Chapter 17: Innocence
January 22, 1998 - Thursday
Buffy walked through the library's double doors.
"Buffy!" Willow said. "Where's Faith and Dawn?"
"Heading home I think," said Buffy.
"What happened?" Chloe asked.
Giles took a breath. "The Judge . . . is he?"
"No assembly required," Buffy confirmed. "He's active."
"Damnit." Giles pulled off his glasses.
Buffy continued, "He alerted Spike and Drusilla to our presence. She had to portal us out as the vampires surrounded us. Dawn drove us back here so I could fill you guys in."
"Then we must stop him," said Giles.
"Maybe without Dawn and Faith?" suggested Buffy. "Let them have some couple time."
"That might be a good idea," agreed Chloe.
"What can you tell us?" Giles asked.
"Other than, that he is active, not much," admitted Buffy. "We didn't see him use his powers. But given that we weren't affected he must have to touch someone to do his thing."
"In time he won't need to," Giles said anxiously. "The stronger he gets; he'll be able to reduce us to charcoal with a look."
"Also?" Buffy added. "Not the prettiest man in town."
Giles sighed in frustration. "Chloe, you and I shoulder continue researching, look for the weak spot Dawn thinks he has. The rest of you should get try and get some sleep before classes in the morning."
"I better go, too," Jenny said, moving toward the door. "I'll go on the Net and search for anything on the Judge."
"Thank you," Giles said as she leaned over and kissed Jenny.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Across town the rain poured down. Dawn snuggled cozily against her pillow and reached for Faith.
Faith wasn't there.
She opened her eyes and slowly sat up pulling the sheets across her chest.
Lightning flashed outside as she glanced across the room.
"Faith?" she called, almost a whisper.
"Dawn?" said Faith as she ran into the room. She saw the look of relief on her girlfriend's face. "Another?"
"No," said Dawn. "Just when you weren't here lying next to me, my mind just jumped straight into worrying.
"I'm here," Faith told Dawn as she smiled. "In fact, I have something for you."
Dawn looked at Faith for a moment in confusion. Then Faith tossed her something and she caught it. She looked down and saw a ring box in her hand.
"Chloe and Buffy helped me pick it out," said Faith. "I was going to wait a couple more months and do this on your eighteenth birthday in October. But I think now is would be better."
Dawn opened the ring box and looked inside at the diamond engagement ring sitting there. She looked up in time to see Faith get down on one knee.
"Dawn Summers, will you make me the happiest woman in the world and marry me?"
"Yes," answered Dawn as she smiled. Faith stood and took the ring box from her. She held up her hand and Faith slid the ring onto her finger. It was at that moment she realized that she had completely changed Faith's fate. The person before her was not the person who had problems with commitments. The person before her had moved on from the trauma she had received at the hands of her parents. The person in front of her had found herself deeply and completely in love with her. And that person in front of her was not leaving her ever again.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Buffy walked into her house. "Mom?" she called out.
"Did you get the demon?" Joyce said as she rounded the corner from the dining room into the front hall.
"Sadly, no," answered Buffy. She was glad that Dawn had come from the future and forced her to reveal to her mother about the Slayer. "Did Dawn pick up Elizabeth?"
"No," answered Joyce. "She called, told me that you were safe and asked me to keep Elizabeth for the rest of the night. Marie currently is watching her while I made breakfast. You hungry?"
"A little," said Buffy.
Joyce nodded as she led Buffy into the kitchen. "Once you're done, you should have just enough time for a quick shower before I take you and Marie to school."
"Thanks," Buffy said. "Mom, I'm worried about Dawn."
"I know," said Joyce as Buffy looked at her quizzically. "Chloe told me that Dawn has been having dreams about Faith getting killed. Given everything she went through in the other timeline. To have the possibility she can't save someone, must be hard."
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
In the factory, Dru was reclining on a long shelf, dreaming, smiling, moaning with pleasure.
