Academy of Slayage Series 1 Episode 1 "In the Beginning"

Willow/Kennedy Faith/Other Dawn/?

NC-17

Author's name/pen name: bw

E-mail: blackcoffeeblues138@yahoo.com

Title: The Academy of Slayage Series 1 Episode 1 "In the Beginning"

Summary: Episode One of a ten episode Series

Pairings-Willow/Kennedy Dawn/? Faith/Other

Spoilers: Up to the end of BTVS and s4 of Angel

Archiving: Please ask before doing it, but I am sure I will say yes. Also, if you have a list or know of a list I should post this on please email me

Rating: nc-17 for mentions of very gay things and some BDSM

Feedback: of course, please email me privately. I make a point of replying to each email I get

Disclaimer: Joss, Mutant Enemy and uh.Fox?? Own BTVS..is that why its on fx? I am just borrowing it for a little while to play with some things I have wanted to do for a few years.


The Academy of Slayage Series 1 Episode 1: In the Beginning
By bw

Two years? Has it really been two years since the destruction of Sunnydale? So wow, that means I have been dead for about two and half years. Time sure does fly here in the afterlife! I mean, after that book deal I signed, and the spoken word tour of Heaven.Ok, I am rambling.

Its funny, I barely knew these people but I feel forever connected to them. I have become friends with some of their fallen here in the afterlife. In fact, after I finish this, Joyce and I are going out for the evening (or whatever you want to call it here, night and day are somewhat abstract). Such surprises these crazy kids are in for, really, this is only the beginning.

My name is Cassie Newton, welcome to the academy.

****

She needed to get away.

They had been following her for about an hour now. It had been very methodical, almost as if they did not want to catch her right away. She had stumbled upon what was really happening to the girls who had denied their suitors or had decided to leave the town. They would disappear for a few days, come back, and want to be married and have babies suddenly. It all seemed like coincidence, cold feet, until it had happened to her. She had discovered the truth, the horrible truth, but they had discovered her as well. Now she had to escape and tell someone. Anyone.

She ran through the field trying to figure out if there were any caves or trails she could hide in. Alas, she seemed to be stuck with nowhere to turn,
nowhere to go. Then suddenly, her luck ran out. A dead end.

She stood in front of the wall, slowly turning around to see her followers make their way up to her. A man came forward who she recognized as a Bishop from America.

The man came towards her, rubbing his graying beard with his right hand "so you thought you could evade us, little girl, did you?"

Out of his vest, he pulled a gem "This will only hurt for a moment dear, since you have already been indoctrinated"

With a few words shouted in Latin, the girl's world suddenly turned blank, as she, doey eyed, turned and walked towards the man, standing rigged in front of him.

Smiling, he walked around her, as if to inspect her. "You won't be causing anymore trouble young lady; you'll be a good girl from now".

With that, she was lead to their waiting van and back to the church.

****

"I'm telling you Giles, we can transfer all of your vinyl over to CDR, and they will still sound the same. I agree with you, CDs sound like shit when taken from analog recordings, but we can forgo that now and save a lot of space."

Patrick Cullen sighed and shook his head. He and Giles had been bringing in his things and had gotten to the ridiculous record collection of Rupert's. The same argument they had gotten into a few months back started up again.

"That is fine and all Patrick, but what about the joy of flipping over the vinyl, and holding beautiful artwork in your hand? Your idea is not without merit, but it is not for me."

Smiling, he handed Giles another crate of records "Fine Rupert." He paused, staring at Giles's copy of "Live at Last" in front of the next crate "When does the last batch of books for the library come in?"

Giles finished putting away a crate of records before answering, pausing to clean his glasses, "Tomorrow, during the orientation they will be arriving. Faith will be coming in with the Alpha Team in the morning."

Patrick handed him another crate "What about Buffy's sister?"

