Chapter 10

What? You expected facts?

A short comedy of conversational error later, and it becomes clear that while Kendra knew that Buffy existed, she didn't know that this was Buffy. Equally obvious is that Buffy had no clue about Kendra on either count.

Buffy made it a point to leave her mic on during the talk, and after warning Buffy that she was going to do so, Alex calls Giles.

There is a bit of a laugh in the voice of Rupert Giles as he answers his phone, though that ends quickly enough when he realizes who is on the line. "Giles residence, Rupert speaking."

Alex silently thanks whatever gods might be listening and prays that he can sort this out.

"Hey, Giles, Buffy is out on patrol and got in a fight with somebody named Kendra. They just did the equivalent of ten rounds in five minutes and then they bothered to talk. Giles, She says she's the Slayer. So, what did I miss in the whole "One girl in all the world" speech?"

The receiver is covered, Alex assumes by a hand, and there is a short, loud argument that she can't make out. Then Giles once again speaks to Alex. "Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I would ask that you pass along my request that the two of them come to my flat at their earliest convenience. Should it matter to Kendra, you can inform her that her Watcher, Mr. Zabuto, is currently enjoying my hospitality with a thoroughly annoying smirk on his face."

Alex thinks about that for a second.

"You mean this asswipe brought a second slayer on the Hellmouth and didn't bother to tell you? Is he trying to help the bad guys?"

Giles is obviously speaking through gritted teeth when he responds. "I will pass that information along as soon as I have a satisfactory answer myself. If there is nothing else, please pass my request along to Buffy."

Shaking her head, Alex hangs up the phone by her bedside and keys up the mic again. "Q to Slayer. The G-man requests your presence and that of your friend at your earliest convenience. I get the impression that your earliest convenience should be immediately. Also, you can let Kendra know that Zabuto is hanging out with Giles at the moment. I'll watch your back."

Kendra, getting perhaps understandably annoyed at being ignored, speaks to Buffy.

"Who is it dat you talk to in your little toy dere?"

Buffy offers a smirk. "Just a friend. I am being asked to head back to my watcher. Apparently a Mr. Zabuto is there too, and wants you to come along."

With that, Buffy turns and starts waking away.

"How do you know my watchers name? Why should I trust you?"

Buffy doesn't even bother to turn around, knowing that if she tries anything, she'll hear about it from Alex. "Fine. Don't come. Doesn't matter to me."

Finding herself being left alone in the cemetery isn't bothersome. But Kendra is finding it highly annoying that she lost control of the situation here somehow and doesn't even know how it happened. Hurrying after Buffy, she decides that silence might serve her best until her watcher can straighten things out.

Meanwhile, at Giles place.

"So, Zabuto. Care to explain to me why you brought a second slayer to my Hellmouth without telling me? Or why the bloody damned council decided I didn't need to know there was a second slayer to call on?"

The tall, slender, black man smiles and the brightness of said smile against the near coal black of his skin sets Giles back, as it always does. Sam Zabuto is a friend. A good watcher, and dedicated to the fight against evil. But what he has done here is all but condoning negligent homicide.

"Calm yourself, Rupert. These are but two of the topics that I must discuss with you this evening. Though, should it make you feel any better I had forbade my slayer from leaving the hotel until we had a chance to speak. I suspect that the curiosity of being on the actual Hellmouth got the better of her. I will have to have very strong words with her, later."

Sam sips daintily from the tea that Giles provided. As always, the sight of this stretched out lanky black man using a grip complete with pinkie up that the queen herself would be proud of brings a slight smile to Giles face.

"I want you to know at the outset that when I was told, I was against you not being made aware of the second slayer. There were those on the council that were concerned that if you knew, you would look at this as a way to retire your own charge if there seemed to be any diminishing in her abilities, and they wanted to attempt to make some progress in the fight for once, instead of this thrice damned holding action we have dealt with for centuries. Frankly, I can understand their point. You have always been quite protective of your charge and her little groupies. Had her power been stripped, obviously she would be pulled from service with thanks. But since that did not happen, well. You can imagine the senior councils stance on things. I'll not bore you with repeating it."

