#angelthevampire

Tristan Tormented - 10 Volumes (28,096 words)

The Haunting of Buffy Summers - 2 Parts (4,945 words)

Buffy: Chaos Bleeds (Twisted Remix) - 12 Levels (19,895 words)

Buffy found herself waking up with her head in a book sitting on a chair at a table and as she soon discovered after pulling her head up out of the book and sitting up straight she quickly realized she was back at the magic box in Sunnydale, a place long destroy during the big battle against the first, leaving the slayer well and truly confused as to how she had got to a place that no longer existed. “Buffy this is a whole other level of jeepers!” Willow stated as she walked over from the magic box’s shop counter, as Buffy stood up to face her bewitching friend. “You can say that again,” Buffy replied as she looked around the magic box, a play which to use to be head of operations for her and her friends, in a town she had once called home. “Am I dead again?” “Not unless I am dead too which I really hope is not the case.” Willow answered her friend, only for them both to be shocked by Giles walking into the shop via the front door. “What the bloody hell is going on? The whole of Sunnydale is back in fact it is as if nothing ever happened to it barring the complete and utter emptiness of humans.” Giles stated as he walked over to the slayer and the witch. “I woke up on the couch in my old apartment which is by far the most peculiar thing that has happened to me in recent years and I am including my brief spell as a child after being resurrected by Angel.” “Clearly some kind of spell has been cast,” Willow told them both, only for both Giles and Buffy to look at her with suspicion and blame in their eyes. “Not me, I think I would remember casting a spell to bring the whole of Sunnydale back into existence.” “Well I certainly have not been casting spells, I leave that stuff to you!” Buffy replied to the redheaded witch. “I guess we hit the books,” Giles suggested as he took in the scenery of the shop he had once owned. “Which from a second’s observation seem to be all there.” “We cannot be the only ones here, can we?” Buffy wondered, just before two male vampires walked in the front door in full vampire face mode. “I meant non vampire companions.” “It really is like being home!” Willow declared as Buffy charged towards the two vampires in front of them.

Elsewhere in the Magic Box, Xander found himself sitting on a swivel chair within the training room dazed and confused to how he got there as he slowly stood up from his chair and took in the room once more, startled for it to look exactly like it once did and even more confused that he was back in a place long destroyed. “Crikey! As flashbacks go this is something else!” Xander stated, as Dawn walked in from the back door which lead to alleyway behind the Magic Box, looking equally as confused as her partner. “I was just putting Joyce to bed and then suddenly I was in the alleyway.” Dawn told Xander. “This is the Magic Box…Xander how is this the Magic Box?” “Your guess is as good as mine Dawnie, but I’d take a bet on something magical gone awry.” Xander replied as he walked over to the woman he loved, kissed her on the cheek and hugged her. “Let us just hope wherever we are Buffy is here too!” “I cannot believe we are back here after all these years.” Dawn admitted as she broke off her hug with Xander. “I never thought we would ever be in Sunnydale again…”

Spike, who was just as confused as the others, found himself walking downstairs to the basement of The Magic Box stunned to be back there once again before reaching the bottom of the stairs to be greeted by a male and female vampire duo in full vamp face eagerly awaiting him. “Got to admit taking out the big bad Spike is going to score us some major points with the boss!” The female vampire stated, creating curiosity from Spike who wondered who their boss could be and what kind of power this boss could have to be able to recreate Sunnydale on a whim. “Yeah well hate to break it to you both but neither of you are going back in one piece.” Spike promised before charging at them both, ready to dust them both and get to the bottom of what was behind all this madness masked as a memory. Spike quickly overpowered the male vampire, pulling out a wooden stake from his inner jacket pocket and launched it into the vampire’s chest, causing him to turn to dust, much to the horror of the female vampire who punched Spike across the face with force and fury, ready to kill or be killed. The female vampire managed to get in several punches to Spike’s face before Spike managed to catch her latest punch when it was in mid-air before launching the same wooden stake he had used on her partner, into her chest, causing her to turn to dust before him just like the vampire before her. Spike didn’t waste time celebrating his victory instead he found himself walking further through the basement where he quickly opened another door, one that led him into another room, a room which was half room and half cage and who else was locked up in the cage but Buffy’s son Tristan. “You lot sure do love locking me up!” Tristan complained, as he walked to his cage door. “Should have known one of you would be behind this.” “Hey, this is Giles’ creepy dungeon room, well the shop attached to it is…well was…” Spike mumbled as he looked around the room for a key to the cage door. “Really? All Giles had to do was ask.” Tristan joked as Spike found the key on the floor and picked it up before walking over to the cage door. “Hold up what do you mean this was his shop?” “Oh, nothing really but somehow you and I have wound up in Sunnydale.” Spike answered him as he began unlocking the cage door. “I thought Sunnydale was destroyed in Buffy’s big battle against the first?” Tristan asked, genuinely confused by their circumstances. “It was and it probably still is but some nutjob clearly has a case of nostalgia.” Spike guessed, uncertain to how they were in Sunnydale or how Sunnydale once again existed. “Are we the only ones here?” Tristan wondered, as Spike opened his cage door. “I mean it cannot just be us! At least I hope that because that would be hell.” “Nice to see you too kid,” Spike snapped back at him. “Something tells me we are not the only ones here, so you are in luck.”

