Chapter 4
(Dawn's Twilight)
Xander watched as Dylan and Rommie came aboard with someone he had never expected to see again, Gaheris Rhade. Someone he had once believed to be a traitor, but if Trance was to be believed he was actually loyal to them. According to her, he had in another time line been the one frozen in time and when he came out he had tried to rebuild the Commonwealth. It was hard to believe, but Trance was not prone to lying.
He wondered what role he had played as well as his friends in this alternate time line. He doubted they would have refused to help, no matter what Rhade had done in the past. He rubbed his chin in thought, wondering more on how he had dealt with Rhade when they had met again. Shaking his head he threw those thoughts off. They had more pressing things to think about and to do than wondering about the mysteries of a time line only Trance and Gaheris remembered. He saluted Dylan as he came to stand in front of him, as did Jenny and Faith who were with him.
"Welcome aboard Captain Hunt," he said formally, as some of his crew were present. "We have much to discuss, please follow me to the conference room," he added and then began to lead them to the room in question.
"Good to be here," Dylan responded, as he looked around and noted the similarities between the Dawn's Twilight and Andromeda.
Not that he was really surprised by this as both ships were of the same class, the pride of the Commonwealth fleet a Glorious Heritage Class Heavy Cruiser. Granted there were some structural differences in some ships as well as a few alternate designs but all in all they were the same. He knew in the future there would be even newer versions of the class, if history played out as before which he intended to ensure not to happen.
"How long do you think we have before Command notices our absence?" Gaheris inquired quietly, so that they were not overheard.
"If we are lucky they will not notice it for some time," Dylan responded. "And even if they do notice I am sure I can come up with a reasonable reason as to why we had to leave our patrol," he added with a grin.
"Any sign of Trance, Dylan?" Faith asked, as they neared the conference room.
"Not yet Faith, but I am sure she will be along once she has recovered," Dylan assured her. "What she did must have taken every little bit of power she had," he mused.
"Not just Trance's power, but Dawn's as well," Jenny reminded him. "It drained her and she is still very weak from the after effects of what they did," she informed them. "Buffy is quite annoyed by the outcome. She fears anymore of a drain and Dawn would have perished," she added with a shake of her head.
"I doubt Trance would have put Dawn at risk of such a fate," Rommie stated after thinking it over. "She is not that kind of person, plus there is a connection between Dawn and Trance that I do not fully understand, but it is there," she continued as the others listened.
"Their nature may be similar, but we do not know if they are the same race, like Trance has speculated before," Faith cut in. "I think we should be keeping our minds on what we are facing. We can find the answers about Dawn when we save the universe," she stated.
"Agreed," Xander said with a nod. "I just hope whatever we come up with actually does what we've failed to stop three times already," he prayed, as they entered the conference room.
"Gaheris and I have already discussed this and we think we know two things we have to do," Dylan put in as he sat down.
"And what are they?" Tara inquired.
"First we have to stop the Nietzschean Rebellion and ensure that they stay loyal to the Commonwealth," Gaheris informed them.
"And how the hell do we do that?" Giles inquired, not believing that would be an easy goal considering future events.
"At this moment in time we are still tightly tied to the Commonwealth. The treaty with the Magog has not happened yet and thus we have time to convince them that staying allies is the only way to save the Nietzschean people," Gaheris explained. "The only pride at the moment which truly wants to break away is the Drago - Kazov pride. They want control of not only my people, but the universe itself," he continued. "They used the treaty to turn the majority of my people against the Commonwealth and to stop that event we have to take away their strongest asset in forming the rebellion that destroyed the Commonwealth," he finished before leaning back in his seat and letting them absorb what he had said.
"How much time do we have before the treaty is signed, Gaheris?" Dawn inquired, still looking pale and weak from what she and Trance had done to bring them here.
"From what I have read, whilst on our way here, the treaty will be signed within a week, if I calculated the time right," Gaheris answered grimly. "So we do not have a lot of time," he added.
"So we have to move fast," Tara concluded. "What is the other thing we must do?" she inquired.
"Yeah, you said there were two things we had to do," Willow piped in, wondering if a week was long enough for them to do enough to save the universe.
"We have to convince the High Guard to go to war with the Magog," Dylan told them, looking each of them in the eye. "We have to weaken them and push them back away from the boarders of the Commonwealth. We have to buy time to allow the Commonwealth to grow in strength again," he explained.
"Strength, but the Commonwealth is at the height of its power at this point in time," Buffy argued, looking at Dylan as if he was crazy.
"Is it?" Dylan asked, taking no offense at Buffy's tone. "One of the reasons the Commonwealth fell so easily to the Nietzschean rebellion was due to the fact that it had stagnated and grown weak," he continued. "It has not fought a major war in years. We were caught completely off guard and were destroyed piece by piece," he stated, running a hand through his hair. "There were Nietzschean's stationed at the most important places in the Commonwealth, including the palace where the empress was assassinated before anyone knew what was really going on," he went on. "No, the Commonwealth may look strong, but in reality it is weak and the Drago's know this. It's why they are pushing so hard to break away at this point in time," he finished his explanation.
