Disclaimer: NOT MINE!!

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Chapter 12

"What are we waiting for, brother?" The tall skinny man asked the short mustached one. He was always nervously twitching, tugging at his hair and biting his fingernails, never still. "Why do we simply not attack them? We are letting them get strong again. We should have taken care of them when they were weak and scattered!"

The mustached man was the complete opposite of his brother. His manner was calm and considerate, if slightly irritated at the other man's words. They were seated at an old, scarred oak table in the middle of rich, satin lined room. The heads of various stuffed dead animals were mounted on the walls. But most startling of all were the human heads that were hanging among them, staring glassy-eyed at each other.

"Titus, I don't want to have to explain this to you again, so pay attention. We didn't attack them because we were just as weak as they were. The First messed things up for everyone, even those who were supposed to be on its side. We had a nice little operation going. We were quietly building up power to take out the Slayer Line at the Last Battle and then it came in with its stupid Bringers and armies of Turok-Hans and stirred up a damn hornet nest."

"We've been growing in strength though," the twitchy man, Titus, protested, "We could have destroyed their Academies any number of times during construction but now that that stupid witch of there's has put up those wards we can't get anywhere near them."

"We don't need to get near the Academies, brother," the mustached man replied, "I'll admit that the witch is a serious deterrent, but even she cannot be everywhere at once. She's not omnipotent. The trick to getting to the Slayers is the fact that they have to come out of the Academies to be able to do any good. That's when they're most vulnerable."

"So it's time to initiate the plan, Zeak?"

"Yes," the mustached man, Zeak, nodded thoughtfully, "I'd say the timing is just about right. I was interested to know how they were going to respond to the situation, all of the Potentials being activated, but I think I can predict their actions fairly well from now on."

"What about that one Slayer, the one that guarded Sunnydale for so long?"

"Buffy Summers?" Zeak shook his head, "Nobody's heard from her for over 5 years, underground or aboveground. There have been a few rumors but given her reputation as the longest lived Slayer before Sunnydale collapsed that's not to be unexpected. No, I imagine she died when Sunnydale went down and the new Council just tried to use her name as a rallying point."

"Still, it is a point to consider. I'll spread the word to keep an eye out for her and contain her should she emerge from the shadows at the last minute to try and save her precious Council, but I think the Powers That Be just used her up and threw her away like they usually do."

"What do you mean, brother?"

"Use your brain for once, Titus," he tapped his forefinger against his temple, "Those Potentials didn't get activated by accident. The Powers have been setting up this situation for a good long time. I'm just amazed that they could do it not only right under the noses of our bosses but actually use the First to complete it."

Titus paced a little, pulling at his lower lip.

"I still don't get it, brother."

"They used her, Titus, and her friends too" Zeak puffed out a breath, trying to get through to his brother, "I imagine they hid her from the Council on purpose, to keep her from being brainwashed by them. In comes this rebellious Slayer who can back up her bark with a pretty big bite. She shakes things up. The Council doesn't like this so she separates her self from them and thus, any outside support. The Powers saw that she had the potential to be crazy enough to enact the one spell that change up the game, to do what no one else would be willing to try. And then they made her desperate enough to do it."

"They pushed the girl and her little witch friend, testing them constantly I imagine. A little poke here and little prod there, just to see how they would react. They had to make sure they were tough enough to live long enough to enact the plan. Then they arranged the circumstances so that they could violate the rules just enough to bring the First through but not enough to come over into the real world entirely. They had to push them into a corner so she and the witch would see no other way but to do the spell. It probably took thousands of years to get the situation just right and the right players in place but when your immortal time doesn't really matter. I'm quite impressed actually."

"So this was all planned?" Titus asked dubiously.

"Of course it was, you idiot," Titus growled, "The Powers had to make a big move. Wolfram and Hart were becoming too big and to entrenched to deal with with the usual methods, not to mention all the other seeds the bosses have sown in the human world. Times are changing, a lone warrior against the dark won't work anymore. The Powers had to make a power play and this was it. Now they've got a friggin' army of Slayers."

"But we're gonna destroy 'em all, right brother," the twitchy man actually ginned, rubbing his hands together.

"Don't be stupid, Titus, we can't destroy them all right now."

"Then why…?"

"The Slayers are Champions for Light. We can't destroy them all until the Last Battle and that's not going to happen for a long time yet."

"But…"

"Hush," Zeak made a threatening motion, causing Titus to flinch back automatically, "I told you before, remember. Our bosses don't deal with time the way we do, they're immortal. The Powers have tipped the Balance in their favor with this last move. It's our job to tip it to ours. That's what the plan is for." He grinned maliciously, "But don't worry. You'll get to have your fun. By the time we're through with them the Council will be crushed and the Slayers will just be a bunch of scared little girls that have a few extra powers than most."

