Disclaimer: Still don't own.

The Key Comes to Blue Bay Harbor

By Ravyn Jayne

Chapter 5

"Come on in Cam." Buffy gestured him in. Cam did and the sisters led him to the living room where Giles was hanging up the phone.

"It's all over the Academies. Everyone knows Dawn is the Key." Giles sighed.

"So this isn't some really weird joke." Cam said.

"How much did you read?" Tori asked.

"All of it." Cam answered. "I didn't at first. Neither did the other guys, but people came rushing up to us, and kept saying you were the Key, and in love with Blake, and that you wrote I was in love with Hunter. I left when all the guys started reading it, I didn't want Hunter asking any questions. I came over here and read it all in the car."

"It's all true." Tori said tiredly.

"But…, how?" Cam asked. "You're human. Your sixteen. The Key was under the protection of monks in a hidden monastery until four or five years ago. And it wasn't a person. I distinctly remember reading it was an inanimate object."

"You're correct." Giles nodded. "But when the goddess Glory threatened, and started killing the monks, they had to give the Kay to a new protector. The Power Rangers weren't even chosen then, so the Slayer was chosen. But the monks had to make the Key into something the Slayer would protect without question."

"A little sister." Cam understood.

"Precisely. However the transformation was only documented in one book. A book we have and keep hidden away and locked up." Giles informed.

"But how did they make a human? What kind of magic does that entail?" Cam asked intrigued, his brain already working to find the answer.

"We don't know." Tori said.

"We decided just to be happy Tori was here. And safe." Buffy added. "At least she was."

"Of course she's safe." Cam said. "She's under the Ranger's protection. Hell, she is a Ranger."

"She's always been under my protection. And she always will be." Buffy said.

"Um, not to change the subject, but are the guys completely furious with me?" Tori asked tentatively looking at Cam. "Are you?"

"Why didn't you tell us?" Cam asked instead.

"A lot of reasons. I was scared. Scared I'd loose my friends, scared Lothor would find out and the whole Glory thing would play out again." Tori explained. "And I wanted friends who liked me, not bodyguards looking out for the Key."

"She wanted to tell you. When she came home last night she said as much, but Giles and I put her off 'till this morning when we were basically going to forbid her telling you." Buffy added. "Then she had a vision Jessica stole her journal, and then you showed up confirming our fears. I'd better get to the Academy, do as much damage control as I can."

"I'll come with you." Giles said and he and Buffy went to go get dressed.

"I'm sorry I never told you. I wanted to, I really did." Tori said softly.

"I forgive you." Cam said.

"Really?" Tori asked perking up a little.

"Really. It's not everyday I get a best friend. Besides after reading your version of the fight with Glory, I understand why you were scared." Cam smiled at her. "The guys may be a little mad but I'm sure they'll get over it. Especially when they read the whole journal. I just wish Hunter never found out my feelings."

"I don't know. Hunter acts different around you. Like you're more important to him than the others, you know? I think he might like you back." Tori froze remembering about Blake. "Blake and I had a date tonight. Guess that's off. Even if he still wanted to go out with me I doubt Buffy will let me go."

As she said this Buffy and Giles came down the stairs.

"Dawn don't leave the house today, we're taking no chances." Buffy said, gathering her coat. "I'll explain to the guys as best as I can. Don't let anyone in. There are some leftovers in the fridge for you to eat. Cam you can hide out here as long as you want."

"Thanks Buffy." Cam and Tori chorused as Buffy and Giles left the house.

"You do realize you'll now have to drag me kicking and screaming from this house, to get me to go back to the Academy, or any where near Hunter." Cam said seriously.

"As it should be." Tori nodded looking around the room. "Well, my journal has been stolen and circulated for all my peers to read, exposing all my darkest secrets including the truth of my existence, my feelings for the first boy I've ever loved, and my best friends feelings for the first boy he's ever loved. Now me and said best friend are holed up in my house hiding from the first friends we've ever really had. But you know the bright side?"

""Do tell."

"We have a refrigerator full of caffeine filled drinks, sugar and fried foods. I think we even have some coffee heath bar and chocolate fudge brownie ice cream. Plus we have all three Scream movies ready for the mocking." Tori announced. "You put the first movie in-"

"You get the junk food." Cam finished.

