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[__angel]

I stayed up all night watching her, when really, it wasn't that hard, but on the other hand, it was. She moved just like Buffy in her sleep. I remember when I would climb up on the tree and just watch her all night, sometimes crawl in through the open, inviting window and sit, just like I'm doing now and watch her until before the sun would rise.

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[womansized]

I'd been sleeping in Angel's bed again. After the first night staying in the hotel I'd gotten used to staying in his bed. After spending weeks upon weeks living in a house packed to the max with mini slayers I just couldn't get comfortable in a big empty hotel. Everytime I turned around I was afraid I'd see her, my mother. Except it wasn't really my mother, it was just The First trying to get under my skin. Not that I was important, not important like Buffy anyway. If I was I wouldn't be in L.A. being babysat by Angel, instead I'd be in Sunnydale where I belonged with my friends and my sister. I still had no idea what was going on there.

Angel had been nice though, and over the days we at least had settled on something of a rapport with eachother that didn't consist of me babbling endlessly and him pretending that he cared about what I was talking about. I was pretty sure I'd even gotten him to smile at a couple of my lame jokes. I wondered if Buffy ever got him to smile when they were together. I was so young back then but all I remembered from the two of them was pain, pain and more pain.

When I opened my eyes to stare at Angel's ceiling like I did every morning I was surprised to see a pair of familiar green eyes gazing down at me. Buffy? Was I dreaming? Maybe I should pinch myself like they do in the movies? No, that would probably hurt.

"Buffy?!" I exclaimed flying out of bed to wrap my arms around her all too thin form. But instead I found myself facing a face full of wall. What? Painfully I stood back up only to see Buffy looking up at me with a cruel smile on her face. She wasn't Buffy at all. Taking a few steps back I was about to say something to her when suddenly the room was flooded with Bringers.

"ANGEL!" I screamed, as I narrowly avoided making direct contact with one of their knives. "Angel!" If only I had a weapon. Hey, I was sometimes known to kill a Bringer or two when I had to.

[__angel]

I could hear her screaming for me as I got hit in the back and I went down. Three of them were on me, holding me back as I tried to get away and eventually? I did. Breaking necks as I went, I finally managed to break away and run upstairs to her room that she was sleeping in before all of this madness began. Walked into the room as a couple of bringers tried to hold her down, but she was screaming at the top of her lungs, kicking and punching her way, trying to get out of it.

Grabbed one of them and flew him off and I heard the crack as he hit the wall with force. Went to grab for Dawn, but two of them got on top of me, knocking my face into the corner of the nightstand and then I went down.

"She's ours, Champion. You wouldn't know what to do with a soul like that," I heard it say with Buffy's voice. Pushing myself off the floor, I got up, staring face to face with the woman that I ... love, but it wasn't her. Just a figment.

"Don't look at me like that," it spat and then glanced at Dawn. "You can't save her, her time will come, one way or another."

Narrowing my eyes, I turned around, breaking free of the two robed men that were holding me and grabbed them both by the neck and bringing them together, practically smashing their faces in.

"Not on my watch," I muttered and went for Dawn again. All I heard was a giggle as I did so.

[womansized]

Breathing hard I tried to wrench away from them as they grabbed my arms and twisted them behind my back, holding me in place. There was so many of them, and I'd fought them before but I'd always had Buffy and Xander and Willow and a ton of potential slayers around helping me. Now I just had Angel, and I could hear him fighting trying to get away from them as The First taunted him in Buffy's voice. That was my sister, and it made me so angry knowing that The First was using my sister to get at me. Why would they come for me anyway? I wasn't important, I wasn't Buffy, I wasn't a slayer, I was just Dawn. The only thing I ever slayed was the coffee table one time when I fell on it and it splinted in half. Dawn the coffee table slayer, people weren't exactly lining up for that.

