SECOND
CHANCE
NOTE: I own none of the Scooby gang because they belong to mean old Joss.
A/N: I'd like to say thank you to everyone for the reviews that I've gotten so far. I have a plot planned out for this story but if you have any suggestions or requests then I might fill them in.
CHAPTER 16
Autumn stood frozen, staring at the spot where some type of monster had shown up and taken Maggie away. It had been disgusting, huge, and its body was practically made out of blood. In short, that thing had been too disgusting to bear. Autumn, frantic, ran towards the front door, taking everyone by surprise when she dashed out. The red haired girl looked down the street only to see Spike heading that way. Autumn surprised everyone again when she dashed right back inside.
"That blonde vampire, who is clearly not naturally blonde, is heading this way," she announced.
"Spike," Buffy made clear.
Angel groaned. "Great..."
"Who?" Connor asked clueless.
"That British guy who has it in for me," Jeff said. He shrugged. "Gotta admit, the guy defines cool."
"Cool or not he adores Dawn," Willow chimed in. She looked around at the group. "Who's gonna tell him she's gone?"
"I'm kind of distraught right now," said Autumn. "You know with my friend being sucked away by a monster into a mystery hole thing."
The door opened then, revealing Spike. The room all stopped and stared at him. Spike looked at them all strangely until his eyes floated off towards Angel's direction.
"You," Spike said simply.
"You, too." Angel rolled his eyes.
Buffy also rolled her eyes and turned to Spike. "Just in time. Dawn's missing."
"Well... I guess she told him," said Willow, pointing a finger at Buffy.
"Again?" Spike groaned then looked at Buffy. "You really need to get a pager for the girl."
Autumn turned to Wesley. "What was that thing that took Maggie?"
"Ridhor demon." Everyone looked at Giles, who had just piped up. "Its name means horrid. They're unable to speak or process much thought."
"So Dawn and Maggie were taken by the demon of illiteracy?" Xander asked confused.
"No," Giles replied. "They're only underlings."
"Meaning they or it works for something bigger," Buffy clarified, mostly to herself.
*****Flashback*****
Maggie walked down the stairs of her home in London and went into the dining room for breakfast. It was the same scene she saw every morning; her mother and father sitting at the large table while the butler served them tea and their breakfast. Maggie said her good mornings and sat down at the table.
"Oh, Margaret, good you're here," said Mrs. Strider. "We need to talk."
"Oh? What about?" Maggie asked, reaching for melted chocolate to put on her pancakes.
"Margaret..." Mr. Strider warned.
Maggie pouted and reached for low sugar syrup. "So what do we need to talk about?"
Giles entered the dining room then. "Good morning," he greeted.
Maggie practically leapt out of her seat to give him a tight hug. "Uncle Rupert!"
Giles smiled and hugged the girl back. "How are you, sweetheart?"
"I'm fine," Maggie replied as she pulled back with a bright smile on her face. "Oh, I missed you so much! When did you get in?"
"Last night," Giles told her, going to sit at the table, Maggie going back to her seat. "I wanted to say hello last night but didn't want to wake you."
"It would have been fine." Maggie looked at her parents. "Is this what you needed to talk about? Uncle Rupert visiting?"
"Actually, dear, it's about school," Mr. Strider said.
Maggie looked up at him.
"We've decided on the perfect high school," Ms. Strider practically shrieked with delight. "St. Mary Anne's for young ladies."
Maggie's face fell and she pushed her plate away. "I'm suddenly not very hungry."
"You're not hungry?" Mr. Strider nearly gasped.
"Dad, you don't honestly expect me to go to St. Mary Anne's?" Maggie whined. "I know a few of those girls. They're all exactly the same. Bloody clones!"
"St. Mary Anne's is a wonderful institution," Mrs. Strider argued, taking a sip of her tea. "We've decided you can get the very best education there." She kept sipping at the tea. "And I doubt you've made previous plans."
Maggie looked at Giles for support, giving him her best doll eyes.
Giles sighed and looked at the Striders. "Maybe Margaret has made plans of her own. It would be good for you two to trust her judgment in her education."
Mrs. Strider nodded in agreement and turned to her husband. "Rupert has a point, dear."
"Yes." Mr. Strider sipped his orange juice. "I would have to agree."
Maggie beamed. "Great. Because I want to go to school in America."
The three adults all dropped their forks and stared at her.
"What was that?" Mrs. Strider asked her.
"I want to go to school in America," Maggie repeated. "It'll be great. I can learn a whole new culture."
