Baseball (Dawn Does All the Bases)

Part 13: Covering All the Bases Kevin sat shivering in the cemetery. The warm weather had gone away and he could see his breath. Buffy smiled at him. “Hey, this was your idea.” “Next time, I’ll write a memo.” said Kevin. He really hadn’t expected Buffy to invite him to come along when they staked out the grave of a neck rupture victim. Of course he had been subjected to an hour long lecture on just what he was to do, and how he was to act…all of which boiled down to “Stay out of the way, and do what you’re told.” At least they didn’t have to keep quite until the vamp rose. Kevin and Dawn had gone back to her house last Saturday night and talked with Buffy about what they’d been discussing. (They left out what they had been doing *during* their discussion.) Buffy had liked Kevin’s ideas, and had spent much of the previous week asking vampires questions before she dusted them. So far she really hadn’t gotten any useful answers from them. None of the new vamps had been able or willing to tell her much about their sires, and the older vamps she’d come across had mostly just kept their mouths shut. Buffy had managed to learn that rumours were floating in the demonic world—more than the usual ones that always seemed to be floating—that something big was about to happen, and Sunnydale was the place to be when it did. Willow and Anya hadn’t turned up any leads by looking into demon finances either. Buffy, Dawn and Kevin were watching a grave from behind some headstones twenty yards away from it. Kevin knew that Spike, Xander and Willow were out there somewhere too. They had the grave surrounded. Spike was on his own, and Xander and Willow were together. Dawn wrapped her arms around Kevin from behind. “You know you want to be here.” She kissed his neck. “God!” said Buffy. “Get a room!” Dawn started to open her mouth to say something, but Buffy suddenly waved for silence. She lifted her coat collar toward her mouth. “We have movement.” Kevin looked toward the fresh grave. He didn’t see anything at first, but after a couple of seconds he saw some of the flowers that had been left on it shift. A hand thrust up through the ground, followed by another. The vampire pulled its way out of its grave, and crawled to its feet. This one had been a girl before she died, about 25rs ors old. She had been buried in a white gown which almost seemed to glow in the darkness of the cemetery. He didn’t think they’d have any trouble following her. The vampire stood up and sniffed the air. It spun around and saw the paper cup sitting on top of its tombstone…a jumbo size from the Doublemeat Palace. It grabbed the cup and lifted it to its mouth, gulping down its contents. Kevin didn’t want to know where the blood had come from. Spike had supplied it. They had consulted with him about what sort of blood they should use to satisfy a newly risen vamp, and Spike had recommended that they use human blood, the fresher the better. He knew a source who could get it for him, uncontaminated by the anticoagulants and other things added to medical blood. The vampire lowered the cup and wiped its hand across its lips. Some of the blood had run down its chin, and dripped onto the white dress. It looked around, and then started to move. Buffy spoke to her collar again. “It’s coming toward you Spike.” “On it.” Kevin heard Spike’s voice crackle in his ear, as he had Buffy’s. They all had earpieces in so they could hear each other, and voice activated microphones. Kevin had asked where they’d gotten stuff like that and Xander had mumbled something about it all being Initiative surplus. No one had volunteered to explain what that meant to him. They waited where they were until after the vampire had passed out of sight. He heard Spike’s voice again. “Okay. It’s heading out the east gate, turning south.” Buffy took off at a run, with her crossbow slung over her shoulder. “Come on.” she said quietly. She ran through the cemetery, toward the south gate. Kevin grabbed the bag that had the rest of their weapons in it—he’d gotten the job of carrying it—and ran after Buffy and Dawn. He could hear Spike’s voice in his ear still, telling them the vampire was still going south. Buffy took them out the south gate and across the street, and then they stopped and waited. They saw the vampire come to the intersection down the block, and turn away from them. “Got it.” said Buffy