Hell on Earth: Signum - Series 1: 108: Flashback – Act 2
by Timan
~ The Summers household, Sunnydale California – 2001 ~
Willow pouted curiously as she watched Tara working on assignments for her course at Sunnydale U.
“Sweetie when you said you wanted to be my study buddy while I watched Dawn tonight I thought you meant . . . Personal study.” Willow commented as she moved closer to her girlfriend.
Tara looked over and smiled at Willow.
“I r-really need to get this done Willow,” She replied, “It’s due next week.”
“Come on just one little break?”
Willow pouted cutely. Tara couldn’t help but smile at her. She put down her pencil and snuggled up to willow.
“Okay just a short one.”
“Yay I really missed my Tara time.”
Willow and Tara moved in. A moment later there was a loud, blood curdling, scream from up stairs. Willow and Tara looked at each other. They flew up the stairs and burst into Dawns room. Dawn was sitting up in her bed. She was white as a sheet and dripping with sweat. She was clutching her chest as tears flowed from her eyes.
“Dawnie?” Willow asked as she rushed in next to her
Dawn didn’t respond. She sat there with a glazed expression.
Tara and willow looked at each other.
“W-we gotta find Buffy.” Tara exclaimed
“You know you didn’t need to come with me Xander.” Buffy said as they both walked back to her house.
“It’s no problem Buff,” Xander replied, “I know you can do this stuff on your own but I figured I could be your wing man.”
Buffy looked at Xander strangely.
“Tell me again how screaming at the vampire ‘oh god don’t bite me’ being my wing man?”
“It threw him off didn’t it. What your not getting, Buff, is the subtleties of my plan. See I go in with my unmanly girly screaming, you dust them then I come out with the witty one liner at the end.”
“And I cant do that on my own, why?”
“Well if you’re gonna look at it with your pesky logic ‘course it’s gonna sound stupid.”
They arrived at Buffy’s front door Buffy shook her head.
“I would love to live in Xanderland for just one day.” She commented
Xander smiled at her
“Just make sure you tip well and you’ll have a great time.”
Buffy smirked. Ever since her mom died she’d been glad her friends have been around to support them both. They entered to find Dawn sitting on the sofa with a blank look on her face. Buffy dropped her jacket and rushed over. She looked Dawn in the eyes.
“Dawnie? Dawnie what’s wrong?” she asked
Again Dawn remained silent. She sat there shaking and staring off into space. Buffy looked over to Willow.
“What happened?” Buffy asked
“I-I don’t know,” Willow replied, “Me and Tara were here studying the all of a sudden we heard Dawn scream.”
“Yeah and she’s been like this since.” Tara commented.
Buffy looked Dawn in the eyes again.
“Dawn. tell me what’s going on,” Buffy attempted again, “Dawn!”
Dawn didn’t move. Buffy stood up and looked at the others.
“I’m gonna call Giles,” Buffy said, “Can you guys get Dawn ready?”
“Okay.” Willow replied
“Wait Buff,” Xander asked curiously, “are you sure this is a Giles worthy issue?”
“My sister is catatonic I think that’s worthy. Let’s get ready.” Buffy replied
~ The Magic Shop, Sunnydale California – 1 hour later ~
Giles looked into Dawns eyes closely.
“So she just fell into this state?” he asked
“Yeah we found her all shaky and silent.” Willow replied, “I think something broke her.”
“Any ideas?” Buffy asked
Giles leaned back.
“Unfortunately, no, there’s not enough evidence to make an accurate hypothesis.”
“And that’s a score of zero for Mr. Explanation,” Xander replied, “what now?”
Giles pulled of his glasses and cleaned them.
“The only option we have at the moment is to wait and see what happens.”
Buffy watches Dawn.
“She looks so scared,” Buffy said softly, “I wonder what she’s seeing.”
Rebecca leaped into the center of the room and went to work swinging both blades at lightning speed. One by one the bladed Tentacles fell as The Divine One picked up speed.
