The mixture of the military and news convoy raced their way down the main highway, it was less than 10 minutes since the incident, already they were making their approach, and already theories and stories had been formulated. The Military had picked up a bogey, probably a UFO or missile.
Captain Haralson of the US Army had hoped that it was a missile that was launched over from the Middle East, just so that he could give some justification to this war that the President had sent them over to fight. This way he could say that New York City wasn't enough, the crash into the Pentagon building wasn't enough, flight 907 wasn't enough, and the attempts on the public transportation wasn't enough, that they had to play target practice with small towns along the western seaboard. Oh, he was going to put the words; "Remember Sunnydale" on the lips of every patriotic American.
For Clark K. Taylor of the Daily Star, this could be his big break; he was already there to cover a story about mysterious disappearances in the night, a runaway/kidnapping plot. A girl had disappeared in the middle of the night from her New England home, and was never seen or heard from again. It was by tracking down her credit card bills, he had found out that she had hitchhiked and hopped aboard a few busses. The credit card trail had ended in Sunnydale. He swore up and down that he would find her, his daughter, the girl he loved to no end.
But she wasn't the only girl whose trail had ended in Sunnydale, an afro American by the name of Rona, a cute, but sexually confused girl by the name of Kennedy, even his own daughter who he loved very much had fallen victim to this plot.
"I'll break this modeling scam wide open," he had said 11½ minutes ago.
"These freaks that are luring these girls to California with a promise of becoming models better have a lot of answers…and the right ones!" But exactly 1½ minutes later, his opinion about this being a modeling scam had flown out the window when he could feel the ground shake and the convoy of military trucks pushing their way past him less than a minute later.
"Chloe, honey, be ok," he prayed, "just turn around and come home with daddy, and all will be forgotten."
Chloe Taylor looked up to see the news truck following the military convoy, and right away she knew who was I n the truck. "No," she said softly, "hide me away hide me deep away, let him think I died…tell him anything," she clung onto Buffy, hiding her face from the man in the driver's seat in Buffy's chest, ""please!"
"Why? Who is he?" Buffy didn't do anything to stop her from attempting to crawl inside of her.
"He's my father,"
"Well, I'm sure your father will be elated to see you," the Doctor said, with a comforting smile, he tried to look Chloe in the eyes, but she hid them away.
"Well, I won't be,"
"But why?" Buffy asked.
"Maybe it's because of the pregnancy scare, or the…"
"I get the picture," Buffy's facial features hardened.
"Her own father?" The Doctor looked on in disgust. "Quick, go into the TARDIS; hide away in the corridors,"
"Dawn," Buffy looked up to see Dawn moving out of the TARDIS, "take Chloe deep into the TARDIS and get lost. I mean it."
"Don't worry, the TARDIS will allow us to find you when the time is right," the Doctor said, "as long as you don't wish to be seen, you won't be, especially if you go to the veiled room."
Rose looked at the Doctor and Buffy, "I know where it is, I stumbled across it one time when I was wandering through the corridors,"
"Ok," Buffy placed Chloe between Dawn and Rose, as they locked their body's together arm over each other's backs.
"Hey," Xander had stood apart from the group, but could hear every word that was being said, he was holding a crossbow, "I'm sure you know how to use this without causing crazy property damage by now!" Xander held the crossbow out for Dawn to take. The first time she had used the crossbow; she was playing target practice…in the house and had punched a hole in the wall. Of course, she tried to pull the shaft out of the wall, and ripped a hole about the size of a fist in the living room wall. However, since then, she had become proficient with a crossbow.
"Thanks," she held her hand out behind her as it went flying through the air, she did not even look at where she was reaching, but as soon as she felt the crossbow approach her hand, she wrapped her hand around it and kept on moving into the TARDIS.
Buffy smiled at her younger sister, as the doors closed behind her. No more would Dawn be considered as the kid sister, she was now 18, an adult, a perfectly normal and well-adjusted adult. Sure, according to the Powers That Be, she wasn't Slayer material, but maybe, just maybe there was a reason for then not picking her. She was passed over for a reason, a good reason; maybe she didn't need the extra Slayer advantage after all. She had her own abilities that were unique to her.
Clark C. Taylor leaped out of the van and immediately broke off into a run towards the first person she could get to. "Where is she?"
"Who is she?" Xander responded. "There are a lot of she's around here."
"She, Chloe, my daughter,"
"Oh, Chloe," Xander looked at the crater, "I'm sorry, I don't know if I remember seeing her after the destruction,"
"Hey," Buffy said, "whatever happed to what's the story here? You know...Why is there a crater where 10 minutes ago a town stood?"
"I want to see my daughter first,"
"She didn't make it," Buffy responded.
"Don't lie to me. I deal with liars and those who twist the truth around all the time,"
Buffy glare at Clark. "WHAT did you just call me?"
"A liar," Clark turned to Andrew, "maybe you can tell me where my daughter is?"
"I'm not sure," Andrew responded, as a twenty was placed in his hand, "but I think I did see her after the town went under," another twenty was placed in his hand, "I think," another twenty was placed in his hand, "Dawn and another girl hid her away…" he felt his throat compress, he looked up to see Willow standing there looking at him, her thumb and pointer finger were less than an inch apart, When did she learn that Darth Vader grip? he wondered, as he struggled at the invisible hand that was around his neck. "They're…urk…inside…the Police Box."
