The Slayer Prophecy
by Magus is a crossover between Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Batman, set towards the end of Buffy’s sixth season and shortly before Identity Crisis (2004) for Batman. Starting when the Joker is contacted by the vampire Dala for his assistance in her plan for revenge against Batman, the subsequent plot sees the Bat-Family and the Scooby Gang join forces to fight the resurrected Monk, with some fascinating twists as the plot unfolds.
The Slayer Prophecy contains examples of:
- Adaptational Distillation: It fuses elements with Return of the Joker and Batman: Under the Hood.
- All Your Powers Combined: Dala’s plan involves using a range of magical artefacts to bring the Monk and Jason Todd back to life (Todd being required as the ritual must bring someone back from Heaven as well as Dala's goal to resurrect the Monk from Hell).
- Alternate Universe: The fic is set basically around the climax of "Seeing Red" except that Warren was sent off to jail rather than escaping, Tara doesn't die and Spike never attempted to rape Buffy.
- Back for the Dead: The Monk is brought back to life and swiftly killed off once again while in battle with Batman and Spike.
- Back from the Dead: Jason Todd is brought back to life as part of a ritual to resurrect the Monk rather than being brought back by Superboy-Prime’s ‘retcon punches’, with the Bat-Family swiftly able to offer him help and emotional support.
- Badass Bookworm: Oracle manages to quickly analyse most publicly-available data on the Scooby Gang and identify the relevant anomalies in their history (such as how Anya basically just appeared when she lost her powers) even before Batman tells Barbara about the supernatural elements of the Scoobies' lives.
- Badass Normal: Applies to the Bat-Family as usual; Batgirl in particular is so skilled that Dawn initially assumes she's a new Slayer. When Buffy faces Robin, Batgirl and Batman in training sessions, Batgirl and Batman defeat Buffy despite her enhanced abilities due to their superior combat skills.
- Berserk Button: Realising that the Joker intends to use Jason Todd’s corpse as part of the resurrection ceremony drives Batman into a colder rage than usual.
- Big Damn Heroes: Willow does this when she teleports to Gotham to rescue Buffy, Tara, and the Bat-Family from a warehouse that the Joker just blew up, although the moment is tarred as she accomplished it by drawing on black magic.
- Blood Knight: Robin explicitly observes that Batgirl enjoys the chance to fight new people, which leads to her eagerly suggesting a spar with Buffy.
- Call-Back:
- Tara at one point contemplates trying to find the Joker based on the rumour that he sold his soul.
- While Oracle was doing research on Sunnydale, initially the only explicit supernatural-related activity she can find reference to is the short-lived organisation "Mothers Opposed to the Occult", leaving Barbara unable to restrain a laugh at the name "MOO" ("Gingerbread").
- Once Batman has met the Scooby Gang and given Oracle more to work with, Barbara identifies details such as Buffy's temporary death or Anya's lack of official existence before she became human.
- The Joker received Jason Todd’s corpse as ‘payment’ for his role in Hush’s scheme.
- The ritual to restore the Monk includes a ring that is explicitly identified as a precursor to the Gem of Amara ("The Harsh Light of Day").
- Dala, the Joker, Rack and the Monk use the former Initiative facility as a base.
- Nightwing and Buffy discuss Buffy’s experience at being brought back to life while comparing it to Green Arrow’s resurrection.
- Came Back Wrong: A relatively minor example; due to the Scoobies and the Bat-Family interfering with the ritual to resurrect the Monk and Jason Todd, some of the mystical artefacts involved in the ritual are destroyed and Jason's body is aged to the state he would be in if he had never been killed rather than him coming back to life as he was when he died. However, Tara is able to assure Batman that apart from being "suddenly" older, Jason should be physically all right otherwise.
- Canon Welding:
- It is explicitly stated that the Hellmouth deflects external interest, which is why none of the major superheroes of the DC Universe have visited the city before even as the Scoobies are aware of Batman, the Joker and the Justice League.
- Rack apparently fought Doctor Fate in the past before Rack and Fate disappeared from the public view.
- Spike observes that Dala and the Monk were members of the Order of Aurelius, with the Monk just a little bit younger than the Master at the time of his death.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: The resurrected Jason Todd is tortured by the Joker.
- Commonality Connection:
- Alfred makes such a positive impression on Buffy and Tara that they favourably compare him to Giles.
- After Jason is resurrected, Buffy and Nightwing talk briefly about her own resurrection and Green Arrow's experience of coming back to life; Buffy later tells her own experiences to Batman to prepare him for what Jason will likely have to go through in the next few months.
- Deadpan Snarker: Various members of the Bat-Family come across as this, such as Alfred responding to Buffy's comment about if they have to sleep upside-down by noting that 'Master Batman' doesn't like it when people imitate him.
