I apologize. I have no excuses for taking so long. Please forgive me? Please?

-Kaze Child



Tom and Carl exchanged looks. Kit felt the bottom of his stomach drop into his sneakers. He had never felt so confused, and now he got all the pleasure of dreading what was going to happen next. Wizards are told not to ignore certain emotional warnings when they occur, and right now, Kit was experiencing a three-alarm-red-lights-flashing-world-

exploding warning in the back of his head. It was making it damn hard to see straight. And, the fact that Nita was nearly crushing his hand underneath that table didn't help much. He could see the headaches lining up now....

"You're sure," Tom asked, his voice strangely intent. "that you saw the same boy?"

Mutely, both sisters nodded.

"Was there anything that caught your attention about him, specifically?"

"We already went over this." Dairine sighed bad temperedly. "His eyes. He has silver eyes. Really big, silver eyes." Carl glanced at Nita, and she nodded, a troubled frown on her lips.

"Was there anything *else?"* he demanded. They looked at him uncomprehendingly, more than a little frazzled with the pointless seeming repetition of the questioning. "Look," he tried again. "What I mean is, did this... child.... resemble anyone you know? Maybe, someone you're close to, or...?"

The girls were looking at each other, communicating without words. Neither seemed to like what was being said. Finally, both pairs of eyes dropped to the table for what seemed like a long time, and then Nita looked up.

"Kit," she said at last. "Except for the eyes, he looked just like Kit."

Kit frowned. "Wha-?" he started to ask The reaction of the Seniors cut him off, though, before he could even finish a word.

"Damn." they said in unison. Carl slumped back in his chair and took a long swallow from the can that sat in front of him. "Well, I didn't see this coming. I think you've been hiding a few things from us, Dari."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" The red head flared.

"Nevermind." Tom said wearily. "Now's not the time to get into *that.*" He leaned forward on his arms and directed his gaze back at the three young wizards ranged around his kitchen table. "I think what we have here is a Pixel."

"A what?" Kit and Nita asked together.

Dairine was scowling, her gray eyes unfocused. "I can't find anything about a pix-"

"You wouldn't be able to. Information like that wouldn't be in the basic manual's databanks." Carl stepped in. "There's some information that is only available to the people it concerns, and you have to get clearance from someone fairly high up to get access to it. Or be one of the people responsible for dispensing the information." he tapped his chest, and took another drink. "Nope, definitely didn't see this coming."

"You know, that's getting a little irritating..." Kit's expression was grim and unfriendly. "What is a Pixel, how come they're seeing it, and what's it got to do with us?"

Tom absently tugged at an earlobe. "A pixel is, well, I guess you could say that a pixel is a soul, but that's a little inaccurate. They're more like the stuff that a soul's made out of. Think of them as potentialities." they stared blankly at him. "All right, imagine a baby in it's mother's womb. It starts out as just one cell comprised of components of the mother and the father, and then it multiplies, grows, and divides, until a whole child is created. A pixel is, essentially, that first cell. Although, the growth process is a little different." He distractedly took a drink as the faded clock on the wall ticked to 5:30.

"What does this have to do with us, Tom?" Nita did not look happily. Kit squeezed her hand and rubbed it with his thumb reassuringly, and she glanced briefly at him and tried to smile, but failed dismally. She had a look in her eyes like... He swallowed unhappily. He hadn't thought he'd ever have to see her with that look again...

"I don't really know how to say this and make it easy," Tom told them. He was gazing at them with sympathetic eyes. "Pixels don't really do anything on their own. They just exist, unless they're being used to make souls. Now, you have to realize that most times, a pixel does not create a soul on it's own. It's one of the components, sort of the way iron is one of the components of steel. Every now and then though, when one is allowed to run the full course of it's growth untampered with, the results are a little strange. The few cases we've seen don't take the oath: they're wizards before they're even born. And what's more, they remember it. They remember being born, and what the were before that. They develop language skills at an unnatural rate, they mature faster, and they have a tendency to take things a little further than most people." He drummed his fingers meditatively on the tabletop. "You wont find them very often. They're most often only created in cases of...." he trailed off uncomfortably, and rubbed the back of his head, searching for a way to phrase what he wanted to say.

"Immaculate births." Carl set his can down with a clink as they all stared at him, wide eyed. He gave them a few seconds to let what he'd said sink in, and plunged on. "Every so often there are certain individuals who the Powers That Be find too god to waste. Unfortunately, those individuals are usually wizards, and we've gotten into line of work that has a lot of health hazards. If two such individuals are found, and for what ever reason aren't likely to produce offspring, a pixel can be used to solve the problem. It can produce an unadulterated soul, and the mind and body of are supplied by the Powers That Be, with the desired traits from the two wizards already installed." The three young people were starring at him in horror. Dairine was so pale she looked ready to pass out, and the other two weren't in much better shape. Carl's straight forward, instructorish monologue had clearly not been what they were expecting.

"S-so this kid.... he's..."

"Yours." Carl sighed. "Or will be one of yours, anyway. The pixel you're seeing obviously isn't real yet. It's just a possibility. It's look suggest that Kit's going to be the father. Just who the mother's going to be looks like it's up in the air, since you both have seen him." he paused. "Which is interesting." He mused.

