Birth RightBy Alecca
1st degree burnLos Angeles
2083
Wolfram & Hart Demon Hunting Inc.Angel stared at the thick file in front of him with a frown on his face. Lonny stood opposite him at his desk. It was long after midnight, but employees were still restlessly roaming the corridors of Wolfram & Hart solving late emergencies or filling endless paperwork on closed cases. If there was one thing of the old company Angel had insisted on keeping that was maintaining a detailed archive - he wanted every case documented properly for future similar situations. Continuing to stare at the file in front of him, he went through the day's events: the arrival of Fred 2 and Wes 2, the break in, the mysterious slayer, the late lunch with the twins, going through several cases with his staff, retiring to his apartment and having a long chat about old times with Wes 2 and Fred 2 over ordered pizza and tacos and of course Lonny's reappearance about an hour before. Thinking of the twins, he imagined that they must be very bored in his apartment by themselves and wished he had at least told them where the TV was.
"Well?" Lonny asked as she looked at him victoriously with her arms crossed over her chest.
"Not what I expected," he interrupted his thread of thoughts.
"Pretty clean," she smirked. "But not everythin's in that file."
"There's more?" he asked rising his eyebrows in surprise.
"She's got what I'd call an attitude problem," she said and Angel smiled.
"Attitude problem, huh?" he said in a mocking tone. Lonny gave him a dirty look and Angel's smile faded, knowing that if he teased her too much she could very well just stand up and leave without another word said. She had done it before. The truth was the only reason she helped Wolfram & Hart was her father - the only person who had ever been able to keep her under control, before and after she became a vampire.
"Yeah. The file...," she gestured towards the papers in front of him. "It's like her...her grade book. The SA only keeps accounts of the missions a slayer was assigned to or any solo missions she happened to stumble upon. Whatever they do in their free time, it ain't any of their business."
"Nothing's written down," he realized.
"Bingo, Angelito," she leaned over the desk. "That's why I was so freakin' late. I had to chat with a few east coasters, get 'em to spill the dirt on little miss perfection."
"And you got it?" he inquired.
"A bag full of it," she smiled as she noisily dropped back in her chair. Angel passed his fingers over the glossy picture of Mina Parker clipped on the first page of the file.
"What are you waiting for?" he asked looking up at her.
"For you to stop drooling for that bitch's picture," she smiled.
"You know I'm really beginning to think you're the one who began spreading all those nasty rumors about me," he said exasperated.
"Would you mind?" she asked innocently.
"I could do without all the insinuations and all knowing looks," he admitted rising his shoulders. He had actually grown used to it as no one ever made a direct accusation that might have truly offended him. "Now shoot."
"Fights in school and plenty of 'em. If she was in a highschool from a rough New York neighborhood, I'd be all for it, but get this, she attends an upper Manhattan prep school. That's like picking a fight in a convent," she smirked. "She seems to have a big problem with other slayers. The weaker sort, you know, the fat ones, the geeky ones, the flashy ones...She's what the slayers call 'the kindred'."
"What?" he asked closing the file and putting it aside.
"The kindred. The slayers that think they're above the others, the lawful descends of the slayer line. Bullshit like that," she shrugged. "The elite's usually part of the kindred. Wanna take a wild guess why?"
"Well, she certainly built up a nice file. I don't understand why someone capable of doing so much good, would lower herself to something as demeaning as discrimination between her own kind. Or why she'd want to steal anything from me. She could've asked," he pointed out.
"Not if it wasn't for a good cause," she chuckled. "Besides yours isn't the only place she broke into," she pulled a small piece of folded paper from her pocket and threw it in front of him. He unfolded it carefully and saw the article he had previously not noticed on the front page of the newspaper laying on Harmony's desk: 'Book of Katurye stolen! The first ever recorded theft in the New York Museum of Unnatural History'.
"And you're sure this is her hand?" he asked as he quickly read the article depicting the mysterious disappearance of the book.
"Not a 100% sure, but I checked the recordings of the museum, she was there and she hasn't been seen since," she explained.
"Where did you get all this?" he asked gesturing towards the file, the article and Lonny herself.
"I have my sources," she said smiling secretly.
"You didn't steal anything, did you?" he knew her too well.
"Why? Are you going to hire me an attorney?" she teased him.
"Lonny," he was being serious. The book of Katurye and the Museums of Unnatural history were under the jurisdiction of the SA and the SA didn't exactly look fondly upon her. She was an anomaly in the slayer chain. A slayer turned vampire, but not turned evil - well not more evil than she had been before her turning. She was in many ways tolerated, admitted at the SA meetings, called when emergencies appeared, but she wasn't trusted, honored or allowed any sort of contact to their archives, that's why the presence of Mina Parker's file in his office seemed very suspicious.
