Backstory & Episodes

Episode 13 – After the Dawn

Slayers Virtual Season 8

Season Finale Special!

Episode 13 – After the Dawn

Rating: NC17 for Violence and Foul Language

Starring:

Matt Long as Alex Sanders
Lizzy Caplan as Eliza Sanders
Nanako Matsushima as Shina Taji
Jennifer Ehle as Jennifer Sanderson
And Johnny Depp as David, the Archangel
Navi Rawat as Dana Monroe
Christa B. Allen as Anna Monroe

Written by Kelley Hawkins

Disclaimer: The major characters in these episodes/stories are the creations of Joss Whedon and any and all entities who have a share in them such as Twentieth Century Fox, UPN, Warner Bros or Mutant Enemy Productions. The stories are written by fans and are not intended for profit or to infringe upon or undermine the established copyright of those mentioned above. The situations depicted in these stories (sexual or otherwise) are not intended to harm the reputations of those actors associated with the characters involved. The only things that are ©2004 are those characters that are the creation of the Slayers VS8 staff and the original plotlines of the stories.

Act One

Buffy watched as Dawn wiggled in the bed and spit white foam from her mouth. Then she realized with great horror that Dawn was not her sister. Most of the horrible things happened in her life after Dawn was “born” and forced into her life. Could it be while Buffy represented all things that were good, Dawn was all that was evil?

Buffy rushed to Xander and he took her in his arms. Buffy began to cry hysterically. She could not look at Dawn any longer. Suddenly, Dawn stopped moving on the bed. They all heard Dawn whimper softly. When Buffy looked to the bed, Dawn’s eyes were closed.

“Buffy?” It was a hoarse whisper.

Buffy rushed toward the bed. “Dawn!” Buffy said between sobs.

“What happened? Where am I?” Dawn asked.

Buffy looked at Willow. Willow cried openly too.

“Dawnie...something happened after a package was delivered.”

“Married in Red, you will wish yourself dead.” Dawn whispered.

“Yes, the white wedding dress...with the blood...” Willow trailed off when she saw the look of horror on Dawn’s face.

Buffy stood beside the bed and grabbed Dawn’s limp hand in her own. She raised it to her lips and kissed it. The hand felt cold to the touch.

Giles looked at Willow then Buffy and Xander. He gave them a knowing look and shook his head from side to side. They all understood not to tell Dawn about the exorcism, at least for now.

Dawn smiled up at Buffy and then Willow moved to the other side of her bed. The red head lowered to give Dawn a quick hug. It surprised her when Dawn hugged her back tightly, displaying strength that one should not possess after just having a demon exorcised from them. Willow shook off the uneasy feeling and stood to full her height gazing down at Dawn.

The priest had left the room while Dawn was still coming around. Giles left the room to speak to him.

“Well?” Giles asked.

“It is really too soon to tell but I think we just witnessed a miracle here today!”

Instead of smiling as the priest expected, Giles frowned deeply. The priest simply walked away.

* * * * *

Buffy sat alone by Dawn’s bed. Willow went to research the box that was delivered. Xander made excuses that he needed to fix something in his shop but Buffy knew that he wanted to give the two sisters some alone time.

Buffy watched Dawn as she slept. The young woman was not sleeping peacefully now. She seemed to be dreaming. Buffy wondered how much Dawn remembered. She never came right out and told anyone that she remembers being possessed by a demon but Buffy felt suddenly frightened. Just as the feelings of dread engulfed her during the exorcism, they remained. There was a nagging feeling eating away at her that she could not even begin to summarize.

Dawn suddenly awoke with a jolt. She looked around the room and then at Buffy. For a moment, Buffy felt that Dawn was not here but brushed the thought aside when she saw Dawn smile at her.

“Buffy, how long have I been out of it?”

“For an hour or so.”

“So, what happened in there, Buffy?”

Buffy could not speak. She had never lied to Dawn before...well about big things like this but now she knew she could not tell her the truth. She just couldn’t.

“Some kind of poison on the wedding dress, we think. Giles and Willow are researching it now”, Buffy lied to Dawn and it was almost too easy.

Dawn looked into Buffy’s eyes and for a moment Buffy thought that Dawn knew she was lying to her but pushed that feeling aside when Dawn smiled at her. Buffy smiled back at her sister but the nagging feeling of something still being wrong with Dawn lingered.

Act Two

Willow and Giles sat in Giles’ study. Both eagerly turned the pages of old books desperately searching for something...anything that could explain what happened to Dawn.

