Disclaimer: I own nothing.
The Summers of Our Discontent: Part II
By Gaeriel Mallory
Westchester, New YorkDawn Summers stared at the passing landscape. She was nervous. Today, she would arrive at Charles Xavier's Institute for the Gifted as a student. She did not know how she felt about that. The fact that she was now safe (or at least safer) from Glory was a relief but she missed her sister, Buffy, and their friends back in Sunnydale. And then there was the fact that she would be the only non-mutant at the school.
Not that she could be considered normal in any sense of the word. She may have had fourteen years of memories, but only the last few months of those memories had been real. Before that, there had been no Dawn Summers, daughter of Hank and Joyce, sister to Buffy.
There had been a ball of energy known as The Key that would unlock the door between this world and the world that the insane god Glorificus had come from—the door that if opened would destroy both. In order to prevent that, some monks had taken the Key and made it into human form.
Her.
She hugged herself. The idea that she was the means to bring about Armageddon terrified her. She just wanted to be normal. At the Institute, she would still not be normal, but at least she would not be the only one.
Scott drove the car through huge iron gates. They then headed up a long driveway and stopped in front of a huge house. Dawn stared. The closest building in size to this place that she knew of would have been Angel's old mansion in Sunnydale and even that was dwarfed by this place.
Dawn opened the door and stepped out, adjusting her clothing. Scott took the suitcases out of the trunk and headed up the front stairs. "Come on," he said. "We'll get you settled in."
* * *
Scott opened the front door. He smiled slightly as he felt a familiar touch on his mind. Hello, Professor, he thought.
Scott. How was your trip?
Interesting. I have many things to tell you.
I look forward to hearing them. I see that you brought your young cousin back with you. How do you think she will fit in here?
Scott smirked slightly. Much easier than we had originally thought. It seems my family is full of surprises.
Oh? Is she a mutant?
No. I'll explain it all to you when I bring her up to meet you. Right now, I'm going to show her to her room and get her settled in.
All right, Scott. I shall be expecting you. The mental link closed.
He returned his attention to the conversation his wife was having with Dawn. "When is Buffy sending over the rest of your things?" Jean was asking.
Dawn shrugged. She seemed a lot more subdued than she had been back in California. "I don't know. I think that she's hoping to get this thing with Glory cleared up really soon so that I can go back."
"You still should have something."
Dawn shrugged again. "I have everything I need in my suitcase right now. If there's anything I don't have, I could just buy it or ask Buffy to FedEx it or something. It's no biggie."
Scott led the way upstairs to the students' wing. "The boys are down there." Scott pointed down the hall. "The girls room down this way." The walked down the hall, stopping about halfway towards the end. Scott opened the door and set Dawn's suitcase down inside. "Well, this is it."
Dawn looked inside. The room was small, but comfortable. A large window let in streams of sunlight which fell onto the comfortable looking bed.
"Most students have a roommate but all of the teachers agreed that it would be better for you to be alone, at least for now, to help you recover after all you've been through."
"Special treatment for the girl who's not real?" she asked bitterly.
"No," Jean's quiet voice answered. "More like giving you time for you to grieve for your mother in peace."
"Oh." She did not have anything to say in answer to that. She wrapped her arms around herself and stared at the wood floor. "Sorry. I've been really sensitive to that and I really shouldn't be."
A hand rested on her shoulder and she looked up into her cousin's face. "It's all right," he said quietly. "I can't even imagine the shock you felt when you found out."
They let Dawn have a quiet moment before pulling her out of the room again. "Scott and I live just down the hall so if you ever need anything, feel free to come visit." Jean opened a door towards the end of the hall and Scott shoved the other two suitcases inside. "At the moment, the other students are in class and starting tomorrow, you'll join them. Right now, however, we're going to take you to meet Professor Xavier; he's in charge of the school."
* * *
Xavier was perturbed. He had been attempting to probe the newest student, Dawn Summers, in order to get an idea of her personality and how well she would fit in at the school. All of his attempts, however, had failed, sliding away from her as if he was trying to hold onto a glass pane. What this meant, he did not know. Scott had said that his cousin was not a mutant. Could he have been mistaken?
