The Key To The Universe

A Buffy/Angel Story

By DavidB226Morris

Summary: Buffy has been back from the dead for a few weeks. Angel and his friends don't know yet. A vision from Cordelia is about to lead to a high school reunion – in the worst possible way.

Disclaimer: We all know who created Buffy, Angel, the Scoobies and the Fang Gang, whether or not we like him anymore. (I am actually going to deal with that in a minute.) For the record I take no recompense for writing these characters, but in my own way hope to redeem them.

Timeline: This story will take place in an alternate Season 6. Technically speaking the timeline is before 'Once More, With Feeling' on Buffy and in the early stages of Season 3 of Angel. (I'll fudge the timeline slightly, but all you have to know is this is before Darla's showed up in the Hyperion.)

Introduction:

Like all of you who are reading this fanfic, I loved Buffy and Angel when I was younger. I thought that Joss Whedon walked on water. At one point, I thought the fourth season of Angel was one of the masterpieces of television history.

Then we started hearing the stories. Then Charisma Carpenter finally told us how Whedon reacted when she revealed her pregnancy (something we should have suspected for years given how horrible the storyline was in Season 4 of Angel.) Then all of the ugly truth came out and Whedon has done nothing to repent.

For obvious reasons it was hard for me to even look at Buffy fanfiction which has been one of the true joys of working in fanfiction in the first place. I honestly thought I'd never be able to read it again and I couldn't for a while.

Then a satellite network started rerunning Buffy, and I watched some of it anyway. And doggone, it's still a great series. And while I will never be able to forgive Whedon, I can not pretend I didn't love the show. (I'm not sure I'll ever be able to look at Angel the same way again, but that's my problem.)

Over the last year or so, I've been reading quite a few Buffy fanfics and I remembered the joy that we, as writers of fanfic, can give to series like this in the first place. There are many on this site who have done much to restore my faith in the power of what we do.

I have had stories about Buffy rattling around in my head for a long time. For years I never set them down on paper, first because I was dealing with other fanfics at the time, and then the revelations about Whedon had curdled much of my love for it. But after a bit I realized that not writing about my favorite show at times would be another thing that Whedon has taken away from me and indeed many of us over the last few years. I refuse to give him that power.

I have written many Buffy/Angel related fanfics at this site over the years and have even started a few series. This is not related to any of them. This is a purely original series that, in a sense, follows a mission statement that has been at the core of so many of my fanfics and indeed many of ours: to rectify flaws in the original series that were so glaring we could barely stand them at the time.

It is no coincidence that I choose to do so with a fanfiction set in Season 6 of Buffy; at the time, few fans could find anything truly redeemable in it, and twenty years after the fact, it really does looks like Whedon had done it for the sole purpose of torturing his cast. At the same time, there has been a story here that has been playing in my head for more than fifteen years and now is as good a time as any to try and get it down on paper.

This fanfiction is dedicated to all the brilliant actresses who worked on Buffy and Angel over the years and all the exceptional Buffy fanfic writers who work in this fanfic to this day.

Without further ado, here we go…

PROLOGUE

HYPERION HOTEL

"I know that you were in a black place during you know the last century," Wesley said to Angel. "But I have to say, hanging out in the Weimar Republic during the mid-20s, you must have really been in a punishing mood."

"Well, if I remember my history class correctly, he would have fit right in," Cordelia said as she continued to apply to roller to the wall.

Fred nodded. "Heck, based on my one film studies class, you would have fit right in with those early Expressionist filmmakers."

"I may have missed the high points of the twentieth century, but the low ones were pretty obvious," Angel admitted. "I'm pretty sure that's when the beer gardens became prevalent. Everybody had to get drunk in order to forget how horrible things were. Of course, you needed a wheelbarrow full of makes just to get a stein of lager."

"You gotta remember our textbooks are different from yours, English," Gunn asked Wesley. "How much of what happened to Germany back then did they deserve and how much was you guys just being pricks?"

"Our behavior at Versailles barely met the level of adequacy," Wesley admitted. "But punishing Germany was mainly all Clemenceau's thing. Now dividing up the Ottoman Empire and basically creating the Middle East, that's pretty much on us."

"Well, the few times I emerged among people, I could tell they pretty much cursed England and France about the same," Angel acknowledged. "I knew as bad as things were there, they were going to get a whole lot uglier. After I heard what was going on in Nuremberg, I got on the first boat to America."

