Chapter 7:

Faith thought she was going to be sick, she had seen many horrific things in her life before and after she was chosen, she had done many unspeakable things in her 'dark' time, but this scene was going to burned into her mind, she noticed small things at first, potentials, girls really, screaming, crying, some in shock and some being violently sick, she also noticed the sheer amount of red, she didn't remember ever seeing so much red I her life, and the smell copper and fear. She absentmindedly noticed the bodies of 9 potentials, they were shredded, was the term that popped into her mind. She vaguely acknowledged that they were lain in a pattern, a wheel or maybe a triangle, she tried to look closer but was brought to a stop by the expressions on the girls faces' sheer unadulterated terror. Faith's mind was running on whilst her body was frozen, the slayer in her seeing no broken furniture, the window was closed, the door hadn't been forced, the room was untouched if you could ignore the 9 dead girls on display and their blood decorating the beds, the carpet, the walls. What could possibly sneak into this house, kill 9 girls violently and silently and leave without any of them noticing. She was going to be sick, she was trying her hardest not to think about the girls, just think of them as victims, she had to focus on the situation not on the girls, the same girls that she had been training with the day before, and fighting alongside a few hours ago. She was brought out of her thoughts as she could hear Buffy trying to stop someone from entering.

"Dawn, stop please. You shouldn't see this, I don't want you to see this" Buffy's voice was starting to break under the strain, she valiantly trying to protect her little sister from the nightmare that she wished she could avoid, she did not want to think about the deaths of nice girls under her protection, she would protect Dawn, she had to protect Dawn, that's all that mattered.

Dawn knew that she didn't want to go into that room, the screaming, crying and paleness of the faces around her told her that much, Willow had already run past her with tears down her face, a horrified expression and Dawn knew she was vomiting in the bathroom, Fred had followed on her heels, the green demon Lorne, she thought refused to step into the bedroom mumbled something about violent vibes and retreated presumably to his drink. But it was the fear, shock, disgust, pain and anger on the remaining faces that told her that she absolutely did not want to see what was in that room. What could possibly scare her sister arguably the best slayer in history, or Faith who was intimate with violence, Anya who had seen more violence and terror in her 1000 years as Anyanka even looked shell shocked, Spike and Angel like Anya had seen and caused terror in their lifetimes were paler than she had thought vampires could be, she shivered. She felt a hand on her lower back, calming, soothing, and familiar. She glanced back and saw Connor; she unconsciously leaned back and took the comfort offered. She didn't know why but she felt drawn to grasp his hand, so she did. She squeezed his hand to try and offer some support back and then turned back to face her sister who was still blocking the entrance to the room.

"Buffy, I can't explain it, I don't want to go in there, I need to."

"What do you mean you need to…?"

"Buffy" Cordelia's voice stopped the blonde's question.

"Buffy, let Dawn in. She has to see this, I'm sorry." Cordy looked into Buffy's eyes to try to convey her sincerity, "they both do." Buffy just looked back confused and nodded, she would get her answers later, she'd make sure of it, with that she turned back to her baby sister and hated herself, Cordelia and the world for what she was about to show her. Dawn had connected with these girls, they were her friends, and now she would see them as a terrifying nightmare.

Dawn and Connor slowly walked into the room, they stopped almost immediately, Dawn let out a tiny gasp, Connor was certain that he was the only one to hear. He could see the adults standing around the room, they had been quietly discussing something but had fallen silent, it looked like Gunn and Xander had gone to find Fred and Willow, whereas Faith was frozen on his left, his dad had been in the discussion with Spike, Giles, Wesley and Anya, Buffy had moved from behind them to the group on his left, all of them were avoiding looking at the scene in the centre of the room. It was on Cordelia however where his gaze lingered. She was standing by the window (that he noticed was closed, with no sign of forced entry, so they didn't come fro there he made note of silently), it was the fact that Cordelia's eyes had not left Dawn's that he found disconcerting. He didn't know what made him touch Dawn in the first place, he was a tactile person but something told him to support her, so he did, his instincts had rarely let him down. Cordy's eyes dropped to their joined hands and he swore there was a ghost of smile and a hint of apprehension in her eyes, but when she looked back to Dawn her eyes and voice were all business.

