Chapter 29: Lessons

Over the summer Dawn not only learned alongside Willow in the use of her magic. But she also received counselling sessions. Despite the fact that Dawn had the memories of a thirty year old man and now the memories of a twenty year old woman, alongside the memories of her sixteen year old self. Some members of the coven thought that all the extra memories would be hard to grasp for a sixteen year old teenager.

Dawn rapidly proved them wrong. While she agreed that most normal teenagers would have a hard time with the added memories. She reminded them she was not normal. And that likely when she was created the monks or the Powers That Be had given her the abilities to process the memories that she had received from Tom. And that those memories had given her the abilities to be able to accept Tara's memories as well.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Willow urged a Paraguayan flower to root, to sprout, and to blossom, she felt a connection to the universe that had not been with her for long, long time. A connection made possible by the witch sitting across from her watching.

Dawn smiled as she watched Willow. She could feel Willow's use of the Key magic had grown over the summer. And while Willow was not her girlfriend yet. They were partners in the magic, it bound them together. Even now when Willow was working alone on something, she was not alone as through the Key, Dawn helped her.

Dawn looked up when she became aware of a shadow that had fallen over the pair of them. Giles stood beside them, gazing intently at the flower. "That doesn't belong there," he ventured.

"No, it doesn't," Willow and Dawn answered.

"The flora kua alaya. A native of Paraguay, if my botany serves." he added.

Dawn watched as Willow glanced up at Giles and smiled. It was a smile that made her own heart flutter every time she saw it. "Is there anything you don't know everything about?" Willow asked.

"Synchronized swimming. Complete mystery to me," he confessed. "Other than that, I know all." He drew closer, studying the flower. "Yes, Paraguayan. Where did it come from?"

"Paraguay." Dawn said. "She brought it through the earth."

"It's all connected," Willow said. "The root systems, the molecules, the energy... everything's connected." She looked to Dawn. "Even Dawn and I are connected, now."

"That is true," Giles said. "You both now house a portion of the Key. And through the Key you both are connected to everything around you. And as you pointed out everything is connected to everything else. Now why aren't you two at your lesson?"

"I'm sorry." Willow said.

"It's all right. She was just afraid you –" Giles said.

Willow sighed. "Had gone evil? And dragged Dawn with me? Yeah, we were gonna destroy the world, but lunch made us sleepy."

"She didn't think that, baby. She was just –" Dawn said.

Willow didn't pay attention much to the fact that Dawn had just called her baby. She had long gotten used to the fact that her girlfriend's soul was now part of her best friend's sister's soul. She wasn't ready yet to start a new relationship she knew, she was after all still grieving for Tara. Besides she wasn't sure if she even would pursue a relationship with Dawn at least not without talking to Buffy first. "Afraid. They all are. The Coven is ... they're the most amazing women I've ever met," Willow told them. "If it wasn't for them, and you Giles, and you Dawn ... But there's this look they get, like I'm gonna turn them all into bangers and mash or something. Which I'm not even sure what that is."

"They're cautious," Giles said gently. "I trust you can understand that."

"I don't have that much power," Willow murmured. "I don't think."

"But everything's connected, baby. You and I are connected to a great power, whether we feel it or not." Dawn said. She knew Willow felt it for the Key had become a part of Willow just as it was a part of her. She knew that Willow was afraid to harness the greater magicks that the Key gave them both. Such as opening a teleportation portal.

"Giles, you should have just took it from me." Willow ventured, rising, crossing toward the place where she and Dawn lived. "Given back to Dawn the portion I took from her."

As they walked, he said, "You know we can't. The Key is a part of you, now. Just as it's a part of Dawn. You both are responsible for it."

"Will they always be afraid of me?" Willow asked before looking at Dawn. "Of us?"

Giles considered. "Maybe. Can you both live with that?"

Dawn was sure that Willow felt lost. There was times in the recent months that she too had felt lost. Especially when the Coven had questioned her ability to deal with the memories of Tom and Tara.

"I deserve a lot worse." Willow said.

"That's not an answer." Giles said.

"I killed people, Giles." Willow said.

"Dawn and I've not forgotten." Giles said soberly as he motioned between himself and Dawn.

"When you brought me and Dawn here," Willow confessed. "I know the intention was always to teach me and Dawn. But I had at one time thought you might kill me. Or lock me in some mystical dungeon for all eternity, or with the torture. But Dawn and I are learning about magic, we're all about energy and Gaia and root systems."

"Do you want to be punished?" Dawn asked, concerned.

"I wanna be Willow." Willow answered as her eyes tear up.

"You are." Giles voice was still calm, still gentle. "In the end, we are all who we are … no matter how much we may appear to have changed."

