10Aug22 - Chosen Watcher
Title: Chosen Watcher
Author: Beriaearwen
Crossover: Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Stargate: SG1
Rating: Suitable for people over 13
Word Count: 2153
Disclaimer: The characters of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Stargate: SG1 belong to their respective production companies, creators, etc. All are used here without permission. No copyright infringement is intended.
Note: Muse wasn’t really talking. So we’re getting an idea I’ve used before with a few new twists.
Summary: For every Slayer chosen, so is a Watcher. When one dies, another is called.
Chosen Watcher
By Beriaearwen
Despite her reaction out loud, Buffy actually recognized the man who approached her on the school steps. After the weird dreams of the young girls fighting monsters, she’d seen and heard this man talking to someone else about something being his destiny and that it was time. She still recalled the conversation:
”It’s me,” Merrick said, excitement dancing on his face. “I’ve been called.”
“The Council -” another voice began before Merrick cut them off.
“Blast the Council,” Merrick retorted angrily. “They’ve long forsaken the way.”
“You had the dream?”
“I had the dream,” he replied, excitement evident in his voice.
“But how will you get to her. Even the Council doesn’t know where she is.”
“But I do!” Merrick replied with a devilish grin.
She eventually admitted to him that she had dreamed of him before she met him, but hadn’t understood. Merrick assured her that he understood, especially since she’d had no exposure to this world before being called.
He had gone on to explain that for as long as Slayers had been called, so had Watchers. In ancient times they were frequently Shamen or wise men of the tribe, sometimes warriors depending on the need of the Slayer. But there was always a way for the called Watcher to find his Slayer and assist her in training and in any other way.
It was after training one day, when he warned her about the Watcher’s Council. When first created it supported the Watcher and the Slayer, providing weapons, knowledge, money and anything else needed so they could complete their duty.
Over the years, they had lost the belief that what they did was a calling, that Watcher’s were called. Now the Senior Council decided what Watcher was assigned to a Slayer and they rarely chose the one who had actually been called. In fact they suppressed and eventually forgot the information.
The discussions helped her understand that, apparently, high school politics still happened, even in the Supernatural world when everything was on the line.
When Merrick died to save her, she was devastated, not just because she had watched him die, but because she had felt something in her snap, her bond to him.
When she was finally able to sleep again, she had another dream, this time of a man who was in a uniform and headed toward a giant blue glowing circle.
This time she knew what it was, but there was no way she would seek him out and hoped there was no way he would seek her It hurt too much when Merrick died, she didn’t think she could handle that again.
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
Buffy walked out of the library as quickly as she could. That was not the man she’d dreamed of which meant that was not her Watcher.
She still remembered Merrick’s warning about the bond that should exist and how there was a chosen watcher.
Later, when there was a dead body found, she returned to see Mr. Giles. He may not be her called Watcher and he may work for that scummy Council, but he had knowledge and she needed it. Taking a deep breath, she reached out to him and he accepted.
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
Jack woke up, breathing hard, heart pounding. She had died - drowned. He rose up and slipped out of the tent, nodding to Teal’c. He walked the opposite direction and then started a slow patrol of the campsite, trying to work off the emotions from the dream.
The dreams had started about a year ago, of a young girl who fought monsters.
Reaching up, he rubbed his hand through his hair. He was a master at compartmentalizing and ignoring or suppressing what was not important or what he didn’t want to deal with, but these dreams were becoming more persistent, more frequent. He knew they weren’t normal dreams, but had no idea what they were. He kept having a nagging feeling that he needed to go home, to his parent’s house, but couldn’t figure out why. His sister had taken over the house once his parents died. Still, if the dreams didn’t stop soon, he’d need to do something.
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
It was Christmas before he was able to make it to his sister’s house and, while that seemed to make his family happy, he wasn’t so sure how he felt about it. He was surprised to see his Uncle Marty and Great Aunt Beatrice there. They both gave him a look that he had learned as a boy meant they wanted to talk to him and he wasn’t getting out of it.
It was later in the afternoon a bit before dinner before they cornered him in the den.
“Sit down, boy. I’m too old to stare up at you,” Great Aunt Beatrice demanded, pointing to the chair opposite the ones she and Uncle Marty had chosen.
Knowing when to obey orders, he settled on the chair. “Whatever it is, I swear I didn’t do it,” he immediately denied, flashing back to too many childhood antics that had earned him lectures.
