Chapter 4 Part 1
It had been a few days since the Zombie incident and the teens of Sunnydale had settled back into a more or less normal routine, well normal for them anyway. After Giles contacted the council about Buffy's expulsion they made a few calls which resulted in the School Board overruling Snyder. To that end Buffy had been allowed back into school. Both Buffy and Dawn had had a long talk about the brunette now being a Slayer, although there were a few things that Dawn and Giles had discovered. The two Slayers had even been on a few patrols together and they had to admit that it was fun.
Things between Xander and Cordelia were pretty much the same. Although both teens did give Buffy and Giles the cold shoulder for a day or so until they apologised for what had happened the night the Zombies attacked. That also led the blond Slayer and the Watcher to apologize to Willow as well.
Willow and Oz were both doing ok as well. The red head was now happy that Buffy was back in school and despite the strain that had been there, had fallen back into their old friendship.
As for Clark, while he was at school he kept his distance from both Buffy and Giles. This as a result also meant that he was keeping his distance from Willow and the others as well, not that it bothered him. An incident when Buffy had brought lunch for her friends the day before she was reinstated showed that she was still pretty terrified of him, although not looking to slay him at the moment.
In truth being on his own didn't seem to bother him that much anymore. It was funny because it was the one thing he'd always been terrified of, ending up alone. Yet for some reason, it didn't seem to bother him in the slightest. While part of him was wondering why it didn't bother him, another part didn't seem to care.
Back in Smallville however, a lot had happened. Chloe had testified against Lionel and the trial ended rather quickly and resulted in a guilty verdict. The former Billionaire would now spend the rest of his life behind bars. Without any of his recourses it was finally deemed safe for Chloe and her father to return to Smallville. To make things more interesting, Chloe's cousin Lois Lane had been forced to move in with her cousin and uncle. Apparently she didn't have enough credits to graduate her senior year and still had some to make up. Nobody knew how the General had done it, but he'd arranged for Lois to have to retake the entire year. So to that end she'd be stuck in Smallville until she graduates.
When Chloe was finally able to, she contacted Clark and the two had spent a few hours talking. However Chloe immediately knew that there was something different with her favourite farm boy, even if there was nothing she could currently do about it.
Lana's life had taken an interesting turn when her summer fling, Jason Teague showed up in Smallville as he had followed her from Paris. He'd even managed to get a job as an assistant coach for Smallville High. Although nobody was aware of the fact that he was involved with a student as he'd loose the job instantly. So that left Lana and Jason sneaking around behind everyone's back, not that Lana minded. On top of that Lex had the Talon reopened and Lana became the manager as she was once Lex's partner in owning the Talon before she left.
As for Lex, with Lionel's conviction he turned his attention to Luthor Corp as he needed to catch up on everything that the company was involved in. There was still a lot of things he didn't have access to until his father had been officially convicted. His search for the stones that his father had been looking for had also turned up as a dead end. The burial site that they discovered in Egypt showed that whatever they were looking for, was long gone. That left Lex wondering if these stones had even ever existed, so for now he pulled the plug on the whole thing.
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While Buffy went to the Bronze, Dawn decided to get some slaying in. She was doing her usual thing of stalking the Vampire's before she killed them routine. For some reason she still couldn't figure out, it set her blood on fire. Now she'd been following these two vamps for the past half hour when not only she but the two vamps heard what sounded like fighting coming from a nearby alley. The Vamps seemed to be just as curious as she was so she decided to stake them and then go and find out what was going on. So before the two Vamps had time to figure out what was going on she got up behind them and staked one and just as the other turned to her in shock, she staked it as well.
Wiping the dust of her hands she made her way into the alley and came to a complete stop and stared at the scene in front of her in shock as she saw Clark of all people getting the crap kicked out of him by four Vampires.
