Title: Protector
Author: Serendipity
Email: trekchic@usa.net
Distribution: Y'all know me. I say yes. Just ask beforehand so I know.
Disclaimer: the characters belong to Joss Whedon
Rating: PG-13 (language, violence and content)
Author's Notes: Oz doesn't exist...again (I'm SORRY!!!) and uhm..Oh, this is my take on what fourth season would be like for 'Buffy' and for the new series 'Angel'. (meaning, all of the previous seasons are fair game. I haven't seen Grad2 yet, though, so don't worry about that type of spoilage. Angel is in L.A.) Only difference: (big one) the Scooby Gang is still in high school. So, the events of season 3 took place their junior year. Oh, and lastly, for those who have read it and are wondering, this is totally unrelated to one of my other stories, When Stars Collide. :) Feedback is, as always, adored, highly appreciated, very motivational and always responded to.
Dedication: to everyone who's ever wanted to have something dedicated to them but never has, this story is wholeheartedly for you.

Part 9


“You want me to…what?” Willow regarded the object in his hand with abject fear.

“I can’t believe I didn’t think of this before! Come on, Willow, it’ll be easy.”

“Yes, b-but, I’m not even, really…immortal yet…I mean, Whistler, who says they’re going to even listen?”

“You never knew Merrick did you?”

“Uhm..no…”

“Don’t worry, they’ll listen. You just need to promise me one thing.”

“What?” She looked up at the demon.

“You’ll make them cry, just a little. For me.” Winking, he turned and left Willow to her task.

“Uhm…Angel, I can explain…” Cordelia reached out to touch his sleeve but he quickly jerked away.

“Don’t touch me, Cordelia.” He ground out hoarsely. The vampire looked almost ill.

11 pairs of rounded eyes watched the exchange in dead silence.

“Whistler didn’t want to tell you because he knew you’d get up-,”

“She’s the Immortal Watcher and no one thought that might be important?” He was trying very hard not to yell, with minimal success. < God, she must be so miserable. No wonder she didn’t want we to touch her. Immortal Watcher?! It’s against her nature to even be near a vampire! > To Angel, the Watchers had always been a confused bunch, but he had the utmost respect for their leaders. Although he had known Merrick only briefly and mostly through reputation, he knew that the Immortal Watcher stood for all that was good. To force this girl, this unsuspecting, undeserving child to carry the burden of his own sins was disgusting and unspeakable. The fact that she was also Immortal was like adding insult to injury.

“Angel, calm down. Of course it’s important but you need to understand th-,” Cordelia tried to be patient.

“What else is there?” He barked.

Startled, she jumped slightly, “I-I don’t-,”

“There’s still something else you’re not telling me. What else is there?” It was a hunch, but he figured that it was a good risk to take seeing as how Whistler had a tendency to play with his life and for some reason, he’d chosen Cordelia to be his confidant. He also guessed that in her state of confusion, she wouldn’t call his bluff.

Casting her gaze downwards, the brunette stumbled over her words, “She…ahh…she’s not exactly immotal yet..”

Awaiting his reaction, Cordelia held her ground. After several seconds of silence, however, she finally got the nerve to look back up.

He was gone.

“Shit!” she muttered under her breath staring into the darkness.

There was a long moment of silence before anyone spoke.

“Damn, that man has the * nicest * ass I’ve ever seen.” Laura smiled appreciatively.

“Oh, I second that.” Jessica nodded in agreement.

“I think that someone should go after him.” JR offered, “He’s upset. He might do something rash.”

“Hey, how about me? Worried that * I * might do something rash?” Cordelia exploded, unable to stop herself, “What in the HELL did you think you were doing? Did I ask any of you to talk? No! Now look what’s happened! God, way to fuck everything up.” With that, she turned to stalk off down the street…

And was promptly thrown to the ground by the looming figure in front of her.

“B-Buffy’s on her way up.” Giles sat down, pale and tired.

“Perhaps it’s all for the best, man. She’s the current slayer and she’s also best friends with Willow. She might be able to help us much more than anyone else.” Patrick cast a glance at the semi-useless younger Council members and sighed.

