Dark Are the Shadows - 10/28/19

Dark are the Shadows (rough draft - meaning you'll find typos, occasional plot holes and changes from one draft to another. Let me know where I screw up and I'll fix 'em)
Buffy, the Vampire Slayer and Dark Shadows cross-over
by Ms Hunter Ash

Copyright stuff: this is for entertainment purposes. No infringement of copyright is intended.  The canon characters belong to their individual creators and production companies.  Original characters are mine, thanks.

rating: PG-13
Pairings: Barnabas/Julia, Willow/Tara, Xander/Anya, Giles/Angelique

Note: I will be posting and back-dating the earlier parts of this tomorrow or the next day.  Right now I want to keep the progress going.

I love feedback, btw.



# # #

Giles was sitting at the table in the Magic Box glancing through some new books that had come in. The increase in severe mental illness among the population was bothering him.

Xander was helping Anya unpack another box of books while a young man wandered through the store. Giles had glanced at the blonde youth with a somewhat scruffy beard and had dismissed him as a tourist.

The boy glanced over at the books Giles was looking through with obvious curiosity.

"Uh, are all those magic books?" he asked.

"Private selection, the books for sale are against the walls over there and there," Giles said.

"So all these books got spells in 'em? Turn people into frogs, things like that?" he asked.

Giles glanced up over his glasses and he saw Anya and Xander stop stacking books, roll their eyes and shake their heads.

"Yeah, we're building a race of frog people, it's a good time," Xander quipped.

"So, uh, you all witches? Hey, don't do a spell on me now," the young man said with a laugh.

"Is there something in particular you were looking for?" Giles asked as he stood up. He was seriously hoping he wouldn't have to ask the kid to leave...face first through a closed door.

The door opened and Buffy, Tara and Willow entered laughing among themselves.

"Hey, what'd you know?" the young man said loudly.

The three girls stopped and looked at him. Giles wasn't surprised by the expression of curiosity from Buffy and Willow but Tara's expression of alarm did cause the Watcher to pull his glasses off.

"What's the matter? You don't have a hug for your big brother?"

"Brother?" Willow asked as she looked at Tara.

"Willow, this is D-Donny," Tara said.

Willow moved closer to Donny. "Hi."

Donny shook Willow's hand with a smile. "Nice to meet you."

"And, and these are my-my friends," Tara stammered.

"What, you all hang out? Wow! That's more people that you ever talked to in highschool," he declared.

"How did you... Why did you come?" Tara asked.

"Well, duh, birthday girl! We came down in the camper and we've been all over the campus," Donny said.

"We?" Tara asked.

Everyone turned to look at the door as the bell above chimed and a middle aged man and young woman walked in.

"Hey, Dad, look what I found!" Donny said as he gestured towards Tara.

"Uh, Dad. Hi," Tara said softly and hugged her father awkwardly.

"Here's my girl."

"S-such a surprise," Tara responded. "Cousin Beth."

"Hey, Tara."

"Someone from your dorm said I might... find you here," Mr. Maclay said as he looked around.

"Oh, these are, these are friends. This is Mr. Giles, uh, he runs the shop," Tara said quickly.

Giles stepped forward and shook Mr. Maclay's hand. "How do you do?"

"Pleasure," the other man responded and looked at Tara. "Well, I don't mean to interrupt your plans, I know we've come up on you kind of sudden but I thought we could have dinner."

Giles shook his head slightly as Anya and Willow glanced at him. He saw Xander grab Anya's hand. "I believe Tara has some plans out of town and just dropped by to let us know she, Buffy and Willow are leaving."

Mr. Maclay frowned. "We've come a long way."

"M-maybe we could do something at A-Angel's place," Tara said after a moment.

"If you're sure your plans can be changed," Giles said, giving the girl an "out" if necessary.

"It's okay," Tara said.

"All right," Giles said. "We can pull something together."

"I'll call Quentin and they can get things rolling on that end," Buffy offered.

"What you've got more friends than these? Wow!" Donny exclaimed.

Giles put his glasses back on. "Actually Tara is an amazing young woman. We're lucky she's friends with us."

Giles resisted winking at Willow at her look of gratitude to him.

"Well, tell us where to go and we'll meet you there in an hour?" Mr. Maclay suggested. "We're double-parked right now. Tara, walk us out. Nice to meet everyone."

Donny followed Mr. Maclay and Beth to the door and waved. "Nice to meet you all, see you in a bit."

Buffy frowned with her hands on her hips as they watched Tara step outside. She moved closer to the shelves near the door.

