Successor (BTVS)

[X] Buffy attempts to override Mary's decision and declares that Zoe can read whatever magic books she likes. The Watcher's Council does have custody, but Zoe is 17, and Buffy can make their lives very difficult if they don't back down.

On the one hand, the way Rachel brought it up was pretty crass. Of all the things to hold over peoples' heads, money was the last one Buffy was comfortable with.

But on the other, it hit the nail on the head. Zoe didn't need the Watchers' Council, and yet Mary Snow was still telling her how to live her life. Buffy could sympathize; she'd moved herself out from under her mom recently, and honestly, her mom at her worst was not nearly as irritating as Mary could be. It rankled.

She was tempted to just tell the Watcher off, but reined herself in a little bit. The least she could do was a little homework; she was a college student after all.

"I want to know more about this Schatz Channel, or whatever it is." Buffy said, taking control of the argument.

"What is there to know? It's clearly dark magic!"

"It isn't at all! It just invokes your ancestors!"

"CyberWillow," Buffy said, ignoring them for now. "I want a third opinion. Willow's in charge of this coven, she knows what's in the books, right?" This wasn't the kind of thing to gather for a big meeting about. Or if it was, Buffy wasn't sure she could take it, so she'd do this instead.

"Andrew helped me find it," Zoe added.

"Of course he did," Mary said.

"Sure, Andrew too, are they available?" Of course, it had to turn into a meeting anyway. Whatever. Shaking her head, Buffy added, "And CyberWillow, if you have your own thoughts, you're welcome to share too." Buffy knew there were some other (Giles-shaped-)people that might preach more caution, if they were brought, but she didn't want that right now.

"Just a moment," CyberWillow replied, the radios amongst them echoing her voice.

"She's just going to say whatever Willow wants her to say!" Mary complained.

"Willow hasn't even said anything yet," Rachel commented.

"The girl's hair turns black twice a fortnight, what do you expect her to say?" Mary shot back.

"Ready and willing to jump into the breach," Andrew's voice came through the radio.

"Buffy, what's the word of the day?" Willow was clearly distinguishable from her AI counterpart, not the least because her voice didn't echo.

"The word is Schatz," Buffy said. "Who was she and what's up with her channel?"

"Buffy means to reference the Scáthach Channel," CyberWillow explained.

"Oh is Zoe there? Did she try it yet?" Andrew asked excitedly.

"I want to, but Watcher Snow won't let me," Zoe grumped.

"That's what this is about," Buffy said. "She thinks it's dark magic."

"Scáthach was the one who razed Jamestown right?" Willow said uncertainly.

"Roanoke," Andrew corrected her. "But it isn't really her channel. I mean, she used it I guess. Probably. But it isn't you know, hers."

"Then why is it named after her?" Buffy asked. She wondered if there was some spell patent office or something. Probably in England.

CyberWillow cut in with a real explanation. "The Scáthach Channel does not invoke Scáthach the deceased American witch, but instead Scáthach, the minor Irish goddess of martial instruction, currently residing in the Shadow Realm."

"So they're not even the same person?" Buffy half-wondered if Mary had known all along and was just leading them in circles to be irritating.

"We don't know that for sure!" Mary said. "The records are sparse. And can you really trust someone from the Shadow Realm?"

"That's just a conspiracy theory, the two Scáthaches behave pretty differently in all the accepted sources. This one mostly does the whole wise martial arts master of the mountains thing." Andrew said. "And the Shadow Realm isn't that bad. A lot of fairly neutral parties tend to gravitate there."

"Be that as it may-" Mary started.

"I think it's already clear to everyone where you stand," Buffy interrupted snidely. "So Andrew, for the record, you're saying not dark?"

"Well, I mean, it's definitely not the kind of thing you need to be afraid of even attempting," he said. "This isn't like consorting with a Sith holocron. It's more like trying the Vaapad lightsaber form."

It wasn't exactly the clearest analogy to Buffy, but from the context Andrew seemed to think it was fine. "OK then. Willow, dark or not dark?"

"Well, it's invoking this goddess and apparently she isn't that bad? So it's probably fine," Willow said.

