Chapter 16

Wednesday Rupert called letting everyone know Linda had arrived with Faith and Kendra was here. A meeting was set for that night.

Rupert and Ethan walked in with Joyce and a new woman and two teenage girls. The warders and healers looked at the girls and one started to cry when she saw Kendra.

Linda and the girls were introduced to everyone and the one healer looking at Kendra hugged her. Kendra was at a loss on how to respond and you could see on her face the idea of a realmer hugging her was so strange she didn't know what to do.

Healer Ssallaa looked at them “The spells on her are... I cannot believe that any sane being would put them on someone.” Ssallaa was so upset she could hardly talk.

Joyce looked at Ssallaa “Kendra still hasn't been called, with the changes since Buffy died early we are unsure if she will be now.”

Kendra looked at Joyce “What spells?”

Linda looked embarrassed and replied “The Watchers put a bunch of spells on potentials. It is one of the reasons I haven't told them about Faith. That and she would immediately be put under a different watcher. A male watcher that would than mold her for himself instead of letting her be herself. When I found her I couldn't let them do that to another girl.”

Just then the door came open and a young man appeared “Mr. Giles, I do not understand why you asked me here if you are going to keep.... Hello, um.. Mr. Giles, what is going on!”

Xander laughed “I had forgotten how bad he was when he first arrived.”

Wesley drew himself up “I do not believe we were introduced.”

Xander laughed “Your Wesley Wyndam-Price yeah.. Don't worry once you remove the stick the watchers stuffed up your.”

“Alexander Lavelle Harris”

“Mom, it’s true. He was a prick until he loosened up, then he became one of the best fighters and voices of reasons for our side.”

Wesley looked at Xander “And you know this how? Since we haven't met before.”

Xander looked at everyone “Geez, no one told him anything?”

Rupert and Ethan shook their heads no then Ethan said “He is as bad as Rupert was under those spells and it made me want to do quite a few things I am sure Guardian wouldn't like.”

Wesley straightened “Guardian? As in the spirit of humanity that works through a human to make sure humanity survives when on the brink of destruction! That Guardian?”

Everyone looked at him in surprise, Rupert looked at him closely “Bugger I totally forgot about that.” He turned and looked at Xander “You woke with Guardian fully awake in you this go round?”

Xander smirked “Yep.”

Wesley looked at Rupert and Ethan “Redo?” both nodded “Bugger”

Joyce looked at the men “If I am remembering my British slang correctly if one of you say that again I will wash your mouths out with soap. Just like I would one of the kids.”

All three men blushed at that comment. Wesley looked at Rupert “Spells the watchers placed?”

Rupert nodded “There were many that were cleared off me, Linda has a few on her but she seemed to have most cleaned off her, you.. let’s just say you are controlled about as much as I was. They will take a while to clear you. Then we have the potentials. Kendra is council raised. From the reactions of the healers and warders the spells on her must be inhumane. Luckily Linda was able to keep Faith from being bespelled.”

Linda looked at everyone “So we are in a redo and a Guardian is present. From what I understand he's in the young man there. Now why do you want these two potentials?”

Xander looked at Linda “Buffy was the slayer, In May she would of died to Nest and I would of performed CPR and brought her back to life. At which point there were two slayers. Kendra is the one I knew about. After Kendra was killed by Dru, Faith was called. I do not know how many between each one but those are the ones I met.”

Faith looked at Xander “And now?”

Xander nodded “Right now the slayer is in Europe, don't know if Kendra will be called in order now since we changed the timeline so much. Buffy committed suicide last week.”

Rupert nodded “I explained a bit on that to them before coming over.”

All of a sudden Kendra straightens up and looks around the healers look at her and shake their heads Ssallaa spoke for them “She just activated. The spells that went into place are.”

Rupert looked at Kendra who nodded and pulled out an amulet “I can sense what they are saying. Sam would be ecstatic that I am called. However, I do not like the idea of the spells. Since you cannot show us what you see and make it believable.”

Jesse smiled “Yes we can. Or I should say Xander could. He can show you what he sees and we can caste something on you and you can see what changes.”

Faith looked at Linda who nodded then looked at Kendra “Can K and I talk for a few. This is all new to us and think we need to understand and frankly you all are on the same side and we don't know for sure that it’s the side we want to be on.”

Xander smiled “Sure Faith, why don't you girls go shopping or something – since I think Kendra needs clothes.”

Faith snorted “You got that right. Mrs. S went crazy when she heard that K only had the one outfit and only ever had one outfit.”

Kendra looked at Jesse “Can we see first what spells you see?”

Jesse looked at Kendra “Xander is the one that can – you can touch him and he will let you see using his vision. Both you and Faith can and look at everyone.”

