safe haven

Disclaimer: I do not own these characters. They are the property of Joss Whedon. I just borrow them. No copyright infringement is intended nor implied.

part two

She couldn't believe Buffy was laughing at her. The almighty Slayer, her sister, was holding her stomach, tears rolled down her cheeks as she gasped for breath. She wasn't even trying not to laugh. Xander was right there with her, too. Laughing. She glanced at Willow, sitting with her head bent over the reading table. Dawn could see her shoulders shaking as she pretended to look at her hands. Even Tara was holding back a chuckle. Then Xander made everything worse by opening his big mouth. “Sorry, Dawnie…but you shoulda seen your face. I mean, really, wh–when…when, the Yarbnie demon turned and…”

That's the moment when Xander Harris lost his status as the man Dawn would most likely marry when she grew up. Swallowing angrily, Dawn lifted her head. Her eyes were filled with tears, but she had to look up to see her way to the door so she could escape without falling on her face. She saw him then; he sat on the steps, separate from everyone else, as he always was when he bothered to show up at the Magic Box for a Scooby meeting. No smile on his face, thank you very much. He just titled his head, and lifted his eyebrows as his lips moved slowly and silently, “Wankers, nothing but wankers, Nibblet.”

It was just too hot. It felt as though the bed was on fire and flames were blazing in every corner of the room, roasting her to death. She knew that couldn't be right, yet she didn't want to open her eyes to prove herself wrong. What if she were right and she really was in hell?

Dawn forced her eyes open.

She saw tangled arms, legs, boobs, and a mass of dark curly hair spread across her chest. “Good deal. No fire, just a sweaty, naked Slayer lying on top of me.” Dawn smiled as she smoothed Faith's hair.

Who'd of thought it could get this hot in Ohio.

Sure, it was June; but damn, they might as well be in the desert, baking in the Nevada sun. But she and Faith weren't in Nevada; they were in Cleveland, living in a one-room apartment, fighting evil for a few months before heading further north, or south or maybe west. Dawn never knew where they were going next. She just knew why.

She kept stroking Faith's head as she thought about the places she'd seen in the past five years. Maybe she and Faith would go back to Europe or London. She shook her head, remembering. Okay, never back to Europe. They'd killed a whole bunch of Scourge demons there, which was of the good. They'd also killed a bunch of humans as well, traitors all, but humans nonetheless. Dawn stiffened her spine, understanding that at the time they'd had no other choice.

Since then, she and Faith had battled baddies in every corner of the world every day for what seemed like every hour of the day. Maybe they'd had a day or two off, here and there, but mostly, it had been kill, run, hide, torture, kill, run, hide, since the day Buffy died.

That had been a hard day. Damn, that had been a hard year. Dawn's chest suddenly felt more pressure than just the weight of Faith's head.

Buffy had died on a Tuesday, nearly a week after they'd heard about Angel, Spike, and the alley in Los Angeles . Her stomach ached as she remembered how Buffy had collapsed on the kitchen floor, the receiver of the telephone banging on the floor next to her. Her eyes stared into Dawn's, filled with tears that wouldn't fall. Giles explained that Spike had been brought back after burning to dust in the Sunnydale Hellmouth only to die again a year later with Angel, Wesley Wyndam-Pryce, a former Watcher, and some other people who had worked with Angel in LA. Even Cordelia Chase, an old high school friend of Buffy's and Faith's Dawn could barely remember, was dead.

A week later, Dawn and Faith were given more bad news when they finally made it back to the Watcher's Council in London after surviving the ambush in Italy where Willow, Giles, and Buffy had been killed by the Scourge. That's when they learned that everyone else was gone, too. Xander, Kennedy, Andrew, and Principal Wood were all dead. But, that wasn't all. As she and Faith fought pure demons from country to country, city to city, they learned that every slayer in training in the world had been murdered by the Scourge.

Dawn stretched her legs slowly, tired of seeing all of the dead faces in her head. She didn't want to wake Faith just yet. She was still hot, but she didn't want to get up. It was only about three o'clock in the afternoon, still several hours before sunset when the pure demons came out to play.

Yes, the Scourge. Dawn almost admired the sheer brutality of their strategy. Who could have known that a race of pure demons would emerge from a spell meant to give the world an army of Slayers? Guess the Scoobies never did learn that there was always a consequence to magic. Dawn took a deep breath, stopping the tears before they could start. She didn't want to cry. It was water under the bridge.

It had always been all about bridges, the connection between good and evil, filling the void between right and wrong. As bad as it might have been in Sunnydale, it had still been a one-on-one battle with Buffy wielding a little more power. Unfortunately, that was not the case around the world when Hellmouths started popping up like wildflowers. The Scourge grew strong rapidly with the help of the Hellmouths and eventually outmaneuvered the young Slayers. They struck unilaterally and without warning, one coordinated strike. It took only seven days, and then all the schools and all the leaders of slayage were no more. Except for a rogue slayer and a girl who used to be the Key, there were no more heroes left in the world.

