This is a Disclaimer: This is a Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Stranger Things crossover fanfiction. I do not own any of the Characters or recognizable plot points in either of these two Master Pieces. Buffy belongs to Joss Whendon, Mutant Enemy and Dark Horse Comics and whoever else actually owns the rights to the show, comics and novels. Stranger Things belongs to the Duffer Brothers and Netflix and whoever else is involved. I only own Veronica.

Spoilers:

Buffy- The whole series, specifically Season 7, and the Twilight arc of the Season 8 comics.

Stranger Things- As of right now only Season 1 but it will eventually expand into the whole series.

Authors note: The main character in this fic will be an OC from the Buffy universe, there will be many flashbacks and allusions to Buffy Characters and my OC's interactions with them, but little to no actual Buffyverse Characters actively in the main plot.

Authors note 2: This is my first ever fanfiction. As a first time writer I'm interested in feedback. But please be gentle. It's just an idea that popped into my head the night before and wouldn't leave.

Chapter 1:

Cleveland Ohio, 2006

Veronica Hernandez was staring into the mouth of Hell. And Hell stared right back in defiance letting loose a miasma of ash and death from its depths. The ground beneath her feet trembled, the fissure cracked open further and roars could be heard from inside closer to the surface than before. They were coming.

The Apocalypse was upon them. This wasn't the first one Veronica had ever experienced or fought in. She was there for the showdown with The First, and sure she was only eleven when it all went down but she'd still managed to kill more Turok-Han vamps than Xander and Dawn combined. She had helped stop several more apocalypses along the way, it's a slow year in Cleveland if you don't have at least two potential apocalypses on the Hellmouth. The point was, this wasn't Veronica's first rodeo but it sure felt like it might be her last.

As a Slayer she was used to the weird rushes that came with battle. A flood of adrenaline and energy that flowed through her veins as well as the contradicting calm that settled over her body. Her body, her reflexes, her mind all honed in on the battle about to begin. She stood poised and ready for the fight.

But as a Witch, which she was way before she was even called as a Slayer, she was more in tune with the metaphysical energy around her. And something deep in her gut, in the very core of who she was: mind, magic and soul knew that this was the end.

She'd never see any of these people again. Andrew, her best friend and brother figure. Dawn, another close friend and often a babysitter. Xander, her other brother all the way in Sunnydale facing the Big Bad along with the other Scoobies she'd never see again either. And Faith, who was an unlikely mother figure to her, who stood but a few feet away palming two wicked looking battle axes.

"You ready to kick some demon ass, lil' V?" Faith's raspy voice sent a shiver down Veronica's spine.

Veronica tightened her grasp on her own weapon, a battle axe similar to the Slayer Scythe design, three foot long staff with two handles and a red and silver curved blade on each end. It was a 14th birthday present from Faith, one that received a lot of disapproval from the Scoobies but quite a bit of awe from Andrew who wanted something similar for a DnD cosplay. The gift she'd received for her 13th birthday, a curved knife given to Faith by a Big Bad a few years back, was strapped to her leg and tucked into her Doc Martens.

Veronica looked to her left, met Faith's probing stare and gulped. "I'm five by five." Her voice wavered, and her following smile wobbled as she tried not to cry. She looked back toward the opening Helmouth. Her spidey-sense was going off like crazy. It was almost time to fight. Any second now and the Demons would ascend through the bowels of Hell.

She could feel the older Slayer's eyes burning into her skull. "Hey Faith?" Her eyes began to water and she blinked back the tears before they could fall.

"I just wanted to say thank you. For being there for me, and training me, and educating me on the finer side of wicked music and fashion. And rescuing me from Andrew and Xander induced nerdiness. And taking care of me. And just for giving a fuck." Veronica whipped her head around to stare at her mentor. "I know you have this whole lone wolf thing going on, dark and mysterious and shit. But you let me in. I can see that. You've told me things, showed me sides of yourself that you haven't shown Buffy, or Giles or Robin, maybe even Angel. And I just want to thank you for that. Because I am pretty sure I'm going to die today. And I just wanted to let you know that you're the best thing to ever happen to me. And that I love you like a Mom."

