Recombination

Disclaimer: I own nothing in this fic, i leave that up to the makers of Buffy and i merely use and abuse the characters from time to time.

A/N:Thanks to my very kind beta MAI who i only just got, she’s has checked over the whole of my fic Recombination and corrected it and given me advice. So I’ll post it back here in segments as I correct it, especially the last chapter, which I felt, fell flat and she suggested cool ideas for.
So thanks again Mai!


Chapter 1: Prologue

"So this is your plan is then?" The man asked indifferently to his companions. The short, dark eyed man smiled sardonically whilst his female companion nodded somewhat hesitantly. "An intriguing project," the man continued, staring directly into her eyes, "but is it worth it?"

A chill surrounded the three of them, as they stared at the mass of laboratory equipment surrounding them. There were several nervous technicians bustling around trying to avoid eye contact.

"We think so," the female answered in an amused, yet cold voice, "but judge for yourself." She keyed in a code on the nearest computer which opened a door that, to the naked eye, seemed to just have appeared from the flat surface of the wall. The three silently made their way inside. A nervous and over-exuberant man, clad in a white
lab coat and scrubs, rushed up to greet them.

"Sorry, we had no idea if you were coming today; I've got most of the notes in order and we are on schedule for today." The man put a finger to his lips and the scientist cut off talking automatically. Though the man appeared average and middle aged, the scientist wasn't going to take any chances; the man’s reputation preceded him. All three pairs of eyes were locked on a small glass cubical and the scientist turned to watch them.

"Is it in there?" the man inquired his voice neutral. The scientist nodded hesitantly, he could feel the power that the man had over the other two, and it unnerved him.

"V-vitals are good. Brilliant actually, considering the speed of growth and development. We have run numerous blood tests and it appears to be fine, perfect in fact." His voice contained a trace of awe.

The man glanced at him with a slight smile playing around his lips, "I see." He moved closer to the cubical, his small entourage following and his smile deepened. "So I see," he confirmed, "and what exactly is it?"

The scientist hurriedly looked down on his notes. "Female, approximately 18 months of age, outwardly it appears normal. Its growth is unprecedented; it was only removed from the host a few weeks ago, which
was destroyed," he added hurriedly.

"Under my orders," the woman interjected, "she had served her purpose, we had no more use for her, so the good doctor here performed a somewhat premature," her mouth flickered into a quick smile, "autopsy. She remained human, no change save for a slightly elevated amount of oxygen in the blood."

The scientist nodded in agreement. "Usual in human pregnancy but fascinating none the less." He looked over his notes, "As I was saying, we removed it several weeks ago and its growth is, well, you can see," he gestured to the cubical.

The man nodded "But what is it?" he asked again, raising an eyebrow slightly.

"What I believe we wish to know is - what use is it?" the dark eyed man finally spoke up giving the woman a chilling, almost smug smile.

"Of course!" the scientist answered his eyes widening, "It’s perfect. A perfect specimen, completely aware and intelligent," he smiled slightly seeing the other men's looks of curiosity. "More so than your average human baby. It is able to read basic sentences and its motor skills are advanced enough to write them down, basic writing you understand, almost a four year olds standard. Unfortunately it is unable to speak," he admitted. "But the rest of its attributes, physical and mental are well above normal. The child can walk, run and move with an unnatural grace for a pre-toddler. The male's DNA seems to have taken precedent over the females in the physical area. It has extremely enhanced strength and is able to lift loads of almost three times its own weight. It
has exceptionally fast healing, not as fast as a normal vampire but well above human. The female's DNA seems to have given it a human appearance, it only changes when in contact with blood."

The short man coughed, "So it drinks blood?" he asked disbelieving,

The scientist nodded "Human or animal, though it seems to prefer human; it only requires one maybe two pints a week directly ingested. We give it three set meals a day consisting of the five food groups, human food groups. Vegetables, minerals you understand." he added quickly. "It seems partial to those high in sugar." He stared into the cubical. "It seems a lot less deadly then than we believe it has potential to be," he murmured, wonderment turning too almost reverence on his face.

"It appears human," the man said slowly, "but it could be of use." He sighed and glanced at the woman, "how often do you come here?"

The woman stared into the cubical avoiding his eyes. "At least once a day, I like to be informed," she murmured. The dark eyed man raised an eyebrow looking from it to the woman.

"I see." The other man made no comment so he continued. "So the female, the mother gave it the human appearance? Strange how it looks more like the father," he commented.

