The F in Pike (Book 3.5) (girlxgirl)

Hoping for the Best

We have to get to her before it's too late.

Following Connor as he tracks her, I keep an eye out with Faith not far from me, Willow, Kennedy and Pike keeping up as we go.

It's going to be a lot harder to deal with things if she has started something. Our only real chance is to get to her before she does something she'll regret. Otherwise we'll end up with the worst options. I can't lose my sister, I just can't. I found a way to save her when she was captured by Glory, as not fun as that way was, and countless other ways. There just has to be a way to save her from herself this time. I've been able to do that before too. So many people I know were so close to completely falling apart, Faith, Willow, Angel, Spike. I was able to bring them back from the brink then. What kind of person would I be if I can't bring my own sister back now?

I keep my eyes out for anything that might be coming, protecting Connor as he focuses on tracking Dawn.

I still can't believe that I let things get this far. I've failed her in so many ways. I know that Willow, Giles, Faith and everyone else keeps telling me that I can't beat myself up. Dawn made her own decisions and in a lot of ways that made her the way she is now. From the way Connor describes it, as bad as things were when she left for college, things got so much worse when she got there. Getting drunk and partying almost constantly, hitting on anyone within distance, even tricking him and her roommate into a threesome... something I never thought I'd have to think about when thinking of my sister.

And probably worst of all, getting a girl killed and turned into a vampire. One that would take revenge on her by kidnapping her and torturing her. All of which her own decisions lead her life to take the turn that it did. Maybe if I had reached out more, or worked harder to connect with her. Come to visit her at Stanford and seen what was going on. Maybe if I had done that instead of going away with Faith, I could've stopped Dawn from getting this far.

I can't help but look at Faith for a minute, who's keeping an eye out like I am.

But if I never went with Faith, there's no telling how it might change things. If she was still angry, maybe we would've met Pike later, or not met him at all. He might not have warned us about Wrath and we might not have been prepared when he came after us. There's no telling how that would've ended, but it probably wouldn't be good.

Which is why we have to do everything we can to stop her before it's too late. There's no way that Dawn can account for all the potential problems that will come up if she goes through with this. It's going to go wrong and at some point she's not going to be able to fix it. And if we don't know enough to help fix it ourselves because of something else she fixed, then it could go worse then any of us could even imagine.

After scanning the area and finding nothing, I look to Pike.

The big question is, what if we're walking into a trap? We still don't know what's going to happen with Pike. Exactly what the trigger is to bring out Wrath is still unclear. But he's an outside thinker and might be able to come up with something that we can't see. Even if she does somehow trigger Wrath and bring him out, that guy isn't really the biggest fan of Dawn's. If he does come out, Dawn would be putting herself in as much danger as anything he might do to us.

I turn my focus back to the task at hand, keeping my eyes out for something in case it comes out.

She's playing a dangerous game, and we have to stop her.

Connor stops suddenly, causing Faith and I to freeze and look around. The others stop too.

I don't see anything, but there must be a reason he stopped.