"I see that witch-star around your neck, Tara," Maclay said as Donny and Beth headed towards an older RV up the block. "You don't even try to hide it anymore, do you? I'd hoped maybe you'd gotten over the whole witchcraft thing. That if we let you go, you'd get it out of your system. Students told us to look for you in that store. That... place."

"I didn't... I didn't k-know that you were coming," Tara said softly.

"Of course we came!" he snapped. "We haven't heard from you in months. Your birthday is here and you know what that means."

"No, it doesn't," Tara protested.

"You're turning twenty, thats the same age as your mother when she... do your friends even know?"

"They k-know a lot," Tara said.

"You lying to me? Tara, you're coming home with us, you know it's the only way."

"Home?" Tara repeated.

"You can't control what's going to happen," Maclay said firmly. "You have evil inside of you and it will come out. Letting yourself work all this magic is only going to make it worse. Where do you think that power comes from?"

"It's not evil, it doesn't feel that way," Tara said.

Buffy almost smiled to herself. There was definitely the capacity for evil in Tara now that she was a vampire but she had a feeling Maclay didn't know that.

"Evil never does. We'll leave in the morning," he declared. "Your family loves you, Tara, no matter what. How do you think your friends are going to feel when they see you?"

Tara stepped back inside the shop with a frown.

She looked at Buffy. "Y-you heard."

"Slayer hearing," Buffy admitted. "He doesn't know you're a vampire, what is he talking about?"

"Let's go b-back to the mansion b-before they get there," Tara suggested.

"Let's go," Giles agreed. "Anya, just put the money in the safe, we'll run the register tape in the morning."

"Who is riding with whom?" Xander asked. "I've got my pickup."

"I've got my car and Buffy has her Jeep," Giles said. "I'm going to stop for blood and meat at the butcher's and then pick up Joyce and Dawn."

"Then our usual modes of transport," Xander said. "Let's go."

# # # #

Giles held the door open for Joyce and Dawn as they helped carry boxes of meat and packaged blood. Buffy rushed over from the sofa to help and Joyce and Dawn stopped and looked at Willow and Tara.

The Watcher and Slayer realized they hadn't seen Tara since she had been turned into a vampire and both almost held their breath.

Tara and Willow glanced over and stopped talking. The young vampire witch bit her lip.

Barnabas turned from talking with Quentin and watched the interaction.

Dawn handed Buffy the box she was carrying and rushed over to tightly hug Tara.

Buffy breathed a sigh of relief and she had a feeling there were quite a few that joined her in that sigh.

Tara hugged Dawn with a wide smile. "I've missed you."

"Yeah? I'm in the same place, you know," Dawn commented. "You owe me...a mocha."

"Deal," Tara agreed. "How are your classes going?"

Everyone relaxed another notch.

Xander walked over and took the bags from Joyce. "I've got the coals heating up. Glad you guys are here, Mrs. Summers."

"Glad to be here," Joyce said. "Go do your manly thing, someone will show me around."

"Awesome," Xander said with a grin. "Angel, Cordy, Wes and Fred should be here in a few minutes."

"I'll put the extra meat and other in the fridge," Giles told Buffy.

The Slayer shook her head. "He is never going to get over being here with Angel at the same time," she muttered.

"Yeah, I bet him and Angelique sleep somewhere else in the morning," Xander predicted. "Where's Tara's redneck family?"

"They'll be here in a bit," Buffy said. "We should find out what's going on before they get here."

"Call the meeting," Xander suggested.

Giles stepped out into the main room and found everyone settling in and he walked over to stand next to Angelique, slipping his hand into hers.

"I...I d-don't know where to begin," Tara said.

"Wherever you need," Willow said. "We love you, baby."

"Absolutely," Dawn said firmly.

"M-my family believes that my Mom was half-demon and that she couldn't control it," Tara said as she looked down. "That its inherited and comes out when we turn 20."

Everyone frowned but especially Barnabas. "We've heard that demons can't be changed into vampires," he said. "Especially since it requires someone to die in order to be changed."

'Really?" Tara asked with a hopeful expression.

"Absolutely," Giles agreed. "The Council has investigated this fairly thoroughly for some odd reason, perhaps to determine how to fight... cross-species."

Anya nodded. "It doesn't happen."

"You don't even have a demon because you became a vampire," Willow pointed out. "Your vampiresque stuff isn't the same."

"Besides, they probably won't approve of you being a vampire and sleeping late," Xander added.

Tara laughed and nodded. "No, they wouldn't. They won't approve of me being a vampire, about my relationship with Willow, my friendship with everyone and being a witch."

"Why on earth would they think your mother was part demon?" Giles asked.

"Probably a family myth to keep the women-folk inline."

Everyone turned to find Spike standing at the patio door.

"Really?" Buffy asked.

