Glory and Dawn
Glorificus loved being back. And she'd found her Key. But the place was warded. So she took a pretty little cobra, and cloaked it, and sent it on a mission. Pretty soon, the snake returned to her. The mission complete.
---
Dawn sat next to her friends, just laughing and Talking. Tav was pissed off that she hadn't turned him back yet.
"It's only been two days. If you're nice to me, I might turn you back tonight," Dawn said, winking. She picked up her fork and shoveled the mashed potatoes into her mouth. They tasted slightly off, but they were still good. Suddenly, Dawn grew very pale, and her eyes widened.
"Food. . . spiked. . ." she choked out and then she fell backwards onto the floor, hitting her head against the linoleum.
Bastet's children
"DAWN!" Nyx screamed. Spike jumped to Dawn's side, picking her up.
"Bit?! C'mon bit, don't do this to us."
"JANUSZ! Help me heal your child!" Nyx put her hands on Dawn, trying to stem the flow of poison through the girl's system.
"Don't die, please don't die. NO ONE TOUCH THAT FOOD!" Spike was in gameface, and he snarled at the frightened studetns.
~*~*~*~
"Dawn!" Sabre cried out in Europe. "Oh, bloody hell, I can't get there in time!"
~*~*~*~
"Oh, I cannot go! I cannot! I durst not leave Glorificus unattended." Priss curled around herself and wept.
Faith and Paige
Faith's eyes widened. She felt her stomach wrenching, she had the worst feeling.
"Dawn."
Faith stumbled down to Paige, clutching her knife in her hand.
"I need you to orb me to that Mutant High."
Paige nodded, grabbed her hand and orbed them there. Paige orbed home again while Faith looked around. She could sense Dawn but couldn't quite find where.
Scott and Willow
Scott ran over instantly to his cousins side, just as Willow teleported inside.
"Oh God, what's happening?" Scott asked. "Oh God, please don't let her die, she's all I have left!"
"Nyx," Willow said. "I felt a pull on my bond with Dawn. What happened?" Willow asked, harshly, as she leant over to see if the girl was still breathing, which she was.
Nathan and Chelsea
Nathan walked over with Chelsea, the girl shaking hard. "In her food...poison. Thoughts of revenge," Nathan breathed.
"Willow, help me heal her. I don't know what this is. Nathan can you tell?"
"Something magic, and something not. Poison to the spirit and the body. Someone's tried this before..." Nathan patted Chelsea on the shoulder gently. "You go, little red. Don't want you meddling none in this." Chelsea fled to her room gratefully. "I see snakes."
Faith
Faith made her way to where she sensed Dawn.
"Red, what happened here?"
Dru and Rosemary
"Sabby," Dru cried. "The stars are sad. The pretty Key is hurting and she needs her Mummy. Can you take us?"
"Who is the Key?" Rosemary asked. "Is it something to eat?"
"She's my baby, my little one," Dru sang. "Oh, it's all wrong, the mean Glorificus hurt my baby, put nasty things in her food!"
Sabre
"Did she now?" Sabre's face was set in a feral snarl. "We go, Dru lovely? I can get us on a plane in ten minutes. We'll be there in the morning."
Willow and Scott
Willow smelt Dawn's breath and gasped. "Oh goddess, this is not good. Nyx, it's a mixture of cobra venom and Orpheus! Oh Hecate, we can't heal her if it's Orpheus," she shuddered. "It'll drag her down into hell." Scott gasped and picked his cousin up, carefully carrying her down to the medlab, holding her close to him.
"Don't die, Dawnie, I need you, baby, you're all I've got left!" He carefully laid her down on the hospital bed.
Willow
"Glory," Willow hissed. "Poisoned her food. Snake venom and Orpheus."
Nyx and Astrid
"We can. We will. We have to," Nyx said. Astrid appeared, wings hooded against her back.
"Sigurd says to look after the little key, ja? He is trying to gain the ear of Freya. Perhaps he can convince her to give us one of the Apples. If all comes to nothink, we can give her that." She saw Willow, and bowed. "Greetings, lady."
Faith
Faith groaned.
"Glory? Stupid hell bitch. Oh she'll pay."
Astrid
Astrid spread her wings in startled horror. "So, we do not only have Loki to fight, but Glorificus? Oh, the Norns are laughing."
Rosemary and Dru
"The stars sing that she will be alive tomorrow, so I suppose that will suffice."
"Mummy, why must we go now?" Rosemary asked, confused. Dru was wringing her hands and pacing back and forth, still in gameface. She looked at Sabre.
"Papa, what is going on?"
