{buffyverse/dollhouse} deceptions
Title: Deceptions
Author: aaronlisa
Fandom: Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dollhouse
Pairing/Characters: Buffy Summers/Darla, Buffy Summers/Sierra, Adelle DeWitt, Lilah Morgan, Willow Rosenberg and Angel.
Rating: FR13
Disclaimer: Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dollhouse all belong to Joss Whedon and company.
Prompts: Written for the bonus round at femslash_minis for the prompt of Buffy/Sierra and Catholic schoolgirl.
Notes: This turned out much more angsty than I’d planned and less shippy as well.
Summary: Buffy knows that something's developing between her and Sierra.
Word Count: 1477
“This is highly unusual,” Adelle DeWitt calmly states.
“I understand that but I am willing to pay triple the usual amount.”
Adelle calmly looks at the woman sitting on the couch across from her. She’s impeccably dressed with a silk scar around her neck. And Adelle isn’t quite sure what to make of the whole situation. Typically her clients come to her and they want her to program the perfect person to fulfill their fantasy or needs. In some cases, she has to convince them of how the Dollhouse can enrich their lives as long as they sign over a large sum of money for their services. Never has she had a client come in with such detailed and exacting requests. Nor has she ever had a client come in to her office with an imprint wedge already prepared.
“You do understand that I will need to test the wedge,” Adelle tells her new client.
“And you’ll find that it’s just as I said it was,” Lilah Morgan silkily replies, “Your active will come back safe and sound. And the Dollhouse will be just a little bit wealthier.”
* * *
The Hyperion is deserted and empty but for heavy furniture with grimy sheets covering it. For a moment, she can almost hear echoes of the past when it wasn’t so empty or covered in dusty, when there wasn’t a heavy sadness in every breath that she takes.
Buffy had never spent much time at the hotel that had housed Angel Investigations, but the few times that she had come up to LA, it had been very full of life. The personalities of Angel’s group had been large and vibrant and they had filled the lobby of the hotel. Now it was silent and empty, almost tomb like in its silence.
“Hello?” Buffy calls out.
Her voice rings out in the empty lobby and hotel. She’s not even sure why she’s there. She knows that it is too late to prove her loyalty to Angel but the letter that he had written her asking her to meet him here, had made her want to show him that despite her failure to stand by his side when he took down Wolfram and Hart, she still cared.
But she doubts that caring will ever be enough. She’s rebuffed him one too many times, hurt him with her choices and poorly made decisions one too often. She calls out one more time, already turning to leave the sad hotel. This time she’s not greeted by the sound of echoes.
The sound of footsteps on the once elegant staircase cause Buffy to turn around, immediately alert, yet all that greets her vision is a blonde woman in a Catholic schoolgirl outfit. It reminds her strangely of Darla, when she hasn’t thought of Angel’s sire in years. The blonde’s lips curve into a smile that causes shivers to run up and down Buffy’s spine. Something inside of the Slayer is screaming at her to run; yet she holds her ground.
“You came.”
The words are cold and flat as the blonde pauses on the last step. And Buffy realizes her mistake.
“Who are you?” Buffy asks.
The blonde laughs and tosses her hair before moving closer.
“An old friend, I would have thought that you’d recognize me. But then again, I am not quite myself.”
“Darla,” Buffy spits out, hating the way her tongue curls around the syllable of the blonde’s name.
Darla merely winks at her in response. Buffy pulls out her stake and shifts her weight until she’s in a fighting stance. She knows that she’ll enjoy taking the bitch down again. However Darla laughs at her, a rich and unfamiliar sound.
“I don’t think you’ll be doing anything with that, after all, this is just a loaner,” Darla tells her as her hands slide up and down her body, “I don’t think you want the blood of an innocent on your hands.”
Darla moves closer and Buffy can see the rise and fall of the blonde’s chest underneath the prim and proper wool sweater and she doesn’t understand what’s going on or how it’s even possible that Darla is standing here in front of her in someone else’s body.
