FIC: The Two - [3/?] - R

[Andy Stoffel <see2go4me@xxxxxxxxx>]

TITLE:	The Two (3/?)
AUTHOR: -Andy- see2go4me@xxxxxxxxx)
RATING: This part: PG-13, R overall
STATUS: WiP
DISCLAIMER: This is a derivative work. All characters belong to
Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Fox Television, and others. I don't
own any of this, just the words gluing my story together.
SUMMARY: Buffy meets a different kind of Willow in an alternate
universe. (It's gonna be a B/W folks. Eventually. But not right
away.)
SPOILERS: All seasons of BtVS. AU after "Chosen" so no Angel
Season 5.
DISTRIBUTION: buffywantswillow and my blog fanfic pages. Anyone
else, e-mail me please. I probably won't say no.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: 
[1] Do I need to repeat the part about the possible posting
frequency of parts 6 thru X ?
[2] Brought to you by the letters L (aka Lunch) and D (the
deductible on my car insurance that'll keep me in my office
during lunch for the enxt month (until I can afford to pay 'my'
share for a door on my formerly immaculate '94 530i that a kind
person bent for me on Monday))

- - -

Part 3 - "Getting Comfortable"

It had been a productive but long and lonely day for the
displaced slayer. Thanks to Xander, she'd gotten a good start at
blending into the scenery. He'd recently begun insisting they
all carry small amounts of gold on trips out of the country,
unobtrusively concealed somewhere in their clothing, and she'd
been able to exchange a portion of hers for local currency. This
had enabled her to get some very basic transportation, an old
motorcycle that brought back memories of her life before
Sunnydale. While riding it down to LA had done little to dispell
her feelings of being disconnected from reality, it had given
her plenty of time to think.

Once there she'd turned over a large part of her remaining gold
to a documents specialist to purchase several forms of local
identification so she wouldn't attract unneeded attention - a
driver's license, passport, and social security number that
would fool almost anyone, including the local authorities. 

Something else she would have to thank Willow for if she ever
made it home. If not for her insistence that she sit in on the
urban survival classes they'd been holding for the new slayers,
she wouldn't have known who to approach and how to get this
taken care of so quickly.

On the return trip to Sunnydale, Buffy reviewed her plans for
the next few days. Once she bought clothes and the other
necessities of modern life her still unknown mode of
multi-dimensional travel had left her without, Buffy hoped she
would have enough left over to pay for a month's rent on a
small, hopefully not dingy, apartment in Sunnydale and the
basics to make it livable. A sleeping bag, some bean-bags and
large pillows would have to do for furniture until she could get
a job. Other things, like a television and radio, could wait.

So tomorrow she would hopefully find an apartment that fit in
her meager budget. A phone, post office box, and anything else
she needed would follow and then she could go job hunting. Her
remaining gold wouldn't last the month if she didn't find
something quickly. For now she needed a few hours sleep before
she could go looking for the slayer and a hotel room would have
to do.

- - -

While the hotel she found wasn't in the best part of town, it
was still better than the small motel rooms she remembered Faith
living in when she'd first come to Sunnydale. But she wasn't
Faith. Even if she wasn't in this town or even universe for more
than a couple months, she couldn't live that way. Besides being
cheaper, for a few hours each day she needed to feel safe, to
have a sense of security while she slept, something a motel room
couldn't give her.

Unable to resist the pull of the bed in the center of the room,
Buffy lay down and quickly fell asleep.

- - -

Since becoming a slayer Dawn had been finding it extremely hard
to get up in the morning. She'd never really been a morning
person but now that her patrolling schedule had her out late
more often than not, she was rarely able to get more than four
hours of sleep a night during the week. She was lucky to get up
most days before her sister left for work. Her Guide claimed she
would get used to it and to not worry about it but she was
beginning to have doubts.

Unfortunately, even after months of this schedule, that hadn't
happened yet. Most weeks she was on the edge of total exhaustion
by Wednesday, barely making it through all of her classes
without falling asleep. The weekends were when she could catch
up on both her sleep and her schoolwork. And spending some time
with her few friends was one of the few things that made her
days bearable. But her constant exhaustion from the odd hours
had strained her friendships almost to the breaking point and
every weekend she attempted to repair the weekday damage she'd
inflicted with inattention.

