curiouswombat: (Default)
[personal profile] curiouswombat
I might get around to a post about Real Life tomorrow - enough to just say it is Very Busy at the moment!

In the meantime here, under the cut, is the second chapter of Ten years After, as promised. S2C was making me a new icon to go with it, but has fallen asleep in an armchair, poor thing - he didn't go to bed when he came home from work this morning, and so has been awake for about 26 hours or more. If I managed to do this properly
the first chapter will be
here


And Chapter two will be



CHAPTER 2

“Giles, I really, really need to talk to you.” Dawn had cornered her boss, and father-figure, in his office at the Watchers’ Council Headquarters whilst bearing coffee and a packet of shortbread.

“Certainly, Dawn – is it about your visit to Edinburgh? How is James McStay? Was he able to shed any light on that scroll fragment?” Giles asked. “Oh, and is that shortbread I see?”

“Yes, well sort of. Absolutely fine. Quite a bit, and yes – but I am only going to feed it to you at timed intervals so that I can hold your attention for a while.” Dawn answered.

Giles smiled at Dawn and said “Well if it is from that little shop near the University you can probably hold my attention for quite some time!”

In her researcher capacity, Dawn went over her conversation with Dr. McStay for Giles but, before he could start to discuss how her old tutor’s input might help them decide where else to look, Dawn broke into his train of thought saying “No more shortbread unless we can stop talking about this for now and get onto what I really want to talk about.”

“Ah yes," said Giles, removing his glasses in the so familiar gesture, “This was meant to only be 'sort of' about your trip to Edinburgh – so what else is on your mind?”

Dawn smiled. Giles was really much quicker on the uptake than many people around here realised even after ten years.

“I want to talk about The Key. About me. About my Keyness. No-one ever mentions it; it’s as if you have all totally forgotten about it.”

“Hmm”, Giles murmured, still gazing blankly at the well polished glasses in his hand, then more briskly “You are quite right, I do tend to look at you and think ‘Dawn, bright, good company, reminds me in some ways of Joyce’, rather than ‘Dawn, mystical ancient power in human form’.”

He replaced his glasses on his nose and then turned to Dawn with a rather piercing look.

"But then aren’t we all meant to do that? The fact that I see you as a person, rather than a mystical essence, shows what a very good job those monks did – both in making you, the real live, normal and human you, and in making sure that no-one ever thinks of you in any other terms.

"But I can see that the time has come for me to try hard to concentrate on that otherness as something is obviously worrying you.”

“How much research has been done here about my Keyness? I mean I don’t know of any; but then I don’t suppose you’d tell me anyway, would you?”

“Well actually," Giles answered slowly, “if there has been much research its existence has become obscured by the monks’ spell as well because, even if I concentrate hard on the fact that you came into existence as a fully-formed fourteen year old and that you encapsulated an energy source to enable inter-dimensional travel, I still have difficulty concentrating enough to wonder why we haven’t got whole books written in the library about you.

“We probably should have had you examined in a myriad interesting ways,” he added smilingly, “but I’m fairly sure that we haven’t even attempted to dissect you once – have we?”


……………………………………………

The ensuing discussion with Giles had been followed by some time in the archives. Now Dawn was sitting alone in her own living room, munching on chocolate, and considering everything she had learnt today.

The monks who had created her had guarded The Key for many, many, centuries; their existence was recorded at least three times in Watchers’ Council Records. Also recorded was the information that The Key could be used to open inter-dimensional portals and the monks safeguarded it to prevent it falling into the wrong hands.

One Watcher, in the seventeenth century if Dawn remembered correctly, had noted that whilst destroying The Key would seem to be a good idea, such a course of action ‘could unleash unknown power’, and also that The Key ‘might one day be needed to open a portal for the good of the world’. That was pretty scary.

Giles had pointed out that this seemed to only be the opinion of that particular Watcher; he had not given any reference for the statement, but at least his opinion might have saved any attempts by the Council to safeguard the world themselves by destroying The Key.

Giles pointed out that mentions of The Key were few, and far between, and if it (“Um, sorry, you,” he had said at least five times during the afternoon) was of major importance there should have been more regular reports. Either the Watchers’ Council had investigated at some time and thought it of very little importance; or the monks had done a pretty good job of masking themselves from investigation.

