London, England: December 1992

Stepping reluctantly out of the relative warmth of Heathrow Airport, Midori pulled her heavy grey wool coat tighter around her body to defend against the cold damp air of the London winter afternoon. After five years of travelling around the deserts of Northern Africa and the Middle East looking for various magical and demonic artifacts for the Council the weather of her father's home country was indeed foreign to her now. Certainly deserts got cold at night, but somehow the dry cold just didn't seem to sink into the bones as deeply.

Turning dark hazel eyes up to the slate-grey sky Midori breathed in the damp air feeling the slight sting in her lungs. It wasn't even as cold as it would get in her native Hokkaido in winter, the air was damp and cold, but it smelled of rain not snow. Very cold rain. Aah, good old England indeed, she had missed it so. Pulling her one small suitcase with her towards the curb, she ran an impatient hand through her thick dyed-red hair as she searched the surrounding area for the car the Watcher's Council had sent to bring her to the Headquarters.

They still hadn't told her exactly why she was even being summoned; only that the Council had a very important assignment for her and she had to come see them immediately. No asking if she wanted this mysterious new assignment, no thought on their part that maybe she would like to continue working with the charming older professor type Dr. Greenwood. Not that this was necessarily bad, she reflected. It's not as though Dr. Greenwood had ever given her any indication that he saw her as anything more than a talented young colleague, perhaps a protégé even, but never as someone to have romantic feelings towards. She'd tried everything short of morally questionable magicks to get him to notice her, but had been slowly accepting that nothing would be happening between them at least not in the near future. Still, it would have made her feel nice if the Council had at least pretended to care.

Her worn brown leather boots thudded heavily on the cement as she finally caught sight of the conspicuous looking black luxury town car, complete with smartly dressed young driver in his tailored suit and impeccably styled short dark hair standing next to it on the curb. It always both involuntarily impressed and annoyed her how much the main London branch of the Watcher's Council flaunted the wealth of the organization. Just as she was putting her bag into the opened trunk ignoring the young man's offer of assistance, she felt the first drops of cold rain hitting the tanned skin of her cheeks, sending the chill of the day deeper.

She rolled her eyes as she looked up from slamming the trunk shut a bit more forcefully than necessary to see the young man's eyes unconsciously drifting to the few drops of rain slowly trailing down her neck to disappear into her cleavage. Surely she'd dressed in clothes a bit more form fitting than was usual in the Old Boys' Club that was the Watcher's Council, but the kid looked like he'd never seen someone with breasts before. Well even if I turned thirty this year, at least I've still got it.

Tired of being ogled in the cold rain, Midori again disregarded protocol as she jogged around to the front of the vehicle, opened the front passenger door herself and sat in the front seat. "Shotgun!" She called enthusiastically, chuckling a bit at the surprised look on the young driver's face. "Come on Junior let's get moving, Travers is no doubt getting his knickers all in an uncomfortable bunch waiting for me." She laughed louder as the flustered young man hurried around to the driver's side as quickly as he could without actually running. Maybe this trip won't be all bad.

-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-

Midori grimaced slightly as she double checked her appearance in the mirror of the small room where she would be staying for the next couple days while she was briefed on her new assignment. The room was obviously decorated to masculine tastes, but still the heavy dark wood bookcases and large comfortable looking chair along with the small bed with equally comfortable looking thick oversized dark wool blankets made the small room feel like home.

She had pulled her thick red hair back into a loose ponytail, and had chosen a casual fitted light blue sweater with a more conservative neckline than what she had worn on the plane, and a pair of nice black dress pants. On her feet however, she still wore her well worn dark brown leather boots, although she had bothered to clean them off a bit. She hoped that her look managed to convey that she cared enough about her appearance to put in a bit of effort, but that she didn't care about Mr. Traver's opinion so much that she was willing to get all dressed up for him.

Midori had something of a love-hate relationship with the Watcher's Council. From the time she when she was a young girl growing up in Hokkaido with her mother she had been told about how it was part of her family's tradition that they trained to be the guardians of the young girls who might be chosen to protect their world from the forces of evil. These girls were potential Slayers. It is a story at once ridiculous and beautiful, the story of the Slayer.

She remembered even now the first time her father had told her of the prophecy. Into every generation a Slayer is born: one girl in all the world, a chosen one. She alone will wield the strength and skill to fight the vampires, demons and the forces of darkness; to stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their numbers. She is the Slayer.

