Missing, Presumed Lost (2/?)

By Danel(danel@fanfiction.net)

PG-13, I think

Arriving home from school to find both the house and the Magic Box wrecked and no one in sight, Dawn rings Angel for help. Meanwhile, in LA, Connor finds Holtz missing, but when he storms the Hyperion he finds it similarly ransacked and deserted. That's when the 'phone rings.

Spoilers: Starts during Seeing Red(BtVS) and Benediction(AtS), but certain events, which occurred later, still take place. Most of Seasons 6 and 3, basically.

Disclaimer: I suppose I should do one myself… none of these characters are mine, which should really shock no one. However, I'm just using them for a little while. I won't hurt them. Well, not too much at least…

Author's Note: Thanks to Karen for letting me use the central concept (of everyone but Dawn and Connor going missing). Thanks also to Alea, for some support, and again to Karen for beta'ing and being very kind.

Chapter 2: Friends and Questions Hyperion Hotel, Los Angeles

As the two young people strode into the empty and damaged hotel lobby, Dawn Summers looked around in interest. She'd never seen the Hyperion Hotel before, but it fascinated her. So this was where Angel worked. It seemed like a very nice place – she thought about how big it was and wondered how many rooms it had. How many of them were ever used? As she noticed the writing on the wall she dropped her bag and rushed over. Yes, she thought grimly, it was certainly the same language as that on the wall of the Magic Box. She reached one hand up towards it, and jumped in surprise when Steven stopped her. She hadn't realised that he was that close.

"I don't think you should touch that," he observed quietly. Dawn nodded.

"You're probably right. It's never a good idea to touch strange markings… I don't know what I was thinking." She took a step back and turned around. "The hotel seems very big for a small detective agency… how many people are in it now, anyway?"

Steven cursed mentally. He wasn't exactly sure how many were in Angel Investigations. There was Angelus, of course, and the demon… but he'd seen very few humans in his life, and faces tended to blur together. He could recognise different demons easily, although he was aware most people couldn't tell one fiend from another. Was it three more humans… or four? He began to panic – if he didn't answer soon, Dawn would be suspicious. Think! "I'm not exactly sure – I haven't been here that long, and they're always busy here. One comes in, two more go out…"

It seemed to work; at least, Dawn seemed to accept his answer, moving on towards one of the offices. But then she stopped suddenly as a thought occurred to her. "Really? Then how is it that they've all been captured?"
"What?"

"If everyone always in and out of the hotel, then how did a single attack capture them all? A few of them must have escaped, unless the things that did this knew when they'd all be in the hotel. And that-" She stopped suddenly as she finished the thought. If the demons had known that everyone was at the hotel, it seemed likely that there had been a traitor. It seemed unlikely, but what if Steven was a spy? No, she thought. That doesn't make sense.

But it was yet another confusing puzzle linked to Steven, and she was again reminded that she shouldn't trust him. Which was harder than it seemed – he had saved her life, after all. Even if she had needed to save his life immediately afterwards. No, thought Dawn, I won't finish what I was saying, just in case. "I'm sorry, I'm babbling. But what I mean is that we should be able to find someone who hasn't been kidnapped to help us, and perhaps give us some clues as to why this happened. She sat down at the desk and opened the top drawer, then smiled and took out a framed photograph. "Ah-hah!"

Steven moved in closer to look over her shoulder at the photograph, trying not to think about just how close he was. Her hair smells nice, he thought. Then he focused on the photograph and his eyes widened in shock.

Dawn didn't notice his surprise, but did notice how close he was. She tried not to react, but she didn't really need to. She felt uncomfortable only because she didn't feel uncomfortable. She shouldn't like having someone hovering over her shoulder like that… but she did. It felt… nice. It felt right. She looked at the picture carefully, and was mildly shocked. He looks so happy, she thought. I've never seen Angel look that happy. Not ever.