Two days later Dawn and Willow, sprawled on the lawn, snapped out of a vision as Giles urged them to breathe. Because of the Key, Willow had started receiving Dawn's visions. And sometimes they overwhelmed the redhead. This time the vision had overwhelmed them both and they had collapsed.

They were lying on the ground with their hands in the grass. Dawn could feel that Willow was stunned by what she had felt … by what she now knew … Dawn could feel Willow's eyes on her as they reeled from the primal fury of the vision.

"What happened?" Willow asked more to Dawn than Giles.

"What do you remember?" Giles asked.

"We were talking," Dawn told him. "And Willow and I felt …"

Willow jerked her hands away from the grass. "Dawn and I felt the earth."

The girls looked at Giles. "It's all connected, it is, only it's not all good and pure and rootsy ..." Willow continued, "there's deep, deep black, there's ... We saw the earth, Giles. We saw its teeth."

Giles understood at once.

"The Hellmouth," he said.

"It's gonna open," Dawn said, even though she knew the final battle was approaching. She like Willow was terrified. More because she was now a potential and as a potential she would be targeted. "It's gonna swallow us all."

A few minutes later they sat, resting and talking.

"I've got so much to learn." Willow said.

"You always will have. That doesn't ever stop." Giles said.

"There's so much I don't understand yet. About control, and, and potions I'm not good with. Plus, many concepts I appeared to understand, I was only nodding and hmming in a pretend fashion so as to not look dumb." Willow said.

"Willow, I understand you're not ready to go back." Giles said.

"Then why are you gonna ask me to?" Willow asked.

"He's not, not right away." Dawn said as Giles looked at her. "She won't return for about another week. I'll come back a couple days beforehand to take her home." She looked to Willow. "And I will come back after school a few times just to check in on you. Okay?"

Willow nodded and hugged Dawn. "Tell Buffy I said hello."

"I will." Dawn said as she stood and walked toward her room grabbing her suitcase and then she opened a portal and stepped through it.

The next day Dawn stood in a graveyard, now that she was back Buffy had decided to start Dawn's Slayer training. Well actually dealing with vampires. And so there she was watching as a newly rising vampire that was her assigned practice target burst halfway out his grave.

"It's about power," Buffy said to Dawn as they watched him. "Who's got it. Who knows how to use it."

She tossed a stake to Dawn, and Dawn caught it. Buffy reminded herself that Dawn had acquitted herself well over the last two years and more recently when she battled Willow. She had a streak in her, some fighter's blood. Not just the witch but the Slayer in her showing through.

"So who's got the power. Dawn?" she demanded.

"He does." Dawn answered.

"Never forget that." Buffy said, going to her. "No matter how well prepped you are, how well armed you are. You're still a potential, and not yet a Slayer. And let's hope you never become one. But if you do you need to remember he's a vampire. Okay? A demon. Preternaturally strong, skilled, with powers no normal human can ever—"

"Excuse me." the vampire said. "I think I'm stuck."

Buffy and Dawn both glanced over at him. His smile was pleasant as he indicated his predicament: he was still only waist level out of his grave.

"You're stuck," Buffy deadpanned.

"My foot's caught on a root or something," he continued, a bit sheepish. "I don't even know how got down there. If you girls could just give me a hand …"

Buffy crossed to the vampire.

"I really appreciate it," the vamp prattled. "It's just so dark, and I don't know what I'm doing here—"

While he yammered on, Buffy yanked him by the collar of his jacket and set him on his feet.

"Whoa, thanks. That was a help." He grinned evilly. "Unfortunately it was the last—"

Buffy clamped her hand around his throat and gave it a bug hug.

"—thing you'll ever do," he concluded in a rasp that sounded eerily like Donald Duck on helium.

"Listen up," Buffy instructed him. "I'm the Slayer. You don't want to get into it with me. You want blood. You can have hers." She gestured to Dawn. "She's just a potential, not the Slayer. She's the one to go after. Not me."

"I was thinking along those lines," Vampire Donald croaked.

"Okay, then."

Buffy let him go and stepped back, essentially quitting the field so Dawn could have a shot. The vampire lurched forward toward her and Dawn smirked as a portal snapped into existence and she stepped backwards into it as it closed. The vampire looked at where Dawn had stood stunned and then he dusted as Dawn staked him from behind.

"That's perfect, Dawn," Buffy said. "You managed to confuse him with the portal."

"I know," Dawn said. "If he was an older vamp that knew about magic, or even me in particular, that might not have worked."

"Maybe not," Buffy said. "But it at least would have bought you time to regroup or to simply get away."

