Theo Frey had confronted his parents Buffy and Angel, fought with them, and even almost killed one of them, but in the end, he could not find himself capable of the kill despite managing many kills before that. If anything, he had thought he would only become more ruthless after becoming a vampire but clearly things were not that straightforward, but could it really be that dying made him more human? No, surely not he thought as he ran out of the backdoor of his former family home only to find himself hit by a shovel to the head, not seeing where it came from, or who was holding the shovel, as everything suddenly went to black...
Ruby Moon, the former best friend of Theo Frey, joined Theo when he first left Riverborn to become a lackey for the deranged vampire Drusilla in a bid to protect her best friend but instead, she too found herself briefly seduced by the darkness, of the magical kind, but as she spiraled further and further into the dark acts she began to see changes within herself she did not like and soon she started to see Theo experience the same changes at the hands of Drusilla and her right-hand guy Tobias.
She had tried multiple times to convince Theo to run away with her, but he was in too deep and so the young witch was forced to save herself, leaving her best friend behind, as she returned home to Riverborn to live a relatively normal life which led to her graduating from Riverborn High, going on to college, and marrying her best friend's former crush Lucien Knight but through all the changes, and developments in her life, she could never shake the guilt of not being able to save Theo from the crutches of Drusilla and Tobias.
Her now-husband Lucien Knight's life was as far from normal as possible going on to join a top-secret government organization run by ex-initiative operative Riley Finn, an organization which unlike the initiative itself worked alongside slayers, witches, and even werewolves to achieve their mission, protect the innocent.
Ruby and Lucien's relationship started out as a friendship formed in the wake of losing Theo but grew over time into something more solid, eventually leading to the two falling in love and getting married, a marriage that nobody saw coming but somehow worked very well for the two of them.
"Well, if it is not the witch who loves to ditch..." Theo said as he awoke to find himself chained to Ruby and Lucien's bed within their bedroom, as the husband and wife stood above him, hovering over him, clearly revealing themselves to be Theo's kidnappers. "I heard you two got hitched but has the marriage already gone that stale you've started chaining folk up to the bed?"
"I never ditched you, Theo, I pleaded you to come with me, but you made your choice, you were never going to leave that life because you believed you had nothing left in your old life, but you always had me," Ruby replied to him, making it clear to her friend that she never left him out of choice. "I never should have left you and for that, I am truly sorry, but I cannot allow you to just keep hurting people especially now you're a vampire."
"You may have left but you did not leave with clean hands dearest friend, or have you forgotten your own kill count?" Theo responded, taunting the witch who at one stage in his life was his best friend. "And as for the whole vampire thing, am I wearing a sign or something?"
"Once you have been around enough vampires you start being able to spot them," Lucien said, finally breaking his silence and adding something to the hostile conversation.
"Drusilla manipulated us both got me so hooked on magic I could not think straight but your drug of choice was vengeance, towards people she wanted you to hate, and you did everything she said," Ruby argued with Theo, before going on to say. "I also know you still have a soul somehow which means despite all the odds, all she did to you, to us, that you are still able to be saved."
"Listen love if your conscience stopped you from getting dirty with the big players that are on you and nobody else but do not go blaming one vamp for your miserable life which includes marrying my sloppy seconds." Theo cruelly mocked his former friend, as well as her marriage to his former lover.
"You are not the guy I grew up with, you stopped being him the day your parents died but that does not mean you cannot ever be him again," Ruby responded, refusing to react to his attempts to infuriate her. "I know you better than everyone, including those vampires who you claim as family...and I know somewhere deep down you are still a good person."
"And if you prove us wrong...if you really are too gone to be saved...then before the day is over, I'll slam open those curtains and watch you burn until there is nothing left on that bed except for your ashes." Lucien warned the vampire, making it clear that he was ready to save or kill him.
Buffy sat on the doorstep of her son Theo's adoptive family home, the place he grew up, as she remained shaken by her first meeting with her son, the hatred he had for her, the fact he was now undead just like his father, and the opportunity he had to take her out and was not unable but unwilling which meant despite all the darkness residing within her son there was still some light in there somewhere.
