FIC: Conspiracy Theory, 1/12 (Giles/Xander, FRT)
Title: Conspiracy Theory, part 1 / 12
Author: Soft Princess (soft_princess) and Mireille (mireille719)
Fandom: BtVS
Pairing: Giles/Xander
Rating: FRT
Word Count: 5,900 this part / 64,000 overall
Summary: When Xander is attacked by a demon on his way to deliver a trio of young Slayers to England, he and Giles find themselves investigating a plot that may threaten the Council's very existence--and re-evaluating their relationship in the process.
Spoilers: Post-Chosen; based on aired-episode canon only.
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. The characters belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy; we are only borrowing them.
Feedback/Concrit: Both welcome, either here or at mireille719 {at} gmail {dot} com and soft.princess {at} gmail {dot} com.
Notes: This story is being posted in 12 parts: parts 1-4 at spring_with_xan on June 17, parts 5-8 at summer_of_giles on June 19, and parts 9-12 at summer_of_giles on June 22. We would like to thank wesleysgirl for the wonderful job beta-reading.
"Yeah, I really should have gone for the extra insurance," Xander muttered, wincing as he looked at the damage to the rental car. The Council had an account with the rental place; that probably meant their optional insurance covered "act of demon," and it also probably meant that Giles was going to kill him when he turned in his expense statement for the uninsured repairs. He was probably going to accuse Xander of driving on the right-hand side of the road again.
"If it comes back--" the girl at his side began, but Xander interrupted her.
"It's not coming back, Niki."
"If it comes back," she repeated firmly, "I'm ready." She folded her arms, giving him a very determined look, and Xander had to wonder whether there was some kind of special class where girls got taught how to glare in that particular way. And whether Niki was in the gifted class, because he was pretty sure that was super-advanced glaring for a ten-year-old.
"You don't have to worry about it," Xander said, and then stopped himself. He was talking to a Slayer, after all, even if he wasn't used to Slayers coming in extra-extra-small. Worrying about demons was in the job description.
Worrying about Slayers, on the other hand, was in his job description, these days. Xander looked toward the woods some distance away from the road. The other two Slayers he was bringing to the Council had taken off in pursuit of the demon, only stopping to get weapons out of the trunk of the car--and there was going to be a huge I-told-you-so from Catherine about having her weapons shipped to England ahead of them, just as soon as they came back. Xander was going to have to admit she was right, too; even though he hadn't wanted to take a detour to go and pick up the trunk that had gone ahead of them, right now, it looked like it had been a good idea.
"I'm not worried," Niki said, and Xander knew enough about Slayers, even pint-sized ones, not to argue with her.
"Well, I am," Xander said. "Getting you from the airport to the Council is supposed to be the easy part of the job." Most of the time, he didn't even do that part himself; he put the girls on an airplane, and Giles either met their flight or sent Andrew to do it.
Most of the time, he didn't have a little kid on his hands, though, especially not one who'd just barely managed to save her parents when a local demon had decided it didn't want a Slayer in its territory. Xander had turned up the morning after she'd managed to fight it off, which had made his whole "demons are real, your kid's a vampire slayer," speech a little bit of an anticlimax, but had also made him feel like it would be a bad idea to put Niki on the plane by herself.
And since he was going back to England anyway, when Giles had asked him if he'd fly out of Johannesburg so that he could take back two other girls that one of the few remaining actual real Watchers had been training, Xander had figured that he might as well. Their Watcher was too old to travel comfortably, and since the reason one of the girls was with him in the first place--the other had only been located a month or so ago--was that her parents worried about sending her away to school, Giles thought it was best if the Council had someone accompany her.
It had sounded like a good plan to Xander. He could fly back to England, get Niki settled in at the Council's Slayer-school, spend a couple of days catching up with everybody--it'd be like a paid vacation.
Everything had been going smoothly, too, right up until the point that a demon came out of nowhere and attacked their car. Even with three Slayers around, that wasn't ever going to be the high point of Xander's day.
Although he'd be a lot happier if there were three Slayers around. He frowned, trying to decide if he saw movement in the distance or not. "Do you see Catherine and Ocean anywhere?"
The girl shook her head. "Her name's Océane," she corrected him.
"That's what I said," Xander said.
"No, it isn't. And I think they're coming back," Niki said, pointing. "I don't see the demon, though."
"Not seeing demons is a good thing," Xander mentioned.
"Catherine says that her Watcher made her bring back part of the demons she killed so that she could look up what kind it was."
"Catherine's Watcher is creepy," Xander said, then quickly added, "but you didn't hear that from me."
Niki shook her head, already running to meet the other girls. "Where is it?"
Catherine smiled at her, ruffling Niki's hair. "Gone." She certainly wasn't the talking type. In all the time Xander had known her, which was, to be fair, not quite a whole day yet, she hadn't said more than ten words or so. Only Niki seemed to be able to coax words out of her.
"Nous l'avons perdu à environ sept ou huit cent mètres d'ici," Océane said, looking back the way they came and pointing to the left. She looked at Xander, but he simply looked confused, his gaze shifting from her to where she was pointing, to the other two girls, and back to her. "Oh, I forget you do not 'ear me," she said, smiling, then tried to find the words to translate what she'd just said. "We lost him, not too long from 'ere. This way."
"Sorry my French's not that good, Ocean," Xander apologized for the seventh time that day. Niki was really laughing at him now, but he didn't care. It was better than letting her think about what had just happened and getting scared. "So he just disappeared?"
Both girls nodded, Océane rolling her eyes at Xander's mispronunciation of her name, which sent Niki into another giggling fit. Xander shook his head and walked back to the car, not wanting to let the girls see how worried he was. Demons didn't usually make a habit of disappearing, especially not right after they'd tried to kill three Slayers. Or if they did disappear, it was only to gather more fellow demons and try again. "We should get going. I don't want us stranded in the middle of a road in the middle of nowhere with a demon on the loose."
Niki hopped in the front seat, putting the seatbelt on and pointedly ignoring Xander's glare. "Do you think it'll start again? Or is it dead?"
"It's going to start. It has to." Xander said, his eye fixed on Niki. "But not until you're settled in the back seat with your seatbelt on." Niki tugged on her seatbelt to show him it was on and turned to glare back at him. It was almost enough for Xander to let it go. Almost. "I said 'in the back seat' Niki, not 'in the passenger seat'. You know it's the law. You have to be twelve before you can ride shotgun."
Niki pouted. "Not in Nigeria." Maybe not in England, either; Xander had no idea. He just knew he'd feel better if she was in the back seat.
Xander had to stop himself from laughing at her; no matter how much she tried to look older than ten, especially around the older girls, right now she looked not a day over five. "We're not in Nigeria, Niki. Go ride in the back with Catherine, please." He touched her face gently, his other hand sneaking down to unbuckle the belt. Niki gave a frustrated cry, but didn't fight it as Catherine helped her out and Océane slid into the front seat. Once the girls were all finally settled, Xander turned the keys into the ignition and--
Nothing.
