Chapter 2: What's a Scooby gang without a heart?

Hyperion, two day's after Xander's departure.

Dawn was preoccupied, it had been two day's since she'd last seen Xander. Her sister had been making her best impersonation of the queen self-centred bitch, which she really was. Dawn hated her, when she did that kind of thing, and poor Xander always took it like a man and said nothing. But this time no one stood beside him, Buffy had torn into his flesh, like a pound of butter. At that moment something had died in Xander's eye, and Dawn had hugged him. She really had tried to comfort him; he had caressed her hair and given her a sweet smile, before he told her that he needed some time alone. Now she wanted to see him, make sure that he was alright, he had been her father figure for the last seven years, more of a father than her own. Yeah, everybody thinks that she had a crush on him, and that Giles was the father, she never really had. Giles was there for the others, but not, so much, for her. For her it was Xander, the one who smiled at her, the one who called her Dawn-patrol or Dawnster, who joked, played, made sure that she was ok and that she was included in the Scooby meetings. He was the one who took her and Buffy in hand when Joyce died, going to her school, making sure to check with her friend's parents, before agreeing to a sleep-over, paying their bills, making sure that Spike had the best blood because Dawn was afraid that he would starve otherwise. Yes he had done that for them, and more, and more, but no one exept her, and maybe Spike, remembered that. She was the only one who knew, that sometime along the way, he began to stop buying personal stuff for himself, so he could give them more money or that he sold his comics collection so that Buffy could stop working, to be the slayer. Anya had died in the last fight and no one, beside her, had asked how he was feeling. He had made sure that they arrived in one peace at the Hyperion, and even had taken care of the packing before the battle, making sure to take Joyce's most precious items, so they could have something to remember her by. What ever they say, and Buffy be damned, Xander was the heart of the Scooby gang. She was going to make sure that everyone knew it! In that spirit, she came to knock at his door. After several minutes of silence, she opened it and went inside, all of Xander's things were gone! Except for a creamy letter on the bed. With tears in her eyes she took it and saw that it had her name on it. After crying her tears and setting herself on the bed she opened it and found a creamy, white page and some powder. She took the letter and began to read.

My sweet Dawnster,

The time has come for me to go, I can't stay anymore sweetie.

I know that you never saw me as the zeppo, every time I look

In your eyes, I see myself as your knight in shining armour

And that's the most beautiful gift I ever received. Sometime

Along the road last year, I began to consider you almost

Like, don't laugh, my daughter, my little one. The one I need

To protect from the big badies, I love you Dawnie. Know

that I'm going somewhere I'm wanted and where I can be useful.

The last battle destructed some binding that was on my

memories, I pay with my eye the price of my future happiness.

I've another father my Dawnster and he's someone you'll

like very much, he is a bit nasty, and he snarls almost as much as

Spike does. I've not seen him for the last seven and a half years, but

I know that he loves me very much. He's a wizard, sweet, and

A dark one, he lives in a school for wizards, born wizards, like

me. Yes, I'm a wizard. That's the other thing that the last battle

released, the binding of my magical power. I need to go now

but I left you a gift, there is some powder in the letter's envelope

if you ever need me, go inside the fireplace, throw the powder

at your feet and say "Hogwart's school, Slytherin tower

, Alexander Snape's room" and you'll be with me instantly. But

make sure to speak very clearly or you'll be sent Merlin knows

where. I'll wait to see you again. Once Angelus called me Buffy's

white knight, but I'm not. I'm yours and only your knight.

Take care my little one, your almost father who loves you.

Oh, and Dawnie, tell the big bad, that he better take care of

You or I'll come back and stake him. Tell him your dad has

Decided that he's your new official godfather and zookeeper.

Love you.

Alexander Lavelle Snape

As she read the last words, all of Dawn's tears broke free, and she began to sob, crushing the letter to her heart.

It was in this state, that Spike found her several hours later. He had been on the way to his room, which was next to Xander's, when he heard the broken cry of his niblet. A quick look around, make evident that the whelp was gone for good as were all his things, and for the almost complete lack of scent, he had been gone for sometime now. He went to the bed and gently collected Dawn in his arms.

"Shh, shh, hush pet! What happened?"

She looked at him and sobbed harder as he wiped away her tears.

"He's gone, Spike! She………she…… my bitch of a sister made him go away.

He's not coming back this time, he wrote me a letter to say good by.

He said that he considered me his daughter, and that he'll always be there for me. Said that if I need help I can go to him, and… and that you are to take care of me or he'll come and stake you." She chuckled a little in the middle of another sob and said. "make you my godfather and zookeeper!". After that she hugged Spike's torso and began to cry again until she fall asleep.

As he held her close, Spike got lost deep in his thoughts.

/The whelp made me, the big bad, the perioxide menace, blondie, fangless, me, Dawn's official protector. Of course, I know that he paid for my blood, and made sure that I had all I needed, he even took me in. Let me room with him last year. But to know that he trusts me that bloody much, that's fuckin' unbelievable. Hell, that's the best bleedin' news of the year, Droopy don't ever want to see any of his so called friends, but he trusts me, a vamp who tried to kill him more than once, with a girl he claimed as his daughter. That's fucking bloody frightening, world's comin' to an end……… again……… pretty soon." With that Spike began to chuckle lightly /I'll take good care of the niblet, whelp, I swear it. Godfather, wait till the slayer hears that, it's gonna' be priceless./ and on this last thought he cuddled up to Dawn, put the comforter on them and drifted into the land of dreams, where slayer are Happy meal on legs, blood came with Wheatabix, and Timmy finally got forgotten in the well by that Lassie dog.

