Birth Right

By Alecca

Extinguisher

Los Angeles
2083
Wolfram & Hart Demon Hunting Inc.

“Which desk do you want?” Fred 2 asked her brother as she wheeled him into their new office.

“The one next to the windows,” Wes 2 said pointing towards a large wooden desk on the other side of the office.

“I think it was nice of Angel to let us have an office together, don’t you think?” she asked him as she pushed him towards his new desk.

“Yeah, I think he glued two of the old ones together. He probably thought about it before we even came here,” Wes 2 told his sister as he admired the view of the office.

“Probably because of the whole twin thing,” Fred 2 nodded.

“Do you feel that too?” Wes 2 looked up at his sister.

“Feel what?” she asked smiling.

“Like you’re home,” he replied staring into the horizon. “Like you’re finally home.”

“Yeah, I do. I think we’re in for a bumpy ride,” she told him. “I mean look what happened on our first day here.”

“Bumpy, yes, even a little scary, but fun,” he agreed.

“Very fun,” she smiled and leaned her head on her brother’s and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.

Los Angeles
2083
A graveyard

“Hey, you,” Lonny said smiling as she neared the grave and removed a few dried flowers from it. She crouched down in front of it and put the six pack she was holding in one hand at her feet. “It’s been a while, huh?” she looked at the grave and let out an unnecessary sigh. She wished the grave could answer her, but it never did. She sat down on the ground and leaned her back on the grave. She opened a beer and put it beside it before opening another one for herself. She took a sip of beer and closed her eyes.

“It’s been an awfully long day, dad. For a moment there, I almost saw you again. I could barely help it. I was just a few miles away from you. And now you’re gone again,” she opened her eyes. “I didn’t go cause I remembered what you told me once, a long time ago: sometimes you gotta do some things you don’t want to and give up on something you really want just so you can do the right thing. To save the world. Well, the world’s safe now. So here’s to that! To the world!” she touched her beer bottle to the one laying on the grave. “Cheers.” She sighed again and reached out to touch the letters carved into the stone that read “Charles Gunn. Devoted Friend. Beloved Father.”

2083
Rio the Janeiro

“C’mon, Willow, we’re missing all the sun!” Danielle complained as Willow fiddled around the kitchen making herself a fruit salad.

“You go, I don’t feel like staying in the sun today,” the witch told her staring at the Ocean through the beach house’s windows.

“What happened to you this morning?” the girl asked her stealing a piece of orange from her salad. “You were gone for a few hours and when you came back you were all...upside down.”

“I was not,” Willow protested.

“Hello, you bought a beach house because you didn’t like the carnations in the hotel’s lobby,” Danielle pointed out.

“Okay, so maybe I am a little out of it,” she admitted. “But don’t worry, I’ll be fine by morning.”

“I just wish you’d tell me what happened,” Danielle said sighing.

“I can’t, it’s a secret,” Willow winked at her. The slayer smiled.

“Hey, whose that coming up to the house?” she stared out the window.

“Where?” Willow asked following her gaze. She smiled when she came across the tall blue creature walking towards the beach house. “I guess I’m going to have some company.”

“Do you need me to stay?” Danielle asked looking back at her.

“No, go,” she told her. “Just don’t wonder too far away.”

“I won’t,” she promised and headed out of the house just as the Hur’dha climbed up the stairs to enter.

“Bored already?” Willow asked him smiling.

“After having so many people around...it leaves a certain emptiness,” the Hur’dha admitted.

“Sit then,” she pointed towards a chair in the kitchen and the Hur’dha sat down on it. The tall blue creature looked awkward on that little chair and Willow chuckled. “How about some tea?”

“That would be lovely,” he said smiling.

“So Angel really had a son?” she asked as she began preparing the tea.

“Oh, yes, it was all because of Wolfram & Hart. They decided they wanted Angel on their side so they brought back Darla who was....”

2083
The Northern Canadian Region

“Who is it?” the old woman asked standing up from her chair with difficulty and heading towards the door.

“It’s me,” Angel said and the woman’s wrinkled lips curled into a smile as she opened the door.

“Young and hot like always, huh?” she asked him as she stood aside to let him enter the wooden cabin. “I swear you keep looking younger. Or is it just me getting older?” she headed back towards her chair.

“I don’t understand why you keep being so stubborn about this. You’d live absolutely perfectly in LA. You’d be closer to me, the SA, Willow,” Angel pointed out.

“And I don’t know why you keep insisting on this. You know full well why I don’t want to go back there. I love you and I love Willow, but I don’t want to be treated like an old woman, even if that is what I am. I don’t like to be constantly reminded of my age. And having all those...young slayers buzzing around me, just waiting to hear a story from the old days...it’s just not me. I’m happy here. The people around here are nice and they have no idea who I am. I’m just Anne to them and no one else,” she explained. Angel stared into her eyes and smiled. Those were the same eyes he had stared into just a day ago and they were the only thing unchanged by time in Buffy Summers. “So is this just a courtesy visit or do you have some ulterior motive?”