He tried again, biting his lower lips and trying to tune out the girls' sighs.
Catherine shook her head in the back seat. "Motor's dead."
"Or maybe it was 'is claw that stick in the--" Océane struggled for the right word before deciding on doing it the easy way and pointing at the dashboard.
Xander nodded. "It might be." He looked at the dashboard, then at the twisted metal at the front of the car. It had been optimistic of him to think that the car would work, really, considering how much damage the demon had done to it.
Right. So, assess the situation here. He had one totaled rental car, three Slayers, no cell phone, and no idea how he was going to get the girls to the Council. And that was the good part, the part that didn't involve there being a demon after them, or the fact that it was going to be getting dark soon.
"So," Xander said, turning so that he could see the girls in the back seat as well as Océane, "how do you guys feel about a walk?" They were only a couple of miles out of the last town they'd gone through; even allowing for Niki's shorter legs slowing them down a little, it shouldn’t take that long to get back there. They'd find a pay phone, he'd call Giles, the Council would send somebody to pick them up.
He'd say it'd be simple, except that the last thing they needed was for him to jinx this trip any more than it already had been.
"We need to push the car off to the side of the road first," he said. "Ocean? Anybody ever teach you how to drive?"
She looked at him blankly for a moment. Sighing, Xander tried again, accompanying his words with pantomime that had Niki collapsing against Catherine's shoulder, giggling helplessly. "Do you know how to drive?"
Océane grinned brightly, nodding. "I am learning," she said carefully.
Okay. If a police car stopped and had a problem with him letting a fifteen-year-old girl steer the dead hulk of their rental car, he'd just play stupid American and hope for the best--which really meant "and let Giles straighten it out later." Or maybe Andrew, who'd probably be a lot less annoyed.
"Great," he said. "Time for a lesson." Xander got out of the car, making sure that both Catherine and Niki got out and were standing safely out of the way--okay, the car wasn't going to take off unexpectedly, but he wasn't going to take any chances, either--before he got Océane settled in the driver's seat. "When we push, steer the car over there," he said, pointing to the side of the road.
Océane nodded, and he decided he'd trust her; she'd been pretty good so far at telling him when she didn't understand what he was saying.
Xander helped her put the car in neutral before turning to the other two girls. "Okay, Catherine, I'm going to need you to help me push. Niki, stand back."
Niki's hands went onto her hips, and she shook her head. "I'm stronger than you are," she said.
"I'm not arguing that, Nik, it's just--" He sighed. "Fine. Help us push."
With two Slayers helping him, it was easy to get the car out of the road; it was only a few minutes later that Océane was handing him the keys, still grinning about her stint behind the steering wheel.
"We'll stop back for your stuff later," Xander said. "We don't need to carry any of it."
"Weapons," Catherine suggested. She and Océane still had the weapons they'd grabbed to go after the demon, but Xander opened the trunk again so that Catherine could hand out stakes--not a bad idea, since the sun might be down before they got anywhere, Xander had to admit--and stash a few more in a backpack she slung over her shoulder.
Niki had raided Catherine's weapons chest as well; Xander reached over and took the battle-axe out of her hands, ignoring the kicked-puppy pout she turned on him. "You must be this tall to carry the axe," he said, holding his hand out at about shoulder height. "Besides, I don't want to knock on somebody's door looking like we're a traveling gang of serial killers."
Niki scowled until Catherine nodded and put her own broadsword back in the trunk; then she reluctantly stepped back and let Xander put the axe away as well, though she did tuck an extra stake into her belt. Xander wondered if the other girls had been teaching her about staking vampires; he'd planned to take Niki out on patrol a couple of times before they came back to England, but he hadn't had time.
"Ready?" he asked. The two older girls nodded and immediately started walking; Xander let them get a short distance ahead without saying anything. He hadn't wanted to hang out around adults when he was their age, either, and as long as they stayed where he could see them, he wasn't going to worry.
He'd expected Niki to run ahead to catch up with them; since half of what she'd said to him since they'd arrived in Johannesburg had started with "Catherine says," or "Catherine's Watcher says," he figured she'd want to hang out with the big kids some more. Instead, though, he felt a small hand slipping into his.
"I told them I would protect you," she said solemnly.
Poor kid, Xander thought. Thousands of miles from home, two demon attacks in just about a week, and now she thought it was her job to look after him. He squeezed her hand. "You bet," he said, and they started walking.
***
"Explain this to me again, Xander, because I'm not quite sure I understand how it happened," Giles was saying, as they both sat in his office of the council. The girls were off to the dorms, where they would be shown to their beds, and would be allowed to unpack.
With a sigh, Xander ran over the story again. "It's not so hard to believe, Giles," he said after he'd finished explaining the attack for what seemed like the hundredth time, but was probably only the third or fourth. First there'd been the Watcher who had picked them up after they'd finally found a phone; then Andrew when Xander, Catherine, Océane and Niki had first arrived; then Giles a first time--so yeah, fourth time. "We were about an hour outside London when we were attacked. Three Slayers in one small rental car--and have I mentioned how sorry I am for not taking that extra insurance? What was I saying? Oh, yeah. Three Slayers, one small rental car, deserted roads. You know the drill--"
"I quite agree that it was a dangerous situation, Xander, but this still doesn't explain what demon would be foolish enough to attack three Slayers at once."
"I don't know what kind of demon it was. I didn't even get a good look at it--I probably wouldn't be able to identify it if you had a picture." Exasperated, Xander stood and started pacing.
"And that is exactly where the problem lies, Xander. You, better than anyone, should know how important it is to be able to identify the demons who attacked the Slayers--"
Xander glared at Giles angrily. "I might be an idiot, Giles, but not that much! Try getting a good look at the demon who's trying to kill the three kids you're supposed to be taking care of! The only thing I could think of was getting the hell out of that car before the demon pulverized it and us with it! And by the time I finally managed to get myself and Niki out, Catherine and Ocean had already taken off after it." He slumped into the chair, drained. "I'm tired. The girls are tired. We're safe here, so can we talk about it tomorrow morning?"
Giles leaned against his desk, arms crossed over his chest. "If the Slayers' safety is threatened, you know it is my responsibility to find out by whom, and when they are most likely to strike again. I'm sorry, but this can't be delayed. Perhaps coffee would do you some good."
Xander groaned. "I've been awake for just about two days straight, Giles. I'm not at my best, and right now, I have nothing to add that could help. Maybe I'll recover the part of my brain that isn't so dead after I've had some sleep. Catherine and Ocean'll also be able to help after they've slept. I don't think it's going to come back tonight, and if I've just jinxed it," Xander sighed and rubbed his temples tiredly, "well, just kill me in the morning."