"Angel!" I yelled again as he grabbed for me, his fingertips grazing my arm as they pulled him back again into the swarm. More of the Bringers grabbed onto me, and Isquirmed and kicked and screamed trying to get free but there were too many of them.

"Don't worry, Dawnie." Buffy said in a cruel voice as she walked around to stand in front of me. "It won't hurt for long." She smiled again, like something cold settling across my skin reminding me of how much I missed my sister. And a part of me blamed her for this because she sent me away. She sent me away and Angel coudn't protect me, even though she could. She could protect me and she still sent me away, and maybe it was unfair because she'd already spent so long protecting me but...she was Buffy. That was what she did.

"Don't look like her." I said in a low angry voice, seething as I watched more Bringers jump on Angel on the other side of the room. For every neck he snapped five more of them joined the struggle. "Stop it!" I tensed up my jaw and clenched my teeth as I turned back to The First. "DON'T LOOK LIKE HER!" I screamed.

"Fine, have it your way." Buffy rolled her eyes before her form began to shift and change right in front of me. Into a slightly larger, more round and maternal figure. Tara. My eyes widened and I could feel the sting of tears behind them just thinking about Tara. God, I missed her so much. "Say goodnight, Dawn." She said sweetly just as I felt something sharp stab into my chest. My mouth fell open, gaping as I glanced down and noticed the pool of blood collecting on my shirt. One of the Bringer's had stabbed me...right through the heart.

A million thoughts went through my mind as I fell to the ground. How many things I wanted to say to Buffy, how I wanted to tell her that even though I wasn't real? She'd always been real to me. She'd always be my hero. Crumpled on the ground I felt everything grow hazy and dim until it faded into blackness.

[__angel]

They kept on coming at me and no matter what I did, I couldn't stop it. I couldn't protect her. I tried. I'd grab her only to get thrown to the ground again and I wondered why they haven't staked me yet. That was surprising. My game face on, I threw them off one by one and got back on my feet. Just in time to see the knife go right though her ... heart.

I couldn't find any words to say. She just ... fell. She didn't have a heartbeat anymore. It was too late. She died. All of the bringers turned to me and my eyes flashed yellow as one by one, I took them out until it wasn't soon after that there were nothing but bringers all around, all over the bedroom floor. Turning back to my human face, I kept my eyes on Dawn as she lay on the ground where she fell.

"You think you'll win. Well, I think you just lost," Jenny said behind me. I remember her voice, I remember ... everything.

"Tisk, tisk. The Slayers going to get you now, Daddy. Whatever shall you do?" Dru sing-songed. I ignored her and got down on my knee's, picking up her body and holding her close. I had to call Buffy. I had to tell her what happened. I just ... I had to leave.

Carrying her to the next room, I laid her on the bed, then looked down at my hands covered in her blood. So tempting, so ...

Quickly, I ran to the bathroom and turned the shower on, ripping off my shirt and clothes. I had to get it off or else I wasn't sure what I was going to do.

[womansized]

I didn't know where I went, but there was just nothing there. I tried to call out for Buffy, the real Buffy but I couldn't make any sound, I couldn't do anything. It was like I was just...lost for a minute. Was I dead? I could still feel the stinging burn of a knife through the chest, and so I was pretty sure I was dead. Most people didn't survive knife attacks to the heart, unless you were Spike or something and tried to cut your own heart out. But I wasn't a vampire, so I was dead. That was it...the end.

Then suddenly I felt this burning heat all around my body. My eyes went wide as the blackness fell away to green, nothing but bright green all around me. I could feel everything, but I was dead so how could I feel anything? The entire world felt like it was on fire, and I opened my mouth to scream but nothing came out. What was happening? It didn't hurt it was just...weird.

Finally I opened my eyes just as an inky green film washed away from my vision. I was laying in a room, in the hotel. Laying on a mattress, and I could hear water running in the next room. With wide eyes, I was still breathing hard as I glanced down and realized the front of my shirt was completely soaked in blood. Instantly I pulled my shirt up and saw a big dark stain of blood just above my left breast. I had gotten stabbed, but now there was nothing. No gaping stab wound, no scar...nothing.

