~*~

Dawn was beyond wigged. Every time she walked into a room, everyone shut up or acted weird. The only one acting normal was Spike.

She and her mom had moved back home after the Council guys went back to England. Whatever they had to say had made Buffy really serious and quiet. Dawn just wished they would stop treating her as if she were a kid.

“I’ll just stow my kit in the basement and get out from underfoot, yeah?”

Spike and Buffy had decided it would be easier to have Spike move into the basement for a while to keep an eye on the ladies while she went about the business of making plans to get rid of Glory. Taking supplies to the cemetery was bound to attract notice had they continued to stay there.

“I’ve picked up several containers of blood and put them on the bottom shelf of the fridge,” Joyce pointed out. “I wasn’t sure of your favorite, so I got both pig and beef.”

Spike grinned rakishly. “My favorite’s off the menu, pet, but either’ll be fine. Thanks for thinking of me.” He could get used to being treated well. Of course, Joyce had always been a decent sort.

The couple of days spent in enforced company had confirmed Joyce’s opinion that Spike was far more human than even he realized. She had watched his interactions with Dawn closely and could easily see the genuineness of his feelings for the young girl. She wondered if Spike had been an older brother in his human life. He certainly fell into the role easily enough.
She had also noticed the way Spike looked at Buffy when he thought no one was watching. His heart was clearly visible there in his eyes. Not long ago the idea of a vampire in love with her daughter would have bothered her more than a bit. Coming as close to death as she had recently, though, had caused many a change in her viewpoint. None the least was to finally look at Buffy’s life for what it was and what it was not.

Buffy was not normal and her life was not going to be either. Even if she could find a human male able to accept her strengths and duty, none of them could help extend her life, could not fight at her side without being a distraction. Buffy was not normal, but she was extraordinary. She required a partner every bit as extraordinary as she was. Joyce had come to see that Spike might be that very one.

As for the grandbabies she yearned to have, well, there was always Dawn. There was also adoption should Buffy wish it. Not every woman gave birth after all. Tara and Willow weren’t likely to reproduce without outside assistance and yet they were perfectly matched. No, Joyce had looked eternity in the eye and come away with an altered mindset.

Once this whole business with Glory was finished, she’d have to work on getting Buffy to see Spike in a different light. She already had made some progress, but mid-crisis wasn’t the ideal time to promote a love match. All in good time.

~*~

“I’ve thrown everything I’ve got at her and she just shrugs it off,” Buffy lamented. She didn’t want the gang to see just how worried she was. Demons were one thing. Some were a bit harder to kill than others, but in the end, they all fell. Glory was a god. How did anyone kill a god?

Giles was the only one to share Buffy’s concerns. Even though they didn’t speak of it, they could see it in shared glances.

“From what the Council’s been able to discover from the book of Tarnis and other sources, Glory and two of her brother hellgods ruled over one of the more seriously unpleasant demon dimensions.

“There are more than one?” Tara looked disconcerted.

“Oh, there are thousands of demon and hell dimensions, all different.” Anya grinned and nodded. It was nice to offer information without being told to shut up. She was feeling a bit more like part of the group now, instead of just the money-counting girlfriend of the comic relief.

“Anya is correct. And those thousands are all pushing on the edges of our reality trying to find a way in.” Giles had been surprised to find all that Anya seemed to know and then felt a bit foolish for not utilizing her earlier. Really, what had he been thinking? This was an ex-demon and one who had actually been to many of those dimensions that the Council had only a vague belief existed.

“Sometimes they don’t want in so much as want to exile others here. This really isn’t a very demon-friendly world. There are lots of places that make this dimension look like a kind of hell to them.” Anya nodded sagely.

“Yes, Anya, why don’t you use your memories and resources to see if you can pinpoint the one that gifted us with Glory. Perhaps if we learn why she is here we will be better able to know the best way to proceed.” Giles handed the girl a small selection of books he had available.