"But to be clear, Hitler and his group, they were all human," Fred winced. "I realize I might be using this term in the loosest sense possible…"

"In all honesty, Germany would have been better off with some kind of horrible vampire or demon in charge," Wesley told them as he reached for the nearest coat. "There were supernatural enclaves in all of Eastern Europe…"

"Transylvania was right across the way," Gunn remembered.

"That was just the most famous one. There were at least half a dozen major vampire gangs in what would eventually become known as the Eastern Bloc alone," Wesley said. "And some of them were making moves among the chaos that was basically the old Triple Entente to take over villages and even small towns that were in ruins in that area."

Angel nodded. "I turned down at least three or four offers during that period. And that's without considering what Spike and Drusilla might have been up to at the time."

Cordelia blinked. "You think their act would have worked there? They had been on the other side."

"You know how adaptable they were," Angel reminded her. "And Drusilla always had a fondness for that area. She spent a lot of time in Vienna and Prague…"

He trailed off, clearly thinking of her most recent visit, not a subject any of them were eager to return too.

"The point is, the Watchers were more than capable of eventually dealing with these threats," Wesley said slowly. "When it came to the human elements of the world, we were, however, as woefully unprepared as almost the rest of Europe."

"Nobody thought what was happening was a threat?" Cordelia said dubiously. "You didn't have any seers working with you who thought that this guy with a mustache might be a problem?"

"From what I understand, most of our political allies at the time were supporters of Chamberlain. I don't think I need to elaborate further."

Gunn shook his head. "You honestly would have been better with Wilt as your Prime Minister back then."

"Yeah, at least he was stronger on offense."

Gunn looked at Angel. "Did you just make a basketball and a history joke?"

"Hey, I saw him in Philly the night he scored 100 points. The Maginot Line would have had a better chance of stopping him than the Knicks did that night."

Gunn shook his head. "Angel knows basketball. I live and breathe. Which are two things you don't do."

"You never miss a chance to rub it in?" Angel said with what almost passed for a smile.

"Driving that point into the ground never hurts," Cordelia said. "Well, except you under those circumstances."

It was a measure of how much better things had become between the core members of Angel Investigations the last few months that the banter that had been awkward ever since he had returned from his mourning period was now basically in effect. Angel had basically said that he had been fine after coming back in the weeks since he returned from Buffy's funeral, but no one had been inclined to believe it, even if as Cordelia had put it 'Angel's default setting is always brood."

Cordelia herself had been trying to figure out where she was now that Buffy was gone. Part of her was dealing with a bit of her own residual guilt. She had left Sunnydale on bad terms with her fellow Scoobies; while she had been willing to keep fighting alongside them, there had always been more venom in her insults towards them ever since she had taken a rebar through the midsection. She'd healed from that by the time she left Sunnydale; the scars from Xander's and Willow's betrayal – that was a closer question.

When she'd come back to Sunnydale for Buffy's funeral, it had been the first time she had set foot in her former town since the battle at graduation. It wasn't the fact that she had barely survived the Hellmouth that kept her away. She had barely talked to any of her friends over the past two years and rarely out of more than necessity. And while Buffy had come to LA more than once, the two of them could barely exchange dialogue. Granted in neither case had the circumstances been ideal for civilized conversation, and in both cases Buffy had been very hostile towards Angel Investigations, but Cordelia had to admit that she had been grateful for that hostility.

Of all the Scoobies, Cordelia's relationship with Buffy had always been the most problematic. In her hearts of hearts, Cordy knew that this was in part out of envy. Cordelia had the reputation of being a vicious bitch but much of that was purely bluster. Every time she had even accompanied Buffy and the Scoobies on one of their vamp hunts there had been a voice of terror in her that had never fully gone away. Buffy went out every night with no apparent doubt or fear. How could she ever compare to that?

Around the time of her accidental trip to Pylea, she had finally begun to appreciate and realize everything it took be a Slayer. She finally thought she understood a small part of what made her tick. Then when they had returned, Willow had been in the lobby of the Hyperion barely holding back tears.

Before Willow had finished telling them what Angel already knew, Cordelia had run out of the room and burst into tears. Even at what was a primal moment of despair, there was a part of her that was still Queen C, utterly unwilling to show weakness, certainly not in front of someone she had spent the better part of her life degrading. It was one of the most petty things she'd done. The fact that when Cordelia came in trying to apologize and Willow had just said: "I get it," made her only feel worse. Even at what had to be her darkest hour, Willow still had it in her to comfort a woman who just a few years ago had helped break her heart.

