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Hey, guys, I just had to get this out of my system, so bear
with me. I have no plans for a second chapter, so if you wanna take this
one over, go for it.
Disclaimers; Joss and Mutant Enemy own the Buffy crew, Robert
Rodriguez, Dimension Pictures and Troublemaker Productions own the rest.
What rest? Read on.
Spoilers; not really
Feedback; Oh please!
Summary; Six years into the future. Buffy, now a
Watcher, meets a decidedly different new Slayer...
SlayKids
by Kirayoshi
Southern Texas, 2006
She stood on the sidewalk, staring at the facade of a large
hacienda, overlooking the Gulf of Mexico. She doublechecked the address
that Giles had given her. Yep, she thought, this is the place. Her
first assignment as a Watcher, and she certainly had a rather wealthy new
Slayer. Hopefully she won't turn out to be another Queen C, she thought
ruefully.
She made her way up the front walk, and rang the
doorbell. Ten seconds later, the door opened. A little boy--about
twelve years old, she figured-- greeted her politely. "Uh, hi. May I
ask who's calling please?"
"Hello there," she answered back. "My name is Buffy
Summers. Is this the Cortez residence?"
"Yes," the boy smiled. "I'm Juni. Do you want
to speak to my mom and dad?"
"Uh," this was going to be awkward, she thought. "Is
there a Carmen Cortez here?"
Juni made a slightly wry face at the name. Typical
sibling, Buffy mused, recalling the thousands of times Dawn had given an
identical _expression_ at the mention of Buffy's name. He then erased the
_expression_ quickly, saying, "Yeah, she's out back. I'll show youthe
way," he beckoned Buffy inside, and led her toward the back yard. Buffy
looked around at the colorful surroundings; a definite hispanic atmosphere,
festive, homey. She made a mental note regarding some fabrics and
upholstery; she and Willow were redecorating their lovenest back in Sunnydale,
and she thought the sofa especially was beautiful.
As she entered the backyard, Buffy noticed the rather
expansive jungle gym, with its rope bridge and swinging bars. Reminded
Buffy more of a boot camp obstacle course than a children's environment.
The dark haired girl on the rope bridge, however, looked right at home
there. She crossed the bridge, balancing on the single rope like she was
walking along a sidewalk, then took to the hanging bars like Tarzan. Buffy
smiled; there was no doubt that this was her.
The young girl turned and noticed her brother and Buffy
standing below. She dropped down from the bars and stepped up toward the
blonde. "Uh, hi," she started, offering her hand. "I'm Carmen
Cortez."
"Pleased to meet you, Carmen. I'm Buffy Summers."
She glanced toward Juni, and added, "I would like to speak to you.
Alone."
Carmen looked at Juni, then back at Buffy. "No need,"
she answered. "I don't keep secrets from my family."
"It's rather important," Buffy insisted. "If you want,
you may talk to your family later." She knew she would catch hell from the
older members of the Council, but with the majority of the current Council
members being younger blood, handpicked by her own Watcher Rupert Giles, she had
no qualms about doing things her way. That meant no secrecy among family
members.
"Well," Carmen hedged, until Juni said, "I could make
sandwiches for you and Miss Summers, Carmen."
"Good idea, squirt," she said, not unkindly. Junirushed
off, leaving Buffy and Carmen together.
"Carmen," Buffy started slowly, not wanting to scare the child
right off. "I need to know, have you had any dreams lately? Bad
ones, nightmares?"
Carmen hesitated before she responded, then her voice was less
animated than before; "Yeah. Weird ones. There were these things,
they looked like people but they had these...faces, like bony and stuff.
And they were dead. I don't know how I know that, I just do.
Vampires, that's the word. They were vampires. And I was
fighting them. And people were calling me Faith. Who's
Faith?"
"The former Slayer," Buffy answered simply. Carmen
looked at her quizzically, and Buffy explained; "Carmen, it's my duty to inform
you that you've been called as this generation's Slayer. Faith was the
last active Slayer, and when she died two months ago, you were called as her
successor."
Carmen shook her head in disbelief. "Whoa, wait a
minute," she stopped Buffy's explaination. "You're telling me that I'm a
Slayer?" Buffy nodded solemnly. "And I'm supposed to slay vampires
and that sort of thing?" Buffy nodded
again. "Cool."