“She should be here in 3 or 4 hours. I told her to come in the morning, but she refused.”

“Understandable, but I don’t want her to get tired out before she even gets here.”

“I’ll make sure she gets some rest before-,”

The shrill sound of the phone pierced through the gentle mumbling atmosphere yet again.

“Lord, now what?’ Mildly annoyed, Patrick jumped up and grabbed the receiver without thinking twice, “Hello?”

“H-hi…..? Cordelia?” the voice on the other end sounded cautious and timid.

“No, Cordelia isn’t in right now. May I take a message for her?” Sighing, the Watcher began to search for a pen.

“Uhm…is Patrick there?”

His ears perked up almost immediately. Waving wildly at the assembled group, he caused all conversation to grind to an immediate halt.

“Yes, this is Patrick. May I ask to whom I’m speaking?” He responded carefully as a huge gaggle of Watchers immediately surged up around him. “Shhh!!!” He hissed, trying to wave them off.

There was a short pause and he was afraid that he’d lost her.

“Hello?” He prodded gently.

“Uhm…hi….yes, uhm, this is…uhm…Willow.”

The Watcher came close to fainting, “Willow! Dear Lord, child, where have you been? We’ve been looking for you everywhere! Stay where you are and we’ll come get you.”

“Is it her?”

“It’s the girl?”

“Finally!”

“Where’s that two-faced little demon?”

“Move out of the way, Nigel, I can’t hear!”

Throwing them all aside, Patrick rapidly walked out of the sitting room and into the hallway, pausing only to drag Giles along with him by his collar.

“A-actually, I was wondering if maybe you could all just go back home and wait for me.” Willow’s voice rang out with only a slight edge of hesitation.

“W-what?!” Slightly taken aback, Patrick promptly released his hold on Giles and started pacing up and down the narrow corridor, “And leave you with that demon? Absolutely not. I can only wonder what lies that…thing has been feeding you.”

“But-,”

“No, Willow, as the acting head of the Council and your future guide in taking over your responsibilities, I simply can’t allow this. You’re obviously being brainwashed by this Whistler fellow and it’s entirely unacceptable. Where are you? I’ll send several men over to get you. You needn’t worry about any possible repurcussions. I assure you, there are far more of us than there are of those knaves who have kidnapped you.”

“Kindnapped? But I wasn’t really kidnapped, see, Whistler is a good guy…” The hacker started off again only to be interrupted.

“Yes, I’m sure it seems that way, child, but trust me. There’s a lot about him that you simply don’t know. Now please, your location?” Patrick pressed on.

“I can’t just leave yet!” She was becoming exasperated, “Angel needs me!”

“Angel?” He scoffed, “Do you mean Angelus? I know it seems as if Angelus is one of the ‘good guys’ as well, Willow, but you must understand that no matter what he’s done for the Council or for your friend Buffy, fundamentally he’s still extremely dangerous. I can’t have you running around with him, endangering your own well being, especially before you’ve even reached your full capacity.”

“Oh, but I feel safe with Angel, tonight we helped each-”

“Safe? Willow, I’m sorry to have to tell you this but Angelus is essentially a killer. Soul or not, he’s been trained as a predator and an assassin for years and although he does serve some function on occasion, you don’t have any obligations to him. Furthermo-,”

“Wait.”

The command was quiet yet carried such a huge underlying current of anger that Patrick stopped in midsentence.

“First of all, you’ll call him Angel,” Willow continued in the same tone of voice, “Not Angelus because that isn’t his name. Sec-,”

“Willow-,” Patrick broke in hurriedly.

“EXCUSE ME?” She hollered so loudly that he jerked the phone away from his ear.

Giles, who had been waiting patiently in the hall, merely raised an eyebrow.

“Y-yes…?” Patrick responded after cautiously bringing the receiver back.

“Wasn’t I just in the middle of giving you an order?” Her voice took on the same deadly quiet quality.

“Yes, but-,”

“Do you know who you’re talking to?”

