Things Unseen

By Gidgetgirl

Chapter Nine

Jordy’s facial expression remained unchanged as he stared at the formidable gate surrounded the Council Complex.

“This it?” he asked, as always minimizing the verbiage.

Anni, a lump rising in her throat, nodded. She had been here before, for the testing. Mr. Travers had wanted to be sure she was a Potential. Anni shook her head as if to clear it. She wasn’t that little girl anymore. She had power now. She was the non-slayer, as powerful as any slayer, in control of her own destiny. Under Willow’s tutelage, she was becoming a powerful witch in her own right. There was no reason to fear this building.

And yet, she did.

Jordy squeezed her arm. “So, do you want me to go in with you?” he asked quietly, well aware that the sun was high in the sky.

She nodded and then shook her head. “If I want them to believe I’m here as a Potential,” she said slowly, “I have to go alone.” She wished she’d thought of that before she’d dragged Jordy halfway across the world. Anni’s legs wobbled. She was still a little weak from using so much magic.

Jordy nodded, his facial expression never wavering from the chilled look he had borrowed from his cousin, Oz. “If you need me, just call,” he said, grinning the tiniest bit. “I have good hearing.”

Neither of them realized that tonight was a full moon.

Anni nodded, and feeling a bit brave, gave Jordy a quick hug before walking up to the towering wall that surrounded the complex.

She pressed a button on the intercom. “Anni Wyndham-Price,” she said, the crisp British accent coming fully back into her voice. “I’d like to speak with Mr. Travers.”

Travers mindlessly twirled his pen on his desk, thinking to himself. They had located the slayer gene, the spot on chromosome nine that coded for the potential to be a slayer. All of the girls who had been identified as Slayers-in-Waiting had it. The babies they had managed to borrow with ties to the Potentials had it, though it was highly recessive in the male children. The magical mechanism by which the gene was turned on, expressed into super powers, was still a mystery.

Travers knew one thing. To activate it one would take a great deal of magic. Far more than he could summon on his own.

That left Quentin Travers with a problem. How to get ahold of the Shanshu child? After their last encounter, he was not particularly anxious to mess with Miss Summers again. If only he had gotten a hold of her as a Potential, before she had been called. He would have taught her a bit about respect. A bit about fear. She’d still have the scars to prove it.

Travers thought briefly about Chance and Kendall, wondering which one of them he should order beaten next. Kendall always needed a beating, and Chance, though she wasn’t a particularly rebellious little thing, rubbed him the wrong way. Something about her appearance, her mannerisms irked him.

He thought wistfully about beating Maddy, but some things weren’t meant to be.

A voice interrupted his thoughts. “Mr. Travers,” his secretary said, poking her head into his office. “There’s a girl outside asking to talk to you. She claims to be one Anni Wyndham-Price.”

Travers tapped his pen on his desk. The Wyndham-Price girl? How utterly convenient. How utterly satisfying.

She would bring the Shanshu child to him, of this he felt sure. And in the meantime… well, that girl had been the cause of an awful lot of problems to him.

“Send her in,” he said.

Willow thought Wes’s head was going to explode. Breathe, she reminded him silently. He took in a ragged breath, and almost upon reflex pulled the red haired wiccan closer to him. She wrapped her arms around him, sharing his fear, his fury, and his determination to give Anni what-for when they got her home.

Across the room, Lilah Morgan rolled her eyes. “Well, isn’t that sweet,” she said, her voice dripping with poisoned honey. Neither of them looked at her.

“Hello,” she said cruelly. “Baby missing, bratty sister blowing the element of surprise, and watching the two of you cuddle- not helping.”

Willow tried to imagine the child that Wes and Lilah would have, but she couldn’t. She wouldn’t begrudge him past affairs, but she had trouble reconciling the man she shared her thoughts with and the desperate person who had slept with the enemy.

We’ll get him back, she thought simply, seeing the baby in her mind’s eye. We’ll get Anni back too, and when we do…

I’m going to kill her, they both thought at once.

“We’ll get your baby back,” Angel said from the doorway, watching Willow and Wes. Cordy came up behind him and slipped an arm around his waist.

None of them voiced the one thought they all shared. What then?

Faith and Buffy were in the basement, sparring. Both of them needed to vent some frustration.

