Ten Years After - Chapter 3
8 Jun 2005 11:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
curiouswombatI am stuffed. We have been out for a lovely Indian meal, although it was very noisy as the place was not only full (TT of course!) but also seemed to be hosting a town-cryers convention or similar, judging by the amount of noise coming from a party of about twelve people sitting very near us - much too near us! We could only hear each other if we shouted!!
But as promised I am putting up Chapter 3 of Ten years After. Still suitable for anyone to read I think - and the characters still all belong to Mutant Enemy etc. as per the disclaimer at the end of Chapter 1. You might find it useful to know that neeps are mashed turnip/swede - the root vegetable not the blue eyed blondes! They are a traditional Scottish thing!
If you missed Chapter One it should be
here
And Chapter Two should be
here
Other wise go straight to
CHAPTER THREE.
Dawn’s research training meant that she was looking at the situation methodically, even though the puzzle was herself and, after some time amongst the records, she had written careful notes which she discussed with Giles next afternoon.
The Watchers’ records showed that ‘The Key’ had been around for a very long time. They always spoke of ‘The Key’ – never of ‘A Key’, and the way it had been guarded over the years showed it was a very major magic item.
The monks had been under so great a threat that they had safeguarded The Key by giving it human form and inserting it into the family of the person most likely, in the whole world, to be able to protect it; showing just how desperate they were to prevent such a powerful thing falling into the wrong hands.
If The Key was so important, surely they must have thought about what would happen to it when Dawn became old and died. The energy source would either die with her, after all they had done for so long, or it would float around unguarded – again not in keeping with the job they had done all those years.
Dawn was showing none of the signs of ageing you would normally expect between the ages of twenty and twenty-seven – she thought this herself, and electronic comparisons of photos and vid-files found by Andrew confirmed that, apart from her hairstyle, she had changed not one iota since her twentieth birthday.
Giles had eventually agreed that Dawn could be right. If she remained at her physical peak, without ageing, The Key would not disappear within 70 - 80 years of being formed into ‘Dawn’. This could be a conscious act on behalf of the monks, or it could be a direct result of putting The Key into human form – the magic itself might be so powerful that it preserved ‘the vessel’ in every possible way.
Except that it must be possible to injure or even kill her – note previously broken arm, and Glory trying to kill her to open the portal.
Considered purely as a theoretical problem, they had come to the conclusion that this could be because the monks had been unable to put every possible safeguard into place. There was no definite proof that she could be killed, as no-one had yet achieved it, but it was likely that she could be, at least in certain circumstances; and so the term ‘Highlander Syndrome’ which Dawn had come up with herself, might well be apt.
Giles had said that it would be quite possible for the scientific Watcher staff to carry out tests, probably at cellular level, to confirm or disprove this self-diagnosis. At first Dawn resisted the idea – feeling, like her monastic creators, that the fewer people who knew anything out of the ordinary about her the better; but by the end of the day she had agreed to blood tests and a small tissue biopsy.
That night Dawn went home alone, having not really been able to do the research she had had her mind set on – it would have to wait another day.
In her dreams that night she was still running past people, she could never stay to talk to them; and still she saw glimpses of platinum and black, always running with her, never getting left behind.
……………………………………………………………………………
“Andrew, I need your help”, Dawn said as she walked into the office, full of computers and electronic ‘toys’, just off the Main Library. “I could go do this research myself, or ask a librarian – but I know that you will know exactly where to look for what I want.”
Andrew raised one eyebrow, a move Dawn thought he probably had copied from Giles because he thought it made him look knowing, or inscrutable, or whatever, and said “Me? I’m flattered!”
“Good!” answered Dawn, “As flattery is supposed to get me everywhere. Now, what I want to know is where is Spike?”
This was obviously not quite what Andrew had expected, and he looked somewhat taken aback.
“Spike? Why do you need to know?"he asked. "Why do you think I’d know?”
“Yes, Spike; I need to know where he is because I want to talk to him. And I expect you to know where I’ll find him because, hey, this is the main archive of The Watchers’ Council,” Dawn waved at the computers and the shelves outside the door, piled high with books, discs and even a few scrolls.
“And you know I’ve always been led to believe that we keep as much information as possible on Master Vampires – and Spike, William the Bloody, whoever, is a Master Vampire. Not just any old Master Vampire, but one of only two we know of with A Soul.