What was going on?

Now I was scared, and I quickly pushed myself off the bed and looked around. Where was Angel? Did the Bringers get him? The last thing I remembered seeing was him, desperately trying to claw the bringer off of him. Desperately trying to save me. Just like Buffy always did before him.

Walking slowly to the bathroom I gently pushed the door open and now I could hear the shower running. Swallowing hard I looked around for a weapon but all I saw was the toilet plunger. Grabbing it in one hand, I slowly crept to the shower curtain. This was just like that movie Psycho that Buffy never wanted me to watch.

My hand moved slowly to the edge of the curtain and it was almost there when it suddenly flew open. I jumped and screamed, as I suddenly became aware that I was staring at Angel. And he was naked.

[__angel]

I had to get it all off, her blood was all around and even though I have a soul? I am still a vampire. It's tempting and wrong. It's Buffy's sister. The girl that I was supposed to protect, the girl that ... I didn't protect. Not like I was supposed to. I let ... she died, right in front of me and I didn't do anything to stop it, it just happened. My skin was starting to get raw, if it could anyway from the sponge that I was using against it to scrub the blood off.

Closing my eyes, I let the water fall over me and rinse me off, I knew that I'd have to do the same thing to Dawn and therefore, I'd get her blood on me.

Again.

I stopped moving however, when I heard someone walking into the bathroom. I dropped the sponge and moved toward the end of the shower, waiting, then suddenly threw it open and stood there, my eyes narrowed. The First? Again? Reaching out, I shoved Dawn and she went flying into the counter.

"Fuck, how ... what? Sorry," I said and then swallowed hard watching her before looking down at myself.

"Oh crap."

[womansized]

I didn't have time to react as his hand suddenly shot out with alot of force and I found myself shoved straight into the cabinet. My back hit it hard and I fell to the ground before looking up at him with wide eyes. He was still naked, but I was hardly even noticing the naked part anymore. Mostly I was just...scared, even though I knew why he did that. He shoved me to see if I was The First Evil. He must have carried me in from the other room thinking I was dead. I was dead, except I wasn't. I didn't understand.

I thought about crying, I wanted to cry but I couldn't make the tears come. Instead I gave him a hollow look before glancing down at my chest again.

"There's so much blood." At least I had my answer about whether I was real or not. I was real, I was more real than anything I'd ever met before, because I'd been dead and now I was back. Because I was the key and the key was immortal. It was weird that I'd never thought of that possibility before.

"I was dead....I was dead, wasn't I?" I asked numbly, looking back up at Angel. Blood stained my skin everywhere I looked. Red blood on the palms of my hands, I could feel it sticky on my face. Who knew you could bleed so much if you were a key. Not that I was bleeding anymore, now I was just....alive again.

[__angel]

She was still alive and it was really her. And? I just shoved her into a cabinet. Stepping out of the shower, I grabbed a towel quickly and wrapped it around me and just watched her as she looked at her shirt. Blood. It was still around, but the temptation was long gone by now. I was just grateful that she was alive. But how? I didn't understand it.

"Yeah. You were," I said and walked toward her. "I ... I won't hurt you, come here," I whispered and helped her up, then helped her to the bedroom, both of us sitting down on the bed. What was I going to tell Buffy? That she died and now she was alive.

I got up from the bed and got a wash cloth, wetting it, then came back. I sat back down next to her and looked her over before I started to wipe at the blood, getting it all off. I had no idea why they would come for her, no idea at all. But they did, and they killed her, but now she was here.

"How ... I mean, this is ... well, not interesting, but in a way, it is," I said evenly as I wiped her face.