"What the fuck V?!" Faith spit out at her. She dropped her hands from her fighting stance and turned toward the mini slayer. Her eyes were wide and panicked. "Don't say shit like that! You ain't dying today. Not on my watch. You need to get your head in the game, this is just another apocalypse, lower case 'A'. Just one of many. We slay, we win and they lose. I do a little H'n'H, you do your one H and it's all five by five. And then we face the next one in a few months." She stepped up to Veronica and dropped a single battle axe, and used the free hand to grab the girl by the back of the neck. She pulled the girl into a semi embrace, Veronica's head tucked into the curve of her neck and there bodies angle away from each other due to the weapons they both held.

"You don't understand, Faith." She shook her head, trying to pull away to look the other Slayer in the eyes. Faith held her close and didn't let her move. Veronica gave up and took a breath. "It's my Slayer senses, it's like a Slayer dream but I'm awake. I just know. I won't be here after the battle, whether we win or lose, I won't be here to see the outcome."

Faith's grip on her tightened and her body tensed. "Well then we send you away. Willow-"

"Is in Sunnydale with the main squad. She's the only one with enough power to do the whole portal thingy."

Faith pulled on the hair at the base of Veronica's skull, forcing her head up to meet her stare. Faith's eyes were dark, and her jaw was clenched. "Then you get your ass out of here."

"How, the Hellmouth's about to unleash its worst on us, how am I supposed to outrun that?"

Faith let go of the young girl. Sneering as she bent down to pick up her forgotten axe. "Drive!"

"Like that's going to work! And I'm only fourteen! I don't know how to drive."

"Well why the fuck not?! I stole my first car when I was twelve, how have I not taught you that yet?" She raised her axe to emphasize her anger. "Grrrrr," she growled to herself. "Your not dying tonight kid! There's no way I'm allowing that to happen. Fuck your Slayer sense, and fuck the Powers that be. I'm not losing you twerp. So shut up and grow some tits, cuz it's about to go down."

The ground began to really shake beneath their feet, cracks broke out in every direction from the Hellmouth, pieces of earth crumbled off and fell into the cavern, and a giant tentacle shot into the air and slammed down a few yards away from them. A few Minis jumped out of the way, as boney spines suddenly extended from the slimy flesh of the demon limb.

"V, you follow me! Alright? Stick to me."

And then Hell ascended upon them.

It was a blur of battle. Turok-Han ubervamps crawled out amongst the other larger demons from the pits of whatever Hell dimension they crawled out of. It was intense. Blood, and dust and slime was everywhere. Veronica had beheaded several demons and hemisected an ubervamp from nose to navel before it fell to dust. She was fighting back to back with Faith when the giant tentacle struck again. They both dove in opposite directions as the tentacle created a wall between them.

"Veronica!" Faith jumped at the huge limb. She slashed her axes across the spines protruding from the monster. They broke off as she hacked away at it. The thing writhed around after she sliced into its flesh instead of the claws, black slime splattering across the floor and her clothes. The Demon's blood sizzled as it met her clothes, burning holes in her shirt and singing her hair as she backed away. "V?!"

Veronica herself was dealing with two Turok-Han on either side of her. She could hear Faith's cry of her name, her full name, which see never used. She didn't let that distract her though. She was a little too busy at the moment. She swung at one vamp with a circular swing of her scythe and let the motion continue to slice into the demon at her back. She was doing an alright job at keeping them at bay, but she knew she couldn't kill one without leaving herself open for a fatal attack from the other. They circled her, always making sure to stay on opposite sides of her never too close to each other to make it harder on her.

"Fuck this shit." Veronica suddenly charged at one, planting her axe into the ground and using it to help vault herself into the air and behind one of the vamps. She quickly beheaded the vamp and readied herself as the dust cloud cleared. She looked at her remaining enemy only to see another cloud of dust settle to reveal that Dawn had dusted the other vamp.

"Need a hand?" The older girl quipped as she came to stand next to the mini Slayer.

"Thanks," Veronica's eyes flashed a golden yellow as she waved a hand in a slicing motion diagonally in front of herself. Her magic slicing through the torso of some kind of green skinned demon that came up behind Dawn. "But you should really watch your own back."

