Chapter 16: "Visiting the Council"

The next day at 12 o'clock Buffy and Dawn were already sitting in their plane to England. The Slayer had called Giles immediately after she talked to Quentin and told him, when she had to leave with Dawn. They agreed that they would make a meeting right before, so that they could still talk about the details of their plan.

While the two sister were on their way to the Council, the Scoobies, Saiyans and fang gang were waiting impatiently that they would finally arrive there. Buffy promised them to give them a small call over her cell, as soon as she was in the library, and she also wanted to bug Travers' office, when she brought Dawn to him, so that Dawn could question him a bit. Of course they knew that it would take a few hours for them to go to England, but none of the people who were at the Magic Box wanted to leave, of fear to miss something.

After two hours of waiting, Faith suddenly sprung up. "I can't take it anymore, this waiting. Pan. You. Me. Training room. Now. I need to do something."

"Sometimes I think that you can read minds. A small sparring match is exactly what I need now." Pan said smirking and followed Faith to the room in the back.

"What do you think?" Willow wanted to know. "Should we follow them and watch a bit. It's better than just sitting here and doing nothing." The others agreed with her and all of them also went to the training room, where Faith and Pan made a few warm ups.

"Mmh, I wonder how strong Pan really is." Giles said thoughtfully as both girls got into a fighting stance.

"The Slayer won't stand a chance against her." Vegeta told him. "Now that she remembers everything, she knows her strengths. You'll see."

At exactly that moment, both girls lunged at each other and it soon was clear that Vegeta was right. Pan was simply too good, even though she was still holding back and Faith was outmatched and about half an hour later, Faith surrendered. "Wow P, that was great. You're really strong. Incredible."

"Thank you Faith. But I guess when I'm home again, I have to train harder than before. I'm a bit out of shape," Pan said laughing.

~*~

A few hours later the plane finally landed in London. From that moment on Buffy and Dawn had to be careful, because they didn't know if the people of the Council were watching them. On the outside of the airport a car was already waiting for them. Buffy pushed Dawn into the car, and climbed in after her. "Hello Mr. Stevenson," Buffy greeted her Watcher on the front-passenger seat.

"Hello Buffy. Is that the Key?" he wanted to know.

"Yes, it's her." Stevenson nodded to the driver and they drove off.

About half an hour later, they arrived at the Watcher's Council. It was a big old building, looking a lot like a university or something like that. "So, we're here," Stevenson said, when he got out of the car and took Buffy's bag.

Buffy got out of the car and pulled Dawn after her, holding her at her wrist. "Is Mr. Travers in his office?" she asked.

"Yeah, he is. Don't you want to go first to your room, to refresh yourself? I can take the Key to him," Stevenson suggested.

"No, thanks. It was my mission and I want to end it," she told him smirking and pulled Dawn into the building.

After walking through what seemed like endless corridors, Buffy and Dawn were standing in front of Travers' office. "Hey Nancy. Is Mr. Travers in there?"

"Hello Buffy. No, he isn't in there. But he will come back in a few minutes. You can go in and wait. How was your trip to Sunnydale?"

"Everything went fine. We'll go then in and wait for him," Buffy said and she and Dawn entered the room. Inside, Buffy told Dawn to sit down on a chair and she herself put the bug under the table, activating it and putting a small button into her ear, which she hid under her long hair.

~*~

"Hey! Look! The bug's been activated. That means they're there," Willow said excitedly and pointed to her laptop, where a red point was blinking.

'Hey Will, can you hear me?' they heard Buffy saying.

"Yeah, loud and clear. And I'm recording everything. Are you alone in the office?"

'Quentin's not here yet. But he will come soon.'

"Okay, good luck then. See ya later."

~*~

After Buffy and Dawn had waited a few minutes in silence, the door finally opened. "Hello Buffy," Quentin greeted her, when he closed the door and sat down at his desk. "So, and you are the Key. Do you know how happy you could be that you're still alive? If Buffy hadn't thought of you as object for our science wing, you would have died as well as your friends. I can just say, congratulations."

"Bite me," Dawn answered vehemently.

Travers chuckled lightly. "Yes, well, colorful girl. Buffy, you're dismissed. You can go to your room and do whatever you want to do, while we two," he said to Dawn, "will have a small talk."

