Home
Saturday night in the basement of the Tanner household and Faith was beyond stoked to be there. Jacks had a great-great whatever grandkid in a freaking comic book reality. Who cared if the company ret-conned him out of the official timeline? And bonus, Faith could sit in while Jacks checked up on her super powered grandkid. The Dark Slayer's deeply buried inner geek was about to cream herself.
Jacks chanted softly as she slid Kaina'tal's dagger form across her palm. The blood welled up, then leaked through the half-fey's fingers to splatter on a mirror laid flat on the floor.
Dawn was watching with rabid attention for detail, knowing that she could do the spell to scry for her sisters or mother in an emergency. It was so far beyond cool that she could find her sister if Beth or Buffy went into another dimension again.
"Virgil Hawkins, called Static," Jacks pronounced with as much care as she had been chanting in Sumerian a moment before. "Blood of my blood be shown to me. As I will it, so mote it be!"
"Jacks! She's gonna kill me!" Andrew wailed as he was chased down the stairs and into the room by Miki in her jaguar form.
Jacks turned slightly just as the boy collided with her. Miki's claws scrambled for traction on the polished stone floor, as she tried to twist away she knocked Faith and Dawn over into Jacks and Andrew.
As the five of them stumbled onto the mirror, Kaina'tal's tip scratched along Dawn's arm just deeply enough for blood to well up and drip down.
Jacks could only echo her battle partner's silent cursing as a dark green flash coincided with Dawn's blood hitting the now broken glass.
And they fell onto a cool metal floor in an ungainly heap, surrounded by people in outlandish costumes.
Jacks made a point of kicking Andrew as she wiggled free of the pile up. "Mr. Wells, I am going to carve out your spleen and feed it to a K'lorth demon's spawn."
"I didn't mean to," Andrew whined. "If Miki wasn't chasing me..."
The massive black jaguar was abruptly replaced by a very naked teenage girl. "Told you to go away!"
Andrew yelped and clapped his hands over his eyes. A move echoed by most of the men in the room.
"Where are we?" Dawn groaned, raking cobalt tipped hair out of her face.
Faith grinned from where she remained sprawled on the floor. There were harder bodies here than even on Avalon... "From all the spandex and primary colors... I'd say the Justice League's HQ."
"Huh?" Miki responded.
"Like Avalon Base for us, only with a more impressive view," Jacks said, her own attention divided between the spectacular sight of the Earth spinning slowing below them through the massive windows, and a dark skinned teenaged boy in a deep black and midnight blue costume.
Dawn gawked then closed her mouth with a snap. "This is not what was supposed to happen."
"No, it wasn't," Jacks agreed. "Perhaps a spending few days as a turtle while we figure out what happened will remind Andrew to stop bothering me."
"This isn't my fault!" Andrew insisted, dropping his hands from his eyes.
Jacks whirled to face him, white curls falling into her eyes but doing nothing to hide the raging green glow within. "This wouldn't have happened if you had done as you have repeatedly been told and left me alone!"
There was a flash of the same neon green around the boy as the glow that lit her eyes, and when it faded a small turtle was sitting on a pile of clothes.
Static glanced over at Gear, then back at the new arrivals. One of whom was now a turtle. "Did our lives get this weird before or after we started working with the Justice League?"
"Bro, seriously? Our lives have been weird since the Big Bang," Gear chuckled. "Of course, these people did just drop out of a rip in the fabric of reality. That's new."
"And here I was thinking it was the guy getting turned into a turtle that was strange," Static said as he slanted a curious look at his best friend and partner.
"Nah, we see Beast Boy do that all the time."
"For Hera's Sake, girl! Where are your clothes?" Wonder Woman demanded, butting into the rapid fire argument being conducted in Spanish between the nude teenaged girl and the white haired woman.
Dark eyes raked over the Amazon Princess. The girl snorted. "In the front hall at Jacks' house. Where are yours?"
The dark haired girl in the leather pants and silk tank top threw back her head and laughed.
Static shrugged off his coat and offered it to the naked girl.
"It's kinda chilly up here," he muttered, trying very hard not to look anywhere but her eyes. The rich dark brown just barely touched with gold made it less difficult than it might have been.
She smiled slightly. "Thanks."
"Actually putting it on would be good, Miki," pointed out the girl with the cobalt blue bangs as she examined the long scrape on her forearm.
The girl called Miki rolled her eyes and pulled on the borrowed coat.
"Faith, stop leering at the nice superheroes," the white haired woman instructed as she pinched her nose against a pounding headache.
The laughing girl grinned a bit ferally as her eyes raked over all the bodies dressed in skin hugging fabric.
"Who are you?" Batman asked, his voice hovering somewhere between the gentle tone he'd use with a child and the harsh demand he'd give practically everyone else.
"Jacks Standish," the white haired woman said. She pressed the heels of her hands against her eyes as if trying to shove out the pain. "And tell whoever it is, to stay out of my head, they'll only get themselves hurt if they persist."
The laughing girl stopped laughing, and the other two girls went very still. A dangerous still, the kind that they could move out in any direction from.
"Might want to do what Tink says," Faith said as she rolled to her feet with a grace that wasn't as human as she looked. Eyes like fine smoked whiskey raked over the crowd again before settling on the Martian Manhunter. "Stop trying to get in her head. She's a magical being, and you crack something ... her man isn't here to keep her together."
The girl wearing Static's coat, Miki, nodded. "Jacks isn't stable. Don't push her."
The girl with the cobalt dyed bangs moved to support Jacks as her legs started to give out on her. "Looks like the spell shifting on us drained you pretty bad, Jacks."
"I do believe I'm going to be sick," Jacks whispered.
The girl suddenly found herself supporting all of Jacks' weight after what little had been in the woman's stomach introduced itself to the floor. Fortunately, Jacks weighed less than she looked so it wasn't much effort to keep her off the floor. "Crap on a biscuit," she muttered. "Faith, Miki, a little help here?"
Static found himself moving forward. He took Jacks from the girl's arms, swinging her up into his own with surprising ease. "Dang, but she's tiny."
The other three girls were strangely at ease with him taking one of their own up.
"Got a place we can take care of her?" Faith demanded, sounding tense to her own ears.
Superman nodded and reached as if to take the small woman from Static's arms. The boy's arms tightened instinctively. The girl called Miki growled warningly, brown eyes turning a feral feline gold.
"I've got her, just show them were the infirmary is," Static said, trying to keep his voice level.
Gear gave him a strange look, but followed along as Superman lead them through the halls.
Miki crawled up on the bed beside Jacks, sniffing to check for any injury she couldn't see. Mostly she could only smell exhaustion, a little of the blood from the spell earlier, Jacks' and Dawn's both.
"Get down from there," ordered a doctor.
Miki's lips drew back from her teeth as a snarl rumbled up from deep in her chest. Her arms on either side of Jacks' body holding her over the sleeping woman, guarding, protecting.
"You might want to take that as a 'no'," Faith said coldly. She reached out, stroking a hand down the werejaguar's back. "Easy, Kit. She don't mean any harm, she just doesn't understand us."
"Have to guard Jacks," Miki rumbled.
Jacks hand came up and stroked through Miki's hair. "S'kay. Safe."
Miki rumbled wordlessly.
"Good guys," Jacks murmured. "Safe."
"Not home," Miki protested even as she cuddled up alongside her friend.
"No, still safe," Jacks murmured. "Trust me?"
"Duh," Miki huffed.
Jacks chuckled and fell back asleep.
"Look, we aren't going to be able to find out what's wrong with your friend if you can't keep that girl off the bed," the doctor told Faith.
Faith stared at her for a long silent moment. "We know what's wrong with her. She's exhausted, her magic drained down next to nothing. She needs sleep, later she'll need food and something to drink when she wakes up. Jacks don't need a doctor who's never even seen anything like her before to be poking and prodding at her."
The doctor narrowed her eyes at Faith. "As a doctor it is my obligation to ..."
"You got some paper work we can sign, saying that Jacks refused treatment?" Faith demanded right back. "Cause you ain't one of our docs."
Dawn squeezed Faith's arm and shook her head. "Doctor, we know you're just trying to help, but really, there isn't anything you can do. Not unless you know how to treat a half-fey battle trained Witch for over straining her powers."
"D?" Faith asked softly.
"The mirror was shattered, we should have been scattered all across this reality," Dawn explained. "That we weren't is only because Jacks anchored us together with her magic. Then she turned around and transformed Andrew into a turtle, which was probably more adrenalin than anything else..."
The doctor studied the girl for a moment. "You've seen her like this before?"
"No, it doesn't happen often, but Vin mentioned a few times when she overused her magic to the point of collapse," Dawn sighed. "This is what he described."
"What were the occasions when this happened?" the doctor pressed.
Dawn forced herself to pull up the memories of what Vin had said. "A stage coach had gone off the side of a ravine, with two small children and JD inside trying to get them out. Jacks pulled the coach, the horses and everything back up. The bank robber who shot Ezra got thrown through the bank and then she bounced him around a jail cell for about a hour before Nathan told her Ezra was going to be all right. The three weeks they spent tracking the demons who kidnapped her daughter, she collapsed after that way worse than this."
"Stage coach... She can't be more than twenty!"
"Try three hundred sixteen," Faith corrected with a smirk. "What did you think we meant when we said half-fey?"
Gear leaned against the wall, watching his best friend watch the woman who'd collapsed in front of the entire Justice League. "Static, bro, what's up with this? I mean, she's pretty and all, but..."
"Huh? No, man, it's nothing like that," Static said quietly. "Doesn't she seem a little.... familiar? Like we know her or something?"
"Nope," Gear said after a moment. "Well, maybe a little. Way she ripped into that boy with them reminds me of your sister."
"Not funny, bro."
Gear grinned. "Come on, man, we were going to meet up with the Titans for pizza and I want to get there before Cyborg scarfs it."
"Yeah, I'm coming," Static said, finally managing to make himself turn away from the girls arguing with the doctor.
