Chapter 12: Collapse

Buffy made her way through the empty high school. Class was in session, and the only noise was some kid out of class bouncing his basketball. She quickly walked past the basement door and ended up in the new bathroom.

Walking towards her reflection in the mirror, she frowned for a moment, turning her head to the side to look at her hair-do.

"It's not mom hair," she muttered to herself, before her eye was caught by a small bundle of twigs, feathers and crystals.

Her frown deepening, she picked it up, only to drop it as she looked in the mirror again and saw–.

"You can't protect her," the obviously dead girl said. "You couldn't protect me."

Buffy whirled around, but no one was there.

Her eyes wide, she started off in a run to Dawn's classroom.

"Dawn!"

The teenager was standing up, the class turning away from her to face Buffy as she entered.

"What?" she snapped

"We have to go; it's not safe."

"But…"

"We, um… I mean, I saw…"

The teacher looked at Buffy, raising an eyebrow. "Can I help you?"

"No," Buffy said, slightly embarrassed. "I just thought you were, um, in danger."

A pause.

"Of. Smoking." The class' eyes were still on her. "...I'll be around."

She left the room, wincing.

There went her sister's social life.

†

Anya left her coffee with Halfrek in a bad mood.

'Miss Softserve'.

They wouldn't know a good vengeance curse if it started singing in their soup.

The ancient evil rising didn't sound like a good thing, though. Even if she was a vengeance demon. Xander was sure to be in the line of fire, considering how he always followed Buffy. Not that she cared. In fact, it would be good if Xander got knocked down a peg. She wanted him to hurt. He had left her at the altar!

Still, it might be a good idea to keep an ear to the ground. Tara was nice. Anya didn't want her to die. And if it happened to save Xander… well, that was just an unfortunate accident.

†

Dawn made her way to the bathroom shaking. She had seen that classmate when she had walked in. He had been there for a while before he had asked her for a pencil. And then fake-stabbed her in the eye.

She sighed. Sunnydale High School sucked.

Dawn entered the bathroom quietly and sat down in one of the stalls. She would just sit there for a while until–

There was a soft crying sound in one of the stalls.

A sense of foreboding filling her stomach, Dawn checked under the doors. Nothing.

Walking slowly, she pushed open the stalls, before she came to the last one.

Just another student, sitting with her feet on the seat.

"Hey," Dawn asked softly. "What's wrong?"

"There's someone in her," she said.

Dawn looked around. Nothing. "It's only me."

"No there's not."

"Let's get you out of here, ok?" she said. "Maybe get some air. I'm Dawn."

"Kit."

"Saw something pretty creepy, huh?" she inferred.

"You wouldn't believe me," Kit told her.

"I kinda sorta think I would," she said. "Was there a pencil involved in any–"

There was a noise, and the two girls looked towards the mirror. Three of the dead people stood behind them in the reflection.

Then the lights started exploding, and the floor collapsed beneath them.

†

"Tara?"

The witch took a couple more deep breaths as her vision cleared. Connor was crouching next to her, a worried expression in his face.

"What happened?" he asked.

"I felt…"

He looked at her, confused.

"I… I can feel the Earth. Mo-most of the time I barely feel it, but…"

The two of them stood up, Tara leaning on her chair as she tried to describe what she had felt.

"I saw darkness. I think… I think something's going to open up the hellmouth."

†

Carlos made his way through the basement as paranoid as his senile grandfather. To be fair, he had just seen a zombie janitor, so he at least had a reason for it.

He stilled as he heard a noise in front of him. Heart pounding, he continued forward, ready for a fight. He turned a corner, and suddenly he was in front of two screaming things.

Totally not screaming himself, he took in the figures, adrenaline slightly fading as he took in two girls his age, one with brown hair and the other with almost black hair.

"Who are you?" Carlos asked. This was freaky enough as it was.

"Who are you?" The second asked.

"Are you dead?" added the other.

"What? No!" he exclaimed. "I just came down here for a smoke."

He continued to explain how he had seen the dead janitor, before the girls mentioned they had also seen dead people, and were also trying to get out. Only problem was, none of them knew where the exit was.

