The Real Me

Chapter One: Wish You Were Here (3)

"…That's the situation as it stands now," Giles finished. The mood in the office was somber as he related the events that had unfolded in Sunnydale since Angel had last visited the town shortly after Joyce's funeral. The room was large enough to easily accommodate another half dozen people if not more, though that would have been a tight fit. Right now it was only himself, Angel and Wesley along with Xander and Cordelia. The young man who insisted on being called Gunn had taken the young Ms. Burkle to one of the Hyperion's rooms while an emerald hued demon, Lorne, had volunteered to get takeout. Tacos had been the general consensus since Ms. Burkle was quite emphatic that she would literally kill for a taco.

Giles took a rather generous sip from the brandy he had been holding throughout the tale. He savored the smooth flavor as he swallowed. Placing the heavy glass down on the finely carved cherry-wood liquor cabinet he refilled his glass from the crystal decanter.

Wesley rubbed at the bridge of his nose. He and Buffy had never been close, she had always been Giles or even Merrick's slayer and he had been nothing more than an interloper. It was amazing what a few years of age and experience enabled one to see, with a certain clarity. Still it stung that she had never given him the chance to prove his worth, though he was enough of a man now to admit how inadequate he had been. Replacing his glasses he rested his gaze on his older counterpart. "There was no trace of them?"

"Nada," Xander answered as he looked over several of the books lining the shelves. He suspected Angel used them for no other purpose than to impress the ladies, 'See what a big library I have. And yes I have read every single book here, some of them several times because I'm really a Neanderthal and don't actually understand the words, but don't the pictures look pretty'. Knowing Angel he probably has read every book, wouldn't doubt that he even has some weird vampire power to memorize page numbers for quotes. "Zip and zilch were there as well."

Giles shot Xander an annoyed glare. He would have much preferred to have brought Willow but she had responsibilities back in Sunnydale. "Willow and Anya volunteered to stay behind and are attempting to find an incantation to determine if their essences are still in the area. Willow is also monitoring Tara in case there is any residue trauma from her exposure," Giles informed the assembled group.

"Tara's fine," Xander told everyone as he turned back to face the group. He lifted his beer and took a quick swing from the glass bottle.

"Perhaps," Giles answered. "There's no telling what long term psychological damage may have resulting from the severing of her connection to this reality or if their might be any lingering effects from the experimental magic Willow exposed her to in order to restore her sanity."

"Isn't really much point worrying about might be or could've been," Cordelia cut in. Even without a vision sparking a supernatural sized migraine she could already feel a Megadeath cranked up to twelve, level headache forming right behind her eyes.

"Cordelia is right," Wesley acknowledged.

"What do you need from us?" Angel asked.

Giles swirled his brandy for a moment as he gazed into the amber liquor. "A bit of research for now would invaluable. I have a few leads I plan on running down; several here in the states, a few overseas. With your resources and connections it's possible you and your team might unearth some avenue I may have missed."

"Of course," Angel agreed. "Whatever you need. If we can get our hands on it, it's yours."

"And just for future reference… If you can keep your ask to ten words or less it would be much appreciated," Cordelia said. "Unlike certain people who shall remain nameless," she stared directly at Angel, "some of us have a limited amount of precious young age."

"As always Cordy, the depth of your concern for other people is truly astounding," Xander said into the silence.

Cordelia graced her high school ex with a dazzling smile. "Isn't though," she replied accepting the complement. "The way I always put the needs of the little people before my own. I can't think of a single person that is more giving to their fellow man."

"That was…" Xander started but stopped almost mid-word. "Nope…" He turned away and started to mumble, "You're not going to drag me down…" As he walked out of the room with a fading voice that only Angel could still hear.

"Should have brought Tara," Giles muttered. "What are a few extra days before seeking a proper medical evaluation?"

/ / /

"We can't just leave Roy," Dick argued in a controlled voice as he glared up at Bruce.

He remained impassive, not allowing even a slight echo of his emotions to show in his features. Roy Harper may not have been his apprentice but he was Dick's friend as were Kaldur, Wally and M'gann and he would be as concerned for their well being as he was for Roy's. "Red Arrow is being treated for a mild concussion and is likely to still be here when you return from your mission. Dr. Roquette however is still a target of the League of Shadows. An unguarded target."

