tttsnbchapterfour



Title: The Thing That Should Not Be (Chapter Four)

Author: Luna

Feedback: Always appreciated!

Archive: Luna's Night Moves, Full Moon Romper Room, any one else please ask first!!!

Rating: PG-13, for the moment. I, however, reserve the right to up the rating should the need arise!!!

Type: Crossover Buffy/WWE/AB

Pairings: None at the moment, though if that changes it will be noted.

Disclaimer: Laurell K. Hamilton and the Berkley Publishing Group do not authorize this author. All characters that you recognize belong to Laurell K. Hamilton except for the ones created by the people in this group. All characters that you recognize belong Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, the WB, and UPN. Vince McMahon owns the WWE. This is solely for entertainment purposes.

Summary: What if someone found another use for "The Key?"

Spoilers: Buffy: Post Season seven, though I did NOT watch it. Please keep that in mind!! WWE: I'm going to be making this up as I go along so bear with me, though if you familiar with this the roster split is NOT in effect, at least I don't think it will be. I'll let you know if that changes. Anita Blake: Up to and possibly including CS.

Anything else: I'm using these characters as I see fit. I'm not going to be going against the nature(s) of those involved. At least I hope I'm not. Any comments are welcome as long as they are constructive. ^__^

Author's Notes: I would like to take this time to tell everyone that this has been running around my brain and it refuses to go away so I had to write it or go even crazier then I already am. And a special thank you goes out to my beta and best friend Maggie, without whom NOTHING would ever get done.

Side Note: For this fic Dawn is 18 until further notice. I may be upping the age, but to be on the safe side Dawn is of legal age.

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The assembled group in the Hyperion stood motionless. What they'd just witnessed stunned them all. It wasn't like their boss to just fly off the handle like that. Usually there was a very good reason for Angel acting the way he had.

The seer was the first to find her voice. "Okay Mr. Broody, what's with all the grrr," she asked pinning her boss with her famous Queen C glare. Her eyes moved on to Dawn's traveling companion. "And you what's with the violence at first sight?"

The expression on the former cheerleader's face said that she expected answers and she expected them now. Her arms crossed over her chest, telling them that they had better come up with something. Both men shuffled under her scrutiny. They were clearly uncomfortable with what was being asked. It was apparent to everyone that these two had history, though what that history was no one knew.

Angel reached up and rubbed the back of his neck. "It's complicated Cordy," he said trying to get out of answering.

Cordelia shook her head. "Tough. Now spill," she demanded. If they were all going to work together then they had to get this out in the open. Was she the only one who saw that?

Dawn laid her small hand on Mark's arm. Her blue eyes bored into his green gaze. "Please tell me, tell us what's going on here."

The wrestler tucked a strand of her chestnut hair behind one ear. He'd never told anyone about that night, and a part of him had hoped that he?d never have to. Now looking into Dawn's trusting eyes, he couldn't keep her in ignorance any longer.

His thumb caressed the young woman's cheek. He didn't want to see the fear, revulsion, and ultimately the disappointment in her blue orbs. Resolutely he stared over her head; his emerald gaze glazed as he saw events that no one else could see.

"It was a long time ago," he started, his voice unsure. "I'd just gotten big in this business and I was starting to make a name for myself." He shook his head ruefully. He'd been so young, and thought he'd known so much. He'd never have guessed that the things that went bump in the night really existed.

"I was celebrating the signing of my then WWF contract. It was what I'd spent years working towards, and finally it was within my grasp." The Undertaker paused, lost in his thoughts of that night so long ago. "I'd partied just a little too hardy. I was walking back to the cheap motel I was staying at when I was attacked."

Mark's eyes locked with Angel's and neither man looked away as the wrestler continued his tale. "At first I thought it was some overzealous fan that just didn't know when to quit. Then his face changed, and he was strong, so strong," Mark's voice was barely above a whisper as he felt again the same helplessness and terror of that distant night.

With concerted effort the wrestler steadied both himself and his voice. "I thought I was going to die that night, and by rights I probably should have. The thing dived at me and pinned me to a wall. I was the biggest thing in the semi-pro wrestling circuit and I couldn't even break this guy's hold." He shook his head, and went back to staring unseeing over Dawn's head.

