Operation Slayers and Non Essentials, the Second Coming:

Previously on Buffy the Vampire Slayer:

(Paring sexual relations: Satsu/Kennedy, Dawn/Andrew, Buffy/Faith, Vi/Rona. I did not want to be graphic for the sake of the audience's "innocence", with the little montage that tells you the important stuff that happened in the previous chapter.)

Chapter 11

"Did everyone sleep well?" Giles asked his Scoobies, old and new.

All the Slayers and one young watcher looked at certain people in the Library and shared a smile.

"Yes, well...good. Now to the task at hand," Giles continued. Being young once the patriarch obviously knew the story his Slayer's faces told.

"Father Gabriel, would you tell the others what you've told me earlier this morning please?" Giles asked the still injured, yet now recognizable, priest that was now residing at Slayer Central for the time being.

"That's FATHER Gabriel? He can't be more than twenty five" Faith said in disbelief. Faith couldn't believe that the young man sitting in front of her was a priest. Priests are usually old ugly men, but this guy was neither old nor ugly. Father Gabriel wore a crown of short dark brown hair, saw through brown eyes and walked around at what couldn't be more than five foot seven or eight at around one hundred and eighty five pounds. As Faith looked closer at the young man's features and past his wounds, she saw light rosy red cheeks on top of coarse grainy stubble that showed he just shaved. Apart from his facial features, Father Gabriel appeared normal to Faith, with the exceptions of his very broad shoulders, slightly overweight belly and thick chest that men of his height didn't normally have. To Faith, Father Gabriel could have been a giant dwarf love child between a human and a dwarf.

The bruised and bandaged priest rose from his seat, only to come crashing down on his bottom again. "Forgive me ladies, I believe sitting with would be best." Father Gabriel then looked at Faith holding some sort of demonic mechanized plush toy and spoke with a light European accent, "I am aware that I'm too young and good looking to be your average priest, but I am. Just not your traditional kind...which reminds me, this is a haven for super women only, no?"

"Easy there Padre Heffner, we've had shitty experiences with priests in the past, so before you run around here chasing mostly underage girls without your collar, tells us what you know." Faith replied.

Father Gabriel gave Faith a solemn look for almost half a minute before tilting his head and asking, "Really? Their almost ALL under aged? Like not even a handful that look like any of the beautifully ladies in this room? Would you happen to have a sister that lives here by chance?"

Faith and the others just stood there, looking at Father Gabriel without showing emotion nor moving a muscle for a few moments. However within seconds the library was the host to snickers, giggles and flat out laughter; Giles just busting out a half smile as he remembered his early days at the Watcher's Academy while Andrew possessively wrapped his hands around Dawn's arm.

"Ok seriously Padre, ante up." Faith told the man.

"You seem like the head super power in charge here, so I'll make you a deal?" Father Gabriel replied to Faith in a questioning tone.

"Go on"

"Alright so there are some things I didn't tell your father-"

"Come again son?" Faith interrupted the young priest.

Father Gabriel looked at a shocked Giles and a confused Faith spoke again, "Oh I apologize. I just thought that since Mr. Giles being the eldest and head of this establishment, coupled with the way he spoke of you and the blonde bombshell beside you as if you were his daughters or daughters…well that he is your father."

Buffy then looked up at the man she recognized to be her father, not by blood but by bond, and smiled at him; receiving a smile back.

Faith on the other hand looked at Giles and wore her famous shit eating grin before she spoke. "Sure he's my sexy sugar daddy, but I don't see the resemblance".

"Yes, alright, can we please get back on track." Giles spoke out clearly red faced, embarrassed, flustered and slightly disgusted...just slightly.

"Alright, I purpose a trade of information, within limits of course." Gabriel continued.

"What kind of info?" Buffy stepped forwards and spoke out.

"The organization I am part of and more importantly, I, want to know about the Slayer. And how she went from one girl in all the world yada yada, to a worldwide super chick phenomenon. Also, I believe my captures didn't just capture me for the fun of kicking my ass, so I may be able to help you on that front to. Basically, I am positive that my organization and yours could and should be working together to face the vampires, the demons and beat back the rising dark yada yada." Gabriel told Buffy, looking her dead in the eyes.