"Wait." Kit gasped in a strangled sounding voice. "Don't *we* get any say in this?"

"You should." Tom replied. "We don't know a whole lot else about pixels, but we do know that nothing should occur without the consent of all parties involved, including the pixel's. That's why these combinations don't normally occur between two non-childbearing genders. One of the pair has to be willing to go through labor, and it's best if it's one of the pair to start with. There could be a lot of complications if it was somebody else."

"This can't be happening." Dairine muttered, her voice fringing on hysterical. "This can't be happening. This CANNOT be happening to me!" she wailed.

Seeing the normally taciturn Dairine come unhinged seemed to be enough to shake Carl out of his strangely detached mode, and he rode quickly from his seat an rushed to the other side of the table, cradling her comfortingly against his shirt. Helplessly, he began to pat her hair.

Tom's mouth turned sadly downward. He looked again at the shaken pair in front of him, and said. "I'm sorry. I don't know why this is happening, but remember, nothing actually *has* happened yet. Nothing might. It doesn't seem likely, but as I said before, nothing can happen unless all of you agree to it. We'll do everything we can to help. I think the best thing you three can do right now is go home, get some rest, and try not to think about it too much."

Kit had his arms around Nita, and he looked worried sick, but he managed something in the way of a sardonic grin in his Senior's direction. "That's easier said than done, Tom."

"It'll work out." Tom said with false optimism. He reached over and gripped Kit's shoulder. "I have faith in you two."

Dairine raised her head; he face flushed and her eyes slightly puffy from stubbornly holding back tears. She didn't look at anyone as she rose.

"Let's go."



They emerged from behind Tom and Carl's elaborate hedge like people who been awoken abruptly from an unpleasant sleep. Instead of taking the road back to the Callahan's house though, they traded lost looks with each other, and plopped down as one on the curb. For a long time, nobody spoke.

"It doesn't make sense." Nita muttered slowly.

"What doesn't?" Kit asked. "I think it makes perfect sense. Somebody's trying to screw with us. I *knew* things had been going to good to last!"

"I mean, why us?" she asked plaintively. "I mean, we're getting married! I-" she suddenly started to blush. "I never really though about having kids, I guess, but..." her face was flaming but she swallowed and pushed on. "I mean, what's the point? Maybe... maybe, with Dairine...."

Dairine opened her mouth to say something, but Kit beat her to it. "Look, Nita, I have no idea what's going on, but I can tell you right now that I'm *not* going to have a kid with Dairine, "immaculate" or not." He stated fiercely. He took her face in his hands and turned it up, forcing her to look at him. "Nita, you know that I-"

It was like falling under a spell. After everything that had happened that day, Nita had no idea what to think, but it seemed like none of it had changed what happened every time he looked at her like that. It seemed like if he would just kiss her, everything would be all right again....

But, suddenly Dairine swore and jumped back into them, throwing them into each other.

"Dari, what are you doing?" Kit demanded. But, she didn't so much as glance at him. She and Nita's eyes were fixed straight ahead on something that he couldn't see, and they had both stopped moving, like there was a wild animal there that they didn't want to scare away.

"Oh, Kit," Nita breathed, clutching his arm. "He look so much like you."

"Who are you?" Dairine was saying to the apparently empty air.

"We know what you are." Nita said. "But, why are you here? What's going on?"

They both paused like they were listening intently, and Kit looked blankly from one to another. The wind had picked up behind them, and they were struggling to keep their hair out of their eyes as they tried to talk to the child he couldn't see.

"Who's after you?" Dairine's voice was puzzled. "HIM?!" she gasped. "But why would he want you?"

"Of course." Nita murmured in a shocked voice. "He's limited on his own, and Tom and Carl don't know that there has to be *two* people. It could be just one. Like a Power..."

Both pairs of gray eyes widened. They jumped, and Nita tore out of Kit's grip as she lunged forward. "Stop it!" they were saying, but Kit couldn't tell to who or what. There was a pressure everywhere, and a higher-than-sound pitched humming in his ears, and his heart was screaming in his chest. The air was impossible thick, and his vision started to blur. Dairine was reaching out to something now, with her sister right behind her, when suddenly the world opened up. It tore right in the middle of the sidewalk, and suddenly Kit could see. He saw what happened next all too clearly, and he would never forget it.

There WAS a child there. He was maybe four years old, dressed in a dirty pair of denim overalls, and his scuffed feet were bare. And he was falling. His tiny hand was stretched forward in supplication as he slipped backward, and it was this that the girls were trying vainly to grasp. The wind that had been at their backs now shoved at their faces, keeping them away from the goal they were so desperately trying to reach. The child was crying, struggling in the grip of something that would not let him go, and suddenly his silver eyes turned despairingly to Kit. He felt his whole being come undone in that one moment, and he was suddenly lost. All he knew was that he had to save this boy.

He moved a second too late.

"DADDY!" The pixel screamed.

And then he was gone.



Well, if you go for about five chapters without plot, you're bound to run into it sometime. Hope it didn't confuse you too much.

I do NOT want any reviews asking me if Kit is going to have an affair or something with Dairine. If you don't know what an "immaculate birth" is, look it up, please.

Once again, sorry for taking so long to dot his. Hopefully next time I'll go a little bit faster.