"Are we feeling better, then?" Spike asked her.
She sighed and put her hand to her forehead. "I'm naming all the stars."
"You can't see the stars, love," he said, trying to sound patient. "That's the ceiling. Also, it's day."
She smiled a secret smile. "I can see them. But I've named them all the same name, and there's terrible confusion." She rolled seductively toward him. "I fear there may be a duel."
He leaned his head toward hers. She saw his lovely scars and wanted to reach out and touch them, name them, too.
"Recovered then, have we? Did you see any further? Do you know what happens to the Slayer from the future?"
"Well, she dies."
Spike and Dru turned and looked at the voice.
"Who are you, mate?" asked Spike.
"The name is Nakamura," answered the vampire. "And I am here to finish what I started with the Slayer's sister."
"You killed one of them?" asked Spike.
"Not from your perspective I haven't," answered Nakamura. "But from when I am from, yes. I killed Buffy Summers."
"When you are from?" asked Spike confused.
"He like her has come to change how things go," answered Drusilla.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Dawn was the happiest she had ever been when she and Faith arrived in the library school. "Anything?" she asked Chloe and Giles.
"This book mentions the Judge, but nothing useful." Answered Chloe. "No weapon forged can stop him, took an army to take him down, blah, blah, blah." She turned and for the first time noticed how happy Dawn was. "You are in a good mood this morning."
"I am," admitted Dawn. "Thanks to you and Buffy for helping Faith."
"Helping Faith with what?" Giles wondered.
Dawn held up her hand and showed Giles the engagement ring.
Giles looked at the ring and then at Faith. "You proposed?"
"That I did," said Faith. "Originally I was going to wait for her birthday in October. But I decided instead to do it this morning."
"We're going to wait till after graduation to actually tie the knot though," said Dawn. "That said, Giles, I would like it when the time comes for you to walk me down the aisle."
Giles smiled as he moved to Dawn and embraced her. He couldn't be prouder that she would ask him to have the honor of giving her away. "I would like that," he said.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Later that evening, Xander and Willow were heading for the library to resume the search for a way to kill the Judge.
"So where do we stand?" she asked.
"Unless Chloe and Giles found something during the day, on a pile of really boring books that say exactly the same thing," he admitted.
"Let me guess. 'No weapon forged . . .'"
"'It took an army . . .'"
"Huh. Yeah, where's an army when you need one?" she asked, rather bitterly.
Xander blinked. Hard. Army?
"What?" Willow asked.
"Whoa. Whoa." His mind was racing. "I think I'm having a thought. Yeah. Yeah, that's a thought. Now I'm having a plan."
The lights in the hallway went out.
Xander said, "And now I'm having a wiggins."
"What's going on?" Willow asked anxiously.
He took her arm and they both started down the corridor as Xander said, "Let's get back to the library."
"Can you help me?" a voice called softly behind them. "When the lights went out I lost my sense of direction."
They turned. The muted silhouette of a tall guy stood beside the illuminated trophy case.
"Who are you?" Xander asked.
"Nakamura," the guy answered. "New transfer student, I started today. What's up with the lights?"
"I don't know," Xander said.
"Can you two help me find the library?" Nakamura asked. "I need to get a book for class tomorrow."
"Sure …" Willow said. "It's just this way."
"Thanks," Nakamura said as he walked down the corridor toward the pair. He had almost reached them when a woman came out of the door behind them.
"Will, Xander, get away from him," said Dawn. She knew she had told Buffy that she hadn't known how her sister had died. It was partially true, she didn't know how, she just knew it was the same vampire that stood in front of her that had killed her sister.
"Ah, Slayer," Nakamura said as Willow and Xander looked at him and saw his vampiric visage, his eyes glowing golden.
Willow and Xander quickly and quietly moved behind Dawn.
"I had a measure for you," Nakamura continued. "Your sister was not the first Slayer I killed, nor will she be the last. But before I kill you and her again. You will watch as everyone you love dies a painful death."