Willow
"Greeting, child," Willow kissed Astrid's forhead. "You have the blessing of a god on you. Sigurd is helping? Oh my. Well, Dawn will be happy, when we heal her, to know that all of the Heavens are looking after her. Bastet, Hecate, Diana, Sigurd, Januzs & Dagon. There is nobody, except for Loki and Glorificus that do not care for her." Willow breathed.
Spike
"Faith, what's happening in her mind. You survived Orpheus, you're the only one that has. What kind of battle is she facing?" Spike asked
Sabre and Rosemary
Sabre cuddled the Childe. "Dawn is a very special girl. Me and ye mam have promised to protect her." Sabre stroked Rosemary's hair. "Ye'll no bite her, and we'll be on our very best behaviour while we're there. No feeding."
"Oh, why?"
"Because we must'na. You'll be a good girl, and a credit to yer Sire."
Faith
Faith closed her eyes trying to remember.
"I'm thinking my battle was a bit different, because Angelus bit me, so our minds were melded as one. If Red's up to it, she could probably send me into Dawn's mind as a guardian?"
Faith opened her eyes and peered at Dawn. "She'll be reliving her life again... and if we don't do something soon, her sytems are just going to shut down, automatically."
Nyx
"Not if I can help it. I can't call Priss, because she must stay where she is to try and protect other innocents from Glory." Nyx placed her hands on Dawn's shoulders and closed her eyes. "Mother? I call thee now."
A small black pregnant cat appeared. My kitten?
Nyx raised her head and mewed at her mother. It's Glorificus.
Bastet spat angrily. I would tend to this myself, but I cannot face her with my kits. Pick me up, child. Astrid picked Bastet up and palced her on the ebd next to Dawn. Bastet started to purr.
Dru and Rosemary
"My sweet, even if you bite, you'll have only a sip before you fall asleep. Her blood is strong and old. Older than even your Papa's, and you remember what his tastes like," Dru said, remember the first time Rosemary had tasted Sabre's blood, and the incredible high she had felt before she lost consciousness. "She has more magick and chaos in her veins than all three of Bastet's children combined." Rosemary's eyes grew wide.
"But, my sweet, you shall meet your big brother William." Dru said, smiling. "Oh child, I was saving this for a later date, but you've earned this gift," she said, as she handed her childe a small jewely box. Rosemary opened it to find a ring of Amarra.
"Oh Mummy, it's just like yours!" she cried, slipping it on. "Now I can go out in the sun!" she sang.
Willow
Willow nodded. "I think I can do that, but Faith, if the battle is too fierce, we could lose you both. You know that if she dies, you'll die," Willow warned.
Faith
Faith shook her head trying to clear her thoughts.
"First rule of slaying... don't die."
Faith closed her eyes and then opened them a second later.
"It's a risk I'm willing to take."
Sabre
"And won't they envy me with such beautiful ladies on me arm?" sabre grinned, and then went to his computer. "Pack up your stuff." Rosemary did as she was bid, quickly packing up her and Dru's belongings. A few quick hacks later, they were booked on a plane heading express to New York. "Let's go, pets." Sabre closed his laptop and disconnected it.
Nyx
"I'm trying very ahrd to get the cobra poison out. If I draw it into myself..." Nyx mumured. "I think if I did that, drew it into me through our bloodlink..."
Dru and Rosemary
Dru ans Rosemary both took one of Sabre's arms as they settled into the plane.
"I really do not like these big birds, kitten, they are frightening."
Sabre and Rosemary
"Shh, lovely. I gotcha. My girls...would I let anything hurt my girls?" He pressed a kiss to Dru's forehead.
"I have never been out of my country. I can't wait to see America!" Rosemary was excited.
Dru
"Oh it's so pretty. Dark ad despairing. After we take care of Dawnie, we shall go to Cleveland. My Rosy must see a Hellmouth!"
Jean
"I think, I can help a bit," jean said, as she filled a syringe. "This isn't an antivenom, but it should strengthen her immune system so that she can fight the posion."
Sabre
"As ye wish. We can't stay at the Mansion overlong, anyway." They flew on to America.
Nathan and Nyx
"If you thikn that's best." Nyx blinked back tears an touched Dawn's face gently. "Don't die on us, Dawnie."
"It's sweeping through. Decide fast," Nathan warned.
Jean
Jean injected the medicine into Dawn's veins, as Willow chanted and Nyx drew the poison into herself.
Nyx
Nyx started to shake and Nathan caught her. "I'll be fine a few hours. For now, just let me sleep..." Nathan laid her on a bed, and then doubled over coughing.
"I will stay and watch. I can tell you what's happening clearly." Nathan settled himself on a chair so he could see Dawn. "At least she has not the snake in her anymore. It's mostly gone."