The Summoned - R - Prologue [0/?]

[Andy Stoffel <see2go4me@xxxxxxxxx>]

TITLE:    The Summoned - Prologue (0/?)
RATING: R
DISCLAIMER:
All BtVS characters belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Fox
Television, and others. All "Keeper" characters belong to Tanya
Huff, and others. None of these people or organizations have
read this nor endorsed it. The story idea might be mine but this
is a derivative work.
SUMMARY: A BtVS/Tanya Huff "Keeper" series crossover/AU. With a
heavy B/W vibe.
SPOILERS: Seasons 1-6 of BtVS. All of the "Keeper Chronicles"
DISTRIBUTION:  buffywantswillow, ikoly, TtH, and my blog fanfic
pages. Anyone else, e-mail me please. 
AUTHOR'S NOTES: This sets things up for later parts and is a bit
longer than normal as a result. See the end for additional
notes.

---

Chapter Title: The Long Way Home

---

Gently squeezing her shoulder before getting to his feet, Giles
brushed bits of dried grass from his clothes. He gave her one
last long look, wishing he had some way of removing the sad
expression from her face that she directed at him from behind a
curtain of long red hair, before he headed back towards her
cottage to get his car. He knew that tomorrow she would be there
again, meditating under the same tree in the meadow where he
would always be able to find her.

It was a beautiful early autumn day and he would rather have
stayed with Willow but duty called. He wasn't looking forward to
the surprise meeting in London that the Council had insisted he
attend. He'd learned long ago when he could safely ignore the
Council and this wasn't one of those times. He'd managed to
avoid any Council meetings or contact since returning to England
with Willow in tow at the beginning of the summer. But something
was going on in London and they'd insisted that he make an
appearance.

He was surprised to see an unfamiliar looking hired car parked
next to his in front of the small cottage. The rest of the
buildings on the coven's country estate were out of sight but
close enough together that most residents walked. But it was not
as much of a surprise as the sight of the young woman sitting
quietly on the front stoop, seemingly lost in thought, her short
blonde hair gleaming in the sun. She was the last person he
would have expected to find anywhere in England, at any time.

"Buffy?" He asked as he came closer, hoping he was successfully
keeping his surprise out of his voice. He couldn't think of any
reason short of an apocalypse that would bring her here but from
her relaxed appearance she didn't appear to be in any hurry to
explain her presence. She just sat there patiently as he
approached.

"Hey Giles." She answered in the same calm tone, looking up at
him. She moved to one side and patted the step below the one she
was sitting on. "Why don't you take a seat." It was more of a
command than a request and he found himself unconsciously doing
so. She raised an eyebrow at him as soon as he was sitting, a
sign he took to mean he was free to talk.

"What brings you here?" He asked, watching her face closely. He
used to be able to read her extremely well but her current
expression was impenetrable even though her position allowed him
to look directly into her eyes.

"Here England? The Council wanted to see me. Here here? Willow."
She gazed at him expectantly. He noticed her lips twitching as
she watched him trying to decide which to ask about first.

Sighing, he took out a handkerchief and rubbed an invisible spot
from his glasses before asking the question most likely to cause
he or his Slayer problems. "What possessed the Council to bring
you to England?"

"You never told me how the Head of the Council was chosen." she
replied, not answering him directly.

"I didn't think it was relevant." He mumbled, shifting
nervously. "Quentin Travers will probably outlive both of us."

"He didn't." She told him calmly.

"What happened to him?" He asked, this time unable to control
his surprise, wondering how Quentin's niece must have reacted
when she found out she was now the Head Watcher.

"Plane crash a week ago." Buffy shrugged as if the details
didn't concern her. "He and his posse on the Council were coming
back from some trip. Probably out terrifying some future slayer
into blind obedience."

"And the new Head?" He asked curiously, putting his glasses back
on. "I'm assuming she wanted something from you?"

"Almost. She wanted to see the current slayer and her watcher."
She shook her head and glared at him before continuing.
"Unfortunately, all she ended up with was me since someone
decided to retire and didn't tell anyone except Quentin
Travers!"

