Sunnydale, California, One Two-Layover Crosscountry Flight Later (December 2002/Tuesday Fandom Time)
Portalocity had definitely added a whole new level of spoiled to Kennedy's outlook on life; by the time they got off the plane she was twitching with restlessness (the frayed nerves didn't help). From what she'd seen through the plane window on their descent, too, the town she'd been keeping tabs on for years was somehow... not what she'd expected, either. For a town that was supposed to be crawling with demons and vampires and untold ancient evil it was way less gothic (she'd pictured it like Fandom only with palm trees) and way more, well, wholesome-looking than she had thought. Logically that made sense and she knew it, but Kennedy couldn't help being disappointed.
She was only halfway listening to what Giles had to say while they walked; the rest of her brainpower was taken up with trying to process everything Giles had filled her in on during the flight. That wasn’t working so well.
Giles
Talking to people who, taking into account how much they were listening, might as well have been thin air, was one of those quintessential Sunnydale experiences that Giles had rather lost the hang of. By the time they reached Buffy's house, however, it was no longer a foreign concept in the slightest.
"...and it's likely that most of the items in the house have been broken recently and repeatedly, so I'd like to urge you all not to go about touching everything."
Annabelle
Annabelle, who had been making a concerted effort to listen, couldn't get her notebook out on account of the satchel she was holding, but she nodded.
"Repeatedly?" It was clear from the catch in her voice that she didn't like the sound of that.
Molly
Molly was a little less restrained in her concern, and her eyes were wide. "D'you mean things attack this house all the time, then?"
Kennedy
Kennedy was tired and trying to make sense of the mess of thoughts running through her head, and whatever patience she had was running thin.
"What? Did you think there was like... some demon agreement not to go after the place she lives or something?" she asked acidically; the newbie-ness of both of them was beginning to grate on her nerves.
She turned to look at Giles, tried to put on her best tough-girl face. (It didn't work so well, not right now.) "Guess it's a good thing we're trained, huh?"
Giles
"I'm sorry?" Trained? In what universe? "Oh. Yes. Quite."
Yep. That was a headache setting in. Too many inquisitive teenage girls all at once. He needed a minute.
Unfortunately, pulling into Buffy's driveway meant that a minute was something that he didn't have. Though at least in the house, there was a good chance that some of their questions might be directed at other people besides himself.
"So with that said, shall we head up?" he suggested. So, so tiredly.
Kennedy
Yeah, the 'trained' got a bit of an askance look from Molly, and a slight eyeroll from Annabelle, given the way Kennedy had emphasized the word as if it meant everything. (Everyone might as well get used to it; it was going to end up being her catchphrase for a while.) Kennedy ignored both of them in favor of unbuckling her seat belt, grabbing her bag, and all but leaping out of the car; all the time on the plane, and now the drive, was way too much sitting still for her.
"What the hell are we waiting for?"
Poor Giles. Poor, poor Giles.
Giles
Poor Giles indeed.
He blinked up at her for a moment, then fumbled for his own things. "Yes, let's, ah, let's be off," he decided, and followed her out of the car. "Girls?"
Molly and Annabelle
Molly didn't take too much longer to follow suit, hopping out of the car with her lunchbox purse clutched in both hands. Annabelle, ever the obedient and decorous one, took a few more seconds but caught up soon enough.
"What's she like, Mister Giles?" Molly asked eagerly. "She's been doing this an awful long time, hasn't she?"
"Molly, hush," Annabelle admonished. "We're nearly at the front door. You'll find out soon enough."
This had basically been what their part of the conversation had sounded for the duration of the trip.
Giles
"Ah, yes," Giles said as they made their way to the front door, and how badly did he want to clean his glasses right now. Too bad he was holding things. "Yes, she's been at this for seven years now. She's, well..."
How was he supposed to answer that? Really.
"Resilient," was all he could come up with.
Kennedy
Kennedy was within steps of the front porch before she realized that she'd met Buffy a couple of times before, and had not made the best first impression. What if this was the same Buffy? Because if she remembered that totally embarrassing graveyard incident... yeah, that'd make her look really good.
Time to ramp the brat factor up, then.
"Descriptive," she drawled sarcastically, all I am totally a badass, check it out. "Really."
Giles
Giles was doing his best not to cast Kennedy a withering look, really, but there was only so much he could do.
"Yes," he said flatly. Then, gesturing to the front door: "Well. Shall we?"
It wasn't really a question, nope.
Kennedy
Pssht. Kennedy was used to those, so might as well get used to giving them, Giles.
