Title: You Will Never Die
Author: mispel
E-mail: mispel9yahoo.com
Rating: PG
Summary: Dawn didn't turn out to be a normal girl. Starts around season 5 and 6.
Disclaimer: I own no one and nothing
Feedback: Any comments would be welcome
Chapter 3
Breakable
"I keep expecting her to go poof," Xander said as he stared out the window.
They still didn't have blinds. There was unpacking to do, and Xander was pacing and wasting time. Anya pictured him looking out that window forever - no blinds and Dawn not coming back.
"She didn't go poof. She went to get salty and fattening snacks at the quaint, little corner store. I wonder what their profit margin is like," Anya wondered as she unwrapped some breakables.
"You said there was a risk if we moved her. You said she could collapse like a soufflé," Xander reminded her. Willow had said it would be fine. It would have been nice if Xander had believed her instead of Willow. For once.
"There was a risk. But Dawn survived the move. Unlike this glass." Anya held up a broken glass. Xander hardly looked at it.
"Willow wrapped it." Anya concluded. It had the mark of Willow's shoddy wrapping technique.
"You said she wasn't supposed to last," Xander kept going on about it. He just wanted Anya to admit that she was wrong.
"She wasn't. Why do you think they made her human?" Anya asked as she rewrapped the glass to throw it away.
"So they could hide her," Xander ventured in that 'duh' voice.
"Oh, please. Why not a rock among millions of rocks? Or a penny on the street? You know, most people won't even bend down to pick up a penny."
"They wanted Buffy to get all protective. Pet rocks and pennies just don't tug at your heartstrings like little sisters," Xander proposed, still not helping with the unpacking.
"They also don't bleed all over the place. Look, sure they wanted Buffy to pull out all the stops to protect her. But if she failed, they wanted the Key to be nice and killable," Anya took out another glass, this one was in one piece.
"We don't know that," Xander said. His voice was thick because he didn't like to think about Dawn dying. The nice, crazy man with a shotgun could have settled that question. But it was better not to know some things.
"There she is," Xander said after a few minutes. Anya could see her too, coming up the path carrying a shopping bag. Maybe now, Xander would start helping.
Imitation Of Life
It was a nice town, lots of shady trees and business opportunities, according to Anya. It was the middle of the day when Dawn walked around. She had tried getting a job, but all she got were strange looks, and people asking why she wasn't in school. They didn't do that in Sunnydale. Ask questions in Sunnydale, and you might find out something you didn't want to know. She had turned invisible there - just another thing that didn't make sense and was best ignored. By everyone except the loonies. And the loonies with shotguns.
Here Dawn only had maybe one or two more years before her progression through ever more mature wardrobe and makeup would stop fooling anyone. After that, they were finally going to send her to college where Willow taught. Dawn was sure she could pass for a young eighteen. Looking at her reflection in a store window, Dawn wished people would stop looking at her like she was a kid skipping school.
Static
Everyone either died or had lives. Dawn didn't have those options. She only had Willow now. Some of the time as a friend. The rest of the time as a scientist to Dawn, the lab rat. But it had been a while since Willow had asked for Dawn's blood or scraped her skin or pulled her hair out by the root. Willow mostly worked on the burned pages now.
Dawn had only managed one year of college. After that, there were too many stares and questions so she dropped out. She had made only one friend there. And he wouldn't stop asking her if she was really eighteen like he was afraid that he was going to get arrested or something.
"Everyone else changes except me," Dawn said to Willow, while looking in the mirror. She had changed her look so many times, and discovered there were only so many things you could do to your hair.
"And you," Dawn said accusingly. Willow had been a workaholic for so many years - it was like they were both flies stuck in amber. Willow made some kind of noncommittal noise as she typed on a new computer on her lap. She had fried her old one, and now she was busier than ever reconstructing her 'work'.
"I'm sick of teenagers. I guess there are always demons. They don't mind being friends with a freak. But they are all demony. It's not the same," Dawn babbled, and Willow made some more meaningless noises. Then she went to her lab. Where Dawn wasn't allowed. Because of contamination.
The Better To See You With
It was Xander's retirement party. The kids were outside. And Dawn. Some of the other guests milling around the back yard remembered Dawn from before the kids were even born. They stared and took extra swigs of their drinks.
Xander was looking at them through the kitchen window. Willow was sitting at the breakfast table. She said she was going to help him refill the punch bowl, but neither one of them was doing anything. The punch was Xander's special mix. It went fast. Now the red liquid was too low to be ladled out, and orange slices were stuck to the sides, drying.
"You know when I look at Dawn - just by herself - it doesn't seem weird. It's when I look at us, I know something is wrong. Like when you are riding in a car, and it seems like the trees are moving, but it's you," Xander told Willow.
"We are moving. Passing her by," Willow said from behind him.
Xander didn't turn. It was bright outside. When he first came inside, his eyes took a minute to adjust. Xander knew that if he turned to look at Willow, he wouldn't be able to see her. And maybe, just for a second, he'd see her as she used to be. Because it was so sunny, the window over the sink didn't show him his reflection like it did at night. As long as he could see only Dawn, he could forget about that old guy.
"What's going to happen to her?"
Nothing New Under the Sun
Willow checked that the security hadn't been breached as she entered. The latest lab was more of a warehouse. It was divided into three storage sections and a work area. The third section worried her the most. It was extremely delicate. She could hear noises coming from there like constant, low whispering. The noise was audible only in her head. There was no real sound coming from there. The other sections hummed and whirred - reassuring sounds that told her everything was working.
Willow remembered taking the samples. The arguments before they agreed. Well, not really agreed, since she never really told them what she was going to do. Willow had said she needed them 'just in case'.
Anya was the most difficult as always, suspicious. Buffy had been resigned. She had let out a strange, little laugh and looked at Willow, like she was saying, "here we go again".
To be continued