However, he admitted, there should be full records of the discovery that the monks had created Dawn to contain The Key; and yet he himself had reported very little of this discovery to the Council at the time. Giles said he remembered this being because he had worried ‘about the information getting into the wrong hands’, but was not sure whether this was because he had had real worries about security at the Council headquarters, or because the spells surrounding Dawn’s existence had ensured that he did not report her existence fully.

This left Dawn with two possible hypotheses – either The Key was pretty unimportant, and had been guarded all those years just in case Glory turned up at the beginning of the twenty-first century, or it was so important that it had been protected by so many cloaking spells and things over the years that even the Council forgot about it (‘Uh, sorry, me,’ thought Dawn) for centuries at a time.

She quite liked to think that it was the first, and that she was no longer anything other than a young woman of twenty-seven,but she was tending towards the second hypothesis. Which was when she had begun to wonder whether the monks had thought about her reaching her ‘use by’ date.

Would The Key be passed to someone, or something, else and if so how? They couldn’t rely on her having a child and passing it on that way but, as they had been so thorough over all these centuries, it seemed impossible that they would allow The Key to cease to exist. Dawn was becoming more certain that she knew the answer - and she wasn’t sure she really liked the idea.

Both she and Giles had concluded that the first thing to determine was whether she was still The Key; or whether she had simply become what she appeared, once the problem of Glory was passed. If she was no longer The Key then her problem was solved – she could put everything down to inheriting good genes!

Dawn could still remember with horror the reaction to her of the ‘crazy’ people, but with so many modern treatments for mental illness, hospital wards of ‘crazy people’ no longer existed in Britain. Giles had thought it possible that those with cerebral cortex damage, following head injuries, might ‘see’ her as pure energy if she was still The Key, but he also wondered about the ethics of exposing such people to what could be a traumatic experience for them.

‘Not to mention me!’ Dawn thought.

There was the possibility of going into London some evening particularly to see what effect she had on those people who wandered the streets mumbling to themselves – but it would be hard to know whether they were reacting to her being a ‘pretty light’ or to something else completely.

However Giles’ original research in Sunnydale, which she and Spike had read that night they’d broken into The Magic Box, had suggested that people with ‘second sight’ might be able to detect The Key, or ‘Necromanced Animals’.

It had begun to look like a job for Willow. So, tomorrow, Willow was going to put herself into a magical trance and link herself with her pet cat so that she could see through its eyes; both Willow and Giles thought that this should qualify as a ‘necromanced animal’. Dawn wasn’t sure whether she was happy about this test, or frightened of it. If Willow saw The Key then at least she had more idea of who and what she now was, but if Willow saw Dawn, nothing changed – because it might simply not be the right spell.

Dawn wished she had not insisted on coming home alone tonight. She wished she had accepted Giles offer to spend the night with his family. She didn’t think that she would get much sleep.


…………………………………………………………………………


Arms flailing, gasping for breath, Dawn tried to escape from the swirling grey mist that clung to her – and found herself tightly wrapped in bedding, struggling to sit up. At first the dream was still so real that she couldn’t work out where she was. She had been running and running through the clinging grey mist; figures had loomed out of the mist but she had only just had time to see who they were when she had run past them and they had disappeared, swallowed by the mist behind her.

She remembered Giles, and Olivia, Buffy and Phil, Willow, Xander, Andrew, all calling to her, asking her to wait, but she couldn’t stop running. Then there had been two of the young Slayers and, just before she had woken, Thea and her two nephews were calling to her with outstretched hands; but she had kept on running. And always there, running beside her or just in front of her, there had been another figure - seen almost out of focus by her dream eyes – just a glimpse of swirling black and bright white.

Spike, the person beside her had been Spike. She was sure of it now as she sat, bolt upright, and began to make sense of her surroundings.

There was a quiet knock on the bedroom door and Willow appeared, in baggy pyjamas, asking her was she OK? The light from behind Willow illuminated the room gently and confirmed that this was not Dawn’s bedroom, but Willow’s spare room, and as Willow came and sat on the end of the bed Dawn was glad that tonight, after the spell, she had taken up the offer of company.

