Fann was in Toronto having an early dinner with Amanda when she felt it. They were there to pick up a package for Mac after which they had plans of their own across the border in New York. She'd just taken a bite of dessert when suddenly she felt faint and it was as if she were in a large room with the echoing voices of dozens of girls and young women. Someone was asking them something. She couldn't quite make it out, she was only an observer.

She came back to herself, Amanda shaking her arm.

"Fann? Fann?" She could here concern in Amanda's voice and tried to respond.

"What? Amanda?" She mumbled, sitting up up in her chair. "What just happened?"

"I don't know." Amanda gave her a worried glance. "It was like you were in a trance."

"Something strange is happening." Fann whispered in a strained voice. "I think something bad is going to happen. Soon." She shivered. Amanda gazed at her in concern before carefully looking around the room. Fann's ability to detect danger almost before it happened had saved them a number of time in the last year.

"Where." She asked nervously.

"Not here. Far away." Fann mumbled again. She felt oddly euphoric and exhausted. "Do you mind if I make it an early night?" She asked, pushing herself out of her chair. "I need to go lay down."

"Okay." Amanda shrugged. "I'll meet up with you later. There are a couple things I wanted to check out."

"Amanda... didn't you promise Mac you would stay out of trouble?" Fann grinned at the look on Amanda's face.

"What he doesn't know can't hurt him." Amanda smirked. "Besides, it was you he was concerned about. I can take care of myself."

"Okay." Fann shook her head. "As long as I don't have to rescue you." Sometimes she felt like the responsible one in their relationship.

"You rescue me?" Amanda winked at her as she also got up. "What was that in Boston last week?"

"That was different." Fann frowned for a moment before grinning. "He never knew what hit him."

"Nope." Amanda waved in the direction of their hotel. "I'll just walk back with you."

They casually sauntered down the street through the light pedestrian traffic. Stopping in front of their hotel, Amanda gave her a quick hug before continuing down the street. Fann just shook her head and went up to her room.

Fann was sitting down to breakfast in the cafe across the street from their hotel when she heard several other patrons talking about Sunnydale. The destruction of an entire town in California made the news even in Canada. She sat there thinking, eyes blank, as she waited for Amanda to join her. Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a number of newspapers being dropped onto the table in front of her.

Grabbing a newspaper from the pile, she intently read the front page for clues, ignoring Amanda's impatient grumble for a minute as she absorbed the details. It wasn't much. Nothing to explain what had happened. She threw it down in frustration, looking at Amanda, now sitting across from her.

The feelings that she'd managed to finally suppress months ago came flooding back. She needed to go there, even if there was nothing she could do. Even if she wasn't a part of that world, her path leading elsewhere, something so bad it could destroy an entire town needed to be checked out.

"Amanda..." she looked at her much older companion. They worked well together. They'd developed a close rapport while Amanda was training her, teaching her everything she knew about her profession that could be taught. Taught her how to defend herself even though Amanda was very protective of her protégé and did her best to not involve Fann in Immortal games. In exchange she tried to keep Amanda grounded and her more extravagant schemes in check. While she had a long life ahead of her, thanks to her Sidhe heritage, she didn't have the Immortal ability to survive death. Amanda wasn't going to be too happy with her plans. "I need to go. Alone."

"Fann!" Amanda started to protest. "You can't"

"I need to. I should have gone last year when I found out about Sunnydale."

"You weren't ready." Amanda reminded her. "And Cassandra said your destiny is elsewhere. You aren't needed for that fight."

"I remember." She grimaced. No matter how it had shaken apart her world almost two years ago her connection to the Slayer line was an accident. Finding out she wasn't completely human at the same time had been another shock. With her maternal background it should never have happened. It was an unwanted debt she would have to someday repay. And because of it her future was no longer her own. Someday someone would come to collect. "But I'm still a part of it. I still have dreams and desires and skills that come from that. I need to find out what happened."

