DISCLAIMER: I own Kaya and the other kiddos. Joss owns the canon.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: If you like kidfic, please check out THERE BE DRAGONS, my new fic starring a Spike/Dru child. if you thought Brookie was a little loopy with the sporkie comment and that Kaya was cryptic, wait until you see Danni.
SMALL PACKAGES: Chapter Ten
Dawn wracked her mind, trying to remember everything she'd seen. "The kids were there again," she said. "Little girls. They were bleeding from the neck and from the stomach, and there was a symbol drawn with some kind of tar on their foreheads." Dawn wrinkled her nose as she thought, and Angel bit back a smile. For all she'd grown up, Dawn Summers was still very much a Dawnie, and very much the little sister type.
Angel said nothing of the sort out loud. Dawn hated feeling younger than anyone else, and the last thing he wanted was to tempt Dawn into feeding some unsightly idea into Suri's head. Dawn's roommate was really something else.
"Kids," Angel said, forcing himself to concentrate.
"Girls," Dawn said nodding. "Little ones, like they weren't even in school yet."
"Oh, come on now," Doyle groaned. "Do the math here, Angel. It isn't that difficult. Girls. Little. School. Blood."
Cordy snorted. "Like you would have figured it out if it hadn't been for the fact that you get the Cliffs Notes version of everything, Mr. I Need a Ghost Drink."
Doyle rubbed his temple and gave Cordy an aggrieved look. "I need a ghost drink," he said out loud.
Cordy looked down at her nails, trying not to let him see you smile.
"And what about you, Princess?" Doyle asked. "What would you be needing, besides a ghost manicure?" He smiled at her, a wicked gleam in his eyes.
Cordy gave him a pointed look. "A world of in your dreams," she said.
"Aye," Doyle said, leaning towards her. "That's the way it is my dream, Cordy. Albeit you're a bit taller, and your hair's different, and it isn't actually you or anything like you aside from the female part, but."
Cordy smacked him.
Doyle stuck his hands in his pockets. "She wants me," he said under his breath.
Cordy snorted again.
Doyle turned back to Angel. "Come on," he said, the brogue heavy in his voice. "Think. Girls. School."
"School," Angel muttered under his breath. Dawn breathed in quickly and looked at Angel.
"Ohmigod," she said. "Buffy. I mean, not Buffy, but her kids. I mean, not her actual kids, because she doesn't have any, but, you know, her kids at Potential."
"Slayers," Angel said. Subtly, he looked at the speedometer and sped up. "Who at Wolfram and Hart would want little slayers? And for what?"
"Darla," Sunny said. "My Darla."
"Yes, sweet child?" Darla replied, smoothing Sunny's blonde hair out of her solemn face.
"Do you think some day we might not be dead anymore?" Sunny asked wistfully. "I think I might like being not dead. I think I liked it before." Sunny looked down at the ground. "The hurt-y thing never happened before I was dead." Sunny's wide eyes searched Darla's face for answers.
"Sometimes," the child whispered, almost no sound leaving her lips. Darla struggled to hear her. "Sometimes I think they killed me." Sunny looked down at the ground. "Sometimes I think that they killed me just so they could hurt me more."
"Don't make Brookie hurt you." Brookie frowned fiercely and put her hands on her hips, her little bottom sticking out just a little bit in the back as she did.
The guard groaned. How in the world had two of the three children woken up already? The spell was supposed to have knocked them out until the preparations for the ritual were completed. They weren't even out of the plane yet, and already, he was starting to worry that he was in over his head. At least the loud one was still sleeping.
He looked at his watch. Backup would be here soon.
"Oh no, Brookie," Noelle said, her eyes glinting dangerously. "We WANT to hurt him. In fact, I invented a brand new game, just for him." Noelle turned toward the man, doing the equivalent of a little girl saunter as she took a step towards him. "It's called World of Pain."
Noelle shot the man a devious little smile.
"WORLD OF PAIN!"
The guard groaned. Now all three of them were awake.
"Claire-y!" Brookie said, altogether delighted.
"It'll be okay, Brookie," Claire said with all the confidence of an older sister. "You and me and Noelle can play world of pain, and when we get back home, we'll have cookies."
"Cookies." Brookie said, thoroughly distracted and absolutely delighted at the idea of something yummy.
"But first," Claire said, older, wiser, and not as easily distracted by cookies. "WORLD OF PAIN!" Claire bellowed out the last words.
An incredibly bright smile spread across Noelle's face and she let out an incredible war cry. Noelle's mother didn't think the war cry was very ladylike, but what did she know?
The man took one look at the advancing pint sized slayers and groaned. Forget about backup. This was about self-preservation. He muttered the transportation spell under his breath. It might kill him to tap into enough magic to send the girls straight to Mr. Big Shot at Wolfram and Hart, and it certainly wouldn't have been possible had they not already been so close, but at the moment, it was looking like a better possibility than playing World of Pain with Claire, Noelle, and Brookie.
