DISCLAIMER: I own no one except for Anni, Hopie, and the Dark Council, and I'm very good at sharing, so if you feel the sudden urge to take one of my babies out to play, just email me first. All other characters are the property of the esteemed Joss Whedon and his entourage of minions.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry it's taken me a while to update. (Research is going well for my paper, but slowly.) For clarity's sake, I'm going to be putting an extra space in between scene changes. I hope that helps. If you're still confused, feel free to ask questions, and rest assured to the person who requested it, the kindergarten class play is coming up in a few chapters… hehehe, I can't wait. Oh, and in my little universe, The Magic Box is still open and in good shape. Happy reading, and please review. Keep the requests coming!
Le Bella: Chapter Nine
The attack was quick and brutal, and Anni had to throw all of her body weight into blocking the kick. She moved quickly, agilely, blocking punches. She looked the enemy straight in the eye, trying to guess her next move. It came in the form of a left hook, and Anni dodged it just in time. The movement left her off balance, leaning slightly leftward. Her opponent seized the opportunity and sent her flying with a round house kick. She landed none too softly on her butt, halfway across the room.
"Sorry," Buffy said. Anni didn't think she looked very sorry at all. Only a few scant minutes into their first training session, and Buffy was already pushing the girl to new limits. Anni was a refreshing sparring partner: graceful, agile, and smart on the defense. She tended to shy away from offensive movements, and Buffy was trying hard to break her of the habit.
"You have to be aggressive, Anni," she said. "The vamp isn't just going to stake himself. You may be able to keep yourself safe with defensive maneuvers, but try protecting someone else while simply dodging blows without dishing out any of your own. Not so much so with the easy."
Anni shot Buffy a dirty look, but broke into a smile after a few seconds. Training with Buffy was different than what she had expected. The Council's tests had been regimented, strict, and of the unsmiley persuasion. Training with Buffy was almost like… like fun.
Dawn stood in the doorway of the training room and tried hard not to glare at Anni. It had taken her years to talk Buffy into training with her, and here Anni was, only twelve, and Buffy was sparring at almost three-quarter force. Dawn recalled the image of Anni flying across the floor, looking for all the world like a disgruntled flying squirrel with long brownish hair. She couldn't help but smile.
Buffy noticed Dawn standing in the doorway. "Hey babe," she said. "What's up?"
Dawn couldn't think of any quippy reply, so she just shrugged and said, "Giles and Wesley wanted me to tell you that you and Anni have been in here over an hour, and that you're making, and I quote 'a terrible racket.' What kind of expression is that? That's like saying 'horrid din" or, I don't know 'searing appetite' or…"
"Searing appetite?" Buffy said skeptically. Dawn shrugged.
"Must be a British thing," she replied.
"Not a British thing," Anni corrected, "a Watcher thing." Anni gave Dawn a firm look, and Dawn felt distinctly younger than the much smaller girl.
"Well, Anni, looks like we're done for now on the orders of the Brit Brigade out there, but next time, I want to see some more aggression, and try not to favor your right side quite so much," Buffy felt all official like. It felt good to pass on the slayer knowledge, but her heart went out to the girl. It was a hard life, the old adage of a blessing and a curse definitely applied.
"You favor your right side too," Anni replied. She gave Buffy a quick impish grin and bounded out of the room, for once looking like a twelve year old.
"You up for it?" Buffy asked Dawn, noticing her sister's scowl. Dawn smiled.
"Sure," she replied. Dawn got herself psyched up to spar, and Buffy reminded herself that she would have to take it a lot easier on her little sister than on Anni.
Hopie was excited. It was Friday, and that meant that when school was out, she and Momma and Daddy and Connor and everybody would be going down to Sunnydale, and she would get to see Bella and maybe play with some fun magic stuff.
"Okay, boys and girls. Come sit on the magic circle. It's story time!" The teacher was pleased that the school day was almost over, and there had been no tickle wars, no incidences of monster related mischief.
"What story?" asked Sam, always the little boy enable to keep the words behind his mouth.
