Disclaimer: Buffy and Torchwood universes are not mine. I'm just playing with them ^^

This chapter was really hard to write because it's the Speech. The big meeting with all the explanation. It's not easy to try to make something different, especially when you're used to read crossover. It's the unavoidable point. I hope you'll like it.

Enjoy!

Chapter Six

This kind of things don't exist.

Right then, Owen Harper hated his life. He remembered full well the first time he had met his new neighbor. There had been pain, anger, disbelief and frustration in that one encounter. Afterwards, he had sworn to himself to stay as far away from the crazy woman as possible. And then, his days at work had become hellish thanks to this INC agency. They had come to town and encroached on their territory. Even the police had turned their backs on Torchwood, making fun of them, helping this INC.

Then, all Hell had broken loose tonight. A Weevil had attacked someone and then they discovered that his crazy neighbor was in fact an INC agent. And Jack asked him to keep an eye on her. He ordered him to watch her, when Owen had sworn to stay as far away from her as possible! And she was insulting him, calling him Rude-Guy in front of everyone. Rude-Guy! She was the rude one.

He was currently in her living room while she was taking a shower. He threw his coat on her couch and walked around. She lived in an apartment similar to his, but hers was warmer, cozier even. There were signs, little touches, of her everywhere. He looked at the pictures all around. They exposed her life, showed to the world who her family was. Owen frowned.

The oldest picture was of her with two other teens, a dark-haired boy with a goofy smile and a shy redheaded girl. They had to be around fifteen years old. But something was off. Along the years, they seemed to lose their innocence. The happiness disappeared and their eyes turned tired and old. They told stories of pain and heartbreak. Their eyes had seen horrors. Their smiles faltered, and some seemed forced. In the most recent, the boy had lost all his goofiness and was wearing an eye patch. The redhead wasn't as shy but she seemed broken somehow. As for Buffy, she looked like a caged animal. She seemed calm and centered but there was a storm raging in her hazel eyes. Owen wondered what had happened to them to make them look like hardened veterans.

"See something interesting?"

He nearly jumped out of his skin. He turned toward her.

"I was just looking around."

She glanced at the pictures but didn't comment. She was wearing white cotton shorts and a pale blue top. His eyes took in the details. She was hot. Her body was practically perfect. However, the doctor in him couldn't help but notice the multiple scars visible here and there. More questions popped into his mind but he kept quiet. He would talk about it with Jack tomorrow.

"I have a guest room," she said. "Of course, you could sleep in your own apartment, just two floors above. It's your call."

He grimaced. "I've got orders."

"Then goodnight."

Just before she disappeared, she said:

"Oh, and Rude-Guy? Stare at me that way again and I'll personally rip your eyes out."

She closed her bedroom door, leaving him to stand in the middle of her apartment, gaping in disbelief. Shaking his head, he went to the guestroom. He left the door wide open and fell on the bed. Hands on his chest, he stared at the ceiling. With one last curse at Captain Jack Harkness, he relaxed and fell asleep.

A loud knocking on the front door woke him up the next morning. He blinked and wondered where he was before the previous night's events came back to him. He groaned. According to his watch, it was eight in the morning and he had slept six hours. Whoever was at the door was persistent and panic washed over him. He quickly got up and rushed to the blonde girl's room. He found it empty.

Swearing, he went to open the door to find a rather annoyed Jack Harkness.

"What took you so long?"

His boss entered, followed by all the other members of Torchwood.

"Owen? Where is she?"

He looked at Jack and winced.

"I don't know."

"How is it that you don't know?" Gwen intervened. "You were supposed to keep an eye on her!"

"Apparently, it was too complicated," said the Captain.

"I fell asleep!" Owen exclaimed. "You know, normal human people need this thing called sleep!"

"And now, she's gone!"

"Gwen, shut up!" Owen snapped.

For Godsakes, it was eight in the morning! He had only woken up moments ago! They couldn't do this to him. He went to the kitchen, searching for coffee. Because, seeing how his day started, he would need a lot of it.

"They seem so old, so sad."

Owen looked up at Ianto's comments. He was standing in front of the pictures.