Giles shook his head, looking concerned. "I'm sorry -- of course you're tired under the circumstances. Get some sleep, and we can talk about it in more detail in the morning. If you're not worried about this demon's attack being a sign of a larger problem, I'm sure I shouldn't be, either."
"Oh, I'm worried, don't think I'm not. But there are at least sixty Slayers living here. If a demon tries to get in, it'll get killed about sixty times, so I think we're safe until morning." He sat up on his chair and looked straight at Giles, murmuring, "I’d also been expecting a better welcome home than this, but I guess you get what you deserve, right?"
"I'll issue an order to keep the girls inside until we've figured out what this demon is and what he it wants," Giles was saying, as if he hadn’t heard what Xander had added. "Go to bed, Xander, I'll see you in the morning. Oh, and while you're in England, perhaps you should attend some of the girls' French classes."
Xander groaned, rolling his eye as he stood. "You wish." With a tired smile, he opened the door and was about to step out when Giles grabbed his arm. Xander turned back to Giles and found himself on the receiving end of the rarity that was a Giles-hug. Their embrace lasted for a few seconds before Giles let go, straightening up. "I apologize," he said.
Xander nodded once, smiling tightly. "I guess we’re both just worried. I’ll see you in the morning." He headed down the corridor. "I’ll think about those French lessons," he called back without even turning around.
For all his insistence that he needed sleep--and he did; his eye felt like it had a bucket of sand in them--he didn't go straight to his room; he walked across the courtyard toward the dorms. This had been the Watchers' training school until the First Evil had wiped out most of the Council; now only the youngest Watcher trainees were studying along with the Slayers. The older students had been put to work; the new Council was short-handed, and the few old Watchers Giles had convinced to come back from retirement weren't enough.
The larger dorm had been assigned to the girls--the Slayers and a couple of girls studying to be Watchers--and Xander took the steps two at a time, grinning as the old Watcher who was in charge of the dorm came out of her room to see who was coming in at that hour.
"I thought I told you that if I caught you trying to sneak in here again--" She broke off, realizing it wasn't who she'd expected. "Oh, it's you, Harris. I should have realized you'd be stopping by, after hearing your name every five minutes from Miss Achebe."
"Isn't Niki a little young to be 'Miss' anybody?" Xander asked. Not that he expected to convince Mrs. Cheever--he didn't even know her first name, not that they were on that friendly of terms anyway--that she could lighten up a little with the Slayers. Most of the old Watchers didn't have a lot to do with anybody from Sunnydale, and Andrew had told him the last time he was here that they weren't all that crazy about the Slayers and Watchers training together, either.
Mrs. Cheever ignored what he'd said. "Can I help you with something?" At least she wasn't actually hostile, just not overly friendly, and for all Xander knew, that was what she was like with everyone.
"I just wanted to make sure the girls were okay," he said. "We had a long trip, and then--did they tell you about the demon?"
"I heard," she said. "Miss Achebe and the others are--or should be--asleep by now; it's over an hour past lights-out, and they won't be put on the patrol schedule until they've settled in."
Xander didn't want to disrupt things too much. Well, that wasn't true; he did, but he knew he shouldn't. Besides, he'd had to wake Catherine up when their flight landed at Heathrow, and she didn't exactly wake up friendly. He could always come by and see them in the morning. "All right," he said. "But if... look, Niki's only ten, and she's still a little freaked out by everything. If she's not okay, I want to know about it, all right?"
"She'll be fine," Mrs. Cheever said firmly, but Xander thought that she might have given him a very fleeting smile. "I'll tell the girls tomorrow that you came by to check on them," she added.
Xander nodded, turning and letting himself back outside. As he came down the front steps, he froze; there was someone, or something, lurking in the shadow cast by one of the trees in the courtyard. He backed up a little, sliding his foot back to find the step; there'd be weapons inside. There was no way that in a dorm filled with Slayers, there wouldn’t be weapons.
Then the shadowy figure moved, and Xander realized it was human: a boy, maybe sixteen or seventeen, the moonlight glinting off his glasses. He grinned; this was obviously who Mrs. Cheever had thought had been trying to sneak into the dorm at night. "What do you think you're doing?" Xander called out, as though he needed an answer. It hadn't been that long since he'd been that age, even if sometimes it felt like a hundred years ago.
The boy didn't answer, just took off running back toward the slightly smaller building that housed the male students, and Xander gave a satisfied grin. Really, he had to expect to get caught, with those definitely inferior lurking skills.
Xander started back across the courtyard to what used to be the headmaster's house. Now Giles lived there most of the time--the Council headquarters were still officially in London, but Xander couldn't blame him for not using those offices a lot; they were small and crowded, in a building that held a lot of other office suites, and while Giles kept saying that the Council needed a proper headquarters again, right now there weren't enough people to justify an actual building, anyway.
So Giles stayed here a lot of the time, and had turned most of the big old house into secondary headquarters. Xander and everyone else from Sunnydale had just sort of taken over the other bedrooms as theirs when they were in England. Andrew actually had his own apartment on campus, like some of the younger teachers-- which Xander suspected was partly Giles' idea--but the rest of them weren't around often enough to get on Giles' nerves.
At least, not usually. Until they found out what had attacked him and the girls earlier today, Xander wasn't planning on go anywhere. He'd promised Niki's parents that she'd be safe with the Council, and the first thing that happened after he got her to England was that a demon had come after her.
After all of them, yeah, but this was twice in not-very-long for Niki, and it wasn't like she'd been out making enemies in the demon world; she hadn't even realized that there was anything all that weird about her before she'd had to fight off a demon in her mom's kitchen. Xander was going to stick around until he was sure that she was going to be okay here.
Giles had left the front door unlocked for him, even though Xander had heard from Andrew that having some of the not-quite-old-enough Slayers sneak in and raid his liquor cabinet had finally gotten him in the habit of locking up at night. Xander let himself in, trying to walk quietly. The floorboards in the old house creaked, and he didn't want to wake Giles up if he'd gone to bed. Running the Council probably didn't leave him a lot of time to sleep. After all, working for the Council didn't give Xander much time to sleep.
As he made his way upstairs and tried to get down the darkened hallway without running into anything, Xander reassured himself that that particular demon probably wouldn't come back. It had probably attacked them without knowing that the car was full of Slayers, and that was why it had disappeared when Catherine and Océane had chased it. Still, that didn't mean that the girls weren't freaked out by it, and it wouldn't hurt anything for Xander to stay in England for a while until everything got back to normal.
Besides, it'd be good to see people again. Maybe, if he was going to be here for a week or two, he could even convince Buffy and Dawn to come to England for a visit.
Nothing to worry about, he told himself again as he opened the door to his room. With all the traveling around Africa he did, this felt as much like "home" as anyplace did, even if he only spent a few days here every couple of months. He didn't spend that much more time in the room he rented in Windhoek, after all.