"Dawn, tell me what you see."

"What? I don't understand" Dawn's voice held unshed tears, her skin was ashen 'she really didn't want to be here.

"Dawn, I know you don't want to be here, Gods I wish we weren't here, but I need your help, Dawn you need to look around the room, distance yourself from the girls, look at the room with an objective eye, dig deep and tell me what you see" the end of Cordy's speech was lined with steel, the rest of the room looked confused at Cordy's order, but stayed silent even Buffy who could tell that something was happening.

Dawn stared at Cordelia silently for a minute, and then closed her eyes. As she opened her eyes, she tightens her hold on Connor who had become her anchor and gazed around the room. "Door and Window were untouched, so they either knew and trusted the killer(s) or magic was involved, probably the latter as either the other girls upstairs or we would have heard a fight, something managed to shred 9 girls silently and leave without us noticing, it was quick, none of the girls have defensive wounds on their hands or arms, so they either were too frightened to fight back or the attack was too fast, I'm guessing too fast with more than one attacker as not one girls had time to raise the alarm.-"

"Or there was a silencing charm on the room" Willow's shaking voice announced her return to the room.

Dawn nodded in acknowledgement. "Probably, the placement of the bodies indicates ritualistic or symbolic significance, I don't think any other spells were done here" Dawn looks to Willow for confirmation, at Willow uncertain nod she continues "but I'm guessing it's a message." At this statement the room stills and Cordy asks "why do think that?"

Dawn got he impression she was being tested, but she didn't know what for, "they or I'm assuming the first wants us to know that were vulnerable, I our own home, that he can get to us at any time. He managed to kill 9 girls and arrange their bodies in a pattern whilst we were all downstairs drinking and laughing, and the other girls were just next door." She broke off and looked at Giles and Wesley and then at Cordelia "Oh my God, it's so obvious, 9 girls, 9 bodies arranged in a circle, 9 dead bodies arranged in the circle of life, oh that's sick."

"Apparently the First Evil has a taste for irony" Cordelia sounded anything but amused.

Cordelia's comment snapped Dawn out of the dispassionate trance she had been in whilst relating her impressions. She really did want to be sick now, to realise that 9 life had been ended was bad enough, but had they been fighting then she could have mourned and dealt with their deaths, but to find out that 9 of her friends had been terrorised and brutally murdered as a message, for irony, she didn't know how to deal with that. Add to the fact that none of them noticed, her stomach curled, but she refused to be sick, she would not give into the weakness, she would see this to the end and make sure that somebody paid for the end of 9 innocent lives.

Cordelia was impressed, Dawn had managed to calmly pick up information form a horrific scene, analyse and interpret what she had seen, she had managed to access something inside herself that allowed her to function, the only slight sign of weakness was her tight hold on Connor's hand, but that easily understandable, part of her worried at how easily the pair had joined, but she of all people could understand being inexplicably drawn to one person, she still felt it. But Connor and Dawn would need each in the coming days she would just have to ensure that they didn't cross any boundaries too soon. Anya's voice broke her internal musings.

"How on earth did you know all that, some of us guessed some of that but how does a sixteen year old girl know all that?"

"She's not a sixteen year old girl, or at least she's not just a sixteen year old girl." Cordelia answered for Dawn.

"We need to clean up, and check up on the other girls, Willow can you and Kennedy take care of the girls tonight." Giles asked.

After Willow had left the room, Cordy turned to Spike and Angel "if you guys could take care of girls, a burial on the grounds maybe, I'll take care of the room."

1 hour later…

Cordelia was standing in the now thankfully corpse free room, she turned however at Wesley's voice "You shouldn't do it, you need to recharge, cleansing the room however gratifying will sap what little strength you have left." She didn't answer him, instead she just glowed. Once the light had died down the room was thankfully clean. She stumbled slightly as she made her way to an empty bed, Wesley only raised an eyebrow as she lay down and patted a space next to her and silently invited him to join her.

