"Second Chances Series"
Part Two - Year One...Again
By TrinityLast
E-mail: trinitylast@wambtac.com
Disclaimer: The characters from Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel don't belong to me. Don't sue. All you'll get is this computer, and it's obsolete anyway. All of the other characters are my own. I don't steal...my stuff's better than what you'd come up with anyway. :-)
Rating - PG
Feedback: As long as it isn't flames. I burn easily.
Note: See Introduction and Explanation in Part One
Note2: "Year One" Picks up right after the last scene in "That Summer".
Note3: All *dialog* from the show is copied from online transcripts. (Some of the action and description I embellished, to make it work on paper) I did not sit there and write out what they said. Because of that, I don’t really know if it’s exact, I didn’t go back and check it against the original. If you see something that isn’t quite right, email me, and I’ll fix it. Thanks for the Transcripts go to David Fury. You can visit his site at: http://www.buffyworld.com/

[this] shows thoughts. *this* shows italics.

Chapter One: The Scattering...Part One

________________________

Buffy sat straight up. And realized that she was in bed.

In her room...

And her mother was calling to her to get up.

"Coming!"

Buffy swung her legs out from under the covers and tried to get her bearings, ignoring for the moment the fact that her mother was actually downstairs. She wasn’t sure she could handle that right this minute. She glanced in the mirror, then did a double take and stood up, walking over to it.

"Ok...that’s...interesting."

It wasn’t how she looked when she’d moved to Sunnydale. Buffy distinctly remembered letting her hair go brown for her first month here. Right now it was blond.

And *very* long. She almost groaned.

[I just cut that!]

But there it was. There were other things, less obvious, that her oblivious mother wouldn’t notice, but Buffy realized that she looked about how she did the last few weeks of freshman year.

[Rejuvenation is one of my powers? Or else, something weird happened with the spell...]

She’d have to check with Giles.

Who had Connor...or *should* have Connor.

[Oh, god...what if he didn’t make it?]

Buffy pushed that thought aside. She didn’t even want to think about it. Unfortunately, another thought, just as disturbing, took it’s place

[Oh, god! Where did Dawn land?]

Buffy grabbed a rubber band and pulled her hair into a bun, then hid it under a hat. Her mother would never notice, and she had to get to school, *now*.

**

Dawn blinked a few times and then rolled over...

On a hard cement floor.

[Ok. Interesting...where was I six years ago? Home, first day of school...]

Her eyes widened. No. That’s *not* where she was, that was part of the built memories. Six years ago, she was...

...still...

....a ball of energy.

[Oh, please, please, please, tell me I have a body!]

She squeezed her eyes shut for a minute, then opened them and looked down. She sighed in relief. Everything seemed to be there...ten fingers, ten toes. One full human body, complete.

[Thank you.]

Wait...

[I thought I was supposed to get younger?]

She was in the same clothes as she’d been wearing when they did the spell. Her hair was in the same clip. She knew she looked the same age because she was just as tall.

[Must be a Key thing.]

Dawn sat up and looked around. She was in a...temple of some kind.

[Oh! The monks! I’m...]

She winced.

[I’m in Tibet. Great.]

**

Giles sat up straight in his chair and looked around. The library. He looked at his feet and let out a breath he hadn’t been aware he’d been holding. There was Connor, sitting in his carrier, looking for the world like going back in time six years is something he was used to doing every other day.

Then the watcher looked down at himself and groaned.

[Back to the damn tweed.]

**

Willow was staring her reflection in the mirror. Her hair was the same as it was...well, last night. But not in high school. Everything else looked the same. She looked...

[I didn’t get younger? What?]

She looked down at herself. Jeans and a blouse that stopped short of her bellybutton, and a black jacket. She went over to her closet and looked inside before looked back down at herself.

[Officially now the only clothes I’m really willing to go out in.]

She heard her mother calling and her eyes got wide. School. Today. She grabbed her books and ran for the door. Her mother would never even notice her clothes, let alone her hair. She just never bothered to look. As she dashed out the door and ran for the school that she had to remind herself was still there, and not burned down, Willow thought distractedly that she’d have to get Cordy to take her shopping after classes.

