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

[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.

[i-died-twice.livejournal.com]

Buffy indicated the ship around them. "Almost litereally."

[justoutrunyou.livejournal.com]

Sandy grinned and nodded, "So it's not like it's a big deal. Everything that sucked about back home is blown up now right?"

She was of coarse ignoring that anything good about her home was also gone.

[i-died-twice.livejournal.com]

"Yeah. Absolutely all of it." Except everyone I love, I hope.