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Author's Chapter Notes:
So here you go. Another chapter.
Chapter 13

“These are very basic commands Miss Summers. Do you mean to say you don’t even know what they mean?”

Buffy huffed and rubbed at what was sure to become a bruise on her arm where the pathetic little weasel of a watcher Travers had ordered to spar with her had landed a blow with the staff he was using as a weapon. Said weasel was now grinning pompously at her, feeling highly important that he had the upper hand in their training session.

“Well gee, I guess I missed the part where I was supposed to learn Chinese as a crucial part of my training. Can’t you just speak in English? It hardly makes sense for me to know another language and, by the way, exactly when do you expect me to have someone shouting orders at me over my shoulder while I fight?”

“This is a typical part of every young Slayer’s training. Mr. Giles I am surprised you failed to teach her this when you first began training her.”

Giles was leaning against the vaulting horse with his arms crossed and lips pursed, observing his Slayer and calling out what Travers wanted her to do in English when he could. Unfortunately it didn’t give her enough time to carry out the order before her opponent made his move. Now he looked at Travers trying very hard to keep certain unpleasant comments to himself. Buffy was headstrong from the start and it often took him a while to convince her of the importance of many of the training exercises she was expected to do. To be honest, when he thought about it they did seem rather pointless.

“I was doing my best to teach her what she needed to know to stay alive, the prophecy with the Master being a priority, and as she pointed out, commands in Chinese when she doesn’t speak the language is hardly helpful even if it is tradition. Buffy is more than capable of taking care of herself and having someone tell her what to do is hardly necessary anymore. That was something she needed when she was first called, not now.”

Buffy threw a grin in her ex-Watcher’s direction, pleased to have his support now. Her no nonsense approach to Travers seemed to be rubbing off on him, even though they both knew they had to be civil and play ball unless Giles wanted to find himself on the next plane back to merry old England.

Travers was not so happy at Giles’ response but brushed it off. Pacing back and forth with his hands clasped behind his back, he pondered his next task for the Slayer. They had spent the last hour in the training room going through all the basic tests a Slayer was put through as she was trained. So far Buffy wasn’t doing so well but mostly because she had no idea what they expected of her or how any of the exercises were supposed to help her in the field. If she didn’t see the point in something it was very difficult for her to get enthusiastic and do her best at it.

“I see. I was going to suggest we test your capabilities at protecting a victim while under attack but the other members of my team should be arriving along with your…friends. I would like to compare their notes.”

“Great, I can’t wait.”

That morning Buffy had opened the door to find two of Travers’ team she didn’t recognise standing there, clipboards at the ready. As it turned out, they were there to speak to Joyce and Dawn about Buffy’s role as a Slayer and the situations they had found themselves in over the years since she was called. Buffy was more than annoyed when she found out that the observation they’d been talking about included her family but she had no choice than to accept it and leave them to it while she went to meet Travers who was going to study her himself. Her friends had probably woken up to the same unwelcome surprise. The team he had assembled included more than who he had brought with him to the shop yesterday. Those five were in charge of their own small team and led the investigation on her friends.

“We will of course be keeping our assessment until the end when we have gathered enough sufficient information before sharing the result with you so don’t expect any feedback just yet. We still have more we want to look into and have yet to observe you on patrol.”

“Of course you do. It couldn’t be over this quickly could it? Don’t worry, I wasn’t expecting an answer yet.”

They all moved to the shop where Anya was doing her best to keep up a charming and pleasant demeanor in front of her customers while a Watcher hovered behind her constantly scribbling little notes every so often. The only sign of her annoyance was the occasional twitch of her eye or mouth, usually when he got in her way as she rushed about in her usual hard-working manner.

It was like having an extremely irritating gnat or mosquito buzzing around you that you couldn’t get rid of and Buffy was struggling not to wipe the self-satisfied smirk off the weasel from the training room’s face while he followed Travers around like a desperate to please puppy.

A few minutes after they entered, Willow and Tara came in, followed of course, by their own personal Watchers. Both were looking rather weary and peeved from their new companions but gave Giles and Buffy understanding smiles of greeting. Xander arrived shortly after and they all watched as Travers and his team members assembled in a far corner to discuss what they had found out. One of the exclusive group from yesterday was missing, Buffy noticed. The woman had yet to arrive with her underlings and Buffy wondered who they could have been questioning. The people talking to her Mom and Dawn had come back earlier in the day so Buffy was at rather a loss to figure it out.

