Disclaimer:        Any character that you've seen on the show is owned by Joss, not me.

Colleen

The new slayer

Jordan

Psychic who receives The Visions

Holly

Half Sellar Demon

Dawn

The Key

Aaron

Currently exploring magicks

*****

            "Nothing at all?" Colleen asked. It was 9th period study hall and the entire Scooby gang, as well as Mike, was trying to find out any information about the Key. They had thus far found no information whatsoever.

            Aaron shook his head. "Sorry," he told her. "I've gone through every single book in the Magic Box. I've even checked the internet. I've found millions and millions of sites about the Key, but how the Hell do I figure out which 'the Key' is our 'the Key?'"

            "Dawn?" Colleen got Dawn's attention, who was kind of looking off into the distance. "Did any of your sources have anything to say about the Key?"

            Dawn shook her head. "No," she lied. She had never even got in touch with them. "They didn't know anything."

            "Are they checking it out?" Jordan asked Dawn.

            Dawn nodded her head. Another lie. "Yeah."

            "What did Kaoryn," Mike hesitated for a second. He made sure that Colleen was okay. "Say about the Key?" Mike was trying his hardest to be helpful.

            "All she said was that she knew that the Slayer had the Key," Holly informed him.

            "Yeah," Colleen said, swallowing her emotions. She had always wanted to know what had happened to her mother. She had considered the option that she might have died, but she never dreamt that she could be a vampire. "As far as I know I don't have the Key? At least if I do no one told me about it."

            "Isn't there another Slayer?" Aaron asked. "Dawn, what did you say her name was? Faith? Maybe she has the Key?"

            Dawn shook her head. "I don't think that's very likely. Last time I checked she was still in jail. Of course, she was charged as a minor. There is a chance that she might be out by now."

            "Maybe it's all just a case of mistaken identity," Jordan offered.

            "Can you check that out?" Colleen asked Dawn. "Do you have someone you could talk to about it?"

            "Wait," Aaron interrupted. "This isn't anything supernatural. Prison releases and stuff like that, especially for things like murder, that would all be on the internet. As long as she's over 18 now that is."

            "Yeah," Dawn nodded her head. "She would probably be at least 19 by now."

            "Great," Aaron said. "Then it's to the internet." Aaron stood up from the table and took Dawn with him. They walked over to an open computer against the wall of the library.

            "So what's the Slayer's name?" Aaron asked.

            "Faith," Dawn answered him.

            "Last name?" Aaron asked.

            "Um…" Dawn thought for a moment. "Comma the Vampire Slayer?"

            "You don't know her last name?"

            "I was twelve," Dawn said in defense of herself.

            Aaron sighed. He went to work searching through the internet. He tried to make some small talk with Dawn. He had always been able to talk to her before he realized how much he really did care about her. If Dawn didn't have so many other things on her mind she might have been able to talk to him too.

            "So did your sister ever have to protect mystic objections that she knew nothing about?" Aaron asked Dawn trying to keep a conversation going.

            "Yeah," Dawn said very shortly. "From time to time."

            "Like what?" Aaron asked her. "Anything keylike?"

            "How am I supposed to know?" Dawn asked Aaron. "It's not like I was in the inner circle or anything."

            "Sorry," Aaron said responding to the way that Dawn snapped her answer. "I was just curious." He kept searching through the internet till he finally found the information that he was looking for.

            "So?" Colleen asked Aaron and Dawn as they rejoined the others.

            Aaron shook his head. "She's still in jail."

            "But what if she has the Key in jail?" Colleen asked. She suddenly had an idea. "Holly, you have your license right?"

            "Yeah," Holly told her. She had received her license last week.

            "Well then," Colleen said with a smile. "Looks like us girls are going to be taking a road trip."

*****

            Aaron waited for Dawn in the yard of the school after classes got out. He looked nervous, so nervous that Jordan didn't even have to use his psychic abilities to realize it.

            "So I'm guessing today is the day?" Jordan asked Aaron.

            Aaron smiled a nervous smile. He had told Jordan about his feelings after Colleen told him that Jordan most likely already knew. "Yep," Aaron told him monosyllabically.

            "Good luck," Jordan told him as he walked off towards home.

            "Thanks," Aaron told him. "It would be better if you told me that you read Dawn to see how much she deeply loved me."

