~*~*~*~*~*~
It's not a wise idea to toy with the Watcher's Council.
The oh-so-clever Miss Summers might've hoped and imagined that by sending little Wesley Windam-Price scampering away with his tail between his legs she had effectively barred the Council from her life, but it's quite the reverse, really. With the dismissal of Wesley, the Council members finally began to show their true colors, and some groups were not as prepared as mine.
Those who were sympathetic and weak, those who mewled that Summers had proven the necessity of providing a Slayer with family, friends, and a support-team, were driven out. Those aged fossils who rasped about the days when Slayers were kept properly in hand, but were too frightened and rigid to do anything about it were likewise disposed of.
Finally, the purges were complete. The Council was reborn, and we could remold it in our own image. The forces of darkness are ruthless and without compassion or mercy -- so must we be. We needed new methods and ideas, but we also needed to respect old traditions that still held marit.
Faith is disposable. Even now, one of our own is slowly infiltrating the prison system, looking for a way to kill her and not alert Summers or that vampire abomination that deludes itself into thinking it might retain any bonds with human-kind. Movement is slow, but so it that of a snake in the grass. We learned our lessons in patience well.
Reports of Summers have been sketchy at best, but all agree that her powers are increasing rapidly. She can yet be useful to the cause -- and what are the chances that in our lifetimes another Slayer might live so long? Best to leave her alive for the moment, but we need better information on her.
Dawn was my idea. My creation.
She's perfect. Superior to the Trojan Horse, because to those fools in Sunnydale - so easily deluded by magic - she has been there forever, and there is nothing to question about her existence. She doesn't even realize herself that she isn't the Slayer's baby sister, isn't an average high school teen, isn't even human.
With earth and stone, we crafted a golem to serve as the body. Magics wrested the animating force from a dozen vampires, and began the heartbeat and breath. Through the necessary sacrifice of a local girl we found walking after dark, we made a place for her in the world, and gave her mind and personality.
The spy who doesn't even know she's a spy. Deep hypnotic suggestions will spur her to write down her reports on the margins of every English assignment. And guess who is the newest English teacher in that wretched hell known as Sunnydale High?
And should it finally be decided that the Slayer is of better use to us dead than alive, then won't Summers be surprised to see that the killing knife is held by none other than her darling sister? That her Dawn is really her twilight?
Oh, no. It isn't a wise idea to toy with the Council.