Buffy had just gotten home from patrolling with Amy and the night's 'hunt the scaly blue demons' and was just about to enjoy the delicious smelling cup of hot chocolate her mom had prepared for her when she heard a knock on the front door.
She sighed, "I'll get it, Mom." She said and reluctantly and tiredly got up and answered the door. "Yes?" She eyed the impeccably dressed man standing on their porch.
"Buffy Summers?" A pompous English accented voice said.
"Who wants to know?"
"My name is Wesley Wyndham-Price, I am to replace Rupert Giles as your Watcher. I understand he allowed you to inform your mother of your Calling, despite the inadvisability of that action. But it is why I've sought you out at your home. I am most eager to get started. So if you will just invite me in instead of just standing there rudely staring at me, you can give me your report on your most recent patrol. I am assuming you haven't abandoned your duty to your Calling in the wake of Mr. Giles being fired for incompetency, have you?"
"Mom! There's a pompous jackass at the door who thinks he can tell me what to do! He claims he's my new Watcher!"
"Really, Miss Summer, your colonial upbringing has made you extremely rude! I am your new Watcher, the Deputy Head of the Watchers Council himself chose me to replace Mr. Giles."
"When was this?" Buffy asked curiously.
"Two weeks ago, before Mr. Travers traveled to this benighted country to administer your Cruciementum. Since you appear to be fine, you must have preformed adequately. And you still haven't invited me in."
"And I won't be inviting you in and neither will my mother. You could become a vampire tomorrow and would have free access to our home."
"That is most uncalled for! I'll have you know I have been trained to identify vampires and I have staked two personally as part of a training exercise."
"Big whoop, Mom staked one last week after torturing it for information. And if Quentin Travers hired you two weeks ago to be Giles' replacement, than he was planning on firing him before he ever got here."
"Well, the man has proven to be incompetent." Wesley agreed.
"So, have you talked to anyone in Jolly Old England?" Buffy asked, which made the pompous man frown even more.
"No, I've been too busy packing up my supplies and home and arranging for the purchase of a new home here in this city. My belongings have yet to arrive and I have checked into a local hotel."
"That explains it." Buffy said.
"Explains what?"
"How you don't know that Rupert Giles and Quentin Travers, as members of an illegal international organization with no political standing in any country, but most especially the United States, have been arrested and charged with drugging a minor, assault, kidnapping, conspiracy to commit murder and attempted murder. Did I miss any of the charges, Mom?"
"No, I don't think so." Joyce said, eyeing the pompous man who was gaping at them.
"How?! That's not possible, the police would never dare! And who would dare bring such charges against Mr. Travers?!"
"I would." Joyce told him. "Rupert Giles drugged my daughter and delivered her in a weakened condition to a Master vampire on Quentin Travers orders. As far as the law is concerned it was for a sexual reason and since neither of them can reveal anything about the supernatural, because face it, even if they could discuss the vampires with them, it would just get them locked up in an insane asylum instead of deported."
"Why would you do such a thing, woman!" The pompous man snapped.
"Because they tried to kill my daughter. If we lived in a less civilized age I'd have tortured and killed them like I did the Watcher that Kralich, the vampire they set on Buffy, turned and made the mistake of sending after me."
"That is not at all what he did! He prepared her for a traditional test, a rite of passage for Slayers for over a thousand years!"
"How many survive it?" Joyce asked.
"I don't know, it hasn't been mentioned."
"It should be. If you're going to put a child in that position, than you damn well better have some idea of how many die."
"Miss Summers was never expected to make it to eighteen anyway, she was prophecied to die over a year ago. How she managed to avoid her fate then, let alone survive her Cruciementum -."
"I didn't."
"Didn't what?" Wesley demanded.
"Survive the Cruciementum, I died. A Hexenbiest friend gave me some of her life energy just as I flatlined. She saved my life."
"A Hexenbiest? What is a Hexenbiest? Some sort of demon? Really, Miss Summers, consorting with demons is a betrayal of your Calling!"
"Amy isn't a demon, she's a Wesen, a para human. The Wesen Council, which oversees Wesen affairs, is well known to the Queen of England. When my Wesen friends learned what the Watchers did to me they appealed to the Queen to intercede. She's formally seized control of the Watchers Council and all of its assets. With includes the Potential Slayers and the Slayer. Me. The Queen has ordered an audit and overhaul of the entire illegal operation. Once that's finished, the Watchers Council will be reorganized to provide proper and legal support to the Potentials and myself. I don't expect many of the current Watchers, including yourself, to still be employed with the Council when that happens."
"That - how - why?!"
"Giving the Watchers Council independent legal status and consequently oversight, means no one group can have control over Slayers." Joyce told him. "And it means you have to treat them humanly and abide by the law like everyone else. Not pretend you're above it."
"We are above it, we fight evil!"
"So do a lot of people." Buffy told him. "Only you idiots pretend you're above it all. Go, call home, ET. You'll find we haven't lied about anything and you're out of a job. And those spies you have in various governments? They're being found too. I don't believe the Queen is very happy about them, let alone the President, who is also aware of the Watchers Council now, since England and the United States are allies and both of them recognize the independent legal standing of the Wesen Council, even if the community they represent is hidden from the world at large. Just as the Watchers Council will continue to be once they've been reorganized." Buffy smiled brightly at the dumbfounded man and closed the door in his face.