The last thing he heard as the girls disappeared from sight, was Brookie singing in a high and extremely hyper voice. "Cookies, cookies, cookies! Cooooooooookiiiiiiiiiieeeeees. Yum yum yum! Yum yum yummers! Cookies with a sporkie. Sporkie sporkie sporkie, pain pain pain."
When all he heard was silence, the man breathed a sigh of relief. For better or for worse, the girls were at Wolfram and Hart.
Willow took a deep breath. "It's gonna feel a little bit like." she trailed off, trying to think of a way to describe the feeling of being magically teleported somewhere.
"Swimming?" Val suggested softly.
"Fuzzy?" Buffy suggested.
Anya waved her hand in the air vigorously. "Oooooh oooooh ooooh," she said, like a child waiting to speak in class.
Spike cleared his throat and shot a sardonic look in Anya's general direction. "Like an orgasm?" Anya said. "Is it going to feel like an orgasm, with the massive amounts of non-material pleasure and sense of non-capitol gain? And with the."
"Oh sodding hell," Spike muttered. After all these years, he should have known better than to get her started.
.
"Like orgasms?" Kaya asked innocently, parroting Anya.
"Kaya," Faith said, a mild degree of warning in her voice.
"Not me, Mommy," Kaya said cheerfully. "Others." She waited just a moment and then added, "Sodding hell."
"Kaya Joyce."
"Others," Kaya repeated, the very picture of innocence.
"Half-Bit," Spike said, giving Kaya a look. "Watch your language."
Kaya looked at Spike for a moment and then proceeded to summarily ignore him.
Spike recognized the expression on her face.
"Kaya."
Kaya looked at him. Spike, who loved her best of all, wasn't supposed to tell her not to do stuff. He wasn't supposed to have a Mommy Voice, like the one Mommy used when Kaya was getting into trouble.
Kaya wasn't
sure she liked her Spike getting her into trouble.
"Teleportation feels a little bit like your skin is jello," Willow said, as Xander opened his mouth to guess.
"I was just going to say that," Xander replied. "I'm an incredible guesser. What kind of jello?"
Val smiled softly at him. She'd been wondering the same thing.
"Orange jello," Willow replied.
Xander nodded, looking thoughtful.
"I don't like orange jello," Val whispered, almost inaudibly.
"Hot damn!" Kaya said, sending an endearing little baby smirk in Spike's general direction and looking exactly like her mother.
"Kaya Joyce!" Faith said.
"Kaya Joyce!" Spike said at the exact same time. "I bloody well did not just say that. Don't you tell her I did."
Kaya turned to Faith. "That one was me," she said proudly, speaking one of the first complete sentences Buffy had heard her say.
Faith struggled to keep a straight face.
She loved that child. Loved her so much, and Kaya was so damn funny.
"Quiet time," Faith told Kaya sternly. "Five minutes."
Kaya opened her mouth to speak, but one look from Faith stopped her. Kaya sent a pouting look towards Spike, who instantly felt an urge to somehow make Faith take back the punishment. Poor little half-bit.
"About this teleportation thing," Buffy said, trying not to let her continued amazement at Faith's natural interaction with her daughter get in the way of things. "Are we ready?"
Willow ran through a last minute checklist, and as she did, a silent Kaya held her arms up to Faith, who picked her daughter up. Kaya always needed to be hugged when she was in trouble, and Faith always needed to hug her.
"And we're ready," Willow said. Silently, Val mimicked Kaya, holding her arms up to Willow. Willow picked up the child, and Val laid one hand on her cheek. "Willow," she said simply.
Willow took Val's hand in hers and allowed the child to join her in the ending of the transportation spell, their magics flowing together. Willow smiled softly. The little girl's magic, her essence, felt like Tara. Younger. More innocent. More helpless, but it was still Tara.
The moment the last motion had been completed and the last word said, Xander felt distinctly like orange jello, and all of them disappeared into thin air.
As soon as she felt the air on her skin, Kaya twisted around in her mother's arms, to look around.
"Where are we?" Faith asked. Willow and the others were nowhere to be seen, and she and Kaya were standing in the midst of a light fog the color of raindrops just before a rainbow.
Kaya knew where they were. Other Place. They were in the Other Place.
"What the hell is going on?" Faith tried to keep the panic out of her voice. "B? Red? Xander?"
"Now, what kind of example is that?" Spike asked. "And you wonder why she has a swearing problem."
Faith whirled around to look at him. "What are you doing here?" she asked. "Aren't you dead?"
Spike met her gaze evenly. "Don't know," he replied, answering her questions in order. "And yes, I am dead." He gave her a falsely prim look that didn't quite manage to hide the small smirk on his face. "We prefer living challenged."
Faith stepped towards him, ready to pummel him for no other reason than the fact that he was here, and she needed something to fight. Kaya was in danger. Her baby was in this place, this unworldly place, and Faith had to be able to fight something, someone. Wordlessly, Kaya reached out her arms toward Spike.
Spike took the child into his arms and adjusted her on his hip.
