FIC: Slayer Wars (3/?)

July '07

A crushing sense of foreboding pressed down on Giles as he strode through the Council base's wood-panelled corridors. Every person he passed averted their gaze, only confirming his worries. The Council had been alight with rumours for days that Roger was up to something, something given credence by the unavailability of Roger and his cohorts. Giles scowled. It was his own fault; the biggest mistake he'd made in the last four years was recruiting Roger. The man had brought with him a number of useful contacts and talented associates, but for all of that Giles sometimes wondered if it was worth all the attendant baggage and links to the past.

Stopping outside the Council board room's immaculately varnished door, he took a deep breath and forced aside the instinctive temptation to knock and wait like a naughty school-boy summonsed to the head-master's office. Clearly the past still held a grip on him. Instead he grasped the door's brass handle in a slightly clammy hand and opened it.

The board-room was long and wide, its canary yellow walls filled with portraits of former Council heads, their expectant eyes weighing him down. The third floor room was well-lit, light breaking in through the outer wall's windows.

The light illuminated the four men sat along a long table capable of seating nine as had been the traditional number of The Ruling Body in the old days. Except for Robson, Giles' own protégé and intended heir once he retired in twelve to fifteen years' time, they were all former Slayer Watchers.

Samuel Zabuto, Kendra Young's Watcher. A tall, teak-skinned man who despite his years and the snowy-whiteness of his close-cropped hair still retained the powerful build of his youth. He'd been reluctant to re-join the Council, but had worked tirelessly ever since.

Roger Whyndham-Pryce, the Watcher of not one but two Slayers in the sixties. A tenacious bulldog of a man he'd expected to be the leader of the new Council but Giles had had the backing of the Sunnydale Slayers and that had been enough to propel him to the leadership. Since then, the Watcher had grudgingly served as deputy head while continually working behind the scenes to push his own policies and cement his position. The whole situation reminded him of Blair and Brown.

Bernard Crowley, Nikki Wood's Watcher, a Slayer who been active from '71, eighteen months after Robin's birth, 'til '77. Crowley was a tall once thickly-built now thinned to the point of leanness man with a snowy-white mane of hair, hooked nose, and a lined face that gave testimony to his close to seven decades. Yet despite his years, he sat ramrod straight immaculate in his neatly-pressed suit.

"Hello Rupert," Roger had a look about him that reminded Giles of a viper about to strike, "so good of you to join us."

Giles ignored the jibe to sit down at his seat at the head of the table. "I trust there is an urgent reason this extra-ordinary meeting of the Ruling Body was called?" he asked, careful to keep his tone cool and business-like.

"I'd say pressing rather than urgent," Roger qualified with a smirk that Giles ached to slap off his face. "Over the past four years I've sat back while you tore the Council apart, ignoring our time honoured traditions, getting rid of the Cruicatmen-."

"A barbaric anachronism," Giles shook his head.

"Aye," Crowley agreed. "The relationship between Nikki and I was never the same after hers in '72." Crowley shook his head. "It puts a horrible strain on a Slayer's trust of their Watcher, something I believe to be of foremost importance. Roger, you were lucky you never had to put either of your girls to the test."

"The Slayers' worthiness needs to be tested," Roger pugnaciously retorted.

"They prove their worthiness every time they kill a vampire or battle a demon," Zabuto shook his head. "I do not know if I could have ever done it to my Kendra."

Giles nodded. As understandably bad Buffy's reaction had been, he wouldn't have wanted to be in the same dimension after trying the test on Faith.

Roger scowled at the opposition to his views, cheeks crimsoning. Giles in turn smiled thinly. He remembered from his own Watcher training that Roger did not like to be balked or questioned. "Nevertheless some of the changes you've made have passed by the radical and bordered on the treasonous," the older Watcher pressed.

"Such as?" Giles reigned in his temper, speaking through gritted teeth.