“I seem to remember some rumor about a civil war in one dimension where two brothers kicked their sister out. She was looking at taking over as supreme power. Maybe that could explain Glory, and it fits with what the Council found in their book.” Anya picked up a book and frowned. “I wish Hoffy and I were still on speaking terms, because he’d know right away. I think he plays poker with one of the brothers every Friday.”

Willow smiled at Tara and revealed what they had been working on. “We haven’t worked out all the bugs yet, but if we get it done we might be able to just whoosh her into another dimension, even if it isn’t her own.”

Buffy nodded. They were on it now. She had been right, Glory was toast. It was just a matter of time. Now if they only could be sure they had the time needed.

~*~

Great, another birthday. Buffy kept waiting for the other shoe to fall, as it always did. It was like fate was always trying to remind her of how short her lifespan was to be with all the bad luck that came on her ‘special’ day.

Wrapping paper was everywhere and the gifts had began to pile up; so far nothing demony except for the presence of Spike.

“Oh, it’s beautiful! Thank you, guys,” Buffy held the summer dress up against her and twirled a bit.

“We thought you’d get lots of crossbows and other killy stuff, so we figured ‘less killy, more frilly’.” Willow was grinning from ear to ear.

Anya grabbed the dress from Buffy. “Oh, it IS lovely. I wish it was mine!”

Everyone gave her one of ‘those’ looks, but no one told her to shut up for a change. Then Anya seemed to realize how inappropriate her comment had been without anyone correcting her. “Oh, like you weren’t all thinking the same thing.” She put the dress on the box sitting on the coffee table.

“I’m fairly certain I wasn’t,” Giles stage whispered to Xander. “I’ve got one just like it.

Buffy reached for the next gift on the pile. The long flat box had no tag. She opened it to reveal a lovely antique necklace with delicate gold filigree surrounding a small stone that looked a bit like a ruby, but not quite”

“It’s a garnet. Your birthday bein’ in January makes it your birthstone. Supposed to help healing and enhance strength, endurance and vigor. Since it’s your stone, it should help protect you.” Spike looked a little embarrassed.

“It’s beautiful, Spike.” Buffy was truly touched by both the gift and the thought behind it.

“Yeah, who’d you steal it off of?” Xander still wasn’t on the ‘Go Spike’ team, even if he had backed off a bit lately.

“He didn’t steal it!” Dawn glared at Xander. “I saw it in his room with a bunch of old stuff.”

“Dawn!” Joyce gave her the mom look. “You weren’t supposed to snoop around in Spike’s things. We were his guests.”

“We will talk later,” Spike promised Dawn with a stern stare. “Bit’s right though. Was part of my family stuff I’ve kept, not nicked.” He turned and headed for the back porch. “Think I’ll do a quick patrol, give you the night off.”

“Thanks, Spike, for the gift and for covering.” Buffy rewarded him with a smile that warmed him to the core.

“Here, open mine!” Dawn thrust a scrappily wrapped package in her sister’s lap.

“It’s not gonna explode, is it?” She unwrapped what turned out to be a lovely picture frame covered in seashells with a picture of Buffy and Dawn taken a few years ago.

“It’s when we visited Dad that summer in San Diego. Remember how we went to Sea World and the Wild Animal Park?” Buffy nodded. “You threatened to take me over to Tijuana and leave me there.” Dawn pretended to pout. “I put the shells on it myself. We picked them off the beach.”

“I remember.” Buffy couldn’t believe memories so clear and real could be so false. She could almost feel the sand and smell the salty ocean breeze. She clearly remembered the popcorn at the zoo and all the laughter. She wondered if their dad had false memories of Dawn too. You couldn’t tell it by his contacting either of them.

Joyce was smiling at both her girls. She had made peace with the idea that Dawn was new to their life by just ignoring the fact. Memories were memories, and who knew what reality was anyway? Dawn was there and hers and she loved her as much as she did Buffy and that was all there was to it.