into her microphone. “Heading east. We’re following.” They started after the vampire. Kevin saw Spike reach the corner ahead of them and cross the street before he turned east too. Then Xander and Willow appeared. Xander turned down the street to follow the vampire on the opposite side from Spike, and Willow crossed the street to wait for Buffy, Dawn and Kevin. Buffy continued on her own, leaving Dawn and Kevin with Willow. The streets were too empty for them to attempt to follow the vampire in such a large group. Xander, Spike and Buffy would keep the vamp in sight while the others followed a couple of blocks behind. Kevin, Dawn and Willow stood on the corner, pretending to be talking with each other while they kept an eye on the others moving away down the street, and listened to their earpieces. The vampire cut across the street ahead of Spike, into a street heading south. Spike kept moving east, across the intersection. Kevin heard his voice in his earpiece “It’s going south. Xander take the lead.” Willow, Dawn and Kevin set out to follow after them all as soon as the vampire had vanished from sight. “Got it.” crackled Xander’s voice. He ran across the street before he got to the corner and then he turned south after the vamp. Buffy crossed the street before she turned south too. Spike became the one at the tail end of the parade, crossing back to the same side as the vamp after they had all passed. They followed the vampire into the warehouse district near the docks. Every time the vampire had taken a turn the three people following it had shuffled their positions. Now Buffy was in the lead, still on the other side of the street from the vamp. Xander was half a block behind her, and Spike was across the street. The vampire entered a warehouse. Buffy continued up the street. Spike entered the alley at the north-west corner of the warehouse. Soon Kevin heard him report that the alley behind the warehouse was clear. Buffy told Xander to wait for the others and crossed the street into the alley on the other side of the warehouse. She reported that the alley was clear when she reached the south-east corner. Buffy spotted a fire escape a little way down the back alley. She turned her face to her collar. “I’m going to have a look inside.” Buffy jumped up, grabbed the bottom platform, and pulled herself up onto the fire escape. She climbed the stairs up to a second floor window. There were already some broken panes of glass in it, so she didn’t make any noise when she reached through to find the catch to unlock the window. It took her into what looked like an abandoned office. The office had a window that overlooked the warehouse floor. She cautiously approached it. She could hear raucous voices from below, but they were too muffled to make out any words. What Buffy saw through the window chilled her to the bone. It wasn’t vampires. She still couldn’t see them, the noise of their voices was coming from a section of the warehouse she couldn’t see from this window. It was something else in the center of the warehouse floor. Buffy didn’t know what it was, but she knew it couldn’t be good. Out in the middle of the warehouse floor was an orb. Buffy had seen lots of orbs, big, medium, and small, and most of them glowed, but this one glowed…black. It seemed to radiate darkness, or maybe it was sucking in the light. It was about the size of a basketball, and it floated a few feet off the warehouse floor. Buffy pulled her eyes away from the orb. There was a door in the other wall of the office. The vampire voices seemed to be coming from that direction. She crossed the office to it, and carefully pulled it open. The door led to a catwalk that ran the length of the southern wall of the warehouse. Buffy wasn’t the least bit surprised to see Spike at the other end of it. He saw her too, and pointed down. Buffy moved out onto the catwalk, and the sound of the vampires was now coming from directly below her. She looked over the railing. There were half dozen vampires under her, and they were engaged in what looked to Buffy like a gang-bang. The guest of honour was the new vampire. Her gown had been torn off her, and she was down on a mattress sandwiched between two other male vampires. The other three vampires—two female, one male—were looking on, shouting encouragement. Buffy looked around some more. There were mattresses lined up all the way down the southern wall of