Dawn swiveled around to see the demon behind her fall in two. She whipped back around to give the young Witch-Slayer a half smile. "I totally had that one."

"Mmhm." They moved so that they were back to back as a second wave of demons erupted from the Hellmouth. They talked as they fought. "You know, I'm totally glad you guys insisted that I take up Gymnastics! You know, or else I'd have totally been dead by now."

"I'll make sure to let Buffy know, she's planning to make it a requirement for all new Slayers."

"V?!" Faith's shout could be heard from the other side of the huge Demon Tentacle.

Veronica dusted a vamp and wiped away the blood and sweat that had started to drip into her eyes. The vamp had got her good, a claw slicing into her scalp before she had the chance to perry it away. "Five by Five on this end!" She shouted back across the writhing monster.

Dawn quickly let Faith know that Veronica wasn't on her own. "I got her Faith. We're totally kicking ass on our side." And she wasn't wrong, the army of slayers were indeed making a dent in the demonic army they faced. It actually seemed like they were going to win this time, they just needed Buffy and Spike to do whatever it was they needed to do down in Sunnydale.

"Good! You stick with her, D. I can't get over this ugly giant worm, and try not to hack into it, its blood is acid." There were sounds of grunting and fighting on both sides before Faith spoke again. "And Veronica?" She paused, "I'll see you later."

Veronica understood the words for what they really were. A promise. She smiled as she dodged a punch from a demon. "I'll see you later, Faith." And then she and Dawn ran off towards a group of slayers fighting behind some overturned cars. The earth shook and the Hellmouth opened up further, about five more giant tentacles shot out of the ground, collapsing the ground near the source from which they came. They all slammed down into the earth, destroying everything in their path. A small building came crashing down around one, cars were crushed underneath another and a few unfortunate Minis that were too slow were lost beneath a couple of the giant tentacles. The tentacles burrowed into the ground, and whatever was attached to them began to use its limbs to help lift itself out of the Hellmouth.

"Run!" Veronica yelled toward the teams closest to the edges of the Hellmouth. Veronica wasn't sure if they had heard her or not, or if they'd figured it out themselves but they all fled from the Mouth of Hell as the ground beneath them crumbled away and the largest demon she'd ever seen in her life, crawled out into the open. It was all writhing limbs and pincers like some kind of giant walking octopus and crab orgy. It roared as it made it onto land, and slayers and witches were crushed beneath its mass.

"Dear gods." The giant monster was only the beginning. It seemed as though the beast had been blocking off most of the Hellmouth with its mass, and now that it was no longer blocking the opening, the real army made its way to the surface, hundreds of more demons climbed out all at once.

They were fucked.

And just when Veronica was about to open her mouth to state so, Dawn and the other slayers quickly ran passed her toward the giant monster and the giant whole in the ground.

"I'm definitely dying today." Veronica ran to catch up to them, slicing and dicing as she did so.

There were so many fucking vampires, like fucking rats pouring out into the open. Veronica stopped and dropped her axe, holding out her hands instead and focused on chanting a spell Willow had taught her. Dawn and a few others circled back to protect her as they realized what she was going to do. The others formed a loose circle around her fighting off demons as they came near.

Veronica chanted and she could feel the power flow through her as she did so. She couldn't see it herself but she knew that her magic was swirling around her, almost physical in its potency. Her hair whipped around by a nonexistent wind that was her magic, and her eyes glowed gold and she hovered off the ground a good four inches. And when she built up enough power and reached the end of the spell she shot her hands out in front of her and swept them around and sunlight escaped her palms, incinerating the vamps in their wake. Dawn could see that several other teams had followed Veronica's lead, surrounding there designated witches and letting them work their mojo.

The slayers cheered as the enemy's army thinned. And they swept outward taking out the demons unaffected by the beams of light. Dawn stayed by her side, laying a bloody hand across the girl's shoulder, unknowingly lending the young Slaywitch power and magic that only fueled the girl's spell.

The ground beneath them shook again, and the floor began to give way, though they were quite a ways away from the Hellmouth opening Dawn began to tug the girl away, as the hole expanded. Veronica stopped chanting, though her eyes still glowed. She picked up her Scythe and ran with Dawn but they were too slow.