Swallowing hard, Patrick paused. “Miss Rosenb-,”

“Try again.”

Thinking fast, the frightened man spit out the first thing he could think of, “T-The Immortal Watcher…..Sir?”

“Good.” Her voice carried an oddly self-satisfied tone, “And what do you think Merrick would have done if he were told what to do?”

“Skewered me, Sir.” The Watcher responded honestly.

“Interesting.”

There was a long pause.

“Sir?” He finally broke the silence, afraid that she’d simply hung up on him.

“What do you think I’ll do to you if you keep trying to tell me what to do?” She asked coldly.

Laughing nervously, the Watcher grappled for a decent answer, realizing that he may have just pushed his superior a bit too far…

Barely getting a chance to scream, Cordelia was in the process of opening her mouth when she found it suddenly full of dust. Choking, she slowly opened her eyes to see a gaggle of teenage girls with crosses, stakes and other previously concealed weaponry standing over what looked to be a pile of dirt.

“Bastard didn’t stand a fucking chance,” Laura smiled, smugly.

“Hah, eleven against one. I’d say he was a goner.” Emma and Jessica high-fived each other.

“Oh, and that was cool, Robin. Like, how you did that spinny thing?” Tracy bounced enthusiastically.

Soon, the group erupted into self-congratulatory chatter as they recounted, in detail, the life-threatening 10 second fight with an unfortunately stupid vampire against 11 slayers-in-training.

Forgotten, bruised and still bristling, Cordelia slowly pulled herself to her feet again, “Uhm. Okay. Now that I’ve lost one of my best friends, betrayed another one, and almost gotten eaten all in one night, I think I’m ready to go home.”

Bracing herself, the brunette started walking again only to be stopped this time by a lanky redhead.

“Not so fast.” Carrie smiled, a strange sparkle in her grey eyes.

“I think you’re forgetting something.” Heather added cooly.

“Like what?” the flat, haughty tone of Cordelia’s voice was almost painfully remniscent of her older, cheerleading self as she geared up for a challenge.

“You just nearly got eaten….” Laura began.

“Thanks, I almost missed it.” The May Queen broke in rudely, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

“…and * we * saved your life,” she finished, staring up expectantly.

Cordelia sneered, “Meaning what? That you want some show of gratitude or something? A ‘thank you for fucking up my life’ type-speech maybe? Don’t hold your breath.”

Toying casually with her stake, Laura shook her head, “No, I don’t think a ‘thank you’ is really necessary…”

“Good, I wouldn’t want all of you to die from lack of air, y’know.” The brunette managed to deliver the retort in such a way as to show plainly that she wouldn’t, in fact, mind such a scenario at all.

Choosing to strike, Laura licked her lips and glanced at her friends. “Actually, we want something else.”

“A favor.” Emma piped up.

“In return for saving your life,” Robin grinned almost sadistically.

“A favor? You want me to do you a favor? What is this? Some kind of severe collective stupid-attack that’s going aroun-,”

“Let me put it to you this way, Cordelia. You do us this favor or we don’t hold up our end of the bargain.” Eliz crossed her arms over her chest stubbornly.

“You know, the part about us keeping ‘hush hush’ with the Watchers Council?” Tracy clarified in a sweet voice.

“What?!” the brunette shrieked, outraged, “Blackmail?! How dare you!” Slowly, as she looked from one smugly smiling face to another, realization dawned. “OhmyGOD! You set me up! All of you set me up! Heather was in the alley baiting that vampire to-YOU COULD HAVE GOTTEN ME KILLED!!! Why you skinny little insignificant group of teeny-bopper Brittney Spears wannabes! I’ll have you know tha-,”

“Take it or leave it.” Laura cut in, calmly.

Nearly shaking from fury, Cordelia paused as the full scope of what was happening sank in.

Pinning her opponent with a deadly glare, Laura went in for the kill, “Give us what we want or round off a perfect night explaining yourself to Patrick and Giles. It’s your choice. What’ll it be?”

