Part 1, I will get to part 2 soon
Dawn Summers swung her lantern around "Come on Vi, G...Rupert, I think the noise was down this way". It had been 15 years since Sunnydale had been destroyed, Dawn was 31 years old, and Giles had insisted that she was his equal and should call him Rupert ever since she finished her training and became an official Watcher at 21, but old habits die hard. Giles was 65 and REALLY could and should have retired from front line Watcher duties, but absolutely refused to be pushed to the sidelines. His sole concession to his age and symptoms from a lifetime of frequent concussions was allowing Buffy to choose which missions he got to go on. Buffy would not openly say that she only sent him on missions they expected to be safe, and Giles would never have to admit that for missions where a dozen Slayers were storming the sanctuary of a hiding Old One, of which a few still remained in the world, he could no longer really keep up.
Traveling with them was only one Slayer, Vi. The feisty, enthusiastic redheaded Slayer, as eager to throw a party as throw a demon had been with them since Sunnydale, she had fought at the Hellmouth, slaying a dozen of the powerful Turok-Han…the Ubervamps. More had escaped into the world since that day. With nearly 2000 Slayers worldwide, there was nothing they couldn't overcome, but those monsters were still considered ferocious and deadly. Very few Slayers were totally confident confronting one, even before they had been exposed to the moon and taken on their full powers like the first one Buffy had fought. Even the weaker ones in the Hellmouth had been stronger than regular vampires, and having killed a dozen….Vi was the sweetest person, but she was one of the Slayers the rest looked to when things went sideways. She may have been the only Slayer with the two Watchers, but it was a rare day when she wasn't enough.
They were on a scouting mission in Scotland. A local town was being preyed upon by a vampire, maybe more than one, that they believed lived in a nearby cave system. The job of this team was simple, track it down. Vi would destroy it if there was only a couple, and if they saw evidence of more, they would fall back and call for backup. They had not seen evidence of more, but following the sounds, they had tracked that one deeper into the caves than Giles would have liked. There had been no signs of more than two or three vampires, or of anything bigger, but if they did find something they couldn't kill alone, it could prove difficult to outrun something that didn't need to breathe long enough to escape the caves.
As if in answer to his concern, the passage they were following opened up into vast caverns, not unlike those they had fought in under Sunnydale. And there were bones….lots of bones. " Dawn, Vi, we need to go NOW" Giles whispered urgently. They nodded simultaneously and turned to head back the way they came when a voice called "Oh, it's MUCH too late for that Grandpa". A vampire with his game face on had stepped out of a branching tunnel "You my friends have found your way to the greatest den of unholy beings in all of Europe… and you're completely surrounded. Lucky for you, we're nice. We're not going to eat you, you get to live with us…..forever". His fangs slid down, and the three turned to run.
They ran back the way they came, Vi leading the way, Dawn in the rear, each of them had a stake and an incendiary grenade. Not the safest choice for fighting underground, but they were standard issue, they did a REALLY good job of taking out a few vamps at once. They ran as fast as they could, but Dawn knew it was useless. They heard the sound of monsters coming from all of the little offshoot passages. The demons would know every twist and turn of the labyrinth, they did not. They were outnumbered, in the worst possible territory, and they were going to be cut off, surrounded, and killed sooner than later. The youngest Summers checked a pouch on her belt as they ran. She would wait, there might still be a chance, but she had just ONE card left to play if they didn't receive a miracle, she just prayed it would be enough.
The trio came out into a large open cavern with numerous branching tunnels. They didn't even have time to process and move for the nearest one before monsters poured out from several, surrounding them completely. Vi had pulled a short axe in one hand, and a stake in the other, she turned slowly, locking eyes with the creatures around them, who continued to crowd around them, daring each to make the first move, be the first to die. The vampire who had confronted them moments ago stepped up to the front of the horde, clapping slowly. ''Well done children, you found the SINGLE chamber we had already positioned my friends to cut you off at. You were never going to escape, but that is REMARKABLY bad luck. Now lay down your weapons and we can make this almost painless….or you can spend your afterlife running around with one arm each, your choice."
Dawn paused, appearing to consider that, then nodded "May I just say one thing first?" the vampire nodded indulgently, humans were so amusing, thinking their last words mattered. Dawn smiled a little, then whirled on her friends, pulling out the pouch she'd been concealing. Before Vi realized what it was, before Giles was fast enough to do anything but look at her in panic, Dawn tossed the bag full of powder over them and yell "ERIDU!", the Sumerian word for home. The two vanished, courtesy of the spell Dawn had seen Willow and Tara use so many years before to stop a hellgod. But they had been two witches, trained and both very powerful, no matter how little self-confidence Tara had possessed. Dawn knew the words, the techniques, but the effort of that spell on her own left the Watcher unsteady, with her head spinning. She didn't care, she had won the only fight she still had to care about. She slumped to her knees, one hand still behind her back.