[I can’t wear this everyday. Even mom’ll notice that.]

**

Fred curled herself into a ball in her cave and closed her eyes.

[Twelve hours. That’s how long it takes to get from England. Just twelve hours...]

**

Faith closed her eyes. The sounds of her parents screaming at each other came right through the wall. She didn’t have to look around to know where she was.

Stealing herself, she stood and walked to her mirror before really opening her eyes. She got ready to see braces, or pimples.

[Wait...]

She leaned closer.

She looked like she did the day she snuck Buffy out of school...before she killed...

Faith closed her eyes and took a breath, working around that thought.

But she looked the same. She was even wearing the same clothes.

The screaming came through the walls louder and Faith shook her head. She grabbed a bag and started to pack.

If she left now, she could hitch to the airport by noon. She was sure that if she called Giles, he’d wire the money for a flight back.

A pounding was heard and her mother screamed.

[Oh, I am so out of here.]

**

[I lived here. God, how self absorbed was *I*?]

Cordelia fought the urge to snicker. She knew the answer to that. She also knew that the black slacks and satin t-shirt she was wearing was the only thing she was willing to wear out. Her closet was filled with bright skirts and dresses, none of which would help if she had to fight and/or run from some big nasty. And while thinking back to the times when she could wear them was slightly painful...

She no longer looked back at those times with longing. She was happy.

[The only problem is...]

Cordelia made a face at herself in the mirror as she grabbed her backpack.

[How do I explain the fact that I now have short, streaked hair?]

Harmony and the posse would notice.

[Of course, that really only should matter if I plan to hang with them]

As she ran for school, hoping to meet with the resident Scoob’s before class (and reminding herself that she still had to pass the driver’s test), she fleetingly wondered if Willow would go shopping with her.

[I mean, I have the money now. I should use it.]

Oh...and maybe she could start saving! If Giles co-signed a bank account with her...

Cordy glanced down at her watch and ran faster.

**

Gunn smiled down at his sister, sleeping. He didn’t have the heart to wake her, but she needed to get up.

[No way are we staying here. I want her in Sunnydale, with me.]

He wondered briefly about how he would explain all of it to her before glancing at his watch. He’d called the number he’d gotten from Wesley in the car before the spell, and the Englishman would be on a plane in three hours.

Which meant Gunn had fifteen hours before they could get Fred out of Pylea.

He bit his lip and reached out to wake his sister. She needed to get up *now*.

**

At that moment, Wesley was pacing the airport and hoping his father didn’t notice he’d skipped out that morning. The explanation to the council would be much better coming from Giles, and he didn’t want to risk saying anything.

Also, Wesley was rather scared that, given his current fighting skills and temper, he’d hit his father the minute the man started talking.

Chapter Two: The Scattering...Part Two

________________________

Angel didn’t bother trying to call the school library. He didn’t know if Giles would be there or at his apartment. He simply grabbed his coat and headed out, reveling for only a moment that he could do this in the street and not the sewers.

[Connor. I need to know what happened to Connor.]

**

Drusilla crying in the corner was the first thing Spike was aware of as he opened his eyes. Also, the smell of fresh blood, and the sound of minions moving around in the outer rooms of the large house they were occupying. Spike cast his thoughts back and realized where he was six years ago.

[Prague. Six years ago? Drusilla was just attacked by the mob outside the theater...]

Oh.

Well, that explained the crying.

"Dru?" He sat up and looked over at her. She was hunched in the corner, crying to her doll, completely oblivious to the world around her. There was a man hanging in the opposite corner, waiting to be eaten. Spike stood and walked over to him. He reached out and pinched him. The man yelped.

Spike didn’t feel a thing.

He stood there and thought. He knew he still had a soul, because he didn’t want the guilt from killing this guy, whoever he was. But the chip was gone.

Spike glanced at Dru again. She wasn’t paying any attention. Then he glanced at the clock. It was still day...would be for another hour.

Reaching up, Spike undid the chains that held the man to the ceiling and let him down. Throwing the guy over his shoulder, the vampire carried him through the house, ignoring the minions who simply cowered away from him.