"Note my use of capital letters here, Andrew!
"And I expect you personally to know where this information is stored because one, you are the Senior Recorder; two, you were Spike’s Number One Fan not so many years ago; and three, you are downright nosy! Now make with the information, or I will invite you over for a meal and watch you squirm as you try to be polite and eat haggis!”
“With neeps!” she added, as Andrew hesitated.
“All right, all right, you got me!” he answered, and within minutes had pulled up a file on the screen in front of him.
The Slayers, and their Watchers, had been primed to avoid staking Spike and the records showed that, over the last few years, he had crossed the paths of three Slayers – saving the life of at least one of them. The last report was from a Watcher in Brussels dated about ten months previously. Not quite a dead end – but almost as bad – Dawn thought, as he was unlikely to still be there.
Andrew, now anxious to be as helpful as possible, pointed out that there were also a couple of references to Angel passing on information about Spike over the years when The Council, or individual Watchers or Slayers, had been in touch with him. It looked as if Spike kept in touch, at least to some extent, with his grand-sire.
“So do we have a file on Angel? Have we any information on how to get in touch with him?” Dawn asked, to be told that Angel’s phone number was on file, as was the e-mail address for his firm, would those do?
“Why didn’t I know that The Council keeps in touch with Angel?” she demanded of Andrew.
“Well, you’ve been involved with more complicated research for Giles,” Andrew defended himself. “He knows we can ring Angel up any time; he probably just never got you to do it for him because it’s simple enough for him to do it himself.”
‘Probably,’ thought Dawn, ‘Giles thought that the less he reminded me about anything Sunnydale related the better – he probably thought if I wasn’t asking I wasn’t ready to know.’ But Andrew knowing so much more than her was a bit annoying!
Reading files, and having blanks filled by Andrew from his own knowledge, Dawn discovered that Angel was still in L.A., still running Angel Investigations, and still, according to Andrew, being a Good Guy who helped the Little People who had hassle from the Big Bad Guys.
Only that the Really Big Bad Guys, the top ones at Wolfram and Hart, had been in some way banished from this dimension at the time of the Great Battle in L.A. (Andrew could still capitalise verbally better than anyone else Dawn knew). Oh, and Angel had a female partner - a werewolf (!) - and a son who worked in the business!
Dawn left Andrew’s office not knowing whether she most wanted to hug him for being helpful or, more likely, throw things at him for never having filled her in on all the Angel related gossip before – how could he have known all that and not told her?
He was much better at this Watcher business than you would have thought, when it came to only answering what he was asked and opening up on other stuff purely on a need-to-know basis, although why hadn’t he decided that Dawn might at least want to know? Stupid Andrew! Well actually amazingly well disciplined Andrew, she corrected herself – a real credit to The Council she supposed.
She had invited him to dinner anyway – and promised that there would be no haggis, or neeps!
The next chapter is here.
But as promised I am putting up Chapter 3 of Ten years After. Still suitable for anyone to read I think - and the characters still all belong to Mutant Enemy etc. as per the disclaimer at the end of Chapter 1. You might find it useful to know that neeps are mashed turnip/swede - the root vegetable not the blue eyed blondes! They are a traditional Scottish thing!
If you missed Chapter One it should be
here
And Chapter Two should be
here
Other wise go straight to
CHAPTER THREE.
Dawn’s research training meant that she was looking at the situation methodically, even though the puzzle was herself and, after some time amongst the records, she had written careful notes which she discussed with Giles next afternoon.
The Watchers’ records showed that ‘The Key’ had been around for a very long time. They always spoke of ‘The Key’ – never of ‘A Key’, and the way it had been guarded over the years showed it was a very major magic item.
The monks had been under so great a threat that they had safeguarded The Key by giving it human form and inserting it into the family of the person most likely, in the whole world, to be able to protect it; showing just how desperate they were to prevent such a powerful thing falling into the wrong hands.
If The Key was so important, surely they must have thought about what would happen to it when Dawn became old and died. The energy source would either die with her, after all they had done for so long, or it would float around unguarded – again not in keeping with the job they had done all those years.