"Duh," was all she said, still brat-factor-up-to-11, and even though Molly and Annabelle weren't anywhere near as snarky, they seemed to agree.
Giles
As they came up to the door, it took Giles a moment to actually knock. He hadn't seen Buffy in months, and while he knew that she was in a better place emotionally than she had been last year, the trouble with the First couldn't be helping. Of course this was her job, and she was duty-bound, but he'd be lying if he said he wasn't concerned.
So that was what was on his mind as he stood on the front step, just about to bring his hand up to knock.
Buffy
Buffy hadn't developed any psychic knocking powers or anything. She'd just been trying to talk Xander out of coming along with her on her plan to find The First, especially considering she had no idea how to fight it. She'd just shot off a dramatic line and then she was just planning on walking out. It was a tried and true method of getting things done here.
It just so happened that when she opened the door, there was a Giles on her porch.
Giles
Well. That had taken care of that.
Giles straightened up. "Buffy."
It was... really good to see her. Really good.
Buffy
"Giles."
And because it really was good to see him, she hugged him. Complete with actually touching him and everything.
Giles
And Giles, of course, hugged back, because while this may not have been the best of terms to visit on, it was still Buffy and it had been months and it was -- incredibly good to see that she was unharmed, given everything.
Molly and Annabelle
And while that was going on, there were three girls who'd been in transit for a really long time and maybe needed to use the bathroom or something, breezing on in past.
"Nice place," was Molly's cheerful assessment as she sauntered on through the door, though she had to add, "Bit of a mess."
Annabelle left the commentary to the chattery ones and offered Buffy a brief smile and nod as she passed through the doorway.
Kennedy
Which left Kennedy, standing on the porch with her bag slung over her shoulder, one eyebrow quirked and a vaguely indulgent (if impatient) are we done with the touchy-feely moment here yet look on her face. She didn't think this was the same Buffy she'd met before, but she kind of wanted to be sure.
Buffy
There were girls in her house. Strange girls. This was another unexpected thing in the middle of her day.
So, no, not the same Buffy as before.
Buffy looked expectantly at Giles. He'd have an explanation, for he was Giles.
Kennedy
Not before Kennedy got a word in, because she was a pain in the ass that way.
"So," she asked, totally breezy and casual and completely relieved, "this is the Slayer?"
...and let out a little sigh of relief as she wandered on past into the house.
Giles
Yes, Giles knew what Buffy had to be thinking. Thoughts of the confused, who-are-these-obnoxious-girls-in-my-home variety.
He couldn't really blame her.
"Sorry to barge in," he said wryly. "I'm afraid we have a slight... apocalypse."
Kennedy
Hey, not all of them were obnoxious! Mostly just the one.
Regardless, all three girls had filed into the house and headed toward the living room; Molly and Annabelle were sticking together, and Kennedy-- uncomfortably aware that this was a weird situation, and normally she'd be less bothered by that but way too much had happened way too fast-- fell in beside them.
So. Hello, the Slayer's living room. Hello, the Slayer's friends-- whoa, hello a couple of familiar faces, but before Kennedy could say anything about that she noticed the guy tied to the chair. Which was... okay then.
She waggled the fingers of one hand in a halfhearted wave.
Dawn
And got an unimpressed look back. Hey. Her house. Her mess. And something Evil had messed it up before got to talk to (probably not) Mom's ghost.
The wave Kennedy got back was half-hearted as she wandered over to get her hug from Giles. For sisterly affection did not preclude sisterly rivalry. "Um. Why are they here?"
Giles
It was a fine question, Dawn. A question whose answer dated back to the Sunnydale hotel workers' strike of 2002.
"Well," said Giles as he made his way into the living room, looking very much like a bout of glasses-cleaning was in order. "I suppose the answer to that is that they're Slayers."
Dawn
"They're all Slayers?"
Wait. Whose good idea was that? "Still doesn't explain why they're here. Being Slayers."
Xander
"Or why they weren't here back when all we had was Spike's animatronic blow-up doll to keep the place safe," Xander added, leaning on the broom he'd been sweeping up with. "Since when do Slayers come in multi-packs?"
Anya
"Isn't the entire Slayer deal that there can be only one or whatever, excluding for if/when Buffy comes back from the dead?" Anya asked. "I mean, I know this is a Hellmouth and all, but she hasn't died that many times."
Giles
Yeah, maybe that word choice hadn't been the greatest.
"They're Potential Slayers," Giles clarified. "Waiting for the next one to be called. There were many more like them all over the world, but, ah... now there's just a handful. And they're all on their way to Sunnydale."