The photograph showed a group of people all smiling, all happy. Well, not all people. One of them was a green demon with horns, but he was clearly as important and valued a member of the group as any of the others. Dawn recognised some of them – Angel, Cordelia Chase and Wesley Wyndham-Pryce – but the other two were unfamiliar to her. And they were clustering around… Dawn felt another ripple of shock go through her. A baby? She thought. But whose?

Steven couldn't move, couldn't blink. He couldn't do anything but stare at the picture of… of his family. There wasn't any other way he could think of them. They all looked so happy. Angel seemed so human, so proud. He tried to swallow but it was hard enough just to breathe. His mouth felt completely dry, and his head hurt. They were a family. They were his family. He could see no evil there, no cruelty. Could his father… could Holtz have been wrong?

No, he thought. I can't think about this. It has to be some kind of trick, or something.
But for a few moments he felt lost and confused, no longer knowing what to believe. It's a trick, he told himself again. But it sounded feeble even to him, like the way certain demons can stay alive for minutes after being beheaded just by refusing to accept their death. He choked off a sob and shook his head, then came back to himself as he realised that Dawn was speaking to him.

"I said, whose baby is that?"

Steven wanted to tell the whole story. But he couldn't. Not now, not ever. Just because he felt unsure because of one photograph was no reason to lose sight of all that he had been taught. He cleared his throat. "I'm sorry. It's just… they all seem so happy."

Dawn nodded. "I know," she said, quietly. "It must be nice."

Steven didn't ask her what she meant. "Perhaps they saved the baby from some demons, or something?" he lied, bothered for a second by how easily the untruth slipped from his tongue. Then he stopped, noticing something about the picture. "That man…" he said, reaching forward.

Dawn was a little irritated. It had been so strange to see all of them so happy… it seemed like completely opposite to how her life had been over the past few months. The thought of her sister and her sister's friends posing for a picture like this was almost laughable. "Whose baby is that?" she asked Steven. He didn't reply.

She turned to look at him, but he seemed frozen, staring at the picture. "I said, whose baby is that?" she repeated, a little louder this time. Steven seemed to mentally shake himself and answered her question, but then he stopped again and reached forward, pointing at Wesley.

"That man…" he said, "I've never seen him."

"I know him." Dawn said. "He's Wesley Wyndham-Pryce, he used to be… my sister used to know him. If you've never seen him…"

"He must have stopped working for Angel Investigations," finished Steven. "I wonder why."

Dawn opened the next drawer and found what she was looking for – a slim address book. "It's probably not important. I never used to like him that much, but he was good at researching the weird stuff, and he might be able to translate that writing on the wall." She started looking through the book. "Found it. Now all we have to do is get to this address… but first… hmmm."

Steven took a step back as Dawn began looking him up and down, as if assessing him and finding him wanting. "What?" he asked, nervously. "Is there something wrong?"

"Yes."
"Ahh! Umm… what?" Dawn didn't reply, but grabbed him by the front of his shirt and pulled him back into the lobby. "What?" he asked again, aware that he sounded somewhat pathetic. If he'd try to stop her, Dawn wouldn't have had a chance to pull him like she was – but he didn't want to antagonise this confusing, enchanting and strange girl. When they reached the lobby she turned, and looked down at her hand in disgust, noticing that she had some of the demon blood from his shirt on it. She wiped it on a cleaner part of his shirt, despite his somewhat muted protests. Then she poked him in the chest.

"As I remember Wesley, he was a really 'proper' man. I doubt he'd even consider letting in someone dressed like you are, with demon blood all over you."
"I don't have any other-"

"I thought you'd say that." As he stood still in confusing, Dawn circled him, looking him up and down again. He shifted, made nervous made by scrutiny in a way no demon had ever managed. Then she grabbed him again, and dragged him up the stairs. "I think some of Angel's clothes would fit you, and there has to be a shower up here somewhere. You'll be cleaned up in no time."
Angelus' clothes? thought Steven in dismay. Oh no…

* * * * *

They'd found Angel's room after a few attempts, and they'd found (and Steven been taught how to operate) the shower shortly after that. As Steven washed in the downpour water, he reflected on the fact that this left Dawn choosing clothes for him. It also left him using this strange and unusual device, and as hard as he tried Steven couldn't understand how the 'shower' worked. It fired water – warm water! – at him from a distance above. But how did it get up there? Water didn't flow upwards – everyone knew that.

