The Cycle Begins Anew

by Caitriona3

The Scoobies have been standing against the rise of darkness for a decade. Now they must seek out the families they never knew in order to face the coming storm. (Warning – OC female main character. If not your thing, please be warned! Also this is a multiple crossover - VERY many multiples, but under "regular" b/c of the number of crossovers.)

Author's Note: I have tried more than once to get this story out of my head and into writing. (Older versions have been tried and then deleted because of my personal anxieties.) Things always managed to stop me, including my own insecurities as a writer. I've finally decided (and been encouraged) to put those aside and really try to get this down. I've got some writing under my belt now (though not in Buffy, so not posted here) and I really want to tell this. To get them out of the way up front, here are the main warnings: 1. The main character is an original female character. 2. Canon is a lovely guideline, but not a strict rule 3. Name dropping - lots of crossovers already, but my plot bunnies like dropping in random references or extras from others. 4. Yes there's a prophecy. Yes there are families discovered. Yes I know this is an old and much redone set of tropes.

Just Another Tuesday

"Ouch!"

"You keep dropping your left shoulder. Is it genetic? Your younger sisters both do the same thing."

Serenity Summers made a face at the mild amusement in her teacher's expression. "In the words of one of those sisters," she shot back, "bite me, MacLeod."

"Again," Connor MacLeod replied with that restrained smile as he moved into position. The light accent deepened, reinforcing her conviction that he was laughing at her – internally at least. "And this time, watch your left."

She groaned, but shifted to counter him.

Half an hour later, and dripping with sweat, she began a cool down series of stretches as she directed a frown at the man cleaning up the area. "You're a heck of a taskmaster, you know that Connor?" she complained. "I don't think I've felt this sore since Julliard."

"Different muscles," he reminded her. "Sword work and dancing possess more common movement than most realize, as do some forms of martial arts, but they have distinct differences as well." He leaned against the wall, his eyes following her movements with a watchful gaze. "You're a dancer, but some of the movements stretch the muscles in different ways." One shoulder lifted in a half shrug as he offered his small smile. "They're protesting."

"Great." A laugh spilled over as she leaned back on her hands, staring up at him from her place on the floor. "Sorry for the complaining," she apologized. "I did ask for the help."

He shook his head. "It's nothing. My old teacher would have regaled you with tales of my own displeasure over his training methods." The corner of Connor's mouth quirked up. "In between flirtatious comments." She lifted an eyebrow at him and he shrugged, pulling away from the wall. He held a hand out to her. "Ramirez could be dramatic."

"He'd be out of my age range," she laughed, accepting his help off the floor.

"He wouldn't have been serious." An ancient sorrow darkened his gaze. "He lost three wives to time and swore off any more relationships." Serenity remained silent, honoring his memories and letting him have the space to acknowledge them in his own way. He gave her a brief smile of thanksgiving. "Finish your stretches," he told her, one nod of his head sending her back to the mat. "Careful with your back."

She nodded and began to move once more even as she watched the young-old man leave the gym, his sorrow still palpable to her, even without using her more esoteric gifts. The idea of living in such a world, watching the world change and evolve, making connections only to lose them through age – or by leaving before they could realize age did not affect him – she could not fathom it. After a moment she pushed it out of her head and focused on the last of her stretches. Connor MacLeod walked a lonely road, but at least he did not have to hide here.

The GSC was the place for oddballs.

Her next stop took her to her suite; she needed a shower after the workout. Stripping down and getting clean gave her a few minutes to let memories of the past wash through her as well. She could still remember flying to Los Angeles after getting a panicked call from her sister. Just months before, Buffy had been too cool to hang out with her older sister. Now she called, frantic for help. Serenity dropped everything to fly out to California so she could find out what the hell was going on.

Vampires.

Real vampires.

Nowadays she could only shake her head at how innocent she had been. A Los Angeles native with a New York City education…and she knew nothing of the dark world living below the surface of the human one. Buffy being Called as the Slayer ripped off that veil of ignorance and she had walked the thin line between sun and dark ever since.

Avoiding it certainly had not worked.

Yes, she helped Buffy and Pike with Lothos but then she tried to go back to New York – only to find herself returning to California twice. Temporarily when their mother and Hank put Buffy in a mental institution and then on a more permanent basis when Sunnydale turned out to be a Hellmouth.

Everything spiraled from there and now she found herself Co-Vice President of the Global Security Council as well as its director of international affairs.

Oh how the world turned.

After her shower – and the brief trip down memory lane, Serenity felt ready to move on through her daily schedule. Granted, she did give her bed a long glance, tempted to grab a quick nap, but Tuesdays meant meetings which meant no additional sleep. Not that she needed it right now, things being as quiet as they had been for the past few weeks.

Serenity winced, her steps faltering as she scrunched her eyes closed. "Please don't let that have been a jinx."

A raised voice from the kitchen area drew her attention and she shook off the momentary superstition in favor of a more immediate situation. She hurried into the room to find their chef cooking and ignoring the cook who paced at the opposite end of the huge room, ranting and raving as he waved he arms about. He paused every other pass to glare at the stove closest to him. She sighed, just managing to repress a roll of her eyes before she stepped over to the one still cooking. "What set Andrew off this time?"

"His adaptation of coq au vin didn't work out."

"Seriously?" Serenity rubbed her forehead. "Jason, tell me you're joking?"

"It can be a difficult recipe," Jason Gideon offered as he stirred a large pot of spaghetti sauce. A smile curved his mouth as she gave him a glare. "Don't worry. Dinner's covered." He flicked an eyebrow to indicate the simmering sauce.

"Thank you." Her voice might have held a touch too much gratitude for a simple dinner, but that would only be for people who never had to worry about a school full of teenagers, including a healthy number of Slayers. She glanced around as Andrew's voice rose in pitch before falling back into muffled muttering. "Do we even know what language that is?" He shook his head and she sighed. "Fiddlesticks," she murmured before raising her voice. "Andrew!"

The young man spun, stumbling in his surprise. "Serenity!" His face fell back into pouting lines. "I need to work this out. This should have worked!"

"Maybe next-."

"No!" Determination lit his gaze. "I am set on conquering this recipe. It might be my nemesis for the moment, but I shall succeed."

She watched him for a moment and then held up her hands. "Fine," she allowed, "but don't burn anything down…or blow it up for that matter." Then she pointed at him. "And the girls need food on a regular basis. They don't have time to wait for art."

"Yes, yes," he nodded. "We have to take care of our secret team of super heroines so they can continue saving the world – a world which does not appreciate them enough. Like the heroic mutants under Xavier's command-"

"No, Andrew," Serenity sighed.

"But-."

"No." She gave the younger man a strict look. "We are not the X-Men and this is not Xavier's."

"And yet we're a school for unusually gifted people run by a group of misunderstood heroes," he pointed out.

"We don't wear costumes," she refuted, "or have secret identities. And people would have to know we existed in order to be able to misunderstand us." She paused. "And how did you get me into this discussion?" He opened his mouth, but she held up a hand. "No, we're not the X-Men and no, I don't want to know who would be whom." Jason seemed to be repressing a smile as Andrew pouted. "Kitchen crew should be here soon, so I'm headed to the board meeting. Do we have any snack bars and iced tea left?"

