The Summers house, living room, Sunnydale, 2001.
Xander, Tara, Anya, and Spike stared in disbelief at the body lying unconscious on the couch in the Summers residence living room. Buffy stepped back from the couch with the younger version of Dawn before reaching out and holding to her younger sister. In the meantime, Giles crouched down and took off his glasses while staring at the scars on the older Dawns face.
"She's our lil-bit alright," Spike said as he remained standing near the foyer at the edge of the couching, sniffing the air while putting his hands in his pockets. He eyed the older Dawn and took in her familiar scent, a scent that was mostly shared with the younger version. However, there were slight subtle difference, he could smell dried blood… blood that was not her own. He stared at her shirt and saw specks from what he believed belonged to Doc. And then there was another scent that he got off her.
The vampire glanced over at Willow who was standing next to Tara, and took in her scent as a comparison. He then looked back at the older Dawn and wondered why she had Willow's scent all over her. Shaking his head while pushing the question to the back of his head and then said, "but wherever she came from? Well, I smell blood… gunpowder… well, they could very well be from the gun she fired and the blood's from Doc."
"You think?" asked Xander sarcastically while Spike stared at him without an expression on his face, before looking back at the older Dawn.
"Dawnie," said Tara standing next to Willow who was keeping her steady, "are you sure that it was the Key leaving her body?"
"Yeah," the young girl said, "I could feel it calling to me. It… It's like there couldn't be two of it in the same place. I mean that's the feeling I got."
"But if her body was created to house the Key," said Willow, "then…" the redhead turned to look at the younger Dawn who pursed her lips in worry. Willow then looked away at the older Dawn and continued, "then how is she still here?"
"The monk said Dawn's human," said Buffy recalling the lasts word of the Monk who died in her arms, "so even without the Key, she would be human. Right? I mean the time to use Dawn's blood came and went. And since the Key didn't leave Dawn's body…" Buffy then nodded at the younger version of her sister, "does that mean that she's still the key or… ok, I think I just confused myself."
"We can't even begin guessing what just happened," said Giles, "the spell the monks used was very complex. At least that is my guess. For now, I can continue my research. This older Dawn is alive and well so we could make the deduction that she is still human. That even if our Dawn loses the Key, she'll still be with us."
"I don't want the Council to know about her, Giles," Buffy said nodding at the older Dawn.
"They won't," Giles said looking down at the older Dawn as he stood up to his feet, "I suggest that one of us stays here in Dawn's room. If she wakes up in the middle of the night, at least she'll be faced with a familiar presence.
"I'll take the first shift," said Giles as he turned back to the older Dawn, and then looked at the younger version. He took in a deep breathe before saying that the young girl needed her rest; that it had been a very long day for everyone. Buffy nodded her head while placing her hands on Dawn's shoulders and telling her that she could share the bed in her room. Dawn sighed before nodding her head as Buffy asked her to go take a shower.
"I'll make some…"
"Buffy?" said a soft voice as everyone stopped whispering and looked at the older Dawn staring back at them through squinted eyes, "Buffy?"
"I'm here, Dawnie," Buffy said as she stepped forward while holding on to her sister's younger-self. She then reached out with her other hand and held the older Dawn's hand, "we're here."
"Thought… thought it.. it was a dream," the older Dawn said as she looked at her sister, "you… you alive."
"I'm alive," said Buffy as she crouched down while the younger Dawn got down on one knee, "I…"
"Giles… alive?" asked the older Dawn as Giles narrowed his eyes before getting into the older Dawn's line of sight.
"I'm here, Dawn," said Giles as he stared at the woman looking back at him, "you're exhausted. You need to sleep, and… and we'll talk when you get…"
"Have… have to know… wasn't dream," Dawn mumbled as she closed her eyes, and then opened her eyes half-way once again.. her face indicating that she was exhausted and wanted to go back to sleep, "Xan… Xander alive?"
"Hey," Xander replied while Anya narrowed her eyes at Xander before the older Dawn looked at her, and then a genuine smile appeared on her face.
"Anya?" asked Dawn.
"Still kicking," Anya said, "so in your future, I'm dead? And so is Giles? Are we all dead? Because if we are then…."
"All dead," Dawn whispered, "all… all gone and… and now… now alive… The End… the End not coming and…"
"Dawn?" asked Buffy as the older woman closed her eyes.
