Author: Lash_Larue
Title: "Fading Dawn"
Pairing: Dawn/Faith, Buffy/Willow, Amanda/Blake, others
Rating: PG13
Summary: Terror and rage
Warnings: mild language
Word Count:1800
Disclaimer: These characters belong to Joss Whedon, except for the ones that don't
"Fading Dawn"
Chapter 3
"Cold"
"Ricky, Amanda, thanks for letting me play, I had a ball. And Mandy, you were amazing, I'll never pick on your driving again," Faith told them. "You guys have fun at the party, Dawnie's here to take me home."
"Gonna have a little party of your own, huh Faith?" Amanda asked with a knowing grin.
"That's the idea; you can load the Bitch up okay without me, right? I don't want to leave you hanging."
"Faith, honey," Ricky said, and he kissed her brow, "four Slayers can load that carbon fiber missile just fine. Go have fun; I'm sure three days away from Dawn seemed like a month."
"Only when I had time to think about it; later guys," and with that Faith was running to the trucks.
She saw a crumpled form on the ground by the transporters and redoubled her efforts, seconds later she carefully laid her hand on Dawn's throat and heaved a huge sigh of relief when she felt her pulse and saw her breathing.
"RICKY!", she screamed, and in a matter of moments Dr. Blake was there, having arrived via Slayer express. Amanda had one arm and Kennedy the other, and they had carried him to Faith's side much faster than he could have arrived on his own feet. Blake would have enjoyed the ride if not for the fear that had been plain in Faith's scream.
"What happened?" he asked as he peeled back an eyelid and reached for the penlight that was always in his pocket.
"I don't know, I ran back here and found her like this. I didn't see or hear anything. What's wrong with her?"
"I don't know yet, there is no obvious injury, and I don't see any blood… ahh," he breathed as his fingers found the tiny metal projectile and pulled it free. "Mandy, get me something clean to put this in," he said as he showed the dart to Faith. By then Ryuki and Renata had arrived.
"Sweep the area," Faith commanded, "if it looks hinky, grab it. Hell, grab it anyway; nobody much should be here right now."
"On it," Kennedy promised and she, Ryuki, and Renata fanned out into the night.
"She seems stable," Blake told Faith, "her pupils react okay, and her pulse and respiration are fine. Hell, it's like she's just sleeping. There's a decent hospital nearby. We'll get her there and I can start finding out what's up with her. You'd better call Buffy, though, she'll want to get on the first flight she can, I know she'll want to be with Dawn. I need to call Rachel and tell her not to expect us at the party, too."
Faith opened her cell and hit the speed dial. Faith started talking as soon as Buffy answered, interrupting her greeting.
"Dawn has been attacked, Buff, some kind of drugged dart. She's unconscious but stable and Ricky is taking her to a hospital near here. No, I don't know who or what, Kennedy has a team sweeping the area now. Get here as soon as you can, okay? I'll have Amanda text you the address of the place… yeah, you try not to worry too. Thank God Ricky's here. Bye."
"If I wasn't here this wouldn't have happened," Blake said slowly, "none of us would be here if I hadn't wanted to show off."
"None of that shit, Ricky, we don't have time for it. Come on; tell me where to take her." Faith stood with Dawn cradled in her arms, and Blake shook off his guilt. Faith was right; there was no time for it. Amanda arrived with a clean jar and the track ambulance; they loaded Dawn in the back. Faith and Blake climbed in with her. The track medics all knew him, and let him take charge. "Send Buffy the hospital address, would you Mandy?" he said as the doors closed.
"On it," replied Amanda as her fingers blurred on the keypad. The app the Slayers used also transmitted GPS coordinates with each address so that Dawn could know where to port the nest team. There would be no teleporting this time, but the data would prove useful all the same.
"Dammit, the first flight doesn't leave for three hours, and it has four fucking connections," Buffy fumed.
"Wrong," countered Willow as she entered the study, "the flight leaves now, and it's definitely an express."
Willow's eyes were jet black, and her personal breeze was at full force, scattering any loose bits of paper in the room.
"Are you sure about this, Willow? It won't be precisely discreet," Giles asked hesitantly.
"Don't care. Audra just called; Leticia says that Dawn's signature in the stream is fading. Something is cutting off her power, trying to separate her from the stream."
"Great," spat Buffy, "a magic-sucking vampire. Like we needed another kind."
"I doubt that it's a vampire," Willow told her, "this has witchcraft written all over it. The dark kind. My kind. And I have to say that I'm taking this personally. As I matter of fact, I am well and truly pissed off." Willow smiled, and Giles felt a trickle of ice water run down his spine.
"Willow-" he began, but she cut him off.
