Title: Principal Wood And The Manifest Spirits Of Sunnydale High

Author: mispel

E-mail: mispel@email.com

Rating: PG

Summary: How the 'zombies' came to haunt the school and Spike and Wood's involvement in their appearance. Ch 8: Dawn considers her place in the scheme of things. Xander and Wood meet under suspicious circumstances. Buffy gets a cryptic message. The end.

Spoilers: season 7

Disclaimer: I own none of it. Joss, ME and Fox own all

Feedback: Any comments would be welcome.

A/N: Scenes that are not in the fic happened as they did on the show. The timeline is a tiny bit different.

Principal Wood And The Manifest Spirits Of Sunnydale High

Chapter 8

Buffy rushed through the basement ignoring the accusations of the dead guys, most of whom she hardly even recognized. She hated the reminders of all the people she didn't save, but she couldn't wallow in guilt while Dawn was in danger. So she just shoved them aside, fought her way through them.

"You just couldn't bring yourself to do it."

Buffy knew the voice. It was Ms Calendar and Buffy stopped. Her voice was the same, kind of mellow but the words had an edge. She didn't look the same though as she stood in Buffy's way. Buffy told herself that it was just a something dead and decomposed pretending to be her.

"Again," Ms Calendar said significantly, finishing her thought. She smiled with her head too far to one side so that she looked at Buffy sideways.

Buffy was glad that the bad lighting in the basement wouldn't let her see better. She didn't need a close up.

"Can we do this later? I'll pencil you in," Buffy said as she moved forward pretending that she was as easy to brush off as the others. Buffy got ready to fight her way past her. But Ms Calendar wasn't there. Buffy was about to go on when she heard her again.

"Who is going to have to die this time before you get around to doing your job?" Ms Calendar spoke from behind her. "Take your time, I don't mind. It's crowded down here, but a few more fresh corpses would really dress up the place."

Buffy didn't stop this time. She wasn't going to consider those words. Because no one was going to die.

Despite all the dire warnings, somewhere in Dawn's mind she had hoped that the new school wouldn't be like the old one. But the school didn't look so new down here. The basement smelled like things rotting. She knew that they had just put up a new facade on an old, evil place.

The two kids with Dawn, Carlos and Kit, had this look in their eyes, like this couldn't be real. They still hoped it was all a nice 'I'll wake up any minute and feel stupid' nightmare. Dawn knew it was real. She knew about these kinds of things but it just didn't do any good. It wasn't enough to know a little bit. She didn't know enough to be the smart one, like Willow.

When the zombies surrounded them, Dawn tried to use what Buffy had taught her, but as always, something was missing. Things never worked for her the way they were supposed to. Her makeshift weapon was too heavy. Dawn felt the responsibility of protecting herself and two others and failing. She wasn't Buffy. She wasn't the strong one.

As she faced the zombies so ineffectually without anything funny to say, she knew she wasn't even Xander. She was like the rest - some helpless ninny waiting to be rescued. Buffy's words came back to her, she wouldn't always be there, it was about power and she didn't have it.

Except Buffy was there in the next moment, making good use of the weapon Dawn had made.

Principal Wood had taken the time to go to his office and grab one of the larger knives from his collection. One that wasn't so large it couldn't still be hidden under his jacket. He didn't really expect it to do much good against the spirits, but trying to beat them back with his charm and good looks hadn't worked so far.

Seeing the janitor rolling his cart away from the bathroom, Wood rushed in there. He burst through the door and reached for the knife he had hidden in the back of his belt. Only to find a dark haired, young man holding the broken talisman. After a moment of confusion, Wood recognized him as one of Buffy's friends who worked on the construction site. Wood got over his shock quickly, took his hand away from the knife and assumed an official, disapproving stance.

"What are you doing in the ladies' room?" Wood said in his coolest, school principal voice.

"I..." Xander stammered and stuffed the broken talisman into his pocket.

"Oh, the hole. The big hole in the floor. That's why I'm here. Someone could fall in," Xander explained sounding inappropriately cheerful about it.

"And how much is this going to cost?" Wood said trying to sound like he cared.

"Not as much as a lawsuit if someone falls in," Xander pointed out and left hurriedly, brushing past Wood to get through the door.

Wood stared down into the hole and saw nothing. He sighed at the thought of having to traverse the basement again to make sure they were really gone. After everything he went through, he felt a twinge of unbefitting disappointed that the construction guy got the big finish.

As he walked the halls, Wood saw Buffy and her sister plus two other kids getting out of the basement door. Buffy talked to them for a while then the kids left. Wood had planned to keep her close anyway, but now he saw how much he needed her on premises. If he spent all his time chasing demons and whatever else came crawling out from the basement, he would be fired in no time. That was her job description anyway.

He searched his memory for the names of the other two kids then he approached her. Flattering her, Wood exaggerated about them. They weren't that bad, skipped a few times, a few detentions, that's all, but he had to sell this. Buffy must have wanted it too, because she believed him and took his job offer.

