Crown and Key
By Sandra and William Johnson
Chapter Three
The night hung heavy with mists as Buffy ran through what looked like the Sunnydale Cemetery, but different; more sinister somehow if that can be imagined. She held in one hand a stake, sharpened to perfection, and in the other the tranquilizer gun they used to use on Oz during his wolf days. Somewhere in the distance she could hear screams of terror. Buffy ran towards them as swiftly as she could, her breath coming hard as she pushed herself faster and faster. As she looked up, she stopped dead in her tracks. Just on the horizon, standing tall into the night, was a sight Buffy remembered all too well. The ramshackle tower climbed higher and higher into the night sky
“Please, no; not again!” she thought as she silently watched the macabre scene unfold. It was frighteningly familiar, yet at the same time different; like the cemetery. An overwhelming sense of deja vu enveloped her as she again began sprinting towards the tower. Standing at the base of the tower was Dawn in a long, black and red gown. She was crying silently; she looked terrified yet regal at the same time. Next to her was a woman in a long red robe. She seemed to float above the ground, and the cloak hid her facial features so well that all that was visible of her were two golden slits where her eyes should be. Buffy watched as the cloaked woman conjured more of the strange dark mists between her hands. She pointed her finger at Dawn, and the mists encircled her waist and raised her to the ledge of the tower.
“DAWN!!” she screamed. Buffy had reached the entrance to the site and charged towards the tower. The cloaked woman looked her way and spoke in a whispery voice. “You can not save her. Your sacrifice was not enough!” She reared her right hand back and threw a ball of black mist directly at Buffy. As the magic slammed into her, Buffy felt her strength draining. She fell to her knees, gasping in pain. All she could do was watch as the past repeated itself. But the niggling feeling that something was different this time kept Buffy’s eyes focused on her sister as she struggled against her bonds. Her friends fought valiantly to reach the tower, each trying in vain to save Dawn. But a man in blue and a red haired beast unlike any other Buffy had ever seen kept them at bay. Buffy watched as the man in blue, fighting with an ancient sword, swiped Xander across the back of his leg, severing his hamstring. Willow hefted a large heavy hammer, which she threw at the red furred beast. With a raise of his hand, the beast caught the hammer and hurled it directly back at Willow. Quickly, Willow uttered a spell, but, amazingly, her magic didn’t work. Buffy struggled with the paralyzing exhaustion she felt as she watched the hammer catch her best friend in the face; smashing her nose and successfully knocking her unconscious.
Lara was there as well. She had made the most progress by shooting whatever got in her way with her pistols. She was scaling the tower as swiftly as she could. The cloaked woman saw this and began chanting again. As she raised her hands, Lara fell from the tower, landing at Buffy’s side. She was breathing, but unable to move as well. The two women watched as the cloaked woman summoned her mists and flew herself and the man in blue up to the ledge of the tower. She gripped Dawn by the wrist and forced her palm open, grabbing whatever was clasped in it in her own hand. The woman’s whispery voice floated down to where Buffy lay paralyzed by the effects of the spell. Buffy watched in horror as the woman brought her hands together, chanting in some language she had never heard before. A burst of golden light appeared when her hands clasped together, eventually coalescing into a shimmering golden oval. The man in blue pointed his ancient sword at Dawn’s right arm. He slashed through the material at her elbow, deep enough to draw blood but not do any serious damage. Dawn bit her lip to keep from crying out in pain, but Buffy watched as her eyes widened in horror. As the blood dripped from Dawn’s arm, a silvery portal opened beneath her. At the exact same moment, a blond woman in a long black and red gown, similar to the one Dawn wore, stepped through the golden oval, a sinister smirk on her beautiful face.
Buffy fought with all her strength of will, but she could not force her body to move. Instead she watched in terror as Dawn looked the blond woman directly in the eye and spat in her face. Suddenly, she knew what was going to happen, and every fiber of her being screamed that it was wrong. Cursing herself and her weakness, Buffy watched in horror as Dawn turned and ran the length of the ledge, leapt off it and plummeted into the silvery portal.
“NOOOOO!!!!!!!” Buffy screamed as she watched, tears streaming down her face.
“BUFFY!!!” Dawn screamed as she soared towards the silver light. The ground beneath Buffy began to shake and crack in he throes of an earthquake. Buffy watched as a huge crack opened beneath her and Lara, sending them plummeting to the Earth’s molten core.
