Chapter . . . 6! Yay!

Okay, I am so on a roll here it's not even funny. It's the weekend and I have like, no homework! Yes! I triumph!

BashfulC—Ooh, is she dead? I don't know. Hee. Kidding. Of course I know. You, on the other hand, will have to find out in . . . THIS CHAPTER!

Hobbes288—Will Spike be in the story?! But of course! (Also, I was watching FotR at my uncle's house, and I was complaining about how there weren't any girls in the Fellowship. So he points to Legolas and says, "Who's that then?" I hate my family.)

Chapter 6: Chloe, the Freak Hunter

Dawn squirmed. The walls of her hospital wing were becoming increasingly boring, and combined with the flashbacks that she didn't understand, it was becoming a living hell.

'But I'm fine alone. It's not like anyone's coming after me. I'm not the key.'

"What?!" Dawn said, alarmed.

"Uh . . ." It was Chloe. The door was half-open, and her head was sticking into the room.

"If you want to be left alone, just say the word and I'll leave," She said, leaving traces of sarcasm in the sentence.

"No," Dawn began, knitting her brows together, "No. Sorry. I . . . thought someone . . . You're Chloe, right?"

Chloe grinned. "Yep. I'm Chloe, Intrepid Reporter."

Dawn smiled. "Interesting name."

"Not half as interesting as yours," Chloe said. "I was wondering . . . do you want to be part of an interview? For the Torch. It's the school's newspaper," She added, seeing the blank look on Dawn's face.

"Well . . . I don't know how much I could tell you," Dawn began uncertainly. "Amnesia—"

"Well, there's the side benefit of coffee . . ."

"You smuggled coffee into the hospital."

Chloe snorted. "You don't smuggle coffee into the hospital, they have some here."

"The coffee here sucks."

"Exactly my point." Chloe took out a yellow blouse and a pair of jeans from the bag she was carrying. "I noticed your old clothes were a bit . . . destroyed. Here, you can have these." She placed the clothes on the foot of the bed.

Dawn narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "Why?"

"Because, silly, we're going to the Talon."

"The Talon?" Dawn's eyebrows were raised in a way that her sister (though she didn't know it) would have been proud of. "Interesting name."

Chloe rolled her eyes. "It's a coffee shop, run by no other than Lana Lang—"

"Who?"

Chloe couldn't help but stare. "Clark didn't tell you," she stated.

Dawn looked thoroughly confused. "Tell me what?"

"Hoo-boy," Chloe snarked. "You have a lot to learn. You'd better put those on, most people find it odd to see someone walk around in a hospital gown."

Dawn's eyes widened. "But . . . it's not until tomorrow that I'm allowed to leave the hospital."

Chloe nodded understandingly. "Even in your . . . state, one day isn't going to kill you." She got up to the door. "Waiting outside, okay?"

Dawn paused for a minute, her brain pounding.

' "Mom . . . mommy . . . are you alone?"

The house starts to shake, like an earthquake, but not. A strobe light flashes in Dawn's face. Dawn screams. Home decor is falling to the floor everywhere: lamps, pictures, and vases.

"Why are you doing this?!"

Dawn brushed a tear from her eye, not sure why she was crying. Then she picked up the shirt.

'Kind of a nice color.'

"You left a note for Clark, right?" Dawn asked, taking a sip of her mocha. "Because he's going to freak when he finds me gone."

Chloe laughed and twirled her pencil. "Don't worry about it. He freaks a lot."

"Ah."

"So . . ." Chloe began leaning down into her paper. "What—"

"Is that Lana?" Dawn interrupted, nodding her head to a raven-haired teenager dressed in pink (A/N—What other color does she wear?!) who had just entered the Talon.

"No, that's her twin sister, Clana," Chloe snarked, a little annoyed.

"Sorry," Dawn said, ignoring the obvious sarcasm. "What were you saying?"

"What, if you remember, is you're full name?"

Look, it's blood. It's Summers blood."

Buffy presses her hand against the tire-iron wound on her shoulder, wincing a little. She clasps her bloody hand in Dawn's bloody hand.

"It's just like mine. It doesn't matter where you came from, or, or how you got here. You are my sister. There's no way you could annoy me so much if you weren't."

"Hello?" Chloe waved her hand in front of Dawn's blank face. "Anybody home?" She moved back into her seat.

"Summers."

"What?"

