Fighters of the Hellmouth [BtvS/Cobra Kai]

[cliffc999]

Author's Note: This fic started out as a rabid plot bunny that wouldn't leave me alone, became a persistent attack of mental images, and eventually gelled into a 'pilot episode' that sets up an entire series worth of AU Buffyverse adventures with the characters I imported as the new Scooby cast members… an AU that I mostly won't be writing, as this was a sudden burst of inspiration and not the sort of dedicated project that spawns a whole AU. But you will at least get the first complete story in it, and enough of a baseline you can imagine the rest.

And it's not a full crossover – just a port-over of several characters that was inspired by 'I would really like to see how these individual characters would react if put in these scenes from Buffy'. So don't ask where Miguel, Sam, Daniel, etc., are or what they're doing – they're not here, they never existed, these people never met them, and so their backstories are basically them reaching the same destination by only vaguely similar routes using more Buffyverse-specific themes. Also, I'm taking the 'Cobra Kai' characters from the end of their arcs, because as CK show-watchers know people underwent an immense amount of growth from s1 to s6 and as this is a short story, I wouldn't begin to have time to get any of it in. So you're getting mostly-endgame versions of their personalities from the getgo.

This fic was a chance for me to stretch my author skills – I don't normally write detailed fight scenes, and now I've written at least a couple of them because you can't bring over even a little Cobra Kai without trying trying to bring over awesome karate fights. Even if, confession time, I wrote most of those fight scenes by having Youtube videos open in another tab while I stole inspiration and moves directly from some of my fave martial arts scenes. I am anything but an expert martial artist or fight choreographer, and I'm not pretending otherwise.

Also, the wildly different decades that both shows are set in was reconciled by applying a comic-book sliding timescale. So the events of prior seasons occurred mostly as per canon, but it's an indeterminate year in Sunnydale and the kids have smartphones and wi-fi.

---

The blonde Slayer pivoted off her back foot with borderline superhuman grace and threw a crossover sidekick towards the heavy bag, aiming high as if to strike her imaginary opponent in the throat. Her leg chambered and then snapped forward with explosive power, and then immediately stopped precisely as the ball of her foot touched the canvas. "Ais!" she exhaled heavily.

"If you keep making that noise out when it's for real, you'll just give our position away." Buffy said cattily from where she was leaning against a nearby bookshelf with her arms crossed.

"If I'm throwing hands with a vampire then every bloodsucker nearby is already alerted." she glared back. "Maybe you just never noticed it before over the sound of your own mouth constantly running, but punching people makes noise."

"You just can't not keep trying to pick a fight, can you?" Buffy sniffed.

"You're the one who invited yourself to my training session but haven't done anything except be a sideline critic!" Tory replied heatedly. "And I'm the one who's supposed to be hassling you?"

"I'm trying to give you the benefit of my superior experience-" Buffy replied arrogantly.

"Yeah, yeah, almost three years in the game and you know everything." her sister Slayer replied icily. "I-" She turned away angrily to face the Watcher standing on the sidelines. "Giles, are we going to spar today or what?"

"No." Giles said levelly. "I'm thinking-"

"Then I'm going for a run." She interrupted him. "Because if I stay here for much longer we will be punching each other, and the last thing I need is another lecture from you."

"That's not-" Giles began, only to be ignored as Sunnydale's newest Slayer and reformed juvenile delinquent grabbed her ratty old jacket and angrily threw it on as she stormed out.

"When is Miss Attitude Problem's own Watcher getting here so we don't have to put up with her anymore? And is the Council hopefully going to reassign her to, I don't know, Antarctica?" Buffy replied archedly.

"Buffy." Giles said levelly. "You have to learn how to work with her better. I don't even understand the reason for your antagonism. You and Kendra did not remotely have this level of difficulty!"

"Kendra wasn't some kind of hoodlum." Buffy replied heatedly. "You saw her when she arrived here! Very teenaged runaway chic, wasn't she? And she talks like she grew up in a slum! I bet she was the Sheila of her old school and packed a knife every day!" she finished heatedly, referring to Sunnydale High School's most infamous female delinquent and serial felon until her death at the hands of Spike the previous year.

"Well unless you're hoping for her to get eaten by a vampire and die, Buff, then the G-Man is right. You're going to be working alongside her whether you like it or not, so the only thing you're doing right now is making your own workplace as un-fun as possible." Xander contributed firmly from his own place on the sidelines in the library's training area.

Same shit, different day. Sunnydale's new Slayer thought to herself from her position right outside the library door, where she'd stopped to eavesdrop and get another check on how the group dynamics of the 'Scooby Gang' were functioning when they thought she couldn't hear them. Buffy is always up my ass with her snobby mean girl routine, Giles is always half-heartedly trying to keep the peace but never actually disciplining her, and Willow and Cordelia didn't even show up today. Xander's the only one even halfway not being a dick and I'm still not sure if that's because he's genuinely a nice guy or he's just trying to score points with the new hot chick-

Her shoulders slumped and she turned away, heading towards the daylight outside to at least get started on her daily run. The regular exercise, the practice and discipline, those were the only parts of her new life that had any commonality with the old… and sometimes it felt like they were the only parts that weren't miserable.

I wish I'd never been Called for this 'Slayer' bullshit. I wish I'd never had to come to Sunnydale. I wish I could find that fanged fucker already so I could end his murdering ass. I wish-

She stopped and furiously wiped the tears from her eyes before continuing with redoubled speed.

I wish Mom was still alive. Tory Nichols wept silently to herself as she fixed her eyes on the horizon and ran.

* * * * *
​

"Hey, no slacking. We have to stay alert." Buffy said curtly as the two Slayers continued their nighttime patrol.

"What was that you were saying earlier about making noise in the field?" Tory hissed. "Unless you see something, don't chitchat."

Buffy ground her teeth together as her earlier words from the practice session were thrown back in her face. The two of them continued their march, their footsteps in unison and their heads mutually on a swivel even as their teamwork was a mile apart. They finished their circuit around several of the downtown streets and headed into the town park.

"Movement, ten o-clock, by the tree line." Tory whispered softly.

"The hell does 'ten o'clock' mean?" Buffy hissed back.

"It means- ugh, just look over there." Tory discreetly pointed. Several man-sized silhouettes were just barely visible in the nighttime gloom, lurking in the underbrush where they could readily ambush anyone on the sidewalk.

"If we run at them, they'll just scatter into the trees." Buffy murmured. "Start talking and laughing, right now we're two drunk girls trying to get home from the Bronze."

"Bait 'em, check." Tory whispered back. "So, uh, did you hear about what Mary Jane said about Sally?" Tory began awkwardly.

"That is the lamest gossip I ever heard! But you always were one step off the music!" Buffy threw back with a catty smile and a faux-drunken giggle, and Tory tensed as her Slaying partner took merciless advantage of the opportunity to poke fun at her under circumstances where she couldn't possibly answer back or leave. By the time the three lurking vampires were baited into attacking, Tory was furious enough that her first sloppy roundhouse swing missed the ducking vampire entirely.

"Great job there, champion!" Buffy laughed as she snap-kicked the vampire facing her in the shin, then immediately sent him sprawling with a two-handed shove as she turned to face the third attacker. Tory's teeth slammed together hard enough to almost chip enamel as she struggled to mentally refocus, and she brought both of her hands up in a defensive stance as she used a basic block-block-counterattack combination against her opponent's furious blows. Breaking her attacker's momentum with a hard palm-thrust to the chin, she then swept his legs out from under him and staked him while he was prone. She looked up, eyes scanning rapidly for more targets, and saw the last vampire turning into dust as Buffy's own stake slammed home.

"Two to one!" Buffy fist-pumped. "Don't worry, you'll catch up." She said with faux-sweetness. "Eventually."

"You know what?" Tory exploded. "Fuck this, princess! I have done my best to be nothing but professional tonight but no, you just can't stop pushing! Every single chance you've had to back off you just doubled down instead! What the hell is your problem?!?" she shouted loud enough for her voice to start tearing.

"My problem is that I'm having to bust my hump twice as hard carrying your dead weight!" Buffy spat back. "I was actually having an easier time dealing with the Hellmouth alone than with your 'help'!"

"Listen to little Miss Perfect with her perfect little life." Tory snarled. "You've never failed at anything, I'm sure."

Buffy actually growled at that one, her fists clenching tight. "Well obviously they were wrong about how losing is supposed to build character, or else you should be a saint!" Buffy shouted as the two girls glared at each other nose-to-nose. "Why couldn't you have just stayed in whatever orphanage they dump people like you-!"

Tory's teeth drew back in a furious snarl as she pivoted off her right foot and slammed the sole of her left foot down hard enough into Buffy's instep to almost crack the bone. With her balance disrupted and her body tensing in the sudden agony of one of the more painful nerve centres of her body almost being crushed in a surprise attack, Buffy didn't begin to get her hands up in time to block the elbow being thrown into her forehead hard enough to lift her right off her feet. The force of Tory's strike sent her soaring through the air to land five feet away, and Buffy hit the ground prone and rolled over twice before coming to a stop. Dazed and with her vision momentarily blurring from the force of the blow, it took Buffy a long moment to awkwardly stumble to her feet. With both fists raised Buffy looked around to see Tory still standing several feet away, her own fists furiously clenched and face blazing red as she visibly struggled with the urge to rush forward and try to tear Buffy apart.

"Fuck it." Tory slumped, lowering her hands to a guard position. "You're not worth it. I'm done."

"Tory-" Buffy started to reply, before falling silent at Tory's furious glare.

"No!" You don't need my help? You don't want it? Then fine! You can patrol this damn town yourself for all I care! I'm going ho-" She stopped and flinched, chewing her lip. "I'm out of here."

"Tory! Wait!" Buffy cried as her fellow Slayer turned and marched away, fists clenched at her side and her back furiously straight. She followed after her for a few steps, limping slightly from her still sore foot, before slumping and turning away. "O-kay, fine. I'll see you tomorrow." Buffy muttered to herself. "Sucker-punching bitca…"

How am I going to explain this to Giles? Buffy fretted as she turned to resume her patrol. Because Xander was right, we can't work together like this.

 

[cliffc999]

"Hey."

Tory looked up warily from where she'd been staring down between her feet as she sat on a low wall in the Sunnydale High School quad to see a familiar and almost offensively beautiful face staring down at her.

"Yeah?" Tory glared suspiciously.

"Is this seat taken?" Cordelia Chase asked in a slightly strained tone of voice, her expression taut.

"Can't stop you, it's a public place." Tory said resignedly, and Cordelia sat down alongside her – carefully out of arm's reach.

"I've heard one version of last night." Cordelia led off after a brief pause. "What's yours?"

"I'm surprised you're even asking." Tory answered tightly as she stared off into the distance. "I'm the new kid and she's the one who's been here all along, so you automatically take her side. That's how it always works, right?"

"Xander also told me about the practice session yesterday afternoon, so my money's on that she was the one trying to pick the fight." Cordelia answered matter-of-factly. "Am I wrong?"

"… no." Tory agreed slowly. "What the hell is Buffy's problem with me?!?" she burst out.

"It's… probably not you." Cordelia answered reluctantly. "Don't take this the wrong way, but you're not the only one who ran away from home this summer. That's why Buffy was still out of town until shortly after you got here."

"I thought she'd just been off somewhere doing summer vacation." Tory said surprisedly. "You're telling me she ditched? What the heck would someone like her even have to run away from? Except maybe vampires or the Hellmouth, except that's the one thing us Slayers can't ever quit."

"Part of me is thinking I should spill the tea right now, the rest of me is thinking that talking out of school before she does would mean this whole thing between you and Buffy would never end well." Cordelia shrugged. "So I'm not going to get into it more except to say that our fight against the Big Bad at the end of last school year was a massive trauma fest. I mean, you did pick up that the reason you're a Slayer is because Kendra died, right? Plus whatever poor girl was in-between her and you, that the Watchers didn't even find before she only lasted a couple months."

"Reminding me of how much the life expectancy sucks in this shitty job is not the way to get me to chill." Tory answered darkly. "But wait, you're saying that Kendra died here?"

"Right in the school library, and right in front of Buffy." Cordelia said frankly. "And that wasn't even the worst thing that happened to her that night. I'm not saying that Buffy's dealing with it the right way, because she's epically not even trying to deal with it at all. I'm just saying that-" she trailed off awkwardly.

"That's not an excuse." Tory said flatly. "I- okay, I can get being so angry at how life sucks that it spills over onto everyone around you." She shook her head ruefully and continued in a sad, gentle voice. "Believe me, I get it." Her expression firmed. "But you're still supposed to try and keep your shit straight even through the worst of it, not use 'woe is me!' as an excuse to just indulge yourself!" she finished defiantly.

"Speaking of that… while we've already established that Buffy was provoking you, weren't you still the one who actually threw the first punch last night?" Cordelia asked flatly.

Tory gave Cordelia a furious glare before taking a deep breath and nodding. "Yeah, I was. She'd been riding my ass all night with the most hateful shit, and I really tried to keep my hands down and my mouth shut, but she just wouldn't let up-" She exhaled deeply. "So eventually it 'spilled over'. And now Giles will never believe that I'm not the one making the problem."

"He notices more than you might think." Cordelia said reassuringly. "He's just really out of his depth knowing what to do with teenaged drama sometimes."

"I really wish Sensei Lawrence could be here." Tory blurted. "Teenaged drama was a thing he could always cut through like a chainsaw. I should know, we used to bring him more than enough of it."