Dawn noticed all the squirming bodies around her and felt that nagging feeling again that something was going on around her that no one would speak of when she was around. “Don’t get all movie-of-the-week on me. I was just too cheap to buy a real present.”

“Thank you, Dawnie, this is perfect.”

“Cake?” Willow leapt up and headed for the kitchen. It was hard to watch Dawn and Buffy and not let on about the secret.

~*~

Giles was pouring another glass of wine as Buffy fixed yet another soda for her mother and herself.

“It still seems like there’s a lot you don’t know about this. I mean, is she dangerous?” Joyce knew her baby couldn’t be evil but being a ball of energy did sound ominous.

“I assume you’re talking about her existence rather than her intentions,” Giles guessed.

Buffy looked out the door and down the hall, noticing that Dawn was eavesdropping as usual. It was getting to be a bad habit.

“Exactly,” Joyce started to continue, only to stop at a glance from Buffy.

“Dawn? What are you doing in there? Party getting too boring?” Buffy called.

“We need plates.” She grabbed a small stack from the dining room table and walked off.

“Maybe she’ll think we were talking about Glory?” Joyce asked hopefully.

Dawn put the plates down with a bit of a clatter, “Why does everyone start acting all weird when I’m around?”

Tara looked a bit worried. “Dawnie, I remember how it felt at your age. It seems that everyone and everything is just a bit off.”

“I’m not an idiot! I know you’re talking about me!” Dawn accused.

“No, we weren’t,” Xander floundered, looking for a cover-up.

“We were talking about sex,” Anya offered.

Dawn turned to her mother, who had just returned to the room, “They were talking about me, just like everybody is.” She stomped up the stairs in a huff.

“Well, that went…,” Buffy sighed. “About like you’d expect on my birthday actually.”

~*~

Dawn climbed out her window and shimmied down the trellis to the back porch. She had seen Giles hiding something at the Magic Box earlier and was fairly certain whatever it was held answers. No one was talking to her, so she really had no choice but to find out on her own.

“Goin’ somewhere, Bit?” Dawn yelped in surprise at seeing Spike standing right behind her.

“Geez! Lurk much?”

“Just back from patrol. Looks like just in time too. Not safe out here for a morsel like you,” Spike frowned. He’d have to keep better tabs on the Niblet since it seemed she was one to slip out the window just as her sister had always done.

“I’m fact finding. Everybody’s hiding stuff from me and I’m sick of it.”

“And you need to do this during prime vamp time why?”

“Well, it’s at the Magic Box and they’re always there except at night. Hey, you wanna come steal some stuff?”

Oddly enough, he didn’t. Magic was best left alone and everything they sold there was for magic. Wouldn’t hurt to pick up a bit of Burba weed, though, and keep the Bit on some kind of leash at the same time. “Yeah, all right.”

He picked the lock with the ease of years of practice. “Girl with a mission, eh?”

“Buffy’s not the only one with missions.” Dawn walked straight to the counter and began to prod under the register as if looking for a catch. “I think there’s a book with Giles’ notes. He was standing here writing, and when I turned around it was gone.”

There was a soft click and a hidden drawer popped open. “Here’s something. Uh…’Tarnis, Twelfth Century: one of the founders of the monks of the order of Dagon. Their sole purpose appears to have been as protectors of the Key.”

Dawn looked up at Spike. “That’s the thing this Glory is looking for, I think. She came by to threaten Buffy a few weeks ago and was going on and on about some key that she thinks Buffy has.”

“Wasn’t that ball thing Buffy took off some monk when this Glory bint first showed up called a Dagon Sphere?”

“Don’t ask me, I’m the mushroom in the room, kept in the dark.” Dawn read on aloud, “The Key is not directly described in any known literature, but all research indicates an energy matrix vibrating at a dimensional frequency beyond normal human perception. Only those outside reality can see the Key’s true nature.” She shook her head in confusion. It was all Greek to her. “Outside reality? What’s that mean?”

