Disclaimer: I own nothing and none of these characters are mine. I'm merely borrowing them, and making no money, only fun. Borrowing scenes and dialogue too, just cause I can.

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"No joy!" Willow moaned, pulling on the stubborn door.

"We gotta get in there before Jesse does something even stupider than usual," Xander lamented, turning away from the door and clenching his fists in frustration.

"You listen to me!" Giles said sternly. "Jesse is dead! You have to remember that when you see him, you're not looking at your friend. You're looking at the thing that killed him."

"Are there a l-lot of vampires in there?" Dawn asked in a shaky voice. She knew about vampires, knew what her sister did, but this was the first time she really realized they could be a threat.

"Yes," was Giles' brusque response. "That's why it's very important that you stay close to one of us at all times, preferably me. We're going to try to sneak people out and hopefully not attract their attention."

"Okay," Dawn answered. "I can be sneaky." In the meantime Xander was continuing to try to open the door, alternately pulling and pushing in frustration. He started looking around for something he could use to smash the lock. "And I can get that door open," Dawn added confidently. The other three looked at her in surprise.

*************

Buffy looked through the broken skylight and crawled silently onto the overhead loft. She could see them all, the frightened teens and the smug, vicious vampires. So many of them. She wasn't confident she could actually take them all on and win. Especially Luke. That hulking monster had already bested her once, and Jesse had been lost as a result. Buffy's resolve strengthened. For Jesse and for the others, she would not fail. She simply couldn't.

Her attention was drawn to Luke, standing on the stage and dropping a recently drained victim. The body fell with a boneless thud.

"I feel him rising. Every soul brings him closer. I need another!" Luke cried. Giles had told her that one vampire would function as the Vessel, given the power to raise the Master; she knew it had to be Luke. A growl alerted her to the presence of a vampire nearby. Buffy took a deep breath and attacked, the fight amazingly quiet until she heard a familiar scream. Without thinking she kicked hard and the vampire flew over the railing, crashing to the ground below with a thud that stunned the room into silence.

Buffy leaned over the railing. Luke was holding a terrified Cordelia Chase. For a second Buffy saw the girl's pinched, frightened features morph into her sister’s, and the room started to swim. She calmed her beating heart, bringing herself under control. Too many lives depended on it.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Were you in the middle of something?" she called with false innocence.

"You!" Luke hissed.

"You didn't think I'd miss this, did you?" she answered.

"I hoped you'd come," the vampire responded.

"Be right down," Buffy called. Taking a deep breath she grabbed the railing and swung her body over the side, letting go and landing on a pool table with ease. She did a quick flip off of the pool table, dusted an attacking vamp with a pool cue and looked up at Luke, removing her jacket. She hoped she looked and sounded more confident then she actually was.

"Okay, Vessel boy," she said saucily. "You want blood?" The vampire shoved Cordelia away.

"I want yours. Only yours," Luke replied. Buffy nodded. This was what she was hoping for. No one else would die as long as she was fighting him; all these people were being saved to raise the Master.

"Works for me," Buffy shrugged nonchalantly before cartwheeling up onto the stage. They traded blows for only a few minutes before Luke overpowered her, tossing her across the room. She landed on a pile of boxes with a grunt.

Buffy stood up and shook herself off, fending off another attack from a vampire to her side. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Xander ushering people out towards the back door while she had all the attention. She couldn't help but wonder where her sister was, and if she was staying out of trouble.

"It would be a first," she muttered as she dispatched another vamp and swung around looking for Luke. "She better behave or I am so dead."

"You're not a Slayer, you're a prophet," Luke snarled, grabbing her from behind. "Either way, I'm going to drink you dry."

Buffy struggled in his grip. Directly in her line of vision a vamp had grabbed from behind Xander as well, and she was powerless to help him. Then she saw a shadow running to Xander's aid, and her heart leapt into her throat. Spots were dancing before her eyes, but she managed to elbow Luke hard enough to loosen his grip. She bent over, throwing Luke over her shoulder as hard as she could. She didn't have the breath to scream much of a warning as she grabbed a cymbal from the drum set, flinging it towards Xander’s attacker. Xander ducked as it decapitated the vamp, reducing him to ash.

"Head's up," he quipped, and Buffy grinned before Luke came at her again. At the same time Xander noticed Dawn was standing next to him, watching Buffy fight with an awestruck look.

"Dawn, stay back!" he said tersely, grabbing her arm and pushing her towards Willow and Giles.

"Watch her," he ordered tersely, and Willow nodded, grabbing the girl’s hand. Xander scanned the room, spotting Jesse and heading towards him. Willow looked at Dawn, taking in the pale fear on the girl's face. She resolved to be brave for Buffy’s sister’s sake.

"Stay close to me, Dawnie, okay? We've got to get all these people out fast," Willow whispered. Dawn nodded meekly. The two girls joined Giles in continuing to usher people out the back door as fast as they could. Already there was a bottleneck at the rear exit, and Giles feared they wouldn't be able to get everyone out in time.

"We're going to need to open the front as well," he called to Willow, just as a blonde vampire knocked him down from behind. Both Willow and Dawn screamed as he struggled to keep fangs from penetrating his neck. A sudden rage filled Willow. She recognized Darla as the vampire who had bitten Jesse, probably the one who had killed him. Without another thought she ran forward.

