Chapter 152: Gone

Buffy and Willow sat at the kitchen table watching Dawn make breakfast for them. As Buffy sat there she tried to keep from checking out her sister, but it was difficult. She still had yet to truly understand why she had these feelings for her sister. She knew those kind of feelings were supposed to be wrong but they continued anyways.

"So, Dawn," Buffy said, "what are you going to be doing today?"

"I was going to go and have another look through our Book and see if your demon was in it. What kind of demon would steal a diamond though."

"Some will do some pretty strange things," Willow said.

"How are you this morning, Will?" Buffy asked.

"I'm okay," Willow said. "Not quite ready to return to classes or otherwise face the world okay. But we all knew it would take a little time, even with my magic bound for me to get one hundred percent over it. Thought I'd spend helping Dawn find that demon by fishing the net for it." She looked towards Dawn. "I know to us you should be fifteen. But I was wondering are we treating you like an adult that you are now, or …"

"Like the teenager I was," Dawn said as she glanced at Willow and Buffy. "An adult. But I've also noticed since I came back from the past that there have been times you all have … But like with your addiction, Willow. It will take time to adjust."

Suddenly the back door was flung open and Spike, breathless, rushed in, a smoking blanket draped over his head.

Dawn turned off the stove immediately and powered up an energy ball. "Out!" she yelled at the vampire. "You are not hurting my sister again."

Spike stopped suddenly and eyed Dawn and the energy ball. "I'm just looking for my lighter. And I can't stop at the manor or your other sister will react more violently than that despite the fact I've helped you."

"Tell you what," Dawn said. "If we find it we'll shimmer it to you. But you are not welcome here anymore, got it. You are not hurting Buffy anymore. If I even see you anywhere near her, I will stake you myself."

Spike turned draped the blanket back over him and ran out the door. They could hear him muttering to himself. "When did the Little Bit get scary?"

"Kind of my question," Buffy said as she looked at Dawn. She had to wonder if Dawn had been jealous of Spike. That surely was not the case, Buffy was sure Dawn was just being protective of her big sister.

Dawn smiled at her sister. "Maybe you would like to know," she teased. She turned and walked out of the room.

Moments later Buffy entered her bedroom and sat down on her bed with a sigh. "Why? Why am I having these feelings for her? Is it because of what Tara said that we share parts of our soul with each other. Or is it more than that? I got to get out of here. Clear my head."

An hour later Buffy sat in a hair salon having decided the best way to clear her head was to get a hair cut.

"What exactly would you like me to do?" the hairdresser asked.

"Just make …" Buffy started. But she was unsure of what she wanted. Her thoughts kept going back to Dawn and what would her sister like.

Unbeknownst to Buffy Warren Mears, Andrew Wells and Jonathan Levinson stood next to their, parked in a side alley across the street.

"I'm scared. What if we get caught?" Andrew said.

Jonathon shook his head. "No way. We'll be invisible. Plus their security's gotten lax."

"You should know, you've cased this joint enough. Okay. This is it," Warren said. "Remember. We're professionals." He reached into the van and retrieved what could only be described as a ray gun.

Andrew looked past Warren and saw Buffy exiting the hair salon. Uh ... Slayer."

"What? Where?" Warren said as he looked around.

"There. Heading this way," Andrew said.

Warren followed Andrew's gaze to Buffy. Then he noticed he nolonger held the ray gun. He looked back and saw that Jonathan and Andrew were fighting over it.

"Watch it! Don't push the—" Warren shouted as the ray gun malfunctioned, overloaded and fired. It hit a dumpster which disappeared.

Across the street Buffy looked at her reflection and smiled. "I'm sure," she said, "Dawn will like it." She doesn't notice that both a tree and a fire hydrant disappear. And then suddenly she too vanishes. "Wha … Huh …? Where ... Oh. Wow."

Thirty minutes later Buffy, now invisible, entered the Magic Box and walked towards Xander and Anya who were arguing over wedding details.

"What happened to Buffy? She's gone," Xander said as he looked at the seating chart.

"She's right here. At table four. I put her with your family," Anya said.

"Great. Except we DON'T HATE BUFFY. Put her back at our table," Xander replied.

"Then where do I put D'Hoffryn?" Anya asked.

Xander shook his head. "We're not inviting D'Hoffryn."

"I have to! He's my ex-boss! You're inviting your work buddies," Anya stated.

"She's got a point," Buffy said as Xander and Anya jump slightly.

