SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1CHAPTER ELEVEN

Now here I go again, I see the crystal visions
I keep my visions to myself
It's only me
Who wants to wrap around your dreams and
Have you any dreams you'd like to sell?
Dreams of loneliness
Like a heartbeat...drives you mad
In the stillness of remembering what you had
And what you lost
The Corrs - Dreams

"What do you mean 'visitor'?" Buffy asked, staring at the fireplace herself. Nothing seemed to be there. Still, Aidan and his mother appeared intent on one section of the wall.

"Someone dead?" Xander hugged Anya a little closer.

"Yes. She's a little shy," Ceara replied, moving closer to whatever it was she and her son saw.

"Is she one of our girls?" A disheartened look came over Buffy's face.

"I'm not sure. She doesn't want to talk to me. She thinks adults are all dweebs," Ceara said, with an apologetic shrug. "Can you do better, son?"

"I think so. Hi, I'm Aidan. I'm guessing you're here to talk," he said to the apparition.

"Can you ask her who did this?" Buffy prompted

Aidan held up a hand. "Okay, good…she'll talk. I'll need a tablet."

Willow handed him one. They couldn't hear him asking questions but he was writing furiously. Finally he set the tablet aside, his young eyes seeming aged and tired.

"We'll come get you, I promise." Aidan turned to the living and said, "She mostly just repeated herself. She can't tell me much about who kidnapped and killed her. She's not really believing she's dead. She's one of the L.A. girls. She's not sure where she's at since she's never been to Sunnydale. She thinks this is still L.A. She's in a ravine, near a park with a playground. Do you know where that might be?"

"There are a couple of parks. Can you tell me more as to what it looks like?" Buffy took his tablet, scanning it quickly.

Aidan shook his head. "I have it in my mind though. I'll know it when I see it."

Buffy flipped the tablet to Giles. "No, I'm not taking you. No offense but you're a kid. You can't be running around out there at night."

"Well, I can't describe it better without Aimee's help. She's not telling me enough. I guess you could give talking to Aimee a whirl," he snapped, tugging at his long hair.

Buffy scowled. "Don't smart off to me. You know I can't do that."

"Yeah, I do. And Mum can't do it if Aimee won't talk to her," Aidan said stubbornly, not backing down from her. "I don't want to wait for daylight when you think it's safer for me because she'll be even more preyed on by then, what with dogs, raccoons and coyotes."

"Okay, ewww." Buffy held up a hand. "How did you get to be so morbid?"

"Seen too many dead people," Aidan said flatly, and Buffy flinched in spite of herself. "It's not like I'm going alone. You'll be with me, maybe Angel and Spike could go, too. That's like protection, right?"

"I guess." Buffy looked over at his mother. "Ceara?"

"We've done this before many times, I'm afraid. Besides, Aimee is clinging to Aidan like a tick to a hound. It'll be easier if he goes, and I'll go with you four," Ceara replied.

"Five. I'm going as well," Giles said.

"Of course. You can't do the research thing if you don't know what they did to the girl," Buffy said quickly, hoping to counteract any qualms on Aidan's part that Giles was being overprotective. The boy, however, didn't react to it. Dawn would have been pitching a fit at being sheltered.

"Six. You might need my magic," Willow said.

"And mine," Tara spoke up.

"No, Tara. I want you to stay here and protect…." Buffy trailed off, seeing Dawn's withering look then finished lamely, "the house."

"I don't need protecting, Buffy," Dawn argued, twin spots of pink standing out on her cheeks.

"Any other time I'd agree Dawn. You don't need a sitter, I know that, but these people are targeting kids like you. They've taken your friends. They may have seen you with Evie or that boy. They could be smart enough to find you here. I want a little magical backup in case they do," Buffy said, feeling sudden tears, thoroughly unexpected, pricking at her eyes. "I don't want to lose you."

Dawn opened her mouth to protest then snapped it shut seeing the look on Buffy's face. She bobbed her head. "Me and Tara will stay here. We can help Xander and the rest with the research."

"Thank you." Buffy squared her shoulders, getting herself back under control. "Angel, you're driving."

The vampire just nodded and headed for the car. They all piled in; Aidan and Buffy in the front seat with Angel and the rest shoehorned into the back. Aidan glanced around as Angel drove, trying to find landmarks from his talks with Aimee who was currently sitting on his lap, icy fingers emanating from her, digging almost painfully into the boy.

"There! That looks like it," Aidan said, bouncing on the seat. Aimee started babbling for him to hurry up, unheard by all except Aidan and Ceara.

"You stay in the car until we check it out first." Buffy pointed at Aidan as Angel pulled over.

Aidan's eyes scanned the deserted, somewhat overgrown parking lot. "What if someone comes for me in the convertible while you're out there?"

