The Prophecy
When the six friends arrived at Giles' house they explained the situation to him and all seven of them began to do some research. Considering the fact that Anya was the only one of the five girls that had slept with a guy recently enough to even get pregnant they knew that this had to be something supernatural. Even with Anya, Xander said that they always use protection. It was impossible that Buffy, Dawn, Willow and Tara would be pregnant and very improbable that Anya would be.
Giles had never heard of anything like this before so researching through his books was the only thing any of them could think to do. The only problem was…they had no idea what to look for. They searched through every book that had anything to do with odd pregnancies, which wasn't exactly a big selection. Willow even searched the net to see if she could find anything there, but she found nothing.
Everyone was getting very frustrated and very tired. They finally started to find hope when there was a break through. "Yes of course," Giles said to himself out loud. As soon as he spoke the others looked over at him with hope in their eyes.
"Did you find something?" Buffy asked.
Giles looked up when he realized that he was talking out loud and that everyone had heard him and was staring at him impatiently. "Oh…yes…I believe I have," he said with a smile.
The others crowded around him to try and see the book he was reading from. "Well what did we find?" Willow asked anxiously.
"I can't believe I didn't remember it before," he said disappointingly. He hated it when he did stuff like this. He knew he had heard of this at one time or another but he just didn't remember at the time. This was always frustrating for him because he could have saved them a lot of time and energy if he would have just remembered earlier. He was rather upset with himself but this was no time to be beating himself up.
He began to read from the book. "It's a prophecy written years ago. It basically states that eight will be born from human and will be of human. They will not be conceived but will be of natural birth."
"So what does that mean exactly?" Xander asked still feeling very confused.
"Well," Giles started trying to find the words to simplify what he had just said, "It basically means that there will be eight human babies born from human mothers. The part about the babies not being conceived, I believe just means that there will be no father. Instead of being conceived it's as if their being…placed in the mother's womb. Other then that, they will be of natural birth, basically meaning that everything else is normal."
"So…Anya's baby isn't mine?" Xander asked depressively.
"I'm afraid it appears that would be the case," Giles answered. "Although, it doesn't technically state that there are no fathers. As the rule of nature goes to make a child there must be elements from both a female and a male. So…whoever created these children would have needed to create them using a sperm from a male and an egg from a female. If they truly are human as the prophecy says, that's the way it has to be. Although since these children were clearly supernaturally placed inside of the girls there's really no telling who's sperm and even who's eggs were used. I assume that the eggs used where theirs but even that is simply an assumption."
"So, if this is the right prophecy, the babies might not even be blood related to they're…mommy's?" Xander asked. It was weird to say mommy's in relation to his girlfriends and close friends.
"It is possible," Giles answered. "However, it's more likely that they are then aren't. We'll have to read more about it and hopefully there will be some indication."
"No," Anya interrupted angrily. "Xander and I made this baby. I don't want to be part of a prophecy."
"Wait a sec," Dawn interrupted. "You said eight? There's only five of us. If this is the right thing we're talking about…does that mean that some of us are pregnant with more then one?"
Giles looked at his book again. "No I don't believe so," he answered. "It says here that the eight will be born from Power, Strength, Soul, Spirit, Heart, Energy, Vision, and Knowledge."
"Does that mean that we all have to posses those qualities for this to be really us?" Tara asked. "Because I'm not sure I posses half of those," she said nervously.
"Eight qualities, eight babies," Buffy said as she was finally piecing it all together.
"Exactly," Giles confirmed. "I believe that there are meant to be eight mothers, one for each child and that each mother strongly possesses one each of these eight qualities."
"Which means if this prophecy is really about us, there are three other girls out there who might not know what's happening to them," Buffy said with concern.
Dawn looked at her sister in aw. Buffy had shocked her once again. She couldn't believe that at a time like this her sister would be thinking so much about others instead of her own situation. She thought about how hard it must be to always be worrying about everyone else.
"So wait a second," Willow said. "Let me get this straight. If this prophecy really explains what's happened to us," she emphasized the word 'if,' "Then all of us are actually pregnant? And the babies are human?"
