True Happiness.

A/N: I’ve been watching too much of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and “Angel” lately. That was how I came up with this; oh, that and reading WAY too much of the Weather Warden series by Rachel Caine. This is basically where, in the episode of “Angel” called “I Will Remember You,” the clock got thrown back by the Oracles, but what happened remained… such as Angel and Buffy getting it on. Say the Buffster got pregnant, and – Ta-da! Alanna is what came from it. This is about Angel and Buffy having a daughter that Angel, Cordelia, and Wesley basically raise – even though she’s a Djinn [genie] and was born a grown 20-year-old. And she’s tougher, stronger, wiser, and more powerful than both her parents put together.

So. Let’s begin.
_____________________________________________________________________

Chapter One: I Remember, Too.

Angel sat on the desk, Cordelia sat behind it, and Wesley stood, stunned by what he saw standing in their doorway. It was girl. She looked exactly like Buffy: small, round face, big eyes, bright smile. She even carried herself the same as the Slayer. But she had olive skin, long, wavy dark brown hair, and pretty brown eyes. She stood with her arms crossed over her breasts. She wore a tight pair of dark blue jeans, a pair of white sneakers, and a dark green ballet top. She smiled at the small group. “Hi there,” she greeted them with a small, meek wave.

“Why the hell do you look like Buffy?” Cordelia asked bluntly. Angel and Wesley turned and stared at her. She blinked at them. “What? Just putting into words what was on all our minds.”

“She’s right,” Angel said, turning back to the girl in his doorway. “Who are you, and why do you look like the Slayer?”

After a moment’s hesitation, the girl looked at the doorway around her. Angel thought for a moment that maybe she was a vampire, but then she stepped right in, proving him wrong. But he knew that she wasn’t human. She didn’t smell human, she didn’t act human… but she sure as hell looked human. She walked right up to Angel and looked up into his deep eyes. “My name is Alanna,” she told him in a quiet voice that sounded almost exactly like Buffy’s.

“Angel, be careful!” Wesley called out right then. Angel and Alanna looked at him. “She’s not human!”

“Yes, Wesley, I know,” the vampire shot back.

“She’s a Djinn,” Wesley finished. Angel and Cordelia both just stared at him and blinked. Alanna giggled a schoolgirl’s giggle. “They don’t know what that is, silly young one,” she told Wesley. The ex-Watcher stared at her, a little startled. Alanna smiled at him warmly. “Don’t worry, I know you’re a little afraid of me. You should be.”

“Why?” Angel asked right then. “Are you going to hurt him? Or any of us, for that matter?”

Alanna giggled again. “No,” she told him. “Of course not. Mom wouldn’t like that very much, now, would she?”

He gave her a puzzled look. “Who is your mother?”

She just smiled at him. “Take a guess.”

“Joyce?” he asked after a moment. “Are you Buffy’s long lost sister or something?”

Alanna laughed, a loud, happy sound that made Angel’s heart twist when he heard it. He realized right then that she wasn’t Buffy’s sister. He realized that she looked like a mixture of two people he knew very well, although one he hadn’t seen in centuries…

“You’re Buffy’s daughter,” he mumbled.

“Ick!” Cordelia cried out suddenly. “Who did Buffy do it with beside you?”

Alanna, Angel, and Wesley turned and looked at her. She blinked. “What?” she asked. Wesley stepped forward and whispered something in her ear. Her eyes widened, and she stared at Angel. “How could you?” she shrieked. “You’re evil again? Ugh! There goes my paycheck!”

“Cordelia, I’m not evil,” Angel told her.

“Then how on earth could you and Buffy have had a kid together?” she asked. “Or are you uncursed now?”

“He’ll never be uncursed, Cordelia,” Wesley told her. “A Djinn may be conceived at any time. She could have been conceived the first time they slept together, when Angel lost his soul.”

