"Okay," Joyce had called Charles Chase and asked him to come over and once he'd arrived, the two of them, along with Buffy, had sat down with Quentin Travers and Alien Houston from the State Department at her kitchen table with cups of coffee. "Start at the beginning, the very beginning and explain what the Slayer is, what your authority is and why I shouldn't call a lawyer and have you both arrested." Charles demanded.
"We don't know when the first Slayer was created or by whom. Records are very spotty prior to the formation of the Watchers Council twelve centuries ago and are mostly legends, stories. They appear in every culture worldwide, stories of a young girl, gifted by the gods, to fight demons, which mostly means vampires." Quentin began. "Although, why Mr. Giles hasn't explained this, I'd dearly love to know."
"He does this spiel about one girl in all the world with the strength snd skill to fight the vampires." Buffy told him. "He calls it a Sacred Duty and will of the gods. He thinks it's an honor to be Chosen to be humanity's defender."
"Oh dear, I hadn't realized he was that much of a Traditionalist. This complicates matters considerably." Quentin shook his head. "Most people in the Watchers Council have abandoned such beliefs in the modern era. There's no logic to it, by that doctrine only the Slayer is capable of fighting and destroying vampires and demons. But long before humanity convinced themselves they don't exist, humans were fighting them themselves and quite successfully as evidenced by the fact that the world is still here."
"Where does that belief come from?" Joyce asked.
"The foundation of the Watchers Council and those legends, but also because the Watchers Council was created by the Vatican."
"The Pope?!" Joyce exclaimed.
"Yes. You have to understand, up until the 18th or 19th century most people accepted it as fact that vampires and demons existed. The Vatican had its own hunter teams that they sent out to protect Italy and later oversaw the formation of teams in other countries as well. Rumors about the Slayer persisted but no confirmation of her existence was found. It was simply a story and then the Slayer was found, a young girl, fighting alone and winning. Alone, because she had no one to explain to her what she was, why she could do what she was capable of doing and she had no choice but to fight if she wanted to live. Vampires are drawn to her and she could sense them. Whoever created the Slayer, created her to be a lure. It was too horrible to believe and yet the proof was right there in front of the Pope. A child sacrificed so cowards could pretend they were fighting. It's the only conclusion he could come to, because he refused to believe that God would do that to a child. He had her evaluated using Magic, because Magic was the only way he could think she'd been created. The Magic users who examined her found what came to be called the Essence of the Slayer in her and having learned to detect it, cast a spell to see if they could find more of it. The intent was to try to find the original place, where the first Slayer was made and possibly how to undue it. Instead they found something just as horrifying. Tiny amounts of the Essence in other girls, several thousand world wide."
"Potentials?!" Buffy exclaimed..
"Yes, we no more know how they have that tiny piece than we know how the Slayer has the larger portion."
"So what did he do about it?" Joyce asked.
"Decided that it was God's will that someone help her. It was the only thing he couldbconceive of. Leaving her to fight alone, as the Slayer had for God knows how long was unthinkable. So he formed the Watchers Council, people tasked with finding and training Potentials in case they're ever Called. But more importantly, trying to make sure they lived as long as they could. Later, the hunter teams were incorporated into the Watchers Council as well. We station teams in known hotspots world wide and with the advent of flight, can move teams quickly when trouble is detected. We employ Seers, psychics, clairvoyants to scan the world looking for problems. If need be we can use Magic to teleport people in an emergency. We are the first line of defense agsinst the Dark."
"But why make the Slayer fight alone, especially if you claim you're trying to make sure she lives longer?" Joyce demanded.
"We don't, we just don't have enough people to give her a support team, we never have. There just aren't enough people, so we leave it up to the Watcher assigned to them to create a support team for them."
"We had to fight Mr. Giles just so she could have friends." Joyce said, incredulous. "If she's entitled, by your own policy, to a support team, why would Mr. Giles not allow her one?"
"The Slayer works in secret, like the hunter teams, the world at large doesn't know they exist. Some believe it's actually safer for others if the Slayer fights alone, because she's a lure for vampires. You have to understand, Field Watchers are given a great deal of latitude, they have to be, up until the creation of world wide communication systems, most Watchers and Slayers and their teams only had contact with the Watchers Council though mailed reports. Various ways of training a Potential developed and various beliefs about the manner in which a Slayer fought also developed. In the last century we've beem working to unify the training process and manner in which the Slayer fights, all in an effort to meet that most important first mandate, guide the Slayer and ensure she survives as long as possible. Traditionalist are a faction within the Council that still believe the Slayer fighting alone is safer for others."