            Jordan laughed. "Sorry," Jordan told him as he kept walking away, "But if you want some advice, I say just be yourself. I'm told that girls like that."

            Aaron smiled. He tried to think calming thoughts. He tried really hard to think calming thoughts, but it was kind of in vane. He had known Dawn since she had moved to Sunnydale. She had been his best friend for the last year and a half and probably for the rest of his life. He knew that he was putting it all at risk by telling her what he felt but he really didn't care. He knew that deep down, if this was the way that he felt about Dawn, then Dawn had to feel the same way about him.

            Dawn was incredible. In every single facet of the word Dawn was incredible. Ever since he had come to terms with the way he felt about her she had become the first thing he thought about every morning when he woke up and the last thing he thought about before he went to sleep. Most importantly, Aaron felt that if he didn't get all these feelings outside of him he was going to explode.

            "Hey!" Aaron said a little too enthusiastically when he saw Dawn walking up to him.

            "Hey," Dawn told him. "Look, I'm sorry for snapping out on you earlier. It's just been really stressful lately with Kaoryn and all."

            "No it's cool," Aaron told Dawn. "You look really nice today? Did I tell you that already?"

            "No," Dawn answered curiously. "You never tell me that."

            "Well that's because I'm a moron," Aaron told Dawn. "Because you look amazing. You always look amazing. Everything about you leaves me in a never ending state of shock."

            "Aaron…" Dawn began to interrupt.

            "Wait no," Aaron told Dawn. "Just let me say this. I like you a lot. You are the single greatest thing about my life."

            "Aaron," Dawn said making sure that she made eye contact with Aaron. "You are my best friend."

            "And you're my best friend," Aaron told her. "But the way I feel about you, the way I care about you, it's so much more than friendship." Aaron paused to look at Dawn. He looked at her with the utmost desperation. "But I'm starting to think that friendship is as far as your feelings go."

            "Aaron," Dawn said, "Please stop. I can't handle this right now."

            "And you could handle it some other time?" Aaron asked her. He looked more hurt than he ever had before in his life.

            "Aaron," Dawn said slowly. "I do care about you a lot. And you are my best friend."

            "But that's it," Aaron answered for Dawn. She paused for a moment. "Yeah, I get it." Aaron began to walk off towards his house.

            "Aaron wait," Dawn called after Aaron.

            "Forget it," Aaron said without looking back. "Have fun in L.A."

*****

            "Oh no," Colleen said after Dawn had finished telling her story. Colleen, Dawn, and Holly were in Holly's mom's car on their way to L.A.

            "He must be devastated," Holly said.

            "Gee," Dawn said. "Thanks for trying to make me feel better."

            "Sorry," Holly told her.

            "So you really don't want to be anything more than friends?" Colleen asked Dawn.

            "I don't know," Dawn said. "I mean, I never thought about it really."

            "Then why did you say no?" Colleen asked her.

            "There's just so much going on right now," Dawn said. "I just don't think I could deal with something like that right now."

            "Then why didn't you tell him that?" Colleen asked.

            "I tried to," Dawn said, "but that wasn't the answer that Aaron wanted to hear."

            "Why not now?" Holly asked Dawn. "What's going on now that you can't deal with it?"

            "Just everything I guess," Dawn tried to come up with a reason. "I mean between the new big bad and sophomore year I don't think I could take that right now."

            "No offense Dawn," Colleen told her, "But that's a pretty lame reason."

*****

            Aaron lay on his bed staring up at the ceiling. He knew that he had been crying and he wasn't sure if he still was or not. He wasn't sure how long he had been lying there. He didn't know if it was still Friday night or Saturday morning. He didn't know anything anymore. All the time that he ran the scenario he never had expected that ending. He thought about it, but he never really believed that it could happen. Right now all he wanted to do was just lie on his bed and be alone.

            "Go away," Aaron said when he heard a knock on the door.

            "I take it that everything did not go according to plan?" Jordan asked as he walked into Aaron's room.

            "I'm sorry," Aaron said not looking over at Jordan. "Apparently I didn't speak loud enough. That was my fault. Now go away. Seriously Jordan, just leave."

            "And the funny thing is that you honestly think that I would just go away," Jordan told him. He sat down at the end of Aaron's bed. "I think she's a bitch if that helps at all."

