Title: Dawn of the Son

Author: Spichik453

Chapter 11

"Jake, could you get me some more coffee please?" Dawn asked, holding up an empty mug. "Black."

Jake nodded. "Me too." Willow and Xander said in unison, also holding up empty mugs. Jake took all three mugs, and left the room.

"I feel like we're getting no where!" Willow said.

"Yeah, I feel like I've read the same page 20 times!" Xander exclaimed.

"That's because you have. You watch TV for five minutes, read the page, watch TV, read the page." Willow pointed out.

"Right. But we have no idea who these people are. We just have to keep them from meeting and all will be avoided." Xander offered. "TV is just the easier option."

"I agree with Xander." Jake called from the other room.

From under her breath, Dawn mumbled, "Only because you can't read these texts."

"Giles, what have you found?" Willow asked.

Giles, who was sitting at the table, brought his head up from the book he was reading. "Huh? What?"

Willow smiled. "We know you were sleeping. You haven't turned a page in over an hour."

"Oh, right." Giles cleaned his glasses. "Have you found anything?"

Everyone shook his or her head. "No, but Xander spilled the beans about the Hellmouth in Seattle to me." Dawn said. "Which helps me. It means that I'm not searching for this mouth thing on top of the son and daughter."

Giles nodded, and turned back to his book. Jake came back in with three mugs of hot coffee. "So is this what it is always like?" He asked Dawn, taking a seat next to her.

"Used to be." Dawn said. "Before all the others came, it would just be us, a pile of books and a small lead. We would read and try to figure out how defeat the big bad like that, and then Buffy would go and fight it. But now that we have all the other Slayers and we've restarted the watcher's council, a lot of the pressure has let up from us. I am able to live here, while everyone else lives in Cleveland and they only help people train for apocalypses and don't fight them as much."

"Doesn't mean we're not prepared though." Xander added.

"Yeah! We help teach the other slayers how to fight and how to research."

"Generally the TV is not playing Tom and Jerry when we show them how." Giles said, picking up his book and joining the conversation. Willow and Xander both nodded enthusiastically. "We also have a branch in London."

Jake sat there for a moment trying to take in all of the information he was just presented. Sensing that he was about to burst with a questions, the Scoobies just sat back for a moment and waited for him. "So much information."

"It happens." Willow said.

"You have got to have questions." Dawn offered. "Feel free to ask them. I think the verdict is that you're not evil. We just cannot figure out why you have all that strength. It goes against the laws of nature."

"Great, a freak." Jake said. "So those girls I was fighting with yesterday, they're what you call Slayers?"

"Vampire Slayers. It used to be one, but we muddled up the line of succession with a bunch of little, well big, things."

"Right. And we're facing an apocalypse so big you guys have gotten back into the game."

Xander answered this question for Jake. "Technically we never left the game. We were more of coaches. Yes. There is a possible apocalypse. We're helping out for fun."

"Fun."

Dawn nodded. "I couldn't handle all the vampires alone. Not with my night shifts at the hospital. You showed up just after these guys came."

Jake still sat in stunned silence. "Are you guys done testing me?"

Everyone nodded. "But we don't know what you are." Dawn added sheepishly.

"A freak. I go against the laws of nature. Isn't that what you said Giles?"

"That's what I thought when I was first told." Buffy's voice spoke from behind them.

"Buff! We didn't hear you come in!" Xander said, standing up to greet Buffy.

"I was really quiet. The other slayers and watchers are still out. I taught them their lesson, and now am letting them patrol. You must be Jake. I am Buffy, Dawn's older sister." Buffy held out her hand for Jake to shake. He stood up, and took it.

"Nice to meet you, I've heard so much about-"

It was at this moment that the ground began to shake. The paintings that came with the furnished house swayed from side to side until they finally fell off the wall. Buffy and Xander ran to the doorway right behind them, while everyone else scrambled to the one between the living room and the dinning room. Growing up in California, the Scoobies were used to both regular and demonic earthquakes. They knew where to run, and the natural conversation after. Jake, however, was not used to earthquakes, which was clear by the way he shook more than the ground. Somewhere in the scramble for the doorframe, he put his arm over Dawn to protect anything from falling on her head. As she heard the apartment creak, and everything shake around her, Dawn smiled. Jakes arm felt good on her skin. It was a whole of 20 seconds, but the consequences, Dawn knew, would be eternal.

When it ended, everyone slowly came together in the center. The Scoobies knew what an earthquake in Seattle meant. The prophecy they had been studying the past week had just come true. They simply stared at each other for a minute before Giles was the first to speak. "I guess we now know who the son and the daughter are."