Title: Heart of Darkness
Disclaimer: I own absolutely nothing. If I had, both series would've been at least headed in this direction.
Genre: Supernatural/Drama
Rating: M, for later chapters
Pairings: Bangel, Spaith, Fresley, Connor/Dawn, Xander/Cordelia (kinda), OC/OC (5 of them)
A/N: Okay, so I've been working on this story since November of 2013. 2013! The plot's changed several times (and gotten ALOT better), I've changed character names, written and rewritten chapters, gotten a little side tracked *cough* not writing in order, even within the same story *cough*, and I have to admit after investing so much time into it, I'm actually kinda scared to release it. I want people to like it. I want people to fall in love with my original characters like I have. I will put them through hell, yes, but what story doesn't have good drama, especially when it comes to shows in the Whedonverse? Hello, pain is a given. But I promise that they're all eventually going to be happy. And by eventually I mean several stories from now. And when I say several stories, I have about 8 lined up at the moment *wince*. I don't think that'll change, and everything will come full circle. The characters will grow and learn from all their experiences/mistakes because let's face it, no one's perfect. I hope you guys like it :)
A/N 2: I'd also like to go ahead and say that while this is set in the Buffyverse, it does have some themes, scenes, and plot points from TVD. Some of my OC's are based off of characters in TVD, but that's about it. Most of my inspiration did come from TVD, and that's what's in the story(s). I wouldn't exactly call it a crossover, though, considering that the TVD universe in my story doesn't exist.
A/N 3: I know this is getting long, but I did have some specific people I was basing my OC's appearances off of. So, basically, if I could actually make this into a tv show and cast actors... these are who I'd want. Katherine O'Connor: Nina Dobrev (as Katherine from TVd). Elena O'Connor: Nina Dobrev (as Elena from TVD). Bonnie O'Connor: Nicola Peltz. Liam O'Connor: Xavier Samuel. Damon Pratt: Ian Somerhalder. Alaric Pratt: Alex Pettyfer. Kylie Pratt: Adelaide Kane. Ariel Osbourne: Lily Collins. Daphne Wyndham-Pryce: Zoey Deutch. Peter Wyndham-Pryce: Henry Cavill. Celeste Riley: AnnaSopha Robb. Alex Harris: Daniel Samonas.
A/N 4: Yeah, all my chapters with be at least 10k words or more. This one was on the longer side because of all the content I had to smush into one chapter. Introducing 12 original characters is a lot of work! Lol. Anyways, here's the story... I really hope you guys like it.
Remember the day
'Cause this is what dreams should always be
I just want to stay
I just want to keep this dream in me
You're losing your memory now
You're losing your memory now
You're losing your memory now
You're losing your memory
Wake up, it's time, little girl, wake up
All the best of what we've done is yet to come
Wake up, it's time, little girl, wake up
Just remember who I am in the morning
You're losing your memory now
You're losing your memory now
You're losing your memory now
You're losing your memory
Losing Your Memory / Ryan Star
15 years after NFA...
Flashback:
French Quarter, New Orleans - 11:45 pm
"Two packs of Marlboro and a Budweiser... will that be all?" The pimply twenty something year old asked the dark haired, blue eyed 15 year old Damon Pratt at the checkout counter of the small gas station in the din of the Quarter. The boy nodded, smoothly pulling out his fake ID and handing it to the cashier before he could even ask. As the cashier rang up his purchase, he glanced backwards, down one of the isles, seeing a large man dressed in a black hoodie and black sweats, the hood pulled up, looking back at him.
He felt some foreboding feeling come over him, but he shook it off, instead turning his attention back to the cashier as he finished paying and then walked over to the cluster of newspapers and magazines, picking up one and flipping through it absently. "Don't move!" He glanced over his shoulder, freezing when he saw the man from before pointing a gun at the cashier. "Empty it out." The man motioned to the register with his gun.
With shaky hands, the cashier did what he asked, handing the gunman what looked to be no more than twenty dollars. Absently, the boy inwardly shook his head at the man. Anyone and everyone knew how much of a dive this place was. Only people from the wrong side of town - excluding him - came here. This place wasn't worth shit - and didn't make much, either.
The hooded man scowled, obviously thinking that the cashier was scamming him. The pimply guy held up his hands in surrender, seeing the look on the other man's face. "That's all of it, I swear!" Taking this as an acceptable answer, the man then turned and shot out the security camera, before pointing the gun back at the cashier, who now wore a look of absolute terror on his acne ridden face.
It was then Damon knew that the gunman wasn't going to let either of them live - not after seeing his face. He looked around frantically, the sound of the cashier's pleas coming from behind him, trying to find something - anything - to use as a weapon, but found nothing. As the man continued to argue with the cashier who was pleading for his life, Damon quietly snuck up behind the man who towered over him by nearly half a foot. He didn't know what made him want to play the hero instead of doing the smart, self preserving thing and attempting to make a run for it, but his gut was telling him to save the guy behind the register.
The gunman was so focused on trying to weasel more money, as if there was any left, that he didn't even know Damon was behind him until the 15 year old had jumped him, using one arm to try and choke him while the other struggled to dislodge the gun from the man's hand. The man's shock worked in his favor as the his legs gave out, sending them both crashing to the ground. The gun clattered to the cheap fake-tiled floor of the convenience store, and Damon winced as his head impacted with a loud crack against the ground after rolling away from the man a few feet.
He shook his head, trying to clear his now swimming vision so that he could reach the gun first. He managed to shakily push himself up off the floor, smelling and feeling the warmth of his blood gushing down his face from an open wound on his scalp. As soon as he took his first step, he realized too late that the gunmen already had said weapon in his hands, pointed a he heard before his vision went black was the sound of two shots being fired coupled with an agonizing pain ignited in his chest. Damon's body collapsed back to the floor, blood flowing in copious amounts from both his head and chest as his heart stuttered once, twice, and then fell silent.
3 years later
December 13, 2022
Bremen, Georgia - 6:00 pm
"Dad? Have you seen my ribbon?" Katherine yelled, digging through the drawers in her dresser, trying to find the last piece to her cheerleading uniform. She had it when she cheered at the game last friday night, where the hell had she put it? "What ribbon?" Angel yelled back, no doubt putting on his suit, getting dressed for work in her parents room down the hall from hers. He usually worked during the day, but this week he'd been investigating a homicide that had required him to work at night, only allowing him downtime from lunch until right after dinner. She sighed and almost rolled her eyes. "The one that I always wear with my uniform?" She shouted back.
She heard footsteps coming down the hall then, before he poked his head into her room. "Nope, sorry." He apologized, and instantly she felt bad for giving him attitude. She smiled at him softly and he smiled back in kind. They had always had a special relationship, could understand each other on a level that neither Elena, Liam, or Bonnie ever could. She'd been "daddy's little girl" her entire life. Whenever he'd go fishing, hunting, to the shooting range, or anything really, she'd always begged to tag along, and he'd let her. She was the tomboy between she, Elena, and Bonnie, and though Liam enjoyed all of those things too, she'd been doing them with Angel longer than he had.
She made a face, one that scrunched up her nose in an adorable way that her dad had always told her reminded him of her mother. "Thanks anyways." She said, beginning to pull her long, chocolate colored curly hair up into a ponytail, securing it with a hair tie. "You're welcome." Angel said, walking over to her and planting a kiss on her forehead. "Skirt's too short." He murmured against her temple. "Dad, it's a cheerleading uniform, not a business outfit." She whined. He pulled away, giving her a teasing smile. "And that top... pull it down." She groaned, but knew he was only messing with her. She had to admit, though... The top showed off more of her stomach than even she was comfortable with, and she was pretty toned and thin. "What do you want me to do? Dress in petticoats, corsets, and never show my ankles?" She teased back. "We're in the 21st century here. I swear, sometimes I feel like you were born in a different century." Which, technically he had, but not one that would see her current attire as being scandalous.
She didn't miss the sudden look of discomfort that he quickly masked, she'd clearly struck a nerve. "You know I'm just kidding, right?" She asked him, offering the thinly veiled apology. "I know." He smiled back slightly before changing the topic. "I better go and start dinner before your mom gets any bright ideas." She smiled back at him. "Please do. Last time you were out of town, she tried to make a grilled cheese... almost burned the house down." She whispered the last part conspiratorially, glancing around him into the hall to make sure her mother wasn't there. "But don't tell her I told you... she swore me to secrecy." He laughed. "Don't worry, you won't hear anything from me." He reassured her, backing out of her room. "Dinner's in twenty minutes, get Elena, Liam, and Bonnie before you come downstairs please." She mock saluted him. "Sir yes sir."
He smiled at her one last time before turning and walking down the stairs. She turned back to her room, trying to remember where she'd put the offending scrap of fabric. The football game tonight was the first round of the state playoffs at home, and she was the team captain, first freshman, beginning last year, ever to hold the position at McGillivray High. What kind of captain would she be if she didn't have her ribbon? She smiled and shook her head. It wasn't a big deal at all in the grand scheme of things, but some girls on her squad would be more than a little upset, which was silly... it was just a ribbon for crying out loud.
There were more important things to worry about, though a majority of the girls were living in their own little high school bubble, where all that mattered was who they were going on a date with or how to get in with the popular crowd. It was sickening, even though she was one of the most popular girls in school. How, she had no idea. From the day she set foot in the building a year and a half ago, everyone had jockeyed for Katherine O'Connor's friendship. While popularity had it's perks, like sitting at the best table at lunch and actually having enough room to walk in the halls without getting run over, it was also extremely lonely. A large group of kids, ranging from freshman to seniors, always followed her around and laughed at all of her jokes and listened to her talk.
A regular teenage girl would eat up the attention, and while she masked it well, she could be surrounded by all those people and feel entirely alone. It wasn't that she hadn't tried to shake all of those people and be the loner she always inwardly felt like, she had, but they never left her alone, no matter how hard she tried. She'd never told anyone how she felt. Her mother assumed that she was exactly like she was when she was a cheerleader, worried about boys and shopping, though the shopping part was slightly toned down compared to that of her mother's. Her dad was the same way.
She knew that something had happened to her mother during her sophomore year that had completely changed her outlook. She'd moved from LA to a small southern California coastal town that she'd never been told the name of, and befriended her Aunt Willow, Uncle Oz and Uncle Xander, whom she had met on several occasions throughout the years. It was also where she'd met her dad and started their 'Romeo and Juliet-esque relationship' as some of their friends liked to put it. She knew that the only reason her dad was willing to believe that she enjoyed her popularity was because it reminded him of her mother, Buffy, when they'd first met some 25 or so years ago.
