Chapter Eight: The Council Calls
"Dawn," Buffy leaned around the kitchen wall and hollered up the staircase. "Come and eat breakfast before school!"
"I'm coming!" Dawn yelled back from somewhere upstairs.
"Well hurry up!" Buffy returned to the kitchen where Willow was fixing herself a mug of herbal tea.
"Buffy," Willow stirred some honey into her tea and put on her lecture face. "I think you should lay off of Dawnie a little. You're always bossing her around and well kind of preaching at her. She's not a little girl you know, she's a young woman and girls her age like their independence..."
"I know Wil," Buffy sighed and fixed the coffee grinds in the machine. "It's hard though you know, she's my little sister, and I just want to protect her..."
"I'm here, I'm here," Dawn wandered into the kitchen, all but dragging her feet behind her.
"You're going to be late," Buffy commented on her sister's lethargy and then glanced at Willow just in time to receive the disapproving head shake.
"I'm not going to be late, Buffy!" Dawn sighed in frustration as she glanced at the digital clock on the stove and noticed that she still had almost forty-five minutes before school started and the building was only a seven minute drive from their house.
"Whatever, just eat," Buffy wasn't in a very pleasant mood. She was finding herself more and more tired after patrols and with Riley back in her life, her mind wasn't exactly peaceful.
"And further more-" Dawn began to whine again but was cut off when the kitchen door opened and their good friend Xander walked in.
"Hello ladies," He grinned, his silly ear-to-ear grin. "Look what I ran into outside!" He stepped aside and an older man, dressed in a light, tweed suit, stepped through the door. "The prodigal watcher has returned!"
"Giles!" The whole room exclaimed in unison when they recognized the man.
"Good morning girls," Giles smiled. "Did you miss me much?"
Buffy and Dawn were instantly on their feet and at his side. In turn he gave each of the three girls a hug.
Once they had all greeted each other and welcomed Giles appropriately, they settled down in the living room, joined by Tara and Riley, where they discussed the latest happenings with the England council. Giles informed the group of the newest developments concerning the slayer. He announced the fact that a new slayer has arrived.
"Arrived?" Buffy questioned, confused as to Giles' word choice.
"Yes, she has arrived here in Sunnydale. Recently, as a matter of fact," Giles informed the group. "And the council has assigned me to be her watcher."
"Wait," Willow frowned. "There's a new slayer?"
"Yes," Giles didn't understand her confusion.
"I thought that there couldn't be a new slayer until the old one...died." She hesitated and glanced at Buffy in concern. "And the slayer's not dead."
Buffy laughed, "Thank you for that clarification, Wil. But, Giles, she has a point. I'm not dead, and I haven't died anytime recently, so how is there a new one?"
"Well, you were not the only slayer, Buffy," Giles explained slowly.
No one seemed to understand at first but then suddenly Xander spoke up, "Faith."
"Oh god, Faith!" Buffy exclaimed, louder than Xander. "Faith's dead?"
"Well, yes, that is the assumption considering the arrival of the new slayer and the perfect health of Buffy." Giles stated.
"Wow!" Willow sighed, "Faith was always such a wild, and, umm, fierce girl! I didn't think she'd ever be killed." As soon as she said it she gasped. "I didn't mean to say it like that," She shook her head. "That was so heartless, I'm sorry!"
"Willow, sweetie, don't worry about it." Tara tried to comfort the distraught red-head. "You didn't mean anything by it, we know that."
"How did she die, Giles?" Buffy asked solemnly.
"She was killed, I'd assume." Giles answered with a shrug.
"Was it a Vampire?" Buffy asked curiously. It was normal, of course, for a slayer to wonder when she heard that the only other slayer had died. It would be strange for Buffy not to want to know how Faith died.
"The council is not certain as to the particulars of her death but they are certain that she was killed. It would not be presumptuous to say it was some sort of demon." Giles answered.
Everyone was silent for a moment, either out of reverence or out of stunned confusion. Faith had never been as well-behaved as Buffy, but she had been just as good as a fighter, sometimes even better when she was really worked up. However, she had a temper to match her skill and that could not be overlooked. While she had spent a few short months of her life fighting for the 'better good' and all that, the rest of her life had been filled with anger and intolerable violence which made it impossible for her to ever be fully accepted by Buffy and her crew.
Finally, Buffy broke the silence. "So, what are we supposed to do now? You're going to train this new girl and she'll come and be another me?"
"Well, I doubt there could ever be another you," Giles smiled at his first slayer.
"That's for sure," Xander laughed.