"She will be arriving sometime tomorrow, there was a delay in the states with her flight" Giles paused and did the time change math in his head "they are leaving probably right around now"

****

Willow Rosenberg stared out at the beautiful view her private quarters gave of the countryside and frowned. The view was so beautiful, but Willow was not feeling quite that beautiful right now. She was tired, and sad, and just wanted to relax. She sat down to begin to writing in her journal, trying to sum up the past years events for future generations to read-

Tomorrow, after nearly a years worth of planning and work, the academy will open on the grounds of the castle in front of my own smaller castle. For the first year, after Sunnydale imploded and The First was defeated, nearly everyone who had survived made his or her way to Cleveland to fight the Hellmouth there. Cleveland, contrary to popular rumor, does not quite rock so hard. Eventually, one night Giles came to me and ran an idea by me that sounded too good to pass up.

We would go back to England and collect any of the Councils remaining assets. As Giles and Dobson were the only surviving members left besides Wesley, they were the heirs of the remaining funds. We left a few days later for the first time, first going to California to pick up Wesley so he could sign off on any paperwork as well.

It turned out the council had quite a nest egg hidden in a few easily hacked into Swiss accounts. A few days after, we purchased the castles and six thousand acres around it another check came in that we are supposed to pretend we do not know was from Angel. This check was enough to start collecting books to rebuild the watchers archives. Luckily, Giles also had a back up collection in his flat here in England. We then went our separate ways again, Giles and I going back to Cleveland to discuss our decision with everyone.

It was a unanimous vote; we would move most of those in Cleveland to England, leaving behind a small group to deal with the Hellmouth there. Principal Wood, Rona, Xander, Andrew, and a group of new active Slayers would remain.

The rest of us split up, some going home to see family, others coming to England with Giles and I to start planning. Every so often one of us would relief someone in Cleveland so they get away for a while also.

What we now call the Alpha Team of Slayers joined Faith on a trip around the world, fighting any evil they came across. They will be here tomorrow morning. I am excited to see Faith, as time has gone on; we have grown closer and really patched up things.

One night I came in from a date with Kennedy and found a note on my bed. It was from Buffy. She simply said she needed to go away for a while to grow up, learn things about herself, and just be a normal young woman. I understood; she had been through so much in the past eight years with us.

Dawn left to go stay with some friends in Seattle right after that. She said she needed to clear her head and get away from everything for a while.

We have a few new friends also. A young witch named Lilac, who I met through the Coven, has joined us to help me teach magick. The first time I was in England after I went all grr bad she was of great help to my recovery. She also served as a great pillow for me to cry all over. I am glad she is here with us.

When we came to England the first time a young man name Patrick got in touch with us. Turns out he is a relative of Travers, and knew Giles as a child. He has been with us for the past six months working with Giles on rebuilding the library and finalizing the academy. Yep, we are going to have our own little Hogwar---

Before Willow could finish that sentence, two hands came up behind her and wrapped themselves tightly around her body. Her lover Kennedy had just come out of the shower and now had her naked body wrapped tightly around Willow.

She put her face against the side of Willows and whispered to her "I just got out of the shower and I kind of can't find my clothes" They snuggled tightly for a moment before Kennedy continued, "can I snuggle with you?"

Willow forced a smile, not really wanting to be touched right now but going along with it for Kennedy's sake. They embraced for a few minutes
quietly, Kennedy stroking Willow's hair while Willow buried her head into her naked chest.

Kennedy looked down and saw the journal Willow had been writing in on the floor. "What's that?" she said as she picked it up.

Lazily Willow looked up and sighed internally "that is the journal I am going to keep of the beginnings of the academy. I figure some scoobies a few hundred years from now might want some insight into our beginnings".

Kennedy pulled out of the embrace and jumped up quickly, her breasts bouncing up and down gently as she leaned back on the balls of her feet "Wow, yeah, that's all going down tomorrow" She paused as Willow got up, and smiled at the red head, "You're going to be head Mistress.."

She trailed off for a moment as she glided down to her knees and looked up-

"But you've always been my Mistress"

****

Dawn Summers lay back in the chair she was sitting in and closed her eyes for a moment. Dawn and her significant other were off to England to join everyone else who was convening at the academy. Dawn, after many discussions with Giles, and then with Wesley out in LA, had decided she would be one of the first of the new breed of watchers. Her lover was going to be joining them as well to study magick. As Dawn looked around Newark International Airport at all the people, she thought about what an interesting year it had been, ending up in Seattle and all. She had fallen in
love and grown so much. It was funny to her how little the people around her knew of where she was going, and what she would be doing there. Before she could finish these thoughts, the one she was in madly in love with came out of the bathroom and smiled at her, taking her hand, and heading towards the plane.

