DISCLAIMER: Buffy, Angel and the gang belong to the evil Joss and I only own the characters I make up. In a perfect world however I would own all of them, Buffy and Angel wouldn't have broken up and Riley would never have existed.
RATING: PG
SPOILERS: General (if any)
TIMELINE: Ten years after the wedding (part of long ago series).
DISTRIBUTION: You want you can have it, just tell me where you put it.

Chyna waited out on the front steps of Sunnydale High, she was hoping to catch Miss McKellen before the first classes began. Ever since her watcher had told her about the retired slayer, she'd been curious and since all of her other sources (including the watcher diaries) didn't tell her much, she decided to go to the source. Finally a few minutes later she spotted her, "Miss McKellen."

"Yeah" Hope answered distractedly since she was tired.

"I'm Chyna..."

Hope finally took a look at the girl standing in front of her. "Sure, you're the slayer. Excuse the rudeness, but I was up late" Hope told her.

"Why?" Chyna asked wondering why you'd stay up late if you didn't have too.

"I'll give you this advice...never share a house with a vampire" Hope answered.

"What?" Chyna exclaimed in shock.

"His name is Spike and if you check him out, he's evil but harmless. He has a chip in his head that prevents him from harming anyone but demons" Hope replied. She was uncomfortable talking to someone other than her parents about the slaying, it had been so long since anyone besides them had known. "Can I help you with something?"

"I want you to help me survive. I don't wanna die anytime soon, there's like so much I haven't done" Chyna told her.

"That's why the council gives you a watcher" Hope explained.

"Oh, please you've met him. He's a nice guy and all but with just his training I'd better start writing my will" Chyna replied, "Please help."

"Alright, but only if Rick agrees and no tricks" Hope agreed.

"Cool. See ya" Chyna ran off happy after she'd gotten what she wanted.

Hope watched her go and muttered to herself, "What a strange girl."

*

That afternoon Hope found Chyna waiting outside her classroom for her. "He said it was okay" Chyna told her, "Let's go get started."

Hope agreed, anything was better than going home and eating cookie-dough fudge mint-chip, while her grandmother and Giles made out in the living room. They headed to the library and once they'd walked through the doors they found an extremely apologetic looking Rick waiting for them. Hope took the moral high road and ignored his insignificant existence. "So..." she asked looking around, "...What now?"

"Well, why don't Chyna and I commence our usual training session and you can point out any problems with it" Rick suggested.

"Fine, whatever" Hope replied, wishing she'd gone home, the ice cream sulk was sounding better and better.

As she watched them train, Hope had to fight off the strong urge she had to laugh. They were so bad at the slaying thing, that by all rights this slayer should've been dead a long time ago. This made Hope begin to wonder exactly who had been helping this slayer slay and only one name came to mind, Dev.

"So, what's wrong with our training techniques?" Rick asked confident that he was correctly training his slayer.

"How can I put this nicely...all of it, you both stink" Hope answered.

"What?" Rick yelled.

"You're so lucky that she's still alive" Hope told him forcefully. She walked over to Chyna and said, "Slaying isn't just memorising a bunch of moves and counter moves. It's a feeling, a part of you, you need to be able to improvise and be innovative. Remember no two evil-things are gonna fight the exact same way."

Chyna listened and realised that this was almost the exact same speech that Dev had given her a few days before. "Who told you all this?" Chyna asked suspiciously.

"My mom" Hope replied, "She was my watcher."

"Wow. My mom doesn't even know these things exist" Chyna said in a state of awe.

They trained until almost eleven and Chyna said that she was gonna head home after a quick patrol, this left Hope and Rick alone. "So want to get some coffee or something?" he asked.

"No" Hope answered.

"Why not?"

"Truth is I'm not ready to date. It's been ten years and I'm still hung up on the guy who shattered my heart. So anything that you and I could have wouldn't be fair to you" Hope told him gathering her stuff.

On the way out she heard him say, "I know the feeling."

*

Chyna headed to Restfield cemetery to meet Dev. "Hey" she called out to him.

Dev was sitting on a tombstone reading a book, but looked up at the sound of her voice. "Hi" he replied smiling. Somewhere in the back of his mind he was secretly wishing he was meeting with Hope and not Chyna.

"I had a training session with the old slayer. She is the coolest" Chyna told him.

"So...this Miss McKellen's gonna help you survive?" Dev asked.

"Yeah, Hope is. The freaky thing was that she gave me the same speech on slaying that you did" Chyna told him.

Dev froze, < It can't be. Hope can't be here in Sunnydale can she? >

"Hey, Dev. Are you okay?" Chyna asked noticing that he'd gone paler than usual.

"Her name's Hope. Did she come from LA?" Dev demanded she tell him.

"I think so, why?"

"She's the slayer I knew" Dev told her sitting down.

"But the name..."

"Summers was her mother's maiden name, McKellen must be her dad's" Dev said suddenly wishing that he'd walked into the sunlight instead of coming to Sunnydale.

"So what are you gonna do about it?" Chyna asked. The romantic in her was wishing Dev would rush up and sweep Hope off her feet.

"I'm not sure. I suppose if I avoid any place she might turn up I can stay...then again I could just find a new place..." Dev muttered.

"The PTB ordered you here, you can't leave. Why would you want to avoid her anyway?" Chyna asked him curiously.

"If you were her, would you want to see the first person to break your heart again?" Dev asked back.

"I see him everyday. My watcher Rick, I have a major crush on him and it just about kills me when he dates" Chyna told him.

"You...I mean...woah" Dev sputtered in shock. He couldn't believe that this sweet young girl was in love with some old British guy.

"What, you thought I was after you?" she joked.

"I don't know what I thought, but your watcher?"

"Cheer up, things can't get any worse" she told him as they resumed their patrol. As they did this a plan formed in her mind, since Hope and Dev were star-crossed lovers, she'd reunite them and that meant Hope and Rick would leave each other alone. Happy with this thought she couldn't wait to begin her plans.

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