"Yes I believe so," Giles confirmed.
"Well what if this isn't it?" Tara asked. "I mean…how do we know?"
"I'm not really sure I know of anything else it could be," Giles answered. "We've all been searching for hours and everything here seems to fit."
"He has a point," Dawn said. It surprised everyone that she was actually backing Giles up on all of this. Out of everyone they would have pictured Dawn as the one to be the most scared and the quickest to judge everything. "Think about it, a lot of those qualities are big ones with us. Buffy could be the Strength, the Heart, or depending on its use the Power. Willow could be the Soul, the Knowledge, or if it's used in the other sense the Power. And I think we all know which one I am, considering I used to be a big ball of…Energy. We could all be a lot of these."
"Yes," Giles said looking slightly shocked at Dawn's astute analysis. "It makes sense."
"I guess there's only one way to find out," Buffy said.
"What's that?" Anya asked.
"I think the five of us need a little unscheduled sonogram," Buffy answered. Then she looked around unsurely. "Anyone here know anything about sonograms?"
"Wait," Wesley said as a light bulb went on in his head. They had only been researching for a few minutes when Wesley realized something.
"What is it Wes?" Angel asked with hope in his eyes.
"I think I remember seeing a prophecy that had something to do with this back when Cordelia we impregnated with those demons," he answered.
"Yes, lets bring that painful memory back up every chance we get," Cordelia said with an annoyed ton.
"Sorry," Wesley said as he walked over and picked out the book that he remembered seeing the prophecy in. As he flipped through the pages trying to find it the others just watched with fear in their eyes at what they might find. "Ah yes," Wesley said with a smile that eased their nerves slightly, "Here it is."
He began to read aloud from the book. "Eight will be born from human and be of human. They will not be conceived but will be of natural birth. They will be born from Power, Strength, Soul, Spirit, Heart, Energy, Vision, and Knowledge."
"Oh great," Cordy said with frustration. "Does that mean Fred and I are each pregnant with four babies?"
"I don't believe so," Wesley answered.
"But they're human right?" Fred asked with a sense of relief in her voice. "I mean…you said born from human which would be us and born of human which would mean that the babies are human too right?"
"If this prophecy is the one then yes…I believe so," Wesley said with a comforting smile.
"Well that's good then right?" Gunn said.
"What about the thing about the eight though?" Angel asked looking slightly confused, "and all that about the Power and Strength and stuff?"
Wesley looked at his book again. "Well…I believe that it means there will be eight different mothers each who will posses one of the eight qualities very strongly," he explained.
"Well I guess we know which one I am then," Cordelia said sounding slightly annoyed.
"Which one is that?" Fred asked.
"Vision," Angel answered before Cordy could.
"Exactly," Cordelia confirmed. "If that one isn't me then I don't know what is. The only other thing I would think of would be the Spirit. I did used to be a cheerleader you know."
"And Fred must be the Knowledge," Wesley said ignoring Cordelia's cheerleader comment.
Fred began to blush. "I'm not that smart," she said modestly.
"What's the square route of 26,244?" Wesley asked.
Fred looked to the ceiling and thought for about five seconds and then said, "162, why?" They all stared at her with amazement. "Oh…right," she said realizing that they were right and that she probably was the Knowledge mother.
"What about the others?" Angel asked with concern, "And how do we find them if this even is what's really going on here?"
Wesley looked at his book again. "Well it basically says that the mothers will be of these qualities and will be warriors for good."
As soon as Wesley pointed out that the eight mothers would be warriors for good he immediately thought of one girl that would almost certainly be a part of this. He decided for now not to voice his assumptions though.
"Are we sure this is it then?" Fred asked nervously. "I'm definitely not a warrior."
"Yes you are," Angel said. "You help us fight the good fight, Fred. The five of us together as a team are warriors for good."
"So how do we find the others?" Gunn asked.
"I'm not quite sure but perhaps we should be sure that the babies are in fact human to better support this theory," Wesley suggested. "I don't mean to alarm you girls but we should be sure."
"Good idea," Angel agreed. "Let's take a little trip to the hospital."