Buffy moved calmly through the cemetery as she watched as the potentials train against Spike. They had become a lot more efficient over the last few weeks, which made the sessions harder on him.
“Keep your guard up,” Buffy said commandingly, “watch for any weakness you can exploit.”
From behind her she heard the faint sound of muffled crying. Buffy turned she saw willow. She was sitting on a nearby headstone reading a note with her hand cupped to her mouth. She wandered over to investigate.
“Willow you okay?”
Willow looked up. Her expression was a mixture of surprise and excitement. Willow nodded happily. She handed Buffy the note
“You have to read this.” She said excitedly
Confused Buffy took the note. As she read it a similar expression crossed her face. Willow smiled up at her.
“Wow” said Buffy astonished
“Isn’t it, like, the sweetest thing ever.” willow asked
Buffy turned the paper over in her hand and examined it closely. A she looked curiously at it.
“No address. Who sent it?”
“I think Daniel dropped it after you scared the bejeebers out of him at the door.”
Buffy smiled to herself. And re-read the note
“Well I suppose it was possible for a student to have a crush on me.” She said smugly
“Not unless all of your mail is addressed ‘to Dawn’” Willow commented as she handed Buffy the envelope.
Buffy read the name on the envelope. Sure enough the note was addressed to Dawn. She begins to pace.
“So what do we know about this kid? He has no identity. Trouble with sleeping, which obviously means he does something during the night, and he has the literacy skills of a romance novelist.”
Willow furrowed her eyebrows and pouted in her usual thinking expression.
“You know, this might be just me,” willow replied contemplating, “but none of this stuff screams evil to me.”
“But if we add in the bruise I saw, plus the absence of parents, that puts us back to him being hunted.” Completed Buffy
“We still don’t what by? Or even if is demony”
At that moment Xander rushing up to them broke their train of thought. He took a moment to catch his breath
“There you are I’ve been trying to reach you.”
“Why didn’t you just call my . . .” Buffy asked feeling around in her pockets
Xander gives Buffy a look and hands her her cell phone. Usually Buffy doesn’t like it on during training but the events of the last few months taught her that she need to be in better contact. With a guilty look she takes the phone.
“What’s up?”
“Got a call from Giles. He’s coming back with the girl from phoenix tonight.”
“What time?”
“He said he’d be back in about an hour.”
“Why aren’t you picking him up?”
“Well I would but somebody forgot her cell.” He said smugly
Buffy gave him a guilty look. Xander noticed the note in Buffy’s hand.
“What ya got there Buff?”
Buffy handed Xander the note and turn on her phone.
“It’s from our mystery boy. Turns out that dawn has a not so secret admirer”
Xander read the note with surprise.
“The way this thing reads I think I’m beginning to think that I have a crush on him.” He quipped
Buffy phone beeped. She opened it up.
“I have a message.”
She dials the appropriate number and listens. Her face drops into a serious expression as she hears the frantic message from Dawn
“Buffy it’s Daniel I think he crazy! He has a room full of all these weird weapons. I need you to pick me up at . . .”
The message is interrupted but the sound of the phone dropping to the ground followed by the audible sound of a struggle. As the message ended she turned to the other two. The look of concern not missed by either of them.
“What is it?” willow asked
“Dawn. I think she found something that Daniel didn’t want her to see. We need to find her now.”
Outside the warehouse all seemed still and calm. The vamps that stood guard of one of the windows had all their enhanced tuned for anything. Unbeknownst to them a small red dot appeared just about the head of the vamp standing to the left of the window. This dot slowly traveled down until it rested on his chest. The vamp to the right turned and noticed.
“What the hell is that?” he asked
“What” the other asked as he examined the strange light on his chest.
Seconds later he was dusted by a thin stake that seemed to appear out of nowhere. The other vamp looked around quickly. Noting seemed to have changed since the last time he looked. At that moment the exact same thing that happened to his partner happened to him. Daniel was now free to move from his hiding place and closer to the building. He moved swiftly and stayed low as to stay out of the view of the window. As he arrived he looked in
“That’s just perfect,” he groaned to himself
The interior was large. All of the old boxes and crates had been shifted behind the support poles to make room for the giant cage that now sits just off to the side. Above them ran a walkway that ran the entire length of the walls. At the very end of the far wall on the second level was the office. From his vantage point Daniel couldn’t make out any of the figures that are currently within it but that is not what concerned him the most. What concerned him was the two-dozen or so vampires that now guard the large group of prisoner hey have stored in the cage He reloaded his spear gun.
He opened the window slowly so to not attract any attention. He slipped in and took shelter behind one of the larger boxes as he noticed that the office began to clear out. First few people seemed like common variety vamps but the last to leave got Daniels attention the most. He looked about six foot five with deep orange skin. His eyes were blood red and closely resemble eyes you would find on a cat. He had a series of small horns that lead down to a symbol on his forehead that looked like a series of curved lines etched inside a circle. He long flowing gown swept around him as he approached the safety bar.
