Title: Ancient
Author: Dark Ariana
Fandom: BtVS/Ats
Character/Pairing: Angel/Dawn, Spike/Buffy
Genre: Drama/Angst/Romance/Action/Supernatural
Rating: R
Summary: Dawn Summers was never a normal girl, before a year ago she wasn't even a human girl at all. Now with the key unlocked inside her and being anything but human she decided LA is a better place to be after taking the news of Buffy's death to Angel.
Word Count:3,377
Disclaimer: I own nothing that you recognize.
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Chapter 2: Paradise
Angel couldn't believe it. Buffy was dead, after everything she'd survived, everything she'd lived for she was dead. It wasn't like last time, when he opened his eyes again she wouldn't be standing with him, she wouldn't be alive again.
"I'm sorry," Dawn said as she looked at him. "I tried to jump myself, but she wouldn't let me. She actually hit me to stop me, she'd never actually hit me before."
"She hit you?" Cordelia asked shocked. Dawn snorted.
"I was trying to talk her out of it, I went to push her away from the edge and jump myself when she punch me. She said she was sorry and that I had to live, for her, and then she was gone." There were tears rolling down her cheeks now and she was shaking softly.
"I'm sorry about your sister," Fred said softly, not really all that comfortable at the moment. Cordelia stood then and looked from the others to Fred.
"I'm going to go set Fred up in a room and order her some tacos. Unless she wants pizza," Cordy said looking at the once Pylea cow slave who smiled slightly.
"Pizza is fine." Dawn smiled at Fred as she looked away from Angel who appeared to be in shock, a few tears making there way from his brown eyes. She picked up the middle box and handed it to Cordelia.
"It's just cheese, you might want to heat it up some," she told the oddly dressed seer.
"Uh, Wes and I are gonna go...eat." Gunn said after Cordy and Fred had left and Dawn quickly took the bottom box and handed it to Wesley who nodded smiling as he took it.
"It's peperoni, the other has anchovies...so." Gunn and Wes nodded.
"Say no more. It was nice meeting you Dawn," Gunn said and the two men left leaving Angel and Dawn alone.
"When is the funeral?" Angel finally asked, his voice so heartbroken it made her heart ache.
"Day after tomorrow. It's going to be privet, somewhere secluded. Willow, everyone is worried that if the demons knew she was dead they'd..." she trailed off but Angel knew what she meant. The thought of a demon desecrating Buffy's grave made him angry, she was a beautiful vibrant woman who had loved life she didn't deserve this or what could happen if the world knew she was gone.
"Did they send you?" Angel asked looking at her. He bit his lip as he noticed she wore a red shirt he'd seen on Buffy only once. Dawn had always been prone to steal Buffy's clothes but he knew why she wore it now, not only did it smell like Buffy but it was a reminder that she had been real. It was hard for him to accept that Dawn herself hadn't been real until the year he'd left Sunnydale.
He had so many memories of her, some good, some annoying and some dark. He still remembered the night Angelus had grabbed her in the high school the night after Buffy's birthday. The terror he'd smelled on her and from Buffy, the words. Dawn had been his goal just as much as Buffy had been. The difference was he planed to keep Dawn, to turn her because she reminded him of two important women in his past, Drusilla and Darla. More so the latter then the former.
"I volunteered. I needed to get out of Sunnydale and I thought I should be the one to tell you."
"Thank you," he replied and Dawn smiled slightly.
"Your welcome."
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"We should head out by sunset." Dawn looked over at the brooding vampire. He had offered her his bed the night before since none of the other rooms were suitable for human life and he'd slept in a large chair on the far wall next to the closet. She'd felt bad for that. Now she layed on the bed, her back against a pillow and headboard looking through a box of things Angel had kept of Buffy's.
Mostly letters, pictures and two rings she knew had a sad history behind them. She wondered if she should ask Angel if Buffy could be buried in hers but decided better of it. She didn't think Buffy would have wanted Angel to part with it even if it was to lay her to rest.
"Agreed." Short and sweet.
"I hear Spike is in Sunnydale?"
"You worried about your childe Angel?"
"No need to tease Dawnie, and though William annoys me and has this way about him that pisses me off at times he is still my childer."
"You know that always confused me."
"What did?"
"How Spike was your childe, and he refers to you as his sire but in the books it says Dru sired him. Is that wrong?"
"Not it's true. Drusilla sired Spike but she was much to child like and insane to raise him properly. So I did, Darla wanted little to do with him, he annoyed her more then he did me. But then for the longest time so did Dru."
Dawn laughed. "How did we get from talking about Buffy to talking about your family ties?" Angel smiled sadly.
"Maybe we're not ready to let go yet?"
"I already have. I let go the day after it happened, I held on with mom and I tried to bring her back..."
"...But what you got back wasn't human, wasn't your mother." Dawn sighed.
