A/N: Oh yes, this has been a long time comin'!
Hey everyone, gussygus28 here, and here I am with a brand new addition of my Enter Dark Legends series! And this is what I'm gonna be calling: Dark Legends: The Innocence and the Key! What this is basically my retelling and adaptation of the fifth Season of the hit TV show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer as well as a sequel to my Buffy one-shot, Dark Legends: Enter Buffy. I know it's gonna be really interesting to see how this Season is gonna play out with the addition of a character from the Child's Play franchise, that being Alice Pierce, two Arrowverse characters, Nora Darhk and William Clayton, and a Lucifer character, Trixie Espinoza.
Now, just a quick reminder from Enter Buffy: I've drastically shifted the franchise's timeline to have it happen in the modern era. Again, I know what some of you guys are thinking: "This show can't possibly happen in modern times, It was made in the late 90s and early 2000s!", but… as I've said in the last one, I just couldn't find a way to have the show already happened in its original time frame, and then have Buffy and others show up in their 30s or 40s without opening up a can of questions. Not to mention, in a world where horror icons exist, like Chucky, Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, and the like, if the series finale with so many women becoming Slayers happened in 2003, that would've made people not believing in those horror characters so much less likely because of all these random girls showcasing these supernatural abilities.
I mean, sure, you can argue that having the show happen now would make that more of an issue due to metahumans like the Flash running around, but for those of you who've seen one other story within this series, which is PotCFan101's Child's Play 8: Soul of Chucky, you would know that everyone are now aware of Chucky being real thanks to the final battle being public, and then we had the infamous Hell on Earth event caused by Damien Darhk in the first "Dark Legends" story. So if the whole Potentials thing were to happen now, it'd just be yet another supernatural occurrence.
That and it's just ironic that the show would take place exactly 20 years removed after its original airing, if you get me.
Are we good on that front? Okay, cool.
So here's how the Buffyverse timeline would've fitted into this Horror/Arrowverse combined world up to this point:
Buffy's origins of first becoming the Slayer would've happened in 2016 during the time of The Flash Season 2, Lucifer Season 1, Arrow Season 4, and Legends of Tomorrow Season 1, and also with it already having been a few months after Ash vs Evil Dead Season 1 and Constantine vs Freddy by PotCFan101.
And then Buffy and Joyce would've moved to Sunnydale during the era of Arrow Season 5, Legends of Tomorrow Season 2, Flash Season 3, Lucifer Season 2, and Ash vs Evil Dead Season 2, and from there, Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 1 would've taken place in 2016 through 2017.
After that, Buffy Season 2 would've happened in 2017 through 2018 during the period of Arrow Season 6, Flash Season 4, Legends of Tomorrow Season 3, Lucifer Season 3, Ash vs Evil Dead Season 3, and the Cult of Chucky film. However, this was where this series really came into effect, so after Cult of Chucky would've been PotCFan101's Soul of Chucky story, so let's just say that took place in-between 2x4 and 2x5.
And for Andy Barclay: Supernatural Investigator, Acolyte of Mallus, and A Trip to the City of Angels, we can just say they took place during and after 2x8. And the first 13 Chapters of Andy and Nica: Dark Legends took place before 2x9 and 2x10 (of which Chapters 6 to 12 heavily adapted Legends 3x10), and then Chapters 14 through 17 can take place during that two-parter.
For Damien Darhk's Hell on Earth attack in both Andy and Nica: Dark Legends and my rewrite Dark Legends: Enter Gibb, that happened in-between 2x16 and 2x17. And then from there, due to events from that story (both versions), the events of the Arrowverse Seasons deviated as well as Lucifer Season 3 and Ash vs Evil Dead Season 3, and the rest of Buffy Season 2 goes uninterrupted.
The beginning of Buffy Season 3, that being 3x1, happens concurrently as PotCFan101's The Adventures of Alice Pierce story, the parts that are in the main timeline that is, not the Alice-point timeline that Alice created in that story. And then after that, a different version of Flash Season 5 happens with Cicada being a completely different person from Orlin Dwyer, and a different version of Arrow Season 7B happens where Oliver fights the Ninth Circle. And then the rest of Buffy Season 3 would go uninterrupted.
