WATCHERS: Lest We Forget (1/5)

By Charles Kelly

DISCLAIMER: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel and the characters indigenous to those series are the legal property of Mutant Enemy Productions, the WB, UPN, FOX, et al. They are used here strictly for non-commercial purposes. Watchers characters were created by C.N. Winters and Susan Carr.

DISTRIBUTION: The Watchers forum and site only.

FEEDBACK: Post to Watcher’s Forum.

SPOILERS: I’ll say Watchers The Virtual Series Season 1, just to be safe. I might make reference to the events of the Angel Series finale, too. Set weeks after (and many years before) the events of BTVS Season 1, ATS Season 5.

RATING: PG-13

WARNING: This story includes some graphic descriptions of shark attacks.

COMMENT: According to the UPN website, Giles was born in 1954. I arbitrarily decided that Giles met his first Slayer 30 years later.

The MOW (or should that be MOFF for Monster of this Fan Fiction?) is loosely inspired by a partially remembered Hawaiian legend retold in a non-fiction book of suspect accuracy. It seems that nations without wolves have legends about other were-creatures . . . in the Hawaiian Islands, weresharks.

I realize the Belfast scene below may upset and offend and I regret that, but for some reason that is how it appeared in my head when I first toyed with telling the tale of Giles’ first Slayer.

SUMMARY: Giles tells his young friends about his first Slayer. Who was this girl and how did she and her successor come to be called?

WATCHERS: Lest We Forget (1/5)

"Rupert Giles: Would you like some tea?

"He tosses his glasses onto his desk and steps over to his tea-making implements to prepare his teapot and two cups.

"Gwendolyn Post: God, yes, please. I'm completely knackered. (goes to Giles' chair) I spent the afternoon training with Faith. (sits) She doesn't lack for energy.

"Giles: (chuckles) She's your first Slayer, I take it?"

—"Revelations," BTVS—Season 3 (from transcript posted at buffyworld.com)

TEASER.

July 1, 1984

FADE IN.

Arial view of Honolulu, Hawaii

Cut to:

Beach, just at sunrise.

A Hawaiian girl, no more than 18, in a t-shirt and denims strolled lazily to the water. The Hawaiian girl looked around and didn’t notice anyone—at least, she didn’t appear to notice the middle aged man lurking behind the nearby palm trees. It is unlikely she would have undressed if she had.

Cut to:

Close up of panties and bra falling to the sand.

The girl jumped right into the water.

The older man, still hidden behind the trees, started to undress himself as he counted—counted as if he were timing something in his head.

When the girl was about 30 feet from the sand, the man cast a quick look around, then ran to the sand.

Cut to:

Close up of the man’s clothes, including his underwear, on the ground.

Cut to:

The man’s sandaled feet as he ran.

Cut to:

Close up of the man’s upper back as he, too, dives into the water.

The man disappeared under the surface for just a moment.

Then a small dorsal fin cut the surface and moved, directly and quickly, toward the girl.

The closer the fin came to the girl, the larger it seemed to grow—almost as if the shark (if it was a shark) were growing as quickly as it swam.

The fin became quite large—as large as one might expect to see on a 15-foot long shark—and then the fin slipped underneath the water.

Cut to:

The girl treading water.

She looked around, smiling and said to herself: "How can anyone doubt there’s a God—"

Something pulled her under the surface in a single movement.

Cut to:

The beach, 15 minutes later.

The middle aged man emerged from the water. He looked around, spied his discarded sandals and scooped them up. As he walked back to his clothes he cursed and stopped and reached into his mouth. He pulled something from between his teeth. A lengthy lock of black human hair.

"Disgusting." He dropped the hair on the sand and returned to his clothes.

July 2, 1984

3:30 a.m.

Cut to:

Arial shot, Belfast, Northern Ireland, Night.

Cut to:

Ext., Residential neighborhood.

Litter from the latest funeral lined the street. At the far end of the block, a Catholic church stood proud.

At the mouth of the ally, Darla peered around the corner.

Two cars came down the street. Both cars parked in front of the church, but only one driver turned off the engine. He and another man got out. The driver of the second car remained where he was. The passenger from the first car eased his hand inside his jacket and looked around nervously as the driver got under the vehicle.

A few minutes passed and as the man under the car did his work, Darla leapt up to a rooftop and made her way to the other side of the street, then to the rooftop of the church. She looked very anxiously at the giant cross.

The driver of the first car got out from under it and tossed something that looked like a key chain, or merely a medallion, to his companion. The second man took a moment to throw "the finger" at the church and then he and the driver of the first car started walking toward the second car.

Darla dropped from the rooftop to the street—and landed by the driver side door of the second car. In a heartbeat, Darla ripped the door off the car and pulled the third man out. She sank her fangs into him.

The driver of the first car drew a small pistol and aimed it at the vampire and her meal—but he held fire for some reason.

The man who had stood guard by the first car turned and ran like hell.

Until a foot slammed into his belly and sent him sprawling on his arse.

The foot belonged to a small, fair girl—a 4-foot-11-inch redhead, perhaps 16 but little more, with skin nearly as pale as Darla’s. But the mist that billowed from her nose and mouth indicated she was no vampire.

Moving as quickly as Darla herself, the Irish Slayer grabbed the right arm of the second gunman and with a YANK dislocated his shoulder and drove him, screaming, to the street.

The Irish Slayer ran to the second car and was half way over the hood, so much closer to dusting Darla than any Slayer had been 100 or more years—

When the car bomb exploded.

Cut to:

Same place, 30 minutes later.

People gathered in the street. A uniformed policeman knelt by the body of Darla’s snack.

In the background, the fire devoured several buildings including the former church. A crowd gathered to watch and weep and pray and talk. Only a few of the residents noticed the Englishman wagging his finger at a member of the Special Branch of the Royal Ulster Constabulary. None of them knew his name: Quentin Travers.

Cut to:

Close up of Travers and a plainclothes police detective.

Travers said: "The girl was one of ours, not one of the ’RA."

"Are you certain, sir? She’d been observed prowling a number of Catholic neighborhoods—all of them controlled by Republican terrorist groups."

"The Loyalist paramilitaries threatened to kill her if she set foot in their territories—not that she would have," Travers said. "She made no secret of her hatred for Protestants—said if the vampires wanted to feed on their blood the demons were welcome to drink raw sewage."

"Perhaps it is just as well she died, then, sir, if you’ll pardon my saying."

Travers smiled. "I happen to agree—which is why we ordered her death." Travers frowned. "I cannot fathom why, for the life of me, the bomb went off. The plan was for her to be shot and for the bomb to be quote, unquote discovered before detonation."

"I’m sure our investigation will determine—"

"Your investigation is over, detective. The Council answers only to the Council—and no one else on Earth."

The police detective nodded and excused himself. As he walked away, he muttered: "And I thought the bloody IRA were evil."

Cut to:

Ext., Residential neighborhood, London, England, Sunrise.

Cut to:

Int., bedroom of spartan London flat.

Cut to:

A man in his late 20s or early 30s, sleeping in bed.

The phone rang. The man groaned, sat up, groped for his glasses and then put them on. He looked at the clock. He muttered, "Bloody sods" and picked up the phone. He recited his phone number and then listened.

"I’m sorry for your loss, Mr. Travers."

The man flinched as the voice on the other end of the line became louder—not loudly enough to be heard, but loudly enough for the other man’s anger to be unmistakable. "I meant no disrespect, sir. Do we know where the new girl is?" The man nodded and listened. "Yes, sir. And her name?" He listened. "How should I approach—hello? Mr. Travers? Hello?"

He hung up, muttered, "imperious martinet," and dialed a phone number. "I should like to arrange a trip to Hawaii. . . . As soon as possible, preferably today. . . . My name is Rupert Giles . . . "

Cut to:

Arial shot, Cleveland, Ohio, United States.

Aug. 1, 2004

Cut to:

Int., a classroom.

Rupert Giles apologized and took a moment to clean his glasses. He put them back on and said: "That is how I came to be assigned to my first Slayer."

Willow, Andrew, Xander and Robin Woods all sat in the front of the classroom. They were the only people present.

Willow looked shocked, possibly hurt. "Buffy wasn’t your first Slayer?"

"My third, actually," Giles said.

[Pretend you hear the way cool intro music and continue to Act One]

WATCHERS: Lest We Forget (2A/5)

DISCLAIMER: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel and the characters indigenous to those series are the legal property of Mutant Enemy Productions, the WB, UPN, FOX, et al. They are used here strictly for non-commercial purposes. Watchers characters were created by C.N. Winters and Susan Carr.

DISTRIBUTION: Ask and I shall approve.

SPOILERS: See top of thread.

RATING: PG-13

COMMENT: I know nearly zip about Hawaii. But sharks used to be a hobby of mine. I remember seeing footage of the young hammerheads described below on a Discovery Channel Shark Week documentary . . .

SUMMARY: Giles tells his young friends about his first Slayer. Who was this girl and how did she and her successor come to be called?

WATCHERS: Lest We Forget (2A/5)

Act One, Part One

FADE IN.

July 5, 1984.

Ext., a small, coastal pool (of the natural, not man made variety) in Hawaii.

Young hammerhead sharks glided through the water, basking near the surface. Two pretty girls in one-piece bathing suits, both brunette and neither more than 15, stood on the water’s edge. The girls were twins—identical in every way, except that one wore a blue bathing suit and the other wore a green. A man old enough to be their father stood beside them, furiously jotting down notes on his clip board.

He looked enough like them to been their father. The three of them, man and girls, were caucasian, but a shade darker than some with features that reflected a mixture of European bloodlines. All three had dark hair. The girls were only pretty now, but an observant person could see that in about half a decade they would be extraordinarily beautiful. The man wore casual clothes.

One of the girls (blue swimsuit) stuck her toe in the water.

The man said: "Get back on land or I’ll ground you both, Topaz." His eyes never left his clipboard.

Topaz immediately obeyed—and punched her sister’s arm.

That irked the girl in the green swimsuit. "Hey! Daddy!"

"Quit whining, Sapphire, " the man said. "Your sister can’t hit any harder than you can—and you, my darling, hit like a girl." He spoke with a mid-western accent.

Topaz and Sapphire both scowled and placed their hips on their fists and stuck their tongues out at their father.

"I won’t punish you for that because I haven’t actually seen you do it—even though you two always strike the same pose when you’re miffed at me."

The two girls groaned and rolled their eyes.

Their father chuckled. "Parents do have an unfair advantage—we know our spawn."

A British voice said: "Excuse me, but are you Doctor Joshua Alba?"

The man with the clipboard still did not look up. "Yes, I am."

"My name is Rupert Giles. If I might have a word with you in private?" Giles was dressed in a suit and carried a briefcase in his right hand. He looked a bit uncomfortable, as if he was aware of the fact that he was overdressed in comparison with the man and the girls.

Alba clipped the pen into his shirt pocket and tucked the clipboard under his right arm. He turned smiled politely at Rupert Giles.

"What’s this about, Mr. Giles?"

"As I said, doctor—"

"I wish you wouldn’t call me that," Alba said. "I’m a marine biologist, not a physician."

Giles smiled. "I have found that most men with PhDs to their names prefer to be addressed as doctor."

Alba chuckled. "A lot of people in academia have misplaced priorities." He pointed to a spot somewhere behind Giles’ left shoulder. "Our office is there." He glanced at his daughters. "You two behave and remember—"

The twins rolled their eyes and said, in perfect unison: "If you grab a shark’s tail, you deserve to have your hand bitten off."

Giles eyed the small hammerheads nervously. "Sir, if you would rather wait until tomorrow, when your girls are not here—"

Alba shook his head. "No, no, Topaz and Sapphire will be fine. They know I’ll be furious if they get themselves hurt."

Topaz whispered something in Sapphire’s ear, laughed and ran.

Sapphire gave chase. "I’LL GET YOU FOR THAT!"

Alba stared after his girls for a moment, his brown bent in something approaching a scowl. "I had no idea my little girl was such a sprinter. Maybe I’ll have her go out for track this fall."

Giles also stared after the girls, a sad look on his face. As if he knew one of them had a rather different future than the one her father might wish for.

FADE OUT.

Scene Two

FADE IN.

Ext., a small building nestled among native Hawaiian plants.

A middle-aged man with a very angry expression on his face leaned against the door. "Alba! I want to talk to you!"

Giles and Alba were walking down a narrow sidewalk toward the building when they stopped. Alba said: "For god’s sake, Tiburon—"

"That’s Mr. Tiburon to you, crackpot!"

"I’m not the one who’s violating a restraining order."

Giles placed his briefcase at his feet, then stood and took a leather eyeglass case from his jacket pocket.

Tiburon’s face grew darker as he uncrossed is arms and took one step toward Alba. "Why do you keep protecting those monsters? Another girl was killed just days ago!"

Alba lowered both hands, including the one holding the clipboard, to his side. "Do I have to call the cops, Tiburon?"

Giles quietly and neatly removed and folded his glasses, closed the eyeglass case and placed it on the ground beside his briefcase.

"How would you like it if some . . . evil . . . inhuman . . . thing . . . attacked one of your—"

Alba dropped the clipboard and took a step toward Tiburon.

Giles lunged at the man, grabbed his right arm and twisted it behind his own back. As he moved behind Tiburon, Giles drove his foot into the joint of his left leg, causing it to bend and causing the older man to sink to one knee even as Giles remained standing. Tiburon groaned and tears ran down his face as Giles pinned Tiburon’s right hand between Tiburon’s shoulder blades.

In a normal, even-tempered tone of voice, Giles said: "Permit me to introduce myself. I am Rupert Giles. In my youth I was known as Ripper. You would be wise to refrain from saying things that might provoke me to demonstrating precisely how I acquired that nickname. When I release you, I expect you to quietly get up and quietly leave and never ever bother either Dr. Alba or his family or myself again."

Alba froze, mouth agape, eyes wide.

Giles released Tiburon and stepped back.

Tiburon looked over his shoulder at the Englishman. "You sonofa—"

"I will not be so gentle the next time I lay my hands upon you."

Tiburon stared at Giles for a very long time. Slowly, something passed over his face. It wasn’t a look of calm or defeat but . . . perhaps he saw the measure of the other man and decided that he could not take Giles just now. He slowly got to his feet and staggered off, rubbing his now tender arm.

Giles looked at Alba. "Does that happen often?"

Alba scooped up Giles’ eyeglass case and handed it to him. "Tiburon’s an extreme case," Alba said. "But shark researchers are never popular after an attack and we’ve had two known fatalities since January."

"I do not wish to sound callous, but two fatalities in half a year hardly seems like a great problem."

Alba also picked up Giles’ briefcase and gave it to him. "Shark attacks are rare—fatal ones more so. Skin divers see a passing fish, grab a tail and suffer the consequences. A shark mistakes a human for something else. A quick bite, some blood loss, but seldom a death. It isn’t like we’re on their regular menu. Two fatalities in these islands in just seven months? That’s nearly an epidemic."

Alba stepped around Giles and held the door for him. Giles hesitated. "Aren’t you afraid—"

"Tiburon’s no threat to my girls, Mr. Giles," he said. "He’s a heartbroken man with way too much anger and no one to blame so he yells at me."

Giles stepped through the doorway, into the office.

Perhaps office wasn’t quite the word. Aquarium tanks of various sizes occupied several spaces, as did some of the new desktop computers that were beginning to appear everywhere. Giles eyed them sadly and muttered under his breath: "They’ll never last."

In one tank, that seemed to be the aquatic equivalent of a wind tunnel, a small hammerhead fought against a man-made current as another scientist (with bandages on his left hand and arm) made notes.

A Hawaiian woman in her late 20s, clad in cut-offs and a shirt tied just above her flat tummy, took measurements of set of shark jaws. Giles stopped and stared at the oddly shaped teeth: They resembled triangles, but they were indented on one side.

"Tiger shark," Alba said. "Have a seat over here." He pointed to a desk near a large window.

"Um, I am afraid the matter is a rather sensitive one," Giles said. "I don’t mean to be difficult—"

"Guys, could you step outside a second?"

The woman immediately left the building, but the man who had been observing the hammerhead stopped at the door. "Herbie—"

"We’ll put him back soon enough."

"Hope he survives."

"We all do, Chuck, but Mr. Giles wants to speak with me privately."

Alba took his seat behind his desk as Chuck left. Giles pulled a stack of papers off a nearby chair and sat down. "I am—"

"Special Forces or Watchers Council?"

"You know?"

"Quentin Travers was very kind to us when my wife died." Alba smiled. "Naturally, I became suspicious."

"I meant, you know that I am a Watcher?"

"You’re dressed like a librarian and you are exquisitely polite when you make death threats. You’re either an Oxford educated British gangster or you’re a member of the Watcher’s Council of England."

"I am sorry about your wife."

"How is Tasha doing these days? Has she learned to read?"

Giles swallowed. "I’m afraid another was called."

Alba closed his eyes and sighed. "Poor kid. She was, what, 17 when she died?"

"Eighteen," Giles said. He lowered his eyes as though he were ashamed. "She died on her birthday."

"Damn! I know Slayers die young, but . . . it just seems so wrong. That kid grieved for my wife as much my girls and I did."

"I’m sure she held herself responsible."

"Bull, if you’ll pardon my language," Alba said. "The vampire who sired my wife was responsible. I’m just glad Tasha was there when she rose or . . . "

"I doubt either of your daughters would have been hurt," Giles said. "It takes some time for a vampire to dig its way out of its grave."

"So what brings a Watcher to my door?" Alba asked. "A Nessie sighting that you think might be real?"

"The Loch Ness Monster is quite real," Giles said. "But her species only eat microscopic organisms so we tend to ignore her."

"Are you joking? I don’t always get British humor," Alba said.

"Yes, I’m joking, sir."

"OK, so why would the Council need a marine biologist?"

Giles sighed. "I’m afraid we don’t, Dr. Alba. Just as Tasha was called, so was her successor and now—"

The blood left Alba’s face. "One of my girls?"

"We believe it is quite likely. Mary, Tasha’s successor, died on their birthday."

FADE OUT.

Scene Three

FADE IN.

Int., the Council classroom in Cleveland, present day.

Xander raised his hand. "Excuse me, but what the hell do terrorists in Northern Ireland have to do with sharks in Hawaii? Or with Watchers?"

"I cannot prove it in a court of law, Xander, but I believe Mary’s field Watcher ordered her execution because she refused to patrol in Protestant neighborhoods."

"And Travers approved," Xander said. "I have hated that guy ever since Buffy turned 18."

Andrew frowned. "I don’t understand."

Robin Woods explained: "When a Slayer turns 18, she is tested. Her Watcher drugs her so she is weak—and puts her alone in a room with a starved and tortured vampire."

Andrew looked like he might burst into tears. "B-but . . we-we’re the good guys!"

Willow, gently, said: "The New Council will never do that again. Not while I’m alive."

"Not while any of us in this room are alive, Willow," Giles said.

Robin stroked his chin. "Tasha—she failed the test?"

Giles took off his glasses and cleaned them. "I was told she was sired and dusted by her Watcher as she fed on her human father." He put his glasses back on and looked at Xander. "As for the Belfast Slayer, Travers was her field Watcher. I suspect he ordered her death because he was the youngest Watcher to become head of the Council and led us for longer than anyone before him. It was said he possessed the quality every good military leader must have: The will to send good people to certain death."