“And that’s the problem,” Uncle Marty grumbled even as Great Aunt Beatrice smiled at the denial.
“Oh?” he asked, puzzled by the statement.
“You work in classified things,” Great Aunt Beatrice began, “so you know about secrets and how to keep them.”
Seeing no reason to deny it, Jack nodded.
“Our family has kept secrets since long before this country was founded,” she informed. “I’m not sure what exactly you do, but my sources mentioned the Chappa’ai had been moved and they suspected to Colorado.”
Jack, despite years of training, had tensed when she mentioned the Stargate and wanted to curse himself when his perceptive aunt simply nodded as if she’d been expecting that reaction.
“We used to belong to a group called the Watcher’s Council. For generations our family worked there and served in various capacities as we worked to save the world from a threat, not from outer space, but from other dimensions.”
“Other dimension?” Jack asked.
“Demons,” Uncle Marty supplied. “Don’t give us that look, we are not crazy. Didn’t you ever see or hear about something that you couldn’t explain? Mutated animals stronger and more vicious than any normal one? Humans who seemed to just disappear in a puff of dust?”
Jack shifted uncomfortably. He had. He didn’t like to think about it or acknowledge it, but he had seen and heard of both those things.
“Those are demons and vampires,” Great Aunt Beatrice supplied. “Those are normal threats and, while very difficult to deal with, can be dealt with by specially trained regular humans. But there are other threats, greater threats that require greater strength and speed to stop.”
Jack shifted in his chair uncomfortably before he stood and paced to the window. He knew exactly what they were saying and what they meant. Buffy. Yes, he knew her name; he’d heard it in one of the many dreams he had.
“She is called the Slayer. She is endowed with great strength, speed and martial skills. But she is always a young woman,” Great Aunt Beatrice stated.
“I know,” Jack gritted, hating how young Buffy was and what she was facing. He hated having his denial stripped away from him, knowing she wasn’t a dream, but a real live teen living in a nightmare.
“We suspected as much,” Uncle Marty stated. “Our family has been called to be Watchers for the Slayer more than once. Your sudden desire to come here and asking about the old journals in the library were enough of a hint for us to take a chance talking to you.”
“She has a Watcher,” Jack stated, turning to face his older relatives. “He’s training her in fighting techniques and languages. She has friends helping with the research and her mother found out last year about what she does. So now she has her mother supporting her too,” he rambled.
“Then she’s a remarkably lucky young lady,” Great Aunt Beatrice stated with some asperity. “And she had a remarkably good Council Watcher. It’s unusual for them to treat the Slayer as anything but a tool and certainly never as a human.”
Anger flashed across Jack’s face at the thought of anyone treating Buffy like a thing rather than a person.
“And that is more proof that you need to find your Slayer and work with her,” Uncle Marty smirked.
Jack ran his hands through his hair. “That… What I do, it’s important, vitally important to the safety of the planet.”
“As is what she does,” Uncle Marty averred.
“But there are others who can do what you do,” Great Aunt Beatrice stated. “There is only one of her until she dies and as she ages, her challenges will become greater.”
“She already died,” Jack murmured.
“Then the dreams have stopped?” Uncle Marty questioned in surprise.
Jack shook his head. “She was bitten by the Master and thrown in a pool of water. She drowned, but was revived by CPR.”
“Ness has risen?” Uncle Marty demanded, half rising form his chair.
Jack shook his head. “Not sure what exactly happened. There was something about bones a few months later, but…” he trailed off with a shrug.
Uncle Marty sank back onto his chair and closed his eyes. “There were theories that ancient vampires wouldn’t completely dust. But I am so very thankful she defeated him and that damn prophesy.”
“Really, Marty,” Great Aunt Beatrice scolded. “You can still watch your language. And speaking of prophesies, that is just one that may apply to her. She is the first Slayer on a Hellmouth in over a thousand years. She needs all the help she can get.”
Jack paced again in agitation. He was torn. He knew what his Great Aunt and Uncle were saying was true, but he also knew that he needed to stay with the SGC, that was as much his destiny as being Buffy’s watcher. Besides, Giles had been doing a good job. He turned as Great Aunt Beatrice let out a long sigh.