He felt a brief touch on his mind before he heard the knock on the door. "Come in," he called out from behind his desk.
The door opened and in walked two of his first 'children': Scott Summers and Jean Grey. Jean Summers, now, he reminded himself and felt a wave of sadness. Where has the time gone? Wasn't it only yesterday when they came to me, still children and blossoming into their powers? He had been there when the two had first meet, had witnessed them falling into love, and had even given away Jean at their wedding.
Scott gently steered a young girl so that she stood in front of him. "Professor, this is my cousin Dawn."
Xavier inclined his head. "How do you do? It is always a pleasure to meet a new student." He projected an outward calm, but inside, he was amazed when to his mind, the girl was not there. There was a blank space where her mind should have been. When he pushed against that emptiness, he again encountered that glass wall that he slid off of.
She grinned shyly at him and stammered out a hello. Xavier had to smile slightly at that. How many children had given him that same grin the first time they met him? He rolled his wheelchair around his desk. He noticed that her eyes widened a little but she showed no other outward sign of surprise at his disability.
"Dawn," he began, "as Jean and Scott have already told you, this school is one for mutants. I understand that you are not one but your father managed to secure a place for you here, not knowing the true nature of the Institute. However, there is something that is puzzling me about you."
She frowned. "What?"
"I can't sense you." He tapped his forehead. "I'm a telepath, but all I see when I try to reach you is this area of nothingness. When I push against it, I encounter this barrier. You claim not to be a mutant; both Scott and Jean say that you are not a mutant. So how is it that you could have mind shields that I cannot get past?"
"Oh, well…" She fidgeted, shifting her weight from one foot to another. "I'm not real?"
"I beg your pardon?"
Dawn glanced at her cousin and at his encouraging nod, took a deep breath and started talking.
* * *
Dawn returned to her room after her meeting with Professor Xavier. It had left her emotionally drained. She flopped down face first onto her bed and reveled in the scent of fresh sheets.
There was a knock on the door and Dawn moaned, shoving herself upright. "It's open," she called out. Not an invitation—Hellmouth habits die hard.
The heavy wooden door opened and two girls a few years older than she was walked in. One was a tall Asian girl with short hair and twinkling eyes. The other was a shorter brunette with a streak of white in her hair. She was smiling though there was a sadness in her eyes as well. Dawn had seen such sadness before, though in a much greater quantity in Angel's eyes.
Here comes the welcoming committee. Might as well make nice. She felt a flash of annoyance with herself. The two girls were obviously trying to make her feel comfortable in this strange school. It was no reason for her to resent them.
The Asian girl smiled. "Hi," she said. "We thought we'd come introduce ourselves. I'm Jubilation Lee, but everyone here just calls me Jubilee."
The other girl gave a wave. "I'm Rogue," she said with a faint Southern twang.
"Dawn Summers," she replied. She tucked her hair behind her ear—a nervous gesture—and motioned the other two girls into the room. "So, what's the scoop on this school?"
"I like it here," Rogue said as she sat down at the desk. Jubilee joined Dawn on the bed. "Before coming here, there really wasn't a place I felt like I belonged. Outside, I'm different from normal people. Here, though, I may still be different, but I'm not the only different one."
"Normal in our differences." Jubilee smirked. "I like that."
Dawn smiled.
"So, what's your story?" Jubilee asked.
"Well, I'm from a small town in southern California. Sunnydale. You've probably never heard of it." Unless you're a demon, a vampire, or a power-hungry warlock. "I probably wouldn't be here except my mom just died and my dad somehow conned my cousin Scott into getting me enrolled."
"You're Scott's cousin?" Rouge asked surprised. "I didn't think he had any family."
"After his parents died, he and his brother Alex got grabbed by the government and stuffed into the system. We couldn't touch them because of bureaucratic red tape. We only got back in touch after Scott came here as a student."
"That's just…wrong!" Jubilee exclaimed. "Man, and I thought I had it bad being a foster kid."
"What happened to Alex?" Rogue asked.
Dawn shrugged, looking at the floor. "We don't know. We tried finding him, and I know did too…It just seemed like he disappeared."
"Wow. That's harsh."