It was a great mystery.

As he showered, he also found himself thinking of the photograph that he had just seen, although he tried not to think about it. He must not let it affect him. He couldn't. Whatever affection Angel… Angelus had once shown to him, he knew of atrocities and great wrongs that he had committed. He couldn't afford to lose sight of this. He'd owed it to Holtz.

Eventually he was finished (though he had already tried to finish before Dawn told him his hair still had demon blood in it, and then explained the concept of shampoo), and, wrapping himself in towels, walked into Angelus' room. As he entered he was dismayed to see that Dawn had torn through the room like a small tornado, and as he entered she stood up from where she had been sitting on the bed.
"You took a long time showering," she complained. "I'd think you'd never showered before in your life."

Steven didn't answer that. Dawn pointed to some clothes on the bed, and then left, leaving Steven to get dressed.

Dawn smiled slightly as she left the room. Steven was something of a mystery to her, but the only conclusion that she could draw was that he was some kind of demon hunter from the streets, perhaps homeless. Maybe his family had been killed by demons, or…

No, thought Dawn. I mustn't drift into flights of fancy. I know nothing about him – but what I do know is intriguing. He may or may not work for Angel, I think he's hiding something. He's strong – the vampire that I killed was only a little stronger than he was. Yet he wears those strange clothes…

Dawn recalled the feel of those clothes as she'd pick them from where Steven had left him on the floor. They'd felt strangely like leather – but not quite. And the colour was completely wrong. The fabric was subtly different from anything Dawn had ever touched before.

Yet another Steven mystery to add to the list.
Then he stepped sheepishly out of the room, fully dressed in the clothes Dawn had picked, and Dawn forgot all about the strangeness of him.

Steven finished buttoning the shirt and stepped nervously out of the door, turning to face Dawn as she did so. She stared at him, unmoving, her mouth open slightly.

"What?" he asked. She didn't reply, but kept staring. "What?" he repeated, more nervously. "Is there something wrong?"

"No!" Dawn said, finally moving and walking towards him. "You look… fine. You look good."

"Really?" he asked raising an eyebrow. "It feels weird."

The clothes that Dawn had picked out for him were a one of Angel's many black shirt and pants sets. Steven was a little smaller than Angel, so the shirt looked baggy on him. That just served to enhance the overall effect. Dawn managed to tear her gaze away from him again and smiled widely. "It's just right! You won't need a jacket because it's not that cold. And you look fine! Really!"

Steven plucked nervously at the shirt. "No!" Dawn cried, zipping forward again and smoothing it down. She realised too late that this brought her far, far too close to him. She shifted nervously, but didn't move away. "Um…"

Steven sort of moved away, then back again, shifting just as nervously as she was. He made a definite effort to move away, and was understandably upset to find that he was actually getting closer. And closer. His head moved towards hers, and his tongue flicked over his lips without him even thinking about it. As her face turned towards him, he focused in on her eyes, and saw something similar in her expression too. His eyes looked down, to her lips…

Dawn jumped as if electrified. "The time! It's getting late! We'll be late for Wesley." She started breathing again but now a few paces away from him.

"Oh yes…" said Steven, torn between utter relief and crushing disappointment. "We should be going, now that I'm dressed." Dawn flushed at his choice of words, but agreed with the sentiment.

"Let's go, then."

"Right… no time to waste!"

"Heh… um… we really should get moving."

* * * * *

Wesley Wyndham-Pryce was just sitting down for a (very) late dinner when he heard a knock at the door. This was a great surprise – the only people who ever seemed to wish to talk to him these days were his old friends when they needed something or that appalling Lilah-woman. Who on earth could it be at this time of night?

