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February, 2015
"You take the little one," Buffy commanded, pulling a stake out of her clothing somewhere.
"But Mom—" Kailyn protested.
"Not buts. Remember, when we patrol, I’m in charge. Take the little one, Kailyn." The someday-to-be-Slayer obeyed the command in her mother’s voice and went after the smaller of two vampires. The Slayer scissor-kicked the larger one and followed up with a punch. Kailyn blocked a punch and brought her fist up underneath the vampire’s chin, knocking it’s head backward. Buffy ducked a kick and plunged the stake through the vampire’s heart, then turned to watch her daughter, in case she needed help. Though Kailyn didn’t have her Slayer-strength yet, she had extra-human strength from her father, just as Tristan did, and she’d been in martial arts since she was seven—nine years. Kailyn ducked and rolled, coming up and kicking behind her to catch the vampire in the stomach. It fell backward and she jumped on it, plunging a stake into the vampire’s chest—Buffy was suprised and pleased when she hit the heart the first time, her aim wasn’t usually so good, but then, she’d been at the top of her game the whole night—and hit the ground as the vampire vanished into dust.
"Why do they have to do that?" she muttered, standing up and brushing her clothes off.
"It saves us the trouble of explaining dead bodies," Buffy pointed out. Kailyn made a face.
"But it gets all over my clothes!" she mock-complained. Buffy laughed, remembering a time when she would have said the same thing.
"Why don’t you go home? I need to talk to Giles, and I’ll do a little more patrolling," Buffy said.
"But I want to patrol more!" Kailyn exclaimed.
"You need your sleep. School tomorrow," Buffy said. Kailyn opened her mouth to protest, but Buffy silenced her with a look. She turned away sulkily.
"Fine. Have a good time!"
"Yeah, right," Buffy muttered. Kailyn actually enjoyed fighting vampires, whereas to Buffy it had always been an unwanted chore. Of course, Kailyn enjoyed fighting, and fighting vampires was much better than fighting people, so Buffy didn’t complain . . . "Go straight to bed!" Buffy ordered. Kailyn waved a hand without turning, signaling that she’d heard. Buffy watched her daughter until Kailyn disappeared around the corner, then turned in the direction of the high school. And Giles. She tucked her stake away and began to walk, hoping there wouldn’t be any more that night . . .
Buffy stopped, her mouth open, and regarded the stranger in the library. Giles and the woman turned together to regard the Slayer. Giles looked upset, and tired, and he was holding his glasses in his hand.
"Hi," Buffy said cautiously. She hadn’t ever seen the thirty-something year old woman before, but people didn’t usually come to the school library past midnight unless they had something to do with Slaying.
"Buffy, this is . . . this is Meredith Kingsley. Kailyn’s Watcher," Giles said. "Ms. Kingsley, Buffy Summers, the Slayer." Buffy felt like she’d been staked. And she just wouldn’t turn to dust.
"Kailyn’s Watcher?" she repeated numbly. Giles looked regretful.
"Consilia died the night before last. Kailyn is now a Slayer," he said softly. Buffy forgot to breath for a long, long moment and then remembered and found out she couldn’t.
"I flew from England as soon as we had word," Ms. Kingsley said. Buffy nodded, all sensation gone from her body. Kailyn was a Slayer. Kailyn was the Slayer. Her little girl was the Slayer. She’d known it was coming for sixteen years, but all that time hadn’t prepared her for the helplessness. Kailyn was a Slayer.
"I’m sorry Buffy," Giles said, knowing how hard it was for her. In the past years their relationship had been reborn and they were as close as they had ever been. Most of the time. Buffy turned away now, unable to talk to anyone, even Giles. She wanted to cry but there were no tears. She wanted to scream or to kill someone, but nothing would help. Her little girl was going to go through pain and Hell and there was nothing she could do.
Except she was the Slayer too, and there was something.