"Yeah." Dawn sat in silence, thinking. "I don't remember Alex. I was just a baby when their parents died. He would be around my sister Buffy's age now."
Jubilee looked at Dawn. "You said that you probably wouldn't be here except for your dad. You're not a mutant?"
Dawn shook her head. "No."
"And you aren't weirded out that you're surrounded by mutants?"
Dawn shook her head. "Believe me, I've seen stranger." Way stranger. "So, what are your powers?"
Jubilee held out a hand and it began to glow silver. "I can shoot fireworks from my hands. Technically, it's plasma, but it sure looks like fireworks."
Rogue seemed to shrink inside herself a little when Dawn asked about powers. "I absorb other people's life force and their own powers if they're a mutant through my skin. I can't control it so I have to be real careful." She held up her arms which were covered by long velvet gloves.
"Oh." Dawn studied the girl, trying to imagine how that could have affected her. How would I have turned out, if I couldn't touch anyone? Maybe being a great ball of energy isn't so bad.
Rogue shrugged. "I've had a few years to learn to deal with it. After a while, it became second nature and I hardly notice it anymore." The sadness in her voice said otherwise, but Dawn did not comment on it. Buffy had been the same way for a few years after she first became the Slayer, especially during the high school years when all she wanted was a normal life.
There was another knock on the door and Jean's head appeared around it. "Hey, seems you found the welcoming committee." She smiled at the two girls who waved back at her. "I just wanted to tell you that dinner's at six. Be there or go hungry."
"Kay," Dawn answered, glad for the interruption.
* * *
Sunnydale, CaliforniaThe hell-god known as Glory stared at the map in disbelief. She held a crystal on a string over the map. The crystal was not staying above Sunnydale as it should have been. Instead, it was tugging on the string, towards the east.
Her eyes narrowed as she slowly moved the crystal across the map. Finally, the tugging on the string stopped over New York.
Why would the Key be in New York? She growled low in her throat. That damn Slayer thought she could hide the Key from the great Glorificus, did she? She will learn her mistake.
"Minions!" she called out.
* * *
Buffy patrolled but it was unusually quiet that night on the Hellmouth. It was so quiet that she decided to cut patrol short in hopes of getting some sleep before class tomorrow. She and the rest of the Scooby Gang had been trying to find a way to take Glory down. No luck so far.
They had become practically regulars at Willy's, a bar frequented mainly by demons and run by a weasel of a human. Willy: bartender, server of liquids you do not want to know about, and reluctant stoolpigeon to the Slayer.
He knew nothing.
Giles had researched and cross-referenced and researched some more. There was no mention on how to kill an insane goddess from a hell dimension.
Though lately, Glory had been lying low. That worried Buffy. She had learned that quiet usually meant that the bad guys were planning something big that would result in mayhem, late nights for the Slayer, and bruises. Lots and lots of bruises.
Before entering the empty house, she made a mental note to swing by Glory's mansion the next day in hopes of finding out what she was up to. In the meantime, there was that literature paper to write.
* * *
Spike walked back to his crypt, a bag full of containers of pigs' blood under his arm. He was not paying attention to his surroundings, letting his feet carry him through the familiar route from the meat plant back home.
He missed Dawn.
He would never admit it to anyone, but he had come to regard her as a younger sister of sorts. Why was it that the two people he had grown the closest to were now gone? One had died of a brain tumor; the other was sent away to boarding school a continent away.
About to enter the cemetery, he stopped and sniffed the air. "All right, you might as well come out. I know you're there."
A nearby bush rustled and a tiny wrinkled figure emerged. Spike snarled when he saw it. "What? Poking around graveyards instead of giving Glory a manicure?" he sneered. He grabbed the creature by the throat and slammed it into a tree. "What are you doing here?" His face transformed into his vampire mask.
The creature whimpered. "O-orders to w-w-watch. M-make sure n-nothing hap-happened while Her Magnificence was g-g-gone."
The vampire frowned and tightened his grip around its neck. "Gone where?"
"N-n-new York. After the Key." The minion trembled in fear. "Please don't hurt me."
Spike smiled nastily as he let go, watching as it dropped a foot to land in a heap in the dirt. "I won't hurt you…if you run."
