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Author's Chapter Notes:
an update, don't die of shock please:)

thanks as always to those people who took the time to review. it means an awful lot to me and my muse
The school had been closed for hours, but the Scoobies were still waiting in the library, bored. Giles had treated them to pizza for dinner but not before making them promise not to spill grease or soda on any of the tables as he paid for the boxes of yummy goodness. They had eaten it all, and Xander had been shouted at for getting cheese all over the table, but they were still bored.

'Do we have to wait around for much longer?' Xander whined, annoying everyone else with his tone.

'Yes, WE do, Xander,' Giles told him with exaggerated patience, 'but you don't. You can go home at any time you like and leave the rest of us to work. We need to find out who these people are and what they mean to Buffy and her duty here in Sunnydale.'

Jesse looked up from the homework he was concentrating on and grinned. Xander had the attention span of a gnat. Here they were, with the school geek, the librarian and nothing else to do: homework was going to be a breeze. Jesse loved being part of this gang, he felt at home for the first time in years. Living with his uncle was alright, but the man was always at work. These people had time for him and had made him feel really welcome.

Buffy didn't say anything, she was too busy sorting through the weapons rack hidden behind the book shelves in the cage. Giles had given her the task of sorting through the packing cases that had accompanied him to Sunnydale. She seemed particularly enamoured with the knives. He made a mental note to train her up on those as quickly as possible. Giles winced: he could picture a future of broken ribs and bruised shins unless he could find a better sparring partner for his young slayer.

Willow just kept her head down and concentrated on the computer screen in front of her. It was wonderful, full access to the school's mainframe and from there to the civic one. She could pull up anything they needed within minutes.

Spike could smell the pepperoni and cheese as he slid through the stacks and watched the teens below him. He could feel the presence of the older man and the stale smell of family. Spike gave a little growl: so Angel had played here as well, had he? Well he was going to have some fun with the brooding one. Kate looked at her team-mate and grinned. Sometimes he could be heard thinking.

'Well are you ready, Sir Galahad?' She looked at him as she whispered, and then strode out from her hiding place, pulling the vampire behind her. Even with the noise they were making their audience hadn't noticed them.

'Not Sir Galahad please, Kate, he never got laid! Make it Mordred or Lancelot: I like the idea of Lancelot, he even went after the Queen.' Spike said, his eyes full of mischief - but he let Kate lead the way.

It felt to Buffy that spiders were crawling up her neck and dancing on her spine. She grabbed a stake in one hand and a knife in the other; turning slowly she scanned the room, noting where everyone was sitting. Before Buffy could stand up a leather-clad figure had her pinned against the wall with his hand around her throat. Spike leaned in closely to the young girl, knowing that Kate would stop anyone attacking his back for only a couple of seconds, but that was all he needed, just a couple of seconds.

'Too slow,' he whispered as he let her go and stepped back. Buffy stood there with her mouth open and trembling from head to toe, looking straight into the golden eyes of one of the most ferocious predators ever known. She wasn't scared though. It was as if she knew he wouldn't actually hurt her: his hands were human, no talons, no bumps on his forehead, and no fangs in his mouth. This was just a lesson...

Giles didn't know whether to be livid or scared as he watched the black-clad man step away from Buffy. He took his glasses off and started polishing them. Some... thing... was manhandling his slayer - and the woman was just watching.

'Ugh, I'm ugh, oh damn!' He couldn't even formulate a sentence.

'Hi, I'm Kate,' the woman told him, holding out a hand. Her soft Irish accent caressed his anger away as though it was stroking a kitten. Spike grinned, he could smell the pheromones coming off Kate, and so, from their reactions, could the men in the room, but he knew what they were and why he was reacting the way he was.

Buffy finally stood up straight and pushed the grinning idiot away from her. She wanted nothing more than to shove the stake in her hand straight up his arse.

'What was that all about?' she asked as she brushed herself down from the dust that had latched onto her back from the cabinet behind her.

