The Other Watchers - BTVS/Highlander/Angel x-over 01

 

The Other Watchers
Ms. Hunter Ash

Fan Fiction Crossover
Buffy, the Vampire Slayer: Buffy & Dawn Summers, Anya Emerson, Xander Harris, Willow Rosenberg, Rupert Giles, William Pratt, Tara Maclay #### Pairings: Buffy/Spike, Anya/Xander, Tara/Willow

Angel: Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, Cordelia Chase, Charles Gunn (maybe) Winifred Burkle (maybe) ###Pairings: Wesley/Winifred

Highlander: Original characters so far but some of the tv/movie cast might appear

Rating: PG

# # ##

“No one knows what it’s like to be the bad man
to be the sad man behind blue eyes.

No one knows what it’s like to be hated
to be fated to telling only lies

but my dreams they aren’t as empty
as my conscience seems to be
I have hours, only lonely
my love is vengeance that’s never free

No one knows what it’s like to feel these feelings
and I blame you
no one bites back this hard on their anger
none of my pain, woe, can show through

but my dreams they aren’t as empty
as my conscience seems to be
I have hours, only lonely
my love is vengeance that’s never free”

A pair of blue eyes hardened as they watched the singer behind the lead guitar while ignoring the rest of the band.

She might have doubted her own eyes about the man’s identity with the right handed guitar playing but the song convinced her.

Not that she had heard him sing it before. Others had and they had raved about his singing. Well, most of them had. So much so that Buffy Summers had become curious and downloaded the song (the original version by The Who, not the lackluster cover by Limp Bizkit). She had listened to it repeatedly. It certainly wasn’t her usual middle of the road pop but the lyrics fit the parts of her Watcher that she and the Scooby gang had only seen bare hints of.

Almost against her will, Buffy Summers was becoming a fan of The Who.

Now…. The Slayer left the Canadian nightclub.


# # #

“Need a lift, Jack?” the drummer asked as the band exited the club through a back door, long after the patrons had left for the night.

“Nah, but thanks, I’ve got my bike,” the lead singer said as he pulled the shoulder straps of his soft gig bag over his shoulders. No way in hell he’d leave the guitar around casually and he wasn’t going to stop before going out and getting something to eat.

“Tomorrow night then,” the bass player called as he and the other three band members got into a van and it sped out of the alley and onto the street without even slowing.

The lead singer shook his head. “Daft bunch.”

He turned to unlock the chain around his motorcycle tire and a pipe. He stood up with a puzzled expression.

“Aren’t you afraid of going down on ice?”

Jack spun around with one hand clenched and the other reaching inside his military peacoat. With his LEFT hand, Buffy noted.

She stepped into the light, her face hidden by a broad brimmed hat she was wearing.

“I haven’t dropped a bike in years,” the singer said. “I’m not up for fans right now, thanks.”

“Not even for coffee? Or should I say tea?”

“I drink either,” Jack said slowly, his hand still hovering near his jacket lapel. “Do I know you?”

“Maybe. We could catch up over coffee,” Buffy suggested. She pulled off her hat, her eyes hard. In her other hand was a stake.

“No!” Ripper barely turned sideways into the thrust, taking the stake along the front of his jacket. He grabbed Buffy’s wrist with one hand and elbowed her nose hard with his other arm.

The singer wasn’t even sure what moves she had used when he realized he was face down on the pavement of the alley and Buffy had one foot on his wrist and her knee at the back of his neck. He froze when he saw a blade in front of his eyes and it was moving to his neck.

“I’ll give your guitar to Oz when I run into him again,” Buffy said in his ear.

“No! I’m alive! I’m not a vampire!” Ripper yelled. “Inside my shirt, I wear a cross!”

He felt the Slayer hesitate and then something metal was pressed against his cheek.

“I’m not Catholic but I’ll kiss it if that’ll help,” he offered and sighed when the cross was pulled away from his skin.

In a flash, Buffy was several feet away from the man.

Giles slowly got to his hands and knees and then to his feet.

“I didn’t teach you that,” he commented.

“You died. I found another teacher, I've been training with Gunn from LA,” Buffy countered. “Giles, I saw you die! You’re not a vampire so what the hell?”

Giles brushed his coat and then jeans off, trying not to show had rattled he was. He had almost been staked by his own Slayer. Worse had been the sword she had pulled and was about to use on him.

He glanced at the snow beginning to fall and sighed.

“Don’t you usually ensure someone is a vampire before staking them?”

