DISCLAIMER: I own no one except for Hopie and Anni.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm feeling saddish after the last bout of reviews… several of you regulars didn't review *tear*… anyway, I'm going to try to wrap this up before Christmas break, but it would really help if people would let me know that they were reading it and what they were enjoying. And if you've been reading and enjoying and you've never reviewed… do you have a soul? Or a heart for that matter? It takes me a lot longer to write the story than it would take you to say "yay" or "nay" depending on your reaction. Okay, rant over. Oh well…Love all y'all anyway. -Gidgetgirl
Le Bella: Chapter Eleven
There were few things in life scarier than a hellgod with highlighted hair. One of those things was the world's oldest and most powerful magic thrown into a full blown temper tantrum. Connor was at a loss for actions.
"Hopie," he said reasonably. "Sweetie, you were sleeping and Momma and Daddy had to go help Wes and Buff look for Anni and Dawn.
"They. Should. Have. Woken. Me. Up." Hopie's voice got increasingly louder as she started stamping her feet. "I wanna help fight! I wanna see Bella and Dawn. Now, Connor, Now!" Hopie's eyes darkened, and Connor hoped with all of his Miracle Child being that he could get her calmed down before the force of her will managed to teleport them into the middle of some dangerous fight. It wouldn't have been the first time Hopie had managed to defy all logic and reason with the force of her will. The essence of her ancient magic relied upon her ability as a person to accept or reject a person's essence when that person crossed dimensions. The force of her will had given Angel a soul without a happiness clause… he could only imagine what it could do when she was cranky.
"They'll be fine," Connor said. "Go back to sleep, Hopie-girl." He had picked up Wesley's habit of adding girl to the end of his sister's name when he was losing patience with her. Hopie didn't notice.
"NOW, CONNOR, NOW!" she screamed, throwing herself on the floor. He was mystified at her very un-Hopie like actions. Hopie generally fought with weapons, not tantrums. This was very odd.
Dawn and Anni giggled as they exited the bookstore, falling into one of those hysterical fits for which no one has an explanation other than another burst of giggles. They noticed at the exact same time that it was dark outside, but, in the manner of teenagers, they didn't think anything of it, because they were, after all, invincible.
The hair on the back of Anni's neck stood up as she felt someone, something watching her. She felt a pull in her stomach towards a power, an ancient power. Her power. She shook her head, trying to clear her mind from the hypnotic mind music of the kcyna.
Dawn saw Anni twitching. "Got an itch?" she asked.
Anni shook her head. "No," she replied slowly. "I think someone might be following us."
"Probably," Dawn said in a surprisingly chipper voice. "Someone or other is always trying to kidnap me or kill me or whatnot, but Buffy usually shows up just in time."
Dawn's words proved to be less than prophetic when they were surrounded, seconds later, by vampires wearing dark purple robes. Anni could smell the essence on them, and she knew by looking at them that she and Dawn didn't stand a chance.
"I'm going to kill her," Buffy said simply, no malice in her tone. "How many times does she have to get kidnapped before she figures out that Sunnydale after dark is not the bloody Cosmopolitan?"
"Bloody?" Cordelia asked, raising her eyebrows slightly. Buffy blushed.
"I've been around Spike too much," she said as a way of explanation.
"That's right, pet," Spike said, practically purring in response. Then he straightened up a bit at her look. "I'll have a talk with the Bit," he promised.
Buffy rolled her eyes. Dawn had Spike completely wrapped around his little finger. At the first sign of big round sad Orphan Annie eyes, he was history. Angel would have made some sort of broodily scathing comment about the way the Summers women had him acting, but remembering his last encounter with Hopie's stubborn nature and the Sesame Street incident, he decided it probably wasn't the safest course of action in terms of embarrassment. Besides, he was moving slowly out of brood mode.
"I'm going to kill her," Wes commented to Willow ceremoniously. "How many times do I have to say 'don't run off' to get it through her bloody head?"
"Bloody?" Willow asked.
"I am British, you know," Wes replied, as if all British people said the word bloody as often as they said the word and.
