Conversations With Dead People
A few days later Buffy had given the potentials the night off and they were out at the Bronze with Faith. Buffy decided to do a late patrol and Willow was planning on spending most of the night at the UC Sunnydale library studying. When Dawn came home she found a note from Buffy along with twenty dollars. The note explained where everyone was and that the money was for food, but NOT pizza.
Later on Dawn was in the kitchen eating a slice of pizza and singing "Anchovies, anchovies, you're so delicious, I love you more, than all the other fishes!"
She decided to take her pizza up to Buffy's room where she began going through her sisters clothes. When she was putting one of Buffy's white shirts back she accidently got pizza sauce on it. Dawn was worried for a moment then shrugged it off, "She'll think its blood." She reasoned.
The mystical Key decided to head back downstairs and after finishing her pizza started swinging around one of the various battle axes, fighting of invisible hordes of demons, "Taste my blade spawn of evil!" She cried as she brought the axe down, accidently breaking an end table.
Moving on from the axe she loaded a crossbow and began hunting "vampires", but ended up only slaying the drywall with the crossbow bolt. She grimaced on seeing the hole she had made and moved a plastic plant around the corner to hide it. The youngest Summers went back into the kitchen where she started dancing to mariachi music blaring from the radio, having decided to give up on playing with the weapons. As she was making herself a smore she heard a thump from somewhere in the house, when she heard nothing else after listening for a moment she shrugged it off as natural house noise, or maybe even her own paranoia.
She went and sat on the living room floor talking on the phone to Kit while watching a black and white movie when she heard the noise again. Dawn muted the TV and told her friend what she was hearing as she went off to investigate the sound, she was telling Kit that she couldn't tell if it was someone or something knocking or just a tree branch hitting the house when suddenly the front door flew open and she was nearly knocked over by a powerful wind. She was disconnected from her friend as she struggled to get the door shut and as soon as she did the television unmuted itself. Dawn shut-off the phone and tossed it in a chair before trying to turn off the TV, but none of the buttons worked. She reached behind the set and unplugged the power cord, but the TV went on unaffected. The young woman stared at the cord hanging from her hand before looking around the room, unsure what to do and becoming a bit worried.
She turned in place as all the stereos in the house began playing her mariachi music at full volume. Dawn was getting seriously scared at this point and fought to not let herself start crying. She grabbed the battle axe and smashed in the TV screen then began moving from stereo to stereo. She walked into the kitchen to take care of the last of the radios when she noticed that the microwave was running and without anything in it the machine began producing a lot of smoke, "Oh God," she muttered knowing that the microwave running could be a very bad thing. As she was about to smash it with the axe the thing exploded and rained glass all over the floor.
The teen ran backwards to avoid the shrapnel and hit the wall next to the back door hard, just then the radio crackled and Joyce's voice came over the speakers calling to Dawn. "Mom?" Dawn said in a soft emotion filled voice.
The scared girl went back into the living room and bandaged her feet which had surprisingly only taken a little bit of the glass on the floor, she was frantically trying to get through to Buffy on her cellphone, but the slayer was not answering, "Come on Buffy pick up! I don't know what to do!" She shouted into the phone nearly in tears at this point.
She gave up on calling her sister and picked up the radio and began talking to the now silent electronic device, "Do it again, I heard you!" She then slowly turned her head thinking there was something behind her, but by the time the couch came into her field of vision, the image of Joyce laying as she had been when Buffy found her dead was gone. Suddenly the lights went out and the house was filled with the sounds of objects being moved and when the house was illuminated once again the weapons chest was turned up on its side and the chairs were all stacked like in the movie Poltergeist. There was writing on the wall in what looked like blood, the message read Mother's milk is red today. And there was a bloody handprint next to the strange note. The lights flashed again and everything was back as it was supposed to be.
The knocking sound was back now, louder than before, "Why are you doing this?!" Cried the distraught girl. All the growing up that she had done in the last year was thrown out the window as she huddled on the floor with her knees drawn to her chest screaming for whatever was scaring her to stop.
Eventually she discovered that whatever was making the noise was trying to talk to her. And would knock once for yes and twice for no to questions she asked, "Mom is it you?"
One knock and Dawn started to smile.
"Are you alone?"
Two knocks her smile faltered.
"Are you OK?"
Two knocks and her face fell once again worried and a little angry. She started hearing other noises then, the sounds of something in the house with her. The lights were out again and had been since her short conversation with what she thought was her mother. "I hear you." Dawn said through clenched teeth, "I hear you breathing. Are you hurting my mother? Are you keeping her from me?"
Lightning flashed and she saw the image of Joyce with clouded eyes laying on the couch, Dawn tried walking over to her, but was thrown back by and unseen force. Lightning flashed again and she saw a demon fighting with her mother, she tried to reach them and was once again knocked back this time hitting the wall on the other side of the room. Her face was scratched and her mouth was bleeding. Dawn grabbed a spell book and ingredients which she quickly mixed using a mortar and pestle. She sprinkled a handful of the powder she mixed around the room then began reciting the exorcism ritual continuing to toss the crushed herbs, "I cast you from this place, it is your poison and your bane!" The creature scratched her face again, but she continued, "It is the skin that is cut from your flesh!" A powerful wind began swirling around the living room turning the pages of the books she had been using and blowing out the candles she had lit. The windows were blown in making her duck covering her face to protect herself from the glass.
Dawn was undeterred and continued the ritual rising to her feet, "I cast you out with the prayer of every god that walks the earth and crawls beneath!" The demon threw her against the wall, "I cast you out with the strength of those who love me! I cast you out with the strength I have inside me!" She rose to her feet again picking up the dish of crushed herbs, "And I cast you out into the void! That's right, die you bastard!"