Dawn realized that this was the vampire that had killed Buffy in her original timeline. That somehow, he, like herself, had traveled backward in time. "The First sent you, didn't it?" she asked.
"You win a prize," said Nakamura smiling a perfectly evil smile. "And what you have won is the choice of who will die first!"
"No one is dying, today."
Dawn, Xander and Willow noticed that Buffy was standing behind Nakamura.
Nakamura advanced on Buffy, grabbing her, looming over her. He brought his face close to hers. "I killed you once, and of course you are not at the level you will be then. But I want you to watch first as those around you die. Things are about to get very interesting." He then threw Buffy away from himself.
Buffy hit the floor as her back smacked the wall. Nakamura backed through the exit doors, obviously savoring his handiwork, and left.
Dawn ran to her sister. "Buffy," she demanded urgently, "are you okay?"
Buffy looked up in her sister's eyes. "He killed me, he said it. You lied."
"Not per say," answered Dawn. "I don't know how he killed you. That is the truth. I only know it was him because Willow told me just before I came back."
"How does he have knowledge of his future self?" asked Xander.
"The First sent him to balance me out," said Dawn. "I believe he is here to make sure that things do not change, so that the First still wins."
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
After Nakamura split, everyone convened in the library. Giles paced around the study desk as Jenny and Chloe looked on. Buffy, Dawn, Faith and the others were seated at the table.
"So this Nakamura," said Giles. "You are sure he is from your future?"
"Not one hundred percent," answered Dawn. "But I believe he could be yes. I believe the First sent him back to nullify the changes I make."
"And he is the one who killed Buffy in your future?" asked Chloe.
"According to Willow, yes," said Dawn with a sigh. "I don't know how. Willow never told me that. She just told me it was him."
"He said about all of us dying first," said Willow.
Cordelia grimaced at Willow. "What are we going to do?"
"Do you know anything about him, anything at all?" asked Chloe.
"Nothing," said Dawn.
"Then we will look into him. For the time being we should focus on the Judge," said Giles.
"On that front, I have a plan," Xander announced. "I think I may need Cordelia and Dawn for it. Cordelia for the acquisition and Dawn to transport."
"Care to let me in on the plan that I'm a part of?" Cordelia asked.
Xander shook his head. "No."
"Why not?" She got out of her chair.
"'Cause if I tell you what it is, you won't do it. Just meet me at Dawn's in half an hour. And wear something trashy—" He gave her a once-over, "—er."
Insulted, Cordelia opened her mouth in protest and followed him out.
Dawn too followed them out.
"While they are doing that we should start looking into this Nakamura," suggested Buffy. "At least to pass the time. Because I have to say I don't want to die again. And I really don't want to put Dawn through my dying again either."
"Let's motor," said Faith as she headed into the stacks.
Giles and Chloe headed into the office to look through the Watcher's Chronicles.
"Buffy?" said Willow cautiously. "Are you scared?"
"Big time wigged," admitted Buffy. "He killed me in the future, how can I stop something that already succeeded once."
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Nakamura was counting coup, telling his story, savoring his victory. Cradling her doll, Miss Edith, Dru hung on every word. "You should have seen her face. It was priceless."
He hopped up on the storage table and sat on the shelving. "I'll never forget it." In sheer contentment, he crossed his legs at the ankles and sat back.
"So, you didn't kill them then?" Spike sounded less than thrilled.
"Of course not," Nakamura shot back, not loving Spike's attitude.
"I don't know about the time you came from, but in the here and now we do still kill people. It's sort of our raison d'être, you know." Spike spoke as if he were talking to a moron.
"You don't want to just kill them, do you," Dru guessed. She extended her two fingers and rammed them into Miss Edith's eyes. "You want to hurt them. Like Angel hurt me." She grinned brilliantly at him.
"Yes," he agreed.
"They'd better not get in our way," Spike said firmly.