***

The day had dragged by but luckily was coming to an end. Of course Buffy would need to go on patrol with an entourage before she could go home to bed but hopefully seeing her fight under her own terms would make up for the disastrous training session as well as letting her work off some steam with violence.

They were closing up the shop when the woman from the Watchers Council arrived with her crew and headed straight over to Travers, completely ignoring Buffy and the Scoobies. After several minutes, glancing over at the huddled group in the corner speaking in hushed tones, Buffy was getting twitchy.

Clearing her throat loudly she stood and faced Travers who glanced over at her, irritation flashing across his features.

“Yes Miss Summers?”

“If you don’t mind, I’d like to head out on patrol now. It’s already dark out and I’d hate to keep all of you up any later than necessary simply because you had to watch me kill demons all night. Perhaps you could postpone this little discussion for another time?”

It was desperately hard for her not to fold her arms and roll her eyes. They were being as inconvenient as possible and she really wanted to just do a quick sweep tonight and get rid of them so she could at last get some peace and relax.

“Very well. I suppose it is getting rather late, and I am rather eager to see how you handle things in the field. Mr. Giles, will you also be accompanying us?”

Giles simply nodded. A large group would make finding anything to slay difficult but there was no way Buffy was dealing with the Council by herself. She might decide to slay one or all of them instead. Giles wasn’t going to leave her alone to contend with Quentin and his entourage. If anything he would be there to lend her the moral support she would no doubt need.

Travers didn’t seem the least bit surprised that Giles would be joining them. Instead of putting up an argument he merely turned to his team and whispered some orders to them. Eventually, the majority of the tweed clad Brits left, leaving Travers, the woman and two other men from his exclusive group who had accompanied him for their first meeting behind.

Man doesn’t travel light does he? Instead of weapons or equipment he brings his loyal little bookworms around to help him feel important.

Relieved that they would finally be on the move, Buffy said goodbye to the rest of the Scoobies who were all looking eager to leave and escape the scrutiny of the Council for some much needed alone time at home.

***

It was decided that they would give Buffy a good head start and keep their distance so as not to alert her quarry of an unusually large number of humans present while she did her duty. Once she had engaged whatever demon happened along in battle they could get closer and watch as she fought to suss out her skills.

So far things had been quiet. She’d checked out the area around the Bronze and various warehouses she knew vamps liked to hang out and was scoping out a few cemeteries, keeping far away from Restfield. She really didn’t need to be explaining Spike to the Council. As luck would have it she was midway through her third cemetery of the evening before anything attacked her. Finally she could show off and hopefully earn some points on this evaluation and send Travers and his crew packing for the night.

Five vamps circled her thinking they’d happened along some helpless girl wandering alone in a cemetery at night and were about to get an easy meal. Buffy stayed perfectly still as they circled her, a little smile playing on her lips. She loved surprising them. Letting them show off and pretending to be scared and helpless was worth the look on their face seconds before they were dust blowing in the wind. The leader stepped up to her, grinning madly, his fangs glistening in the moonlight.

“What have we got here? Didn’t anyone ever tell you not to wander around alone in places like this at night? Lots of nasty things could happen to you. Lots of scary monsters about.”

“Really? Where?” Buffy turned her head left and right as though searching for the scary monsters he’d mentioned.

The vamps shared looks of surprise and confusion when she didn’t scream or try to run off. The leader was clearly thrown that his prey didn’t seem the least bit bothered by him and his flunkies.

“Nice try little girl. You shouldn’t hide it, I know you’re scared, acting tough won’t get you out of this mess. Me and my friends are hungry, been a while since we had anything fresh and young to eat. Nope, no getting out of this, even if you beg, although it will be more fun that way.”

He grinned again but Buffy never even flinched. Her heartbeat was steady, if anyone was acting tough it was him. Despite the bravado he was clearly unnerved that she wasn’t showing the slightest bit of fear or panic. She could tell from his expression when he realised something was wrong this time.

Cocking her head to the side, she frowned, a puzzled look on her face.

“Why would I need to beg? There’s nothing scary here, just a bunch of vamps. Why would I be afraid of you when I have this?”