Superman was surprised to find the white haired female awake. And somewhat disturbed to find her petting the teenager who had refused to leave her even after the other two girls had gone off. Dawn had been insistent that he had a notebook and pen she could use, and Faith had made a comment he didn't even want to think about. But it involved J'onn Jonnz and the joys of shapeshifting.
"I thought you'd be asleep for longer," he commented when her gaze focused on him.
"I'll be in and out as my energy well refills the primary pool I access," Jacks explained. Or explained as much as she intended to.
"Planning on turning your friend back anytime soon?" Superman asked as he set the fishbowl beside the bed where Jacks and Miki were curled up together.
"Mmmm. No," Jacks murmured. "And he isn't my friend. He is an annoyance with delusions of being my sidekick."
Superman watched calmly as a pale hand stroked over dark waves. "There are some of us who have questions about your relationship with Miki."
Jacks looked at him blankly.
"She sleeps with you, snarls at anyone who gets too close," he paused to gesture toward the pile of discarded clothing, "and doesn't even blink at being..."
"The word is naked," Jacks drawled softly. "As for all of that... she's a were. Her instincts are different than a humans. She needs the contact to make sure I'm alright. There's nothing of... humanity, yes. Nothing of humanity in it to make it dirty."
"You think humanity is dirty?" Superman asked in surprise. From how Dawn and Faith had spoken of their friend while she was drifting in and out of awareness, well, he'd thought she might regard humans as the admirable, extraordinary beings they were. Or could be when they weren't of a criminal mind.
Jacks snorted. "Not particularly. But human. . mortal morality makes judgements that have little to do with the natural order of things. It cost me a chance at having what I really wanted. And left me asking the question, had I suggested to Ezra that Vin join us in our marriage, would he have said no or laughed and let me have my own way?"
Her hand stroked over raven waves again as Superman stared at her.
"I'll never know, but if I had asked perhaps I would be slightly less broken than I am now," Jacks murmured sleepily as if she'd forgotten the Kryptonian was there.
Miki purred and cuddled closer in her sleep. Superman smiled slightly.
"Have a good rest, Jacks," he said quietly as he turned to leave.
Jacks sighed and hugged Miki, while her neon green eyes narrowed at the turtle gawking at them. "And you mind your own business, Mr. Wells, or you'll be staying in that form for the next few decades."
Andrew pulled his head into his shell and tried to pretend he wasn't there.
The Watchtower's cafeteria wasn't particularly busy, there was no post mission party, no one was waiting around to hear word on a wounded friend.
Zatanna watched the girl called Dawn as she scribbled in a notebook she had pestered very effectively out of Superman. The girl hissed a word the magician didn't recognize, but at the next table Jason Blood flinched.
"If you two aren't going to help, stop staring at me," Dawn said without looking up. "I want to get as much of this figured out as I can before Jacks is ready to take a crack at it."
Zatanna shrugged and sat down across the table from Dawn. "I'm not very familiar with the type of magic that brought you here, so I'm not sure how much help I can be."
"Yeah, you say your spells backward, right?" Dawn paused to look up at the magician.
"That's right, how did you know?"
Dawn shrugged. "Same way I know that guy over there chants a rhyme to turn into a demon. Not a big. Look here's the original spell, it was just supposed to let us look in on someone Jacks is related to in this reality."
"This spell requires blood," Zatanna protested.
"Yeah...." Dawn frowned. "What, you guys don't have blood magic here?"
"We do, but only the darkest of sorcerers practice it," Jason Blood said coolly.
Dawn blinked at him. "It was a scrying spell that required a link to the person being scried. There's nothing stronger than a blood link, and it didn't take much."
"So you bled your friend to cast it," Jason concluded with a frown.
Dawn blinked again. "No. Jacks bled herself. She was the one casting the spell. There was the chanting, she cut her hand, her blood hit the mirror, she said her descendant's name, and we should have gotten a three dimensional image of him and about thirty feet all around him."
Zatanna put aside her aversion to the idea of blood magic, especially since as the girl said it was the half-fey herself who spilled blood. "Okay, so what went wrong?"
"We had just finished the spell when Andrew came running into the basement, Miki was right behind him," Dawn said as she did a rough sketch of where everyone was standing when the spell went wrong. "Andrew ran into Jacks, Miki skidded into me and Faith, we all staggered onto the mirror." Dawn's voice trailed off as her eyes fell on to her bandaged forearm.
Zatanna and Jason both blinked when the girl started cursing.
"Shit! I have to tell Jacks!" Dawn jumped up and ran out of the cafeteria.
Jason looked at Zatanna then tilted his head toward where Dawn had run off. Zatanna nodded. They stood together and ran after the strange girl.
It was late when Vin got home. He picked up what were obviously Miki's clothes from the entrance hall floor. Not exactly an unusual thing to find, so he didn't think much of it. He'd been gone most of the week hunting a bounty that the Sixkillers and Reno had been too far away to go chasing after, and he was looking forward to curling up in bed with Jacks.
Jacks was not upstairs.
Jacks was not in the shower.
Or the living room.
Or the kitchen.
Or the bedroom than hadn't been hers for more than a week when they first moved in.
Or in the basement that she'd taken over to teach Dawn magic. But there was blood, and a shattered mirror in the middle of the floor.
The Immortal frowned and dug his fold com out of his jeans pocket. "Merlin?"
"Yes, Mr. Tanner?" came the calm voice of Avalon's AE.
"Jacks get pulled for a mission?" Vin asked with worry lacing his tone.
Merlin allowed a infinitesimal fragment of his awareness to search for any information. "No. The Lieutenant's special skills have not be required on any current operation outside of her usual duties in Sunnydale."
"Shit. Could ya get Xander and Tara over to my house?" Vin asked flatly. "I think something went wrong with a spell here."
"I will alert them at once, Mr. Tanner. Merlin out."
Dawn was explaining to Jacks what her theory was, with expansive hand gestures that had Miki muffling her laughter against Jacks' shoulder and medical personnel ducking every time they came close to the excited girl.
"Dawn, breathe," Jacks interrupted. "Now, slowly. From the beginning."
"Okay, I was going over what happened with Zatanna," Dawn paused at the confused looks from her two best friends.
Zatanna waved from where she had perched on the bed next to where Jacks and Miki were sprawled together. "I'm a magician, I thought I might be able to help."
Dawn nodded. "It hit me when I was explaining what happened with the spell. Now, shattering the mirror when the spell was going right would have just scattered the image right?"
"Yes, we would have only seen fragments around the subject and none of it would have made sense," Jacks agreed.
"So, when it went wrong and we were transported here we would have scattered if you hadn't anchored us together, to you," Dawn continued. She hesitated until Jacks nodded her acknowledgement. "I figured keeping us in a group is what drained you so bad, but I couldn't figure out why a scry spell turned into a dimensional travel spell. Until I remembered, it wasn't just your blood on the mirror."
Jacks and Miki looked at each other, then stared at Dawn's bandaged forearm.
"Crap, you got cut by Kaina'tal when we got knocked onto the mirror," Jacks hissed. Her eyes narrowed. "But how... Oh. Fucking. Shitting. Hell."
Miki nudged Jacks. "Rest more?"
"No, I should be magically stable now," Jacks said. Then her stomach decided to offer up it's opinion of the situation. "Well, so long as there is food to be had on this orbital tin."
"Does this mean we finally have an explanation as to how you got here?" Jason Blood asked, even as a small part of himself wondered exactly what difference Dawn's blood could have made to the spell.
"Yep," Miki offered as she rolled off the bed to land in a crouch. "Doesn't mean we're telling you."
Zatanna tried not to smile at the young girl's tone. "You're snarky. I like that."
Miki blinked at her. "Kay."
Tanner led Xander and Tara down into the basement. The Immortal quietly explained what he had found and what he suspected had happened. Only he had no clue as to how it had happened. Jacks was down right obsessive about preparation when it came to ritual magic, rather than the ease at which she threw around her inborn abilities.
The blonde witch blinked as she stared at Jacks' sanctuary. One wall was covered entirely in spell books. Opposite the book wall was a granite counter top with cauldrons and potions ingredients neatly organized on racks and shelves above it. The wall directly across from the stairs was covered by a tapestry with the Wiccan Rede crawling across it in glowing silver script. Under the tapestry was covered in thick pillows, piled knee deep for a comfortable place to study.
Xander let his eyes shift from normal perception into mystical. "Okay, so something went wrong with whatever spell they were doing down here."
"They were doing a scry that n-needs a blood link," Tara said as she studied the open spell book on the stand near the broken mirror. "It actually p-projects an image. Like a hologram."
"So what went wrong?" Vin asked as he crouched over the large shattered mirror.
Xander sighed as he stared at the bloodstains on the glass. "There's more than just Jacks' blood on the mirror. Dawn bled on it, too."
"T-that would disrupt it, b-but why would they vanish?" Tara asked as she really started to worry.
"Because the power to rip reality apart is in Dawn's blood," Xander said flatly. "Faith and Miki were over here today, too. Since they didn't call this in, they must be where Jacks and Dawn are."
"Shit," Vin said softly.
Jacks mouth had just closed over a bite of perfectly cooked steak when Batman's voice came growling out from behind her.
"Who were you trying to spy on?"
Politely she chewed and swallowed before answering. Or as close to answering as she intended to be unless he was willing to rephrase the question. And alter his tone. "After not quite three hundred years, how many greats do you think I should put before grandson?"
Batman loomed over her. "I don't trust you."
Large inhuman green eyes surrounded by a thick fringe of white lashes stared up at him with a total lack of fear. "I don't particularly like your attitude, or you for that matter. But I know enough about you to trust you. We're more alike than you'd care to think."
"No, we aren't," Batman growled.
"Oh, you'd be surprised," Jacks murmured. "If you want actual answers, perhaps you should alter your method of asking? I am not, after all, one of the miscreants you so often interrogate."
"You aren't human."
Jacks stared up at him. "Neither is the man who is likely the closest you've ever had to a best friend." She shoved her tray aside and stood up. "Suddenly I am no longer hungry. Good evening, Mr. Wayne."
Batman stared after her as the tiny woman stalked off. Heroes moved out of her way, men and women who had saved the world almost cowered from the anger that radiated off of her.
