Chapter 3
Bright California sunshine streamed through massive windows and glinted off polished chrome, warmly bathing a sea of people as they went about their commercial pursuits. Buffy's smile widened as she surveyed the scene from a balcony in the mall with Dawn beside her. It reminded her of the past she abandoned when her calling became evident and the future that could - just maybe - be salvaged for her little sister.
Dawn sighed and rolled her eyes at her sister's reverie. This had, after all, been her idea - shopping, not people watching. There was even enough money from the check Giles had cut for their trip to allow some purchases. Prada was being a bit optimistic, but The Gap or Express was not out of the question. "Ooh, Express!" she said, spotting the glass storefront just across the corridor. This exclamation and a quick tug at Buffy's sleeve drew her attention back to the task at hand and they went into the shop.
Dawn started picking up one of practically everything in her size as though she were planning to buy out the entire store. Buffy picked through a few things at her side, but mostly contented herself with basking in the younger girl's cheer. With nearly everything they owned now in the hole that had been Sunnydale, there was some need for new clothes.
Dawn noticed the gleam in Buffy's eye and looked behind her before realizing that Buffy was smiling at her. "Why are you smiling like that? Do I have something in my hair?"
"No. I'm just. . . It's just good to see you like this. Happy. I know we haven't had a lot of happy times together."
"What are you talking about? We've had happy times. Like when you killed that Yesod demon. I know I for one was very happy about that."
"Ugh. That's just what I mean. I want you to have long normal happiness. Not moments of happy smushed between death and gore and zombies."
"I guess that's just my lot in life as the Slayer's sister," Dawn said absently as she headed off to the changing booths, both arms loaded with cutting edge fashions. She didn't see the grin drop from Buffy's face, but she heard the pain her sister's reply.
"No. That just isn't fair to you. And it shouldn't have to be that way now. However many new slayers there are, it should be enough that we can just leave it to them. . ."
"I'm sorry. I - I didn't mean that it's your fault." Dawn lowered her clothing onto the bench in the dressing booth and turned to face her sister. "Look, you can't help the way the world is. I know that. I don't blame you, Buffy. All you did was protect me. Teach me. Even though I'm not a slayer, I'm better prepared for most of what they'll face than they are. I don't know about you, but I'm not leaving this fight. There's too much to do. There's too much I can do."
Seeing that Buffy was settled down for now but had to think about what she was hearing, Dawn closed the door and began to change into the best outfit she'd found.
"I don't know what to say to that. It's far too grown up a thing for my little sister to say." Dawn just groaned in response, but Buffy pressed her point, turning to pace. "Hey, I know you're not a little kid. But that's - It's not just a grown up thing it's. . . a good, noble - possibly quite stupid - thing to say." Dawn opened the dressing room door and Buffy said, "Mom would be proud of you," before she turned around.
Upon seeing Dawn's short skirt, slit to provide even less coverage and the shirt that covered far less than it left exposed even before considering what it's ridiculous tightness made clear, Buffy said, "But you're not getting that outfit."
"Mom would tell you what a prude you are." Dawn quickly returned to the changing room and closed the door.
"Clearly you weren't along when she went shopping with me in high school." Silence reigned for a few moments with just the sound of Dawn rustling into a more modest, yet perfectly trendy ensemble before Buffy again addressed the door. "She would be proud though. Of the woman you've become. She'd tell us both to let the others handle it and she'd be sad that you had to grow up so quickly, so violently - but she'd love to see who you are now."
Dawn stepped out of the dressing booth wearing a far more modest, but still acceptably trendy outfit and saw how seriously Buffy meant all this. She stepped over and hugged her sister, whispering, "Thank you."
The moment passed, they each stepped back, eyes shimmering with tears unshed as their mother had taught them better than to do so in such a public place. Buffy smiled and nodded approvingly at the new ensemble. Dawn's face brightened instantly with a new idea: "Think she'd buy us both a Mocha-Chino?"
In the dark hotel room, Willow reached for another point of light. Her eyes remained closed as she sensed the light through the magic she channeled to produce it. Oh, this girl we'll need to find, she thought. Just last night she had been nearly mugged, but beat the hell out of her attacker and a few of his friends - much to her surprise and his. Already today she'd been in three fights. Pure luck and the fact that she lived in a rough neighborhood were the only reasons the police weren't looking for her. . . yet.
