A/N: Oh man... I did it again!
Sorry folks, I got very with other stuff for the past few months, such as wrapping up my entire Buffyverse watch-through with the 'Angel' Season 5 finale, finishing my compilation fic on AO3, 'Dark Legends: The Beginning' (which pretty much turned into a second rewrite of 'Andy and Nica: Dark Legends') and then worked on some big behind-the-scenes stuff regarding a future fic of mine as well as helping my friend Aragorn II Elessar with a big storyline for his fic, 'Champions and Wars'.
I have to say regarding one of those things I said, remember when I briefly mentioned in my last main fic that I was doing a reimagining of 'Dark Legends 3' which would be completely different from PotCFan101's original story? Well... it'll be a very long time when we get there, but you guys won't be ready for that insanity when it drops. That's all I'll say.
Anyways, finally back to this rewrite of 'Buffy' Season 5, this Chapter will of course adapt 5x3, which is definitely not my favorite episode of this Season, but I did something interesting here that you guys might enjoy.
Man, this fic is gonna take a while to fully finish, ain't it? Pray for me that I get it done as soon as I can!
Sunnydale Junior High
It was the first day of school finally, and the Barclays' car was seen dropping the Dark Titans off, and they all hopped out of the car with Alice having a… less than enthusiastic face.
"Oh joy. School, the best thing in the whole world." she muttered with the utmost sarcasm.
"Aw, cheer up Alice, it can't be that bad." Nica said. "You've already been through this at least six times before."
Alice turned to her aunt with a smirk and quipped, "Well, I guess it's just part of the routine then."
Everyone chuckled after she'd said that.
"I think I might have a little bit of trouble getting used to being in Sunny Junior High instead of Star City High." William spoke up. "But other than that, it should be fine."
"At least we might share some of the same classes as Dawn." Nora added.
"Let's just hope the cafeteria food is better here than in Star City Middle School." Trixie muttered, once again getting chuckles out of everyone.
"Anyways, you kids stay out of trouble." Andy told them.
"We will, Uncle Andy." Alice nodded, giving him, Nica, and Cindy a kiss goodbye.
With that, the Barclays drove away from the scene.
The Titans all stared at the school building for a good 30 seconds, all contemplating what kind of madness they might experience once they enter the facility. I mean, it can't really be as dire as their first day at Star City Middle School.
For God's sake, that was so rudely interrupted by Lonnie Machin attacking the school, and that caused them to go home in an early dismissal.
Thankfully, there weren't many high-profile criminals in Sunnydale like there are in Star City, and the worst of the worst in this city, Vampires, literally come out at night, so they wouldn't risk attacking a school in broad daylight anyway.
With that, Alice and her friends took a deep breath, and began to walk their way towards the building.
And when they entered… let's just say they were all met with peculiar reactions from the other students, William in particular.
Like, some kids were whispering about Nora, and her long black hair, making her glare at some of them.
And then, there was William's predicament where some girls made some… interesting comments.
"Is that really Oliver Queen's son?" One girl asked.
"He's such a cutie!" Another one gossiped.
"I wonder how much he lifts? I mean, have you seen how shredded his dad is?"
"Oh I so fucking have. So it would be interesting to see what's underneath Oliver Jr's shirt."
At that last comment, William blushed a beet red, clearly embarrassed. He definitely predicted he'd get some kind of reaction and… boy, was he right.
On the other hand, Nora formed an angry expression at those girls, and even gritted her teeth. Looking at her face, you could tell she was quite protective of William… and possibly had a hint of jealousy for those girls?
Alice quickly noticed Darhk's expression and asked, "Uh, Nora? Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Nora replied.
"Not even a minute into the school, and you're already the talk of the town, Will." Trixie commented, prompting Clayton to sigh.
"Yeah, kinda expected when you're the son of one of the most famous people in the world." he murmured.
"Hey, if any of those girls knew about the real you, they probably wouldn't be having as much of a wet dream as they are now." Alice told him.
"They'll probably have their panties hitting the floor." Trixie joked.
"Don't push it!" Nora grumbled, to which Espinoza chuckled.
