August 6 - The Role of Fate, The Power of Choice
Title: The Role of Fate, The Power of Choice
Author: Beriaearwen
Crossover: Buffy the Vampire Slayer / Avengers Movieverse (AU for all movies through Civil War)
Characters: Buff Summers / Steve Rogers
Rating: FRT
Word Count: 1720
Disclaimer: The characters of Buffy the Vampire Slayer belong to Mutant Enemy, etc. The characters of the Avengers belong to Marvel, etc. All are use d here without permission no copyright infringement is intended.
Notes: AU for both universes. For Buffy AU after Season 7, for Avengers, AU after “Civil War” (minor AU for the movies before). Sometimes my brain goes to weird places, so apologies in advance. Also - soul marks involved
Summary: Buffy Summers had not one soul mark, but two. She certainly never expected to have three.
The Role Of Fate, The Power Of Choice
by Beriaearwen
Buffy Summers came from a long line of people who had soul-marks on their skin. A symbol representing their soulmate, the one person who would understand them unlike any other. Only a small portion of the population carried these marks and they tended to run along bloodlines.
Unlike the rest of her family, Buffy had two different marks, both on her left shoulder. Her parents had been less than pleased with that discovery and, at an early age, Buffy learned the wonders of shirts with sleeves and waterproof makeup. That way no one would know she had one, let alone two.
Other than ensuring they were covered up, Buffy thought little (not at all) about her soul-marks. After all she was fifteen, ridiculously popular and a cheerleader. The fact that she had nightmares about girls from all over the world and smashed her alarm clock, door handle and a few other items were unimportant.
Then Merrick showed up.
To say she was appalled that one of her soulmates was a creepy old man was quite the understatement. So he had quickly tried to calm her and handed her an ancient book about soul-marks claiming that most of the modern world had forgotten what they truly meant. He then begged her to meet him later.
Buffy wanted to say no, but her curiosity got the better of her.
That afternoon she started reading about soul-marks and discovered that most people had them wrong. The location of the soul-mark meant different things. There were only a two places they would appear - shoulders and over the heart.
A soul-mark on the shoulder signified a partner in a non-romantic sense. Someone who would stand by you, help you in battle and become the best person you could be. In the case of slayers, the soul-mark for their watchers was always on their left shoulder - their weak side - unless the Slayer was left-handed in which case it was on their right shoulder.
Unlike other people, slayers always had two soul-marks. On on the appropriate shoulder for their watcher and one over their heart for their romantic soulmate. According to the book, a soul-mark over the heart was for, basically, the love of your life.
Buffy didn't get too much farther into it, but decided to point out that her lack of a soul-mark over her heart meant that she couldn't be the slayer, even if she did have two soul-mark.
Still, Merrick had convinced her and when he killed himself to save her, she felt a part of herself die with him.
Then Giles appeared while she was still trying to recover from Merrick's loss. She knew she couldn't go through that a second time, so she tried pushing Giles away.
It didn't work.
Most people didn't understand the bond they had. They trusted each other absolutely and instinctively. They would work together in the field more smoothly and fluidly than any other fighter.
And they did.
Then she died. Her death had been enough to wake Giles up from where she had knocked him out.
The events surrounding her eighteenth birthday were made all the worse for the betrayal of trust between them and their bond never quite hummed the same again.
Then she died again.
When the others dragged her back, no one had to call Giles, he felt it. And, since he'd experienced the sensation once before, he knew exactly what it meant.
But Buffy was broken, Giles had a new life and their bond didn't hum as much as before.
Buffy acknowledged her past as it ran through her mind and started into the bathroom mirror.
She'd been woken up about five minutes ago with a burning sensation on her chest.
After getting up, she went to the bathroom, closed the door, turned on the light and removed her shirt.
She watched dully as image continued to appear on her chest.
When it was finally done and the pain had faded, she stared at the small image located right over her heart.
“Guess I have a romantic soulmate after all,” she murmured with no inflection. Slipping her shirt over her head, she headed back to her bedroom where she would stay for the appropriate amount of time before getting up to join the others.
Living was so much harder this time around. But then, she'd only been at it for a week. Maybe it would get easier with time.
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
The last bus out of Sunnydale, as they had started calling themselves, had been at the Hyperion hotel for less than an hour when someone wondered how the sinking of the town would be portrayed on the news. After all, it was a fairly big deal.
