Author: Lucinda

rating: pg13

main characters: Joyce, Sabertooth, Buffy, Scott & Jean, Dawn

number 26 in the 'Messed Up Family' universe

Disclaimer: I hold no legal rights to any characters from BtVS or from any incarnation of the X-Men comics or Movie.

distribution: Twisting the Hellmouth, Paula, anyone else ask

note: this is a continuation of the Messed Up Family AU, now into season 1 BtVS. Dawn exists, but is just the younger daughter of Joyce and Hank, not the Key.

mmuf26..mmuf26..mmuf26..

Joyce sighed as she prepared her gallery for opening. Dinner last night had been... interesting. There had been growling and arguing, and Buffy's statements about being the Slayer and having a destiny, which had disturbed Scott and Jean as well as her not at all dead father. Joyce had found it rather amusing that Scott Summers and her father had looked almost appalled to find themselves agreeing with each other.

Fifteen years ago, her father had been in some sort of military medical experimentation that had left his memories patchy and scrambled, and may have been connected with a man named Logan that Scott and Jean knew. Her father had remained quiet about this Logan, and Joyce remembered that same habit from her own youth, when he'd chosen not to talk about some of the things he knew or had been doing. They didn't know how long this experimental program had run, though Joyce did wonder if it had some connection with him not returning home when she was young.

What he'd said about her mother... She didn't even know if he'd remembered that she hadn't known. Her mother had been a spy, had at one time worked with her dad on those classified missions that he'd never talked about. Had been - probably still was, actually - a shape-shifter.

That brought up whole new concerns about Dawn resembling 'Julia Chambers-Creed' and identity. Dawn had seemed not to know anything about her sudden red highlights, had claimed that her nails had just turned blue... And her father had said that her mother when he thought she was showing her real self had blue skin and red hair. Blue skin... that could be a problem, especially if Mrs. Goreman was still teaching. Unfortunately, she had no idea how long the legal process could go for dealing with that woman, though she was hoping that the Sunnydale nightlife would render it a non-issue.

It had been interesting to get to know a little more about Scott and Jean. If she wasn't mistaken, some day those two would be married, tying Jean to the family as well. The fact that they didn't have problem with mutants as a whole was a relief.

She hadn't been quite certain what to think about the fact that with the six of them sitting at the table, not a single one of them was precisely normal. Scott had those eye beams, Jean was telekinetic - and wasn't that a useful ability? There was her father, and her with her inherited portion of his abilities, Buffy who was probably the Vampire Slayer, and Dawn who seemed to be developing at least a tiny amount of shape-changing, or at least self recoloring. Even if she never learned to reshape herself that could save her a small fortune in cosmetics...

Her father was in town. Her father... and that was far more complicated than it had been forty years ago. She had grown up, started a life, made mistakes, had teenage children of her own... He said that he wanted to stay, wanted to get to know his granddaughters, to get to know the adult version of his Pumpkin. He also kept grumbling that it wasn't right that she had daughters, wasn't she still supposed to be his little girl? Part of her was hopeful that it would work, that they could be a family, that she could trust him to stay. That he wouldn't vanish again.

She wanted to believe that it hadn't been his fault. Then again, she'd also wanted to believe Hank when he'd promised not to work such long hours, when he'd promised there was nothing going on with his secretary. When he'd promised no more affairs.

Maybe it would be best to wait and see how things went.

Of course, this would be terrible for the demons and vampires of Sunnydale. Joyce found herself smiling at that thought, imagining heaps of vampire ash, sprays and puddles of multi colored demon blood as well as scattered bits and pieces.

She still wanted to get a better idea about this Magento man, and how her father had become tangled up with him. That was a conversation for another day, perhaps while hunting demons. Maybe it would also give her some idea what he wanted and why. Perhaps it would also help her figure out what her father had been up to lately, and what to think of him now. Now that he was also Sabertooth instead of just Vic Creed.

It also made her snicker to think of the way he'd been aggravated that she'd been talking to a vampire. He'd looked like he wanted to forbid it. If she'd still been Buffy's age, she might have found herself getting involved with Angel just because of that disapproval... Fortunately she was older and wiser than Buffy.

The day was uneventful at the art gallery. People browsed, making various comments about the artwork, sometimes admiring, sometimes insulting. She left her assistant to close up, and decided to make her way to the high school and ask Mr. Giles a few questions. A very good point had been raised at dinner last night – how did these people conclude that Buffy was this Slayer? If one was called when the last died – and wasn’t that a horrible thought – then was there a pattern to who and where they became Slayers? Did these Watchers give them training beforehand? If so, how did they know who to teach? Since Buffy had told her that the librarian was her Watcher, he had to have some of the answers.

When she reached the school library, he had Buffy jumping rope. For a moment, she thought that was a rather silly thing to be having someone do, and then she immediately scolded herself for thinking like Hank’s wife. Jumping rope could help build endurance and improve footwork. Both were useful for all sorts of things, especially if Buffy would be fighting monsters.

“Mr. Giles, I have a few questions for you. I’m afraid they’re a bit less librarian like than the last batch I asked you about,” Joyce began. She was fairly certain that there was nobody else in the area.