"Hey guys!"
The Titans saw Dawn waving at them as she was opening up her locker. They all smiled and walked towards her.
"Hey, Dawn." Alice said, giving Dawn a hug, which she returned.
"So, how are we feeling about the school so far?" Dawn asked.
"Eh, about the same as any other school." Alice shrugged. "But, it is made better by the fact that we have you by our side all day."
"Aw, really?" Dawn asked, a bit flattered.
"Yeah, who wouldn't welcome your presence?"
Unfortunately, Alice's rhetorical question was answered as Dawn was unexpectedly shoved inside of her locker, and before the Titans could react, the locker was shut.
The teens were shocked by this action, especially Alice. Just who in the Hell would be cruel enough to do this?
The answer… some blonde haired girl who was a bit taller than Dawn, and had pouty lips. Beside her were two other girls, most likely her friends.
And oh man… Alice couldn't help but glare her eyes at this girl. There was just something about this girl's face that just…
Ugh… it rubbed Pierce in such a wrong way she just couldn't describe.
"Only losers would hang out with Diddy Dawn." the girl mocked, prompting laughter from her friends.
"Says who?" Alice asked, still glaring at the girl.
"Me! The absolutely fabulous Kirsty Lang." the girl ever so arrogantly introduced herself.
Oh boy. Alice remembered Dawn mentioning some girl named Kirsty bullying her last week, and… welp, apparently, this was who she was talking about.
And my God… she certainly lived up to the hype in Alice's mind. I mean, what exactly did Dawn do to Kirsty to earn such treatment?
Pierce got close up to Kirsty's face.
"Look, I'm not entirely sure what you and Dawn's history is, but you seriously have a lot of issues if you can just pick on her for no valid reason." She called Kirsty out.
"Well, considering your fashion style, you have no room to talk." Kirsty said.
"Yeah, where'd you get your outfit, the trash can?" One of Kirsty's friends added.
The mean girls then mockingly laughed their asses off, not caring to notice Alice getting visibly angry.
Veins started forming on Alice's face and she gritted her teeth. Just from the first meeting, she couldn't take how much of a… bitch Kirsty was.
If only Alice could beat the shit out of Kirsty right now, but sadly, if she did, she would either have detention or… possibly expelled.
With that, Alice took a deep breath and then got even closer to Lang's face, keeping her glare.
At that moment, Kirsty actually got a bit… nervous.
"Listen, this is gonna be your only warning. Either leave me and especially Dawn alone, or… you're going to witness my bad side. And let me tell you, you wouldn't want to see my bad side."
Kirsty started sweating, staring at Pierce for a good 15 seconds until…
She raised her hands.
"Alright, fine, you win."
With that, Kirsty and her friends left the scene, but not without her muttering, "I am so gonna get her back for this."
As that was going on, the other Titans managed to free Dawn from her locker with Nora using her magic to unlock the door and then William and Trixie pulled her out.
Dawn took a deep breath and mumbled, "Geez, I thought I was gonna die in there."
"Don't blame you on that." Trixie said.
"I can never understand that girl's problem with me. She's been doing this since the fourth grade." Summers continued. "It's not like I randomly showed up to her house and farted on her or something."
The Titans stared at Dawn for 5 seconds after she'd said that last thing.
"Well, you get my point."
"Dawn. She's just a bitch. Nothing more." Alice told her, prompting Dawn to chuckle.
"So, let's not even waste too much time on her." Nora agreed.
"Agreed, let's worry more about helping William escape a potential mob of thirst buckets." Trixie commented, causing William to blush once more.
SMACK!
Nora decked Trixie on the shoulder!
"Shut up, Trixie." she grumbled.
This caused everyone to laugh for a good 3 seconds, before they finally started walking together in the school hallways, ready to start their first day…
Sunnydale City Dump
Nighttime had befell Sunnydale, and the Dark Titans and the Scooby Gang were walking through the dump, the Slayer holding an axe in her hands, Alice her pistol, William his bow, and Riley a crossbow.
