Again set in the future a bit. Our girls are back together and happy. But new things are afoot.
Well here it is...
--
TITLE: Queen of Darkness, Episode 2: Ghost in the Machine
AUTHOR: Web Warlock
DISCLAIMER: Nothing to disclaim. Joss invented all of this; I am just playing in his sandbox.
RATING: PG-13. Unless of course you have problems with two people who love each other very much expressing that love.
PAIRINGS: Everyone is with who they are supposed to be with.
SPOILERS: Everything and a bunch of wild-ass speculation, set a few years in the future.
DISTRIBUTION: Not yet. This is beta.
FEEDBACK: Praise is nice, but constructive criticism is more helpful
SUMMARY: Willow and Tara go computer shopping, Buffy visits her Ex, and an old enemy tries to kill everyone.
NOTES: Sydney is loosely based on Lori Singer’s character from VR.5 (Which also featured ASH). In my mind she stopped fooling around with the VR crap and went to teach Willow’s CS classes. Brian is based on two different roommates I had in college. I just thought ‘what would this guy do if Buffy were his ex?’
You don’t need to read the other parts of ‘Queen of Darkness’ or ‘Queen of Light’ to read this story, but it doesn’t hurt.
Episode 2: Ghost in the Machine
Summers’ Home. Early Saturday Morning, August 29th, 2004.
Willow’s alarm goes off announcing the arrival of another morning. She reaches over hits the ‘off’ button and rolls over to wake the sleeping blonde next to her.
“Tara! Tara, wake up, you know what today is!”, Willow said excitedly.
“Ugh…It’s Saturday, we can sleep in.”, the blonde replied and pulled the covers over her head. Willow pulled them back down.
“No it’s the computer faire today! You promised!”, replied the red-head with a slight hint of being hurt.
“No we can stay in bed. I bet I can come up with a few good reasons to.”, Tara said, her eyes were still closed, but a half-smile played across her face. She inched closer to her lover and began move against her. Willow began to protest, but her mouth opened and no words came out. Her eyes began to close as she began to move as well.
“That-that…that is so not fair.”, Willow said while breathing heavy. “Well. Maybe we can go in a bit…”
Willow pulled the covers over them both as she climbed on top of Tara who let out a laugh.
A little while later, the two women untangled themselves and moved on to get their showers. Both emerged, cleaner, more awake and lot more satisfied than before.
“I am going to head down and make some breakfast.”, Tara said and sniffed the air, “Smells like Dawn or Buffy might be up. Hmm. Coffee.”.
“Ok, I’ll meet you downstairs in a bit, can’t find my other shoe.”, Willow replied.
“It’s under the bed sweetie”, Tara shouted back as she walked downstairs. She rounded the corner to head for the kitchen and then she saw something that gave her a shock.
“Oh my Goddess! Willow!”, Tara shouted.
Willow came down the stairs as quick as she could taking three or four steps at a time. She got downstairs to where Tara was standing. Tara had her hand over her mouth, Willow saw what had shocked Tara.
“Oh my God! Buffy. Are you doing homework?”, Willow asked.
“Don’t say a word. I have these child observation hours to sort through and get my summaries in.”, Buffy replied in an semi-disgusted manner. The Slayer was sitting at the table surrounded by papers. She was dressed, and had made coffee and apparently had been at it for a while.
“At first I thought she had been possessed or maybe it was the ‘Bot.”, Tara said trying not to laugh.
“Keep it up you two and I’ll reconsider your cushy rent-free situation here.”, Buffy shot back.
“Not saying a word. Just thrilled to see it that’s all.”, Willow replied. “Where’s Dawnie? Not still in bed?”
“No, Anya called while you two were in the shower”, Buffy said with emphasis on the last word. Willow tried looking innocent, Tara just looked embarrassed. “She wanted her help opening this morning.”
“Wow. That is usually Anya’s ‘Quiet time’ with her money. Dawn and I have had to stand outside waiting for her to open before.”, Willow remarked with a hint of surprise.
