AN- Hey! This chapter was originally a lot longer but I decided to split it into two, post this half up and finish writing the end later. This is where the action finally kicks in! Anyway, a huge thanks to all of you who have continued reading this fic and I hope you're all enjoying it as much as I am writing it. And thank you sooo much to the people who review, it's great to her people's thoughts on your work. Now! On with the story!

Disclaimer- I don't own Buffy the Vampire Slayer. But I have replaced Spike (who was previously living in my wardrobe) with Dean Winchester. Yays! (Never fear, Spike shall not escape...)

Sweat ran down Faith's face as she delivered another flurry of ferocious blows to the heavy punching bag that hung from the ceiling. The dark Slayer found her thoughts drifting back to Dawn and Connor's mysterious behaviour that morning. There was no doubt that they were up to something and even though Faith was completely clueless to what it was, she couldn't help feeling slightly proud of the two 'normal' kids. Faith snorted. If Dawn and Connor were normal, she was Tinkerbell's long lost sister.

"Something funny Faith?"

Faith glanced up to see the petite blonde Slayer standing in the doorway. She grinned at Buffy and leaned back against the punching bag.

"Hey B. Just contemplating if I was part fairy."

Faith received an extremely disturbed look from the older Slayer and it took all she had not to start cracking up at the expression on Buffy's face.

"Right. I really don't know how to respond to that."

Faith burst out laughing and soon Buffy found herself joining in.

"Seriously though B." Said Faith wiping a tear of laughter from the corner of her eye. "Have you noticed anything weird about D and Angel Jr lately? Something seems...I dunno, different."

Buffy frowned slightly. While it was true that Dawn and her hadn't spent any real time together, she could tell something had changed in her sister. At first she had shrugged it off as nothing but now that Faith had mentioned it, she had to admit that some things didn't add up. For example, Dawn was with Connor practically every second of the day, she was never seen around the HQ anymore and her room was always deadly silent at night. There were thousands of other details the blonde Slayer could have listed. Why hadn't she noticed them before? It then suddenly struck her that she didn't know anything about Dawn's life in Cleveland. Ever since they had moved, Buffy had been too wrapped up in Slayer business to even bother asking her sister about school. She stared wide-eyed at Faith.

"I've not even met any of her friends!" She gasped. "For all we know they could be vampires or demons or God knows what else!"

Faith watched in a mixture of bemusement and shock as the older Slayer ran from the room.

"Or." She smirked. "They could just be a group of normal teenagers."

"Hiiiiiyaaaaa! Take that you Cullen Wannabee!"

Luke grinned as he watched his twin land a spinning kick in her opponent's face. The vampire roared in rage and charged towards Lexi. The twins had offered to take the patrol that night and were enjoying every second of it.

"OOOF."

Well, almost every second. Lexi was sent flying backwards by the vampire's powerful attack and crashed into a headstone. Luke winced and raced into action. Grabbing a stake from his jacket pocket, he stabbed the vampire in the back before the leech could sink it's fangs into his sister. Luke smirked and strutted over to Lexi.

"Why am I always the one who ends up crashing into headstones?" Groaned Lexi as she accepted Luke's hand up and glanced at the name engraved on the now destroyed stone. "Sorry, Thomas A Peterson. I'll pay for that."

"No you won't." Grinned Luke.

"I totally will!" Exclaimed Lexi indignantly.

"Echo, you still owe me money."

"Luke! For God's sake let it go! We were three and I borrowed twenty pence to buy a lolly!"

"And you didn't pay me back."

"It was twenty pence!"

"So? You didn't even share the lolly with me."

Lexi looked at him incredulously. "I offered!"

"It was all covered in your slavers! I didn't want it after that!"

"I still offered!"

"That's not the poi-"

Luke's logical and probably very witty comeback was suddenly cut off by a blood chilling howl. Lexi stiffened and glanced nervously at Luke.

"You heard that too right?"

Luke nodded slowly.