As Buffy and Giles walked through the grounds of the Wind Academy they couldn't help but notice all the whispering, pointing, and looks thrown their way.

"This is just perfect. Yesterday I was worried about Tori telling the Rangers about her being the Key, now I have to worry about two whole Academies knowing. Any one of them could accidentally let the secret spill and Lothor has to be keeping a close eye on things down here. How long until he finds out and tries to kidnap Tori like Glory did." Buffy worried.

"Be calm Ms. Summers." Sensei Wantanabe said from behind them. Buffy and Giles turned to see him, Sensei Amano, the Bradley's, and four very un-amused looking Rangers behind them. "Come. We will talk in my office."

Making their way through the halls they all entered Sensei Wantanabe's office. Between the ten of them it was a little cramped, but no one seemed to mind considering. Sensei Wantanabe sat at his desk the Rangers standing along the side wall arms crossed, frowns on their faces. the Bradley's by their sons, and Sensei Amano standing to the side of where Buffy and Giles had sat down in the two chairs in front of the desk.

"Where is Tori?" Sensei Wantanabe asked.

"At home. I told her not to leave and there are enough spells protecting the house, no one can get in to get her. Cam's with her." Buffy said and Hunter shifted at the mention of Cam. "I told him he could stay as long as wants. They're safe. They're probably raiding the fridge, trying to eat away their anxiety."

"I guess the next question is, why didn't you tell us the truth about the Key?" Sensei Amano asked. "We are the Key's guardians."

"No. I am the Key's guardian. The Key is Tori, a human, my sister. The monks gave her to me. I am raising her, I love her, I am her guardian, I am her sister." Buffy stated in no uncertain terms.

"You're not the only who cares about Tori." Blake bristled.

"She's practically a sister to us now. Well not to Blake, that's a different kind of caring, but still." Dustin added in his usual manner. The other Rangers nodded their agreement.

"No one is question that Tori is legally and emotionally your sister. But you could have trusted us with the truth. We are here to protect the Key same as you are." Sensei Wantanabe said in a calm voice.

"We understand that. But you must understand our unwillingness to trust you with Tori's life when we had just met you." Giles returned the calm tone.

"Indeed. But once you got to know us…" Sensei Amano trailed off.

"Tori wanted to tell you." Buffy said figuring that was important, at least to the Rangers.

"She did?" Shane asked. Buffy looked at him and nodded.

"We talked about it just last night. She knew she could trust you, all of you, but I…" Buffy searched for the right words. "It's not that I didn't trust you. It's that Tori is all I have left. If the wrong people found out about her then they would try to take her from me, like Glory did. I won't let that happen again. I wasn't going to risk telling any one else about Tori."

"We were not entirely comfortable with the number of people who knew the truth before this happened. But we've trusted those people with our lives, with Tori's life and they have never let us down. Also it's safer for the people involved that they not know. Glory completely destroyed a girls brain extracting the information from her." Giles explained. "We didn't want to risk any one else, Tori especially."

"We understand." Sensei Amano told them. "You love Tori and her safety comes above all else."

"I am curious though." Sensei Wantanabe said. "How did they make the Key into a human?"

"We're not entirely sure." Giles responded. "All the last monk could tell us before he died was Tori was made from Buffy."

"But the Key has only been in your protection for four years. Tori is sixteen." Mr. Bradley pointed out.

"From what we've figured Dawn was 'given' to Buffy when she was around eleven or twelve, the same time Glory showed up. Though she and the rest of us all have memories of her from before then, the monks must have used a fairly complex spell to create them." Giles said.

"When did Tori find out she was the Key?" Blake asked.

"A month or so after we did." Buffy answered gesturing between herself and Giles. "She didn't take it too well. She found out from Spike."

"The vampire, Spike? William the Bloody?" Mrs. Bradley asked.

"That's the one." Buffy confirmed. "She ran away from him and it took me all night to find her. I finally convinced her she was real."

"She didn't think she was real?" Hunter asked.

"She was a twelve year old girl, with all the self-conscious issues that come with that age, who just found out she was made by a bunch of monks out of a piece of me." Buffy summarized. "A crisis of identity was getting off easy."

"She really nearly threw herself off that tower?" Blake asked.

"If I hadn't stopped her." Buffy nodded. "She knew it was her or the world. She made the obvious choice."