"Maybe she's just feeling kind of lost," Willow said. "She's been through a lot. You have to make allowances for that. Besides, she's with Dawnie, and two teenagers can never be expected to have as much sense together as they do apart."
Wes sighed and looked straight into Willow's eyes. "What would you do if she almost killed herself with that bloody transporter spell again?"
"I'd kill her," Willow replied jovially, hoping that Anni wouldn't do something so stupid again. The last time it had nearly drained her life force. Who knew what it could do if the girl tried it again?
Faith looked at Wesley and Willow, sharing a look with Lindsey. Not too long ago, she had felt like she would never deserve the love of another person again. Lindsey had felt the same way. Now Wes and Willow, the two fallen angels of the group, were sharing the same kind of silent communication that had marked their relationship throughout.
Faith looked down at her ring, carefully admiring her baby even as she expertly scanned the streets for any sign of the girls.
The sapphire was glowing a bright, angry blue. Faith tilted her head to the side. Hopie, she mused silently, was obviously not in the best of tempers. Her Champion sense told her that the small Shanshu child wasn't in any danger. Still, the actual connection of the child to the stone in her ring reminded Faith how much she had grown to love and depend on those around her.
She looked down at the amethyst and noticed it glowing a desperate and urgent purple.
"CONNOR!" Hopie yelled, slamming her small body into the ground. "I wanna go play battle. They need me. They NEED me. THEY NEED…"
Connor slapped his hand gently over Hopie's mouth. "Shhhh," he commanded softly.
Hopie bit him.
"OW!" He gave her a very cross look. "Hope Chase Angel!" he said, knowing that it was just the thing to say when Hopie crossed the line, at least that was what Cordy always said, and Cordy had surprised everyone by taking naturally to motherhood.
Hopie looked at him with innocent little girl eyes that still gleamed a little petulantly. "Wanna go play battle and save Bella," Hopie whimpered.
Connor tried to give her a stern look even though he desperately wanted to kiss her precious little toes. "No," he said firmly. "Anni doesn't need your help, and you, little missy, are in time out."
Where, Anni thought, was help when you needed it? She did her best to shove Dawn behind her, even as the older girl tried to fight her way in front of Anni.
"Don't fight me on this," Anni said lowly. "I'm stronger than you are. They'll have to get through me first."
"But what if they want you?" Dawn said, trying to keep herself from whining to a twelve year old. The idea had just occurred to her. Giles had been doing research about something that was after Anni. What if, for once, she wasn't the center of the evil-kidnap-plotting universe? The thought befuddled Dawn's mind.
Anni gauged her energy level and figured that she could transport herself or Dawn away, but not both. She made her decision instantly, and Dawn found herself in her room at home. She ran downstairs, looking for help, finding Connor staring stoically away from a pouting Hopie.
"Anni," Faith murmured. Lindsey looked at her.
"What?" he asked.
"Didn't Wes say that Turot wore an amethyst? That it contained her power? And Hopie said Anni looked like me, only more purple. Even you said that Buffy and I were connected because we were both slayers. Anni's a slayer-in-training, and she's the heir apparent of Turot's power. Don't you see? Anni's the amethyst." Faith held up her ring, the purple light of the amethyst glowing brightly.
Willow looked at it, sensing the young girl's connection to Faith through the ring. She felt the same connection between Wes and Anni, only this was a connection born of love, not destiny and magic. Willow felt Anni's call for help. She tried desperately to think of something she could do to help the girl.
"Let her be all right," Wes said out loud. "Please let her be all right so I can kill her." He didn't see any inconsistencies in that logic.
Lindsey grabbed Faith's left hand in his right hand, and his love connected the two of them together, making the diamond in the center of the ring glow more brightly.
"I can feel her," they both said at once, the sensitivity powers of the ring enhanced by the love that they shared.
"Where?" Willow asked desperately. She could transport herself there, and Anni away, if she was lucky.
"By the bookstore," Faith and Lindsey replied in unison.
"Connor," Dawn gasped. "Anni's in trouble. She needs help. Now. Where's Buffy and your dad?"
"See?" Hopie said triumphantly, jumping out of her timeout chair. "I told you Bella needed help!"