Of course, after Season 3 would be when my one-shot, Dark Legends: Enter Buffy happened where the Barclays and the Dark Titans meet the Scoobies for the first time.
But then, after my story, Flash Season 6A would happen with Bloodwork, but with Patty Spivot in place of Iris and no Crisis on Infinite Earths. Arrow Season 8 never happens at all, and there would be no Flash Season 6B or Season 7. But both Buffy Season 4 and Angel Season 1 both happen as they do originally.
And that leads us to the present time, which is this story, my version of Buffy Season 5. Now keep in mind, this will be a prequel to my last full story, Dark Legends: Preludes and Nocturnes, so there won't be any Sandman references, since at this point, Dream is still imprisoned. John Dee might get referenced in passing later on in the story though, possibly in a news report or something of Green Arrow, Flash, and Wonder Woman capturing him, but that'll be as far as references to Sandman gets.
So, get ready, because this is gonna be quite the ride.
DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Child's Play franchise, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Arrowverse, or anything else you might recognize here.
With that... here we go!
Giles: Ah yes… Sunnydale, California. Upon first glance of the town, Sunnydale appears unremarkable at first. Because what exactly made it so special? Hm… it has Bronze? That was the only reasoning anyone could come up with. But that's where their obliviousness comes in. For this town was much more than meets the eye. Whenever nighttime rose, Sunnydale became a haven for entities of darkness to roam free. Terrifying creatures of the night preying on its potential victims. Demons possessing human corpses. Or simply… Vampires. And it wasn't just Vampires, all sorts of demons harvested the city. And other creatures such as zombies and even occasionally Werewolves. Basically everything you've ever dreaded was under your bed but told yourself couldn't be by the light of day. But luckily, there was one person that stood in their way… one singular girl. A Chosen One. With some help from her trusty allies, she was the one that protected Sunnydale on a daily basis to stop the swell of the force of darkness' number. This was not something more well-known individuals such as the Green Arrow or the Flash could withstand. This was only a job for this specific strong and resilient girl. She is… the Slayer.
Sunnydale, 2020
In the town of Sunnydale, Buffy Summers, the Slayer, was seen at the cemetery fighting a gang of men with demonic looking faces. Or rather, Vampires.
The Slayer wasn't alone, as beside her were Willow Rosenberg, Xander Harris, Tara Maclay, Anya Jenkins, Rupert Giles, and Buffy's current boyfriend, Riley Finn. And they all were fighting their absolute best against the Vampires.
Except with Buffy, she usually kicked these creatures' ass very handily during these kinds of nights. Now… her moves were rather sluggish, lacking the sharp agility they usually had.
She tried to flip-kick one Vamp, but she failed and ended up planting her face to the ground.
As she got up, Summers kept thinking to herself… What exactly was it? Why was she not dominating these guys?
I mean, she just dominated Dracula of all people the other day, yet tonight, she can't even land a single hit on a regular Vamp?
Buffy's train of thought got interrupted when a Vamp punched her right in the face, sending her to the ground.
"Buffy!" Willow yelled before another Vamp armholded her by the throat as well.
Tara then prepared a magic blast within her hand, aiming at the Vamp holding Willow hostage… but then another Vamp came from behind her and bit her shoulder, causing her to scream!
Xander and Riley stood side-by-side from each other as they both stared worryingly at Buffy as she continued to struggle against the Vamps. But that distracted them enough for two Vamps to strike, as one of them bit Riley on the arm, causing him to gasp, and then the other one put Xander in an armhold.
As this was going on, Spike, the bleach-blonde Vampire with an attitude, stared in front of his crypt at the scene of Buffy with a sly grin on his face.
How precious, he thought to himself. With the way the Slayer was fighting right now, she probably couldn't hit a fly if she wanted to.
Just then, Spike noticed a car parked in front of the cemetery. An old 1978 Chevrolet Nova to be exact. He glared his eyes in confusion. Now who in the bloody hell could this be?
