Disclaimer: I did not own Buffy, Angel or characters from the Silmarillion and the Lord of the Rings. The Angel Academy and Institute are my own creation.
NOTE 1: This is a short AU of my story, the New Watcher. It takes place after the battle with the First Evil and after the War of Wrath in the First Age of Middle-Earth.
NOTE 2: If you want to know about the Angel Academy and Institute, read chapters 1 and 2 of the New Watcher; and read chapter 4 of New Life to see how Dawn got her wands.
NOTE 3: When Angela or anyone from the Angel Institute are speaking to any of the Valar or Maia, they are speaking in the angelic language, except for the meeting that will be held with the slayers.
The Vanyar, Galadriel, Celeborn and Gil-galad watched as Lord's Eonwe and Olorin escorted Elrond and Elros to Eru Ilúvatar's Herald's tent. The brothers were dressed in their finest elven robes and Eonwe was clothed in his best armor, while Olorin was clothed in fine elven robes.
Lord Olorin informed Elrond and Elros that Eru's Herald did not want anyone to bow – only shake hands – which he taught them how to do. They thought it was very strange.
When they reached the entrance to the tent, Gregory was standing there dressed in an elegant black tux. "Come in," he said, and opened the tent flap.
When they entered, candles illuminated the entire tent and they saw many round tables that sat 10 each with find china, goblets and silverware. They also saw a bar station on their left, with two bartenders; an hor d'oeuvres station next to the bar station, with two servers, and the waiters and waitresses at their stations. The waiters and waitresses wore black pants, white shirt or blouse, black vest and tie.
"Eru Ilúvatar's Herald will be here momentarily," Gregory said.
On cue, all the half-Ainur appeared in the room and Angela appeared in front of Elrond and Elros, and they let some of their light shine through, including Gregory.
"Hello Mr. Elrond and Mr. Elros, I'm Eru Ilúvatar's Herald. You already know my name," she said, holding out her hand.
Elrond and Elros were taken by surprise, but soon recovered and shook her hand.
Angela was dressed in a cream colored silk gown with long sleeves that came to her ankles. The top was fitted to the waist with a high collar opened at the center, and the bottom was flared. She was wearing a pearl necklace and pearl and diamond earrings and her hair was in a french twist. She had on Jimmy Choo two-inch sandals.
Olorin smiled at her.
Just then, the slayers walked into the room from the rear with Buffy leading the way and Giles bringing up the rear.
Buffy was wearing a lovely dark blue gown, with matching three-inch heels.
Faith wore a formal red pant suit, with three-inch red heels.
Dawn had on a light green gown with shoes to match, and her hair was in a single braid, with a long white ribbon intertwined.
Giles looked handsome in this black tuxedo.
Elrond and Elros noticed the many different hues of these mortals and the different races of men and women. Some of the young women had short hair and one brown-skinned man had a bald head. The rest had short hair.
"We don't know your customs, but, this is how we entertain where we come from," she told them. "Since Mr. Elros is the guest of honor this evening, we will stand, in what we call, a receiving line, and I will introduce the two of you, and everyone will shake your hands."
Elros looked at her.
Angela smiled at him.
They followed her and everyone lined-up and shook the two elves hands after they were introduced.
Eonwe and Olorin were standing off to the side.
"There customs are very different," Olorin remarked.
"I know," Eonwe said, looking around the room. "There's no high-table."
"No there isn't," Olorin replied, wondering why.
After the introductions, a waiter walked up to them and handed each a glass of wine.
They watched as the waiters and waitresses walked around the room with hor d'oeuvres and drink trays and Angela explained to them what hor d'oeuvres were.
"Why are the females servers dressed the same of the male servers?" Elros asked.
"Uniformity and it's custom where we come from," she answered.
"Women wearing pants?" Elrond asked, with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes. We wear them all the time," she answered, smiling. "I only wear a dress on rare occasions. When you first met me, I had on pants."
"We remember," Elrond said, smiling.
"You look quite lovely in a dress," Olorin said, with a twinkle in his eyes.
"Thank you," she replied, and spotted Eonwe talking to Giles.
"As you noticed, some of the other females are also wearing pant suits. Faith, the one in the red pant suit, would never wear a dress because she hates them," Angela said.
"What about the other males in black," Elros asked.
"They're wearing tuxedos. It's formal men's wear, where we come from," Angela answered. "We used to dress like you but that was ages ago and clothing changes over the years."
"You're an Ainur," Elros stated.
"Only half," she answered. "My father was one but my mother is mortal. The other half-Ainur here also has one parent that is an Ainur."