"Thank you," Clark said, as he turned towards the Police Box shell of the TARDIS, he rattled the door, but it wouldn't open.
Willow grabbed at Andrew's ear, for real; no magical grip was involved. "Why?"
"He was giving me money," his eyes fell on the handful of money, "and you know how many Star Wars toys I can replace with this?"
"That guy may be her father, but I seriously doubt it will be a happy family reunion when he finds her."
"Oh, I didn't know,"
Clark began to kick at the door. "How do you open this door? It's made out of wood, wood that should be rotten and weak, I should be able to kick this entire thing apart,"
The Doctor smiled, "I've had people fire at that thing with ultra compressed energy, lasers, beams, missiles, I don't think a simple foot will do the trick.
Clark spotted a jeep with a machine gun mounted on the top. He gripped his hands on the soldier and pulled him off, almost throwing him into the crater.
"HEY!" Came the response.
"I want my daughter!"
"She doesn't want you!" Buffy responded.
"Why?"
"Rape might have something to do with it,"
"It wasn't…maybe it was…"
"Drop the maybe," Buffy said.
"What are you talking about? Ok, fine, so she and I had a few encounters we shouldn't have, but..." He fired the gun at the TARDIS, it was a rapid fire, but the bullets only ricocheted off the TARDIS, causing everybody to run for cover. "Why am I trying to explain this to you? And since when do bullets richochet off of wood?"
Willow held her hand out, while some of the ricocheting bullets had disappeared, some of them still got past.
"I think for the safety of everybody out here," Faith said with great hesitation, "maybe we should give in and let him the hell in?"
"I…" the Doctor frowned at the idea, but it would possibly get him to stop firing.
"She has Dawn and Rose to protect her," Buffy said as she crawled under the jeep, "and we can follow in at a safe distance, besides I don't think Col. Decker's going to be too happy about him misusing government properties."
"OK," the Doctor agreed, as he pulled the TARDIS key out of his pocket, "hey up there!"
"What?" Clark paused firing long enough to listen.
"I'll let you inside, he waved the key in the air, "but I can't guarantee that you'll be able to see her. There are a lot of places to hide in there."
"Fine," he released his grip on the machine gun.
"Ok," Col Decker was a tall stocky man with a cigar permanently attached to his lips, "move in and arrest that man!"
Immediately soldiers stormed the truck to grab at Clark, but he was a little too quick for them, and he leaped off of the back and snatched the key out of the Doctor's hand and flung the door open and went through.
"Follow him and fire on sight!"
"NO!" Both Buffy and the Doctor said in unison.
"We have wounded in there," Buffy added.
"Besides, certain weapons won't work in there," the Doctor added, "let us go after him,"
"If you're not out of there in five minutes with him, we're coming in,"
"Agreed," at that the Doctor and Buffy moved into the TARDIS.
Dawn, Chloe & Rose all moved through the TARDIS with great haste, once they had gone through the main console room, Chloe had allowed for them to release her from their cloaking embrace.
"Care to talk about it?" Rose asked.
"Yeah," Dawn said, "usually when something like that happens, it's good to talk about it,"
"You don't know what it's like to be raped, especially when it's someone you should have some level of love and respect for,"
"Yes," Dawn said, "I do,"
Rose looked at Dawn.
"Ok, I wasn't raped, but Buffy was by her boyfriend, and while the situation may have been a little bit different, she still managed to forgive him, and they even put it behind them."
"No," Chloe said, "I'm familiar with that incident, what Spike did to Buffy was nothing compared to what my father did to me,"
"Oh," Dawn said, "I'm so sorry,"
"Besides, we're talking about repeatedly, several times, the whole nine yards, even thought he got me pregnant. While I was horrified, he was so proud."
"What happened to…" Dawn paused, "What happened to the child?"
"Thank god it was a false pregnancy, or whatever the hell you call it,"
"How old were you when you had the false pregnancy thingy?" Dawn inquired.
"16, but that's not the worse of it, after the failed pregnancy, my father tried to get me pregnant again."
"W--, why didn't you try to stop him?" Rose asked.
"I tried, but every time I would say no, he would turn it around, by saying that what I'm supposed to say, and what I want are two different things."
"That bastard," Dawn said.
"Well, he won't be able to get to you in here," Rose said as she turned to face the wall, there was no doorway there, just a wall, "unless he knows what he is looking for,"
"You sure," Chloe asked.
"Yeah," Rose passed through the wall, "come on!"
Rose lead Chloe through the wall, "you'll be safe with us,"
"We promise," Dawn said.
After everybody was safely inside room, behind the cloaking wall, Dawn raised the crossbow and made sure the shaft was in place.
"Chloe, honey where are you?" Clark asked as he passed through the corridors, oblivious to the fact that he had crossed through the dimensional gateway that separated the inside of the TARDIS from the outside world.
"You won't be able to find her," the Doctor said, as he followed a short distance behind him, he looked to see who was with him, there was Buffy and Faith, and he was glad that Col. Decker hadn't followed.