“And FURTHERMORE I want access to all of the records currently in possession of the Council concerning Protectors and their roles. I also want all of the information you have about Angel and Spike.” Willow stomped loudly back and forth in the living room, dutifully ignoring Whistler who was busy doubled over in fetal position trying to muffle his hysterical laughter.

“Spike? But why do you need anything on Sp-,” Patrick began, in a panicked voice.

She stopped and narrowed her eyes at the receiver briefly before bellowing, “ARE YOU QUESTIONING ME AGAIN?”

“N-n-n-no, Sir!! No, Sir!” Frantically, the Watcher started stammering uncontrollably.

“I’m going to die…I’m going to die…” Whistler moaned over and over again, clutching his stomach and literally crawling out of the living room, tears running down his face.

Willow sighed and returned her attention back to the phone.

“Look, call Headquarters or whatever and have the stuff sent to Cordelia’s apartment as soon as possible. Now hand the phone over to Giles, I’m done talking to you.”

“Yes, Sir.” Obediently, Patrick handed the phone to the librarian who had been, up until this point, lounging casually against the wall, simply taking in the conversation. His task completed, the Council Head quickly scampered into the adjoining room, shouting orders to his underlings.

Giles gently shut the door to block off the noise before speaking.

“Willow?”

At the sound of her mentor’s voice, the redhead heaved a sigh of relief, “Giles!”

“Dear Lord, Willow, what on earth did you say to him? I’ve known Patrick for years and I’ve never seen him react like that. I almost thought he was going to wet his trousers.”

Snorting in a very un-Willowy manner, the hacker merely shook her head, “I just reminded him of who I was,” she said a hint of pride creeping into her voice.

“I see,” the librarian remarked dryly, “You pulled rank, I take it?”

Suddenly feeling guilty, Willow bit her lip, “Uhm…kind of. But, I mean, it wasn’t my fault. He was being bossy and mean an-,”

“He’s just trying to look out for your best interest, as we all are.” Giles pointed out. “You can’t fault him for doing his job as he sees fit, Willow. He feels that your life is his responsibility just as you feel that Angel’s life is yours.”

In a matter of a few seconds, Willow felt herself reduced to the teenage high schooler that she was, “Well, I guess I never thought of it that way…I guess that was really mean of me, huh?” “You’re young, it happens.” The librarian responded simply.

“God, they must all think I’m some huge bitca by now,” shame started to flush the young girl’s cheeks and she sank down onto her couch, “And I’m not even Immortal yet….power is a dangerous, dangerous thing. Just goes straight to people’s heads. I don’t know what I was thinking…wow, Giles, I’m so sorry, can you tell Patrick that I’m sorry? Ca-,”

“Willow,” Giles took pity on her enough to interrupt her apologetic babble, “I’m sure he’ll live. Besides, he served under Merrick. He’s used to it.”

“So Merrick used to pull rank too?”

“All the time.”

“So does that mean it’s okay to do that?”

“I’d say that it depends on whether or not you want to be like Merrick.”

Willow paused to consider his statement when she heard a ruckus coming from the foyer.

Unceremoniously, the door burst open, causing the startled hacker to almost drop the phone. Regarding the group standing in front of her, she hurriedly spoke, “Uhm, Giles…I swear I’m not pulling rank or anything, but something weird just happened so can I call you back?”

“Of course.”

Quickly clicking off, she tossed the phone to the couch and jumped up. After an awkward silence she darted a look at Whistler who had since recomposed himself and now actually looked rather angry.

Cautiously, she smiled, “Uhm, hi. Who are you?”

Another strange silence descended upon the assembled group and the hacker started to fidget uncomfortably, “Uhm….my name is Wi-,” Before she could get her introduction out, there was, what seemed to be an enormous exhalation of held breath followed by screaming.

In seconds, the hacker found herself surrounded by a huge group of nearly hysterical girls, shouting all at once with blatant admiration shining on their faces.

“Oh my God, I can barely believe it!”

“You are SO cool!!”

“I love your hair, is that, like, for real? What a great color!”

