Warning: I do not own the rights to the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer, its spin-off series Angel, its dark horse comics continuation series, or any of the characters created by Joss Whedon and others in the Buffyverse.
15 years +, Mild to Strong Violence, Sexual References and Suicidal Themes that may be triggering.
F/F, F/M, M/M, Other +

Eons ago long before slayers roamed the earth monsters reigned supreme with nobody there to stand against them until one day three men known as the shadow men managed to lure and trap the shadow demon to use it in a spell that would merge the demon's heart, spirit and soul with a young girl known as Sineya, making her the first slayer.
She alone stood against the vampires, demons and the forces of darkness although unlike those who came after her, here newfound super strength came at the price of her humanity, changing her forever until one day she died and another slayer was born.
Into each generation over the years a new slayer would be called until eventually the all-consuming destiny called on Buffy Summers who changed things for the better with the help of her bewitching best friend Willow Rosenberg a new era was born, one in which all potentials would be slayers.
No slayer had ever merged as fully with the shadow demon as the first slayer until one vampire led a man down a path into the past toe become a monster travelling back to the primordium age where the shadow men merged the shadow demon with Tristan Summers.
Unlike the first slayer Tristan managed to hold on to his humanity largely due the shadow men having perfected their spell, however when the first male slayer met an untimely demise only to rise again as a vampire the shadow demon inside of him had awakened from his slumber.
Which takes us to now as the vessel known as Tristan Summers found himself battling against the literal demons inside of him, one wanting to consume him completely,

"Look I'm not saying I ever expected parenting to be easy because why should it when nothing is, but I at least expected it to be easier than slaying." Buffy complained to Angel as the two of them walked through a New York cemetery late night.
"To be fair Buffy you have been a slayer for a long time now that comes easier to you than most things." Angel replied as they continued their former lover's walk. "And searching for your son who is being haunted, potentially possessed sounds like typical slayer stuff to me."
"Trust me there is nothing typical about a slayer having children least of all a child who is almost the same age as them thanks to some time jumping nonsense courtesy of Willow." Buffy replied, venting her frustration over her current situation. "It's just Faith…she was the rogue slayer, the sleeps with your boyfriend slayer, the I murder people slayer and yet she is a million times better with him than me. They have a freaking bar together!"
"They get on better because he doesn't have to live in her shadow, she gets him and there's no complicated biological ties, but she is not taking your place as his mother nor would Faith want to." Angel explained to the slayer, eager to reassure her.
"I know," Buffy admitted with a reluctant sigh. "It is just so hard trying to get through to him you know, and I just want…to be honest I do not know what I want."
"You want him to be safe, happy and most of all happy with being with you, but things are never that simple especially when portals take your children." Angel stated, having experienced that situation more than once. "You just got to take it all from them and hope one day they do not hate you, that's parenting I guess."
"Your right which is incredibly annoying when I just want to be mad." Buffy complained to him. "And what is with Spike suddenly hanging around New York ready to pounce on any problem Faith or Tristan may have?"
"Now that I agree with." Angel replied, happy to know he was not the only one unimpressed by Spike's presence. "I swear Spike is Drusilla's ultimate revenge against me for slaughtering her family when I had no soul and clearly, she's won that one."
"I think Drusilla's revenge for taking Spike and you off her as she sees it, was twisting up our child so much he's basically more hers than ours!" Buffy admitted out loud, before realizing how harsh those words may have sounded.
"Do not say that," Angel demanded as the two stopped walking and he looked at the slayer with anger on his face. "Sure, he is a little messed up but who would not be after everything he has been through…he is not Drusilla's kid Buffy he is ours!"
"I know I'm sorry I did not mean that." Buffy apologised. "Okay well maybe a little but it is just so hard being a mother to a child who last time you saw them tried to kill you."
"Welcome to the club Buffy," Angel told her. "Tristan's come a long way since then."
"Without anyone informing me about it." Buffy butted in. "It sure would have been nice to hear about his improvement or heck even a damn note through the letter box saying hey your son's not a full-blown psychopath anymore!"
"It would've been nice to have known he existed before you and Willow threw him into a portal to the past." Angel snapped back at her. "If you do not like how your son turned out maybe you should stop blaming it all on Drusilla and take some ownership to your actions."
Buffy believed splitting up with Angel while searching for their son would be easier than teaming up with Spike or Faith, but she quickly began regretting her decision after they exchanged heated words. She could not blame Angel for his resentment about Tristan, knowing she was in the wrong for keeping the truth from him and it would be a long time before those wounds would be fully healed.
With Tristan missing, falling out with Angel and getting jealous over Faith this trip to New York for Buffy was so far nowhere near as bad as she had built it up being in her mind but then again for her the trouble would truly begin when she saw her son again.

