She'd just settled into her room at the Hyperion when she sensed something in the room with her. She turned around to find the balance demon standing there, hands already in a surrender gesture. She almost sighed, when were they gonna catch a break. They'd barely defeated the first and were still grieving for Anya and Spike.

"What do you want?" She'd asked, wearily.

"Just a message from the Powers"

"Get on with it Whistler, what are they doing to screw with me now?

"First, the Powers reset the witch's spell. Can't have a bunch of slayers throwing off the newly restored balance. It'll be like it never happened, nobody but you and Willow will remember."

"And why exactly do Willow and I have to remember?" She took a calming breath, her mind already thinking about the fact that despite how annoying the mini-slayer could be, Willow was finally moving past Tara's death with Kennedy. Now, there was no Kennedy; this would be a nightmare.

"Willow does because she performed the spell, and you, well that leads into one of my next points. You might have noticed that you've got the memories of every slayer to come before and after you, up to and including their death and first few moments in Heaven; that's why you remember, because some of those memories are from the mini-slayers that didn't make it out of Sunnydale."

"Okay, and why exactly do I have these new memories?"

"It's part of your power boost. As you and Faith may have noticed, your powers get stronger with age. However, yours and hers will expand differently as you're immortal." She lunged at the demon before she could even think the action through.

"Whistler, what's stopping me from making your ribcage my new hat?" She asked, threateningly.

"Come on Slayer, you can't kill me I'm just the messenger."

"Well then message me this, how do I reverse it?"

"It's a consequence of your witch's spell, the one that brought you back. Once someone is pulled out they can't go back. And before you ask, your first death doesn't count, you weren't dead long enough since you could be brought back by mortal means. Now it works a bit differently for you than say the vampires you hunt; unlike them you can and most likely will die, you just won't stay dead."

"So not only will I remember the first few moments of heaven for every slayer to come before or after me, I'm going to be pulled from Heaven again and again for the rest of eternity?" Her voice was cold, dead. She remembered how it was in the months after she was ripped back; she'd never survive with her sanity if she had to relive that time and time again.

"No, the Powers unfortunately can't reverse this but they can and did make it so it'll just be black. It's not much, I know, since you know what should be there but hopefully it'll be enough."

"Right, anything else?"

"One last thing, Dawn isn't your sister."

"Whistler." She growled angrily.

"Slow down Slayer, I know the argument you had with your watcher during Glory. I'm not saying that Dawn isn't a person. What I'm saying is that Dawn isn't a clone of you. She was made from you but to avoid a complete clone, they used another person's DNA.

"That would make her..."

"Your daughter, except they didn't want to burden you any further by giving you a baby to guard. Therefore despite being biologically your daughter, she was inserted into your memories as a sister."

"Who"

"I assume you mean, who's her father? Spike."

"Why now, why tell me this now?" She asked, close to tears for the stupid vampire that hadn't believed her.

"The Powers are willing to you both a chance; her to grow up as normally as possible given her family and you a chance to truly raise your daughter."

"What's the catch?"

"Nothing, Dawn would simply be reverted to the age she'd be if she'd been given to you as the daughter she should have been in the first place."

"Not really in the mood for a math problem."

"She'd be four, a completely normal toddler. We'd make it so she would have been conceived when the witch's spell made you and Spike believe yourselves engaged. Slayer, you don't have to decide now. Think about it, see what Dawn wants to do. If you decide to go through with it, just smash this." He tossed her a smooth glass stone

"But a word of warning, the offer has a time limit; you've got a week." And with that he was gone. Buffy just stood there, alternately looking at the stone in her hand and where the demon had just been standing, just processing everything she'd been told. Eventually, she set the stone on her night stand and got ready for bed; there'd be plenty of time to discuss this with Dawn after she'd gotten some rest.

###

As it turned out, she didn't get a chance to talk to Dawn until two days later due to Willow wigging out over the loss of Kennedy which turned into a full on grief fest for Kennedy, though Xander thought it was for Tara, Anya and Spike. Then it was Giles requiring her attention, wanting to start working on what they'd do now. She put him off though, convincing him that evil would be licking it's wounds for a bit and that they could discuss that as a group once they'd healed and relaxed for a week or so. Finally, she made it to her sis - daughter's room and knocked.

"Hey, what's up?" Dawn asked.

"Willow and Xander are grieving, Faith is pretty much living at the hospital where Robin is still in critical condition and just when I thought I'd have a chance to slow down, I got a visit from the Powers via Whistler."

"We just beat the First, what more could they possibly want."

"It wasn't wanting something so much as a 411 sesh."

"So what's the what?" Dawn asked, Buffy smiled at the scoobie speak.

"Well, I won't get into all of it now but the main part I wanted to talk to you about is he dropped a couple major bombs about you."

"Buffy?"

"You'renotmysister,you'reactuallymyandSpike'sdaughterandthePTBwantstogiveyouarealchildhoodbytakingthekeyoutofyouanddeagingyou." Buffy babbled.

"Wow, um, okay, how?" Dawn asked, clearly in shock.

"The monks used just enough of Spike's DNA so you wouldn't be a complete clone of me."

"Oh my God, Buffy! I remember having a crush on him. But he's my dad. Need brain bleach. Stat." Dawn blanched. Buffy tried, she really did, but she couldn't stop the laugh the escaped her.

"Buffy, it's not funny." Dawn whined. Buffy just laughed harder and eventually Dawn burst into giggles. Once they pulled themselves together, Buffy said,

"I needed that. Anyway, conveniently the Powers are offering you brain bleach."

"Oh, yeah, the real childhood."

"You'd be a normal four year old, well as normal as the next generation of Scooby can be anyway. Whatya think?"

"It sounds great, except I wouldn't have memories of Spike or Tara or Anya or Mom - I mean, I guess she'd actually be my Grandma."

"Yeah, this means you'd have never met them but come on Dawnie, you know I'd never let you truly forget them."

"What about the others?"

"Whistler didn't say, but it doesn't really matter. Dawnie, this is your choice. I can still be your sister despite what a DNA test would show, I can be a parental figure as you are now or I can raise you from two. Whatever you want."

"I want to repress the fact that I crushed on my dad." Dawn said, blanching again. Buffy just smiled as she gave the younger Summers time to think through her choices.

"You have time to think, Whistler said we have a week and that was two days ago so you have the next five days to figure out what you want." Buffy said.

"I think I want the chance to be a kid." Dawn admitted.

"Are you sure, I'd bet my favorite leather pants this isn't reversible."

"Yeah, I'm sure."

"Okay." Buffy hugged the young woman she'd known the last few years as her bratty little sister for the last time, then crushed the stone in her fist.