Chapter 2

Phantoms

"Dear lord," Giles said after hearing Dawn's story.

The scoobie gang were at the magic box discussing Dawn's strange encounter with Anna. Anya, Xander's wife to be was at the till sorting out the money, Xander was sitting down on a round desk next to the bookshelf, he was still shocked by the fact that little Dawn, the young girl who used to have a crush on him had become a slayer. Buffy was pacing up and down the shop thinking about what to do with her head lowered.

"Would you please stop pacing," Anya said to Buffy, "it's annoying."

Buffy shot a scornful look at Anya who immediately started to count the money again. Buffy looked at Dawn who looked petrified and she couldn't blame her.

"Hey Buff," said Xander, "How do you know if we can trust this ghost that showed itself to Dawn?"

"I don't know, maybe I can find Spike and see if he knows anything" said Buffy as she put on a blue sweatshirt.

"Buffy, no one has seen him for months, do you have any idea where he is?" he asked.

"No, no he just left…"

Willow put her hand up in the air and said, "Oh, I can do a locator spell, he's a vampire and he has a soul so he shouldn't be too hard to find."

"Thanks Will, if Anna is right about this then we're gonna need all the help we can get," Buffy turned her head to Anya, "Anya can you ask around, see what rumors are going round in the demon world?"

"What are you crazy?!" Anya shouted, "Half the demon's I know hate me and the rest wanna kill me!"

"Fine, you just do some research or something OK, Xander, Giles…"

"Yes?" they said.

"Can you look after Dawn?"

"What!" shouted Dawn.

"Sorry it's just we're not entirely sure that you're a slayer yet and if you are, you need to be trained."

"Oh and how am I supposed to do that when I'm stuck here?"

"I'm not going to argue OK, you're staying."

Dawn frowned and stomped off to the training room.

"Giles, she needs training, and you are the best watcher around so… so will you to be her watcher?"

"Yes of course I will," Giles said smiling as he went to the training room to accompany Dawn.

"I'm gonna go out on patrol, I'll see you guys later."

In the training room Dawn was pacing up and down. Was she the new slayer, will she have to sacrifice her social life to defend the world from the forces of darkness? She didn't want to be the slayer, she knew that almost every slayer in history didn't live past twenty. She always looked up to her sister, although she would never admit it. Who wouldn't look up to their sister if she was a super hero who saved countless lives and slain countless numbers of evil things. She sat on the bench and slowly shut her eyes. Giles sat beside her and put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"Why does she do that?" Dawn asked, "She treats me like a kid."

"That's because you are…"

"Hello? I'm nearly seventeen! Buffy saved the world at least twice when she was my age."

"But she knows what it means to be the slayer, she knows the pain and she knows the sacrifices that need to be made. She just wants to protect you."

"I know…"

"Now, let's start your training, basic exercises and hand to hand combat first."

They both got up and noticed Willow had entered the room.

"I did the spell and there were two locations of vampires with a soul," said Willow.

"Where were they?" Giles asked whilst cleaning his glasses.

"One is in LA, that's Angel and one in… Tibet," she replied.

"Why would Spike be in Tibet? It's just a load of mountains, there's nothing there," said Dawn.

"Well, there are a lot of mystics, seers and mages that live up there who seek inner peace, Oz went up there to control the werewolf inside him."

"We can't go there and get him so we'll just have to assume that Spike won't be able to help us for the time being," said Giles.

***

All dressed up and nothing to slay, Buffy thought as she walked around the graveyard armed with only her lucky stake she called Mr Pointy. The chill of the icy wind made Buffy zip up her sweater to the top of her neck. The Sunnydale graveyard was very large and was the birthplace of hundreds of vampires that were slain by Buffy before they had a chance to smell the air. It was a dark, misty night, perfect setting for a horror movie

She knelt beside one of the moldy grave inscribed with the name of John Edwards. As if on cue a hand punched it's way through the soil and the vampire clawed it's way out of it's grave, then it looked at Buffy with blood lust in it's eyes.

"Slayer…" it snarled.

"Slayee…" Buffy said as she held up her fists.

The vampire leapt towards her, she dodged it's attack and elbowed it's head which made the vamp stagger to the ground. It jumped to it's feet and tried to punch her but Buffy was too fast for it, she blocked the attack and kicked it's leg snapping the bone in two.

"Oh God! My leg!" It screamed.

She stabbed it in the heart with the stake and with a final cry, it fell to pile of ash. Buffy suddenly felt cold and her bones felt like they were frozen.

Damn its cold she thought.

"Hey B."

Buffy turned around and she saw the last person she expected to see. A woman in her twenties with black hair, she was wearing leather trousers and a navy blue jacket. She looked real, but it could be…

"Faith…" said Buffy who couldn't believe her eyes.

"You OK, you killed Glory pretty good back there, shame I didn't survive, I was planning on having the biggest party ever…" she smiled kindly, "Sorry if I scared you."

"Sorry I'm just… you know, strange things have been happening."

"Tell me about it, all the spirits from where ever the hell I'm from are going crazy, they're scared of this evil thing that might kill them. I don't think they've got it in their heads that they are already dead."