“Seers…blokes with second-sight, mostly. Psychics like Dru was or even just your run-of-the-mill loonies. Sounds powerful, whatever it is.”

Dawn continued, “The Key is also susceptible to being detected by necromanced animals, especially canines or reptiles.” Dawn got a faraway look on her face as she remembered her many encounters with crazy people, her mom’s weird reaction when in nutty-mode and the giant snake. She was beginning to get a hinky feeling, like ants crawling up her spine. The book dropped from her hands and Spike picked it up before the place could be lost.

Spike frowned and continued reading, “The monks possessed the ability to transform energy, bend reality. Blah, blah, blah….” He looked at Dawn and tried to nudge her out of whatever put her in the funk that had overtaken her. “Good Lord! Giles writes as dull as he talks, doesn’t he?”

Dawn continued to stare into space, fighting off the feeling that she had just stumbled onto the meaning of life…her life at any rate.

“They started work, but the Council her suggested to us that they were interrupted, presumably by Glory. They obviously did manage to accomplish the taste.” He looked more closely at the cramped writing. “Accomplish the task. They had to be certain that the Slayer would protect it with her life. So they sent the Key to her in human form, in the form of a sister.”

Dawn looked like she might pass out. It couldn’t be true! She couldn’t be some made-up thing! She knew things, remembered things, loved people. That had to be real!

“Huh, guess that’s you, Niblet.” Spike sounded a bit awed. “Always did know you were special.”

~*~

It was too much. Most teenagers felt different, not quite real, but to find out you really ARE those things was more than Dawn could bear. They had to be wrong. The Council was wrong a lot of times, weren’t they? And Giles was too; Dawn remembered lots of times when he was wrong.

Even Buffy was wrong a lot. Like the way she didn’t trust Spike for a long time or listen to Anya’s cool stories.

They were wrong again and she’d prove it!

Buffy looked into the hallway in horror. There was Dawn holding a large knife in one hand while blood ran down her forearm.

“Is this blood?” Dawn looked dazed. “Not creepy energy stuff. Blood, right?”

“Dawn!” Buffy rushed to her side and took the knife from her, then pressed her shirt onto the slice, trying to stem the flow. “What did you do?”

“It can’t be me. I can’t be this Key thing.” She looked at Buffy in shock, “I’m not a thing, am I? I’m your little sister, a pain in your butt.”

Joyce had arrived at her side too. “Oh, sweetie, NO! What’s this all about?”

Dawn could see it on their faces, all of them, even Buffy’s friends. The only one who had been as shocked as she was had been Spike. This was old news to all of them. “What am I? Am I real at all? Am I anything?” She began to cry.

Joyce’s heart broke for her. Dawn was so young and at that awkward age anyway without finding out you weren’t even human and all your memories and feelings were false. It wasn’t fair!

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

Buffy sighed. “We were going to. It just….”

Dawn looked up in anger. She had known secrets were being kept but hadn’t thought them to be so devastating.

“We thought it would be better if we waited until you were older,” ventured Joyce.

That was a new thought. “How old am I now?”

“You’re fourteen, sweetheart, you know that.”

“No!” Dawn shouted, “I mean REALLY. When did the monks make me?”

“Six months ago,” Buffy admitted.

“So I’ve only been real for six months? I’m just a key, a thing, everything about me is made up.”

The Scoobies had all filtered out with sheepish looks and more than a little concern, so the only ones there were the Summers women.

“Dawn,” Buffy tried to placate the girl she loved as if she were her own, “Mom and I know what we feel. We care about you, worry about you.”

“You worry about me because you don’t have a choice. They made you feel what you do. I’m your job; protect the Key, right?”

Buffy wiped at the now drying blood. “I worry because my SISTER is cutting herself.”

