Title: Key to Every Lock

Rating: PG-13 (Will go up)

Disclaimer: Not mine. Crap.

AN: I got some review about my spelling and grammer, which albeit is pretty horrible, but I could of sworn I hit spell checked. Anyways, as it turned out I downloaded my first draft. Here's the cleaned up version...lol. Enjoy!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The funeral was set in Sunnydale. There was a grim appropriateness to it. The day was as oppressing and as sad as any day of death could be. The sky was painted a dull gray and the weather seemed to be taking a break from it's usual sunny disposition to mourn the loss of one of it's greatest heroes.

Dawn Summers stood at the grave, looking at it with hollow eyes. It was drizzling steadily, making the stiff cotton stick to her skin and itch the hell out of her. Her hair was curling with the humidity, falling irritably into her eyes.

Of course she didn't notice any of those things.

It was all inconsequential. The world could of imploded right before her eyes and she wouldn't flinch. Her world was already gone. Once again, Buffy Summers was dead. And this time she would stay dead.

Three times the charm, right? Well it seemed so.

Stupid, arrogant slayer. Just because Willow had woken up the potential in all the slayers didn't mean that demons still wouldn't gun for the head honcho. Buffy was THE slayer. Prize of the prizes. But no, she had fallen in a false sense of security and had let her guard down.

I hate you..

But who cared now! There were plenty of slayers running around to keep evil in check. Who cared, who cared.

I HATE YOU!

She stood stiffly there, loathing her sister with every fiber of her being. She left...again! Left her sister alone to face the world. The others, they wouldn't be there. They would go back to their lives in their parts of the world and leave her alone. The was no Scooby Gang anymore, there was the Watcher's Council, connecting their lives by a thin string. And now the central figure of the WC was dead.

"I hate you..." it came out as a broken whisper. If anyone heard her they didn't say anything. Perhaps too wrapped up in their own grief or perhaps knowing how this scene would end.

Dawn dropped to her knees, the wet grass dampening her dress. She realized distractedly that this was the third time she's worn this dress. First at Mom's funeral, then at Buffy's first. It was tight around the bust and hips, and shorter then it had once been.

Suddenly she hated this dress with a fiery passion and promised herself that she would burn it when she got home. Next person who died, she would go to the funeral naked.

Died.

Her hand clutched convulsively around the grass, her fingers digging into the soil. Damn you! It wasn't supposed to hurt this much the second time. It seemed to hurt even worse! Dawn had seen it all happen...

***********FLASHBACK***************

"Buffy! You promised I could patrol with you tonight..." came Dawn's voice, making sure it was as whiny as she could possibly make it.

Buffy admonished her sister with an annoyed look. "It's just routine, you'll probably get bored." Her and a few slayers were going to patrol a few of Rome's hot spot, some unusual demon activity was reported in some areas.

"Come on... Giles said I had to get more field work in if I wanted to join the Council. Besides, I don't have school tomorrow. Please!" She put on her best pout, one that would break the most jaded of people.

Luckily it seemed to work before her sister smile. "Fine, but don't expect too much action tonight."

Who knew they would be so wrong...

Three slayers had accompanied them to an abandoned warhorse where the supposed demon activity was happening. Buffy's expression was on of pure annoyance, "What a joke. Remind me to beat up Antonio for the crappy info." she said into the empty room.

A few slayers snickered but Dawn stayed silent, something felt very off about her room. Buffy seemed to notice it about the same time Dawn did because the sister's suddenly locked eyes, silently communicating something to each other.

"Out. Now." Buffy said tensely but quietly. The slayers seemed confused, looking at each other...but they knew when to take orders. Unfortunately it was too late because there was the foreboding sound of a door being shut and bolted.

Dawn's hand instantly when to her dagger sheath. She had never been too strong, not in a slayer's sense anyways. But she was fast and really handy with a dagger. Buffy cursed under her breath and looked around for any signs of attack.