“I’m going to kick Travers’ ass,” Buffy said, dodging a blow from Faith. Faith immediately followed with a round house kick.

“Can’t you share, Buff?” she asked, anger boiling up inside of her at anyone who would steal a child, hurt a child in any way. “I wouldn’t mind a little Travers Ass kicking session myself.”

Hopie watched from the top of the stairs, thoroughly engrossed. Kick Travers’ ass. It sounded like fun.

Dawn sat down next to the little girl and watched her sister and Faith spar. After a moment, Hopie grinned at Dawnie.

“Hiya, Dawnster,” she said, using her Uncle Xander’s nickname for Dawn.

Dawn shushed her, not wanting either of the slayers to realize they were there.

“Bella made you sleepy,” Hopie commented in a little kid whisper.

Dawn rolled her eyes and nodded. “Little brat,” she said, truly a bit miffed. “Last time I cover for her.”

Hopie grinned at Dawn. “I knew,” she confessed, looking like she was quite pleased with herself and her mischief, “but Mr. D said to let her go.”

Dawn ignored the little girl’s babbling.

Hopie tilted her head as if listening to something.

“You’re right,” she said out loud, looking at the two slayers and then at Dawn.

“Right about what?” Dawn questioned.

Instead of replying, Hopie bounced down the stairs, taking them two at a time. “From each a half,” she said in a sing songy voice. “To each a half.” Then she giggled when Buffy and Faith finally saw her and Dawn watching.

“Hiya Aunt Faith. Hiya Buffffffy.” Hopie loved saying the older girl’s name.

“Hiya Hopie,” Faith replied, wondering just how long the little girl had been watching.

“When are we gonna kick Travers’ ass?” Hopie asked, batting her eyelashes at the slayers and hopping from foot to foot.

Faith groaned and then picked up the little girl to whom she was Champion. She put her face close to Hopie’s. “Don’t say that word,” she said with a grin. Hopie smiled and shrugged.

“Okie dokie,” she replied giggling. “When is silly-billy Travers going to meet Crossbow and Bob and Claude and I only have two hands, so one of them is going to feel left out.”

Faith and Buffy couldn’t help but grin.

“So we’re going to England?” Dawn asked from the stairs, a little excited at the prospect.

Buffy shrugged.

“Yes,” Giles said from the doorway, “we are. In fact, I do believe it would be entirely appropriate to put the expense of chartering a plane on my Council expense account. Don’t you agree?”

So it was decided. They were going to England. All of them, in full force.

“Even Mr. D?” Hopie asked, widening her eyes at Giles. “Please, Mr. Giles?” Giles nodded.

“Your friend is welcome,” he said in an exaggerated silly voice.

Hopie rolled her eyes.

“Mr. T?” Xander questioned from the doorway. “Your imaginary friend is Mr. T? As in the bald guy?”

Hopie giggled. “No, silly,” she said, still in Faith’s arms. “Mr. D. Miss T is his friend.”

“A woman version of Mr. T?” Xander grimaced at the mental image.

Anya appeared at the top of the stairs. “Hopie, what happened to the rest of the lemonade?” she asked. “There are little boys outside and they keep looking at my breasts. I think we should make them give us money and give them lemonade, because they can’t have my breasts.” Everyone stared at Anya. “They belong to Xander,” she clarified.

Giles cleared his throat, and Faith had the uncontrollable urge to cover Hopie’s ears.

“My friends drank it,” Hopie said, talking about the lemonade.

“Well, where is the money?” Anya asked.

Hopie thought for a minute. “Imaginary money,” she said finally.

“Imaginary friends,” Faith clarified for the confused Anya.

Anya sighed, highly aggrieved. “But imaginary money cannot be exchanged for material goods or put in a healthy investment CD to mature over the next ten to fifteen years at a fixed interest rate far higher than it would in a savings account!” The vengeance demon was clearly distressed.

“Don’t worry, Aunt Anya,” Hopie replied. “We can have a Blood Stand and sell blood to Daddy and Mr. Spike. They’ll buy anything.”

Faith snorted. Angel and Spike were such pushovers.

“Very well then,” Giles said, polishing his glasses on his shirt. “You go sell your blood, and we’ll all be ready to leave within half an hour.”

