Series - Slayer Part - 3 Title - Ghost of a Chance Author - The Sorcerer Bard ( thesorcererbard@i-am-the-key.com ) Co-author - Michelle Dawn ( MichelleDawnBot@hotmail.com ) Pairing - NA Series Main Characters - Dawn, Buffy, Willow Part Main Characters - Dawn, Celeste, Marie Series Rating - PG-13 for violence Part Rating - G

Archiving - If you want it then please ask me and I'll probably give you permission.

Disclaimer - What I don't own. Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy and 20th Century Fox own Buffy the Vampire Slayer and everything related to them. What I do own. Everything not owned by the above mentioned people / companies is owned by me but you may use any of it as long as you give me credit.

Timeline: Alternate Universe splits off from... well the end of May 2002

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Slayer Chapter 3 - Ghost of a Chance

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Today Friday 31st of May 2002.

Dawn sat at the table in the Magic Box watching her sister and Faith arguing over the brunette slayer's past actions.

"How many times can I say I'm sorry!" Faith almost yelled.

"STOP IT!" Dawn heard her own voice cry out, she stood and thumped her fist against the table, "You're slayers, you're both on the same side, now act like it."

Everything stopped, the gang all turned to stare at the young woman.

"Dawn? A-are you alright?" Buffy asked, her shock was very noticeable.

"No, I'm really not," Dawn said as the world around her slipped into darkness.

___________________________________________________________________ Dawn sat up suddenly and found herself surrounded not by darkness but by very bright light.

"Dawn Summers?" came a ghostly voice.

"Maybe," Dawn squinted at where the voice had come from, "Who are you?"

"I am Marie," the voice answered simply.

"Marie? Where am I?"

"You are between worlds, not living, not dead," Marie answered.

"Huh?"

"I am dead, a ghost to be precise, in life I was a slayer," Dawn felt more than saw Marie move towards her.

"Were a slayer?"

"Yes, in the early 18th century."

"Why are you here?"

"We are here to help you, do you know of the Covenant?"

"No, what is it?"

"The slayers power is drawn from the Covenant, it connects the slayer and the Key."

"So, I'm connected to Buffy?"

"Yes but more than that, you have more power than a slayer, your potential is far, far greater."

"Wait a sec, rewind, you said 'we' when all I see is you," Dawn suddenly realised that her words were true, she could see Marie. The ghost was beautiful, she had long flowing red hair framing a smoothly curved face with deep green eyes and wearing a long flowing dress of indeterminate color.

"Yes, my compatriot is Celeste," Marie answered as another woman moved into Dawn's field of vision.

"Greetings Dawn Summers," the second woman said, her voice carried the lilt of an Irish accent. She was dressed similar to Marie but her hair was blonde and her eyes a deep brown.

"So how exactly can you help?"

"You will know when the time is right."

"Why are you here to help?"

"We are here to do what a slayer must..." Marie began.

"Fight the forces of darkness, and avert the Apocalypse." Celeste finished.

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"Dawnie? Can you hear me?" her sister's voice intruded into her peaceful blackness.

"B-Buffy?"

"Are you alright?" this was Willow's voice.

"Yeah you look like shit," Spike's voice was further away.

"Then I look like I feel," Dawn retorted, she still had her eyes closed.

"Can you sit up?" Dawn's eyes flew open at the sound of Giles voice.

"Mr Giles? Why aren't you in England?"

"I was until The Council sent me here, the seers have seen something terrible coming."

"The apocalypse," Dawn stated with absolute certainty.

"They couldn't tell," Giles looked at her with a curious look on his face, "How do you know?"

"She's been contacted, haven't you Dawnie?" Tara asked from where she was standing next to the counter.

"Contacted? By who?" Buffy asked looking at the former witch.

"Help," Tara answered cryptically.

"Help? What kind of help?" Buffy asked as she helped Dawn to sit up.

"The ghostly kind, two slayers named Celeste and Marie," Dawn told her.

"Well then there should be some record of them in the Watchers diaries," Giles said.

"Or in the Watchers Council files," Willow said as she moved to her laptop.

"You know I still don't approve of you hacking your way into those files, Willow," Giles scalded as he walked towards her.

Willow tapped away at the keyboard for a few seconds before replying, "Yeah, but if I hadn't then we wouldn't know that Marie was a slayer in Georgia in the early 18th century and Celeste was a slayer in Ireland around... Oh wow," Willow covered her mouth with her hand.

"What is it Willow?" Buffy asked.

Giles looked over the red-head's shoulder and read from the screen, "Celeste was the slayer in Ireland in Galway in seventeen fifty... Oh my, 1753," Giles looked at Buffy.

"What?"

"That was when Angel was turned by Darla."

"And Angel was turned in Ireland."

"It gets worse, according to this Angelus was the one who killed her."

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To be continued in Slayer part 4 - A Gathering of Warriors