DISCLAIMER: Hopie and Anni are my own, everyone else belongs to Joss Whedon, et al.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Halfway done with one paper, done with the other… a little update for those of you sticking with me (I'm still a little sad about the drop off fans…*tear*, but hey, I love the rest of you so much it's totally worth it). One more chapter after this one, and then maybe another sequel. I have the plot, but I don't know if there'll be enough interest to merit continuation, so let me know.
Le Bella: Chapter Twelve
Anni took a step closer to Turot, called by the mesmerizing pull of the amethyst power. The world around her was frozen, the others watching in helpless dismay.
"They didn't want you," Turot reminded her. Anni stared, not blinking. She's right. They never, not one of them, wanted me. Mother and Father could not possibly care less. All I ever was to them was an asset. To be traded, bartered for prestige, just like Turot. Wes left me, and there was no one to help me. Just like Turot.
"You know this is what you were born for, the power you long for." The voice crept up Willow's spine as she wanted to shout out to the girl that that kind of power had consequences. Her mouth was frozen shut by the power that was literally electrifying the air. Anni felt the power flow gently through her body. Wes called me stupid, but I'm not stupid. I could be powerful, so powerful that no one could hurt me, force me to do something unspeakable again. The Watcher's Council would never touch me. I could kill them all if they tried. Anni shook her head. That wasn't her mind voice talking, was it?
"Make your choice," Turot said, for the second time. Anni looked at her, and in that instant, she made her decision. I am Turot, she realized. Just like Turot. She took the final step toward the child vampire and moved her hair away from her neck, knowing instinctively what needed to be done for the transfer of power.
My baby sister, Wes thought, is about to turn into the most dangerous creature possible, and it's all my fault.
Not your fault, Willow told him silently, and he looked at her across the space, surprised that he was able to hear her thoughts.
"I've made my choice," Anni said. The child's face vamped, and she moved towards Anni's open and inviting neck.
Microseconds after the fangs touched her neck, just as the purple light was leaving the vampires mouth, the vamp exploded into dust. Anni pulled the stake back victoriously, rubbing her neck, thankful that it hadn't been pierced but disgusted at the tiny bit of vamp saliva on her neck.
"I've made my choice," Anni repeated, looking Wes straight in the eye, and giving him the most precious gift he could imagine: her trust.
Willow grabbed hold of Hopie's hand, figuring the transfer of power should work both ways if the child was willing.
"Fun fun!" Hopie said, sensing what Willow wanted to do. Willow muttered the words in Latin, and the purple light began showing signs of fading in strength. Hopie grinned at the light and broke her grip with Willow, causing the older girl to lose control of the spell.
The light changed colors, until it was a beautiful and pure yellow starburst.
"Anyone else a little with the confused?" Cordy asked. Hopie just giggled and clapped her hands in response.
The light surged so bright and pure that it hurt their eyes before plunging into Anni, lifting the girl off of the ground. Her body glowed brilliantly as she floated, suspended in the air, her face tilted toward the sky, her brown hair thrown back. Slowly, she descended until she was standing again on the ground.
Anni blinked a couple of times. Everyone was silent. "Bloody hell," she said finally. "That was so cool."
Wes looked at his sister, who looked as fresh, young, innocent, and happy as he had ever seen her. He raised his eyebrows, gesturing toward Hopie, trying to keep the smile off of his face.
"Bloody heck," Anni corrected herself. "That was so, so cool."
Hopie looked at them suspiciously but gave up in favor of a more important pursuit. "I wanna try!" she said.
"No," Everyone replied at once.
"What just happened?" Buffy asked. She looked at Anni. "Was the yellow light a good thing?"
"Well, my best guess…" Wesley started to say when he was cut off by his sister.
"I was Turot," she said softly. The others stared at her. "I had her memories, felt her pain, my pain, all of it. I felt the power, the night she was turned, and I saw all of the slayers, called from the same power as the archslayer, only from the other side. I was Turot, but I was me too, and I changed her destiny, my destiny. I chose this." She paused, looking around and seeing herself surrounded with people, with family, with friends. "I chose you," she said softly.
"No more purple lady," Hopie clarified. "Bella is a yellow lady now!"
Faith looked down at her ring, feeling the warmth radiating from it. The amethyst was gone, replaced with a piece of amber the color of sunshine. She looked at Anni, feeling her connection to the girl.