"We can catch a flight to LA this afternoon." Amanda acknowledged, not fighting Fann's planned trip to Sunnydale.

"You're not coming." Fann told her flatly.

"Says who?" Amanda spouted.

"I do." Fann refused to budge on the issue. "It's even less your fight than mine."

"So?" Amanda answered. "You're my partner. Of course it's my business if you want to do something that'll get you killed.

"So you're not going." Fann told her. "You need to let me deal with this."

"You're too young!" Amanda protested. "You don't have the experience to deal with something like this."

"And you do?" She looked at Amanda, shaking her head at the petulant Immortal. "Since when does your 'hobby' give you the experience to deal with some place like Sunnydale?"

"Well..." Amanda started. "I..."

"I'll be fine. No one will notice me. If nothing goes wrong I should be back in a week or two." She got up from the table. "You can wait for me here in Toronto, or we can meet somewhere else."

"Let's meet somewhere else." Amanda told her with a smirk.

"Oh?" She shook her head at her partner. "So you didn't just go for a long walk last night? Should we be packing right now?"

"No. We're okay." She smiled like the cat that had gotten the canary. "This afternoon is soon enough."

Fann groaned. Keeping Amanda out of trouble was a full time occupation. But she owed her so much she couldn't just leave her. No one else would have taken in a teenager like she had and given her a purpose. Even if Amanda insisted that having a partner her age was a distinct advantage, Fann knew that wasn't the only reason Amanda had originally rescued her from her misguided cross-country journey a year and half ago.

"Why don't you eat something." She told Amanda. I need to go pack and change my flight. I need to pick up some things in Seacover, so I'll drop off that box for Mac there so you don't have to carry it around."

"Okay. Don't be too long. We still have to do a few things before this afternoon." With that, Amanda reached for the basket of rolls and waved a waitress over to their table.

The flight to Seacover seemed to take forever. Fann attempted to sleep the entire way but found it impossible. The Sunnydale mystery was on the minds of everyone on her plane and she couldn't escape speculation about the cause.

A subdued Joe picked her up at the airport. He seemed to be deep in thought, saying few words before dropping her off at Macloud's dojo. She hadn't given him an explanation for why she was back so soon and without Amanda. She promised him one when she got back in a week or two. He just gave her the same look he gave his Immortal friends when they promised similar things. "Just make sure you get back here in one piece. Mac and Amanda won't be happy if I'm helping you get yourself killed." He told her.

"Amanda already knows where I'm going and it's better if Mac doesn't find out until I get back." She told him with a challenging stare before she slipped out of his car. She waited for him to drive off before reaching above the door to retrieve the key.

She wasn't taking much down to Sunnydale. Just things she could carry on her bike for the 18 hour or so trip. The katana Mac had insisted on giving her when she'd proven she could handle it was too awkward for a trip like this but hopefully it's companion wakizashi would work for anything she might run into. It was also a lot easier to hide for a non-Immortal like herself. Grabbing several changes of clothes and several throwing knives and stakes from her locker at the dojo she quickly packed a bag. Before taking her helmet and riding clothes out she stashed her suitcase in Mac's office and placed the box from Toronto on his desk with a note from Amanda.

Feeling like she was getting into old familiar armor, Fann changed into the leather clothes she'd kept from her nomadic life before meeting Amanda. It had been a long time since she spent any amount of time on her bike, mainly using it to get around town in good weather. She would have to make the trip in several stages if she wanted to be in good shape when she got there.

Taking one last look around, Fann pulled on her helmet and backed her bike out of the small shed behind the dojo. In the stark morning light she gave it the once-over, making sure there was nothing wrong with it before climbing on and starting the engine. She double checked to make sure she had enough gas to get several hundred miles down the road.

• Yes, I know I have Fann acting/being treated as MUCH older than she is. But think about it... she's a Slayer (mostly) and she ran away from home several years before this. She's more mature than her age would indicate. Okay... when I finish and rewrite I might change her character to act younger. Maybe.