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TITLE: Mockingbird, Part 4
AUTHOR: Tesla and dessert_first
RATING:
SPOILERS:
CHARACTERS: Angel/Anya, Xander/Cordelia, Fred/Gunn/Wesley, Spike/Buffy, Tara/Willow, Gwen/Lilah, Lindsey/Darla
DISCLAIMERS:
SUMMARY:
NOTES: Set in Anya!World.Very AU. In this universe, Darla wasn't re-vamped, Anya got the visions in our previous episodes.
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"Of course!" Angel said. "I should have realized. That's what smells familiar about this kid--he smells like Darla. Like me and Darla."
"Darla," Stephen echoed, gripping the edge of the steel table. "My mother. My father said you were dead. He said you were a vampire, and you staked yourself to have me, but I can smell you. I can hear your heart beating. You're not a vampire."
"Darla's human," Xander said. "It's a long story. And, uh, you guys could probably do with a little privacy about now, don't you think?"
"How do we know he won't hurt her?" Lindsey crossed his arms.
"Would it be such a great loss?" Angel whispered to Anya, who ignored him.
"I won't hurt her," Stephen said. "Not if she's human."
"Right, he seems like a trustworthy kid," Xander said, ushering everyone outside despite their protests. "And Darla's got her crossbow. We'll be right outside the door, in case we hear any matricidal noises, okay?" ::
"It's amazing," Darla said, still standing by the door. "I'd almost forgotten. The nose is different, and the mouth, but the eyes, the shape of your face..." She reached out a hesitant hand, as if to touch him. "You look so like my brother."
"You really are my mother, aren't you?"
"Am I?" she asked. "Four hundred years since he's been gone and here you are. Such a strange world we live in."
"I'm not from your world."
She tilted her head. "But are you still my son?"
::
"Why didn't I think of it sooner?" Angel marveled. "Of course Darla's the mother. Who else would it be?" He was oblivious to Gunn making the international signal for "shut up" from across the room. "It must have been some magical kind of--maybe a spell? A gypsy spell? Wesley, look up gypsy spells."
"Angel, perhaps we should--"
"Or demons. Or the Furies? They seem in an awfully good mood lately, maybe they did some--"
"--stop and consider the ramifications of--"
"Maybe one of those prophecies has something to do with it. What if--"
"--particularly in light of the--"
"Hey! Could everyone keep it down a bit?" Lindsey glared from his position next to Xander, guarding the kitchen door. "We're trying to listen for sounds of my gal getting murdered."
::
"I don't understand." Stephen crossed his arms, huddling in on himself. "Everything is different from the way it's supposed to be. My father said..." He trailed off, helpless. "The others are right; I am in the wrong place."
Darla set her crossbow gently down on the floor. "Are you?"
Stephen frowned. "You're not my mother. My mother is dead. And that man isn't my father, not really."
"Does it matter so very much? Don't I look the same as she would have? Smell the same? Sound the same? And in this world I'm not a monster any more, I'm... I'm something else now. Is that so bad?"
"I didn't come here for this! I came to avenge my father!" He moved abruptly, picking up his stake launcher from the corner. "I have to go. I have to-- I have to leave now."
::
The kitchen door smacked against the wall as the kid rushed out, narrowly missing Lindsey and Xander as the kid ran across the lobby towards the big glass doors.
"Connor, wait!" Angel called after him. "I mean, Stephen! Can't we just talk about this?"
The others rushed outside in time to watch Stephen run into the thick of traffic, disoriented, then jump atop a bus and ride away.
Part 5
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