Xander shook his head. "I never thought I could hate anyone more than I hated Angel—"

Willow shot him a withering look.

The blood rushed away from his face, but Xander finished his sentence: "—or Warren Meers, but Travers takes the prize."

Robin said: "I didn’t know the Old Council told parents that—"

"We seldom told parents their children were Slayers, unless the community already knew about Slayers and revered those who were Potentials," Giles said. "As field Watcher, I had the option of informing Dr. Alba if I thought it would not breach security—and as he already knew about Slayers and there was a restraining order against Mr. Tiburon, I thought it best to avoid approaching two young girls without parental consent."

Andrew said: "Ex-excuse me, Giles, but . . . who was the Slayer, Topaz or Sapphire?"

"It was my job to find out," Giles said. "Magic and date of death could only narrow the list of potentials to a half dozen . . . I suppose suspects is the right word. It was my job to eliminate the Alba girls—as suspects, I mean—or determine which of them was the true Slayer. Unfortunately, they were the first Twin Potentials in recorded history and we simply had no sure means of determining the truth . . . save the most ancient of rites."

Andrew and Xander stared blankly at him, but Willow and Robin nodded very slowly. The Witch and the son of a Slayer perhaps shared an insight their friends lacked.

Willow said: "When in doubt—trial?"

"By combat," Robin said.

Giles nodded, inhaled, exhaled and resumed his story . . .

To be continued in Act One, Part Two

WATCHERS: Lest We Forget (2B/5)

DISCLAIMER: See start of this document.

DISTRIBUTION: Ask and I shall approve.

SPOILERS: See top of thread.

RATING: PG-13

COMMENT: A quick Google search led me to discover that Hawaiian mythology about sharks is diverse—and complex. Depending on the legend, a shark may be an ancestor, a God, a demon or a human who can take the form of a shark. . . . and some of those mythical sharks may be protectors . . .

I forgot to specify that this tale, set in the state of Hawaii, has the bulk of the action take place on and in the waters surrounding the island of Oahu. I mention this because it may become important to the plot.

SUMMARY: Giles tells his young friends about his first Slayer. Who was this girl and how did she and her successor come to be called?

WATCHERS: Lest We Forget (2B/5)

Act One, Part Two

Scene Four

FADE IN.

July 5, 1984.

Int., Hawaiian Marine Apex Predator Research Institute, day.

The blood left Alba’s face. "One of my girls?"

"We believe it is quite likely. Mary, Tasha’s successor, died on their birthday."

"You mean the Slayer is always born 15 years to the day before the last Slayer died?"

Giles shook his head. "No, Slayers as young as 11 and as old as 17 have been called to duty. But a Potential’s date of birth is always a powerful indicator."

"How do we . . . Do I have any say in this?"

"Free Will is a recognized law of reality," Giles said. "In theory, a Slayer might refuse her calling."

"In theory?"

"The last girl to refuse was Joan of Arc."

"But she was executed for—"

"A fiction created by church and kings," Giles said.

"You’re saying you’ll murder me or my girls if we don’t go along."

"I don’t deny that this situation is dreadfully unfair to all of you—"

"You noticed, huh?"

"—but I should like to point out that you may be worrying about a problem that does not exist. I have to contact the others—"

"Other Slayers? I thought there was only one per generation."

"Other Watchers investigating Potentials," Giles said. "One was in England and would have been tested by now. If she passed—I will leave and your life will continue as if nothing happened. As for the others—well, there are only three others beside the English girl and your daughters. By sunrise we will know if any of the girls are—"

"Excuse me, the sun’s already up."

"Sunrise tomorrow, I meant. We will need to take them to the cemetery tonight—"

"No, you are not taking my daughters to a cemetery and feeding them to vampires! I won’t allow it."

Giles took off his glasses and began cleaning them. "And how do you propose to prevent it, sir? Call the police and say that an Englishman from a secret society of demon killers suspects that one of your children is the Chosen One? You would be hospitalized, your children placed in foster care—and the Council would arrange for the foster parents to be our agents."

Thirty years later, Giles told his young friends that the Old Council had no contacts within the foster care system of any American community—but that all field Watchers were prepared to bluff. No parent was ever known to call the Old Council’s bluff.

"And people think sharks are cold blooded," Alba said. "Get out. If I see you again, I’ll kill you. I really will."

"I don’t doubt it, sir." Giles put on his glasses and stood. "You have a father’s love for these girls."

Ironically, Giles would one day be fired from the Council because he had a father’s love for one particular Slayer.

"GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!"

Giles sighed and left the building.

FADE OUT.

Scene Five

FADE IN.

Giles drove his Hertz rental car to a nearby gas station. There, he found a pay phone. He fed a few coins into the appropriate slots and dialed a number from memory.

A voice said: "British Consulate."

"Rupert Giles, visiting librarian," he said. There was no such job title.

A new voice: "Watcher in Residence. Morning, Ripper."

"I do wish you wouldn’t call me that, Mycroft. I contacted Dr. Alba."

"Mistake?"

"As you predicted, but I stand by my decision. I do not wish to suffer the fate of the late Mr. Pons. As for Dr. Alba—he may prove difficult."

"Think he’ll run?"

"It is a possibility."

"What’s the plan?"

"I imagine that depends on what has happened with the others," Giles said.

Four girls in bikinis, all in their late teens, rushed by on roller skates. Giles watched them with a tired look on his face.

The other man said: "The Cockney girl died last night, so she wasn’t the Chosen One."

"Or she was and we are about to Call someone who is physically incapable of defending herself against vampires."

"That happens what, once very 30 or 40 years? I wouldn’t worry about it, Ripper," The consulate Watcher said. "The Eskimo girl survived, but just barely—a neophyte Watcher named Gwendolyn Post saved her with some quick crossbow work."

"Just as well. I don’t imagine there is much vampire activity in the North Pole."

"During six months of darkness, they’re pretty active—but they don’t feed much on humans. Probably don’t want a Slayer coming down to mess with vampire paradise."

Giles said: "No word on the others?"

"The Jamaican girl wasn’t right, either—turns out the birth certificate was filed the same day Mary died, but she wasn’t born on that day. Councilor Wyndam-Pryce is furious about the clerical and mystical errors that led to her misidentification. That leaves the Hindi girl and one of your twins."

Giles sighed. "I suppose we should be thankful the Jamaican child was not a Potential after all. I would hate to be the Watcher who had to test an 11-year-old. As for my twins . . . I have a plan that might help us. Have you an objection to violating the spirit of Council policy?"

"Not if we can test those girls without killing them."

"Do you know of any chaos demons?"

"I know a couple guys who forge native arts and sell the fakes to the ignorant on the mainland via the mail. If they went straight and had their antlers removed, they could be genuinely successful artists."

"I do not require their biographies, Mycroft, merely . . . a performance."

FADE OUT.

Scene Six

FADE IN.

Ext., a crowded Hawaiian beach, mid-afternoon.

Tiburon was dressed in black swim trunks. He stabbed the beach with his surfboard. Tiburon then stood with his thumbs at his temples and his other fingers shielding his eyes from the sunlight. He scanned the swimmers in the water, as if he was looking for someone in particular. And then he found what he

was seeking.

A man, a woman and three children were in the water, about 20 feet out, splashing one another and laughing. The children were two boys (7 and 10) and a girl (13).

Tiburon whispered to himself: "Hello, Mr. Hookano." Tiburon grabbed his surfboard and walked into the water. He walked in a diagonal path, seemingly away from the swimmers. Probably for the benefit of the lifeguard, who had been giving him a very dirty look.

Perhaps the lifeguard was wondering why Tiburon would bother with surfing on a day when there were no waves to speak of.

Tiburon waded into the water, straddled his surfboard and paddled about 50 feet from shore. Then he slid into the water. His hands disappeared below the surface for a moment, reappearing just long enough to deposit his swim trunks on the board. He nipped his left thumb, hard, drawing blood and smeared a small drop of his blood on the edge of the board.

Then he closed his eyes, pinched his nose, took a deep breath, and slid under the surface.

Cut to:

Close up, Hookano family, minutes later.

Hookano’s daughter yelped: "Something touched my butt!"

Hookano himself stopped splashing water at his two sons. "What’s—?"

His eldest son screamed—in agony—as a tiger shark’s head slid up through the surface and bit down on his right arm.

His little brother, though only 7, began punching at the shark’s head—as did big sister, mom and dad. The human family was no match for a 500-pound shark, but one could not deny their courage.

Then the shark let go of the child and disappeared beneath the surface.

The Hookanos immediately made for the shore—mom carrying her son; sis dragging her crying and frightened youngest brother—and Mr. Hookano himself swimming a few feet back, constantly looking around. As if to see a fin.

Mr. Hookano did not know that, in reality, sharks seldom cut the surface with their dorsal fins before striking.

The shark came at him from below, lifted him just far enough out of the water for his family to see—and then pulled him under.

He never came back up.

The surviving Hookanos made it to shallow waters, so shallow that Mrs. Hookano and her daughter were able to stand up with the two boys in their arms. Their knees were still submerged. The lifeguard rushed to meet Mrs. Hookano and her bleeding child—for they were just a few feet from safe, dry land.

Most of the other swimmers had returned to land by then, but a few swam in the direction from which the Hookanos had been coming—as if they could save the poor man who had just been killed before their eyes.

Suddenly, the Hookano daughter fell forward with her brother in her arms. She lost hold of her little brother, who had the wisdom to scramble for safety even as something—the shark, of course—pulled her splashing, screaming, pleading, bleeding, back in the water.

And she too disappeared.

Cut to:

Ext., Tiburon’s floating surfboard, 20 minutes later.

Tiburon came up gasping. He grabbed his trunks and disappeared under the water for a moment, then came back up again. He climbed onto his surfboard and then, panting as though he were exhausted, he began paddling toward the shore.

Cut to:

Int., Hawaiian Marine Apex Predator Research Institute, nightfall.

The hammerhead called "Herbie" was gone, either dead or returned to the ocean where he belonged.

Dr. Alba left his letter of resignation on a chair behind a desk adjacent to his own.

He grabbed his briefcase and rushed out to the parking lot, out to his jeep, where his two very unhappy-looking daughters were waiting for him. Sapphire wore a white t-shirt and black denims. Topaz wore a yellow t-shirt. The radio was on. As Alba climbed in, he switched it off.

He didn’t notice the silhouette that looked like a man in an antler hat seated in a sedan parked nearby—nor the identical silhouette behind the driver’s wheel of a station wagon that was parked illegally across the street from the entrance to the parking lot.

Sapphire said: "There was a shark attack today, daddy."

He turned the key in the ignition. The jeep would not start.

"That t.v. anchorman Topaz has a crush on—"

"I do not have a crush on him!"

"Not now, girls, not tonight. Daddy is really, really stressed and we absolutely have to leave Oahu tonight." He pumped the gas pedal with his foot. Sweat beaded on his face. He looked around, as if fearful that Rupert Giles might return.

"Daddy, has a shark ever attacked three people before?"

"Three people?" He tried to start the car again.

"Yeah, he killed that television guy and his daughter and they think his son might die, too."

The engine turned over and he shouted, "Great!"

His daughters stared at him in horror.

He rolled his eyes. "I mean about the car—for God’s sake, you two know me better than that!"

He shifted gears and made for the parking lot driveway—when a station wagon lurched into his path and came to a dead halt. Alba honked the horn. From behind him, he heard another car engine start up.

Alba got out of the car and stomped toward the station wagon. He heard a small crash—nothing serious, no worse than a minor fender bender—and saw that the sedan had rear-ended his jeep.

That’s when he saw the driver of the Sedan slowly ease his head out of the doorway, moving with care to avoid catching his antlers on anything.

Perhaps Alba recognized a chaos demon when he saw it. They are not formidable beasts: except for the antlers, they could easily pass as humans. But the sight of them is a little startling to the uninitiated.

"We have to talk to your daughters, mister."

"Yeah."

Alba turned to see the driver of the station wagon: another chaos demon. Neither was armed and neither moved with any speed. In fact, they were walking quite deliberately.

Almost as though they were orders to appear menacing, but to do no real harm.

"If you hurt my girls—" Alba crouched, fists raised.

The first chaos demon said: "One of your girls kills our kind."

The second said: "We don’t like to be killed—we hate violence."

"So we have to kill the Slayer before she kills us."

"Sorry, Topaz," said the second chaos demon.

Sapphire jumped out of the jeep and held her hands as if she meant to karate chop the demon. She positioned herself at the rear of the jeep, between that demon and her sister and her father.

At that same instant, Topaz jumped out at positioned herself at the front of the jeep, between her dad and her sister and the demonic station wagon driver. She crouched, but waved her hands clumsily—as if she had never learned to fight in her life.

"Sorry, Sapphire," said the demon.

Alba grabbed Topaz and pulled her away from the demon—only to take a right cross in his jaw.

Sapphire lunged at one demon.

Topaz broke from her father’s grip and leapt up, driving her right foot into the other chaos demon’s face.

FADE OUT.

To be continued in Act One, Part Three

WATCHERS: Lest We Forget (2C/5)

DISCLAIMER: See start of this document.

DISTRIBUTION: Ask and I shall approve.

SPOILERS: See top of thread.

RATING: PG-13

COMMENT:

SUMMARY: Giles tells his young friends about his first Slayer. Who was this girl and how did she and her successor come to be called?

WATCHERS: Lest We Forget (2C/5)

Act One, Part Three

Scene Seven

Scene Eight

FADE IN.

Int., Watchers classroom, 2004.

Xander, Willow and Andrew stared at Giles as though they no longer recognized him. Robin Woods frowned as though he were merely puzzled. Of course, he alone had been raised by first a Slayer and then a Watcher.

Andrew was the first to speak and his voice cracked with emotion. "You-you hired those chaos demons to attack those girls?"

"Whenever there was doubt that a girl was Chosen, she was forced to face a demon," Giles said. "Unfortunately, innocent girls died. I felt that forcing the Alba twins to face chaos demons—"

"Didn’t a chaos demon take Spike from Dru?" Xander asked.

Robin burst out laughing. "Did you get his name? I’d like to buy that demon a beer!"

Willow said: "G-giles? Weren’t you afraid those girls would be killed? I mean . . . "

Xander said: "They were demons, Giles. They were evil."

Robin shook his head. "Chaos demons aren’t all evil, Xander. A couple of them babysat for me when my mom patrolled. They’re an awful lot like humans, actually. Some even have their antlers removed and pass as human."

Andrew, in a very small voice, said: "Some humans are very evil."

Giles said: "Only a tiny minority of chaos demons are violent."

"Because they’re good demons?" Xander asked. There was a touch of sarcasm in his voice.

Andrew said: "But they threatened to kill the Alba twins."

"That was part of the script," Giles said. "I was counting on the twins’ natural affection for and loyalty to one another to overcome any aversion they might have to accepting the challenge. As for your question, Xander, chaos demons generally avoid violence for the very simple reason that they are easily killed—one need only break one of the demon’s antlers and he dies. They do not need to kill humans to live—they feed on the emotion of anxiety and many live out their lives working in or near hospitals and singles bars without ever shedding a drop of human blood."

"Is that how the Council knew my mother was a Slayer?" Robin asked.

"Most likely she was taken to a cemetery and set against a newly risen vampire," Giles said. "That was the tradition. My actions may seem repugnant, but the official policy only required that the Potentials face demons. The policy did not require them to face certain death—as your mother surely faced the night she was tested."

Willow said: "Thank the Goddess I activated all the Potentials."

FADE OUT.

July 5, 1984.

Ext., Parking lot, Hawaiian Marine Apex Predator Research Institute, Night.

Sapphire lunged at one demon.

Topaz broke from her father’s grip and leapt up, driving her right foot into the other chaos demon’s face. It was a good kick—he fell on his back and the air left his lungs.

Alba spun around to help his other daughter.

Topaz, unfortunately, fell on her butt. The sight would have been laughable—if she and her family were not under demonic attack.

The other demon lifted Sapphire up until their eyes met. He held her at arms’ length and, try as she would to kick at him, her feet never made contact. She did give his arms a good pounding.

Alba also lunged at the chaos demon. (How he chose which of his two daughters to rescue is anyone’s guess. He probably never forgave himself for his choice. He wouldn’t have forgiven himself if he’d made the other choice.)

Topaz leapt up again and landed on her feet—just as the other demon feinted toward her.

She punched him and he staggered back.

Someone yelled in a British accent: "Break his antlers!"

Alba circled Sapphire’s attacker and wrapped his arm around the creature’s neck.

Topaz reached out and snapped off one of the chaos demon’s antlers. He screamed and dropped, convulsing.

The other chaos demon dropped Sapphire on her backside and drove his elbow into Alba’s gut. He pulled Alba’s arm from around his throat and staggered toward the station wagon—when a single gunshot knocked him down.

Alba knelt beside Sapphire, who was crying and shaking but physically unharmed. Unless you count a mildly bruised backside. The father hugged his weeping daughter.

Topaz, the warrior daughter, either unconcerned by the gunshot or too determined to kill the demon to think about it, turned and jumped over the hood of the jeep, circled around to where the other demon lay gasping—and broke one of his antlers.

He too screamed before he convulsed and died.

Topaz ran to her dad and sister. "She OK, daddy?"

"Yeah, Sapphire’s OK."

Giles stepped out of the shadows, a smoking .22 pistol in his hand.

Alba got up and started toward him—until he noticed the handgun.

"Your daughters were in no real danger, Dr. Alba."

"No danger! You had demons attack us!"

"Chaos demons look . . . peculiar . . . and a very few are genuinely vicious . . . but they are for the most part rather tame beasts. These two were well paid to act aggressively, on the condition they do nothing to injure any of you."

"You trusted demons to keep their word?"

"I promised them that all the chaos demons in these islands would be exempt from the Council’s kill all demons policy," Giles said. "I felt that bribe would be adequate."

Topaz said: "I don’t get it."

Sapphire said: "What was this, a stupid test?"

Giles nodded. "Yes, dear, and I’m afraid your sister passed."

Giles shouldn’t have taken his eyes off her father. The marine biologist rushed him, snatched the gun from his hand—and gave Giles a right cross to the jaw.

Giles fell on his butt, his nose and lips bled.

Alba screamed in pain. Turns out if you punch a man in the skull with your fist, you are quite likely to break at least some of the bones in your hand.

FADE OUT.

Scene Eight

FADE IN.

Cut to:

Ext., an old Honolulu cemetery, night.

Bane Aiona climbed slowly out of his grave. So far, only his arms had broken through the surface soil of his fresh grave.

"Hurry up, boy!" snarled Keona Aiona. He was a large Polynesian man in his 40s or 50s. More accurately: He had been in his 40s or 50s before he was sired. He had his fangs showing. His vampire eyes seemed particularly out of place on a Hawaiian face under the Hawaiian moonlight

"He can’t hear you, honey," said Haleigha Aiona. His wife, 10 years his junior when she died, was of mixed Hawaiian-Chinese heritage. Like many people on the islands.

"You always made excuses for him when he was alive," Keona said. "Are you going to spend eternity making excuses for him?"

The couple stood some 50 feet from the grave.

"Daddy?" a young female voice whined. "Why can’t we dig him out?" Alana Aiona sat on a nearby grave marker. Alana was about 5-foot-6 and was tolerably decent looking for her age. She had been about 14 or 15 when she was sired. Had you seen her walking the cemetery that night, you might easily have mistaken her for a Slayer.

