Title: Quis Custodiet

Author: Jedi Buttercup

Disclaimer: The words are mine; the worlds are not. I claim nothing but the plot.

Rating: PG

Summary: Grimm/B:tVS. Always female, these rare, solitary creatures are known to be extremely aggressive and will attack any other wesen they encounter. 800 words.

Spoilers: Post-series, no comics; general Season 1 Grimm.

Notes: For the August Fic-a-Day Challenge. I started wondering how the Slayer world and Grimm world could possibly overlap, without Buffy ever having heard of wesen before. Title from the Latin "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes" meaning "Who watches the watchers?"

Nick Burkhardt flipped through the pages of his aunt's books with a frown, looking for any information his Grimm ancestors may have put down about wesen whose alternate faces appeared just as human as their primary ones. The two women he'd intercepted chasing a yowling Klaustreich along the waterfront that day had each manifested a third woman's face when he'd shown them his badge-- the same woman's face, echoing one another. And while the two pursuers had both been Caucasian, one blonde and the other brunette, their alternate faces had been dark-skinned, dreadlocked, and adorned with pale face paint.

He'd never seen anything like it. Most wesen took on characteristics resembling animals or fantastic creatures when they shifted, but while they all fell into general species categories, that was where the resemblance stopped. Each wesen's true face was just as individualized as their human one. Nick had never seen a pair that appeared exactly identical before, and he found it just as unnerving as he had his first glimpse of Adalind Schade's hexenbiest visage, all those months ago.

He turned the last page of one volume, then paused, rubbing his hand over his face, and thought about it further. It wasn't likely that they were like Mauseherz, who'd never made into his aunt's books chiefly because none of them ever did anything likely to attract the attention of a Grimm. The strange pair certainly had attracted the attention of this particular Grimm, and it wasn't as though Nick had gone out of his way to find them. But most of Marie's library had been written in German, the product of many generations working in Europe. Was it possible these creatures were from further afield?

He reshelved the volume he'd been reading, then ran his fingers down the spines of the handwritten books, searching for one etched with images in the shapes of animals he'd only ever seen at the Oregon Zoo. He'd only cracked that one a few times, mostly looking for information on Dickfellig after the Lowen Games in case he ran into more of them, but something else he'd read in its pages was tickling at the back of his mind. Categorized under non-Western myth cycles and monogender species-- ah, there it was.

He paused in the act of flipping pages, feeling the rasp of parchment scraping under his fingertips. The face of the female warrior he'd seen in stereo that day stared back at him, sketched in black ink by some Grimm of years past. She looked wild, untamed, even angry in the image; she hadn't been happy with whomever had captured that glimpse of her.

Sineyans, read the bold title at the top of the page. Always female, these rare, solitary creatures are known to be extremely aggressive and typically attack any other wesen they encounter.

That explained what they'd been doing chasing the Klaustreich, then; Nick had wondered. The Sineyans hadn't stuck around to explain themselves, and neither had the catlike wesen, though when Nick had tracked the guy down afterward he'd insisted that he'd been minding his own business before they'd found him and accused him of menacing some random teenage girl.

Named for the first known member of their species recorded in African legend, they do not discriminate between species, and a settled Sineyan will defend her chosen territory against any non-human interloper. They will often be found in the company of an older male human and refer to all other prey as 'demons'. This has given rise to the speculation that they are a variety of succubus creature.

Very little more is known, for they seldom cooperate with other hunters and possess superior strength and speed. Most wesen avoid them on sight. As they do not kill humans unless directly challenged, a similar strategy is recommended whenever possible.

No mention was made of the identical nature of their faces. Then again, Nick noted, it didn't sound like more than one had ever been seen together in the past, nor that they'd willingly spoken with the Grimm who'd described them for posterity.

"Great," he muttered to himself, sighing as he closed the book again. Then he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket to call the station. A creature known for staking out a territory would have to have a good reason to relocate. Could it be related to the fact that there'd been two of them instead of one? Perhaps they'd left a trail behind, wherever they'd come from? He'd soon find out.

He only hoped their presence didn't mean yet another destabilizing factor on the streets of Portland. Nick had his own territory to defend, both as a detective and as a Grimm, and he'd seen enough wesen bodies that year already. He had no desire to add any more.

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© 2012 Jedi Buttercup.