“What do you want?”
Suddenly Darla’s right up against her, grasping Buffy’s hand until the Slayer drops the stake. It clatters to the floor and the sound it makes is immensely loud in the empty lobby. Buffy can see Darla in the stranger’s body in the way she moves even if everything else is completely wrong. There’s a flash of desire in her eyes that confuses Buffy.
“Don’t trust anyone,” Darla whispers before she claims Buffy’s lips with her own.
The kiss is brief before Buffy pushes her away. The woman, Darla, stumbles but catches herself before she falls.
“A friend sent me here today,” Darla replies, “Angel is in danger.”
“And why should I believe you?”
“Because despite our differences,” Darla replies with a sneer, “I care about Angel as much as you do.”
Buffy hates the reference to Angel’s past, it repulses her and she turns away from Darla. She doesn’t need to hear about Angelus or the fact that even with the soul, Angel still cares about Darla.
“Fine whatever,” Buffy grinds out, “Are we done here?”
Darla sighs in response and Buffy turns to face her. Her anger at having wasted her time is starting to rise yet before she can even respond, something seems to overcome Darla and suddenly instead of seductive eyes staring at her, the woman in front of her is looking at her in confusion. The only thing left of Darla is the uniform that looks improper on this stranger.
“Did I fall asleep?”
“What games are you playing now?” Buffy asks.
“Did I fall asleep?”
Buffy suddenly realizes that the woman standing in front of her isn’t Darla anymore and she’s infuriated at Darla. How dare she take over the body of some woman and then just vanish? How dare she leave yet another mess for Buffy to clean up?
* * *
It takes Willow six months to use her magic to fix the woman that Darla had been in, six months of chaos. Six months of sheer hell and Buffy still doesn’t think that she’s completely fixed.
Sierra, although Buffy sometimes sees flashes of Darla in her, doesn’t seem to be real at times. It’s as if underneath the façade there’s still someone else desperately trying to crawl up to the surface but keeps failing. At times, she’ll completely change. Her voice will take on a different accent, the way she moves will change, even the way that she looks at Buffy will change. And Buffy feels like she can never keep up.
Yet despite the weirdness of the situation, Buffy knows that something’s developing between her and Sierra. Something that she can’t quite explain or define but nonetheless it is there. It started out simply enough when Sierra would crawl into Buffy’s bed at night and cling to the Slayer in confusion and fear. Willow explained in some psychological terms that Buffy didn’t really get but it seemed important that she show Sierra that she wasn’t going to abandon her.
Even now that Sierra is more normal, there’s still a sweetness about her, a need to make sure that Buffy won’t leave her, won’t abandon her, that has her crawling into Buffy’s bed in the middle of the night and wrapping her arms and legs around Buffy’s body. And Buffy wonders who she’s supposed to resist Sierra when the other woman kisses her shoulder with soft and gentle kisses.
What worries Buffy is that she won’t be able to resist Sierra for much longer. Even though she knows that she should. Because deep down inside, she knows that even though Willow’s pronounced her fixed, healed, whatever, Buffy knows that Sierra is still very much broken.
* * *
When Adelle finally makes contact with the very much elusive Lilah Morgan, she’s furious. Her active has not been returned to her and for all she knows Sierra is dead. This time, the meeting is in Lilah’s fancy office in downtown Los Angeles. The fact that she’s a lawyer doesn’t even faze Adelle.
“I believe you promised that despite the unorthodox situation you requested that I would have my active returned safe and sound, Ms. Morgan,” Adelle states.
Lilah begins to speak, no doubt to justify her actions, but Adelle cuts her off with a wave of her hand.
“I’m well aware that Wolfram and Hart have already tripled the amount that they had originally paid. I am not here for financial compensation.”
“Then why are you here?”
Adelle doesn’t immediately respond as she shoots the lawyer a cruel smirk. Lilah nervously swallows.
“Your bosses have decided that you should replace Sierra.”
