'Another day another failed attempt to get anywhere' Xander mused to himself. 'The entire continent has so much history and so many legends that its practically impossible to find anything out.'
The latest expedition had resulted in him being laughed at. 'I think they're purposely sending me to the tourist places to see all the 'medicine men' in action. If I hear one more 'your future is uncertain' comment.'
'There's either no magic here or more likely I'm not a welcome visitor to any of it.'
Xander sighed and set himself down at the computer terminal, 'Three emails. At least one of which is spam. Wonderful.'
Looking at the screen he saw the following.
From Subject Date Size
V:@gra your fr Increase her pleasure, make su 3rd Feb 12 K Giles Mission Status Changed. 4th Feb 50 K R_Johnson@w_co How can we aid you sir? 4th Feb 6 K
Sighing Xander opened Giles email and began to read.
To: Xander <x_harris@hotmail.com>
From: Giles <rupert.giles@w_council.co.uk>
Subject: Mission Status Changed.
Xander,
Well to be honest it's two things really, firstly there has been new information come to light that may or may not affect your current project.
As discussed in prior emails we chose to go ahead and re-establish communications with W&H using the method we discussed (you were quite correct in your assumption that Andrew's flimsy grasp on reality would aid as a perfect distraction), this was not as successful as we would have liked. However Andrew himself did return with some important information.
Spike is back.
"Crap! I knew it I bloody knew it!" Xander vented at the compter. 'What's the bleached blonde want now?'
Yes you read that correctly. It seems your hunch was correct, however he appears to currently be working alongside the rest of Angel's team in W&H. So far it is believed that he hasn't made attempts to make contact with Buffy.
Luckily Buffy is in Rome at the moment, hopefully word of Spike's return shouldn't reach her yet. In fact it shouldn't reach her at all as I've threatened that if this does reach her, then I'm holding Andrew singularly responsible. But my expectations of the gossip grapevine don't hold much confidence in this remaining a secret long.
'Spike's working for W&H? Weren't we worried enough when we found out Angel was working for W&H? This can't be a good turn of events. Let's have the two souled vampires, each with a major history of evil, working for the evil law firm.' "What us? Of course we trust them to remain white hats, I mean who wouldn't?"
'It might be worth getting a spy inside W&H, they might like a slayer on the payroll, though who could we trust to such a role? Oh god, it'd have to be Faith wouldn't it? She's the only one Angel would trust... and if she went under the pretense of needing some time away from us due to falling out with Wood, or arguing with Buffy or something similar then he'd likely believe her... it'd be just like when that girl from Mission Impossible Two pretends to be arreste... argghhhh, I knew those two weeks rooming with Andrew while we set up in Cleveland would have long term effects on me.'
'Wonder if anyone's got Riley's contact details? Maybe we could ask him to provide a couple of those chips for emergency use...'
This increased possibility of a Spike-Buffy re-union means that understanding the rules of Spike's ensoulment has increased in importance.
We'll have to deal with Buffy and her likely reaction to (a) keeping Spike's return from her and (b) the details of your 'vacation' when it inevitably becomes necessary.
'She's going to kick my ass if she finds out what's been going on here. When did she go to Rome anyway? I thought she was actually going to be looking after Dawn this time.'
The second thing... well that's more complicated. Firstly let me explain that the others have been asking about you in more detail as it has now been nine weeks since you took off and only I am recieving 'phone calls'. It's still your choice as to whether or not you contact the others, but I should warn you that both Willow and Dawn are looking into locating you and paying you a visit (how they intended to achieve that I don't know exactly but between their computer skills and Willow's magic your guess is as good as mine).
So I needed an excuse to buy you some time. The one that I produced and could readily explain that you were in Africa came to me after a discussion with Buffy. She wanted to know about the first watchers, the ones that took an innocent girl and basically raped her with a demon essence. I informed her that such an event was unknown to me as I believed the watchers came many decades at the earliest after the first slayer (in all likelihood it was probably some centuries). To help ease her mind I've set some of the finest researchers that remain into looking into both the earliest watcher journals and looking into the exact nature of the 'box' that informed her that it was so.
From Buffy's description she believed that the both the original slayer and the original watchers (I've tried to stop her referring to them as such until we obtain proof but with no success so far) came from Africa.
