Kragdon

PART 9: The Arrival

Author's Notes: In this chapter and the next few there will be major quotage and spoilers for the season five, starting with the ep. Family to the end. I am also bringing in Faith this chapter so thing will be a little different. So my disclaimer still goes out to Joss, but also all of the writers who worked on that ep. Thanks for all the reviews you guys I really appreciate it. If you have seen this episode I apologize in advance if I completely ruin it. For those who haven't seen it buy Season Five and watch it. :);):) (slow motion wink):D.

****

Arriving home Buffy paused before she opened the door. She could feel Giles in the living room, waiting for her to return from patrolling the warehouse district. Feeling him, inside right now worrying and watching Dawn, Buffy almost didn't want to go in. After finding out that her little sister wasn't even real Buffy just wanted to be alone but she knew that she had to tell him, he was her watcher/father after all.

Opening the door to her home, Buffy entered and saw Giles stand, relief filling his features as the knowledge that his slayer had returned safely. She didn't think that she would be affected this much. 'She’s my sister' running through her head like a mantra. The desolate look on her face as she moved to the living room and sat down on the couch, stopped Giles from the greeting he was about to give her.

"Buffy, are you alright" he asked her in that concerned fatherly tone as he sat on the coffee table opposite of his slayer. He could see in her eyes that she was trying very hard not to cry. "Buffy?" he said again when she didn't answer him the first time, taking off his glasses as if to clean them.

He was about to say her name again when he thought she was not going to answer but such was not the case.

"The spell that I did, the courtier one," seeing Giles nod she continued "It worked; only there was nothing there. No mist or hand or shape of the demon, nothing super natural at all, that was until I saw a picture of me mom and dawn together, there was something flickering on it, Dawn's image kept disappearing and reappearing. It was like that with every picture that had Dawn in it. I went to her room to investigate further and at first I thought she was the demon, the one that was hurting my mom." When she saw that Giles was going to add something she interrupted him by continuing on. "I was patrolling the warehouse district, trying to find more clues that would give me an answer. I noticed that a door was wide open; I went to investigate with my flashlight. Walking deeper into the building, I noticed one of those two foot thick steal garage doors, that separate the rooms had been torn apart. Like something big had kicked it down. There was a woman there torturing some one. I think she was a demon. She was strong, she kicked my ass."

"Do you know what she looked like" Giles asked calmly, his glasses still in his hand.

"Human, stronger, faster and I felt power radiating off of her," Buffy explained, giving as brief a description as possible before she got to the part that concerned Dawn, "The was a reason she wanted this guy though, he was keeping something from her A Key or something he said that I had to protect it." She said looking up into his eyes.

Giles rested his hand on hers and wore his watcher face, as he asked “Do you know what it is or where it is. Why this creature wants it?" looking straight back into her eyes.

Buffy took a deep breath before she answered. "It's Dawn. Dawn's the Key."

"(scoff) I don’t know what to say" he said in a disbelieving voice, Truly at a loss for words.

"Tell me about it" Buffy answered.

"She has no idea?" Giles asked.

"No... She thinks she's my kid sister."

"Are you going to tell her?" he then asked.

"I can't," Buffy answered standing up "She'd freak, and that's the last thing we need. I have to keep her safe."

Giles let out a sigh of acceptance, as he put his glasses back on. "This woman... this creature, she know, you know. Shouldn't we be thinking of sending Dawn some place else. Away."

"Away where?"

"I-I don't rightly know, to your father maybe."

"Last I checked he was in Spain with his assistant living the cliché. I tried to contact him when mom got sick, he hasn't even--"

"I'm sorry." Giles interrupted.

Buffy just shook her head in acceptance, thinking and sharing the memory of when her dad had left. Remembering every single thing that her sister did, but didn't do. It was hard, thinking of life without her sister second guessing her memories. Looking up at Giles, she could see the thoughts turning in his head, she knew what he was thinking and she couldn't let that happen. So she answered his unspoken question.

"They sent her to me, Giles. I think that I have to take care of her. I want to. I need to."

"Yes. We need to find out who this woman is and what she could possibly want Dawn for. Do we tell the others?" he asked with a new determination in his voice.

