Dawn schlumped into her home on 1183 Moonshine Hollow at daybreak, her legs
tired and her hair a mess. She had slain two vampires that night, and had
also found a nest of some gooey variety of demon that Dawn was sure her
sister must have come across sometime.
She was setting down her bag of slaying supplies when she heard a tiny moan come from the kitchen. The brunette made her way to the kitchen quietly, almost tripping over Wood's cat Kitten Phat, wondering what on Earth could be stalking her home at five am. Her questions were answered when she saw Faith lustily wrapped in Wood's arms, the two sucking face like teenagers.
"Umm, okay, if you don't want to use your bedroom, go rent one," Dawn said, wrinkling her nose. Faith pulled apart from her lover and looked at Dawn, a sly smile coming across her face.
"Good morning yourself, squirt. Don't you have someplace to be?"
"Yeah, my bed. Also, squirt? So not my name. It's Dawn. Use it, k?" Dawn asked, as she gave her friend and guardian a half-smile. "I should though, get going...but I need to talk to you later. Both of you."
"Sure," Wood agreed, his brown eyes warm with kindness towards the girl he and Faith had so faithfully watched over for Buffy during the past twenty- four months. "You go on to sleep now though."
"Yeah...so you guys can have a break-boinkfast. I mean, of you haven't- umm, suddenly, I don't wanna know," the eighteen-year-old said, picking up her duffel bag and heading for the back stairs of the house.
Dawn was still getting used to the new home, and how could anyone blame her? She had been living in the house in Sunnydale for seven years. Well, okay, technically two years, but she had memories that said seven years, which counted for a lot.
Dawn stepped into her room and closed the oak door behind her softly. She stepped out of her khakis and her denim jacket and fitted shirt, slipping into a comfy oversized tee-shirt with She-Ra emblazoned across the front. She scrubbed her face and washed her teeth in her bathroom, and grabbing a stuffed pig that she had bought for Buffy to remind her of Mr. Gordo (Buffy kept it in Dawn's care while she traveled the world), slipped under her mint green covers and into a deep, albeit restless, sleep.
Images came unbidden into Dawn's mind. Images of Dawn at the dawn of time, shimmering green, full of energy and power. She was nothing, yet she was so much more. She had power, natural primal magicks that not even the gods could recreate.
The images changed and shifted, turning into images more recent. The monks taking her out of her box and giving her human form. Implanting her in the Summers' household with memories, a name, a birth certificate. Her blood and flesh were real, but forged through magick, not real life. She was not really born...but she was borne. Glory's face shot through her mind, her beautiful but evil grin, her glee as Dawn started opening the portal to bring home to Glory.
Dawn saw Buffy's death, her resurrection, and Dawn's acceptance by the Scoobies. Then came the images of evil Willow, and then, the First. The supposed evil of all evils, the motherboard of all badness, the Biggest Bad of all the Big Bads that the Scooby Gang had ever faced.
Color then clouded her dreams. Her feelings for Xander, her first love, possibly her only love, though his loyalties had always lied between Anya and Buffy. Her small crush on Andrew, who, she had figured out, also carried a slight torch for the late vengeance demon. And Spike, who she had never loved, but who had always been there for her as sort of shield from anything evil. And finally, Giles, the man who had played the father figure in her life for so long.
But these were all only images from her past.
Things from the future came into fruition. People, new faces, new adventures, new evils. She saw images of three dark skinned men, though this was the only old image she saw, the Shadow men that Buffy had told her about, the first Watchers, who had made the Primal Slayer by forging a demon with a girl. She saw the Shadow men try to forge something else, something failed, something evil and sinister. What it was, Dawn couldn't tell. But it was big.
Other images shimmered and faded in the recesses of Dawn's dream. She saw a young man, about twenty-ish, handsome, strong, with a wild, dark streak. There was something inside of him, memories suppressed, memories that he did not know about, but memories that he had lived. Dawn felt something for him, something tugging her towards him. There was some sort of familiarity that she felt towards him, like a part of her knew him somehow.
She then saw something else. Something infused with magick, made of magick, something with magick in every grain and fiber of it's very being. She could feel the magick, even though she couldn't make out what it was exactly, but whatever it was...it was freakishly powerful...almost too powerful. Was it another Key? Or was it something else? Dawn, in her dream- body, tried to walk closer to it, but she never reached close enough.