He opened the door and threw the guy into the sun. The man looked up at him, a frightened question in his eyes. Spike just shook his head.

"Run."

He did.

Spike went back in to pack. He was out of there the moment the other vamps left to feed.

**

He pulled the pillow over his ears, but it didn’t drown the fighting out. Xander groaned.

[I swear, I know I moved out of here once!]

He got up and started to dress.

[Maybe I can move in with Giles for a while.]

**

Oz didn’t even bother getting up. He just stared at his ceiling.

[Ok, so, high school again. Which is do-able. But, no Willow. No. Willow. Not so do-able]

**

"I’m ready to make my wish now."

Anyanka stared at the woman in front of her for a moment before nodding. The woman wished her husband’s penis would fall off.

Anya granted the wish. The woman squealed with delight at her husbands cry of pain, and Anya teleported to Sunnydale. She really, really, really didn’t want to be here.

As she recalled, the last time the husband had come running in with his pants down, showing his deformity. Anya didn’t have any desire to see *that* again.

** ** **

** ** **

And in places they weren’t expecting it.....

** ** **

** ** **

Tara McClay sat up in bed and just stopped herself from screaming. She looked around.

She was back in her father’s house.

And, somehow, she was alive.

Her head whipped to face the kitchen when she heard her father yell for her to come make breakfast. She smiled.

[You know, I don’t think so.]

Shifting on the bed, Tara moved into the lotus position and began her meditation. While it was technically impossible for a Wiccan to teleport, there were other ways. There were dimensional doors you could summon that bridged physical gaps.

Besides, if anyone could tell her why she’d been shot, and then thrown back in time six years, (according to the calendar on her wall) it was her tricky little girlfriend. Willow was the only one Tara could think of who could do this. Bring someone from death. Again.

[Though, I guess I’m not really gonna yell at her for it this time...]

**

Jennifer Calendar stared at her classroom. After a few minutes, she came out of her shock and started to wrack her brain, looking for an explanation.

[I was running from Angelus. He caught me. I felt my neck snap. Then I’m back in my classroom, and the calendar says it’s two years ago.]

She shook her head and stood up, heading for the library, only one thought in her head.

[I’ll have to ask Rupert.]

**

Lindsay Macdonald sat up in his bed and frowned.

He sat up in his apartment bed, when he’d gone to sleep in a hotel in Chicago.

[Ok, let’s think this through. Finished up the pro-bono case. Went back to the hotel and packed to leave. Had a drink. Went to bed. Woke up in the apartment I lived in the three months before I signed with...] His eyes got bigger. [The three months before I signed with Wolfram and Heart.]

Ok, something was going on. Now, all he had to do was figure out where he’d get his answers.

**

And in Pylea, Lorne, sometimes known as The Host, was climbing up a small hill a few miles from his town, looking for a cave and mumbling to himself.

"I hate last minute warnings. You’d think that the Oracles could tell me a few more seconds in advance!"

He finally found the cave and ducked to come in, smiling at Fred who just managed a weak smile from her place in the corner.

"Hey, girl. Thought I’d wait with you. That ok?"

Fred nodded and Lorne smiled, settling next to her.

"So...feel like some show tunes?"

*quick note*

I don’t remember Gunn’s best friend’s name in his old gang. Therefore, I hereby dub him "Trent". Because he looked like a Trent, ok? Good. Glad you’re still with me here. :p

Chapter Three - Welcome Back!

________________________

Cordelia bounded up to the front of the school and fell into step next to Willow. When she spoke, her voice was bright and cheerful.

"Hello, and welcome to the first day of the rest of your life!"

Willow stopped walking and turned to her friend. Her mouth opened and then shut again. Then the two stared at each other for a minute before collapsing into giggles.

Three feet away, Harmony and the posse stared at Cordelia as if she’d grown an extra head.

**

"Giles!" Buffy pulled her hat off and dropped it on the library table, looking towards the stacks. "Giles!!"

"Quiet! Your son is asleep."

Buffy whirled around to face him, a look of utter relief on her face. "He’s alright? He made it?"