“Did you want some breakfast?”, Tara asked.
“Nah, I’m caffeine girl this morning. I’m cool. But can I use your computer Will?”
“Sure. Just don’t look in the folder called ‘naked womyn pics’.”, Willow said. Buffy gave her look which caused Willow to laugh. “I’m just kidding Buffy! My computer is perfectly safe and clean.”, Tara gave her a similar look. “What, can’t I joke, I do *like* girls after all…”
“Whatever. Don’t you two have a shopping spree to go on or something?”, Buffy asked.
“Well I could stay here with you if you like and help you with-”, Tara began to say, but Willow gave her her best ‘pouty face’ look. “No we are going computer shopping. Wanna come with?”
“Gee spend a beautiful Saturday in a convention center with a couple hundred geeks or stay inside and do homework all day? Wow my life does suck. Besides I have something I have to do today.”, Buffy said as she picked up a small wrapped gift.
“Ooo! Presents! What’s the occasion?”, Willow said.
“Brian. Today is his birthday, I am trying to decided whether or not to give this to him.”
“Oh. Well. You two are still friends right?”, Willow asked.
“Yeah. But it is a little more complicated than that.”, Buffy replied, looking up from the present to her two friends. “I guess, I could just keep it.”
“If you bought for him, then you should take it to him. Just make sure that he doesn’t feel lead on.”, Tara added. “Are you, You are not going out with him tonight are you?”
“No. He is going out with his sister. The one that hated me.”
“Well then we should go out tonight, all of us and Dawn. We will make a girls night out!”, Willow exclaimed.
“Yeah! That sounds great, I could use some girlie fun. It’s a deal.”, Buffy said her mood improving. “Now I got to get to work.”
“Ok, and we need to go.”, Willow said ushering Tara out the door.
“What about breakfast?”, Tara asked
“I’ll buy you a doughnut at the computer fair.”
“They have doughnuts?”
“You are so out of your culture with this aren’t you. Bye Buff!” Willow said as she closed the door behind her.
Willow and Tara got to the Sunnydale Convention Center and it was already packed with computer dealers. They got to the gate and Tara was surprised to see they had an entry fee. She was even more surprised when the guy taking tickets just let them through.
“Ok, so how did we do that?”, she asked.
“Oh, not pay? I’ve been coming to this thing for years, Ray never charges me. Besides I also think he does it round out the ratio of girls to guys.”, Willow said and she moved closer to Tara , “To bad we can’t help.”
Tara was amazed at what she saw, booths selling everything she had ever seen computer related and many things she had never seen before in her life. It was crowded, but they walked hand-in-hand and Willow seemed to have a destination in mind. Every once in while some guy would pass by with a ‘Hey Will’, or a ‘How’s it going Willow’. She explained that most of them were from the Computer Science department at UCSD. Finally they got to where Willow was leading them. A small booth with a bunch of headset-goggles for sale.
“And here we are! Hey Syd!”, Willow said to first Tara and then to the blonde woman sitting at the booth space.
“Hey Willow! I was hoping you would be here today. Is this?”, the woman asked.
“Yes! Tara this is Sydney, she was one of my TA’s at UCSD, she is a grad student in computer science studying virtual reality. Sydney, this is my girlfriend Tara.”
“Pleased to finally meet you Tara! Wow Willow talked so much about you.” Sydney said while shaking Tara’s hand.
“Really?”, Tara said and gave a smile to Willow who could only smile back. “It is really nice to meet you too.”
“Yeah, she would go on and on about you, till finally one of the guys in the class asked ‘so what is she your girlfriend or something?’, and Willow totally knocked ‘em out with this bright a cheery ‘of course she is!’ it was so cool. Though I don’t think Spiros ever believed you.”
“Spiros was an idiot. Thought he was ‘gods-gift-to-women’.”, Willow said disgusted. “Oh Willow come with me. You will forget your-girlfriend.”, Willow said in rather bad Greek accent. “At least his brother was cool.”
