A Buffy the Vampire Slayer YAHF
by P.H. Wise
Part 1 – Infection
Disclaimer: Buffy the Vampire Slayer is Joss Whedon's baby, and belongs to Mutant Enemy. I am not Joss Whedon. No copyright infringement is intended; please don't sue me. I'm not making any money off of this.
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Dawn Summers should not have existed yet, and as it was, she barely did. The monks who would fashion her human existence to hide her from Glorificus had only just become aware of the first stirrings of the hell-god's power, and were nowhere near actually fashioning a human vessel for The Key. Cause and effect, that's how it works, isn't it? You do a thing, and the consequences ripple forward in time from the moment of action. A little less than three years from now, the monks of the Order of Dagon created Dawn Summers. But time can be a fluid thing when eternal beings are involved; when The Key became human, the consequences rippled not only forward in time, but also back; each moment forward in time that Dawn Summers lived became another moment backwards in time that Dawn Summers had lived. It probably wouldn't have mattered if Janus hadn't become involved through his servant, Ethan Rayne. But when Janus is involved, things tend to get a bit murky. The two-faced god of gates, of doors, of beginnings and of endings had always had an interest in chaos; tonight, he would not be disappointed.
Some people just can't leave well enough alone.
In the October of 1997, the shadow that Dawn Summers cast backwards in time was barely real – not that Dawn had ever really been 'real' - but there it was. On the street outside of Ethan's costume shop, a twelve year old Dawn Summers followed Buffy, Xander, and Willow at a distance, wishing she were anywhere but here.
"Keep up, Dawnie," Buffy called over her shoulder, and Dawn glared murderously at her sister.
It was bad enough having to go trick or treating with Buffy (although she didn't mind the fact that Xander would be there – it was almost worth it for that) instead of with her own friends, but now Dawn found out that her Mom had to stay on late at the Gallery and wouldn't be able to take her costume shopping. That meant she had to go with Buffy. Joy. "Hold your horses," Dawn grumbled as she followed the others into the store. Why did she have to do this with Buffy of all people? Buffy wasn't even cool. She'd just answered that question in her own train of thought, of course, but nobody ever said not-quite-teenagers had to be logical, and knowing why certainly didn't stop the whole thing from being terribly unfair.
The store was full of mothers with their children, come in search of Halloween costumes. As they entered the store, Buffy turned around and looked her sister in the eye. "All right Dawn. Go pick out your costume," she said, and that was all. Her attention returned to her friends, and seeing their easy camaraderie, Dawn couldn't help but feel just a little bit resentful. Buffy and her friends dispersed into the store, and Dawn was alone.
She stood there in the middle of the crowd full of unfamiliar faces, and for a moment she felt a sense of vertigo. She reached out to steady herself on a nearby costume rack, and in so doing, turned her head towards the far corner of the store. A gleam of reddish leather caught her eye. Once she'd recovered, lacking any other inspiration, Dawn made her way towards it. She stopped along the way to look at several costumes, but each time, she inevitably returned the chosen costume to the rack with nary a second glance. Only two outfits actually caught her interest sufficiently that she gave them more than a cursory first glance: a Xena costume, and an ornate looking ceremonial robe-esque costume that she didn't immediately recognize, but she thought looked 'hella cool.' She let out a thoughtful 'hmm,' giving the Xena outfit a good look. Let's call that one 'possibility #1.' She put it aside for the moment and turned to the cool looking ceremonial robe. The tag said it was from some Japanese anime or another, and that soured her to it pretty quickly. Nobody cool watched anime. Dawn was nearly set and ready to take the Xena costume to the register when, out of the corner of her eye, she caught a second glimpse of light glinting off of reddish leather.
Dawn turned, and her breath caught in her throat.
There, sitting on a stand all its own, a suit of mottled leather armor was on display. At first glance it seemed a dusky red, but a closer look revealed deep blues and blacks interspersed all throughout. Well, really it was more of a catsuit than armor. She blinked, looking more closely at the costume. Why had she thought it was a suit of armor? She found she had no answer. Something about it was incredibly compelling, though – familiar, even – on a level her conscious mind couldn't quite grasp.
An unkind male voice spoke from behind her. "Found something you like?" he asked.
Dawn turned. Oh. It was just the store's owner. Ethan something or other. "What's this costume?" she asked. Were the patterns on the leather actually moving where she'd touched it? No. It had to be her imagination.
Ethan smiled thinly, giving Dawn a calculating look that made her feel distinctly uncomfortable. "Ah yes, that. That is an Illyria costume. She was quite the sensation during the early 80's. She was a superhero, you know. Powerful. Unfortunately, her writers died in a tragic accident, and nobody ever picked up the rights after that."
Dawn nodded, and despite the discomfort that Ethan's presence engendered, could not help but stare at the costume. "It's beautiful," she said in a near whisper.
Looking as though he had just arrived at a decision, Ethan nodded. "Yes it is. If I may say so, that is rather a unique costume; it's the only one of its kind. There were others made, of course, but that is the only one that survived the fire at the factory where they were being produced."
"Was that the accident you said happened to Illyria's writers?"