Giles smiled and nodded. "He’s in the office."

"Oh, thank god!"

Both turned to see Angel coming in through the stacks. Giles raised an eyebrow and Angel shrugged. "I didn’t use the sewers, I used the back door. Connor made it?"

Giles motioned into the office with his head and Buffy and Angel both rushed to make sure. The watcher glanced at the clock. Still about a half hour before school started.

The phone rang.

"Faith! Yes...where are you? Yes, fine. Well...no! No, don’t do that. Well, yes, Kendra did that once, but...no, no, I’ll send the money. Where? Yes, just put him on."

**

Gunn was pacing, and it was making Alana nervous. Trent frowned.

"Man, calm down. The plane’s been delayed. It’s still coming."

Gunn shook his head. "She’s sitting there, all alone. I should go after her alone. I shouldn’t wait for him."

Trent looked at him oddly. "Uh, Gunn? Care to at least *try* to make sense?"

Gunn just shook his head again.

**

Lindsey was trying to trace his line of thought backwards, and he let out a yell when he finally got there.

Angel came from Sunnydale. That much they’d known, where he’d been in love with a Slayer, named Buffy Summers.

Who’s watcher was Rupert Giles. They’d considered using him, but his reputation as Ripper had derailed the firm’s plans. ‘Too unpredictable’.

But who, at this time, worked at Sunnydale High as the librarian. A school’s phone number that he could get from information.

**

Anya popped into Giles office, making Buffy jump, though not enough to wake the baby.

"Sorry. Is Xander here yet?

Buffy shook her head and Anya frowned. "But he’s coming today, right?"

Buffy gave her a disbelieving look. "We just got thrown back in time six years. I think we can safely say he’s coming, but I can’t guarantee we’ll all be in class."

Anya shrugged. "I just want to see him. The whole dragon thing put some stuff in perspective. I think I’m willing to try again."

The slayer smiled. "Really?"

"Yep!" It was a perky word, and the demon flashed a brilliant smile before opening the door and going into the main library...only to bump into Willow, Cordelia and Xander.

"Hey." He stood up when she came in and Anya smiled.

"Hi. We...need to talk."

Xander nodded and they left the library. The doors swung once and Jennifer Calendar came in. Buffy’s eyes got wide, and Connor picked that moment to start crying. Jenny’s head whipped around and Buffy waved. Angel came out of the office behind her and took the baby, studiously avoiding Jenny’s gaze.

"Ok, so I guess this whole time warp isn’t as much of a shock to the rest of you..."

Giles shook his head and took a step forward only to be pushed back by a large...*hole* in air in the middle of the room. A second later Tara walked out of it and the hole closed. She raised an eyebrow at Giles.

He sighed and ran a hand over his face.

"If you’ll both sit down, I believe I can explain. Some of it anyway."

Just a reminder, all transcripts courtesy of Buffyworld.com.

Chapter Four - The Anti-Harvest - Part One

________________________

Xander and Anya finished talking and Anya gave him a small kiss before she disappeared. Anything more, and she wouldn’t have been able to leave.

It was a good talk.

Xander glanced at the clock as he left the library and tried to remember where his first class was. He hit the hallway and was stopped by a very familiar voice.

"Hey, hey!"

Xander closed his eyes. "Jesse." He opened them and turned around. "Jesse!" He took three long stride forward and hugged his friend.

"Hey, man! What’s the what? Did you see the new girl?" Jesse looked down at his friend. "You gonna let me go?"

"Sorry." Xander nodded and stepped back and caught his friend’s eye. "Sorry. You have no idea how sorry."

"For?"

"Man, we seriously need to talk. And yeah, I’ve...seen the new girl."

Jesse nodded and looked at Xander strangely as he was dragged into the library.

**

"Wow."

"You ok?" Willow was sitting on the library table cross-legged. Jesse glanced up at her and had to remind himself that this was indeed Willow. She looked so...different.

"I don’t know...that’s a lot to take in. I’m not sure you aren’t both crazy."

