DISCLAIMER: I own the kiddos and Suri. Joss owns everyone else.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've had serious blockage on this fic, hence the no updates, but I'm trying to be good, so here you guy, me writing through block even though it feels icky.
SMALL PACKAGES: CHAPTER EIGHT
He wore a suit, a tie, gray socks, and around his neck, a tiny vial holding the blood of the vessel. The talisman was inconvenient in the presence of vampires, granted, but it was a necessary precaution. He was messing with forces beyond his control, best not to let his only remaining link to the vessel out of his sight.
Cross-dimensional summoning spells were a tricky thing after all. Father didn't think he could handle it. Father didn't understand about the death goddess, her power, her beauty. Father didn't understand what channeling Tyrai would mean for Wolfram and Hart.
Talot uncrossed his legs and looked impatiently at his watch.
They would be on their way now, with the final sacrifices. Three slayers, given freely by their bloodkin.
Brandon narrowed his eyes at the guards. They were planning something. He could tell. The little boy glanced over at Claire.
"WE DON'T LIKE YOU," Claire informed the guards. They winced at the volume of her voice.
Brookie walked up to the men, and the one on the left stepped backward, just out of her reach. Slowly, Brookie took another step forward, and without saying a word, she tentatively poked the man in the knee. After a moment, she smiled, plopped herself down on the ground next to him, and poked him again.
The man laughed. He turned to the other guard. "She's just a kid," he said. Brookie poked his knee again.
"One," she said, holding up one finger.
The men laughed.
"Get me the sharp things," Noelle said in her best whisper to Brandon.
Instantly, the guards had their attention on her. Her dark hair was tangled, her pristine white dress practically shredded. Noelle smiled angelically at the men.
"Two," Brookie said, poking the man's knee again, holding up two fingers, and giggling delightedly.
"Kyati polonin chebeya luaht." Brandon muttered the words under his breath, his little heart racing. He'd seen Willow conjure a weapon out of nothing before, when those two headed demons with the orange teeth had attacked last Halloween. Wasn't this how she'd done it? He faltered for a moment, trying to think of the rest of the spell. Deep down, he knew if he didn't act soon, something very bad was going happen, and Brandon wasn't about to let anything bad happen to his girls. Not even Claire.
The music and the distinctly dorm-like smell hit Angel the second he stepped into the hallway. Awkwardly, he made his way to Dawn's room. Suri was playing Christina Aguilera again. As far as Angel knew, Dawn's roommate didn't own any other CD's.
He reached his hand up to knock on the door, and the second he did, Suri threw the door open.
"Hi Angel," she said, pushing her dyed-black hair out of her face. "You come to party with us this time?"
Angel opened his mouth and Dawn came quickly to his rescue.
"He's just here to take me to get some more medicine," she said smoothly. "You know me, Suri, big with the medicine." Dawn nodded, and Angel rolled his eyes. The youngest Summers was so not cut out for detective work.
"You never come to our parties," Suri said, flicking her hair behind her shoulder and pouting. She stared at Angel until he felt absolutely naked. Suri licked her lips.
I knew I shouldn't have come in here, Angel thought and then he realized what Suri had said.
"Parties?" he asked, sending Dawn an older brother look.
Dawn opened her eyes wide and elbowed Suri. "Uh… study parties," she improvised. "With books and work and… learning." Dawn nodded. "Learning," she said again, nodding vigorously.
Angel shook his head. "Come on," he said. "We have to go get your…medicine."
Dawn rolled her eyes. Angel was so not smooth.
"Later Suri," Dawn called over her shoulder.
Suri had already turned the music on full blast and didn't hear a word she said.
Angel glared at Dawn. "I'm never coming up here again," he said.
"You promise?" Dawn asked wryly.
They walked in silence for a few steps, and then Angel sighed. Whether he liked it or not, Dawn wasn't a little girl anymore. She was in college, and, for better or worse, she was his seer.
"What did you see?" he asked.
"Blood," Dawn said, closing her eyes. "Lots and lots of blood."
Talot tore his mind away from his father and thought of more pleasant things.
Talot put his legs up on his desk and leaned back, moving the vial of blood back and forth in between his fingers, watching the way the light played off of the deep red liquid and hearing the echoes of the child's screams in his mind. Blood was power, and blood was life. If he wanted to channel Tyrai into the vessel he had so carefully chosen, years ago when his father had first sent him to this dimension, Talot would need power. Untainted, unabated power.
"You said Tara," Willow said, setting Val down and bending to Kaya's level. "Sweetie," she said to Faith's daughter, trying to force her voice to stop shaking, "you said Tara."
"Tara," Kaya said. "Mine. Like Sunny."
"Like Anya?" Xander asked.
"Like Anya?" Spike mimicked, rolling his eyes.
Anya smacked him, her eyes locked on Xander.
"Anyarific orgasms," Kaya chirped with a wicked grin. Faith gave her a stern look. Kaya looked back at Willow. "Not like Anya," she said. "Mine. Like Sunny."
"You see Sunny, Tara," Kaya said, walking over to Val. "You see, my Tara. You see Sunny."
Willow looked at Val. "Do you see Tara?" she asked, her voice laden with emotion. Val looked at Willow with wide eyes. She'd never seen Miss Willow look like that. Miss Willow was nice and fun, and full of magic. Miss Willow wasn't sad, not like this.
Willow saw the panic in Val's eyes, and she forced herself to calm down. "Do you see a woman?" Willow asked calmly. "She has brown hair and light skin, and she's a little taller than me."
Val shook her head solemnly, her brown hair flying into her face.
"No, silly bint," Kaya said.
Spike grinned at her. "That's my girl," he said.
"No, silly bint," the child said again, smiling for her Spike. "Tara not tall. Brown hair, yes." Kaya gently touched Val's hair. "Brown hair Tara." She touched Val's eyes. "Tara see," she said.
