It was time for the quarterly check of Potentials and Rupert Giles was not looking forward to it. Due to circumstances beyond their control (once Willow had the flu and the second time there was an unexpected apocalypse) the last two checks had been missed. That meant that not only would they have to relocate all of the Potential Slayers that they had located nine months ago, (they checked to make sure they hadn't moved or something else had happened to them) they would also have to track down all of the Potentials that had been born within the same amount of time.
Needless to say, it was a job and a half. Usually the girls were where they had been before and those that weren't were rather easy to find because usually not much happened in three months time, and it was no more than a quick glance to make sure that she was ok before moving on to the next one. But a lot could and usually did happen in nine months. Five years ago they would have had the resources to do the checks. Five years ago the old Council actually had an entire department solely dedicated to the endeavor, in fact. Now, well, they did what they could and had to be satisfied with that.
Giles looked over the small room that was dedicated to tracking the various Potentials and wondered if they were going about this the right way. Tradition had not been thrown on its head, it had been tossed out the door with the way they had to do things now that the Council was so much smaller and had so few experienced people running it. Of course, now most of the people running it came out of the field rather than the academic side of things. Most of the time he thought that was for the better.
"Xander, you've kept up with public opinion better than I have. How are things regarding Slayers out there now?" It wasn't much more than a feeling, a nebulous thought right now, but he knew that Xander would have the information he needed to decide whether or not to drop it or embrace it.
Xander grinned. This was something he had been waiting for. He and Giles were laying out the maps of the world (every country, city, every type of map they could get their hands on really) all over the long table trying to get some type of order so that this job would be easier. His girls were finally being appreciated and he got to brag about it.
"They're finally getting what they deserve. People in general think it's great; they've got some real super heroines on their side in all of this. Heck, I've even seen a little girl down at the elementary school across from the donut shop where I get your jelly filled chasing a group of little boys on the playground, yelling about how she was a Slayer and she could beat up their Justice League butts any day."
"Well, as long as no one comes up with a Slayer costume, I suppose," Giles shuddered at the thought of a repeat of the Halloween incident.
"Sorry Giles, they already have. It's the hottest little girl costume on the market. None of the stores can keep it in stock. It comes with a really pretty little set of plastic swords, daggers, stakes and a fake crossbow in this little harness so they can carry it all. They're supposed to wear all of that with a pair of jeans and a pretty sweater and a pair of boots. There's also a big ole cross they wear too."
Giles whimpered at the thought of five year old Slayers. It was hard enough when they were fifteen and newly called. Willow, Buffy and Faith grinned at each other from where they were laying out the necessary spell components on the floor next to the head of the table. Most of the year Faith spent traveling around the world, checking up on Slayers and putting out hot spots, but she tried to get back as often as she could for this spell. Seeing all of the lights that pinpointed Potentials all over the world gave her a cozy, warm feeling, although she would have denied it to her last breath.
"What's the matter, Watcher mine? Don't you think we make good role models?" Buffy's fake pout was backed up the glint in her eyes that would have even the dumbest male trembling. Giles on the other hand, was her Watcher, which meant that not only did he know of the minefield ahead, he also knew how to get around it.
He pulled off his glasses and began to polish them. "Buffy, I have no problem with you as role models. What I have a problem with is the thought of another Halloween incident. Five year old Slayers," he shuddered once more.
Willow couldn't hold her giggles in any longer. The sight of her leaning into a giggling Faith was more than enough for Giles, especially because he could hear Xander stifling laughter beside him and he could see that Buffy was about to join the Dark Slayer and the Red Witch. "Could we please just get on with it?" He wasn't above begging when it came to this group and he knew it.
"Ok, where should we start?" Willow asked as she lit the candles.
"Let's go with California for old time's sake," Xander called. He also had those maps on top.
Faith took the map from him and laid it in the center of the design Willow had colored on the floor. A muttered incantation and quite a few disgusting things placed in the small metal cup on top of a Bunsen burner caused a rolling smoky fog to roll over the map. Buffy and Faith each took a handful of metal spikes, in Giles' opinion they looked more like antique hat pins, and began throwing them at the glowing dots that appeared in the smoke. Buffy took the south end of the map and Faith took the north end.
"Seven Potentials, wasn't there two last time?" Faith asked.
"Yes, two of them we were aware of, but the others," Giles sighed. "Let's get to work and find out who they are and if we already know about them."
Xander wrote down the names of the places marked on the map and went to the file cabinets along one wall, one for each continent. He got the file marked California and compared the two stapled together sets of papers with the list of place names. "Ok Willow, we have Judy Elson, age six, in Pasadena and Abby Jameson in someplace called North Fork."
By the time they had arrived at the last location, Palo Alto, they were all frustrated. Not only had Judy and Abby not been in California (which had almost sent Willow climbing the walls in a 'oh something happened and we should have been there to stop it' kind of way) they found out that Judy had moved out of state and Abby had moved out of the country altogether.
"There has to be an easier way to do this. I mean, I know we have to do the spell, but there has to be a way we can track these kids after we identify them!" Buffy tried not to whine.
"We don't got the guys to do it, girl." Faith said sympathetically.
"What do you girls think of contacting the parents as soon as we identify the Potential?" That was the thought that had been bugging Giles. If they could get parents to cooperate early enough then perhaps it would alleviate some of the problems they had been having.
"Well, we don't have to worry about this last one," Willow said as she looked in the scrying mirror. "She's Mary Winchester."