Sudden Changes 21

Chris materialized in amidst dark clouds and lightning, the energy disappeared behind him as he started walking; he looked around the hall that he was in. It was familiar to him, he knew that he'd been there before.

His gaze fell on the blood staining the floor and the walls and memories flitted through his mind; the man had hurt him, Dr. Meanie, he'd hurt his mommy, too and his friend…he needed to be punished. He was very bad man, Chris was going to find him and then he was going to punish him.

He turned his attention to the puddle of blood on the floor, "Tell me where Dr. Meanie is," he commanded flatly. He watched and frowned when the blood did nothing, he waited for a few more seconds before growling. "Where is he!?"

Nothing.

His now-dark brown eyes disappeared under the flare of red that started pulsating again, "Why isn't it working?" Why?!

Anger filled him, he gritted his baby teeth together and stamped his bare foot angrily on the blood-covered floor splattering the red liquid up his pajama-covered leg, "Tell me!?" he yelled.

The scenery around him shifted and changed into something different; it was still in the same place but there were other people there.

Chris looked around, there was his mommy; she was leaning over a person…him. He looked away and saw Grey holding his stomach, Dr. Meanie had hurt him too. His gaze shifted to the man that he was trying to find.

He watched the scene unfold in front of him, his mommy looked up; she looked at the man strangely as her eyes glowed red like his own. The man tried to grab the gun but she knocked him down; he then tried to run with his tail between his legs; his mommy got up and everything went bright.

When the light went away Chris saw that the man that had hurt him and his mom was now crumbling to the floor into a pile of dust; the redhead blinked and suddenly the scene disappeared and recreated itself back to what it was before.

Chris looked down, he was already gone. What was he supposed to do now? He closed his eyes and focused, "Mommy?"

The Military ambulance

Grey jumped out of the ambulance as soon as it had slowed to a stop, he made a beeline for the door that they'd used to get in before. He heard the nurses following him.

He didn't know if Chris was going to do something stupid, he didn't think so...screw it, he didn't know WHAT the kid was capable of! Judging by how he'd healed his wound and disappeared he'd guess that the kid was right up there with his mom on terms of power.

He could tell that this was going to end badly; he just knew it.

NID Base

The hall outside Kinsey's temporary office

Willow could feel him, she could feel worthless little worm that was responsible for her son and her being brought to his place; if it wasn't for him they wouldn't have been there and Chris would still be alive.

But he wasn't. And people were going to start dying, soon.

"Stop there!"

The redhead came to a standstill and blinked at the two soldiers pointing guns at her, she studied them intently and smirked, "You soldiers! All so willing to be ordered to die, like you don't have mind of your own. And for Kinsey too, you don't even like him- yet you seem to be willing to die for him." She snorted inwardly; she wasn't that narrow-minded though, she knew which soldiers had more of chance of being worth something.

These two had a duty, they didn't particularly feel like doing what they were ordered to but it was their job; she shook her head slightly. She could tell, glancing at their minds, that they despised the man they were currently protecting.

"We're willing to stop you killing people," retorted the man coolly. "THAT'S our job, you're a danger to everyone. It's our duty to eliminate that danger."

The woman beside him nodded silently as she trained her gun on Willow carefully as the redhead smirked.

"You don't know who you're dealing with, do you?" Willow said quietly, yet loudly enough for them to hear her. She stared at the guns thoughtfully.

The two soldiers had almost identical expressions of amazement on their faces as their weapons disintegrated as they held them. They looked away from their dust-covered hands and at her.

Suddenly, Willow shot two ropes of green energy at the pair; the ropes bound them and rendered them completely harmless and defenseless, "You're not eliminating THIS danger," she said mockingly.

She walked over to them lazily, "You're helping a very bad man; he orders the capture of an innocent child, the torture of one…now that child's dead. My child, and you protect him?"

"We have our orders!" snapped the man gruffly. "Stand down, you'll only make things worse for yourself if you don't."

Willow shook her head wryly, "Whatever you say, pops." She walked over to them.

/Now, you two are coming with me/ she communicated to them. She saw their eyes widen in astonishment and snickered.

/Is she going to kill us?/ thought the man anxiously. /Knew I shoulda high-tailed it when I had the chance. I'm never gonna see my kids again./

/What's gonna happen now?/ the woman queried uncomfortably.

Willow blinked as the thoughts of the two soldiers filled her mind, she cringed slightly as visions assaulted her mind. They were running through the playground, two young children, laughing and screaming, stamping in puddles of water.

Jason and Lisa Franks, nine and five years old.

She shook the visions away roughly.

The green ropes fell away before the two soldiers followed her command, unintentionally of course- telepathic mind-control was a bitch, for them anyway- now it was time to give out some much-needed pain.

Daniel and the others sprinted around the corner, not for the first time they wondered where the actual office was; so far the base had been pretty one-way and easy to navigate through.

The archaeologist knew that sooner or later they'd come to the 'fork-in-the-road' deal and would have to choose which way to turn; which of course could be wrong and judging by their luck- or lack of thereof –they'd have to make several U-Turns before they actually made it there. In which case they'd probably be too late.

