The Dawn Chronicles
by tenshinrtaiga
Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy, Angel or Supernatural.
Pairing/Characters: Dawn Summers, Connor Angel-Reilly, Sam Winchester, Dean Winchester. Mild Dean/Dawn.
Warnings: Spoilers for Buffy S7, Angel S5 and Supernatural S1.
Summary: When Buffy dies and Dawn inherits her sister's Slayer powers, Dawn doesn't know what to do. She only knows one thing: she can't stay at the International Watchers Council anymore. An unlikely friend in the shape of Angel's son Connor comes to the rescue, training her and teaching her how to handle her powers and just when she thinks she has everything under control, a new Slayer is murdered. Now Dawn's left trying to figure out what happened and how exactly the Winchester boys fit in.

October 29, 2005

There were no words to describe how tedious it was to track down one Jessica Moore. First Dawn had to figure out which class the blonde had walked into. Then she had to check the attendance registry. Next, she had to cross-reference the names with their student picture IDs. Finally, after getting the name 'Jessica Moore' she had to track down an address.

This led her to early yesterday morning when she began stalking the older college student.

So far, Jessica seemed like a normal college student with a normal major, a normal boyfriend and a normal life. Except for the occasional 'accident' where things broke in her hands, doors busted open and gentle slaps left people bruised.

For Dawn, who grew up in a Slayer household, it was easy to see the signs.

"So, consensus?" Connor questioned as he sipped at his coffee, warily eyeing the blonde sitting only three tables away from them in the library.

"Slayer." Dawn nodded resolutely. "No question."

Connor nodded in agreement having come to the same conclusion given his early experience training Dawn. "What are you going to do?" he asked worriedly. Dawn had been making good progress. She hadn't broken down into tears at the mere thought of her sister since January: first on Dawn's birthday and then a few weeks later on Buffy's. This – a new Slayer – threatened to ruin all the steps Dawn took forward.

"I have to tell her," Dawn admitted reluctantly, taking a sip of her own coffee. "Can you hand me that book on kanji?" she asked, reaching out a hand.

He looked at her blankly. "On what?"

"Pretty Asian word scribbles," she replied slowly, gesturing to the book under his elbow.

"Ah," he said with a nod, sliding the book over to her. "You're still taking both Chinese and Japanese?"

"Mandarin," she corrected with a nod, focusing on her homework which consisted of translating a small paragraph of Japanese into English. It was tricky because it contained a few proverbs which didn't always mean the same thing when translated literally. "I've missed this," she spoke with a contented sigh.

Connor looked down at his best friend oddly. "Weirdo," he muttered fondly. "What are you going to say?"

"He was giving gold coins to a cat," Dawn replied.

"What?" he asked in confusion.

The brunette girl nodded. "Yeah. I think it means he was giving a gift to someone who wouldn't appreciate it. I'll asterisk that and put the literal translation at the bottom so that my Professor sees I understood both."

"That's nice, but I was referring to Jessica."

Dawn looked up in confusion. "Jessica has a cat?" Connor gave a weary sigh and dropped his head onto the table in front of him as he waited for Dawn, who was now actually paying attention again, to process the conversation they had been having enough to realize what he was talking about. "Oh! What am I going to say to- I gotcha!" She smiled. "I was planning on giving her the Slayer speech followed by the spell explanation and finish off with the IWC phone number and a plea not to tell them who gave it to her."

He cocked his head to the side. "Simple, direct, easy. Do you think it will work?"

"Probably not."

October 31, 2005

"Are you sure you want to do this on Halloween?" Connor asked as he lounged on Dawn's bed waiting for the brunette to finish getting dressed. "She might think it's a joke."

"Well I tried to corner her alone yesterday, but I think she's realized she's being followed because she didn't leave her boyfriend's side except to go to crowded, public places." Dawn stepped out of her bathroom in baggy sweats and a tight tank top. She wore large hoop earrings, dark make up and a few fake tattoos placed around her body. All in all, she made for a great gangster. "What are you supposed to be?" she asked, looking down at Connor who looked no different that he did the other 364 days of the year.

"The supernatural child of two vampires," Connor deadpanned.

Dawn paused for a moment as she realized what Connor's words meant. "In other words, you didn't feel like dressing up. Lame!" She grabbed her large zip up hoodie from the bed and the two left, making their way to the big party where they knew for a fact Jessica would be.

"Why bother dressing like a supernatural creature when we are one?" Connor asked rhetorically.

Dawn shook her head in exasperation. She had made good progress on helping Connor cope with the social niceties that he had missed out on while living in a hell dimension and his own magicked memories helped a lot, but there were still times where his ignorance was appalling. "Halloween is come-as-you-aren't night. We are supernatural creatures. So, on Halloween you dress as something you aren't. I'm not a gangster."