Haleigha scowled at her husband. "What ever possessed you to sire a teenager?"

Ignoring his wife, Keona told his daughter: "He’ll never learn if we—"

A British voice groaned: "Oh, bloody hell! It’s the only time the sodding twit is going to be climbing out of his grave, mate."

William the Bloody swaggered past Keona, bent over, grabbed Bane’s hands with his and pulled him halfway out. He turned to Alana. "Dig, girl."

Keona clenched his fists. "I’m still the head of this ohana—"

"Will you people learn to speak bloody English? You’re Americans for bloody Christ’s sake, talk like Americans!"

A female voice said: "Tsk, tsk. You are so very provincial, my love."

Spike looked up at the moon. "Turn a family, she said. Be bloody fun, she said. Defame and exploit the local beliefs, she said. What do I get? I GET STUCK WITH THE BLOODY HAWAIIAN PARTRIDGE FAMILY!"

If facial expressions were lethal, Alana Aiona’s glare would have turned Spike into a cloud of dust.

Bane, still struggling to get out of his grave, said: "Am I dead?"

Spike gaped at him for what would have been a heartbeat, if anyone present still had a beating heart. Then he looked at Keona Aiona: "You dropped him on his head when he was lit’le, didn’t you?"

Haleigha Aiona said: "I don’t care if you did sire us, you—"

"Actually, Spike sired you and your daughter," Drusilla said. "I sired the boys." She looked at Bane and smiled sweetly at him. "You weren’t at all bad, for a human."

"Dru, you didn’t—!"

"We only kissed, luv. I would never be unfaithful to my Spikey."

To himself, Spike whispered: "Tell it to the bloody Immortal." Out loud, he said: "Look, Hagen Das—"

"My name is Haleigha."

"If your half wit son goes near my woman, I’ll dust him faster than any Slayer."

The Aionas might bicker among themselves, as they almost certainly did in life, but they immediately became a unified ohana when an outsider threatened one of them. As they almost certainly did when they were alive. There are some things that even death will never change.

Alana and Haleigha Aiona circled Spike. Drusilla looked about, spotted a twig on the ground and scooped it up. She threatened to dust Bane, who was now trying to wriggle his pelvis out of the tight hole he’d dug.

Unfortunately for both Bane and Spike, there was something else that death could not change. A family may remain family even after death, but a sick family will remain a sick family—especially after they have all been vamped.

So, in perfect unison, Alana, Haleigha and Keona all said: "Go ahead, dust him!"

Spike looked over the three new vampires. "You let me go, she lets him go."

"You leave for the mainland, first thing tomorrow," Keona said.

Drusilla said: "You’ve been talking about going to Belfast and killing another Slayer."

The demon community apparently didn’t know that things had changed.

Alana said: "What’s a Slayer, daddy?"

"A human," Drusilla hissed. "An awful, terrible human."

Spike said: "She’s Chosen, one to a generation, to kill our kind. I like to hunt them. But you lot? You might want to steer clear for a century or so."

Keona said: "You and your woman each take a step away. She dusts my son, the three of us will be all over you."

It wasn’t likely the Aionas stood much of a chance against two protégés of Angelus, but perhaps Spike didn’t much care for three to one odds unless he was one of the three.

So Spike took one slow and careful stride away from the Aionas and Drusilla stood and took one slow and careful stride away from Bane Aiona. And so it went, until very nearly sunrise . . .

FADE OUT.

Scene Nine

FADE IN.

Cut to:

Ext., Oahu docks, sunrise to sunset.

Later, reporters would compare the scene to the movie "Jaws." It was an apt comparison. Every idiot with access to any watercraft (seaworthy or not) hit the waters surrounding Oahu and began hunting for sharks.

Many sharks were killed. Many were dragged aboard boats, slit open and tossed back into the water. Others had their dorsal and pectoral fins amputated. (In 1984 shark fin soup was not yet the expensive delicacy that would make shark fins worth $200 a pound and the rest of the fish worth .50 cents a pound.)

Tiburon himself seemed to rejoice in the slaughter. He brought all many of sharks, especially the tiger sharks, back to the docks. All had been gaffed or shot or both—and even then, after they were dead, he publicly mutilated them with a Bowie knife.

Some older Hawaiians and young white people protested the carnage. But it went on. In seven months’ time, sharks had killed five humans. Four had died within a single month. People were angry—and scared.

As the sun set on Oahu, a tall and beautiful woman with red hair and Hawaiian features watched the chaos. A single tear dripped down her face. From her purse she took out a photograph.

Of Rupert Giles.

"If only he would call upon my family," she said.

Cut to:

Int., Honoulu County Morgue.

Two armed uniformed police officers escorted the Englishman and the young woman into the refrigerated section of the morgue in which the bodies were stored. As soon as the four of them entered the room, all official activity ceased and all the public employees scurried out.

One of the policemen stood just inside the entrance, his arms crossed over his chest. His partner and Giles, without a word, strode over to two stainless doors. Each man opened his chosen door and pulled out a metal slab. On each slab, a sheet covered the remains of a human. Each man pulled the sheet down, revealing the pre-autopsy remains of two humans.

Two female children, no more than 8-years-old, their throats ripped open. As if an animal had bitten them and held fast until they died.

Topaz Alba stepped back until she collided with the policeman at the door. Without a word, he grabbed one of her arms and dragged her over to Giles’ side.

The Watcher said: "This happened last night. A gang of vampires shared these two. This will happen every night on Oahu, until the creatures move to another island . . . or the mainland . . . or until they are killed. I cannot force you to accept the responsibility of being a Slayer. But look at these children, Topaz, and tell THEM that you do not feel like being a Slayer." He nodded to each of the two policemen. "Gentlemen, I believe Ms. Alba would like a moment alone with Mary and Ruth."

Giles and the two cops stepped outside. Through small windows in the doorway, you could see that they stood with their backs to the door. As if they wanted to give Topaz her privacy.

Topaz stood silent and sullen for a very long time. Then with twitching fingers she reached up and touched the ragged wound in the neck of the corpse nearest to her.

Topaz’ lower lip trembled. A tear ran down her right cheek, then her left. Then she sobbed.

"I’m sorry."

As if a new and untrained Slayer could have prevented these deaths . . . or the ones that were to come.

To be continued in Act Two . . .

WATCHERS: Lest We Forget (3A/5)

DISCLAIMER: See start of this document.

DISTRIBUTION: Ask and I shall approve.

SPOILERS: See top of thread.

RATING: PG-13

COMMENT: Thanks to Ambyrhawke for the lead on the Hawaiian names. Thanks also to Merc for the insight into the twins' relationship. I'm afraid it may take me a couple installments after this to develop that.

BTW: The "Jersey Maneater" mentioned below refers to an actual incident that pushed World War I off the front page of the East Coast papers. A shark killed four people in just days. Swam up a fresh water river and killed some people. Although both Steven Spielberg and Peter Benchley have denied it, there are many similarities between the Jersey Maneater attacks and "Jaws," both novel and movie. In fact, the movie borrows more from the real event than the book.

People who care about such things still debate just what kind of shark did it. Prime suspects: A great white shark or a bull shark. Shortly after the attacks stopped, a great white was caught down the coast with partially digested human flesh in its belly. But great whites cannot live in fresh water. Bull sharks can live in both fresh and salt water. A bull shark, therefore, seems the most likely suspect.

An aside: I could be wrong, but if I recall the timelines correctly, the Slayer named "Tasha" was probably called after Spike murdered Robin Woods’ mother.

SUMMARY: In 2004, Giles tells his young friends about his first Slayer. (Buffy was his third.) She was called in 1984 on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. Her name was Topaz Alba, daughter of Dr. Joshua Alba, a marine biologist, and identical twin sister of Sapphire Alba. Together, Topaz and Giles investigated a mysterious series of quite unnatural shark attacks and simultaneously fought an "ohana" (family) of vampires . . .

WATCHERS: Lest We Forget (3A/5)

Act Two, Part One

Scene One

FADE IN.

Int., Watchers classroom, 2004.

The classroom was silent as a tomb for several minutes. A digital clock on the wall read 10:40 A.M. when Giles stopped his story at the point where Topaz began weeping.

The clock read 11:07 when Xander broke the silence. "That was pretty rough of you, Giles."

Robin said: "I wonder if the families of those two dead children would have felt the same way."

Andrew swallowed, hard. From the look on his face, it looked like he might run crying from the room. "Wasn’t there another choice, Giles?"

"I had many choices," Giles said. "Dr. Alba struck me. I could have threatened him with a lengthy prison term. I could have told Topaz, and correctly, that the foster care system might send her and her sister to two separate families. They might not see one another again for years. I could have told the Council that Topaz did not wish to serve. The Council, in turn, might have begun pressuring Topaz to answer the Call—or the Council might simply have chosen to kill her and have another Called in her place."

Willow said, softly and sadly, "Maybe Giles made a good choice."

"Well, the least bad choice, considering the options he had." Robin said. "How does that quote go? ‘Whosoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become one and when you look into the abyss, the abyss also

looks into you.’ "

Giles nodded. "The greatest danger we face in our work is that we will lose our humanity even as we defend it," Giles said. "It is one of the reasons I decided to tell you about my first Slayer."

Andrew frowned. "I’m confused. I thought that girl in Belfast was your first Slayer."

Xander shook his head. "She was Travers’ Slayer."

Robin said: "I thought that Tasha girl, the one who saved the Alba twins from their mother, was your first Slayer."

"Tasha was Travers’ Slayer," Giles said. "Dr. Alba and his children saw Tasha dust their mother and Travers kept in touch with the family. Travers was reassigned and someone else was Tasha’s Watcher when she turned 18."

"Why didn’t the Council send Travers to Hawaii?" Willow asked.

"A Watcher is never assigned two Slayers in succession," Giles said. "Five girls would follow Topaz before Buffy was Called and her Watcher would die before I was assigned to her."

Andrew, Xander and Willow gaped at him and silently mouthed the word "five." Robin sighed. "I knew Buffy and my mom were good, but I didn’t realize how good."

Giles said, "One wonders how long your mother might have lived if she had been blessed with helpers such as these two," as he pointed at Xander and Willow.

"It helped that our Watcher was a good man," Robin said. "Travers would have ordered my mother to get an abortion—and had her shot when she refused."

FADE OUT.

Scene Two

FADE IN.

July 5, 1984.

Ext., a modest house, residential neighborhood, Honolulu, Hawaii, afternoon.

The Alba residence was Spartan. The reason for this was simple. Scientists are seldom wealthy.

Dr. Joshua Alba sat on his sofa, flanked on either side by his twins. They were dressed alike. "You want your Slayer, pick her out." He waved his right hand, which was in a cast, left to right.

Giles sighed. "I do wish you would stop treating me as your enemy."

"You had demons attack us—"

"I could have engineered a traditional fight to the death," Giles said, taking off his glasses. "I did not because I did not need to—" He took out a small white cloth and began cleaning the lenses. "—because I could easily identify which daughter—"

He suddenly tossed his glasses at Dr. Alba’s face—and the girl seated on Alba’s right grabbed the glasses in mid-air with her left hand. Her weaker hand.

"—was the Slayer by her reflexes. Thank you, Topaz," Giles said, taking back his glasses.

"I think he’s smarter than me, Daddy," Topaz said.

"Unfortunately, most people are," Sapphire said.

Alba glared at his other daughter. "Don’t insult your sister, EVER. And certainly not in front of this . . . Watcher." He spat the word.

Giles pulled up a chair and sat facing Topaz. "Will you accept the Call?"

"You ask like I have a real choice, Mr. Rupert. I don’t I’ll be killed and between now and then a whole bunch of innocent people, including little kids, will be killed. And the fun part is that I’m gonna die anyway."

"I intend to train you well so that you will live longer than most Slayers," Giles said. "My family have been Watchers for a very long time and the Giles Slayers live much longer than most."

"You must be so damned proud of yourself," Alba said.

Sapphire asked how come Giles Slayers lived longer.

"Unlike most Watchers, we go with them on their early patrols. It violates Council tradition, for the Watcher is supposed to protect the family of the Slayer before the Slayer herself, but we have found that they live longer if they are not sent alone into battle until they have had formal training." To

Topaz, he said: "When you fell on your bum—"

"My what?"

Her father translated: "British for rump."

"—fighting that chaos demon, how did you feel?"

"Scared, of course! How did I feel? That’s a dumb question, Mr. Rupert. I thought that thing was gonna kill me and my whole family."

"Suppose you were taught how to land on your feet—or to get up more quickly when you fell. Do you think that would be an advantage?"

"You can teach me that?"

"I can," Giles said. "And whenever possible, I will help you learn as much as possible about whatever creature you face. Knowledge is victory." He was quoting the Old Council motto. But, to be fair, the New Council would not exist until the 20th Century was history. To Dr. Alba, he said: "You can continue to fight me, sir, but I truly see no point in struggling against the inevitable. You can help your daughter to develop her unique abilities or you can suppress those abilities. She will live longer if you do the former."

"That doesn’t mean I have to like you."

"No, doctor, it does not. If it comforts you, I gladly give all three of you permission to hate me and to express that hatred to my face. But hating me will not keep Topaz alive when she faces her first vampire."

Cut to:

Ext., another Honolulu residential neighborhood, just after sunset.

The boy was 13. He got off his bike and used a chain to lash it to the front porch of his home.

"Hey, Leilani!"

Yes, the boy’s name was Leilani. It is a boy’s name. On the mainland, his name would have gotten his ass kicked from one end of the schoolyard to another.

Leilani frowned. "Alana? Impossible. Mom said you’re—"

"I’m right here, sweetie."

The boy blushed and turned, slowly, to see Alana Aiona in a black bikini. She waved at him. He was only 13. She was 14 or 15. To him, an older woman. She smiled at him and walked slowly toward him, smiling at him and licking her lips.

She took his face in her hands. He closed his eyes.

And died.

Cut to:

Ext., Oahu coastline, a few miles offshore.

A man and woman leaned against the rail of a modest houseboat. The man and woman were kissing. It must have seemed romantic, to sail and kiss by moonlight.

Neither of them noticed the surfboard floating unattended near the stern of their vessel. Neither noticed the wet man’s swimsuit resting on top of the board.

"You’re getting better at this all the time, honey," the woman said.

The man didn’t get a chance to answer.

A large tiger shark broke the surface, leapt up, took the man’s head in its jaws and pulled him over the railing and into the water. A spray of water and white foam, tinted with red.

The woman gaped, pale and horrified, at the surface.

A moment later, her husband broke the surface and began screaming for help.

The shark’s dorsal fin broke the surface again and rushed him.

A life preserver and rope hit the water at the same time the shark hit the man—and slammed him against the side of the boat.

FADE OUT.

Scene Three.

FADE IN.

Ext., Hawaiian Marine Apex Predator Research Institute, Day.

Twenty people marched in a circular picket line outside the building. Their signs differed widely but one was representative of all the rest. "No Sharks, No Shark Lovers."

One of the protesters screamed at Dr. Alba as he dashed from the parking lot to the door: "WHAT ABOUT OUR CHILDREN?"

Another protester said: "You don’t have kids, Ralph."

Alba rolled his eyes, went inside and slammed the door shut.

Cut to:

Int., Hawaiian Marine Apex Predator Research Institute.

The same 20-going-on-30 Hawaiian woman who had been in the office the other day now sat at a desk making notes. "I see you met the fan club." She didn’t look up.

"I thought I noticed something, Noelani. Did that anchorman’s kid die?"

Noelani looked up. "You’re out of touch, Joshua. He died early yesterday. There was another attack last night—a tiger shark pulled a honeymooner over the side of a houseboat."

"That’s impossible. That’s never happened. Tigers don’t breach—"

"His wife was the only witness," Noelani said. "Maybe she tossed him over the side and the shark attacked him. But I just spoke to the doctor—the wounds are consistent with tiger shark bites."

"Prognosis?"

"He’ll live, but the shark body slammed him against the boat—"

Alba shook his head. "Sharks don’t do that."

"Well someone apparently forgot to tell the shark," Noelani said. "Anyway, he suffered a nasty concussion and there could be permanent brain damage. From what the witnesses to the other attack said, a tiger shark also attacked that anchorman and his family. Could be we have a shark that—"

"The rouge shark theory was a joke when that damn dentist came up with it back in the 1920s," Alba said. "We aren’t dealing with the Hawaiian version of the Jersey Maneater."

"Well something’s going on, Joshua, and there’s gotta be a scientific explanation."

Alba sat down and gazed out the window. Softly, to himself, the scientist said: "Or a Slayer explanation."

Cut to:

Ext., Books of the UnDead, an occult bookstore, downtown Honolulu.

The sign said closed.

Inside, Rupert Giles cleared a space in the middle of the room. His outfit hardly befitted a bookseller. He was covered with padding, head to toe, with a particularly heavy amount of padding in the vicinity of his pelvis. (Historically, newly called Slayers have had a tendency to repeatedly kick their Watchers in the groin "accidentally" during training sessions.)

"I should warn you," Giles said. "I will not pull my punches. You are not an ordinary girl."

"Oh, good," Topaz said. "I won’t feel bad about kicking your old bum all over this place, Mr. Rupert."

"I do wish you would not address me as Mr. Rupert," Giles said. "It sounds affectionate."

"Affection is bad?"

"The Council considers it inappropriate for Watchers and Slayers to be over fond of one another."

"You really don’t have to worry too much about that, Mr. Rupert. I didn’t like that nasty pop test you threw at me and my family. And I really don’t much care how the Council feels. They aren’t the ones who have to fight the bats."

"Bats?"

"Vampires."

"With the exception of Dracula, who has not been seen in some years, vampires do not shape shift into bats."

Topaz shrugged. "The Council still doesn’t fight them—I don’t see why I have to obey them."

"Strictly speaking, I am the one who has to obey—and the Council generally tends to leave the field Watcher to his or her own devices." To himself, softly: "And sometimes to twist in the bloody wind."

Topaz leapt up, kicked him in his faceplate. Giles fell on his butt and Topaz fell on her butt. Giles groaned. "You really must work at landing on your feet, Topaz. I will always give you a second change. A vampire will never give you a first chance. He will simply feed on you."

Cut to:

Ext., an Oahu beach.

Sapphire walked along the beach, stopping now and then to look at the boys and girls sunning themselves on the sand. She shook head sadly and sighed. "Pretending to look at cute boys isn’t as much fun without Topaz. She actually enjoys looking at them."

She kicked the dirt. "Stupid Watcher."

From the tone of her voice, you might have thought she’d lost her best friend.

Cut to:

Ext., a houseboat in its slip, about 10 minutes later.

Cut to:

Int., the houseboat.

Taped to one wall of the cabin was a mosaic of photographs of a young boy—the same boy. He smiled in most of them and he was a good-looking kid in all of them. A few of the pictures included the boy and either a pretty Hawaiian woman or a Latin American man—Tiburon himself, five or so years earlier. Sometimes the kid was with both his parents. The man and woman in the photographs wore matching gold bands. All three of them looked quite happy.

There were no pictures of just the woman or just Tiburon. The dirty underwear scattered about the floor suggested that the woman was either temporarily or permanently absent.

Another wall was covered with a number of photographs. Tiburon took down the photo of the honeymooners who had been attacked the night before and with it he took down the photograph of the anchorman and his now slaughtered family. Tiburon no longer wore a wedding band. He put up a series of new photographs.

