FROM HEROES ━━ buffy

i. Return to Sunnydale

Lilith arrives to Sunnydale in a ball of fire.

As the smoke around her dissipates, she starts to make out her surroundings. She stands in the cemetery, dark, foggy, and colorless. The grass around her feet is charred. Yet Lilith remains pristine, her cloak untouched and her head unkempt.

If only someone had witnessed her grand entrance...

Then, Lilith hears it. A squeak. Behind her. She turns around and lets a smirk fall on her lips at seeing the source.

A vampire, told by his bumpy forehead and gaping mouth revealing fangs, crouches in front of Lilith. His prey drive doesn't kick in quickly enough, still stunned by her sudden appearance. Lilith has already approached him when his reflexes kickstart — as he lunges, she shoots out an arm. Claws, that weren't there before, dig around the sides of his neck from where Lilith grasps.

The vampire pants, trying to uselessly swat Lilith away. Standing a few inches taller than him, Lilith lifts him off the ground, her claws digging in deeper, drawing blood. The vampire's yellow eyes go wide at her immense strength. Then, as if suddenly remembering, he should be the one others cower from, he growls.

Lilith ignores it. "You see," she begins. "I'm looking for someone." The vampire dangles his feet, trying to touch the ground. "Blonde, cute as a button, but awfully deadly? No? Kills your kind? Hello? The Slayer?"

Annoyed with the lack of response, Lilith groans and tosses him aside. Then, she nods to the passed-out man next to them. "Are you eating that?" she asks. Funny thing was, although the vampire had been busy with him, he hadn't tried to kill the man bringing flowers to his loved one's grave, almost as if he was planning to save him for someone else.

Instead of letting her have him, the vampire rudely tries to attack Lilith. She sighs, and has a go at him. He tries to tackle her, and she uses his momentum against him to get him in a headlock. She pulls at his ear, like she's going to rip it, and as the vampire yells out, Ow, ow ow!

That's when he gives in. "I know someone who knows her, the Slayer."

Lilith softens her grip, her interest piqued. "Do you now?"

☀︎

The vampire — whose name Lilith discovers is Bernie —leads her down to a tunnel through the city's sewers. He promises it's just a little further down as Lilith nags about the putrid smell, claiming there are places in Hell that smell better than this.

Thinking it's never going to end, they finally get out of the sewer as they take a turn that leads to some old, unused mine shaft — that's where some light at the end appears. Getting a brighter yellow the closer they get, Lilith can start making out voices — till finally, the room expands. They're in some sort of dome, surrounded by vampires, all too focused on a project. Some carry scrolls, others have mining hats on them and a mattock at hand.

However, there's a single man they all seem to turn to who Lilith figures to be the leader of sorts. He has his back to her and a distinctive platinum head. Bernie leads her towards him.

The leader senses their approach and turns around. He hopes to see the meal he had Bernie fetch for...not her.

For the first time tonight, Lilith is caught off-guard, her words stuck in a lump in her throat. Of course, it'd be Spike, she thinks, since wherever a Slayer goes, he seems to follow.

Spike averts her gaze. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me," he bellows. His English accent thick, much like she remembers.

He turns to his lackey. "What part of bring me something human and barely alive, Bernie, did you not understand?"

"Vampire-knowing-Slayer. Of course, it's you," says Lilith, looking around the tunnel. Bits and pieces leading to Spike's latest scheme were scrawled everywhere.

"She- she can kill the Slayer," Bernie blurts out, trying to save his ass.

Both Spike and Lilith furrow their brows at his words. "I never said that," Lilith claims.

Spike, clearly annoyed with his lackey's incompetence, turns to Lilith for the truth behind this. The first time their eyes meet in decades and they still see each other so clearly. He sees her unrepentant, liar's eyes. She sees his resentful, hateful eyes.

"Other than thwarting my dinner, what do you want?" He sets his drill down, having been using it before her arrival. "You ate it, didn't you? You were always the gobbler. Wanting what you can't have, taking it anyway."