“Get off of him!” she screamed, tossing holy water into the surprised vampire’s face. The blonde screamed, then screamed even louder as Dawn unexpectedly shoved a cross against her forehead. Willow instantly pulled the younger girl away as Darla jumped up and ran away, still screaming as smoke billowed from her face. Willow quickly helped Giles to his feet.

“Are you alright?” she asked worriedly. Giles gave her a tentative smile.

“I believe so, thanks to you and...where’s Dawn?” he asked, looking behind Willow. They both moaned loudly. Dawn, in the meantime, had seen a vampire holding Xander, pushing him against the wall. From the lost expression on Xander’s face, Dawn knew he was in big trouble. She ran to his aid just as someone shoved the vampire from behind, making him explode into dust before Xander’s now horrified eyes. Xander dropped his stake just as Dawn reached him. He was shaking and unusually pale.

“Are you okay?” Dawn asked him, impulsively taking hold of his hand. Xander looked down at her with a grim but genuine smile.

“Yeah, I’m okay,” he said. “I’m just-Hey!” he yelled as a vampire grabbed him from behind. Dawn screamed as the other vampire wrapped one hand around her waist, hissing when he touched one of the crosses hanging from her neck.

Buffy grabbed a microphone stand in desperation. Her stake was out of reach, and Luke was advancing on her triumphantly once again. Sudden inspiration struck as he taunted her.

“You forget. Metal can’t hurt me.”

“Oh, yeah? Well there’s something you forgot about too,” she said as she heaved the microphone stand like a javelin. “Sunrise!” Buffy called triumphantly as the window behind Luke shattered. The vampire covered his face, cowering for a moment before he saw the streetlamp. In one graceful move she swept up her stake and brought it home, sending Luke reeling.

“In about nine hours, moron,” she quipped. The vampire staggered off the stage and fell to dust. Buffy looked up as the vampires holding Xander and Dawn moved past her. The look on her face was such pure murderous rage that the vampires quickly dropped their prizes and ran from the Bronze as fast as they could. Buffy vaulted off the stage and ran to her sister, making sure she was unbitten. Willow and Giles hurried over.

“I take it it’s over,” Giles said dryly.

“Did we win?” Dawn asked.

“We averted the Apocalypse, I give us points for that,” Buffy answered automatically, then glared at her sister. “What am I saying? WE didn’t do that...at least no WE that includes YOU, unless you want us both to be grounded till our senior citizen discounts kick in.”

“But I-”

“Were never here. Didn’t see any of it,” Buffy warned again.

“I know nothing,” her sister said, imitating Sergeant Schultz from Hogan’s Heroes with a mocking salute. Buffy couldn’t help a small grin of amusement at her sister’s antics. She looked at the others and saw they were smiling as well. Xander shook his head.

“Well, one thing’s for sure. Nothing’s ever going to be the same again.”

***************

Dawn heard the whispers as soon as she got to school the next day. Of course, none of her classmates had been at the Bronze, but they had older brothers and sisters who were. She only caught snatches of what they were saying, but it was enough to make her cheeks flame red with embarrassment.

“...kicked out of her old school...”

“...belongs to a gang...”

“...she tried to kill all of us...”

“...her sister’s probably just as weird...”

“...I heard she was even there, helping trash the place...”

“...my mom said to stay away from Dawn Summers...”

Dawn lifted her head high, clutching her books to her chest and pretending to be deaf and dumb. In the cafeteria she acted as if that she liked having the table to herself, spreading her stuff around and making believe she was completely engrossed in her book. In truth, her mind was too busy dealing with her humiliation to concentrate on a single word. Last night she had seen her sister in action as the Slayer. Buffy had saved all those people, and now they acted like she had been the one to cause all the problems. What good was it to have a superhero for a sister when everyone just thought she was weird. She was proud of Buffy, but in the light of day, in the face of these jeers and accusations, she wished once again that she could have a normal sister, a normal life, normal-

“Excuse me?” A girl about her age with light brown hair and a pleasant smile looked down at Dawn, holding a cafeteria tray. “Do you mind if I sit here?” Dawn instinctively looked around to see if there was a joke being played on her, but no one else seemed to be paying attention.

“Sure,” she said with a cautious shrug. The girl smiled even more broadly as she set down her tray and nodded towards the book.

“Thanks. Is that any good?”

“What? Oh, this? I...yeah, I think so,” Dawn said shyly, setting the book aside. A moment of awkward silence later, she cocked her head at the girl, who was setting out her lunch while humming happily. “Ummm...you know who I am, right?”

“Sure. New kid. Dawn...Summers?” The girl held out her hand to be shaken, her friendly eyes twinkling. “I’m Janice. Janice Penshaw.” Dawn shook the hand at first tentatively, then more firmly, a smile on her face.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Dawn said, then frowned. “You don’t just want to talk about my sister, right?”

“What sister?” Janice asked innocently, and Dawn smiled.

“Nobody. Nothing,” Dawn answered hastily, smiling as she dug into her lunch and the two girls began making small talk about their classes. After a few minutes, some other girls came over and Janice introduced Dawn to them as they set down their trays and took the available seats, filling up the table with idle chatter and screams of laughter. Dawn smiled. This was what she wanted. Normal friends. Buffy could do the slaying gig, deal with the Hellmouth and the vampires and any other creepy things. From now on, Dawn was staying out of it.

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Yeah, right! Tune in for Dawn’s next adventure with the Scooby Gang...a retelling of “The Pack” I’m titling “Prey”...and feedback really is a wonderful help to me in this, so don’t be shy!