A/N: I want to thank my beta reader for helping with the Sunnydale portion of this chapter and say that any mistakes made are my own and will be fixed if brought to my attention
As Tony sat down with Giles, the teens left the Summers' home to go get ready for the patrols they'd taken over since Buffy left, and an upset Joyce had gone to busy herself by cleaning the kitchen. Steve called the other Avengers to let them know that they were going to be at Joyce's house for a little while longer.
Tony stared sternly at Giles and started his interrogation. "So what's a Slayer?" He asked in a calm and even tone, watching for how Giles' body language might change.
"As Thor stated earlier, they are powerful warrior women. More specifically they are young women chosen by fate and gifted with enhanced physical prowess and psychic gifts to battle vampires, demons, and the forces of darkness." Giles said as he took his glasses off and began cleaning them, the exhaustion from worrying about Buffy showing through.
"Ignoring that vampires and demons are real for a minute, you said fate chose her. Do you mean something incorporeal or someone like Thor?" Stark asked with a small tic of true curiosity in his voice.
"W-well until today I wasn't aware a Slayer had ever met anyone like Thor before. What we are told is that-" Giles jumped slightly when Steve cut him off.
"Who told you?" The bearded super soldier asked with a seriousness to his voice.
"The Watchers Council. They teach every Watcher in training the known history of all of the past Slayers." The Englishman explained. "Watchers are responsible for guiding and training the Slayer to hone and master her abilities so that she is prepared for whatever threat comes her way."
"And what does this council do to support these girls and their families?" Tony asked with a bit of an edge to his voice.
Thor rolled his eyes and let out a disdainful scoff. "They don't." He said shortly.
"The Slayer is chosen at random, so a majority of potential Slayers are taken from their families at a young age by a Watcher, trained all their lives to be prepared for when she might be Called." Giles explained.
"They see the Slayer as nothing but a tool. Luckily some Slayers refuse that ideology." The blond God of Thunder said with a small smile on his face when he thought about Dagny, the Slayer who fought with him and Loki. That woman was a force of nature and Thor and Loki had been more than happy when the All Father made her a Valkyrie after her death.
Ignoring his friend's smile, Stark kept his eye on Giles and the only thing keeping him from going off on the librarian was his boyfriend's hand on his shoulder. "So let me get this straight." Tony said, the anger building back in his tone. "This council of dickheads treat young girls like weapons, taking some from their families, and make them fight all kinds of monsters and don't give them any kind of support besides a glorified gym coach."
Giles gave a nod, silent confirming what the billionaire just said before going onto reveal that Buffy was one of the Slayers who broke the rules and made her own little support group,
That made Steve look at him with a cocked brow and questioned the Brit. "Her friends?" The blond super soldier asked, only to receive another nod from Giles. "Are you kidding? They're just kids."
Giles was quick to ease the captain's worries. "I assure you Captain Rogers, they are very resourceful for their age, Willow and Oz are incredibly intelligent, as is Buffy. Her friends have helped her many times and are in part why she is one of the most successful Slayers on record. She has stopped the end of the world three times since she was Called." Giles revealed with a subtle grin and fatherly pride in his tone.
Tony knew that tone, he would use it all the time when Buffy was growing up and he and Joyce had been communicating properly when it came to their daughter; deciding that can wait, Stark didn't say anything but lead the super soldier out to the front porch.
"What's wrong?" Steve asked with a worried frown on his bearded face.
Tony looked at his boyfriend with a clear look of panic in his eyes. "Did you hear him? My daughter stopped the apocalypse three times? She's 17 and hasn't even graduated high school yet. We need to help her, we need to help her friends and Joyce. Oh god. I've barely talked to my daughter in two years and I just found out that she's some legendary mystical warrior. How am I supposed to help her? How am I supposed to be there for her? I knew how to help Peter and be there for him because he deals with petty criminals, Buffy fights for the fate of the world."
Quickly picking up on Stark's breathing becoming shorter and shorter along with the rapidly increasing pounding of his heart and trembling in the inventor's hands, Steve knew right away that his boyfriend was on the verge of having a panic attack.