You see, while the Titans started their first day of school, a demon known as a Toth whilst Rupert was getting to open shop at the revamped Magic Box… oh boy, that definitely sucked for him.
And in accordance to Giles, this particular demon was Toth, the last of what was known as the Tothric Clan and was considered more of a sophisticated demon in that he used tools. And for unknown reasons, it was after Buffy.
So now, they were off to go hunt Toth down. And what was the first place the gang thought to look at?
"The city dump," Buffy quipped. "Where the smells go to relax and be themselves."
"People say they're recycling." Riley said, looking around. "They're not recycling."
Xander patted Riley's shoulder.
"Those people would consider this Heaven…" Nora added. "Crazy people."
Darhk looked at Trixie with a knowing look after saying that.
"What are you looking at me for?" Espinoza asked.
"No reason." Nora shrugged, to which Trixie rolled her eyes.
"I found a spell so you can't smell anything, but it does it by taking your nose off so…" Willow trailed off but her message was quite clear. "No."
"Ouch." William winced, having an idea of how painful that'd be.
At that moment, they all heard the sound of stuff and then saw Spike loitering around.
"Hi, Spike!" Trixie waved at him, causing him to look up and everyone else except Willow to give her funny looks. "Uh, I mean, ew, Spike! Go away, dirty Vampire!"
Spike couldn't help but snicker at Trixie's obvious lying as it was so clear that she liked him, but then Riley lifted up his crossbow and asked, "What are you doing here, Spike?"
"Oh there's a nice lady vampire who set up a charming tea room over the next pile of crap." Spike explained, using a plastic hand to sarcastically point towards the direction.
Everyone gave him a funny look.
"What do you think I'm doing? I'm scavenging, ain't I?"
"Very pretty." Willow said to him, to which Nora looked at her with confusion. "...ly disgusting… like you! Dirty… Vampire."
Spike chuckled again before walking away.
"Spike, um..." Giles called, causing the vamp to turn around and walk back to them. "We're looking for a demon, um… Tall, robed, skin sort of hanging off, deep voice."
"You mean a great, tall robey thing like that one?" Spike asked as he pointed towards them.
And sure enough, everyone turned around and saw said demon walking up to them and he raised a rod at them, and fired while all jumped away to avoid.
"Take cover!" Riley yelled.
William then shot an arrow at Toth, but then it raised its rod at the arrow and disintegrated into nothing.
"Big guy! Kick her ass!" Spike called out to the demon.
Toth fired again and this time, it shattered what Spike had in his hand.
Spike turned to the demon angrily.
"Oh very nice! I was on your side!"
Toth aimed his rod again at Buffy.
"Watch out!" Alice yelled, pushing Buffy out the way.
The demon blasted his rod again and…
It hit Alice straight in her chest, and sent her flying backwards into a pile of trash!
"Alice!" the other Titans yelled in unison as everyone rushed to her side.
"You okay?" Nora asked as she easily pulled Alice up with her super strength.
"Buffy, he's gone." Willow announced.
Everyone turned around and… yep, it was true. Toth was nowhere in sight.
"I'm fine! I'm fine!" Alice tried to assure Nora, but with how slow she was walking, it was clear she was in total pain.
"Easy, Al, easy." William told her.
"He disappeared." Riley said.
"Yeah, we can totally see that." Trixie replied sarcastically.
"That had to hurt." Nora said.
"Yeah, yeah."
"Take it slow." William instructed.
With that, the group began to walk their way out of the dump, albeit very slowly in Alice's case.
But something that they failed to notice was that between many garbage sacks, another Alice was lying unconscious.
Next Morning
In the dump, Alice was lying in the dump, when she started to fidget her face.
"Uncle Andy, you making ribs again for the cookout?"
She then heard flies buzzing around her, and then opened her eyes with a gasp, looking around and sniffing as she finally realized where she was at.
Pierce frowned as she spouted out the one thing she could say right now.
"Oh, fuck."
With that, she lifted herself up and wandered her way out of the dump.
Now Playing: "How to Get a Head in Hollywood" from Seed of Chucky OST
Alice walked outside of her house and banged hard on the door.
