Title: Distinction of Species
Author: Jmaria
Rating: FR-18
Disclaimer: Joss owns his people, Lora Leigh owns the Breeds.
Summary: While the Watchers Council created Slayers out of necessity, the Genetics Council created the Breeds out of greed. When the New Council learns what happened, what will they do to help the Breeds survive?
Spoilers: General series through Bengal's Heart, and the anthology Hot for the Holidays. Series for Buffy.
A/N: The group originally was just going to be a generic group of Breeds, but my mind works in mysterious ways. Also, a hint at another 'verse in here.

Distinction of Species

If I Die Young

They had been a tight-knit group despite the difference in their Breed species. Half of them were Feline Breeds - two had been Lion Breeds, two had been Jaguar Breeds, and the final had been a Bengal, not that she'd owned up to it. Begals were rare - most had been massacred in their lab in Germany over a decade ago, except for Cabal St. Laurents, the so-called Playboy of the Breeds who'd recently mated with the human journalist Cassa Hawkins. And Bengal females were nearly unheard of.

Three of the remaining five were Wolf Breeds, and the last two were Coyotes. Wolves and Felines together were a rare enough combination - the Coyotes were downright unusual. But much like Callan Lyons' original group, the ten saw themselves more as a family. No one was sure when they had escaped the labs - in the original break-outs twenty years ago, or in the ensueing backlash of Callan Lyons coming out for Breed Rights. They were younger - mostly in their early twenties, so in all likelihood, they'd escaped later.

The little Bengal female was currently going through her workout routine, fully aware of the eyes on her lithe form from the building across the way. The Lion and Jaguar males were protecting her, standing between her and whomever was watching her. The Coyote female was pretending to sunbathe, her glasses reflecting the sun up into the eyes of the Bengal's watcher.

"Where are the other six?" Buffy asked, noting how their eyes seemed to flit away every few seconds.

"There are six more?" Xander frowned at her, interrupting whatever it was that Lawe Justice had been about to report.

"The Coyote male is pretending to install the satellite dish over there, the two Feline females are having lunch at the doors, the Wolf males are on guard duty and are probably being kept in the loop by the Wolf female -"

"That looks like Molly," Xander hissed painfully, remembering the Potential who'd fallen the same night hed lost his eye.

"Registered under the name Melina LaVelle," Jonas crossed his arms as he leaned against his desk.

"She did what now?" Xander tore his gaze away from the small group. "She looks a teenager. Molly would have been Dawnie's age."

"It's not Molly, Xander," Buffy shook her head, seeing the Bengal girl fully for the first time. "My God."

"Is that -"

"Kelsi Gordo," Lawe added, stepping back beside Jonas and the other Enforcer Rule Breaker.

"I knew her as Kendra," Buffy shook her head, angry beyond belief about what had happened to her girls, her soldiers.

"She's more like a genetic alteration," Jonas frowned at their backs. "She's got the DNA coding of your girl, but genes of the tiger as well."

"These ten crawled out of a Genetics Council lab in Asia about ten weeks ago. Enforcers followed rumors about poachers living up in the mountains near Tibet."

"Oh, God, Oz," Buffy felt ill. They hadn't heard from him in nearly fourteen years, not since his return to Tibet to regain control over his wolf.

"I didn't fit. Not the right combination of genes."

Buffy and Xander dragged their gazes away from the window and the two Breed females they could identify clearly. Daniel Osborne stood in the doorway, a tall leonine Breed by the name of Mercury Warrant stood behind him. The years hadn't been kind to their friend, who now wore scars across the left side of his face. His once colorful hair was a paler red than it had been before and he limped into the room by use of a cane. A small smile touched his lips when he gazed out at the group of misfit Breed warriors.

"They liked to drug me and throw me into the cages as training exercises for the younger warriors on the full moon, see who came out on top." Guilt and regret filled his eyes as he lowered his head. "They never let the Breeds kill me, but they let me kill the Breeds."

"Oz, who did this?"

"The Old Council, the Initiative, both of them were deep in the pockets of the Genetics Council in the end," Jonas supplied that information. "We didn't know that until they showed up, or else we would have never taken aid from your group."

"I actually had that figured out," Buffy snapped, beyond angry. "How did they get you, Oz?"

