Shooting Range, Sunday Afternoon

[wesleynotponcy]

It had been brought to Wesley's attention by a number of parties that teaching Kenzi how to shoot a pistol was inadvisable at best. Teaching her how to shoot something long-ranged like a rifle, though? That was probably a biiiit dangerous. You know. A bit.

And yet.

He waited for her to show up and practiced on the target, relishing the kickback

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[wesleynotponcy]

Well, see, that was a little harder, because Wes had only heard two stories that were guaranteed to be true, one of which was his own. And while rumors had circulated around the Watchers' Academy as to the other sorts of things that could merit disbarment (so to speak), they'd been just that -- rumors.

"There's, ah, there's an examination given to a Slayer on her eighteenth birthday," Wesley explained. "It requires certain actions to be taken by her Watcher, and should he -- er, or she -- ah, fail to meet the requirements put forth for the task, that's one way to be stripped of the Watcher title." Not that he knew of it happening more than once, or anything. "Alternatively, if a Watcher is found to have, er, failed his or her Slayer in some way, that could also lead to firing."

Two guesses which one had happened to him. Shouldn't be too hard, given the way his tone went all soft on that last part.

"There are other possibilities, no doubt, but those are the two that I'm, ah, most familiar with."

[regretiz4suckas]

Kenzi stopped, watching Wes, wondering which one of them he was meant to be fooling. "Failed her how?" Her voice was a lot gentler than the words. Still not looking at him. "She died?"

[wesleynotponcy]

"No, no, nothing specific, I just -- "

Okay, giving up.

"She went rogue, actually," he admitted softly. "Turned against her Calling, murdered people..."

[regretiz4suckas]

Kenzi just barely managed not to blurt Holy shit, in favor of a deep breath, and slowly saying, "How can that be on you? She's the superhero. She could kick your ass, right? So how can it be your fault?"

[wesleynotponcy]

"It was my job to teach her how to use her power," Wesley said sharply, though that wasd directed not at Kenzi but at himself. "She could hardly have been expected to -- and -- "

Deep breath. He fired at the target once, leaving a clean hole in the silhouette's chest.

"She was on the verge of being rehabilitated, and I intervened," he said quietly. "She might have come around, were it not for me."

[regretiz4suckas]

Kenzi shot a few times, not sure what to say there, and then finding something. It probably wouldn't help, but.

"Speaking as someone people have tried to 'rehabilitate'," she put the word in audible quote-marks, and waited until she was sure Wesley was paying attention. "Do you really think anyone could influence me so hard that I'd kill someone, if I didn't want to anyway? And I don't even have superpowers." She paused. "I'm not saying you didn't fuck up. I wasn't there. Maybe you did." She shook her head. "But dude. Are you responsible for her whole life?"

[wesleynotponcy]

"She was an innocent girl," Wesley said stubbornly. "And she'd been through a great deal of trauma. She made a mistake, and -- I came down too harshly on her. It was my fault she rebelled."

There was really no changing his mind on this, Kenzi. After all, he was reminded of it just from being here.

[regretiz4suckas]

"Dude, I am so disagreeing with you on this. Forever." Kenzi made a face at him. "Sometimes you have a stick up your ass but you always mean well and you try hard. And succeed, look, I'm shooting things!" See, good one, Wes! "Innocent my ass. Trauma, that blows. But there's always more than one option. Sometimes killing someone is the best one, but...."

Yeah, Miss Slayer gets no slack at all from a fellow miscreant. Nope. "So the Council guys blamed you? Nobody else? Not that other Watcher, not Miss Slay-girl? How old was she, anyway?"

[wesleynotponcy]

"Ah... seventeen?" And that he wasn't even sure of, which in his mind only reinforced the extent of his failure of her. "She was my responsibility, not Rupert's. And the very responsibility of a Watcher is to protect the Slayer, not to -- allow her to endanger others. It wouldn't have crossed the Council's mind to hold her accountable."

And yes, that sounded a bit bitter. While Wesley regarded most of his faults in this area as his own, he did resent the fact that the Council had never once seemed to hold Faith's behavior against Faith.

[regretiz4suckas]

"I'm gonna be seventeen. And you're what, 18? 19?" Kenzi gave him a look of pure dubiousness. "Wes. C'mon. You going to take responsibility for the next guy I off, if I use a gun? What were you supposed to do?"

She turned and shot the target some more, then back. "The Council is whack, dude. Whack. What, this chick doesn't have the brains to know what she did? She's a - savant? Just a fighty machine?"

[wesleynotponcy]

Well, that was how the Council tended to see her and those like her, at any rate.

"No," Wesley conceded quietly. "But the fact remains that whether she's responsible or not, I am as well. That's simply how the Council operates."

So now he'd gone from arguing the point to blaming the system. Real solid logic there, Wes.

[regretiz4suckas]

Kenzi unloaded the gun, her hands tired, than stuck them in her jacket pockets, watching Wes. "This is where we should get a beer." She shook her head. "You fucked up. You're taking responsibility for it. It doesn't sound like Slayer-Chick or the Council is doing either. So. You know, don't try to make up for them being clueless by being ... overly. Okay?"

[wesleynotponcy]

"I -- " Pause. "I actually wouldn't mind one."

As long as it wasn't scotch, Kenzi. Keep him far away from stuff unless you wanted him out of commission for weeks at a time.

"All right. Yes."

Wes wasn't exactly sure what was considered "overly clueless," but he certainly had no intention to be it. Talking about all of this just made him want as little to do with the Council as possible.

[regretiz4suckas]

"Awesome."

And at least some of Wes's uptight-ness was explained. "What was this chick's name, anyway? Or don't they have one, once they get Called?" Kenzi put away her gun, and walked over to the door.

[wesleynotponcy]

Oh, Kenzi. The uptight-ness had started loooong before that.

"Faith," he said quietly, returning his safety goggles and earphones to their respective bins. "Faith Lehane."