From Dusk Till Dawn
By Vixen
This was written after the episode Triangle, before all the pieces of the puzzle
came together. It's an alternate version of how Dawn finds out she's the key.
Dislaimer: Do I look like Joss? No, I didn't think so. Therefore I don't own any
of them.
"But they don't know that it's Dawn?"
"No."
Buffy and Giles' voices floated into the living room, getting the attention of
the young girl. Dawn inched her way towards the kitchen doorway. They were
talking about her, Why were they talking about her?
"I still can't even begin to grasp this," Joyce paused, at a loss for words, the
only thing she could think of to say was the only thing she knew in her heart,
"She's my little girl."
"It is disorienting." He nodded.
"Giles, what happens if they figure it out?"
"I don't know."
Dawn was now standing very near the doorway. She knew she would get caught, but
curiosi held her there. She had to find out what they were talking about, what
they knew that she didn't.
"Oh, I can't even think about this. It's too…" She sighed, concerned for her
daughter. Joyce looked up and her thoughts halted. "Dawn."
She tried to turn around and just go back to her room but somehow her feet just
wouldn't do what she wanted. So instead she walked into the dinning room, "What
are you talking about?"
Buffy looked up at her. How could she explain this to her? "Dawn…"
Joyce stood up, and put an arm around her youngest daughter, and pulled out a
chair, "I think you better sit down, honey."
Dawn sat down but her defenses went up, "I heard what you said. That it's
disorienting… What are you keeping from me?"
"Do you remember when I told you about Glory?" Buffy asked.
"Yeah," Dawn said slowly, "Big psycho lady, kicked your butt big time?"
"She's looking for a key... er... maybe that's not the best way to start,"
Buffy continued, "On that show I used to watch with you, Sailor Moon, there was
that little girl who everybody thought was Serena's cousin, but she wasn't...
she was,"
"Serena and Darien's future daughter." Dawn looked shocked, "I'm your daughter?
Does this have something to do with Angel?!"
Buffy shook her head, but then thought about it, nah couldn't be. "Okay, lemme
start again, once upon a time in a land far far away, there were these monk
dudes and they built a key…"
"The one Glory is looking for?"
"Yeah, but don't worry about that, cause trust me she will never ever ever get
to the key or my name isn't Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Anyway this key was made
of pure energy, and they sent this key to someone for safekeeping."
Dawn thought she knew where this was going, "Sorry, you made a mistake. See, I
don't have a key."
"Dawn…" Buffy gathered her courage, "You are the key."
The young girl stood up, "What are you talking about?!?" She searched her
mother's face for some sign that Buffy was lying. Nothing.
Buffy got up from the table and walked over to her, "Dawn, I don't care what you
are you'll always be--"
"No! No! You're lying! You're a freak and so you want everyone else to be a
freak! Well, I'm not, okay, I am 100% Grade A normal. I'm not a 'key'. I'm a
human, I have the birth certificate to prove it! Tell her mom."
"It was all faked," Buffy said, trying to calm her down, but going in the
opposite direction.
"Just--just get away from me!" Dawn yelled. Without knowing what she was doing
she put her hands up and a bolt of pure energy shot from her palm, which made
the whole room glow with an unearthly light. It knocked into Buffy and when the
light dimmed, Buffy was lying on the floor semi-unconscious. "Oh, god."
"Now, Dreg, do a good job and bring me back the items on my shopping list,"
Glory handed him a list of ingredients for a spell.
"Y-yes, your most glorificent," her attendant replied with a bow.
Glory smiled sweetly, "If you mess up, I will be forced to have you terminated,
you understand of course, we can't have lax servants running loose. We have a
job to do, a mission, a goal, job, conquest, triumph to achieve, task,
assignment--" She gasped for air and hit the floor in the middle of her rant.
Glory screamed as the pain coursed through her. Dreg bent over her, trying to
figure out if he should help her up, and dare touch her highness.
She stopped suddenly as the pain subsided, "What are you waiting for! Help me
up!" Dreg bowed and repeated said he was sorry as he offered her his hand. "Just
shut up! Besides your apologies will never be enough." She regained her cool as
she stood up again, brushing off her red skirt she wore. She spoke through her
teeth, trying to control her seething anger, "Someone has used the key."
"Why didn't you follow her?" Buffy looked at her watcher.
"Well-well, I was more concerned about your welfare. You scared me, Buffy." She
sighed, and put her hand to her throbbing head. So that's what it felt like to
be electrocuted. "Besides, by the time the light had cleared the room and I had
regained the ability to see straight, Dawn was had already left."
"Well, we have to find her," She started pacing, "She knows its dangerous in
Sunnydale after night. She wasn't even carrying a stake. God, how could I be so
stupid. There had to have been a better non-emotionally scaring way to tell her
that she wasn't human or geez--"
"Don't worry, honey," Joyce said trying to look on the bright side of things,
"We'll find her. And Dawn's a smart girl."
