The 4400 Slayer
By freetodream
Disclaimer:
I don't own anything. Joss, Fox, and Mutant Enemy own Buffy, Angel, and all associated characters. NBC and the people behind The 4400 own them. There're other people involved in this story, but if I mention them now, I will give away the plot. So they will get their own disclaimer later. I own Thomas Westinghouse and Alexis Duchanel. Sue me if you must, but I warn you now, I don't have anything of worth.
Vienna Austria 1996
Parry, kick, punch, duck, parry, repeated over and over. Thomas Westinghouse watched as his protégé fought the continuing onslaught of vampires. The 5"7' brunette slayer had been fighting the demons and other assorted creatures of the night since she was fifteen. A rather late calling, but she had been a protégé of the Watcher's Council for ten years, when she had come to England. Thomas had been her Watcher for the past two, her previous one dispatched back to England. Poor bastard, Thomas thought as he watched Alexis Duchanel dodge another punch from a rather surly fledgling. He made note in his journal that despite the large number of vampires waiting to have a go, Alexis was doing splendidly. A warm hand on Thomas' shoulder startled him out of his musings and his note taking. Turning he tried to hide his shock as he came face to face with the head of the Watcher's Council, Quentin Travers.
"M-m-Mr. Travers sir! What an expected surprise!" Thomas exclaimed, reflexively straightening his tie and running a nervous hand through his auburn hair. "Mr. Westinghouse. I see your slayer is still fighting. How goes the hunt?" Quentin Travers was a short, stocky, and balding British Aristocrat. His family had been involved with the Watchers council for centuries, given his tenure now as the Head of that society. He was known of his stoicism and his coldness. Thomas tried not to be nervous as his employer sized up his slayer. "Alexis-I mean Ms. Duchanel is exceeding expectations sir. She is in the midst of clearing out her fifth nest in three days. Quite remarkable really." Thomas explained, hoping upon hope that Travers would not notice his slip regarding Alexis. Travers was also known for his very strict rule of referring to slayers by last name only. They are things, objects to be used. Not people. Thomas shuddered as he remembered that particularly harsh lecture. He was startled out of his musings again when Travers began to speak. "So there have been no other episodes since the last one I presume?" He asked.
Thomas visibly gulped. He could not help it. His Slayer's outbursts were legendary among the up and coming watchers. She'd been having them her first session as a potential at age 7. The episodes consisted of the young woman running away and hurting anyone that dared to get in her way. When she became the active Slayer, the hurting increased however. During her last attempt she had broken the legs of three MI-5 soldiers and almost killed another. Though the Council had done everything to try to quell her desire to leave, including deep hypnosis, the young woman still tried to escape once a month, if not more. It was as if she was not meant to be there at all. Her favorite tactic was to disappear while on patrol. She had in fact, disappeared last week while patrolling Hungary. Luckily Thomas had found her before any of the operatives trailing them had to be notified. Thomas had not even bothered to report the incident.
"I'm not sure what you mean" Thomas asked, worry increasing for his Slayer. Perhaps her disappearance in Budapest had been noticed. Travers sighed and Thomas tensed. "I know your Slayer ran off last week. You're supposed to report any disobedience. Why didn't you?" Travers asked, the coldness creeping into his voice. "It was easily remedied the next day. If we had left the nests in Vienna and here preying…" Thomas began but stopped when he noticed Travers had stopped listening. Thomas followed his gaze and watched as Alexis was surrounded by more vampires. "There's a prophecy about her, did you know? She's supposed to be the one Slayer that defies the Council and separates herself and goes on to be the longest living Slayer. Do you have any idea what would happen with a rogue Slayer?" Travers asked. Thomas shook his head no, unable to voice his answer, as he watched what he presumed were Master Vampires begin to attack his already tired Slayer. "It begins with her death at the hands of the Master in Sunnydale, in America. Someone close to her saves her life. According to the prophecy it all goes down hill from there, as the Americans like to say. As Head of the Council, I'm afraid I cannot allow that to happen." Travers finished, waving his hand. Suddenly Thomas felt a bullet rip through his abdomen and then his chest. "Why?" Thomas asked, dropping to his knees, fighting to stay upright, for his Slayer's sake. "Because you were weak Thomas. You allowed yourself to think of the Slayer as a person, and not a tool. You were a weak link needing to be exterminated." The final bullet went through Thomas' neck, and Travers' motioned to the waiting vampires over. "Make it look good." He told them. The fledglings wasted no time attacked the slowly dying form of Thomas Westinghouse.