"Exactly. Sometimes I wonder if she'd have died if the monks had not made me from Buffy."
"I don't think that has anything to do with why Joyce died. Sometimes bad things happen to good people Dawnie."
"Buffy used to say that to me. Like when Celia died, you know she was the same age as me almost and we both got sick around the same time. I know those are fake memories but when she died I wondered why I hadn't."
"Those memories may be fake Dawn but you're real. Take it from a vampire with a super sense of smell. Your real." Dawn smiled.
It's blood Dawn, it's just like mine, Summer's blood.
"Thanks Angel."
"Your Welcome."
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"Deadboy, I'd say it was nice to see you but I'd be lying," Xander greeted as he opened the door to the Summers home. It was around ten and he and Anya were the only ones there besides Willow and Tara.
"Nice to see you too Harris," Angel snapped and Dawn rolled her eyes.
"Will you two act your age please," she said and tossed her bag down inside the door before smiling at Willow and Tara halfheartedly.
"Dawn, I'm glad your back," Willow said hugging the teenager.
"Angel, I'm sorry about...Buffy," she said turning to the taller vampire.
"Yeah, I am too," he replied the grief clear on his face.
"Dawn ar-re y-you hun-hungry?" Tara asked, her stutter worst with the arrival of someone she hadn't met. Angel looked at her and smiled slightly, nodding. He could see why Willow fell for her, she had a innocence and shy nature which drew someone in and long light brown hair and big blue eyes, a pretty face and voluptuous body. Though he wouldn't lie and say the fact Willow was gay hadn't been a surprise because it had been but he found the two looked good together.
"No, I ate on the way here. I'm gonna go up to bed though in Buffy's room," Dawn said, her voice softer at the end and she looked behind her to meet brown eyes.
"Angel you want to settle in as well. I'd offer you my bed but uh...it's smaller so I was thinking I could make you a cot in Buffy's floor. "
"Whoa, wait, you're letting him sleep in Buffy's room, with you?" Xander asked and Anya smiled at the two.
"Are you two..."
"No Anya!" Everyone but Angel and Dawn yelled knowing where it was going. While Angel didn't Dawn did and her cheeks flushed a little as she shook her head.
"No Anya, an yes Xander.
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"I'm sorry for getting you in trouble with Xander." Dawn looked from where she layed on the bed down to Angel who seemed to be staring at the ceiling.
"Xander isn't my father, he'll get over it."
"You never did tell me how you dusted that vampire so quickly tonight."
"I told you the key had unlocked inside me didn't I? It means that I'm back to being what I was before, just without the curse of being a floaty green ball. My memories of being the Key, an Old One, a god, is blurry and few and far between and I don't have all the powers I had then. The super-strength, speed, agility, reflexes, partial invulnerability, healing, hearing they're all here. Probably more powerful then a Slayer if only by a little, and I can still make portals but only to locations in this world. When I became more human then god I lost most my powers." Dawn looked at him again and scrunched up her nose.
"I'm sorry I'm confusing you aren't I?" Angel chuckled.
"Not really, I'm glad you'll be able to protect yourself." Dawn bit her lip.
"Good," she said. "So, I was wondering if you might like a helping hand in LA?"
"What?" Angel asked sitting up.
"It's just...LA is away from here and memories - fake or not - of Buffy and mom and I love the others, I do, but I have to move on and..."
"I understand...but you can't legally mo.."
"Without permission? Don't worry about that, I'll be eighteen next May and I have a fallback plan. They can't control me if I am emancipated."
"True but you'd need a parents signature."
"Then I'll get one," Dawn said and smirked down at him, her blue eyes lighting up in a way that made his demon purr and him think of Darla. "All I have to do is call Daddy."
"Are you sure you want to come back with me?"
"Yes, I'll leave the house with Willow and Tara. I can get some money from Daddy - I know he's been putting it in a bank account for us since he divorced mom, before that really - and help them pay off the house. Return to school I guess and help make sure Buffy didn't die I vane."
"Then I'd be happy to have you Dawn." Dawn smiled and layed back, Angel doing the same in the floor and there was a awkward silence for a few seconds when Dawn asked.
"Angel? Do you snore?" Angel smiled sadly. She may not look to much like her blonde haired, green eyed sister but she was definitely a Summer's girl.
"I don't know, it's been a while since anyone has been in the position to let me know."
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"I'm sorry I wasn't here to save you Buffy," Angel said as he stood in front of the grave the next night with Dawn by his side, wrapped in a long wool coat to protect her from the chill of the night.
"You couldn't have saved her you know, she wanted to save me and the world and she did. She's resting now, after years of fighting the good fight she's finally resting," Dawn said a few tears falling from her eyes. She squeezed the cold hand she held and sniffed.
"She is, isn't she?"