Somebody had made sure that Xander's bag had been brought in. Xander sat down on the bed, meaning to open it up and get out his shaving kit and something clean to sleep in, but he decided to lie down and close his eye for a minute first.
Just a minute or two, he promised himself. He wasn't actually going to go to sleep.
***
The morning dawned bright and early, and Giles was up even before his alarm clock rang. He showered quickly, conscious that the noise of the running water might wake up his guest. The pipes were old, which didn't help the racket at all. Despite his worries and the many questions that he still needed answers to, Giles knew that Xander needed all the sleep he could get.
Giles called the dorms just before going downstairs, to ask that the three new girls be sent to his house as soon as they were finished with breakfast. He liked to meet the new Slayers, to put faces to the names he knew he would hear for a long time to come. It gave him a chance to interact with them on a more personal level as well, something that seldom happened anymore. And to be completely honest, he was as curious to meet all of them as they usually were to meet him, and today Giles was definitely looking forward to meeting Niki.
It wasn't rare that Slayers would show their powers from their early teens or even before, but ten was the youngest Giles had ever personally encountered. Giles knew this meant that Niki would need particular attention. He wasn't sure exactly what changes would need to be made, but it was certain that some things would have to be adjusted.
He cooked himself a quick breakfast as he thought about everything he needed to do for the three new arrivals. Eggs and toast ready, he prepared tea and sat at the table to eat while it brewed. Giles had half hoped the smell of food would wake Xander, but there was still no sound coming from upstairs.
When he finished eating, Giles put the dishes into the sink and poured himself some tea. He took his cup and moved to the front door, unlocking it, then picking up the morning newspaper. He went into the library and sat in his favorite chair by the window. He was halfway through his tea when the doorbell rang, startling him. No one rang the doorbell, not even the other Watchers. They all thought of this house as an extension of Giles' office and treated it as such, which, to be fair, he'd encouraged; that was why he'd made certain he could close off the more private areas of the house when necessary. They only knocked once on the door before coming in.
Giles stood and went to open the door, wincing when the bell rang again just as he put his hand on the handle. "Hello, young ladies," he said, opening the door to find the three girls standing on the other side. He let them in, turning to the smallest one.
"You must be Nkiruka," he said, extending his hand.
She took it and shook it forcefully. "Nkiruka Achebe, sir," she replied with a bright smile. "You can call me Niki, though. Xander says my name is too hard to say. And you're Giles."
"It's Mr. Giles, Niki!" the tall gangly girl behind her whispered harshly.
"But Xander calls him just Giles! Why can't I?"
"I'm afraid Mr. Harris got into a rather bad habit when he was younger, Niki, and I'd rather you didn't. I'm afraid all the other Slayers will follow your example if you do." Giles smiled at her.
"Xander." She emphasized the name, her tone leaving no doubt that she would continue to call him that no matter what Giles said. "Xander talks about you all the time." She inched closer to Giles, watching him intently.
"Really?" he asked, suppressing a smile.
She nodded, quite seriously. "All the time," she repeated. "More than Catherine talks about her Watcher, even."
Amused, Giles turned to the other two girls, extending his hand to one of them, trying to figure out which one it was. "Océane?" he asked, and she nodded. "C'est un plaisir de vous rencontrer."
She beamed at him, obviously happy to hear someone speak her language so far from home. "De même, Mr. Giles."
He turned to the tall girl standing right behind Niki. "Catherine, your Watcher has nothing but praise for you," he said with a smile, shaking her hand in turn.
She gave him a small smile and nod. "Mr. Giles."
Ah, yes, the girl of very few words. "Let's go into the study. We have rather a lot we need to discuss, not the least of which is that demon you met on your way here yesterday."
The girls followed him into the study--or rather, Catherine and Océane followed him, while Niki skipped on ahead, peeking in doorways until she found the right one. Giles wondered if any of them were really prepared to deal with the boundless energy of an average ten-year-old, let alone a ten-year-old Slayer.
"Please, sit down," Giles said once they were all inside the room. Niki immediately took over an armchair by the window, while the other two girls sat down on the sofa, watching him apprehensively. Giles sat on the edge of his desk, smiling at them. "I don't know what you've been told to expect from your time here," he began. Océane's Watcher had reported that she understood more English than she spoke, but Giles kept an eye on her, prepared to repeat his words in French if she started to look confused.
"We're going to kill monsters," Niki said. "Xander already told me."
Catherine shook her head, frowning slightly. "Listen," she told the younger girl, who scowled but subsided, settling back in her chair.
"Niki's right, at least in part," Giles said. "That will be part of what you do here. Part of your day, however, will be spent in school, just as I assume it was back home." He spent a few minutes outlining what their schedules would look like; academically, the Council Academy--the new name had come when they'd started educating Slayers as well as future Watchers--was a normal school, although the history and language lessons incorporated a few things not found in the National Curriculum. The differences came after lessons were over for the day; instead of games and sports, the girls would focus on the physical training they needed to build their fighting skills.
The girls asked a few questions, which reassured Giles somewhat. Océane and Catherine's Watcher had been part of the old Council; he'd come out of retirement, at least partly, after Giles had taken over the Council. Giles had been worried that the girls would have had strict obedience to the Council drilled into them, but while they were both a bit more reserved than Niki, he suspected that was primarily due to the difference in their ages.
After fifteen minutes or so, they were out of questions, and he had a page full of notes to himself, things he'd have to deal with today: finding a tutor who could improve Océane's English while keeping her from falling behind in her studies, arranging to have the girls' school records sent, arranging tests and assessments of everything from their skill at arithmetic to the way they handled a broadsword.
Niki had started to fidget, and Giles thought he had better get to the other reason he'd wanted to talk to the girls. "Now that we have all that settled," he said, "I'd like to ask you a few questions about what happened last night."
The girls all seemed to sit up a little straighter; obviously, they all found the demon attack more interesting than their education. To be honest, Giles found it... more immediately significant, at least. From what Xander had said, the demon had attacked them without provocation, which generally suggested one of the less-intelligent species; the fact that it had attacked a group containing three Slayers seemed to confirm that. But it had run away when the older girls had gone after it, which wasn't what Giles would have expected from that sort of demon.
On top of that, one of the girls had been attacked twice in a little over a week. Giles might have been able to dismiss that as coincidence, if it hadn't been for the stack of reports on his desk that said otherwise. Slayers were, of course, always targets for demon attacks, but the frequency of attacks was increasing. These Slayers weren't on patrol, either--most of them had been attacked en route from their homes to the academy.
Giles was starting to think that something, or someone, was trying to eliminate as many Slayers as possible, and targeting the less-trained ones as easier prey. So far, they hadn't been successful--there had been a few minor injuries, but no more--and Giles intended to find out what was going on and put a stop to it before the Council's luck ran out.
