Chapter Five: Alliances

One thing to remember about the Batman is that he knows the values of alliances. Even though some of his alliances have ended in disaster, and even though he is a loner by nature, he is aware that his work may be made easier if he has someone he can trust by his side. This fueled his initial working alliance with James Gordon and Harvey Dent, and played a role in the training of Dick Grayson and his successors, and even his membership in the Justice League- well, that and his (albeit grounded) paranoia. If these alliances can survive the initial weight of the Batman's brusque attitude and tendency to take charge, they will work out.

If not, well…

('I want her alive?') Buffy couldn't recall ever hearing her enemies order her taken alive. That meant that the vampires wanted her for something, and common sense told her that it was nothing good. She decided to ignore that for now and concentrate on the looming fight. Ten against one. Not good odds, even by her standards.

One of the vamps actually leapt at her. She ducked and sprang forward, letting it sail over her head. She came up and punched the second in the jaw. She whirled and caught the third in the stomach with a well-placed kick knocking it into the far wall. She pulled out Mr. Pointy and staked the leaper in the back before it could recover. (One down, nine to go.)

One vamp managed to grab her arm before something black severed his head, making him crumble into dust. She looked, and saw a man in black and grey emerge from the shadows, catching the boomerang effortlessly as the some of the vamps engaged him. He was wearing a cape, and had a cowl with two pointy ears, which meant that he had come. The Batman was in Sunnydale.

She watched him in action as she fought. (Damn, but he's good!) He was even better than she was- definitely of the good, because he was an ordinary human. She knew that he was normal because her Slayer sense didn't register his presence. (Definitely not a vampire with a soul!)

"Chair!" he suddenly called as Buffy staked another vamp. She looked and saw the prof's wooden chair. (Right!) She quickly broke a leg off and tossed it at a vamp charging him. The vamp went poof. Amazingly, he grabbed the stake in mid-air and effortlessly plunged it into another vamp's heart while he threw the boomerang- no, the batarang- again, this time taking two vampires' heads. (Six down, four to go.)

The leader started screaming "This isn't over, Bat!" She grabbed- something- and dived out the window. Her remaining minions followed her. Buffy tried to catch Batman's eye, but she was suddenly on her back as he tackled her. (Okay, time to identify myself- but he knows I'm on his side- why would he ask me to break the chair otherwise?)

"Oh, does Batsy have a new Bat-ette?"

The Joker. Looking up, she could see the clown's legs, and more legs. (So that's why he tackled me!)

"You know I hate showing up late," the Joker continued, "but in this case I'm glad I did. Be vewwy, vewwy quiet boys- we're hunting bats! Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"

Buffy heard Batman snarl, and noticed his hand go to the belt at his waist. He withdrew a small pellet. "Are you bulletproof?" he asked her quietly.

"No," Buffy told him.

"Then when I give the signal, run."

She was about to ask what he meant when he threw the pellet, and smoke came out. She felt him get off, and knew that that was the signal. She made for the window and dove out. She hissed as some of the already-broken glass scratched her, but continued on. Behind her, she could hear shots fired and the sounds of fighting.

She paused. Was she just going to stay here and let Batman risk his life? (Oh, hell no.) She looked down, and grabbed a few decent sized rocks. She crept back to the window, and took a look inside. She saw one of the Joker's men point a gun at Batman. She threw a rock, clipping him in the forehead. Another thug approached the window and saw her. She reached in and pulled him out, throwing him to the ground, hard. The force of the impact caused him to drop the gun. She kicked it away.

The man tried to get up, but she kicked him in the jaw, knocking him back down. "Down, boy," she told him. The man whimpered as he passed out- or else fainted. "Good dog." She turned back to the window, and saw a glowering face staring out at her.

"I didn't need help," Batman almost-snarled.

(What the hell? I save his life and he cops an attitude?) "I don't run on out on people!" Buffy shot back.

"You don't follow orders, either."

