New Watcher in Town Chapter 3
After he had regained his breath, Crispin slowly got back to his feet.
"Next," He said, still having trouble breathing, "Will be the vaulting horse."
"I know the drill - stand on one hand, staff in the other."
"I see you and Xena have been talking. No matter. Yes, upon the horse, but without the staff."
Buffy put both hands on the grips, vaulted upside down, and then balanced on her right hand.
Crispin picked up her staff where she had dropped it, and swung it like a baseball bat at her head. With her free hand, Buffy caught the staff with a loud smack, and with a quick jerk, punched him in the midsection with his end of it, again knocking the breath out of him.
"Oops." She mocked again as she landed on her feet, "Dreadfully sorry."
"She's doing quite well," Anya said, "Don't you think?"
"That's my Buffy." Willow answered proudly.
After fifteen minutes or so, Crispin's breathing had returned more or less to normal.
Taking out the bandana, he said, "Just one more test."
Buffy slowly put on the blindfold, allowing her Slayer Senses to take over.
She heard Crispin take the crossbow out of the cabinet, draw back the string and place the arrow. When he kicked off his shoes, her nose curled slightly at the smell of the foot powder. As he had done with Xena, he slowly circled Buffy. But it was in an ever shrinking spiral. When he stopped, he was in front of her, less than ten feet away. He slowly pointed the weapon at her face, then pulled the trigger.
Buffy heard the twang and sensed the projectile speeding toward her head, but she never moved. She felt the wind as it shot past her, not two inches from her ear. When she heard it thunk into the wall she removed the bandana.
"Playtime's over." She said, dropping the bandana to the floor.
As she walked toward the door, Crispin was left with a perplexed look on his face. He KNEW he aimed it between her eyes, but somehow the arrow had missed its target by almost six inches.
Letting the door revert back to its opaqueness, Willow and Anya returned to the counter.
"THAT was odd." Buffy said to them. "I didn't expect him to miss me completely."
"He didn't." Willow confessed. "He was so close to you I was afraid you wouldn't be able to dodge out of the way in time, so I altered the arrow's course."
"Thanks. I just hope he doesn't get suspicious about it. But before he comes in, you better scat. He might think it's strange that you're still here. I'll see you at home later."
"Yeah, you're right. See y'all later."
A few minutes later, Crispin entered the retail part of the building.
"Perhaps I underestimated your abilities." He said to Buffy. "But that doesn't mean we can neglect your training. I expect to see you and Xena here tomorrow morning at 9 a.m."
"Isn't that kind of early?"
"Well, if I'm to be Watcher to the both of you, that means we will have to work twice as hard and twice as long."
"You mean Giles isn't going to be a Watcher for one of us?"
"Certainly not. Mr Giles is on temporary suspension while I am here. Didn't he explain that to you?"
"Well, yeah he did, but I thought with Xena here...." And Buffy's voice trailed off.
Crispin "officially" took over Giles' Watcher duties the next day. Buffy and Xena had to be at the Magic Box when it opened at 9 a.m. each morning for training. The routine never varied: fifteen minutes of stretching, thirty minutes of calisthetics, fifteen minutes of running in place, fifteen minutes on the speed bag, and twenty on the heavy bag. Then Buffy and Xena would have to spar, lightly, with gloves and head gear for twenty minutes. And then thirty minutes working out with the staves, and target practice with the crossbow. He also started them throwing the stakes, more target practice, because "you never know."
And then they would spend a half hour each wearing the blindfold while Xena or Buffy, depending on who wore it, would attack the other with the different weapons - staff, sword, stake.
Afterward, they were free for the day until 4 p.m. They would then return for another workout. But instead the exercises, Crispin would have them sparring again, but with more intensity.
After several sessions it became clear that even though Buffy was smaller and faster than Xena, and was able to land more blows, Xena was stronger and the blows she landed had more impact. The net result was about the same amount of "damage" to each other, which was neglible, since both absorbed the punishment with little or no effect.
Finally, they would go over maps of Sunnydale, discussing stragedy, the possible location of vampire dens, and the best routes to cover while patrolling.
At sundown one or the other would patrol. Unless a den was located, Crispin would forbid them to patrol together. Whichever would go out, alone, he would follow, evaluating them. Of course the one left behind would be following Crispin, just to make sure.
"I have to admit," Buffy was saying to Xena one afternoon over lunch, "Ol' Crispy's pretty good with this training stuff. I actually think I'm doing better. I seem to have more stamina, I'm faster, and my Slayer Senses seem to be more acute. I think I may be a better Slayer."