“Doesn’t matter, your Kung-Fu was better.”, Sydney said.
“Really?”, Willows seemed surprised, then to Tara, “That’s high geek praise. She is saying my programming is better.”
“Yeah you got skillz, Will. Now do you have my money!”, Sydney said with a mock threatening tone. Tara was taken aback at first till she saw the blonde’s smile.
“You bet! Got my stuff?”
“Yup, all right here and I even gave you the CS 421 alumni discount, one free box to carry it all in!”
Willow gave Sydney an envelope. Tara knew from earlier that it was full of cash, part of Willow’s commission on the ‘Magic Box’s’ new server. Sydney took the cash and gave Willow a box full of gadgets, one of which Willow pulled out.
“Cool the new 500s! Look Tara it’s the new 500!”, Willow was acting like a child on the first day of Hanukah.
“Great!”, Tara said. “What is it?”
“Sorry baby, I just get so excited sometimes! This the product that Sydney’s company makes. It is a Virtual Reality deck. See you put it on like this,” Willow demonstrated by putting the helmet on her head. “You close up the goggles, adjust your volume, vison, put on your tactile gloves and Bam! you are inside the computer! Three dimensional graphics, surround sound, tactile feedback, just like being there, only your still here, not there.” Willow moved her head around a bit and then nodded it. “Much lighter than the 300s you had back at UCSD. I bet these are selling great!”
“I wish.”, Sydney said with a snort. “I guess you haven’t been to the CAVE yet.”
Willow was taking off her deck. “They have a CAVE here?”
“Ok, sorry I am lost again, what’s a cave?”, Tara interrupted. She loved to hear Willow talk, but when she got in to geek mode she was easy to loose.
“Oh, sorry, running off again. A CAVE, or Computer Assisted Virtual Environment.”, she read Tara’s blank look. “A sort of primitive Holo-deck.”
“Oh from Star Wars!”, Tara said, hoping she got it right.
“Star Trek, actually. Don’t watch much TV?”, Sydney said.
“More of a print gal. Books.”, Tara replied, a bit bashfully.
“Good for you! I like books, even held one once or twice!”, Sydney joked with Tara. “Yeah now that these CAVEs are out, no one is interested in VR anymore. You know you only need a frelling Cray and about million bucks and you can have one in you own home. My decks are cheaper, work with stupid Windows and plug into the computer you already have. Wow, did that sound a little too bitter?”
“Just a little.”, Tara responded back.
“Sorry to hear that things are slow Syd.”, said Willow.
“Yeah, your three are my first sale of the day.”
“Oh! Right three!”, Willow reached into her pocket and pulled out another envelope of cash and gave it to Sydney. “There should be enough there for the other deck and to cover shipping. Did you send it?”
“Yup, last night. So wanna tell me what you are up to?”, asked Sydney.
“It’s…it’s a secret project I am working on for some friends. I can let you know about it later.”
“Fine keep your secrets! I on the other hand have no such compulsions. Check it out.”, Sydney said as she points to several large crates behind her booth. “I picked these up at a dealer’s auction last night. A bunch of tech firms were unloading hardware from the 90’s dot com bust. Got some great stuff, half of it I have not even gone through. Xenon lasers, SMP boards, servos, I got tons of stuff.”, she looks around and then leans in closer to the girls. “Don’t tell anyone, but I almost have my own CAVE installed at home! I know sort like me supporting the enemy. But it is cool. I disconnected my phone and internet from my house so no one could spy on me.”, she backed up, “you both should come over sometime I’ll show it off. It still has some dead zones, but give me a week and it will rock!”
“I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks Syd and good luck.”, Willow said as she put her deck back into the box and picked it up.
“Thanks! It was nice meeting you Tara!”, Sydney shouted back.
“Nice to meet you too. Bye.”, Tara said.
The girls walked for a bit down the aisle of dealers and exhibitors.
“So, should I be worried?”, Tara said.
“Hmm. About what?”, Willow responded.