"How about you go first and we'll see how it goes?" Buffy offered.

"Anything for a pretty lady," Gabriel replied with a nod.

"So what kind of church employ's a whore mongering priest?" Faith asked from behind Buffy.

"Alright, instead of you asking an ass load of questions about me or the organization, I'll tell you what I can about it, deal?" Father Gabriel asked as he looked around the room.

Receiving curt nods, the young priest began to tell his tale. "Alright, I'm about to go all Harry Potter on you guys and gals. So back when Pope John Paul the second was a young Cardinal, God knows when that was; he secretly formed a group of freedom fighters to combat the evils in this world and the next. Despite what the history books may say, he really became Pope because of the victory he lead over Saint Viges the second; a vampire so old and evil, his name was forgotten by modern men and was hence forth known almost throughout this entire world as the Master. I believe you already met him in the past, props for killing him by the way." Father Gabriel stopped his tale as he offered Buffy a fist bump.

After rolling her eyes, Buffy gave the young priest his fist bump and giggled as he pulled away doing 'spirit fingers' and make a bomb sound effect. "Now that I'm done embarrassing myself, I shall continue….So in a nutshell, and I'm using the word Pope John Paul used here, I'm a Paladin for the Vatican."

"Extraordinary!" Giles exclaimed.

"Um Giles, I think he was trying to impress US." Buffy raised her hand and looked around the room at her girls.

"Did it work? Anyone?" the young priest asked as he looked at the women in the room.

"I meant it's a wonder that the Council records had nothing on a modern crusade group of holy warriors that was sanctioned by one of the most, if not the most, legendary figure's in all of the Vatican's history." Giles told his former charge with that scowl he used to give her when she would try to be inappropriately funny, so many years ago.

"Hold up, so you're not really a priest, just a fighter?" Rona ask.

"I can also cook, clean, I pick up after myself...That's right ladies! And I'm single!"

"You do know every woman in this room is gay right? Minus me" Dawn asked Father Gabriel.

"Oh that won't stop me from trying beautiful, if first you don't succeed-"

"You continue telling us the story and stop hitting on my little sister who's taken?" Buffy asked in more an assertive tone.

"Alright, alright, I surrender. Anything else you want to ask?" the young and now recently discovered paladin asked.

"How is it that the council never knew about your division within the Vatican? The council had men and women stationed in every organization around the world and in every major establishment." Giles asked

"Well Mr. Giles, let's just say that John Paul realllllly didn't like the way the old council ran their organization. One of John Paul's first decree's as Pope was to cut off all ties with the council. Naturally, that didn't happen as the council already had too much of a hold on the Vatican. However John Paul was able to peacefully get rid of enough of the higher up councilmen within the Vatican to keep his Paladin's and other holy secret's...a secret."

"Well I can believe that, Traverse that bloody-"

"I have a question" Andrew interrupted as he raised his hand. "...Can you do laying of the hands? Or Holy Shield? Oh! Or Blessing of Kings? Or!-"

"Buddy, I'm not a World of Warcraft character," Gabriel interrupted.

"But the goof does bring up a valid point, what CAN you do if you're not a priest, yet called Father or a paladin? Do you have the same 'powers' or attributes of a normal priest as well as some other dangerous mojo we should be aware of?" Satsu asked.

"Not to sound like I'm on the bottom, but when's it gonna be my turn?" the young paladin asked.

"Fair enough" Buffy said. The elite Slayer strode in front of Giles' desk and sat on it while facing the young paladin whom was no more than 10 feet in front of her. "So we were in a war with the first evil, or at least something that claims to be the first or source of all evil and actually managed to back it up."

"So I heard, and yes, what you fought was and still is the manifestation and incarnation of evil. And on behalf of the Vatican, sorry about Caleb."

With a curt nod, Buffy continued. "So long story short, it had an army and I didn't. So I managed to find a weapon made just for the Slayer and used its power to unlock the spirit of the Slayer within every potential Slayer that the whatever power's, decide to see as a potential candidates for the Slayer position."

"Hold the phone. You, yourself used magic to create a global army of super chicks who could be robbing banks or being called a freak at an early age of 13 as we speak?" Gabriel asked.