“I usually don’t find my Watcher two months after he died,” Buffy countered. “And looking younger than when I first met you! What the hell is going on? What did they call you? Jack?”

“This will take awhile,” Giles muttered and pulled out a set of keys and unlocked the back door to the club.

“You have keys to the place where your band plays?” Buffy asked as he stepped inside and turned off the alarm.

Buffy grabbed a large backpack from behind a dumpster.

“Worse, I own the place,” Giles said, motioning her inside. "That's hidden behind a small corporation title." He closed and locked the door and reactivated the alarm.

The Englishman went to a wood paneled wall and reached along the molding and Buffy heard a click and the panel slid away like a pocket door.

“What?”

“There’s two entrances to the apartment upstairs. This one keeps me from being tracked too easily. Somewhat,” he explained. “come on up.”

He waited until Buffy had passed him and he clicked on a dim light and pulled a handle on the wall and the panel slid back into place.

“Track you?” Buffy asked as he moved past her. “Who would be tracking you? Did you break some law by not wearing tweed anymore? And where are your glasses?”

“I know, a hundred questions,” Giles said as they entered a spacious studio apartment. “Lots of questions. As for my glasses, I don’t need them. I never needed them but I am rather fond of them. I’m still very attached to my time in Sunnydale.”

Buffy frowned but glanced around and smiled at all the books, including several that had taken up residence on one side of a twin bed.

“Don’t have many sleepovers?”

“You’re the third person to visit me here,” Giles said as he pulled off his coat.

Buffy blinked as she took in the sight of a small… sword in a weird shoulder holster under his right arm. A sword without a hilt?

“They don’t share my bed,” Giles continued as he went to the kitchen area. “You want something to eat? It’s going to be a long night. I was going out to eat but I prefer privacy for this conversation.”

“Sure,” Buffy said softly.

“As for answers…the glasses helped me fill a role,” Giles said as he began pulling items out of cupboards and a fridge.

“A role? I don’t get it and it’s getting really irritating. You were my Watcher, that wasn’t a role. Quentin even fired you.”

“Yes, he did,” Giles said as he began making spaghetti. “He doesn't know the truth. I wasn’t born Rupert Giles. He was a mate of mine. He died in a motorcycle wreck when he was 19. I was injured as well and I switched wallets. I had facial injuries and told rescue I was Rupert Giles and I took his place. We looked enough alike to pull it off after a wreck.”

“Took his place?” Buffy repeated. “But…. You trained me, you helped save the world several times!”

“Something I enjoyed and would do again in an instant,” Giles said.

“Who the hell are you and how did you get younger?” Buffy demanded, almost shouting, one hand clenched into a fist.

Giles sighed and ran a hand through unruly hair.

“I never aged. I merely led you all to think I was. It was annoying but not hard. I intentionally thinned my hair a bit, applied some makeup, including some liver spots and complained about aches and pains and you all believed because it was expected that I was aging. I hadn’t expected to be in Sunnydale so long but you and the others beat the odds. I was just about to disappear when I got the call that you had been brought back to life. That kept me in the role far longer than I ever thought.”

“You didn’t expect me to live so long?” Buffy asked as she sat down at a breakfast bar.

“No,” Giles said. “I thought I could help train a Slayer and possibly help save the world and disappear on a Hellmouth for a few years. My kind steers clear of them. It mucks with the senses and that can be deadly.”

“Your kind? Deadly how?”

“When one or more of us are close, we sense it,” Giles said. “Your spidey senses as you call it.”

“You’re talking in circles,” Buffy growled. “You sound like the Scottish guy on tv with the sword and living forever.”

“Until someone removes his head,” Giles pointed out. “We’re still trying to find out who gave out so much information about us.”

Buffy blinked, watching his eyes and face closely.

“You’re telling me you’re immortal and hunt other immortals for their heads?” she asked.

“I don’t go hunting them,” Giles said. “Sometimes they hunt me or we run across each other. Most times we fight, sometimes we just talk. Depends on the immortals.”

“How… how many are there and wouldn’t headless bodies attract attention? Especially since you don’t like Hellmouths.”

“One thing the show didn’t get right. If we lose our head the body and head turn to dust,” Giles explained.

“This is pretty out there, Giles,” Buffy complained.

“Says the girl chosen at age 15 to fight vampires and demons,” Giles countered. “Whose best friend is a powerful witch.”

Buffy glared at the Englishman and pondered for several moments. “What do I call you?” she asked as he dished out a plate of spaghetti for each of them.

“Giles works. It seems right from you,” he said as he placed the plates on a small breakfast table.