The effort took a few minutes, but she managed to escape from the kitchen and headed for the third floor. Despite the handful of conference rooms on the second floor, the board insisted on meeting in Giles' personal library. It only made sense, given identities of the people on the board.

Besides - if the Scoobies of Sunnydale wanted to meet in a library, who was going to argue?

Serenity detoured by her office near the foot of the stairs. She needed pen and paper, not to mention the reports from their various contacts in government. None of her reports included anything major, but then it was only October. That should make for a quick meeting before they got down to trying to find indications of this year's apocalypse. Her soft huff of laughter stirred the air. Even after all these years, it still struck her sometimes how ridiculous her life had become that she considered researching an apocalypse to be just another item on her to do list. "Plug it in between the board meeting and going over the latest psych evals on the students," she mutter, a chuckle lurking in her tone. "No big."

The library filled the central portion of the third floor. She smiled at this week's guards, offering a nod to Caridad and Chao-Ahn as she walked past them into the room.

"Sorry I'm late," she offered as she took her seat at the foot of the table.

"No worries, Rini." Buffy waved off the apology from her seat near the other end of the table. "It's not like this week has any major big announcements." Her eyes flashed around the table. "Not that I've heard anyway." People shrugged or shook their heads and she smiled. "See? Now we're just waiting on Giles."

"Yes, yes, I'm coming," the eldest of their number called from his private office in the corner. "I just received a fascinating manuscript on the theory of-."

"Giles!"

Multiple voices rang out in protest and a deep sigh could be heard in the silence which followed. Rupert Giles stepped into the room, giving all of them a familiar look of exasperated affection as he moved to take his seat at the head of the table. "Impatient, the lot of you."

"Meeting, Giles," Buffy reminded him from her seat to his right. "Meeting, apocalyptic research, Slayer evals, dinner, movie night – that's the schedule. You can go gaga over your new thing after dinner."

Serenity's lips twitched in amusement as she glanced around the table of smiling and laughing young adults. Who would have thought such a mixed up group of messed up kids would grow up and end up running one of the most powerful organizations in the world? Giles and Buffy traded a few more quips with additional commentary from the others as Serenity's eyes moved from face to face.

Cordelia Chase, once the queen bee of Sunnydale High and now their director of the treasury, rolled her eyes. "I need a vacation," the brunette muttered. "Somewhere on a beach. Or Paris." Nails with a perfect French manicure tapped against the table as their chief Oracle began to doodle on the papers in front of her. Serenity could still remember when Cordelia returned to Sunnydale after escaping to Los Angeles. The newly awoken seer had been driven to return to the Scoobies, her powers showing her the trouble to come. She might have wanted to escape the craziness, but she possessed a steel core of loyalty and she refused to leave them without her help.

"Hell, no, give me the mountains."

Now Serenity's eyes moved to the woman sitting on Cordelia's left side. Faith Lehane slumped back in her chair, flipping a knife in her hand. "Taking a motorcycle down those sharp curves and steep hills?" she continued. "Sheer rush, I tell you." Their wild child might have stumbled a time or two, but she had become a cornerstone of their organization, in charge of security and sharing the duty of training new Slayers. Her Slayers went through a stage of hating her guts, but Faith believed in being hard during her sessions. The harder she was, the longer the girls might live. Faith took each death personally, believing there must have been some way she could have trained a girl to be faster, stronger, or whatever. Their deaths were her failures.

That mindset worried Serenity, Giles, and Tara, all of whom did their best to hover as much as the dark-haired Slayer would let them when something bad went down.

"We're still on for that ski trip in March, right?" Dawn Summers, Serenity's baby sister leaned over to snag Faith's attention. Dawn might still be a student, technically speaking, but no one could argue that she had not earned her place on this board. Newcomers might raise their eyebrows, but it never took long for the survivors of Sunnydale to teach them the history of the Scoobies. As a Watcher in training, Dawn spent a great deal of time with Giles, having selected him as her mentor. Willow and Tara worked with her on her particular talent for portals as well, but the majority of her studies focused on linguistics, particularly the ancient languages of history and power – Latin, Greek, Egyptian, Sumerian, and so on.

Now Serenity held back a chuckle. All of them chose one or two languages to study – ancient and modern – but only Dawn took to them like a kid at Christmas.

"You two are crazy," Buffy informed them, glancing away from her conversation with Giles to make a face. The oldest living Slayer in history gave a fake shiver and wrinkled her nose. "Why would you want to go colder?" Pride swelled in Serenity's heart even as she laughed with the others. Her little sister, the girl who used to pretend to be the epitome of the bubbly and somewhat brainless blonde, now let her true self shine – sharp, powerful, and strong. Whereas her sister-Slayer handled security, Buffy handled defense. She was their general – even Giles and Serenity followed her command. "Give me the sun."

"We know," Dawn rolled her eyes. "You tell us every time we have to go into the snow."

Buffy's eyes narrowed. "It's unnatural."

"Buffy," Giles sighed. "Snow is a perfectly natural…" His voice trailed off and he shook his head. "How do I end up in these conversations?"

Serenity smiled at him. "The winds of fate and fortune?"

"True." Affection glimmered in his gaze as he straightened the papers in front of him. As the president of the GSC Giles held a great deal of power, on par with many world leaders. She knew however that he would prefer to still be a mere Watcher. If he ever had been…to be father-figure of a group like this pretty much negated any chance he possessed of being a mere anything. "I myself would be happy if I could spend some time in the Library of Congress."

"The library?" Xander sat on Giles' left and gave him a horrified look. Sunnydale born and raised, the one-time slacker had long since become the common sense of the group…until someone threatened one of his people. Then common sense took a backseat to their white knight. The eyepatch raised eyebrows, but the kids flocked to him. He became their haven of normal in the midst of whatever crazy changes they might be dealing with. Adults and kids alike could sit with him and vent their emotions while watching him work. "Vacation, Giles," he reminded the older man. "Vacation means being or doing something not of the usual."

It didn't hurt that he would draft most of them into helping build this or that project for the school.

"There's nothing wrong with wanting to spend time in the library!" Willow scolded as she smacked her oldest friend on the arm. The redheaded witch – now their director of magic – had overcome more than most of them, save perhaps Faith and Giles. Once the most innocent among them, Willow's addiction to magic and her fall to the dark side of that same power had forced the young woman to face her personal insecurities. "I'd love to go see the British library."

Serenity still shuddered when she considered how close the world had come to ending at Willow's hands. The madness which had overtaken the witch at the shootings and near deaths of Oz, Buffy, and Tara…plus the loss of her baby. Pain and grief and a terrible rage had blanketed the entire town of Sunnydale, driving Serenity herself out of town before she became catatonic.

Thank God for Giles' return.

She shook off the dark memories. "And you Oz? What will you be doing?"

The laconic werewolf gave the tiniest of shrugs. "With her." He tilted his head towards Willow. Grins and chuckles circled the table. They would have all bet on that answer. The two of them stood as proof positive that yes, sometimes high school romances worked. Even after graduation. Not that there hadn't been some speedbumps along the way, including the loss of their child, but they came through stronger. Oz had been forced to leave Willow alone during her magical detox and he ended up in Tibet where he learned to break the hold of the moon. The weres who worked with the GSC reported to him and he stood as Alpha for the mixed pack who lived and patrolled the school grounds.

