August 2 "Lock and Key" (Buffy/Fringe)
Title: Under Lock and Key
Author: phantompopcorn / LVB
Summary: Magic may be gone but now Dawn is the key that has a lock that doesn't set the world on fire. What she didn't expect to see was bronze statues and people dying in amber in the streets of a zeppelin-filled alternate New York City.
Crossover: Fringe
Characters: Dawn (Dawn/Xander and appearances by Buffy, Willow, Alt!Livia and Alt!Lincoln)
Rating: Teen
Warnings: Spoilers for the Buffy Comics S8 and S2 of Fringe
Word Count: 1,257
Timeline: The end of Buffy Comics S8 and sometime before the end of S2 in the Red!Verse of Fringe
A/N: Story #2 in 'Cross My Heart' and Part 1 of loosely related Dawn one-shots.
A/N #2: SPOILERISH. In this AU, magic is gone but Willow has helped Dawn connect to her inner Key. She can now open portals and is in search of magic. She and Xander are in a relationship.
Disclaimer: I hereby state that I do not own anything appearing in these stories. I am not making any profit from this. All rights reserved.
“Are you sure this is a good idea? I mean, weren’t you happier being The Dawnster, college student and all-round eyepatch enthusiast?”
There was no denying she was an eye-patch enthusiast. Really, she was pro eye-patch and eye-patch wearing boyfriends. But there was more to this than Xander’s fear at being the only one left standing in the normal zone.
Magic was gone and she was all that was left. The seed was broken and then suddenly, her body hummed and every cell was on fire. She had taken the written and passed the practical with Willow and now she was ready.
Buffy was in the corner, trying not to cry. Willow was looking at her with longing in her eyes. And then there was Xander.
“I’ll still be an eye-patch enthusiast when I come back,” Dawn replied. “I’ll even play pirates with you.”
She saw Buffy and Willow look startled. She rolled her eyes. “You’re both disgusting. We have fake swords and I wear an eye-patch and...”
She choked up and squeezed Xander’s hand. “And we were going to buy a parrot.” She frowned.
“You can always buy one while I’m gone, Keep you company?”
Willow brightened. “Yeah! I can come and feed it and teach it to say neat things...”
Xander shook his head. “We’ll buy one when you get back.”
She looked at her watch. Sixty seconds. Willow had taught her how to recognise the signs so the watch didn’t help so much as match her perky outfit. She had Willow’s spellbook, Mr Pointy and well, something special Xander had given her the night before.
Willow was starting to make with the weepy now. “Be safe. I mean, look around and don’t get into trouble and brush your teeth, even if the new dimension is all anti-toothbrush and bad oral hygiene.”
She rushed into Dawn’s arms. “I’ll wait for you in the spot.”
And then there was Buffy with the arms and the slayer strength. Dawn should have been used to it by now but the arms were slowly crushing her. “Um, Buffy? Magic key and all but I’m still all squishy and making with the ouchies.”
Buffy pulled back and wiped away her tears. “Just...if you see the bad guy, run! Or don’t go , even. That’s better. Stay here with the lack of magic and the safety and the lack of end of worldness.”
Willow flinched and Xander looked away. “I’ll be fine. I love you guys but you know I have to go. I’m the key and now I open things without the hellgods or extreme sister death thing. I’ll be at the checkpoint.”
She looked at Xander. But before she could open her mouth to say anything, she lost focus and everything around her spun. She passed through her realm and felt her body leave the world without magic.
..
The first thing that Dawn noticed was that the sky was a different colour. It took a few seconds for her body to reintegrate. She had expected all kinds of fire and brimstone. She remembered stories Connor had told her over hushed tones and that Angel had reluctantly shared through emails hidden away from Buffy’s prying eyes.
Hell was many different forms but she hadn’t expected it to look so similar. It was her world, but not. The first tip off was the smell which confirmed that she was in some strange version of New York City. She trod on sturdy road and in the distance saw it.
A bronze statue of liberty.
She hurried to get the magical artefacts out of her bag. Without magic, Willow had had a hard time getting the readings right. Her heart was pounding but as the weird blimp thingies rushed around in the still funky looking sky, Dawn knew the answer.
This world didn’t have any magic. It was plain and obvious. Everything felt too sterile. It was like The Initiative found a dimension and made it all science and boring. She knew one thing though-- this wasn’t her place.
Her next phase would happen only if she could concentrate. She looked around at the world. If there was no magic, there were probably no demons. Or vampires. Her thoughts wandered to Buffy and she thought about the life they might’ve had here amongst the blimps and wrong coloured statues and weird amber things with people in them.
She stopped and stared at the sight in front of her. Amber? And then suddenly, there were loud noises and in her experience, bad things usually followed. She knew she should run or hide or send her body phasing through to her second destination but it wasn’t happening. She was frozen.
She needed Buffy’s speed or Willow’s magic or Xander’s stupid bravery. She needed Xander. But she watched, cast in half shadow as people appeared in vans and cars, FRINGE DIVISION, emblazoned across them.
She’d never heard of it. Her flight instinct kicked in and she moved into the corner and tried to concentrate. It would take minutes to fire up, if she even could. She wasn’t sure if there would even be any residual magic to tap into.
This world looked drained.
“The amber hasn’t been touched,” a male voice said from around the corner. “I don’t get it.”
She snuck a peak around the corner as she felt her body hum. A group of people with guns and earpieces were looking at the amber. They looked at it as if it were nothing-- ordinary and commonplace. Dawn vaguely wondered whether the people staring out at them were even alive.
She wondered if they even cared.
“There’s been a breach,” the woman declared over the earpiece. “Portal’s been opened but there’s nothing here.”
There was a rustle amongst the other members. They stank of military. The woman frowned and the other guy, who was admittedly, kinda adorable in a military over-achiever and totally not Xander way, looked concerned as someone spoke to her over the weird looking earpiece.
Kinda like walkie talkie earrings, Dawn mused.
“Liv?”
“Boss says its a breach,” she started. “But not from Over There.”
Over where?
“Not from Over There? What the hell is he talking about?”
“Check the cameras and bring me the last scanned Show Mes from the area,” the woman barked. Dawn kept hidden because if there were portals and alarms and living dead people in amber, she was this year’s girl.
Her body began to hum and the Initiative-Army-Wannabes stood to attention.
“Shit, it’s happening again,” the man called. “Get the amber ready!”
Now there were guns and howling and over the mess, Dawn heard the gun-toting ‘Liv’ say say something. “The kid?”
She whipped around and Dawn stopped breathing as the woman met her eyes. Buffy’s voice echoed in her head.
If you see the bad guy, run.
“Lee!” the woman screamed and then the woman wasn’t standing still anymore.
And then she ran, the Fringe Division hot in pursuit. Her body buzzed and as she turned the corner, her body ran hot and cold.
She felt the bullet go past her ear and then, her body went to nothing again. It took her a few moments but then, as if it hadn’t been only minutes since she had left the comfort of her own dimension with no magic and sister slayers and one-eyed boyfriends, she reintegrated with ease.
This was place was dark. She opened her eyes and sure enough, klaxons sounded.
TBC