Willow had cast the spell here in her own little house, so that Scaramouch would not have to leave home. Dawn, and Giles, had sat quietly as Willow had cast the spell so that she could enter into her cat, see out of Scaramouch’s eyes, and hear and smell what he could hear and smell. As the last words of the spell were cast, the cat had suddenly sat up on his cushion, stared in Dawn’s direction, then stood up, arched his back and hissed.

At that moment Dawn knew – she did not need to wait until Willow withdrew from the cat’s mind. Scaramouch, who would normally sit happily on her knee, once he was a ‘necromanced animal’ had not seen the Dawn he knew. He had seen The Key.

Back in the bedroom, in the middle of the night, Willow fussed and offered hot chocolate to help Dawn get back to sleep after her ‘bad dream’. Even Scaramouch arrived, and deigned to jump onto the bed, obviously happy that this was the Dawn he knew and sometimes allowed to fuss him.

When she had broken the spell, Willow had described what Willow-Scaramouch had seen as “Still Dawn, but surrounded by a bright green light that seemed to flow in and out of her, and wrap itself around her, and she no longer smelt just of Dawn, but of metal, and electricity as well.”

Giles had said that he was sure that those who had seen The Key in Sunnydale had only seen the light, and not Dawn in the middle of it, and he wondered if this meant that there was only a ‘residual keyness’ left?

Willow had answered that she thought he was wrong; The Key was an extremely powerful force, she had been able to sense that. She thought that she could also see Dawn because Dawn was now a much more real and rooted person. Both Dawn and The Key existed in equal measure.

Eventually Willow left the bedroom to return to her own bed leaving Scaramouch, who now seemed to have forgiven Dawn for startling him earlier, and was happy to magnanimously curl up on her feet. But Dawn did not sleep, not straight away. She lay there knowing what she must do, and planning on how to do it, until the first grey light of her namesake appeared through the crack in the curtains.




The next chapter is here.

Date: 05/06/2005 06:37 pm (UTC)
elisi: Edwin and Charles (Default)
From: [personal profile] elisi
Oh, this is turning out very nicely - I love 'prophetic' dreams. :) Looking forward to the next chapter muchly!

Date: 05/06/2005 07:32 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
Thank you. The next few chapters are written, so I may well put chapter three up sometime during the week.

I wonder why LJ thinks it's the early hours of the morning? You and I seem to have been transported to Asia somewhere, by their clock!!

Date: 05/06/2005 07:30 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] frimfram.livejournal.com
Another lovely chapter, and very intriguing. Oh good, Spike :)

“We probably should have had you examined in a myriad interesting ways,” he added smilingly, “but I’m fairly sure that we haven’t even attempted to dissect you once – have we?”

This was a great line, and sounded just like Giles. I like how Dawn's reacting to events, too - she's very strong-minded. It looks like she's going to have to be!

Date: 05/06/2005 07:38 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
Thanks. I think Dawn would have grown up to be very independant - Buffy never really encouraged her to cling did she? Tried to lay down the law on occasions - but they didn't exactly spend a lot of time together - not suprisingly as Buffy had a lot of other things on her mind, but for one reason or another I think Dawn brought herself up, with assistance, after her mother's death!

Glad you liked that Giles' line, so did I when it came to me!!

Date: 05/06/2005 08:09 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] zanthinegirl.livejournal.com
Very believable future Dawn. I'm a little sorry for her sake that she's still the key, but intrigued to see how you develop this story. And happy to see that it looks like we'll get to see a future Spike! Really enjoying this story!

Date: 05/06/2005 08:43 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
Thank you - glad you're enjoying it - and yes Spike is likely to appear, at some stage - you'll just have to hang on a bit!!
Also, I'm glad that you feel a bit sorry for Dawn if she is still The Key - that is what started me along this train of thought in the first place.

Date: 05/06/2005 10:50 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] missmurchison.livejournal.com
Yay! to prophetic dreams and Spike. I was hoping for Spike:)

Good chapter. You've really aroused my curiosity.

Date: 05/06/2005 10:53 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
Thanks for the feedback.

You've really aroused my curiosity.

That was the idea! Glad I managed it! Why should I be the only curious one around here?!!!

Date: 05/06/2005 10:55 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] missmurchison.livejournal.com
*huggles you*

Date: 05/06/2005 10:54 pm (UTC)
ext_15169: Self-portrait (Seal of Approval)
From: [identity profile] speakr2customrs.livejournal.com
My latest icon is eminently suitable for this chapter.

