LONDON, ENGLAND
May 22, 2001
"Summers is dead." The young man puts the phone receiver down in a daze. The council stares up, not quite believing it.
"Is it for good this time?" Asks Travers. The man by the phone nods." That was Mr. Giles, Apparently Glory is gone as well, I think the threat is over." He announces with a hint of grief in his voice, though he had never met the legendary slayer, when one dies it hits them all.
"Alright then, we get started right away, do we have a lead on the next potential?"
"I heard something from India, but nothing confirmed yet." Someone says from the back.
"Wasn't there something in Japan recently?" Another voice inquires. Travers stands and moves toward the back of the room where he pulls down a map. Stereotypical red thumbtacks mark points of interest in every country on earth. "Yes, there were reports of a girl surviving a car crash in the Kano-gawa River, she was very near death."
"What makes you think she is a potential?"
"It was a three hundred foot drop. Stepeck, would you go and see about this girl?"
Olson Stepeck doesn't hear a word of this, his thoughts are still with Mr. Giles, they'd only met a few times but Olson held him in very high regard. He wondered how Mr. Giles was taking the death of his Slayer, and how it would feel to be in his place, Olson doubted his ability to ever become so close to a subject, he wasn't sure it was even appropriate, and yet he admired Mr. Giles all the more for it.
"Mr. Stepeck?" Travers repeated.
"Yes?"
"Will you go to Japan, see about this girl for us?"
"Oh Yes, of course..."
"Thank you, and Mrs. Moore would you be willing to follow up on the girl in India?"
Stepeck gathers his things and is out of the room before he hears the rest, a girl in Japan, he'd heard something about it before, though not much was confirmed. So much to do now. In his office he begins to pack, all his life and this is what it's lead to, some girl in Japan. He'd been disappointed before, sent out to find potentials who turned out to be your run of the mill ordinary, extraordinary girls. But with every assignment came the possibility of a Slayer. A girl who's destiny had been foretold, a sacred duty, and it would be his job to walk her though it, what a joke he thought. He didn't even know what to pack and how to arrange his clothes in a suitcase so they wouldn't wrinkle. They always wrinkled. Silly thoughts filled his mind, thoughts like, would he be getting paid in pounds, dollars or yen? This is the man they put in charge of fostering a stranger, a young grieving girl into Slayerhood? What a joke.
"Any questions Mr. Stepeck?" Travers opens the office door without knocking, this room is all but empty in his eyes. "
"No. Well, I was just wondering, will Mr. Giles be coming back? I would very much like to talk to him."
"I suspect he might, though not in time for you to meet him, he has the funeral and other things to tend to. He made quite the life for himself over there. You will be gone by the time he returns if he does at all."
"I see."
"Don't get caught up in other peoples business now Olson, it's your time, this girl will need guidance, you need to focus."
"But she might not be the Slayer, I mean it's not certain..."
"She's yours to train, yours to mold. Slayer or not she is a potential, we've confirmed it, she's shown signs of it before, we've had eyes on her for some time, there's something strange going on over there. If she has not been activated you will tell her who she is, you will train her regardless, and you will report back."