"This would've been much easier if I was still a Vengeance Demon!" Anya frantically screamed as her and Giles started to run from the Vampires.
And then, Giles pulled out a cross in front of one of the Vamps, making it step back a little.
At that moment, a Vampire grabbed Anya by the mouth, and prepared to bite her neck…
But then… as everyone was beginning to lose hope…
Twip!
An arrow hit the Vamp in the chest… and then he turned to dust!
Everyone turned around and saw six individuals standing right in front of them.
They were none other than Andy Barclay, the original survivor of the infamous Chucky doll, his wife Nica Pierce who carried their 1 and a half year old daughter Cindy Barclay on a sling, their 15 year old niece Alice Pierce, who originally died after being possessed by Chucky but came back vigilant, and her friends and teammates of her Dark Titans team, consisting of Nora Darhk, the daughter of Damien Darhk, William Clayton, the son of Oliver Queen himself, and Trixie Espinoza, the daughter of LAPD detective Chloe Decker.
Willow smiled as she immediately recognized them, remembering when the Scoobies first met them last year after the battle with the Mayor.
Alice formed a confident smirk.
"Looks like the roles have been reversed this time."
Buffy formed a grin after the girl said that. Alice then turned to the other kids.
"Nora, take out the Vampires holding Willow and who I'm assuming is Tara with your handy telekinesis." she said to Nora before turning to William. "Will, fuck up the ones holding Xander and Pretty Boy hostage with both your arrows and your hands."
William smirked as Riley rolled his eyes at the girl calling him "Pretty Boy" and the girl then turned to the brown-eyed girl.
"Trixie, keep that smile of yours and help out Giles."
Trixie nodded happily.
"Gotta say, Alice, your leadership skills have really improved over the past two years." Nica commented.
"Yeah, you're definitely one hell of a successor to us." Andy added.
"Thanks, Uncle Andy, Aunt Nica." Alice said. "But we've got some Vampire ass to kick now."
Andy and Nica formed a confident smirk after Alice said that. They couldn't be more proud of this girl.
Now Playing: "Strike Back" by BACK-ON
Alice then turned back to the struggling Scoobies and Vampires.
"Alright, Dark Titans, let's do this!"
The Dark Titans then ran up to the battlefield, just as the Vamp that kicked Buffy to the ground was choking on her, Alice got close to him and kicked him right in the face!
"Who the hell do you think you are, little girl?" the Vamp asked.
"Just a friend of the Slayer." Alice shrugged.
The Vamp started to swing his fists at Alice, and while Pierce didn't have the agility of a Slayer, she could keep up fairly well with being like Vampires. After all, she was once able to keep up with Eobard Thawne of all people (without his speed, of course).
Meanwhile, William ran up to the Vamp that had Xander in an armhold and…
Bam!
He punched the Vamp in the face, knocking out some teeth!
As the Vamp recovered from Clayton's punch, the Vamp that bit Riley walked up to him with a smug grin on his face.
"What the fuck are you doing here?" He asked. "Aren't you supposed to be Star City?"
But as the two Vamps got closer to Will, he went all-out and started to beat the shit out of them.
First, William delivered three painful punches to the first Vamp's face, knocking out more of his teeth. Then he proceeded to elbow the Vamp in the ribs, causing to spit out more blood from his mouth.
Then, William turned around and delivered a swift kick to the other Vamp's face, causing him to fall to the ground.
William then pulled out his bow, and shot an arrow at the first Vamp, striking it on his chest and causing him to turn to dust!
And then he shot another arrow at the second Vamp's chest, and he turned to dust as well!
William then turned to Xander, and patted him on the back.
"You alright?" he asked.
"I am, thanks." Xander replied. "Why do I always tend to be the butt-monkey in these situations?"
"Hey, at least you weren't alone." William quipped, pointing towards Riley, who once again just rolled his eyes.
With Nora, she walked to the Vamps that were holding Willow and Tara hostage and stretched out both of her hands, lifting them up in the air with her telekinesis.