Buffy moved to sit at the table with him. He brought a soda for each of them and placed Parmesan cheese on the table as his hands shook slightly.

“I saw you die,” she said softly. “That hurt.”

“I know,” Giles said softly. “There was no way to explain those wounds and the fact that I healed so quickly from it. You held me and felt me die. Its rather hard to explain.”

“What happened?”

“As you chased the demon that ripped my stomach and intestines apart, I came back and stumbled behind a dumpster,” Giles said. “I was alive but still hurting. The damage isn’t healed all at once. I've been setting up a new identity, one that would bring me back to all of you, if you've reported my death to the Council.”

“We didn't yet. This hurts, Giles,” Buffy said. “You help Willow and bring her back to Sunnydale and you get killed. And why are you shaking?”

Giles said, “I was nearly killed by my Slayer. A final death. That rattled me. As for the other, I was going to explain but I had to focus on helping someone outside of a Hellmouth.”

“Why the hell didn't you explain when you died?” Buffy demanded. “I kinda get the superhero secret identity thing.”

“Oh so good to meet you, I’m your Watcher and I’m immortal. I’m going to ask you to die young. Want a spot of tea?”

“I also get sarcasm the first time around,” Buffy complained. “How the hell…?” Then her eyes widened. “When you tried to take my place and face the Master!”

“Yes,” Giles said softly. “After that I knew you had to be allowed to be the Slayer. Do you know why Angelus couldn’t break me?”

“No,” Buffy said, still wincing after all the years with guilt. She knew Giles had been tortured and she had left without even talking to him.

“Most torture is effective only if someone is afraid of death,” he explained. “Don’t get me wrong, it hurt like hell. I didn’t think he would threaten me with decapitation or fire so I could hold out. Oh, losing limbs is rather permanent and frightening. Death isn’t as long as we keep our heads. It’s just… very painful and unpleasant.”

“I know about decapitation but fire?”

Giles shuddered. “I hope fire is permanent since there are no muscles and nerves keeping the skull attached to the spine. If not…”

“You scar and losing limbs is permanent,” Buffy said thoughtfully. “If someone like you was badly burned…”

“It would leave the immortal like a walking Freddie Kruger,” Giles said softly.

“Wait! Did you just use a pop cultural reference?”

“I was never as out of touch as I pretended,” he said with a smile.

“So you guys go around killing each other until there is only one?” Buffy asked after a couple of minutes.

“We don’t know if there is a set number of Immortals or not,” Giles said. “Sometimes we’re called Walkers, we walk through history. When we kill another we get a lot of their memories and some of their fighting moves but…. No flashes of lightning or such. We have the same strength and intelligence as other humans, or lack of intelligence. We’re just hard to kill, we don’t age after our first death and we don’t get ill.”

Buffy laughed bitterly and shook her head. “A girl destined to die young and an immortal. And I thought falling for a vampire was ironic.”

Giles nodded. “Most of us have loved many people over the years. It hurts to lose every one of them, whether it was to violence, illness, accident or old age.”

“So who are you?” Buffy asked after they finished eating. “Are you even English?”

The Immortal Watcher nodded. “I am. I have been other nationalities over time but I was born a Saxon.”

“A Saxon? Like Robin Hood and Normans and stuff? Like that Errol Flynn movie?”

“Something like that, yes.”

He got up and took their dishes to the sink and rinsed the plates off.

“How did you find me? I've only been gone two months,” Giles asked.

“YouTube.”

“Excuse me?” Giles asked, turning around looking quite puzzled.

“Someone posted a clip of your band doing Behind Blue Eyes and Bargain by The Who,” Buff explained. “I remembered Willow and everyone raving about you doing Behind Blue Eyes at the coffee house. I was going to ask Willow if she had seen the YouTube clip and how eerie it was that you looked like Giles and could play and sing, nice goatee, by the way. While I was waiting for her to finish a telephone call to Xander, I noticed she was moving songs from her laptop computer onto her MP3. I saw a long list of songs by your group including the covers of the Who. I never knew you were an Alice Cooper fan.”

“Amazing lyrics,” Giles said absently.

“I knew it was too much of a coincidence and tracked down the band,” Buffy continued. “I thought you had been turned and Willow didn’t want to traumatize me.”

“I told Willow a week ago,” Giles said. “I was going to tell you and quietly leave, letting you know that you could always call for help then we were attacked by those demons.”

“And you took that swipe across the stomach for me,” Buffy said softly.

Giles nodded and lifted his shirt, showing her the angry scars. “They fade after a few years. You should see all of Ethan’s.”