“You seemed awful…friendly with Sydney back there.”
“What? Oh Syd, naw we had some classes together. Most times we were the only girls in the class so we hung out.”, Willow said and she looked at Tara., “Tara Rose Maclay are you jealous?”, Willow said surprised and amused. “Oh my god you are!”
“No, no not jealous, just concerned, and curious, and maybe a little”, she said, with her voice rising on the last part followed by a half smile. “I mean you two speak the same language and we stopped having classes together when your’s stopped making sense, and…”
“Tara. You are the only girl, the only person, for me. You know that.”, Willow said. It wasn’t a question, she simply stated it. “Besides Syd is about as straight as they get.”
“Oh”, Tara said very relieved. “I know.”, Willow smiled and gave Tara a quick kiss, the best she could manage carrying her new purchases.
“Good, now let’s go see this CAVE they have.”
“Are you sure she is straight, cause she is kinda cute.”, Tara joked back.
“Tara.”, Willow said with a warning in her voice.
“We could go back and ask her over for dinner sometime…”, she continued.
“Tara! You are so bad sometimes! If I wasn’t holding all this stuff…”
“I guess you’ll just have to spank me later then.”, she added with a coy smile. Willow turned almost as red as her hair.
The girls spent the rest of the morning checking out the CAVE, though they did not go in, the line was stretched out forever and there was a 2 hour wait. They got a late breakfast and headed towards the door.
“Are we carrying these all the way back home?”, Tara asked. She was used to physical labor, one of the ‘values’ her father tried to instill in her, but after a while the boxes were getting heavy.
“No, we are taking them to the ‘Magic Box’. The computer and the other parts are there.”, Willow said.
The girls headed out and towards the down town.
Buffy stood in front of the apartment door. She had the gift in her hand, but now that she was here, it seemed like less of a good idea.
“Well I could always leave it at the door.”, she thought. “Damn. No, the card on the package says it’s from me. Not give it all? What am I going to do with it?” As her mental debate raged on, the decision was taken from her when the door opened.
“Buffy?”, the voice came from a tall and attractive African-American woman. She was younger than Buffy, but something about her stance, or maybe her height that always made Buffy think she was older.
“Allicia. Ah, Hi. Is…Brian home?”, Buffy asked, taken aback. Allicia was about the last person she wanted to see.
“Yes.”, the other woman said rather coldly. It was of course an answer to Buffy’s question, and nothing else. But before Buffy could get into the inevitable verbal sparring match that was featured in all of her encounters with Aillicia in the past, the door open some more as Brian walked out.
“Hey, don’t forget dinner plans tonight…Buffy? Hey.”, Brian said, first to his sister and then to his former girlfriend. Brian was a full head taller than his sister, but they had the same looks. Same dark hair and eyes, same color of skin, same ears Buffy even noticed. But the look Brian was giving her was as about as far removed from the look Allicia was giving her as could be.
“Hey.”, was really all she could think of saying., “Huh, I brought you this, Happy Birthday.” And she handed him the present.
“Buffy, thanks. Come in! I’ll open this up in proper manner.”, Brian said, he seemed very excited about the prospect of the gift. That was another one of his perks that she had liked. He acted like a little kid anytime he got a gift. “So I’ll see you tonight then A, ok.”.
“Fine. See you soon.”, Allicia said, the tenor of her voice was unmistakable. “Buffy.”
“Allicia.”, Buffy said back as she walked out of the door and Buffy walked in.
Brian was already rushing around. “Can I get you something to drink?”, he asked.
“No thanks. I see your sister still is big with the love for me.”, Buffy said.
“Naw. She is just overprotective. She says I can do better. She doesn’t know you, that’s all.”
“I don’t think that is it.”, Buffy said looking around his apartment. Strange she thought, I used to come here a lot, now it seems, different.
“Yeah. Sorry about that, Allicia never approved of us, she is old fashioned that way. Now sit down so I can see what you got me!”