(Orders? Did he just imply that he gave me an order?) "Excuse me?"

"You're not bulletproof. You fight vampires and demons, and they don't use guns. You don't have any business fighting opponents that do."

(How did he know that?) She shook her head. "I'm grateful for the assist back there," she told him, "but let's get one thing straight- I don't take orders."

She could almost feel the scorn dripping from him. "Obviously."

She opened her mouth, but was cut off by the sound of sirens.

"Do you work with the police?" he asked her. She shook her head. "We need to leave. Where do I find you?"

"There's a place called the Magic Box. It's not hard to find." She gave him the directions as she silently ranted. (He gives me orders and-)

"Noted. Put him back inside." He gestured at the unconscious thug.

Buffy glanced down at the thug. (-and then makes like he's going to work with me? Who does he think he is?) She looked up. "Where the hell did he go?"

Batgirl saw Batman scowling as she approached. "What happened?" she asked.

He told her. He was angry, but his body language told her that he wasn't angry with her. "The Joker and a few others got away," he finished, "and I wasn't able to plant a tracer on him."

"So that was Buffy," Batgirl mused. Batman shot her a sharp glance, and she told him about her encounter earlier that evening.

"We go to this 'Magic Box,'" he told her after she finished. The two headed off.

"Is she good?" Batgirl asked.

"Yes," he said after a moment. "Enhanced strength, reflexes, speed- to a point- and trained. Not as good as we are, but more than effective, and her powers make her a possible threat."

"Is she good?"

"Too soon to tell, but based on what I've seen- yes."

He didn't make that concession often. Perhaps it was the fact that Buffy tried to help him even after he told her to leave. Not many people didn't do what Batman told them to do. Whatever it was, something in this Buffy touched something in Batman. Batgirl could see it even if Batman could not.

(Twenty-three, twenty-four, and twenty-five- yeah, all the new bags are here. Hmm. The old ones sold pretty quickly. Maybe I can raise the price.) It was inventory night at the Magic Box. The stereo was playing- a small luxury, but one Anya Christina Emmanuella Jenkins (a.k.a. Anyanka) allowed herself since she didn't have any help doing this anymore. Most of her 'friends' had elected to spend time with Xander- not that she made a point of talking to them. She didn't want to tip anybody off to the fact that she was a demon again.

(Then again, maybe not. Dammit.) She moved on from her supply of sage (a very useful all-purpose herb, as far as magic was concerned) to her supply of vanilla extract (great for sex spells). As usual, vanilla made her think of sex, and that made her think of Xander. (I don't miss him.)

"One, two," she counted aloud. (He was very creative in the sack, that's all.)

"Three, four." (And he let me spank him, and he even put on that leather bondage suit he looked so good in, and made me promise never to tell anyone about.)

"Five, six." (No. I can't think of him.)

"Seven, eight." (I have to hate him and be on the lookout for chances to make some woman wish him into uttermost oblivion.)

"Nine, ten." (That reminds me- I should lean on the girl I met in the bar. I bet if I lean on her some more I can get her to wish something nasty on that jerk that cheated on her.)

"Thirteen, fourteen." (Maybe if I- hey wait a minute… oh crap!)

Anya sighed as she recounted the bottles of vanilla extract before moving on to checking her supply of newt's eyes (only good for a low-powered divination spell, but so popular that dabblers wanted them anyway, just to say that they have some. (Great for my profit margin, though.) ). Balancing a small-but-thriving business and a full-time commitment to writing the wrongs committed against women scorned was hard. Especially considering the fact that (although she just barely admitted it to herself) she wasn't into the vengeance thing anymore, not really. She could listen to women complain, but it was hard to just keep them going until they made a wish. What she really wanted to do was to tell them to get off their asses and just do something about it. She blamed it on being human for those three years- was it really three years? Aside from an initial burst of enthusiasm after regaining her former status, her performance had suffered. While it hadn't suffered a great deal it was painfully obvious that the old Anyanka, Patron Saint of Scorned Women, was gone. According to D'Hoffryn, the new one wasn't that great.