"'We'?" Cordelia arched an inquiring eyebrow.

"So you're saying that I've got no choice but to keep sucking it up until Buffy finally pulls her head out of her ass?" Tory ignored her question.

"Yeah." Cordelia said matter-of-factly. "But I'm also saying you don't have deal with it alone. Especially seeing as how you're conspicuously failing so far at dealing with it alone."

"Gee, thanks." Tory rolled her eyes. "Tactful much?"

"Tact is just not saying true stuff, so I'll pass." Cordelia replied fearlessly.

Tory actually snorted at that, catching herself by surprise. "You're something else, Chase."

"Always have been." She smiled proudly. "And my friends get to call me Cordelia."

"So, shoulder to vent on?" Tory asked diffidently.

"In moderation." Cordelia retorted amusedly, drawing the first beginnings of a smile from the other girl.

"Thanks." Tory said reservedly. "Not sure how much I'll actually take you up on that offer, but-" She shrugged.

"Have you considered maybe ET phone home?" Cordelia asked tentatively after an awkward pause. "I mean, if you need a support system and it's not going to be us, your parents have got to be worried sick over how you vanished-"

"I don't have parents." Tory said tensely, her face slamming shut like an armored hatch. "That's why Buffy's snotty comment about orphanages got her face punched."

"Damn." Cordelia turned pale, holding up her hands in supplication. "I'm sorry to hear." After another deep breath and pause, she continued. "But what about your sensei? Wouldn't they have some ancient Chinese wisdom to share?"

"Hah!" Tory laughed. "Ancient Chinese wis- if you ever met Sensei Lawrence you'd think he was the plumber! His regular day job was doing home repairs out of a truck, he just taught karate privately as a side project. He's the least mystical, most blue-collar guy you could imagine. And I'm pretty sure my high school grades were better than his." She smiled fondly in reminisce. "But he just had this no-nonsense way of looking at life, an ability to cut through all the crap and know what was worth bothering with and what wasn't. Said he'd learned it by spending half his life falling on his ass, so now he was an expert in what not to do." She nodded. "So I suppose you could call that wisdom. Whatever it was, it definitely helped a younger me pull her head out." She sighed. "That idea of phoning home is really tempting, yeah. But I can't."

"He sounds like he was the dad you never had." Cordelia agreed. "I'm glad you at least had someone."

"He could have been." Tory answered mysteriously. "But-" she shook her head. "Then this Slayer thing happened, and now this is all I've got."

"You don't have to abandon your old life." Cordelia said. "I know that's what the Council teaches – god, just the glimpse I got of Kendra showed me more than enough of that approach. And it also showed me how much their idea sucked. And even as much as you and her don't get along, Buffy's still living proof that the Council's way isn't the only way."

"I don't give a crap about whatever the Council wants, I've never even met any of them except Giles." Tory scoffed. "I just…" Her lip quivered. "Mom was sick for a long time. I had years of living with it, of having to learn how to face up to it whether I wanted to or not. We didn't even know for sure if she'd live until my high school graduation… and as it turns out, she didn't." Her eyes closed. "But even with mom's condition and all the rest of the crap, my life was finally getting on a better track… before I got drafted to go fight in the secret vampire war." Her fist clenched. "Like it or not, it all happened, and you guys know even better than I do what Slayer life expectancies are. So I'm not going to kid myself. My condition is terminal now, just like Mom's was. And sure, I'm gonna fight it till the bitter end, just like she did. But I already know how that kind of fight eventually has to end." She sighed and continued resignedly. "That's just how I have to live now, like it not."

"I don't understand." Cordelia shook her head. "You were still there for your mom, right? Up until the end? That's what you do for the people you care about, you stay with them? So why don't you want the people who care for you to still be with you? You think your being all missing-presumed-dead on them is going to hurt them less than knowing the truth will?"

"Mom's condition wasn't contagious." Tory retorted. "But death by vampire attack damn sure could be, especially if I invited their dumb asses down here to the Hellmouth! Hell, didn't you once say that you couldn't wait to get out of this death trap as soon as you graduated?"

"Got me there." Cordelia admitted. "Okay, I'll drop it. And in the category of an obvious subject change, did I ever tell you how much I enjoyed seeing you knock Buffy on her ass the first time?"

"You mean when we had that spar?" Tory grinned. "Yeah, she really came in with her guard down. It's like she expected me to not even know how to block."

"She does have a problem being cocky from time to time." Cordelia said knowingly. "Because usually the only people Buffy fights who are as strong as she is are vampires, and obviously she wins every one of those matches-"

"Because she's still alive." Tory nodded. "Same deal all Slayers get. Win every fight but one… and then you die."

"And there's only been this whole 'two Slayers' thing very recently, and Buffy beat the last one who came here. And Kendra had been training under Watchers her whole life and Buffy still won, so she was expecting the same deal with you. So she came in overconfident and you knocked her flat on her ass." Cordelia chuckled. "And then you did it again, when she came in all angry and sloppy for the rematch. And a third time last night, even if that was a sucker punch. I don't think she's ever taken that many consistent Ls in her life, and she is not knowing how to deal."

"Honestly? Giles is not a great sensei for martial arts." Tory replied frankly. "Man knows his shit backwards and forwards and upside down about demons, and he's good at the medieval weapons and the differences between fighting vampires and people. But the actual fundamentals of karate, or any other style? The Watchers don't even begin to know. And…" Tory fumbled for words. "I don't know how to explain it, you only learn that when you reach master level and get qualified to teach. I mean teach the real stuff, not the crap you can learn in any storefront McDojo. But there's a… something extra out there, something I can't really explain, that you only find in the good martial arts schools. Sensei learned a piece of it when he was younger, and later on he taught it to me and-" Tory trailed off.

"Buffy's sport before becoming the Slayer was cheerleading, so she was in great physical shape too-" Cordelia distracted her.

"I don't knock cheerleaders for their physical conditioning or their agility." Tory nodded. "Your workout program's as tough as mine, it just concentrates on entirely different things."

"But yeah, she wasn't a karate champion or anything. Plus you're only an inch shorter than me and you've got arms almost as thick as her legs, and she's tiny. I know the laws of physics act like they only apply to Slayers when they feel like it, but fact is she should have expected to get launched when she tried overpowering you straight-up." Cordelia chuckled.

"I guess if you've never been strong and then suddenly go to being able to tie a crowbar in a knot then you go around feeling like you're Wonder Woman." Tory shrugged. "But I've always been lifting, so suddenly being able to lift more is no great shakes to me."

"Did you know that this is the longest that you've actually talked to anyone since you got here?" Cordelia confronted her suddenly.

"Well, it's the longest I've been here that somebody hasn't tried getting in my face." Tory retorted. "But… yeah." She relaxed. "Thanks."

"Hey, Xander's tried reaching out." Cordelia said defensively. "But you always shut him down. Look, I know he can be a little dorky sometimes, but-"

Tory surprised Cordelia by actually blushing slightly. "Uh… that was because I couldn't tell if he was trying to be nice to me or trying to… anyway, I knew he was dating you so I didn't want to-"

"Really?" Cordelia said warmly. "You were afraid he was trying to put the make on you, so you didn't want to cut me out?" Her expression suddenly turned dark. "He wasn't trying to put the make on you, was he?"

"No, no!" Tory waved her hands defensively. "I just… look, at my last high school I got caught up in a whole drama where one girl thought her boyfriend was checking me out, and she was Miss Popular and I was the 'We'd call you trailer trash except you're too poor to afford a whole trailer' girl, and…" She exhaled heavily. "You can guess how that one ended. So since then I've tried not to get caught in that kind of situation."

"Well, now you know that Xander's outreach efforts to you are being done with my knowledge and permission, so chill." Cordelia relaxed. "Look, I'm really not known for being the Welcome Wagon lady but…" She shrugged. "It's the start of senior year. People are expecting us to actually learn how to adult soon. And some of us are a little behind schedule on that."

"Hey." Xander's voice broke in, and they both looked up to see him standing there with a concerned expression on his voice. "Cordy, Tory…" He exhaled heavily and continued. "Giles sent me to tell you. Scooby meeting, library, right now."

"Shit." Tory swore softly. "Well, I knew it was coming, so… thanks for the talk, Cordy." She quickly stood up, grabbed her book bag, and strode briskly back into the school building before the others could react.

"How'd it go?" Xander asked Cordelia after she'd gone.

"She's really not so bad once you get her talking like a normal person." Cordelia replied. "But there's still something eating at her. Something besides the whole Buffy thing."

"Well, we'd certainly know absolutely nothing about carrying a whole bunch of trauma drama around inside while we struggled with our school and supernatural demon fighting lives, would we?" Xander said sympathetically, and Cordelia lightly punched him on the arm in exasperation.

* * * * *
​

"We have a problem." Giles said heavily as the Scooby meeting began in the library.

"Just have us patrol separately and it'll work for now." Tory said darkly from the corner she sat glowering in.

"I wasn't referring to that situation." Giles said briskly. "There is a new threat, an unconventional one, and innocent lives are in danger. I'll let Willow explain."

"O-kay, I'm not going to try and get into explaining the whole Internet today, especially for the people who still don't know how to log on." Willow stood up and took a lecturing position at the head of the table. "But to cut a long explanation short there's two kinds of Internet. The public kind that anybody can get onto from the school terminals, and the 'dark web' that's… not so public, and often full of all sorts of nasty people."

"Ugh, this is a computer threat? Please don't tell me that crazy internet demon is back!" Buffy moaned, burying her head in her hands.

"It's not Moloch, and thank goodness." Willow agreed hurriedly. "And the threat isn't from the dark web, that's just how I found out about it. Because there's a new master vampire in town, and very recently he started bragging about his new, uh… I'll just show you the clip."

Willow went to her laptop and hurriedly typed in some commands, and everyone crowded around – with Buffy and Tory carefully on exact opposite sides of the huddle – as the downloaded video started playing.

"Ladies and gentlemen!" an elegantly-dressed dark-skinned vampire with a wide showman's smile addressed the camera.

"I know that asshole!" Tory burst out furiously, suddenly leaping forward to stare intently to the screen from only several feet away. "He - he's the one I followed here to Sunnydale!"

"My name is Mr. Trick, and I am your Master of Ceremonies for tonight's special pay-per-view presentation! Broadcasting live from the Sunnydale Hellmouth, it's time forrrrrrr… Vampire DeathBattle!" he orated proudly, as the camera panned away from him down into a fighting arena. An enclosure of chain-link fence had been set up on what appeared to be the floor of an anonymous warehouse, obviously intended as the venue for a steel cage match.

"First up tonight is everybody's favorite performer Gabriela, aka Gabby Blades! And our rising star has chosen the Two-On-One Challenge tonight, along with the Challenge Star of not letting any of her opponents even draw blood! So let's give it up for Gabby!"

"A vampire underground Street Fighter thing?" Xander said incredulously. "And it's being webcast?"

The sound quality was so poor that those viewing couldn't tell if the applause for the attractive young vampiress strutting around the ring was canned or live, but she did a reasonably good job of drawing hype from the crowd as several more vampire thugs herded out two large and rough-looking men.

"And here's our challengers for tonight, named… it doesn't matter what they're named, because they're booked for one night only. If you know what I mean!" Mr. Trick said knowingly, and the background shifted to a laugh track. "Okay, Gabby, give 'em hell!"

Willow hurriedly clicked the mouse and closed the laptop. "You, uh, really don't want to see the next part." She turned pale. "I didn't even watch it all the way through."

"I did." Giles said meaningfully. "And no, there were… no surprises."

"Somewhere out there this vampire is kidnapping people to throw into his own private Thunderdome and get killed on-screen for the pleasure of the viewing audience." Buffy said disgustedly. "That's… okay, I know they're soulless monsters who only exist to plague the living, but do they not have a limit?"

"Yeah." Tory nodded, her own face pale. "And if he's broadcasting this pay-per-view, he'll be raking in a mint soon. There's millions and millions of vampires all over the planet, and most of them have wi-fi. Even if he charges peanuts, with that kind of potential audience? And nobody else even thinking to do this? Once word gets around-"

"Let him do it long enough and he'll be piling up a huge stake." Cordelia agreed. "And a vampire that clever and ruthless, with that kind of war chest? Eugh."

"Plus all the innocent people getting murdered and eaten for the audience." Xander agreed, his face equally pale. "We've got to find this guy and stop him. Willow, can you like, I don't know, trace the signal?"

"The government can't trace that deep through the dark web, or else it wouldn't exist." Willow said ruefully. "I can't even tell you if he's telling the truth about broadcasting from the Hellmouth."

"I can." Tory said furiously. "That asshole burned down the apartment building where I live in trying to kill me, because somehow he'd gotten tipped off a new Slayer lived there. I saw him plain as day, and chasing his ass up here is how I ran into you guys and found out what the hell was even happening to me. So no, he's here, and even if I haven't been able to get a sniff of him since I got to town-" She shook her head. "He's still here. He has to be."

"And we need to come up with a plan for finding him and ending his operation, and we need to do it quickly." Giles agreed briskly. "Does anyone have any suggestions?"