"I have to agree with you. I never thought much about my skills. I just took them for granted, I guess. I wonder how Giles feels about all this."
"I haven't said anything to him. He feels bad enough about it as it is. I think he feels kind of useless."
"You know, I just realized it's a new moon tonight. I always hated patrolling during a new moon. It just seems so much darker."
"Then you have nothing to worry about, tonight's my night." Xena replied.
"Don't you hate it?"
"Buffy, you forget, we don't have the bright lights shining at night where I come from like you do. I'm used to the dark nights. The street lights will be plenty bright enough for me."
"Well, be extra careful then. And I'm not just talking about the vamps. I won't be able to see Crispy that good. If he was going to make a move, tonight would be the ideal time to do it."
"I'm not worried. With you watching out for me, I've got nothing to be afraid of."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence. I think we make a pretty good team. Not a good as you and Gabrielle, of course, but as far as Slaying goes...."
"I feel the same way. If things were different, I think we could be even better friends than we are now."
As Xena and Crispin were leaving the Magic Box to start patrolling, Anya told Xena she had a phone call.
"Hello?" Xena said, still not quite used to it.
"Xena, it's Buffy. Kinda bad news. Dawn is sick, bad food at school or something. I'm going to have to stay here with her so I won't be able to follow you and Crispy, but Willow and Gabrielle volunteered to go. Is that okay with you?"
"Sure. You take care of her and I'll see you in the morning."
"Who was that?" Crispin asked.
"It was Buffy. Dawn is sick. She thinks she might have eaten something at school that didn't agree with her."
"So why would Miss Summers call you about something like that?"
"Maybe because she knows I care about Dawn, and if she has to take her to the hospital, I'll know where they are." Xena lied.
"I hope this won't distract you in any way."
"I don't think it will, I'm a big girl."
As Buffy predicted, it was a very dark night. Even the street lights seemed less bright than usual. But it didn't really bother Xena. She figured that if it was hard for her to see any vampires, it would be just as hard for them to see her. And as she told Buffy, she was used to dark nights.
After a half hour Xena realized that Willow and Gabrielle were following them, but she felt they were too close to Crispin, so she yelled out. "Hey Crispin, aren't you a little TOO CLOSE? Shouldn't you DROP BACK SOME?"
"You needn't shout. I can hear you just fine. And no, I don't think I am too close. You just do your job, and I'll do mine."
Satisfied that Willow and Gabrielle were now far enough back, Xena continued patrolling. It was a relatively quiet night. Perhaps even vampires disliked it when it was so dark - hard to find prey to feed on.
As the hours passed, Xena was getting bored. "Almost a waste of time." She thought to herself. "A little longer and I'm going to call it a night."
"What time is it?" Gabrielle whispered to Willow. "This is SO boring."
"It's almost midnight. As slow as things are I wouldn't be surprised if Xena decides to go home." Willow whispered back.
Just as they got to the edge of the park, Xena stopped as if she was listening. At the same time, Willow whispered to Gabrielle, "Do you see that?"
"What?"
"That glow around Crispy? That purplish red glow?"
"No. Are you sure?"
"I'm positive. Can't you see it?"
"I see Xena and I see Crispy, but I don't see any glow."
"Well, I do. And I don't like it!"
As they moved closer to Crispin, they saw that the glow had extended out to encircle Xena, who still hadn't moved. And slowly they saw his arm rise up, a long pointed object in his hand."
"XENA!" Gabrielle shouted out. "Look out! Turn around!"
But Xena was frozen in place. As Crispin walked closer to her, arm still raised, Gabrielle ran toward him, and launching herself into the air, she landed against his back with her shoulder. And for all the effect it produced, she might as well have hit a stone column.
As she bounced off Crispin's back to the ground, Willow tried using her magic to make him stop. When that didn't work, she tried turning him aside, still with no result.
Slowly Crispin approached Xena. And with Gabrielle still yelling at Xena, Willow, in desperation, did the only thing she could think of - speaking as fast as she could, she recited the spell that brought them to Sunnydale backwards. And as soon as the final word was spoken, the spell was broken and Xena and Gabrielle were returned to their own time and their own world.
For the space of a few seconds Crispin stood looking at the spot Xena had just disappeard from. And slowly turning around, he looked at Willow. Then the purple glow around him projected a tendril toward Willow.
Turning to run, Willow tripped over a root and fell to the ground. Just as the tendril got to her, she threw out one hand to make a large limb from a nearby tree fall on Crispin, hopefully to ... do something.
As she watched the limb falling, she also saw the purplish glow fade from around him. And as the tree limb hit Crispin, she heard him grunt and saw blood spurt out from his head.