Buffy
"The others were murdered," Buffy inferred.
It wasn't really that hard to figure out. And it was sort of depressing.
Kennedy
Kennedy couldn't help flinching a little there, and to her right she heard Molly try (and fail) to suppress a sharp breath; there had been plenty of time on the trip over to think about how close all of them had come to ending up the way her Watcher had. How many other girls like them hadn't been so lucky. The reminder was, for now, enough reason for her to wrap her arms around herself a little more tightly and keep her mouth shut.
Giles
Giles steeled himself for a moment and cast a might-be-sympathetic look at the Potentials before agreeing, "In cold blood. As well as their Watchers."
You know, the ones who wouldn't end up introducing the prophecy wing at Wolfram and Hart or getting impersonated by cyborgs. The other ones.
Buffy
"The First," said Buffy, and again with the depressing here. "That's what it wants."
Giles
"Yes, that's what it looks like," said Giles. "To erase all the Slayers in training along with their methods."
Fortunately, the super-secret weapons were safe.
Buffy
"And then Faith, and then me," Buffy went on. "And with all the potentials gone and no way of making another, it's the end. No more slayer. Ever."
Well, you know. Unless she came back to life again.
Willow
"We haven't been able to find out anything about the First," Willow said. Not that she was feeling mega-guilty about that or anything. "No documentation."
Giles
"That's because it predates any written history," Giles explained, crossing his arms over his chest. God, The First. Why did you have to make everything so complex? "And it rarely shows its true face. The only record I know was in the Council library."
Anya
"What about the Council?" Anya broke in. "What do they say about this?"
Since, you know, this was their job and everything. Maybe they'd take the children.
Giles
Deep breath, then --
"Gone."
Sorry, Anya. No Council day care services.
Buffy
Well, that was unexpected. Buffy couldn't do much more but stare at Giles in shock. She hadn't exactly been a fan of the Council, especially in recent years, but that didn't mean she wanted them... gone.
Willow
Willow was stunned. "What?"
Giles
Yeah, that had pretty much been Giles' reaction too.
"Obliterated," he said, sounding distinctly more subdued than usual. "They were in session and, ah, there was an explosion."
Willow
"What about the records?" Willow asked. She wasn't going to hyperventilate, really. "And the books??"
Giles
Well, see, that was a different story.
He reached for his bag and set out two books and a stack of files on the table in front of Willow. "That's all that's left," he said, and leaned back to allow the others to examine it. "The -- mystic secrets of the Watchers. And whatever I could find on the First. When I learned what was happening, I -- well, I, ah, stole them."
Yes, that was the tiniest tinge of Watcherly shame.
Anya
"And you blew the Council up!" Normally, Anya would approve of such destruction, but not this time. She rather liked living, thank you, and Dead Watchers meant the First was that much closer to world-ending and stuff.
"See, this is what happens when you're all stuffy and repressed and British. You overreact!"
Giles
Giles shot her a Look. The kind of look he'd been refraining from shooting Kennedy, but only barely.
"Not -- I didn't," he huffed. Followed by an eye-roll. "It must've been an agent of the First, after my little... burglary session." Watcherly shame! Okay, he had to justify that last bit. "The -- the knowledge in these files had to be protected, and there wasn't time for -- for bureaucracy or debate." Stupid Council. "The Council knows no other way."
Andrew
"And it cost them their lives," Andrew narrated like he was hosting a History Channel documentary from his chair instead of tied to it.
Buffy
Funnily enough, Buffy was not much for the History Channel, nor its documentary hosts.
She looked to Xander and asked, "Can we gag him?"
Xander
"Will you marry me?" In retrospect, maybe not the best way to phrase his affirmative reply, given certain present company. Xander would just be... over there, getting the duct tape.
Giles
...Er. Well, then.
"Ah, we know very little else, actually," Giles continued, pretending not to have noticed that little display. "Ah, it only appears in the guise of someone who's passed away."
Willow
"Our 'ghosts'," Willow said, glad that she was able to put some puzzle pieces together.
Giles
"Precisely," Giles agreed. "And it's non-corporeal." This, of course, was a recent development over the past four years. "It can neither touch nor fight on its own. It works only through those it manipulates."
That darn First, always changing up its act to keep them on their toes.
Kennedy
Kennedy neither knew nor cared how random and out of nowhere this whole thing was to anyone who'd been paying attention for the last seven years. Mostly she cared that something was people-killing happy out there, and coming after them.
