Title: Unforeseen Circumstances 3/27
Author: Jadedragon
Rating: R
Spoilers: Season 4 up until Bad Beer, Angel Season 1, in my verse, Doyle didn't die!
Paring: B/G, B/P mentioned
Summary: Buffy has to face the consequences of her night with Parker
Notes: <> denotes thoughts
Thanks: To Wyrmbath for such a quick and through beta. Great work, Wyrmie! All your help is greatly appreciated.
Buffy and Giles got up the next morning at 4:30 to start preparing for the ritual. Sunrise was to be at 6:20 and the others would be arriving shortly after 5:00. Willow had called just before they had gone to bed to confirm that Tara, her friend from the Wicca group, would be glad to help. Buffy and Giles moved the couch and cleared the rest of the room, putting the table, chairs and couch along the walls. Giles drew a large pentagram on the floor with chalk he had cleansed in the smoke of white sage. At each of the four corners of the compass surrounding the pentagram, he placed a candleholder with a black taper. The black candles would signify the death of a Slayer and would call out to the new one. The ceremony itself was very simple, just a some lines spoken by Buffy relinquishing her active role as the Slayer while she stood in the center of the pentagram and calling on the four winds to send out the signal for the new Slayer to be summoned.
Once the spell had been explained to her in detail, Buffy was relieved. She knew then that no harm would come to her child and felt a huge weight lift off her shoulders. Giles had just finished the pentagram, when Joyce and Wesley entered the condo. Wesley went to help Giles prepare the herbs for the censors, which would be lit just before Buffy spoke the incantation, transferring her active Slayer status to the next Slayer. While she would retain her strength, she would no long have the aura of an active Slayer and the Council would probably think her dead. Still, Giles and Wesley thought it best for her to leave Sunnydale until the child was born and Buffy was able to fight again.
Joyce took a bag to Buffy along with a picnic basket for their journey. She knew that it would be months before she saw her daughter again. Joyce was worried, just like any mother would be if her child's life were in danger. She knew that Rupert would take good care of her daughter, but she wanted to be by Buffy's side as she went through the miracle of birth. A grandchild, she was going to be a grandmother! Joyce hadn't thought in those terms yet and it scared her. Buffy would be alone on an Indian Reservation and she didn't even know where!
Willow, Tara and Xander were the last to arrive, breaking Joyce's train of thought. Willow quickly introduced Tara to everyone and soon they were ready for the ceremony, but they had to wait about fifteen minutes before starting.
Just before sunrise, everyone took their places and Giles it began with the lighting of the censors and the herbs contained therein. Giles looked around at everyone who taking part in the ceremony. He was concerned about Willow's friend Tara, who appeared very nervous, but Willow assured him that she was a powerful Wicca. He looked at them one last time before he started the oral ritual.
"I call on the winds of the North to carry the plea of the active Slayer." Once Giles had spoken, he lit the candle at his feet. Wesley continued the calling of the winds.
"I call on the winds of the South to carry the plea of the active Slayer." He lighted his candle, and then Willow took up the call.
"I call on the winds of the West to carry the plea of the active Slayer." She lighted her candle and looked to Tara to complete the calling of the winds but there was a swirling of mist before her friend. Tara stepped back as a man formed in the mist before her. He wore a chambray shirt and jeans, his long white hair pulled back from his face, a black feather hanging on one side. The man appeared to be an Indian.
"I call on the winds of the East to carry the plea of the active Slayer and call to service the next in this great Warrior line!" The candle at his feet began burning. He turned to Buffy who, standing in the middle of the pentagram, slowly began her incantation.
"From the beginning,
Until the end,
There has been one
To kill the undead
To turn back the demons
To protect the night.
I am she, The Slayer.
From this day forward
I ask that another be called.
I have done my duty
Protected the night
Turned back the demons
Killed the undead.
I call the next
To do her duty
To protect the night
To turn back the demons
And kill the undead.
I relinquish my active role,
I call a new Slayer!"
As she finished the incantation, all the candles flared up and a fireball appeared above Buffy's head. It hovered a moment before vanishing in a loud roar. Buffy felt like something had been taken from her, but she felt at peace. A peace she hadn't felt in years; not since she had first been called as the Slayer, she realized.
She looked over at the figure standing before Tara. Wesley had opened the circle and identified the man as Black Raven, the medicine man who he had helped.
"You will come to me and we will help you." Black Raven's image said to Wesley before it vanished.
"H..his m…magick is very st..strong," Tara strutted, unnerved by what had happened during the spell.
"Tara, are you alright?" Willow asked as she went to her friend's side.
"I..I'll be f…fine," she told Willow.
"Wesley, did you know that Black Raven would make an appearance?" Giles asked in puzzlement.
"I had no idea. I haven't spoken to him since I left the reservation."
