A/N Mara, if you're not going to use your imagination to fuel your own writing and have no problem with me using you ideas, than I will do so. 😉. Your ideas about Harmony are currently interesting me, she was one vampire that was nicer as a vampire then as a human and given that it's established in both Buffy and Angel that the vampire uses what the human was as their 'base' - while not being the human, it suggests Harmony really did wear a mask and only pretended to be mean for whatever reason. Maybe the right guy can help her be more than a mean girl. 😊

An anonymous guest reviewer accused me of using an AI to write my stories. I want to swear on a bible and under oath before a judge - I do not, nor have I ever used, an AI to write my stories. They are MY stories, MY words. They are often inspired by ideas others give me and as I have explained before, the note sections are a staple of my stories because I also analyze and theorize regarding the source material, Buffy and/or whatever crossover is being used. You don't have to read them. They are MY opinions.

I'm not a misogynist, something else I got accused of and I'm not nerfing Buffy. The reason I don't consider Buffy a feminist show is something I've stated before, true feminism is about equalizing the sexes, not elevating one sex at the expense of another.

The first and last episodes deliberately depict the same scene, three friends resolving to fight the evil together. Over the course of the show one of those friends, Xander, got dragged down at the insistence of the audience to 'elevate' Buffy and Willow. Did you know that SMG stated on record that her reason for not wanting to be involved in either the comics or any reboots is because she wants the last message of Buffy the show, to BE the message. The sharing of power.

You can have strong female characters without destroying men in the process and vice versa. I also freely admit that some of my early stories contained Buffy and Willow bashing, because of my frustrations with the show. That changed as I began researching and analyzing the show and the characters. Now I try to depict the characters growing, learning and becoming more than they started out as. Genuine feedback helps enormously with the development of my stories and the characters.

Random, profanity laced anonymous guest reviews don't. Especially since it's been my policy since the beginning, if you swear at me I will not post your review if it's anonymous and I will block you if you have an account and continue to post profanity.

Have a nice day. 😁.

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"His name was Merrick." Buffy said, once she and her mother were seated at the table and Joyce had assured Buffy that Dawn was at her friend Janice's for the night. "That's all he would give me for a name. I thought he was insane at first. I was sitting on the steps of Hemery, sucking on a lollipop and enjoying the sun. I remember, it was a beautiful day and I was trying to ignore the fact that I'd had horrible nightmares the night before."

"What kind of nightmares?" Joyce asked, concerned.

"Full of monsters and girls, teenage girls, dying in pain. Physical and emotional. They died afraid, I could feel it." The haunted look in Buffy's eyes scared Joyce, what nightmare was she currently remembering? "I later found out, the Slayer dreams about the Slayers that came before us. The Slayer has instinctive knowledge and skills because they get imprinted on us, passed on by the Slayers that came before us. Just bits and pieces show up in the dreams, but those bits and pieces are terrifying." Buffy shivered, remembering some of those dreams.

"Why didn't you talk to me about these nightmares?" Joyce asked, hurt that Buffy hadn't come to her. The look Buffy directed at her was sceptical, a raised eyebrow and quirked lip. "Mom, until we came to Sunnydale and you started reading parenting advice books, we rarely even had conversations, let alone personal ones." Buffy pointed out. "And you and Dad spent more time at parties than you did with us. When you weren't arguing about both of you being unwilling to discipline me. You both expected the other to do it and neither of you did it."

Joyce winched at the frank commentary from her daughter, Buffy was right and it had taken Joyce thinking Buffy was sick or acting out and the divorce for Joyce to see, she wasn't being the mother she'd thought she'd be when she first brought Buffy home from the hospital. She hoped she was doing better by her daughters now. "I'm trying to change that." Joyce put her hand over Buffy's. "Starting with being willing to listen, for the last, I don't know, year, I've felt like you've been shutting me out, just as I realized how I'd been failing you as a mother before."

"That started because Merrick insisted it had to be kept secret, even from you."

"What made you go with him to begin with, Buffy? Why go off with a man you thought was insane?" Joyce questioned, wondering, now that she knew Magic existed, had he used Magic on Buffy?

"He knew about the nightmares." Buffy answered. "Plus, he threw a knife at my head and I caught it without looking. That was pretty convincing. Of course I never stopped thinking he was insane." She tried smiling, but it fell flat. "Even when he took me to a graveyard and a vampire crawled out of a grave in front of me and I destroyed it with a piece of wood."