Date: 05/06/2005 11:20 pm (UTC)
ext_2333: "That's right,  people, I am a constant surprise." (Default)
From: [identity profile] makd.livejournal.com
Wonderful! I am enjoying this fic quite a lot!

Date: 05/06/2005 11:41 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
Thank you! Glad you're liking it!
(deleted comment)

Date: 05/06/2005 11:43 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
Hey - I'm a real fanfic writer because I've got people eager to see where I'm going! So glad you are enjoying it!
(deleted comment)

Date: 06/06/2005 06:16 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
I wrote some stuff more or less for our own amusement when we ran the Buffy RolePlay game for a while - so not quite my first trip into writing. All the stories about Slayers etc. from then are on [livejournal.com profile] speakr2customrs web site, which is probably easiest to reach via his LJ.

They are set in the same time more or less as S7 of Buffy, and Buffy, Dawn, Spike et al appear in them, but Buffy is not the main slayer in them - she was Roxy, who was created and formed by our teenaged daughter. I wrote some stuff that I probably wouldn't want said daughter to read!

In our version the 'unusual couple' are a Watcher and a vampire - with interesting effects. If you have some srapre time sometime have a look at them.

the crack in the curtains

Date: 06/06/2005 07:28 am (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
Hi,

Once again a very fine chapter. My compliments on the methodical way Dawn assembled her information and developed her theory regarding the nature of her existence. I especially liked the way that she had to test her hypothis. Very much the scientific method and a wonderful change of pace from the tossed away explanations in most fan fictions.

One area of concern that I do have is how you intend to insert Spike into this story. The dream version of him fit very well, but if you try to bring the actual character in he might prove a bit reluctant. Even if he and Dawn once had a older/younger sibling-like relationship or some version of it, what could be his possible motivation in helping someone whose known of his continued existence for the last ten years yet never sought him out until after she needed his assistance. The last canonical exchange between them was anything but friendly and why would he want to help someone who expressed the ambition to graduate from klepto to pyro? With himself being used as kindling.

thanks for writing

pgavigan

Re: the crack in the curtains

Date: 06/06/2005 12:25 pm (UTC)
ext_15169: Self-portrait (Crocodile)
From: [identity profile] speakr2customrs.livejournal.com
The last canonical exchange between them was anything but friendly and why would he want to help someone who expressed the ambition to graduate from klepto to pyro?

We are, according to things the writers have said in DVD commentaries and at conventions, supposed to assume that there was an off-screen reconciliation between them. This is a typical example of the sloppy writing in S7 - if we are supposed to assume that, then what else might we be supposed to assume? They should have showed us! - and as CW's beta I can say that no such assumption has been made here. It is evident in the aftermath of the Stone-up-the-nose scene in "Lies My Parents Told Me" that Spike still cared for Dawn and that he obviously didn't hold the 'wake up on fire' threat against her.

Re: the crack in the curtains

Date: 06/06/2005 04:21 pm (UTC)
From: (Anonymous)
We are, according to things the writers have said in DVD commentaries and at conventions, supposed to assume that there was an off-screen reconciliation between them. This is a typical example of the sloppy writing in S7.

True but ironic for if they had done their jobs better we wouldn't have so much material to debate over and work with.

And while he may not hold Dawn's arsonistic threat against her I'm pretty certain he did and does take it seriously.

I don't think I made it as clear as I should have, but I really wanted to compliment CW (she doesn't happen to use that tag as her handle when she and the Bandit are hauling Coors across state lines, does she?) in building the case for Dawn's 'keyness intactus'. Most fan fiction writers seem to skip plot development, as well as characterization, dramatic motivation, spelling and grammar in their struggle to launch whichever particular ship they advocate. That's why I appreciate the ones who actually endeavor to tell a frickin' story

pgavigan

Re: the crack in the curtains

Date: 06/06/2005 04:52 pm (UTC)
ext_15169: Self-portrait (Hovercraft)
From: [identity profile] speakr2customrs.livejournal.com
[livejournal.com profile] curiouswombat is like me in that she is not committed to any one ship, although she does like there to be one in the story, and so she launches whichever ship the story advocates.

