Fic; Bitter Business (1B/?)

[JDMeans@xxxxxxx]

Disclaimers;
Joss made Buffy and crew, UPN broadcasts them and Paramount owns them. Disney 
owns the Gargoyle characters.

Rating;
PG for now. But Spike's involved, and he's spoiling for some action, so that 
rating could go up soon. 

Feedback;
Oh you know I want it! JDMeans@xxxxxxx

Author's Note;
This is the Fifth story in my Defenders of the Night story arc. You may want 
to check out the previous chapters; 'A Prelude in Five Parts', 'Along Came a 
Spider', 'Her Little Secret' and 'Encounter'. 

Summary;
Buffy wants to help Willow, and ends up dealing with an old enemy, more 
dangerous than ever.


Defenders of the Night
Bitter Business
By Kirayoshi


"Tis now the very witching time of night,
When churchyards yawn and Hell breaths out
Contagion to this world. Now could I drink hot blood,
And do such bitter business as the day
Would quake to look on."
--William Shakespeare
"Hamlet"

<<>>

During the quiet two-hour drive from Los Angeles to Sunnydale, Buffy 
considered what Lorne had told her. His visions weren't as informative as 
she had hoped; all he could say was that she would see Tara again, when the 
time was right. He also said something about the Powers That Be, which 
rather galled her. The PTB were notorious for not volunteering information 
until they felt it was required, and she had no idea when they would deign to 
contact her. Furthermore, she felt there was some information that Lorne was 
keeping back as well. When she approached Angel about what Lorne had said, 
or what he didn't say, Angel also fell strangely silent. 

There was also the matter of Lorne's run-in with Spike a few days earlier. 
Lorne had warned her that the Brit vamp wanted her dead, but that didn't 
worry her much. After all, he was still neutered by that chip. If he showed 
his face in Sunnydale, she figured that she was more than capable of taking 
her down. She found herself remembering the scene in "Monty Python and the 
Holy Grail" where King Arthur hacked off the limbs of the Black Knight. She 
figured that any fracas between her and Spike would be as easily decided.

By the time she pulled the Jeep into the driveway, she was ready to crawl 
into bed and vegetate for twelve hours. Fortunately UC Sunnydale was holding 
its annual arts and crafts bazaar at the Community Center, so her weekend 
self-defense class was cancelled for tomorrow. She quietly unlocked the 
front door and slipped in, hoping to go unnoticed.

The moment she entered the living room, she stopped cold, nearly dead in her 
tracks. She tried to speak but control of her jaw proved difficult. Sitting 
on the sofa across from where Buffy was standing was Buffy. A perfect 
doppelganger of the Slayer sat motionless, almost serenely so, her glassy 
eyes staring at a spot on the wall to the left of where Buffy was standing.

Buffy tried to clear her throat, finally succeeding on the third attempt. 
She swallowed hard and managed to call out, "Uh, Willow?"

"Willow is in her bedroom," the double answered as her head swiveled toward 
Buffy. She sounded so unnervingly like Buffy yet at the same time different, 
droning and inflectionless. "She is locating some spare RAM cards to 
supplement my main memory."

Buffy's eyes lit up with understanding at that moment, as Willow walked into 
the living room. Willow noticed her friend standing and staring at the 
figure on the sofa, and smiled slightly. "Hey, Buffy. I hope you don't mind 
that I salvaged the Buffy-bot. I just wanted to take a look inside her, see 
if I could reprogram her. I've made some progress, actually; Warren might be 
a total sleazoid but he did make his bots user-serviceable I managed to 
boost her memory, and erase her programmed attraction to Spike."

"This is true," Buffy-bot answered. "I no longer desire to have sex with 
him, even when I remember his washboard abs."

Buffy crooked a sarcastic eyebrow at Willow, who blushed slightly. "Well, 
maybe there's some backup memory I need to tweak. But if this works, maybe 
we can train her to fight, so she can help you on patrol."

Buffy considered Willow's suggestion for a moment, then nodded reluctantly. 
"Maybe. With Demona about I suspect I'm gonna need all the help I can get. 
But it may be awhile before we get Buffy 2 up to fighting specs."

