Slayers: A Buffyverse Story is a nine-episode Audio Drama from 2023, written by Amber Benson and Christopher Golden and published by Audible. Like the title suggests, it's a story from the Buffyverse, though Buffy Summers herself doesn't appear.
It's been more than a decade after the events of the series of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. There are hundreds of Slayers around to keep the forces of darkness at bay, the Scoobies are spread all over the world to help continue the good fight, and Spike is "deep undercover" in LA, pretending to be a bad guy again so he can gather intel from the supernatural underground.
One night Spike and his old poker buddy Clem encounter a sixteen-year-old rookie Slayer named Indira, who has just gotten her call and is eager to go out and kick some back guy butt. Spike isn't thrilled about having to "babysit" a new Slayer, but agrees to at least get her in touch with the Watcher's Council. Their plans are quickly disrupted, however, when Cordelia Chase shows up — a Cordelia who has come from a parallel world where she's the one and only Slayer. She needs Spike's help to deal with a couple of Big Bads who are terrorizing her home dimension... Spike's ex Drusilla, and her new lover, a corrupted and very much alive Tara.
Along with Giles (who is officially retired from the Watcher's Council but comes along for this), Spike, Clem and Indira end up traveling to the alternate Cordelia's world, and encountering not only the alternate Drusilla, but alternate versions of other familiar faces. And a certain vengeance demon previously believed to be dead is also about to get involved...
Tropes:
- A Day in the Limelight: Buffy, Xander and Willow are absent from any sort of speaking roles in this series. Instead, the main characters are Spike, Giles, Clem, new girl Indira, and the spirit of Anyanka, as well as Alternate Universe versions of Cordelia, Anya, Tara and Drusilla.
- Alternate Self: The parallel world has alternate versions of almost all the regular Buffyverse characters — some of them have died or just don't appear in the series, but only two are confirmed to not exist in this alternate world: Buffy — and, interestingly enough, Clem. (Clem doesn't mind, claiming that it makes him "unique.")
- Alternate Universe: Most of the story takes place in a parallel world where Buffy Summers doesn't exist and Cordelia Chase is the Slayer. While a lot of elements are familiar, this universe has a lot of changes to it, but most prominent is the fact that Sunnydale is still there, and there's still only one Slayer in the world.
- Willow and Tara never had their Meet Cute and never became a couple, but Tara and a human-again Anya were best friends; they co-owned the Magic Box and helped out Cordelia when they could. That was before Tara, manipulated by Spike and Dru, tried to use a dark Grimoire, got herself possessed, began calling herself "Queen of Dark Magic" and eventually hooked up with Drusilla.
- Angel never came to Sunnydale. Whether or not he still got cursed with a soul is unknown at this point; Drusilla does mention that she wants to find Angelus again, but she may simply not know about the curse.
- Spike and Dru never broke up; Spike was never captured or chipped by the Initiative, he never gained his soul, and remained a bad guy throughout — until he was killed by Cordelia. This caused Drusilla to lose her mind even further, ramp up her ambitions, declare herself "Queen of Vampires" and plot to take over the world in Spike's honor.
- Xander and Willow never got involved in any Slayer business. Willow did turn to magic at some point, but was kidnapped and captured by Dru and Tara, and throughout the series she's their secret prisoner, serving as an incredibly powerful "magic battery."
- Jesse had a more significant role in Cordelia's life and presumably wasn't killed by the Master. She does mention that he was someone she lost, so presumably he died later on.
- Giles was Cordelia's watcher, but was killed by Dru. Unbeknownst to anyone, she turned him afterwards, meaning that Giles is a vampire in this universe.
- Cordelia had a younger sister named Sarah that she was extremely protective of, but the Master turned her into a vampire and Cordelia was forced to stake her. As a result, this Cordelia was a lot more responsible and mature from the start, but by the time of the series is cynical and world-weary in a way that main universe Cordelia never was.
- Clem's favorite grape soda was never discontinued in this universe, which he is very happy to find out.
- Ascended Extra: Clem. Though a bit of a fan favorite, he was only ever a minor character in the TV show and sequel comics. Here he's one of the main characters.
