Helpless

Hey, Author here; this chap gets dark. This is just a warning for anyone who can't stomach that. I tried to keep certain details as vague as I could while conveying the messages. I hope that anyone willing to read enjoys my work. I just finished writing this now, so here you go.

I drove to the motor lodge inn. We walked in, looking at our crappy lodgings. It was not the nicest of places, but it would do. I'd remember Buffs talking about the fact that she'd had to sleep in vamp dens. Most vamp dens were honestly crappy. They were dark hovels with little to no light and usually had a slight sewer smell because Vamps hid and ran to wherever the sun did not shine. I'm sure if they could, they'd hide in an arsehole and come out of someone's stomach at night time all Alien style. Vamps were normally pretty disgusting creatures barring Xan and Wills. They were the fam and could never stink. If I couldn't smell, I'm sure i'd be stinky too, especially when all the sires usually came from medieval times and those people didn't usually shower daily. If you look at the amount of diseases that were brought about because people shat in drinking water. You would want to throw the fuck up. Unluckily, or luckily for me, Batman had an extensive knowledge on this just in case he was sent to medieval times. Cautious much anyone? The worst fucking part about the whole fucking thing was that he'd actually been correct to study it because one of his variants had been sent back in time and had comeback a knight. The DC verse was a fucked up verse with aliens, gods, demons, superhumans, wizards and I was glad that I only had to do deal with four out of those five things. The most pressing issue right now being making my girlfriend smile and then saving the world.

If you couldn't help those you cared about then what would be the point in helping anyone at all. You would just come back to find yourself old and alone and fool of regrets that would end up making you put on that fucking suit with the Bat insignia inscribed. Dick Grayson gone because bats was too cold, Tim dead, Jason in the Madhouse, Damien rebelling, now leading the league of Assassins. Anyone that did care about Bruce had either kicked the bucket or left before he poisoned them with his useless mantle. Bruce had stopped being Bruce the moment his parents died. Oh, I knew that very fucking well. In every single god damned reality, he'd look into the darkness and the darkness would stare back at him removing any semblance of the light he could have been. The light his father had been and so he was Batman and Batman would do what he must to save the world, even destroying the world's of those around him.

I would never be that. I would never ever hurt those I cared about until I looked into their eyes and realized that they weren't that person, that that person was gone and dead and was taking over by some beast, mystical or otherwise. I would jump off of a building if it meant Xan's could have a happy millenia with Wills. I would rip out my own heart, plying my ribs open to pull it out just to see that smile on Buffs face. They'd unknowingly saved me in that realm. They'd made me feel real, alive again. They'd made me laugh, made me cry, made me annoyed. For that, I hoped to give them the world.

I wished to keep them safe but that upon itself was an impossibility. Xan and Wills were vamps. I'd returned their souls. Everything in this world would be out to get them, from the hunters, to the demons. They'd live on way after I died, unless of course, I found a way to extend life and I knew that they would never stop fighting. That look of terror that was held on their faces when they thought no one was looking.

They'd looked into the distance probably reliving each kill, each pain that they'd inflicted upon others. I'd told them that it was not their fault. I'd told them many times. Their answers would always be, "It was in our bodies."

Some of the people they'd killed had probably been acquaintances, school mates, teachers…family. Sunnydale was a small town.

I remember what Xan said to me in private.

We'd been in the wishverse together for a month and had decided to go to the Bronze.

He paced around looking at every single student here, touching some of their faces as if unbelieving of the fact that they were real. Some had fear in their eyes as a Vamp had sunk its claws into their neck and had been feeding.

He'd walked to the cellar to see humans in chains with scratches and bruises littering their bodies. The slight smell of copper, ever present in the air as he just stared in silence.