Instead, Dawn woke up.
***
She was setting down her bag of slaying supplies when she heard a tiny moan come from the kitchen. The brunette made her way to the kitchen quietly, almost tripping over Wood's cat Kitten Phat, wondering what on Earth could be stalking her home at five am. Her questions were answered when she saw Faith lustily wrapped in Wood's arms, the two sucking face like teenagers.
"Umm, okay, if you don't want to use your bedroom, go rent one," Dawn said, wrinkling her nose. Faith pulled apart from her lover and looked at Dawn, a sly smile coming across her face.
"Good morning yourself, squirt. Don't you have someplace to be?"
"Yeah, my bed. Also, squirt? So not my name. It's Dawn. Use it, k?" Dawn asked, as she gave her friend and guardian a half-smile. "I should though, get going...but I need to talk to you later. Both of you."
"Sure," Wood agreed, his brown eyes warm with kindness towards the girl he and Faith had so faithfully watched over for Buffy during the past twenty- four months. "You go on to sleep now though."
"Yeah...so you guys can have a break-boinkfast. I mean, of you haven't- umm, suddenly, I don't wanna know," the eighteen-year-old said, picking up her duffel bag and heading for the back stairs of the house.
Dawn was still getting used to the new home, and how could anyone blame her? She had been living in the house in Sunnydale for seven years. Well, okay, technically two years, but she had memories that said seven years, which counted for a lot.
Dawn stepped into her room and closed the oak door behind her softly. She stepped out of her khakis and her denim jacket and fitted shirt, slipping into a comfy oversized tee-shirt with She-Ra emblazoned across the front. She scrubbed her face and washed her teeth in her bathroom, and grabbing a stuffed pig that she had bought for Buffy to remind her of Mr. Gordo (Buffy kept it in Dawn's care while she traveled the world), slipped under her mint green covers and into a deep, albeit restless, sleep.
Images came unbidden into Dawn's mind. Images of Dawn at the dawn of time, shimmering green, full of energy and power. She was nothing, yet she was so much more. She had power, natural primal magicks that not even the gods could recreate.
The images changed and shifted, turning into images more recent. The monks taking her out of her box and giving her human form. Implanting her in the Summers' household with memories, a name, a birth certificate. Her blood and flesh were real, but forged through magick, not real life. She was not really born...but she was borne. Glory's face shot through her mind, her beautiful but evil grin, her glee as Dawn started opening the portal to bring home to Glory.
Dawn saw Buffy's death, her resurrection, and Dawn's acceptance by the Scoobies. Then came the images of evil Willow, and then, the First. The supposed evil of all evils, the motherboard of all badness, the Biggest Bad of all the Big Bads that the Scooby Gang had ever faced.
Color then clouded her dreams. Her feelings for Xander, her first love, possibly her only love, though his loyalties had always lied between Anya and Buffy. Her small crush on Andrew, who, she had figured out, also carried a slight torch for the late vengeance demon. And Spike, who she had never loved, but who had always been there for her as sort of shield from anything evil. And finally, Giles, the man who had played the father figure in her life for so long.
But these were all only images from her past.
Things from the future came into fruition. People, new faces, new adventures, new evils. She saw images of three dark skinned men, though this was the only old image she saw, the Shadow men that Buffy had told her about, the first Watchers, who had made the Primal Slayer by forging a demon with a girl. She saw the Shadow men try to forge something else, something failed, something evil and sinister. What it was, Dawn couldn't tell. But it was big.
Other images shimmered and faded in the recesses of Dawn's dream. She saw a young man, about twenty-ish, handsome, strong, with a wild, dark streak. There was something inside of him, memories suppressed, memories that he did not know about, but memories that he had lived. Dawn felt something for him, something tugging her towards him. There was some sort of familiarity that she felt towards him, like a part of her knew him somehow.
She then saw something else. Something infused with magick, made of magick, something with magick in every grain and fiber of it's very being. She could feel the magick, even though she couldn't make out what it was exactly, but whatever it was...it was freakishly powerful...almost too powerful. Was it another Key? Or was it something else? Dawn, in her dream- body, tried to walk closer to it, but she never reached close enough.
Instead, Dawn woke up.
***