Buffy turned back, taking deep breaths and pushing back the fear, hiding it deep down in the pit of her belly until later, when she could deal with it. She faced Meredith Kingsley squarely. The new Watcher wasn’t extremely tall, but she was taller than Buffy, and taller than Kailyn. She was thin, with dark chestnut hair pulled tightly back in a bun and glasses. She wore a business suit and had a rather no-nonsense air about her. Buffy guessed her age to be about thirty two or thirty three—around Buffy’s age.
"I thought Giles would be Kailyn’s Watcher," she said, looking from him to the new Watcher.
"I will function in that capacity at times but the Council thought it best that . . . that Kailyn have a younger Watcher," Giles said. Buffy listened for bitterness but there wasn’t any. She looked at him and realized for the first time that he didn’t want to be doing this forever. He’d been retired for years before she came back; ever since Kendra died.
"I see," Buffy said softly, then turned to Ms. Kingsley. "I want you to know several things. First of all, I’m still perfectly able to handle my job as a Slayer. Secondly, Kailyn’s priority right now is school, and it will be until she graduates, maybe even through college. Not Slaying. She can do it at night, after homework, train in the afternoons, but if there is a conflict, school comes first for her. I won’t have her go through what I had to go through," Buffy said firmly.
"She the Slayer! The fact that she’s even in school is, is—"
"Is important," Buffy said, interrupting. "I don’t care what you think of it. I’m her mother, and since I can do all the Slaying perfectly well myself, Kailyn doesn’t need to bother with it. She goes patrolling with me usually, and trains every day with my son Tristan and Giles, and that is how it will stay. Do I make myself clear?" Ms. Kingsley glared icily.
"Perfectly," she said, though she obviously wasn’t happy about it.
"Good. You can meet her tomorrow then, she’s at home sleeping now. Giles, can I talk to you?" Buffy asked, turning to her Watcher.
"Of course," he said, motioning towards his office. Buffy walked in, knowing he would follow. It was the one thing she knew for certain right then . . .
"Tristan!" Kailyn exclaimed, relaxing from her fighting stance. "You frightened me!"
"Remember the whole vampire can’t get in unless you ask them thing?" her twin pointed out. "Plus I do live here."
"I know! I just thought you were asleep," she said. He eyed her for a moment, then shrugged, a half-smile on his face. He was tall now, taller than her, with nearly black hair, classic features and green eyes.
"I couldn’t sleep," he said. "Where’s Mom?"
"Library," Kailyn replied, kicking off her shoes and walking to the fridge. After all the patrolling, she was hungry. For blood. Fighting always did that to her. "You want some?" she asked, pulling out a container and going for a glass.
"No thanks, I already ate," Tristan said, sitting on a stool around the counter/island in the middle of their kitchen.
"Right," Kailyn said. She poured herself a large glass and put the blood away before coming to join him. Neither of them bothered to turn on a light; they saw fine in the dark. "I had the weirdest dream last night. I was someone else . . . a Slayer, but someone else."
"Didn’t Giles mention something about those?" Tristan asked. "It sounds familiar."
"Yeah . . . I should probably tell him about it," Kailyn said reluctantly, taking a sip and then swirling the liquid around in her glass.
"Probably," Tristan agreed in a slightly sarcastic tone. She made a face at him. "Well he is your Watcher."
"He’s Mom’s Watcher," Kailyn corrected. "He’s my trainer."
"Same difference."
"Well I guess we’ll go in at lunch then," Kailyn said reluctantly. Tristan smiled; she didn’t like the library. It was too dark and musty, though darkness never seemed to bother Kailyn otherwise.
"We will?" Tristan asked. Kailyn directed a slap at his head, but he ducked it easily.
"Yes ‘we’ will! If you’re making me go than you are certainly coming too! Riyan, Eli and Raven like the library anyway," Kailyn said.
"Viviane?" Tristan pointed out. Kailyn made a face.
"She’ll survive," she said, imagining the complaining of their cheerleader friend.
"But will we?" Tristan asked. Kailyn smiled despite herself. She finished her drink with one last gulp, then stood up and took her glass over to the sink where she rinsed it out.
"Mom told me to go straight to bed, so . . ."
"A half hour later . . ." Tristan teased.
