Willow was doing a scrying, while she meditated, searching the slayer power. She found a blip in Roswell. Concentrating, she got an image of the girl's face in her mind. Coming out of her trance, she went over to her computer. It was infused with her own magic, and she was able to do a search for the girl. Illeana. She did a little creative searching on the internet, and found that the family was registered with YIRAAS. Aha. So, they had found their first full-blooded Dathrian slayer. It probably wouldn't be too long before they found their first Sem slayer either. She decided to give them a call.
"Hello? Is this a parent of Illeana?"
Mr Raymond
Mr Raymond heard the phone ring and picked it up to answer it. As one does with ringing phones. Well, that or yell at them to shut up.
"Yes, this is Mr Raymond here," replied Illeanna's father. "May I ask who's calling?"
Willow
"My name is Willow Rosenberg, Mr. Raymond. I got your number from the YIRAAS database. I don't know if you're aware of recent developments in the past year or two, but I run the Slayer School in Cleveland, Ohio, have you heard of it?"
Mr Raymond
"No, I can't say that I have," Mr Raymond replied.
Slayer school? Oooookay.
Willow
"Okay. Well, and feel to check with the YIRAAS to verify my story- vampires, demons monsters and the mystical are all real. Certain young girls have a birthright, we're not certain how they're Chosen, but they are. They're stronger, more powerful, and have a sort of sixth sense. When your daughter turned 13, she came into her Vampire Slayer powers. This means that, until she is trained, she is vulnerable. Demons and vampires will be able to sense her, and she is currently unable to protect herself. I run a school, where we train these girls to protect themselves, and the world, from the evil that is hunting them."
Willow hoped he wouldn't freak out, or call her a crackpot. She hated when that happened.
Mr Raymond
"Uh huh," Mr Raymond replied sternly. "You say I can verify this with YIRAAS? This better be true, young lady. I have no time to waste on crank calls."
As his computer was nearby he logged into the YIRAAS website to see if what she was saying was verifiable online.
Willow
"For millennia, Vampire Slayers have been solely human, but as mutants, aliens and hybrids have started popping up on earth, so have slayers of those races. Let's see, Friday Black is a vampire slayer, you should be able to find her profile on the YIRAAS site, as well as some news feeds about the recent discovery of the magical world, I do believe. The Cleveland schools should be there," Willow explained.
Mr Raymond
Mr Raymond tapped in a number of queries. His eyebrows raised when he discovered there really was someone named "Friday Black", and in her profile mentioned that she was a vampire slayer right next to her power of sex change. There was a link to the school, and he grunted again when the page it sent him to actually verified what Willow was telling him. There was also a list of the relevant news feeds.
"I see," he said non-commitedly. "What's this got to do with me?"
Willow
"Well," Willow said, "As I said before, when Illeana turned 13, she came into her slayer powers. We'd like Illeana to attend our school. We can make an appointment to sit down, and look over information about the school, but the fact of the matter is that Illeana is extremely vulnerable. Vampires will be able to track her, but she may not be able to defend herself. She'll have some natural instinct, be she needs training," Willow told the man.
Mr Raymond
"Illeanna came into her powers?" Mr Raymond frowned. "What exactly do they entail? She already has advanced sight."
A part of him wasn't entirely convinced this wasn't an elaborate prank or that he wasn't in some bizarre dream.
Willow
"Well," Willow began, "It starts with extremely enhanced strength. Slightly enhanced senses, and prophetic dreams. She'll be able to sense evil. Basically, you're a super warrior, and a teenaged girl's body," Willow explained. "But, as I've said, she'll need training, to keep her alive."
Mr Raymond
"I can't say I've noticed anything like that since she turned thirteen, but I suppose Ille would be the one to ask," Mr Raymond replied, still frowning. "But, I say, you haven't met her before? How do you know she's a slayer."
He wasn't certain he liked this.
Willow
"Magic," Willow said simply. "I'm a lesser Goddess. You should be able to find me on the YIRAAS site, under honorary members. I'm tied in to the slayer power, so I can find them with a Scrying spell." She hoped she could get the man to believe her without having to call a YIRAAS agent to step in. She supposed she could call one of the Moffatt brothers. She remembered that they were YIRAAS agents. Not higher-ups, but agents nontheless.
Mr Raymond
Mr Raymond tapped in a query on her name, and grunted when it confirmed her absurd story.
"I see. And why is Illeanna one of these... slayers?"
He really didn't think he liked the sound of all this.
Willow
"Nobody know," Willow said. "We call them The Powers, or the Powers that Be. Other people say God, or the Divine. We don't understand the divine powers that choose these girls, we just know how to identify the Chosen. The Chosen Ones, or Vampire Slayers. I don't know why she's a Slayer, she just is. And now, alien girls are being Chosen too. We're not sure why." Willow said plainly.
Mr Raymond
Darn mystical mumbo jumbo.
"Right, so because some mystical being of some description has randomly decided to make my daughter a slayer, she has to drop everything to get training so that she won't die? What if Illeanna decides she doesn't want to go around slaying vampires and sensing evil? Hmm?"
Mr Raymond was annoyed he was having this conversation, mostly because it was looking more and more like it wasn't a joke (although if it had been been, he would have been equally annoyed at having his time wasted). But also because he didn't like having his daughter's life dictated to her.