"Of course, she died a hero, she was a champion there isn't anywhere but paradise for her." Dawn laughed softly at that shaking her head. "She's probably playing poker or checkers with mom and others right now. Or at a spa, they have spa's in heaven don't they?"
Angel smiled, chuckling at the image of Buffy in a majestic hot tub in a brightly white room with a glass of champagne, smiling at her mother and maybe other members of her family.
"I wouldn't know but I'm sure there is."
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"You can't be serious Nibblet!" Spike exclaimed, his eyes wide as he stared at his gandsire and Dawn. The Scoobies were all assembled the day after Buffy's privet service. None could say that Dawn's news wasn't shocking because it was.
"I'm dead serius. I'm sorry, but I can't be here after everything that's happened. I need to move on if I decide to come back and with the Buffybot...there's no way I can handle seeing that thing everyday so soon."
"Dawn, I understand that you may need time to cope with everything," Giles began. "But Angel has a bussiness of his own to run and you are only seventeen. The whole point of the Buffybot is so your father wont take you away."
"No, the Buffybot is to make sure the demons don't try and take the Hellmouth." Dawn sighed. "Guys I love you but I am going. I'll finish my senior year at Hemery in LA and maybe in a year I'll be able to come back, if I want too."
"The bit is old enough to decide what she wants to do," Spike said almost sadly. "But I don't like her being with the poof. I'd go along but I've already promised red to look out for the bot and Hellmouth."
"Well I think it's a bad idea with a capital 'BAD'!" Xander practically yelled.
"I don't care what you think is a bad idea, Angel won't hurt me and I don't know why you all think he will!" Dawn yelled.
"Oh I don't know maybe because he's a homicidal vampire when made too happy! If my memory recalls he held you by the throat and I don't think he was talking about having you and Buffy over for teas and crumpets!" Dawn glared at Xander, Angel growling in the boys direction at the same time Spike did. It was obvious the two vampires were protective of the girl.
"That was Angelus and if memory serves me right it's also a fake memory which means Angel has never hurt me, not when he was Angelus or now." Dawn then laughed. "Wait I take that back he has hurt me but that was when he left town without saying goodbye and I got over that a long time ago."
Angel winced as he stood by the blue eyed girl. He wished he stopped to say goodbye to the girl, but at the time he had all but forgotten that it wasn't just Buffy that would be upset with him leaving town.
"Dawn Xander is just upset," Willow said. "I understand you want to leave for a while and I don't mind you staying with Angel but your dad would never let you move away alone." Dawn smirked and Spike snickered.
"You really don't know the bit that well do you red?" he said. Dawn pulled out her cell phone and flipped it open, hit one button and waited the phone at her ear. Seeing Willow about to ask she held up one finger and then she got this look of excitement and joy on her face but the look in her eyes was pure mischief, almost to the point of making everyone twitch with just how much this seemingly innocent girl was capable of.
"Daddy!" she gasped out sounding every bit like a teenaged girl who was happy to see her father, or hear him as it may be. Unfortunatly only Spike and Angel could hear both sides of the conversation.
"Lily-bug is that you?" Angel and Spike both wondered why her father was calling her that, but then realized it was probably because her middle name was Lily.
"Of course," Dawn said, smirking as she rolling her eyes. "I need to ask you something. I know it may seem sudden but...I was wondering if you'd sign some papers for me."
"Of course pumpkin, what is it?"
"Empication forms."
"Dawn why would you..."
"Now Daddy just listen. I know it's sudden but Buffy has so much to do these days with college and work. Since mom died she's been taking such good care of me but I think I need to get away. Be the adult for once." The scoobs could hardly believe what they were hearing. They never realized Dawn could lie so well. Spike on the other hand was holding back laughter.
"I see. Is Buffy okay with this?"
"I've already ran it over with Buffy. She didn't want to let me go so soon, I mean I'll be eighteen soon and collage which I wanted to apply for in LA so I'd be leaving before long anyways but she knows it's just something I have to do."
"Well okay, I can have the papers drawn up by tommarrow and mailed to you in a week. Maybe less. I also have been meaning to send you and Buffy some money, Buffy's bank imformation as well as getting you set up to be able to get into the account anyways."
"Actually I'm already in LA. Summer has already began here and Georgy, you remember Georgy don't you?"
"Sweet girl who lived next door?"
"That's her." Dawn rolled her eyes. So easy. "She wanted me to come stay a week or two and Buffy had a friend of hers, Willow, drive me out here. So if you in LA or California I can drive on out myself and we can take care of everything there. How's Candy by the way?"
"She's fine, I'll tell her you said hello."
"You do that. So is day after tomarrow okay with you?"
"Of course Lily-bug, I'll expect you at five?"
"Five it is," Dawn said. "Bye Daddy." She flipped the phone shut, smirked and put it away.
"Mission accomplished."
"I guess we really have no choice but to let you," Giles said.
"No, you don't."