"Oh, yeah, you handled her right," Green Arrow said sarcastically.
"And you would have wooed the answer out of her."
Green Arrow shook his head. "Nah. I've been talking to her friend, Faith. Now there's one girl who's going to be a hot little number, once she's legal. Anyway, Jacks is with someone, and Faith says none of us would stand a chance."
That earned Green Arrow a long cold look from the Dark Knight. "Isn't Faith the one who has J'onn hiding and jumping at shadows?"
"She goosed him but good," Green Arrow agreed with a grin. "Right in front of everybody in Operation Control."
"I don't trust them."
"Bats, you don't trust anybody."
"She knew my name."
Green Arrow shrugged. "And Faith keeps calling me Ollie. I called her on it and she said everything was 'five by five' and that 'heroes don't rat on each other'."
Wonder Woman found herself taking a turn observing Jacks and Dawn as they bickered with the Justice League's magic users, and Raven from the Titans. Miki and Faith were there as well.
Miki was curled up in a corner playing with Andrew the turtle. It was only slightly more disturbing that she was wearing an outfit borrowed from Starfire.
Faith was flipping a knife and smirking at her.
"This is useless," Raven said flatly and closed the spell book she had been searching through.
Jacks rolled her eyes and sprawled on air, letting the book she'd been studying lay open on her stomach.. "How so, little demoness?"
Raven glared. "There is no proof that the addition of Dawn's blood is what made the spell misfire."
"Andrew running down the stairs and knocking us on to the mirror is what caused the spell to misfire," Jacks said calmly. "Dawn's blood is what made it misfire in this specific way."
Zatanna went over the notes Dawn had let her look over. "That does raise the question. Why Dawn's blood would cause you to be dimensionally displaced?"
Jacks and Dawn both looked over to Faith. The Dark Slayer shrugged. "They're the good guys. We can trust them."
"It's up to you, Dawn," Jacks said quietly. "Your secrets are yours."
Dawn licked her lips. She knew their secrets, some of them anyway. It was hard not to when back home even if you weren't a comic fan, unless you were from the back end of no where, you had at least heard the basics. And really, except for the occasionally absurd outfits and the sometimes alien origins, these heroes would fit right in with the Knighthood.
"In our reality there was once a powerful magical object," Dawn said softly. "A Key, The Key. An order of monks protected The Key for centuries, but they needed to hide it. Someplace that no one would think to look for it."
"And they put it in you?" Jason asked softly, mildly horrified at the thought of such a thing being placed in what at the time must have been an innocent child.
Dawn shook her head. "No, they made me from it. Then placed me in a family where I would be protected. They made me the younger sister of a Hero. The Slayer. Luckily the Slayer had an ally, the bad guys call him Seraphim. He figured that I needed more protection than just my sister. He sent the only other active Knight to me, he sent Jacks."
"What does the Key do?" Raven asked when Dawn fell silent.
"What all keys do," Dawn said. "I unlock doors. Only it's less like unlocking and more like ripping out all the doors in a hallway and taking most of the building's superstructure with them."
Jacks nodded. "Of course that takes a specific ritual at a specific time. Otherwise, it simply makes Dawn a very powerful bloodmage. If an inexperienced one."
"That's why we've got to be careful how this gets handled," Faith said. "We fuck this up and we either lose li'l D, or we destroy a big honking chunk of the multi-verse."
"And frankly, neither is a viable option," Jacks said flatly.
"Neither is our staying here," Dawn added. "We have too much to go back to."
Raven frowned at them. "And what about your grandson, Faerie? Are you going to take him with you?"
Jacks stared at her. "He doesn't even know who I am, he has much closer family here. His duty and mission are here. It would be like demanding my grandson Wa-sho move to California and give up his life in Dallas. Entirely unreasonable."
"Then why even watch him?" Jason asked with a small frown. "If you're not planning on telling him that he isn't entirely human?"
"There are sixty generations between my giving birth to my son, Kamau, and the birth of his descendant," the half-fey pointed out. "I am half human myself. That's sixty-two generations of purely human blood diluting the Fey. There's likely just enough fey in him to have made his transformation into a metahuman easier for his body and mind to handle that it otherwise would have been."
"Then why?" asked the cursed Knight of the Round Table.
Jacks smiled slightly. "Because I am so very proud of what he has become. Without any meddling from my side of his family."
"Okay," Xander said as he paced along the wall of bookshelves. "We know they weren't using the spell to look in on Walker or Paige or the Halliwells. When it misfired they would have likely ended up in Dallas or San Francisco and would have called or come back by now."
"They've only been missing for nineteen hours at most," Tara added. She had sat down among the deeply piled pillows and had her legs curled up against her chest, chin resting on her knees as she watched Xander pace. "Miki and Faith are with them. T-they have muscles and magic enough to handle just about a-anything."
Vin nodded his agreement with Tara's observation. "So we know they ain't in Texas or California. This ain't a spell Jacks would bother with t' track her fey kin. There's easier ways." He waved toward a world map tacked up on the wall by the stairs.
Tiny points of green faerie fire moved around the map, or winked in and out of existence. Each point indicating the movements of those with fey and faery blood across the planet.
Xander stopped pacing to frown at the map. "A blood link requirement. Not a fey, not Walker or one of her sister's descendants. That leaves..."
"Virgil Hawkins," Vin finished.
"Shit," Xander said with feeling.
"Kamau is an African name," Robin observed from behind Jacks. "Specifically, Kenyan."
She glanced over her shoulder at him. "What is it with you boys from Gotham and lurking behind people?"
"Batgirl does it too," Robin said with a shrug as he moved around to sit across from her. "So, tell me about Kamau?"
"There's not much for me to tell," Jacks told him with a sigh. She pushed her books and notes aside. Alone in the conference room, she had continued to work even after all the others had taken a break. "I was taken away from this reality only moments after he was born. I didn't even know the child I'd had was a boy until I had Dawn create a Lineage Tapestry for my grandson back in our reality."
Things clicked and whirled and resorted themselves in the mind of the third boy to don the Robin identity. While not the remarkable natural athlete of the original, or... well, the second Robin was a sore point all around. What the current Robin brought to the persona was an analytical mind that thrived on the challenges fighting crime presented him.
"You look in on your son's descendant and wonder if they're anything alike," Robin concluded. "You have to believe that they are, because you'll never ... you'll never really know. But shouldn't Kamau have been immortal?"
"My daughter was in her seventies when she had her son, Wa-sho," Jacks said quietly. "She appeared to be in her thirties when she was killed along with Wa-sho's father. I tried scrying for Kamau, and found nothing. Much like when I attempted to scry for Colleen. I fear that he, too, met a violent end, but he may have simply not have inherited the increased longevity of being a quarter blood fey."
The two sat in silence for a moment before Jacks spoke again.
"You're trying to figure out who it is." The corners of her lips lifted in the faintest of smiles, neon green eyes glittered with amusement.
Robin nodded, returning the faint smile. "It's a puzzle. I never did learn how to let one go until I'd solved it."
"You know," Jacks drawled out cheerfully. "You could just ask. More politely than your mentor did, of course."
The boy grinned at her. "What's the fun in that?"
The half-fey's laughter echoed out into the hallways like a thousand chiming bells.
"So, you find out yet?" Beast Boy asked once Robin returned to Titans Tower.
Robin hopped over the back of the huge semicircular couch in front of the entertainment center. "I've almost got it figured out., but I do know what she wants."
Cyborg doesn't glance away from the game on the massive TV. "What's that, Rob?"
"She wants a connection, even a tiny one, with the son she never got to know," Robin told them quietly. "Even if she never tells him, or any of us."
"You still think it might be me?" Cyborg asked with a look on his face somewhere between amused by the idea and worried.
Robin shook his head slowly. "I'm sure it isn't you, now. Who ever this guy is, he has a family."
"Are we not a family?" Starfire wondered from where she was cooking. Fortunately for the rest of the Titans, only Robin was obligated to eat it.
"We are, we always will be," Robin assured his girlfriend. "But the way Jacks said it, she made it sound like he had family he was born to as much as a family he'd found."
Static wandered into the conference room, not really sure why he was going there. If he was needed for anything the older heroes tended to just let him know. But still, something was drawing him there just as it had drawn him up to the Watch Tower station in the first place.
It was a Saturday, by all rights he should be hanging out with Richie in their hide-out waiting for one of the other Bang Babies to start trouble. Or they could both be in Jump City hanging with the Titans, throwing down two on two with Beast Boy and Cyborg on their GameBox 3.
Or, maybe, possibly, on a date. Had to happen some time, right?
Instead, Static was leaning against the door frame watching Jacks and Jason Blood fling sharp edged words at each other. Since they seemed to be doing it in Latin or at least Old English, he wasn't having much luck following the argument. At least until Jacks slapped the former Knight hard enough for him to stagger back.
"Gone, gone," Jason started.
"Don't even think about finishing that," Static interrupted. "If you two have a problem, a magic throw down is not the way to solve it."
Jason scowled at Jacks. "You are a hazard to everyone around you, Puck's Child. Begone from this place, but leave the Key here where it will be safer."
"Over my cold dead corpse," Jacks said with an unpleasant smile. "*She* has sisters and a mother who will not be pleased should she not return to them. Frankly, I have no wish to face down Joyce if I fail to bring her child safely home."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Static moved to stand between them. "What's this all about, exactly?"
"You remember Dawn?" Jacks asked. "The girl with the blue dyed bangs?"
"Pretty, with an attitude," Static nodded slowly. "What about her?"
"She's the Key he's talking about," the half-fey informed him. "Sir Jason is under the erroneous impression that the League is better equipped to protect her than the Knighthood."
"You, Puck's Child, are no Knight," Jason told her coldly.
Jacks gave him a flat stare. "Merlin would not agree with you."
"Okay, okay, look," Static interrupted before they could go at it again, "it sounds to me like this whole thing is more Dawn's choice than either of yours."
"Actually, it's entirely mine," Jacks explained. "Dawn is my apprentice and my squire. She goes where I go, and I fully intend to go home."
