Title: Rebirth: Family
Author: Arjen

Length: About 14.000 words
Summary: A chance meeting in
London has consequences beyond anything they could have imagined.
Pairings: Nothing really. Like in Rebirth: Noir, there's nothing that stands in the way of a relationship between Kirika and Mireille but it isn't important to the story so you can read it anyway you like.

Rating: PG-13.
Crossover: Noir

Disclaimer: All characters are property of Mutant Enemy,
ADV films and whoever else wants to lay claim to them. Everything that I thought up is made using their property so I can't really claim that either.
Feedback: Preferably constructive criticism, tell me what I've done right and wrong and I'll be happy. Flames I consider as written by five years old who according to that ridiculous rating system aren't allowed to read this.
Chronology: Rebirth: Noir, Rebirth: Family, Rebirth. The first chapter of Rebirth will be posted simultaneously with the last chapter of this story.

Author's Note: This story has nothing to do with the Black Sunrise stories, except that I got the idea for that while writing this one. In case you're unfamiliar with Noir, I have posted a primer for the series in my story The Day After.

Background: Post Season 7 for Buffy, she and Dawn are doing their Europe thing but have been called to London. Kirika and Mireille from Noir are there as well, in reaction to the events of Rebirth: Noir. That story isn't necessary to understand this one but can be found on

A horizontal line indicates a change of POV

Chapter 1:

While the sun was doing its best to warm her, Dawn still felt cold and she couldn't believe the crazy people in this country called it autumn. Burrowing a little more in her far too thin jacket she cursed the lack of a decent coat to wear. If it hadn't been for the fact that she had felt so cooped up she would never have gone out today.

Uttering a soft sigh she amended that statement. She would have gone out even if it had been freezing, for the first time since she and Buffy had arrived in London it had finally stopped raining and she really needed to get away from the older girl. It was ridiculous how much the two of them were still at each others throats but it was almost as if they couldn't help it. So now she was walking towards the one place in this dismal country, where people couldn't even drive on the right side of the road, that she had learned to love.

The city had a number of parks and after they had first come here several months ago she had found one that she really liked. The place where she had been able to think about everything that had happened to her during the last couple of years. She had spent hours there, lying in the grass and enjoying the sun, while trying to figure everything out. It had been there that she had tried to deal with the loss of those who hadn't made it out of Sunnydale and where she had finally really faced down the insecurities about her own existence.

Of course, it wasn't all as simple as that but at least she had started to deal with those things then and now several months later she was returning to the park having made a lot of progress. Halting her progress for a moment she checked the streets before crossing the busy street to the coffee shop that told her she was almost at her destination. The excitement of returning there was greater than she had actually anticipated and with her heart in her throat she sped up until she finally turned the corner, only to stop in wonder at the sight before her.

Where the park had been beautiful during the summer, the way the leaves were changing colors now was just incredible. She had half expected to be disappointed by the sight that would great her, after all she had been pinning some high expectations on it for the last couple of days, but this array of colors was breathtaking. The cold forgotten and all her worries put aside Dawn walked into the small park.

The wonderful aroma she always associated with trees assaulted her nose and managed to drive out every other smell. Walking between the trees she enjoyed the peace it brought and tried to shut out the sounds of civilization as she moved towards the clearing she had spent so much of her time. Giddy with joy at once again walking in this little peace of heaven she arrived at the tiny lake, well she realized that realistically it should have been called a pond but that didn't quite have the same ring to it.

There however her good mood evaporated a little, it seemed that she hadn't been the only one who thought that now would be a nice time to visit here. Looking around she tried to find a free seat on one of the benches but as she had already half-expected there wasn't one.

During the summer she had spent most of her time lying on the grass but she didn't even have to actually feel it in order to know that option was out today. With the way it had been raining for the past week orso it wasn't exactly dry anymore and she refused to sit down on wet grass, especially in this cold. Putting her hands in the pocket of her jacket she realized that once again she was feeling the cold and Dawn didn't like that anymore than she did the fact she couldn't sit down.

Walking over to the lake she took her time to look at the ducks and other birds still inhabiting the bit of water. After all, she needed to do something until a seat opened up for her. Luckily she hadn't come totally unprepared for this event and took out the bread she had smuggled out of Giles' apartment. Feeding the birds she wondered if they shouldn't be moving south or something. She had never really paid attention to what birds actually did when it got cold but she didn't think they could like this weather anymore then she did.

Now she was thinking of the cold again! She knew that was stupid since it only made her feel colder but she couldn't help it. Out of the corner of her eye she then noticed something she had been waiting for. A blonde woman was saying goodbye to her friend, opening up a place she could sit down, and Dawn immediately started walking to the bench. After all, it wouldn't do if someone else was going to sit in what she now deemed to be her spot.

. . . .