She just so happened to glance up at her mirror then, seeing her ribbon tied to one of the hooks just to the right of it. "Wow, I'm blind." She muttered annoyedly, untying it from the hook and retying it around her hair, studying herself in the mirror for a few seconds before deciding that this was as good as it was gonna get. She closed the door to her room and walked down the stairs, toward the kitchen, but stopped in the living room, staring at a picture taken of her and her parents only a few weeks back, already framed. She smiled, picking up the framed image for a moment. The sound of her mother coming down the stairs broke her out of her reverie.
"Alright, Will. Tell me when you've located them, okay?" Her mother and Aunt Willow were talking about work, probably about some girls that her Aunt had recruited for the fancy boarding school they jointly ran for "Exceptional and Talented Young Women" or whatnot. She'd never really asked, mostly because whenever she had in the past, her mother had been very vague.
She set down the picture and turned, wanting to beat her mother to the kitchen. "Relax Will, you've done this, what, at least a thousand times in the past 19 years or so? It's just taking a little longer than last time, it'll work." She reassured. Just then, Liam and Elena came trudging down the stairs right behind her mother, Liam in his football jersey, and Elena in her cheerleading uniform, identical to Katherine's, her straight chocolate hair pulled up in a ponytail as well. "Coach said he wants us at the field early for some pep talk or something." Liam said, his dark golden blonde head turned down, still scrolling through his phone. Even though he was only a freshman, Liam was already the high school quarterback. He should be on second or even third string, but the coach, Coach Williamson, had watched him practice all summer and had decided to make him the new quarterback.
And, it didn't hurt that he was already six foot and could easily see over the line of scrimmage.
So far, he had led the McGillivray High Timberwolves in an undefeated season, rousing the hope that they'd finally win a State title. In their small town of Bremen, Georgia, there was little else to do besides going to football games on a friday night, at least, for the adults that is. The teens in the town were a little more lively. Most were the typical southerners that wore cowboy boots, drove huge pickup trucks, and had a good time by having a bonfire in one of their fields and jamming out to some country music while they drank beer out of red solo cups and socialized, which, even she had to admit, was fun.
Elena motioned to her. "Come on, Kat. It wouldn't hurt for us to be early and Liam said that Jen was going to drive us." Jennifer Mason. Liam's junior girlfriend who was so shallow that, if she were a pool, the water wouldn't even reach your ankles. Katherine saw right through the girl's seemingly cute and innocent facade.
She was only dating her little brother so she could benefit from the popularity of dating the quarterback, and it didn't hurt that his older sisters were the most desired and popular girls in their school. While Katherine had her own posse following her around, Elena had a different one, and, unlike Katherine, she actually kind of relished the attention. Katherine saw Buffy frown. "What about dinner?" She asked. "We have to leave, mom. Coach's orders." Liam insisted, but Katherine knew he felt bad for missing their nightly family dinner. While other kids sought any and every excuse not to spend time with their parents, the O'Connor children tried to spend as much time with Buffy and Angel as they could.
"Alright, fine." She said before calling to their father. Angel came walking through the door that led to the kitchen with a small towel thrown over his shoulder, followed closely by Katherine, Elena, and Liam's 13 year old younger sister, Bonnie, who was practically a carbon copy of their mother, from her stature, to her bright green eyes and golden colored waves. "The coach said that they need to be there early, meaning they're going to miss dinner." She told him with a pout, that was soon matched by one of Bonnie's.
"But I'm going to be gone all weekend! I won't get to see you guys 'til Sunday night!" Bonnie said with a frown. Katherine walked up to her younger sister and touched her cheek. "You're not coming to the game?" Bonnie shook her head. "Mom and Dad are gonna drop me off at Michelle's before, and then we're gonna go catch a movie." Katherine patted it, giving the tiny blonde a wink. "You won't miss much, trust me." She jerked her finger in Liam's direction. "He'll make quick work of those horned frogs." It was Buffy's turn to retort. "But Fridays are our family night! It's a ritual that can't be broken!" She pouted again, this time directing it at their dad.
They all knew that Buffy's pout was their dad's kryptonite. He leaned over and kissed her forehead. "We'll just have to make up for it on Sunday." He told her, and she nodded reluctantly in agreement. They turned back to the four of them. "We'll be there for the game, and I think your Grandpa will be with us." She said, smiling as all of their faces lit up, except for Bonnie, who frowned again. Not only was she missing the game and family night, she was also missing their grandpa too?
"Grandpa Giles is coming?" The three said together excitedly, as Bonnie crossed her arms over her chest. They all loved Giles, and even though they all knew he wasn't their mother's real father, they loved him like he was. He was the only grandparent that they had. The only living one related by blood was their mom's dad, but she hadn't seen or heard from him since high school. "He wanted to see you, and I thought it'd be great for him to see you guys in action." Her mom said. "When does he get here?" Elena asked. Buffy looked down and checked her watch. "In about 30 minutes or so. Your dad and I were going to go pick him up at the airport after dropping Bon off and then drive to the game. Your dad doesn't have to be at work until 10:30 anyways." They all smiled, excited.
Liam checked the time on his phone, paling when he realized just how late they were. "Crap. We need to go. Coach'll make me death crawl down the field carrying Danny if I'm late." He said, quickly kissing Buffy goodbye, then giving Bonnie a nuggy before rushing out the door. Elena and Katherine laughed at him before kissing each of their parents, and then their tiny blonde little sister on the cheeks. "Love you." They called, walking out the door. The twins walked out, only to see Liam sitting in the driver's seat of his future truck, seeing as he was only 14. Katherine looked at him with a raised brow. "I thought Jen was coming to get us." She said, crossing her arms across her chest.
She was only 15, meaning that none of them had their licenses yet. He flashed her a smile. "I lied. Now hop in, we need to get to school ASAP." He said. She rolled her eyes at him, but got into the front seat. Elena grumbled about always having to sit in the back as she slid into her seat. It wasn't like Liam was a bad driver, he wasn't, but she was just slightly worried that they'd get caught, if not by the cops then definitely by their parents. After he'd backed out of the driveway, he smiled at his two older sisters mischievously. "Hold on." he laughed as he gunned it.
3 years ago
French Quarter, New Orleans - 2:30 am
Damon blearily came to in his bed, confused as to why he was there. The last thing he remembered was being shot by the man trying to rob the gas station. Had it all been a dream? His hand came down to his chest, not finding even a whisper of blood, making him relax. It had been just a dream. He sighed in relief, before his hands came up to massage his temples, for the first time noticing the killer migraine he had, coupled with how his body ached all over, including his gums.
"Rise and shine, sleeping beauty." Faith quipped as she let herself and Spike into his room, and he could sense the nervousness coming off them in waves. He groaned before trying to stand, only succeeding in almost collapsing to the floor when his legs refused to support his weight. Spike caught him and helped him back into bed, wincing as he groaned when his body screamed in pain.
"I must've gotten totally wasted last night." He mumbled, which would explain the rather graphic dream, body aches, and migraine, though the pain was greater than any he had ever felt before. Faith and Spike shared a look before they both sighed. "What do you know about vampires?"
3 years ago
French Quarter, New Orleans - Nearly 3 days later
"Wes, he's dying. He's wasting away... How can I tell? Well, his skin's all gray-like, he can barely move, he has no energy, and it looks like he's lost a helluva lot of weight." Spike said into his cellphone as he watched his now sleeping oldest son lying in bed. He hadn't moved in nearly a day, said the pain had been too much to handle. He hadn't eaten anything either - hadn't been able to. He'd tried several times, but he'd never been able to force even a bite down his throat, telling them both that it all tasted like garbage.
"I'm telling you, the only explanation is that he's somehow woken up his vampire genes, Spike. But I can't explain why his condition is deteriorating rapidly, neither can Fred. His body is shutting down at an alarming rate and we haven't been able to figure out a way to stop it."
"He can't even eat and keeps telling us that everything's so loud and that he hurts all over... Wes, we can't lose him. Faith's putting on a brave face right now, but if anything happens to him... I know it won't be pretty. I've never seen her so worried or upset." He said, wincing when Damon jostled slightly, rolling over and coughing, almost like he was gagging. "I'll see what I can dig up, Spike. Fred and I have be combing through manuscripts ever since you called, but we haven't been able to find anything."
There was a sudden knock on the door and then Faith walked in with a determined expression on her face. "I have an idea... But it's really on the crazy side." Spike quickly hung up with Wes and was at her side in moments. "What, luv?"
"What if... he's part vamp, right? We all know the signs, all of the perks. What if he just needs blood? All vamps need blood." Spike thought it over, realizing that she was right. It made sense. When vampires went without blood for extended periods of time, their bodies tended to shut down much like their son's had, though it was a much more prolonged process which usually spanned decades of agony. It was worth a shot. "You're a genius, baby!" He said, kissing her forehead before racing down the stairs.
"Well, never heard that one before..." She trailed off as Spike came back into the room brandishing a knife in his hand. "Babe..." Faith began. He shook his head, sitting next to Damon on the bed, which caused their dark haired son to wince as the bed dipped. "There's no time!" He took the knife and cut into his wrist, deep enough to where the blood ran freely, but not too deep as to be life threatening.
Faith held Damon's mouth open as Spike held his wrist to it, letting the blood flow down their son's throat. Almost immediately they saw a change. His skin returned to it's normal pale pallor, his cheeks filled back in, and color returned to them. After a few more swallows, Spike withdrew his wrist, watching as Damon's eyes opened, wonder clear in them.
All of the pain was gone. He felt stronger than he ever had been. Everything was brighter, more colorful, and his eyes widened like he was seeing for the first time. He could pick out every little detail - see every little fiber in his comforter, every grain and minute indention in the wall on the far side of his room, even dust mites as they floated in the air in the sunlight streaming from his window.
Curiously, he stood and walked over to them, his muscles bunching and flexing with each step, relishing in the movements they'd been deprived of. He reached out a hand into the sunlight, only to yelp and pull his smoking hand back that had the first few layers of skin burned off. Spike was about to go grab a bowl of cool water, knowing the feeling of singed flesh all too well, when the skin knitted itself together instantaneously, generating fresh, blemish free skin, like the sun hadn't even touched it. His parents' eyes met before Faith muttered. "There goes the neighborhood."
Present Day
Bremen, Georgia - 6:30 pm
Thirty minutes later, and they were stuck in traffic... still. Elena had leaned her head back on her headrest, nearly asleep. Katherine had her arm propped up on the door near the window, looking out at the scenery with a bored expression on her face as her head leaned on her hand. Liam had one hand on the steering wheel and the other holding his head much like Katherine's was. Suddenly, Katherine heard him growl. "That's it." He quickly pulled around the traffic, cutting across the grass and turned onto an empty narrow road that led back into the woods. The small shortcut was only known by a few, mostly the football and cheer teams, and was used to bypass traffic on friday nights.