She pulled out her stake and twirled it expertly. She grinned when she saw recognition flash in the vamp’s yellow eyes.

“Slayer!”

They were looking a little less confident now, but knowing she was a threat made them defensive and with numbers on their side, they saw no reason to flee. They charged at her and she whirled into action.

Two were dust almost instantly and she dodged the fangs of a third who thought he had her off guard. Recovering quickly she kicked a fourth in the face, sending him sprawling back on the ground, causing the leader to stumble and fall when he tripped over the fallen vamp. Spinning around quickly, she blocked another attack from the vamp that had tried to bite her and grabbed him by the shirt, tossing him over her head and on top of the other two lying on the ground.

The leader grunted and tossed the recently fallen vamp off him and leaped to his feet. Snarling viciously, he charged at her. She swung her stake and he ducked, grabbing her arm and twisting it behind her back. He attempted to drive his fangs into her exposed neck but she threw her head back, hitting him squarely in the face, stunning him long enough to kick another vamp out of the way and reverse their positions, spinning him by his arm until she was behind him. Not wasting another second she sent the stake home and he dusted.

The sight of their leader vanishing into a cloud of ashes caused an attacking vamp to falter and she wasted no time in sending him the same way with a quick stab from her stake, leaving just one left. The remaining vampire assessed the situation, realised he was alone and took off running in the opposite direction. Knowing the Council were watching, Buffy tracked his movements for a moment, aimed and hurled her stake at his back, striking him spot on in the heart. He had enough time to flail his arms and fall to his knees before he vanished.

Satisfied that they were all taken care of, Buffy turned and waited while her observers approached. The two male Watchers were armed with crossbows and kept wary eyes on their surroundings in case of attack. Buffy inwardly scoffed at their nervousness. She’d be able to sense if anything was nearby and doubted that if there was a threat, the weak looking men in front of her would be able to do anything to protect themselves and their boss, armed or not.

“It appears you are very adept when it comes to dealing with vampires, although they did get rather close to your neck a few times.”

Clearly the man was incapable of giving anyone a compliment without criticising them at the same time. Behind his back, Buffy noticed Giles raising his eyes skyward and she fought back a smile.

“I was in no danger. I can handle a few vamps and getting close allows me to hit harder.”

Travis stared the Slayer in the eye. She was full of determination and looked as though she was daring him to find something wrong with her way of Slaying.

“Right then. If that’s all we’re going to find tonight I think it’s about time we…”

He paused mid-sentence, staring over Buffy’s shoulder at the same time her senses kicked in, signalling a demon was close by. The men with the crossbows were aiming them behind her and trying to hold them steady but failing. Whatever it was, it was no simple vampire.

Buffy turned and saw a large demon covered in spines watching the group. It had glowing green eyes and lethal looking yellow teeth and didn’t seem the least bit fazed by being outnumbered. Whatever it was had no trouble taking on a group which meant it was strong and this was going to be a nasty fight.

Just when they were about to leave too.

Squaring off with her new, deadlier enemy, Buffy took in its appearance again. Those spines were going to make it difficult to get close to and hand to hand combat was out. Stakes weren’t going to be much use either.

“Giles, sword please.”

Giles kept his eyes locked on the demon as well while he pulled out the sword and tossed it to Buffy who caught it automatically. She adjusted to the new weight and swung it experimentally once or twice to get accustomed to the feel of it. The Council members and Giles began backing away, leaving her plenty of room to fight and keeping a safe distance between them and the demon.

The creature tracked their movements, hissing occasionally and twitching, preparing to strike at any sudden movement. Buffy slowly stepped forwards, drawing its attention to her while she worked out a strategy in her head.

When she began moving so did the demon, watching her warily. Suddenly it attacked, rushing her and aiming a fist full of spines at her face. She narrowly avoided the attack and swung her sword but the creature spun away before the blade could make contact with its leathery hide.

The fight continued in a blur as the Slayer and demon, struck, parried, kicked and dodged each other. Neither made much damage but had sustained one or two injuries from a few close calls. Rolling out of the way of another brutal punch Buffy found an opening and swung the blade at its stomach. It avoided the killing blow she’d been hoping for but didn’t manage to escape a deep gash in its belly. Yellow ooze she assumed was its blood began pouring from it and it screeched in pain, clutching at the wound.