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Clark had decided to take Kai's advise and try to learn how to fight without his powers, unfortunately he now knew he'd made a huge mistake. He was using one of the rings he'd been given to suppress his powers. With that he'd gone into town and come across a single vampire that was attacking a teenager. So Clark being Clark decided to step in allowing the other teenager to run off. That left Clark facing the vampire without his powers. Now due to his dense molecular structure, he'd learned that even without his powers, he could still in theory match the speed and strength of a vampire. Unfortunately for Clark, Vampires seemed to have a natural affinity for martial arts.
In Clark's defence he was doing ok against a single Vampire. He'd been knocked down a few times and was in a lot of pain, but he'd also given as good as he'd got. Then everything went to hell when three more vamps showed up and Clark found himself completely outclassed. Now one might wonder why he just didn't deactivate the ring or even take it off. He would have but there was a few problems. While the ring was active, it wouldn't come off. Secondly to deactivate the ring, it took a bit of concentration. At the moment getting the crap kicked out of him was taking all of his concentration as he was now fighting for his life against four vampires.
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Dawn watched in horror as she saw Clark getting thrown into a large metal dumpster. There was a light on the wall nearby and because of it she saw his face. He had blood running down the side of his face and his nose looked like it could possibly been broken. Then out of nowhere as she watched the scene she felt a sudden burst of rage come from somewhere as she looked at the sight in front of her. Without thinking she ran straight up behind the biggest of the vampires.
When she got behind the Vampire she kicked it hard in the back of the knee casing it to give way. Once on his knee's Dawn wrapped her left arm around its neck while grabbing his head with the other. A quick twist later and the only sound in the entire alley was the vampire's neck snapping before it dropped to the floor. Since it's head was still attached, Dawn knew it was still alive.
With the three Vampires now focused on Dawn, Clark took the opportunity to focus on deactivating the ring. After a few seconds the dark purple crystal began to glow before it went clear. He felt the all too familiar energy begin to flow through his body as his powers were restored.
Dawn had managed to knock the other three vampires to the floor just in time to see Clark getting back to his feet. She watched in awe as his cuts began to glow and heal before her eyes. Within only a few seconds she would never have known that he'd been hurt if it wasn't for the dried blood on his face. Then she watched as Clark's eyes glowed red before two red beams shot out of them heading straight at the three vampires. Within moments they were dust.
Shaking herself out of her shock she focussed all her attention on Clark. "Are you alright? What the hell happened?"
Clark looked at Dawn and let out a sigh. "I was trying to take on a vamp without my powers." He answered honestly. "I was doing alright until his three friends showed up."
"What, you can turn your powers on and off?" The slayer asked.
Clark raised his right hand revealing the ring that now had a clear crystal in it. "It suppresses my abilities."
"Cool, show me." Dawn ordered as she walked up to the alien teenager.
Clark nodded his head and closed his eyes for a few seconds and concentrated on the ring. As for Dawn she watched as the clear crystal in the ring started to glow. Within a few seconds the clear crystal had turned a dark purple. "So what, your powerless now?" The brunette asked to which Clark just nodded. "Good." She stated and before Clark could say or do anything she brought her fist up and punched him square in the jaw sending the alien teen back to the floor. "ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND!" Dawn screamed at him with anger in his voice. "ARE YOU STUPID OR JUST BRAIN DEAD? WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING?"
Clark shook of the cobwebs and stood up slowly. That's one hell of a right hook. He thought to himself as he got to his feet. "What the hell was that for?" He finally asked with confusion in his voice.
Dawn just looked at him as if he'd grown a second head. "Clark, you could have been killed." She said with worry in her voice.
Clark heard the concern in her voice and let out a small sigh. "I thought there was only one of them. I thought I could handle it."
"Why would you do something like this? Why not use your powers?" The brunette asked.
"I was recently told that I rely too much on my powers." Clark answered honestly. "And the truth is, I do. I've never had to really survive without them."
Dawn stood there for a little while and thought over what Clark had said. As she thought about it she realised that he may have a point. She doesn't have his kind of power so she had to learn to survive. For Clark she realised that not many things would be able to challenge him. That also meant though that he didn't know how to fight either, since he wouldn't be able to train against anyone. "Why didn't you come to me? Or even go to Buffy or Giles? We could have helped you." She finally said.
