Thanks to the Reviewers:

Freezyboncoolipants: Review are always useful, even if only to make me smile! I'm glad you're still here.

Buffy Fan: 'Ted' is on the list- sorry, I'll give an advanced warning so you can skip it! I can promise you that Dawn is going to back Buffy up throughout season 2 and at least the beginning of season 3, but I'm not sure about Buffy taking her along when she runs away- she is only ten or eleven after all so would need a lot of looking after which Buffy couldn't really do.

Charmed-Angel-4: I'm glad you like the story. Thanks for reviewing.

pigeonofdoom: Glad to see you're still reading! Thanks for reviewing!

wiccan2004girl: Thanks for reading and reviewing.

gidgetgirl: Thanks for all the reviews. I'll try and write Dawn a bit younger- she did seem a bit mature. Halloween is def on my list- Dawn'll either dress up as the slayer or some other kind of superhero. Thanks for your comments and suggestions.

DragonThorn: I can def do 'Lie to Me' in some shape or form. Dawn won't meet Spike in 'School Hard' so much- but she will eventually and I have something planned for that. Thanks for reviewing!

A/N: Sorry about the long wait between chapters. I'm finding it hard to come up with enough substance to write each chapter. I plan on finishing this, but it may take a little longer than originally anticipated.

A mahusive thanks to my beta Matt

CHAPTER 6: WHEN SHE WAS BAD

"Okay, then. This is the last of it." Hank Summers hefted another suitcase onto his oldest daughters bed.

Joyce eyed the suitcase wearily. "More clothes?"

"Oh, do shoes count as clothes?" He said, knowing the answer.

"How much shopping did you let them do?"

"Oh, I just thought I was saving you from the big back-to-school clothing nightmare." Hank said as he unzipped the suitcase.

"Back to school shopping with Dawn isn't a nightmare- she's still at the age where she's happy with jeans and a tee. And my nightmares of Buffy in school have nothing to do with clothes. Did she manage to stay out of trouble in L.A.?" Joyce asked, fearing the answer.

"She did, yeah. She was, um... you know, great."

"But?"

"She was just, I don't know, um... distant. Not brooding or sulking, just... there was no connection. The more time we spent together, the more I felt like she was nowhere to be seen."

"Hence the shoes?"

Hank handed his ex-wife one pair of many shoes. "I may have overcompensated a little bit."

"Hmm." Joyce looked the shoes up and down, and then at the other pairs in the case. Where were all these gonna fit?

"And Dawn!" Hank exclaimed.

"What about Dawn?" Joyce asked sharply.

"She was tiptoeing around Buffy all holiday, no matter what Buffy said, she just took it and followed her around like a lost puppy."

"Hence Dawn's new clothes? Which she is not going to set foot out of this house in in the next ten years. I can't believe you actually brought her that skirt!"

Hank shrugged apologetically "I let Buffy have one similar, how could I have said no?"

"Like this: no! She's six years younger than Buffy and I expect her to dress that way."

Hank shrugged again and directed the conversation back to Buffy. "It's so strange. You know, at least when Buffy was burning stuff down I knew what to say."

"Well, welcome to my world. I haven't been able to get through to her for so long. I'll just be happy if she makes it through the school year." Joyce commented, putting yet another jumper onto the pile.

x?x

"How are your new classes?" Joyce asked as she dropped Buffy off for school.

Buffy shrugged. "Good."

"Good. Is there the slightest chance that if I asked you what was wrong you would tell me?"

Buffy sent her mother a look that clearly said there was no hope of her telling anything. "Bye, mom. See ya squirt."

Joyce sighed in agitation, missing the hurt look on Dawn's face. "Course not. It would take all the fun out of guessing."

"Don't be too hard on her, Mom; she's going through some stuff."

Joyce turned round in her seat. "Since when were you so keen on defending your sister. Dawn; is there something I should know?"

"No." Dawn said too quickly.

"Dawn!" Her mother said sternly.

"I don't know anything, okay!" Dawn snapped. Joyce gave up; she wasn't going to get anything out of her youngest daughter in this mood.

x?x

A vampire started pulling on a chain, and Willow, Giles, Dawn, Cordelia and Jenny were moved along an overhead conveyor so that they hung upside down over the Maser's skeleton.

But they would remember nothing of this because they were unconscious and helpless.

"Behold, these five mortals." Absalom said. "Witnesses to our Master's wretched demise. They will breathe their last this night. The blood that pours from their throats will bring new life to the old one. We gather for his resurrection. For the dawn of this new hell. "

Buffy, Angel and Xander slipped in through the side door of the warehouse and quickly sized up the situation.

"Buffy!" Xander said, trying to attract Buffy's attention without drawing attention to them. "Buffy! We gotta do something now!"

"You two get the others out of here."

"We need you to distract the vampires." Angel said softly.

"Right."

"What are you gonna do?"

"I'm gonna kill them all. That oughta distract them." Buffy snuck forward as Absalom kissed the blade that would kill the sacrifices.

But he was distracted by one of the vampires turning into dust. He looked on in disbelief as he saw Buffy standing there in a defensive stance. He roared in annoyance and the other vampires began to fight her, but Buffy easily kept them at bay.

