Identities (#3 of The Slayer 314 Project)
by Philip S.
Summary: Sequel to "Whispers" and "Remains". After learning what the Initiative has done to her, Buffy breaks down. Now it's up to her friends to find out how much of the Buffy they knew is left and save her.
Spoilers: 4th Season up to the episode "Hush". After that it's AU.
Rating: R
Title picture:
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Part 1
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Sunnydale was surrounded by forests on three sides, large areas of green untouched by man except for the occasional road and hunter cabin. In a place where the Hellmouth attracted all sorts of supernatural beings these woods were dangerous to be in, especially at night. Vampires, werewolves, other less common beings that most people didn't believe in outside the fairy tales, they all made their home and/or hunting grounds here.
And all of them were giving a certain spot a wide berth.
The creature, if such etiquette could be applied to it, was prone on the ground, looking like a lifeless sculpture that someone had knocked over and left there. A sculpture of crimson metal, warped images of the forest surrounding it reflected on the gleaming chrome surface. The thing had no face, no defined features of any kind.
The only movement of any kind was the soft rise and fall of its metal chest. It did not need to breathe, of course, but some part of the mind guiding it found the sensation soothing.
"Buffy?" The voice could not be heard in the forest, only somewhere inside the smooth metallic skull.
"Buffy!" The name of the speaker was Anne. It was a name she had been given by a girl called Buffy Summers, since the name her creator had intended for her was not to her liking. She had a serial number somewhere inside her programming, but she felt it had little to do with the being she had become.
Anne was a computer program. An artificial intelligence. Her purpose, the reason for her existence, had been to become the guiding mind of the android super soldier codenamed Adam One. An indestructible weapon, meant to protect the world from supernatural forces. Under the strict control of the American government, that was.
In order to provide this perfect piece of hardware with an equally perfect piece of software, the creators of Adam One, the Initiative, had captured the world's greatest supernatural warrior in order to assimilate her instincts, knowledge, and memories into the android.
This warrior's name was Buffy Summers. And things had gone horribly wrong.
Professor Walsh, leader of the Initiative Project, had tried to use the power of the Hellmouth for her experiment. She had underestimated it, though, leading to an explosion of demonic energy. As a result Buffy found herself sharing her body with Anne now, Anne being a nearly perfect duplicate of Buffy's own mind, having patterned herself after the Slayer just like she had been intended to do. Only no one had expected her to do it so well.
No one had expected Anne to become fully aware.
Buffy had escaped from the explosion, miraculously unharmed, only to learn that something more had happened to her. For the Adam One android had the ability to reshape itself, to take on any form its guiding mind wanted. And it was so good at this deception that it fooled even itself.
Now Anne feared that the realization of her own body's death had driven Buffy insane.
The personality mainframe of Adam One resembled a vast, dark cave to Anne. This was the place where she should have reigned supreme, lording over the assembled secondary personalities like a queen. Adam One had always been intended to assimilate other personalities to provide it with the necessary information needed for its mission, but, like pretty much everything else, that had gone wrong.
Anne was not the primary personality. Buffy was. And the vast space around her was filled with secondary personalities that had no business being here. Had everything gone according to plan, then Anne would have been the only one with any degree of self-awareness. All the secondary personalities would have been mere replicas, little more than complex databases for her to draw on.
112 people had died during the explosion of the Initiative base.
All of them were in here now.
"Buffy," Anne yelled again.
"She isn't answering," the residual self image of Maggy Walsh said with a snort. "The little girl has broken down completely, it seems."
"I wouldn't sound so unconcerned if I were you," Anne retorted. "Buffy is the primary mind of Adam One. If her personality matrix breaks apart it will be the end of us all, including you."
Walsh said nothing, retreating into the same offended silence she had kept ever since becoming aware inside the mainframe. Anne shook her head, or would have done so had she been corporeal, and turned her attention back to the primary personality grid.
The matrix representing Buffy's mind seemed completely inert, having retreated into the digital equivalent of shock. Only the most rudimentary of processes were still running, like the loop that caused the android body to breathe. Buffy herself, though, was far gone.
It had been like this the past two days, which was an eternity to someone like Anne, whose thought processes numbered in the trillions per second. She had tried everything she could think of to reach Buffy, but all her messages were ignored, simply disappearing into nothingness.
Something had to be done. If Buffy continued like this it would be the digital equivalent of suicide and then they would all die. Anne was not sure if she or any of the others were alive in the classical sense, but she certainly did not want to die. Her mind, patterned after Buffy, remembered what it was like to be dead. Buffy had been dead and Anne found herself terrified by the experience. She did not want to repeat it.
After much consideration she concluded that her own chances of snapping Buffy out of her shock were approaching zero. Yet there was a large possibility that someone else might be able to. Maybe Angel. Or one of her friends. Her mother. They might be able to reach her where Anne could not.
