Otherways: Pre-Entrance.
She's alone again. She'd gotten used to it, had more than enough time to get used to it back in that cave. She should have known she'd end up that way again, no matter what the pretty redhaired girl had said. She'd said a lot, but she'd gotten bored easily. She didn't have the kind of patience that Fred had, and it had killed her in the end. Fred could have warned her about that, if her opinion had ever been asked.
The girl who had once been Fred wanders the alleys of a town that had never been hers. Sunnydale, Willow had called it. Places had names. She had to remind herself. This was Sunnydale, and the one she'd left was Los Angeles, and the names seemed all wrong for what she was now. They didn't fit. Pylea hadn't fit, either, but she'd been lucky. No, she corrects herself. She'd been strong, and now she would be strong forever.
Alone or not.
She's still lost in thought when she spies a place up ahead, a bar that was still in operation in spite of the fear these humans dwelled in. It would be fully of pretty helpless things like she'd been, and the men who made themselves feel stronger by thinking they could protect them. She could slip right in and take home a nice strong protective type, take him back and show him what weakness really was. Make him pay for not being able to keep himself safe. She didn't need anyone to keep her safe, not now.
(Handsome man saves me from the monsters.)
It had been her dream, once. A child's dream, the dream of a foolish weak girl that she'd never be again.
Absently, with a half-smile on her lips as she thinks of how much better than tree bark and berries her dinner would taste, she pushes the door open.
The girl who had once been Fred wanders the alleys of a town that had never been hers. Sunnydale, Willow had called it. Places had names. She had to remind herself. This was Sunnydale, and the one she'd left was Los Angeles, and the names seemed all wrong for what she was now. They didn't fit. Pylea hadn't fit, either, but she'd been lucky. No, she corrects herself. She'd been strong, and now she would be strong forever.
Alone or not.
She's still lost in thought when she spies a place up ahead, a bar that was still in operation in spite of the fear these humans dwelled in. It would be fully of pretty helpless things like she'd been, and the men who made themselves feel stronger by thinking they could protect them. She could slip right in and take home a nice strong protective type, take him back and show him what weakness really was. Make him pay for not being able to keep himself safe. She didn't need anyone to keep her safe, not now.
(Handsome man saves me from the monsters.)
It had been her dream, once. A child's dream, the dream of a foolish weak girl that she'd never be again.
Absently, with a half-smile on her lips as she thinks of how much better than tree bark and berries her dinner would taste, she pushes the door open.