With a smirk, Darhk waved her hands towards each other, causing the Vamps to bump each other's heads.
After that, she grabbed the two Vampires' heads and proceeded to strain them with her bare hands… and then they crushed, causing the rest of their bodies to turn to dust.
Nora walked up to Willow and Tara, whilst immediately noticing the bite marks on Tara's shoulder, and quickly hovered her hand over it, healing it up.
"Thank you, Nora." Rosenberg murmured.
"My pleasure. Think of this as me returning the favor from last time." Darhk nodded.
And then there was Trixie. As Giles was struggling with his Vamp, Trixie ran up the Vamp and kicked him in the face!
The Vamp got pissed and narrowed his eyes at Trixie.
"You think you can keep up with me, you brat?"
"'Keep up' would be the wrong phrase. It's more like 'fuck you up'." Trixie quipped, angering the Vamp even more.
The Vampire started to swing at Espinoza, but due to her small stature, the girl was a bit hard for him to hit. And then eventually, Trixie got from behind him, and when he turned around, she simply blew a raspberry at him.
Trixie kicked the Vamp in the groin, and proceeded to uppercut him!
And once the Vamp landed on the ground, Trixie raised two daggers of sorts and pierced them onto the Vamp's chest, turning him into dust!
Trixie then ran up to Giles and gave him a hug.
"Thank you very much for saving me, Trixie… even though it's still quite surprising to see a girl your age with that special kind of language." Giles said.
"Eh, just part of who I am now." Trixie shrugged.
"What about my mouth?" Anya injected.
"Well… I say you give her some competition." Rupert muttered, making Trixie giggle.
Back with Alice, the last of the Vamps panted heavily after failing to land a hit on her for the past five minutes.
And that was enough for Alice to punch him right in the face, and land a swift kick to his ribs, causing him to spit out blood.
Just as the Vamp staggered, he suddenly felt someone hold him hostage. He turned around and saw that it was Buffy holding his arms.
With that, Alice finished the Vamp off by slicing his head off with her pocket knife, causing the rest of his body to turn to dust.
With the Vampires finally dealt with, everyone in the cemetery began to pant, feeling heavily tired after the battle.
Buffy turned her attention to the Dark Titans.
"Thanks a lot, you guys."
"Anytime, Buff." Alice casually said, before she and the Titans took a closer look at Tara. "And I take it you're Tara. Willow's told us all about you. I'm Alice."
"I'm William." William introduced himself.
"I'm Trixie. Or the Trixter, whichever you prefer!" Trixie added enthusiastically.
"And I'm Nora, the girl that just saved your life." Nora finished with a hint of sarcasm.
"H-hello, nice to meet you all." Tara said nervously, but the teens still felt a sense of warmth in her voice. Maclay then looked at Trixie before saying, "You say your name was Trixie? Me and Willow have a cat, and I was originally going to name her Trixie."
"Really?" Trixie asked, and Tara nodded. "That's cool! I wanna meet your cat one day!"
Tara smiled as the Titans looked at Riley.
"And you must be Riley." Alice muttered with much less enthusiasm.
"My pleasure of meeting you all as well." Finn said.
Just then, Andy and Nica walked to the two groups, with Nica still carrying Cindy.
"So what brought you guys here?" Willow asked.
"Dad sent us here as he figured Sunnydale was going to need some protection by a couple of skilled individuals other than the Slayer from both criminal activity and the supernatural." William explained. "Of course, he's got to protect Star City, Constantine and Lucifer are still on the Waverider and Gibb is needed in Springwood, so we were the best candidates for this job, since we're already familiar with you."
"And since Chicago hasn't really been much these days, we're likely to stay for a good while until we figure it out, so…" Alice added. "I guess consider us your new neighbors!"
"I wouldn't mind that at all, we can always use the extra help." Giles said.
"Oi!"
Everyone turned around and saw a man with bleach-blonde hair and a black leather duster, smoking a cigarette. The Barclays and the Titans didn't know who he was, but the Scoobies knew him all too well.
