"Morning, Dawn." Willow ambled cheerfully into the Magic Shop, Tara closely behind. Dawn was sitting at the table trying to finish some science homework while watching a mystical orb sitting on a shelf. Willow looked over at the counter. "Oh, hey, Xander, didn't see yah there."
Dawn tore herself away from the orb long enough to return the greeting. "Hey, guys." She then continued staring at the brilliant sparkling of the spherical object.
"Solarium Ortez." Tara said. Willow and Xander looked at her inquiringly. "Oh, it's the-the orb that Dawn's staring at. It's like synthetic light. Sunlight."
"Wow, and I thought it was one of those light-up baseballs. How's it going?" asked Xander, standing behind the counter.
"Not too bad," replied Willow. "Are you the new store manager?" indicating Xander's position behind the till.
"Oh, no, I'm just watching the register while Anya's doing inventory in the basement."
The scoobies then fell silent. Since Buffy's return, the only monster's they've really faced are the IRS officials who seem intent on taking Summers' money. Interesting subjects to discuss were very few lately. After several moments, Dawn broke the stillness.
"So...pretty..."
"Have you been taking Xander lessons?" asked Willow.
"Glad to know you think of me with such high esteem." Xander busied himself with a few receipts.
"Really, though, Dawn usually isn't the type to be transfixed with anything shiney and beautiful...and..." Willow stared at the orb. She then looked up to find Tara and Xander staring at her with amusement. "Uh...just seeing what the thrill is...but it is so..My god, stop me!"
"But you're so cute when you're insane." Tara teased. Willow smiled. Tara described the magical object. "It's supposed to make you all happy feeling and mesmerized. Don't worry, it's harmless."
"Well, when did you become all-knowing?" Willow frowned sardonically.
"Just keeping up with my girl." Tara put on a weak smile.
The door chimes jingled. Buffy walked in, looking tired and worried. She sat herself down next to Dawn. "Why couldn't I have had a normal sister."
"Y'know the irony in that is kinda funny when you really think about it." Xander looked up from the papers and watched as Buffy gave Dawn a hug. "Something wrong?"
"With me or the fact that my sister is staring vacantly into space, unaware of my presence?"
"Long story." Tara pointed to the orb.
Buffy walked over to the shelf and stood in front of the sphere. Dawn slowly raised her eyes to meet her sister's and protested. "I can't see."
"Good." Buffy said with a trace of fear in her voice. "I have to explain something to all of you. We are, as usual, in danger. But it's not just us this time..."
"Buffy, is it really ever just us? I mean last time you had to sacrifice yourself to save the universe." Xander said, then he quieted himself, realizing that whatever Buffy had to say was bad news.
"It's worse than death. Well, sure the dimensions can spill into each other and people can get eaten by giant flying dragons or struck by energetic lightning, but they, or most of them, would end up in happy, peaceful places, where everything is at ease." She paused, then continued. "But there's this prophecy. Dawn's days as a key aren't exactly over. There's another chance to use her power and it's coming soon. Only this time it's not a dimension. It's hell. The world will be filled with hell if this prophecy comes true, and the people who die won't be sent to heaven. We'll all be trapped. Forever."
Willow, Tara, and Xander stood horrorstruck. Dawn looked down at the floor. "Why does being a key mean endagering everything over and over...and..." she started to cry. Buffy moved in to hold her.
"Who exactly told you this?" asked Xander, ignoring the pile of paperwork to be done.
"Well...Faith." Buffy decided to be honest.
"And you trust her word? Isn't she in jail even?" Xander looked slightly worried that she would trust the slayer-gone-bad's word.
"Xander, I've told you several times, she's changed. She willingly walked into jail, doesn't that mean anything?" Buffy felt weird defending Faith, but ultimately proud of herself.
"And apparantly she also willingly walked out of it." He sighed. "I'm just saying it's risky."
"You know what, I understand completely. You haven't seen her since she stole my body, well actually you saw me, but it was her, and since then she's changed. If you wont trust her, trust me. She saved my life only a few hours ago." Buffy's expression softened. She held Dawn a little closer.
Willow decided to change the subject. "Uh...Buffy? What do we know so far? Does this prophecy have a name? Who's behind all this anyway?"
"Well, that's just it. All we have is the name of the prophecy. Word of the ritual was circulating around L.A. and luckily Angel heard of it and warned Faith, so all we really know is that it might happen." Buffy then stiffled a yawn.
"You should get some sleep, we'll work on some research. Do you have the name here?" Willow's perkiness was evident as she finally felt useful for the first time in days. Xander also came out from behind the counter to join them.
"Faith said that Angel gave her this." Buffy handed a piece of paper to Willow. On it were several Etruscan words.
"Wow this must be really old." Tara mentioned, having recently read about ancient Etruscan witchcraft.
