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Fandom Troopers Station - Monday

The troopers still don't have snow white uniforms. The blue is after all 501st trademark. As no decision has been made, the vampire is still locked up. It took a whole lot of cajoling, but Appo managed to convince Tex it might not be a good idea to stake her while she was claiming to have a soul. He'd also managed to get Darla some clean clothes and pig's blood from Satriale's Pork Store.

((Come here to visit Darla or to get your ass kicked out by the troopers, Appo and possibly even Tex.))

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After Tactics of War, Aeryn heads with Parker to the trooper station to look for Tex.

Parker's hoping like hell that they can find a way to prove she doesn't have a soul. Because the other option is far, far too complicated.

Tex had just dropped by to check in on the prisoner and was currently talking to Appo when she noticed Aeryn and Parker enter. She tilted her head and smirked.

"Aeryn Sun. Came on another little vampire hunt?"

Aeryn hates the radio sometimes. "No hunting. Just checking in," she says.

"We'd like to make sure you have the right blonde bimbo, after all," Parker said, shrugging. "Is that a problem?"

"Let me check if I'm hearing this right. You want to go say hi to the vampire you tried to kill a week ago?" Tex asked.

"We have a vested interest in making sure she's not going to be hurting anyone else," Aeryn explains. "'Hi' might not be the best word for it."

"And we have a few ideas about checking on that alleged soul." Parker folded her arms. "If you let us see her now, we'll have a better idea of what to hit her with if you want to check that."

"Wow, did you rehearse that?" Tex sneered. "How about you start by running it past me, first?"

Parker looked bored. "If you don't want to know, fine. If you don't want us to see her, also fine. We'll wait until you execute her, souled or not. She's officially your problem, isn't she?" She shrugged. "Far be it from us to try and help. Let's go, Aeryn."

Aeryn doesn't move. "Have you talked to Darla?" she asks Tex. "Do you believe a word of what she says?"

Tex gave Parker a weird look. "Wow, who got your underwear in a twist? Didn't I just ask you to explain first?"

She tilted her head at Aeryn's question. "No, the bitch went to drama school. A lousy one at it."

Parker sighed, low on patience. "I can't do any of them now. We know of two people who can read 'auras' to a certain extent. And there's a couple spells that can 'show' spells visually. None of them are simple, and I can't do any of them today. That's part of why I want to see her, to know which would be most effective."

And hey, if Parker wants to poke at her through the bars, it doesn't really need to be said, does it?

"If you say so," Tex replied and looked Parker up and down for a moment. "Am I going to have to do a body search before sending you in?"

Parker grimaced, and rolled her eyes. "No," she grumbled. No matter how much she *wanted* to stake Darla on sight, Plan A involved not replacing her in the cage.

Aeryn pushes her coat aside a little to reveal the pulse pistol strapped to her leg. "We know better," she says.

"I'd hope so," Tex replied and gave a nod to Appo to escort them down to see Darla.

"Oh right, while we're at it." She said pleasantly. "Try anything like that vampire hunt while I run this town and you won't need a cell."

Parker just barely refrained from rolling her eyes, because while she was willing to give Tex credit for brains and toughness, the troopers? Not the fastest thinkers in any galaxy. "Heard and understood, ma'am," she said sweetly.

Darla could hear the voices out front. Even some of what they were saying. So the approach of the girls wasn't a shock, the way Angel's visit a few days before had been. "There's a charge for viewing the caged beast," she informed them when they came into sight.

"Sorry. We left the fatted calf for the 'return to humanity' at the door." Parker's eyes were glittering as she studied Darla from just outside of arm's reach of the bars. She reached out, and pinged one with a long nail. "Although maybe we should have made it flowers for the diva, instead. You enjoying your stage piece?"

Darla's mouth twisted. "Not a return to humanity. No, that would be too easy, wouldn't it?" Darla crossed to the bars of the cage. "You were the one who did this to Angel, weren't you? Did you do this to me? What did you do to me?"

Parker studied her. Tex thought she was a bad actress; Parker thought she was actually a pretty good actress. But an actress, all the same. Still, might as well play along for a while.

"I didn't do anything. I haven't a drop of magic in my body." She shrugged elaborately. "And as for Angelus, well. Someone did it. Who knows who. Wasn't me, though." She smiled. "Hurts like a severed limb, I'll bet. Although I'm sure that would bother you less."

Aeryn knows Parker and Darla have spoken before, so she hangs back a little, watching. She believes Tex, but that doesn't mean she's not looking for some clue of her own.

Darla steps back a bit. "Yes. It hurts. But you don't care. You don't give a damn. Your friend Jarod is a better person than you'll ever be. He didn't trust me, but he still was willing to try."

Parker went bone-white, but kept the smile. "You are so right," she cooed. "He's a prince. Or king of the idiots." The smile turned into a glare. "Spare me the attempt at a guilt trip. Or appealing to my feelings of pity or sense of shame. I have neither." She studied Darla a moment. "Although, I love the implication that you deserve *any* consideration after the crap you've pulled."

C'mon, Darla. Keep talking. Just a little more, you cunning, bleached-blonde monster....

Aeryn dealt a lot with Angel in the days after his souling, so she has to look at Darla and ask, "What exactly do you think you deserve for what you've done?"

"How the hell should I know?" Darla said, her voice a bit strained. "Half of me is a monster and half of me is...," she shakes her head. "Just a person. No better than any other. I believe the official term was, 'No better than she had to be'. So I suppose, the balance is negative. Kill me dead and sow my ashes in the wind. If my life and my soul are a mathematical equation, that is."

Aeryn just nods. She refused to kill Angel when he asked, saying words a lot like this. Except of course, she believed him.

Parker stared at Darla, trying to to pin down why she's not buying this. The words are almost right, the tone is good, but.... Angel had this overwhelming need to apologize to everyone, to thank them for giving him the soul, to separate himself from what he'd been. The horror of what he'd been had pulled him down into a shadow of himself. Soul or no soul, the person inside that cell didn't give a real damn about her past victims. She was trying to save herself. Back-handedly, by pointing out the 'humane' thing to do, and the 'right' thing to do, and making sure they weren't ever regarded as the same thing.

"Oh, you're good," Parker said, admiringly. "This is almost as good as directly ignoring me during Parent's Weekend. Credit where it's due, babe. You know your lines. You're giving a damn good reading. I'm just not feeling it, though." She grinned, and slowly applauded. "Still. Almost good enough for Broadway."

Darla stared at her coldly. "What. Do. You. Want?"

"You in a nice bright patch of sunlight would be wonderful," Aeryn says. "Other than that, though, I've gotten what I came for."

"That's the easy answer, isn't it? If I'd just go away. Doesn't make you work a bit. Just dispose of everyone that you wish wasn't around. I hope no one decides that you're not worth living anymore. Actually, I changed my mind. I hope you do, and are completely helpless to convince them."

"That new soul is really working out for you, isn't it?" says Aeryn, almost amused by that. "Is that the best you can do?"

"She's never going to get the Oscar like this. She drops out of character the second you question her motivation." Parker tsk'd. "Ah, well. Some souls are socieopaths, alive or not. And some guys are suckers, even without fangs." She yawned. "I'm ready to go if you are, Sun. Maybe we can catch a matinee in town. This wasn't worth the price of admission."

"I'm ready," says Aeryn, nodding towards the exit. She knows what she needs to, and that's all she came here for. Though really, that sunlight would be great.

Darla glares at her, then turns and goes to sit on her cot, head up and back straight.

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Fandom Troopers Station - Monday

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