"Auntie Nica! Uncle Andy!"
No response from either. Though Alice wasn't too sure of how either would react.
Would they come to an understanding or might they perhaps yell at her?
As she thought this, she then grabbed a nearby ladder to climb up to the window of her room, and… what she was aghast at what she just saw.
"Holy shit!"
She saw… herself?
Another Alice Pierce was in her room, cutting her hair short, and putting on some lipstick.
"What?! No way! Who is…?" Alice stammered. "Me?! What am I doing in there?"
The other Alice got dressed and wore a multi-colored striped shirt with blue overalls.
Pierce formed a nervous look as that outfit reminded her way too much of… of…
A certain doll she once knew.
The other Alice picked up her book bag and walked downstairs. Alice wanted to come inside and confront her, but she didn't want to weird out Auntie Nica or Uncle Andy, so best to follow her double and take her down.
But how exactly did this happen? Was this other Alice maybe a doppelganger of her from another Earth?
And then, it hit her… Toth!
When she was blasted by his rod which he was clearly aiming at Buffy with, it must've turned him into her!
She gotta call Buffy about this, or even Willow or somebody!
With that, she reached her pocket for her phone… only to see that it wasn't in her pocket at all!
"Fuck."
Welp, that was out of the question, so I guess following her double it was!
In the school, Alice snuck up near the classroom, peeking her head slightly to look at the other Alice.
She narrowed her eyes to see what exactly she was writing and was disgusted with what she saw.
On an algebra test, the other Alice wrote the words 'FUCK YOU, BITCH!' with a red marker.
Oh boy, that was so gonna ruin her reputation with the teachers. And this was only her second day! Or… her double's first day? This was all too weird!
She saw Nora get a brief peek at the other Alice's "progress", and formed a confused look.
"What are you thinking?" Nora whispered to the other Alice.
"It's just a joke, Nor, geez." The double shrugged as if it was nothing, which made Nora roll her eyes.
"What are you, 5?"
Pierce facepalmed. Goddammit, this double's already messing up her friendships!
Later, in the cafeteria, Alice watched from a corner as her clone got some food and saw Dawn walking up to her and her friends.
"Hi, Alice." she greeted.
"Hey." the other Alice greeted. "How ya doin', doll?"
"I'm fine." Dawn replied, blushing a little after Alice called her 'doll'. "So, um… I was wondering-"
"Aw, what do we have here? Diddy Dawn and her loser group once again."
The other Titans and Dawn all groaned as they saw Kirsty and her friends walking up towards them.
Even the real Alice let out a silent groan as well.
"So, Pierce, how goes it?" Kirsty asked mockingly. "Feeling tired after your temper tantrum yesterday?"
She and her friends laughed their asses off, annoying Alice. Oh, this bitch, this bitch, this bitch!
Alice swore there was a part of her that wanted to give Kirsty what she deserved. But she just can't due to all of the trouble that would cause.
But then, the other Alice got up from her seat and got up to Kirsty's face.
"Did your daddy drop you as a baby?" she asked Lang, much to the real Alice's shock.
"What did you just say?" Kirsty asked in a low voice.
"You heard me. Because that's the only logical explanation for why you're such a fucking cunt."
And at that point… the double spat on Kirsty's face, shocking Dawn and the Titans.
Kirsty gritted her teeth in anger and shouted, "Oh that's it!"
She tried to punch Pierce's double alongside one of her friends, but the other Alice ducked and rolled away as the two mean girls punched each other, falling down as everyone watched with jaws on the floor, including the Titans, Dawn, and the real Alice from the corner.
"What's going on here?" the algebra teacher from earlier asked, walking towards the scenery.
"Those two were fighting, sir." Alice's double said as she pointed at Kirsty and her friend.
"Detention, both of you! Come with me right now!" the teacher yelled as Kirsty and her friend glared at the double and walked off.
The other Alice then turned to Dawn, who stared at her in fear… and then ran away from her.
The double blinked in confusion and then turned towards the other Titans. "What's her problem?"
"I think her problem is you, Al." William said bluntly.