"He held me like I was a nothing more than a child. And when his teeth sank into my neck," a small shudder wracked the Phenom's large frame. "I panicked. I could actually feel the life leaving me. All I could think was I hadn't worked this hard for it to mean nothing now. The knife was in my hand before I'd even really thought to go for it."

The wrestler's hand moved unconsciously to the scar on his neck, and rubbed it as if to assure himself that it had indeed happened. "The first blow barely fazed him. I could still feel him drawing from my neck. The second, that second blow..." He trailed off trying to get a hold of himself. He'd started this tale and he damn sure was going to finish it. "That blow must have severed an arty or something because the blood was everywhere. There was so much blood. I couldn't breathe; it was everywhere. I remember swallowing that blood."

The Undertaker shuddered again. It had been so long ago that he was sure it was just some figment of his imagination. At least that's what he'd hoped it had been, but seeing Angel again had brought it back to the surface. That thing was the reason he was no longer normal. The vampire was a reminder that Mark was the thing that should not be.

Dawn touched his arm then. Her blue eyes held something that he couldn't look too closely at or else he'd break down and that was not something he was going to do in front of the vampire. He grabbed a hold of the brunette's small hand and held it in a death grip. If it hurt she showed no sign of it. "It wasn't just one or two mouthfuls. The blood just kept coming, and I had to swallow or choke trying to breathe."

Mark took a deep breath, and blew it out slowly. This was the hardest part. "Just when I sure it was over, that I was really going to die in this dark alley, a no one, a nothing. The thing just vanished. It turned to dust before my eyes."

Angel spoke for the first time since the wrestler began. "He was the first person I'd ever saved from my kind."

He hadn't wanted to admit that he'd needed help. It was a blow to his masculine pride to need help fending off an assailant, but then to find out that same helping hand had also been like the thing that attacked him had been intolerable.

The Undertaker and the vampire stared at each other for a long time. Emerald eyes bored into a chocolate brown gaze. Their hate filled stares saying more than any words ever could. A sneer marred the Phenom's expression. "No good deed goes unpunished."

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The explanation took much longer then Willow would have liked. Of course it would have been over much sooner if Buffy hadn't kept interrupting every few seconds with questions. They were good questions but if her friend had waited until she'd finished, it would have made much more sense and wouldn't have had to been told a second time.

The pair was forced to make two different stops before finally arriving in Los Angeles. The first, New York, was expected. The plane couldn't very well make it from London to LA on one tank of gas. It was the stop in Salt Lake City that had bothered the girls. The second stop was the largest gap in their flight plan. Three hours. It was hot, even inside the terminal. They couldn't imagine what the city of Angles was going to be like.

Both young women were filled with anxiety, Buffy, because her sister was in danger and Willow because she had a gut feeling that there was more going on here then met the eye. It may not be a strictly "Hellmouth-y" thing, though that feeling persisted. As Xander was fond of saying, "You can take the Scoobies out of Sunnydale, but you can't take Sunnydale out of the Scoobies."

For all the annoyances of their trip the girls had somehow managed to be on all their flights together. It seemed that the Powers That Be were actually making some things easier right now. They couldn't help feeling that it was all going to come to a head very soon. Nothing went this smoothly without there being some rather nasty consequences.

When they finally touched down the girls were filled with immense relief. They were one step closer to being done with the traveling. The young women were a little apprehensive as night had fallen and all the things that could be out were. They cast their eyes about them constantly seeking a potential threat.

Buffy and Willow made their way to the rental counter and snagged the last compact car. The duo breathed a little easier when they finally loaded the last of their luggage into the car. They were one step closer to being reunited with Dawn.

The traffic in Los Angeles was horrible. It seemed that it took much longer to reach the hotel than it should have. When the girls finally pulled up in front of the building they were feeling the effects of their trip. They shared a wearied glance and slowly climbed from the vehicle.

One of the double doors to the Hyperion opened and both girls immediately dropped into defensive stances. They'd spent too many years on the Hellmouth to expect it to be something benign. The backlit figure stood in the doorway.

Buffy was the first to recover. "Spike?"

"Buffy," he answered and turned around. He walked back into the hotel. Leaving the stunned girls standing on the sidewalk.

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He set the book down and stared off into space. He'd known there was something wrong, had felt it the moment he'd needed more sleep than usual. The leopard looked over and watched Luna for a while. Her waist length hair surrounded her. Her body curled up on itself like she was afraid any sharp movements would break her.