Buffy leaned forward, resting her chin on one hand. "What about you, Tara?"

"Maine," Tara replied with her soft smile. "I would like to go up and see the ocean there – all wild and mysterious and powerful." Oz had brought Tara into their midst during the Scoobies' freshman year of college, after having seen her perform magic. The young witch seemed hesitant, but soon made friends with Willow and Serenity. She and Willow worked well together, leading to many of them hoping the young woman could help with the redhead's growing dependence on magic. Oz and Tara between them almost pulled Willow back from the edge until the shooting undid all of their hard work.

"Again with the cold," the blonde Slayer muttered, shaking her head.

"So, Rini, where will you be going on this hypothetical vacation?" Cordelia asked, one elegant eyebrow sweeping up in curiosity.

"Oh, I shall be watching over the Council while you all run around in sun, snow, or stacks," Serenity replied, her shoulders lifting in a slow, nonchalant shrug. The corners of her mouth twitched as she blinked her eyes open wide in mock innocence. "I figure I'll be rewarded for handling everything by getting extra time." She lifted a finger and counted off each of the others. "Let's see…I'll get nine extra weeks, so two and a half months. I could do a world tour."

Laughter rang through the room.

"Enough, enough," Giles shook his head, his own smile breaking out even while he brought the meeting back under control. Warm paternal affection lit his face as he glanced around the circle. "Does anyone have an emergency or anything of importance which should be discussed before we begin discussing the reviews?"

Dawn leaned forward, mouth opening to speak, when Cordelia gasped. All eyes darted to the seer who now sat ramrod straight as her eyes began to glow a pearly white. Xander pulled out a digital recorder while the others grabbed pen and paper for notes.

She swayed and began to speak:

The cycle begins anew.

False the histories long told,

As greedy men did wisdom scorn,

Ancient trust for power sold,

They left their world ever torn.

So now the circle you must renew

If justice you would see win through.

Hand of justice, chosen one,

Strong of heart, eagle's daughter,

Now must secrets fall apart,

Where ancient blood does foster,

The door in the mountain's heart.

Noble huntress of Osiris won,

Your life's journey now truly begun.

Hand of renewed truth esteemed,

Into darkness were you born,

But life and light do you choose.

A brother must you discern;

Your heart must you disabuse.

Artemis' daughter, of blood redeemed,

Reach out for one unknown and undreamed.

Circle elder, blooded sage,

Guardian of the chosen,

Return to the beginning.

A child's heart yet unbroken,

To you her future twinning.

Past and future you shall turn the page,

Her aid to win and darkness enrage.

Soul-seer, heart-healer, sister:

Distaff gave you the Slayer;

The Hunters come from the spear.

One gives the world a prayer;

The other to good adhere.

Let your heart fear no dark born whisper;

What evil mars, good may deliver.

Do you hear the beating heart,

Oh, destiny's volunteer?

At the gate o'er tear-filled blue,

Find sisters three to hold dear.

Add but one to circle through.

Let no dark soul tear kindred apart,

Defender! Stand! Bid evil depart!

Red, black, white do you entwine,

Spirit of the primeval.

Distant are your missing kin,

Probing for secrets primal,

Ancient truths to find therein.

Seek, guardian of the chosen line,

Whose choices now destiny confine.

Peaceful hunter, soul of moon,

Quiet balance need you here

If shared blood you would now see

Where boundaries disappear

Betwixt sun, sand, swamp, and sea.

By chosen saved and now must attune

To answers for shadow and for rune.

Voice for one who has no voice,

To seek the one you must find

The city of glass and stone

Where freedom's light stands enshrined

And where defends bone of bone.

Together perhaps you may rejoice,

For thy mother's kin made her life's choice.

Delphi's daughter, heed my cry,

Though from blood you be estranged,

Find comfort in eyes that sting,

Beneath to a heart unchanged,

Comfort in wings sheltering.

If victory you would not pass by,

This timely warning do not defy.

Blood to blood, send forth the call.

Darkness rises; do not cower.

Hurry, you must now begin.

Unite the strength of family power,

If this battle you would win.

The circle renew or you shall fall.

Only together might you stand tall.

Silence descended on the library as Cordelia slumped into Faith, the brunette Slayer steadying her until she could sit up once more. The pale young woman rubbed her forehead. "Some of those rhymes suck," she muttered. "And I hate prophecies."

"Hear, hear," Willow and Xander agreed, their voices overlapping.

Tara crouched beside Cordelia's chair. "Here." The soft-spoken witch held out some aspirin and a bottle of water she had obviously fetched from Giles' office. A small, tremulous smile of thanks curved Cordelia's lips as she accepted the offering. She took the pills and then leaned her head back against the chair.

"Cordelia?" Giles asked after a moment, his voice gentle but direct.

"Go ahead," she waved in answer, never opening her eyes.

Giles nodded at Xander who pressed play. They listened to the prophecy twice, each of them considering her words in silence and making their own notes. After the second run through, Tara spoke up. "Almost all of us have a stanza," she pointed out before taking the recorder into the office.

"Yeah," Faith agreed. "If we figure they tossed Little D in with B as usual, then there's enough to share."

"Sounds like we'll be calling in allies for whatever it is," Buffy frowned.

"Family," Oz corrected. All eyes turned towards the werewolf and he gave a lazy shrug. "She said 'blood to blood' and 'family power' in the last stanza."

Serenity's breath caught, but no one noticed. She stared down at her notes as if in thought, pulling her reaction back under control. Not yet, she thought, though she knew she would not be able to put it off for long. Not if the prophecy said what she thought it said.

"What histories were false?" Dawn piped up. "And what ancient trust?"

"The old Council and the Slayers?" Willow offered. "They did treat the girls like weapons instead of people. Maybe-."

"It was older than that," Cordelia interrupted. She tapped her long fingernails on the table for a moment before grimacing. "I'm pretty sure I saw Miss Preverbal in there, along with those smug, superior bastards who cursed her with the demon."

"The fact that I understood that should probably alarm me," Giles noted, shaking his head. He smiled at Tara as she returned with copies of the prophecy for everyone. She passed them out and he continued speaking, "For the moment, let's concentrate on the individual stanzas. Then we'll look at the collective."

Xander nodded. "So who's who?"

No one spoke for a long moment, reading through the words. Then Buffy shifted and grumbled. "The Hands," she finally said. "That's Faith and I – remember the enjoining spell?"

"Where we first met Sineya," Willow agreed. "It makes sense – with her appearing to Cordelia."

"Third one's mine," Faith put in. She rolled her eyes when Buffy leaned over to look at her, eyebrows rising in question. "Where it says 'of blood redeemed'? Got to be me." Buffy frowned, but nodded, and Faith continued. "So it looks like I'm looking for a brother."

"So am I," Serenity pointed out. "More than one if I'm right." Everyone looked at her and she chuckled. "Fifth stanza."

"Ah, I see," Giles concurred.

Xander's lips twitched. "It says 'sister' – kind of cuts out most of the girls in the room."