He watched as it scurried away and then sighed, looking at the paper bag longingly. Dinner would have to wait. He left the cemetery again and headed for Buffy's house.
* * *
Westchester, New YorkDawn had just hit the snooze button on her alarm clock when the phone started ringing.
Oh God, who can be calling this early? I'll let Buffy answer it. When the ringing did not stop, she groaned and raised her head from the pillow. Looking around the unfamiliar room, she groaned again, swinging her legs off the side of her bed. Oh yeah. I'm at Xavier's. She reached for the receiver and the ringing mercifully stopped. "Hello?" she mumbled.
"Dawn! Thank God you answered."
"Buffy? What's wrong?" Dawn instantly came fully awake. Her sister sounding this worried usually meant big bad demonic trouble.
"Glory somehow found out that the Key isn't in Sunnydale. She's on her way to New York; might already be there."
"Oh, shit…" Dawn scrambled for some clothes.
"I'm catching the next plane over there. Giles, Willow, and Tara are coming with me. We should get there sometime tonight."
"I'll tell Scott." Dawn pulled on a pair of jeans and hunted in her still unpacked suitcase for a shirt.
"You do that. If Glory finds you before I get there, just…just try and stay out of her way. I don't think that she knows you're there but if she finds out, she'll figure that you have the Key and go after you."
"Ok. Stay out of sight. Got it." She struggled to button the shirt she had found while keeping hold of the phone.
"I got to go, Dawnie. We're about to leave now. I'll see you tonight. Bye." The phone clicked before she could respond and Dawn sighed before hanging up the receiver.
Ok, Dawn, think. If Glory was able to find out that the Key was here, then assume that she can pinpoint your exact location. So the best thing to do may be to keep moving. Don't think Scott would be too happy about that. Maybe I can get someone to take me into town to get supplies for a concealment spell…
She started making a list of things that could be helpful. "Would holy water work on a hell god?" she wondered. She shrugged and wrote it down anyway. It could not hurt and it would help if she ran across any vampires. "Protection spell…What were the ingredients for that concealment spell Willow taught me again?" Rosemary, sage, powdered dragon's teeth…She wrote down all that she could remember.
She ran out the door and continued down the hall to Scott and Jean's room. She did not see the other man until she collided with him. "Hey, where's the fire?" a gruff voice asked her.
She looked up to see a man with wild black hair staring down at her. "Um…going to ask Scott if I can go into town."
The man studied her. "You're the new student? Don't tell me you're his kid cousin."
"Um, yup, that's me. Dawn Summers. So who are you?"
He chuckled. "Logan, but you can call me Wolverine. I like you, kid. You've got spunk. Listen, I don't think ol' stick up his rear will let you take a trip into town, but I might be willin' to take you. In fact, I was going to go pick up some things myself."
"Really?"
"You bet, kid. Let's blow this joint."
* * *
Dawn got directions from the bookstore clerk and left Logan looking at some books. Huh, who'd have thunk that a town this small would have an occult shop? And it's not even on the Hellmouth!
The sign above the door proclaimed, "The Whispering Dragon." Dawn snorted in amusement at the name and went in.
"Good day, young miss. And how may this humble one serve you this fine morn?" a voice with an exotic accent asked.
Dawn studied the guy behind the counter. To an ordinary person, his odd appearance would have been taken for a good make-up job. To the sister of the Vampire Slayer however…
"I dunno. What's a Taral demon doing in Nowheresville, New York?"
The demon stared at the girl in amazement. "Well, I guess I can drop the act," he commented in a drawl that would have been right at home in the middle of Brooklyn. "So, what do you want, kid?"
"You got ingredients for a protection spell and a concealment spell?" she asked, studying the small shop. She saw a display on the other side of the small establishment and headed over.
"Sure thing. Tell me, what's a little girl like you needing a protection spell for?" The Taral demon bustled about behind the counter, measuring out ingredients and wrapping them in brown paper. He turned around. "Whoa!"
Dawn had laid out a nice collection of knives, stakes, holy water, candles, and wooden crosses on the counter.
He shook his head and rang up her purchases. "Girl, I sure hope you know what you're doing."