"Buffy?! Where—where are you?" Xander asked as he looked around.

"At table four, apparently."

"That remains to be seen. Like you,' Anya said.

Xander spun around, looking for Buffy. "New power?" he asked.

"Don't know," Buffy said as Xander felt around to confirm her presence and placed his hands where they should not have gone. "Uh, Xander ..."

Xander yanked his hands back. "Sorry," he said as he looked to Anya. "Her clothes are ... invisible ... too." Anya glared at him as he turned back to Buffy. "When did this happen? Or even how did it happen?"

"I don't know what happened," Buffy said. "I left Mane Street after getting my hair cut and was—"

"You cut your hair?" Anya asked.

"Oh. Yeah."

"Really? How short?"

Xander watched incredulously as the girls talked about hair.

"About up to here," Buffy said. "Well, if you could see my hand, it's at my shoulders."

"Oh, that sounds adorable. I was thinking about cutting mine before the wedding, maybe layering it," Anya said.

"Can we get back to freaking out about no-show Buffy? This is serious," Xander said.

"Xander is right," Buffy said as she took orbs from a basket. Dark circular symbols painted on each give the impression of two large eyeballs. Buffy tossed one in the air and caught it. She brought up another eyeball and the two look around.

"Buff, did you see anyone or anything suspicious before you ... cleared up?" Xander wondered.

"Nope. Didn't see nothin'," Buffy said as she made the eyeballs look cross-eyed. "See what I did there? With the eyeballs?"

"Assuming this is not a new power, that she hasn't learned control of," Anya said. "Why would anyone want to make her invisible anyway? I mean, invisible Slayer's gotta be way more effective than the standard variety."

"I'm less with the why, and more with the how," Xander said. "We get the how, then we got how to make her unseen sight seen again. Right?"

Buffy held a skull up to Xander's shoulder and moved the mouth as she spoke. "S'awright."

"Buffy, can you focus please?" Xander asked as he jumped a little as Buffy walked away with the skull.

"I am. Just ... this is kinda fun," Buffy said.

"It would help if we had a little more to go on. Or anything to go on," Anya said.

"I could go check out the spot Buffy disappeared. Snoop for clues," Xander said.

"Good idea," Buffy said. "I already have Piper checking with Leo on if this is a new power or not. I'm gonna head home see what Dawn and Willow have on the diamond stealing demon."

At Buffy's house Dawn walked into the dining room where Willow had set up her laptop. "Anything?" she asked.

"I found out stuff about the diamond stolen from the museum. It's called The Illuminata and there's rumors of it having quasi-mystical quantum properties—"

"So its possible there is a reason that diamond was stolen for a very dark reason," Dawn said. "I found nothing on the book on a demon who steals diamonds. Which with what you found leads me to believe …"

Just then the phone rang and Dawn walked over to a side table and answered it. "Halliwell residence, Prudence speaking."

"Dawn, it's Xander."

"Hey Xander, what's up."

"Is Willow's powers still bound?"

"Yeah, why?" Dawn asked as she glanced at Willow.

"What?" Willow asked.

"Buffy's invisible."

"Buffy's … invisible?" Dawn said unable to believe what she just heard.

"Buffy's invisible," Willow said. "Let me guess Xander wants to know if I did it."

Dawn nodded sheepishly. "Xander, we'll check it out from our end. Keep looking on yours. Where did Buffy say she had been when she disappeared."

"Mane Street, she said."

"Okay," Dawn said. "I'll have Will check out the scene. I'll research more from here."

Across town Buffy walked in the front door of the manor. "Piper!"

Piper rushed into the foyer and looked around. "Buffy?"

"Yeah, it's me," Buffy said. "Did Leo find out anything?"

"It's not a new power," Piper said with a sigh. "Which means someone or something did this to you. My question is why. Being Charmed and a Slayer, you would be pretty unstoppable as long as your invisible. Unless …"

"Unless?" Buffy said, not liking the unless.

"Unless there is a side effect to being invisible. Something that might kill you," Piper said.

Across town Xander walked down the sidewalk as he came upon Willow who was spray painting the invisible dumpster, a hot pink. "I'd say you found something."

Willow nodded. "Take a look at this ..." she said as they moved down the alley and she pointed at a set of treadmarks. "Something peeled out of here pretty quick to leave those kinda treadmarks."

"Those coulda been made anytime," Xander said.

