The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

Oz did indeed fix up everyone, adding the money Xander’d had him invest to the money Dawn had collected, giving everyone a tidy little nest egg. Oz created codes, computer viruses, and tracking software for the government and occasionally went out into the field to fish Riley’s team out of trouble. Mostly, though, he stuck close to San Francisco, playing with the newly reformed Dingoes at P³ and keeping an eye on Dawn and the others.



Dawn grew into the same smart mouthed, stubborn teenager she’d been before she regressed. She never forgot her other family as all the others but Xander seemed to but she grew to love her new family just as much. Except for Connor. Him she loved in new and interesting ways.



Connor learned not to scowl at every person he met and to laugh and love freely. Jenny taught him to be a good man, kind to women, and he loved her like she was his mother. His father would occasionally drift in from the demon ridden L.A. to make sure he was finally getting his better life. And from the first day he met her, he loved Dawn. She’d talk about the Key pushing him towards it and he’d remind her of the family motto: everything happened for a reason.



Jenny raised Connor, Tara, and Cordelia as her own, happy with her life even if she was never lucky in love, much to Coop’s despair. She taught technopaganism to the next generation at Magic School, gently guiding them into the wonders of technology.



Cordelia took Magic School by storm, towing her shy twin sister Tara along into the spotlight and, often enough, into trouble. Coming back was indeed worth it. After she graduated, this time without the exploding school, she ran a successful detective’s agency, privately working on supernatural cases as they crossed her path. She also eventually convinced Chris that just because he was twelve years older than her didn’t mean they couldn’t live happily together. If by convinced one meant beat him over the head with it every time she was able until he finally asked her out to shut her up.



Chris fell head over heels for a mouthy brat that never let him forget that she was right. He worked at her detective agency, conveniently showed up every time his sisters had a date, and got used to everyone calling him O.C. (Original Chris). In other words, he lived the life he’d always been meant to have.



Tara followed quietly along behind her sister, never caring where the spotlight was as long as she had someone to share her thoughts and feelings with. She ran the most successful herbalist shop in San Francisco and privately sold carefully crafted potions and amulets to a select clientele. Her love life was uneventful, which gave her Uncle Coop fits, but she was happy to take this cycle off, fully believing she’d be reunited with her Willow the next time around. At least until a young, pretty, familiar red-head walked into her shop babbling excitedly to her blonde, equally familiar sister. No, twelve years difference didn’t mean they couldn’t live happily ever after.



Xander grew up happy and healthy and loved. He mostly took after his mother, in powers and in temperament, although he’d gotten the Whitelighter bit along with Wyatt and Faith. Cordelia insisted on dressing him, though. She swore she saw Hawaiian shirts in her nightmares. Giles’s shade still laughed about that, even as Joyce told him to behave. Xander was loved by the living and the dead and he was careful to look up Buffy and Willow when he was old enough since they were reincarnated as Elizabeth and Summer Lawson, twin daughters to Dex Lawson even though he never told anybody or introduced himself to them. They would find their way to him, he fully believed that. Xander did introduce himself to Anya Dean, daughter to Jason Dean, and fell madly in love with her kookiness all over again, despite her father’s innate fear of the magic that came along with Xander being a Halliwell.



Faith was the wild triplet to Wyatt’s calm and steady and Xander’s loving and happy. She gave her mother many a grey hair as she grew up but she never grew quite as cynical as she’d been before. She was fifteen the first time her parents let Spike take her to L.A. to slay demons. She found the fierce joy that the power of that brought her but her brothers’ steadiness and love kept her on an even keel. Premonitions were a bitch, though, she didn’t care if Aunt Phoebe said she’d get used to it or not. She died when she turned 17, drowned. Xander resuscitated her and the Slayer line was split for the second time in history. She had a tumultuous relationship with David, Wyatt’s best friend and a half manticore, which gave her father fits.



Wyatt was goodness incarnate. Nothing and no one mattered to him as much as his family, though, except maybe David. He’d been a prophesied baby and grew to be a powerful man. He worked to keep peace, living off the trust fund his Uncle Oz had set up for him as a baby. And when Tara brought home Summer Lawson, Wyatt fell in deep and abiding love with Elizabeth Lawson who he later found out was a Slayer like his sister Faith. He married her despite her father’s protests that she couldn’t possibly know everything about him. Dex Lawson was aghast to be a member of the extended Halliwell clan.



