A Woman walked out of the house and into the cold day's air. She walked out into the streets that seemed like it was a war zone. The buildings around her were crumbled and old and it gave her a shiver just being out here but she had work to do. She walked past people on the streets and wanted to cry. What had happened to Sunnydale? She walked into a dark alley and looked up at a building she once knew as the Bronze. She reached for the doorknob and closed her eyes as she walked into a musty building. This pace had been a hot spot for teens, and other people in Sunnydale, then a hotspot for demons and vampires, and now nothing. She walked around the place searching for any sign of demon or vampire life. She then heard a noise and saw a man in a long dark jacket.
"What are you doing?" he said "Its dangerous"
"My job" the girl said pushing back her red hair
"Look, Willow I think I have it under control"
" Angel" she paused "Why don't you take a rest"
"No!" He said suddenly "I have to figure out…"
"Who did this to her" A voice said
A girl stepped out from behind the shadows. I t was Dawn Buffy's little sister. She looked very mature standing there and she looked a lot like Buffy.
"Dawn" Willow said half sighing, "go home we will take care of this"
"No!" Dawn screamed "you have kept this from me to long"
"Where is she?" Dawn asked
Angel and Willow looked at each other. They both had blank faces.
"That vampire that one time" she said "the one you said was nothing"
Willow looked at her. "Dawnie" she whispered and reached toward her.
Dawn stepped back she had tears in her eyes. "Three years and I have finally figured it out"
"Tell Me," she asked
Willow and Angel looked at each other again.
Willow looked at Dawn sadly. "What have you figured out?"
"You tell me," she answered
"You told me she had slayer business," she said quite angry "I believed that for two months then Angel comes and I wonder it's just slayer business everything's fine"
She stopped and looked at them both. Then she continued. "Then everything's hush and I am trying to understand, you know you two going out with Xander and Tara and leaving me with Giles and you don't come back for about two days or more"
The anger was all gone now and there were tears in her eyes, again. "Then you come back and I hear you talking about some vamp" she looked at Willow straight in the eyes and said, " 'its nothing Dawnie, Buffy will be back soon' "
Now it was Willow's turn to speak, but she couldn't say anything. She could not say anything that would make it look any nicer than it was. Willow looked at Angel "Help" She said
Angel looked at Dawn. "Your right we have been lying to you"
Dawn was crying now "Why?" she asked
Angel couldn't say anything; in fact he didn't know much himself. All he knew was that ironically three years ago today Buffy was kidnapped. The council called her the lost Slayer, since nobody heard from her in years. They hadn't been helpful in the search for her either. A month or two after she was kidnapped Willow called to ask if he could help find her. It had been tough trying to hide it from Dawn. Ever since Buffy and Dawn's mom had died Buffy had taken care of Dawn. Now she had nobody. Which isn't true he reminded himself. She's not dead just Lost.
Dawn looked around; this place had changed a lot. She had been here once or twice before Buffy disappeared but now it was wrong. Like the Bronze Sunnydale had become old and abandoned. Not many people lived here anymore. The town now belonged to the vampires.
Willow sensed Dawns fear and anxiety and went to her. "Look Dawn lets go home well try to explain everything there, ok"
Dawn nodded and walked out.
"I'll take the tunnels," Angel said to Willow as he headed in the opposite direction from Dawn.
Angel walked down into the cellar and opened the valve that opened to the sewer. He went down into the rat infested sewers and starting walking toward a direction that would lead him to the Summer's house. He stopped walking. He felt strange. He picked up a scent he knew all to well. "It can't be" he whispered and continued walking. The scent followed and as he smelt it more the scent was tainted. As if it was Buffy but it wasn't Buffy. There was something wrong. The scent followed around a corner and he hesitated. He had basically given up hope of finding her. But now he had found her. He rounded the corner and to his great despair found no one. He closed his eyes and walked the other way.