"There you have it," Buffy waved an arm. "Nobody thinks there's a problem with this but you, Mary."

"And I'm responsible for Zoe's safety. My judgement is still no," she said. Zoe groaned in response, but Rachel just looked inquisitively at Buffy, as if she could tell things were at their breaking point.

The Council had held out on her for years. Resources she could've had, support she probably needed. She hadn't known what she was missing until she had it, how badly she was really being screwed. She wouldn't let history repeat itself.

"You are responsible for her, Mary. For now. But I'm starting to get a pretty good idea of how the Watchers' Council operates. If I call up Travers and tell him you're getting in the way of-" she stopped for a second, remembering the way he'd put it, "Of our duty? Whose side is he gonna take? What's the rest of the Council gonna choose?"

Mary glared daggers at her. "You wouldn't. You must know what Travers is."


"Senior Watcher Mary was of course most displeased with the Council's decision," Travers said impassively. It had only been a day since the argument over the spell had happened, and Buffy had gone over her head to Travers. He'd called her up to his office and she'd expected more trouble, but she could adapt to just taking the win.

"That should be fun to deal with," she said. "If I'm lucky, maybe she'll only wake me up two or three times to complain about it."

His eyebrow raised. "Unless you're in a habit of taking international calls in bed, I shouldn't think that will be an issue."

"She left?" Buffy asked, thrown off.

"She had little purpose in staying, with her authority usurped," he said it as if he was surprised she hadn't already known.

Buffy wasn't quite sure what to think. It's true, Mary had been useless. And annoying. And she was a morning person. But she was pretty sure she did a lot of … stuff. For Zoe and Rachel.

"The girls are packed and ready downstairs," he continued. "You've arranged suitable accommodations, I assume?"

"Yes. Definitely," Buffy lied, still not covering her shock too well.

Travers at least pretended not to notice. "As a matter of legal convenience, The Watchers' Council will still hold custody de jure. Should you need anything to do anything with their paperwork, you may bother Nigel with it, but everything should be generally in order. Did you have any other business?"

"Nope," she shook her head. "I'm all set."

He nodded, and turned his attention to some paperwork. "Good day then."

She hadn't looked around downstairs when she'd arrived this afternoon, but a quick look around the ground floor revealed Zoe and Rachel watching television with their bags packed beside them. Zoe looked up at her sheepishly, seeming a little embarrassed.

Rachel wasn't so hesitant, "So, time to go?"

Buffy realized that three girls plus luggage probably wouldn't fit on her bike. "Umm, not quite yet."

She drew her radio and dialed Cynthia. "Can you send a car down to the Watcher building?" Then she looked at the piles of luggage again. "Better make that a big car, really. Maybe even a van."

"Of course, Mayor Summers," Cynthia answered. "I'll be there right away."

She knew Cynthia probably had more important things to do than drive her (or this time, her Potentials) around, but that was an argument that was doomed to failure. Even though she was technically the office manager of City Hall and de facto did about three other vital administrative jobs, she'd never been dissuadable from heaping a bunch of Buffy's personal tasks onto her plate too.

Rachel looked like she was about to ask a question, so Buffy took the initiative first. "So did you two… have a good day at school?" How was she going to get them to school every day? Maybe Xander could handle it.

Rachel shrugged. "Just another Monday. It's not as hard as what we had in England."

"Ms. Jackson gave our tests back," Zoe said. "Do you want to see?"

"I, what?" Buffy failed to answer coherently.

"Ms. Jackson has our parents sign our tests, Watcher Snow used to, well..." Zoe trailed off into a dense ball of awkwardness.

She'd had Ms. Jackson for Algebra II and then Calculus. She remembered getting Mom to sign the tests. Was she a test-signing-person now? "Sure. I mean, I'm the mayor. My signature has to count for something, right?" She smiled woodenly.

Zoe dug into her schoolbag with frantic energy, and Rachel did so as well at a more reasonable pace. After getting the first one shoved in her hand, Buffy realized it was one of the same tests she'd taken last year. It had that question with the swimming pool she hadn't figured out. Zoe had, and she'd gotten a 92. Buffy was pretty sure she'd done worse.