B.C. Halliwell grew up knowing that O.C. was him from the future. Only family knew that the initials stood for Baby Chris. B.C. grew up happy, therefore he wasn’t half as neurotic and paranoid as O.C. Of course, O.C. got Cordelia. B.C. felt bad about being jealous until O.C. introduced him to a girl named Bianca and wished him luck. Then he was too busy being stupid in love to be jealous of his brother/self.



Melinda was the youngest daughter of six children and she was considerably less powerful than her other brothers and sister since her father hadn’t been a Whitelighter when she was conceived. Add in a painfully shy demeanor and it all added up to four psychotically overprotective older brothers. Faith always expected her to kick butt, regardless of how powerful she was and Mel seriously appreciated that vote of confidence when she fell in love. Mel fell in love with D.J. Morris the first time she saw him, when she was six and he was ten, the first time his father brought he and his brother by to meet the family. She fought for the right to date him and, with her mother and sister’s support, she won.



Paige happily took charge of being her growing family’s Whitelighter, guiding them in the arts of the craft even as she protected her other charges. Patricia and Helen Mitchell were born six months after their cousin Melinda, seven months after Penelope Cooper-Halliwell. Henry Junior joined them eleven months later. She painted in her spare time, careful not to devote every aspect of her life to the craft and her children. She quite honestly couldn’t think of a time when she was happier.



Phoebe had her three little girls, Penelope, Phiona, and Pallas, gained her doctorate in Psychology, and wrote two best selling book series, one series to help people find love and the other a children’s series set in a fairy land that would help children understand the many wonders of love. She lived in bliss with her agent of love, forever thankful that the Elders had sent him to her.



Prue and Andy never had any other biological children besides Dawn, although when it was called for, they would foster ‘special’ children. They fiercely loved one another and spread that love to every child that walked through their doors. Prue started a gallery that showcased her photos, Paige’s occasional painting, and several other local artists. Andy was a house dad until Cordelia started her detective agency, then he went to work with her. Honestly, the private detective business was easier, even if he got shot at.



Coop learned through his new mortal family about the pitfalls of love while Henry learned that everything happened for a reason. Both of them learned to grin and bear it whenever Grams was around the house. The assorted Cooper-Halliwell and Mitchell cousins always knew there was something weirder than usual about the Halliwell kids. They loved them, they were family, but they could never accuse them of being any kind of normal.



Spike popped in and out over the years, the disinvite spell never actually happening. He taught the kids to fight dirty, to survive, and to swear like little sailors. He adored the Halliwell Sisters and lived for Piper’s hot chocolate. It was almost as good as Joyce’s had been.



Piper opened her restaurant and ran herd on her kids, including O.C. And she grew old with her soulmate, comforted by the idea that she would help herself save the peaceful future one day. And she would win at Scrabble this time. Leo ran Magic School and watched his children grow and give him grandchildren, happy that things had turned out as they were supposed to.



Victor remained skeptical of magic until the day he died at a very respectable 93. That didn’t, however, stop him from loving every grandchild he was given, including Cordelia, Tara, and Connor.



Their lives, quite simply, were Charmed.





Author's Note: I know it's basically a lot of information just thrown at the reader but I like how it ended. This was one of those open ended concepts that don't really end, that keep spawning sequels, unless I end them pretty thoroughly. Plus, it echoes the feel of the last episode of Charmed.

Xander passed soundly out, almost causing Piper to drop him.



“Too much magic,” Cordy said, taking him from her.



The stones began to glow red and beep frantically, waking every child but Xander. Baby Chris wailed and Dawn scrubbed her eyes with one little fist as the other clenched in Prue’s shirt.



Cordy hurriedly placed Xander on the couch by the play pen. All of the other kids, including a protesting Dawn were put beside him, Chris actually in the pen, and Wyatt’s shield was activated.



“I thought we warded the house,” Piper griped.



“We did but we only had enough stuff for a temporary one!” Cordy yelled as the house shook.



The door splintered and crazy people and large neon green demons came bursting in.



“Watchers!” Dawn screamed, terrified, pointing at the men that seemed rabid. “Those’re Watchers!”



Piper held up her hands and everyone but her family froze. She started flicking one hand, exploding the demons as she said, “I’m getting sick and tired of demons coming after my kids.”



A chant rose up from outside in a demon language.



Dawn groaned. “They’re Grassids. A demonic cult that ‘collect’ special children and, well, there are,” she counted, “eight of us plus you three are pregnant.”



Paige put a hand on her hip. “I am not.”