“Sure you do. I’m not real. Why don’t you just hand me over to that Glory and get it over with?” Dawn began to cry. “Just leave me alone!” She ran up the stairs and slammed the door behind her.

“How did she find out?” Joyce was horrified. They should have broken it to her gently. Dawn had the right to know.

Spike spoke from the shadows of the kitchen, “Bit broke into the shop and poked around ‘til she found the notes your Watcher had on this Glory bint.”

“And you know this how?” Buffy glared daggers at him.

“Went along, didn’t I?” He ducked his head, knowing he was losing ground as he spoke, “She was determined to go. Caught her sneaking out her window. Figured it better to go along with her, keep her safe from the oogly-googlies. Had no idea what she was lookin’ for or what she’d find, did I?” It stung that they had kept this important piece of information from him.

“How could you let her find out like that?”

“You askin’ me or yourself, Slayer?” Spike was hurt. He’d been good enough to babysit, never knowing how very precious Dawn was to this Glory thing, how important it was to keep her safe. He had thought Buffy was starting to really trust him and now he saw that was just as fake as all their Dawn memories. “Not like I knew she was a mystical glowy key thing. Didn’t exactly keep me in the bloody loop, did you?”

“We didn’t tell anyone until the other day. I would have told you when I got you alone. We thought the fewer people who knew the better, but that didn’t work too well, did it?”

“She shouldn’t have found out like this,” Spike pointed out. “You didn’t think you could keep the truth from her forever, did you?” From the look on Buffy’s face, it seemed that she had thought exactly that. “Maybe if you’d been more honest with her in the first place you wouldn’t be in this mess now. Ease her into it a bit so it was less a shock.”

“How do you tell someone they only popped up a few months ago, but they’re older than dirt?” Buffy was suddenly feeling as old as dirt herself. “Add to that the fact this Glory wants to grab her and twist her in some kind of mystical lock. How much could a fourteen-year-old handle, Spike?”

None of them had an answer to that, it seemed.

“Look, I’m sorry I blamed you.” Buffy’s shoulders drooped. It had been so easy to slip into old patterns. “I’m glad you were there watching out for her. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner too.”

“Gonna be rough sailing ahead, I’d wager.” Spike looked up towards the closed door with the weeping teenage Key inside.

~*~

Rough sailing didn’t begin to cover it. Joyce was beside herself. She’d tried every weapon in her mom arsenal and nothing worked. Dawn was determined to shut herself off from anyone and anything that resembled the life she now knew was a construct.

So far she had received calls from every one of Dawn’s teachers about her acting out in class. The principal was threatening to suspend her for the rest of the year and that would mean summer school.

Buffy seemed to think they should let Dawn have some space, but Joyce wasn’t sure that was the answer. No matter what Dawn’s origins, she was also a vulnerable child who had just had everything she thought she knew and felt ripped away. She had to be feeling far too alone already without them giving her any more space. Joyce wanted to love the pain away, but Dawn didn’t let her near.

“We can’t just let her sit up there all alone.” They discussed it for the millionth time.

“She needs time. We can’t force her to be all right with this.” Buffy sounded so sure.

“So your solution is time? Just leave her alone and hope it all works itself out?” Joyce knew Buffy was good with denial--they all were--but just ignoring a problem never solved it.

“If I were her, I’d want a bit of time right now. I wouldn’t want my mother and sister coming at me from all sides.” Buffy always dealt with emotional trauma by shutting herself off, so it would make sense that Dawn would too. “Besides, you know she has been downstairs to hang out with Spike, so she’s not totally alone.”

“I thank God for him and that Dawn still has someone she trusts to talk to. It’s because he didn’t know either; he didn’t lie to her like we did.”

Truth be told, Buffy had been a bit jealous of the bond she saw between the vampire in the basement and her little sister. “I wonder what they talk about?”

“I doubt she’s talking about the important things.” Joyce wished she was actually, if it would help. “Her school called again today. She was suspended. I talked them into making it only a short one though.”