"Anna, a ghost visited Dawn and she said that this thing can kill spirits…"

"Yeah, well, they're just rumors, I don't think it's real, it was just some sad guy spreading rumors who's trying to into the 'in' crowd, I think his name was John-something-or-other, really short and geeky"

"Jonathan."

"That's the one. Yeah I think it was him that started the rumor so I don't think there's anything to worry about. How's the gang doing anyway?"

"They're great, Xander and Anya are engaged again, Willows got a new job, and Giles is working for the new council now."

"What about little Dawn and Spike?" Faith asked.

"Well, Spike disappeared from the face of the earth and Dawn… apparently she's the new slayer."

"Oh man, how's she taking it?"

"She's fine, I hope. What are you doing here anyway?"

"I'm here to give you a message, even though that rumor about the army and the evil thing came from Jonathan, you still have to be prepared cause there is something bad coming, something big and it won't stop until it gets what it wants."

"Peace and Love?"

"Death and destruction."

"Same old, same old. God when will it end?"

"Listen B, I've gotta go, they're calling me, I'll see you around."

"Thank you" said Buffy. They both smiled and hugged each other before Faith faded away into the night.

Later on in the night, Buffy had walked to the alleyway outside the Bronze. She heard a loud scream of a girl further down the alley, she ran as fast as she could praying that the girl wasn't dead. She had reached the end of the alley where she saw a large vampire who was drinking deeply from the young girl, blood trickled from her neck. The vampire looked up, blood was dripping from his fangs and his watery eyes were locked on Buffy. Buffy jumped into the air, kicked off the wall and slammed her foot onto the creature's neck shattering its spine. The vampire slumped lifelessly to the ground and turned to dust. The girl was lying on the floor, shaking, her skin was pure white and she was holding her neck wound.

"We've got to get you to the hospital." Buffy said to the girl.

"Thank… you…" the girl said trying to smile.

"What's your name?" asked Buffy.

"Choice, Choice Summers…" she said.

She couldn't believe it. What the hell was going on? Could this girl be the young version of her mother? Maybe she was just going crazy.

"Uh… Um… How old are you?"

"If you must… know, I'm seventeen."

"And when was you born?"

"1957…"

"Hang on a minute then that means you would be…"

But before she could finish her sentence, she vanished into thin air. Something really strange is going on she thought. Buffy walked off into the night with a million questions in her mind.

***

Crash!!!

"Bloody hell!" cried Giles

"Oops! Sorry Giles! I…" Dawn pleaded

"No, it's quite alright…" He sighed.

Dawn was hitting the punching bag but she didn't quite know her own strength and hit it so hard that the rope it was hanging under snapped and the bag went flying into Giles' groin. Dawn ran over to him and helped him up.

"Well I think it's safe to say that you are indeed the new slayer."

Dawn smiled shyly, "I am so sorry."

"I'm alright. You are exceptionally strong for a slayer with very little training."

"Thanks."

"I wonder where Xander is, I called him ten minutes ago."

They both went through the door and saw Xander and Anya making out on the round table.

"Oh for God's sake," Giles said.

"Giles!" said Xander and Anya in unison.

"Do you have to do that here?"

"Um…" Xander mumbled, "we uh… Willow went earlier and we… uh… uh… have to go…"

"Bye!" Anya said. They both ran out of the shop as fast as they could.

"I'll drive you home Dawn, Buffy should be back at the house by now," said Giles.

After Giles left Dawn at the house she walked into the living room where she saw Willow sitting on the sofa holding a strange ornamental wooden box.

"Hi Willow," said Dawn, "what you doing?"

"Oh, hey Dawny," said Willow smiling, "How's you're slayer training going?"

"Great, Giles said I'm a really strong slayer. Hey maybe you can teach me how to do magic and I can be a super slayer."

"I don't think Buffy would like that."

"What's in the box?" Dawn asked as she sat next her.

"It's… It was a gift… from Tara…"

"Oh…"

"It's a crystal, she gave it to me when we first started going out… we did spells with it…" She gazed down at the box which began to glow softly.

Willow began to cry, "I miss her so much…"

"I know… I do too…"

Willow straightened herself out and wiped the tears from her eyes. "Come on we better get to bed, school tomorrow."

"OK," Dawn groaned, "Is Buffy back yet?"

"No, not yet but she should be back soon."

Dawn walked upstairs and into the bathroom to brush her teeth. As soon as she entered she felt a sharp chill, the same chill she felt when Anna appeared to her.

"Who's here?" she asked.

"Hey Dawn."

It was Anna who was floating over the bath, she looked very grim and serious. Something was wrong.

"Dawn this is very important… there was another prophecy… about you, you're…"

But she was cut off, Anna turned around and her eyes widened in terror. A black, monstrous shape forced it's way out of nowhere and grasped Anna's neck.

"Noooo! Dawn cried.

She tried to reach her, but it was too late, the shadow tore Anna in half, her scream shattered mirror and the bathroom tiles, Dawn turned away and shielded her eyes. Then the monster turned to her, it's white eyes glowed maliciously and it faded out of existence. Dawn crouched next to the bath and started to cry.