Clark's fingers flew across his keyboard like scuttling spiders. His laptop was a personal creation, the product of years of saving chore money. A slick, black thing that when closed reminded him of the Monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Dawn Summers.

He had a name and a connection, however, the girl that had accosted him in the hallway had been, near as he could tell, a regular human.

However, Clark had never met anyone else who wasn't human, so would he really be able to tell? Clark's hands stopped and he peered at them. He would never mistake them for human hands.

Everything physical in the universe, as far as the people of planet Earth could tell, interacted with light. When light strikes an object, some frequencies are absorbed, some are reflected, some are transmitted through the material, and some are emitted.

No two materials appeared to do these things in exactly the same way. The human eye could only detect three wavelengths of light, and used those three wavelengths to create all the colors and hues humans can see.

Clark couldn't know an exact number, but he suspected his own eyes could see in several hundred, and possibly even several thousand wavelengths.

This let him pick up on tiny differences and details totally overlooked by human eyes. A human might pick up a rock and see a rock.

Clark could pick up that same rock and see clearly the contrast of minerals that run through its skin, see how it differs from the other rocks around it, even tell what else had touched it.

In theory at least, but these millions on millions of additional hues were totally unknown to humans, visible only to some of their most powerful imaging technologies. Clark didn't have anyone to teach him what they all meant, so he was learning on his own.

But he knew his own hands pretty well. There were too many differences in the way they reflected and emitted light compared to a human's. Dawn Summers on the other hand, had seemed fairly typical.

The woman he'd seen outside his house, she'd seemed off too, but Clark couldn't be sure what that meant.

Clark's hands resumed typing.

Clark had arrived on the planet Earth cloaked in a meteor shower.

Was that a coincidence, or was it by design?

So the first things Clark started looking for were strange astronomical events in the area. He found an incident that happened the year before. Several people in town reported seeing a large meteor in the sky. However, no meteor or crash site was found. The event also coincided with the death of several people suffering psychological issues, but Clark didn't know if there was a connection.

As a lead, it didn't sound promising. So Clark moved on.

There was definitely something about this Dawn Summers girl. She was freaked out. There's more to the situation than she said.

So she was his next stop. He looked her up, narrowing results until he thought he had his girl. An article from a local Sunnydale paper. Clark opened it up.

It was about an elementary school chess championship hosted about five years ago. He found a picture of a little brunette girl, grinning widely with a trophy in hand. Behind her a woman with long blonde hair held on to her shoulders, enveloping her in a warm, loving glow. Next to that woman…

The woman I saw outside my house.

The picture was captioned.

Pictured: 1st place winner, Dawn Summers with mother Joyce Summers and sister Buffy Summers.

Clark quickly read through the article. It mentioned that it was Dawn's first year in Sunnydale, she'd moved here from Los Angeles.

Clark ran another search for Buffy Summers. An unusual name, there probably wouldn't be many false leads.

Even so, he couldn't find much. She had apparently been charged with arson, setting her high school gym on fire her freshman year, a year before her move to Sunnydale. A bit more poking around revealed to Clark that she'd been institutionalized.

Clark frowned. That meant hospital records. Which meant she had to be human, right? Clark could never be admitted to a hospital, all of his own medical papers were forged because a hospital would realize what he was in a heartbeat.

Maybe a psychiatric institution hadn't done an extensive physical examination, but Clark doubted it.

Which meant she had to be human...

Or that she could pose as one well enough to fool modern medicine.

Clark blinked and rested his face in his hands. There was that good old paranoia. Was he trying too hard to make the evidence fit his theory? His desires?

Clark noticed his left hand trembling. He pulled away from the computer and stared hard at it, willing it to stop.

His whole body felt like a hornet's nest, every cell buzzing with unspent energy he could practically hear.

Clark was worried that if he didn't let it out soon, that energy was going to find its own way into the world.

He waited until the tremors stopped before going back to the computer.

Clark looked up the mother just in case. Divorced, had owned a local gallery, died several months ago from complications after surgery to remove a brain tumor.

Clark slammed the laptop shut, wincing at his own carelessness.

Now who's the spying jerk?

Clark remembered the girl, her terrified expression when he'd…

He couldn't even imagine a world without both of his parents. Clark took a deep breath. It was time to let this go. Whatever this was, it was looking like it didn't have any connection to him, it wasn't any of his business.

Maybe I'll just never know. Maybe I'll just go my whole life never answering these questions about what I am, where I come from.

Clark pushed his rolling chair away from his desk and stood up, stretching. He looked out of his window, down onto the street. He could remember clearly the image of the woman shooting by, easily at seventy or eighty miles an hour.