"If You Give a Mouse a Cookie," the teacher replied. Originally, she had planned on reading Where the Wild Things Are, but given the kids' penchant for being little ankle biting demon mongers, she figured that the other book was probably a better idea.
Hopie sat quietly and listened to the story. She had an idea.
Lindsey and Faith were lying on the floor of the hotel, snuggling innocently. Lindsey had his arm wrapped around her shoulder, and the two of them were staring off into space. Faith looked at the ring on her finger. It wasn't a typical engagement ring.
"Would you like something else?" Lindsey asked. "It's fourth century Kayan. I know it's not gold and diamonds, but I thought…"
Faith socked him in the stomach with her right hand, never taking her eyes off of the ring on her left hand. "It's perfect," she said, "and I won't here you defaming my baby."
"It's your baby already?" Lindsey asked. "I was hoping that your baby, my baby would be a bit more human and a little less circular."
Faith grinned at him, completely unable to keep the grin from spreading over her face even as her stomach clutched at the mention of the children she would never be worthy of having. Pushing the thought out of her mind, she looked at the ring again. The band was silver, the kind of silver that was obviously very old but in very good condition. In the center was a single pentagonal shaped diamond, surrounded by five stones of different colors: ruby, sapphire, amethyst, emerald, and a deep black stone Faith didn't recognize.
"They say," Lindsey whisper, kissing her knuckles softly, "that the stone in the middle represents two people united in true love. The others embody the love of those closest to them." The two of them stared at the stones, smiling in a soft goofy way.
Giles looked up as Anni entered the room, and he couldn't help but smile at the very much so kidlike grin on her face. "So Buffy finally decided to let you take a break?" he asked her.
Anni looked at Giles, still unsure of how she felt about the man. His voice was pleasant enough, but the accent felt familiar, and she was more than ready to throw familiarity out the window. No good had ever come from a British adult wearing tweed, at least not in Anni's world.
"How is the research going?" she questioned, impeccably polite. Wesley tried not to raise his eyebrows. Anni seemed to put on her polite face whenever she talked to Giles. It couldn't have been just the accent, because he wasn't sure he'd ever seen the polite face aimed at his person. Sure, he'd seen ticked off face and her sassy don't-mess-with-me face, polite-face was strictly a Giles thing.
Giles rubbed his brow. "Decently enough, I suppose," he replied, "considering that the Dark Council is supposed to be no more than a myth. The only reference I've been able to find is in a Dankyan scroll from around four thousand years ago. It talks about the Dark Ones who guard the kcyna, but I can't seem to translate the meaning of the word, let alone pronounce it."
"Ka-si-nah," Wesley and Anni said simultaneously. Giles looked at Anni, surprised.
"You're familiar with the Dankyan language?" Giles questioned. Anni rolled her eyes, safely out of polite mode and into teenagers-aren't-stupid-you-know mode.
"Yes," she said primly. She glanced over his shoulder. "The kcyna literally means 'of the side of not,' but since it comes in the second movement of the sentence, I believe that the translation is closer to 'the other one,' where the other has an overtone of 'not' or darkness." Now it was Wesley's turn to stare at her, impressed. She was far more capable than he had been at that age, and for that matter, quicker than he was now.
"See," Anni said, sticking her tongue out at Wes, "told you I'm not stupid." She flounced off to the counter. Wes didn't know whether to be happy that Anni was feeling comfortable enough that she could be obnoxious or to be annoyed that she had been obnoxious. Pride in his sister won out.
Anni carefully watched until the moment Wes was knee deep in his own translation. She knew if she caught him at just the right moment, he would agree, unknowingly to anything. "Hey Wes," she said.
"Yes?" Wesley said, not really paying attention.
"I'm going to head back to the house. I'd like a shower." She made her voice as innocent as she could without dripping sugar.
"All right," Wesley said, turning the ancient page very carefully.
Anni headed out the door, planning on doing some exploration on the way home. She hadn't lied. She'd just take the scenic route, maybe go by the cemetery, checking for crypts, or better yet, she'd go to a bookstore. A real book store, with books about romance where the main characters had names like Raoul and Cynthia and demons weren't mentioned even once. She smiled at the thought.
