What Happens After
Part Three
by Hjmugillecuty

RATING: FRC [AU]

SUMMARY: While settling into their new home, Angel Investigations learn what happened to Sunnydale.

SPOILERS: All of Buffy and through Season 4 of Angel.

PAIRING: Wes/Fred

DISCLAIMER: These characters do not belong to me; they belong to their original creators (Mutant Enemy, the WB and others) and I make no profit.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry this has taken so long. I'll try to do better. Archive permission is granted as always to Whole New World and Blue Moon Rising

Wesley, Fred, Dawn. Xander and Giles stepped out of the elevator into Wesley's library. Giles
looked around in amazement.

"It's like home." He gasped in shock. "It's the Watchers' Council…but with fewer books," he finished dryly.

"Not exactly." Wesley smirked. He picked up one of the books in the center of the room. "Each of these is merely a blank template. You can access any record in the sealed vaults with it."

"Want to try it, Dawn?" Fred asked.

Dawn looked at Xander, her eyes begging him for permission. "Can I?" she asked.

"Go ahead." Xander smiled at her eagerness.

Dawn took the book from Wesley. "What do I do?"

"Just tell it what you want to read and if you want it translated or not."

"The Uintah Codex translated," Dawn spoke clearly, then watched in awe as the words appeared on the page in front of her.

"That's pretty cool." Xander enthused. "You can get any book?"

"Anything in the vaults. It's a very good collection." Fred replied. "Even some books from the Watchers' Council."

"How…?" Giles began.

"Rogue Watcher," Wesley replied, "He had joined Wolfram and Hart and brought some of the volumes before the explosion."

"Well at least some of that knowledge survived." Giles sighed.

"I'm having Mother ship some of Father's books over as well," Wesley added.

"Oh…yes. I'm very sorry Wesley." Giles sympathized.

"We all knew the risks when we joined the Council." Wesley spoke in a clipped tone. "Although I was surprised that I had to hear about it from Willow. I imagine you were terribly busy picking up the pieces."

"I am sorry."

"I know. It's not like I was a Watcher anymore." Fred heard the sadness in Wesley's voice and
gravitated to his side.

"You might not want to hang up that title just yet, Wes." Xander spoke from the chair he had settled into. "Wait till you hear what we did this school year."

"Well, judging by the geological report I got this morning, I'm guessing you missed the Prom." Fred suggested.

Xander laughed, "I like her. Let's keep her around."

"We'll consider that." Wesley replied sarcastically. "So I'm assuming it wasn't an earthquake."

"Not exactly," Giles commented. "We closed the Hellmouth, permanently."

"Wizard of Oz style?" Fred asked. Giles and Wesley looked at her strangely as Xander laughed again.

"No, we didn't drop the town on it," Xander answered.

"The town's collapse seems to have been a side effect. But when you fight the First…"

"The First Evil?" Wes remarked. "I imagine the casualties must have been high."

Dawn looked up from her translation, her eyes becoming sad, and she crossed over to sit by Xander.

Giles cleared his throat. "Not so much high as…personal. We lost several potentials, Spike and…" his voice became gentle "…Anya."

Dawn reached for Xander's hand as Wesley's expression grew sympathetic. "I'm sorry Xander."

"She was so brave," Xander claimed. "I know she was terrified, but she fought anyway." He wiped his eye and cleared his throat. "Speaking of my lost loves, I didn't see Cordy downstairs."

"Well," Wesley began, "Cordelia appears to be in some sort of mystical coma. A side effect, if you will, of our dealings with a Rogue Member of the Powers That Be."

Dawn looked confused. "What?"

Fred tried to explain. "Cordelia had been impregnated and gave birth to a grown woman who was
one of the Powers That Be. She tried to force world peace by taking away everyone's free will. Our defeat of her is actually what caused Wolfram and Hart to retreat and give us their offices."

"Nice," Xander commented. "You get an office, we lose a town."

"Doesn't seem quite a fair trade," Fred replied.

"Actually, it may be fated for you to have the Council's volumes," Giles said.

Wesley looked up at Giles curiously.

Giles continued, "Because in defeating the First, we also changed the world, and the nature of being a Slayer."

"What have you done?" Wesley asked.

"There is no longer just one. Now every potential slayer is actually a Slayer, the world over. They have all been given their gifts. So we must find those Watchers who may have survived, rebuild the Council, and find the Slayers."

"The Council doesn't want me." Wesley declared. "And I cannot leave Los Angeles." He stole a sidelong glance at Fred.

"You won't have to." Dawn broke in. "We figured that maybe you could be the library."

"We had hoped," Giles clarified, "that you and Angel Investigations could guard the Council's secrets and texts. And the Council will be different. Organized by you and I, two dismissed Watchers, how could it be anything but?"

"The numbers will be few. Almost no Watchers survived the Bringers," Wesley claimed.

"We will recruit. The Watcher's families still exist. The gentleman downstairs with us is Nikki Woods' son; he will help. I had also planned to train Dawn and Xander."

"Yep, that's me, the one-eyed Watcher." Xander commented flippantly, causing Dawn to start crying and walk to a corner of the office. Fred followed her and after a look from Giles, Xander did as well.

© May 2004

Return to Fanfic