Clark looked at Dawn with disbelief. "Unless you haven't noticed, your sister and Giles are absolutely terrified of me."
Dawn wished she could argue that point but she knew that Clark was right. Even though it had been a good few days since the Zombie incident, both Buffy and Giles were still scared of him. They tried to hide it and act all nice and polite, but she could see through it. And now by the sounds of it, Clark had as well. "Do you really want to learn how to fight without your powers?" She finally asked to which Clark said that it was something that he needed to do. So with a sigh she made a decision of her own. "Alright, I'll help you." She said before glancing at the now paralysed vampire. "Can you do that eye glowy thing and dust him." She asked in reference to the vampire.
Clark nodded his head before concentrating on his ring again. Once it was deactivated he turned his attention to the vampire. A few seconds later, all that was left was dust.
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While Dawn was with Clark the rest of the Scoobies were all sitting in the Bronze totally confused. A little while ago, Buffy and co followed a girl outside who they thought was about to become Vampire food when all of a sudden this girl was taking on the vamp as if she was a slayer. Then a few minutes later this new girl by the name of Faith pretty much confirmed that she was also a slayer. "I don't get it." Cordelia commented. "I mean, when Kendra died, Dawn was called. How can you be a slayer as well?"
Faith sat there and looked at the brunette and shook her head at that one. As far as she knew, there were only two slayers. "Guess you'll have to ask your watcher when he gets back."
"Gets back?" The group asked in confusion.
"Didn't he get invited to that whole watchers retreat thing?" The new slayer asked.
The Scoobies didn't have an answer for that one. They didn't even know there was such a thing as a Watchers Retreat.
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The following morning the Scoobies were in the library and at this very moment trying not to gag over the comment that the new Slayer had made about Giles. She'd all but said that Giles was hot and it was freaking them out. He was after all Giles, the surrogate father of the group. "So anyway Giles, how about you explain how there are three Slayers?" Buffy asked.
"Yeah, we're all kinda curious about that one." Xander commented.
Giles let out a sigh and glanced over to Dawn who was looking a bit nervous. Both he and Dawn had already worked out a few things but the young Slayer wasn't ready to tell everyone. Unfortunately Faith's arrival had caused a few problems. "They're gonna find out eventually Giles, you may as well tell them." Dawn finally said with a sigh of her own.
"Wait, you knew about this?" Buffy asked her sister to which she got a small nod in response.
"Dawn and I realised this a few days ago." Giles stated before Dawn could speak. "We don't know how she became a Slayer, but she is one. However there is one very large difference between Dawn, you and Faith."
"So what's the story Geeves?" The newest Slayer asked just as curious as everyone else.
"Well it would appear that even though Dawn is a Slayer, she is not actually a part of the Slayer line." The Watcher stated to which he got a look of confusion from everyone except Dawn. Realising that he had more to explain he glanced over once more to Dawn who signalled for him to continue. "What that means is that if Dawn were to die, no new Slayer would be called."
"But how'd she become a Slayer in the first place?" Willow asked as she was in a state of total confusion.
"I honestly don't know." Giles answered before looking back at Dawn. "However I do believe that Dawn knows far more than she's letting on."
Hearing that Dawn wanted to hit her Watcher over the head with a heavy object. She did know more than she'd let on, but she couldn't say anything. Vision Clark had told her a few things and in truth, it wasn't something that she was ready to accept.
Buffy looked at Dawn and recognised the look on her sisters face. "How many secrets are you keeping?" She asked her sister.
"Only the ones I have to." The brunette answered honestly.
"What's that supposed to mean?" The blond Slayer asked, not liking this one bit. First she's keeping secrets about Clark and whatever he is, and now this.
"It means what I said." Dawn stated with a little frustration. "I am a Slayer, but I was given this power for a different reason than you were."
"Dawn, don't you think that it is time to let the rest of us know what is going on?" Giles asked.
"I'm sorry Giles, but I cant." Dawn answered as she stood up from her seat. "There's still a lot that I'm trying to work out as well." With that said Dawn made her way out of the library. She'd agreed to meet Clark for breakfast before class started and she needed a break from the interrogation.