"Spike." Buffy muttered.
"That's Spike?" Nora asked the Scoobies, to which they nodded.
"That was quite the show, Slayer." Spike said, mockingly clapping his hands. "Couldn't land a single hit on those Vamps, and needed to be saved by a bunch of ankle-biters."
"I'll have you know that these 'ankle-biters' are quite skilled and capable of themselves."
"Yeah, sure, more capable than you."
Buffy glared at Spike, looking very annoyed. But the Vampire then turned his attention towards the Titans and Barclays.
"Who are you lot, anyway?"
"Alice Pierce." Alice started the introductions.
"William Clayton."
"Nora Darhk."
"And Trixie Espinoza." Trixie finished.
"And I'm Andy Barclay, this is my wife, Nica Pierce, and our daughter Cindy." Andy quickly gave his introduction to him, Nica, and Cindy.
"Yeah, I know all about you." Spike said to Barclay. "And I have to say, fighting a killer doll for 30 years, especially one possessed by Charles Lee Ray of all people? Pfftt. Please! That wanker was nothing compared to real magic users I've met in my time."
"What, you knew him or something?" Nica asked.
"No, but word of his childish antics spreads like wildfire in the Vamp community. Pun totally intended." Spike replied, before turning to Nora. "Speaking of, did you say your last name was Darhk? As in Damien Darhk?"
"Yeah… he was my father." Nora nodded.
"Ah! Now that guy, I knew… and he also wasn't that impressive." Spike said, shocking Nora a bit. "He was a little bit better than Chucky, but he was still nothing but a show-off."
"I mean, you're not half-wrong." Darhk murmured.
"And then, we got Pointy here dressing up as a cosplay Green Arrow, but he's blue instead." Spike continued, pointing to William. "What are you supposed to be, the Blue Arrow?"
William rolled his eyes as Spike chuckled.
"Huh, so he's pretty like the Vampire equivalent to Constantine." Alice muttered.
"Oh bloody Hell! You know Constan-tyne?" Spike asked with an annoyed tone.
"Constan-teen, but yeah." Alice nodded, albeit annoyed by Spike mispronouncing Constantine's name.
"My God, that guy's the worst. You know, about three years ago in London, just before I had first arrived in this dump, I dueled him to a drinking contest and I was winning fair and square. But then, the sod cheated and turned my drink into bleeding holy water!"
"Well, that's definitely John for you." Andy muttered.
"Bloody tell me about it! As much as I hate the Slayer here as well as my git of a grand-sire, they don't piss me as much as that sodding exorcist." Spike grumbled. "Not to mention, he just likes mocking me with his suave attitude. I'm the OG, not him!"
Spike sighed in frustration.
"Man, now I wonder how this guy will feel about Lucifer." Trixie whispered, but Spike once again heard that.
"Lucifer?" Spike asked, walking close to Trixie, much to making everyone else nervous. "Like the Devil?"
"Exactly." Trixie answered with a mischievous grin on her face.
"So let me get this straight, you know both Constantine and the bloody Devil himself?"
"Yep. And I'm friends with Lucifer too."
"Well, color me intrigued." Spike remarked. "I think I'm gonna be curious to hang out with you."
At that moment, Spike then walked away from Trixie, heading back to where his crypt was.
"Welp, this has been fun, but I'm gonna get going." Spike said. "Later, bitches."
And with that, Spike entered back into his crypt.
"Well, that guy is definitely a... wild card, for are." Alice commented.
"I dunno... I actually kinda like him." Trixie said, with the others forming curious looks.
Just then, something popped in Andy's mind.
"Hey, I'm curious: why weren't you at your best fighting ability this time?" Andy asked Buffy.
"I'm honestly not sure." she murmured. "Because one minute I'm fighting Dracula, and then next thing you know-"
"Hold the phone!" Alice interrupted. "You fought… Dracula?! The Dracula?!"
Buffy nodded in confirmation.
"Yeah."
"Damn… after seeing what Vampires are actually like, I thought he'd be a myth." Nica commented.