"Okay, see you later," Buffy said and left the office, telling herself that Dawn could take care of herself.

"Okay, Key…" Travers began, but Dawn interrupted him.

"Dawn."

"What?"

"Dawn. My name is Dawn. Dawn Summers," she told him scowling.

"Well, Dawn. Don't you think it's ironic, how Buffy killed all of your friends, without knowing that they were her friends once?"

"What have you done to her?"

"Oh, Dawn, we didn't do anything to her. We trained her, made her stronger. We were her family in the last six months."

"You made her turning against her best friends, against her real family and made her kill them. She would never do that, when you haven't done anything to her."

"Listen, I will tell you something. When we came to Sunnydale with the information about Glory, we knew that Buffy would die. We knew that she would die protecting the Key, because there's a prophecy about the Slayer, who died to save life. The Key is life, but we didn't know then that you're the Key. That's the reason we agreed to the whole 'working-for-the-Slayer-thing'. We first got to know that you're the Key, as one of our employees saw you bleeding on the tower, and how Buffy jumped into the portal to save your life. But the prophecy told us also that she would be reborn and it took us just a few days to find her, because she aged much faster, about a year per day. She didn't remember anything, so we thought we could finally get her to our side."

"But why our friends?"

"That's easy. You were always troublemakers. Always interfering with the methods of the Council. Because of you, Buffy quit. And Faith… We thought that when she's finally dead, another Slayer will be called and that we would then have two Slayers on our side."

~*~

"Grr, I could kill him;" Faith said enraged, as she and the others listened intensely to the talk between Dawn and Quentin.

"Don't worry, Faith," Pan said and put her hand on her shoulder. "We will make him pay for that."

At that moment the phone in the shop rang and Giles answered. "Buffy? … Okay, we will come … Bye." He put the receiver back and turned to the others. "She's in the library in one of the lonely wings."

"It's show time," Spike said grinning.

"Okay, Giles, Faith, Spike, Willow and Tara, try to get a hold on me. I'll bring you to Buffy," Pan said. The Scoobies did as Pan told them and just a few seconds later they were gone.

~*~

Buffy was looking around nervously, waiting for Pan and the others to arrive and so it startled her almost to death, when they suddenly appeared directly in front of her. "Wow! That's the library? It's huge!" Willow said excited.

"Shh," Buffy said. "Yes, it is. Pan, you can get the others now."

"Okay." Again she put two fingers on her forehead, disappeared and reappeared shortly after with Mirai Trunks, Trunks, Vegeta, Gohan and Goten. Xander, Anya and the fang gang decided to stay at the Magic Box, to hold the fort in Sunnydale.

"Good, now that everyone's here, the secret and dangerous books are in the back, and they are guarded, but they shouldn't be a problem. I've heard that there are also books about Magic, the Watchers' diaries, prophecies and all the other stuff, what normal people like us may not read," Buffy told them.

~*~

Dawn and Quentin Travers were still sitting in the office, as Yasuo suddenly entered the room. "Sir, Mr. Travers. There are problems."

"What? What do you mean?" Travers wanted to know.

"I can feel some high kis I don't know in this building. They're in the library," Yasuo told him. Dawn's eyes widened in shock, when she heard that.

Travers looked at her and when he saw that look in her eyes, he realized something. "Oh no, it has been a trick." He walked over to Dawn and grabbed forcefully her wrist, pulling her out of the office. Even though Dawn could take him down easily, she still wanted to let him think that she is weaker than she really is. "Nancy, call the security. There are invaders in the library. Probably in the forbidden wing," he told her, as he passed by her desk.

"Yes, sir."

~*~

In the meantime the white hats were in the so-called 'forbidden wing' looking for something, what might help them. "Hey guys! I found something!" Willow shouted as she climbed down the ladder, which was leaning against a bookshelf. In her hand she was holding an old book. She walked past the now unconscious bodies of the few guards, who the Saiyajins had knocked out, without that anyone noticed it, over to Giles.

"What is it Willow?" he wanted to know and Willow handed it to him, opened at a special page. Giles read the page and then a look of surprise and in the same time understanding crossed his face. "Buffy, would you like to come over, please?"

"Sure, is something in this book?" the blonde Slayer asked.