***

Willow feigned a smile as she looked down at her lover. She had tired of these kinds of games, but they made Kennedy happy so she always played along. Part of why Willow kept her distance from her at times was that Kennedy treated her like a Goddess, or a Mistress, or at times a bit of both.

Sure it was sexy, she and Tara had certainly never done anything like this.never got the chance.

Kennedy looked up at her lovingly and smiled, leaning her cleavage forward

"Mistress, may I touch You?"

Willow looked down at the girl and nodded, unzipping her black pants. Kennedy eagerly leaned forward and started to lick.

As Kennedy stimulated the hood of Willows clit, all Willow could think about was how pointless this all felt. She felt very empty as her hands ran over Kennedy's hair gently, going through the motions. Suddenly she stammered in pleasure as Kennedy rolled her tongue around broadly.

After all, Kennedy was good at this. All the practice on those innocent girls she corrupted at boarding school Willow presumed. Tara certainly never had been that great at this, their relationship had been more hugs and kisses and hand holding. Really, they should be in bed anyhow. They had a big day ahead of them!

Her lover slid two fingers inside of her, moving them around slowly. Willow had to admit this felt good; she needed the release badly. Kennedy pulled them out and leaned her face back in, her tongue beginning to stroke at her clit, teasing it gently before her lips pressed down on it, sending bolts of pleasure all through Willows body.

Kennedy started muttering about pleasing her goddess and things of the like when she buried her face inside Willow, looking for the spot she knew drove Willow crazy. Her sucking at Willows clit finally made her give in, making Willow buckle and fall forward into Kennedy's arms.

With that, they went to bed.



***The Next Morning***

"Holy shit, this is dope!"

That was all Faith could get out as she looked out the window of their car towards the huge castle that had come up in front of them. She turned towards Vi, Caridad, and Lauren, and smiled at them. They had just gotten back into country after being in Germany taking out a Hundekopf demon.

"From what Red said, I get my own smaller castle behind the actual castle. Perks of being 'Mistress of Slayage'". Faith giggled at that last part and
smiled, thinking naughty thoughts.

Vi rolled her eyes and mocked "Um, Madam, um, Faith.I want to be the best slayer I can be, I'll do anything!" She let out a mock moan and everyone in the car besides their driver laughed.

Caridad leaned forward from her spot in the middle on the long, limo like seat they sat in towards the driver "What is your name dear?"

The young woman in the drivers' seat looked back slightly, but refusing to make eye contact looked back towards the road "my name is Penelope, I'm a new slayer. I just arrived a month ago; Head Mistress Willow assigned me to drive you in."

That last sentence got a wicked smile out of Faith "Head Mistress eh? Are we starting an academy for young women to learn how to be slayers or how to beg and serve us?"

***

Faith, even though a lot more light hearted than before her prison stay, was still Faith. When she was around her team she was often very quiet, spending many nights brooding and thrashing vampires. She did not really speak to anyone outside of her teammates and the other scoobies except for Angel, who she kept in almost semi daily contact with. Faith had hand picked them both, finding them to have the most potential out of any of the new slayers. Vi had especially been hand picked, her performance in the final battle against the first had impressed Faith so much she nearly got into a fistfight with Kennedy over who would have her on their team. Not that she needed an excuse to knock out Kennedy.

Caridad and Vi were, besides Kennedy, the best of the active slayers besides Buffy and Faith. Sent all around the world to fight whatever comes their way, the three of them had become quite the badass combination.

They had picked up Lauren about five months before when they were last in the states. She had started out in Cleveland working with Xanders people, but they had come to the decision that she would be better off here learning at the academy. They had picked her up and taken her on a rather bumpy ride through Canada, stopping to kill three vampire clans.