((END))
Author: aaronlisa
Fandom: Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dollhouse
Pairing/Characters: Buffy Summers/Darla, Buffy Summers/Sierra, Adelle DeWitt, Lilah Morgan, Willow Rosenberg and Angel.
Rating: FR13
Disclaimer: Angel, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Dollhouse all belong to Joss Whedon and company.
Prompts: Written for the bonus round at femslash_minis for the prompt of Buffy/Sierra and Catholic schoolgirl.
Notes: This turned out much more angsty than I’d planned and less shippy as well.
Summary: Buffy knows that something's developing between her and Sierra.
Word Count: 1477
“This is highly unusual,” Adelle DeWitt calmly states.
“I understand that but I am willing to pay triple the usual amount.”
Adelle calmly looks at the woman sitting on the couch across from her. She’s impeccably dressed with a silk scar around her neck. And Adelle isn’t quite sure what to make of the whole situation. Typically her clients come to her and they want her to program the perfect person to fulfill their fantasy or needs. In some cases, she has to convince them of how the Dollhouse can enrich their lives as long as they sign over a large sum of money for their services. Never has she had a client come in with such detailed and exacting requests. Nor has she ever had a client come in to her office with an imprint wedge already prepared.
“You do understand that I will need to test the wedge,” Adelle tells her new client.
“And you’ll find that it’s just as I said it was,” Lilah Morgan silkily replies, “Your active will come back safe and sound. And the Dollhouse will be just a little bit wealthier.”
* * *
The Hyperion is deserted and empty but for heavy furniture with grimy sheets covering it. For a moment, she can almost hear echoes of the past when it wasn’t so empty or covered in dusty, when there wasn’t a heavy sadness in every breath that she takes.
Buffy had never spent much time at the hotel that had housed Angel Investigations, but the few times that she had come up to LA, it had been very full of life. The personalities of Angel’s group had been large and vibrant and they had filled the lobby of the hotel. Now it was silent and empty, almost tomb like in its silence.
“Hello?” Buffy calls out.
Her voice rings out in the empty lobby and hotel. She’s not even sure why she’s there. She knows that it is too late to prove her loyalty to Angel but the letter that he had written her asking her to meet him here, had made her want to show him that despite her failure to stand by his side when he took down Wolfram and Hart, she still cared.
But she doubts that caring will ever be enough. She’s rebuffed him one too many times, hurt him with her choices and poorly made decisions one too often. She calls out one more time, already turning to leave the sad hotel. This time she’s not greeted by the sound of echoes.
The sound of footsteps on the once elegant staircase cause Buffy to turn around, immediately alert, yet all that greets her vision is a blonde woman in a Catholic schoolgirl outfit. It reminds her strangely of Darla, when she hasn’t thought of Angel’s sire in years. The blonde’s lips curve into a smile that causes shivers to run up and down Buffy’s spine. Something inside of the Slayer is screaming at her to run; yet she holds her ground.
“You came.”
The words are cold and flat as the blonde pauses on the last step. And Buffy realizes her mistake.
“Who are you?” Buffy asks.
The blonde laughs and tosses her hair before moving closer.
“An old friend, I would have thought that you’d recognize me. But then again, I am not quite myself.”
“Darla,” Buffy spits out, hating the way her tongue curls around the syllable of the blonde’s name.
Darla merely winks at her in response. Buffy pulls out her stake and shifts her weight until she’s in a fighting stance. She knows that she’ll enjoy taking the bitch down again. However Darla laughs at her, a rich and unfamiliar sound.
“I don’t think you’ll be doing anything with that, after all, this is just a loaner,” Darla tells her as her hands slide up and down her body, “I don’t think you want the blood of an innocent on your hands.”
Darla moves closer and Buffy can see the rise and fall of the blonde’s chest underneath the prim and proper wool sweater and she doesn’t understand what’s going on or how it’s even possible that Darla is standing here in front of her in someone else’s body.
