"Daughter of Rosenberg..."

Summary: One year after the events of "Groom of Rosenberg" Buffy the Rosenberg Monster and her honey have returned to ask a special favor of their creators Rosenberg and Praetorius...While Tara faces the more or less Big Bad...

Disclaimer: Would Joss want his name associated with this? I think not...But anyway all BTVS characters remain the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series...Though his brother Mort gets nothing...

Archived at the Cicelyverse page of the Buffy Rebecca verse, www.geocities.com/buffyrebecca/Cicelypg.html

Prologue...

That same evening in 1891...Darkness...We find ourselves again outside a large English manor house appearing out of the mists...Well isolated from intruding eyes...

A heavy rainstorm, accompanied by severe gusts of wind, punctuated by blasts of thunder and lightning continues to tear the fabric of night...

But the glow of a warm and cheery fire is spied through a large side window...We hear strains of music playing as we move up to that window...And see, scattered in chairs about the large fireplace...Angelus, Spike, and again diligently working at needlepoint...Drusilla...

All in rather elegant clothes of the era...

Drusilla has just completed the horrifying tale of the mad Willow Rosenberg, her even crazier fellow mad scientist, Andrew Praetorius, and their joint project in resurrection...

Which oddly enough had managed a rather pleasant ending...Which to present company probably constituted the most horrifying ending possible...

Though the loss of the truly evil Mr. Mears was indeed a tragedy, Angelus noted...

And Spike was finding himself oddly intrigued and contented to hear of his...possible...future with a dead and hideously resurrected Slayer...

Though, as Dru pointedly reminded him...It was only a potential future...One of the infinite possible in an infinite universe...

The arrival of a rather dark and stormy Darla, rather matching the night she'd endured outside, back from a somewhat less than completely successful hunt...One lousy gatekeeper and I drank him myself, go and find your own damn dinner, she groused...Brought a sudden end to further discussion...

"What the devil were you all gabbing about?..." she demanded...Grabbing a glass of Angelus' "special" vintage "wine" from the bottle on the table...

"I was telling my new story, Grandmother..." Dru eagerly began... "Lovely..." Darla cut her off...

"A grand tale, dearest..." Angelus noted... "Dead but horribly resurrected, embittered Slayer turning on and threatening all Mankind, brutal raging mobs, mad scientists, fair amount of violence and bloodshed...I gave a big thumbs up..."

Uh-huh...Great... "Somebody get these damned boots off me..." Darla growled...

Damn well time I reminded these idiots who the goddamn Queen of this pride is...

"And our William burned to death..." Angelus grinned...

"Hey, I was the hero...And then some, I'd say..." Spike frowned... "Say, Dru...Just how and when the hell did I...?"

"...Become such a dim-witted wuss...?" Angelus finished brightly...Spike snarling at him as Dru pulled the boots of a frowning Darla...

"No doubt you get your pathetic soul back sometime between now and then..." Angelus continued...As Darla stared a bit at the boys...Then Dru...

Soul?...Noble?...What the hell have you been telling them?...

Though Spike burning to death does sound entertaining...

"Oh, no Angelus..." Dru interrupted politely... "It's the effect of a device restraining Spike's nature and allowing William's partial resurfacing...Placed in his brain by a future government organization in the United States...Operating covertly in one of those states or whatever there..."

In my...? Spike blinked...

"The hell you say?...Really?...Damned American barbarians..." Angelus shook his head... "Though it couldn't happen to a more deserving fellow..." he sneered...

"You seemed pretty chummy with that Slayer's gang...'Angel'...Before you got a look at the dead Slayer creature and ran off..." Spike noted...

"Oh, yes...Father will have his soul back by then...I have seen it..." Dru nodded eagerly...

Brrh...Ha...Spike chortled...Darla blinking...

Say wha...? Angelus stared...

"Well, I think we've had enough horror for one..." he began...

"Wait a minute..." Darla put up a hand...

This is beginning to get interesting...

"Dru, what happened to Angelus...How'd he get a...Eehew...soul?..."

Dru pondered, closing eyes, brow furrowing...

"Hmmn...Sorry, Grandmother...I can't see much on that...Something to do with him murdering some powerful person's relative...It will happen within the next decade, though..."

Note to self, Angelus thought...Avoid capitals, large cities, country estates for next ten years...

Try sticking to the open road, the countryside where the sometimes sturdy, if fearful and ignorant, but generally nourishing peasant, bold highwayman, and gypsy wanderers roam...

Ah, gypsies...Delightfully entertaining people and such a spice to their blood...

"But of course, it's only a possible future, not definite..." Dru noted...

"And the Slayer could come in in the next five minutes and kill us all..." Darla frowned sourly...

"So even without a soul, I'm a noble and romantic hero...?" Spike asked, rather obviously pleased at the notion...

"Sounds like he's the one with the soul...And I smell the stink of it and Humanity on him..." Angelus said, lip curled disdainfully...Spike donning face for combat...

"Boys...Hey!!..." Darla hissed, then bellowed...Likewise taking face... "Morons?!...We have an excellent human staff asleep upstairs, whom if we want to retain their services and this fine home we must not allow to become suspicious of us..."

Beyond thinking we're the usual sort of English countryside degenerate aristocrats with the typical perversions...

Hell, we're generally quieter and better behaved than most...

The boys, rather accustomed now to the finer things and equally eager to retain them for as long as possible, relented...

"So was this more of your monster story from the other night?...The dead Slayer resurrected as a demented, bitter fiend by her flaky lesbian friend and her..." Darla paused...In 1891 a bit much even for her...

"Companion...?"

I asked you if I should drop the unholy love story...Dru hissed to Spike...

"Do she and Spike go off to lay waste and kill?..." a happy ending to a tale with a Slayer for once...

"Oh no, Grandmother...You see, Spike gets killed and she has him resurrected...Sort of immortality and relatively indestructibly human (indestructibly?...Spike beams) with soul...There's a blast at the mad wiccan's laboratory and they slip off when no one's watching..."

Oh...Darla shrugged a little...

Charming...

"People do get killed, though?..."

"An innocent woman by her evil husband, the evil husband, Spike, and several vampires..." Dru noted...

Hmmn...Well...

"But I am the hero, right?...And got the girl?" Spike eyed her...

Ye...ah...Dru, curtly... "A deformed, seven foot, brain-damaged ex-Slayer with green skin..."

"All yours, boy..." Angelus beamed...

Heh...Even with a soul, I've still got a brain...

"Well, she seemed very loving...And she was getting better by the end...Say I was tall as well by then, right?..."

"Yeah..." Dru, even more curtly...Darla rather amused now...

"Say what was that about her being...What was that name?..." Angelus, eyeing Spike who'd missed one vital section, went for the kill...

"Ah, Cicely reincarnated...Right..." he beamed...Dru looking a bit concerned as Spike stared...

Cicely?...

"Oh, right...You knew a girl of that name, didn't you...William...?" a wider beam...

"This...'Buffy?'...Was Cicely?...My...er...The Cicely I..." Spike looked at Dru...

Ummn...

Darla ever more amused...This was sounding better all the time...

"It's only a potential future..." Dru feebly noted...

"You're saying Cicely...Didn't hate me?...Comes back for me?..."

"No doubt your soul's pathetic whining forced her to try and shut you up..." Angelus smiled...

"Was she a Slayer then, too?...Is that why...?"

Dru looking so pathetic herself now, even Darla was a little torn between sympathy and savage amusement...

Naturally, savage amusement easily winning out...

"Is there any more...?" she asked... "I could use some laughs..."

"Yeah, is there, Dru?..." Spike, eager...

"And does Spike get brutally killed again?..." Angelus, hopeful...

"I don't think I've any more for tonight..." Dru frowned at the general group...Looking away...

"Now, girl..." Spike came over...Patting hand... "As you say, it's only a potential future...Like Angelus turning gay and getting a soul..."

"She never said I turned gay..." Angelus stared...

Would explain some things...Darla thought...

"You gave up a beautiful Slayer even before her resurrection...I'd sure wonder about you...And like Dru says, an infinitely possible universe..." Spike grinned...

"Dru?...I did not turn gay...Right?..."

Well...Father...Dru began, diplomatically...

"Might as well have, soul boy..." Spike noted...

"Tell us more, Dru...Sit down, morons and be quiet!..." Darla hissed... "C'mon, dear...We're all attention...Tell us what disasters followed..."

"I must be true to my visions, grandmother..." Unfortunately...Dru thought, sighing...And glaring a bit at Spike who was far too eagerly attentive now...

"Oh, very well..." All took seats...

"It was a night, much like this...A fierce rainstorm and its howling winds raging through the little town of Sunnydale, California, USA, one year after the monster and her mate had been presumed lost in the terrible explosion at the Rosenberg laboratory...Only two aware that her fate had not been as tragic as the others presumed...When an old friend from that tragic past decided to pay a call on Ms. Willow Rosenberg..."

"Ms.?..." Angelus, Spike, Darla looked at each other...

"I'll explain later..."

***

Part I...

2003...The Castle Rosenberg...Imported from Europe...Sunnydale, California...

A dark and naturally, stormy night...

A solitary figure wending its way up the long driveway...Rather content despite the weather...

Singing...Yes, in the rain...In fact...

"I'm the Missus...the pregnant...Missus..." newly married...And contentedly pregnant Anya Harris happily sang, hopping puddles...

Of course something cautious future father Xander would never allow...But what Daddy...Ha, hah she hugged herself...Didn't know, wouldn't hurt him...

Hmmn...She paused...A sudden feeling gripping her...Residue perhaps of her old power...Maybe result of constant exposure of her human senses to the occult world in her work with the former and current Slayers...Possibly her enhanced maternal protective instinct...

But definitely a tingling of what her Mister liked to call her "spider sense"...

Though of course currently future Dad was busily attempting to purge all such unfatherly tendencies as comic book references from his future Daddly character...Going for a good combination of Alan Thicke, Andy Taylor, and just a touch of Jim Anderson...Father not necessarily always knowing best, but certainly making the effort...

She looked around, pulling her coat tight around her...Certainly dark and lonely enough to attract some Thing...With capital T...

Geesh, with all their cash the Rosenbergs could install a few driveway lights...It's dangerous this curving long road up to the castle...Though she was wishing now she'd chosen not to have Dawn drop her off at the lower end on her way to her study group at UCal-Sunnydale...

"Is anyone there?!..." she tried a bold front... "I'm a friend of the Slayer's you know...And she don't take kindly to having friends stalked!..."

Or rendered limb from limb...Eaten...Turned into a love puppy servant...Vamped...

Thank God Faith's reformation had been quite sincere...Even if her tendency to ape her deceased role model was a little unnerving at times...

They'd just barely managed to restrain her from dyeing her hair blonde...So far...And Anya rather suspected Dawn hadn't actually been kidding when she'd mentioned, as a supposed joke, that Faith had asked permission to legally change her name to Buffy Faith...

Nothing...Not a sound...And yet...Somewhere, out there in the dark...

A branch or something snapped...

Ok...Time for mommie genes to kick in...Yep, feel that adrenalin rush...She ran for it...Not quite realizing just how loud a decibel level her screaming had reached...

Flashlight moving toward her, a voice...Phew...She slowed, gasping now...

"Anya?!..." Jonathan Levinson, Willow's trusted assistant and the Rosenberg estate manager hurried down to her...A bit ridiculous in large raincoat...But one Dawn Summers who had been taking an increasing interest in his general well-being since her sister had emphatically declared him "nice" shortly before her supposed tragic demise in last year's laboratory mishap...Had made him promise to keep properly covered in such weather...

"Jonathan!...I think some thing or one's following me!..." Anya ran to him, panting wearily...

After all, luggin' an extra thirty or so...

He looked back down the road...Shining his special flashlight with the additional useful feature of a UV setting calibrated to the solar frequency capable of roasting certain unsavory members of the underworld...A little idea of his own now used by both the Slayer and her inherited supporters in their work to good effect...

Hmmn, no screams of searing agony...And no sounds or signs of pursuit by anything...He scanned the edge of the driveway on either side...Nothing...

"I know something was there!..." Anya gasped...

"I'm sure there was...But it's gone for the moment...C'mon, you've got get into the house, catch your breath, and get dry..."

She continued to peer into the dark...Damn, I know what I know...

And I was right about Buffy surviving the mill fire last year...

Hmmn...She glanced at Jonathan, who was now firmly guiding her toward the house...

I still wonder about that last night...We never did find a trace of Buffy or William...And he and Dawn sure seemed to be sharing a little secret that night...

Though it's true I did suggest to Xander it could've been that they'd had sex...And then after that, things got a little busy what with him wanting to go bludgeon the truth out of Jonathan and all...

"I did feel something, Jonathan..." she insisted as they reached the grand entrance of the Castle Rosenberg...Jonathan nodding to the security guards at the station Willow'd had set up after that night...She obviously having felt a little uncertain as to the surety of her somewhat emotionally capricious creation's demise herself...

Still after a year with no further upsetting reunions...She'd been relaxing a bit...And enjoying her marital status with her spouse, the beauteous Tara...

(What?...Darla stared... "Dru told us earlier...Everybody can marry anyone by 2003..." Angelus noted... "How about animals, Dru?..." he asked...The others looking at him...

Geesh, I just wanted a good gory family tale...Hope this isn't gonna be some kind of bizarrely perverse thing, Darla thought, eyeing Dru...The kid is getting a little more beyond the fringe every night...)

"I believe you..." Jonathan patted the rain-soaked, slightly shivering Anya... "But you've gotta get in now...We'll tell Willow and get some help for a quick search..."

They went in...While from a distance down the driveway, just in the shadows of the forest, a solitary tall figure looked after them...

Blinking a bit and waving arms slightly while trying to stay hidden...That UV flash had been a bit disconcerting...Though fortunately not long enough to cause serious eye damage...

Gee...Buffy thought staring up the driveway...A lightning flash...God, me hate lightning...However life-giving it might be...Revealing her wan, greenish-hued face...And her immense, seven-foot frame in the longest coat William had managed to find for her on one of his cautious shopping/snatching forays into town...