Dawn was showing none of the signs of ageing you would normally expect between the ages of twenty and twenty-seven – she thought this herself, and electronic comparisons of photos and vid-files found by Andrew confirmed that, apart from her hairstyle, she had changed not one iota since her twentieth birthday.
Giles had eventually agreed that Dawn could be right. If she remained at her physical peak, without ageing, The Key would not disappear within 70 - 80 years of being formed into ‘Dawn’. This could be a conscious act on behalf of the monks, or it could be a direct result of putting The Key into human form – the magic itself might be so powerful that it preserved ‘the vessel’ in every possible way.
Except that it must be possible to injure or even kill her – note previously broken arm, and Glory trying to kill her to open the portal.
Considered purely as a theoretical problem, they had come to the conclusion that this could be because the monks had been unable to put every possible safeguard into place. There was no definite proof that she could be killed, as no-one had yet achieved it, but it was likely that she could be, at least in certain circumstances; and so the term ‘Highlander Syndrome’ which Dawn had come up with herself, might well be apt.
Giles had said that it would be quite possible for the scientific Watcher staff to carry out tests, probably at cellular level, to confirm or disprove this self-diagnosis. At first Dawn resisted the idea – feeling, like her monastic creators, that the fewer people who knew anything out of the ordinary about her the better; but by the end of the day she had agreed to blood tests and a small tissue biopsy.
That night Dawn went home alone, having not really been able to do the research she had had her mind set on – it would have to wait another day.
In her dreams that night she was still running past people, she could never stay to talk to them; and still she saw glimpses of platinum and black, always running with her, never getting left behind.
……………………………………………………………………………
“Andrew, I need your help”, Dawn said as she walked into the office, full of computers and electronic ‘toys’, just off the Main Library. “I could go do this research myself, or ask a librarian – but I know that you will know exactly where to look for what I want.”
Andrew raised one eyebrow, a move Dawn thought he probably had copied from Giles because he thought it made him look knowing, or inscrutable, or whatever, and said “Me? I’m flattered!”
“Good!” answered Dawn, “As flattery is supposed to get me everywhere. Now, what I want to know is where is Spike?”
This was obviously not quite what Andrew had expected, and he looked somewhat taken aback.
“Spike? Why do you need to know?"he asked. "Why do you think I’d know?”
“Yes, Spike; I need to know where he is because I want to talk to him. And I expect you to know where I’ll find him because, hey, this is the main archive of The Watchers’ Council,” Dawn waved at the computers and the shelves outside the door, piled high with books, discs and even a few scrolls.
“And you know I’ve always been led to believe that we keep as much information as possible on Master Vampires – and Spike, William the Bloody, whoever, is a Master Vampire. Not just any old Master Vampire, but one of only two we know of with A Soul.
"Note my use of capital letters here, Andrew!
"And I expect you personally to know where this information is stored because one, you are the Senior Recorder; two, you were Spike’s Number One Fan not so many years ago; and three, you are downright nosy! Now make with the information, or I will invite you over for a meal and watch you squirm as you try to be polite and eat haggis!”
“With neeps!” she added, as Andrew hesitated.
“All right, all right, you got me!” he answered, and within minutes had pulled up a file on the screen in front of him.
The Slayers, and their Watchers, had been primed to avoid staking Spike and the records showed that, over the last few years, he had crossed the paths of three Slayers – saving the life of at least one of them. The last report was from a Watcher in Brussels dated about ten months previously. Not quite a dead end – but almost as bad – Dawn thought, as he was unlikely to still be there.
Andrew, now anxious to be as helpful as possible, pointed out that there were also a couple of references to Angel passing on information about Spike over the years when The Council, or individual Watchers or Slayers, had been in touch with him. It looked as if Spike kept in touch, at least to some extent, with his grand-sire.
“So do we have a file on Angel? Have we any information on how to get in touch with him?” Dawn asked, to be told that Angel’s phone number was on file, as was the e-mail address for his firm, would those do?
“Why didn’t I know that The Council keeps in touch with Angel?” she demanded of Andrew.
“Well, you’ve been involved with more complicated research for Giles,” Andrew defended himself. “He knows we can ring Angel up any time; he probably just never got you to do it for him because it’s simple enough for him to do it himself.”