'Just a bit of fun,' Spike told her, 'didn't mean to upset you, and I wanted to see how quick you were and how much training you were going to need.' He rolled his tongue around behind his lips. He shouldn't be allowed to do that, thought Buffy, knowing she was too young for the reactions her body was having to the blond man in front of her.

'You might have got yourself staked,' she managed to say as she felt her heart race and knew it wasn't from fear. There was something about this man, vampire, whatever, that set her blood pumping.

'Nah, no chance of that, you weren't that fast, and your technique is sloppy.' He answered as he turned his back to her and walked down the stairs to where the others were waiting and watching. It was a calculated manoeuvre and he hope he didn't pay with the stake shoved into him.

'And you'd know that how?' Giles tried to pull his attention away from the woman in front of him and back onto the man; there was something about the woman that made everyone else fade into the background when she was around...

'Because that's my job,' Spike answered coolly, turning to face the Watcher when he reached the bottom of the stairs. Giles shivered: the predator's total attention was completely on him and he didn't like it.

'Your job! You're a vampire: how can helping a girl be your job?' He had wanted to say, help a slayer, but it was as though his mouth seemed unable to form the words.

'Not just a girl, a slayer... and first, I'm supposed to warn you about the harvest. It's coming up and it's due to be a bloodbath; have you found the prophecy yet?'

'Prophecy? What prophecy?' Giles knew what the vampire was on about but he wasn't happy. He had been planning to leave Buffy uninformed: after all, why did she need to know every little detail?

'The one that says the slayer will open the gateway and allow the return of the Master, and that she dies.' Spike told them as he made his over to the table. He looked at the faces watching him: a good bunch of kids, he'd been told, but hardly hero material yet.

Giles looked furious. 'I wasn't going to tell her about that, you idiot; there may be a way round it and it may not be about her!'

'Of course it's about Buffy.' Buffy noticed that Spike used her name, unlike Giles, and it warmed her heart for some reason. She nearly missed the rest of the blond's ranting but listened in. 'There's a way round, you pillock. Buffy and her mum, and Red here, go to a nice spa for a couple of days, you and I walk in there armed with flame throwers and holy water, the Master goes up in smoke and she doesn't die.' Spike couldn't believe how stupid the man in front of him was, it was as though he had a death wish for the slayer. Kill her, get his pension, and spend the rest of his life reliving his glory days and playing with dusty books.

'But that's unethical,' Giles spluttered at the thought of battling in Buffy's place.

'Unethical?' Kate stared at the man in front of her. 'Please don't tell me that you think it's unethical to keep a – sorry, the - slayer alive and well?'

'She's supposed to fight the forces of darkness. And I'm just supposed to advise her, not send her on bloody vacation and do her job for her.'

'She has a name,' Buffy pointed out, having joined them in the main part of the library. 'It's Buffy, just two syllables: please use it.' Her smile was pure saccharine and Xander already knew that it meant trouble for someone.

'Yes Buffy, of course,' Kate said with a smile, 'but you are wrong, Mr. Giles. For hundreds of years the slayers have bowed down to the precious council of wankers, sorry Watchers, but enough is enough. We tried to free them from your pernicious control once before and those battles have come down through legend and folk memory. Well, Son of Mordred, this time we will set them free from you. The battle lines are drawn and you must chose your side.'

'And who are you to take over? I was appointed to take care of Buffy.' Giles was scared. There was something in Kate's voice that promised retribution for unpunished wrongs if he made a mistake.

'Yeah, right.' You could hear the derision in her voice. 'Great care you took of her as well. Cared for her straight into a loony bin when she tried to tell her dad what happened: where were you then?' Kate rarely got angry but the gullible fool in front of her was making her lose what little temper she had managed to cling to so far.

The others in the room gasped, as though this was the first time they had heard this part of the tale and from the looks on their faces it was. Buffy just hung her head in shame and that hurt Spike. Damn, why did he have to have grown a conscience? A decent, honourable adopted-sire was a hard thing for a vampire to deal with. He remembered his carefree days of killing with a half smile.