“Or I could have been conceived the day Dad become mortal and screwed Mom all day in his underground lair,” Alanna piped in, using the same tone Buffy had always used when she was borderlining sarcasm. She grinned at her father knowingly, and he stared at her in shock, his mouth open a little. “I know about that,” she told him, her face becoming serious. “I know about the demon. I know about Doyle. I know about the trip to visit the Oracles and asking them to kick back time. I know how… upset Mom was when you came back and told her the deal.” She watched him carefully. “But I know why you did it. You loved her. You still love her. She still loves you, somewhere in the recesses of her heart. She pushes all memory of you away. Now, though…” Alanna looked away. “She won’t have to worry about that anymore.”

Angel shifted, a little worried at her tone and her words. “What do you mean?”

Alanna wouldn’t look at him. Wesley was the one who spoke up: “Angel, one of the more distinguishing characteristics of Djinn is that they are rarely conceived, and after that, their chances of being born are just above none. They can only be conceived by a Slayer, and since hardly any Slayers reach the age of sexual consent nowadays…” Wesley shook his head. “But when one is conceived… it can only be born from death.”

Angel turned and looked at Alanna. “When?” he asked her.

She looked up at him finally, tears in her eyes. “Two days ago,” she whispered. “But, Dad, she’s happier.”

The news still sent Angel reeling. He reached for the nearest chair, ready to collapse, but he knew he wouldn’t make it into the chair. Suddenly, it flew to him, and he fell into it. He blinked and looked up at Wesley for an explanation. They were in the office, not at Cordelia’s apartment; Dennis was nowhere to be found here. Wesley pointed to Alanna, who only smiled.

“So,” Angel started. He watched Alanna and sighed. “What all can you do?”

She looked at Wesley, raising an eyebrow at him. “Go ahead, smart guy,” she told him in a once more identical-to-Buffy tone. “I know you’re dying to tell him all about me. Heck, maybe you’ll come up with something I didn’t even know about myself.” She shrugged her shoulders and sat on the arm of Angel’s chair, getting comfortable. Angel watched her warily for a few minutes, but once Wesley started speaking, all eyes in the room shifted to him. “Djinn fall into two categories: Claimed and unclaimed. As of this moment, I would feel safe to say that Alanna is unclaimed.” Alanna nodded. “Good. That means that she is free to do as she likes, but she has limited abilities. At most, an unclaimed Djinn can do parlor tricks, like the thing with the chair. Minor abilities will only take small amounts of her energy, and she can do them with ease, but major things will take a much greater amount of strength. For example, Alanna will be able to disappear and reappear wherever she pleases. This would be her ability to become an ethereal being and move through other planes of existence. This would only use a small amount of energy, but say she tried to move someone else with her through these other planes of reality, like myself or Angel? It’s possible for her to accomplish such a feat, but the task would afterward render her powerless and lethargic for quite some time. She would need to recharge herself and rest.”

“So we’ve basically got our own teleportation device now!” Cordelia said brightly, sitting up in her swivel chair. Alanna and Angel gave her nearly identical stares, blinking simultaneously.

Wesley huffed a little at Cordelia’s comment. “Cordelia, she is NOT a toy. She is not a device. Civilizations have fallen from the wrath of a Djinn; they are not beings to be messed with.”

Cordelia put her hands in the air. “All right, geez. You could’ve just said ‘No joking at Angel’s kid’s expense cause she’ll go as homicidal as Daddy someday.’”

Angel and Wesley looked at each other. Wesley continued, “If Alanna were to be claimed, Angel, she would have boundless energy to expend. She would draw it from the one holding the bottle.”

Cordelia scoffed. “Bottle? Seriously? Like a real genie?”

Wesley nodded to her. “It must be made of a breakable substance, such as glass or crystal. It gives the Djinn a fighting chance to be free once again.

“As a claimed Djinn, Alanna would also be forced to obey whatever orders the holder of the bottle issued her.” The ex-Watcher stepped forward, lowering his voice. “Angel, if Alanna were ever to be claimed by someone outside of this room…” He shuddered visibly.

Angel looked at Wesley. He sighed and looked at Alanna. She smiled at him, the big bright Buffy smile. He stood and started to walk away. Behind him, Alanna called, “You’re going to have to deal with seeing it sometime!”

He shook his head, wondering what he and Buffy have gotten him into this time.
__________________________________________________________________

Whoo. Tired. Just hit the button already. You know, the one that says “Review”? You know you want to.