Cordelia and Wesley had gone back with Willow. Angel, even in his grief, knew that Xander and Giles' distrust of him would mar their day of mourning. Cordelia hadn't minded his absence: she knew the next few days were going to be tough for all of them.

And they were. Xander was trying to be strong for everyone, but it was clear that he was barely holding it together. Willow and Tara (who Cordelia had never even met until that day) had spent much of their time trying to hold together Dawn, who barely said a word or even acknowledged anyone's presence during the entire stay. Giles had spent much of the visit on the phone shouting at everybody on the other end: the funeral home, the Watchers Guild, insurance agents, shouting off any efforts Wesley had made to help. Cordelia couldn't blame him. Giles was dealing with a kind of loss deeper than any of them could understand and the only way he could handle things was letting his calm demeanor finally break.

Anya, who Cordelia had not even talked to since she before she had left town before graduation, looked more lost than any of them. Willow had warned Cordy to be patient with Anya, who had a habit of always saying the wrong thing at the worst possible time. The opposite was true: Anya barely spoke the entire visit. Then near the end of it she pulled Cordelia aside and said the last thing Anya had ever expected to hear from her.

"I never understood," she said slowly. "All those years of avenging wronged women, I never got it until now."

Cordelia wasn't sure she followed.

"Look at them," she gestured towards Willow and Dawn. "She lost her best friend. She lost her sister. If ever there were two women who were wronged, it's them. And not only do I not have the power to help them, but what good would it do if I did? I'm not even a demon any more and I can feel their pain from across the room."

"You think vengeance would help them?" Cordelia was wondering where Anya was going.

Anya shook her head. "That's what I just figured out. The need for vengeance always comes out of pain. But once the vengeance is done with, the pain's still there. It always is. I didn't get that until now."

Then she had looked at Cordelia, began to fumble and ran off. Cordelia didn't blame her.

Spike had never shown up. Willow had casually mentioned that Spike had been 'helping them' the last year or so and Cordelia had been convinced she'd heard wrong. She'd heard something about him being 'chipped' the last year, but she knew that wouldn't change him. It wasn't until the funeral that Dawn had looked up and asked: "Has anyone seen him?" that she realized it was true. Even then it was beyond her comprehension and she never understood.

She and Wesley had offered to stay after the funeral: they were all aware that once word got out that Buffy was dead, things were going to get crazier on the Hellmouth than they'd ever been.

Neither of them were surprised when their help was refused. Neither she nor Wesley had ever been the most popular members of the Scooby Gang and even after the past two years of growth, they couldn't pretend that there hadn't been a rift between them since graduation. Part of this was due to the inevitable drift that happens after you leave high school, and part of it had to do with the fact that the world of the undead was much bigger than any of them had suspected two years.

It was Xander, of all people, who had put it best in his backhanded way. "Without you guys around, Angel would be clueless and beating up lawyers. Much as I'd like to get a front row seat to that, LA deserves better than that." It was as close to the old Xander as she'd seen during that entire visit and it acknowledged that the group each needed to protect their own territory. The Hellmouth was the Slayer's; LA was Angel's.

It was not until they had been driving back that day that Cordelia realized something that hadn't occurred to her. "When does the next Slayer show up?" she'd asked Wesley.

"That was one of the things Rupert was angry about," Wesley said. "As I am painfully aware of, the Slayer line now runs through Faith, not Buffy. Now that Buffy is gone, the Council no longer considers the Hellmouth 'a priority'."

The numbness Cordelia had felt for the last few days began to dissipate, and Queen C began to wake from her slumber. "Let me get this straight. Five years and six apocalypses and the Council doesn't even think she deserves a memorial."

"I don't think I have to tell you that the Council has always considered Slayers disposable," Wesley was starting to show his own rage. "They were planning to kill Faith the moment she woke up. I didn't tell your friends this because they already loathed, but quite a few of the older members of the Council were hoping Buffy would fail her crucimentium. They had begun to question her loyalty. Some of them were actually relieved she quit." He hesitated. "The reason that I resigned was that some of the elders had ordered me to make sure that Faith did not wake up from her coma."

Wesley had never told them that, even after Faith had tortured him.

