Chapter 20. Earth Bound. End of ep 2.

Dawn walks over to Connor, still with her head down. She lifts her head and looks into his blue eyes. Then she lifts her hand to grab his hand.

"I'm so sorry," says Dawn as she takes his hand and almost immediately Connor gets the vision of the man who put a sword into his mother and killed her. Connor bows his head and tries not to let the tears run down. He then pulls Dawn close to him and hugs her tightly as Dawn continues to apologize and sob.

Spike arrives at the front entrance and sees Dawn and Connor hugging and then he sees the head of the monster on the floor.

"What I miss?" asks Spike.

Connor kisses Dawn on the forehead as he releases her from the hug and then he looks into her blue eyes, which are filled with tears. He takes a deep breath, still holding onto those tears of sadness for his mother's death.

"It's not your fault, Dawn," says Connor. "At least you're okay." Dawn's sad expression turns into a happier expression. Connor wipes her tears away and then he takes her hand. The two walk back to the main entrance of the palace then at that moment, Giles comes out from the entrance.

"Dawn," says Giles. "Are you alright?" Dawn nods her head and looks at Connor.

"I can't say the same for Connor's mom," says Dawn as she bows her head. Giles walks over to the two. Connor gives him an 'I'm not scared of you face.' Giles looks at Dawn, who squeezes Connor's hand tighter.

"I'm sorry for your loss," says Giles. He puts his hand on his shoulder. "But don't forget…" Dawn and Connor look at Giles. "You've got a family here."

Dawn is happy that Giles didn't rip his throat out or scream at Connor for the incident earlier. She then goes over to Giles and gives him a big hug. Giles is surprised at why Dawn would hug him for what he said. Tara and Lorne come over to Connor.

"Giles is right," says Tara. "You're part of our family."

"Welcome to the big, crazy, and wacky royal family," says Lorne with a smile. This made Connor break a smile of his own.

"Kid, get out of it while you still can," says Spike as he walks over to Connor. "It's a dangerous life." Connor nods his head and then turns his head to look at Dawn as she pulls away from Giles and smiles at him.

"What about the prisoner?" asks Connor. "Where is she?"
"A prisoner?" asks Dawn.

"Yes, a woman came in with the monsters," says Giles.

"Where is she now?"

"In the dungeon," says Cordy as she comes out of the palace. "She's our only prisoner."

"We should have killed her," says Connor in an angry tone.

"No. She may be our only lead to the dark warriors and these monsters," says Dawn. "We need to question her. Find out who she is. Everything."

They all enter the palace and call for the townspeople to return home and that everything is safe once again. The corpses of the monsters were tossed out into a large containment. A couple days go by and they start to reek. Lorne, though he never uses his other special abilities, says a spell that makes the corpses disappear into thin air.

"You've got to teach me that," says Dawn to Lorne.

"Sweetie, it may look easy but it's hard work," says Lorne. "We seers should stick to seeing stuff instead of conjuring. It leads to the dark side and we don't want that." Lorne looks at Connor, who sees him looking at him.

Everything is becoming normal again and the palace has a ceremony for those who died in battle. Dawn heads to Connor's room to get him. She knocks at the door, but he doesn't answer. She then opens it and enters the room.

"Connor?" calls Dawn as she walks inside. Connor is sitting on the edge of his bed, looking at nothing. Dawn walks over to him and puts her hand on his shoulder. He then realizes that she is in the room. "The ceremony is about to start." Connor looks at Dawn and then he turns to look at his fist.

"I'll be right there," says Connor in a low tone. "Just give me a minute." Dawn nods her head and leaves the room. Connor then opens his fist and in his hand is a beautiful diamond ring, which his mother gave to him the last time she saw him. His mother saw the future and she saw that he and Dawn were going to be married some day and so she decided to give him this ring, so he can give to Dawn.

Flashback…

"Here," says Darla as she hands Connor a beautiful diamond ring. "I think you'd have better use of it than I would."

"Mom, I can't," says Connor trying to return the ring to her.

"Yes, you can. You have a love in your life. It's all I've ever hoped for you."

"When the time comes, you'll be there. You can give it me then."

"I don't think I will."

"Don't say that."

"Sweetheart, I love you and I want you to promise me something." Darla caresses Connor's face.

"What?"

"Don't be angry when I'm gone."

"But I…"

"Shhh, promise me that." Connor looks down and holds in his tears.

"I promise." Connor nods his head and Darla grabs him close and hugs him tightly. She kisses his head.

"Be good, my son. Always be good." Darla whispers into his ear.

End of flashback…

Connor lowers his head and then puts the ring into one of his pockets. He grabs a glass cup from the nightstand and breaks it in his hand. His hand starts to bleed, but he just looks at it breathing heavily. He looks down and closes his eyes and wipes away a single tear that falls down his cheek.

It's always hard to lose someone you love, even if that someone that you loved you just met. For Connor, he knew his mother his whole life and that's how the old saying goes that we will all end up kind of like our parents. Somehow, someway, that could be true because time repeats itself like a cycle.

But there is one thing that could stop that and that is free will. We are who we are and we live the life we choose to live. In a galaxy far far away or in a small planet awaiting its doom. Life throws us curve balls that we can't catch and it's hard when we don't catch the ball and we end up changing our ways of thinking.

After six months, there was nothing anyone could do but let time pass. Day by day things will become normal again, but for Connor it was difficult. Connor every night sneaks into Dawn's room and she consoles him by holding him tight and telling him that everything is fine. He has become so closed that his visions have disappeared and he no longer sees anything of the future with him or Dawn. It's all a blank.

The mind grows fonder of events that happened in the past. Disasters and tragedies always haunt us and will never leave us in peace, until we can come to terms with them. For Connor, his only remedy for his emotional turmoil is summed up in only one single word. Breaking his promise to his mother, Connor only wants revenge.