Dawn was sitting on the stairway listening. That was the only way to be sure of anything around here, sneak or eavesdrop. No one was just honest with you, except maybe Spike. He never pushed either, just listened or talked about other stuff.

“She yelled at a teacher. Buffy, the things she said! She never used language like that before.”

“She probably feels like she can say or do anything right now, that none of it matters. She’s not real and we’re not her family. We don’t even know what she is.”

Dawn stiffened in shock. So they didn’t love her after all. It was all pretend to make her feel better, to make sure they kept the Key with them and safe from the hellgod. She fled to her room again, tears rolling down her face.

It was all fake! Every like and dislike, every memory, all of it, just like her. She ripped posters from the wall in a frenzy. Down came Tobey Maguire and James Van Der Beek, joining Ashton Kutcher in the trashbin. All the Britney Spears CDs and posters, ripped and smashed, joined them. The Backstreet Boys ticket stubs and CDs weren’t spared either. All fake! Did Keys even like music? She looked at her diaries, years’ worth of them, all as unreal as she herself. She began to rip pages out, throwing it all in the trash. This was the stuff of a fourteen-year-old girl, not some glowing thing. She sobbed in misery.

Joyce had jumped up at Buffy’s harsh words. “How can you talk about Dawn as if she were a thing?”

“I’m not!” Buffy was horrified that it had sounded that way. “I’m just saying that’s probably how she feels right now.”

“Well then, we’re just going to have to show her it isn’t true. She needs to know that she is still part of this family and that we love her.”

“It may not be that simple. We can’t fix this with hugs and kisses and a bowl of soup. She has to know the truth, what she is, where she came from. She needs something real to hold onto.”

“Our love for her is real,” Joyce pointed out. “What she needs is a mother and a sister, not the Slayer.”

Her mom was learning, but still didn’t fully get it. “The Slayer is the only thing standing between Dawn and this god from the bitch dimension who wants to shove her in some kind of lock and give her a good twirl.”

The argument was interrupted by the sounds of a smoke alarm going off.

“My God! Buffy, what’s Dawn done?” Joyce looked around the trashed room while Buffy put out the fire in the trash basket. All the things that were Dawn’s favorites looked to have been stuffed in and burned.

“Where is she?” Buffy was furious. “That’s it! She can’t be allowed to just do stuff like this. Doesn’t she have any clue of how much danger she’s in already without….”

“Buffy,” Joyce pointed to the open window, “I think she’s gone.”

~*~

Catching up with Spike while he patrolled wasn’t easy. He was thorough and covered much of Sunnydale. The rest of the gang were checking out the downtown area and near the school, but Buffy figured it would take more than just good eyes and ears to find her truant sister.
“Dawn! Dawn!” Buffy was frantic. She had been gone for a couple of hours, hours when Glory and her scabby minions had time to grab a frightened girl.

“Yeah, that should do it,” Spike snarked. “Niblet scampered off to get away from you. She hears you bellowing and she’ll pack it in the opposite direction.”

Buffy stopped yelling and walking. “You were so right. This is all my fault. I should have told her. Mom was right too; we should have made her see that we love her for her.”

Spike sighed. Human emotions were so volatile. “Look, she probably would have skipped off anyway, even if she never found out. She’s not just a blob of energy, she’s a teenaged hormone bomb. Which part is screwing her up most right now?” He grinned. “Spin the bloody wheel. You’ll find her, just in the nick of time. It’s what you hero types do.”

Buffy gave him a look filled with hope and gratitude. “Think so?”

He nodded firmly. “You’ll find her.”

The gang caught up with them with nothing to report.

“She wouldn’t have left town, would she?” Tara asked. She had run from her own home once and knew well the desire to just be away from all the hurt and confusion.

“I doubt it. She hasn’t been getting her allowance in a while because of trouble at school.” Buffy looked at the sky as if answers could be found there.