"Maybe," Willow smiled as she sat next to the android and popped open a 
service hatch between her shoulder blades. "But I love a challenge. So," 
she added, as she popped a RAM card into an exposed slot, "how was your 
patrol? You were gone late, so I figured you were cleaning up a larger nest 
of vamps than usual."

"Oh, yeah," Buffy said suddenly, uncomfortably settling into a chair next to 
the sofa. She didn't like to lie to Willow, but also didn't wish to raise 
false hopes regarding Tara. "Big nest, mostly newbies. No real challenge, 
just time consuming."

"Oh?" Willow glanced over Buffy with a questioning eye. "Then shouldn't you 
be covered in vamp dust?"

Buffy looked down at her clothes, mentally hitting herself for not noticing 
their relatively pristine condition, considering that she was supposed to 
have slain a nest of vampires. "Oh, yeah. That," she stammered, feeling the 
quicksand slowly swallowing her. "I used the car-vac. Y'know, the mini-vac 
that plugs into the Jeep's cigarette lighter slot?"

"So how's Angel?" Willow asked in a level voice.

Buffy sagged her shoulders, scolding herself mentally for even being 
surprised that Willow knew. "He's fine. I think he's got a thing for Cordy 
now."

"Go figure," Willow muttered absently as she reached for a jeweler's 
screwdriver. "In case you're wondering, Buffy, Cordy called me about ten 
minutes ago. She wanted to make sure you got back safe, and asked me to have 
you call them when you got back. Oh, and she also wanted to assure me that 
they would do everything they could to locate Tara." Willow crooked her 
eyebrows at Buffy. "You went there for me, didn't you?"

"Oh," Buffy smiled sheepishly. "Yeah, something like that. I just didn't 
want to see you unhappy."

Willow flashed Buffy a smile that Buffy understood to mean 'You're off the 
hook, this time.' Relieved, Buffy got up from her chair and walked briskly 
toward the kitchen to pour herself some iced tea.

"Then Willow told her to drop the search," the Buffy-bot announced.

Buffy stuck her head out of the kitchen door, her eyes wide with shock. "You 
did what?"

Willow sat with clenched teeth as the android looked blandly at Buffy, 
"Willow told them to call off the search. She said that Tara was not in any 
trouble, so they don't need to search for her." 

"You sure you weren't supposed to be a Cordy-bot?" Willow scowled at the 
android as she adjusted a circuit board in her chest cavity.

Buffy slowly approached Willow, knelt beside her and placed a hand on her 
arm. "Okay, Willow. Drop the screwdriver and back away slowly from the 
android."

"Buffy," Willow complained quietly, "It's fine, really, I-"

"It's not fine, Willow," Buffy insisted as she sat beside her friend. 
"You're starting to scare me, Willow. I mean, this is Tara we're talking 
about. Remember, Tara Maclay? Love of your life? The woman whose mind you 
managed to pull back after Glory brain-sucked her?"

"Yes, Buffy," Willow nodded. "I know who she is. And I still love her. And 
if she ever got lost that way again, I'd move Heaven and Earth to get her 
back. But she's not lost this time."

Buffy looked closely at her best friend, reading her facial expressions and 
body language for any sign that she was hiding something from her. She 
realized that there was no artifice about Willow's behavior; she wasn't 
smiling for Buffy's benefit, she was telling her the truth. "So you know 
where she is?"

"Yeah," Willow smiled sadly. "Well, not 'know where she is' in the sense of 
actually knowing her current location, but at least knowing that she is 
someplace. And Tara knows where she is, and that's what matters. I can't 
tell you where she really is, but I know that she's where she needs to be. 
Y'know?"

For the next five seconds, Buffy digested what Willow had told her. "This is 
scary, Will. Your babbles are starting to make sense." Willow chuckled as 
Buffy looked lovingly at her. "I just don't understand how you know, uh, what
ever it is you know. Did Tara manage to cram all that into an email, before 
she went-well, where she went?"

"Not an email, Buffy," Willow said softly. Buffy could almost detect the 
reverential tone that suddenly infused her friend's voice. "She was here. 
Her spirit was, anyway. Remember last month, when we rescued her from Aaron 
Webb and the cult of Anansi?"

