Author's Note: Jane Silver asked whether or not Max' runaway siblings will turn up. The answer is a definite yes. We'll see Zack before too long and the others won't be far behind. How Faith will react to them and vice versa? You'll just have to wait and see.

And to answer another question (this one by BadBoyLover, thanks for the review), Max wasn't infected with the Logan-killing virus until Season 2, so it won't be a factor here. Logan will also turn up before too long and play a role in the story, adding a potential son-in-law to the volatile family situation between Max and Faith. Ought to be fun, don't you think?

And on the little discussion about X-6 and X-7s, I checked the transcripts and according to those the younger clone of Max appearing in season finale of Season 1 and the first episode of Season 2 is X-7, not X-6. Some X-6 and X-8 appear in the second Season 2 episode, but it's never made clear exactly what the difference is between them and the seventh generation, except that the X-8 and most of the X-7 are definitely children while the X-6 appear to be only slightly younger than Max and her siblings, if at all. I'll try and come up with some explanations of my own as to what the exact differences are. Just don't expect any of those ultrasonic-speaking kids to turn up in my story.

And now, on with the show!

#

Chapter 7: Intentions Light and Dark

#

Angel sat in his office and watched through the window to the lobby as Max was throwing something of a fit. They had just returned from taking Faith's daughter (a concept he still had a lot of trouble getting used to) out for her first vampire slaying and the girl was understandably freaked. Not by the violence, no. Angel had the feeling this girl had seen more than her share of violence in her all too short life. He assumed it was more the fact that vampires and demons didn't fit into the world she had been brought up in. Especially if she had spent half her life being brought up in a military environment.

Max had done well during the fight, extremely so. The wounds and bruises received in the earlier fight against the Slayers had almost completely healed by the time they reached the cemetery. According to Max that was because of her designer genes, but Angel believed it might also have something to do with her heritage. He didn't know a thing about genetics, but he refused to believe that having a Slayer for a mother wouldn't have some sort of impact on the girl.

Her fighting skills, her superhuman strength, her healing abilities, it all led Angel's thoughts down a particular road that he couldn't quite get himself away from.

"I assume you are thinking the same thing I am?" Wesley asked from where he was sitting next to Angel.

Angel studied his friend and colleague from the corner of his eyes. Wesley was starting to show his age, both in the lines on his face and the gray streaks in his hair. For Angel it drove home the point that, sooner or later, he would lose the few remaining friends he had to time. Like he had lost so many people before. Willow. Giles. Cordelia. Even that idiot Xander. And Buffy, of course. All gone.

"I am thinking that someone saw fit to drop an opportunity in our laps," Angel said, looking toward the lobby again. "Only I'm not too certain I should be happy about this."

Wesley nodded, understanding exactly what he meant.

"Our remaining Slayers are getting older," the former Watcher mused. "So far that only means they're getting better, but sooner or later..."

"I know," Angel interrupted him, not wanting to hear the end of that sentence. In the last ten years he had seen so many Slayers die, giving their lives to stop the tide of demons that came in the wake of the Pulse. So many had fallen with no one there to replace them.

"Max lacks a Slayer's mystical senses," Angel mused, "but apart from that..."

"I believe she can compensate for that. Her eyesight is clearly better than that of Faith and the others. Something about feline genes, I believe she said. And she did notice that there was something odd about you the minute she laid eyes on you, remember? I believe with a little honing she'll be able to pick a vampire out of a crowd without any problems."

"And there's a hundred more like her out there."

The two men fell into silence, considering the implications of their words.

"Would we be any different?" Angel asked finally.

"What do you mean?"

"Max and those other kids, they were bred to be soldiers. No, less than that. Weapons. Disposable, endlessly replicable weapons. No one cared what they might want out of life. They were meant to follow orders, kill, and finally die in the line of duty. Just like Slayers."

Angel turned to look at Wesley. "If I know Faith she will want to help those kids, free them from Manticore. And I agree that is something we have to do, if for no other reason than it's the right thing to do. But what then, Wesley? Do we try and recruit these kids for yet another war? One in which they'll be asked to sacrifice their lives as well? Do we take over those Manticore machines to breed ourselves more of them when we run out of Slayers?"

Wesley sighed deeply, leaning back in his chair. "Back when I was still a member of the Watchers Council I would have said yes in a heartbeat. These kids are too valuable a resource not to exploit for the good fight. But the Council is gone, Angel, and I'm not the man I was."

"So you say we shouldn't do it?"

"No, I say we should ask them. Angel, in the days of the Council Slayers weren't asked, they were told. Those days came to an end when the Council died and all the Slayers were activated. You know as well as I do that not all of them joined the good fight. All those who fought with us, all those who gave their lives, they did so out of their own free will. Because they felt it was the right thing to do."

Angel nodded, but somehow the argument didn't quite reach his heart. So many of these girls had bravely accepted their destiny and joined the fight, but had any of them really known what they were getting into? All the potentials who had been in Sunnydale to combat the First Evil had gone there for protection. They had entered the fight purely out of self-preservation. But what about all the others? The ones who had been activated around the world and had never known a thing about vampires until Buffy, Faith, and the others had found and told them? Had they realized at the time they were signing up for a short, violent life? He doubted it.

"Max now knows what we are doing here," Wesley told him. "She has seen it first-hand. Now, I might be biased in my evaluation of her because of who her mother is, but I think this girl has a strongly developed sense of responsibility. One she is trying her best to suppress, but still. I believe we owe it both to ourselves and all those who gave their lives for the cause to at least make the offer to join us. If she refuses, she refuses. But we have to at least try."

#

Max stormed out of the lobby, Faith looking after her with a strange mixture of amusement and sadness on her face. Robin, who had watched the exchange silently, came over and wrapped his arms around her waist.