Buffy stopped dead in her pacing tracks. It was time to turn to the other side
of herself, the slayer control assuming side, "Right. We will. Giles, you and
my mom can go start the search party now. I'll call the rest of the gang, let
them know what's going on, get them to help look for her."
"All right," Giles grabbed her car keys and headed out to his car.
Buffy's mom stayed behind for a moment and hugged her daughter, "We'll find her,
Buffy."
Buffy sighed, "Right. I know, Mom. Be careful out there."
Joyce snatched a hidden stake from behind a picture frame, there were many
scattered around the house. "I will." And she left.
The blond slayer walked into the kitchen and started dialing Xander's phone
number.
Dawn wished she had brought a coat with her as she walked down the streets of
Sunnydale. It was freezing tonight. But, alas, it had skipped her mind while she
was fleeing from, from what, her destiny? She shuddered even more. She had seen
what destiny had done to Buffy. Her sister was a wreck. Not that it matter to
Dawn, thought, because apparently she didn't even have a sister.
"She's wrong." Dawn muttered as she kicked a rock across the desolate street.
How could it be true? She could remember so much about her life, the way things
felt. Her used-to-be family. How could emotions like these be faked? It wasn't
possible to plant this kind of feeling into a person's mind. The teas of her
father's leaving, the isolation of moving to a small little nowhere's-ville
town, the fear of what she had grown up watching Buffy face. And all the little
moments in-between. They were real, they had to be!
"Little girls shouldn't walk around alone at night," Dawn heard a voice from
behind her. Dawn turned to face the person, only to find out it wasn't a person
at all. The creature vamped and then it was after her, along with a bunch of its
friends, "It's not safe." Dawn let out a earsplitting scream and ran as fast as
she could in the opposite direction.
Xander followed Buffy and Willow through the darkened streets of Sunnydale. Anya
and Tara had formed a separate group and were currently searching uptown
Sunnydale, which was only a few blocks away.
"Okay, so let me get this straight, Dawn is not Dawn but instead she's a source
of Monk energy?" Xander was trying to grasp his mind around this new concept.
"Are you sure you're not crazy?"
Buffy smiled, "For the fiftieth time, Xander, I am not crazy." If her friends
hadn't been with her tonight she may have just gone nuts.
"I'm not sure about that," Xander assumed some mock-seriousness, "You're sure
this isn't some sort of weird sibling rivalry?"
"It's just… so strange," Willow said softly, "This is Dawn we're talking about.
Dawn. Little Dawn. Kid-Sister Dawn. Girl-Next-Door Dawn." Willow shook her head
and twirled her stake in her hand.
"So, everything was faked?" Xander asked incredulously, obviously still not
getting passed the news.
Buffy sighed and continued on.
Dawn ran into an old abandoned warehouse and slammed the door shut. The vamps
were right behind her, only moments back. One of the vamps pounded into the
door, making the teenage girl jump. Dawn screamed as they started pushing the
door open.
Without any warning, her hands started giving off electrical sparks. A bolt of
lightning vaulted from her small hands and encircled a heavy machine that
occupied the middle of the warehouse. The machine was sent hurtling towards the
door, slamming it tightly shut.
"What's happening to me?" Dawn looked down at her palms. They had stopped
sparking but were still glowing slightly. "I'm going crazy. This town is driving
me crazy."
The continued pounding of the vamps on the now blocked door made Dawn realize
that she didn't have time to question her sanity. It was much more about her
safety at this point.
She looked around her new surroundings. There was a small window on the roof,
which hopefully would not be noticed by the creatures that wanted to get inside.
On the side of the room she was in there was an empty wooden box. Breaking off a
makeshift stake, Dawn held it to herself like a shield. Things were just going
from bad to worse tonight.
Glory chucked everything off her ritual table. She had just recovered from
another
scorching pain resulting from the key, and she was madder than ever. "It's
wrong. It's all wrong!"
Dreg took two steps back and grimaced, "We could try the spell again, perhaps it
will work if we ---"
"NO!" Glory hit the table hard with the palm of her hand. "None of this is
working! We have to find the key; the key is going to destroy everything…
Everything… EVERYTHING!" She put her hands to her head and started swaying.
A new person entered the room. Someone Glory had been expecting for quite some
time. "Have you felt it too?" He asked.
"Of course, I have!" She turned on him, if she hadn't seen him for all eternity
it would have been too soon. "Big brother."
"Leave us, Dreg," Ben told the servant.
And then they were alone. Ben and Glory. Brother and Sister.
Glory transformed her voice to sweetness, trying to convince her brother what
she already knew. The only thing that would save them, "We have to find the key,
Ben. We have to destroy it!"
"It's not going to help us Glory," He spoke with confidence. He hadn't come to
her to make a plan, or do a spell, it was their meddling that had caused this in
the first place. After years of living amongst the 'lesser race' he had learned
his lesson. Obviously Glory had not. Too bad. It was going to be her downfall,
and he was sick of looking after her.