Still, she was a vengeance demon, which meant that she was keenly attuned to feelings of vengeance. A great big seething cauldron of vengeance just snuck into her shop. Anya considered an attack, but those considerations died when she recognized the specific aura. She worked very hard at looking like she didn't notice anything. She still paid attention to the news, so she knew why the man was in town. She also knew about his love of surprising people. He wasn't there for her. He would have addressed her instead of sneaking into the back and waiting in Buffy's training salon- oh. So that's why he was here. Anya wondered how long it would take Buffy to get there, and if Xander would be with her. (Not that I still care or anything. I just need to be prepared. Yeah, that's it.)

"You ran into who?" Dawn asked Buffy. They were in the Summers living room, along with Xander, Willow, and Tara.

"I ran into Batman," Buffy sighed, "and I'm meeting him at the Magic Box."

"Why didn't you just tell him to meet you here?" Xander asked her.

"Let me tell you about Batman…" She relayed her story. "Do you think I want a guy like that in my home? Oh no!"

"You said he helped you," Willow pointed out. "He sounds like a jerk, but his heart's in the right place."

"Yeah," Buffy admitted.

"And you said he took down a few vamps. That means he's good."

"He's good," Buffy admitted. "Better than me, doesn't seem to have any powers, and isn't exactly armed for slayage, and still managed to take down four vamps. I only got three."

"You're getting old," Dawn teased.

"Very funny," Buffy said as she stuck her tongue out.

"I bet that Candy would have done better if she was there."

"Who?"

Dawn told her about her evening.

"So there's another Slayer in town?" Xander asked. "Is she hot?"

"She's very pretty," Dawn told him. "Why are all the Slayers always really pretty?"

"Don't question," Xander grinned. "Just accept."

"Anyway," Buffy said, "did you ask how long she's been operating for?"

"She said about a year, and it's almost been that long since-" Dawn didn't finish the sentence.

"Yeah," Buffy said shortly. "Will, when you told Angel, he didn't say anything about Faith did he?"

"He didn't say a word, but he was pretty busy being all torn up about you."

"When we get a chance we should ask him, just in case."

"Should we go over to the Magic Box now?" Dawn asked her.

"We?"

"Come on, Buffy! I wanna meet Batman!"

"You are staying here, young lady. No arguments!"

"Oh this is so cool!" Dawn bubbled. "I'm gonna meet Batman!"

"Why did I agree to this?" Buffy muttered.

"'Cause Dawn convinced you that she'd be safest with you because the Joker can enter places without an invite," Xander smirked.

"Shut up Xander."

"And he might know where to find you because the demons around here know who you are," Willow added.

"Will…"

"And he probably thinks that you're already working with Batman, putting you on the must kill list," Tara finished.

"Not you too," Buffy moaned.

"Oh crap," Xander said, stopping in his tracks. "Tonight's inventory night! Anya's gonna be there!"

"You can't run from her Xander," Willow told him firmly as she grabbed his arm. "You did some really shi- er, anyway, you're gonna have to face her like a man."

"I'm a big girl, Will," Dawn told her. "You can swear when I'm around."

"I'm a dead man," Xander moaned.

"Shoulda thought of that when you left her at the altar," Buffy reminded him. "And when you got on her case about Spike."

"We're here," Tara said. "Do you want me to go in first and tell Anya? So there's nothing embarrassing when Batman comes."

"No," Xander said, "Anya and I are two mature adults. We'll all go in together, she'll kick me in the nuts, I'll recover, and we'll be good to go." They entered the store.

"We're closed!" Anya called as she looked up from the counter. "Oh! Hi Buffy! Hi Dawn! Hi Willow! Hi Tara! Hi Assface!"

"Assface?" Xander asked. "Okay, maybe not so mature."

"So you need the books, supplies, what?" Anya asked, ignoring him. Her tone was unusually bright. "I think that Giles left some."