Re: the crack in the curtains

Date: 06/06/2005 06:19 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
Thank you - I take it as the compliment you meant it as - don't worry - I have taken previous encounters into consideration, or at least tried to.

Date: 06/06/2005 05:21 pm (UTC)
jerusha: (Default)
From: [personal profile] jerusha
Lovely. I can't wait to see what Dawn is going to do.

Date: 06/06/2005 06:25 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
Thank you - I really appreciate compliments especially from someone whose own work I so enjoy.

I can't wait to see what Dawn is going to do.

Well...she is a researcher....!

Date: 07/06/2005 10:10 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lillianmorgan.livejournal.com
Ooooo, great! Interesting chapter. I always thought the Key-ness was swept under the carpet a bit, to make way for teenage-angst-and-hormone-heavy Dawn. Which was a shame, but leaves endless possibilities for great fanfic such as this.
“You are quite right, I do tend to look at you and think 'Dawn, bright, good company, reminds me in some ways of Joyce'
Awww, that's lovely. :)
Btw, mind if I friend you?

Date: 07/06/2005 05:12 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
I always thought the Key-ness was swept under the. carpet a bit, to make way for teenage-angst-and-hormone-heavy Dawn.

Yep - exactly where I started from!

Btw, mind if I friend you?

you are very, very welcome.

Date: 07/06/2005 10:05 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] samson28.livejournal.com
A lovely chapter. The dream was wonderful especially with the peak of Spike. Loving Giles and the shortbread!

Hope you don't mind me friending you, I would hate to miss more of this great story. :P

Date: 07/06/2005 10:06 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] samson28.livejournal.com
Peek, guh, my spelling just gets worse!

Date: 07/06/2005 10:16 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
You are very welcome to friend me -and I just thought you'd regarded Spike's fleeting appearance as the pinacle of the tale so far!! Glad you are enjoying the story - Chapter 3 tomorrow I think.

Date: 07/06/2005 10:36 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] samson28.livejournal.com
Looking forward to it - hopefully will have sorted all of my computer problems out by then so I won't miss out.

Date: 08/06/2005 02:46 am (UTC)
desdemonaspace: by <lj user="Teragramm"> (Tara at the ball)
From: [personal profile] desdemonaspace
I love this--I only wish I hadn't wait to read it until so late in the evening. I'll reread tomorrow when my commenting level rises above "oh, wow!" which is where it is right about now. I agree with the vegan above who complimented your building a theory instead of just jumping in with both feet. Thanks for this. Don't know how I missed it earlier.

Date: 08/06/2005 07:27 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
Thanks for this

You know you are very welcome! And thanks for the compliments.
(deleted comment)

Date: 08/06/2005 07:32 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
Hello - you are a very welcome new friend.

By the by, love the name "Scaramouch"--get it from the book, did you?

Only second hand - it just seemed a good name for a cat, in the style of 'Old Possum's book of Practical Cats' but why it came to mind probably owes more to Queen! 'Scaramouch, Scaramouch, can you do the fandango?... etc!'

Date: 08/06/2005 10:50 am (UTC)
desdemonaspace: by <lj user="Teragramm"> (Squee!)
From: [personal profile] desdemonaspace
Upon rereading, I'm just as much in favor of saying "oh, wow" as I was. That's a nicely-reasoned argument for studying her Key-ness in the middle, and I'm glad I reread because I entirely missed Spike in her dream! I like the echoes of Spike as her protector as he was in Season 6. I look forward to you populating your canvas with Spike and the others, and where you're taking us.

Date: 03/08/2006 04:57 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] green-maia.livejournal.com
I love this!!!

if it (“Um, sorry, you,” he had said at least five times during the afternoon)

Love that line.

I love the interaction between Giles and Dawn.

And always there running beside her, or just in front of her, there had been another figure, seen almost out of focus by her dream eyes – just a glimpse of swirling black and bright white.

Spike, the person beside her had been Spike, she was sure of it now, as she sat bolt upright, and began to make sense of her surroundings.


Oh, beautiful.

Date: 03/08/2006 07:06 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] curiouswombat.livejournal.com
Thank you - I'm glad you like it. I like those lines too!

Date: 07/11/2006 04:30 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] blackbeltchic.livejournal.com
Love the characterization! Must read one more before bed!

Karen

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