She didn't have a pen handy, but Zoe put one in her hands and then she signed the test on the Council's too-nice coffee table. It was followed by Rachel's 98, and Buffy couldn't quite keep the surprise from her face. Rachel didn't really project as a nerd.

"What?" Rachel said, picking up on Buffy's expression. "We covered most of this last term. It's easy."

It hadn't been easy for Buffy. But she just nodded and signed it, then handed both of them back. "Good job? I mean, even if it was easy."

"Thanks." Zoe said.

"Maybe we should start moving this stuff outside," Buffy decided, more in an effort to have something to do than anything else. Even though there was a lot, Buffy was only limited by how much was practical to hold at once, making it quick work. Two trips later, they were all standing in the elaborate driveway by Buffy's bright red motorcycle. The fall chill was barely in the air today, and the sun shone brightly in a blue sky, a couple hours to go before it would set.

She'd been hoping not to field any more difficult questions, and was relieved that both the girls were distracted by her bike. "This is real nice," Zoe said, not quite touching it but seeming like she wanted to. "Is it new?"

"Yeah, I got it in August," Buffy said. "It's key for getting around in emergencies."

"No kidding," Rachel said. "I've seen you drive it, is it a Slayer power or something?"

It'd gotten a lot easier to control after the speed boost she'd gotten in dream-Oz, even when she wasn't actively boosting, but that wasn't exactly standard issue Slayer stuff. "It's a combination of nature and nurture," she hedged.

Zoe gave Rachel a mischievous look, then said, "Rachel wanted to get one of these back in England. Well, not like, one of these, but a motorcycle."

"I wasn't obsessed or anything," Rachel said, "I just thought it might be cool."

"You could get one now," Zoe said leadingly. "I mean, if Buffy let you. It's not like we're broke anymore."

Buffy suddenly was struck with an immense amount of sympathy for her Mom. "They can be dangerous, like, not too dangerous, obviously, but still. Can you drive already?"

"The Council had us both go through driving school," Rachel said. "It was the English version though."

"On the other side of the road," Zoe added.

"Yeah, but we know all the basics," Rachel continued. "Not that I definitely want to get a motorcycle. But if I did, I'd follow the road signs, stay under the speed limit, wear a helmet, all that stuff."

Buffy pursed her lips, noting the conspicuous lack of helmets she kept with her bike. It wasn't like she'd be that beaten up by a crash, and usually it was Harmony riding with her, who was pretty resilient too, but she still felt a little guilty. Maybe she was being a bad example.

"Maybe you could ride with her today, check it out?" Zoe suggested to Rachel.

"We can do that later," Buffy said. "Let's just focus on getting where we're going now." Rachel definitely was not durable enough to go without a helmet.

"Where are we going?" Rachel asked. "Are we going to live at the Watch House or something?"

"I guess it'd be convenient," Zoe said. "A lot of the books are there."

It wasn't like Harmony really used her basement room there anymore, so there was space. It would also neatly transfer a lot of the responsibility for them to Xander and Anya, who were also living there now. It would definitely be the easiest solution.

It was a path she'd taken with regards to her own living arrangements lately too, living with Harmony in City Hall's private rooms. She'd meant it to be more of a transitory thing, but with everything on her plate it'd been easy to just settle in there and not try to figure out anything more ambitious.

But Cynthia could hardly resist pampering her if she was around, which was a lot more often when she was living at City Hall. And it hadn't been Xander or Anya's idea to get the Potentials out from under Snow, even if it hadn't really been her own idea either. It wasn't like Buffy should really feel guilty about foisting some extra effort onto others; she was really busy these days. It was justified.

She still felt something suspiciously like guilt.

Vote: What is Buffy going to do with Zoe and Rachel, and how is that going to tie into her own living situation?

[] Buffy is wary of wearing the Mom-hat. Zoe and Rachel will do fine at the Crawford Street Watch House and it'd be a shame to waste City Hall's amazing bathrooms.

[] Buffy decides she's going to get a place for herself and Harmony, and that after creating this situation with Zoe and Rachel it's on her to keep an eye on them.