"She's asleep," said Giles after having felt her pulse, "she's only asleep."
"Great, so all of us are dead," Anya frowned.
"I wonder if I'm still there, in the future," Spike said as he looked out into the distance, "a future of death and destruction. Ummm…. Not bad and…" Spike stopped talking when he noticed everyone looking back at him, he the shrugged his shoulders while exclaiming, "it was just a question!"
"Be that as it may," Giles said looking back at the sleeping older Dawn, "I'll stay up to watch over her. I still have some research to complete, and the rest of you needs to get some rest. We won a big victory today, so we deserve it."
"Then tomorrow we deal with how we die," Buffy deadpanned.
"Get some rest, Buffy, Dawn… all of you… get some rest."
Los Angeles, 2015.
"So, where are they, little Dawnie?" said the man wearing a leather overcoat over a yellow vest and black tactical trousers. Dawn, who was on her knees on the stone covered ground, had her arms chained over her head to the ceiling, the chain ran along a pully that went back down, and was attached to a far wall. She looked up with gritted teeth as she listened, hiding her fear… pushing it deep down, to screams of pain by twenty-five Slayers who were captured during a daring mission to push back against the End by finally destroying the Seed of Wonder. The Seed was the very reason for the existence of magic in the Earth dimension. And if it was destroyed, just as it should have been in 2011 had Twilight not distracted Buffy by slamming Giles' dead body into her just as she was about to destroy the shining red object; then magic would have been cut off from Earth… and Twilight would have been driven away.
Dawn was there in the underground chamber when Giles' body slammed into Buffy, who was knocked to the ground while the Slayer Scythe fell from her grasp and clattered onto the ground. Back then, Dawn rushed to Buffy who lay injured with her dead mentor draped over her body while Twilight ran for the Seed, and then took it. He then ran out of the underground crypt, leaving Buffy and the others to deal with the dead Giles.
And the fact that the world as they knew it had ended.
That was four years ago. Ever since then, the Slayers, Earth dimension demons, and the military worked together to battle Twilight's demonic hordes. But the Earth defences were quickly ground to dust with hundreds of Slayers, including Kennedy, Rona, Violet, and many others losing their lives in battle in the first year of the resistance campaign again the incursion. Even trying to destroy the Seed was useless since Twilight had completely taken over the dimension. All the survivors could do now was continue the fight. All they could do was resist until their very last breath.
It had been a few days earlier that Dawn and several other slayers were captured during an attack on one of their bases. The wards used to hide the base that housed her resistance cell should have been powerful enough to keep Twilight's armies away; Willow was the one who warded the base after all. When Dawn's cell was taken by surprise, she realized there was a traitor among them. But there was nothing she, or the others, could do as the humans and demons were slaughtered after the hordes invaded the base. Hundreds of men, women, and children under the resistance cell's protection were murdered, hundreds of demons who were on the side of the resistance were killed, as were the military personnel. However, over fifty personnel, including Dawn and twenty five other Slayers were taken for questioning.
And since being captured, Dawn was worried that Twilight may have captured, or killed Buffy. However hearing the otherworldly being in the body of Angel asking about the location of Buffy brought her some relief.
"Where is she, Dawnie?" said Twilight as he looked down at Dawn while walking around her.
"Angel," she said while a door opened to her left and a glowing red demon with one eye walked in on hooved feet carrying a whip in one of its three clawed hands. Dawn stared at the demon who was grinning at her, showing a mouth full of bloodied and sharp teeth, before it then turned to Twilight. Dawn looked away from the demon, and the then at Angel, "Angel, I know you're in there… somewhere. You need to fight, and…"
"Angel is long gone," said Twilight looking down at the young woman while walking over to the demon who handed his them whip. Dawn watched Twilight unfurl the weapon, and noticed the glistening layer of blood on the whip dripping to the floor. She then noticed the nod between the two, and then the demon past her to her rear. Dawn followed the demon with her eyes as she looked back over her shoulder. She saw the demon grab a section of the chain that was attached to the far wall. Dawn followed the direction of the link of the chain up to the pully at the ceiling as her arms got taut. She hissed in pain, her shoulders burning, as her body then started to rise off the floor. She looked back at the demon and saw it pulling at the chain which then pulled on her body. She got to her feet, which touched the floor for a few seconds as her body continued to rise, while listening to the screams of the others slayers in the other rooms. Suddenly the screams were cut off while Dawn was hanging in the air, her body twisting and spinning in place. The demon then locked the chain in place, and walked out, but not before Twilight told it to take out the bodies of the dead Slayers and use them as food for his pets; ravenous vampires that he turned to his cause.