Nakamura waved his hand. "Don't worry about it."
Spike was giving no quarter. "I do."
"Spike." Nakamura flared. He slammed his hand down on a large wooden box. "My boy." Sent the box sliding down the shelving. "You really don't get it, do you?" He stood up, gestured toward Spike in his chair, and laughed at the skinny, white-haired vamp. "You tried to kill them and you couldn't. Look at you. You're a wreck. They're both stronger than any Slayer you've ever faced."
He hopped down a step, toward Spike. "Force," he explained, "won't get it done. You got to work from the inside. To kill this girl," he leaned forward in delicious anticipation, "you have to love her."
"Love her?" asked Spike.
Nakamura smiled. "In my future. Not only did I kill Buffy, I turned her. She became mine in every way when she rose the next night. The only reason she is not here at my side is because the witch killed her. I want both the witch and little Dawnie to suffer as I kill everyone they love before finally turning my love. And then when Buffy rises, she will put an end to the future that Dawn wants to create as Buffy kills her and the witch. But first I must ensure that Buffy dies a second time and is resurrected by the witch to ensure the First has the power to take over."
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
At the library Chloe stepped out of the office a book in hand. "I've found him. He was turned in the sixteen twenties. The first Slayer he faced was Rei Mori. Hurt her so bad that for a while she wound up paralyzed. He waited for her body to heal and when she went back to take him out, he killed her. The next Slayer he faced was Margueritte Allard, she too died at his hands in seventeen ninety-nine. She is also the last Slayer he has yet to face."
"Till he kills me in the future," said Buffy with a sigh.
Chloe set the book down and pulled her girlfriend into her arms. "He won't kill you this time. I'm not letting that happen, Buffy. I promise."
"I'm not letting it happen either," added Willow.
"Or I," added Faith.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
Outside the Sunnydale army base a portal snapped into existence as Cordelia, Xander and Dawn stepped out.
"Text me, when you've found what it is you are looking for," said Dawn as she looked at the 'trashier' outfit that Cordelia wore.
Xander cut a swath in the chain-link fence that bordered the street. He pulled it back and ducked under easily. Cordelia followed after. "Security here is really a joke. I really should report it."
"Who am I supposed to be again?" Cordelia asked nervously.
"You're supposed to be a girl. Think you can handle it?"
She smacked him.
"Halt!" someone ordered. Xander and Cordelia froze and raised their arms. "Identify yourself right the hell now."
Xander tried not to stammer. "Private Harris, with the, uh, Thirty-third."
"Thirty-third is on maneuvers," the guard said suspiciously.
"Right. I'm on leave." He and Cordy turned around. "From them." The guard had on cammies and rain gear, and his rifle was pointed straight up in the air.
"You always spend your leave snooping around the armory, buddy?" The guy was trying to sound tough. He was good at it. "And who is she?"
"Hi. I'm not a soldier," Cordelia said brightly. She looked at Xander. "Right?"
Xander walked up to the guy, a little more up close and personal. "Look, I just want to give her the tour. You know what I'm saying?"
The soldier wasn't getting it. "The tour?"
Xander moved into man-to-man mode. "Well, you know the ladies. They love to see the big guns. Gets 'em all hot and bothered. Can you cut me some slack, give me a blind eye?"
"And why should I?" tough guy asked.
"Well, if you do, I won't tell Colonel Newsome that your shoes aren't regulation, your post wasn't covered, and you hold your gun like a sissy girl."
While he was talking, Xander grabbed his rifle and thrust it into the guy's hands the way he was supposed to hold it, across his chest.
The threat worked. The guard said, "You got twenty minutes, nimrod."
"I just need five," Xander assured him. Then he thought better of that. "Uh, forget I said that last part."
He opened the brown door marked Secured Area for Cordelia.
On the other side, they wandered in dim light among dozens of weapons of all shapes and sizes.
"Okay, what was that?" Cordelia asked. "And who are you?"