* * * * *
​

The drug dealer balled his fist and punched hard… and gaped incredulously as his arm was swept aside in mid-air by his opponent's ascending wrist and forearm. Faster than the eye could follow his extended arm was trapped in a restraint hold as the eighteen-year-old boy he was facing simply turned his wrist over, tangled their arms together, and pulled, leaving the man staggering off balance and his free arm windmilling uselessly out to the side. His opponent's other fist rammed up into his solar plexus and left him dangling limp and wheezing.

"I'm going to ask you again." the teenaged boy said, his voice all the more frightening for being entirely calm and level. "Did you see that girl in the photo."

"Y-yeah!" he stammered, as his entrapped arm was twisted to the point of pain and the teenager's other hand clamped down on the back of his neck and forced him to his knees on the rough alley floor. "I-I keep an eye out for girls like that, the pretty ones, coming through here alone without much baggage-"

"So you can try to chat them up and lead the ones stupid enough to trust you on over to your scumbag pimp friends who prey on teenaged runaways, yeah." the boy said icily, silhouetted menacingly in the dim evening light. "That's why I'm talking to you. Guys like you are always on the lookout in places like this. So when did you see her?"

"A couple of weeks ago! I would've tried something, but-" he gasped out.

"That really would not have worked out the way you'd hoped." the boy said, his lips twitching into the beginnings of a feral smile.

"Doesn't matter." The man said. "She got on the bus for Sunnydale, and so I backed off. Anybody who runs away to that town is either too stupid to live or caught up in something that nobody wants any piece of. But it doesn't matter, pretty boy. That town's gonna chew her up and spit her out worse than anything me and my compadres could ever have done."

"Then I know where I'm going next." The boy nodded grimly, and drove his knee savagely into the side of the drug dealer's head before letting his opponent's limp body slump to the pavement.

"Dumbass kid." the dazed man gasped as the teenaged boy who'd unaccountably defeated a full-grown man and experienced petty criminal turned and strode briskly away towards the door back into the bus terminal. "They'll fuckin' kill you there too. That's why I gave you the tip I did." he laughed bitterly to himself as he painfully rose back to his feet and limped away.

Behind his back, the young man who'd so handily defeated him ignored his latest source of information as he walked into the bus station, counting his carefully-hoarded funds and gratefully noting that he had enough left for a ticket and still some in reserve at the other end.

Sunnydale, he thought to himself. Small city up the coast, supposed to be a very quiet place, but that asshole made it sound like it was a death trap- He shrugged and strode onwards. The girl he loved had gone missing weeks ago shortly after her mother's death in a tragic apartment fire. He'd turned up a clue that she'd survived but had unaccountably left town without speaking to anyone, and he'd cleaned out his savings and followed after her as best he could. Following her trail down the coast hadn't been easy, but somehow he'd managed. And now he was closing in on what would hopefully be the last stop on his journey-

Hang on, Tory. Robby Keene prayed desperately. Whatever's driving you to lose yourself like this, just hang on. I'm coming as fast as I can.

---

Author's Note: And, a little more character development, some building tension... and a new threat on the horizon! Man, this thing just won't let my brain go. Still no promises on if it'll ever gel into an actual story, I'm just not getting the outline together like I do for actual story prospects. But I can dump the scratchpad here.

For non-viewers, Mr. Trick is a canon character and the villain for the first half of BtvS season 3. In canon his media venture was 'SlayerFest', a setup to kidnap both Slayers and have them hunted 'Running Man' style by hand-picked teams of killers while the audience gambled on the outcome. Here he's going for an underground gladiator show instead where normals are kidnapped and forced to fight vampires in grotesquely unfair matches, with all sorts of gimmicks and pageantry to make it entertaining as the vampire audience gets some fun bloodlust and sadism. Basically as rigged as pro wrestling, only with actual dying.

And no, Tory hasn't told anyone her mother died in that apartment fire, so they don't know her mom's death was that recent or still hitting her that hard. The way Tory told the story makes it sounds like her mom passed a while ago. Although Cordelia has picked up that Tory is missing at least one more person than her sensei, and that it might even be a boy her age, because she didn't miss Tory slipping up and saying 'we'.

For those wondering at Cordelia being the way she is here, several points to remember. One, this is season 3 Cordelia, and one still in her relationship with Xander at that, so she's notably more mature than season 1 Cordelia. Two, Cordy's trying extra hard to be diplomatic because the Buffy-v-Tory situation has already escalated into workplace violence and something urgently needs to be done. And lastly, Tory actually does respond better to a 'cut the crap' attitude than she does to nicey-nicing about it, so long as it doesn't cross the line into being outright insulting, and Cordelia is exactly the right person to hit that sweet spot.

The 'missing Slayer' in the interim is necessary to keep the timeline consistent. If Tory only very recently got Called at the start of BtvS season 3, since Kendra died at the end of season 2 then there's a gap. In the show that gap was explainable by the travel time Faith used hitching cross-country to get from Boston to Sunnydale, but Tory had a much shorter trip. And no, the missing girl wasn't Faith. I love Faith as a character, I'd never do something like that to her. She's still back in Boston, an un-Called Potential Slayer happily training away under her Watcher, and everything's going fine.

 

[cliffc999]

"Of course your first suggestion would be to commit breaking and entering." Buffy eye-rolled.

"Okay, what's your plan for getting those records out of the cable company?" Tory retorted. "Because Willow already tried hacking them remotely and got nowhere."

"Something less illegal?" Buffy temporized.

"Maybe some sideways thinking?" Xander tried interjecting diplomatically. "Because if we can't try to find Mr. Trick by his Internet connection, what else can we try?"

"Tory's right." Willow put in diffidently. "Mr. Trick's operation could physically be anywhere he's got enough room to set up his arena-"

"And hold his prisoners." Cordelia interrupted.

Willow nodded at that. "But wherever it is, he's got to be able to transmit his stream to the dark web. And he wouldn't want to do that via an ordinary home internet connection, because most ISPs flag residential accounts that stream tons and tons of data to and from the more notorious web domains. Admittedly they're looking for software pirates, not illegal underground fighting rings, but he still wouldn't want to risk his account being frozen."

"But if this guy's setting up an entire online multimedia station complete with payment systems, then he needs the sort of Internet hookup that a commercial business would use." Cordelia nodded. "And that's a finite number of accounts in a town this size, and we only have one cable company."

"Couldn't he just be stealing his Internet?" Buffy asked.

"That's possible, but then he'd have to be pirating off a major Internet node for them not to notice all the bandwidth he'd be stealing on top of their own." Willow said. "A major streaming site like Vampire DeathBattle would have a lot of network traffic, and even if he's starting small now he's obviously planning to expand into something huge and we've got to give Mr. Trick credit for thinking ahead."

"We're talking in circles." Tory shook her head. "Okay, if we aren't going to try and trace his distribution then what about his supply chain? He's needs to keep finding fresh victims for his show, and he needs them to be people strong enough to at least not die instantly on-camera so his sicko audience doesn't get too bored. How would you guarantee yourself a supply of that kind of people?"

"The first thought that comes to mind is by monitoring places that are already training people to fight, but there are no martial arts schools in Sunnydale." Giles thought out loud.

"Don't I know it." Tory scoffed. "I couldn't find anywhere to supplement my lessons."

"Those weren't high school or college kids we saw on the video clip, and we don't have a recent spike in missing students either." Buffy nodded. "So they're not using the athletics teams here for recruits, either, not like what happened last year."

"The video clip." Xander snapped his fingers. "Willow, can you run the faces of those two guys we saw sent in there and check them against missing persons reports? If we can find out where they were taken, that might lead us to how Trick is snatching his 'contestants'."

"There's also logistics to consider." Oz contributed from where he'd been quietly sitting in the corner. "Every building in the county is a large list, but if we narrow it down to places that can hold an improvised arena and enough room to build an improvised prisoner dungeon and quarter a gang of vampires and has commercial Internet fiber running to it-"

"Cross-referencing cable maps against zoning licenses and building plans, check." Willow said. "Whoo, I'm gonna need extra caffeine for this all-nighter."

"Having Willow run all those cross-checks is great, but what do we do while we're waiting on all that?" Xander asked. "Because Trick's next show is tonight."

"We go try to beat some answers out of Willy the Snitch." Buffy said firmly. "And any other vampire in town we can catch. Trick just got to town a couple weeks ago, he had to recruit his muscle somewhere local."

"Works for me." Tory said, jumping to her feet.

"Buffy, you're more familiar with Willy's." Giles said. "So that's for you and I. Tory, take Xander and Cordelia and patrol aggressively in the warehouse district. Interrogate any likely target of opportunity that you find. Oz, stay here with Willow and help her research."

With a murmur of acknowledgements all around, everyone split up into their assigned squads and headed out.

* * * * *
​

"And let's give a big round of applause to our Western Regional karate champions of the Under-21 division, Robby Keene and Tory Nichols!" the announcer's voice boomed throughout the stadium as the crowd burst into thunderous applause.

"We did it!" Robby exulted as he caught Tory up in a furious hug, the two of them squeezing each other's ribs hard enough to leave the other out of breath before she grabbed him by the collar of his karate gi and kissed him hard enough to take his breath away via another method. Cameras flashed and knowing laughter echoed softly from the crowd.

"I'm so proud of both of you!" Johnny Lawrence, their sensei and Robby's father, came up and hugged them both simultaneously, one in each arm. "Now break it up, you're making out in front of a live studio audience." he continued amusedly.

"Not a chance!" Tory laughed, and defiantly hugged Robby even tighter.

"Gonna need your hands free to hoist your trophies. Come on, let's not keep 'em waiting." Johnny insisted, and finally got his two eager charges separated enough to lead them over to the podium to complete the awards ceremony. The presentation continued without incident, and both of them triumphantly hoisted their trophies high over their heads as their sensei stood proudly behind them.

"Holding up our trophies side by side." Tory said wondrously. "Just like we promised."

"Just like we promised." Robby muttered to himself, as his eyes opened from where he'd been fitfully sleeping on the bus seat.

"End of the line, kid." The bus driver called out.

"Thanks." Robby said, getting to his feet and cracking his back with a stretch. The several other passengers who'd been on the late evening run had already gotten off.

"Look, you got anyone meeting you at the station?" the driver asked. "Because if not then I'd suggest you just stay on the bus and let me give you a ride back here tomorrow, in the daylight. I know it looks fine, but this is not a town you want to walk around in after dark. I've… heard things."

"So have I." Robby nodded. "Thanks, I'll be fine."

"It's your funeral." The driver sighed, and closed the doors behind his last departing passenger and drove slowly away to the terminal's refueling point in preparation for his return trip.

That's two people who keep talking like this town is very dangerous. Robby thought to himself as he moved through the small and cozy bus terminal that serviced Sunnydale. But this place looks… nice. It's as clean and cozy as a Norman Rockwell painting- aaaand, there's nobody manning the counter at this hour. I hope there's at least a tourist brochure or something I can grab.

A quick examination of the nearby map stand turned up a brightly-printed tour guide to Sunnydale, and Robby flipped right past the jaunty advertising copy and welcome speech to look at the map on the back. One chain hotel, a couple of motels, one nightclub called 'The Bronze', a Uuiversity of California satellite campus, an airport, a maritime terminal- damn, there's a lot of money moving through here for a place with a population of only 40,000 or so. Why would a town this prosperous have so many people saying the streets are a war zone after dark?

After briefly thinking it over Robby discarded the idea of just sleeping on a bus terminal bench until morning and decided to go check out the Bronze. With both a high school and a college crowd for potential customers, there'd definitely be people there his own age he could talk to and try to gather more information from. And it was a Friday night, so even at this late an hour the club would still be open.

And despite the picturesque and brightly-colored buildings and the neat suburban streets, the hair on the back of Robby's neck had already risen before he'd gone a block.

Jesus, I spent most of one summer as a kid sleeping under a bridge when Mom flaked out and went off on that weeks-long bender with her latest boyfriend and forgot I was even there, and before Dad finally pulled himself out of the bottle and got cleaned up enough he could take me back in. And that was in the rougher parts of the Valley. And this place is supposed to be Mayberry West, but I feel like I'm in more danger now than I was then! Something is wrong with this pla-

There was a trick to keeping a lookout all around you without obviously turning around that involved subtle head movements and peripheral vision, and half of a lifetime spent in bad neighborhoods and a broken home had educated Robby in that technique very well indeed. Which is why he noted his shadow almost immediately after they'd started tailing him.

One girl, looks to be a few years older than me, tough-looking Hispanic chick. Dressed rough, but nothing that looks like gang colors. Not living on the street either, she's not ragged or dirty enough.

"Hey handsome." The girl called out when she was half a block behind him. "Where you headed?"

"Home." Robby answered levelly without turning around. "My folks are expecting me."

"You don't have to go home that early, hon, it's Friday night! Maybe your luck will change, hrm?" she called out seductively as she picked up her pace, closing the distance between them.

Robby opened his mouth as if to reply- and suddenly took off running, setting a very respectable sprinting pace down the street. His nerves, a subliminal sense of the situation, were all screaming Danger! at him, and he'd learned long ago to trust his instincts. The girl cursed under her breath and immediately took off after him.

