A man stood in the shadows of a Dumpster. If not for Clark's superhuman vision, he never would have seen him. He was watching the fight with interest. The man was thin, perhaps a bit too thin. Wavy brown hair was pulled back in a pony tail. Very fair skin. Black jeans, work boots, and a black shirt. Clark paused, unsure if this man was a friend, a foe, or just a curious spectator.
Spike without the bleached blond hair? I wouldn't think it would be Angel because I don't think you could describe him as thin. Nor would it likely be the other Clark because he's not fair, nor is it likely he'd be thin. Wesley?
It's Spike. I was trying to give it away to the readers without giving it away to the Scoobies by Clark's description ("Gee, Buffy, a bleached-blond guy in a trench coat was watching you ...") by describing the scarred eyebrow.
Hmm. Do I need to be more blatant about this, do you think, or leave it a bit of a mystery?
But then I thought about the mention of Spike in part 1:
One of the vampires that Buffy was fighting was very good. With a pang of memory, Willow realized his fighting style was very similar to Spike's
Does the Scooby Gang not know Spike is alive and well?
(For those of you who don't know about Buffy - The Scooby Gang is what her little band of 'warriors' are called.
Also, some people may not know that Spike died a heroic death at the end of Buffy, got brought back in the last season of Angel, and his fate was distinctly up in the air at the end of the series finale of Angel.
Buffy never knew that Spike had been brought back from the dead during the run of the show. Spike had ample opportunity to tell her; he never did. Which is why the fact that Spike is following her around hasn't even occurred to Buffy.
Bless Clark's poor little heart:
The vampire shut up. .. She nodded, and in a voice that tore at his heart -- she didn't look much older than sixteen or seventeen -- she begged, "Don't kill me! Please!"
"Go," he released her. She bolted. He figured he'd find her later and discuss the matter with her; he would try to find her alternatives to her current life.
He couldn't dust her even if she was a vampire.
The blue-haired woman stood motionless in the middle of the restaurant for several minutes before walking to the door. The door said "Pull." She pushed at it. When it failed to open, she tore it off its hinges, casually tossed it aside, and walked without concern for a block before she suddenly and unexpectedly morphed into a rail-thin and somewhat mousy human woman.
"I will find more on the internet," she said, grimly. "I must find a Key to open the portals to what was. What is now is most unsatisfactory."
Elyria / Fred? Right? Argghhh....
More soon, please. [/QB]
Nah, not dead. Unconscious. I'll probably change my wording in the final draft.
As far as Clark not killing vampires -- it's just such a basic part of his character that he doesn't kill people. That's actually one of the reasons I decided to write this crossover. There's a really interesting conflict there -- in the Buffyverse, heroes casually kill bad guys on a regular basis. It's necessary. Clark has a VERY different set of morals. Killing bad guys is not necessary in his world and he's going to have a hell of a hard time with it.
Chosing Illyria as the Big Bad, a shades-of-grey character who is neither villain nor hero, was deliberate and directly linked to that basic conflict.