"Those freaks in the black robes," she finally spoke up, sounding a lot less confident and in control than she would have liked. She wanted to add something about how that gave them a place to start, but Molly jumped in. Good one, Kennedy, breaking the newbies-keep-quiet rule.
Molly
"Yeah, with the hoodies and the crazy alphabet eyes!" Unlike Kennedy, Molly immediately looked guilty about interrupting and ducked her head, hastily adding, "I never saw 'em, I just heard..."
Annabelle
Annabelle looked like she would have smacked both of them if she were less polite. "Hush, Molly," she chided (apparently Kennedy was a lost cause already). "Mister Giles doesn't need us prattling on."
Giles
Actually it was just noise at this point, since he'd had to listen to it for hours and hours on the way over here.
"The First is unlike anything we've ever faced before," he continued, taking a seat on the arm of the couch in his most melodramatic pose. This was of course ignoring the fact that they had faced something very like it before, also called the First. "I mean, there's evil, and then there's the thing that created evil. The source."
Buffy
Well gee, that just sounded like nothing but fun. Or, you know, the exact opposite of that. Either one.
"And that's what this thing claims to be?"
Giles
"Well, that's what it is," Giles corrected her. "It has eternities to act, endless resources..." He stood up. "How to defeat it, well, I -- I -- " He sighed. "Honestly, I don't know. But we must find a way. If the Slayer line is eliminated, then the Hellmouth has no guardian. The balance is destroyed."
Shaking his head at the burden he was about to put on her, he said reluctantly, "I'm afraid it falls to you, Buffy. I'm -- I'm sorry -- we'll do what we can, but you're the only one who has the strength to protect these girls -- and the world -- against what's coming."
Xander
Where had Xander heard that before? Oh, right, about once a year, usually in May. "But no pressure," he dropped in, not at all reassuringly.
Kennedy
Maybe it was Giles's Watchery melodramatics. Maybe it was the doom-y reality of what he was saying. Maybe-- okay, definitely at least in part-- it was the irritation of being talked about like she was some helpless bystander who needed protecting while she just cowered in a corner and waited for everything to be over (and she didn't think this was going to be anything like one of those Fandom situations where everything was over in a week or so) but Kennedy had pretty much had it with the standing around and narrating by now.
"That's it? That's the plan?" she burst out, ignoring Annabelle's glare. "If the First Evil is all that, I don't see how one person, even the Slayer--"
She shot a look at Buffy, slightly apologetic but mostly indicative of how big a deal she thought the Slayer thing was.
"--is supposed to protect us." The scornful twist she put on the word made her views on damsel-in-distress-ing pretty clear. "Those Bringer guys are killing girls like us, and they tore apart my Watcher, and we're, what, just supposed to hide now? Close our eyes and hope we wake up and it was all just a dream?"
Giles
In a tone he certainly meant to be reassuring, Giles interjected, "Of course we'll use all our resources -- "
Kennedy
Not that reassuring. It could have been, to a more receptive listener, but Kennedy was exhausted, kind of a mess, freaked out but trying to fake her way into not being freaked out, and on a roll.
"So if this thing is the root of all evil--" and as she looked around the living room at all these people she was going to have to get used to really quickly now she wished she hadn't actually said that part out loud, because yikes, not helping her freakout-- "isn't the Hellmouth its number one vacation spot? I mean, if we're going to be hiding, shouldn't we be hiding our asses on the other side of the globe?"
That... was meant to be an argument in favor of letting them get armed up right the hell now (hitting things was super appealing at the moment), but all the above factors didn't exactly improve her already dodgy word choice issues. Well, the bitchface might imply how stupid a plan she thought this whole 'hiding' thing was.
Annabelle
Annabelle (predictably) was horrified by the outburst. "Kennedy!"
Whether that was meant to be an apology to Giles and the others, an incredibly polite oh my god shut your mouth now to Kennedy, or tacit acknowledgment that this plan was not exactly reassuring, well...
It could have been a bit of all three.
Buffy
The outbursty one had a point. It didn't mean that Buffy was going to be running away, because hahaha if that hadn't happened in the last seven years, it wasn't happening now... well, except for that one time she ran away but that was a whole other thing. No, it meant the opposite of running away.
"No, she's not wrong," Buffy cut in. "We need more muscle. That's why we need to find Spike."
Anya
"Yeah, he'll help," Anya cut in. "You know, if he's not crazy or off killing people or dead."
Wait, vampire.
"Or, you know, all of the above."
...yeah. This was super reassuring.