"I thought the same thing last night when I saw them. They were just kids but they had such old eyes."

He threw closed a cupboard door and exclaimed. "She doesn't have anything to make coffee! How can anyone live without coffee?"

The others were standing in front of the pictures, examining them. Jack had an odd expression on his face. Owen came closer.

"She had scars. A lot of scars. They're old. And look at them," he gestured to the photos. "Whatever lives they led, it was a violent one."

Tosh said that she had done some research on Summers. She hadn't been able to learn anything. Her file was sealed by the US Government and only people such as the President and the Joint Chiefs had the clearance to open it. And even they could only do it with the International New Council's agreement. Which they didn't have. So, they were still in the dark.

The door opened and Buffy walked in, a big smile on her glowing face. Gwen and Tosh felt a little jealous, wondering how she could possibly look that good with only a few hours of sleep. She was carrying two coffee trays, holding, what else, cups of coffee.

"Good morning! Here's the coffee. They're all black. Tell me what you want added and I'll give it to you. I planned on going grocery shopping today but you're here, so it's take out. And believe me, you don't want to taste my coffee. I only make it myself when I have no other choice. In fact, until last year, I couldn't cook. I mean, not in the I-didn't-know-how-to-cook way. I really couldn't cook. Every time I had tried, it ended badly and someone got injured. So, my friends kept me as far away from the kitchen as possible. But I'm doing better now that I live by myself. So, what do you put in your coffee?"

The Torchwood members blinked. And blinked again. The word rate had been impressive to say the least. Did she even breathe? Now, she was looking at them expectantly. Ianto was the first to move.

"I know how they like it," he said and she handed him the trays of coffee.

"Make yourself at home."

"How do you like it?"

"With a lot of sugar, thanks."

"On the way."

She thanked him with a smile and left for her room. When she passed by Owen, she asked.

"Sleep well?"

He just glared at her as she disappeared into her room. Less than five minutes later, she reemerged. She invited them to sit down and make themselves comfortable. Ianto distributed the coffee and Buffy thanked him. She sipped it and moaned.

"Oh my God! I never knew coffee could taste this good!"

She closed her eyes and enjoyed the taste of the beverage.

"You and your friends don't look like normal happy teens," Jack said suddenly.

She looked at him.

"We weren't."

"Why? What can make teens look so old?"

"That's personal."

She put her coffee down and asked: "So, if you'd make the introductions Captain Harkness?"

"Of course. Doctor Owen Harper, 'Rude-Guy'," a grin flashed across Jack's face as Owen scowled. "Toshiko Sato, computer genius. Gwen Cooper, former cop and my second in command. Ianto Jones, without him, Torchwood would fall apart. He makes sure everything is done so we can do our job and he's also a field agent."

Buffy watched them carefully. "So, you're the infamous Torchwood."

Jack cringed at the adjective. She saw him and was quick to add: "You know, I thought Torchwood was supposed to act discretely. But come on, a big SUV with huge letters on the doors? So not subtle!"

They fidgeted in awkwardness and she hid her smile in her cup of coffee.

"You seem to know a lot about us," began Harkness. "It's not fair because we don't know a thing about you and this INC thing."

"International New Council," she clarified. "We deal with strange things too. You know, my boss asked me to stay as far away from Torchwood as possible. It seems that the old Council didn't like you and you got a pretty bad reputation."

"Same here. I tried to learn more and I was ordered to stop my investigation."

Jack and Buffy eyed each other curiously. Then the Slayer turned her attention to the others. They were letting their boss lead the interview but she saw the questions in their eyes. She thought back to the months she had spent here, playing hide and seek with them. That wasn't like her. She shrugged and smiled.

"I don't know about you, but I was never one to follow orders."

Then, the hot Captain Jack Harkness sent her a flirty smile that made her insides melt.

"Same here."

"Now, this is getting interesting. First things first: what was that thing yesterday?"

"A Weevil. They're aliens that live in the sewers. They're usually quite passive. But sometimes, one of them will come to the surface and attack humans. We monitor them and act before they hurt anybody. Unfortunately, sometimes we're too late. That was a nice trick you pulled yesterday."