"Buffy..." he wilted under her annoyed gaze. "I had planned on
telling you eventually."

"Eventually?" She continued glaring at him from her superior
position on the stoop. "When is 'eventually'?"

"Retiring was the only way to keep Travers from interfering in
Sunnydale after Willow's magic problems." He reluctantly told
her. "He demanded that I do something about her or the Council
would take action."

"Well, he can't interfere any longer." She told him grimly. "And
you should have told me he was threatening Willow. I would have
dealt with him. She's my responsibility, not the Council's. Or
yours." She paused for a moment before continuing. "When Willow
and I eventually get back to Sunnydale we need to have a long
chat about your paternalistic tendencies. Assuming you still
want to work with us."

"Back to Sunnydale?" Giles stared at her in confusion. "What are
you up to?" he asked suspiciously.

Ignoring his question, Buffy stood up and stretched, looking
pensively in the direction he'd come from earlier before turning
back to him. "I'm taking her away from here Giles. Today."

He frowned at her, not sure where she had gotten the idea that
she could handle Willow in her current condition and briefly
attempted to put a stop to it. "She isn't ready." He told her
firmly. "She has a lot more work to do with the Coven."

"She's as ready as she's going to get here." she told him,
dismissing his concern. "I spoke with Miss Harkness last night.
Her magic is as under control as it is going to get here. I
think she scares them. They aren't too upset to see her go." She
held up a hand to stop him from protesting. "She needs to come
home to... us. And we need her. Her things are already packed
and in my car. It's no longer her choice. Or yours." She looked
down at her dust covered boots for a moment before giving him a
sad smile. "As painful as it might be at first, she needs to
come back to us, her family."

Surprised at how mature she was acting, Giles thought for a
moment before nodding reluctantly in agreement. "What are your
plans?"

"I made a deal with the new Head of the Council." Buffy grinned
slightly at his worried expression and sat back down on the
stoop. "I think you'll like it."

"As you just reminded me, I'm retired. I don't think my opinion
of whatever scheme you've cooked up with 'that' woman will
matter." Giles told her grumpily.

"Listen before you condemn." She said, admonishing him like he
was a small child. "If you're nice you can play too."

Bristling at her tone and not sure how to take her comments, he
simply raised an eyebrow. "Go ahead." He encouraged, leaning
back against the railing and crossing his arms.

"I'm taking Willow on a road trip. The Council is paying for
it." She grinned at him again.

"What?" He looked at her like she'd grown horns. "Why would they
agree to something like that? It must be a trick."

She nodded in agreement at his surprise. "That's what I thought
at first. I couldn't believe it until she explained her
reasons."

"Which are?" Giles prodded grimly. "What were 'that' woman's
reasons?"

"You don't like her. Do you." Buffy commented, giving him a
cheeky grin.

"It's none of your business." Giles muttered. "She'll certainly
make a much better Council Head than Travers." He stood up and
started pacing in front of her. "What were her reasons?"

"She thinks it's a mistake to tie any slayer to a specific
spot." Buffy began.

"Like an active Hellmouth?" Giles asked acerbically. "Who is
going to keep an eye on it?"

"That's what I asked her." Buffy told him. "She didn't have a
good answer. But she has a few ideas she wants to try out to
make better use of my abilities." Leaning down, she picked up a
smooth rock and started rolling it between her fingers as if she
had all the time in the world.

"And this road trip is one of them?" He stared incredulously at
her.

"It wasn't so much a road trip." Buffy admitted, "as much as
it's a chance to check out some of the mystical hot spots the
Council has been ignoring for the last few decades. Things that
might need slayer attention but that Quentin Travers was too
busy playing Council politics to do something about."

Giles groaned, rubbing the back of his neck, guessing where this
was leading. "Cleveland Hellmouth?"

She nodded, throwing the stone down the driveway before
answering. "Yup. Cleveland Hellmouth." She held up a hand to
stop him from commenting. "I told her I would take a look at it
and some of the other places on her hit list."

"And this road trip idea?" He knew she was avoiding telling him
the entire story behind how she'd been convinced into going to
Cleveland.