He walked to the door and looked through the spyhole, planning to ignore it if it turned out to be Lilah, and only answer if it was Fred, Gunn or Cordelia.
It wasn't any of this, and he was very surprised when he saw instead two… children.


Wesley drew back in surprise, then blinked and checked again as the children – well, young people, really – knocked again. There was something familiar about the girl… then he remembered – she was Buffy's sister, from Sunnydale. But what was she doing in LA? The other boy wasn't as familiar, but there was something about him which reminded Wesley of someone… Wesley was surprised to realise that the young man reminded him of Angel. Why was that?

He quickly opened the door, and ushered the two inside. "Please, come in. It's good to see you again, Dawn, but I must confess I don't recognise…?"

"Steven. Steven Holtz."

Wesley froze as the name registered. Steven Holtz. Quite suddenly, everything made sense – the familiarity to Angel, the way he seemed familiar, the name – the boy could only be Connor. But how had he grown up so quickly? The answer hit Wesley almost instantly – he remembered from reading Mr. Giles' old Watcher Diaries that Buffy had once told of certain demonic planes she had travelled to where time moved at an accelerated rate. It would make sense for Quor-Toth to be one of those… but that had meant that Connor (or Steven) had spent his childhood and adolescence in the worst demonic dimension, with only the fanatic Holtz for company; it seemed that Holtz had even raised him as his son.

Another horrifying bolt of realisation hit Wesley. If he had been raised by Holtz, the vampire hunter had probably instilled within Connor an equally fanatical hatred of his old foe Angelus. Angel's son, hating him… what Wesley had done to Angel was worse than he could ever have imagined.
He snapped out of his thoughts, realising that the children were looking at him in worry. He forced a weak smile. "I'm sorry; I'm not used to company much anymore, and I was lost in thought."


Dawn looked at him with concern, and Wesley's heart was warmed by the unintentional kindness. "Why don't you work with Angel anymore, Wesley?"

Wesley sighed sadly. "Angel and I had a… disagreement, and it seemed best for all concerned if I left." Which was, he thought, perhaps the most elegant way possible to phrase the horrible series of events that had occurred. "But I doubt the two of you came just to ask that. Why on earth aren't you still in Sunnydale, Dawn? Is something wrong?"

When he mentioned Sunnydale, Dawn looked even more upset; after he had asked the final question, Dawn was on the verge of tears. She hid it well, he noted – yet it confirmed his suspicions that something was terribly wrong. Even so, he was unprepared for what Dawn told him next.

"They're gone. Everyone's gone – missing. Buffy, Willow, Xander; and all of Angel Investigations as well. Steven and I are the only ones left, and we don't have the first idea of where to look. It's lucky for us that we found a picture of Angel Investigations in a drawer at the hotel, and Steven told me that he didn't recognise you from it."

It seemed that Dawn didn't know Connor's true identity. Interesting. Wesley wondered how much he knew about her.

How had they survived so long, if there was some kind of entity or force which had managed to capture everyone else?

"That seems worrying indeed – I don't know what kind of force could do such a thing."

Connor broke in. "At the hotel – and Dawn found some in Sunnydale as well – there was this writing on the wall. It's the same symbols in both places, but we can't read them. Dawn said that you were clever, and we were hoping…" His voice trailed off at the end, leaving Wesley to fill in the blank. They wanted him to translate this demon language – and he tried hard to restrain the pride he felt at the compliment, as he was the only person they had been able to come to for help.

So… he had to help these children – there was no possible question or thought involved. He could never live with himself if he let them leave without doing all he could – the problems and disagreements he'd had with their families were nothing to do with them.

And just maybe, at the end of this, he'd be able to look into a mirror and not be terribly ashamed of the man looking back.

* * * * *

As the three walked away from the building, a figure stepped out from the shadows where she had concealed herself, hatred shining in her eyes. She'd had him. Wesley Wyndham-Pryce, Angel's old friend and ally, would have been one of them, completely under her thumb. The possibilities were endless.