Dick fumed silently but he knew he wasn't going to bring Bruce around and his mentor was right. Dr. Roquette needed protection. "If anything changes…?"

"I'll keep you updated," Bruce promised.

Dick nodded. It would have to be good enough. He turned and broke into a sprint toward the infirmary's exit.

Bruce followed his apprentice out of the infirmary but instead of heading towards the hanger and Miss Martian's Bio-Ship he made his way toward Mount Justice's Observation Room. Red Tornado was already in the room. He acknowledged Batman's presence with a simple glance in his direction. "Have you managed to get an ID?" He asked the android.

"There is no information on our guest in any server we have access to," Red Tornado stated in a dry monotone.

Bruce scowled behind his cowl as he scrolled through several monitors. "What do we know about her so far?"

"She is a meta-human, though she doesn't possess any of the standard genetic markers. She does however possess a pair of unknown DNA markers that have never been recorded before. The first I believe is a strand of previously undiscovered alien DNA that under normal conditions should not be compatible with human DNA. I believe it is the presence of the second unknown strand that managed to successfully integrate the human and the alien DNA."

"An experiment?" Bruce wondered.

"Doubtful," Red Tornado told him. "I believe the splicing of these two strands occurred in a completely natural setting."

"Leave it to an android to take all the romance out of love," Black Carney joked as she entered the Observation Room.

"I am unsure if an emotional sentiment was involved," Red Tornado replied to Dinah's joke.

The blonde smiled as Bruce switched the girl's room to the main monitor. "Cute," Dinah noted. "A little on the thin side," she observed.

"She is extremely malnourished," Red Tornado told the pair. "I believe it has been weeks if not months since she has received adequate nourishment."

Dinah frowned as she said, "She's on the skinny side sure. What you're suggesting… She isn't starving."

Red Tornado type in several commands and a series of photographs appeared on a secondary monitor. They were all of a slash across the girl's abdomen. By the fifth picture the wound had completely vanished. "She possess an accelerated healing ability. Once she was giving an IV her wounds healed in a matter of minutes. Her bruises vanished in a few seconds. In order for her to maintain an adequate weight I estimate she will need to consume a minimum of nearly ten thousand calories a day."

Dinah whistled at Red Tornado's calculation. "That's a lot of food. I hope that's not your bedside manner when you tell her? No girl wants to hear they need to eat a side of beef a day to maintain a normal weight."

"I was hoping you'd take the initial interview," Bruce said.

"Why?" She asked. "I'm not a trained shrink or child psychologist," she reminded him.

"You do however have the most experience dealing with a group of super powered teens," Bruce pointed out.

Glancing at the monitor Dinah let out a soft sigh. The girl reminded her of a porcelain doll, beautiful but extremely fragile. "Send me what you have on her to my tablet," she finally said. "Just so you know. I have a breakfast meeting later this morning."

"I already did," Bruce informed her.

"Why am I not surprised?" Dinah asked then held up her hand before he could answer. "Never mind… Forgot who I was talking to," she said as she turned and left the room.

/ / /

"Is there something on your mind?" J'onn asked his fellow league member as Clark stared unblinking at the screen as the data scrolled past at speeds few being would be able to see let alone read or process. It was at the maximum speed league computers were capable of achieving.

Clark exhaled as he turned from the computer screen. The image of a young girl, perhaps fifteen years old was in the upper left corner. "No," Clark said but he didn't exactly sound sure of himself. "Maybe," he said after a moment. Standing he turned and gazed out of the viewport and the Earth far below them. "An old friend of mine, of Clark's," he clarified, "Called me up out of the blue earlier. Her daughter is a meta-human and she's been having a rough go of it recently. She thinks one of my enemies might have pieced together her connection to me and is targeting the girl, probably in an attempt to draw me out."

J'onn tilted his head slightly as he said, "And you're unsure if you should go or not?"

Clark looked back at his old friend as he said, "Of course I'm going to go. Well, Clark is going to go. Might raise a few awkward questions if Superman shows up instead of Clark. I'll do some digging see what I can suss out." He takes a breath as he runs a hand through his dark hair. "No, my real problem…" He stopped again a mixture of anger and anxiety seeping into his brow. "I don't seem to be able to reconcile the Superboy situation. This situation just seems…"

"To hit a bit too close to home," J'onn said.