Lilith sneers at the bruises of the past. On the table he'd been working on, she sets her hands and licks her teeth. She has never let him get to her, ever-so leaned to placidness. "If I knew that delivery was for you, I would've fetched him myself," she flirts, making those eyes — the way she used to do whenever she mocked him.

Thinking she might want to get close, Spike steps behind the table. "Trying to bag a Slayer for yourself, are you?"

Lilith leans back on the table, crossing her arms. "We had so much fun, you and I. Paris...roaring twenties. I wondered, when will it ever repeat?"

"You're like a dog with a bone."

Their tension isn't akin to that of ex-lovers, but rather rivals. Fueled by envy and propelled by competitiveness, each trying to outshine the other. In their kills, their conquests, their malice. The sight of the other burns like gin down their throats. Never quite friends; never quite enemies.

"And here it is. We can work together again. You can lead me to the Slayer, and I can take it from there."

"Truth is I'm just nosing. I don't care to help you."

"C'mon, Spike. You know you don't hate me."

And there it is, what sets him off.

He grabs her wrist suddenly, slams it down against the table. "You're right, love," he says, casual and contradicting. "I don't hate you. I rehearsed hating you. Spent eighty years imagining how I'd put you down if I ever got the chance.

His face is awfully close to hers. Lilith thinks he is going to go ahead and bite her, doesn't matter she isn't his first choice of meal. Demon and all. But all he does is smile, razor-sharp and mean. "Still might. Depends how bored I get."

"Spikey!" sounds an angered female voice as a new pair of footsteps clatter the room. "You left me upstairs! I could've been killed by rats. Or, like, poor people."

Spike pushes Lilith away and faces his girlfriend—who had just returned with perfect timing. Harmony stops cold when she sees Lilith, "Who's the skank?"

Spike deflects. "Her? Oh, just another lackey."

Lilith glares at the back of his bleached head.

"I told you," Harmony reproaches, "I don't want female minions, especially not pretty ones."

"Well, well..." Lilith looks her up and down. Blonde, barbie-like, dressed in pink. "She's not Dru."

"Uh, no. I'm way better than her."

"Left you again, didn't she?"

"Sod off."

"She left him for a fungus demon. It's all he talks about most days." Harmony rolls her eyes.

"Harm!"

"Someone has a thing for demons."

Spike glares at Lilith. "Quit it, would you?"

She puts up her hands in defense.

Harmony caresses Spike's arm, trying to soothe him. "So, Spikey, when do we get to announce ourselves? I want us to go on a date. Maybe you can finally kill the Slayer, that'll put you in a good mood."

Lilith grabs Harmony by the shoulder, Harmony makes a face. "You know where to find her?"

She nods.

Spike seizes the opportunity then. "Harmony, why don't you take Lilith over here, and tell her all about where to find the Slayer."

☀︎

College party. Two nights later. That's where this gets her.

Harmony blabbers and blabbers and blabbers. Lilith wants to punch a hole through her throat, but she admits Harmony is better company than most of the guys around here. Besides, Harmony occasionally spills useful information—like how tonight's party is at the same college Buffy attends, or that time she let slip why Spike was digging so many holes at the Hellmouth.

The Gem of Amarra.

Spike is looking for the one thing that will render him completely immortal, Lilith likes to toy with the idea of stealing it from him. A legendary jewel. Maybe she can sell it on eBay.

But most of her conversations with Harmony are about her latest obsession: becoming a supervillain.

Lilith adjusts her black, backless top in the mirror, Harmony sprawled on the bed behind her in a pink satin skirt. "How do I look?" Harmony asks, spinning halfway. "Be honest. Does this make me look fat?"

"You look fine," Lilith says.

"You're evil, right? Bernie gets all shaky, worse than Minnie...my chihuahua, when he sees you. How did you do it? Teach me."

"Teach you...? How to be evil?" By the slight bite of her tongue, it's clear what Lilith's said is intended for double-meaning.

