Dawn and Reincarnation Part 40 (Patreon)

Dawn waited until the ring's opening was covering in a glowing blue field then stepped through into a large old fashioned living room. She had just enough time to take in the scene, one cultist using a reddish beam of energy on an older looking Deckard while another held a dark skinned man in place with another beam of energy, before the young woman being harassed by three cultists exploded with power, killing all of the cultists in the room other than the woman dressed like an over the top Disney villain.

"Your rage is overwhelming girl," the last remaining cultist said with amusement, her expression turning less amused when she turned and saw Dawn and the strange dark haired woman in robes standing by the entrance. "You win this round but-" whatever else she was going to say was cut off by the stream of balefire that ripped through her shield and struck her chest, ripping her out of time and causing the entire world to shake for a second.

"Never let the villain monologue," Dawn said when everyone in the room turned and looked at her. "It's not like she didn't have it coming," she said defensively, turning her attention towards the threads of magic floating over the three pieces of a broken sword laying in front of Deckard.

"Uncle!" Leah dashed over to check on Deckard.

Deckard coughed up blood and did his best not to scream as his damaged ribs reassembled themselves and his flesh regenerated.

"It's times like this, I almost wish I was a druid," the dark haired young woman admitted as she pulled a healing potion off her belt and offered it to Leah as she walked over. "Here."

Dawn's attention was pulled off the threads hovering over the sword when she noticed the confusing mess of threads spiralling around the strange woman's eclectic collection of armor and magical items. 'How many fucking magical items does she have?'

"No point," Deckard coughed out, fairly sure the strange ability Dawn had loaned him would repair the damage soon enough.

"You don't get to die on me!" Leah ordered as she grabbed the healing potion.

"I don't plan on it," Deckard said as he pushed himself to his feet, wishing he knew who any of the people were because he had a feeling he should or at least the older version of him should.

"Huh, for some reason I was expecting him to die," the black haired young woman muttered, looking surprised yet happy about recent events.

Dawn spun around as she followed the strange ethereal string she could see coming off the hero's ring and going to the ring the attractive blonde haired woman standing by the door was wearing. She glanced over the woman's weird collection of cloth and plate armor that left gaps in various places which showed a decent amount of skin, making her wonder if she was trying to distract people or if there was a reason she wasn't decked out in magical items like her friend.

"No dying," Leah ordered then glanced at Dawn. "Thank you for killing Maghda." She smiled at her dark haired friend. "Thank you for rushing back here."

"Don't worry about it, I'm just glad everything worked out," Selena replied with a smile, fairly sure events weren't playing out how they were 'supposed to'. She focused on Dawn. "Where do you know Deckard from?"

"I met him in Caldeum and owed him a favor," Dawn replied as she studied the threads over the sword, trying to figure out how to duplicate the magic. 'At least a couple of favors for letting me collect Leah.'

The dark skinned stranger glanced between the broken blades he'd been staring at and Dawn. "You don't belong here, do you?"

Selena raised her wand, studying the tall red haired girl in strange clothes. "What is he talking about?"

Dawn briefly considered lying but figured a version of the truth would work just fine. "I'm actually from the past or at least a version of it, we're trying to learn some secrets and make sure certain events don't come to pass."

"How far in the past," Eirena blurted out, hoping it was early enough to save her sisters.

"Almost twenty years," Dawn admitted.

"Can we go back?" Eirena asked hopefully.

Dawn turned to look at the girl with magic. "People can, things, not so much which is why I'm trying to study everyone's gear and notes before we leave."

Selena scowled as she connected the dots. "You're telling us we're going to lose our shit, aren't you?"

"Pretty much," Dawn admitted. "On the upside, I'm a crafter, so I can probably reproduce a lot of it and teach you a couple of new spells once we get there."

"Do you have any proof?" Selena asked warily, not looking forward to hunting down replacement legendaries but willing to take a chance if it meant that she could pick up some new spells.

"Beyond Deckard vouching for me?" Dawn turned her attention towards the swirling threads floating over Selena's gear, trying to learn something from the complicated mess.

Selena glanced at Deckard. "No offense but you could be an illusion or a trick. Considering the quality of my gear, I'm going to need actual proof."

Deckard nodded. "You are correct, I could be a demon or a cultist in disguise."

"I can't blame you," Dawn replied as she gestured and wove an illusion of a portal over the 'invisible' portal. "How about if Leah or your companion sets her gear down and steps through the portal, once she's through she can step back through and pick everything up. If it's a trap, you can blast me or do whatever you want," she offered.

Leah turned to look at Deckard. "Do you believe her?"

Deckard nodded, not sure how to explain the full details without them thinking he was insane until they experienced the ring for themselves. "Yes."

"Fine, I'll be right back," Leah said as she headed towards the portal.

"If this is a trick, I'm going to destroy you," Selena warned Dawn, hoping it wasn't a trick for Eirena's sake.

"Don't worry, she'll be perfectly safe," Dawn assured everyone. "She just needs to step through then come back."

