Author's Note: Jane Silver wrote a review (thank you for that) and mentioned that she'd find it more logical if only the twelve escapees were Faith's children. Sorry, but I don't quite follow that. From all we've seen the sole difference between Max' group compared to the other X-5s were that they gave each other names. At least one of their group died, though, before they escaped (the death prompted their escape, I believe) and at least one more decided to remain behind. So a line would be pretty tough to draw there. In my story all X-5 come from the same stock, meaning Faith is mommy to them all (more or less) and no fancy tattoos or special DNA for Max, either.

Karen Murray (also thanks for the review) wrote something about two groups of forty and one group of twenty. Sorry, but I'm not sure where these numbers come from. Was it said at some point that Max' group numbered twenty originally? Anyway, the clones and X-7s will make an appearance in this story, never fear, and we'll learn how they are connected to Faith, if at all. Btw, does anyone know if X-6 were ever mentioned? I think those bat-enhanced kids at the beginning of Season 2 were X-8, right? Maybe they threw out the X-6 batch, what do I know.

Oh, and Tutu? There will be a Max-Robin scene soon. Will she call him daddy? You'll just have to wait and see. Wouldn't want to spoil the suspense for you.

Many thanks to everyone who wrote reviews so far. I know I'm not answering all of them, but I do appreciate every single one. It's good for the soul to know so many people are reading this and waiting for updates. Thanks again!

And now, on with the show!

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Part 6: Daddies, Aunties, Undead Uncles

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Wesley took a moment to look over the scribbled results Fred had given him on the DNA comparison between Faith and this Max girl. They were related, there was no doubt about that, but Max' DNA had been modified in numerous strange ways. Neither Fred nor he himself had ever seen anything like it before. Then again, neither of them were geneticists.

He wondered whether this Manticore project, like the Initiative, dabbled in the supernatural as well as the scientific. He had never personally encountered the creature known as Adam, but from everything Giles and Buffy had told him it had been an unholy amalgam of human and demonic parts. Consciously or not, its creators had to have poured a lot of magic into its creation, otherwise something like it would never have been able to come to life.

"I hope you can forgive us for the way we welcomed you here," he began, looking at the girl sitting across from his desk. "I'm afraid most people breaking into our building have rather ill intentions."

"Well," she shrugged. "Your burglar alarm sucks, but your security personnel more than makes up for that." One hand massaged her swelling jaw.

"Burglars haven't been much of a problem before," he admitted. "We deal more with the likes of murderers and assassins."

"What kind of setup is this here?" Max asked, the question no doubt having been on her mind for a while. "Don't tell me you're another one those safe-the-world-type guys."

"I am not sure how many such guys you have encountered, but that is generally a fitting way to describe ourselves, I believe. May I ask whether you've been thinking about any particular guy just now?"

She was obviously having an internal debate on how much to tell him when the door opened and Angel walked in, his face unreadable.

"Faith and Robin will be along shortly," he said, his eyes settling on Max. "Faith just needs to wrap her mind around some things. Let's give her a few minutes!"

"Certainly," Wesley said. "I believe some introductions are overdue. Max, this is Angel. He and ... your mother have been friends for a long time."

After a moment's hesitation Max stuck out her hand and Angel shook it. Wesley could see the wheels turning behind the girl's forehead. She obviously sensed that something was strange about Angel, but had no clue what that might be. It would be interesting to see how she reacted to the truth.

Angel, in turn, was his usual stoic self, but there was a certain glint in his eyes that Wesley couldn't quite make sense of yet.

"To answer your earlier question," Wesley continued, brushing over the fact that Max hadn't answered his question yet, "we are a group that deals with ... things that don't appear on the radar of the authorities. Things that threaten the safety of innocents. Officially we are a detective agency and we do occasionally take mundane cases, but only to keep our cover intact."

"I think I know a guy like you," Max mused. "Always gets into more trouble that it's worth. You seem to have been doing this for a while, though."

"Quite a while, yes," Wesley said, giving Angel an amused glance.

"And how did you all pick up superpowers?" Max looked at Angel with a glint of suspicion in her eyes. "You're not Manticore. Grown in a jar as well?"

"Not as such," Angel said, giving her a half-smile. "Faith and the others are ... special. Blessed, or maybe cursed, with strength and skills far beyond normal people. It has nothing to do with any mad scientists or secret government projects."

"What about yourself? You looked pretty superhuman out there, too."

"I've been around for a while."