"So did you explain everything to Xena and Garbielle?" Giles asked.
"Yeah. They were pretty confused at first, and not particularly happy. They arrived back right in the middle of a huge thunderstorm. And of course being naked, they had to get their clothes, which got soaked as they put them on. And Gabrielle wasn't too happy about the half gallon of chocolate ice cream she just got started on. But all in all, Xena was pretty cool about it, both of them really." Buffy answered. "So what did the police say about Crispin?"
"They just put it down as a freak accident. What about you, Willow? How are you holding up?"
"Not so good," She replied, her voice trembling. "I never killed anybody before. Honest. It was so terrible...." And she broke down again, crying in Buffy's arms.
"Any idea what it was?" Buffy asked Giles after Willow had calmed a little.
"There wasn't much to go on, but I did find one reference in one of the Watchers' Diaries from the late 1800s. The Watcher described the events much like what happened with Xena. Somehow the Slayer got away, either fell or was pushed off a bluff. And the possessed Watcher had no idea what had happened after the demon in him went into remission. "
"So what happened to them?"
"It doesn't really say, but from certain hints, and reading between the lines, I believe the possessed Watcher was either incarcerated for life, or hanged."
"Oh, I guess they did things a little different back then. So what about the Slayer?"
"I assume she recovered because there was nothing said about a replacement."
"So I guess you have a new entry in the Watchers' Diaries, huh?"
"Yes, I do. And the Council was quite interested. Of course, I had to omit Gabrielle and Willow's parts in all this. The Council frowns on civilians, even witches, from getting involved."
"I didn't mean to kill anyone, I was just trying to get away." Willow said again, trying to stop the tears.
"Willow, listen to me," Giles said as he sat beside her. "It is true that when Crispin died he was no longer possessed, but it was still in him, waiting for the next new moon, waiting to come out to kill again. And don't forget, you saved Xena's life, and very possibly Gabrielle's as well as your own. So in the overall scheme of things, I think what you did certainly proved to be for the better."
"If you say so." Willow quietly said, not really convinced, but in no mood to argue the point.
"You know," Buffy said, changing the subject, "I think the next time we invite Xena and Gabrielle here, we should have a party - nothing but fun and food: nachos, wings, pizza...."
"And chocolate ice cream." Willow finished for her. "Lots and lots of chocolate ice cream."
After he had regained his breath, Crispin slowly got back to his feet.
"Next," He said, still having trouble breathing, "Will be the vaulting horse."
"I know the drill - stand on one hand, staff in the other."
"I see you and Xena have been talking. No matter. Yes, upon the horse, but without the staff."
Buffy put both hands on the grips, vaulted upside down, and then balanced on her right hand.
Crispin picked up her staff where she had dropped it, and swung it like a baseball bat at her head. With her free hand, Buffy caught the staff with a loud smack, and with a quick jerk, punched him in the midsection with his end of it, again knocking the breath out of him.
"Oops." She mocked again as she landed on her feet, "Dreadfully sorry."
"She's doing quite well," Anya said, "Don't you think?"
"That's my Buffy." Willow answered proudly.
After fifteen minutes or so, Crispin's breathing had returned more or less to normal.
Taking out the bandana, he said, "Just one more test."
Buffy slowly put on the blindfold, allowing her Slayer Senses to take over.
She heard Crispin take the crossbow out of the cabinet, draw back the string and place the arrow. When he kicked off his shoes, her nose curled slightly at the smell of the foot powder. As he had done with Xena, he slowly circled Buffy. But it was in an ever shrinking spiral. When he stopped, he was in front of her, less than ten feet away. He slowly pointed the weapon at her face, then pulled the trigger.
Buffy heard the twang and sensed the projectile speeding toward her head, but she never moved. She felt the wind as it shot past her, not two inches from her ear. When she heard it thunk into the wall she removed the bandana.
"Playtime's over." She said, dropping the bandana to the floor.
As she walked toward the door, Crispin was left with a perplexed look on his face. He KNEW he aimed it between her eyes, but somehow the arrow had missed its target by almost six inches.
Letting the door revert back to its opaqueness, Willow and Anya returned to the counter.
"THAT was odd." Buffy said to them. "I didn't expect him to miss me completely."
"He didn't." Willow confessed. "He was so close to you I was afraid you wouldn't be able to dodge out of the way in time, so I altered the arrow's course."
"Thanks. I just hope he doesn't get suspicious about it. But before he comes in, you better scat. He might think it's strange that you're still here. I'll see you at home later."
"Yeah, you're right. See y'all later."
A few minutes later, Crispin entered the retail part of the building.