'That's all very well, but as soon as we knew she was moving we made the art gallery available to her mother to tempt the woman into making a fresh start.' Giles tried to explain himself, tried to disprove the words being thrown at him.

'Paid off the mortgage as well, did you?' Kate asked snidely.

'No, we didn't. That's none of our concern.' He was feeling very put upon and outnumbered: how dare these people question the council's methods?

'Wonderful, none of your concern, just wonderful.' The Veela looked straight up. 'Goddess give me strength, please, ' she begged before facing the Watcher again. 'Your precious council is rich – correction, was rich. One hour ago the Knights Templar and The Knights of St James set in motion the removal of all finances, properties and investments from the Council. I suggest you make your way into your office and talk to Quentin Travers, he may just be in need of information from you. Do give him my regards, tell him Katerine de Veela was asking after him,' she added sweetly, and turned her back on the spluttering and confused man.

'He'll be better when we have him trained,' Kate said reassuringly to Buffy. 'Now, talking about training - where do you go to practise?'

'Nowhere yet, I was supposed to train here with Giles, but I think you have broken him...'

'I think I have as well. Never mind, he'll mend. I'll get Spike to have a good look around: we need a large space, one where we can outfit everything you could possibly need or want.'

Kate looked at the vampire, who had been hanging back a little: he didn't want to scare the natives and the waves of near terror coming from the kids were making him hungry.

'I'll go and see what I can find,' he said and saluting, wandered back through the stacks. When it had appeared to the humans that he had disappeared they let out a collective breath.

Xander hadn't said a word: he was just staring at the woman who had so completely taken charge. His jeans were uncomfortably tight and from the look on Jesse's face he was suffering the same affliction; she was hot.

'Who are you?' Willow asked. She was in awe of the commanding woman who had walked in and just taken over.

'I am a dream come true and a nightmare that walks the face of the world. The council would try to teach you that every unknown is evil, every demon must be killed: they would kill ET if he came to Sunnydale. There is evil out there, more than you could ever know, but there are good and honourable beings as well. Beings that try and help the light, or just want to be left alone to raise their kids and feed their families. It's up to you, Buffy, we are here purely for your benefit. I won't be staying for long, just a couple of months then I have to go home; by that time we should have trained Giles into being more use to you.'

'And what do you get out of it?' Jesse asked quietly.

'I get to help the people that helped me, that simple,' Kate answered honestly. 'And I get to play with some really hot cars...'

Giles came back into the room almost white. 'It's all true: the Council headquarters have been shut down completely, there is nothing left and Quentin Travers is in jail awaiting trial on charges of complicity to commit murder.' He had to sit down whilst the knowledge that his world was collapsing around him hit home.

'That would have been the death of the last slayer: she was just 18.' Kate informed them all.

'So I get a short life span as well?' Buffy wanted to cry. Vampires were real and her expiration date was less than two years away.

'Not if we can help it Buffy,' Xander and Jesse said at exactly the same moment. They would protect the woman in front of them with their very lives.

'Right Buffy, what do you want to do first?' Kate was going to add something else but she smelled another male close by. She signalled for quiet and pointed up to the stacks. She then signalled Willow, Xander and Jesse and then to the office... handing Buffy and Giles a couple of stakes she left them to guard the civilians and made her way slowly up towards the intruder.

If it hadn't been for her advanced abilities Buffy doubted she would have seen the woman move at all, it was an explosion of activity as Kate vaulted the rail and pulled out a figure from behind the stacks.

'Well well well, what do we have here?' Kate looked at the man in front of her, a lumbering brute with far too much gel in his carefully styled hair. 'What are you doing spying on us?' she asked civilly.

'I'm here to look after Buffy,' he answered, just wishing the female in front of him would let him go.

'That's Angel, he's a friend, he's been trying to find out about the Harvest for me,' Buffy told the newcomers.