"Such as the employment of Angelus, his abomination of a son, and Illyria in our leading American West Coast team for one!" Roger jabbed a finger at him.

"I've more a personal reason to hate Angel than any of you," Giles replied. "But only a fool would deny the good he has done."

"His unsoulled persona was not only a prominent member of The Order of Aurelius but also one of history's most vicious vampires," Crowley commented.

Giles conceded the point with a curt nod. "Yes, but while soulled he has saved the world on a number of occasions. Moreover, he is a warrior the equal of any Slayer bar Buffy and Faith. As for Illyria, she is the match of any three Slayers. Powerful allies."

"Huh," Roger seemed less than convinced. More worryingly neither did any of the others. "And then there's your continued support for Miss Lehane and Miss Scott. They should have been put down like the mad dogs they are."

"Be very careful Roger." This time Giles didn't even try to conceal the steel in his voice." 'Lest we forget Faith has proven herself numerous times in battle, saving the world three times in the past four years."

"The girl's a harlot who's been involved in two appropriate relationships with two Watchers and is a mass-murderer to boot," Roger sniffed.

"The woman is married to the second of those Watchers," Giles had served as Xander's best man at the wedding last year. "And I'd suggest that many of Faith's initial problems would and could have been avoided if certain parties hadn't used their influence to get an at the time woefully inexperienced operative assigned as her replacement Watcher."

The room hushed and Roger flushed at the oblique reference to Wesley. The elder statesman glared around the board-room before returning his gaze to Giles. "We've also allowed you to waste Council funds by frittering them away paying Slayers."

"Waste?" Giles' eyes narrowed. "Contrary to what you may believe, Slayers aren't slaves to protect you while you sit safe behind your desk." A tad undiplomatic, but it made the point. "They are brave warriors and deserve to be rewarded as such. Council funds were never meant to pay for the comfort and luxury of Watchers."

Roger looked close to exploding. "I'll thank you to remember I was a Watcher to two Slayers." Giles grudgingly conceded the point. Both of Roger's Slayers had lasted close to three years and had been extraordinarily successful, although dark rumours circulated that his training methods were little short of brutal.

"Peace, gentlemen," Crowley broke into their tension-filled stare-down. "Roger, you didn't call this meeting to discuss funding."

"No, I didn't." After a second Roger nodded and looked around the boardroom, before returning his eyes to Giles. "Under your rule the Council has endured much. First you abolished the entry requirements for Watcher, allowing uneducated louts to join us."

Giles had little doubt that the 'uneducated louts' referred to the likes of Xander, Justine Cooper, and Oliver Pike, three youngsters he'd match against any of the stuffed shirt Watchers of the past. However he also had little doubt that telling Roger just that would only further inflame the vitriolic traditionalist. Instead he chose a milder defence. "Might I remind you that the old order had been almost completely destroyed?" Indeed Roger had been the only member of the nine-strong Ruling Body to survive the First's attack. "We needed new Watchers as a matter of urgency. Many of these uneducated louts were highly experienced vampire hunters before they joined our ranks."

Roger's eyes hardened. "And what glib answer do you have for teaming Slayers? Thirty nine mobile teams instead of having hundreds of Slayers stationed in specific locations throughout the world."

It was an effort, but Giles kept a hold on his growing temper. "As I mentioned earlier, Watchers were and still are at a premium, even more so than Slayers. Teaming half a dozen or so Slayers with just two Watchers was the most prudent way around the problem. Moreover while a single Slayer is a mighty warrior, a group of Slayers is a force of nature."

"Perhaps," Roger nodded. "And with all these changes, all the truces your agents have worked with the world's mages, with creatures of magic, and knightly orders, what has been accomplished? The Council has over three hundred Slayers. It has Illyria, a resurrected Old One, Willow Rosenberg, the mightiest magus in untold centuries, and even," Roger sniffed disdainfully. "Angelus and his spawn. And yet for all this, what has your resurrected Council achieved?"