Anya looked awful happy...Just before my terrifying presence got her going...

***

"Daughter of Rosenberg..."

Summary: One year after the events of "Groom of Rosenberg" Buffy the Rosenberg Monster and her honey have returned to ask a special favor of their creators Rosenberg and Praetorius...While Tara faces the more or less Big Bad...

Disclaimer: Would Joss want his name associated with this? I think not...But anyway all BTVS characters remain the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series...Though his brother Mort gets nothing...

Archived at the Cicelyverse page of the Buffy Rebecca verse, www.geocities.com/buffyrebecca/Cicelypg.html

Part II...

Despite the storm blowing round, Artemis McNab, hale and fit, fifty-something, leading Sunnydale business entrepreneur, beamed proudly at the door of his newest masterstroke...The culmination of a brilliant career in the hotel and travel industry...

I mean what could a quiet little town like this use more to draw in the crowds...The Artemis Mc Nab Sunnydale House of Horror Museum...Dedicated to bringing the best and most legendary figures of horror to vivid display...

Well, marketing had suggested the folks round here would take better to that sorta thing over his initial Star Trek idea...Guess they need a few chills and thrills round these parts...

And he was set to deliver up the best...The finest wax and molded works, the best animatronics available...No expense...Within reason...Spared...

Except perhaps for the corners cut on the idiot staff...He glared at his two workers currently struggling with large crates just in from England...

One, a short and heavy-set, nervous-looking, dark-haired man, even as McNab watched, managing to get the other's foot under his dolly...Hey!...

"Lou! Get this thing offa me!..." the other, a tall and thin, sharp-edged, likewise dark-haired man cried out...

"Careful you dolts!" McNab hollered, hurrying over... "These wax figures are specially made. Don't..." A banging sound as the first worker pulled his dolly back and let the crate slip down on the ground...

"...let them drop...Moron!...What are you tryin' to do?!"

"It was on Bud's foot..." Lou noted... "I was just tryin' ta get it off..."

"Sorry, Artie..." Bud frowned at Lou, rubbing his foot...

What I get for hiring relatives...McNab sighed... "Whatever...Just get it open and lets see if it's broken..."

"You heard cousin Art, Lou...Get the crate open..." Bud nudged Lou...

In a few minutes with the aid of a crowbar left just inside the doorway, they'd pried the crate lid off...All three peering down at what looked like a long, black coffin...

"Hmmn...Looks ok...You better open her up..." McNab noted...Lou trembling a little at the sight...Bud whacking him...

"C'mon, open'er up...It's just a wax statue..."

"But it's in a cof...fin..." Lou eyed the box...

"Ah, that's just for show...Part of the act..." McNab shook his head....Reaching in to pull up a long placard which he handed to Lou... "See..." Lou took the placard, reading...

Bud opened the coffin, he jumping back himself a bit on seeing what appeared to be a man in long black cape within...Lying in apparent deathly repose...

"Ok..." McNab nodded... "For once you idiots were lucky...He's ok...Close'im up..."

Bud let the lid drop with a clang...

"Moron!...This exhibit's priceless!...I bought it on my last trip with Ira Rosenberg to Europe...It's the only known authentic likeness of the original Count Dracula...He's even wearing personal property of the Count..."

Hmmn...Bud eyed the box, impressed... "Say, what's in the other?...Frankenstein's monster?..."

"Don't be a putz, Bud..." McNab frowned... "That's an old wives' tale...Nobody can sew a bunch of corpses together to make a living man or woman...Now Dracula there, hey...There was a medieval conqueror who drank the blood of his impaled enemies, even if the Undead stuff's so much hokum..."

Cousin Art hasn't lived in Sunnydale long...Lou thought, still reading...

"No, in this one we got the carcass of an authentic werewolf...Caught by a hunter in England a short time ago..."

"A werewolf?..." Bud snorted... "That's baloney..."

And cousin Bud just moved here...Lou thought...

"Course..." McNab chuckled... "Some wolf with an odd look to it...But who cares...I got the doc's...Some drunk up there in the wilds of England, no doubt...Letter certifying that the thing had human organs...The hunter's sworn affidavit that he saw the guy transform just before it attacked him..."

Sweet...Bud nodded...

"Now if you two idiots can just get 'em safely inside..." McNab frowned at the pair... "I'll have my complete exhibit...This place will clean up and you'll do all right by me...Get to work and leave them by their exhibit spots...I've gotta get over to the Chamber of Commerce meeting...Some nut's claiming my museum's gonna piss off the Undead..."

"Thanks, Artie..." Bud waved at the retiring McNab's back... "We'll get right on it...Don't worry...Lou..." he turned to his colleague... "Lets get 'em inside..."

"You see this...?" Lou held up the placard...

"Nah...What's it say..."

"The Legend of Count Dracula... 'Each night Dracula rises from his coffin to drink the blood of the living...'..."

"Sounds like my ex-wife..." Bud chortled...

"...'King of the Undead for over 500 years, the original Vlad Dracula...Not to be confused with his worthless grandnephew, Vladimir, who assumed the mantle for a time during the late nineteenth century until recently...(Hey, good one, Dru...Angelus chortled...Spike beaming...Bout time that cheap little Eurotrash poseur got exposed...)...Was the most powerful vampire ever raised...Who took his curse on voluntarily to avenge the death of his beloved wife...' That's nice..." Lou noted...

Bud staring at him...A whack...

"... 'Dracula had the strength of twenty and could take the form of bats and other animals, appear as smoke, and had quite a way with the ladies...Though not the caddish womanizer his grandnephew was...'..."

"Aw, c'mon...It doesn't say..." Bud took the placard...

Hmmn...Well, ok...

"...'His only restraints...His enduring love for his wife which led him to seek her lost soul through the centuries and on finding her, will lead him to complete his redemption...And the crucifix of his mother, placed within his mouth during his day's rest by the said worthless grandnephew to deny him his quest's goal...But one day...'..."

"Well, go on..."

"That's all...It's gotten torn here..." Lou lifted the placard up...

"Wonder where Artie came up with this...?" Bud chuckled... "Well, lets get 'em in..."

"Bud?...You don't suppose there might be a crucifix in his mouth?..." Lou eyed the coffin...

"What?...It's a wax statue...Unless Artie really went for the detail..."

"Bud...You don't know this town...The things I've seen..."

"Aw, c'mon..." Bud frowned... "I've told you...All the things you've seen are explainable...Easily..."

"A vampire bit the typist in my office...I saw him do it one night when we were doing the telemarketing late...Then, she was at my house a week later..."

"The only odd thing was she liked you enough to come lookin' for a date...The girl got pregnant by some jerk and was hopin' you'd help her out...You're just lucky she got cold feet..."

She had pretty cold hands, too...Lou sighed... "She only ran off cause I wouldn't let her in or go with her and the sun was coming up..."

"Ah..." Bud waved a hand... "You've got a screw loose...No wonder you lost that job and you should be grateful cousin Artemis got you this one..."

"I'm tellin' ya Bud..."

"Look..." Bud opened the lid...Poking the body...

"Hard...Not decomposing...And look, it's after dark...How come Drac doesn't rise up and kill me?...And, piece de la resistance..." He opened the mouth...Hey, excellent work...And reaching suddenly, pulled out a small crucifix..."Well, what the hell...Artie really did go all out..."

Lou staring at the crucifix in his cousin's hand...Then at the body...

Nothing...

"See...Still just wax..." Bud tapped the body, then closed the lid...

"I think ya oughta put it back..." Lou noted...

"Here, you do it..." Bud handed the crucifix over... "Show me you're over this nonsense..."

"That's ok..." Lou pushed the crucifix back at him... "You can do it..."

"Ah...Lets get these in...I'll put it back in later..."

***

The Castle Rosenberg...

Where a cheery fire...And the lack of a raging maniac or suave killer knocking at the door...Had done something to take the edge off Anya's nerves...

Further by the hurried arrival of her husband following her anxious call to his office...Though Jonathan had assured him all was well for the present...

However they'd found the situation within not much less tense in one of the castle drawing rooms...Giles, recently returned from England in conference with Willow, Tara, and Faith...

Phew...Xander, returning from a quick scout round outside with Jonathan and the security team, was relieved to see Faith had once again not decided to go yet with the blonde look on top of wearing another outfit that matched one of Buffy's...Anya entering with him and Jonathan...

"So you see...There was nothing else to be done...He'd been severely injured and there was no time..." Giles was saying...

"But he is ok...In stasis...?" Willow asked anxiously...As Xander coughed to indicate their arrival...Faith smiling at the newcomers...

"As ok as he can be...But the doctor was uncertain as to the extent of his injuries..." Giles replied...

"But why didn't he revert?..." Tara asked...

"I don't know...Perhaps the severity of the injury, perhaps the location...Or some other factor..." the Watcher shook his head...

"My poor Ozzy..." Willow shook her head...

"Oz?..." Xander asked... "Is something wrong?...By the way, nothing's crawling round the place right now...Whatever it was outside, it's gone under..."

"He got sick while he was checking in with our people in England on some new restrictive spells..." Tara explained... "Got out from his room one night and some moron took a shot at him..."

"And he was hurt?...How bad?..."

"It nearly killed him..." Giles sighed... "But equally bad, he remained in his werewolf state and was taken by the fool who'd shot him and others...It took a great deal of effort for our people to smuggle him away and to keep him alive they had to put him in a stasis state...Let him appear dead..."

"So he's what now...Some clod's living room rug?..."

"Xander?!..." Willow glared...

"I just mean...What do we hafta do to get him back...Is he in England...?"

"I'll get him Wil..." Faith patted her hand... "He'll be 5 by 5..."

See how nobly unselfishly I'm handling this?...And after that thing with that crazy-like-a-fox, two-timin' Andrew Praetorius all last year...Tara eyed her spouse...Who gave a slight 'Thanks' nod...

"No, he's not in England...The people on hand though it safest to get him out of the country entirely, what with the publicity and all...But they couldn't just put him on a plane or a ship..."

"So...?"

"He's in Sunnydale...Or should be shortly...After they'd put him in stasis where he was being held my people thought fast and arranged to buy what the fool who shot him thought was a dead werewolf...They in turn found an American businessman operating in Sunnydale...A new museum of oddities or something and sold him to that man, supposedly as a exhibit in order..."

Wonder what he fetched?...Anya eyed Giles...

"...to get him safely here..."

Hmmn...Museum?...Oh, that place...Anya and Xander eyed each other...Told you it sounded for real...Anya hissed...A natural for Sunnydale, we shoulda invested... Jonathan blinking...

"But..." Anya pondered... "Don't they gut, stuff, and mount things like him in museums...?"

Willow staring...Oh...My...God...

Tara trying to pat her with a sigh...And slight glare at Anya...

"That, Anya..." Giles sighed, trying to help Faith restrain the anxious Willow... "Is precisely why we must act quickly..."

***

Racing out by car, Xander at the wheel, the urgency of the situation prevented any of them from taking any note of the man sitting in non-descript overcoat and hat pulled low by the bus stop near the castle's driveway exit...William rising carefully after their disappearance to his full height, concealed in sitting by desperate slouching...

Looks like something's up, he noted...

If I can find her, we'd best see if we can follow...A more little cautiously this time...As last time we shadowed them and quietly did our bit for the old team they nearly caught us at it...

Now where is she?...He looked around...

I mean I sympathize with her feelings...I do...But this is just senselessly endangering herself and others...

Still, poor thing...She is lonely sometimes, even with me...Would it be so risky to just chance a few more visits per month to Dawn?...

Though what she's really stirred up about...Please...We've had quite enough of that...

Ah...He caught sight of a tree rustling...At a height well above that of a normal human...And hurried up the road...

"Buffy!...Girl, what's possessed you?..." he called as a rather sheepish-looking, somewhat rain-bedraggled figure emerged from the trees...An extremely tall, faintly green-skinned, now mildly scarred...They're getting a little better every day, he fondly noted...Figure...

"Will...iam...Sorry..." she sighed...

"Darling..."

"Bad...I know...Just wanted see guys..." she tried to put on a pathetic air...

"Just wanted see Willow you mean..." he eyed her...

"Weeelll...She my bes' friend..." she tried again...

"Buffy...Your best friend would probably tranquillize you and lock you in her dungeon again if she found you poking round...Especially after things with you kidnaping Tara last year..."

"For you..." she noted...Batting eyes at him...

"And it work..." she beamed...Patting his arm...

"Could work...again..." she eyed him, a rather sly, sidelong glance...

Buffy...he frowned...

***

Back at the museum...

"Now be careful with this, Lou..." Bud told his partner and cousin...As they struggled to lower the crate with the Dracula exhibit to a spot outside its stage...Oops...The box crashed down...Splintering a bit...

"Well..." Bud looked over the crate, reopening the loosened top...Casket seemed intact and unscratched, thank God... "At least it's still in one piece...C'mon and lets bring the other one over..."

Lou padded after him...Both men out of the exhibit hall when a soft moan went out from the crate...Followed by the low groan of an opening ancient casket lid...

They returned a moment later with the second crate...Managing to lower it a little more easily into its place...

"I'll go get that crowbar and we'll see if this one's ok...Then we can lock up for tonight...Just watch things here a minute...And don't break anything..." Bud headed off...Lou looking round nervously...

At a room filled with figures of evil from the past...Both human monsters like Hitler and not so human like one tall fellow of horned appearance bearing the legend on its metal bar... "D'Hoffryn, legendary demonic lord of vengeance..."

Hmmn...Where'd I hear that name?...Lou looked more closely...Not seeing the top of the Dracula exhibit crate rise...

But he did hear the crash of the falling lid...And whirled to see a tall, fierce-looking man in the same cape as the body in the casket, standing by the crate, eyeing him coldly...Face half-covered by the cape...

Ca...Ca...Ca...Lou stared...

"Pardon me..." the man? said politely and turning, ran off toward a rear exit...Vanishing even as he stood a moment at the open rear door...

"Bud...Oh...Bud?!..." Lou tried to gasp out...Bud entering now with crowbar...

"What?...Come on, lets get this over with..."

"Bu...Bu..."

