Freedom (Of A Sort)

[i-died-twice.livejournal.com]

To Buffy Anne Summers, it seemed like the only reason she'd been podpopped in the first place was to have been placed in GLaDOS right away, forced to run mazes and the like. It was an experience that had somewhat reminded Buffy of her eighteenth birthday, when Giles had secretly sedated her powers away so that she'd have to fight a vampire all on her lonesome. The Cruciamentum, the Council of Watchers had called it.

Okay, so it wasn't that unfortunate of an experience, but still. Forced testing does not a happy Slayer make.

She brushed back her hair and stared up at the statues in the art hall. As much as she did not want to be, she was mystified by them. Buffy hadn't run across them before, but she was quickly figuring out that they depicted the scenes from one's life. At the moment, it was showing Buffy when she was powerless and running away from some thugs, on the night of her Cruciamentum.

Because that's something I definitely wanted to be reminded of, she thought dryly.

Finally, though, the Slayer forced herself to turn away from the statues. Enough taunting. I need food. Or something.

Comments

[justoutrunyou.livejournal.com]

"Got it in one." Sandy remarked making a point not to glance back at the creepy inky things. Which was unfortunate because now it was actually forming a more relaxing scene of her spray painting a wall.

"The Sensoriums did the same thing when I first went in there." she mumbled with a hint of bitterness about it.

[i-died-twice.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, the statues I was looking at were showing me bits of This Is Your Life which I'd like to, you know, pretend didn't ever happen, too." Although now it was showing her, Willow, and Xander at Buffy's home one night, trying to decipher a Bollywood movie in which a woman sang on a telephone, intercut with images of a water buffalo in drag. "Usually, when I go into the Sensoriums, it shows me home. Which is...well. Something." Sure, she missed Sunnydale, but there was no escaping the fact that Sunnydale had quite literally been hell.

[justoutrunyou.livejournal.com]

Sandy was surprised, this girl looked like an adult which automatically couldn't be trusted...but she talked like a teenager which was better. A little bit anyway.

"Me too, that was part of the problem though." Sandy explained. "It's better now that I know what they are. Someone explained how they work. Still kinda...you know?" She made a face at the general heebie jeebes of it.

[i-died-twice.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Buffy didn't ever think she'd be able to speak like a stereotypical adult. She'd rather die again than lose that little piece of what made her Buffy. "I do, yes," she smiled encouragingly at Sandy. "Do you want to talk about it?" she asked. "I can lend you an ear. In a non-Wonder Years theme song sort of way."

[justoutrunyou.livejournal.com]

Sandy blinked again, "The wonder years?" She asked missing the reference entirely.

"I've already done the talking thing, and it's kind of all blown up now right? So it's not really a big deal." She shrugged, though she flat out would not risk another glance at the inky substance while there were people about.

[i-died-twice.livejournal.com]

"Probably before your time," Buffy said. "Or out of your universe. Which, really, is not a bad thing." She shook her head. "Sorry. But, you know, I have a little sister myself, so I'm really good at the listening and the being there, so if you ever do want someone to listen to...well. You know."

[justoutrunyou.livejournal.com]

Sandy felt a little guilty. At least this girl was trying.

"Some pretty bad stuff happened just before Stacy um...saved me." She admitted, "Even if the big bad bugs weren't about to blow up my planet my city probably wasn't gonna last much longer ya know?"

[i-died-twice.livejournal.com]

"Stacy picked me up soon after my hometown became a huge crater when Hell had it for dinner," Buffy said. If Sandy cared to look, the statues would probably be showing Sunnydale as a crater just then. "Mostly because I was trying to fight back the First Evil. And, you know, vampires. Old ones. Ugly ones." She frowned. "You had to be there. Not that you'd want to be." She brushed back a lock of her hair. "I'm sorry, for what it's worth."

[justoutrunyou.livejournal.com]

Sandy listened and her eyes were a little wider, "Like...vampire vampires? Like...blah! I vant to suck your blud!" She made a "vampire face" to try and see if she understood.

[i-died-twice.livejournal.com]

Buffy couldn't help but laugh at the adorable vampire face. "Well. Without the accent, yes. Although, okay, Dracula does sound a little like that."