"Yeah, you've been acting… to put it lightly, strange." Nora added. "So, please. Get your act together."
"Otherwise… we're not sure we can be your friends anymore." Trixie finished.
With that, the other Titans walked away from Alice's double and went to follow Dawn.
Alice huffed. That was it, she couldn't take it anymore! She had enough!
She rushed over to her friends and Dawn and called out, "Hey guys!"
"Alice, please-" Dawn started, before she and the Titans noticed Alice's appearance and then looked at the other Alice in the corner.
"What the fuck?" Trixie muttered in confusion.
"Yeah, that's not me." Alice told them. "She's a fake!"
The Titans and Dawn blinked in confusion.
"Okay, I'll prove it to you." Pierce sighed, and then turned to Trixie. "Trix, do you remember us sneaking into the Waverider when Andy and Nica first formed the Dark Legends?"
Espinoza nodded.
"And I believe it was there that we found a magazine Mick Rory had in his collection before he died that contained… something that rhymes with corn."
Dawn almost gagged. "I did not need to know that."
Alice then turned to William.
"Will, when we first met, you told me that meeting me had slowly healed you from the pain of losing your mom."
"That is true." Clayton sighed.
Pierce turned to Darhk. "And Nor, what song did we and Ray sing at Jitters the first time we met?"
"I believe it was…" Nora started, before Alice started singing.
"Oh, what a beautiful morning! What a beautiful day!"
Nora then joined in on the singing. "I've got a feeling that everything is going my way!"
The two then chuckled before Nora spoke up.
"Alright, Alice. We know it's you."
"Oh, thank God." Alice sighed in relief.
"Just… did you really have to bring up us reading the… corn magazine?" Trixie inquired to which Alice shrugged.
"Sorry, just needed to bring up something only you and I know about."
"Guess that's fair."
"What exactly is up with that other Alice though?" William asked. "Is she some kind of doppelgänger of you from another Earth or something?"
"Well, not exactly… remember when Toth blasted me with his rod last night?" Alice asked, to which the Titans nodded. "Well, I'm thinking that blast actually turned him into me, meaning that Alice over there is just him in disguise."
This made the other Titans and Dawn form shocked expressions as they looked back at the other Alice.
And as they stared at her… it all started to make sense to them.
"Actually… yeah, that pretty much checks out." William murmured.
"I mean, what legit human would write 'fuck you, bitch!' on an algebra test?" Trixie wondered, to which Nora gave her a funny look. "Oh c'mon, I'm not that crazy."
"Look, the point is, after school, we need to find some way to stop that one." Alice announced. "And to do that, we'll need to inform Buffy and the others and then get the other one to Giles' house. Is all of that clear?"
"Yeah." Everyone else (sans Dawn, who was still very much weirded out by all this) nodded.
"Good."
Later, After School
The other Alice was sitting in the living room of the Barclay household, whistling a tune when she saw the window open as the real Alice walked in.
"Who the fuck are you?" Alice-2 asked.
"I'm the real Alice!" Alice snarled at her. "You really think you could take my place? No chance!"
"No, I'm the real one! You're the double!"
"Then let's test that."
Alice-2 then threw a punch at Alice only for Pierce to duck, and then stuck her leg out and made Alice-2 trip and fall on the ground.
And then, Alice jammed a syringe given to her by the Scooby Gang into Alice-2's arm, making her fall into unconsciousness due to the substance within.
Pierce sighed in relief before picking up her double and carried her over her shoulder as she walked away from the household.
Xander was in his car, waiting for her, as she hopped in.
"Thanks for the ride, Xan." Alice said to him.
"Anytime, Alster." he replied.
"Um, don't call me that ever again."
"Right."
Alice and Xander entered Giles' apartment with the knocked out Alice-2 with the Scoobies, Dawn, and the other Dark Legends waiting.
"Oh, dear lord." Rupert said.
"Something happened, G-Man?" Xander asked as he sat the other Pierce down.
"Neither Alice is a demon."
"What?" Alice, Andy, Nica, and Dawn asked in unison.
"Umm… is one of them a robot?" Willow inquired.