[womansized]

I just sat there as he wiped the blood up from my shirt, and all over my hands and arms, finally my face. I was really really dead, I'd felt my heart stop. "The key, it's immortal. I don't know why I'd never figured this out before." I explained to him as he continued to trail the wet cloth across my forehead. "I'm the key so...." Suddenly the full weight of what I had just been faced with hit me. Instinctively I pushed his hand with the cloth away from my face and narrowed my eyes. "I can't die...I'm going to live forever."

I'd done more than enough research on the key, and I know that Giles and Buffy and Willow and Tara had too. How did we not know that I couldn't die? Part of me was so completely overjoyed at the fact that I could run outside and throw myself off of the roof, hit the pavement and get back up again. But the other part saw the grim reality of being immortal. I would have to live forever and watch everyone else die. Just like Spike did. Just like Angel did.

Standing up I picked up a shirt from my suitcase and headed back into the bathroom. Without another word I closed the door behind me and stripped off the other shirt. It was still sticky, clinging to my skin as I peeled it off. That was when the tears came, pouring out of my eyes as I tossed the stained shirt inot a ball in the corner of the bathroom. Sobbing I pulled the new shirt down over me, and pulled long dark hair from around the collar.

Walking to the sink I looked into the mirror and wiped away tears with the back of my hand. Suddenly an image caught my eye and made me jump. Buffy's face in the mirror.

"I thought you might do that." She said and smiled as I turned around quickly.

[__angel]

She ... was immortal, which just like she said, it meant that she couldn't die. She pushed my hand away and got up, getting another shirt before going into the bathroom. What were we going to do now? I guess I'd call Buffy - the real Buffy and tell her what was going on, either that or way until Buffy came here to get her.

Sighing, I got up from the bed and ran a hand over my face, pausing when I heard voices in the bathroom. Buffy's voice.

Moving quickly, I opened the door to an upset Dawn and ... nothing. I didn't see anything. Was I hearing things? Of course she'd be upset because of the finding out that she's immortal.

"Sorry, I thought I heard something," I said and looked her over, wiping the tears going down her face. Turning around, I opened the door to walk out and back to the bedroom.

[womansized]

I turned around quickly when Angel opened the door and it only took me a second to realize that The First had disappeared too. It thought might do that? Was that all just a test? That was why it was here? To see if I could die or not? How had The First evil known that I was immortal when I had no idea at all?

Angel apologized and disappeared again as I wiped the remaining tears from my face. This was no big deal right? So I was going to live forever. That was pretty cool because I'd never really get that sick and I didn't have to worry about dying in a car crash or falling off of a roof, or having some vampire try and kill me. It also meant watching all the people I loved die and knowing that I was always going to still be here. Just like Spike did. And that made me think about Mom and how hard it had been to watch her die. Abotu watching Buffy die, and Tara. Was it ever going to get any easier?

With a deep breath I walked back out into the main room where Angel had already pulled on pants and a shirt. Darn. He was fast. Too bad I didn't have any superpowers to go along with my brand spanking new immortality.

I was about to say something to him when I heard a scratch on the wall in the hallway. He heard it too cause he instantly turned his head towards the door. Then just like that, they were back again. Bringers scurrying into the room. But why would they be after me? They couldn't kill me, unless they just wanted to drag me off and keep me in hell somewhere. Oh God.

Angel's hand clamped down around my arm and before I knew it he was half dragging me into another room, and then another and another with Bringers right on our tail. Where were we going?

[__angel]

I stood up from the bed, pacing a bit and waiting for her to come out. I imagine that she'll have questions about all of this and considering that I'm a vampire and can't die ... well, not really, that she'll have questions to ask me. What was I supposed to say? How was I going to answer her? This was getting really complicated. All I did was sign on to babysit and already, she's died. I just ... I didn't want to see Buffy now.

She came out and I stared at her as she walked. Then we heard it, the scratching and then the rumbling. I reached out, pulling her closer to me and holding onto her arm. "Come on," I said and took off with her in tow. I wasn't sure what they were planning, but they weren't going to get her away from me. Not again.