Damn, she's fast! Robby noted, as his pursuer steadily made up the distance between them despite Robby being a top-tier athlete who was setting the best pace he could. I'm not losing her on a straightaway-

After a quick glance around at the next corner to evaluate his options, Robby immediately turned right and sprinted down the sidewalk adjacent to the cross-street. Immediately after the first storefront a narrow gap was visible between that store and the adjacent building, and Robby hurriedly glanced back to make sure his pursuer hadn't turned the corner yet – the coast was clear! He ducked into the gap between buildings, then immediately did a very impressive leap upwards, kicked off the facing wall to gain even more height, and turned in mid-air to grab the window bars covering the second-story windows of the building he'd just cornered around. Moving as quietly as possible he continued his climb up past the window and over and onto the roof of the low building, hoping that his pursuer had either missed his turn entirely or was currently standing back down in that narrow alleyway wondering where the hell he'd gone-

-and Robby's jaw fell open as he crashed to an incredulous halt, as the girl pursuing him suddenly came up over the front of the building, despite their having been no way to climb the smooth face of the storefront.

"Hot damn!" she grinned wildly. "I knew that tip-off we got wasn't a dud! But I'm on a schedule tonight, so how's about you just come quietly? Don't worry, I won't bite." She chuckled sadistically. "Which is a much better deal than midnight strollers usually get in this town." Robby's jaw dropped even further as another stranger, this one a burly-looking older man, also came into view as this time he got a clear view of the man doing an outright superhuman leap over the edge of the roof.

"What the hell are you?" Robby demanded frantically, as he hurriedly assumed a half-front stance and brought his fists up in a blocking position.

The sudden morphing of their faces into yellow-eyed snarling demons with prominent twin fangs was his only answer.

* * * * *
​

"Willy didn't know anything useful." Buffy groused as she and Giles re-entered the library shortly before midnight. "Although he did recognize the screencap you took of Mr. Trick as someone who'd been in his bar last week, so the guy definitely is in town."

"Warehouse district didn't have anything except a few random vamps who didn't know shit." Tory said disgustedly, as a weary Xander and Cordelia half-dozed in library chairs behind her. "We also checked out half a dozen of the likeliest-looking buildings there, but nothing."

"We've got a likely prospect for Mr. Trick's site." Willow said eagerly. "The old Calax Research & Development building? Isolated location, hardened containment facility, heavy-duty wired connection direct to the Internet backbone, and it's been abandoned for two years since-"

"-we fought Moloch the Corruptor there in sophomore year." Buffy nodded. "Unfortunately, I already had that brainstorm and so me and Giles checked the place out on our way back from Willy's. Nada."

"Damn." Oz swore mildly as Willow's face fell. "There's a couple of possible alternate sites, but nothing likely."

"And Trick's latest livestream is set to start at midnight." Willow said. "Someone else is going to die tonight."

"Then please set it up on your infernal machine." Giles said wearily. "We need to analyze all the webcasts we can for clues. Although you younger people don't need to watch-"

"You're the most tech-illiterate guy I've ever known, and I learned karate from a man who thought that flip phones were still the hot new thing." Tory said flatly. "I know you don't want any of us watching the content not for younger viewers, but if we're analyzing for clues then at least some of us have to be."

"She's right." Buffy admitted reluctantly. "The more eyes on the problem, the more likely it is that one of us notices something. Even if it means we're going to be ringside seats to a murder."

"Very well." Giles agreed reluctantly. "But if anyone even begins to feel themselves reaching the limits of their endurance, don't wait for permission to leave."

"He means we don't have any barf bags, so spare the rug." Xander tried to joke as Willow began the process of spoofing the user authentication on Vampire DeathBattle's darknet site and setting up a recorder for the livestream.

Soon enough the familiar features of Mr. Trick filled the laptop's screen, and he launched into his now-familiar opening shpiel and began announcing the first act.

"We've got a live one to open the show tonight, folks! This young man almost evaded one of our capture teams, not to mention actually broke Gabby's nose in the ensuing brawl! Which is why I've decided he's earned a place in our One-on-One event, against one of our own fresh young contenders! Could this be the night that one of the fresh meat actually turns the table on the predators of the night?" Mr. Trick laughed mockingly. "I doubt it, but hey, the faint chance of actually cleaning up on a long shot is what brings people to the casino, am I right? At any rate, let's give it up for-"

"ROBBY?" Tory's anguished scream startled everyone in the library as she frantically leaned forward to almost touch the screen. "No no nooo-" she moaned, deaf to the reaction of everyone around her. Buffy turned to look at her in shock, her jaw falling open and her eyes going wide with realization.

"Hey you." The broadcast cleary displayed Robby Keene fearlessly interrupting Mr. Trick's speech. "You're the guy in charge, right?"

"What did I say, folks?" Mr. Trick smoothly turned to face his heckler. "I'm not sure if he's brave or stupid, but either way, he's definitely a cut above the usual beggin' and whinin' we get in here so we can at least give him that!"

"Your girl – you know, the one who leads with her face – said that she was 'tipped off' about me coming to Sunnydale. Before you kill me, you mind telling me what she meant?" Robby asked.

"What the hell is this kid doing?" Cordelia asked incredulously.

"Gathering information." Giles said evenly. "For us. Or anyone like us. He knows he's on a live broadcast, and he's praying that eventually someone hostile to Mr. Trick's operations will investigate it… and play back a recording of this conversation." He sighed. "And he's spending the last minutes of his life trying to give us a lead."

"That guy whose ass you kicked at the bus station?" Mr. Trick gloated. "You think he didn't have a boss he'd call about somebody messing around on his turf? And you think that boss wouldn't know where he could sell information about troublemakers who might put up a good scrap and that nobody would miss? I clean up on both ends of my operation, young man. People pay me good money to take care of problems for them, and then I bring the problems here and people pay me even better money to watch them die. There, that's your little conundrum resolved for you. So you got any other last requests that I can ignore?"

"Well if I'm so outmatched anyway, then there shouldn't be any risk in your stepping down here and give me a shot at breaking your face." Robby replied immediately.

"Damn." Mr. Trick raised an eyebrow. "I got to admire your spunk, young man. Hey Mike, when you take him down try to leave him just barely alive for me to finish, all right? I'm thinkin' I might like to see what kind of vampire this boy would make."

"NO!" Tory shrieked, and Buffy took the hysterical Slayer by the arm and turned Tory around to face her.

"Tory!" Buffy pleaded with her, hauling her away. "They have to see! They have to keep watching so we can find this bastard!"

"I can't-" Tory shuddered, going limp into Buffy's arms. "I'm sorry, I can't-" she wept.

"Come on." Buffy said, leading her away. "You're right, you don't have to watch this. Come with me."

The two Slayers headed outside the library to the hallway, and Tory immediately slumped down on the floor and put her back against the wall. Buffy sat down facing her.

"Your boyfriend?" Buffy asked compassionately.

"Yeah." Tory nodded, her eyes still streaming tears. "Robby Keene. We were- it wasn't just high school dating. It was too early to use the words, but-"

"He was the one." Buffy nodded, her face full of understanding. "The one you knew you wanted a whole lifetime with." She sighed. "I had someone like that too. Once."

"Had?" Tory asked knowingly.

"Vampire." Buffy replied evenly. "And as of last spring… destroyed. By me."

"Oh God." Tory winced. "Buffy, I'm so sorry."

"So am I." Buffy nodded. "I'm sorry I gave you so much shit because I was grieving and angry and would gladly do anything with my own emotions except actually face up to them. I'm sorry I took what was already the worst month of your life and did nothing but make it worse." She sighed. "And above all, I'm sorry you're about to go through something that I've already been through, and that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy."

"Robby said they picked him up in Sunnydale." Tory moaned. "He came here. He came here following me. All because I had the stupid idea that if I never called home then they'd think I was dead in that fire- that they wouldn't follow up-" She broke down. "He walked right into the Hellmouth unawares and he's going to become an undying monster that I'll have to put down and if I'd just picked up a damn phone even once I could have warned him-"

"I'll put him down, if need be." Buffy promised her. "You won't even have to see him."

"No." Tory said. "I have to- we promised each other." She whispered. "Side by side."

"Tell me about him." Buffy asked.

"Why do you care?" Tory snapped.

Buffy ignored Tory's anger and sighed knowingly. "Tory, pretty soon the others are going to come out of that room and tell us the broadcast's over. And when they do, it's all going to come crashing down on you like a ton of bricks. You'll feel hollow, you'll feel empty… you'll feel all sorts of things. And all that feeling will drown out everything else. The memories of the good times you had together… the moments where you felt the most love… the sound of his voice…" Buffy's expression turned downcast. "Your mind will forget where it stored them. So please, while you still can… share at least some of those memories with me. So when the time comes, I can give them back to you."

"Robby was Sensei Lawrence's son." Tory began. "I met him for the first time in detention… I'd been there because some girl thought I'd stolen her wallet and of course the poor trash is a thief, no need for proof, right? And he was there because the school bully gang were jumping this other kid at three-to-one odds and Robby had gone flying in there to break it up, but of course he's the one who gets punished. So that was our first moment in common, getting screwed by the system." Tory chuckled weakly. "Our school's vice-principal was as bad as Snyder is here. I wonder if it's a job requirement."

"Seems as if." Buffy nodded. "So, there you were, delinquents together?"

"That was our rep, but it wasn't true." Tory said. "I mean, Robby had been – both his mom and dad had been drunks, and divorced, and for a while there in middle school he'd practically been a feral kid because neither of them were parenting at all. But by the time I'd met him his dad had gotten off the booze – and stayed off – and his mom had gone even further down the hole, so dad 7had custody and Robby was living a straight life and Sensei was taking care of him." She exhaled. "I know it had used to be a little rough between them, but by the time I got there they'd mostly made it up. So there I was, dirt-poor kid with a single mom who was too sick to work, alongside another dirt-poor kid with a single dad doing handyman gigs out of his pickup truck. We had all that in common, and both being stuck with 'bad kid' tags we hadn't really deserved in common… and then I found out Robby's dad had been Under-21 National karate champion once, and he still had his martial arts instructor's certification from the time he'd been in the Army after high school. And I'd already been into karate since middle school… not to compete, not then, but just to have an outlet, you know? So we ended up the only two students of a guy teaching us privately, and hey, it turns out he's really good at teaching martial arts. And so we ended up competing locally, and then in official tournaments." Tory smiled. "Robby and I both got gold medal at this year's Western Regional karate tournament, and we'd have been up at Nationals this winter except for…" She trailed off.

"Yeah." Buffy said. "When I was a little girl, I wanted to grow up to be Dorothy Hamill. Got my dad to pay for ten hours of skating lessons a week. Even made it to Juniors competition… once, and barely." She shrugged. "But I just didn't have the talent to make it into Seniors, let alone the Olympic qualifiers. So I hung up the skates and settled for high school cheerleading. Until after I became the Slayer, my own athletic talents were distinctly mid." She nodded. "But I know what it's like, contending for a championship. The hours… the dedication… the rush, when it all comes together. And you got to do that and win, and had someone you loved doing it all alongside you, understanding and sharing all of it." She nodded to Tory. "It must have been wonderful."

"It was." Tory nodded. "Even with Mom's illness… having to work after school just to get enough money to eat… all the bullshit of being dirt poor and social services not giving a crap… I still always had Sensei Lawrence and Robby. Mom loved them, and… hell, there's official paperwork somewhere saying Sensei was supposed to get custody of me if Mom passed away before I turned eighteen." She sighed. "And she almost did."

"Wait, almost? You're barely eighteen now! But that means-" Buffy startled.

"It happened during the apartment fire." Tory nodded. "I know I made it sound like she'd passed away a while ago, and she was really sick – the reason she died is because she was bedridden and couldn't get out of the apartment when the fire started." Tory lowered her eyes. "I'd gone out to the convenience store to pick something up. I got back just in time to see it was too late." She clcnched her fist. "And I saw Mr. Trick there. He'd set the fire. Somehow he'd known I was the newest Slayer- I don't have any clue how- hell, I hadn't even told anyone what had happened to me yet, it hadn't even been two days! I'd been afraid I was hallucinating!"

"I get that." Buffy nodded. "So that's why you turned up in Sunnydale. You'd followed the guy who killed your mom here."

"He'd kinda left an obvious trail." Tory nodded. "I still don't know if he was running scared or he was baiting me. God knows I was charging after him like a berserk bull after a matador."

"Well, we can ask Trick that after we finish hunting him down and right before turning him to ash." Buffy agreed. "But you were talking about Robby?"

"He could be the stubbornest damn idiot in the world sometimes." Tory said lovingly. "Although that's an accusation he also made about me, if you can believe it."

"No way." Buffy agreed sardonically. "Not you, never."

"I used to be so angry at how unfair life was." Tory nodded. "And so was he, back before he and his dad reconnected. The kind of anger that's filled you up for so long that you feel like you could never empty it out. But when we were with each other… it was okay." She exhaled heavily. "We always knew that the other one understood. That they appreciated it was like. That we'd always face whatever came together." She smiled sadly. "And somehow that all meant that we didn't need to be angry anymore."

"You had gaps. He had gaps. And together… you filled each other's gaps." Buffy nodded.

"Yeah." Tory said. "And now I've- and now he's going to-" she broke down sobbing.

"I know, Tory." Buffy held onto her, her own eyes streaming tears. "I know. But I promise you, you still won't be alone."

Tory flinched away and drew tighter into Buffy's embrace as the library door opened. Buffy looked up, her expression a stone mask of resignation, as Giles looked compassionately down at them both.

"It's over?" Buffy asked softly.

"No." Giles surprised them both. "But against all expectations, we still have a chance."

---

Author's Note: And next chapter, I'll have to write one of the best fight scenes in my life. Wish me luck!

