DISCLAIMER: I own the kiddos, Joss owns the canon.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: So, I've had hard core block on this fic for the LONGEST time, but I'm determined to see it through to the end. I'm so sorry it's taken so long. I hope it's worth the wait.
SMALL PACKAGES: Chapter Eleven
Sitting behind his desk, the man looked impatiently at his watch. The little slayers should have been there by now, and Talot was not a man to be kept waiting. He fingered the necklace around his neck.
"Not long now," his whispered the child's blood. "The final stages of sacrifice, the slayers' blood, and then…" he trailed off, imagining himself speaking to the child he himself had killed years before. "There will be pain, of course," he said, relishing the thought. "Your pain, and the pain of the sacrifices, but your pain will bring power, great power. Tyrai will return, and the Death Goddess will bring to me the power of the realms, the power of the dead."
Talot smiled broadly. "Dead slayers, dead witches, dead demons…" he trailed off. "All of that power, mine through you, my lovely sacrificial vessel."
He thought of the child and smiled. He'd known, the moment he'd first seen her, that she was the one, and the geigen readings he'd taken had confirmed it. She lived at the center of a mystical convergence, the ideal vessel, and for that, she'd had to die.
Such a pity. She'd been a beautiful, happy little girl.
Talot looked at his watch again. Where were the final sacrifices?
In that moment, a portal opened above his head and three girls fell out. They landed on their feet.
"Lovely," Talot said.
"Where are we?" one of them asked. She was wearing a filthy white dress and her dark hair was coming out of its ponytail. "Never mind where we are," she said. "Let's play world of pain."
"Yummy pain sporkie hi-yah!" a blonde toddler said, her body wriggling in anticipation of the fight to come.
The final little girl smiled charmingly at Talot. "Hello," she said. 'This is my indoor voice." Then she paused. "AND THIS IS NOT MY INDOOR VOICE. WORLD OF PAIN!" With that yell, Claire launched herself at the man behind the desk, the hairs on the back of her neck standing straight up as her slayer senses told her that there was something wrong with him.
Brookie giggled. "Wait for me, Claire-y!"
"No fair," Noelle grumbled as Claire pummeled Talot with her strong little fists. "I wanted to play first." She paused and sighed a very aggrieved sigh. "Fine," she said in a huff, "but I get to break his legs."
Panicked, Talot pressed the emergency button on his desk, just as Brookie launched a flying kick at his knee cap.
"AAAAAAARRRRRGGGG!" he yelled at the sound of bones breaking.
Brookie patted his leg. "World of Pain," she said happily. "Squishy pain. Boingee pain for you, happy squish for Brookie."
"No fair," Noelle said, stomping her foot. "I wanted to break his legs!"
Talot gritted his teeth. Where were his people? He'd pressed the emergency button. What was keeping them?
*~*~*~
Angel slammed the man up against a wall. "I want to know who kidnapped the little slayers," he said, "and I want to know now."
The man groaned in pain.
"I'd do the talky thing," Dawn advised him. "Angel's looking kinda grumpy, and believe me, you don't want to mess with a grumpy Angel."
"Well, ain't that the truth?" Doyle asked with a grin, taking a swig of his ghost drink and watching the proceedings, interested.
"Okay," Cordelia said, shaking her head, "one, Angel is broody, not grumpy, and two, didn't we agree? No more ghost drinks while you're air-quote working."
Doyle grinned lazily at Cordy. "The lass has it under control," he said. "Take a breather, Queenie."
Cordy grinned despite herself and sat down in Doyle's lap. "This what you had in mind?" she asked.
"Could be," Doyle replied, beaming at her.
"Could be," Cordelia repeated, nuzzling him.
"Talot," the man shrieked finally, as Angel's fist came done on his face again. "He's the son of a senior partner. He transferred in here a year or so after you did. He's been working on a secret project with his father's approval." The man stuttered nervously, his already blackening eyes twitching. "He's above your authority."
Angel stared at the man.
Dawn winced. "You shouldn't have said that," Dawn said. "Grumpy Angel doesn't like having his authority questioned."
Angel shot a look at Dawn. All of this grumpy talk was making it hard to appear as deadly as he needed to.
Dawn shrugged. "Like that's not true," she grumbled. Then she shrugged and held her hands up in defeat when Angel glared at her. "Vision girl," she said. "Shutting up now."
"Vision girl?" another voiced asked.
Dawn whirled around. Her mouth dropped open. "Oh," she said, choruses of 'Big Trouble' playing in the back of her head. "Hey Buffy."
"Don't Hey Buffy me," Buffy said. "You're having visions." This explained so much about the past year, Buffy thought. Her sister had been having visions, and she hadn't said anything about it.