"I asked someone to take it out for me," she lied, knowing Angel would never really believe that, but would accept this answer knowing she would not give him another.
"And the tapes you saw?" he asked as he folded the article back into a small rectangle.
"I put Blaze up to it," she admitted. Blaze was something of a computer genius from the science division that had had a soft spot for Lonny ever since he had come to work for Wolfram & Hart.
"How many times do I have to tell you..." he began, but Lonny interrupted him laughing:
"Don't play dirty with the SA!" Wolfram & Hart was looked at suspiciously by the SA as well, even if it was run by a legendary figure in slayer history. Watchers, the real ones, Angel thought shaking his head, were never going to trust him, but they often needed to work hand to hand with them and that's why he preferred to be in good relations with them. Bad relations with the SA meant every slayer on the planet turning their backs on you and no one wanted that.
"I hope Blaze didn't leave a trail leading back to us, cause I'm sure you used the company mainframe," he said smiling.
"Oh, c'mon, isn't Blaze the computer ubbergeek?" she asked rolling her eyes. "That's why you hired him in the first place."
"Yeah, but he does have a gift of being very distracted around you," he pointed out.
"Well, yeah...," that was the truth and she couldn't find any arguments against it. "You're not in trouble unless that red bi-uh-witch's prot?g's around, but last I heard she's somewhere in India with her 'mommy'."
"What did I tell you Lonny?" he asked tired, staring at her hard. It was a question he often repeated around her.
"You told me so many things..." she began, but stopped when she saw Angel continued to hold her gaze. "Okay, let me think about it. Bla, bla, bla, don't talk trash about the redhead witch from Sunnydale. Hey, is it true she banged one of the new slayers while she was still a potential?"
"Lonny, Willow was and continues to be a very good friend of mine and I don't..." he started explaining for the millionth time, but as always, impatient, Lonny interrupted him:
"Is it true that she banged Doofy and Doofus' great-grandma when you were working on a case together?"
"Lonny!" he sank in his chair, exasperated. Willow, through who knows what kind of magic had kept herself alive and young over the decades, but her great power had made her the target of many rumors and had turned her into a bit of a monarch of the witches and because of it she was feared by many. The power had changed her a bit even in Angel's eyes. As for her prot?g?, she was a darling Canadian 16 year old - Willow had introduced her to him, assuring her that she would always find a helping hand in Angel - she was a computer genius and contrary to rumors she was nothing but a surrogate daughter to Willow. Even if in appearance the witch still looked like a 20-something year old, her soul had grown old and for reasons untold, she had never had children of her own.
"I'll take the blame entirely, okay?" she said on a peaceful note. "We all know they'd believe that. Sure, they'd probably insist you give me the boot afterwards, but..."
"I'd say I would and wouldn't," he said smiling. "What was in the book of Katurye?"
"Spells, the big guns, but the conditioned sort. All pretty much needed a jumpstarter," she explained. "Something she probably wanted to get from your secret safe."
"Anything she might have been extremely interested in?" he asked rising an eyebrow.
"Several actually. An omnipotence spell drew my attention till I realized she'd grow tentacles and though the omnipotence only lasted for a couple of days, the tentacles were permanent," she sighed. "This would be a lot easier if we'd know what she wanted from the safe."
"But unfortunately, we don't," Angel looked at the file and wondered what was in Mina's mind at that moment.
Sunnydale
2003Mina Parker was standing in front of the door of the Summers home with a stupid smile on her face. Sunnydale was deserted, the streets empty, there was no one in sight, only a few curious bringers had followed her and tried to take her down, but they didn't stand a chance against her. She was sure, soon the Prime Evil himself would hear of her and it tickled her ego just a bit. She rang at the door and a rather surprised goofy looking guy opened the door. Before she had a chance to speak, he made a quick step towards her and touched her hand.
"Thank god," he let out relieved. "For a moment there I thought you were...who are you?"
"I'm a potential," she said smiling.
"What?" he asked a little surprised. "I thought all the..."
"I guess I'm a little late. My watcher got butchered in Finland, I barely got out," she explained. On her way to the house she had had enough time to think of a plausible story. She couldn't simply burst in the house and take out the slayer though that plan had tempted her greatly, but unfortunately for Buffy she recognized the thin line between doable and impossible. A direct attack involved the threat of all those potentials, the witch and a vampire whom she assumed at this point was Spike, though if she knew her slayer history well, Angel was in Sunnydale about now too.
"Okay, then..." he stepped aside and putting on his best host smile he invited her in and continued: "I'm Andrew, I'm one of the slayerettes, the Scoobies. I'm sure you heard of us, we're the slayer's inner circle. We help with the baddies. She would've died so many times without us..."