"Twenty minutes!" Kailyn exclaimed. "Did we have any homework for Chem?"
"Only the lab," Tristan said. Kailyn groaned.
"I’m in big, big trouble," she said. He laughed and she kicked his shin.
"Ow!" he exclaimed, and Tristan was not one to be easily hurt.
"I didn’t kick you that hard," Kailyn said, rolling her eyes.
"Oh yeah?" Tristan asked. He pulled up the leg of his pajama pants and shoed her the large red spot that was already beginning to bruise. She winced.
"I didn’t mean to kick you that hard," she amended.
"You don’t know your own strength," he said, in a low, strange voice. She laughed.
"I guess not. Night Tristan," she murmured, yawning a little.
"Night Kai," he said, patting her head as he limped back to his bedroom. She slapped at his hand but missed and kept walking, taking the stairs two at a time to get up to her bedroom. She went into her room and closed the door behind her, going to her closet to pull out some pajamas. She turned back, and stopped suddenly.
"Tristan? How did you—" She stopped as the figure took a step forward. It wasn’t Tristan. It was . . . Kailyn remembered. She remembered all the nights and all the days, and she dropped her pajamas on the floor.
"Dad," she said softly.
"Hello Kai," he said softly. He took another step forward, and the moonlight through her window illuminated him, chasing away all the shadows that Kailyn couldn’t see through. Her eyes were better than human, but she wasn’t a vampire. Not by a lot.
"What—I mean, why are you here?" she asked.
"I can’t just want to see my daughter?" he replied. She eyes him with skepticism.
"From what I gathered you’re more the bad news type," she said. He almost winced, and his dark eyes were shadowed, even in the dim light.
"Well, you’re right. Though I don’t know if you’ll think it’s bad," Angel said.
"You do?" He raised his eyes to meet hers and he didn’t need to answer; she could see it in his dark eyes, mirrors of her own and yet so very different. In Kailyn’s eyes the fire was strong, bright, almost vicious in it’s vivacity. In her father’s it was muted, hidden, fought against with all his strength. "What is it?"
"The last Slayer is dead," Angel said. "Your Watcher arrived tonight and is with Giles now." Kailyn forgot to breath for a minute. She was the Slayer. She was the Slayer. A Slayer. Her mother was still alive. Her mother was still the Slayer. But so was she.
"Does Mom know?" Kailyn breathed.
"She just found out," Angel said softly, the pain in his voice for the woman he had loved when he lived and loved still in death.
"How’d she take it?" Kailyn asked, not sure how she herself was taking it; asking about her mother was easier, and he would know, if anyone would. He always knew everything.
"Not well, overall, but she’s . . . all right. She told your Watcher that school is to come first until you graduate." Kailyn felt a rush of irrational anger against her mother, but dampened it at once. Why should she be angry? Buffy had always made it known that she was determined Kailyn would get through high school at the normal time and place, no matter what happened with the Slaying. She shouldn’t be suprised. She wasn’t. And she shouldn’t be angry.
But this is what I want, she thought. It’s not what Mom wanted. She never wanted to be a Slayer. To her it’s a duty. To me it’s life. I’m alive, finally. I’m the Slayer.
"Kailyn?" her father said, watching her for signs of a reaction. She’d frozen up; she always did that when she was angry. She forced herself to relax, outwardly at least.
"I’m fine Dad. It’s . . . it’s a lot to handle all at once," she lied. Well, it wasn’t really a lie. It was a lot to handle. But not for her. She’d been waiting for this all her life, even before she came to Sunnydale and found out her destiny. She thought of earlier, when she’d driven the stake straight into the vampire’s heart. She remembered the fierce rush of pleasure and power as it vanished into dust. She was the Slayer. She was born to fight vampires, to stop them. To kill them.
"Of course," Angel said. Kailyn started, remembering that he was there, and yawned suddenly.
"I’m tired, Dad, I should go to bed," she said. He looked uncertain, and though his face was the kind that didn’t give much away, she could read the worry in his eyes. After all, they were his eyes too.