Then there was the Siren in Belgium who made Caridad strip for some vampires to humiliate her, before Faith could decapitate it. However, Lauren would rather not talk about how she felt about seeing Caridad naked except for a pair of silver platform heels, swinging from a poll. Yeah, avoid those thoughts.

***

Willow had already been awake for a while when Kennedy had woken up after their late night escapades. Her lover had gone out while Willow was in the shower for her morning run, leaving Willow alone to finish her journal entry from the previous night and to send an email back to Fred in LA. As she typed back to Fred she found herself opening up to her, they had become very friendly over the past two years, Willow smirking for a moment as she thought about Fred's innocent infatuation with her. As she continued, she found herself opening up about Kennedy-

Things have been very strained between Kennedy and me. I love her a lot, but sometimes she is too much for me. We have fought over some petty things in the past two years. Every so often, I disappear for a week, ten days, sometimes I just need to get away and think. I have many bad dreams. Kennedy is always ok with it at first, but then she will make some sort of little aside that says to me she really is not. It can be quite bothersome at times. She is also very jealous of any friends I visit, particularly Lilac and Xander, which I do not get at all..

There was a knock at her door before she could finish that sentence. Knowing whom it would be, Willow got up out of her chair and walked over to the door. She opened it and found a girl no older than seventeen standing at the door.

This came as no surprise, as for the past three months she had been there every morning "Good morning Ashley, is breakfast ready?" Willow smiled at the girl.

Ashley, looked down slightly, finally in the past few weeks getting over her nerves and becoming more comfortable around Willow "Madam, breakfast is ready, Miss Faith and the Alpha Team are on their way, their driver called about thirty minutes ago."

Willow walked into the hall and shut the door to her bedroom behind them "Great, wow, this is the big day I guess?" Willow gave pause at Ashley's perplexed look "I have no idea what I am even going to say. I'm not really one for speeches; maybe I'll just leave that to Faith?"

They made their way down the stairs into the main hall of her private castle and out into the greens. Ashley paused and walked about one hundred feet away so Willow could take care of her daily trip to the marker they had left out in honor of those who had fallen in battle with the scoobies. Anya, Jenny Calendar, Kendra, Amanda, amongst others; and most importantly behind them all was a small, separate marker for Tara. Every morning when Ashley came to get her for breakfast, she liked to go to them and run her hand over the marker. Usually said a few words to Tara's,
but this morning she just smiled at it and ran her hand over it slowly. She then turned around, caught up with Ashley, and then made their way down the half-mile trail to the Academy of Slayage.

***

The two young women made their way into the main dining hall. About fifty young slayers were sitting down talking amongst themselves, waiting to eat, or beginning to bring out the food. Sonic Youth's "Dirty" LP played through the hall, obviously the work of Patrick. There are already a good amount of girls here, by the time all arrived within the next week they would have seventy.

Willow put her hand on Ashley's shoulder and nodded towards the main table, inviting her to join Willow. Ashley looked at her with a mix of fear and shock but followed her obediently.

As they walked towards the long table at the front Willow leaned over and whispered to her "you are going to sit with us at meals and in meetings from now on, I want you in on everything we do, after all you are my personal assistant." Ashley looked at her again in shock but smiled as they separated to sit.

Willow sat down in her usual seat in the front of the round table. To her left was Patrick, who she leaned over to and hugged good morning, wrapping her arms around him semi tightly, whispering "you ready for this?" Patrick squeezed her tightly and turned his face towards her, pulling his mid neck length brown hair out of his face "as ready as we will ever be"

To Patrick's left was Rupert Giles, who gave Willow a small smile before taking a sip of the tea, just left out for him.

Willow turned back to her right to see Kennedy coming in, freshly showered, and dressed from her morning training. Kennedy came and sat down in the seat to the right of Willow, leaning over to kiss her good morning.

At this point breakfast service had begun. Among the items on the menu were waffles, tempah bacon (Patrick had recently converted Willow and Kennedy to veganism, taking most meat items off the menu), hash browns, biscuits, and sausage. Also served were tea, juice, and coffee. A young Russian slayer named Anastasiya put an orange juice and poured a cup of coffee for Patrick, juice for Willow, Earl Grey for Kennedy and
Giles.

