The large group of vampires and demons were being a typically rowdy crowd, in the demon bar on the outskirts of the city. But like a group of young teenagers waiting for a band, they all quieted down when the music stopped and the stage lights came on.
They then cheered, when a purple-skinned demon with two sets of horns came out holding a microphone. He was dressed - or at least had attempted to dress - in a tattered tuxedo. He waved to the crowd like the host of the Miss USA pageant, "All right, welcome to the main event - my fellow demons and hellspawn!"
He waited for the crowd to die down. "Now, are you ready for the main event!?" The assembled demons responded loudly. "Well, alright then, let's get on with the auction!"
The curtain was pulled back a bit, to allow another demon pulling on a chain to come out. The crowed erupted yet again, when three teenage Slayers were dragged out onto the stage. All three of them looked badly beaten up, and had clearly been crying. Their look of horror only grew when they saw the demon audience.
"Look at them, everyone!" the host called out. "They have that look of pure innocence, don't they!? Sure they do! Wouldn't you just love to break them of that?"
The three teenage girls huddled together when they saw all the demons laughing and pointing. Two male vamps in the front row made obscene hand gestures, as to what they wanted the three Slayers to do.
"Now you know the rules, everyone," the host continued. "Turn, kill, rape, pimp, eat... anything you want to do to them, if the price is right! Now, let's make the first annual Slayer auction a real success here!"
The evil thing forcefully grabbed the hair of the first Slayer. A dark-haired English girl, who looked microscopically more defiant than the others. He dragged her over to the spotlight, "How much for this fine little slut, huh? Who'll start me off?"
But before any vampire or demon in the audience could call out, a woman's voice was heard. "Fifty million euros for all three!"
An amazed hush fell over the room, as the demons parted and the host was kind of surprised to see a very attractive blond human woman in her late thirties. She stood with a seemingly-bored look in her tailored business suit, glasses and pulled-back hair. A large briefcase sat at her feet, and four very large demons stood around her acting as bodyguards.
"Well - hello, little lady," the demon auctioneer said slowly. "Now who would you be?"
"Ms. Shana Rower," the woman said in a bored tone, checking for dirt under her nails. "Wolfram & Hart, London branch."
Any demons that were thinking of grabbing the woman for a little fun themselves instantly dropped all thoughts in that direction. After the fiasco in Los Angeles twenty years previously, Wolfram & Hart had slowly but surly regained their place at the top of the evil food chain.
"Ah..." the demon host stammered. "I wasn't aware you guys were interested in-"
The woman looked up with cold eyes at the demon, as if he was the stupidest idiot on the planet. "You didn't think the Senior Partners would be interested in three Slayers we can...adjust for our needs?"
"Hey, human!" a drunk male vampire said, as he came near holding a beer. "This is an auction!" he slurred out, "Not a sale." He inched closer. "Why don't you shut your hole before-"
But the idiot undead didn't get the entire line out, because one of the bodyguard demons grabbed its head - and with one fluid motion, ripped the vamp's head off.
"Why thank you," Rower said mildly, sipping her drink as she ignored the exploding dust pile.
"My pleasure, ma'am."
The woman stood and looked over the crowd. "Any more objections? And do keep in mind it will be child's play for the firm to track any of you down, and administer a very slow and painful death..."
None of the demons spoke, and quite wisely too.
"Good," the female lawyer said, before she snapped her fingers. Out of the shadows a man a touch older than the woman came out, wearing a black leather duster. "Ronald, be a dear and take them to the car, will you?"
Without a word, the man and two of the demons grabbed the girls' chain and despite their struggling, pulled them to the nearby exit. Once they were out the door, the woman picked up the briefcase and move towards the host demon. "Would you like to count it?"
"Ah..." the demon hesitated. "Considering the reputation of your firm, I don't think that'll be necessary."
"That's a very wise decision on your part. Obviously, you're not as dumb as you look." Rower handed over the briefcase, and the demon was turning away when she spoke again. "Then again, there is one last thing I need to do..."
The demon looked back, to see the woman raise her palm at him. He screamed, as a huge flash of light erupted out of nowhere and an invisible force threw him to the far end of the stage. Impaling him on a rusted pipe sticking out of the wall, and instantly rendering him as dead as a dodo.