"Was your father a Valar or Maia?" Elros asked.
"He's one of the Powers, which is a higher order than the Valar," she answered.
Elrond raised an elegant eyebrow. "Higher than the Valar?"
"Yes," she answered. "Much higher."
They continued talking for another half-an-hour.
xxx
Angela mentally received word that dinner would be ready in five minutes. "May I have your attention please," she said, tapping her glass with a fork.
Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at her.
"The feast this evening is to welcome Mr. Elros into the human family. That's why you're the guest of honor," Angela turned and said to Elros, with a bright smile.
Everyone said "welcome to the family" at the same time. Some whistled and others clapped.
Elros was surprised and smiled. "Thank you," he said.
Elrond looked at his brother with a sad smile.
"Dinner will be served in five minutes and you and Mr. Elrond will sit next to me," Angela said to Elros. "Right this way."
They followed her to her table and David held out Angela's chair, and she sat down. Elros sat on her right and Elrond on her left.
Elrond, Elros, Tess, David, Olorin, Giles, Buffy, Rona and Eonwe sat at Angela's table. A waiter handed everyone a hot towel, which smelled like fresh lemons, and they washed their hands.
Then the feast began. The first course was a fluffy cheese souffle; the second course, a creamy vegetable soup; the third course was a delicious quail stuff with a wonderful dressing, and dessert was a creme brulee. White wine was served during the meal, along with warm bread and butter. The slayer's portions were much larger than anyone else's and no one said a word.
Elrond and Elros had never tasted the strange spices and thought they were wonderful. The creme brulee was rich and creamy, and different than anything they had every had. The wine was also delicious and it seemed to them it was elvish wine, but white instead of red.
Olorin asked why all the tables were round and Tess explained.
During dinner, Elrond and Elros were surprised to learn that the army Eru Ilúvatar sent to destroy the demons were all females, or slayers as they called themselves, and that Buffy and Rona were slayers. They were also stunned to learn that the people ruled their government and their leader, the President, was term limited to no more than 8 years. It was a government for and by the people where they came from.
Giles explained to them how the slayers came to be and David the half-Ainur, minus the Doom of the Ainur.
xxx
"The meal was delicious," Elros said, taking a sip of his tea. "Thank you."
"Yes it was," Elrond concurred.
"You're welcome," Angela replied, with a bright angelic smile to both of them.
"We wanted to give you a taste of the food from our world," David said.
"The festivities aren't over yet. Aaron is on his way over," Angela stated.
Aaron told them why he was there. "Right this way Mr. Elros," he said.
Everyone got up from the table as Elros followed Aaron to the chair. When Elros sat in the chair, four half-Ainur males lifted it up and carried him around the tent, while everyone clapped, whistled and yelled. Needless to say, it was rowdy.
Elrond was taken completely by surprised and watched as his brother laughed, clapped and enjoyed himself.
Olorin also laughed and clapped.
Eonwe just stared.
"This is what it's like to be human," Angela said to Elrond, when she walked up to him.
"I see," he said, looking at her.
"You will never really understand it though," she replied. "We celebrate every little thing, because we don't have much time and the years will pass quickly for us. Yet, in that short time, we will accomplish much."
Elrond raised an eyebrow.
"You will never understand it," she said, with a sly grin. "Your brother is enjoying himself."
"Yes he is," Elrond replied, looking at his brother who was still laughing.
"Excuse me," Angela said, and Elrond nodded his head.
"I told you we weren't the Vanyar," she said to Olorin, knowing that Eonwe was in hearing distance.
"No you're not. However, you made quite an impression on them," Olorin said.
"That's because of my skin color and the clothes I wore. They looked down on me," she said. "They're pompous asses."
"I take it you don't like them," Olorin said.
"No I don't. However, I do like the Noldor and Mr. Elrond and Mr. Elros. I also like Miss Galadriel and her husband, along with Mr. Gil-galad. You all loved the elves to much, to the determent of everyone else. The only reason you came here was to save the them and they were your only concern. Everything you every did, you did for them and no one else. The people here didn't need your help because most of them were either dead or had moved on, out of harms way, by the time you arrived. They certainly didn't need or want your pity," Angela said. "I know about the Doom of Mandos."
"I'm sure you do," Namo said, when he appeared by her side.
A waitress walked over to him and handed him a glass a wine, which he accepted.
"Hello Namo," she said. "What are you doing here?"
"I stopped by to enjoy the festivities," he replied with a smile taking a sip of his wine.
She raised an eyebrow.
"We love all the children of Eru Ilúvatar," Eonwe said.