"All right," he said. He stepped toward her and she tipped her face up to receive his kiss on the cheek. "Be careful Kailyn."
"I’m always careful," she said.
"Not that kind of careful," he replied, but he was already fading away into the darkness. And he didn’t tell her what kind of careful he meant. Kailyn shrugged the thought away and went to pick up her pjs and get ready to bed.
She was the Slayer. Finally.
Tristan roused slowly, and tensed when he saw the man above his bed, then relaxed, as he remembered. He sat up and regarded his father with a smile that was a mirror of the ghost’s own. When the ghost showed it, which he wasn’t now. Tristan’s smile faded as he caught the worry in Angel’s gaze.
"What’s the matter?" he asked.
"You always were perceptive," Angel said softly.
"I get it from Mom," Tristan assured him, eliciting a small smile. "What is it?"
"Kailyn," the apparition said. "The last Slayer died."
"And she’s next?" Angel nodded. "So that’s why she kicked me so hard!" Tristan muttered. Angel eyed him with uncertainty, and he got back onto the topic. "Why are you worried? Kai’s been fighting vamps for over a year."
"It’s not Kailyn I’m worried about. It’s the vampires."
"The vampires? You kept your soul after you died, right?" Tristan asked, only half joking.
"Of course. But Kailyn . . . She’s more like my soul-less half than anyone would like to admit, or even face. Your mother knows, but she can’t admit it, can’t see it truly. She’s too frightened, as she should be. She saw too much of what she loved gone bad to be able to face it in her daughter. Giles is getting older . . . her new Watcher, Meredith Kingsley might be able to help but I don’t know. Only you can save Kailyn."
"Why only me? And what’s wrong with her?" Tristan asked, showing the confused sixteen-year-old.
"As you both inherited the need for blood and the ability to morph into vampire forms, Kailyn inherited . . . some of the demon. That’s not a good way to explain it, I don’t really know how to, but you have to bear with me. She inherited my strength as well as the Slayer’s, but with my strength came part of that which gave it to me . . . the demon that possessed me. She is human, and mortal, and she has a taste for blood."
"So do I," Tristan said. "Does that mean I have a demon as well?"
"A bit, perhaps, but not in the strength that it lives in Kailyn. It is that bit that will let you help her. Only you know what she feels, Tristan, who she truly is. Only you can save her in the end, show her her true self."
"I don’t know how to—"
"You will know when it is time," Angel said.
"I told you, the whole Cryptic Thing—"
"I must go, Tristan," his father interrupted.
"Already?" Tristan asked, wishing they had time to just talk. He loved telling his father things about his life, his school, his mother and sister and friends. Angel was such a calming, strong presence, even though he wasn’t really there.
"I’m sorry. Good night," Angel said, beginning to fade away.
"Good bye Dad," Tristan murmured, wondering how it felt to have a father that didn’t turn into shadows, one you could remember the next day. Wondering how he could save his sister, if she, the strong one, couldn’t save herself.
"Ladies, first," Tristan said graciously, holding open the library door.
"I guess that mean you Eliot," Viviane said innocently. Eli Rogers glared at homecoming princess.
"Viv," Kailyn said warningly. Viviane sighed and stalked through the library doors. Kailyn patted Eli’s arm and exchanged smiled with Tristan as she followed. Raven Wilder grabbed Eli’s arm as she went through the door, dragging him after her with a smile. Riyan Claiborne and Tristan followed last, glancing around the dim, book-filled room.
"Ugh, I swear there are spiders in here," Viviane said.
"The janitors do come in you know," Raven said. "At least twice a year." Viviane looked around the room, her blue eyes wide. Kailyn directed an amused glance at her best friend and patted Viviane’s arm. The school queen only deigned to hang with them because of Kailyn—well, so she said, though the entire school knew she’d had her sights set on Tristan since freshman year. Despite her obvious beauty, she wasn’t really his type. She had her nice moments, but she had her bad ones too. A lot of them. Kailyn seemed to like her though, so she ate lunch with them and hung with them at the Bronze on the nights Kailyn wasn’t patrolling.