"You think we’re crazy?" Xander glanced at Willow. "What’s the least shocking way to convince him we’re sane? And I don’t mean you doing some spell that’ll make your eyes go all black."

Jesse’s head snapped up. "What? Spell? Black?"

Willow smiled sheepishly. "Forget that part, did we? I’m a witch. But good! I’m a good witch! *So* not with the evil. Not doing the whole end of the world thing any time soon."

Jesse nodded. Then his eyes bugged out again. "End of the world?"

Xander shrugged. "Call it a nervous breakdown. She’s cool." He thought for a minute. "Got it!" Standing, the boy nodded at Willow. "Keep him here, ok?"

She nodded and Xander went racing out of the room.

"So...how old are you?"

"Twenty-two."

"Oh." Jesse nodded again. "Twenty-two. And if I stay home tonight, I’ll be ok, but if I don’t, I’ll end up a vampire. And...you’re a witch. And...wow. Ok..."

Willow bit her lip but was saved from having to say anything when Xander came back in, Cordelia in tow.

"Xander, this better be important, I was on the phone with Wesley. He just landed at LAX, and I want to know when they’re going after Fred."

Xander sat her down across from Jesse. "It’s important. Cordy, you remember Jesse."

She looked at the guy across the table and her eyes got wide. "You’re alive!" She lunged for the guy and hugged him. Jesse’s eyes got as big as dinner plates.

Willow giggled. "Cordy, I think you’re hurting him."

"Oh. Sorry." Cordy pulled back with a sheepish look on her face. Jesse just sat there in shock.

"Cordelia Chase just *hugged* me. Cordelia Chase just hugged *me*. *Cordelia Chase* just hugged me."

"Jesse." Willow waived her hand in her friend’s face and then scowled at Xander. "I think a spell would have been less dramatic. I could have just closed the blinds or something."

"Someone gonna tell me what’s going on, or can I go worry about Fred now?"

Xander smiled. "Go worry. And let us know, ok?"

"Ok." The brunette stood and gave him a kiss on the cheek. When she got to the door she called back to Willow, "We’re going shopping today, right?"

"Right."

"With who?"

The witch cocked her head. "At this point I think we have you, me, Giles, Buffy and Xander. And we should buy some stuff for Fred. You know what she wears?"

Cordy nodded. "Yeah. Ok, so around three-ish?"

"Sounds good. Remember, though...big bad demon tonight."

"Right. Luke. Evil vampire. I’m all over it." Cordy grinned and left the library.

Xander and Willow turned back to Jesse who was still sitting there in shock. "Cordelia Chase hugged me."

**

Principal Flutie smiled. "Buffy Summers, sophomore, late of Hemery High in Los Angeles. Interesting record, quite a career..."

Buffy watched as he made to tear the paper and stood, slamming both hands on the desk. He froze.

"You don’t want to do that."

"I don’t?" He started to read and nodded. "You’re right. I don’t."

"Mr. Flutie..."

"All the kids here are free to call me Bob."

Buffy smiled. "But they don’t. Mr. Flutie, we both know that this school is different. You don’t want to admit it, but it’s true."

"D-different? What makes you say that?"

"The death rate. Look, when I leave this room, you can pretend we never had this conversation, ok? Just let me say that it’s my job to protect from all the things that happen in this school. *All* the things that happen." She gave him a significant look, and after a few seconds, he nodded.

"Alright."

"So, I’m gonna go to class, and you’ll read my report and be appalled. And then, you’ll think and come up with a plausible reason it happened."

Principle Flutie raised an eyebrow. "You burned down the gym."

"I did, I really did, but... You're not seeing the big picture. You need to look at the big picture." She smiled and picked up her bag. "I have class."

"Right." He watched her go and exhaled. Maybe she was telling the truth. Maybe more students would make it this year.

A man could hope, couldn’t he?

**

Buffy got out into the hall and glanced at her watch. She *did* have class.

But she also had a sister and she had no idea where she’d landed. It was really starting to worry her.

The bell rang and Buffy made a decision.

She headed back to the library.

**

Cordelia yawned and watched the teacher write "The Black Death" on the board and then turn to the class.