"Perhaps I underestimated your abilities." He said to Buffy. "But that doesn't mean we can neglect your training. I expect to see you and Xena here tomorrow morning at 9 a.m."
"Isn't that kind of early?"
"Well, if I'm to be Watcher to the both of you, that means we will have to work twice as hard and twice as long."
"You mean Giles isn't going to be a Watcher for one of us?"
"Certainly not. Mr Giles is on temporary suspension while I am here. Didn't he explain that to you?"
"Well, yeah he did, but I thought with Xena here...." And Buffy's voice trailed off.
Crispin "officially" took over Giles' Watcher duties the next day. Buffy and Xena had to be at the Magic Box when it opened at 9 a.m. each morning for training. The routine never varied: fifteen minutes of stretching, thirty minutes of calisthetics, fifteen minutes of running in place, fifteen minutes on the speed bag, and twenty on the heavy bag. Then Buffy and Xena would have to spar, lightly, with gloves and head gear for twenty minutes. And then thirty minutes working out with the staves, and target practice with the crossbow. He also started them throwing the stakes, more target practice, because "you never know."
And then they would spend a half hour each wearing the blindfold while Xena or Buffy, depending on who wore it, would attack the other with the different weapons - staff, sword, stake.
Afterward, they were free for the day until 4 p.m. They would then return for another workout. But instead the exercises, Crispin would have them sparring again, but with more intensity.
After several sessions it became clear that even though Buffy was smaller and faster than Xena, and was able to land more blows, Xena was stronger and the blows she landed had more impact. The net result was about the same amount of "damage" to each other, which was neglible, since both absorbed the punishment with little or no effect.
Finally, they would go over maps of Sunnydale, discussing stragedy, the possible location of vampire dens, and the best routes to cover while patrolling.
At sundown one or the other would patrol. Unless a den was located, Crispin would forbid them to patrol together. Whichever would go out, alone, he would follow, evaluating them. Of course the one left behind would be following Crispin, just to make sure.
"I have to admit," Buffy was saying to Xena one afternoon over lunch, "Ol' Crispy's pretty good with this training stuff. I actually think I'm doing better. I seem to have more stamina, I'm faster, and my Slayer Senses seem to be more acute. I think I may be a better Slayer."
"I have to agree with you. I never thought much about my skills. I just took them for granted, I guess. I wonder how Giles feels about all this."
"I haven't said anything to him. He feels bad enough about it as it is. I think he feels kind of useless."
"You know, I just realized it's a new moon tonight. I always hated patrolling during a new moon. It just seems so much darker."
"Then you have nothing to worry about, tonight's my night." Xena replied.
"Don't you hate it?"
"Buffy, you forget, we don't have the bright lights shining at night where I come from like you do. I'm used to the dark nights. The street lights will be plenty bright enough for me."
"Well, be extra careful then. And I'm not just talking about the vamps. I won't be able to see Crispy that good. If he was going to make a move, tonight would be the ideal time to do it."
"I'm not worried. With you watching out for me, I've got nothing to be afraid of."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence. I think we make a pretty good team. Not a good as you and Gabrielle, of course, but as far as Slaying goes...."
"I feel the same way. If things were different, I think we could be even better friends than we are now."
As Xena and Crispin were leaving the Magic Box to start patrolling, Anya told Xena she had a phone call.
"Hello?" Xena said, still not quite used to it.
"Xena, it's Buffy. Kinda bad news. Dawn is sick, bad food at school or something. I'm going to have to stay here with her so I won't be able to follow you and Crispy, but Willow and Gabrielle volunteered to go. Is that okay with you?"
"Sure. You take care of her and I'll see you in the morning."
"Who was that?" Crispin asked.
"It was Buffy. Dawn is sick. She thinks she might have eaten something at school that didn't agree with her."
"So why would Miss Summers call you about something like that?"
"Maybe because she knows I care about Dawn, and if she has to take her to the hospital, I'll know where they are." Xena lied.
"I hope this won't distract you in any way."
"I don't think it will, I'm a big girl."
As Buffy predicted, it was a very dark night. Even the street lights seemed less bright than usual. But it didn't really bother Xena. She figured that if it was hard for her to see any vampires, it would be just as hard for them to see her. And as she told Buffy, she was used to dark nights.
After a half hour Xena realized that Willow and Gabrielle were following them, but she felt they were too close to Crispin, so she yelled out. "Hey Crispin, aren't you a little TOO CLOSE? Shouldn't you DROP BACK SOME?"
"You needn't shout. I can hear you just fine. And no, I don't think I am too close. You just do your job, and I'll do mine."