"Oh, don't worry, she's done this hide and go seek thing with me before, I know how her mind works, probably trying to hide out in plain sight,"
"You are really desperate for an ass kicking, aren't you?" Faith asked. "While I'm sure, Col Decker's guns won't fire off in here, I'm sure a fist flying through the air won't be stopped,"
"Give it up and come outside," the Doctor said.
"NO!" He turned around and pulled out a gun, he fired it.
"Doctor!" Buffy called out.
The bullet cut through the air and headed straight towards the Doctor's chest, the TARDIS fazed him out for a microsecond and the bullet passed through him as if he were not there. Which, in effect, he was not.
"Wow!" Faith said. "Now was that cool or what?"
"Way cool."
"Do it again!" Faith said as she stood in front of the gun. "Go on, fire the damn gun!" She spun around with a roundhouse kick that landed square in his chest, he flew backwards and landed against the wall, the gun dropped to the floor.
Buffy quickly kicked the gun into a cavity between the catwalk and the console.
"Wow!" The Doctor said, the combined actions of the two girls had transpired in less than two seconds.
"So," Faith said, "we can do this the easy way, and we can simply take you outside and hand you over to Col. Decker, or we can do this the hard way, where I get really, really pissed off for having to chase you around for any amount of time."
"ARRRUGH!" He mustered up all of the strength he could and shoved Faith against the wall and ran off down the corridors. "There are things about Chloe that you do not understand!"
"Well, explain them!"
"I cant," Clark called back.
"Something tells me that this Clark guy is NOT a mild mannered reporter," Buffy said as she went after him.
"Do you have a cell phone?" The Doctor asked.
"Uh, yeah, but I don't think now's the time to be making any phone calls," Buffy reluctantly stopped and pulled out her cell phone.
"Yes," the Doctor said as he took the cell phone , "it is."
"Besides, I doubt if you'll be able to get any service, with the local switching station out of commission," Faith pointed out.
"Don't you worry about that," the Doctor typed in a special code, then Rose's cell phone.
Rose, Dawn and Chloe all stood in the middle of the room, when Rose's cell phone rang. She looked at the number, she didn't recognize it, so she didn't answer it.
"You going to get that?" Dawn asked.
"Don't recognize the number," Rose said.
"That's Buffy's number," Dawn said as she took the phone, before the ringing gave away their position, "Hello, Buffy?"
"Dawn," Buffy said as she snatched the phone out of the Doctor's hand, "he got past us, do what you must to stop him or prevent him from getting to Chloe. I don't care what you have to do."
"You sure?"
"Do what you must to keep him from setting his sights on Chloe,"
"OK," Dawn said.
"Keep the channel open," The Doctor said into the phone.
"OK," Dawn said, as she turned to Rose. "That wall, if somebody presses against it, will it hide their presence?"
"I dunno," Rose said, "never tried it."
"YES!" The Doctor's voice came over the phone, "Well, to a degree."
"Well give it a try," she said as she gently pushed Chloe against the wall, she turned invisible, but only slightly.
"If you know where to look for her, you can still see her outline," Rose said unsure of how it would actually work out.
"Oh, no." Dawn said in a mouse like squeal.
Clark followed his instincts through the winding corridors of the TARDIS, Chloe had come this way, he could tell, the mild scent of her cheap perfume was giving off a trail. Then it stopped abruptly. There were no doors, no other way for them to go, the corridor had come to an abrupt end he studied the wall, there seemed to be something strange about it; like it wasn't really there.
Buffy, the Doctor and Rose were still several corridors behind Clark. "Come on, I know of a shortcut to the room that will get us there quicker," the Doctor said.
"We'll follow you," Buffy said.
"Hey B, do you think that Dawnie's going to do something incredibly crazy?" Faith asked.
"For once in in my life, I hope that Dawn does something jaw dropping crazy,"
"I think he's right outside," Rose said in a whisper.
"I know," Dawn whispered back, "if he figures out how to get through that wall, he's going to see her, no matter what."
"So we're going to need to do something to divert his attention from her a whole lot,"
"I have a crazy idea, but it just might work,"
"What?"
"Strip down to your underwear,"
"WHAT?" Rose asked.
"And kiss me, a full body contact, sloppy wet kiss."
"Whoa!" Rose protested. "You're not...gay are you?"
"God no," Dawn said. "Unless we do something crazy like that, as soon as he figures out how to get through that wall, he's going to be able to see her outline, so unless we divert his attention from her in some extreme way…"
"Oh," Rose said, as she began to remove her clothes, "the Doctor is so going to kill me!"
"You two kind of an item or something?" Dawn too began to remove her clothes down to her undergarments.
Rose nodded, then shook her head.
"Whichever way, I think he'll understand, given the situation,"
"I hope so!" Rose said as she pulled Dawn's body into hers.
A tear streamed down Dawn's cheek, forget the Doctor killing Rose, Buffy was going to kill her, she knew it, but as her lips gently pushed against Rose's, it all didn't seem to matter, as she looked up still deep in her kiss with Rose, she saw Clark coming through the door.