“Really?” Dawn asked, actually surprised. “Because you look really grey for an experienced demon fighter. A little smelly goop shouldn’t be making you grey.”



Paige swallowed convulsively, nose wrinkling. “I…don’t know what to say to that.”



Cordy rolled her eyes even as she flung up glowing hands, melting the two demons that’d been about to grab her when Piper froze them. “For the Powers’ sake. Remind me not to drink the water around here.”



“Right,” Tara nodded, calling down lightening and electrocuting a couple of demons in the yard. “What are we going to do about the Watchers?”



Dawn stepped out of Wyatt’s shield, drawing power into herself, causing her hair to turn green and black. She levitated as she said, voice deep, “I’ll fix them.”



Cordy and Tara both shouted, “No!” just as Dawn flung out her hands and a green and black tornado ripped through the room, sucking every Watcher into it. It traveled out into the yard and Watchers and demons alike were pulled into the vortex. It dissipated as quickly as it’d formed and Dawn hit the floor with a thud.



Tara sat heavily on the floor, blotting at her bloody nose as Cordy gently checked Dawn over.



Prue and Andy came to hover over her. “Is she okay?”



Cordy nodded. “Our magic’s not like yours. It takes its toll on our bodies, then the consequences start in on our lives. We all just need a little sleep.”



Henry pointed at Dawn, his arm around Paige. “What did she do to them?”



“D-dawn’s the Key,” Tara said quietly, standing with Jenny’s help. “She c-can open portals to other dimensions.”



Cordy nodded. “And with all the black in that portal, I don’t think she sent them to Neverland.”



“She’s never had great control over it,” Tara added.



“So even if she didn’t mean to send them somewhere bad, she probably did anyway,” Jenny concluded.



The stone in Cordy’s pocket beeped quietly and she pulled it out to see it was yellow just as someone knocked on the doorframe.



Phoebe spun to the door, now officially in a bad mood, and snapped, “Yes?”



A short man with dark blue hair bobbed his head in greeting. “Hey. Heard you need some help.”



“Oz!” Cordy squealed, flinging herself at him.



He raised an eyebrow at her enthusiasm but returned her hug. “Cordy. Looking good for a dead girl.”



She snorted as she pulled back from him. “Like you don’t know why you’re here.”



“The emissary might have said,” his lips twitched.



He picked up his duffel bag and let her lead him into the house, nodding as she introduced him to everyone and smiling at Tara and Jenny.



“Oz’s gonna set up our new lives,” Cordy chirped.



He nodded at Tara and added, “With a little magical aid.”



“But not tonight,” Piper said staunchly, hands on her hips. “It’s been a busy day and I’m tired. Cordy, Jenny, and I’ll go shopping for warding supplies and Oz and Tara can set up everyone’s identities tomorrow. Tonight, we’re all going to bed. After Leo hangs a new door.”

They’d just finish warding the house against any that would wish to do them harm when Faith startled awake in Piper’s arms, wiggled loose and took a defensive posture in front of her mother. Piper shifted Xander, who’d been passed to her, so that she had a free hand.



Xander’s head raised, his eyes milky. “Dawn, it’s okay. The L.A.ers just need a favor.”



The stone in Dawn’s hands glowed yellow for ‘neutral, proceed with caution’. “Buffy?”



All of them heard Henry murmur to Paige, “Is that normal?” Paige shushed him.



Piper stiffened when Xander’s head bobbed. “It’s just a fav…” Xander yawned and blinked up at Piper with one brown eye and one hazel eye, more green than brown. Then he gave her a crooked grin. “Hi, mama.”



Piper’s heart rolled over and she kissed his forehead. “Hi, my boy.” Piper tugged a tense Faith back against her legs and nodded at the door. “Is anybody gonna get that?”



Phoebe shifted Dawn back from the door as Paige yanked it open, hand on her hips. “Can we help you?”



“Spike!” Xander yelped, tossing up his hands and everybody in the doorway but Paige froze.



As Henry muttered, “That’s definitely not normal,” Xander looked up at Piper, eyes wide and lip quivering. “I’m sorry, mama. I didn’t mean to.”



Phoebe fought the urge to coo, “How cute, he has a lisp,” as Piper gently rocked Xander, trying to get him calm enough to dispel the magic in the doorway.



Faith stomped over to Leo and expectantly held up her hands to be picked up. Wyatt orbed over beside her as Leo was stooped over so he scooped them both up. They turned and looked at Xander, arms stretched out towards him. Leo shook his head but stepped close enough that they could both wrap an arm around their distraught brother.