"Oh? And what does the great high commander think we should do?" Glory glared at
him.
"We can't hurt her," He said, picking up a glowing orb from the ritual table
nonchalantly.
Glory was just about to lose it, "But she can hurt us!"
"Not if I train her. Teach her how to use her power."
"Oh," She laughed pitifully, "Just like you helped me?"
"You abused your power, and now it's abusing you. I can't help that." It wasn't
his fault that she hadn't listened to him.
"You talk big. You don't even know who the key is."
He tossed the glowing globe from hand to hand, "No, but I have an idea how to
find out."
"Oh? And what am I supposed to do in the meantime? Wait until little miss moppet
plays with energy again, so I can get hurt again?"
Ben put the ball down on the table and looked Glory in the eyes, "I really don't
care what you do, but, if you hurt her, immortality won't mean a damn thing to
you... you'll wish you were dead." He slammed the door behind him as he left her
to her thoughts.
In a rage Glory picked up a vial of liquid from the table and threw it towards
the door, it shattered into a million pieces, as her rage dissipated. "Let Mr.
Know-It-All just try to save that little brat. I mean… just… nobody understands
me. What I want…" She whined, "What I need… I need her dead… departed, expired,
deceased, defunct, exanimate. Get rid of him too, who needs him? Can't tell me,
won't tell me, I'll tell him." She walked back to the ritual table and examined
the contents of the spell, trying to figure out what had gone wrong. "Dreg! Get
in here!"
"You know, I really don't have time for this tonight," Buffy told the tandem
team of vampires that had just approached her.
Xander and Willow held out their stakes, ready to back her up.
"I think you're going to have to make time for us," The big ugly one said, as
compared to the short ugly one.
"I really don't think so," Buffy said as she punched the tall one in its face,
"Got a tight schedule." She slammed her stake into the short ugly one; it
dusted. The tall one grabbed her by her arm, but she miraculously got out of
that only seconds later. They must have been just made vamps cause they sure as
hell were fighting like it, "Maybe some other time," She sent a kick to Tall
One's ribs, "We'll do lunch." She aimed her stake, and drove it in, "Or not."
The dust was all that was left.
"That was just too easy," Xander said as he put his stake away.
"Yeah," Buffy replied wryly, "Ya didn't even break a sweat."
"I guess the whole, standing on the sidelines helped," He smiled.
A figure in the shadows made the slayer and her friends look up. "Maybe we spoke
too soon?" Xander asked as the blond went back into defense mode.
"So. You are the slayer," The figure approached them, "I figure as much."
"Ben?!" Buffy dropped a bit from her fighting stance. "What are you doing here?"
Giles made a right hand turn with his flashy red convertible. The search for
Dawn was turning up emptier and emptier with each passing hour. They had checked
the bus station and even the airport and docks, but no one had seen the girl in
the picture Joyce carried with her. It was a photography from when Dawn was in
eight grade, only a few months before. It shouldn't even exist, but nevertheless
it did. It made no sense.
Joyce looked out the passenger window, "Maybe I'm doing something wrong."
Giles turn to her, "What do you mean by that?"
"Maybe if I had done something differently… both my daughters, even if Dawn is
not my real daughter... they both grew up to be stuck in lives they'd rather not
be in…"
"There's nothing you could have done to prevent Buffy from becoming the slayer,
or likewise, from Dawn becoming the key." Giles paused. He himself had fought
with this same dilemma. When Buffy had first arrived in Sunnydale he had been
the one to pull her back into slayer-ness. "If anything, you're doing something
right. Your daughters get their strength from you, I believe. You raised them
well."
"Gotta let them fly from the nest now, I suppose." Joyce nodded. But she would
always be there to back them up. Whether Dawn was her own or not didn't matter
in the slightest. They had sent Dawn to her and Buffy for a reason. "Oh, there's
Buffy." She pointed down the street.
Giles pulled up to Buffy, Willow, Xander and some guy he didn't recognize.
"So, you don't know where The Key is?" Ben asked.
Buffy shook her head, "No, um, she ran off on me after she found out she was The
Key… What exactly is The Key anyway?" She looked up and saw Giles' car
approaching them. It stopped and Giles and Joyce got out.
Buffy turned her attention from Ben to her mother momentarily, "Did you find
her?" She asked anxiously even though she already knew the answer.
"No." Joyce hugged her daughter, "I'm sorry."
"Me too."
A strangled voice from behind Buffy interrupted the mother/daughter moment.
"She's in trouble. She's using her powers." Ben struggled to not fall down.
Buffy quickly put an arm around him to help him stand. "Me and my sister can
sense her. Every time she uses her 'special abilities' we feel the surge of
energy."
"Who's your sister?" Willow asked.
