One Girl In All the World

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One Girl In All the World by Kendare Blake

After a long walk, the Slayer reaches New Sunnydale, built on the filled-in sinkhole that was created when the Hellmouth opened. Eighteen years have passed, but it’s still being rebuilt. Everything is shiny and new because people are people and always forget the bad stuff that happened despite still getting icky vibes, especially when that bad stuff happened on prime California real estate. The Slayer walks to New Sunnydale High, predictably built right on the Hellmouth, and walks through an open door and down into the basement where the feel of the Hellmouth is strongest. She sets down an orb that gives off an eerie green glow and acts like a demon magnet which will make a wonderful welcome back present for the Hellmouth. The Slayer pulls up her hood hiding her face and leaves the school. Phase one commenced. 

A vampire cowboy moseys into town, pulled by the Hellmouth. He’s been notching up kills for a long, long time across Nevada, Arizona and all the way down to Texas. Now he’s swapped the dust of ghost-towns for the well-manicured lawn and garden ornaments of New Sunnydale cemetery, with the intention of making new notches on his new cactus-leather belt. Unfortunately for him, he comes across the Scooby Gang. Hailey and Sigmund are holding a seance on a grave (a.k.a. acting as bait), allowing Frankie the Slayer to drop-kick his face while complimenting his eco-friendly belt. Jake the werewolf and Captain of the Lacrosse team is also there. The Scooby Gang tries to survey the vampire, yes they’re conducting a census, but the vampire is in no mood to suffer questions from a little lady, so Frankie ends up staking him, dusting him and his eco-friendly belt. Shame. Welcome to the Hellmouth. 

During free period the next day, Frankie is waiting for Hailey, Jake and Sigmund so they can update her watcher on the single vampire dusting the night before. Spike (yes THE vampire Spike who is posing as the school Librarian, tweed and all, and is safe from the sunlight because of an SPF 7000 spell Willow cast over the school) unfortunately isn’t really interested. After the explosion last year that made them think all the Slayers were killed except Hailey’s sister Vi who they haven't seen since, he’s lost his joie de mort. Even the monsters turning up in New Sunnydale are a bit lackluster. Spike encourages Frankie to forget about Grimloch the Hunter of Hotpants and get out there and cavort. He’s immortal and can afford the time to brood, but she needs to move on.

After letting her mind wander in history class, Frankie heads outside to the woods next to the sports field to go and beat up some trees. Instead of finding a nice punchable shrub, she finds the ripped up dead body of a senior in a Razorback hoodie and a strong fish smell, but no demon. Frankie gets the Scooby Gang and they investigate the body. The smell is still pungent and the body of Gustavo Fuentes is still there, but interestingly he is no longer wearing his hoodie. Jake was under the impression that Gustavo transferred schools and moved away, but here he is, dead.

On the side of the highway near the Welcome to New Sunnydale sign, the Slayer sets a fire with a flint and demon spell. She is using this to call another Slayer because you can’t trace smoke like you can a burner phone, apparently. They talk about a scythe and how the red witch must know where it is. They also mention getting an amulet and Frankie accepting their help. It’s all very annoyingly cryptic.

It’s Thursday night so Spike is on his way to poetry club. Yes, actual poetry club. With a box of cinnamon shortbread. He’s also brooding about Buffy which annoys him as it’s very Angel-like behavior (shudder). The smell of cologne distracts him, and following his nose through the cemetery, Spike finds Wolfie Oz hunting rabbits, and perhaps any monsters he may happen upon. Oz asks Spike if he feels like he’s being watched lately when out hunting, and Spike has. They decide to keep it a secret from Frankie for now, but will tell Willow. They don’t know how right they are, for just then, a figure darts from headstone to headstone behind them, watching them. 