Kendra and Faith nodded then moved over to Xander. Each took an arm and looked around at everyone. Faith nodded as she looked at people, looked at Wesley and shook “Man do they have him warped.” Kendra nodded on that then looked at Faith “I see very little on you.” Faith nodded looking very unhappy “Can't say the same K. Shit they weren't kidding about the spells.” Kendra looked down at herself and a look of pure grief went over her face before she shook herself. “So shopping you say? I could use another top.”

Joyce laughed “You could use more clothes period.”

Rupert nodded handing Kendra a credit card. “I have you both as an authorized signers for this. Please do not run it up over a thousand.”

The girls looked at him and nodded before letting go of Xander and heading off. Paul remark as they were leaving “Make sure you get stuff for school. You both will be starting classes tomorrow so you need school clothes as well as supplies.”

Faith and Kendra looked over shocked “SCHOOL?”

Paul nodded “School. There is no getting out of it. Both of you will go. No child in Sunnydale skips school and slaying is not an excuse because we do not expect you to slay here. Adults are here if needed. You are children and will be treated as such.”

Faith looked at Linda “I don't have to go do I?”

Linda nodded “Yes you do. It will be good. I couldn't risk you going to school in Boston but here you can.”

Kendra looked at Rupert “Sam said I can't go to school. It is nothing but a distraction from learning about slaying and boys are there and they would distract me from my future.”

Rupert smirked “Yes, we hope they do distract you. You need to learn to be a girl not a machine.”

Joyce looked at Rupert “Is keeping them out of school part of the way they keep the potentials for themselves? If the girls have no knowledge of the outside world or of boys.”

Wesley and Rupert nodded “yes.”

Ssallaa looked at Wesley “We need to start clearing the spells off you. While the girls are shopping we will do that.” Looking at Kendra “There are many spells on you, some that have been on you since you were a baby. They will take a long time to break. We are unsure what all to do about the Slayer essence. If you want we can meet tomorrow after school and discuss our ideas. It will give you time to get used to the essence.”

Kendra nodded “Yes, and Rupert talked about dreaming and Joyce is worried about nightmares. I wish to see what she is worried about. Sam told me that if I ever activated that the dreams are to help me train and gain knowledge. I want to see if he is right.”

Joyce looked at Kendra “You are hoping he wasn't lying to you your entire life. We understand. Your parents gave you to the watchers when you were young. Or at least that is what you were told. The idea that your 'father' would lie to you has you unsettled. We understand and I really wish my Buffy felt she could of talked with me when she was called. Then again I was not the same person I am now.” Joyce looked confused for a minute than turned to Rupert “Why did the watchers allow Buffy to be placed in the mental institute for six months? Wouldn't they want her out slaying?”

Wesley looked at Joyce closely “This was after she activated?”

Joyce nodded “After she burned down the school gym. I guess Merrick was dead already and when she tried to explain why she did it she sounded insane talking about it being filled with vampires. The court had her placed in an institute for six months.”

Wesley looked at Rupert “Trying to break her?”

Ethan nodded “Most likely. To prove she needed a watcher and to not go against the watchers because she could have that happen to her. Since she wasn't council raised they needed to make her obedient.”

Kendra looked at Faith “I guess the ladies in town were right. Sam was raising his personal toy.”

Faith straightened and looked at Kendra “What do you mean K?”

Kendra looked at Faith with tears in her eyes “I heard a couple of the women in town talking about how Sam was raising his perfect toy. Willing to do anything for him, and how a bunch of the men in town were commenting on needing to get a young child and train them up themselves. The women hearing that nearly took the men apart, they commented that while Sam may be doing it if any of them tried they would rip them to shreds. The only reason Sam got away with it was because of money the watchers paid in bribes around town. I wanted to believe they were lying but... it looks like they weren't and if I wasn't called Sam would of... he started to make comments about me being 15 and on my 16th birthday if I hadn't been called we would have a special party.”

Faith looked at Kendra and put her arm around her. “Come on K, let's go spend some watcher funds.”

Kendra started towards the door then turned towards Jesse “Does any of the spells on me change how I feel things?”

Jesse looked at her then Willow, Willow nodded. “Yeah there's something there that blocks something. I'm not sure what but it is to block noticing something.”

Jesse nodded “There seems a couple on blinding as well as binding. Not sure what all they are for.”

Kendra looked at Jesse and Willow “Can we remove the blocks on noticing things and the blinding spells. If I make a decision I want to know as much as possible before I make it.”

Jesse and Willow looked at Ssallaa and the others they nodded. Jesse looked at Kendra “Would you trust Ssallaa and the others to work on you?”

Kendra looked at Faith “Faith will watch through Xander while they do it?”