Of Joshua Alba. Of Sapphire Alba. Of Topaz Alba. And of Rupert Giles.

To be continued in Act Two, Part Two

WATCHERS: Lest We Forget (3B/5)

DISCLAIMER: See start of this document.

DISTRIBUTION: Ask and I shall approve.

SPOILERS: It just dawned on me that some of you might not have seen (or don’t remember) the BTVS episode "Helpless." That, too, will figure in this story set long before Buffy and Giles ever met.

RATING: PG-13

COMMENT: Before anyone asks, I’ll tell you right now: The red headed woman in the story is not related to our dear Willow. Trust me, I think I might possibly know what I’m doing. Sort of. And you should know things are going to get a bit darker in this installment.

SUMMARY: In 2004, Giles tells his young friends about his first Slayer. She was called in 1984 on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. Her name was Topaz Alba, daughter of Dr. Joshua Alba, a marine biologist, and identical twin sister of Sapphire

Alba. Together, Topaz and Giles investigated a mysterious series of quite unnatural shark attacks and simultaneously fought an "ohana" (family) of vampires . . .

WATCHERS: Lest We Forget (3B/5)

Act Two, Part Two

Scene Four

FADE IN.

Ext., a Honalulu park, night.

The boy, about 17, about 6 feet tall, ran like hell to his car.

But stopped in his tracks when he saw the older man with a vampire’s face sitting on the front end of the car. A woman with a vampire’s face sat on the back end.

"Oh. Hell," the boy said.

"You tried something with my daughter, didn’t you, son?" snarled Keona Aiona.

The boy shook his head. "No, sir, she’s only 15—"

"How did you know that about our little girl?" Haleigha Aiona asked.

The boy turned to run—but came face to face with Bane Aiona. Bane wore his human face.

The boy said: "You gotta help me! These vampires—"

Bane bared his fangs—and bit the boy. Mom and dad, and eventually sis, joined him.

Cut to:

Ext., a Honalulu cemetery, 10 minutes later.

Giles snapped, "TOPAZ!"

The girl started and clutched her chest with her free hand. "You scared me!"

"The feeling is mutual, Topaz!"

"OK, what exactly did I do wrong this time?" She wasn’t whining, exactly, but you could hear her frustration.

Topaz stood at the foot of a fresh grave. The occupant of the grave was working his way out of it. His head and right arm were completely free of the Earth and Topaz held her stake in hand.

"He is no danger to anyone just yet," Giles said. "But you were ready to stake him without first looking around. Some sires actually like to be present when their creations rise. If I were absent and his sire present when you bent to stake him—"

Topaz paled. "I’d be food."

"At the very least, you would be fighting for your life," the Englishman said. "I do not enjoy attending the burials of girls your age."

The vampire continued to work his way out of his grave.

Topaz glanced at him, saw that his heart was still difficult to reach, and looked slowly around the cemetery. She pointed at a grave. "Did a vamp rise from that one already?"

Giles glanced at the grave she had spotted. "I think you may be correct. Very good. But you should dust him now."

Topaz turned to the other grave, knelt before the rising demon—and staked his chest. He burst into a cloud of dust.

"Congratulations on your first kill."

Topaz gagged. "He looked . . . "

"Almost human?"

She stood up and nodded.

"I suspect it will be most difficult the first time you dust a vampire whose true visage is not showing. I wish I could advise you, but that is an experience that you must endure alone. I can only tell you I had to spend many weeks reminding myself that the thing I dusted only appeared to be human."

"Did it help?"

"Not until I looked at photographs of his victims," Giles said.

"Then you felt good about it?"

"No, but the grief diminished somewhat."

The Slayer and her Watcher went over to the grave Topaz had spotted earlier. Giles knelt and motioned to the girl to kneel beside him. "After you have patrolled cemeteries for a few months, you will learn to see what I see. Can you tell the difference between the dirt here—" Giles pointed to the near perfect edge of the grave. "—and the dirt here?" He now pointed at the asymmetrical depression in the center of the grave.

Topaz studied to the two spots carefully, even as Giles made a point of scanning the vicinity. The older man, more experienced in hunting for vampires, understood that a Slayer and her Watcher are always behind enemy lines. Topaz was too new to this war to understand she would never be back in "the World" she had known before she met Giles.

Topaz said: "I’m not sure of the right words . . . but . . . you’re telling me part of the grave was dug by a backhoe and part by hands?"

Giles nodded. "In time, you will even be able to distinguish between a hole dug by a small animal going down and a hole dug by a vampire rising." Giles stood. He took out a note pad and wrote down the name on the grave marker. "Bane Aiona."

"Will he go after his family, the way my mom went after me and Sapphire?"

"That wasn’t your mother, Topaz," Giles said. "The demon . . . hijacked her corpse and broke into her memories—and used both against you and your sister. But to answer your question—it is possible. We should warn the Aionas they are in danger."

Topaz said: "Too late, Mr. Rupert—look there, there—and there."

Giles looked where she had pointed. "An entire family—sired."

"What’ll they do?"

"They may choose to hunt apart or together."

"Those two dead girls you showed me—"

Giles nodded. "I will need to do more research, but I think you may have discovered by tuition what I should have discovered by research."

"Well, to be fair, you were drafting a reluctant Slayer and arguing with her over-protective daddy and her smarter sister."

"You are hardly stupid, Topaz."

"Yeah, but Sapphire likes science and art and classical music," Topaz said. "I like pop and sports and guys with cute butts. She’s going to be something special. I’m just—"

"You will make sure that your sister and millions like her get the chance to become something special," Giles said. "Try to remember that when you feel that all you do is stab dead things with a pointy stick. And please do not speak of men’s rear ends in my presence."

"I’m gonna miss spending all my time with her."

"You do not want your sister feeling what you felt when you dusted that creature."

"No," said Topaz. "I don’t."

FADE OUT.

Scene Five

FADE IN.

Cut to:

Ext., Honolulu docks, early morning.

Tiburon smiled and breathed in deeply. "Robert Duvall was wrong—this is the scent of victory!"

The docks were crowded with the bodies of sharks in varying states of dismemberment. It didn’t take long to spot the victims of the professional fishermen, the sport fishermen and the bloodthirsty idiots who thought they could indulge sadism without consequence. The pros quickly and efficiently cut up the sharks and packaged the meat. Sportsmen stood beside the bodies of the kills while friends photographed their triumphs. The idiots just hacked at the sharks.

Tiburon himself stood on the docks, the mutilated bodies of six hammerheads at his feet. Not content to slice of their tails, their dorsal and pectoral fins, Tiburon had amputated each end of each shark’s T-shaped head. Two of the dead hammerheads had been females—a fact easily seen by the fact that the four males once had claspers [the sex organs of male sharks—nature gives two claspers to each male]. Not content to mutilate the fins or the heads of the sharks, Tiburon had taken his hatred even further. He had amputated all eight claspers and gutted the two females.

One of those females had been pregnant. Tiburon had mutilated her unborn young as well.

The fishermen glanced at him and, revolted, returned to their work. Many of the fishermen were poor and, living on the economic edge of the Hawaiian economy, would never waste food. To butcher an animal for food or to sell its meat was one thing. This mutilation for the joy of mutilation was an abomination even to men who had no love for sharks.

Cut to:

Ext., an Oahu beach, early morning.

Topaz stood at the edge of the water and let the water come in, cover her feet, and roll back away from the land. Sapphire looked around. "No cute boys in sight, Topaz. Sorry."

"I’m sorry I’m the only good-looking girl around, sis," Topaz said.

"Topaz? You don’t do that much for me. Sorry."

"Hey, it would be gross I did do something for you, sis."

"You think that Watcher suspects?"

"That you’re gay? I doubt it. I mean, if daddy hasn’t picked up a clue, I don’t see how Mr. Rupert could."

"Daddies wanna be granddaddies," Sapphire said. "They don’t see anything that says they aren’t gonna get what they want. The Watcher might see what’s really there to see."

"I’ll kick his ass if he says anything," Topaz said. "You’re sister’s the Slayer now. You’re the safest girl in Hawaii. The only way you could be safer is if you had Pele herself guarding you."

"Oh, damn!"

"What?"

"I forgot to tell you. I heard daddy call Noelani and—"

"Is he finally going to ask her for a date?"

Sapphire shook her head. "No, daddy's as dumb as a boy our age when it comes to girls. He asked her to watch us for a couple of days."

Topaz frowned. "That doesn’t sound like daddy."

"He said he was going to the Big Island. I’m not sure, but . . . "

"You think he’s gonna give Pele a bottle of gin?"

"Wouldn’t you?" Sapphire asked. "If your daughter was a Slayer?"

Topaz nodded. "Probably why the Slayer is always from a different family. If they were daughters of ex-Slayers, the Council wouldn’t have any power. Ohana beats councils every time."

Cut to:

Ext., a residential house in Honolulu, 9 a.m.

Cut to:

Int., same house.

Once more, the Aionas had scattered dead people all over the house. The family that once lived in this house had been large—seven boys, five girls, grandparents on both sides of the family tree, a mom and dad.

All dead. And with two exceptions, all dead bodies had blood on their lips. Sixteen vampires would rise come the sunset. The Aionas had wisely drawn the curtains against the Hawaiian sun.

Alana Aiona whined. "Can I kiss just one boy daddy?"

"They’re dead, for God’s sake!" Keona said.

His wife and two children glared at him.

"What?"

"You said God, dad," Bane said.

"I’m sorry, you’re right, a demon shouldn’t speak of God. What the hell was I thinking." He slapped Alana. "You don’t kiss dead meat, it’s disgusting."

"I mean while they’re still alive!"

"I did not raise you to be a slut. You’re only 15 and—"

"I’m gonna be 15 for eternity, daddy! Let me have a little fun, OK?"

Bane and his mom looked at each other, expressions of pure and genuine horror upon their faces, and mouthed the words: "Fifteen for eternity." Truly, a hellacious prospect if there ever was one.

The doorbell rang.

The Aionas fell silent.

The doorbell rang again.

And again.

"POLICE! OPEN UP!"

Something hit the center of the door—hard.

Keona said: "Get back—they’ll kick the door in, let in a lot of sunlight. Jump them and drag them out of the light, then feed. Don’t waste time siring them."

The door creaked as the cops continued to kick it—and then the doorjam splintered as wood gave way to brute force and two cops came pouring into the house, and with them much sunlight.

But not quite enough. The four vampires quickly overpowered the two policemen—and drained them.

It was Alana who thought to close the front door. It was her mom, Haleigha, who suggested they get going—and fast.

Keona shook his head. "The sun is up."

"Sooner or later the police are going to wonder why those guys didn’t report back and then they’ll send another car. When they don’t report back, they’ll send a SWAT team."

Haleigha wasn’t precisely correct—but she was close enough for all practical purposes.

Bane said: "So what, mom? Bullets can’t kill us."

Haleigha glared at her son. "It is difficult to bite necks that are protected by riot gear, son. They’ll charge us and shoot us and drag us outside—"

Alana finished: "And we’ll all burst into flames! Oh, daddy, no, do something!"

Keona sighed. "I shoulda worn a condom all my life."

Haleigha said: "Kids, search the house for scuba or rain gear—anything to protect us from sunlight. Daddy and I will get the guns. If the police come, I guess we’ll have to hold them off the old fashioned human way."

Alana said: "That never works for humans, mom."

Haleigha shrugged. "I know, but at least we could stall for time."

Cut to:

Ext., rear of the house, 10 minutes later.

You could hear a police siren in the background as a family of four, all wearing ill-fitting rain gear, scaled the rear fence.

FADE OUT.

Scene Six

FADE IN.

Ext., Pele, a volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii, late afternoon.

Tourists are discouraged from getting too close to a crater’s edge. Tourists and natives alike are discouraged from throwing things into the mouth of a volcano. But people will insist on giving sacrifices to Pele, Goddess of these islands. Pele is respected here, by Hawaiians, Christians, Muslims, Buddhists and Jews alike. One does not wish to offend a volcano God.

Dr. Joshua Alba, a marine biologist who wore a crucifix, did not seem the slightest bit uncomfortable approaching the mouth of a volcano that was thought by some to also be a God. He inhaled deeply the sulfur smell and said, loudly, "Pele, I always wondered if you were real. If there are vampires, there must be gods as well. I need your help, Pele. One of my daughters is a Slayer. How do I free her from the Council? If I can’t do that, how do I keep both my girls safe? I’m begging you, Pele, help me if you can."

He then tossed an unopened bottle of Gin into the crater.

Pele was silent.

Alba sighed. "Well, it didn’t hurt to ask."

He turned and started to walk back the way he’d come. A light breeze blew across the mountain and caused something to move. Alba suddenly spied some litter: a crumpled plastic foam cup and an abandoned paperback book. "I don’t know what’s worse. Littering a beautiful place like this or abandoning a book."

He picked up both the cup and the paperback and resumed walking, but stopped.

And looked at the book.

"Myths of Hawaiian Shark Gods" by Akela Lanikai.

Alba turned the book over. Unlike most paperbacks, this one carried on its rear cover the photograph of the author. A beautiful ethnic Hawaiian woman with red hair.

Alba whistled. "Cute chick."

Then he noticed the text below the photograph.

He read aloud: "Author of ‘Vampires, Slayers and Other European Myths.’ "

He found the author’s biography on one of the inside rear pages and read. He smiled. "Back to Oahu for me!"

His walk turned into something approaching a sprint down the mountain.

Had he remained on the mountaintop, he would have seen something very odd in the ocean. It was at least 60, 80 miles from shore and yet it was easily seen by the naked eye. At this distance, it might have been taken for a sail—but it looked remarkably like a giant shark fin cutting the water.

Alba stopped suddenly, turned his head and called out, "Thank you, Pele!" He resumed his run down the mountain.

Whatever it was in the ocean, the thing that was either a sail or a fin suddenly slipped under the surface without causing even a small ripple.

FADE OUT.

To Be Continued in Act Two, Part Three

WATCHERS: Lest We Forget (3C/5)

DISCLAIMER: See start of this document.

DISTRIBUTION: Ask and I shall approve.

SPOILERS:

RATING: PG-13

COMMENT: According to a website for Hawaiian baby names (thanks Ambyrhawke!), Leilani is a boy’s name. (I still find that hard to believe.) On the other hand, Akela and Lanikai are both first names for girls. Akela means "noble" and Lanikai means "heavenly sea." You’ll understand the importance of the female names by the end of this installment.

SUMMARY: In 2004, Giles tells his young friends about his first Slayer. She was called in 1984 on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. Her name was Topaz Alba, daughter of Dr. Joshua Alba, a marine biologist, and identical twin sister of Sapphire Alba. Together, Topaz and Giles investigated a mysterious series of quite unnatural shark attacks and simultaneously fought an "ohana" (family) of vampires . . .

WATCHERS: Lest We Forget (3C/5)

Act Two, Part Three

Scene Seven

FADE IN.

July 8, 1984.

Ext., a parked in an ally, night.

The two college age kids were having a fine time—the sort of fine time kids that age ought to have, with the kissing and the stroking and the pleasure that only touch can bring.

A young male vampire tore the driver’s side door off the car and pulled the boy out. The vampire was Leilani, the 13-year-old that Alana Aiona had killed the other day. The girl tried to get out, too—but ran headlong into a woman who looked old enough to be the other vampire’s mother. She probably had been, when they were both alive.

Topaz Alba shouted: "Hey! You leave them alone!"

Leilani’s mother turned, looked at the young girl, and laughed. "And who’s gonna stop me!"

"Topaz the Vampire Slayer!"

Leilani said: "What the hell kind of name is Topaz?"

His mother might be dead, and a demon besides, but she was apparently still something of a mom: "Watch your language, child!"

Topaz groaned and threw something at a window. The glass shattered—and a burglar alarm screamed.

Then Topaz lunged at the larger and older of the two vampires. Leilani’s mom shoved the girl to the ground, leaped onto the car roof and from there to the top of the nearest building.

Leilani wasn’t that smart. He stuck out his tongue at Topaz—and sank his fangs into the college boy. Topaz leaped onto the roof of the car, down to the front hood, and then jumped down beside Leilani—and she staked him. He burst into a

cloud of dust.

The college boy was unconscious. His girlfriend asked if he was OK. Topaz snapped: "Call for an ambulance!"

The girl ran toward the street. Topaz ran the other way. At the end of the ally, she found a chain link fence. Topaz scaled it. She dropped to the other side. "Not bad for my first solo."

Cut to:

Ext., Books of the Undead bookstore, just before sunrise.

Cut to:

Int., Books of the Undead.

Giles had set up a card table next to the cash register. Poor quality photocopies of newspaper articles covered the table. All dealt with a series of "cult" murders in Honolulu. The killings had managed to push the shark attacks off the front page. Shark attacks are one thing—homicidal maniacs (which are even less common) are news!

Someone knocked. Giles looked up, saw Topaz, and he got up to let her in.

"How many?"

"Three—one fresh vampire rising, two hunters. One got away, but I staked the other one." She frowned. "I staked the new guy before he got out of his grave."

"I gathered. Their victims?"

"I saw the ambulance take them—I think they’ll be okay."

Giles nodded. "Please take a look at these newspaper articles and—"

"Gimmie a break, Mr. Rupert! I haven’t had any sleep and you want me to read—"

"Look at the bloody photographs and stop whining!" Giles said. "The Aiona family appears to be slaughtering people all over this island. I’ve counted 20 victims so far—"

Topaz turned deathly pale. You might easily have mistaken her for a vampire.

"—and I don’t particularly care if you lose a few moments of sleep! Look at the newspaper photographs and see if you recognize any of these people."

Topaz, shaking violently, nodded and went to the table. She looked quickly through the pictures. Giles sighed and crossed his arms. "Don’t just humor me, Topaz, really loo—"

Topaz held out a clip to him with one hand, even as her other hand touched other clippings. "The boy’s the one I dusted—the woman in the picture looks like the one that got away."

"I apologize," Giles said, taking the clipping. "Leilani. I would have thought that was a girl’s name."

"Here," Topaz said. "The guy I dusted in the cemetery." She faced him and handed the Watcher another clipping.

Giles looked at the clip and nodded. He scanned the clip. "This tends to support my thesis."

"You’re writing a term paper? Aren’t you kinda old for school?"

Giles sighed. "I do wish Slayers were not teenagers," he said. "My theory, if you prefer, is that the Aionas are killing and siring their former friends and neighbors."

"Why?"

"A vampire cannot enter a home uninvited—so new vampires quite naturally seek out people who will instinctively trust them and invite them to enter," Giles said. "Vampires are notorious for annihilating their own families."

"But why sire everybody they kill? Doesn’t that increase the competition for food? Doesn’t make biological sense."

Giles smiled. "Spoken like a scientist’s daughter. But you’re right, it doesn’t make sense—unless the Aionas are particularly foolish. In that case, they have essentially laid a trap for themselves. It should be comparatively easy to

locate them."

Topaz gasped and pointed at another article. "Omigosh! Th-they killed a family of 18." She looked at him, wide-eyed. "D-do you think they sired the whole family?"

"Normally, I would say no, but the Aionas are killing and siring so many so recklessly that I would not put it past them." Giles took the article from the table and skimmed through it. He sighed in relief. "All 18 are to be cremated—thank the Good Lord."

"W-what if they rose already? This was night before last."