"Hi, do you mind if I sit here?" Dawn asked the Japanese girl who already occupied the bench.

A slight shake of the head was all the answer she received but that was enough for her. Sitting down she let out a sigh of relief before she introduced herself to the other. "I'm Dawn, what's your name?"

The answer didn't come immediately and when it came it was spoken so softly she almost missed it. "Nice to meet you, Kirika. So what brings you here? Are you on vacation or do you live in London?"

For the first time she got a good look at the other's face as she turned to face Dawn. She had already noticed the girl was short and unlike her didn't appear to even notice the cold. Nobody should be able to wear only a thin jacket in that cold and then not even have the decency to close it! But now that she could see in her face the thing that most surprised her was how innocent the girl's eyes looked. She had no idea anyone could actually be that innocent but then most people she had met knew about vampires and stuff.

"Business." Huh? Oh the girl had answered her.

"Really? What kind of business?" Hey, it couldn't hurt to ask, could it? Although the short flash in the girl's eyes showed her that no matter how innocent she appeared there were things she didn't want to talk about. "Okay, sorry I asked. Anyway I am on vacation myself, well sort of. My sister has a meeting with someone and I was dragged along, all the way from Napels! I mean it was hot there not this ridiculous weather."

She had expected the other to say something by now in reply and when no answer came she frowned a little in surprise. "You don't talk much, do you?"

Once again she was answered only by the girl shaking her head.

"Okay, do you mind if I talk then? I've been cooped up with Giles and Buffy for the past days with all this rain and they're driving me mad." After Kirika had once again, silently, indicated she didn't mind Dawn started talking. The only time she noticed Kirika was paying any attention to her was when she had mentioned Sunnydale. And despite everything she had no intention of diving into that cesspool of memories so she quickly diverted the talk once more to the things she had seen and done for the past months.


After dinner the two of them had hardly spoken a word as they checked their weapons and went over the blueprints again. Both had been focused on their target, because tonight they would finish what had started with the bomb they found in their apartment. As Kirika walked alongside Mireille through the streets of London she was thinking about why it had taken them so long to reach this point. After they had received the information from that strange shopkeeper it would have been best if they'd gone after Billings right away but that hadn't been possible.

The wounds she had received during their fight with that cult had been severe enough that she wouldn't have been able to perform as well as this mission required. That didn't mean they had spent the idle time uselessly, there had been the whole mess with the Parisian police that had needed to be straightened out and several other things had cropped up as well. But now they were finally on their way and she was more than happy to see this particular target go down. After all, he had ordered people to kill Mireille and in her opinion that meant this particular member of Soldats was suicidal.

However, none of that mattered now that they were standing here in the gentle moonlight. As she looked over the mansion in the middle of London that housed their target Kirika could already feel her emotions being shuffled to the background as a preparation for what she was about to do. It wasn't that the killing bothered her, after all the people in there were all killers themselves and even if they hadn't been it wouldn't have stopped her. In her life she had killed quite a few innocents, not that all of them had been completely innocent but a target was a target whether it was five years old or seventy. However this time the fighting would be in revenge and she didn't want to run the risk that her emotions would interfere and thereby endanger Mireille or even herself.

"It's time." The words drifted through the night until they reached her and Kirika looked at her partner who had spoken them. Mireille looked back at her and without another word being spoken they both knew what had to happen. Remaining silent they moved out of the light in the streets, put on their gloves, screwed the silencers on their guns and split up.

. . . .

Walking along the left side of the wall enclosing their target Kirika looked for the tree she had selected as her point of entry during an earlier scouting. Her mind fully concentrated on the mission she wasn't even capable of wondering about the strange state her mind was in now. Instead she just accepted the way she was so much more aware of everything around her, it wasn't that her senses were sharpened although the result was the same. No, instead of sharpened they were focused. Focused in a way that could only come with years of training where she had learned to distinguish between the relevant and the irrelevant.

Right now she still heard, saw and even smelled everything like she had before but she was completely focused on the important things. Everything that she didn't see as such was shunted away while the others were brought to the foreground. That wasn't all that different from how anyone else saw the world but, unlike anyone else, she didn't have any emotions interfering with the decisions on the importance of things.

Seeing the world through these emotionless eyes had been a little disconcerting when she had purposely done so for again at the clinic but it had paid of and now she was capable of doing it without any feelings of guilt. Guilt that had overridden her emotionless state that first time. Guilt that had been caused by remembering the last time she had been in a similar state. And since she had tried to kill her partner then it wasn't a time she recalled with anything resembling fondness.

When she reached the tree she looked around carefully to ensure nobody was watching before, with a running leap, she used the wall to launch herself high enough to grab onto the branch that extended over the wall. Holding onto the rough surface she hung still for a moment while she tried to detect any surveillance devices. This was not the time for the occupants of the mansion to know of her arrival, yet.