"Technically, 'sister' could refer to 'sister-in-power'," Tara told him in gentle remonstrance. He shrugged, offering her a good natured grin, leading her to shake her head in amusement.

"The references to 'distaff' and 'spear' harken to familial connections," Giles continued as he rose to his feet and paced a few steps. "It means she is related to the Slayer on her mother's side, so on her father's side are these 'Hunters'. Combining that with the reference to her as 'sister', it would be safe to conclude that Serenity is indeed seeking for brothers."

"So let's look at what we've got." Willow made a couple of notes on her paper. "The first stanza is an introduction, followed by stanzas for Buffy and Faith. The fourth stanza has to be Giles."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Elder," Oz agreed. "Sage."

"And it says 'blooded' – referring to a pedigree." The table snickered at Willow's words and Giles reached for his glasses, pulling out a handkerchief to polish them. "Sorry about the comparison," she grimaced, "but you are from an old Watcher family, right?"

"Indeed," he sighed. "That one, then, is mine while the fifth belongs to Serenity."

"I don't get the next one." Dawn rested her chin on her fist. "I mean, did anyone really volunteer for destiny?"

"We'll come back to it," Giles agreed, a thoughtful look on his face. "Do any of the others…jump out at anyone?"

"The second to the last stanza belongs to Cordelia," Tara noted. The once shy witch locked eyes with the dark-haired seer. "It calls you Delphi's daughter," she explained. Half of the table nodded at her words while the other half gave her curious looks. "The Oracle at Delphi is one of the most world renowned prophetesses of the ancient world. Kings and rulers of every level came to her for any matter of importance."

"Like we all tend to jump when Delia has her visions," Serenity agreed. "And the last stanza pretty much tells us to get to work."

Silence filled the room for a moment and then Oz pointed at his copy. "Eighth one's mine."

"Soul of moon," Dawn nodded. "Makes sense. Combine it with the hunter bit and that points to a were."

Go back to the enjoining spell for a minute." Willow's eyes narrowed on the paper. "Wouldn't that make the next one Tara's? The one between Oz and Cordelia?"

"For Sineya," Buffy agreed. "Tara was who showed up in my dream as the voice of Sineya."

Faith crossed her arms over her chest. "That leaves the last two for Xan-Man and Red."

"Destiny's volunteer?" Cordelia sent a smirk towards Xander. "Gee, which dweeb does that sound like?"

"Says the prodigal daughter," he shot back.

"Enough."

They settled at Giles' mild reproof, but Serenity exchanged a quick glance with Tara. The blonde nodded, flicking an eyebrow towards Xander. She nodded back, accepting the task of keeping an eye or Cordelia for a few days.

"Red," Willow sighed. "I always get red."

"Odd," Oz commented, taking hold of her hand. A stranger would have missed the glint of humor in his eyes, but the Scoobies had to repress smiles. Willow gave him an unimpressed look to which he returned a placid one of his own.

"Yeah," Xander nodded. "Wonder why?"

Willow frowned at him. "You're making fun of me." He gave her a shocked look, but she pointed at him. "Don't even try. I know you better."

"Better just accept your fate, Red." Faith leaned back in her chair.

Another round of laughter filled the room as Willow stuck her tongue out at the brunette Slayer. The tension created when Cordelia uttered the prophecy broke and eased as the group settled into their routine. Yes, they hated prophecies, but they had done this before and they would do it again. No reason to get worried yet, even if the family part was new.

"Now what?" Xander leaned back in his chair. "Not to be the nitpicker or anything, but none of these really give much indication of where we're supposed to be looking. A couple of us got clues, but nothing big enough to point to a map and shout 'Eureka!'."

"I'm dumping that in the hands of witches and brainiacs," Buffy announced.

"Buffy," Giles began.

"Giles." Her voice turned serious and everyone sat a little straighter. "It says 'Blood to blood, send the call' – I'm pretty sure they're not talking on the phone. They're talking magical because there's just no other way we're going to be able to find these people." She lifted her hands in a helpless sort of shrug. "Especially relatives we never knew existed – like Faith or Rini's brothers…or Xander's sisters."

"A scrying spell." Willow's comment came out slow and thoughtful. "Something tied into the blood of each of us…plus something to help us find the right person…persons, even after we narrow down the search."

"And it would be through the blood," Tara nodded.

Dawn rolled her eyes. "It's always got to be blood."

The conversation continued, rolling over Serenity as she sat in silence and contemplated her next action. She could not predict what the spell might turn up, but she could make a few educated guesses – and some of the surprises would reach beyond her sisters' expectations. Buffy seemed to be overlooking the 'eagle's daughter' bit – or she might be writing it off to prophetic whimsy – but Serenity knew better.

"Rini?"

Buffy's voice drew Serenity out of her thoughts. She gave her younger sister a small smile. "I'm sorry," she offered. "Did I miss something?"

"Giles is calling for a break," the blonde replied, concern still clear in her eyes. "He wants to make some calls and give everyone a chance to think." Her gaze moved to Giles. "What do you think – an hour or so and then we can reconvene?"

"Perfect," the mentor concurred. "I shall put out some inquiries on blood tracing."

"Good." Buffy rose and glanced around. "One hour and then we all meet back here for any new ideas."

"I didn't want to review reports today anyway," Cordelia replied as she stood up. "Though I'd have preferred a small incursion to a complicated prophecy."

People began drifting away as they left the library, but Serenity snagged her sisters by the arm. "I need to talk to you two," she informed them as they turned to her, identical looks of confusion crossing their faces. "In the Study."

Now concern began to flicker in their eyes, but they followed her without question.

The Scooby Study, just around the corner from Giles' library, meant privacy and no interruptions for anything short of a major apocalypse. Calling anyone into that room meant a lot of potential fallout. Only news of the most important kind – good, bad, or otherwise – required the Study. Willow, Tara, and Giles warded the room with the strongest anti-scrying spells they could find while Xander's construction and Cordelia's decorating made the room pretty much soundproof.

They never took its use lightly.

Along one wall, Cordelia had used pictures to create a family memorial. Pictures of Joyce Summers, Jenny Calendar, Jesse McNally, Anya Jenkins and Kendra Young dominated, but there were others present as well. Each face meant something to them. Overstuffed couches and chairs were spaced throughout the room, and there were tables piled with books as well as a computer over in one corner. A beautiful grandfather clock stood in the opposite corner with Giles' favorite reading chair in front of it. The room even boasted a tiny kitchenette at one end. This was their inner sanctum so to speak. This was the one place they could break down, shake in fear, and have their freak outs – they didn't have to be confident here. This is where they brought their troubles.

Serenity huffed out a breath.

Or in this case, our secrets.

She heard her sisters come in and shut the door, but she kept her eyes fixed on her mother's smile. Her eyes grew misty as she contemplated the actions she was about to take.

Buffy cleared her throat. "Rini? What's up?"

Turning around, she met their eyes, blue and brown, before moving over to sit in the chair across from them. She could feel herself trembling and she took a couple of deep breaths. "I'm working my way up to this. I'm about to break a very old promise."

"Promise to whom?" Dawn frowned.

