Beep! Beep! Beep!

No...

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

Not again...

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

I can't...

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

I can't do this again.

Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!

Feeling starts to come back to my body and I try to move my arms. Something stops me.

Don't make me.

Again I try to move my arms but it's not working.

I don't want to go back there again.

Slowly, I open my eyes and the light of the world comes back to me.

Why can't it just end?

Eventually, I'm able to focus and I notice that someone is standing over me. Things get even more clear and I just know who it's going to be.

"What the hell are you looking at?"

The idiot wanna be hero stays silent at my question for a few moments.

"Honestly? I have no idea."

"Then why the hell are you looking at me?"

"So that I can figure it out. Whatever it is you are, it's not normal."

"Didn't we already have this conversation?"

"Actually, we avoided talking about it from what I remember. Mostly because you insisted on not talking about it."

"That worked for us before, let's go with that again."

I try to pull myself up off the hospital bed but something stops me. From the laying position, I look down to see a strap around my chest to hold me down.

"What the hell is this?"

"Protection."

"Good job moron, you're protecting me from other people by holding me down? You're even worse at this then I thought."

"The protection isn't for you, it's for other people."

He's trying to protect other people from me?

"Why are you trying to protect other people from me? I'm the victim, shouldn't it be the other way around?"

"Not after what I've seen."

"And what exactly have you seen? Someone nearly dying because of your incompetence?"

"No, a person actually dying because of your negligence. Her name was Sarah."

Sarah's dead? Took him long enough.

"So you managed to not screw up killing her this time did you? Good, at least you're learning. Now you need to let me go."

I struggle against my bonds, pulling on them but not really getting anywhere with it.

"Not a chance."

"Why the hell not?"

"Because of how she died. She was a vampire."

God he really is an idiot.

"News flash, you already knew that."

"Yes, and yet I also know that when I brought her in here, she wasn't one anymore. And you somehow managed to turn her back into one."

"What's your point?"

"That's new."

"If you've never seen someone turned before then you're really new at this."

"I've seen plenty of people turned. The problem is, I've never seen anyone turned when there wasn't a vampire involved."

"You do remember that she was a vampire right?"

"But you weren't, and there's almost never been a case of people come back and then returning to being a vampire like this. Once you're a vampire, that's it. There's no going back, except, apparently, with you."

He isn't going to let me go unless he figures this out.

"So... what do you want to know?"

"How did you do it?"

"I think you already know that."

"Your blood somehow did it."

"Glad to see you can think for yourself."

"But how? What kind of blood? Or should I say, who's blood is it that let's you do this? Your parents?"

"Not likely. My parents were about as bland as can be. My mom wasn't terrible, I didn't really mind her. But the less said about my dad the better. He was an asshole."

"Demonic?"

"Nope, he's just a human who can't be bothered to care about his kids."

"Then how did you get like this?"

"Let's just say, I didn't exactly come into this world in the traditional way. More like, forced into it."

"You're from another dimension?"

"All of them actually."

"What?"

"I'm the glue that holds all of them together, or keeps them apart, depending on how you look at it."

He stands there watching me, waiting for me to explain.

"Really? You're going to make me tell you the story?"

Nothing but silence from him.

"Fine... once upon a time, up until a few years ago I was just a bundle of energy. Nothing about me had any real physical form or substance. It sounds like it was really nice compared to what I am now, too bad I can't remember it. I'm not exactly clear on where I was or how I got there or anything like that. All I know is that at some point, this second rate hell god decided that it needed the energy to get back to hell after she got kicked out by a couple other hell gods. So these idiot monks got together and thought it was a good idea to hide the energy from the hell god. Just so they could piss her off even more. And they decided for some stupid reason to turn it into a teenage girl. That way the hell god couldn't find it. Which is how you got me."

"So, when you talk about your parents not being your parents..."

"It's not a metaphor. It's because they aren't. Some random people got memories implanted in their heads to make them think I was their kid. But it's not real."

"Except that it is."

What the hell is he talking about?

"You may not think so, but it is real. I know it."

"How?"

"You remember when I said I was adopted? It wasn't exactly the most normal process. It was done with magic. Basically, my first life was really messed up. My mother died in child birth, my father had enemies trying to kill both me and him. That's how I ended up in a hell dimension. It messed me up so badly that my father decided to give me a new life with a new family. He had some powerful people implant memories in my head and the rest of my new family too. But about a year later I got my old memories back. So... I get it. I know what it's like to feel like your life is a lie and that people don't really love you. But they do."

Geez, what a pathetic sob story.

"Well isn't that nice for you then."

He scowls at me for a few moments.

"So this energy thing... is that why you're the way you are? Why you're able to do what you did?"

I do my best to shrug from my restrained position.

"Probably. I honestly have no idea. I've bled a LOT in my life and this never happened. I don't understand why it's happening now."

"We'll just have to figure it out."

He turns around and starts toward the door.

Where the hell is he going?

"Hey, where are you going?"

That makes him stop and look at me halfway to the door.

"To figure it out."

Again he goes to leave.

"Aren't you forgetting something? Or someONE?"

He stops not far from the door.

"No, you're staying right where you are."

He can't do this.

"What the hell?"

"I can't have you testing your powers on anyone you want. We'd end up with a lot more Sarahs."

I start to push against the straps holding me down.

"You can't do this."

"Don't worry, you won't be alone."

"What?"

"Your sister should be here any minute."

Wait, what? He... he didn't... he couldn't...

"What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything. The hospital called her when you first came in."

That has me pushing myself even harder against the straps.

"You have to let me go."

Suddenly, the hospital door opens and my sister comes in.

"Dawn?"

"Buffy?"

"What's going on?"

Please tell me she didn't bring the bitch.

"Are you alone?"

"No, I brought..."

Almost without fail, she comes in behind Buffy.

Oh, god, no...

Faith sees the wanna be in the room.

"Connor?"

Author's Note: Here's where things start to cross over, for those who are reading just one.