"Lana is my age and her daughter… If it wasn't for discovering my heritage and losing five years of my life. She could have been mine," he told J'onn.

"You were that close?"

"In high school, Lana was my everything," he admitted. "After I finished my Kryptonian education I looked her up. I was going to explain everything to her. Found her living in LA, it wasn't that difficult she had started to make a name for herself in the fashion industry an up and coming designer. I tracked her down to a park not far from where she was living at the time. I should have realized it with all the kids running around, but…" He shrugged, an all too human gesture for the last son of a dead people. "I was seconds away from making my presence known to her when this beautiful little girl came running up, calling her mommy." He smiled, a melancholy little twist to his lips. "It had never even occurred to me that she had moved on with her life. For me it had been mere hours, a day at most since I had last seen her. For her, five years had passed." Clark took a breath. He never really thought about that time of his life. It was the past and there was no going back to change it. Would he if he could? "I buried my feelings, moved out to Metropolis and well you know the rest."

"And now you have the Superboy situation," J'onn prodded.

Clark's eyes smoldered for a moment. "Cadmus stole a piece of me," he whispered.

"But it isn't the boy's fault."

"I know that," Clark admitted. "Only every time I see Superboy there's this rage and I simply want to find the people responsible –"

"For a start you may be interested in knowing he has adopted a human name, Connor." J'onn smiled slightly as he adds, "M'gann talks about him every time I visit."

Clark gave a slight nod at the information as he said, "That's good. I'm glad he's making friends."

"He still needs you," J'onn said. "You're the closest person he has to a father."

"I'm just not ready yet," Clark said.

"Do you truly believe any parent is actually ready for such a responsibility?" J'onn questioned.

/ / /

"The Axis of Pythia," Wesley announced to the assembled group, which at the moment consisted of him, Angel and Lorne. Charles had made another taco run earlier for Fred. Cordelia; who liberated a hundred dollars from petty cash, offered to pick up takeout for the rest of them, something Oriental or Italian, just about anything so long as it wasn't tacos.

Angel looked up from the text he was perusing. "What about it?" He asked.

Wesley handed him the volume as he said, "It's reputed to have the ability to discern the whereabouts of those lost in the ether." He didn't bother going over the ancient Greek mythology of Pythia for the ensouled vampire.

Lifting his rather colorful drink Lorne said, "So it's sort of like an interdimensional scrying device?"

Wesley frowned slightly as his gaze latched onto the green skinned demon. "Yes I suppose you could call it that?" He did not sound happy.

Angel ran his finger under a line as he read, "For best results the person using the Axis should have a strong connection to the person their looking for."

"Then the obvious choice would be you," Wesley told the vampire. "Destined love and all."

Angel exhaled as he closed the book around his finger. "That was a long time ago Wesley," he said.

"A couple of years is not a long time," Wesley argued.

"It's been longer than that," Angel told him. "Buffy will always hold a special place in my heart. My cold, dead, unbeating heart… She did send me to hell and I totally deserved it, not saying that I didn't, but it does tend to sour a relationship."

"If not you," Wesley said thoughtfully as he stood up, cradled his chin between his thumb and forefinger. "Perhaps Giles, he does care for her, I dear say as much as any father cares for their child. A good deal more than most I'd wager."

Angel thought for a moment, "With the forces we're discussing it might be better if the person using the Axis also possessed a strong supernatural core."

A brilliant light seemed to flash in Wesley's eyes as his head snapped up. "Willow then. From some of the reports Giles has been sending me she's a true force to be reckoned with, plus I can't think of a single individual that cares for Buffy as much as Willow does."

"It's got potential," Angel admitted.

"What about that other slayer?" Lorne inquired.

"Faith," Wesley murmured darkly. There were a few things he would like Faith out of prison for. Rescuing Buffy and her sister certainly weren't one of them. "They were hardly best friends before Faith tried to pin a murder on Buffy…" Technically Buffy was as responsible for Allen Finch's death as Faith, though the Council hardly cared about the death of one man. Especially when that man worked for someone who was planning an Ascension.