"And thank god for that too," Dawn added with a sarcastic giggle.
"Okay, okay, I get the pictures guys you don't have to paint it out with acrylics for me!" Buffy stood and started to pace. "So, who is this new slayer?"
"Well, you see, that is the problem," Giles removed his glasses and cleaned them with a handkerchief from his pocket. "The council did not tell me who she is. They gave me some information about her and then told me that I should be able to find her myself."
"What, to prove that your watcher-worthy or something?" Willow asked with a puzzled frown.
"Actually, yes," Giles replaced his glasses to his face. "Since I have been...unofficially retired for quite a while, they have requested for me to find her on my own to show that I still have the, umm, ability."
"That's stupid," Dawn decided. "You've been a watcher longer than I've been a human!" At this comment everyone had to smile. Dawn was of course referring to her previous life as a 'Key', or a mystical being which could bring about an end-of-the-world type trauma. Luckily, Buffy had ended that threat by giving her life and now Dawn was a normal girl with nothing supernatural about her.
"Anyhow," Giles returned to the crucial new-slayer subject. "I must find her soon, because for all we know she is running around being target for some new assemblage of demons!" He took out his glasses again and the group could tell that he was becoming anxious.
"Okay, don't start getting all grumpy and ranty," Buffy took charge. "How hard could it be to find a new girl in a town the size of my dream closet?" The guys frowned but all the girls nodded in understanding of the closet reference. "What did the council tell you about her?" She retrieved a notepad from the desk against the wall and prepared to scribble down a list.
"From what I have gathered from the council, very discreet information, she is young," Giles began. "In fact, it is very possible that she is a new Sunnydale High student, so Dawn, you may help by finding out if there are any new students in your school. Also, as far as their knowledge goes, she has recently experienced a very serious tragedy..."
"What kind of tragedy?" Buffy asked. "I mean like an oh-my-god-I-broke-a-nail tragedy, or an Iliad and the Odyssey tragedy."
"Buffy, what sort of a question is that? I have just told you that this young girl has been through a tragic experience and you're making jokes!" Giles lectured.
"I didn't mean it as a joke Giles," Buffy tried to apologize. "I was just curious as to how 'tragic' a high school student's life could be!"
"Oh well when you put it that way, it's so much kinder." Giles shook his head. Neither of them meant anything by their little spats, but Giles and Buffy were good at bickering. He was very much like a father in that way. "For your information, she has lost both of her parents."
"Oh," Buffy suddenly sobered. "I'm sorry Giles. I didn't mean to be rude. She must be going through a lot."
"Yes indeed," Giles returned to his speech. "Now, the fact of the matter is, I have to somehow find this new girl and inform her of her destiny and hope that she accepts it better than you did..."
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean!" Buffy interrupted again. "I was always a perfect slayer student!"
"Yea, sure you were," Xander grinned, knowing perfectly well that Buffy was less than enthusiastic the first time she found our about her destiny as 'the Slayer'.
"Furthermore, how do we know what her living situation is? I remember how difficult it was for you to evade your mother, Buffy, when you first began to slay. I do hope that it is simpler for her to join us for late-night patrol. Your mother was quite difficult to avoid at times!"
"Giles, chill!" Dawn laughed, "You sound like a British, clown-dictionary when you ramble."
"A what?" Tara spoke up.
Giles ignored Dawn's comment and continued. "I suppose that all we can do is wait and pray that the council gives us more information soon, so that we can find this girl." He slumped back in his chair and everyone could tell that he was stressing over the situation.
"We'll all do our best to look for any new girls who seem like they have just been through a tragedy, okay?" Willow promised Giles and he nodded.
"We should probably tell Spike and Anya," Buffy suggested. "You know, just so they can keep their eyes open."
"Yes, good idea, do that." Giles babbled. His thoughts were obviously still focused on the new slayer and how in the world he was going to succeed in being her watcher if he couldn't even find her. Of course, Sunnydale wasn't that gigantic, and there couldn't be that many new students who transferred to the high school halfway through the year, but he worried. If he didn't find her soon, something could happen to her. Vampires tended to have a type of sixth sense about slayers and seemed to be able to track them down surprisingly easily. If a Vampire found her before Giles did, then something could happen to her. He couldn't lose this girl. He knew nothing about her yet, and there was no telling what kind of girl she would turn out to be; as far as he could tell, she could be the next bad-girl Faith, or the next self-sacrificing Kendra...but that didn't matter. Giles felt it absolutely imperative to find this girl and quickly.