Travers' turned his attention to the Slayer. She was starting to wane. Travers motioned to the snipers on the rooftop above to open fire when the area surrounding Alexis and the master vampires was engulfed in bright blue light. The vampires were immediately dusted and Alexis was suspended –slowly beginning to rise into the air. "Open Fire!" Travers yelled. The snipers bullets only ricocheted off the blue light encasing the young Slayer. Suddenly without warning, as quickly as it had appeared, the blue light, and Slayer Duchanel, disappeared. Travers quickly rushed out to where the Slayer had been standing. Turning around in circles he stared up into the night sky. He then motioned to the snipers to take out the remaining vampires. Nothing neither living nor dying would be alive to tell about what really happened to the Slayer. He then took out his cell phone and quickly dialed a number. "Assemble the circle. We need to call a new Slayer. I will explain more when I return." At least the prophecy regarding this Slayer would not come to be.
Cleveland, Ohio 2005
Buffy Summers woke gasping for breath. The dream she had just had very much fresh in her mind. Her honey blonde hair was stuck around her temple-she felt like she had just fought an entire nest of vampires-and lost. As quietly as she could, Buffy tried to get out of bed-so not to wake the other person hopefully still sleeping in the bed. She walked to the window of the little apartment she and that other person shared and stared out into the Cleveland night. Buffy sighed as she tired to piece together the dream. She was so lost in her remembrance that she didn't feel the person behind her until his arms wrapped around her from behind. "Another dream?" He asked. Buffy nodded and let Xander envelope her in a hug. Their relationship-romantically anyway-was still new, but Buffy drew comfort from the fact that even though their dating relationship was new-her ability to lean on Xander was stronger than ever.
Xander held her close and hoped Buffy remembered more of the dream. The brunette one-eyed carpenter had not gotten a lot of sleep the last couple of nights because of this bizarre slayer dream. Then again, neither had Buffy. He didn't mind one bit though, it was all part of the dating Buffy Summers package. But his body, even thought he was only 23 couldn't handle much more strain from lack of sleep. "I'm sorry I keep waking you," Buffy said, breaking Xander out of his musings. "Nah, don't worry about it Buffy-my job remember. Now, what do you remember?" Xander asked, having led Buffy back to bed and grabbing the dream journal on the bedside table. As soon as the dreams had started Buffy had wanted to track the dream to help her remember so she could tell Giles and the rest of the Scoobies. "Where'd we leave off yesterday?" She asked as she bent her form to sit cross-legged on the bed. "Um, Travers confronting this Thomas guy." Xander told her as he sat perpendicular to her.
"Um okay, I think that the dream, or whatever you want to call it," Buffy began. "Technicolor Motion Picture with scariness" Xander supplied, making Buffy laugh. "Well whatever it is, it's done. Travers explained that the Slayer was a tool and Thomas had made a mistake in thinking of her, of slayers in general, as a person. He had Thomas killed. Then he mentioned the prophecy regarding the Master." Buffy then shared a look with Xander-both knowing what that night meant to the both of them. "What do you mean he mentioned that particular prophecy?" Xander asked, breaking the silence. "He mentioned the prophecy like it was meant to be for her, not for me. But the bizarre thing was this girl, Alexis, was totally rebelling against the council-way before I made it fashionable. She was going to be killed because she was the Slayer the prophecy the Council discovered, before Giles that the Master was going to kill. Why would the Powers or whoever show me that? She disappeared before she could be killed, but why tell me this?" Buff asked, flopping back on the bed in frustration. Xander shared it. Why keep her up with this dumb dream if it didn't mean anything? But before Xander could offer his opinion both his and Buffy's cell phone rang.
Xander handed Buffy her phone as she handed him his. How they had ended up on opposite sides of the bed was a mystery to them. Xander fielded a call from Dawn while Buffy took one from Faith. Buffy finished pretty quickly with Faith and was able to catch the end of Xander's conversation with her little sister. "Dawn, I know that's today. I won't forget. Yes, I promise to be there. I still don't know why it took so long for Dead-okay I won't call him. That. Yes, OK, I'll tell her. See you later." Xander hung up the phone and flopped down on the bed next to Buffy, face down on the mattress. "She's persistent." Buff said, flopping down to lay next to him. "That's putting it mildly. I'm just wigged out that my mom's will was at the place formerly known as Evil Inc. Why would she do that? I mean nothing she ever did made any sense, but going to Wolfram and Hart to file a will, that's odd, even for my mom." Xander explained. Buffy rubbed his back. "Who knows, but maybe this is good news. Anyway we need to raise the red flag about my dream to Giles ASAP." Xander turned quickly and eyeballed his girlfriend with his one remaining eye. "Faith just had the Reader's Digest of my dream. Only hers went further. Her dream showed this Alexis person returning from wherever she went." Xander's eye went wide. "So what's that mean?" "No idea, hence the red flag to Giles." Buffy rested her head on Xander's chest, the last couple days catching up with her. "But red flag later, sleep now. Giles probably isn't up yet." Buffy explained. Xander happily agreed.