The lobby, two weeks later

/They've been gone almost all night now. It's the first time Spike's not at my side since he found me in Xander's room. I think he took the fact that Xan made him my honorary godfather literally. He fights with Buffy practicly every night now! We haven't been pleased that, after two weeks, nobody has noticed that he's missing. Last night, we were in research mode, when Buffy just ordered Xander, to go fetch some coffee and donuts. After that every single one of them just said what they wanted. They waited ten good minutes before Spike said that he wasn't in the hotel. Buff exploded about how Xan was only useful for that simple task and that if he wasn't even there for that, then what was the purpose for him to come to the meetings. Spike and I, just look at her with incredulity, before he said that there was no reason and that's why Xan had left two weeks ago, with no intention of returning. They were stunned when we made an escape to our rooms./ Dawn snuggled a little bit more into the new couch trying to feel more at ease, but she continued to have this strange feeling that something wasn't quite right. /Tonight has been weird and they were too quiet when they left to fight the last monster that Cordy saw in her vision. Spike took me aside to remind me to be careful; I have the impression that he doesn't want to leave me alone. I don't feel so good in this deserted hotel, anyway. It's like there's some ghost waiting in the dark. It's just so …………… SPIKE/ She saw the lobby's great doors open violently by a bloody vampire, who looked nearly dead and for an undead vampire that's pretty ghastly.

"Spike what happened? Where are the others?"

"Pet!" Spike said with difficulty. "She's crazy pet, the bloody slayer's gone loony! We need to run, go pack, they're gonna' be here soon."

"Why do we need to go?" said Dawn afraid, when they where in Spike's room, he just opened a leather bag and threw everything he owned inside, before going into Dawn's room to do the same.

"I tell you, she gone nuts. The nest was on Cedar avenue, in that old Victorian building, the one with the statues who looked like crazy goblin on crack. So we parked the cars, and the watcher leaded us inside, we found them in the basement. The fight was really quick, since we took them by surprise. There was fifty vamps and tree fyral demons inside. Half of the vamps were dust, before they even realised that they were under attack It was a blood bath pet! A bloody marvellous blood bath. After that, we took the fyrals with the poof and the slayer, and let the others take care of the vamps. I killed two of them, after peaches went down. Ten minutes later the demons were all dead or dust, the watcher made us look in all the rooms in case there was something else," he breath deeply, wiped the blood out of his eyes and listened carefully to know if they were still alone in the hotel, before continuing to talk. "I was in the living room, opening some drawer, when she came for the kill…………"

"She's the one, who put you in that state?"

"Yeah, that's why I tell you, that she's became fuckin' bloody NUTS. She smashed me in a wall, and began to hit, screaming that I'm a fucking blood-sucker, that she's never gonna let me kidnap you, that even if you're useless, you're her sister. And she kept hitting me, and hit me more, she took her stake in her right hand and make the first move to dust me, when the witch called for some help. She let me on the floor telling me to wait, that she had not finished with my ass, that I'm dust as soon as she has finished with the witch's problem. After she left, I've managed to go outside and I put myself in Angel's car, after sabotaging the watcher's citroën. I drove like a mad man to came here and fetch you, because I don't know if she'll attack you, but I won't take any risks with your life, the whelp'll never forgive me if something happened to you. So lets go niblet, faster."

"But why did she try to kill you after all this time?"

"I don't know pet, and truly I really don't care." Suddenly, he froze. "We need to go pet, they're here."

"In the fireplace!"

"What? The fireplace? We're trying to leave Bit. Not get burnt to a crisp."

"We're going to Xander, put the bags and yourself inside the fireplace, I'll explain later" she said with a confidant but urgent voice. She stood right beside him and drew out an envelope from her pocket. She opened it, took the powder that was inside, said "Hogwart's school, Slytherin tower, Alexandre Snape's room!" and threw the powder at their feet.

When Buffy and the others came in the room, they found it empty. They looked everywhere, before finding themselves standing clueless in the lobby.

"Did you find anything?" asked Buffy.

The general answer was a big 'NO!' They settled all in the different couches, Giles was the first to speak.

"Why did you try to kill him Buffy?"

"You tried to do what" a shocked Angel jumped up, but a look from Giles made him stop before he got far from the couch.

"I……………I…………I, just before we went out, Cordy took me away from you, to tell me she'd seen Spike kidnapped Dawn in her last vision, I just saw red and tried to slay the menace he is for Dawn's safety." she said finally.

Giles looked at her, feeling more and more tired every moment that passed.

"And by doing that, you made the vision come true."

At that moment, Willow spoke for the first time.

"Spike would never put Dawn in danger, and you know that! He loves her, she's his niblet. I think, he took her with him tonight to make sure that you don't hurt her. If I'm right, they might try to go to Xan, to be safe. I was going to see Dawn last night; I wanted to know about Xan. I was outside her room, when I heard them, they were talking. Spike was telling her that Xander was right, by making him her protector, and she said that if we kept acting like we were, they were better off going to live with him anyway. Spike just agreed, after that, he must have heard me because they stopped talking and went to sleep."

"So we know where they're going, if we find Xander, we find them! It's simple." Said Giles.

"Exactly"

"Let's go then!" finished Angel.

"Umm… where's Xander anyway?" Said Fred with a little girl kind of voice, after they had, letting her alone in the lobby.