At Willow’s, over hot blood and sandwiches, Spike and Oz tell Willow about feeling watched but Willow doesn’t sense anything. They are interrupted by Xander who texts them an aerial photo of the explosion site which looks worse than they thought. He also shares that a magical goat herd in France reported a ripple of mystical energy at the time of the explosion. The last time a ripple was felt was May 22, 2001, when Buffy died fighting Glory to save the world and Glory ripped a hole through dimensions. They suspect more than one portal between dimensions opened in the explosion which could mean the other Slayers are still alive in another dimension. To help them, Xander is sending an oracle… and there she is knocking on the door right now. Oz lets in a demon with blue skin and eyes only for Willow. She calls Willow the gate through which the slayer’s power flows and talks about how, on the day of the attack, there was a big rip and now many small tears have occurred. She then shoots her eyes on long stalks out of her head and attaches them to Willow for a few moments. When her eyes go back into her head, she whispers that the darkness is coming before abruptly leaving. Great, more cryptic messages.

When Scooby Gang 2.0 returns to Willow’s, they’re updated on what happened with the oracle. They now have hope that Buffy and the rest of the Slayers are still alive… somewhere… and will run on that assumption. Frankie goes out on patrol alone to try and find this “darkness,” hoping it will still be a baby and easy to slay. Meanwhile, Spike’s brooding is turning toward pining now there is hope that Buffy is alive. Willow talks to him about it, but eight hours in the library everyday has made Spike weirdly insightful and he turns Willow’s advice straight back on her. She needs to find herself a lovely lady and sort out whatever her relationship is with Oz.

The next day, Frankie reaches school at the same time the New Sunnydale Police do. There has been another murder, Charlie Baylor, and Gustavo’s body has been found. Charlie was found in the school changing rooms. While Spike and Sigmund check the sewers for clues about Gustavo’s killer, Frankie and Hailey head inside to investigate Charlie's death. Hailey distracts the officers allowing Frankie to sneak inside the changing room. Charlie’s body is cut up more than Gustavo’s and there is the faint smell of salty fish. She also notices that lockers have been ransacked, there isn’t any Razorback merch to be seen. 

With two dead bodies, the school has been closed, which is surprising given New Sunnydale High’s history, so Hailey and Sigmund head to his apartment above the magic shop. As they’re making out against the front door, it opens and they fall at the feet of the great Sarafina DeWitt, Sigmund’s mother. It’s not the most auspicious start to meeting your boyfriend’s mother. Meanwhile at the Rosenberg house, Willow is making eggs and pancakes, Spike is eating them, and Frankie tells them about what she found. A few minutes later, Hailey and Sigmund arrive with Sarafina. Willow is all kerfuffled at seeing Sarafina, her ex. Sarafina immediately challenges Frankie to a fight, but it’s not antagonistic, it’s a Sage Demon thing, and is the warmest welcome that could be extended. Frankie agrees and it’s set for the cemetery that night. 

The fight is super awkward at first because Sarafina is Frankie’s friend's mom and also her mom’s super hot ex, so Frankie feels uncomfortable beating her up. To make it easier, Sarafina creates a mirror image of herself for Frankie to fight instead. The fight is interrupted by the return of super hot Grimloch, Hunter of Thrace, who is fighting a demon himself. This one is a fish creature with writhing claws that resemble the slices in Gustavo and Charlie’s bodies, but Grimloch is able to snap the fish creature's neck, killing it. Willow recognizes the creature, it was a member of the 1998 Sunnydale High swim team (see Buffy episode Go Fish) who were changed into sea creatures for their coach who was doping them. They disappeared into the sea back in ‘98 and have never been seen since. It looks like they’ve come back for the latest Razorback merch and murder. Frankie and Jake head to the school swimming pool in case more turn up. 

Sam, a friend of Jake’s, is at the school when Frankie and Jake arrive. As they head to the swimming pool, they hear Sam’s screams, and they burst in to see him being attacked by fish people and dive in to save him. Jake gets Sam out of the pool while Frankie tries to fight the fish people. She’s not a strong swimmer at the best of times, never mind adding a fight to the death with several former swim team aquatic fish people, but suddenly someone drops a knife into the pool and Frankie, the first slayer-witch, uses telekinesis on the knife to turn the fish people into sushi. When Frankie manages to get out of the pool, she finds Vi, Hailey’s slayer sister, is the one who gave her the knife. When they return to the Rosenberg house, the reception to Vi is mixed. Spike is frosty with his original slayer and Hailey is stunned to see her sister.  They have a million questions but Vi refuses to answer any. She says only that she’s going to take her sister out for dinner, help train Frankie, then she and Hailey are going to leave. 

