Disclaimer: All Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel: the Series characters
belong to Joss Wheadon and Mutant Enemy. Like so many others, I'm just
playing in his sandbox.
Author's Notes: I heartily apologize to BloodyMiri, MadRog, Kantarya, Kallysten, and all the other fic writers who helped inspire this story, and inspired the various Buffys, Spikes, Willows, Xanders, Anyankas, and Taras who collide in this mess I'm working on.
Without Shrimp, ch. 7
The Magic Box, Tuesday
Giles and Anya looked askance at the sight over at the Scooby research table. Younger Dawn and Older Dawn sat at the table, intently discussing matters with.. two OTHER Dawn Summers'. One who carried a set of wooden stakes, and one whose arms showed numerous tiny scars from elbow to wrist.
"Okay, let me get this straight. Even though I'm sort of Buffy's clone, I didn't get turned into a Slayer when Buffy and Willow activated all the Potentials, but in your reality, I (or you) DID? SO not fair!" Older Dawn said.
"It's a sort of fifty-fifty kinda thing, I guess, since we are half Buffy, half The Key.." Slayer-Action Dawn said. "After all, according to Merrick, Buffy wasn't supposed to have been a Potential in the first place. That's why the Watchers Council didn't even know she existed until Merrick stumbled across her, while hunting after Lothos."
"So Merrick survived in your reality?"
"No, the Master killed him shortly after he escaped from the tunnels under Sunnydale, and only then did the council activate Mr. Giles as Buffy's Watcher. Giles was already there, though, he was the Librarian at Sunnydale High."
"Consider yourself lucky. Instead of Willow teaching me how to be a hacker, like she did YOU, Dawn, she taught ME the Dark Arts, so that I could learn how to harness the power of the Key. That's how I got all these scars." Dawn Number 4 said.
"What? Why? Younger Dawn asked, fearful sounding.
"Blood. The power of the Key rests in our blood, Dawn. At first, I needed to actually bleed in order to summon its power, but now I can just call upon it through willpower alone."
"WHAT? But I thought that would destroy the universe, by tearing down the walls between realities?" Older Dawn said.
"In the ritual Glory's scabby leper hobbit followers used, yeah. But used properly, it can unlock the doors between worlds.. or lock them." Dawn Number 4 replied, shrugging. "It's really all a matter of applied Will. Just as all magick is."
"Great. One me is a Slayer who used to be a Key, one's a Key who is a recovering 'cutting' freak, and one me is a seventeen year-old with Blade- style Scooby issues. Why can't we just be normal?" Younger Dawn asked.
"Hey, with the life we lead, I'm probably as close to 'normal' as we are going to get. And that's not very. Heck, the first guy we end up necking with turns out to be a vamp, who wanted to turn me. If it hadn't been for Buffy, Giles, and Spike, we'd have been having much bigger 'Blade' issues, believe me." Older Dawn pointed out.
"Hmmph. I'd've staked him." Younger Dawn dismissed the idea.
"Yeah, we DID, but who was going to keep his buddies from turning us, if they hadn't shown up? And normal isn't as great as it sometimes seems to be. Reilly was as close to normal as Buffy ever got, and I for one don't really want to imagine HIM as my brother-in-law, do you?"
"Spike makes a better Brother-in-Law, anyway." Older Dawn and Slayer Dawn suddenly stared at Dawn Number 4 as if she'd grown a second head. "What? Dimension traveler, remember? I visited a world where Willow's My Will Be Done spell never ended."
"Why not?"
"A badly phrased wish, and she accidentally willed herself dead. Xander and Anya became Vengeance Demons, and Buffy and Spike ended up married. They have a sweet kid, though. Don't ask."
"Is their Giles still blind?"
"Yeah, but he's adjusted, though. He says that he can really appreciate his record collection better, now. Him and Mom have shacked up, their mom, not my mom, he's definitely not as old looking as your Giles is."