So when Willow and Dawn started pestering me as to your whereabouts I explained that your current errand was to try and locate any information about the people that may have been responsible for the creation of the first slayer. As this was something of a safe errand (I wasn't asking you to do anything but locate the descendants of some people from thousands of years ago), they've accepted it as one of the many things you've been doing to distract yourself from the Anya situation - I'm informing you of this in case they still decide to locate and contact you.
'Okay so they know which continent I'm on. Not that I'd mind seeing any of the old gang really... might invite some of them over so they'll know I'm okay. Might be time to start a bridge-building.'
They are all aware (as is yourself) that so far we've only been able to find two types of people that worked for the watchers, the researchers and the mercenaries. Neither of which are particularly useful as capable field agents. Some ideas have been passed around as to locating other field agents, the overall responsibility for has been handed to Willow and Kennedy, I explained that if she can find me other watchers that could perform jobs such as those yourself have been doing then I'd be more than willing to lighten your load as it were, until then unless you yourself requested time off I would honour your wishes and continue to find things that you could be involved in.
I confess that was originally just an excuse to allow you a reason for being in Africa. But after discussions with a third party, I've come to the conclusion that we NEED to know about the origin of the slayers so we can find out what if any affect empowering all the potentials could have. We need to know many things: why it's always an adolescent female that's chosen (from all the slayers we've encountered only the potentials in puberty were called, the youngest seems to have been twelve when called and Kennedy was the eldest at nineteen); how did they arrange for the powers to be passed on; did the potential slayer essence that can be identified in some children already exist and if so what was it originally used for, i.e. what made them choose the girl that became the first slayer; and most importantly, if they had this power why did they ONLY choose to empower ONE girl?
'Hah. Giles fell into the exact same trap I did. Don't think too much Giles, you'll realise lots of other little things that we probably need to look into like....' Xander paused.
Then he started beating his head on the desk, 'No, don't think, don't think,' each instruction in time with a collision 'last time you did that you ended up talking yourself into an African sabbatical. Take your own advice and just chill and read the email, see Xan thats all you're doing is reading the email.'
Though he couldn't stop the most obvious thought from entering his head "Why the hell haven't the watchers wondered about some of those questions before?"
I've got lots of researchers looking into the earliest histories of the watchers seeing if there are any comments in any journals that might hint that someone knew more than was generally known by our time; the most secret documents of the inner council are being uncovered and access is being granted to specific groups that answer directly to myself.
I consider us all to be equally responsible for this burden and I know sometime soon I'm going to have to inform the others that our decision may have consequences.
I'm also looking into the history of the slayer scythe that Buffy found and allowed Willow to empower all the potentials. But so far it does not show up anywhere. Although I have dozens of researchers looking into this, it might be worth bringing up should you encounter anyone with knowledge of the origin of slayers. Oh yeah, I may have skipped that part, but here it is in all its official glory. I'm assigning you into looking for any evidence of the original tribe that created the slayer, and if you discover them see if they are aware of any reference to the slayer scythe that we used last year.
'No. No. No. No. How come 'I' come up with a plan and 'I' end up having to travel to Africa. But when 'He' comes up with a plan, its still 'me' thats running around Africa... come on Giles assign one of the others. It doesn't matter if we run into one another I can handle it.'
'Except I can't can I? If I run into one of the others and THEY'RE doing this assignment then I'd have to explain why I'm in Africa.'
'Dammit.'
I've assigned three watchers to be your full-time assistants for this, they are currently based in England, you can have them remain there or join you in Africa, it's your choice - I've included all their personal details and contact information on the attachment. I have instructed them that you were already on an assignment but have provided no details, I have informed them that should you wish to pursue it seperately then you are free to do so, but if you choose to bring them in with you they are to give you any help they can and not make any mention of the details until you have instructed them to do so.
Good luck in your quests,
Giles
'A team?'
'I actually have a team?'
'That answers to me and everything?'
'This is so not what I was looking for when I left the house that day.'
'Mind you it IS an important mission, do do doo doo, dammmit Andrew!!! And I would have people to take care of a lot of things for me.'
Xander took a look at the attachment and realised that the name of one of the watchers matched the person mentioned in the third email. He took a quick look at the email and hit reply.
'Okay team, first thing you've gotta do is get me a competent guide that speaks the language and takes me off the tourist trail.'
With that he began to compose his initial thoughts on the new project.
Notes: And thats the stage set for the storyline... I'm working on where the hell I'm going to take it next now and if I do come up with anything I'll be posting it here.
This is not what I expected when I started writing this.