For the duration it felt like Rebecca was going to survive. She slashed out a couple more time and tried to make her way to the entrance. That’s when it happened. Pain shot through Rebecca's body. The Divine One stumbled and dropped to the ground clutching her stomach. A moment later one of the tentacles flew out, stabbed her through the back piercing her heart. Rebecca dropped to the ground dead.
Dawn woke up screaming. She looked around in alarm to discover she was sitting in the corner of the magic shop. This worried her but what worried her more was what she was wearing. Dawn noticed Buffy asleep at the table. Dawn walked over and shook her lightly.
“Buffy?” she asked tentatively
Buffy stirred then slowly woke up. she looked up at her sister and smiled.
“Dawnie.” She said as she got up and hugged her
Dawn stared at her confused.
“Why am I in the magic shop in my jammies?”
Buffy smiled and hugged her again.
Giles handed Dawn a drink. The Scooby’s sat around the table in the shop waiting for Dawns explanation.
“It was so weird,” she explained, “it felt like a dream but, you know, not.”
“What was it about?” Buffy asked
“Okay there was this group, like us but with different people, and they were going after something then these weird wormy things with knives came out of the ground and killed them.”
“Creepy.” Xander replied
“Yeah but the weirdest bit was I felt it to. Every time one of them got hit it hurt.”
Giles stood up from his seat.
“Yes, well, I’ll begin looking into this immediately.”
“Please,” Buffy replied, “I want to know if something is doing this deliberately.”
“I’ll begin right away.”
“No,” Anya said from behind the counter, “Not right away. People will be coming soon with money. Money they want to use for good and services. If you’re looking in the dusty books they will not know where to use their money.”
Giles looked at Anya in a confused fashion.
“Considering we’re the only magic shop in town I think people will know where to buy supplies..”
“But the money might get confused and spend it’s self somewhere else.”
Giles and Buffy shared a look. Giles moved behind the counter.
“Anya,” Giles said in a forced calm, “why don’t you head into the store room and check on the stock.”
Anya frowned.
“Why are you helping the small one in the sheep pajamas when you should be helping me?”
Dawn blushed and folded her arms awkwardly.
“Can someone take me home?” she asked
~ Junior High School, Sunnydale California – 2 hours later ~
Dawn walked up the steps of the school. Ever since she had the dream she felt completely drained like something was sucking the life out of her.
“Hey Summers!” a voice called out
Dawn turned to see Haley Goodman rushing up next to her. Haley was about the same size of Dawn with She panted loudly as she caught up to Dawn.
“Great,” Haley commented, “I thought I was gonna be the only late one.”
“Yeah crazy night.” Dawn replied
“God, you looked wiped, what happened to you?”
“Had this really weird dream and . . .”
Dawn stopped as a display was being wheeled in front of them. Haley rolled her eyes.
“Oh yeah I forgot we were having that history show today. Talk about lame.”
Dawn wasn’t listening. Something on the display caught her eye. It was a replica of a ancient Mayan disk. Dawn followed the display along as she stared at the disk. now this was getting really weird. What was it about that disk that seemed familiar? began to drive Dawn a little crazy.
In class Dawn tried to concentrate but she couldn’t shake this feeling she had that there was something important she needed to do. Dawn absentmindedly sketched in her work book as they waited for their teacher to arrive. She rested her head on her palm. Slowly Dawns eyes began to close she felt so tired.
The Divine One stumbled and dropped to the ground clutching her stomach. A moment later one of the tentacles flew out, stabbed her through the back piercing her heart. Rebecca dropped to the ground dead.
Dawn screamed loudly. The entire class turned to look at her. At the front of the class the teacher looked at Dawn annoyed.
“Something you want to share with us Miss Summers?” The teacher asked
Dawn smiled nervously as she looked around.
“No Mrs. Osborne. I’m good.” Dawn replied
Dawn shrunk down in her seat to try and avoid the staring. She caught a glimpse of what she was sketching. The picture was of a disk made up of four pieces. Three semi circle shapes surround a small disk in the center. Dawn was getting a little freaked now. She knew this image was important but she didn’t know why.
