Joyce Summers sat gagged and bound to a chair in the basement of a dilapidated boarding house, waiting for her daughter to save her. Buffy was a vampire slayer, she told herself, Buffy would rescue her, she would always come to rescue her.
But no matter how much faith Joyce had in her daughter, no matter how much she tried to reassure herself, the words of the insane vampire insinuated themselves in her thoughts; I'll have your daughter. I won't kill her; I'll just make her like me. Different. She'll go to sleep, and when she wakes up, your face will be the first thing she eats.
Buffy would win. She always won.
Buffy slid down a chute and was in the basement with Joyce.
"Buffy," she mumbled through the gag, "Buffy, we have to get out..." Buffy was pulling at the ropes holding her mother to the chair, but couldn't untie them. Before Joyce could realize that Buffy wasn't at her full strength, Kralik had grabbed her daughter, who struggled to no avail, and was sinking his teeth into her neck.
His arms held Buffy steady; his mouth ripped her open and drank her like a wild dog. Buffy's mouth had opened in an unarticulated scream, her body going limp as she lost the strength to struggle. Her eyes started to roll up into her head and Kralik jerked her, getting out that last bit of blood. He drew away, his demonic smile stained with fresh blood. He tore at his own wrist with his teeth, then fed it to the weak, limp Buffy.
Joyce watched it all in terror, giving a guttural scream as she watched the murder of her own child and the siring of a demon. It was enough to catch Kralik's attention, and he smiled. "Don't worry, mother, she'll go to sleep for a while, then she'll be ready for you." He dropped Buffy unceremoniously in a heap on the floor. She looked like a discarded rag doll, messy blond hair sticky with the blood on her face. "I promised you she'd eat your face, and a madman always keeps his promises." Kralik slowly walked out, muttering as he did, "Not that I'm a man or anything."
A couple of hours later, Joyce had spent her tears over Buffy, strapped helplessly to the chair, with only the dirty walls and the corpse of her child to look at. At the stirrings of the body, Joyce's grief was supplanted by numb horror. That thing with Buffy's face was going to...
"Mommy?" came her voice softly, like a small child coming out of a deep sleep. Slowly, Buffy raised herself by her elbows and looked at Joyce. The puzzled frown on Buffy's face slowly spread into a vicious smile. She got to her feet and began walking, her blue jean overalls seeming strangely young on the creature.
"Now, Mother," Buffy began, a happy glint in her eyes, "before I suck all the blood out of your body, I'd like to take this last moment to tell you how much, I love, and appreciate you," she said in all mock sincerity. Stopping in front of Joyce, Buffy knelt and faced her.
"You were incredibly blind and dense about who I was for two years, your simpering ignorance keeping you safe, helping you sleep easy while I saved the world and died...the first time," she smiled at this like it was a wonderful joke. "Then when your poor safe world was shattering around you, you kick me out and tell me to never come back." Buffy tapped at her heart and nodded as if they were joyous memories. "I should have stayed gone you know, Mom, then I wouldn't have had to spend one more minute with..." her voice trailed off as she looked at Joyce's defiant eyes. "Oh. I see, Mommy." Buffy pouted. "You're thinking, 'You're not the real Buffy, you're a naughty, bad vampire, Buffy would never hurt me.'" She ripped the ropes and pulled Joyce up to her. "Sorry Mommy, the world isn't the way you want it." In one quick motion, Buffy snapped Joyce's neck and let her fall. "Now where can a girl get something decent to eat?"
"You're awake," Kralik said, coming up behind Buffy. "Finally. Now I won't be alone again."
Buffy snorted. As if. Her sire kept talking, yak yak yak...like she would spend one minute with that freak show. There was only one thing she could do...
Pulling out a stake from her overall pocket, Buffy turned around and threw it, hitting Kralik straight through the heart, who exploded in a cloud of dust.
"Finally!" she exclaimed. She bent to pick up the stake, and then went up stairs, where she found an unconscious Giles being guarded by another vamp. She quickly staked him. "You are so not worth my time." She turned to Giles, who lay on the floor. "And you, mister-constantly-knocked-out, I'm going to thank you specially for letting this happen to me." She knelt down and planted on kiss on his forehead. "But not tonight."