            "You're talking about my best friend," Aaron told Jordan. "And I know you don't think that."

            "Just trying to help," Jordan told him.

            Aaron smiled. "It's just that it hurts."

            "I can understand," Jordan told him. "Not from experience or anything but I can imagine it hurting."

            "It's just that she means so much to me," Aaron tried to explain. "I love everything about her."

            "Do you love her?" Jordan asked him.

            "No," Aaron said, but there was a pause before he said. "I mean, like I said, I love everything about her, but I don't think that I love her."

            "Hey you never know," Jordan told him, "Maybe she just needed time to think. Maybe she just needs time to realize how she feels about you."

            "Maybe," Aaron said as he sat up in bed. "Do you know the first time that I realized how much I like her?" Jordan shook his head. "It was that time we were at the Bronze and Martyr was trying to get the Omicron. This vampire had Dawn by the throat and I knew that I couldn't let anything happen to her. Like I knew that I would do anything to keep her safe and make her happy and make everything in the world just the way she wanted it."

            "Just give her time," Jordan told him.

            There was another knock on the door. "Come in," Aaron called out.

            Mike walked into the room. "Hey," he greeted them. "I just come over to see if you guys were going to patrol tonight since all the others went to L.A."

            "Probably," Jordan told him. "We'll make a sweep or something."

            "Is everything okay?" Mike asked when he saw that Aaron had been crying.

            "I asked Dawn out today," Aaron told him. "What do you think she said?"

            "I'm sorry man," Mike told Aaron. "But you know what this means? We have to have some bitch-free fun tonight."

            Aaron laughed. "Why is it that everyone just turns on Dawn when she turns me down?"

            "Because you're here and she's not," Mike answered with a smile. "So seriously, what do you want to do? We could go to the Bronze or we could rent a movie or go out or something."

            Aaron began to feel a little bit better. Mike wasn't exactly friends with Aaron and Jordan. Before tonight he wasn't really anything more than Colleen's boy friend. But here he was trying to make Aaron feel better.

            "Well there is something that I kind of wanted to try," Aaron said. "I mean, as long as Jordan is up for it."

            "Sure," Jordan said. "Why wouldn't I be up for it?"

*****

            "Everyone lock your doors," Holly said after they had parked. "We are in Los Angeles after all."

            "So do you know where in L.A. Spike went?" Colleen asked Dawn.

            "I know the place," Dawn told her, "But I'm not sure where it's at."

            "Maybe we could stop by there later?" Colleen suggested.

            "Let's focus on the mission at hand first," Holly told them as they entered the jail.

*****

            "Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Mike asked Aaron.

            "Positive," Aaron said. "Well, almost positive."

            "And are you sure you're cool with this?" Mike asked Jordan.

            "What harm could it do," Jordan said, and then thought about what harm it could do. "Maybe I shouldn't have said this."

            "This should be OK," Aaron told Jordan. Aaron had candles lit around his room and had a magic book in front of him. He also had a container filled with a potion and some sand.

            "So where did you find this spell anyway?" Mike asked Aaron.

            "When I was doing all my demon research I came across it," Aaron told him. "It looks really easy. And plus there's the added bonus of the boost in power."

            "We could always use more power," Jordan said as he sat cross legged in the middle of a circle of candles. "Let's just do this."

            Aaron cleared his throat. "Son of Gelaro, hear me. Enter with me this circle of light with an open heart and hear the song of the ages. Be one with what you are and accept it into your being. Hear me, and call forth to the ancient ones. Call forth and let them know your plea."

            Jordan closed his eyes and entered a kind of trance. A light blue aura appeared around him. Mike stared at him in awe. Aaron had to clear his throat again to get Mike's attention. Mike gave him a sorry look and took a handful of the sand. Aaron did the same. Aaron slowly mouthed "one, two, three" and on three both Aaron and Mike threw the sand onto Jordan which turned the aura from blue to red.

            "Awaken," Aaron said with a clap.

            Jordan's eyes flew open. His eyes were wide with panic. He looked towards the candles and they blew out. He looked over at a window and it swung open. He looked to the book beside Aaron and the book suddenly closed. Jordan grabbed his head and lay down in a fetal position.

            "Turn them off!" He said desperately. "Please make it stop." Jordan was being bombarded with thoughts.