And now weeks of hard work just keeping others away from this opportunity, wasted. Ruined – by a pair of children! It merely added insult to injury that she recognised neither of them. She'd checked everything there was to know, everything the seers and prophets had dug up on this – nothing. No reference to a boy and a girl that matched this description at all.

It was as if they'd only started existing recently, or were somehow invisible to psychics and sensors. It was ridiculous.

But…

Every setback was also a new opportunity. She may have lost Wesley Wyndham-Pryce, but if the rumours of Angel's disappearance were true, it was unimportant anyway. Wyndham-Pryce was of limited use without the ability to use him against Angel Investigations… but these children…

The prophets hadn't predicted them. The seers hadn't foreseen them.

Heads would roll.

And then Lilah Morgan would see who these children were, what they could do… and how they could be of use.

* * * * *

The journey back to the Hyperion seemed to take much longer. There seemed to be some kind of tension between Steven and Wesley, Dawn noticed – Wesley seemed almost… guilty? She couldn't be sure. It was very strange.

As they passed a darkened alleyway, Steven stopped dead, eyes piercing the dim light and every sense on alert. Dawn froze in place and held up a hand to call the thoughtful Wesley to a halt, years of relying on Buffy's 'spider-sense' to alert her to possible danger coming to the fore.

"What's wrong?" she asked him quietly.

"There's something back there…" he whispered; then he took off running down the alleyway, turning to beckon her after him. She followed as quickly as she could, pausing only to pull a stake from her belt and throw it to Wesley. He caught it easily, and looked at her oddly. She didn't understand what the look meant.

As Dawn ran on, she began to hear sounds – terrified weeping. Someone nearby was very scared. She reached a branch in the alleys, and then she saw. Her eyes widened. There were four vampires, all male, and their four human 'dates'. Steven was over to the side fighting one, while a girl tried to hide behind him. Another girl was unconscious in the arms of a vampire, and yet another was being held back. The final girl was huddled at the feet of the last vampire, weeping – it was easy to see why, as that vampire was massive; a tall, overly muscled man in his late teens. He was in vamp face and stood watching the battle, a sneer upon his face. As Dawn watched, he reached down and casually began to pull the crying girl up. That wasn't good.

Dawn charged at him, drawing her axe up to hit him solidly in the face. He staggered back, then stepped forward again with a chuckle.

She kicked him. His laugh stopped abruptly as he was pushed back; Dawn used the space this gave her to swing her axe straight at him in an attempt to decapitate him. She missed – he managed to dodge back a little, and she ended up 'merely' slicing across his shoulders. It was still enough to make him scream in pain and topple over. Dawn turned towards the girl, and helped her up.

"Don't worry, everything will be fine-"

"DAWN! THERE ARE FIVE VAMPIRES!"

What? How could Steven… without thinking, Dawn turned towards him, then stopped quickly as from the corner of her eye she saw the girl she had just saved move quickly. Too quickly, and as her face came up Dawn realised that this girl was another vampire. The vampire lunged – Dawn ducked back, and swung her axe wildly, luck and muscle memory letting it strike right through the female vamp's neck. There was an expression of disgust upon her face as she dusted. Dawn relaxed – then remembered the wounded vampire.

He hit her, hard, and she hit the floor. The axe fell to the floor and was swiftly picked up by the Big Vamp, who seemed to ignore the gaping chest wound. The sneer was gone now, replaced with an expression of blank rage.


"Do you realise what you've done?" he screamed. "A human… you killed Kelly!" His voice was deep, but there was real pain in it too. "She was my light, my sire, my everything… on her bones I swear that you will pay!" He grabbed the axe with one hand on each end, and strained. The axe shattered, splinters falling everywhere from the wooden handle. He dropped the broken weapon to the floor. The metal made a loud clang as it hit. It was an interesting illustration of the vampire's strength, and Dawn knew that she couldn't afford to let him close on her. Steven couldn't help her, either; the moment of distraction for his warning to her had cost him dearly, because now he was hard pressed fighting another vampire. And to make things worse, the other two could join in at any moment… things didn't look good.