"It's estimated that about twenty-five million people died in that one four-year span. But the fun part of the Black Plague is that it originated in Europe how?"

Cordelia started to take notes and then realized what she was doing. She knew this stuff. She’d taken these notes before.

Why was she here, again?

"As an early form of germ warfare. If you'll look at the map on page sixty-three you can trace the spread of the disease into Rome, and then north..."

Cordy let her mind wander as the teacher’s voice droned on in the background.

**

"So, they find the body in the locker yet?"

Buffy frowned at Angel. "How did you even know about that?" She sat down at the library table and took Connor from him. Connor gurgled and Buffy smiled at him.

Angel shrugged. "I lurked, remember?"

"Right. Giles!"

"What?" He came out of the office buried in a book. "You know, this prophecy is fascinating. It’s nuances are really interesting...the way it integrated everything..."

"Yeah, good prophecy, wonderful. Where is my sister? I’m really, really starting to worry."

Giles looked up. "Dear lord. I thought you saw her off to school before you came in?"

Buffy shook her head. "Newsflash? Dawn wasn’t really here my first year of school. Remember? Monks? Key? Ringing a bell?"

Angel’s eyes widened. "So...where was she?"

"God..."

**

Dawn followed the chanting voices down yet another corridor and finally came out into a temple of some kind. She was in the back of a room filled with monks all gathered around some big fire-thing. The monk in the middle looked up and caught her eyes.

Dawn raised one hand in a half wave. "Hi?"

Chapter Five - The Anti-Harvest - Part Two

________________________

"Ok, we’re not going *tonight*, you know that right?"

Willow sent Buffy a strange look. "Tonight. I remember."

Buffy shook her head and flopped into a chair. "No. Tomorrow night Luke rose with the Master’s sign. Tonight, you were attacked at the Bronze."

Willow scrunched her face up. "Are you sure?"

"Yep."

"How do you remember things like that?"

The slayer gave a sheepish look. "I didn’t. Angel did."

"Oh." Willow chuckled and finished setting up the spell. "Ok, I should be able to find her now."

Buffy sat straighter.

Willow sat down on the library table cross-legged and started to chant. The library doors opened and Tara came in, but she kept quiet and sat down next to Buffy, sending her a reassuring smile. Buffy had been in a perpetual panic since that afternoon when they’d realized that Dawn was missing. Angel had taken Connor back to the apartment, and Giles had been on the phone for most of the afternoon with a lawyer that Angel knew from Wolfram and heart...Lind-something. Somehow, he’d turned from evil, Angel’d said, and for some reason he’d been included in the spell.

Giles reasoned that it was because if there was one thing they needed it was a lawyer. They’d been on the phone ever since, working out where the guy was gonna live.

Gunn and Wesley had left for Pylea already, but no one had heard from them yet, though they’d gotten a panicked message from a sister that Angel had fielded before he left.

Jenny had gone back to class rather dazed, but not bad, promising to come back when school was over, which wasn’t for another hour.

Buffy hadn’t been back to class. She and Willow had been looking for a spell to find Dawn. Flootie had come in once looking for them, wanting to know *why* they weren’t in class, but one look from Buffy had him excusing them.

He really seemed eager to par down the "In Memoriam" section of the yearbook.

Willow’s eyes turned black as she chanted, and small swirls of magic started circling her head. Tara sat up straighter.

"I know what my power is."

That had been something else they didn’t know. They didn’t know what Jenny’s was either, or the lawyers. Or Buffy’s, for that matter.

Giles was still at a loss to where they were in the prophecy except to point out that only the ones in the prophecy had *gone back*. The others had just been added.

Buffy tore her eyes from Willow to look at the blond witch. "What?"

"I can understand every word she’s saying. I couldn’t until the magic took over. I think I can understand magical incantations. It’s like it’s being translated in my head."

Buffy raised an eyebrow. "That should com in handy."

Tara nodded as Willow started to float. Suddenly, there was a small poof, the magic dissipated, and Willow hovered for a minute before floating back down. She looked at Buffy and bit her lip.

"Anyone feel like going to Tibet?"

