Author's Note: First off, a long overdue answer to Jane Silver's question: No, no additional artwork is in the planning for this story. I usually don't do more than a single picture per story unless I find myself particularly inspired.

Second, this will be the last chapter for at least two weeks. I'll be going on holiday to Spain with my girlfriend and we'll be living the easy live for a while, so I rather doubt I'll get much writing done. Sorry about that, but sometimes a man's gotta have priorities.

Third and last, thanks to all the people who've posted reviews for this story. Even if I don't get around to answering all of you, be assured that I'm grateful for all your contributions. Without that I doubt I'd get even a fraction of the writing done. Thanks to you all.

And now, on with the show!

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Chapter 10: Meet 'da Kidz!

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Faith looked around at the chosen meeting place and couldn't help a smirk appearing on her lips.

"He really wanted to meet here?" she asked Max, who was walking silently by her side. "He watched too many gangsta movies, didn't he?"

"Zack likes to do things his way," she simply answered. From what little Faith had witnessed of the interaction between Max and her big brother (who was her son in a way still too weird to fully wrap her mind around) there was a lot of bad blood there. Max was wild and reckless, as evident by the way she had entered Faith's life, while Zack sounded very much like a control freak of the kind the Council of Watchers would have loved. A lot of potential for friction there.

She wondered how the other nine kids she was slated to meet tonight would turn out to be.

The area Zack had chosen as their meeting place was in Los Angeles' warehouse district, more specifically a single warehouse near the harbor. Only a few hundred meters away the docks were still brimming with activity, loading and unloading going on at all hours, but here it was empty and quiet. The whole place was a maze of dark alleys, tunnels, buildings, and whatnot. You'd need a well-sized army to find someone here and a few fugitives would have no trouble dropping out of sight at a moment's notice.

"We should be wearing trench coats or something," Faith muttered, a bittersweet feeling passing through her as she remembered Richard Wilkins saying similar words once upon a time. He had been the closest thing to a father she'd ever had, no matter how evil a bastard he might have been to anyone else. There were still days she missed him.

"The time for the meeting is in five minutes," Max said, checking her watch, "but if I know Zack, he's here already and has been watching us for the last ten or so."

She looked up and into the same corner Faith had been looking at ever since entering the warehouse and added, "Isn't that right, big brother?"

A shadow detached from the corner and stepped into what little light streamed in from outside, which was more than enough for everyone present. Faith didn't have the same cat-like eyesight Max had, but that didn't trouble her much. What she didn't see her other senses picked up just fine. She was quite aware that Zack and the two of them weren't the only people currently present.

Seeing Zack almost immediately reminded her of Riley, the soldier boy Buffy had dated her first year of college. Tall, blonde, square-jawed, looking as if he'd just stepped off a recruitment poster for Uncle Sam's army. There was something in his eyes, though, that Riley had never had. Zack had the kind of eyes that said he'd kill anyone who endangered his mission, said mission being the safety of his siblings.

Faith stared back at him, unblinking.

"You wanted me to meet someone," Zack said by way of introduction. "I'm assuming that's her?"

Max opened her mouth, but Faith brushed past her and walked toward her son (still strange!) with a confident swagger of hips. The boy immediately fell into a combat stance, but that didn't worry her too much.

"That's me," she grinned at him. "Faith is my name, and you must be Zack. I've heard a lot about you, kid, and not much of it good."

She stopped just out of arm's reach, staring up at him. He was a few inches taller than her and his body was covered in streamlined muscle. She had little doubt he'd be a tough opponent in a fight. Her smile didn't waver, though. A slight feeling of déjà vû from her first meeting with Max overcame her. Would she have to greet all her children with an ass-kicking? That would be a whole lot of ass-kickings.

"I'm waiting, Max," Zack said, never taking his eyes off Faith.

"Meet Faith Wilkins, Zack," Max answered him with the barest hint of amusement in her voice. "Our long-lost mommy."

Faith smirked at Zack's non-existent expression. "No hug?" she mock-pouted.

Zack spent a second looking at Max, then back at Faith. "I don't have time for this kind of nonsense."

"Logan found a file," Max continued on. "Turns out our DNA isn't entirely home-cooked after all. They needed some hardcore-genes to slap all those enhancements onto. The first four tries, X-1 through X-4, were a complete bust because human DNA didn't have what it took. Then they found someone else, someone a little more than human. Her DNA worked just fine, so they extracted some ova from her, pumped all their little science projects inside, and nine months later … transgenic super-babies! Us!"

Zack's eyes narrowed as he studied Faith, clearly trying to assess what Max meant by 'a little more than human' and at the some wondering whether he was being handed a pile of crap here.

"I went through all this with your sister," Faith told him. "So let me see if I can guess your questions. No, I'm not part of this Manticore perversity. No, I never had a clue this all happened because I was in a coma at the time. Long story. And no, you're not being handed a pile of crap, sonny."

For a minute or so Zack remained quiet, then turned to look at Max with a sneer on his face.

"So what?" he asked. "You decided to risk all our lives for this? Is she going to bring Manticore down for us? Even if I were to believe all of this, I'd still ..."