Inside the cage Daniel noticed a group of kids close to his age. The one he expected to be there was Dawn but the two who took him by complete surprise were Adrian and Candy. His gaze returned to the creature as it surveyed the entire room. It smiled to it’s self.
“Ladies and Gentlemen” it said in a regal tone, “I would like to sincerely apologize that the original scheduled event will not be taken place. Instead you will have the great honor of aiding me in destroying the slayer.”
He raised his arms. As he did so the creature lifted himself up and floated down to ground level. He paced slowly and as he did the crowd of vampires moved aside.
“As I look at all of your frightened faces I notice that many of you may not know who I am talking about. They slayer is a menace, always involving herself in matters that do not concern her, right now she is building an army.”
He turns to the children with a look of sheer menace. The crowd inside the cage moved back as far as it could.
“She must be stopped.”
He moved back from his position close to the cage. Inside Dawn tried to position herself into a position where she wouldn’t be noticed. In the process she bumped into Candy who had an expression of sheer terror on her face.
“Dawn?” she asked fearfully “what’s going on? What is that thing?”
Dawn motioned her to be quieter. She looked out from her vantage point but tried to stay as hidden. She may not be the slayer but I don’t think being her sister is going to do her any favors. She turned back to Candy, who looked like she was going to faint. Dawn smiled at her reassuringly
“Don’t worry my sister will come she will get us out.”
“What she going to do summers? Council them to death,” Adrian’s said as he moved behind them, “we need to do something now or where all going to be.”
Adrian tried to move through the crowd but was stopped by Dawn. He pulled his arm free.
“It’s okay I got this.”
Adrian forced his way to the front of the crowd and glared at the creature
“Hey ugly!” he yelled, “you better let us out before I kick your bony ass back to hell”
The orange creature turns slowly. It didn’t seem overly concerned by Adrian’s idle threat. He motioned to one of the surrounding vampires. The vamp opened the cage and dragged Adrian before him. He looked him slowly up and smiled to himself.
“This one is feisty,” he said calmly, “I can see the fire in his soul.”
He placed a hand on Adrian’s chest and closed his eyes. The symbol on it forehead began to glow. Adrian screamed as a bolt of energy flowed from his chest up into the creature. After a few seconds all that was left of Adrian was a pile of Dust. The Creature sighed excitedly as he felt the energy course through its body. Daniel looked horrified. He had only been a fighting vampire for a few months but he never saw anything like this.
After the creature had recovered from his first feeding he motioned for the vamp to bring him another. The vamp went back inside the cage. After looking for a few moments he grabs Candy and pulls her out. Candy screams as she is forced in front of the creature. This is all Daniel could stand. He quick swings around and took off his pack. From inside he pulled out two glass jars with devices attached to the top.
In the first couple of month that Daniel started to fight the Vampires of Sunnydale he tried to research ways of attacking large groups simultaneously. This is where he came up with the idea for the steam bomb. Using the heating elements from common household coffee urns he devised a way of making them overheat to the point of exploding. The liquid to use was obvious. He filled each jar with large quantities of holy water. When one explodes it can cover a small group of vamps for a period anywhere up to a minute.
The Creature looked at the cage again with an intense sneer.
“This is the price for disobedience,” the creature said angrily as he placed his hand on Candy’s chest “does anybody else feel like being a hero?”
The crowd went silent. The creature looked deeply into Candy’s eyes and prepared to feed. His concentration was shattered when a ringing sound could be heard in the background. Nobody knew where it was coming from at first but soon everybody noticed the two jars of bubbling water rolling peacefully to a stop inches away from the vampire restraining Candy. From his prone position Daniel counted down to himself. As he reached Zero he heard a mild explosion followed by the screams of the vampires as the holy steam burnt them like acid. Spear gun at the ready Daniel took a deep breath and bolted into the steam cloud. In one smooth motion dusted the vamp holding Candy, reloaded then dusted another one approaching. He made his way to the cage. Realizing it was still locked he fumbled in one of the pockets of his cargo pants. He produced a small amount of plastic explosive and a fuse, which he acquired from another one of his military ‘special orders’, he blew the lock on the cage and proceeded to lead the children to the window which he came in. the Vamps tried to stop the exiting Children but the holy steam was causing two much pain.
The Creature sighed to it’s self. It waved one of it hands and mumbled a few words. The steam spiraled up into a miniature tornado then disappeared. With the room visible again the creature observed the carnage. Most of his vampire forces were burned horribly and can barely move. The ones that did survive the steam quickly made their way to the open window. He realizes that the experience was not a total waste as a couple of his Vampire dragged the handful children left into the building. They were dragged up to the creature who looked at each one very carefully. As he neared the end of the group he stopped. He reached into the line and Dragged Dawn closer to him.