We continued walking down through the row of cells to witness a girl with messy hair laughing on the ground like a madman. Her face expressed glee. Mad glee. It was a face that I'd known all too well. A face I'd tried to lock up in the darkest corners of my mind. It was the Bat Who Laughs's favorite fucking face and knowing what I knew, knowing the madness Batman had face when he'd been turned into this, I just stared. My eyes grew wider and wider as I looked at her shaven down fingers and the blood on the wall. A popped out eyeball frozen in the air and still that laugh. Nothing else mattered anymore, did it?

I turned to Xan and watched as he just stoically stared at the girl. His bronze tinted eyes melted as tears escaped his stillness. His hands balling into tighter and tighter fist until heard a crunch and more crunches. Blood was already dripping out of them and I wondered whether I should have brought them back. I couldn't kill them but this pain, this suffering, was it worth it?

"Xander!" I shouted.

I ran up to Xander and grabbed his arm. His grip loosened and I watched as the wound healed in real time.

He just stared at the girl not even looking my way.

"They'll heal. They always do."

That was when I realized that he'd been hurting himself. All those baggy shirts, all those jackets. The Xander Harris that I knew didn't wear those things. He wore bright colored Hawaiian shirts so bright that they made you wonder whether he was Naruto Uzumaki reborn.

I stepped in front of him, staring him right in his eyes.

"You've got to stop."

He didn't answer me. He just stared into that same space. I was in front of him and yet he could still see. The images were ingrained within every corner of his mind. What the demon had done within his body had been abhorrent and downright evil.

"She was its first present," He said while staring at the blonde girl, "He slowly broke her fingers one by one, then was the nails. Oh, the nails. She screamed begging me to stop but I wou-It wouldn't. It just kept on going, kept on slashing and whipping until her screams died out and there was silence. I di-It didn't stop there though. No, he hated the silence, the fact that nothing worked anymore, the fact that she was just dead and so, he unbuttoned his…"

"Stop! It wasn't you."

Xan looks at the girl.

"But it was my body. I might have had no control but I remember it. You know her name was Sarah. Nice girl. She'd always help me when I was struggling in chemistry class. That's why he'd picked her, warped her. He had done it because he had my mind, my knowledge and knew how best to utilize it. It was my fault. I'm sorry Sarah."

"It wasn't. That thing stole your body from you. It used it to abuse those you loved. Would you ever do that?"

He didn't answer. He just stared at her.

"Answer me Xan!" I screech, "Or are you going to admit that you're just like your father. A drunkard and a wife-beater?"

"I'm not-"

"Then it wasn't fucking you."

He face morphed into vamp mode and he snarled.

"Look at me. Look at the monster I've become. Are you seriously going to say that I can't become that thing when I have its strength, its hunger? I drink blood for god's sake."

I look at him.

"Is that what you truly believe, that you're a monster? You know, the slayer was empowered by a suped up vamp. Are you saying that Buffs is a monster, that Wills is a monster."

He paused.

"No. I-I just think that I could become one. This power scares me. I'm an aberration, neither living or dead."

I point at the girl.

"You see her face? The madness. I have it in me. A version of Batman turned into that and it whispers in my ears constantly telling me to just do it, to let my inner impulses out. Would you let me do so?"

He shakes his head.

"No. I'd kill you."

A determined look in his eyes.

A raised my hand to him.

"Good, because if you ever became that, I'd kill you too brother."

We gazed into each other's eyes and he took my hand.

"Good," He nodded.

I smile.

"Now can we have the Xan-Man back?"

He nods.

"Let's leave this vamp hellhole."

We walk out of there, a calmer expression on his face. I knew that he'd never stop fighting then. Nor, would Willow.

We paid for our rooms and entered into them, Buffy smiling. She took off her jacket and laid in bed. I joined her a moment later. We snuggled up, holding each other as I softly kissed her neck. She shivered, her body twitching more and more with each passing breath. My warm breath softly hits the bristles of her hair.

"We did it," she smiled.

I nodded along as she turned to me, looking into my eyes, the beautiful gray entrancing me more and more.

"Thanks," She whispered.

I shook my head.