“There are no easy answers in life,” she advised, “No easy choices. Take the books in that bag and read through them. See what it means to be called as Watcher to a Slayer and the difference it makes. At the very least, let her know you exist because I’m certain she had been dreaming of you just as you have of her.”
“She’s not that much older than Charlie,” he whispered, touching the deepest pain, the most hidden reason why he was reluctant to face this.
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
He was off world and captured with the rest of his team when he dreamed of what the Watcher’s Council, what her Council Watcher, had done to her. He saw the conversation afterward and felt his blood boil. He had trusted Giles with his Slayer and this is what the man did? He didn’t deserve the mercy or the forgiveness he knew Buffy would grant him, needed to grant him because Giles was the only Watcher she had. And that was on him.
He knew then, whatever the future held, once he was back on Earth, he would be taking some of his accrued vacation and finally meeting his Slayer. Enough was enough.
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
It had taken much longer than he would have liked to finally get away on vacation, but, with any luck, he would make it there in time to assist.
Things were getting ugly in Sunnydale and they needed help even more than the SGC at the moment.
He walked through the halls of the high school, having long learned the path from his dreams over the past three years, reached the library and opened the doors.
The group around the table was familiar to him and he could see they were planning something. The entire group stopped and turned to face him as he stood there.
Buffy was the first one to move. She stood to her full height and looked him up and down. He could see a huge range of emotion flickering over her face and in her eyes, and he could feel an echo of some of it in his heart “Took you long enough,” she berated.
He smirked at her. “Yeah, yeah. I’m here now.”
“That you are,” she agreed. “Now get your butt over here so you can help us plan,” she commanded.
He smiled as he crossed the room and took the spot they opened for him. “So, what’s the situation?”
“Excuse me, who are you?” Giles asked, caution, protectiveness and danger radiating from him.
“He’s my Chosen Watcher,” Buffy interjected. “Jack, this is Rupert Giles, Xander Harris, Cordelia Chase, Daniel Ozbourne and Willow Rosenberg. Everyone, this is Jack.”
“Chosen Watcher?” Willow asked, tentatively.
“For every slayer chosen, so is a Watcher. When one dies the next is called,” Buffy supplied, her voice breaking slightly on the word dies. “But we don’t have time for that right now. Let’s get Jack up to speed on what’s up with the Mayor.”
End.
Author: Beriaearwen
Crossover: Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Stargate: SG1
Rating: Suitable for people over 13
Word Count: 2153
Disclaimer: The characters of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Stargate: SG1 belong to their respective production companies, creators, etc. All are used here without permission. No copyright infringement is intended.
Note: Muse wasn’t really talking. So we’re getting an idea I’ve used before with a few new twists.
Summary: For every Slayer chosen, so is a Watcher. When one dies, another is called.
Chosen Watcher
By Beriaearwen
Despite her reaction out loud, Buffy actually recognized the man who approached her on the school steps. After the weird dreams of the young girls fighting monsters, she’d seen and heard this man talking to someone else about something being his destiny and that it was time. She still recalled the conversation:
”It’s me,” Merrick said, excitement dancing on his face. “I’ve been called.”
“The Council -” another voice began before Merrick cut them off.
“Blast the Council,” Merrick retorted angrily. “They’ve long forsaken the way.”
“You had the dream?”
“I had the dream,” he replied, excitement evident in his voice.
“But how will you get to her. Even the Council doesn’t know where she is.”
“But I do!” Merrick replied with a devilish grin.
She eventually admitted to him that she had dreamed of him before she met him, but hadn’t understood. Merrick assured her that he understood, especially since she’d had no exposure to this world before being called.
He had gone on to explain that for as long as Slayers had been called, so had Watchers. In ancient times they were frequently Shamen or wise men of the tribe, sometimes warriors depending on the need of the Slayer. But there was always a way for the called Watcher to find his Slayer and assist her in training and in any other way.
It was after training one day, when he warned her about the Watcher’s Council. When first created it supported the Watcher and the Slayer, providing weapons, knowledge, money and anything else needed so they could complete their duty.
Over the years, they had lost the belief that what they did was a calling, that Watcher’s were called. Now the Senior Council decided what Watcher was assigned to a Slayer and they rarely chose the one who had actually been called. In fact they suppressed and eventually forgot the information.
The discussions helped her understand that, apparently, high school politics still happened, even in the Supernatural world when everything was on the line.
When Merrick died to save her, she was devastated, not just because she had watched him die, but because she had felt something in her snap, her bond to him.