"We negotiated. I think it'll do Willow some good to be
involved. It's sort of a working vacation. A slayer and witch
thing. I do the slaying gig, Willow works on the non-evil magic
thing." She looked anxiously back in the direction of the meadow
he'd left Willow in.

Watching her face, he wondered for a moment if she actually knew
that that was where Willow was meditating. "What about Dawn?
What has she been doing while you are gone? And until you get
back?"

"She's been helping Xander and Anya repair the Magic Box. That
and school have been keeping her out of trouble. Mostly anyway,
considering the new high school is still built over the
Hellmouth." She pulled a much folded envelope out of a back
pocket and handed it to him. "They want to finish it before
Willow gets back to Sunnydale. It's all in that letter." She
gave him an earnest look. "They could really use your advice."

"Do they know you are bringing her back with you?" He stuffed
the letter into his shirt pocket, planning on looking at it
later. "And do they know about this road trip idea?"

"Sort of. They don't know it's really a working vacation. They
think it's just the new Council Head trying to bribe the slayer
into working with them again." She glared at him. "And you
aren't going to tell them. Xander thinks Willow is so fragile
that she'll break and wouldn't understand any of this. It'll
just be between the three of us."

"I'm not sure I understand it myself." Giles muttered under his
breath as he sat back down, momentarily forgetting just how good
Buffy's hearing really was.

"Don't worry about it." She told him flippantly. "It's all under
control." Standing up again, she walked over to her car and
reached in through the passenger window, pulling out a large
envelope and handing it to him. "Here. This is from the Council.
You need to read it before your meeting tonight."

He gingerly held the envelope in his hands as if it were going
to bite. It was the color used by the Council for only its most
important documents. "What is it?" He asked her.

"I think you'll like it." she told him perkily. "I have to go
find Willow and you should probably go now so you can go get
ready for that meeting." She gave him a quick, hesitant hug
before dragging him to his feet and pushing him towards his car.
"We'll see you in Sunnydale in a month or so." she told him
before heading up the path towards Willow.

He watched her for a minute before shaking his head. Although
she still seemed a little worn around the edges, she was
obviously too much in control of things for him to argue with
her about her plans. He stared at the object in his hands and
threw it in the open window before getting into the car himself.
He would read whatever was in the envelope at home before he
headed to the Council office for his meeting. And then he would
see.

----

After four months in the quiet English countryside, the noise in
the crowded airport was deafening, and a little scary.
Shivering, Willow huddled as close to Buffy as she could get
while she efficiently dealt with their airline check-in. She was
startled out of her self imposed isolation when the ticket agent
asked to see their IDs. She frowned as Buffy handed over two
British passports.

"Uh... Buffy?" she murmured quietly, not sure what was going on
and trying not to attract too much attention. "Passport?"

Buffy gently squeezed her arm before whispering in her ear, her
warm breath feeling like a soft caress. "I'll explain everything
later."

Willow sighed, forcing herself to stay calm. This wasn't the
first time Buffy had used that excuse since she'd almost
forcibly removed her from the Coven grounds earlier in the day.
Something was definitely going on but she wasn't sure she had
the energy to care. Exhausting what little enthusiasm she had
for external events, Willow stopped paying attention again, her
mind going back to the thoughts she couldn't escape no matter
how hard she tried; the look of surprise on Tara's face when
she'd died and Warren's terror seconds before she'd killed him.

Several minutes later, she was once more forced into the
present, this time by Buffy's voice.

"Will?"

"Yes?" She look towards Buffy, noticing that she now had her
carry-on slung over one shoulder and she was holding Willow's
out for her to take while motioning away from the counter. "Oh."
She grabbed her bag and followed Buffy, grumbling under her
breath as she struggled to keep up with the briskly walking
Slayer. "Short blondes with short legs shouldn't be moving so
fast that taller people can't keep up." She blushed when Buffy,
apparently hearing her complaint, slowed down and silently
grabbed her hand before once more moving quickly through the
crowded airport.