All of these thoughts flashed through Dawn's mind in a split second as the Big Vamp bore down on her – then he was literally falling on her, dust. Dawn smiled at Wesley.
"I'm really glad that I gave you that stake." Wesley smiled back at her.

The tide of the battle was turning – Steven finally managed to finish off his foe, but then the one holding the unconscious girl decided to take care of two birds with one stone. Perhaps a better way of phrasing it would be one bird with another bird. He threw his meal at Steven. Steven instinctively caught her, but was thrown back by the impact, and the vampire charged towards him. Without even stopping to think, Dawn grabbed the axe handle and lunged forward.

The vampire had been fixated upon Steven, struggling as he was with the girl – as Dawn approached he managed to turn a little, but nowhere near enough. Dust.

Steven put the girl onto her feet, and steadied her, passing her onto the girl who he had saved first. Wesley hurried over to help them out of the alleys, leaving Steven and Dawn to take care of the last vampire.

This one was cleverer. His hold tightened on the girl's neck; she continued to struggle furiously, and Dawn felt a twinge of respect. "D-Don't come any closer!" the vampire stuttered. He tried to back away, towards a smaller alleyway, holding the girl between him and them as a shield. "I'll snap her neck in an instant! Just let me go, and I'll let her go, capisce?"

Uh-oh. That wasn't good. It didn't seem right to let the vampire go, but they couldn't risk the girl's life. Dawn admitted to herself that she didn't have the slightest idea of what to do in this situation. What would Buffy do?

No. I can't ask myself that, because I don't know… and I'm not Buffy. I'll never be Buffy, and Buffy isn't here. What should Dawn do right now?

"Okay. Let the girl go, and we'll let you live."

"N-No way! I'm not some kind of fresh-risen. You'll kill me as soon as you c-can."

No, this isn't good.

* * * * *

As Dawn attempted to negotiate with the vampire, Steven examined their surroundings carefully. He felt disappointed that Dawn was prepared to try to reason with a vampire. Vampires were demons. The only thing you could do with a demon was kill it before it killed you.

Oh, he could understand what she was trying to do. She was young (not much younger than you are) and inexperienced. She still believed in trying to save people, but that wouldn't work. Sometimes, when you fought demons, people died. It was a shame, but they would either go to a better place or receive their just punishment. They were collateral damage.

Still, he'd expected better of Dawn. She'd seem cleverer than this, not foolish enough to let a vampire walk away.

And just because she would, didn't mean that he would.

Dawn had reached a compromise. The vampire would back up, holding the girl, until he reached the next turn in the alley. Then he would let the girl go and run. She'd warned the vampire that if he harmed the girl, they would slay it. The vampire was backing up, and once again Dawn began to relax.

Then Steven started to run. Dawn had no idea what he was planning to do, but he was risking the girl's life.

The vampire was, at this point, backing down a narrower area of alleyway. When Steven began to move he hesitated for a few seconds, not wanting to kill the girl if the human wasn't going to kill him, as that would be certain to get him killed. Just for a few seconds. It wasn't long enough.

Steven used a small pile of trash on one side of the alley to start moving at an angle; he shifted up as he did so, and he managed to run along the wall for a few instants. Before gravity reasserted itself he kicked the wall, pushing off and bouncing to the other side. His right hand held his sword; he extended his left arm, and as he hit the wall he pushed… and twisted.

No normal human could have done this. He flipped through the air, spinning and would land directly behind the vampire, in a perfect position to behead it easily. The plan had been to move so quickly that the vampire had no time to react and kill the girl.

He wasn't fast enough. The vampire's hands tightened around the girl's neck, and he began to twist, planning to snap her neck. Steven was still flying through the air at this point, and Dawn was too far away. Oh, too far away.

The girl kicked him. She managed to hit his kneecap with enough power to hurt him, especially because he hadn't expected his hostage to fight back. The vampire screamed in pain. Although the kick hadn't done much damage, it distracted him for a few vital seconds. He began to start grasping her head again, now more determined than ever to kill this bitch who had hurt him, but he didn't have that time.