"If that is the case, you may have a very difficult time ahead of you. I do not believe you are ready to fight 18 vampires at once."

"Duh!"

Cut to:

Int., galley Tiburon’s houseboat.

For all his many faults, Tiburon was not stupid. He, too, had noticed the press coverage of the vampire attacks. His table was covered with newspaper clippings and photocopies—many of them identical to the ones Giles had at his bookstore.

"Gotta stop these creeps before people forget to be afraid of the water."

FADE OUT.

Scene Eight

FADE IN.

Ext., University of Honolulu, island of Oahu, morning.

The summertime campus population was sparse.

Cut to:

Int., history department.

There were few people in the halls or in the main office.

Cut to:

Ext. office door of Prof. Akela Lanikai, Hawaiian history.

"Thank you for seeing me, Prof. Lanikai." Alba started to sit down.

The lady was a heart stopper—if you like 40-something Polynesian redheads with big bright smiles. Her clothes were conservative, but were not intended to hide her beauty or to make her uncomfortable in the heat of the Hawaiian summer.

"How may I help you, Dr. Alba?"

Alba froze. "How did you know my name?"

"I saw your interview on t.v."

Alba snorted. "Some interview. Twerp reporter probably thought Jaws was a documentary."

"Now be fair, Dr. Alba, that reporter as you called her was obviously an intern far in over her head. Blame her employers, not her."

Alba sighed. "I know an ex-teacher should know better. Speaking of teaching—"

"You wanted to ask about my book of shark myths?"

"Um, no . . . I wanted to ask about your book on European myths. Vampires and Slayers specifically."

"Such as?"

"I’m researching a novel . . . tell me, do any of the Slayer myths mention a Slayer who . . . waived the calling?"

"Waived the calling?"

"Are there any stories about a Slayer who didn’t want to be a Slayer?"

"None wanted the calling, Dr. Alba. No young person in their right mind wants to spend their days as a warrior, much less a solitary warrior."

"I agree, professor, but I’m wondering if there was a way for the Slayer to defy the Council and continue her . . . civilian life?"

Prof. Lanikai leaned forward. "None of the Slayer legends mention the Council, Dr. Alba."

Alba paled, as a man must when someone who knows things that no human should ever know catches him in a lie.

Prof. Lanikai said: "The Council has hidden its existence well for approximately 1500 to 1700 years."

Alba remained silent. But raw grief was in his eyes.

"I am not a member of the Watcher’s Council of England and I have no contact with them," Prof. Lanikai said. "I am not your enemy at this time."

Alba scowled. "That doesn’t sound like a declaration of friendship."

"My people are warriors, Dr. Alba," Prof. Lanikai said. "We have limited sympathy for Slayers who would pass the burden on to others without ever carrying it."

"I don’t want to bury my daughters."

Prof. Lanikai frowned. "You used the plural form, but there is only One Slayer."

"My girls are identical twins. If a demon mistakes the wrong one for the Slayer—"

Prof. Lanikai gave him a look of true compassion—and sorrow, too. "We have unlimited sympathy for ohana."

"I need a way to rescue my girls from this damned calling."

Prof. Lanikai closed her eyes. "Please do not speak while I think. No one will interrupt us."

Alba scowled, opened his mouth, then closed his mouth.

Cut to:

Close up, clock on Prof. Lanikai’s wall: 9:48 a.m.

Cut to:

Close up, Prof. Lanikai’s face, eyes closed.

Cut to:

Close up, clock on Prof. Lanikai’s wall: 12:56 p.m.

Prof. Lanikai opened her eyes. "I have an idea, but I do not think you will like it."

"I’ve run out of ideas that I like," Dr. Alba said.

"When a Slayer dies, another is Called. If a Slayer were to die in battle and then rise again, the New Slayer could continue and her predecessor, though she was alive, would not be obligated to serve. A true warrior is only required to die once for a cause, however noble."

"I don’t know if you’ve heard, but resurrections haven’t been terribly common since the Crucifixion."

"Actually, medical science recognizes clinical death—essentially a temporary death, followed by resurrection," Prof. Lanikai said. "But you are right—your

Slayer daughter is unlikely to find the release from service that you seek."

"It isn’t that I want some other man’s daughter to die—"

Prof. Lanikai laughed, but not harshly. "That is exactly what you want—for another girl to die in your daughter’s place. Everyone who has loved a Slayer has wished someone else had been Called, that someone else was destined to die young. If I had a daughter and she were Called, I would be tempted to great darkness to find a way to save her. What you want may be ugly and selfish, Dr. Alba, but wanting it does not make you evil. But please resist the urge to do evil to get what you want."

"Great advice."

Prof. Lanikai stood up. "Please come with me, Dr. Alba. There is something I need to show you. Something that may help many people on these islands."

Cut to:

Ext., a Ford Escort pulling in beside a small beach house, 2 p.m.

Cut to:

Ext., a stretch of the beach on the other side of the house.

Prof. Lanikai asked Dr. Alba to hold her shoes—and began to undress.

Alba immediately turned his back on the red headed woman.

The woman who called herself Prof. Akela Lanikai laughed. "My husband will be delighted with your modesty."

The sound of a small splash, the kind made by a skilled swimmer and diver, made Alba turn back to face the water. Prof. Lanikai glided gracefully over the surface—and quickly morphed from the shape of a human female into the shape of a tiger shark.

The marine biologist dropped to his knees, pale and quivering. The shark turned back to the beach, morphed back into a human female and came ashore.

Alba covered his eyes.

Once Prof. Lanikai was dressed again, the ocean-soaked redhead knelt before him and gently asked the trembling scientist to open his eyes. "I am not your Aumakua—"

"My what?"

"An ancestral spirit. There is no comparable creature known to your European culture, but if you think of Aumakua as a cross between saints and spirit guides and family gods, you have an acceptable grasp on the concept. When the descendents of departed native Polynesians swim in these waters, their Aumakua sometime take the form of sharks—to frighten off real sharks. Many of the Gods of these islands are also sharks. And there are shark men—essentially like your werewolves, except that werewolves have no choice in the transformation and shark men always have their free will."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"The Aumakua are only concerned with their families and avoid dealings with human strangers," Prof. Lanikai said. "The Gods of these islands use the shark form to protect the peoples here. And real sharks do not act as the creature responsible for the recent attacks have acted."

"A shark-person, like you?"

"A shark-person as you call me is human, save when he or she chooses to take the shark form," Prof. Lanikai said. "I have not been human since many thousands of years ago."

"I-I’d call you a liar—"

"But your daughter is a Slayer and you knew of such things before I showed you my . . . other form. Prof. Lanikai is an identity I have taken in this period of history so that I am able to learn things I could not while swimming in the ocean. You asked me for help and I am afraid I was only able to give you a very little bit of information. Even so, I need to ask you and your daughter for help."

"Why us?"

"The shark attacks have spawned murderous slaughter of sharks—the vast majority simple fish. But some Aumakua were killed—because in taking mortal form, Aumakua and even the Gods of these islands become mortal. The Gods of Hawaii need the Slayer to save us from the shark man behind these abominations."

Alba whispered: "Who the hell are you?"

"In reality? I am Ka’ahupahau, protector of Oahu. As a shark, I live near Pearl Harbor." She looked over her shoulder and chuckled: "I believe my husband wants you to see him. My silly, silly, jealous lover."

Alba looked over her shoulder. Far, far off shore, something that looked like . . .

"That’s impossible. No living shark, hell, no prehistoric shark grows to . . . to—"

"One hundred and eighty feet," said Prof. Lanikai/Ka’ahupahau.

Alba called out: "I swear, I didn’t even look at your woman!"

The giant dorsal fin disappeared.

To the shark goddess, the marine biologist said: "Why would Pele send me to you?"

"You would call her my sister-in-law," said the shark goddess of Oahu. "You asked her for help and in my human form as Prof. Akela Lanikai, I have learned more about the Slayer than any other Hawaiian god."

"And you . . . people? . . . need my help?"

"Your daughter and her Watcher . . . together, they can identify the shark man behind these killings and drive him into the ocean."

"Why can’t she just kill him?" Alba frowned. "I can’t believe I just said that."

"Slayers do not kill humans," Ka’ahupahau said. "But when he takes shark form, no laws of men or Gods or nature protect him."

"Help my daughter, I’ll help you," Alba said.

Ka’ahupahau smiled. "You are very brave to negotiate with a Goddess who has a large and dangerous husband. You will help because you know I am right and because you know it is the right thing to do—and because the Watcher would eventually know what you must have suspected long before now: that these shark attacks can best be stopped by a Slayer, not a fisherman."

Tears ran down Alba’s face. "What about my daughter?"

"I cannot promise to save the Slayer, because her fate may fall outside my powers. But I promise I will not allow you to lose both your daughters."

And then Ka’ahupahau, shark goddess of Oahu, hugged the crying scientist.

FADE OUT.

To be continued in Act Three, Part One

WATCHERS: Lest We Forget (4A/5)

DISCLAIMER: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel and the characters indigenous to those series are the legal property of Mutant Enemy Productions, the WB, UPN, FOX, et al. They are used here strictly for non-commercial purposes. Watchers characters were created by C.N. Winters and Susan Carr.

DISTRIBUTION: Ask and I shall approve.

FEEDBACK: Post comments to the Watcher’s Forum.

SPOILERS: It just dawned on me that some of you might not have seen (or don’t remember) the BTVS episode "Helpless." That, too, will figure in this story set long before Buffy and Giles ever met.

RATING: PG-13

COMMENT:

WARNING: This story contains extremely graphic descriptions of shark attacks.

SUMMARY: In 2004, Giles tells his young friends about his first Slayer. She was called in 1984 on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. Her name was Topaz Alba, daughter of Dr. Joshua Alba, a marine biologist, and identical twin sister of Sapphire Alba. Together, Topaz and Giles investigated a mysterious series of quite unnatural shark attacks and simultaneously fought an "ohana" (family) of vampires . . .

WATCHERS: Lest We Forget (4A/5)

Act Three, Part One

Scene One

FADE IN.

Ext., single-family dwelling, modest residential neighborhood, Honolulu, Oahu, day.

The grass hadn’t been mowed in about a week or so—long enough that you could tell it would need mowing soon, but not so long that anyone in their right mind would bother to report a code violation.

Yellow police tape covered the door.

Cut to:

A pick-up parking curbside in front of the house.

Tiburon turned off the engine and got out. As he got out, he revealed an empty bottle with the symbol of the cross upon it. He carried in one hand a small, transparent, plastic green-colored water pistol. It was loaded with water—presumably holy water. His neck was wet—perhaps that, too, was holy water.

Tiburon walked up the porch and checked the mailbox. No mail. He shrugged, as if that didn’t really tell him anything. He frowned, then snapped the fingers of his left hand. He turned to the street.

Cut to:

Trashcans, full of garbage, set at curbside.

Cut to:

Tiburon, smiling.

"The dead don’t usually remember to put out the trash." He shook his head. "These poor idiots are no matches for either of the Alba brats."

He circled the house, slipped into the back yard. The rear door, like the front, was sealed with police tape. Printed on the tape: a stern warning that it was illegal to break a police seal.

"Like that’d really scare multiple murderers," Tiburon said.

He stepped into the house—and found himself in the kitchen. The small kitchen table was made of wood, like the chairs. The kitchen drapes were drawn so that no sunlight came through. Tiburon nodded and went to the ’fridge. With his free hand he opened the refrigerator door—and slammed it loudly enough to wake the undead.

"HELLO! ANY VAMPIRES HOME?"

The four of them appeared in the doorway, lumpy foreheads and sharp teeth and all.

"Your dead, human," the elder male of the fours said.

Tiburon shrugged. "Give me your best shot, vampire."

It was Bane who lunged at him. Tiburon did not even bother to raise the water pistol. Bane slammed him against the ’fridge door and put his mouth on Tiburon’s neck—then fell to the floor, shrieking in pain as he clutched his smoking mouth.

The other three passed through the kitchen doorway and, this time, Tiburon raised the water pistol. That stopped Bane’s family in their undead tracks.

"You guys need my help," Tiburon said. With his free hand he reached into the breast pocket of his shirt and tossed four photographs on the floor. "The girls are twins—one of them is something called a Slayer. I saw her kill a couple vampires that attacked a couple teenagers. The guy with the glasses is something called a Watcher. I think he’s the Slayer’s boss. The other guy is the father of the twins. I can give you their home address, maybe help you get an invitation into their house."

Bane whimpered in pain.

Alana rolled her eyes in disgust. She kicked out the nearest table leg, then scooped it up. She looked at her parents. They nodded.

Without a word, Alana staked her brother. He exploded into a cloud of dust.

Tiburon said: "Not that I care about him, but don’t make any sudden moves again or I’ll have to kill you all."

"Think you can?" Keona Aiona asked.

"Yeah, but even if I can’t . . . do you wanna kill me and leave the Slayer alive?"

Alana said: "Your sire said we should avoid the Slayer for at least a century."

Keona snorted. "Like I care what he said?"

His wife reminded him that they hadn’t been vampires very long and it might not be smart to wait for a vampire hunter to come looking for them.

Keona nodded. "OK, human, we’ll talk. Maybe we can make a deal. But what’s in it for you?"

"He thinks sharks should be protected, I think they should be destroyed." Tiburon shrugged. "Basically, I think he’s evil."

FADE OUT.

Scene Two

FADE IN.

Ext., the small, coastal pool near the Hawaiian Marine Apex

Predator Research Institute, Day.

The young hammerheads and a small green shark, no more than two feet long, cruised languidly near the surface.

Giles found Dr. Alba by the pool. Giles’ eyes focused on something in the pool, something that made him frown.

"A green shark?"

"A second cousin of Pele," Dr. Alba said. "I’m told."

Giles frowned. "The soccer player?"

"Pele the volcano goddess of the big island," Dr. Alba said.

"You’ll forgive me, Dr. Alba, if I—"

The small green shark morphed into a human being—a handsome 20-year-old Polynesian man who stood naked and dripping wet in the center of the pool. The hammerheads continued cruising as though there were nothing particularly odd about sharks morphing into men.

Rupert Giles snatched off his glasses. "My lord!"

The young man said, "Aloha," to Dr. Alba, bowed, and transformed into a shark again. He swam back to the ocean.

"Wanna go on a boat ride, Watcher?"

"Boat ride?"

"Wanna introduce you to Pele’s immediate family."

Giles glared at the scientist. "If you think murdering me will free your daughter from the Slayer Calling—"

"If I thought that, I would’ve murdered you the day we met," Alba said. "I just to introduce you to some people . . . well, beings, I guess . . . who need Slayer help."

Cut to:

Ext., a small boat cruising roughly 12 miles off the coast of

Oahu.

Dr. Alba cut the engine and joined the others on deck. He watched as Sapphire kept sneaking glances at the red headed woman, who played with her wedding band whenever the 15-year-old girl looked at her. Dr. Alba covered his mouth, clearly fighting an urge to laugh. Sapphire didn’t seem to realize she had been caught in the act of admiring a female—but the shark goddess of Oahu didn’t seem terribly offended.

Topaz, on the other hand, was talking about a volley ball game she had seen the other day—and the gist of her conversation seemed to make Giles dreadfully uncomfortable. Either that, or the Watcher was seasick.

"Topaz, for the last time, it is Mr. Giles, not Mr. Rupert, and I do not have any interest in hearing your dissertation on the many varieties of male backsides you find attractive!"

OK, he probably wasn’t suffering from seasickness.

Alba chuckled and said: "I’m afraid it runs in the family, Mr. Giles. Topaz is very much like her mother was."

The remark tore the smile off Topaz face and Dr. Alba flinched.

"I’m sorry, honey," he said.

"Why are we here?" Giles asked.

"We are hear to meet my husband," said the woman who called herself Prof. Lanikai.

Sapphire looked crestfallen.

"Here," Alba said. He handed her a knife, of the kind used to gut large fish.

The redhead pricked her thumb and then returned the blade to Alba with one hand as she held the bleeding thumb over the water.

Alba said: "A shark can smell blood at vast distances. Her husband will recognize her scent."

Moments passed. Then: Roughly 100 feet from the boat, a giant dorsal fin cut the surface—and Giles gasped.

Alba pointed at the red head and said, "Rupert Giles, this is Ka’ahupahau, goddess protector of Oahu," then pointed at the large, circling dorsal fin, "and that’s her husband Kahaimoana."

"Are you trying to tell me that these shark attacks have been some sort of DEVINE act?"

Ka’ahupahau shook her human head. "Hardly. Ultimately, a human who can take shark form is responsible for the shark attacks. I do not pretend to understand why."

The giant dorsal fin cut a very wide circle around the boat—as if to avoid accidentally sinking the vessel. Animals are never aware of their power. Gods are always aware of their power.

Topaz said: "Some people are just mean."

Ka’ahupahau nodded. "It could be that the shark man kills for the pleasure of killing. I only know that in shark form, all ancestral spirits and gods of these islands are mortal and the fishing out of sharks endangers shark, ancestors and gods alike. And the shark attacks are a threat to both men and

sharks."

Ka’ahupahau walked purposefully toward Giles and stopped just a foot from him. "We will help you cleanse these islands of vampires. You will help us cleanse the waters of the shark man."

"Are you certain he is a man and not a demon?" Giles asked.

"I am," Ka’ahupahau said. "I have read about the attacks. I sense something other than a need to kill. I sense . . . exhibitionism."

The giant dorsal fin continued slowly circling the boat. As if to make sure its presence was always felt.

Alba nodded. "One victim was an anchorman—"

Topaz sighed. "He was a cute guy."

"—and another victim was pulled over the side of a houseboat by a breaching shark. The attacks were made in front of witnesses. This killer is a show off."

Giles said: "I was aware of the possibility the attacks were supernatural—"

Alba started.

"Don’t be surprised, Dr. Alba. You said two attacks in seven months was unusual—so many more attacks in just days seemed quite out of the ordinary, even to a landlubber such as myself."

Ka’ahupahau said: "Find him and drive him into the ocean—"

Giles and Topaz said, "Slayers don’t kill humans," in perfect unison.

Ka’ahupahau said: "In shark form, he won’t be human—just mortal. Leave shark men to the sharks."

Giles said: "Not all the attacks were the work of the same shark."

Ka’ahupahau said: "Some shark men can assume the form of any species; others only one." She looked at Dr. Alba. "Were the sharks known to these waters?"

"Of course," Alba said.

Ka’ahupahau shook her red head. "Not of course, Dr. Alba. Shark men live on every inhabited island in the world. If an attack can be traced to a shark not normally found in these waters, you have a place to begin."

Giles said: "With a vampire, it is often best to look at the earliest kills to learn how he or she has developed his skills. Some fall into distinctive patterns. One vampire liked to cut a cross on the face of his victims."

The Albas and Ka’ahupahau stared at him as if he had just spoken gibberish.

Giles shrugged. "It seems odd to us, but in fact it took the Council three years to realize the murders were not the work of a demented human but of a vampire."

Topaz said: "I hope the Slayer dusted him quick."

Giles sighed: "He disappeared during the Civil War, I don’t know why."

Ka’ahupahau said: "Forgive me, but I am concerned with the shark man who is killing humans now."

Giles said: "I’m afraid we have an even more serious problem with vampires on land."

Ka’ahupahau nodded and smiled. "That is why the shark gods and Aumakua will join you in the hunt."