Tristan Summers was no stranger to darkness having hunted slayers for years before coming face to face with former rogue slayer Faith Lehane but this new darkness he felt inside him was a stronger force than any he had known before. He could feel what was left of his sanity rapidly slipping away and this terrified him more than anything had ever done before as he feared completely losing control.
"You and I both know the only reason you are fighting me is because fighting is all you have ever known." The voice inside his mind told him as he walked down an alleyway with New York. "You are tired of all this; you have been tired a long time just hand over control and this will all end."
"You are not real!" Tristan screamed out loud, frantically pleading for the voices to stop.
"You know I am real you have felt me wriggling around inside for a long time now and you finally got a taste of what I can do there is no going back now." His inner voice argued with him. "This is your chance to shut it all off, to be free from the constant drag of humanity and to never have to feel anything again."
"What are you?" Tristan wondered, fearing the answer but needing to know at the same time.
"I am genderless, I am older than this world or the one before it." The inner voice revealed to Tristan. "I've been sleeping a sleepless slumber longer to be what I once was, and you were born to be my vessel."
"No, I was not born for you or anybody else to dictate what I am meant for!" Tristan argued with his inner demon. "Get out of my mind!"
"There is no way out we are one and soon I will be you." The shadow demon said from within Tristan's body. "There is no fighting this Tristan!"
The shadow demon was far from wrong all Tristan did was fight and it was that reason he wanted now more than ever to give into the demon, let him orchestrate his life and free him for the burden of having to feel.
A year ago he would have done just that, given in without a moment's thought but that was before he witnessed his own friend's death, knowing she died because of his past mistakes made him sure now more than ever before that he had to do the right thing whatever that might be.

"I remember you." Tristan proclaimed as he walked back into the bar, he shared with Faith to find Illyria stood there waiting for his return. "Are you real?"
"It seems you have undergone many changes since we last met." Illyria stated as she began slowly walking towards the demonic slayer. "You're masked in the body of a bloodsucker, but I see much more than mere mortals can."
"The shadow demon," Tristan replied to her, realizing she was the only one in the world old enough to have potentially come across the demon inside of him. "He's…"
"Inside of you yes, he's inside of all slayers but more so you than any other." Illyria revealed as she stopped walking and stood right next to Tristan. "He is old not as old as me but not far, you must be his vessel to this time, I am wearing mine."
"Will I…" Tristan began to say, before getting cut off by the goddess.
"Die most certainly, Fred had more hold over her vessel than you do now, and she barely held on…" Illyria shared with him, not noticing the terror in his eyes, nor caring. "You have to die but you already know that don't you?"
"Yes, only this time it's a permanent death." Tristan admitted, "I cannot let me or something inside of me cause anymore evil."
"Angel had said you had changed but I…" Illyria began to say but before she could finish her sentence her hair began to change as she transitioned into Fred, a not so surprising shock for Tristan, knowing the goddess shared a body with the scientist.
"You must be Fred I have only met the god version." Tristan greeted her, wondering why Fred had fought through at this current time.
"Illyria wants you dead and she tends to get what she wants you should leave before she gets her way right now!" Fred warned him, making it clear she did not want to hurt Angel's son.
"I cannot…I am just too tired." Tristan replied to her, exhausted by his ordeal. "This thing has latched itself onto me and it is not letting go…I know that now."
"No, you do not understand, Illyria is not the kind of person for talking well she is not really a person at all." Fred continued to warn him, fearing he was not getting the extent of how dangerous her goddess counterpart really was.
"This thing inside of me is a greater evil than anything I've felt before and I've seen my fair share of evil." Tristan explained to Fred, eager to make her understand his decision. "I need to die and if it is not by Illyria's hands then I'll have to do it myself."
"No, do not say that! I mean sure there is a demon inside you well two if you count the vampirism but that does not mean there's hope." Fred stated, attempting to reassure the demonic slayer. "When Illyria took me I did not think I'd ever have any control over my body and I'm still shocked to this day that we're sharing the one body but yet I have so there is hope for you!"
"Yeah that is cute and everything Fred, but this shadow thing wants to do something awful I can feel it and I cannot be responsible for anymore damage." Tristan argued with her before Fred began transitioning back into Illyria.
"Your father is a tolerable blood sucker for that I will make this quick." Illyria promised him as she quickly grabbed a hold of his neck with both hands, applying more and more of her godlike strength onto the demonic slayer's neck. "It will be over soon!"
Tristan had given up in that moment ready to meet his demise at the hands of Illyria, better her than himself or worse, somebody who cared about him, not that there was many of them left. The shadow demon had to be gone before it took over him and after all the bad that Tristan had done, he was ready to make the ultimate sacrifice to make right some of his many wrongs.