"What?...Ya see me here, what is it?..."

"Dracula..." Lou tried... "He's..."

"What?..." Bud stared...And then noticed the lid off...

"Were you pokin' around in there again?..."

"Nnnno...He...Oh...Bud...I think we shoulda left that crucifix in there..."

"Well, I got it right here...I'll put it back..." Bud went over...

Hey...He looked back at Lou...

"The casket's open...And where's..."

"Oh..." Lou turned green... "He's up..."

"What?...Whatdaya mean, up?...Did you take that wax statue out?...Did you break it?..."

"Oh..No...It's fine..." Lou noted... "I never saw a waxwork lookin' so good..."

"Well..." Bud spread his hands, frowning... "Where is it?..."

"I think he had a pressin' engagement..."

A crash from the front...Both men looking...

"Come on..." Bud pulled his cousin along...Lou staring back at the open crate...

As they did, Willow and Tara slipped in the same back door the fierce-looking man had just left by...

"We don't have much time...Giles and Faith won't be able to keep them busy long...Where do you suppose?..." Tara eyed the crates...

"Let me terminate the stasis spell...Then he'll come out and find us..." Willow waved her arms...

Hmmn...

"Maybe he's not in here...Is there a basement?..." Tara suggested...

Both anxious not to let the thought that had run through their minds have vent...

What if they'd already carried out Anya's taxidermy suggestion?...

Stern calls from the front of the museum..."What are your folks doing here?..." In Bud's voice...

"We'd better try downstairs while we can..." Willow hissed...They ran for the door that looked like a possible cellar entrance...Which it was...

They just barely making it through the door, onto the stairs, and closing as Bud and Lou returned...

"We'd better call the police, then McNab..." Bud noted... "These are probably the ones who took your Dracula!...One through the back, then got us out front to make the getaway..."

"I don't think he needed help, Bud...Though he probably woulda appreciated a lift..."

A new crash, from the second crate...A loud groan...

"Ah, ha!...One of them's in there..." Bud insisted... "Hey you, come on outta there!..."

"Ummn...Bud...We didn't take the lid off that one..."

"Hey!..." a cry from within, rather thin and weak... "Who's there?...Get me outta here!..."

"Uh-boy...Another one..." Lou sighed...

"Hey, I'm..Hurt...Help!..." the voice again from the crate...Weaker now...

"Nobody move...I'm calling the cops!..." Bud called...

What's going on up there?...Did somebody say something about Dracula?...Willow hissed to Tara on the stairs...Who shrugged...

***

"Daughter of Rosenberg..."

Summary: One year after the events of "Groom of Rosenberg" Buffy the Rosenberg Monster and her honey have returned to ask a special favor of their creators Rosenberg and Praetorius...While Tara faces the more or less Big Bad...

Disclaimer: Would Joss want his name associated with this? I think not...But anyway all BTVS characters remain the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series...Though his brother Mort gets nothing...

Archived at the Cicelyverse page of the Buffy Rebecca verse, www.geocities.com/buffyrebecca/Cicelypg.html

Part III...

While stealthily attempting to provide unseen, unheard, back-up for the old gang and their Slayer on whatever strange affair had brought them to downtown Sunnydale, William and Buffy had gotten themselves back into an old argument...

"Sweetheart...It's not that I don't love children...And with the soul I can even tolerate them unboiled..."

"You think Buffy no good Mommie cause she so brain-dead..." she gave a sad expression...The greenish hue of her skin lending to her pathetic appearance...

"Girl...That is not true...Haven't I said we could adopt...?" Will peered cautiously at the new McNab Museum of Oddities into which the gang had disappeared just as they arrived...Hmmn...

Looks just the place for us...

"How we gonna 'dopt...?" she frowned at him... "Social services lady freak she see me..."

"We put the screws to ole Liam Angel...He's a hot-shot corporate CEO now that he's taken over Wolfram-Hart and whipped the Senior Partners...And his firm could easily deal with little things like your being legally dead and my having no documentation since 1880...."

Hmmn?...Buffy stared...Though genuinely curious... "How we...?"

"If he won't help we threaten to have to be guest stars on the new "This Is Your Life" show when they profile him..."

"Hmmn...Me go on as ole girlfriend?..." she grinned wickedly... "That'd get him..."

"He'd be lucky to have the brains to acknowledge you as an old girlfriend, darling...But you get the picture...I think he'd cave and help us out pretty quick..."

"Not bad idea..." she nodded, considering... "But Will, me want special babe...My own..."

"Love, how would a stitched-together, reaminated corpse baby...With no soul, I might add...Be any less your own than an adopted kid?..."

Not that I don't love my stitched-together, reaminated corpse bride...he hastily noted...

Aw, Will...

"Oh, oh!..." She was eagerly agitated... "But we got souly for baby...She wait in Heaven..."

"What?..."

"When me die...Cicely...I have babe, 'member?...I tell you story..." she looked down sadly...

He instinctively taking her hand...My poor Cics...

"She wait...Heaven..." Buffy noted firmly... "We just gotta get her body...Make... Er...Ask... Wil..low to bring her here..."

No problem...she beamed now...

Hmmn...

Wait...He shook his head... "Buffy, we'd be taking a terrible risk with our daughter's soul...What if we failed and her demon got the body...What if...As is likely...The new body got...Well, I mean..." he paused... "If Willow..."

"Screw it like me?..." she eyed him..."No problem...We get crazy Andrew help...He nuts but real good surgeon...Do great job with you..." she smiled at him fondly...

Do great job with our 'Melia...she insisted...

"Or else..." a slight frown...

"Amelia..." he beamed a moment, remembering...

So sweet she named our little girl after my sister...Oh...Wait a mo...

Damn her, she's doing it again... "Buffy...We can't tempt the dark forces like this...We got away with it twice but three times is asking for trouble..."

"But Will..iam..." she sighed...As pathetically as possible...

"No...I will not risk it...For our child's sake...We'll see her in Heaven someday, Buffy..."

Grrr...she glared...Then sighed again...Eyeing him as he resumed careful surveillance of the building...So far all quiet...

"When bough break...

Babe woon't fall...

Cause Mommie catch baby...

Cause Mommie so tall..."

"Oh, for the love of..."

***

"Mere alcohol...Though it is my only weakness...Doesn't thrill me at all..."

"Sir..." a distinguished butler tapped gently at the enormous bedroom door...

"But I get a kick..." Beaming grin to photo taped to hand carved, massive wood frame of bedroom mirror...

"....Out of you..."

"Dr. Praetorius?..."

"Yes?..." a somewhat high-pitched voice from within...

"The car is here to take you for the opera, sir..."

Ah...Dr. Andrew Praetorius beamed at his reflected tall, gaunt, wild-haired...But tuxedoed and black-tied to a T...Figure...

"Charming...I shall be there presently, Gibbons..."

He gave a final, quick glance at the photo...A rather wild-eyed, eager Willow in lab gown, bent over a form wrapped in bandages on a large slab...Massive equipment, mostly electrical about her...

Nothing like a good security camera to capture a cherished moment...Oh, that wonderful evening back in that grand ole tower laboratory...

The evening that had changed the despised, bitter, long-suffering life of one of the world's greatest scientific thinkers forever...

Leading to him becoming one of the world's leading scientific entrepreneurs...Founder and CEO of Praetorius Cellular Technologies, Inc...The world's sole supplier of artificially cloned human...And the occasional animal...For that special pet something...organs...

Though of course it had not been a perfect ending...Pity about poor Ms. Summers and her husband...What was his...Ah, right...Walthrop...

But as he'd told Dawn Summers that night...Before the restraining order forbade him to approach within twenty feet her or any of the others...Their souls were certainly united in Heaven...

Then too...He sighed a long moment at the photo...The hero...Naturally himself...Had failed to get the girl...

Losing her to the other woman...Er, to a woman...

If I weren't firmly on the road to redemption...And avoiding eternal punishment for my really relatively minor transgressions...(What's a little grave-robbing for Science?...And it's not like Willow pressed charges over Ms. Maclauy's kidnaping...) I might occasionally regret that that fool Mears hadn't chosen that witch...Hey, no insult...Tara for our heart donor...Hmmn, lets see...Gloves...Yes...Lower right drawer...Ah...

Bit of a pity about that Mrs. Mears as well...Not exactly a happy ending for her either...

Though it wasn't like I absolutely knew where Mears would get us that replacement heart...As Willow herself said that night..."There are always accidental deaths occurring..."

All right, maybe I didn't want to know...But heck, it was all for Science...He pulled on the gloves...

Another knock...

"Coming, Gibbons..."

"Sir...I'm sorry...I'm afraid you have a visitor..."

Hmmn?...He opened the door...

"He claims it's urgent, sir..." Gibbons sighed... "Quite insistent...Says it's a secret matter of grave importance...He said to emphasize 'grave', sir..."

Hmmn...Either Willow and her little friends are amusing themselves at my expense...Or someone has been raking up my minor transgressions...

"Who is this...Gentleman...Gibbons?..."

"His card, sir..." Gibbons presented a rather old-fashioned calling card...

Hmmn...Count Vlad Alucard...London, Bucharest...

Uh-huh...

"Gibbons...?"

"Yes, sir...Definitely vampire, sir...Though a very distinguished type, sir, despite this 'Alucard' nonsense...He's waiting at the front door...Shall I employ the usual defensive measures, sir?..."

"No, just have the staff maintain their own protections and be on alert...Tell Forbes to hold the car...I'll welcome Count 'Alucard'..."

"Certainly, Professor..."

He emerged from the room, Gibbons leading him toward the front entrance...

"Ummn...Sir?...Forgive my asking?..."

"Hmmn...?"

"Thought Dracula was destroyed by the last Slayer some time ago, sir?..."

"That was my understanding, Gibbons...Well...Perhaps the fellow really uses 'Alucard'...Some kind of tribute..."

"Should we contact the Slayer, sir?...Via Ms. Rosenberg, I mean?..."

"Now, Gibbons...I've certainly been able to deal with one or two vampires in my time...No need troubling Ms. Faith and her friends..."

He paused as Gibbons opened the door to reveal a distinguished, if somewhat fierce-looking, gray-haired man in rather elegant evening clothes, including a rather dashing cape, waiting...

"Gibbons, inform Forbes..." The butler bowed and went out the door, passing the gentleman with a polite nod...

"Ah, Count Alucard?...My apologies for keeping you waiting...Do come in..." Praetorius opened the door...

"My apologies for disturbing your evening, Professor...I don't wish to detain you for more than a moment..." the gentleman stepped inside...

"And I apologize for my ridiculous deception...I had no new cards available and in the past used that name to ward off the foolishly curious...I am...Dracula..." he bowed...

"And have come, seeking the aid of the one man on Earth who may be able to help me..."

"Indeed...?"

"But I have no desire to spoil your evening, Professor...Perhaps we could arrange a better time to discuss my matter..."

"Quite all right...I was merely on my way to the opera...'Tosca'...Perhaps...If you're not engaged elsewhere this evening...You'd care to attend as my guest..."

"That is most kind, Professor...If it wouldn't inconvenience you...I've not seen a good opera in a century..."

"Well, Count...This being California...I cannot assure it will be a 'good' opera...But might I ask?...Did you not encounter...?"

"Please...Professor..." Dracula raised a hand... "My idiot grandnephew...An embarrassment to the clan and an aggravation to my heart I assure you...Not to mention no slight part of the reason I must seek your aid now...I'm quite grateful to hear that that Ms. Summers destroyed him...I only wish I'd simply killed him rather than taking him..."

"I see...Well, shall we be off?...Wouldn't wish to miss the curtain..."

"Of course..." Dracula nodded...

"Naturally, I carry my own protections against occult attack about me at all times..." Praetorius noted quietly as they neared the car...

"I would've expected nothing less by your reputation, Professor..."

***

"Daughter of Rosenberg..."

Summary: One year after the events of "Groom of Rosenberg" Buffy the Rosenberg Monster and her honey have returned to ask a special favor of their creators Rosenberg and Praetorius...While Tara faces the more or less Big Bad...

Disclaimer: Would Joss want his name associated with this? I think not...But anyway all BTVS characters remain the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series...Though his brother Mort gets nothing...

Archived at the Cicelyverse page of the Buffy Rebecca verse, www.geocities.com/buffyrebecca/Cicelypg.html

***

Part IV...

The Artemis Mc Nab Sunnydale House of Horror Museum...Where as guard Bud was noting in the account he was mentally preparing for the summoned police, a major caper by a daring band of skilled and dangerous criminals had just been nipped in the bud...

Providing of course the Dracula statue could be recovered intact...

Meanwhile his cousin and fellow guard Lou was glumly regarding the crate on which he had been posted...Literally, Bud having ordered him to sit on the lid to foil any escape attempt by the man or men calling from inside...Glancing down from time to time at renewed pleas for help, followed by increasing feeble bangs at the lid...

"Bud...?" he tried yet again...

"Don't bother me...I'm tryin' to get the facts collected in my mind for the cops..."

"Yeah, but Bud...I don't think the guy in here is doing so well..."

"Eh, he and the others in there are just faking...Probably waitin' their chance, then they'll shoot it out..."

"Well, then....Should I get off before they start shootin'...?"

"Just stay right there...They won't try anything till they can get the lid off and see what's up..."

"Hey...!" another faint cry... "I need help!!..."

"Bud...?"

"Just stay there...The cops'll be here sooner or later and they'll know how to handle it..."

"Willow?..." Tara hissed to her spouse as they stood on the cellar stairs, trying to hear what was going on above, she by the door... "I think the guys upstairs have called the police..."

Uh-boy...

"Anything about Oz?..." Willow hissed back...

I am not jealous...I am not jealous...But she might damn well ask me how I'm doing...Tara thought... "Not that I can hear yet..." she whispered...

"Maybe I could try and teleport up there..." Willow suggested...

"What?!..."

"You know, hover up by the ceiling...They'd never see me..."

"You'd be better off trying Amy's old rat trick...Forget it..."

"Well, we gotta get to Oz...If the police find him and he hasn't reverted..."

"I think I've got an idea...You got a match?..."