When she was finally able to sleep again, she had another dream, this time of a man who was in a uniform and headed toward a giant blue glowing circle.
This time she knew what it was, but there was no way she would seek him out and hoped there was no way he would seek her It hurt too much when Merrick died, she didn’t think she could handle that again.
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
Buffy walked out of the library as quickly as she could. That was not the man she’d dreamed of which meant that was not her Watcher.
She still remembered Merrick’s warning about the bond that should exist and how there was a chosen watcher.
Later, when there was a dead body found, she returned to see Mr. Giles. He may not be her called Watcher and he may work for that scummy Council, but he had knowledge and she needed it. Taking a deep breath, she reached out to him and he accepted.
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
Jack woke up, breathing hard, heart pounding. She had died - drowned. He rose up and slipped out of the tent, nodding to Teal’c. He walked the opposite direction and then started a slow patrol of the campsite, trying to work off the emotions from the dream.
The dreams had started about a year ago, of a young girl who fought monsters.
Reaching up, he rubbed his hand through his hair. He was a master at compartmentalizing and ignoring or suppressing what was not important or what he didn’t want to deal with, but these dreams were becoming more persistent, more frequent. He knew they weren’t normal dreams, but had no idea what they were. He kept having a nagging feeling that he needed to go home, to his parent’s house, but couldn’t figure out why. His sister had taken over the house once his parents died. Still, if the dreams didn’t stop soon, he’d need to do something.
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
It was Christmas before he was able to make it to his sister’s house and, while that seemed to make his family happy, he wasn’t so sure how he felt about it. He was surprised to see his Uncle Marty and Great Aunt Beatrice there. They both gave him a look that he had learned as a boy meant they wanted to talk to him and he wasn’t getting out of it.
It was later in the afternoon a bit before dinner before they cornered him in the den.
“Sit down, boy. I’m too old to stare up at you,” Great Aunt Beatrice demanded, pointing to the chair opposite the ones she and Uncle Marty had chosen.
Knowing when to obey orders, he settled on the chair. “Whatever it is, I swear I didn’t do it,” he immediately denied, flashing back to too many childhood antics that had earned him lectures.
“And that’s the problem,” Uncle Marty grumbled even as Great Aunt Beatrice smiled at the denial.
“Oh?” he asked, puzzled by the statement.
“You work in classified things,” Great Aunt Beatrice began, “so you know about secrets and how to keep them.”
Seeing no reason to deny it, Jack nodded.
“Our family has kept secrets since long before this country was founded,” she informed. “I’m not sure what exactly you do, but my sources mentioned the Chappa’ai had been moved and they suspected to Colorado.”
Jack, despite years of training, had tensed when she mentioned the Stargate and wanted to curse himself when his perceptive aunt simply nodded as if she’d been expecting that reaction.
“We used to belong to a group called the Watcher’s Council. For generations our family worked there and served in various capacities as we worked to save the world from a threat, not from outer space, but from other dimensions.”
“Other dimension?” Jack asked.
“Demons,” Uncle Marty supplied. “Don’t give us that look, we are not crazy. Didn’t you ever see or hear about something that you couldn’t explain? Mutated animals stronger and more vicious than any normal one? Humans who seemed to just disappear in a puff of dust?”
Jack shifted uncomfortably. He had. He didn’t like to think about it or acknowledge it, but he had seen and heard of both those things.
“Those are demons and vampires,” Great Aunt Beatrice supplied. “Those are normal threats and, while very difficult to deal with, can be dealt with by specially trained regular humans. But there are other threats, greater threats that require greater strength and speed to stop.”
Jack shifted in his chair uncomfortably before he stood and paced to the window. He knew exactly what they were saying and what they meant. Buffy. Yes, he knew her name; he’d heard it in one of the many dreams he had.
“She is called the Slayer. She is endowed with great strength, speed and martial skills. But she is always a young woman,” Great Aunt Beatrice stated.
“I know,” Jack gritted, hating how young Buffy was and what she was facing. He hated having his denial stripped away from him, knowing she wasn’t a dream, but a real live teen living in a nightmare.
“We suspected as much,” Uncle Marty stated. “Our family has been called to be Watchers for the Slayer more than once. Your sudden desire to come here and asking about the old journals in the library were enough of a hint for us to take a chance talking to you.”