"What? No." Giles quickly shook his head.
"Is one of them actually Clayface who sneaked his way from Gotham to Sunnydale?" Trixie asked.
"And that's possible, how...?" Nora asked in confusion.
Trixie shrugged. "Just a guess."
"No, um, the rod device, it's called a ferula gemina." Giles explained. "It splits one person into half, distilling personality traits into two separate bodies. As far as I could tell, Toth was attempting to split the Slayer into two different entities."
"Two Buffys?" Buffy inquired.
"Yes, one with all of the qualities inherited within Buffy Summers, the other with everything that belongs to the Slayer alone, the strength, the speed, the heritage." Rupert continued, before turning to Alice. "And when it hit you, I think it separated you into your strongest points and your weakest."
"But she's nothing like me!" Alice pointed at Alice-2.
Nica formed a concerning expression as she looked at Alice, and then stepped forward.
"Alice, I think what he means is that the blast may have separated the innocent part of you… and your killer side."
Alice formed a dumbfounded look as she asked her aunt, "What do you mean by my killer side? You know I'm not a killer!"
"What I'm saying is that this Alice could be the physical manifestation of your repressed trauma from when Chucky possessed you." Nica clarified herself. "In that, you deep down still inherit some of those urges, hence this Alice acting a bit like Chucky. I know because I've had those urges myself. I mean, I did kill Tiffany and Doctor Foley rather brutally, twice with the latter."
"Yeah, I think she has a point." Andy agreed. "I mean, do you remember back when we rescued you from Hell and you had blamed yourself for killing your grandmother despite that being Chucky? That Alice might represent that."
"Plus, it's not like you haven't already killed people as yourself." Nora added. "You've killed random criminals all the time back when we first started our vigilante gig."
"Wait, you what?" Buffy piped up.
"Not the time, Buff." Trixie told her.
Alice continued to stare at Andy and Nica for a good 10 seconds, still looking to be in disbelief at that idea.
But then… it all started to click with her. She did recall having multiple urges to kill her opponents in a rather brutal way over the years.
I mean, heck, when she went back in time to kill Charles Lee Ray, she went rather ballistic on him, so…
Maybe everyone had a point.
Meanwhile, Dawn was trying to comprehend what was just said about Alice's past. Like… that really happened to her?
She really had her whole body jacked up like that?
Damn… she couldn't exactly form words right now.
"I still don't understand the original plan." Riley muttered, looking at Buffy. "I mean, why do it? The Slayer half would be like Slayer concentrate- pretty unkillable."
"But the two halves can't exist without each other." Rupert stated. "Kill the weaker Buffy half, and the Slayer half dies."
"So the same goes for the Alices." William mumbled. "We lose one, we lose them both."
At that moment, Alice-2 finally woke up, yawning before noticing where she was at.
"What am I doing here?" she asked before looking at Alice. "You!"
She got up from the couch and rushed at Alice, only for Nora to use her magic to freeze her, an ability she inherited from her father.
"Don't fight!" Willow said, getting in-between the two Alices. "You're both Alice."
"What?" Alice-2 asked in confusion as she looked at Alice-1. "No way! You're a wimp."
"You're a psychopath!"
"Coward!"
"Jerk!"
"Enough, both of you!" Nica shouted, making the Alices stop. "Now, say something that first comes to both of your minds."
"Wanna play?" They said in unison before looking at each other.
"What the fuck?!" Alice-1 said.
"What the fuck?!" Alice-2 said too.
"This is so weird." Trixie muttered.
"For once, I'm actually in agreement with you." Nora added.
At that moment…
BOOM!
Giles' door was knocked down!
The uninvited visitor: Toth!
Now Playing: "The Curse" from Curse of Chucky OST
"Bloody Hell, I just got that fixed!" Giles yelled.
"Oh great, rod boy." Buffy rolled her eyes.
"I will not miss again, Slayer." Toth declared, aiming his rod at Summers, and then fired again.
Xander, Willow, Dawn, Giles, Andy, Nica, William, and the two Alices got down as Buffy, Riley, Nora, and Trixie rolled away to avoid the blast.