"But this wasn't," Willow said as she handed Xander bits of paint scrapings.

"What is it?" Xander asked as they moved over to the curb.

"Paint I scraped off the fire hydrant," Willow said.

"What fire hyd—" Xander said as he bumped into the invisible fire hydrant. "Oww!"

"Something hit this hydrant after it was made invisible. And betcha-by-golly-wow that something was the same something that shot out of this alley," Willow explained.

"Black paint," Xander said. "Didn't Buffy state she saw a van a time or two over that last few weeks following her?" As he moved he kicked something and stumbled. "There's something else here."

Willow spray painted the area and a traffic pylon took shape. "It's ... It's a pylon. One of those orange traffic cones. You should take it back to the magic shop."

"Trying to save a good parking space?" Xander asked.

"It might help you and Anya figure out what kind of spell was used," Willow said. "And call Piper. She is probably already looking into this. But she should be filled in."

"Right," Xander said. "What about you?"

"Got paint scrapings and a tire track. I'm gonna try to find that van," Willow said. "By the way where's Buffy?"

"She said she was heading home to see you and Dawn about the diamond stealing demon. She may have stopped at Piper's first since she mentioned that Piper had Leo checking into the new power angle," Xander said.

Across town Buffy flamed into the kitchen of her own home. "Willow? Dawn?"

Buffy moved over to the fridge. "Hey, Dawn. C'mere, wanna see something neat?" she said as she got a pizza box out.

"Right here, Buffy," Dawn said as she walked into the kitchen spotting the pizza box. "Boy is that freaking me out, seeing you do that. Xander filled me and Willow in."

Buffy set the pizza box down on the counter. "Sorry, Dawn. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to freak you out."

"I know," Dawn said. "Is this a new power?"

"Leo says no."

"So someone did this to you. The question is why."

"Piper had that same question. And I have no idea."

"This is just weird," Dawn said and that's when she felt something. "Buffy, what are you doing?"

"Something I should have done a long time ago."

And Dawn felt Buffy's lips pressed against hers, kissing her passionately.

Dawn pulled back. "Buffy? What are you doing?" she asked freaking out.

"I think you know, and I think you want it as much as I do."

Buffy moved to Dawn again and this time lifted her sister into her arms and carried her through the house and into her bedroom.

"Buffy, this is wrong," Dawn said as Buffy set her on the bed and began undressing her.

"Shoo," Buffy said.

At the Magic Box Piper, Xander and Anya sat going through books. The pink painted pylon sitting on the table between them.

"I've got it!" Anya said.

"Really?" Xander asked.

"We'll put D'Hoffryn at your parent's table and move your Uncle Rory to Table 5, next to the bar—"

Xander sighed. "Ahn, honey! We're looking for invisibility spells here." He looked to Piper. "There was nothing in the Book?"

"Well, obviously, I haven't found anything yet," Anya said before Piper could reply. "At least nothing that would explain why things near Buffy became invisible like—" She tried to pick up the pylon, but her hand passed right through it. "Ew. Xander..."

"What happened?" Piper and Xander asked as they looked toward Anya.

"An unpleasant tactile experience. Like putting my hand in pudding."

Piper tried to pick up the cone and her hand goes through it. She then had an idea and froze the pylon. This time she managed to pick it up. "It seems the molecules of the pylon are falling apart. Its why I can pick it up after freezing it."

"What does that mean for Buffy?" Xander asked.

"She has more mass. Eventually her entire molecular structure will break down as well," Piper explained. "And as Anya adequately put it, she'll turn into Jello before possibly disappearing entirely."

At Buffy's house Dawn moaned out. She had long since stopped trying to fight her sister off and began to actually enjoy Buffy's ministrations. It was then the phone rang. "Don't stop," Dawn said. "Let it go to voicemail."

Buffy did as requested as the answering machine picked up.

"Buffy, it's Piper. Where are you?" came Piper's voice from the answering machine as both girls looked in its direction. "Listen, we got a new problem here. It appears whatever made you invisible is slowly killing you. Your molecules are slowly going to break down. If this isn't reversed, you're going to vanish forever. And I'm not talking about invisible vanish. I mean afterlife vanish. And believe me that is not something I want to go through again."

"Wow ..." Buffy said.

"That's all you can say," Dawn replied. "Is wow? We have to find out how this happened and fix it, now."

"I know," Buffy said. "And afterwards we need to talk."

"I know," Dawn said.