"Mom." She bit her lip. "I made Mom a promise a long time ago, and now I have to break it." The other two exchanged a quick glance before turning back to her. They stayed silent. With a sigh, she shrugged. "I really have no idea how to even begin with this. It was not something I ever had to worry about before." Scrubbing her face with her hands, Serenity stood up once more and began pacing around the study. She did not want to do this – she really, really didn't. Coming to a stop in front of her mother's picture, she stared into the beloved face and remembered a conversation almost ten years back. Quietly and without turning around, she began to speak, the memory playing out in her head as she spoke.

"Sooner or later you are going to have to tell her."

Serenity stood in the kitchen of her mother's new house watching while she cut up vegetables for a salad. Although her hands remained steady, she could see the tremble in her mother's lips.

Her mother paused and then looked at her, shaking her head. "Maybe."

Huffing out a breath, Serenity grabbed a piece of celery and popped it in her mouth. The silence grew heavy between them and Joyce's shoulders tightened. Serenity debated with herself about saying anything else, but concern for her sister won out. "Mom, what if something happens? To you, or, God forbid, to her? Is that how you want her to find out? In an emergency – when there's no other choice?"

Joyce tossed the knife into the sink and leaned on the countertop. Fear, concern, and a small trace of anger flashed in her eyes as she stared at her eldest daughter. "I'm not going to bring it up right now, and neither are you. Your sister has been through enough. First, the . . . incident at school, then the institution, and finally the divorce; she needs time. We're in a new town, with a new school. Nobody knows her here and she needs the space to deal with that, not have us throw something else at her right now. Later, when the time is right, we can think about telling her all of this, but not now – she just needs some time."

She lifted one dark eyebrow, so different from her mother's blond locks, over a cynical blue eye. "She needs more time…or you need more time?"

Her mother's lips folded in annoyance. "That is enough, Serenity Grace. I will have your word on this. You will not mention anything to her."

Defeat turned her voice into a pale, weary shadow of itself. "I promise."

She returned to the present, still facing her mother's picture. A hint of nerves echoed in Buffy's voice as her sister prodded her with a question. "Rini, I need to know."

A sigh slipped between her lips as she moved back to her chair. Her solemn gaze slid between her two sisters. "Buffy, Hank . . . Hank is not your father."

Deafening silence filled the room. Buffy sat like a sculpture carved in ice while Dawn's startled eyes darted back and forth between the two of them. Everything remained so still Serenity could hear each movement of the pendulum in the clock. She watched as different thoughts raced across Buffy's eyes, even as she kept a tight rein on her empathic abilities to avoid intruding on her sister's privacy. The silence stretched into several minutes with the tension winding tighter in her stomach.

Buffy blinked. She took a deep breath and opened her mouth; then she shut it, and sighed. Falling back against the cushions, her blond hair standing out in vivid relief against the deep green of the couch, she stared at the ceiling for a moment. Then she her head without lifting it and peered at her sister with moist green eyes. "It's funny. I don't know how to feel right now."

Serenity nodded, but didn't speak.

"I'm mad; I'm happy, sad, confused…everything all at once. I want to be so mad at Mom right now, but at the same time, I'm glad she didn't tell me before. I mean, I always figured the divorce was my fault, you know, for the gym and everything. What would it have been if I suddenly found out I wasn't really his?" Before either of her sisters could say anything, Buffy held up a hand. "Don't, just don't. That's the other side of this – I'm happy. This means I'm not his. I don't share any piece of DNA with a man who never even asked about the daughters he raised when Mom died. He couldn't even be bothered to check or come to her funeral. He raised me – for fifteen years, he raised me like his own and then . . . BAM . . . I don't matter to him, so I'm happy." She blew out a breath, sitting up and leaning on the arm of the sofa. "I'm just confused at this point. What am I supposed to feel?"

Serenity stood up and moved to sit on the table in front of the couch so she was right in front of her sister. Buffy shifted until she sat up straight once more. Their knees touched.

"I don't think there's a set feeling you're supposed to have right now. You have every right to be mad – at Mom, at Hank, at me." Buffy went to interrupt, but she shook her head. "I kept a secret from you – a big one, an important one. Yes, I promised Mom, but still you're my sister. After she was gone, my first loyalty was to the two of you." Glancing at Dawn, she held out an arm and Dawn cuddled in close to her side. "You both deserved the truth, and I didn't tell you."

Buffy leaned forward, throwing her arms around both of them. The three sisters clung to one another for a long moment before pulling back. Serenity returned to her chair and perched on the edge. Dawn just shifted until she sat cross-legged on one end of the table where she could see both of her older sisters. The youngest of the sisters turned to the eldest with a sudden frown.

"If Mom didn't want to say anything, why did you know?"

"I walked in at exactly the wrong moment during a discussion between her and Hank," Serenity grimaced. "He wasn't talking about Buffy, but he was making commentary on her having two different kids by two different men, neither of whom were her husband."

"Jerk."

Dawn's pronouncement startled both of her sisters into smiling. She grinned, apparently feeling proud of herself for summing up the man into a neat little package. The smug look on her face had their lips twitching, but when she started humming the song "So Good," her two sisters looked at each other and started to laugh.

The hour passed quickly after that as the three sisters talked through some of their concerns and worries over finding new family members and what it might mean to bring them into their world. They hated the idea of dragging others into the supernatural, but did they have a choice? If it came down to one person or the world?

"We made that choice a while ago," Buffy pointed out. "As soon as we decided we had to take over and recreate the Council."

"Doesn't mean I have to like it," Serenity sighed. Then she shook her head with a rueful smile. "I know."

Dawn glanced at the clock. "We better go." She wrinkled her nose. "And we can worry about it later when we know who we're going to be dealing with." Her sisters looked at her and she shrugged. "Maybe they're already involved with the freaky and the weird?"

"We can only hope."

The Scoobies reconvened in Giles' library to find him pouring over some parchment as Willow typed on a laptop. Tara smiled as they entered. "We've found some good lines of inquiry," the blonde witch informed them. "It'll still take some more time though."

"So, research?" Buffy raised her eyebrows at her Watcher. He nodded and she clapped her hands together. "Right then. Giles, Willow, and Tara – you guys do your thing and find or adapt a spell that will let us track down whoever it is we need to find. Try and focus it – I don't want to have to go weeding out every cousin to the nth degree."

"We should be able to build in some kind of…filter," Tara mused. "Or the other clues in the prophecy might help narrow it down as well."

"Point," the Slayer agreed. "Oz, you keep an eye on Giles and our witches, make sure they eat, sleep, et cetera, but at the same time, go back through the prophecy, this time seeing what type of hints there might be on locations." Oz leaned back in his chair, a contemplative look stealing over his face. Then Buffy turned to the others. "The rest of us will be handling the Council. Faith, you've got security and the field teams."

"On it." The brunette Slayer grinned at their magic users. "Good luck." Then she slipped from the room.

Buffy turned to their seer. "Cordelia-."

"The school," she sighed. "I'll make sure the munchkins and minis don't burn us out."

"Don't worry about Dawn's crew," Buffy continued, lips twitching in amusement. "Dawn will be joining them for research and Serenity can check in on them."

"I can?" Serenity gave the other an arch look.