----

Willow relaxed into her seat. They'd barely made it to the gate
before their flight started boarding. She'd been so focused on
keeping up with Buffy that she hadn't had any time to really
wonder about their passports or why they were in First Class on
a flight to Toronto. And, sitting in the aisle seat with her
eyes closed, Buffy didn't seem to be in any hurry to explain
anything.

"Buffy?" She opened the eye closest to Willow and gave her a
look that Willow recognized as slightly amused.

"Can you save your questions for a little bit?" Buffy asked.
"It's been a really long week. I'll answer all of your questions
before we get there." She sat up, and leaning over, kissed a
surprised Willow gently on her right cheek. Before sitting back
in her seat and closing her eyes again she softly uttered a
single word "Promise."

Shocked once again at how gently Buffy was treating her after
her end the world rampage, Willow stared at her for a few
minutes before following her example and closing her eyes. She
didn't think she would be able to rest but meditating seemed
like a good idea. The last few hours had been very stressful and
she could feel her control over her magic wavering. Buffy had
been very considerate so far but losing control thirty thousand
feet in the air probably wouldn't make her too happy.

----

Waking midway through their flight, Buffy silently watched her
sleeping companion, memorizing her face. She couldn't remember
the last time Willow had looked that peaceful. It was almost
twenty minutes before she could bring herself to disturb her.

"Willow?" Gently shaking her friend's shoulder, Buffy called her
name several times before she opened her eyes. "Have a nice
nap?"

"Nap? Wasn't any napping going on here!" Willow feebly
protested. "I was just resting my eyes after meditating."

Buffy smiled at her reaction. "If you say so. You had some
questions?" She raised an eyebrow when Willow looked around, as
if trying to see if anyone was listening to them, before asking
her first question.

"Buffy? Why the British passport?"

"Why? I'm not sure how he did it but Giles managed to drag you
half way around the world without a passport." She frowned. "Or
any other identification. You needed something official looking
so I convinced the Council to exercise some of that political
power Quentin Travers liked to wave around. They got us both
passports."

"But we both already had passports." Willow gave her a puzzled
look. "All you had to do was bring mine with you. And why did we
get British passports when we aren't British?"

"Well... yes. I did bring your US passport with me. You still
need it when we want to get back into the States." Buffy looked
at her nervously, not sure how she would take the next part.
"You know, citizenship is a funny thing."

"What do you mean?"

"A long time ago someone in the Council decided that things
would be easier if all Slayers, no matter where they lived, were
British citizens." She grinned at the expression on Willow's
face. "Yes, I am legally entitled to wear tweed."

Willow snorted in response. "You better not let Xander know
that." She thought about it for a minute before blurting out
"Why do I have a British passport? I'm not a slayer! I'm not
even British."

"Uh, Will?" Buffy grinned at her and put her hand on Willow's
shoulder. "I hate to tell you this... but you are now. No, not a
slayer!" she quickly corrected. "You now have dual citizenship
like I do. So you are allowed to have a British passport."

"Why? And how?" She frowned at Buffy. "Oh. This was a Council
thing wasn't it? I don't really want to know how they did it, do
I?"

"No. 'How' the Council does something like that... it's better
if we don't think too hard about it." Buffy shook her head
before continuing. "As for the why? I thought it was a good idea
and the Council agreed with me. If things go as planned, we
should both be travelling a lot to places where it's better to
be British. And if you ever really want to go to Oxford, it'll
be a lot easier to get in if you are a British citizen."

"Oh." Willow gave her a bewildered look before sitting back in
her seat and rubbing her eyes. "Why Oxford?"

"All Watchers spend time there eventually." Buffy took Willow's
hand in her own again, squeezing it lightly. "And since you're
my Watcher..." and waited for the explosion.

"I'm your what!" Willow gasped, looking around to see if anyone
had heard her. "Why me? I don't know anything about being a
Watcher. And what about Giles?"

"He's not my Watcher anymore. Quentin Travers forced him to
retire this summer." Buffy told her.

"Well, make him unretire!" An agitated Willow insisted. "I can't
be your Watcher!"