All the exits burst open, and the demons became very uneasy as several dozen Slayers came in armed to the teeth.
"Everyone?" Rower called out to the crowd. "The New Watchers Council would like to express their displeasure at this inaugural event. And all my friends would like to voice their displeasure of your treatment of their sisters...personally."
She gave them all a grin, as the other two demons she'd come with joined her. "Have fun, girls."
A half-hour later, the three formerly captive Slayers were getting checked out by the doctors - next to the other Slayers who'd sustained light wounds during the battle in the bar. Rower and Ronald were leaning on a black limo. And a light rain fell, as they watched the burning building collapse in the night.
"Ronald?" the man asked, looking at her with amusement. "That's the best name you could think of, when you look at me?"
The woman shook her head, as she let her hair down. "Well, I COULD have just called you by the name I use in our bedroom..." she teased.
"Isabel!" Xander Harris exclaimed. "You wouldn't dare!"
"Oh, you bet your Californian ass I would!" Isabel Evans Harris said, before she kissed her husband of over 15 years. "What did you think of my acting?"
"Just great, honey!" They started to walk over to the Slayers and as Isabel started to remove her glasses, Xander stopped her. "You should keep those on, I'm thinking."
She gave him a smug look. "Oh - you like a girl with glasses, huh?"
"I love anything on you," Harris told his wife simply, as they reached the others.
When they appeared in the doorway of one of the ambulances, one of the freed Slayers demanded, "Who the hell are you two!?"
"Xander Harris," he told her simply. "And this is my wife, Isabel. We're from the New York branch of the Council."
"New York?" the Slayer was confused. "But the Council has operatives in this country! Why bring you two out-"
"Because the demons wouldn't have had any chance of recognizing them," The freed English Slayer spoke up.
"Correctamundo," Xander said with a smile. "We were in France, when we got the call from Willow."
"Ms. Rosenberg called you personally?" the youngest of the three Slayers asked, disbelieving. "Who are you - really?"
When Xander didn't respond to that, his wife answered for him. "He was one of the first two Slayerettes, once upon a time."
All three girls' eyes showed shock at that name. All the Slayerettes were legends amongst the Slayers, these days. "I thought the male Slayerette was a were-leopard?"
"No, that was the werewolf," another of the Slayers said. "The first one was the guy who ended up missing an eye-"
"Oh, I got that fixed a long time ago," Xander said, shaking his head. Personally, he hated the fame that the Chosen crowd gave him and the others from their time in Sunnydale. "We should get going..." He looked to one of the Council soldiers. "The jet should be ready by now. Let's evac, ASAP."
"Yes, sir!" the man in the dark uniform said, snapping to attention. "Alright, you heard the man!" he yelled to his people. "Let's get this show on the road right now, double time!"
Xander looked up from his filing cabinet, when he heard his office door open. He wasn't expecting visitors at the moment-
"Hey, you dweeb!" the dark-haired woman said from the door, as she held up two Styrofoam containers and two bottled waters. "Hungry?"
Harris closed the drawer with a smile. "Is that Chinese I smell?" he asked, as the man took the food from his best friend and placed it on the small table near the windows.
"Orange chicken with extra sauce," the woman said, before she hugged and gave him a small kiss on the cheek. "I heard you had a fun week."
"Oh - it was pretty much the norm, Cor," the 43-year-old guy said, as they sat across from each other to begin their normal lunch ritual -the one they'd had, ever since her office had been moved two streets down. "Just the normal undercover stuff."
"Normal?" Cordelia Vaughn asked with a laugh, as she speared a piece of chicken with her fork. "So - you had your wife dress as trashy as she could, just so you could sneak in to some place undercover?"
"You are NEVER going to let that go, are you?" the man sighed as he took a drink of water, remembering an ancient adventure when he'd been barely 17 years old.
"A woman never forgets anything, Xander, haven't you learned that by now?" Cordelia had a damnable smirk upon her lips.
He looked at her for a moment before asking, "When we were going to Homecoming during senior year, why did you get mad at-"
The middle-aged woman cut him off, "You wanted us to all go in Oz's van!"