The steam venting took Daniel by complete surprise. He’s used these bombs before and they should have lasted about twenty seconds longer. As a result he wasn’t able to lead everyone out. He dusted the rest of the security vamps and, when the crowd was safe, he doubled back to the building. As he climbed back in the window two vamps snagged him.
He was dragged to the center of the room and thrown violently onto the floor. He got up slowly. The creature examined him excitedly
“Can this be?” he asked with a curious excitement, “can you be the other?”
He waved his arms and Daniel floated up into the air. The creature looked into his eyes very carefully and a smile crossed his face.
“It looks like we have a special guest in our midst” the Creature said dramatically. The Vampires and the girls look at Daniel with astonishment. For Dawn it was double astonishment.
“Ladies and gentlemen may I introduce the great vampire hunter!” he continued
From the group of girls a familiar voice came out
“Danny?”
Danny looked over to see Candy staring at him with amazement. The Creature looked over at Candy. He motioned to the closest vampire to bring her forward.
“Well this certainly is a twist. Thought not to be unexpected.” The creature said as it walked over to Candy. He grabbed her by the back of the neck and dragged her over to Daniel. “You have caused a lot of trouble for me tonight hunter so I’m going to repay in kind. For every one of my men you hurt I’m going to hurt one of these girls starting with this one”
Daniel could feel Candy’s pain as he slowly began to squeeze on her neck. He couldn’t move. The magic restraining him was two powerful. The creature squeezed tighter taking great pleasure in Candy’s pain. Using all of the strength he could muster he managed to move his fingers to the pin of one of the stun grenades strapped to his thigh. He took a deep breath and pulled. There was a blinding flash, which distracted the creature enough to break the spell holding Daniel. Drawing the taser weapon from its holster he fired at the creature. it convulsed violently and Danny staggered past up and grabbed Candy’s hand. Taking her Queue from Daniel Dawn motioned the others to the door. As they exited the creature removed the tazer device from his chest. He glared at Daniel with a fiery anger.
“You thinks that’s enough to stop me boy!” he boomed
Daniel shrugged and replied “No that was to slow you down.”
From the back of his pack he pulled out three of the Frag Grenades he got from his Soldier Cousin. He pulled the pins and rolled them at the creature
“These are supposed to stop you”
The group scattered. The creature looked at the explosives and growled. Danny bolted for the door.
The Scooby’s looked nervous. The message left by dawn hit all of them pretty hard. Buffy looked at the group anxiously at the group.
“There must be a way of finding him.” She yelled
“Without an address it’s kind of hard buff.” Xander said sadly
“No I won’t except that” she yelled at him “we have to find a way”
“I could try a locator spell,” willow said “maybe Daniel is working up a mojo I could track.”
Buffy sat down on a tombstone she ran her hands anxiously through her hair.
“We’ll find her buff,” said Xander “Dawns a tough kid.”
Buffy looked up to her friends. She knew that neither of them would ever stop looking until they found her.
Buffy got back on her feet
“Willow try the spell see if you can sniff him out.” She said with purpose
“Right and I’ll grab spike and scout the city,” continued Xander, “you never know there may be a clue close by”
At that moment a huge explosion ripped through the night sky startling the group. Buffy looked at the fireball then looked to Xander. Xander shrugged awkwardly.
“I was kinda hoping for a box with a big question mark. But that’ll do.”
As Daniel sprinted from the building the shockwave of the explosion throws him against the other building. His head slammed hard into the wall. The world began to spin. Daniel collapsed to the ground. He had great trouble keeping his eyes open. He saw Dawn check to see if he was okay. She turned to look at the warehouse and scream. Through his grogginess Daniel saw the creature emerge from the fire and smoke. As he moved towards them he saw a group of individuals come from nowhere and fight the creature. The woman doing the most fighting looked very familiar. One of the men of the group threw the woman a sword. Eventually the woman plunged the sword into the creature’s forehead causing it collapsed.
Daniel laid his head back down the pain was getting too much. The last thing he remembered before blacking out is Dawn calling the Woman over and the woman rolling her eyes when she saw him.
Then there was black
The next thing he remembers is feeling something cold and wet on his forehead.
Buffy stood in the lounge of the summer’s household and watched as Willow treated Daniels wounds.
“How is he?” she asked as willow wiped down his forehead
“A few bumps and bruises but he should be fine.” Replied willow wiping down his forehead
Buffy folded her arms. And stared coldly at Daniel
“Lets see how long that last’s when he wake up.”
She moved into the dining room where Xander had laid all of Daniel’s weapons and equipment evenly over that table.