“Good to know you have a weakness for steel blades.”

Her satisfaction dwindled when her opponent whirled around, snarling and hissing, obviously very pissed off. Hurting it had made it angry and there was no holding back now, it was going all out this time as it lunged at her.

Buffy found herself fighting for her life and grateful to have the sword to put distance between her and her foe. She wasn’t getting any chance to go on the offensive and injure it, she could barely manage to avoid getting hurt herself.

Something would have to be done quickly, she was getting tired and the demon wasn’t letting up. Buffy aimed to swing her sword at its neck after dodging a punch but it was too fast for her and she found herself flat on her back when it kicked her legs out from under her. She’d dropped her sword, she realised, but had no time to act before the creature was on her.

She gasped in pain as sharp spines dug into her shoulders and tried desperately to move her legs to kick it off her but its weight had her pinned. Just when the thought that she was in serious trouble flashed through her mind, the weight suddenly vanished, along with the demon, and she was left lying on the ground stunned.

Coming to her senses, she scrambled to find her weapon, grabbed it and sprang to her feet, wincing at the pain in her shoulders where she had some new puncture marks. She soon realised what, or rather who, had helped her. She watched as Spike, in game face, took on the spiny demon, kicking it and carefully dodging its attacks.

He seemed to be enjoying himself as he taunted the beast, in typical Spike fashion, goading it into attacking him. Fresh to the fight, he outmanoeuvred the tired demon, who was still oozing yellow blood from where Buffy had slashed it.

Buffy admired him for a while as he fought. She always loved fighting him, and now, watching him fight at her side, she saw why they were so equally matched. He was a master at adapting to whatever fighting styles he encountered. No matter what strategy you used against him, he would observe it, take note of how you moved and then turn your own style against you, effectively countering any of your previously successful hits.

As much as she was enjoying the sight of him, coat whirling around him like a cape, she knew he wouldn’t be able to finish it off without a weapon and she had to put an end to the fight. Not to mention the Watchers, behind her, making note of everything they were seeing. Waiting until a kick to the head had dazed it enough, she ran over, sword raised and as soon as Spike saw her and got out of the way, sliced off the creature’s head. Decapitation was a sure way to kill something in her book and this was no different. She watched as the spiny head rolled to a stop by a headstone, green eyes ceasing to glow and leaving a yellow trail of ooze in the grass.

“Well that was excitin’ eh luv?”

Buffy threw a sceptical look in Spike’s direction. That was not her idea of fun. He didn’t have sharp spines punching holes in him.

“Oh don’t tell me that wasn’t fun.”

She grinned, remembering a time when he first returned to Sunnydale after Dru left him in search of a love spell, only to leave after a violent fight cheered him up. He said the same thing then too. She didn’t have time to answer him before the sound of throats being cleared behind her caught her attention.

Spike and Buffy glanced over at Giles, Travers and the others staring at them.

Crap. How am I going to explain this to them?

The guys with the crossbows went to examine the demon. Giles was watching Travers who was staring fixedly at Spike. Buffy noticed the woman also looking at Spike with something suspiciously resembling a shy smile on her face.

“William the Bloody. I didn’t at first believe the rumours that you were in Sunnydale helping the Slayer but now I see it’s true.”

Spike didn’t bother acknowledging Travers, merely choosing to take out a cigarette and his lighter and start smoking.

“Miss Summers. Perhaps you would like to explain? I heard something about a military device being used to prevent him harming anyone but that doesn’t quite explain why he’s decided to help you or why you’re allowing him to?”

“Like you said, he’s harmless to humans now and sometimes it comes in handy, having someone else with super-strength around to fight demons. He fights because he likes it and I let him because it gives him something to do besides annoying me.”

She refused to look at Spike, already catching the raised eyebrow and amused smirk on his face out of the corner of her eye.

“Really? So, you have no problem helping your enemy kill your kind then? That must do some damage to your reputation as Slayer of Slayers,” Travers addressed Spike.

Spike studied the haughty man in front of him, looking him up and down carefully before making his mind up about him.

Wanker.

Catching the eye of the woman standing behind Travers, Spike grinned, deciding if he was going to talk to any of these tossers it would be her.