"Oh, and exactly how do you plan to attend school in America?" Mr. Strider questioned.
"Simple," Maggie answered. "I can stay with Uncle Rupert."
Giles nearly choked on the tea he was drinking. "Now hold on—"
Maggie just continued to talk. "Mum, Dad, please! This means so much to me. I'll do anything. I'll study hard; make the grade, whatever you want me to do. Just please... let me have this chance."
Mr. Strider looked at his wife, seeing what she would say.
Mrs. Strider sighed deeply. "I suppose... if it's all right with your uncle."
Maggie beamed and turned to Giles.
Giles also released a deep sigh. How could he possibly refuse her? "All right. She can stay in Sunnydale with me."
Maggie leapt up out of her seat and ran around to hug Giles tightly around the neck. "Oh, thank you, Uncle Rupert! You're the very best."
"Don't you forget it," Giles warned playfully.
Maggie smiled again and ran out of the room shrieking.
Mr. Strider looked at Giles. "One thing, though, Rupert. Don't let that child near coffee."
*****End Flashback*****
Maggie slowly awoke to the sound of something dripping. She gradually sat up and looked around her surroundings. The girl was in a large, dimly lit prison cell. That explained the dripping water sound. Somehow in prison things always sounded like water dripping. Maggie looked over at a prison bench where Dawn lay sleeping.
Maggie crawled over to her and shook her. "Dawn, wake up," Maggie whispered with a hiss in her voice. "Come on, luv, wake up."
Dawn moaned in her sleep and slowly opened her eyes and, like Maggie, looked around. "Oh, my God..." Dawn sat up on the bench. "Where are we?"
Maggie glanced about the cell. "Obviously... in some sort of prison." She stood up.
"Prison?" Dawn echoed in disbelief. "No way. They can't put me away. I returned all that stuff I stole! Like I'm the only one in the world with klepto-ness." Maggie stared at her strangely. "Never mind."
Back at Buffy's house everyone had scattered about, keeping busy in some way. Willow sat on the couch, at her laptop, Buffy paced back and forth with her arms folded; Xander and Autumn were having a debate over X-men VS. Superman, Gunn sat in a lazy boy with Fred on the arm of it looking uneasily, Connor and Jeff watched Spike and Angel having a glaring contest, both very good competitors, and Giles busily cleaned his glasses for the third time in the past half an hour.
"Got it," Willow suddenly announced, catching them all by surprise. "Sorry. But I found something about that ridhor demon thing-y."
"What is it, Will?" Buffy asked, pushing her blonde hair behind her ears and going around to look at Willow's computer screen.
"I figured out whom this ridhor was working for," Willow explained. "A woman named Malfoy, beautiful yet defiant. Legends tell that she use to belong to a demon clan that specialized in fire and ice. However Malfoy was a failure and disappointment so—"
"So she was booted," Buffy interrupted. "I could have guessed that. Keep going."
Willow nodded and went back to the screen. "She swore revenge and would come back to..." Willow used her mouse to roll the rest of the screen down. "To steal the blood of the five adolescences, each with a desirable ability. One will be known as the miracle child..."
"Connor," Angel suddenly interrupted.
Willow nodded.
"I won," Spike smirked, referring to the glaring contest.
Angel glared at him, contest or no.
Willow went back to reading. "One will be the key—""That's Dawn," Spike interjected.
It was Angel's turn to smirk. "Now who's the winner?"
"Another," Willow continued. "Will be the slayer."
"Is that me?" Autumn suddenly asked, pointing at herself.
"You're an adolescent," Xander said. "Fill in the blanks."
Autumn rolled her eyes. "You're just mad because Wolverine can kick Superman's butt."
"Can I finish?" Willow asked boldly. They all quieted. "Thank you." She began to read again. "The fourth will be the sensory of all forms of darkness and the fifth will be..."
"What is it, Willow?" Buffy asked about Willow's sudden pause.
"It doesn't say," Willow replied, staring at her screen. "It's just blank."
"That's kinda creepy," Fred commented, glancing at Gunn who just nodded.
"Hold on," Giles said. "The sensory of all darkness? What is that?"
"Well, Connor is the miracle child, Dawn is the key, Autumn's the slayer, the fifth is unknown, so the sensory of all darkness must be..." Willow trailed off realizing.
"Margaret." Giles's voice was low. He couldn't believe it. "But how?"
"Yeah, double that how," said Buffy.
"Hold on." Willow got up, putting her computer down on the table and went into the dining room. She came back with the scroll Buffy had gotten from the demon. "This should give us some answers."