Buffy nodded, "Yeah, and she sent that blue Tinkerbell thing to guide us to 
her." Buffy's head snapped up suddenly. "Did Tara visit you in that 
sprite-form again?"

"Yes," Willow said, tears shining in her eyes. "She couldn't tell me 
everything, but she let me know that she was doing something important. 
She-she joined her soul to mine for a moment. Just a second in real-time, 
but it was like hours with her. Without words, we said so much to each 
other. We communicated on the deepest level possible. We shared our souls 
for that instant, Buffy. It was the most intimate moment I ever had with 
anyone."

Buffy looked on in awe and wonder as Willow spoke of her final moment with 
Tara. "Wow," she whispered. "Sounds like you two shared something special. 
You think she'll visit you again like that?"

"No," Willow answered, with the faintest tinge of sorrow. "As we parted, we 
realized that we weren't gonna be together that way again. She's destined 
for something different, Buffy. We both are. Like Ben Kenobi said to Luke 
Skywalker, her destiny lies along a different path than mine."

Buffy felt her own eyes welling with tears, and absently started to dab at 
her eyes with her sleeve. "Willow, I'm so sorry. I had no idea-"

"Don't be sorry for me, Buffy," Willow smiled warmly, assuring Buffy. "I 
know that we'll see Tara again. And even if she and I aren't together, we'll 
always remember what we had. I'll always love her, Buffy, but that doesn't 
mean I won't love anyone else."

"I'm glad to hear that, Willow," Buffy breathed out a sigh of quiet relief. 
"I guess I was worried about you, especially after how sad you were when Oz 
bailed."

"You mean," Willow said archly, "you were afraid that I'd try that 'I Will It 
So' spell, and you'd end up smooching on the couch with Spike again." Buffy 
mock-glared at Willow, causing them both to giggle. "I'm okay, Buffy. Like 
you said, Oz bailed. He ran away. Tara's not running away, she's running 
toward something. She's doing this because she needs to, and how can I say I 
love her if I didn't give her the chance to do what she needs to do?" Willow 
took Buffy's strong hand in her small one, and gave it a warm and loving 
squeeze. "It hurts a little, letting her go, but I'll never lose her. I'm 
okay, Buffy. Really."

Buffy squeezed Willow's hand back, wishing to convey the love she bore for 
the Wiccan hacker. "Is there anything I can do for you, Willow? Anything at 
all?"

Willow returned Buffy's watery smile with one of her own. "Two things, 
Buffy. One, be my friend."

"Always," Buffy nodded enthusiastically.

"And two," Willow added, "hand me that Phillips screwdriver. I think I may 
have Buffy-bot's humor reaction programming licked. She still needs work on 
her comebacks."

"I can do knock-knock jokes," Buffy-bot chirped, oblivious to the screwdriver 
poking her innards.

"Knock-knock?" Buffy asked skeptically.

"Who's there?" Buffy-bot chimed in.

Buffy rolled her eyes at her double, then turned back to Willow. "Look, 
Willow, you ever need to talk about anything, you knock on my door. Anytime 
at all. You need me, I'm there."

"Thanks, Buffy," Willow answered. "And I'll probably take you up on that 
soon." Buffy took Willow's hand in hers again, simply content to enjoy the 
contact for a fleeting moment.

"Look-Willow-you-ever-need-to-talk-about-anything-you-knock-on-my-door-anytime

-at-all-thanks-Buffy-and-I'll-probably-take-you-up-on-that-soon WHO?" 

Buffy and Willow glared at the blank-faced android, then slowly dissolved 
into a fit of laughter. It was a healing laugh, the kind that required deep 
breaths that allowed oxygen into the system, restoring the body and cleansing 
the soul. A few minutes later, as the two best friends collected themselves, 
Buffy fetched two glasses of iced tea while Willow turned back to repairing 
the android.

As Buffy allowed herself to enjoy the company of her best friend, a pair of 
eyes glared at her through the living room window. Unseen, a dark figure 
stood under a large tree, his form and face shrouded in the darkness of the 
night. His eyes smoldered dimly, angry and bloody thoughts dancing behind 
them. He ran his hand through his slicked back hair, and considered his 
plans.

"Soon, Slayer," Spike vowed as he took a swig from a can of Guinness, "soon."