Steven landed neatly behind him, the sword already swinging, and the vampire felt a sudden sting in his neck and then nothing at all.

* * * * *

Dawn marched over to Steven, an expression of fury twisting her features. "What in the world were you thinking?" she shouted. "This girl would have died if-"

Steven wasn't prepared to take this, and began to reason maturely with the angry Key. "Do you really think the vampire would just have let her go? How naïve are you, Summers?"

Okay, so maybe not reason. "You can't just write people off like that. We're supposed to save people, not just kill vampires."

"It's the same thing. Do you really think that that vampire would have started eating nothing but pig's blood after you let it go? How many people are you prepared to sacrifice just so you don't have to offend your eyes with one of them dying in front of you?"

For a few moments, Dawn was left completely speechless with sheer shock. She couldn't believe that Steven could say such things to her. While she was distracted, the girl spoke up.

"Sorry to interrupt, but… who are you two?"

Steven looked at her, distracted slightly by the very hurt look in Dawn's eyes. For a moment, he had regretted his words but… they needed to be said. He turned to the girl.

"There's nothing to worry about," he said smoothly. "Return to your home; they were just gang members-"

"on PCP-"

"and they ran away when we challenged them. It may have looked as if-"

The girl was even younger than they were, Dawn realised, but she wasn't stupid. She looked at them scornfully. "Gang members? Who drink blood and turn to dust? I'm not stupid just because I'm so young, and anyway, you two aren't much older than me…"
"And you shouldn't be out this late at night – especially not in LA!" Dawn was aware that she was sounding like Buffy, but she didn't care. It helped to distract her from… what Steven had said. "It's not safe – LA has gang members, drug dealers…"

"…And vampires?"

Dawn shrugged. "Yes. And vampires."

Steven butted in. "How did you know they were vampires anyway? Most people just wouldn't believe it."

The girl scratched her head. "I've never been very good at lying to myself. It helped that you called them vampires as well."
Steven went quiet. "Oh. Yeah."

Then the girl smiled widely and skipped forward. "My name's Stacie. Stacie Porter."

Dawn couldn't help but smile back, and replied: "My name's Dawn, and this is Steven." She turned and pointed at Wesley. "That's Wesley." He gave a little half-wave, then stopped, embarrassed.

For a few moments everyone stayed there, unsure of what to say, then Dawn coughed. "Where do you live, Stacie?"

The girl jumped, then started giving directions; although her friends had already charged off, Dawn wanted to make sure this one got home alright. Wesley led with Stacie, while Dawn and Steven brought up the rear, Dawn now armed only with her handle splinter.
"Dawn, this is a waste of time. We should be getting back and finding out where everyone is, not just babysitting this little girl."
Dawn looked at him. "So we should just let her run home on her own, maybe get killed by a vampire – or just by a normal criminal?"

Steven practically snarled a reply. "It's not about that!" He shook his head angrily. "You don't get it at all. She's just one girl. What if the demons that did this are planning to use our families as sacrifices to end the world? (He was so angry that he failed to notice his unintentional reference to Angel Investigations as his family.) How many people will die then?"

"So it's just collateral damage, right? Let a few people die here or there, it doesn't matter much?"

Steven bit back his next furious reply. When he spoke again, he sounded slightly calmer. "There's no point in carrying out this argument. You'll never understand what I'm saying because you're too emotional. You're not thinking of the bigger picture…"

The sheer ferocity of Dawn's response shocked both of them. "Don't just write me off like that. Don't ever, Steven Holtz, ever, call me naïve or foolish just because I'm not willing to sacrifice bloody corpses to your 'bigger picture'. There's only one person I'm prepared to let die for the 'greater good', and that's me. I won't kill – or even let someone else die – for prophecy, or for the world. Not again. Never again."


She stomped off, moving faster in what Steven would have called a temper tantrum if he wasn't so stunned by her words. What had she meant?