Locating a radio, they turned it on and didn't have to wait long for news. The lead story - all the stories really - were not about Sunnydale, but about an alien invasion on the other side of the continent about 3,000 miles away and the group of people fighting them off who were calling themselves “Avengers”.
Shocked, they scrambled to see about locating a television. With it successfully up and running, they watched that day and the next several, but the sinking of Sunnydale was barely a blip on even the local news.
Buffy breathed a sigh of relief.
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
When the Cleveland hellmouth blew, she and the Scoobies broke all sorts of laws and put themselves at risk since the government considered them terrorists, in order to help stop it.
They were successful in shutting the mouth and taking care of all those who were involved in opening it, but, being so newly awakened and lacking a dark warlock trying to become a true demon as a mayor, Cleveland just didn't have the benefit of Sunnydale syndrome. They would need to come up with a way to cover it.
While they kept the news on to see what was said, all other news stories were shoved aside or ignored as the destruction of an office building and massive heli-carriers in Washington DC took center stage. Apparently an Avenger or two were involved in that and were dumping all of the organization's files. Buffy glanced at Willow and Andrew who immediately began getting their hands on as much of the download as they could.
“You know that's the second time the Avengers have come in handy,” Xander said. “Think they'll be able to distract the press every time something in our world goes wrong?”
Buffy smiled and nodded. Then she started thinking. “Willow?” The red-head grunted by way of acknowledgment. “How hard would it be to slip in a few files saying we're not terrorists and should be given immunity and authority?”
Willow stopped typing as she, and everyone else, stared wide-eyed at the blonde.
“Bloody brilliant,” Giles agreed softly.
“Doesn't matter how easy or hard,” Willow said, already typing again. “It's going to happen.”
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
Buffy almost staggered into her room. She was so tired she wasn't sure she'd be able to even take the shower she desperately needed.
Senior slayer or not, three days straight of fighting off an invasion of demonic penguins - Penguins! - and trying to keep it from spilling out onto the streets of Sydney was exhausting, but they'd won.
Now she just needed to be sure that no one actually paid attention to the battle.
Flicking on the television, Buffy wasn't sure whether to laugh, cry or scream in frustration. Apparently the Avengers had been fighting something called “Ultron” who lifted an entire city into the air.
“They are a good distraction,” she admitted to herself.
A few minutes later, she gasped in shock at the picture shown. It wasn't because of the graphic nature of it, she was fairly certain it was about the least graphic one out there, but it showed Captain America carrying a young girl toward a waiting lifeboat thing. What arrested Buffy's attention, though, was the fact that his uniform had a tear in it on the chest and, to anyone with a clue, it showed a very well defined soul-mark, one that matched hers identically.
“Well.... crap,” was all she said once she got over the initial shock.
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
Buffy stood watching the scenes on the television, her arms crossed, her face blank. She knew what she wanted to do, but she would need to make sure it was the right move.
The people in question had shown a distinct lack of being able to live in the shadows, but they didn't deserve the thanks they were getting.
And, she was finally ready to reach out and take a chance on her soulmate.
“What are we going to do?” Xander asked.
Everyone except Buffy started talking at the same time. After a few minutes, realizing that there was one voice they weren't hearing, everyone quieted and turned toward her.
“Make sure Penguin Base One is ready to receive visitors. It will be the initial stopping point, but not the last.”
“You're going to bring them to Antarctica?” Dawn asked, incredulous.
Buffy shrugged, “Nothing there but snow and some demon penguins. It'll give them a chance to recover and us a chance to figure out how they will best fit, if they're willing to work with us.”
“And if not?” Giles asked.
“We'll cross that bridge then. But these are hero types, they're going to want to save the day. We just need to convince them to do so less.... spectacularly.”
Accepting her words, everyone immediately began working on the plan to extract the wrongly imprisoned Avengers and their friend the Winter Soldier.
Faith slid up next to Buffy who was standing in the background watching the chaos. “Finally going to give the old soulmate a try?”
Buffy nodded. Faith was the only one, other than a nameless doctor, who knew of her soul-mark and the only one who understood its meaning. After all, Faith carried Robin's mark over her heart.
The brunette clapped the shorter woman on the shoulder. “Totally worth it and the sex is wow! But having your other half around, nothing better.”
Buffy's lips twitched up into a smile. “We'll see,” Buffy replied, pushing off the wall to intervene in the discussion before it came to blows. “We'll see.”