"Was I supposed to let Andy get eaten?"

"Of course not!" Gwen exclaimed.

Buffy glared at her. She didn't like her. Okay, she wasn't really impartial. She had spent too many hours with the policemen of this city. They spited their ex-coworker precisely because she had worked with them and then ignored them as soon as she had joined Torchwood. She got up and looked at the pictures that had intrigued them.

"We weren't happy teens," she said. "We lived on a war zone and that was what drew us together. We were aware of what was happening there, back in Sunnydale."

"Sunnydale?" asked Owen. "Why does that name seem familiar?"

"The town collapsed in on itself a little more than two years ago," replied Ianto. "We thought that maybe it could have been alien activity but we received orders to stay away, that it was taken care of."

"You were the ones to take care of it," Jack understood.

"We could have used some help. We closed the Hellmouth. A lot of people died. Think of Canary Wharf. But that was the last battle of a long war."

The two people who were at Canary Wharf looked at each other.

"A war against who?" Gwen asked.

"The First."

"The First what?"

"Evil."

Now, they were watching her like she had grown a second head. Gwen frowned:

"Um…What is your job exactly?"

Here we go, Buffy thought. She put her cup down and faced them, announcing:

"I kill bad things. Vampires, demons, dark wizards or witches, were's, all the monsters that go bump in the night."

There were several reactions. Ianto and Jack kept quiet, even if the younger man's eyes went slightly wide. Owen cried a "That's bullshit!" while Gwen let out a surprised "You're kidding, right?" Tosh was calmer and just said "That's not possible." The second in command turned towards the captain and repeated:

"She's kidding, right? Those kind of things don't exist."

Buffy wondered why every time Gwen was unsure, she turned towards her boss. Couldn't she just decide by herself? Maybe she had a crush on him. After all, when you looked at him, it wasn't hard to fall for him. He had this strange out-of-date style which would look stupid on anyone else. But on him, it just seemed so natural. And it complimented his amazing blue eyes. His flirty smile and confident air made him even more attractive. Not even adding his natural charisma. She stared at him a little too long and he caught her. His smile grew wider and she found herself blushing like a teenager. She focused her attention on Gwen.

"Why not? You hunt aliens. Why can't I hunt monsters?"

"Because like Tosh said, those things don't exist!"

"Why?"

"Because!"

"Ladies, please." Jack said, standing up. "And yes Gwen, she's right. But, I didn't know they were causing enough trouble to warrant the creation of an agency."

"It's because we exist that they don't cause more trouble."

Then, Buffy shook her head.

"What am I saying? They cause trouble on a daily basis! I've stopped a dozen apocalypses so far."

"You're even crazier than I thought," Owen whispered.

Apart from Jack and Ianto, they were still eying her suspiciously. She couldn't believe it! They were working on aliens so she had supposed they were a little more open-minded than that.

"Stay here!"

She disappeared and they all looked to Jack who was lost in thought. They had no time to ask any questions because Buffy was back with some kind of iron bar. She tossed it to Owen who caught it with ease.

"What am I supposed to do with this?" he asked.

"Bend it."

"Bend it? That's bullshit!"

"You say that a lot, Rude-Guy. Now, stop chatting and be a man! Bend it."

He did it just to make her shut up, knowing full well that he wouldn't be able to do it. What did she want to prove with this little exercise? That humans were weak? Like they didn't know that already… She asked him to pass the iron bar to each one of his co-workers. They each tried –and failed- to bend the bar. When she got it back, he snapped.

"Happy now? What was the point of…"

What the Hell…? She bent the bar like it was nothing! He stood up and snatched it out of her hands. He tried with all his strength to bend it back. But it didn't move.

"That's how she dealt with the Weevil last night," Ianto said in an annoyingly calm way. "She showed an incredible strength."

Owen sent him a deathly glare.

"Can I have my bar back please?"

The doctor gave it back to her and she bent it back to its true, straightened, form. She kept an eye on them as she did it.

Tosh had a thoughtful expression on her face. She seemed a little lost. The Asian woman reminded her of Willow. She looked shy and her scientific mind was refuting the idea of the supernatural.