[[look, it's canon proper now! preplayed with thanks to the awesome wesleynotponcy as notagoodwatcher, annieadderall as stillbaking, icecoldfrost as children4cash, regretiz4suckas as inthekeyofme, willbedone as, well, willow, and needsaparrot doing double duty as xander and andrew. adapted and riffed on a little from btvs 7x10, "bring on the night." nfi, nfb, ooc okay, to be continued.]]
She was only halfway listening to what Giles had to say while they walked; the rest of her brainpower was taken up with trying to process everything Giles had filled her in on during the flight. That wasn’t working so well.
Giles
Talking to people who, taking into account how much they were listening, might as well have been thin air, was one of those quintessential Sunnydale experiences that Giles had rather lost the hang of. By the time they reached Buffy's house, however, it was no longer a foreign concept in the slightest.
"...and it's likely that most of the items in the house have been broken recently and repeatedly, so I'd like to urge you all not to go about touching everything."
Annabelle
Annabelle, who had been making a concerted effort to listen, couldn't get her notebook out on account of the satchel she was holding, but she nodded.
"Repeatedly?" It was clear from the catch in her voice that she didn't like the sound of that.
Molly
Molly was a little less restrained in her concern, and her eyes were wide. "D'you mean things attack this house all the time, then?"
Kennedy
Kennedy was tired and trying to make sense of the mess of thoughts running through her head, and whatever patience she had was running thin.
"What? Did you think there was like... some demon agreement not to go after the place she lives or something?" she asked acidically; the newbie-ness of both of them was beginning to grate on her nerves.
She turned to look at Giles, tried to put on her best tough-girl face. (It didn't work so well, not right now.) "Guess it's a good thing we're trained, huh?"
Giles
"I'm sorry?" Trained? In what universe? "Oh. Yes. Quite."
Yep. That was a headache setting in. Too many inquisitive teenage girls all at once. He needed a minute.
Unfortunately, pulling into Buffy's driveway meant that a minute was something that he didn't have. Though at least in the house, there was a good chance that some of their questions might be directed at other people besides himself.
"So with that said, shall we head up?" he suggested. So, so tiredly.
Kennedy
Yeah, the 'trained' got a bit of an askance look from Molly, and a slight eyeroll from Annabelle, given the way Kennedy had emphasized the word as if it meant everything. (Everyone might as well get used to it; it was going to end up being her catchphrase for a while.) Kennedy ignored both of them in favor of unbuckling her seat belt, grabbing her bag, and all but leaping out of the car; all the time on the plane, and now the drive, was way too much sitting still for her.
"What the hell are we waiting for?"
Poor Giles. Poor, poor Giles.
Giles
Poor Giles indeed.
He blinked up at her for a moment, then fumbled for his own things. "Yes, let's, ah, let's be off," he decided, and followed her out of the car. "Girls?"
Molly and Annabelle
Molly didn't take too much longer to follow suit, hopping out of the car with her lunchbox purse clutched in both hands. Annabelle, ever the obedient and decorous one, took a few more seconds but caught up soon enough.
"What's she like, Mister Giles?" Molly asked eagerly. "She's been doing this an awful long time, hasn't she?"
"Molly, hush," Annabelle admonished. "We're nearly at the front door. You'll find out soon enough."
This had basically been what their part of the conversation had sounded for the duration of the trip.
Giles
"Ah, yes," Giles said as they made their way to the front door, and how badly did he want to clean his glasses right now. Too bad he was holding things. "Yes, she's been at this for seven years now. She's, well..."
How was he supposed to answer that? Really.
"Resilient," was all he could come up with.
Kennedy
Kennedy was within steps of the front porch before she realized that she'd met Buffy a couple of times before, and had not made the best first impression. What if this was the same Buffy? Because if she remembered that totally embarrassing graveyard incident... yeah, that'd make her look really good.
Time to ramp the brat factor up, then.
"Descriptive," she drawled sarcastically, all I am totally a badass, check it out. "Really."
Giles
Giles was doing his best not to cast Kennedy a withering look, really, but there was only so much he could do.
"Yes," he said flatly. Then, gesturing to the front door: "Well. Shall we?"
It wasn't really a question, nope.
Kennedy
Pssht. Kennedy was used to those, so might as well get used to giving them, Giles.
"Duh," was all she said, still brat-factor-up-to-11, and even though Molly and Annabelle weren't anywhere near as snarky, they seemed to agree.
Giles
As they came up to the door, it took Giles a moment to actually knock. He hadn't seen Buffy in months, and while he knew that she was in a better place emotionally than she had been last year, the trouble with the First couldn't be helping. Of course this was her job, and she was duty-bound, but he'd be lying if he said he wasn't concerned.