Later that night Frankie sneaks out to see Grim. The sexual tension between them can be cut with a knife, but nothing happens. Grim does give Frankie a rock, specifically a stalker stone, which will allow a hunter to walk among their prey unnoticed. He only gifts them to favored hunters (blush!). Frankie has to head home pretty quickly, and she sneaks back into the house stopping by Hailey who is stressing over her sister's arrival. Unfortunately for Frankie her mom is the most powerful witch, like, ever and knows her daughter snuck out and is waiting patiently for her arrival to ground her. 

Vi walks down the highway after dinner and twenty questions with her sister. Vi ruminates on how she was conscripted into the slayer ranks: demon magic being used to create the first slayer and passed down through the generations. It stinks. Using the demon magic smoke FaceTime spell, Vi calls Sonia. The conversation reveals that Vi is in New Sunnydale to find a scythe whilst another in their group, Aspen, their leader, looks for an amulet. It’s also revealed that Vi was in the group that planned the explosion at Halifax.

Frankie’s grounding lasts a week because it’s difficult to ground a Slayer. Now she’s in the library with the Scooby Gang and all the adults when Spike gives her, a strict vegetarian, a gift voucher for a leather shop because, in his opinion, she could use some badass Slayer clothes. Everyone gets involved in the sparring, even Willow who has a telekinesis fight with Frankie and kicks her daughter's butt. Clearly Willow is showing off for Sarafina. After, the adults leave the kids to tidy up all the books that were thrown around. As they do so, Jake confesses he like-likes his friend Sam, but is also frustrated that he can’t control his wolf during the full moon which makes him feel helpless when it comes to fighting alongside his friends. 

Frankie and Hailey stop for pizza while on patrol. They’re looking at the indie cinema, enjoying their slices and soda, when screams erupt from inside the theatre and people come pouring out followed by giant insects. Straight away they run to the rescue and start fighting the big bugs with their sharp pointy mandibles. Vi shows up from nowhere and joins the fray. Frankie shouts to Vi to call the adults while she runs in the direction of the cemetery, bugs following. Inside the cemetery, Frankie, Hailey and Vi let loose on the bugs and take them out with Spike showing up a few moments later. Vi is somewhat impressed with Frankie’s lack of fighting style but not impressed that Hailey joined the fight. Meanwhile, Sarafina is not impressed that Sigmund is a scholar not a fighter. She believes he needs to put down the books and demon census, pick up a sword and find a nice demon wife, viewing Hailey as a nice “for now” girlfriend. 

After consuming two pounds of spaghetti for dinner and teasing her mom about Sarafina, Frankie and Willow head to bed. A stressed and harried-looking Sigmund knocks on the Rosenberg front door before they can make it upstairs. He thinks he’s found a way to trace the missing Slayers. Instead of looking at the portal, they need to look at what went into the portal, the Slayers. By using something universal to all Slayers, he should be able to trace them, so he asks if they know the location of the Scythe. The Scythe was the weapon of the first slayer and was wielded by Buffy and used by Willow to awaken all the Slayers during their final big battle to save the world. It also helped focus the power that created Frankie. Willow has been storing it in her garage and happily pulls it from a junk trunk. 

Patrolling on Valentine’s night isn’t romantic, especially when you're doing so with family, friends and their frustrating family members and your hot demon potential BF is nowhere in sight. In the cemetery, they come across a group of vamps who are quickly, and in Spike’s opinion of Frankie’s form and style, messily dispatched. Vi also lays into Hailey fighting and using an ax. They aren’t the only vampires in the cemetery as one confessed to being compelled to create more and then the group is swarmed with baby vamps. After fighting one wave off, Willow casts a spell to trap them so it takes some of the challenge out of dusting them. When Frankie chases one vamp down, she runs into Grim and, after some flirting, they kiss, so at least Valentine’s isn’t totally tragic.