"Yep," her sister confirmed with no sign of concern. "Because Xander is going to go check on the Watchers and get their recommendations for possible branch locations while I swing by the covens' ritual space for any information they have on potential hotspots. The three of us will meet back up in your office and compare notes."

Cordelia turned a commiserating look on Serenity. "Better you than me."

"Hey!" Dawn yelped. "We're not that bad!"

"Oh, no, of course not," Buffy rolled her eyes. "How many alternate universes have you lot been to now?"

"Come on, Dawn," Serenity broke in before the two of them could get started. "We need an update on their work anyway." She glanced back at the others. "Have fun."

The two sisters made their way down to the second floor, the elder ignoring the muttering coming from the younger. Maybe the younger generation of Scoobies were not as bad as teasing made them out to be, but they did tend to find themselves at the center of chaos more often than not. Not that anyone would expect anything different. Xander dubbed them the Scrappies for their ability to get into as much trouble as the Sunnydale crew ever managed – if not more.

Dawn, as the only Scooby of the bunch, ended up de facto leader.

Serenity glanced at her sister as the mumbled complaints died away. "Speaking of studies, how are yours going?"

"It's witchcraft," Dawn shrugged. "Separating myth and legend from truth is a pain in the ass."

"Such as?"

"Well, take the whole Hansel and Gretel story." The younger brunette moved her hands as she spoke, waving them at various moments for emphasis. "We all thought the Gingerbread demon Buffy faced in high school explained it, right?"

"Right."

"But apparently that's not quite the full of it," Dawn shook her head. "The demon may have taken the idea of creating the witch hunt hysteria from legends of real hunters. It looks like there actually were a brother and sister named Hansel and Gretel who dealt with a witch in an actual candy house when they were kids and then they grew up hunting witches. They were witch-hunting badasses from what I've found." She bounced a little as she got into her tale. "At first the tales are all about their hunts, but then they picked up a chronicler named Ben. He wrote about their history up until he met them and then began detailing their adventures like the Watchers with Slayers."

"Witch hunters?" Serenity frowned.

"Yeah," her sister nodded. "I know. I had the same reservations, but once they learned about the truth about their parents, the siblings only hunted evil witches – the ones who actively tried to hurt people or sow chaos."

"What truth about their parents?"

"Their father was human – normal grade human, but their mother was a grand white witch. An evil witch stirred up some locals and the town burned their mother at the stake." Dawn shivered. Serenity put a hand on her sister's shoulder, but remained quiet as the younger woman continued speaking. "She had the power to fight back, to save herself, but apparently the grand white witches took oath to never use magic to harm humans – even to save themselves. I wonder about the defense of others?" she mused before giving herself a shake. "They also hung the kids' father."

"But the kids had been taken into the woods to hide them?" Serenity guessed.

"Yep. Figure their dad planned to go back for them if he could convince his wife to hide." Dawn pursed her lips. "I wonder why they didn't all leave."

"An understanding of mob mentality." Dawn's eyebrows went up and Serenity shrugged. "The mother may have been afraid that the mob, cheated of its target, would pursue the family. Two children as young as Hansel and Gretel would have been? They wouldn't be able to go far or fast on their own without something distracting the mob's attention."

"How can people even do that?"

A heavy sigh escaped Serenity even as she tightened her grasp on her sister's shoulder. "Mobs tend to be single-minded and the whole mentality drive groups of people to do things the individual members would never dream of doing on their own – beatings, murders, lynchings. History is full of mob hysteria that later drove members of the mob into suicide or self-destructive behaviors because individual people tend to be sickened by what they did under that type of social madness."

"Yeah, I guess." Dawn rolled her eyes. "People are weird. Anyway, that's historical stuff. I'm also trying to research some prophecies that seem to be more real than others – or at least Cassie says they feel more legit."

"Such as?"

"A prophecy made in Salem in 1692," she replied. "We all know the trials killed two dozen innocent people, but they did manage to kill at least one real witch. A woman named Melinda Warren – she made the prophecy before they killed her." Dawn's voice took on a tone of recitation. "You may kill me, but you cannot kill my kind. I vow that each generation of Warren witches will grow stronger, culminating in the arrival of three sisters. These three sisters will be the most powerful witches the world has ever known. They will destroy all kinds of evil and shall be called the Charmed Ones." Excitement crawled back into her words. "From all accounts, these sisters will be major movers and shakers in the magical world."

"As powerful as Willow?"

"Maybe?" Dawn lifted her hands, spreading them in her uncertainty. "Willow's kind of a quirk, you know? She's a witch, but the Empowerment spell and the Scythe…they've tipped her to a minor Power, so…"

"I get it." Serenity nodded as her sister's voice trailed off. "We'll have to keep an eye out. What else have you been looking into?"

"Well, when we discovered Melinda, I wondered about other witches in the area." Dawn reached out to pull open the door to Scrappy Central, the place Dawn's group used for meetings and studying. "I found some journal entries about a group of families who moved away from Salem when the first accusations began to surface. They founded a town called New Salem on an island in Boston Harbor."

"Interesting choice of timing," Serenity noted as she nodded to the other teenagers in the room.

Katherine 'Kit' Holburn lifted her hand in a brief wave before going back to her typing, eyes glued to the screen of her laptop. The witch-in-training had been one of Dawn's first real friends at Sunnydale High, but her parents had fled to Los Angeles during that last chaotic year on the California Hellmouth. After they closed it, Dawn looked her up only to find the girls' parents had been killed by some demons in the city. Using Angel's connections in the city and the sympathy of officials for the refugees, the Scoobies managed to get custody. Giles held official responsibility for Kit, but she gravitated towards Oz and Willow. They mentored her, with Willow teaching her magic while Oz stood in as an older brother.

Another Sunnydale survivor, Carlos Trejo, sprawled in an armchair by the window, soaking up sun as he flipped the pages of an ancient book. The young psychic glanced up long enough to grin at the two by the door. His parents refused to listen to warnings and were killed in the collapse when the Hellmouth closed. Carlos had run away, hiding with the Scoobies and escaping with them as well. Serenity had not been happy with the situation, but what could she have said? He loved his parents, but he knew they were wrong and she could not blame him for taking the only escape route he possessed. Like the others, he still qualified as underage in the eyes of the law. Serenity, one of the few full psychics in the GSC, stood as his mentor and his legal guardian, though he often turned to Xander for support as well.

Cassandra 'Cassie' Newton rounded out the last of the Sunnydale refugees in the Scrappies. The young Seer had almost died on them the very first day they met her, but Buffy managed to save her from outside forces while Tara's healing magic kept her alive long enough for the emergency surgery to correct her heart problem. Cassie and her mother both joined the GSC, though her mother stayed in Los Angeles to play den mother to the Slayers assigned to the city. Cassie wanted to stay with her friends, so Giles accepted responsibility for the young woman while Cordelia took on the role of mentor.

He might not have come from Sunnydale, but Connor Angel slid into the shoes of a Scrappy like a puzzle piece locking into place. Being the son of vampires made Connor pretty much the male version of a Slayer and gave the Scrappies a physical powerhouse to balance out the abilities of the other members. The shock of his very existence strained relations between the Council and Angel's crew in Sunnydale, but they managed to overcome that after getting to know the troubled Connor. Spike – of all people – smoothed the troubled waters by approaching Giles about the kid's need for stability and a place he could learn to fit into the world without the burden of guilt hanging over his father. He gravitated towards both Tara and Buffy, depending on Tara's mothering instinct as much as he appreciated Buffy's understanding of the burden of destiny.