Ben looked up at them slowly. The pain had subsided and he stood up straighter.
Buffy still kept an arm around him. "Glory."
"Glory?" Buffy was shocked, but somehow she had known it was coming.
"Glory, huh?" Xander joked, "Talk about the black sheep of the family."
"Actually," Ben said, "I'm the black sheep."
The glass shattered above Dawn, showering her in shards. She screamed. The
vampires had been trying to get inside all night. They must have felt the power
she possessed, and now they had their target locked.
Dawn ran over to the entrance she had first entered through, but the big metal
machine had moved there was too heavy to lift.
"Come on, come on." She shook her hands and tried to make them do the
electricity thing.
One of the vampires, a big burly one, dropped from the hole in the sunroof onto
the warehouse floor right behind Dawn.
"Oh, please, come o--" And then the machine flew across the room and squished
the vampire as the others of its kind looked on in horror. That had been their
leader.
Dawn pushed the door open and ran out of the warehouse. A female vampire dropped
from the emergency ladder on the side of the building. She was followed closely
by a darker skinned male.
They stepped in Dawn's way, "Sorry, we just can't let you by, you gotta pay the
toll for what you just did," A second male dropped from the ladder.
"Let's get her!"
"No," Dawn pleaded, but they started hitting the frightened teenager and she
went down. They had decided to beat her to death before they drank, out of
vengence for their lost leader.
That may have been their fatal mistake because a fourth vampire was there in the
ally. One that the three attackers hadn't seen.
The vampire with the platinum hair moved towards the fracas. "What's this now?"
He asked with a smirk.
They turned towards him, "Go find your own kill. This one's specially for us."
"She killed out Master, man." A boy vamp said.
Spike looked down at the so called vampire killer. She looked so small. Then she
saw her face. "Bite-sized." It was his pet name for the slayer's sister. He
shook his head, since when did he have pet names for humans? Oh, well, he
thought, time to kick some butt.
The three vampires who had been trying to kill Dawn fought Spike. And the three
vampires who had been trying to kill Dawn promptly were dust. Quick and easy.
Dawn came to slightly, "Spike?"
"Shh," He told her. She reminded him of Buffy, and he just knew he had to save
her. He took off his duster and wrapped it around Dawn and picked her up in his
arms, "Let's get you out of here, right?"
"So, let me get this straight," Buffy sat on the couch in her living room. The
whole Scooby Gang was there, getting an early breakfast before they went out to
search for Dawn again. "You and Glory are from this alternate universe type
thing…"
"The demon plane." Giles corrected her as he sipped his coffee.
"Right." Ben nodded.
"Oh, it's very nice there. I spent a few centuries there back when I was a
vengeance demon," Anya added.
"So… that world's run by a bunch of demons. You and Glory are both demons of the
Eligh type. You all have certain powers. Glory's got her physical strength, and
you had the ability to hear other people's thoughts."
"Telepathy must have been so cool," Willow said.
"It was." Ben remembered those good old days well, but still Earth was kind of
nice.
Buffy continued, "But you got kicked out because Glory broke some sacred law.
They sent you and one of her servants with her by accident. That created a surge
of energy here, the wormhole was never closed, it was just made into The Key.
When Glory finds The Key she'll leave and go home."
"So... the question is, why not let Glory just go home?" Xander asked. "Would
that hurt Dawn or something?"
"It would kill her." Ben answered. The group exchanged a worried look, "Plus,
since Earth is such a small planet, it would be sucked into the vortex as well,
should it be opened."
"That sounds really bad," Tara responded.
"That's one vacation I'd rather not take," Buffy said.
"Great. Now that we're all caught up, what are we gonna do about it?" Xander
asked the group.
Suddenly the door burst open. "Buffy! Buffy?"
"Spike!" Buffy jumped up from her seat when she noticed who Spike was carrying.
The others followed her.
"She got attacked," Spike said as he laid her on the couch.
Ben motioned the others away and tried to find out how bad of a shape Dawn was
in. Thankfully, the years he had spent on Earth had turned him into a pretty
good almost-doctor.
Buffy looked at Spike. He'd been acting so strangely lately. Helping those
people in the Bronze during the whole Troll incident, saving Dawn's life. What
was going on inside that chipped brain of his she wondered. "Thank you," She
told him, and watched a look of surprise and then delight pass over his face,
but then he quickly recovered.
"Right then, I'll just be leaving, I suppose." He wanted her to ask him to stay,
but still turned towards the door and realized the sun was just coming up.
"Um, you can stay…" Buffy paused, "Since the sun is coming up and all." She
looked at her sister. "Dawn'll want to thank you anyway, so… stay…" The slayer
walked back into the living room, trying to figure out what was happening to her
emotions. She felt all weird inside, but would hide that as best she could.
Spike smiled slightly as he accompanied Buffy back into the living room.