*****
“Buffy! BUFFY!” Dawn shouted, shaking her sister over and over again. Buffy sat bolt upright at the kitchen table, sweating, crying, and still terrified from the images of her dream. She looked around the room, and slowly began to get her bearings. It was a dream; get a grip Summers, Buffy chided herself. Deep down, though, she knew not to disregard her dreams. Most of the time the Slayer’s dreams were just that. But every now and then, her dreams were an omen of the dangers ahead. Giles often said she should write them down, but Buffy never did. She didn’t need to; she always remembered her dreams in perfect detail.
Except, of course, this one, which was rapidly fading. The more Buffy tried to remember it, the less she could. All she could concretely recall was that something was different, and that Lara was present in it.
And, that Dawn was staring at her as if she was about to go into a coma or something.
“I’m okay, Dawnny, really.” She attempted a weak smile, still visibly shaken. “Just a bad dream. Serves me right for consuming massive amounts of sugar before ten a.m.”
Dawn smiled as she squeezed Buffy’s shoulder. The way her sister had been tossing and crying, you’d have thought the world was ending.
Again.
“Is everything all right?” Lara asked, a note of concern creeping into her voice as she looked over at Buffy from her spot behind Willow.
“Just peachy!” Buffy announced. “What have you found out?”
“A big fat Zippo.” Willow said from behind the computer at the counter. “No one has ever heard of the Crown of Morganna the Misbehaved.”
“Uh, that’s Morganna the Misbegotten.” Lara corrected politely.
Willow blushed as red as her hair. “That would explain why no one has ever heard of her.” Her fingers flew over the keys as she typed in the changes. As she typed away, Willow looked up at Lara, “Have you reached your friend yet?”
“Yes, I did. Bryce said if you connect to IP Address 192.168.100.255 he’ll be able to web-conference with you and send you what he’s found so far.
Willow smiled as she entered in the address and Bryce’s face filled the screen. She smiled brightly “Hello there.”
Bryce seemed a bit taken aback by the friendliness of the young redhead on the other end of his screen, “Hiya. Name’s Bryce. I’m Lady Croft’s gadgeteer of sorts.”
“Pleased to meet you, I’m Willow. Now, we better get to work before Giles gets all grumpy on me.” As she spoke, her voice and face took on a sarcastic grumpy male tone. Bryce laughed
“Well, I don’t know what you could find I didn’t but, let’s share data and see what we got”
“Sure, though, trust me, there are some websites I go to that NO ONE, no matter how good they are, can get to without the right…gifts”
“Sounds like a challenge there, but, we don’t have the time right now.”
As Bryce and Willow chattered away and shared information, Lara looked idly around the room. Frankly, she was itching to get out of this kitchen. She never liked being sedentary for too long. She noticed that everyone seemed to be occupied with their positions; Buffy and that charming young gent named Xander were buried up to their necks in books while Willow eagerly downloaded information off the Internet and continued her conversation with Bryce. The only one with nothing to do was Dawn. Out of sheer boredom, Lara looked at her wristwatch and noticed it was after noon already.
“Say, is anyone else getting hungry for something a bit more substantial than the clouds of sugar and starch we consumed this morning?” Lara asked curiously. She noticed that as she spoke, Xander’s face fell. “Not that they weren’t simply heavenly, but my body tends to need a bit more substance.”
“That’s not how it looks from this side of the kitchen.” Xander muttered under his breath. Buffy shot him a withering glare.
“I could go for something filling myself.” Buffy replied, rubbing the remnants of sleep from her eyes. “I’ll grab Giles’ keys—“
“NO!!” Xander, Willow and Dawn chimed in, in unison. In the back of her mind, Lara recalled a quite humorous story Giles had told her last night about Buffy, her mother’s car, and a lot of candy.
Lara smiled, glad that she was truly getting to know this extraordinary woman, and chastising herself for her incredibly wrong first impression of Buffy as yet another blond bimbo. “Honestly, I need some fresh air. I thought if she wouldn’t mind, your little one here could show me around.”
Dawn’s face lit up at the thought of showing Sunnydale to their interesting and strangely familiar new houseguest, and fell again at the term “little one’.
