Title: Confessions of a Teenage Watcher
Author: Episkopos Reverend Alixtii O'Krull V, TRL of the Church of St. Jesu the Heretic, Discordian
Timeline: Somewhere around "The Girl in Question." Spoilers for "Chosen."
Rating: PG
Summary: Dawn Summers is an American attending an Italian high school in Rome. Beatrice DeCosta is her Italian classmate. Their rôles as Watcher and Slayer will send them into a world of high intrigue as the Council tries to assert its control over the guardianship of the Cleveland Hellmouth.
Archive/Distribution: Just tell me about it.
Reviews/Feedback: It's what makes this entire system work, nyet? Means of exchange and all that. In other words: please!
Disclaimer: All original Buffy and Angel characters belong to Mutant Enemy, not me.
The meeting over, the Slayers leave: Faith, Beatrice, Kimberly. "Could you stay one moment, Miss Summers?" Fr. Marcus asks.
"Of course," says Dawn, as she sits back down. "Is there a problem?" She looks up to make eye contact with the priest, but she can't do it.
"I was just going to ask you that, Miss Summers. You kept looking away from me the entire meeting."
"It's not you, Father, it's just that once there was someone in a clerical collar who—" She can't even say it.
Wordlessly, Fr. Marcus opens a drawer in his desk and removes a picture frame. He hands it to Dawn.
Dawn looks down to it. On the right is Fr. Marcus, in his collar, a smile on his face. Standing left to him is another man in a collar. A tall, sandy blonde man whom Dawn recognizes instantly. Caleb.
"You knew him?"
Fr. Marcus nods, takes the picture back and returns it to his desk. "We went to seminary together. We studied together, we both became interested in the occult. We found out the Church knew plenty of things they hadn't put in the Catechism."
"And?"
"And I came to Cleveland and founded a school. Caleb allied with the First Evil and tried to end the world before he was sliced in half by your sister. End of story."
"He just . . . turned evil?" The incredulity in Dawn's voice is clear.
"Of course not, Miss Summers. It's always more complicated than that." His voice is low.