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Buffy does her job of Slaying Vampires, but she fears the price. Thankfully, she didn't mess her friend up forever.
3/29/2017 11:00 PM
Hyperion Hotel San Francisco
The Hyperion Hotel - Angel's Room[]
The lights are on, illuminating the area.
A fairly spacious room, this one is also clean and smells fresh, though there's a sort of age in the scent, something that nothing can really draw out of the walls of the place. The decor has a sort of mod, art deco feel about it. It's not unpleasant though, and the large bed is made neatly, with soft, plush bedclothes and fluffy pillows. A small table, enough room for only two, sits near the window with two chairs. Dark red drapes blot out the window, but they part easily enough. An air conditioner unit sits on the wall nearby. A small bathroom with a combination shower and tub, as well as of course a toilet, sink, and well-lit mirror, lies nearer to the door.
Outside, it's raining and cool.
In the wee hours of the morning, Buffy comes home to the hotel after what has likely been the hardest night of her life. She knows that these duplicates aren't the real Willow, but they are all part of her. And Buffy killed two of them. They had been made vampires. Were killing indiscriminately. Buffy knows she did the right thing, but she is dealing with the fact that she just killed a part of her best friend.
Unknown to Buffy, however, it would seem that the killing of the vampiric parts of her somehow rejuvenated Willow. Not an hour ago, she told her clones that she was hungry and has been eating more then she has in days.
Buffy avoids the many Willows at the moment. She doesn't have it in her to tell her best friend she murdered a part of her. Instead, she slips into the office to see if Angel is there, needing the comfort he provides.
Angel has noticed the change in Willow...by removing the various clones, Willow gains that piece back. But only that piece. Of course, he doesn't want to kill all the Willows, but it's clear Willow does need to reabsorb them, somehow. And when Buffy comes in, he's doing a bit of paperwork in between occasional calls to Rowanwood to figure all this out.
When she comes in, though, she's his new priority, and that look tells him she needs at least a hug. He gives it to her, wordlessly.
Buffy chokes down a sob when she goes to hug Angel. She won't let herself cry. She doesn't have that luxury. "How's Willow?" she asks, worried about what the answer will be. For all she knows, her friend might be dead. No one has discovered what killing a piece of Willow will do to her.
"...well, Willow's gotten really hungry all of the sudden. She's eating a lot more now. And she looks a little better than she did before." He's not just being comforting either, Willow really does look a little better. He can tell she wants to cry, to let it out, but maybe here's not the right place. He can take her upstairs and let her cry where nobody else can see it. He jerks his head towards their room, and nods, and moves to escort her up so she can unbottle the rest of her feelings.
Buffy looks confused by this. "She's feeling better? Are you sure?" She waits till they are in the privacy of their room and then grabs Angel by the arm. "Angel, I just killed two of her clones. They'd been turned into vampires and were munching on people over in the Castro district. Are you *sure* she's feeling better?" Buffy is very happy for the magical sound proofing of their rooms. If there was any place to have an argument, this would be it.
"Well, it's eating and sleeping, but she does seem to be feeling better. Which of the clones did you kill, exactly?" He can take a guess, but he wants to hear this from Buffy.
Buffy looks thoughtful, starting to pace and tapping at her lower lip in thought. "Well, there were four Willows in total. And Drusilla. I'm pretty sure one of them had to be Willow's Anger. Three of the Willow's and Dru were feeding. The first one I killed wasn't even really trying. She asked me if we could just get this done and over with already. The other... I haven't seen carnage like that since.... Sunnydale High. She wasn't so much as feeding as just ripping the person apart and reveling in it." Buffy shudders, flopping down onto the couch. "It was awful, Angel. I didn't want to do it, but .... they weren't like you. They had no souls, no guilt. They were monsters. I had to. And the whole time, all I could think of was how I might be killing Willow. And the one that wasn't feeding. She just smiled the whole time, loving it. I don't know what part of Willow that was, but she was horrid.