“Crap,” Cordy murmured. She cleared her throat when everyone looked at her. “I think they’re imprinting on you but they still have memories of their old lives.”



“Oh, crap,” Dawn said, looking at Xander and Faith with worry. “Nobody really knows what Faith went through before she showed up in Sunnydale at fifteen but it wasn’t good. And Xander’s parents were alcoholics with his father being a mean drunk and his mother being a sad, pathetic one.”



Tara wiggled her way into the press of bodies, laid her head on Piper’s shoulder, and petted Xander’s cheek as she said softly, “’Member me?” He nodded, his breathing panicked. “Just breathe, okay? We’re here and nothing’s gonna hurt you.”



Xander kept his eyes locked on hers and his breathing calmed, the magic in the doorway releasing.



“Bloody hell, ‘Bit. What happened to you?” Spike goggled at her new, petite form. He shifted the bundle in his arms onto his hip, one arm reaching down to catch her as she flung herself at him.



She giggled as he swung her up. “The Powers helped me out.” The bundle in Spike’s arm shifted, then a long-haired, blue-eyed boy’s head popped out of the blankets to peer around suspiciously. “Whoa, a boy.”



Cordy reached over and squeezed Jenny’s hand. “Please?”



Jenny sighed. “Fine. We’ll take him.”



Spike huffed. “I hadn’t even asked.”



Jenny frowned at him. “Why else would you show up?”



Spike grumbled but shrugged.



Prue frowned at him, suspicious. “How did you find us, anyway?”



Spike nodded to Dawn. “Followed my ‘Bit,” he said gruffly.



Dawn fished a compass out of the inside of his coat and turned it so they could see that the needle was pointing towards her instead of North. “I made it so he could always find me.”



As Cordelia reached out to take Connor, Tara told Piper, “You have to invite him in.”



“Why?” she demanded.



“Because he’s a vampire,” Dawn chirped, laying her head on his duster clad shoulder.



Andy made a distressed sound and Prue’s face went very charging-mother-bear.



“It’s okay,” Tara hastened to add. “He has a s-soul.” All the people staring at her shook her new found courage. “A-and even when he didn’t, he n-never hurt D-dawnie.”



“Easy, Glinda,” Spike said soothingly, only a little broken at his first glance of her. She stepped away from Piper, side stepping the hands that would have pulled her back and cuddled into the side Connor had just vacated. He kissed her golden hair and mumbled, “I’m sorry I wasn’t there.”



She nodded, face pressed into his chest.



“Oh, come in,” Piper sighed. At everyone’s startled look, she snapped, “Obviously they trust him and the neighbors are going to start to wonder what’s going on if he stays on the doorstep.” She pointed at him. “One wrong move, though, and,” she wiggled her fingers and the plant beside him exploded, “say goodbye to something you’ll miss.”



Spike cleared his throat as he nodded at her, closing the door behind him. “A clear and proper warning is always appreciated.”



Faith and Xander both wiggled to be set down and when they were, took each other’s hand and walked towards Spike.



“Well, fuck me,” Spike breathed.



“Spike!” Tara, Cordy and Dawn exclaimed.



Dawn shook her finger in his face. “Language, Spike. They’re only four.”



Spike nodded, passing her off to Tara and moving to squat in front of them, running a hand over each of their heads. “Did they get bit by a Tarson demon, too?”



“That’s what happened to Connor?” Cordelia frowned, rocking the boy.



He nodded. “We managed to slip him the antidote but you know the regression can’t be reversed any way but to let him age normally.”



Dawn set a hand on Spike’s shoulder, little face grim. “It wasn’t a Tarson. It was the old school Watchers and the Immortal.” Her eyes welled. “The others didn’t make it.”



Spike gathered the three of them to him, face flickering. Henry whipped out his gun, freaked out. Spike growled at him.



Cordelia stepped between the, hands on hips. “First, guns don’t work on vampires. Second, Spike’s just upset. They were his friends and now they’re dead. Vamps are really protective of their friends.”



Henry wavered then put his gun away. “Can you tell him to put the face away? It’s a lot easier not to want to shoot him if I can’t see the face.”



Cordelia turned to Spike, eyebrows raised. “Put the game face away.”



Spike nodded, breathing in then out, the demonic visage fading.



Piper waddled up to the, Chris aborting a move to stop her when she shot him The Look. She set a hand on Faith and Xander’s heads and they turned away from Spike into her body.