"Maybe he's happy, that tends to take years off. He hasn't been that happy since Jenny died."
"Maybe."
TBC.
Author's Notes: I heartily apologize to BloodyMiri, MadRog, Kantarya, Kallysten, and all the other fic writers who helped inspire this story, and inspired the various Buffys, Spikes, Willows, Xanders, Anyankas, and Taras who collide in this mess I'm working on.
Without Shrimp, ch. 7
The Magic Box, Tuesday
Giles and Anya looked askance at the sight over at the Scooby research table. Younger Dawn and Older Dawn sat at the table, intently discussing matters with.. two OTHER Dawn Summers'. One who carried a set of wooden stakes, and one whose arms showed numerous tiny scars from elbow to wrist.
"Okay, let me get this straight. Even though I'm sort of Buffy's clone, I didn't get turned into a Slayer when Buffy and Willow activated all the Potentials, but in your reality, I (or you) DID? SO not fair!" Older Dawn said.
"It's a sort of fifty-fifty kinda thing, I guess, since we are half Buffy, half The Key.." Slayer-Action Dawn said. "After all, according to Merrick, Buffy wasn't supposed to have been a Potential in the first place. That's why the Watchers Council didn't even know she existed until Merrick stumbled across her, while hunting after Lothos."
"So Merrick survived in your reality?"
"No, the Master killed him shortly after he escaped from the tunnels under Sunnydale, and only then did the council activate Mr. Giles as Buffy's Watcher. Giles was already there, though, he was the Librarian at Sunnydale High."
"Consider yourself lucky. Instead of Willow teaching me how to be a hacker, like she did YOU, Dawn, she taught ME the Dark Arts, so that I could learn how to harness the power of the Key. That's how I got all these scars." Dawn Number 4 said.
"What? Why? Younger Dawn asked, fearful sounding.
"Blood. The power of the Key rests in our blood, Dawn. At first, I needed to actually bleed in order to summon its power, but now I can just call upon it through willpower alone."
"WHAT? But I thought that would destroy the universe, by tearing down the walls between realities?" Older Dawn said.
"In the ritual Glory's scabby leper hobbit followers used, yeah. But used properly, it can unlock the doors between worlds.. or lock them." Dawn Number 4 replied, shrugging. "It's really all a matter of applied Will. Just as all magick is."
"Great. One me is a Slayer who used to be a Key, one's a Key who is a recovering 'cutting' freak, and one me is a seventeen year-old with Blade- style Scooby issues. Why can't we just be normal?" Younger Dawn asked.
"Hey, with the life we lead, I'm probably as close to 'normal' as we are going to get. And that's not very. Heck, the first guy we end up necking with turns out to be a vamp, who wanted to turn me. If it hadn't been for Buffy, Giles, and Spike, we'd have been having much bigger 'Blade' issues, believe me." Older Dawn pointed out.
"Hmmph. I'd've staked him." Younger Dawn dismissed the idea.
"Yeah, we DID, but who was going to keep his buddies from turning us, if they hadn't shown up? And normal isn't as great as it sometimes seems to be. Reilly was as close to normal as Buffy ever got, and I for one don't really want to imagine HIM as my brother-in-law, do you?"
"Spike makes a better Brother-in-Law, anyway." Older Dawn and Slayer Dawn suddenly stared at Dawn Number 4 as if she'd grown a second head. "What? Dimension traveler, remember? I visited a world where Willow's My Will Be Done spell never ended."
"Why not?"
"A badly phrased wish, and she accidentally willed herself dead. Xander and Anya became Vengeance Demons, and Buffy and Spike ended up married. They have a sweet kid, though. Don't ask."
"Is their Giles still blind?"
"Yeah, but he's adjusted, though. He says that he can really appreciate his record collection better, now. Him and Mom have shacked up, their mom, not my mom, he's definitely not as old looking as your Giles is."
"Maybe he's happy, that tends to take years off. He hasn't been that happy since Jenny died."
"Maybe."
TBC.