Movement from across the street caught his eye. Clark focused and he could see a figure moving across the Patterson's lawn across the street.

Actually, not just any figure. It was Dawn Summers. Even in the darkness Clark's eyes easily made her out.

What the heck?

She was wearing all black, excepting the pink backpack.

Seriously, what the heck?

He watched her as she stopped in front of the tree house Tom Patterson had built for his daughter Jane. She climbed up the ladder, really a series of boards nailed to the tree, and crammed herself into the little wooden box.

An intuitive suspicion made Clark duck down. He stayed low and made his way to the window. He peaked out over the window sill.

Through the little square window cut into the side of the treehouse, Dawn's head was hanging, her arms holding a pair of black binoculars up to her face, pointed directly at his window.

Clark dropped back down again. Fortunately, his light was off. Chances were she couldn't see anything in his room. Either way, she was definitely watching him.

What the hell?

Clark felt an old panic start to uncoil itself inside him, hissing as it slithered up and down his spine.

She knows something, she suspects. She saw what you really are when you lost control in front of her. She's dangerous, a threat. She'll reveal what you are to the world and then nowhere will be safe. Not for you, not for the Kents.

Clark took a steadying breath and shut the voice out. He didn't know what Dawn knew or what she was thinking. Even if she suspected something, she would only be here if she wanted to confirm. He still had a chance to find a way out of this.

The two silently watched. Dawn watched Clark's black window, and Clark watched her watching.

But another sudden movement drew his eye.

There was a man walking down the street. Something was odd about the way he moved. His movements were sinuous and smooth. Walking was the wrong word, he almost glided as if on ice.

Clark felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. Clark saw the man sniff the air. It made Clark think of a snake tasting the air with its tongue. The man turned and stared directly at Dawn's hiding place.

Clark looked back at Dawn, she hadn't noticed.

The man was walking toward the tree house.

Yeah, that can't be good.

Clark ran to his door and threw it open. He raced to the stairs, hopped over them and hit the ground running for his front door.

He stopped abruptly, sliding from unspent momentum. Should he go?

If I'm right, and this girl is trying to expose me...maybe I should just stay here. Maybe that guy will take care of it for me.

Clark had acted on his wish to save someone once before, and he had needed to run away from the only home he'd known. And the Kents, who'd lived there all their lives had been dragged along with him.

Maybe this was the lesson he needed to learn. Trying to help would only end badly for him.

He thought he heard a shriek coming from across the street, cut off abruptly.

Damn it.

Clark burst out into the night in time to see Dawn being dragged off by the strange man, who moved startlingly fast.

No!

Clark ran after, still in his socks. Now that he was out in the world, he noticed more oddness about the man. Clark could see infrared light, the light of heat radiated by everything in existence. He could tell that the man was cold, colder than any living thing should be.

He couldn't tell this before because infrared radiation cannot pass through glass, and the window had been in his way.

What is he?

Whatever he was, he was fast, but not as fast as Clark. Clark saw the man jump the fence that led to the Patterson's back yard. Clark followed. He leapt over the fence in one bound. But when he landed, he saw the man had already crossed the yard and was hopping another fence, Dawn held under his arm like a potato sack.

Clark might be faster, but so long as the man avoided open spaces, Clark couldn't make full use of that speed. Not without plowing through walls and fences. Worse still, the man seemed to know his route already, giving him another edge on Clark.

Dammit, Clark thought as the man started to pull ahead of him, fences and obstacles piling up in Clark's way.


Dawn wheezed as she was shaken like a baby rattle. Wherever this vampire was taking her, he didn't seem to care if his snack got a little bruised by the rough trip.

Too stupid. She'd let him sneak up on her. The ladder up to the treehouse had a loose board that squeaked when she had climbed up. She thought that would alert her.

She hadn't counted on the vampire simply jumping up into the tree house. She heard his landing, but by then it was too late. A quick blow had stunned her before she could reach the bottle of holy water by her side and he'd dragged her off.

C'mon Dawn, focus.

But she could barely tell up from down as she was tossed around in the vampire's grip as he sprinted and lept through the neighborhood. Dawn had learned- from one of her many sessions spying on Giles' lectures to Buffy- that while lots of vampires would isolate a target and attack them there, some would snatch people up and drag them back to a lair to eat.

As soon as he stops, I need to try and break free.

Despite being jangled up and down, despite the tremoring terror, Dawn bent her arm back and slowly reached for a side pocket of her backpack.

The vampire lept a gate into the Wilkins Memorial Park Cemetery.

Dawn worked a sports bottle out of the pocket.

Deeper into the cemetery, the vampire slowed down.