A few days later when Frankie and Vi are working together to draw a pack of Hellhounds to their doom over a cliff, Frankie gets weird vibes from Vi, her Slayer-radar is pinging and she sees something in Vi’s eyes that isn’t friendly and doesn’t scream Team Slayer. Later, when only the Scooby Gang is at the Rosenberg house, Sigmund updates them on his research into getting the Slayers back. He thinks he’s found a spell, but they’ll need to gather ingredients and Willow will need to be the one to use it because she was the witch who woke the Slayers before so she has a connection to the Slayer power. Gulp. 

Everyone is nervous the day they’re going to cast the spell. The Scooby Gang and Spike ditch school, with the exception of Sigmund who stays to pour over the books more. He and Hailey have been a bit off and neither are talking about it. At the Rosenberg’s, Willow is canoodling with Sarafina when Oz arrives with the spell ingredients, and after a weird and awkward argument, as much as one can argue with Oz, Willow and Oz finally decide their relationship can't be labeled so they are rebels. Soon all the Scoobies are together and after some strong gale force whipping magic with the slayer scythe, Willow and Frankie in the middle, they’re able to make contact with Buffy but only for a moment. Unfortunately Buffy doesn’t know where she is. Just as the spell breaks, Buffy’s necklace, a cross with Joyce inscribed on it, is dropped through dimensions. After the spell the scythe seems to not be comfortable with Willow and actively moves away from her so Sigmund suggests she carry it around a while to bond with it. Okay… 

Frankie is on patrol with Grim, not through the cemetery but the woods on the eastern hill of New Sunnydale. New Sunnydale has hills now after the whole Hellmouth apocalypse changed the topography, and a hill with a pretty view means a make out point which plenty of people are taking advantage of. That is until demons who look like the offspring of crocodiles and scorpions start dropping down on the hoods of the cars, reaching through the windows for the hot and heavy teens inside. Frankie and Grim dispatch the demons easily and all the teens escape. Just as they’re catching their breath, Frankie and Grim throw themselves at each other which is promptly interrupted by Spike. When Spike drags Frankie home, he wastes no time telling Willow what happened, who starts having flashbacks to her teenage years and feeling immense guilt for what they put Joyce Summers through. While Spike and Willow talk, Frankie is ordered to her room but stops by Hailey’s. Hailey mentions that Vi wants them to leave and find their Saulteaux side of the family, Hailey is interested, she has questions about her own fighting abilities - is she just naturally badass or is it something more? She also mentions that Vi seems a little weird and is acting more cryptic than usual. 

On patrol again, Frankie is back in the cemetery but with Vi and Hailey. As they’re talking about Sigmund pulling away from Hailey, they’re attacked by vampires. These aren’t any normal vampires, they’re Turok-Han, born ubervamps, the demons sent to terrorize and kill all the baby slayers after Willow called them. This freezes Vi as she was one of those baby slayers, but Frankie is relentless. The Turok-Han are tough so the slayers make a strategic run away, calling the others with their SOS whistles. Frankie wants her mom though, not for comfort but for the slayer scythe she is carrying. Frankie knows from her aunt Buffy the scythe will decapitate the Turok-Han. The tide of the fight turns with Frankie wielding the scythe. After the Turok-Han are dispatched, Vi, still frozen, only has eyes for the scythe. Quickly, Vi leaves them.

Vi heads to a warehouse and uses the magic smoke FaceTime spell. Sonia answers but Vi demands to speak to Aspen. When Aspen comes, Vi accuses her of hiding information about the beacon and how it called the Turok-Han. Aspen tells Vi it only calls demons back to the Hellmouth they came from, and the Hellmouth eats them until a nice big surprise pops out, the grand-mage who instructed her wasn’t clear on the surprise. Vi tells Aspen she has found the slayer scythe and how she wants to grab it, but that would be bad as she would lose Willow and the Scooby Gang's trust if it were to go wrong. With that, Aspen makes the smoke circle bigger until Sonia, others from their cohort, and Aspen step through, Aspen loudly declaring that the Darkness is here. None of them see Frankie watching from a small window or hear her curse about Vi.