"Nope, very real, and very not like most Vamps." Buffy reassured. "And it was…"
Buffy shivered at the recent memory of her encounter with Dracula, especially when he appeared in her room and bit her neck, putting her under his thrall. Not to mention, he put Xander under his hypnosis as well, poor guy.
God… and to make matters worse, she was somewhat attracted to the Dracula. Like… what the hell was wrong with her at that point?
But luckily, she fought out of his spell and took the legendary Vampire out. Or at least… she hoped he was gone.
Actually, as she thought about it some more… it finally clicked with her: that Dracula encounter was the reason she didn't fight her best. She was still very traumatized by it to the point of it mentally messing her up.
Oh, if Dracula was still out there, how she would give to get some payback for what he did.
Drifting her mind back to the present, Buffy spoke up once more.
"Yeah it was something all right. The only thing that was more messed up than that was when Faith woke up from her coma and briefly took over my life."
"Faith?" Alice inquired. "The Rogue Slayer you've told us about the first time we met?"
"Yep, that Faith."
"And you say she took over your life as in…" Nica said, having an idea of what Buffy was talking about.
"Me and her swap bodies." Buffy confirmed, much to Alice and Nica shuddering, both being reminded of when they were possessed by Chucky. "I was unfairly captured by the Watcher's Council whilst she went around posing as me and then raped Riley here. Luckily, I was eventually able to get my body back. But then after that, she escaped to LA and put Angel in danger."
"What happened then?" Alice asked.
"I don't want to talk more about that." Summers said, shaking her head at that memory.
"Speaking of, I've always wondered… what exactly does Angel do?" Trixie piped up. "My mom has worked with him a few times, but she never gave me some specifics on his shtick."
"Well basically, from what I know, he has this agency with our old friend Cordelia and this former we knew named Wesley, and they go around helping people in need." Buffy explained. "They originally had this visions guy named Doyle on their team, but he died before Wesley came in."
Buffy then looked towards the ground.
"I heard he also gives second chances as well."
Only Alice noticed that Buffy had a bit of an edge to her voice when saying that last part. As if there was much more to that than meets the eye.
Did it perhaps have something to do with the Faith thing?
Pierce then shrugged the thought off for now, reminding herself to ask Summers about that another time.
Just then, Buffy then turned back to the group.
"You guys wanna hang out at my house a bit?" she asked. "Alice, I know Dawn has been eager to meet you again ever since you guys visited for Christmas."
"Oh yeah, I can imagine." Alice said. "I did form a bit of a… soft spot for Dawn that day, especially when we both helped Joyce clean up after the dinner."
"I know that was fun for the both of you." Buffy muttered. "And maybe we can catch up on more of what happened with us after that."
With that, the Dark Legends and the Scoobies then walked their way to Buffy's household, feeling quite united as two formidable supernatural teams…
Stockton
Angel, the Vampire with a soul, was seen being driven his way through Stockton, California. You see, he had just got done with another important mission which involved his goal of helping the helpless, atoning for all the people he had hurt over the past few centuries as the dangerous Vampire known as Angelus.
However, this mission in particular involved him protecting a pregnant woman named Jo after he had mistakenly killed a demon which was her original protector. The world was definitely not as black and white as it seemed. So Angel had to make it up to her by taking the demon's place as her protector. Part of that journey though did involve some karaoke, which… let's just say was not Angel's strongest suit.
So now, with that done, Angel decided that he needed someone to talk to. Someone who was verging on their own path to redemption.
After a good 5 hours of driving, Angel had finally reached his designation: Northern California Women's Facility, taken there by a friend from the Los Angeles Police Department. He had worked alongside the LAPD a few times in the past, particularly with one Kate Lockley. However, after Angel had shown Kate what he really was, and an incident that involved the murder of her father, Lockley had turned her back against Angel, and at that point, wanted to rid the world of him and his kind. Luckily, there was one other LAPD detective Angel knew could trust him, given their own experiences with the supernatural.