Buffy, Giles and Willow were sat round the table within the shop floor of the Magic Box, each with a book in hand, desperately searching for some kind of answer to how they had wound back here or what could possibly have took them back. “I doubt it is a vengeance demon unless somebody has been making wishes again!” Giles stated before Dawn walked in with Xander from the training room door. “Well do not blame me I learned my lesson when Halfrek left us all homeward bound back in the day.” Dawn told the watcher, as she and Xander walked over to the table and sat down with the rest of the gang. “I just hope somewhere back in reality Andrew is still at mine looking after Joyce or else social workers are going to hate me!” “Welcome to my world Dawnie,” Buffy joked. “Although admittedly baby Joyce is nowhere near as hard work as you were.” “Hey, it is not my fault the monks made a key out of me or that some crazy hell god wanted to bleed me to get home.” Dawn replied to her older sister. “No but it was your fault for becoming a big kleptomaniac!” Xander joked with his girlfriend. “Says the guy who literally got the whole of Sunnydale singing because he was bored.” Willow chimed in, eager to tease her best-friend Xander. “Well I for one am glad that if we have to go through this nostalgic nightmare then at least we are all together.” Buffy told the group, attempting to reassure them in a time of uncertainty. “Well that’s rather uplifting love but we cannot pep talk our way out of this mess!” Spike said interrupting the group bonding time as he appeared from further back in the shop and began walking over to the scooby gang. “Clearly something has brought us here for a reason and it is going to take a lot of blood and sweat before we get out!” “Stating the obvious as ever Spike,” Buffy snapped at the peroxide blonde haired vampire as she stood up to face him. “Any helpful ideas on who or what is doing this?” “I would place all my money on the shadow demon.” Tristan stated as he appeared from further back in the shop and began walking over to them both, surprising his mother Buffy by his presence, who had believed her son was dead and gone. “Tristan,” She said with tears in her eyes, as her voice began to break. “How are you…” “Not too sure,” Tristan answered his mother before giving her a hug. “I was supposed to wind up back in the land of the living not in the past of Sunnydale.” “So, you said something about the shadow demon?” Giles asked Tristan, “Not that you no longer being dead is not remarkable it is just…” “I am the only one who does not belong in this memory world and you think I’m to blame for it somehow.” Tristan replied to the former watcher, as he broke off his hug with the mother. “Fair enough, I would probably make that assumption too.” “Nobody is blaming you,” Buffy said before looking around the room to notice everyone acting shifty, making it clear they all did blame him. “Well I for one am not blaming you!” “If you are not behind this and it is this shadow demon, where the hell are, we?” Dawn questioned her nephew, making her suspicions of him truly clear. “Other than the fact I can assure you it is definitely not the astral plane I have no bloody clue!” Tristan admitted to her, knowing nobody in the magic shop completely believed his words, nor should they, judging by his past. “I believe you!” Buffy told her son honestly, before addressing the group. “So, here’s the plan we are going to take this trip down memory lane all the way home, search the entirety of Sunnydale if it all exists again and then hunt down this shadow demon, kill it and go back to what we consider normality.”

The gang were back to basics in a town they once called home before it was destroyed, with the exception of Buffy and Angel’s son Tristan Summers along for this chaotic ride it was time for them all to get to the bottom of how they wound up home and whether or not Tristan was as innocent as he proclaimed.