Gently placing his warm hands on the sides of his boyfriend's face, Steve spoke in a calm and steady voice as they made eye contact. "Tony, Ton, I need you to focus on the sound of my voice, can you do that for me?" He asked and received a confirmation nod from the brunette billionaire.
After Tony took hold of the taller male's hands again, Steve talked him through his focusing technique of counting backwards from fifty and taking three deep breaths after every fifth number. Tony's breathing and heartbeat returned to normal after he reached the halfway point in his counting. "Thanks babe." He spoke with a quiet tone in his voice.
"Better?" The blond soldier asked his boyfriend, a gentle smile crept onto his face as he looked into the brunette inventor's eyes.
"Better." Tony nodded with a matching smile before leaning forward and placing a sweet kiss on his lips, a kiss that was happily returned.
With Steve and Tony out on the porch, and Joyce was still busying herself with chores, Thor approached Giles with a curious eye. "Watcher, I would like to add to the captain's question." Thor started as he took a seat across from Giles. "Are the witch and wolf trained in their abilities?"
"They are not." The British librarian answered regretfully. "Willow and Oz have only recently come into their respective gifts and things have been rather chaotic as of late so I haven't been able to look into getting them teachers."
"I suggest you get to it soon, this town is filled with dark energy and the Slayer and her friends will need to know how to protect themselves." The mighty blond said with a note of seriousness in his tone. "I believe the other Avengers and myself will think of a plan to aid the Slayer and her friends after she is found."
Giles looked at Thor with hope in his eyes and he found himself asking the Asgardian if he knew of anyways to find Buffy, hoping that a deity would have more luck than he and the others have had in the past month.
Thor was quiet for a moment as he thought about the question before answering. "I do not, but I know a few people who may." He said with a bright grin on his face.
Later that night on the streets of L.A. a somber Buffy slowly made her way to Helen's kitchen; keeping her head down and eyes low, the grieving blonde made sure to avoid the traffic couldn't even be bothered to wonder why someone was following her.
"Anne?" Lily called out a bit sheepishly, but received no response. "Anne?" She tried again, a little louder but there was still no response from Buffy, who just continued walking. Frowning, the taller blonde tried one more time but with a different name. "Buffy?"
Startled by hearing someone say her first name, the Slayer stopped right there in her tracks and Lily caught up to her.
"Don't be mad. I won't turn you in or nothin'. I guess you don't recognize me." Lily said with a shy shrug.
Buffy knew exactly where she knew the other girl from, but she didn't want to give herself away anymore than she already had. "Lily?"
"I mean from before. I was calling myself Chantarelle back then. I used to…" Lily sighed softly before continuing to speak. "Well, I was in this cult that worshiped vampires. So lame, I know."
The 17 year old Slayer nodded as she finally gave up on trying to conceal her identity from the taller blonde. "Yeah, I remember, you were one of Ford's friends." Buffy said, with a glum expression.
Lily gave a short nod. "Yeah… but you kinda saved us and I never thanked you or anything."
The green eyed Slayer looked seriously at the other girl. "Did you tell anyone who I was?" She asked with a clear worry in her voice.
The taller teen shook her head before answering. "Oh, no, not even Rickie…I mean, I was so surprised to see you here, waiting tables... but I wouldn't tell. I know how it is when you gotta get lost."
They started to walk again as they continued talking. Lily revealed that she was homeless and just going from shelter to shelter, Buffy revealed she was calling herself Anne because it was her middle name.
"Lily was from a song. Rickie picked it, but I'm always changing" Lily said with a soft shrug. "Chanterelle was part of my exotic phase."
The secret Stark nodded. "It's nice, it's a mushroom."
Hearing that made the taller teen cringe inwardly. "It is? Well that's really embarrassing."
"Well it's an exotic mushroom if that's any comfort." Buffy offered half heartedly.
Lily gave a small shrug and let out a quiet sigh. "Before that, I was following this loser preacher and calling myself Sister Sunshine." She said with a small chuckle.
"What do they call you at home?" Buffy asked only to immediately pick on that being a sore subject when Lily went quiet and looked away. "I like Lily." She offered.