When he told her the total cost, her eyes narrowed. "You have got to be kidding me," she said. "I know for a fact that rosemary is only worth about five dollars for a quarter pound and ten dollars for a bottle of holy water? Nothing doing, pal. You ring all this up again, and this time, don't try and cheat me."
"Me?" he asked innocently. "I will have you know that I am giving you a bargain on these herbs! Why this is the best quality hemlock you will find in the world, hand picked on a remote mountain in Tibet and dried under the light of the full moon."
Dawn snorted. "Right. More like grown in someone's garden and dried in the oven. Look, what are you trying to pull on me?"
"Listen, kid, who do you think you are? I'm telling you this is a fair price!"
"And I'm telling you that my sister helps run a magic shop in Sunnydale and I have had to do inventory there so I know how much everything is supposed to cost."
"Sunnydale?" The demon rolled his eyes. "Figures I'll get some brat from the Hellmouth. Fine, fine." He re-rang up the order and the final cost came out to something more to Dawn's liking.
"You know, I'm technically not supposed to sell the knives to anyone under the age of eighteen."
She handed over the money, glad that Buffy had given her a healthy stash of spending money. "Yeah, well, if it makes you feel any better, consider me eighteen." She headed for the door, bags in hand. "Thanks," she called back.
"Come again, soon!"
Dawn rolled her eyes. She met up with Wolverine in front of the bookstore and they headed back to the Institute.
"Phew, what did you buy?" Wolverine opened the windows in the car another notch.
"Just some herbs," she said.
"Next time you need a ride to town, you ask someone with a less sensitive nose," he grumbled.
* * *
Scott met the two of them as they pulled up in front of the mansion. "Uh oh," Wolverine muttered. "Our fearless leader looks pissed."
"Where were you, Dawn?" Scott asked.
"In town. I needed to pick up a few things." She shifted the weight of the two bags and headed up the front steps.
"You listen to me, young lady. There are rules here, and one of them is that students are not supposed to leave the grounds without permission. They are also not allowed to miss class without a damned good excuse."
"Leave the kid be," Wolverine drawled. "I offered to drive her to town and she accepted."
Scott glared at the other man from behind his ruby-quartz glasses. "I'll deal with you later, Logan."
Wolverine made a show of yawning. "Yeah, sure." He strolled inside, hands in his pockets.
Scott turned back to his cousin and found that she had followed Wolverine indoors. He caught up with her. "Well, want to tell me what was so important that you couldn't wait until after classes?"
Dawn scowled at him. "How about the fact that I have a hell goddess on my trail?"
"What?"
"Yeah, Glory found out that her precious Key was no longer in California."
"When did you find this out?" Scott folded his arms and looked at her.
"This morning when Buffy called. Oh, by the way, she and a few of the others are flying in tonight."
"Thanks for telling me." His voice was dry. "You didn't think we could protect you?"
"No offense to you and the other teachers here, but I think this is a little out of your league." They were in front of her door and she set down one of the bags in order to unlock and open it.
"Why don't you let us decide on that?"
Dawn began unpacking the two bags. She placed the packets of herbs carefully on her dresser, making sure that the labels were visible. "How do you kill a vampire?" she asked quietly.
Scott was taken back. "What?" he asked, confused.
She turned to look at him. "How do you kill a vampire? A stake through the heart, beheading, fire. Exposure to sunlight works too, but it has to be for a while or else they just start to burn and get really pissed. Holy water burns them as well and being near crosses causes them pain. Did you know that?"
Scott shook his head mutely.
"Do you know that the only way to kill a Pulogos demon is to cut its head off and burn it? If you just cut the head off, the body will just find it and reattach it. Do you know that the blood of a Rukal demon is deadly but in small quantities can heal?"
"I think you've made your point," Scott said softly. He walked over and gently hugged her. "Dawn, you're my cousin. I promised Buffy that I'd look after you. Do you know how worried I was when you didn't show up for your first class and no one could find you?"
Dawn hugged him back before pushing him away. She turned back to her bags and finished unpacking them. She smiled slightly when she heard him bite off an exclamation when she laid three very sharp knives out on the dresser top.
"The professor and Ororo want to see you," he told her.
She turned and raised an eyebrow at him. "Talking in your heads behind my back again?" she asked.