"Well, we had best get on the road. We have a long drive ahead of us. Willow I need you and Tara to clean up all evidence of the spell. If the Council comes snooping, I don't want them to find anything."
"We'll be glad to. I'll get Xander to help us move the furniture back," Willow assured the Watcher.
Giles, Buffy and Wesley walked toward the door to leave. Joyce went to hug Buffy one last time before they got on the road. Not wanting the Council to find evidence of Buffy anywhere near Sunnydale if they searched, they were on their way in a matter of minutes, knowing that the Council seers would soon feel the calling of a new Slayer.
As soon as Giles' condo was put to right, Xander and Joyce left to take the Citroen to the campground in Northern California. The group had decided to go ahead with the plans made to throw the Council off track in case they still came to Sunnydale. None of them really expected the Council to show up, but wanted everything in place on the outside chance that someone did. It had also been planned for Joyce to file a missing person's report on Buffy and Giles at the end of the week, when they were to have returned. They tried to cover every possibility they could think of to protect Buffy and her child. Angel Investigations would also search for the `missing' Slayer and her Watcher.
**********
Quentin Travers read the note the stewardess had handed him, smiling as he finished. So Buffy Summers had finally met her match. He couldn't wait to read Rupert's report of how she had died. That was a moment he would savor, Buffy Summers had been a thorn in the side of the Council for far too long. The Council had ordered him and his team to go to Salem, North Carolina where the new Slayer was. This Slayer would be properly trained, no more Buffy Summers for the Council!
**********
They had been on the road for two days straight, taking turns driving. Wesley was at the wheel for the last part of their journey, Buffy and Giles sleeping on the back seat as the sun rose in the east. He knew that they would reach Black Raven's home within the hour.
As he drove Wesley thought of Black Raven and his commitment to his people. He and Black Raven had almost died when they had banished the tricorn demon, but to him it was of no consequence. He was a person who would gladly give his life to protect those in his care. He was a true leader for his people. Wesley would trust Black Raven with his life, and with Buffy's and Rupert's. He didn't know what would happen to them in the future, but he knew that Black Raven would do everything in his power to protect them.
**********
Riahannon McCallahan wiped the sweat out of her eyes. The workouts with her dad were getting easier. It was really strange, but she had more strength than she had just three days ago. She had never been able to beat her dad unless he let her, but over the last three days she had defeated him every time they had trained. She was his best student; she had gotten her black belt five years ago, sooner than any of her older brothers. But that didn't account for her new strength and agility. She didn't know what was happening to her.
Colin looked at his daughter in wonder. How had she defeated him yet again? He didn't want to scare his only daughter, but he knew something supernatural was happening. His family had always had the `sight' and he could sense something strange had happened to his girl three days ago. Just what he wasn't sure? He would call his mother in the `old country' to see if she had any ideas.
"That's enough for today, Ria. You're beating your old dad into the ground, these days." Colin told his daughter. "Go on and get your shower! I'm headed to the dojo. I have classes starting in an hour."
"See you later, Dad," she called to him as she left the sunroom/training room at the back of the house she had lived in all of her life. She quickly went to her bedroom and gathered clean clothes before heading to get a shower.
As she stepped under the warm water she again wished that her hair wasn't so thick and curly. < Why can't I have straight brown hair instead of this curly fire engine red mess? > Ria had cut it short when she had been ten, but it looked terrible, sticking up all over her head, curls in every direction. She quickly decided that longer was better, at least then she could hold it back with a tie. As much as she hated her hair she loved her eyes, as green as the new grass in spring, her mother's eyes. She barely remembered her mother; she had been killed in an auto accident when Ria was eight. Her father and three brothers had raised the little hellion.
Ria quickly dried herself off, dressed in jeans and a t-shirt and braided her waist length hair into one long braid. She was expecting Lara in a few hours and they were going shopping. Lara was determined that her best friend needed some more feminine clothing. Ria was satisfied with her jeans and sweats, but she had finally given into Lara when Colin had overheard them and made the comment that Ria was looking more and more like her mother. Ria would do anything for her father, so she was going shopping for clothes she didn't really want, anything for Dad.
**********
Wesley parked the SUV in the driveway of a small house with several trees in the front yard. He turned around and woke Buffy and Giles up, telling them that they were finally at Black Raven's home. As Buffy sat up she saw the neat house with trees scattered around it. There were plants, which she thought looked like herbs, all about. It looked very peaceful and inviting. She didn't know what she had expected to find, but this was a pleasant surprise.
As she and Giles got out of the back seat, an Indian approached them from the house. He was dressed in jeans and a chambray shirt, his long gray hair pulled back with a single black feather hanging to one side of his face. Around his neck was a small leather bag, which appeared to hold something. It was the same man who had appeared at the ceremony two days before.