The woman glowered at him, "This is the only one we have who survived; whether demon or human. For some reason the other female embryos aborted and the male survivors died within days." Her eyes glanced back to the cubical. "But you are right she is more like him." Her eyes locked on the thoughtful dark brown eyes in the
cubical. "Same eyes, same hair."

The dark eyed males' eyebrows raised, "She? I'm surprised Lilah, you know you shouldn't be thinking like this, maybe you've become too attached to the project?" Lilah's gaze whipped round on him, and she momentarily stepped forward as if to grab him by the throat, but stilled at the last minute. The other man and the scientist watched, the former amused and the later embarrassed. The woman's voice shook slightly with barely controlled anger, "The only attachment I have is wanting to see how well she can be trained and what kind of assassin she'll be. That and the added bonus of the look on his face when she comes up against him."

She turned back to the man and glanced at the cubical annoyance twisting her features. "She can't hear us can she?" she asked carefully, seeing the intelligence in the deep brown eyes.

"No, of course not," the scientist answered. "Her hearing is extremely sensitive but the glass is several centimeters thick and completely soundproof."

The three seemed to accept this. The woman's gaze kept drifting back to the thoughtful eyes still locked on them. The man was looking over her notes. "Well, I must say you have redeemed yourself in my eyes, and I’m confident the senior partners will see it this way too, Lilah. I am completely satisfied by this report." He closed the report, noting with amusement the jealous look from the male, and the slight smile from his female companion. "Now when Gavin came up with the idea to take Connor, I must admit I believed he would come out tops, but this..." His smile widened. "It would make an interesting assassin, and I'm sure we would all welcome that; however if you did it once you can do it again. The samples are still here, I presume?"

The scientist balked slightly, "Yes, the female's DNA and eggs we still have of the human version are still functional. For the male we have enough blood samples to extract from."

The man's smile broadened, although a cold light shone from his eyes. He moved in front of the cubical and squatted down with one hand on the glass. "I told you I love kids, didn't I?" he said in an almost wistful voice. Waving his hand slightly as the tiny one on the other side of the glass waved back. "Oh you're cute, aren't you?" his voice took on a babyish patronizing tone, "and you'd be even cuter if we let you grow up, but now your mummy's gone we only need to get rid of your daddy and that's where you come in." He turned back to the small crowd, "Cut her open, find out how she works, then if all goes to plan, make another." He looked back at the child. "Maybe looking more like its mother?" he added.

The short man smiled smugly, "Well Lilah, looks like you'll get to prove yourself then. You suggested the same thing for the other one, didn't you?" He smirked at the child who still held his gaze. "Yes…" the man said slowly, "shame, maybe we could have got your brother in too. To see how different you were?" he smiled again.

"It's half vampire-half human, the other child was completely human, wasn't it?" the scientist asked enthusiastically, "That would have been interesting."

The man quickly stood up and moved back over to the group. "One week, gather the information you need, then we'll be back for the final study." He strode out of the room, the other two followed, leaving the scientist to nod enthusiastically, and dash for his computer.

The woman cast a look back, and jumped slightly seeing the child's eyes still observing them. Both of her colleagues were too busy with trading theories on the child’s 'working parts' to notice. Her mouth opened slightly as she saw the certainty in the child's eyes, she'd heard every word, no matter what assurances had been given. Lilah knew that she was right. The child blinked, a sorrowful look in her eyes before she turned around to play with the toys. Lilah looked down at her hands as she followed her colleagues out of the door, they were shaking slightly. Unnerved, she pushed them into her pockets and tried to concentrate on being enthusiastic over the project, when all she could see was the child face in her mind.

Chapter 2 Explanations

"A brothel? You brought me to a demon brothel?" Wesley Wyndham-Price’s eyes were wide. He stared around the lush, red and gold interior of the waiting room. Had it not been for the nearly naked vampire being led on a leash by a stunningly gorgeous woman, he would have believed it to be something completely different.

Confusion clouded his features and he turned back to Lilah, suspiciously looking her over. "Is this how you recruit most of your employees?" he asked disbelief in his voice. "If nothing else works pay for them to get laid?" He shook his head "What? You thought because you didn't do it for me, you'd find someone who could?" his voice was growing steadily higher.

Exasperated Lilah glowered at him "Contrary to your beliefs Wesley, I don't pay to have someone in my bed unless it suits me, so why the hell would I pay for someone in yours? Yes you could be an asset as far as Wolfram and Hart are concerned but that is not why I brought you here!" She emphasized her last words by striding through the lobby and pulling open one of the swinging gold doors. "Well?" she turned back to him, disguising her nervousness with a cold smile.