"You still shouldn't have bitten me," Connor mumbled, grabbing weapons. Hopie grabbed her crossbow and poked it pointedly in Connor's side.
"I know," she said impishly, "but I didn't have Crossbow."
Then a serious expression came over Hopie's face. "Bella needs me now," she said, and Connor and Dawn gasped as Hopie disappeared.
Willow and Hopie appeared at Anni's sides at the exact same instances. Anni looked down at them both. Hopie made quick work of three vamps with her crossbow, all of them too stunned to see a four year old warrior with a heart shaped face and the cutest little dimples firing arrows at them to fight them off.
When the vampires kept coming, in numbers too large to count, Hopie grabbed Willow's hand and then Anni's.
Light shot out from all of the stones in Faith's ring, white from the center, and red, blue, purple, green, and black from the stones around the edges.
All of the vampires fell, one by one. Angel, Buffy, Connor, Cordelia, Faith, and Lindsey also fell to the ground, weakened by the power Hopie had taken from each of them.
A lone vampire, no older than Anni appeared by her side, and Hopie, recognizing the purple lady, let go of her Bella's hand, knowing that this was one decision that Anni would have to make on her own.
Wes ran toward the fight, crossing blocks in what seemed an incredibly fast time. Like the others, the scene he saw froze him to the ground, as Anni moved, trancelike, toward the child vamp who bore the brand of the Dark Council, which Hopie had just ceremoniously wiped out.
"Come child," an older voice whispered through the vampires mouth. "You know me. You've always known me, known that it would come to this moment, to this choice." The vampire ran her hands down Anni's neck softly.
"Turot," Wesley whispered. The vampire bearing the essence of the Archslayer ignored him.
Turot's voice turned childlike. "I was special," she said, sounding very much like Hopie, "but I never asked to be, and when the high priestess told them that I would never be worthy of my gift, they bartered me away like an animal to the highest bidder. She was among the first to die, the priestess. The night before my wedding, I was given a strange kiss, and I felt a power like no other run through my body. My amethyst, part of the bride price my future husband had paid my father, glowed with the power. I felt it elsewhere in the world, knew that the white power, not the dark, was what I had been raised for, my only purpose in life. I didn't want it. I never wanted it, but it was all anyone ever wanted for me. All I ever was to anyone. So when this gift, so different, came, it felt as if it could really be mine. I made the choice. The choice you long to make. I've felt your sorrow across centuries, the power it could bring you. You are a chosen one, but now it is your time to choose."
Anni looked at Turot, mesmerized by her words.
"You never wanted it, and they, none of them, ever wanted you, Anni." The monster knew her name, knew her innermost thoughts and fears. Wes tried to cry out to her but could not. "Be what you long to be, Anni. Make your choice."
The world froze in that moment.
Faith and Lindsey, their arms wrapped around each other, were lying on the ground, weakened by the incredible power the ring had harnessed.
Cordelia, Angel, and Buffy had made it to their feet, but the slayer was leaning on Spike for strength. Cordelia prayed that her baby was all right.
Connor and Dawn were, of course, frozen in a kiss, innocent and passionate at the same time, Connor still holding a sword in his hand.
Willow was gripping Hopie's hand, and their solemn expressions were almost identical.
Wes stood by helplessly, watching his sister walk the line, the fine and final line between good and evil, and he knew that, no matter who or what she became, he could never kill her, never allow any harm to come to her.
When we get out of this mess, he thought, I am quite simply going to kill her. Even in the frozen moment in time, his logic was that of a protective, scared older brother.
Anni looked carefully at the child vampire, her exact height, and she felt the call, stronger than ever, to accept the destiny that called to her in Turot's voice from within the vessel.
TBC… sorry! I know that I am completely and utterly evil for this cliff hanger, but it's 2:30, I'm dog tired, and I'm going to squeeze two more chapters out of this story!
Next up, Anni's decision, the final battle, and some sibling moments (between guess who?), and finally, it's family night at Hopie's school… hehehe that's all you'll get out of me for now.
REVIEW…(*evil*, I know) but this is right before finals, so if you'd like to see the next installment any time soon, you'll have to let me know it. (2 research papers due the end of this week, and four finals next week. Yikes.)