"I'm so tired"

Wesley scoffed "I did try to-"

"Not today, well not just today" she amended.

"This last year has been difficult" Wesley understated.

This time Cordy scoffed. "Difficult, Wes you had to deal with Billy bringing out your dark side, Fred choosing Gunn, a false prophecy that led you betray your family, had your throat slit by psycho Justine, Connor had to live in a hell dimension because of said betrayal, Angel tried to kill you, your family abandoned you, you started to shag Lilah fricken' Morgan of all people, essentially joined Wolfram and Hart, fell in love with Lilah 'she devil' Morgan, dealt with Angelus, the Beast, Evil Me, Evil Me killing Lilah, her death, breaking out Faith, sacrificing Faith to stop Angelus, ending world peace, and now 48 hours later you're fighting the First Evil back in Sunnyhell of all places, you find out the Council has been destroyed along with every member of your family except Molly who was lucky, and now we've discovered that the First Evil has just taken 9 innocent lives from right under our noses. God Wesley! Difficult doesn't even come close, and that was just what happened to you in the last year!"

He didn't reply, what could he say, she was right, so he just grabbed her hand, she squeezed tight and held on. They had both missed the small contact, and savoured the moment.

"God, do you remember when the only thing we were worried about was saving the innocents in my visions and paying the bills, then the innocents became 'helping the hopeless' and now the fate of the world rests on own shoulders." Cordy began to laugh, "Oh we are so screwed Wesley, I don't know what to do, and everything/everyone is so messed up. If only we had more time. The stakes are so high, its our world, our dimension and I'm supposed to be this higher lower being or lower higher being I never did figure out which, anyway the world is ending and my family is holding on by a thread and I don't know how to fix it." Wesley just lay there as her laughter turned into sobs, he knew she needed to vent, he was glad he was able to witness it, she had been to assured and confident earlier, the Sunnydale contingent wouldn't notice it but he knew how soft Cordelia Chase really was, her strength was amazing but her heart was easily broken. Wesley held his best friend tight, and shed a tear, he had stonewall erected around his heart for so long that it only began to break as he witnessed the tears of his best friend, who they all seemed to forget was only 23. In the end he shed a tear for them all, Buffy, Xander, Willow, Faith, Gunn, Fred, Dawn and Connor all of them under 25 and they all had been fighting too long. And now these potentials 9 dead already and many of them not yet 16.

Cordy slowly began to realise that Wesley was crying as well, she was grateful, the cold isolated man she had been reunited with before was not her best friend, she had been worried about his silence. In the end she held her best friend who had lost everything and was thankful that she was able to. Once they had run out of tears no words were needed, they were family. Wesley broke the silence "I missed you".

"I missed you too."

"We all did, especially-"

"Wes don't"

"You need to fix this Cordelia; we can't fight each other and the First."

"I know; I just don't know how. We used to be so close now all we can do is hurt each other. I think it's too late Wes, we've done too much or not enough, I just don't know anymore."

"I remember when I first saw you and Angel in LA, I was so jealous at the bond you had, it was so strong I wanted no I needed to be apart of it. Trust me Cordelia, I've only seen bonds like that strengthen, Seer and Champion. It's sealed by the Fates. You'll find your way back to each other again. I know it. Maybe you can't see the way because you're already on it."

The ex watcher and seer/higher lower being or lower higher being spent the rest of the night contemplating the past, the future and all that lay between and savouring the other's presence. They spent the night mourning the unnecessary deaths of 9 girls and began the process of slowly healing each other of wounds long festering.

AN Thanks to Justawritier, Avana45 and Lea for their kind thoughts. This quick update was for you guys, you all inspired my fingers to type. PS: Lea just checked out your site it's FAB, everybody go check out Wereleopard's Lair, it's got some great fics. And you totally got me hooked on BSG so on that not update your BSG fic! Hint Hint! Thanks everybody for reading I still need help with minor villians (justawritier- i have plans for lindsay), Thanks, Inara:).