"Dawnie, Dawnie, Dawnie," whispered Angel as he looked at the whip with Dawn continuing to spin around while hanging in place, "where's Buffy? Where's Willow? All your other useless meat bags?"
"Angel," cried out Dawn as he body spun slowly round and round, "fight Twilight. Please."
"I told you Angel is gone!" yelled Twilight as he mentally grabbed Dawn so that she would stop spinning. Dawn stared at Twilight as his eyes started to glow green and he bore his fangs. Dawn's heart raced as she was spun around by an unseen force, her back now to Twilight. And then she heard a crack. She looked over her shoulder while breathing hard as the whip cracked against the ground. She looked up at the enraged face looking back at her. It was yelling at her, demanding to know the location of the rest of the resistance; "Carla's wanted to be with her parents. She approached me during a mission, and I promised her that I would give her parents back to her as long as she gave me the location of her cell. She gave you and your base up, and she's with her parents now."
"You mean she's dead," Dawn hissed.
"So is your resistance cell," said Twilight as the whip cracked against the floor, "now, I'll give you a different deal. You give up Buffy, and you live. You'll be my scribe… you'll write about the end of human history… you'll be witness to the end of humanity itself, and the rise of my demons on this new Earth. You'll be the Great Historian of this new world. You will be held up among all the other demons, you won't be harmed and you'll be free to go where you want. All I want is Buffy. All I want is my mother."
Dawn still remembered the day that Buffy started exhibiting powers that a slayer ordinarily didn't have. It would be much later she and the others would discover that the power increase was being given to her by the universe itself to combat the rising of similar powers in Angel- power that was being given to him by Twilight. The working theory the Scoobies had was that the universe had given Buffy these amazing powers to kill Angel, to prevent Twilight from taking over this universe. However, what happened was that the two lovers consummated their relationship once again; and doing so brought about the apocalypse.
They gave birth to Twilight, pulling it into the Earth dimension. And then, Twilight took full control of Angel who killed Giles, and ran off with the Seed. However, no one knew exactly why Twilight didn't just kill all of them then and there. Spike had a theory that Twilight wasn't all powerful yet, that he would gain full power only when the entirely of the Earth dimension was taken over. In the meantime, Twilight needed to hide the seed until he was completed through.
"I should have tortured her that day! I should have taken her then!" yelled Twilight as he cracked the whip against Dawn's back. She gave off one blood curling scream after another as he whipped her back multiple times. The whip ripped the back of the green and black Army BDU she was wearing and tore her skin. As the whip continued its damage, blood poured from her wounds and dripped onto the formerly dry, cold floor. After whipping her several times, Twilight dropped the weapon and dashed forward. HE grabbed her shoulders as she released another scream of pain, and then turned her around. He watched the tears falling down her cheeks while she cried. He then grabbed the lower part of her jaw, and demanded to know where Buffy was hiding.
"I don't know!" cried Dawn who felt that she was going to faint from the pain. The truth was that each cell was supposed to operate independently without knowing the location of the other cells, Buffy told her sister where she was located; her idea was that separated, they stood the best chance of surviving… that if one of them dies, the other would keep on going. And Dawn was doing everything she could to fight her pain and the part of her mind telling herself to reveal the truth to Twilight so that she could survive. But Dawn pushed that away, there was no way she was betraying her sister. "I don't know!" sobbed Dawn once again. However, the enraged Twilight locked his jaw before leaning forwards and screaming into her face.
"You will protect Buffy no matter what! Where is she!" While he was screaming, Twilight used the thumb on his other hand and pushed it down into Dawns left eye socket. He pushed into the eyeball, crushing it, and then the thumb continued inwards while Dawn was gasping for breath while her body and legs were flailing wildly. The brunette then released a loud scream from the depths of her very soul as blood poured down her cheek while Twilight laughed as he continued pushing his thumb further inwards. He then pulled his thumb out of the eye socket, and licked the blood and other slimy liquid while using a finger nail in his other hand to cut the girl's cheek. HE then leaned forward and licked the blood while Dawn sobbed loudly, about to pass out form the pain.
