Title: Key To The First

Chapter: New Information (3/?)

Author: Anna

E-Mail: mostunstableone@aol.com

Rating: PG-13

Website:

Feedback: I need it like vamps need blood

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, blah blah blah, I don't own the show, blah blah blah, I like cheese, blah blah blah…

Note: takes place after 'Storyteller'

"C'mon! Work, dammit! Work!" Dawn yelled into the portable phone she was holding. She paced back and forth across the living room floor as Andrew searched through piles of books at the dining room table. She was trying to call Willow for help, but the call refused to go through. Apparently, cell phones didn't reach to whatever dimension they were in.

          Andrew called from the other room, "Any luck yet? Because I haven't found anything."

          Dawn growled in frustration and flung herself down on the couch, letting the phone drop to her side. "No!" she replied, and then muttered to herself. "What am I gonna do?" Tears were beginning to form in her eyes.

          Holding a book, Andrew appeared in the doorway. When he saw Dawn's worried face he immediately tried to comfort her. "Aw, Dawnie." He sat down next to her on the couch, not too close but not too far. She had her head in her hands and her body trembled with silent sobs. He began to reach out a hand to touch her back, but she suddenly looked up and he pulled his hand back.

          "What are we gonna do, Andrew? What are we gonna do?! Buffy and Spike and the potentials are trapped. We can't reach Willow, Anya or Giles. What are we gonna do?" she started to cry again and this time Andrew reached out and touched her. He tentatively rubbed her back, trying to comfort her. Minutes later, her tears subsided and she gave him an appreciative half-smile.

          She was about to speak when she heard the voice of someone laughing. She looked up and saw Jonathon standing in the center of the room. Andrew gasped and stood up. "No. You're not real. You can't fool us. Be gone you evil being!" he reached for a wooden cross that was lying on the coffee table in front of him. He held it in front of him, outstretched towards the vision of Jonathon.

          "Ahem." Jonathon coughed. Andrew looked down at the cross and silently mouthed 'oh' as he dropped it back to the table.

          "So, as I was going to say before you rudely attempted to ineffectually harm me with a freakin' wooden cross," Jonathon said, "I just wanted to say that closing the Seal isn't going to win this war for you." His voice took on a less comical and definitely more seriously evil tone as his eyes narrowed. "Things are just about to get interesting. Closing that Seal forced me to look to other methods of killing all of you and it turns out that I found something better. See, the slayer and her little vampire boyfriend are trapped in the school along with all those potentials; and that big old black cloud surrounding the school? Just a little something I cooked up. Every second it gets a little darker, a little denser, and a little more poisonous. By midnight, it'll kill everyone in that school. And you can't stop it. The Watcher, the ex-demon and the Witch? They wont be coming home for a while. So sit back, relax, and watch all your friends die."

          Jonathon disappeared and it was only Dawn and Andrew again. "Oh God, oh God, oh God…" Andrew repeated as his hysteria rose.

          Dawn's jaw squared and she turned to Andrew. "Andrew-"

          "Oh god, oh God, oh God."

          "Andrew?" she questioned.

          "Oh god, oh God, oh God."

          "Andrew!" she yelled this time.

          " Oh god, oh God, oh God."

          Losing her patience, Dawn slapped Andrew across the face and smiled for an instant as she felt a little bit more in control.

          Andrew's hand went to his face as her hand print stung on his cheek. "Sorry." He muttered.

          "Look, Andrew, we've gotta do something. We can't let Buffy and the potentials die, they're the last of the Chosen line. The world is in our hands. Do you get it? We can't let the First win." Dawn said.

          "You know, you really are a lot like Buffy." Andrew declared.

          Dawn smiled. "Thanks. Now let's get to work." Andrew nodded and waited for instructions. "I want you to go get the knife and see if you can decipher anything else. If we could maybe decode something on the knife it could give us a clue. I figure we'll work from there, cause I don't really know what else we can do."

          Andrew hurried up the stairs to retrieve the knife and Dawn took a seat in a chair. She ran a hand through her hair and took a long deep breath. *I hope someone's praying for us, cause I have no idea how we're gonna get through this…*

          Andrew returned and sat opposite Dawn on the coffee table, holding the knife in his hands. He turned it over a few times and looked closely at the carved writings. After a few minutes he sighed in defeat. "There's nothing else here."

          "Let me see." Dawn reached for the knife but as her fingers touched the rusted metal a green light erupted from the blade and it expanded to twice its length. The carvings on the handle glowed with the same iridescent glow and as Dawn looked closer the lines moved and shifted, forming new words. The glow wore down and when Dawn looked up from the altered weapon she saw Andrew across the room with his back against the wall and his hands widely spread.

          "Mother of Pearl, what was that?" Andrew wheezed. Dawn ignored his strange comment, knowing that she probably didn't want to know where he came up with it, and she moved towards him.

          "I have no idea." She said, "But maybe it says something new now. I think the words… shifted or something. Can you read it?" she asked. He took the elongated knife from her hands and inspected it again. He squinted a few times and Dawn watched with expectation.

          "I think I got it, but you might wanna write this down." He said, but he never took his eyes off the carvings. Dawn turned towards the kitchen and Andrew followed as she grabbed a pad of paper off the refrigerator and a pen from a drawer. She sad down at the island in the middle of the kitchen and looked at Andrew expectantly.

          He carefully set the weapon down and read as he followed his finger across it. "Before time and life and before the mighty Gods, there existed the evil that resides in each living thing today. It is omnipotent and infamous and yet no living man knows its true face for it cleverly hides in costume. It balances the heavenly good with the wickedly bad."

          Dawn groaned. "We already knew all that stuff."

          "Wait, there's more." Andrew continued, "In the face of this evil there stands one of light that alone holds the power to crush what has always been. This power returns the balance when all is disproportionate. The energy of the Chosen is formed from these two channels; the evil and the good. The Chosen is a third accessory to this corresponding assembly. Together the universe exists around them. But the evil grows when the good remains and the light must not die. The solution to the problem is the answer to the riddle. The key to the first is the key to life. The key is the answer."

          Dawn's eyes were wide and as Andrew spoke she dropped her pen, forgetting to write it all down. Andrew finished and looked up to meet Dawn's gaze.

          "I think that's you."

Author's Note: I always thought Dawn's key-ness should do something more than open portals so I'm gonna explore that a lot more. And I'm gonna warn you all that the story is gonna end with some level of Dawn/Andrew fluff. I think they'd be so cute together. So let me know what you think… you have any thoughts about how they should defeat the First, let me know! I'm open to ideas!