‘Probably,’ thought Dawn, ‘Giles thought that the less he reminded me about anything Sunnydale related the better – he probably thought if I wasn’t asking I wasn’t ready to know.’ But Andrew knowing so much more than her was a bit annoying!
Reading files, and having blanks filled by Andrew from his own knowledge, Dawn discovered that Angel was still in L.A., still running Angel Investigations, and still, according to Andrew, being a Good Guy who helped the Little People who had hassle from the Big Bad Guys.
Only that the Really Big Bad Guys, the top ones at Wolfram and Hart, had been in some way banished from this dimension at the time of the Great Battle in L.A. (Andrew could still capitalise verbally better than anyone else Dawn knew). Oh, and Angel had a female partner - a werewolf (!) - and a son who worked in the business!
Dawn left Andrew’s office not knowing whether she most wanted to hug him for being helpful or, more likely, throw things at him for never having filled her in on all the Angel related gossip before – how could he have known all that and not told her?
He was much better at this Watcher business than you would have thought, when it came to only answering what he was asked and opening up on other stuff purely on a need-to-know basis, although why hadn’t he decided that Dawn might at least want to know? Stupid Andrew! Well actually amazingly well disciplined Andrew, she corrected herself – a real credit to The Council she supposed.
She had invited him to dinner anyway – and promised that there would be no haggis, or neeps!
The next chapter is here.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 08/06/2005 10:47 pm (UTC)Anyway, love the deductive reasoning, here, and Dawn's determination to get everything sorted.
Julia, bouncing around trying to get caugth up on a ton of petty detains here
no subject
Date: 08/06/2005 11:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 08/06/2005 11:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 08/06/2005 11:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 08/06/2005 11:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 08/06/2005 11:37 pm (UTC)I know the feeling!! Glad you are enjoying it.
no subject
Date: 08/06/2005 11:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 08/06/2005 11:46 pm (UTC)It's a pretty short section this time - so won't take up more than about 3 - 4 pages I'm afraid!!
no subject
Date: 09/06/2005 12:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 09/06/2005 09:21 am (UTC)Well not in place....but in time?
(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 09/06/2005 12:46 am (UTC)Andrew could still capitalise verbally better than anyone else Dawn knew Love your Andrew!
no subject
Date: 09/06/2005 09:22 am (UTC)Thank you, thank you!
no subject
Date: 09/06/2005 09:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 09/06/2005 01:34 am (UTC)"Haggis!" *giggles more* Indian food is much better!
I liked this chapter, and finding out what's going on with everyone.
Please, ma'am, may I have some more? (And I don't mean haggis!)
no subject
Date: 09/06/2005 09:24 am (UTC)(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 09/06/2005 09:27 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 09/06/2005 08:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 09/06/2005 09:33 am (UTC)Thank you - glad you liked it. More will be available over the weekend if life goes anywhere near plan.
no subject
Date: 09/06/2005 10:30 am (UTC)And Angel is still with Nina! Yay! (Sorry, but I think they were very cute!)
It's all snowballing and I'm happily waiting for more! :)
no subject
Date: 09/06/2005 12:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:(no subject)
From:Hi!
Date: 09/06/2005 12:19 pm (UTC)I'll try just about food, but I'll pass on the haggis.
Neeps are a possibility.... I remember my grandmother mentioning "neeps and tatties," I assume that's when you add potato?
Welcome to epicurean chat!
Neepily yours,
MOE hisownself
Re: Hi!
Date: 09/06/2005 12:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 09/06/2005 07:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 09/06/2005 08:23 pm (UTC)You're welcome!
- what happens if Dawn dies a natural death
These were the sort of things I wondered about, which is where this story came from really!
no subject
Date: 10/06/2005 10:08 am (UTC)Loved the banter between Andrew and Dawn and it's amusing that Angel would remain on the radar and Spike fall off it.