Katherine's phone rang and she dug it out of her pocket to answer. Elena groaned at the incessant ringing noise interrupting her power nap. "Hello?" Katherine asked. "Hey sweetie." She heard her mother reply, making Katherine wince. "Hey mom, you guys picked up Grandpa yet?" She asked. "Yeah, we're on our way... I saw that Liam's car was missing from the driveway." She said, and Katherine gulped. "Uh, yeah... About that." She laughed nervously. "It wasn't my idea, I swear!" Liam scowled at her. "Sure, throw me under the bus why don't ya?" Buffy sighed, clearly not happy at the moment, and irritated that Katherine and Liam were fighting. Elena was still asleep in the backseat . "Well, as long as you three are being careful." She said, making Katherine relax. "Are you guys even at the football field yet?"
Katherine shook her head. "Not yet. Traffic was terrible so Lee decided to take the shortcut. We're just about to go over Oglethorpe bridge." She told Buffy as they came around the turn, the bridge looming ahead. Oglethorpe bridge had been named after the infamous founder of Georgia. Under the bridge flowed a small river, which during the summer was a popular hang out spot for parties and the like. "Alright, honey. Please be careful." She told her, making Katherine smile. "We will." She said, looking up at the road just as they drove onto the bridge. Liam had his eyes closed, yawning, not seeing the deer that was standing in the middle of the lane.
Katherine saw it and screamed at him. "Liam, look out!" She yelled, getting him to notice the deer only seconds before they would've hit it. On instinct, he swerved, missing the deer, but hitting the concrete barrier that had been erected on either side of the bridge to act as guard rails. Instead of stopping the car, like the wall had been designed to, it acted as a launching pad. The wheels of the car hit the wall, propelling it up and over the guardrail and into the river below. They all screamed as they hit the water, their heads snapping backwards at the impact.
Present Day
French Quarter, New Orleans - Same Time
She blinked back tears of anger as she wandered the streets of the French Quarter, dodging through the large crowds filling the streets for Carillon Eve - a celebration held in the Quarter where the locals shrouded the eyes of angels all over the city so the dead could walk among the living for one night without judgement. She maneuvered through the sea of vibrant red and pristine white, ignoring the somewhat annoying sound of bells that some carried with them.
She had to admit, this wasn't the best place to go to try and get away from everything that'd happened at her house that night, but it served it's purpose - she'd needed to get away, and the parade had offered her the perfect opportunity to wander off without being found. She needed some time to cool down and gather her jumbled thoughts together, but she really didn't know how. How was someone supposed to react when their parents let them in on a massive secret that they'd kept from them entire lives?
Where the monsters that you used to childishly cower in fear of at night - whether they be under your bed, in the eerily dark closet, or in the far corner of the room, where the coat rack turned into an apparition as soon as the lights were turned off - weren't things of horror stories and sci-fi films.
Where you were told that everything you thought you'd known, everything you'd been told, was a blatant lie. Instead, a world was described to you in vivid, but short detail. A world where things like vampires and demons and evil forces actually existed... And that your parents had been fighting them for years before the mere thought of you was even conceived. A world that you were inexplicably a part of, due to both fate and your now... unique... heritage.
Kylie ran a hand through her dark waves frustratedly as she pushed through another group of people, who were laughing and obviously having a good time, and it made an insane rush of jealousy well up inside her. Why wasn't her family normal? Why was her father an ex-vampire, her mother a "slayer", and her brother... She shuddered. Out of all of it, that'd been the hardest pill to swallow. To find out that her brother - her brother - was some half-vampire thing had pissed her off the most, but the killer thing was, it actually explained a lot.
The strange hours he kept. The loner tendencies that he exhibited, much, much worse the past three years than they ever had been before. How he was constantly at odds with both Spike and Faith... The ornate ring that he had on his right middle finger, one that had simply materialized one day and she'd never thought to ask about it. The blood that he would come home wearing almost every night, and the reaction it got from their parents. As soon as he walked in the door, Spike and Faith would usher both Kylie and her older brother, Alaric, up to their rooms and then proceed to have a screaming match that resulted in the slamming of the front door as Damon left again.
She turned down an abandoned alleyway, hoping to get away from all of the hub-bub of the festival so that she could actually hear herself think. She was too young for this. They were all too young for this. Hell, even Damon at 18 was far too young to be going out and... killing people at night to satisfy his hunger. She didn't know why they'd chosen to tell her and not Alaric - he was a year older than her at 15, while she was barely 14. She wasn't supposed to be thinking about life and death choices and/or consequences. She shouldn't know that her brother made those choices for others every night, and had been making the same ones for the past 3 years.
It made her angry.
Angry at her parents for keeping this from her; angry for them even being what they said they were, and what she couldn't deny was the clear truth.
"My, my, my... aren't you a pretty thing." She whirled, just barely able to make out a figure, shrouded in darkness, standing a few feet away from her, further into the alley. The voice was raspy - definitely male - on top of uber creepy, like, so creepy it made her skin crawl. She took one marginal step backwards, having lived in the Quarter long enough to know that it definitely wasn't safe at night, when she heard the voice again, this time coming from a completely different direction... and closer. "Oh, don't worry, sweetling... I'm not going to hurt you." She swallowed thickly, trying to banish the intense rush of mind-numbing fear as she felt his breath against the back of her neck.
She could almost feel his smirk. "Much." And then he latched his mouth to her throat as he gathered her in his arms in an iron-tight grip. She screamed as she felt fangs pierce her jugular painfully. She used practically all of her strength to try and extricate herself from his grasp, but his hands, which were digging into her arms excruciatingly, wouldn't even budge a millimeter. She fought, and fought, and fought, until she felt herself slipping into unconsciousness, her head becoming fuzzier and fuzzier by each passing moment until there was nothing left.
The vampire let the girl's dead corpse collapse to the dank, dirty asphalt of the alley before wiping his mouth with the back of his arm, a smile on his face as the girl's blood offered him more than just a sating of his hunger. It was the most exquisite thing he'd ever tasted, and he almost laughed at his luck. It wasn't every day that a vampire took down a slayer without a fight and got to feast on her blood. Casting one last glance down to his newest victim, he began walking towards the entrance of the alleyway, whistling as he went.
Cleveland, Ohio - Same Time
Dear Diary,
I'm not a believer. People are born, they grow old, and then they die. That's the world we live in. But, how can I deny what's right in front of me? What's been staring me in the face my entire life? Girls bitten, bodies drained of blood, mysterious animal attacks... I mean, we live in a city of nearly 400,000 people, landlocked in a concrete jungle. There aren't any wild animals for miles, let alone any wooded areas. Why my parents never let me go out after dark, why Mom has been so tight lipped about the girl's school she's ran with Aunt Buffy for as long as I can remember. And if that isn't proof enough, my parents showing me proof of it all - that Mom's a witch and Dad's a werewolf, on top of being told that I'm a witch, like Mom, and that I'm a "slayer"? That Uncle Angel and Uncle Spike used to be vampires and are now human? I don't know what to make of it all, everything's running together in my head and I haven't been able to process it yet. I just... I don't know what to do, or how I'm feeling yet. None of it's sunk in.
Ariel closed her diary, tossing it onto her desk before pacing for minutes on end, agitatedly, wearing holes in the carpet, hand raking back through her fiery red hair. She'd locked her bedroom door, and thankfully neither Willow or Oz had tried to talk to her since the big revelation earlier that evening. Finally, with a huge breath, she laid on her bed, staring up at her ceiling, wondering what it all meant for her. Her parents' had told her that the time had come for, not only her to know, but all of their friends' kids. Some names she recognized - Katherine, Elena, Bonnie, Liam, Alex, Damon, Alaric, Kylie - and even remembered some of them vaguely from when they were younger.
But the names Celeste, Daphne, and Peter had no meaning to her whatsoever. She didn't even have the foggiest memory of ever hearing their names before... but she had this nagging feeling that she was going to find out, and this was just the tip of the iceberg. For all of them.
Bremen, Georgia - 6:32 pm
"Katherine? Katherine?!" Buffy yelled into her phone, alarmed. She looked over at Angel, who was driving the car. Giles was sitting in the back. The phone had been on speaker, so they'd all heard the screams, the screeching of tires, the distinct sound of a large splash before the call had dropped. "Angel." She hadn't even finished saying his name as they were pressed back against their seats when Angel stomped on the gas, pushing the pedal to the floor.
New York City, New York - Same Time
"Thanks for taking me shopping, Dad." Celeste said, her light blonde hair shining in the vibrant multitude of lights illuminating their street as they walked towards their apartment. Connor threw his arm over he and Dawn's 14 year old daughter's shoulder as he breathed in the chilly night air. "You're welcome... I just hope my life savings didn't take a major hit after your little marathon." She laughed, slipping her arm around his waist, shivering slightly from the cold air.
"I wasn't that bad, geez." She studied his profile for a few moments before asking the one thing she'd been wondering all night. "Was there any particular reason for our impromptu shopping venture?" He sighed, cursing the fact that she had always been impressively perceptive, even at her young age. "Yeah, I... uh. Your mother and I..." He fumbled, trying to find the words to lighten the bomb he was about to drop on her. When Willow had called earlier, gently informing both he and Dawn that Celeste was a slayer, along with all of the group's daughters, sans Bonnie, they had both been floored.
He honestly was still trying to process it.
"What a lovely moment." He stiffened, his vamp sense going haywire, and he cursed himself for not paying more attention to his surroundings. He'd never been so careless before. They both turned, Celeste screaming when the figure passed under one of the street lights, catching her first glimpse of a vampire. He could only imagine what she was thinking; what excuses her mind was coming up with to logically explain what she was seeing.
He rolled his eyes before reaching in his jacket pocket, producing a stake, and quickly driving it into the vampire's heart. The vamp sent him a shocked expression as he crumbled to dust before their eyes. Nervously, he turned back to his daughter, whose eyes were glued to the small pile of ashes on the sidewalk. "What just-" He cut her off, taking her by the arm and practically dragging her down the street toward their apartment complex, trying to prepare himself for the conversation that was to come.
Bremen, Georgia - 6:33 pm
Katherine came to, coughing and disoriented. She looked down when she realized her lower body felt like ice and saw that water had filled the car nearly halfway full. She glanced back at Elena and then to Liam, seeing that they had both just recovered too. Frantically, she grabbed the door handle and pushed with all of her strength, her fear skyrocketing when it didn't budge and the water began rising at an alarming rate as the car began sinking into the river. Both Liam and Elena had done the same, achieving the same results as their older sister. "Kat?!" They both began yelling panickedly. "It's okay. We're gonna be fine." She tried to reassure them both, bracing herself against the dashboard as she pounded on the roof of the old truck, somehow thinking that she could escape that way.