"How can sharks—"

"Aumakua are only sharks when they need to be. We Gods can briefly assume a number of forms. You now have a divine, or semi-divine, army at your service."

Giles frowned. "Gods do not generally take orders from humans."

"We have no intention of taking orders from the Slayer, her Watcher or his Council. We are allies against an enemy and to win your help we offer you help in return. But we have another purpose beyond mere survival."

"What is that?" Giles asked.

"I will speak to you about that when the time comes."

"See here, woman—"

The giant dorsal fin disappeared and, moments later, the head of the 180-foot long shark slid up through the surface. He was dark on top, pale below. His snout was narrow and his teeth were long.

He slid back beneath the water.

Giles swallowed. He looked at Alba. "W-what sort of—?"

"Nothing known is that big," Abla said. "Nothing in the prehistoric record is known to have been that big. He resembles a sand tiger shark—but I doubt he has the same diet. Sand tigers are bottom feeders, mostly harmless. The closest in size in nature is the whale shark, a plankton eater, perfectly harmless at 45 feet. But I think that fellow is one of a kind—"

Ka’ahupahau laughed. "You have no idea, doctor!"

"—and I don’t think he’s harmless."

Sapphire quoted: "He’s good, I tell you, but he’s not safe."

Eight eyes fell on the girl.

Sapphire shrugged. "C.S. Lewis, ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’."

Giles tilted his head and looked at Sapphire as if he had never seen her before. "You could be a Watcher."

Topaz and her father snapped: "NEVER!"

Softly, Ka’ahupahau said: "We forbid it."

The giant dorsal fin reappeared, as if to punctuate her words.

Giles nodded. "I will not share my opinion with the Council."

Ka’ahupahau smiled. "Then the Gods of Hawaii will allow you to leave these islands among the living."

FADE OUT.

To be continued in Act Three, Part Two . . .

WATCHERS: Lest We Forget (4B/5)

DISCLAIMER: See start of this document.

DISTRIBUTION: Ask and I shall approve.

SPOILERS: It just dawned on me that some of you might not have seen (or don’t remember) the BTVS episode "Helpless." That, too, will figure in this story set long before Buffy and Giles ever met.

RATING: PG-13

COMMENT:

SUMMARY: In 2004, Giles tells his young friends about his first Slayer. She was called in 1984 on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. Her name was Topaz Alba, daughter of Dr. Joshua Alba, a marine biologist, and identical twin sister of Sapphire

Alba. Together, Topaz and Giles investigated a mysterious series of quite unnatural shark attacks and simultaneously fought an "ohana" (family) of vampires . . .

WATCHERS: Lest We Forget (4B/5)

Act Three, Part Two

Scene Three

FADE IN.

Int., Watcher’s classroom, present day.

Robin, Andrew, Xander and Willow gaped at Giles.

"Questions?"

"Y-you had conversations with Gods?" Willow asked. "Wow!"

"I think I’m jealous," Robin said.

"Are you nuts? They threatened to kill him!" Andrew said. "They remind me of the vampyra Angelus."

Giles said: "I think you are being unfair to the Gods of Hawaii. They saw themselves as protectors of the islands and naturally did not like to think that a human Council, a European human Council at that, might be better equipped to protect the islands than themselves. And, frankly, I think they would have been under normal circumstances."

"But the mysterious shark man threw out the natural balance of the islands," Andrew said.

"Fortunately, we were on his trail."

Xander shook his head sadly. "All these years, I thought we were the original Scoobies."

"Oh, you were, Xander," Giles said. "Ours was a temporary alliance—Ka’ahupahau made her feelings on the matter quite clear."

"But that didn’t stop you guys from cracking the books together."

"True," Giles said. "I researched the victims of the attacks, Dr. Alba researched the patterns of the attack and Ka’ahupahau and the twins researched shark men in Hawaiian mythology. Ironically, I thought it would be the only time in my career that I would be part of a team."

FADE OUT.

Scene Four

FADE IN.

July 11, 1984

Int., Conference Room, History Department, University, afternoon.

"I thought Slayers wouldn’t have to do homework," Topaz whined as she shoved five heavy tomes toward the center of the table.

Sapphire said: "I think it’s fun."

"I love you, but you are SO weird!" Topaz said.

"Said the girl who stabs dead things."

Books and photocopies of newspaper articles covered the table helter skelter.

Ka’ahupahau said: "I think this would be a good time to review. Dr. Alba, would be good enough to start?"

"Like I’d say no to you?" The scientist shook his head. "Okay, the first attack was in January and the next known attack was the first of July. The first attack was the work of a hammerhead and circumstantial evidence implicates a tiger shark in the other attacks. I don’t think the hammerhead was a shark man. I think the death of Jose’ Tiburon was a tragic—"

Topaz said: "Tiburon as in that creep who comes around yelling about evil sharks?"

Dr. Alba nodded. "He and Jose’ were snorkeling off Maui when a large hammerhead, 12 or 14 feet long, took him. Jose’ was only 11 and . . . it wasn’t a contest."

Giles said: "Precisely what do you mean when you say ‘took him’?"

"Literally carried the boy off. A couple scuba divers were nearby and actually saw Tiburon try to pry his son out of the hammerhead’s jaws. The shark, oblivious, simply kept swimming. The scuba divers pulled Tiburon off the shark . . . the boy’s body was never recovered."

"Is that unusual for sharks?" Giles asked.

"As far as we know—but sometimes people go into the water and disappear. Did they drown or did the sharks carry them off? I’d say it was unusual—but it isn’t the first time in recorded history that it has happened and nature is full of surprises."

Ka’ahupahau smiled. Everyone else avoided her eyes.

Alba continued: "I can’t imagine what it was like for Tiburon . . . seeing his child die like that . . . "

Giles said: "The day we met, you said he was a grieving man with no one to blame."

"Yes."

"Did you know that an anchorman named Hookano was one of the divers who rescued Mr. Tiburon?"

"Yeah, I did, but—" Alba slapped himself. "I should’ve realized. A thing like that . . . it explains everything."

Ka’ahupahau crossed her arms. "Explain, please."

Giles said: "Hookano was one of latest the victims. I’d assumed he and his family were killed because the death of an anchorman will always make the evening news reports. I had not thought that vengeance . . . "

Topaz said: "But Mr. Hookano saved him from drowning, daddy."

Alba said: "If a shark had done that to you or to Sapphire, I would never forgive the people who pulled me off. I’d always believe that, given the chance, I could have saved my child. Parents don’t like to think they’re helpless against threats to their kids—no matter how powerful or dangerous." He shot two quick glances, one at Ka’ahupahau and the other at Giles.

Giles ignored the implied insult. So did Ka’ahupahau. Giles said: "Why the seven month delay between attacks? Anger and grief fade with time."

Alba said: "That might be my fault. The authorities put on the usual shark hunt and killed a lot of fish—very few hammerheads and none of them the size of the killer. Waste of time, really. A deep-sea shark can travel as much as 500 miles a day. By the time the fishermen reached their boats, the killer was long gone. I said so publicly. Tiburon blew his top."

Sapphire said: "Remember when he started chumming, daddy?"

Alba nodded. "First he posted a reward—$1,000 per dead shark. Then one fisherman sold him the two dorsal fins of one shark as proof he’d killed two. He bought it the first time, but after about $20,000 he got wise. After that, Tiburon insisted on seeing the corpse. He was mugged twice en route to the docks before he gave up paying a bounty."

Giles asked if Tiburon was wealthy.

"A lottery winner from Puerto Rico," Alba said.

Ka’ahupahau sighed. "Of course! He comes from an island!"

The others looked at her.

"Tiburon is Spanish for shark," Ka’ahupahau said. "All island nations have shark men among their people. Some were protectors, some fishermen . . . some were vicious killers. Mr. Tiburon must have inherited his ability . . . and chose to use it only when mortal means failed to feed his bloodlust."

Alba rubbed his eyes. "Tiburon bought a fishing boat and anchored some 30 miles off shore. He started chumming the waters. He used nets, rifles—even explosives!—to kill sharks. I went to court to stop him. My first case got tossed. Sharks are not beloved like dolphins and especially not after one carries a child into the deep. Then I went to the Mayor of Honolulu and the Governor and showed them my studies of shark movements."

Sapphire, very proudly, said: "Daddy made them see that Mr. Tiburon’s chumming actually increased the risk of shark attacks to tourists—and that made the politicians go back to court to stop him."

Alba said: "In May, they hit him with a restraining order and the Coast Guard caught him violating the order once. His wife took a plane back to Puerto Rico and that same week, the judge confiscated his fishing boat—"

"And the attacks began with a vengeance, literally, shortly thereafter," Giles said.

"What do you think he wants?" Topaz asked.

"To exterminate all sharks," Ka’ahupahau said.

"Genocide, basically," Alba told his daughter.

Sapphire said: "Do you think he’d stop if we asked him too?"

The shark goddess shook her red, human head. "Child, he would not stop if the life of the world depended upon it. Hate is all he has left, the poor creature," Ka’ahupahau said.

"I have no compassion for him," Topaz said.

The others were startled to hear such harsh words from a 15-year-old girl.

Topaz scowled at all of them. "He murdered Mr. Hookano’s children. He butchered a whole family and he murdered a man on his honeymoon! He uses bombs to mutilate sharks and he probably tortures the sharks that he drags onto his stupid boat."

Giles said: "His money cannot last forever—would that slow him down?"

Ka’ahupahau shook her head. "If he assumed the shark form he could live without sleep and without shelter. He would have the body of the shark and the intelligence of a man—which would make him the most successful of hunters in these waters. No, bankruptcy will not stop or even slow Mr. Tiburon—if he is the shark man we seek."

Topaz said: "How do we make sure and how do we stop him?"

Ka’ahupahau said: "In his human form, only another shark man—or shark woman—could recognize him, but sometimes even they have difficulty. Shark women seem more skilled than men at identifying their own race. They avoid mating with their own kind because the children of shark men and shark women often emerge from the womb in shark form. Needless to say, this draws undesirable attention. The children of shark men and ordinary women are more likely to be born in their human forms."

Giles simply raised his eyebrows. The Albas, father and daughters, cringed.

Ka’ahupahau said: "I can find a shark woman within a day or two and she will gladly help us identify our killer. Many shark men have been killed by the recent lynchings—I mean, fishing out—of sharks. "

Alba said: "The only good thing about the vampire attacks is that they’ve distracted people from the shark attacks."

Giles said: "I fear Mr. Tiburon will feel compelled to do something . . . spectacular . . . to spark a new wave of anti-shark hysteria."

Topaz said: "Meanwhile, what do we do about the Aionas?"

Ka’ahupahau smiled predatorily. "When you and Mr. Giles go on patrol tonight, many of my ohana and friends and the Aumakua of their victims will be patrolling also."

Sapphire quoted: "The stream is shrunk, the pool is dry, and we be comrades thou and I. Till yonder rain cloud—Good hunting!—loose the rain that breaks our water truce."

Topaz repeated: "Love you—but so damn weird!"

"Um! You swore! Daddy, Topaz—"

"Oh, for God’s sake, give your sister a break, Sapphire."

Cut to:

Ext., an Oahu beach, afternoon.

Cut to:

Close up of a school bus. Painted on the side, the name: "Moloka’i Christian School for Girls."

Cut to:

Shot of the ocean, some 20 girls between the ages of 10 and 12 swimming under the supervision of two exhausted-looking young women.

Cut to: A lifeguard tower.

The lifeguard watched the water from his post. He chuckled to himself. "So glad I ain’t got no kids yet."

"Excuse me, sir, could you help me?"

The lifeguard looked down and saw Tiburon.

Who held a Colt .45 pistol up at the guard. "Yell or move too fast, I’ll blow you to hell. Come down slowly." The gun was in his right hand. His left was hidden behind his back—something the lifeguard should have wondered about. Why, afterall, would a man publicly brandish a gun in one hand and hide the other hand from view?

The lifeguard glanced at the women and children in the water and muttered, "too far." And, quite likely, he was too accustomed to being the rescuer to think of calling out for help.

Had he jumped to the ground and run off, the odds of survival would have favored him. Handguns are not the most accurate weapons and it takes a great deal of time to become a skilled marksman with a handgun. But perhaps the lifeguard, a young man, did not know that. So he cooperated. The lifeguard climbed down to join Tiburon on the sand.

"I’ll take you to my car and you’ll be fine when the day is over."

The young lifeguard said: "If you didn’t have a gun, mister, I’d kick your ass."

"I’d feel the same way in your place, kid. C’mon, let’s get this over with."

Cut to:

Ext., the beach parking lot, about 15 minutes later.

Cut to:

Rear of Tiburon’s pick-up truck.

Tiburon pulled a large tarp over the young lifeguard. The young man’s eyes were lifeless and his blood covered the truck bed. Tiburon raised and locked the gage and grabbed his surfboard.

Cut to:

Shot of the ocean, the girls still playing in the water.

One of the young women was refereeing a dispute between the girls. Her companion supervisor was pursuing a straggler who had gone a little too far from the group.

Neither of them noticed the dorsal fin that cut the water between the frolicking little girls and the beach.

Not until one of the little girls saw the fin and started screaming. The water was particularly clear there and you could see all 10 feet of the fish. Naturally, instinctively, all of them swam away from the shark. Into deeper water.

Just as naturally, the dorsal fin turned toward them—and slid under the surface.

Cut to:

Ext., a crowded public beach, 20 minutes later.

Two teens, male and female, were splashing each other with water when the girl suddenly slid under the surface.

The boy groaned. "C’mon, that isn’t funny!"

A minute passed. Then two minutes. The boy, frowning, looked around. He took a deep breath and submerged.

He came back up and started screaming, "Shark! Shark! Shark," as he swam rapidly and clumsily toward the shore.

The other swimmers got out of the water and many of them turned to look at the water—just in time to see a large shark literally bite the 14-year-old boy in half.

Cut to:

Ext., a third beach—this one on the opposite side of the island, about an hour or so later.

Cut to:

A 17-year-old boy lying on his surfboard, paddling out.

The waves weren’t especially spectacular, but the young man on the board paddled out to meet them anyway. He was alone, which suggested he was either very new to surfing or really stupid.

He didn’t get to meet the waves, though.

A shark rose up, face first, bit his right arm and pulled him off his board.

Cut to:

The beach.

The boy staggered to shore, bleeding from wounds in his butt and right thigh and left calf. He ignored those wounds—he was preoccupied with trying to stem the flow of blood from his right stump with the fingers and palm of his left hand.

Cut to:

Close up of a television set.

The anchorman said: "Aloha, everyone. Our top story tonight: Seven fatal shark attacks in one day on Oahu!"

Dr. Alba, Ka’ahupahau and Noelani (the woman the Alba twins thought daddy should ask for a date) sat side by side on the Albas’ sofa watching the report.

Dr. Alba sighed. "Giles was right—the creep did something spectacular, all right."

FADE OUT.

To be continued in Act Three, Part Three

WATCHERS: Lest We Forget (4C/5)

DISCLAIMER: See start of this document.

DISTRIBUTION: Ask and I shall approve.

SPOILERS: See previous installments.

RATING: PG-13

COMMENT: Does anyone remember where Sheila and Ira Rosenberg live? I’ve got an idea for a fic that sends Willow home . . . with Andrew.

SUMMARY: In 2004, Giles tells his young friends about his first Slayer. She was called in 1984 on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. Her name was Topaz Alba, daughter of Dr. Joshua Alba, a marine biologist, and identical twin sister of Sapphire

Alba. Together, Topaz and Giles investigated a mysterious series of quite unnatural shark attacks and simultaneously fought an "ohana" (family) of vampires . . .

WATCHERS: Lest We Forget (4C/5)

Act Three, Part Three

Scene Five

FADE IN.

Arial shot of Oahu, at sunset.

Cut to:

Ext., a pleasure craft, roughly 12 miles from Maui.

From the loud music and the dancing crowd, you might have gotten the impression of college kids at play. Except that this was summer—and the celebrants were demons, all of them.

A giant dorsal fin rose slowly above the surface and one by one the party animals stopped laughing, dancing, moving . . . the music stopped. Whoever piloted the boat had the sense to turn the boat toward the shore and accelerate—but the giant dorsal fin swiftly sliced the water and positioned itself between the boat and Maui.

A seagull fluttered down and landed on the deck—and morphed into a red headed Polynesia woman.

"That’s my husband. Dust the vampires on board and we will let you live to spread the word: These islands are to be cleansed of vampires within a week—or Pele and her family and friends will declare war on all the demons who live here."

She morphed back into her seagull shape and flew off. The bird circled overhead. Below, her husband circled the water near the boat.

Five minutes passed before a series of dust clouds exploded in various spots on board the boat.

The gull flew down again gently brushed one of her wings against the giant dorsal fin. It slipped beneath the water. The gull flew away. The boat sped rapidly toward shore.

Cut to:

Ext., A Honolulu cemetery.

Two vampires crawled, grunting and cursing, out of their graves. As they struggled to be "born," two birds flew down clutching wooden stakes with their feet. They dropped the stakes and then landed on the ground and morphed into human shapes. They snatched up the stakes and dusted the two vampires.

Cut to:

Ext., a private beach on the big island.

They were in the water, smooching. They may well have been skinny-dipping. It is best not to ponder too much, for they were both Corpus demons—bald, wrinkled with big floppy ears and ghastly teeth (by human standards). One had a reasonably feminine face. The other was a fellow named Clem.

Clem yelped.

"What’s wrong?"

He reached under the water and then brought up his hand. It was covered in blood.

"I think that thing bit me!" Clem nodded to the small green shark that glided just beneath the surface of the water.

The little green shark morphed into the form of a young human male. "We don’t like demons on our islands," he said. "We hate vampires. Kill vampires or leave these islands or we will kill you."

He became a shark once more and disappeared from view.

Clem and his date got the hell out of the water.

Cut to:

Ext., a demon bar in Honolulu.

Two drunken Chaos demons staggered out of the bar—and found themselves facing 30 dogs of many breeds. Hackles raised, the dogs growled and bared their fangs. The two demons slowly backed into the bar and slammed the door shut.

One of the dogs morphed into a human shape and entered the bar alone.

For the next 10 minutes, the only sounds that came from the bar were screams of pain.

Then silence. The "man" came back outside. He was covered in multi colored blood and some dust clung to the blood on his skin. He held up a photograph of the Alba twins.

"Warn Ka’ahupahau."

One of the other dogs turned into a seagull and flew off. The "man" and the remaining dogs all turned into small wisps of steam that quickly evaporated in the night air.

Cut to:

Ext., a rooftop.

A foot slammed into a bare kneecap. A vampire with Polynesia features screamed in pain and dropped to her knees. In life, she would have been 30.

"Miniskirts aren’t good for combat," Topaz said.

Tears ran down her face as she clutched her ruined knee. She wore a wedding band. "I’ll kill you, Slayer."

"Not ’til that knee heals," Topaz said. "Tell your pals I’ll be crippling vamps until the Aionas are dusted."

Then she turned and walked away from the crying vampire. Topaz climbed down the fire escape. She blew a kiss at the huddled form of a Hawaiian vampire, male, who cowered between two trash bins. He, too, clutched a broken knee. He, too, wore a wedding band.

"Tell the Aionas the Slayer said hi."

FADE OUT.

Scene Six

FADE IN.

Int., the Alba twins’ bedroom, 11:05 p.m.