"You know I don't smoke, honey..."

"Well, anything you use for lighting candles..."

"I can cook up a flame...But what spell...?"

"No spell..." Tara pointed up where a sprinkler head could be seen...

Oh...Nice...Willow nodded...

That's my lil' honey...

***

Balcony of the Rosenberg Opera House of Sunnydale...A civic gift of Willow's dad dating several years back...

"Professor?..." Dracula had been a bit taken aback by Pretorius' request as they strolled the balcony lobby awaiting the summons to their seats...

"Oh, please Count...Indulge me...I've always been a fan of the original Lugosi film...And it's not as if I'm asking you to draw blood..."

"I am seeking redemption, Professor..."

"Just a little demonstration of your prowess, Count...Please...That young lady over there would do very well..." he indicated a bored-looking, gum-chewing blonde girl of about nineteen in usher's outfit...

Hmmn...They did tell me the Professor was on the kinkily eccentric side...And I am asking a rather large favor...

"Just nothing that would hurt the poor creature..." he hissed...

"Absolutely...Frankly I think a little thrall would be a considerable improvement in her..."

They went over...Dracula, a charming smile on his face...The girl frowning at Praetorius' request that she guide them to their seats...

"You're in row P, seat eight...That way...I don't go in till ten minutes before curtain..."

"Of course, miss...We did not mean to cause you any inconvenience..." Dracula beamed at her...Staring into her pretty if somewhat vacant face...Which became more vacant in seconds...

"Please show us to our seats, miss..." he patted her arm gently...She nodded and led them off...They entered the hall and reached a convenient corner...There, Praetorius pointed...

Hmmn...Dracula frowned a little...

Just hope I'm not being foolish here...Last thing I need is to be identified as some sort of perverted rapist...

"Over here, my dear...Professor?...Lets keep this simple and out of the gutter..."

"Naturally...Just tell her to locate Dr. Seward and tell him he is wanted on the telephone..."

"But why?..."

"It's the scene...And ask her to repeat your command...Just call me nostalgic, Count...Please?..."

"Yes, very well...Miss...You will search for a Dr. Seward and tell him he is wanted on the telephone...Please repeat my command..."

"You want me to find Dr. Seward and tell him he's wanted on the phone..." the girl said blankly...

"No, dear..." Praetorius cut in... "Say...I am to find Dr. Seward and tell him he is wanted on the telephone...A little more precise diction, please..."

"I am to find Dr. Seward and tell him he is wanted on the telephone..." the girl repeated...

"Yes, excellent...Now go...Obey the Count's command..."

The girl turned and marched woodenly off...

"Ah...That was truly delightful...Thank you, Count..."

"Uh...Yes...You say that was a scene from one of the first films about me...?"

"A classic...Of course the actress playing the part was a bit more intelligent..."

"I don't quite believe I understood the significance..."

"A demonstration of Dracula's power...And mysterious allure...Of course in the film there was proper lighting, a touch of gloomy atmosphere..."

"Indeed...I have seen one or two films with Mr. Lee and that fellow Oldman...Hated that strange hairdo he wore early in the film...You say this is from the Lugosi film...?...I've heard Lugosi praised but never had the chance to catch it..."

"Oh, you must see it...Perhaps after the opera, at my home...Ah, there's the call..." Praetorius noted the blinking light summoning the patrons...

"Dr. Seward?...There is a call for you on the telephone..." the girl came wandering by them as they made for their seats, blank-faced...

"You know, come to think of it...She rather reminds of Ms. Summers, our departed Slayer..." Praetorius noted... "Same general facial features...Though sadly lacking that poor child's sparkle..."

***

"Daughter of Rosenberg..."

Summary: One year after the events of "Groom of Rosenberg" Buffy the Rosenberg Monster and her honey have returned to ask a special favor of their creators Rosenberg and Praetorius...While Tara faces the more or less Big Bad...

Disclaimer: Would Joss want his name associated with this? I think not...But anyway all BTVS characters remain the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series...Though his brother Mort gets nothing...

Archived at the Cicelyverse page of the Buffy Rebecca verse, www.geocities.com/buffyrebecca/Cicelypg.html

***

Part V...

Downtown Sunnydale near the McNab House of Horrors Museum...

Having collected Giles and Faith in a side alley after their attempt to provide distraction at the museum's front for Willow and Tara...Xander, Anya on passenger side, the others in rear, was engaged in driving to within a block of the rear as nonchalantly as possible in a life-or-death situation...Expectation being high that the police had been summoned...

"Maybe I'd better just go right in and get him before the cops show..." Faith suggested... "It's what Buffy would do..." she noted solemnly...

Sorry...she eyed the group... "I'm trying not to bring up her name so much...It's just...She's my inspiration...My role model..."

Yeah, to the point of freaking us out...Xander thought, looking at the Slayer in her typically Buffy outfit...

An's right...Thank God we kept her from dyeing the hair...Though the lost weight does become her...

"That's fine, Faith..." Giles told her gently... "But I think we'd better wait...If Willow's lifted the stasis spell and she and Tara can retrieve Oz or just get the guards inside to summon help for him, I can deal with the police to get them all released later a little more easily than if you and the rest of us get caught breaking and entering..."

"It is what Buffy would do..." he smiled kindly at her... "However much she too might've chaffed at the inactivity..."

***

"That guys...?" Buffy from her and Will's hiding place half a block from the museum hissed to Will, standing on the corner in his overcoat, hat low on his face, watching the museum's entrance, as Xander's car passed...

"Yeah...Faith's with them...I still can't figure what they're up to, banging the door and driving off like that unless some of them are at the back trying to get in that way...But why would Faith be running off?..."

"Wil-low there?..." a somewhat set look as Buffy pronounced the name a bit coldly...

"Didn't see her...Maybe that's it...She and Tara are at the back...If that's so, it must be something with spell protection or at least spell-involving...Buffy...?" he eyed her face carefully... "We're here to help, not rehash the past with Red...What's done is done...And we are together, thanks to her..."

"Is ok...I over it..." she replied, patting him...

"'Specially if she help..." she noted slyly...

"Buffy..."

"Well...She 'posed to be best friend..."

***

Inside the museum, Lou the guard had finally persuaded his fellow guard and cousin to let them check on who- or what- (Lou not unused to the occasional what, having lived in Sunnydale all his life...)...Was pleading weakly for help inside the crate...

"I dunno..." Bud frowned as Lou began prying the lid off with crowbar... "It could be a set-up...We get the lid off and four goons let us have it...You know what happens to the curious security guard in the movies..."

"I thought we were assistant curators...That's what Cousin Artie put down...Geesh..." Lou frowned a bit as he pressed hard and the lid gave on one side...

"Hey..." a feeble cry...

"Hey, you!...Get outta of there!...And no funny business!!...Jesus, what the...!" Bud cried out at what appeared to be a slight young man in his early twenties on the floor of the crate, stark naked...Writhing feebly in pain...

"Help...I've been shot...I think..." the young man gasped... "I can't get out...Please..."

"Shot?..." Bud looked at Lou... "You hear any shots just now?..."

"There's nobody else in there...How could he get shot in the box?..." Lou stared down...

"Eh, a crazy kid, probably on drugs..." Bud frowned... "Hey, watch him...He's probably strung out, shot himself...Hey, kid!..." he called sternly...

"Please..." a gasp...

"Look, he is bleedin' Bud...We better get an ambulance..."

"What are they saying up there?..." Willow, fumbling with a lighter, (A wiccan's must-have for those spells requiring instant flame), while trying to reach from her spot on the stairs to one of the basement sprinkler heads...... Hissed to Tara who stood listening at the basement stair door...

"I think they've found him...One of them wants to get an ambulance..." Tara whispered back... "Maybe you outta..." she began...As Willow got the flame to the sensor...

"You in there...Kid..." Bud leaned into the open crate..."Drop your gun or knife or whatever and we'll get you out...I've got the cops coming...I..."

The sprinkler system suddenly kicked on...Water spraying out from all over the ceiling...Alarms blaring...

Ummn...Willow's near-fall into the cellar blocked by a rushing Tara's save, her gasp muffled by a quick hand over mouth move...Water pouring down on them...Whoa...Whoa...They went over the stairs and down, in tight embrace...Fortunately the alarms and sprinklers making too much noise for their fall to be heard above...

"Oh, great!...Just great..." Bud sighed...

"I don't smell smoke...What's going on?..." Lou looked round...Say...

"Maybe it's that Dracula guy...Maybe he's for real and this one's the crazy human helper..." he suggested...

"Some idiot college kid's prank, that's what this is..." Bud frowned...

"Dracula?...Buffy killed him ages ago..." the young man called, weakly... "I don't have a gun...And I'm not crazy...Just bleedin' to death...Look...Will you call a friend of mine?...Her...Name's... Rosenberg... Willow...Rosenberg... " his voice trailed off...

"Rosenberg?..." Bud perked up at the name... "The Rosenbergs who own Castle Rosenberg, Rosenberg?..." The loaded Rosenbergs, Sunnydale's third largest employer?...He did not say...

No reply...

"Bud, I don't think he can wait for the cops..." Lou pulled out a cell phone... "I'm gonna call him an ambulance...And you better call Artie and ask him about turning the sprinklers off and what ta do about the exhibits..."

"Yeah...Lou?...You think he might know the Rosenbergs for real?..." Bud stared down...The young man lay on the crate floor, silent and unmoving now...

"I think we better get him out now..." Lou noted... "He don't look too good...And he could drown in that box..."

"Yeah...Say?...Who's 'Buffy'?..."

***

Back at home, following what they agreed had been a reasonably fair performance, Dr. Praetorius and his guest, were discussing said guest Count "Alucard"'s request in the study...Over an excellent brandy, which Praetorius was pleased to see the Count quite capable of relishing...

It being naturally the Professor's only weakness...

"A fascinating story, Count..." Andrew nodded... "You and your poor wife have my profoundest sympathies...It rather reminds of what poor Ms. Summers told me of her doomed romance with her William last year..."

"Thank you, Professor...But..." Dracula hesitated... "Do you think you can assist us?..."

"Haven't you tried reaching her soul, Count?...There is the Angelus curse...That might well be a more suitable solution..."

"While this mad fiend possesses her poor reincarnated body, her soul remains trapped in Limbo, without any control, Doctor...I have only been able to determine that she does survive, somewhere between Heaven and Hell...And to confirm that her body remains in vampiral form here on Earth..."

"Yes...That is sad, very sad...That she should have reincarnated only to be lost to the same curse as you were voluntarily trapped by, seeking to save her...And by Angelus...You are aware of his relationship with Ms. Summers and her husband...?"

(Ah...So I am in this one, eh?...Angelus beamed... "When do I show and kill everyone living, Dru?...")

"Yes..." Dracula said coldly... "Had I but known...I would have saved poor Ms. Summers and Mr. Walthrop their tragedy...By ripping the head of that animal from his body..."

(Whoa...Uh, Dru?...Angelus looked at her... "This being set in the future...Ummn...I mean there's no real chance that...?" "Old Dracula is helpless till they pull the crucifix out, Angelus..." Dru noted... "He'll be in stasis till then..."

Hmmn...Helpless, eh?...I wonder if I could get that fool Vladimir to tell me where he stuffed his ole grandunk's Undead corpse...Always wanted to try the staking thing...

"What's the matter, Angelus?..." Spike grinned... "You always tole me you longed for the night when you'd face off with the original Prince of Darkness himself...Say, maybe we could get young Vladimir to show us the ole boy in his box, thrall some silly twit to pull the cross or whatever it is out and you could have your wish...A fair match of course...Why, we could sell tickets..."

"Sounds jolly to me...:" Darla grinned in turn...

Angelus looking a bit...Grave...But...

"How could I be involved with Mrs. Dracula?...I died nearly three hundred years after she and he did?..."

Dru giving a Mona Lisa smile... "You have to wait and hear the story, Father..."

"Yeah, lets hear more about my incredible courage and romantic nature, Dru..." Spike beamed... "Say?..." he cocked an ear... "Anyone hear something?...I could swear I hear an angry super-vamp banging on the front door..."

"Shut up...Soul-seeking wimp..." Angelus glared...)

"Well..." Praetorius leaned back in his chair... "It would be a most interesting experiment...Even more difficult than with poor Mr. Walthrop...Though I have, of course, pledged never again to delve into such sacred mysteries of life and death..."

"Professor, you are my only hope..." Dracula eyed him anxiously... "I fear for her sweet soul should I wait longer...Her heart is strong but the monster possessing her is the most fiendish I have ever encountered in my existence...There is the danger she will blame herself and give in to despair forever as I nearly did..."

"Count, while it is true I can create a receptacle for her soul, it is my colleague, Ms. Rosenberg who would be the only one capable of summoning that soul..."

"Yes, I know...I was hoping, perhaps..."

"She too has pledged never to take such a risk of offending the Almighty again..." Andrew gravely noted...

Dracula sighing...

"Still..." Praetorius smiled... "It would be a most interesting experiment...The demon would put up a terrible resistance as it must return to Hell on the soul's return to Earth...A far more difficult situation than with Mr. Walthrop or Ms. Summers, indeed...And Ms. Rosenberg is, like me, somewhat addicted to the darker corners of Science..."

Like I'll pass on one more chance to have a crack at my red-haired goddess...

"Yes..." he nodded... "Your goal being so worthy...The lives to be saved from a foul creature of the night..." he paused at Dracula's stern look... "Uh, sorry...I assure you I did not mean insult to your dear wife..."

A slight nod...

"And your redemption being at stak...Risk..." he hastily corrected the faux pas..."Yes...I believe I will speak to Willow...Of course it would have to be done under the strictest secrecy...Her colleagues must never learn of what we are attempting..."

"Dr. Praetorius...How can I thank you?..."

Andrew put up a hand...

"I can give no promise as to either Ms. Rosenberg's willingness to participate or the success of our endeavors, Count...But I will speak to her...In the meantime, I invite you to stay as my guest here..."

