To Conquer Death
by Rainne
Interlude: The Watchers' Council
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It was a break through the demon underworld that told Quentin Travers that he was in deep, deep trouble. A Morag demon in its cups in an east London pub mentioned having seen a girl matching Janna's description on the night she disappeared from the play. It made the mistake of mentioning this to the casually-dressed bloke who sat at the bar next to it and then proceeded to buy it a pint. The pint came laced and the next time the Morag woke, it was chained to the floor in one of the dungeons below the manor house belonging to the Council. Before him stood Quentin Travers.
"I suggest," said Travers quietly, contemplating the glowing fireplace poker he held before him with an oven mitt, "that you rapidly go about telling me everything you know about the girl you saw, and anyone who might have helped her."
Morag demons are not famous for their tolerance of pain and, before ten minutes had passed, Travers had all the information he needed. He coldly studied the weeping Morag for a moment, then thrust the poker into its chest. Then he returned to the ground floor and began making preparations to cross the Atlantic.
Within four hours, Travers and several of his operatives were on a jet. He didn't know how far behind the rogue girl they were, but he had to get there as fast as possible and attempt to neutralize the child. Had he known that even as his plane left Heathrow, Janna was dialing the number that would put her in touch with Dakota for the first time, he might have handled things differently. But he did not know, and so trusted in the gut feeling that told him he would still have the element of surprise.
Prophecies, as he told himself before drifting off to sleep, are mutable and changeable. They can be prevented. Even the Slayer herself, young Buffy Summers, had cheated a prophecy. The Slayer Codex had foretold her death upon facing the Master; yet she had lived and continued to live, despite Travers's own desperate wishes for her death.
It was unfortunate, in retrospect, that he did not realize that the Codex prophecy had indeed been fulfilled. The prophecy had stated that the Slayer would die upon facing the Master. It had said nothing at all about the Slayer staying dead.