Chapter 13: Father and Son Talk - Buffy

A/N: Sorry – not really – but there's some poking of fun at Angel here.

Challenge: partially to answer a forum request/challenge by DeepBlueJoy for a story with a 'person of color' as a main character – who doesn't die immediately.

Warning: It's mostly just a restating of Buffy's life, but from a different POV, so not all facts we know about will be mentioned.

Thanks to my betas: zigpal, AshDawnSoulmates and AerynSpeedleCaine.

Disclaimer: BtVS and AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon / Mutant Enemy. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.

Robin's apartment

Next morning…

Barely taking the time to greet his dad, Robin blurted out, "Hi, Bernie, I think Buffy might be a rogue Slayer."

"Nice to see you, too, son," Bernie replied with a bemused grin. "My flight was fine, except for the woman sitting next to me that thought I wanted to know all about her oozing bunions," he added sardonically.

Robin looked properly chastised, but hastened to defend himself, "I'm sorry, but I've been up most of the night thinking this over and over again. I finally came to the conclusion that she might be a risk."

Bernie nodded in understanding, then inquired, "I can't say from the papers my friend faxed me that I agree, but what seems to be the issue? The records I have stopped last spring."

The Watcher was startled by the sudden hatred in the boy's eyes. Yes, despite Robin's age, he was still a 'boy' to Bernie; would be even 40 years from now. Whatever he learned was a very sore topic…probably something to do with his mother.

His guess was proven correct when Robin replied venomously, "She allowed my mother's killer to work by her side!"

What Robin wasn't expecting was the confusion on Bernie's face, or his next comments, "I didn't know Angel killed your mother. That doesn't make sense, though. According to Rupert's diaries, Angel had given up killing people after he got his soul back – and the other diaries seem to back up that assertion. He disappeared sometime just before the turn of the 20th century."

"Angel?" Robin interrupted, not wanting the history lesson of another vampire. "No, the vampire's name was Spike."

Bernie did that understanding head nod again, "Ahh, yes, William the Bloody. He was sired by Drusilla, who was sired by Angelus – or as he is known these days, 'Angel, the vampire with a soul'. Sounds rather dramatic, doesn't it? Seems like he should be walking around with a layer of fog constantly at his feet and theme music following him everywhere he goes. He helped Buffy for a couple years before going to Los Angeles. Supposedly, he's trying to be a male, vampiric version of a Slayer."

"How many vampires does she work with?" Robin cried out in frustration. It was one thing to understand that not all demons were evil, but these were vampires! Who ever heard of a good vampire – outside of the fictional character of Blade, or cute cartoonish vampires?

Gesturing that they should sit down, Bernie started his explanation, only hitting the bare highlights for now, "Buffy has quite a history with the Order of Aurelius. Beginning with Heinrich Joseph Nest, aka 'The Master' who was prophesied to kill a Slayer – Buffy, in fact – to escape a mystical prison here in Sunnydale. A friend of hers, Xander Harris, gave her CPR because Nest didn't drain her, just weakened her enough so that dropping her in a pool of water would drown her. She got up and killed him back.

"Next came his favored offspring, Darla. She was the one who sired Angelus. She attempted to 'win' Angel back to the Order by attacking Buffy's mother and letting him take the fall for it. When that didn't work, she tried to shoot Buffy, probably hoping that if the Slayer were dead, Angel would have no reason not to be evil. She apparently forgot about the decades where Buffy didn't exist and Angel wasn't behaving like Angelus. That ended with Angel staking her to save Buffy's life.

"Then, of course, I've already told you about Drusilla and Spike's connection to Angel. After Spike betrayed Drusilla during an apocalypse brought on by Angelus – who had been released from the curse which gave him a soul – Drusilla chased Spike away. He came back to Sunnydale a couple times to get revenge, but never managed.

"On his last attempt, a couple years ago by Rupert's records, he was captured by a secret organization called…"

Robin interrupted for the first time, "The Initiative, yeah, Buffy's friend, Willow, told me about it. Put a chip in him so he couldn't hurt humans."

Normally, Bernie would punish Robin for interrupting a lecture; however, it did mean he wouldn't have to go into details about that part of the story. Still, the boy was taught to wait until the end to ask questions or debate topics when it came to slaying-related information. A simple raise of the eyebrow conveyed the message to Robin, who looked down apologetically.

"If I may continue?" Bernie quipped rhetorically, "So I can skip that year and move to the point where Spike developed a different kind of fixation on Buffy. He decided he was in love with her and became obsessed with proving that they belonged together. It did have some good side effects, though. He fought demons, protected her family, and was even going to let himself be killed to keep from revealing a secret that could end the world. Rupert almost sounded proud of him for that last one. That's the last of the diaries my friend could get to me. The more current ones are being analyzed by a committee for some reason," he finished, leaning back on the couch now that he was done.

Grunting in frustration, Robin muttered, "So she hasn't gone rogue." He almost felt disappointed by that. Now he would have to deal with a grey area concerning the monster who took his mother from him. That was never part of his fantasies when he imagined getting revenge for her death.

Before he could sink too far into his thoughts, Bernie surprised him again with a bland statement, "No, that would be the other Slayer, Faith."

A/N: Before you get all angry about me saying Faith is rogue after she turned herself in, remember this is from the standpoint of the Council. A Slayer who isn't slaying demons is not doing her sacred duty, which means she's rogue by their definition. Next chapter will probably a continuation of 'The Soap Opera of Sunnydale' – the extremely edited version.