"I think we p-pissed something off." He whispered hoarsely. "M-maybe we should go home. W-we can come back and investigate tomorrow night. P-preferably with someone who can fire laser beams or has s-super strength."

"Yeah. I agree" Stuttered Lexi. "W-we're not really running away. W-we're taking an extremely complicated tactical manoeuvre...In the opposite direction from the s-scary unknown beast."

"Amen to that."

And with one last fearful glance around the moonlight graveyard, the twins made a rapid exit, neither of them noticing the glistening golden eyes following their every movement or the waxy full moon which hung in the dark night sky.

"My lord."

Duane cast a scrutinising eye over the young demon before him. On the outside he looked just like any other human being, but Duane knew that inside the young man was horrifyingly twisted and gruesome.

"Farouk." He greeted. "My gratitude for your fast arrival. I have a job for you."

The sandy-haired man perked up and looked at him curiously.

"Really? What kind of job?"

"A friend of mine has asked for a problem to be taken care of. Can I trust you with this?"

"Indeed. As you know, my speciality is the truth. Humans spend every second of their pitiful lives hiding behind secrets and lies. I simply allow the truth to be set free. I can have your little problem destroy itself with its own hand."

"Good." Smirked Duane. "Do not fail me."

Dawn rolled over onto her stomach and flicked the glossy page of her magazine. Reaching over to her iPod, she idly cranked the volume control so her music went from a comfortable buzz to a blaring roar. She nodded her head to the beat and leant back against the headboard of her large double bed. The twins had called a few minutes earlier to let her know that they were done with their patrol. The pair had sounded extremely freaked out but didn't elaborate too much. Dawn had just shrugged it off and asked if Lexi had destroyed anyone else's headstone.

Too absorbed in the shiny pages of her magazine and the deafening tempo drumming in her brain, the younger Summers didn't notice her sister arrive until the blonde took a seat on her bed.

"Shit!" She swore after Buffy had tapped her on the knee to catch her attention. "Oh, hi Buffy."

"Don't swear." Reprimanded the Slayer sternly.

"But you scared the crap out of me." Protested Dawn. "Besides, I am seventeen now. I think I'm entitled to some swearin'"

Buffy shot her a glare. Dawn just shrugged and then actually realised that her older sister was sitting spending time with her. She blinked and stared at Buffy in shock.

"What?" Asked Buffy self-consciously.

"Nothing." Said Dawn shaking her head slightly. "I just wasn't expecting to see you."

"Yeah..." Buffy fidgeted uncomfortably and glanced up at the Key. "I haven't been the best sister recently."

Dawn shot her a 'no-shit-Sherlock' look and Buffy slapped her knee.

"Hey I'm serious." The blonde protested. "I've not only been a bad sister, but a bad guardian too. I have no idea what you do in your free time or who you hang out with. I don't know how you're doing in school, if you have a boyfriend, the list is endless. And it needs to change. Dawnie, I haven't been there and I'm so sorry for that. But I'm gonna be there now."

Dawn was left speechless. Buffy had actually noticed! She leapt at her sister and smothered her in a tight hug. Buffy laughed and wrapped her arms around the younger Summers.

"It's gonna change Dawnie." Smiled Buffy as she pulled away. "And first things first, I want to meet your friends. I need to make sure my little sis is hanging out with a decent crew."

"Sure Buffy." Grinned Dawn. "You'll love them. Meet me at Sundayz after school tomorrow. Y'know, the ice cream parlour in town. Oh my God, the gang will be so excited!"

"WHAT?!"

Dawn cringed as the gang stared at her in shock. They were sitting in French, the only subject they all had together, the teacher hadn't even noticed their outburst. Dawn's announcement was met with varied reactions. Connor was amazed that Buffy had enough time to meet up with them, Luke was delighted that he finally would get the chance to meet Dawn's supposedly hot older sister, Theo was racing through all the possible ulterior motives the Slayer might have, Ella and Lucy were nervously glancing at each other wondering if Buffy knew they were the freelancers and Lexi, well Lexi said nothing. She had fallen asleep earlier in the lesson and was now sprawled across her desk breathing deeply. And the teacher still remained oblivious.