Ran through some room that I knew were connected before we had to get back onto the hallway. We took the stairs down and finally we were in the basement. I looked around quickly before dragging her toward the back window that led out to the alley. "We're going in the sewers," I said and opened the door, getting out of the hotel.

[womansized]

I followed him down into the sewers and immediately made an ick face when I saw all the slime and sludge. I could feel it slick under my shoes as Angel led me further into the sewers and away from the hotel. Maybe we were safe down here, and those Bringers couldn't get down here? I wasn't sure what we were doing down here other then getting away. Why? They couldnt' kill us. Well, I guess they could stake Angel or chop off his head or something. I'd hate to have to tell Buffy that her ex-boyfriend turned into dust trying to protect me when I didn't even need protecting! They couldn't even kill me. The problem was, The First seemed to know that. She was testing me, and I didn't know why.

"Do you think they'll follow us down here?" I asked quietly and as if an answer to my question I heard the door open and bang shut again. My eyes widened as Angel pulled me into a side tunnel. The two of us were so quiet I could hear my heart beating. It didn't sound like Bringers, just like one thing moving through the sewers at a steady pace.

Suddenly we were both faced with the scariest thing I had ever seen next to Glory. An uber vamp.

"Oh no." I breathed out as Angel pushed me behind him. Why did he do that? It couldn't kill me. Or maybe I had a special way to die just like vampires did, like the ubervamp had to chop off my head or something. I needed to do more research on the key.

[__angel]

Of course they would follow us, this just seemed like a good idea since I couldn't go outside. I'd rather not be dust this early in the morning. I pulled her along the sewer and I could hear her making noises behind me. I was used to it, it didn't bother me. That much.

I heard something and pulled her into a side tunnel, holding her to me. Brought my finger to my lips and I could hear her heart pounding in her chest, so hard. Next thing I knew we were face with an ... what the hell is that?

Pushing Dawn behind me, I was met with a hand around my neck, squeezing hard enough to pop off before I was thrown into a wall. Falling in the water, I got back up, holding onto my neck before charging after this thing. Knocked him into the wall but he just turned around, heading toward me.

"Dawn. Run. NOW!"

[womansized]

I took a few steps backwards as the ubervamp grabbed Angel by the throat and knocked him into a wall. My eyes widened as it looked down at me and I took a few careful steps back as Angel climbed back up to his feet and charged straight into the ubervamp. I still remembered what one of these things had done to Buffy. I really didn't think she was going to make it for a little while and now it was after Angel. Okay, he was immortal, I was immortal unlike my big sister but still. I liked having all of my limbs attached to my body, and I kind of liked Angel with all of his too.

Run? I snapped my attention to Angel as he and the ubervamp kept fighting. And by fighting I mean that Angel was getting beat up pretty bad and I just kept thinking about Buffy. About how she thought I was weak and needed protecting, about how sometimes? Buffy was the one who needed protecting. The world wasn't always a nice place and I wasn't a little kid anymore. I was ready for it.

"I'm not leaving you here." I insisted as Angel got thrown into a wall again.

Running down the length of the tunnel I turned back around in time to see the uber vamp pounding Angel with it's fists. "Hey!" I yelled loudly, almost stumbling over a sword that someone must have dropped when they were fighting something down here. Probably Angel. I mean who else would have a sword in the sewer? "HEY!" I screamed again trying to distract the ubervamp away from Angel. I suddenly realized that the ubervamp wasn't here for me, it was here for him. It was going to kill him so the Bringers could get at me...again. I'd already died once today, and I wasn't about to do it again.

Running towards Angel, the ubervamp had it's arm locked tightly around Angel's throat with his back to me. With an angry cry I slammed the sword into the ubervamp's back. He let out a loud angry cry and turned around, backhanding me into the wall. But at least he let go of Angel.