- Ascended Fangirl: Indira is an in-universe example. She's a huge fangirl when it comes to Slayers and has read up about them, to the point where her nickname in school was "Slayer." Now she's an actual Slayer herself and is absolutely thrilled to meet some of the Scoobies that she's heard and read so much about. She even tells Spike that she totally shipped him and Buffy.
- Batman Gambit: In order to get in with Drusilla, Spike and Indira set up a ruse in which Indira pretends to be a hotshot young witch who has called that universe's Spike back to life. They correctly predict that Drusilla is so over the moon about having Spike back that she doesn't question the holes in their story or the differences in this version of Spike.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Clem turns out to be one of these. Though generally useless in a fight thanks to his dislike of violence (he gets knocked unconscious enough times that Spike calls him "the new Giles"), when push comes to shove he's actually pretty powerful in a pinch.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Cordelia in this universe has been a Slayer for decades; it'd be a miracle if she didn't have this. While she's managed to thwart most of the evil that came her way, and stayed alive for longer than most Slayers ever managed, she had to deal with a lot of terrible things. The three biggest traumas are the death of her Watcher (though unbeknownst to her, her Giles was turned into a vampire and is Dusilla's minion), the fact that one of her few friends (Tara) was corrupted and became her enemy... and, worst of all, seeing her younger sister turn into a vampire and having to stake her. The result is a very cynical and world-weary Cordelia.
- Daywalking Vampire: Drusilla and Tara's goal is to develop and perfect a magic spell that'll turn all the world's vampires into this. Tara is very close to finding the spell and even manages to successfully cast it on one single vampire, Drusilla's chief minion, Ms Bang, who is afterwards immune to sunlight.
- Demonic Possession: Anyanka explains that humans turning into vengeance demons experience something like this, except instead of "possessing" the human, the demon spirit "merges" with the human soul to become one person. This is why the spirit of Anyanka is still around in the regular universe, even if that Anya is long dead — when Anya lost her demonic powers, the part of her that was "Anyanka" was banished. Now, however, Anyanka is back and looking to re-merge with the alternate universe Anya.
- Depraved Bisexual: It was hinted in the TV shows that Drusilla was attracted to women as well as men, with the implication that she had been intimate with Darla in addition to Angelus and Spike and some suggestive comments about Lilah Morgan. In the alternate universe, after the death of that version of Spike, she is in a committed and loving (if twisted) relationship with Dark Tara. When the main universe's Spike gets involved, Drusilla is very open about wanting both him and Tara.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Thanks to her Dark and Troubled Past, Cordelia keeps everyone at arm's length. She warms up to her new allies after some time, especially Indira.
- Destructive Romance: Drusilla's romantic relationships, both with Spike and with Tara, are very loving and extremely toxic at the same time.
- Enemy Within: An interesting variant is going on with Tara. While at first it seems like she's been corrupted by dark magic much like regular-universe Willow was, it's quickly revealed that she's under a curse where she's possessed by the spirit of a crazed ex-Watcher and mage called Andrey Kurgan. As a result, there are three entities inhabiting her body: the original Tara, who is mostly helpless to stop what's going on but can influence the other two somewhat into taking the slightly less evil route; Kurgan, who just wants his "glorious vision" to come true; and "New" Tara, who's like an amalgamation of the two and is the one in control most of the time. She has Kurgan's ambitions and goals, and definitely his ruthlessness, but also some of the original Tara's sense of compassion and romance — she genuinely loves Drusilla and she can't bring herself to harm her former friends Cordelia and Anya.
- Fearless Fool: Indira has a lot of guts and not a lot in the way of self-preservation instincts. The first thing she does upon getting Slayer powers is to go into a demon bar and start fighting.
- In Spite of a Nail: Not everything is different in the Alternate Universe. Anya still ended up losing her vengeance demon powers and becoming human, Jonathan still turned to evil and died, and Willow still became a witch, but has spent years as Drusilla's prisoner.