"Dawn…" he said warningly.
"Okay, okay. I'll go talk to them. But I have to perform this spell first so that Glory won't be able to find me. I don't suppose you have a largish room with really good ventilation, do you?"
* * *
In the end, she had to do the spells on the basketball court. She would have preferred someplace darker but it would have to do. She had arranged the candles in a circle and seated herself in the center of the circle. A stone bowl was in front of her and she was laying out the herbs around her, making sure she could distinguish them from one another. The bag of powdered dragon's teeth was in her hand.
"Dawn, is this really necessary?"
She turned to look at the man in the wheelchair and smiled. "I don't know. Depends on how close Glory is to finding out where I am. It would make me feel better, anyway."
Xavier sighed and rubbed the side of his temple. Magic, demons, gods…it was almost too much for him to take in. After hearing Dawn's story yesterday, he was inclined to disbelieve it except that both Scott and Jean had insisted it was true.
Well, Ororo, what do you think? he asked the white haired, dark skinned woman standing beside him.
I do not know, Charles. There are more things in the world than I could dream of and in Africa I had seen things that most would label insanity.
So we give her the benefit of the doubt?
What else can we do? If we forbid her from casting the spell and this 'Glory' does find her, then it is on our heads.
Dawn closed her eyes and chanted something under her breath. Willow and Tara had drilled the spell for fire into her so that she could use it if ever cornered by a vampire. Around her, the candles flared to life. Jean and Scott took a step back and Ororo cried out in surprise.
The girl took a handful of powdered dragons' teeth from the pouch and threw it into the bowl. "Draw the circle," she whispered, "Hide from sight."
She had had to combine the protection and the concealment spell. Willow and Tara had taught her the basics of spell casting and simple spells. She hoped she had done this right.
An incandescent bubble appeared, a perfect semi-circle just within the ring of candles.
One by one, the herbs joined the dragons' teeth in the bowl. She again chanted the spell for fire and the herbs burned. The semi-circle began shrinking until it molded itself to her and disappeared. The fire in the bowl and the candles then went out.
Dawn looked at the four adults who were watching her, their eyes wide and their mouths open. She smiled at the sight. "I'm done," she announced. "How about something to eat? I didn't get breakfast, you know."
* * *
Xavier probed the area where Dawn should have been. Before, there had been a hole, but now, that was not even there. He opened his eyes and nodded at the girl. "I think it worked," he told her. "In my mind, everything is as is should be. I still cannot sense you, but there is no emptiness to alert me that you are there."
"Good." Dawn finished the rest of her spaghetti and looked longingly at the pot simmering on the stove.
Ororo Munroe saw her glance and laughed. "I cannot believe you are still hungry," she told the girl as she refilled Dawn's plate.
"It's the magic. Tara explained it to me once. When spell casting, you are pulling some of the energy required from around you but the majority of it has to come from within. So that's why you will never find a fat magic user. Well, a good magic user, anyway." She shoved a forkful of pasta into her mouth and chewed.
"So this Glory won't be able to find you now?" Jean asked.
Dawn shook her head. "I don't know how she found out that I wasn't in California anymore. If she is tracking me magically, then it will confuse things. But if she's tracking me physically, somehow, then the concealment spell does nothing. Hopefully, if she gets close to me, the protection spell will kick in."
"And if it doesn't?"
"Well, with any luck, Buffy will already be here."
Scott frowned. "We have our own resources too, you know."
Xavier nodded. "I am sure that there are ways that we can keep you safe. We have had to deal with protecting things and people before."
Dawn shrugged and continued eating. "Whatever you want. It's your call. I'm just here 'cause my dad shipped me off."
* * *
Somewhere in New YorkGlory had a state map spread out before her and was trying to scry the position of the Key again.
Trying.
The stupid crystal would not make up its mind! It would tug one way and then totally reverse directions and tug another way.
She growled and threw the crystal at the wall. "Dammit!" she screamed. "Damn the Slayer. Damn this stupid world. Damn them for throwing me out. Damn damn damn!"
* * *
Westchester, New YorkThe rental car stopped in front of the closed gates. The area was brightly illuminated by lights set on top of the wall. "This the place?" Buffy asked Giles.
