Rota

by
JezT

Part Seven

Buffy sat on Giles' couch and stared into her cup of tea hardly believing what it was that her Watcher was telling her, Xander was a slayer, no better than a slayer, a member of the Alliance. Riley held her bruised body to him but he too was aware that there was a lot more to this than had met the eye. It had been classified at the Initiative that Xander had been rejected for membership due to his small stature and now it appeared that Professor Walsh had underestimated the boy as much as she had underestimated the slayer.

"So what exactly is his job? There are already two slayers." Buffy whined, she hated anyone treading into her territory.

"Actually there are more than that, there are different forms of Slayers, you are only really supposed to be a vampire slayer, but just as I altered your training, living on the Hellmouth also required a little changing of the job description." Giles informed her. "The watchers work on a number of groups, sometimes observing but not interfering and other times fighting by their side."

"So who are the Alliance? Are they autonomous?" Riley asked, himself having worked for an agency that had dealt with sensitive material and demons.

"Nobody knows, there is no one to ask and those that do know are highly unlikely to tell, the closest I ever got to knowing was a few words of proof from a renegade." At Buffy's look of suspicion he continued. "Before turning to the worship of Chaos, Ethan was approached as an initiate, he had a strong warlock potential, but he was never admitted. Too unstable they said." Giles laughed as he realised that the Alliance were a lot more perceptive than the Watchers when it came to recruitment and staffing.

"How did he do this?" Buffy said looking down at her bruises.

"I can only assume that he is very powerful, a spirit that has been broken once will be quicker to protect itself." Giles quoted from some text or other. "My advice would be to try and stay away from him from now on, at least until he has forgiven you for whatever it was that you did." Buffy recoiled at the suggestion that she be the one to back down, but as she moved to protest she felt the pain in her sides and for the first time in a long while listened to Giles without argument.

Wesley looked down at the journal entry that he had just posted to the Alliance group and smiled. There was still a lot of work to be done, a slayer to prepare and a triad to work with but now the three had consummated the union with 'blood and creation' as the texts so nicely put it, there was nothing to be done but to wait for the powerful being of both sides to come and bring the group together. Wes smiled as he looked over the other forms that Cordelia had kindly sent him in warning, it may be sooner than they thought.

Part Eight

A month later.

Xander watched as the stake flew across the room and into the target that Angel had allowed him to paint on the wall, his lovers were very supportive of his decision to learn to fight as well as merely to protect himself and while a lot of the moves were the same the disciplines that his mind took to control them were completely different.

"Xander?" Wesley called out as he walked into the spare bedroom, also Xander's work room and study. "I found an interesting chapter in one of Angel's books on 'inner fire' and thought that you might like to read it," he told his student. Xander looked up long enough to see the red book that Wesley held and then looked back down at his notebook, Wesley knew what that meant, the boy had read it and understood it. He felt a small pain as he realised that the student had outgrown his need for a teacher and Wesley felt unneeded, he would have said something but the last thing that Xander needed was a break in his fragile ego.

"Thanks Wes." Xander said needlessly. "I think that I've seen it, but maybe we ought to discuss it in case I missed any of the points." Wesley knew that Xander would not have missed anything and had probably already discussed it with Angel but the boy was doing his best to keep the former watcher with them and to make him feel needed, after all Xander mused, if anyone knew what it was like to be left out of something it was him.

Faith stepped up in front of the Parole board and was surprised when she was allowed Parole as long as she did not leave the state, it appeared that as most of her crimes were older she had been tried as a minor and as such the penalty was a lot lighter than for an adult. Having said that she was on a ten year suspended sentence which meant if she broke any of the conditions of her bond she would serve the rest of the ten year term in a state penitentiary, Damn she was glad she'd been caught in California, she would not have been able to bear ten years in some of the more boring states and especially not some of the dry ones.

"So, Faith, What are you going to do with your life?" Her parole officer and a man that spoke with a crisp English accent asked.

"Well, first I'm going to look up an old friend who offered me a job one time." She said thinking of Angel's offer to help her deal with the guilt.

"Faith, I know what you are. I am your assigned Watcher Andrew Pennington." He said, the accent should have given it away, Faith chided herself for not having noticed it before.

"Well, if you want a Slayer then you'll have to speak to B. As of now I am officially retired." Faith said before turning on her heel and leaving, Andrew Pennington did not follow, he had stricter orders, if she refused then the Council would use direct action. Better to start afresh, there was rumours that Buffy Summers, the alpha Slayer was having difficulties in her personal life, it was time to terminate her position in order to call forth a new slayer. Instead of going after Faith he made the call, their field agent was ready in the area to make a move.