Buffy barked a brief mirthless laugh. "Trust
me, Carmen," she said, "cool isn't what I said when I was
called."
"You're a slayer too?"
"Former slayer. Now I'm a Watcher. And I must say,
you're taking this better than I did when it was my turn."
Carmen gave a strange secret smile. "I come from a weird
family." They heard a car pull into the driveway. "That'll be
mom and dad. You can explain it to them if you want--"
========
"...and as her Watcher, it's my job to train her in her
calling, and to help her in her fight against vampires." She looked at the
faces of Gregorio and Ingrid Cortez, hoping for some signs of understandingfrom
them. This couldn't be easy for them; she remembered how hard her mother,
may she rest in peace, took the news when she found out. That's why she
wanted to level with the Cortezes, to help Carmen avoid any grief from
them. "I know this is hard for you, but I want you to know that I will do
everything in my power to protect your daughter. Whatever she faces, she
won't face it alone."
"You are correct, Miss Summers," the handsome middle-aged
gentleman answered. He seemed to fit in with this attractive hacienda,
Buffy observed. Sort of a Spanish nobleman feel about him. But there
was a coiled strength to him as well. Maybe a Caballero by day, and a
masked outlaw by night. "Carmen won't face these dangers alone. For
we shall be at her side."
"We're a family, Miss Summers," his wife Ingrid added.
"Whatever one of us has to deal with, we all face together." Juni nodded a
silent approval to his mother's assertions.
"I understand, Miss Cortez," Buffy continued, "and I'm glad
that you'll be there to support Carmen, but we Slayers deal with some weird
things. I'm not sure you'd understand half of what goes on."
Ingrid glanced at her husband, and gave a sly smile;
"Gregorio, shall we?" Carmen and Juni shared a knowing look, as Gregorio
left the couch and approached a nearby bookcase. "Miss Summers...can I
call you Buffy?"
"Sure," Buffy shrugged her shoulders.
"And you may call me Ingrid. I appriciate your candor,
Buffy, and I feel that we can trust you. So we're going to show you
something." Gregorio located the right book on the bookshelf, removedit,
and depressed a switch behind the book.
A panel slid out of the wall, revealing a steel-lined
passageway. Next to Buffy, the tabletop shifted, revealing a computer
keyboard, while a nearby mirror's silver backing changed into a computer
screen. The screen displayed an animation of a globe, with markers over
various countries.
"Buffy," Gregorio explained, "Ingrid and I are former secret
agents. We met on assignment for opposing camps during the last yearsof
the Cold War, and we fell in love during that time. We still do occasional
field assignments for the OSS, but these days we're mostly
consultants."
Buffy blinked as she observed what she now recognized as the command center of a formidable agent. Two of them, actually, as she observed Ingrid sitting at the computer terminal, typing rapidly. "Let's see, displaying information about Slayers," she mused, as a webserver hummed merrily away, and a list of headings under the category 'Slayer' appeared before her. "Hmm, Looks like your story checks out," she mused. "Not much information about Slayers or the Watcher's Council, but what there is checks with your story. Okay, you've convinced me." "Well," Buffy commented, as she looked at the display once
more. "I'm impressed. Thanks for the vote of confidence. And
your kids know about this as well?"
"Are you kidding?" Gregorio chuckled, "they've been effective
field agents for the last six years." He then told Buffy a strange story,
involving a children's show host, something called The Third Brain, and a plan
for world domination through an army of robot duplicates of the children of
world leaders.
"Carmen and Juni were able to save us, and together, we
prevented Minion from gaining power over the world. We've worked together
on several assignments ever since." Gregorio regarded his children with
paternal pride, a feeling that his wife shared openly. "So you may be
assured that whatever Carmen faces, here or in Sunnydale, we're more than able
to face it together."
Buffy smiled at Gregorio's statement. "So, what do you
say, Carmen? Up to saving the world on a regular basis?"
Carmen grinned hugely at Buffy. "I was born
ready."
Buffy laughed heartily. Somehow, she knew that the world
would be in good hands with this new Slayer.
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