"Giles?" Kailyn called, starting up the steps toward the stacks. Raven perched herself on one of the tables, though her legs were too long for it to work well, and it was more like leaning. Eli sat beside his girlfriend and glared at Viviane, while Riyan examined a stack of books on one of the tables. Tristan glanced into Giles’ office.
The Watcher emerged from the stacks, a stranger in tow. The woman was about medium height, with brown hair pulled tightly back and glasses. She looked rather . . . straitlaced, and her expression was not pleased.
"Ah, Kailyn, there you are," Giles said.
"What?" the teenager asked. "Were you looking for me?"
"Um . . . j-just so. I need to speak to you and Tristan in my office." The librarian glanced at the other three teenagers who were watching curiously. "About those books you needed. I’m afraid they’re . . . they’re rather hard to find." Kailyn nodded and went at once into the office.
"We’ll be back in a minute," Tristan told his friends before he followed her in. Giles came next, with the woman still following behind. She closed the door behind herself and faced them squarely, her eyes only for Kailyn. She looked almost . . . assessing. Tristan didn’t like it. Kailyn liked it less.
"Who are you?" she demanded, then turned to Giles. "Who is she?"
"Meredith Kingsley. Ms. Kingsley, this is Kailyn and Tristan Summers." The older woman nodded to them both. Kailyn gave Giles a look, as if to say that explained absolutely nothing. He cleared his throat before going on. "Ms Kingsley is from . . . from th-the Watcher’s Council. In England. She’s come to inform us that the last Slayer has been killed and she is here to serve as Watcher to you, Kailyn, the new Slayer." Tristan drew in a quick breath, but as much as he knew he ought to be, he didn’t feel shocked, or even very suprised. It was if he’d already know, somehow, he’d just forgotten. He glanced at Kailyn, who looked about the same way he felt.
"I’m the Slayer," she said, more for confirmation that from suprise. Giles and the new Watcher both nodded. She turned to Tristan, smiling. "I’m the Slayer Tristan! I really am! The real Slayer!" Though he smiled back, happy at her elation, her very excitedness made him uneasy. He didn’t really think this was a wonderful thing. It meant duties and hardships and pain. And it meant another girl, somewhere, had died. Maybe a girl like Kailyn, maybe someone like their mother. Or maybe someone completely different. A woman had died.
Tristan didn’t say any of this, just smiled at her. Her smile was gone a moment later though, and she turned back to her almost-Watcher and her new, assigned Watcher, ready for business.
"What about school? Mom said I have to graduate," Kailyn said. The Watchers exchanged glances.
"Since Buffy can take the load of Slaying, we don’t feel it necessary to pull you from your schoolwork to perform your duties," Ms. Kingsley said. Kailyn nodded, glad, but slightly disappointed as well. Tristan didn’t need to wonder about that; Kailyn was not a big fan of school, and getting pulled out for Slaying would not be a tragedy to her. Buffy wouldn’t allow it though, and Tristan would miss her, so he was glad she wasn’t going. He glanced out the window in the office door to Riyan, who was reading something aloud to an avid Raven, a bored Eli and a disdainful Viviane. Tristan wasn’t the only one that would miss Kailyn, though she was none the wiser about it.
"So things will be pretty normal?" Buffy asked.
"Yes, but you will need to come train every day before and after school, and you will report to me rather than Mr. Giles," Ms. Kingsley said. Kailyn frowned slightly, glancing at Giles. He gave a tiny nod and she shrugged in agreement.
"Okay then. Is that all?" she asked. Ms. Kingsley looked taken aback.
"I’ll need to perform tests, to . . . to see how advanced you are, get your full report about matters in Sunnydale, go over expectations—"
"After school’s good for me," Kailyn said. "It’s lunch right now and I’m hungry. Plus my friends are waiting."
"Go on," Giles said. The new Watcher shot him a wrathful glance, but Kailyn smiled gratefully at him and promptly took the chance to escape. Tristan followed her, glancing back again at the woman that would be his sister’s trainer, mentor and helper for the rest of her life.
"So what was that about?" Raven asked, standing up.