Silence descended once he had finished and the group as a whole either looked at one another in dismay or just leaned back in their seats and took in what Dylan had just admitted, it only added to the seriousness of their mission.
(Lambent Kith Nebula)
Trance stared in shock at her fellow Avatars as they admitted the truth of whom and what Dawn was. It was so shocking that she fell to the ground and tried to come to grips with this truth. The admission of how Dawn had ended up on Earth in the first place hurt. It was so hard to accept that Dawn was not only her daughter, but that she had been kidnapped hundreds of years ago by a fellow Avatar who had been corrupted by the Abyss, as its first move against them.
Dawn's powers were a little more advanced than those of all other Avatars, as she was the first child born to any Avatar in many eons. The reason she did not remember any of this was that her memory had been wiped during her fight with the evil Avatar during her attempted rescue of Dawn. During the fight she had managed to injure the Avatar so badly that it died from its wounds, but in its last moments as she tried to get the answers as to where it had taken Dawn it had struck its final blow, which had wiped her memory of the entire thing.
The reason none of her fellow Avatars had told her the truth for so long was that none of them could locate Dawn and so did not want to cause her undue pain and heartache, even with their collective power which was almost impossible to believe.
Clearly the Abyss had played a hand in ensuring that they could not track down the missing Dawn, but why, was a question none of them could answer. Had it been a ploy to distract them or had the Abyss a reason to fear Dawn? Could it have sensed some kind of threat from her somewhere in the future? Now that she knew the whole truth, she had to come to terms with it and then somehow find a way to break this news to Dawn and her friends. That would not be an easy task and she doubted Buffy would receive this news very well, still it would have to be done as Dawn deserved to know the truth about her existence.
(Dawn's Twilight)
"So how do we convince High Command to go to war with the Magog, instead of signing a peace treaty with them?" Dawn finally asked, breaking the silence that had prevailed in the room for half an hour.
"We'll have to first talk to some of the other fleet captains and admirals and gain their support, before we go and meet with Admiral Stark," Dylan answered. "If we can convince Stark of the need to fight the Magog we have a good shot of convincing the rest of command," he added.
"Why not attack them ourselves and force a war?" Willow asked.
"That would not be a good idea Wills," Xander responded. "It would take the choice from command and especially our fellow High Guard and make them resent us. We'd most likely lose our positions and command could attempt to make peace anyway in a much worse way than what we know will happen," he continued. "We have to ensure that we have support for a war and so Dylan's idea is the only way we can do this," he stated.
"But that will take time as well," Giles argued. "If Gaheris is correct, we only have a week to do these things before the treaty is signed. Convincing both command and the Nietzschean's of what needs to be done is not going to be easy and will take time," he said with a worried tone. "Time, we may not have," he added.
"You have a point Giles, but what choice do we have?" Jenny asked with a raised eyebrow. "I would suggest we split up and do both at the same time, but I know for a fact we can't do that. We need Dylan, Xander and Gaheris for both ideas," she summarized.
"No we don't. We need Dylan and Gaheris to meet and convince the Nietzschean's to stay allied with the Commonwealth, as they are both well known and respected by them," Rommie broke her silence. "Dylan has many friends who are Nietzschean's and that will help in their arguments, but Xander can meet with Stark and speak to the other fleet commanders," she informed them.
"Don't you think Dylan's engagement to Stark's niece would be helpful in gaining Stark's help?" Buffy asked, missing the wince both Dylan and Rommie had at this question.
Gaheris however did notice it and he knew exactly why as well. He wondered how they would deal with what was, clear to him, the advancement of their relationship. Dylan and Rommie had always been close, even before 'The Fall' and Rommie's avatar creation by Harper in the future, but it was clear to him that the feelings they had for one another had grown and they had become a lot closer. He wondered if they had actually crossed the line and begun a relationship in their time. How would they deal with the fact that Sara was once again alive and engaged to Dylan.
"Not necessarily Buffy," Twilight interjected. "Dylan may be engaged to Stark's niece, but that does not make her treat him as anything less than a fellow officer," she reminded the group. "In fact she expects much more out of him and cuts him even less slack than anyone else," she continued. "She would not respond well to been confronted by Dylan for the need to go to war. He can put his name up in support, but I think it would be a bad idea to let him be the one to talk to her," she finished.
"I agree," Dylan said with a nod, doing his best not to think of anything but the reason they were here, but it was hard when the subject at hand reminded him of other more personal problems. "Stark would not be amused by me arguing for war. She would believe I had lost my mind or was acting up," he admitted. "Alex would be a better candidate for that discussion," he told them clearly.