"Tell me where she is, Dawnie," said Angel as she looked at his through the one, tear stained, good eye, "Where. Is. She?"
Dawn continued to sob while shaking her head as her legs continued to flail around because of the pain. Twilight continued to ask the same question for a few more seconds before he gave in to his rage and wiped his sharp fingernails along the empty eye socket. She screamed in pain as her skin was slashed off before he violently dug his thump into her empty socket and wiggled it around. She continued to scream in pain while he demanded to know Buffy's location.
Just as he asked that question for the second time while Dawn was screaming out in pain, there was a massive explosion as Twilight's castle shook violently. Twilight pulled back as Dawn sobbed from the intense pain going through her skull before he turned towards the door and smiled at the sound of weapons fire, grunting, yelling, screaming, and thuds.
"Dawn!" the Key heard Buffy yell over her sobs of pain, "I'm coming! I'm coming!"
Summers Residence, 0600 hours; 2001.
Dawn snapped her eye open and immediately felt herself lying on a soft material while covered in a blanket. She slowly removed the blanket while using her other hand to rub her forehead. In a state pf grogginess, the older Dawn slowly sat up while looking around and saw Giles sleeping on an armchair that was shifted to face her.
There was a book on his lap, as well as various other books on the floor all around the floor. Dawn managed a small while she wiped her right eye with the back of her hand, and then slowly stood up. She made sure the patch was still covering her left eye before she turned around, picked up her blanket, and then took it to the sleeping Giles. She lay it over him before taking off his glasses and then placing them on the side table. Dawn then stepped back and closed her eye as she remembered Twilight snapping Giles' neck.
She opened her eye one more time, her breath steady, before walking to the mantle and looking at the pictures as memories started to flood back of happier times back in her own timeline. She then turned back to Giles, and then she turned towards the foyer and stared at the stairs. Dawn took in a deep breath, and made her way to the bottom of the stairs and then walked up the stairs. Trying to make as little noise as possible, she reached the top of the stairs and headed for Buffy's room.
She then slowly opened the door, and peeked in to see Buffy sleeping with her younger self. It was then, as she pulled the door closed slowly, that the elder Dawn remembered Willow smashing through the door and calling for Buffy while her eyes were wide open in shock and horror at the brunette's state. Dawn, through her tears and the pain stabbing through her head, watched Willow's eyes and hair just jet black as Twilight dashed towards her. She mumbled a spell that flung him through the walls of his dark castle while Buffy rushed past the witch.
"Dawn!" she yelled as Willow magically cut the chains just as Riley and several other soldiers arrived saying that there were demonic reinforcements on the way, and that they needed to leave.
Back in the present day, the older Dawn sighed, closed the door slowly, and then walked towards what used to be her room It was there that she saw Xander and Anya sleeping on her bed. She smiled before closing the door at having both of them stull alive, and then walked towards the other door at the end of the hallway. She reached for the door knob with a shaking hand while imagining the two people on the other side of the door.
However, at the last moment, the older Dawn pulled her hand away and took a step back.
Dawn couldn't bear to see Willow and Tara sleeping together since the wound of losing her lover was too raw. Dawn stepped back and turned around before walking back to the stairs. Grabbing the banister, the former Key started to make a mental note of what she needed to do next to prevent her future from happening.
'Find Warren and the Trio, and take care of them,' she thought to herself as she slowly walked down the stairs. 'and that'll prevent my future from happening. That'll make everything better. But there other things. Other things that can be done. Smaller things that can be stopped. Willow's addictions, Jasmine, and… so many things. Anyone can bring the end.'
Dawn reached the bottom of the stairs, and then turned left into the dining room. She walked slowly through the room taking in the scent in the air of vanilla as she moved to the kitchen. She looked around, a lump growing him her throat as she imagined the house in her timeline lying underneath millions of tonnes of rumble. Dawn opened the back door, and stepped out into the warm breezy morning. She walked on the porch towards the railing, and then leaned down while looking out at the back yard with a small smile on her face.
Closing her eye, she took a small breath and whispered to herself, "I'm home, Willow. I'll change things. And I'll protect you." Dawn imagined kissing the Willow she once knew before opening her eye again and looked down at the grass.
Things were going to change.
TBC.