Dawn gasped, startled by a knock at the door. Actually, it was more of a steady pounding, she'd recall later. Instantly, the two women were alert and leapt into action. Dawn rolled to her left as Faith moved automatically to her right. They were still naked as jaybirds Dawn noticed as she grabbed her steel machete from the side of the bed. She had no doubt though that even without their pants on they wouldn't go down without taking a few demons out first.

“Ladies, it's me, Herschel. Relax, just me, your loyal bodyguard.”

Recognizing the voice, Dawn returned her machete to its spot next to the bed, and exhaled, “Wait a second. We're naked. Give us a moment.”

“Damn it, Herschel, how many times have I told you never come up here during the fucking day,” Faith shouted. “Nothing, I mean, nothing, is ever so important that you wake us before sunset, you damn half-breed.” Sounding exasperated, Faith added, “Oh, fuck it, just come in.”

Dawn rolled her eyes at Faith. She was such an exhibitionist. They hadn't even dressed, and she'd told the Brachen half-breed to come on in. Of course, he opened the door so quickly he nearly fell on the floor. He righted himself in a second, and then stood unabashedly staring, like he was watching a tennis match, eyes bobbing left right, left right, to either side of the bed. He was obviously enjoying the sight of the two nude women, grabbing clothes as fast as they could. Amend that, Dawn noted. She was grabbing them fast. Faith was taking her time.

“L–Ladies, you may have m–made a–a m–mistake,” Herschel rarely stuttered, no matter how rough the news, so Dawn was agitated.

“Either close your eyes, Herschel, so you can talk; or turn around, so you can talk,” Dawn said sternly as she stepped slowly toward the half-breed, whose red eyes stretched even wider. “I can't take the stammering and the staring, so choose.”

After turning his back, Herschel began to speak again. “For the past few months, you ladies have managed to piss off quite a few of the Scourge generals. The Scourge you tortured and killed last night for that damned book was some sort of mega-general.” Herschel peeked over his shoulder, catching a glimpse of Faith, still nude. Clearly flustered, he stumbled through another sentence as he turned to face the door. “And for s–some reason, by killing this general and stealing his book, you've pissed off more of Scourge top brass than ever.”

“Okay, we've been in this kind of situation before. We've eliminated loads of high-ranking pure demons. So what's the real problem?” Dawn grabbed her jeans, pulling them on as she waited for him to answer.

“Someone saw you. The Scourge has a description, sketchy, but a description nonetheless, and word on the street is that the Scourge lieutenants and the traitors working with them are on the look out for a dark-haired human female with super strength.”

“Shit. Not good,” Faith muttered as she stepped into her black leather pants.

“Understatement,” managed Dawn, her gut twisted into a knot and the panic crept through her as she pulled her T-shirt over her head. “We should have killed it faster.” She breathed in deeply, urging herself to stay levelheaded. They'd stayed under the Scourge's radar for years, mainly because they'd killed everything they encountered. This time they'd been seen, and the Scourge was looking for them, or rather looking for Faith.

“Ladies, may I suggest a vacation. Get away from slaying and torture for a while. Take a trip. I can arrange security for you to travel secretly to a safe haven.”

“Anxious to get rid of us, Herschel?” Dawn asked, working to keep her voice calm. She knew that Faith trusted Herschel because he had some connection to an old friend of Angel's. But Dawn was always suspicious of demons, half-breed or pure. She'd pointed out to Faith more than once that she'd trust a vampire before some of the demon species they'd worked with in the past few years – that included the Brachen.

“Easy, Dawn.” Faith glanced at her, eyes hard. Then moving to the demon, she tapped him on his shoulder, alerting him to the fact that he could turn around. “What do you mean by safe haven, Herschel?”

“Las Vegas, Nevada, the only place left in the western hemisphere not accessible to the Scourge,” Herschel responded. “They are barred, prevented entry by a powerful protection spell. But half-breeds, and humans who have not signed the Scourge's oath of allegiance, are admitted.”

“Who has the power to keep the Scourge out?” Dawn asked, her suspicions increasing by the moment. She'd seen, done, and heard quite a few things in the past few years. But she certainly didn't remember hearing about anything that could keep the Scourge at bay.

“Ever heard of a law firm by the name of Wolfram & Hart?”

Dawn thought Faith was going to faint.

o be continued…

Special Note: The "Brachen" demon was introduced in AtS, Season 1's "Hero" (Doyle was a Brachen demon) and the "Yarnbie" demon appeared in AtS, Season 3's "That Old Gang of Mine."


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