That Same Old Lost Kid

Rory walked into the town square. She saw the same old guy, Mr. Giles, sitting in the gazebo, along with several other people: a young woman, dark haired, a trail of smoke billowing out of her lips; a pair of women, one brunnetteand one redhead sitting on one of the benches, whispering to each other; a small blonde woman conversing with a tall, dark haired man (who, as far as Rory could tell had an eyepatch); and one other young man dressed thoroughly in tweed. Not very many Stars Hollow residents were around, and if they were, they took no notice of the strange people in the gazebo.

"Ah, Rory!" Mr. Giles said, standing up, as Rory approached. The dark hair woman smashed out her cigarette and looked Rory up and down. The redhead jumped up and ran over to Rory.

"Hi, there, Rory. Wow, let me look at you. You don't look like a Slayer. But then again, Buffy didn't look like a Slayer. I think it's the really thin frame. Oh, I'm Willow. Hi." Rory took a step back, wide-eyed and nodded hello to Willow.

"Sorry if she scared you," the younger brunette said, and took Willow's arm. "She gets a bit jumpy now and then. I'm Kennedy."

"Hi," Rory said hesitantly, and Kennedy smiled to her, then to Willow, then back to her. "So, what's going on here?"

"Obviously, we're here to abduct you," said the man with the eye patch. "That was a joke. I like making the funnies. But yeah, Willow's right. You don't look much like a Slayer."

"But neither did Buffy," Willow piped in. The blonde woman winced a little bit, and then smiled sweetly at Rory.

"I'm guessing you're Buffy."

"Yeah," she said, smirking. "That's Xander, with the eye patch. Faith, the creepy one."

"You're all creepy."

"Well, yeah," said Faith, or who Rory assumed was Faith considering she was the only female left to be introduced.

"You know Giles, and that's Andrew," Buffy said, pointing to the second tweed-clad man.

"Greetings, Rory. I assume that Mr. Giles has already informed you that you are a slayer of the vampyres."

"Uhm, sure." Rory shook Andrew's outstretched hand.

"Sit down, will you, and listen to our tale?"

"Andrew, shut up," several people said in unison, but everyone did take a seat. In turn, they explained a part of the story to Rory, in apparently very little detail, but it seemed like a lot to Rory.

"So, if there is only one Slayer at a time, how are all three of you Slayers? And me?"

"Well, Willow here, worked her magic mojo and made all potential Slayers more than just potential, if you catch my drift," Faith said.

"So, if there are thousands of new Slayers out there, why did you all come to me?"

"We were all in the area. Plus, you're one of our first. Since this event was pretty current, we're all together anyways, so we might as well just do this all together," Buffy stated. As she finished this, another man and a young girl about Rory's age came up.

"What'd we miss?" the man asked. Faith hopped up and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

"I remember malls. I like malls. There should be more malls in the world."

"Rory, this is Robin," Giles said, gesturing to the large black man who now sat beside Faith.

"And my sister, Dawn," Buffy added.

"Hey Rory. Nice to finally meet you." The meeting continued, to the point that they announced that, since Rory was going to Yale, Andrew was to be her watcher.

"Wait… he's to be my watcher?"

"Yes," Giles said. Rory looked in disbelief at Andrew.

"Oh…kay?"

"Well, he will train you and eventually, your senses will be as honed as me and B's," Faith said. "You'll be one of the girls."

"Great," Rory said to the smiling group. "So… uhm? Now what?"

"Follow me," Andrew said in a very cheesy serious voice that mad Rory and Dawn giggle. Rory got up and followed Andrew, but when she looked back at the gazebo, everyone else seemed to be gone, which Rory found rather odd.

"Andrew, did they just disappear?"

"No. You just can't see them anymore."

"Why not?"

"Willow put a spell on the gazebo so that nobody would bother us – nobody could see us or want to walk through it. Very handy thing."

"Right." After about another minute, Rory thought to herself, 'This is insane. I'm following a crazy Trekkie who claims to be able to train me to kill vampires? How did I believe this? Why am I still following him?' "Where are we going," she asked.

"You'll see." He tried to make a sleek turn, but tripped over a little rut in the road. Rory laughed a little as she rushed over to help him up. "I meant to do that."

"Of course." As Andrew brushed himself off, Rory looked over behind him. "No."

"What?"

"No."

"What?"

"I'm not going in there."

"What, where?" Andrew turned around and faced the graveyard. "Oh, there. Yeah, you are. I just have to show you something. And if there's any problem, Buffy or Faith'll come running."

"Why should I trust you?"

"Why shouldn't you?"

"You could be a rapist or a serial killer or something."

"Then why did you follow me?" Rory paused, and she didn't have an answer to this question. "Exactly. Now come, we have a date with a vampire."

"I don't ever want to date a vampire," Rory said quickly.

"You should really get advice from Buffy on that…" Andrew said without thinking.

"What?"

"What 'what?'"

"You said, 'You should really get advice from Buffy on that.'"

"On what?"

"On dating a vampire!"

"Oh, well, yeah. Buffy's dated a few vampires in her time."

"Okay, that's even more insane than the rest of this. I mean, I am dreaming, right? Right?" Andrew just shook his head. Rory sighed. "But, I'm going to Yale. I have a boyfriend I really like. I'm graduating in a week! None of this can be real. My life can't change this quickly at this time. I won't let it."

"Well, it's too late now, honey. The Powers that Be Chose you, amoung countless others. You can't turn away from that. Pretty soon word will be out in the underground that all potentials are Slayers and they will kill every single girl that they find. One of those will be you, trust me."

"How do you know I'm going to die if I don't so this?"

"Because, they'll know you. And it's especially bad because you wouldn't be able to protect yourself. That's where I come in. I am to train you so that you don't get brutally massacred by vampires and not know why."

"Great. Thanks." Andrew stepped across the threshold of the graveyard and beckoned Rory across. She rolled her eyes and trudged after them.

"I am so telling my mother," Rory whined under her breath as she followed Andrew.

I had to update this, otherwise Time Rowanwood would kill me. Or severely stab me. Or something.
YAY!