Willow looked up and noticed that Giles, too, had looked away from the book he was reading. His glasses were off and his head slightly bowed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. Willow smiled at him. She felt immediate comfort and felt an invigorating lift suddenly. She knew that Giles was with them. That he would always be with them to fight this fight and that knowledge filled Willow with a special feeling of love for the older man. Willow thought about her own father, Ira Rosenburg and grimaced. She could not depend on him, as he was never there for her. When Sunnydale sank into that dark abyss, Willow did not feel any loss for her parents. She thought them dead for many months and recently, upon searching the Internet, found that her mother and father were very much alive. The sad part of this truth lingers still in her heart because they never tried to find her. Willow watched Giles as he raised his head, breathed heavily on his glasses, and began to clean them. Suddenly, Giles felt Willow’s eyes on him and turned to meet her eyes.

“Have you found anything?” Giles asked.

Willow smiled at him suddenly. “No...a-and y-yes at the same time?”

“Confusion isn’t one of your strong points, Willow.” Giles paused. “Oh, actually, maybe it is.” Giles smiled at Willow warmly.

“Well I didn’t find anything on our particular predicament but I did find something I never knew I had?”

Giles simply looked at her urging her to continue.
“I found my mentor, my friend and yes, my father, er rakish uncle.”

Giles looked away for a moment as a tear threatened to fall from his eyes. He did not want her to see his eyes filling with tears.

Willow stood up, walked to him, and knelt before him. She simply laid her head on his lap and he stroked her hair. Willow began to cry as Giles soothed the red headed witch with gentle whispers.

* * * * *

Faith paced back and forth in David’s study. To David, she appeared anxious to finish off Buffy and the rest of the gang. Instead, Faith felt nothing but guilt. Unknown to David, she used the opportunity to kill Buffy as a way to finally get revenge against David for what he did to his sister. She felt guilt because she was using the only true friends she had ever known in her life to do it.

“Faith, darling, why are so nervous? The package we delivered performed as intended. I thought you would be satisfied.”

Faith sighed. “I never set out to hurt Dawn.”

“No, my dear! But as you know hurting Dawn will hurt the Slayer.”

Faith frowned then. “I hate it when you refer to Buffy as “the Slayer.” She isn’t the only Slayer anymore David.”

David scratched his chin. “You are right, dark one. You are so right.” As David said this, a man dressed in a black robe with a hood over his head walked into the study.

“I’m ready to perform the ritual whenever you are, Master.”

* * * * *

After Willow finished crying and then resolved to hiccups, she stood to her full height. “I am going to check the computer again to make sure nothing new has turned up.”

Giles smiled. “Ever the avenging witch.”

Willow smiled and left Giles’ study. She walked to the kitchen where she left her notebook computer and began to search once again for anything new.

Willow practically screamed with the pain as a mystical spell overtook all control over her body.


Act Three

Angel stood at his desk at Wolfram & Hart with a shocked expression on his face. Cordelia stood before him.

“I told you that I’d be seeing ya!” Cordy told him with a mischievous grin on her face.

“Uh, errrm, but aren’t you, um—dead?”

“Well, yeah!”

“And you are here now because?”

“I had a vision.”

“But you’re a ghost, how can you still be getting visions.”

“Beats me, super boy! Bizarro world for me, too.”

“So what was this vision of yours about?”

“Willow for one thing. I saw a dark vampire with a guy in a dark robe wearing a hood thingie. Then I saw Willow screaming with pain. Next, I saw thousands of girls, teenagers and women falling to the floor. I knew they were dead because of their eyes. Glazed over.” Cordy shivered when she finished telling Angel of her vision. “But that’s not the worst part, Angel.”

Angel looked at Cordelia expectantly. He was so happy to see her but all he could do was listen to her. He wanted to rush over and hug her and cradle her in his arms to share another passionate kiss together but he was afraid to move. He was afraid if he moved toward her, she would disappear.

“What else happened, Cordelia?” Angel asked roughly, so roughly that Cordelia flinched.

“I saw the faces of three of the women who died.”

“And?”

“They were Buffy, Faith and Dawn.”

* * * * *

Dawn slept as Buffy watched over her sleeping form anxiously. She felt that at any moment, Dawn would wake up and become that evil shell again. Buffy sighed with worry.
The phone beside Dawn’s bed rang then. Buffy picked it up, hoping it was Xander to tell her he was on his way over. She was somewhat surprised to hear Giles’ voice.

“Buffy we have a problem.”

Buffy winced at the sound of Giles’ voice. “What is it?”

