Author's Chapter Notes:
The Trickster is based off the Trickster character from "Supernatural". Credit given where credit's due.
Chapter 1

It was nearly a month since Spike had closed the Hellmouth, and died.

Once they had piled into the bus, there was a brief stop in LA for supplies and hospitals, then they were on their way to Cleveland. From there, Giles continued on to England to deal with the remnants of the Council directly, and was due back any day.

Luckily enough, the Council had had a Watcher based in Cleveland, as the second most active Hellmouth, and his house was Council property. Buffy didn’t question how Giles knew where to find the key. It was a large Victorian, thankfully, with many small but tidy rooms. The Slayers had sleeping bags and pillows, so they could deal.

Some, they’d initially left in LA to heal, like Faith and Robin. Some of the girls had families they needed to check on. Buffy got that. Her family was gathered around her still. For every girl that left, another wandered in looking for answers. Willow seemed to have a way of drawing them in. Buffy didn’t ask how.

Two weeks after the fall of Sunnydale, Buffy moved herself and Dawn into a small apartment close to the house. Her money had been in a national bank, thank God, and there had actually been disaster insurance on the house – a saving grace, since mortgages outlived houses. The giant crater had made the news, understandably, so the whole country had been sympathetic as they trekked east. Buffy hadn’t known human kindness like that existed.

They set about trying to regain normality, though Dawn wasn’t talking much. Buffy wasn’t in a sharing mood, either. With Sunnydale, and therefore, the school system destroyed, Robin passed all Sunnydale High students through whatever grade they’d been interrupted from, so Dawn’s junior year was complete. 24 hours after they had an official address, she turned up with a job for the summer. It struck Buffy right between the eyes, again, that she’d missed her sister’s maturity while she was so focused on The First…and Spike.

So, with her friends rebuilding the Council and her sister moving on with life, what was a Slayer to do, but find the nearest demon…

~+~

The newspaper had shown a new and very odd death every day this week. Like, only caused by the supernatural, odd. In typical Buffy avoidance fashion, she was doing anything to keep her busy from dealing with her grief. Not that she had any. They had lots of stuff to celebrate, right, and evil was on holiday. Cleveland after dark was interesting, but nothing she couldn’t handle with a stake or dagger or handy piece of rebar.

So, on the trail of…whatever this was (probably some name she couldn’t pronounce). Just as soon as she got Willow to triangulate a possible location based on the deaths.

“Buffy, you can do this on a paper map.”

“Yeah…but it’s faster your way! Ooo, and smaller. Efficient use of space.”

“I’m just really busy right now. Most of us are moving on to England as soon as Giles gives the word, and there are so many Slayers to find,” Willow argued.

“Bet you could have done it while you said that.” Buffy gave her best friend her best pout. “Please?”

Willow sighed, and opened her laptop. Most of them were trying to make it up to Buffy for kicking her out of her house back in Sunnydale. In little ways that weren’t too obvious. Awkward things they all weren’t really saying. It was what the Scoobies did. Within a few minutes, Willow had an 8x10 map printed out for the Slayer.

“Be safe,” she said, before leaving.

“It’s just recon. I don’t even know what might be causing trouble, you know? It’s just a vibe…”

Willow nodded. “Yeah. Say hi to Dawnie for me.”

Once Willow left, Buffy wrote a note to her sister, stuck it on the fridge along with dinner money, and left the apartment. Since they were in a big city and she didn’t know how to drive, she was stuck cycling everywhere, or taking the bus. One of the others probably would have been happy to drive her, but this was her first monster chase since coming to Cleveland – she wanted to do it alone. Anyway, the bicycle was a good way to work off this Midwestern diet.

The bad side was that it gave her time to think. To wonder if she could have gotten more out of the Hellmouth alive. Consider staying or going once Giles got the Council back on its feet. Ponder giving it all up to be “normal” now that she was just one Slayer out of hundreds. But not to think about Spike or how much she missed him. Nuh-uh.

The map showed that the incidents surrounded one part of town. Buffy asked a few questions while the sun was still up, then started hunting. When she’d asked if there were anything “weird” people noticed in the neighborhood, they all mentioned the sweetshop.

“A candy store is weird?” she asked.

“Not the store, itself, the guy who runs it. Friendly enough, but just…odd. Nobody can put a finger on it; it’s just a vibe…”

The answer was pretty much the same all around, so Buffy figured it was the best place to start. And she could use a little chocolate these days.

She stopped the bike in front. Doesn’t look demon-y out here. Maybe something suspicious would pop up around back. Nope. She sighed. Time to go inside, then.

A bell jingled above the door as Buffy entered. Looked normal on the inside, too, with cheery pastel wallpaper, glass cases filled with candies and chocolate, and a cash register on the counter. She rang the bell.

“Hello?”

A man came out from the back, a bit shorter than average height, with brown hair. Her spidey sense wasn’t tingling, yet, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t evil. He smiled.

“What can I help you with today?”

Buffy looked at the truffles in front of her. “Do you have any of those dried fruits covered in chocolate? My sister likes the blueberries.” Might as well start off asking something normal, in case he was human.

“I do. Also, cranberries, raisins, dates…” He scrutinized her, then slid a case open and reached for a truffle. “But you look like a coffee crème girl.”

Buffy shook her head. “Oh, I couldn’t…”

“Free sample.”

She bit into the truffle ball, and moaned. “Oh, my god…”

He stapled closed a bag with one scoopful of chocolate covered blueberries. “Here you go. $2.50.”

Buffy dug a five-dollar bill out of her pocket while chewing on the second half of the truffle. The candy man handed her the change, then slid another truffle across the counter.

“My treat, since you liked the first one so much.”

She snatched it up and left happy. She was halfway down the block on her bicycle, before she realized she hadn’t tried to ask about the incidents at all.

“Hey! He whammied me!”

Buffy left the bike propped against a wall and went back on foot, around the back this time. She kicked in the back door.

“Nice try.”

Her opponent shrugged, still with that friendly look on his face, and sighed. “It was worth a try. We’re on the same side, really, Slayer. Everyone of those people in the paper deserved what they got.”

“What are you, some kind of vengeance demon?” she asked, stalking him.

“Hardly! I do this for fun.” He gestured, and truffles appeared in the air before her, floating there with their tempting aroma.

Buffy groaned, and swatted them aside. “Play your little tricks on demons all you want. I can’t let you hurt innocent people.”

“Innocent?! Human, yeah. Innocent…not since they popped out of the womb.”

“Enough chit-chat,” she grumbled, and lunged at the man. A demon appeared in her way.

A very BIG demon.

It backhanded her into the alley before she had a chance to attack. She landed in a pile of old boxes, shook her head, and popped back to her feet. But whatever this thing was the guy had conjured, it seemed impermeable to her hits.

Buffy was sent flying again, into the dumpster this time. She saw stars as she struggled to get back out before the demon could grab her. I wish Spike was here.

It was her last thought before being knocked out cold.





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