"No you don't. You only love the elves. When you leave Arda, you will never look back and never return. Only Eru Ilúvatar will be watching over humans on Arda, as he has always done. Arda has been badly mismanaged from the beginning. If Manwë managed a corporation the way he managed Arda, he would have been fired a long time ago. Everyone where we come from calls him a slum lord."
"How was it mismanaged?" Olorin asked, surprised the young woman was so bold and wondered what a corporation and slum lord was.
"He neglected it and always has. When you left for Aman, he left Arda to Melkor. Instead of taking care of the problem from the start, Manwë let it fester. After you made war on Melkor and sundered the elves, you brought the fox into the hen house and had evil right in your mist, waiting to strike, which he did. A blind man could see that coming.
After we read the reports what Melkor did in Valinor, we were glad you finally knew what it was like living with that evil. You sat in Valinor with the light of the two tress and kept Arda dark; and in your darkness, you finally realized that Arda was without light. Which you would have known had any of you bothered to look. You all cried like babies when the lights went out, with your pets, the Vanyar at your side. You got a bloody nose, so what, that's life. It pales in comparison to what everyone went through on Arda.
You also think we're weaker than the elves. On the contrary, we're the stronger race. Just because we get sick, grow old and die, doesn't mean we're weak. That's how Eru made us. We don't die of grief, fade, or have to live in bliss, or heaven forbid, among any of you. We are tough as nails and don't need any of you.
The elves have a place to run to and hide when the going gets tough, we don't. We can withstand the turmoil's of the world better than they can, because to us, that's normal. We don't need an Estë or a Irmo to heal our hurts either. We have live with our scars, mentally and physically, because we know they can never be healed. We simply go on with life.
All of you were hiding. Mel in his pits; you with your walls up in Valinor; the elves in their strongholds on Arda, and the dwarves in their mountains. The only ones who weren't hiding were men because they had no place to hide and weren't going to hide Mel, it isn't our nature. You would have know that if you knew us. They stood up to him and died for a good cause because they had no choice. That's what I mean when I said they didn't need or won't your damn pity. They were willing to die to the last man.
The ones who went to their graves before you arrived, died disliking you and didn't want to have anything to do with any of you. Not one of you ever wept for any man, women or child on Arda. So don't tell me you love us, only Ulmo loved and took care of us. The rest of you were sitting in your bliss in Valinor, admiring the Vanyar," Angela told them.
"Your words are harsh," Eonwe said.
"The truth always is," she replied."What can I do for you Namo?"
"Was it that bad where you come from?" Namo asked.
"You have no idea. It started from the time we awoke and ended when Eru set a doom upon all of you," she answered.
"That was serious," Olorin said.
"Of course it was and he got your attention when he did it," she replied.
"What was your doom?" Namo asked.
"Eru destroyed his entire creation and killed every living thing on our world, including us, and started over," she answered. "There has never been any love between us. You treated us badly from the start and hated us. After it was all said and done, nearly half of you were kicked out of the Timeless Halls and now there's a guard standing between the fallen angels and us. When he had to descend to stand guard over the fallen host , it was said that 'it shook the nations' because of who he was," she replied.
"Why did the Devil fall?" Olorin asked.
"Pride," she answered. "The Lord told him iniquity was found in him - his heart was lifted up because of his beauty - he corrupted his wisdom for the sake of his splendor and called him a profane thing who brought violence into heaven. That had nothing to do with us, but, we were the ones who paid for it because we are stuck with him until the end. We also paid for your sins during the second rebellion, which wasn't our fault. All your sins seemed to touch us somehow and we paid dearly for them. You were the cause of all of troubles," she answered.
"I'm sorry to hear that," Olorin said.
"What's done is done, it cannot be undone," she replied.
"You said you would tell me about the House of Finwë," Namo said.
"You mean that human family Eru put in Valinor?" she asked.
"Yes," he answered with a smile.
"The reason none of you understood them is because you were dealing with humans and not elves. They may have looked like elves, but they were human on the inside. As I said earlier, Fëanor's mother died a human death. Her body wore out, like ours do and you can't fix that. She also knew it was worn out. We do the same thing when ours body can't go on any longer – we simply lay down on die because we know our time has come to an end, and so did she.
Finwë remarried, like we do when our spouse dies or when we terminate our marriage and marry someone else, another human trait.
Fëanor always felt a sense of abandonment from his mother and that's where all his problems stem from. He didn't like the idea that his father remarried and replaced his mother. He also didn't like his stepmother, Indis, or any of their offspring. He thought his father would love his other children more than he loved him and that's very normal in a human family.