"Well, no. Willow...the woman with the red hair over there-" Gabriel quickly turned his head to look at Willow who waved at him, before turning back to look at Buffy. "She performed the spell. She's a very powerful witch-"

"I know who she is. You don't almost destroy the world and be easily forgotten." Gabriel interrupted with a solemn face, Willow instantly frowning. "But if I knew evil comes looking like her, I would have switched sides to" Gabriel added while chucking his thumb Willow's direction.

"Annnyyy-ways" Buffy said aloud, trying to veer the conversation back to the original topic. "We did a spell to give the side of good an army and we used said army to beat the First. Good enough answer?"

Father Gabriel looked behind Buffy and Giles nodded at him, "I have it all written down."

"Works for me, and lucky for you I'm not old and stuffy and I won't tell you how much of a bad idea that was...but I can give out spank-"

"What do you mean bad idea?" Faith interrupted the young paladin.

"Jeez I can't even pretend to be flirty with you guys. Ok, regardless..." Gabriel painfully shifted in his seat to look at Faith. "I didn't mean to offend you. All of you did the best you could with what you had. But there were much better options than creating an undisciplined global super race. I'm not even talking about balancing the cosmic scales blah blah. Even I agree that the cosmic balance of only being ONE chosen in all the world to continuously fight evil is complete bullshit. The universe re-balancing the cosmic scales of good and evil isn't what concerns me, nor the Vatican. However, what does concern the Vatican is the mass amount of women murdering people either on purpose or by accident, the mass amount of young women being verbally crucified and labeled a freak, the mass amount of women whose own families are putting them in insane asylums and the mass amount of women being forced into something they're not, and creating global carnage that normal governments can't deal with."

Gabriel now, despite the pain, was standing and looking around the room at the faces staring back at him.

"Were working on that front-"

"Well work faster!" Gabriel interrupted Giles rather abruptly. "While you and yours try clean up your own mess, innocent's suffer! A-" Father Gabriel stopped himself as Dante started to bark and growl at him from Faith's arms. Father Gabriel tilted his head to the right while studying the agitated toy and asked, "That's not a toy is it?"

"Nope, Dante's the real deal." Faith answered proudly while stroking her baby's fur, calming the demon puppy.

Father Gabriel looked both at Faith and her demon without emotion for a few seconds before shouting again, "Ok what the fudge? You'd think being a warrior of the church, WE would get demon dogs or battle cats! Or Hell, even tigers! I call chicanery and shenanigans!" Gabriel finished as he sat back down.

Becoming serious again and taking a breather the man looked directly at Buffy once more, "Finding and negotiating with the Slayer was one of Pope John Paul's last decrees as acting leader of the Vatican. That is why I was originally sent here, or rather left to come here."

"Left?" Giles asked.

"Pope John Paul the second told me personally near the time of his passing, God knows why he chose me, that he was willingly to negotiate with the only tool of the council that ever fought back and won. His former holiness thought that Buffy and only Buffy could ensure that two mega powers for good could align without causing any more damage to the cosmic scales, to continue to fight the good fight. Only I and those higher up's that John Paul was closest to knows about this last mission, including his Holinesses true successor. The Vatican does not know that the Council is under new and improved management, but the offer for an allegiance still stands."

"Wait, true successor?" Xander asked from his seat.

Gabriel sighed before continuing. "Very rarely the Vatican actually appoints it's true leader to lead the Catholic church both behind the scenes and in the public eye. Normally the real Pope is not even recognized by his own family or fellow Cardinals as the Pope. This is done to protect one of the world's leaders for good against any evils that would threaten the Catholic Church. Pope John Paul the second was the only exception in hundreds of years."

"Now why didn't the Council think of that when I was the only Slayer?" Buffy mused.

"So Buffy, deal or no deal?" Gabriel asked.

"And what about Satz question Howwy? There has to be a reason why the Pope chose you. This is the freaking Pope were talking about here, what makes you so special other than your charming seduction skills?" Kennedy asked.

"Is she gay to?" Gabriel asked Dawn while pointing at Kennedy, only to receive a yes and a glare from Satsu. "Damn it!" Father Gabriel muse shouted as he shook his fist in the air.