Xander nodded “No problem. We understand.”

After Faith moved over and had a firm grip on Xander's arm Ssallaa and a couple other healers moved over to Kendra. Ssallaa looked at Kendra “We will remove the block last since it is strongest. We will remove a the blindings first. Let us know what you feel after each one.”

Jesse frowned “Hold for a sec Ssallaa. Can anyone replace the block or the blindings? In case there is a problem?”

Ssallaa and the others shook their heads “No, the magic is foreign to us and by its very nature and what it does we cannot caste anything like that. To do so would violate our oaths and cause us to die.”

Jesse looked at the Brits “Guys?”

Ethan and Rupert shook their heads no, Wesley looked “Um... I can't do magic.” That caused the others to frown. Rupert looked at him “Bu..” quickly looking at Joyce with her raised eyebrow “Shoot, they seem to have blocked that in you, I see the ability there.” Wesley looked at Xander who nodded and moved over to touch Xander's other arm. Looking down at himself “... So that is why Richard kept saying I was changing.” looking around at the others looking at him “Sorry, a few years ago a friend at the time said that I was changing a lot every weekend. I told him he was wrong and we stopped talking not long after.”

Ethan shook his head “Another wonderful Watcher parent molding their prodigy into the perfect child.”

Jesse snorted “Ok, now back to the problem, any idea what to do if something we remove needs put back?”

Kendra looked at Jesse “Is there a way of blocking it without putting the spells back? I want to understand what is going on without a lot being spelled either way.”

Jesse looked at the healers and warders then Xander, “we may be able to cobble something but it won't be permanent and you may have bleed through.”

Kendra nodded “Fine. Then I would know what is there, instead of being blind and feeling just wonderful power. Right now I can think of nothing but the joy of the power I have. The sense of purpose, of power. That I am most important.”

Joyce looked at Kendra “That you are the most special girl in the world? That you know everything and nobody is as good as you?”

Kendra nodded “yeah, I feel like I can do no wrong and nothing is as powerful as me.”

Joyce started to tear up “My god”

Kendra and Faith looked at her questioningly Linda looked at the floor shaking her head. The guys looked at each other in confusion. Wesley finally “I do not understand?”

Joyce looked at Wesley “We will explain later. Let them do the spells. It is very hard to explain but the feeling they are giving the girls are so contradictory of what a teenage girl normally feels and is in line with a want so deep. It is the ultimate 'want' of a teenage girl. During our teen years we mostly feel lost and we are looking for acceptance and to be special.”

Faith and Willow both nod their head “Yeah, to belong and be the 'one' that everyone looks to.”

Xander and Jesse looked at each other then at Willow understanding a bit more about how she had fallen last time. Willow looked at them nodding in understanding about herself and her other self.

Xander looked at Joyce “We all want to be special as teenagers?”

Joyce looked at Xander “And if you suddenly went from being a nobody to feeling like the most important person in the world?” Xander was looking at her blankly, Jesse snorted “um..” Wesley snorted “She says to the boy holding the Guardian inside him.”

Joyce frowned and Wesley looked at her “He doesn't feel things like that because of the spirit inside him. Guardian will not let him feel special or anything like that. He wouldn't have been chosen if it was a major part of his psyche and Guardian makes it so he never will.”

Jess looked at Wesley “Can we talk more about the Guardian later. You seem to know a lot about it and since it’s in my son I would love to know more.”

Wesley nodded at her “later.”, Jess and Tony nodded back.

Jesse looked at Kendra “If you have a problem after something we will stop and we will try to cobble a ward against what you are feeling together. I cannot promise how it will work but we will try our best I promise you that.”

Kendra nodded, then looked at Ssallaa “Please begin when you are ready.”

Ssallaa and the others nodded “give us a few minutes to discuss the best order. We will tell you before we do each one and after each one we will wait a few minutes to make sure there is no negative effect.”

Xander looked at everyone “Maybe we should split up. Everyone doesn't need to be here for this. We can all meet for dinner tonight after the girls shop some and then after school tomorrow. Wesley do you want to stay or come back later? Depending on the spells they remove from Kendra and if there is any problems we may have to wait to clear you.”

As some of the people like Paul, Jess and Tony got ready to leave Wesley looked at Xander “Is it ok if I stay and watch? I would like to see what they are doing, there is something in the back of my mind that keeps trying to come forward and I keep getting a shooting pain when I try to catch it. Since the memory became more active when you mentioned the spells on Kendra I think it has something to do with the spells on the potentials.”

Rupert nodded “that would make sense. Same as the reason I didn't get along with my father was because of what I found out he did with his potentials that were not called.” Kendra and Faith both looked sharply at Rupert then swiftly at each other.