Buffy´s meeting with Gary Hampshire had concluded with her warning him about Alice…

"What´s the matter with Alice?" Gary groaned, imagining all sorts of calamities, the girl was a walking victim…

"Let´s just say, I think she´s found her inner Slayer." Buffy sounded mysterious.

Gary left the kitchen making a mental note about witnessing the young Slayers next training session with Faith.

Buffy listened to Gary´s footfalls in the distance then promptly dropped to the floor unconscious…

The limestone and flint chapel glowed in the early evening sun, the gravelled path wound like a daisy chain through the ancient graveyard. Buffy mused how seldom she visited graveyards during the day. This place was a haven of tranquillity in a far from tranquil world… She smiled as over the wall she heard the crack of "leather on Willow" another time and Xander would have died laughing at that phrase. She doubted if even the English really understood Cricket.

She followed the last of the Watchers into the cool of the building and found her seat near the pulpit. Glancing round she suddenly felt under dressed, all the men around her wore mourning suits and the ladies wore dark clothes and hats…should she have worn a hat?

She pulled her lacy cream shawl a little further round her shoulders and shrank down in the pew. Promptly at six the doors were closed - or more accurately the attempt was made to close them.

"Not so fast wankers!" Spike´s voice announced as he held the door for a late arrival to step over the threshold.

Ethan adjusted his lavender Cravat, and then lifted his lapel to smell the orchid nestled there. After a moment he struck his ebony wolf´s head cane on the flag floor to proclaim his presence.

Spike took his arm and led him to the front pew where he paused, "may we join you my dear?" He asked cordially. Buffy looked up and noticed the tremble in the once steady hand and the sunken, yet still eerily bright eyes set in sallow sockets. Ethan was ill; perhaps dying she could afford to be magnanimous.

"Of course…" she slid along the polished oak and Spike sat down on her right to avoid a shaft of sunlit stain upon the pew. Ethan hesitated withdrawing his silk kerchief to dust the pew before settling himself down on Buffy´s left side.

Thus flanked by her flamboyantly dressed bedfellows she felt protected from the "evil eye" of the Watchers surrounding her.

One by one the Watchers said their peace "a worthy scholar", "a gentle man", "a wicked darts player", "always first to buy a round". The procession of Watchers and friends filed past the first pew for an hour, and then it was Buffy´s turn.

She gripped the sides of the lectern a little too fiercely and the wood groaned. "Giles was my Watcher, and it feels really odd that I´m talking here. His body was never recovered; there is nothing to say that he ever existed outside the walls of the Watchers Council. No one will ever know how he fought to preserve the planet with all its petty prejudices. He didn´t save the world most of the time he busied himself saving just three people, Willow, Xander and me." She paused to wipe the tears from her eyes, "The night Giles, Willow and Xander died they saved me…I´m not going to waste the gift they gave me." She lifted her head and met the combined gaze of all the Watchers in the congregation. "Changes will be made and if some of you can´t get your heads round that - Then get the Hell outta my Council!"

Ethan stood and cheered. Spike lounged like a sleek panther and grinned at her. Buffy gazed at them as the sound of stamping feet steadily built from the back of the Chapel where the younger Watchers sat. The beat was infectious and it spread to the front pews in a wave of applause and whistles. Buffy couldn´t quite believe the not so quiet revolution taking place before her she took a pace back from the lectern and smiled quietly, her fingers went to her pocket and patted the slender treasure of Giles´ spectacles.

Faith sat at Buffy´s bedside and held her hand. She had carried Buffy to her bed that afternoon. Slayers and Watchers alike were worried about her. With the coming Apocalypse and no clue as to how to stop it they quite logically looked to the one with the most experience.

Buffy led by example and sometimes by quip and tale it was as if at times she were speaking another language. Faith picked up on a dash of "Xander" and a smattering of "Willow" there, even occasionally a shred of "Spike". She noticed she never quoted Angel or Giles.

"C´mon GranB, you´re missin´ all the fun…Alice got herself a Vamp t´day, a real feisty one, didn´t go easy into that last good night, y´know…That girls´ got a mouth on her! Gazzer fair near bust a vessel keeping up with her… An´ moves, she dusts three in a minute and then takes off and leaps onto the fourths shoulders, leans down, winks into his snarling face and whacks him…" she demonstrated with her fist into her hand, "Bam! She was bad, B…" She smiled a watery smile and wiped a fat tear from her cheek, "anyway, no way is anyone gonna bother her no more!" She became quiet studying her friends face. Then she brightened suddenly, as if extra news would rouse Buffy from her stupor. "Hey, Gazzer bought her ice-cream and called her "My Slayer", she got a real kick out of that…" She looked into her friend´s passive face and brushed her cheek softly, she leaned down and kissed her lips chastely, "G´bye B"

Faith left her friends bedside knowing that she had to carry on where Buffy left off.

End of part 3

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