"That," said Xander, pointing at the scroll. "Is dirty, rolled up paper."
Willow just ignored him and rolled the scroll down on the table. If anything would give them answers, that dirty, rolled up paper should.
Maggie paced back and forth in the cell, Dawn watching her feet move. Maggie looked frantic, nearly insane. The British girl suddenly stopped pacing and looked at Dawn, her blue eyes with a certain fire in them. Maggie released a deep breath and abruptly ran up to the prison bars.
"Let me out of here!" she shouted. "I am not a bird! I don't poop on bloody newspaper and I will not be locked up!"
Dawn went up to her. "Maggie, calm down."
"Calm down," Maggie practically screamed. "I left London for a reason. I get a fair trial in this bloody country! Innocent until proven guilty! What kind of justice is this?"
Dawn shook her. "Snap out of it!"
Maggie cooled down a little. "I... I..." she began to tear up. "I left my liquorish sticks at home." Tears poured out of her eyes in buckets then.
Dawn slowly and awkwardly put her arms around her, rubbing her back, and silently prayed that they'd get out of there... sooner rather than later.
At nearly two in the morning Willow was still up trying to translate the soiled scroll. Everyone else in the room was asleep. Spike, Connor, and Jeff were all in a line on the floor, their eyes closed, Autumn rested up against Xander, Angel snored on the couch softly, Buffy's head had dropped into his lap, Fred was in Gunn's lap, both dead tired, their arms wrapped around one another, and Giles was the only one half awake, compliments of a couple cups of coffee he'd had earlier.
A small smile spread across Willow's face. "I got it!" she exclaimed.
Nearly all of the eyes in the room shot open in surprise. Spike, Connor, and Jeff all sat up at the same time, Autumn moaned against Xander but also awoke, Fred sat up in Gunn's lap as the black man groaned waking up, and Giles released a yawn but was more awake than any of them. Only Angel and Buffy continued to sleep.
Gunn picked up a nearby pillow and tossed it at Angel's head. The vampire nearly jumped out of his skin, causing the slayer's eyes to also open. Buffy moaned a little sleepily until she realized where she laid and popped up.
She smiled sheepishly at Angel. "Sorry."
"Oh, it's OK, anytime," Angel said quickly then thought about it. "Wait. I mean... it's fine."
"Willow," Autumn's voice came, causing the witch to look over at her. "What'd you find?"
"Oh," Willow said, her attention had been on Buffy and Angel, then turned to the scroll. "Buffy, you know how this had read two and one?"
"Yeah," Buffy nodded.
"Well..." Willow's voice faded shamefacedly. "Not what it said."
Buffy sighed. "Big surprise. OK, Will? What does it say?"
Willow started to read. "One in two. Slayer departed a one another will come. Slayer departed a two duo shall come."
"Uh, Willow, clear that up," Xander said. "Just a tad bit."
Willow sighed deeply. "It means that when Buffy died the first time Kendra came. Then she died twice and two came, Autumn and Maggie."
Autumn looked completely bewildered. "Um, say what?"
Willow was nearly tired of explaining. "Since Buffy died twice her powers were divided in half—"
"Like those double freeze pop things," Jeff suddenly interrupted. "I love those." He received a glare from everyone in the room. "I'll shut up."
"Anyway," Willow went on irritated. "Autumn became the slayer with the physical powers but Maggie has the power to detect a vamp and Autumn can't."
"That explains it," Autumn said, still leaning against Xander. "It's why Maggie was so into me taking the slayer thing seriously and how she could tell when those vampires were coming and I couldn't." She thought about something. "But I still have the kicking butt thing, right?"
"Always," Buffy replied.
Autumn smiled.
"Wait a minute. How come no one looked at her when she interrupted?" Jeff asked. "God, everywhere I go she's the favorite."
"So now that we understand it we can save Dawn and Maggie," Buffy said as if it were that simple.
"Wait," Spike chimed in. "What if the chits are—"
"No," Willow shook her head. "She wouldn't kill them. Not until she has the others. Malfoy can't risk it."
"What about the ridhor?" Fred asked. "Won't it be after Autumn and Connor now?"
Buffy turned to Angel. "She's right. If this thing came after Connor once it'll come after him again."
"I won't let that happen," Angel said firmly.
Connor scoffed. "Great... fatherly protection."
Jeff leaned in towards Connor. "Dude, if it helps my dad sucks right now."
Connor just rolled his head back.
A/N: This chapter took me too long to write. So you'd better like it, people. Either that or you'll be in for a strongly worded lecture. Please review, folks.