“Lots of nasties out at night besides Glory,” Spike reminded them.

“We should check the hospital,” Buffy agreed.

~*~

Dawn had wandered aimlessly through the streets of Sunnydale. She stepped into the path of an ambulance at one point and remembered what the journal had said about mental patients. Maybe one of them could help her discover just what or who she was. She headed for Sunnydale Memorial.

The patients had raved all the stuff she had heard before, calling her a thing and showing fear. All but one, that is--one patient had clearly called her the Key.

“What am I?” Dawn stood nervously beside the man’s bed.

“The Key.” He didn’t look at Dawn and seemed to be talking to the ceiling. “I found it. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!”

“Please,” Dawn pleaded. “Where did I come from? Who made me? What am I?”

“Destroyer!” Dawn jumped back at the accusation. “Cracked bones, the sun bleeding into the sky! The Key is the link and the link must be severed, such is the will of God. Such is the will of God.” The man’s eyes were wild with religious fervor, as well as madness of another kind.

“No!” Dawn began to shake and back out of the room in terror. She backed into the intern named Ben who had helped with her mother not long ago.

“Hey,” Ben grabbed the girl’s shoulders and steadied her. “You’re Dawn, right? Joyce Summers’ youngest? Is your mom back in the hospital?”

“No. No mom, no hospital.” Dawn was in a state of shock, so Ben steered her towards the on-call room. Something was really wrong. He led her to a small table and chairs and got her to sit.

He left her long enough to go to the counter and fix something comforting. “Here you go, two steaming cups of chocolatey goodness. Couldn’t find any marshmallows, sorry.”

“I don’t like them anyway. They’re too squishy.” She was struck with another memory. “When I was five, Buffy told me they were monkey brains and I--” but that wasn’t right either. Nothing was.

“Dawn, is your mom okay? Is that why you’re here?” She hadn’t answered earlier.

Dawn’s voice was bitter. “My…‘mom’…is just fine.”

“Can I call your sister?”

“I don’t have a sister.”

Oh, that Ben could understand! A blow-up between siblings. “You two had a fight, I’ll bet. It’s okay, I know how that goes. I’ve got a sister too and there are lots of nights I wish she didn’t exist either.”

“It’s not Buffy, it’s me. I’m the one that doesn’t’ exist,” Dawn sighed. “I’m not real. I’m a nothing. A thing some monks made so Glory couldn’t find me. I’m not real.”

Ben nearly fell over with his chair. “You’re the Key?!”

Dawn seemed to notice the intern for the first time. “How do you know about the Key?”

Ben was panicking. “GO! Before she finds you. Don’t ask how she knows, but she always does. Go quickly.” He began to pace. “You don’t understand; you’re a kid. If you stay, she’ll find you and she’ll hurt you.”

The man began to morph into a female form before Dawn’s terrified eyes. Glory suddenly loomed over her. “Hello there. I know you!”

~*~

The gang spread out in the hospital looking for any indications that a young girl had been brought in or had come in on her own. They had been told in the ER that no one matching Dawn’s description had come through as a patient.

At least she hadn’t been attacked!

While they regrouped and tried to think of where else she might have gone, they overheard a commotion from down the hall. A guard had been found with his head nearly torn off.

“Glory!” Buffy deduced. They all headed in the direction of the noise. If Glory were around, and so was Dawn, they had to move quickly.

Spike pointed down a hallway. He’d picked up Dawn’s scent. She wasn’t alone.

~*~

“Okay, small talk’s over. I’m in a bit of a crunch here, so let’s cut to the chase.” Glory had dragged Dawn into a consultation room and pushed her against a table. “Your sister has my Key and I want it. It’s mine. Do you know where she’s squirreled it away? Ten words or less.”

Dawn tried to keep the nervousness out of her voice and failed. At least Glory didn’t seem to notice how close she was to that very item. “I’m not sure. What does it look like?”