Riley leaped at Toth from behind and grabbed him via armhold as they struggled, and then William shot an arrow at him, disarming him of the rod.
Toth threw Finn off of him but Riley stood his ground as he punched him in the face, then the abdomen, and then the face again before Toth head-butted him and threw him on the ground.
At that moment, Nora rushed at Toth and threw her own punch to his face, which, given her strength, made his nose bleed despite Darhk not even trying.
Toth stared at Nora in a bit of shock.
"Your strength… it's just as great as the Slayer's. I should probably split you as-"
BAM!
Buffy then gave him a spin-kick whilst he was distracted, and then kicked his chest, and then punched him thrice before he caught her leg and threw her down the table!
But then, Summers quickly got up and kicked him in his chin with both feet, and then kicked him in his abdomen again, and then landed one more kick to his face, knocking him to the ground.
"Trixie!" Buffy called.
Espinoza nodded and then rushed at the knocked out demon with her demon daggers in-hand, and then…
She stabbed Toth in the heart with the daggers, causing him to roar in pain, until he eventually gave out and died.
The Scoobies and Dark Legends stared at Toth's dead body for a good 10 seconds.
"Man, this thing is super fucking ugly." Alice-2 muttered, causing Alice-1 to look at her.
"Oh my God, I was thinking the same thing! I guess we truly are both Alice after all!"
Everyone else rolled their eyes at the Alices' exchange, especially Andy and Nica.
Magic Shop
The Dark Legends and the Scooby Gang, now joined by Anya plus Cindy in Nica's arms, stood together as Giles finished drawing a circle under the two Alices.
"Psychologically, this is fascinating." Riley said as he sat in a corner. "Doesn't it make everyone want to lock them in separate rooms and do experiments on this?"
Everyone glared at him, especially Andy and Nica who just looked annoyed.
"Just me then."
"Well, what do we do if this doesn't work?" Anya asked.
"Kill us both, Spock!" The two Alice said in unison, before laughing together whilst Xander and Trixie.
"They're kinda the same now." Dawn pointed out.
"Yes, she's clearly a good influence on herself." Rupert mumbled.
"Now, this won't be that hard." Willow told the Alices. "Your natural state is to be together. Toth's spell is doing all the work of keeping you apart."
"We'll just have to break it, so…" Nora finished as she and Willow stood in a corner.
"Alright, Witches. Do your stuff." Alice-2 said.
"Here we go." Rosenberg said. "Brace yourselves."
Nora and Willow stood for a good third seconds before saying in unison:
"Let the spell be ended."
"'Let the spell be ended'? Really?" Alice furrowed her brow. "How's that gonna work?"
Pierce opened her eyes… only to see that the other Alice was gone! She was the only Alice around.
"Oh! Well, I'll be damned."
Everyone else grinned at the success, especially the other Dark Legends.
Now Playing: "Just Tonight" by The Pretty Reckless
Dawn watched as the Dark Legends were walking towards Andy's car, and she still couldn't exactly get what was said earlier about Alice's past out of her head.
I mean, she had already heard of how bad Chucky was hearing stories about how he tormented Andy for 30 years, plus Nica as well, but… possessing Alice's body, especially when she was 8?
Even for all of the stuff her sister dealt with on a daily basis, this still took the cake for her.
And so, there was only one thing to do right now.
Summers took a deep breath and called out to Pierce.
"Alice!"
Alice turned around and said, "Yeah, Dawn?"
"I've just been thinking about what was said earlier and was wondering… is all of that true?" Dawn asked. "You were possessed by Chucky?"
This caught Alice a bit off-guard but then she sighed.
"Yeah."
"What did that feel like?" Summers asked again.
Pierce looked down at the ground.
"It was… horrible." she murmured. "When he transferred his soul into my body, I was basically suppressed as he used it to murder people, in his cruel… manipulative ways… but eventually, it was stopped."
"How?"
Alice looked up at her.
"I died."
Dawn gasped in shock.
"Uncle Andy killed me just to save me." Alice continued. "And I'd remained dead for four years until a demon kidnapped me into Hell, Uncle Andy and Auntie Nica saved me and brought me back to Earth."