"Damn!" Xander grumbled, causing her to laugh. "Well, anyway. How did my goddaughter do on her SAT's?"
Cordelia beamed with pride, just like any mother. "She aced them, of course! She kicked Willow's old score's ass!"
"That's great!" Xander commented with pride as well. "I know she was worried about them for a month, beforehand."
"She had a little trouble on the math, but other than that she was just superb!" the woman gushed at him. "Kurt and I are so proud of our baby girl."
"I'll have to stop by and congratulate her," Xander mused as he took another bite.
"Well, actually, I was hoping you and Isabel could come over for dinner soon," Cordelia told her companion. "We need to talk something over with you two."
The way his old friend said it, he knew something was wrong. "Cordy? What is it?"
The 44-year-old woman got up and closed the door. "Look," Mrs. Vaughn said as she sat back down. "I don't want this to go out on the Watcher grapevine yet. At least, not till we make up our minds on what to do..." She looked right at him. "Xander, have any Slayers died recently?"
Harris looked at her, confused. "Yeah," he answered her. "As much as we try to prevent it, shit happens. One in Russia last month, and two over in China about a week ago-"
The woman took a deep breath. "Xander - my baby's a Slayer now."
He looked at her in utter shock. "What?! Keri's a Slayer? Cordy, are you sure?"
"Well, of course I'm sure you idiot!" she shouted. Cordelia then covered her face for a moment.
"I'm sorry," she then told him, as the college graduate leaned back in her chair. "Kurt and I were so busy these last few days, that we didn't notice that something was going on. And I'm sure she might have come to see you here if you'd been in town. I mean, you are her godfather and she knows all about vampires and she trusts you and-"
"She knows the basics, yeah," Xander interrupted the Willowesque babble, not liking this either. "But I don't think she's been in any more than one or two of the classes the girls have had here. Cordy, I'll have to check with Marie-"
"No!" Cordelia said firmly. "I don't want anyone else to know, at least not yet. Xander, just a week ago my little girl was getting all signed up for NYU next fall - and now she's bending metal bars, and doing back flips over fences! This is NOT what I wanted for her!"
"Calm down, Cor," Xander told his ex-girlfriend, using an old trick from high school. "There are so many Slayers nowadays, ever since Willow's spell back in 2003 - that not every girl called needs to be on the front lines. A lot of them have had normal lives, after being activated-"
"I know that, Xander!" the former Ms. Chase said, interrupting. "But a lot of those girls still get attacked by vamps, don't they?"
"Yeah," Harris admitted. "The vamps can always sense a Slayer if they get close enough, and there's no way they'll pass up a taste of that Slayer blood if they can..." He made up his mind in an instant. "Cordy, I promise you, I'll get the best Watcher I can - to help train Keri to protect herself, and-"
"I already know who her Watcher is going to be, dummy," Cordelia said in a firm voice that surprised him.
"You do? Cor, I hate to say it, but Giles is now way too old to-"
"Not Giles," the married woman said at once. "And not Faith, or Buffy, or Willow or even Dawn." In a voice that clearly stated that she was not going to take no for an answer, Cordelia told Xander, "You."
"Me?" Mr. Harris asked her, slightly stunned. "Cordy, you know I'll help her in any way that I can...but I haven't been a field Watcher in, what - almost five years?" He indicated his office. "I run the 'office' now. Keri needs someone who's still in-"
The wife and mother instantly shook her head. "Xander, I love you like a brother, but so help me God - if I have to break your neck to get you to agree to this, I will!" Still, Cordelia saw the sympathy she knew Xander had for her daughter.
"Cordy, please - I'm just thinking about what's best for Keri," he said softly. "It's been a while, I could make a mistake-"
"I don't mean to put any pressure on you here, Xand..." the former cheerleader told him just as softly. "But this is my baby we're talking about. The girl that you and Isabel used to babysit...my firstborn child. The girl that under other circumstances, could have been yours..."
Xander looked away at that one. Even though the man was perfectly happy with his beloved from Roswell, he hadn't ever forgotten Cordy and he had had sex before she'd left her hometown. But since Cordelia had never called him again after arriving in New York, Xander figured it simply hadn't been all that great for her...and so what could have been, remained only that.