"It's remarkable that a twelve year old could think that way. Heart breaking that a twelve year old had to think that way." Sensei Wantanabe observed.

"You grow up fast in this life." Buffy said. She looked over at the four Rangers. "You have to understand. She really wanted to tell you all. She probably would've sooner, if she wasn't so scared. I know she still has nightmares about when Glory kidnapped her. And she hasn't had real friends in years. With the life we lead, she kind of made herself be a loner, so no one would get hurt because of her. You all broke down her walls, made her trust outside our group again. I should have let her tell you, but I was scared."

The four Rangers looked at each other and nodded.

"We understand. And we're not mad. Well, we were a little at first, but now we get it." Hunter said. "Especially after reading about all the 'end of the worlds' you've lived through."

"We want Tori safe, same as you." Blake assured.

"Man, she must be freaking out. First it's revealed she's the Key, then she's in love with Blake, and Cam's in love with Hunter and… uh… yeah." Dustin trailed off when Shane hit him on the shoulder and the Thunder Brothers glared at him.

"Well I feel the Key issue is resolved." Shane said, then looked at Hunter and Blake. "The other issues will have to be dealt with by you two."

"Shouldn't be too much of an issue." Mrs. Bradley looked at her sons. "You love Tori." she nodded at Blake and he blushed. She looked to Hunter and touched his cheek. "And you love Cam." Hunter blushed, but looked his mother in the eye and nodded. "I believe you two can handle the rest."

"I'll call Tori and Cam, tell them to come to the Academy." Buffy smiled, then looked at Hunter and Blake. "You break my sister's heart or the heart of her best friend I'll kill you both." She said smile still in place. The Thunder brothers nodded seriously.

"Yes ma'am." they said. Buffy reached for her cell phone.

"Those don't work on school grounds. The cloak we use to hide our location keeps people from getting a signal." Sensei Amano said.

"These phones do." Buffy said waving the phone a little. "Upgrades by our Glenda, the good witch(1)."Sensei Wantanabe raised an eyebrow.

"Cam will want to study that." he said amused. "Do you by any chance know who stole and circulated Tori's journal?"

"Tori had a vision this morning. It was Jessica Moroni." Buffy answered, and Blake and Hunter groaned.

"So should have seen that coming." Shane shook his head.

"Well we can't expel her with only a vision as proof." Sensei Amano sighed.

"Seeing her efforts to destroy the bond between the Rangers has only drawn them closer will be a just punishment. Especially after Blake and Hunter talk to Tori and Cam. But we will keep a close eye on her from now on." Sensei Wantanabe advised. Buffy held up her walkie-talkie phone(2) as Tori answered on the other end.

"Hey, Buff."

"Hey, sweetie. You and Cam need to come to the Academy. There are some people who have to talk to you two." Buffy said.

"But I'm only half way through my Chocolate Cream Oreos. And Cam just opened the Cheetos. Besides we're at the part of the movie where the dumb bitch runs through the forest in high heels, to get away from the killer but is doomed to die cause she keeps tripping."

"You'd think survival instinct would take over and she'd ditch the shoes." They all heard Cam add dryly.

"Guys you really want to come to the Academy. Trust me."

"But Buff-"

"Dawn, get your ass to the Academy now." Buffy ordered using her 'mother' voice that not even Tori would fight.

"Alright. Give me a half hour."

"It only takes fifteen minute to get to the Academies from our house."

"Yeah but first I have to put all the food away, then I have to gat dressed-"

"Your still not dressed?"

"Well after your 'don't leave the house or let any one in under any circumstances' order, preparing for the outside world didn't seem real important."

"Alright, just hurry up."

"Alright, bye."

"Bye." Buffy hung up the phone and rolled her eyes. The people along the wall were shaking with silent laughter, and the two Sensei's looked distinctly amused.

"Aren't teenagers fun?" Mrs. Bradley asked rhetorically, running her hands over each of her son's head.

"I was never that bad was I?" Buffy asked Giles. Giles looked at her for a second, then looked away. "Giles?"

Giles simply started cleaning his glasses.

End Chapter5

AN: Alright next chapter might be a couple of days, as I'm not sure how to write the next part. But this story is almost finished. Two or three more chapters.

1. In case it's not obvious I'm talking about Willow.

2.Normally I hate these phones but this way everyone can hear what Tori is saying.