"So are we in this together?" Angela asked, holding her cup towards them.

Angel and Temperance turned and stared at each other, then down at the babies in their arms. Their sweet faces, their chubby hands, their perfect fingernails. They looked back at each other and Temperance sucked in a breath. She turned and looked at Angela. The resolve in her face evident.

She lifted her mug and held it high, and looked back at Angel. He looked back down at his daughter, gently slipping his pinky finger out of her mouth and picked up his mug. The corner of his mouth pulling up into a half smile. He felt his chest fill with pride and love for this woman. She was a scientist. An academic. A genius. She had lived in a world of order and common sense and scientific facts. He had somehow broken through that crusty old wall that she had surrounded herself with, where the supernatural, the inexplicable, the weird and the unbelievable never penetrated. She had opened herself up to him. Let it all in. Believed in him. Loved him unconditionally. She had taken him to her and borne him children. And now she was about to follow him once again into a place where she had never trodden. And he loved her.

He held his mug out and pulled his gaze away from her eyes, and looked at Angela who was smiling widely. He trusted this little woman completely. He had no choice but to.

"We are about to embark on a journey my friends. Together we shall triumph. As it is written." Angela spoke. She clinked her mug against theirs and took a long draught. Angel and Temperance also drank. The three of them sat at the table and just stared at the sleeping forms of the babies that were going to be their salvation.

Temperance looked up at Angel and leaned in close to him and whispered in his ear "I still don't know why she keeps pouring me cups of that god-awful black sludge." Angel burst out laughing and felt his spirit lift. It was going to be alright. He just knew it.


Angel sat in the deck chair watching his four children playing in the yard. Cordy had taken charge again. As she always did. Organizing everyone into their given roles in the game. She was the General. Again. Seeley was Captain, and Max and Kathy were her minions. He smiled and shook his head. Even in play, they were preparing, and they had no idea. Temperance sat down on the arm of his chair and pulled his head to her. They sat leaning into each other watching their four children unknowingly train for something that none of them understood.

It had been three years since they found out about their children and the so called "gifts" they had inherited. Angel still had moments of guilt over it all. He felt responsible. Seeley and Cordy, who were almost ten, were not genetically his children, although doctors would beg to differ. His DNA was identical to their biological father, and in his heart, he was certainly their daddy. But their abilities were an anomaly.

Even Angela Anderson, their neighbour and it turned out, guide, had been stumped as to how these two became entrenched in the mess that was the Shanshu. All she could ascertain was that two protectors were prophesised. Angel and Temperance had assumed that would be them. But it had become increasingly apparent that it was Seeley and Cordy. Seeley was psychic and had recently developed signs of kinesis.

Cordy, whilst not having any obvious supernatural talents was a natural soldier. She was a fierce competitor and extremely athletic. Her gymnastics teacher said that she was a one in five hundred thousand find. He desperately wanted to groom her for the Olympics, but Angel and Temperance had turned her down. There was something far more important in her future.

"Daddy! Daaaaddy! wailed Kathy. Angel jumped up and ran over to his tiny daughter. She was being held down by Cordy, who was insisting she fight to get up. Kathy was three, delicate and sensitive. She was the spitting image of Angel, apart from the large cornflower blue eyes she had inherited from her mother. "Cordy, please. She's too little and you know she doesn't like fighting." Angel said as he gently pulled Cordy off of her sister.

"Well how is she ever going to know how to get out of a headlock if I don't teach her!" Cordy said, staring up at her father. He smiled at her, it was like looking at himself as a small child. It always amused him that all four of his children looked exactly like him, although Seeley and Kathy had inherited their mothers gorgeous blue eyes, the rest of their features was purely him, from their wide brows, to their strong noses and chins, and wide mouths with large straight teeth flanked by deep dimples that deepened even further when they smirked or smiled widely.

Max and Seeley ran over to see what was going on. Three heads of wavy warm reddish brown hair bobbed around him as he picked up Kathy and brushed the dirt off her face. "She always does this Dad." Cordy complained. Seeley put his hand on Cordy's arm "She is only three. Maybe she's just too young to play this game" he tried to reason with her. Cordy stared into her twins eyes and then looked up at Angel. "Fine. We'll play something else. More suited to a baby." she poked her tongue out at Kathy who promptly burst into tears.

"Oh Cordy, must you be such a bully?" Angel shook his head and patted Kathy's curls as she cried into his shoulder. Max turned and shoved Cordy "You always make my sissy cry!" he said in his little voice. "She's my sister too. You two are just babies!" yelled Cordy and she grabbed Seeley by the hand and tried to pull him away. "Come on Seels. We can play something by ourselves. We don't want to hurt the little babies" she sneered again. Seeley reached up and patted Kathy's back. "If you like I'll play something you want to Kathy" he said sweetly. Kathy looked down at her big brother, wiping her eyes on her arm and shook her head. She stared at Seeley who nodded and rubbed her back again. "OK Kathy, we'll play later on." He grinned at her and ran after Cordy. Max stood nearby, apart from the others, his head in the air. he's sensing something Angel thought as he watched his tiny son.