"You're a gangster?" Connor looked down at her costume in surprise. "I thought you were a hip hop dancer."

Dawn shrugged at the idea that her costume was vague. "I'm not one of those either," she explained.

"Hmm. Well if its come-as-you-aren't, then I'm dressed as a human," Connor replied with a proud grin, knowing how much that answer would piss his best friend off.

Sure enough, Dawn shook her head in disappointment. "Halloween is wasted on you."

The two flashed their fake IDs at went into the bar with no problems. The place was crowded and hot, made even more so by the creepy fog and bubbling cauldrons placed as decorations. Spotting Jessica and her boyfriend Sam with some friends at a table, Dawn pulled Connor into a corner where they could see the group better.

"Uhm, Dawn?" Connor spoke hesitantly. "I'm not comfortable with this." Dawn looked over at him blankly and he just nodded for her to look around them. Sure enough, this was apparently the make out corner and Dawn and Connor were right in the middle of what was likely to become an orgy. "Besides, this is both public and crowded, so how did you plan on talking to Jessica?"

Dawn hesitated. "Er. I'll get back to you on that," she muttered as she quickly dragged Connor away from the couples and into a booth that still allowed them a good vantage. A couple hours later, Sam stood up and made his way to the bar to pay the tab as Jessica headed toward the bathroom. Spotting her chance, she muttered to Connor, "Distract Sam if it looks like he's getting suspicious," before darting into the bathroom herself.

Making sure that there was no one else inside the other stalls, Dawn quickly locked the bathroom door and waited for Jessica to finish. When the blonde came out to wash her hands, Dawn jumped on the opportunity. "I know this is going to sound weird, but I need to tell you something."

"What?" Jessica asked in confusion.

"A couple years ago, you felt a surge and suddenly it was like you could do anything. You were stronger and faster and you began getting these dreams…" Dawn dove right in, knowing that she only had a little bit of time before Sam would get suspicious and come looking for his girlfriend.

"What?" Now Jessica's voice was shaky, as if afraid of what Dawn was saying.

"You aren't the only one," Dawn offered as she reached out to grab a solid bar of soap and snapped it like it was a twig. "We're Slayers. There is darkness in the world; real darkness. Demons, vampires, witches, werewolves, anything you can think of, it's real. Slayers are girls – warriors – who are meant to fight evil. Not all supernatural creatures are bad, but those that are need to be dealt with before they can hurt others and that's where we come in. There used to only be one of us, but a spell was done and now there are many. There's a school in England run by a group called the International Watchers Council. You're a little old to attend, but they can still help you control your powers. They can explain everything to you." Dawn held out a piece of paper with the telephone number scribbled on it.

Jessica looked at her like she was crazy. "Is this some sort of joke?" she asked.

"Is your strength a joke?" Dawn returned. "Is your speed a joke? Is that tingling feeling you get around some people that lets you know that they can't be trusted a joke? I'm sorry, Jessica, but this is very real. Take the number. Call them. But don't tell them about me."

She hesitantly reached out and grabbed the number. "Why can't I tell them about you?"

Dawn gave a bittersweet smile. "Because I'm not ready to go home yet," she answered honestly before unlocking the door and leaving. She spotted Connor at the bar acting drunk and talking to (more like annoying) Sam. Putting on her best flirty grin, she walked up to him. "There you are, babe. I'm ready to go now," she purred, fluttering her lashes up at Connor. If Sam had been looking at Connor the way Dawn was, he would have seen the revulsion in Connor's eyes and the shudder that went down his spine. As it was, Sam was just relieved that Connor would be going. With a high pitched giggle, Dawn dragged the blond boy out the front door.

"Don't ever do that again," Connor muttered in disgust as he shook off Dawn's arms from around his body. Dawn just let out a laugh. "Mission complete?"

Dawn nodded, resting her head wearily on Connor's shoulder. Talking to the new Slayer had brought up a lot of old memories. It had taken more out of the girl than she had realized. "It's up to her now," she whispered, wondering if the blonde would call the IWC.

November 4, 2005

"Connor!" Dawn shrieked early in the morning. "I can't believe it. Connor!"

"What?" he asked grumpily, stumbling out of his bedroom. He didn't have a class until noon and had been enjoying a lie in.

"Jessica. She's dead!" Dawn breathed out in surprise shoving the paper in front of him to read.

"A fire?" Connor asked in surprise, his eyes continuing to scan the article. "There's no way she would have been trapped. She could have lifted any beams that might have fallen and she would have survived a third story jump no problem."

"So it must be something else," Dawn nodded having already come to the same conclusion. "Look," she pointed toward the bottom of the paper. "Her boyfriend survived. I think we need to have a little chat with this Sam Winchester guy."

November 7, 2005

It turned out that finding Sam Winchester was rather difficult. Obviously he was no longer staying at his apartment and he hadn't shown up to his classes since the fire. The only choice left was to corner him at Jessica's funeral.