"Sounds like it," Spike said. "That's an ingenious way of keeping the family inline."

"T-they lied?" Tara asked, her voice almost a whisper.

"Well, we know you're not part demon and odds are your mother wasn't," Giles said.

"What are you doing here, Spike?" Buffy asked with a frown.

"I saw the lights on and wondered what was up," the vampire answered. "I thought Peaches might be here and I could get in a couple of jabs."

"He'll be here shortly," Giles informed the vampire.

"Who is everyone else?" Spike asked. "Vamps?"

"Some, others are werewolves that aren't fond of your kind of vampires," Buffy said.

"My kind?" Spike asked. "Oh by the way, did you know there's a lot of Lei-Ach demons around here? Kinda weird."

"Lei-Ach?" Buffy asked, turning to look at Giles.

"Demons that are fairly repulsive looking with oozing skin and they love death and destruction," Giles said.

"Sounds fun," Buffy grumbled. "I'll tackle some of them after dinner. There's blood if you can behave yourself. Remember, our guests bite, all of them."

"Joy," Spike said softly.

"I'll start the meat cooking," Xander offered.

"Who's the new vamps?" Spike demanded as Buffy helped Xander carry the meat outside to the bbq.

"Go ask them," Buffy suggested. "They helped us recently."

"And they're munching on the old man and turned Tara?" Spike demanded to know. "They're the good guys?"

"There wasn't a choice with Tara," Xander said. "And don't bug her about it!"

"Giles can date who he likes," Buffy responded. "Those vampires have their souls without the gypsy curse."

"Souls? All four of them?"

"Yeah," Xander said and tried to resist smirking.

"How old are the vamps?" Spike asked with a frown.

"Go ask them," Buffy repeated.

Barnabas stepped out front and leaned against a large planter.

The vampire smiled when Tara stepped out of the house. "Hullo, needing some space?"

"Kinda," Tara acknowledged. "Are you okay?"

"Not particularly," Barnabas said. "Julia is upset."

"Because of Roxanne?"

Barnabas nodded. "What I didn't say to everyone is that I fell very hard for a Roxanne I knew in another timeband. Then I met a Roxanne in this timeline but she wasn't the same and she was a vampire that was preying on someone I cared for very deeply. We got our friend to safety and then we ended up tripping through time again and the Roxanne here disappeared."

"And the one that was in the other time-band died," Tara commented.

"Yes, both of them," Barnabas said. "Two different times. One died in the sun, the other in a fire. Or so we thought. She didn't die, she fell into the same portal but came here at different point in time. This Roxanne is the one I was very much in love with but I had discovered my feelings for Julia. We've been together as a couple since 1971."

"Do you want to be with Roxanne?"

"I'm with Julia," Barnabas said firmly. "It may be the same Roxanne I fell in love with but that was a life time ago and we've both changed."

"Tara?"

The two vampires looked to the sidewalk and saw Beth.

"I'll be close," Barnabas said softly and stepped back into the shadows and disappeared.

Beth walked up the walkway. "Where did that guy go?"

"Around to the backyard," Tara said. "Where's Dad and Donny?"

"Parking the RV," Beth said. "Thought I could get out and come help you."

"Help me?"

"To pack your things," Beth suggested.

"Beth, I'm not... I'm n-not coming back with you," Tara said.

"You're not?" Beth asked.

"No, my life is here."

"You... you selfish bitch!" Beth spat out.

"What?"

Barnabas's eyes narrowed from where he had rematerialized in the shadows in the foliage near the front door.

"You don't care the slightest bitty bit about your family, do you? Your dad's been worried sick about you everyday since you've been gone. There's a... a house that needs taking care of and Donny and your dad having to do for themselves while you're down here living God knows what kind of lifestyle!"

Tara's head ducked and then rose. "They shouldn't expect me to stay at home to cook and clean for them."

"Wait until your friends see the real you!" Beth exclaimed. "They'll see the truth!"

"They already know every truth about me," Tara said softly.

"You didn't tell them about the demon part of you, did you?" Beth demanded. "Don't you see how out of control you are? You've been lying to these people for a year! Did you put a spell on them? I'm gonna tell your father!"

"I told them tonight," Tara said. "And I didn't do any magic on them."

"You owe your family!" Beth stated.

"Sounds like you have fun on bingo night, right?" Spike commented as he walked out of the mansion and past them. "You get your corn out of jar?"

"What?" Beth asked.

"Forget it," Spike said. "Have fun, Tara. Happy birthday."

"Thanks, Spike," Tara responded.

"Wait until your dad hears this!" Beth exclaimed.

"Dad and Donny are walking up now," Tara said.

# # # #