It's the warmth of her skin, and the feeling of her touching me that does it. For the most part, this has been a bit of a fever dream, or felt like like one at least.
But it was Buffy's touch that did it. Hit home for me, she wasn't just some character. She's a real person.
I landed in this body, while Yarden was making his great escape. Terrified out of his wits. Caleb absolutely horrified him. In the show, he was a terrible person, completely evil. A literal serial killer, with all the good looks and charm about him that rumours said many of them were. It was one thing to see that kind of person played as a character through a screen. It was an entirely different matter to be kidnapped by an evil serial killer priest, that was completely misogynistic and hated women.
The only reason Yarden was able to undergo months learning from the beast in human skin, while the First Evil itself donned the form of his mother and insisted he call it 'mother', was because of the Turok-Han.
It was not an intelligent beast. It didn't suddenly make him braver, or smarter, or give him a plan to dupe them. In the simplest terms, beyond the power and strength the Turok-Han gave him, it also gave him the ancient, primordial instincts that fueled it. It was a hunter, and predator that thrived in an age when it was lower on the totem pole than humans were nowadays compared to demons in comparison.
And using those instincts, Yarden was able to suppress the fear and revulsion he felt, hide his trembling and bide his time. The Turok-Han was a mindless killing machine, and going by the First Evil's words and praise, the strongest and oldest of its kind. Together, it and Yarden, made something greater, an intelligent killing machine.
Intelligence alone was not enough. Instinct alone was not enough. Together though, a semblance of a plan formed. Caleb was the vessel of the First Evil, all his insane power and strength came from that fact. But, it was not a permanent thing, and his power grew weaker over time. While at his strongest, Yarden with all the Turok-Han's might was a match, he was still nearly invulnerable. So Yarden waited until Caleb's power waned, and learned all he could in the meantime. And only when Caleb's strength was at its lowest, just before the First Evil was due to imbue him with its essence more, did he strike. And even at his weakest, and taken by surprise, it was not enough to kill Caleb.
But it was enough for him to escape.
A hand squeezing my arm brought out of my thoughts and I looked to see Buffy staring back at me, a frown on her face, "What's wrong with you?" she asked, "You've got this, really intense scary look on your face."
"Ah, nothing much, just thinking about the evil bastard that kidnapped me and forced these powers on me," I answered, "That, and how much effort I'm gonna have to put in soon and how many things I've gotta take care of."
Buffy nodded, "Been there before," she agreed, "But speaking of, what thing did it to you in the first place? If it's still around, it obviously means you didn't manage to kill it yourself."
"Can't say," I replied, and she narrowed her eyes at me, "Literally, if you even speak its title, it'll know and can appear, and since I'm hiding from it, I don't wanna do that. Besides this things minion, if you never met me, you'd originally fight him five years from now, and he'd kick you, your friend Xander, another Slayer, Spike and a bunch of others asses at the same time."
"Huh.." Buffy uttered, raising her eyebrows in surprise, "...Spike?" she asked a second later, sounding perplexed.
"Yeah, he falls in love with you, and decides to get his soul back so you'll accept him." I looked away as she gapes at me.
A moment later, she burst out into laughter, "Hahahahah!" outright hysterical laughter left the petite blonde, and she continued for quite a bit, to the point where she let go of my arm and had to lean on the wall of a building for support. Nearly a minute went by while I let her laugh it out, before she calmed down, "..Ah...ha...that was a good one. Spike in love with me and getting his soul back for me."
I avoided her gaze. And it didn't take her long to realise why, "...You cannot be serious, you aren't joking?" Buffy asked, "..What kind of messed up place is the future?"
I sighed and turned back to her, "You think being a slayer sucked so far?" I asked, and she gave me a deer in the headlights look ,"Trust me, what you've been through so far, is complete small time compared to what's coming for you."
If Evil itself wasn't bad enough, there's a goddamn Hell Goddess living in Sunnydale. I know she has a human host that makes her vulnerable, but for the life of me, I can't remember who. Pretty odd for me to forget that, it's pretty important detail.