"Yes, a prophecy. 'She who died to save life will arise anew / Innocent as a child, just knowing her destiny, she will grow to enormous strengths / Stronger than before, she'll be reborn, ready to go her destined path / But just true love can show her the right way,'" Giles read the text aloud.

"And what exactly does that mean, Watcher?" Spike walked up to them to take a look at the book.

"Well, Buffy sacrificed herself for Dawn, the Key and the Key is life. She was reborn and grew within a few days till she reached her old age. She has also become much stronger than she was before she died and she didn't remember anything, but she knew that she was the Slayer and…"

"And what Giles? What does this 'true love' thing mean?" Buffy wanted to know.

"I don't know exactly, but I have a suggestion. Buffy, you said you had visions of your past, shortly before you remembered everything. What exactly were that for visions?"

"Well, they were all vision of me and…" Buffy said, as the realization sank in. "No way! You mean this-this true love thing… Me and… No… This is impossible! There must be a mistake somewhere…" She grabbed the book and leafed through it like crazy.

"Buffy, luv, what are you talking about?" Spike asked the question, which was burning in almost everyone's head.

Mirai Trunks chuckled lightly, suddenly remembering the one conversation he had with the former vampire. "She's talking about you, Spike. Remember when you told me that you thought that you felt for Buffy something like true love. And Buffy remembered everything, when she fought you, so…"

"We don't have time for that now," Vegeta suddenly said, when he came to the group. "We're getting company."

At exactly that moment Xander told Buffy through her headphone, that Travers knew about them. "Vegeta is right. Xander told me just the same."

Curiously, Pan floated into the air, so that she could just look over the shelves and saw how at least hundred men, obviously security guards were taking positions. "So, we're totally outnumbered. And they have guns," Pan told the others grinning.

"Sounds like a bit fun," Goten told her, also grinning.

"Fun?" Giles asked. "I think that doesn't sound like fun."

"Come on Giles," Faith said, "we have six Saiyajins, two Slayers, two witches and one former vampire. You stay in the background and we take care of them."

~*~

"How many are there, Yasuo?" Travers asked him.

"I can feel 12 persons."

"They're outnumbered. That's good. And we still have our trump card," he said. "Buffy, I know that you're there. Come out. We have your sister here."

~*~

"Dawn…" Buffy whispered.

"B, go… talk to him…" Faith said.

"No, we need a plan…"

"Not this time, B, believe me. And now go and don't worry about Dawn. She'll be okay. We'll do the rest." Buffy hesitated for another second and then went out of their hiding place.

When Buffy stepped forth, Quentin smirked. "Well Buffy, seems like you changed sides."

"Yes, I did. Because I know now where I belong."

"So, do you still know where you belong, when I've killed your sister?"

"You won't dare."

"Oh yes, and there is just one way to get her alive out of this. You come back to the Council. But not just you. I do also want Faith and the other girl, Pan, to work for the Council, without questioning us. That's the only way that I let your sister and your friends live. But why don't we ask them? I'm sure they're also hiding."

Pan and Faith looked at each other and got up. "Where are you going?" Mirai Trunks wanted to know.

"We'll help Buffy," Pan answered. "And besides, maybe I'm able to scare a few of those security guards away." With that they stepped also forth and joined Buffy.

"So, you're Pan, the girl who has lost her memory…"

"And you're Quentin Travers, the man who made me believe that I'm a Slayer… But don't worry, I remember again who and what I am." Pan slowly powered up, letting the earth in the library shaking a bit, what caused books to fall out of their shelves.

But that bit shaking let Quentin unimpressed. "Nice show Pan. Are the witches doing that? And now tell me, who are you and why are you as strong as a Slayer?"

Angered by this, she powered up even more, letting the book raise from the ground, which began to crack around her. "No, Willow and Tara aren't doing that. It's me, Pan Son. And I'm not just as strong as a Slayer, I'm much stronger."

"Sir," Yasuo said, "she is right. Her ki is rising… It's incredible… No human being should be that strong…"

"I'm not human. I'm a Saiyajin!" Pan shouted and let her ki exploding. Through that shock wave, several of the security guards were thrown back and other were running away, as they saw that and how Pan's hair became blond. "What are you staring at?" Pan asked smirking, when she had finished her transformation and saw that everyone, even Travers, was staring at her. "Never seen a Super Saiyajin before? Oh, yeah right. You haven't."