"The inner circle," Mina smiled maliciously. "So where is she? The slayer? I was kinda excited about meeting her."
"Well...you'll have to wait till morning," Andrew said. "She's charging up her superpowers. She had a big fight. It took a lot out of her."
"The priest," she realized, but her voice had been almost a whisper so Andrew didn't hear what she had said.
"Did you just say something?" he asked and looked at her, seeming a little dizzy to her. He must have been sleeping, she told herself as she shook her head in sign of no and followed him into the living room. "I don't know where you'll sleep. I mean, Buffy didn't have where to sleep either and she's..."
"Where is she?" she could easily guess, but she loved making people feel uncomfortable.
"She's sleeping in the basement," he quickly said.
"Alone? The poor thing," she smiled again. She wanted to laugh badly, but didn't allow herself the pleasure. "By the way, my name is Mina. Mina Parker."
"Okay, so Mina...uhm, I can give you my pillow if you want," he said a little half-heartedly.
"You will? That's so nice of you," she said all smiles.
"Just have my...whole sleeping... place, I'll just sleep on the...uhm table or something," he said pointing towards his previous sleeping place, sighing defeated. Thanking him again, Mina made her way through the sleeping potential slayers and occupied Andrew's place. Laying her head on the pillow, she smiled, this time, a real satisfied grin. If anyone had seen her then, they would have thought she had just lived the happiest day of her life. And in many ways they would have been right. This had been an almost perfect day.
Los Angeles
2083
Wolfram & Hart Demon Hunting Inc.He opened the door to his apartment slowly, holding Mina's file under one arm. The door had been replaced by the maintenance people while he had still been out to lunch. The window Mina had thrown herself through was intact as well and his safe, he assumed - he hadn't entered his bedroom since discovering the break-in - seemed like a normal wall again. He smiled when he saw the twins had fallen asleep on the couch while waiting for him. Fred 2's head had fallen on her brother's shoulder and his head over hers. Wes 2 was snoring slowly with his mouth open, something that didn't seem to bother his sister, a sign that she was probably used to it. Angel thought about waking them up, but then decided against it.
He entered his bedroom and grabbed a spare pillow and cover from a closet. He put the pillow on the couch and gently pushed Wes 2 down on it while making sure Fred 2 didn't fall. Then he took Fred 2 in his arms and carried her to his bedroom and put her to rest in his bed. He was probably not going to sleep all night anyway. He was going to study Mina's file in detail. Maybe something - a case perhaps - had put some wild idea into her mind. As he fluffed Fred 2's pillow and tucked her in, he had an odd feeling of deja-vu. What was it that he had forgotten? While he had fluffed his pillow the previous night, right before falling asleep, what had he told himself? He reached under the pillow and it suddenly hit him. He had told himself not to forget to put back in the safe the ring of Batt-hura. He searched for it in the bed - making sure he wouldn't wake Fred 2, on the floor, under the bed, anywhere in the room where it might have landed during Mina's mystic attack on the safe, but it was no use. It was gone.
"What...are...you doing?" Fred 2 asked sleepily, with her eyes half-open seeing him crawling under the bed for the second time.
"I...uhm, lost something," he said bumping his head on the edge of the bed startled by her voice. "Go back to sleep."
"You...sure, you-you don't want me to help?" she asked closing her eyes.
"Sleep," he smiled and caressed her hair gently before going back to searching for the ring. A half an hour later he hadn't found anything. The ring was gone. It could only mean two things: the clean-up crew had swept his bedroom too and the ring was either in their possession or had been returned to the safe or Mina had it. One of these three possibilities could be easily crossed out: the ring couldn't have been returned to the safe without his presence, unless of course it would have been forced open which at this point - to simply return something to the safe - would have been ridiculous. But what if Mina had been after the ring? What for? What if she simply took it because she couldn't reach the desired object and thought that the ring was interesting? He cursed himself for being so stupid to take out the ring in the first place. In a moment of weakness and loneliness he had removed it from the safe and actually considered using it to go into the past. Maybe not necessarily to remove a person from it, but just to live another day with his old friends by his side. Gunn, Wes, Fred, Lorne, Cordy... Maybe for a moment to skip back in time to when his son was still a baby or a teenager or at any point of Connor's life. Or even Sunnydale...anywhere but there. When he was alone at night - alone in his bed - he was often filled with a blind desperation and melancholy he couldn't chase away... He realized full well he had gone too far the previous night and had endangered time itself because of it. And now the ring was probably in the hands of a slayer up to no good. He had to find out if Mina had the ring of Batt-hura and if it had been the item she had searched for.