"It's cool for now… hey, do you have any money?" Lily asked which caught her companion off guard and earned her a look of surprise and suspicion. "I didn't mean that like... Well, I just mean... I know this guy, he's gonna have this party in his basement. We could go. I mean, I could show you if you had... 'Cause I'm broke." She explained nervously.
The green eyed Slayer shook her head. "I-I don't think so. I just kind of... I wanna be alone." She explained, trying to let the taller girl down gently.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to bug you." Lily said with a disappointed frown.
"No! I-I didn't, I didn't mean that, it's just... well, a-a lot of people like that, it's too much." Buffy tried to explain when she realized how mean her last statement could sound. Lily crossed her arms still looking very disappointed.
Buffy looked down and started to dig through her purse. " I-I do have the money, though why don't you and Rickie go, and then maybe I could meet you some other time…" The Slayer offered.
Lily shook her head, waving off the offer. "No. It's okay, it's okay. Forget about it. Just-" She was cut off as a homeless man rudely pushed his way between them. The two girls both stare after him. "That's not very polite." Lily said with a hint of grumpiness in her voice.
The man turned around and looked blankly back at the two blondes.
"Are you okay?" Buffy asked; she didn't know why, but just looking at the homeless man had her Slayer senses telling her that something terrible and related to the supernatural happened to the man.
"I'm no one." The man mumbled before he turned back around and walked into the middle of traffic on the street.
Buffy's eyes widened with concern when the man stopped in the middle of a lane in front of an oncoming pickup truck and faced it like a deer caught in headlights. Dropping her bag, Buffy rushed into the street.
Honking on his horn, the driver of the pickup truck slammed on the brakes, but was unable to come to a complete stop in time; Buffy pushed the man out of the way in time to save him, but got knocked off her feet and thrown into the middle of the street as the truck rolled to a halt.
The driver quickly got out of his truck and ran over to Buffy who let out a quiet groan, but Lily reached her first. People from all around came rushing into the street, some of them had their phones out recording the scene.
After being helped to her feet, the Slayer took off running because she knew that if Tony was looking for her, he'd be able to find her if anyone posted anything with her in it. She wasn't even limping as she ran away from the crowd. When she was further down the street and away from the crowd. The 17 year old Slayer slowed to a brisk walking pace as she went around a corner.
There she bumped into Ken, the director of one of the local shelters for homeless youth, accidentally knocking all of his leaflets onto the sidewalk.
"Oh, sorry." Buffy said at the same time Ken said. "Whoa." Before they both knelt down to collect the fallen leaflets.
"Where are you running to?" Ken's tone was filled with a reluctant bit of annoyance.
Buffy offered another apology while ignoring that this man was setting off her Slayer senses. Wanting to avoid any and all fighting she could only hope that the man was a peaceful… whatever he was.
"Maybe I should ask, where are you running from?" The man asked after they finished gathering up his leaflets and stood back up. Ken took a good look at the young blonde as she handed him the leaflets she was holding. "You're pretty new around here, you've got the 'look', though."
The Slayer looked at the man with skepticism and confusion on her face. "The 'look'?"
Ken explained that he thought Buffy had the look of someone who had to grow up too fast before he asked what her name was. Buffy simply said her name was Anne as she pushed her way past him. Ken introduced him and handed her one of the leaflets. It read "Come home to Family Home", and had a drawing of a house and a silhouette of a man reaching out to hug a child.
"Don't be shy about stopping by. I guess you're not starving, but we're not just interested in feeding the body. You might find something you're missing." The unknown supernatural male said with a friendly smile.
Buffy flashed the man the best polite smile she could muster and return the leaflet. "Thanks, but I'm alright."
Ken gave her a look of disbelief. "Then why are you here?" Buffy looked away at his question, not knowing what to say. "This is not a good place for a kid to be. You get old fast here. The thing that drains the life out of them is despair. I mean, kids come here, and they got nothing to go home to, and... this ends up being the last stop for a lot of them."
Not knowing how to respond, Buffy politely says goodbye before continuing on her way down the street.
A/N: Hope you guys liked the chapter, feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts and any constructive criticism you may have.