“My name’s Piper Halliwell and, well, they’re mine, now,” she said, holding out a hand to him.



Spike stood, lifting a still sobbing Dawn and shook her hand gently. “Call me Spike and they were mine first.”



Prue stepped forward and ran a hand over Dawn’s hair. “I’m Prudence Halliwell and that Whistle guy made Dawn mine.”



Spike eyed her dubiously. “Joyce was the ‘Bit’s mother. A better bird’s never walked this Earth.”



Prue nodded slowly. “She said I had my work cut out for me.”



Spike shifted Dawn’s slack body into Prue’s waiting arms. “Just so you know.” He frowned at everyone. “I’ll be back in a month to check up on them.”



He stomped out the door, pulling it gently closed behind him.



“I-I can do a disinvite spell, if you want me to,” Tara said, twisting her hands in front of her.



“Please,” Piper said, somewhat relieved.



“Who’s Connor?” Jenny said, letting the boy squirm down out of her arms so he could go wrap a hand around Dawn’s ankle and scowl at everyone.



Cordy coughed. “Er, Angel’s son.”



Jenny frowned, arms crossed over her chest. “Angel’s still a vampire, right?”



Cordy nodded. “Connor’s the Miracle Child.”



Jenny cleared her throat then nodded.



“That’s not going to bother you, is it?” Cordy asked, her natural confidence wavering.



Jenny’s mouth flapped for a second before she shrugged.



Tara muttered something as she touched Connor’s head, making him scowl as fiercely as an eight year old could. “He can’t hear us now.”



“Why would it bother her?” Prue demanded, shifting one hand to pull Connor to lean against her.



Jenny sighed. “My gypsy clan cursed his father with a soul. Six or seven years ago, he lost it and reverted back to Angelous. He snapped my neck.”



“Oh,” Prue murmured, hand brushing over Connor’s hair.



“Now, I’m going to be raising his son. It’s just…bizarre,” Jenny floundered. She steadied herself and reached for him. “But if Cordy thinks he’ll be a good man, I’ll be fine.”



The magic around Connor flared, then faded as he stepped into her arms.



Xander lifted his head from Piper’s shoulder and said urgently, eyes milk white, “Trouble’s coming.”

When Dawn opened her eyes, she glanced down and placed a hand on her flat chest. “Jeez. Puberty again?”



Piper swayed gently from side to side, rocking the sleeping four year olds as she watched Dawn walk up to a mirror. “So how old do you think you are?”



Dawn stood on her tiptoes to study her face. “Eight,” she said. “We’d have to break out a measuring tape to be sure but I think I’m eight.”



“You remember how tall you were when you were eight?” Paige asked bemusedly.



Dawn shrugged. “I wanted to be taller than Buffy. So, every year on my birthday, mom would measure me. I don’t know why I remember, I just do.”



Dawn rushed to hide behind Paige as several people hurried down the stairs. Then she squealed and ran at a blonde teenage girl.



“Tara! Cordy!” She squealed, startling Xander and Faith into waking.



Xander started to cry, stressed from a week on the run. Faith laid her head on Piper’s shoulder, warily watching the new comers.



“This had better be worth it, Squirt,” Cordy said, tugging Dawn’s hair as she passed. She held out her hands to Xander. “Chill out, Dweeb, it’s just us.” Xander went willingly into her arms, laid his head on her shoulder and sank back into sleep. “Really, though. If I have to relive my glory days, minus the glory, then this time had better work out better.”



Dawn giggled, hugging Tara. “You still look all gloryful to me.”



“Squirt, it took me years to work to the top of Sunnydale’s social structure. I think I’m twelve. No way am I going to be able to rule like I did before,” Cordy said.



“You’ll have at least one friend,” Tara said shyly and Cordy beamed.



Faith reached out a hand cautiously and twirled a lock of Cordy’s hair around her finger. “I know you.”



Cordy carefully uncurled her hair from Faith’s finger but kept the girl’s hand in her own. “Sure thing, jelly bean. Why don’t you come to me so your mom can go see her sister?”



Faith went to Cordy and Piper went to join the clump of her sisters.



Dawn squirmed down out of Tara’s arms and walked up to the tall, dark-haired, blue-eyed man and poked his stomach. “I think you’re supposed to be my daddy.”



He crouched. “I’m Andy. And I think you’re right. But you don’t have to call me daddy if you don’t want to.”



