Chapter Thirteen

"Hey, Giles, look at this." Willow shouted from the study. She had been going through the Council records that had been mysteriously made available for the last week. She had initially gawked at the available funds that the Council had had access to, had found the scanned copies of deeds to property all across the world that the Council owned, but what she had just uncovered trumped all of that.

Giles, who had been in kitchen making himself a cup of tea, sighed and rolled his eyes. One day, they will figure out that I am not deaf, he thought to himself. "What is it, Willow?" He asked in a moderately level voice.

"The Council owned an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with complete autonomy. It's not bound by any laws of any government in the world."

Giles nearly choked on his tea. Grabbing a towel to dab at his shirt, he quickly made his way into the other room. "What did you say?"

Willow glanced up at him before returning her attention to her laptop. "It's one of the files that was sent to me, but not from the Council databases. There's an island, out in the middle of the Pacific ocean that was claimed by The Triumvirate who, according to the other files, are the ones who founded the Council of Watchers. As the Council became more and more corrupted and insular, they slowly faded out of the wood-works, making sure most of the knowledge of them disappeared as well. They've been watching and tracking the progress of the Council and the Slayers, waiting for a time to reveal themselves once again, but only to someone that they considered worthy."

"Oh, dear Lord."

"Holy crap!" Willow suddenly squealed, her eyes going comically wide.

"What is it now?"

"They have a record book of every Slayer and Potential that seems to update as they are born and activated." She looked up at the Watcher. "It updates magically, and even indicated who's next in line. They included a video file showing the names appear. Giles, that means that they knew about Buffy the minute she was born."

"They knew and they let me slip through the cracks?" Willow and Giles looked up to see Buffy standing the doorway. "Why? A lot of our problems could have been straightened out if we'd had someone on their side that we could trust. Then again, how do we know that we can trust them, either?"

"I guess we could ask them the next time they make contact." Willow shrugged. "I assume they sent this stuff because they feel that we are worthy enough for them to take a chance on. We could put the new Council Headquarters and training academy on the island."

"Island?" Buffy looked surprised. "What island?"

- - - BtVS - - SG-1 - - -

Buffy looked around as she drank her bottle of water. Things were coming along faster than expected. When they arrived on the island last week, they'd found the building for the headquarters. It was creepy, to say the least, until they found an office with Giles' name on the door and a folder with information on the desk.

Everything had been build and set up for their arrival since the fall of Sunnydale by the mysterious group calling themselves The Triumvirate. They'd been instantly suspicious. Buffy, Faith, Xander and Sam had went over every brick and stone with a fine toothed comb, but found no signs of sabotage or booby-traps. Willow and a few members of the Coven had gone over the entire island, and the only magic they could find were for shielding and defense. According to Willow, the magic was the strongest she had ever encountered. When Buffy heard that, she had a hunch and asked her mother to call the Air Force, to see if they could detect island with their technology. An hour later, she received a phone call from her bewildered General, informing her that, not only could they not find the island, but the locator signal from her cellphone was not showing up on their tracking systems even though it was obvious that the phone was active.

Finally deciding that this had been set up for their benefit, and not as an elaborate trap, and praying that they're right and this doesn't come back and kick them in the teeth, they began setting up shop. The record book had turned up in what instantly became Giles favorite room. The underground chamber was filled, wall to wall, with the reference tomes that he'd assumed were lost in the explosion that destroyed the Council Headquarters in England. Giles ran his fingers over the aged spines almost reverently.

"So, now what?" She asked. They were all gathered in the den. "Where are we going to put the school?"

"We can't put it in Cleveland." Xander said immediately. "Demons would be attacking it every day."

"Not in LA." Buffy added. "Don't want to invade on Angel's turf. He's got that covered."

"What about Colorado?" Sam offered. "With the SGC at Norad, and the Air Force Academy nearby, there will be additional protection for the school."

"That's an idea." Giles said thoughtfully. "And with the things that you deal with, it would be beneficially to have an extra set of eyes and ears. Although, any land that we purchase will have to be considered the same as an embassy. As diverse as our organization will become, we cannot risk an international incident between governments. What happens on our lands is bound by our laws and our laws only, just as the old Council was."

"Hey, what if we do it like Hogwarts?" Dawn suddenly jumped up. "Send letters to the girls, inviting them to come to study."