It was clear before anything else that the next point was a slayer far away. The scythe had some sort of direct connection to the power that coursed through these girls - a connection that wasn't diminished by distance, but combined with the earth's power Willow was channeling, there was a different flavor to the points farther away. A salty tang in her mouth that signaled a girl who would have to deal with her new situation for a while before anyone would be able to explain it to her.
Still, she dutifully committed the details of the girl's location to memory for later transcription and began to move on to the next light. As her finger traversed the small space between distant slayers though, she felt something odd. Between the lights should be void, without any magical charge, but there was definitely something there - something that shouldn't be.
Willow opened her eyes to see a warm red glow filling the spaces between slayer dots on her map. The glow rapidly grew brighter, nearly obscuring the light that should be there, then began to swirl toward the empty space her finger was occupying. The fierce red glow began to feel warm.
The Summers sisters giggled as they mounted the steps to their room. The front desk attendant seemed to be keeping an especially close eye on the three girls in room 214 whenever they passed through the lobby and this time they couldn't help notice a little drool as they strode past, newly attired in the latest summer fashions. He wasn't exactly un-cute, but neither of them wanted to think about just where his imagination was taking him or how they might be involved.
"Willow really should have come along," said Dawn. "I know it's important to find everyone, but, I mean, we could have found her something to make Kennedy's eyes pop straight out of her head when we get to Cleveland."
"Somehow I don't think those two will need much help from you to. . . do. . . whatever is they. . ."
"Again, I say: prude. You just don't want me thinking about their hot lesbian love." Dawn grinned in fierce challenge to her sister's concerns.
Buffy knitted her eyebrows as she pulled their door open and began to enter the room. "Well, I just don't think it's really. . . My god, Willow!"
Dawn rushed into the room to find Willow lying on her side, drenched with sweat. Her right arm was still stretched out, index finger extended, twitching on the ground. As the door closed behind her, she could see the red glow infecting the room and disrupting her friend's spell. Buffy moved toward her, but Dawn blocked her. "Wait. We have no idea what that is - what it, or Willow's own power might do if we enter the circle."
"So what do we do? We can't just stand around and hope for the best."
"No." Dawn replied, her eyes searching the dim room. "Here, light this." She handed her sister a tall white candle and began to pick up other supplies. Dawn began casting the salt she'd helped Willow consecrate the night before in a wide circle that enveloped both her friend's circle and herself and Buffy.
"Gia, forgive me for intruding on my sister-witch's intentions. Isis, guide me to the light and let my true intentions shine through this magic. Ochosi, help me to drive this evil spirit out!" Dawn sprinkle more of the salt over Willow's circle, but the red only grew brighter. She took her own atheme from its spot beside Willow's and cradled it, calling again, "Nocens dimitto! Abætere! Get Out!"
She pitched the atheme into the center of Willow's circle, it's blade embedding in the floor. The circle was broken and even Buffy could feel the power swirling around her. The red glow dispersed around the room then dissipated along with the points of light from Willow's spell, leaving the room lit only by the eight candles on the floor.
Dawn and Buffy both rushed to their friend's side. "Wil! Willow are you OK?"
Her whole body quaked and she could barely open her eyes, but Willow found the strength to make one thing clear: "Who -- whatever that was damn well better not try it again."
Four large rocks, weighing over 100 pounds each, were hurled into windows at different corners of the little house simultaneously, tearing the heavy curtains down as effectively as they shattered glass. Faith charged into her window immediately, in plenty of time to see one vamp who had been standing near the window demonstrate the convenient sunlight - immolation connection that had been one of her primary goals in picking this tactic. Another charged blindly, halting just in front of her to stare at his arm as it was seared by the harsh mid-afternoon sunlight.
'Just dumb animals', she thought. 'For all that vampires seem human, when you piss them off enough, they forget everything in favor of blind rage and animal instinct.' Her stake drove through the creature's chest and he burst into a cloud of ash without ever taking his eyes off the arm that had betrayed him in its pain. 'Then again, maybe that's one of the most human things about them.'
"What, you guys couldn't find a house with a basement even?" she asked of the five remaining vampires huddled in the shadows now.