Just then the phone rang again and Buffy reached over and picked it up. "Piper?" she asked.

"Don't talk, just listen, Slayer. You don't have a lot of time."

"Who is this?" Buffy asked. "You're voice sounds familiar."

"Who is it?" Dawn asked Buffy.

"I'm nobody. No one you know. We've got your friend Willow ... And if you don't want anything nasty to happen to her, you better meet us. Alone."

"Where?" Buffy asked.

"Noah's Arcade."

Buffy hung up as she looked at Dawn. "Get dressed. Go find Piper. I'm heading to Noah's Arcade, they have Willow."

Thirty minutes later Buffy entered Noah's Arcade. She walked through crowd till she found Willow standing alone at a video game, on which rests the gun. "You okay, Will?" she asked.

"Buffy!" Willow said excited to know her friend came for her.

"Where're the bad guys?" Buffy asked.

"All around you, Slayer. So, don't try anything," one of them said.

"He's bluffing, Buffy. There's only three of them. I think," Willow said.

"More than enough to cause some serious carnage, right, guys?" he said but got no answer. "Guys? Guys! Hey! The Slayer's here."

"Sorry. Didn't see her," said another.

"Why don't we continue this in a less crowded area. Like, over there."

"Where?" everyone asked.

"Over th—" he said with an exasperated grunt. "Follow me." He grabbed Willow's arm and moved over by an air hockey table.

"I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess you're the ones that did this to me," Buffy said.

"It was an accident," said yet another.

"Who's that?" Buffy asked.

"Nobody you know."

"They're the ones in your mystery van."

"Oh, you. So what annoying thing are you gonna do to me?" Buffy wondered.

"Save your life. Make you visible," said the first.

"Right. I'm supposed to believe that," Buffy said.

"He's telling the truth. We don't wanna hurt anybody," said the second.

"They told me everything, Buffy. Something's happening to you. You're—" Willow tried to explain.

"I know, Piper called. My molecules are breaking down, and eventually I will dissolve into nothing," Buffy said.

"I can fix that," the first said.

"And you three will just go on your merry invisible way," Buffy said.

"That's the idea. Pick up that air hockey mallet on the table. It'll give me a target to aim at," the first said as Buffy lifted the mallet of the table. "Okay, now hold still. And your troubles'll soon be gone." He raised the ray gun and aimed it at the mallet.

"You're on the wrong setting," Willow said as she looked at the gun.

"What?" the first asked.

"The gun. It's not set for reversing the particle ionization. It'll accelerate her molecular dissolution! I saw the plans!" Willow said.

"Mind your own business," the first said.

"What's she talking about?" the third asked.

"That's what I'd like to know," Buffy agreed.

"Buffy, he's trying to kill you—" Willow said as the first butted her with the gun and she went down.

Buffy through air hockey mallet and it bounced off the first. "Oww!" he said as the gun flew out of his hands and under a pinball machine.

"Okay, play time's over," Buffy said.

"You haven't won yet, Slayer," said the first.

"No, that part comes after I beat the snot out of you," Buffy replied.

"You have to find me first. And there's three of us against just one of you."

"Hey, you lied to us," said the third.

"Fight her yourself," said the second.

"Think she cares about that. I go down. We all go down," said the first.

"And I promise, you're all going down," Buffy said.

"We may not have your powers, Slayer, but you'll find we're not so easy to—" said the first as another air hockey mallet careened off his head. "Owww! Get her!"

Willow listened as Buffy and whoever the invisible guys were struggled. She spotted the ray gun and crawled toward it.

"Wait a minute, wait a minute! Who's biting my leg?" the third said.

"Sorry. Where is she?" said the second.

"Here," Buffy said as she threw the second into a pinball machine, shattering the glass.

Patrons started to scream as they ran for the exits.

"She can't find us if we split up. You go that way," said the first.

"Which way?" said the third.

"That way! Over ther—Oof!" said the first as Buffy kicked, sending him sprawling into the ball pit.

"Just keep talking, boys," Buffy said as Willow came from under the pinpall machine with the ray gun. She changed the setting.

"Ow. Ow! Watch the chest hair!" the third said.

"I know that voice. You... You're—" Buffy said as Willow aimed the gun and fired.

The blast hit Buffy and the third and they became visible revealing that Buffy held Jonathan by his collar. She looked at herself, then at him. "Jonathan?" she said.

