Preternatural Warrior: Miss Elizabeth Summers!
By James Carmody.
Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the property of Mr. Joss Whedon, and until he decides to sell or give it away, his alone. To my knowledge, he hasn't, and I won't accept a single red cent for this piece of fanfic. This is just for fun, my own and that of others. Please enjoy.
Characters: Most of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer and possibly Angel the Series characters, in various pairings.
Pairings: To start out: Angel/Whistler (friendship- close to brotherhood, as Whistler is his Guardian Angel, or more precisely "Guardian Spirit" in my understanding of the series.), Elizabeth {Buffy}/Liam {Angel} (as something of a 'lover's quarrel'), William Pratt {Spike}/Elizabeth Summers {Buffy} (romantic- somewhat,,, but not intense, at least for a while), Willow Rosenberg/Buffy Summers (friendship- they develop a profoundly sisterly bond- even taking care of each-other as if they were siblings by the end of the storyline), Rupert Giles/Buffy Summers (teacher/student friendship- close to 'father/daughter bond'), other pairings... including adversarial (possibly) between First Evil/Buffy Summers (adversarial- as the First is pretty much the Devil).
Summery: This is a set of one-shots like in another author's work titled "Snapshots"- that's where I got the inspiration ONLY for this design of writing. Despite the "male/male" seeming pairing, that here is Far more 'brotherhood' of a sort than Anything anti-moral in Any sense! To be blunt: if a character is seemingly straight in the TV series (and I do NOT mean what people Say about the character, I mean what the character Acts like)- then the character IS interested in the opposite sex as far as romance and possible mating! Ex: Tara Maclay Will be a homosexual woman, whereas Faith is NOT a gay woman in this story! Faith's into GUYS! The nature of this is better described in the summery inside the Author's Notes. Please: read, review/comment, and enjoy!
Also deals with basic spirituality of the author, and the belief system of several characters in the series.
Author's Notes: Story starts when Angel/Angelus/Liam/whoever he really is is trying to awaken Acathla, and deals with the preternatural in means best described as 'theological' as far as who's who and what's what... to the sum of the ability of the author. In my head-cannon: Whistler is Angel's Guardian Angel- or better described as "Guardian Spirit" (as the writer of "The Cold Of Winter Comes"- a fanfic about Chronicles of Narnia so eloquently put the description of the creature), he's also a shining example of the concept of the crucial difference between an "angel" and a "demon"- same exact kind of creature, Radically different Agenda! And if spirits can be described as the same exact kind of creature, then it stands to reason that the Choirs of them are the 'subspecies' of them, despite the fact that they're neuter in gender and in apparitions have come as 'young men'. Basically: a "Guardian Angel" is a spirit 'body-guard' assigned to the person's case in life, and they are also often running errands for the person (between Paradise and Earth) or sometimes between person and person- depending on the situation.
Bit of AU, but in line with the overall plotline as I understand it.
Genre(s): Family, Drama, hurt-comfort, and action/adventure.
Chapter 1.): "My Brother, the Psychopathic Traitor."
Author's Notes Beginning Chapter 1.): Oh, Wow! Talk about sibling squabbles (or family fights)! Whistler definitely has issues with his 'charge', the psychopathic 'brother' he is assigned to the case thereof: Liam (Angel) (and oh yeah, in all my works: I will often use the main names of the characters to make them far more the 'fellow down the street' or the 'girl next door', so don't freak out. This is just to make them more personable in my humble opinion.) To be completely honest, he doesn't like the fact that by sleeping with (having sex with) Elizabeth Summers, Liam lost his soul and went utterly psychopathic- though in all justice, she'd also lose her soul at the same moment- the only one who truly loves extra-marital sex in that generation is the villain: Lucifer, known in history as the Devil, and known in the TV series of Buffy and the spinoff "Angel" as the First Evil! And that's because it so badly messes people up!
Warning: much of the first chapter will be alternating between Whistler's Point of View and Third Person- just so you know.
Please tell me what you think.
Oh, this: [text] as usual means either prayer, telepathic communication, or temptation... the First is a far higher level spirit than Whistler, or nearly any other alleged 'demons' in the entire 'super-series' of Buffy and all its spinoffs- in levels of understanding, and so its a far more powerful entity than Whistler can ever hope to be- but also Whistler's adversary as well as his charge's... there's a reason why Satan is known as "the Adversary"- this story I hope will be one of those that show that. I mean 'his' performance is higher in level than most of them can dream of. Basically, he's a quintessential evil genius!
To say that Whistler was both concerned and frustrated would have been a profound understatement! As a lower-level spirit, and now angel- as he has been sent on a mission for his Maker- he would have been, what word would humans use to describe enraged: deals with urination, but it means roughly "livid"- yes, Whistler was Profoundly concerned about what he had learned about the fellow he saw as his brother. Well, that's precisely how Whistler felt right now.
