On the train to Los Angeles
Dawn quietly stared at her cinnamon raisin bagel, idly wondering if the bagel came before the donut or vice-versa. Was the bagel made when someone tried to make a donut? Did the opposite happen? Or were they two different creations? Or did one inspire the other? Dawn set the bagel down on her plate as she sat alone at a tiny table in the dining area of the Amtrak train that was to take her to Los Angeles, not wanting to sprain her brain with philosophical thoughts of that intensity.
Normally, Dawn would have sprung for a plane, except that two years ago, when she, Faith, and the rest had left Sunnydale for Cleveland, some intense spirit had tried to attack their plane and kill them, saying it was the First reborn. Willow, with all her godly powers, had knocked the designer imposter to hell, literally, and had later uncovered that it was nothing more than a minor hellgod trying to take revenge for what the Scoobies had done to the Hellmouth and for upsetting the balance of good and evil once again, giving good four upper hands.
Dawn didn't want any recurrences of the same, so she figured that a train would be better. After all, train crashes were rarer than plane crashes. Granted, due to the dreams, she didn't think she'd die anyway, but it was better to be careful. Fate was tricky. And, speaking of death, would she go back to being a big old ball of energy or would she open all the mouths of Hell when she died? Or would it be a normal, human-like death?
Dawn pushed those thoughts away from her mind as well coz, okay, death, scary. To keep herself busy, Dawn scarfed down her bagel after slathering it with crunchy peanut butter, and then stood up unsteadily to go back to her seat.
As she walked back to her seat, she flashed a smile to an East Indian girl who was sitting - half-bored, it seemed - with someone who Dawn could only guess was her grandmother. The girl had seemed pleasant to Dawn throughout the trip so far, and had steadily been giving Dawn sweet smiles. She was a beautiful looking young woman, with dusky skin and smoky eyes and luscious curls. The girl smiled back pleasantly, and a little wistfully, it seemed, because perhaps she wanted to be in Dawn's shoes.
Dawn, passing her, gazed down at her own shoes - a nice, trendy pair of boots - and thought that while it was nice to be in her physical, material shoes, the spiritual shoes might not be so nice. After all, her life wasn't normal. She figured that she herself wasn't so normal either. After all, as people so often reminded her, she wasn't technically born, and, though humanly was older than anyone she knew, the core being that made up Dawn Summers was far older than her oldest ancestor. Something about that knowledge made her feel a little weirded out.
The young woman plopped herself back into her seat, crossing her legs and pulling out the latest issue of Seventeen magazine. Not the best reading, granted, but she needed it coz, okay, she was going back home, and frankly, while Cleveland had a nice sense of style, Los Angeles was something else all together. And besides, if Cordelia was still there, Dawn wanted to make sure she showed her up. It was a little petty of her, sure, but Cordy had always been such a bitch to Dawn when they were younger. Only, none of it had actually ever happened.
Dawn sighed and set the magazine. For sometime she had become alright with the fact that her childhood had never really even existed, but lately, after the dreams and all, her non-existent childhood had been plaguing her. Hence, again, with the trip.
She started to pull the covers up when she suddenly heard a shriek from the compartment behind her, along with the sound of the brakes being pulled as the train lurched to a stop. Dawn jumped up from her seat, throwing her blanket off and checking to make sure she had a few stakes and vials of holy water on her. If there was a vampire, it needed killing, and she doubted that there would be a Slayer on board to aid her.
She raced to the end of her compartment, out the door, and into the next one - which was the dining area - and went into action, seeing a vampire right in front of her. She guessed they could move around coz of the tinted windows - only direct sunlight could kill a vampire - and swore to herself. She launched a kick at the vamp's head and it connected with a solid crunch, sending the vampire flat on it's face. Dawn came down on it, slamming her elbow into its neck, and she heard a satisfying crack as soon as she made the connection.
The vampire, taken by surprise, couldn't do much in that state and had no choice but to let Dawn slam her stake home.
Dawn straightened herself up, and was dusting vamp dust - why, for once, could she not be showered with pixie dust? - when she heard a frenzied "Hey! Watch out!" Dawn whirled around and came face to face with, well, two vampires and some demonoid that she had never seen before.
"What," Dawn asked, "Cleveland's demonic subway closed down? You'd think that they'd have a back-up, being the Hellmouth and all. No matter. What do you want?"
"She's cheeky," a vampire snarled - one dressed like a waitress from a really cheap roadside diner - her feral yellow eyes flashing.
"Well, I prefer feisty, but really, if cheeky's your word of the day..." Dawn shrugged, and then viciously head butted the vamp. "Have it your way." With that, the young woman launched a series of attacks against both vampires first, while the demon faded into the background. Dawn ignored him for the time being, her fists cracking against both vamp's faces, legs kicking, torso turning, eyes flaring and adrenaline pumping like - well, like something. Dawn would never have superstrength or superspeed - that's what the sisterhood of Slayers possessed - but she had wits and smarts, and she was the sister of the founding member of the Slayer sisterhood, so gosh darn it, she was a force to be reckoned with.