"We're gonna be okay, I promise." She told them, still struggling to find a way out as the water rose to their necks. She tried to break the window with her elbow, but the truck was already submerged, making it virtually impossible to do so. "It's okay, we're gonna be okay." She kept chanting, saying it to them over and over in a mantra. "Mom, Dad, and Giles know where we are, they're coming for us." She told them just as the water rose above their mouths and noses, cutting off their air. They tried to unbuckle their seat belts, but to no avail. They were stuck. Their only hope was to hold their breath until their parents got there, but who knows how far away they were?
Austin, Texas - Same Time
An insistent knock sounded against the door to her bedroom, which she was currently sitting against, her head leaned back with her eyes squeezed shut. She sighed heavily, wanting for everyone to just leave her alone as she let everything sink in. "Go away." She didn't want to see either of them, didn't want to listen to the excuses they'd give her as to why she wasn't told about this sooner. That they'd fought demons and darkness and had even fought in an all out apocalypse... That they'd both died - her mom months before the actual fight and her dad in the middle of a true-blue suicide mission to take down a powerful warlock.
That they'd been resurrected shortly after the battle was over because they still had a greater purpose to fulfill.
That demons and vampires, things of fairy tales, were actually real and walked among them every day... or night, rather.
That she, just some plain jane girl from Texas, had been chosen, out of literally hundreds of thousands, to take on the burden of fighting evil. Even though both Fred and Wesley had reassured her that being a slayer wasn't a solo deal anymore, it did little to comfort her. What kind of a life could she have if she was trapped in darkness? If she was forever bound to fighting the creatures that went bump in the night?
"Come on, Daph. Open up." If it had been Fred or Wesley, she would've simply told them to leave her alone again, but this time it was older brother. He understood her and would listen to her while her parents would just shower her with weak assurances that it wouldn't be that bad.
She picked herself up off the floor and unlocked the door before situating herself on the ground, leaning back against her bed. Peter walked in, shutting and locking the door before joining her on the floor. A series of long, but comfortable, silences passed between them before he eventually spoke. "You can talk to me about it, ya know. I mean, I know I can't possibly even begin to understand, but I want to try. It's better than what Mom and Dad are trying to do."
She turned her head and looked into his blue eyes - eyes that he'd inherited from their father - seeing the truth in both them and his words. "I just... honestly, I don't know what to think. I don't know how I'm supposed to feel. On one hand I'm this wicked cool, almost superhero-esque, "slayer", and a witch, but on the other... I'm just a kid, Pete... And I'm scared." She wiped a singular tear away when it trickled down her cheek after escaping the corner of her brown eyes. "I'm 15. I'm not supposed to be worrying about anything related to life and death yet, and now I'm expected to play the dutiful little girl and go off and slay monsters or perform spells while I'd rather be at home studying?"
He wrapped his arm around her in comfort, and she responded by laying her head on his shoulder. "Listen, Daph... I know that this isn't what you thought about when you envisioned the future, who would? But, I also know that it could be really rewarding. You have a chance to do real good, to help people, to protect them when they can't protect themselves - to save them even when they don't know they need to be saved. You could make a real impact on peoples' lives."
She knew he was right, and she understood what he was saying. She wanted to do that, but she was scared about what she'd have to sacrifice in order to do it. "It's your choice to make. I know you're way too young to be having to make a decision this massive, but I want you to know that I'll have your back." Not believing what she was hearing, she pulled back so that she could look into his eyes. "When you say you have my back, you mean-"
"I'm gonna be with you on this, 110%." He nodded. "I'll learn how to fight, I'll train, I'll be shoulder to shoulder with you. You won't be alone, I swear." He knew that was what she was most worried about. She let out a huge breath before hugging him fiercely, almost painfully tight. "Thanks." He dropped a kiss on her crown as they continued to sit in silence, both still trying to completely absorb everything.
Bremen, Georgia - 6:38 pm
Buffy, Angel, and Giles drove up to the bridge 5 minutes later, coming to a screeching halt, creating skid marks on the asphalt. They all leapt out of the car and ran up to the concrete wall, looking over and trying to find the truck. Through the murky water, they could barely see the submerged vehicle as it sat on the riverbed. "Giles, go down to the banks. When we get them out, start CPR." Buffy said, knowing that it would be smarter and safer for all of them that way. Giles took off running for the other end of the bridge as Buffy and Angel jumped over the side of the bridge and began swimming down to the car.
Phoenix, Arizona - Same Time
"How am I supposed to even begin to explain it, Wills?" Xander said into his phone as he paced back and forth in their small two bedroom home. "Just be honest. Tell him the truth. Honestly, he and Peter have it the easiest." He laughed once without humor. "He has it easy? Willow, his mother is a higher being who died in 2004. Forget the vampire crap. How am I supposed to explain that?! I mean, where do I even start?" He ran a hand through his dark hair, eyeing the door warily. Alex was due home from school any minute, and he had no idea what he was going to do.
"At the beginning." She answered simply. He collapsed onto the couch. "We need him, Xand. We need all of them. I always knew, and though Buffy never told me, I know she knew too, deep down, that one day we weren't going to be here anymore. Another group has to be ready to shoulder that responsibility."
"But why does it have to be our kids, Willow? Couldn't it be anyone else? Why them?" He asked in defeat, understanding and even agreeing with what she was saying. "Would you trust anyone else? Be honest with me. Would you just be able to hand over something as important as, I don't know, the world, to a group that you didn't know as well, that you didn't trust with your life? Because I wouldn't, and neither would Buffy or the rest of them." The sound of the door opening made him swallow thickly before gathering his courage.
"Alright, Alex is home... I'll talk to you later." Willow knew exactly what he wasn't saying, and considered it a bittersweet victory as he hung up.
Bremen, Georgia - Same Time
Katherine fought to stay conscious, her lungs screaming for air as she continued to try holding her breath. Liam and Elena had lost consciousness already, leaving her trying to shake both of them awake. The only reason that she was still conscious was because she was more used to holding her breath than they were. On top of being the head cheerleader, she was also captain of the women's swim team at her school during the off season for football, and had been swimming on a club team since she was little. She typically went straight to that practice after running the cheerleading one. Despite her lungs being more adjusted to going longer periods of time without oxygen, this was pushing her far past her limits.
Unconsciously, her lungs forced her to attempt taking a breath, sending a rush of icy water down into her lungs, making her try to draw in another one to compensate. Suddenly, she saw a face appear at her window, causing her to suck in another breath in surprise. Her mom began to try and force the door open, but Katherine caught her attention by shaking her head and wagging a finger at her before pointing to Liam and Elena. They needed to be rescued first. She could wait. After deliberating for a moment, her mother honored her request and moved to the backseat door, wrenching it from it's place with superhuman strength and ripping the seat belt off before dragging Elena's unconscious body out with her.
Her dad was on the other side of the car, doing the same thing that Buffy had done and dragged Liam out. Katherine felt relieved, knowing that she'd given them the best chance of survival possible at this point. Her lungs, which had been demanding air had filled up with so much water to the point where she truly was drowning. She couldn't draw breath, and she could feel the oxygen deprivation begin to affect her body. Her limbs felt numb and tingly, she began to feel incredibly tired to the point where she couldn't keep her eyes open anymore. She wasn't naive, she knew she was dying. She didn't want to die, but she if died saving her brother and sister's life, then so be it. Her vision began to fade as she lost consciousness and her heart stuttered a few more times before it went silent.
French Quarter, New Orleans, Louisiana - Same Time
Spike walked into the dingy apartment that Damon moved into a few weeks prior, hoping against hope that Kylie had simply come here instead of running off to god-knows-where, on tonight of all nights!
He stopped dead in the entryway to the small living room as he watched his son draining the life of some promiscuously dressed girl away as two others danced around his apartment, scantily dressed, to the music that was blaring loudly from the cheap speakers in the corner. The smell of alcohol was prevalent, pungently so, and it made even him of all people want to gag. All three girls had dried blood on their necks, telling Spike that Damon had been at this for a few hours.
He moved just a tad bit closer, and he wished he hadn't, because then he saw several human feet sticking out from behind the couch, bloodied and gored, signaling that his son had clearly gone off the deep end. "Damon." The dark haired man drew his head away from the girl's neck, his fangs present and his eyes nearly blood red around his blue irises, veins prominently standing out against the pale canvas of his skin, and blood absolutely covering the lower half of his face.
"Pops." He smirked, stepping away from the girl to talk to him. "What the hell do you think you're doing? Are you bloody well insane?" Damon rolled his eyes. "If you're worried about anyone finding out about this, they won't. Whoever stumbles in here will be dead before they could even draw breath." Spike watched him with wide eyes as Damon laughed carelessly before turning back to his meal. While he was distracted, Spike quickly grabbed one of the girls by the arm. "Leave this place and remember nothing that's happened here." He watched her eyes go blank before nodding robotically and leaving the apartment. He did the same with the other.
After they left, he surged forward and ripped his oldest away from the last girl and thralled her to do the same. Damon growled, frustrated and angry that Spike was ruining his fun again. He always ruined everything, he and Faith. They didn't accept him for what he was, it was why he'd moved out and dropped out of school. "Pops, don't be like this, I was just having some fun!" He didn't expect the surge of righteous anger he felt rolling off of him in waves. "I don't give a damn about what fun you're having right now! I came looking here for Kylie."
"Kyles? Why would she have come to me?" Spike shook his head. "She was called as a slayer tonight. We had to tell her everything, and when I say everything, I-" Damon cut him off. "About what I am?" Damon chuckled. "When are you and Faith gonna realize that I don't care, about any of it. Nothing matters to me anymore." Spike's eyes - identical to his - hardened dangerously. "I'm done here... with you." Damon didn't know why, but his father's answer shocked him. He wasn't just saying he was done at that moment, he was saying he was done with him period.
He also didn't know why fear and desperation welled up in him with startling force, either. Spike pushed past him violently, moving to the door without so much as another look at him. Quickly, Damon employed his preternatural speed to prevent him from leaving. He grabbed his shoulders tightly, feeling an overwhelming sense of impending loss wash over him. "You hate me. I know, I know, I haven't been the poster child for perfection or even sanity, but I'm sorry. You don't have to-Pops, I'll do better, I-"
"No. You're going to end up getting us all killed... And if that's the way you're headed, then you can do that to yourself, but your mother, Kylie, Ric, and I? We're done. Leave us out of it." And then he pushed past his oldest son and left the apartment, never looking back.
Bremen, Georgia - 6:40 pm
Angel swam to the surface, carrying his oldest daughter's dead weight in his arms. Her body was like ice, as were Liam and Elena's. He ran up to the riverbank with her body, over to where Giles and Buffy were with Elena and Liam. Buffy looked up at him, tears in her eyes, as she sat next to Elena's unmoving, pale body. He could see in her eyes the words that she couldn't voice out loud. Tears pricking his eyes, he looked over at Giles who sat with Liam, his stomach dropping when Giles shook his head sadly. He quickly placed Katherine on the ground, trying to get her to wake up. "Katherine! Katherine, honey." He said, shaking her. She remained unmoving.
