Chapter 6
Giles had not anticipated getting a "we need info" call so soon.
For two weeks after the destruction of Sunnydale everyone had stayed together, still trying to catch their breaths and get their bearings. Then, while most of the group had stayed in San Francisco to set up a "training school/headquarters", Rona had taken a few of the more gung-ho girls to Cleveland, with Giles in tow.
After seeing them set up, he had returned to England to see what was salvageable from the Watchers Council. He was more concerned about their vast stores of knowledge and perhaps some of their collections than he was about personel, but he put out feelers in that regard as well.
No sooner than he'd just begun to feel settled in, than he received word from Willow that something had gone wrong. "I beg your pardon?" he asked.
While Willow researched everything about the spell she had cast, and about neutral spirit possession, Buffy and Dawn launched into research mode on a much more mundane subject.
Captain Jack Sparrow, pirate, born 1702. Best known as the captain, one of the captains of the Black Pearl. Apparently that ship had alternated between Jack and a man named Barbosa.
Buffy looked at the pictures in the book of the two men and frowned. So that was what the man looked like huh? Not bad. She shook that thought off. Probably whoever had done the portrait or engraving or whatever had romanticized them. The book seemed to be making pirates seem like Robin Hood figures anyway.
"Buffy." Dawn whispered," look at this." They had had to go to the library for the information, as not one of the books they had on hand had had anything to do with pirates. While Buffy had been focusing on the history section (San Francisco had a large maritime history selection), Dawn had taken the esoteric route, noting that Jack had seemed perfectly accustomed to the supernatural. So she had looked for legends and myths, ghost stories and the like.
And had hit the proverbial jackpot. Jack Sparrow had a book all to himself.
Buffy flipped through the volume and stared. "We need to call Giles."
At least this time he'd been prepared. The minute he'd gotten off the line with Willow, he'd begun researching himself. Both about what to do about the man inhabiting Xander's body, and didn't it just figure it would be Xander, but about the man himself.
The Watcher's Council actually had very little information about the sea. Slayers typically stayed land-bound (save for one pirate), and had not much to do with sea monsters and aquatic demons. Which he supposed was a little funny, considering the fact that there was so much there. Sea, and monsters.
And it seemed Jack Sparrow had dealt with all of it. Mermaids, The Kraken, curses, ghosts, zombies, the Fountain of Youth, and even the bloody Flying Dutchman.
When Buffy called him however, it turned out he didn't have any new information for her. The limited resources about the ocean that he had at his immediate disposal was actually less than what she had gotten from a common book of Pirate Lore.
They were going to have to do something about that. He'd never come up short before and he felt his manhood required he do better. Or something like that.
To Be Continued...