It's A Grimm Thing to See
By Jeannie H. Wood

Chapter 1
It Begins

The world was bright, the birds were singing, and Buffy Summers couldn't possibly be having a better day- for a school day, anyhow. All in all, things were of the good. A whistle passed her lips, and she'd of admitted to anyone that it wasn't something that happened all to often anymore. The little girl in her thought that it might be a good day for a lolly-pop.

Because everybody loves a lolly-pop.

While her whole Angel crush was still up in the air, she was alive. And alive was... good. Today, at least.

She was taking the long way to school (and an hour early on top of that)- the weapon in her hand jutting out in that attention grabbing kind of way. Sunnydale High had never had any sort of weapon detection deal going on- lucky thing, or she wouldn't be able to get half her tools in and out of the library. But this scythe was special, somehow- least wise, Giles seemed to think so when she had called in after patrol last night.

Not that she could see a reason why- rust and old blood had made the deceptively sharp blade look pretty worn; and the spots where hands had obviously held it far too often over far too long were drawn down beyond what even she would have considered acceptable. Frankly, it looked like crap. Deadly crap, but crap none the less. And it was still a little sticky from last night.

Less sticky than Xander had been, at least. The thought was still bringing a grin to her face.

But the thing that had Giles all hippity happy was writing along the blade- something European that reminded her of Latin. She'd tried to spell it out for him over the phone, but erosion had taken away most semblance of sense.

A quick swipe and several small branches from an above tree came down.

Another swipe and it cut through a much heftier branch like a hot knife through butter.

Maybe if Giles could restore it, Buffy thought happily, she could use it on patrol.

A slayer, standing at the ready, taking on death itself- with a scythe...

Too cool.

* BTVS GRIMM BTVS GRIMM BTVS GRIMM *

"It's actually quite interesting," first and second period had come and gone, and Buffy was back in the library on her free period listening to Giles drone on and on about what was quickly becoming the most boring weapon in all history. "The length suggests-"

Blah blah blah.

"The width of the blade-"

Blah blah blah.

"But what makes it particularly special," and Buffy actually looked up from her nails for a moment- even if Giles did tend to drone, he knew what was what in the demon world. "It that this is a true Grimm Reaper scythe."

"Like, 'Beat me in a Game of Chess' kind of reaper?"

"Well... no."

And back to the nails, but with a half ear open just in case.

"It's used by the reapers of the Grimm, actually! Incredibly rare, and incredibly valuable- even to the council. We've only ever had one in our possession, only for it to have been stolen by another Grimm Reaper."

"So these Reaper guys..."

"Are usually Wesen. They're actually a subspecies of humans that tend to be treated more like demons. Very rare- the council isn't able to track them to nearly the same degree as we are demons. I don't specialize, but I do know that rarely a trusted human is allowed into their court. A little like the Order or Taraka in that way. Powerful, dangerous creatures that normally have some sort of death to avenge in their family. A family member, or very good friend that was killed by one of the Grimm."

"And a Grimm is..."

"It's a human, actually. Mostly. ...We think. Grimm is actually the family name that was passed down by two particularly famous German brothers. Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm. Weather or not they were human is pretty much open to interpretation, as the blood line has been so diluted since then they're pretty much homo sapiens in nature as a whole. Have you ever heard of the Brothers Grimm?"

"You mean, like the movie?" Buffy thought about it for a moment, "Yeah. Totally creepy, but kind of funny. The mud blob was disgusting, but the kid with no face was kind of border line scary. You know?"

"...There was a movie?"

"Yeah, I mean, I don't know who directed it or anything, but-"

"No, I... that's... quite alright. In reality the Brothers Grimm were two brothers who collected, or at least gave fame to all the fairy tales we know and tell today- though when they were written, the brothers told the stories quite a bit darker and move demonic than we know them now. The princess and the toad, for example- instead of the princess kissing the toad as we tell children now, originally the princess was so disgusted by the toad that she threw him at a wall as hard as she could and killed him- only for the toad to turn back into a human at death, resulting in the princess being hanged for murder."

"That's kind of... eww."

"Most of the old stories are like that. Very dark, very evil. The brothers Grimm had said until their dying days that every single story they ever told was actually true, though of course they weren't generally believed. But as the Watchers know they passed on an ability to their children, who passed it on to theirs, etcetera. Thus we're not entirely sure as to their linage, you see; human or otherwise."

"And the ability is..."