Eons ago long before slayers roamed the earth monsters reigned supreme with nobody there to stand against them until one day three men known as the shadow men managed to lure and trap the shadow demon to use it in a spell that would merge the demon’s heart, spirit and soul with a young girl known as Sineya, making her the first slayer. She alone stood against the vampires, demons and the forces of darkness although unlike those who came after her, here newfound super strength came at the price of her humanity, changing her forever until one day she died and another slayer was born. Into each generation over the years a new slayer would be called until eventually the all-consuming destiny called on Buffy Summers who changed things for the better with the help of her bewitching best friend Willow Rosenberg a new era was born, one in which all potentials would be slayers. No slayer had ever merged as fully with the shadow demon as the first slayer until one vampire led a man down a path into the past toe become a monster travelling back to the primordium age where the shadow men merged the shadow demon with Tristan Summers. Unlike the first slayer Tristan managed to hold on to his humanity largely due the shadow men having perfected their spell, however when the first male slayer met an untimely demise only to rise again as a vampire the shadow demon inside of him had awakened from his slumber. Which takes us to now as the vessel known as Tristan Summers found himself battling against the literal demons inside of him, one wanting to consume him completely,

“Look I’m not saying I ever expected parenting to be easy because why should it when nothing is, but I at least expected it to be easier than slaying.” Buffy complained to Angel as the two of them walked through a New York cemetery late night. “To be fair Buffy you have been a slayer for a long time now that comes easier to you than most things.” Angel replied as they continued their former lover’s walk. “And searching for your son who is being haunted, potentially possessed sounds like typical slayer stuff to me.” “Trust me there is nothing typical about a slayer having children least of all a child who is almost the same age as them thanks to some time jumping nonsense courtesy of Willow.” Buffy replied, venting her frustration over her current situation. “It’s just Faith…she was the rogue slayer, the sleeps with your boyfriend slayer, the I murder people slayer and yet she is a million times better with him than me. They have a freaking bar together!” “They get on better because he doesn’t have to live in her shadow, she gets him and there’s no complicated biological ties, but she is not taking your place as his mother nor would Faith want to.” Angel explained to the slayer, eager to reassure her. “I know,” Buffy admitted with a reluctant sigh. “It is just so hard trying to get through to him you know, and I just want…to be honest I do not know what I want.” “You want him to be safe, happy and most of all happy with being with you, but things are never that simple especially when portals take your children.” Angel stated, having experienced that situation more than once. “You just got to take it all from them and hope one day they do not hate you, that’s parenting I guess.” “Your right which is incredibly annoying when I just want to be mad.” Buffy complained to him. “And what is with Spike suddenly hanging around New York ready to pounce on any problem Faith or Tristan may have?” “Now that I agree with.” Angel replied, happy to know he was not the only one unimpressed by Spike’s presence. “I swear Spike is Drusilla’s ultimate revenge against me for slaughtering her family when I had no soul and clearly, she’s won that one.” “I think Drusilla’s revenge for taking Spike and you off her as she sees it, was twisting up our child so much he’s basically more hers than ours!” Buffy admitted out loud, before realizing how harsh those words may have sounded. “Do not say that,” Angel demanded as the two stopped walking and he looked at the slayer with anger on his face. “Sure, he is a little messed up but who would not be after everything he has been through…he is not Drusilla’s kid Buffy he is ours!” “I know I’m sorry I did not mean that.” Buffy apologised. “Okay well maybe a little but it is just so hard being a mother to a child who last time you saw them tried to kill you.” “Welcome to the club Buffy,” Angel told her. “Tristan’s come a long way since then.” “Without anyone informing me about it.” Buffy butted in. “It sure would have been nice to hear about his improvement or heck even a damn note through the letter box saying hey your son’s not a full-blown psychopath anymore!” “It would’ve been nice to have known he existed before you and Willow threw him into a portal to the past.” Angel snapped back at her. “If you do not like how your son turned out maybe you should stop blaming it all on Drusilla and take some ownership to your actions.” Buffy believed splitting up with Angel while searching for their son would be easier than teaming up with Spike or Faith, but she quickly began regretting her decision after they exchanged heated words. She could not blame Angel for his resentment about Tristan, knowing she was in the wrong for keeping the truth from him and it would be a long time before those wounds would be fully healed. With Tristan missing, falling out with Angel and getting jealous over Faith this trip to New York for Buffy was so far nowhere near as bad as she had built it up being in her mind but then again for her the trouble would truly begin when she saw her son again.