"I think...it's the puzzle piece thing. When you killed them, they went back to the original. But since the original's not a whole puzzle, the traits you killed are stronger without the other traits to balance them out." Angel wraps arms around her, holds her close. Lets her tell him anything. To be her safe spot, where she can break down if she wants to without worrying about looking good for the new kids.
Here, in their room, in his arms, Buffy knows she is safe. And so she lets it out. She is so relieved that Willow isn't dead, that killing those two parts of her friend didn't mess things up, but at the same time, she didn't know that till just now. For all intents and purposes, she killed her best friend. Twice. While her best friend watched and laughed about it before running off.
Buffy doesn't cry often. It's not a luxury she allows herself. She's the Slayer. The Chosen One. Last of the One, First of the Many. If it weren't for the sound protection spell on the room, she might not even let herself cry here. The new Slayers.... they can`t hear her like this, see her like this. After a good long cry, Buffy starts to get herself under control again. She takes a deep breath. "So, what do we do now? We can't exactly go killing all of the puzzle pieces."
Angel doesn't say anything right away. Instead, he lets her cry it all out, and holds her the whole way through. He's there to be there for her when it gets to be too much, when she needs to express her humanity in a same place, in a safe way. So she doesn't have to be the commander and general, and can just be a 22 year old young woman with ridiculous responsibility.
"Well...from what I've seen, Willow needs to reabsorb the clones. Nobody said they had to die for that. We probably need to consult Rowanwood about a more efficient way to get the clones back."
Buffy feels actually remarkably better after getting a good cry out. It's like a pressure cooker, once a little steam is released, she can handle a bit more stress again. She stays resting on Angel, trying to figure out a way to deal with the situation that doesn't involve her having to repeatedly kill her best friend. Twice was enough for a life time. She now gets to add that to her list of things she never wanted to do, right along with killing her boyfriend and shoving him in a hell dimension.
"Can we just push them back into Willow? Like a sandwich?"
Angel considers that, and, "Well, if we find cheerfulness, she'd be happy to experiment with ways to try to rejoin with the original Willow. Or maybe original Willow actually knows how it has to be done herself." That would be the easy way. And leave people with the least amount of guilt on the consciences.
"Cheerfulness is probably having a blast in Rowanwood, reading every book she can get her hands on. I think she's my favourite. She the most like *our* Willow. Oh, did you notice, we have two new ones. One tried to hit on Xander and when he pushed her away out came a new one. Who hit on me. A lot. I think that might have been Willow's ... liking of girls. And it seems her Jewishness has decided Willow needs chicken soup. And lots of it. She talks like her mother. It's not fun."
Buffy curls up on the couch, laying her head in Angel's lap and pouts. "I think we have to find her Anger. She has the book. The answers will all be in there, won't they?"
"It makes sense. A cheerful person's fun to be around. They make you feel better about yourself just for being there." The comment about a version of affection that prefers girls..."Well, we did find out about that when that vampire Willow showed up in our universe your Senior year." Skanky, evil, and she thought she was kinda gay. Jewish Willow...well, as long as she had kosher food, she'd probably be fine.
But then there's Buffy, with her head in his lap, pouting irresistibly up at him. "Probably. If we can't figure it out, Rowanwood can." And then there's that irresistible pout pointed up at him...
"Oh yeah, I wasn't surprised. Especially not after Tara. You would have liked her. She and Willow were good for each other. It was like they each brought out the best in the other." Looking up at Angel, she starts to smile. She reaches up to caress his cheek. "How do you do that? I could have the worst possible day and just being here, talking with you, looking at you. I feel like it will all be alright." She takes a deep breath, letting the horrors of her patrol wash away.
"I don't like the idea of Drusilla and Willow's Anger working together. That's not a good thing." Suddenly, Buffy sits up. "Hey! Do you think maybe the Magic Box might have a copy of the book? The one Anger stole?"
"They might. I'll call Anya up later. For now get some rest." Anya will probably sell them the book if she has it, but he figures it's pretty unlikely a book found in the 'dark magic' section of Rowanwood would also be lying around at the Magic Box...