That seemed to draw Jason up short as even her invocation of Merlin's name had not. "She's your squire?"
"Fully acknowledged by our leader and Lord Commander," Jacks agreed.
"So.... you want to come grab something to eat?" Static asked, aiming the question more at Jacks than at Jason. Because, frankly, Etrigan sort of creeped him out.
Jacks blinked at him, then shrugged. "I could eat."
"So tell me about this Knighthood you belong too," Green Arrow suggested as he sat down across from Faith. It was an absolute riot the way J'onn J'onnz practically ran from the room every time this feisty little brunette bombshell walked in.
Faith finished chewing and swallowed her mouthful of double cheese burger. "What do you want to know, Ollie?"
Green Arrow smirked at her. "What does your Knighthood do?"
Faith laughed. "We're sort of like you guys, only we usually deal with demons or alien invasions. And we're kinda more military."
"Alien invasions? You mean like a whole bunch of Martians or more like Superman or Hawkgirl?" Green Arrow leaned forward, resting his chin on the heel of his hand.
"Nah, nothing like Johny or Boyscout or the Feathered attitude," Faith said, gesturing with a french fry to emphasize her point. "Body snatching parasitic snakes with massive egos. They like to be worshipped and are deeply offended that we don't bow and scrape to them. Pisses them off that we ain't scared of them."
"And you've fought them?" He couldn't help the faint tone of disbelief that leaked through into his voice.
"On the front lines of their last invasion attempt." Faith smirked at him. "First off, Ollie, I'm older than I look. Second, I've got a whole mystic destiny thing going on. Fighting the ugly fuckers who want to end the world or enslave humanity is what I was born to do. Hell, it's practically the family business. Got me?"
"I would, but Black Canary would kill me," he joked.
Faith laughed and shook her head. "Yeah, but it would be a laugh. Anyway, third, I rank right up there with Jacks. We're not just Knights, we're Crusaders."
Green Arrow's head tilted to one side, lips tugging up into a smile through his neatly trimmed mustache and goatee. It was really, really, too bad Faith didn't look her age. Those smokey eyes of hers were killer. "How's that work?"
"Me and the Pixie, we're the same rank, only Xander gives us orders," the Dark Slayer explained. "Well, Xander and sometimes God. Jacks and me work pretty good together. But the idea of us being on the same team day to day makes most folks squirm."
"Who's Xander?" Wonder Woman asked as she sat down next to Green Arrow.
Faith grinned. "He's the First Knight of our Order. He's the guy we'd follow into Hell and trust him to lead us right back out." Her dark smokey eyes turned serious and a touch cold. "We'd die for him, cause we know he'd die for us."
"You would die for a man?" Wonder Woman blurted.
There was a long moment of silence at the table, and the surrounding ones.
"Wouldn't you?" Faith asked, gesturing toward the various male heroes. "Wouldn't they for you?"
"Because if you wouldn't, and they wouldn't," Jacks said as she and Static stopped beside the table, "what is the point in working with them?"
"Hey, Pixie! Join us?" Faith asked with a grin.
Jacks shrugged and glanced at Static.
"I'm good," he said, setting down his tray.
"Enjoying your conversation, Faith?" Jacks asked, darting a slightly annoyed glance at Wonder Woman.
The Dark Slayer grinned wickedly. "Ollie here can give as good as he gets. Almost as much fun as teasing Big Green."
"Big Green?" Static wondered out loud.
Jacks smiled at him. "She means Martian Manhunter. Faith delights in winding up others."
Static nodded and grinned back. "Yeah, got friends like that."
"Why do you obey this... Xander?" Wonder Woman asked after another moment.
"Xander is not the first mortal who I've followed into battle," Jacks explained. "I followed Chris because, as much as we clashed, he was a man worth following. Xander has many of the same qualities. They both lead from the front of the battle. Chris, even knowing it wouldn't do more than sting, took a bullet for me. Xander risked his own life and sanity to come into my mind and convince me to wake up. Had I been unwilling to listen to reason, I could have killed him. And Chris knew me much better when he took that bullet than Xander did when he walked in my mind."
Faith glanced at her, concerned. "Seriously?"
"For all that he has studied the ways of the Kine more intently than I have," Jacks shrugged, "in my mind I had the territorial advantage. Xander managed to say exactly the right things in exactly the right way to get my attention."
"What did he say?" Green Arrow asked softly.
Jacks twirled her fork and smiled brightly. "He offered me a reason to return to the waking world. He gave me a mission again, someone to protect."
"Dawn," Faith interrupted. "He gave you Dawn to protect."
"And then we ran into Vin at the mall and the rest is history," Jacks finished as her smile softened into something almost dreamy.
Faith reached over and gently swatted her friend across the back of the head. "Lose the goofy smile. At least until I can get one of my own."
"Finish growing back into yourself and I'm sure Xander will help put a goofy smile on your face," Jacks teased back.
"I'm trying," Faith said mock mournfully. "Believe me, I'm trying."
Static stared as Jacks broke into giggles that sounded so familiar. If he could just put his finger on who she reminded him of....
"So we're just going to have to trust they can get back on their own?" Tara asked quietly once she, Xander and Vin had settled around the living room.
Xander scrubbed his hands over his face. "Yeah, we are. Paige might be able to contact them, but... Until the Charmed Ones come on line, Jacks is our most powerful witch."
"I'll call Paige," Vin said. Xander frowned at him. "She'll want to know. Sides, ya know she won't be happy if she shows up while they're still gone ... and we ain't already told her they're gone."
Xander sank back into the overstuffed wing backed chair and groaned. Paige wasn't going to be happy that they hadn't called her in the first place.
Twenty minutes later, a very irritated Warren Witch orbed in. "You waited this long to tell me Aunt Jacks and the girls were missing? Were you going to wait until I showed up for our shopping trip to tell me?"
"Shopping trip?" Xander repeated blankly.
Tara bit her lip. "W-we were going to go shopping for components tomorrow. I'd a-almost forgotten."
"Jacks was teaching, or at least showing Dawn a new blood spell," Vin interrupted before Paige could rip into him and Xander again. He knew raising her voice to Tara wouldn't have even occurred to Paige. "Something went wrong, the mirror they were using is smashed, and we're pretty sure the girls ended up in the reality where your cousin Virgil is a superhero."
"Okay, Tara, come help me find a communications spell," Paige said as she headed for the basement door. She tapped the foldcom affixed along her jawbone out of habit. "Merlin? If you have any spells that can communicate across dimensional barriers, now would be a good time to share." She paused at the top of the stairs to look back at Xander and Vin. "And you two see if Giles is free to help us out."
The basement door slammed behind the two witches as the two men glanced at each other.
"If we tell Giles then Beth will find out and we are dead," Xander said slowly.
Vin nodded. "If we don't tell Giles then Beth won't find out, but Paige will take a lesson from Jacks and turn us inta something with four legs."
"Right, calling Giles," Xander muttered. The odds were better for surviving a pissed off Slayer.
"What did that half sized elf do with my sister?" Beth demanded as she swept into the Tanner's house like a storm with Giles on her heels.
"We don't know what exactly went wrong yet," Xander told her calmly. "And you know Jacks would never do anything to hurt Dawn."
Beth glowered at him. "What happened?"
Xander let out a deep breath as he noticed Giles was watching him intently for the answer as well. "From what Tara and Paige can tell, Jacks was showing Dawn a scrying spell the requires the caster to have a blood link with the subject being scryed. As an example Jacks was using a descendant of hers that lives in another reality. Something went wrong and we found Dawn's blood on the broken mirror with Jacks' blood."
Tara took that moment to open the basement door. "We f-found them."
"And I'm starting to understand why Andrew drives Aunt Jacks nuts," Paige growled as she followed Tara upstairs.
Faith laughed as Miki blew Cyborg's car off the virtual racetrack produced by the gigantic television and the Gamebox 3 video game system.
Dawn and Beast Boy were nearby arguing over which of them was going to play the winner, and arguing over who the winner was actually going to be.
Jacks was sprawled across one end of the couch, legs hanging over the back and head dangling over the armrest in a position impossible for anyone with actual bones to achieve. Of course, Starfire was braiding her hair and that was nice enough to send Jacks off to a mental happy place from her childhood. The Tamarian Princess' carefully avoiding her ears after a whispered explanation helped.
The rest of the Titans and various other young superheroes were scattered around, having been all but ordered away from the Watch Tower after an incident involving Supergirl, ten gallons of Coolwhip and the men's locker room. The Knighthood ladies had been sent along due to the very strong suspicions of Superman and Martian Manhunter that Faith at the very least had something to do with it.
Jacks strongly suspected that the Martian Manhunter was taking the opportunity to get the Dark Slayer off the station so he could stop jumping at shadows. And of course, where one of them went, the others followed.
"Aunt Jacks? Can you hear me?" called out the faintly glowing image of a dark haired young woman standing in the open area behind the couch. The image flickered and faded before holding steady although it was still vaguely translucent. "Aunt Jacks?"
"I'm here, Paige," Jacks responded in surprise. She twisted around on her knees until she was leaning on the back of the massive couch in the Titans' Tower. "Goodness, how ever did you manage this?"
"Merlin had a variant on the spell you were using," Paige told her. "What happened?"
"Andrew showed up is what happened," Jacks complained. "He's currently a turtle, at least until we figure out how to reverse the spell than brought us here."
"Who the heck is that?" Static whispered to Dawn, with a slice of pizza still half way to his mouth.
Dawn grinned. "That's Paige, she's Jacks' great great great great niece. One of them anyway. She's a power house wicca and a healer."
"Are all the women in her family hot?" Gear asked with a wide grin. His helmet and green face shield H.U.D combination was tossed aside in favor of chowing down with his friends on the massive amounts of pizza provided.
Miki snorted as Faith laughed.
Jacks and Paige continued their conversation, oblivious to the running commentary around them.
"You've been gone for twenty hours here," Paige explained.
"Only twenty hours? It's been three days on this end," Jacks observed worriedly. "While not a significant time dilation, it is still worrisome if we cannot find a way to return soon."
"Okay, tell me what happened, exactly," Paige instructed.