Buffy's friends were certainly looking for her, yet there was little to no chance of them finding her here in the middle of the wilderness. The only feasible alternative was for Anne to bring Buffy to them. Which would be a lot harder than it sounded.
There was an option for secondary personalities to take control of the android form, but since the secondaries had never been intended for autonomous operation due to their planned lack of self-awareness, that option required the cooperation of the primary. Like with everything else, though, Adam One did not perform according to specs in this matter.
Directly after their joining, Anne had temporarily been in control. Buffy had passed out from the shock of the wounds the android had sustained in the explosion, though they had self-repaired almost immediately. Nevertheless the battle damage had activated the automatic emergency responses, which had given Anne a loophole to upload her own personality matrix into the emergency response grid, thereby taking over. It had been her that had fought against Faith, driven by Buffy's memories of how the second Slayer had hurt her. When Buffy had awakened again the emergency program had shut down and Anne had lost all control over the android.
Now she needed it back.
ACTIVATE EMERGENCY RESPONSE PROGRAM.
PLEASE WAIT ...
ERROR. EMERGENCY STATUS NEGATIVE. ALL THREAT PARAMETERS GREEN.
Yeah, right. Adam One wasn't exactly in danger right now. She had to find a way around it.
ACTIVATE INTERNAL DIAGNOSTIC PROGRAM. SUBJECT: PRIMARY PERSONALITY MATRIX INTEGRITY.
PLEASE WAIT ...
DIAGNOSTIC COMPLETE. INTEGRITY OF PRIMARY PERSONALITY MATRIX COMPROMISED. DANGER OF MATRIX BREAKDOWN. INTERNAL REPAIR ROUTINES INSUFFICIENT. OUTSIDE ASSISTANCE REQUIRED.
ACTIVATE EMERGENCY RESPONSE PROGRAM. OBJECTIVE: ACQUISITION OF OUTSIDE ASSISTANCE TO PREVENT BREAKDOWN OF PRIMARY PERSONALITY MATRIX.
PLEASE WAIT ...
EMERGENCY RESPONSE PROGRAM ACTIVATED. SUBROUTINE INSERTED. UPLOAD SECONDARY PERSONALITY MATRIX INTO EMERGENCY CONTROL GRID. FILENAME: ANNE.
With an electronic sigh Anne assumed control of Adam One. The crimson android slowly rose to its feet, at the same time reshaping itself into a form Anne was familiar with.
Something that looked very much like Buffy Summers started walking toward Sunnydale.
TO BE CONTINUED
by Philip S.
Summary: Sequel to "Whispers" and "Remains". After learning what the Initiative has done to her, Buffy breaks down. Now it's up to her friends to find out how much of the Buffy they knew is left and save her.
Spoilers: 4th Season up to the episode "Hush". After that it's AU.
Rating: R
Title picture:
#
Part 1
#
Sunnydale was surrounded by forests on three sides, large areas of green untouched by man except for the occasional road and hunter cabin. In a place where the Hellmouth attracted all sorts of supernatural beings these woods were dangerous to be in, especially at night. Vampires, werewolves, other less common beings that most people didn't believe in outside the fairy tales, they all made their home and/or hunting grounds here.
And all of them were giving a certain spot a wide berth.
The creature, if such etiquette could be applied to it, was prone on the ground, looking like a lifeless sculpture that someone had knocked over and left there. A sculpture of crimson metal, warped images of the forest surrounding it reflected on the gleaming chrome surface. The thing had no face, no defined features of any kind.
The only movement of any kind was the soft rise and fall of its metal chest. It did not need to breathe, of course, but some part of the mind guiding it found the sensation soothing.
"Buffy?" The voice could not be heard in the forest, only somewhere inside the smooth metallic skull.
"Buffy!" The name of the speaker was Anne. It was a name she had been given by a girl called Buffy Summers, since the name her creator had intended for her was not to her liking. She had a serial number somewhere inside her programming, but she felt it had little to do with the being she had become.
Anne was a computer program. An artificial intelligence. Her purpose, the reason for her existence, had been to become the guiding mind of the android super soldier codenamed Adam One. An indestructible weapon, meant to protect the world from supernatural forces. Under the strict control of the American government, that was.
In order to provide this perfect piece of hardware with an equally perfect piece of software, the creators of Adam One, the Initiative, had captured the world's greatest supernatural warrior in order to assimilate her instincts, knowledge, and memories into the android.
This warrior's name was Buffy Summers. And things had gone horribly wrong.
Professor Walsh, leader of the Initiative Project, had tried to use the power of the Hellmouth for her experiment. She had underestimated it, though, leading to an explosion of demonic energy. As a result Buffy found herself sharing her body with Anne now, Anne being a nearly perfect duplicate of Buffy's own mind, having patterned herself after the Slayer just like she had been intended to do. Only no one had expected her to do it so well.
No one had expected Anne to become fully aware.