            "Okay," Aaron said quickly, "Jordan calm down its okay. Just drink this." Aaron approached Jordan with the vial of potion. Jordan opened his eyes and looked at the potion and it the vial suddenly shattered.

            "Uh oh," Aaron said.

            "Uh oh?" Mike questioned. "What's wrong? Can't you just make some more?"

            "Not without going to the Magic Box," Aaron told him.

            "Uh oh," Mike agreed.

            Jordan continued to moan on the ground.

*****

            Dawn was nervous about seeing Faith again. When Dawn was in 7th grade Faith had locked Dawn in the basement of her home while her mother had been tied up. Before that Dawn had always liked Faith. It was mostly because it made Buffy mad because of the slayer competition.

            Of course, none of that was real, but Dawn tried hard not to think about that.

            When Faith appeared on the other side of the glass she looked at Dawn with surprise. "Well if it isn't Little Miss Muffet," Faith greeted Dawn.

            "Faith," Dawn said as toneless as she could. She had heard that Faith was trying to make up for what she had done but it was still hard to be nice to her.

            "Who are your friends?" Faith asked.

            "This is Holly," Dawn said introducing Holly. "And this is Colleen," she paused for a moment, "the Vampire Slayer."

            "The Slayer?" Faith questioned. "Did I die and no one told me because the last time I checked a Slayer could only be called if another Slayer-" She stopped mid thought. "Oh God."

            Dawn looked at Faith in the eyes and Faith stared back. For the first time Dawn saw Faith truly look upset. She watched the way that Faith's eyes tried to fight back against the pressure that was building behind them and in that instant Dawn felt forgiveness surge up within her.

            "Please say that you're kidding," Faith pleaded with Dawn. Dawn remained silent. "How?" Faith said finally.

            "Saving the world," Dawn said simply.

            "Figured," Faith said with a sad smile. "There's no other way that she would go out." There was a pause. Dawn watched as Faith's smile eventually broke and she began to cry.

            "Faith?" Dawn asked concerned.

            "It's just," Faith said, "I never got to earn her forgiveness."

            "She forgave you," Dawn told Faith. Faith looked up at her. "She forgave you."

*****

            Aaron, Mike, and Jordan walked down the streets of Sunnydale as quickly as they could. Jordan tried to keep his eyes on the ground but his senses were working at full force. He was aware of everything around him.

            "Wait," Jordan said as he stopped in front of an alley.

            "We're almost-" Aaron began.

            Jordan walked into an alley where a vamp had just begun to feed on a girl. The vampire was suddenly pushed against the wall and the girl stared at him in confusion before running away terrified. The vampire turned around and spotted Jordan, Aaron, and Mike. He angrily started to come after Jordan when he was again pushed into the wall. Jordan turned to a wooden crate next to him that shattered sending a large stake directly towards the vampire's heart. As the vampire turned to dust he had a very confused look on his face.

            "Wow," Mike said, "Maybe you-"

            "No," Jordan said as he began walking toward the Magic Box. "Let's go."

*****

            "Wow," Colleen said when they were all in Holly's car again. Faith of course knew nothing about the Key and Dawn still didn't tell her friends the truth.

            "Do you want to go visit your friends?" Holly asked Dawn.

            "No," Dawn told her. "Let's just go home."

*****

            "There you go," Aaron said as he gave Jordan the potion. This time Jordan drank it. He instantly had relief. "I'm sorry about that."

            "It's okay," Jordan told him. "I agreed to it. I knew the risks."

            "Are you okay?" Mike asked Jordan.

            "Yeah," Jordan said. He stood up. "Actually, I feel good." Jordan looked at the table that Mike and Aaron were sitting at and he levitated it. "Really good."

            "Alls well that ends well I guess," Mike said.

            "Thank you," Aaron said to Jordan and Mike. "Both of you. Thanks for trying to make me feel better. It means a lot to me."

            "Hey," Mike said, "What are friends for?"

****

Author's Note: Okay, so I'm a moron and I had anonymous reviews turned off. I'm sorry about complaining so much about not getting any reviews. I guess it was partially my fault. Thank you very much to Louisa for pointing that out to me. Anyway, what's everyone I think (I'm a broken record, aren't I?)? How about the Faith appearance? Where does everyone think the story is going?