Everyone filed into the living room, and the three young women lined up against the wall. Dawn stood in front of them, arms folded across her chest and inquisitive eyes scrutinising each girl from head to toe.
"They're all slayers?" Buffy asked, eyebrows raised.
"Potential slayers." Giles corrected her. "Waiting for one to be called. There were many more like them all over the world, but, um, now there's just a handful, and they're all on their way to Sunnydale."
"The others were murdered."
"In cold blood." He confirmed. "As well as their Watchers. We always feared that this day would come, when there'd be an attack against not just an individual slayer, but the whole line."
"The First. That's what it wants." Hel mused aloud.
He met her gaze. "Yes, to erase all the slayers in training and their Watchers along with their methods."
"And then Faith. And then me." Buffy interjected. "And with all the Potentials gone and no way of making another, it's the end. No more Slayer. Ever."
"But we haven't found any information on the First, no documentation—" Protested Willow.
"That is because it predates any written history, and it rarely shows its true face." Hel replied, crossing her arms.
"The only record I know was in the Council Library." Giles added.
"What about the Council?" Anya jumped in. "What do they have to say about this?"
"Gone." He glanced at Buffy, who stared back in silent shock.
"What?" Willow blurted, eyes blown wide.
"Obliterated." He answered simply. "They were in session, and, uh, there was an explosion."
"That means all the Council's records are-are destroyed?" She stammered.
"Annabelle." He said, cueing the young women by that name to unzip her book bag. She removed two books and a stack of files, laying them on the coffee table in front of Willow. "That's what's left." Giles continued. "The mystic secrets of the Watchers. And whatever I could find on the First. When I learned what was happening, I-I, um, I stole them." He confessed.
"And you blew the Council up!" Anya exclaimed. "See, this is what happens when you're all stuffy and repressed. You overreact."
Giles looked startled and mildly offended. "Not–I didn't. Must've been an agent of the First, after my little burglary session. The knowledge contained in these files had to be protected, and there wasn't time for–for bureaucracy or debate. The Council knows no other way."
Tied to a nearby chair, Andrew expelled a melodramatic observation: "And it cost them their lives!"
Everyone turned and stared at him pointedly.
"Go on." Andrew concluded meekly, uncomfortable under their collective gazes.
"Can we gag him?" Buffy asked Xander.
He clapped his hands together once in response and joined Andrew's side, adhering duct tape across his mouth to effectively silence him.
"But what do these records say about The First?" Buffy continued, without the addition of gratuitous commentary from their hostage.
"Uh, very little. It can change form. Uh, it only appears in the guise of someone who's passed away." Giles explained.
"Our ghosts." Concluded Willow.
"Also, it's not corporeal." Giles added. "It can't touch or fight on its own. It only works through those it manipulates. And its followers, the Bringers."
"Those freaks in the black robes." One of the three young women remarked.
"Yeah, with the hoodies and the crazy alphabet eyes." Blurted another girl. "I never saw 'em, I just heard—"
"Sh, Molly!" Chided Annabelle. "Mr. Giles doesn't need us prattling on."
Perching on the arm of the couch, Giles resumed: "The First is unlike anything we've faced before. I mean, there's evil and then there's the thing that created evil, the source."
"And that's what this thing claims to be?" Buffy questioned, scepticism colouring her tone.
"That's what it is. It has entire eternities to act, endless resources." He stood upright. "How to defeat it, I—I—" Unable to finish his sentence, he sighed. "Honestly, I don't know. But we have to find a way. If the Slayer line is eliminated, then the Hellmouth has no guardian. The balance is destroyed." He approached Buffy. "I'm afraid it falls to you, Buffy. Sorry. I mean, we'll do what we can, but you're the only one who has the strength to protect these girls —and the world—against what's coming."
"But no pressure." Xander added sarcastically.
One of the young Potentials strode into the centre of the room, addressing everyone. "That's it? That's the plan? I don't see how one person, even a Slayer, could protect us. I saw what those Bringer guys can do. They tore apart my Watcher."
"Of course we'll use all our resources—" Giles attempted to reassure her, but was cut off.
"And if this thing is the root of all evil, isn't the Hellmouth its number one vacation spot? I mean, don't you think we should be hiding our asses on the other side of the globe?"
"Kennedy!" Exclaimed Annabelle.
"No, she's not wrong." Buffy intervened. "We need more muscle. That's why we need to find Spike."
"Um, hello?" Hel raised her hand and waved it a little to draw attention to herself. "Aren't you forgetting about someone?"
"Who?" Buffy asked, confused.
Hel smirked. "Me. With my help, the scales will most definitely be tipped in your favour. You need me." She said arrogantly.
"You're right." Buffy replied, folding her arms across her chest. "We need all the help we can get."
YOU ARE READING
Gods And Monsters
Fanfiction"Everyone else I've met here is dull as a table lamp. Not that I blame them, of course. It's in their nature. They're just too... Human." "What am I then?" He inquired, his eyes searching hers intently. She smiled. "You're a riddle. I like riddles...