The room was immaculate and girly. In fact, the only difference between Topaz’ part of the room and Sapphire’s was that Topaz had a Cheers poster over her bed and Sapphire had a Hill Street Blues poster on the wall beside her bed. A light

mounted above the poster was angled to illuminate the face of actress Veronica Hamil.

Sapphire was watching the t.v. news. Alone. Because in those days, Slayers patrolled alone.

". . . Doctors predict the young man will survive the loss of his arm . . . he may be one of the few who will survive yesterday’s triple shark attack event . . . "

Sapphire shook her head. "I’d give anything to make that creep suffer."

She suddenly smiled. She got up and strode quickly to the door.

Cut to:

Int., the Alba livingroom, 11:15 p.m.

The marine biologist, Ka’ahupahau and Noelani and the Watcher sat on the sofa, watching the nightly weather report.

". . . The National Weather Service can’t explain how a tropical storm as large as Fred could form so quickly and unexpectedly . . . chances the storm will become a hurricane are . . . hurricane or not, it appears to be headed directly toward the Hawaiian islands . . . "

Giles turned to Ka’ahupahau. "Your work?"

"Pele’s," she said. "The threat of the storm should keep people on land and indoors, denying the shark man and the vampires victims while also protecting the sharks from men."

"Someone could still be hurt."

"Any attempt to make war less brutal will only make it worse," Ka’ahupahau said.

"A Hawaiian goddess, quoting Clauswitz?"

"Older women are well read, Watcher," Ka’ahupahau said, smiling.

Someone knocked. Alba got up and answered the front door. He found a strange Polynesian man standing before him.

"You’re naked," Alba said.

The man handed him a photograph of the twins. "This was posted in a demon bar. I believe there are copies posted in other bars."

"You sonofa—"

Ka’ahupahau appeared behind Alba and said: "He is an Aumakua, Dr. Alba. He has broken the rules by taking human form to warn you that your daughters are in danger." To the man, she said: "You can never return to this world again."

The man nodded. "I understood the risk. My ohana has other Aumakua—they will be protected."

"In the water, they are under my protection," Ka’ahupahau said. "And my husband’s."

"That is as safe as life will allow. Thank you." The man turned into a wisp of steam and evaporated in the Hawaiian night.

Alba slammed the door and turned on Ka’ahupahau. His face darkened as he said: "This means the demons all know one of my girls is the Slayer."

Ka’ahupahau nodded. "We will try to protect them as long as we can."

Giles said: "It might be wise for you to seek a research grant in some other part of the world."

"The Council—"

"Does not provide financial aide to Slayers or their families," Giles said. "It is a foolish policy, but not one I have the power to change."

Ka’ahupahau said: "I won’t let either of them go out at night alone."

Giles said: "The storm won’t make that necessary for a day or two."

Cut to:

Int., Tiburon’s houseboat.

Tiburon switched off his t.v. and went topside.

He looked around. No one was in sight. He dropped his shirt and boxers and shoes onto the deck. "Good thing I can hide out from the storm." He glanced over the side and saw a small green shark gliding languidly between his boat and the next.

"Good thing for you I’ve got bigger fish to fry." He burst out laughing, as if he’d invented a new joke. Then he went over the side of his own boat, inhaled and submerged.

Cut to:

Under the bow of Tiburon’s houseboat.

Tiburon swam away from the boats before morphing into the form of a tiger shark. Then he dipped his pectoral fins as a bird dips its wings and turned North. As if a shark could out run a storm. And at 500 miles a day, it was at least theoretically possible. If worse came to worse, he could always go deep.

The 2-foot long green shark morphed into human form, that of a 5-foot-4 man, and broke the surface.

Cut to:

Ext., Tiburon’s houseboat.

The Hawaiian man climbed aboard and broke into the houseboat. It wasn’t exactly a challenge. Tiburon hadn’t locked anything.

"Phew! He’s not a shark man, he’s a pig!" He looked around. In the galley, he found the photographic shrine Tiburon had made for his dead child and his dead marriage.

"I wish I could pity you, Tiburon." Then he found the photographs of the Albas and the Watcher.

Cut to:

Int., the Alba livingroom, Midnight p.m.

July 12, 1984.

The phone rang. Alba answered it, listened, then gave the phone to Ka’ahupahau. The red headed "woman" listened, nodded and hung up. She turned to the Giles, Noelani and the Alba family.

"Tiburon is a shark man," Ka’ahupahau said. "We will watch him now. Unfortunately, he has become a shark—probably to hide from the storm. To catch him, we may have to wait for the storm to pass."

"So much for your strategy," Giles said. "But it will keep the number of potential vampire victims quite low until we have eliminated the Aionas."

Cut to:

Ext., Hawaiian Marine Apex Predator Research Institute, 1 a.m.

Alana Aiona, the eternal 15-year-old, taped an envelope to the door. It was addressed to Dr. Alba. She slipped into the night.

Minutes later, her father emerged from the shadows and snatched the envelope from the door. He ripped it open and read the contents.

"That traitorous little brat."

He tore the letter to bits and let it blow away in the breeze—like so much confetti after a forgotten parade. Then the vampire slipped back into the shadows and disappeared, taking the same direction as his former daughter.

FADE OUT.

To be continued in Act Four, Part One

WATCHERS: Lest We Forget (5A/5C)

DISCLAIMER: See start of this document.

DISTRIBUTION: Ask and I shall approve.

SPOILERS: See previous installments.

RATING: PG-13

COMMENT: Does anyone remember where Sheila and Ira Rosenberg live? I’ve got an idea for a fic that sends Willow home . . . with Andrew.

SUMMARY: In 2004, Giles tells his young friends about his first Slayer. She was called in 1984 on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. Her name was Topaz Alba, daughter of Dr. Joshua Alba, a marine biologist, and identical twin sister of Sapphire

Alba. Together, Topaz and Giles investigated a mysterious series of quite unnatural shark attacks and simultaneously fought an "ohana" (family) of vampires . . .

WATCHERS: Lest We Forget (5A/5C)

Act Four, Part One

Scene One

FADE IN.

July 15, 2004

Ext. shots of Honolulu residents cleaning up after a tropical storm, day.

Cut to:

Ext. shots of policemen standing over the bodies of three homeless people who apparently died during the tropical storm.

Cut to:

Sunset.

Cut to:

Underwater close up of a tiger shark gliding beneath boats in their slips.

The tiger shark took a listless snap at a passing small green shark that ventured a tad too close, but the bigger fish did not pursue the matter. Instead, the tiger shot straight to the surface and morphed into his human form—Tiburon.

Cut to:

Surface of water next to Tiburon’s boat.

Tiburon broke through and gasped for air. He climbed aboard his boat.

He was startled to find the Aiona women on his boat—so startled, he didn’t notice the little green shark circling just below the surface between his boat and his neighbor’s.

"I thought vampires couldn’t enter a house uninvited," Tiburon said.

Mrs. Aiona covered her daughter’s eyes with her hand.

"Mom! Do you really expect me to stay a virgin for eternity?"

"Trust me, Alana, Mr. Tiburon is not eye candy." To Tiburon, she said: "That only applies to indoors. We’re still outside—like being on your front step."

Tiburon bent over and picked up his trunks. "You two mind?"

The Aiona vampire women turned their backs.

He pulled on his trunks. "OK."

They looked back at him. Neither of them seemed too terribly thrilled by what they saw. Alana said: "Some necks just aren’t worth biting."

Tiburon glared at her. "Where’s Mr. Aiona?"

The two women shrugged. "He went looking for Alana the night before the storm and she came back, but he didn’t."

Alana made a sniffling sound. "Poor daddy."

Cut to:

Nearby shadows.

"Poor daddy" shook his head and mouth the plural form of a crude word sometimes used to refer to a female canine.

Cut to:

Ext., deck of Tiburon’s houseboat.

"So what do you two want?"

"Off the island."

Tiburon shrugged. "Fly."

"No money."

"Can’t you guys turn yourselves into bats?"

The two women crossed their arms and glared at him.

"Hey, I’m not knocking shape-shifting."

Stony, yellow-eyed, fanged glares of silence.

Tiburon sighed. "Why do you need to get?"

"The shark gods have come on land."

Tiburon smiled. "That means these waters aren’t safe for sharks."

Alana said: "And they’re taking it out on the local demons—especially the vampires."

"So?"

"Help us leave or we’ll tell the Slayer that a shark man is behind the shark attacks," Haleigha said.

Tiburon shrugged. "Her dad’s a marine biologist. If he knows she’s a Slayer, he knows something supernatural is going on. So what?"

Alana said: "Help us or we’ll tell the Slayer that you’re the shark man."

Tiburon laughed. "So freaking what? Slayers don’t kill humans."

Haleigha said: "Help us or we’ll turn you into a vampire."

"I don’t’ think you can," Tiburon said. "I never heard of a vampire turning a werewolf, so I doubt it’s possible. Maybe it’s some kind of mystical law: you can only be one type of monster."

Alana said: "Help us or we’ll tell the shark gods that you’re their enemy."

"They can’t be very powerful or I couldn’t have slaughtered so many of their . . . kind."

Alana sighed—grabbed Tiburon by his arms and threw him, bodily, over the cabin and into the water, just inches beyond the bow of his houseboat. Had her throw been a little bit weaker, just a tiny bit less precise, Tiburon would have died

from a lethal concussion.

He came sputtered to the surface. "What the HELL was that for?"

Alana called to him: "Help us or I’ll kick you in the place nice girls don’t talk about."

Haleigha shouted: "And she wasn’t very nice when she was human!"

Tiburon groaned: "All right! But you guys gotta do me a favor!"

Haleigha said: "What’s the favor?"

"I’ll tell you when I get back on board."

As Tiburon swam back around to the stern, the little green shark quickly submerged.

Cut to:

Close up, Tiburon climbing back aboard his boat.

Once on deck again, he said, panting: "Murder Dr. Alba for me. I’ll even tell you how to do it."

FADE OUT.

Scene Two

FADE IN.

July 17, 2004

Close up of setting sun.

Cut to:

Ext., Books of the Undead bookshop.

Giles turned the "closed" sign on the door and locked up as Topaz slipped out the fire exit.

"Good hunting!"

"Same to you, Mr. Rupert!"

The door shut behind her. Giles sighed. "If I am not careful, I could become fond of that young woman."

He switched on the alarm, went out to his car and drove off.

Cut to:

Ext., the Alba home, evening.

Giles parked opposite the Alba house and waited with a loaded crossbow on the passenger seat. He was having a dreadfully difficult time keeping his eyes open—until he heard the screaming.

"HELP! HELP! HELP! HELP! HELP! HELP! HELP!"

He looked at his rearview mirror.

Nothing.

He checked his side mirror.

Nothing.

He opened the window, leaned his head out and looked in the direction of the noise.

A young girl, with Hawaiian features and a very poor quality blonde dye-job, ran down the street. Blood ran from her neck. Behind her, a female vampire old enough to be her mother also ran—not quite quickly enough to catch her.

"A comparatively clever ploy for the Aionas," Giles said.

He calmly picked up his crossbow, slid over to the passenger side of the car and slipped out, keeping low. Using the car as a hunter’s blind.

Cut to:

Close up of the running girl and her vampire pursuer.

The young "blonde" girl, no more than 15, wasn’t wearing make up. Many men would not have recognized her as Alana Aiona—fleeing her mother Haleigha.

Alana ran to the door of the Alba house and began pounding it with both fists.

"Hurry! Please, hurry, she’ll kill meeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

Cut to:

Giles, crouched behind the car.

The Watcher leveled the crossbow—and fired at Haleigha Aiona. She burst into a cloud of dust.

The Alba door opened and Joshua Alba stepped to one side, but did not speak.

Alana wailed: "Please let me in!"

Alba said: "Why?"

From behind Alana, Giles said: "I’m afraid I’ve killed your mother, Alana."

She turned on him. "Some crazy lady bites me and you—"

"I didn’t see you in my rearview mirror," Giles said. "If you were human, I would have seen your reflection."

Alana displayed her real face and slowly advanced on the Watcher, who raised a re-loaded crossbow at the young demon.

Not that he needed to—Topaz appeared in the doorway, stomped out, grabbed Alana from behind and spun her around.

And dusted her.

"She didn’t look like her picture," Dr. Alba said.

"Changed her look," Topaz said. "Boys are clueless about that stuff."

"May I come inside?" Giles asked.

Alba shrugged. "Why not?"

In the living room, they found the last surviving member of the Aiona ohana seated alone on the sofa.

"The sluts gone?"

Giles took off his glasses. "May I ask why you betrayed your wife and daughter?"

Topaz said: "He’s a vampire, Mr. Rupert."

Keona Aiona said: "Alana left a note for Dr. Alba, offering to help him kill me and my wife if he helped her get off the island. Then they teamed up with some werewolf named Tiburon—"

Topaz frowned. "I thought he was a wereshark."

Keona shrugged. "Wolf, shark, a were-some-damn-thing. Anyway, they teamed up with him." Keona looked at the marine biologist. "He really hates you, Dr. Alba. Said you wouldn’t let him clean the ocean."

Ka’ahupahau came into the living room at that moment with tea and coffee on a serving tray. Sapphire came in carrying a serving tray of brownies. She said she made them herself—and apologized. Ka’ahupahau offered Keona Aiona a cup of Kona coffee. Keona said he preferred his coffee without cream. He drank deeply, as vampires will—and suddenly turned even more deathly pale than he already was. Which is pretty darn pale for a bloodless demon.

Ka’ahupahau smiled. "Did I forget to tell you that I used holy water to make the coffee?"

He started to curse—but collapsed into a cloud of dust.

Alba glared at Ka’ahupahau.

Giles coughed and said vampire dust was comparatively easy to remove.

"Thank your cousin for me," Topaz said. "Or maybe I could thank him myself? He’s kinda cute—in both his human and shark forms."

Dr. Alba said: "You are not dating any gods, spirits, demons or were-beasts of any kind. Teen age boys are evil enough for a poor father."

Ka’ahupahau chuckled. "He prefers girls my age, dear. He is, after all, very nearly my peer."

Giles coughed. "Forgive me, ladies, but we still have Mr. Tiburon to deal with."

"I have an idea," Sapphire said.

Topaz said: "No offense, but why do we need a big plan? I go on his boat, throw him in the water and he’s done."

Ka’ahupahau shook her head. "He must choose the shark form of his own free will. If he doesn’t . . . "

"Have your cousin get in the water and nip him. He’ll get made, get as big as the depth of the water will let him—and then you shark gods can do whatever to him."

Giles said: "It has the saving grace of simplicity—but the plan is flawed in one key respect. If someone sees you throw him into the water, Topaz, you could be held legally responsible. The Council may not interfere in matters of local law."

Joshua Alba snorted. As did Ka’ahupahau and the twins. Interestingly, the girls snorted in perfect unison.

Ka’ahupahau said: "Twins often dress alike. Dr. Alba, if you and your lady friend would pretend to quote, unquote baby-sit Sapphire—"

"I don’t need a sitter!"

"—and Sapphire, dressed as Topaz, pretending to be Topaz, were to be seen talking to me at the same time Topaz was dealing with Mr. Tiburon . . . "

Giles smiled. "I’m beginning to wish we worked together more often, Ka’ahupahau."

"Remember that when Tiburon has been punished you are to leave these islands forever, Watcher. And by Watcher I mean all agents of the Council of England."

FADE OUT.

To be continued in Act Four, Part Two . . .

WATCHERS: Lest We Forget (5B/5C)

DISCLAIMER: See top of this thread.

DISTRIBUTION: Ask and I shall approve.

SPOILERS: See previous installments.

RATING: PG-13

COMMENT:

I deliberately wrote this last installment slightly out of sequence. The Tiburon/Topaz smackdown (with cliffhanger) takes place BEFORE Tiburon is turned into a whale shark.

I normally prefer chronological story telling, but I could not have ended the installment on a cliffhanger if I'd gone that route. Also: I felt that Tiburon's fate was ultimately less important than Topaz's fate, so I wanted to get Tiburon's part of the story out of the way.

I hope it doesn't confuse too many of you--I am no great fan of flashing back and forth in a story. (The worst example I ever read was a novel called "Die Again, McCready.") But in this case, I stand by my choice.

BTW "Daughter of Time" is a great mystery novel by Josephine Tey. The title comes from the proverb: "Truth is the daughter of time."

SUMMARY: In 2004, Giles tells his young friends about his first Slayer.

WATCHERS: Lest We Forget (5B/5C)

[Giles’ voiceover.] "We changed our original plan in favor of a simpler approach to manufacturing an alibi for Topaz."

Act Four, Part Two

Scene Three

FADE IN.

July 20, 1984

Ext., a boat anchored roughly 30 miles from Oahu coastline, morning.

Many people witnessed the Albas, father and twin daughters, and the Englishman get on a boat called the Daughter of Time and go off on what Dr. Alba said, very loudly, was a three-hour tour.

The Englishman and the Alba twins rolled their eyes at the weak attempt at wit.

No human, except those aboard, saw the boat come to a halt and drop anchor. No human, except those aboard, saw a dolphin materialize at the surface beside the boat. No human, except those aboard, saw Topaz shed a brunette wig to reveal a blonde crew cut. No human, except those aboard, saw the young woman remove all trace of her make-up—so that no casual observer would likely recognize her if he saw her more than once. And no human, except those aboard, saw her enter the water and grab the dorsal fin of the waiting dolphin—which immediately took her away.

Dr. Alba and Sapphire stood at the bow of the boat, watching the "dolphin" carry Topaz away.

"Will she be OK, Mr. Giles?" Sapphire asked.

"If the police don’t catch her and she catches Mr. Tiburon by surprise, I think she might be successful."

Alba glared at the Watcher. "I really wish you would sugarcoat things."

Giles stared after the girl too. He nodded, as if he hadn’t heard Dr. Alba. He said: "I do hope she remembers that in the water, a Slayer is not much better off than a normal human."

Sapphire said: "What if Tiburon doesn’t turn himself into a shark?"

"Your sister’s part of the plan will fix that," Alba said. "That little green shark will bite him until he gets too angry to think straight. Once he’s a shark, Ka’ahupahau will take Tiburon to meet her husband—and I really don’t envy any creature who has to face an angry 180 foot long shark!"

FADE OUT.

Scene Four

FADE IN.

July 20, 1984

Ext., a boat anchored roughly 30 miles from Oahu coastline, late afternoon.

Cut to:

Close up of the water near the boat.

Tiburon came up to the surface screaming: "HELP! SHARK! HELP!"

His blood billowed out from below. His limbs and body were covered with bite marks—some of them fearfully large.

The three humans on the boat just stood there, gawking at him.

"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE?"

One of them, the Englishman who called himself Ripper, pointed at something in the distance. Tiburon looked over his shoulder—and saw the giant dorsal fin of Kuhaimoana himself, husband of Ka’ahupahau.

Tiburon panicked (who could blame him?) and swam quickly, clumsily, toward the Daughter of Time. He saw a metal ladder waiting for him at the bow of the boat and started to climb aboard.

But the moment Tiburon put his hand on the boat; Giles put his foot on Tiburon’s hand.

"LET ME ABOARD!"

"After the young lady has her say," Giles said. "Your punishment was her idea—it is her right to tell you—"

"WHAT THE HELL AM I BEING PUNISHED FOR?"