Dawn rolled her big blue eyes. “You can’t be worse than my last one.” Then she hugged him.



Prue separated herself from her sisters and said, crouching next to them, “I’m Prue.”



“You have massive shoes to fill,” Dawn said seriously before hugging her around the neck.



Chris hugged his mother and aunts gently before walking over to Cordy. He crouched a little so he could look Faith in the eye. “I’m Chris, you’re big brother.”



She nodded into Cordy’s neck, one hand clenching in the back of Cordy’s shirt.



“Back up,” Cordy demanded, gently rocking the kids. “She’s tired, stressed and afraid. So you just back up.”



Chris took a few steps back, startled and the only unidentified person in the room, a dark-haired woman patted his shoulder. “You’ll get used to us,” she said. “I’m Jenny Calendar. We should probably ward the house, then come back and talk about our situation.”



Cordy swung wide around Chris and handed Faith to Piper and Xander to Paige. “You should call your husbands and your father back so we can do this all at once,” she said before turning to Dawn. “Where’s your stuff?”



Dawn wriggled free of her ‘parents’ and ran to get her bag. “Here it is!” She pulled out three changes of adult clothes, sighing because an eight year old couldn’t wear an eighteen year old’s clothes. Then she pulled a ton of stuff out. Enough stuff that even if it could’ve fit (which it couldn’t have), no one would have been able to pick it up.



Tara answered the unasked question, sighing, “She magicked the bag?”



“Actually, Andrew did most of it. He was bored so she gave him a project. She just came along behind him and reinforced them,” Dawn said, lining up her spell components. “Not to mention checking to make sure he wasn’t accidentally going to end up killing someone.”



Paige, watching her, said, “You don’t act like any eight year old I’ve ever met.”



Dawn shrugged. “I don’t feel like an eight year old. I feel like the me I was before.” She nodded at Prue and Andy. “Except for a few things. I think my Key-ness is creating new protectors for me which is wiggy because, I mean, the Key’s immortal. What happens when I die? Or can I die? Anyway, very odd.”



Piper got off the phone with Leo and said, “Coop’s bringing them. Henry’s not too happy about it, though.”



A familiar flash and Leo, Coop, Henry, Wyatt, baby Chris, and Victor stood in the entryway.



“Awesome,” Cordy said as she gathered various bits and bobs out of the pile Dawn had lined up. “Now we can do the wardings all at once.”



Author's Note: This story is a WIP. My main focus is on A Watcher's Charming Encounter at this time but I have plans for this one.

Piper wasn’t sure what was going on but she knew one thing: it was not good. Paige had orbed in with a teenage girl and two small children, the girl staggering slightly.



“What is going on?” Piper demanded. Just once, she’d like a pregnancy that wasn’t rife with drama.



Paige shrugged. “I have no idea. I got the call and we needed to go, so I brought them here.”



“I’m Dawn,” the striking teen said. “Willow might have told you about me.”



The three Halliwell sisters smiled, worry easing.



“How is she?” Piper asked.



Dawn’s breath caught. “Dead. They’re all dead. Except for me, Xander, and Faith.” She breathed harshly for a second. “And Xander and Faith have been regressed.” She nodded to the two tiny brunettes in her arms.



The sisters gasped.



“Oh, not this again,” Piper said, watching a familiar ball of golden lights whoosh into being. “You promised.”



“I’m not here for Leo,” the kindly Angel of Destiny said. “But the tides are changing. These three children are at the center. I thought to warn you, as a reward for fulfilling your Charmed destiny.”



“Last time you promised to make us normal and now you’re just giving us a warning? You guys suck at the rewards system,” Phoebe said irritably. She was trying to grow a human life, she didn’t need any more trouble.



The Angel smiled brightly. “Your true reward is the return of two very special people. As your Charmed duties are no longer pressing, Prudence Halliwell will be sent back. A fourth sister now won’t change your balance. And Andrew Trudeau, as her soulmate, must be sent back as well.”



Phoebe clutched her arms around her swollen belly and Piper teared up.



“What about them?” Paige asked hoarsely, nodding to the three new kids.



Dawn snorted. “What’s Destiny ever done for us?” She teared up. “Caused death and heartache, that’s what.”



“Your destiny, Dawn Summers, is just beginning. It will be long and fraught with peril, I’m afraid to say, but I believe you will find happiness,” the Angel said earnestly.



“In the end, right?” Dawn said bitterly. “Not at the beginning or in the middle where I could enjoy it but in the end.”