The ground began to crumble beneath their feet and though the earth stopped shaking and they kept running, it was too late. They could see a large crack in the ground a few yards ahead of them, that marked their finish line. Veronica could feel that this was the end. So she took hold of Dawn's arm and swung her forward tossing the older woman just far enough to where she rolled across that crack that signified their death with a few feet to spare.

Dawn was safe, she knew that now. But that didn't mean that she was going to just let herself die that easily. The earth beneath her caved in, she ran up the inclined slab of concrete as it began to tip into the open abyss of the Hellmouth and jumped for the sturdy earth a few yards away.

She wasn't going to make it. There was no way she was going to make it. But she made a promise to Faith and she was going to try her hardest to keep it. As she fell she held her scythe with two hands and swept it down with all her strength, hoping to anchor herself to solid land.

The scythe struck land and she cried out as she held onto the handle of her blade. Her weight pulled her down, snapping her arms out and slicing her palm against the secondary blade of her weapon as she tried to find a sturdy position to hold onto.

"Veronica!?" Dawn popped her head over the rim of the Hellmouth. Veronica was sure that the sight wasn't pretty from her point of view. Veronica was sure that demons were scaling up the sides of the cavern as she held on for dear life. If she could somehow hold on to the Scythe indefinitely she would still be killed by the hordes of demons trying to escape the Hellmouth.

"Lil' V!" Veronica could hear Faith in the distance.

Dawn tried to lean over to reach the young girl. The part of the blade from Veronica's scythe that wasn't embedded into the ground dug into her sternum as she did so, but she only pushed further. Blood dripped from her hand and onto Veronica's face. "Faith, over here! Help. Please, Faith."

"There's no use Dawn." Veronica, had accepted that she was going to die, but she didn't want to bring anyone down with her. "Just go, let me go."

"No! Shut up and just give me your hand." Blood continued to drip across the girl beneath her as she flailed her arm about trying to get as close to Veronica as possible.

"No. I'm too far. And even if I could reach, then I'd just take you down with me."

"Stop that! Shut up and just take my fucking hand!" Dawn grunted in frustration. They could both hear Faith's yelling getting closer, but they knew that by the time she'd reach them it would definitely be too late. Dawn began to cry, "use your fucking powers or something, come on! No!"

Veronica blinked her eyes, she tried to build up her energy but it was all gone. She'd spent most of her energy on the Sun Spell. There was nothing left to help her. Her eyes changed color, from her light brown to a pale translucent yellow. Usually they'd glow gold with her power, now they were dead, just hollow.

Blood from her earlier head wound began to leak into her eyes, Dawn's blood dripped across the girl's face, and into her open wounds.

"Just grab my hand, you made Faith a promise." Veronica knew it was useless but she did indeed make that promise. So she steeled herself and reached for Dawn's hand. Their bloody fingers touched.

"Veronica?!" It was Faith she was here.

Veronica jumped and so did Faith. Faith had jumped toward the girls. Wrapping her arms around Dawn's waist as she and Veronica were about to tip over into the Hellmouth. Veronica's hand reached for Dawn's and this time they connected. Her other hand shot out to hold on to Dawn's arm for support.

But both of them were bloody and their mixed blood made them slick.

Veronica slipped.

All three girls screamed.

Veronica fell backwards into the mouth of Hell.

But her eyes flickered gold as she did so.

As she fell towards the waiting hands of demons, a glowing green portal opened up beneath her. Swallowing her whole.

—-

Dawn almost tipped over into the Hellmouth, but Faith pulled her back onto solid ground. They rolled onto their backs a few feet away from the crater.

"Dawnie?" Dawn looked over at Faith with a smile. "Let's not do that again." Faith let out a throaty chuckle. She picked herself up with ease, rolled her neck and stretched her arms.

"Hey what's that?" Dawn still on the floor pointed to a shiny red something sticking out of the ground near the edge of the Hellmouth.

Faith peered over and saw a red handle in the ground, she wrapped her hand around it despite the blood that covered the once shiny red metal. She pulled and the most wicked looking weapon she'd ever seen came loose.

