The Metropolis Story...

The Metropolis Story... Part V

"The Metropolis Story..."

Archived at the Buffy Rebecca verse, . You might want to take a gander at the Cicelyverse page to get a handle on the Cicely Addams material... .

Disclaimer: All BTVS characters remain the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and all other owner/creators of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series...

Summary: Poet/Champion turned reporter/Champion (the vampire thing was involuntary) for the second least respectable news organization in Metropolis, William Soames Walthrop is assigned the job of uncovering the mysterious silence of a famed, deceased silent film star of the great film inspired by the greatest city on Earth. Both the other reporter/Champion and other reporter/seedy investigator of things mysterious in town hate his guts.

Part V...

Theme from "The Night Stalker..."

A dark street, with a single flickering streetlamp...An abandoned car, rusting slowly away by the curb corner...An antique cast-iron fence, rising to seven feet, blocking access to the city's oldest cemetery, final haven for both the long-forgotten elites and the never-known. Light rain with mist obscuring some of the less appealing aspects of the scene, both in the few human derelicts and the debris scattered about...

A lean, intense man, in battered but jaunty hat, worn, badly wrinkled, white suit, striding along. Eyes alert, ears keen...No need to see the grubby "press" card showing out of his breast pocket. This is a born reporter...

But no scandal involving some crooked pol and his mistress in a sordid rendezvous or a sinister meeting of underworld types...Human, that is...Has brought him out here, against his better judgment, but in full alignment with his journalistic instinct. The story here is not of this sad, dirty, dangerous world. But the even sadder, more dangerous, and often much filthier, next...

Yes, in contrast to every fiber of his practical nature he seeks proof of what cannot be...Of things others would insist are best left filed "Unknown" and even better, unspoken...

He stiffens at the sudden growl coming from behind the iron fence, further down the street. Close to the entrance to the old cemetery...

Some...Thing...Is there...

Waiting...

Sensing...

The Thing he's been seeking, he's little doubt. Pulling out a cross from his suit pocket...

"Karl? That, you?" a voice calls. "Could ya give me a little help here?"

"Liam?" the reporter peers to see the tall figure in black now emerging from the cemetery shadows. Carefully leading another figure, smaller...Slighter...

Female...And the source of the growling...In that she continues still...

"Is that?" Kolchak eyed the figure firmly held in Angel's grip, struggling rather feebly. Clearly fearful of her captor and the new-comer...

"Yeah..." Angel sighed. "But fully human now, don't..."

His words belied as the female broke free with a howl and lunged at Kolchak, pausing at the sight of the cross...

Staring, curious...As Angel quickly stepped to protect the reporter, without blocking her view of the sacred artifact.

"See Dru?" Angel said gently. "It can't hurt you now. I wasn't lying to you."

"So..." Kolchak sighed to his "ace" and, sole, reporter, William, as they sat in his new office, door securely shut, despite the late hour and near-empty building. "Angel offered me the story, to print with false names of course, in exchange for helping 'Margaret' to a new life here. Since I owed him several times over from my previous LA escapades...And it was the story of a lifetime...Several, in fact...I agreed. Tony, on hearing my pal, the CEO of the new O'Connor-Wolfram-Hart, wanted to secretly pay the salary for his 'cousin' to break into the business, was only too happy to take on the free help with no questions. Angel's psychiatrists completed their therapy, with a little of that hocus-pokus magical manipulation thrown in. Though she was eager to be free of the past...And 'Margaret Waverly' was born..."