"I'll get started collecting the girls then, brother," the nervous man went to walk out of the room.

"You should at least wait until the sun sets, Titus," Zeak sighed and put his head in his hand, "You won't be getting any girls if your dust."

"Oh yeah, sorry Zeak."

"I swear, if mama hadn't made me promise to look out for you…"

…

Approximately Five Years After the Fall of Sunnydale

Helena Mitchell decided there were only two things she was very sure of in this world right now, she hated her first name and she was very scared. She wasn't really sure where she was or what had happened to her. One minute she had been outside playing and the next she'd felt a small pinch in her neck and then everything had gone black. Now she was finally awake but still feeling kind of woozy and she was in a small steel room, attached to the wall.

Helena had to admit she'd freaked a little when she'd first seen her hands and feet. They were literally melded inside the wall. She imagined it was some kind of spell. They'd been going over the basic types of spells at Slayer school. Helena had been seven when she'd been Chosen and had immediately decided it was the coolest thing ever. In the year since then she'd learned that there were some bad things that came with it, she didn't really like the nightmares, but overall it was still pretty neat.

She had immediately started yanking when she'd seen her hands but all it had gotten her was a really sore arm. At school they had tested each girl on how much they could lift and how fast they could run to give them some idea of what they could do and what their limits were. Helena had managed to break a chain in half once and she was pretty sure that if she was in regular handcuffs or manacles she'd have been free by now. But whoever had put her in here was pretty smart. If she was going to break anything to get out of there it was going to be her own limbs.

So she was sitting here, in a dimly lit, rather smelly room, with her hands and feet merged with a wall. She'd been frantically going through everything that they'd told her about escaping at school but she hadn't really come up with anything yet. The only thing she could think of to do was wait until they released her and then try and run but she had a sinking feeling that if they were smart enough not to put her in regular chains they would know what she was really capable of and be prepared.

Helena's only hope was that someone from the Academy would rescue her. It was a real hope. She'd seen some of the stuff the senior Slayers had taken down, not to mention what Willow, their head magick instructor could do. Her only real concern was them being able to find her. She was sure her parents would have immediately called the Academy. She'd only been visiting for the weekend but they had the emergency number on the fridge. Helena didn't know how long she'd been unconscious, however, and so she had no clue if she was still in the same city, much less the same country.

Helena was actually beginning to nod off a little bit later, there were no windows so she had no sense of time, when the door swung open. The hinges made a squealing sound that just about drove her up the wall, she hated high-pitched noises even more since she'd been Chosen, and two men walked in. Both were of Asian descent, squat and a little on the bulky side, like the sumo wrestlers she'd seen on TV once. They muttered to each other for a few minutes in some weird language she didn't recognize and then pulled out a small pistol.

She tensed for a moment and then recognized the tranq gun from one of her weapons classes. They'd been going over how to take down werewolves without getting bitten. At least they weren't going to kill her but she didn't relish being knocked out again. She decided to work the cute and helpless angle.

"Please, mister," she whimpered in a soft voice, widening her eyes a little, "I don't feel so good. I think I'm gonna puke. Can you just let me get to a bathroom?"

Unfortunately cute and helpless didn't seem to affect them. They just glared at her and went back to muttering at each other. Stupid goons, she thought to herself, you're never this smart in the movies. A slight cough next to her ear made her whip her head around and stare in shock. From seemingly out of nowhere a dark-haired woman had appeared next to her. She was fairly small, her light brown hair trailing along her back in a single braid, and had blue eyes. She was crouched down, the long baggy pants puddling slightly on the floor around her slippered feet and her loose sleeved long shirt bunched up around her elbows.

She was sitting there, calm as could be, staring at Helena as she gazed back wide-eyed. The men had yet to notice her, being so engaged in their conversation that looked to be turning into an argument. Helena wondered if she was a witch sent by the Council to rescue her and began to feel a little bit of hope.

"You want some help?" The woman asked politely.

"Yes please," Helena tried to sound calm and cool, like she thought a Slayer should sound in a situation like this and not like the scared little eight year old girl that she was.

"Okay," then the woman stretched out her right hand and pushed it into the metal like it was butter. She reached in and pulled out Helena's hands and feet, prying them from the wall with no trouble at all. Helena just sat there, slack-jawed. She'd never seen anyone do something like that. Even the senior Slayers would likely have had to punch into the metal to break it, not just push.

"You better get up now," the woman said and stood up, dusting off her hands. Helena got up shakily beside her and turned to face the men who, by now, had noticed that there was someone else there. They stood there, shocked for a moment, trying to figure out what was going on and how the woman had gotten into the room without them noticing. Then they realized Helena was free and began to raise the gun and move forward.

"You'd better do something," was all the woman said as she stood there, arms crossed.