- The Dreaded: The prospect of facing the Joker is so terrifying that even after facing all kinds of demons, Buffy is briefly stunned into immobility when she realises that the Clown Prince of Crime has come to Sunnydale and is standing right in front of her.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Demonstrated by the Joker of all people in his own strange way; after he (apparently) kills Anya, he offers to let Dawn play a ‘game’ where he will not kill her or Xander if she wins, and he keeps his word. The Joker was admittedly very angry about Dawn winning the game and killed one of his own henchmen while ranting in annoyance about it, but the fact remains that the Joker said he wouldn’t kill Xander and Dawn under specific circumstances and he kept that agreement even when he didn't seriously think he'd have to go through with the "promise" when he made it.
- Fire Forged Family: Batman adopts the identity of Buffy’s ‘Uncle Matches’ as a convenient cover for their interaction in a civilian environment, even as Buffy and the others are fairly sure 'Malone' is not his real name. In their final solo conversation in Buffy’s house, he and Buffy refer to each other as uncle and niece when they don’t have to keep up a pretence for anyone, basically affirming that Buffy and her friends have earned Batman's respect and he and his family consider them allies. Batman even gives Buffy Oracle's contact details, advising that she can use that to call other heroes for help in future (with the understanding that others may call on her for her own expertise in turn).
- Girl-on-Girl is Hot: Even Robin is temporarily distracted when he sees Willow and Tara making out.
- Kid Sidekick: A villainous example as the Joker kidnaps a Robin with the intent of turning him into his sidekick... and that Robin is the resurrected Jason Todd.
- OOC Is Serious Business:
- To stop Jason potentially killing himself because he can’t cope with being back on Earth after being in Heaven, Batman has to take off his cowl essentially in public (albeit on a deserted road with no sign that anyone else will show up) and make an appeal that he doesn’t want to lose his son again.
- Later, when Buffy decides to tell Batman about her own experience of being brought back to life to help him prepare for what Jason may go through, Batman gently listens to her sharing her insight into this matter and doesn't press for more details as he recognises that anything she hasn't told him is deeply personal to her specifically.
- Prefers Proper Names: Alfred, as always, referring to Buffy and Tara by their surnames even when Buffy starts to say he can call her by her first name as it wouldn't be 'proper' otherwise.
- Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: Demonstrated by Batman when the Joker pushes his Berserk Button by revealing that he has Jason Todd’s body;You. Will. Not. Touch. Him. Again.
- Refuge in Audacity: Willow is able to find the chemical formula for the Joker's Smilex gas on the internet, but it's observed that this is actually "safe" because the Joker would kill anyone who used that formula without his permission.
- Reincarnation Romance: Indirectly; Buffy and Nightwing become the hosts for the spirits of the First Slayer and her lover as part of the Monk’s plan, but there is no indication that Nightwing was the natural reincarnation of the First Slayer’s lover.
- Secret Identity: The Bat-Family don't reveal their civilian identities to the Scoobies, instead interacting with them out of costume as the Malones, such as Batman being 'Matches Malone' and Batgirl/Cassandra Cain being 'Candy'. Buffy, Tara, Willow and Giles meet Alfred and are introduced to him as such, but they only learn his first name, and it's unlikely that Alfred is a public enough figure for the Scoobies to learn more about the Bat-Family.
- Sequel Hook: No indication that a sequel will be written, but the story ends with Batman leaving Buffy with contact details for Oracle if she or her friends need help in future (and the observation that she may be called on for her own expertise), Dawn exchanging e-mails with Robin (albeit still unaware of his real name), Giles discovering a prophecy about the child of "the Slayer that died and returned [and] the Son of the Bat", and Buffy takes a pregnancy test that gives a positive result.
- Ship Tease: Buffy and Nightwing swiftly hit it off even before they are possessed by the spirit of the First Slayer and her lover, and Dawn shows an attraction to Robin.
- Spared by the Adaptation: Tara is saved from her canon death, and Jason is ‘spared’ being resurrected under the more traumatic manner seen in canon.
- Three Round Deathmatch: Buffy has a non-fatal version of this when visiting Gotham, facing Robin (Tim Drake), Batgirl (Cassandra Cain) and Batman himself in "best of three" contests; Buffy beats Robin in two of the three matches, but Batgirl wins due to her superior combat skills, and Batman beats Buffy in the final round after a close call in the second.
- Underestimating Badassery: The Monk takes advantage of the fact that he has never been seen as a fighter, observing that he tends to kill everyone he actually fights so his true skill level has never been revealed.
- Waif-Fu: Batgirl is such a keen example of this that Dawn initially mistakes her for a new Slayer when seeing Batgirl fight before learning her real identity.
- Weak, but Skilled: The Bat-Family have no superpowers but are skilled enough fighters that Batman and Batgirl defeat Buffy in training matches, and Tim Drake/Robin only just lost in a "best two out of three" contest.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: The fact that Batman paid the Scooby Gang any sort of compliment is a true sign to the rest of the Bat-Family that Sunnydale’s defenders genuinely impressed him.
- What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Batman makes it clear when he and Buffy start working together that no humans should die as a result of her action or inaction, but he will defer to her when dealing with supernatural entities, to the point that Batman shows no concern with the fact that Willow killed Rack.