“She has a Watcher,” Jack stated, turning to face his older relatives. “He’s training her in fighting techniques and languages. She has friends helping with the research and her mother found out last year about what she does. So now she has her mother supporting her too,” he rambled.
“Then she’s a remarkably lucky young lady,” Great Aunt Beatrice stated with some asperity. “And she had a remarkably good Council Watcher. It’s unusual for them to treat the Slayer as anything but a tool and certainly never as a human.”
Anger flashed across Jack’s face at the thought of anyone treating Buffy like a thing rather than a person.
“And that is more proof that you need to find your Slayer and work with her,” Uncle Marty smirked.
Jack ran his hands through his hair. “That… What I do, it’s important, vitally important to the safety of the planet.”
“As is what she does,” Uncle Marty averred.
“But there are others who can do what you do,” Great Aunt Beatrice stated. “There is only one of her until she dies and as she ages, her challenges will become greater.”
“She already died,” Jack murmured.
“Then the dreams have stopped?” Uncle Marty questioned in surprise.
Jack shook his head. “She was bitten by the Master and thrown in a pool of water. She drowned, but was revived by CPR.”
“Ness has risen?” Uncle Marty demanded, half rising form his chair.
Jack shook his head. “Not sure what exactly happened. There was something about bones a few months later, but…” he trailed off with a shrug.
Uncle Marty sank back onto his chair and closed his eyes. “There were theories that ancient vampires wouldn’t completely dust. But I am so very thankful she defeated him and that damn prophesy.”
“Really, Marty,” Great Aunt Beatrice scolded. “You can still watch your language. And speaking of prophesies, that is just one that may apply to her. She is the first Slayer on a Hellmouth in over a thousand years. She needs all the help she can get.”
Jack paced again in agitation. He was torn. He knew what his Great Aunt and Uncle were saying was true, but he also knew that he needed to stay with the SGC, that was as much his destiny as being Buffy’s watcher. Besides, Giles had been doing a good job. He turned as Great Aunt Beatrice let out a long sigh.
“There are no easy answers in life,” she advised, “No easy choices. Take the books in that bag and read through them. See what it means to be called as Watcher to a Slayer and the difference it makes. At the very least, let her know you exist because I’m certain she had been dreaming of you just as you have of her.”
“She’s not that much older than Charlie,” he whispered, touching the deepest pain, the most hidden reason why he was reluctant to face this.
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
He was off world and captured with the rest of his team when he dreamed of what the Watcher’s Council, what her Council Watcher, had done to her. He saw the conversation afterward and felt his blood boil. He had trusted Giles with his Slayer and this is what the man did? He didn’t deserve the mercy or the forgiveness he knew Buffy would grant him, needed to grant him because Giles was the only Watcher she had. And that was on him.
He knew then, whatever the future held, once he was back on Earth, he would be taking some of his accrued vacation and finally meeting his Slayer. Enough was enough.
~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~
It had taken much longer than he would have liked to finally get away on vacation, but, with any luck, he would make it there in time to assist.
Things were getting ugly in Sunnydale and they needed help even more than the SGC at the moment.
He walked through the halls of the high school, having long learned the path from his dreams over the past three years, reached the library and opened the doors.
The group around the table was familiar to him and he could see they were planning something. The entire group stopped and turned to face him as he stood there.
Buffy was the first one to move. She stood to her full height and looked him up and down. He could see a huge range of emotion flickering over her face and in her eyes, and he could feel an echo of some of it in his heart “Took you long enough,” she berated.
He smirked at her. “Yeah, yeah. I’m here now.”
“That you are,” she agreed. “Now get your butt over here so you can help us plan,” she commanded.
He smiled as he crossed the room and took the spot they opened for him. “So, what’s the situation?”
“Excuse me, who are you?” Giles asked, caution, protectiveness and danger radiating from him.
“He’s my Chosen Watcher,” Buffy interjected. “Jack, this is Rupert Giles, Xander Harris, Cordelia Chase, Daniel Ozbourne and Willow Rosenberg. Everyone, this is Jack.”
“Chosen Watcher?” Willow asked, tentatively.
“For every slayer chosen, so is a Watcher. When one dies the next is called,” Buffy supplied, her voice breaking slightly on the word dies. “But we don’t have time for that right now. Let’s get Jack up to speed on what’s up with the Mayor.”
End.