Key Change

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Nothing, I tell you.

Note: I never read the comics. So this just follows series 7.

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If Dawn was honest with herself, it probably began soon after the flight from Sunnydale. They flew to England, got settled in one of the expansive Watcher's Council safe houses and while the other members of the Scooby gang started a Slayer and Watcher training school, Buffy packed Dawn off to the best boarding school she could afford so Dawn had the opportunity to get some decent grades and finish high school.

And Dawn loved it. The high stress environment she'd lived in during her time in Sunnydale was not exactly conducive to education but she discovered she was secretly an academic at heart. Dawn left school at eighteen with excellent grades, a place at university and a gap year in front of her.

Despite being desperate to start university, Dawn made an adult decision to take a break. Just because her ties to the supernatural world had weakened during her time at school, she knew she would always be a target. Occasionally Buffy would email her at school and include the line "our former friend" just to remind Dawn how mortal all her friends were. So she deferred her university start by a year and intended to spend the time practising her self-defence, deciphering of ancient texts (ever since she'd seen Sumerian, she'd fallen in love with the language) and mastering meditation.

The last one was a secret. After coming to England, the reaction set in and many of the group started suffering from nightmares. For a time, it wasn't at all uncommon for people to huddle together, hollow-eyed from exhaustion or hear screaming around the house. Dawn got them too. But while the new slayers eventually overcame their dreams, she did not. It was one reason why she'd studied so hard at school; when she was exhausted, the nightmares didn't come.

And hers were slightly different. Most of the dreams the others had dealt with the bad times in Sunnydale. When Dawn dreamt, she saw fire and madness and worshippers and pressing all through a green haze.

It had been bad over the last holidays. Dawn had confided in Willow, omitting the details and the witch had been the one to suggest deferring university and returning home for a year. She'd further offered to teach Dawn the meditations, something Dawn readily accepted.

At the beginning of her year off, Dawn spent the first few weeks relaxing and waiting for her A-level results. After picking up her spotless grades and confirming with the university that she would see them next year, Buffy and Dawn took a brief holiday together for the first time ever, then returned to England. Buffy was working as a teaching assistant in a nearby school in addition to her duties as Chief Slayer so she had the time to spend with Dawn, especially as Faith was willing to share the workload.

After the summer had ended Buffy went back to work and Dawn started her studies. She went to classes with the slayers, who treated her well in deference to her relative lack of strength and her role in the Battle of Sunnydale. She studied with Giles, who relished the chance to teach at least one Summers girl and poured knowledge into her. She spent time with Xander, who'd moved out of the Slayer school and was doing quite well for himself running a construction business an hour's drive away. And she started learning how to meditate with Willow.

It was only about three months' in to their work that Dawn told Willow, in strictest confidence, about the nature of the nightmares. Willow immediately suggested some techniques she'd used on other slayers.

'We're going to start by sitting and relaxing,' she said gently. 'Now, close your eyes and pull up the image of the dream in your mind. Remember, no matter how real it feels, you are awake and you control it.'

Dawn obediently shut her eyes and looked at the madness before her.

'Now,' Willow said, 'For each act of hate you see, change it. Turn a vampire into a stake. Put out the fire with water. Go on.'

Dawn tried. She really did. She got no further than the water when she saw her reflection.

She was green. She was pure green energy.

The memories of that phrase surged forward –Tara, Glory, running, sacrifice – and Dawn choked. Distantly she heard Willow say her name as she rolled forward and opened her eyes.

As their eyes connected though, Dawn definitely heard Willow gasp.

'Your eyes,' the witch said as she conjured up a mirror. Dawn looked, half afraid but already accepting what she'd see.

Her eyes were no longer brown, but green.

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Review please! More chapters coming soon. And in Britain, A-Levels are the exams taken at eighteen. These are the criteria most universities will judge us on.