After a restless night, Frankie meets the rest of the Scooby Gang in the school library early the following morning. She tells them exactly what and who she saw the previous night. The only conclusion they can draw is that Vi and the other eight rogue slayers are the ones responsible for the bomb in Halifax that pushed the other slayers into another dimension. An army of slayers is not going to be easy to beat. Frankie pulls out the stalker stone Grim gave her and decides to infiltrate the Darkness and find out exactly what is going on. 

After donning her Buffy cosplay (well slayer armor, Buffy’s leather jacket and cross), Frankie leaves for the warehouse, stalker stone in hand. When she arrives she cuts her hand and smothers the stone in her blood before slipping inside and following a slayer downstairs. There are at least eight slayers not including Vi and Aspen sitting on mattresses, chatting and eating copious amounts of junk food. No one sees her, not even Vi when she does appear and heads into the back area where more slayers and Aspen are. Frankie listens and gets confirmation they’re responsible for the bomb and the missing, injured and dead slayers, but not why they did it. Suddenly someone new and distinctly not a slayer arrives… Grim. Aspen throws herself into his arms, wraps her legs around him and starts kissing him. So Aspen is his slayer love he’s been trying to find. Stunned, Frankie moves to leave and crashes into some packing boxes causing Grim to notice her and say her name which forces Vi to see her, breaking the stalker stone spell. Instead of attacking immediately, they explain that they want the scythe so they can give their powers back to it and be normal again. The fighting and the escape with Grim happens after Aspen orders Frankie to be tied up and Frankie does not consent. Consent is key.

When they’re out of the warehouse, Frankie and Grim lay into each other. She’s annoyed that he broke the stalker stone spell and was smooching the evil slayer leader, and he’s annoyed, essentially, that she was doing her job as a slayer. Frankie gives Grim an ultimatum. He has to choose to either be on her side or stay out of the way. Back home, Frankie tells the Scooby Gang and the adults what happened and also that Aspen had a necklace that made her slaydar ping. Frankie doesn’t believe Aspen is being honest about wanting rid of her slayer powers. She thinks the other slayers there were but not Aspen. With the scythe double hidden, they’re going to focus on Aspen’s amulet to figure out what the heck is going on.

While Frankie is training in the cemetery using a reluctant vampire as a crash test doll, and Spike keeps shouting pointers and calling her form sloppy, Grim has a visit in his tent from Aspen. She wants to remind Grim that he is hers, but Grim really isn’t into it and keeps thinking about Frankie. Aspen doesn’t see Frankie as a threat in any way and denies Grim’s assertion that Buffy would have allowed them their freedom if she had only asked. There is a distinct darkness about Aspen now which is a little appealing to the Hunter of Thrace, but mostly she’s acting like a dangerous spoiled child. 

In the library, after scaring two freshmen for not recycling, Frankie asks about Jake like-liking Sam. It’s going nicely. The Scoobies and the adults come in and Sigmund shares that he has found information about Aspen’s necklace. It’s the Amulet of Junjari that essentially drains power of an army, so they decide that Aspen wants the slayer power for herself. Frankie suggests destroying the scythe, problem solved. They can still save Buffy and the other slayers as they have Willow. They agree, though reluctantly, because it’s the best plan they have. They’ll do it Friday night after Jake’s lacrosse game. 

Frankie is out patrolling the streets of downtown New Sunnydale. It’s eerily quiet. Grim interrupts her patrol, concerned she’s patrolling alone given the current situations but Frankie has mixed feelings about seeing him. As they’re talking, screams erupt from a restaurant followed by people running and terror and blood. Frankie and Grim run into the restaurant to find a giant demon, a skin eater, eating a person. The fight is on and through the restaurant and kitchen into the back alley until Frankie uses the skin eater's own barbed spine on it and Grim rips off its head. Spike was watching the whole time and actually congratulates Frankie and apologizes for being an ass to her. As they walk home, Spike asks Frankie if she would be willing to kill one of the rogue slayers because they wouldn’t hesitate to kill her. 