Willow thought for a moment. "That could work. Treat the school like a prestige, by invitation only, type of academy. The only downside is that it would gain notoriety fairly quickly using that method."

"What about teachers?" Robin Wood asked. "I think we could probably get some Sunnydale vets in here."

Sam started. "As much as my superiors would hate me for saying this, I think you should consider bring in foreign teachers as well. Not all of these girls will be from the States, and they'd probably feel more comfortable with someone in a position of authority from their own homeland."

"That's a good point." Giles acknowledged. "According to some of the journals that Willow was kind enough to print from me to read, at one point, the Watcher's Council seemed to be spread worldwide until a about two centuries ago, when it was suddenly decided to withdraw support to the overseas houses and focus all energies on the Headquarters in England. About the same time, they started the doctrine of isolating the Slayers, so I can only assume that the two are interconnected."

"We'll have to set up some way to get cargo to the island." Xander pitched in. "Someone that we can trust, that we don't have to worry about selling us out to demons."

"We might be able to set up something." Sam offered. "Let me check with the general."

Buffy's brow lifted, but she nodded. "Wait a minute. Do we really want to make this a school?"

"What do you mean, Buffy?" Willow asked, confused.

"Well, if we do this, it'll involve girls from all walks of life, not to mention from all over the world." Buffy told them. "We'd need a valid, acceptable reason to suddenly be inviting them to a strange school in Colorado that suddenly pops up out of nowhere. I doubt most parents are like the ones in Sunnydale, just accepting whatever weirdness happens. They're going to want to know who runs the school, who's funding, and what makes their kids special enough to be invited there."

"She's got a point, Watcher-man." Faith agreed. "Not to mention, some people," She paused just long enough to raise her own hand. "don't like schools. Even if it was a 'privilege' to be invited, you'd never see me walk though the doors."

"So, what do you suggest?" Giles asked.

"A summer program." Sam offered after a moment. "Put out some sort of hidden message, so that the girls come to you instead of you going to the girls."

"That's a good idea, actually." Buffy realized. "With that book, we already know who's next in life if Faith falls, so we don't need to do hardcore training for all of them. If we make it a summer program that they can come to, voluntarily of course, then they'll at least be prepared if or when their name comes to the top of the line. That way, no one needs to be separated from their families, or switch schools."

"That still doesn't help with the international girls, though." Willow interjected.

"Set up one in every country, since you're going to put Council offices there anyway." Janet offered. "That would be easier than explaining why these girls should be coming to a foreign country."

"Yo, anyone heard from Rona, Vi and Kennedy?" Faith suddenly asked.

Willow nodded. "I spoke with them yesterday. That book on astral projection really helped. The demon population in Cleveland is growing, but their group can handle it for now."

"It's good experience for them, and a chance to use what they've been learning. Well, when we get back, we need to start rounding up the first of the girls." Buffy decided. "For now, we'll just be a training facility. School's about to be let out for the summer anyway, so we've got a little time to get things together. Giles, dig deep and see if you can find some of those allies the Council used to have. Sam, if you could get word to Major Riley Finn, we could get more contacts through him."

They continued making their tentative plans well into the night. The next morning, they all made their way down to the docks where the water helicopter was tethered. On loan from one of their contacts in the naval base in Florida, they had promised to have it returned in three days, and it was time for them to go. Faith and Wood would go to Cleveland, since that's where Faith would be stationed due to the Hellmouth, Giles was remaining on the island with Xander to get the unlived in Council building prepared for occupation, and Buffy, Willow and Dawn, along with Sam and Janet, were returning to LA to gather the last of their things and the rest of the girls. Many of the Potentials had been returned to their families, now that it was safe, but a few of them had no more family to return to. The Bringers had not been exactly quiet in trying to kill them, and at least three had had their whole families slaughtered in the process. A few of them had gone with the three oldest potentials, but most were still on light duty in LA under Angel's protection. They still stayed far away from Evil, Inc. Nothing Angel had said could convince Buffy that the Potentials would be safe at Wolfram & Hart, or any of their safehouses.

- - - BtVS - - SG-1 - - -

"Team One to Alpha." A voice crackled over communication lines. "The target has resurfaced."

"Good, Team One." Another voice responded. "Continue surveillance. Everything is in place, ready to go active at a moment's notice. Take her the moment she can be extracted without drawing attention. Disappearing off the map had severly affected our timeline."

"Affirmative. Team One out."