"C'mon Gabby," Faith spoke.

"Please! Not Gabby. Although she and Xena were kick ass, please don't call me that. Gabe, Father or my full name...or sugar daddy, but not Gabby." Father Gabriel pleaded. "Alright so about me, about me..." The young paladin wondered aloud as he tapped his chin.

"Alright so i thought about it, and telling you all I fought dragons and such probably won't work sooo here's the scoop. My family has roots in Roma going as far back as being part of Caesar's legion-"

"I'm sorry, Roma? Do you mean Romania or? Cause I don't remember Caesar ever doing anything fancy in Romania unless high school history is full of shit" Rona cut Gabe off.

"He means Rome, he's Italiano. I knew i recognized that accent from somewhere." Faith informed Rona and the rest of the room, the rest of the room looking back at Faith for another explanation. "What? I grew up around them in the old neighborhood back in Boston."

"Ding ding, we have a winner, sort of. I was born in North America. Anyways, over the years, members of my family have been in service to Rome in one form or another. Eventually, John Paul formed his freedom fighters and the men in my family were recruited. And here I am now fighting the good fight, and not by choice mind you. Like you all, destiny chose me, I didn't choose destiny. Anything specific and relevant anyone wants to know?" Gabriel asked the room aloud.

"So the 'can't have sex with a woman' thing doesn't apply to you doesn't it?" Kennedy asked, getting looks from the entire room. "What? I'm still gay and curious, stop looking at me like that."

After chuckling, Gabe answered the Latina Slayer. "That and normal priesthood rules applies to my title or my kind if you will, but not to me. Solely on the basis of there's no way in the nine circles of hell that I'm living my life without a woman or swearing. That and it was either let his fighters have their sex and have children or have no future fighters at all, so good old John Paul was kind enough to look the other way.

"Alright, so what can a Paladin such as yourself do? What training had you had if any?" Buffy asked.

"Every Paladin is taught how to fight with both ranged weapons like bows, and melee weapons like spears, knives and swords. Certain training is given out to recruits whose skills shows promise in certain combat forms or whose skills are needed. For example, one of my squad members and before you ask, yes I am captain of my squad which I was forced to leave behind. I just made Captain or leader or whatever you want to call it over a year ago. It was just a team of five whose skills pooled, made a formidable force. Anyways, one of my team mate's specialties was navigation and ranged support. Another's specialty was both offensive and defensive magic-"

"The Vatican allowed the use of magic? Even for their fighters?" Giles asked.

"Well on the record no, but then again, I'm supposed to be a secret, shhhhh." Gabe mused with a finger over his lips.

"So what's your specialty?" Andrew asked, a look of concern plastered across his face for some reason; the young watcher still possessively holding onto Dawn's arm.

"I was the group's battlefield tactician, leader and I guess what you would recognize as 'the tank'."

Everyone in the room minus Gabe looked at Andrew for an answer.

"He means the gaming term 'Tank'. It means the character or person who soaks up the damage from the other monsters or bosses so the classes of a game who have low life but a high damage output, could fight the monster without worrying about dieing from one or two hits."

"Ah, so you would take point in your squad?" Giles asked, already knowing the answer before Gabe nodded at Giles.

"Yes sir."

"How do you 'tank'?" Satsu asked doing air quotations. "What weapons and fighting styles do you use?"

"Again, all paladins are differently skilled so different 'tanks' use different weapons, armor and methods. I prefer the crucible when armed and a combination of judo, wrestling and hint of boxing and karate when fighting hand to hand." Gabe replied.

"Interesting," Giles spoke aloud. "One would think that a descendant from a solider of Caesar's time would use combat techniques learned from that era."

"Well my father taught me some of the legion's fighting styles but their style is kind of like the Spartan's. And since i am the only one to actually use a shield in my squad, the legionnaire system doesn't work. So the Vatican doesn't usually enforce it unless there's a major apocalyptic war where we would actually need hordes of front line paladins like in the olden days. "The young paladin admitted. "So anything else you want to know? My hobbies? Turn on's?"

"How about why we found you half dead in a cemetery Mr. Holy warrior?" Kennedy asked.