When she didn't see anything that might warn anyone she was there Kirika swung herself on top of the wall where she crouched more comfortably in an attempt to locate the camera's she knew were there. According to the information they had received their target mainly relied on human protection inside the mansion but in the surrounding garden it was a totally different story. However, experience had taught her that every surveillance system, human or otherwise, had exploitable weaknesses. And once she had determined the safest route to the door it wasn't difficult for her to get there undetected.

In this case timing was the greatest issue, so she had to wait for the chosen moment before she entered the building. Once that time had come however she took out her silenced gun and tried to open the door. It opened easily enough but she had no doubt that in some room warning lights had started flashing. Throwing the door completely open she dove through the opening while searching out the camera. The moment she spotted it was the same moment the camera was destroyed and her entrance was known to the security detail.

That however had been the plan, with the amount of security this place held it would have been impossible for the two of them to enter undetected. But now it was likely that they would be focusing on her, leaving her partner's entrance undetected. It hadn't been easy to convince the blonde that she should be the one to run this risk even though they both knew she was the better fighter of the two. But in the end she had succeeded in doing so. And now while she was drawing attention to herself Mireille would be coming up from behind the guards and take out as many as she could without giving away her presence as well.

Kirika didn't think about that however as she already knew what she had to do. Moving silently through the hallway leading away from the door she knew it was only a matter of time before someone would finally appear. However she kept shooting every camera she found and knew therefore that the guards wouldn't have any more of an idea of what to expect than she did. Which naturally gave her the advantage.

The sound of hurrying footsteps almost came as a relief as she knew her part of the plan had indeed worked. Quickly hiding inside one of the rooms she waited until the men had passed her door before she came out of it. Pulling the trigger twice caused her to smell the familiar scent of cordite while she was also certain these guards would never again be a problem.

. . . .

According to the blueprints she had studied the most dangerous part of the house was right before her. It was a large room containing one of the two staircases that led upstairs, offering a lot of possibilities for the defenders. The room was one that she couldn't ignore since it not only led upstairs to her target but was also the only route to where they had decided the security station was most likely located.

However, knowing she had to go through it and actually doing so were unfortunately two completely different things. As she reached the half-open door to the room she only needed a single glance to know the situation was worse than expected. The room itself was completely lit up by a large number of lamps, while the balustrade that encircled the staircase was completely dark. That wasn't something she was happy about, besides having the advantage of height the guards now also had the advantage that they could see her while she couldn't see them.

There was no doubt in her mind that it didn't really matter where she'd stand inside the room, at least one guard would be able to carefully aim at her. Getting through this alive would not be easy but she didn't have the time to wait until her partner would get here to take care of this threat. With her back to the wall she sat down on the carpeted floor before she closed her eyes and focused her senses entirely on the input from her ears.

Focused completely on her hearing Kirika tried to find out the location of those in the other room. It wasn't easy but with her knowledge of the room she could compose a mental map on which she was able to plot every little sound. For some guards it was shuffling their feet that gave them away, in another case it was a cough. In the end there was no way for anyone in the otherwise silent room to completely hide from her. While she couldn't be as certain of the position of those at the far end of the room she was able to get a general sense of where they were and how many she would face.

Too many, there were too many of them for her to take out without getting killed herself. Unless… An idea struck her, it wasn't the best idea she had ever had and wasn't exactly without risks but if it went as it should she'd be able to kill all of them without dieing herself. The thought that if it didn't work she might be the one to end up dead didn't even enter her mind as she raced back for the guns of the two guards she had killed earlier.

These guns were both more powerful than her own and held a greater number of bullets. Neither of which was usually important to her since in most cases there weren't all that many targets and she'd be close enough for the difference in power not to matter. In this case however both of those factors did matter and after a quick check to see if everyone was still where she had thought they were she dove into the room.

Her action had apparently taken the guards by surprise because by the time she had rolled with the dive and was up on her feet again nobody had fired on her yet. Yet Kirika knew that this was only a temporary relief and therefore started the firefight herself. With a gun in each hand she took off for the stairs while firing at the people above her. The idea had been fairly simple, if the guards were worried about getting hit themselves they wouldn't pay as much attention to aiming at her. Another side benefit was that if this wouldn't focus all the attention of the guards on her, instead of Mireille, she had no idea what would.

And indeed the gamble seemed to pay of as she hadn't been hit by a single bullet when her guns ran out of them. By that time however she was already halfway up the stairs and simply dropped the guns while putting even more speed into her run. A searing pain suddenly emanated from her left arm as a bullet hit it and she ended her sprint with yet another dive but this time into the safety of darkness.