The End… cause I'm lazy and its all been done in fanfic before anyway... sigh…
By Vixen
This was written after the episode Triangle, before all the pieces of the puzzle
came together. It's an alternate version of how Dawn finds out she's the key.
Dislaimer: Do I look like Joss? No, I didn't think so. Therefore I don't own any
of them.
"But they don't know that it's Dawn?"
"No."
Buffy and Giles' voices floated into the living room, getting the attention of
the young girl. Dawn inched her way towards the kitchen doorway. They were
talking about her, Why were they talking about her?
"I still can't even begin to grasp this," Joyce paused, at a loss for words, the
only thing she could think of to say was the only thing she knew in her heart,
"She's my little girl."
"It is disorienting." He nodded.
"Giles, what happens if they figure it out?"
"I don't know."
Dawn was now standing very near the doorway. She knew she would get caught, but
curiosi held her there. She had to find out what they were talking about, what
they knew that she didn't.
"Oh, I can't even think about this. It's too…" She sighed, concerned for her
daughter. Joyce looked up and her thoughts halted. "Dawn."
She tried to turn around and just go back to her room but somehow her feet just
wouldn't do what she wanted. So instead she walked into the dinning room, "What
are you talking about?"
Buffy looked up at her. How could she explain this to her? "Dawn…"
Joyce stood up, and put an arm around her youngest daughter, and pulled out a
chair, "I think you better sit down, honey."
Dawn sat down but her defenses went up, "I heard what you said. That it's
disorienting… What are you keeping from me?"
"Do you remember when I told you about Glory?" Buffy asked.
"Yeah," Dawn said slowly, "Big psycho lady, kicked your butt big time?"
"She's looking for a key... er... maybe that's not the best way to start,"
Buffy continued, "On that show I used to watch with you, Sailor Moon, there was
that little girl who everybody thought was Serena's cousin, but she wasn't...
she was,"
"Serena and Darien's future daughter." Dawn looked shocked, "I'm your daughter?
Does this have something to do with Angel?!"
Buffy shook her head, but then thought about it, nah couldn't be. "Okay, lemme
start again, once upon a time in a land far far away, there were these monk
dudes and they built a key…"
"The one Glory is looking for?"
"Yeah, but don't worry about that, cause trust me she will never ever ever get
to the key or my name isn't Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Anyway this key was made
of pure energy, and they sent this key to someone for safekeeping."
Dawn thought she knew where this was going, "Sorry, you made a mistake. See, I
don't have a key."
"Dawn…" Buffy gathered her courage, "You are the key."
The young girl stood up, "What are you talking about?!?" She searched her
mother's face for some sign that Buffy was lying. Nothing.
Buffy got up from the table and walked over to her, "Dawn, I don't care what you
are you'll always be--"
"No! No! You're lying! You're a freak and so you want everyone else to be a
freak! Well, I'm not, okay, I am 100% Grade A normal. I'm not a 'key'. I'm a
human, I have the birth certificate to prove it! Tell her mom."
"It was all faked," Buffy said, trying to calm her down, but going in the
opposite direction.
"Just--just get away from me!" Dawn yelled. Without knowing what she was doing
she put her hands up and a bolt of pure energy shot from her palm, which made
the whole room glow with an unearthly light. It knocked into Buffy and when the
light dimmed, Buffy was lying on the floor semi-unconscious. "Oh, god."
"Now, Dreg, do a good job and bring me back the items on my shopping list,"
Glory handed him a list of ingredients for a spell.
"Y-yes, your most glorificent," her attendant replied with a bow.
Glory smiled sweetly, "If you mess up, I will be forced to have you terminated,
you understand of course, we can't have lax servants running loose. We have a
job to do, a mission, a goal, job, conquest, triumph to achieve, task,
assignment--" She gasped for air and hit the floor in the middle of her rant.
Glory screamed as the pain coursed through her. Dreg bent over her, trying to
figure out if he should help her up, and dare touch her highness.
She stopped suddenly as the pain subsided, "What are you waiting for! Help me
up!" Dreg bowed and repeated said he was sorry as he offered her his hand. "Just
shut up! Besides your apologies will never be enough." She regained her cool as
she stood up again, brushing off her red skirt she wore. She spoke through her
teeth, trying to control her seething anger, "Someone has used the key."
"Why didn't you follow her?" Buffy looked at her watcher.
"Well-well, I was more concerned about your welfare. You scared me, Buffy." She
sighed, and put her hand to her throbbing head. So that's what it felt like to
be electrocuted. "Besides, by the time the light had cleared the room and I had
regained the ability to see straight, Dawn was had already left."
"Well, we have to find her," She started pacing, "She knows its dangerous in
Sunnydale after night. She wasn't even carrying a stake. God, how could I be so
stupid. There had to have been a better non-emotionally scaring way to tell her
that she wasn't human or geez--"
"Don't worry, honey," Joyce said trying to look on the bright side of things,
"We'll find her. And Dawn's a smart girl."