"I would appreciate that, Professor...I fear I may have caused a bit of disturbance in the manner of my transport to Sunnydale...Though I assure you, no human has been harmed by me in any way...It was merely that my method of necessity was limited to what my agents could do for me while I was trapped in stasis by that fool Vladimir...And my sudden rising came as a bit of a surprise to some museum guards...Though I'm hopeful any stories they tell will be dismissed as foolish tales..."

"Hmmn...Very likely...But tell me, Count...Just how did your great-grandnephew get the drop on you, anyway?..."

"Oh..." Dracula waved a hand... "It was my own fault...You know how grandparents and the like are... I never should have told him the story... I couldn't refuse when he claimed to want to assist ole grand uncle Vlad in his redemption...And before I knew it, the little bastard had me in the path of my poor Elisabete's crucifix..."

"Indeed...Well, let me have Gibbons set up a special room for you and see about getting you properly supplied with your nutrient needs...Tomorrow, as soon as possible, I will see Ms. Rosenberg and discuss the matter...."

As soon as possible, providing I can get past that watchdog of a wiccan spouse of hers...

***

"Daughter of Rosenberg..."

Summary: One year after the events of "Groom of Rosenberg" Buffy the Rosenberg Monster and her honey have returned to ask a special favor of their creators Rosenberg and Praetorius...While Tara faces the more or less Big Bad...

Disclaimer: Would Joss want his name associated with this? I think not...But anyway all BTVS characters remain the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series...Though his brother Mort gets nothing...

Archived at the Cicelyverse page of the Buffy Rebecca verse, www.geocities.com/buffyrebecca/Cicelypg.html

Part VI...

Not without considerable grumbling on Bud's part, the two security guards/assistant curators had managed to help Oz out of his crate and to an ornate couch destined to bear the wax figure of a dying Cleopatra...Fortunately protected by a plastic liner given the amount of blood still trickling from Oz's wounds...

Nor had Bud been much reassured by Oz's feebly-voiced insistence that he was innocent of ill intent...Sounded like a story he'd read about a master international art thief...Able to assume disguises of all kinds...

Though he had to concede the wounds did look real enough...As did the oozing blood as well...

"You don't look much like a master thief..." Lou noted...

"If you're innocent, what were you doin' hiding in that crate?" Bud growled... "Not to mention how ya managed to get shot..."

"I wasn't hiding..." Oz sighed... "Look, I can explain...But I'm hurt and I got stop this bleeding...Please, ya gotta help me..."

"I've called an ambulance...They're on the way..." Lou said...Oz trying to rise...No...

"Careful..." Bud displayed an iron poker, seized from another display...

"Take it easy, kid...They'll be here soon...Bud, he's in no shape to hurt anyone..." Lou waved his partner back...

"No...No, please...I don't need an ambulance...And it could be dangerous...I mean, expensive..."

Hmmn?...Bud dropped his frown at his soft?hearted and -headed colleague to eye Oz who'd sunk back to the couch...

"I don't have insurance...I wouldn't want you guys or the place here...Say?..." he made a vague wave... "...What is this place, anyway?..."

"McNab Museum..." Bud, curtly... "Which you know darned well..."

"The hospital's gotta take ya, kid..." Lou noted...

"If you know the Rosenbergs for real..." Bud cut in, sternly... "You won't have any problems payin' a hospital bill..."

"Rosenbergs...Sure..." Oz nodded... "But look...If you could just call Willow Rosenberg...She'd take care of everything...Please..."

"Absolutely..." Willow's voice, behind them...A startled Bud and Lou whirling to see a water-sodden, bedraggled Willow, Tara beside her, both dripping steadily on the newly-lain carpet...

Hey...Tara made a feebly pleasant wave...

***

"Here come the cops..." Xander nodded slightly at the car windshield in the direction of the just-halted Sunnydale PD car, light quietly flashing... "Should I...?"

"Just keep going..." Giles, quickly... "We'll have to trust that Willow and Tara can take care of Oz until we can reach them...It will do no good for us all to be arrested..."

Amen to that, Anya thought...Blinking a moment as she caught the faint view of a shadow from the corner of her eye, fading back to the rear...

A rather tall shadow...A chill crossing her heart...

"Fellas..." she hissed, looking away before spying a second, slighter shadow...Turning back again and pointing, even as the car moved past the museum and entered a stream of traffic, now somewhat slowed by the curious pausing to view the parked police car and its disgorged officers busily checking the scene before moving up to the museum's front door...

"What?..." Xander, keeping eyes on the road...Giles and Faith turning to look...

"Something...Near the back of the museum..." Anya, unable to resist a slight tremble...

Why am I getting this feeling?...Just like back at Willow's...

"I don't...Is it the others?..." Giles asked, staring...

"No, it was headed for the back, not coming out...And it sure wasn't Willow or Oz..."

"I'm on it..." Faith sat up...Stake in hand...

"No...Wait, Faith..." Giles insisted..."Lets not make a bad situation worse by rushing in the back way..."

"But..." Faith, readying her new mantra..."It's what Buffy..."

"...Lets go in the front door asking what all the excitement's about...Like any overly curious, somewhat voyeuristic bystander..." he concluded...

"Sounds good to me…" Xander nodded… "Just call me Charles Voyer…"

The others, excepting Anya, looked at him…

"What?...We watch Boyer movies…After all, I was the one who cursed him…" Anya noted… "If you can call it that…"

"Cursed?..." Giles stared…

"He was six foot one when I met him and headed for an easy ride in the movies…But after I was done with him, he got determined to make it as a great movie lover, whether or not he was shorter than his female leads…One of the few times I actually inspired a guy…" she smiled at the thought…

"With a curse I mean…" she patted Xander's shoulder…

"Damnit, girl..." Will hissed at the tall figure next to him...Motionless now as they stood just inside the back entrance of the McNabb House of Horrors... "This is insane, coming right in like this..."

"Sh-shh...Gotta know what's up..." Buffy hissed back, waving for quiet, straining to hear what was being said through the closed door to the museum lobby before them...

***

"You see guys, my cousin Danny didn't mean any harm...You know how those idiot frat boys at UCal-Sunnydale are...He was totally not to blame for this, he didn't know what they were up to..." Willow hastily continued as she knelt by Oz on his couch, eyeing the front door for the approach of the Sunnydale men in blue... "And it would look terrible for him if he got mixed up in this kind of trouble...Please, guys...Tara and I did our best to get here and stop them, soon as we heard..." 'Cousin Danny' groaning...Perhaps as much at his new title...As Tara on his other side gently as possible helped him to his feet...

"I don't think he oughta be moving around..." Lou shook his head...

"Your ambulance still isn't here..." Willow pointed out... "We'll get him to the hospital a lot faster than the cops could..."

Tara offering her warmest, most convincing smile as she supported Oz ...Arranging the blanket Lou had provided for him around his trembling form...

"Prank, huh?...Since when is shooting a guy a prank?..." Bud frowned...

Ummn...Willow blinked...Well...

"Oh, my God!!..." Tara clapped hand to mouth... "You mean they actually shot him?!!...I thought he'd fallen or something...Oh, no!!..."

"That 'element' creeping in..." Willow sighed, nodding solemnly... "You guys know what I mean...I will have my dad speak to the Dean tomorrow...That animals' house has gotta be closed down..."

A bang at the locked front door...

Oh-oh...

"Fellas, please...Just let us take Danny out the back way...I promise you, I will call Mr. McNabb in the morning myself and arrange to cover any damages..."

"A little hard to explain blood all over the place..." Bud frowned...

"Hmmn?..." Willow, brightly... "Oh, that..." she indicated the now clean couch and carpet around it...

Huh?...Bud and Lou...And Oz, a bit feebly...Staring where the blood had been...Now clean as new...

"We got that covered..." she smiled... "Tara's such a whiz at cleaning...A little salt and a rag and bingo..."

"When did she...?" Bud began...

Another bang...

"Guys...Please?..." Willow tried... "You know where I live...And Mr. McNabb doesn't want any scandal before his place opens...Just tell 'em the new alarm system went screwy and you thought

there might be a burglar till the sprinklers came on..."

"Bud, the kid has gotta get to a doctor...We can sort this out later..." Lou insisted to Bud's glare...

"Yeah?...But what about the Dracula exhibit...?" Bud frowned... "Did those punks take it?..."

"Dracula?..." Willow looked at Tara...Who staggered a bit as Oz now passed out in her grip...

"Oz!..." Willow grabbed at him as the third and loudest series of bangs was heard at the front...

"Ah...Take him...But tell those punks if the exhibit's not back in an hour...!" Bud waved them off... "And you better square things with our cousin Art or you'll be getting a visit from me...And the cops!..."

"Yeah...Sure...Thanks..." Willow hastily nodded, carefully dragging Oz back, Tara helping on the other side...Lou turning to Bud...

"You better let those cops in before they break the door down...I'll see they get out back..."

"All right, all right...But I mean what I say..." Bud strode off, grumbling...

"Lets go, ladies..." Lou urged the two on...

"Really, thanks..." Willow whispering huskily as they pulled Oz to the rear exit, Lou moving to clear the way and at last hold the door...

"Just get him to a doc...And tell the Slayer about Dracula...She's your pal, right?..." he eyed Willow who stared back...The two ladies carefully supporting the unconscious Oz between them, his blanket beginning to stain with blood...

Hmmn...That blood removal spell sure has a limited time range...Willow thought...

"You know...?" Tara asked...

"I've lived in Sunnydale since I was a kid...Tell her I saw it...Him...Moving around after we pulled his crucifix out of his mouth..."

"But Dracula..." she began...

"We'll tell her...Thanks..." Willow cut in...

"Right...See ya tomorrow...And I mean that..." Lou gave a hard look...

"Ok..." Willow sighed, nodding…

Oughta be a ball explaining yet another huge insurance bill to Dad…I better use the 'sorry, an experiment went wrong' excuse…He'll have me in rehab if I try the 'little accident with the car' again…

They dragged Oz off, Lou closing the rear door after them...

"Phew..." Willow gasped... "Hang on Oz, I'll teleport you in..."

"Dracula?..." Tara looked at her... "He couldn't be back…?"

She shrugged, trying to concentrate for the spell...How should I know?...Some poseur like those phony Lestats Buffy always used to run into…?

"Probably the other guy's right and it was just a wax statue...Some guys here get an over-active imagination..."

***

"Daughter of Rosenberg..."

Summary: One year after the events of "Groom of Rosenberg" Buffy the Rosenberg Monster and her honey have returned to ask a special favor of their creators Rosenberg and Praetorius...While Tara faces the more or less Big Bad...

Disclaimer: Would Joss want his name associated with this? I think not...But anyway all BTVS characters remain the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series...Though his brother Mort gets nothing...

Archived at the Cicelyverse page of the Buffy Rebecca verse, www.geocities.com/buffyrebecca/Cicelypg.html

Part VII...

"And just how did the sprinkler system get turned on?..." the frustrated tone of an extremely annoyed Artemis McNab, proprietor of Sunnydale's grandest collection of ghouls, freaks, and various demonic and human denizens of the netherworld since the Master had passed on to his just reward...A bored-looking police officer writing on his pad beside him...An officer at the door, speaking to someone...Two other officers searching around...One pausing to stare up at the large mummy in open sarcophagus in an exhibit...

Didn't I see that guy lumbering down Phelps St. a year or so ago?...With that looney Summers kid chasing him?...

"Who knows, Art?..." security guard Bud shrugged at his fuming cousin... "The thing went off just after the alarms sounded...Right, Lou?..."

"Yeah...Just started up while we were..." Lou paused at McNab's fierce stare...

"... 'while-we-were...' What?...What the hell did you two idiots do?!..."

"Us?...We didn't do anything..." Bud shook his head... "Just what you told us about getting the last exhibits over to their spots...Then..." he waved a hand...

"Yeah..." Lou nodded... "We didn't do anything...It was just after we opened up Dracula and..."

"I was supposed to open in two days!...What the hell, look at this place..."

"It's not too bad, Art..." Bud tried... "The rugs are dryin' fast and we just gotta clean up a little and throw the exhibits' costumes in the dryer..."

"Moron!...Those 'costumes' are either expensive or authentic and priceless...Tell me you didn't try drying them...?!"

"Uh...No, not yet..." Bud hastily nudged Lou who quickly made a mumbled excuse regarding the bathroom and hurried off to the back where several exhibits' outfits had just begun tumbling in the dryer...

"Joey, you remember this guy?..." the officer still staring at the mummy nudged his passing partner...Who paused to take a look...

"Another one?..." Joey sighed up at the exhibit...

"You know if we hadn't been here to turn things off..." Bud carefully noted...

McNab put up a hand... "All right, all right...I'll have the alarm company come in and check it out tomorrow...And the staff will take care of the costumes...Just clean up the worst of the mess and keep an eye out...Remember the system will be off, so don't goof off and take a walk or a snooze..."

"Not a chance...Thanks, Artie...We'll get right to it..."

"I guess we're done here, then...Officer?..." McNab turned to the third policeman just finishing his writing...

"Just let us finish checking in here...Then we should take a look outside, round back...Just in case the alarm didn't sound off on its own..." the officer replied...

"Fine...Then if you don't need me..." McNab began...

"Excuse me, young man..." a voice at the front door...Addressing the officer who'd just informed a bespectacled tall British gentleman and the group of voyeurish bystanders accompanying him that everything was fine, false alarm, and the museum was closed....

Oh, Christ...McNab sighed at the sound...

"McNab..." the Mayor entered, looking round, the Sunnydale police chief in his wake...The officer at door and others in sight, instantly acquiring intensely-devoted-to-duty looks...

"I just heard...Was there a break-in?..."

"No, no...Your..." (idiot, with hand out 24/7) "..Honor...." McNab shook head...

"That we know of..." the officer by his side insisted...

"Ahhh...." the Mayor looked about... "What's happened...To our latest cultural addition...?"

For which the payoffs to you and your Council to get permits probably cost more than the whole construction and outfitting...McNab thought...Bud taking the opportunity to join Lou in back...

"Just a faulty alarm, Francis..." McNab explained....

"We think..." the reporting officer noted, firmly...Eyeing the police chief...Who nodded but bore a glum look, having been dragged from dinner by the Mayor's insistent call...