But yeah, I told you I wasn't going to write Buffy as an irredeemable bitch. Granted, the process of making up wouldn't have gone anywhere near this quickly if circumstances hadn't been so dire, but if there's one thing Buffy can empathize with above all else it's the agony Tory is going through right now. Because she's only recently off of losing Angel in an even more tearjerking way, so she really can relate.

 

[cliffc999]

Robby Keene took his stance and took a measured deep breath, then slowly exhaled. Corded muscles tensed up and down his arms and legs, then relaxed again. Across the ring waited his opponent – to all surface appearances an ordinary-looking young man only several years older than him, but actually an inhuman monster.

Vampires are real, and now I'm fighting one to the death. Robby thought to himself. For the amusement of an entire pack of them, plus whoever they're streaming this to. A small part of his mind marveled that he wasn't gibbering in terror right now, but there was no room in his heart for fear. Just a cold, gnawing despair… and an even more cold and intent anger.

That smirking bastard recognized Tory's picture in my wallet. Robby fumed to himself. He knew who she was. He must have seen her before. And if they've been kidnapping kids who can fight for their sick deathmatches, then- He looked down at the stained cement floor that he knew had recently seen the blood of the girl he loved, and took another deep breath.

I'm sorry I was too late, Tory. Robby thought quietly to himself. I broke my promise. But I'm making a new one, right now. And I'll keep it or die trying.

"Let's go, last place." Robby curled his lip scornfully. "I've got a whole tournament ladder to climb, and it starts with you."

"Boss, I'm thinking we should have drug tested this kid before we set him up." The young vampire – 'Mike', Mr. Trick had called him – rolled his eyes. "Can you believe how Hollywood this shit is?"

"Then it's up to you to show him that life ain't a movie." Mr. Trick smirked from where he sat overseeing the arena from the announcer's table. "Game on!"

Robby shifted his weight to his back foot and kept his fists down at his side, patiently waiting for his opponent's first move. These things are faster than humans. Got to let him come to me-

Mike threw one feint, then another, drawing only the smallest reactions from Robby. On the third feint he took a long step forward, his fast lashing out in a furious arc, only for it to fall short as Robby weaved back just out of reach and then immediately returned to his standing position. Robby's rapid counter-punch slammed into Mike's undefended ribs but the vampire shook off the blow like it wasn't even there. Mike capitalized on the opening in Robby's defense with a roundhouse that was just barely caught in time by Robby's double forearm block, although Mike's vampiric strength still knocked him back out of his stance. Mike immediately lunged to the attack again, capitalizing on the latest opening to leap forward and try and throw a flying knee into Robby-

-and Robby immediately cartwheeled forward and left, flipping in mid-air over Mike's advance to land behind him and immediately snap a low kick into the back of Mike's knee as he landed. The vampire's forward leg collapsed under his weight and left him sprawling forward to crash headfirst into the enclosing fence. However, Robby's immediate rush forward to follow up ran directly into the sprawling Mike's hasty mule kick, and Robby barely managed to get his arms up again in time to keep the vampire's superhumanly strong legs from caving in his ribs. As is, Robby was taken clean off his feet by the force of the blow and launched sprawling back across the arena to barely keep his footing as he touched down almost ten feet away, with livid bruises starting to show on both of his forearms.

Although temporarily knocked out of breath from the blow, Robby's body was so full of adrenalin that the pain from his bruises didn't even touch his awareness. He fell back into his stance just barely in time to weave to the side away from one of Mike's punches, swatted away another punch while using the momentum to keep circling left, and disrupted the timing of the third by snapping a low kick directly into Mike's advancing leg as he stepped in to punch again.

Good form on his punches, not much kicking, very basic footwork. Street fighter, maybe with some boxing experience. Robby evaluated. But he's faster, stronger, and won't run out of breath-

Robby pivoted and leapt forward, pressuring Mike with an elaborate feint-and-sidekick to the head intended more to intimidate than to actually do damage. Robby's heart leapt into his mouth as Mike's vampire speed allowed him to seize his kicking leg in mid-air, but without hesitation Robby immediately leaped off his standing leg, pivoted on the leg he was being held by in mid-air, and brought his foot scything viciously around to slam directly into the side of Mike's face. Dazed with the force of the blow Mike let go of his ankle and staggered away to the side, and Robby nimbly twisted in mid-air and landed on the balls of his feet. A thin rivulet of blood ran down from the scrape Robby had left on Mike's cheekbone.

"First blood to the live one!" Mr. Trick's voice broke through Robby's focus. "Whoever laid their money on that long shot just cleaned up, so congratulations to you all!"

Mike howled in rage and shifted into game face, charging forward with his arms outstretched to grapple and tackle. Robby grasped both of Mike's outstretched wrists and fell backwards, pulling Mike off his feet and up and over his head as the supine Robby brought both feet up into Mike's stomach and kicked off hard. The sacrifice throw sent Mike soaring high into the air to land like a sack of bricks on the concrete floor almost twelve feet away.

Robby expertly kipped-up and landed directly on his feet, his teeth set in a grimace of pain but his resolve still absolute. He turned 180 degrees to face back towards his opponent, who was still painfully picking themselves up off the floor, and calculated icily. He's still got his defenses up, I can't risk closing in now. And as soon as he regains his footing he's going to go berserk. One solid hit and I'm done… but if I can set him up, make myself an opening…

The next fifteen seconds were the most frantic weaving and blocking Robby had ever done in his life, as a merciless opponent physically superior to anyone he'd ever even imagined fighting before pressed his attack with murderous fury. Only his opponent's relative lack of training and subsequent telegraphing of his blows let Robby survive at all – every weave, dodge, sidestep, or block was just barely in time even with the advanced warning he was receiving, as the vampire utilized the full potential of his augmented speed and endurance. Even then the almost-hits still staggered Robby slightly, and left him with a nasty bruise on his cheekbone and several more bumps and cuts.

At the speed they were going Robby had no opportunity for conscious calculation, his every reaction driven solely by honed instinct and merciless training. But those sufficed as Robby suddenly switched from full defense to offense at exactly the right instant. Mike had been lunging in yet again, the full weight of his body thrown behind his furious jab, and so he was unable to redirect his momentum in time as his blocking and dodging opponent instead suddenly rooted and committed to a furious spin kick – a kick that brought Robby's outstretched foot, swinging around with the power of a mace-and-chain, directly into contact with the outstretched knuckles of Mike's right hand as it punched forward.

Robby's aggressive kicking parry used the force of Mike's own vampiric strength against him to shatter his knuckles and snap his finger bones as surely as if Mike had punched a granite wall. The vampire's throaty, distorted howl almost overloaded the microphone as he stumbled back, clutching his broken hand in agony.

"Holy shit, folks, did you see that? Our boy Robby is on fire!" Mr. Trick's voice momentarily faded into Robby's awareness again before reverting to a background murmur.

"Fuckin' hell, kid." Mike spoke to his opponent for the first time, shocked out of his blind rage by the sheer unexpected pain. "Now I can see why the boss actually wants to turn you."

"He can get in here and try." Robby replied furiously.

Mike clutched his injured hand to his side and raised his other fist high, as the two opponents circled each other warily. "You won't last that long. I'm undead, you dumbass. Only one of us dies from bleeding out or having bones broken, and your bare hands couldn't do lethal damage to me if I stood still and let you."

"Prove it." Robby smiled thinly, and Mike smiled back – before simply walking forward.

"Where you gonna go, hotshot?" Mike said. "If I don't rush in then you won't have enough momentum to trip me again with my own weight. And sooner or later I'm gonna get you in a corner."

Robby flicked his head left, then right, as if looking for an opening, while Mike's methodical advance did indeed back him up more and more towards the opposing cage wall. Robby's expression grew more and more anxious, as Mike's fanged grin exuded more and more confidence.

He's figured it out. If I stay on the defensive then slow-and-steady will let him eventually corner me – and once I run out of room to maneuver, I'm dead. Robby thought to himself, his righteous fury fading away to a quiet emptiness. Robby placed his left hand behind his back and under the tail of his jacket, while raising his right arm to a high guard. He gathered himself for one last rush forward, an all-out attempt to push past his opponent and regain some maneuvering room on the far side of the ring-

Mike grinned more widely at seeing Robby gathering himself for a rush and stopped and raised both his arms. His unbroken hand reached out slightly, ready to strike or grapple at the earliest opportunity, while the arm with his broken hand switched to a blocking stance and made ready to use the still-serviceable forearm and upper arm as a defensive tool.

Just like I'd hoped. Robby grinned inwardly to himself, and with a furious kiai he launched into a whirling series of spin kicks. The spinning, whirling karateka came across the floor directly towards Mike like a top, building an irresistible momentum as he spun again and again, and the vampire laughed mockingly as he set himself firmly to receive Robby's charge. While almost any human opponent would be knocked to the ground by the overwhelming force of Robby's final kick, given how charged with momentum it would be, Mike knew he could remain standing against it via sheer strength – and then his opponent would be wide open. Robby's foot touched down again, completing his penultimate revolution just out of range of Mike's reach – and at the last second he suddenly kicked off his standing leg rather than his raised one, converting the momentum of his spin into a dizzying mid-air launch and furiously counterrotating with extended arms.

Robby's leading right hand, clenched in a hammerfist, was swept aside by Mike's blocking arm. But with his fingers on that hand all broken Mike needed his other arm to clinch the grapple, and so the vampire ignored Robby's left fist and reached out instead to catch Robby by the collar of his jacket and halt his rush-

-as Robby's unimpeded left arm continued its motion despite Robby's being halted in mid-air, flashing around in a neat arc to strike directly on Mike's sternum. The vampire laughed mockingly one last time as Robby's left hand slammed home, ignoring the blow as he drew his opponent in for a fatal bite…

… only for Mike's expression to collapse in dull shock, as he looked down to see the jagged piece of wood sticking directly out of his chest. It was a broken-off chunk of a wooden pallet that Robby had discovered on the floor of the storage closet he'd been held prisoner in, the one that he'd had tucked into the back of his waistband underneath his jacket. He'd retrieved it and held in a reverse grip alongside his forearm where Mike had missed seeing it during his final attack. And at the opportune moment Robby had simply reversed his grip again and rammed the improvised stake home.

As Mike shrieked and dusted, and all the vampires surrounding the arena gaped in shock, Robby brought the stake up as if it were a short sword and looked warily all around as if to fend off whoever might lunge at him next. The several snarling ringside attendants looked like they were all ready to pile forward to do just that, until a methodical, slow clapping sound drew everyone's attention.

Mr. Trick finished his mocking slow clap from where he still lounged confidently in his seat at the announcer's table, his ignored cigarette smoldering nearby in a nearby ashtray. "Hot damn, Robby. You just became the first contestant of Vampire DeathBattle to actually beat the vampire." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "You know, I hadn't actually considered this possibility when I was originally setting up my tournament rules. I'm not sure what kind of prize would be appropriate."

"The other people you're holding prisoner here. Let them go." Robby answered immediately.

"Ain't asking for yourself?" Mr. Trick raised his eyebrows inquiringly.

"I already know you'd never agree to let me go." Robby said. "And besides, I've got unfinished business here."

"You want immortality?" Mr. Trick looked mildly shocked. "Okay then." He nodded matter-of-factly. "After the show you put on, you are clearly the sort of go-getter that I love to recruit. So if you want to join us, then just step right on over here and I will gladly do it for you."

"Not even close." Robby shook his head scornfully. "I want you." He nodded meaningfully down at the dust pile that had been Mike.

"So you are just plain crazy." Trick shrugged. "Well, guess you won't make a good vampire after all then. I prefer at least a measure of self-control in my employees. But after the show you put on, at least you'll be good for some mondo box office. A human kid who actually took out a vampire? The gambling on you will be immense! Who knows, do well enough in the next couple of rounds and maybe I actually might give you a shot at the title fight!" Trick smirked, cocking one of his thumbs back at himself.

"Thanks for letting me know what I have to look forward to." Robby nodded. "And what my value is. Let the others go and you've got my parole until either I kill you, or you kill me."

"Can't let 'em go." Mr. Trick shook his head. "Witnesses. People who could lead people here. It just ain't happenin'."

Robby immediately reversed the stake in his hand and brought the jagged point of the scrap wood up to his own jugular vein. "I really want to kill you, but Tory wouldn't want revenge at the price of innocent lives. So if you want your star attraction then you will make the trade. Or else you get nothing."

"Nope." Trick shook his head decisively. "Security risk is security risk, and ain't no amount of money is worth it. But I'll give you a compromise offer, hero. Every night you stay alive in here is another night that I don't kill any of them. And hey… where there's life, there's hope, right?" he mocked.

Robby drew his teeth back in frustration, but reluctantly nodded… and tossed away the stake.

"Take him the hell out back and lock him up… and make damn sure you've swept the room first this time, you dumbasses!" Trick ordered. "And you heard it here, folks. Robby here just signed himself up for league competition, and the first of our special challenge matches against our boy hunter will be tomorrow night! So make sure to tune in for the next thrilling episode of… Vampire DeathBattle!"

* * * * *
​

"I need to learn more karate." Buffy said dazedly, staring down at the screen. Next to her Tory was still silently weeping tears – of joy, not grief – at her beloved's miraculous deliverance.

"I've watched it twice, and I still can't believe he actually won!" Xander gaped.

"So practical upshot; we've got one more day to find and save him, and all those other people he mentioned." Oz refocused everyone. "But how?"