The next day was Dawn's first day at the new and completely rebuilt Sunnydale High.

"Dawn! Xander's here!" Buffy bellowed.

"Just a minute!" Dawn bellowed back as she looked into the mirror brushing her teeth..

"You're going to be late."

"I'm comfortable with that!" Dawn muttered to herself.

"You gotta eat! I made cereal!" Buffy yelled up to her.

"Okay ..." Dawn sang back as she finished and then headed downstairs. She passed Buffy and Xander on her way to the kitchen. "Check out Double-O-Xander."

"Go talk with your mouth full." Buffy said as Dawn rolled her eyes.

"I got two crews working this diabolical yet lucrative new campus." Xander said when Dawn returned with a bowl of cereal. "One here, finishing the science building here. And one here, reinforcing the gym. There are no pentagrams, no secret passageways. Everything up to code and safe as houses."

"Nothing's creepy? Strange? From beyond?"

"Well, there is one interesting detail," Xander conceded. "I managed to scare up the plans from the old high school. You remember, the very center of Sunnydale's own Hellmouth?"

He took both sets of plans over to the window, putting one set over the other so they could make comparisons.

"Under the library," Buffy said.

"Right." Xander nodded. "So I lined up the plans, new and old. And right exactly where the library we now have …" He looked to her to fill in the blanks.

"Principal's office," Buffy said.

"The last two principals were eaten," Xander pointed out. "Who'd even apply for that job?"

"The son of a Slayer," Dawn said.

"What?" Buffy asked.

"He's the son of a Slayer," Dawn said.

"That would make sense," Xander said. "If you think about it. The son taking over for his mother after she died. This would be a prime place to do it."

Buffy checked the time. "Oooh, we have to leave, though." She turned to Dawn. "You have everything? Books, lunch, stakes, cell phone?"

"Checked thrice."

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Xander dropped them off at the high school.

"Now remember: if you see anything strange, or, you know, dead..." Buffy started.

"Buffy," Dawn said tapping her head. "I've know the entire conversation. You can stop treating me like a kid, now."

"Sorry." Buffy said. "But this place is evil."

"Tough to let'em go, huh?"

Buffy and Dawn spun to see a black man smiling at the two of them.

"Robin Wood," he said. "New principal."

"And the son of a Slayer." Dawn reminded Buffy.

Robin's eyes went wide as he looked at Dawn. "How? How did you know?"

"I'm a Seer, a witch and a potential." Dawn said.

"Wow." Robin said. "I never knew that it was possible for multiple members of the same family to be potentials. I take it your Buffy and Dawn Summers then. The current Slayer and her sister."

"That would be us." Buffy said. "I take it that you being the son of a Slayer is kind of why you're the new principal?"

Robin nodded. "Yes. Whether I will be an ally or just sit on the sidelines I haven't decided yet. But Buffy I do have an offer for you. It'll keep you close to the Hellmouth at least a couple times a week."

"He's offering you a job." Dawn said. "As a peer counselor. You know someone more their age who they might feel more capable of opening up to. It will be minimal pay though as it's part time, three days a week. And she'll take it."

"Dawn." Buffy said as Dawn tapped the side of her head and sighed. "She's right I'll take it."

"We'll I got to get to class. Buffy you might want to put your phone on vibrate so when I call you it doesn't disturb the classes." Dawn said as she walked away.

"Why did she do that?" Robin asked.

"What about the phone?" Buffy asked as Robin nodded. "Probably knows or seen something in a vision that says I'm going to be needed today. And since she asked me to put it on vibrate probably during school hours."

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

"Well, okay. I'm Mr. Lonegrin. Why don't we go around the room and introduce ourselves. Let's start with..." Mr. Lonegrin said as he scanned about the room.

Finally it's Dawn's turn… "...history, photography and sociology, I love to dance, I like music, I'm very into Britney Spears' early work, you know before she sold out, so mostly her finger painting, macaroni art..." she said as several students laughed at her joke. "Very under-rated... Favorite activities include not ever having to do this again... And, what else? I'm fairly boring otherwise –"

Buffy flung herself into the room, shouting. "Dawn!"

Dawn rolled her eyes and moved toward Buffy. "Sorry about my sister. Separation anxieties you know. I just got back from a summer trip to England. And only been home two days." She dragged Buffy out into the hall. "Buffy I'm fine. I know what you saw. I'm going to take care of it. But not before the bathroom floor caves in. I have a reason for that. If things play out as they did before, Spike is in the basement, crazy. The best way to him is through the hole in the bathroom. So you have to wait. Then we have to get him out of the basement. Stay with him for the rest of the school day. Then after school I will come back and open a portal for you to take him home."

