Title: Distinction of Species
Author: Jmaria
Rating: FR-18
Disclaimer: Joss owns his people, Lora Leigh owns the Breeds (Kripke owns the Winchesters)
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: I've sort of figured out who is whose (and what they look like in my head).
Distinction of Species
Do Unto OthersOz shifted uncomfortably in his seat. One too many blows to his hips had given him the gait of an eighty-five year old man instead of one in his thirties. His kids would be here soon enough to demand answers to questions he wasn't sure he wanted to answer.
"Wondered where you'd snuck off to," Maxi Lane leaned against the doorway, her dark hair falling over her eyes so he couldn't see what she was really thinking. Her twin hovered behind her.
"Jocasta'll skin you," Sampson Lane warned.
"Do I look frightened of that little pussy cat?" Maxi rolled her eyes as she sauntered over to snuggle in next to Oz. Despite his monthly volatile nature towards them, his kids still granted him skin privileges.
Oz fought the smile - that same smile he'd been fighting for ten years, when he'd first met the then thirteen year-old Jocasta and the nine year old Maxi. They were very much their mothers' daughters. Jo, being the eldest of them all, took charge over all of the Breed kids. And she was always the first to pay for playing the leader.
He could still hear her screams at night, of when the doctors would send in their soldiers to 'experiment' on the Bitch queen, as they called her. He'd thoroughly enjoyed the following full moon, when he'd gotten his beast in check long enough to consciously rip out the throats of those four guards. They might not care about killing a young Breed female, but he was too valuable to permanently damage.
"Don't say I didn't warn you," Sampson hunkered down on the floor, his eyes glued to the TV Oz barely remembered turning on.
"They want us to go to Haven, I think. Can you see me and Sammy bowing down to Wolfe or Del Rey? I don't bloody think so," Maxi huffed.
"Nope," Oz smiled fully. "They can ask Jo what you think about taking orders."
"Damn skippy," Maxi grinned. "Where were you today, Growl?"
Maxi, Sampson and Melina - who was two years younger than them - always called him Growl, and he had half memories of the littlest females curling up to him in the cages when he was coming off a night of the drugs. He wasn't their Alpha, but the two Coyotes and Wolf had taken him as their Beta, and he was convinced that they thought him as their surrogate father.
"You saw me go to Jonas's office," Oz stated.
"Yeah, Jamie keeps tabs on you. She worries, Growl," Maxi shifted closer.
They all worried, Jamie was just the most vocal about it. Jamie had only tried to pop the locks on their cages the night that the doctors and trainers had decided Oz had outlived his usefulness as a training tool and were going to put him out of his misery. She alone had been the one to overhear their plans and the Jaguar had flipped out. Jamie had been half in love with him forever, and to hear of his eminent destruction had sent her over the edge.
"You all worry too much about an old man," Oz smiled.
"Evasive maneuvers are not cutting it, Growl," Sampson shook his dark head.
"Who were the VIPs' in Wyatt's office?" Maxi narrowed her eyes.
"Old friends who thought I was dead," Oz hedged. "Jo's genetic donor."
"What?" Maxi straightened away from him.
The kids all piled into the room then, from wherever they were hiding. Melina was wrapped between the Wolves Ivan McNally - the boy who could have been Jesse McNally's younger brother and probably was - and Blaylock Judge, who'd been only categorized as 'Winchester donation one'.
Jocasta barreled down on him, the Lion male - whose genetic donor was ironically enough, Jocasta's donor's fiancé - Lucian Miller hot on her heels. Kelsi, Jamie and the Jaguar male, Remington Talbot finished off the group. None of them looked happy.
"My genetic donor? That Summers' chick?" Jo demanded. "What did she want?"
"Jonas brought her in, trying to figure out if her organization knew about the labs you were created in."
"And did she fess up to making a kid and then leaving it in the tender mercies of our Trainers?" Jo crossed her arms, and Oz saw Buffy standing in front of him, nearly two decades gone.
"Jo, Buffy didn't know about you, and when she saw Kelsi and Melina, it broke her heart," Oz said quietly.
"What?"
"I never told you how much you all reminded me of home," Oz cleared his throat, his eyes landing on Ivan. "I knew your brother Jesse. He died when he was a sophomore in high school. You look just like him."
"So, we're basically doppelgangers for your old high school buddies, Growl?" Jo demanded, hurt clear in her voice and posture.
"No, I've never mistaken you for anyone but yourself, Jo. And you're not dopplegangers or full on clones. You've got Buffy's hair and her eyes, but you've got the stamp of someone else in you, cub," Oz gave them a small smile.
Faith Lehane was pretending to do the paperwork for her Slayer squad's last mission. What she was really doing was playing Bejeweled while hiding from Dawn and Co. She didn't even look up when the door shut quietly behind whoever had the balls to come into her office uninvited.
"I'm busy, and you should know better than just sneakin' your ass on in here," her eyes ticked up to Xander's face. "Xan."
"You beat 200K yet?" he asked, pulling out the seat across from her desk.
"Hell no, D's still cock-blocking me on it," Faith grinned, leaning back as the buzzer went on the game. "What can I do for you?"
"Breed business," he looked miserable as he said it, which had her straightening in her seat.
