Chapter Three

Chapter Three
NEL'AR'S CHOICE

BY

DOUGLAS L HEMMINGWAY

AS BEFORE THE ATTRIBUTIONS ARE IN THE AUTHOR'S NOTES OF CHAPTER ONE.

CHAPTER THREE

LIBRARIAN'S OFFICE SUNNYDALE HIGH SCHOOL 1 NOVEMBER
Giles wiped his glasses for the umpteenth time since coming back to the Library. Now he paced as he did so again. Though not a complete technophobe as Buffy, Xander and Willow believe Giles did know his way around a computer and did use his hand held devices from time to time. It's just that he loved the feel, heft and smells of books.

Now at a loss as to what happened to his Slayer and her friends Giles decided to call his report into the Watchers Council. He picked his special secure smartphone from his jacket's inside left breast pocket, opened it and began to dial a special code and number. An automated operator came on and having followed her prompts he finally connected to where he made his report.

After leaving as brief a report as he could about the actions of one Ethan Rayne and the disappearance of Slayer Summers and several others he said, "As I have investigated this as much as I can overnight and into this morning I can only surmise that somehow Slayer Summers and many residents of Sunnydale are still somewhere in the guise of their costumes. No trace within the boundaries of this town has been found of those missing."

R.R.W. MANDUKAR, BRIDGE 1 NOVEMBER
Joyce Summers in full immersion as Subcommander Nel'ar of the Romulan Republic Forces Navy finished her conversation with Maj G Hammond agreeing to meet face to face to negotiate a deal concerning their disposition and fate. Now she had another call to make.

Turning to Tirina who used to be Harmony Kendall, Nel'ar said, "Tirina patch me through to Rupert Giles' smartphone." Tirina immediately began to work the touchscreen interface of her console replying, "Yes, Subcommander. "

After several seconds Tirina said, "Rupert Giles is connected Subcommander. " Nel'ar nodded and said, "Put him on screen." With some more manipulation of her console Tirina said, "On screen Subcommander."

A bespectacled man in his forties appeared on screen looking down towards his phone as the ceiling acted as a partial backdrop. Nel'ar smiled then said, "Good morning Rupert, two things, one: why didn't you tell me Buffy was the Slayer. Two: do you know an Ethan Rayne?"

Giles sighed then exhaled a little. Next he said, "Well I'll answer the second first. Ethan Rayne and I met at University. We studied together and even had a brief affair. Our friends and us also dabbled in magic sometimes delving into some of the darker arts. That was until we did something… something dark and terrible… we summoned a baleful spirit that we used to experience an altered state and perhaps, yes perhaps get high. Then things went chaotic and dark. I broke with the group and so did many others. I resumed my studies and apprenticed within the Watchers' Council as a Field Watcher."

Giles took out a handkerchief and then took off his glasses and wiped them down cleaning of imaginary dirt. Then after another sigh he began his tale and said, "Joyce, the world is older than you know..." He told her of how Earth was not originally a paradise. He talked of how their ancestors fought the last of the demons to free themselves from slavery. Then he told her about the creation of the first Slayer and how over the generations after the death of one another was created by the First Slayer's spirit or essence. "Buffy is the latest in a long long line of slayers going back to the earliest of our civilizations. As the Slayer she is mystically enhanced to be stronger, faster with higher senses than the normal humans in order to be able to fight the demons and other monsters of darkness."

Glancing over to her daughter Benala, Nel'ar looked at her Chief of Security in a new light. Now she was mystically altered into a young adult Romulan Woman in her twenties where before she was a teenaged young human woman only a day ago. "Giles as you can tell we, I, we all were altered by what Ethan Rayne did. From our scans we are all either Romulan, Reman or Klingon on my ship. I have a skeleton crew and am running my ship mostly with photonic life forms and automation.