When she had first heard it, Midori had been in awe of the idea of such a mythical hero, and had asked her father if she was this Chosen One. He had simply shaken his head seriously, "No little one, that is not our role. Our role is to be this Slayer's teacher. We help guide her in learning how to effectively wield her natural strength and skill as well as offer our support so that she need not face the darkness of her calling alone. Some in our profession don't see our duty as exactly that, but this is what I'm telling you. The Slayer protects the world from the darkness, but it is the job of the Watcher to help protect and guide the Slayer, to use all of his knowledge and experience to give her the best chance she has in the fight."

After she had graduated from her last year of high school at sixteen and travelled to England with her father to begin Watcher training however, she began to see that not all of the Watchers seemed to adhere to his idealistic view of how a Slayer should be trained and treated. It seemed that lately the Council was treating the Slayer as little more than a simple weapon that they wielded instead of a young woman who needed a friend and mentor to help her to shoulder an impossible burden. She had almost quit the Council then but her father had convinced her to stay. He said that the Council would be around with or without her, and the more good Watchers who took their calling for the right reasons, the better chance there was that these girls, these Potentials who might be chosen and the Slayer herself, could lead lives as close to normal as possible.

Midori shook her head to clear her mind from the memories before grimacing as she grabbed her reading glasses from the dresser. She'd been reluctant to admit that she needed them, as she greatly disliked anything that might make her look old, but she knew that if there was a meeting with Quentin Travers then there would be paperwork, especially with a new assignment pending.

Still feeling a bit chilly Midori also removed a beat up, slightly oversized, dark brown leather coat from her pack. It had seen better days with patches of newer leather on the elbows and various other places, not all of it the same shade as the original. Still she couldn't bring herself to get a new one as it had been her father's, he had given it to her before her first assignment in the desert. He had died one year later without them being able to speak again. His funeral was the one time she had briefly returned to Japan since leaving at sixteen all those years ago. Her mother had passed only a year later. Her mother's family had never been close to her, even though she carried her mother's last name, as they had never approved of her marrying a foreigner, mostly because Midori looked and acted so much like her father. They hadn't even attempted to get in touch with her. She had found out in a letter from an old friend from high school who had been wondering why she hadn't attended the funeral.

Midori let out a soft growl as she roughly rubbed an eye with the heel of her palm frowning at the moisture in them. Guess they haven't dusted in here recently. Midori wouldn't disgrace her father by being overly emotional like that even if it was in the privacy of her room. Especially when she was getting ready to go see the head of the Council: Mr. Travers was not a man that one showed weakness to. And he was certainly just the kind of man to view emotions as weakness.

Slowly she made her way towards Travers' office, dusty boots clunking irreverently on spotlessly polished hardwood floors. She nodded politely to the few Watchers that she recognized and ignored the snobby down the nose looks of disgust from others. Forgot just how much everyone in this place loves me. She chuckled to herself, using the amusement from the pettiness of the place to lessen her nerves to an acceptable level. For an organization that is in charge of training young girls to be warriors they sure do get offended by someone who looks like they sometimes get their hands dirty.

Reaching the glass paned outer door of Travers' offices Midori entered without pausing to gather any courage as she knew it would fail her once she was passed the mousey looking middle-aged secretary anyway. "Hey, I'm here to see Travers." She said by way of announcing herself.

The primly dressed secretary who had apparently been doing paperwork of some sort jumped slightly and looked up, thin lips narrowing with disapproval upon seeing Midori. "You have an appointment with Mr. Travers?" The woman spoke, her tone indicating that she thought it more likely Midori had accidentally stumbled into their office off the streets, regardless of the security in place to prevent such things.

"Midori Sugiura," Her bored tone indicated that this whole thing was no big deal, "Travers called me in from the field, something about a new assignment. I just got back from Egypt last night." Midori let out a slight laugh at the look of shock in the secretary's squinty blue eyes when she actually saw the redhead's name on the appointment list.

"I'll just let him know you're here Ms. Sugiura." The woman spoke, now hesitant as she struggled to stand, stumbling slightly as high heeled feet attempted to support her rather portly frame. Midori tried somewhat successfully to repress her smirk as the brunette manoeuvred over to the door to Travers' inner office, knocking stiffly before opening the door slightly to poke her head in. "Sir, a Ms. Sugiura is here to see you."

Midori vaguely heard Travers' distinct emotionless, yet cultured tones stating that he was ready to see her. Her smirk was gone as she nodded in thanks to the secretary before heading into the richly furnished office of Quinten Travers, trying not to be obvious about wiping suddenly sweaty palms on her trousers.

"It is good to see you again young Ms. Sugiura."

"Just Midori please." she said, taking the offered hand and returning his firm handshake, wondering idly what kind of moisturizer he used to keep his skin so soft. "It's good to see you again too sir."

"Well Midori, have a seat please as our business might take a while to get through. Would you like me to have my secretary get us some tea?"