Or at least that's what she thought right after both vamps were dust. She started to wonder why they were even on the train when she heard another shout behind her and whirled around (she made a mental note never to turn too much on a train ever again) to see the East Indian girl stop the demon from bringing a colossal, pinkish-orange down towards Dawn. The girl had power, as Dawn could see, and she fleetingly wondered if the girl was a Slayer before she joined the girl in kicking demon ass.
The two girls, virtual strangers bound only by friendly smiles, cornered the demon, and Dawn held it against the wall, her hand firm on it's larynx as she asked, "Again, I ask, what the hell do you want?"
The demon just snarled at her, as if it had decided not to answer.
"Look, if you wanna play twenty questions, let's play. This train isn't even halfway to where I'm going yet, and frankly, I have time to kill. And possibly you too, if you don't speak something that resembles English."
"Perhaps I should try?" asked the other girl, to which Dawn shook her head.
"'S alright. I've been in the mood for a good ass kicking anyway. So, you wanna talk? And please, don't say 'From beneath you, it devours' coz that shtick's already been done. Well?"
"Fleeing," the demon gasped, his voice squeaky in a cartoon-mouse meets cartoon-duck sort of way. Both girls were taken aback by that as they had expected something harsher, more gravelly and, well, demonic. "Fleeing to him. The Protector. He who will lead us to glory."
"Okay, see, Glory? Dead. So, you already have a problem."
"I think he meant glory in another way, if you mean Glorificus," the Indian girl timidly answered. Dawn gave her a look of surprise and again wondered who this girl was. She let that train of thought go and went back to her regularly scheduled interrogation.
"Who's this Protector?"
"He of old. Pure, yet impure. The original, but the mistake. No one will know him, no one can fight him. No one can -"
"Please," Dawn interjected, already bored, "even the First Evil could be killed, and that was non-corporeal. Is that all you have to tell me?"
"Either way I die."
"Better me then," Dawn replied, pulling a curved blade out of a sheath inside her jeans. She slid the neck of the demon, and sent it sliding to the floor. Then she slammed her stake into its chest for good measure. That done, she turned to the girl and asked, "So, who are you?"
The girl smiled confidently this time, as sweet as her other smiles, but more powerful, and said with strength in her voice, "I'm Paulomi, but please, call me Paul."
***
Hey guys! Sorry for the long time in updating. Was having major comp issues...gotta look into getting a new one or something. Anyways, hope u guys liked this one, and there should be more updates soon, hopefully on my other fics as well. Thanks a lot guys!
*~*Amit*~*
Dawn quietly stared at her cinnamon raisin bagel, idly wondering if the bagel came before the donut or vice-versa. Was the bagel made when someone tried to make a donut? Did the opposite happen? Or were they two different creations? Or did one inspire the other? Dawn set the bagel down on her plate as she sat alone at a tiny table in the dining area of the Amtrak train that was to take her to Los Angeles, not wanting to sprain her brain with philosophical thoughts of that intensity.
Normally, Dawn would have sprung for a plane, except that two years ago, when she, Faith, and the rest had left Sunnydale for Cleveland, some intense spirit had tried to attack their plane and kill them, saying it was the First reborn. Willow, with all her godly powers, had knocked the designer imposter to hell, literally, and had later uncovered that it was nothing more than a minor hellgod trying to take revenge for what the Scoobies had done to the Hellmouth and for upsetting the balance of good and evil once again, giving good four upper hands.
Dawn didn't want any recurrences of the same, so she figured that a train would be better. After all, train crashes were rarer than plane crashes. Granted, due to the dreams, she didn't think she'd die anyway, but it was better to be careful. Fate was tricky. And, speaking of death, would she go back to being a big old ball of energy or would she open all the mouths of Hell when she died? Or would it be a normal, human-like death?
Dawn pushed those thoughts away from her mind as well coz, okay, death, scary. To keep herself busy, Dawn scarfed down her bagel after slathering it with crunchy peanut butter, and then stood up unsteadily to go back to her seat.
As she walked back to her seat, she flashed a smile to an East Indian girl who was sitting - half-bored, it seemed - with someone who Dawn could only guess was her grandmother. The girl had seemed pleasant to Dawn throughout the trip so far, and had steadily been giving Dawn sweet smiles. She was a beautiful looking young woman, with dusky skin and smoky eyes and luscious curls. The girl smiled back pleasantly, and a little wistfully, it seemed, because perhaps she wanted to be in Dawn's shoes.
Dawn, passing her, gazed down at her own shoes - a nice, trendy pair of boots - and thought that while it was nice to be in her physical, material shoes, the spiritual shoes might not be so nice. After all, her life wasn't normal. She figured that she herself wasn't so normal either. After all, as people so often reminded her, she wasn't technically born, and, though humanly was older than anyone she knew, the core being that made up Dawn Summers was far older than her oldest ancestor. Something about that knowledge made her feel a little weirded out.
