Acts of Valor

[madimpossibledreamer]

The thing is Al Karisi might have been hunting the Council for years, maybe since the time of the Shadowmen. They probably used some sort of magical protection to keep her from going after them, but if she’s the demon of a Summoner...that changes things. The contract is temporary but will probably end up being permanent.
The next chapter is some extras, the Demon Compendium, but the story proper is done.
(I was also going to write the confrontation scene, but realized it’d probably go pretty similar to canon, just...extra early. And there’s a power in excising them from the story altogether—Travers isn’t worth the words spent on including him.)

Main Points:
Buffy the Vampire Slayer/SMT Devil Summoner Raidou Kuzunoha (Casts Shadows)
Summary: Buffy isn't going to let the Council get away with this.
Word Count: 520
Rating: Teen

 

         Apparently, they’re not making everything up, which makes Buffy slightly less twitchy about this whole meeting thing. Historically, there were a group of Watchers who broke off from the Council and started calling themselves the Scholars. Buffy’s not exactly a fan of the name, but they can come up with something better later. Clearly Xander isn’t either; he prefers the Japanese name, but then, he’s been healed (magically) and is going to introduce himself as the Devil Summoner Raidou Kuzunoha the XVIII at the meeting. Which is going to tick them off and possibly provoke them, but they’d managed to dig up a whole lot of support in a short amount of time. How, she’s not exactly sure, though some of that commanding Duchess feel seems to have stuck around. Somehow.
         He apparently doesn’t have the Mag to summon a demon at the moment, but one of Ethan’s ‘acquaintances’ had volunteered to pose as Raidou’s demon. She hadn’t quite trusted the goddess until she’d learned that the whole reason Ethan knew the Red Mother was that she’d been hunting him, but was intrigued to find a chance to finally strike back against the Council. There’s some kind of history there that Buffy doesn’t know and isn’t sure she’ll find out. She also gets the weird feeling that this is some sort of audition and they might actually form a contract assuming Xander does well, but she’s not asking about that, either.
         He’s pale but determined, but when she apologizes he just smiles at her. “It was my choice. I figured this might happen.” He doesn’t elaborate on that, but that’s kind of worrisome, because it hadn’t occurred to her and maybe it should have. Sure, you could argue that it’s not the Slayer’s job to know about anything terrible that could ever happen anywhere, but that’s just the thing—it kind of is. So she’s just kind of got a new and shiny source of guilt instead.
         Ethan is...kind of disturbing. She’s pretty sure he’s been flirting with Giles, who has occasionally maybe been flirting back, but mostly treating him with even more of the resigned despair than he has for Buffy and Xander and Willow, sometimes, when they’re getting on his nerves. He is absolutely delighted at the idea of sticking it to the Council.  Willow has been obsessively researching. Helpful, according to Giles, if worrying, but then, they all have enough to be worrying about and too little time to get any of that squeezed into the schedule, so. And then there’s the members of the Duchess’ Community Watch, who have all been given artifacts that Giles has been attempting not to show that he’s very alarmed by the fact Ethan even has them. They’re supposed to enhance their power in the eyes of the Council. Giles has kind of been grudgingly trusting him, so she assumes she should, too.
         She takes a deep breath before she opens the door, but a hand squeezes her shoulder reassuringly, and it’s Xander. He nods at her.
         And then, flanked by her new army, she opens the door to their future.