"You name the place, and my girls will be there ready to fight."
"We don't need the Alpha squad," he licked his lips. "How's Letty doing?"
"Tough time of the year for her, but she's a strong girl," Faith's jaw tightened. "What does Nicolette have to do with Breed business? She hasn't manifested slayer powers, Xan. She's only eight. What's going on?"
"Oz is at Sanctuary."
"Wolfboy? What's he doing there?" Faith frowned. "Where the hell has he been for the last decade? We could have used him in the Werewolf negotiations."
"The Genetics Council - or what was left of it - found him and used him to train Breeds," The muscle under his good eye ticked.
"What?"
"They used him to slaughter and train a mixed group - Felines, Wolves and a couple of Coyotes. It was forty strong when they found Oz."
"How many walked out of that lab?" Faith felt ill, remembering the half-dozen lab raids she'd assisted on with her squad.
"Eleven, including Oz."
"Motherfucker!" Faith dug her nails into her palms.
"Yeah, that was our thoughts, when he told us. It gets worse."
"Worse than one of our people being experimented on? How much fucking worse can it get, Xan?" Faith snorted.
"They used his wolf to kill the other thirty Breeds, but wouldn't let them kill him," Xander took a deep breath. "And almost all of the kids - because none of them are over twenty-five - were created using Old Watcher's Council DNA samples."
"What?" Faith's jaw dropped open.
"They used Molly's DNA, they used Kendra's, and they used Nikki Wood's. That's why I'm asking how Letty is doing."
Faith closed her eyes and counted to ten, like Red had shown her. Because otherwise, someone would be seriously fucked up right about now. As it was, her hands would be a bloody mess in a few minutes.
"Letty is gonna be pissed that she's got a half-aunt I never told her about," Faith sighed.
"How's she gonna feel about a half-sister?" Xander asked it so quietly, Faith wasn't sure she heard him right.
"They used my fucked up DNA?" Faith shoved herself away from her desk, or rather she shoved her desk at Xander.
"And a Winchester's DNA to make a set of Coyote twins."
"The assassins of the Breed world. Made out of my DNA, isn't that fucking fantastic!" Faith leaned over in her chair, her head between her knees. She hadn't freaked out like this since she'd found out she was pregnant with Letty nearly nine years ago.
"Faith -"
"You better call Jonas fucking Wyatt and get my pass renewed for Sancutary, because if I have kids up there, they are going to know I'm gonna draw blood for every thing those bastards did to them - just like I did when -" they blew up Robin in front of Letty. Faith closed her eyes at the sudden pain in her chest. Sure, she and Robin had been separated for a long time before his death three years ago, but he was still the father of her only - scratch that - youngest child.
"Already got it," Xander cleared his throat. "We just have to make one stop before we go."
"I'm not throwing Letty into this without scoping out the 'sitch first, Xan," Faith crossed her arms.
"And I wouldn't ask you to, but we have to find their father first. They didn't just steal DNA from us, Faith. They stole it from a lot of people."
"Shit. We're gonna have to find the Winchesters, aren't we?" Faith groaned.
Jamie had snuck away as the others were arguing with her Growl over the news that they were going to meet some of their genetic donors. The others all had to worry, but not her. Her donor had died in the 70's, nearly four decades ago. There was no one coming for her. She should have feared for what that meant for her Pride, but honestly, that was Jo's personal headache, not hers.
Ely, the Breed doctor was waiting for her. Jamie smiled nervously, praying that what she was feeling was really it - the mating heat. Ely had asked her to check back today for her results, and so they could start her on the hormone therapy if she was.
"Jamie, sit down, please," Ely said quietly as she shut the door to her office behind her.
"So, what's the news?" Jamie smiled at her, her bottom lip between her teeth.
"What have you heard about the mating heat, Jamie?"
"Well, not a lot. It's hush-hush, but just that you start to feel differently towards your mate," Jamie floundered, not liking where this was going.
"And this male that you believe is your mate - have you exchanged fluids? Seminal, vaginal, glandular?"
"No!" Jamie blushed. He would barely kiss her on the cheek anymore, hadn't since they'd escaped the labs.
"And are you noting any increased pain or sensitivity when touched by another male or even by another female? Casual touches of course, say, if you brush against someone in the hall or touch hands when passing a plate or a chart?"
"N-no," Jamie stammered. "What does this have to do with me being in the mating heat?"
"Everything," Ely sighed. "I'm sorry, Jamie, but according to your test results you aren't experiencing the mating heat."
"But -" Jamie couldn't hear over the roar in her ears. "But I feel so differently about him than I did before - Oz - he has to be my mate."
"I'm very sorry, Jamie."
In the Canadian Rockies, deep in the secret lab the Genetics Council had conveniently 'forgotten', the head of the Old Council stared out at his little kingdom. Had his underlings not gotten wind of the divergence of funds, he wouldn't have had to work with the First Evil in ridding the world of them. He had, after all, conveniently killed off a generation's worth of slayers. He'd provided ample genetic material for this new batch of creations. And had his co-conspirators listened to him and killed the damn werewolf years ago, the Tribe of Ten would still be in his control.
Quentin Travers slammed his teacup so hard into the saucer that it actually cracked.