“I thought maybe you were barely alive and the demons ran with vampires and turned you somehow. Wait! Did you say Ethan as in Ethan Rayne?”

“An Immortal.”

“And the demon thing?” she asked. “When you were young? Or said that you were young.”

“Just because we’ve lived for centuries doesn’t mean we’re always smart,” Giles said slowly. “Especially when together.”

“I’m getting a headache,” the Slayer complained.

Giles chuckled. “I wonder if its that easy for Immortals or bounty hunters to find me the way you did.”

“Bounty hunters?” Buffy asked, suddenly frowning.

“There are some that know about Immortals and think we shouldn’t exist,” Giles said. “Like those rogue Watchers in that show, especially those of us with magical abilities. We are rare even among Immortals.”

“So you and Ethan are rare,” Buffy said. “Go figure. How does someone know if someone else is an Immortal? Bounty hunters, I mean. You can’t go around killing people and seeing if they pop back up again.”

“The few Immortals I’ve talked to about it don’t know,” Giles said. “We don’t believe there are Watchers that watch Immortals and keep track of us, so how would someone know? We know each other only when close. I wouldn’t know if one walked in the club downstairs but I would know if they started up the stairs or were on the roof.”

“Could they be using magic?” Buffy asked. “You said that the Council found Potentials by using seers and they sometimes missed some, like me. Could they be using seers?”

“It’s possible,” Giles said. “It is getting harder to change identities in this modern age of computers, data bases and fingerprints but it is possible. Most of us have changed countries and nationalities over time with no connection to former lives. It would take magic or an organization like the watchers on that television show to track us.”

“Do you know many Immortals with magical abilities?” Buffy asked after a few moments. “Can you tell that someone is going to be an Immortal?”

Giles’ eyes shifted away from hers for a moment. Most wouldn’t have caught it but Buffy knew her Watcher…. Or thought she did. “Yes to both.”

“And you know someone that is going to be an Immortal that will go around carrying swords and fighting?” Buffy asked with a frown. “Who?”

“No,” Giles said.

Buffy wasn’t sure if she believed him or not. If he did, why wasn’t he hanging around that person, waiting to train them or something?

“Did you tell Willow your suspicions?” Giles asked as he poured them both more tea.

“No,” Buffy said, shaking her head. “She knows about you being an Immortal, is that why she’s planning on coming to Canada? She’s not just checking in with a coven that works with the one in England?”

Giles sighed. “Yes. Buffy, I've stayed away because I needed away from the Hellmouth for a short time.”

Buffy frowned. It felt like there were pieces of a puzzle in front of her and she wasn’t seeing the pattern. “You know someone that is either an Immortal or going to be and they’ll need training. It can’t be any of us because you left, you wouldn’t have left a future Immortal, right?”

“We can’t always tell who will be an Immortal,” Giles said.

“Okay, I’m tired now,” Buffy said.

“You’re welcome to stay here,” Giles said. “I’ve got an air mattress and plenty of bedding.”

“That would be great,” Buffy said. “You can tell me why you own a bar. It's obvious that you've owned the place longer than two months.”

“Yes, the place was Ethan's, he turned it over to me,” Giles said.

“What’s going on, Giles?” Buffy asked. “You disappear and I think you’re dead. You move to Montreal but tell me you were going to return?”

“Yes,” Giles said softly.

Buffy frowned and looked around. "Still feels like your place. Was it real?"

"Absolutely, I borrowed Rupert Giles' name and background but who I am comes through. Studying to be a Watcher and being assigned to you was real. Sunnydale and how I feel about all of you is real."

Buffy felt tears filling her eyes and Giles stood up and opened his arms. In a moment the Slayer was hugging him tightly.

"I am so sorry you thought I died," Giles said softly. "I've missed you."

"I almost killed you," Buffy whispered.

"And I know how much that can hurt and I'm also proud of you," Giles said as he pulled back to look her in the eyes. "You couldn't have known I'm immortal. You were willing to stake your former Watcher, that's difficult."

"Thanks," Buffy said and attempted to smile. "I don't know why I'm tired now."

"Your fight-or-flight is winding down. The bathroom is through there and it includes a comfortable bath tub. Take your time, I'll set up the air mattress. You can take my bed."

"If that air mattress is the usual length then either your feet or your pillow will fall over the ends," Buffy commented. "I'll take the air mattress."

"Normally I'd argue and be a total gentleman but I do acknowledge there is a slight difference between our heights."

"Yeah, yeah, jab at my shortness," Buffy pretended to grumble.