The vampire didn't seem upset, he actually seemed impressed "Not bad kid, not bad. Most people would beg, some of the stronger willed ones try to end themselves to avoid what's coming, I don't think I've ever seen anyone take charge of their fate quite like that. You'll make a good vampire, got a name?" Dawn stood a bit straighter, they would know her name, and she was looking forward to it "I have many names. I am called Headmaster of the Slayer Academy, I am called Battle Coordinator of the Slayer Army. I am the destroyer of the Dark Star and the Order of Teraka. I unleashed the Sulphur Cataclysm of Nortoth, I burned the Great Shanghai Vampire Nest, I slew Bringers in Sunntdale, I stood in the ruins of the First Evil, and I have fought a hundred more times, and slain an army of monsters. I am Dawn Summers, I am sister to Buffy Summers herself, I am the first and highest of the New Watchers trained by Rupert Giles….who you just missed by the way, and I will slay you as well".
The effect on he assembled monsters was immediate and dramatic. Every one of them, from the tiny fear demons to what appeared to be a true, Old One in a tunnel went silent, most shrank back, a few actually fled. Dawn felt stronger with every word of her boast. Standing taller, her voice holding more confidence and volume with every word until her legend echoed through the caves. Every word was true, Dawn was the most hated and feared nightmare demons had after only Buffy herself. Spike had taught her psychological warfare years ago, told her that a boast of past victories demoralized enemies even if they didn't appear able to do it. Giles moved slowly, he ached, and there was more to it, but he had caused more than one vampire to flee by naming himself killer of Glorificus. Spike had also stressed that the best boasts were true and famous, it was part of why in all of his years, he had never pretended to be anyone else. The words Dawn spoke in challenge held power because every word was true, and every demon knew her name.
The vampire who had spoken before, apparently their leader growled "My brother died at the fall of Dark Star. 500 years together, and now I find myself staring at his killer. Oh this is a good day, a very good day. We'll send you heart back to your sister, in a nice box. Brothers, sisters, BRING ME HER HEAD!" and the demonic horde surged forward. Dawn made no effort to run, to pull a stake, to defend herself or delay her fate in any way. It was far too late for anything but her last card. Behind her back, she was holding down the dead man triggers of her own grenade and the one she had grabbed from Giles during their run. She noted with satisfaction that the first creature to hit her was the leader, she would keep her word, he wouldn't survive this. Her last thought as her had left the triggers "Gotcha".
She fell back, and the fireball expanded out, two merging into a wave of fire. Dawn was immediately reduced to a scorched skeleton. She was hit first, but the flames washed over the creatures that had charged her, obliterating the leader and a good 30 others, the last assault of Dawn Summers packed quite a punch. And Dawn watched it happen.
She didn't quite understand how, but Dawn felt the heat strike her, and then she was several yards away, watching the chaos...staring at her bones. She looked down and was….not SHOCKED to see that she was transparent and floating off the ground, but it was certainly unexpected. Dawn had always harbored a quiet thought that as the Key, she didn't have a soul, that her death would just be lights out, and her energy returning to the world, at that hadn't bothered her in a long time. To have some kind of life after the death of her body was a nice little surprise, even if she didn't understand it, she got to see the results of her handiwork. The howling monsters showed no sign of noticing her incorporeal self, one stumbled right through her. So invisible huh? Neat.
Dawn felt a hand on her shoulder and whirled around, freezing at the smiling faces in front of her, faces she had never expected to see again. "Mom? Tara? …..How? No, doesn't matter. I never got a last chance to let either of you know how much I loved you, now I can, I don't care how it happened". Dawn didn't know a ghost could cry, but she definitely felt tears. The two lost loved ones embraced her "We missed you so much" said Joyce. Tara was trying not to cry, she nodded "The Powers sent us. You were right in your diary, the Key wouldn't normally have had a soul...but the Powers, they…" Tara burst into tears and hugged her again, Joyce picked up "They saw you, all these years fighting as their champion, all the good you did, the lives you saved, the sacrifice...I was so proud of you. So they gave you a soul, and said you could come back with us. To wait for the others, and rest". Dawn nodded, her racing thoughts giving way to peace and love. She smiled "that sounds really nice" she took the hands she had prayed so many times to hold again and as the light enveloped her, whispered " Let's go home".