Now!

Dawn pulled the cap open and squeezed. A jet of holy water squirted into the vampire's face. The vampire screamed as the water sizzled and burned his skin like acid.

He threw Dawn away from him. She spun in the air, slamming into the grass with a thud, the wind rushing out of her.

Get up! Get up! Get up!

Dawn shakily pushed herself up until she could kneel. Where was the bottle? She looked up, her head whipped back and forth.

There!

She'd let go when the vampire had thrown her. It had rolled next to a grave between the two of them.

Shit!

The vampire was already recovering, pawing at his face, now contorted and monstrous. His brow had bunched together becoming pinched and narrow. His eyes had turned a pale yellow and his canine teeth had extended into large fangs.

The Vampire 'Game Face'. Their true demon self made manifest. He was now faster, stronger, and staring directly at her with ferocious, hate filled eyes.

Dawn quickly slipped her backpack off her shoulders, eyes darting between it and the vampire. She pulled the zipper open and reached inside.

The vampire started charging. It's legs swallowed the yards between them with supernatural speed. It dove into an attack, mouth wide and snarling, fangs glinting.

Dawn lashed out with her arm, screaming as she did.

She struck the vampire in the face, the wooden cross she'd pulled out of her bag in hand.

The vampire roared as it's flesh burned away where the cross touched it. It tried to turn away from the anathematic symbol, but it couldn't stop its own lunge in time. The vampire slammed into Dawn's side at an angle instead of pouncing directly onto her.

She was spun by the impact and knocked over. The scramble started immediately. Dawn tried to right herself so she could bring the cross between them, but the vampire was faster. He rolled onto her and pinned her by the wrist. She squirmed and writhed but his grip was like an iron vice.

The vampire roared at her, it's fetid breath of blood and decay blasting into her nostrils. Dawn gagged. Clearly this vampire wasn't big on personal hygiene.

But he was also a guy vampire. Dawn swiftly brought her leg up into the vampire's groin. The vampire groaned and his grip loosened enough for Dawn to rotate her wrist and bring the cross in contact with his hand.

The vampire hissed and jerked his hand back. Dawn moved instantly, thrusting the cross into his face. The vampire pushed himself off her and scurried back. He jumped to his feet. Dawn scrambled to hers.

Dawn kept her eyes on the vamp as she stepped forward. She was next to her bag now. Keeping her eyes on him, she reached down into it and pulled out a stake.

Dawn took long breaths to try and calm her galloping heart. She licked her dry lips as she and the vampire slowly circled each other.

Then, a few more sidesteps and Dawn had the vampire where she wanted him. She charged forward, cross brandished in front of her. The vampire quickly stepped back, not knowing that in their circling before, Dawn had maneuvered him in front of a small grave plaque.

He backed up right into a slab of marble no taller than his ankles. He tripped and fell backwards onto the grass. He tried to push himself back up, but Dawn had already reached him.

The vampire immediately wrapped his arms around his head when she thrust the cross at his face and pinned him to the ground. She lifted the stake in her other hand.

For Buffy.

She stabbed the stake down into the vampire's chest, yelling as she did. The pointed wood sank into the creature's flesh, about an inch away from the heart.

Uh oh.

Dawn squeaked as she tried to work the stake back out again. The vampire's powerful leg swept up and caught her on the side.

Dawn cried out as the powerful blow sent her sprawling. She rolled when she hit the ground and sprang up as soon as she could, side throbbing.

The vampire was already there. She tried to get the cross up to defend herself, but he grabbed her around the wrist again.

She stabbed with the stake, but he caught her with his other arm.

He was grinning now, she was in a grapple with a creature of literally monstrous strength. She couldn't win.

She tried the old classic again, kicking out for his groin. His own leg quickly came up to intercept. All the while his powerful grip twisted on her arms. Dawn tried to fight back, but the pain became too much. With a whimper she was forced to drop her weapons.

The vampire was laughing at her now. "I think you've been reading too many comic books, girl. In the real world, the monster always wins,"

Dawn spat what little her dry mouth could muster right into the vampire's eye. The vampire snarled and slammed into her with a vicious headbut.

Dawn cried out in pain, her vision swam. The vampire drew in closer, down towards her neck.

That was it then. Game over in the first round. Dawn squeezed her eyes shut.

I'm sorry, Buffy.

Dawn choked with shame. Shame...and a little relief. Maybe this was for the best. Maybe now she could see them, Buffy and Mom...maybe now she could finally rest. Maybe now she could put down this heavy box she'd been carrying with her everywhere she went, all day, every day, ever since her mother and sister had died.

"Hey!" someone yelled. "Let her go!"