"Personal feelings aside I'm referring to that mystical connection. That link that connects all slayers," Lorne pointed out.

"How do you even know about that?" Wesley asked. "The Council wasn't even sure that existed until Kendra was called. It baffled quite a few of us at the time. We had two Watchers sending in reports of their slayer's activities."

"I don't know anything about that," Lorne said indifferently. "As for what I do know is a saw her once. I friend of mine was into High School sports, might have been some illegal gambling going on," he added with a shrug. "Always used to invite me along to these games. Every so often I'd tag along. This one time I'm enjoying a fruit cocktail with just a splash of gin. There was a bit of a drizzle not some biblical flood or anything, the boys were running up and down the field playing with their balls, band was butchering some song, and the girls were doing their kicks and cartwheels and flips and their silly little chants… Laughing and just enjoying their youth, when suddenly this one she just shone, practically blinded me. The light of a sun in a sea of darkness sort of thing. I could see it, well not all of it but I could tell she was going to have it rough. I gave some serious thought about telling her what I had seen, but then I gave some very serious thought to the fact I'm a demon and she's a slayer and well self preservation won out." He offered them an apologetic smile. "Anyway, in that moment I saw them, all of them. Or at least a lot of them."

"All the slayers that had been chosen?" Wesley asked. "You actually witnessed a slayer being called?"

Lorne shrugged as he said, "Maybe?" He took a sip of his drink, lowered his glass and added, "What I do know is that it was powerful."

"Okay, we'll put Faith down as an option," Angel said. "There's another option we need to explore." He took a breath he didn't really need. "Drusilla," he stated.

"You're insane child?" Wesley floundered.

"The one you set on fire," Lorne added.

"Yes and yes," Angel said, "But let's remember, this isn't about me. One of the people missing is Spike and nobody has a stronger connection to Spike than Drusilla."

Wesley exhaled but said, "You do have a point. Even if I don't care –"

"Who ordered the Dim Sum?" A vaguely familiar voice called out from the hotel lobby.

Angel and Wesley shared a look before moving toward the office door. Angel pulled the door open. In the middle of the lobby was a short, purple haired young man holding a number of plastic bags filled with the spicy aroma of Chinese cuisine. An easy smile parted his lips as he said, "Oz."

"Hey," Oz said as Angel stepped forward his arms going wide. Never one for overly emotional displays Oz still stepped forward willing to accept the embrace the ensouled vampire was offering. After a second step he stopped, a bit of a twinkle in his eyes as he said. "Not to be overly familiar or anything but you haven't gotten a big old happy recently?"

Angel allowed his smile to twist darkly as he said, "Not until you walked back into my life."

"In that case," Oz said in a flat monotone as he took a step back.

"It's good to see you Oz," Wesley said as he stepped out of the office.

"It's good to be seen," Oz replied in the same voice.

"What brings you by?" Angel asked.

Oz shrugged as he set the bag of food on the table. "Willow called about what took place in the D and I just ran into Cordy and she filled me in on the rest." At Wesley look Oz added, "I am relatively well versed in Cordaneese. Figured I could lend a hand while I'm between gigs."

"Aren't the Dingoes about to go on tour?" Angel asked.

"Creative differences," Oz said. "Devon saw himself sleeping with my girlfriend. I saw myself not serving fifteen to life for double homicide," he shrugged. "You wouldn't happen to have an extra room I could crash in?"

"Mi casa es tu casa," Angel said.

"El español no era mi mejor tema," Oz replied. He shrugged at Wesley's questioning frown. "You pick up a thing or two getting back into the states without a passport," he said.

Translation: Come from Google Translate. (If I made a mistake let me know)

Spanish: Mi casa es tu casa English: My house is your house

Spanish: El español no era mi mejor tema English: Spanish wasn't my best subject

Author Notes: Here's my latest offering. Hope you guys enjoy it. Have another chapter for this story and one for Come as You Are ready to be posted next week with the other one for the week after. I also have the next chapter for Wonderwall set to go, just need to clean it up a little more, so maybe three more weeks or so. That's the plan anyway. Anyway, enjoy.