**

Gunn ran for the portal opening, carrying Fred, who was wincing as every step jerked her now-broken leg. Wesley and Lorne were right behind them, trying to shoot stolen arrows back at the crowd as they ran.

The portal started to close and the three on foot dove for it.

The portal closed literally on their feet, causing Gunn to lose a shoe.

**

Buffy raised an eyebrow at Willow. "Can’t you just...go? I mean, you did it before, remember?"

Willow shook her head. "I didn’t teleport, I went aerial. It’s too far. *I* could do it, but I couldn’t promise to get Dawn back with me, and that’s kinda the point."

Buffy bit her lip. "Can Anya teleport with someone?"

Willow shook her head.

"Ugh!"

Tara giggled at Buffy. "Hey?"

The slayer looked at her darkly. "What?"

"Well, how did *I* get here?"

"Oh!"

**

Dawn yawned again. She’d been sitting here for hours now as the monks tried to find someone who spoke English. Though, they seemed to know that she was the Key, because they’d set her in a protective circle and were twittering around her like mother birds.

She was about to fall asleep when someone asked her name.

"Dawn." A minute later her eyes popped open when she realized someone had spoken English. She looked up and the monk and smiled. He smiled back.

"Where do you live?"

"Sunnydale. Buffy said you sent me to her so she could protect me from Glory."

"The Slayer?"

Dawn nodded. He frowned. "When?"

She bit her lip. "Um...about five years from now?"

The monk’s eyes got wide. "I see. How are you here?"

The girl groaned. "Oh, come on! I don’t know the prophecy by heart! It was a whole thing with a dragon chasing us and re-doing things so Luke wouldn’t rise, blah, blah, blah. I’ll tell you something, we barely made it out. That dragon was seriously determined."

The monk just stared. "I see."

**

"Ok, I’ve got her."

Buffy was pacing. She didn’t stop when Tara spoke, only nodded.

"I’m gonna go."

Another nod.

Willow smiled at Tara who sat down and called up the portal.

**

"Ok. A prophecy?"

Dawn nodded. The monk sat down next to her and looked into her eyes. "The beast?"

"You mean Glory?"

The monk nodded.

"Very dead. Buffy beat her with a troll hammer, and Giles suffocated the human host." She bit her lip. "Though, I’m not supposed to know that."

The monk opened his mouth to say something but was cut off by the swirling portal that opened in front of them. Tara was sitting on the library table in a kind of trance and Willow was standing at the edge of the portal, looking into the temple.

"Dawn!"

Dawn stood up and waved. "Hi!"

The redhead glanced around at the monks. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah."

"Ok, well come through. I don’t know how long Tara can hold this open."

Dawn looked down at the monk who nodded. The others were standing a safe distance away from the opening looking on in what could only be considered concern. When Dawn started for it, they all started yelling at once, but it was obvious they didn’t think it was safe for the Key to go through.

Dawn kept walking, but one came and stood in front of her and yelled. She couldn’t understand him, but he was shaking his head. The monk she’d been talking to stood up and spoke to the monk blocking the way. He quieted down and reluctantly moved away.

Dawn took another step towards the portal and felt herself being pulled in.

The next minute she was in the library and Buffy was holding her and crying.

"God, I thought I’d lost you..."

**

Lindsay got off the phone with Giles and immediately started looking for his address book. He needed the number of a friend in real-estate so he could get the Hyperion bought. Angel had said there was money for it in the basement, and Gunn would be able to move his gang in.

And hell, if he was gonna be good, he might as well get a jump start, right?

**

"Ok, you are talking, and I mean *now*."

Gunn glared at his sister, it disappeared a minute later. He was too thrilled to have her back to stay mad at her. He glanced at Wesley. "Mind filling out the forms?"

Wesley shook his head and made for the nurses station. They could see Fred through a window, getting her leg set. They’d made up a story about gang-bangers to explain away her clothing. Lorne and Wesley had managed to get the collar off on the way to the hospital.

"Charles!"

He turned back to Alanna. "Right. Sorry. Ok...well, this is complicated. We should probably sit down..."

:: On To Chapter Seven ::

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