Her hand latched onto my arm and gripped me tightly, eyes narrowing, and the small tiny blonde girl looked me in the eye, "Spill," she demanded, "How can things be any more messed up than sending the love of my life to hell."
"How does getting bent over a railing in the Bronze in Sunnydale and sodomized by Spike sound to you?" I gave her a deadpan stare.
Her face scrunched up in utter disgust, "Ew! What?!" she shouted, "What the hell! You've gotta be lying, why would I ever do that? That's disgusting!"
"You're telling me, I actually saw it," I replied, "As for why? Your little redhead friend Willow gets strong with magic and addicted to it, all self righteous and thinks she can do anything, the same way she gave your boyfriend his soul back a few months ago."
"B-but!" Buffy sputtered, taking a step beck, "W-hat does that have to do..with me doing..THAT with Spike!?"
I don't really know the best way to answer this, so I guess just ripping it off like a band-aid? "You died, just over two years from now," I said quickly, and the girl was stunned silent, "You went to heaven after you died, but Willow decided she could bring you back, and she did, dragging you out of heaven. From what I saw, you felt completely cut off from the world, the point where you started beating the crap out of Spike and fucking him just to feel a bit alive."
At that, she just stared at me, completely out of it. This time, I had to drag her along.
She let Yarden lead her along the paths of Los Angeles, his grip on her wrist directed her behind him as he walked.
She was thinking to much, to really pay attention to anything else.
Buffy wasn't really sure, how to process what she was told. Oh, she always knew she would die young. She accepted that after her fight with The Master. She might have been blonde, but she wasn't naive or dumb enough not to realise the fine lin she walked between life and death.
It was easier, with Angel around. As much as she loved her friends, they couldn't provide the back up a Master Vampire could. That was one of the many things she loved about him, when he was around, she felt safer, she didn't need to always be the strong one.
Even now, she was still on a bit of a high, hearing that Angel would come back. It was, stymied though by the fact that apparently some time in the future...she would die, go to heaven, get dragged back out and start fucking Spike of all people. And up the ass at that? Like what the hell kind of slut did she turn into in the future?
That was not even getting into the mess that Willow was apparently going to become.
The worst of it was, with how her life is, none of it sounded too far-fetched. Beyond the Spike parts at least. But she couldn't help but believe them.
It was the way Yarden was. He looked like he could hardly believe his eyes when he was looking at her. And the awkwardness he showed when talking of what he saw of the future..it reminded her of Angel.
Ironic, considering he was more or less a vampire with a soul himself. It was so surreal, she couldn't stop herself giggling at the insanity of it all.
'Do I even want to know the rest?' she wondered. Yarden said he came to help her right? He wanted her help as well, but it seemed he already knew where to get them. From what she gathered, him bringing up her help getting these things, seemed to be more of making sure she didn't try and slay him or something, which she might have attempted if she first came across him in the middle of raiding a tomb or something.
But regardless, if he was here to help her, that meant, he was going to put a stop to all the really bad stuff that he saw, or at least attempt to, right?
'Damnit, why is it always me?' Buffy bemoaned her fate.
"There." Yarden spoke up, and she looked up to see him pointing to a familiar hostel looking building, the one she saw on that flyer Ken gave her.
And surprise, surprise, standing in front of the building, was Ken himself. The smartly dressed missionary saw them both and smiled brightly. "Well hello, isn't this a surprise!" he greeted them, eyes landing on Buffy herself. "Here to take up that offer to look around I offered y-"
"Hello Ken." Yarden cut him off with a smirk, stepping forward as soon as Ken made it over to them and lashed out with his arm.
Fast! Buffy's eyes widened.
His fingers grabbed Ken by the skull, and then, with a tearing sound, Buffy watched in disgust as Ken's face was ripped right off.
...To show another face. A horribly disgusting humanoid face that looked like puss-filled yellow muscle.