End
Author: Beriaearwen
Crossover: Buffy the Vampire Slayer / Avengers Movieverse (AU for all movies through Civil War)
Characters: Buff Summers / Steve Rogers
Rating: FRT
Word Count: 1720
Disclaimer: The characters of Buffy the Vampire Slayer belong to Mutant Enemy, etc. The characters of the Avengers belong to Marvel, etc. All are use d here without permission no copyright infringement is intended.
Notes: AU for both universes. For Buffy AU after Season 7, for Avengers, AU after “Civil War” (minor AU for the movies before). Sometimes my brain goes to weird places, so apologies in advance. Also - soul marks involved
Summary: Buffy Summers had not one soul mark, but two. She certainly never expected to have three.
The Role Of Fate, The Power Of Choice
by Beriaearwen
Buffy Summers came from a long line of people who had soul-marks on their skin. A symbol representing their soulmate, the one person who would understand them unlike any other. Only a small portion of the population carried these marks and they tended to run along bloodlines.
Unlike the rest of her family, Buffy had two different marks, both on her left shoulder. Her parents had been less than pleased with that discovery and, at an early age, Buffy learned the wonders of shirts with sleeves and waterproof makeup. That way no one would know she had one, let alone two.
Other than ensuring they were covered up, Buffy thought little (not at all) about her soul-marks. After all she was fifteen, ridiculously popular and a cheerleader. The fact that she had nightmares about girls from all over the world and smashed her alarm clock, door handle and a few other items were unimportant.
Then Merrick showed up.
To say she was appalled that one of her soulmates was a creepy old man was quite the understatement. So he had quickly tried to calm her and handed her an ancient book about soul-marks claiming that most of the modern world had forgotten what they truly meant. He then begged her to meet him later.
Buffy wanted to say no, but her curiosity got the better of her.
That afternoon she started reading about soul-marks and discovered that most people had them wrong. The location of the soul-mark meant different things. There were only a two places they would appear - shoulders and over the heart.
A soul-mark on the shoulder signified a partner in a non-romantic sense. Someone who would stand by you, help you in battle and become the best person you could be. In the case of slayers, the soul-mark for their watchers was always on their left shoulder - their weak side - unless the Slayer was left-handed in which case it was on their right shoulder.
Unlike other people, slayers always had two soul-marks. On on the appropriate shoulder for their watcher and one over their heart for their romantic soulmate. According to the book, a soul-mark over the heart was for, basically, the love of your life.
Buffy didn't get too much farther into it, but decided to point out that her lack of a soul-mark over her heart meant that she couldn't be the slayer, even if she did have two soul-mark.
Still, Merrick had convinced her and when he killed himself to save her, she felt a part of herself die with him.
Then Giles appeared while she was still trying to recover from Merrick's loss. She knew she couldn't go through that a second time, so she tried pushing Giles away.
It didn't work.
Most people didn't understand the bond they had. They trusted each other absolutely and instinctively. They would work together in the field more smoothly and fluidly than any other fighter.
And they did.
Then she died. Her death had been enough to wake Giles up from where she had knocked him out.
The events surrounding her eighteenth birthday were made all the worse for the betrayal of trust between them and their bond never quite hummed the same again.
Then she died again.
When the others dragged her back, no one had to call Giles, he felt it. And, since he'd experienced the sensation once before, he knew exactly what it meant.
But Buffy was broken, Giles had a new life and their bond didn't hum as much as before.
Buffy acknowledged her past as it ran through her mind and started into the bathroom mirror.
She'd been woken up about five minutes ago with a burning sensation on her chest.
After getting up, she went to the bathroom, closed the door, turned on the light and removed her shirt.
She watched dully as image continued to appear on her chest.
When it was finally done and the pain had faded, she stared at the small image located right over her heart.
“Guess I have a romantic soulmate after all,” she murmured with no inflection. Slipping her shirt over her head, she headed back to her bedroom where she would stay for the appropriate amount of time before getting up to join the others.
Living was so much harder this time around. But then, she'd only been at it for a week. Maybe it would get easier with time.
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
The last bus out of Sunnydale, as they had started calling themselves, had been at the Hyperion hotel for less than an hour when someone wondered how the sinking of the town would be portrayed on the news. After all, it was a fairly big deal.