That detective was Chloe Decker, who for the past five years had been working alongside the Devil Himself, Lucifer Morningstar, so she knew a thing or two about demons that weren't exactly monsters. I mean, heck, she even lived with a demon at one point of her life. And Chloe did very recently call out Kate for her rather wicked behavior towards Angel, which the Vampire very much appreciated. Plus, her young daughter was actually really good friends with Angel's ex-girlfriend, Buffy Summers, so there was that mutual connection.
With that, Chloe and Angel walked out of her car, and then with a nod, Decker led him into the building.
"Thanks again, Chloe, for setting this up for me." Angel said.
"Not a problem at all, Angel." Chloe replied. "It's actually the least I could ever do for you."
"Yeah. After everything that's happened with me and Kate, I'm glad to know somebody who's not as black and white towards humans and demons as she is."
"Well, that's just what happens when you work with the King of Demons." Chloe shrugged, to which Angel smirked.
Just then, Angel and Decker paused their walk as they reached the visitation room. From there, they saw a young brunette woman, looking no older than 19, standing behind the glass with two officers by her side. This was exactly who Angel wanted to see right now.
Chloe then gave the Vampire an assuring look.
"She's all yours."
Angel nodded, and with that, walked over to the glass and sat down in front of the woman. And as the woman sat down, Angel then grabbed the prison cell phone and placed it to his ear.
"Hey." Angel greeted as the woman grabbed her cell phone as well.
"Hey." Faith Lehane replied.
"How you doin'?"
"Pretty good, I guess." Faith shrugged. "I did sign up for this."
"Regretting the choice?"
"Bad day. One of the girls in the yard tried to build a rep by throwing down with me. She had low self-esteem and a homemade knife, so…"
"Oh… is she… you know… alive?" Angel asked.
"She lives to tell the tale." Lehane nodded. "Took the knife away, and I can't say much for the risks that came in."
"So you didn't kill her?"
"Really wanted to. Took a good beating from the guards too."
There was a moment of silence as Angel sympathetically stared at Faith.
"Sorry."
"Earned worse. Guys like us kinda got it coming."
"I had to sing Barry Manilow." Angel said.
"You're kidding." Faith laughed.
"In front of people." Angel clarified.
"And here I am talking about my petty little problems." Faith said, still laughing at that ridiculous thought.
"Just wanted to give you a little perspective."
"Copacabana?" Faith inquired.
"Mandy." Angel answered. "I don't wanna dwell on it."
"The road to redemption is a rocky path."
"That it is."
"You think we might make it?"
"We might." Angel said. "We just might."
Faith smiled after he said that. The rogue Slayer had been on a long journey for the past two years. She was a very unhinged individual whenever her Slayer powers were activated, being a more rough version of Buffy Summers.
But then, sometime after moving to Sunnydale, things had taken a turn for the worse as Lehane had eventually joined the evil Mayor of Sunnydale, Richard Wilkins, during his big "Ascension". And that led to Buffy eventually confronting her and stabbing her in the stomach, putting her in a coma for nearly a full year.
And then, upon waking up, Faith was determined to get revenge on Buffy, and she did… by swapping bodies with her! And then, she took over Summers' life for a whole day (literally!), and even went as far as to rape her now-boyfriend, Riley Finn, until Buffy was able to get them back inside their own bodies.
After that point, Faith took a stroll down to Los Angeles where she was hired by the evil law firm known as Wolfram & Hart as a means to kill Angel. She even went as far as torturing her former Watcher, Wesley Wyndam-Pryce.
But then… she just gave up. Faith realized how much evil was in her heart… and just wanted Angel to do the deed and end her life. Yet, Angel just couldn't go through with it. He didn't see a monster within her. He saw a broken human being who needed help.
And from there, he decided that she deserved a second chance. A chance to become a better person. And after taking Faith into his apartment, it seemed like she was slowly starting to heal… but then Buffy came to L.A. out of pure vengeance for what happened at Sunnydale and almost completely messed that for her. And it didn't help that the Watchers' Council was after her after she had previously escaped their grasp.
From there, Faith made her decision… and willingly turned herself in to the police.