Exiting his bedroom, he pulled out his cellphone and dialed the number of the maintenance division.
"Hello?" a cheerful female voice answered him.
"Hi, it's Angel, can I talk to someone who was assigned to the clean-up job in my apartment this morning?" he asked the woman.
"One moment please," she put the phone down and Angel had to hold his cell a certain distance away from his ear to escape the dreadful screaming of the woman as she yelled at someone in the room to wake up because the boss wanted to talk to him.
"Hello?" a tired, somewhat scared man picked up the phone. "Mr. Angel? I was in the crew that cleaned-up your apartment this morning."
"Did anyone find a mystical ring in my bedroom?" he asked directly.
"No, sir," he said. "We didn't find anything out of place, anything suspicious looking. I'm absolutely sure. We would've reported it otherwise."
"Thank you," he hung up and started dialing the number of the research division. A tired, sleepy voice answered him:
"Wolfram and," the person yawned. "..Hart, research division. How may I help you?"
"This is Angel. I need you to cross- reference something for me," he said looking out the recently replaced window.
"Mr. Angel, sir. I'm sorry I..." he suddenly seemed very much awake.
"It's all right," he assured him. It was past 1 AM after all.
"What do you need cross-referenced?" he asked. Angel could hear him searching for a pen and paper over the phone.
"The book of Katurye and the items stored in my private apartment safe," the vampire told him.
"Sir, the book of Katurye is owned by the SA. They have the only two copies. One, if you count the one stolen yesterday," he explained.
"So it can't be done?" Angel asked impatient.
"I didn't say that...But the SA has the legal rights to the book so before using it you should talk to the representatives of the Association or check in with our legal department..." he began, but Angel interrupted him:
"Screw the legal stuff. I need this done NOW," he said. "Call as soon as you're finished."
"I'll get right on it, sir," he assured him before hanging up
Los Angeles
2083
An airplane over the Atlantic Ocean : The luggage compartment"Bloody hell!" Spike let out shoving aside a large suitcase that had fallen on his head for the millionth time since he had embarked on the plane. Taking a smoke from his cigar, he let out an exasperate sigh. "You must go to her, you and the one with the angelic face," he imitated the cryptic voice of the Hur'dha. "Forgot to mention the horrifying trip to LA," he mumbled to himself. "If he can zap himself anywhere, he could've at least given me a free ride."
He heard a faint sound behind him and looked back to see his bag was glowing. It was the amulet, but strangely enough it didn't hurt if the old man, the Hur'dha, wasn't there, but it still glowed. Why? Spike could only guess. It hadn't done this before. Ever - except on the day when Sunnydale fell. He opened his bag and pulled the amulet out. He stared at it for a few long moments and for a quarter of a second it seemed to fade out of reality. And for that same quarter of a second his body seemed to burn. He collapsed to the floor in pain. He threw the amulet back in the bag and noticed that his hand had an actual burn on it. He slowly grew angry.
"Who the hell is this bitch and what the bloody hell does she think she's doing messing with time?! My time?!" he yelled, but only the growl of a dog in a cage answered him.
Los Angeles
2083
Wolfram & Hart Demon Hunting Inc.When his cellphone rang, it was well after 3 AM. Angel jolted awake in the armchair he had sat down in while going over Mina's file.
"Angel," he answered chasing away any remains of sleepiness he had left.
"I got the results of that cross- reference you wanted, sir," the guy from the research division told him. "You want me to send them up to your apartment?"
"No, just shoot," the vampire told him.
"There are four items from your safe that correspond to spells in the book of Katurye. The gemstone of Amhar is used on a seer spell, it gives a sorcerer the power to see into the minds of...let's say a quarter of the population of the northern hemisphere. The pyramid of Nurydn is used for an interdimensional transportation spell, mostly hell dimensions. The ring of Batt-hura is used for time travel into the past. And the last are the Muryan rubies that can be used to retrieve a...Kehjolon demon from a dimensional loop hole."
"Tell me, what are the chances that the one thing the girl that broke into my apartment wanted was outside the safe at the time she was in my bedroom?" he asked both amused and horrified by the irony of the situation.
"Do you want an exact probability on that, sir?" the man on the other end of the line asked.
"No, but thank you," he hung up. This was turning out to be one of his not so lucky days. The one thing that seemed to present any interest to the slayer seemed to be the ring of Batt- Hura, but then again, who knew? Maybe she had a boyfriend who was half way around the globe and inside whose mind she wanted to see or she wanted to kill off some Kehjolon demon...How could he tell at this point? He needed more information. What he didn't know was that the information he needed was already on its way, aboard an airplane that was minutes away from landing in LA.