A/N It seems I need to make yet another author's note because people still are incapable of understanding that NO Exceptions, please do not contact me about art commissions, actually applies to them. Please stop PMing, please stop making comments offering to do art commissions, I will say NO to EVERYONE.
Phyllis, canon Kendra was raised to be a follower, not a leader, so I don't see her jockeying for a leadership position. But the other three girls are all Alphas, personality wise and would want to be the leader. The fact that the coins chose Xander to lead will buy him time to prove he can lead.
A reality were Faith gets the threesome relationship she wants...well, there are at least three very good fanfiction stories that I know of where the author managed to create a believable three-way relationship so may be I can have our reality hopping group land in one at some point. 😁
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Dawn's portal opened into a sundrenched park and she felt the vampire let go of her as he turned to dust. "Not quite sending your dead heart to burn in the sun, but I'll take it." She pulled off her over shirt and then her t-shirt and put the over shirt back on and pressed the t-shirt to her bleeding head. "Not risking another portal, Xander'll catch up to me any second." Feeling dizzy from the knot on her head, she moved to a park bench not far away and sat down.
"Excuse me, Miss. Are you alright?" A voice asked and Dawn looked up to see a man in a weird suit, wearing glasses and with curly hair looking at her, a concerned expression on his face.
"A boy attacked me." She admitted. "My friend Janice and I tried to fight him and I, um, got away."
"Should I call a Constable?" He asked, stepping cautiously towards her. "I don't wish to frighten you after such an ordeal, but a Constable may be able to apprehend the miscreant." Dawn noticed he had a weird way of talking and an accent that reminded her of Giles. "And where is your friend?"
"A Constable isn't necessary." Dawn answered and made up a story to explain Janice not being here. "My friend wasn't hurt, she's gone to get my brother. He should be here soon, he'll take care of me, he always does. Plus, he'll be really mad at Shawn, that's the guy's name, Shawn."
"I could keep you company until he gets here." The man offered. "I'll just stand over here in case you have a problem and wait with you."
"Okay, just stay there. If my brother thinks you did this, you'll be the one he beats up." Dawn warned him. "My name is Dawn, by the way, Dawn Summers."
"Are you an American? Is it the fashion in America now for girls to dress as boys?" He looked disapprovingly at her clothes.
"Where I come from, yes it is."
"My name William Pratt, pleased to meet you, Miss Summers."
"Um, thank you. Not the best circumstances." Dawn admitted. "I'm trying to keep from bleeding."
"I'm a poet, perhaps I could take your mind off your injury by reciting a poem I wrote." He offered.
"Okay, if you want to." Dawn shrugged. A minute later she was praying for Xander to get here, fast. William Pratt was a bad poet.
"Excuse me, William, could I give you a piece of advice?"
"Well, I suppose. Does it regard my poem? One critic told me it would be more pleasant to have a railroad spike driven through his head than listen to one of my poems." He admitted.
"You're making it too complicated." Dawn told him. "You don't need big, fancy words. All they do is prove you have a good education. Poetry works best when it's simple, when it expresses feelings and invokes feelings. Tiger, tiger, burning bright. In the forest of the night. That's the start of one my favorite poems. It's easy to remember and at the same time it makes you think, but in a dreamy sort of way. Imagining a tiger, owning the forest, nothing can challenge it. You can see it in your mind's eye."
William considered the girl's words and for the first time felt someone had actually given helpful advice regarding his poetry. He began to rethink how to simplify his poems. He was so deep in thought that he didn't see a young man in his late teens run up to Dawn until he heard the man's voice.
"Dawn! There you are." The young man grabbed and held her tight. "Are you alright? Did he hurt you?"
"Are you her brother?" William asked. "She said her friend went to find her brother."
"Yeah, I'm Alexander, Guardian -." Xander stopped, his title wasn't important here, making sure Dawn was alright was.
"Her Guardian? And she seems most pleased to see you. Dawn, thank you for your advice. I'll leave you to your brother's care."
"Thanks for keeping me company, William."
"You're welcome. Well, I shall be off. I was planning to attend a party tonight, but I do believe I'll rewrite my poem instead."
"Good idea." Once he was out of hearing range, Dawn mumbled. "Because it's really bad the it was." Dawn hooked her free hand onto Xander's belt as he reopened the portal back to where he'd left Cordelia and Faith and William Pratt went home and rewrote his poem. Consequently, he missed the party he'd been intending to go to and he was never rejected by a women who thought he was beneath her and he never encountered the vampire named Drusilla and a new timeline formed branching off from the original.