Both Kathy and Max were unusual children compared to what was considere the average three year old. They had tried taking them to playgroups when they were younger, but Temperance was always worried that Max would bite someone, or Kathy would just stare at people and talk to them in their heads, which if you didn't understand what was happening, could be quite frightening.

Kathy was empathic and psychic. She often forgot to talk, instead, communicating by pushing her thoughts into ones head. Temperance would often be woken up by a voice in her head. Kathy wanted her and just called her psychically rather than coming to find her and tell her what she wanted. They were trying to deter her from doing this, but it was not easy. How did you explain to a toddler that she was different, and that other children didn't talk in their heads. It was proving to be a difficult exercise. And fortunately, although she was showing signs of being empathic, she was not experiencing anything other than being overly sensitive at times. They were not looking forward to dealing with a child who might possibly feel every pain or sadness of another person.

Then there was Max, who was a Dhampir according to Angela. Which is in layman's terms, half human, half vampire. Max had developed certain senses that Angel could relate to. He had an incredible sense of smell, and could tell you who was going to knock on the door before they had even come up the front path. He had early signs of being able to glamour, which is sort of like hypnotising a person, something that most vampires are quite adept at, but not something you want a three year old being able to do. Angel had often found himself getting a large bowl of icecream and carrying it to Max and Kathy after reading them a bedtime story, when he knew they had already had icecream with their dinner.

Max was extremely quick when he moved at times, he could run like the wind, and his vision was just as good at night as it was during the day. He also healed extremely quickly when injured, his skin never retaining any scarring of any kind. The only downside so far, was his taste for blood. He had developed a bad habit of sucking or licking his own wounds if they bled. Something that upset Temperance greatly. They had been trying to teach him that if he hurt himself and it bled, to come straight inside and get a bandage. But he would often be found licking some scratch or scrape while coming to find Mommy or Daddy.

Their worst nightmare came one day when Kathy had fallen over and scraped her hand. Granted he did help her up and they did come inside for a bandage, however Max was helping his sister by licking the blood off her hand so it didn't get on her dress. Angel had had a very long talk with Max after that. Trying to make him understand that it was not good for him to do that. Max however was only two and a half at the time, so there was a limit as to how much he could understand what his father was saying. Angela had warned them that it was going to be hard work raising these two incredible little beings. She wasn't joking.

The settled quiet family life that Angel and Temperance had been lulled into was long gone. It was going to be a rocky, uneven path that they traversed from now on. What the future held for their children was still not quite clear. Angela Anderson was spending a lot of time researching and poring over ancient scrolls and etchings she had pilfered from Wolfram & Hart many years ago and hidden in her house. She was hoping that she would be able to find some clues as to how these gifted children were going to bring down Wolfram & Hart. IF they were actually going to. That part was still not exactly clear.

Granted it was not going to happen for many years, if in fact it happened at all. Prophecies were occasionally misinterpreted due to the fact that they were never written in a language that translated perfectly into English. They also often held encrypted information that required other scrolls to translate them, or that needed to be read together to correctly understand their meaning. Angel had no patience for prophecies. They had never brought him anything other than grief. Temperance however, was fascinated by them, and she would often spend hours at Angela's home poring over the delicate documents with the elderly woman. She was becoming quite good at translating some of the hieroglyphs, which impressed Angela greatly. It also made Temperance feel less detached from the rest of them, being the only so-called normal one.

Kathy stopped crying and sat curled up in Angels arms, her nose pressed against his neck. He became aware of a thought in his head. He turned and kissed his daughters head. "OK pumpkin, we'll go inside and I'll read you a story." he said softly. Kathy smiled and kissed his neck softly and wrapped her arms tighter around her father's neck as he walked towards the house. Temperance walked over to Max and patted him gently on the shoulder, wanting to break his trance without scaring him. He looked up at his mother and grinned a smile that she recognised immediately, and smiled back down at her little reincarnation of Angel.

"Do you want to come inside and have a drink Max?" She asked him. He stood for a moment, his head cocked to one side staring just past her shoulder. "Do you think we should help that cat down from the tree first mommy?" he asked her. She turned around and looked in the direction that he was staring. The closest tree was about 190 yards away, across 3 back yards. She squinted, but couldn't see anything. She turned back to him and distracted his vision. "I think she will be able to get down, or her owner will help her" she said, gently turning him and propelling him towards the house. "OK." Max said "but he's a boy" he added.

Temperance stared down at him and shook her head. This gift of his was continually growing and expanding. She had considered not enrolling them in kindergarten next year, but she knew that she had to treat them the same way as their other children, as difficult as that was going to be. we have a year to get them socially ready. A whole year. That's doable. Right? she thought in her head.

Max tugged on her hand "We'll be good at kindy mommy. I promise I won't bite anyone and I'll tell Kathy to talk to people with her mouth, OK?" he said and ran off into the house leaving her standing with her mouth hanging open watching him.

"And now he reads thoughts" she said out loud.