What particularly set Whistler off was the fact that his kid twin brother, Angel, or Liam, or whatever he called himself nowadays- Whistler particularly hated the persona of "Angelus", that was Liam's name for himself when he was a violent psychopath. That name was equated to death and destruction to a degree similar to that of "Darth Vader" in Star Wars- the classical series of movies that fans would be familiar with- in fact, Liam was as close to the legendary villain Darth Vader as anyone in his world that Whistler knew of now or at any time he had run across- with all of the trouble he'd caused! "This is kind of like being Darth Vader's Guardian Spirit" Whistler thought with an oddly sad grin "he even dresses the part now, not metal body armor, but leather still has its own armor rating- well do I remember the medieval days, as well as the days of the Renaissance, and how the'd use leather as body-armor at times: Buff leather jackets and whatnot... this nonscience has got to stop!" this spirit thought with a grim expression as he was looking for the girl's teacher to convey a message to her regarding her lover's antics. He was rather shocked about his charge acting like Darth Vader too!
"Why'd the Boss prevent her from losing her soul?" Whistler thought to himself as he looked around for the Librarian to tell him how his girl would have to stop her "Honey" from going through with his evil antics. "Was it because He knew she'd have to make up by stopping her man from going all homicidal with the entire human population of Earth?" Whistler wondered, fearing he was getting close to ethical treason, but he was still far enough from it to even risk falling into the same error as the Devil did- a being now known simply as "the First Evil" to some circles. "It was pride- on Lucifer's part, that lead him to do all those terrible things- perhaps I may do some small part to undo all the damage that monster did when and since his fall." Whistler reminisced as he looked urgently through the house for Rupert Giles- reminisced and planned what to do if he got the chance.
At about this time, a young maiden walked into the home, and strode up to the living room's center looking for her Watcher- her name was Elizabeth Summers, but she chose to go by "Buffy", her nickname for some reason. "Why not Elizabeth?" Whistler wondered as he heard her call out for Giles "That name has such a history of dignity- why's she insist on going by her odd nickname?" the spirit wondered as he replied to her calls for "Giles. Giles."
"He's not here." Whistler said, striding down the stairs, and from the young woman's response, he could clearly tell she had no love of his kind either. She mentioned something about tearing out his ribcage and wearing the darn thing as a hat! Not sure what to say, Whistler bought her off with the phrase "Nice imagery" and a disgusted look on his face.
It turned out that Miss Summers was only frustrated about being alone in the workplace, with a ridiculous amount of work, and she's the only one doing the job- or that's how she felt! Whistler made a mental note to bring this up to the Boss in his next report- as a courtesy to his co-worker, Miss Elizabeth Summers, who he got the feeling felt that she was the only one doing Anything when the entire WORLD was being sucked constantly down the proverbial drain into Gehenna!
[As a teenager, her coping with this workload is phenomenal, but without help, she'll no doubt crack.] the spirit reported to his Divine Boss... trying to get her some help- especially since this would help to stop his psychopathic brother- Liam- from his wicked antics he wanted to do.
Whistler kind of sat down on the arm of Giles's couch, and tried to explain to the blonde teen girl, who's arms were now crossed and she was looking at him as if she were very cross indeed- he even marveled at the combination of a cross young woman with her arms crossed over her chest- kind of a repetitive irony to it. He decided to bring up the evidence before accusing the young colleague of misconduct- that often works well, as the evidence functions as 'prepared positions' in a battle before making any attack. "Your ex-Honey... I'm kind of his elder twin brother." Whistler began.
Buffy for her part was even more skeptical than before: she just looked at him as if "Are you NUTS?", but more with an "Explain" look to her face, her eyes however clearly said "Are you NUTS?", she kept her arms crossed and leaned somewhat more on her left leg with her legs shoulder-width apart, raised her eyebrows and non-verbally encouraged him to continue explaining his words and behavior- and how he knew she had slept with Angel/Liam/Angelus/whoever he is.
"Okay, let me explain, I'm basically his Guardian Angel." Whistler explained.
Buffy wasn't convinced, "You're Angel's Guardian Angel?" she said, returning the concept back on its source, for clarification.
"Yeah, and I'm pretty upset with him, he lied through his teeth to me, telling me he was going to destroy Acathla, when in reality he intended to restore and awaken that monster all along- that psychopath of a brother of mine!" Whistler basically snarled the last seven words of that sentence with rage over the fact that he'd been tricked and sent on a wild goose chase across who knows how many areas until he realized his brother, Liam, was no longer on his side, but had gone traitor, founded a gang he was currently leading, and set out to awaken a monster to destroy humanity!
Author's Notes End Chapter 1.): The "Boss" that Whistler refers to so often is his Maker: God. He calls Him that because he sees himself as the fellow's employee- it's spirituality, subordinate to religion, as it ought to be.
Next chapter will likely deal with Angel sending Whistler on this wild goose chase, and is likely to be titled "Tricking my Guardian Angel", in which he fools him into going hunting for some items he needs to awaken Acathla and destroy the world.
This tale takes place in the very last episodes of Season 2 as a beginning, and goes on from there, but is family/friendship/hurt-comfort/drama, and a number of other tags/genres, with very few warnings to consider.
Make no mistake: Whistler's pretty furious with Angel and scared of what he's doing!
I hope you enjoyed this chapter and will enjoy the rest, and as always, feel free to ask me questions via PM or review/comment, and allow me to reply if at all possible.
Oh, and since the couple's sin of sex outside of marriage was the same, Whistler's wondering as to why only his charge lost his soul, and he guesses that the girl's penance is partially to have to stop her man from carrying out his plan of mass-murder- I think he's right on that detail.