Disclaimer: All the Joss-verse characters do not belong to me, they belong to Joss and associated parties. I'm just borrowing them and then putting them back safely in his hands. Robyn and Charlotte however, are my own creations, and part's of Robyn's background come from Christopher Golden's wonderful Pretty Maids All in a Row.

PROLOGUE

It was a wild night, as it so often was in Scarborough. The small seaside town in the North Yorkshire area of England was known for its ever changing weather, mainly changing into rain, snow, or something else equally inclement. In a small top floor flat off one of the main roads, a young woman had just given birth, all alone, without medical assistance due to the fact that she'd hidden her pregnancy from everyone. Thankfully though, it had been a quick birth, almost as if the baby had known she had a destiny to fulfil in this world. The child did, but even as she lay sleeping in her mother's arms, no-one could have even imagined what hurt her future would hold.

Eight years later her mother tell's her; about the vampires, the demons; about all the dark things in the world; about how it may prove her destiny to protect the world from them. So with resignation she leaves her mother, going to live instead with a man she knows to be her uncle, although she knows that he must never know this. Going every day to a large old building, learning how to defeat the forces of evil.

Ten years on. The girl turns eighteen. She has blossomed into quite an attractive young girl. With gleaming auburn hair just below shoulder length, a peaches and cream complexion, eyes of a sherry brown, and a figure, which although small and slender, holds hidden strengths. A letter which her mother has left to her prompts her to find out about her heritage, to find out where her destiny springs from, and to understand herself better. A name in the letter is one she recognises from her ten years with the Council. She begins a quest of self-discovery, a quest to find her father. This is the story of that quest.

CHAPTER ONE ~ A New Beginning

Robyn was just nearing the end of dinner with Brad Pitt when suddenly she was jerked awake. It only took her a second to realise why she'd woken so abruptly, She had just entered the small town of Sunnydale, California, and could sense the bad vibes which seemed to overwhelm the place. But, she wasn't here on Council business. The Council didn't have any idea she was even here. In her search for her father, she had found out that he had last been heard of working in a High School library in this town, but Robyn had got that information from a newspaper article of three years ago. Robyn didn't have any idea whether he was still around, especially now he didn't work for the Council. Not that their records had been helpful, the locations which gave the information of where people were based were in some kind of code, and not even Robyn had been able to solve it. She knew, however, that he had been based on a Hellmouth, adding weight to her instinctive feeling that Sunnydale would be where she would find her father.

As Robyn looked around her dingy motel room, she wondered whether she should have told her boyfriend where she was going. But he had gigs with his band for the next couple of weeks. There was no point in telling him, because, well, he'd probably have wanted to come with her. He had a past in the town, but Robyn didn't think she could deal with his past, especially considering that if he got angry then he was likely to hurt people, as well as finding out about her own, and maybe catching a glimpse of what the future might hold. Her first stop was a news-stand. She bought a copy of the local paper and a map. There was somewhere she was going to be headed tonight, and she wanted to make sure she didn't get lost. Then she went to a magick shop, by the name of The Magic Box. She was intending on buying some ingredients for a small spell, but as she walked towards the counter she saw the man behind it, and in her shock bumped into a red-headed girl and dropped all of the things she had picked up.

"I'm sorry, I didn't see you there. Here, let me help you."
Robyn looked at the other girl, she sensed a lot of power within. "Thank you. It's the first time I've been to Sunnydale. I must have been daydreaming."
"Oh, don't worry about it. Are you getting all this for a spell?"
"I was, but I've suddenly remembered that I didn't pack something from home I need for it. I'll get the ingredients another time."

"Well, what is it you've forgotten. I mean, Maybe Giles has it in stock."
Robyn improvised quickly "I doubt it, It's something very personal that was given to me by my mother. It's her way of always being with me... which is quite ironic as I've left it in England."
Willow liked this stranger. She sensed something about her, and there was something familiar about her, although Willow couldn't place what it was. "Oh, Mom stuff! Mine's pretty used to me being a Wicca now, but she's still a bit antsy around my girlfriend." Willow shrugged, smiling.
"Well, this is more Dad stuff than 'Mom' stuff."
"Ohhhhh..."
"In fact I should be going, I need to get some sun-tan lotion, I never put enough on and I burn terribly easily."
"Okay then, maybe I'll see you in here some other time, when you have what you need. I'm Willow Rosenberg by the way."
"Robyn Gi... uh... Johnson. Pleased to meet you. Now I really should go" and with that Robyn left the Magick Shop. She knew she couldn't get the ingredients for the spell now. She wondered why her father, for that was who she'd recognised the man behind the counter as, from a photo she'd seen almost every day of her life, wasn't at the library. Maybe he just helped out on occasion. But she'd go and see him at the library tonight. Hopefully he'd be alone, it would be much easier to break the news that way.

Back in the Magic Box Willow turned to Giles, who was staring after the girl.
"Hey, Giles, what's up?"
"What... oh, nothing. What did that girl say her name was?"
"Robyn Johnson, Why?"
"She reminds me of someone I used to... um... know. The resemblance is striking, in fact. She could almost be related. But..." he tailed off... lost in remembering... suddenly he snapped back to the now... "Willow, would you be so kind as to get some more petrified Hamster's out of the basement... I swear I don't know what Anya keep's doing with them."