Stronger
She knew that she would never be the same in that moment. She had heard the voice, the girl, in her head.
Can stand up, will stand up
After the Hellmouth she had left, tried to make a new life for herself. She had to stay under the radar.
Everyone she knew was everywhere else. But she was here – only a few hundred miles from the most difficult 9 months of her life.
She’d been living in her van, comfortable in her anonymity when she realized just how silly she had been. When she joined the team, she realized that no matter what the case was, the supernatural would always find her. She settled into routine on the bus, with her –dare she say it?- family. A.C., FitzSimmons, May and Ward. Her team. Her family. The only family she had had since Sunnydale had fell into the center of the Earth.
She could lose that family easier than she had lost anything else. To lose her family once was a shame – twice was carelessness. So she didn’t tell them. What was she supposed to say? Hey, want to watch the Lakers game also I’m a mystical being with sort-of superpowers against demons and want some ice cream?
How could she share this part of her life? So she stepped away from Slaying, and towards government sanctioned justice. She was letting Ward train her, making the mistakes she had always seen in rookie fighters when they were all gathering on the Hellmouth.
But that all changed when everything went to hell. They’d been doing work in Italy and were on a stakeout in a bar when she realized something was wrong. She hadn’t felt this feeling in a long time but today-
A man walked by with a shiny pin and tiny emblem on his tie. Wolfram and Hart?
“We need to leave,” said Skye suddenly, grabbing FitzSimmons and dragging them to Coulson, “Like, yesterday.”
“We haven’t even seen the op yet,” said Ward with his eyebrows furrowed together in annoyance, “We can’t leave. We’re under orders.”
“I don’t give a flying fuck if we’re under orders, we need to-”
“Slayer,” one of the men hissed.
“Shit,” Skye cursed, “Guys, run!”
Seeing Skye so frantic, Ward readied himself for attack only to be thrown across the room with ease.
“What’s going on?” asked Simmons in terror. “What’s a slayer?”
“You need to leave,” cried Skye, “Run!”
“We aren’t leaving you,” growled May.
“I’ve never killed a slayer,” said another one, “But I’ve always wanted to. ”
If I out myself they’ll hate me for lying. If I don’t, they could die.
“Ha,” Skye laughed, cueing the shock from Coulson and May, “Okay, ugly. Do you know who I am?”
The lead man, tall with slicked back hair and a black leather coat narrowed his eyes, “Dead?” he suggested. “That’s what our superiors told us you should be. We’ve been watching you since you got here, Slayer.”
“Close,” Skye said, breaking the leg of table off and grabbing it in her hand, “I’m Skye. I know you know who I am. Skye the Vampire Slayer.”
“What the hell?” someone asked from behind her.
“Well, Skye the Vampire Slayer,” the man sneered, “There’s one of you, and twenty-two of us.”
“Not one,” said a voice from behind them. “Two.”
“Kennedy?” Skye asked incredulously.
Suddenly, three arrows flew in rapid succession, dusting three vamps.
“Actually, it’s three,” said another voice from the balcony above the bar. “Three of us, nineteen of you.” She followed up by hurling an axe towards Skye who caught it fearlessly and held it at the ready.
“You may want to give up now,” said the girl named Kennedy. “The odds aren’t in your favor.”
“Aren’t in our favor?” laughed the vampire, “Nineteen versus three lousy slayers?”
The petite blonde jumped from the balcony gracefully and rolled her eyes, “I’m getting really tired of people not knowing who I am.”
“I feel that,” called Kennedy from behind the cluster, “You take down the First at the worst Hellmouth in history and nobody even knows your name? We should make like Tony Stark and out ourselves.”
One of the vampires began to cower, “We should leave, dude. This is some next level stuff, man.”
“Too late,” said the blonde and in a moment, the three girls jumped into the cluster and began to fight. Vamp after vamp, dust after dust, and soon there was nothing left of the attack except the one lone vampire.
Kennedy beat him across the face and stomped him down with enough time to have Skye rope him up so he wouldn’t move.
“Who sent you?” began the blonde.
He spat at her feet. “Fine,” she said, and then punched him so hard his face broke the stone below him.
“What are you doing!” yelled Fitz, “Stop!”
Skye ignored him and lifted a chair, breaking the glass of the window nearby to let the daytime light in.
“You must have really wanted Skye to come venturing out during the day,” said Kennedy, “Do you like sunlight?”
She dragged him a foot closer to the sun. She could tell he was getting nervous.
“I don’t know anything, I swear!” yelled the vampire desperately as she pulled him closer again.
“Sure you don’t,” said the blonde, “You know about as much as I know about chemistry.”
“Buffy,” said Skye, “You failed Chem. With an actual F.”
“Okay, that was a bad example.”
The vampire took this moment to try to move but Buffy kicked him.
“Talk.”
“Fine! Fine! I was hired, okay?”
“By who?” questioned Skye, “Who hired you, and what exactly did they say?”
“I don’t know who he was! Tall, dark hair, down to his shoulder. He said his name was-”
“Dracula,” Buffy and Skye said at the same time.
“Yeah but everybody says that,” said the vamp, “I called myself Dracula for a while too. He put out a feeler for ten grand and a dozen kittens to kill the Slayer named Skye and bring back her head.”
“Her head?” gasped Simmons in horror.
Skye looked at Buffy thoughtfully, and then let her axe fall, taking off his head.