As a shout reached his ears he skidded to a halt and span around, then he gaped confusion as he saw Grey- up and running, literally- with Janet and the medical team bringing up the rear. Last time he saw the man he was shot; what was going on?

"Hey, wasn't that guy dying a minute ago?" asked Jack bluntly. He stared as Grey and the med team caught up to them. "Surprise, surprise."

No kidding, Daniel raised his eyebrows at the unlikely group but remained silent; he couldn't bring himself to say anything- especially as it wasn't needed.

"We didn't heal Grey that much, right?" asked Dawn quietly.

Giles glanced at her, "No-

"So, how-

"I haven't the slightest idea," muttered the librarian shaking his head.

"How is it you are well again, Agent Grey?" inquired Teal'c.

Grey looked at Teal'c and then his gaze traveled to Daniel, he paused before he said, "Chris."

A stab of sickening pain streaked through Daniel as he heard the name, "What? What're you talking about?"

The urge to hit the man filled him as he waited for the guy to elaborate; it was Janet who answered the question for him.

"He's alive."

Once he heard those two words he froze, numb, as the breath was knocked out of his lungs; he stared at the doctor speechlessly. For once, his thoughts seemed to freeze up on him.

Thankfully, Jack asked the question, "W….What!?" Isn't that the question they'd all LOVE to know the answer to?

Daniel blinked silently, still speechless as he waited for the answer.

Janet slowly shook her head in pure amazement, "I don't…don't ask me how it happened but I think, well, I don't know what I saw. Chris was HEALING Grey and then he just…"

Just?

"…disappeared," she finished as they all looked at her.

"What?!" growled Jack in frustration. "You're telling us that he's not…that he just…got up and disappeared?"

Numbly, Daniel smirked; Jack hated it when he didn't understand something he wanted to understand- this what one of those times.

"My god," muttered Giles dazedly.

Dawn's eyes were wide, "What happened? Is he okay? Where'd he go?"

"Chris was dead a minute ago," stated Anya confused. "Little boys can't die and then start walking around…unless he's a vampire, he's not a vampire, right?" They looked at her blankly; she shrugged. "Well, he could have been."

Vampire? Chris?

"Chris just walked over to me, made my wound…vanish and then took off," explained Grey, thinking over Dawn's questions. "He looked…"

Looked?

Buffy stepped up closer to him, "'He looked'? What? He LOOKED what?" Anger and frustration radiated from the small blonde.

"He looked like Willow," he said finally. "His..his eyes, they were pitch black."

What? No this wasn't right, finally Daniel said, "No, no, the tablet I translated said-

"Sometimes prophecies don't always come to pass as they say they do," said Giles knowingly. "Especially if whatever, or whoever, made them overlooked something significant; something that might change the outcome."

Nothing's ever set in stone.

"We have to find Willow now," said Janet suddenly. "Chris said, before he left, he needed to help her with something."

No. No! He wouldn't, he couldn't; he's just a little kid…little kids don't think like that…not like he did, not like Willow did. He couldn't kill.

Could he?

"No," Buffy shook her head. "I'm not buying, you guys, Chris isn't capable of killing. He's just a child."

Giles nodded, "Chris doesn't have the power to teleport yet, he's far too young, at the moment, to have that sort of power."

Daniel glared, "Obviously he does, Janet did just say that he 'vanished'.

Janet nodded, "His eyes were black, his hair was black and I've never seen that look on a child's face before."

"What look?" Asked Xander, the others stared worriedly.

"Complete and total evil," muttered a dark-haired nurse behind Janet. "God, that smirk…"

Chris? They were talking about Chris? His son wasn't evil, he was just a kid.

The photos to Chris flashed through his mind; he was just…

Jack shook his head, "Look, kids, time's a wasting; let's get a move on."

The rest of the group followed him without a word, the others that were not quite as familiar with Jack's authority were too anxious for their two friends to question the guy. All they knew was that he was leading them closer to where they needed to be.

That was enough for them.

Still, Buffy muttered, "Not the boss of me…" but she followed anyway, not really caring enough to comment on it aloud.

Kinsey's temp. office

Captain Lionel and Colonel Franks looked up at the ceiling in a daze; they couldn't have done anything really, not with the great black puddle above. And especially not with those spiky-grey tentacles that hugged Kinsey in a crushing grip; thin rivulets of blood trickled down from the tiny wounds the spikes inflicted.

The colonel then looked at the young woman not six feet away from him, she was smirking as she watched the man squirming against the lethal restraints; he shuddered inwardly as she spoke.

"I think Squidward here wants to play," she said conversationally as if the situation they were in was a normal every-day experience for her.

He found his voice finally, "Let him go, a lot of powerful people will be after you if you do this."

She scoffed, "If they know what's good for them they'll stay out of my way; no one can stop me…especially a couple of powerless politicians like Kinsey."

Okay, the kid had a point there; politicians were powerful but not the type of 'powerful' that this girl obviously was. Politically-powerful wasn't the same as this.

Whatever 'power' that was.