As she opened the door, Wes came to his senses, "Anni, luv," he said. "Stop. Turn." Anni turned and gave him an innocent smile. "Not alone," he said. "And I'd greatly appreciate it if you didn't try to catch me off guard while I'm translating."
"What?" Anni asked petulantly. "Haven't you ever heard of multitasking?" Wes broke into a grin despite himself. Anni had fire. She had survived his parents' house with her personality in tact. That, in itself, was a miracle.
Dawn and Buffy came out of the training room. "Can either of you walk home with Anni?" Giles asked. Anni shot him a grateful smile.
"Actually, I'm going to make a little more with the training, but Dawnie will do it," Buffy replied. Dawn sighed. Anni took mental notes. Dawn played the petulant teen to perfection.
"So," Anni said as they walked out of the Magic Box," any chance I can talk you into hitting the bookstore on the way home?" Dawn reluctantly agreed, figuring Anni probably wanted to get some I'm-special-and-smart-and-slayery book.
"Does that really happen if you give a mouse a cookie?" Hopie asked seriously.
"Well, I don't know," the teacher replied with a grin. "I've never tried. Hopie thought about it for a moment. She needed to find out.
When her momma came and picked her up from school, Hopie beamed at her.
Cordelia let out a sigh of relief when the teacher gave her a happy wave. Hopie had obviously not been the little slayer/seer/Shanshu she truly was. "How was school?" Cordy asked her, trying not to feel guilty about making the little girl pretend to be someone she wasn't.
Hopie looked at her seriously. "Can I have a mouse?" she asked. Cordelia blanched at the question. Usually when Hopie started a sentence with the words "can I have" the sentence ended with a specific weapon, as in "can I have that battle axe?"
"We'll think about it," Cordelia said. When they got home, Connor and Angel were engaged in a heated debate.
"I can't believe you!" Connor said angrily.
"Well, that goes double for me, little man," Angel said, deliberately enticing his son's temper.
"Ernie is weak," Connor said, shooting his father a dirty look.
Angel gasped in outrage. "How can you say that? Like Grover is strong," he said, bashing Connor's favorite character.
"Hey, he may be wiry…"
"Scrawny," Angel corrected.
"He may be wiry," Connor corrected in a low, angry voice, "but there's steel in there somewhere, I tell you."
The two of them glared at each other, and it looked as if they were going to come to blows. Cordy cleared her throat. "Boys," she said, trying not to lose it in laughter. "I'm sure Grover and Ernie are both equally manly. Can't you just agree that all of the Sesame Street characters have the same potential for battle and let it go?"
"Okay," both of them muttered, realizing that they were fighting about their favorite Sesame Street characters in front of witnesses.
"Grover doesn't have a rubber ducky," Angel whispered.
"Thank God," Connor whispered back.
Hopie wandered over to the kitchen counter and climbed up on it so that she could reach the cabinet. She frowned when she saw that there weren't any cookies inside. Instead, she picked up a box of saltine. She wondered… what happened when you gave a vampire a cracker?
"Daddy," she said in a very sweet voice, running toward him. It was time to put the theory to test.
Upstairs, Faith and Lindsey were still lying close to each other. "Who do you think they are?" Faith asked finally. Lindsey looked at her, confused. "The other stones. Who do you think they are?"
Lindsey looked at them carefully. "The sapphire," he said, looking at the joyful blue stone, "is definitely Hopie. Young, well defined, and original."
"The black has got to be Angel," Faith decided. "Broody but somehow shiny and well intentioned." Lindsey gently kissed her hand. "The ruby is probably Cordelia," Faith said, wondering how in the world she had come to think of Cordelia of all people as family.
"The emerald, and please don't hit me, baby," Lindsey said, "is Buffy."
"B?" Faith questioned.
Lindsey nodded. "The two of you are connected in a way that neither of you could ever change."
They both stared at the last stone, neither of them knowing the owner. The amethyst stared back at them.
Dawn's mouth dropped open when she saw the books Anni was holding. "The Heiress Bride?" she questioned the girl. "Only Pleasure? Once and Always?" Anni grinned, turning a little red.