Sapphire, Dr. Alba and the Watcher glowered at him. A wave crashed over him and Tiburon looked back to see Kuhaimoana’s giant tail fin slap the surface—sending another wave over the back of the former human being.

"I should not insult his intelligence," Giles said. "I have never seen him angry—and do not care to start now."

Sapphire took a small, timid step forward.

Tiburon glared at her. "You’re the Slayer, aren’t you?"

"Nope, that’s Topaz."

Tiburon smiled. "At least I got my own back."

Sapphire said: "You’ve got a choice, Mr. Tiburon. You can be eaten alive by small sharks, like them—"

She pointed and Tiburon glanced down to 15 sharks, none of them more than a yard long, a few feet under the surface—circling him just below his feet.

"—or you can become a whale shark."

"A whale shark?"

"They grow to maybe 20 meters," Dr. Alba said.

Tiburon scowled. "They look anything like hammerheads?"

"Nope."

He sneared. "I bet they don’t live long."

Alba shrugged. "No one knows how long they live," he said. "But Ka’ahupahau said you were born a man and would only age as a man—so you’d be practically immortal."

"How do I know you aren’t lying?"

Giles chuckled. "Do you really think we would waste the time? Look at him." He nodded toward the giant shark god, still circling. "He could swallow you whole and not even notice."

Tiburon glared at the three of them. "I won’t apologize. Sharks are evil. I wish I could’ve killed every shark on Earth."

Alba said: "Choose."

"I suppose I could do a lot of damage at 40 feet."

Giles said, "Choose," and kicked Tiburon in the face.

Tiburon fell back into the water.

Dr. Alba immediately started the boat’s engine—and started to move away from the shark man.

Sapphire yelled: "Choose!"

Tiburon looked around and saw that Kuhaimoana’s dorsal fin was moving toward him.

With ever-increasing speed.

Tiburon screamed: "I DON’T WANNA DIE!"

A heartbeat later, he was gone—

—and in his place swam a whale shark.

The huge creature descended until it was too far below the surface to be seen by the people on the boat.

The war between Tiburon and the sharks of Hawaii was over.

Cut to:

Ext., The Daughter of Time.

Giles said: "He was right about one thing, Dr. Alba. At 40 feet, he could do tremendous damage."

Alba laughed. "The whale shark is a plankton eater! And a 20-meter shark has to eat a whole hell of a lot of plankton to stay alive. Tiburon won’t have time to do damage—and he’s too damn big to get close to shore. The swimmers of Hawaii are safe now."

Cut to:

Ext., a seagull flying overhead.

The gull flew down, landed on the boat—and became the red headed woman again.

She looked heartbroken. "Get to shore—quickly, Dr. Alba. Your daughter needs you."

FADE OUT.

Scene Five

FADE IN.

July 20, 1984

Ext., Tiburon’s houseboat, shortly past noon—just a few hours earlier.

Tiburon returned to his boat carrying large brown paper bags of groceries in both arms. He boarded his own boat, put the bags down and unlocked the door that led down to—

Cut to:

Int., Tiburon’s galley.

"Hi, Mr. Tiburon."

He still held his groceries in both arms. Tiburon scowled. "Who in hell . . . Oh. You."

"Am I Topaz or Sapphire?"

Tiburon shrugged. "Does it matter? You’re the Vampire Slayer, right?"

She nodded. "Right."

"We’re in the same business. We kill demons."

"No, I kill demons and you murder human beings."

"I kill more sharks my way than I ever did when I tossed ordnance into the ocean."

"I don’t wanna talk, Mr. Tiburon—I wanna kick your rump."

"Slayers don’t kill humans."

"I’ll let the sharks do that."

She leapt up and kicked him in the chest. He fell on his butt. Topaz landed on her feet—Giles’ training had finally begun to help.

Tiburon chucked. "I’m disappointed, kid. I thought you’d be stronger."

Topaz didn’t answer. She just stood there, fists poised near her hips, waiting.

Tiburon stood—and lunged.

Cut to:

Ext., Tiburon’s houseboat, minutes later.

Tiburon skidded along the deck. Topaz slowly came up from the interior of the boat. She smiled, as if she was having an easy time. The fact her nose ozzed blood didn’t seem to bother her at all.

Nearby, witnesses saw the 15-year-old girl with the bloody nose stalk toward the older man. That had been part of the new plan. Tiburon had to get in one good shot. If things went wrong, Topaz might be able to claim self-defense.

Tiburon got to his feet—and lunged.

Topaz kicked him in the groin.

He dropped like a stone.

Topaz grabbed him by his shirt, pulled him up—and tossed him over the side. He sank and then came back up, yelling for help.

A small green shark appeared—and bit Tiburon’s arm. Several more small sharks materialized near the surface and started biting him.

Humans ran to help the "poor man," who yelled "shark lover!" at Topaz. Tiburon grabbed the small green shark and gripped the gills on the left side of the little shark’s head—and squeezed. Blood oozed into the water—but Tiburon still held his human form.

Tiburon’s free hand appeared—holding a small knife. He drove the blade into the little green shark.

Maybe Topaz forgot that the little green shark was a cousin of Ka’ahupahau—and of the volcano god Pele. Maybe Topaz forgot that Tiburon was human. Or maybe Topaz remembered that she was Chosen to be a protector.

She leapt into the water beside Tiburon—and began punching his face.

Tiburon immediately shifted his shape and became a large tiger shark, releasing the little green shark in the process.

The big tiger shark took Topaz Alba’s right arm into its jaws and dragged her under the water.

FADE OUT.

To be continued in Act Four, Part Three

WATCHERS: Lest We Forget (5C/5C)

DISCLAIMER: See start of this document.

DISTRIBUTION: Ask and I shall approve.

SPOILERS: See previous installments.

RATING: PG-13

COMMENT:

QUESTION: At the risk of getting myself lynched . . . does anyone want to read more about the Albas?

SUMMARY: In 2004, Giles tells his young friends about his first Slayer.

WATCHERS: Lest We Forget (5C/5C)

Act Four, Part Two

Scene Seven

FADE IN.

July 20, 1984

Ext., water next to hull of Tiburon’s houseboat.

Topaz leapt into the water beside Tiburon—and began punching his face.

Tiburon immediately shifted his shape and became a large tiger shark, releasing the small green shark.

The tiger shark took Topaz Alba’s right arm into its jaws and dragged her under the water.

Some of the human witnesses jumped back, horrified by the unnatural scene they had just observed. But a few started to take off their shoes, as if they intended to rescue the girl from the shark.

Then the conical head of a great white slid up from below and flashed its serrated, triangular teeth at any and all would-be rescuers. Naturally, the humans stepped back—and the great white slid back beneath the surface.

Where Tiburon, Topaz and a number of small sharks were fought one another to the death.

Cut to:

Ext., underwater.

The tiger shark still had Topaz’s arm in its mouth. The shark slammed the girl against the hull of the houseboat. The small green shark turned and sank its teeth into the tiger shark’s left gill slits.

The great white shark morphed into a small shark and lunged at the tiger, darting between Topaz’s kicking legs and then morphing into a large hammerhead just before it sank its teeth into the tiger shark’s underbelly.

Ten more small sharks joined the fray—gripping the tiger shark’s gill slits, dorsal fin, pectoral fins and tail fins with their jaws. Blood filled the water.

When the tiger shark . . . screamed? . . . it released the young Slayer’s arm. Topaz moved quickly toward the surface. As she rose in the water, Topaz spun slowly in the water and turned her back on the tiger shark. The small green shark and the "hammerhead" broke off their attacks on the tiger shark.

The small green shark followed the girl. The "hammerhead" moved off about 10 feet—and then swam at full speed toward the tiger shark.

The tiger shark ignored its other assailants. It opened its mouth wide, pulling the upper jaw back as it extended its lower jaw—and lunged at Topaz.

Cut to:

Ext., the surface.

Topaz came up gasping for air—and suddenly went face first back underneath the water.

Cut to:

Underwater.

The tiger shark sank its jaws into the small of Topaz Alba’s back and shook her with all its might. Most of the small sharks broke off their attacks on the tiger shark and swam a few feet away—before transforming into larger sharks.

The green shark took human form and rushed to the surface. Above water, he gulped air and submerged again. Under the water, he grabbed Topaz’s head with both hands. She saw him, smiled, and exhaled air into the water. He pressed his mouth to hers and gave her his breath.

The big hammerhead, jaws agape, slammed into the tiger shark’s side and rammed it against the hull of Tiburon’s houseboat. The tiger shark released the young girl. The young man who had been a shark only moments ago took the girl into his arms and pulled her to the surface. Above the water, she gulped for air and sobbed in pain. Which meant she was alive.

The other big sharks once again attacked the tiger shark. The tiger, at 10 feet, was now the smallest of the sharks in the water. Perhaps the human intelligence of the shark man told the tiger shark that it was doomed if it stayed—for it swam away.

The other sharks followed, biting the tiger shark only when it dared attempt to swim back in the direction of the girl.

Cut to:

The surface.

As several people, including a familiar red headed woman, pulled the bleeding girl out of the water, seven men aimed rifles of various sizes at the water—and opened fire on all the sharks as they chased the tiger shark out to see.

In the distance, above all the shouting and the gunfire, you could hear thunder rolling.

Another tropical storm was about to slam into the Hawaiian islands. Once more, the ancient Gods intended to use brute force to protect sharks from people and people from sharks and demons. Because an injured Slayer was unable to protect humanity, the Hawaiian gods stepped in to do her duty. She had risked her life to defend a cousin of Pele herself.

The Hawaiian gods owed Topaz a great debt.

FADE OUT

Scene Eight

FADE IN

Arial shot, Cleveland, Ohio, United States, the present.

Aug. 1, 2004

Cut to:

Int., a classroom.

Rupert Giles apologized and took a moment to clean his glasses. Tears rolled down his cheeks.

Willow swallowed. "That creep Tiburon killed her, didn’t he?"

"What? Oh, no. Topaz was a Slayer—she survived the shark bite."

Andrew also wept as he said: "Then why are you crying, Giles?"

"Becau—Bec—Be—" Giles pinched his eyes and inhaled very deeply, several times. As if the words in his head were strangling him.

Xander closed his eyes. "I get it."

Robin Woods, the only living son of a Slayer, gently touched Andrew’s arm and looked at Giles. He said very softly: "Her spine?"

Giles nodded. "Tiburon, in his passing, had crushed one of her upper vertebrae and severed the lower quarter of her spine from the rest."

FADE OUT.

Scene Nine

FADE IN.

Aug. 12, 1984

Ext., a Honolulu hospital, 6 p.m. Lightening flashes, strong

winds bend palm trees and water pounds the building.

Cut to:

Int., a private hospital room.

Rupert Giles stood at the foot of the bed, arms crossed, waiting. His eyes were both black; his nose was bandaged and his lips were swollen. Someone had beaten the hell out of him.

Topaz lay on her bed. A smile slowly spread over her face and her eyes slid open.

"Hi, Mr. Rupert."

"Must you call me that?"

"You wouldn’t let me call you just Rupert."

"The Council encourages formality between Slayer and Watcher, but I think we can ignore the Council’s edicts."

Topaz petted the side of the bed. "Siddown, Rupert. Ka’ahupahau says we need to talk."

"She said the same thing to me," he said.

"Did daddy do that?" She pointed at his face.

"Fathers take bitter offense at harm befalling their daughters."

"You kinda deserved it, you know."

"More than kinda," Giles said, sitting down on the edge of the bed.

"The doctors don’t think I’ll ever walk again."

"You’re a Slayer—you may well prove them wrong."

"Does the Council know?"

"Know what?"

"That I’m paralyzed?"

"I haven’t told them as yet," Giles said. "I’m still waiting on a prognosis."

"I’m probably never going to walk again," Topaz said. "Which really sucks because my legs are my best feature."

"Could we please avoid discussing your features?"

Topaz smiled. "Hey, if a girl can’t tease her Watcher, who can she tease?"

"I think you’re being unduly pessimistic about—"

"How long would the Council let me heal before they call another Slayer?"

Giles took off his glasses. The frames were brand new—perhaps Dr. Alba had broken the previous set. "It would depend on how long it took for you to heal. Historically . . . you have time. Many of the Council’s policies pre-date the telegraph. The British, being a fairly conservative lot, are rather reluctant to change. And the Council tends to be more conservative than the bloody Tories."

"A month? A year? How long before they order you to kill me?"

Giles paled. "I would never obey—"

"If that’s true, they’ll just murder you, too, Rupert. You told me what happened to the last Slayer—"

"That was an extreme case," Giles said.

"And attacks by homicidal shark men are just routine?"

Giles didn’t answer.

Topaz reached for the control panel that operated the hospital bed. She pressed a button and the top of her bed went up with a soft whirring sound. Soon she was eye to eye with her Watcher.

"The demons here know one of the Alba girls is a Slayer. Sapphire’s my identical twin. If they mistake her for me—"

"I can teach her to defend herself."

"Yeah, but you can’t give her Slayer strength. And I don’t wanna lie on my back and think about all the people who’ll be killed by demons—"

"The vampire population of Hawaii is now very nearly zero," Giles said. "The shark gods and the aumakua—"

"The shark gods will have to go back to the ocean eventually—land isn’t there home, is it? And the aumakua have their own ohanas to protect. And the vampires aren’t the only killer demons on these islands. You gotta have cops, you gotta have an army and you gotta have a Slayer with good legs. I’m out of the game. It’s time to draft my replacement, Rupert."

"Like all Slayers, you are being rash—"

"Damnit, Rupert, be sensible. Be the grown up. It’s embarrassing for a 15-year-old girl to find out she’s more mature than her 30-year-old crush."

Giles blushed, but he smiled. "You honor me. You do realize—"

"I’m young, not crazy," Topaz said. "There’s something else. Ka’ahupahau said something about a test? When I’m 18?"

Giles swallowed. He nodded and, slowly, described the Watcher ritual for the Slayer’s 18th birthday.

Topaz said: "Ka’ahupahau predicts that if I get well, I’ll die on my 18th birthday. Ka’ahupahau says Sapphire would become the next Slayer."

"That is highly unlikely," Giles said. "Very few Slayers are activated at that age."

"Yeah, but Sapphire and me are twin sisters," Topaz said. "The rules might be different for us." She cupped his chin with her hand. "I can’t take that chance. Daddy wouldn’t survive if he lost both of us."

"I doubt Ka’ahupahau has the power to see the future," Giles said. "If she could, she would have prevented Tiburon’s crimes and saved us a great deal of bother."

Topaz shrugged. "Does it matter, Rupert? I can’t protect people while I’m recovering and I can’t be replaced if I recover. I’d do it myself, but . . . "

"Do you have the slightest idea of what you’re asking me to do?"

"I’m asking you to make it quick—and to write down the exact time so you won’t have to put too many girls through the damned test you gave me and Sapphire."

"You cannot ask me to—"

"If you don’t, I’ll just call your friends at the Consulate. I’ll bet one of them knows all about Watchers and Slayers. Your Council couldn’t reach around the world without pals in the British state department."

Silence.

And more silence.

Then: "There are drugs. We use them for the ritu—"

Topaz shook her head. "You can’t leave any clues, Rupert. Daddy will do his damnedest to prove you’re a murderer."

"He’ll be quite right to do so."

"And he probably won’t let you near me again." She frowned. "How did you manage to—?"

"Ka’ahupahau ordered him to take a nap. He obeyed. I am not certain if she used magic—or threatened to tell her husband that he had been impolite to her."

"Speaking of insanely jealous shark gods—please tell Sapphire to stop oogling Ka’ahupahau? Her husband scares me."

"I suspect his much less fearsome on shore. I also suspect he knows about Sapphire’s crush. Frankly, I think everyone knows Sapphire is a lesbian."

"I vote we don’t find out," Topaz said. "And daddy? If he’s ever had a clue I’d be real surprised."

"Ka’ahupahau has forbidden me to speak with your sister," Giles said. "I promised her I would never tell the Council that I suspect Sapphire was meant to be a Watcher."

"That’s good, ’cause if you did and I got back the use of my legs, I’d have to kick your rump."

Silence.

And more silence.

Then: "I don’t suppose you would be willing to wait?"

Topaz shook her head. "I’m not that brave—I might loose my nerve if I wait."

"That was rather what I had in mind."

Topaz said: "When you feel bad, look at photographs of people who’ve been killed by demons. It’ll lessen your grief a little."

"I could refuse, you know."

"And eventually the Council will find out and make you do it or kill you and maybe my daddy and my sister and some other people in the bargain. Please, Rupert, call the next Slayer."

"If I knew how to do that without—"

"I know you’d save me if you knew how. But you don’t. We can’t play pretend now, can we? My childhood ended the day we met."

Giles flinched.

The two of them sat silently for several minutes. Then Giles folded his glasses and put them in an eyeglass case and put the case in his jacket pocket.

He placed two fingers of his left hand on the side of her neck. He covered Topaz’s mouth with his right palm. Topaz winked and exhaled loudly. He pinched her nostrils shut. He closed his eyes and silently counted off the seconds.

After a couple minutes, Giles glanced at his watch and silently mouthed the time. He stepped outside and yelled: "CODE BLUE! CODE BLUE!"

Nurses and doctors (or were they interns?) ran into the girl’s room as Giles staggered down the hall to the nearest pay phone. He dialed the Consulate number with trembling fingers. He demanded to speak with Mycroft. When Mycroft answered, Giles spoke in a voice that cracked. He said: "A Slayer was Called this evening at precisely 6:42 p.m., Hawaiian time. I repeat, precisely 6:42 p.m., Hawaiian time."

He hung up before Mycroft could reply. He turned away from the phone and found Ka’ahupahau standing before him in her human form. The red headed woman was flanked by two uniformed policemen.

"These officers will escort you to the airport, Mr. Giles. You are no longer welcome in Hawaii. When the storm passes, planes will be allowed to take off again. Please be on one of them—or all my ohana will come after you and your Council."

"And Sapphire?"

"We consider her our ohana," said the shark goddess of Oahu.

FADE OUT.

Aug. 1, 2004, late afternoon.

Cut to:

Int., a classroom.

"The next Slayer lived until 1987. The Slayer after her served until I met my next Slayer in 1989. Two more girls served until Merrick became Buffy’s Watcher."

His four young friends gaped at him. All five faces were ashen, grief stricken. All five faces ran with tears.

"In my day, every Watcher promised himself he would not care about a Slayer. In my day, every Watcher feared his Slayer would be sired and he would be forced to dust her," Giles said. "It never dawned on me I would ever kill a human

Slayer."

Willow said: "You loved Topaz, didn’t you?"

Giles shook his head. "I did not have the opportunity. There wasn’t enough time. I did not love a Slayer until I met my third—Buffy." He looked at Willow. "We owe you a great debt, Willow."

"Debt?"

"Because of you, no Watcher will ever be asked to make the choice I made."

FADE OUT.

Cut to:

Ext., island of Oahu, sunset, the present.

Cut to:

Beneath the surface of very shallow waters.

Two pairs of rather feminine feet wade in the ocean. A small green shark swims languidly nearby. In the distance, a large torpedo shape approaches.

The green shark darts toward the torpedo shape—and immediately becomes even larger than the shadow. The shape quickly turns and darts away.

FADE OUT.

THE END.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: I meant to end this story here and it is done. But I must confess . . . I would like to know what happened to Sapphire and her dad.