"By getting some sleep?" Cordelia moaned exhaustedly. "We've got maybe six hours until dawn, and even if we found them instantly there's no way you could fight those guys as tired as we are now! So it's either down time now or down time later, and later will be when they're all stuck inside during daytime and can't get away from us."

"That-" Tory lowered her fist. "… actually makes logical sense, as much as I hate to admit it." She breathed out heavily and continued in a more normal tone of voice. "Thanks."

"The sleeping bags are in my office." Giles agreed. "Fortunately, tomorrow isn't a school day."

The somewhat more rested Scooby Gang reassembled the next morning after sending Xander and Tory out on an early breakfast run, then spent the next several hours before lunch checking out Willow's list of possible sites.

"Nothing!" Tory fumed, frustratedly punching one of the heavy bags in the training area. "Trick's operation isn't near the city."

"Robby turned us up the clue that Trick's getting his 'contestants' by networking with criminal gangs in this and adjacent counties." Xander suggested. "Anybody got an idea for how we could get the info we need out of one of them?"

"Not in the limited time frame we have." Giles said. "If we had several days then a surveillance effort or a sting operation could bear fruit, but…" He trailed off helplessly.

"Searching the entire county for likely sites won't be a job we can complete before tonight either." Willow said. "It took me hours just to cross-reference all the possible sites in or near the Sunnydale city limits. I couldn't hope to do the entire county in time, I'd need a way to at least narrow it down to a township."

"And while I'm ready to break into the phone company now, it's working hours for the weekend shift." Buffy sighed. "So we missed our window there, and we can't wait until tomorrow night. I'm sorry, Tory."

"It's not your fault." Tory reassured her.

"Do you have any personal possessions of Mr. Keene?" Giles asked. "Something he'd given you, or that has significant personal connection to him? We could possibly try a ritual magical tracing through such an object."

"Unfortunately, everything I owned went up in the apartment fire." Tory shook her head. "The only things I brought to Sunnydale were the clothes I was wearing and the crap in my pockets."

"So call his dad, and ask him to grab something of Robby's and drive it up here as fast as he can." Xander suggested practically.

"Oh, I can just picture myself dialing Sensei up and trying to explain about vampires and magic spells." Tory moaned. "He'd think I had a psychotic break, and while he would drive the hell up here right away I really doubt he'd believe us enough to bring whatever you'd need along with him. No, this whole Slayer business isn't something you can explain over the… phone…" Tory suddenly trailed off, her eyes opening wide.

"What?" Cordelia asked her archedly. "Seriously, what?"

"Hold on." Tory ignored Cordelia as she ran to the computer terminal and hurriedly typed in a Google search, then ran to Giles' desk and picked up the phone handset and rapidly dialed a number. "Hello, customer service?" Tory asked in a deliberately bright and cheerful voice, and then cursed and started slamming the '0' key repeatedly. "Come on, let me talk to a human already… finally. Customer service? Um, I've got a lost phone, and I was hoping you could help me." Tory paused to listen to the operator's query. "212- 664-7665." Another pause. "Yes, I know the name on the account is 'John Lawrence,' that's my dad, okay? And I really don't want to tell him that I lost the phone he gave me- come on, I'm going to get grounded here if I can't find that thing before tonight!" Another pause. "Look, can you just hit the locator function and tell me where? Eugh, you can't tell me the privacy rules are that strict- his birthday is August 20th​, 1977! Now will you believe I know him? Christ!" Tory suddenly grinned and grabbed for a pen and a Post-It. "Okay… okay… got it! Thanks, you're a lifesaver, literally!" She hung up and turned and held up the note. "These are the GPS coordinates of where Robby's phone is right now. Willow, please tell me you can do something with this?"

"You're durn tootin' I can!" Willow said eagerly, and grabbed the note and immediately sat down at her terminal. "Okay, these coordinates hash out to the location of…" Her expression fell. "A pawn shop on State Route 73. They fenced it."

"Yeah, but you said you could magically trace his location with one of his personal possessions, right?" Tory grinned savagely. "And one of them is sitting and waiting for us in that pawn shop right now."

"Oz, go start your van." Buffy ordered him briskly.

* * * * *
​

"Harvester's Supply Store." Tory read from the sign over the parking lot outside the run-down box store. Around them the fields of the more rural portion of Santa Barbara County were brilliantly lit in the afternoon sunlight. "So this is where your magical trace ran to."

"It was a farm supply store that went out of business last year. According to my web search the real estate company still lists the property and theoretically pays for a caretaker, but the building would still be left standing alone for months and months." Willow explained.

"But since it used to be a store, it would have commercial Internet run to here so they could make the credit card machines go, and also connect to the rest of the corporate network if it were a chain store." Cordelia nodded. "Plus being nice and roomy inside with all sorts of warehouses and showroom floor left empty and unused after they closed everything out."

"And in farm country, so no nosy next-door neighbors." Tory agreed. "After all, they're getting all their audience through their webcast so it's not like they have regular vehicle traffic to draw attention."

"Let's just hope they're not smart enough to keep a daytime lookout, or else they'll already know we're coming. Because they don't have much traffic to and from here, so we're really standing out." Buffy noted.

"Our mission is to rescue captives. Which means Trick and his forces have potential hostages." Giles noted. "Willow, were you able to obtain floor plans?"

"The ones on file with the county, yeah." Willow agreed. "But all that does is give us the very basic layout, we have no idea of how they're set up in there."

"Hold up, we're missing a bet." Xander realized. "We're making all our plans as if we're just going into the standard warehouse full of bloodsuckers that we've done a hundred times before, but the entire reason we're here in the first place is because Mr. Trick is running a very tech-savvy operation that most vampires don't. Willow, how would you be guarding this building if you were him?"

"I'd use security cameras." Willow blinked in realization. "Wireless closed-circuit cameras, because I've got to spread them out all over a pretty big building and it would be a lot easier to do that than running my own cable." Oz and Willow immediately knelt in the back of the van to start rummaging through his tool bag and her laptop case.

"And we've got everything we need except an antenna." Willow fumed. "Xander, remember how you made an early New Years' resolution to stop snacking?"

"Um, yeah?" Xander asked confusedly.

"Please tell me you broke it again." Willow begged. "Because one of the classic tricks for making an improvised wireless scanner is to use a can of Pringles."

Xander sheepishly reached into his own knapsack and produced one, and Willow kindly shook the remaining Pringles out into a plastic sandwich bag and handed them back to Xander before appropriating the can for herself. "And now a little work with some spare wire, a spare cable plug, a little duct tape… and voila!" Buffy and Tory helped hoist Willow and her laptop-and-antenna onto the top of the discreetly parked van, and she got her wardriving setup up and running.

"Got 'em!" Willow said joyously. "Multiple hotspot sources all broadcasting merrily away… and they're barely using even the most basic encryption!" After less than a minute of typing away, the screen suddenly lit up with a split-screen menu of multiple camera POVs. "Cracked it! I'm inside."

"Makes sense." Buffy smiled. "After all, Mr. Trick knows he's the only vampire smart enough to get with the Internet age, so why should he spend time and money super-securing his local network against tech-savvy opposition?"

"Please tell me he's got at least one camera keeping watch on his prisoners." Tory begged.

"He does." Willow pulled up the relevant camera on the screen. "Looks like four people, all being kept in what used to be the head cashier's office adjacent to the main floor, with a wireless camera taped to the ceiling corner for easy head counts."

"No windows, only one door, and a bathroom off the same hallway so they don't even need to let 'em wander far for pit stops." Buffy nodded. "Practical."

"Where's Robby?!?" Tory asked frantically. "He's not in there!"

"High-value prisoners are usually quartered separately from general population." Giles observed methodically.

"And we know Trick wants him alive and intact so he's fresh to fight tonight." Cordelia reassured Tory.

"Checking the other feeds… okay, they've got a camera on each door and the loading dock, but not on the outside of the building. Unless someone looks out a window, we haven't been spotted yet. Interior cameras…" Willow steadily clicked the mouse, again and again and again. "There's that 'Gabby' person we saw fighting on the first night, moving around inside… a couple more of them in the old employee break room, watching TV… I can't see Mr. Trick anywhere."

"He wouldn't put a camera in his own private quarters. Lack of privacy is only for minions." Buffy said flatly.

"I think I've found him." Willow said tentatively, as the camera POV of the outside of what looked like the door to a supply closet was centered in the viewscreen. "At least, I can't imagine any reason why they'd want someone watching a closet door full-time unless a prisoner were on the other side of it."

"Why not just put the camera inside the room?" Cordelia wondered.

"Robby probably kept breaking it." Tory smiled.

"The important part is, as near as we can determine he's not under immediate threat. And we know they're relying on the cameras and maybe an alarm system, to secure the entrances – not live guards. If Willow can somehow neutralize the threat of those cameras-" Giles suggested.

"Willow most certainly can." She said confidently, and after a brief amount of work it was done. "There we go. I can't guarantee there's no alarms wired to the inside of the doors, but every door camera and both the prisoner enclosures are busy looping footage. They're wide open."

"Right." Buffy rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "Soooo… plans?"

"We split up." Tory said immediately. "We've got two Slayers, so we can run two separate squads. As soon as we're inside my team goes straight for the offices in back – either Robby or Trick will be in there, maybe both."

"Likely." Oz contributed. "The store's IT admin workstation would be in the office area, and Trick will probably need to be handling that himself."

"And you've definitely got dibs on him and Robby." Buffy agreed. "So I take the other team to the front, to rescue the people trapped there and clear out any minions they've got moving around."

"No worries about letting the newbie Slayer handle the master vampire?" Cordelia asked meaningfully.

"If Trick manages to beat the girl who dropped me three times, I'll hang up my stakes in shame." Buffy and Tory shared matching grins.

"Myself and Xander with Tory, everyone else with Buffy." Giles decided.

"Okay." Buffy nodded. "Let's roll."

---

Author's Note: Before anybody complains that I nerfed Buffyvamps, note that I had Robby fighting at the top of his game and while massively pumped besides… to just barely 1v1 a moderately skilled vampire minion in an arena match. Which is still an exceptional accomplishment for an 18-year-old baseline human.

For those who have watched the show, yes, that sacrifice throw and kip-up was entirely intended to be the same one from Robby's season 6 match-up vs. Kwon in the tag match. Right down to the cool musical accompaniment. *g*

'212- 664-7665' is a phone number that Universal Studios bought from the phone company and left unused precisely so that they could have a phone # they could use on-screen in movie dialogue that wasn't the 555 prefix but would still not connect to anyone if dialed.

And before somebody goes 'if they're poor, how do they have smartphones?', note that several models of flip-phones also have the GPS tracking function.

 

[cliffc999]

Entering the building discreetly was as simple as using a brief spell of silence to cover the sound of Slayer strength tearing open an outside door by main force. Once they were through the side entrance the two Slayers traded a mutual nod of reassurance, and then their two teams split up and headed to their destinations.

Tory, Giles, and Xander moved down the hallway at the fastest pace they could set that was compatible with silence. The rear offices of the store complex were just ahead, and according to the floor plans consisted of a manager's private corner office, an open cubicle bullpen, and several closets. The barely audible sound of a man's voice became more and distinct as the trio moved closer…

"… and I am tellin' you, that just ain't going to cut it. This is your chance to get in on the ground floor of something that will be a-maz-ing, but not if you choke it out early by being too harsh on the percentages, you get me?" the voice became just barely distinct from behind the closed doorway. If the speaker hadn't been almost yelling at the person they were arguing with, they wouldn't have heard even that much.

'That's him.' Tory whispered hatefully. "Mr. bigshot business vampire himself!"

"Trick is set up in the manager's office, just as we anticipated." Giles agreed quietly. "And he appears to be alone. You'll have him cornered in there. He can't go out the window, not in daylight."

"Got it. Watch my back." Tory drew out her stake and strode confidently across the cubicle floor towards the manager's office door, Xander flanking her with his axe out. Giles kept a lookout to their rear with his crossbow readied.

"Trick!" Tory screamed furiously, as she kicked the office door straight off its hinges.

"GUN!" Xander shouted frantically an instant later, as he frantically tackled Tory off to the side. The two teens hit the carpet just as the sound of three rapid-fired pistol shots echoed throughout the building and the bullets screamed through the empty doorway where they'd been standing.

"God damn!" Trick swore, as he came charging out of the office with a still-smoking Glock clutched in his right hand. He snapped off another quick shot that came nowhere near Giles, just to keep the crossbowman's head down, as he quickly glanced around to count the odds, decided he did not like them, and took off running down one side of the cubicle row towards the exit. Giles' crossbow bolt missed the sprinting vampire by several feet as he made it to the exit.

"He's going for Robby!" Tory screamed desperately, as she saw that Trick's line of departure was taking him down the office hallway towards the nearest utility closet.