"There's no sign of him anywhere my guess is he's hiding out while the sun is out who knows maybe he will come back tonight," Willow said to Buffy as she sat down on the doorstep next to her friend.
"I do not think he's coming back, not again, the only reason we found him this time is that he wanted to be found and something tells me he may never want to be found by us again," Buffy replied with a saddened sigh, speaking for the first time since her confrontation with her son.
"I will find him, Buffy!" Willow promised the slayer, making it clear she was not giving up on Buffy's son anytime soon. "I do not know when or where but I promise you I will not stop until I find and help him, the proper way this time with no slayer prisons."
"I hope your right Will, I hope we can get through to him, but what if we can't?" Buffy cried, feeling defeated not only by her son's hatred towards her but the guilt she felt for the tragic life he lived without her being there to protect him.
"I wonder if he came back here for any other reasons, I mean he grew up in this town, right? I know his parents are dead but what about other family members? Or friends he may have grown up with? We should go to the High School, wait till night-time, of course, break-in, and hack into the school system to find out what year he was in, who he was in with, and possibly look for some old files, photos, or perhaps a yearbook to see who his people were." Willow suggested, hoping to give Buffy hope. "At the very least you'll get to learn more about your son before his world got torn apart and maybe there's something in that information which could help us help him in the long run."
Buffy's face lit up for a moment as she wiped the tears off her face, realizing that Willow's idea was a stroke of genius, that maybe just maybe learning more about Theo's life before everything went to hell, that maybe it would help her understand her son more perhaps even get through to him, or who knows to find somebody within this smalltown who could get through to her son.
"I guess a lot has changed since our days in High School judging by the fact you have a vampire shackled to a dead and it seems normal to you," Theo said to Lucien, as the vampire remained chained to Lucien and Ruby's bed within their bedroom, as he began plotting his escape as he noticed the sun starting to set.
"After you left town with Ruby everyone just assumed you went crazy and killed your parents, then this team of specialists took over the case, and before I knew it, I found myself embroiled in the mystery of it all leading to the supernatural being my day-to-day job I guess," Lucien replied to the vampire he once loved. "I joined a private organization specialized in working with, helping, and hunting the supernatural from time to time, by the time the whole world had realized what the hell was going on around us I was already working to help solve the problem...problems."
"One could say you chased after me and settled for the rest of the supernatural...and that is clearly not all you settled for..." Theo teased the first man he ever loved, before going on to ask. "Do you remember the last time we were together?"
"You mean when you asked me to skip town with you? It's not something someone easily forgets." Lucien admitted reluctantly, piquing Theo's curiosity.
"Do you ever wish you came with me?" Theo asked, intrigued to know the answer.
"No!" Lucien answered honestly. "But I do wish I found a way of making you stay..."
"Probably a good thing you did not join the party you probably would have just wound up addicted to the magics like Ruby or a soulless vampire like the rest of the gang," Theo told Lucien, before going on to say. "I know you did not take a vamp hostage without getting in some blood...and I've not eaten in a while...do not worry I won't bite, as long as it's not pig blood you're serving."
And just like that Lucien went downstairs towards the kitchen to get fresh blood in a pouch bag from the local hospital that Ruby and he acquired before abducting Theo, and began pouring the blood into a glass, knowing Ruby said not to feed him until she got back, but foolishly believing he was getting through to his ex, which is of course exactly what Theo wanted him to believe.
Lucien returned to the bedroom, a glass of blood in hand, ready to feed Theo, unwittingly becoming prey to the predator, as he reached out to hand Theo the glass, Theo grabbed a hold of him and pulled him into his grasp with all his force, Lucien unable to break free from the vampire's hold.
"You smell as good as you did back then!" Theo stated as his face turned into full vampire mode and he sunk his teeth into his ex-lover's neck, draining him of his blood but cautious not to take too much, after all, Lucien was his leverage for his latest prison break.