"Wowza!" Xander said. "Brain flash. Brain flash." He pointed to the top of his head. "Right here," he said. Everyone looked at him. "She's not talking about Tara," Xander said. "She's calling Val 'Tara'."
Val looked down at the ground. Everyone was looking at her. Most of the time, she was real quiet, and nobody looked at her. She didn't like it when people looked at her. They knew she was different. Daddy said she was different, and so did cousin Beth, and so did everyone…
Val wrinkled her nose. What was she thinking? She didn't have a cousin Beth. It got like this sometimes, with all the memories and dreams confused up in her head. Sometimes, she couldn't remember what was real, and what was a dream. Bethie was a dream. That was all.
Kaya pointed a finger at Val. "You see, Tara," she said.
"She means 'you will see'," Xander said. "It's little kid talk." He arched an eyebrow, trying to keep thinks light for the little ones' sake. "I'm fluent."
Buffy came into the room as Willow muttered a spell under her breath.
"I gave Angel the heads up," Buffy said. She looked around. "Where's Lindsey?" she asked. "And Kate?"
"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Kate asked, her voice clipped. She didn't trust Lindsey. She knew he'd worked for the law firm that had Brandon. People didn't change that much.
Lindsey maneuvered the car around a corner. "Trust me," he said. "We'll make it in time."
Neither of them wanted to think about what would happen if they didn't.
"I'll kill any son-of-a-bitch that touches my son," Kate said through clenched teeth.
"Agreed," Lindsey said, his voice mild, but his mind was on Claire and Brookie. He hadn't saved them from their mother to let Wolfram and Hart take them now. They were his girls, and Lindsey McDonald protected his own.
Claire saw him and leaned over to help. "Shoelace?" she suggested. Kyati polonin chebeya shoelace luaht. That sounded about right to her.
Brandon shook his hair. Claire was so dumb. She was such a girl.
"THREE!" Brookie yelled at the top of her lungs. The guard she was poking looked down just in time to hear the sickening crunch of his knee as the two-and-a-half year old potential's little hand connected solidly with it.
"FOR SPORKIE! FOR DADDY!" Brookie yelled, her voice even louder than Claire's, as the man fell to the ground, grabbing his leg.
"Did you break his leg?" Noelle asked curiously.
Brookie nodded and started bouncing on one leg. "Broken, broken, broken," she sang.
"No fair!" Noelle said, stamping one of her feet. Instantly, her eyes landed on the other guard. "Then I get to be the one to play Broken with him." She jumped to her feet and rushed toward him.
Broken? The guard thought. Play Broken? He looked at the other man, rolling around in pain on the floor.
"I don't think I want to play Broken," he said, his voice shaking.
Noelle smiled and advanced on him. "It's a lot of fun," she said seriously.
Brandon reached out a hand to stop her. The guard was planning something. Brandon could tell. If only he could remember the rest of the spell, so that the ugly slayers could have lots of girly weapons.
"Kyati polonin chebeya…" Brandon trailed off, unsure of himself.
"Kleenex?" Claire suggested in a yell.
Brandon ignored her. "Kyati polonin chebeye luaht coynika foh..." That was it. He almost had it.
"Boingee broken, broken boingee…" Brookie wiggled her little bottom as she sang to herself.
"Jshundight," the guard said, and in the next instant, a second before Noelle reached him, he jerked a bracelet off his wrist, threw it to the ground, and crushed it under his foot. Immediately, Brookie stopped boinging, Claire stopped yelling, and Brandon realized exactly what was going on. He grabbed for Claire's hand, and a fraction of a second later, the four children fell unconscious on the floor.
The remaining uninjured guard looked down at Brandon. "You're not the only one who knows magic, little boy," he said. With a disgusted glance at the injured guard, the man leaned over and picked up Brookie and Noelle. After he'd secured them on the plane, he came back, tore Claire's hand from Brandon's, and carried her on the plane. With a parting glance at the two guards Brookie had injured and the unconscious little boy, the last guard climbed into the plan.
He would deliver the children. After all, disappointing the son of a senior partner would never do.
As the words left her mouth, Willow closed her eyes and entered Kaya's memory. She saw the world as the child saw it: filled with others: Anya, who played capitalism with her, Miss Jenny, who followed the tweed man wherever he went, and Spike, who called Kaya little luv and loved her best of all.
In her mind's eye, Willow saw Val, the way Kaya had first seen her: surrounded by a soft white aura, and just the barest trace of the outline of a woman Willow had once loved.
In the next instant, Willow saw a small, blonde child, heard her screams. She saw Angel- no, Angelus- felt him breathing on her neck, and the little girl was screaming. They were hurting her.
Willow opened her eyes with a gasp.
"Willow?" Buffy's voice broke into her thoughts. "Why the gasp-age, Will?" Buffy asked.
Willow felt the emotion drain from her body and she heard the words leave her lips as if from very far away. "Val is Tara," she said. "Her soul, her essence, whatever you want to call it, it's Tara's, and there's a little girl with long blonde hair, and Angelus, and Spike and Anya and somehow, it's all tied together, and now, I'm Babble Girl."
Val looked up at her teacher, her favorite person in the whole wide world. "Miss Willow," she said. "Who's Tara?"
TBC… up next, Spike and Anya try to figure out what's calling them away from Kaya, the back story of Talot's vessel, Tyrai, and what the heck's going on with all the cryptic stuff, and everyone goes after the little slayers.
I known there's a lot going on at once, but at the end of next chapter, the plotlines should converge.
Some of you guessed the Val = Tara thing a long time ago, but I hope it was a nice surprise for the rest of you! I have a few more in store, if you people are still reading the fic. Let me know.
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