"Tory, wait!" Giles called out as the frantic Slayer rolled to her feet and sprinted directly after the vampire gunman, heedless of the threat of his pistol. Giles was just barely able to see down the adjacent hallway enough to spot Trick stop at a doorway that looked exactly like the one they'd seen earlier through the security camera, kick away the rubber wedge that had been holding the closet door shut, and reach to pull open the door with one hand as he turned and levelled his pistol with the other-

With a frantic cry Tory charged headlong directly towards the muzzle of the weapon drawing a bead on her, desperate to close the distance before Trick could turn and threaten – or execute – his hostage. But even with the speed of a desperately sprinting Slayer she couldn't cover more than half the gap before Trick finished aiming and firing, and with a despairing cry Tory launched into a forward roll across the floor which let the first shot go harmlessly over her head - but which also killed her forward momentum enough that her only option for survival was to immediately roll to her feet and dodge sideways into a nearby doorway. Having bought himself a window of opportunity Trick finished opening the closet door and turned, gun levelled, to secure his hostage-

-only to go sprawling backwards as his foot immediately slipped out from under him as soon as he stepped inside the closet. Trick's firm grasp on the doorknob with his other hand was the only reason he didn't fall flat on his ass, but even so the hand holding his pistol was left swinging wildly up and out of position as Robby lunged forward out of the closet to grasp Trick's weapon hand between both of his and twist the pistol violently aside as hard as he could. Trick's finger almost broke inside the trigger guard as he lost his grip, and the Glock went flying free through the air to land on the hallway floor over half a dozen feet away.

"Tory?!?" Robby gaped in shock, having just caught sight of his girlfriend rising to her feet down the hallway. Trick immediately took advantage of his moment of inattention to slam Robby in the gut with his offhand, then put Robby in a vicious chokehold and swing him around in front as a human shield against the enraged Slayer and her backup team.

"Heh." Trick chuckled, glancing down inside the closet. "You pulled up the carpet right inside the door and rubbed the butter off that damn sandwich I let you have for lunch on the tile, just to trip up whoever went in after you first. And you actually dated this pain in the ass?" he mocked Tory.

"Let him go and you just get dusted. But if he dies then I swear I'll make it last for hours." Tory snarled.

"It'll be a group project, even." Xander contributed matter-of-factly as he caught up to the group.

"On a recent occasion, I was personally tutored in the art of torture by Angelus himself." Giles agreed coldly. "Would you like me to show you some of what I learned?"

"I would really rather you didn't." Mr. Trick agreed. "But I'm not exactly up for the 'dusting' thing either. Which definitely puts a complication in the negotiations. Still, there's no reason we can't talk this out in a businesslike fashion-"

"If you're waiting for your goons up front to come pile in, we've got a whole other team handling that." Xander cut him off.

"Damn." Trick swore matter-of-factly. "But if I'm dead anyway, then why shouldn't I die spitefully?" He gave a meaningful twist of Robby's head, bringing the boy's neck marginally closer to snapping.

"Why did you even set that fire?" Tory changed the subject. "Why did you kill my mother?!?"

"Shit." Robby swore under his breath, trying to turn back and glare at his captor. "You did that?"

"I was aimin' for her, of course." Trick shrugged nonchalantly. "Lucked into a tip from a seer that the new Slayer would be Called just a little drive down the coast, figured that was my chance to make an easy score. There's power in Slayer blood, you know. A lot of power. Catchin' and drainin' one is the ambition of almost any red-blooded vampire, and not just for the prestige of the kill." Trick shook his head. "No way a Slayer would get stuck inside the building, not with your strength to force a way out, but I figured smoke inhalation and burns would slow you down enough to make you even easier meat. My bad luck that you'd stepped out for a smoke at just the wrong time, and then you stuck to my ass like a bloodhound in heat all the way back to the Dale."

"You bastard!" Tory screamed.

"Born and bred." Trick agreed proudly. "But enough of wastin' time down memory lane. Do I get my head start, or do I play spin the bottle with your boytoy's skull?"

"Counter-offer-" Robby began.

"You shut the hell up." Trick immediately demanded. "Your damn over-clever ass has been nothing but a pain in mine ever since we first caught you. I don't even want to know what the hell you're schemin' now."

Tory blinked in realization. "Okay then, here's my offer. Right now you're set up to get gang jumped… and the other Slayer hasn't even gotten here yet, and when she does you're doubly hosed. So whatever you do to Robby, there's no way you survive it. Killing him makes sense only for spite."

"But savin' him requires you to give me a way out in exchange. And like you White Hats would ever actually do that?" Trick scoffed. "Pull the other one, it's got bells on it."

"No." Tory said. "But we can give you a chance to kill someone besides Robby." She tapped her chest with two fingers. "Last night, Robby called you out to get in your own damn arena for a change. So if you let him go then you can do that with me. One on one, winner takes all."

"Tory, you don't know what this freak can do!" Robby begged desperately. "His junior lackey almost broke me in half, and this guy's way more powerful!"

"It's okay, Robby." Tory reassured him. "Trust me. I got this."

"You did just hear him say that his plan A was to booby trap her with a building fire rather than risk taking her on straight-up." Xander pointed out, and Robby blinked in shock.

"Takin' you with me would hurt your team more than killin' him." Trick agreed. "But I'd still get jumped by the rest of your friends after, so I'm still an ash pile. And at least I'm guaranteed one last kill with your boy, who incidentally I have rather a bit of a personal beef with at the moment. Fighting you would be a little less than a sure thing."

"But you just said it yourself, there's power in Slayer blood." Tory replied. "If you take me down, then draining me would pump you up. Maybe enough for you to beat Buffy too, especially given that you'd have already proven capable of defeating a Slayer just to get that far. Maybe even enough to let you run the table. Sure, it's not much of a shot… but it's still better than nothing." Tory bared her teeth in a not-smile. "And weren't you the guy saying that where there's life, there's hope?"

"And you'd actually agree to this, Watcher?" Trick asked Giles sardonically.

"Given my preference I'd have you shot full of crossbow bolts the instant you released your hostage, of course." Giles answered coolly. "But that's why you wouldn't actually release Mr. Keene until after you'd entered the arena enclosure, where we wouldn't have a clear shot. And after Miss Nichols had already entered it ahead it of you."

"Hmm." Trick nodded thoughtfully, then gave a toothy, arrogant grin. "All right then, Slayer. Congratulations for becoming our latest contestant on Vampire DeathBattle."

* * * * *
​

"You know, I could just snap his neck right now and still get a clear shot at you with the enclosure protectin' me." Mr. Trick sneered at Tory as they faced off against each other across the arena floor.

"And then we take our time with you." Giles reminded him. "Release him now."

Trick drew a deep breath and reluctantly let Robby loose from his chokehold, then gave him a hard shove to send him sprawling away. "Get the hell out, or stay in here and get killed. I don't care which."

"Robby, go." Tory insisted from where she was taut in her ready stance on the far side of the arena. "I've… there's been changes, since you saw me last. I'm as strong as they are, now. I'll explain later. For right now, leave him to me."

"But we promised-" Robby began.

"Get your dumb ass outside the cage before this smirking asshole uses you as a human shield again!" Tory shouted at him, and Robby reluctantly fell back and stepped out through the enclosure's only door. Giles immediately shut it behind him and locked it.

"Wait a minute!" Cordelia surprised everyone, and then turned to Willow. "Before they get started, can you get those cameras running? And the stream recorder up and going?"

"Why?" Willow demanded in puzzlement, as Trick laughed out loud.

"Because if there's one thing I've learned as cheer captain, it's the power of pageantry." Cordelia replied. "And even if we kill Trick here, if he just fades quietly away then other aspiring vampires around the world might be inspired to set up their own dark web operations now that somebody's given them the idea. But if they get to see what happens to vamps who advertise themselves too much all over the Internet, if his own staking at the hands of a pissed-off Slayer gets webcast to all of his oh-so-eager viewing audience… then maybe they won't."

"Huh." Trick raised an eyebrow. "Wish I'd found and turned you before this, gorgeous. Sounds like you'd have made an excellent PR manager for me. But what happens if I kill her?"

"You really think we'd be stupid enough to do this live?" Cordelia smirked.

"Give me a minute." Willow grinned back, and immediately headed over to the laptop workstation set up at ringside to handle the stream uploading and started typing commands. "OK, cameras are rolling and recording."

"Ladies and gentlemen!" Cordelia orated into the announcer's mike. "Broadcasting from the Sunnydale Hellmouth is your guest Mistress of Ceremonies, who is honored to bring you the final broadcast of Vampire DeathBattle! Defending his title tonight as master of the arena is your former host, Mr. Trick… and for our special challenger, we are delighted to bring you Tory the Vampire Slayer! "

The Scoobies all gathered around the arena applauded, while a desperately puzzled Robby looked around at them incredulously and then tensely back down into the arena. Tory looked back up at him and smiled, the fear and stress of the past several weeks washed away as if it were never there simply by the sight of him standing safe and among the Scoobies, before she turned back to stare impassively at her opponent's brittle grin.

"And now… fight!" Cordelia called out, and the battle was joined.

Tory leaped forward to the attack, then stopped short just out of reach and weaved away from Trick's frantic punch. Another feinting charge drew another hurried punch that fell short, and a flickering jab drew a block. Trick tried a low kick that didn't even make it halfway before Tory's own aggressive parrying kick into his shins pushed him back viciously, and then she spun to the right as he threw a roundhouse and moved inside his guard to send Trick sprawling backwards to the ground with a leg-trip and a shove.

Trick hurriedly scrambled to his feet as Tory nonchalantly stepped back and allowed him a free opportunity to get up, then grinned at him and made a waving 'come on!' motion with her leading hand.

Trick snarled in rage and answered with a running leaping twister kick that failed to connect as Tory simply sidestepped, and Trick's swift landing and recovery into a high spin kick failed as Tory simply swept low and knocked Trick's standing leg out from under him. Left crashing to the concrete yet again, Tory again contemptuously failed to follow-up on her advantage and let Trick have time to get to his feet and set himself again.

Trick tried another attack in low-line, and Tory cartwheeled up and over it just as Robby had done last night against Mike. Trick immediately halted and reversed stance, ready to exploit the same kick to the back of the knee that Robby had used… only to turn and walk directly into Tory's fist, as she'd deliberately baited him with the same move so that she could get one step ahead of his response. Her looping roundhouse sent Trick spinning away to crash up against the side of the cage, his lip bloodied where one of his own fangs had bitten through it.

"What is she even doing?" Robby asked incredulously.

"She's making it hurt." Buffy grinned wickedly.

Trick charged back in with frenzied determination, throwing a lightning-fast series of punches left-right-left-right, and Tory met every single one of them handily with simple blocks. A sudden shift inward and a furious elbow thrown to Tory's head was met with a sidestep and elbow strike of Tory's own directly opposing Trick's, and the head-to-head contest of strength left him staggering backwards as if he'd pushed off a wall.

"You fucking cu-!" Trick snarled, and fell back from Tory and then arced sideways to put the axis of the fight perpendicular to where it had been. A flick of Trick's head 90 degrees to his right marked Robby's new position relative to him, and his hand dipped into his pocket as fast as quicksilver and came out with a throwing knife he sent arcing through the air, aimed carefully through a gap in the fencing and directly towards Robby's throat-

-a knife that Buffy plucked out of the air as if it had been a gently lobbed softball, and then waved mockingly at Trick before pretending to clean under her fingernails with it. Distracted by the byplay, Trick was taken off guard yet again as Tory's furious tornado kick to the head knocked Trick sprawling across the concrete.

"On your feet!" Tory snarled at him. "I'm only getting started!"

The bleeding and battered Mr. Trick barely made it to his feet before Tory's axe kick sent him crashing face-first into the concrete again. He screamed in primal rage and slammed his hand against the ground several times in rage, before heaving himself to his feet yet again and going full game face. A maddened, feral animal crouched and sprang at Tory with supernatural speed and strength that even a master vampire like Trick was barely capable of, but his animalistic clawing and biting was stalemated hard by a defensive flurry of blocks and sideslips as masterful as Robby's own had been the night before… only this time augmented by the supernatural speed and grace available to Slayers. Robby had fought alongside – and as a training partner, against- Tory for over two years, and was more familiar with her capabilities than everyone else in the room put together – and his jaw fell open in shock as he got his first detailed view of just how much better she had become, how much the Slayer Spirit had boosted her, between then and now.

Over the next two minutes Tory Nichols methodically punished the outmatched vampire again and again, as she matched his strength and speed and overwhelmed his ferocity and cunning with superior technique and focus. Every attack he threw was either dodged, parried, or countered, and both her fists and feet exacted her vengeance from him one merciless inch at a time. Trick's movements grew slower and sloppier the more he was battered and beaten, and the outcome of the fight, already clear from the very beginning, was beyond all possible doubt.

Eventually it ended with a dry snapping sound like a dead tree trunk coming apart in a windstorm, as Tory's straight kick bent Trick's left leg backwards at the knee. An equally furious kick with the other foot similarly took out his right leg as Trick desperately tried to balance on one leg, leaving him defenseless and moaning in agony on the floor. One upthrust and flailing arm was grabbed by Tory around Trick's wrist as her other fist snapped out and cleanly broke his elbow, and then Tory repeated the same procedure to his other arm. The mewling, crying Trick was left writhing around on the floor, all four of his limbs useless with the destruction of their major joints.

"Beg me for your life!" Tory shouted down at him.

"Please! Please! Don't kill me!" Trick whimpered.

"Say you'll give me your bank account numbers! Your payment codes!" She continued.

"It's all in bitcoin! In the thumb drive in my desk!" Trick pleaded.

"Say you'll give me more than that! Cars! Buildings! Jewelry!" Tory cried.

"Everything I own!" Trick whimpered helplessly. "Anything you want!"

Tory nodded down at the begging, beaten vampire, her rage finally spent. "I want my mother back." Tory said simply. "But I'll settle for this." She spat down at him as she reached into her pocket for a stake, and cursed as she came up empty.