"Woah!" Dawn stood now and leaned over to get a better view of the weapon. "That looks like the Slayer Scythe." She made to reach for it but something in Faith tensed at the action. She swept the weapon out of the younger girl's reach.

Dawn pouted at her but Faith ignored it. The thing did look like the Slayer Scythe. The axe heads were a perfect replica of the ones on the mystical weapon, but there was no stake at the end of the handle, instead another blade mounted on the opposite side of the staff. There was also an interesting grip in the center, the bevels looked like the one on the end of the stake, her hand fit perfectly on the grip.

She held it out in one hand, gripped at the center. It was perfectly balanced. She swung it around a few times and used it to behead a demon. It worked like a charm. The scythe didn't hum with magic and Slayer essence like the Slayer Scythe did but it felt right in her hands.

"I wonder where it came from?" Dawn peered at it after dusting a vamp.

"Well I don't know where it came from, or who it belonged to but it's mine now." She gave the younger girl a wide smile before diving back into the fray of battle.

Mine.

—-

Sunnydale California, 2006

Buffy Summers swung her Slayer Scythe into the Seed of Wonder.

And magic was destroyed.

—-

Cleveland Ohio

Veronica woke up in the middle of a field. The sun was in her eyes, and a piece of wheat was tickling her nose. This was weird because she should be dead, not that she was complaining about being alive. She just didn't expect to be waking up at all, let alone by herself in an open field.

She sat up, fighting off a wave of dizziness as she did so. She was covered in dirt and blood and vampire dust and grass. The blood on her clothes was dry and just looked like mud at this point. Ugh, this was her favorite shirt.

"Where am I?" She asked herself. She stood up and began to dust herself off. She didn't expect and answer but she got one anyway.

"Cleveland," came a voice of a little boy. Veronica whipped around to find a small boy about 6 years old, standing behind her.

"What!?" Her hands flew to her chest, feeling the rise of her pulse beneath her fingertips.

"You're in Cleveland." The little boy said again.

"Yeah I know, I heard you you just scared the sh-um," she cleared her throat to cover up her slip of the tongue. "You just scared me, kid."

"Oh." The boy just blinked at her. He was starting to creep her out.

"Hey kid," she looked around to see if there was anyone else around, maybe the kids parents. She had to make her way back to the Hellmouth and see what was going on. If she was still in Cleveland like the little guy said then she should be able to see or hear the fight still going on. The battle was a night time one and the sun was shining bright so the battle must be over if the world was still standing the following day. They won!

Oh thank the Powers!

"What day is it?" The question slipped out when she noticed he was looking at her questioningly.

"Tuesday." The kid was looking at her like she was stupid.

"What?! You mean Wednesday, right?" Yesterday was Tuesday, Apocalypses always start on a Tuesday.

"No it's Tuesday. Yesterday was Monday, because that was the first day back at school, the day before that was Sunday because mom made me put on a stupid tie to go to church, and-" The kid was just going to continue, so she cut him off real quick.

"Okay, kid. You're really sure it's Tuesday. I get it." She looked around and spotted a truck a ways down the road. "Is that your parent's car?"

"Mhmm"

Veronica quickly started to jog over to the vehicle pulled up along the side of the road, with its hood popped up. The boy followed.

"Uh, kid, does your mom have a phone with her?"

"My mom's at home. We have one at our house. But that's back that way," he pointed out back toward where they were earlier. "And don't call me kid! Your barely older than me!"

Veronica slowed down as they neared the truck, rolling her eyes at the boys words. "God who doesn't have a cellphone now a days? What is this the seventies?"

"No, its-" Veronica heard his words and stopped as she reached the passenger door.

She moved to lean against the car door and noticed that she had to reach up to grab onto the open window sill. And that when she did palm the door frame that her hand was tiny, like tiny tiny.

She looked down and noticed her shoes looked so big on her little skinny legs, and how flat her chest was.

Oh shit.

Veronica rounded the front of the car and came face to face with a man in his thirties with a full on mullet.

She turned her head and looked into the gleaming metal of the trucks grill, and her ten year old face stared back at her.

"Motherfucker."

—-

Cleveland Ohio, 1980

Veronica Hernandez fainted. And smacked the back of her head against the concrete.