Buffy couldn’t help but smile. Brian had always been her ‘normal guy’. Not into killing demons, or turning into them for that matter. No Brian was completely unaware of the real world of magic, demons, vampires, and Slayers. Especially that last part. Buffy never shared with him her secret. She explained her strength and speed by telling him she used to be on the school’s gymnastics team. Whether he bought it or not, it did not matter to her, theirs was a relationship built on lies, and blissful lies they were. Brian allowed her to feel like a real girl for a change. What did she give him? Oh she was pretty sure what she was giving him. Brian had finished opening his gift. It was his favorite cologne, the one he was wearing when they first met. He laughed, got up to look in the mirror as put some on. She never quite understood why he had to look into the mirror to do that.
“Thanks! Oh this is great, my lucky cologne, it’s my Birthday, damn I am feeling good.”, he said as he ran over to Buffy and gave her a quick kiss. She pulled back.
“Whoa, we broke up remember. Something about you needing some space and me outgrowing us or something?”
“Yeah, I guess there were good reasons, whatever they were.”, he said with a smile. “Just wanted to thank the pretty lady for her fine gift. Hey! Let’s do lunch. I gotta new tie from my brother and new shirt from A, let’s go show me off!”
“Sorry I can’t really, I have some work I need to do.”, Buffy said. Brian moved a bit closer and she could smell the cologne on him. What ever body chemistry he had, the cologne took on a whole different scent and memories came flooding back. “I suppose, I could do some lunch. Where do you want to go?”, Brian moved even closer, obvious to the effect it was having on her. “We, we could order out I suppose, that would be fast.”, Buffy continued. Brian began to kiss her neck and moved up to jawbone towards her mouth. “Yeah lunch would be good.”, He kissed he on the mouth, she returned the kiss, slow and weak at first, but then with renewed vigor. “Oh hell”, she thought, “It is a special occasion today.”
“We could just stay in.”, Brain said.
“Yeah, that’s a great idea.”, Buffy said as she knocked him back onto the floor.
Tara and Willow showed up at the ‘Magic Box’ carrying their boxes and looking beat. Dawn was at the counter reading one of the books on magic, but there were no customers.
“Hey Dawnie! Busy day?”, Willow asked.
“I wish. Nope been pretty dull around here.”, Dawn said back. “Get your shopping done?”
“Yup. I am going to put this in the back with my other stuff.” Willow said and looked around. “Where’s Anya and Xander? Oh my. They aren’t in back are they?”
Tara looked up when she realized what Willow was talking about and then to Dawn to try to cover what Willow said. Dawn barely looked up from her book.
“If you mean ‘are they back there having sex’ then no. Anya is in back, she is not feeling well again. Xander is in the basement storage putting together shipping orders.”
Tara looked confused. “Is Anya ok?”
“Yeah, she says she thinks she has the flu. Remember last year when she had the Chicken Pox. She was so embarrassed to have a childhood disease, but she still tried to come in every day. ‘It’s not my fault that I was born 1,000 years before the vaccine’.” Dawn said in her best Anya impersonation. She smiled to herself about it.
“Why is Xander doing shipping orders?”, Willow asked.
“That would be your fault.”, Dawn said to Willow, then she looked at her and smiled, “The new website is working great the orders are coming in so fast we can’t keep up. So Xander is filling orders and I am up here for the old fashion customers.”
“Oooh. I gotta check the weblogs!”, Willow said as she took her boxes and ran off to back office. With Willow gone, Dawn looked around and turned to Tara.
“Tara. Can I ask you something. Something really personal?”, she said while looking straight at her.
“You can ask. But I may not be able to tell you.”, Tara said. She did not want to hide anything from Dawn, but she still felt there were somethings she did not yet need to know.
“Ok. It’s about you and Willow and when you first knew some things…”, Dawn asked.
“Oh. Dawn. Is this about Willow and I being gay? We talked about this before. Oh wait you don’t think that…”
“What? Oh no. No. Not that. Sorry, I love you to death Tara, but I like my men to be, you know, men. But that is not it. I wanted to know when you and Willow, but mostly you, knew when you were witches.”