Without warning Faith decked him, the punch coming so quickly that the younger man never had a chance to defend himself. Zack went flying through the air and came to a hard stop a dozen or so feet away. He immediately rolled back to his feet, though, his eyes blazing with anger, but also a healthy amount of weariness. The speed and the strength of the hit had clearly told him that he wasn't facing a mere human here.

"I was never good with the talking," Faith told him calmly, all humor gone from her voice. "I'm gonna give it a try, though. Once I'm sure that I have your undivided attention, kid. Are you gonna listen? Or do we have to do this the hard way?"

Faith sensed the other presences in the warehouse inching closer, but none of them seemed poised to interfere just yet. She knew that Amanda, Rona, Violet, Georgia, Alison, Maliya, and Angel were close by, just waiting for a signal from Faith to enter the fray in case things got ugly. She hoped it wouldn't have to go quite that far, though. She didn't want to fight her own kids and she certainly didn't want to put Max into a position where she might have to fight her siblings.

Zack seemed conflicted for a long minute, but finally settled for wiping some blood from his split lip and glaring at her.

"Talk fast," he growled at her.

"Manticore is going down," Faith growled back. "For what they did to me, for what they did to you. I'm sure I haven't even heard a fraction of what was going on there yet, but I've heard quite enough. I didn't know about you kids until three days ago, but that doesn't change the fact that you're my children. No one does that kind of stuff to my children and gets away with it. You asked me if I'm going to bring down Manticore for you, Zack? No, I won't. But I'm going to do it with you. If you've got the guts to stop hiding and start fighting."

 She looked up from him and into the surrounding darkness.

"That goes for all of you."

Nothing happened for what seemed like an eternity, but then someone stepped out of the shadows and looked at Max. It was a girl holding quite some resemblance to Max except for her blonde hair.

"Jondy?" Max whispered, almost as if she didn't quite believe she was finally seeing her sister again.

"Is she telling the truth, Max?" Jondy asked. There was the barest tremble in her stance, as if she'd like nothing better than to run to Max and capture her in a hug, but didn't quite trust the situation yet. Ten years on the run, Faith reminded herself. She remembered what kind of wreck she herself had been after but a few weeks on the run from Kakistos. Her anger towards Manticore and this Lydecker person increased once again.

"We did a DNA test," Max told her sister and the others. "It's true. And I've seen what she can do and what her friends can do. I think we have a fighting chance. I'd never have endangered all of you if I didn't think we finally had a chance."

Jondy seemed to search Max' face for some sign that she was really telling the truth while Zack continued to hover in the background, his face grim. Faith, doing her best to keep the welling emotions inside her under control, slowly walked towards Jondy.

"It's time to stop running," she simply said. "I won't pretend to understand what you all went through in your youth or in those ten years you spent on the run, but it's time to take a stand now. It's time to kick Manticore's ass. My friends and me, we'll do it alone if we have to. No one gets away with what they did. But our chances will be a whole lot better if you're with us. What do you say? Wanna kick Lydecker's ass?"

More people stepped out of the shadows. On first glance all they had in common was their age. Different hair colors, different shades of skin, no one would have guessed that all of them were related. There was something they all had in common, though. A stoop to their shoulders that told of a bone-deep tiredness, a hardness in their eyes that said they'd seen a lot of things kids their age should never have to see. It was eerie how their looks reminded Faith of the Slayers when they had been young.

"What are the odds?" a boy whom she would later learn was called Zane asked.

"Of pulling this off? Or of our surviving it?"

"Both."

Faith grinned at him. "Better than you'll ever be handed again in this lifetime, junior."

The tension in the warehouse seemed thick enough to cut it with a knife and Faith could sense, at the very edge of her perception, that Angel and the other Slayers were hovering closer than before. No doubt the big guy had sensed or smelled the mounting tension and decided to be ready in case there was trouble.

Zane looked at Zack even as the other X-5 were trading glances. None of them seemed eager to make the first move, but all of them wanted to do something. Faith could practically see the weight gathering on Zack's shoulders. The others still regarded him as the leader, or all of them except Max did, but it became increasingly clear what they wanted him to decide.

"Perhaps we should talk some more," he finally said, surrendering to the inevitable.

The tension broke and the various youths present abandoned their combat stances. Jondy immediately went to Max, the two girls hugging each other for all they were worth. Some others soon joined, turning it into a group hug. Faith couldn't help but smile. No matter how hostile the world might have been to those kids, at least they'd had each other. Now they had each other again.

Her kids, she reminded herself once again. These were all her kids. Gods, when the world decided to throw her a curve ball it sure didn't do things halfway.

"We're taking an awfully big risk," Zack told her, having walked up to stand beside her. "I hope you know what you're doing."

Well, she hadn't really expected to be greeted with hugs and kisses, either. These kids, and especially Zack, had been conditioned to see everyone as a potential enemy. It would take time until they started trusting each other. Max glanced over at her, giving her an encouraging smile.

"I hope so, too," Faith whispered, too low for even the X-5 to hear her. "I really hope so, too."

TO BE CONTINUED