He takes another sip as Giles considers. Yes, he can well imagine their take on it. As long as she has the strength of a slayer, they will never leave her alone.

"As for why Kendra is here, the Council has tracked William the Bloody and Drusilla the Mad to the Hellmouth. Frankly, we aren't sure what they are up to, but whatever it is, it cannot be good. With two of the remaining three of the Scourge of Europe on your doorstep, plus the general Hellmouth bothers to go with it, it was felt that you might need a bit of help until they were put to dust or had left town."

Sam at this point sighs, and his eyes which had looked everywhere in the room but into those of Giles up to this point finally settled on him.

"The situation might not have called for me at all, except that there has been some concern about discrepancies and inconsistencies in your reports for the last month or two. A slip here or there they can ignore. Everyone does it, on accident or by design to protect an asset, say. But Giles. You had to know that when you described a spell caster able to somehow banish the likes of Eyghon, your own personal nemesis, and then you refuse to offer the name of your benefactor? Anywhere else on the planet, they might have been willing to ignore such a thing, as a courtesy. But an unknown quantity with that kind of power cannot be allowed to stay unknown on an active Hellmouth. You know this, Giles. I shouldn't have to be here to explain such things to you! Combine such an unknown with two master vampires the likes of William and Drusilla... You know the council is not a fan of circumstances. Frankly, had I not volunteered to come here and request an accounting as a friend, there was talk of pulling you back to England for an inquiry and replacing you here. You are a good man, Rupert. A good watcher and a staunch fighter against the evil that plagues the land. But we both know what would happen to you at an official inquiry, Ripper."

Giles' eyes widen as he feels the trap close around his neck. His options are becoming few. He can lie to Sam, always a risky proposition even were the victim of such a less shrewd man than Sam most assuredly is. He can leave the council, likely have his green card revoked and be back in London by spring break. He can refuse to answer, which will see him facing an inquiry that would almost assuredly go poorly for him. The rampage of his youth that earned him the unfortunate nickname Sam had taunted him with would be brought up without a doubt. Or he could throw Xander, now Alex, to these wolves and pray he could be forgiven by whatever is left when they were done with her. He is silent for a few moments. Then he looks at Sam. He looks at the man hard.

"Sam, I must ask. Do you trust me?"

Sam nods, though it must be said he does so hesitantly.

"I trust you to believe you are doing the right thing, Rupert. I do not trust anyone to always know what the right thing is."

Giles gives him a nod. That is a fair answer, and legitimately more than he expected.

"I require two days to confer with and explain things to the person I probably owe my life to."

Sam looks at him oddly. "That is not the way this works, Giles."

Giles cuts him off before he can continue. "That is how it works this time or you may as well wait a few minutes while I quickly pen my resignation for you."

Sam's eyes go wide and he jerks in his chair at the tone in the words he is hearing. 'My dear Giles,' he thinks as he studies his old friend. 'Who is it that has such power, yet you feel you are honor bound to protect so fervently?'

"Very well, you'll have your two days. Giles, please, I am your friend, whatever else you may think of me at the moment. Don't make me regret this."

When the Slayers arrive shortly thereafter, Sam makes some noise about the two patrolling together tomorrow evening in their efforts to find the two master vampires that are in town and then He takes Kendra and leaves.

Giles accepts her report and explains about William the Bloody and Drusilla the Mad being in town. Then he asks that she make sure to have Alex with her in the library come afternoon as soon as school lets out for the day. She offers him a confused nod, but heads home.

"Slayer to Q, did you get all that?"

Alex yawns. These late nights are getting to her a bit. She doesn't have the freaky slayer constitution to do this all the time. Though being in her bed while doing it probably isn't helping her on the staying awake front.

"Yeah, I heard it. So, the council sent somebody and now he wants to make sure to talk to me. I'll give you ten to one odds on a fifty dollar bet that part of the reason he's here is to investigate little old me."

Buffy sighs. "Yeah, no bet. Things were going so good, too. Stupid council. Stupid rules."

Alex thinks about it. "Wait, your talking about those rules where you have to work alone? Didn't I already disprove that crap when I wrecked a prophecy and literally brought you back from the dead?"