"But…aren't you here to rescue me?" Helena was seriously confused now.

"I got your arms and legs free," she was told, "The rest is up to you."

"B..but…?!" she yelped as she was shoved out of the way, angry for a moment and then realizing the men had fired the dart gun.

"You're a Slayer, Helena Mitchell," the woman stood above her, arms crossed and hips cocked, looking down. "They should be the ones that need saving."

"But their human," she quickly got to the crux of the problem, "I'm not supposed to hurt humans!"

"You're not supposed to kill humans," her sort-of rescuers clarified, "You can certainly hurt them a little if their holding you hostage."

"Oh," Helena nodded in understanding.

"Just be careful to control your strength, you have a tendency to get a little rambunctious."

Helena nodded, wondering how the woman knew, and then shrugged it off as unimportant. Maybe the people at the Academy had told her. She shot forward, eager to get a little revenge for being held by that stupid wall for so long, not to mention the whole kidnapping thing. Her parents were probably worried sick.

Sliding like a runner into home plate Helena swept under the startled man's hand that was holding the outstretched gun. A loud grunt of pain emerged from him as she rammed into his shin, driving him onto his back and making him loose hold of the weapon. She flipped up to her feet and then incapacitated him with a quick kick between the legs.

Using her shorter height to her advantage she then dodged under the other man's grasp, rabbit punched him in the gut and kneed him in the chin when he bent over in reflexive pain. This sent him flopping to the ground, his jaw probably cracked if not completely broken. She'd gotten a little excited there.

Giving a small whoop of joy she bounced around on her feet like a boxer and turned to the woman who was waiting in the corner. The woman nodded in acknowledgement and Helena felt like she'd grown ten feet. Her red pigtails swayed as she punched a fist into the air.

"Now we still have to get out of the building," her rescuer advised, making Helena calm down and consider the situation. There was still some serious work to be done. But it had still been fun to kick a little ass.

…

Two Days Later, Amanda Sears School for Girls, Shanghai, China

Cho An and Robin Woods were sitting in their brand new office in their brand new building going over some paperwork when a knock came at the door. Robin had officially taken charge as Principal and Cho An was now the Head Slayer at the Academy and they were reviewing all the new girls they were about to get in. The knock startled them a bit as they were focused.

"Come in," Cho An called. Her English had come a long way since her time in Sunnydale with Giles having to make her weird pictures to get her to understand. She still didn't think she'd ever completely understand that man and his explanations. She still had nightmares about them sometimes. Most of the girls here spoke english so far as they'd come over from the schools in England or Cleveland, but a lot of the new ones would not have those skills.

Pei entered and walked over quietly to them, "We have some unusual guests at the gate, Cho An, Principal Woods."

"What do you mean?" Robin asked. He was still learning the hodgepodge of Mandarin, Cantonese, and English that the girls tended to use amongst each other.

"The little girl says she's a student at the Cleveland Academy," Pei said, then scrunched her eyebrows together, "She says she was taken from her home and brought here and that the woman with her saved her."

They both sat up straighter at this information. This was a serious matter if it was true.

"Contact the Cleveland Academy," Robin instructed, "see what they say. Our phone lines have been up and down still lately. Their fax alert might have gotten lost. Likely if they lost her their still looking locally, they'd never think to look out so far as us."

"What about the woman with her?" Cho An asked, "What does she say?"

"That's the weird part," Pei admitted, "She asked to see you two in private and refused to give her name until she did."

Robin and Cho An looked at each other, then nodded. They were both curious and the likelihood of the woman being able to do anything in a compound full of Slayers was unlikely. Willow had jut finished putting the wards on the grounds, no magick of ill-intent could be used on the people within.

"Bring her to us," Robin told Pei, "Take the girl to the infirmary and get her checked over in the meantime."

Pei nodded and slipped out the door, closing it behind her. A few moments later she knocked again and the door opened. A young woman with long dark hair, drawn back in a braid, walked in quietly.

"Hello Robin," she nodded to them as Pei closed the door behind her, "Cho An. How are you two doing?"

There was a pause of incomprehension and then Cho An blurted out the only thing that came into her head as the realization of who she was facing fell into place.

"I though you were dead!"

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Author's Note:

So I got a few responses that were surprised about the pairing. I told you I was gonna whack you upside the head with it later. Well later is now. If you still don't get it just wait a bit, I'll run you over with a truck.

There's actually a little action in this chapter for all you people waiting for it. Also, a small note. I made the baby Slayers a bit weaker than their teenage counterparts. Their still superpowered but I figured that just like regular people, they would get stronger as they matured.

Pretty favorable responses otherwise. Hopefully now we can really get the ball rolling. I'll try to be quick with my next update and you guys keep up the reviews. Happy Days!!