He leaned down and checked her pulse, hearing only silence. He pulled back and placed both hands on her chest and began performing CPR. "Come on, Katherine. Breathe damn it!" He said, as he tried to get her lungs to begin functioning again. Buffy came over and began to help him, blowing air into her daughter's mouth while he performed chest compressions. After doing it for nearly ten minutes straight without response, they finally stopped.
Buffy crawled over into Angel's arms, both crying. Giles had pulled off his glasses and was wiping his eyes a few feet away. "Angel." Buffy whimpered, and he pressed her closer to him. "I know." He murmured. Three of their four children, three of their miracles, were dead.
French Quarter, New Orleans, Louisiana - 9:45 pm
Kylie jolted awake, sitting up with a loud gasp as the world came into focus again. She was still in the alley - laying on the ground, actually - right where the vampire had dropped her after... Her hand flew to her neck, feeling the two twin puncture wounds and the stickiness of the dried blood coating her skin.
How was she still alive?
She let out a few shaky breaths before pushing herself into a standing position, her hand moving down to her throat as a fiery, agonizing pain ignited there. It was almost unbearable. The rest of her body wasn't much better. Everything hurt - from the tips of her toes all the way up to her head. She had to stumble against the wall for support as it all crashed down on her with startling force. She wanted to cry, wanted to scream - she'd do anything to make the pain stop.
She also realized that she was extremely hungry. She would kill for something to eat right about now. "Damnit!" She heard a muffled voice - one that came from the street - exclaim frustratedly. "Now I'm really gonna have to get that tetanus shot. That really fucking hurt!" She ventured closer, just peeking out of the alley to look into the street. She just saw a blonde head disappear around the far street corner before her eyes were drawn to a long, thick red smear on the brick wall a few feet away from her.
The smell made her mouth water, and her stomach begged her to go to it and alleviate all the pain - promising that it would make it stop. Without even thinking, she shuffled over to it and swiped a bit of the red substance onto her finger and brought it to her mouth.
She had no idea that she'd just made an irreversible decision that would have horrifying consequences.
"Kyles!" She turned to see her blonde older brother running towards her, but all she saw was food. She needed more, wanted more, craved more.
Not even a minute later her fangs were embedded in his neck, literally draining his life away.
Bremen, Georgia - 10:00 pm
A few hours later, the three of them were sitting alone in the Bremen morgue, looking down silently at the three bodies. The paramedics arrived not long after Angel and Buffy had ceased performing CPR on their oldest, but it'd still been too late. They hadn't been able to revive any of them. The bodies had been brought to the morgue, where they'd be prepared for burial in a few days time. At their insistence, and a little bit of thralling, they'd been allowed to come in and say their goodbyes. The football game had been canceled and the news had already spread around that the three elder O'Connor children were gone.
There was no doubt that Bonnie knew already, but they'd asked Michelle's mother to keep her there for the night. She didn't need to be subjected to this. She was far too young to have lost all three of her older were both terrified of how she was going to react.
The bodies each laid on a different steel gurney undisturbed. Angel, Buffy, and Giles were all standing simply staring down at the bodies, Angel's arm around Buffy's waist and her hand fisted in his shirt. The room was silent. They hadn't spoken a word to each other since entering the room. The silence of the room was interrupted by Liam's body fidgeting slightly before he lurched, his eyes flying open and gasping as he tried to draw in air to his long deprived lungs. Angel, Buffy, and Giles stared at him in shock as he panted and drew in as much air as possible. Suddenly, Elena's eyes shot open like Liam's had and she gasped for breath.
Elena rolled her head to the side, clearly disoriented. "Mom? Dad? Giles?" She rasped out dryly, her voice cracking terribly before she coughed, expelling some water from her lungs. At hearing Elena's voice, Liam turned his head toward both her and their parents and grandfather. "Elena?" He said, relieved, coughing like Elena had. "Mom? Dad? Giles?" He repeated her as they came into focus. "Liam?" Elena gasped, turning towards him and smiling in relief. "What happened?" She groaned, placing a hand on her forehead, wincing as even that minute motion caused pain to ripple through her body.
Angel, Buffy, and Giles' eyes all met before Angel took charge. "Get Elena and Liam out of here. I'll wait for Katherine to wake up and then I'll meet you at the car." They nodded, moving to help Elena and Liam rise shakily to their feet, before both almost collapsed. Buffy and Giles caught them and supported them as they began walking to the back entrance that would lead out to the car. Angel turned back to Katherine's still, silent body after they'd left. Truthfully, he didn't even know if she was going to wake up. Just because Elena and Liam had didn't necessarily mean that she was going to, but he had this feeling in his gut. She was going to wake up, but what would she - all of them - be?
He wasn't naive enough to think that it had nothing to do with them being half vampire, because that was the only logical explanation at the moment. He'd still been a vampire when he and Buffy had conceived all three of them, hell, even when they'd conceived Bonnie. It hadn't been until after Bonnie had been born that he'd magically become human again. He and Buffy had lived for the past 15 years under the false hope that their kids would actually get to have normal, human lives, but when had that ever been the case with them? They should've known that they wouldn't have been able to escape that world for long. Sure, he and Buffy would occasionally go to the town's graveyard after a suspicious death, like an animal attack, but that was the extent of their - well, at least his - patrolling nowadays.
After Katherine woke and they all went back home, one of the first things he'd do would be to call Spike and Faith, something he'd never imagine himself doing before his kids had been born, but over the years, he and Spike had actually become friends, as had Buffy and Faith. They had so many similarities with them that it made it easy to bond, with Angel and Spike both being ensouled vampires and Buffy and Faith being slayers for one. Another thing was that like Angel and Buffy, Spike and Faith had had three kids together - while Spike had still been a vampire. They'd actually had Damon, their oldest, three years before Buffy and Angel had Katherine and Elena.
Damon had been the result of a one night stand turned into a real, lasting relationship. They'd been married soon after Damon had been born, Faith saying that she didn't want to look like a cow on her wedding day. No one had seen it coming, but the funny thing was that Spike and Faith made sense. They liked the same things and their personalities just fit together. They'd gone on to have two kids after that, Alaric and Kylie. Alaric was like a miniature Spike, from the blonde hair to the blue eyes, and Kylie was like Faith, dark hair and eyes, with that signature fiery personality. When their kids were younger, they'd have play dates whenever either family was in town for a visit.
Spike and Faith had moved to New Orleans soon after marrying, and they'd been there ever since. Damon, Alaric, Kylie, Katherine, Elena, Bonnie and Liam had all gotten along fairly well. Bonnie had been a toddler then, just learning how to walk, and had simply followed the other six around until she couldn't run anymore. Alaric had been infatuated with Elena from a young age, but Elena wouldn't even give him the time of day, preferring to play with Kylie. Alaric, Katherine, and Elena were the same age, as were Kylie and Liam. Elena would get so frustrated with Liam when Kylie wanted to spend more time with him than her. Those two had blatantly had crushes on each other from the start, and Faith and Angel had even joked that they'd be in-laws one day because of those two. Damon and Katherine had been another story entirely. They'd banter and play with each other, even when Katherine was young, fighting even despite their great age difference. Damon thought of Katherine as his annoying little sister and vice versa, but Spike had claimed that the best relationships started that way. Even to this day he still swore that somehow they'd end up falling in love with each other, but Angel couldn't see that happening... didn't want to think about it either.
The steady rhythmic sound of Katherine's heartbeat picking up turned Angel's thoughts back to the present. He shook his head wryly at her still unconscious form as her heartbeat regulated. Not only was she a fighter, but she'd tried to be a hero. She'd put Elena and Liam's lives before her own, and he was so proud of her for that. "Takes a lickin' keeps on tickin'." He murmured. She'd always been a survivor, and though she hadn't technically survived this, she was still here. Buffy'd experienced difficulties trying to carry all of them to term, especially Katherine and Elena, and there'd been a scare during that pregnancy where none of them had been sure if any of them would make it. Spike and Faith had experienced similar problems, though not nearly as severe.
She suddenly lurched, almost jackknifing off the steel slab, gasping greedily for air. Her head nearly slammed back down on the gurney like the effort had expended most of her energy. She brought a hand up to her forehead, much like Elena had, and she squinted, trying to make things come into focus.
She was so confused. She'd thought - she was sure - that she'd died. She'd felt peace in the nothingness, and to be dragged back so abruptly was extremely disorienting. Everything was so loud, and bright, but yet not at the same time. She couldn't describe it. "Am I in hell?" She groaned, her voice rasping and cracking. "Not quite." She turned her head, wincing as her neck protested the movement. "Daddy?" She asked, clearly confused. "Hey baby." He said, reaching out a hand and stroking her hair. "Wha-what happened?" She glanced around the room, taking in the metal slab she was laying on, the metal instruments situated at different places in the room, the wall of square shaped drawers with handles on them... was she in a morgue?!
Alarmed, she tried to stand too quickly, ignoring the sharp pain that ignited in nearly every muscle in her body as she tried to stay upright by herself. She began swaying, dizziness and nausea winning as she promptly passed out and fell directly into Angel. He swung her up into his arms, and began walking toward the back door of the morgue just as the coroner came in. "What are you doing?" He asked, alarmed. Angel sighed and looked the man straight in the eye. "You did the autopsy and confirmed that all three causes of death were drowning. We requested that they be buried immediately. When asked about the bodies, say that they are already at the nursing home. The funeral will be held in three days time and you will forget about this and move on." He said, thralling the man before walking out the back door.
Even after regaining his humanity, some of his vampiric abilities had lingered, like his strength and agility, his heightened senses, and his ability to thrall. He guessed it'd been a little gift from the Powers That Be... A peace offering of sorts.
He walked to the car and opened it, gingerly placing Katherine's body in the back seat by Liam and Elena. Giles was in the third row. He closed the door and then slid into the driver's seat. Buffy touched his arm nervously. "She's okay." He reassured her, hearing her let out a deep breath in relief. "She just passed out. She was conscious far longer than Liam and Elena were, it wouldn't surprise me if she sleeps for a few more hours." He said, starting the car and driving out of the morgue parking lot. "Dad? What's going on?" Liam asked, groaning again. Elena winced. "Yeah, everything's so loud." She moaned. She brought her hands up to her teeth, massaging her gums. "And my teeth really hurt." Angel and Buffy shared a glance, and Giles' eyes caught theirs in the rear view mirror. "What do you guys know about vampires?"
