Ringworld is property of Larry Niven. All characters from the Buffyverse are Property of Joss Whedon. Everything else belongs to me.

The Field Test

They were all over her in the magic shop. After she made her announcement that she wanted to leave the Earth and take Dawn to the ringworld the Scoobies had erupted with howls of protest. Giles reminded her of her sacred duty to protect mankind and the ongoing threats from the hellmouth.

She didn't give a damn about the world. Her blood was screaming for the ringworld. She could feel the pull of the billions of lives it was now her duty to protect. The well being of Dawn and these strangers were now her top priority which made no sense to her because of one simple fact.

The ringworld was unstable.

The ringworld spun at seven hundred and seventy miles per second creating the feel of gravity by the centrifugal force. This made the ringworld very stable along its axis but highly unstable in the plane. A strong solar flare could push it off course. Buffy had viewed a series of sequential images of the ring world. Its shift was minute, but she could tell it had less than a year until it brushed its sun killing trillions.

Buffy had fled from the magic shop to get away from them. She was upset and the only thing that could calm her down was the presence of Dawn. She was making her way home as quickly as possible. Her mind reviewed what the monks had done. Dawn had been in the world less than a month. She appeared right after Buffy had met the legendary count Dracula. Dracula had tasted her, had sampled her blood. Buffy couldn't believe she didn't get the connection until now.

The monks had used Dracula to get a sample of her blood in order to create Dawn! The monk's accent was eastern European. Wasn't that awfully close to Transylvania?

"I was blind but now I see." Buffy said to herself as she waited for the light to change at the intersection. "Everything the monks did is obvious to me now. It's a miracle I haven't died more often." Her cell phone was ringing constantly. She did not want to answer it. The light changed and she crossed the street.

"If mom was here…" Buffy's thoughts trailed off. Her mind leapt lighting quick to an awful conclusion that just seemed obvious now that she had her enhanced intelligence. Joyce had often told her that the memories that a mother carries of her child are not just stored in the head. The memories are stored in every cell of her body. But Joyce was not Dawn's mother. Dawn has no biological mother. When the monks changed the world their magics had to make Joyce conform to the lie she had carried and given birth to Dawn. Something in Joyce fought back against the lie and was killed for trying to cling to the truth. Instead of giving birth to Dawn, she had conceived a tumor that killed her.

"They killed my mother to make the world conform to a lie." The revelation stunned Buffy and stopped her dead in her tracks. 'They killed my mother!"

When she entered the house her eyes were red and puffy from crying. She saw Spike sitting in the chair across from the couch, across from Dawn. Buffy dropped her purse and leapt across the room. She slammed into him knocking him off the chair. She rammed the meaty part of her palm into his nose breaking it. She was trying to send bone fragments into his brain to kill him. She wasn't thinking clearly. She was running on pure rage. Spike rolled her over to the side and scrambled to his feet. His eyes were wide in surprise but his instincts were true. He managed to land several punches on Buffy without the slightest hint of a headache. Buffy recovered and managed to catch him in the throat with her elbow. Spike staggered backwards. Buffy grabbed an iron poker from the fireplace and rammed it through his chest. Spike fell backwards. Buffy grabbed her battle axe from her war chest near the back of the toppled chair and approached Spike. She was going to cut his head off.

Dawn stepped between them.

"BUFFY!" She screamed. "What the HELL are you doing?!"

Buffy stopped. She still had the axe in her hand. Her breathing was deep and heavy. Her eyes were glassy and defocused. Buffy looked at Dawn. Dawn did not recognize the furious thing staring back at her from behind Buffy's eyes.

"Spike, get to the basement, now!" Dawn said. She didn't take her eyes off of Buffy. Spike wasn't moving. The tension was still thick in the air. "The basement now!" she said again with an edge in her voice. "Or I can let Buffy buy you a ticket to dust city."

Spike scrambled to his feet. He pulled the iron poker out of his chest with a grunt. He dropped it to the floor as he made his way to the basement. Dawn watched him go then turned to Buffy.

"Have you gone mad?" The anger was evident in her voice.

Buffy remembered how to talk. She spoke in a low emotionless voice that forced Dawn to take a step back.

"Vampires are evil monsters. They are a threat to you." Buffy tilted her head and stared at Dawn with intense and empty eyes. "I must keep you safe." She said.

In the basement Spike was confused. Buffy had tried to kill him! She was serious. Spike rubbed his chest where she had skewed him with the poker. He was healing but it still hurt. Buffy had tried to kill him, for real this time. That thought echoed around in his head. But that's not what he was confused about. He had hit Buffy several times and felt no pain. Either the chip in his head had stopped working or Buffy wasn't Human anymore. Spike smiled and considered his options.