They all dug into their breakfast. Passing small chatter back and forth, Giles and Patrick argued about Homer, Kennedy looked over her notes as she mumbled to herself about the floor plan for her room.

Willow turned to Ashley and smiled, wanting to make the girl comfortable "Ashley do you have a partner yet?" She knew the girl did of course, but did not know whom, so the question was not just for small talk.

Ashley sipped her tea and thought for a moment "Her name is Dawn Summers.B-B-Buffy's sister". Ashley was still nervous around her mentor.

Willow lit up at the mention of the Summers sisters "Oh that's great! Dawn is going to be a watcher, or whatever we decide to call it now."

Ashley smiled back at her, growing a little more confident. After a silent moment, Willow whispered, "I wish her sister was here".

Only Ashley heard her.

Suddenly, part of the room became very quiet, as the huge oak double doors opened and standing in the doorway smirking at Willow and Patrick were Faith and her team.

***

They met about half way through the hall near the middle and exchanged hugs and greetings as all of the slayers looked on, trying not to stare. Willow realized everyone was staring at them and walked up a few steps, the heels of her shoes echoing through the room "Alright everyone, there will be time for proper introductions very soon. We will reconvene in one hour for orientation. Everyone should have a partner at this point, but if you see someone who looks lost please direct them. Dismissed"

With that, all of the girls got up and started to file out quietly. Willow turned to Kennedy and nodded for her to follow "Ashley you are also with me, Giles, Patrick, Alpha team." She paused and smiled at Faith "We will see you in an hour". They walked the other way and out the doors back towards their castle to make last minute preparations.

Giles watched them leave and then turned towards those who remained. He thought for a moment and looked past Faith towards Vi and Caridad "I could use your help outside preparing, if you would"

Vi nodded, turning towards Lauren "You'll join us too" Lauren filed in with them and they started to move.

Patrick walked behind them also and headed towards the stairs "I am going to get some things from my quarters for orientation"

Faith started to walk as well but towards the stairs next to the oak doors, "I am going to hit my quarters for a short nap, Penelope told me where my room is".

About ten minutes later Patrick opened the door to Faiths room and found her lying naked on her bed, a wide smile on her face.

***

Patrick walked over to the bed and sat down, pulling Faith close to him. After embracing for a long moment, Patrick leaned in and kissed Faith on the mouth, holding it there for a few seconds.

They had met in Germany a few months while Patrick was on holiday collected some resources for the academy library. They had, much in Faiths style, fucked about two hours later but strangely, Faith did not just discard him much as she did to others. They had kept in touch through email when possible. They had also decided, to keep things casual and first and foremost, very private. Both involved felt a close bond forming, moments like this preserving that.

Faith looked over at Patrick and stared into his hazel eyes as he looked back at her, smiling "so P, you ready for the big academy of mutant's thing here?"

Patrick leaned in and kissed her forehead, breathing in her scent "Yes, sure.we got you, Wolverine, Willow can be Jean Gray, I want to be Professor Xavier, but I'm not as hot as Captain Picard, so that doesn't work I guess".

Faith laughed and turned over onto the side of the bed to start getting dressed "you crack me up sometimes P"

***

Kit Holburn looked over at her lover and smiled, snuggling up to her tightly. Her and Dawn stretched their feet out on the bed and sat quietly, holding each other. It had been a very long day for both young women, spending most of it on an airplane heading towards England and now sitting in bed in their hotel room.

Tomorrow morning they and a Slayer named Persephone would make their way to the new Slayage Academy to begin their training. Dawn was to become a watcher, Kit to learn Magick. It had been a very long day and all they wanted to do was relax.

Kit ran her hand through Dawns beautiful brown hair, stroking it gently and sighing deeply before speaking "so, what do you think will be their reaction." She paused, turning to her lover to kiss her gently on the mouth "to you know, us being 'recently gay' and all"

Dawn smiled at the reference to the Buffy-Bot, "Oh I'm sure they will be fine with it. Willow and Kennedy will be of course, Giles will too."