"Actually Ahn, we're meeting somebody here," Buffy told her. "You're not going to believe this."

"Oh? Who could you be meeting at this hour?"

"Does she seem a little… off to you?" Tara whispered to Willow.

"Yeah, but I think it's 'cause Xander's here."

"Are you sure? You've known her longer but I think it's more than that."

"Batman, here?" Anya's voice interrupted their whispered conversation. "When's he going to get here?"

"Yup, definitely off," Willow whispered.

"Soon, I think," Buffy said as she went to the back. "I'm pretty sure that we're going to be going out after we're done, so I'll arm myself now." She opened the door to her training room, and went straight to the weapons cabinet. She retrieved a crossbow and some quarrels, and a dagger. Those, plus her stake, should handle what is going to come at her.

"Do you think you have enough equipment?"

Buffy gasped and turned. He was there already. "You were here? But- how did you-?"

(Oh, this is gonna be so much fun!) she thought, before noticing the figure standing opposite him. It was female, a little taller than her, and dressed entirely in black from head to foot. She wore a black cowl and full face mask.

"This is Batgirl," Batman told her.

Buffy extended a hand. Batgirl shook it. She had a good grip. A sudden thought struck her. "We should probably wait, because another girl like me and her Watcher are supposed to swing by, unless…"

"Yes, Miss Summers. Your sister encountered Batgirl."

"Why am I not surprised?" Buffy asked herself. "I need to get the others. Hey, can everybody come in here?" she called. She missed the look that Batman sent her.

"Oh my God," Xander breathed as he came in.

"If we can get down to business," Batman said.

"Okay," Buffy said. "I'm Buffy Summers, this is my sister Dawn, and my friends Willow Rosenberg, Xander Harris, Tara Maclay, and Anya Jenkins, and you two are Batman and Batgirl. Just to get this out of the way, my friends are my support. They fight beside me: Willow and Tara are two very powerful witches, Anya's an ex-demon, and Xander's clocked a lot of field hours over the last six years. We're all here to talk Jokers and vampires. Oh, and Dawn- the girl you met tonight was really Batgirl in disguise."

"A normal person did all that?" Dawn breathed in wonder.

"She's obviously not too normal," Xander pointed out.

"Have you encountered the Joker before tonight?" Batman asked Buffy, cutting the dialogue short. Buffy recounted the details of her first encounter with the Joker.

"You inhaled some and survived?" Batman sounded surprised. "That puts you in a very small group of people, Miss Summers."

"It was only a little bit. Bullets aren't much compared to that stuff, are they?"

"Do you know what the Joker's after?"

"Nope. You?"

"Not yet."

"Well, there's this place I know. It's a bar. The guy that runs it is a total sleeze, but he knows more about this town than anybody should."

"You mean Willy."

"You know him?"

"I found his bar shortly after we got here. He doesn't know anything about the Joker, but there were vampires in his bar that did."

"You knew about the vampires? How come you only came to the college with that batarang?"

"I killed three vampires with that batarang."

"But you needed me to break that chair for something to use in close combat."

"I wouldn't have gotten close if you weren't there."

"Since you seem to know so much, you should know that I've been doing just fine for the past six years."

"So you knew about Buffy?" Xander asked. Batman looked at him. Xander swallowed. (Damn, that's scary- hey wait a second. I've gone up against practically every creepy thing known to man, so why am I scared of one of the good guys?) Taking a moment to collect himself, he pressed on. "I mean, we've been doing this for six years and this is the first time any superheroes ever came here. Y'know, there have been a lot of times when we could have used some help!"

"Uh, Xand," Willow said carefully, "Hellmouth, remember? The only people that know anything that goes on here besides us are supernatural secret societies and shadowy government types, since the Hellmouth seems to resist being probed, or attracting attention." She stopped, clearly thinking of something. "Oh- you probably don't know what a Hellmouth is! It's a confluence of mystical forces that wear down the normal barriers between dimensions, making Sunnydale a magnet for the freaky."