Elsewhere in Riverborn, Buffy, Angel, and Willow had waited for the sun to go down before breaking into Riverborn High School, specifically the principal's office, as the slayer and vampire worked their way through endless files within filing cabinets while leaving the computer hacking to the tech-savvy witch who was more than willing to hack or spell her way into gathering as much information about Theo Frey as possible.
"Well, I'm in the records regarding his grades before dropping out and they're quite impressive, not like Willow Rosenberg impressive but not far off either, perhaps he would've got there if he finished school," Willow informed Buffy and Angel as they continued searching through the school files. "I'm going to load up reports, detentions, warnings, etc... to see if there is anything about who his circle was, and if not, thankfully the yearbooks are now all online these days so that should show us actual pictures of his friends...if he had any that is."
"Can you print out any pictures you find of him?" Angel asked the red-headed witch nervously. "I know it may sound weird, but I have hardly any pictures of Connor before everything...it'd be nice to have some of Theo, even one picture."
"Of course, the minute I get to viewing I'll get to printing!" Willow replied awkwardly, knowing she was partially to blame for Angel not seeing his son Theo grow up over the years.
"Print me out some copies too!" Buffy said with a sense of sadness, knowing pictures were all she could ever have of her son's past even if it would never make up for all the time, she had lost with him.
Meanwhile, back at Ruby Moon and Lucien Knight's marital home, Ruby had just walked into the horrifying scene of a shackled Theo in full vampire face, strangling an unconscious Lucien, with bite marks on the victim's neck, as Theo held his neck tightly with both hands, ready to snap his ex's neck if Ruby so much as made one single move wrong.
"Girl, he was all fine and funky for our teenage selves but we're playing in the big games now and humans are just so fragile and expendable." Theo taunted his former friend, as he applied more pressure on an unconscious Lucien's neck. "But that does make awfully good cannon fodder..."
"Please do not hurt him, Theo!" Ruby pleaded with the slayer of slayers turned vampire. "You do not want to hurt him!"
"Maybe I do or maybe you want me to, after all, what kind of wife does not take the husband's name and I know we're all modern now, but he did not take your name either," Theo responded knowing he had the brown-haired witch exactly where he wanted her. "But what would I know about marriage? All I know is you're about to be a widow if you do not get these chains off me right now."
"If I do let you go what's going to stop you from killing him anyway and then me?" Ruby asked him, knowing the chance of either her or her husband surviving this ordeal was rather slim.
"You can either choose to believe there is still enough humanity in me to not kill my former best friend, enough to stop me killing a man I once love, or believe me to be the monster I truly am," Theo stated before chuckling sinisterly. "Not like you really have a choice..."
A choice Ruby did not have, she'd either not free Theo and watch him kill her husband, or free him and hope he does not kill them both, and so she released Theo from his chains and to her surprise, the vampire just left, without attacking, or threatening her, he just walked down the stairs, out the house, and out of sight, without any intention of bringing her any harm, and whether he meant to or not at that moment he had convinced the witch that now more than ever her best friend was still in there somewhere, and perhaps just perhaps, she had grown a little closer to bringing him back.
Following breaking into Riverborn High, Buffy, Angel, and Willow had discovered some more information about Buffy and Angel's son Theo, learning he was quite the academic achiever, never missed class until he dropped out that is and was always with his friend Ruby Moon, who just so happened to go missing the same time as Theo, the difference being that Ruby returned to Riverborn less than a year later.
With their new information, Buffy and Willow waited until the next morning to track Ruby down, hoping she had more information about Theo, or even hoping he had reached out to her after returning to his hometown, not realizing they had missed Theo himself by a matter of a few hours.
"I'm not saying this friend is going to be the answers to all our problems but at least she is going to provide answers in general about your killer kid." Willow tried to reassure Buffy as she knocked on the door of Ruby and Lucien's front door.
"If she's willing to speak to us that is," Buffy replied as Lucien opened his front door to the vampire slayer, and witch.
"Willow Rosenberg, my wife is a huge fan of yours." Lucien greeted them, instantly making it clear he knew who Willow was, before going on to say. "And I'm guessing by your blonde-haired companion that your Buffy Summers."