Locating a radio, they turned it on and didn't have to wait long for news. The lead story - all the stories really - were not about Sunnydale, but about an alien invasion on the other side of the continent about 3,000 miles away and the group of people fighting them off who were calling themselves “Avengers”.
Shocked, they scrambled to see about locating a television. With it successfully up and running, they watched that day and the next several, but the sinking of Sunnydale was barely a blip on even the local news.
Buffy breathed a sigh of relief.
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
When the Cleveland hellmouth blew, she and the Scoobies broke all sorts of laws and put themselves at risk since the government considered them terrorists, in order to help stop it.
They were successful in shutting the mouth and taking care of all those who were involved in opening it, but, being so newly awakened and lacking a dark warlock trying to become a true demon as a mayor, Cleveland just didn't have the benefit of Sunnydale syndrome. They would need to come up with a way to cover it.
While they kept the news on to see what was said, all other news stories were shoved aside or ignored as the destruction of an office building and massive heli-carriers in Washington DC took center stage. Apparently an Avenger or two were involved in that and were dumping all of the organization's files. Buffy glanced at Willow and Andrew who immediately began getting their hands on as much of the download as they could.
“You know that's the second time the Avengers have come in handy,” Xander said. “Think they'll be able to distract the press every time something in our world goes wrong?”
Buffy smiled and nodded. Then she started thinking. “Willow?” The red-head grunted by way of acknowledgment. “How hard would it be to slip in a few files saying we're not terrorists and should be given immunity and authority?”
Willow stopped typing as she, and everyone else, stared wide-eyed at the blonde.
“Bloody brilliant,” Giles agreed softly.
“Doesn't matter how easy or hard,” Willow said, already typing again. “It's going to happen.”
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
Buffy almost staggered into her room. She was so tired she wasn't sure she'd be able to even take the shower she desperately needed.
Senior slayer or not, three days straight of fighting off an invasion of demonic penguins - Penguins! - and trying to keep it from spilling out onto the streets of Sydney was exhausting, but they'd won.
Now she just needed to be sure that no one actually paid attention to the battle.
Flicking on the television, Buffy wasn't sure whether to laugh, cry or scream in frustration. Apparently the Avengers had been fighting something called “Ultron” who lifted an entire city into the air.
“They are a good distraction,” she admitted to herself.
A few minutes later, she gasped in shock at the picture shown. It wasn't because of the graphic nature of it, she was fairly certain it was about the least graphic one out there, but it showed Captain America carrying a young girl toward a waiting lifeboat thing. What arrested Buffy's attention, though, was the fact that his uniform had a tear in it on the chest and, to anyone with a clue, it showed a very well defined soul-mark, one that matched hers identically.
“Well.... crap,” was all she said once she got over the initial shock.
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
Buffy stood watching the scenes on the television, her arms crossed, her face blank. She knew what she wanted to do, but she would need to make sure it was the right move.
The people in question had shown a distinct lack of being able to live in the shadows, but they didn't deserve the thanks they were getting.
And, she was finally ready to reach out and take a chance on her soulmate.
“What are we going to do?” Xander asked.
Everyone except Buffy started talking at the same time. After a few minutes, realizing that there was one voice they weren't hearing, everyone quieted and turned toward her.
“Make sure Penguin Base One is ready to receive visitors. It will be the initial stopping point, but not the last.”
“You're going to bring them to Antarctica?” Dawn asked, incredulous.
Buffy shrugged, “Nothing there but snow and some demon penguins. It'll give them a chance to recover and us a chance to figure out how they will best fit, if they're willing to work with us.”
“And if not?” Giles asked.
“We'll cross that bridge then. But these are hero types, they're going to want to save the day. We just need to convince them to do so less.... spectacularly.”
Accepting her words, everyone immediately began working on the plan to extract the wrongly imprisoned Avengers and their friend the Winter Soldier.
Faith slid up next to Buffy who was standing in the background watching the chaos. “Finally going to give the old soulmate a try?”
Buffy nodded. Faith was the only one, other than a nameless doctor, who knew of her soul-mark and the only one who understood its meaning. After all, Faith carried Robin's mark over her heart.
The brunette clapped the shorter woman on the shoulder. “Totally worth it and the sex is wow! But having your other half around, nothing better.”
Buffy's lips twitched up into a smile. “We'll see,” Buffy replied, pushing off the wall to intervene in the discussion before it came to blows. “We'll see.”
End