Giles fought back a snarl. It appeared Roger was intent on dancing on his last nerve. "In the past four years, our teams have prevented exactly thirty-three apocalypses. The Craven Cult, The Church Of The Holy Chaos, The Crimson Order, and a dozen other demonic groups have been wiped out. Records indicate that worldwide demon-caused deaths are down by a sixth from what they were in 2000."

"Yes, very laudable." Roger's tone suggested the statistics were anything but impressive. "And what of The Circle Of The Black Thorn? What Of The Tarakan Order? The Fell Brethren? The Serpent Cabal? The Cult Of The Dragon? The Twisted Weapon? The Blood Clans? The Brotherhood of Loki?"

Giles' heart hollowed as Roger reeled off the names of the world's most powerful demonic organisations, a terrible dread twisting in his gut. "What are you suggesting?"

"Simply this." Roger glanced around the hushed boardroom. "In the old days when there was only one Slayer, the Council was justified in fighting a containing action. But now we have hundreds of Slayers and it is an outrage that these groups survive much less flourish."

"Stop dancing around the houses, Roger," Giles barely managed to keep an even tone. "And do me the favour of telling me what you want?"

"It's quite simple, Rupert," Roger's answering smile was filled with malice. "We want every one of these demonic organisations wiping out. We want the demonic threat eradicating once and for all."

Rupert's heart sank. He couldn't have failed to notice the older Watcher's use of the word 'we'. A glance around his fellow Board members only confirmed his suspicions. Roger had already converted them.

Realising his only hope was in persuading the others back to his side, Giles shook his head. "Yes, we have over three hundred Slayers, but most of these demon organisations have thousands and in some cases tens of thousands of members. Even with our increased numbers we'll still be grossly out-gunned."

"Your every word proves your unseemly concern for the Slayers," Roger scoffed. "They are weapons with which we are duty-bound to protect mankind."

"And haven't we done that?" Giles desperately argued. "Close to a score of demonic organisations wiped out, numerous apocalypses thwarted."

"It is not enough," Bernard Crowley disagreed. "Like you, I loved my Slayer. But I never lost sight of the fact that she was a weapon with which to protect the innocent."

"And what of the Shadow Council?" Giles hoarsely demanded. "I don't know about you, but I'm more than a little concerned about them."

"Ha," Roger raised a disparaging hand as if to wave away his concerns. "Young Wesley was always prone to hyperbole. This group who use cyborgs as their agents seem more than a little interested in slaughtering demons. An aim we can emphasise with."

"True," Giles reluctantly nodded. "But we have no idea what their motivations or ultimate goal is. Do they hope to create a power vacuum they can move into?"

"If that is their aim, we'll deal with them then," Roger confidently countered. "This is our world now! The demon threat has to be permanently eliminated!"

"A direct war," Giles shook his head. "No general worth his salt would enter such a conflict, what with his army so grossly out-numbered."

"The war chooses us, Rupert," Samuel put in. "It is not a war of freedom, land, religion, or political ideology. It is about our very survival. One day the demons will come for us. Now, when the Council is at its mightiest ever," Kendra's former Watcher shot Roger a warning look, "thanks in large part to your stewardship, is the time for us to strike!"

Giles felt defeat's bitter taste in his mouth at the mutters of agreement that filled the boardroom. He could continue to resist but would more than likely lose, and in doing so weaken his own position. Not that he cared one jot about running the Council compared to his Slayers, in truth he bloody hated the job, but his replacement would probably be Roger, and then all his modernising would more than likely be reversed and replaced by ever more draconian rules. Worse, he'd be unable to protect Buffy, Xander, and Faith from Roger's petty revenge.

Giles took a breath. "Very well," he paused, a slow, wicked grin spreading across his face as he decided to take the thorny opportunity to settle a very personal grudge. "Let's deal with the Order Of Taraka first." He looked towards Robson, the head of their intelligence wing. "I understand they work in a cellular structure?"