"In any case, no real harm done that we've found...Your boys...Er..." McNab eyed the Mayor's nervous look...Then the frowning female officer just entering to report the front of the building showing no signs of forced entry... "...People...Were just about to go in back..."

"Good, good...Everyone on their toes?...Very good...I want you to know, Artemis, that this town appreciates your efforts to give us a new cultural institution..."

The female officer, reporting to her superior, the reporting officer, eyed the fake blood of an exhibit depicting Jack the Ripper in mid-career...

"And bring in more economic activity..."

Yeah, why not cash-in on the supernatural and the Undead?...The only resources we got...The chief thought...But didn't we just spend two million last year on another lawsuit claiming the town owed for not protecting property from some Thing...The girl Monster or whatever this time...Running amok?...

Now we're billing ourselves the capitol of this sort of thing?...

"...And that this administration will do everything in its power to help make it a success..." the Mayor caught sight of a wax figure of a comely young woman in Victorian attire being eviscerated by a ghoulish, (hopefully, likewise wax) figure...

Well, nothing you can't see on television...Or every now and then on Main Street, after midnight...

("Now that sounds like a museum..." Angelus noted...

"Dru?...What the devil is 'television'...?"

"A monstrous evil to be inflicted on the world..." she noted solemnly... "But it will be quite nice for the vampire insomniac shut-in by daylight...")

"Is that Chief Brody in there?..." Giles' voice at the door addressing the officer there... "Would you tell him Rupert Giles would like a word?..."

Oh, God...The Chief sighed, hearing...

***

"Think that was Oz..." Buffy noted... "Say, Willow do spell good, huh?..." happily... "She gettin' better all time..."

Unless she blow it and they all dead...she did not say...Giving William an earnest look...

"No..." he whispered back, firmly... "And we'd best vanish as well before..." he grabbed at Buffy as a flashlight shone their way...They backed away from the rear door of the museum, edging carefully toward the wall leading to the rear gate...

"Who's out there?!...Halt!!...Police!!!..." a stern cry...

"Run!..." Will pulled Buffy...Both racing for the rear gate...Though he held back, keeping pace with her somewhat lumbering (Thanks for that great gross motor neural work, Red...) step...

"Go, honey!!!..." Buffy urged him, trying to shove him along...As a shot rang out...And cries to halt swelled behind them...

"Me be...Oh..." she looked back, caught in a flashlight's glare, then gave a startled cry as William picked her from the ground...A shot tearing through her coat...

"Hey?...My new coat!!..." And do you know how hard it was to find a decent-looking coat in my size?... she fumed... "Honey, me too heavy....Put down..." As he raced clumsily with her in his arms...

Though perhaps not all that urgently...She rather enjoying the feeling of being swept away...In her lover's arms...

Not really a common experience when one has reached seven feet in height...And it wasn't likely a bullet would do either of them much damage...

Anyway, turnabout's fair play...The last couple of times, including the fire at his crypt that had made Willow's return to extreme reconstructive surgery necessary, had involved her carrying him...

"Bud?..." within the museum Lou looked anxiously at his partner at the sound of gunfire...

"Just get to work and clam it..." Bud insisted...Refraining from making any look toward the scene of action...

"But if that's Miss Rosenberg and her friend they're shooting at...Shouldn't we go tell them?..."

"She said leave it to her...We leave it to her..."

"But...She said it was just a college prank with the kid and all..."

"Prank my eye...Just zip it and be glad Art didn't notice the Dracula and werewolf exhibits were missing...Yet..." Bud hissed...

Another shot...Stern calls to "Halt!!"...

Uh, boy...Bud sighed at Lou's anxious look...

***

"So who?..." Officer Joey asked the female officer, both glancing briefly back at the group of 'bystanders' just reluctantly allowed entry by the summoned police chief...She shrugged...God knows..."I've seen the English guy with the chief before...Some pal..."

"Isn't that girl the one we arrested for murder a few years back?..." he stared at an alert-looking-while-trying-to-seem-nonchalantly-bystanderly Faith...

"Acquitted...And when we pulled her in two months ago fooling around Greenwood Cemetery the Chief said she was another Summers case...Hands off..."

"Another one?...Are they all with that government thing...?"

"I'd guess so...But 'Summers case'...So no questions..."

"Must be FBI at least...She dresses just like the Summers kid, probably standard field agent...You know they say that 'kid' was probably really thirty-something and maybe CIA to boot..."

"Joe..." warning look...

A puzzled and tad annoyed...This ain't no free street performance...And the box office is closed... McNab by the Mayor likewise eyeing the group...

"Who's the Sherlock type and the others with Brody?..."

"Rupert Giles, friend of Chief Brody who works at our high school...Librarian, I believe..." the Mayor, seeming interested in moving the conversation along...

"Just let us look around a moment or two when your people are done..."Giles asked Chief Brody quietly... "So far as I know it's nothing serious but..."

"Librarian...?" McNab frowned...Particularly at an intent-looking Anya who seemed to be making careful note of all the exhibits in sight...

Definite crowd appeal, she noted to Xander, nodding at the Ripper exhibit...

Shouts and sounds...Including gunshots...From the rear now distracting all...

***

The Willow and Tara Cottage...C...ute, as Anya indeed had said with repressed sardonic air when the happy couple'd moved in...On the Rosenberg...Either we give 'em their own place on the place for a wedding present or we're lucky to see Willow at Passover, Sheila Rosenberg had reluctantly sighed...Estate...

(Passover?...Angelus stared...Oh, I get it... "So...The mad human ghoul woman doctor's Jewish..." he nodded wisely...That explains a lot...

"You just got that?...In the middle of the third tale?..." Spike eyed him...

"It's my vision from the possible future...She just happens to be...That..." Dru, looking a bit...Wouldn't wish to offend anyone...Must be true to my visions...

After all...Some of the nicest vampires I know were...)

"Are you sure you can do this?..." Tara, anxiously...

"Of course...Just let me concentrate...I can almost see the bullet..." Willow frowned, carefully positioned over the side of the unconscious Oz on their kitchen...I think we'll getting a new one, Tara thought...Table...Towels and ice packs stanching the flow of blood which had resumed as Willow's spell had faded out...

"Yeah, but maybe a doctor...?"

"It's only one bullet and not near a vital organ...I'm perfectly capable...Ennnugh..." she twisted around... "Of..." Errrr... "Dealing with..." Arrrrr...Oz gave an unconscious moan...

Uh...

"I thinking the bleeding's worse...Willow, this isn't a dead corpse or collection of corpses you're cutting up...And you're just not that good a surgeon..."

"Well, we can't take him to a hospital...Even if I thought he'd live long enough...Oops..." she pulled back at the flow of blood... "Clamp..."

"Clamp..." Tara placed the surgical clamp in Willow's gloved, open hand... "Willow...We really don't know what we doing...He's gonna die..."

"Don't worry...'Sides, I can deal...Never lost a patient...Permanently, anyway..." she removed her gloved hand, now blood-covered, from Oz... "That's got it for the moment..."

"I don't think Oz would appreciate the reanimated corpse route...Willow..." worried glance at monitors... "Oh, blood pressure's dropping fast..."

"All right, fine...I'll try magics..." she looked at Tara's uncertain face... "There's no time now for anything else...Unless..." she hesitated...

"Andrew might be available..."

Not quite that desperate a situation...Tara frowned...

Still...She sighed again, her native compassion overwhelming the jealous twinge for the moment...

"He is the best..." Willow noted... "But probably too late to get him here now...Just let me focus...And try repeating my blood flow spell..."

I see the desired object in my head...I touch it with my mind...I feel it...I...Holy crap...

"What are you doing?...Willow, he's dying!..." Tara, urgently...

It's ok...The thing last year with Andrew just got me all discombobulated in my thinking...And Oz and I did have quite a nice thing going for a while...Natural that I might find myself thinking of his...Ok, focus...Gay now...Happily married to the woman I love...Uh, right...

Focus...Guy I used to love...Bullet...

Out she comes...Up, up...Focus...

"Tara, I think I need some help here!...Tara...?!" she turned to see Tara rather lost in thought...

"Good heavens!..." Andrew exclaimed, staring at the two women...

Clearly a mixture of fantasy and nightmare...He eyed the shocked Willow...People still wear nightcaps?..., then the now-coming -to-awareness, Tara...Who glared a bit at him...

"Andrew, we got a patient for you..." she indicated Oz...He took a brief look...Hmmn...

Praetorius the physician kicking in, he raised hands and demanded sterile gloves...And some decent lighting...

"Nice..." Willow grinned at Tara, briefly...Putting as much admiration as possible into the look...

"Ladies...A little attention...Scalpel..." Praetorius frowned...Tara slapped one...A tad less force required, he glared...Precious instruments here...Into his hand...

"By the way, very nice teleport, Ms. Rosenberg..."

"Wrong wiccan, Andy..." she nodded at Tara...Who was looking a bit troubled now...

"Ga....Uze..." a hard stare... "Any time you'd like, Ms. Maclauy..."

"Oh...Sorry..." Tara handed the gauze...

"So...Who is the young man?...Whose life I just saved...In the first house call I've made in ten years..." Andrew asked pleasantly...

Wait...He frowned, looking at Oz's face...

Oh, no...

Osborne...

I've just pushed myself down to number three on the pole?...

"Tara?..." Willow patted her... "You might wanna sit down...That was a lotta power you channeled..."

"Vlad?..." Tara whispered, staring...

Hmmn...? Andrew perking ears a bit...Willow staring...

"What?..." Tara looked at the two...

***

"Daughter of Rosenberg..."

Summary: One year after the events of "Groom of Rosenberg" Buffy the Rosenberg Monster and her honey have returned to ask a special favor of their creators Rosenberg and Praetorius...While Tara faces the more or less Big Bad...

Disclaimer: Would Joss want his name associated with this? I think not...But anyway all BTVS characters remain the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series...Though his brother Mort gets nothing...

Archived at the Cicelyverse page of the Buffy Rebecca verse, www.geocities.com/buffyrebecca/Cicelypg.html

Part VIII...

The McNabb Museum of Horrors...

"I'm telling you…It was her…" the tall young police officer facing a group consisting of his partner, equally nervous in such company..., the Chief himself…On a routine break-in call?, the Mayor…What the hell, isn't this just some dinky…If rather creepy…Museum? (Quick glance to the obviously well-connected, fuming owner)…, some guy in glasses who looked like a librarian…, and that pretty brunette girl he'd been told not to pursue the other night when he'd reported her running through the Crestwood cemetery at one am…

"…Just like I saw her last year, when we brought her into the station and she broke out…All nine…"

"…Seven…" Giles corrected… "Are you sure about this?..."

"…Fine, seven…It was her…I saw her face as clear as you…uh, sir…" the young officer gulped at the troubled-looking, frowning Chief…

"The Monster…"

The group collectively eyeing him…Then sighing a bit…

Great…

Anya giving Xander a smug glance as they stood to one side, listening...

What'd I tell ya...

"She did look a little better than the last time I saw her…Those scars weren't so bad…" the officer noted…

***

Tara-Willow Cottage, Rosenberg estate...

"I don't think we can keep him here…If one of those guards at the museum…Probably the tall, skinny one with all the sharp remarks…Talks…The police'll be over here…" Tara noted…

"Yes…" Andrew hastily cut in… "It would be a mistake to keep Mr. Osborne here…Anabsolute mistake…" he nodded wisely…Eyeing Tara…

Hey lady…We both have a stake in this one…

"Well, we can't just drop him at a motel…" Willow frowned, looking over at the now peacefully sleeping Oz… "He'll need expert care for days…And someone who knows about his 'special condition' to see he doesn't hurt himself or anyone else…"

"Yeah…" Tara nodded…Both eyeing Andrew…Who blinked…

Whoops…Made my point a little too well…

"Andrew…?" Willow, hard stare…

"I, uh…?"

"Praetorius, you know you owe us big time…" Tara, harder stare…

"It would just be for a few days, Andrew…And after all, you're his doctor…" Willow, winning smile at the end…

Uh…Well…

Don't think I should mention I already have a houseguest…

***

The McNabb Museum...

"So you're saying..." Chief Brody desperately grabbing at the possibility of no new crisis... "...that was Ms. Willow Rosenberg who was running from my men out there...?"

"She was here..." Security guard...er Assistant Curator Lou sighed... "She and her friend...They took the guy who was hurt in the crate..." Cousin Bud having resolutely remained at his post by the laundry...

No way I'm getting mixed up in this mess...

"What...Crate...?" the listening McNabb...

"That one..." Lou pointed at the crate Oz had emerged from...

"My werewolf?..." McNabb, staring...

Giles and the team exchanging wary glances...

"Lets get back to the man in the crate..." Chief Brody insisted... "You say he was wounded?..."

"Shot..."

"Shot?..." McNabb echoed... "What the hell do you mean, shot?!!"

"Shot, Art...And he was just a kid...Barely twenty if that..."

"And Ms. Rosenberg took him with her?..." Brody tried to move on...

"Shot?...From my werewolf crate?!..." McNabb fumed... "Are you drunk or crazy?!!..."

"Mr. McNabb, please..." Brody put a hand... "Go on...Did he go with Ms. Rosenberg?..."

"They took him..." Lou sighed... "But how they got away so quick from your guys..." he shrugged...

"I do not believe this..." McNabb, raging... "You let some girl and her friends steal my werewolf exhibit?!...What kind of idiots are you two?!!..."

"McNabb..." the Mayor hissed... "I'm sure Ms. Rosenberg...Daughter of our third largest employer...Will have a reasonable explanation..."

Hmmn?...McNabb eyed the Mayor...

Rosenberg, eh?...The Rosenbergs?...

Perhaps not so bad as all that...Sunnydale's version of Paris Hilton wants to play a little prank, eh?...An expensive little prank once I have a sitdown with Daddy...

"What did she do with my exhibit?...Was it damaged?..."

My priceless genuine werewolf...Imported from England at cut-rate...Er incredible expense...

"There wasn't an exhibit in the crate...Just that guy..."