Batman had worked with people like Willow Rosenberg before. Whether they were interested in sorcery or science, they were eerily reminiscent of Edith Bunker: they talked and talked and confused the most pressing issue. "Interesting, but irrelevant at this point." He turned to Xander. "To answer your question, the greater community was unaware of Sunnydale's problems until I was on my way here."

"But they are now?" Buffy asked.

"They will be. The only reason they know is because I wanted to know why the Joker came here. Judging from the numbers, you've done good work here."

"Thanks."

Batgirl stared at Batman. Buffy Summers must have impressed him more than he had let on. He seldom complemented outsiders, let alone virtual strangers. Then again, he had changed since she first met him- becoming more open, and more openly appreciative of others.

"I have encountered the vampire's leader before," Batman continued. "Her name is Dala, and she used to work for a vampire that called himself the Monk."

"Dala? The Monk?" Buffy turned to her friends, who were already heading to the books. "Names ring a bell, Ahn?"

"I've heard them before," Anya replied, "but I've heard of a lot of vampires before. Maybe Spike would know."

"Yeah, because just Spike just knows everything," Xander said, voice dripping with sarcasm.

"I'll call Giles," Tara said, before anything could happen. "Maybe he's heard of them."

Buffy turned to Batman and answered the unspoken question. "Giles is my Watcher. He's the man that trained me."

"Does he have powers similar to yours?"

"No, he's ordinary." Buffy looked at him. "Well, not 'ordinary' ordinary, but- oh hell- You don't know what a Slayer is, do you?"

"No."

"Then I'll tell you. This might sound a little weird, though."

"I've dealt with lunatics, aliens, demons, and self-styled gods, Miss Summers. I'm used to what most people call weird."

As Buffy explained Slayer-hood to Batman and Batgirl, the others pored over the books on vampires.

"What do you think?" Anya whispered to Tara.

"He's hard," Tara whispered back, "but he's not as scary as people make him out to be. Then again, he might not be trying to be."

"Batgirl looks like something out of a porn movie," Xander whispered to Willow.

"Xand!"

"Well it's true. That hood screams 'bondage-chick.'"

"I wish she'd talk. It's a little creepy, the way she just stands there not saying anything."

"She's kinda hot, though."

"Xand!"

"Like you weren't thinking it."

"Pervert."

"Other pervert."

"He's kinda hot," Anya said to Tara.

"I wouldn't know."

"Oh come on."

"I'm a lesbian, remember?"

"Yeah, but how can you not notice?"

"Again, lesbian."

"Oh. Well consider yourself informed."

After Buffy was finished explaining what she was, Batman had Batgirl tell Buffy about the Joker while he stepped off to the side, and surreptitiously activated his cowl's transmitter. "Oracle," he said softly, "I need you to run a background check on the following people…"

"Six vampires destroyed in one night!" Dala ranted. "Do you know how hard it's going to be to replace them?"

"On a Hellmouth?" Rack asked calmly.

"Some of the weaker have already gone to ground. I have some of my followers keeping the rest in line."

"It will be close," Rack conceded, "but if the numbers you quoted earlier are accurate you still have enough Sunnydale-born followers to call on."

"Just barely."

"An inch is as good as a mile." As the two approached the warehouse, Rack put a hand in his pocket and withdrew a dull black ring. "All the requisite spells have been cast. All I need is the sacrifice."

"Then you shall have it. You are certain that treating it now will still be effective?"

"If I wasn't, I wouldn't have said it," he told her. "Treating it with the blood at this stage makes the spell a little more difficult, but it is still nothing I can't handle."

They entered the warehouse. "Well, hello partner!" The Joker smirked as he approached them. "Who's tall dark and veiny, here?"

"Joker, this is Rack. Rack is the sorcerer I promised you."