Buffy rolls her eyes at the stupidity of the world. "Yeah, and thanks again for that by the way. I know you didn't need to go with Angel. I'm just really lucky you did, since he told me he couldn't have done the CPR that saved me."

Alex is laughing so hard she almost chokes on her own spit when she finds herself having to sit up.

"Q? Are you okay?"

Alex gets herself under control. Barely.

"Oh, god that is some funny shit right there. Dead boy never bothered to tell you why he was there, did he? Buffy, both him and Giles were so sure you were doomed that they sat around on their worthless asses and waited to hear you were gone. I had to go to Angel's place and basically guilt trip the idiot into showing me where to go. As far as he was concerned, you were already dead. Ask him sometime what actually happened. I'd be curious to know if he admits the truth or just lies to your face."

Buffy has stopped walking. She wants to deny it. But thinking back, had Angel ever said anything that would contradict this? Or had he just avoided the conversation? Usually with a kiss. She starts walking towards home again, though a bit slower.

"I'm a little curious myself. I probably will ask him. Why did you come after me, anyway? I mean, don't get me wrong I am totally glad you did. But it was crazy dangerous for you."

Alex, having finally managed to get control of the last of her giggles, is sipping a bit of water from the glass on the bedside table before she answers.

"I have fairly compelling evidence it was pretty dangerous for anybody, Buff. But you're my friend. What kinda friend would I be if I let you walk into hell alone? Besides, anytime I get worried about whether or not I am doing the right thing in a dangerous situation, I just think 'What Would Buffy Do?' And... then I do a slightly more sane and less physically demanding version of that."

Buffy can't help but giggle at that a little bit. "Thanks again for the assist, Alex. Home now though. Can I borrow Skite and DW again tomorrow?"

After sending out the commands to his homunculus, she responds.

"Sure thing. Leave your window open though. I need to reload Drop Waddle for his guard duty, so he'll be making a trip here real quick. Sleep tight, Slayer."

"You to, Q. Hey, that rhymes!" Her transmission cuts out immediately after that, mid giggle.

A few minutes later, DW hovers into the room and sets down on the floor, where Green gives him a quick cleaning and checks him for wear, then reloads him. Then he leaves, a sense of pride in his little mechanical heart. He was useful. He was loved. He was needed. If there was anything better, it was probably a lie as far as he was concerned.

The next day at school.

Willow looks at Alex curiously as she approaches the big board that supposedly has everyone's future dream job on it. "So what did you get?"

Rolling her eyes, Alex responds. "Something called 'Artistic Expression and Interior Design.' How they got that from my answers I have no idea, because I just made a wavy pattern with the bubbles. My personal theory is that somehow Joyce and our arts teacher are conspiring against me. We may have to get Buffy involved with the teacher. Wouldn't be the first time."

Willow rolls her eyes at Alex's answer and then makes a move to go look at the board. Alex stops her.

"You're not up there. I checked."

Willow looks very much like she had just been told her dog had died.

In a blender.

That was also full of babies.

"Really? But I filled it all in, I even double checked to make sure all the little circles were full so the scanner wouldn't have trouble."

Buffy's voice pops up from behind them both.

"No Trouble Willow. You can join me for mine. I might need a witness or an alibi or something anyways."

Willow looks confused, and Alex grins having already seen it.

"Did you get bank robber or something? Is that a thing you can get?"

Buffy laughs.

"Nope. I got police officer. Woman. Whatever. Kinda not my thing. My plan is to participate until Snyder is done being a jerky jerk-face and watching my every move and then I am going to disappear into the library. Giles said he had an entry in one of his books on worm dude and I wanted to take a look. In case there are more grub assassins inbound."

Alex immediately looks at her. "See, now that is important. That is life saving. That is not interior design. That is what we should all be doing right... after we get done with this lovely career fair put on by the bestest principal ever." Willow and Buffy both look at her like she may have been dropped as a child. More than once. "Oh, sorry sir. I didn't see you there, standing behind Buffy like you were."

The two turn around and see that Snyder has come within millimeters of invading Buffy's personal space.