Jacks nodded and repeated the sequence of events exactly as she, Dawn, Miki and Faith had recalled them.
"I see why Andrew's still a turtle," Paige said with a grimace. "I'll let Xander know and start working on this end with Giles and Tara."
"We'll keep working with the magic users here," Jacks told her even as she nodded. "If you need more help, as much as I dislike saying so, ask Penelope."
Paige grimaced again. "I thought you didn't get a long with her."
"We only met once, and she is obligated to assist you regardless of her personal feelings toward me," Jacks pointed out. "She is your grandmother, Paige."
"Not like she knows it," Paige muttered.
Jacks snorted. "Show her the tapestry if she argues. It's irrevocable proof of who you are."
"If we need her, I'll go get her," Paige agreed as her image started to flicker again. "Spell's wearing off. I'll call in again as soon as I can."
"Blessed Be, niece," Jacks whispered as the spell image faded away.
"Tell me you aren't going to go right back to researching," Static moaned.
Jacks shrugged. "We really should continue. Our magic users may not be able to find the right spell on their end."
"We do need a break," Dawn said softly. "My brain is about to fry."
"Dawn patrol has a point," Faith agreed. "And the League's magic makers are still working on it."
Just as Jacks was about to explain why she wanted to continue working the Titans' alarm system went off.
"It's Mumbo, he's robbing the First National Bank," Robin growled as he skimmed over the information that was popping up on the screens almost as swiftly as the computers could produce it. He glanced over at Jacks and started to smile. "You wouldn't be interested in helping us out with this guy would you?"
Jacks snorted as she watched the criminal turn a police officer into a rabbit. "Oh, I think it could be... amusing."
"Do we get code names?" Faith asked with a grin. "Oh, and masks. Hey, Robie? Can I borrow one of your uniforms?"
Robin stared at Faith then looked down at his lean, admittedly smaller form. "Uh, I don't think it'd fit."
The Amazing Mumbo laughed as he skipped backward out of the bank. He turned to run down the street when he caught sight of the Titans and company. "Ooo! A new audience for the master of magic!"
"He can't be serious," the white haired girl said flatly. She wore no mask and her costume was a matte black outfit of almost military style. She hovered in the air between Raven and Static.
Raven snorted softly from the shadows of her deep cowl. "He's serious."
"So let's put a shock to his system," Static said with a smirk. Energy crackled around his fists.
"Who's the new girl?" Mumbo asked in an aside to Beast Boy.
The green teen grinned. "She hasn't picked a name yet."
With that said, the young shapeshifter threw a punch that Mumbo scrambled to avoid. The magic using criminal lifted his wand the first syllable of a spell on his lips. "Ab...."
"Yeah, no," sneered a dark haired, golden eyed girl in one of Starfire's spare outfits. Her hand shot out, blurring into a fur and claws to smack the wand out of Mumbo's hand.
"Wha?" Mumbo found himself whirled around to face a second, taller, dark haired girl, this one wearing a domino mask and a wide grin.
"The Kit's a little annoyed," this second dark girl said, her voice a low purr. "She was kicking Cyborg's ass on Death Combat Racer 6."
"She was not!" Cyborg shouted indignantly.
"Presto!" Mumbo blurted out waving his hand toward the two dark haired girls.
As they were flung backward, carried by a giant white glove, the younger roared while the older cursed viciously.
"Wow, that one has a mouth on her doesn't she?" Mumbo commented.
"Yeah, but we like her anyway," commented yet another young girl. This one with dark blue dyed bangs and a domino mask.
Cyborg offered Beast Boy the box of popcorn as she lashed out, the motion some how rippling through her entire body before her palm lightly brushed Mumbo's chest. The strike blasted Mumbo back just as effectively as his spell had thrown her friends. The criminal magician landed on his feet and skid backward on the now empty street.
"Pick a card! Any card!" Mumbo shouted as several decks shot out of his sleeves. The cards grew to enormous size as they flew toward the girl that had hit him.
Static grabbed the girl around the waist and dodged the cards by flying straight up into the air, leaving them to stick wetly to the sidewalk, cars and building near where she had been standing.
"My turn," the white haired girl sighed. "Parlor tricks and illusions. How disappointing."
Mumbo pulled his wand out of the air. "Ask your friends what my parlor tricks and illusions can do!"
"Very effective against neophytes and mortals, I'm sure," she sneered. "If not for very long."
Mumbo yelped as he found himself jerked into the air by a force he couldn't see.
"I am magic you pompous, insignificant, twit," she snarled inches from his large hooked nose. "Try and master me with your tricks."
"Dude, you get the idea she might be scarier than Raven?" Beast Boy whispered to Cyborg.
"No might be about it," the larger teen said. "I wouldn't want her ticked off at me."
Robin swiped the popcorn from them, tossing a handful into his mouth. "It's almost too bad they aren't planning on sticking around."
Mumbo hurled spell after spell at the white haired girl, each attack turned aside with contemptuous ease. Mumbo whipped off his top hat and an army of rabbits sprayed toward her, "MUMBO JUMBO!"
"Morphous Avairia!" Eyes flaring with green light, she raised her hands toward the blast of bunnies. Halfway to their target the rabbits transformed into doves and flew away.
Mumbo's jaw dropped. "How did you do that?"
"You learn all sorts of things when you've been around for more than three centuries," she retorted.
"That's not FAIR!"
The headful of white curls tilted to one side. "Silly little man. Life is not fair. Of course, if you like rabbits so much..."
There was a flash of green light, followed by Mumbo's tuxedo falling to the pavement.
The Titans watched as Jacks reached into the green light and pulled out Mumbo's top hat. She smirked into it before reaching in. A very annoyed looking rabbit was pulled out by the scruff of his neck.
"Perhaps a month in a rabbit hutch will teach you better manners," Jacks said to the rabbit that used to be Mumbo. "That should take care of you for a...."
Jacks screamed, back arching as she was struck from behind by an energy blast.
"Another rotten kid!" a young Mad Mod complained as he triggered his cane again. "No respect for your elders, my duckies!"
"Dude, you missed her intro," Static explained as he reached out with electromagnetic force to yank the cane from the British villain's hands. "You don't get much 'elder' than she is."
Robin ran and leaped into the air even as Static disarmed Mad Mod, wrapping his arms around Jacks' unconscious body before landing carefully on the sidewalk. "What did he hit her with?"
Mad Mod scowled at the young African American hero. "Here, now, aren't you a little out of your territory?"
"Kid wants to hang with us, the kid can hang with us," Faith said as she grabbed Mad Mod by the front of his shirt. "Yo! Starfire! BATTER UP!"
Mad Mod screamed as he was hurled into the air by the dark haired Slayer. The normally cheerful alien princess had a furious scowl on her face as she drew her fist back. Mad Mod slammed into the building across the street, around the third floor, his legs left dangling out of the hole in the brickwork.
Static tossed the cane to Gear. Gear studied it and the readings from Backpack before answering. "Looks like a supercharged tazer. I'm not sure how it hurt her, though."
"She's tough, not invulnerable," Dawn pointed out as she crouched beside Robin and Jacks. "Gear says it was a supercharged tazer, probably intended to take out Cyborg or Beast Boy in a massive form. Best guess, that would take Jacks down too."
"Uh... doesn't Mad Mod usually have more doohickeys than just the tricked out cane?" Beast Boy asked.
"He does," Faith sighed. She pointed at the robots marching toward them from both ends of the street.
"Gear! Break the cane!" Robin ordered.
"Right!" Gear snapped it over his knee. The robot British soldiers kept marching. "Guys... it didn't work!"
"Kit, shift!" Faith ordered. "D, any spells you've got would be good!"
Miki started shifting into jaguar form even as she yanked off the outfit borrowed from Starfire. Beast Boy shifted into an elephant and charged the robots right behind the werejaguar.
"My components are back home," Dawn shouted as she took Jacks from Robin's arms. "And I don't think I can go hand to hand against robots!"
"Raven, get them back to the Tower!" Robin dodged a blast from the Brit-bots. "Titans! GO!"
Gear grinned viciously. "Think he means us, too?"
"He'd better!" Static clenched his fists as he built up a massive charge. He really wanted to let loose with a blast at Mad Mod, but that nutcase was down for the count. The legion of robotic soldiers would have to do for now.
Raven grabbed the edge of her cloak, sweeping it up and over the other two females as her soul form swallowed all three of them.
In the chaos of the following battle, no one noticed as Mumbo hopped away.
Dawn stared at the diagnostic readouts on the computer monitors surrounding the bed she and Raven had placed Jacks on. Most of them made little sense to the apprentice Bloodmage.
"Whatever is wrong with her, it isn't anything my healing ability can do something about," Raven said quietly. "I'm not even sure what her normal readings should be."
"I don't think they'd be that far off normal human," Dawn muttered with a frown. "The last healer to helped her out on a regular basis was average everyday human with some relatively primitive techniques." She paused and studied the monitor that showed a basic female anatomy, the parts that didn't meet with human norms were shaded a questioning yellow. After a moment Dawn placed her finger tips on the area displaying the lower abdomen, where a dot was pulsing just out of sync the icon for Jacks' heartbeat. "What's this mean?"
Raven frowned at the display then reached for the manual floating through the air toward her. She flipped quickly through the pages until she found the section she needed.
Dawn turned worried eyes on her when the half-demon hero dropped the manual in shock. "Raven? What's wrong?"
"She's pregnant," Raven whispered.
"That isn't possible," Dawn insisted flatly as her eyes drifted to lock on her teacher's stomach.
Raven glared at her. "None of you have made any secret of the fact that she's involved in a very physical, very active relationship with a man. How is it not possible that she's pregnant?"
"Vin is an Immortal," Dawn explained. "It's one of the crappy parts about living forever. No biological kids."
"So she had an affair," Raven said with a shrug.
Dawn glared. "She wouldn't."
"Then explain why the display clearly shows a second heartbeat," demanded the other girl.
"I *can't*," she snarled back. "Maybe it's because Jacks is half-fey. Even if Vin can't have children with a mortal or an Immortal woman, Jacks isn't either. Who the hell knows what's possible with her?"