"It's not my usual place either, Slayer," Spike said. "Bit smoky for my taste."
A wave of sound spread through the non-space, and Spike immediately braced to protect Kaya. Faith watched his every move, and something in her stomach clicked. Spike wouldn't let anything get her baby. She was sure of it.
"You're here." The voice had no visible source, and yet it was everywhere at once.
"We're here," Faith said. "If you wanna fight, then bring it."
A low growl escaped Spike's throat.
Kaya struggled in Spike's arms to get down, but he held her tightly. She gave him a fierce look, and the vampire met it, an expression of fatherly warning on his face. "Sit tight, little one," he said. Kaya wiggled some more. "Bit." The single word of final warning stilled the child.
"Let her down." The voice spoke.
"No way in bloody hell," Spike said.
"And she picks up the language habit completely from me," Faith scoffed. "Uh-huh."
"I mean her no harm. Our time is short. The longer you stay here, the closer the worlds come to falling. I meant to bring the child alone. She can withstand the force of the barrier, and the barrier can withstand her presence. Yours it cannot."
Faith and Spike were strangely silent.
"Ask her. Kaya knows I mean her no harm."
"Kaya?" Faith said. "Baby? Do you know something Mommy doesn't know?"
Kaya didn't respond.
"Platelet?" Spike asked.
Kaya nodded solemnly.
"What?" Faith and Spike asked in unison.
Kaya opened her mouth and then closed it again, giving Faith a very pained look.
"What's wrong, baby?" Faith asked. "Why can't you tell Mommy?" Kaya rolled her little three year old eyes. "Oh," Faith said, realizing. "Quiet time is over."
"Been here before," Kaya said, glad to finally speak. "Mommy been. And Spike been. And Kaya been. Long time ago." Kaya wiggled to get down again, and this time, Spike set her softly on the ground.
"This Kaya's place," Kaya said.
"Yes, child," the voice from everywhere replied. "This is your place. The place where you were conceived. The realm between all realms. The realm of neither living nor dead."
"Hold on there, Skippy," Faith said. "I think I would damn well remember something like this."
"Language," Spike said under his breath. Faith glared at him, and Kaya grinned broadly.
"It was a necessary precaution," the voice said. "The coma, an unfortunate side effect. As I said, your kind cannot long last here. You were brought here for a purpose, both of you, and the child is that purpose. She has a greater calling. She isn't of your world, either of your worlds. The closest you can come to understanding it is that she is the child of both, both the living and the dead, but truly, she is neither."
"What is she?" Spike asked.
"My daughter," Faith growled. "She's my daughter."
"She is Our daughter. The daughter of this place. The daughter of all realms, the daughter of none. For now, she is the Speaker. The Speaker for the Dead."
"She is not your daughter," Faith said bitterly. "She's mine. I was the pregnant one, and quite frankly, I don't remember any rendezvous with a giant bodiless voice."
"We borrowed a body of sorts, one that could sustain itself in this place long enough for it to be done. She is yours, Slayer, and she is his, but first and foremost, she is Ours. Our daughter. Our legacy. Our last gift to a failing realm, and she is in danger."
More than anything, Faith wanted something to punch, something to kill.
"What kind of danger?" Spike asked, his fury just barely contained.
"Their plan would bring down the realms. They must be stopped. The power of the dead cannot be harnessed. Her life force is tied to this place, this boundary. It would kill her, and that is not in Our plan."
Faith snorted. "Some planner you guys are," she muttered.
"Silence, mortal." The command was not loud, but Faith's bones shook with the words.
"She must be joined by her parents. You must give your power up to the child, and the power of this place will go with you."
"Parents?" Faith asked. "As in plural."
Kaya looked at Faith in that moment, and all Faith could see was her baby's blue, blue eyes.
Kaya turned her gaze to Spike, and the same realization settled over the vampire.
His little bit. His.
"Listen quickly, child. You must bring her to you. It's in you. Bring her back, and their sacrifice will have been for naught."
Kaya nodded solemnly. She felt the tension in the air and took that moment to break it. "Well bloody hot hell damn," she said. She waited for someone to say Kaya Joyce, but no one did.
Spike and Faith were silent, and so was the voice.
In the next moment, the fog was gone, and the three of them were standing on solid ground.
Kaya reached out tentatively to touch Spike. "Real now," she said. "Here now." Finally, the child understood what she was meant to do.
"Ready," she said with a fierce determination.
Our daughter.
The unworldly voice was less even than an echo.
Spike and Faith looked at each other, their thoughts in tandem.
Our daughter.
TBC. Okay, show of hands, who saw THAT coming? Hehehehehe. anyway, Kate, Lindsey, and Brandon will be back next chapter, and the action picks up as the little slayers fight back, Brandon goes into a huge magical and not-at-all-girly tantrum, Buffy finds out about Dawn's visions, and it's up to Buffy and co. to stop the sacrifice while Kaya meets the first leg of her destiny as the Speaker.
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