Leah stepped through the portal and quickly glanced around the stone courtyard at the various women and men in silk clothes or nothing at all that were walking around or talking to each other. She looked down when she realized her feet were touching stone and sighed when she saw her lack of clothes. "Right, no stuff includes clothes," she spun around and stepped through the large ring.

Selena grinned as Leah stepped out of the portal completely naked and stalked towards the back room to grab her robe. "Let me guess, no stuff includes clothes?"

"I never said it didn't," Dawn replied with amusement as she enjoyed the view. 'Perky breasts, a cute beyond, an abundance of magic and a nice personality, what's not to like? Hopefully she's not too upset when she realizes that she probably can't stick around without getting headaches and nightmares.'

Selena pulled her attention off Leah once she closed the door and looked at Dawn. "Now that I'm reasonably sure this isn't a demonic trick, how do you want to do this?"

"I should probably start by giving Leah and Deckard blessings that give them the ability to instantly read any book or stack of papers they touch and remember them perfectly. Once we get back my mother can give them the ability to conjure books to replace what they're leaving behind." Dawn loaned Leah and Deckard a power that gave perfect memory and would let them instantly read any book they touched. "That should do it, just touch a book."

"That's all well and good for the bookworms but how are you going to recreate my stuff?" Selena asked as Leah walked over to test her new ability.

"With magic," Dawn replied with a grin, ignoring Selena's dirty look and Eirena's snicker. "I picked up a duplication trick in my travels which means I can make duplicates of your gear and break them so I can learn the magical qualities which should let me reproduce them. If that doesn't work, I'll just have to try to duplicate them the hard way."

"Are you sure you can't take the duplicates back or find a way to magically shield everything?" Selena asked hopefully, not wanting to have to track everything down again.

"No, just knowledge and people, I've already tried," Dawn admitted, wishing she could just duplicate things and walk out as it would be a lot easier.

"In that case, we should probably talk to Myriam Jahzia, she's a mystic that can modify gear so it looks better and twist magical properties into something more useful." Selena wasn't going to let her 'friend' skip out on paying her back considering the sheer amount of gold she'd spent to help her increase her skills.

"Do you need a blacksmith or a gemcutter?" Eirena asked, thinking about the other artisans they traveled with.

Dawn grinned, fairly sure Xander and Perrin would appreciate having a master blacksmith to learn from. "We have a couple of blacksmiths that need more training and I don't think we have any jewelers."

"In that case, start with Eirena's gear, I'll go talk to my friends about coming with us," Selena said as she headed for the door. "It's going to take a bit to empty my stash."

"Sounds good," Dawn said, barely resisting the urge to rub her hands together and cackle at the idea of getting her hands on insanely good magical items that she could hand out to her friends to keep them safe.

0o0o0

"This feels like cheating," Chris muttered as he handed Elizabeth the custom 'glass' cover plate. "Are you sure this is going to be strong enough if the flywheel snaps?"

Elizabeth grabbed a hammer off the table and hit the 'glass' plate, causing the hammer to bounce off without even leaving a mark on the glass. "Yep."

"Tinkertech?" Chris asked, wondering how hard it would be to get more of.

"Nope, one of the girls used magic," Elizabeth replied with amusement as she set the plate in place to cover the spinning flywheel.

"Magic? Is that what they call powers here?" he asked.

"Nah, I'm fairly sure they're using actual magic considering channeling seems to be genetic and we can learn the local version from books." Elizabeth flipped the switch on the generator and sent the power into the row of batteries she'd wired up to deal with spikes in power usage. "I'll clean up the wires when I mount everything on the wall."

Chris laughed. "You're fine, I'm not Armsmaster."

"Good thing," Elizabeth replied with amusement as she flipped the switch on the surge protector connected to her generator and smiled when the lights lit up. "And we have power which means we should probably start setting up some of the computers."

"How long do you think it's going to take to teach everyone the basics?" Chris asked, fairly sure most of the people on the island didn't even know what electricity was, let alone a computer.

"No idea, I just build shit," Elizabeth replied with a grin. "Joking aside, Dawn will probably just give someone a teaching power so we can give everyone the basics or hand out training boosters if she can't create a teaching power that doesn't fry people's brains."

"Fry people's brains?" Dean asked as he walked in wearing a pair of Hawaiian shorts and an amused look on his face.

Elizabeth smiled at Dean. "Don't worry about it, is Vicky still ranting?"

"Nope, she found the practice yards and decided that she was fine with a 'look but don't touch' rule," Dean said, not seeing a reason to object to the rule as it let him look at the naked ladies wandering around without feeling guilty. "Speaking of avoiding problems, do you need help with anything?"

Elizabeth gestured at the boxes of computers that needed to be set up. "You can help me set everything up."

"Sure," Dean said, figuring that would keep his mind off how they were going to get home.

"How long do you think it will take before we run out of circuit boards and spare parts?" Chris asked, hoping his power didn't drive him completely around the bend when he ran out of things to work on.

Buffy shrugged. "I normally just have my Mom give me a power that lets me recycle trash into the stuff I use for the 3D printer, same for circuit boards and the printer so I think we'll be fine."

Chris stared at Buffy. "Do you know how much those cost?"