Father Gabriel's smile almost instantly disappeared while remembering what he could of that night's event. "I just finished service at the church I'm station at and was on my way to where I am staying, when i was lured into an ambush inside an alley. I saw group of bringers attacking a woman and I ran in to help. Unfortunately, the woman wasn't very thankful after I killed the group of bringers. It was a trap, the woman was a vampire and after she shifted to her true face, I must have been hit from behind because i don't remember how I got out of the alley. Anyways, I came to somewhere underground. The bringers chained me, beat the crap out of me, fed me, took me out of my cell to go to the bathroom every so often and then beat me up some more before bed. I think i was underground for about a week, I'm not sure."

"Wait, if you were beaten for almost a week, wouldn't you be in worse shape than you were when we found you?" Vi asked.

Gabe rubbed his stomach with both hands while looking back at Vi, "It pays to eat pasta".

Everyone in the library had a chuckle before the young paladin continued. "But seriously, I don't bruise easily and I'm a bit thicker than your average man so I-"

"A bit eh?" Faith said aloud, unknowingly.

"Owwwch! What the hell woman? My pride" Father Gabriel complained.

"No! I didn't mean...you're a sexy beast, now continue." Faith demanded.

"Wow what a shitty save...anyways like i was saying" Father Gabriel returned his focus to Vi, "I don't bruise easily and my body can absorb damage better because I'm apparently a fat ass." Gabe finished while looked at Faith.

Faith just smiled back at the young paladin and gave him the finger.

"Oh you're going straight to hell" Father Gabriel mused.

"I hope evil takes MasterCard," Faith quipped.

Gabe looked at Buffy and told her with a smile, "I can see why you like her."

Buffy suddenly uncrossed her arms and looked at Giles in disbelief.

"Buffy, I.. I.. He asked about you going to Rome to meet his superiors in person, i had to tell him about your relationship with Faith."

"Moving on, injured man still feeling crappy here." Father Gabriel managed to get everyone's attention. "One day or night not to long so after I was returning to my cell, I saw a bunch of priests and nuns scattered in a bloody heap around a large metal sewer cap looking thing in the dirt. The metal had some type of picture on it. I didn't get a good look, but it looked like an animal. Maybe a stag or something with horns or large curved ears? Anyways, I escaped the next night by one of the bringer's knives finally breaking my chains, as I goaded them again into attacking me and blocked a few shots with my chains. So once my hands were freed I killed them, dressed as one of them and eventually found a way that lead to the surface, God knows how because I sure as Hell don't remember."

"Wait….A ram?" Giles asked.

"It could very well have been a ram, yes." Gabe answered while looking at a flustered Giles.

"I have better contact the other Council's and see if any reports of missing priests or nuns have been reported." Giles said aloud.

"I'm guessing we don't like metal petting zoos?" Father Gabriel asked.

"Welcome to Scotland Mr. Gabriel, home of a Hellmouth"

And so time past, days and nights, as Father Gabriel took up residence at Slayer Central while he recovered. During the young paladin's recovery and with his help, Giles made contact with the Vatican's higher up's. Using Willow's help to initiate a web based video conference, the two factions negotiated an allegiance between the Slayers and the Vatican, and agreed upon openly sharing non sensitive information when requested; sensitive information needing to be obtained in person and after both faction's councils have made a decision upon the request. Upon the discovery the First's activity in Scotland, the Vatican decided to leave Father Gabriel at Slayer Central until the threat has been eliminated and agreed to send any information with regards to Scotland's Helllmouth to the Slayers. The Vatican even agreed to look for Slayers around the world and send them to council's all over the world. In turn, Giles agreed to set up a Slayer's Council in Rome that will be run by the Vatican once they survive the First...again.

"Has the Vatican agreed to send aid Mr. Giles?" Father Gabriel asked while sipping tea.

"I'm afraid they can only offer information. They say that their man and woman power is stretched beyond capacity right now. They also tell me that they are receiving reports of a larger casualty rate from their branches around the world. They believe something is happening Father Gabriel, something big, and something we may have caused."

"The cosmic scale balancing out?" Buffy asked from her spot, arms crossed.