"Guys, calm down." Pleaded Dawn. "It's not a big deal. Buffy just wants to make sure you're not vampires or demons or drug dealers."

"Well I don't know about being vampires or demons." Quipped Luke. "But Lucy has a stash of paracetamol in her bag."

Lucy reached over a slumbering Lexi and slapped Luke around the back of his head.

"I get really bad headaches occasionally." She explained.

Dawn shook her head at their immature behaviour. She knew that if the gang put their minds to it they could really impress Buffy. She just, however, needed to persuade them to show a level of maturity and not act like a group of two year olds on a sugar high.

"Please guys. I really want to show her that I'm happy. Please. Do it for me."

"Dawn, it's not that we don't want to meet your sister." Began Theo, nervously. "But is it possible that she has suspicions about our...Part time job?"

"Theo has a point." Agreed Connor. "It's awfully convenient. She could be testing us to find out the truth."

"No. That's not Buffy's style." Said Dawn, shaking her head. "Buffy would charge in guns blazing. She wouldn't think up something like this to try and trick us. Besides, I'm pretty sure she doesn't think I'm capable to pull off something like our...Part time job."

"Dawn's right guys." Said Luke. "I think we should meet her. Y'know, give her the benefit of the doubt and all that jazz. You said she's a blonde right?"

To no-one's surprise another slap reached the back off his head. Luke glared at Lucy, who shrugged and shot him an innocent look.

"That one wasn't me. Your sister beat me to it."

Luke spun around to face the culprit and found his groggy twin glaring back.

"Did you even know what we were talking about?" He asked incredulously.

"No." Said Lexi defensively. "But you had your 'I'm-a-macho-man-and-women-dig-me' voice on. I had to assume that your comment was gross and degrading to the female species."

"He was indirectly hitting on Dawn's sister." Explained Ella.

"Very indirectly! I asked if she was blonde! That's hardly hitting on her!"

"In your 'I'm-a-macho-man' voice." Pointed out Lucy. "You were hitting on her."

"I may be wrong, considering I grew up in a hell dimension and all, but doesn't the woman actually have to be there for you to hit on her?" Asked Connor in confusion.

"Guys!" Exclaimed Dawn. "We're getting off topic here!"

The gang mumbled apologies as the younger Summers glared at them.

"Wait. Hold up. What topic are we on?"

Dawn sighed and explained the situation to Lexi. The Scottish girl frowned slightly but soon broke into a grin.

"That's pretty epic guys. We get to meet the original Slayer. She has to be so much cooler than her minions."

"I wouldn't bet on it." Mumbled Dawn. "She can be pretty hard to live with sometimes."

"Yeah." Argued Lexi. "But you're kinda biased. You're her sister. It's, like, the unwritten law that siblings find faults in each other."

Luke nodded his agreement.

"Indeed."

"Teal'c!"

Everyone stared at Lexi in confusion. She just waved her hand, dismissing the incoming questions.

"Anyway, it could be useful to find out if she knows about our demon hunting hobby." Commented Ella. "It's the perfect opportunity."

The freelancers all shared a glance and Dawn found herself holding her breath, nervously waiting for their answer.

"I think." Began Lucy, exchanging one last look with the others. "We're all in agreement. We'll meet up with your sister."

"YES!" Cried Dawn and Luke at the same time.

Luke was suddenly fixed with six disturbed gazes. He desperately fumbled for an explanation but was saved by a pupil knocking on the classroom door. The teacher peeled her eyes away from the French dictionary she was squinting at and peered over her thick glasses.

"Um. I w-was sent t-to get some people. T-the new g-guidance teacher w-wants to see t-them." The young boy stuttered, obviously uncomfortable under the scrutinising gazes of the class and the large owl-like eyes of the French teacher.