"No that's alright." She said, taking the slightly uncomfortable chair in front of Travers' large desk while he sat in the large custom-made leather chair behind it. Truthfully now that she was actually here in the same office as this strangely intimidating man for the first time in years, she didn't she should risk eating or drinking anything. "Your correspondence telling me to return to England was rather vague sir." She offered, hoping that perhaps getting right to business might calm some of her nerves.

"Indeed, but as the specifics or even general nature of your new assignment are all classified there was no helping the vagueness." His businesslike tone gave no hints.

"Classified sir?" She was beyond surprised; normally such missions would be given to one more experienced than her or at least someone in one of the Council's special divisions.

"I realize that it is rather irregular to give an assignment of this nature to one as green as yourself, but alas you are the only one who would be qualified."

The cold, dismissive tone stirred Midori's pride, "I assure you sir, I will be the best for this assignment. You can count on me to get the job done, no matter what it is."

The balding man's thin lips stretched out in what on another face might have been a smile. "Your youthful enthusiasm is quite reassuring. In fact, I am hoping that your youth might work to your advantage on this assignment." He opened the large, new-looking folder on his desk and seemed to hesitate as he looked at the information it contained. "I am sorry, but this is a difficult subject."

Midori was concerned; Travers was a man who always seemed to have an answer for everything. Even if his answer was one that Midori personally disagreed with, he was not a man who hesitated. "What is this assignment about sir?" She was further surprised when meeting his brown eyes, she saw that they seemed to contain concern, an emotion she had never seen the cold man display.

Travers' cleared his throat slightly before responding with a suspiciously roughened voice, "It would seem that a branch of the Watcher's Council that broke off from ours centuries ago has been… experimenting." He spat out the last word, his disgust with the notion clear. "They were attempting to… create a Slayer."

For a moment Midori was certain she had heard him incorrectly, but his grave expression mostly convinced her otherwise. "C-create a Slayer?" Midori asked around her suddenly tight throat, "I thought that was impossible! The first Slayer was created before humans even had writing to record such a ritual."

"We had thought that to be the case. However, it would seem that there was a record of the event in a demonic language that this faction was able to locate. They were able to complete the ritual two years ago, using a Potential so young and from such a remote community that we had not located her yet." He locked his eyes with Midori's, "We are not certain how old she was exactly when they turned her into a Slayer, but the operative who found the location of their facility said that she couldn't be older than his daughter who is only eight."

Midori gasped, "Eight? But Slayers aren't called until they are in their early teens at the very youngest!"

He dropped his eyes, "Yes… well as I said they wanted to make sure that we would not learn of anything happening to a Potential before they could complete their ritual. Apparently the ritual required the alignment of certain planets or some such thing and had to be performed when it was without interruptions."

As she pondered the implications of this disturbing information, one question was selfishly bothering her more than she thought it should. Still, she could not help but voice it, "This is rather disturbing. But, sir… I don't understand, what is my part here?"

Now he looked back at her, his eyes now shining with amusement, "Well Midori, I was hoping that you would be her Watcher."

Suddenly even the simple act of breathing seemed difficult. "You want me to be her Watcher? But sir, I only finished the basic training a few years ago and I have been doing research fieldwork this whole time… and don't only really experienced Watchers get assigned Slayers?" However even as she was questioning his judgment, she desperately wanted this. That poor girl must feel so alone, she needs me. She set her jaw, waiting for his response.

"Normally that would be the case, but as I have said this is a very unique circumstance. As an organization we unfortunately have more fluent speakers of ancient Sumerian and Latin than some extant languages and as she is from your home country, you are already one of the only Watchers qualified. Most of our other agents in Japan were found to be… compromised by affiliations with this rogue group. As for the remaining candidate, well let us just say that she did not respond well at all to him. We are also hoping that she might respond more positively to you since you are female and there were not many women who worked at the facility and none that she had regular direct contact with." His tone indicated his both his reluctance to entrust her with an assignment of this magnitude, but also his near desperation that she accept it which gave her a bit of hope.

"Of course I would be honored to be her Watcher." Her tone became steely, "But I won't have a mere child being assigned full Slayer duties, she is much too young! And she has been effectively held prisoner for two years, she needs to be allowed to catch up with her book education and learn to be human again not just train to be a Slayer."

"Don't worry Midori. She won't be training as a Slayer too seriously for a while yet. We don't even know yet exactly what her abilities are; we only have the biased reports of these bastards who did this foolhardy thing to go off of. Also as we have no records of any Slayer who has been called before puberty it is impossible to know what kind of effect that will have on her normal development or the extent of her abilities at this point." He paused to collect his thoughts a bit, "We are working with our contacts in the Japanese government to try to get you custody of her provided that she responds well to you. One of our retired agents, Hirotaka Fujino who also happens to be… independently wealthy, has offered you employment as a personal trainer for his daughter in naginatajutsu and for your Slayer to perhaps train with her sometimes."

