No Foothold
by Justin P.

There are some things that Watchers never learn. There are some things that they are not taught, and there are other things that they never allow themselves to consider; are never allowed to consider.

This ignorance is deliberate. The barriers to certain types of information, to certain ways of gaining knowledge, are maintained and policed with a ruthless hand, though sometimes a Slayer will live long enough to gain forbidden knowledge of her own. They never last long enough to do anything with it, and the Watchers themselves are rarely forced to make the final blow. In the end, the Slayer always loses. Loses focus, loses the fight -- the knowledge of her own darkness seems to break something inside of her, to send her into a self-destructive spiral that ends spitted on claws, torn by fangs, torn to shreds.

Watchers who go too far are always killed. There is no other choice; there are no second chances given. Slayers are short-lived. They can afford to dabble in the grey areas. They come, they go, and they take their various corruptions with them. Death always claims them before they go too far, and though the next little girl in line may get the power, the knowledge is as dead as her predecessor.

Watchers are different. Watchers survive.

Some begin by seeking revenge for dead Slayers. Others are looking for a way to hold the night back once and for all. Some are simply curious. In the end, the result is the same. They push too hard, ask dangerous questions, dip their fingers in shadowed waters -- and they are dealt with. The darkness can be allowed no foothold. Individual Watchers may be human, but the Council is not. It cannot afford to be. It is a purifying flame, and must always remain so - and there is no mercy in fire.
Author's Notes: This is unbeta'd. Please forgive (and feel free to point out) any mistakes.

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