“Hasn’t anyone ever told you? Don’t be snippy with Destiny, kid. It just makes your life more difficult,” a ferret faced man said leaning against the doorway, startling everyone. He tipped his hat. “You mighta heard of me. Name’s Whistler.”



Dawn nodded. “You’re the prat whose ribcage Buffy wanted to rip out.”



Whistler nodded. “That’s the one. Now. Let’s talk about what the Powers are willing to do for the Key.”



“No,” Dawn said automatically. “Whatever you’re gonna say, just no.”



Whistler smiled cagily. “Trust me, kid, you want to hear me out.”



Dawn slumped. “I hate you, ya know.”



Destiny stepped in. “I promise you, Dawn Summers, the changes made today are for the best.”



“Let’s hear’em, then,” she said wearily, sitting and scooping Xander and Faith up onto her lap.



“The kids are gonna need a full coven to protect them,” Whistler said, rocking back on his heels. “The return of Prudence Halliwell, Tara Maclay, Janna Calderash, Christopher Perry, and Cordelia Chase will take care of that. You’ll have to set them up with identities and stuff but we’ll give you a line on the wolf. He should be able to help. Penelope and Patricia Halliwell will also be given a free pass to drop in whenever they want to.”



“How’re we supposed to pay for that?” Piper demanded, hands on her hips.



“Not a problem,” Dawn said, upending one of the two bags at her feet. “There’s a little over a million dollars here. I’ve spent almost a week collecting it from our hidden stashes. I won’t need it where I’m going.”



“Going?” Phoebe said, ignoring the money in favor of the girl. “Where are you going? You can’t go.”



“I have to,” Dawn said, scrubbing the tears off her face like a three year old. “They can track me because I’m familiar to them. Xander and Faith were fundamentally changed but I’m still me. I have to go to keep them safe.”



“We can change you,” Paige said worriedly. “We can strip your powers.”



“Take away my magic and you take away my being. I’m a magical construct, built to contain something powerful,” Dawn frowned. “At least in theory.”



“Second change is totally optional,” Whistler butted in. “The Powers can de-age you and place you in the care of Prue Halliwell. Or you can run.”



“But,” Dawn pointed at the Angel of Destiny.



“The way’s gonna be long and hard, either way. This way, you get family to help,” Whistler shrugged. “The Key will search out someone to protect it, regardless. That’s its nature.”



Dawn looked to Paige, having no idea what to do.



“Stay,” Paige said, taking her hand. “It’s what Willow would want. Stay with them. Stay with us.”



Dawn nodded slowly. “Okay.”



Whistler pointed at Faith. “She’s gonna be the only Slayer by nightfall. The Empowerment works only as long as a Guardian or a Goddess is around to enforce it. She’s the only Powers’ chosen on the planet. That’s gonna tick a few people off. Slayers and Watchers. Just so you know.”



The blood rushed from Dawn’s face and she squeezed Xander and Faith tight. “Oh, goddess.”



“Luckily, besides L.A., demons have been pretty well neutralized on the topside by the overabundance of Slayers. The Underworld is building itself back up but that’ll take years,” Whistler said. “Unfortunately, the boy’s a magnet for magical beings.” He looked at Piper. “You know that elf nanny you tried to hire? She’ll jump at the chance to protect the kid.”



“Why are you telling me?” Piper asked, bewildered.



Whistler rolled his eyes and pried Faith and Xander from Dawn’s clutches. He thrust them at Piper. “Congrats, Mommy, it’s a boy and a girl. You’re the most powerful. They’re gonna need that.”



“But,” Piper floundered, trying to get a grip on the two wiggly kids.



“We can give them genetic links to you, if you want,” Whistler offered.



“Please,” Dawn said quietly. “Please take them. Protect them.”



“Fine,” Piper said after a second, finally getting them situated around her belly. “Fine, I’ll take them.”



Whistler stepped back, smirking and said, “That’s all she wrote,” and clapped his hands.

Chapter One

Disclaimer: I don't own Charmed or Buffy the Vampire Slayer.



Author's Note: Set after the series end for Charmed and for Buffy. It is not comic book compliant for Buffy.



Chapter One



Dawn was running as fast as a woman with two four year olds clutched to her could run. It was all the freaking Immortal’s fault. They’d all told Buffy that he was bad news but he had promised her normal and Buffy’d fallen for it. Dawn would have snorted if she had had the breath. What would an Immortal know about giving a Slayer normal?