"The Vatican assumes so, that this is the beginning of the scale being tipped back into balance. I will contact the other Council's again tomorrow morning and with Willow's help, pull up all records of see if anything similar to what the Vatican described occurred with…Damn it Dante! Get down! Bad dog!" Giles scolded the Slayer family pet who leapt to sit on one of the library chairs.

"Hey G, take it easy…wait, dog? You found out what type of demon Dante is?" Faith asked Giles as a now almost Doberman sized Dante trotted to his mother's side and nuzzled Faith's hand.

"Indeed. I researched and cross-referenced all vastly growing four legged and fur covered dog or lion like demons in all the demonic animal kingdom codecs I could find and-"

"G?"

With a sigh, Giles continued. "Dante's breed is rare and found only in Africa. Dante's ancestor is a crossbreed between a lioness and a type of male demonic grizzly bear. However the father species were hunted to extinction and even with hundreds of years to reproduce with other creatures, this breed has been known to only breed once in their lifetime; baring odd occurrences or further mutations that would affect the species sex drive."

"So what can the little devil do? Fire breathe at puberty? Grow wings?" Gabriel asked.

"Ah no, nothing that extreme." Giles replied with a wave of his finger. "Dante's growth cycle is incredibly rapid until he reaches sexual maturity, which should be sometime soon judging by how fast he is growing. As soon as Dante has reached sexual maturity, his growth should cease. Also when he is fully grown, he should have a lion's mane and his horns will harden by 20 fold, being almost as strong as diamond provided he eats both meat and bone. So other than size, Dante should have one other inherited ability."

"The paralyzing stare" Andrew spoke aloud.

"Precisely. In the attempt to defend itself and through evolution, Dante's ancestor's father species developed a way to instill paralyzing fear into anything it feels threatened by. My guess is the part of this species brain that can see auras and that senses a threat must have worked in unison to create such an ability. And since humans, which were the ones to hunt the father species to extinction, are generally good by nature-"

"Their good auras would be the father's species natural trigger to activate their paralyzing stare. So the original ability came from reading a good or positive aura." Willow cut Giles off and then turned to Faith. "That would explain why even a Slayer can't shake it off; at least part of you is human."

"Pretty much, however there have been cases of the stare working on other demons, vampires and other humanoid or hybrid demons. Usually less powerful or weaker willed ones." Giles concluded.

"Wait, so you're saying that I will have a demon hound that can freeze enemies in place by just looking at them? BOSS! Fuck Superman, I rather have Dante!" Faith rejoiced as she bent down and started to scratch Dante behind his ears and horns affectionately.

"Here's a picture of what he should look like in a little while when he is fully grown." Giles told Faith as he handed the Slayer an open book, everyone in the room trying to huddle around and see.

After a brief study of the picture, Faith just smiled and asked aloud, "Anybody got a saddle I can borrow? Sooooo gonna ride Dante with a sword in one hand and a stake in the other."

"Woah hold on! Time out, flag on the play, penalty...Signota...hooollllld!" Gabriel exclaimed with various hand motions.

"What you call me?" Faith asked somewhat offended.

Gabriel sighed before speaking. "It means lady, or elder lady to be exact. Regardless, you haven't thought about how your gonna train your Fido from hell to not stare us stiff have you? You know since were the good guys and this ancestor's natural enemy was the good guys?" Father Gabriel inquired.

"Who do I look like Caesar Milan?" Faith asked.

"What about a field test?" Xander asked.

"Oh no. No way I'm bringing him to fight yet. He's still too young." Faith argued.

"He devoured my T-Bone stake last night in less than 5 seconds! And the bone!" Xander rebuttled.

"Face it honey, you're going to have to let him leave the nest sometime" Buffy mused with a hand on Faith's shoulder.

"Not cool B" Faith replied.

"Faith, why don't you accompany a group of younger and less experienced Slayers on patrol and see how Dante reacts. It will be good for both the younger Slayers and your pet." Giles offered, in that fatherly sort of tone he can do only for Buffy or Faith.

"Fine, but you owe him a Scoobie snack when we get back" Faith warned.

"Providing he won't be too full from biting any heads off" Gabriel quipped as he and all of the room looked at Dante, the demon dog looking back at everyone as he tilted his head and perked his ears up.