For a moment she sat completely still so she could allow her eyes to get used to the sudden lack of light. While she did so Kirika gently prodded her arm where it had been hurt but with relief discovered it had only been grazed. Bringing her hand to her mouth she did taste blood but since a little bleeding seemed to be the only thing wrong she paid the wound no more attention. By now her eyes had adjusted to the darkness sufficiently for her to be able to recognize shapes and she went to look for the guards that were probably wondering where she had gone.

. . . .

Walking down the stairs, Kirika exchanged her empty clip for a fresh one before making her way for the door that led to the security center. Gingerly stepping over the body of a guard that had fallen over the railing she wondered how many there were left. It couldn't be that many as she had taken care of almost a dozen by herself and she was pretty certain her partner had handled some as well. She wasn't about to let her guard down however and when she had opened the door she didn't immediately step through.

When no bullets came flying out of it though she peeked around the corner and looked down the corridor. The door to the security desk was easily recognizable and had she been able to feel emotions she was pretty certain she would have felt some kind of pride about their correct prediction. With nobody in the corridor itself she was free to make her way to the room undetected but when she opened the door a hail of bullets indicated it was still occupied.

A quick look showed her there was only one man inside and while he looked rather nervous he also looked determined. That of course was always the biggest problem, by killing all the guards the survivors knew it was a question of kill or be killed and that always motivated them to do their best. But there was nothing she could do about that besides motivating this one's fellow guards even more.

Despite the shallow wound shifting her gun to her left hand was the logical course of action and she did so. After pulling the trigger until the bullets once again ran out she waited for the return fire to come. When it didn't come she chanced another look inside but even though she pulled her head back as fast as possible splinters of the doorframe still hit her face. The wounds themselves weren't all that important but the fact that her target had been calm enough to wait before firing was.

That last glance had also shown her that the guard was safely ensconced behind a metal filing-cabinet. Unlike her however he wasn't ambidextrous and in order to fire he had to come out from behind the cabinet. That did offer her a chance but she wasn't in a position to make use of it right now, she needed to get inside the room. During her glance she had noticed a desk which should provide enough cover for her. So she once again emptied her gun at her opponent but instead of remaining where she was, this time she ran into the room until she was behind the desk.

There was no doubt in her mind that the other must have heard her movement and know she was in the room. On the other hand he might not know where in the room she was, therefore she put the fresh clip as quietly as possible into her gun. The amount of bullets she had spent on this one person was almost worrying and she counted how many clips she had left. That wasn't as high a number as she liked so she understood it was necessary for her to take care of this guard as fast as possible.

Chancing a look over the top of the desk she discovered that her opponent was indeed unaware of her position but that probably wouldn't last long. This time however she had the advantage and she only needed to wait long enough until he stuck out his head. Once that happened she merely pulled the trigger and was free to deal with anything inside the room that might be used to identify either Mireille or herself.

. . . .

On her way to the target's office she passed the bodies of several dead guards confirming that her partner had not been idle either. When she neared the door leading to that office she could see Mireille trying to listen to whatever was being said inside. The fact that she was doing so while standing between several corpses didn't seem to bother her at all, not that it should. Moving forward she put her own ear to the wooden door.

"… don't care what you've heard. The Japanese girl is still alive."

The ensuing silence told Kirika that the conversation she was hearing was by telephone, so she waited until the target spoke up once more. "Yes, I'm certain, she's just killed over half of my security forces you useless twit!"

The silence following that wasn't very long as within moments Billings could be heard cursing and unless she was very much mistaken the phone had just been shattered by hitting a wall. "Curse those knights! If I live through tonight I'll have them killed!"

Knights? Who could that be? She didn't have long however before the target called out for someone who was no longer alive. Using that opening the two of them opened the door and stepped outside.

"Jake, I haven't heard…" The man turned around to further talk to what he presumed to be his employee but when he noticed who had actually come into the room he blanched in fear before whispering. "Both."

His shock didn't last long however and he started to bring his own gun up. Not that it really mattered, Kirika thought dispassionately, as she watched the man die when two silenced bullets impacted on his forehead.

Letting her partner take the lead she watched as Mireille started shuffling through the files on the desk. "Before you arrived he had been talking about some kind of deal he had with those knights. Something about a trade where our deaths was the side of the knights."

A trade? Someone had been willing to risk their anger for some sort of trade? As the mission was over emotion slowly began to bleed back into her and she could feel surprise overtake her. It must have been obvious to her partner as she elaborated.

"They were supposed to kill us and Billings would deliver someone to them. I'm pretty sure the file on that person is here somewhere." The blonde continued to search through the disorderly pile before with a triumphant sound she pulled it out. "This is the person he would have delivered to them."

When Mireille then opened the file and showed it to Kirika she looked in the face of the girl she had spent the afternoon with.

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Post-fic comments: I hope you enjoyed the story and might actually leave some feedback as well. This story consists of three chapters, the next one will be posted in two days.