"You saved me the moment that you cared about me. I-I'd thought no one would love me that way after my parents died. You're the hearth that I flock towards. What I'm trying to say is that I think I love you Buffy Anne Summers."

And it was true, she had saved me from the loneliness, the pain, the monsters my mind conjured up to hold me down. She'd been pushing me forward with Xan and Wills like my parents before them.

I loved her and hoped she believed me because while we'd only known each other for a few months, it's been some of the best months of my life. Because of her, I knew that I would do this whole thing again. She was my light at the end of the tunnel.

She looks at me, unsuredly.

"You don't have to say that you love me too," I remarked.

It had only been a few months. I could wait for an 'I love you' or an 'I want to break up with you.' Although, the second option would hurt. It wouldn't matter the outcome as long as she came out happy. Then I could just go and do what Batman did best, save the world. I would do that with or without her.

She stared at me for a bit longer before kissing my lips with her cherry blossom lipstick. I loved when she raved about the little things that she'd liked. The make up bags from sephora, the purses. I'd made sure to pack all of those with me in my spatial bag. She'd squealed when she'd heard about what I'd done.

"No. I want to set the record straight Mister. I love you too."

I hugged her, holding her as tight as humanly possible.

"And also thanks for saving me too," She whispered, "You're my hero."

That's right. She'd been alone. Her mother, gone. Her Father probably fucking another one of his secretaries.

She had me, Xan, Wills. We were her family now. As she was ours.

"How about we get some shut eye?"

She nodded and we closed our eyes as we let Morpheus steer us into his realm once it was our time.

I woke up the next morning and kissed my girlfriend on the cheek. As I was about to get off the bed. She gripped my arm. Slayer strength was no joke.

"Nnn. Stay with me," She mumbled, in a half awoken state.

I obliged and lied there, holding her until she woke up.

DUN DUN

DUN DUN

I could hear the rhythmic songs that her heart let out and basked in them. I closed my eyes and just listened to the proof that she was still here, still alive.

She woke up rubbing her eyes as she turned to see my face still next to hers. She sighed in relief.

"What day is it?"

I check the date.

"It's Jan 19th 199-Shit."

This was the day of Buffy's Cruciamentum and I woke up at noon.

"What," She groaned.

She was still rubbing her eyes.

"You! Other you is going to have her Cruciamentum in the evening we've got to talk to Giles before anything happens"

She looks confused.

"Slow down and tell me what this whole Cruciamentum thingy ma jig is?"

"When a slayer turns eighteen, the watchers temporarily remove their powers and set them up against a vampire. Its an archaic practice done to kill slayers before they're of age."

She gasped.

"What should we do?"

"If this Buffy finds out or Giles tells her about it then the test becomes invalidated but I think the monster has already escaped its prison. Fuck."

"So we just have to kill it."

"It might be at your mom's house."

"Then we'd better get going. Tell Xan to bring Giles over so we can sort this whole thing out."

I nod as I throw Buffs the keys.

"He's stronger than the normal vamp."

"We're better than any vamp," She replied.

I walk out the door and walk to Xan and Wills's room. I knocked.

I hear a bang and assume that Xan has fallen off of his bed. Someone rushes to the door and opens it.

"Hell- Oh hey A-Man what do you need?"

"Could you both take Giles from the school. Other Buffy is depowered."

He looks into my eyes.

"You'll tell me later?"

I nod.

"Sorry, I've gotta go."

I rush down the flight of stairs and meet Buffy in the front seat of our sexy Brown colored Ford Mustang.

I got in. I guess when you have a short, strong girlfriend, you become the passenger princess.

She looks at me and I smirk.

"What are you waiting for?"

She revs up the engine and we drive to the summer residence. Sunnydale's a small place. We quickly got to their house and got out of the car. We both hear a shot and run to the door.

Buffs swiftly kicks down the door and we find Joyce in the arms of a suped up Vamp. I never thought I'd see the day when even undeads used steroids. Wasn't that cheating?