"What are you?" Quentin asked, slowly gaining his composure. "What demon?"

"I'm no demon. I'm a Saiyajin. Right now a Super Saiyajin. I would recommend you to retreat your guards, or…"

"Or what?"

"You see that wall over there?" Pan asked smirking and motioned to the wall to her left. "Is something behind there?" Quentin shook his head no. "Good, then watch and learn not to mess with me." Pan lifted her left hand and let a small ki ball appear. She then stretched her arm, directed her palm to the wall, the whole time smirking at Travers, and released a ki-blast, which destroyed the whole wall instantly. Quentin Travers stared in horror at the place, where the wall just had been a few seconds ago and then looked back at Pan. "That was just a small part of my power. There are still five other Saiyajins, who are even stronger than I. So, what do you say now?" When Quentin didn't answer, Pan powered down and looked back. "Hey, you can all come out now! I think Buffy and Faith want to say something."

"I don't think so," Quentin said and pulled out a knife of his pocket, holding it at Dawn's throat. "My main goal was to kill the Key. Something as dangerous as it shouldn't exist. And now it seems like I reached that goal."

But before he could slice her throat, she elbowed him in his stomach, so that he let the knife fall, did a somersault backwards over his head and kicked him in the back, letting him falling to the ground. "Sorry Quentin, but I had some training in the last months. No one would be able to kill me that easily now. Am I still 'colorful'?" Dawn smirked and walked over to Buffy, who laid an arm around her shoulder. "Now, you can come out."

So the others all came out of their hiding place and joined the three girls. Buffy was really impressed by how powerful those Saiyajins were and how good Dawn became at fighting. Of course, they told her about it, but to see it with her own eyes made her to respect them fully. But now it was her turn to say what she wanted to say the whole day. "Quentin, do you remember the one time you and some of your fellow Watchers came to Sunnydale, wanting to test me, interrogate me, quiz my friends? I remember that I told you that I had power, that you just came to Sunnydale to beg me to let you come back in, not the other way around. I thought I've made myself clear, but after what I've heard what you told Dawn, I see that I didn't. So, I want to repeat that now. You saw what this girl is able to do. She's one of my friends now. You lied to her, you lied to me. You told her that she's the current Slayer and you didn't tell me anything about me. You used me to kill my friends, my sister. We're both victims of your self-centered way to see the world. You said that my friends are troublemakers, my sister is dangerous, told me to eliminate them. And I almost did. You used a girl, who had an accident and lost her memory, told her that she's the Slayer, just because she seemed to be as strong as one. But both of us remember now. What I want to tell you is: From now on, you're really working for me. You can stay at the Council, but you won't make any important decision without telling Giles. If you ever come again near my sister or my friends, without me wanting it, I will personally kill you. Oh, and before I forget. I need you to do something. I want you to integrate Angel and Spike into the society, since they're human now. That means, you'll make birth-certificates and all that stuff. Faith, do you still want to say something?"

"Sure B." She walked over to Quentin, who had gotten up in the meantime and stopped right in front of him, looking back at Buffy. "May I?" The other Slayer nodded. "Okay. That's for wanting to kill me as Buffy was in my body." She punched him into the stomach. "And this is for the second time you wanted to kill me." She hit him in the face. "And I also have to say something. It's about Wesley. You'll pay him all the salary he didn't get since you fired him and you will still pay him, even though he's not working anymore for the Council. Oh, and thank you for getting me out of jail." With a huge smile on her face, she walked back to Buffy, Dawn and Pan. "Okay, I think we can now go back to Sunnydale. Or what do you think?"

"Well, I've spent the last half year living here. And I learned something… I don't like England," Buffy said.

"Okay, everyone who wants to go back to Sunnydale, get a hold on me!" Pan said smiling. So, Pan brought first the Saiyajins home, and as she got back and was ready to bring the Scoobies to Sunnydale, Quentin told Giles to wait a minute.

"Rupert, I must say. This girl is really special. She is the greatest Slayer in history. Take good care of her," he said.

"I know, you don't have to tell me." Giles walked back to Pan and so they disappeared.