"Give her a little time," he whispered to her. "It's not every day you find out that your mother is a supernatural warrior who saves the world every odd week."

"You found out and you turned out all right."

Robin chuckled. "Thank you. But seeing as I was only a few years old when my mother told me about her being the Slayer I had a lot of time to get used to it." His voice grew more serious. "And I also wasn't raised in a military installation where they taught me to kill with my bare hands before I could walk."

He could feel his wife shuddering where she rested in his arms.

"What they did to those kids," she whispered, "it's monstrous. It's worse than the Watchers. At least they didn't breed their Slayers, they just took them away from their families at an early age."

"The Watchers also had a sacred mission to protect the world from evil," Robin reminded her. "One can certainly condemn their methods, but some would argue that their ends justified their means."

"The same bastards would argue that America breeding supersoldiers to keep itself safe from all those foreign terrorist and dictators out to destroy it is a means justified by the ends."

"Probably."

Faith turned in his arms, looking at his face.

"I don't think I know how to handle this, Robin. I just learned that some bastards took cells from me and bred a hundred or more kids with them. I have just met my daughter, or one of my daughters, and what's the first thing I do? I take her out fighting vampires."

She rested her head on his chest, feeling incredibly tired. "When my Watcher first found me and told me the whole Slayer-shtick it was the greatest thing that ever happened to me. I loved being the Slayer. I still do. I just think that, that other people shouldn't be drawn into all this madness, especially if they've already been through so much hell."

Robin smiled down at her, brushing his fingers through her thick hair.

"Max came here to find her mother, Faith. And I believe she also came here looking for help, to find some clue or information that might help her bring down Manticore. Why don't we deal with that for now and see where things lead us afterwards?"

She looked up to smile at him in turn. "You're a smart guy, aren't you?"

"I believe I fill the role of the level-headed one in this marriage, yes."

She gave him a mock slap to the arm, but made no move to separate from him. After a moment her face grew serious again.

"We have to free those kids, Robin," she told him. "Not because they're my kids, but because no children should have a life like that."

He nodded.

"I think Angel and Wesley are already deep in planning-mode." He motioned toward the darkened office the two men had disappeared in not too long ago. "It's late. Or early, rather. Why don't we catch some sleep?"

"In a minute," Faith said. "I'd like to ... you know ..."

Robin saw her looking at the door Max had stormed out of and nodded. "Go talk to her. I'll be upstairs."

"I love you, you know that?"

He brushed a kiss on her lips. "I guess I'm just a lucky guy."

#

There were only about two dozen people in all of Washington who had ever heard the name 'Manticore'. Many of those knew only that it was a top-secret military project and that the special units from said project had successfully performed quite a few difficult operations in the last few years. That was all they needed to know.

Those that knew more, who knew what Manticore really was, were sparse indeed.

Doctor Elizabeth Renfro leafed through the latest report from Colonel Donald Lydecker and the grim look on her face spoke volumes regarding her thoughts on the matter. Ten years, she mused darkly. Ten years and how many of the twelve escapees had that idiot managed to recover? One. Just one. And even that one only because her fellow escapees had delivered her to him on a silver platter to stop her from dying of cell degeneration.

This wouldn't do, she mused. This definitely wouldn't do.

"I hear the Committee has reached a decision," a voice behind her said. "The fugitive X-5 will be hunted down and killed."

Renfro turned to look at the man who had just entered her office. He wore a dark suit, red shirt, black tie, and moved with the grace of a predator.

"Well, the Council will be quite happy about that, won't they?" Renfro asked sarcastically.

"You know their opinions on your project, Dr. Renfro."

Renfro rose to her feet, her eyes narrowing in anger. Most people would have been intimidated by the air of power that surrounded the man in front of her. Some might have noticed that the mirror behind her desk showed no reflection of him and that would have intimidated them even more. Renfro wasn't most people.

"The Manticore project was a necessity," she growled at him.

"Was it?" he asked, his voice filled with dark amusement. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that we have done just fine these last ten years even without your precious kids."

Renfro couldn't quite dispute that argument, seeing as it was perfectly true.

"We have all the time in the world, Dr. Renfro, but quite a few of us think that it's way past due for you to admit that all this was one gigantic waste of resources."

"Have I not correctly foreseen the threat of the Many?" she challenged him.

"Yes, you have. You have lacked to foresee, though, that this would be a blessing for us, not a curse. You have also lacked to create anything that even remotely fulfills the specifications we laid out twenty years back."

"The X-5s were a success."

"The X-5s, Dr. Renfro, are anything but. Just because your human superiors are happy with them does not mean the Council is. You promised us something, doctor, and you haven't delivered."

Renfro glared at him, but intimidation worked no better on him than it did on her.

"The latest generations show signs of improvement," she simply stated.

"Not enough, Dr. Renfro. Not nearly enough. I am not here to argue with you about this, I am here to inform you that the Council has reached a decision."

She looked at him, fearing that she already knew what he was going to say.

"Twenty years ago you convinced us to channel quite a few of our resources, our finances, and our power into this project of yours. The Council now believes it is time to stop wasting all three on something that will never, ever work."

He leaned forward, his eyes gleaming amber as he did.

"We want Manticore gone, Renfro. It's not doing anything for us and might even give the humans an edge, come the day. Get rid of it. Before we are forced to get rid of it ourselves. And you."

He straightened again, his eyes returning to normal, an easy smile slipping onto his face.

"Incidentally," he said, turning toward the door, "you might want to consider making preparations to disappear. I'm certain your human superiors won't be any more pleased with you than we are right now once all this comes to end."

With that he departed, leaving Dr. Renfro alone with her thoughts.

TO BE CONTINUED