"Fine." Wesley strode by her, yanking the door from her hand and stepping through. He stood his arms crossed and annoyed scowl on his face as she entered behind him. Through the tightly closed doors on either side of them, the soft moans and pleadings of various customers could be heard. "So what now then?" he asked as she walked around him, suspicion on his face.

Lilah sighed. "I show you something, you agree to help me and Wolfram and Hart is none the wiser." She nodded at the smiling woman on reception, who stood up and beckoned for them to follow.

"And why would I do that pray tell?" he asked a hard smile on his face, as they followed the woman, who led them to a small red door before nodding and excusing herself.

Lilah laid her hand hesitantly on the door; she turned to look into his eyes. She respected him, strange as it sounded and more importantly she trusted him to do the right thing, even if she was going to have to play on his emotions to do it. Instead of answering his question, she opened the door, revealing an illustriously designed bedroom, bathed in a soft pink light.

They both stood at the door looking in, Lilah still staring at Wesley. Wesley moved into the room his eyes locked on the bed. He frowned in displeasure seeing the tiny figure nestled within the blankets on the bed and glanced at her "A little young isn't she?" he asked trying to keep his voice steady although the idea of the toddler being used in such a fashion reviled him greatly.

Lilah followed him in shutting the door behind her. "It was the only place I could bring her," she stated "It's not like Wolfram and Hart aren't combing the city for her right now. The people here can be trusted, they keep their mouths shut- for a price of course but with the amount of demons who come in and out of here, and its high
profile, being the biggest demon/human brothel in LA, it was the perfect hideaway."

She avoided looking at the child on the bed. "I'll explain this to you but don't expect me to have some compassionate human reasoning behind my actions; there isn't any. I just don't want to see one of my biggest projects destroyed…" a slightly unpleasant smile played around her lips. "Call this what you like Wes, Karmic retribution, a second chance, redemption; whatever makes you feel better; it's a game pure and simple."

She nodded to the child on the bed "Pick her up, she won't bite," the strange smile was back again, "unless she's hungry."

Not understanding a word she was saying, *if this is some kind of test* he thought moving to the bed. He bent down; placing his arms around the little girls' body and froze as her eyes opened slightly unfocused and blinking. The little girl rubbed at her eyes, regarding him curiously, thankfully she seemed unafraid. He let out a sigh of relief, bitch as she may be he had difficulty thinking Lilah was involved in child-prostitution.

Carefully he picked the child up settling her on his hip her small fists clutching at his shirt as she stared curiously at him. He looked towards Lilah. "So what's the game then?" he asked resigned.

She crossed her arms "Does she remind you of anyone?" she asked curiously gesturing to the child.

Wesley looked down at the small body spooned against him "A toddler?" he replied innocently as he regarded her features, the small eyes fixed on his own and he froze "Good lord."

"Remarkable isn't it?" Lilah said in satisfaction. "Remarkable what we can do nowadays. Now Linwood, he always goes for the demonic approach, me? Well with all the human scientific approaches I wanted to see what could work for me." She moved over to him and stroked the child’s face softly;

Wesley resisted the urge to pull the girl away. "Human science, works marvels these days, " she continued "Strange isn't it, aside from Connor who admittedly the powers were more responsible for, there's never been any other vampire births, until now. The things we find out. Did you know the reason vampires can't have children?" she waited for almost a minute to see if he would reply before continuing.

"They believe it’s because the bodies are dead, unsuitable even. That's true in a way but its more complex then that. The females can't produce eggs because their body no longer undergoes the human ovulation process. They don't have any metabolism and so don't produce the key ingredients needed, but." and here she paused a smirk
on her face, "they still have the ovaries, the eggs locked inside them. It's simply a simple process of extracting them, much the same way as in IVF treatment. Now human eggs are alive and require no treatment and since it is extremely difficult to make a vampires egg viable we used a human one. But we wanted something special, different, and stronger then any old egg. Something that stood a chance so we used Darla's."

Wesley started "but…" he interjected as Lilah carried on.