" My personal feelings regarding Faith, then and now, I was not going to euthanize a teenage girl," Wesley said. "I knew that wasn't going to stop them. Before I left Sunnydale, I gave the Summers' phone number to an ER nurse and told her to call Buffy if Faith ever woke up. I was relatively certain the Watchers had already paid someone on the staff to do the same, and that their actions would be far more ruthless if she did."

"Pretty accurate," Cordelia agreed.

"Bearing that in mind, when we return to Los Angeles, we may very well have to do something both of us will find repugnant," Wesley said.

Cordelia had never needed to have things spelled out for her. "Things are bad enough on the Hellmouth now. You think putting a psychopath is going to improve the general mood?"

"The only reason that I'm inclined to take Angel's word that Faith is committed to rehabilitation is the fact that it's been nearly a year and a half and she's still in prison." Wesley said. "I don't need to remind you that the Tower of London could not hold a Slayer is she was truly determined to leave."

Cordelia had to admit that was the case. "Even I allowed that she might want to reform, do you really think that's what's best for what's left of the Scoobies? They're already dealing with two massive traumas in less than three months. The last thing they want to see is a wound that has to be even fresher for them than it is for us."

"I'm painfully aware of that," Wesley acknowledged. "At this point, I don't know if even the next apocalypse would make them reconsider. But from a practical stand point, it has to be done. As long as Buffy was alive, the Council was willing to stay their hand when it came to Faith. Now that's she gone, Travers and his ilk will have no such problem."

Cordelia had to admit to herself that as much as she still loathed Faith, having her picked off by the Council was not something she thought she deserved. "You have any ideas?"

"Rupert and I were discussing it," Wesley told him. "He wants us to try legal methods that do not involve a certain law firm first. He might have a more direct approach if it fails but considering that will put us all in a crosshairs none of us want to be in, we may need to exhaust those options first."

Cordelia nodded. "Gunn would probably be up for a prison break."

"I intend to loop him in when we get back. Considering he's the only current member of our team who never met her, he might be able see this in a way neither of us can't."

Gunn had heard them out when they got back and couldn't deny the logic. He had reminded them, however, that given Wolfram and Hart's connections to the prison system, they no doubt had their own set of eyes on Faith's jail.

"That's actually the best argument for it," Cordelia admitted.

"Yeah but given all of the illegal shit that those evil white folks have brewing, you gotta think they'd relish at being able to stop us when we were actually committing a crime," Gunn reminded them.

"That does cut both ways, of course," Wesley pointed out.

Gunn agreed. "Given how fucked up the justice system is on a good day, I think the only people with the pull to get out a woman who confessed to, what was it, two counts of second degree murder?" Wesley nodded. "I can only think of two groups that could do it. One is Wolfram and Hart; the other is your old bosses. And neither wants to do anything to make our lives easier."

"So what do you suggest?" Cordy asked.

"We're going to do the think I hate to do the most, but that English here often urges. We gotta be patient." Gunn sighed. "Wait 'til Angel gets back, figure out the best time to tell him, and then figure out whether we do this the hard way or the hard way."

"I was afraid of that," Wesley admitted.

"And Sunnydale just goes to hell in the meantime?"," Cordelia said.

"Based on the horror stories you've told me, it's hard to know what the difference would be," Gunn held up a hand. "You think your old crew can hold it together for a couple of months?"

"We managed to handle it during the summer Buffy skipped town, but it wasn't exactly a picnic," Cordelia said.

"That was three years ago. They're better equipped than before."

"And still grieving," Gunn admitted. "Did you ask any of them how they were going to handle it in the meantime?"

Cordelia thought of the one time she had asked the question to any of them – Willow, a few hours before they left.

She had known Willow almost her whole life but she hadn't recognized the expression on her face. It didn't seem to be determination, anger, or despair or even what Xander had once jokingly called 'resolve face.' It almost seemed like she wasn't even hearing her old rival. She looked at Cordelia and just said: "You don't have to worry. I'll take care of it."

It wasn't just the words that Cordelia found odd. It was the tone. It was as if Willow were actually surprised – almost offended – that Cordelia would deign to ask the question in the first place. And there was something a little frightening about it. Somehow Cordelia thought that if she had ever made a remark about this Willow's fashion's sense, she would not take it lying down.

That was why she had done the one thing that the old Cordelia Chase would never done: demand an answer, snarky or otherwise. In hindsight, she was consider that a huge mistake.