Raven bit her lip. "We'll have to take her back to the Tower. There's no way we can treat her here."
"Crap! What's taking the others so long?"
Miki and Beast Boy raced into the infirmary ahead of the rest of the temporarily expanded team. Faith was right behind them, bitching about not getting to borrow one of Robin's costumes. Robin shot back with the fact that Kevlar didn't stretch.
"Don't you think we should be more worried about Jacks?" Static demanded, pushing between them to get into the room.
"The Pixie's tougher than you're giving her credit for," Faith chuckled. "That zap might have put her down for a while, but she's probably fine by now."
"Not fine," Miki said dully. Her gaze locked on Jacks' entirely too still body. "What's wrong?"
Raven glowered at Dawn before turning to the returned fighters. "Jacks is pregnant."
Miki scowled and sniffed the air. She shook her head hard enough to whip around her face. "Not."
"According to this, yeah, she is," Cyborg said as he studied the monitor.
"Smell. Is. Wrong," Miki insisted, carefully spacing her words to make her point. "Not pregnant."
Everyone looked over at Beast Boy. He waved his hands in front of them. "DUDES! I have no idea how a pregnant lady smells different from a not pregnant lady!"
"Smells stronger, more female, dominant," Miki explained waving them off. "Jacks smells same as always. Baby powder, lavender, earth."
"Well, something sure ain't right," Faith said frowning at the medical equipment. "I'd be happier if we could get her to Avalon, have Merlin check her out."
"Since Merlin and Avalon are back home, we'll have to go back to the Watchtower," Dawn pointed out. "If the computers are saying one thing, and Miki's senses are telling us something else..."
Gear coughed slightly. "We could, ah, we could go to our hideout in Dakota. No offense, Cyborg, but..."
"You built another ridiculously advanced super genius machine, didn't you?" Cyborg sighed.
"Yeah... I was kind of bored the other night."
Gear had managed to talk Plastic Man into transporting a few them directly from Titan's Tower to the Abandoned Gas Station of Solitude.
"You two have got to rethink the name of your hide out," Faith grumbled as she carried Jacks to the single hospital style bed.
"Yeah, that's been mentioned, but we're used to it," Gear said with a tight smile as he pulled off his helmet.
Faith grimaced at Static's glare as she smoothed Jacks' hair away from a face that had gone too pale, too quickly. The half-fey's skin pulled tight against her sharp features.
"I'm just worried," Faith admitted.
Gear nodded and pushed his glasses up his nose, accepting that was as close as Faith would come to apologizing. He turned and rummaged around on a table covered with wires and scraps of metal, and things that looked like they should be inside a high tech gadget.
"Here is it," Gear said as he held up something that looked like a Geiger Counter.
"What's it do?" Dawn asked.
Gear blushed slightly. "It's supposed to separate energy signatures. See?" He tilted the device toward her so she could see the screen. "That line is Static, this one is you, and these... Okay, this here? This can't be right."
"What's it say, Foley?" Faith demanded.
"There is no way that thing inside Jacks is any kind of baby," Gear said flatly as he scowled at the energy signatures, completely missing the fact that she'd used his last name. "See, if it were a baby, the signature would be weaker. And if it were her's, it would be closer to the energy signature produced by her magic."
"Not identical?" Dawn asked as she studied the reading over Gear's shoulder.
Gear shook his head. "Not in theory. I tested it on Static and... some people who are related to him, even if they don't have powers, they produce an energy signature only weaker, but the pattern is similar."
"So... what is it?" Faith muttered as she rested her hand over Jacks' stomach.
Static frowned. "Looks like we're going to be heading back to the Watchtower after all. Is there some kind of spell you can use to find out what's in her, Dawn?"
"Yeah, but my things are..."
"What do you need?" Static interrupted. "I'll get it."
Dawn nodded slowly. "Okay. I'm going to need a copper bowl, about two small hand fulls of foxglove..."
"Hmmm, not my usual digs, but not bad, not bad at all." The little bald being shifted his bowler hat to sit at a jaunty angle. "That snooty Olympian broad thinks she can keep me out of some two bit worthless dimension. I'll show her. I go where I please."
He folded his arms behind his head and grinned around a stubby cigar.
"This faerie broad and her idiot friends are my ticket to a little sweet revenge."
Jacks screamed in fury and pounded against the glowing yellow bubble that held her trapped in her own mind. Kaina'tal struck from the other side, fighting to reach her partner. When they got their hands on that horrid little imp he was going to regret his actions for the rest of his life.
As brief as that was going to be.
The bubble was starting to crack under the alternating pounding from each side.
They had followed Static back to the gas station, uninvited and unwelcome. Then they had started giving orders. Apparently unaware of the first rule of command. Well, perhaps it was the second rule, presuming that the first rule probably should be "make sure you're the one actually in command."
"You are not casting any spells," Wonder Woman announced. The Amazon Princess' tone indicating that she expected to be obeyed, and that the men on either side of her agreed with her pronouncement.
Dawn stared at the combined forces of Superman, Wonder Woman and Batman all set against her. "Excuse me? What the hell did you just say?"
"I'm sorry, Dawn, we just don't think you doing a spell is a good idea," Superman said, sounding very reasonable. "It was a misfired spell that brought you and your friends here, and you're not nearly as experienced as Jacks is. We just don't know what could go wrong. And since Zatanna says she can't do it..."
"Zatanna also hasn't been much help getting us home," Dawn retorted. "She's a great magician, don't get me wrong, but she's no kind of witch. Unless you can tell us exactly what that thing taking up space inside Jacks' body is, I need to do this spell."
Superman gazed intently at the unconscious Jacks, trying to see through her abdomen. He frowned. "It's almost like she's been lead lined..."
"Did your x-ray vision work on her before?" Batman asked gruffly.
"I didn't try it before," Superman snorted softly. He waved toward Jacks, her skin tight black uniform didn't leave much room to hide anything. Even the sheath built into her left boot was in plain sight, the gleaming silver hilt bright against the matte fabric covering her calf. "There wasn't much point."
"Yo!" Faith shouted when it looked like Wonder Woman was going to chime in with her opinion. "Case you kids missed it, we don't take orders from *any*of you. Dawn knows what needs to be done, she knows how to do it, so she's gonna do it. The End."
"How'd you know about it?" Miki rumbled.
Wonder Woman shook her head. "Some of the things Dawn needed, Static got from Jason after he asked Zatanna about them."
"Hey, I couldn't think of anywhere else to go," Static said with a shrug when all eyes landed on him.
Dawn closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Okay, so you know. Doesn't mean I'm not going to do the spell."
"Yes, it does," Superman said firmly.
"Guess what? You're not my commanding officer, you're not my big brother and you're not my father," Dawn told him firmly. "That all means you don't get to tell me what to do."
Static frowned. "Why don't you guys want her to do the spell? Zatanna said she couldn't do it, not that it was hard or dangerous. Just not her type of magic."
Gear finally glanced up from where he'd been concentrating on the wildly fluctuating readings his devices had been getting from the unconscious Jacks, and flat out ignoring the argument behind him. "Guys? We need Dawn to do the spell soon. Some thing's happening and I'm pretty sure it isn't good."
"Right, give me room and don't touch the diagrams," Dawn ordered as she carefully set the copper bowl in the center of a brazer filled with hot coals. She then picked up a piece of damp chalk and began drawing symbols, runes, and ancient glyphs in concentric circles around her work space.
"Didn't we order her not to do this?" Wonder Woman asked quietly.
Batman glanced at her. "Do you think ordering any of the Titans would stop them from doing something to help one of their own?"
"The Titans are young heroes this girl is..."
"Trying to help her friend," Superman said, cutting the Amazon Princess off gently. "And every bit the fighter the Titans are."
Wonder Woman shook her head. "We should stop her. If the Key is everything Jason says it is, than even this is dangerous for her."
"Don't even twitch, Princess," Faith warned. Her voice low to keep from interrupting Dawn as the younger girl started to chant and pour things into the hot copper bowl. "I don't want to fight you guys. We're mostly on the same side, y'know? But you try and stop little D from helping the Pixie and I'm going to show you what a Slayer can really do."
"Faith," Static said firmly. The dark haired Slayer turned her head slightly to look at him. "They mess this up and I'll personally put a shock to their systems."
"Static," Batman started only to be cut off by the teenage hero stepping into his personal space.
"Look, Batman, in Gotham I'm willing to play by your rules," Static explained as he glared up at one of his role models. "In Metropolis I'd follow Superman's lead and when we're running with the Titans, Gear and I take orders from Robin. When it's a Justice League mission, we follow the team leader."
"Then you'll follow our lead now," Wonder Woman said nodding as if she expected nothing less.
Static turned to stare at her, then shook his head. "No. See, this is Dakota. Here you guys play by our rules... or you go home."
"You can't just. ." Wonder Woman started.
Gear hit a few controls on a panel beside him, the three adult heroes vanishing in to the white glow of the Watchtower's transporter system. "Yeah, we can."
"order us to leave," Wonder Woman finished. She looked around in surprise at finding herself and her companions in the middle of the operations center.
Plastic Man smirked at three of the Justice League's founders. "You told Gear he couldn't do something, didn't you?"
"Send us back," Superman said.
"No can do, Supes," Plastic Man said cheerfully, his grin stretching wide across his face. "You've got problems in Metropolis. We need Wonder Woman for a situation in California, and the Butler says there's an engagement Batman's alter ego needs to go to. And frankly, if Static and Gear tossed you out... I'm not arguing with them. I won't have anyone to fix my iPod if I do."
Kaina'tal and Jacks pulled back their fists in perfectly mirrored precision. Their faces twisted in identical snarls of fury, Kaina's eyes glowing brilliant blue while Jacks' eyes burned neon green. Each surged forward, their fists striking the exact same spot from opposite sides of the yellow shield.
Three powerful magical forces merged.
The Eye of Odin.
Avalon's Avatar, scion of the Warren Witches.
The soul of a fully trained Atlantean Combat Sorceress.
Lesser gods and greater demons trembled.