"I guess the government constantly trying to hunt us down makes us kind of famous everywhere now," Willow said, surprised by the stranger's sudden knowledge of her and Buffy, remembering how much things had changed for them both in recent years.
"I work for Riley Finn; he talks highly of you both," Lucien admitted to them both. "I do not think I'm supposed to say who I work for but oh well you are friends of his, so I hope that saves me from being fired."
"Talking of your wife being such a fan, is she in we kind of need to talk to her about a certain situation." Willow wondered, eager to get to Ruby and get some answers for Buffy and Angel.
"My wife is going to be super pissed she missed you, but she's gone out of town..." Lucien began to explain as Buffy noticed the bite marks on her neck, assuming correctly that Theo had left his mark.
"He's been here, hasn't he? Theo Frey, the slayer of slayers, and now newly turned vampire." Buffy questioned him knowing she was getting somewhere. "We are looking for him and if you have any leads..."
"I was worried that one day he pissed off the wrong slayer...I'm sorry Buffy I really because trust me after him taking a chunk out of my neck and getting my wife into all sorts of trouble I would happily hand him over to you but my wife's convinced she can get through to him so I can't be the one to get him killed, she would never forgive me." Lucien apologized, assuming that Buffy and Willow were there to kill the slayer-turned vampire.
"I do not want to kill him I want to stop him from killing others," Buffy replied urgently. "Please, he's my son I just want to help save him from himself before it's too late."
"Hold up...Theo Frey is Buffy the vampire slayer's son? I mean we all knew he was adopted but his birth mother being the legend herself." Lucien responded looking gobsmacked by Buffy's revelation.
"Yeah, she's his mum and Angel's his dad but right now all we need from you is to tell us where he's heading so we can safe your wife from being his latest target and hopefully save him too." Willow snapped at Lucien, making it clear he had to tell them all he knew. "Where is he going?"
"Back to where he considers home or that's at least what Ruby reckons, back to the city of angels so to speak," Lucien revealed to them both, as the slayer, and witch realized Theo had gone back to the last place he considered himself happy, the demonic dive bar he had with his recently dead lover Tobias.
Several days later, a determined Ruby walked into the infamous demonic dive bar located within a shady alleyway somewhere in the city of Los Angeles, stunned to see the place almost in ruins, having been wrecked during Theo's showdown with Faith and not being fixed since.
She looked around at the place she knew Theo would have loved running especially with Tobias and for a moment she felt saddened by Tobias' death, not because she felt sorry for the vampire himself but because she knew how much Theo loved him, and how rare it was for Theo to care about anyone especially after the death of his parents.
"I personally never got the appeal of Tobias; I mean he was painfully beautiful of course but other than that I really did not get it," Ruby claimed as she found Theo staring into thin air, sitting at a corner table of the bar looking somewhat defeated. "But I get he meant something to you and for that, I am truly sorry."
"Listen, witch, I gave you a free pass for old times sake but if you are going to keep pestering me, I'm going to have to kill you," Theo replied to his friend as he turned to look at her, his eyes clearly red raw from crying.
"Have you ever wondered how Drusilla randomly just showed randomly show up into our lives the same night your parents were mysteriously murdered by a vampire? Does not take a genius to figure out she's your parents' killer and something tells me deep down you already know that." Ruby replied to the vampire, revealing to him what she already believed he knew and just did not want to admit.
"Do you not think that thought crossed my mind a hundred times?" Theo snapped at the witch, as he rose from his chair furiously. "Dru said she saw it coming and did not stop it which was a hard pill to swallow but I did...but Tobias promised me that she never took their lives and I believe in him more than I've ever believed in anyone."
"Well, your undead lover not only lied to you about Dru killing your mother but according to strong evidence from a corporation who specializes in the supernatural he may have killed your father or at least knows the vamp who teamed up with Drusilla to take out your parents," Ruby confessed to the slayer of slayers, refusing to let him be in denial any longer. "Face facts Theo if your parents never died then you would never have run off with them and they knew it! I get you to want vengeance so how about you get it on the bitch who really deserves it?"