“Any luck?” she asks him calmly
Xander stands up from his seat. He looks up at Buffy with an amazed look
“Daniel is quite the Tinker,” He said excitedly, “Most of this stuff here was made from things you can find from any hardware store. Except for these”
From the end of the table Xander hands Buffy one of the frag grenades. She examined it closely.
“My semi, quasi, military training tells me that that is a standard issue U.S. Military fragment grenade,” Xander explained, ” It’s pocket sized, comes in a lovely gunmetal green and will make big groups of thing dead if you pull this pin out. This kid’s mail ordering”
“But for what? I mean why go to all the trouble of making yourself a one man army?”
“Actually that I can answer”
From the small quiver lying close to Xander he pulls out one of the thin stakes and hands it to her. Buffy places the grenade on the table and examines the stake. She looks up at Xander with disbelief.
“You’re kidding” she exclaimed
“Afraid not Buff.” He replied
“He’s waking up” willow called from the lounge.
Buffy and Xander look at each other then head to the lounge.
Daniels head swam as he tried to sit up. As he got his bearings he realized that three people were staring him at. He looked up at Buffy.
“Care to explain yourself now mister?” she said in a cold tone
Daniel dropped his head again.
“You can’t understand what I am trying to do,” he said with mild anger
“Oh no you lost my pitty when you decide to take my sister joy hunting. So are you going to explain?”
Daniel didn’t move. Buffy was quickly losing patience with him.
“Then let me save you the trouble,” she continued, “You are dressed in basic black, it’s slimming and also good for working at night. You are carrying enough weapons to make Neo scared, you are also using these.”
She holds up the thin stake and shows it to Daniel.
“This tells me what you are fighting is vampires.”
Daniel looks up in amazement.
“Good, now I have your attention.” She says as she moves in closer, “Who are you running from Daniel? Was it that demon?”
Daniel studied Buffy closely. The last person to use the word ‘demon’ around him left him a goodbye message on video.
“You know,” Xander said as he flanked Buffy, “for a kid who doesn’t exist. You’re not being that helpful”
This information given to him was getting scarily close to the truth. How could they have possible come across that?
“Who are you really?” Daniel asked
Buffy leaned in close. Daniel felt fear for the first time tonight.
“Right now. I’m an angry gal whose sister was nearly killed because some idiot decided to chase her into a vampire nest with explosives.” Buffy said angrily
Daniel lent back. These people meant business and that business is not going to do his health any good. Behind them the phone rang. Willow stands, goes over to the dresser and answers. She turns to Buffy
“It’s Giles”
Buffy moves from Daniel and takes the phone from Willow.
Giles . . . where has he heard that . . . and then it hit him.
It hit him where he had heard both Summers and Giles mentioned before. He looks to Buffy and realizes. Everything starts to make sense. He stands up slowly and walks over to her.
Buffy hangs up the phone. As she turns around she is startled to find Daniel so close to her.
“You’re the slayer.” He says with a quiet awe
“How do you know that?” she asks him cautiously
Daniel begins to pace. The information was coming to him but the head injury wasn’t helping.
“It was a message. I . . . I was supposed to find you if . . .”
Daniel sat down frustrated at the other end of the room. The Scooby’s went over and joined him.
“If what Danny?” Buffy asked
He looked up at her. Again she saw the same sadness she saw the first time she met him.
“If . . . when my mom died.” He replied his voice beginning to lose its confidence
From behind them the front door opened.
“Hello where back.” said an older English Voice
“I really don’t understand what was wrong with my driving I stuck to the speed limit.” Said a female that follow
“Yes, well, next time I would rather prefer you stayed to the speed limit of this country.”
Buffy stood up and greeted the new guests.
“Ah Buffy this is Samantha she is the new potential from . . . Good lord are we preparing for a battle I don’t know about?”
“Nope this lovely spread of deadly weapons belongs to our guest.” Replied Buffy
Buffy leads Giles into the living room. As he enters a look of shock crosses his face.
“Giles this is . . .”
“Daniel” Giles completed
Daniel was paralyzed. He didn’t know to think. Buffy looked at both Giles and Daniel curiously
“Yeah.”
Giles looks to the dining area. From the other room Daniel hear her the voice of the female who followed Giles in.
“Wow. These are cool it’s about time we get to work with stuff that can do more . . . what?”
“I think you should come in here for a moment.” He said carefully.
From the dining area a girl walked in cheerfully sipping her drink. She looks at Giles who gestures to look at the back wall. She does so and freezes. The glass slips from her hand and hits the floor. Daniel can’t believe whom he was seeing. It was impossible. She could have never survived. The girl’s lips start to move.
“Daniel?” She asks
“Raleigh?” he asks in return
She nods slowly.
Daniel starts to tremble. He could feel the emotion welling up inside.
Suddenly all the fear, hurt and loneliness he held on to for five months flows out like a waterfall.
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