The young woman collapsed to the floor, spent both emotionally and physically. A bright glow filled the room emanating from Joyce. Joyce told Dawn that things were coming and that she loved both her and Buffy, but that when things were bad Buffy would not be there for her and that when things get bad Buffy will be against her. Then Joyce disappeared leaving Dawn in a worse state than she had been.
Willow came home a while later to find Dawn still in the spot she had collapsed to on the floor. "Dawnie baby what happened?"
"I talked to mom…she said something real bad was coming and that Buffy would leave me."
"Hey sweetie don't believe what was said…it wasn't Joyce, it was the big bad…the one we knew was coming. It talked to me too, as my old friend Jesse, it tried to convince me that I would fall back into the black magic and hurt all of you guys and told me the only way to avoid it was if I killed myself. It's trying to get to us."
"If it's trying to get to us like that then we must scare it, but if The First is so powerful why would it bother?"
"Maybe it's not as strong as everyone claims, or maybe all of us are a lot stronger than we realize. Did you do a spell Dawn? Cause I can feel your power in here."
"Yeah, I tried to do an exorcism, but I guess it didn't work."
"No I think it did work, I'd have to ask Tara to be sure, but there must have been something else here too. And you're hurt, The First is non-corporeal so something else hurt you and did all this." Willow said holding Dawn's face and gently examining the scratches, "Did you dress any of these wounds?"
"No, why."
"It must be due to the blood you share with Buffy then…cause these scratches are deep, but they've already stopped bleeding. We should probably get you a glass of water to rinse the blood out of your mouth so I can check that too." The two of them made their way upstairs to the bathroom where dawn cleaned her face and removed the bandages from her feet, which were now mostly healed.
Dawn leaned in and kissed her red haired girlfriend, "Thanks Willow."
"Mmmm…thanks for what?"
"For calming me down a minute ago, and for just being you."
"Well if it gets me Dawnie kisses then I'll be me all the time."
"You know you can be such a goofball sometimes." Dawn said with a laugh.
Once everyone was back they recapped on their night and it turned out that all the Scoobies and Faith had gotten a visit from The First. Xander, like Willow had seen Jesse, Buffy had talked to Cassie Newton, a girl she saved from being sacrificed by a cult, but a few minutes later died from heart failure. Faith had seen Deputy Mayor Allan Finch and Professor Lester Worth.
At that moment Vi, Annabelle, and Molly burst through the door. All three were out of breath, but Vi was in a panic, "Kennedy…monster…super strong…told us to run." She said between gasps.
"OK Xander, Dawn, Tara, and Faith, you guys stay her with the girls. Willow come with me and Vi, take me back to her." Buffy said, knowing the redheaded potential slayer would insist on going anyway.
Buffy, Willow, and Vi arrived in time to see the creature standing over the still form of Kennedy, "No!" Vi screamed, worried that Kennedy was dead.
Buffy rushed the thing and knocked away from the fallen potential. Vi rushed over to Kennedy and checked that she was breathing and had a pulse, "She's alive!" Vi said relieved.
Buffy was having a hard time with the creature, she sensed it was a vampire, but it was much faster and stronger than Spike let alone a new riser, "Willow, Vi! Get Kennedy back to the house and Willow use your telepathy to send Faith, I'm gonna need backup to finish this thing." Buffy ordered.
"She's on her way." Willow informed Buffy as she and Vi took off for the house with Kennedy supported between them.
Faith passed Willow and Vi on her way to help Buffy and when she arrived the vampire type creature did not like the way the cards were beginning to fall so he took off. "What the fuck was that thing B? It was setting off my vamp radar, but it didn't look right or nuthin."
"I dunno what it was Faith, it musta been some sort of vamp cause I sensed it too. Maybe it was an older one, cause it looked a lot like the Master did. It was fast and strong and my stake couldn't reach its heart, like it had super dense muscle and an extra-large sternum. Anyway let's get back to the house and figure it out from there."
When the slayers walked in the house everyone was there either in the kitchen or living room. Vi was sitting on the couch with the bandaged and still out of it Kennedy laying with her head in Vi's lap. Dawn brought Vi a glass of water and a couple pain pills for when Kennedy woke up. Vi took the glass and pills, giving Dawn a quick smile, but never stopped brushing her fingers through Kennedy's long dark hair.
Buffy took in the sites before her as Xander, Spike, and Giles hung sheets of plywood over the broken windows and Willow and Dawn had Molly and Annabelle helping them clean up the broken glass and other debris. "OK guys let's all get this place cleaned up and we'll regroup and talk in the morning after we've all gotten some sleep. Yes Vi you can stay where you are with Kennedy." Buffy said adding the last part with a glance at the two potentials, causing Vi to blush.
"Hey B, you mind if I make a call to LA in the morning?" Faith asked.
"Yes, you can call Fred in the morning Faith." Buffy answered playfully nudging the dark slayer with her elbow.
By this time everyone had realized that the old Faith truly was no more and if you watched closely you could see a side of her that she rarely let show. It usually only came out when she was talking to or about Fred, or Winifred Burkle as she was legally known, the physicist that worked with Angel, Gunn, Wesley, and Cordelia in LA. She had gotten to Faith in a way the slayer had thought no one ever would, even with her time in prison helping her settle down Fred had done more to help Faith than anyone thought possible. Faith had told the Scooby gang that Fred had brought her down off the ledge, twice literally, and though she would never trade it for anything, Faith was still a bit embarrassed when her softer side shown through due to her relationship with Fred.
With everyone aside from Vi and Kennedy working the house was soon back to working order and right before everyone went to bed Kennedy finally woke up. Vi refused to let her move from the couch yet though and the two of them ended up falling asleep curled up together.