- The Ghost: Buffy is mentioned a number of times, but never appears. Her regular-universe self is busy on another continent, and in the alternate universe she simply doesn't exist — at least nobody there has ever heard of her. This is confirmed to be because Sarah Michelle Gellar doesn't want to reprise the character, and the writers and producer didn't want to recast Buffy.
- I Choose to Stay: At the end of the story, Spike, Clem and Indira all decide to stay in the alternate universe to continue helping Cordelia out, figuring that this world needs them more than their own universe, where there are plenty of Slayers and the forces of evil are generally held in check.
- Jumped at the Call: Indira, upon gaining her Slayer powers, goes to raid a demon nest that very evening. Spike, upon hearing this, is absolutely stunned.
- Loose Canon: This story isn't outright confirmed to be canonical, but it doesn't contradict any of the established canon either — not even the Seasons 8-12 comics that were confirmed canon by the original showrunners, as the Time Skip is long enough that a couple of years would have passed since the end of Season 12. Notably, the supernatural appears to be public knowledge, as in the comics; Giles is living with Olivia, whom he was last seen with in the comics; and Giles mentions the Faerie Realm, which he visited in the comics.
- The Multiverse: Downplayed in that we only see two different universes, but other universes are mentioned to exist.
- Obfuscating Insanity: Spike claims that Dru has a fondness for this — she is genuinely insane, but she's more lucid than she likes to pretend. She often gets especially rambling and nonsensical when she wants people to underestimate her... or just to avoid having to talk about things she doesn't want to talk about.
- Private Eye Monologue: While not an actual private eye, Spike occasionally provides some narration in this style. Because it's Spike, the narration is extremely sardonic and snarky, and at one point it's hinted that it's an In-Universe thing he just does to entertain himself when nothing else is going on.Indira: Who are you talking to?Spike: Myself. It's boring down here!
- Psychotic Love Triangle: A curious version develops between, Spike, Drusilla and Tara. Drusilla is her normal Cute and Psycho self who wants both Spike and Tara; Tara is possessed and mostly evil and wants to get rid of Spike; while Spike is impersonating his Alternate Self and pretending to be evil while secretly working against both Tara and Drusilla... but still with tons of feelings for Drusilla even if he knows the relationship is toxic.
- Retcon: While Sunnydale was destroyed and turned into a sinkhole at the closing of the Hellmouth, this series reveals that some parts of the town are still reasonably intact. The Magic Box is still standing, and Willow and Giles have created a convenient portal between it and London, where they're staying.
- Retired Badass: Giles has retired from Watcher duty and now runs a bookshop in London. He also lives with Olivia, and they seem to have a happy and stable relationship.
- Sequel Hook: Drusilla's plan is stopped, Tara is freed from her possession and is back with the good guys, Cordelia has more help and more allies with Indira staying in that world as a second Slayer, and Giles can return to the regukar universe to enjoy his retirement. But Drusilla is still alive and active, and is planning to seek out Angelus; not to mention the last episode reveals that she has Willow as her prisoner and a vampiric version of Giles as her minion. Ms. Bang is still out there as the first Daywalking Vampire, Spike is going to continue pretending to be that world's Spike, and go back "deep undercover" to deal with Drusilla, and Clem is coming with him.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Happens with Ms. Bang. Having been turned into a Daywalking Vampire by Tara, she cuts a deal with Cordelia and leaves Sunnydale, rather than dealing with the growing power struggle between Spike and Tara.
- Vampire Monarch: Drusilla has set herself up as one, insisting on being referred to as the Vampire Queen.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Downplayed with Spike and Clem. Clem insists that the two are best friends; Spike mostly grumbles but clearly appreciates Clem all the same. As the show goes on, Clem develops a similar vibe with Giles, whom he dubs his "second best friend."
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Ghost Jonathan was cursed by Anya to haunt the Sunnydale cemetery for eternity. He agrees to help out Spike in exchange for Spike getting Anya to lift the curse. After helping Spike, he returns to the cemetery, saying that he'll be waiting for Spike to bring Anya... but this never happens and Jonathan isn't mentioned again. The creators are hoping to get a second season, though, so it might come up then.