Buffy had escaped from the explosion, miraculously unharmed, only to learn that something more had happened to her. For the Adam One android had the ability to reshape itself, to take on any form its guiding mind wanted. And it was so good at this deception that it fooled even itself.
Now Anne feared that the realization of her own body's death had driven Buffy insane.
The personality mainframe of Adam One resembled a vast, dark cave to Anne. This was the place where she should have reigned supreme, lording over the assembled secondary personalities like a queen. Adam One had always been intended to assimilate other personalities to provide it with the necessary information needed for its mission, but, like pretty much everything else, that had gone wrong.
Anne was not the primary personality. Buffy was. And the vast space around her was filled with secondary personalities that had no business being here. Had everything gone according to plan, then Anne would have been the only one with any degree of self-awareness. All the secondary personalities would have been mere replicas, little more than complex databases for her to draw on.
112 people had died during the explosion of the Initiative base.
All of them were in here now.
"Buffy," Anne yelled again.
"She isn't answering," the residual self image of Maggy Walsh said with a snort. "The little girl has broken down completely, it seems."
"I wouldn't sound so unconcerned if I were you," Anne retorted. "Buffy is the primary mind of Adam One. If her personality matrix breaks apart it will be the end of us all, including you."
Walsh said nothing, retreating into the same offended silence she had kept ever since becoming aware inside the mainframe. Anne shook her head, or would have done so had she been corporeal, and turned her attention back to the primary personality grid.
The matrix representing Buffy's mind seemed completely inert, having retreated into the digital equivalent of shock. Only the most rudimentary of processes were still running, like the loop that caused the android body to breathe. Buffy herself, though, was far gone.
It had been like this the past two days, which was an eternity to someone like Anne, whose thought processes numbered in the trillions per second. She had tried everything she could think of to reach Buffy, but all her messages were ignored, simply disappearing into nothingness.
Something had to be done. If Buffy continued like this it would be the digital equivalent of suicide and then they would all die. Anne was not sure if she or any of the others were alive in the classical sense, but she certainly did not want to die. Her mind, patterned after Buffy, remembered what it was like to be dead. Buffy had been dead and Anne found herself terrified by the experience. She did not want to repeat it.
After much consideration she concluded that her own chances of snapping Buffy out of her shock were approaching zero. Yet there was a large possibility that someone else might be able to. Maybe Angel. Or one of her friends. Her mother. They might be able to reach her where Anne could not.
Buffy's friends were certainly looking for her, yet there was little to no chance of them finding her here in the middle of the wilderness. The only feasible alternative was for Anne to bring Buffy to them. Which would be a lot harder than it sounded.
There was an option for secondary personalities to take control of the android form, but since the secondaries had never been intended for autonomous operation due to their planned lack of self-awareness, that option required the cooperation of the primary. Like with everything else, though, Adam One did not perform according to specs in this matter.
Directly after their joining, Anne had temporarily been in control. Buffy had passed out from the shock of the wounds the android had sustained in the explosion, though they had self-repaired almost immediately. Nevertheless the battle damage had activated the automatic emergency responses, which had given Anne a loophole to upload her own personality matrix into the emergency response grid, thereby taking over. It had been her that had fought against Faith, driven by Buffy's memories of how the second Slayer had hurt her. When Buffy had awakened again the emergency program had shut down and Anne had lost all control over the android.
Now she needed it back.
ACTIVATE EMERGENCY RESPONSE PROGRAM.
PLEASE WAIT ...
ERROR. EMERGENCY STATUS NEGATIVE. ALL THREAT PARAMETERS GREEN.
Yeah, right. Adam One wasn't exactly in danger right now. She had to find a way around it.
ACTIVATE INTERNAL DIAGNOSTIC PROGRAM. SUBJECT: PRIMARY PERSONALITY MATRIX INTEGRITY.
PLEASE WAIT ...
DIAGNOSTIC COMPLETE. INTEGRITY OF PRIMARY PERSONALITY MATRIX COMPROMISED. DANGER OF MATRIX BREAKDOWN. INTERNAL REPAIR ROUTINES INSUFFICIENT. OUTSIDE ASSISTANCE REQUIRED.
ACTIVATE EMERGENCY RESPONSE PROGRAM. OBJECTIVE: ACQUISITION OF OUTSIDE ASSISTANCE TO PREVENT BREAKDOWN OF PRIMARY PERSONALITY MATRIX.
PLEASE WAIT ...
EMERGENCY RESPONSE PROGRAM ACTIVATED. SUBROUTINE INSERTED. UPLOAD SECONDARY PERSONALITY MATRIX INTO EMERGENCY CONTROL GRID. FILENAME: ANNE.
With an electronic sigh Anne assumed control of Adam One. The crimson android slowly rose to its feet, at the same time reshaping itself into a form Anne was familiar with.
Something that looked very much like Buffy Summers started walking toward Sunnydale.
TO BE CONTINUED