"No. No-one. They would act different around her, and they are safer not knowing." Buffy answered looking up the stairs.

"What if she comes after you?"

"She'll come." Buffy said with certainty, "She'll come for us."

*****

Out in the dead calm of night, in a cemetery near the outskirts of Sunnydale, a wind started to pick up, subtle at first, slowly getting stronger to a howling gust, before it just stopped the cemetery growing quiet and absolutely still. Within the time span of two second, the stillness lasted before up in the sky a brilliant light exploded in to the sky ranging in all sorts of different colors, from blue to the deepest green; sending out an after shock that shook the ground beneath it.

Spike who was down in the lower level of his crypt moving things around, stopped when he felt the ground start to shudder. His whole body tingled as he felt a gust of power wash over him. 'what the...' looking around he couldn't sense anyone near, and the only one he knew that had the kind of power that he was feeling had died over sixty years ago. He moved to the top level of his home, and to his door, feeling compelled to follow the flow of energy, his demon telling him to go. He didn't know what was on the other side of that door, but whatever it was it had power.

The light dimmed and the ground stopped moving, as Spike opened his door. He could see it in the distance, though it wasn't as bright as before, he could still see it rippling in the sky. He moved at a slow pace not knowing what to expect, watching it with one eye and scanning the surrounding area feeling for danger. He paused when he was about twenty feet away from it, watching it as the ripples increased then hearing a huge sucking sound the portal shrank back and disappeared with a resounding pop.

He starred for a few moments not trusting what he saw for a minute. He listened closely trying to figure what type of oogly-boogly jumped out of that hole. Stepping closer he heard it, the moans and growls of the demons that had dropped from that portal. Crouching low to the ground he moved closer, cursing himself for not thinking about taking any weapons with him. What he saw though made him gasp, lying on the ground not two feet before him, was a three naked as the day they were born women and one man.

Two of the women were curled up against each other, close like lovers. The man was to their left near the oak tree by the Kristof tomb, Spike could tell that the man was injured, he could smell the blood. It was the last that intrigued him so; he could smell the power that rushed through her veins. She was the first to come to.

"Oww. Clas'ma, fe aimo'sa. Dols nitra. [Oww. My head, man that was intense. Never doin that again.]" She said as she sat up and reached for her head. Looking around she saw her companions on the ground near her knocked out. Crawling over to her friends she checked them over seeing if they were alright. When Faith saw Sar'ah and Selena open their eyes at the same time she let out a breath that she didn't even know that she had been holding. "Are you guys okay" she asked helping them up into a sitting position. She then heard a moan to her left, she looked over and saw that Marcus was coming to; the cut on his head no longer bleeding. He looked over at her, seeing her concerned look, he nodded his head once letting her know that he was gonna live.

Her limbs no longer feeling heavy with lethargy Faith stood up to her full height. Taking a good look around, she took a deep breath and let it out saying under her breath. "Welcome to Sunny Hell."

Spike watched as the brunette stood up, tall and proud like. If anything it was that one move that made him think that she was the leader. He could smell her strength and feel the power coming off of her in waves, making his demon shudder in desire. He watched as she looked around her and took in her surroundings. With his vampire hearing he could her everything she had said earlier, though he didn't totally understand what she had said there were a few vowels in there that he recognized as Fyarrl and Wolf. The only difference being the smell.

Helping her friends up, Faith took notice that they were all standing there butt naked. Looking around for something to cover her and her friends up Faith noticed another presence close by. The hairs on the back of her neck standing up. 'Vampire' Faith thought.

Making an announcement out loud to her friend that she was going to look for something that they could wear, while internally she told them about the vampire that was to the right of them. They nodded there heads in understanding. Faith moved away from them, making a circle around the crypts and gravestones to where Spike was backing away from where he was hiding. Not recognizing who he was Faith grabbed the back of Spike's neck, pulling him up so fast he barley had time to blink. Faith threw him out into the open, to where her friends were waiting. Her eyes turning auburn for just a second.