"Maggie Walsh had one of her cronies tag me before I left Sunnydale for good. She'd already been kicked out of the Genetics Council for trying to create Demon Breeds by the time she'd gotten the Military R&D contract."

"And the girls? How did they get a hold of the potentials DNA?" Xander shook his head, trying to get a better understanding of it all through the force of his brain smacking against his skull. It just wasn't happening.

"Kendra's old Watcher," Oz looked away. "Always wondered why he sent her by herself."

"He was hoping she'd die, and he'd get access to new meat," Rule shook his head.

"We ran his financials. Your boy Zabuto had a cozy little nest egg rounding out to six figures," Jonas looked feral.

"Had," Oz's eyes were shuttered when he met Buffy's gaze. "He didn't make it out of Tibet."

"The others - who were their genetic donors?" Buffy only accepted what had had to be done to the rogue Watcher, just as she had accepted what had had to be done to Gwendolyn Post. Bad guys paying the price for their misdeeds.

"The males - McNally, Miller -"

"Wait, Graham Miller? He's still alive," Buffy should know - she was engaged to the ex-soldier.

"Walsh's contribution to keep her grants funded."

"How did they get Jesse -" Xander looked away from the Wolf Breed, who'd now scrambled down to wrap an arm around the Coyote female who punched him lightly in the shoulder. Seeing what could have been his best friend's son, his hair darker than Jesse's had been and a few other slight changes hit him hard. Jesse had died before Maggie Walsh's soldiers ever came to Sunnydale.

"James McNally was Special Forces before he was dishonorably discharged - that's how he got the Trainers job in the labs," Jonas supplied the information that Xander vaguely remembered. Jesse's dad hadn't been around much, and his mom had moved away after Jesse went missing their sophomore year.

"The other three females, who are they Oz?" Buffy turned to the werewolf, because she was just dreading what was coming next.

"The Lion female - she's -" Oz couldn't meet her eyes. "They got the sample from you, just like they got the Coyote female from Faith's sample. The Jaguar female came from Nikki Wood."

"Slayers betrayed by the Council, now why doesn't that shock me?" Buffy strained to see the female that had been made from part of her. The younger woman didn't look like her, not the way that Kelsi looked so much like Kendra, and Melina looked like Molly. She asked why that was.

"They had another genetic donor," Oz supplied, a small smile on his face. "Jamie hacked the lab before we got out. She managed to get the lead researcher's records on them."

"And Jamie is?"

"The Jaguar. Nikki Wood's daughter. Jamie Nikko was the name she'd given herself before she'd known who her mother was."

"And who were the other genetic donors?"

"One they liked to use a lot went by the name of Winchester," Oz shook his head. "I was never sure if it was just one guy though."

While they spoke, the group below wondered why they were under such scrutiny. Kelsi, finished with her exercise, sauntered over to where Jamie and the lion Breed female Jocasta Williams were waiting for her.

"You feel the eyes on you, Kels?" Jocasta spoke quietly so that the group of Breeds across the way couldn't hear her.

"Does a bear shit in the woods?" Kelsi grinned at her.

"Lovely imagery," Jamie shook her head. "Sampson said he spotted Oz going into the building not long after VIP car pulled up. Wished I would've thought to bug him."

"Wyatt would have found the bug on the old man, and then where would you be? On Jonas Wyatt's bad side," Jocasta argued.

"He has a good side?" Jamie shook her head. "Warrant walked him up. Oz wouldn't be in trouble, would he?"

"He's a werewolf, Jam," Kelsi shrugged. "Breeds might be out, but the shifters - no one knows they're out there. People might think they're Breeds gone horribly wrong."

"No one's gonna lay a finger on Oz," Jocasta's nostrils flared. "He's ours."

"Settle down, Jo," Kelsi clasped her wrist. "No one's touching our old man."

Oz was only a decade or so older than them, but he'd gone through hell in the labs with them and had done his damnedest to protect them even when his beast took over. He hadn't wanted to hurt them, but none of them had been given that option. He was the doctor's only werewolf - the rest of them were expendable.

"Anybody else think a shit storm's headed our way?" Jamie sighed, watching the window they were being watched from.

"When hasn't there been?"