So that was what was on his mind as he stood on the front step, just about to bring his hand up to knock.
Buffy
Buffy hadn't developed any psychic knocking powers or anything. She'd just been trying to talk Xander out of coming along with her on her plan to find The First, especially considering she had no idea how to fight it. She'd just shot off a dramatic line and then she was just planning on walking out. It was a tried and true method of getting things done here.
It just so happened that when she opened the door, there was a Giles on her porch.
Giles
Well. That had taken care of that.
Giles straightened up. "Buffy."
It was... really good to see her. Really good.
Buffy
"Giles."
And because it really was good to see him, she hugged him. Complete with actually touching him and everything.
Giles
And Giles, of course, hugged back, because while this may not have been the best of terms to visit on, it was still Buffy and it had been months and it was -- incredibly good to see that she was unharmed, given everything.
Molly and Annabelle
And while that was going on, there were three girls who'd been in transit for a really long time and maybe needed to use the bathroom or something, breezing on in past.
"Nice place," was Molly's cheerful assessment as she sauntered on through the door, though she had to add, "Bit of a mess."
Annabelle left the commentary to the chattery ones and offered Buffy a brief smile and nod as she passed through the doorway.
Kennedy
Which left Kennedy, standing on the porch with her bag slung over her shoulder, one eyebrow quirked and a vaguely indulgent (if impatient) are we done with the touchy-feely moment here yet look on her face. She didn't think this was the same Buffy she'd met before, but she kind of wanted to be sure.
Buffy
There were girls in her house. Strange girls. This was another unexpected thing in the middle of her day.
So, no, not the same Buffy as before.
Buffy looked expectantly at Giles. He'd have an explanation, for he was Giles.
Kennedy
Not before Kennedy got a word in, because she was a pain in the ass that way.
"So," she asked, totally breezy and casual and completely relieved, "this is the Slayer?"
...and let out a little sigh of relief as she wandered on past into the house.
Giles
Yes, Giles knew what Buffy had to be thinking. Thoughts of the confused, who-are-these-obnoxious-girls-in-my-home variety.
He couldn't really blame her.
"Sorry to barge in," he said wryly. "I'm afraid we have a slight... apocalypse."
Kennedy
Hey, not all of them were obnoxious! Mostly just the one.
Regardless, all three girls had filed into the house and headed toward the living room; Molly and Annabelle were sticking together, and Kennedy-- uncomfortably aware that this was a weird situation, and normally she'd be less bothered by that but way too much had happened way too fast-- fell in beside them.
So. Hello, the Slayer's living room. Hello, the Slayer's friends-- whoa, hello a couple of familiar faces, but before Kennedy could say anything about that she noticed the guy tied to the chair. Which was... okay then.
She waggled the fingers of one hand in a halfhearted wave.
Dawn
And got an unimpressed look back. Hey. Her house. Her mess. And something Evil had messed it up before got to talk to (probably not) Mom's ghost.
The wave Kennedy got back was half-hearted as she wandered over to get her hug from Giles. For sisterly affection did not preclude sisterly rivalry. "Um. Why are they here?"
Giles
It was a fine question, Dawn. A question whose answer dated back to the Sunnydale hotel workers' strike of 2002.
"Well," said Giles as he made his way into the living room, looking very much like a bout of glasses-cleaning was in order. "I suppose the answer to that is that they're Slayers."
Dawn
"They're all Slayers?"
Wait. Whose good idea was that? "Still doesn't explain why they're here. Being Slayers."
Xander
"Or why they weren't here back when all we had was Spike's animatronic blow-up doll to keep the place safe," Xander added, leaning on the broom he'd been sweeping up with. "Since when do Slayers come in multi-packs?"
Anya
"Isn't the entire Slayer deal that there can be only one or whatever, excluding for if/when Buffy comes back from the dead?" Anya asked. "I mean, I know this is a Hellmouth and all, but she hasn't died that many times."
Giles
Yeah, maybe that word choice hadn't been the greatest.
"They're Potential Slayers," Giles clarified. "Waiting for the next one to be called. There were many more like them all over the world, but, ah... now there's just a handful. And they're all on their way to Sunnydale."
Buffy
"The others were murdered," Buffy inferred.
It wasn't really that hard to figure out. And it was sort of depressing.