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After leaving the Library, Dawn met up with Clark. The alien teen knew that there was something bothering her, but decided against questioning her. The two went to grab a bite to eat and made plans for that evening. Dawn still wanted to help Clark in learning how to fight without his powers and she was also using it as an excuse to get to know him better. Being honest with herself, the more time she spent with him the more she was starting to like him. However she in truth wasn't ready to go down that road, especially since she was still trying to work things out from her vision slash dream.
As for the Scoobies, Buffy openly stated her dislike of the situation. Unfortunately for the blond slayer she knew her sister well enough to know that pushing things wouldn't work. She'd have to wait until Dawn was ready. As for Willow and Xander, they were left with showing Faith around the school and the newest slayer had to admit that they had interesting lives. To make things a little worse for Buffy though, Giles kept asking her about the night she killed Angel. Her watcher just seemed to keep pushing and all it was doing was causing her more pain. Why he couldn't understand what it was doing to her, she'd never know. Eventually the questioning became too much and she left the library in search of her friends.
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Later that evening Buffy had taken Faith on patrol with her which made sure that Dawn would have some alone time with Clark. So right now the young Slayer and the alien teen were sitting on a tombstone looking down at a newly laid grave. "So this is what you were doing that night? Waiting for one of them to wake up." Clark stated as he realised that Dawn was waiting for a vampire to rise.
"Pretty much. All you have to do is wait here until they wake up." The brunette answered.
"So why are we training here?" Clark asked as he had been wondering why Dawn had taken him to a cemetery to train.
"It's more of a controlled environment here." Dawn stated as she looked at the alien teen. "There's only gonna be one vamp, so it will be easier for you to deal with. When you can handle one without much of a problem, then we'll move on to two and so on."
"And this is gonna teach me how to fight without my powers?" The alien teen asked with a raised eyebrow.
Dawn saw the look on Clark's face and smiled. "It's easy to learn techniques in fighting Clark. But putting them into practice is hard. You don't know how to fight, and that's a good thing. That means that to survive, your gonna have to learn to improvise and use your own instincts."
"So in other words your just gonna sit back and watch as I get my but kicked." Clark quipped with a smile.
"Yep." Came the answer from the young slayer. "But don't worry, I'll be there to protect you if you get into too much trouble." She then quipped with a soft smile.
For some reason that didn't comfort the alien teen at all and he had this strange feeling that by the end of the night, he'll get a new appreciation for pain.
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While Dawn was with Clark, Buffy was having a bit of a problem with Faith. The two of them had just entered a heated discussion when they were jumped by a group of Vampire's. Now being a Slayer, the fight ended rather quickly. However the problem was that Faith seemed to get too into the fight. She'd had a vampire down and just kept beating it, ignoring everything else that was going on around her. So much so that a vampire did get the jump on Buffy for a few seconds.
It was the look in Faith's eyes that worried Buffy the most. The newest Slayer in Sunnydale was almost feral in her attack on the Vampire, it scared her. Seeing the way Faith had acted had made Buffy decide that she needed to find out more about this newest Slayer, she'd talk with Giles in the morning. Hopefully she could also find out why that Vampire said that he lived for Kissing Toast.
With the fight now over, Buffy decided that it may be a good idea to get Faith away from the scene. So with that in mind the pair left the area.
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Dawn watched as Clark got knocked on his butt again for like the eighth time in only five minutes. Neither Clark nor the Vamp were holding back though and it was interesting to watch. She'd set this whole thing up just to get a look at how Clark fights, it was terrible. He seemed to just swing and miss most of the time, he sucked and not in a good way. Now the reason Dawn had wanted to see just what Clark can do without his powers, was so that she could work out where to begin with sparring with him.
As she watched she could honestly say that Clark had no technique whatsoever. It proved that he was right and that he relies on his abilities too much. From what she'd seen, he just ploughs through things with his powers. It was as if nothing could stand against him so he just went straight in, that was a big problem.