***
Part 2
Author: Soft Princess (soft_princess) and Mireille (mireille719)
Fandom: BtVS
Pairing: Giles/Xander
Rating: FRT
Word Count: 5,900 this part / 64,000 overall
Summary: When Xander is attacked by a demon on his way to deliver a trio of young Slayers to England, he and Giles find themselves investigating a plot that may threaten the Council's very existence--and re-evaluating their relationship in the process.
Spoilers: Post-Chosen; based on aired-episode canon only.
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. The characters belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy; we are only borrowing them.
Feedback/Concrit: Both welcome, either here or at mireille719 {at} gmail {dot} com and soft.princess {at} gmail {dot} com.
Notes: This story is being posted in 12 parts: parts 1-4 at spring_with_xan on June 17, parts 5-8 at summer_of_giles on June 19, and parts 9-12 at summer_of_giles on June 22. We would like to thank wesleysgirl for the wonderful job beta-reading.
"Yeah, I really should have gone for the extra insurance," Xander muttered, wincing as he looked at the damage to the rental car. The Council had an account with the rental place; that probably meant their optional insurance covered "act of demon," and it also probably meant that Giles was going to kill him when he turned in his expense statement for the uninsured repairs. He was probably going to accuse Xander of driving on the right-hand side of the road again.
"If it comes back--" the girl at his side began, but Xander interrupted her.
"It's not coming back, Niki."
"If it comes back," she repeated firmly, "I'm ready." She folded her arms, giving him a very determined look, and Xander had to wonder whether there was some kind of special class where girls got taught how to glare in that particular way. And whether Niki was in the gifted class, because he was pretty sure that was super-advanced glaring for a ten-year-old.
"You don't have to worry about it," Xander said, and then stopped himself. He was talking to a Slayer, after all, even if he wasn't used to Slayers coming in extra-extra-small. Worrying about demons was in the job description.
Worrying about Slayers, on the other hand, was in his job description, these days. Xander looked toward the woods some distance away from the road. The other two Slayers he was bringing to the Council had taken off in pursuit of the demon, only stopping to get weapons out of the trunk of the car--and there was going to be a huge I-told-you-so from Catherine about having her weapons shipped to England ahead of them, just as soon as they came back. Xander was going to have to admit she was right, too; even though he hadn't wanted to take a detour to go and pick up the trunk that had gone ahead of them, right now, it looked like it had been a good idea.
"I'm not worried," Niki said, and Xander knew enough about Slayers, even pint-sized ones, not to argue with her.
"Well, I am," Xander said. "Getting you from the airport to the Council is supposed to be the easy part of the job." Most of the time, he didn't even do that part himself; he put the girls on an airplane, and Giles either met their flight or sent Andrew to do it.
Most of the time, he didn't have a little kid on his hands, though, especially not one who'd just barely managed to save her parents when a local demon had decided it didn't want a Slayer in its territory. Xander had turned up the morning after she'd managed to fight it off, which had made his whole "demons are real, your kid's a vampire slayer," speech a little bit of an anticlimax, but had also made him feel like it would be a bad idea to put Niki on the plane by herself.
And since he was going back to England anyway, when Giles had asked him if he'd fly out of Johannesburg so that he could take back two other girls that one of the few remaining actual real Watchers had been training, Xander had figured that he might as well. Their Watcher was too old to travel comfortably, and since the reason one of the girls was with him in the first place--the other had only been located a month or so ago--was that her parents worried about sending her away to school, Giles thought it was best if the Council had someone accompany her.
It had sounded like a good plan to Xander. He could fly back to England, get Niki settled in at the Council's Slayer-school, spend a couple of days catching up with everybody--it'd be like a paid vacation.
Everything had been going smoothly, too, right up until the point that a demon came out of nowhere and attacked their car. Even with three Slayers around, that wasn't ever going to be the high point of Xander's day.
Although he'd be a lot happier if there were three Slayers around. He frowned, trying to decide if he saw movement in the distance or not. "Do you see Catherine and Ocean anywhere?"
The girl shook her head. "Her name's Océane," she corrected him.
"That's what I said," Xander said.
"No, it isn't. And I think they're coming back," Niki said, pointing. "I don't see the demon, though."
"Not seeing demons is a good thing," Xander mentioned.
"Catherine says that her Watcher made her bring back part of the demons she killed so that she could look up what kind it was."
"Catherine's Watcher is creepy," Xander said, then quickly added, "but you didn't hear that from me."
Niki shook her head, already running to meet the other girls. "Where is it?"
Catherine smiled at her, ruffling Niki's hair. "Gone." She certainly wasn't the talking type. In all the time Xander had known her, which was, to be fair, not quite a whole day yet, she hadn't said more than ten words or so. Only Niki seemed to be able to coax words out of her.
"Nous l'avons perdu à environ sept ou huit cent mètres d'ici," Océane said, looking back the way they came and pointing to the left. She looked at Xander, but he simply looked confused, his gaze shifting from her to where she was pointing, to the other two girls, and back to her. "Oh, I forget you do not 'ear me," she said, smiling, then tried to find the words to translate what she'd just said. "We lost him, not too long from 'ere. This way."
"Sorry my French's not that good, Ocean," Xander apologized for the seventh time that day. Niki was really laughing at him now, but he didn't care. It was better than letting her think about what had just happened and getting scared. "So he just disappeared?"
Both girls nodded, Océane rolling her eyes at Xander's mispronunciation of her name, which sent Niki into another giggling fit. Xander shook his head and walked back to the car, not wanting to let the girls see how worried he was. Demons didn't usually make a habit of disappearing, especially not right after they'd tried to kill three Slayers. Or if they did disappear, it was only to gather more fellow demons and try again. "We should get going. I don't want us stranded in the middle of a road in the middle of nowhere with a demon on the loose."
Niki hopped in the front seat, putting the seatbelt on and pointedly ignoring Xander's glare. "Do you think it'll start again? Or is it dead?"
"It's going to start. It has to." Xander said, his eye fixed on Niki. "But not until you're settled in the back seat with your seatbelt on." Niki tugged on her seatbelt to show him it was on and turned to glare back at him. It was almost enough for Xander to let it go. Almost. "I said 'in the back seat' Niki, not 'in the passenger seat'. You know it's the law. You have to be twelve before you can ride shotgun."
Niki pouted. "Not in Nigeria." Maybe not in England, either; Xander had no idea. He just knew he'd feel better if she was in the back seat.
Xander had to stop himself from laughing at her; no matter how much she tried to look older than ten, especially around the older girls, right now she looked not a day over five. "We're not in Nigeria, Niki. Go ride in the back with Catherine, please." He touched her face gently, his other hand sneaking down to unbuckle the belt. Niki gave a frustrated cry, but didn't fight it as Catherine helped her out and Océane slid into the front seat. Once the girls were all finally settled, Xander turned the keys into the ignition and--
Nothing.