[justoutrunyou.livejournal.com]

Sandy's eyes just boggled, "You've actually met THE Dracula? That was like...one of the first scary movies I ever saw!!"

[i-died-twice.livejournal.com]

"Yeah. He wasn't much like he was in the movies. He was more like a really lame supermodel that could, you know, create fog and stuff." Buffy shrugged. "Not creepy as much as annoying."

[justoutrunyou.livejournal.com]

Sandy stuck her tongue out "Yuck! How lame." She pulled another goofy face that was apparently disgust. "I hope the wolfman is cooler."

[i-died-twice.livejournal.com]

"I only know one werewolf. He was of the sweet and cuddly. Until he was a werewolf. Then we had to make with the locking and the chaining and the threatening with the silver tipped crossbow bolts. Except that last thing was only if he got free." Buffy's best friend was a witch, and her little sister was a key that could collapse the walls between realities.

[justoutrunyou.livejournal.com]

"Whoa." Sandy was impressed, "Who else do you know? Any zombies? I love zombie movies!" This girl was swiftly climbing up Sandy's list of "coolest people ever."

[i-died-twice.livejournal.com]

"One of my best friends is a good witch?" Buffy suggests. Which, you know, Willow is. When she's not veiny-faced and evil. Which isn't all that often anyway. "I don't know any zombies, though, unfortunately."

[justoutrunyou.livejournal.com]

"Coooool!" Sandy reacted with a big grin, "Witches are cool too, not like old hag witches those are creepy. More like you know, bad ass witches like in "Darkwurld"" A movie from her world. Not the greatest but it was actiony.

"So are you just like...a normal human?" she asked, "Or do you have power too?"

[i-died-twice.livejournal.com]

"I have no idea what Dark...world(?) is. But it sounds interesting." Buffy grinned back at Sandy. "I'm what people back home call a Vampire Slayer. I fight vampires. And other creepy-crawlies, but vampires are like the common cold of the supernatural world."

[justoutrunyou.livejournal.com]

"Vampire Slayer." Sandy tried the words out, "Slayer sounds really cool, like a rock band or something!" She was still utterly impressed. "You're like a superhero."

[i-died-twice.livejournal.com]

"Where I come from, it is a band," Buffy explained. "Of some sort. Though I don't think they took their name from us." Did they? Buffy paused to imagine scenarios in which the group took the name from a Slayer friend or something. Way too bizarre. "My friend Xander called me a superhero when he first found out I was the Slayer." It wasn't a term that she felt suited her just quite yet - most heroes chose to be heroes while Buffy was literally forced into it - but she wasn't going to disillusion Sandy about something that trivial. Not when the girl seemed happier, and certainly not when she seemed to be comfortable around Buffy.

[justoutrunyou.livejournal.com]

"Heroes were outlawed where I came from. The police cracked down on anyone who wanted to wear masks, stay out late, and especially anyone with super powers." She explained. "We used to have all sorts of heroes but then they all just...went away."

[i-died-twice.livejournal.com]

"That must have been one with the sucktastic for a girl who could turn into stone," Buffy said. "Is that why your world was on the verge of destructo-badness?"

[justoutrunyou.livejournal.com]

Sandy nodded, "Totally sucktastic. My teacher said it was to make New York safe. The same reason we do anything apparently. We became our own country and closed the boarders to the outside world. That's why when mom found out I could turn into stuff like dad she told me never to do it again."

And sure enough the inky statues were replaying this particular scene.

[i-died-twice.livejournal.com]

Buffy watched the statues, the frown on her face deepening. None of that was good. And Sandy herself seemed so young.

At least they waited until I was fifteen before telling me I was Called.

That last part that Sandy said, though, about her mom telling her not to use powers...it brought her back to when Joyce Summers had first discovered her daughter was the Slayer, and she'd asked Buffy if she'd ever tried not to be the Slayer.

How do you stop being what you were born to be?

"You've been through a lot, haven't you?"

[justoutrunyou.livejournal.com]

Sandy shrugged and brushed a hand across her nose to scratch it, "I guess yeah...I mean...we're all kind in the same boat around here right?" Sandy didn't really like thinking too much about how crappy her world was. S'far as she was concerned that's just how life was.