San Diego, California

This face. This body. It was wrong. All of it was wrong. It wasn't me in the hospital mirror. Strawberry blonde waves replaced chocolate brown curls. Light green eyes replaced hazel. Stubborn belly fat I'd never managed to get rid of despite many trips to the gym was now lightly toned muscle with a small hole that would be for a belly ring. My once height of 5'7 became 5 even. 34 years was reduced to 17. Shit. He turned me into a tiny white girl.

The memories of this body were still there. They bombarded me at every turn for days. Things people would forget as they grew up, I didn't, or at least I was forced to remember this body's version though thankfully none of her infancy. Her mother had been Lucy Widows and step-father John Widows. They were married when Annabeth, this body's name, was 10. It was with their deaths that she learned she, or rather Anna 1.0, had been adopted as a newborn after her birth mother had passed.

Lucy and John had updated their will. As their sole beneficiary and as stipulated in their will I was emancipated, while an uncle tried to have it overruled I'd made my reasoning clear before a judge in the family court room. Let's just say no one was impressed to know that he had only visited me once when in my coma and it was to identify me before leaving. There was also the fact that the last time 'I' had seen him, my mother had shouted so loud that the police were called and they'd come to find him shaking her as Anna 1.0 had fearfully watched while hidden at the steps.

At least she had been told where she would be. Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Or rather A Slayer now considering the fact there was two of us and as I planned to maintain the timeline at least somewhat would eventually be three or four, depending on if Kendra could be saved. Either way, whether Buffy knew it or not she was going to have someone who understood what this calling meant and just as if not more importantly so would Faith. I knew Faith faced a lot living with her mom and, if what he had shown me before I woke up here, her mother's string of boyfriends. The woman had lost any right to be called a mother as far as I was concerned the moment she let one of them lay a hand on her. Fortunately it hasn't gotten past hits or her verbal filth just yet, but I knew if I allowed it to play out like before it would and that wasn't something I could live with.

I'd been a lawyer before I was brought here and a damn good one at that so I knew what I, or rather we, would need to make it happen. It was also a good thing that he'd managed to make it so that while I was in a 'coma' I got to meet my soulmate before meeting the Slayers that came before and be trained by them. Like hell I was going to just do what he wanted for nothing in return. The next couple of years would be filled with advantages too and I was going to make use of every single one. My place in Sunnydale was already purchased and being renovated to my exact specifications. It really is amazing how quickly things could be accomplished when you used a demon contractor and offered protection in return. I'd only be gone from town a week or so to bring Faith along if everything went to plan and the house would be done by then. Thinking of my new 'sister' who would basically be my child considering my mental age reminds me, I have a flight to catch.

~~*~~

Months Earlier, December 2007

New York, Shortly after Annabeth falls into a coma Buffy is called

I could feel it, something had changed. I didn't know what though, my time living in the sewers and feeding off rats and whatever other animal found its way down here didn't exactly allow for me to know what was happening above ground. Days passed and the feeling refused to leave when a half demon came in search for me. He called himself Whistler and I felt the demon stirring inside, saying he was telling me half-truths. He spoke of helping a new Slayer that was called, Buffy Summers. He said I would find my redemption at her side. I watched as he spoke, picking up the subtle hints that told me the demon inside was right. He showed me visions of this Buffy and then he sprinkled some sort of pink dust at the caged rat near me, that had my demon roaring inside me.

The demon spoke to me of the halfling trying to trick us. The dust was some sort of mixture of a love and lust spell laced into the powder so that the moment I fed on the caged rat I captured earlier I would be drawn to the girl, believing her to be my mate. It brought up long forgotten memories of Drusilla using something so similar during his time as part of the Scourge. But there was a difference, a confliction in the vision of the Slayer. A layer hidden beneath it and when I realized that it was as though I could see both the false vision and the truth. 'Buffy' may be a vampire slayer but she was not his slayer. No, his was the beauty that had been hidden. His demon purred in contentment at the vision of her, bringing forth the memories he'd never rid himself of after centuries of trying.

She had died, temporarily, which was what caused Buffy to be called. But that wasn't what captured his attention. What captured his attention was that this Annabeth was identical to the woman he once planned to marry. The woman he bedded night after night for weeks, so much so he was sure he'd filled her with his child, regardless of the risk they would face at the time. They had hoped she would fall with child and as such have to marry. The reason he'd breathed and yet also the reason he could not face another day sober once gone. He tried to forget her disappearance by replacing her with any willing hole to dip his member, only for the emptiness in his heart to grow further. But here she was alive, his sweet Beth, after so many centuries and despite his sins she had kept her word, she'd returned to him. He only hoped she could forgive his unfaithfulness to her memory and the sins of his demon.

The moment Whistler disappeared he left the sewers to ensure he would be ready to meet her. He had no plan of having them meet when he had nothing to his name. A name, I need an identity one to make sure she knows it is me. But it has to be a mix of who I was, have been, and am now. "Beidh mé leat go luath, mo ghrá."

Beidh mé bleat go luath, mo ghrá = I'll be with you soon, my love