The Watcher nodded. He got out of the car and approached the gates. There was a speaker built into the stone wall. He pushed the button. "Hello?"
An automated voice replied, "Please state your name and purpose."
Giles cleared his throat. "Um, my name is Rupert Giles. I'm here with Buffy Summers to visit her sister Dawn."
"One moment please."
The gates swung open and the Brit got back into the car. "Well, here we go," he told the others.
"Oh wow," Willow breathed when she saw the mansion. "Xander will freak when we tell him about this place."
The front doors opened and Dawn ran out to greet them. Buffy got out of the car and swept her sister in a hug. "Hey, what's this?" she laughed. "Miss me already? You've only been gone, what? Two days?"
"Just kill Glory already so I can go home," Dawn asked.
Buffy hugged her sister tighter. "You got it, Dawnie. I'll do my best."
"Hey, what's this? No hug for me, nibblet?"
Dawn looked up and smiled widely. "Spike!" She ran over and swept the vampire up in a hug. "Buffy didn't tell me you were coming."
The vampire looked faintly embarrassed at the show of emotion. "Well, she didn't know. I stowed away in the luggage compartment. Less chance of a sudden exposure to sunlight there."
Giles frowned at him. "Yes. Imagine our surprise when Spike greeted us outside the airport."
Buffy snorted, causing Willow and Tara to smile at each other.
"Good evening. Dawn, if you would be so kind as to introduce us?"
Dawn looked up at Professor Xavier who was sitting at the top of the steps with Scott and Jean standing next to him.
"Oh, yeah. Professor, this is my sister Buffy and this is Giles, Willow, Tara, and Spike."
"A pleasure," he told them. If you'll follow me to my office, I believe we have some matters to discuss."
The others followed him inside. Spike started walking but stopped at the threshold. "Hey, one of you blokes want to invite me in?"
Scott observed the vampire and smirked. "Gee, I don't know…"
Jean nudged her husband gently in the ribs. "Come on in, Spike."
The vampire stepped inside and nodded towards her. "Much obliged, Red. No thanks to four-eyes over there."
"Behave, Spike, or I'll put a piece of wood through you." Buffy glared at him. "We're here for a reason. You remember that."
He mock saluted her. "Aye aye, ma'am. Kill hell goddess and bring my little bit home."
* * *
Willow and Tara held hands and reached out towards Dawn. Their eyes were closed. They stayed that way for a while and then opened their eyes again.
"Well?" Dawn asked.
They released their hands. "You did a good job," Tara told her. "It will eventually wear off and you would have to renew it but it's pretty good work."
Dawn beamed. "Yay. I completed my first solo spell casting."
Tara frowned slightly. "You shouldn't do magic alone unless you really know what you're doing. When we get back to Sunnydale, I'm going to have to speed up your lessons if you continue working magic."
"You listen to them, Dawn," Spike advised from where he was sitting in the corner. He did not really like the idea of his young friend performing serious magic.
There was a knock on the door. "It's open," Dawn called out.
Jubilee stuck her head through the doorway. "Hey, a bunch of us are getting together in the rec room to watch a movie. Wanna come?"
Dawn smiled. "Maybe later. I have some things I need to get done."
Willow spoke up. "No, no. You should go and have fun. We can't really do anything right now."
"You sure?"
"Oh yeah. Buffy and Giles are still in a planning session with Xavier. Why don't you take Spike with you?"
Dawn nodded and looked towards the vampire. He sighed and slowly got to his feet. "I suppose…"
"Great!" Dawn grabbed his arm and ran out of the room.
"Whoa! Slow down a bit, will ya?"
Tara and Willow waited until they had left before dissolving into giggles.
* * *
Someplace in New YorkBeing denied magical means to find the key, Glory had been forced to go through more mundane channels, to her irritation. She studied the information in front of her. "Ugh," she complained. "Another hell hole town in the middle of nowhere."
She had had to do some research but she eventually found out that the Slayer's brat of a sister had recently been sent to a school in New York. She had reasoned that the sister would have the Key.
So it looks like she would be heading to Westchester and Xavier's Institute for the Gifted.
Thought you can hide it from me, Slayer? she thought. You're about to learn otherwise.