Buffy stopped dead in her pacing tracks. It was time to turn to the other side
of herself, the slayer control assuming side, "Right. We will. Giles, you and
my mom can go start the search party now. I'll call the rest of the gang, let
them know what's going on, get them to help look for her."
"All right," Giles grabbed her car keys and headed out to his car.
Buffy's mom stayed behind for a moment and hugged her daughter, "We'll find her,
Buffy."
Buffy sighed, "Right. I know, Mom. Be careful out there."
Joyce snatched a hidden stake from behind a picture frame, there were many
scattered around the house. "I will." And she left.
The blond slayer walked into the kitchen and started dialing Xander's phone
number.
Dawn wished she had brought a coat with her as she walked down the streets of
Sunnydale. It was freezing tonight. But, alas, it had skipped her mind while she
was fleeing from, from what, her destiny? She shuddered even more. She had seen
what destiny had done to Buffy. Her sister was a wreck. Not that it matter to
Dawn, thought, because apparently she didn't even have a sister.
"She's wrong." Dawn muttered as she kicked a rock across the desolate street.
How could it be true? She could remember so much about her life, the way things
felt. Her used-to-be family. How could emotions like these be faked? It wasn't
possible to plant this kind of feeling into a person's mind. The teas of her
father's leaving, the isolation of moving to a small little nowhere's-ville
town, the fear of what she had grown up watching Buffy face. And all the little
moments in-between. They were real, they had to be!
"Little girls shouldn't walk around alone at night," Dawn heard a voice from
behind her. Dawn turned to face the person, only to find out it wasn't a person
at all. The creature vamped and then it was after her, along with a bunch of its
friends, "It's not safe." Dawn let out a earsplitting scream and ran as fast as
she could in the opposite direction.
Xander followed Buffy and Willow through the darkened streets of Sunnydale. Anya
and Tara had formed a separate group and were currently searching uptown
Sunnydale, which was only a few blocks away.
"Okay, so let me get this straight, Dawn is not Dawn but instead she's a source
of Monk energy?" Xander was trying to grasp his mind around this new concept.
"Are you sure you're not crazy?"
Buffy smiled, "For the fiftieth time, Xander, I am not crazy." If her friends
hadn't been with her tonight she may have just gone nuts.
"I'm not sure about that," Xander assumed some mock-seriousness, "You're sure
this isn't some sort of weird sibling rivalry?"
"It's just… so strange," Willow said softly, "This is Dawn we're talking about.
Dawn. Little Dawn. Kid-Sister Dawn. Girl-Next-Door Dawn." Willow shook her head
and twirled her stake in her hand.
"So, everything was faked?" Xander asked incredulously, obviously still not
getting passed the news.
Buffy sighed and continued on.
Dawn ran into an old abandoned warehouse and slammed the door shut. The vamps
were right behind her, only moments back. One of the vamps pounded into the
door, making the teenage girl jump. Dawn screamed as they started pushing the
door open.
Without any warning, her hands started giving off electrical sparks. A bolt of
lightning vaulted from her small hands and encircled a heavy machine that
occupied the middle of the warehouse. The machine was sent hurtling towards the
door, slamming it tightly shut.
"What's happening to me?" Dawn looked down at her palms. They had stopped
sparking but were still glowing slightly. "I'm going crazy. This town is driving
me crazy."
The continued pounding of the vamps on the now blocked door made Dawn realize
that she didn't have time to question her sanity. It was much more about her
safety at this point.
She looked around her new surroundings. There was a small window on the roof,
which hopefully would not be noticed by the creatures that wanted to get inside.
On the side of the room she was in there was an empty wooden box. Breaking off a
makeshift stake, Dawn held it to herself like a shield. Things were just going
from bad to worse tonight.
Glory chucked everything off her ritual table. She had just recovered from
another
scorching pain resulting from the key, and she was madder than ever. "It's
wrong. It's all wrong!"
Dreg took two steps back and grimaced, "We could try the spell again, perhaps it
will work if we ---"
"NO!" Glory hit the table hard with the palm of her hand. "None of this is
working! We have to find the key; the key is going to destroy everything…
Everything… EVERYTHING!" She put her hands to her head and started swaying.
A new person entered the room. Someone Glory had been expecting for quite some
time. "Have you felt it too?" He asked.
"Of course, I have!" She turned on him, if she hadn't seen him for all eternity
it would have been too soon. "Big brother."
"Leave us, Dreg," Ben told the servant.
And then they were alone. Ben and Glory. Brother and Sister.
Glory transformed her voice to sweetness, trying to convince her brother what
she already knew. The only thing that would save them, "We have to find the key,
Ben. We have to destroy it!"
"It's not going to help us Glory," He spoke with confidence. He hadn't come to
her to make a plan, or do a spell, it was their meddling that had caused this in
the first place. After years of living amongst the 'lesser race' he had learned
his lesson. Obviously Glory had not. Too bad. It was going to be her downfall,
and he was sick of looking after her.
