Chapter One

All the Buffy characters belong to Joss Whedon. The original characters belong to me. The lyrics to "You Know You're Right" belongs to whoever owns the song.





Dawn ran away from the vampire as fast as she could. Honestly, knowing all she did about Sunnydale's night life, you think she would have to sense not to go out alone. But no, she had to be rebellious and defy Buffy. Now she was regretting that decision more than anyone could possibly understand.

She ran into a nearby alley. She ducked behind the dumpster. She couldn't run anymore. She saw a broken piece of wood on the ground. She picked it up and held it tight. She was all alone now and there was nobody that could help her.

A voice in the shadows nearly made her scream. "I will never follow you. I will never promise to. I will never follow you. I will never bother to."

A woman and a boy stepped out of the shadows. The woman had long black hair and dark eyes. She was very tall and the way she dressed reminded Dawn of Faith. She looked to be in about her early twenties. The boy couldn't have been older than eleven. He looked a lot like the woman; the difference was only obvious in his nose and his mouth.

The woman smiled at Dawn. "Never speak a word again. I will crawl away for good."

"Jackie stop it," the boy said in exasperation. "You're scaring her."

Jackie ignored him. She got down on her hands and knees. "You're green," she said to Dawn. "A bright shiny green."

Dawn shrank away. Jackie either knew she was the Key or could sense it. This wasn't going to end well.

"Jackie act normal," the boy ordered. He stomped his foot and crossed his arms. "I know you can, so stop acting like you belong in some nuthouse."

His words finally seemed to get through to Jackie. "Why do you always spoil my fun Charlie?" she asked. She got back up to her feet. "Maybe I wanted to play with the locals."

"Where are you little girl? I just want to play."

Dawn stifled down a groan. The vampire had caught up with her. She looked up at Jackie and Charlie and saw that they were grinning. For some reason that sent chills down her spine.

"Well lookie here," the vampire drawled out. He had come into the alley and was facing off with Jackie. "Looks like I get some side dishes too."

Jackie cocked her head to the side. She opened her mouth and started to sing again. "I will move away from here. You won't be afraid of fear. No thought was put into this. I always knew it would come to this. Things have never been so swell. I have never failed to fail." She stopped and started laughing. "I'm sorry. My mind kind of gets away from me sometimes. Insanity kind of runs in my family."

"I'm not insane," Charlie said.

"Not yet," Jackie replied. "But trust me little man, you'll get there." She turned her attention back to the vampire. "I'm sorry, what were we talking about?"

The vampire was looking at Jackie like she had gone insane. Dawn suspected that wasn't too far from the truth. He seemed very hesitant to attack Jackie. Finally his stomach won the battle against his brain. He lunged at Jackie. She caught him with one hand and slammed him against the wall. "Stupid little thing," she purred. She held his face in her hands and kissed him on the forehead.

It took Dawn a minute to realize that the Jackie's touch was actually incinerating the vampire. Even when she did realize it, she was too shocked to do anything. She watched the vampire turn to dust in a state of half awe, half fear. She was scared because she had no way of knowing that Jackie wouldn't do the same thing to her.

Charlie came over to her. "Run home," he told her. He patted her on the head, and only grinned when she shrank away from her. "See you soon." He jumped on to Jackie's back and they were gone as suddenly as they appeared.