French Quarter, New Orleans, Louisiana - 11:30 pm
"Kyles!" He was just able to pinpoint her dark brown hair peeking around the corner of a dank alley. He ran towards it, not seeing the body until he was next to her. She was sitting on the ground, tears streaming down her face, blood smeared across her chin as she looked on the sight of Alaric's pale corpse, a gaping wound torn into his neck. "Damon?" She asked quietly, still not looking at him. She couldn't believe what she'd just done, couldn't believe that she'd... oh god.
"Kyles? Kylie, hey, look at me, look at me." He used a hand on her cheek to turn her face toward his. The guilt and self loathing in her eyes made him want to punch something. Maybe if he'd been there, if he would've known... He could've stopped this. He hadn't wished this, on either of them. They didn't deserve it. "This is not your fault." She shook her head, more tears falling from her brown eyes. He knew it wasn't her fault - she couldn't have known what she was doing at the time. The hunger made you do things that you would never dream of doing until it was calling you.
You'd do anything, kill anyone, just to have one drop of blood to satisfy it.
"Did you hear me, this is not your fault." He stressed again, pulling her against him. "You couldn't control it, I should know. I understand. You don't have to worry - Ric will be fine, I promise." As if responding to his words, Alaric suddenly gasped, his eyes flying open as his lungs greedily took in whatever air they could grab ahold of. Kylie merely watched with wide eyes as Damon moved away from her to help Ric up, letting himself take some of his weight.
"Ugh, what happened?" He rasped, his hand coming up to massage his throat that was now burning like someone had taken a flamethrower to it. Damon watched him for a few moments before making a life changing decision - for all of them. He leaned Alaric up against the alley wall before walking a little ways down the street, and after a short minute, returned with a pretty girl in tow. "I thought you said we were going to your apartment." The blonde said dumbly, obviously not terribly bright.
"You won't scream, you won't fight. You'll do everything I say." Her pupils dilated as her face went blank, succumbing to the mind compulsion that he'd subjected her to. Without further preamble, he'd slid his fangs into her throat, waiting until her blood began to flow freely before pulling away and dragging her over to Ric. "Ric! Look at me." He commanded, pulling the blonde closer to his brother and swiping the girl's hair away from her neck, allowing him to see the blood flowing from her wound.
Kylie watched helplessly as Ric's gaze zeroed in on the girl's neck before leaning in. "Damon, stop! Don't do this, please! I- oh god." She gagged as Ric began drinking her blood, his face transforming into their kinds' version of what their parents would call their "game faces" as he bit down harder, draining her dry. Kylie couldn't stop the borrowed blood - her own brother's blood - rushing up from her stomach as she emptied it onto the asphalt due to the absolute horror of it all.
French Quarter, New Orleans, Louisiana - 12:30 am
"Do you have any idea what you've done?!" Spike yelled, getting right up in Damon's face. He and Faith had sent Kylie and Alaric up to their rooms as soon as they'd gotten home. "I did what I had to do." Damon insisted with a straight face. He wasn't sorry about his decision, not in the slightest. He wanted his siblings to live, in whatever way, shape or form that was. "No, you made a selfish decision without Ric's consent. Jesus, son. You of all people should know how violating that is."
"Like you did with me?" He said quietly, making Spike freeze. "Believe it or not, I did what I did because I care about him! I did what I did because I care about her, too! How would she react if she really had killed him, huh?" He asked rhetorically before plowing on. "I made the hard choice so no one else had to." He glanced up in the direction of their bedrooms, knowing that they could hear him now with their preternatural hearing. "And they can hate me for it for all I care." He spat before pivoting and walking out the front door, slamming it, ending this fight just like all the others - with him running away from responsibility.
Spike watched him go, actual tears pricking the backs of his eyes for the first time in a long time, when Faith's cell rang. "Willow." She answered, not being able to get anymore out before Spike had grabbed the phone and began explaining everything that had happened that night as the redhead on the opposite end of the line listened attentively.
Bremen, Georgia - 8:00 am
The noise of a lawn mower in the distance penetrated her otherwise dreamless sleep. She could hear dogs barking, sirens, people talking, birds chirping. The combined ambiance of the sounds woke her. She gasped, bolting upright in bed, looking around panickedly as she scrambled, remembering the feel of the cool metal slab digging into her back. She glanced around confusedly, still panicking slightly, before she noticed her dad and mom sitting on her bed, and Giles seated on her bay window sill. "Mom? Dad?" She questioned, blinking as the sunlight poured into her room from her window, making her head ache.
"Hey, we're right here, sweetie." Buffy said, reaching out and grabbing Katherine's hand. "You've been out for hours." Angel said, watching her carefully. Liam and Elena had taken the news rather well, all things considered, but he wasn't sure how Katherine would take it. "Wha-what happened?" Giles took off his glasses and began cleaning them on his shirt. "You were in an accident." Her head whipped over to him, not liking the look on his face. She suddenly remembered said accident with startling clarity. The impact of the truck hitting the water, the way her lungs burned as they filled with water and continued to go without air, her adamance that Elena and Liam be saved before her... Her eyes met each of theirs. "Oh my god, Liam and Elena are they -?" She stopped when Angel reached out his hand and stroked her hair.
"They're fine." She let out a deep breath. "Thank you." She murmured, happy that she had been able to save them in a sense. She thought back to her dream, or nightmare, where she'd woken up in the morgue with her dad. That's all it had been, a bad dream. She shook her head. "I thought I had..." She trailed off, swallowing thickly. She looked up at them all questioningly. "How did you-?" Buffy interrupted her. "Save you?" She asked. Angel shook his head. "We didn't." She scowled, not understanding. "What do you mean 'you didn't'? I'm right here." She asked. "Katherine, what do you know about vampires?" Giles asked and her head swung to him. "What does this have to do with anything?" She shook her head in denial. "Are you saying that I'm a vampire? Because there's a few problems with that theory." She said, ticking them all off on her fingers. "One: I've never seen a vampire in my life. Two: I've never been bitten by one. Three: I've never drank from one. And last but not least, four: Vampires aren't real."
Angel shook his head sadly. "That's where you're wrong. Vampires are real." She looked at him, like she couldn't believe that he was serious. "No, no, you're lying." She said, shaking her head. "No, I'm really not. Katherine, you were born half vampire. You all were." He said and she looked at him in disbelief. She thought back to how her dad dogged her about covering up more, how old-fashioned he was about everything, his morals, his beliefs... She looked up at him with sudden understanding. It all made sense. To be half vampire, one of her parents had to be one."It's you, isn't it?" She asked, not realizing how that sounded until it came out. She apologized profusely before leaning back against the pillows on her bed with a hand on her forehead. "How? I mean, I've seen you age, listened your heartbeat, felt your warmth."
"I'm human now, but I've only been human for twelve years." She looked at him then, really looked at him. She'd always thought he was an old soul, stuck in a fairly young father's body. He was only 39, in human years at least, and so was her mom, now she knew why his eyes looked like they'd aged centuries - because they probably had. "How old are you?" Angel looked at her for a few seconds before talking to Giles and Buffy, never looking away from Katherine. "Could you guys go check on Elena and Liam?" They both nodded, and stood up. Buffy placed a comforting hand on his shoulder for a few seconds. His hand came up to massage hers for a moment before letting go as she removed her hand and followed Giles out the door, closing it and giving them privacy.
Katherine watched as they left. Angel got up and closed her blinds, turning on a light. She smiled at him in thanks. He sat back down on the bed and it took her a few seconds to speak. "How old are you?" He seemed to deliberate for a few seconds. How had it been so easy to explain this to his younger two when he didn't know where to start with her? They were closer than his other kids; she always had been. She was his little girl, and he was more than a little afraid of what she'd think of him after this. "In total I'm 295 years old." She spent more than a few moments absorbing the information. He'd lived through so many major events in history - the French & Indian War, the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, both World Wars... the list went on and on.
Her love of history had spawned off of Angel's, and now she realized there was a reason he was so knowledgable. She leaned her head back against the wall, stunned. She imagined 100, maybe 150 years... but almost 300? That was insane. She stared at the ceiling. "So you were born in 1727?" She ascertained, doing the math in her head. She didn't have to see his nod of affirmation to know she was right. He was older than the United States, by practically a lifetime. The things he'd no doubt witnessed, the historical events he'd actually been there to see... the entire thing was mind boggling. "So, how long were you a vampire?" He had to have been fairly young. The younger version of him that she'd remembered had been around the same age as her mother.
"256 years." She closed her eyes. 'Wow' was the only word that would sum up what she was feeling right now. He'd told her, given her a simple explanation to why she was a vampire, but she wanted to know more. "Who were you?" She asked, mentally wincing as she realized how that sounded. "I mean, what were you like, before you were turned?" She amended, head still leaned back against the wall, eyes still closed. He laughed bitterly, a sound she'd never heard come from him before. She opened her eyes and took her head away from the wall, more than a little stunned at his reaction. "I was nothing to write home about, that's for sure." His eyes took on an almost haunted quality, one that screamed regret and shame, something that she'd never seen from him before. Whoever he'd been before she was born, he was a completely different man than her father today.
"I was born in 1727, in Galway, Ireland." He began, and she had known beforehand that he'd been at least partly Irish. She'd always been partial to the culture and it's customs, mainly to the rings that her parents had on both their fingers. She thought the meaning behind the claddagh rings was lovely, but now she realized that their wedding rings had a totally different, deeper meaning. He'd probably had her mother's for centuries. The rings were possibly centuries old, probably family heirlooms. Most likely, they were the only things left of his family. "My da was a linen and silk merchant." A slight twinge of his no doubt repressed Irish accent came back then, and Katherine loved the sound. It should sound wrong and awkward, seeing that she'd only heard him talk in an American accent her entire life, but it didn't. It felt right, like he should've been singing her Irish lullabies to lull her to sleep when she was little.
Then she remembered his singing voice.
On second thought... If it was anything like his Barry Manilow 'Mandy' rendition, she'd gladly take a pass.
When he didn't mention his mother, she assumed it was because she'd been the typical stay at home maternal figure, which had been the norm. Their only job had been to take care of the house and bear the babies. "As a human, I was nothing more than a drunken, whoring layabout who was overly ambitious. I wanted to see the world, and I wanted to meet someone interesting, not like the typical women of my time." His description of his much, much younger self shocked her. Him, a lazy, drunken womanizer? The thought was so ridiculous, she nearly laughed. "Lemme guess, they were pretty boring?" She asked sarcastically.
She earned a small smile from him. "Boring is putting it nicely." He shot back. She grinned, glad that he was coming back to his normal, teasing self. She hated seeing him like that. It almost looked like he was drowning in several lifetimes worth of guilt. "And what would be putting it blatantly?" She hedged, still teasing him. "They were incredibly dull, simpering morons, the lot of them. The noble women were the worst." She did laugh then. She'd have to ask him about history and culture more often now, she was thoroughly enjoying this. It was taking her mind off of earlier. She fingered her comforter as she looked over at him. "I think you succeeded in meeting someone interesting." She said with a small smile, referring to her mother. He smiled back and nodded minutely.