"They aren't smutty," she assured the older girl. "They're just fun, and romantic." The girl sighed, and Dawn couldn't help but soften to her.
Dawn picked up a book of her own, a man with his shirt off on the cover. "I bet this one is smutty," she said. Anni's blush deepened as she thought unwillingly of Connor.
The girls sat down and read random sentences out of the book. It was indecent, and very, very funny.
"We probably shouldn't be doing this," Anni said.
"Definitely not," Dawn replied, "but I want to know what happens when Arianna finds out Carlos was cheating on her."
Their leader sat, quietly, his frown deepening as he felt the girl's laughter. The darkness was leaving her heart. No matter. It would be more difficult, but they could still take the girl, make the transfer, and once her blood had been drained by the anointed one carrying the essence, the rest was of little matter. They would force the blood down her throat if they needed to, and then the essence would give her the powers of a slayer, multiplied by her vampire strength. Add in the power that had been accumulating in the essence for ages, and he would be more than a match for a normal slayer. The archslayer would rise, and The Dark Council would reap the benefits.
Willow stood in the doorway, looking at Wesley. Why do I feel this way? She wondered. Her stomach made little fluttering feelings and her heart beat a little faster. I'm not supposed to feel like this about him, she told herself, for a gallon of reasons, not the least of which being that he's Wesley and I'm gay.
"Don't put limits on who you love," she heard a familiar voice whisper. Perhaps it was all in her imagination, or perhaps she had just been given the blessing she needed.
"Thank you," she whispered softly, hoping that somehow Tara would hear her. She crossed over to Wesley.
"Oh dear," he said.
"What oh dear?" she questioned him.
"Did Anni and Dawn make it home safely?" he asked her.
Willow stared at him. "I was just there, and they weren't home yet," she replied.
"They left three hours ago," Wes replied worried. Willow touched her hand gently to his shoulder. They were both surprised at the connection that literally sparked between them, lighting the area around he hand slightly. Then the touch settled into a warm, comfortable, almost easy touch, and Wes tried to tell himself Anni would be alright. Then he remembered. An idea, perhaps the obvious idea, had just occurred to him.
"The Dark Council, they know that Anni is a slayer-in-waiting." Giles shook his head.
"Impossible," he said. "Those records are sealed so tightly that I couldn't even get ahold of them."
"They know," Wes replied, sure of himself. "And they want her."
"What for?" Giles asked.
Kcyna, Wes thought. Of course. Wes stared at Giles, mentally willing the other man to remember everything he had ever heard about the spoken Myth of Turot.
Giles's eyes flew open, just as the Fang Gang walked into the door.
"Turot," he muttered, "but that's just a myth."
"Guess what?" Hopie shouted, unable to keep the secret to herself.
"What?" Willow asked, her hand still on Wesley's shoulder.
"We're engaged!" Hopie cried, running to Faith and Lindsey's side.
Everyone squealed their excitement, including Spike who had appeared as the sun set. Angel, wary of rubber ducky comments, didn't comment on Spike's girly squeal.
"Congratulations," Giles told Lindsey. "Now tell me everything you know about Turot."
Hopie offered Angel another cracker, hoping that this time he'd take it. Angel declined the offer, and Hopie's heart sank.
"Hey Mr. Spike," she said batting her eyelashes at the peroxide tinted vampire. Spike returned the look, trying to avoid falling under her powers of cuteness. "Want a cracker?" She looked so hopeful that Spike took it and ate it quickly.
"Anya keep any blood around here?" Spike questioned. Giles pointed toward the storage room.
Hmmm, Hopie thought… If you give a vampire a cracker, he's going to want some blood.
TBC… More info coming on the Dark Council, Turot, and the archslayer, don't worry, and I promise I'll actually remember to put Anya and Xander in the next chapter, and we'll see some more Hopie fighting action and some Dawn/Connor-y goodness as well as another Anni-Wes confrontation. Any other requests, let me know, and I'd love ideas for the continuation of "If you give a Vamp a cracker."
This was the longest chapter I've ever written and it took me forever, so if you enjoyed it and you have a heart…REVIEW!!!!!