But there were none. The room was completely silent.

Suddenly Dawn heard a click, swish, and thud.

Marie, a 15 year old slayer that had a passion for horse back riding looked down to see an arrow sticking out of her chest. A slightly confused expression crossed her face before uttering a slight 'oh' and collapsing to the floor.

Then chaos erupted.

Arrows came out of nowhere, picking slayers off like deer. Dawn quickly ducked and looked up, noticing that none of the arrows were being flung at her sister. She was standing there completely dumbfounded while her slayers were being killed.

Suddenly Buffy was destruction in motion, throwing her dagger in a random direction. Though it didn't seem so random because there was a cry of pain and a body falling out of it's hiding place. She took out her own crossbow and killed the rest of the arrow wielders in fluid motions.

Suddenly everything was dead silent. Dawn realized that she and her sister were the only ones alive. She didn't have time to mourn any of their deaths because a leathery claw wrapped itself around her mouth and the cold steel of a knife caressed the skin of her neck. She didn't she her attacker but she saw Buffy stiffen, perhaps in fear or perhaps in rage.

"Slayer..." it hissed in a totally cliche manner.

Buffy's eyes narrowed, "What do you want?" she was careful not to make any sudden movements as she watched the knife at Dawn's throat wearily.

"You. Dead at my hands. The greatest victory any could ever imagine." it's voice was very gurgly, almost like it's throat was full of pus.

Ick! What exactly was holding her? She craned her neck to the side, trying to catch a glimpse and suddenly wished she hadn't. One of the ugliest things she had ever seen. And she had seen pretty fugly things in her time. Green and moldy, entire mass of his excessively large body seemed to be made of green sludge.

Eww much.

Buffy's eyes were very cold, eyes of a killer. Dawn almost felt sorry for it. Almost. "You wanna kill me? Fine. Take a number pal. But touching my sister is the first and last mistake you will ever make." her voice was low and emotionless.

It made Dawn shiver.

The thing suddenly laughed a gurgly, disgusting laugh. "Admirable, as I said, my greatest victory ever."

Dawn was suddenly flung away, her head hitting the brick wall...her vision swam for a moment. The fight was over very fast as Dawn expected it to be. There was a flash of swords and weapons glinting in the dim light and then there was the sickening noise of metal entering flesh, or in his case...sludge.

Buffy turned to a dazed Dawn wiping the sludge off her hand on her brand new jeans. Stupid demon. "They should really learn by n..." she started to quip but stopped when she saw the horror written on Dawn's face.

It happened all so slow, which was surprising because usually Buffy was so quick. Her head turned, fists raised to defend herself...but it was too late, a claw reached across her throat quickly swiping across.

At first Dawn didn't see anything and breathed in a sigh of relief. The stupid thing had missed. Buffy looked at Dawn as if to say something but instead clutched at her throat. It wasn't like in the movies. Blood didn't spray everywhere in a wicked attempt to gross out the audience. It trickled silently and deadly.

The demon had finally collapsed, truly dead after doing the dead he had set out to do.

Dawn lurched over towards Buffy who had fallen to her knees. Buffy's haunting green eyes were widened with fear and Dawn realized something. Buffy was truly afraid of dying again. Dawn cradled her sister in her arms, screaming for help.

She called to the other in her mind. Tried desperately to reach Willow through a telepathic connection. She reached within her own magic, racked her mind of all the spells Willow had taught her.

She had to save her.

Had to save her.

She was rocking her sister gently in her arms. "Can't die. Can't die. Can't die." she said over and over again.

She was broken out of her thoughts by a cold wet hand touching her face. She looked down at her sister who had touched a hand to her cheek. She couldn't talk but all she had to say was in her eyes.

Love, resignation...and forgiveness?

She must of died within minutes, but it seemed like an eternity. When it finally happened Dawn looked down in absolute shock. No, it couldn't be. She refused to except it.