Willow
"She doesn't have a choice," Willow said. "Well, she has a choice whether or not to come to school. If she doesn't come to the school, we will send a Watcher to her, to train one on one. If she has no training, she will probably not live to be 15. There used to be only one slayer at a time, and she never lived past the age of eighteen. We managed to bend the rules of the Slayer power, and now there are a couple hundred. This means that it's not just one single girl destined to save the world anymore. They have help. With training, who knows how long they'll live. They can keep fighting, they can help each other. We can pair them up in groups. It no longer has to be one girl fighting alone until she dies. I can keep your daughter alive, Mr. Raymond. If I was calling you to tell you your daughter had been diagnosed with cancer, would you refuse her treatment? She has a destiny, whether she, or you, like it or not. And trust me, I know it sucks. But let me help her."
Mr Raymond
Mr Raymond ground his teeth at this denoucement, which he most assuredly didn't want to hear.
"And what, pray tell, is the point of all this? Hmm? Why are there slayers at all?"
Willow
Willow rolled her eyes and gritted her teeth, then she took a break, and pasted on a smile so she wouldn't sound aggravated, which she was.
"For as long as people have inhabited this planet, demons, vampires and the forces of hell have been waging war. The scales were tipped in the favour of Evil. So the Slayer was created. One girl in all the world to fight the vampires, demons and forces of evil. Every time the Slayer died, another would be Called. There were thousands of Potential Slayers. Then a big evil nasty, known as the First Evil, started killing off all the Potentials one by one, until only a few hundred existed. They were being hunted, killed off one by one, defenseless. So we were forced to change the power. The first wave caught most of the girls of the proper age. They rest come of age at thirteen. Now, why Illeana is a slayer, I don't know. But as long as evil exists, the slayers exist to fight it."
Willow was getting frustrated. She didn't usually get circular questions like that. She didn't know why slayers existed. Or why one person got Chosen. hadn't she already said as much?
Mr Raymond
"So, what? Their purpose is to fight evil?" Mr Raymond questioned. "How exactly are you defining evil here? Besides vampires and demons. And 'First Evil'. What is a 'First Evil' anyway? No offence, but it sound like something from a B-grade movie or a cheesy, low budget television series."
Willow
"Look, I completely agree with you," Willow said. "All of it. It sounds completely ridiculous. I didn't want to believe it either, when I was 16, and lured off by a vampire. I was just a socially-inept little nerd who loved school and had 2 friends. One of them was turned into a vampire that night. I'd barely even spoken to a boy before, apart from my 2 best friends, and this boy asked me out for ice cream. he was leading me away so he could kill me in secret. Then Buffy showed up. She was a vampire slayer. I kind of had to start believing in vampires after I watched one turn to dust in front of me. She soon became my best friend. She passed away not too long ago. I completely understand where you're coming from, Sir, but I'm telling you the truth. If it helps, I know a couple of YIRAAS agents who'd be willing to talk to you," she offered.
Mr Raymond
"I think I need some time to digest this," Mr Raymond said. "I'd be happy to talk to your friends, but please give it a few days. I'd also like to see this school of yours."
Willow
"Of course," Willow said, "I am going to need to talk to Illeana though, and soon. Your family can come here for a tour, or we can come to you. It's also important you talk to you daughter. Ask her if she's noticed changes in herself lately. Tell her you understand. Try not to sound accusatory or aggressive. It's important that she doesn't think there's something wrong with her, and she doesn't feel she's being shipped off to be 'fixed,'" Willow stressed, remembering how Buffy's mom reacted, and how bad Friday had felt when she first found out she was being sent away.
Mr Raymond
"I'll do that," Mr Raymond replied. "I think we should go to you, though. Oh... by the way, how do you feel about pets? We were planning on getting her a ka'millian for her birthday. She doesn't know that yet, though, but we're just waiting for the litter to be old enough to leave their mother."
Willow
"That'll be fine," Willow said. "A few of the girls have pets. Darcy has a snake, Dakota has a horse, which lives in the stables, but having a ka'millian shouldn't be a problem, as long as it's not taking a huge form," she decided. "If the ka'millian likes to be a big dog or anything, it might need to sleep in the stables, of course. I'm giving you my personal line number," she said, and told him the phone number, "And my email is NetGrrl@Sunnydale.rr.com," she told him. "Also, I'm going to give you the mobile number for Bob Moffatt. He's a YIRAAS agent, who can tell you more about vampires and such from the alien perspective. Also, just in case you want to check on my story. I totally understand." She gave him the number.
Mr Raymond
"Okay, thank you," Mr Raymond replied. "I'll be in touch."
"Only," he added to himself, "if her story checks out."
Willow and Bob
"Thank you very much, Mr. Raymond," Willow said, hanging up. Quickly she called Bob.
"Bob? It's Willow Rosenberg."
"Willow? What's up, is it Scott?" he asked.
"No, he hasn't made an appearance recently. We just located a full Dathrian vampire slayer, Illeanna Raymond. Her family lives in Roswell. I just had a long talk with her father, who I don't think completely believes me. I've given him your number. He'll probably be more likely to believe someone from YIRAAS. I just thought I'd give you a head up."
"Oh, cool. I'll do my best to convince him. I know how important she is," he said gravely.
"How are you guys doing?" Willow asked.
"Well, Dave took it the hardest, he and Scott were closest. I mean, of course, we all took it pretty hard. It's not so much that our brother is dead, you know? It;s the knowing that a demon is walking around wearing his face."
"I hear ya," Willow said in agreement. They talked for a few more moments, and then hung up.