“Where did you get those black pants? They’re fucking awesome!”

“Are you really the Immortal Watcher?”

“Can I have your autograph?”

Her head spinning, Willow fell back onto the couch tried to keep track of the endless chatter that burst forth all around her. Finally her gaze settled on a harried looking Cordelia.

Shrugging the brunette rolled her eyes, “They blackmailed me. I’m going to find a way to get back at each and every one of them soon. I’ve taken down names. They’re slayers-in-training.”

Whistler’s cell phone started ringing and he quickly moved into the kitchen, away from the still-shrieking girls.

The redhead’s face softened almost immediately, “’Slayers-in-training?’ Aww!!! That’s so awesome!” Feeling a surge of love for the younger girls huddled around her, Willow had to fight off the urge to gather them all into a group hug.

“What’s it like to be immortal?”

“What should we call you?”

“Can I brush your hair?”

“Can we sleep over?”

The questions and doting stares were relentless but Willow fielded them with grace and ease. Never having had siblings before, Willow couldn’t help but feel an instant ‘big sister’ kinship for the younger slayers. She was almost giddy with all of the attention when Whistler stepped back into the room.

“Will the wonders never cease?”

The grim expression on his face caused the hacker to sober up, “What’s wrong?”

“That was Angel. He’s coming over in about….well, now.”

“He’s coming over?! What?! Why?!”

“No time. get upstairs and get dressed fast.”

Jumping up, the hacker flew from the room and up the stairs followed closely by her newly acquired entourage.

“Oh no, oh no, oh no!!” Her hands shaking, she bolted into her room and delved into her closet. Coming up empty handed, she crawled quickly across the floor, peering under her bed and overturning scattered clothing and books.

“What is it? What’s going on?” Jessica asked, panicked.

“My mask and my shirt and my gloves…my whole outfit….I don’t remember where I took it off. Oh no! I think there are pieces of it all over the house…I didn’t think he’d come over tonight…I need to get dressed before Angel gets here!”

Snapping to attention, Heather quickly yanked Willow to a stop, “Dude, calm down. You’re flipping out. We’ll take care of it. We’re slayers, that’s why we’re here.”

“Right! What do you need?” Emma asked.

“Gloves, mask, boots, and shirt…they’re all black….” the hacker responded nervously.

“Eliz, Emma, and Tracy, you’ve got the mask. Jessica, JR, and Teri, you’ve got the gloves. Hilary, stay here. Laura you’re with me on the boots. Robin and Carrie go after the shirt.” Heather shot the commands out quickly and within seconds the girls had emptied the room, nearly running over Cordelia in the process. Willow could hear them bounding off into various parts of the house.

“What’s going on?’ Cordelia asked as she made her way into the room and flopped down onto the bed.

“They’re helping me get my disguise together before Angel gets he-,”

“One glove!” Teri shrieked as she ran past the open door pausing only to fling it into the room. The leather garment soundly whacked Cordelia in the head causing the brunette to jump up before Willow could finish her sentence.

“You totally did that on purpose you little cretin!” the former cheerleader yelled, running out into the hall.

The next thing Willow heard was a thud and harsh cursing as Laura shoved Cordelia out of the way and ran past the door travelling in the opposite direction, “Boot!” She called, tossing it into the room before going on her way.

“Let me help you get these on,” Hilary quickly and quietly slid the incoming clothing on Willow.

“Other glove!” Jessica shouted as she threw it in and continued off.

Within less than a minute, Willow was efficiently dressed in most of her disguise.

“What are we missing?: Heather asked, slightly out of breath as she paused in the doorway.

“We’re waiting on the mask,” Hilary responded, wrinkling her nose.

“Got it!” Eliz smiled proudly, appearing from behind and leaning over Heather’s shoulder to pass the final piece of clothing over to Hilary, “Tie up her hair, pull this sucker on and we’re ready.”

Harsh pounding from the downstairs door echoed up the hallway.

Sighing, Willow adjusted the veil over her eyes, “And not a moment too soon….”




Next Chapter