"I'll be watching you Summers. You and your little pack of felons in the making." He turns to Alex. "It's sad, too. After some of the things I had heard from your art teacher I had hoped that maybe you might be better than this."

Alex makes it a point to looks nervous. "Felons, sir? I don't want to get into any kind of trouble." Alex backs up a step. "Do you think they're dangerous?"

Snyder has a look on his face as though Christmas and St Valentines day had a kid and then chained her under his desk to keep him company on long days of filling out paperwork on malcontent idiots.

"Oh, yes. Summers is our resident bully and probable arsonist while Willow here was once joined at the hip with the most worthless scrap of flesh ever to darken my doors. Thankfully, he's been listed as missing or dead. Maybe she can straighten out now and fly right without that albatross tied to her neck.

Willow watches the blood drain from Alex's face and takes his hand to lead her away to the girls restroom, the one place of respite from the vile little man.

Shortly after their escape from the principal, Willow is requisitioned by a man in a business suit to go see some kind of special presentation with a senior named Daniel. A nice enough guy, though one known for having hair and nails of any color at any time and being able to justify it by being in a band.

Right after that, Alex gets shanghaied into the room that has been set aside for her.

Well, she's right. It must have been Joyce behind it, because it's Joyce in the room.

"Heya Mrs. S." Alex looks around. "So... What are we doing here?"

Joyce just smiles. "The school was looking for professionals in town to assist, and thinking of you I offered if they would make sure that you ended up with me. It wasn't a difficult sell, really. They would have had to gone to Los Angeles to find anyone more qualified. That covers what I am doing here. What you are doing here is listening for another..." She glances at the wall clock behind her and then back to Alex. "Forty eight and a half minutes. You have all the talent to make a huge splash, but there are a number of pitfalls that you'll need learn to navigate, and frankly, you are worth the effort. Also, doing it this way you actually have to listen. I know how teenagers work."

Alex grins. "Okay Mrs S. Shower me with the wisdom of the not-very-aged-and-still-looking-good-thank-you-very-much."

What follows is nearly an hour of hearing about shyster art dealers, museums that will offer the moon and then plead poverty, the need to always ask for half up front on all commissions, and many, many other tricks of the trade that Joyce believed would serve her well in the coming years. Some were obvious in hindsight and others the kind of mistakes that an artist might make their whole life if it wasn't pointed out to them. Once they are getting close to their time, Joyce waves her off to leave as she apparently has the "actual" group coming in next, and they are unlikely to be nearly as fun.

Checking the clock again as she walks out the door, Alex heads over to the station where Buffy should be meeting her cop, expecting that Willow would be heading there as well.

She is still pretty far away when the shot rings out. At her new shortened height it is tough to see what is going on, and with everyone running away from the gunfire and into her, it only makes it harder. Then she makes it clear. She sees Willow, on the floor. Sitting, with the hand of another student in her lap, tears again rolling down her face as Buffy sprints down the hallway after somebody, most likely another assassin. As she approaches, Willow looks up.

"He, he pushed me out of the way. He just saw the gun was going to hit me when Buffy ducked and he pushed. He saved me, Alex, can, can you?"

Sadly, Alex has to shake her head. Even if she had been here when it happened she doubted she could have saved the guy. Even with magic, it's tough to beat a bullet hole that goes in one side of the skull, and out the other. She kneels in front of Willow and her savior, some memory from a past life making her run her hand over his eyes and mumble a short prayer. Sorry, Oz.

Author's note.

Well, given the admittedly minimal, but still noticeable dissatisfaction I got in the comments concerning the Alex/Willow pairing, I can only imagine what this is gonna bring down.

But really, as much love and respect as I have for Seth Green as an actor and a creator, the character Oz was more or less a placeholder for "Willow's Romance Option" until Tara showed up when all was said and done. Even Seth admitted by the end that he wasn't doing much for the show, saying that his character was always better in small doses. Take away the relationship with Willow, and pretty much what he brought to the group was... Access to a van? Some dry wit? The occasional scene of some manner of quirky off beat comedy related to his lycanthropy? (Oddly full today?)

Long story short, I don't need him here. Sooo... Buh-bye!