“What do you want?”
Suddenly Darla’s right up against her, grasping Buffy’s hand until the Slayer drops the stake. It clatters to the floor and the sound it makes is immensely loud in the empty lobby. Buffy can see Darla in the stranger’s body in the way she moves even if everything else is completely wrong. There’s a flash of desire in her eyes that confuses Buffy.
“Don’t trust anyone,” Darla whispers before she claims Buffy’s lips with her own.
The kiss is brief before Buffy pushes her away. The woman, Darla, stumbles but catches herself before she falls.
“A friend sent me here today,” Darla replies, “Angel is in danger.”
“And why should I believe you?”
“Because despite our differences,” Darla replies with a sneer, “I care about Angel as much as you do.”
Buffy hates the reference to Angel’s past, it repulses her and she turns away from Darla. She doesn’t need to hear about Angelus or the fact that even with the soul, Angel still cares about Darla.
“Fine whatever,” Buffy grinds out, “Are we done here?”
Darla sighs in response and Buffy turns to face her. Her anger at having wasted her time is starting to rise yet before she can even respond, something seems to overcome Darla and suddenly instead of seductive eyes staring at her, the woman in front of her is looking at her in confusion. The only thing left of Darla is the uniform that looks improper on this stranger.
“Did I fall asleep?”
“What games are you playing now?” Buffy asks.
“Did I fall asleep?”
Buffy suddenly realizes that the woman standing in front of her isn’t Darla anymore and she’s infuriated at Darla. How dare she take over the body of some woman and then just vanish? How dare she leave yet another mess for Buffy to clean up?
* * *
It takes Willow six months to use her magic to fix the woman that Darla had been in, six months of chaos. Six months of sheer hell and Buffy still doesn’t think that she’s completely fixed.
Sierra, although Buffy sometimes sees flashes of Darla in her, doesn’t seem to be real at times. It’s as if underneath the façade there’s still someone else desperately trying to crawl up to the surface but keeps failing. At times, she’ll completely change. Her voice will take on a different accent, the way she moves will change, even the way that she looks at Buffy will change. And Buffy feels like she can never keep up.
Yet despite the weirdness of the situation, Buffy knows that something’s developing between her and Sierra. Something that she can’t quite explain or define but nonetheless it is there. It started out simply enough when Sierra would crawl into Buffy’s bed at night and cling to the Slayer in confusion and fear. Willow explained in some psychological terms that Buffy didn’t really get but it seemed important that she show Sierra that she wasn’t going to abandon her.
Even now that Sierra is more normal, there’s still a sweetness about her, a need to make sure that Buffy won’t leave her, won’t abandon her, that has her crawling into Buffy’s bed in the middle of the night and wrapping her arms and legs around Buffy’s body. And Buffy wonders who she’s supposed to resist Sierra when the other woman kisses her shoulder with soft and gentle kisses.
What worries Buffy is that she won’t be able to resist Sierra for much longer. Even though she knows that she should. Because deep down inside, she knows that even though Willow’s pronounced her fixed, healed, whatever, Buffy knows that Sierra is still very much broken.
* * *
When Adelle finally makes contact with the very much elusive Lilah Morgan, she’s furious. Her active has not been returned to her and for all she knows Sierra is dead. This time, the meeting is in Lilah’s fancy office in downtown Los Angeles. The fact that she’s a lawyer doesn’t even faze Adelle.
“I believe you promised that despite the unorthodox situation you requested that I would have my active returned safe and sound, Ms. Morgan,” Adelle states.
Lilah begins to speak, no doubt to justify her actions, but Adelle cuts her off with a wave of her hand.
“I’m well aware that Wolfram and Hart have already tripled the amount that they had originally paid. I am not here for financial compensation.”
“Then why are you here?”
Adelle doesn’t immediately respond as she shoots the lawyer a cruel smirk. Lilah nervously swallows.
“Your bosses have decided that you should replace Sierra.”
((END))