Glory gave a dreamy sigh and patted her heart area. “Well, the last time I caught a peep, it was a bright green swirly shimmer. It really brought out the blue in my eyes.” She smacked the table next to Dawn. “But then those sneaky little monks pulled an abracadabra so it could look like anything now.”

Buffy and the gang burst in at that moment. “Get away from my sister!”

“We were just talking about you.” Glory advanced on Buffy, while Dawn ran to get behind her elder sister.

“Conversation’s over, hellbitch.” Buffy punched Glory, then followed up with a couple of kicks, finally smashing the god into the lighted x-ray wall.

Everyone else tried to stay out of the way as the two supernatural beings fought. Spike moved stealthily behind Glory and pinned her arms against her sides. Buffy took the opportunity to land multiple blows in Glory’s face while Spike held her steady. It was almost too easy.

“Thought you said this skank was tough,” Spike taunted. Mistake! Glory threw Spike off her as if he were a mere mortal, sending him flying across a table and into the far wall.

Giles loaded the crossbow and fired, but the arrow merely bounced off the now angry hellgod.
Buffy continued her assault and Xander tried to get an advantage with a prybar, only to find himself tossed with Giles into a heap not far from Spike’s unconscious body.

Willow and Tara were quietly chanting in some foreign language unnoticed by all.

“Time to start with the dying!” Glory grabbed the tire iron Xander had dropped and turned towards a cowering Dawn. “Starting with the whelp.” She threw the tire iron like it was a sword, but Buffy was faster, throwing herself in the path of the flying metal.

“Dawn!” Buffy collapsed, the metal hitting her in the upper chest near the shoulder.

Glory began to bear down on the Summers sisters, ignoring anyone else and walking between the chanting witches. As Glory passed them, they both tossed glitter over her, covering her like a child’s Christmas card.

“You got this mess in my hair! You little…,” She turned on Tara as Willow clapped her hands and shouted, “Discede!”

With a poof and small snapping sound, Glory disappeared as Willow fell to the floor in exhaustion.

Everyone was standing and conscious again looking at the witches in amazement.

“Teleportation spell. Still working out the kinks.” Willow wiped a bit of blood from under her nose.

“Where’d you send her?”

“Don’t know; that’s one of the kinks,” Tara supplied.

“Not here, that’s all that matters for now,” Spike pointed out.

“Indeed,” Giles pushed his glasses back in place and faced Buffy. “I’ll call your mother and let her know you are on the way.

Buffy put an arm around a willing Dawn. “Okay. I need to get my sister home. Mom’s been frantic. Come on.”

Dawn stopped on the threshold. Something niggled in the back of her mind, “Wait! Ben. HE was here. He was trying to help me. He….” She stopped, unable to grasp the memory. It was all a blur. “I think he might have left before Glory came. I can’t remember.”

“It’s okay. You’ve had a bad couple of nights. Don’t worry about it. We’ll thank him next time we see him.”

“Is Mom mad about the whole fire thing?” Dawn sounded nervous and young.

“I think you’ve got a get-out-of-jail pass on account of all the trauma.”

“Really?” Dawn sounded relieved. “Okay, good.”

“Sure you didn’t get hurt, Bit?”

“I’m fine. Buffy’s the one with the prybar in her shoulder.”

Spike looked over the wound and satisfied himself that nothing vital had been hit and Slayer healing would do the trick. “Let’s get you both home then. Fix you up and let everyone get a bit of kip.” He looked at Buffy closely. “I’ll stay up and make sure we don’t have to deal with a repeat tonight.”

“You sure? She knocked you out, Spike.”

“I’m a vampire, love, I can take it. ‘Sides, creature of the night here, only natural to be up and on the prowl.”

“You know, I could get used to having you around if you keep this up,” Buffy teased.

“Fine by me.” He winked to make light of it, but inside his long dead heart began to sing. It may not be all he dreamed of, but it was a start and a good start at that.