He came back in and saw Angel and Xander pulling on the chain, bringing the others back over to the platform.

Absalom returned from ushering Colin to safety and saw Angel and Xander pulling on the chain to free their friends. "The sacrifices! Stop them!"

A vampire responded to Absalom's command and ran to the ladder. Angel and Xander kept pulling on the chain as the vampire neared them. Absalom looked around and then rushed out of the warehouse.

Buffy did a flip over some wooden boxes, grabbed one on the way and smashes it onto a vampire's head. She kicked the vampire in the face, knocking him down and breaking a few pieces of wood off of the box.

On the platform above Giles, Dawn, Jenny and Cordelia were already off of the conveyor. Angel and Xander lifted Willow off as well. Giles rolled on the floor in semi- consciousness. They laid Willow down as the vampire finally made it up to the platform and growled. Angel looked back at him with his game face on and growled back. The vampire attacked, apparently not knowing that any vampire that went up against Angel in this mood would most defiantly die.

Below, one of the vampires was on top of Buffy. She reached up with a broken piece of wood and jammed it into the vampire's back, getting ash all over herself. The vampire she knocked down before with the box got up and rushed to attack her again. Only he and the vampire Angel was fighting remained.

Above, Angel and his opponent fell through a poorly covered hole in the platform. Jenny woke up and crawled over to Giles, who had also awakened and was trying to sit up.

"Are you alright?" Giles asked.

"Yeah, I'm okay."

"Where's Buffy?"

Xander was at the edge of the platform holding a still unconscious Willow in his arms and watching the fight below with Dawn standing next to him, watching her sister fight fascinated her. When she had fought Darla, Dawn had been rescued so she hadn't seen her then but now there was nothing stopping her.

"Uh, she's working out her issues." Xander answered, wincing on behalf of the vampire as Buffy kicked the vampire into a storage rack while Angel staked his opponent.

"ENOUGH!" Everyone turned to look at Absalom as he entered again, bringing a sledge hammer with him.

"Your day is done, girl. I'll grind you into a stickypaste, and hear you beg before I smash in your face."

"So, are you gonna kill me or are we just making small talk?" Buffy quipped.

Absalom raised the sledgehammer in indignation and yelled as he began his attack.

The other vampire rushed at her from the other side, having gotten up from the storage rack.

Buffy calmly looked at the tall wooden torch post in front of her, breaks it off and turns it a few times in her hands. The vampire impaled himself on the broken end and crumbled into ash before he knew what was happening.

Absalom ran into the burning end and was set ablaze. He backed up and screams as the flames spread over him. He made a last desperate attempt to get Buffy and raised the sledgehammer over his head, but he was too late as the flames engulf him and he instantly burnt into ashes.

The sledgehammer fell to the floor with a loud clang. Buffy dropped the post and looked over at the Master's skeleton.

"It's over?" Dawn half stated, half questioned.

"No, it's not." Xander corrected.

Buffy bent down and picked up the sledgehammer. She slowly walked over to the Master's skeleton and looked at it for a moment- this is what had caused her to isolate herself from her friends.

Then she swung the hammer back behind her and arced it directly into the Master's skull, shattering it to pieces. She kept whaling on the Master's skeleton as Willow, Xander, Dawn and Giles looked down from above.

Angel came up behind her and watched her continue until there was nothing left on the table. She suddenly stopped and burst into tears, dropping the sledgehammer to the floor.

"It's okay. It's okay." Angel soothed.

Buffy turned around and leant into him, crying into his shoulder. Angel gently held on to her as she cried, the others watching them from above.

x?x

"Dawn?" Buffy knocked on her sister's door the next morning.

"What do you want?" Dawn sounded fed-up.

Buffy pushed the door open. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay."

"No, it's not. I was a total bi-ddy." Buffy corrected lamely.

"Buffy, it's okay. You were going through stuff- I get that...see I'm not a total brat!"

"Can't you just be mad? This moral superiority thing is way annoying."

Dawn grinned. "Fine. You were a complete bitch!"

"Dawn!"

"What? You really were a cow."

"Uh! Well you really are a brat!" Buffy said good naturedly.

"Fine- freak." Dawn grinned again.

"Squirt!" Buffy retorted.

The pair collapsed in giggles as Joyce poked her head around the door.

"It sounds like you two were back to normal now."

"Yeah." Buffy agreed.

Joyce smiled at her daughters and left them to it.

"Seriously though, I'm really sorry."

"I know. And it's okay, really. Do you want to know what the worst part was? You've got all these people who you can talk to about slayer stuff; Willow, Xander, Giles, even Cordelia. But all I have is you. It was really scary in the warehouse, Buffy."

Buffy hugged her sister. "I know. But Willow and Giles and Ms. Calendar were there."

"Yeah; but they don't know me. I'm just your sister Buffy; they've never really met me as anything but that."

"I'm sorry, Dawn. And maybe, you could come with Xander, Willow and me one time; that way they'd get to know you better."

"Really?"

"Sure." Buffy smiled warmly. "But not all the time- I can't hang out with my little sister all the time; what would Cordelia say?"

x?x x?x x?x

Next chapter: School Hard

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