Buffs runs towards it and attempts to stake it. It blocks by crossing its arms. It does drop Joyce. I quickly grab her and move her out of the way.

"Who are you?"

I smirk.

"I'M VENGEANCE!"

Buffs laughs as I chuck a wood-arang into the creatures eyes and it places its drops its guard letting Buffy stake it.

It turned into dust and the giant dust cloud made Buffs enter a coughing fit. I began laughing like the Joker.

"Should we call you Buffs the Cougher?" I laugh, "Ow!"

Joyce pinched my ears. Nineties parenting was different.

"That's my daughter you're talking to, young man."

"Sorry Mam."

I place my hands up in mock surrender and Buffs sticks out her tongue. A speckle of dust enters it and she begins coughing. Karma's a bitch and you should have known better Buffs.

"Who are you?"

Joyce looks me in the eyes, demandingly.

I give her my hand.

"Come with us if you want to find out," I said in a terrible Arnold Schwarzenigger voice.

Joyce chuckled and took my hand, she noticed the runes and looked at Buffs's hands.

"She didn't have that in the morning."

"You'll find out if you follow us."

She nods.

"I'll follow you."

I take her out of the house and into the car. Buffs quietly follows behind.

She enters the driving seat and we quickly drive to the inn. We get there and I take her up to our room.

I see Giles tied up with a taped mouth and Xan and Wills bumbling around.

Joyce looks very uncomfortable.

"What's happening?"

Nobody speaks up for a bit then Buffs steps up.

"We're not your Buffy, Xander and Willow. We're the result of a botched up wish that Cordelia Chase made to a vengeance demon thingy. She created a whole new verse but Giles there ended that verse. Andrew over there saved us all before the verse was destroyed and brought us here."

"I need to sit down."

I brought Joyce a chair and she sat processing all of this. Giles also stopped moving, shocked at the revelation.

"So, why are you here?"

I step up this time.

"There are these people called the Powers that Be. They control things from the shadows making sure that Good never beats evil. I want to change the balance and save the world, you guys with it."

Joyce looked at Buffs.

"So you were the one I saw yesterday. I'd thought that Buffy was lying to me. Thank you, my little girl."

Tears begin streaming down Buffs's eyes as she goes in for a hug.

"I'm sorry."

Joyce looks shocked.

"I'm guessing that I died."

Buffs nods.

"I was alone for so long."

Joyce just held her in her arms. I'd have done the same with my own mother if she was here. Alas, we can't all have our wishes. A while later, Buffs calms down and points to me.

"This is Andrew, my boyfriend."

Joyce nods and looks at me. She analyzes ever single detail of my being. She nods.

"He doesn't seem too bad. Nothing can be worse than Angel."

Xan laughs at that, as does Wills.

Suddenly, we here shuffling.

"We forgot about you."

I remove the tape from his lips and glare at him.

"You care about her. I know you think of her as a daughter, so why? Why did you ever put her in harm's way?"

"I tried to stop it," Giles sighed.

If he could, I bet that he would be cleaning his glasses right at this moment.

"You did that late. That vamp could have killed Joyce and with that, any trust she has in you. She thinks of you as her father. She doesn't know it yet, but she does in the same way you try to hide your care."

Giles looks visibly aged. A tiredness washed over him.

"I'd thought it the right thing to do."

I glared at him.

"Stop letting that blithering council dictate your actions and actually take care of Buffy. We might now have three slayer but that doesn't mean that any are expendable. You love her right?"

He nods.

"Then do the right thing for her."

He nods.

"Now before you go, I'm going to help you."

I remove his jacket and dress shirt then begin inscribing the enochian protection runes on his body.

He grunts.

"What are you doing t-"

Wills interrupts.

"Enochian Protection Runes. They hide you from the Powers and pretty much anything else except sight."

Giles calms down but still looks warily as I continue my inscription.

"Thank you."

I nod and soon finish.

Giles looks at Wills and Xan.

"So…you two are vamps?"

