Title: Still Not Dead
Fandom: Buffy
Rating: T
Length: 964
Content notes: Monsters, vampires, chara death
Author's notes: For the Whumptober prompt, "You're still not dead?"
Summary: One particular member of the Watcher's Council is keeping an eye on Buffy, and he doesn't like what he sees. Not at all.


Conrad read through the reports, unable to believe his eyes. How was the Slayer not dead yet? He had done everything he could to stack the deck against her. The prophecies foretold of a slayer who would be born in the valley of angels, and when Summers was called in LA he had been sure that she was the one.

But that slayer was supposed to succumb to the darkness and end the dominance of the slayer line! Because of the prophecy, Conrad had allowed one of the stronger, ancient vampires to take up residence in LA, without alerting the rest of the council. Summers should have been putty in his hands, and when she was turned into the very thing she fought, the council would be devastated. Only once before had a slayer been turned, instead of killed outright, and she had made it her personal mission to stamp out the slayers who followed her. It had taken a blasted coven and the concerted efforts of the Council to take her out!

And now, Conrad knew, the Council was far less prepared. They had become soft, so sure of their own superiority. Witches had been persecuted by mundanes, and were now far harder to find, let alone convince to work together long enough to make a full coven. Conrad was sure that this time, when Summers was turned, the Council would be no match for her. When, in a glorious role reversal, she became the very thing that they feared, the Council would tremble and fall apart at her feet.

When the girl successfully defeated the Master that had been allowed to flourish in the area, Conrad had been beside himself. He had actually pulled a few strings to convince the mother to move, and directed her towards Sunnydale in the hopes that that vampire Master — given extra strength by the power of the lurking Hellmouth — would finally be the end of Summers. Vampires drew strength from their sire, with their status directly proportional to the age of the blood that turned them. By using a vampire Master, Conrad hoped to give Summers an edge against whoever was sent after her by the Council.

But again! The bitch wouldn't die! Oh, she had, for a few moments, and hadn't that caused a ruckus with the Council. But then she'd been brought back to life! The girl who followed — Young — was well trained by Zabuto, but Conrad had sent so many powerful vampires to Sunnydale that she didn't have a chance. Then came Lehane, who was a completely different kind of disaster. Nevertheless, Conrad sent Kakistos after her, to break the girl.

When he killed her watcher, Conrad took advantage of the opportunity to direct Gwendolyn Post into Lehane's path, but she and Summers managed to kill both another ancient vampire and the rogue Watcher. Even with the bumbling trainee, the combination of Giles and Summers managed to save the day.

When Angelus and even the Sorcerer Wilkins fell before Summers, Conrad began to wonder if he had gotten it wrong. Yet, the prophecy was quite clear that the Slayer it spoke of needed to be born in the valley of angels. It couldn't be that the rogue Lehane would bring about the downfall of her line, though she was officially the current slayer, and probably eager for the task. It had to be Summers, but she kept defeating every evil thrown in her path!

On the one hand, the stronger she was as a slayer, the stronger she would be as a vampire, but as more and more powerful foes were felled by the little blonde, the more Conrad despaired that she would ever be turned. Why was she still alive?

Glorificus took the entire Council by surprise, including Conrad, but he was excellent at adjusting his plans. The devil knew he'd had to do so often enough, thanks to Summers. At last, however, Conrad was certain that he had found the true meaning of the prophecy. Glorificus was capable of unleashing hell on earth, and if she defeated Summers, then any number of powerful demonic forces would land right in Sunnydale, practically in the slayer's lap. Surely then something would finally corrupt her, allowing her to take her rightfully prophesied place and end the line of Slayers forever.

The day of ascension came, and Conrad eagerly awaited the news of Summers' failure and demise. He would shake his head, and look properly sorrowful, and make all the right noises about finding the next girl, but he would finally have his weapon. When he read the reports just now, it was all he could do not to burst into hysterical laughter then and there.

Summers, along with her ragtag band of friends, had defeated a god! Was there a being left in this dimension that could finally turn her? Conrad had spent his entire life attempting to fulfill the will of fate, and bring about the end of the Slayer lineage. How could one little blonde bitch have thwarted him time and again? How was she still not dead?

Conrad tossed the reports about Glorificus into his desk. He'd go over them later, to see if he could find any weakness in Summers' strategy. But he couldn't focus on that just yet; he had research to do. He needed to study, he needed to find out what could possibly be stronger than Glorificus, and then he needed to direct whatever being he found right at Sunnydale.

Summers needed to die. Fate demanded it.

And after how much trouble she'd caused for him in the last few years by refusing to die when she was supposed to, so did Conrad.


A/N: And of course, we all know that Buffy did end the slayer lineage, by handing out the power to every potential simultaneously.