"We'll get on it right away." Xander smiled enthusiastically. He too was excited to be a part of something other than the Magic Shop.
"Xander? Did you finish filling out the bills like I asked you to?" Anya's voice could be heard from the basement.
"Almost!" Xander shouted back, then he slowly retreated to the counter where he picked up a pen and began scribbling out numbers, muttering under his breath. Buffy and Dawn left through the front door while Willow and Tara busied themselves with several ancient books of prophecies and Etruscan magicks.
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"So," Dawn began, as her and Buffy entered their house, "where's Faith anyway?"
Buffy walked into the living room and set herself onto the couch, sighing deeply and massaging her sore jaw. "She decided to take in some sights, I guess, but she's still considered a 'murderer at large'. It's more than likely she's lying low."
Dawn sat in a chair oposite of Buffy. "I guess I've really never met her then. Even though I have all these memories." Dawn's eyes fell to the floor again. "It's strange. I thought I had gotten over this whole 'I'm the key, I'm not real' phase, but it's returning." She looked up again, tears streaming down her cheeks
Buffy looked straight into Dawn's eyes. "Do I even have to say what I'm about to say? Now I haven't exactly had a metal bar sticking out of my chest lately, so the blood demonstration is unavailable, but the message is still as true as ever. Summers' blood. It's in you. You're real, and you're my sister, and just like I stopped Glory, I'll stop whoever tries to hurt you. I'll admit, the freaky guy with the knife was bad luck, but we're back together, and it'll stay that way."
Despite Buffy's attempted humor, Dawn's tears continued to fall. "I know, it's just..." she gazed at the floor again. "What if something goes wrong again, and I lose you...again. I can't go through that. Every day I felt as though it should have been me that jumped. And-and Sunnydale needs you. This place was hell when you were...dead." She got up and sat next to Buffy. Buffy's arms found their way around Dawn's shoulders.
"Nothing will go wrong. We'll win. We always win." Buffy's optimism was enough for Dawn to rest peacefully in Buffy's arms.
Buffy looked around the room. Her eyes fell upon several photographs of the family. One of her, a couple of Dawn, and a few of her, her sister and her mother, all of which contained happy, normal-looking people. Buffy was sure her mother hadn't asked for a Slayer and a Key as children, but Buffy knew that she was loved, and that Dawn was loved aswell. She looked down at Dawn and sighed. She just didn't have the heart to tell her that deep inside there was a premonition of disaster.
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"Hm...I've been trying to translate a few of these words," Willow remained focused on the paper as she explained what she had figured out of the Prophecy's title to Tara, who was busy searching through ancient volumes containing various prophecies of the past. "It has Solariazh in it, so I'm assuming that has something to do with Sunnydale...I think. Oh, and this one must be 'hell'...or a horse? This would be so much easier if we had more than it's title. Heck it'd be easier if it wasn't written in some lost language."
"Wait, Willow, what's the third word again?" Tara asked, apparantly on to something.
"Ieshiank, why?" Willow was more excited than ever.
"I think I found our prophecy! And it comes with a translation! Oh..." Tara's interest dropped a notch.
"What's wrong?" Willow became nervous.
"It translates to Welsch. That language is never fun." Tara gave an educative glance.
"You have to admit it's several times easier to decipher than Etruscan literature."
"Shall we begin?"
Xander walked into the room from the basement. "Anya's liberated me from my duties for five minutes or so, so I thought I'd pop up and check out some progress. What have we discovered?"
"Tara found the prophecy and a translation that should be recent enough to get every detail." Both girls smiled proudly.
"Xander! I need your help again!" Anya shouted, sounding in peril.
Xander, bored with the constant moving of boxes walked slowly to the stairs and decended back to the basement. "Coming, dear."
While his back was turned, Willow made a gesture of a whip. The both giggled silently and returned to the prophecy. After splitting the paragraphs into two parts, they began the arduous task of completely translating the ancient scripture into a readable, Buffy-friendly version that would help them prepare for the upcoming battle. A few hours had past until Willow had come across useful information.
"Well, I think I may have a clue as to who's behind this." She said, followed by her traditional nervous chuckle.
"Is it that bad?" The tone of Tara's voice was very comforting.
"Well, according to this passage, there must be someone to channel the energy. It has something of an object, a person and the key. I haven't found out anything about the object yet, but the person has to be some sort of wizard. Powerful. Beyond powerful. I don't even know if Glory could handle this." Her eyes clearly showed her uneasiness.
"How come you got the interesting part? All mine says is 'Key' and 'Hellmouth' several times. But this section looks like a date, or time. I'm not good with these ancient calendars." Tara pointed out several numeral symbols.
"I have a book on that sort of thing back at Buffy's house. We'll check it out later." She returned to her papers. Tara still looked over the table.
"Willow?"
"Yeah?"
"We need to call Giles."