The cage door opened as Robby stepped into the arena, holding a bottle of whiskey he'd picked up from the announcer's table where Trick had liked to pour himself a glass or two to sip during fights. A soaked rag had been shoved in the mouth of the open bottle, and a cigarette lighter was in Robby's other hand.

"I thought this would be an appropriate gift for the occasion." Robby nodded to Tory as he held out the bottle, before he turned and smiled thinly down at Mr. Trick.

"You always know just what to get me." Tory smiled back at Robby, and she took the improvised Molotov from him and held it out for Robby's lighter. The wick caught flame and the two teenagers stepped away from where the helpless Trick moaned in terror on the concrete floor, unable even to move, as Tory hoisted the flaming bottle over her head and cocked her arm to throw.

"Burn in Hell, bitch." she spat, and the last thing Mr. Trick ever saw was flame.

---

Author's Note: Yes, of course Trick was packing heat. His most famous canon contribution to Buffyverse vampire lore was asking why the heck people were fighting with swords when bringing an Uzi would probably work a lot better. If I didn't have him at least try to pull a gun, old-time fans would feel cheated.

And Giles was tortured by Angelus for hours, in the Buffy season 2 finale, so he's not speaking figuratively but literally.

For those who thought Trick died too easily, he was never actually a formidable martial artist on the show. Trick's danger was in being great at mindgames and traps, he only threw hands with people after they were already at a disadvantage. Being forced into a fair tournament duel is the absolute worst situation for him.

 

[cliffc999]

Joyce Summers opened the front door to her house to reveal a tall, broad-shoulded blond man in his late 40s dressed in a faded Led Zeppelin t-shirt and jeans. Robby and Tory both nervously looked up from where they'd been sitting side by side on the front couch.

"There you two are!" Johnny Lawrence said angrily, stepping around Joyce with barely a glance at her. "Get the hell over here!"

The two teens reluctantly advanced towards the concerned parent, and as soon as they were in range Johnny swept up his two wayward charges in a furious hug.

"Hey dad." Robby choked up, as Tory just hugged him tighter without even finding words. "I'm sorry I ran off, but-"

"We'll talk about that later." Johnny corrected him. "But first… Tory, I'm so sorry about what happened to your mom. And I know you're over eighteen and all, but you'll still always have a place with us. You know that, right?"

"I know, sensei." Tory said lovingly. "But-" she trailed off, at a loss for words.

"Look, I've got a million things I want to yell at you two idiots for all the high blood pressure you've given me over the past few weeks, but not now." Johnny said. "Right now I just-" He sniffled as his eyes misted up. "I just want to thank God you're both alive."

Joyce stopped and smiled a knowing smile at Johnny. "I can't count the number of times I've said the same thing to my own daughter."

"It was only that one time." Buffy said embarrassedly from where she was sitting on a nearby armchair. "Maybe twice."

"Kids. Can't live with 'em, can't box 'em up and ship 'em to Africa at bulk rate." Johnny agreed with Joyce as he stood up and nodded at her. "Johnny Lawrence. Technically I'm only this one's father, but honestly, it feels like a two-for-one deal most of the time."

"Joyce Summers." She nodded. "And my daughter Buffy." She nodded over at the eponymous Slayer.

"Thanks for looking after them both for me. I mean it." Johnny said sincerely. "I don't know how I can repay you."

"No need." Joyce said, as her expression fell. "Particularly since… there's still several things we need to explain to you."

"Are they in legal trouble?" Johnny asked worriedly.

"No." Giles interjected, and Johnny looked up in mild surprise at the distinctly British newcomer standing in the kitchen doorway. "Rupert Giles." He introduced himself. "And this is a rather complex topic of conversation to broach. So I think this would best be handled if Joyce, Buffy, and I were to make the explanations while Tory and Robby were safely out on the porch during the most awkward parts of it."

"It's… got to do with why we insisted that you only make the drive here in daylight." Robby said. "There's a lot going on this town underneath the surface, and Tory's still caught up in some of it."

Giles motioned the two of them at the door, and at Johnny's puzzled but confirming nod Robby and Tory both stepped outside.

"I don't have the faintest idea how he's going to take it." Robby said worriedly as the two teenagers sat down on the porch swing.

"Well Buffy can objectively prove the supernatural exists just as easily as I can, simply by doing the tire iron twister." Tory said. "So he'll at least have that."

A shocked roar barely audible from inside the house indicated that apparently the conversation had just gotten to the 'vampires' part.

"Sounds like it's going great." Robby winced. "Because I'm sure the former Sergeant John Lawrence will be totally cool with the part where a mysterious supernatural force is unwillingly drafting child soldiers to fight monsters."

"Oh yeah, I'm sure he'll be as cool with it as you were." Tory agreed sardonically.

"Sorry." Robby apologized. "I'm really trying not to be a dick about it, and it's not about your suddenly being that much stronger and faster than me. It's-" He cursed. "Slayer lifespans."

"I don't blame you." Tory agreed. "Buffy hates it, I hate it, everybody who cares about either of us hates it. She mostly deals with it by just not acknowledging it. I thought I was dealing with it by just accepting it-"

"Sorry I kinda ruined that by showing up." Robby nodded.

"Dumbass." Tory lightly tapped him on the shoulder with her fist. "I was just going through the motions before you got here. Only thing keeping my heart beating was the adrenaline that wanting to hunt Trick down and murder him slowly was giving me. If I'd finished killing him without you here…" She slumped. "I'd probably have just completely run out of reasons."

Robby's voice choked with unshed tears. "When you vanished after that fire, it took days before they sifted enough of the wreckage to be sure that you weren't in there. Everybody thought you were dead. Even I thought-" He shook his head. "That's why it took me so long to find you, I didn't even start looking until the trail had gone cold. And I had to bury my own trail hard enough that Dad wouldn't know which direction to come charging out to try and find me, because I'd needed to him to still be at home and not out searching if I had to call him for an emergency pickup." He sighed. "But for the whole time I was out there looking…" He gulped. "Don't take this the wrong way, but until I got caught by Mr. Trick I didn't know if I'd been searching for you… or just your body."

"Shit, I hadn't even thought of that." Tory turned pale. "Yeah, me vanishing and running off instead of letting anyone who knew me know that I was still alive? Right after losing my mom?" Tory hugged Robby apologetically. "You must've spent that whole time terrified that maybe I'd gone and jumped off a bridge."

"I was." Robby nodded into her shoulder. "And then I thought Trick had killed you, and so the only thing I had left was my own anger and vengeance. And if I'd somehow managed to kill him before knowing that you were still alive, I'd have just-" He trailed off, Tory's awareness of his words unsaid shining clearly in her eyes.

"I'm sorry." Tory said simply. "I hurt you so much. Both of you."

"I'm sorry too." Robby nodded back. "For what I'm about to do next."

"No you're not." Tory shook her head. "I know exactly what you're going to do next, and you'll never apologize for it in a million years."

"Hey, I'm over eighteen." Robby shrugged. "Even Dad can't make me come home with him, not legally. And you can't leave the Hellmouth, and I'm not leaving you."

"That was a promise we made as sophomores." Tory insisted. "And it was about doing sports together and earning trophies, not about going into a war against monsters and magic and hellbeasts from another dimension! I'm letting you go from that oath, okay? You're free to ditch! I want you to ditch!"

"And I want us to spend the rest of our lives together." Robby said insistently. "And we will… no matter how long that life is."

"Robby-" Tory said helplessly.

"The whole time that you were gone, the thing that hurt me the worst was the thought that you might have died without knowing." Robby agreed. "Without ever having heard me say it, even once." He looked her straight in the eyes and continued without hesitation. "I love you, Tory."

Tory's eyes began to stream tears, as she drew Robby into a frantic kiss. "Love you too." She whispered softly into his neck, as the two of them hugged even tighter.

A soft exhalation of breath made them both look up to see Buffy standing there on the porch looking down at both of them, with a sad but genuine smile underneath faintly envious eyes. "Come on. The awkward part's mostly finished, and your dad wants to talk to you."

"Hey." Johnny nodded at both of them as they re-entered the house. "Okay, English here's finished giving me the outline of exactly why you're stuck." He nodded grimly. "No way to put down being the Slayer, to muster out and let someone else start their hitch while you're still alive. Seriously, who designed this stupid system?"

"A question I have asked repeatedly." Giles agreed from where he was still sitting at the kitchen table. "Sadly, the origins of the Slayer spirit are lost to the mists of time. As were the exact motivations and reasoning of the creators of the ongoing transference mechanism."

"Yeah, I know, you already said." Johnny agreed. "Don't take this the wrong way, kids, but right now I'm wishing I'd done a much shittier job as a father. Or a teacher."

Robby actually smiled at that one. "It's okay Dad. I get what you mean." Tory smiled and nodded alongside him.

"Yeah." Johnny nodded angrily. "Neither of you would ever ditch on anyone just to save your own ass, so I'm not even going to try asking you to get in the truck and come back with me." He sighed. "First thing they taught in squad leader school – 'Never give an order you already know won't be obeyed'. And you're at the age of majority, I can't legally drag you anymore." He shook his head sadly. "I'm so proud of you both, for doing something that I really wish you weren't doing. Is there even a word for that?"

"Stolzschmerz." Giles answered. "German for 'pride-pain'."

"Thanks Professor, I'm trying to have a moment here." Johnny tossed back at him. "But… yeah. Neither of you are ever gonna be the type to pussy out… so here we are." He stood up and dug into his wallet and came out with a slim wad of money that he handed to Robby. "Mrs. Summers says you can stay with her for the near future, so that's taken care of, but here's four hundred bucks. It's all I got on me right now, but hopefully it'll tide you over for incidental expenses for the next couple of weeks."

"What happens in a couple of weeks?" Buffy asked him.

"I finish packing up my shit and moving down here." Johnny answered matter-of-factly. "Because if these two are staying here on top of this 'Hellmouth' thing to fight vampires, then so am I."

"Mr. Lawrence, while I applaud your courage-" Giles began.

"Save it." He cut him off. "Look, you told me you've seen them fight. Who do you think taught them all that? Anything they can do, I can do and more. Well, maybe not her superpower stuff." Johnny admitted. "Plus, there's a lot of stuff I haven't taught them yet, because up until now it was just for competition and self-defense. Now it's going to be for combat, and I didn't spend two tours jumping out of airplanes and deploying to the Big Sandbox without learning a little something about that."

"You were in the military?" Joyce asked.

"82nd​ Airborne." He answered proudly. "So yeah, I'm sure this Watcher's Council has worked out a whole lot of stuff about fighting the monsters you know about – and I'll be glad to study it, because know your enemy and all – but I'm sure I'll have my own contributions to make."

"Most of the kids here who aren't Buffy haven't had much formal training at all." Robby agreed. "Tory and I were already trying to figure out what sort of lesson plans would be best for Xander and Oz and the rest, but if you're going to be here-"

"Oh yeah." Johnny nodded. "I don't even know where I'm going to have room to train you all, but we're definitely setting up a place somewhere."

"As to that, we had a bit of a windfall." Robby admitted. "Admittedly it was nowhere near as much as we'd hoped it might be-"

"Mr. Trick had gotten the start-up cash for his operation by taking out a loan from a certain commercial firm that even a master vampire finds it unwise to not repay promptly and in full." Giles agreed. "So there was barely a hundred and fifty thousand dollars left in his currency reserve at the time we obtained it. Still, it's been a very useful contribution to our war chest."

"One-fifty large?" Johnny raised his eyebrows. "Yeah, we can definitely do something with that."

"There isn't even a single karate school in this town." Tory nodded. "If you opened one, you'd have a corner on the market."

"Sounds like a plan, then." Johnny clapped his hands together. "Okay, is there anything else we need to take care of before-?"

"Before you go traveling right back to the Valley, I insist that you at least sit down and have some lunch." Joyce broke in firmly. "You've driven a long way, and these two young people haven't seen you in some time."

"… I could eat." Johnny reluctantly admitted, and the Summers family and their new houseguests adjourned to the dining room to start planning the future together.

---

Author's Note: Yes, I'm afraid Johnny only shows up at the end. This particular 'episode' was largely the kids' story. But in the AU Season 3 this story is the 'pilot' for, Johnny does indeed become a significant main character so you can let your imagination run away with that idea however you want.

Before anyone goes 'Why did you make Johnny ex-military?' it's because as part of the adaptation process I folded in a bit of Kreese's backstory as well as Johnny's, although I certainly didn't fold in any of Kreese's personality. Plus, as this is ending with 'Johnny joins the cast of BtvS as an adult who can usefully contribute something the others haven't got', he needs to bring a little more than just karate. And so they're getting somebody with actual combat experience and a basic military education as well as a big improvement to their martial arts training. ("What, of course you can homebrew napalm. It's just gasoline and packing corn, for God's sake.")

And no, I'm not shipping Johnny and Joyce. I am, however, having them immediately bond in total understanding as two long-suffering members of the Single Parents Club.

The 'certain commercial firm' Trick took a startup loan out from was Wolfram & Hart, of course. But hey, he already paid back what he owed them before he got killed so they won't care.

But yeah, this fic is basically the 'pilot episode' to an AU Buffy season 3+ that I'm not nearly ambitious enough to write the entirety of, as instead of getting Faith and Wesley the cast gets augmented by Tory, Robby, and Johnny. Also, the Scoobies are going to learn the power of the 80s training montage whether they like it or not.