BABABA

"Angel, we've been dodging this for a while," Wesley said slowly.

Cordelia was relieved that Wesley was finally about to put forward what they'd been avoiding.

"I know, and I appreciate it," Angel said slowly.

The look of surprise across all three of their faces must have been identical.

"Look, I know that the idea of treating me with kid gloves has never been your favorite thing," Angel admitted. "And considering that we'd just gotten through dealing with Darla, I can't imagine any of you have been wild about going back into the world of Angel's exes."

"I'm pretty much getting used to it by now," Gunn said matter-of-factly. "But even I get that this is a problem that isn't just about you."

"It must have hurt," Cordelia told them. "Not being able to go."

"Xander hated me on the best day of his life," Angel said simply. "Considering how much grief he must have been going through, he would have staked if I'd glowered at him wrong."

Cordelia couldn't deny that.

"I'm grateful you've given me space, but much as I'm sure most of us want to put Sunnydale in the rear view mirror, we just can't." Angel said. "Though if I had to guess, your old bosses are fine with that."

"She prevented the world from ending for five years, Travers couldn't be bothered to send flowers," Wesley was speaking in a very cold tone.

"I'm honestly stunned they didn't send a team when she quit," Angel said softly.

"They were afraid of her." Wesley said simply. "That's the counsel's dirty little secret. They know they need the Slayer far more than she needs them. From what Rupert told me, she was the first one who called them on it."

"That's my girl." Angel said shaking his head.

"And because the English hold on to grudges for centuries, they're fine letting the world burn until you come crawling back," Gunn said bluntly.

"Not inaccurate in this case."

"I talked to Lorne a couple of times. Asked if he'd heard any rumors about things were going on the Hellmouth since Buffy…" Angel still couldn't say it. "He's been keeping his horn to the ground, but he has to admit what he's heard doesn't make much sense even to him."

"That's a normal Tuesday on the Hellmouth. Has he got an idea of how bad it's getting?" Cordelia asked.

"The last report he heard, the Scoobies had been holding down the fort based little more than magic, cunning and rumor," Angel told them. "I give them credit for not asking for help, but we all know at some point they're going to need it. And right now that means getting the only person who can help them there."

Clearly Angel had been thinking that far ahead.

"You really should have told her," he added.

Everyone blinked, a little guiltily this time.

"I mean, I do understand why you wouldn't. None of you liked her that much at the best of the times, and given how things ended, I wouldn't blame you for never wanting to see her again," Angel said. "But she's literally the only other person on Earth who can understand what Buffy went through."

"She expressed it very badly," Cordelia said. "But we didn't go out of our way to roll out the red carpet. I mean, seriously, she lived in that shitty motel and Buffy was the only one who even reached out to her. I had a frigging guest house most of that time, it didn't even occur to me she might want better accommodations."

"She was too proud to ask for anything." Angel paused. "You too had that in common, for the record."

"How'd she take it?"

Everyone looked up. This was the first time Fred had contributed to the conversation at all.

Angel looked at her. "How much have they told you about her?"

"Compared to some of the other stories y'all share, this was pretty easy to follow." Fred told them.

"What does that say about our lives?" Gunn asked. He turned to Fred. "You sure got the basics down, mama?"

"Slayer from Boston, came senior year, tried to fit in, never quite gelled, accidentally killed someone, she reacted badly, Wes reacted worse, and things sort of spiraled until she finally gets to the point where she collapses, confesses and ends up in prison." Everyone was looking at her. "I know I'm leaving a lot out…"

"We always do, but you got the basics," Cordelia shook her head. "You really are a super-genius if you can keep us with this."

"Would you mind answering the question?"

Angel did. "She pretty much went through all five stages of grief in about three minutes, though I'm pretty sure the acceptance part is still not there. I don't know if it will be for any of us."

Cordelia couldn't deny that.

"How did you leave it?" Wesley asked.

"Her exact words were: 'Whatever you need.' I told her to stay on guard and to wait until we could find the right time and the opportunity." Angel said. "And considering that you're talking to me about it, I guess the time is here."

"That still leaves us trying to figure how to get a Slayer out of prison and have no one notice." Wesley said.

"You do it the easy way." Again everyone looked at Fred. "She goes out through the front door."

Everyone looked at Fred with only slightly less concern than they had the first few weeks after they'd returned from Pylea. "You did here the part that she confessed to two counts of second-degree murder?" Gunn asked.