Walking ahead, Dawn knew… it was something she tried not to think of, something she'd always blamed herself for. She wished she could tell Steven more, explain what she meant… but she was too tired, physically and emotionally. Her full story would have to wait for another time.

* * * * *

Hyperion Hotel, Los Angeles

It was some time later that the group of three returned to the hotel, in various stages of exhaustion. Wesley immediately set about trying to translate the writing, but not before giving a quick check over the two younger warriors and ordering them to get to sleep as quickly as they could. On the staircase, Steven paused, and waited until Dawn reached him.

"Dawn, I… I want to say…"

Dawn looked at him, and smiled a little crooked half-smile. "Just forget it. Bad things were said by all, and nothing we say now will change that. All we can do at this point is just try to work together for all of this." She shook her head ruefully. "You were right earlier when you said that we couldn't make each other agree on this. Especially now – we're both tired, hurt…"

"I know what you mean."

"Yeah… you know, we seem to just jump from every different emotion when we're around each other, you know. It's like a roller coaster. We remind me Ang-" she stopped abruptly and choked as her mind caught up and overtook her brain, finishing that sentence and considering the implications. Then her mind stopped and went to lie down, being too tired to think of all of this right now, but laughing slightly hysterically as it did so.

Steven looked at her oddly. "What were you saying?"

Dawn shook her head. "It's not important. Come on, let's just get some sleep."

* * * * *

Still later, Wesley stood in the lobby and polished his glasses, trying to process what it meant. As far as he could tell, the writing wasn't any known demonic language, and-

Wait.

He started muttering to himself in Latin, then Greek, becoming more and more worried as he did so. That symbol – the rotated Q – it could only be… and that meant…

They'd been wrong all along. It wasn't a demon which had kidnapped everyone, it was-

No, he shouldn't make assumptions like this. If it was true, this was a major discovery, vitally important. But if it was wrong it would just lead them all down a blind alley. No, he had to be sure.

Wesley looked at his watch, then at the slowly lightening night through the hotel doorway. If he hurried, he could make it to that occult bookshop with the old Codex and get it back here before the children woke up…

Of course, if they woke up and found him missing as well, they'd be rather worried. He should leave a note, just in case; it wouldn't take long at all, but it wouldn't do to scare the two unnecessarily. They'd had difficult enough lives already, and he couldn't entirely convince himself that he wasn't partly to blame for both of it. If only he hadn't been such a damn fool when he'd been Buffy's watcher, maybe-

No. This wasn't time to bring up that old problem, and he could do nothing about it now. All he could do now was get that Codex.

Leaving a note behind him, Wesley hurried out of the Hyperion.

* * * * *

It was much later when Dawn practically skipped down the stairs, dressed in new, undamaged clothes. She'd already been awake for quite a while, but there'd been a rather embarrassing incident involving two sleepy teenagers and the shower, the less said about which the better.

"Hey, Wesley, did you find anything?" When he didn't answer, Dawn wasn't worried – it would have been silly of her to expect him to stay awake all night, and if Wesley was anything like Giles she expected to find him lying asleep over a big pile of books. She knew he wasn't upstairs – he would surely have been awoken by some of the noises.

It was very strange. He didn't seem to be in any of the offices either. Surely…

Then she saw the note. And read it.

"Hey, Dawn, d'you want a new axe from Angel's supply?" Steven called as he came down the stairs. Dawn barely heard him, staring and the note and not even having to look at the clock.

Con Steven, Dawn,

I've just run out to get a Codex which will hopefully fill in the answers we need.

I believe I have made a breakthrough – we'll soon know just what we're up against.

Don't worry; I won't be long. I'll be back well before 9 o' clock.

Wesley

"Dawn, where are you?" Steven walked into the office and saw her. He began to say something, then stopped at the expression on her face.

On the desk, the clock didn't say 9 o' clock at all, but instead half past 10.

"Dawn, what's wrong?" asked Steven, beginning to worry. But Dawn just stared at the note in horror and said nothing.

END OF CHAPTER 2