"Demon Hunter, you have made your journey. I welcome you." He then turned to Buffy and Giles. "Great Huntress, I am Black Raven and I welcome you to my home. Here you and your child will rest in peace. And you Great Watcher, I also welcome. We will protect your mate and her child from those who wish her harm. They will not be able to find her as long as she stays here."
As Wesley listened to Black Raven welcome Buffy and Giles, he was surprised. Black Raven had never gotten anything wrong since he had known him. But Buffy and Giles weren't lovers, were they? He thought over the past several days and now wondered about some of the things that had been said.
Black Raven led the trio into his home giving Buffy and Giles a large room in the back of the house and Wesley a smaller room on the west side. He suggested that they get some rest as some people were coming by later that night to meet them.
**********
Ria and Lara were on the way to her father's dojo to get the credit card that he had forgotten to leave for them. They were deep in conversation and didn't see the three men approaching them.
"Riahannon McCallahan, I take you by the order of the Watcher's Council of England." The first man said as the other two took Ria's arms to try and restrain her, while the first injected her with something.
"Lara, get my Dad," Ria screamed as she began fighting the men holding her.
Lara ran the half block to the dojo as Ria kicked out and knocked the feet out from the man on her right. As he fell he released his hold on her and she hit the second, breaking his nose with one punch. After he went down, she broke away and assumed a fighting stance. She was feeling weak, but still able to defend herself as the two quickly came at her again. She dropped into a lower roundhouse kick and knocked them both down. She then attacked the third man who went down much faster than the other two. By that time her Dad and two of her brothers were there, helping her. Colin was holding the man in the suit while her brothers had the other two, frog marching the three all the way back to the dojo.
"What's happened, Colin?" the sheriff asked when he arrived at the scene.
"I don't know, yet, Rafe, but Lara came running into the dojo saying that three men were attacking Ria."
"Dad, he gave me some sort of shot." Ria said as she collapsed, pointing to the man he was holding.
Colin knocked the man out for daring to harm his girl, tossed him to the sheriff, picking up his daughter and running to his truck to take her to the hospital.
Rafe called a deputy to pick up the prisoners as he searched the unconscious man to see if he could discover what had been injected into Ria. He found a box with several already filled syringes. He handed one to Lara, "Take this to Colin!" Lara hurried to her car to follow Ria and her father.
When she got to the emergency room Lara quickly found Colin and gave him the syringe, which he in turn, gave to the doctor examining his daughter. It was quickly sent to the lab for analysis, along with the blood he had just drawn from his patient. After he examined her, the doctor informed Colin that Ria appeared to be asleep and all her vital signs were well within normal ranges. It would be at least an hour before the lab results got back, the blood work he had ordered on Ria and the contents of the mysterious syringe. Colin stayed by his daughter's bedside while they waited.
**********
Quentin Travers awoke in a jail cell on a hard mattress. He didn't see the two Black Ops in the cell nor in the cells near him. Who the hell did she think she was? She had taken out two of his best Black Ops and then those three goons had interfered. Who the hell were they? Then he vaguely remembered her calling the man who had knocked him out `dad'!
**********
Colin looked down at his daughter. He was proud of the way she had defended herself against three men at once. He had seen part of the fight as he, Morgan, and Sean had rushed to help her. She had fought exactly as he had trained her. He had never realized just how good she was until he had seen her fighting for her life.
He had been there thirty minutes when Morgan, Sean and Rafe had come into the Emergency Room. Rafe had arrested the three men and had discovered British passports on each of them. All three were associated with some organization in England called the Royal Watcher's Council. Rafe was looking into it for more information, but he didn't have anything more on it at the moment.
The lab reports had come back showing that the syringe had contained a mixture of herbs with muscle relaxants and a sleeping component. The doctor expected Ria to wake up within a few hours with no lasting effects. He admitted her to the hospital for observation and she had been taken to a room.
************
It was late afternoon when Buffy woke up. She slipped from Giles arms, wanting him to continue sleeping; he hadn't gotten much rest over the last couple of days and his legs had been cramping. She quietly got dressed and went looking for her host. She found him beside a steam, which ran behind his home. He appeared to be meditating so she was quiet, enjoying the peaceful serenity of the babbling stream.
"Good evening, Huntress," Black Raven called to her as she sat down.
"I didn't mean to interrupt your meditation." Buffy told him.
"It is no interruption when it was you I was thinking of," he assured her. You are a Great Warrior of the Light and your child will be the beginning of great changes as your Council of Watchers is reborn."
"Right now all I want is to have my child in peace," she told the medicine man. "And please, call me Buffy, Huntress and Warrior just make me feel like a killer."
"But you are; a killer of those demons who roam the night looking to prey on the innocent. But I will do as you ask. I want you to feel at home here. We are greatly honored by your presence."
"Thank you," she said, not quite knowing what else to say.