Rupert Giles put the book down he was reading and took off his glasses. He didn't clean them; he didn't look at them to see if they needed cleaning, he did something he rarely did. He put them down and got up and walked away. For him that was his way of giving up. He did not throw the book down like an immature child; he silently walked away from it. He went to a chair that had been left in the area between the kitchen and the living room and sat on it. At any other time he would have drank a soothing cup of tea, but as he once told Xander, tea is when he wanted to be calm, and he most certainly was not and did not want to be calm. Three years to the day, he thought. He rubbed his temples as if the thought had given him a serious headache, and actually it had. He felt as though one heck of a migraine was coming on. He didn't care, though. Pain didn't matter unless you knew where the pain was being afflicted. Which in some way meant that when you had so much pain that things just flow into each other and unless you can really see the wound you don't care about it. Or at least that's what he thought it felt like. Where was she? The question seemed to interrupt his thoughts, seemed to come from nowhere, but he knew if he was going to say anything it was going to be that.
He got up and walked to the china cabinet that looked less then organized. He reached in and grabbed a glass. Poured something in it that smelled awful but new it would get him through the night. As he went to pour the contents of the glass down his throat he hesitated as if realizing for the first time in doing this for about three years that this was wrong. He put the glass down and grabbed a coat and headed out the door. He didn't care if he didn't lock it. It didn't matter.
Dawn had been through a lot. Her mother had died, she was the key, her sister had died, and then her sister went away. If she wanted to use sarcasms, she would say her life was great. Truth was, sarcasm wasn't even an option. Which scared her. She knew how bad it was and she had tried to act like the unsuspecting teenager for too long. Three years and, nothing. She was done waiting for answers. Which was why she went to the Bronze. She knew it was stupid. Especially with no Slayer in town but she wanted out of that house. She had spent way too long in it. Especially since school got canceled for about forever. Stupid Vamps, she had been dumb in not realizing it earlier that something was off. She should have realized it that night. Only she had a certain thing where anything bad she suspected of happening, she would block it. But all in all she was a little relieved when Willow had said they would "try" to explain everything to her. Hey, she thought at least they promised they would try. At that moment she remembered something. A promise. What was it? Something Buffy had said that night. Her mind was blurry but she remembered being kind of confused. Tears welled up in her eyes. Promises that are broken she thought. She knew it must have had something to do with coming home or …… Her train of thought slipped she didn't remember! She was about to regain all of her thoughts when a familiar feeling came upon her. She couldn't explain it. It was weird. She knew something or someone was there. It was tainted though as if there wasn't something right. She stopped walking and realized she had forgot about everything. Where she was, who she was with that sort of thing. Willow who had been walking beside her stopped also and stared. "What?" she asked
"Buffy?" Dawn half asked and pleaded as the tears rolled down Dawn's face.
Willow felt an odd familiar feeling that she couldn't explain. "Its tainted" she whispered aloud and Dawn nodded. "I know"
"Lets go" was all Willow said and Dawn just nodded.
Xander had done a quick sweep of the twelve cemeteries, dock town, and a couple of alleyways, and came up with seventeen slays out of nineteen spotted. Not his best. He sheathed the stake in his pocket so he would not startle any vamps into running before they actually fought. He sometimes went with the innocent townsperson act but tonight it was just fight and slay. He didn't feel like playing games tonight especially with vamps. It was three years to the day that Buffy had gone missing. He had actually been out for answers. He figured he would run by the Alibi Room to see how Willy was doing. If that turned out to be nothing he would run around a bit more, play it by year. He knew that Anya would be home worried sick. He knew he should be home with her. Only, this was an obligation to him something he just had to do. He had promised that he'd find her or help the best way he could. He wasn't that big on breaking promises either. Ever since he started training he had realized that he had the potential to kick some major demon/vampire butt. So then he started patrolling with Angel of course just in case anything went wrong. Then he had the fight with Angel in which they had worked on things stored inside of them. After that it was no more diapers, he was using the big boy pants. He had gotten the hang of it and despite the protests from Anya, since nobody else really knew about it, stared going out every night. It was a promise he had made to himself and his friends (secretly) and most importantly Buffy. He was going to find her. At that moment a breeze swept by and Xander got a chill. After that a familiar feeling maybe even presence floated around him. He felt happy for a couple of seconds. Happier than how he had felt in well, years. "Buffy!" he said looking around. Then he stopped the feeling was wrong. It wasn't right. He turned in the other direction and hurried to the Summer's house. He actually thought had he had fulfilled his promise.