. I mean, it was so diabolical, in many ways it was pure evil genius."
"I still don't understand how this could happen to a god." Buffy said, as she tried to comprehend everything Glory was telling her, "Couldn't you just zap your hand and make it all go away? What powers do you even have? It doesn't seem like you did a thing to help yourself. You just let this guy railroad you out of town without a fight. I don't get it."
"I guess that's where the emotions came into play. I didn't see the tapes until years after, but at the time I couldn't imagine what they showed her that could make her lose trust in me so quickly. I was hurt. I felt like she didn't give me the benefit of the doubt. I wasn't used to feeling these things. I was used to being in control. I felt weak and I didn't handle the situation very well, but once your mother felt I was responsible for killing her parents, she wanted me to pay. I couldn't fight back, not like I used to. I didn't want hurt her. She was a victim of a sick game, but I couldn't bring myself to use my powers on her. In the end, I let her banish me."
"So she banished you where?"
"Into another dimension. Even the other gods couldn't reach me for over 15 years. I was stuck in space. Time moved faster in this dimension, but it was still a long, long, time in the middle of nowhere. All's I could do was think. When you think for that long, you tend to go a bit crazy. I lost track of reality and even when I was released, I was still not quite there, you know. I needed time to clear my head and while I was clearing my head, Wolfram & Hart approached me about joining them."
"You, a bit crazy? Say it isn't so." Dawn said with a sarcastic smile, with Sigmund rolling over laughing at Dawn's little dig.
Buffy didn't smile, she was too busy focusing on the law firm Glory just mentioned, "Wolfram & Hart? We've just found out that they're an evil law firm that is not to be trusted and you worked for them? Tell us how you're not evil again?"
"Just to set the record straight, I didn't work for them, I was and still am the CEO. Technically, they worked for me. Glad we got that out of the way." Glory said calmly and kept on going, "I still find it amusing and more than a little annoying how you ignore most everything I just said and pick out one little thing you don't like, just so you can paint me as evil. That's fine, but I'm not gonna deny working there, but it doesn't change a thing that happened before your mother banished me. I still don't if she knew the truth about the tapes being manipulated. Now that I do, I wanted to show her that she was wrong about me."
"I don't know if she knows about the tapes either, but that's between you are her. Why did you come to us? Why not go directly to her?" Buffy asked, still unclear about Glory's motives.
"Well, I thought your mom was going to be home today, so I had no idea you were here." Glory responded as she stood up and looked out the window, "I am glad I got a chance to talk to you about all this. It was good to get it all out in the open."
"I still have no proof any of what you said really happened, so I will treat you like an evil god until someone can confirm any of this story of yours. Now, get out." Buffy ordered as she walked up to the much taller woman.
Glory smiled at Buffy, and looked down at her, "Out of respect for your mother I will refrain from squashing you, for now, but if you continue your insolent behavior, that will change in a heartbeat."
"Goodbye Glory." Buffy said, holding in what she wanted to say.
"Yes, goodbye Buffy and it was nice meeting you Dawn. You're such a pretty young woman." Glory then turned back to Buffy, "I'm sure we'll be meeting again. Tell your mom I stopped by. Thanks, bye now."
Buffy held Dawn close and watched as Glory disappeared from the room.
"She said I was pretty. Maybe she isn't crazy after all." Dawn said with a smile.
"What am I gonna do with you?" Buffy grinned and began tickling her sister.
...to be continued...