"Look, I know y'all hate lawyers on general principle even before Wolfram and Hart showed up," Fred said. "Can't say I blame you. No one would ever set a spin-off of Law and Order in Texas." She blinked. "Have they yet? I haven't watched much TV since then?"

Gunn shook his head. "Nope. All the shows are still in New York."

"I love my home, but seriously most of our cops really think that the justice system in Gunsmoke was too loose for their principles. And in our justice system isn't much better than 'sentence first, verdict afterwards. I'm pretty sure if Texas ever cleaned up the justice system, the Innocence project and the ACLU would go out of business in a week. Which is the point I was getting too."

"No, keep going I like where this is headed," Angel said.

"I think the whole reason Wolfram and Hart is a law firm in this dimension is because the law even at its best has so many loopholes that they barely have to work for their clients to get through them." Fred finally took a breath. "Hard to believe that in a world where so many innocent people go to jail because of bad police work, we couldn't find a way to get an only slightly guilty one out on the same reasons?"

There was an exchange of glances all around. "As justice goes, its not without its poetry," Wesley acknowledged. "It would leave us the question of how to do without a lawyer."

"One step at a time," Angel admitted. "I suppose it would be asking to much for you to be an expert hacker among your other skills."

"She wouldn't have to be," Gunn said. "Once Faith confessed, she became part of the system. And once you're in the system there's a record of everything if you know where to look."

"And we know exactly one place in that system she definitely is," Wesley acknowledged.

SUNNYDALE JUNIOR HIGH

ONE HOUR EARLIER

"Do you have eyes on the target?"

The woman in question was a mercenary famous for being willing to do anything with no questions asked. Nevertheless, she had a keen eye for self-preservation. And this job was a big warning sign.

"Sir, I really think that this is a bad idea."

"You've never been squeamish before. And this is a bad time in your career to develop morals."

"You know the rap sheet on the target of the sister, and you certainly know the body count associated with her."

"The woman in question is a college dropout who is in and out of the hospital every other week. Anything else you think you know is merely an urban legend."

This argument rubbed Mandy the wrong way on many levels. "Let me remind you that you sought me out. Which means you know how dirty this job is at every step."

"And we've made you handsomely for this service."

"It's an abduction. Of a minor. You've kept me in the dark as to why you want this particular girl instead of the dozens of others in this town, but I know this isn't something as minor as a Chinese businessman who has very specific tastes. You made it very clear she has to be brought back to you alive and unharmed, neither of which are skills I am known for having. And you sent me to a town that I would never go to under normal circumstances and that has nothing to do with the fact I could take a wrong turn and not know it was there."

There was silence on the other end. "If it's a question of your fee…"

"I know the real world, even the parts we pretend don't exist." Mandy said solemnly. "The fact that you sent me to this town rather than someone else who might fit in better is a deliberate choice. You're hoping that if she finds me, whatever moral code she has will keep her from doing to be what she does to them, and that she'll hesitate with me in a way she wouldn't with her usual targets."

There was a long silence on the other end. "There are reasons we did not prepare you.."

"Don't. You underestimated me just like so many people and creatures have underestimated her. And its because so many of them underestimate her that the world is still spinning." Mandy said. "If nothing else, what you're doing is incredibly ungrateful and short-sighted."

"Don't tell me you've suddenly developed a conscience."

"I'm a protector of my own self-interests. So to be clear, this is where I renegotiate my terms. I'll still do your job, but you're going to be damn sure that you double the guard when the pick-up time takes place." Mandy paused. "Not that it'll make much of a difference if she's there. She's a force of nature on a good day. Can you imagine how motivated she'll be when you take her sister?"

Now the voice sounded a little alarmed. "If you're thinking of backing out…"

"Oh, I won't. The pays too good." Mandy actually sounded cheerful now. "But the moment I take her to the delivery point, my job is over and I'm gone. Which is a shame. I'd honestly take less money if I could get video of her kicking your ass."

She hung up before the man could bluster out a response. She reached into her glove compartment and prepared a syringe.

"I should really have taken that other job, " she grumbled. "Jumping out of a passenger jet before in mid-air would be a picnic in comparison."

Author's Notes: I have continued to tradition of putting cameos from other shows in fanfiction that isn't necessarily crossover. Bonus points to whoever can recognize the series the character stalking Dawn is from. (The last sentence is a big hint for fans of the show.)