"Oh? And what does the great high commander think we should do?" Glory glared at
him.
"We can't hurt her," He said, picking up a glowing orb from the ritual table
nonchalantly.
Glory was just about to lose it, "But she can hurt us!"
"Not if I train her. Teach her how to use her power."
"Oh," She laughed pitifully, "Just like you helped me?"
"You abused your power, and now it's abusing you. I can't help that." It wasn't
his fault that she hadn't listened to him.
"You talk big. You don't even know who the key is."
He tossed the glowing globe from hand to hand, "No, but I have an idea how to
find out."
"Oh? And what am I supposed to do in the meantime? Wait until little miss moppet
plays with energy again, so I can get hurt again?"
Ben put the ball down on the table and looked Glory in the eyes, "I really don't
care what you do, but, if you hurt her, immortality won't mean a damn thing to
you... you'll wish you were dead." He slammed the door behind him as he left her
to her thoughts.
In a rage Glory picked up a vial of liquid from the table and threw it towards
the door, it shattered into a million pieces, as her rage dissipated. "Let Mr.
Know-It-All just try to save that little brat. I mean… just… nobody understands
me. What I want…" She whined, "What I need… I need her dead… departed, expired,
deceased, defunct, exanimate. Get rid of him too, who needs him? Can't tell me,
won't tell me, I'll tell him." She walked back to the ritual table and examined
the contents of the spell, trying to figure out what had gone wrong. "Dreg! Get
in here!"
"You know, I really don't have time for this tonight," Buffy told the tandem
team of vampires that had just approached her.
Xander and Willow held out their stakes, ready to back her up.
"I think you're going to have to make time for us," The big ugly one said, as
compared to the short ugly one.
"I really don't think so," Buffy said as she punched the tall one in its face,
"Got a tight schedule." She slammed her stake into the short ugly one; it
dusted. The tall one grabbed her by her arm, but she miraculously got out of
that only seconds later. They must have been just made vamps cause they sure as
hell were fighting like it, "Maybe some other time," She sent a kick to Tall
One's ribs, "We'll do lunch." She aimed her stake, and drove it in, "Or not."
The dust was all that was left.
"That was just too easy," Xander said as he put his stake away.
"Yeah," Buffy replied wryly, "Ya didn't even break a sweat."
"I guess the whole, standing on the sidelines helped," He smiled.
A figure in the shadows made the slayer and her friends look up. "Maybe we spoke
too soon?" Xander asked as the blond went back into defense mode.
"So. You are the slayer," The figure approached them, "I figure as much."
"Ben?!" Buffy dropped a bit from her fighting stance. "What are you doing here?"
Giles made a right hand turn with his flashy red convertible. The search for
Dawn was turning up emptier and emptier with each passing hour. They had checked
the bus station and even the airport and docks, but no one had seen the girl in
the picture Joyce carried with her. It was a photography from when Dawn was in
eight grade, only a few months before. It shouldn't even exist, but nevertheless
it did. It made no sense.
Joyce looked out the passenger window, "Maybe I'm doing something wrong."
Giles turn to her, "What do you mean by that?"
"Maybe if I had done something differently… both my daughters, even if Dawn is
not my real daughter... they both grew up to be stuck in lives they'd rather not
be in…"
"There's nothing you could have done to prevent Buffy from becoming the slayer,
or likewise, from Dawn becoming the key." Giles paused. He himself had fought
with this same dilemma. When Buffy had first arrived in Sunnydale he had been
the one to pull her back into slayer-ness. "If anything, you're doing something
right. Your daughters get their strength from you, I believe. You raised them
well."
"Gotta let them fly from the nest now, I suppose." Joyce nodded. But she would
always be there to back them up. Whether Dawn was her own or not didn't matter
in the slightest. They had sent Dawn to her and Buffy for a reason. "Oh, there's
Buffy." She pointed down the street.
Giles pulled up to Buffy, Willow, Xander and some guy he didn't recognize.
"So, you don't know where The Key is?" Ben asked.
Buffy shook her head, "No, um, she ran off on me after she found out she was The
Key… What exactly is The Key anyway?" She looked up and saw Giles' car
approaching them. It stopped and Giles and Joyce got out.
Buffy turned her attention from Ben to her mother momentarily, "Did you find
her?" She asked anxiously even though she already knew the answer.
"No." Joyce hugged her daughter, "I'm sorry."
"Me too."
A strangled voice from behind Buffy interrupted the mother/daughter moment.
"She's in trouble. She's using her powers." Ben struggled to not fall down.
Buffy quickly put an arm around him to help him stand. "Me and my sister can
sense her. Every time she uses her 'special abilities' we feel the surge of
energy."
"Who's your sister?" Willow asked.