"What?!!..."

"Sir, please..." Giles tried... "I'm sure there's a logical..."

"Who the hell are you?!..." McNabb raged... "I've been robbed of a priceless exhibit and some guy wandering in off the street is telling me not to be upset?!!!..."

"Say...?" he suddenly paused, remembering the officer's statement...

"What's all that crap about a Monster?..."

The Mayor rubbing his face...Oh, Lord...

To think I mortgaged my home to win election as mayor of this place...

***

"Sorry..." Buffy tried, hesitantly...

William remaining silent as they hurried along, she back on her own feet...

"Will?..." she tried... "I didn't mean make trouble..."

"Right..." he said, curtly... "You're sure not hurt?..."

"Fine...William...?"

"All I ask is for you not to bring attention to us..." he said, precisely...Urging her along... "To let us have a little peace in our reanimated existences..."

"But no..."

"William..." plaintively... "Wasn't fault..."

"Hold up..." he halted, pulling her to a spot where some trees and lack of streetlighting allowed some protection by night's blackness...

"I don't see any cars, yet...I think we out-ran the ones on foot..." he put a hand on her shoulder...

"I don't mean to get angry with you, love..." he said, gently... "It's just..."

"Me so dumb..." she sighed...

"Buffy..."

"You right...Me too dumb for Mommie...Babe probably dumb too...Sorry..." she sighed, a tad too pathetically...

"Knock it off..." he frowned, then grinned... "At least your acting skills keep improving...A little...Trying playing the 'pathetic seven-foot disability case' with a bit less bathos and you might get me next time..."

"Sorry..." she grinned back, a bit impishly... "Remember next time...Less...Pathe..tic...Pathetic...Hey?..." she beamed...

"Better every day..." he smiled...

She turned serious...Again sincerely downcast...

"You think they know?...Lots of other...Seven foot freaks..." she gave a little smile to his mock frown... "In town..."

"I think one of them at least got a damned good look...Maybe they'll assume it's some other seven foot freak...But if Giles or the others hear..."

Hmmn...Right...She sighed...

"We'll have to keep out of town for a few days..." he noted...

"You mean I will..." she replied... "No one run from my cute six-eleven guy...Girls run after..." she eyed him, narrow look...

"One girl in the coat store chatted me up...And thanks for reminding me of how you nearly broke our cover last time...After I went to all that trouble to bring you in to try things on...You nearly frightened her to death when you got out of the wheelchair and the veil came off..."

"Sorry...She believe 'bad case, scurvy' story, though..."

"Right...And one more tale of 'the Monster woman' to circulate in town...Well..." he looked down the street carefully... "Nobody seems to be coming...I think we can get on home..."

"What about things...?" she began... He looking round...Who?...

"At museum, mean..."

"This time we'll need to leave it to Faith and the gang, I'd say...At least for now...It didn't seem too serious..."

"Willow involved...Giles and Slayer there...Serious..." Buffy shook her head...

"They'll manage for one night...Lets shove for home...Tomorrow we can try and find out if anyone's looking for us..."

"For 'the Monster'..." Buffy put on a grim look...

Grrr...she growled, chucking at his worried face... "I ok...Tole you, over it..."

"Now I got my honey back..." she beamed, hugging him...Unnh...He groaned at the mighty squeeze... "Sorry..."

"Course..." she noted hesitantly... "Would help with adjustment if could fulfill natural mat...Mommie desires..."

"Buffy..."

"Just rememberin' from psych class..See?...Memory gettin' better every day..."

"Girl...Knock it off...And lets go..."

***

The elegant townhouse of the famed 'wizard of cloning'...And you can bet U Cal-Sunnydale is now begging for me to return to my old post as Chairman of Biology...Booted for knowing too much, indeed...Hah!...Dr. Andrew Praetorius...

"Ok..." Willow, looking round, a mite peaked from her bout of teleportation...She and Tara having agreed it was best not to try and transport Oz by car...

"This should do fine..."

Yes...It being my own well-appointed bedroom, Andrew glared at the sleeping Oz in his bed...

"And you've already got bars on the windows..." Tara waved toward a window...

"Yes...Magically enhanced...This being Sunnydale after all..." Andrew noted...

"And there plenty of folks who must want a piece of you..." Tara smiled sweetly...

"Tara..." Willow hissed... "Andy, we are grateful for the help...It'll just be a few days till Oz can get up and about...Can you square things with your staff?...I mean regards the night-time howling and rabid screaming..."

Not to mention claw marks in the walls, Tara added, again sweetly, regarding the fine wall hangings and carved woodwork...

Hmmn?...

"Honey..." Willow waved a hand... "I'm sure Oz will be too weak to be much bother..."

"Yes...Well...My staff is used to the occasional unusual visitor...Though perhaps not to patients residing at my home..."

"I'll..." "We'll..." Tara cut in... "...Be in every day to change his dressings and check on him...They won't have to bother about a thing..." Willow insisted...

Every day, eh...? Even with Oberfuhrer Maclauy on guard, not a bad deal...Wait...

Dracula...

"All right then, all set...I'll..." "We'll...!" Tara corrected... "...see you tomorrow..." Willow raised hands...

"Ummn...I should mention I do have a guest..." Andrew, hurriedly..."A colleague of mine from Romania...Dr. Alucard...We're hoping to form a collaboration to set up a facility in Eastern Europe...Cheaper labor, you know..."

"Alucard...?" Tara grinned... "Are you trying to be funny, Andrew?..."

"What?..." Willow stared... Alucard?...I...

Oh..."Very funny Andrew..." she frowned...

"So the name is popular over there...Sue me..." Praetorius shrugged...

Oh, shit...The worse words that can issue from a modern physician's...Especially an immensely wealthy (formerly) eccentric modern physician-with-a-bent-for-cutting-edge-research's lips...But as long as we've mentioned it...

"Uh...Before you go...!" he called...

Willow pausing...Huh?...

He hurried to his bedside cabinet and opening a drawer pulled out a sheet...Writing hastily...

"If you two wouldn't mind signing here?...You may print Mr. Osborne's name and sign for him...There..."

"'The patient understands that owing to emergency conditions of the surgery all rights of litigation are hereby waved'..." Tara read...

Wish I'd had Dawn sign something like this...Willow thought...

"Just a formality..." Andrew noted...Offering pen...

"Fine..".Willow shrugged, signing...

"Alucard?...Really?..." Tara asked... "You don't suppose he's a relative...?"

"Possibly...They were a large and prominent family in their day...But I hadn't wished to give offense by asking..." Andrew, solemnly...

"Just keep Oz locked in and we'll take care of him..." Willow handed the paper back...

"Yeah..." Tara nodded... "You don't even need to come in unless he starts tearing the place down..."

"Lovely...Good evening, ladies..." he sighed as Willow raised and waved hands and with Tara clinging firmly to her right arm, the two vanished in a spreading blue glow...

Was Maclauy sticking her tongue out at me just as they dematerialized?...Praetorius glared...

"Tara...?" Willow eyed her mate as they reappeared in their living room...

"Yeah?..."

"'Vlad'?..."

"Huh?..."

***

"Monsters, ghosts, bah!...All I know is...I've been robbed and I want action...!" McNabb fumed to the Mayor and Chief...Pointedly ignoring Giles standing beside the Chief...

Lord knows I've paid enough in bribes to the whole damned city government...

Faith, Xander, Anya, Lou, and a reluctantly-pulled-from-the-laundry...A see what you got us into? glare to Lou, Bud...Looking on with those officers still in the museum...Faith doing her best...It being what Buffy would do, she assumed...To follow Giles' lead to keep quiet and look innocent while keeping as close to the action as possible...

Anya however unable to resist the occasional I-tole-you look at Xander...As Xander pondered the possibilities...

On the one hand, would be nice to have Buffy back in any form...Dawn might even be somewhat pleased when she got the news...

On the other hand...All seven greenish feet of her was ready to kill us all last time we met...

"Artemis, my friend...I assure you, we will do everything to resolve this matter...Right, Brody?..." the Mayor addressed the Chief...

"We'll do everything possible..."

"Sounds like all you need to do is go and get my exhibit back from this Rosenberg girl...She and her friends must have it...So why don't we go over and get it?...Tonight..."

The Mayor eyed the Chief who eyed Giles...Who gave a non-committal look back...

"Perhaps...It being so very late..." the Mayor began...

"What?...Give her time to dispose of the goods?...Whose side are you people on, anyway?!..." McNabb raged... "Either you get my exhibit back undamaged...Tonight...Or I go to see my friend Governor Schickelgruber..."

Hmmn...

"Perhaps it's not that late..." the Mayor noted...

"That's more like it!...All right, you two..." McNabb turned to Bud and Lou... "...Dolts, finish straightening up and get the crates outta here..." he moved toward the crate holding the Dracula coffin...Now on its end, crate lid facing him...

Uh-oh...Lou tried looking at anything, innocently...Bud likewise...

"And get Dracula here..." he opened the crate lid...Eyed the standing-up black coffin in the open crate...Holding the crate lid, ready to close...

Hmmn...Well...Can't hurt to just have a look...

Phew...Bud, ready to mop brow...Danger averted...

Nice one, Xander, Faith, Anya, noted to selves with experienced eye...Real craftsmanship there, wherever it came from...

"Out of..." McNabb blinked at the now open, empty coffin...

"Anything wrong, Artemis?..." the Mayor asked...

***

"We're here..." a deep voice pronounced...As two figures in black faced the many times repaired "Welcome to Sunnydale"..."Penalty for defacement of this sign $2,500 fine and two years imprisonment..."

"Sunnydale..." the figure next to the speaker shook its head... "Never changes, does it?..."

"I wouldn't say that..." the first speaker replied, firmly...Pounding a fist into a hand...A rather oddly stiff hand...

Ow...The first speaker noted... "Help me, here, willya?..." holding a strangely jack-knifed left arm to his companion who gave a tug snapping it back out to its original straight, stiff length...

"When do we make contact...With The Slayer...?" the second speaker asked...

"In good time...First we scout the place out...And see what we can dig up ...Get the lay of the land..."

"All right...But..." the second, hesitant..."We are here for the mission, right?...Not..."

"If the stories are true and the Monster is dead, it's over...But...If not..." resolute pause...

"I have a debt to pay...And a score to settle..."

***

"Daughter of Rosenberg..."

Summary: One year after the events of "Groom of Rosenberg" Buffy the Rosenberg Monster and her honey have returned to ask a special favor of their creators Rosenberg and Praetorius...While Tara faces the more or less Big Bad...

Disclaimer: Would Joss want his name associated with this? I think not...But anyway all BTVS characters remain the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series...Though his brother Mort gets nothing...

Archived at the Cicelyverse page of the Buffy Rebecca verse, www.geocities.com/buffyrebecca/Cicelypg.html

Part IX...

"What do we do, Giles...?" Faith asked as the team stood outside the McNabb Museum of Horrors...The said Artemis McNabb following the Mayor and Chief Brody to a waiting patrol car...Police officers still scouting the grounds, pausing to cast appraising looks at the "bystanders", "Chief's old friend and his family", "Slayer's Watcher and her old team"...One veteran of the force noted to a partner...still hovering round the crime scene...

"Should I race over to Willow's with every ounce of Slayer speed?...Buffy would, right?..."

"I think it would be easier to use my cell..." Giles pulled out the named small electrical communication device from his trouser pocket...

("Is that like the one in the other story?..." Angelus, eagerly... "Cells, the Watcher called them?..."

Dru nodded..."Don't really understand the name, myself...Wireless telephone seems more appropriate..."

"Cells..." Shrug at the name... "Anyway, I love those things...Telephones without wires...You could telephone your victim and be standing right behind her, fangs out..."

"Perhaps it's that they're all linking Humanity together..." Spike noted... "Like the cells of a beehive..."

All eyeing him...

Well, forgive a poet for having a little sensibility even in demonic form...he frowned...

"Charming..." Darla shook her head... "But when do we get to the murders...?"

"I must follow the vision as it leads me, grandmother..." Dru noted...

"Well, try and get it to lead to someone's throat...Soon...")

"Though Buffy probably would have run off without thinking of the phone..." Anya noted...

"Hello, Willow?..." Giles asked the phone... "Yes...You did?...Excellent..." he looked at the others... "They've secured Oz...Yes, but Willow...I'm afraid the police are on their way...With a very irate Mr. McNabb, the museum proprietor...Looking for his werewolf exhibit..."

"And Dracula..." Xander noted... "And a Dracula statute...No, wax...It seems to have disappeared as well..." Giles told the phone... "Yes, wax..." he repeated... "Possibly that was a shipping error...In any case, they're coming to your house...One of the guards here mentioned you running off with Oz..."

"Why would anyone steal a wax statute of Dracula?..." Anya asked as Giles continued on phone...

"The guy said it was priceless..." Xander replied... "And like Giles said it could be the shipment got mixed up..."

"Besides...This is Sunnydale...Maybe Drac has fans who wanted to build a shrine since Buffy blew him away...Needed a statute to finish it..."

"He called everything there priceless...But I wonder which..." Anya pondered...

"I'd actually go with the fan explanation..." Faith, nod to a pleased Xander...

"No...I mean which Dracula..."

Xander and Faith looking at each other...

"Vladimir, the scuzz-bag grandnephew Buffy nailed or Vlad the legendary Impaler, founder of the line...His granduncle..." Anya explained... "Probably Vladimir...I doubt there's a really good likeness of Vlad around to copy from..."

"I was minion to Dracula's dirt-bag grandnephew...?" Xander, staring...

God...To Dracula the Big Guy bad enough...But a certain acceptability...I mean "Dracula"...But...

"See...This is why I never mentioned it before..."Anya sighed at his crestfallen face... "But honey, Vladimir had nearly as good powers of thrall as his granduncle...Remember even Buffy was under the influence for a bit...And more than she cared to admit to us, I'd bet..."

And speaking of Buffy...She frowned...

***

"So this young man is a friend of Miss...er Ms...?" Trying to get that modern form of address right... "Rosenberg, doctor?..." Dracula, comfortably seated in a leather armchair in Praetorius' rather magnificent library, gratefully accepting a glass of fine brandy from Gibbons, the butler...

