Chapter Four

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Los Angels, California, Sol III

Dawn looked out the front window of the bus at the sights of LA. She didn't remember much about the city because she had been young when the fallout from Buffy's first Slayer skirmish had forced the Summers women to relocate from the city of angels. Or at least her implanted memories didn't remember much. It occurred to Dawn now, just as it had several times over the past year, how lucky it had been that Mom got the very reasonable offer to buy a gallery at just the time she needed it most. And that the seller had given an extremely good interest rate and long term financing and that the gallery just happened to be located in Sunnydale where there was a Hellmouth that needed a guardian. It was either fate or the Watcher's Council working behind the scenes.

It was also terribly convenient that Sunnydale had one of the few school systems that would accept her sister, the budding Slayer/pyromaniac. She had asked Giles about it, but he didn't know exactly what the Watchers had done. He had been ordered to his position in Sunnydale before Buffy was discovered by the Council and then they had told him to take charge of her when Buffy and family had moved into town. The Council records had been lost, but Giles knew of other cases where Slayers and their families had been manipulated from behind the scenes.

These days LA was the city of Angel. Dawn hadn't gotten along with Angel like she had with Xander, Giles and later Riley and Spike. She always found Angel to be kind of stiff and not very fun to be around. She had even liked Ted more than Angel-at least until Ted turned out to be a murderous robot. Now they would be staying under Angel's roof. At least until they made more permanent plans. Dawn had met Wesley once or twice and really didn't have an opinion of him and she didn't know Fred, Lorne, or Gunn. She felt terrible about Cordelia being in a coma, but still she was glad that she wouldn't have to talk with Buffy's old classmate. Cordy had been kind of mean to Dawn her first couple of years in Sunnydale, although they had gotten along better around the time when Cordy left after graduation.

Dawn wondered what the shopping would be like in LA. The mall in Santa Barbara had been bigger than the one in Sunnydale, but still things hadn't been the same. Even going to the chain stores that looked almost exactly like the ones in Sunnydale had left her with an unsatisfied feeling. She hadn't even felt that little tingling in the back of head she got when she saw something she had to have, no matter how she got it. She had picked out her new wardrobe without much enthusiasm. It was going to take awhile to get over the loss of her town. Who would've thought losing the Hellmouth could make you kinda sad?

Long before they pulled up to the front of the Hyperion to unload, Dawn was throughly lost. She defiantly didn't remember much of LA. She was the first one off the bus and into the courtyard. Immediately she noticed the jasmine. That would come in handy for several cleansing rituals. She bent down to smell a branch and was startled when she saw a green man with horns when she looked back up.

"Sorry about that. You must be Lorne. I'm not usually so easily startled. Well actually I am. I'm Dawn."

"Its ok sugar. Welcome to the Hyperion. I would offer you one of these seabreezes, but your still a little young for that. Let me show you into the lobby of the fabulous and formerly evil Hyperion. We've been waiting for you."

The rest of the Scooby group trooped into the lobby behind Dawn and Lorne. She didn't know how to describe the architecture of the hotel, but she liked it.

She noticed Xander turn a 360 and take in the sights. "Spanish deco-I like it." he said. "Looks like someone's doing some construction work."

"We've had crews working round the clock to get more of the guest rooms ready since Buffy called a few days ago," Angel said as he came from behind the desk. "Harris."

"Angel," Xander replied stiffly.

Buffy came walking through the door and Dawn saw an intense flash of emotion wash across Angel's face. Anyone who hadn't seen it several times before would have a hard time spotting it. Buffy walked over to the vampire and hugged him, but not for long.

"I'm glad we're meeting under less intense circumstances than we usually do," Buffy said.

"Amen," Angel softly said. Then he spotted someone else. "Hey Willow, its great to see you again. Nice job with the big mojo."

"Thanks, it was nothing. Well it was something-enough to knock me on my tucas for two days," Willow said. "I'd like to introduce my girlfriend and one of the newest Slayers, Kennedy."

Kennedy waved to Angel. Dawn saw that the lobby was rapidly filling up with people. Buffy also noticed and said, "Gather around everyone and we'll make introductions."

Dawn stood next to Rona and Anya as Buffy and Angel introduced everyone. She heard Anya say to the Slayer, "I have learned valuable information the last couple of days. For instance, Fred and Gunn used to be together and Wesley had the hots for Fred at one point too. But Wesley also liked Cordelia back in Sunnydale. But that didn't work out too well. No chemistry when the liplocking happened. Cordelia and Angel almost had a thing too, but he got sunk to the bottom of the ocean and she became a higher being, then part-demon, and now a coma patient. And you don't want to know how Angel and Buffy worked out. But Cordelia also had a thing with Xander during high school, but broke it off because he and Willow got the hots for each other, which is weird when you consider she now likes women."

"You have way too much time on your hands," Rona stated.

Later everyone was shown to their rooms. Dawn got one all by her self. After months of sharing her room at home and even the hotel room in Santa Barbara, it felt great to have a room of her own again. She just laid on the bed for awhile and soaked in the feeling of privacy. But before long she went down to the lobby. She couldn't miss out on all the good gossip, could she?

****

Very early the next morning Angel was sitting at his desk reading the latest news about the aliens when he heard footsteps and then a soft knock at the door. He knew that heartbeat anywhere. "Come in Buffy. Your not the one that needs the invitation, remember?"

"Well it never hurts to be polite," Buffy said as she entered and looked around the office. "So this is the LA headquarters for do-gooders anonymous? The Sunnydale branch was a lot more crowded. At least before it got sucked into the earth."

"Well this branch almost got torched in a rain of fire. And then it was the headquarters for global peace. But it turned out global peace had quite an appetite and really bad skin."

"Just our luck, we fight the First Evil and you fight the First Good," Buffy said. "We should have just stepped aside and let them duke it out."

"Well that would have left the earth in sorry shape. The Posleen might have even decided not to invade."

"Can't have that," Buffy said. "They deserve all the hospitality we can give them."

"I've been thinking the same thing myself. Planning for that second front got me thinking big."

"Big enough to take on the Posleen?" asked Buffy.

"Well not by ourselves, but I certainly think we can orchestrate a great deal of trouble for them. Now I've got the organization and you've got the army."

"It's a relief to hear you make my argument for me," said Buffy as she sat down in a the chair across the desk from Angel. "Let's outline some plans and then we can relax a little before we start trying to convince the others. Now the first thing we should do is have Lorne......"