"You're a slayer," she said.
Anni shook her head. "Not yet," she said. "I hope not ever."
"You're something," Buffy commented, "because the Powers that Be don't really condone the fireworks-for-nothing thing."
Buffy aimed a flying kick, full speed toward Anni's head. Wes and Willow both gasped. Buffy ended up on the ground. Anni's eyes widened.
"I guess I am something," she said, half marveling, half sad.
"You always were something," Wes replied walking toward her slowly. She met his eyes and smiled half of a smile.
"What am I?" she asked.
"Well, you can't be a slayer, because last time I checked Buffy and Faith were still alive and kicking," Lindsey replied. "So my best guess is that you're a non-slayer."
"You're my sister," Wes replied, answering her question with the words Anni most wanted to hear.
"A what?" Cordelia questioned. "Aren't most of us here not slayers?"
"Not being a slayer doesn't make you a non-slayer," Lindsey explained. "A non-slayer, to the best of my knowledge, is a person who has slayer powers through an alternative power. In Anni's case, I'd guess her choice turned the power that called the Archslayer to the other side and then it flowed into her body, combining with her essence. She wasn't called, not traditionally at least, but she has the power. She's a non-slayer."
"Wow," Willow said. "I didn't even know there was such a thing."
"There's not," Faith said, smacking Lindsey slightly. "I think he just made it up." Lindsey grinned, and the two of them kissed, Faith's ring glimmering in the light from the street lamps.
"I like it," Anni said, smiling shyly at Faith and Lindsey. "Being a non-slayer means I don't have to deal with the Council."
"You have to deal with the non-Council," Spike told her seriously.
She wrinkled her forehead. "Who?"
The peroxide vamp gestured around. "All of us. We're about as far from the Council as you can get. If there can be a Dark Council, there sure as he-, uh, heck can be a non-Council for all of us non-councily types."
Anni embraced Wes, and he finally knew the meaning of the old adage: I don't know whether to laugh or cry, hug you or bend you over my knee. He tried to get used to the feeling. He had someone to take care of now.
Hopie burst into the middle of the two of them, impatiently holding her arms up to Anni. Anni picked up the little girl. Hopie played with her hair.
"That was fun!" Hopie said. "Especially when all of the vamps went poof. I'll have to try that for our next playground war."
Everyone stared at the child. Cordy took her from Anni. "No way, little Shanshu. I don't think so." Angel peered at Hopie specutively.
"Why do you smell like blood?" he asked, detecting the very slightest trace.
Hopie gave him an adorable smile. "I bit Connor," she explained.
"Hope!" Cordy explained.
"Who's Daddy's little vamp?" Angel asked fondly, earning himself a proper glare from Cordelia.
"Angel!" she scolded. Angel shrugged, still grinning an absurdly proud grin at Hopie. Spike smiled at Angel's look.
"I'm not a vamp," Hopie said seriously. "I'm a Hopie." Everyone laughed at that statement. It was true. Hopie had the best of all worlds, was the best of all worlds.
"Where's Dawn?" Buffy asked suddenly.
"I, uh, sent her home," Anni replied shooting a glance at Willow.
"Translocation spell? Again?" Willow asked. Anni nodded sheepishly, feeling suddenly weak from the combined efforts of the spell, the fight, and her transformation. Willow groaned. I'm gonna kill her, she thought.
Wesley sent her a smile. Not if I kill her first, he replied. Willow, startled that the connection went both ways, smiled back at him, and they both turned to glare at Anni. Wes lifted her unceremoniously off the ground. Anni was weak enough that she just enjoyed being held tightly by her brother.
"Wait," Spike said. "Connor's at the house. Connor and Dawn are at the house. Alone. Together. Bloody hell."
"Bloody hell!" Hopie echoed gleefully in a perfect British accent. Cordy sent dagger eyes at Spike for corrupting her little girl.
Together, they all headed home.
Spike burst through the door, thinking to catch the two teenage horrors making out, because in times of emergency, making out like it was the apocalypse was a very Dawnesque thing to do. He was surprised to see them snuggled up on the couch, watching a video tape of the movie "Big Bird's Big Adventure."
Angel immediately sat inches from the screen, thoroughly engrossed.
Spike went in search of some more blood. For some reason he was incredibly thirst. Hopie watched him with interest.
"If you keep drinking all that blood," Buffy warned. "You'll never get to sleep tonight."