He tried again, biting his lower lips and trying to tune out the girls' sighs.
Catherine shook her head in the back seat. "Motor's dead."
"Or maybe it was 'is claw that stick in the--" Océane struggled for the right word before deciding on doing it the easy way and pointing at the dashboard.
Xander nodded. "It might be." He looked at the dashboard, then at the twisted metal at the front of the car. It had been optimistic of him to think that the car would work, really, considering how much damage the demon had done to it.
Right. So, assess the situation here. He had one totaled rental car, three Slayers, no cell phone, and no idea how he was going to get the girls to the Council. And that was the good part, the part that didn't involve there being a demon after them, or the fact that it was going to be getting dark soon.
"So," Xander said, turning so that he could see the girls in the back seat as well as Océane, "how do you guys feel about a walk?" They were only a couple of miles out of the last town they'd gone through; even allowing for Niki's shorter legs slowing them down a little, it shouldn’t take that long to get back there. They'd find a pay phone, he'd call Giles, the Council would send somebody to pick them up.
He'd say it'd be simple, except that the last thing they needed was for him to jinx this trip any more than it already had been.
"We need to push the car off to the side of the road first," he said. "Ocean? Anybody ever teach you how to drive?"
She looked at him blankly for a moment. Sighing, Xander tried again, accompanying his words with pantomime that had Niki collapsing against Catherine's shoulder, giggling helplessly. "Do you know how to drive?"
Océane grinned brightly, nodding. "I am learning," she said carefully.
Okay. If a police car stopped and had a problem with him letting a fifteen-year-old girl steer the dead hulk of their rental car, he'd just play stupid American and hope for the best--which really meant "and let Giles straighten it out later." Or maybe Andrew, who'd probably be a lot less annoyed.
"Great," he said. "Time for a lesson." Xander got out of the car, making sure that both Catherine and Niki got out and were standing safely out of the way--okay, the car wasn't going to take off unexpectedly, but he wasn't going to take any chances, either--before he got Océane settled in the driver's seat. "When we push, steer the car over there," he said, pointing to the side of the road.
Océane nodded, and he decided he'd trust her; she'd been pretty good so far at telling him when she didn't understand what he was saying.
Xander helped her put the car in neutral before turning to the other two girls. "Okay, Catherine, I'm going to need you to help me push. Niki, stand back."
Niki's hands went onto her hips, and she shook her head. "I'm stronger than you are," she said.
"I'm not arguing that, Nik, it's just--" He sighed. "Fine. Help us push."
With two Slayers helping him, it was easy to get the car out of the road; it was only a few minutes later that Océane was handing him the keys, still grinning about her stint behind the steering wheel.
"We'll stop back for your stuff later," Xander said. "We don't need to carry any of it."
"Weapons," Catherine suggested. She and Océane still had the weapons they'd grabbed to go after the demon, but Xander opened the trunk again so that Catherine could hand out stakes--not a bad idea, since the sun might be down before they got anywhere, Xander had to admit--and stash a few more in a backpack she slung over her shoulder.
Niki had raided Catherine's weapons chest as well; Xander reached over and took the battle-axe out of her hands, ignoring the kicked-puppy pout she turned on him. "You must be this tall to carry the axe," he said, holding his hand out at about shoulder height. "Besides, I don't want to knock on somebody's door looking like we're a traveling gang of serial killers."
Niki scowled until Catherine nodded and put her own broadsword back in the trunk; then she reluctantly stepped back and let Xander put the axe away as well, though she did tuck an extra stake into her belt. Xander wondered if the other girls had been teaching her about staking vampires; he'd planned to take Niki out on patrol a couple of times before they came back to England, but he hadn't had time.
"Ready?" he asked. The two older girls nodded and immediately started walking; Xander let them get a short distance ahead without saying anything. He hadn't wanted to hang out around adults when he was their age, either, and as long as they stayed where he could see them, he wasn't going to worry.
He'd expected Niki to run ahead to catch up with them; since half of what she'd said to him since they'd arrived in Johannesburg had started with "Catherine says," or "Catherine's Watcher says," he figured she'd want to hang out with the big kids some more. Instead, though, he felt a small hand slipping into his.
"I told them I would protect you," she said solemnly.
Poor kid, Xander thought. Thousands of miles from home, two demon attacks in just about a week, and now she thought it was her job to look after him. He squeezed her hand. "You bet," he said, and they started walking.
***
"Explain this to me again, Xander, because I'm not quite sure I understand how it happened," Giles was saying, as they both sat in his office of the council. The girls were off to the dorms, where they would be shown to their beds, and would be allowed to unpack.
With a sigh, Xander ran over the story again. "It's not so hard to believe, Giles," he said after he'd finished explaining the attack for what seemed like the hundredth time, but was probably only the third or fourth. First there'd been the Watcher who had picked them up after they'd finally found a phone; then Andrew when Xander, Catherine, Océane and Niki had first arrived; then Giles a first time--so yeah, fourth time. "We were about an hour outside London when we were attacked. Three Slayers in one small rental car--and have I mentioned how sorry I am for not taking that extra insurance? What was I saying? Oh, yeah. Three Slayers, one small rental car, deserted roads. You know the drill--"
"I quite agree that it was a dangerous situation, Xander, but this still doesn't explain what demon would be foolish enough to attack three Slayers at once."
"I don't know what kind of demon it was. I didn't even get a good look at it--I probably wouldn't be able to identify it if you had a picture." Exasperated, Xander stood and started pacing.
"And that is exactly where the problem lies, Xander. You, better than anyone, should know how important it is to be able to identify the demons who attacked the Slayers--"
Xander glared at Giles angrily. "I might be an idiot, Giles, but not that much! Try getting a good look at the demon who's trying to kill the three kids you're supposed to be taking care of! The only thing I could think of was getting the hell out of that car before the demon pulverized it and us with it! And by the time I finally managed to get myself and Niki out, Catherine and Ocean had already taken off after it." He slumped into the chair, drained. "I'm tired. The girls are tired. We're safe here, so can we talk about it tomorrow morning?"
Giles leaned against his desk, arms crossed over his chest. "If the Slayers' safety is threatened, you know it is my responsibility to find out by whom, and when they are most likely to strike again. I'm sorry, but this can't be delayed. Perhaps coffee would do you some good."
Xander groaned. "I've been awake for just about two days straight, Giles. I'm not at my best, and right now, I have nothing to add that could help. Maybe I'll recover the part of my brain that isn't so dead after I've had some sleep. Catherine and Ocean'll also be able to help after they've slept. I don't think it's going to come back tonight, and if I've just jinxed it," Xander sighed and rubbed his temples tiredly, "well, just kill me in the morning."