Buffy sighed. "Okay."

Dawn turned and walked back into the classroom. "Sorry about that, Mr. Lonegrin."

"It's okay. Have a seat." Mr. Lonegrin said.

Later Mr. Lonegrin is talking at the front of the class.

"Can I borrow a pencil?" someone said to Dawn's right.

Dawn glanced at the nerd beside her and smirked. "Hey dead boy," she whispered as she raised her hand.

"Yes, Dawn," Mr. Lonegrin said."

"Can I use the restroom?" Dawn asked.

Mr. Lonegrin nodded and handed Dawn a permission slip to indicate where she was going.

Dawn entered the bathroom and passed the stall that she heard the sounds of sobbing coming from. She was deal with Kit in a second. She had to get the talisman first before the dead guys sucked her and Kit down into the basement. She found it where it had been dropped by someone, presumably Buffy. She picked it up, pocketing it. She then moved toward the stall Kit sat in and quietly opened it.

Huddled on top of the seat sat Kit, practically catatonic with fear.

"There's someone in here," she told Dawn.

"Saw something pretty creepy, huh?" Dawn asked sympathetically as she helped the other girl out of the stall.

She turned and glanced in the mirror.

The dead nerd stared back at her. A dead girl and an older man, also very dead, had joined him, and as they lurched forward, a shower of sparks exploded from the overhead fluorescent lights. As Kit screamed the three vanished.

And then three pairs of dead hands smashed through the tile floor and grabbed at their ankles. A whole chunk of floor crumbled beneath them, and down, down, down they slammed, to the lower level of Sunnydale High.

Hellmouth level ...

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

The school basement was not a pleasant place to be. Nor was it user-friendly in terms of exits. And it also seemed that the walls might be moving.

Dawn was sure what Kit had seen when she had found the other girl in the bathroom. But still she asked. "What did you see when I found you in the stall?"

"A girl," Kit told her. "She said she died here, and that everybody dies here, and that we would too."

Dawn sighed. She looked around. 'Where is Carlos?' she wondered. She wanted to find him before dealing with the zombies. That way she could portal everyone out together.

She and Kit made another turn … and Carlos finally appeared. Both Kit and Carlos screamed.

"I just came downstairs for a smoke, you know and I saw … It was the janitor, yelling at me. I thought he was just pissed, but I saw him in the light …"

"Wait. You came downstairs," Dawn prodded, not really needing the information but knowing the zombies were listening and about to appear. "Where?"

He shook his head. "Man, I got no clue. I ran away like a girl. I don't know this place at all."

"Okay, so," Dawn said trying to entice the zombies out. "We can run around in circles, or—"

"You really think you can run away?" asked the dead janitor as he moved from the darkness into the dim light.

"It's not real," Kit begged, pleaded.

"Lesson one," Dawn said. "It's always real."

"Go ahead and scream all you want," Dead Bathroom Girl taunted as the three moved in for the kill. "No one's going to hear you."

Dawn smirked as she pulled out the talisman. "Yeah, well." She snapped it and the three zombies vanished. She then pulled out her cell phone and dialed. "Hey, Buffy. Don't forget Spike. I took care of the zombies." As she hung up the phone she looked to Carlos and Kit. "Want to go for a ride?" She then opened the portal and ushered Carlos and Kit through.

Moments later Dawn, Carlos and Kit stood in the hallway talking, in their own little world. What had happened in the basement had drawn the three teenagers together and now they were fast becoming friends. Dawn wrapped her arms around Kit and Carlos as they walked towards their next class.

Down the hall Robin stood and watched shaking his head. "Curious he said to himself.. Definitely curious." Then as Dawn, Carlos and Kit passed. "Ms. Summers, a moment."

Dawn nodded and Carlos and Kit walked on down the hall.

"Curiouser and curiouser." Robin said. "Carlos Trejo and Kit Holbern. Possibly the only two students in this school who's files are as thick as your sister's was. The school board gave me her file to read. Anyways I was looking for one or both of them to implode in a fearsome way before midterms, and you've got 'em socializing, hugging, and if I'm not mistaken, actually headed to class."

"Well I had to slay something," Dawn said.

"So your really are a witch, a seer and a potential?"

"Yeah." Dawn said. "Sometimes it's good and sometimes it can be a headache."

In the basement Buffy watched Spike pace back and forth muttering to himself. Dawn had filled her in on what would have happened if Dawn hadn't sent him off to get his soul. For that she was leery. But Dawn had also said he would need his soul and because of that would become a better man because of it. So Buffy sat and watched Spike and waited for school to end so that she and Dawn could get him out of the basement.