"Hello, everyone." Serenity closed the door behind her. She moved over to perch on the arm of Connor's chair, ruffling his hair with an affectionate smile. Dawn went to pull Kit into the group as they circled to focus on their visitor. "I'm here for an update."

"You're early," Kit huffed. "We're supposed to have a few more hours to put stuff together."

Dawn sighed. "There's a prophecy." Her four friends reacted, each according to their nature, but exasperation seemed to be the most common denominator. She shrugged. "A least it's not Tuesday."

"So it's not us," Carlos nodded. "Good – I'm still trying to find those glass frogs."

"I'm not hearing this," Serenity told him. "If those things find Willow, you're on your own." The others laughed as he pouted at her. She shook her head and glanced around. "I know you expected to have a little more time, but I'm not expecting a full report. Just give me the basics."

Everyone looked at Dawn, but she gave them a smug grin. "I gave her mine on the way here," she informed them. "Kit's up."

"You suck." Kit stuck her tongue out at her best friend before shrugging. "I've been working on Egypt this month, the oldest legends and stories I could find in the Watcher histories." She wrinkled her nose. "Can I just say how much the rest of the world only thinks it knows? Some of this stuff isn't even a whisper of a story in the mainstream textbooks."

"It probably used to be history," Cassie pointed out. "Then life moved on and it fell behind until they no longer thought it important. Then new people came and the old became lost in half remembered stories and old legends."

"I guess," Kit sighed. "Still…" She shook her head. "Anyway, going into some of the old journals, there are references to something called the Chappa'ai – a gate of some kind, I think. It talks about the gods using them to journey from the heavens to the world, taking their chosen peoples to serve them in the stars. This lasted for thousands of years until the people decided enough was enough and rebelled."

"Oh, yeah?" Connor tilted his head. "A gate to a demon dimension?"

"Got me." Kit turned over a page and showed them some sketches. "But these kind of look like constellations, don't they?"

Serenity pursed her lips. "Which gods were these?"

"Ra is the one they mentioned most," Kit replied. "It says they drove his forces back through the Chappa'ai and then buried it."

"Cause that always works," Carlos muttered.

"This time it seemed to have worked," she pointed out. "A lot of people died, including three Slayers, but they managed it. They put a cover stone over the thing with a warning. The Watcher's sketching ability is not great, but he included the hieroglyphics." Kit pointed at Dawn. "I had the language queen there do the actual translation."

"It's not the most poetic I've ever read," Dawn nodded, "but it said something like: A million years into the sky is Ra, sun god, sealed and buried for all time his door to the stars."

"And then they buried it under the sand?" Serenity prompted.

"Yeah," Kit confirmed. "And they were kind of paranoid about it. Most of their stuff for the gods and pharaohs they left in Hamunaptra, under the watch of the Medjai, but in this time they moved it to Giza. The Watcher's unclear on why, but…"

Dawn leaned back in her chair and folded her arms over her chest. "Imhotep."

"That's my bet." Kit tilted her head. "You're talking about having it under the guardianship of Egypt's sacred warriors and they moved it. If there's an actual gate that someone can use to go places or send people places, who the heck would want a reanimated mummy getting a hold of it? He caused enough trouble as it was."

Connor shook his head. "Yay for the O'Connell's and Carnahan's, huh?"

"No freaking kidding!" the two young women chorused.

"More to the point at this moment," Serenity interjected, lifting an eyebrow at Kit. "Given the ongoing archeological digs in Giza since basically forever, is the Chappa'ai still buried?"

"That…gets a little stickier," Kit admitted. "So much has been looted and displayed and whatever that it's hard to track everything, but there are some reports from the late 20's about a 'Doorway to Heaven' being found. This was just after the Imhotep disaster though and the Medjai and the Watchers had a heck of a time dealing with the fallout from the plagues in Cairo."

"They lost it." Carlos arched a brow. "Dangerous enough for the ancient Egyptians to actually remember it and move it generations later, given their traditions? That's not good."

"So we have to presume someone has it," Serenity agreed. She pursed her lips. "I'll add that to the list of things to watch for. Hopefully no one's figured out how to use it." Her mouth quirked to one side. "With any luck its sitting in some small museum or library or school somewhere gathering dust as an intellectual curiosity."

Dawn gave her a sideways look. "Are we betting on that?"

"No," Serenity confessed, "but we can hope the opening waits a bit longer." Then she shook her head. "Okay, Cassie, you're next."

"I'm on the Hunter network," the blonde Seer replied. "There's a pretty informal one already out there, but these guys have no real oversight or backup except each other – and they're a suspicious group. Most of them end up in the lifestyle after some kind of supernatural tragedy, so it's not too surprising, but it means they end up turning criminal."

"Not good," Dawn grimaced. "Doing that too long and with no support system…"

"A lot of them go rogue," Cassie nodded, "and start hunting anything supernatural – good, bad, and neutral. They don't differentiate. Of the better ones, I've managed to come up with a tenuous line of contacts – a church in Minnesota, a salvage yard in South Dakota, and a saloon in Nebraska." She wrinkled her nose. "There should be something in Kansas, but I haven't found it yet."

"Should be?" Connor repeated.

"Yes." Her gaze, too serious for her young face, turned to Serenity. "There should be something in Kansas and it will involve you and the Hunters you seek."

Kit frowned at Serenity. "Why are you looking for Hunters?"

"Cordelia's newest prophecy," she replied. "Dawn will fill you in later." She looked back to Cassie. "Keep doing your thing," she instructed. "Work with some of the others, especially our own Hunters to come up with a business plan. If we can get a process of vetting and support in place, we might be able to start weeding out the wild cards." Cassie nodded and Serenity pointed at Carlos. "What have you got?"

"Remember those partners we met in Hawaii?" he asked.

"I remember Hawaii," Cassie smiled.

"Steve and Danny?" Serenity nodded, smiling as the rest of the group rolled their eyes at the blonde.

"She remembers a couple of the good looking locals," Dawn muttered, only to fall silent when her sister arched a brow in her direction. Cassie ignored her.

"Yeah," Carlos nodded, "those two. Giles asked me to look into the situation – McGarrett with all those enhanced senses and how he'd get so zoned that only Williams could get his attention? So I did some research and there's been legends around the world about people with senses like his – especially when you get back to the tribal type lifestyle. People would have those enhanced senses and they'd become the protectors of the tribe, but they needed a balance, someone to play shaman to their warrior."

"Makes sense," Connor pointed out. Everyone looked at him and he shrugged. "Didn't you ever wonder how one Slayer kept the whole human race safe? It's not like she could be everywhere – and before the plane, how'd she get from one hot spot to another?"

"Generally she never outlived her one main fight," Dawn pointed out. The flicker of an old fear darted through her eyes. "With the exception of a handful of Slayers, no one's ever gone from one hot spot to another until Buffy and Faith."

"Yeah, okay, but what about uprisings happening while an apocalypse is going on?" He folded his arms over his chest. "The Council was dealing with an apocalypse when everything went haywire in LA, remember?"