Wood felt almost cheerful. That wasn't so hard. One crisis averted, a million to go. No problem.

Oh God, he needed a nap so badly.

Xander left the ladies' room with renewed suspicion about the principal. Xander had been too eager to cover for himself, he had forgotten to ask the principal what he was doing barging in there. And what kind of principal was that smooth and handsome? He didn't fit the principal mold long established by Xander's torturous school experience. There was the old matronly mold of his elementary and middle school principals - fine ladies both, and the middle aged guy mold of Flutie and Snyder. There was no male model handsome mold for school administrators. There had to be evil at work there.

Dawn felt an almost giddy feeling of relief as she walked down the hall. And that wasn't all. The feeling was shared. Two kids were with her, in the thick of it, and they all got out alive, together. Now they shared something, a bond, a...

As soon as they were out of Buffy's sight, Carlos stopped and Dawn and Kit looked at him.

"I don't buy what your mom..." Carlos started to say.

"Sister," Dawn corrected him not finding the mistake as much fun without Buffy there to hear it.

"Whatever. I don't buy her sticking together bull. I have a better plan. I stay the hell away from you two."

Dawn gaped for a moment. For a little while she thought she wouldn't be alone in this. The feeling of camaraderie she thought they had shared disappeared with just a few words.

"They came after you too. She saved your butt."

Dawn knew how it was. Buffy wasn't going to get the key to the city or a statue somewhere or any kind of public credit. But the least Dawn expected was for the people her sister actually, personally saved to show a little gratitude. Dawn fumed and Carlos didn't seem to notice. She wished some of those zombies would pop back out and see how smug he was then.

"OK, my plan is I stay away from you two and I stay out of the basement. No offense, but I am going to be on the basketball team and I'm planning on hanging out with people who aren't weirdoes," Carlos said as if simply pointing out the most rational course of action could erase everything that happened. Then he walked away from them.

Dawn was stunned for a moment. Her anger had kept her from saying all the things she wanted to say to him, and everyone like him. But as he left she just started to feel let down and sad.

Kit shrugged. Dawn turned to her, waiting for the other shoe.

"So..." Kit said. She seemed to be waiting too.

"I think it's your turn to make a speech about how you don't want to hang out with a weirdo," Dawn said resigned, feeling more ready for this one.

"Actually, weirdoes are kind of my thing. No offense," Kit said and smirked.

Dawn let out a sort of half laugh half snort out of happy surprise.

"Oh, then, you'll love me," Dawn said grinning.

They walked on together and Dawn had a little bit of that good feeling back.

That evening, Buffy was looking at the list of supplies Dawn had left on the kitchen counter.

"Did we have to get a scientific calculator?" She asked Xander.

He had come over with Chinese takeout. Too much Chinese takeout. Now he was putting the leftovers in the refrigerator.

"Not me. Maybe Willow. Sounds like one of them smart kids thingamabobs like the protractor and the ruler," Xander joked.

Buffy shrugged.

"Shopping trip!" Buffy said trying to look on the positive side. But she knew it wouldn't be the fun kind of shopping, especially on their budget.

"So, I tried to track down this Gil guy. No one has seen him since he disappeared. His girlfriend thinks he ran off with a stripper or something. His Mom hasn't even heard from him," Xander told her.

"But you saw him and you're sure it was him."

"I am almost positive."

"Dawn and I saw some people no one has heard from in a while," Buffy pointed out.

She realized what she said applied to Spike. Buffy's eyes were still on the list as she was getting ready to tell Xander about him.

"Did you leave off the 'don't go down into the basement' warning?" Xander asked as he offered her a soda.

"I told her to stay away from jocks," Buffy said defensively.

"That's an important one too."

"Anyway, Dawn didn't go down to the basement. She fell in," Buffy said in her sister's defense.

It wasn't like Dawn could do everything right and get out of that place unscathed. It didn't work that way. Evil things come after you. They don't just wait for people stupid enough to go into basements.

"They should have filled in that place with cement," Xander said sounding very serious about it.

"I say, back up the cement truck," Buffy agreed.

It wasn't the worst idea. It would solve a few of her problems. Buffy hadn't decided what to do about Spike yet. So she didn't mention him.

After some restless turning in bed, Buffy sank into a warm, comfortable darkness until Willow's voice came to her.

"I have a secret to tell you," Willow said.

A strong wind was blowing down the long, school hallway and Buffy's clothes and hair were rippling from it. Willow looked like she did months before. Her eyes looked like someone had spilled ink into them. Her hair was black. Black veins stood out on her white skin. The wind didn't seem to touch her.

"You know me," Willow said and her voice was clear despite the roar of the wind.

Buffy opened her mouth to speak, but the wind stole her breath.

"You can't fight me."

The wind was hot now and it burned her. Buffy couldn't breathe. Willow smiled at her with compassion. Buffy felt her skin burn, then her flesh. She felt her bones weaken. Like precariously balanced sticks, they fell and broke into pieces.

Buffy woke up shaking and out of breath. She took a few minutes to recover then she phoned England. Just to make sure.

The end