"These books Tristan ordered," Kailyn said, waving a hand at her brother.
"For Kailyn," he put in. She made a face.
"Can we get out of here?" Viviane suggested.
"I’m getting this odd feeling that Viv doesn’t like the library," Riyan put in. Kailyn grinned and linked arms with her friend.
"Come on Viv, let’s get lunch," she said, glancing back at the rest of her friends, who nodded. Tristan fell into step beside Viviane, watching as Riyan did likewise beside Kailyn. Though his manner was that of a friend and a friend only, Tristan knew his best friend felt more for his sister than he would ever let on. It’d been obvious since their freshmen year—and Kailyn still hadn’t gotten it.
"Okay, so why are we the ones left out here?" Eli demanded of his girlfriend as they found themselves left off the line—the halls just weren’t wide enough for six people, not unless they wanted Principal Snyder to come around and give them detention for blocking the halls.
"Because we’re a couple, dear, and they aren’t," Raven said matter of factly.
"When you put it like that . . ." Eli murmured.
"Oh! Unfair!" Kailyn exclaimed.
"Yeah! It’s not like I couldn’t have any guy in the school if I wanted him," Viviane said, rolling her eyes. Which was almost true—the almost being Tristan and Riyan, and probably Eli. Kailyn and Riyan exchanged amused glances.
"Right Viv," Kailyn said.
"You just keep telling yourself that," Eli put in.
"Okay, okay, you guys. Be nice," Tristan admonished.
"We don’t want any cat fights here," Riyan said. "You can all have me!" The tension was broken with laughter and the argument forgotten. Tristan laughed along with the others, but his mind wasn’t on the argument, or his best friend’s joke, or anything except the fact his sister was the Slayer now and she seemed very happy about it.
"Mom? You home?" Kailyn called, walking into her house.
"Kai?" Buffy asked, coming into the front room. Seconds later she was holding her daughter tightly, barely holding back tears. "Oh sweetie, I’m so sorry."
"It’s okay Mom. In fact, I think it’s kinda good. I mean, finally, right? All that waiting, wondering when it would happen . . . we already knew it would. I’m just glad the waiting’s over," Kailyn said. Buffy pulled away and looked into her daughter’s dark eyes, sensing more, something her Kailyn wasn’t telling her, some other reason she was happy to be the Slayer . . . The eyes gave nothing away; they were dark and impenetrable.
"Of course," Buffy said softly. "Of course you should be glad. I just . . . I never stopped hoping there’d be some way around it."
"Well there isn’t," Kailyn said, pulling fully away and walking past her mother into the rest of the house. Buffy turned, wondering at her strange behavior. Usually she was much more open, but there was something she was hiding, something she wouldn’t say. "I just have to accept that." And so do you, the unspoken words rang through the house.
"So you’re all right?" Buffy asked, wishing she could be as all right as Kailyn obviously was.
"Yeah, I’m fine. I’m great," Kailyn said, then made a face. "Except I forgot to do my lab for Chem yesterday . . ."
"Kailyn!" Buffy exclaimed. Her daughter winced.
"Sorry Mom. My bad. I should go do homework before patrolling," Kailyn said.
"If you have too much homework—"
"No, it’s fine. Patrolling’s like a duty now," Kailyn said. "I should go. And I know school comes first, Meredith explained all that. But I think I should go." Buffy nodded and sat down as her daughter, the new Slayer, left the room and ran up the stairs easily.
"Meredith?" she murmured to herself, then sighed. Kailyn didn’t want to go patrolling because it was her duty. She wasn’t big on duty. Buffy had raised her for over sixteen years. She was pretty sure about that one. She wanted to go patrolling because . . . because she liked patrolling? But it was boring and hard work and she could be out partying with her friends instead. Why would she want to go patrolling?
Buffy knew the answer of course, but she didn’t want to admit it;
couldn’t admit it. A voice deep inside her whispered it, and it sounded
like a long forgotten voice, the voice of the man she’d loved and
killed. She shut the voice out, shut out the words and pretended she’d
never heard them at all, even though they repeated endlessly.