When a key is not a key ((for Harry))

[slayers_desire]

It has started a few weeks ago, with the disturbing nightmares that forced April to wake up in the middle of the night. Nightmares that while connected to her voices, were so real and visual, that it was like she had been there in the moment.

In the moment of a death. It was not like most deaths that she saw through her voices... instead, it was like the person has disappeared. And April knew each time it happened it was like a little piece of the universe had been stolen.

Clark had advised her to go to the research library hidden in Lorne's bar. And that was where she was, when a commotion was raised from the meeting area of the Scoobies. Coming out of the library, she saw her father, Spike, placing Dawn onto a couch. The young girl was flickering... disappearing and reappearing... it was so shocking, she thought she was dreaming again.

"Someone help her! I am nothing without her!" Spike called out.

April frowned. Something was seriously wrong. And her intuition was telling her that whatever was going wrong, had to do with some serious magic. Returning into the library, April used her PINpoint to call up Harry Dresden. Hopefully he could provide some insight...

Comments

[thepizzalord]

Harry is in his lab on the Normandy when the rotary phone on his workbench rings. He frowns a little and picks it up. Only a few people have his number at the moment, although word of mouth might've gotten his business cards around a bit more than he expected. Or it could be a social call, who knows. "Harry Dresden, wizard extraordinaire."

[slayers_desire]

"Hello Harry..." April pauses for a moment. "I was wondering if you had a moment."

[thepizzalord]

"April! My favorite vampire. What can I do for you?" She sounds normal enough, but there's something in her tone that makes him suspect something is wrong.

[slayers_desire]

"We have an issue... with no much to go on. My instinct says it is magic."

"But people are literally disappearing from life."

[thepizzalord]

"Disappearing? Like what kind of disappearing?" He can already tell that this is going to be a house call, not just a phone consultation, so he tucks the phone between his ear and his shoulder, and grabs a notepad. Be back in fifteen minutes. If not, just read this again. He tears off the note and sticks it on the outside of the lab door.

[slayers_desire]

"They don't exist anymore. And one of the people who might disappear next... is a good friend.

[thepizzalord]

"I'm on my way. Give me thirty seconds." He hangs up the phone and grabs his weapons, never out of arm's reach these days. Staff, blasting rod, sword, pistol, and the few rings he wasn't already wearing. Most of the weapons attach to his hard-shell armor through the leather duster he wears over it, but he keeps the sword unsheathed, and holds it up in front of him. "Portalis," he says, and slashes the sword down. The air parts open in front of him, shimmering blue and swirling with energy around the scar.

A matching portal appears in the library, drawn by the tip of a silver sword that suddenly appears from nothing. And a moment later, a tall wizard squeezes himself through the gap. "Finitum," he says, swinging the sword up through the portal, opposite of how it was created. The hole closes, part of the air still shimmering blue for a moment before it dissipates, wafting away into nothing.

[slayers_desire]

Wes and Spike grab a weapon when the portal opens, but April gestures for them to calm down. Dawn is on the couch, a flicker of disappearing every few minutes. Spike is seated by her, a concerned look on his face.

"Thanks for coming Harry."

[thepizzalord]

Harry taps the sword flat against his back and when he lets go, it stays there seemingly by itself. "No problem. Weird magic stuff is my specialty."

[slayers_desire]

"We don't even know what is happening to her..." Spike reaches for Dawn's hand, but grabs empty air when she disappears in that moment. And reappears back.

"I have sensed other deaths... other disappearances." April tells him.

[thepizzalord]

"So this kills for sure then?" Harry says, approaching the couch, all his attention focused on Dawn and watching how she's flickering. He's not even sure where to start.

[slayers_desire]

"They were very real to me. I can still see their faces. I felt a sense of... emptiness in my soul when they disappeared."

If Harry can see auras, or has any ability that allows him to do so, he would see that Dawn's is quite dark right now. There is a bright light that seems to sustain her... the same core of bright light that is at the core of April's soul.

[thepizzalord]

He does, but he doesn't use it lightly, so he doesn't notice just yet. This would be so much easier if Bob was here...

He kneels down next to the couch, frowning at Dawn's condition. "Any other things you've noticed, or is she just going all... Marty McFly, and that's it?"

[slayers_desire]

"We were just talking when this started..." Spike frowns.

"Dawn... doesn't really have any parents. She is a Key. So I can't imagine it would be something like that..."

[thepizzalord]

"A Key?" Harry says, looking up at April. "Like you?"

[slayers_desire]

"Yes. Her Key strengths are different than mine..."

[thepizzalord]

Harry's memory of the time he looked at April with his Sight is still as vivid in his mind as the day he Saw her, and he looks back at Dawn, wondering what he might See if he did the same to her. "Tell me about it."

[slayers_desire]

"Dawn was created to stop Glory... a Demon that came by... but there is more to her than that. She is a source of inspiration. Of knowledge..."

Dawn's inner soul might look like looking into a thousand libraries all at once. At the source of knowledge. Of hope.

[thepizzalord]

"Like a muse?" Harry looks at them. "Step away from her, please. Where I won't See you."

[slayers_desire]

April nods, understanding his request, and leaves the room so he can only see Dawn. "Do we have to leave?" Spike questions.

[thepizzalord]

"If you don't get behind me, yes. No offense but I don't wanna See any more than I have to." Harry isn't sure what he'd See in Spike and the others, but the Sight is distracting enough when he's only looking at what he wants to See. "Just stay out of my line of sight. I haven't quite learned the whole eyes-in-the-back-of-my-head thing or anything."

[slayers_desire]

Spike really does not want to leave Dawn's side, but he trusts his judgement that Harry is not going to hurt her. So he moves to get behind Harry, along with Wes.

[thepizzalord]

Harry closes his eyes and breathes deeply, preparing himself to open his Third Eye. It's always a disorienting experience, no matter what he Sees, and depending on the result, he could be incapacitated for a while. When he's ready, he opens his eyes, taking care to look only at Dawn.

At first, he isn't quite sure what he's Seeing. Piles and piles of books, stacks curving impossibly to create a shelter, deeply shadowed. A heart-sized globe of light pulses in the darkness, and he realizes that it's the heart of a girl, curled in on herself, her face hidden against the knees drawn up close to her. The pulsing light pushes traces of itself outward, and he can tell they're supposed to encompass her entire self, but it's being swallowed by darkness before it can reach out.

[slayers_desire]

Truly, if it was not for the fact that one of Dawn's abilities was to inspire hope -- and that includes hope in herself -- that darkness would have encompassed her true self. And she would have disappeared.

It is that light, that heart, that is keeping her in the here and now.

[thepizzalord]

Harry takes a closer look at the light, and quickly realizes that it's like staring into the heart of a sun. He looks away, quickly - catches sight of something big and dark out of the corner of his eye - and passes a hand in front of his face, closing his eyes for a moment as his sight returns to normal.