The Joker's eyes sparked with interest. "Well, it's pleasure to meet you, Racky," the Joker drawled. "Somebody get him a drink! You're not a vampire are you?"

"Ah, no." Rack looked the Joker up and down. "You've sold your soul."

"Ooh, you are good! So, you do the whole 'back from the dead' thing, don't you?"

"Yes."

"If we can get on with it?" Dala said impatiently.

"Temper, temper," the Joker pouted.

"I'm on a schedule," she said shortly. She led Rack to the middle of the warehouse where nine vampires were on their knees, tied up, and arranged in a circle. A steel bowl was in the centre of the circle. Nine other vampires were standing guard. At a nod from Dala, each of the guards withdrew a dagger and slit each kneeling vampire's throat. The prisoners hissed, but being dead already, didn't die. The blood spurted on to the ground, but each guard caught some of the blood in a vial. They approached the bowl, and poured the contents of their vials in unison before withdrawing.

Rack entered the circle and sat cross-legged before the bowl. He put the ring into the bowl and started chanting in a strange language.

"What's going on?" The Joker whispered to Dala.

"Watch," Dala told him.

"I don't- oh."

A wind began to stir the sorcerer's hair, and his eyes turned solid black. He raised his hands as the intensity of his chant grew. Black lightning sparked from his fingers. He placed the dull black ring in both of his hands and dropped in into the bowl. He began to scream the words of the chant in a hoarse voice as a pillar of pure light emerged from the bowl. As the vampires instinctively shielded themselves, swirls of darkness appeared in the light. At first, they were brief, but as Rack went on they became larger and more enduring. The pillar of light slowly turned into a pillar of unholy energy. Nine tendrils of energy shot out from the pillar, striking each bound vampire. The vampires barely had time to scream before exploding into clouds of blood, which the tendrils absorbed. The Joker noticed that the tendrils also sucked up the already spilled blood. The pillar of energy turned red briefly, and then became even darker than before, winking out shortly after. Rack lowered the volume of his voice until the chant became a whisper and then stopped. He reached his hand into the bowl and pulled the ring out. He held it in his outstretched hand as he emerged.

The Joker's eyebrows rose. The glimpse he got of the ring before was of a dull black circle, but now it was brilliant black, catching the repellent light and reflecting it away. Rack handed it to Dala.

"As promised, the spell has been broken, and the Ring of Undeath is whole," Rack announced, sounding tired but triumphant.

"Kent Nelson has nothing on you, Rack," Dala told him, sounding exultant- and hungry.

"Of course not," Rack sniffed. "You still have to wait until the lunar eclipse."

"I know," she said impatiently. "You have the Chalice, and the Ring has been restored. Is there anything else you need?"

"Just the Sword of Veils."

"Where is it?"

Rack gave her a nasty smile. "It took me some time to track it down, but I finally did. It has recently come into the possession of an antiques dealer in Gotham City."

"Gotham City?"

"Yes."

"As in, I just came from there, Gotham City."

"Yes."

"And you could not have told me sooner?"

"It took me some time to divine its location. I had no idea we would be becoming partners so I did not devote myself to the search as fully as I could." Translation: 'I paid my debt by retrieving the Chalice and holding it for you, so I had no reason to make your life easy.' Dala seethed.

The Joker smirked. He hadn't become bored with Dala- yet. He had just received confirmation that the sorcerer she promised him was the real thing, but she had been acting awfully high-and-mighty since coming to Sunnydale. He enjoyed seeing her be knocked down a peg. "Well we needed to go back to Gotham anyway," he said, putting his arm around Rack and leading him away. "Now let's talk about decaying bodies, hmm?"

Dala ignored them, focusing only on the ring in her hand. This new development made speed of the essence, but it could still be done on time. She would kill Rack as well as the Joker when all this was over, but her plan could still be brought to fruition relatively quickly. (Barely. Damn them!) Soon. (You will be back with me soon, my sire, and will we have our revenge and the prophecy will be thwarted as well. Soon…)