Harmony doesn't catch on. "Yeah. Like...ooh, how did you get the title?"

She thinks she needs to be evil for Spike to look at her, thinks she needs to change herself for him to finally treat her decently. Half of the time he's ignoring her, the other half he's annoyed by her. But Harmony tells Lilith — not that Lilith cares to know — that she just won't leave him because it makes for such great sex, and he still owes her that trip to France. Speaking of France...

"I killed some people in France."

In her book, some people meant a hundred. Men, children, and puppies alike. Those two years spent alongside Dru and Spike had earned Lilith her biggest gig yet. The Massacre of Paris—her biggest gig yet. The thrill of it, the chaos, and Dru's laughter in the carnage—it was almost enough to make her miss the old days.

Other than the thrill of the kill, there was Dru.

"That's it? No big grr, I ate kittens...or shredded my sister's magazines after I told her Minnie did it?"

"What?"

Harmony shrugs. "I'm just saying. Even Spike killed two slayers."

"Killing slayers is stupid. They only pop up again."

Harmony feels like she's learned more with Lilith in two days than in the two months she's spent with Spike. "Why does my boyfriend hate you?"

"I don't know. Ask him."

        Lilith does know why Spike might hate her, she simply lies about it. She doesn't think it's hatred he feels, just very strong dislike. Okay, he did try to drill a hole through her hand yesterday after she got too snappy, and the day before that, he tried to make a boulder fall on her after she said some brutally honest things. Regardless of that, he lets her stay here, it must mean something. Like, she did make a pathetic fool out of him, but the good memories outweigh the bad, right?

Right?

        As if speak of the devil, Spike leans against the doorway—a jagged hole in the wall—his gaze already on her. "Lilith, it's been so long. Have you always looked like that? Must be the years. Things aren't as firm anymore."

She lied, sometimes Spike does get under her skin. She smiles tightly and brushes past him. "That's what happened to your hair? Withered with the years?"

"I think it's cute! Like a peroxide porcupine!" Harmony pipes in.

Spike glares. "What's wrong with my hair?"

☀︎

At the party, Lilith busies herself with cups of beer and complains about just everything here. She decides she hates human parties, there are no massacres or orgies to enjoy herself with. It almost makes her miss the sweet warmth of Hell.

She ditched Harmony and Spike the moment she arrived, the two annoying losers she didn't want to be associated with — until some guy named Dylan approaches her and tries to make conversation, which makes her miss their company.

She is going to need something stronger than beer if she's going to stay here any longer, she regrets not raiding Spike's stash before coming here. "Know where they keep the hard stuff?" she asks Dylan.

He makes some showy flex of his arms to point her towards the end of the hall. "Yeah, down the back."

He leads her to a door to the garage. Once there, he steps inside, and she leans against the doorframe. His silhouette is dark and fuzzy from the lack of light but he knows where to look as he rummages through a shelf. He lifts bottle after bottle, "Anything in mind?"

"Give me your best."

"You got it."

Dylan returns with a whiskey bottle. He is about to hand her a cup when Lilith quirks open the bottle and drinks it straight. He purses his lips and nods, tossing the cup aside.

"You're brave for that one."

Lilith chugs more whiskey and continues down the hall, Dylan trails after her — till she halts in her tracks, blinks twice to make sure she's not seeing things, and drinks more. Finally, what she came here for.

Buffy. The Buffy. The Slayer, stands a few feet in front of her. She's brought a date — a good-looking guy — but seems to be painfully ignoring him caught up in some heated discussion with Spike. She looks cute when angry. There's been a few times that Lilith's been starstruck, this is one of those times.

But this is not the first time Lilith has met the Slayer. About five months ago, Lilith had been in Sunnydale, cruising different halls than those of a college house party — Sunnydale High School's halls to be exact. Pretending to enroll herself as the new girl, Lilith had one plan in mind: to kill Buffy. She was just like any other demon back then; still is but she lies to herself about it. Lilith was to infiltrate the school, and get Buffy to come to her by using her dorky best friend as bait — an endearingly half-witted guy named Xander — and it was all to work out; except it didn't.

