The F in Pike Chapter 31

Taking Stock

Okay, time to focus.

I make my way down the hall back towards where we're keeping Dawn, Faith not far behind me.

Will has a better handle on what's going on between me and Faith. She knows where to put her focus at least. Now it's just a question of waiting for the answer. Things between Faith and Pike are mostly stable... or at least as stable as we can expect anyway. As far as we can tell, he's not going to have Wrath coming out any time soon, so that's handled for the moment. Now the only thing to worry about is what to do about Dawn and her new abilities.

Hopefully we've gotten somewhere with her thanks to Connor, Xander and Kennedy talking with her. They were the least likely to really set her off, and so they were the safe choice to test the waters in saving Dawn from herself. Better options than me or Faith who are pretty much guaranteed to set her off angrily anyway. It's probably a good idea for us to hold off on speaking to her unless we really need to.

I just have to hope that...

Turning around the corner, I see most of the people I love sitting around and not very happy.

Well so much for that plan.

They look up at me as Faith comes up behind me and into the room. She's the first to point out the obvious.

"Looks like it didn't go very well, eh B?"

"I guess not..."

I look at my friends and family.

"What happened?"

Xander's the first to say it.

"Basically what we expected. She knew exactly where to hit us and how."

Kennedy follows him up.

"She was on the attack from the moment I walked in and never let up."

Connor finishes up.

"It's like talking to a brick wall."

That's... definitely not good.

I look at Faith before asking the most important thing.

"Did we get anywhere with her?"

Xander sighs.

"I think I might have seen a little bit of a crack towards the end, but I'm not sure."

Well that's something at least.

Faith asks first.

"So what happened?"

"I asked her to give me hope... about herself. She was talking about giving me what I wanted, and I said that what I wanted her to give me hope that she might be happy. That she could move beyond what she's going through."

"And?"

"She didn't have a response."

Okay it's not a lot of something, but it's something.

I turn to Connor and Kennedy.

"What about you guys? Anything?"

Connor's the first to speak up.

"She talked about things that happened between the two of us. Tried to screw with me and make me feel guilty about it. She attacked my relationship with my father."

That has Kennedy speaking up.

"She attacked my relationship too. Said some things about me and Willow."

Damn it, I mean, I knew it would be bad but...

"Are you guys all right?"

Connor gets this defensive look.

"I'm fine."

I look at Faith and she doesn't believe him either.

"Yeah, I'll be fine. I just... wish Willow was here."

"I think we have an idea."

We all turn to see Willow and Giles walking in from the other hallway.

She has an idea?

"What's up Will?"

"So... Giles and I have been working on the problem of whatever's happening with Dawn. Where her powers come from and what she's doing. I think we have an idea."

"Hooray for book nerds."

Ignoring Xander's joke despite the smiles in the room, I can't help but push forward.

"Okay, so... we've been going over what we know about The Key and dimensional travel and lots of other things, and we think we have something. Tell them Giles."

"It was your idea, you should be the one to..."

Faith cuts them off.

"Would one of you just tell us already?"

"Right, sorry... I'm sure most of us are aware but for those who aren't, The Key was made from energy. The purpose of that energy was to collapse the walls between dimensions. It was intended to only be used once, at a specific time and place, the hellmouth several years ago when the proper stars were aligned. And it did, at least until Buffy closed it by sacrificing herself."

"But obviously, Dawn survived the opening she set in motion. And the power of her blood is still inside her. We think that because she survived when she was supposed to die, she's manifesting the ability to manipulate reality to her will... using her blood."

"So that's how she merged me with Wrath."

We look behind me to see Pike standing behind us.

When did he get here?

Faith is the first to react, happily.

"Pike, hey..."

He doesn't react as happily.

"Hey..."

There's a tension for a little bit before I get back to the issue at hand.

"But... that was years ago. Why didn't she show any signs of this earlier?"

Giles is first to answer.

"She may well have, but she may not have been aware of it. From the way you describe it, this type of magic has to be conscious on her part."

"So if she didn't know about it, she wouldn't have been able to make it happen?"

"We don't think so."

"There is however one other possibility. Her powers may have been triggered by something. Some event or experience which caused her to manifest these abilities."

Connor jumps in at this point.

"Like her getting tortured?"

Giles doesn't respond right away.

"Perhaps."

"There's also a chance that it could've been a spell."

Faith points out the obvious as she looks at me.

"Like the one she cast on me?"

It's all somehow connected.

Willow adds her own idea.

"Or the one we cast on her. Remember the temporary slayer spell did to her? We used the scythe back in Sunnydale to alter the destiny of hundreds of girls, and then we altered Dawn's destiny temporarily. That could've triggered a change in her own."

But the spell was my idea.

"So... it's my fault. This is all my fault."

"It's all our fault B."

"But it was my idea."

Willow takes her share.

"And I'm the one who cast the spell."

"And I convinced her to do it B."

Giles tries to redirect the conversation.

"Regardless of how it happened, the important thing is to deal with our current predicament as it stands."

Right...

"Any ideas on that front?"

Giles and Willow look at each other.

"A couple... but they aren't exactly all that fun."

Giles suggests the obvious one.

"Obviously, the least desirable option is the simplest. If The Key was meant to be destroyed to stop the apocalypse from consuming all of reality, then doing so would solve the current dilemma."

Faith really doesn't like that option.

"You're talking about killing her?"

"As I said, that's the least desirable option. That is not our preference."

But it is one that we have to consider, much as I don't like it. Let's try and get beyond that idea though.

"What are the others?"

Faith sees that I'm trying to be diplomatic and decides not to push it.

"Yeah, let's hear it."

"Well, one idea Giles and I had was to somehow, sever the link between Dawn and her powers. Either by removing the ability of her blood to do what it does, or..."

"Or remove her memory of being able to do it. However those are also less desirable options given what they entail."

Kennedy asks the obvious.

"What exactly do they... entail?"

Willow answers the question.

"Because it's in Dawn's blood, that means altering her blood in some way. Permanently if we can, in an ongoing way if we have to. But they both have their downsides. Altering her blood permanently may have long term problems for her health. And something ongoing means feeding a thing into her bloodstream pretty much constantly."

"Which has the potential to become toxic and poisonous to Dawn if not monitored."

Xander states what we can all see.

"So we've gone from killing her, to potentially permanently altering her."

"And doing something to her memory would also be potentially harmful. It means not only eliminating her memory of being able to alter reality, but anything she might associate with the ability to do that."

Willow adds to Giles' thought.

"Which means... in essence all of us."

He's talking about completely wiping her memory. I don't know that I like the idea of losing my sister that way.

I look at Faith and I can just tell that she's thinking the same thing. Connor speaks up about it.

"That's actually not a bad idea."

What?

"Connor?"

He moves off leaning on the wall to make his point.

"I'm not saying it's the greatest option in the world, but I had that happen to me and I'm better off for it."

"I'm really happy to hear that son."

I look behind Willow and Giles to see Angel standing there.

Do we not have security around here?

End of Chapter 31