“Oh. Ok. Well as it turns out my answer would be the same. I always knew. I mean I knew I could do things. But I never had a word for it. Daddy said it was evil, but my grandmother showed me how to use my magic and taught me all about Wicca. I guess I started at about five or so. Hmm, why do you ask?”
Dawn picked up the book she was reading and showed it to Tara. “Research. Store related, not Scooby. I h-had someone come in yesterday and ask how you tell if you were becoming a witch.”
“Dawn, you don’t ‘become’ a witch, you either are or are not.”, Tara said.
“Willow did. I mean I remember, at first it was small stuff and then, woosh! She’s super-witch.”.
Tara paused at this. “Willow, had – had power, but it was coming from a dark source. She was and could have been a great witch, a power for good, but it didn’t work out like that. Witchcraft is something you have to take your time at.”
“So she lost all her powers then.”, Dawn commented.
“No.”, Tara said while looking in the direction where Willow had left. “She still has them, she still feels the surge, the rush of power, every day. It is so hard for her, but she gets through each day and does not give in.”
“Cause she knows that next time she might not be able to come back.”, Dawn said, a bit sadly, “we studied drug addiction in health class. She must love you so much to give all that up for you.”
“Us Dawn. She does it for all of us. She hurt all of us at one time or another, but she couldn’t do that again. So she remains ‘Simply Willow’. I asked my grandmother when I was little why my mom married my dad. She said, ‘there are two things that neither men nor gods can explain. Love and Magic’.”
They were silent for a bit and Willow came out of back room skipping and bouncing. “Ooo! The site is such a success! Uptime is at 99.99% and we are getting orders from around the world!”, she looks at the other two, “So what were both talking about so secrety?”.
“You.”, Dawn said a matter of factly which set Tara back a bit. “I was asking Tara how could she put up with all your geek talk all the time. I said it must be because she loves to darn much to notice.”
“Really?”, Willow said while turning to look right into Tara’s eyes.
“Yeah—Yes. Yes! I love you very much, even when you do babble on about things I have no clue about.”, They kiss and then hug. Tara gives Dawn a look, but Dawn only smiles back.
“Hey let’s go downstairs and bug Xander!”, Willow said, still happy with her news about the successful website.
“Maybe we should go check on Anya first.”, Tara said while looking to the training room.
“No way!”, Willow protested. “Remember the last time she got the flu and gave it to all of us. Uhn-uh. Spending three days throwing up is not my idea of a good time. She’s fine right Dawn?”
“Yeah, I guess so. I mean I have been all day with her and I still feel fine.”
“Well. Ok. But maybe we should bring her something, soup or hot tea.”, Tara added.
“Fine, we can make tea when we come back up.”, Willow said.
“Oh. I can do it.”, Dawn offered back. “Not like it is really busy here now anyway.”
“Thanks Dawnie. We’ll just be a bit.”, Willow said as she grabbed Tara’s hand and went to the store room in the basement.
Dawn walked back towards the table and got out the supplies to make tea. Giles had left them a couple pots and a nice tea kettle to use. She gathered up everything and went to the small burner. She got her water and started it and tea in the metal kettle and looked for the serving pot. She saw it on the back counter, Anya had used it last night and it was in the drying rack. Dawn nervously looked around and reached out her hand. The kettle vibrated lightly and faint green aura appeared around it. It then shot from it’s resting place and flew into Dawn’s outstretched hand. Checking again to be sure no one saw what she had done, she went about her business of getting the tea ready.
To Be Continued
Warlock.
------------------
Web Warlock
web.warlock@attbi.com webwarlock@planetadnd.com
Author, the Netbooks of Witches and Warlocks
The Other Side: http://www.xtreme-gaming.com/~theotherside/
--
"Nobody gets me baby. I'm the wind!" - Tom Servo, MST3k
[This message has been edited by Web Warlock (edited January 16, 2002).]