"Point," Serenity agreed. "So these…warriors filled part of the breach?"

"Maybe," Carlos shrugged. "Anyway, I found a book by a guy named Burton talking about Sentinels and their partners. He didn't focus too much on the partner, but his description of Sentinels sure seemed to fit McGarrett."

"Is it something the Council should worry about?" she probed.

He lifted a hand and rocked it back and forth. "Maybe?" His eyes darted to Cassie and then back to Serenity. "Cassie thinks it's important, so I figure we'll be needing it sooner or later."

"Good enough," Serenity agreed. "What are the big points in your search so far?"

"They're territorial as hell." Carlos spread his hands. "And they're fanatics when it comes to the safety of their partner." His eyebrows rose. "That goes both ways, by the way. Warrior and shaman, if Burton's stories are true, they'll go over, around, or through anyone who gets between them."

She blinked and then nodded. "Okay, let's make note of that." Her voice turned wry. "After everything and anything else, I'd hate for someone to get hurt for something as simple as forgetting to leave an open path between partners."

"We should probably start tracking them somehow," Dawn mused. Everyone turned to her and she grimaced. "I don't mean in a Big Brother kind of way, but noting down the city or cities involved so we can make sure our people know when they're entering someone's territory. If a place actually has a defender, it'd be kind of stupid not to work with her…or him…whatever."

"And dangerous to run afoul of said protector," Kit pointed out.

"Another good point," Serenity nodded. "Carlos?"

"I can add it in," he agreed.

"We can send out the information once you've got a full report," she continued. "Make sure to include a summary of signs to watch for so our field units can keep their eyes open." He gave her a thumbs up and she turned to Connor. "And what about you?" she asked, ruffling his hair again. He gave her a look, but she noticed he never pulled away from her hand. Even with her empathic abilities, Connor remained difficult to read, but he seemed to hunger for simple, normal affection.

"Weres," he replied. "Wolves, coyotes, whatever – there are way too many legends for our wolves to be the only kinds." He settled himself deeper into the chair – and closer to her. "Oz and the others are kind of the classic horror werewolves, but there are some that are genetic who can shift at will while others are purely full moon creatures."

A contemplative look filled her eyes. "I take it the genetic weres have full control of their forms?"

"Yeah, if they hold onto it." Connor lifted one shoulder in an offhand shrug. "Some live closer to their human side, some closer to their animal. If they go animal, they're damn dangerous though – they don't have the same fear of man that most animals do."

Dawn gave a soft snort. "So potentially worse than the cliché?"

He pointed at her.

"All right." Serenity stared into space for a moment, letting her mind sift the information. "Anything we should be worried about right now?"

"Some weird rumors coming out of a place called Beacon Hills." His eyes narrowed. "There's been an upswing in odd animal attacks, but with some of the weirdness in LA and trying to find the energy source in San Francisco, no one's had a chance to go look."

"Add it to the list," she sighed. Sometimes she wondered how the old Council had managed…and then she remembered. They had managed all right – badly. "Anything else?"

The group shook their heads, but then Cassie straightened and her gaze went a bit vague. Everyone waited for the Seer to come back to them, shifting to readiness…just in case. Then she blinked and gave herself a small shake. A pleased smile curved her lips as she looked up at Serenity. "We're going to be called out soon…and two new Scrappies will be coming home."

"Really?" Dawn grinned. "Fantastic!"

"Scrappies for the win!" Kit echoed her friend's enthusiasm.

Carlos exchanged a quick look with Connor before turning to Cassie. "One's a guy, right?"

"Chickens," Dawn taunted as Kit rolled her eyes.

"Hey!" Connor scowled. "We're already outnumbered!"

"A scared songbird who hides behind a determined optimism and her one-time enemy, now protector," Cassie replied. "Witch and Hunter – outsider and rebel; they need somewhere safe to call home."

"That's us." Kit gave a firm nod, drawing similar ones from her friends. "They belong with us."

"Figure out how you're going to make space for them," Serenity advised. "I'll take your preliminary reports to Buffy and Xander…plus warn them about the newcomers."

Connor gave her a rare grin. "Warn?"

"Every last one of you should come with a warning label," she replied with a warm smile.

With that final commentary, Serenity left the Scrappies to their planning and headed off to meet the others at her office. She arrived first and began to make quick notes on the information she had gathered from the younger set. No alarm bells started ringing, but she could feel that small itch between her shoulder blades, the one every Scooby got when little hints began to coalesce into a bigger picture. Power seemed to be moving, and while the image remained blurry, she knew something hovered on their horizon.

"What have we got?" Buffy asked as she walked in, leading Xander through the door.

"Rio, Accra, Johannesburg, Santiago, and Vancouver," he replied as he closed the door. "That's where the Watchers want to open our next branches, but particularly in Vancouver. Something about the west coast is pinging all their radars and since we've got Los Angeles covered, they want something in the north."

"Well that's interesting," Buffy commented, her eyebrows going up. "The Witches are still getting that odd energy blip from San Francisco, but they're also starting to pick up some spikes in Portland as well."

"Connor's found reports showing an upswing in odd animal attacks in a place called Beacon Hills," Serenity added as she watched the others take their seats. "It's a small town not too far from San Francisco as the crow flies, but probably far enough not to have captured any attention from our field teams."

Buffy gave a slow nod, taking in the information. Her eyes flickered over to Xander. "How are the newest offices doing?"

"New Delhi and Sydney are good," he informed them. "Moscow and Jerusalem are still finding their place, but they're managing." He leaned back in the chair. "London has managed to clear up some of the legal tangles and they've got a group of the old guard playing diplomat with the rest of the old bunch in Europe. So far so good."

"Tokyo?"

"They've located a new Potential in Sapporo and her parents have agreed to move so she can be trained." A smile curved his mouth. "According to Haru, they can't decide if they're proud, scared, or angry at her Calling."

"All of the above," Serenity chuckled. "If they aren't now, they will be."

"At least she won't ever be alone," Buffy pointed out. "She's not like me."

"And none of them ever will be."

The three of them exchanged long looks, heavy with understanding and history. One of the chief goals of the Global Security Council centered on making sure every fighter – Slayer, Witch, or Hunter – never faced the darkness alone. Knowing the history of the Slayer, each of the Scoobies had sworn an oath to do everything in their power to make sure that kind of isolationism would never again be a part of a champion's burden.

Serenity's phone chimed. "Yes?"

"We have a new series of energy spikes in Ohio," came the report. "High enough to warrant attention – and it looks like a poltergeist."

"We're on our way," she replied before hanging up. Her eyes swung from Buffy to Xander and back. "Ohio's pinging on the radar."

Buffy lifted a skeptical eyebrow. "Ohio?"

"Who would have thought 'Cleveland' for a Hellmouth?" Xander pointed out, his one eye staring up at the ceiling with studied innocence.

"Yeah, yeah" the blonde sighed. "We better go see."

They left the office and Serenity paused to lock the door, more out of habit than anything else. "It won't be Cleveland," she pointed out. "We'd have heard from the Slayers there."

"So this is a whole new thing," Buffy grimaced. "Yay?"

Xander chuckled. "Once more into the breach…"