“Hello again luv. Delicate thing like you should know better than to be out here at night. Don’ suppose you have that thesis o’ yours handy?”

The woman giggled and batted her eyelashes, cheeks flushed.

Buffy gaped, mouth opening and closing like a fish.

Huh? How does he know her? Thesis? What does he think he’s doing calling her “luv” and “delicate”? Oh my God is he flirting with her?

“I’m afraid not. I wasn’t expecting to see you again so soon.”

Spike smiled and nodded, assuming a slightly disappointed look.

“That’s too bad. Guess it will have to wait ‘til next time, yeah?”

Buffy was staring back and forth between Spike and the female Watcher.

Oh my God he is! He’s totally flirting with her! And she’s flirting back!

Buffy looked at Giles and Travers hoping for some clue as to what might be going on here. Giles was looking equally confused, whereas Travers appeared annoyed but not surprised. Deciding there was only one way to get an answer Buffy decided to ask.

“I’m sorry but how exactly do you two know each other? And what’s this about a thesis, why do you want a thesis?”

Spike looked over at Buffy questioningly as if it was the most natural thing in the world for him to be discussing a thesis with a member of the Council. The woman blushed even more before adjusting her glasses and assuming an air of contempt for the increasingly peeved blonde woman in front of her.

“I was the person in charge of questioning Spike about working with you as part of the evaluation today.”

How did they know about him helping me, those rumours? I didn’t know he was going to be part of this evaluation and observation as well.

“You’re talking to Spike about me?”

Travers decided to join in the conversation then.

“We feel it’s best to communicate with all your allies to build a reasonable profile on you. An ally who was recently an enemy seemed like an appropriate counter balance to questioning your friends and family so I sent Lydia here to investigate. Also I wanted to establish whether or not the rumours about him were true, which, evidently, they are.”

Okay that explained how the woman knew Spike, but not why they were flirting with each other.

“Uh huh. And the reason you want a thesis would be…?”

Spike shrugged and finished off his cigarette before tossing the butt to the ground and stamping on it.

“Council girl wrote her thesis on me. Interested in the Big Bad here. Can’t say I blame her, jus’ interested to see what she wrote ‘bout me.”

He winked at Lydia causing her to go all star-struck, blushing and giggling again.

Oh great. Spike’s got a fan girl.

Buffy felt something bubbling up inside her as she watched Spike and Lydia throwing flirtatious looks in each other’s direction. She didn’t like the feeling one bit and decided it was high time they all got the hell out of this cemetery and went home for the night.

“Right, well I don’t think there’s any need for us to stick around here any longer, do you, why don’t we call it a night?”

Travers nodded in agreement and signalled to his troupe to gather their things. Giles packed up the bag of weapons they had brought before heading off to the car. Buffy noticed with some irritation that Lydia was too busy batting her eyelashes at Spike to get ready to leave. Spike turned his attention to Buffy, wondering why she seemed so eager to leave all of a sudden.

“Come on pet, don’ you wanna do another sweep? Could be all sorts of nasties out there still. You an’ I could take care of it while this lot head home. Reckon they got what they needed for tonight.”

The others ignored him. Travers was already making his way out of the cemetery and no one seemed to argue against them patrolling any longer while they went home. No one that is, except Buffy. She froze at the sound of his voice and turned to glare at him. He was surprised at the angry look in her eye.

“Don’t call me pet. I said I’m going home Spike. Patrol if you want, there’s nothing else out here, do what you like I don’t care.”

She whirled around and stalked off, gripping the handle of her sword tightly and muttering. Spike gawked after her. He was all for keeping up appearances in front of the wankers but she seemed downright mad at him and he couldn’t fathom why. Even the old unpleasant Slayer she was when she was with Finn would have just told him to go home as if she was bored with him, not snapped at him like that. He caught up to her and grabbed her arm, spinning her to face him.

“Buffy? C’mon pet I just…”

She jerked away from him. The others were all watching them, a little surprised at their behaviour.

“I said don’t call me that. Go home Spike.”

“Buff…”

He made to grab her again and she narrowed her eyes. Pulling back her arm he barely registered what she was about to do before pain erupted in his nose.

“Ow! Bloody hell woman!”

Buffy walked off, passing by the Council members and Giles who seemed both bewildered and amused by the display, leaving a confused Spike behind to nurse his injured nose.





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