"Fujino-san was a friend of my dad's." Midori commented absently, her mind reeling with the idea of having a Slayer, especially one with such unique needs.

"You must understand though, no one in our organization can know that another Slayer-line exists. Because of that you are officially being fired from the Council as of today."

"Uh-huh… wait, FIRED?" She turned hazel eyes back to his, angry. "How am I supposed to bloody support myself and my Slayer if I'm not employed with you all?"

"As I said, you will be working with Mr. Fujino. He will be reporting to us periodically in a coded way. He and his wife both come from rather wealthy families, you will find that you and your Slayer will be able to live quite comfortably. I am sorry Midori, but this is the only way I can think of to ensure the safety of both of you."

Midori sighed, she should have thought of that, "It's alright sir, I understand why now, this is just a lot to take in. This is really the last thing I was expecting to hear from you today."

"Indeed. Well the positive side to this is that the paperwork involved with being fired is significantly less than the paperwork involved with taking on a Slayer." His eyes again twinkled with seldom shown amusement, and Midori wondered at seeing this side of a man that she had previously thought to be just a cranky old bastard. "We will still perform the oath tomorrow night, but until then you can have some free time to prepare yourself for this assignment." Midori jumped as he suddenly raised his voice, "I am sorry Ms. Sugiura, but the lack of seriousness with which you treat your position is just not something we want in this organization. You are dismissed!"

Midori rolled her eyes at the smug look on the secretary's round face as she walked past her desk on the way out of Travers' office. She was going to have to take a cab to stay at some crappy motel until tomorrow night now, but still she had to fight to keep the huge grin off of her face. Even though she knew that this was going to be the most difficult thing that she had ever done. I don't care how she was Chosen, my Slayer will do great things. And I will do my best for her.

-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-BtVS-MH-

They met the following night on a remote hilltop out in the countryside that had been warded by some of the most powerful wiccans in the Devonshire Coven so that passersby would not see it. Because of the covert nature of Midori's assignment they were performing an abbreviated ceremony with only herself, Travers and an officiator who had signed a magical contract that prevented him from ever speaking to anyone of this.

It took all of Midori's concentration to keep her feet moving as she approached the officiator to take the ceremonial dagger from him. Travers already stood at his place inside the magical circle holding the heavy magicked tome that held the records of every Slayer and her Watcher since the founding of the Council. "…Sir," She spoke hesitantly, wincing at how loud her voice sounded in the cold, silent winter air. "If my assignment is supposed to be secret, how is it that it can go in the records?"

Travers spoke sternly, his annoyance at her questioning him obvious, "Only the head of the Council is allowed to look at the official record. Now let us get on with this before we all freeze."

"Yes sir." She replied sheepishly, before stepping confidently into the circle. She was ready for this.

Travers then opened the old book, holding it face up on his palms. "The Watcher's Council calls upon Midori Sugiura to be the guardian of the new Slayer. It will be her task to help train the Slayer to fight the darkness in this world." He nodded to Midori.

"I Midori Sugiura vow to do all within my power to properly train the Slayer in strength and knowledge. I promise to assist her in her fight with all that I am. My magic is hers. My life is her life. I give my life to her success." Midori held up her right palm and with a quick motion slashed it deeply her face showing no hint of pain as she held it over the book, allowing her blood to drip onto its pages. "I give my life for the Slayer, I am her Watcher." Now tears came to her eyes which she did nothing to hide as she realized more fully just what having a Slayer meant. She was not so worried about giving her life, but knowing that her Slayer would likely lose her own life first… "My life is hers and I shall guide her in all things. I am her Watcher." She murmured softly completing the oath, and again lowering her hand to her side. She did not even hear Travers and the officiator finishing the ceremony she was so lost in thought.

"Midori!" Finally Travers' voice broke through the din of her thoughts. "It's done, let's get going before we all catch our death of cold out here."

"Of course…"

He gently took her elbow, guiding both of them carefully down the ill-kept path on the hill towards the car parked in the distance. "Now your plane leaves first thing tomorrow morning, we couldn't get you a direct flight even to Tokyo so you'll have to change planes in Hong Kong. Once you get to Tokyo you will be taking a private plane to Hokkaido where a driver should meet you to take you to the facility." He held out a well-stuffed envelope. "Here are your tickets, as well as all of the information we have about this Slayer. Good luck Midori, I have faith in you to carry out this assignment admirably."

"Thank you, sir." Midori replied, finding it difficult to speak. "I will do my best for her."

"I know you will."