Ianto didn't seem all that surprised and Buffy wondered what he was thinking. He was the quietest of the group. Most of the time, he was silent, only in the background. And he had this serene manner, this calm aura which put you at ease and that intrigued Buffy. She remembered the way Jack had introduced him. Where he had mentioned the title of the others (doctor, second in command, computer genius) he had clarified what Ianto was doing, how he was the person responsible for the smooth running of everything. That made Buffy curious.

Owen seemed to be the most aggressive of the group. She hadn't seen a smile on his face yet, and each time they had been together, they had bickered. He seemed very narrow-minded.

Gwen looked like she didn't know what to think. It looked as if this newest piece of information would break her fragile world once again.

Jack just seemed amused by his team's reaction.

"You know about demons?" she asked him, curious.

"I've run into a few of them over the years," he replied casually. "You haven't told us yet: how are you so strong?"

"If you show me yours, I'll show you mine."

The look he sent her way when she said that initiated so many dirty thoughts in her mind that it felt like her blood was boiling in her veins.

"I could just take you at your word," he replied with a low, flirty and sexy voice.

Buffy blinked, her mind was suddenly overwhelmed by lusty flashes of everything she would like to do with Captain Jack Harkness. It had been a long time since her last relationship and it hadn't been very good. But the man in front of her was awakening a part of her that had been sleeping for a while.

"Get a room!"

Owen's voice broke through the moment and Buffy cleared her throat, quickly looking away and blushing again. God she hated that! Trying to clear her mind, she said:

"I have a lot of questions about Torchwood. So, I'm going to spill everything to you only if you promise me to show me everything about Torchwood."

"It's not that easy," said Gwen.

"Okay," replied Jack at the same time.

"What? Jack, you can't do that!" the second in command exclaimed.

"I'm the boss, of course I can," he told Gwen before turning back to Buffy. "After that, I will tell you everything. Now, can you go on?"

Happy with his reply, she thought of what to say next.

"I suppose I should begin at the beginning. Giles is so much better at this than me. Demons have always existed. Long, long ago, they walked the Earth freely. It was their Hell. But somehow, they lost their hold in this reality. Mortal animals appeared, humans amongst them. The Old Ones, the original demons, disappeared. Certain creatures, certain magics, remained but not many. Records tell us that the last demon to leave this reality fed off a human, mixed their blood. He was a human being possessed, infected by the demon's soul. That was the first vampire. He bit another, and so on. They're out there, feeding. Killing. Sometimes mixing their blood with other humans to make more. Just waiting for humans to die out, and the original demons to return."

"So, demons are real," Owen conceded. "Then what? Are you one of them?"

She grimaced at that. It was half true after all but she wasn't going to tell them that.

"No, I'm the Slayer, the bogeyman's bogeyman. As long as there have been vampires and other demons, there has been the Slayer. In every generation there is a Chosen One. She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons and the forces of darkness. She is the Slayer. Blah Blah Blah. Well, that's me. Slayers are called young. When they died, the next one is called. It had always been like that until two years ago."

"The battle with the First?" Jack asked.

"Yeah. It was having all the Potentials killed. Girls who could be the next Slayer. So, we changed the rules. We Called all the Slayers. Now, we're eighty seven."

"How are you Called? What can you do?" Owen wanted to know, all doctor-like.

"One day, you change. I saw my first watcher after a day of school. He said I had been Chosen, that my duty, my destiny awaited me. I was fifteen and my world went to Hell in just one hot sunny day. That night, I killed my first vampire. I'm stronger, faster, I heal quickly and I have a sixth sense when it comes to demons. Sometimes, I even have prophetic dreams. I don't need a lot of sleep, just five hours. But I need to get a lot of exercise. I'm a predator; I need to hunt, to kill. At first, I didn't really understand that. I was young and I was afraid of being a monster. I'm older and I've seen enough to know a lot more about myself and what it means to be a Slayer. It's been nine years."

"How could you ask fifteen years old girls to kill monsters?" Toshiko whispered, horrified.

