Chapter 2

My Name Is...

She couldn't remember the last time she had woken up gradually. For decades the world of wakefulness didn't return in segments but all at once. It wasn't like coming out of a tunnel into the light, it was more akin to having a flash-bang going off in a dark room. One moment you were surrounded by the comfort of sleep, the next the world was loud, violent, and hateful.

This time she awoke slowly in bits and pieces. She knew instantly she was in a medical ward. A hospital or one of the Slayer House's med centers from what she could tell. The tell-tale beeping of the heart monitor was a dead giveaway. Then the scent of disinfectant slowly wafted over her. It was mild, not entirely unpleasant, but certainly different than how a home smelled. Her eyes flickered open to find the lights of her room off, only the faint light coming from under the door to the room she was in giving any notion she wasn't in complete darkness.

Pushing herself up into a seated position, she looked around for some hint of where she was. It wasn't one of the Slayer Houses. They used identical layouts across the globe and she could navigate one blindfolded. The design of the room was wrong, with the door that should lead to the private bathroom being on the wrong wall. There was also no TV mounted across from the bed. Injured Slayers were grumpy Slayers, so they had sprung for some form of entertainment for the rare Slayer that was bed-bound for longer than a few hours. It didn't happen often, Slayers recovering as fast as they did from non-fatal injuries. When it did a Slayer without something to distract her was the absolute worst kind of patient. She remembered the Head of Medical describing her exactly as such after...

After what?

She blinked as she tried to find what it was she was trying to remember. She could remember being in bed, injured badly. The doctor had said it would be at least 3 days before she could be up and about. It had taken 8 hours and she had become such a nightmare for the doctor and her nurse to deal with, that a TV had been brought in. They had even gotten a new game system hooked up for her courtesy of...

Of who?

She tried to focus on the person that had brought the game system in. He was important to her, she knew that. A brother in arms, a sibling in all but blood, someone who despite their many arguments and disagreements would stand by one another no matter what. She knew that so deep into her bones that it ached. Yet, she couldn't remember his name or his face.

There were others as well. A sister that wasn't. One that was but didn't exist. No, that wasn't right. She existed but hadn't? Another that was concealed by darkness but fought so hard to free herself from it. The sense of these people was so strong. They were family bound tighter than blood itself could. They had faced evil, true evil not the mockery of evil that kids grew up with on Saturday mornings, and grown to trust one another. To love one another. She knew they were all fallible. They had failed her and she, them time and again. Let one another down when things seemed their darkest. Yet they had always found their way back to one another even when they had been separated by so much. Distance, anger, hate, despair, none of it mattered in the end to any of them. They would stand together.

Behind them, in her mind's eye, she could see more shapes. Men, women, and so many, many girls. The girls she knew were the, no, her Slayers. Her sisters in a mystical family that had stretched back to the dawn of man. So many of them were gone now, dead at the claws and fangs of their enemy. Many more were still alive, though she wasn't sure how she knew that. The others were more allies, comrades, friends, people she could count on when the chips were down and the apocalypse was brewing. People she had met over her decades of life.

All of this, the general brushes and strokes of her life and those in it, came to her so quickly. But names, places, faces, specific events were gone. She knew what amnesia was but she had never heard of it behaving like this. The closest she could think of would be Dissociative Amnesia, but even that tended to blank only the event that caused it as well as personal information. And she knew her name. She was...

What was her name?

She blinked several times once again. She couldn't remember her name. No, that wasn't true, she could remember it, or part of it. Names were supposed to have two parts, right? Or was it three parts? She could only remember one part, though.

"Summer," She said softly to herself.

That was the moment that a nurse decided to step into her room and turn on the light. If she hadn't been so caught up in her non-memories and trying to figure out what it meant for her, she would have heard the woman coming. There was no way someone could normally sneak up on her wearing heels and walking on a tile floor, after all.

"You're awake," the woman said, finally catching her attention. She looked up from the woman's feet to her face. She quickly revised her assumption that she was a nurse and changed it to Dominatrix School Teacher. The woman wasn't unattractive, her blonde hair in a professional up-do. Her green eyes were wide and slightly surprised behind her thin oval glasses. Her outfit consisted of a white shirt under a black vest, black slacks, the aforementioned heels, and a purple cape. Hanging loosely from her belt was a black riding crop.

The woman's face quickly recovered from the surprise of finding her awake and dropped into a more neutral guise. There was a sense of quiet concern still, though, as the blonde moved to check on the various machines monitoring her condition. She chose to stay quiet, watching the Dominatrix School Teacher as she went through her various checks.

When finished, she found the woman staring at her once again. The woman's lips pursed as if she had tasted something sour, before letting out a sigh. "What you did was dangerous, reckless, and all together foolhardy," she said softly, "and it saved some of my students. So while I would be more than pleased to send you home with a pat on your back, someone would like to speak with you, if you are up to it."

She thought about it for a moment before giving a slight nod and answering, "Ok."

The Dominatrix School Teacher gave her a brief but radiant smile before turning to the door. "I'll send him in, then."