Max looked back at Wesley. "Is he always doing the cryptic routine?"

"Angel likes to cultivate a certain air," Wesley answered, smiling.

"I don't 'cultivate'," Angel interjected with a bit of a huff.

"Not that I want to break up this sparkling exchange," Faith said from the door, "but don't you guys think we have more serious issues to work through?"

Faith and Robin took a seat and all eyes settled on Max, who gave a bit of a glare at their blatant staring.

"I was just starting to fill in Max on who we are," Wesley said.

"Yeah, but you haven't really said much yet. Telling me that Faith and those other super-chicks are 'special' isn't really answering any questions, you know?"

Faith turned to look at Angel. "Given her the face yet?"

"We haven't gotten quite that far."

"The face?" Max asked, confused.

"Okay," Faith sighed. "I want to get this over with quickly, so I'll take over for the boys here. No offense, guys, but if I wait for either of you to get around to the gist of things I'll be old and gray." She turned to look at Max. "The gist is, kiddo, there are a lot of bad things in the world. Things people don't believe in, but they're real nevertheless. Vampires, werewolves, ghosts, zombies, demons, monsters, it's all there and none of it is particularly nice."

Max opened her mouth, but Faith cut her off before she could utter the disbelieving snort that Wesley suspected was imminent.

"And since ordinary people are pretty easy prey for these kinds of bad guys someone decided to play a little balancing game. They created the Slayer, one girl in all the world with the power to kick serious demon ass. You with me so far?"

Max opened her mouth again, but Faith didn't wait before continuing. "About twenty years ago things got really bad and we decided one girl wasn't going to cut it anymore. We worked a little mojo, probably offended about a dozen gods, and spread the ass-kicking power around. Since that day there have been many Slayers. I'm one of them, the gals out there are the others. We've been busting demon butt for the last twenty years or so and have no intention of stopping anytime soon."

Looking at Angel, she added, "Did I forget anything?"

"You covered the important facts."

For a long minute Max looked at all of them, apparently waiting for any of them to cry "just kidding" or something similar. When no one did she leaned back in a huff.

"Okay, so you're ... what? Chosen by destiny to protect the world from evil? Right! Tell me another one!"

Angel raised an eyebrow and Wesley suppressed a chuckle. Her tone was remarkably similar to the one Faith had used earlier when confronted with the knowledge that Max was her daughter.

"I think we need the face, big guy," Faith told Angel, oblivious to the similarities between Max and her.

With a shrug Angel looked at Max until he was sure he had her attention, then began to change. His facial features shifted, ridges growing on his forehead, his eyes turning liquid amber, fangs lengthening in his mouth. A slight growl emerged and the combined package was enough to make Max shoot out of her seat.

"What the fuck...?"

"Meet your first vampire," Faith said with a smug grin. "But no staking him, okay? Angel is the exception to the rule, the white sheep of the family so to speak."

The girl needed a few seconds to compose herself. "I bet that trick goes great at parties," she said, but the humor fell somewhat flat.

"If you want to check," Wesley said, "you'll also note that Angel has no pulse, does not breathe unless when he needs the air in order to speak, and has a skin temperature that is, at best, about twenty-three degrees centigrade. Room temperature, I believe."

Max still stared at him, disbelief in her eyes, when Angel's face returned to its human features. He offered her his wrist and, after a second of incomprehension, Max felt for a pulse. There was none to be found.

"So you're a walking corpse?" she asked.

"Something like that. Vampires are dead human bodies animated by a demonic entity. In my case this entity is paired with a human soul, making me more or less the man I was when I was alive. All other vampires, they are pure demons. They might look human, but they're not."

"And you're sure you're not some kind of government experiment?"

Faith chuckled, a bit of humor creeping back into her voice. "Maybe a trip to the graveyard is in order. Nothing like seeing a vampire explode into dust to get you off the denial trip, kiddo."

She looked at Angel. "What do you say, big guy? I'll make you an honorary uncle and we make our first family trip slaying some vampires. Maybe we can invite some of the 'aunts' outside along."

Angel nodded, grabbing his coat from the chair and throwing Faith a stake from somewhere within its many pockets. Max looked back and forth between them as if they were mad.

"You want to go to a cemetery and stake vampires?" she asked for clarification. When everyone nodded she sighed and looked at Robin. "What about you? Is step-daddy coming along for the family trip?"

The look on Robin's face did a lot to elevate the general mood in the room.

TO BE CONTINUED