Lilith hadn't considered exactly how powerful Buffy was. For a tiny — sometimes air-headed — girl, she knew how to handle herself. The Chosen One after all. In summary, Lilith attended high school for less than a day before Buffy wiped her out.

Sure, some part of Lilith must want Buffy dead in return for that. But she doesn't give in to it, she's not stupid. Buffy killed her once, she could easily do it again. So...Lilith's plan is running differently this time, she intends to get close to the Slayer — not to kill her — but to befriend her. Your strongest enemies make your strongest allies, at least that's what she believes.

Dylan notices something's wrong by the way Lilith freezes. Trying to help, he suggests, "Let's go outside."

Lilith barely nods but heads outside. She doesn't want to be seen just yet. The atmosphere outside is chilly and breezy, nothing like the clamped air inside from so many bodies. She hugs one arm around herself and drinks with the other.

Dylan clamps his hands together. "Sup? Everything okay in there?"

"Yeah. Just saw an ex, that's it," Lilith lies.

"Bad breakup?"

"You wouldn't believe it. Basically killed me."

Dylan chuckles. "My ex was like that, too."

Lilith doesn't indulge Dylan's lame attempt at breaking the ice. She keeps sneaking glances at the door to see if anyone interesting ( see: Buffy) comes out. Yet it isn't Buffy that gets a reaction out of her, Spike comes bolting out the door, and it makes her think just what the hell did he get into this time?

"That him?"

"God, no."

Followed shortly after Spike, comes Buffy all in slayer mode. As she runs past Lilith, she reaches for her arm. "Hey, Buffy."

Buffy wriggles her shoulder. "Not now."

Lilith has her eyes glossed on Buffy as she tells Dylan, "She's so cool, isn't she?"

"Uh, yeah. I guess."

"She killed me a few months ago."

"Um...I'm gonna go get another drink." Dylan doesn't return.

Lilith is trying to peek through the bushes to get another look at Buffy. She can't see clearly, though can make out the figures of Spike and her throwing punches at each other.

Lilith doesn't notice when Spike leaves with Harmony, but Buffy comes back, looking more rattled than she initially was. Lilith can't tell whether or not she should approach her. Either way, Buffy goes up to her first.

Seeing Lilith set off something in Buffy but she couldn't pinpoint what exactly. "Do I know you?"

The last thing Lilith expects is to not be remembered. "Uh, well..." she toys with her sleeves — till she realizes this is much better. "I don't think so, no. I'm Lilith."

"Buffy," she smiles, then turns apologetic as she quickly glances towards the house — where her date is waiting, "Gotta go. Sorry. Hope to see you around, though."

Lilith smiles back. She's such an idiot. "Yeah. I'll see you around."

Buffy brushes past her, and Lilith wants to swallow herself up. Buffy, Buffy, Buffy. She's talking to Buffy, and she blew it. Totally blew it.

They walk their opposite ways; Lilith away from the party, and Buffy back inside.

It isn't until Buffy steps past the door's threshold that she remembers Lilith, the memories hit her like a truck. In her defense, she'd only known her for a day. The monsters she slays start to blur, especially when she's not required to remember them. They just don't have a habit of coming back.

But Buffy recalls Lilith now, oh, she does. The demon that tried to eat her best friend.

📌 lily throughout this chapter: where is the slayer WHERE IS THE SLAYER where is slayer
📌 theres rarely gonna be scenes from the show. find them annoying to read....like why would i read a fic for that if i can just watch the show ????
📌 some parts in this r choppy. so sorry. anyway, if i don't lose inspo this fic is going all the way to s10. currently have lots of plans.
📌 if 4.2 had a cliffhanger ending on the show, it'd be the first scene of this chapter.

📌 BTVS NEEDS MORE HYPE IN WP !!!!!! 👹👹👹👹