“Why did you do that!” yelled Fitz, “He told you everything.”
“He’s a vampire,” said Buffy simply, “And if we let him go, he would go and kill innocents.”
“You have some serious explaining to do,” said Coulson.
“Fine,” said Skye uncharacteristically sharply, “Not here.”
“We’ve got a safe house a mile up the road,” said Kennedy, “That’s where we will go.”
Skye could tell Coulson didn't like to be bossed around but he followed and soon the team and the slayers where in a well-furnished apartment.
“What the hell just happened, Skye?” asked May.
“It’s a long story,” said Skye, “Mega-long.”
“We have time,” Coulson replied simply.
Skye looked at Buffy who sighed and then began, “The world is older than you know…” Buffy talked for thirty minutes, explaining demons, vampires and the nightmares of the world, “Every horror, ever creature, monster, ghoulish beast you could imagine is real, and living in the world beside you.”
“How can S.H.I.E.L.D. not know about this?” asked Fitz, “We work with the paranormal!”
“Yeah,” said Skye, “But S.H.I.E.L.D. has an agreement with the New Watchers’ Council. They hand over any cases that are outside of their jurisdiction.”
“So you became a Slayer in this whole incident in Sunnydale?” questioned Coulson.
Skye hesitated, “I was in line to be a Slayer from birth. If enough girls had died before I died, I would have ended up the Slayer either way. But now, anyone who could be a Slayer isa Slayer. When I was sixteen I was sent to Sunnydale by my Watcher, Adam. He was killed on the way there trying to protect me from the First. But I managed to get to Buffy’s house and she trained me how to fight and protect myself so that I would stand a chance against the Bringers.”
“But you were only sixteen!” exclaimed Fitz, “You were too young!”
“Yeah,” said Skye, “But I wasn’t too young to die. It’s not uncommon for us to be called early. Buffy was called at only fifteen, and she managed to slip through the Watchers’ Council’s cracks. They didn’t even know about her until she was called. They knew about me early. I was six when they came to the orphanage to take me. I was already well-trained before I arrived in Sunnydale.”
“So you’ve been lying to us this entire time?” Ward spat, “About your whole life? Is Skye even your name?”
Skye frowned, “I haven’t lied about anything. I’m not just going to go telling everyone that I’m a mystical ball of something or another that can bench a ton of solid steel.”
“A ton?” asked Kennedy impressed, “I’m pushing about 850.”
“Eh,” said Buffy, “I lifted the front of an eighteen wheeler once. I remain unimpressed.”
“I’m sorry,” interrupted Jemma, “Is everyone just going to believe this without question?”
“Uh, yeah,” said Fitz, “Superstrong females in kick-ass situations are cool, Jemma.”
“No, they are not,” growled Ward.
“Yes, they are,” cut in May.
“She lied to us, again. We’re supposed to be a team,” Ward argued.
“Not really,” cut in Skye.
“What do you mean ‘not really’?” questioned May.
“I mean I didn’t really lie to you. Director Fury knows I’m a Slayer. That’s probably part of the reason that he accepted Coulson’s request.”
“That makes sense,” said Fitz, “Hey is the Watcher’s Council hiring?”
Jemma smacked him hard.
“Ow, Jemma! It was just a bloody question!”
Kennedy stood up, strapping an axe to her back, “Anyway, this is where we part ways. Faith has been training a group of girls up in Mass and some prick Senator is trying to get the house shut down in accordance with laws about too many girls living in a house being a brothel. Total bullshit, but a jobs a job.”
“Mass?” murmured Ward.
Skye snorted, “Yeah, your douche-bag brother.”
Ward froze, and May averted her eyes.
“You didn’t actually think I didn’t know about Christian?”
“We don’t need to discuss this now,” said Coulson.
“Yeah, the atmosphere is here is similar to what it’s like when Spike and Angel are in the same room. So… I’m gonna peace.” She paused and pulled out an envelop and handed it to Skye, “Dawn wanted me to give this to you. Call her soon, okay? She misses you.”
Kennedy smiled flirtatiously at Jemma, “If you ever get tired of men, call me.”
Skye rolled her eyes.
When they left May stood up. “I think we deserve to know if you are a danger to this team.”
Skye sighed, “I mean – yes. I’m stong enough that if I don’t pull my punches someone could be seriously hurt.”
“That’s now what I meant. And you know it.”
“This thing with Dracula is probably bullshit. He has no interest in me. If he’s interested in anyone, it’s Buffy. He’s weirdly into her.”
“Wait- Dracula is real?” questioned Fitz.
“Yep. Tall, dark, handsome, kinda creepy, lives in castles and carries dirt and a lot of vampire hookers with him wherever he goes. I’ve never met him, but Buffy assures me he’s underwhelming. She staked him three times.”
_
She had something, an asset. She-
“What’s good, S?”
“How the-”
“Some Diviners in a coven in Ireland said you’d be needing our help.”
“What the hell, Buffy?”
“I reject your usage of ‘the’ in regards to hell.”
That’s when Coulson entered, eyes narrowed and body alert.
“Who are you?”
The brunette one turned first. “’Sup? My Faith LeHane. This is Buffy Summers. We know Skye.”
“This is so not what it looks like,” Skye began.
“It looks like your friends are at our secret base.”
“Okay, so I guess it’s exactly what it looks like.”