Xander closed and locked the door. "Remember Halloween? When, thanks to Dawn, I didn't get turned into a soldier?"
"Yeah."
"When I heard about that I did some research to try and acquire some of the skills and knowledge that I lost out on that day in case it might come in handy later," said Xander.
"Well, I'm sort of impressed," she conceded, smiling. "But let's just find the thing and get out of here."
"Okay."
She sat on a crate. "So, looking at guns makes girls want to have sex? That's scary."
"Yeah, I guess." Xander scrutinized the supplies.
"Well, does looking at guns make you want to have sex?"
"I'm seventeen," he said flatly. "Looking at linoleum makes me want to have sex." He found what he was looking for as he pulled out his cell and texted Dawn. A second later a portal formed and Dawn stepped out of it.
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
At the factory, the Judge was dressed in a coarse brown robe. "I am ready," he intoned.
"'Bout time," Spike grumbled.
Dru sat on his lap and made sorry-you-can't-come little moans as she tenderly kissed him goodbye. He sat stoically, "Have a good time."
"What happens if your girlfriend and her sister show up?" Spike asked.
"I'm going to give Buffy a kiss," Nakamura said breezily. "A hint at her future." He looked at the Judge. "Don't you look spiffy."
The Judge muttered, "Spiffy?"
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
In Giles's office, Xander and Dawn deposited an oblong wooden crate on his desk. Back in the library, Faith, Cordelia and Willow were loading weapons into a gym bag.
"Happy Birthday, Buffy," Xander said. "I hope you like the color."
Buffy stepped forward, observing while Giles took a crowbar to the lid.
"We'll hit the factory first, but we may not find them," said Chloe. "It would have helped if you had known, Dawn."
"I know," said Dawn with a sigh. "But since I don't, we need to figure out where they go."
"Agreed," Chloe and Giles said.
Giles pried open the lid. He threw it back.
Buffy gazed at the contents. "This is good."
Then they went to the factory.
It was deserted, the party favors gone, the highbacked chairs stripped of flowers and vines.
"Now we have to figure out where they would go," said Dawn.
"Somewhere crowded," suggested Buffy. "I mean, the Judge needs bodies, right?"
"The Bronze?" Willow suggested.
"It's closed tonight," Xander told her.
"There's not a lot of choices in Sunnydale," Cordelia pointed out. "It's not like people are going to line up to get massacred."
"I think I know," said Jenny. "The only place open that would have people by the dozens."
0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0
The Sunnydale Mall.
More specifically, the mall multiplex.
Nakamura, Drusilla and several vampires escorted the Judge to the upper level.
As if on cue, an oblivious businessman carrying a briefcase walked up the stairs, directly into the Judge's line of fire. The Judge stretched out his left hand, shooting energy at the man. The man began to burn, just as Dalton had. Fire blazed from his eye sockets, and then the flames flared out from inside his body. Within seconds, he was entirely consumed.
Satisfied, Nakamura said to the vampires, "Lock the exits." And to the Judge, "It's all yours."
The Judge looked pretty darn happy about that.
The elevator doors opened, and Dawn and Buffy led the way. Giles and Chloe came up behind them, carrying the oblong box between them.
"Everybody keep back. Damage control only," Buffy ordered, as they marched down the mall. "Take out
any lesser vamps if you can. Dawn and I'll handle the Smurf."
The Judge took up position on the stairway, flanked by Nakamura and Drusilla. The shoppers continued on their way, no one having noticed the annihilation of the businessman.
The Judge opened wide his arms. Fiery pulses emanated from him, connecting to the humans closest to him, then shooting directly through them to others, and to others. It was a connect-the-dots web of energy. The Judge was loving it.
Dru bounced on her heels and cooed, "Oh, goody."
Then Dawn shot an arrow directly into the Judge's chest. He winced, stumbling backward, which turned off his power. The people he had attacked staggered and gasped, but for the most part, were alive.