Willow fired a blast at the ball pit and Warren appeared. "Warren?!" she said remembering Spike's sexbot that Warren had built.

Willow fired at at the shattered pinball machine and Andrew became visible.

"Who are you?" Buffy asked, not recognizing Andrew.

"Andrew. I summoned the flying monkeys that attacked the high school," Andrew explained as Buffy looked at him blankly. "During the play. You know ..." Buffy looked at Willow and they both shrugged. "Tucker's brother."

"Ohhh," Buffy and Willow said.

"So you three have... what, banded together to be pains in my ass?" Buffy wondered.

Jonathon and Andrew join Warren by the ball pit.

"We're your arch nemeses. You may've beaten us this time, Slayer. But next time ... Umm ... next time ..." Warren said.

"Maybe not," Jonathan said as he threw down an exploding smokebomh.

Willow and Buffy wave away the smoke and saw Warren, Andrew and Jonathan trying to get out the back door."

"What do you mean it's locked? You were supposed to check it," Warren said.

"I forgot!" Jonathan replied as the three of them turned and looked back at Buffy and Willow.

"I give you my arch nemeses," Buffy said.

"What's going on in here?"

Buffy and Willow turned to see a security guard by the entrance. "I got a bunch a scared kids saying this place is haunted."

Buffy looked back at where Warren, Andrew and Jonathan were and see they managed to get the back door open.

"Oh my God, Buffy ..." Willow said.

"I know. They're gone," Buffy said.

"No, your hair. It is adorable," Willow said as they headed out of the arcade.

"Pretty neat your finding the van. So what did you ... do ... exactly? I mean, how'd you manage to locate—" Buffy wondered.

"The hard way! The spell-free, all Natural, oh-my-god-my-head's-gonna-fall-off-feet-are-killing-me way." Willow said as she stopped and looked at Buffy. "I—I don't know how I made it through this day."

"Well ... The important thing is you did. It's a ... good first step," Buffy said. "Which means it won't be long before I am giving you the unbinding potion." As they started walking again, Buffy sighed. "Y'know, when I got Piper's message that I was ... fading away ... I was ... I mean, I actually got scared."

"Well, sure. Who wouldn't?" Willow asked.

"Me. I wouldn't. Not too long ago. I probably would've welcomed it. But when he told me ... I realized ..." Buffy said as she stopped again. "Not saying I'm doing backflips about my life, but ... But, I didn't ... I mean, I don't ...want to die." She looked at Willow. "That's something, right?"

"It's something," Willow agreed.

The next day Buffy and Dawn sat at the kitchen table, unspeaking. They both we're unsure where to start.

"I told you," Buffy finally started. "That I had finally felt love. And that I had to sort out that feeling. The more I thought about it, Dawn. The more I tried to deny what I felt every time I looked at you."

Dawn nodded and smiled. "I understand. Too some degree I've felt the same way. For a long time now. When you jumped it felt like a part of me had died inside. Then when you came back, that part returned. But it was different because for awhile you were different. But now … Buffy I'm not going to say I'm in love with you, or you are with me. What I am going to say is this, we see where it goes."

"You mean like a date," Buffy suggested.

"Like a date," Dawn agreed. "This will take time for both of us. And it will give us time to not only decide what we truly want. But also how to explain to our friends and our sisters about what's going on."

"So, Dawn," Buffy said. "When did you really start noticing these feelings you had for me?"

"From the day you came back from Dracula's, I was jealous of him," Dawn replied. "And you?"

"Remember for awhile I was with Riley and then the deal with Glory, and my resurrection," Buffy said. "I'm sure I felt the feelings before Celia's spell, but that's when I started noticing them."

Buffy smiled at her sister, or was it girlfriend or even lover now? Only time would tell, she knew what would happen. Maybe the feelings would go away and she would find someone else. And maybe they wouldn't and she would find herself in love with her sister.

Author's Note: As you can see with the final paragraph I gave myself a way out if I want to take it. Right now Buffy/Dawn is the one I am wanting to do, but that could always of course change. Like Last Halliwell the Buffy pairing changed at the last minute. Kyle was not meant in that story to be Buffy's pairing, but he ended up anyways. The same could happen here, especially since I've already changed it once, I was looking at possibly being a little cliche originally and having Buffy and a cupid. Pairings like other story elements can always change. We'll see how the story progresses of course. But as I said I am wanting to do this since I read that one story that had a Buffy/Dawn pairing. If done right it seemed like it would be a good pairing.