From not nearly as far away from the furious entity just created as would be healthy came a small voice.
"Ah, crap."
Gear leaned back against the counter next to his partner as Dawn worked her way through the ritual spell. Faith and Miki echoed the boys' position against a wall, well out of the way.
"Uh, bro? There's something you might want to know about that energy reading I took earlier," Gear told him quietly.
Static glanced at him for a second before his eyes drifted back to the unconscious Jacks. "What about it?"
Gear pulled off his helmet and scrubbed a hand through his hair. "The energy pattern... there was already a near match in the system."
"Yeah? You must have most of the Titans and half the League in there, Rich," Static commented absently. "Guess now you know who she was looking in on, huh?"
"Yeah. Yeah, I do, Virg." Gear bit his lip and looked at his friend. "She was looking in on you."
Static's head whipped around so fast Gear was half surprised it didn't keep turning until it went all the way around. "Say what?"
"He's right," Faith cut in. Her eyes never left Dawn as she spoke and Miki didn't so much as twitch. "His timing sucks, but he's right. Dawn did the lineage spell that showed Jacks' first baby lived and traced that line down to your mother, then you and your sister. She was so proud when her grandson showed up and was a Texas Ranger, but one of her great grandkids being an actual superhero? Hell, I never thought she'd stop grinning."
"Then why wasn't she going to say anything?" Static demanded. "Why didn't she say something in the first place?"
This time Miki spoke. "You're angry. Maybe with reason. Maybe not. This not supposed to happen. Didn't mean to interfere in your life. Three hundred years a long time."
"Done," Dawn gasped as she sank back on her heels. "Now we just have to get Mr. Mxyzptlk out of Jacks."
"Wait? Mxyzptlk? The interdimensional imp that keeps bugging Superman?" Static asked, surprise overriding his anger.
Miki snorted. "Jacks has that covered."
All eyes returned to Jacks' unconscious form. A form that was flashing between painfully bright blue and blinding neon green.
Gear quickly pulled his helmet back on, the full face screen better protection from the bright flashing lights than his glasses were.
Miki dived away from the glowing, flashing, form of Jacks as it rose off the bed.
Faith tensed ready to attack whatever it was that had invaded her friend's body.
Dawn had a sharp piece of metal from Gear's work table in one hand and a spell ready on her lips, ready to back up whatever move Faith made.
A bright yellow orb of energy was violently ejected from the glowing mass.
Jacks opened her eyes. From a blue-green glowing face, black star splashed eyes stared at the yellow figure reshaping itself from the orb she had violently forced from her womb. A voice, cold as the wind of a glacier, came from Jacks.
"You. Utter. Bastard."
"Jason? What's wrong?" asked Blue Beetle from where the younger hero had been keeping an eye on a control panel.
Jason Blood frowned. "Something... Something made Etrigan... cringe."
The interdimensional being known as Mr. Mxyzptlk took off his purple bowler hat and brushed away nonexistent dust. "Look, toots, nothing personal. You were just a cheap ride, ya know?"
"Oh, no. Expensive. Very expensive. Even when I was a prostitute, I was a *very* expensive prostitute," Jacks sneered. "So now you're going to pay."
Mr. Mxyzptlk stared at her then blurted out his name backward in an attempt to banish himself back to the 5th Dimension. Only the word came out impossibly garbled. Frantically the imp tried again. And again.
And failed.
Jacks reached toward him fingers arched as if to claw.
The reality bending prankster screamed as something inside him ruptured.
"Call her 'Grams'," Faith hissed at Static, her arms thrown up to shield her eyes from the flashing lights that encompassed her friend.
"What?" Static whispered back as he stared wide eyed at the spectacle before him. His altered biology allowing him to see far more than normal vision. The light flickering blue then green from Jacks wasn't blinding him because he was too caught up in the beauty of the energy aurora wavering around her.
Dawn squirmed back toward them and took up the explanation Faith barely understood. "Call her 'Grams', get her to calm down... or we are all scorched outlines on the walls. She's about to go Avatar of Avalon on his interdimensional ass, and Fey Avalon isn't known for caring about collateral damage!"
"Guilt will kill her if any of us hurt or dead," Miki pointed out.
Static blinked.
Gear helped out. "If she doesn't calm down I have things here that will start exploding, bro."
Virgil "Static" Hawkins pulled off his mask and stepped forward as Jacks pulled back her hand as if to throw something. Energy gathered in her palm, crackling and hissing as it coiled into a ball.
"Grams?" Virgil called, trying to get her attention. "Come on, Grams, Gear has a lot of stuff in here that will definitely explode if you start tossing energy blasts around."
".... " Jacks looked at him and lowered her hand. She blinked, starry night eyes a deep shadow under the translucent glow of her eyelids.
"Kltpzyxm!" Mr. Mxyzptlk shrieked once her attention was off of him, vanishing with a pop.
The energy ball in Jacks' hand dissipated slowly. "Virgil... you know?"
"Yeah, Grams," Virgil said softly. "I know."
"Oh."
Virgil only just managed to keep her from hitting the floor as the aurora around her flickered out one last time and her once again neon green eyes rolled up in her head as she lost consciousness.
Dawn huffed out a breath. "Okay, there has got to be something about this reality that keeps making Jacks faint."
Virgil settled Jacks back onto the bed. His hand moved automatically to push the tangle of white curls out of her face as his eyes searched for some kind of resemblance even as his brain pointed out that after sixty generations he wasn't likely to find one. But still...
Yeah, Sharon had the temper Jacks had displayed when she turned the teenage boy that arrived with them into a turtle and in the fight with Mumbo.
But still....
Something in the curl of her hair, the sweep of her cheekbones, the arch of the orbital socket around her eyes. The fine bone structure over all. Like his Mom. She'd been tiny, too, not as small as Jacks but not much taller. If his mom hadn't been killed he would have been taller than her by the time he started Junior High.
Yeah. He could believe it. Jacks was his ancestor.
"Grams is just exhausted, again, right?" Virgil asked without looking at the others. Now that he knew, calling her Grams didn't seem all that strange.
Miki leaned against his side. "Yeah. Sleep. Food. Drink. She'll be fine."
Paige yanked her hands through her hair in frustration. "We've got nothing. There is that spell Merlin dug up, but..."
"What about asking Willow and Jenny to help?" Tara asked quietly.
"If you hadn't noticed, Aunt Jacks and Jenny kinda hate each other," Paige said dryly. "I'm worried that might effect how the spell goes."
That brought a tiny smile to the younger girl's face. "Yeah. I'd noticed. W-what about you, Giles?"
"The spell we have available is rather... specific," Giles sighed. "It requires the power of at least three female witches. I believe the spell may have been intended for the Charmed Ones."
"And their powers are still bound," Paige said with a grimace. "Damn. I'm going to have to ask Mrs. Halliwell for help."
Giles raised his eyebrows. "I was under the impression that Mrs. Halliwell and Jacks got along as well as Jenny and Jacks do."
"There's one thing between Penny Halliwell and Jacks that isn't between Jenny and Jacks," Xander said. A smirk tugged at his lips. "They call it DNA."
".... Right. I'll be back in a few minutes," Paige grumbled as she picked up the rolled tapestry.
"So... how long do you think it's going to take Vin and Beth to find something to beat the crap out of before killing it?" Xander asked once Paige had orbed out of the basement.
Giles slanted a glance at him as a grim smile tugged at his lips. "I'm sure it would be simpler for them if Good Knight Security weren't so good at their job."
"They're Vin and Beth," Tara said softly. "They'll find something."
Penny Halliwell looked up from the mail when the glowing orbs of a Whitelighter's arrival appeared in her kitchen. She frowned slightly. "I thought you were a witch, Miss Mathews."
"I am. I'm part Whitelighter, too. Which, hey, you probably knew already." Paige dumped the tapestry she was carrying onto the floor by the kitchen island. "Look, here's the deal. We're both related to Jacks and she needs our help."
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Penny said flatly.
Paige leveled a chilly look at the older witch. "Jacqueline Patience Warren Standish, although Tanner is going to get added on there eventually. Daughter of Melinda Warren. Your however many times great aunt. Tiny lady. White hair, green eyes. Pointy ears. Natural born entertainer? Let me know when this starts sounding familiar."
"Okay, so I do have an idea what you're talking about," Penny sighed. "Why are you here, Paige?"
"Jacks and her apprentice were doing a spell when they were interrupted," Paige started explaining. She finished up with, "And so now they're all in our cousin's dimension trying to figure out how to get home."
"We have family in another dimension?"
Paige grinned and unrolled the tapestry.
"Virgil? Richie? You in here boys?" called Robert Hawkins as he walked into the Gas Station with his arms full of grocery bags.
"Back here, Mr. H," Richie called without looking up from the latest gadget he was working on.
Robert smiled as he headed back toward the refrigerator and cabinets. "I thought you boys might be running low on snacks, so I brought some by and ..."
"Hi." The girl was a few years younger than Virgil and Richie. Pretty with dark eyes and hair. Wearing an outfit just like the one he'd seen Starfire from the Titans wearing on television. The girl's nose twitched as she sniffed at the air. "Burritos?"
"Uh, yeah."
"Help yourself, Miki," Richie said absently.
Robert watched the girl roll her eyes and walk over to Richie.
"Hey!" yelped the young blonde as Miki dragged him away from his latest techno-toy.
"You eat. Now. Hear your stomach," Miki said, pushing him toward the grocery bags. "Hear your stomach from other room!"
"Right, food, gotcha!" Richie agreed when he noticed that she was right. He was starving. "Is Jacks awake yet?"
"No," Miki told him with a frown. "She twitches and stuff, but not awake."
"Who's Jacks?" Robert asked Richie quietly.
Miki sniffed at Robert then shrugged at Richie. "You explain."
Robert frowned as the girl wandered further back into the garage. "Richie, what is going on?"
"Ah, you see, Mr. H, it started when these four girls and a guy appeared out of a dimensional rift up in the Watchtower," Richie started.
Jacks and Kaina'tal had separated easily enough from the temporary merger. It wasn't all that different from some of the things they'd done when there was no way for Jacks to win, not without allowing Avalon to take her over.