"You are going to want to take your hands off my son because goddess or not I will kick your ass and before you get all goddess like on me just remember you are not my first god!" Buffy warned Illyria after walking into Rogue's with Angel by her side to find the blue haired goddess choking the life out of Tristan.
"You do not understand slayer!" Illyria replied while keeping her hands around Tristan's neck, ready to snap his head off his shoulders at any given moment.
"Let him go!" Angel shouted, only for Illyria to reluctantly let go off Tristan before once again transitioning back into Fred.
"I did try warning him, but Illyria is tricky at the best of times." Fred attempted to explain to Buffy and Angel, as Buffy rushed over to Tristan eager to check on her son.
"What the hell did you do that for?" Tristan snapped at Buffy and Angel as he rose to his feet. "She was helping me…helping everyone."
"How exactly does killing you help anyone?" Buffy asked him, confused by her son's revelation.
"Because the shadow demon is gaining control over him and it wants to destroy the very thing created by it being captured." Fred explained to them, making it clear she knew what Tristan did about his recent ordeal.
"The shadow demon was captured by the shadow men to make slayers." Buffy stated as she looked at her son with a look of shock in her eyes, realizing what Fred meant. "The shadow demon wants to kill all slayers."
"Yeah and if he hit me up over a year ago, I would've jumped straight on that bandwagon but call me crazy I have already killed one too many slayers." Tristan admitted to Buffy, showing her how much her son had changed.
"I thought you were being haunted? Instead your possessed…" Angel asked his son before going on to say. "It is okay we will find a way round this there is always a way around this."
"How did you keep your humanity after becoming a slayer? The first never did, why is it only taking over now?" Buffy wondered, struggling to come to terms with revelations.
"I never had much humanity to begin with the demon probably thought it was a waste of time, in fact if Drusilla's right the shadow demon's soul is the reason I'm not a soulless vampire right now which says something." Tristan answered his mother. "Which does not give me much belief I'd even stand a chance against this thing."
"The fact that you are willing to sacrifice yourself to stop this is proof you can beat it." Angel told his son, eager to reassure him and talk him out of his suicidal mission.
"Theoretically speaking I may have something of a solution, but it requires one powerful witch and potentially triggering all kinds of evil." Fred admitted to them all.
"We will do it!" Buffy chimed in, eagerly accepting on her son's behalf.
"Look guys it would be much easier if I…" Tristan began to say, before being interrupted by his father.
"We will do it!" Angel interrupted his son, backing Buffy on her decision to do everything to save their child.
Tristan was touched by the level of love he felt from his biological parents as he realized for the first time just how much they truly loved him which only served to make him feel worse for his past actions towards them as well as the danger he was putting everyone in by just continuing to be there.
He argued with them for the first time like a son would argue with his parents but once his parents informed Faith and Spike and convinced Illyria to return to their side of the argument Tristan Summers had found himself truly outranked and outpowered against two vampires, two slayers and a goddess who were determined to save him from the shadow demon even if he was not willing to be saved.