Kennedy
Kennedy couldn't help flinching a little there, and to her right she heard Molly try (and fail) to suppress a sharp breath; there had been plenty of time on the trip over to think about how close all of them had come to ending up the way her Watcher had. How many other girls like them hadn't been so lucky. The reminder was, for now, enough reason for her to wrap her arms around herself a little more tightly and keep her mouth shut.
Giles
Giles steeled himself for a moment and cast a might-be-sympathetic look at the Potentials before agreeing, "In cold blood. As well as their Watchers."
You know, the ones who wouldn't end up introducing the prophecy wing at Wolfram and Hart or getting impersonated by cyborgs. The other ones.
Buffy
"The First," said Buffy, and again with the depressing here. "That's what it wants."
Giles
"Yes, that's what it looks like," said Giles. "To erase all the Slayers in training along with their methods."
Fortunately, the super-secret weapons were safe.
Buffy
"And then Faith, and then me," Buffy went on. "And with all the potentials gone and no way of making another, it's the end. No more slayer. Ever."
Well, you know. Unless she came back to life again.
Willow
"We haven't been able to find out anything about the First," Willow said. Not that she was feeling mega-guilty about that or anything. "No documentation."
Giles
"That's because it predates any written history," Giles explained, crossing his arms over his chest. God, The First. Why did you have to make everything so complex? "And it rarely shows its true face. The only record I know was in the Council library."
Anya
"What about the Council?" Anya broke in. "What do they say about this?"
Since, you know, this was their job and everything. Maybe they'd take the children.
Giles
Deep breath, then --
"Gone."
Sorry, Anya. No Council day care services.
Buffy
Well, that was unexpected. Buffy couldn't do much more but stare at Giles in shock. She hadn't exactly been a fan of the Council, especially in recent years, but that didn't mean she wanted them... gone.
Willow
Willow was stunned. "What?"
Giles
Yeah, that had pretty much been Giles' reaction too.
"Obliterated," he said, sounding distinctly more subdued than usual. "They were in session and, ah, there was an explosion."
Willow
"What about the records?" Willow asked. She wasn't going to hyperventilate, really. "And the books??"
Giles
Well, see, that was a different story.
He reached for his bag and set out two books and a stack of files on the table in front of Willow. "That's all that's left," he said, and leaned back to allow the others to examine it. "The -- mystic secrets of the Watchers. And whatever I could find on the First. When I learned what was happening, I -- well, I, ah, stole them."
Yes, that was the tiniest tinge of Watcherly shame.
Anya
"And you blew the Council up!" Normally, Anya would approve of such destruction, but not this time. She rather liked living, thank you, and Dead Watchers meant the First was that much closer to world-ending and stuff.
"See, this is what happens when you're all stuffy and repressed and British. You overreact!"
Giles
Giles shot her a Look. The kind of look he'd been refraining from shooting Kennedy, but only barely.
"Not -- I didn't," he huffed. Followed by an eye-roll. "It must've been an agent of the First, after my little... burglary session." Watcherly shame! Okay, he had to justify that last bit. "The -- the knowledge in these files had to be protected, and there wasn't time for -- for bureaucracy or debate." Stupid Council. "The Council knows no other way."
Andrew
"And it cost them their lives," Andrew narrated like he was hosting a History Channel documentary from his chair instead of tied to it.
Buffy
Funnily enough, Buffy was not much for the History Channel, nor its documentary hosts.
She looked to Xander and asked, "Can we gag him?"
Xander
"Will you marry me?" In retrospect, maybe not the best way to phrase his affirmative reply, given certain present company. Xander would just be... over there, getting the duct tape.
Giles
...Er. Well, then.
"Ah, we know very little else, actually," Giles continued, pretending not to have noticed that little display. "Ah, it only appears in the guise of someone who's passed away."
Willow
"Our 'ghosts'," Willow said, glad that she was able to put some puzzle pieces together.
Giles
"Precisely," Giles agreed. "And it's non-corporeal." This, of course, was a recent development over the past four years. "It can neither touch nor fight on its own. It works only through those it manipulates."
That darn First, always changing up its act to keep them on their toes.
Kennedy
Kennedy neither knew nor cared how random and out of nowhere this whole thing was to anyone who'd been paying attention for the last seven years. Mostly she cared that something was people-killing happy out there, and coming after them.
"Those freaks in the black robes," she finally spoke up, sounding a lot less confident and in control than she would have liked. She wanted to add something about how that gave them a place to start, but Molly jumped in. Good one, Kennedy, breaking the newbies-keep-quiet rule.
Molly
"Yeah, with the hoodies and the crazy alphabet eyes!" Unlike Kennedy, Molly immediately looked guilty about interrupting and ducked her head, hastily adding, "I never saw 'em, I just heard..."