And you made me all nostalgic for haggis, tatties and neeps :)
no subject
Date: 10/06/2005 07:00 pm (UTC)Nostalgia for tatties and neeps eh? I wrote about going to a Burns Night Supper back in January - if you want to wallow in a bit more nostalgia the link to my post is
here (http://www.livejournal.com/users/curiouswombat/6940.html#cutid1)
(no subject)
From:no subject
Date: 11/06/2005 03:43 am (UTC)it's just the Nina issues. I have them. Microfilms of them! But I won't let that scare me off!
no subject
Date: 11/06/2005 10:25 am (UTC)Glad they won't put you off - as I have gone with canon as far as it went I couldn't have Anya move down there to take control of the situation, tempting though it was!!
no subject
Date: 11/06/2005 03:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 11/06/2005 10:28 am (UTC)(no subject)
From:primed to avoid staking Spike
Date: 11/06/2005 07:11 am (UTC)Well that's pretty darned decent of them if you ask me. Of course it would be very interesting to learn when that particular memo was sent out by the Chief Watcher and Tea Drinker. After the first bit of news regarding his resurrection, after NFA, or after Buffy's marriage.
Now don't get me wrong. I do like that as a development, something that implies that just maybe Giles and his merry band can learn from their past mistakes and realize that perhaps a little trust and good will is called for.
But this is an example of what I enjoy about your unfolding work, the meticulousness, the little tidbits of information scattered here and there. I've made no secret of how barren of interest I had for Buffy and the Scoobies, which really sounds like a mid Sixties rock group, but something like this makes me begin to wonder and speculate about the possibility of change. I think I mentioned once before that Buffy became boring to me once her creators stopped defining her by what she was capable of doing in favor of what she would not do. Real people are capable of a multitudes of actions. Heroes can flee the battle while cowards stand and fight. A gangster might finance a soup kitchen while the head of a major charity gives himself a benefit package that belongs to the CEO of a Fortune Five Hundred company.
People are not necessarily consistent.
Trouble is, neither is a certain vampire once called William the Bloody. I am now very interested in seeing how he too might have changed in the last decade. Not merely in the cosmetic, the outside appearance. How his attitudes towards certain individuals might have also altered. He might indeed be 'love's bitch and proud of it,' but nothing about him suggests to me that he would still be Buffy's.
Or Dawn's.
Looking forward to chapter five.
pgavigan
Re: primed to avoid staking Spike
Date: 11/06/2005 10:20 am (UTC)I don't neccessarily see Giles as The Chief Watcher - I don't believe he was the OMLY Watcher in the world who survived - a few retired ones would have been around and so on - I usually place him as 'one of the top Council members'. I think having a lot of influence but not having to spend all your time either as the figurehead or doing organisation related stuff, but being able to still spend time thinking about demons and things would suit him. I also think that any other remnants of Council that existed would not neccessarily have chosen him as the new CEO - too maverick in the past! Enough of the senior positions would soon have been taken by younger generation Watchers to make sure that attitiudes changed though, in my version!
Re: primed to avoid staking Spike
From: (Anonymous) - Date: 11/06/2005 04:01 pm (UTC) - ExpandRe: primed to avoid staking Spike
From:Finally!
Date: 12/06/2005 12:08 pm (UTC)Love Dawn threatening Andrew with haggis and neeps. That would put the fear of God into any wussy American boy! (I put 'em in my New England Boiled Dinner, and love 'em.)
Re: Finally!
Date: 12/06/2005 03:49 pm (UTC)You are right about the idea of the haggis and neeps - it didn't matter whether Andrew knew what they were at all - I reckoned he probably wouldn't - which is why it was such an effective threat!
no subject
Date: 14/06/2005 01:30 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 14/06/2005 07:26 am (UTC)Just caught up with the story
Don't know if you've noticed, but I put Chapter 4 up on Sunday.
Re: Angel - I reckon that Nina and Connor would give him enough to worry about, what with worries about her self-control or cage issues, and Connor's past history!
no subject
Date: 04/08/2006 12:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 04/08/2006 07:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 07/11/2006 04:37 am (UTC)Okay, stopping with the melodramatics....another awesome chapter....I love this story, I really like your writing stye, and I love the way you characterize the characters, and I love the way you write in general, especially Dawn. It's so hard to find good Dawn fic because for some reason people don't like her....oh well...another great chapter!
Karen
no subject
Date: 07/11/2006 12:57 pm (UTC)I rather like Dawn - and I felt sorry for the character as if, having put her in to keep the mid-teen audience, the writers didn't really make much use of her in later series and seemed to have forgotten her keyness completely - probably the effect of all the cloaking spells.....!
(no subject)
From: (Anonymous) - Date: 07/11/2006 08:17 pm (UTC) - Expand