"Is that your way of saying you're coming with us?" Buffy paused as she went to climb over the kid to get out of the front seat.

"Sort of," Aidan said, getting a good look down Buffy's shirt in the dim light.

"You're a little blighter, do you know that?" Spike bailed out of the back seat.

"Spike!" Giles growled, shoving his glasses up irritatedly.

"He's looking down your shirt, Buffy." Spike gestured at her gaping top.

"He is no…oh!" Buffy closed her arms over her chest, shooting Aidan a withering look.

"How'd you know?" Aidan glanced back at Spike who shrugged.

"I would have, too."

"You can hit him if you want, Buffy," Ceara said as Giles gave her a hand out of the backseat.

"I just might," Buffy grumbled, making it out of the car. "Boys."

"They're all the same," Ceara agreed. "Son, get back here with me, Roo and Willow. Let Buffy and the vampires go first."

"Muscle in the front, magic in the rear…I'm in a really weird sandwich," Aidan said, clambering out of the car.

"Fitting since you're a really weird kid," Spike said, trailing after Angel.

"Talk about the pot calling the kettle black," Aidan shot back.

Spike spun around to say something. Buffy caught him, whirled him back around and propelled him out into the night. The others hung back until they heard Buffy calling out to them.

"Looks okay. Does this feel like the right place, Aidan?"

Aidan glanced to his right and said, "Show me, Aimee." He walked off on a tangent. Everyone let him go except Buffy who clung to him like a burr. Angel and Spike moved in a flanking path just to be sure nothing got through to the kid. Buffy knew she should be surprised that Aidan was so calm, so determined but somehow she wasn't. Giles' son seemed too old for the boy he was. Aidan picked up the pace. Scurrying through the underbrush Buffy nearly tripped on a branch. Aidan paused, looking at her. She shrugged with an embarrassed grin. Working at night had offered her a variety of opportunities to trip over things. She was lucky that Slayer gifts included agility, and when she did fall, it was usually unwitnessed.

"This way," he said softly. "Here, she's here." He stopped, his feet inches from a bared leg.

"Don't touch her." Buffy caught him. She looked down and saw the girl's body. The killers hadn't even bothered to cover her with leaf litter or dirt. She had been dragged into the ravine and dumped like so much trash. "Down here!" she called to the others.

"It's okay now, Aimee. We have you. We're going to help," Aidan whispered.

Buffy glanced over see who he was talking to even thought she knew she wouldn't be able to, and it somehow unnerved her. She preferred supernatural things with corporeal form. Those things she knew she could touch and kill if need be. She gave his shoulders a comforting rub. "It'll be all right."

He smiled up at her. "I'm okay. I wish this was the first time I was standing in the woods at night over a dead body but it ain't."

Buffy didn't know what to say. Life shouldn't be like this for anyone, let alone a kid, and she knew there was no way of making it right. "I'm sorry."

He shrugged. "No real choice. Sort of like you…well, I could try to close myself off to all of it, which is an option you don't have."

"I wish I could," Buffy whispered, glancing up at the stars, "I'd do it in a minute."

"Would you really?" He touched her hand. "Or would you keep doing what's right, no matter what the cost?"

"You really are your father's son," Buffy said gently, patting his shoulder.

Aidan flipped his hair back out of his eyes. "Is that good or bad?"

"It's good. He's a good man." Buffy half-turned, hearing the others coming through the woods.

"Giles, bring that light over here," Buffy said.

Giles shone the large flashlight on the girl's corpse. "They've been carving the sigil on the victim's hands and face."

Buffy frowned. She didn't want to touch the dead body. She hadn't been fully able to shake some of her natural squeamishness. "I don't see anything on her face.

"Her stomach. It's on her belly," Aidan said.

Buffy curled her lip and eased up the hem of the girl's shirt. The sigil cut across her pale flesh. "I really wish you couldn't see things like this."

"Tried being normal once…nearly drove me mad," Aidan replied.

"Shush," Angel said. "Something's moving."

Instantly alert, he, Spike and Buffy ranged away from the body just a bit. Nothing was in range of the flashlight's weak beam.

"Look, they started the killing without us," a unknown voice broke the silence.

Four vampires stepped from the shadow. They wore all the same colors as if they had been a gang when still alive. Buffy didn't need to tell Spike or Angel what she needed them to do. They attacked like a well-coordinated team. That was when five more vampires popped up from the shadows. Willow ended up on her back, surprised, and Giles was tossed into Ceara. They went down in a heap of tangled limbs. Buffy tried to get back to them as they were defenseless.

"Incendi!" Willow cried out.

The vampire on top of her burst into flames. Willow barely managed to squirm out from under him. The vampire exploded choking her with dust.