The horror was shared among the others. They were looking at Buffy strangely. She had spoken with such detachment! Like she had talked about the weather or something. The Slayer didn't like pity. She caught something else in Owen's eyes. Curiosity. He had questions but he wasn't going to ask them now. Buffy looked at the Asian woman.

"They would do it anyway. It's in our blood."

"How long is the life expectancy?" Ianto asked with an impassive face.

"When I was Called, most girls didn't reach eighteen. They lasted one or two years. Not long at all. Now, we don't know. We completely changed it."

"You're what? Twenty-five? You said you have been doing this for ten years," remembered Gwen. "You have to be really good."

Buffy smiled bitterly.

"I'm the longest living Slayer in history. I was different. The Council is an organization as old as the Slayers. They formed Watchers who in turn trained Slayers. One Chosen, one Watcher. The Council used to search for Potentials. Taking them away from their families and training them, brainwashing them. Slayers had always worked alone. But, they missed me. They didn't see me coming. I was never trained or brainwashed. For me being a Slayer wasn't an honor, it was a curse. I met Potentials who thought their life was over because they hadn't been Called. I thought mine was over because I was Called. Dying in battle wasn't an honor either. I wanted to live so badly. It was unfair. So I fought fiercely. My best friends, Willow and Xander, discovered who I was and what I was doing. They joined the fight and kept me alive. Without them, I would have died long ago. They gave me hope.

"Then, I fired the Council. I was the first one to do that. I reversed the roles. Instead of the Slayer working for the Council, I understood that I was in control, I have the power and I didn't need the Council. They wouldn't even exist without the Slayer. So when they tried to rule my life, I fired them. They were all killed during the war with the First. And after the war, we rebuilt it, with new rules and a school for the new Slayers. It's all new. We work openly with governments too. We're in all the demon hot spots around the globe.

"Here you have the Rift. Try to imagine the same thing for demons, but it's called a Hellmouth. It's a magical point of convergence with near daily apocalypses. Sunnydale had one. And now, so does Cleveland. The school is on top of it. I came here because we were afraid that demons would at some point want to use the Rift for some evil purpose. So I keep an eye out. It's supposed to be calm here, so it's kind of a retirement job."

She sighed. "Now, you know everything."

They kept silent. Even Owen didn't know what to say. The weight of the speech, the hurt and the bitterness in her voice couldn't have been an act. What she was telling them was the truth. Monsters were real and she had been fighting them since she was a teenager. There wasn't any denying it. Jack had said it was real. And the kind of life she mentioned explained the sad look of the people in the pictures. Hell, it explained the sad look in her tired eyes.

"I think that's enough. Now, it's our turn," Jack quietly told her.

He turned towards his team.

"Go back to the Hub. I'll take Buffy there after I explain a few things to her."

They didn't argue with him. They had a lot of thinking to do. They felt a little numb. Aliens were one thing, the monsters which haunted children's nightmares were another. Owen and Gwen were the first of the group to leave. Toshiko sent a little uneasy smile to Buffy before following them. Ianto exchanged a long glance with Jack before turning towards Buffy.

"It was nice meeting you. Thank you for the coffee. I suppose I will see you later."

"Later. Yeah."

He left and Buffy turned towards Jack.

"I told Andy I'd come back today."

"That's not a problem. We can stop on the way."

"I'll grab my pack."

Jack watched her and wondered how many close calls she had had. She had been fighting since she was fifteen years old, always putting her life before others. She was not immortal like him. She could have been killed at any time. He remembered the Daleks and his first death. He hadn't had the choice back then. He had been trapped. And with the Doctor and Rose around, it was easy to act like a hero. They seemed to bring out the best in people. He had been a crook before meeting them. He had become a better man afterwards, thanks to them. He had had a life, he was already a man when the choice came. She had been a kid when she had found herself putting her life on the line. How strong a will did you need to do that? To give up the idea of a life, a future, to be a hero. To endure the pain it would inevitably cause?

She appeared again, a look of happiness on her face. But he knew now that it was fake. He saw her in a new light. One that wasn't fooled by her mask.

¤ ¤ tbc ¤ ¤