A petite local vampire came flying backward into the room, landing and rolling to all fours with the supernatural grace endemic to the breed, but still unable to react in time to avoid her pursuer. Rona kneed her in the ribs and brought a stake down through her back, getting a lapful of vampire-dust.
Adina and Tina rushed in from their entry points, having found nothing, and helped their fellow brush off while Faith stared down their remaining opponents. The slayers stood in a pool of sunlight that flooded most of the living room and kept the vampires back. Five dead but completely aware pairs of eyes stared back, each with it's own unique mixture of fear and anger. Clearly they weren't planning to charge four slayers in full sunshine. Faith took a moment to check her charges.
Rona was strong. Not just physically - they all had that now - but there was a force to her personality. There was real leadership potential in her and she'd proven to be a helluva soldier to have at your side or your back. Tina was even coming along. She was one of the last potentials to show up in Sunnydale and had seemed so archetypically feminine Faith could hardly believed they way she fought in that final battle at the hellmouth. She still polished her nails every night they went out and did her best to file those that broke in the inevitable slaying to some semblance of order.
Adina was just a mess though. Only three days ago she'd been laying on the beach, watching her boyfriend fish in the surf when these three had approached her and explained the cold hard truth. Rona did most of the talking, Faith knowing full well that she wouldn't say the right things and Tina not feeling it was her place to explain things she still didn't really understand. That and the fact Rona was the only one who knew a word of Spanish. Now, here she stood. In her second battle of the day, fourth in her time as an informed slayer and still she hadn't dusted a single thing. Sweat was pouring down her face and her hands were trembling. She reeked of fear and drew the attention of every evil thing in the house.
Rona saw Faith measuring Adina and shared her concerns. Their eyes shifted to each other and both know what had to be done. In a sudden rush, they grabbed the arms of the nearest vamp and pulled him right to the edge of the bright sunshine. Faith pulled the prisoner's arms behind his back and nodded Rona to the others - no point letting one get a jump on her from behind. She turned herself and the vamp to face Adina and explained the situation. "Time to pop your cherry, babe."
"Do it, now!" Faith shouted, watching the girl hesitate, "Just drive it in hard and fast!"
Adina's hand flung out, bringing the point of the stake right towards the vampire's heart, but her trembling fingers lost their grip and the stake just pressed gently, then clattered to the floor, her clenched fist connecting ineffectively with the beast's chest. The girl recoiled in fear, wringing her hands as if to rub corruption of touching the undead from it.
The vamp chuckled, then growled, emboldened by the slayer's failure and, in a fit of glee, broke Faith's grip. She could do nothing but watch as he descended fang first on the young girl now slumping to the floor reaching for her lost weapon. Adrenaline and a power she'd never felt before surged through Adina though. Even as the vampire's fangs sunk into the tender flesh of her neck, her fingers were wrapping around the stake she'd lost. Eyes closed and breathe held, she gritted her teeth against the pain and could almost feel the unbeating heart behind her - her target. The stake came up in a flash under her left arm, slicing through her own skin near her bottom rib before sliding into the attacker's chest.
The young girl seemed to turn from pussycat to berserker in that moment. The warm blood still trickling from the wound in her neck, the taste of vampire ashes in her mouth and the smell of it filling her nose drove her into a leaping, slashing, stabbing frenzy. At first most of her attacks were ineffective, staking vampires in the gut, elbowing them in the face, but as Faith and Tina joined the offensive she settled down and drove the weapon deep into the chest immediately before her.
Another vampire had been holding her arm, trying to restrain her as Faith and Rona had it's ally, but a quick, violent turn broke his grip and again she found her target. The vampire on her left was more prepared, parrying her first thrust with both hands, but leaving himself open for a punch to the throat with her free fist. As he then instinctively reached for his neck, she brought the stake straight up under his ribcage, her hand itself entering the creature's chest cavity before the wooden point found the wall of his heart and left a cloud behind.
Faith stood up from her final victim and turned to Adina. "0 to 4 in about 20 seconds. Not bad acceleration."
Adina sank to her knees and began to wheeze a little in the swirling dust. She tried to release her grip on the stake but the muscles of her right arm were cramping and seemed to lock her fist closed around it. She wouldn't be dropping it any time soon.