Jonathan O'Neill's Student Adventures
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Buffy universe or Stargate. However the story is all mine.
Finally finished with her long distance phone call, the tall, slender woman put down her mobile phone and checked her makeup in the mirror one last time. She had twisted her long auburn locks up in her signature style and was currently utilising two back-up wooden stakes, as a way of pinning her hair in place.
Sliding a small water pistol into a black thigh holster, she straightened her tan skirt and slipped on her brown knee high boots. Walking over to her side table, Anna checked the contents of her purse. Phone, mace, keys, and magically concealed throwing knives were among her must have list. Opening the door, she walked out into the bright Saturday afternoon in search of her breakfast companion.
Jon sat cross-legged on his bed; his light brown hair was in need of a cut, but in his attempt to assimilate aspects of the MTV generation he was currently sporting a more rough and shaggy look. The timeless, loose denim jeans with today's grey, long sleeve T-Shirt completed the typical student look.
Deep in thought, he had spent the whole morning in the same position. Kevin Lawson, his reasonably organised roommate had come and gone a few times while Jon contemplated his thoughts. The washing that he had sorted for today's washday lay forgotten with the ill-treated mathematics theory book on top.
Becoming aware of the bright sun that streamed through the bedroom window, he realised that he needed to leave if he was to make his breakfast rendezvous. Pulling on his green tennis shoes after putting on his trusty over sized leather jacket, he grabbed his keys and wallet and went out to greet the day.
Anna led Jon over to a seat in a public house that was off the beaten track. It was furnished with tables and chairs that had seen better days and the patrons were rough and world-weary. She watched as he took a close look around once they had ordered from the menu on the bar. "Don't worry, it's not a bar like last night. It's just a place where we can talk freely and we won't be bothered." Smiling at the Jon's subdued manner, she pushed the conversational ball into his court, "What do you want to know first?"
"Start from the beginning." He said. "We have time. Start with where they come from?"
"It's believed that before the time of man, there were a race of beings called Ancients who were able to open portals to other dimensions and the first Demons were here, since before man, from the dawn of our timeā¦." And so began Anna's story, for several hours she talked about the choosing of the first slayer, the shadow men, the Watchers who guided the slayers, the Council and then the she started filling him in on the events of Sunnydale and the calling of two slayers. She spoke of the first time that the two-man team of watcher and slayer became a group of Scoobies and the role of Buffy Summers in becoming the oldest living slayer in modern times. She then talked about the coming of the First and the worldwide calling of the potentials into Slayers. Being on a roll, she then went on to talk about the two souled vampires, demon hunters and Powers That Be.
Jon absorbed the story, "Are you saying that the government has no idea about all of this?"
Anna shook her head and started to reveal the role of the military, "There are special Hunter forces that are also part of the fight. They do the same as the freelancers, but get paid for it. They have more firepower, but less knowledge. They even ran a project out of Sunnydale once, but they mostly ended up pretty much dead. They created a soldier demon hybrid that we nearly couldn't stop."
"And you're saying that the slayers are all young girls? Children."
She smirked at his incredulous expression and took a pull from her cigarette. "Yes. Don't ask me why, I don't know. We are and have always been female, but in the early slayer times when the process began, people didn't have health care, so lived far shorter lives. Jon, 12 were considered adult. With the number of slayers we have now that's all changed and the younger mini-slayers are trained but don't fight unless there is an end of the world type need. Even with the gifts of Seer dreams, increased strength, faster healing, speed and the slayer spider sense, the average life expectancy for us was one year after being called. Buffy has been around for 9 years and that was previously unheard of. It's all changing, the older the slayer get to be the less need there is for children to fight."
After a pause as the young man thought about all the young girls that had died in defence of an unknowing world, 'Another case of children fighting on the frontlines.' He asked, "When were you called?"
"I was called about 2 years ago. I spent a year wondering what the hell was wrong with me. I wondered kept sneaking out at night and wandering around graveyards. Looking for fights. I'm lucky that the Coven, a group of powerful wikka, found me. I now have some training on how to manager the slayer urges, but I tend to just patrol the nightlife. Not being near a hellmouth, it's pretty quiet around here most of the time."
"I suppose a Hell mouth is what I think it is?" She smiled and nodded her pretty head.
"One of the original portals between dimensions."
"Do you have a Watcher?" Jon wondered if he had somehow missed seeing a close colleague of Anna's over the year that he had known her. Anna was looking thoughtfully at Jon.
"No. I share a communal one. We're still recovering from the destruction of the Watchers Headquarters in London over 2 years ago. We're still finding and training new slayers, but the number of trained Watchers to new Slayers ratio is still very low. A Slayer needs her Watcher to watch her back and from what I've seen, there is usually a strong bond between them. The more people there are watching a Slayer's back, the longer she'll last. Buffy had between 2 to 4, "Scoobies,""
"So you're looking for your own team to watch your six." He asked, ignorant of her intent gaze.
"Yes, Jon. Someone who can tell a rabbit demon to shove it, two minutes after fighting a beefed up vamp would be a good choice don't you think? Fancy helping me to save the world? I promise you it won't ever get old."
"Me? Anna, I don't know anything about the world you live in." He played with the empty plate.
"But it doesn't scare you either, does it?" Anna threw back at him. "You walked into a demon bar as if it was a stroll in the park and you followed instructions, to a point. Then, when challenged, you followed some good instincts Jon, and made him think twice."
"It was a test?"
"You wouldn't have believed me fully until I rubbed your nose in it, but yes Jon after my thrilling tree jump it became one. And you passed."
"Let me think about it. Ok? I kind of had a different future mapped out." Rising from their seats and pulling on jackets to stave of the slight evening chill, Anna stood and contemplated telling Jon the last bit of information.
Making up her mind, she moved closer and whispered for a moment into his ear.
A/N
Hope I'm keeping you interested.