The brown-haired girl, Dawn, started to lead the way before a voice came from behind them.

"Do you really think you can run away?"

†

Robin was making the necessary rounds through the school to catch students cutting class (not too many on the first day, thank goodness) when he – literally – ran into Buffy Summers again.

"Whoa," he said, barely avoiding falling to the ground.

"Oh, sorry," she replied absentmindedly.

"Miss Summers," he said, raising an eyebrow. "I didn't know you were still about."

Probably checking to see if her sister (and he hadn't meant to imply she was old enough to be a mom. In fact, it should have been fairly obvious she wasn't, but he just saw a Slayer being protective over someone young and, well…) was safe.

"Um, yeah, it's just," she stumbled for a moment. "Well, it's a new campus. I was just, you know, making sure it's safe for my sister."

Bingo.

"I, um, I have to be honest," Robin said. He did actually want to have a chance to talk to her. "I actually know a bit more about you than I let on before."

She raised an eyebrow.

"The school board recommended I spend a little time reading over your record," A bold faced lie, but he wasn't quite ready to tell her about his mother yet. "Quite a page turner. Kind of a checkered past…"

"More like a plaid, really," Buffy said. "But, you know, there were factors."

"Well, it's clear your sister looks up to you," he told her, "Which I think is great."

"No," Buffy interrupted. "She's much, much worse than me. Expulsion is really the only way to go." That helped cement his belief the high school was especially demon-y.

"Well how about we give her a chance first," he said, slightly amused.

He was interrupted by her cell phone ringing.

"Boy, that's loud," Buffy remarked, her cheeks flushed as she pulled it out. "Yeah?" She turned to Robin again. "Sorry. My dog. Uh, dog walker." She turned back to the phone and said quietly, "Three dead?"

Robin's eyebrows shot up. "Oh my…"

"Uh, no. I'll be there."

"Your dogs are dead?" he asked, shock evident in his voice.

Buffy hung up and turned back to him. "Sorry about that. I– I have to go."

"Yeah," he responded, slightly numb. "No, of course. Good luck with that…" She booked out of there. "Dog tragedy."

He started to leave, still shocked, before he stopped in his tracks and smacked himself in the face. Obviously it wasn't about dogs.

She was taking care of some sort of demon.

†

It didn't take long for Buffy to end up wandering the basement. Dawn and her new friends were trapped and scared, but they weren't injured. Now she just had to find them.

"Too late." An older dead man stepped forward into the light. "But then, you're always too late."

"Where is my sister?" she asked, her voice hard as steel.

"I think she's lost," he replied, annoyingly sarcastic.

"If I'm the one who let you die, why take it out on her?" she asked. "I'm right here. Come on, what are you after? Fear? Revenge? Tasty brains?"

A new dead boy stepped out. "I think I'd like Dawn to be my girlfriend."

"Again," she said. "Wrong sister. I'm the one who dates dead guys."

A third person stepped out. "Too busy making out with your dead boyfriend when I was ripped to death by a werewolf?"

Jeez, could they get more annoying?

"Hey!" she yelled. "Not making myself clear. I don't care how you died. I'm sorry for your loss, but where. Is. My. Sister!"

"She's not going to hear you. This place is like a maze."

"This place is ours now. It was built on our graves."

"All we want is for you to leave so we can rest again."

"Actually," Buffy said, tilting her head. "I think what you really want to do is get between me and that door."

It took a couple tries, but she finally punched the ghost-zombies far enough away that she could open up the door.

"Dawnie, we have to get o–"

She froze.

"Spike…"

He looked different. That was all that could run through her head. His hair was longer, wavey. A part of her crumbled, but she wasn't sure what.

"A-are you real?"

He started laughing, hysterically, and she was completely at loss. He suddenly stopped laughing and placed a hand gently on her cheek. She almost flinched.

"Buffy," he said, and she still had no idea if it was really him. "Duck."

"What?" Buffy asked dumbly. "Duck? There's a duck?"

The pipe hit her head, and she collapsed to the ground.