Running her hand over Dawns face and down to her neckline, Kit leaned in and kissed it softly, holding her lips there for a few moments. She then looked up at Dawn and kissed her mouth, pulling away slowly and putting her head back on her lovers shoulder, falling asleep a few minutes later.

***

Willow Rosenberg looked out at the assembled masses and smiled. She stood next to the podium where she would be speaking to the young women slowly assembling below her in a few minutes and she was strangely not nervous. After all, they were her young women below
her. Many of them were scared or uncertain about their callings and the powers they had. Many of them looked up to her, Kennedy, and the others who had been in Sunnydale. About 99% of them did a little bit of both.

Willow found it all a bit much, but she was glad they had someone to look up to at their age. When she was younger, before she met Buffy, she had not of really had many positive females' role models in her life. Sure, there was her mother, but really, they had never related. Their lack of any sort of communication since long before Sunnydale was demolished for the galactic highway proved that.

She looked over to see Patrick coming up onto the stage. He was not exactly hiding how he was avoiding eye contact with all around him. She could tell something was up, but it would have to wait until later.

Giles was already seated and going over his notes for what he would say. She had not even noticed her come on the stage, but Lilac was seated to the left of Giles quietly looking down at the floor.

Willow walked back, sat down in her appointed chair in the middle of Giles and Patrick, and sat quietly for a minute before feeling a hand on her own right hand. She looked up to see Patrick smiling at her. She squeezed back and smiled. It was nice to have little moments like that with someone. They sure did not come that often when-

Before she could finish that thought, Faith came into view on the grounds and most of the assembled crowd became silent immediately. The brown haired slayer paused at that and looked at them all, shaking her head "I need to get used to this".

She walked parallel to where they all sat and up the stairs to the stage, stopping for a second to nod to Caridad, Vi, and Lauren, who were on the side of the stage. Faith gave a nod to Giles and with her back turned to the crowd a quick smile to Willow and Patrick. Her seat was at the end of the row, next to Willow.

***

With everyone here, it was now time for the orientation to begin. Willow made her way to the podium and stared out at everyone, stopping to look at Ashley and Kennedy, who sat in the front row next to each other. Kennedy gave her a wink and Willow sighed, it was time to speak.

"Welcome to the academy everyone. I am your Head Mistress, Willow Rosenberg." She paused for a second as Faith muffled a chuckle.

"As some of you who have been here for a few months while we prepared know, this has been about a year in the making. A few years ago, I took part in the creation of what you all are now. It was through my magick came the activation of every potential slayer. Every girl who had it in her to become one would have the strength and skills. but forget about all of that for now. A lot of you are probably scared or apprehensive. You are not alone in this. Here, in this academy you will have friends who are like you, weather you are here to learn the skills to be what used to be called a watcher."

She trailed off and looked over at Giles "Say, did we rename that yet?"

Turning back to the crowd, she continued, "Anyway, weather you are here to learn those skills, to learn Magick, or because you are a slayer, you will never be alone. Before I met Buffy Summers, I always felt alone. Sure I had friends." Willow paused for a moment and thought of Jesse for the first time in a very long time. What would he think of all of this?

".but at the same time, I felt so completely alone. I did not feel right in my own skin. When Buffy came along and I became part of the group that would completely rewrite the book on slaying, I finally felt like I had a purpose. When there were problems I had people whom I could relate to who would help me out. This is what I hope is the first thing we give each one of you here. Thank you."

Willow sat down to mild applause but not before tapping Faith on the knee gently, as if to "tag" her next to speak. Faith hopped up, walked towards the podium, and looked over all the young women sitting before her, avoiding dirty thoughts. She looked to the left towards the Alpha team and nodded, and they in turn nodded back.

"Well what's up ya'll? My name is Faith and I will be your 'Head Mistress of Slayage'". She paused to think of what to say. These young women were hanging on her every movement and word.

"But it doesn't matter if I am your leader and all that stuff. I just so happen to be a few years older than all of you. I became the slayer when the
previous one, a girl named Kendra died."

Again, Faith paused for a moment and then smiled. "But luckily for me, I had a girl named Buffy Summers there with me. See it turns out because B had kicked it once before, there were now two slayers. I messed up a lot; hell so did B. The best thing to ever happen to me though was having the two of us."

