"Who are you?" one of the other people - the man - said.

Now we know that the machine works, so all we need to do is make an anchor to pull Claudia back rather than have her pull me through. "Sol Invictus. Who're you?" Dawn replied, not really thinking about the others. We? It'll just be I, now.

"Umm, no. Try again." the woman said.

"Wait, what? Myka, you can't just tell someone that their name isn't their name!" the man said.

"Pete, Sol Invictus was a Roman mythological figure." the woman - Myka - explained in the tone of voice which implied that she had to explain things a lot.

"So? Lots of people have mythological names. I knew I guy called Hercules in high school. Boy, did he get teased for that." Pete replied.

"Okay, let me rephrase. A male mythological figure." Myka said exasperated.

"Oh. Gotcha."

What kind of teleportation requires someone being pushed out of this dimension, anyway? Wouldn't it be faster to just travel in a straight line? "Okay, my name's Dain Ironfoot."

"No."

"Joyce James." I could probably rejig the formula to do that - cut out all that drivel about the artefact, rearrange a few things... well, I could if these people ever left me alone.

"No. Try again."

"Okay, I get why Ironfoot was made up, no one's called that. But what's wrong with Joyce James?" Pete asked, seemingly lost.

"Dain Ironfoot was a Dwarf in The Hobbit, and James Joyce was an author." Myka explained.

"Actually, Joyce James is my mother's name. Or was her name, before she got married." Dawn replied. Well, I suppose they have their uses, otherwise sooner or later it'll sink in that I might not see Claudia again, and that would be bad. They can distract me at least.

"So, what's your real name?" Myka said.

"Dawn Donovan."

Pete blinked. "No way are you related to Claudia."

"Yup. She's my sister." Dawn said. Oh, Claudia's going to kick me when she finds out I said that.

"But you look completely different." Pete said.

"Yeah, and you weren't in her file. Try again." Myka said. She knew - hoped - that Artie would find the secret instructions that she knew - hoped - Rheticus had put on the compass soon, but right now she didn't know whether this girl knew anything or not about what was going on here. And Myka disliked not having all the facts.

"Okay, okay. I'm Dawn Summers. Friend of Claudia's. I tried to solve the teleportation formula with her before she got stuck and abducted the Professor." Dawn explained. She didn't explain that she was schizophrenic, because she wasn't really the sharing type. Dawn had only told Claudia about it because it was inevitable that she would find out at some point anyway.

Then there was light, and the amount of people in the room suddenly doubled.

Dawn didn't say anything, or even move when Claudia reappeared with her brother and Artie. Not because she was having a panic attack or anything like that.

But because Claudia had her brother back. Everything that Claudia had set out to do had now been accomplished. Which meant that she didn't need Dawn around anymore.

Dawn didn't know how she felt about that. On the one hand, Claudia was her friend. And, if she was honest about it, just about the only friend that she had actually ever made. Dawn had never been interested in other people, and had preferred to stick close to Buffy. It was probably a schizo thing. So, now that Claudia had her life back, Dawn didn't want to cut ties with her completely, but she doubted that Claudia would want a permanent reminder of the months she had spent thinking that she was crazy.

On the other hand, now that Claudia had her life back, Dawn could start fixing hers. Away from artefacts, and teleportation, and sticking to just good old fashioned vampires. She could check back into the psych ward and get herself sane, get back to university.

Dawn didn't know what she wanted. She didn't want a life where every few days she had to lock herself in her room out of fear that the Abomination would get her. She didn't want to deal with artefacts every day - or even deal with them at all, not while she wasn't quite sure if she was one or not.

But then, she didn't want to go back to her dull life of easy classes and absolutely no social activity other than Buffy dragging her out shopping. As much as being with Claudia and finding out about the Warehouse had made her question her own reality all the more, it had been exciting and challenging.

Dawn didn't know what to do, and the choice paralysed her.

She overheard Artie tell Pete and Myka about the instructions hidden on the compass, and Claudia excitedly tell Joshua how she had found him (and glossing over her experience in the psych ward) and touching him as often as possible as though to make sure he was really there (Dawn knew what that was like). Joshua, for his part, seemed rather shell-shocked. Dawn suspected that going years without speaking to a single soul and then being subjected to a babbling sister could do that to a person.

Eventually, though, Claudia seemed to realise that there were people in the room that she wasn't related to. She murmured a couple of words to Joshua (which Dawn didn't catch, because Pete was loudly exclaiming about someone called Mrs Frederic) and moved over to Dawn.

"How are you doing?" Claudia offered.

Dawn certainly intended to say something meaningful in response, but all that she actually managed was "Hmmmm?"

"Do you forgive me?" Claudia asked in a small voice, entirely at odds with the rather boisterous persona that she had so recently demonstrated.

"What for?" Dawn said, not paying a great deal of attention. In order to take her mind off of the upcoming decision, Dawn was mentally excising all the parts of the formula pertaining to the compass, in order to come up with an artefact free teleportation machine. Of course, it would take more work than that, and it would be only one way, but Dawn was confident she could work it out.

"For not telling you about the artefacts, and the Warehouse."

"Oh, yes. I quite understand."

"So... do you want to meet him?"

"Meet who?"

Claudia glanced sidelong at her friend. "Dawn, I'm the one who just got zapped into a pocket dimension and back. If anyone's going to be spaced out, it'll be me."

"Sorry." I'm just trying not to think about anything important.

"I meant Joshua, by the way."

"Oh. Okay."

Now that Joshua was no longer surrounded by golden light, Dawn could see that he was about Claudia's age, perhaps a little older. So much for his big brother status.

Dawn rather awkwardly extended a hand and said stiffly "Hi. I'm Dawn. I helped Claudia bring you back."

Joshua cracked a smile - the first that wasn't an ear-to-ear grin at being back on Earth - and said "Did that help entail being dragged through a hedge backwards?"

"No." Dawn said faintly, letting her hand fall limp as Joshua shook it. Just having a schizophrenic episode under a table next door.

"Sorry. Maybe being dragged through a hedge backwards is the look these days. I don't know, I can't get used to the fact that my kid sister's my age now." Joshua said apologetically.

"You can let go of my hand now."

"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to take it hostage. It's just been a really long time since I've touched anything that wasn't me." Joshua said, dropping Dawn's hand and blushing.

"Quite understandable." Dawn said absently. Then what Joshua had said penetrated the fog of numbers that Dawn was filling her thoughts with. "Oh. Oh." Dawn blushed too.

"I didn't mean it like that..." Joshua muttered under his breath.

Claudia chortled wickedly "Don't worry, Dawn, Josh didn't have much social skills even before."

Dawn shrugged uncomfortably. "Social skills are over rated."

Fortunately, before something else happened that led to Dawn blushing so much that she caught fire, it seemed as though Artie, Myka and Pete had finally caught each other up.

"So, we're going back to the Warehouse." Artie said authoritatively. "You three are going to come with us."

"Warehouse?" Joshua asked, baffled, at the same time as his sister said "Why?"

Dawn, however, didn't say a word. It gave her more time to come to a decision - or, as the case may be, avoid making one.

"I'll explain on the way." Artie said to Joshua gruffly. "As for you, young lady, you have to show me how you hacked the Warehouse."

Before Dawn could stop herself, she blurted "What about me?"

"You know about the Warehouse. We have to figure out what to do about that."

Pete echoed Dawn's thoughts. "Well, that sounds ominous."