In all the time Noah had known the young woman he'd never seen her so vulnerable. She projected the badass image so well that none would guess how fragile and tender her heart was. If what he had read in her journal was correct, she was walking into a trap, and she knew it.

He wanted to yell, scream, cuss, and cry at her but he knew that wouldn't do any good. She'd already made up her mind to go, and there was nothing Maggie or he could do about it. As if conjured by his thoughts the blonde appeared in the doorway.

Noah rose from the chair and held his arms open to the doctor. She stepped into his embrace, taking the comfort he so willingly offered her. This was so damn hard. She'd worked so hard to bring her sister back to this plane and she was going to go off again, this time with every likelihood of not coming back.

Luna watched the pair through the veil of her dark tresses. The tears began to fall unbidden from her eyes. She wanted more than anything for there to be another way to do this without having to leave the safety and sanity of Haven. There wasn't though. She had looked, looked, and looked again, hoping against hope that some alternative would present itself. It never had.

She pressed her forehead to her knees. She was unable to watch two of the most important people in her life comfort each other knowing there was no comfort for her. She couldn't stay here and knowingly let an innocent die. It wasn't in her to condemn that young woman to an early death because it would inconvenience her. So she'd made up her mind to go, but that didn't make it hurt any less.

Small hands roved over her shoulders, and Luna let the heat from those hands sink into her skin. The dark haired girl let herself be enveloped in the embrace of her brother and sister. The three of them stood there holding onto one another as if they were lifelines in a storm they didn't know if they could weather.

Lips kissed over Luna's tightly closed eyelids, her neck, and the soft curve of her ear. She knew that both Noah and Maggie were offering her what little comfort they could in this trying time. Time held no meaning for them as the continued to hold and touch any part of the others that they could reach. Now was a time for reinforcing the bond that held the three of them together.

Maggie pulled back first to look into her sister's blue/green eyes. She could see the tears threatening to spill forth again and kissed her lightly on the lips. "I love you," she breathed.

Luna ran her hand through Maggie's blonde mane, fingers lightly scratching the scalp. Her eyes roved over the young doctor's face, trying to memorize every line, and nuance it contained. "I love you more than you'll ever know," she whispered brokenly.

Noah's hands cupped both women's cheek, his thumb brushing over the prominent bone. His eyes filled with unshed tears. He had tried to deny it for so long and to have it shoved in his face this way was hard. He needed them, the same way he needed to draw air. Now he had to let one of them go and hope that one day the three of them would be reunited again.

The officer pulled away from Noah and Maggie. She needed to get herself together and there was still one thing only they could do for her. She took a deep breath and released it slowly. "There's something I need to give you, so if you could give me a minute..." she trailed off waiting for the reactions.

"Go on Wonder Woman, we'll be here when you get back," Noah offered when Maggie remained silent. The other leopard nodded and left the room. He held the young doctor close to him his hands rubbing soothing circles across her back. "She"s not doing this to hurt us," he said into her hair.

"I know, but hurts so damn much," she cried into his chest.

Luna returned a short while later and held a small chest in her hands. She stood in the doorway, for the first time in a long time, an outsider looking in. She wasn't going to change her mind, and the pain wasn't going to go away any time soon, but she would savor what little time she did have left with these two.

She motioned the other two over to the couch and seated herself on the coffee table in front of them. Her smile was tremulous at best. This was supposed to have been a present to them when they'd finally learned how to use their combined powers. Now it was being used as a farewell gift. She opened the box and showed them the contents.

There were three Celtic Triquetras in a circle charms on simple white gold box chains. The circle was done in black; each charm was engraved with an initial. The three arms of the Tirquetra were done in differing colors. One was brown, representing earth's calming steadying influence; another was green, representing the sea and its constant recurring rhythm; and the last was done in blue, representing air and its balanced life giving presence.

When combined the three were an unstoppable force. That's what Luna had in mind when she'd had these made for her. To remind all of them that when they were together there wasn't anything that they couldn't accomplish. She wanted these to have been given in a time of joy, rather than the sorrow that hung over them now.

She would have given just about anything for the timing to be better. Time, unfortunately, was her enemy. The longer Luna delayed the more like it was that Dawn would be made to suffer. She heaved a great sigh and prepared to finish what she'd started.