Stepbrother for Buffy Summers.
By James Carmody.
Disclaimer: I own neither the copyrights for Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel the Series, the comics thereof, nor Star Wars. Star Wars is the invention of George Lucas, and, while he may have sold it, or not, I don't get to make a cent for this. Buffy/Angel is the property of Joss Whedon, and again, I do not have a contract with either man. Don't sue, guys, I am not challenging your rights to your inventions- same goes for anyone they may have sold their copyrights to. I forego any financial right to remuneration for this. I also do disclaim any of the elements of the New Testament; another source.
Characters: Buffy Summers, Anakin Skywalker, their respective biological families- in the stories, and some of their friends.
Pairing(s): Anakin/Buffy (sibling bond- via adoption), Spike/Buffy/Satsu (friendship for the most part), Buffy/Willow (close friendship), Rupert Giles/Anakin/Buffy (teacher/students), Fr. Gabriel/Anakin (discussions and friendship plus mentoring), Anakin-Vader/Thrawn (co-workers and "buddies" of a sort), Palpatine/Anakin-Vader (corrupted mentor-disciple bond), numerous other ones as well, aside from Anakin/Padme the rest will be celebate, aside from those in BtVS/AtS which are not- but the "Anakin/Buffy" bond is one of stepsiblings. Also, this'll reflect the relationships in Buffy's heart, so how she sees her neighbors will be present in this- mostly celibate friendship bordering on adopted family- including her relationship with Faith Lehane as well.
Summary: Based on pictures on tth by KCH, particularly one titled "Little Brother", this is my take on how that plotline would go.
Author's Story Notes: Mostly chatroom discussions between Anakin-Vader and Buffy Summers over some of their deeds; but this also reflects on their bonds, and discussions with their friends. Within it is included how Anakin became Buffy's little stepbrother- this is a redemption story of a sort. This is also the first of a new crossover series: "I can't believe you did that!" is the main plotline of this series.
Chapter 1: "Return to College Days"
Beginning Chapter 1 Author's Notes: This takes place inbetween Seasons 10 and 11 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Angel the Series/Angel and Faith comics, so for those not familiar with the comics, it may not make that much sense; but it also takes place roughly during Darth Vader's "Fleet Command Period" where he is running down the Rebel High Command with the Death Squadron.
Vader, for better or worse, is still a family man, and always was one- this is crucial to remember if we are to understand his movements and goals; some of his colleagues share that trait with him, others in places to deal directly with that "Sith Wizard" as he might be thought of are inclined to tolerate that in his personality- and it helps him to do his work too... that's another reason why he does so.
I drew a lot on other works to get ideas for this, as is the rule not the exception to writers, I hope those who find similar ideas to their own will bear with me with mercy, as I am not plagerizing them either- none of their characters will show up, and as they say "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery", so be honored if you find a similar idea.
After her research work for class was done, but prior to classtime ending, Elizabeth Summers, better known by her nickname of "Buffy" logged onto her chatroom account in the lab computer to try to make contact with her long-lost estranged kid brother, Anakin. Buffy was now in her middle thirties- biologically speaking, but fit for that age- she looked like she was still in her younger twenties or late teens; and that was a matter of pride for the blonde woman. Pride, she knew, was one of the things she had to keep an eye on; like most natural predators, it couldn't get at her if she minded it, but if she didn't, it could easily take her over; that it had, a while ago, and her conduct was completely beyond appalling, in its level of horrible behavior!
In those days: she thought she could run the world, had taken a lover- a female lover, and hadn't treated her emotionally well- really at all... she'd also previous to that, acted like she literally owned her current boyfriend, William Pratt. In fact, she considered her previous conduct completely disgusting- in fact, she considered it a minor miracle that she hadn't been arrested, by whoever or whatever polices rogue slayers, for acts of domestic violence and abuse, not to mention slavery and things like sexual abuse/assault- it was a true miracle that she retained any of her dignity after all those horrible acts she'd done in her teens and twenties! To put it mildly, she'd not been a good girl, at all really; and she briefly wondered where it had begun with. "Am I really a demon?" Miss Summers wondered interiorly, in deep terror at the prospect as she read a message that her little brother, Anakin, had written to her.
She knew he and her had been keeping tabs on oneanother while they slept, their dreams were somehow linked, but how exactly baffled the young blonde woman; she didn't understand true metaphysics, but some chats with people like Giles, and Fr. Gabriel "while he was still alive" the blonde superwoman thought to herself, had informed her that like the beliefs her little brother had joined, she herself was a being whom a lot of the abilities thereof were derived from spiritual connections, not so much physical muscle-mass. In fact, one reason why she now valued the test she'd been forced to endure, though she hated it and rebelled against it when it happened, was that it had taught her the need for her spiritual gifts- and to not rely too much on her physical assets... that'd come in most useful in her duel with the being sometimes called "the prince of darkness", the First, Satan itself as it turned out. Little had been seen of that fallen spirit for some time, but she suspected that it was because it had reverted to using human operatives rather than directly acting in the world itself. Those she could handle, provided they were detected in time; the obstacle was that human agents can hide in plain sight easier than any monster... now what she saw in her nightly dreams scared the willies out of her!
Having a younger brother meant she had a biological and spiritual drive to protect him, but some things he had gotten himself into truly terrified her; and it wasn't that he'd made her an aunt, no, that was perfectly cool with and perfect in her eyes- it was the actions and the gang he'd ended up joining that so frightened her to no end.
So, she set to typing, trusting that he would receive it in time to save his immortal soul.