“You caught me,” he admitted.

“It’s been a long time since you came here with an ulterior motive,” she said thinking back to his past visits. “Let’s hear it.”

“I... uhm, I ran into Spike the other day. One of those save the world situations,” he said. “And he found out you’re alive.”

“Angel!” she frowned. “I thought we talked about this before. There’s no way...”

“I know, but then I never thought I’d actually see him again. And I told him everything. What you said,” he looked down at his hands. “And he wants to see you.”

“No!” Buffy protested. “I’m old. I’m like a prune and my hair is white. There is no way I’m going to see him...”

“He’s outside,” Angel interrupted her.

“What?!” she was outraged. “How could you let him come here?!”

“He said he wasn’t going to leave my apartment until I brought him here. And now he’s not leaving until you see him,” he explained.

“That’s just like Spike,” she smiled and standing up, went to the window and looked outside. The vampire was pacing in front of her cabin with a lit cigar between his lips. “Tell him to come in.”

Angel stood up, opened the door and yelled the vampire’s name. Spike immediately rushed towards the cabin and entered through the now opened door.

“Hello, Spike,” the old woman saluted him with a sad smile on her lips.

“Hello, Buffy,” he said and took her by surprise when he suddenly hugged her. “Don’t ever let me think you’re dead again, you hear me?”

“Not unless it’s for real,” she promised and smiled at Angel over the vampire’s shoulder.

New York City
2083

“So guess who bagged herself two vampires last night?” one of the girls bragged to Mina and her companions as they walked down the corridor to their next class together.

“How many brownie points did you get for them, Carrie?” another girl asked her.

“7. That puts me only 12 points behind Mina. Your throne, missy, is under serious danger,” Carrie told Mina smiling.

“Whatever,” Mina simply said.

“What’s up with you? You’ve been out of it all day,” Carrie pointed out.

“I just have a few things on my mind, that’s all,” Mina assured them.

“Gee, thanks!” she heard a familiar voice say and she turned around to see a skinny teenage girl that had just been knocked off her feet by a student rushing by.

“Mina! Did you hear what I just said?” Carrie asked trying to snap her out of her reverie.

“Just wait a minute,” Mina told them and headed over to the girl, extending a hand to help her up.

“Thanks,” the girl said timidly.

“You’re welcome,” Mina said and after a moment of silence she turned away, intending to return to her friends.

“You’re a slayer, aren’t you?” the girl stopped her.

“Yeah, I am,” Mina turned back towards her and began helping her gather her books off the floor. “You’re one too, right?”

“I just found out yesterday,” the girl confessed. “I’m having my first meeting with my watcher today. I’m kinda nervous about it.”

“Oh, don’t worry, they don’t give you a physical exam during the first meeting. That’s done later on,” Mina explained as she handed her her books.

“Charlene D’Onofrio?” a voice startled the girl from behind making her drop her books again.

“Yes, that’s me,” the girl replied nervously to the young man in the tweed costume. “But my friends call me Charlie.”

“I’m your designated watcher, my name is Rupert MacAlistair-Giles II,” he introduced himself and Mina stared at him for a moment. “I was sent here from the West Coast Slayer Association especially to train you.”

“I’m sorry, but do we know each other?” Mina asked him.

“I don’t think so,” the watcher replied. “But I am suffering from an... I believe it’s called, uhm, acute amnesia.”

“Mina Parker,” she extended her hand. “Nice to meet you.”

“Likewise,” he shook her hand. “You do have a very familiar face.”

“You too,” Mina thought she had seen him before, but she just couldn’t remember where. They stared at each other for a moment, before Mina snapped out of it and addressing the younger girl told her: “I’ll be seeing you around then, Charlie.”

“I guess so,” the girl smiled as the slayer departed, joining her friends again.

“Shall we?” Rupert gestured towards the front doors of the school.

“Giles? Is that in any way related to *the* Rupert Giles?” Charlie asked the watcher as they headed out of the highschool.

Mina looked back at them another time and then continued on her way to class, deaf to her friends’ conversation. So maybe she wasn’t the one. The chosen. That one born into each generation, but she was a slayer. She was the best at what she did. She was the elite. The creme de la crème. The best protector the world could ever have. She was smart, she was beautiful, she could kick anyone’s ass and she was damn proud of it. She was Mina Parker and she ruled her highschool like a queen among peasants, a god among mortals and she was a slayer. Maybe not by birth right, not by blood, but by the right given to her by the greatest slayer that had ever lived.

By Buffy Summers.

~Fin~