Her sister was oddly sympathetic. Dealing with teenagers on a
daily basis as a high school guidance counselor she'd apparently
noticed when Dawn had started having problems getting up in the
morning and had taken the time to discuss it with her instead of
getting upset. Her sister had explained it away as just a normal
part of growing up. As long as Dawn made it to school in time
for her first class every day her sister left her alone in the
mornings. On the days she missed her mother more than normal, on
birthdays and family holidays, she liked to imagine that she
would have reacted the same way as her sister.

Even though Dawn, in true teenager fashion, found it
embarrassing for her sister to be on a first name basis with all
of her teachers this was one of those times when she was very
grateful for the support her sister gave her. She only
occasionally suffered twinges of guilt from not being able to be
completely truthful with her about her problems sleeping.

Dawn's Guide with the local coven, Ms. Rosenberg, was a teacher
at her school and one of her sister's oldest school friends.
They normally met for a few minutes in the afternoon after
school. The local coven house was their preferred location to
discuss Dawn's previous evenings patrol of the local cemeteries
and known demon hangouts. She would then spend an hour or two
training before heading home for a late dinner with her sister.
Fortunately, her sister thought she was taking a self defense
class that her friend was teaching and encouraged Dawn's
participation as long as her grades didn't suffer.

But after last night's events, today was anything but normal.

- - -

Dawn caught up with Ms. Rosenberg just outside her classroom,
right before 3rd period. "I need to talk with you!" she
breathlessly exclaimed. "Something strange happened last night
that I think you need to know about."

Motioning her into the deserted room, Ms. Rosenberg checked her
schedule for the day. "I'm not free until lunch. Can it wait
another hour?"

"I don't know. I guess it can. But the sooner we can talk the
better." an anxious Dawn answered.

Third period seemed to take even longer than the normal forever.
Dawn managed to escape from her friends at lunch, a not
infrequent occurrence. She often wondered how long they would
remain her friends. Maintaining friendships was hard to do when
she couldn't really include them in the strange twists and turns
her life had taken since she became a slayer. She could already
sense them drifting away but even when she spent time with them
on weekends she felt powerless to stop it.

Ms. Rosenberg's office was in the back of her classroom, in an
enclosed space she'd insisted be soundproofed against the noise
of twenty computers and assorted other bits of noisy equipment.
It gave them a private space to discuss things over lunch, their
conversation also masked by the noisy classroom.

"So what happened?" asked the concerned Ms. Rosenberg. "Did your
patrol last night go as planned?"

"The patrol went fine. Not a big deal. Only the one vampire
you'd warned me about. I was able to get him before he could get
all the way out of his grave. The strangeness didn't start until
I got home." She paused briefly to take a bite of tuna sandwich
and gather her thoughts.

"Okay, so... how did the strangeness start?" Ms. Rosenberg
encouraged her.

"There was a strange woman sitting on the back porch waiting for
me. From a distance she looked just like my sister but when I
got close she looked too old to be her. But it still could have
almost been her. Like a skinnier version of Beth with that
end-of-the-world look she had for months after Mom died." Dawn
thought for a moment. "Oh, and she was dressed all in black and
dark green and I think most of her clothes were leather. Very
un-Beth-like."

"Well... actually... she does leather quite well. Very butch."
Ms. Rosenberg murmured under her breath with a slight grin
before taking a vague swipe at her usual lunch salad with her
fork.

"Okay, that little fact of my sister's personal life I really
did not need to know. Especially from one of her former
girlfriends." Dawn said with a grimace.

"Sorry... pretend I didn't say that. Just recalling some fond
memories." she said with a small grin still visible.

"Whatever..." Dawn grumbled. "She is my sister, and I love her
but I just can't see the two of you as more than friends. Gives
me the wiggins."

"Yes, you've told me. More than once. And we found out years ago
that we do better as friends so there won't be a repeat. Did
this woman say what she wanted?"

"No... she insulted my clothes and asked about something or
someone called a watcher. Does that sound familiar to you?"

"No, I'll have to look it up tonight in the Coven library." she
said and Dawn recognized that gleam in her eyes that researching
something new could cause. "Did anything else happen?"

"Yes, five vampires showed up at the house while we were talking
and when they wouldn't go away she killed them! I've never seen
anyone move so fast! Not even the other past slayers you have
taped could move that fast. It was almost too fast to follow."