The young woman plopped herself back into her seat, crossing her legs and pulling out the latest issue of Seventeen magazine. Not the best reading, granted, but she needed it coz, okay, she was going back home, and frankly, while Cleveland had a nice sense of style, Los Angeles was something else all together. And besides, if Cordelia was still there, Dawn wanted to make sure she showed her up. It was a little petty of her, sure, but Cordy had always been such a bitch to Dawn when they were younger. Only, none of it had actually ever happened.
Dawn sighed and set the magazine. For sometime she had become alright with the fact that her childhood had never really even existed, but lately, after the dreams and all, her non-existent childhood had been plaguing her. Hence, again, with the trip.
She started to pull the covers up when she suddenly heard a shriek from the compartment behind her, along with the sound of the brakes being pulled as the train lurched to a stop. Dawn jumped up from her seat, throwing her blanket off and checking to make sure she had a few stakes and vials of holy water on her. If there was a vampire, it needed killing, and she doubted that there would be a Slayer on board to aid her.
She raced to the end of her compartment, out the door, and into the next one - which was the dining area - and went into action, seeing a vampire right in front of her. She guessed they could move around coz of the tinted windows - only direct sunlight could kill a vampire - and swore to herself. She launched a kick at the vamp's head and it connected with a solid crunch, sending the vampire flat on it's face. Dawn came down on it, slamming her elbow into its neck, and she heard a satisfying crack as soon as she made the connection.
The vampire, taken by surprise, couldn't do much in that state and had no choice but to let Dawn slam her stake home.
Dawn straightened herself up, and was dusting vamp dust - why, for once, could she not be showered with pixie dust? - when she heard a frenzied "Hey! Watch out!" Dawn whirled around and came face to face with, well, two vampires and some demonoid that she had never seen before.
"What," Dawn asked, "Cleveland's demonic subway closed down? You'd think that they'd have a back-up, being the Hellmouth and all. No matter. What do you want?"
"She's cheeky," a vampire snarled - one dressed like a waitress from a really cheap roadside diner - her feral yellow eyes flashing.
"Well, I prefer feisty, but really, if cheeky's your word of the day..." Dawn shrugged, and then viciously head butted the vamp. "Have it your way." With that, the young woman launched a series of attacks against both vampires first, while the demon faded into the background. Dawn ignored him for the time being, her fists cracking against both vamp's faces, legs kicking, torso turning, eyes flaring and adrenaline pumping like - well, like something. Dawn would never have superstrength or superspeed - that's what the sisterhood of Slayers possessed - but she had wits and smarts, and she was the sister of the founding member of the Slayer sisterhood, so gosh darn it, she was a force to be reckoned with.
Or at least that's what she thought right after both vamps were dust. She started to wonder why they were even on the train when she heard another shout behind her and whirled around (she made a mental note never to turn too much on a train ever again) to see the East Indian girl stop the demon from bringing a colossal, pinkish-orange down towards Dawn. The girl had power, as Dawn could see, and she fleetingly wondered if the girl was a Slayer before she joined the girl in kicking demon ass.
The two girls, virtual strangers bound only by friendly smiles, cornered the demon, and Dawn held it against the wall, her hand firm on it's larynx as she asked, "Again, I ask, what the hell do you want?"
The demon just snarled at her, as if it had decided not to answer.
"Look, if you wanna play twenty questions, let's play. This train isn't even halfway to where I'm going yet, and frankly, I have time to kill. And possibly you too, if you don't speak something that resembles English."
"Perhaps I should try?" asked the other girl, to which Dawn shook her head.
"'S alright. I've been in the mood for a good ass kicking anyway. So, you wanna talk? And please, don't say 'From beneath you, it devours' coz that shtick's already been done. Well?"
"Fleeing," the demon gasped, his voice squeaky in a cartoon-mouse meets cartoon-duck sort of way. Both girls were taken aback by that as they had expected something harsher, more gravelly and, well, demonic. "Fleeing to him. The Protector. He who will lead us to glory."
"Okay, see, Glory? Dead. So, you already have a problem."
"I think he meant glory in another way, if you mean Glorificus," the Indian girl timidly answered. Dawn gave her a look of surprise and again wondered who this girl was. She let that train of thought go and went back to her regularly scheduled interrogation.
"Who's this Protector?"
"He of old. Pure, yet impure. The original, but the mistake. No one will know him, no one can fight him. No one can -"
"Please," Dawn interjected, already bored, "even the First Evil could be killed, and that was non-corporeal. Is that all you have to tell me?"
"Either way I die."
"Better me then," Dawn replied, pulling a curved blade out of a sheath inside her jeans. She slid the neck of the demon, and sent it sliding to the floor. Then she slammed her stake into its chest for good measure. That done, she turned to the girl and asked, "So, who are you?"
The girl smiled confidently this time, as sweet as her other smiles, but more powerful, and said with strength in her voice, "I'm Paulomi, but please, call me Paul."
***
Hey guys! Sorry for the long time in updating. Was having major comp issues...gotta look into getting a new one or something. Anyways, hope u guys liked this one, and there should be more updates soon, hopefully on my other fics as well. Thanks a lot guys!
*~*Amit*~*