Annabelle
Annabelle looked like she would have smacked both of them if she were less polite. "Hush, Molly," she chided (apparently Kennedy was a lost cause already). "Mister Giles doesn't need us prattling on."
Giles
Actually it was just noise at this point, since he'd had to listen to it for hours and hours on the way over here.
"The First is unlike anything we've ever faced before," he continued, taking a seat on the arm of the couch in his most melodramatic pose. This was of course ignoring the fact that they had faced something very like it before, also called the First. "I mean, there's evil, and then there's the thing that created evil. The source."
Buffy
Well gee, that just sounded like nothing but fun. Or, you know, the exact opposite of that. Either one.
"And that's what this thing claims to be?"
Giles
"Well, that's what it is," Giles corrected her. "It has eternities to act, endless resources..." He stood up. "How to defeat it, well, I -- I -- " He sighed. "Honestly, I don't know. But we must find a way. If the Slayer line is eliminated, then the Hellmouth has no guardian. The balance is destroyed."
Shaking his head at the burden he was about to put on her, he said reluctantly, "I'm afraid it falls to you, Buffy. I'm -- I'm sorry -- we'll do what we can, but you're the only one who has the strength to protect these girls -- and the world -- against what's coming."
Xander
Where had Xander heard that before? Oh, right, about once a year, usually in May. "But no pressure," he dropped in, not at all reassuringly.
Kennedy
Maybe it was Giles's Watchery melodramatics. Maybe it was the doom-y reality of what he was saying. Maybe-- okay, definitely at least in part-- it was the irritation of being talked about like she was some helpless bystander who needed protecting while she just cowered in a corner and waited for everything to be over (and she didn't think this was going to be anything like one of those Fandom situations where everything was over in a week or so) but Kennedy had pretty much had it with the standing around and narrating by now.
"That's it? That's the plan?" she burst out, ignoring Annabelle's glare. "If the First Evil is all that, I don't see how one person, even the Slayer--"
She shot a look at Buffy, slightly apologetic but mostly indicative of how big a deal she thought the Slayer thing was.
"--is supposed to protect us." The scornful twist she put on the word made her views on damsel-in-distress-ing pretty clear. "Those Bringer guys are killing girls like us, and they tore apart my Watcher, and we're, what, just supposed to hide now? Close our eyes and hope we wake up and it was all just a dream?"
Giles
In a tone he certainly meant to be reassuring, Giles interjected, "Of course we'll use all our resources -- "
Kennedy
Not that reassuring. It could have been, to a more receptive listener, but Kennedy was exhausted, kind of a mess, freaked out but trying to fake her way into not being freaked out, and on a roll.
"So if this thing is the root of all evil--" and as she looked around the living room at all these people she was going to have to get used to really quickly now she wished she hadn't actually said that part out loud, because yikes, not helping her freakout-- "isn't the Hellmouth its number one vacation spot? I mean, if we're going to be hiding, shouldn't we be hiding our asses on the other side of the globe?"
That... was meant to be an argument in favor of letting them get armed up right the hell now (hitting things was super appealing at the moment), but all the above factors didn't exactly improve her already dodgy word choice issues. Well, the bitchface might imply how stupid a plan she thought this whole 'hiding' thing was.
Annabelle
Annabelle (predictably) was horrified by the outburst. "Kennedy!"
Whether that was meant to be an apology to Giles and the others, an incredibly polite oh my god shut your mouth now to Kennedy, or tacit acknowledgment that this plan was not exactly reassuring, well...
It could have been a bit of all three.
Buffy
The outbursty one had a point. It didn't mean that Buffy was going to be running away, because hahaha if that hadn't happened in the last seven years, it wasn't happening now... well, except for that one time she ran away but that was a whole other thing. No, it meant the opposite of running away.
"No, she's not wrong," Buffy cut in. "We need more muscle. That's why we need to find Spike."
Anya
"Yeah, he'll help," Anya cut in. "You know, if he's not crazy or off killing people or dead."
Wait, vampire.
"Or, you know, all of the above."
...yeah. This was super reassuring.
[[look, it's canon proper now! preplayed with thanks to the awesome wesleynotponcy as notagoodwatcher, annieadderall as stillbaking, icecoldfrost as children4cash, regretiz4suckas as inthekeyofme, willbedone as, well, willow, and needsaparrot doing double duty as xander and andrew. adapted and riffed on a little from btvs 7x10, "bring on the night." nfi, nfb, ooc okay, to be continued.]]