Spike landed with an oomph as he hit the ground hard. He pushed himself up turning to face the brunette beauty that had thrown him. He looked her in the eyes and saw them turn yellow and cat like for just a brief second. Feeling another shudder run through his body, he stood to his full height of 5'8", and sized her up, moving to a fighting stance, though he would rather shag her then kill her, he still prepared himself for a fight. Starting with the usual banter. "Alright love; you wanna fight, fine by me. Just don't go crying to your mommy when ol spike here kicks the crap outta ya." He moved to strike her in the face.

A slow smile creeped up Faith's face as she heard what he said thinking 'same old, same old'. Seeing his fist coming at her she caught it in her hand right before it connected. Using only a tenth of her strength, Faith squeezed then reversing his momentum through him into the wall of a mausoleum. She walked up to him, the smile still on her face as she approached him; she had remembered him after he had said his name. Seeing that he was still dazed, leaning against the wall that she had thrown him; she walked up to him and crouched down so that she was face to face with him.

"Spike... Spike... William the bloody."

"Yea, 'ho 'onts to know."

"You don't remember do you?" Faith said slowly, her smile growing bigger.

"Remember 'hat?"

"We met, in the bronze once upon a time ago, though you might not recognize me, I was in a different skin back then."

"...Faith..." Spike said recognition coming into his eyes and voice as he said the name.

"So you do remember." Faith said standing up and offering her hand to help him up.

Spike looked at her wondering if he could trust the dark haired slayer. Seeing nothing in her eyes but sincerity he accepted her offered help pulling himself up. He had heard many stories on this dark haired beauty both from the scoobs and the demon world, most of them he thought were great exaggerations and others he found just plain amusing. Looking at her now he didn't know what to believe, before him stood a creature of power both slayer and demon blood running through her veins. He was intrigued by her his demon wanted to fight and kill her or possible hide, and the man side of him wanted to ravage her maybe court her first.

Faith saw as he starred at her with an appraising eye. It irritated her for a bit when she saw lust enter his undead eyes, finally after some silence she spoke up to him.
"Look if you're just going to continue to stare at me like that I'm gonna start looking for a stake," When she saw that got his attention she continued on, "Now that I got your attention back to my eyes and not my breast, me and my comrades here need some clothes, so are you going to help or what."

"What's in it for me?" Spike said going back to his cocky self lighting up a smoke and leaning into a relaxed position against the wall behind him, looking at her with a slight leer.

Faith didn't say anything, instead moving faster then spike could see, she flipped a piece of wood from the ground into her hand grabbed him by the neck and slammed him against the wall he was leaning against, hard enough to make a slight dent. The stick she held in her hand poised at his heart.

"Either help, or I will stick this twig up your ass and roast you out in the sunlight,
got it." Faith said answering both his question and leering glance.

Spike swallowed hard seeing the truth behind those words in her eyes as she said this. Taking a deep breath that he didn't need he nodded his head.

"Good. Now as I was saying me and my friends need both clothes and a place to stay for the night, think you could handle that." Again spike nodded his head, not saying a word. When she let go of him his hand moved to the spot where she had grabbed his shirt, rubbing at it as if it hurt.

Faith simply gave him a mild look of annoyance as she moved away to talk to her 'family' about what was going on. When they were ready they followed spike to his crypt where he gave them some clothes and a bed to sleep in. All four having said that they had already eaten when he offered them some blood. It was close to dawn before everyone was settled and fell asleep. The only ones up being Faith and Spike. Spike because he wanted to continue making his tunnel and the fact that vampires don't need that much sleep, Faith was up because she felt wired, there was something in the air that made her hair stand on end and her nerves come alive.

In all reality though, Faith really only needed about an hour or two of sleep which was why she was standing out side watching the sunrise. Looking down at herself faith thought she looked ridiculous, the clothes that she was wearing she knew that she wouldn't be caught dead in, in any world. But it wasn't like these were her only options if she thought about it. After all before the Mayor had died he had set up a nest egg and trust for her in the amount of fifteen million dollars, being untouched in say four year she figured it had to of built up a little bit.

Leaving a warning in with her friend and a stake with a note for Spike, Faith left to go first to her apartment that the boss gave her and then to explore, check out what’s been happening. Faith still didn't know that she had only been gone for about seven months; she thought that she had been gone for years.

It had been a long time, but as she was walking down Main Street, There was only one thought running through her mind at that moment as she walked into her old apartment. 'Home, sweet home'.