"No worries Giles, I'm a Goddess, not a demon, I know right from wrong. Audra has contacted a magical healer to help Ricky with Dawn. She's supposed to be the best there is."
"You and Rona can hold down the fort, right Giles?" Buffy asked.
"Certainly, don't worry about a thing, just take care of Dawn, and do give my love to her and Faith when you arrive. If you need any assistance at all, call anytime," Giles assured her.
"At least I don't have to figure out how to get this through security," Buffy said as she picked up the scythe, there was a brief puff of air, and Willow handed her Dawn's weapon as well.
"That's for when we find whoever did this," Willow explained. "We'll call when we get there, Giles."
Buffy and Willow hurried outside, and an instant later the house rocked in a strong wind, and a few branches snapped on the surrounding trees. Giles looked out his window and saw what looked like a ball of lightning disappearing into the sky.
"Is Aunt Willow angry, papa?" asked William.
"Yes, son, I'm afraid that she is," Giles answered.
"Somebody's gonna get it," the boy stated, shaking his head.
"You are absolutely correct, William, someone most assuredly is. Let's find Mummy and tell her the news then, shall we?" William took him by the hand, and Giles was pleased that his own was not trembling. Not much, anyway.
Weather stations on both sides of the Atlantic recorded an unknown phenomenon that had many of the characteristics of a hurricane. It was eventually dismissed as a software glitch in the linked systems because it was too small, not even fifty meters across, and was moving far, far, too fast. Rumors began circulating about experimental aircraft.
Dawn was settled in a room, and the equipment painted a reassuring picture of her body's functions. She would not however, wake up.
"I don't want to try any drugs to wake her," Dr. Blake explained to an extremely worried Faith. "She doesn't seem to be in any danger physically, she's perfect except for being asleep. And this really is sleep, not unconsciousness. I don't get it," he admitted.
"Not what I really wanted to hear," Faith admitted, "but as long as she's alive I'll deal."
"I'm sorry Faith, I feel like I've let you down," Blake told her.
"Stop that shit, you're doing the best you can, and I know that's the best there is. This is something different, that's all. And different is part of the job description. Giles said that our friends at the coven in England are sending some kind of witch doctor; make that a doctor who is also a witch, to help. All I want is for Dawnie to be okay. Well, that and the chance to kill whoever or whatever did this."
"Right there with you kid," Blake said as he took her in his arms.
The situation was so serious that Amanda didn't even make a crack about Faith hugging her husband as she entered the room.
"How's our girl?" she asked.
"Stable, but sleeping," Blake answered, "Faith is kind of pissed off. Me too, come down to it."
"There's a lot of that going around," Amanda agreed, "Buffy and Willow are on the way, we can expect bad weather soon."
"Good," Faith replied, "once they get here we can handle whatever did this, no matter what the hell it is. I just wish we knew what was wrong!."
"Well, here's the witch for that job, apparently," Amanda said as she held out her phone towards Faith, "Audra sent a picture of her so we wouldn't accidentally cut her head off or something."
"Smart girl, Audra," allowed Faith, "pretty good looking doctor, she's a witch too, huh?"
"Audra says she's exceptional. She's not Wiccan though; she's the old-fashioned kind, even flies a broom."
"Huh," said Faith, "if she can fix Dawnie up I'll buy her a vacuum, introduce her to the jet age."
A tremendous clap of thunder sounded, and the lights flickered briefly.
"Mandy, you and the others better clear the way, Buffy and Willow aren't likely to stand on protocol, hospital or no," Blake urged. Amanda was already on her way.
Buffy handed Dawn's scythe to Faith as she entered the room, and went straight to Dawn's side without pausing.
"Your hair's a mess, Buff," Faith commented.
"The pilot put the top down," Buffy explained. "She looks like she's asleep," she said as she cast a practiced eye over the various monitors. Buffy knew her way around a hospital room.
"She is," Blake assured her, "and the tox screen on her blood came back negative. I'm running them all again, everything there is to run, but I don't think this is something in my field, exactly."
"Where is the thing you found in Dawn's neck?" Willow asked, and Blake handed her the bottle. Willow examined it closely, sniffing it. "There is magic here, for sure, but it's not precisely like anything I've seen before. Maybe the specialist that Audra is sending will know more." Willow went to Dawn's side and laid a hand on her forehead, a faint blue light appeared where their skin met. "Something is cutting her off from the stream, disconnecting her… it's kind of like the technique that Dawn used when she went to get Giles back, but longer lasting. Whatever witch or wizard did this is very skilled in more than one type of magic."
"Do you think you can handle them when we find them?" Buffy asked.
Willow smiled, and the water in the glass by Dawn's bed froze in an instant.