Satisfied that Willow and Gabrielle were now far enough back, Xena continued patrolling. It was a relatively quiet night. Perhaps even vampires disliked it when it was so dark - hard to find prey to feed on.
As the hours passed, Xena was getting bored. "Almost a waste of time." She thought to herself. "A little longer and I'm going to call it a night."
"What time is it?" Gabrielle whispered to Willow. "This is SO boring."
"It's almost midnight. As slow as things are I wouldn't be surprised if Xena decides to go home." Willow whispered back.
Just as they got to the edge of the park, Xena stopped as if she was listening. At the same time, Willow whispered to Gabrielle, "Do you see that?"
"What?"
"That glow around Crispy? That purplish red glow?"
"No. Are you sure?"
"I'm positive. Can't you see it?"
"I see Xena and I see Crispy, but I don't see any glow."
"Well, I do. And I don't like it!"
As they moved closer to Crispin, they saw that the glow had extended out to encircle Xena, who still hadn't moved. And slowly they saw his arm rise up, a long pointed object in his hand."
"XENA!" Gabrielle shouted out. "Look out! Turn around!"
But Xena was frozen in place. As Crispin walked closer to her, arm still raised, Gabrielle ran toward him, and launching herself into the air, she landed against his back with her shoulder. And for all the effect it produced, she might as well have hit a stone column.
As she bounced off Crispin's back to the ground, Willow tried using her magic to make him stop. When that didn't work, she tried turning him aside, still with no result.
Slowly Crispin approached Xena. And with Gabrielle still yelling at Xena, Willow, in desperation, did the only thing she could think of - speaking as fast as she could, she recited the spell that brought them to Sunnydale backwards. And as soon as the final word was spoken, the spell was broken and Xena and Gabrielle were returned to their own time and their own world.
For the space of a few seconds Crispin stood looking at the spot Xena had just disappeard from. And slowly turning around, he looked at Willow. Then the purple glow around him projected a tendril toward Willow.
Turning to run, Willow tripped over a root and fell to the ground. Just as the tendril got to her, she threw out one hand to make a large limb from a nearby tree fall on Crispin, hopefully to ... do something.
As she watched the limb falling, she also saw the purplish glow fade from around him. And as the tree limb hit Crispin, she heard him grunt and saw blood spurt out from his head.
"So did you explain everything to Xena and Garbielle?" Giles asked.
"Yeah. They were pretty confused at first, and not particularly happy. They arrived back right in the middle of a huge thunderstorm. And of course being naked, they had to get their clothes, which got soaked as they put them on. And Gabrielle wasn't too happy about the half gallon of chocolate ice cream she just got started on. But all in all, Xena was pretty cool about it, both of them really." Buffy answered. "So what did the police say about Crispin?"
"They just put it down as a freak accident. What about you, Willow? How are you holding up?"
"Not so good," She replied, her voice trembling. "I never killed anybody before. Honest. It was so terrible...." And she broke down again, crying in Buffy's arms.
"Any idea what it was?" Buffy asked Giles after Willow had calmed a little.
"There wasn't much to go on, but I did find one reference in one of the Watchers' Diaries from the late 1800s. The Watcher described the events much like what happened with Xena. Somehow the Slayer got away, either fell or was pushed off a bluff. And the possessed Watcher had no idea what had happened after the demon in him went into remission. "
"So what happened to them?"
"It doesn't really say, but from certain hints, and reading between the lines, I believe the possessed Watcher was either incarcerated for life, or hanged."
"Oh, I guess they did things a little different back then. So what about the Slayer?"
"I assume she recovered because there was nothing said about a replacement."
"So I guess you have a new entry in the Watchers' Diaries, huh?"
"Yes, I do. And the Council was quite interested. Of course, I had to omit Gabrielle and Willow's parts in all this. The Council frowns on civilians, even witches, from getting involved."
"I didn't mean to kill anyone, I was just trying to get away." Willow said again, trying to stop the tears.
"Willow, listen to me," Giles said as he sat beside her. "It is true that when Crispin died he was no longer possessed, but it was still in him, waiting for the next new moon, waiting to come out to kill again. And don't forget, you saved Xena's life, and very possibly Gabrielle's as well as your own. So in the overall scheme of things, I think what you did certainly proved to be for the better."
"If you say so." Willow quietly said, not really convinced, but in no mood to argue the point.
"You know," Buffy said, changing the subject, "I think the next time we invite Xena and Gabrielle here, we should have a party - nothing but fun and food: nachos, wings, pizza...."
"And chocolate ice cream." Willow finished for her. "Lots and lots of chocolate ice cream."