"Yeah, I did." He murmured before clearing his throat. "Anyways," he began, "by the time I was in my twenties, I was a huge disappointment to my parents. My father constantly reminded me that I was worthless, and my mother never made a move to disagree. The only person who truly cared about me was my little sister, Kathy." Kathy. Kathryn. She'd been named after his little sister? She'd been named after the one person in his entire stint as a human who'd cared about him? "I was named after her." She said, not stating it as a question, but as a revelation. She knew that she had been. He'd always told her that her name held great significance to him personally, and now she knew why, and she also knew why he couldn't tell her before.
"Yes. And you remind me of her every day with the way you act and the way you look. Both you and Elena look so much like her..." He swallowed thickly, and she knew it was difficult for him to admit this. He'd probably buried it so deep down, that to dig it back up caused him extreme emotional pain. "She was the one good thing in my human life, and both you and Elena are walking reminders of her." He glanced back down at his hands for a moment. "You know what your names mean, don't you?" He asked, looking back up to meet her eyes once again. She shook her head. She'd never really thought about it honestly, didn't think their names had any special meaning. "Well, Katherine means 'purity' which, ironically enough, fits both you and her perfectly. Your middle name, Elizabeth, is..." Katherine interrupted him.
"I know, Elizabeth is mom's name." She thought for a minute, "What about Elena, Liam, and Bonnie?" She asked. "Elena means 'light' which is another word I'd use to describe my sister, and Joyce was your grandmother's name. Bonnie means 'pretty' or 'beautiful', and her middle name, Cordelia, was the name of one of your mother and I's friends who died before you were born. Liam was my name when I was human and Doyle was a dear friend of mine a long time ago who died entirely too soon." His eyes took on that haunted quality again. She was determined to remove it. "We're getting off topic here." She prompted, desperately wanting to steer him away from the guilt inducing topic. Whoever Doyle was, and Cordelia, for that matter, their deaths had done a number on her dad. He cleared his throat. "You're right... where was I?" He asked her.
"Your parents being unreasonably cruel to you." Her tone made him smile minutely. "I guess the next thing was being turned into a vampire." She leaned forward, crossing her legs, still on the bed, and sat up straight - her back was beginning to hurt from sagging against the wall for too long. "The year was 1753. One night, after heavily drinking, I tried to seduce my family's maidservant and wasn't terrible successful." She had to struggle not to laugh. The thought of her father trying to woo anyone but her mother was simply absurd to her. "We got into a very heated argument, where I eventually declared that I was leaving home, which my father told me was an idiotic idea. I went to a tavern afterwards and got even more drunk."
She'd seen her father drink, but he'd always been able to hold his liquor. Combine that incongruity with his apparent previously scandalous ways, the picture that was painted for her didn't resemble her father at all. This younger, human version of himself was a stranger to her, in every possible way. "As I was leaving the pub, I saw an aristocratic looking woman in a nearby alley. For some reason, I followed her. When I came upon her, she wooed me with the promise of showing me a whole new world, then she sired me." Katherine had to restrain herself from making an Aladdin joke. "Just like that?" Katherine asked. He nodded. "Just like that." She leaned back against the wall again, exhaling loudly. To have your life come to an end, seemingly cut short, just like that? To be cut down in your prime, that was a horrible thing. She had a sneaking suspicion that he was still withholding a great deal of information from her.
"What happened after?" She saw him wince and that look came back full force. His shoulders hunched and she could practically feel him get his brood on, something that she'd heard her mom joke about every now and then, but she'd never actually seen him do. "It's... not pretty." He hedged, obviously trying to get her to drop it. "I don't care. I need to know, Dad. I want to know. I don't want there to be secrets anymore." She pleaded gently. He nodded reluctantly after a few moments.
"Darla, the woman who sired me, waited for me to dig myself out of my own grave after I had risen. That night, I..." He trailed off. She had no idea that this would be this difficult to him, if she had, then maybe she wouldn't have insisted that she know all of this. "I went back to my home, got Kathy to invite me in, convincing her that I was an angel returned to her from the dead. I killed her first, then my mother, followed by my father, as I gloated over how I would make something of myself after all. Darla came in after I killed him, and told me that my father would always have victory and power over me because his condemnation would haunt me as long as I walked the earth. Then, I went out and slaughtered the entire town."
She struggled to take all of this in... Her father, a killer? She couldn't imagine him harming a soul - well, unless it was in self defense - let alone that many, including his own family. The man she knew was kind and loving, not sadistic and murderous. "Why? Why would you kill all of those people?" She asked. There had to be some explanation as to why he was able to do that. "It wasn't him, Katherine, not really." Her mother spoke up from the doorway of her room. Buffy wasn't going to let Angel beat himself up over it for the thousandth time, and definitely not with one of their daughters watching.
"What do you mean?" She cocked her head. Buffy looked down at the floor. "When a person is turned into a vampire, a demon comes and takes control of their body, but it doesn't get the person's soul, that's gone. It's no longer you. Sure, the demon can walk, talk, and act like you, even carry all of your memories, but it isn't you." Buffy explained, and Katherine finally understood. It wasn't her father that had killed his family, it had been a demon wearing his skin.
"For 150 years, I was one of the most twisted and powerful vampires to ever walk this earth. I raped, I murdered, I maimed, I tortured, and I revelled in every second of it. I didn't stop at physical torment, I liked to drive my victims insane and relish in the entire mortifying process." He lowered his head in his hands. He thought he had done it? That was absurd. "Dad?" He looked up at her, and she could see the fear of rejection written clearly all over his face. "That wasn't you. I know you, and whoever that evil demon was, it wasn't you." She tried to reassure him, but she had the feeling that her mom and several others had been telling him this for years, what difference could she possibly make? He smiled at her anyways, probably to placate her. Wanting to steer him off this disturbing and clearly depressing topic, she asked another question, hopefully one that would lead the discussion away from maiming and torture. "You said for 150 years, what about the other 100 and change?"
"The year was 1898, Darla and I were in Romania. I ended up feeding on and murdering the beloved daughter of a tribe a gypsies, and I paid the ultimate price. They cooked up the perfect punishment for me." She ignored how he referred to himself and the demon as one in the same, because they weren't, but she'd let it slide, for now. "How?" What could they do that would punish an evil, sadistic creature of the night? "They cursed me." He said, still not answering her question fully. Despite his vague answer, she didn't like the sound of that at all. Curses typically carried a bad connotation, and this wouldn't be an exception. "With what?" He looked up at her, staring into her eyes so deeply, that it felt like he was looking into her very soul. When a person is turned into a vampire, a demon comes and takes control of their body, but it doesn't get the person's soul, that's gone. It's no longer you.
She met his gaze, a look of understanding crossing her face and she began shaking her head unconsciously. "No." She said, shaking her head more vehemently now. "No, they couldn't, they... how could they do something like that? You hadn't done anything wrong." Her tone finally settled on insistent. They hadn't cursed him with what she thought, had they? "What do you think my punishment was?' He asked, but he already knew she'd figured it out, it was written all over her expressive face. She swallowed thickly, hoping she was wrong. "They gave you back your soul, didn't they?" When he nodded, she began seething with anger. What kind of a punishment was that? If anything, it punished the soul more than the demon. Sure, the demon was locked up somewhere, not in control of the body anymore, but it wasn't completely gone.
Noticing and sensing her growing rage, he moved on with the story. "I went off on my own after that. Came to America, stayed away from humans, fed off rats. It was a sorry excuse for an existence, but it saved lives. I ventured out into the land of the living a few times, but eventually the temptation would be too great and I would return to my self imposed solitude." He had punished himself, for years, for things he hadn't done. Unbelievable. She sensed a but or something in that phrase, prompting her to temporarily forget her currently festering hatred for gypsies and to focus back on the story he was telling. "Until?" She supplied, grateful to be moving away from the topic. Angel glanced to Buffy, who gave him a smile as she came over and sat down next to him on the foot of her bed.. "Until 1996 when a demon named Whistler found me, told me I had a destiny if i was willing to pursue it. He wanted to show me something."
He glanced slyly at her mother, and Katherine had a good idea just what, or who, that had been. "He showed you mom, didn't he?" She asked, smiling when they both nodded. She frowned for a second. How did showing her to him affect his destiny? I mean, clearly they were destined, if you believed in that sort of thing, but he was making it seem like it was a much greater one. "Why? If you don't mind my asking." She asked, not wanting to sound all snippy or anything. "Whistler took me to see her called." Her father said, before Buffy interrupted him. "And that set our paths on a one way ticket to kaleidoscope." She added. "Called?" Katherine's nose scrunched up in confusion. "What do you mean by called?" She asked. Buffy and Angel shared a look.
"Into every generation, there is a chosen one. One girl in all the world. She alone will wield the strength and skill to stand against the vampires, the demons, and the forces of darkness; to stop the spread of their evil and the swell of their numbers. She is the Slayer." Buffy recited, having heard it more than enough times in her life. The idea that one girl was expected to protect the entire world, some 7 billion people, from the 'forces of darkness' was almost incomprehensible. How was one girl supposed to stand between the world that she used to know, where the monsters were all too human and didn't exactly always go bump in the night, and the one she was thrust into against her will, where the monsters were the things of folklore and legend, the things that you cowered under the covers in bed at night, staring at your eerily dark closet, waiting for something terrifying to jump out at you?
"So, you were the slayer?" She asked, all of the answers to both her spoken questions and inner assumptions beginning to weave themselves together. "Yeah, I was. I still am, but now, there is more than just one. It used to be a lone wolf kind of gig." Buffy said sheepishly, looking down at her hands ruefully. She still didn't know how Katherine was dealing with all of this. When it came to expressing her feelings, she was a lot like Angel. She didn't outwardly deal with things; she buried them. "Until what? How did being a slayer become a not so solo-y job?" Katherine asked, twirling a few curls that were hanging loosely subconsciously. Buffy looked up at her, and for the first time, Katherine saw her for what she really was. She saw the part of her that she'd kept hidden from all of them their entire lives; a leader, and a warrior.
"Well, there's really two 'untils' here." She said, sitting Indian style on top of the sheets. Angel laid his hand on her knee. "The way the slayer line used to work was that you had one slayer, and then you had hundreds, possibly even thousands of girls, who were considered potential slayers. When the current slayer died, the power was transferred to a random potential, and then when she died the same thing happened." Buffy explained. "So, what was the first 'until'?" Katherine asked. Her mother smiled then, but it was a mirthful one. "Until I died when I was 16." Katherine's jaw hung open. "Y-you... you died?" She asked, shocked. How was that possible? "I drowned, but your Uncle Xander revived me. Apparently, it doesn't matter how long you're dead. The power selects the next slayer as soon as the current slayer's heart stops beating or something like that." Katherine saw her father frown.