"I feel like a douchebag," Connor muttered as he fidgeted uncomfortably with his tie. "What kind of person corners a guy at his girlfriend's funeral?"

Dawn shifted uncomfortably as well. She didn't like funerals and it didn't help that she had been to far too many of them. "Look, I know, okay? But we don't have a lot of options open to us right now. We tried tracking him down, but there are plenty of hotels and motels in Palo Alto. And for all we know he's been staying with a friend. This was the only place we knew he'd be."

"We hoped he'd be," Connor corrected sullenly. The truth was they had no idea whether or not Sam would show up let alone if he was even still in the area. Jessica had died suspiciously and for all they knew, Sam had been the cause.

"Well, we were right," Dawn nodded her head at the tall boy several feet away. "There he is." The two waited until the service was over and Jessica's coffin was lowered to the ground. Gradually, the crowd disappeared, but Sam stayed behind. Dawn and Connor moved away to give Sam some privacy to grieve, but the minute he moved to leave, the two cornered him.

"Sam Winchester?" Dawn asked despite already knowing the answer.

The tall man turned around in surprise, not having heard the two come up behind him. "Yeah?" he asked.

"I'm Dawn and this is Connor. We were friends of Jessica's," Dawn introduced but Sam's eyes had narrowed in suspicion.

"Jessica never mentioned you," Sam crossed his arms defensively. Then he took a good look at them and his eyes narrowed further. "I recognize you two. You were the ones from the bar on Halloween."

Dawn winced. She hadn't planned on being recognized. "Yeah, we were. And we were friends with Jessica. Or at least I was," she lied lightly. "I heard that you were with her when she died. I just wanted to know if you saw something."

"Saw something?" Sam was looking even more suspicious and his hand began itching toward his back like he was looking for something.

"The police don't know what started the fire," Connor explained. "We were wondering if you saw anything."

"If I did, don't you think I would have said something?" the tall boy replied, now firmly gripping something. Out of the corner of their eye, both Dawn and Connor noticed another figure heading towards them rapidly.

"I smell a trap," Connor muttered to Dawn.

"Ditto," she replied back.

Hearing them, Sam swiftly pulled out the object from his back, showing off a shining silver gun. Without thought, Connor struck out with his hand and gripped the man's wrist before he could shoot. As Connor took care of Sam, Dawn took on the newcomer. At a little over six foot with sandy hair and green eyes, he was more than a little attractive. Dawn almost felt sorry for having to punch his face in.

The boys were good fighters – more than good actually – but in the end, they were no match for Dawn and Connor's supernatural speed and strength. "What did you do to Jessica?" she screamed as she bashed the other man's head into the ground.

"What are you talking about?" Sam asked, his arms held behind his back as Connor pinned him tightly. "You are the ones who did something to Jessica!"

"Don't fuck with us," Connor grunted angrily as he roughly shoved Sam on top of the other man. Dawn looked at Connor with a slightly raised eyebrow. She couldn't remember the last time she heard Connor swear, if ever. "We know you had something to do with Jessica's death. There was no way a fire could kill her. She would have survived a three story jump. So, what did you do to her?"

"Tell us and we might kill you quickly," Dawn added, brandishing a knife she had kept tucked in her black heeled boots.

"We didn't do anything!" the nameless man spat. "Sam came home to find her already dead! We didn't see the thing that killed her."

"You're lying!" Connor yelled before taking a step forward to punch the guy. Dawn quickly grabbed his arm to stop him.

"Wait," she cautioned before turning to the man again. "Thing?" she asked, having picked up on the word.

The two men on the ground looked at each other, sharing their thoughts silently before turning to look at their captors. "Thing," Sam confirmed. "How did you beat us?" he asked, changing the subject.

"Tell us about this 'thing' first," Dawn compromised. "Then we'll tell you about us."

Again, the two shared a look before speaking. "When I came home, Jessica was on the ceiling, her stomach split open. And then she burst into flames," Sam spoke, eyes trained firmly on the ground as if afraid that if he looked someone in the eyes, he would begin to tear up.

"Jessica was attacked?" Connor murmured in complete surprise. This time he and Dawn were the ones to share knowing looks.

"What? What is it?" Sam asked desperately as he noticed the looks. "What do you know?"

"Dude, shut up," the second man grunted. "They probably don't know shit. They're messing with us."

Dawn looked down at the handsome man as he glared back up at her with a sneer. Then she turned her gaze to Sam. "We know that no ordinary person could have taken Jessica down. She was too strong, too fast for that."

"What are you talking about?" Sam asked in suspicious confusion.

One last glance was shared between Dawn and Connor before Dawn finally answered the man. "I guess I should start the story by saying the earth is a lot older than you think…"