Giles shook his head, looking concerned. "I'm sorry -- of course you're tired under the circumstances. Get some sleep, and we can talk about it in more detail in the morning. If you're not worried about this demon's attack being a sign of a larger problem, I'm sure I shouldn't be, either."
"Oh, I'm worried, don't think I'm not. But there are at least sixty Slayers living here. If a demon tries to get in, it'll get killed about sixty times, so I think we're safe until morning." He sat up on his chair and looked straight at Giles, murmuring, "I’d also been expecting a better welcome home than this, but I guess you get what you deserve, right?"
"I'll issue an order to keep the girls inside until we've figured out what this demon is and what he it wants," Giles was saying, as if he hadn’t heard what Xander had added. "Go to bed, Xander, I'll see you in the morning. Oh, and while you're in England, perhaps you should attend some of the girls' French classes."
Xander groaned, rolling his eye as he stood. "You wish." With a tired smile, he opened the door and was about to step out when Giles grabbed his arm. Xander turned back to Giles and found himself on the receiving end of the rarity that was a Giles-hug. Their embrace lasted for a few seconds before Giles let go, straightening up. "I apologize," he said.
Xander nodded once, smiling tightly. "I guess we’re both just worried. I’ll see you in the morning." He headed down the corridor. "I’ll think about those French lessons," he called back without even turning around.
For all his insistence that he needed sleep--and he did; his eye felt like it had a bucket of sand in them--he didn't go straight to his room; he walked across the courtyard toward the dorms. This had been the Watchers' training school until the First Evil had wiped out most of the Council; now only the youngest Watcher trainees were studying along with the Slayers. The older students had been put to work; the new Council was short-handed, and the few old Watchers Giles had convinced to come back from retirement weren't enough.
The larger dorm had been assigned to the girls--the Slayers and a couple of girls studying to be Watchers--and Xander took the steps two at a time, grinning as the old Watcher who was in charge of the dorm came out of her room to see who was coming in at that hour.
"I thought I told you that if I caught you trying to sneak in here again--" She broke off, realizing it wasn't who she'd expected. "Oh, it's you, Harris. I should have realized you'd be stopping by, after hearing your name every five minutes from Miss Achebe."
"Isn't Niki a little young to be 'Miss' anybody?" Xander asked. Not that he expected to convince Mrs. Cheever--he didn't even know her first name, not that they were on that friendly of terms anyway--that she could lighten up a little with the Slayers. Most of the old Watchers didn't have a lot to do with anybody from Sunnydale, and Andrew had told him the last time he was here that they weren't all that crazy about the Slayers and Watchers training together, either.
Mrs. Cheever ignored what he'd said. "Can I help you with something?" At least she wasn't actually hostile, just not overly friendly, and for all Xander knew, that was what she was like with everyone.
"I just wanted to make sure the girls were okay," he said. "We had a long trip, and then--did they tell you about the demon?"
"I heard," she said. "Miss Achebe and the others are--or should be--asleep by now; it's over an hour past lights-out, and they won't be put on the patrol schedule until they've settled in."
Xander didn't want to disrupt things too much. Well, that wasn't true; he did, but he knew he shouldn't. Besides, he'd had to wake Catherine up when their flight landed at Heathrow, and she didn't exactly wake up friendly. He could always come by and see them in the morning. "All right," he said. "But if... look, Niki's only ten, and she's still a little freaked out by everything. If she's not okay, I want to know about it, all right?"
"She'll be fine," Mrs. Cheever said firmly, but Xander thought that she might have given him a very fleeting smile. "I'll tell the girls tomorrow that you came by to check on them," she added.
Xander nodded, turning and letting himself back outside. As he came down the front steps, he froze; there was someone, or something, lurking in the shadow cast by one of the trees in the courtyard. He backed up a little, sliding his foot back to find the step; there'd be weapons inside. There was no way that in a dorm filled with Slayers, there wouldn’t be weapons.
Then the shadowy figure moved, and Xander realized it was human: a boy, maybe sixteen or seventeen, the moonlight glinting off his glasses. He grinned; this was obviously who Mrs. Cheever had thought had been trying to sneak into the dorm at night. "What do you think you're doing?" Xander called out, as though he needed an answer. It hadn't been that long since he'd been that age, even if sometimes it felt like a hundred years ago.
The boy didn't answer, just took off running back toward the slightly smaller building that housed the male students, and Xander gave a satisfied grin. Really, he had to expect to get caught, with those definitely inferior lurking skills.
Xander started back across the courtyard to what used to be the headmaster's house. Now Giles lived there most of the time--the Council headquarters were still officially in London, but Xander couldn't blame him for not using those offices a lot; they were small and crowded, in a building that held a lot of other office suites, and while Giles kept saying that the Council needed a proper headquarters again, right now there weren't enough people to justify an actual building, anyway.
So Giles stayed here a lot of the time, and had turned most of the big old house into secondary headquarters. Xander and everyone else from Sunnydale had just sort of taken over the other bedrooms as theirs when they were in England. Andrew actually had his own apartment on campus, like some of the younger teachers-- which Xander suspected was partly Giles' idea--but the rest of them weren't around often enough to get on Giles' nerves.
At least, not usually. Until they found out what had attacked him and the girls earlier today, Xander wasn't planning on go anywhere. He'd promised Niki's parents that she'd be safe with the Council, and the first thing that happened after he got her to England was that a demon had come after her.
After all of them, yeah, but this was twice in not-very-long for Niki, and it wasn't like she'd been out making enemies in the demon world; she hadn't even realized that there was anything all that weird about her before she'd had to fight off a demon in her mom's kitchen. Xander was going to stick around until he was sure that she was going to be okay here.
Giles had left the front door unlocked for him, even though Xander had heard from Andrew that having some of the not-quite-old-enough Slayers sneak in and raid his liquor cabinet had finally gotten him in the habit of locking up at night. Xander let himself in, trying to walk quietly. The floorboards in the old house creaked, and he didn't want to wake Giles up if he'd gone to bed. Running the Council probably didn't leave him a lot of time to sleep. After all, working for the Council didn't give Xander much time to sleep.
As he made his way upstairs and tried to get down the darkened hallway without running into anything, Xander reassured himself that that particular demon probably wouldn't come back. It had probably attacked them without knowing that the car was full of Slayers, and that was why it had disappeared when Catherine and Océane had chased it. Still, that didn't mean that the girls weren't freaked out by it, and it wouldn't hurt anything for Xander to stay in England for a while until everything got back to normal.
Besides, it'd be good to see people again. Maybe, if he was going to be here for a week or two, he could even convince Buffy and Dawn to come to England for a visit.
Nothing to worry about, he told himself again as he opened the door to his room. With all the traveling around Africa he did, this felt as much like "home" as anyplace did, even if he only spent a few days here every couple of months. He didn't spend that much more time in the room he rented in Windhoek, after all.