He also disrespected, mocked and cursed all of you all of you and didn't like or love any of you; and he didn't have to, which is another human trait. However, we thought he was being nice to you. We would never be so kind to any of you and would have done things to you that would have appalled you because we know we call walk up one side of you and down the other; and there's nothing you can do about it. He knew that too.
Unlike the elves, we would have never answered any of your summonses s and slammed the door in all your faces, the same way he did to Melkor after cursing him. Another human trait.
We all know about the speech he gave and what happened afterwards, which was another human trait. If we lived in Valinor, that would happened there everyday and we would run you out of the place.
When he arrived in Arda, he had the ships burned and made his brother cross the grinding ice because he hated him. That did not surprise us at all because its common where we come from, which is another human trait.
As I stated earlier, his temper got the best of him and got him killed, and we weren't surprised at all. It happens to many people on my world. When he sons were here, they also acted like humans, and as you know, slaughtered their own people over a few trinkets. Another human trait. You were dealing with a man and you don't know us at all. If wouldn't surprise me if you are still having problems with him," she answered, looking at Namo.
He smiled at her.
"You're dealing with the human psyche and you don't know how to handle it," she told Namo.
"What is the human psyche?" Namo asked.
"The forces in the individual that influences, though, behavior and personality and Fëanor's psyche is human, not elvish," Bobby answered when he approached. "You can't do anything with him."
"This is Doctor Robert Edwards," Angela said to them.
"Why?" Namo asked.
"His mind snapped, as Angela told you earlier," he answered. "Think of his mind as breaking into thousands of little pieces and it will take many, many, many long ages for those pieces to become whole again. After that, he has to deal with the root of his problem, which is the abandonment of his mother to your Halls Namo. I would suggest that she sit down with him and explain everything to him, along with his father."
"Doctor Edwards is a psychiatrist, which is a healer of the mind," she told them.
"You said you couldn't heal the mind," Eonwe said to Angela.
"We can't, we're here to help them deal with their trauma," Doctor Edwards replied. "Those people out there will never forget what Melkor did to them and they are going to have to live with that for the rest of their lives. Fëanor will also have to learn how to deal with his trauma and come to terms with it. That's the only way he will begin to heal."
Just then, a white dove appeared out of nowhere in front of Angela with an envelope in its beak. When she took it, the dove disappeared in a flash of white light.
If Namo, Eonwe and Olorin were surprised, they didn't show it, and watched as she opened the envelope and unfolded the note and read it. They saw a grin appear on her face as she was reading what was written.
"Excuse me," she said, and walked over to Giles.
Nienna appeared next to Namo and they walked to a quiet corner with Doctor Edwards.
xxx
"I just received this," Angela said to Giles, handing him the enveloped, after she took him aside.
Giles opened the envelop and read the note. "Where did this come from?"
"I just received it from the Powers," she answered. "We should tell Buffy."
"I agree," Giles replied.
They walked over to Buffy and took her aside. Angela handed her the envelope and she read the note.
"What are you going to do?" Buffy asked, after reading the note.
"Have Whistler take away all their power and send them all packing," Angela answered. "I want to know if you and Mr. Giles would like to be there when he does?"
"Yes," they both replied in unison.
"We have to do it when we return and it will be done at the Angel Academy," Angela said.
"It's about time," Buffy replied, with a grin.
"I agree," Giles said.
Angela took the note from Buffy and it disappeared in flames.
xxx
While Angela was talking to the three Ainur, Elrond and Elros were talking and mingling with everyone else.
"Mr. Elros, these are for you," David said, when he appeared with gifts and put them on the nearest table, and everyone gathered around, including Namo, Olorin and Eonwe. "These gifts are from us and they were made by men on our world."
Elros sat down and began to open his presents. The first present was an exquisite dark brown soft leather saddle; the second present were a pair of black knee high boots made of the finest leather, and the third present was a silver dagger, with a straight 12-inch blade that had a perfect round blue sapphire embedded in the hilt, in a dark brown leather sheath.
Elros and Elrond inspected each item and liked what they saw. There were no flaws or imperfections.
"Thank you all," Elros said, beaming.
"The dagger is ceremonial," Santana told him.
"I'll wear it at all official functions," Elros told them.
They all smiled at him.
Angela mentally asked Mr. Elrond if she could speak to him privately and he responded with a nod of his head and they walked away from everyone else.
"I have a few gifts for you. If you would allow me to visit you tomorrow, I'll bring them to you," she said.
"Of course," he replied.
"I'll come after breakfast," she said, and he agreed.
An hour later, Nienna, Namo, Eonwe, Olorin, Elrond and Elros departed Eru Ilúvatar's Herald's tent.