Ben looked up at them slowly. The pain had subsided and he stood up straighter.
Buffy still kept an arm around him. "Glory."
"Glory?" Buffy was shocked, but somehow she had known it was coming.
"Glory, huh?" Xander joked, "Talk about the black sheep of the family."
"Actually," Ben said, "I'm the black sheep."
The glass shattered above Dawn, showering her in shards. She screamed. The
vampires had been trying to get inside all night. They must have felt the power
she possessed, and now they had their target locked.
Dawn ran over to the entrance she had first entered through, but the big metal
machine had moved there was too heavy to lift.
"Come on, come on." She shook her hands and tried to make them do the
electricity thing.
One of the vampires, a big burly one, dropped from the hole in the sunroof onto
the warehouse floor right behind Dawn.
"Oh, please, come o--" And then the machine flew across the room and squished
the vampire as the others of its kind looked on in horror. That had been their
leader.
Dawn pushed the door open and ran out of the warehouse. A female vampire dropped
from the emergency ladder on the side of the building. She was followed closely
by a darker skinned male.
They stepped in Dawn's way, "Sorry, we just can't let you by, you gotta pay the
toll for what you just did," A second male dropped from the ladder.
"Let's get her!"
"No," Dawn pleaded, but they started hitting the frightened teenager and she
went down. They had decided to beat her to death before they drank, out of
vengence for their lost leader.
That may have been their fatal mistake because a fourth vampire was there in the
ally. One that the three attackers hadn't seen.
The vampire with the platinum hair moved towards the fracas. "What's this now?"
He asked with a smirk.
They turned towards him, "Go find your own kill. This one's specially for us."
"She killed out Master, man." A boy vamp said.
Spike looked down at the so called vampire killer. She looked so small. Then she
saw her face. "Bite-sized." It was his pet name for the slayer's sister. He
shook his head, since when did he have pet names for humans? Oh, well, he
thought, time to kick some butt.
The three vampires who had been trying to kill Dawn fought Spike. And the three
vampires who had been trying to kill Dawn promptly were dust. Quick and easy.
Dawn came to slightly, "Spike?"
"Shh," He told her. She reminded him of Buffy, and he just knew he had to save
her. He took off his duster and wrapped it around Dawn and picked her up in his
arms, "Let's get you out of here, right?"
"So, let me get this straight," Buffy sat on the couch in her living room. The
whole Scooby Gang was there, getting an early breakfast before they went out to
search for Dawn again. "You and Glory are from this alternate universe type
thing…"
"The demon plane." Giles corrected her as he sipped his coffee.
"Right." Ben nodded.
"Oh, it's very nice there. I spent a few centuries there back when I was a
vengeance demon," Anya added.
"So… that world's run by a bunch of demons. You and Glory are both demons of the
Eligh type. You all have certain powers. Glory's got her physical strength, and
you had the ability to hear other people's thoughts."
"Telepathy must have been so cool," Willow said.
"It was." Ben remembered those good old days well, but still Earth was kind of
nice.
Buffy continued, "But you got kicked out because Glory broke some sacred law.
They sent you and one of her servants with her by accident. That created a surge
of energy here, the wormhole was never closed, it was just made into The Key.
When Glory finds The Key she'll leave and go home."
"So... the question is, why not let Glory just go home?" Xander asked. "Would
that hurt Dawn or something?"
"It would kill her." Ben answered. The group exchanged a worried look, "Plus,
since Earth is such a small planet, it would be sucked into the vortex as well,
should it be opened."
"That sounds really bad," Tara responded.
"That's one vacation I'd rather not take," Buffy said.
"Great. Now that we're all caught up, what are we gonna do about it?" Xander
asked the group.
Suddenly the door burst open. "Buffy! Buffy?"
"Spike!" Buffy jumped up from her seat when she noticed who Spike was carrying.
The others followed her.
"She got attacked," Spike said as he laid her on the couch.
Ben motioned the others away and tried to find out how bad of a shape Dawn was
in. Thankfully, the years he had spent on Earth had turned him into a pretty
good almost-doctor.
Buffy looked at Spike. He'd been acting so strangely lately. Helping those
people in the Bronze during the whole Troll incident, saving Dawn's life. What
was going on inside that chipped brain of his she wondered. "Thank you," She
told him, and watched a look of surprise and then delight pass over his face,
but then he quickly recovered.
"Right then, I'll just be leaving, I suppose." He wanted her to ask him to stay,
but still turned towards the door and realized the sun was just coming up.
"Um, you can stay…" Buffy paused, "Since the sun is coming up and all." She
looked at her sister. "Dawn'll want to thank you anyway, so… stay…" The slayer
walked back into the living room, trying to figure out what was happening to her
emotions. She felt all weird inside, but would hide that as best she could.
Spike smiled slightly as he accompanied Buffy back into the living room.
The End… cause I'm lazy and its all been done in fanfic before anyway... sigh…