Anakin, I can't believe you did that! Killing kids; Wow! Ani, what were you THINKING?!
Promptly he responded by chatting back.
I could say the same to you, Buffy, what do you think Mom would say if she knew you slept with another woman?
Buffy was partly incensed by this, but kept her focus.
Oh, my, this is SO not about me- Anakin... come back to decency and leave that gang before horrors you know not of come for you.
She pleaded to him to abandon the killing he had begun and to return to the lifestyle he'd so wanted when they'd first met, and in her mind she reflected on how her family had him added to it.
Flashback:
Buffy at age eighteen was patrolling one of the cemeteries in Sunnydale when her mom came up to her from behind some bushes and started to walk through with her. Initially Buffy had been alarmed by her presence, it would be hard enough to finish off any baddies by herself, but to have to protect a loved one would be downright impossible, or nearly, but as they rounded a particular crypt, a young lad, couldn't be more than eleven in age, was spotted huddling and hiding...
Modern Times:
Buffy at that time couldn't imagine that this young boy whom she had rescued and her mom then adopted was capable of such savagery as he had recently shown- how he stormed that cruiser and butchered the entire crew and troop compliment, partly by telekinesis astonished her, and his level of violence was far too shocking to behold; but she couldn't look away, no matter how hard she tried... that was the worst part of the whole thing.
Infuriated, both stepsiblings, brother and sister, cut off communications till next time... Elizabeth Summers rebelled by going into the arms of her girlfriend/lover, and Anakin/Vader threw himself into his Dark Side research, into his venture into trying to end death- it'd taken away far too much for him to let it live, he'd suffered too much to let death go as an adversary, to escape his destructive grasp of war, and as for his situation, he did so detest his stepsister's antics, especially with another woman- as a family man, that was repulsive to him, strongly-so! As for her situation, she found the embrace of her girlfriend/lover to be soothing and protective, lestwise, remaining upset about this sibling squabble; they fought, massively-so, especially over lifestyle choices in a lot of ways... Vader so deeply wanted family, and as it turned out, both of the two of them desired family, they both had it in extreme, but they both had the same overall desire for family love... what they had together, even in this fight, was family-love in its very nature, even in this fight.
To Vader, as he strode through the hallways of the Executor, his superstardestroyer, on the hunt for rebel leadership- to take out the nervous-center of the Rebellion, and the old government that his master, his teacher, Palpatine, had swept-away so completely, aside from very few areas of the galaxy, this fellow was absorbed in thought; but his thoughts were dealing with the ghosts of his past... including his stepmom, Joyce Summers, visiting him in a form he'd interpret as a "force ghost". But others also paid attention to his quiet meditative prayers, for lack of a better term, and at least one, if not more, were ones he should never ever be dealing with; including an ancient adversary that had actually visited his sister from time to time, and, in rudimentary education in theology, at Church school one Sunday afternoon... he'd heard stories of an encounter between his Maker and the first evil, a being probably best thought of as "Satan". That monster had aided his master in a lot of ways- wicked ways at that! Vader was trying to figure out how Darth Paliageus had done that feat of beating death... but another of his "moms", drawing on Church School on Sundays, via adoption, was trying to send him a message about how foolish that would be. His sister knew, both of his stepsisters did, Buffy & Dawn in fact, knew that such actions would be kidnapping- he was, as they'd know, planning on kidnapping his wife from the next world!
He was too emotionally needy to listen to those rebukes, even from Qui-Gon Jinn's Force Ghost, presumably his soul from the next life, was also, along with his stepmom Joyce Summers, to all sorts of other friends of his, were persistently trying to convince him not to even try to do something so stupid as to kidnap his wife from eternity, and his kids too, but he was emotionally needy, and wasn't out to listen. As for his stepsister, Buffy, she herself was rebelling with her girlfriend, Satsu, as to them it read as "love"; in a nutshell, as the First knew/perceived, that was arguably the most practical means of leading humans astray: love; that was it's most potent weapon these days, and especially in days of prosperity overall- he was weak in very similar ways as she was too: the both of them desperately wanted family love- and that was how the ancient dragon would tempt them and corrupt them too!
Vader himself knew of sexual immorality, but while he'd run across "wicked loves" such as same-sex romances in his past, come and go; he merely despised such things as "stupid", not the people, but the orientation... he knew that romantic love is to be devoted to the foundation of family, and nothing more... romantic love, no matter how or where it comes up, is to be rooted in the creation of children. This conflict was really rooted in biology to him and family- and somewhere, in his past, comes back a memory of his past education in the Jedi temple about bad spirits... as did Yoda's warnings of the hazards of bad spirituality, overall. He'd seen some of the wicked bonds going on in weird and bad clubs, things like "red light districts" in Coruscant's undercity, and he had deliberately avoided them... but there were other Padawans who'd fooled around from time to time in such perverse relationships- but not for the Council's "Golden Boy", Anakin Skywalker; to him, avoiding them was second-nature, he was too given in love to Padme that he'd never yield to such perversity as wicked romances., till his marriage he had remained a virgin, and was really proud of that fedelity he'd kept; thus the fight: as his stepsister had begun to lay with people outside of traditional marriage!
End Chapter #1 Author's Notes:Rest assured, there's going to be far more of this family theme in this- especially the platonic bond between Elizabeth Summers & Anakin/Vader Skywalker- featuring the kind of love that leads one to try to rebuke someone they think is engaged in immorality. The feature is their sibling bond in this story, even with how completely wicked the two have become by now in this story!