the warehouse, where the shadows would be deepest during the day. There were enough for over a dozen vamps. Most of the ones nesting here must be out for the night. Buffy considered her options. She really wanted to learn more about that orb before she came charging in with stakes blazing, and if they hit the place just after dawn, she could probably catch all the vamps who nested here napping. She looked around. All the windows along the eastern wall had been painted over from the inside. Start by smashing those, and half the problem was probably solved. She started to raise her microphone to her mouth to tell the others she was pulling out. Buffy’s plan had changed before she could say anything. A seventh vampire had appeared. He was dragging a girl. She was gagged, and her wrists were tied, and she was naked. Buffy could see that her neck, arms, and legs were covered with fang marks, under layers of filth. He pushed her roughly down onto the floor. “You boys can have a snack when you’re done.” “We’ve got at least seven vamps here.” said Buffy. “Xander, don’t let any get out the front. Spike, I want that one alive.” She pointed to the vamp who had brought in the girl. She raised her crossbow and took careful aim at the three vamps screwing on the mattress. ‘Just roll a little more.’ she told herself, and fired. Buffy’s bolt went through the chests of all three vampires, but only two of them exploded into dust. The female in the middle was left hanging the air before she fell back onto the mattress screaming from the pain caused by the wooden bolt that had passed through her chest beside her heart. The four vamps who had been watching were stunned for half a second. The one Buffy had figured for the boss was the first to look up, just in time for Buffy’s boot to hit it in the face. The vampire fell back stunned onto the floor. Buffy had a stake in her hand. She spun and sank it into the heart of the vampire behind her. She whirled back to drive it into the heart of the vampire in front of her. --- Xander, Kevin, Dawn and Willow ran toward the entrance to the warehouse. Xander had a crossbow in his hand, and Kevin had a stake. Buffy had spent the last week of their training sessions teaching him how to use it. Dawn was carrying a sword. He’d seen what she could do with it over the last weeks too. Anything that came within six feet of her was in danger of losing pieces. Willow brought up the rear, carrying their bag. She didn’t need her hands to be dangerous. Xander opened the warehouse door, and was bowled over by the vampire running out it. Kevin barely had time to notice she was naked as he raised his stake, and she ran onto it. She looked nearly as surprised as Kevin felt for an instant before she turned into dust. Xander was back on his feet, and through the door. Kevin was still too shocked to get ahead of Dawn and Willow, so they were through the door ahead of him. Kevin found himself bringing up the rear. Kevin looked around the warehouse. The first thing he noticed was the black orb. It looked like nothing he had ever seen before, sucking in all the light around it. Next he saw Spike. He had just punched someone back down onto the floor, before looking back up at Buffy. “The *least* you could have done is left *one* for me to kill!” He punched the vampire again, even though it didn’t look to Kevin like it had moved. “The bloody carpenter probably even got that one that ran away.” “Actually, no, he didn’t.” said Xander. “Kevin got her.” “Oh, great.” Spike punched the vampire again. “The bloody *rookie* got to kill more than me.” “Stop complaining Spike.” said Buffy. “Xander, give him something to tie that vamp up with.” Kevin saw her pull out a knife and she knelt down by what Kevin now realized was a naked girl, huddled on the floor. Her eyes were fixed on Buffy’s knife, filled with hope and terror. Buffy cut the ropes binding the girl’s wrists, and then she cut the gag off her mouth. The girl gasped, and then sat huddled in a ball, shivering and whimpering on the floor. Buffy stood and looked toward the mattresses along the wall. There were blankets there too, but Buffy quickly decided that they were too filthy. She took off her coat and knelt beside the girl again. She wrapped it around the girl’s shoulders. “Here, you can wear this.” Dawn was already kneeling on the other side of the girl. She pulled Buffy’s coat tighter around her