"Ack!" Ken screamed and clutched his face. He looked up a moment later, dim red eyes glaring at Yarden, "You damn human! do you have any idea how long it takes to put that thing o-"
He was cut off, yet again, as Yarden grabbed him by the neck with one arm and lifted him up, the demons well polished shoes dangling in the air, "Don't care Ken." Yarden said, and Buffy flinched as he clenched his hand hard and jerked it, and a loud crack resounding through the street as Ken's neck audibly snapped.
"So what kinda demon is he?" Buffy asked as he dropped the corpse.
"A Servus demon," he replied, before explaining, "They're a type of demon that enslave other races to build things they designed. They generally use the enslaved themselves, or sell them to the highest bidder. They're pretty low on the totem pole, they're unaging, with a minor healing ability and about as strong as a vampire fledgling."
As strong as a baby vamp huh? Buffy eyed the almost casually killed demon. She couldn't do that to a vampire. She was stronger than any run of the mill vampire, the only one she'd met physically stronger than her, had been The Master. But even she couldn't do that to something on that level. Or at least, nowhere near as easily as he had.
She blinked as Yarden bent down and rifled through Ken's pockets, before pulling out a wallet and casually rifling through her. Seconds later, he tossed it away, while rifling through the large stack of bills he took from it. "$440, not bad." he mused.
"..Did..did you just loot that demons corpse?" Buffy goggled at him. She'd never seen anyone do that before.
"Here's a life lesson that will make season 6 way easier for you if it ever happens," Yarden replied, and she gave him a confused look. "Demons are loaded, they generally just take what they want. You can't exactly work a stable job as a slayer, so you may as well murder hobo the demons to make sure you aren't out of pocket." saying that, he reached over, and without asking for permission, stuffed the wad of bills in her hoodie pocket and zipped it up.
"I should probably feel dirty right now," Buffy snorted, "I mean seriously, look at us. We look like a sugar daddy gangster and his kept girl."
Yarden grinned at her and wiggled his eyebrows, "Well..I wouldn't say no."
She immediately punched him in the arm, hard. "Nice try, but no way." Shaking her head, Buffy found herself smiling as she started walking towards the hostel entrance.
Huh. She hadn't been in this good of a mood in a long while. "C'mon," she called over her shoulder to her companion, "Let's go!" letting off some steam beating on some slaver demons? That sounded like a good idea right about now.
The next morning, Buffy found herself leaving her apartment behind. Or former apartment. She was no longer Anne Steele. It was a fake identity. in the first place, and just as easily passed on to Lily
There was a bit of a spring in her step as she practically skipped down the stairs. She hadn't felt this happy in a long time. Angel was still alive, and would be coming back, she had a tough new friend who knew what he was doing, who had promised she wouldn't need to worry about Kendra's murder charge at all...oh, and she was loaded.
'When he said demons are always packing a lot of cash, he wasn't kidding.' she grinned. There were only twenty of those Servus demons all in when they got within the little time displaced dimension they had hiding in the hostel. But all in, including what Yarden had given her from Ken, she was five and a half grand richer.
And taking on demons had never been so easy. Sure Yarden said because he was directly infused with the essence of the Turtle-Kun demon vampire thing, he got most of its power, just like how he claimed that the First Slayer, was apparently way, way stronger than any other slayer that came after, but she hadn't expected that much. With him backing her up, they'd tore through all twenty of them within minutes. And even the gate that blocked the entrance, which she could just barely lift, he was able to lift one handed.
Honestly, it made her kind of jealous how strong he was. If she was that strong, she would of slapped around every damn demon she fought over her time as the Slayer. And it chilled her a bit last night, when she realised he needed to be even stronger to deal with whatever forced him into becoming what he was now.
'..Wait, where was I going with this?' Buffy wondered a second later before shaking her head, it didn't matter. As nervous as she was about going home, she really wanted to see everyone again. That, and she really needed to go back, otherwise, Angel was probably gonna get killed when he came back.
She left her apartment building behind, and her eyes landed on an older, black sportsy looking car beside her building, and sitting in the driver seat, with some kind of large, chunky grey device in his hand, was Yarden.