"It doesn't matter. The new Council Head has other plans for
Giles. If we really need him he'll help out but he won't have
time to be my Watcher." Buffy squeezed her hand. "And as much as
I love him, Giles isn't the right Watcher for me anymore. You
are. I need someone who knows magic and can really use it.
Someone who is good at research. Someone who won't tell me how
to live my life but won't let me forget the important things
like friendship and family. A friend who's been with me almost
from the beginning. You."

Not convinced, Willow stared at her, her eyes wide. "Does he
know this? And how did you convince the Council to go along with
this? Wouldn't they rather have one of their watcher people be
yours?"

"There was a Council meeting in London tonight that he was
invited to. All they would tell him was he isn't retired anymore
and that he isn't my Watcher. He should know by now what they
want from him." Buffy laughed. "It's going to be a complete
surprise. Once he stops yelling about the Watcher thing he won't
be able to resist. I just hope they get pictures of his face
like they promised me." She shook her head. "And why did they
agree? I didn't give them any choice. It was either you or no
one. You do have to attend the next Council new Watcher
indoctrination next summer so you know all the Council rules and
regs. And I expect you to go back to school in the Spring."

"Oh..." Willow mumbled before announcing, "I'm not going to wear
tweed or act all stuffy! And I'm not gonna follow any rules that
don't make sense or don't help you with your slaying. Can't make
me!"

Grinning slightly at the old Willow revealed by the comment,
Buffy leaned back into her seat. Reluctant to let go she held
onto Willow's hand, gently rubbing her palm with her thumb
before continuing. "I told you that Quentin Travers is dead,
right?"

Willow nodded. Buffy frowned at the sad expression that crossed
her face.

"Well... I spent a couple days with the new Head when I was in
London this week. Some protocol thing when a new Council Head is
selected. She's an interesting person. She's the first potential
slayer in one of the Watcher families in a couple centuries."
Willow looked over at her in surprise. "She and Giles have
history of some sort, though neither one would tell me what."

"And?" Willow prompted. Buffy flashed her a smile before
continuing.

"I made another deal with the Council." she admitted, giving
Willow a hesitant grin at her disturbed expression. "Not just
the one about who my watcher is."

Willow frowned worriedly. "What kind of deal?"

Buffy shrugged nonchalantly. "A good one, I hope. I agreed to
work on some of the Head's special projects if they would help
out financially."

"So they're going to start paying you?" Willow suggested
hopefully.

Buffy shook her head. "Not exactly. That would be too sudden of
a change for the new Council Head to make."

"What does financial help mean then?"

"Well... to start with the Council is going to pay off the
mortgage on the house and pay for any improvements they think it
might need. And they'll pay for my school expenses if I decide
to go back to college." Buffy could tell that Willow didn't
really know how to react to that revelation. "It isn't much but
it makes sense in the long run. There was no way I could do
anything extra for the Council with the money I was making
working at the 'Double Meat' going into the house." She gave
Willow another glance to see how she was taking it. "And even
though you're all set for school with the money from your
parents, I convinced them that my Watcher  would need a stipend
to help pay for Watcher stuff like books and weapons."

"There must be a catch." Willow insisted. "The Council isn't
suddenly going to be that generous, even with Travers gone."

"Yes..." Buffy admitted slowly. "There are a couple big ones.
The Council now owns the house. The Head wants it to be Watcher
Central on the West Coast. And they'll pay us to run it. We'll
have to move all of the books and weapons out of the Magic Box.
It's going to need a lot of work to meet Council standards." She
smirked. "Xander will finally get paid to fix up the house."

Willow shook her head at Buffy's scheming. "What else?"

"Part of the agreement is that I get another job. The Head was
horrified at where I was working when I told her."

"She isn't the only one." Willow grumbled. "If the rest of us
had been paying attention to you instead of pretending things
were hunky-dory you would never have had to work there."

Letting go of Willow's hand, Buffy leaned over and gave her a
hug. "Thanks." she whispered in her ear.

They stayed like that for several minutes before Buffy, starting
to feel awkward, let her go. "Of course, some of those special
projects do sound kind of dangerous. And they aren't actually
being that generous. They're really just giving me the same
housing allowance any Council employee gets if they live in a
foreign country. I'm not going to get a lot. But any unusual
expenses for special projects will be covered by the Council."