shoulders. “Hey, it’s okay Marcia. You’re safe now.” Kevin was surprised, and took another look at her. The girl really was Marcia Timmins, a girl who had been absent from school for a couple of days. Dawn put an arm around her back and helped her get up. “Come over here.” Dawn took her toward some ratty furniture that the vampires had scrounged for themselves. Kevin tried to help, but Marcia flinched away from him. He went ahead to clear a spot for her. Then he went to get the first aid kit that was in the bag that Willow had left near the door. Buffy looked around again. Xander and Spike had their vampire prisoner restrained. Willow was over by the orb, looking at it, but not getting too close. Dawn and Kevin were tending Marcia. She considered what to do. “Xander, call Anya, ask her to get over here with your car. I think we need to get Marcia to the hospital, but I really don’t want the cops and such anywhere near here until we figure out the deal with that orb thing. Will, you got any clue what it is?” Willow turned back toward Buffy. “Not even a hint of a clue. I’ve never heard of anything like this.” Buffy looked at her watch. “Okay, it’s 1:00 AM. What time does that make it in Bath?” “Nine in the morning.” said Dawn. She handed a soiled ball of cotton she had been using to clean Marcia’s wounds to Kevin, and got a clean one from Mar Marcia was still flinching any time he came near her. Dawn went back to work cleaning the bites. “Okay, Giles will be awake.” Buffy took out her phone and hit the speed dial number for him. She looked toward Spike while she waited for an answer. “Spike, keep an eye out, there were more vamps staying here than the ones we killed. I don’t want any— Oh, hi Giles, what can you tell me about unglowy orbs? … Unglowy. It kinda glows black. … No, it… It’s really hard to describe. Here, I’ll let you talk with Willow.” Buffy held out her phone and Willow came and took it from her. “Hey, Giles. … No, it’s about a foot in diameter, and it’s floating about four feet off the floor. It seems to be shining with some kind of…negative light, if you know what I mean. Everything exposed to it looks darker. The floor under it is pitch black, looks like there’s a pentagram drawn there, but it’s too dark to see it clearly. … No we haven’t actually gotten that close to it, just a sec.” Willow started walking toward the o &ld “Careful Will!” said Buffy. “Not to worry. I’m not getting too close to that thing.” Willow stopped and looked away from it, down at the floor. “Huh? Isn’t that weird. Yeah Giles, I kinda do cast a negative shadow. It’s brighter than the floor around it. … Nope, I’m still about ten feet from it, and don’t feel a thing. … No, even if I had a ten foot pole, I *still* wouldn’t touch it.” Willow was backing away again. Dawn had finished cleaning Marcia’s wounds, and she’d given her a couple of the bottles of water that they had in their bag too. Marcia had gulped the first one down like she hadn’t had a drink for days…which Dawn thought was possible. She made Marcia take her time, and sip at the second one. “Marcia, it’s going to be okay. We’re going to have a car here soon, and then we’re going to take you to the hospital, do you understand me?” Marcia nodded. “Marcia, do you know what they were doing?” asked Dawn. “Do you know anything about that orb thing?” “Kauket.” said Marcia. “They called it the Orb of Kauket. Said it would bring chaos and night.” “Did you hear that?” Dawn asked Willow. “Yep. It’s called the Orb of Kauket.” said Willow into the phone. “Yeah, I thought so. … Anything else about it sound familiar? … Okay, I’ll let you go hit your books. Call us back if you get anything. … I expect we’ll be up all night. Bye.” Willow closed her phone. “Kauket is an Egyptian goddess, the ‘bringer of the night.’ She pulls the night over the land after Ra departs for the underworld at the end of the day.” “So, just the sort of goddess a vampire would love.” said Buffy. She turned to Spike. “You ever hear of this Orb of Kauket thing?” “Myths and rumours.” said Spike. “Supposed to be able to bring night to the whole world, that sort of rubbish. Always figured it was mostly just talk, like the Gem of Amarra.” “The Gem of Amarra was real.” said Buffy. “Yeah, but a fat lot of good it ever did me.” said Spike. “Might as well have been a myth.” The warehouse door opened, and everyone reached for a weapon as they turned to look toward it. “Whoa!” said Anya. “Is that any way to greet a friend?” “Sorry Ahn.” said Xander. “We’re kinda expecting more vampires to show up.” “That’s okay.” Anya was looking at the orb. “Is that the Orb of Kauket?” “Has everyone but me heard of this Kauket?” asked Buffy. “I’ve never heard of her either.” said Kevin. “What do you know about this thing Anya?” asked Willow. “Just that some tenth century vamps tried to use it to turn the dark ages…well…*dark*.” said Anya. “They were stopped by the Slayer at the time, but word is she just vanished right after…her and the orb.” “Maybe Giles will find something then.” said Buffy. “The Watchers might have some info on this. Call him back.” she told Willow. “Let him know a Slayer has seen one of these things before. Let’s see if we can find out what she did to make her disappear, and *not* do that.” Buffy turned toward Dawn and Kevin. “You guys take Marcia to the hospital.” Kevin got Xander’s car keys from Anya, and went back to help Dawn with Ma. Sh. She still flinched whenever he came close to her, so he stepped back again. He really didn’t want to think about what the vampires had been doing to her to make her react that way to him. He led them toward the door. He had a quick look around as he went outside and didn’t see anyone. Xander’s car was parked by the curb nearby so he went and opened the back door for Dawn and Marcia. --- Kevin let Dawn answer most of the questions when they got Marcia to the emergency room of the Sunnydale Hospital. He was surprised by just how few there were. Once the nurse who made the initial examination of Marcia when they brought her in got a look at the bite wounds she just shut up. They waited around in the emergency room waiting area until Marcia was moved out into a private room. Dawn went and had a quiet word with the admitting nurse. Kevin didn’t hear what they said, but when she came back she had Buffy’s coat. Marcia’s parents arrived soon after, so Dawn and Kevin left. Dawn phoned Buffy while they were going back to the car to report that they were on their way back. Dawn closed her phone and put it back in her purse. “Willow wants us to pick up some things at the house, and Buffy wants another coat.” Dawn looked down at the one she was carrying. “I think this one will need to be cleaned before she’ll wear it again.” --- Dawn had Kevin park half way down the block, on the other side of the street when they returned to the warehouse so that any returning vampires wouldn’t have their suspicions aroused by a strange car parked in front of their lair. Sunrise was still hours away, so she didn’t really expect any of them to be showing up yet, but they both had a good look around before they got out of the car. Dawn was greatly relieved to see Spike step out the door and wave to them. They got out of the car and hurried across to him. “So, anything new happen here?” asked Kevin. “Red’s got a perimeter warning spell set up.” said Spike. “Warns us if any vamps cross it. It’s caught two so far.” “I tried to get Marcia to tell me how many there w&rdq” said Dawn. “She didn’t really have a clear idea, maybe a dozen or so.” She entered the warehouse, and noticed that there was no sign of the vamp they’d captured. “You learn anything from your guy?” “He said fourteen.” said Spike. “After a little persuasion.” “Would he tell the truth?” asked Kevin. “Vampires are not generally noted for their loyalty.” said Spike. “Oyou you get them more scared of you than they are of their former bosses, they sing like canaries. Still, nice to have it confirmed that he was in the right ballpark.” Dawn took Buffy her new coat and carried the bag of supplies she’d brought over to Willow. She had moved one of the chairs over near the orb, and was sitting looking at it, with her phone to her ear. She glanced up at Dawn as she came closer. “Okay Giles,” she said, “The stuff I need just arrived.” “So you know what to do with it?” asked Dawn. “Sort of, temporarily.” said Willow. &l;The;There’s a binding spell that will encase the orb, make it possible to handle it.” “Temporarily?” asked Dawn. “Yeah…well the last one seems to have lasted for a thousand years…but it’s still temporary.” She saw Dawn take another step toward the orb. “Don’t get too close. That’s what happened to that Slayer a thousand years ago. She touched it, and got…sucked into it.” Dawn shivered. “That must have been horrible. No way to