"It's a sad tale," Ethan said. "Did you want to buy it?"
Dawn nodded. "But I don't think I can afford it... and it looks too big."
"Oh, I think you'll be surprised at how well it fits, and I am prepared to make a very generous deal."
Dawn smiled. Maybe her initial reaction to the man had been wrong. He seemed nice. "OK. Let me go get my sister. She's the one with the money."
"Of course," he replied.
A few minutes later, Buffy stood with Dawn in front of the costume, looking utterly nonplused. "You want that?" she asked.
"Please?"
"I don't know," Buffy said, shaking her head, "I think Mom would flip out if she saw you wearing something like that. Why don't you wait a few years? Like, till you're thirty. How about this one?" she held up a TinkerBell costume taken from a nearby rack.
Dawn gritted her teeth, thoroughly incensed. "I'm twelve years old! I'm not a little kid anymore, and I want THIS one!" she jabbed a finger at the catsuit.
Buffy sighed. "Fine, whatever, just don't come running to me when Mom grounds you for wearing something like that."
Dawn brightened immediately, her anger forgotten in an instant. "Thanks, Buffy!"
Ethan smiled darkly.
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Suddenly, Dawn realized that her surroundings had utterly changed. Where was she? Why was Buffy's boyfriend (she couldn't remember his name) lying on the ground, broken and bleeding? She stood in the middle of an old warehouse, children in costumes all around, some of them injured. How did she get here...? The pace of her breathing quickened as panic set in, and soon she was in danger of hyperventilating. "Mom?" she called. "Buffy?"
The last thing she remembered was being out with Buffy and Xander and a bunch of little kids, trick or treating out on Revello Drive...
"Hi, honey. I'm home."
That was Buffy's voice! She turned just in time to see Buffy beat the living daylights out of some blonde guy with a length of pipe. When she was done, she twirled the length of pipe in her hands, tossed it aside, and smiled. "It's good to be me."
Dawn stared at her sister. What was going on? What in God's name was going on? Had Buffy really just killed that guy with a length of pipe? "Buffy?" she asked.
Buffy's eyes widened, and she turned towards Dawn. There was an unfamiliar look in Buffy's eyes, and for a moment, Dawn couldn't figure out what it was. Then it occurred to her: it was fear. Buffy was afraid of her?
"Dawnie?" Buffy asked cautiously.
"Buffy," Dawn said, close to tears, "How did I get here?" There was outright panic in her voice.
The fear faded from Buffy's eyes, and she gathered Dawn into a fierce hug. The children around them were complaining loudly, but neither sister paid it much mind. "It's going to be OK, Dawn," Buffy said.
Dawn believed her. The sense of panic subsided.
"You ok, Buff?" Xander asked.
Xander! Dawn turned in the direction of his voice, took in his blackening eye, and frowned. Someone had hurt Xander?
"Yeah. But what about..." she trailed off, looking down at her thoroughly beaten boyfriend. "Angel!" she said, and rushed to his side.
Angel groaned faintly, tried to sit up, but found he couldn't.
"Angel, can you move?" Buffy asked.
Angel's eyes opened, and they met Buffy's. "Illyria," he began, "Is she...?"
Buffy nodded. "She's gone. Thank God. The spell was only temporary."
'Illyria? Why were they talking about the character I dressed up as?' Dawn wondered silently.
"Xander, can you get these kids back to where they belong? I need to see to Angel, and to Dawn," Buffy said.
Xander nodded, looked at Dawn, and set to work.
"Buffy," Dawn began, moving over to where her sister was kneeling over Angel's form, "What happened? Why is Angel hurt?" That sense of panic was starting to come back, and when neither Angel nor Buffy said a word, it only got worse.
It was only then that she realized that her costume had changed. It had been too big for her when she'd bought it – she'd had to wear two extra layers of clothing under it just to fit inside the thing – but now it fit her perfectly, and the extra layers of clothing were gone. 'Did I grow, or did it shrink?' Everything felt different. Her center of gravity was off, and Buffy looked... shorter.
Buffy must have noticed Dawn's perplexed look. She took a deep breath. "We've got a lot to talk about, Dawn," she said. "But the important thing is, you're going to be OK. Everything is going to be OK."
Dawn nodded silently, looking at Buffy expectantly. Then she frowned. She felt a little weird.
Buffy grimaced. "Giles tells it so much better than I do. We should get him to do this."
Angel finally managed to sit up, his vampiric healing having kicked in at last. "Why doesn't she remember anything?" he asked.
"Hey, not complaining. Anyways, Dawn," she glanced at Dawn, and trailed off.
Dawn had collapsed to the floor.
"Dawn? DAWN!"
But Buffy's calls seemed like a far distant thing. Her world had faded to a pinprick point of light, and just before that point faded into the darkness of unconsciousness, Dawn heard Buffy cry out, "Call an ambulance!"
END PART ONE
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Author's notes: As for the specifics of what happened to Dawn in the time she can't remember, there will be flashbacks to that throughout the story. I wanted to keep the actual 'Halloween' bits to a minimum, however. We've all seen the episode, and there's absolutely no need to transcribe the whole thing to a fanfic.