"Dr. Steven Still Water will be coming to meet you tonight with is wife, Running Dove. She is a Registered nurse and midwife here on the reservation. They will be caring for you and your child during your stay here. Also my daughter and her husband will be coming. The others will meet you over the next several days."
"Others? How many others?"
"The community, all want to welcome you, Buffy. The Slayer is well respected by the Cherokee, as are all who fight against the darkness. I must leave to prepare for tonight. Stay here and relax by the stream. It is a very peaceful place," Black Raven told her as he rose and returned to the house.
Buffy sat beside the stream watching the water as it flowed past her, the leaves which had fallen into the water floated by like tiny boats. She felt a little like those leaves, she had been pushed to Oklahoma by the unexpected events of the last several days, much as the leaves were pushed by the flow of the water in the stream. She wondered where she would end up?
"Buffy, there you are," Giles said as he sat down beside her. "I woke up and you were gone. Black Raven said that you were out here, though he neglected to tell me how beautiful it was."
Buffy was roused from her thoughts and looked up at Giles. "How are you feeling? Did you get enough sleep?"
"Still a little tired, but the leg cramps are gone," he assured her.
"Giles why are we here?"
"To keep you and your child safe! Buffy, I know it will be hard, being a way from your mum during your pregnancy, but we must hide you from the Council."
"I know that, but why here? There is a reason why we were drawn here, to Black Raven. It has something to do with the prophecy, I just don't know what," she told her Watcher.
"Buffy have you channeled another Slayer?" he asked, concern in his voice.
"No, just a gut feeling," she said thoughtfully. "I'd better go get a shower. I want to look and smell better when I meet my doctor later."
Buffy left Giles by the stream, where he stayed for a few minutes before following her into the house to get ready himself. They would be here for at least 9 months. They weren't leaving until Buffy had regained her fighting form and the baby was at least 6 weeks old. It would be a long 9 months.
**********
Colin sat beside his daughter's bed waiting for her to wake up. He wondered what the men who attacked his daughter were trying to do. The nurse had just checked Ria's vitals and told him that she would soon be awake. He was still deep in thought when he heard her stir.
Ria looked around and realized that she was in the hospital. When she saw her dad, everything came back to her.
"Dad, what happened to the men that attacked me?" she asked in an unsteady voice.
"Honey, Rafe has them in the county jail. I'm glad you're awake. I was worried."
"Oh, Dad," Ria reached out to comfort her father. He had been sitting beside his wife's bed when she died from her injuries, years before. Colin had never quite gotten over her death.
Colin hugged his daughter as the doctor came into the room to check on her. He found her in perfect health, no lasting effects from the shot that had been given to her by the attackers. The doctor signed her release papers and Colin took his daughter home.
**********
The Chairman of the Royal Council of Watchers looked again at the message his secretary had handed him an hour ago. Travers had yet again made a muddle of a simple situation with his heavy-handedness. This was the last straw. Quentin Travers had tried one too many times to take matters into his own hands. The Chairman was interrupted from his thoughts by a knock on his door. Knowing who it would be, he told him to enter.
"Sir, I was told you wanted to see me?" asked the tall man as he entered the room.
"Yes, Mr. Wainwright. I need you to travel to Salem, North Carolina, in the United States to remedy a situation created there by Mr. Quentin Travers. I need you to obtain his team's release from the local constabulary and have him return here. You will make it clear to him that he is to come to me immediately upon his return to England."
"Will I not be traveling back with him?" he asked.
"No. You will then contact Riahannon McCallahan and her family to explain her calling as the next Slayer. You are to be her Watcher. We need both of you in Sunnydale by week's end. We can't leave the Hellmouth unprotected for very long."
"Sir, I'm honored that you would trust me with such an important assignment!" Wainwright said in shock. He had dreamed of being a Watcher to an active slayer, but never thought he would be chosen.
"Wainwright, if you do even half as well has your cousin did, you will be a great Watcher, indeed."
"Then he is dead?"
"We have not heard from him and I suspect that he died trying to save his Slayer. He was very devoted to her, that much is clear in his journals," the Chairman said with a far off look on his face. "When you get to Sunnydale, you might want to contact Joyce Summers, the former Slayer's mum. She and the Slayer's friends might be able to help you and Ria get adjusted to Sunnydale. They greatly helped the former Slayer and I feel that they were one of her greatest assets unlike Mr. Travers who thought they were a liability."
"I quite agree, Sir. I will do my best to be a benefit to the Council."
"I know you will. On your way out, see my secretary, she has the airline tickets and the expense check for you. Let us know your address when you get settled in Sunnydale," the Chairman instructed him.
The Chairman watched the young man as he left the office. He had great faith that Wainwright would be as good a Watcher as Rupert Giles had been. After all, blood truly tells, and Wainwright was Giles' first cousin.