“I’m going to be sixteen next week, you know.” She informed Lara, a little testier than she wanted to. Afraid of losing her chance to help, Dawn spoke up. “We could pick up something for lunch. I don’t know about you, but I think that Lady Croft is used to better food than Doublemeat Burgers.”
“Okay, you two go on the town. Dawn, you know where not to go. Some places around here aren’t fun, even before it gets dark.” Buffy teased her sister with a playful poke in the shoulder.
Grabbing her coat, Dawn kissed Buffy goodbye and pulled open the door. Lara grabbed her duster, quickly throwing her arms into the sleeves, and considering bringing her guns, but decided against it. For the first few minutes of their walk, Lara was curiously silent.
“Is everything okay, Lady Croft?” Dawn asked, unsure how to address royalty, (or whatever a Lady was in England these days.) Lara turned to her with a smile. “I’ve got two questions for you, Dawn.”
“Shoot.” Dawn replied, smiling.
“Why do you call me Lady Croft?” Dawn was confused. “When I’m in the States, my title doesn’t apply. I’m here with friends, and to my friends I’m simply Lara.” She paused. “I hope you’ll call me Lara.”
Dawn grinned, getting the picture. “Sure! And you can call me Dawnny, if you want. Everyone else does, even though I don’t really like it all that much.”
“So, how about I call you Sunshine.” Lara said. Dawn felt her eyes mist over, “My mom used to call me that.” She looked Lara in the eye. “I’d like that a lot. I miss it.”
Lara smiled. “I know what you mean. I was younger than you when I lost my mother.” For a moment, the two women walked in silence, each lost in their own memories. Dawn cleared her throat to get rid of the lump that was forming.
“What was your other question?” she asked.
Lara smiled wickedly. “What is a Doublemeat Burger?”
Dawn’s face went pale at the thought of how many of those disgusting concoctions she had digested this year. With a look of alarm, she turned to Lara and placed a friendly hand on the pocket of her jacket.
“Trust me, you don’t want to know.” Dawn joked. She pulled her hand away slowly. “What’s in there?” she asked. She had felt something hard in Lara’s pocket.
“I’m not sure.” Lara said as she reached a hand into the pocket to see for herself. Her hand closed over something cool and oval shaped. Lara felt a slight electrical shock as she pulled the object from her pocket. It was the pearl she had picked up in the Cave of the Ancient Hoard.
“Oh, this is something I picked up on my last expedition. It’s nothing special.”
Dawn gazed admiringly at the large oval shaped pearl in Lara’s hand. “It’s really pretty.” She observed admiringly. Lara caught the look in the girls’ eye and remembered how at sixteen she too had longed for something impractically feminine, even though her father and Giles had often commented on the fact that anything feminine like silks or jewels would quickly be ruined or covered in mud when left in her possession for too long. Lara was compelled to give it to her. She reached over and took Dawn’s hand, turning it over and placing the gemstone in her open palm.
“Here, keep it.”
Dawn’s eyes went wide with astonishment. “Oh, no, I couldn’t!” she started, but Lara wouldn’t hear of it. A slow, satisfied smile spread across her face. “I insist.” She paused. “Consider it an early birthday present.”
******
“You really saw all of that happening?” Adora asked the Sorceress sometime later that evening. She had regained consciousness moments after falling to her knees. The vision she went on to describe to the twins and Man At Arms was horrible.
“Yes child. Now you see why it is imperative that your sword be restored to its full potential. Without the powers of Greyskull and the witch uniting, all mankind may fall to this great evil.” The Sorceress whispered. The vision had left her weak, yet able to summon her telepathy if needed. The faintly glowing golden oval behind her wardrobe, the portal to earth that had been activated only a night before, glowed brighter than ever. Man At Arms glanced into the pool.
“The Key has the Stone.” He announced somberly. “The portal has been opened.” With a slight nod, the Sorceress spoke again. “You both know what you must do. You know how important it is that this evil not get a hold of the Key to the Dimensions. Guard her with your lives, both of you. Do not say a word to her or her protectors until after I have contacted her.” With a nod of agreement, Adam lifted the wardrobe and he and Adora crossed through the portal. As the light faded in the room, the Sorceress reached out again with her mind in hopes of contacting the Key.
And the pearl that Lara had had set on a thick platinum chain at Sunnydale Jewelers that afternoon began to pulse with an inner energy. It almost positively glowed as it hung around Dawn Summers neck.
That’s when Dawn began to hear the voice.
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