Title: You Will Never Die
Author: mispel
E-mail:
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 4
Assembly
Dawn couldn't help but get her hopes up. Willow had been working on something mysterious for years. Dawn knew it had to be the cure. Now it was ready.
Willow had sent her away for the weekend. A fourteen-year-old raised some eyebrows at a spa. Plus, Dawn was too nervous about the cure to enjoy herself. Except when Paulo gave her the massage. They were going to stick her with an older lady masseuse, but Dawn put her foot down about that. She already missed out on so much being treated like a kid all the time.
Willow picked her up. Dawn expected it to happen at Willow's lab, but Willow was driving her home. They were in front of the house that Willow had bought for them a year ago. Dawn didn't know why they needed the house for just the two of them. Willow said it was more homey.
Dawn's heart was beating so fast as they parked in the driveway. Looking kind of nervous, Willow smiled at her. She led her into the house.
After that it was all kind of a blur. Buffy greeted her at the door. Xander and Anya came out of the living room. Tara was in the kitchen making pancakes. The smell made Dawn feel dizzy. They were all young, and Willow looked strange among them.
"You'll never be alone," Willow said as Dawn dropped into a chair so she wouldn't faint.
Buffy was holding her hand. Anya was fanning her. Xander was getting her a glass of water. Tara was throwing a burned pancake into the trash.
"Make them go away!" Dawn said through her teeth.
"Dawn," the fake Buffy said in a scolding voice.
"Willow!" Dawn screamed as she pulled her hand away from Buffy's, refusing to look at her. Willow told them to give her a minute alone with Dawn. She told them nicely, like they were regular people. Buffy even gave Willow an unhappy 'But I am her sister' look before she left.
Dawn had tried not to cry, but it was all too much. No cure. Then this.
"They're like you," Willow tried to explain.
"Do you have something to tell me? Am I a robot now too?" Dawn asked in a harsh, sarcastic voice.
"No. But they won't ever change either. Like you," Willow said. She was concerned at Dawn's reaction, but she obviously still thought it was a good idea.
"They are robots," Dawn said.
"Only a little. I used everyone's DNA to build them," Willow said.
"Are they clones?"
"No. They have to last. I transferred the memories and feelings..."
"They won't last. They'll break. You had to fix the Buffy robot all the time," Dawn said, hardly able to breathe and speak at the same time. She hoped that it was all a bad dream and that they weren't all just outside waiting to be let back in.
"I added some magic. It was tricky. I didn't want to show them to you until I was sure. The magic will keep them going for a long time," Willow explained.
Dawn couldn't breathe inside the house. She went for a walk. Willow said she didn't have to decide what to do right away. Like there was a choice. Here is your new puppy, but you don't have to keep it. Dawn didn't ask what would happen if she didn't want them.
"Willow, what happens to the puppies people don't want? What do they do with them?" Dawn asked of no one in a childish voice.
Dawn wondered what they were doing now. She wanted to go back and look at them again. It might not be too bad. Just for a while. It would be like looking at a photo album or an old home movie.
Food For Thought
Willow wasn't home, but it was a full house. They filled the space. They made noise. They left things lying around. Dawn didn't have to accept them as anything else except what they were. But it was so easy.
Dawn could pretend that Xander didn't collapse at his breakfast table. He didn't slump over the newspaper so it looked like he was sleeping. When Anya touched him, he didn't fall out of his chair to the floor. No, he was in the back yard of the new house, making lots of noise putting in a deck.
That part wasn't hard. It was a second hand memory anyway. Dawn remembered the crumpled tissues in Anya's lap and how her hands were shaking when she told them.
"He wouldn't answer his phone," Anya had said to Dawn and Willow, like she was mad at him for that. Since his first heart attack, Anya had been calling Xander every day to check on him, pretending she wanted to talk about the kids or the grandkids. Dawn remembered Anya's hands as she was wringing the tissues - just blue veins and bones fanning out under the thin, pale skin.
It was easy to forget that that was real. Her eyes were telling her that it couldn't be. Dawn could see Anya sitting on the living room couch, looking through the classifieds for a job with room for advancement. Anya didn't let her hair go gray and forget to eat. She didn't go into the hospital where she kept getting worse and worse. Anya wasn't that thin shape under the hospital sheets right before she died - when she couldn't recognize anyone and nothing she said made any sense. As Dawn went through the living room, Anya was chewing on the red pen she used to circle the ads.
Dawn went into the kitchen and she heard Tara humming. Buffy looked annoyed at her but didn't say anything because it was Tara. Tara was researching, helping Buffy find a spiny demon that got away from her last night. Dawn got herself a late lunch.
"Do you guys want anything?" Dawn asked from the open refrigerator.
"No, not hungry," Buffy said. Tara just shook her head. But Dawn had already remembered - they didn't eat. They were machines encased in artificial flesh held together by magic. Dawn closed the refrigerator and stared at them.
They were leafing through demon books spread on the kitchen counter. Dawn wondered how much faster they could be doing that if they weren't pretending to be human.
Tara was still humming as she flipped the pages. Dawn timed her, four minutes and Buffy huffed and left. Tara just smiled at Dawn, oblivious.
To be continued