Vi is on patrol too, but she doesn’t see any red-headed witches flying around or Scoobies in a van. When Sonia relieves Vi, she heads to Aspen. Aspen is thinking about Buffy and the other slayers because it turns out they were in the same dimension but they can’t check on them now as they can’t chance the Scoobies tracking it. They're in a prison dimension where time moves much, much slower than here. Aspen orders Vi to get the scythe and use Hailey if necessary. It also turns out the only thing that can destroy the beacon on the Hellmouth is the slayer scythe. 

Frankie and Willow make up some of the spell ingredients they’ll need later before heading to Jake’s lacrosse game. Both generations of Scoobies are there. Hailey and Frankie spot Vi looking up at them and Hailey gestures for her to come up. She wants to talk and they go off to one side. A ping in Frankie’s slaydar leads her under the benches where Grim is waiting. As Grim reaches for her, they hear the lacrosse crowd scream, not because the Razorbacks are winning, but because a giant horde of the original Scoobies greatest hits demons are approaching. 

As the lacrosse teams and spectators run for it, the Scoobies old and new with Sarafina and Vi fight through the horde but no matter how many they slay, more keep coming, and unfortunately for Jake not all are easy to dispatch just by screaming. Slowly they make their way into the school, they need to create a bottle neck to be able to take on the numbers and to get to the basement and break the beacon. Through blood, sweat and tears they make it to the beacon but it’s too late, the Hellmouth has eaten its fill and spits out its fun surprise: evil witch Willow. Frankie takes the slayer scythe from her mother and throws it to Vi who is closest to the beacon. Vi smashes it and takes out evil Willow. Vi turns away with the scythe and apologizes.

The following night, after locking Jake in his werewolf cage because it's a full moon, Frankie, the Scoobies and the parents head to the warehouse. Frankie makes a dramatic entrance by pulling the door off its hinges and throws it away. Aspen and the other slayers are there, clearly in the middle of something but since Vi and the scythe aren’t there, it’s not the destruction of the slayers… yet. After some banter and accusations, Vi walks in, scythe in hand. Vi won’t give it up, so Frankie needs to take it from her. The slayers attack the Scoobies, Frankie and Vi battling each other with Vi using the scythe against Frankie. Eventually Frankie uses her magic to grab the scythe and she slashes at Vi, right through the belly. Enough is enough, Frankie uses her magic to raise the scythe high into the air and whispers a spell, destroying it. The Darkness flees, leaving a dead Vi on the ground. 

The previous night, Vi is inconsolable with the part she played in all the death and destruction. Vi tells the Scoobies she’s so tired and wants to be free of the slayer responsibility, but Aspen wants to take all the power for herself, just like they thought. They concoct a plan where Vi will run off with the scythe and tomorrow night they will confront the Darkness in the warehouse, Vi will turn up with the scythe, and Frankie will kill Vi. But it won’t be Vi, it will be Sarafina outside the warehouse casting her mirror spell. 

Caught up? Good. Vi and Sarafina walk into the warehouse, Vi looking at her dead mirror self being cradled by a weeping Hailey. Hailey is a good actress. Though the scythe is destroyed, Aspen won’t give up and she can’t find out Vi is still alive, so Sarafina offers to go with Vi, helping her to hide from the Darkness. It would be an honor for her to be a companion of a slayer. 

Later, Frankie, Hailey, Willow and Spike are composting the demons at the Hellmouth when Grim comes to antagonize Spike (unintentionally) and sees Frankie. He tells her he intends to stay in New Sunnydale and protect it and not go after Aspen. On Monday morning the Scoobies are sitting in the school quad before the first bell and everything is bright and sunny and almost normal. For now.