Rupert Giles stared at the woman that stood at his door, a mixture of pride and disgust welling within him, Olivia was at his door, a smile on her face and a book under her arm, but it was not seeing her again that caused the difficulty but the book she held. It was the same book given to all Watcher's, the vital handbook of need to know details.

"Hello Rupert." She said with a knowing smile, "I finally realised where the need for all those antiquated books came from." As he allowed her entry Olivia punched him hard in the face, something that the ex-watcher was not expecting from an old lover. The threat not disposed of but at least temporarily unavailable for comment or interference she made her way to the campus where she knew the Slayer lived. Sometimes being a field agent sucked, clean ups and cover ups were messy and tiresome, but undercover and autonomous Olivia was used for the best jobs and she was really looking forward to taking down the Slayer.

"Hold on..." Willow said as she answered the door, she hoped that it was Xander, she saw precious little of her friend and missed him, it was probably Buffy though, stopping in for a change of clothes, when she opened the door to see a familiar woman on her door step, the torn blouse and scratches on her arm a worry Willow went in to protective mode. "Come in...Livia right?"

"I'm sorry to call so late but there was something there, Giles told me to get Buffy, that she would know what to do." Olivia told her. Willow panicked, she picked up the phone and dialled Riley's number hoping that the pair were not breaking habit and actually out on a date, she was in luck, a breathless and annoyed Riley answered on the tenth ring and Willow relayed the message to them. Within five minutes the pair were at the dorm room getting Olivia's story and getting ready to go after the threat.

"What can I do?" Willow asked as Buffy and Riley armed up and got ready to go.

"Not a lot Wills, this is strictly a kill and kill situation." Buffy said, still in the practice of misquoting, this time from her brief initiative days. "It's probably best if you lay low, we don't know what it is that we are after and there is not really a lot to research," Buffy said, effectively putting down Willow as the "book girl" that all the other people that she had ever known had known her as. Buffy and Riley left taking Olivia with them to help track the demon she had seen and Willow lay back on her bed. After five minutes of indecision she made up her mind to go over to see Xander, he had strength and at least the stocked library at the mansion might give her something to do so that she would not feel completely useless.

"Ah, Ms. Rosenburg, to what do we owe the pleasure of your company this morning?" Wesley asked as he opened the door, stake in hand. There was still a strong protective force around the house but the pattern was changed a little, it was a friendly energy rather than a threatening one.

"I came to see Xander." She said slowly. "I think that Giles might be in trouble and well Buffy..."

"Don't tell me, the little chit flew off with farm boy and went to kick some demon arse." Spike said, rubbing his eyes and making his way over to the couch where Xander was sitting sharpening a stake.

"What kind of trouble Wills?" Xander asked ignoring his lover who was pouting at him and asking him to come back to bed with Angel and himself.

"Well, Giles' friend Olivia came to us and said that he'd been hurt, she was vague on what it was that the demon had done exactly, or whether it was actually a demon."

"Oh dear." Wesley said paling considerably.

"What does 'Oh dear' mean?" Xander asked

"Olivia is one of the Watcher's strongest operatives, they talked about bringing her in when Faith went rogue, if it hadn't been for my intervention, well...the chances are that they are attempting to call another slayer."

"But that means..."

"Quite...It means that we need to find Miss Summers with a degree of urgency, I fear her life may be in danger."

"What do you mean he's not here?" Faith shouted at Angel's stupid secretary, if she had her way she would kill the cheerleader in a heartbeat but there was a pain attached to killing now, one that she could not escape.

"Angel is on assignment out of town." Cordelia said, her voice only slightly giving away the fear that she felt.

"Well, where is he?" Faith asked.

"Sunnydale." Cordelia said, her voice quiet and subdued. Faith visibly shuddered at the mention of the place that had held so much of her pain, but she had to face the fact that there were things in her past that she was not proud of and maybe going back was one way to do that.

"Well, if Mohammed can't get to the mountain, I guess I'll have to hightail my hot little ass over there and find him myself."

Cordelia dialled the familiar number and just hoped that Angel had remembered to keep the cell charged, at the busy tone she cursed the backward Vampire and his stiff upper lipped sidekick and grabbed her keys. If there was not a way to phone the warning then she would just have to hope that she could get to Sunnydale before Faith to warn her boss.

Buffy knew that there was a trap when they entered Giles' house and there was no sign of the struggle that had apparently taken place, not a demon size struggle at any rate. She took the cross bow from it's position slung over her back and turned to take aim but there was a small prick in her neck and the tags of the tazer hit her sending a volt of electricity through her body and collapsing her body to the floor, her last thoughts before the darkness hit was why would Riley betray her?

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