She shook her sister violently, getting nothing in response. Her mouth opened in a wordless scream but realized she couldn't do it. She couldn't do anything.

The next day when they finally found her in the locked room she was still clutching her sister's long cold body, throughout the night she had not shed a single tear.

****************FLASHBACK***********

Dawn stood up, her eyes growing cold at the sight of the grave. She hadn't cried yet and she knew the others were worried. Not healthy you see. If you don't cry it supposedly is a sign of deep shock.

Well, fuck shock.

She turned her head towards the others, some of them flinching under her heated gaze. Willow, Giles, and Xander were in a group by themselves. Each of them sharing their grief, giving strength to each other.

Willow stood weeping on Xander's shoulder, she blamed herself more then anyone else. She had been in the astro plane during the attack and couldn't be reached if Dawn had even succeeded. Dawn said nothing to ease her pain, let her think what she wants...if she truly blamed herself then that was fine.

Xander seemed strangely stoic through all of it, his one eye sad but steady as he held onto Willow. He looked at Dawn for a moment, held her gaze, met her fury with steadiness. Well, well, well, it finally looked someone became a grown up.

Giles was off in his own little world somewhere. Losing a daughter was never easy, but losing her twice must be harder. His usual clear blue eyes held some sign of haziness, as if he didn't know where he was.

Faith was standing next to Wood, her face impassive but the pain was raw in her eyes. Dawn didn't know what her reaction was when she first heard that Buffy was dead, but she knew that the girl was deeply hurt now.

Angel was standing away from everyone else. He and his crew, which consisted of pretty much just a weird looking blue lady that she had dubbed Smurfette, had shone up a few days ago for the funeral. Speaking of which, her eyes looked coolly at someone who definitely did not belong here.

Spike stood closest to her though he didn't talk to her. He looked at Buffy's grave, deeply despaired as it seemed. Suddenly he realized someone was watching him and he turned his head to look at her. He must of seen something in her eyes because he flinched ever so slightly. She took deep sadistic pleasure in that.

He looked back at her with those oh-so-wounded eyes, "I'm sorry." he said in his oh-so-wounded voice.

Fury sparked in her eyes, her tongue lashing before she even thought. "Sorry for what Spike? Sorry that's she's dead or sorry you didn't think we were worthy enough to know you were back?" she questioned, unable to keep the bitterness out of her voice.

It hurt her, more then she would ever let on, that he didn't tell us he was alive. He had been her best friend and confidant once upon a time, now it seemed all she could muster to feel for him was anger. He didn't respond, just lowered his head in some sort of defeat.

Congratulations, you just became Angel's clone. He had the brooding and wounded act perfectly.

Speaking of the vampire, she turned to look at him. His dark eyes unreadable, he looked at the grave, to Spike, to Dawn, back to the grave.

Dawn's jaw clenched, she was just so...mad. And she didn't know at what. She clenched her first, trying to control her anger and hate.

"I know you're hurt, I know you're trying to lash out." he sounded so comforting and soothing, making her hate him even more.

Suddenly her mind became nothing but white noise, like what you hear when your TV's been disconnected. Her hands tightened as she looked at Spike with an eerily calm look. "No Spike, lashing out would be like this." before he even saw it coming her fist flew and hit him squarely on the jaw.

His head slightly jerked and his eyes flashed for a moment. And for a second, just a brief millisecond, she wished he would forget his soul and attack her. Instead he touched his jaw tentatively.

Her lip curled, he was such a baby, it probably hurt her more then it hurt him. Speaking of which, she looked down at her hand. Nothing felt particularly broken but it hurt like hell.

The pain seemed to jar her back to reality. This wasn't just a horrible dream. It was real, very real. Her eyes seemed to burn and blur with something unfamiliar. Her body seemed to fold into herself as she fell to the ground, arms caught her right before she hit the earth (she had a sneaking suspicion that they were Spike's).

The earth began to tilt and seemed to shatter as she began to cry for the first time.