"The ability to see. To look at a creature, be it Wesen or Demon, and see it for what it truly is; when anyone else would see it as its disguise. To see intention and truth. A Grimm may not see deception as such, but they know the well meaning from the ill meaning. They see threat when it exists. Decedents of the brothers Grimm became very famous hunters, after that, as they could see both the demons and Wesen that were hidden among us, when even people like Slayers couldn't."

"So a Grimm Reaper is actually a reaper of these Grimm guys. Hunting the hunter kind of stuff."

Okay. So... kind of interesting. Mind, so were polished pink nails. With sparkles.

"Exactly. Of course the council has long been under the belief that there are no unknown Grimms left. There are a few that we know of, but they don't generally hold belief with the council and try to keep to their own. We like to imagine we know the locations of the remaining Grimm, and keep track of where they travel- but of course no system is ever a hundred percent."

"So a Grimm reaper being in Sunnydale means there has to be a Grimm here. One the council doesn't know about."

"Yes. Precisely. To think that a Grimm Reaper is here in town... it suggests that there's a Grimm as well, which would be absolutely astounding- they're considered to be amazing hunters, above anything even Slayers do-"

"Hey now-!"

Giles waved her back to sitting with a hand. "For multiple reasons, and it's not meant to be offensive. The first is very simple- they are human. They must reach the same level of combative skills as you must, without the supernatural strength and power. The second, to be frank, most higher end demons of any intelligence- you'll never come up against for a very simple reason. They know who you are, and they like knowing. If you were to die, all of a sudden a new slayer could pop up anywhere on the planet. Nobody is safe until the Slayer and her location are common knowledge. So long as they know you're stuck here, guarding the hellmouth against the somewhat intelligence-lacking demons, they know they're safe-ish elsewhere. Killing you would be opening up a... well, a can of worms. Nobody likes not knowing if their next dinner is going to end up stabbing them.

"It's another reason why vampires like William the Bloody don't get along with the general demon populace. They like buggering things up for everybody, and knowing that the demon world is in an uproar trying to find out where the next slayer is as much as the humans... well, I'd imagine it's a good laugh, if one has the ego and the inclination."

"And Grimms are better because they're just normal people?"

"Not just better as in skill wise- but more dangerous in how random they can be. A slayer fights vampires. On a Hellmouth, normally. They're followed by a watcher, and the council. They use a stake, holy water, and on the rare occasion a cross or another religious artifact. It's all very cut and dry in the larger scheme of things. A Grimm might be skilled fighter- or likewise, hate his heritage and have nothing to do with it. He might use a sword, he might use a gun, he might use poison. He may well just use the front end of his car. Unless you know the Grimm, you don't know what or when or why they'll do what they do- all you know is that it'll end up with a dead body- or a very good story.

"And not only are they generally good hunters- a problem with Grimms is that if one were to be particularly... promiscuous, he or she could create as many more as they like. Imagine if one of your greatest enemies could just go visit a sperm bank and give up a couple hundred sperm. Suddenly the next generation of meals has a couple hundred extra sensory hunters amongst it."

"So these Grimm Reapers try to take them out as quickly as possible."

"Yes. It's also why the Grimm family line is kept so secretive."

The first warning bell rung for fourth period than, and Buffy started collecting her stuff. "All in all, it's actually quite the compliment," Giles was grinning as he hung the scythe up in his weapons cabinet. "For a Grimm Reaper to consider you a threat worthy of coming out for- well, it shows that you're well on your way to becoming one of the best."

A thought crossed Buffy's mind as the second warning bell rung, and absently, as she left, she turned to him to say- "I don't know- it would have been more of a compliment if it hadn't kept going after Xander. I mean, the stupid thing turned its back to me like, ten times! It's the only reason I even managed to take the thing out. Like Xander is more of a threat than me. Pshaw."

She turned to leave, not seeing Giles' jaw drop. His mouth hung open like that for a moment, and Buffy was through the doors, swinging shut behind her. A smart moment later and he was calling out to his Slayer, "What did it look like?"

For a moment he was sure Buffy hadn't hear him, already distracted by class and school, but a moment later her head poked back through the library doors. "Like a human," she commented casually, knowing anyone who overheard her in the hallways would just have a strong attack of Sunnydale Syndrome. "Like a pale-ish, kinda sick green human. Until he got sliced open, anyway. I don't think humans have organs like that."

"You're sure?"

"Sure I'm sure. Honestly, if he hadn't attacked us I wouldn't have ever gone after him. Kinda a death wish, really," she waved goodbye with a quirk of a smile- but Giles had already turned away. There were few ways to interpret this information- and none of them were good.

TBC Next Sunday