Lehane's time in the slammer had been rocky at best. But the Slayer was starting to look up, with the hope that maybe… just maybe… she could truly redeem herself and come out into the world as a better person.
And it was just a matter of time before she could get there.
A/N: Alright, that's this first Chapter in the bag.
So as you can see, this is right after Buffy 5x1, so Buffy has just got done fighting Dracula. And because that would've been so recent, she's mentally messed up right now, hence her fighting skills not being at their best, therefore the Dark Titans came in and saved her and the Scoobies. I thought this would be a nice way to role-reverse their first meeting from the Buffy one-shot, so basically the Titans are returning the favor, LOL! Favorite scene to write was definitely a tie between Nora saving Willow and Tara and William emulating his father whilst saving Xander and Riley (ugh... I am so not looking forward to writing him).
Oh, and the Dracula thing might get a pay-off later on. How will it? You'll just have to wait and it.
So then, our Scoobies and Dark Legends catch up, and come on! Why wouldn't I insert a bit of Spike meeting the DT? It'd be such a missed opportunity if I didn't. Plus, he is very much like the Constantine of the Buffyverse, except just a Vampire version, so I figured he would've crossed paths with Constantine before.
And him interacting with the Titans here is meant to start big character developments for him in this version of this Season, as I'm actually gonna have it that the Titans' influence on him, Trixie in particular, will fast-track a... certain thing from later on in the show. Anyone wanna guess now what that'll be? It might be pretty obvious when we get there.
Then, there's the scene with Angel and Faith which pretty much just me adapting Angel 2x1, just decided to throw in Chloe Decker in there. Now I know this might seem a bit out of place for this story, since this is Buffy Season 5, not Angel Season 2, but I did this for a reason: I'm going to have two original mini-arcs, one in-between 5x10 and 5x11, and another much later in-between 5x17 and 5x18. The second one is actually going to be a major crossover with the Angel side of things, since I'm not doing an Angel Season 2 adaptation as I don't really see that Season changing much in this series except for that arc happening. And Faith is actually going to play a big role in that one. Yeah, I'll just say it right now: I'm getting her out of prison eventually. Those of you who've read my last main story should've figured that out since, once again, this is a prequel to that one.
Now, If Lucifer wasn't on the Waverider right now, and if I had established that he was already familiar with Team Angel in the last Chapters of the previous story, I'd totally do a version of Angel Season 2 with him in it, as that's my second least favorite Season of Angel behind the fourth one, and I would've loved to have him teach Dark Angel or really Jackass Angel a bit of a lesson. Or even he would've made the whole Darla thing less problematic in general.
Finally, let me address Andy and Nica in this story. They're going to mainly be supporting characters here, sort of like Joyce. I'm doing this because as we've seen at the end of the first Dark Legends story (both PotCFan101's original story AND my rewrite), they'd retired as Heroes and passed the torch to Alice and her friends, so I do want to maintain that here and really have the Dark Titans shine as the protagonists of this story other than the Scoobies. They'll get some shine later on in this story, but for the most part, they're just sit back and let the Titans do their thing.
In fact, I was originally thinking about not having them in this story at all and pull a page out of one of PotCFan101's later works where Alice lived on her own to feel a bit independent, but the more I thought of that, the more I realized that only happened due to certain circumstances surrounding Andy, and none of those circumstances are present here. So while these kids are very capable of themselves, they're still gonna need adults to supervise them, and Andy and Nica shall be the ones to do it.
But! I do have a plan in the future of this series to eventually get Andy and Nica officially out of retirement, especially for Andy, you guys are gonna love what I have planned for him, as it's gonna be exciting and just perfect for a guy like him. So don't worry, the OG Chucky survivor as well as our favorite badass wheelchair-bound gal from Curse of Chucky will be back to prominence in time.
Anyways, I'm getting sidetracked. That's it for this first Chapter. Next time, we shall begin adapting the Season properly with Buffy 5x2, and the Innocence/Key will make itself known. And hopefully, I can get 5x3 out in the exact same week, but we'll just have to wait and see
See you guys then!