He shuffled up to her and handed over a list of names before making a swift escape. The teacher turned her huge eyes to the scrap of paper and skimmed over the scrawled writing. She looked up and approached the freelancers' table. The gang exchanged confused faces briefly before returning their attention to the teacher.

"Apparently the new guidance teacher wants to talk to you." She murmured quietly.

"All of us?" Asked Theo in surprise, only to be answered with a small nod.

"Yes. You should go now. Best not to keep Mr Farouk waiting."

Farouk smirked to himself as he relaxed in the comfy leather chair in his office and straightened his tie. Humans would let you in anywhere if you waved a diploma in their faces. A sudden rap on the solid oak door pulled him out of his thoughts and he swiftly fixed a fake smile on his handsome features.

"Come in."

The door swung open and seven intensely curious students filed in. Farouk could have laughed. THIS was the group of demon hunters that Cassius was so concerned about? They were no more than children! If he wasn't so utterly terrified of Bianca, he would probably be in hysterics. Instead, he let his smile grow bigger and gestured for the teens to take a seat.

"Hello." He greeted. "I can imagine that you're all wondering why you're here. Well, the truth is, although I'm new at this school, I want you all to feel like you can talk to me when you need to and understand that I will do everything I can to help."

"Well...that's great sir..." Said one of the three girls. Farouk recognised her as one of the Blake twins. "But I don't think any of us really have anything we need to talk about. Except from Luke. Trust me, he has some SERIOUS issues."

"Miss Blake, I understand your reluctance to share. After all, I am a complete stranger. But sometimes that's all you need. A stranger's ear. Believe me, the truth can be liberating."

He nodded slightly at the meaning of his words and started to pace behind his desk. The gang exchanged wary looks.

"People can be trapped by lies, trapped like birds in huge metal cages. Trapped by the darkness of deception and deceit. Struggling in webs of untruths. But it doesn't have to be like that! The truth! The truth is the answer to all of this! As the saying goes, the truth will set you free."

He smirked and reached into his desk drawer.

"And guess what?"

Farouk pulled out a small pouch and reached inside. Grabbing a handful of the contents, he lifted his closed fist up to his face and inhaled deeply.

"I'm setting you free."

The glittering gold dust that had been kept in the pouch shot towards the gang as the demon let out a huge gust of breath. It sprinkled over them before they had time to move, covering them in a thin dusting. Connor was the first to react, his vampire instincts taking over. With a roar he leapt at Farouk , but the demon let out a sinister cackle and disappeared into thin air. Connor turned to the others to find them trying to dust themselves off. To their dismay, however, the unknown gold substance glowed brightly before seeping into their skin.

"What the fuck was that?!" Yelled Luke, leaping to his feet. "I thought he was a guidance teacher?!"

"Apparently not." Said Theo grimly. "I've never seen a teacher disappear like he did before."

"Should we go after him?" Asked Lucy, getting up to stand next to Luke.

"How would we even find him?" Dawn pointed out. "I'm actually more concerned about the shit he threw on us. It was definitely magical."

"I don't feel any different." Mused Lexi. "Maybe it was out of date?"

"Some spells take longer to take effect." Muttered Connor, halting his furious pacing that he had started after Farouk had slipped through his fingers. He ran a hand through his hair. "We don't know what this could do to us and we can't go to the Slayers for help either."

"So basically, we're fucked." Groaned Lexi. "Fantastic. Fan-bloody-tastic."

The gang drifted into silence as they all considered their next move. Theo glanced at his watch.

"The bell's about to ring." He noted. "Perhaps the best thing to do, would be to go to our next class. If anything strange happens at least we'll be able to find each other."

"I agree." Said Dawn. "People would notice if we disappeared."

"Awww." Whined Lexi. "I have Maths next." At Dawn's glare, she sighed. "Fine, but if this dust kills me and the last thing I ever experience is Maths with Mr Burt, I'm coming back to haunt your arses."

Despite the situation, the gang burst into laughter at Lexi's scowl.

"Yeah, you bloody laugh now. Just you all wait. Be afraid, be very afraid."