Dawn looked up. "Summers. Dawn Summers. It's my name. And my sister's name is Buffy . . . She died. So did my mom."

Chloe looked a little shocked at this strange outburst. "Oh. Oh. I'm . . . sorry," She added lamely.

Dawn shrugged.

"Hi Chloe!" came a sickeningly cheerful voice from behind. It was Lana. "Hi, uh . . . "

"Dawn," Chloe answered for her. "Dawn Summers."

Dawn tentatively smiled.

"Hi," Lana said, grinning. "New in town?"

"Actually—" Dawn began, but was cut off by Chloe.

"She's the Coma Girl in the hospital that Clark saved," She finished. Dawn tried to send Chloe a glare of death, but Lana was acting upset.

"Oh, I didn't know, I'm sorry, I—"

Dawn stared. "It's okay."

"Sorry. I, uh, have to get back to work." She waved and walked to the counter.

Dawn looked at Chloe. "Are you okay?" Then something in her head went 'click'. "It's Clark, isn't it?"

"What?!" Chloe said a bit too loudly, and looked like she had been hit on the head. "No, no, it's not, no . . . yes," She added, admitting defeat.

"Sorry . . ."

"Don't be," Chloe said unconvincingly. "It's . . . a long and complicated story."

"So's my life," Dawn added. The two of them laughed.

"Also . . . "Chloe looked like she had more to say.

"What?"

Chloe fidgeted. "Well, I kinda told you one thing, a secret, but not really, and I'm not even sure you understood it . . ."

Dawn rolled her eyes at Chloe's babbling. "You like Clark but he likes Lana."

"To put it bluntly . . ."

"Sorry. You were saying?"

Chloe fidgeted again. "I . . . think I'm . . . a meteor freak."

"A what?" Dawn looked thoroughly confused.

"You know the meteors in the magazine Clark brought you, right?"

"Right . . . "

Chloe nervously stirred her latte with the coffee stirrer. "They effect people around here strangely. Turn them into mutants, if you will. Usually they're evil, and are trying to get revenge, but . . . "She sighed. "About 2 weeks ago I felt really . . . strange. Powerful. I ripped the car door handle off the door."

'Potential.'

The word echoed in Dawn's brain, and she said it out loud.

"Potential."

"What?" Chloe looked confused.

"I . . . "It was Dawn's turn to fidget. "I . . . have you heard of . . . vampires?"

"Vampires."

"I have no idea what the hell I'm talking about, but—"

Dawn was cut off by Clark.

"Dawn!" Clark said, rushing over to their table.

"I should have bet you money he'd freak out," Chloe added in an undertone. Dawn giggled.

"Dawn, are you okay?" Clark said worriedly. "I got the note—Chloe."

"She needed a coffee. The coffee in the hospital sucks."

Clark frowned, and said, "That's true."

Dawn and Chloe exchanged a wink.

"But . . . you were in the hospital last night, right?" Clark asked Dawn.

"No, Clark," Dawn snarked. "I was visiting a night club to meet my sister's boyfriend. Yes, of course I was in the hospital."

"Because Dr. Bryce is missing."

Drusilla waited impatiently next to Tony and Dr. Potter for the body to rise.

"It's taking a long time," Dr. Potter said just as impatiently as Drusilla felt. "Are you sure you sired her, Tony, you ass?"

Tony growled menacingly. The Body of Helen Bryce began to stir, and then sat up and turned around, complete with game face.

"Oh," Drusilla giggled, "She's one of us now."

Helen snarled.

"Oh, poppet," Drusilla sing-songed, "Who do you serve?"

"Neshep khem sedeb." The words came naturally to Helen, although she did not know them.

Dru clapped her hands and giggled insanely. "She's one of us!"

Helen's face turned back to normal. "You're . . . Tony, right?"

Tony grinned. "Yeh, I am."

"Well, Tony, there's something I've been wanting to do since the day I met you . . ."

Tony fidgeted. "Yeah?"

Helen pulled out the pencil from her pocket and thrust it into Tony's heart.

"Goodbye, Tony." And then all that was left of Helen's sire was a pile of ash.

Doctor Potter smiled.

BUMBUMBUUUUUUUM! Chloe's a slayer? But we already knew that, Clarky. Damn, Helen's a vamp? Well, this puts a damper on the wedding. Sorry about the Lack-of-Lex, I promise promise promise that he's gonna be in the next chapter.