Somebody had made sure that Xander's bag had been brought in. Xander sat down on the bed, meaning to open it up and get out his shaving kit and something clean to sleep in, but he decided to lie down and close his eye for a minute first.
Just a minute or two, he promised himself. He wasn't actually going to go to sleep.
***
The morning dawned bright and early, and Giles was up even before his alarm clock rang. He showered quickly, conscious that the noise of the running water might wake up his guest. The pipes were old, which didn't help the racket at all. Despite his worries and the many questions that he still needed answers to, Giles knew that Xander needed all the sleep he could get.
Giles called the dorms just before going downstairs, to ask that the three new girls be sent to his house as soon as they were finished with breakfast. He liked to meet the new Slayers, to put faces to the names he knew he would hear for a long time to come. It gave him a chance to interact with them on a more personal level as well, something that seldom happened anymore. And to be completely honest, he was as curious to meet all of them as they usually were to meet him, and today Giles was definitely looking forward to meeting Niki.
It wasn't rare that Slayers would show their powers from their early teens or even before, but ten was the youngest Giles had ever personally encountered. Giles knew this meant that Niki would need particular attention. He wasn't sure exactly what changes would need to be made, but it was certain that some things would have to be adjusted.
He cooked himself a quick breakfast as he thought about everything he needed to do for the three new arrivals. Eggs and toast ready, he prepared tea and sat at the table to eat while it brewed. Giles had half hoped the smell of food would wake Xander, but there was still no sound coming from upstairs.
When he finished eating, Giles put the dishes into the sink and poured himself some tea. He took his cup and moved to the front door, unlocking it, then picking up the morning newspaper. He went into the library and sat in his favorite chair by the window. He was halfway through his tea when the doorbell rang, startling him. No one rang the doorbell, not even the other Watchers. They all thought of this house as an extension of Giles' office and treated it as such, which, to be fair, he'd encouraged; that was why he'd made certain he could close off the more private areas of the house when necessary. They only knocked once on the door before coming in.
Giles stood and went to open the door, wincing when the bell rang again just as he put his hand on the handle. "Hello, young ladies," he said, opening the door to find the three girls standing on the other side. He let them in, turning to the smallest one.
"You must be Nkiruka," he said, extending his hand.
She took it and shook it forcefully. "Nkiruka Achebe, sir," she replied with a bright smile. "You can call me Niki, though. Xander says my name is too hard to say. And you're Giles."
"It's Mr. Giles, Niki!" the tall gangly girl behind her whispered harshly.
"But Xander calls him just Giles! Why can't I?"
"I'm afraid Mr. Harris got into a rather bad habit when he was younger, Niki, and I'd rather you didn't. I'm afraid all the other Slayers will follow your example if you do." Giles smiled at her.
"Xander." She emphasized the name, her tone leaving no doubt that she would continue to call him that no matter what Giles said. "Xander talks about you all the time." She inched closer to Giles, watching him intently.
"Really?" he asked, suppressing a smile.
She nodded, quite seriously. "All the time," she repeated. "More than Catherine talks about her Watcher, even."
Amused, Giles turned to the other two girls, extending his hand to one of them, trying to figure out which one it was. "Océane?" he asked, and she nodded. "C'est un plaisir de vous rencontrer."
She beamed at him, obviously happy to hear someone speak her language so far from home. "De même, Mr. Giles."
He turned to the tall girl standing right behind Niki. "Catherine, your Watcher has nothing but praise for you," he said with a smile, shaking her hand in turn.
She gave him a small smile and nod. "Mr. Giles."
Ah, yes, the girl of very few words. "Let's go into the study. We have rather a lot we need to discuss, not the least of which is that demon you met on your way here yesterday."
The girls followed him into the study--or rather, Catherine and Océane followed him, while Niki skipped on ahead, peeking in doorways until she found the right one. Giles wondered if any of them were really prepared to deal with the boundless energy of an average ten-year-old, let alone a ten-year-old Slayer.
"Please, sit down," Giles said once they were all inside the room. Niki immediately took over an armchair by the window, while the other two girls sat down on the sofa, watching him apprehensively. Giles sat on the edge of his desk, smiling at them. "I don't know what you've been told to expect from your time here," he began. Océane's Watcher had reported that she understood more English than she spoke, but Giles kept an eye on her, prepared to repeat his words in French if she started to look confused.
"We're going to kill monsters," Niki said. "Xander already told me."
Catherine shook her head, frowning slightly. "Listen," she told the younger girl, who scowled but subsided, settling back in her chair.
"Niki's right, at least in part," Giles said. "That will be part of what you do here. Part of your day, however, will be spent in school, just as I assume it was back home." He spent a few minutes outlining what their schedules would look like; academically, the Council Academy--the new name had come when they'd started educating Slayers as well as future Watchers--was a normal school, although the history and language lessons incorporated a few things not found in the National Curriculum. The differences came after lessons were over for the day; instead of games and sports, the girls would focus on the physical training they needed to build their fighting skills.
The girls asked a few questions, which reassured Giles somewhat. Océane and Catherine's Watcher had been part of the old Council; he'd come out of retirement, at least partly, after Giles had taken over the Council. Giles had been worried that the girls would have had strict obedience to the Council drilled into them, but while they were both a bit more reserved than Niki, he suspected that was primarily due to the difference in their ages.
After fifteen minutes or so, they were out of questions, and he had a page full of notes to himself, things he'd have to deal with today: finding a tutor who could improve Océane's English while keeping her from falling behind in her studies, arranging to have the girls' school records sent, arranging tests and assessments of everything from their skill at arithmetic to the way they handled a broadsword.
Niki had started to fidget, and Giles thought he had better get to the other reason he'd wanted to talk to the girls. "Now that we have all that settled," he said, "I'd like to ask you a few questions about what happened last night."
The girls all seemed to sit up a little straighter; obviously, they all found the demon attack more interesting than their education. To be honest, Giles found it... more immediately significant, at least. From what Xander had said, the demon had attacked them without provocation, which generally suggested one of the less-intelligent species; the fact that it had attacked a group containing three Slayers seemed to confirm that. But it had run away when the older girls had gone after it, which wasn't what Giles would have expected from that sort of demon.
On top of that, one of the girls had been attacked twice in a little over a week. Giles might have been able to dismiss that as coincidence, if it hadn't been for the stack of reports on his desk that said otherwise. Slayers were, of course, always targets for demon attacks, but the frequency of attacks was increasing. These Slayers weren't on patrol, either--most of them had been attacked en route from their homes to the academy.
Giles was starting to think that something, or someone, was trying to eliminate as many Slayers as possible, and targeting the less-trained ones as easier prey. So far, they hadn't been successful--there had been a few minor injuries, but no more--and Giles intended to find out what was going on and put a stop to it before the Council's luck ran out.
***
Part 2