“It’s Willow. She went to the kitchen to research on her computer and then I heard her scream. She is now on the floor in what it appears to be a comatose state.”

“I’ll be right there!”

She asks Vi and Shina to watch Dawn for her and then runs out of the Slayer School. Xander meets her at the door. She hurriedly explains what is going on.

“I’ll drive!” They both rush to Xander’s car.

* * * * *

Faith does not know exactly what the ritual David and the Ninja guy plan to do. She assumes it is a spell to hurt Buffy and the others. She had to warn Buffy. She was supposed to be on the dark side once again but Buffy didn’t know that. Not yet anyway.

She figured that David would be too preoccupied with the robe dude to even notice she was gone. Faith slipped quietly from the room and ran toward the door.

* * * * *

“So, what can we do to stop what is going to happen to Buffy and the others.”

“I need Spike!” Cordelia tells Angel.

Angel does not say a word. He looks at her with utter confusion and then a look of hurt washes over his face.

“Somehow I think that he and I can stop this before it happens.”

“It’s too late for that now.”

Angel and Cordelia look behind them. Wes is there and he looks at both of them with a book in his hand and a look of doom on his face.

* * * * *

Buffy rushed into her house with Xander right behind her. They ran into the kitchen. Giles sat on the floor with Willow’s head cradled in his lap.
Buffy and Xander rushed toward him. Xander felt for Willow’s pulse. It was still strong and steady.

“What happened, Giles?”

“I don’t know, I found her this way.”

Buffy began to stroke Willow’s hand as the phone rang. Xander rose to answer it. He talked into the phone for a moment in a low voice.

“Giles, It’s Wes.”

Giles rose and went to the phone. Buffy and Xander hung on every word but still couldn’t understand what was going on.

“Yes, Wesley, I understand. We will be waiting for them,” Giles tells Wes and then hangs up the phone.

Buffy and Xander looked at him anxious for him to tell them what was going on.

“It’s a ritual. Someone has been performing a ritual to kill all the Slayers. Angel and Wesley are sending reinforcements.”

Act Four

“Can’t you teleport there faster than this bloody jet?” Spike asked Cordelia.

“It doesn’t work that way, Blondie.”

“Bugger this,” Spike said, angrily. “And don’t call me Blondie.”

Cordelia gave Spike one of her sarcastic smiles. “If the bleach job fits...”

Spike sat in silence for a moment. “So what are we going to do once we get there?”

“I will let Giles’ explain it to you when we get there.”

* * * * *

Xander sat alone in Buffy‘s living room. He felt mixed feelings seeing Cordelia again. He knew she was...er...dead but he hadn’t seen her since high school. Then there was the fact that Spike would be back in their lives, however brief the visit may be.

Buffy called the Slayer School and ordered Vi and Shina to bring Dawn back home. She couldn’t protect her sister from here.

Buffy and the others waited anxiously for the other to arrive. Giles insisted that he would tell them all what was going on once the others were present.

The doorbell rang and they were all shocked how fast the reinforcements arrived to save the world once again.

* * * * *

Giles looked at all the familiar faces surrounding him. Then he began to tell them about the prophecy.

“According to Wes, his new found codex pointed him to an ancient text of the Slayer prophecy. This particular prophecy goes much deeper than any other Slayer prophecy before it. The ancient text talks about thousands of Slayers at once existing on the same Earth. Therefore, the fact made thousands of Slayers was prophesized thousands of years ago. The prophecy further talks about a ritual script having been buried for centuries near a Hellmouth. The ritual will first render all the Slayers henchmen disabled and then all the Slayers will simply fall to their deaths.”

“Who could be doing the ritual?” Xander asked.

“I think it may be David, the Master,” Giles said.

Buffy sat holding Xander’s hand. She glanced at Spike who sat beside Cordelia on the love seat opposite her and Xander. She noticed that the bleached vampire was staring at Buffy’s ring finger. She held his gaze for a moment and exchanged a knowing look. She was relieved to find that Spike gave her his blessing. If in fact, she and Xander ever made it to an altar.

“Yes, it has to be. He tried to kill Shina, Jade, and myself already. He wants all of us dead.”

“So what do we do, now, Rupert?” Spike asked the older man, guarding himself against a seething look from the Watcher. The look never came. Instead, the older man met Spike’s gaze with a look of respect for the bleached vampire.

“A ritual of the dead and you and Cordelia are my subjects.”

STAY TUNED FOR PART TWO OF AFTER THE DAWN-SEASON FINALE!