Obviously he hated being reminded of that event, and she couldn't blame him. He'd probably been there and witnessed it. "So, even though I lived and retained my powers, another was called." She said. Katherine thought for a minute. Wasn't that against the rules? The prophecy clearly stated the words 'one' and 'chosen', dictating that, that was how it'd always been. "So, then there were two?" She asked, and Buffy nodded. "What was the second 'until'?" She asked, mentally chastising herself when a look of guilt appeared on her mother's face. "It was a few years after that, I had died again when I was 20 and been resurrected..." She trailed off when she saw Katherine looking at her slack jawed again. "Long story." She dismissed with a wave of her hand.
"Anyways, I decided to change the rules completely. Your Aunt Willow was - is - a very powerful witch, and together, we were able to activate all the potentials. From that day on, every girl who could or might be slayer, would be a slayer. Who could stand up, would stand up. Instead of there being only two, me and your aunt Faith, there were suddenly hundreds, if not thousands." She vaguely remembered Faith, whom she'd met as a little girl only a handful of times. She remembered her and her husband, Spike, or William as her dad liked to call him whenever he'd piss him off, and their three kids - two boys and a girl. The eldest she remembered the most clearly. His name had been Damon, and they'd aggravated each other to no end.
They'd pretended to hate each other, but really, she'd had a major crush on him. His dark, almost jet black hair, had contrasted sharply with his vibrant blue eyes, and, even as a three year old, he'd made a lasting impression on her. She used to pester her parents when she was little, asking when she'd see Damon again. As she got older though, and the years stretched on, their visits had been few and far between, and only the mention of Faith had brought him back to the forefront of her mind after years of not thinking about him at all. His younger brother was a golden blonde haired, blue eyed boy named Alaric, who'd obviously had a thing for Elena, even though she'd wanted nothing to do with him.
She was more focused on their little sister, Kylie, who had Faith's deep brown eyes and hair only a few shades lighter than Damon's. Liam had been absolutely infatuated with her from the start, and she'd been equally interested in him. They'd spend all of their time together, coloring and playing, much to Elena's dismay, who had felt like Liam was trying to steal her friend from her. Bonnie had simply tried to keep up with them, usually being the odd one out. "Am I a slayer too?" She asked, and Buffy paused for a second. "Yeah, you are."
Flashback - 3 hours earlier
Giles, Buffy, and Angel were all sitting in the living room, trying to absorb what had happened. A few hours ago, Katherine, Elena, and Liam had been dead, but now... not so much. On the car ride home, they'd explained everything to Elena and Liam, who'd surprisingly taken everything in stride, from Angel having been a vampire, Buffy being a slayer, to Giles being a watcher. They'd been very understanding, and had tried to listen attentively, even though they'd claimed that it had been difficult because of their head pounding, their teeth aching, and both having dull aches in their throats. When they'd gotten home, they'd sent both to bed and had laid Katherine in her own, knowing that it'd still be a few hours before she woke up.
Buffy's phone rang, and, seeing that it was Willow, she answered it. "Will?" She asked. "Hey, Buff." Willow greeted, but Buffy could tell by her tone that something was up. Before Buffy could ask what was wrong, Willow spoke. "You know how I told you there were newly called slayers somewhere? I was right...there are six." She said, her tone still grave. Buffy stood up and began pacing while Angel and Giles watched quietly from their places on the couch. "Will, what's wrong?" She questioned nervously. She heard Willow take a few more deep breaths. "They're our daughters, Buffy, all of us. Ariel, Daphne, Celeste, Katherine, Elena, and Kylie. I had to tell Ariel that she was both a slayer and a witch tonight. So did Fred and Wesley with Daphne, and they told Peter by default. Connor and Dawn had to break the news to Celeste. So did Spike and Faith with Kylie. Xander told Alex everything because he knows that we have to be a team again, and he can't leave him by himself."
Buffy nearly dropped the cell phone. All six? Ariel was Oz and Willow's daughter and only child, Daphne was Wesley and Fred's youngest, Celeste was, like Ariel, Connor and Dawn's only child, and then Kylie was Spike and Faith's youngest. She walked over and sat down between Angel and Giles. "All of them?" She asked, astonished. "Yeah." She could hear Willow's voice crack. When they'd cast the spell that'd turned all of the potentials into slayers nearly twenty years ago, they'd never have imagined that it would backfire like it had. "Will, I..." Willow interrupted her. "It's not your fault, Buffy. This is something that none of us could've stopped, not even me."
"But there is one more, extremely hinky, thing that I found." She said before continuing. "The next slayer, the true slayer, the leader of the generation after you're gone... She's the strongest out of all of them, and she's one of our daughters." She thought about how she'd gotten a power sensory overload before they all had left the house, and now she knew why. It'd been the strongest when Katherine had kissed her cheek. It also explained how she was able to hold her breath longer than either Liam or Elena. "It's Katherine." She said with certainty. "How do you-" Buffy interrupted her. "Listen, Will... something happened tonight. Katherine, Elena, and Liam... they all drowned." She said, and she could feel Willow's sympathy.
"They're not dead now, but they did die. That's beside the point, though. Liam was driving when a deer jumped out in front of them while they were heading to their high school football game. They were on a bridge and when he swerved, they drove off it and into a river. We were on the phone with Katherine at the time and we knew where they were. We got there a few minutes later and immediately jumped in to go save them. Liam and Elena had already lost consciousness when we got down to the truck, but Katherine was still awake. I went to help her, but she wouldn't let either Angel or I save her until we'd saved Elena and Liam."
"By the time we'd pulled her out after saving them, she'd died. They all had. The paramedics got there and tried to resuscitate them, but they couldn't. They took them all to the morgue and Angel thralled them into letting us say goodbye to the bodies, but the weirdest thing happened, th-" Willow was the one to interrupt her this time. "They woke up, didn't they?" Buffy nodded before putting the phone on speaker. "And they were complaining about the noise and their throat and teeth, weren't they?" Willow asked knowingly. Buffy, Giles and Angel looked at each other for a few moments. "Yeah, how did yo-"
"The same thing happened to all of Spike and Faith's kids, two of them happened tonight." Angel grabbed the phone, standing up and beginning to pace like Buffy had mere moments before. "Willow, do you know where Spike is?" He asked. "Yeah, he's actually on the other line, I'll patch you through." She said, there were slight shuffling noises for about a minute as Willow connected him to Spike. "Angel." They all heard the blonde's unmistakable cockney accent come over the line. "Spike." Angel said in greeting. Over the past couple of years after LA, Angel and Spike had actually been able to form somewhat of a friendship. "Listen, Angel, I heard about what happened-" Angel interrupted him. "Willow said something about the same thing happening to Damon, Alaric, and Kylie?"
"Damon was the first one to do the ole switcheroo between mortal and immortal, about 3 years ago. He was out in the Quarter one night and tried to play the hero in a robbery. He was shot and killed, or so we thought. He came to not long after, and needless to say, Faith and I were pretty confused. We called Wes and Fred and had them try to find anything that related to half vampire and half human offspring. As one day turned to two, and two days to three, they hadn't found anything and Damon was getting weaker. We'd told him everything and he'd accepted it, but it looked like he was slowly dying. His face was all gray-like, he could barely keep his eyes open or move at all, and he complained about noise and everything that's heightened when you're turned into a creature of the night."
"So, what did you do?" Angel asked, leaning against the wall. "The only thing that Faith and I could think of that made sense. We fed him human blood." Angel cast a quick glance to Buffy. "And did it work?" Spike laughed. "Oh, it worked alright, mate. Turns out, and Wes and Fred figured this out later, that even though all of our little whipper snappers were born while you and I were still vamps, their vamp genes were dormant until they died as a human. So..." Spike trailed off. "When they died as a human they already had vamp blood in their system." Angel said, everything becoming clearer. "Now you're gettin' it. Their blood triggered the transition, but it's not like other vamps where they just wake up a vampire... They have to drink human blood within 72 hours or else they'll die... the way they were meant to."
Bremen, Georgia - 9:00 am
She looked between the two of them panickedly. "I have to drink human blood or die? Those are my only options?" Buffy and Angel shared a look. "Look, Katherine, that's only from what Spike told us, there may be other ways out of it, but..." Giles came in then, followed closely by Elena and Liam. "There are no other ways out of it Angel. After Spike called I started doing research and there's nothing we can do to prevent this." He turned to Katherine who was still sitting upright in her bed. "There is no way out of it. We all know the solution, Katherine feeds or she will die, there is no third option." He said a bit harshly.
Elena and Liam met her eyes guiltily, and in a second she knew why they were looking at her like that. Her eyes went to Giles and then back to them a few times. "What did you do?" She asked, throwing her legs over the side of the bed and stumbling over to Giles. She looked at her brother and sister again, seeing that they seemed fine, not slowly dying like she was. As Giles' arm came out to support her, she grabbed onto his wrist and felt a bandage there. Her eyes darted up to his in shock and betrayal. "You fed them?" She asked horrified. "You completed their transition?" She pushed away from him roughly, backing up to sit on the bed.
She let a single tear roll down her cheek as reality came crashing down on her. "I was ready to die." She said quietly. "I was supposed to die. I don't wanna be - I can't be - a vampire." She said, her voice hitching. "Could you guys leave me alone for a little bit?" She asked. The others in the room shared a look before they all began to file out. Buffy placed a kiss on Katherine's head as she passed her to exit the room. Angel placed his hand on her face, stroking her cheek.
"Hey, I know this wasn't your choice. Believe me when I say that your mother and I never wanted this for any of you. I am going to give you a choice that you deserve though - you can decide whether or not to complete your transition. Either way, your mother and I will still love you. You know that. If this isn't what you want, then you don't have to do it." He said softly before dropping a kiss on the crown of her head and walking towards the door, shutting it, giving her some privacy.
After a few moments of staring at her closed door, she crawled back under the covers of her bed and laid down, staring at the ceiling. What was she going to do? She didn't want to be a vampire, or a slayer, or any sort of supernatural being. She'd always assumed that she'd graduate from high school, then college, meet some nice guy and fall in love, settle down, start a family, and grow old. It wasn't anything extraordinary, but then how many people grew up to do something truly good and wonderful in the world? Not many. She should've died last night on the bridge. She'd been ready. She'd sacrificed her life for her siblings, but now they were sentenced to live for eternity, or at least she could assume that much. Did she want to live forever? She had no idea. All she knew was that she could debate the reasons to complete and not to complete her transition until she literally keeled over in a few days, or she could focus on the decision itself.
To feed or not to feed - that was the question.