"What else aren't you telling me?" Willow asked her
suspiciously. "Why are we flying to Toronto? And what is Giles
really going to be doing for the Council?"

"Giles?" She wanted to avoid the Toronto question as long as
possible. Even in her current frame of mind Buffy didn't think
Willow would be happy with her when she found out what she'd
been committed to for the next month. "He's going to be in
charge of all of the potential slayers the Council finds."
Before Willow could get too excited, Buffy reluctantly added a
small dose reality to the equation, warning her. "Don't start
throwing him a party just yet. It isn't going to be that easy.
He isn't perfect. Look at what happened with Faith. And he can
be kinda stuffy and ruthless at times. But at least he actually
cares about the slayer as a person."

"Faith?" Willow stared at Buffy, taking the bait. "What did
Giles have to do with Faith turning evil?"

"He was too busy with my problems to notice when she needed
help. But he wasn't the only one." Buffy looked down at her lap.
"I had a lot of time to think about things this summer. I think
we all failed her but Giles and I were the worst. She was our 
responsibility and we blew it."
"Buffy! How can you say that? You didn't make her turn against
us!" Willow protested.

Buffy gave her a stern look. "And who tried to end the world
last spring?" she reminded her. "And who didn't notice that
something was wrong a long time before that?"

"That was different!" Willow told her huffily, slumping back
into her seat.

"Was it?" Buffy raised an eyebrow at Willow's tone. "Someone,
who shall remain nameless due to extreme embarrassment, ignored
the problems her friend was having and let her crash and burn
more than once without offering any real help."

"I'm so sorry." Willow mumbled quietly in a sad voice, pulling
her hand away from Buffy's grasp and compulsively rubbing both
hands together. Avvoiding looking directly at Buffy, her voice
barely hinted at her feelings. "If I'd known you needed me I
would have done things better."

Reaching over, Buffy gently took Willow's chin in her hand and
pulled her face up until they were looking into each other's
eyes. Shaking her head, she smiled sadly before she spoke. "I
wasn't talking about you."

Her eyes brimming with some emotion that Buffy couldn't quite
figure out, Willow made a small sound and asked in surprise.
"What do you mean?"

"Last year wasn't my best." Buffy admitted. "In fact it sucked
way beyond anything. I was too busy trying to escape my crappie
life with the Spike thing to notice your problems until it was
too late to do more than pick up the pieces. A good friend
wouldn't have let things get so bad."

"You had nothing to do with Tara dying and what I did to
Warren." Willow whispered hoarsely. "That was all my doing."

"You're wrong. And you're not the only one feeling guilt here."
Buffy refused to completely accept Willow's attempt to blame
herself. "If I had been there for you last spring, even if he
had still killed her, you wouldn't have reacted like that." Not
giving Willow a chance to respond, Buffy grabbed her bag out
from under the seat in front of her and pulled out several large
envelopes. Pretending to ignore Willow's distress at her
statement she opened one of them and started studying its
contents.

----

The silence was broken only once by a flight attendant doling
out the evening meal. With the exception of the interruption,
Buffy was able to spend almost an hour reading before Willow
recovered her composure enough to continue questioning her.

"Buffy?" the sound of Willow's voice just barely reached her
over the planes background noise.

"Yes?" She looked up from the document she was attempting to
make sense of.

"You never explained."

"Explained what?"

"Why we're flying to Canada, and why our tickets don't seem to
have connecting flights to anywhere after that." She held her
ticket up for Buffy's inspection. "How are we getting to
Sunnydale after we get to Ottawa?"

"We're driving." Buffy tried not to laugh at Willow's
incredulous expression.

"Why?"

"We have to make a number of stops along the way. It just seemed
to make more sense to go by car. With all of the places we need
to stop it's more efficient." She watched Willow curiously,
wondering if she would notice how much Buffy wasn't telling her
and how long it would take for her to try to take over their
travel plans. 

"What kinds of stops and why?"