"Should be a fun meeting," Xander said with a humorous smile. "No matter how I play this, Stark is not going to be happy, but considering what she became down the line I guess this is a better option," he concluded.
"Just do the best you can Xan," Tara said with an encouraging smile. "I am sure if you have enough support from the fleet commanders and your fellow captains she will listen," she assured him. "I fear Dylan and Gaheris have the harder argument to face," she continued while glancing at the two. "I am sure it will not be easy to fight the hold the Drago's might have on the other Nietzschean clans and we do not know how most of them feel at this time about the Commonwealth," she explained her view of things.
"What you say is true Tara, but it is better to confront them now than after the treaty," Gaheris responded with a frown and a dark look in his eyes. "I believe as long as that treaty does not happen we can convince the majority of them to stand with us and ignore the Drago's calls for rebellion," he stated with as much conviction as he could.
"Ok, say we succeed on both counts what about the Abyss?" Faith asked, having listened to what was been said very carefully and she hoped they could succeed with both challenges. "Even if we push the Magog back and weaken them, the Abyss is still going to show up, isn't it?" she inquired.
"You are probably right Faith, but maybe we can buy ourselves more time to find a way to either contain it or to actually destroy it," Dylan stated with a half hearted smile.
"Maybe it will buy the time for Trance to finally realize what she has to do to help us in this," Dawn pointed out. "We all know that she has something to do with actually fighting the Abyss, maybe time will be all she needs to realize how to fight it," she told them with a hopeful smile.
"We can but hope," Jenny responded as the others exchanged looks and nodded in agreement.
"Now we that we finished that, maybe we can discuss what Trance said about telling us the truth of who you are?" Dylan inquired.
Silence descended again as Xander and his friends exchanged unsure and worried looks. They had no clue why Trance had told them to actually tell the truth of who they were to Dylan, Rommie and Gaheris. Xander took a deep breath and after looking at Jenny one more time he began their long tale.
(Ether)
The powers watched as events took motion and frowned as they realized that the plans put in motion actually had a chance of succeeding. They cursed the Sun Avatar again and even more the cursed champion's luck which continued to aid them. So far they had seen no chances of finally destroying them and recreating the galaxy as they wished to, but they were sure one would come along soon.
(Lambent Kith Nebula)
Trance stood still, staring into space trying so hard to think of how to tell Dawn the truth, but no matter how much she thought about it, there was no easy way to do it. This was going to be one of the hardest things she had ever done, she cursed the Avatar who had kidnapped her daughter in the first place, but she was long dead.
Dawn had lived an entire lifetime and more as a human being, how that had happened was beyond her at this moment in time. Someone must have taken advantage of Dawn's weakened state when she was young. The question was why, but again this was not the time to find the answer. She sighed as she realized that she had wasted enough time, it was time to return to Dylan's side and aid them in their mission and to hope that she found the right words to explain the truth to Dawn and the others.
(Dawn's Twilight)
Dylan, Rommie and Gaheris stared at their friends in shock and disbelief at the tale they had just been told. None of it seemed possible, especially some of the more mystical sides of the story. The only thing that kept them from breaking out in arguments was Trance's word that it was the truth, but even that was pushing it.
"I know it's hard to take in all at once Dylan, but every word we have spoken is the truth," Willow spoke up. "It all happened just as we said it did. We've been alive for more years than you can imagine and we have fought the war between good and evil for all that time," she added.
"Cursed for trying to break free of the unjust control of the powers that be," Dawn said with a bitter smile. "Buffy led and we followed, it has been hard, but we have stayed on the path," she added, placing a hand on her sister's arm that had flinched at the mention of her actions in the past.
This had little effect on Dylan and the others, who continued to try and take all of this in, but it was so much information and most parts of their brains screamed they were making it all up.
"Return to you ship Dylan and begin to make preparations to meet with the Nietzschean clans and think over what we said," Xander suggested. "I'll get to work on gathering support for war with the Magog. We can discuss our true path at another time," he told them.
"Good idea," Trance said as she appeared. "Time is against us. The Abyss knows what we plan and it is moving to counter us," she warned them. "It was one of the things I learned from my fellow Avatar's," she explained. "We need to be quicker," she stated.
"Then we best get started," Dylan said, after shaking his head and refocusing on the major problem. "As Xander said, we can discuss this other business at another time," he added, before he turned and headed back to the slip fighter followed by Rommie and Gaheris.
Faith ran to join them and escorted them out. Trance hesitated for a few seconds and was staring at Dawn, who began to look confused at the look in her eyes. Trance turned and quickly headed after Dylan, losing the courage at the moment to admit the truth to Dawn and the others.
"That went well," Buffy said with a small smile as the others just stared at her in surprise, as it was not often she made a joke anymore.