The very nature of the Eye of Odin on the other hand, was making things a bit more difficult.
"Son of a bitch!" Jacks snarled as she dodged the one eyed wolf creature trying to rip out her spiritual and metaphysical guts.
Kaina'tal snorted. "Taking that a bit literally, heart-sister!"
Jacks waved her hands in the creature's direction, sending a shock wave of force along her arms... and the creature into a wall of obsidian that wasn't there a moment before. "I am going to put out Odin's other eye for losing this one again!"
"He is a bit absentminded isn't he?" Kaina'tal asked fondly, even as she ghosted through the beast's attack.
"Can you not get dreamy about my twit of a cousin?" Jacks demanded as she summoned chains from the ground in the Dreaming. "I am not giving up control of my body to someone else's eye!"
The wolf creature howled and thrashed against the chains. But Jacks was still furious, and denied ripping Mr. Mxyzptlk into confetti, she focused all of that anger into restraining the Eye of Odin. The half-fey sneered and made a yanking gesture that brought the creature eye level with her. Neon green blazed into swirling star spangled darkness.
"Shut up," Jacks hissed. The wolf thing's maw sealed shut and no matter how it tried would not open again. "Just in case you misunderstood things, Eye. This is my mind. My body. I thank you for your assistance with that intruder, but... Yield, or I will find a way to destroy you."
The wolf creature's one eye blinked slowly then the entire creature started to fade away until it was only a piece of jewelery hovering in front of the half-fey.
"That went well," Kaina'tal said cheerily.
Jacks created a mental construct, a heavy wooden chest just big enough to contain the Eye of Odin. And slammed the lid shut over it before wrapping it in metaphysical chains. When she replied to her partner, Jacks' voice was just slightly amused. "Yes. It did."
"If anything happens to my little sister, I'm going to kill Jacks," Beth calmly explained to Vin as they patrolled the edge of town.
Vin snorted. "You're good, Beth, but you ain't that good."
"Who knows, I might surprise you."
For a moment there was total silence and Beth felt a chill climb her spine under Vin's gaze. Then he grinned and the moment passed.
"Y'know Jacks ain't gonna let anything happen to Dawn," Vin pointed out.
It was Beth's turn to snort. "Not even Jacks can protect Dawn from everything. Faith told me all about Panama, thanks."
"Well, that's a point," Vin agreed softly.
Both of them turned their attention back to finding something to take out their frustrations on.
Giles and Tara looked up from their continuing research as Paige returned, with the tapestry and an older woman in tow.
"Paige?" Tara asked softly, the actual question clear in her wide blue eyes.
"This is my Grandmother, Penny Halliwell," Paige said. "These are Giles and Tara. They're two of the kick ass magic users who work with us."
Tara glanced down and blushed slightly. "I'm... n-not very p-powerful."
"Powerful enough that Aunt Jacks practically shoves spell books at you," Paige teased gently.
"A pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Halliwell," Giles said as he offered his hand to the grandmother of the Charmed Ones. "You're granddaughters are all remarkable young ladies."
That earned him an imperiously raised eyebrow. "And you've met my grand... my other granddaughters?"
Giles smirked slightly. "Yes, but they haven't met me yet. Paige is quite remarkable on her own of course, but I look forward to a time when all the Warren Witches stand together in defense of the innocent."
"I don't recommend holding your breath on that account," Penny said sharply. "Now, let's see what we have to work with."
"Okay," Xander said as he came down the stairs with two steaming mugs. "I have Earl Grey and herbal tea... Hey, Paige, Mrs. Halliwell. So, you ladies going to do the spell?"
"First I want to check back in with Aunt Jacks," Paige said. "Make sure they're all in one place and ready to go."
Tara set aside the spell book she'd been working from. "W-we should be able to keep it going longer with Mrs. Halliwell helping."
"Let me see this spell," Penny said as she frowned at the young blonde.
Tara let her hair fall across her face as she moved to open Jacks' grimore. "H-here."
Giles frowned, but held his tongue when Paige shook her head. She rolled her eyes and joined the other two witches hovering over the massive leather bound book. The former Watcher settled back into his research.
Jacks did have several fascinating books, including several filled with spells written in her own hand. Unfortunately, the fey seemed to have little interest or perhaps little ability to travel through dimensions on her own. The book that had turned out to be as much personal journal as it was spell book indicated that every time she had traveled between worlds before had been in the company of Coyote.
Xander quietly checked in with Merlin, but for the moment the girls and Andrew being trapped in a comic book reality was the only major concern. He ruthlessly suppressed his geekier side. But next time Jacks and Dawn did this, he was so going with them.
Jacks' eyes drifted open slowly, her body in that comfortable hazy place between awake and asleep. "Mm.. Nathan?"
"No, my name is Robert," said the dark figure that had been watching her sleep.
"Sorry," Jacks covered her mouth as she yawned. "Virgil's father. You've raised an extraordinary young man."
"I know." Robert stared at her over the rim of his glasses. Had she been younger she would have started squirming nervously. "You aren't taking him away."
"I wasn't even considering such a thing." She sat up, shoving her hair out of her face and swinging her legs over the edge of the bed. "I know how badly losing a child hurts. If I have the choice I won't cause another parent that kind of pain."
Robert frowned at her. She was pale and tiny and looked like a stiff wind could break her in half. "What do you mean if you have the choice?"
"I'm a soldier, Robert." Jacks smiled faintly. "Sometimes, I haven't had the choice... and frankly, I have no intention of dragging Virgil into the war that exists in my world. I can't... I never wanted any of my children to get dragged into my fight."
"What war?"
Jacks took a deep breath and summoned Kaina'tal to her hand. "The war between good and evil, Robert. That vicious bloody struggle in the shadows between those who would enslave or destroy and those who hold life and freedom sacred."
"So you don't think Virgil is good enough to help you," Robert said flatly. He didn't really believe that, but he had to be sure about this woman. He had to be sure she wasn't a threat to his boys.
"No, I think Virgil would be a great help to us, but I don't want Virgil to have to kill." Jacks pressed her hand against the side of her head. "And that is what it would come down to. I will not be responsible for him losing that innocence."
"Okay..." Robert relaxed back into the chair he'd dragged in from the other room. "Now, what exactly are you?"
"The ears weren't a dead give away? I'm half-fey. Or Faerie, which ever, please do not call me an elf. My mother was Melinda Warren, my father is Puck." Jacks shrugged. "I'm a lot of things. I'm also Avalon's Avatar, but that's only occasionally useful and more often a pain in my butt."
"My children are part faerie?"
Jacks held up her hand, thumb and forefinger held so closely together that only a sheet of paper could be slid between them. "Only an itty bitty bit. It's been sixty two generations since a full fey mixed in our line after all. Relax, their ears aren't even pointed."
Robert chuckled. "I think I'll like having you for an in-law."
"I certainly like you better than my daughter's first husband. I never did understand what Colleen saw in Herman."
Virgil backed away from the door to the backroom of the gas station. "Is anyone else slightly creeped out that my dad and my half-fey great-great-great grandma are getting along?"
"Only totally," Faith said as she joined him in backing up.
Dawn shrugged. "So... food?"
Richie moaned and belched slightly.
"You know, since Boy-Genius and Miki scarfed all the burritos your dad brought over?" Dawn continued.
Miki rolled open one eye with the air of a lazy, very well fed cat. Then belched. Loudly.
"Could be worse," Faith laughed. "Jacks could have gotten some. And you know what beans do to her."
Dawn mimed gagging. Jacks had been forbidden to eat the Gut Buster Bean Burrito at Mexico Max's Burrito Hut, ever, ever again. And Jesse had been banned from ever daring her to eat anything ever again. On pain of death.
"So, Burger Fool?" Virgil suggested.
"Is that anything like Burger Barn or Moobie's?" Faith asked. "I could go for some serious Slider action. Extra onions."
"Double cheese," Dawn added cheerfully. "Large fries."
"Burger Fool it is then... but what's a Slider?" Virgil asked as he followed the two girls out the door.
Richie peeled his eyes open to glance at Miki. "Jacks isn't allowed to eat Mexican food?"
"Gut Buster Bean Burrito. Toxic fumes," Miki explained.
Richie nodded. He had quickly gotten the hang of Miki's speech pattern, at least once he realized that her body language and tone were large parts of what she was saying. The only one who had gotten it faster was Beast Boy, but Richie figured that was mostly due to his green friend spending so much time in animal forms.
Jacks and Robert were paying homage to the Caffeine Gods when a hazy female form started to appear in the corner.
Robert raised his eyebrows and he peered over his glasses. "Friend of yours, Jacks?"
"Relative," she sighed. "Robert Hawkins, this is my niece. Penny. Penny, this is your cousins' father, Robert."
Penny frowned. "Where are the others?"
"Andrew is currently a turtle in a fish bowl up in the Watchtower," Jacks said. "Faith and Dawn have gone to find massive amounts of cheese burgers, and Miki is in the other room watching Richie build impossibly advanced technology from spare parts and scrap metal."
Vin and Beth whirled around each other, swords flickering in a complicated dance until the Immortal Texan and the original Slayer Summers stood back to back. Both panted lightly as they watched for the next sign of attack by the group of once cocky young demons.
"Ya feeling calmer?" Vin asked.
Beth grinned ferally. "Nope. You?"
"Nope." Vin found himself grinning as well.
The remaining demons shifted nervously even though they still out numbered the two, apparently, human warriors.
"Come on, uglies, we don't have all night," Beth called out, with blood thirsty cheer ringing in her voice.
A Polgara took exception to her attitude and charged, trying to skewer both fighters at once.
Beth dodged one way, Vin went the other as if they had practiced the move a thousand times over. As Beth's Sunsword dove for the Polgara's heart from the side, Vin's blessed sword sliced deeply into the stomach of another demon that had tried to take advantage of the Polgara's attack.
"You're not bad at this, Vin," Beth shouted as the fighting sent them swirling around one another again.
Vin laughed. "I been doin' this a long time, Beth!"
"It shows!"
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