"The human version of her. That's how we found out she had syphilis. When we examined her each week before Drusilla turned her back, we found she was able to produce strong healthy human eggs, at least till the syphilis got to them. Why do you think she was so hormonal most of the time? We needed as many eggs produced as possible.” She smirked

"Now in the case of male vampires, the DNA is there but it's locked up; unable to penetrate the egg, unable to move. But it's still fresh." She mused for a moment. "In IVF they often use sperm frozen using liquid nitrogen. The sperm are still viable it's just a matter of de-frosting them. Now when Darla retrieved some of this from Angel we found his sperm to be frozen like that. It's as if the body is in stasis. Everything's frozen, exactly the same as it was when they were human. But we couldn't quite figure it out. How could we get it inside the egg?" She raised an eyebrow.

Wesley frowned dredging up information he'd collected years before. An idea struck him, from a paper he'd once read; Scientific America "Shock it?" he asked curiously, he understood the theory behind her idea, it was simple. Too simple for his liking in fact.

She nodded "Electrical stimulus. Inject the DNA from the sperm directly into the egg, using electricity to start the process. Within a matter of hours it begins to divide and cells are formed. Inject the egg into a human woman and she can carry the baby to term."

His mouth dropped slightly. "But there's so much risk involved in all likelihood the baby would abort or be born dead or deformed unless you used something to stop it…" his voice trailed off. "You injected the woman with their blood didn't you? Or another vampire’s blood, Drusilla’s maybe? Vampire blood has the ability to heal so if injected…." He looked down at the child. "Good god."

"Not quite." Lilah smirked. "We did have difficulties, especially when the Geneticists tried to influence the embryo. Ideally we wanted it to be more vampiric then human but it's a little trickier than that. Turning on certain genes activated and inactivated other crucial ones, and vice versa. Like a cascade, we couldn't just manipulate one without affecting many, which is why we had so many 'dead eggs'. But, eventually the doctor in charge of my project did a control, he let the egg divide and recombine on its own."

She looked at the child. "She was the first viable embryo and our only hybrid child. We didn't figure Darla's DNA would be strong enough to compete with Angel’s you see, but apparently we got lucky. Whether she was like that before she was turned or if it was due to her being brought back I don't know. But her DNA has an extremely high rate of recombination and it gave Angel’s a run for its money, resulting in her."

Wesley stared down at the child who yawned. Monster or miracle of science he wasn't sure. "So what happened? Why isn't she being poured over, studied?" he asked looking up at Lilah, a closed expression on his face.

Lilah shrugged carelessly "Linwood ordered her terminated. To cut a long story short, I enlisted Volief demons, very family orientated, they regard all life as holy. Kind of fanatical if you ask me."

Wesley made a small sound in the back of his throat but stopped as he felt the child shift uncomfortably.
"When a little `friend' told them what the scientists were planning to do and donated a large sum of money towards their cause…well let’s just say, bloody brutal mayhem about covers it." She smiled. "They grabbed her for me, I brought her here. The lab is trashed, all the samples gone and my head doctor is missing several of his limbs."

Wesley shuddered slightly and sat down on the bed pulling the little girl on his lap and covering her ears. He glared up at Lilah. "And this has to do with me because?"

Lilah rolled her eyes. "Get you head out of your backside Wesley. Wolfram and Hart are always suspicious, they're still watching me, and I can't take the child anywhere. I can't care for her, not that I feel inclined to anyway and I can't leave her here. Now as you know we both have similar tastes. No one is at all surprised to see me here, knowing my background and knowing your `preferences' shall we say, they won't be surprised to find you here."

Wesley's eyes widened in outrage and he kept his hands firmly over the child ears. "Well I'm glad you find my sexual antics fascinating," he murmured stiffly "So I guess this means I'm to take care of her?"

Lilah grinned running a hand over the child’s head "Not quite, I know you have contacts of your own Wesley. I want you to get her out of here, someplace far away. You know it's strange…" She regarded him with a toothy grin. "You got one of Angel's children kidnapped and now you're responsible for another, one not even he knows about. Oh well." She shrugged carelessly.

"You'd better give up this silly hunt for him you know. He's been gone almost 3 months now, so why not do something more positive. Let the rest of your friends," the word slipped out silkily, "search for him." She patted the child’s head and handed him a piece of paper "Things she eats, and things she won't. She needs blood twice a week or so depending on how tired she is, and she grows extremely fast. See if you can do something about that. She doesn't speak, I don't know if she can't or won't and she's clever. Take care of her Wesley."

She stood up and walked back over to the door, she hesitated as she opened it and heard Wesley's voice behind her, "What do I call her?"

She looked back at the two of them, the puzzled and worried watcher cradling a unique child. "Annemarie." She replied turning her back and moving out of the room *It was my mothers' name.*

TBC