'Did he tell you he was a vampire?' Spike asked, as he hurried back into the room. 'I smelt trouble Kate and turned back: thought you might need some help,' he explained as he watched the other vampire closely.

Buffy looked shocked. 'A vampire? No, he's at college!' How could she not have known? Why had he lied to her?

'Didn't you tell her, Angelus? No? Didn't you want to scare her? Or do you still prefer chasing under-age girls?' Spike asked, he hated the brooding lump and was only too happy to get him into trouble. Payback could be a bitch.

Kate looked at the vampire in her hands. He was reacting to the pheromones she was giving out, nearly salivating at the proximity of the Veela. It was not an attractive sight and made Kate feel nauseous.

'It wasn't the right time to tell her,' Angel tried to justify himself and his actions. He looked at Spike and growled, trying to break free of Kate's grasp. 'Run little girl, he's a vampire, he'll tear you to pieces!' Angel tried to warn Buffy, to warn them all. Buffy was his, had been promised to him and he wasn't going to let William anywhere near her.

'Duh, we know,' Buffy said in a bored voice, 'The one I'm surprised at is you: forget to tell me you were one of the undead?' She couldn't believe that she'd missed all the clues, and to think she'd fancied him!!

'It was none of your business and I was sent here to watch you.' How dare this girl question him, the chosen champion? Angel didn't see why he had to explain anything.

'I think you mean watch over her, don't you?' Kate asked in far too sweet a voice. A voice that gave Spike a warning. He grinned to himself. His grandsire never had learned to take females seriously. He had been born a misogynist and had never grown up.

Kate manoeuvred Angel so that her face was completely hidden to the humans in the room, then let her wild Veela side show through - just a little. Her teeth lengthened and her nose and mouth became a snout, just for a second. If you blinked you would have missed it but it was enough to shock the hulking vampire.

'You're not human,' he gasped and struggled to get away, 'what are you?'

'Something from legend and nightmare,' she answered, throwing the vampire away from her but keeping eye contact. She let the pheromone level build, trying not to let it drift away from the one male she wanted affected. It wouldn't do to get the teenagers too worked up, and Giles might have a heart attack if his adrenalin levels got much higher: you didn't need to be a vampire to hear the Watcher's heart hammering away. She turned her back on the older vampire, and concentrated on the rest of the audience.

'Sorry about that: now,' she was going to ask them about themselves but the growling and posturing behind her filled the room, disturbing everything else.

'So you give her a cryptic message and bugger off? Seems about right for you,' the disdain Spike felt for the older vampire was obvious in his voice, contempt dripping from every syllable. 'So what was your great plan to deal with Great Grand dad? Or were you going to leave her to deal on her own?'

'She is the slayer, she's supposed to walk alone. The chosen one,' Angel tried to justify his actions, he didn't want to actually place himself in danger, he wasn't going to actually risk himself.

'We all walk alone, but it's nice to have some company occasionally: she's supposed to protect the world, and she does, just by breathing.' Kate said quietly.

Buffy watched the interplay between the two vampires, the antipathy they had for each other was obvious. Jesse and Xander came slowly out of the office, trailed by Willow who seemed nervous at the violence that was bubbling just below the surface. Angel looked at her with liquid brown eyes but, knowing that he was a vampire, they did nothing for her. The blond on the other hand was a whole other matter. The dangerous bad boy look made her pulse jump and her heart beat just a little faster.

'I think we need to call it a night,' Kate suggested. 'Spike and I will hunt for somewhere to make into a HQ and we'll be in contact tomorrow.'

'Walk you home, pet?' Spike offered to Buffy and she wasn't sure why she said yes, but she did. He made her feel less alone and a little safer. Something she desperately needed at the moment.

Kate watched the two blonds leave the library and smiled. The first meeting had gone quite well, surprisingly.

'Now Giles, looks like you could do with a drink,' she said. 'Where do you hide your whisky?'





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