Aidan spoke a word Willow didn't know and the vampires couldn't break through the shield that formed around him. Buffy, Angel and Spike caught the vampires and polished them off.

"How…" Buffy gestured at the little swirls of dust. "Did you do that?"

"My mother's abilities weren't the only ones I inherited." Aidan shrugged, holding out a hand to his mother. He hauled her up off Giles and the leaf litter.

"You never said you were a mage," Willow said as Buffy helped her Watcher to his feet. He brushed himself off with embarrassed irritation.

"No one asked me," Aidan replied.

"He's not allowed to do much. We've agreed he's too young. Just a spell or two to protect himself," Ceara said. "It takes a certain level of maturity to use the power wisely."

"Agreed," Giles said, looking shellshocked.

"Yeah, figured you'd say that," Aidan said.

"He has his…um…reasons." Willow shot Giles a wary look.

Aidan turned to look at his father. "I know them."

"Oh," Willow said in a small voice.

Giles cleared his throat uncomfortably then bent back over the body. He used a stick to lift her shirt a bit to take a better look at the sigil carved into her flat belly. "Doesn't look like they added anything to the wound, no conjuring powders or inks."

"Looks like a very sharp blade did this. Do you think that they carved anything else onto her? Maybe her back or legs." Ceara suggested.

"I think it best we don't disturbed her more and sneak a peek at the coroner's report," Giles said.

"We've already disturbed the scene beyond repair with all the thrashing around and fighting," Ceara remarked, in a tone that suggested a little more disruption wouldn't matter.

"You all go back to my house. I don't want to just leave her here alone," Buffy said. "Willow, call the police on your cell. I'll wait until they get here. I need to patrol anyhow." She started to walk off so she could watch from a secluded area. "I don't want any company from anyone."

Buffy didn't turn to see the vampires' reactions but Giles and Ceara noted it. Both Angel and Spike were visibly upset at being shunted away as was Willow.

"Let's get you back to Buffy's," Angel said, waving a hand at Aidan as he tried to shrug off being cut out.

Once they were back downtown, Willow called the police from a pay phone off Ceara's suggestion it was less traceable than her cellular. Nothing much was said on the way back to Revello Drive. Anxious faces greeted them.

"Buffy didn't come back?" Dawn asked as Willow sat with Tara, looping an arm around her.

"She decided to patrol," Giles said.

"Did you find the girl, Aidan?" Dawn asked as he sank onto the couch.

"Found her. Found some vampires, too." Adian ran a hand over his face, looking suddenly weary.

"Oh. Did they kill the girl?" Tara asked.

"No. I'm betting they were just there, drawn to death like blow flies. She was killed by the people we're looking for," Ceara replied, slumping into a chair. Giles put a hand on her tense shoulders.

"Was she able to tell you anything more once you found her?" Tara asked.

"Nothing useful." Aidan scowled. "I was hoping for more but there was something odd."

"Oh?" Ceara say up, jostling Giles' hand. "You didn't mention it before."

"I wasn't sure if it meant anything. I'm still not sure it does," Aidan said. "She mentioned someone said 'bigger, more.' I have no idea what that means or what it was even in reference to."

"Can you ask her?" Willow looked at him gently.

Aidan shook his head. "She's gone. Once we found her, she left…crossed over, whatever. I'm not sure I could call her back."

"So, we are working on the assumption that our kidnappers did this, right?" Xander asked.

"We are. She had the sigil cut into her," Giles said. "We know they are trying to call in Chatha with the sigil and some how this 'bigger, more' thing sounds familiar."

"Like maybe that's what the killer needs," Wesley offered, rubbing his tired eyes.

Giles nodded. "That's what I'm afraid of. Maybe the killer, or more likely killers, need additional sacrifices."

"But why haven't they killed all their kidnap victims yet?" Willow's brow knit. "Aidan said this girl was from L.A. So far none of the Sunnydale victims have turned up dead or alive."

"They might need to keep them alive for some reason until conditions or their state of mind is right. Don't assume their deaths are what the kidnappers want. It might be a by-product of whatever it is they do need them for," Ceara replied.

"That's an intriguing suggestion," Giles said, shooting Ceara a proud look.

"Back to the books?" Willow stood up, extending a hand to Tara.

"Yes, that seems to be our best bet," Giles said and the young people slogged off to drag out more texts. Giles went to Aidan and leaned close to whisper, "When there's time, I would like to talk to you about your magical abilities…and mine."

Aidan beamed. "I'd like that. Need my help now?"

"If you feel up to it. If you're too tired, just rest. I remember how speaking to the dead would take it out of your mother," Giles said.

"I'll just sit for a few minutes to charge up then I can help," Aidan said. He was sound asleep in moments, oblivious to the murmurs and turning of pages thrumming through the room.