Cordelia missed his turmoil, however. "Like you said, Giles is too old – so I will NOT trust anyone else with her safety, except you."
Xander stood and looked out his office window, into the ring area of the club. Two Slayers were dressed in pads, in the middle of a sparring match. "It's not as simple as just teaching her marital arts, Cor. To know for sure she can fight the vamps and demons, she'll have to spend some time in the field..."
Xander looked back towards the woman whose clone had once been mourned by Angel's Avengers - before they themselves had all died as well, taking out the Circle of the Black Thorn about two months later. "She's going to have to fight the real thing. You remember what that was like, I take it? Do you understand the possible consequences of that, Cor?"
Cordelia stood as well, and moved over next to him. "I understand just fine, Xander, yeah..." She also watched the girls out in the ring. "But knowing that the man who as an ordinary human saved Buffy's life all the time back in high school is watching over my daughter...well, it'll help me and my husband sleep better at night, is all I can say."
Xander looked exasperated. "Cordy-"
"At least think about it, okay?" she asked, hopeful.
He just nodded. "I'll talk it over with Isabel tonight. If I do it, she'll have to assign someone to fill in for me here in the office -look, we'll come over tomorrow night and I'll give you my answer then, alright?"
"Fine."
Four days later, in one of the private workout rooms within the club – a tall, dark-haired and very attractive 17-year-old Keri Vaughn was already sweating in her tight workout clothes as she pounded on the punching bag. She was the spitting image of her mother at that age, which caused the man who had just entered to draw in a sharp breath.
"Not bad for a kid."
Keri spun to the door. "Thank God, G-dad..." the brunette said, using her nickname for him. "I'm really glad Mom badgered you into this!"
Xander chuckled. "Ah, well, she knew what my answer was going to be before she even told me. God help me, but Cordy knew me well enough to know I wasn't going to let anything bad happen to you..."
"Backatcha, G-dad," Keri said with a huge smile, giving his arm a light jab. "So, what's first? We go find a vamp nest and kick a little undead ass?"
"Ah, no..." Xander told her with a raised eyebrow. "That's still a long way off."
"Then what's first?" Keri asked, very disappointed.
The thing was, she had grown up knowing about Slayers and was very happy to be one of the girls now. But the daughter of Cordelia Chase had no way of knowing about the REAL heritage of the Chosen Ones just yet - which was a life filled with death, danger and a relatively short expiry date.
Xander put up his hand, guessing what she was thinking and motioned to the door. Keri looked and was surprised to see Marie, the oldest resident Slayer and Xander's second-in-command, walk in with her own workout clothes on.
"I talked your mom into letting me bring Marie in here," Harris told her. "She's here to prove a very important point."
"And that is?" Keri asked, confused.
"The point is..." Marie said as she motioned for Keri to join her on the mats, "That raw power means jack against a skilled opponent." Then she made a come-get-some gesture.
Cordelia's firstborn looked back at Xander in surprise and betrayal. "You want me to spar with HER!? But she's been doing this for-"
"Ten years," Marie supplied.
"Yes, you're going to spar with her," Xander told her firmly. "Keri, if you'll listen to just one thing I ever have to say in your life, then hear me now. However well she prepares for it, the Slayer has absolutely no idea what she'll come up against every night. I can't count how many times Buffy got her ass handed to her, even after several years of experience..."
Harris looked at Marie and then back to Keri, "There is ALWAYS going to be someone better than you, when you're fighting for your life in the darkness. Accept it and move on. Plus this way, I can see what I have to work with here."
Keri didn't look happy at all, as she stepped onto the mat. "This is really going to blow, isn't it?"
"For a while," Marie told her simply. "But you're one of the sisters now; you'll get the hang of it soon enough. And hey, I'll go easy on you..."
"Well, thank God!" Keri said too quickly, before she noticed the smirk on Marie's face.
"...at least for today," the older Slayer finished her sentence.
"Okay then," Xander said, as he took position off the mats. "Hajime, let it begin!"
"EEP!" Keri squeaked, as Marie's fist came at her face and she did a quick backflip to avoid it.
Xander smiled for less than an instant, before his face became an expressionless mask again. His new Slayer promised at the very least to be an interesting change from the office routine, in the foreseeable future.