Faith stopped and looked back at Willow and Giles and then back towards the audience "But it wasn't just me and B. We had red over here, and Giles." Faith looked down for a moment, remembering what a dork Wesley was, what a difference a few years makes.

"The point here is; we had a team. There was no I, ok so maybe B got a bit carried away with that for awhile.anyway, no one here is going to be alone." She turned her head and pointed towards the Alpha Team "my girls over there, we are the best damn slayers to ever live that I know of. Each one of you is going to be broken up into teams like this. I am not sure how this will all work because I have just thought it through, but it will. Before B and me, the slayer was alone. This will never happen again. I do not want to go all riot girl on ya, but we are our own destiny." She turned and smiled back at Patrick "with the help of new friends and old we can do this. I don't really know what else to say, see you tomorrow
kids"

With that, Faith sat down and Giles came up to the podium. "Eh, yes, thank you Faith, and Willow. I am Rupert Giles; I will be the headmaster for the academy. I was the last of the old watchers remaining in active duty when we closed the Sunnydale Hellmouth. This academy has been in planning for the past year by Ms. Rosenberg and myself. As both she and Faith have pointed out, the slayer deserves a fighting chance. This school will hopefully teach you all this. We will rely of active participation to educate you. You can only learn by doing, as I learned the hard way with Buffy."

".There will be great expectations of you, to train and keep up with your studies at all times. Once we have a proper group of educators on staff, we will begin have elective courses each semester. You will each be required to take a few courses to enliven your minds. Not only will you work with he or she who runs your particular field, be it Faith, Ms Rosenberg, or I, or Patrick, and Lilac too, you will meet each week with an assigned two of us during our office hours to discuss your life here and any thing you need."

Giles stopped for about thirty seconds to let that all set in "For the rest of this day, the grounds are yours to explore in groups with either Ms Rosenberg, myself, Patrick, or Lilac as your guide. Curfew will be twenty hundred hours tonight, after this it will be later but for tonight I want everyone to settle in early and get to know your roommate. Alright, everyone is dismissed, please group up with anyone of the four of us please for your tour."

With that, the Slayers and Witches below got up, talking amongst themselves while forming groups. Willow and Giles seemed to be the most popular, only a few young women going over to Lilac, her quiet appearance seemed to intimidate many of the girls. Patrick sat on the stage talking to a few of the girls who had come over to join him for the tour when Faith came by and whispered something in his ear. She was then off to join Willow.

While Patrick sat there talking quietly to a slayer named Penelope, Vi watched him from the other side of the stage. Something about him caught her attention but she could not quite put her finger on it yet.

After a minute or so, Caridad came up behind her and put her arms on her neck, startling her, "Stop staring, you'll turn him to stone."

Vi, composed herself, embarrassed "I was not staring, merely observing. He was making some rather nice remarks to the girls about the power of the slayer and how fucked it was the council kept them under the control of men for so long."

Caridad laughed, "You want him so bad Vi!" With that she kissed Vi on the back on the head and grabbed her arm "C'mon, Willow is going to show us around"

Vi followed her, but looked back one more time towards Patrick before walking quickly to catch up to Willows group.


***Epilogue***

Willow walked the grounds in front of her castle for about twenty minutes before the person she was meeting up with finally showed up.

"Hey red, great speech today"

Willow turned around and smiled at Faith, walking over to her to hug her tightly. Faith held her close for a minute, then whispered in her ear "How ya holding up red?"

Willow smiled as she pulled away "better lately, I still have the nightmares, sometimes I just feel like I shouldn't be doing this, why do I still feel guilty sometimes Faith?"

Faith pulled her tight again and let Willow cry on her shoulder. Once the dust cleared in what used to be Sunnydale Willow and Faith had gotten very close, realizing they had a lot in common. Both had gone all big bad at one point, and came back to redeem themselves. Both had doubts about their choices and their current place in the world, and they had become very close because of it. Faith let Willow cry, knowing the girl had been holding it in for a long time.

About a mile away, Kennedy stood hidden amongst some trees, disgust ridden on her face.


Grr Argh


END