“From each a half, to each a…” Hopie sang as she climbed down from Faith’s arms. Then she stopped. “Hey Dawnie, on the plane you and me and Daddy and Connor and Mr. Spike can all play tea party and Connor’s an awfully pretty princess but I bet Mr. Spike would be oh so pretty too.”

Dawn stifled a giggle. With that image in her mind, she went to find her boyfriend. So Connor was an awfully pretty princess, was he?

Anni told her legs to stop wobbling, but they wouldn’t listen to her. She was quickly regaining her strength, but magic drained her far more than physical exertion ever could. She was still weak, but given an hour, she’d be back to normal.

“So,” Travers drawled, pretending civility, “ you’re back. Our little runaway, back in the fold.”

Anni stood demurely in front of him, her hands folded in front of her body. She looked the very epitome of manners. Inside, she was cursing this man like a sailor. She took a calm breath. All she had to do was wait out the storm. Then she could find the baby. Save him. Then she could prove to Wes, to all of them, that she was worth something, that she could suit.

I’m not like Lilah, she thought passionately.

Travers sensed her mind wandering, and he caught her hand roughly in his. He saw the fear jump instinctively into her eyes. He didn’t see the anger it masked. He squeezed her hand, so tightly that he was sure it would bruise. Anni, weakened or not, was severely tempted to throw him through the wall. She was perfectly capable of it, but she simply counted through the pain of her throbbing wrist, concentrating on the thought that the longer she kept her powers a secret, the more capable she would be of getting the baby back where he belonged. The less Travers knew about the whole non-slayer bit, the better.

“We don’t take kindly to trouble here, Annabella,” Travers said dangerously.

“Anni,” Anni corrected automatically.

Travers’ face darkened, and he threw her to the ground. Anni forced herself to cower, planning the many ways she was going to hurt him all the while.

Travers made his voice turn suddenly pleasant. “I’ll show you to your room,” he said. “You’ll be wanting to meet the others.”

By the time Travers got to the boarding room, the Potentials had long stopped their secret conversation. Super hearing did, after all, have its advantages.

Feeling quite satisfied, Travers sent Anni a look that sent shivers down her spine. “Get yourself settled. We’ll acclimate you to your training shortly.” He left, his mood vastly improved.

Nicolaa looked at the new girl with concern showing on her normally blank face. Travers had taken a dislike to this girl, who couldn’t be much older than Chance. That was never a good thing.

Anni looked at each of the girls, recognizing them from her slayer, or rather her non-slayer, dream. “I’m Anni,” she said. “Annabella if Travers is around.” The last thing Anni wanted to do was get the others into trouble. They didn’t have her powers, and in many ways, they were defenseless. She wouldn’t let them be hurt on her account.

Maddy looked at the new girl and grinned. She didn’t seem afraid of Travers. “I’m Maddy,” she announced happily, “and Travers is a bloody bastard.”

“Maddy!” Nicolaa and Joss said at once.

Kendall gave Maddy a warning look and then grinned. “I’m Kendall, and the brat’s right,” she said finally. “Travers is a bloody bastard.”

“Lady Madeline is the only one of us who could say it though,” Joss warned.

Maddy flipped her hair and grinned unabashedly. “That’s Joss,” Maddy said, sticking her tongue out at the older girl. “I flounce Joss regularly. And Nicolaa is the serious one. Colette’s behind you, trying to melt into the wall, and Chance is… what are you doing Chance?”

Chance was staring at Anni, her little pixie mouth opened wide and her eyes widened. “You’re the girl from my dream!” she said out loud. “You were all floaty.”

“Yeah,” Anni replied a bit reluctantly. “That happens sometimes.”

“Are you a slayer?” Colette asked timidly.

“No,” Joss replied sharply, rolling her eyes. “Buffy and Faith are the slayers.”

“I’m a non-slayer,” Anni replied, “and I need your help.”

Sitting in the chartered airplane before it took off, Hopie grinned. She’d never been in a plane before, and Mr. Giles said it would take fourteen hours to get to En-gland. That was a whole lot of time to play princess and tea party.

She dug into the bag of toys that Cordelia had packed to keep her entertained. She handed a hot pink tiara to Spike.

“Here, Mr. Spike,” she said happily. “You can be the princess first.” And with that, they were off.

Continue