permanently get rid of it?” “Giles found some stuff that talks about how it was opened with an emerald and other such cryptic things, but nothing concrete.” said Willow. “Opened?” asked Dawn. “Yeah.” said Willow. “It&rsqurealreally a portal into some sort of negative energy dimension. It really is shining with negative light.” “A portal, huh?” Dawn took another step toward it. She seemed oddly drawn to it. “Don’t go any closer.” warned Willow. Kevin had been slowly circling the orb, and was on the opposite side of it from Willow and Dawn, so he saw what Willow couldn’t. His blood went cold. “Dawn…you’re glowing.” “What?” asked Dawn and Willow together. “You’re glowing…green.” said Kevin. “Your clothes are almost black, but your skin…it’s green.” Dawn took a couple of quick steps back, and her glow faded…it wasn’t really a glow Kevin decided. It was more like the unlight from the orb just didn’t wash out green when it shone on Dawn. Once she had backed away a couple of steps the effect was reduced to the point where her ur jur just seemed a bit off, not really enough to notice if you weren’t looking for it. Buffy, Xander, Anya and Spike had all heard Kevin, and come rushing over. Dawn and Willow were looking at each other. “It’s a portal.” said Dawn. “‘The emerald’” said Willow. She picked up her phone. “Giles, that ‘emerald’ thing, do you have the original source? How good a translation is it? Ummm…” She stopped and thought for a second. They never talked plainly about the Key over the phone. “…Dawn isn’t feeling well. A little green around the gills.” “You are feeling okay aren’t you?” asked Buffy. “Yeah, I’m fine.” said Dawn. “Do you feel anything?” “No…not really.” said Dawn. “I was feeling a little like I wanted to get closer to that thing, but…now I want to stay the hell away from it a lot more.” “Good.” said Buffy. “You do that. In fact, let’s get you farther away. Kevin, take her home.” “Buffy—” “No!” Buffy cut Dawn’s objection off. “I want you far away from this thing until we find out what’s going on. Xander go with them, make sure they get home, and then come on back.” “But—” “*Go!*” said Buffy. --- “So what happened back there?” asked Kevin as he followed Dawn up the stairs. &l;Umm;Umm…remember that really weird thing I promised to tell you about if you ever needed to know?” Dawn led him into her room. “Yeah.” “I think yoed ted to know.” said Dawn. “Part of it anyway…I’m still not going to tell you everything.” “You don’t need to tell me, if you don’t want to.” said Kevin. “No.” Dawn snuggled up close to him. “I want to tell you. It’s an important part of who I am that looks like it’s going to be raising its ugly head again.” Kevin put his arms around her. “Nothing about you could be ugly.” He kissed her. “Mmm…” Dawn kissed Kevin back. “Suddenly, Buffy sending us home doesn’t seem so bad… Okay, here’s the thing…” Dawn told Kevin an abridged version of the story of the Key while they got ready for bed. He’d brought an overnight bag with him, since they’d told his parents that he would be spending the night with Dawn. She left out the bits about her only being two years old, and how everyone’s memories had been altered. She finished just as they were getting into her bed together. “So, this ‘emerald’ thing—if Willow’s right about it being a bad translation—is in you.” said Kevin. “Uh-huh.” “And it was a Key thing when you told me that some guy tried to use your blood to end the universe.” “Yep.” Dawn snuggled up closer to him. “Enough about the Key.” She kissed him. Kevin kissed Dawn back, but he didn’t seem to be all there this time. His hands moved across her body, touching all the right places the way she liked to be touched, but it seemed that they were running by rote. His heart wasn’t in it. After a while Dawn pulled herself away. “Kevin, what’s wrong? Is this too weird for you?” “No!” said Kevin. “No…it’s a lot to take in is all…and I’m tired…and I can’t help thinking about Marcia.” “Marcia?” “Yeah…what they did to her…the way she kept flinching away from me…I think they raped her, as well as the feeding. It must have been horrible for her.” “I think you’re right.” said Dawn. “When I think about that, I just…can’t.” said Kevin. “I’m sorry.” “It’s okay.” said Dawn. “I understand.” She snuggled up close to him again. “So tonight we just cuddle.” Kevin put his arm around her. “I love you Dawn.” Dawn smiled and kissed him. “I love you too.”