Alice turned her back away from Dawn, who continued to stare at her.
"I'd hope you'd never find out about that, because I thought it would scare you forever. But now, the doll's out of the bag. And I guess, after what happened today, especially after… Me 2.0 snapped back at Kirsty in school, you don't exactly want to hang out with me that much anymore."
But then, Dawn walked up closer to Alice… and gave her a hug, to Pierce's surprise.
"That somehow… made you even cooler."
"Really?"
Dawn nodded, and continued. "I mean, you went through all of that, and yet, still standing here as the certified badass you are. You're somebody who can inspire me, especially for someone who's around my age."
Alice was in awe of Dawn's words there, and the hug for some reason felt… warm to her.
Like… almost as warm as Auntie Nica's hugs.
And so, Alice hugged Dawn back.
"Thank you, Dawn."
"You're welcome."
With that, Alice walked to Andy's car and hopped in, and then, the car drove off as Dawn watched.
A/N: Well... this was quite interesting.
So, as you can see, for this episode, I replaced Xander with Alice. This was inspired by Aragorn II Elessar's 'Buffy' Season 5 fic within his MCU/Buffyverse series, 'The Spider, The Slayer, and The Key' where he had Peter Parker take Xander's place and even did the Emo Parker thing, LOL! So thanks goes to him for that.
Here, I decided to go a bit of a darker route in that when Alice got split, one half represented the innocent side of her from what we had seen in 'Curse of Chucky' and the another half represented the "killer" side of her that was deeply rooted within her psyche after being possessed by Chucky, hence her kind of acting like Chucky in some ways.
Speaking of, had a bit of fun with the school bits in general, especially in the beginning bit with the kids' first day, and then introducing Kirsty, Dawn's bully from 5x16. I think I may have her a bit of an over-the-top bully, but it's Kirsty, do y'all remember what she did to Dawn in that episode?
So, I just had to have Alice kind of go to town with her here, both in the beginning and in the middle with the "killer" Alice.
Anyways, I know it's kind of weird for Alice to come up with the same idea Xander did in the episode of Toth disguising as herself, but in my defense, while she is smarter than most people her age, she is still a kid and can still be quite impulsive, so, I'm hoping this makes sense and she wasn't too OOC here.
And now, Dawn has found out the truth about Alice's past, and I hope I did a good job with their scene at the end where they talk about that, since I think Dawn would warm up to that fact rather quickly, I mean, just look at how she warmed up to Spike later this Season.
Now, I was originally thinking about having Nora split into two, that way I could've played around with the "bad" half being a lot like how she was portrayed initially in 'Legends of Tomorrow' Season 3, but I decided Alice was the better choice here as her psyche would've felt a lot more interesting to explore due to her trauma (to be fair, Nora's got trauma too, but you can argue Alice's past was even more traumatic than Nora's).
That and since I pretty much have it that Nora is almost just as physically strong as Buffy here (and she might even get stronger than her later), if Toth did split her, he basically could've done something as bad as splitting Buffy, which would've sucked for our Heroes, so they dodged a massive bullet there.
But yeah, that's this episode, thanks to Aragorn II Elessar for the help once again.
In terms of the next Chapter/episode, there's a part of me that doesn't want to do that one given there won't be much I can change about it, but I will see what I can do.
However, I do have a brief bit planned for next Chapter which will take us back to the 'Angel' side of things. I know, this is still 'Buffy' Season 5 and not 'Angel' Season 2, but like I said in the first Chapter, I'm doing an original mini-arc in-between 5x17 and 5x18 which fully crosses over with the 'Angel' side so I thought it'd be good to give build-up to that, so now, expect me to occasionally cut back and forth between 'Buffy' and 'Angel' here.
But yeah, hope you guys enjoyed this one, and pray for me that I get the next Chapter out much sooner and then I can finally introduce a certain Hell-Goddess. See ya!
EDIT: Rest in Peace, Michelle Trachtenberg. Thank you for all of the amazing memories as Dawn Summers... our Key.