Hmmmm, Hopie thought. After he throws the napkin away, he's gonna want some more blood. If you give him more blood, he won't be able to fall asleep. She was very interested.
"Buffy," Wes said, still holding Anni, who was near to unconscious with weariness, "can I use one of your bedrooms?"
"You can use mine," Willow offered, sending Anni glare eyes. "And you're mine next, missy. How many times can I say no more transportation spells?"
Dawn raised her hand. "I like the transportation spell," she said. Everyone ignored her, and she returned to watching Big Bird search for his family.
Wes quite nearly threw Anni down onto the bed. She looked up at him with big eyes, fully awake now. "Annabella," he said and she gulped. That was never a good sign. "What were you doing out at night alone?" Anni didn't mention that she was with Dawn. Somehow, she didn't think that would help her case at all.
"We were at the bookstore," she replied. "We just lost track of time." That took the wind out of his sails a little bit. She hadn't been running off or looking for trouble. She had been careless and stupid. In other words, she had been a teenager.
"Do you have any idea how careless, how stupid that was given the circumstances?" He braced himself for her argument.
"You're right," she said. "It was stupid of me, and careless, and I'm sorry." Wes didn't have it in him to kill her, even though he felt like maybe he should. She had been so brave, come through so much, and he was too much of a softee. Then again, rules were needed…
"I want to know where you are and when you're there," he growled, "and when you start school, you're to come straight home afterward." Those sounded like good ideas.
"School?" Anni's eyes lit up. She had never been to school. She smiled. There would be boys at school, like the ones at the bookstore. Like Connor.
Wesley frowned. There would be boys at school, and that was completely unacceptable.
Downstairs, Faith was humming softly a hymn that Lindsey had taught her to play on the guitar. Lindsey joined in. Soon, the melodic sound of their humming duet filled the room.
"So," Dawn said, breaking the silence. "When's the wedding?"
"What's your dress going to look like?" Buffy asked Faith.
"I'll help you shop for it," Cordy offered.
"Can Crossbow and Bob come?" Hopie asked.
"Bob as in the flamethrower?" Spike clarified.
Hopie nodded seriously.
Faith shrugged. "Why not? The more the merrier."
When Willow heard Wes calming down a bit, she walked into the room, giving him a subtle hug, feeling little butterflies in her stomach as she did. What am I doing? She thought.
The same thing I am, he replied mentally, also thinking that this whole psychic connection thing was utterly fascinating.
Willow put on her stern face and looked at Anni. "You just see how much magical homework you get tomorrow," Willow said. Anni smiled at her, completely oblivious to the looks her brother was sharing with the red headed Wicca.
Anni smiled. "I'll have real homework soon," she said.
Willow looked offended. "My homework's real," she said sullenly. After a moment of silence, they all broke into laughter.
Hopie looked closely at Faith's pretty ring as Faith explained what a flower girl was. The pretty white stone in the middle felt happy and sad and wonderful all at once, like Momma and Daddy or Aunt Faith and Uncle Lindsey. The red stone felt like Momma, like laughter and love and Momma-ness all at once. The black felt like Daddy. What was the word Momma used? Broody. The green felt like Buffy, hyper and smart and sometimes lonely. The blue felt like what Hopie felt like all the time, so she guessed that the blue was supposed to be her.
The yellow felt happy, like a new happiness, and Hopie recognized it, recognized Bella as if she had known her for a very, very long time. Hopie looked at Aunt Faith, who was finished talking.
"I throw flowers?" Hopie asked, wrinkling her nose a little. Faith nodded.
"You get to wear a pretty dress," Cordy said, knowing the child's weakness for pretty clothing.
"Okaaaaay," Hopie said slowly, "but you know those shiny little sharp weapon thingies that Daddy plays with sometimes?"
"Chinese stars?" Cordelia asked, picturing the tiny metal razors in her mind.
Hopie nodded vigorously. "Can I throw those instead?"
So GUYS… just an epilogue to go now. Sorry Imzadi, the wedding isn't until the third installment. The epilogue is going to be pretty fluffy…hehehe…It's family night at kindergarten, and Hopie brings her entire family, extended with friends. Includes the full text to "If you give a Vamp a Cracker" and the kindergarten class play (as requested by Star)
PLEASE REVIEW!!! Get in any requests for the third installment now, even though it could potentially be a while.