Tristan Summers was no stranger to darkness having hunted slayers for years before coming face to face with former rogue slayer Faith Lehane but this new darkness he felt inside him was a stronger force than any he had known before. He could feel what was left of his sanity rapidly slipping away and this terrified him more than anything had ever done before as he feared completely losing control. “You and I both know the only reason you are fighting me is because fighting is all you have ever known.” The voice inside his mind told him as he walked down an alleyway with New York. “You are tired of all this; you have been tired a long time just hand over control and this will all end.” “You are not real!” Tristan screamed out loud, frantically pleading for the voices to stop. “You know I am real you have felt me wriggling around inside for a long time now and you finally got a taste of what I can do there is no going back now.” His inner voice argued with him. “This is your chance to shut it all off, to be free from the constant drag of humanity and to never have to feel anything again.” “What are you?” Tristan wondered, fearing the answer but needing to know at the same time. “I am genderless, I am older than this world or the one before it.” The inner voice revealed to Tristan. “I’ve been sleeping a sleepless slumber longer to be what I once was, and you were born to be my vessel.” “No, I was not born for you or anybody else to dictate what I am meant for!” Tristan argued with his inner demon. “Get out of my mind!” “There is no way out we are one and soon I will be you.” The shadow demon said from within Tristan’s body. “There is no fighting this Tristan!” The shadow demon was far from wrong all Tristan did was fight and it was that reason he wanted now more than ever to give into the demon, let him orchestrate his life and free him for the burden of having to feel. A year ago he would have done just that, given in without a moment’s thought but that was before he witnessed his own friend’s death, knowing she died because of his past mistakes made him sure now more than ever before that he had to do the right thing whatever that might be.

“I remember you.” Tristan proclaimed as he walked back into the bar, he shared with Faith to find Illyria stood there waiting for his return. “Are you real?” “It seems you have undergone many changes since we last met.” Illyria stated as she began slowly walking towards the demonic slayer. “You’re masked in the body of a bloodsucker, but I see much more than mere mortals can.” “The shadow demon,” Tristan replied to her, realizing she was the only one in the world old enough to have potentially come across the demon inside of him. “He’s…” “Inside of you yes, he’s inside of all slayers but more so you than any other.” Illyria revealed as she stopped walking and stood right next to Tristan. “He is old not as old as me but not far, you must be his vessel to this time, I am wearing mine.” “Will I…” Tristan began to say, before getting cut off by the goddess. “Die most certainly, Fred had more hold over her vessel than you do now, and she barely held on…” Illyria shared with him, not noticing the terror in his eyes, nor caring. “You have to die but you already know that don’t you?” “Yes, only this time it’s a permanent death.” Tristan admitted, “I cannot let me or something inside of me cause anymore evil.” “Angel had said you had changed but I…” Illyria began to say but before she could finish her sentence her hair began to change as she transitioned into Fred, a not so surprising shock for Tristan, knowing the goddess shared a body with the scientist. “You must be Fred I have only met the god version.” Tristan greeted her, wondering why Fred had fought through at this current time. “Illyria wants you dead and she tends to get what she wants you should leave before she gets her way right now!” Fred warned him, making it clear she did not want to hurt Angel’s son. “I cannot…I am just too tired.” Tristan replied to her, exhausted by his ordeal. “This thing has latched itself onto me and it is not letting go…I know that now.” “No, you do not understand, Illyria is not the kind of person for talking well she is not really a person at all.” Fred continued to warn him, fearing he was not getting the extent of how dangerous her goddess counterpart really was. “This thing inside of me is a greater evil than anything I’ve felt before and I’ve seen my fair share of evil.” Tristan explained to Fred, eager to make her understand his decision. “I need to die and if it is not by Illyria’s hands then I’ll have to do it myself.” “No, do not say that! I mean sure there is a demon inside you well two if you count the vampirism but that does not mean there’s hope.” Fred stated, attempting to reassure the demonic slayer. “When Illyria took me I did not think I’d ever have any control over my body and I’m still shocked to this day that we’re sharing the one body but yet I have so there is hope for you!” “Yeah that is cute and everything Fred, but this shadow thing wants to do something awful I can feel it and I cannot be responsible for anymore damage.” Tristan argued with her before Fred began transitioning back into Illyria. “Your father is a tolerable blood sucker for that I will make this quick.” Illyria promised him as she quickly grabbed a hold of his neck with both hands, applying more and more of her godlike strength onto the demonic slayer’s neck. “It will be over soon!” Tristan had given up in that moment ready to meet his demise at the hands of Illyria, better her than himself or worse, somebody who cared about him, not that there was many of them left. The shadow demon had to be gone before it took over him and after all the bad that Tristan had done, he was ready to make the ultimate sacrifice to make right some of his many wrongs.