"Not a clue, mine were presents," Elizabeth replied with amusement, fairly sure that her mother had just loaned one of the girls that worked for her a power that let her duplicate machinery rather than paying for the expensive machines but it was the thought that counted and it was nice being able to make her own circuit boards and cases.

"If I'd had your resources, I'd never have joined the wards," Chris complained as he walked over to help Dean set things up.

"I can't say I blame you," Elizabeth replied as she walked over and started pulling all of the computer towers out of the boxes so they could get things set up. "Look on the bright side, you don't have to deal with Armsmaster breathing down your neck or the review board."

"Not to mention you're stuck on a tropical island filled with attractive girls, there are worse places to be," Dean pointed out.

"Fair point," Chris admitted.

0o0o0

Dawn pulled her attention away from the threads hovering over the glowing blue circle on the patch of stone with a triangle carved into it when Giles walked over. "Let me guess, someone was worried that I'd lost track of time?"

"You've been in here for a couple of hours," Giles pointed out.

"I know, Selena is a packrat and the mystic had an entire wagon filled with magical tools that she wanted me to study so I could reproduce them." Dawn gestured at the glowing circle on the ground. "I just wanted to take another look at the waypoint. It's basically a teleportation network which sounds really useful if I can get it working."

"Do you think you'll be able to replicate it?" Giles asked, wishing he knew more about Dawn's magic so he could help or at least have a vague idea what she was capable of.

"No idea," Dawn admitted as she turned and headed for Deckard's house. "Outside of my ability to slip through shadows and travel in the dream world, I've never heard of a channeler teleporting and the threads were a complicated mess but I've got an eidetic memory when it comes to weaves and threads so there's always a chance."

"In other words, you're going to try?" Giles asked warily, knowing how temperamental teleportation could be with the magic he was familiar with, he doubted it would be any less problematic translated into another magic system entirely.

"Eventually," Dawn admitted as they walked into Deckard's house. She stepped through the portal and glanced around the courtyard, looking at the collection of people wearing mismatched clothes that had decided to come back with them. 'I doubt the jeweler will stick around but maybe we can talk him into teaching someone a couple of tricks before we kill Diablo. Then again, we should do the same with the Mystic even if we can probably talk her into coming with us.'

"Eventually?" Giles asked after following her out of the pocket dimension.

"We're still working on making sure we have enough clean water and ways to deal with sewage effectively on a large scale, a teleportation network isn't really going to be worth looking into until we have all of the basic problems dealt with and we have multiple towns set up," Dawn explained as Selena and Eirena walked over wearing light purple dresses that didn't quite fit.

"For the best, teleportation is tricky at the best of times," Giles warned her, wishing he had more information about her magic so that he could give her better advice.

"Who do I talk to about getting some basic gear so we can rescue Eirena's sisters?" Selena asked, feeling uneasy without her gear.

"By basic gear, I'm assuming you mean enchanted?" Dawn asked as she started walking towards the roped off area where the cow portal was on the edge of the 'town'.

"Of course," Selena replied as they fell into step with Dawn.

"If it's not too much trouble," Eirena added.

"Nope, we should have plenty of magical items from killing demons in the pocket dimension, you're welcome to grab a set. Tara should be able to open a door to the tomb once you have enough gear," Dawn offered, figuring she'd just duplicate everything then break it for the enchants once they'd rescued Eirena's sisters.

Faith turned and looked at Dawn and Selena as they walked over. "More recruits?"

"Basically, she's a friend of Leah's and needs some gear so we can rescue a bunch of magic users in an enchanted slumber before they're tortured to death by a demon and a bunch of cultists," Dawn explained. "Did you bring back anything interesting?"

"Probably, Xander and Fred are giggling like fiends over some of it, so it's probably worth studying," Faith replied as she gestured towards the tent where they'd stored the magical items they'd collected.

"You should hear Selena when she gets a new artifact, it's practically sinful," Eirana teased.

Selena stuck her tongue out at her friend then walked into the tent and looked around at the collection of magical items scattered around on various tables. "Do you have any casting items?" she asked Xander who was working on labeling some of the magical items along with the 'younger' Deckard.

"Lots," Xander offered as he gestured towards the section of the tent where they'd stuck the casting gear they'd recovered.

Selena smiled as she walked over and started looking through the tags on the gear, hoping there was something she could use.

"How long do you think it will take to make some decent gear?" Fred asked as Dawn followed Eirena into the tent.

Dawn turned to look at Fred. "Anywhere from a couple of hours to a couple of days, it just depends on how long it takes to finish the Mystic's tools and to get everything forged. It's probably going to take that long for Tara and the legion to loot all of the libraries."

"Speaking of loot, Tara recovered a demonic anvil that you should probably take a look at when you get a chance," Fred suggested, fairly sure Dawn's identification ability would catch things that Deckard missed, like subtle curses.

Dawn smiled at Fred. "I'll put it on my list of things to get to when I have time."

"No rush," Fred assured her. "Though now that I'm thinking about it, we should probably copy the magical hammer in the Rogue's monastery, it would certainly help create powerful magical weapons and armor."

"Make a list," Dawn replied with a grin as she walked over and started working on identifying the new stuff.