Disclaimer : I do not own the wonderful works of Tolkien. I also do not own Buffy or Dawn. They belong to Josh Whedon. (sp?) If you wish to sue me for this story... well.... Don't. This is fanfiction . net. You read fanfiction here.

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It's All in the Blood

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They were continuing on the journey. No one had yet gotten over Dawn coming back. What did it mean? Was it a sign of some sort? Was that to show her worth in the war? No one knew the answers except Dawn. She refused to tell anyone, even Gandalf. Though even Dawn had to admit, she was getting very close to Gandalf. He was like Giles, and for some reason, he was like her. A power that could never be fully revealed. No one could ever know how much power she had until the end.

They were continuing on the journey. The rock walls of Moria were coming into view. The walls of stone were so large. Gandalf and Gimli were in front followed by the hobbits, the humans, and finally the elf. Gandalf walked over to the stone walls and put his hands on them. He was seeking something. Dawn watched the clouds. They blocked out any view of the moon. There was something that was supposed to happen for the doors to show themselves.

She listened to the wind and earth as Tara had taught her. She heard whispers. 'Danger.' They were warning them of something, but what? 'Moonlight.' What did that mean? Open the doors with moonlight? She looked up at the clouds. They moved ever so slowly and showed the light of the moon. Gandalf was muttering things now, trying to open the doorway that the moonlight revealed. 'Danger.' What was the danger? Dawn looked over the fellowship. Buffy was entertaining Gimli, or rather, he was entertaining her with stories of the mine. Legolas was staring at the moon and.... glowing. Elves glow? Merry and Pippin were throwing stones in the water. Aragorn slowly walked over to them and stopped them.

"Do not throw stones into the water, something does not seem right." Aragorn was stage whispering this. Buffy zoned in onto what he was saying. Yes, Buffy. There is danger.

"Hey, um, guys? My spider sense is tingling." Buffy was finally talking to the group again. The hobbits and humans were looking at her weird. She just rolled her eyes. "Fine, don't understand me."

Dawn smiled at this. The old trick of act innocent and then be bigger and better than everyone else later. Buffy's specialty.

'Danger.' Would it stop that? It was getting freaky. 'Water.' I started seeing flashes of running. The Fellowship was running from something, but what?

Frodo walked over to Gandalf and asked the elvish word for friend. Gandalf said 'melon' or something to that effect. The doors opened, revealing an impending darkness. Oh great, we get to go in to a dark cave.

Gimli was now talking to a very bored Legolas about Moria. Everyone went inside. Dawn stepped inside the cave and the walls seemed to swallow her whole. She did not want to stay in there any longer than she had to. It reminded her somewhat of Spike's crypt except... darker. There seemed to be a lot more evil here. Gandalf was speaking to himself about more light. Suddenly, the rock in his staff shed light everywhere it could. Dawn looked down at her feet. Corpses, corpses were everywhere. Hideous creatures they had been when they were alive. There were also what looking to be dwarf skeletons. For some reason though, it felt like home. She felt used to all the corpses, and that was definitely not a good thing. Boromir was talking, something about leaving. Everyone turned around. Someone was screaming. The first thought to Dawn's mind was to help, and help she did. Dawn quickly turned to the scream and ran after the creature that was swinging Frodo with its tentacle. Buffy was chopping at the tentacles in a fury to get to Frodo. She wasn't going to lose anyone. To Dawn however, this was personal. She got the two short swords off her waist. Let Aragorn watch this. She went into the water and swung viciously at any tentacle near her. The creature immediately went after the immediate danger, her. Buffy and Dawn were now side-by-side swing furiously at every tentacle. Boromir had already caught Frodo and Aragorn was yelling at Buffy and Dawn to get inside. Buffy and Dawn both turned and ran inside. Neither was out of breath or tired. Buffy turned to Dawn.

"Dawn? How did you... um... fight, like that?" Buffy was looking at her wide eyed. Dawn had never really fought in front of Buffy lately.

Dawn just looked at her and replied casually. "It's all in the blood, except what He wants." She then walked forward and stood beside an out-of-breath Frodo. She grabbed his hand and walked forward on Gandalf's command.