She walked over and pulled the driver seat open, and when she did, she could see a bunch Burger King bags in the back, alongside another box that looked to hold another of the strange gray device, and two other boxes, red and depicting some kind of dragon looking thing, while the other was blue, and depicting a fat turtle.
"What are you doing?" she asked as she slid in and closed the door behind her when he didn't even look up from what he was doing, "And how are you sitting here in clear sunlight? You said you needed that Bangle of Amanda to survive in sunlight didn't you?"
"You're such a pleb Buffy, these are iconic," Yarden shook his head at her, and when she stared at him, daring him to say that again, he rolled his eyes and pointed, "It's just special glass that reflects sunlight."
"Huh, that's a thing?" the petite blonde mused, news to her. "And what about what you're doing?" she stared pointedelly and the blonde bricky device in his hands, absorbing all his attention.
"It's a game Buffy, Pokemon!" he retorted, and his face drew up in annoyance at her, as if he was affronted she didn't know what it was. "This is why you'll never be able to hold a man."
"Hah!? Excuse me?" Buffy rounded on him, "I so totally can hold a man."
"This begs to differ," he pointed at his head, "I saw all your relationships up until you were 30. You'll never have a relationship that lasts longer than a year. Honestly, you're just lucky you're so hot, you're pretty boring all things considered."
..Oh he did not! She leaned over and grabbed the game thing from his hands, ignoring his annoyed shout of 'hey', she noticed, at the top, there was a label saying Gameboy, "You just watch, I can be fun!" she tilted her chin at him defiantly, lets see him act all high and mighty when she got better at this game than he ever could, "This'll do to pass the time, now step on it, off to Sunnydale Future-Taxi Boy."
"Just don't break it you clutz." Yarden sniped one last time as he started up the car.
Buffy looked at him from the corner of her eye, using the gameboy to hide her grin from him. 'So he thinks I'm really hot huh?'
Alright, so here we are back already with chapter two of this. Well technically, this is chapter 1.2 I guess. The layput I had for this story is kinda weird and hard to keep track of. But oh well, so yeah chapter teee to the double-you, to the orange orange ooooooh, chapter 2, yay.
Well anyway, what to say about this chapter? Well, it starts off quickly with a little bit of introspection from Yarden and quickly internalizing that Buffy is indeed a real person here and now. And moving on to explaining at least a little bit of why he sought her out, course he can't just come out and say the name of the uber big bad. The First Evil is a testy little Voldemort wanna-be bitch like that and can tell when someone says its title or name or whatever. Oh, and even got a little insight into the Turok Han itself.
Beyond that Yarden and Buffy went and kicked some slimy demon ass, saved the day and looted some moola. Indeed, Yarden gave Buffy a very vital piece of advice. Advice on how to walk down the path of the one true murder hobo. Take everything not nailed down. The Dragonborn would indeed be proud to see another acoylte on the path.
...And of course in the process he dropped some very hard truths on her of what her future would look like. And there would be none more visceral for her, who is completely desensitized to fighting and death, than her absolute failure of a love life and taking it up her perky little arse in public, at the Bronze no less.
Oh and she got an up close view of how strong Yarden is in general as well. But to sum it up for those who didn't clock on. Buffy is vastly more skilled and experienced thanks to the slayer spirit basically being psuedo avatar bullshit and her inheriting the skills of the former slayers as muscle memory and shit. But Yarden is quite a bit stronger physically and more durable of course.
And the chapter ends with him driving her home to Sunnydale, and Buffy taking up the one true honoured path that all early 90's kids tended to do at one point, play pokemon. Gamer girl Buffy incoming?
Welp, that's about it for this chapter, I'll catch yall later. If you wanna read ahead, there's like another 5-6 chapters or so of chapters like this and the first chapter on the Pa-atreon and advance chapters always come out on there first.
Anyway, again, shameless Pa-atreon plug. I've got one, go by the same username on there, easy to find and all that jazz. Support me if you want, it'd be swell, but don't feel pressured lads and ladies, I'll be uploading my stuff outside it regardless and not keeping it all behind a paywall or anything like that.