~ The Magic Shop, Sunnydale California – 1 hour later ~
Giles sits at the table pouring over the large pile of books covering it’s surface. He had been there since the store opened and was fighting an uphill battle to find anything related to Dawn’s dream. Giles leaned back rubbing his eyes. When he opened his eyes he discovered a box of a dozen donuts sitting in front.
“Any luck?” Xander asked as he sat down next to the watcher
“No, unfortunately. Dawn’s decryption was rather sketchy.”
“Well maybe the sugar rush will help with the brain work.”
“Let’s hope . . .”
Giles went back to his book. He turned the page and stumbled on what he was searching for.
“ . . . yes of course!” he exclaimed
“What?” Xander asked
“I found our demon.”
It took about an hour for the rest of the Scooby’s to arrive which gave Giles time to prepare. When everybody was seated around the table Giles handed the book to Buffy.
“So this is the beastie in Dawn’s head?” Buffy asked
“It’s a L'naur demon,” Giles explained, “Subterraneal by nature. They live in hives a few meters below the surface and catches it’s prey using it’s serrated talon attached to a tentacle like limb that shoot up out of the ground.”
“That’s great Giles but it doesn’t explain why Dawn is seeing them.”
“Oh, maybe that’s her power,” Willow commented, “you know, being the key.”
“Maybe,” Buffy replied, “still I’ll feel a lot better if we found out more about what she’s seeing?”
~ Cafeteria, ~ Junior High School, Sunnydale California ~
Belle and Rebecca both of the held up their swords ready for a fight. They didn’t have to wait that long as dozens of tentacles rose out of the ground. both of them swung powerfully. Tentacles fell left and right as Rebecca and Belle forced back to back. The fight was getting more intense. For every one of the tentacles they cut down three sprung up to replace it. Things were looking grim.
“Go for the seal!” Belle yelled, “I’ll hold them back!”
“What?” Rebecca replied
“you have a better chance of getting it then me. I’ll distract them.”
“Belle this isn’t smart.”
Dawn woke up with a start. She looked around at her stunned friends.
“Yo Dawn you still with us?” Denver Mitchell asked
“Yeah Dawn you’re not looking so good.” Haley commented
Dawn brushed the hair out of her face. By now she was completely wiped out.
“I’m just having an off day.” Dawn replied
“you’re lookin’ more then off girl,” Denver replied, “Think maybe you should head home.”
Dawn tried to stand but had some difficulty.
“Yeah,” she replied, “Probably not a bad idea.”
“Need a hand?” Haley asked
“Nah I should be fine.”
Dawn made her to the exit. As she did she noticed three girls sitting at a table. One was a brunette with deep brown eyes, A red head and an African American girl. Dawn watched them curiously. What was it about them that she seem to recognize?
Shaking that off she made her way down the corridor towards the office. maybe if she gets a good night sleep a lot of the craziness would go away. She passed the Latin classroom and saw Miss Hill setting up for her class.
Dawn folded her arms and stared at the class. Tentatively she stepped into the classroom. Miss Hill looked up and smiled at Dawn.
“Hi Dawn can I help you with something?”
“yeah I think so.” Dawn replied awkwardly, “Do . . . Do you know what the word . . . Signum means?”
Miss. Hill looked at dawn curiously.
“Why do you want to know that?” She asked
“I-I don’t know,” Dawn replied, “I saw your classroom and it popped into my head. I think it’s important.”
Miss Hill leaned against her desk.
“Well in Latin it means seal.”
Seal? That’s what the girl in the cave said to that woman. This made dawn a lot more curious about what the dream meant and why she was having it.
“Thanks Miss Hill.” Dawn replied as she exited the classroom
Miss Hill watched Dawn leave the hallway. When the coast was clear she went over to her bag and pulled out her cell. Quickly she dialed the number.
“This is Jennifer Hill. I want you to get me Lilah Morgan now. Tell her I have some news from Sunnydale.”
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