He pulled the arrow from his chest, breaking it off in the process.
"Who dares?" he bellowed.
Dawn and Buffy kept their positions. They were about fifty yards away from the Judge, who was standing at the top of a double set of stairs.
"I think I got his attention," Dawn said with a sideways glance at her sister.
The Judge addressed the Slayers directly. "You two are fools. No weapon forged can stop me."
"That was then." Buffy said as she took a rocket launcher from Chloe. "This is now." She put it on her shoulder, and aimed. It made a whining noise as it armed itself.
The shoppers started screaming and scattering.
She flicked the switch, took aim.
Across the building, Nakamura and Drusilla hurtled themselves forward, they abandoned the Judge, who asked, with mild curiosity and a touch of concern, "What's that do?"
Nakamura and Dru leaped over the stairway balcony as Buffy pulled the trigger. The package screamed straight for the Judge, made impact, and blew him to bits. His vampire companions were thrown forward by the blast. Drusilla and Nakamura both landed hard, as tiny fragments of the Judge rained down on them like a scattershot of rock.
Nakamura got to his feet and disappeared. Dru was left behind, completely wigging out, scurrying away in a paroxysm of whimpering. The vampires trailed after her.
Dawn and Buffy took a moment to register the kill as smoke from the blast billowed toward the ceiling. The others peeked from where they had hidden.
"My best present ever," Buffy said to Xander, handing him the rocket launcher.
Xander took it from her. "Knew you'd like it."
"Do you think he's dead?" Willow asked.
"We can't be sure," Dawn answered. "Pick up the pieces. Keep them separate."
The others moved to obey. But Cordelia grumbled, "Pieces? We're getting pieces? Our job sucks!"
It was at that moment that Dawn spotted Nakamura running for the exit, throwing people out of his way in an effort to get the hell out of there.
"I've got this," said Dawn as she jumped down in hot pursuit.
Buffy looked at her friends and then at Dawn. She jumped down and followed her sister.
Meanwhile, the burning debris of the Judge created a lot of smoke. The smoke set off the overhead sprinklers. Soon the interior of the mall was soaking with water with more cascading down.
Then there Dawn was, confined in a cul-de-sac containing a pastry counter and little else, searching for Nakamura. He seized the advantage and attacked her from behind. She went down.
"Do you know how much pain I owe you and the witch?" Nakarmura asked.
Dawn assumed that Nakamura was mentioning Willow because she had helped with the wish.
"Especially the witch," he said, glaring at Dawn through the sprinkler downpour as Dawn got to her knees and faced him. "She took my beloved Buffy from me."
Buffy came up short as she heard that and she realized in that instant why Dawn had never known how she had died. She had become a vampire and Willow being the only person available had staked her.
Dawn looked past Nakamura and saw that Buffy had realized the same thing she had. That Willow was the reason her sister had died one final time.
"Ah the witch didn't tell you," he said as he grinned evilly at Dawn. "She could have given your sister back to you, of course. Cast the spell that had given Angelus his soul. Given my beloved hers. But she didn't she killed Buffy. For that I owe the witch pain. I owe you pain for wanting to keep her from me."
"You just ensured that will never happen," said Buffy as she lunged at Nakamura.
Nakamura spun just as Dawn got back to her feet. He was now faced with two Slayers at once. He had killed two in the past and turned Buffy in the future of the original timeline. But he had never faced two Slayers at once. He knew the odds were stacked against him.
Nakamura grabbed Buffy and threw her into Dawn, the both of them going down. "When the witch dies, then I will turn Buffy. And when she rises, the first person she will see is you, little Dawnie. Then she will kill you, ending the threat you pose to the First. Enjoy what time you have left." He turned and made a hasty retreat.
Author's Note: Nakamura and Rei Mori are OC characters from my Dawn of the Caribbean 1: A Rei of Light. Marguerite Allard is a Slayer seen in the Buffy novel Portal Through Time.