As the woman left, she searched for the controller for the bed. It didn't take long to find and she moved the bed up into a sitting position so she could lean against it, unsure of what would await her next.

She didn't have to wait very long. A man with gray hair and dressed in a black suit with green highlights entered the room. He wore glasses and used a can, but she didn't let that fool her for a second. This man was powerful. She could feel it from him. Magic. It ran through his veins in a way she had only come across once before. Her friend, her sister that wasn't, was like this man. She was sure her friend could take him, but she also knew how dangerous and powerful a magic-user could be. Her Scythe was nowhere to be seen and that left her with only herself for defense if he decided to be hostile. She was surprisingly okay with that, remembering what another friend had taught her.

She was the weapon.

The gray-haired man pulled up a stool next to her bed and sat. He set a plate of cookies and a glass of milk on the tray next to her bed and slid it forward so they would be within easy reach of her. She eyed the sugary treats warily, unwilling to take food offered to her by one so clearly powerful. No way, no how, her mother didn't raise a fool. Nor did her Watcher train one.

"A young woman found unconscious in a destroyed village. No apparent injuries to explain her condition. Then, just when a group of Huntsman and Huntresses are about to be overrun, she comes awake and charges into battle with a red axe and saves her would-be rescuers." He said softly, turning a device not unlike a smartphone towards her. She could see herself rushing the bear-like monsters she had seen approaching the group of demon hunters she had found when she awoke. The group had already been tied up fighting some form of demon scorpion and she decided that valor was the better part of caution and ran straight into the fight. She had been doing so for decades now, so it wasn't new.

"More interesting," the gray-haired man said as he continued, "is that this young woman, estimated age of 14 if our doctors are correct, does not exist. There are no records of her in any of the four kingdoms. Nothing uploaded from any of the outlying villages. No reports of a runaway. She simply popped into existence in that village where she was found with a most unusual weapon."

Leaning forward, he set the cell phone thing down so she could continue to watch her battle with the demon bears. She saw a few parts where she could have ended the fight quicker, but all in all, she was satisfied with her performance.

Then it hit her. 14. She wasn't 14. She was...

She was...

She couldn't remember how old she was. She could remember she had been the Slayer for over three decades, though. That would kind of preclude being 14. Then she watched the video closer as it repeated itself. The blonde wielding the Slayer Scythe, it was her. She knew that. But it was a much, much younger her. It was her from when she was first called. No. It was her from BEFORE she was called. Just a teenager starting to blossom into womanhood.

She looked back up to the gray-haired man and thought. He was showing her this video for a reason. Why she wasn't sure. If she were under arrest, they were doing a poor job of it. She wasn't even handcuffed to her bed, not that handcuffs would hold her for long if she choose to flee. He could be counting on his magic protecting him, and maybe it could. Then again, why take the risk of putting yourself so close to an unknown you know is combat trained. The video was evidence enough that he knew it would be stupid to let himself get close to her if he intended to be hostile to her.

Then something the Dominatrix School Teacher said came back. Her students, that was how she described the demon hunters she had seen. They had seemed young at the time she had first seen them, but then again she had been young when she was called. Far too many of her Slayers were young. She had long since become used to the idea of teenagers fighting in the world of the supernatural. Yet there was only one place to learn to do so in a formal way and they only took Slayers.

"I guess you want to ask me a few questions," she finally managed to get out, looking up to meet his eyes.

Smiling, the gray-haired man nodded. "Yes, let's start with your name and where you learned to fight like that," he said gently.

She needed, taking in a breath and closing her eyes. After a six-count, she blew the breath out slowly before letting her eyes open back up. She couldn't remember her full name but she knew part of it. It would have to do for now. "You can call me Summer, and I can fight like that because I am The Slayer."

Ozpin slipped out of the girl's room, quietly closing the door behind him. He had left her with a scroll so she could begin to familiarize herself with the new world she had found herself in. The way she was behaving towards the end of his interview with her, he knew she would be up and out of Medical's way soon. He'd be willing to bet it would be in the next 12 hours.

"Are you sure that was the best thing," Glynda asked? Waiting for him in the hallway, her arms crossed in front of her she continued on, "Her story is quite unbelievable."

Ozpin gave her a smile and nodded as he began to move through the halls of Beacon's Medical Ward towards the elevator down. "Quite unbelievable. One might almost say it sounded like a fairy tale," he said to his second in command. "Not one of ours, of course, but no less or more unbelievable than all the ones we tell."

That seemed to set Glynda more on edge, Ozpin quickly realized. After all, the fairy tales of Remnant were fairy tales for a reason. He had long ago sought to hide the truth of the world in the shadows where only the most astute and patient would discover what was really going on. If everyone knew, there would be panic the likes of which he had not seen in ages. Panic brought the creatures of Grimm. The death toll would be beyond belief. He had seen it happen before, back when the things that moved in the shadows of the Grimm were not hidden and were out in the open. If this girl's fairy tale was even partly true, then it was horrendous beyond measure.