Seeing Clark knocked down again for the ninth time, Dawn had seen enough. While the Vamp was focused on Clark she pulled a stake out of her pocket before walking up behind it and staking it through the back and into it's heat. Now with the vamp dusted she looked down at Clark who was just looking at her. "Clark, you suck." She simply stated before letting out a sigh. "You've never had to really deal with anything without your powers before, have you?"
Clark shook his head before he deactivated the ring causing his wounds to heal as he stood up. One on his feet he looked at the young brunette. "No." He simply answered and Dawn could tell that loosing this fight with the vamp, was freaking him out.
Dawn could see the real concern in Clark's eyes over not being able to beat even a newborn vampire in a fight. She wouldn't say anything but considering he's never fought without his powers, he did ok. He lasted a good five minutes despite being repeatedly knocked on his butt. "Starting tomorrow, you and I are going to be sparring." She all but ordered. Clark was going to need some serious help here, but she figured that he could handle it. The fight with the Vamp had also revealed that he could match a vampire in terms of speed and power. He could also take a hit from a Vamp as well. That would make things easier as she wouldn't have to hold back us much when they spar.
"Why couldn't we have done that to start with?" Clark asked in reference to her sparring with him.
"I needed to see what you could do." Dawn answered honestly. "Don't worry though, we'll get you kicking undead butt in no time." She then added while thinking. Well I hope so anyway.
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When Dawn got back home she saw her sister sitting on the couch watching tv. "Hey Buffy." She called out before noticing that her mother wasn't there. "Where's mom?"
The blond slayer turned to look at her sister before answering. "She went to be a little while ago. Where were you? I tried to call but you didn't answer."
Walking up to the couch, Dawn sat down next to her sister. "I was out with Clark." She answered honestly.
"Doesn't he freak you out?" Buffy asked as she couldn't understand why her sister was so calm about being around a guy that pretty much had the power of a god.
"At first." The brunette answered honestly. "But I don't just see the power he has. He's a nice guy when you get to know him."
"I just don't understand how you can trust someone with so much power." The blond stated with a sigh.
"That's a bit of a double standard isn't it when you consider what we can do." Dawn stated with a sigh as she didn't like the way her sister was talking about Clark.
"What do you mean?" Buffy asked.
Dawn looked at Buffy with a raised eyebrow. "Well consider what we can do. Compared to most regular people, we're more than human."
"But we don't have that kinda power." The blond responded still not understanding why her sister is so trusting towards Clark. "Does the reason you trust him have something to do with how you know what he is?" It hadn't escaped Buffy's attention that Dawn seemed to know more than anyone else except Willow in regards to Clark. Even now both herself and Giles still weren't happy about it. Sometimes she wondered if Clark had some kind of hold over Willow and Dawn.
"It's not about the power Buffy." Dawn said as she let out another sigh. "It's about what you do with it. Clark's chosen to use his powers to help people."
"And what if one day he decided that he has the power to remake the world into what he thinks it should be?" The blond slayer asked. "From what I've seen, nothing could stop him."
Dawn shook her head as she truly began to realise what this was about. She realised that it had nothing to do with Clark being potentially dangerous. It was all because she wasn't the strongest around anymore. There was something out there that had made her obsolete in many ways and Dawn realised that it was terrifying her sister. "Buffy, I think you need to figure out for yourself what your problem with Clark really is." Dawn finally said to which Buffy just give her a confused look. Standing up from the couch she made her way to head upstairs before turning back to the blond Slayer. "You need to ask yourself if it's really Clark that your afraid of, or if it's because he's better than you? Clark coming here pretty much makes a Slayer obsolete. He could wipe out an army of demons if he wanted to. But you know what, he doesn't. He doesn't hunt demons like we do. He follows the cries for help. He just protects people from the things they cant protect themselves from." With that said Dawn made her way upstairs leaving her sister there to think over her words.
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Note To Readers: To those of you that celebrate Christmas, Merry Christmas.
There you go people Part 1 of Chapter 4 is up so let me know what you think.
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