“O-of course, please follow me to my office. Buffy, another five minutes with the jump rope, and then some quarterstaff drills. Would you care for tea while you ask these questions?” Mr. Giles looked a bit worried as he made his way to a small office towards the back of the library.

When they had made their way to his office, he poured himself a cup of tea before murmuring, “What sort of questions do you have?”

“Between you and Buffy, you’ve told me that Watchers are supposed to locate, train and guide Slayers, so that they can fight the demons and vampires. I want to know how they find them, and if there’s only one Slayer in the world, how is it decided where she will be? What sort of training are they supposed to have, and why didn’t I notice anyone training Buffy back in Los Angeles?” Joyce kept her hands folded on her lap, refusing to let her fingers curl into claws.

“Training consists of physical conditioning as well as instruction with a variety of melee weapons. Some Slayers are also taught a variety of languages that are useful for researching prophecies or the older demon texts.” He paused, and began polishing the lenses of his glasses, despite the fact that Joyce hadn’t noticed any streaks or smudges.

“I’m not entirely certain how potential Slayers are located, only that there is an entire branch of the Council responsible for locating them. Training Watchers are then sent to find the girls and… teach them. I can’t tell you why you didn’t notice anything in Los Angeles, I was in London until two months before you and your daughters moved here, and I was sent directly to Sunnydale. There is always a Watcher stationed over the Hellmouth, so I didn’t ask too many questions. When I arrived, I was able to learn that the previous Watcher over the Hellmouth had been slain, most likely by some sort of demons, as I find the official explanation of wild animals to be rather suspect.”

“Meaning that you didn’t have the chance to ask the last Watcher anything,” Joyce mused. “How much communication among Watchers is there between locations?”

“Each Watcher is supposed to send quarterly reports back to Headquarters, though it is up to the individual just how detailed those reports might be. Headquarters are supposed to send us word of any impending prophecies or traveling demons heading towards us in the field. Beyond that, it’s mostly limited to Watchers who happen to be friends writing to each other, and I must confess that the friends that I have in the Council aren’t stationed anywhere near California. The closest friend is Phillip, and he’s in Brazil… or perhaps Elizabeth in Plymouth is as close… All of my other friends are across the ocean.”

“So you don’t know what sort of training Buffy may have been given,” Joyce considered his words. “You didn’t tell me how the next Slayer is chosen.”

“I suspect that Buffy’s training was minimal and focused on the physical. The only languages that she shows any ability with are her rather frustrating efforts at English, French and Spanish. Perhaps I should say American, French and Spanish…” he sighed, put his glasses back on, and sipped at his tea before continuing. “As for how the next Slayer is Chosen, we really aren’t certain. There are theories, and a slayer is always in a place where she is needed, but… Mostly we have to make educated guesses, and wait for one of the Watchers of a Potential to report that his student has experienced an increase in strength.”

Joyce nodded, and then asked another question, “What indicates that a girl is a potential slayer? I remember from college that in some places, there aren’t family names, and what if you’re looking for a girl of about ten with a very, very common name? How would they identify which Mary from Bath they wanted, or Jean of Rouen, or which Lian near the Yang-Tze river?”

“Girls who are potential Slayers tend to be a little stronger, a little faster, a little more agile than those who aren’t. Not enough to stand out, but enough that when combined with an age and a name, it generally works. Some but not all potentials and Slayers carry distinctive birthmarks. The most reliable and hardest to uncover is the fact that many potentials also have the Slayer dreams. Dreams about the lives of past Slayers, or warnings of trouble to come. They might also be able to sense the demons and vampires, though this is generally either a sign that they are strong Dreamers, soon to be Chosen, or from a mystically inclined family,” he paused, and asked, “Do I need to explain about magic, Mrs. Summers?”

“That… might be a topic best left for another time,” Joyce replied. “For now, I know that it seems to be real, and can do strange and frightening things.”

“A rather limited, if accurate summary,” he agreed.

“One more thing, I know that mutant abilities generally start to appear around puberty, with some showing traces earlier. When do girls normally get called as the Slayer? How can we determine if Buffy’s strength is from her mutant heritage or from being called as a Slayer?” She was watching him, alert for the faintest sign of attempted deception.

For several moments, Mr. Giles was quiet, before very reluctantly speaking, “I believe the youngest Slayer was ten. Between fourteen and sixteen is more common, though there really isn’t a set age. Most of the time, the better trained they are before being called, the longer they survive.”

“And how often are new Slayers called?” there was a hint of a growl to her voice.

“It isn’t unheard of for there to be a new Slayer every year. Some last longer, but… very few make it to their eighteenth birthdays,” he admitted.

Joyce could feel her nails digging into her wrists, and she reminded herself that attacking Giles wouldn’t help. He was the only Watcher here trying to help Buffy. That it was bad form to shoot or eviscerate the messenger. “I see.”

She left the office, swearing to herself that Buffy would beat those odds. Buffy would survive, would see eighteen, would graduate, would maybe have children of her own… but not too quickly. She would see to it and heaven help whatever tried to stop her. After all, it was a basic survival tip – never mess with the mamma.

End MMUF26: Angry Thoughts.