Children sent to war for centuries. No support. No real training. Used as living weapons to be thrown aside when their edge dulled. It offended him in a way he didn't know he could be offended.

Yet it wasn't all that different from what they now faced, he sadly admitted. At least he would insure his children would have their youth and would be trained. He did his best to make sure they had support as well.

"She is a warrior, Glynda, that we know. She has a good and noble heart as well. She could have struck down the members of Team CFVY or run away, instead her first action upon waking was to rush headlong into danger not knowing what she was even facing," he said to her. "No, there are no doubts in my mind, this is the correct course of action. She is alone, she only remembers parts of her life, and she could never stand by and watch while people die to the creatures of Grimm. If we do not train her, she'll take it upon herself to train herself. And we know the odds of her surviving that."

"Mmmph," Glynda huffed with a side-eye at her Headmaster. "And the fact she could sense your magic had no part in this decision?" She asked.

Ozpin's smile only brightened, "She said she knows someone from her home that is like me, brimming with magic. She even thought her friend could kill me if it came to it."

"I know. What I don't know is why you seem to take such joy in having your life threatened," Glynda said with some heat in her voice.

Ozpin laughed as they came to the elevators. Pushing the down button he turned to Glynda and leaned on his cane with both hands. "It wasn't a threat, my dear. It was a statement of fact. She wanted me to know that I didn't and wouldn't, intimidate her. It was frankly a bit of fresh air."

"Mmph," Glynda said again, her shoulders sagging. "Very well, we have an open spot we would have needed to fill anyways after I discovered that Arc boy's transcripts were entirely faked. It would have left an opening in one of the first-year teams."

Ozpin nodded, "For the best then. I'll make some calls to get Ms. Summer's identification made up that can withstand scrutiny and get her information inserted into Vale's CCT. Once she is out of medical, see if you can get Team Coffee to give you a hand in her initial evaluation. We'll need to get her skills and abilities on file for her paperwork and go from there. Velvet and Fox should be able to help her get used to her new status as well."

Glynda nodded, already typing information into her scroll and sending messages out. "I'll see that it gets done, Headmaster."

Ozpin smiled and nodded as they stepped into the elevator. He reached out with his cane and pushed the button for the ground floor. "It's going to be an interesting year, I can already tell."

Summer sat on the edge of her bed staring at the full-length mirror that Ozpin had shown her. She wasn't sure why a full-length mirror was in a hospital room, Ozpin having only said that some of their students had need of them to check themselves after injury. If they used it for the same reason as she herself was right now, it made sense.

If the sense-making made not only no sense but negative sense.

Green eyes wide in shock stared back at her. No, not at her but at them. Them being the tufts of fur poking up through her blonde hair and the tail swishing back and forth behind her.

Gently she reached up and touched one of the tufts of fur. When it flicked forward then back into its upright position Buffy let out a meep of surprise. With a quick snap of her fingers in front of it, she realized that the cat ears were not at all simply decorative but were functional as she winced from the sudden noise right in one of her new ears.

Her eyes shifted away from the cat ears to the tail swishing behind her. It was covered in the same blonde fur that was a near-perfect match for her hair like the new ears on her head. It also seemed to have a mind of its own, swishing back and forth. Reaching back for it, she took it in hand gently, scared to squeeze it too tightly. Touching it and realizing she not only felt the tail in her hand but her hand on the tail solidified that it was not in fact some stage prop that Ozpin had stuck on her while she was asleep.

Letting go, Summer blinked a few times and sighed. The rest of her was as she remembered, the multiple bite marks on the right side of her neck where it joined with her shoulder included. She was, as far as she could tell, perfectly healthy. That didn't stop her from wondering aloud.

"When the hell did I become a catgirl?"

Replies to Reviews:

Camagassi73: There is actually an excellent post on Reddit that puts together the various feats that Buffy performed during the series and comics both as a Slayer and during her brief stints as a baseline human. Anything done while she was amped up by Twilight is excluded. Her strength doesn't actually come near what Spidey can pull off (he is able to lift multiple tons) but I would put her as above Blade in the majority of his iterations. As for the Demonic Essence, no. Aura is a representation of your soul. Being mystically empowered is different, as we see with Crow, Raven, and Cinder. Magic may be tied to the soul but it is not the soul itself. So unlocking her Aura would not further empower the demonic essence. It would, just as when she underwent the enjoining spell, further stack on top of the mystic boosts, though, pushing her even further. That demonic essence may have some interesting reactions with the Grimm, though. As for the scythe, yes, it is going to have its own bag of tricks that will be both a boon and a burden for Buffy to deal with. All of which will be based on the above-mentioned feat list as it includes things that have been done with the Scythe.

Cyan-Snake: Yeah, people working for Ozpin will report oddities to him right quick. They may not know everything he is up to, but you can be certain they know the sorts of things that Professor Ozpin would like to know about. Finding a prodigy able to fight at or near the levels of their new students without the benefit of aura? Someone who is able to use enhanced strength, speed, agility as their baseline? That is interesting and also unheard of. It also sounds exactly like the sort of person they would want to recruit into Beacon if given half a chance.