"Five? Are you sure?"

"Well, I actually got one of them. But that was because she let
me have him. I think she was trying to figure how well I can
fight. I don't think she was too impressed."

"What about the way she fought? You are usually fairly good at
analyzing other people's fighting styles."

"Well, besides moving fast, she didn't seem to have a single
recognizable fighting style. It was almost like she made it up
as she went along. There were parts of moves that seemed kind of
familiar. I know I've seen them before but I don't remember
where."

"Do you think she is a danger to you, to the Coven, or to future
slayers? Should we consider her a threat?" she wondered. "Should
we deal with her like any evil that comes to town?"

"No. I don't think she's evil or dangerous to us. But I think
she is fatal to vampires. Those vampires last night would have
killed me if she hadn't been there. There is no way I could
handle that many vampires at one time but she cut through them
like Justin Timberlake through a crowd of groupies. Awe
inspiring but I didn't want to get too close."

"What else? That can't be everything..."

"There was definitely something different about her. I felt
something strange when I was near her. A sort of tingling on the
back of my neck. And that aura trick you showed me a couple
weeks ago didn't work at all. All I got was an impression of a
vast emptiness."

"Hmmm... every living creature has an aura of some sort. It must
take an awful lot of power and skill to hide it. It's possible
it was just too faint for someone with your limited training to
detect."

"Okay. Is there any chance you could find someone else to check
her out? If I meet her again I want to know if I should fight,
run away, or welcome her to the family."

"I'll see what I can do. If you see her tonight while patrolling
give her my phone number and let her know I want to see her."
Ms. Rosenberg said. "And try to find out whatever you can when
you do talk with her. The more we know the better chance we have
if we need to defend ourselves against her. Tonight at the house
you can show me what you remember seeing her do last night.
Knowing how she was able to dust so many vampires so quickly
would be useful."

And with a murmured "Okay" and a last bite of sandwich, Dawn
headed off to her next class.

- - -

The rest of her day went by quickly. As soon as the bell had
rung to signal the end of another school day, Dawn headed
towards the Sunnydale Coven House, a large, rambling, Victorian
mansion on the outskirts of town. It was set back from the road
and surrounded by a large, overgrown looking yard and a wrought
iron fence. Wandering into the large kitchen on the ground
floor, Dawn grabbed a bottle of water before heading to the
extensive occult and demonology library, also on the same floor,
next to the large training room she used almost daily. With her
enhanced slayer senses she could hear several meetings going on
in the meeting rooms set up on the first floor.

As the local slayer's Guide, Ms. Rosenberg lived one of several
studio apartments on the second floor. The private entrance at
the back of the house set it apart from the other two that were
kept for visitors and the occasional guest of the coven,
allowing  for the illusion of privacy for Dawn and her Guide.

Dawn was glad the coven believed in participating in the
community and had practiced what they preached since coming to
Sunnydale over twenty years previously. They did not attempt to
hide who they were and served as a focal point for an active
wiccan community in the area surrounding Sunnydale. Self defense
classes were offered on a regular basis in the training room.
Dawn was able to spend time there without anyone taking too much
notice.

Seminars useful to ordinary people and the magically inclined
alike were also given, often on subjects Dawn was given the
freedom and encouragement of her Guide to attend. Meeting rooms
were also made available to community groups on occasion. But
the true purpose of the Coven's presence was known only to a
select few besides Dawn, the original coven members who had come
to Sunnydale in search of the future slayer, and the Slayer's
Guide, always chosen from the local community.

After reviewing what she remembered of the mystery woman's moves
as she fought the vampires the previous night with her Guide,
and then spending an hour going through her normal training
routine, Dawn went home to her sister, who insisted that Dawn
eat dinner at home no matter how busy she might be. They spent
the rest of the evening together before she went to her room to
do her homework and then go to bed for a few hours sleep before
patrolling. It was a fairly typical ending to her day.

As soon as her sister had gone to bed and clearly fallen asleep,
Dawn got upm, threw on her favorite slaying outfit, grabbed a
couple stakes, and snuck out into the night.

- - -

TBC in "Conversations with Slayers"

- - -

Hope y'all enjoyed this part. Feedback away! :-).

-Andy-


=====
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Willow: "It's a good fight, Buffy, and I want in."
Buffy:  "I kinda love you."
                     'Choices'

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