The dinner party’d all been a ploy to get the Scoobies in one place, something rare since Sunnydale had fallen. Ones and twos they managed. The whole group was almost never together. The surviving Old School Watchers had been afraid that the Scoobies would stage a coup (which, okay, they had) and had talked the Immortal into wooing the longest lived Slayer so that they might betray her. If it hadn’t been aimed at her friends and family, Dawn might have marveled at the ingeniousness of it. Using Buffy’s human weakness to bring her down and everyone that stood with her.



The Watchers’ plans would’ve worked perfectly if the rest of the Scoobies had trusted the Immortal as much as Buffy. Instead, they’d come to dinner loaded for bear. Or, really, the most magical, deadly creature anyone had been able to imagine. That maybe had a small army of big, nasty minions.



Willow’d sent Dawn and Xander in with enough protective amulets to ward off the Angel of Death. Faith had gone in knowing that she was their physical protection. That’s why they’d survived. The Watchers couldn’t kill them, no matter what they did but they could incapacitate them. Faith and Xander had been hit with some spell, Xander stepping in front of Faith to take the brunt of it.



The screaming when everyone had seen the two little bodies had been some of the most terrifying of Dawn’s life. Willow had yelled for Dawn to take them and run and then Darth Rosenberg was in the house. Dawn had grabbed the two little kids and the bag she’d packed earlier that day. She got clear of the building in time for it to explode, taking two thirds of the surviving Watchers, around 100 Slayers, and the rest of the Scoobies with it, and hopefully giving the Immortal’s immortality a run for its money. Asshat.



That’d been nearly a week ago and Dawn had managed to travel half-way around the globe, care for two four-year-olds, and elude whoever was hunting them. She needed to hide Xander and Faith. She couldn’t keep running with them being the age they were. Goddess, she had to protect them, now. She was the oldest. She wanted to cry.



The list of who she could leave them with was so small. Oz was out because she had no idea where he was at. Every locator spell she’d tried had only told her he was still on the mortal plane. Cordelia and Wesley were dead and Angel and Spike were having to fight nearly ‘round the clock to clean up L.A. after Wolfram and Hart’s little blow out, spending most of the daylight hours tromping through sewers.



She couldn’t leave them with Riley. She loved him like a brother but she couldn’t trust him, not with this. Not with Xander and Faith’s lives. For all that Riley’d fought demons, been in the know for years, he still thought like a mortal, like a norm.



And Xander and Faith weren’t normal, not anymore, thanks to the Immortal and the Watchers. Faith was a miniature Slayer. By far the youngest Slayer on record, she had very little control. And whatever the spell that’d hit them had been, it had unlocked some hidden talents of Xander’s, talents Dawn was really wishing had stayed hidden. Listening to Xander baby-babble to her sister’s ghost was freaking her out. And, seriously, the juiced up demon magnetism thing was getting old. Every time she stopped to breathe, a demon popped out of the wood work.



Dawn dodged into a busy building and slowed to a walk, trying to catch her breath.



“Dawn,” a tiny voice caught her attention. She looked down at Xander’s face and cringed at his milky eyes. “Dawn, it’s me, Willow. Take them to the Sisters, Dawn. The Sisters. They’ll protect them. They owe…” Xander trailed off and blinked, white fading to the familiar chocolate brown. “Sleepy,” he yawned.



She kissed his forehead. “Go to sleep, Xan. I know what to do.”



Dawn managed to convince the building manager to let her out the back way and caught a cab, saying, “Take me to the nearest hotel.”



And Dawn thanked the goddess for Xander’s paranoia and the emergency packets of cash that had been spread out over the globe now resting at her feet in its own magicked knapsack. The hotel was a roach motel and she refused to even set Faith and Xander on the floor. She set them carefully on the spindly table that’s only saving grace was that it was moderately clean, warning them to stay still and quiet. She was sure, since they’d been so well behaved thus far, that they were still mostly themselves, just trapped in smaller bodies. Then she plonked herself on the floor and started to meditate. She prayed to every goddess she could think of to let this work and she sent out a call.



She leapt up when she felt another presence and, upon seeing a slim dark haired, dark eyed woman, teared up and hugged her.



“It worked,” she whispered tearfully, the week of stress finally crashing down on her. She jumped when the door rattled in its frame. She swept her bags and the two startled kids up and said urgently, “We have to go.”



The woman grabbed her arm and they disappeared in twinkling blue lights just as the door burst open and something roared.