Dawn's eyes darted back and forth nervously. "Angel knew," she said, shifting the blame.
"Angel!" Buffy said.
Xander, appearing with Willow and a little girl behind Buffy, clicked his tongue. "For shame, Dead Boy," he said. "For shame."
The little girl tugged on the bottom of Willow's pants, and Willow bent down. Val, her eyes wide, whispered something in Willow's ears.
"Tara… I mean, Val is right, guys," Willow said, swallowing hard. "We can all make with the yelling later, but right now, we need to find Brookie, Claire, and Noelle."
Angel turned back to the man he had pinned against the wall. "If you think I'm grumpy, just wait," he said. He gestured with his head towards Buffy. "That's the slayer."
"And she's pissed," Dawn added.
Buffy stared the man down. "Where are they?" she asked.
Gulping, the man told them.
*~*~*~*~*~
"I'm sorry, sir, but you can't go up there," the guard at the front desk of Wolfram and Hart said smoothly.
"Like hell I can't," Lindsey said, his voice low and furious. "You have my daughters."
"Excuse me, Mr. McDonald?" a high, clear female voice interrupted. Lindsey turned to look at a woman in her late twenties. Everything about her screamed 'hell lawyer.' "I'm afraid we can neither confirm or deny such an allegation, but I'll remind you that, in your time with this company, you signed a waver of custody agreement, extending to any and all descendents of joint interest to this company." She paused. "If they have your blood, technically, they are ours."
Kate saw Lindsey struggling to gain control, but she didn't bother to herself. Moving with pent up fury, her fist connected soundly with the woman's cheek bone.
The guard looked at Kate, amazed. "You punched her," he said dumbly.
Lindsey, his face serious, stepped in between Kate and the guard. "We can neither confirm nor deny such a statement," he said, "but I'd remind you…" Lindsey trailed off and punched the guard. "You have my daughters."
More Wolfram and Hart lackeys filled the lobby. "You asked for it," one of them said to Lindsey, preparing for a fight. "You and the lady both."
"NO!" Brandon wriggled down from Kate's arms and stamped his foot. "You don't hurt them," he said, "and you don't hurt my Claire either! Or Brookie or Noelle, cause I'm going to protect them and I want to see them now." Brandon glared at the men with his mother's glare. "NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW!" He stomped his foot, and started muttering under his breath.
"Cayata ferishen tavolot tryot," the little boy said. Three of the men fell to the ground, convulsing, and Brandon, his body humming with the magic he was using, looked at the others. "Now," he demanded. "Where's my Claire?" He paused. "Not that I like her or anything, because I don't. She's a girl, and I don't like girls, but you better tell me where she is anyway. Now."
Kate grinned. "That's my boy," she said. "That's my boy."
*~*~*~*~*~*~*
"I bloody well don't understand this anymore than you do," Spike told Faith. "I can't have a child, I'm dead." He looked at Faith. "And I'm pretty sure I'd remember, Slayer, if we…"
"Bloody well," Kaya echoed wickedly.
"Kaya…" Faith and Spike said warningly at once.
Kaya grinned at them both. "Other Place," she said. "Kaya's place."
Faith thought of what the faceless voice had said. Her daughter had been conceived between the living and the dead and lived in both realms, and if the realms collapsed into each other…
Faith forced the thought out of her head. She'd die before she let something happen to Kaya.
Kaya tilted her head to the side, listening.
"Sunny," she whispered. "They want her." Kaya shook her head. "No," she said, her voice low and shaking. "No."
*~*~*~*~
Claire didn't see Talot grab the knife from his back pocket. She didn't see the knife flash out at her throat.
Brookie saw it and screamed.
The blood splashed onto Noelle's pristine white dress.
Like a madman, Talot slashed the knife at Noelle. The little slayer jumped out of the way, but the knife cut through her dress, slicing the skin of her stomach open.
The vial of blood around Talot's neck began to quiver, and, setting his sights on Brookie, he began muttering the incantation under his breath.
"Tyrai, Death Goddess, this blood for you," he said. Brookie backed away, her blue eyes wide. Why wasn't Claire moving? Why was Noelle crying? Noelle didn't cry unless it was a war cry. Why was there blood everywhere? Everything was so red. Why wasn't Claire moving?
Talot, his leg broken from Brookie's kick, dragged himself along the ground, advancing on the toddler slayer. He needed her blood, and the spell would be complete. The sacrificial vessel would return, and with her, the Power of Tyrai.
"Claire-y," Brookie whimpered. Claire said nothing. She wasn't moving.
*~*~*~*~*~
TBC… one more chapter… With Faith and Spike's help, Kaya meets the first leg of her destiny, and Angel and co and Brandon and Co find their way to Talot's office…
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