"With souls. Don't forget that part G-man," Xan smiles while holding Wills's hand, "He did a spell of restoration I think."

Giles's eyes widened.

"Don't have sex. You could-"

"I edited the spell to allow sex," I smirk, "You should see them going."

I shudder at the screams.

Giles looks at me shocked.

"This is unprecedented. You. How? Bollocks."

I give a dopey smile.

"Because, I'm Batman."

Giles just stares at me.

"No! Really. Remember halloween?"

Giles thinks as the puzzle pieces begin to work in his brain as does Joyce's.

"You," Joyce screams, "I drove you to this inn and never saw you again."

"Yup. An assholic being sent me to the wishverse to die because I did one over it. I did manage to make the best of it though. I got a girlfriend, a bro and a pretty cool witch might I add. Don't pity me."

Joyce hugs me.

"Thanks for saving my daughter and also, no one deserves to be treated that way."

I smile. I could feel warmth.

"Thanks, I needed that. Before them, I'd been alone."

Joyce nods as her eyes darkened.

"Could you also give me the tattoo?"

I look up at her?

"You sure? It could hurt."

She nods.

I begin. I bring out my knife and stab it into Joyce's flesh, blood leaks and she lets out a muffled scream. Buffs holds her mother's hands making sure that she was still here, that this was real.

She knew that it was real, but this was the woman that she had seen die, that she'd dusted.

"It's alright," Joyce smiles at Buffs, gritting her teeth.

I made sure to finish this as quickly as possible and in a moment, we were done.

"It's done. You guys can leave if you want. Oh and Giles, don't tell the council about this. If they found out there are now two slayer lines active, then they might try to put Buffs under their control or potentially kill her with the special operations team."

He nods.

"Also, have a backbone. Tell your Buffy the truth and make sure to let her know that the council needs her and Faith more than they need them. That's the avenue to keeping your job. Oh and start acting like a real father you dolt. She might not be your daughter by blood, but she's yours."

He nods as we untie him. He walks out of the room but before he does, he turns.

"Thank You."

I smile.

"I hope I made the right choice here."

I'd broken one of my rules, I'd talked to a fucking watcher. The council could find out about us. Oh well. Life was usually like that. You could never really choose the path it would take you, only steer it slightly.

"You can go too, Mrs. Summers."

She nods while turning to the Buffs.

"C-can I visit?" She asks.

"Of course mom. Comeover whenever you'd like."

She smiles.

"Alright."

She hugs Buffs again.

"Goodby little s-"

"Sunflower. I know. I know," Buffs whines.

Joyce smiles.

"Goodbye."

She shakily waves, almost afraid to go. She turns and walks away, closing the doors behind her.

I gazed at Buffs.

"That was pretty chill."

"It was."

"Wanna get the Gem of Amara? The orbs kinda break easily. Wouldn't want you in the sunlight with an easily breakable ball Wills."

Wills nods.

Xan chuckles. That's my bro.

"It's at the xxx graveyard in xxx's grave."

"What are we waiting for?" Xan asks, "Let's go."

"Wait!" I shout.

Everyone turns.

"Let me and Wills place glamors on everyone so we're not noticed."

They nod and we do our magic. We soon find ourselves in the car and then, in the graveyard.

I point at an unmarked grave.

"It's here. Could you do the honors?"

Wills and Xan begin speed digging and we soon find the gem atop a mountain of treasure. Wills puts it on and I absorb the rest of the treasure into my spatial pouch.

"We're rich aren't we?" Xan asks.

"Very," I smirk.

A toothy smile escapes my lips. Money was nice. I could now start building our suits.

"Where do you guys wanna go?"

Xan looks at Wills.

"I know where I wanna be," Xan smirks.

I sigh.

"Home?"

"Home," they all retort back.

We drove back to the inn.

Hey, Author here, I wanted to write more but felt like this was a good end to the chap. Do you guys have any ideas on what you wanna see next? What did you think about this chap? Was it interesting? Too dark?