"Just the usual Council approved stops." Buffy pulled a document
out of the pile in front of her and offered it to Willow.

"Usual what?" Willow grabbed the document and started looking
through it. "Buffy! This looks like a vacation itinerary!"

Buffy winked at her. "It is. Mostly. Courtesy of the Council.
Just don't tell them."

"Why aren't we really going straight back to Sunnydale?" Willow
asked nervously.

Buffy noticed that, just like when she'd convinced her to leave
the Coven and go back with her to Sunnydale earlier in the day,
Willow didn't call Sunnydale home. She thought for a minute
before putting her thoughts into words. "I do know you don't
want to go home..."

"I'm not sure I have a home anymore."  Willow mumbled, avoiding
her eyes and focusing on the list.

"You do." Buffy insisted. "And Dawn and Xander are getting
anxious for you to come home. But I didn't think it was fair to
drop you down onto Hellmouth city so quickly when you just
started having some control over your magic. So we're going to
ease into things over the next month. A bunch of quick demon and
evil chasing excursions for the Council. Small doses of evil
before the big one. Think of it as a working vacation." She gave
Willow a perky smile before shaking a finger at her in mock
disapproval. "One that you can't tell them about. The working
part anyway. Xander would freak."

"Okay. If you say so." After giving Buffy a puzzled frown, she
looked back at the list. "Uh Buffy, why do I recognize some of
these places?"

"It was a long summer?" Buffy told her sheepishly. "Do you
remember that book you had with all of the haunted hotels in
it?"

"Yes. Tara wanted to spend the summer after we graduated going
to some of them." She told Buffy, her face going blank.

"Geeze Willow, I'm sorry!" Buffy blurted out.

"No, it's alright." Willow answered in a tone of voice Buffy
recognized as definitely not okay. She gave Willow's hand
another squeeze before continuing with her explanation.

"The Council has a list of potentially evil places that it likes
to keep an eye on. Some of the hotels in that book were on it."
Buffy shrugged. "Most of them are actually just haunted. Some
are also mysterious. The Head let me pick out some of them to
investigate on our trip. I think it'll be fun." She smiled
encouragingly at her friend.

"There are some I don't recognize." Willow pointed to several
names on the list.

"Well... that one is our first stop after the airport." She put
a finger below one of the names. "It doesn't say how it happened
but  the Council bought it a few years ago. I guess they wanted
to protect people from the weirdness that happens there." She
handed Willow a folder labeled 'Elysian Fields Guest House'.
"It's in Kingston. If we can figure that one out the Council can
use it for something Watchery."

"What about Cleveland?" Willow asked, going back to the list
after a quick glance through the folder. "Why is it on this
list?" 

"That would be the ringer in the pile." Buffy grimaced at the
way her comment sounded. "Of the couple non-vacationy places on
the list that might actually need both of us to figure out, that
is the dangerous one." She pulled another slim folder out of the
other envelope and handed it to Willow. "It's the Cleveland
Hellmouth."

"Another Hellmouth?" Willow visibly shivered. "What does the
Council think we can do about it? Other than get killed?"

"They are spending a lot of money to get us there if that's
their plan." Buffy told her. "This isn't a cheap trip."

"That they don't have to pay most of if we die."

"Well, there is that." Buffy admitted. "And if that happens you
have my permission to say 'I told you so.'" From Willow's
expression, Buffy could tell she wasn't too thrilled with the
idea. "I think we should give them a chance."

Further discussion was cut short by the pilot announcing that
they would be landing. Buffy spent the rest of the flight
gathering together all of their things.

---

TBC

---

AN[1]: This is a crossover set post Season 6. The differences
from canon should be obvious. And not just the B/W-ness of the
fic. There is no First or crazy Spike in this fic.
AN[2]: Yes, this is a kinder, gentler version of the Council of
Watchers. 
AN[3]: I have no idea when the next part will be done. The
prologue was the easiest part to write.
AN[4]: Feedback appreciated/welcome.

=====
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- http://radio.weblogs.com/0104508/
-


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Willow: "It's a good fight, Buffy, and I want in."
Buffy:  "I kinda love you."
                     'Choices'

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