"Indeed, Count..." Andrew, from his chair, nodding a dismissal to Gibbons while carefully fingering glass and savoring treasured sip...My only weakness... "Which is why it is critical that he not become aware of your presence in the house until we have managed to speak with her regarding your 'project proposal'..And I should mention he happens to be a werewolf..."

"Ah...That explains it..." Dracula nodded... "I did sense an oddly familiar presence in the house...Werewolf, eh?...Poor lad...How long...?"

"I'm actually not sure...The boy is quite young and so far as I know not arrested in aging...Not long, I'd say..."

"And you say, shot?..."

"Yes, quite gravely wounded...But I believe he will survive..."

"This violent country..." Dracula sighed... "No offense, Doctor...I realize I am hardly one to cast the first stone...But I was reading this afternoon that the Georgian...er Georgia...State Legislature has voted to allow citizens to carry loaded weapons into public places like restaurants...Horrible..."

"Indeed...A barbarian wilderness yet...Still I believe the boy was shot in England, according to Ms. Rosenberg and Ms. Maclauy....While in his transformed state..."

"Poor lad, poor lad...Well, lucky for him to be in your capable hands, Doctor...Naturally I'll abide by your wishes and do my best to avoid letting him learn my identity or sense my nature..."

"Thank you, Count...As I mentioned I have told Ms. Rosenberg that I have a fellow doctor, from Romania, as guest...Using your current identity..." Thin smile... "We even speculated you might be a descendant..."

"Hmmn...It seems that was an unfortunate choice...But as I said I was pressed for time...A descendant, you say?...Well, I will try to do my best to seem acceptably human should there be a meeting...I've done fairly well in the past, especially since my reclamation, even with Slayers on occasion...Not wishing to have to confront some poor girl simply doing her duty..."

"Yes..." Andrew pondered... "Of course with Ms. Rosenberg coming often to check on Mr. Osborne, the right opportunity to broach your proposal to her might well come up sooner than we'd hoped..."

"I see...Yes...How fortunate...Do you think the lady would consider it favorably, Doctor?..."

"We can but ask, Count...Still, given her scientific curiosity and dedication to the field...Not to mention her boundless compassion and generous, open heart..."

"Why, Dr. Praetorius..." Dracula smiled kindly at his host... "You speak like a man in love...And I know the disease only too well..."

Shrug..."A man may dream a dream that must forever elude him, Count...And sometimes one must accept Fate...But it is good to know that I can again possibly be of service to another pair of star-crossed lovers...As with poor Mr. and Mrs. Walthrop..Though I will hope that we can provide you and your poor Elisabete with a happier ending..."

"To be reunited even for an instant and have a final chance to beg my love's soul's forgiveness is more than sufficient happiness for me, Doctor...And I truly appreciate your efforts for us...But I must bow to your fortitude in accepting what Fate has dealt you...I shall dare to hope, my friend, that you will find your own Elisabete...Or Ms. Rosenberg, at least in another..."

"We shall see...But speaking of Fate, my dear Count, or from now on, 'Dr. Alucard'...Since a tragic accident of Fate's making has provided us with an opportunity, I think we should be off about our labors..."

"Ah...Yes..." 'Dr. Alucard', a bit hesitant...

"Is there something wrong?..."

"Oh, no..." 'Alucard' waved a hand... "It's just...Though I appreciate that we are fortunate your staff was so alert as to inform us of the opportunity...The notion of desecrating a grave...Several graves...I realize it must be done...Still..."

"Indeed?..."

"I've never committed such blasphemy, doctor...My apologies...I know with my record that must seem a trifle ludicrous to you...But even in my worst days of evil I treated the dead with respect...Seems a bit sad to have to abuse their poor bodies now to achieve the last stage of my redemption..."

"Yes...Well...That is sad...Very sad...Indeed I wish we could simply clone a new body for your beloved, my friend...However, I have found for the recapture of souls as well as for the complete process of reanimation, a framework of previously living tissue is a necessity...I assure you we will perform our tasks with the utmost gravity and respect..."

"Of course, Doctor..."

"And fortunately it will not be necessary to use a deceased brain as was done in the case of poor Mrs. Walthrop..."

A mess of a project I had no part in...He rather smugly noted to himself...

Though, to be fair...Willow was breaking new ground there...And she'd never tried resummoning a soul before...Needed the support of the original brain the first time out...

He paused after calling to Gibbons to fetch the car...To be driven himself this night...

"I am sure even the dead we deal with tonight...All of whom my people established as being voluntary organ donors before their tragic demise..."

Well, this time anyway...Though perhaps not precisely of the organs and skeletal bits we plan to borrow...

"...Would be happy to do what they could to aid you in restoring your wife and finding permanent peace..."

"I hope so, Doctor..." Dracula sighed...

"Well, our assistants will meet us at the site...I believe, actually, you may be of great help with them, 'Dr. Alucard'...I being unable to make use of my previous trained human staff for such work this time out..."

Mears being a fried mass, hastily buried in an unmarked grave, and Levinson being permanently out of the business...

"...Am forced to rely on somewhat less tractable assistance..."

"Whatever help I may be of, Doctor...May I say again how grateful I am that you are so willing to commence the work at once..."

"One must seize the day...Or night, my friend...And what Providence has provided..." Praetorius, smiling...

"With all due respect and reverence for the departed, naturally..." he noted solemnly to Dracula's slightly distressed look...

***

"And we're really very sorry about your exhibit..." Willow, apologetically to the fuming McNabb...

Really sorry...Tara echoed...

"Like we told your guards we'd no idea those frat jerks had done something so crazy...And then when we found out poor Oz had been shot..."

"And my exhibit just vanished?!...Well, where the hell is that kid now?!!..." McNabb, angrily...

"I'm sure Chief Brody and his people'd like a word with him..."

Chief Brody sighing a bit...

"A friend of ours, Dr. Andrew Praetorius, took him in...Saved his life even...He's there now, recovering..."

"The Andrew Praetorius?..." the Mayor asked...

Our second-largest employer...And the world-famous cloning wizard of Sunnydale's Technical Park?...

The famous and loaded Praetorius....? McNabb thought...Smiling just a bit in spite of his rage...

"And what about my Dracula?!...They couldn't've just walked him out the door!..."

Uh...The Mayor and the Chief...And several veteran cops...Eyeing each other...

In Sunnydale?...

"Dracula...?" Tara stared...

"We couldn't say, sir..." Willow sighed... "But you know how that 'element' operates nowadays...Though I'm sure we...And my father...Would be happy to cover your losses if the exhibits were damaged..."

There goes our honeymoon in Europe...Tara, bleak look...

London, Paris, Rome...My first chance to go...Our first as a couple...

Odd that I was so looking forward to seeing Bucharest, though...

Must be all the work with poor Buffy and Faith...

***

"We've no real proof Buffy is alive...er well, existing..." Giles noted reassuringly to the team as he drove back through downtown Sunnydale toward Faith's apartment complex...

"How many seven foot tall green women resembling the Monster...?" Anya paused at the looks... "...Buffy...Do you think there are in Sunnydale, Giles?..."

More looks...

"Ok, right..." she shrugged... "But the officer recognized her...And I felt something at the Rosenbergs' earlier..."

"And we will take all due precautions, Anya..." Giles said... "But if it were Buffy...Somehow having survived last year's blast...She certainly has made no attempt to threaten us or anyone else in the course of the year..."

"That we know..." Anya insisted...

"Maybe I should make a few sweeps..." Faith suggested...

"It's late, Faith..." Giles shook his head..."And we've all had a busy night..."

"And Buffy's not likely to remember you too kindly..." Anya pointed out...

"I think we should let this matter rest for tonight...Review events in the morning...After all, we've rescued Oz and Willow says Praetorius is confident he'll survive his wounds...If the...Buffy...Is the creature seen tonight, she's been of no recent threat and we should proceed with the utmost care in dealing with her...For her sake as well as ours..." Giles involuntarily fingering the throat Buffy had neared choked the life out of last year...

"Just like last year with the mill fire and the fire at Spike's crypt..." Anya shook her head... "I knew she wasn't dead...And she'll be coming for us...Maybe like Angelus would...One by one, after getting us all riled..."

("I have a fan?...Who is this dear creature?..." Angelus beamed...)

"She didn't hunt us down...We hunted her..." Xander sighed... "With several lynch mobs' help...Maybe she just wants to be left alone..."

"And is stalking us just for ole times' sake?..." Anya, sarcastically...

"All she wanted was William...Willow told us..."

"And if William's gone...And she blames us?...On top of everything Willow did to her?..."

"She hasn't hurt anybody since last year..."

Guys...Faith eyed the couple...

"Are you willing to risk our baby?...Me?..." Anya fumed...

"All I'm saying is..." Xander put up a hand... "Giles is right...We need to proceed carefully..."

"That should work when the Monster comes smashing through our front door..."

An...Xander sighed...

"She didn't seem too willing to let bygones be bygones when she kidnaped Tara and threatened to kill us all..."

"She only said that to get Willow to resurrect William..."

Ah...Anya waved an angry hand...

"You still think it's Buffy in that thing...I'm telling you she's evil...Why would Buffy have wanted Spike unless she'd turned evil?...Willow probably blew it getting her soul...It's probably a demon in there...Using her memories...Whatever's left of them in that brain Mears dropped...To get us..."

"We can't be sure of her nature or her motives, Xander..." Giles cut in... "Nor whether she is an instrument of evil or simply a bit vexed with us, Anya...If she is even still with us..."

"So...For the moment..." And the sake of your marriage, he did not say, looking briefly back at the angry, hmmn, yes, definitely...a tad jealous, Anya and frustrated Xander... "Lets accept we can do nothing further tonight..."

He pulled into a spot in Faith's apartment garage... "Faith, try and get some rest...You may well be called on for rather strenuous efforts in the next few days..."

***

Willie Bar...Favored hangout of Sunnydale's darker element...Both living and not...

To which an anxious Mayor with aides in tow had dragged an uncomfortable...And equally anxious...Chief Brody after a somewhat mollified McNabb had finally agreed to await developments as to his missing property...

More important things than an irate campaign contributor with political muscle worrying both...

And apart from that which the Slayer and her team might offer...In their own good time, after the city had yet again seen economic devastation and potential disaster, the Mayor had nervously insisted...The Chief all too well aware the Mayor's real fears being somewhat more personal...He too having been involved in the Monster's brief capture last year...Willie's being the best place to see 'help' capable of deal with such concerns...

"Brody...Do you think it could be?...Is that man of yours reliable?..."

"He's reliable...It could be..."

"The Monster...Back?..." the Mayor sighed...

"Back and probably not too happy with the people of Sunnydale..." Brody nodded, a wan look... "Still, probably best to leave it to the Slayer..."

The Mayor shook his head... "Whatever your faith in that young woman, Brody...I fail to see how she can protect this city from a creature like that..."

"I really don't think another lynch mob's the answer, sir..."

"Indeed...And that's why we're here, Brody...I want a little more in our corner than a slight twenty year old girl..."

"I wouldn't underestimate the Slayer, your Honor..." a deep voice, smiling tone... "Though I agree, it can't hurt to have a little extra in your corner in dealing with the Monster...Having met her myself..."

"Oh…You've… 'Met her'?..." the rather annoyed Mayor eyed the source of the comment, a tall, well-built figure dressed all in black, seated at a table just across from the booth where the Mayor, aides, and Brody sat, with a slighter, though equally tall, bespectacled youngish man beside him…

"I have…You might even say I have intimate knowledge of her…Not to mention…" cold grin, pat of his right arm… "A keepsake she left me with…"

"Indeed?...And you have a suggestion for us, sir…?"

"I might…" the figure rose from its seat, crossed over to the large dartboard where several men and 'others' nervously cleared a space for him, raised an arm, and to the shocked surprise of the two civic leaders, rammed four of the darts from the board into the arm stretched level before its chest…

"There's only one way to deal with such a creature, Mr. Mayor…" the mysterious figure in black leaned forward…

"My way…" he moved his arm in a sudden, rapid jerk, causing all four darts to fly…

Directly into the chest of a large, hulking figure that had just risen from a booth on recognizing an old menace and taken an assault posture…

The Mayor, the Chief, and various assorted aides stared…At the large dust cloud where the creature had been…

The bespectacled young man beside the figure in black nodding… "So much for Gorgos the Magnificent…" He pulled out a cell phone and excusing himself from the group, rose to make a call…

"Good thing Willie still uses darts with a little real wood…Sorry for the interruption, fellas..." the figure in black smiled at the still startled group…

"Yes…" the bespectacled young man noted to his phone… "The last of the Gordians is destroyed…

"Angel..." Angel offered the limber hand of his remaining upper limb...Shoving back the artificial one to a position at his side with some slight difficulty... To the staring Mayor...

"Liam Angel..."

("Well, at last. I'm finally here to wreak havoc and spatter gore. When do I start killing and feasting, Dru?...Preferably after staking our feeble souled Spike?..." eager anticipatory look…

Snarl from fuming Spike across the table…

Ummn… "Well, Father…Actually…" Ummn… Brightly… "Will is immortally human now, in the story…You can't stake him…In fact he's nearly indestructible…"

Hmmn?...William blinked…Really?...Well…

"Stake-proof?…Indestructible?…And Immortal, too, Dru?..." he beamed…

"Oh, yes…Nearly…"

"With whining, putrid soul…And clinging brain-dead Slayer wife, family man…" sneer… "Unlike some of us who remain true and pure…"

"Uh, Father…You do remember in the last story I mentioned you getting a soul…?"

Ha!...Spike chortled at the stricken expression…Say wha…?

"But your new persona, Angel is very heroic…And he is still a vampire, though souled…" she gave an encouraging smile…

Bwha…Darla choked…A souled vampire?...

Heroic?...

"Still in vamp with soul, eh?...Not even able to taste the pleasures of daylight…Like some of our future Immortal selves…Well…Cheer up, 'Angel'…" William grinned… "At least from the sound of it you'll have a charming new boyfriend…")

***