He could tell that Kinsey could sense his reluctance to help him, well really, what did he expect? He was responsible for the murder of a child, he had to have known that that would have come back to take a chunk right out of his ass. If not, he was a fool.

Even though his instincts were screaming for him to take the wack-job out at that moment he knew he couldn't- yeah, okay, he could but he wouldn't want to. Her kid was dead, what would he do if it were Jason or Lisa dead on the floor, shot by a crazy asshole?

He'd go nuclear, heck he got worried when his kids scraped their knees or got sick; if they were shot-

Franks blinked up at Kinsey and glanced at Lionel who he was holding back; her hazel eyes were wide with shock as she stared at the black puddle on the ceiling, the tentacles and Kinsey.

Shocked, huh? He understood perfectly.

His gaze snapped back to Kinsey as a scream of horror and pain erupted from the man's blood-filled mouth; for a moment it wasn't clear to Franks what had happened, then he and Lionel watched in stunned horror as a translucent, thin sheet of skin uncurled from Kinsey's right wrist and peeled backwards. Slowly.

It looked liked he was wearing an insanely-thin cuff around his wrist as the skin rolled up into itself and moved up the arm as more skin was unraveled. Blood dotted the layer of skin underneath as it was left in other layer's wake.

Willow clenched the fingers of her right hand into claws, jabbed her hand forwards then to the side and watched as four deep, bloody lacerations streaked through his shirt and into his skin.

With a wave of her hand the red-stained shirt ripped and fell to the ground under him; the tentacles were still wrapped around his upper-chest, under his arms and around his legs holding him in midair.

Franks sensed, more than heard, that the creature outside and inside the dark vortex was hungry; holding its food but not being allowed to consume it was pissing the thing off. Still, the woman seemed to be able to handle anything that was thrown at her for the moment.

His thoughts were interrupted as a wave of shadows, dark fog and lightening erupted out of nowhere; he and his colleague watched, transfixed, as the energy partially dissolved and changed into a young child.

The child's black hair blew back slightly from his face by an unnatural wind that was suddenly blowing through the room, he paused for several moments and then looked right up at the vortex and the creature; then he looked at Willow, "Kill him!"

Franks and his colleague watched, unable to move, as Willow's head snapped to the side to look at the boy and at that moment he realized what he was seeing.

Christopher Rosenberg, very pissed off and very much alive.

Rupert Giles followed Agent Grey through the halls; his mind was in turmoil and had been since Grey and the medical team had revealed the revelation of Chris's return to life- how the child was alive was a mystery to him.

Maybe Willow brought him back, no, that wasn't it; if she had she would know that Chris was alive in the first place. She would never have gone over the edge.

No, whatever happened to Chris happened to him without Willow knowing about it; but what was it?

The PTB maybe?

"Right over there," Grey pointed at the door to their right before stopping in front of the door.

They were stopping! Why on earth-

"Have to check out the situation first," explained Grey as if he could read minds. "We do have to know what we're walking into, ya know."

Jack sighed, "The situation, agent, is that the mother of Danny's previously-dead son is in there and about to make a big mistake; that's the situation."

Mistake?

Jack must have read the look on his face, he said, "A couple of years ago the NID, at least I think it was them, killed a reporter before he could make a secret program public knowledge- what do you think they'd do if they found out that Willow killed the damn US Senator, hmm?"

Giles scoffed, "Willow's one of the most powerful people walking the planet, maybe THE most, I think that if anyone tried to aggravate her they'd find themselves in a rather difficult situation- as will be obvious when you see beyond the sodding door."

Which STILL wasn't open!

The colonel nodded, "Okay, good point. But Chris DIED back there; I don't know how he's back or the reasons for it- but I'll bet my entire 'Simpsons' DVD collection that the next time they go after Chris the kid won't be coming back. And neither will Willow."

If she even comes back THIS time.

They got Chris once, they'll get him again. But- "If Senator Kinsey is saved what's to stop him coming after them anyway…or any of US for that matter?"

Jack smirked slyly, "Well, after what Willow is obviously putting him through at this moment I don't think he'll go after them again in a hurry."

Not if he had an ounce of self-preservation, no, he won't.

Xander made an impatient noise, "Hey, are we gonna stand out here all DAY? Willow needs us in there and sticking our thumbs up our asses."

Daniel, who was equally impatient, gestured to the younger man in agreement.

Sticking their thumbs up…good lord. The boy did have a point though, however crudely that point was made.

"Okay, then," said Jack under his breath. "Let's go."

Jack lifted his right leg up and brought it crashing down into the door; the doorframe splintered and the door whipped open and impacted the wall loudly.

"Hold it!" Jack snapped, then his eyes widened. "Holy cheese, what's with the fish in the ceiling?"

Daniel heart almost stopped as he realized what, or rather WHO, he was seeing; not breathing, he stared at the little boy in the center of the room. He was seeing his son for the first time and-

-he wished he wasn't.

Daniel heart broke as he stared into his son's evil, black eyes; his son's blood-soaked and half-naked body- the blood splattered up his 'Snoopy' pajamas bottoms, smears of it across his chest and face.

How could he have let this happen?