Dawn wasn't doing anything when Claudia went to see her. Literally nothing. She was perched on the edge of her bed, staring at nothing. Claudia wondered if she was even thinking - maybe the reason Dawn had tried to be with people as much as possible was because the mirror needed people around to function. All artefacts needed a human component to work - there was no reason to assume that one that was currently human itself was any different.

She perked up the moment Claudia came into the room, though. "Hey, Claud! Has Pete gotten Poe's pen yet?"

Claudia shrugged uncomfortably, and was acutely aware that the real Dawn would know that there was something behind the gesture. But this Dawn didn't react at all. "Don't know. Listen, Dawn, there's something I want to show you. It's in the Warehouse."

Dawn tilted her head questioningly, in a movement so like Dawn it hurt. If the casino chip hadn't shown Claudia... what it had shown, Claudia would be tempted to believe that she'd gotten it all wrong. "Is that okay? I mean, did Artie say its okay? I thought I wasn't supposed to go in the Warehouse."

Claudia shoved her hands into her pockets, wincing from the pain that was a side effect of using the casino chip, so that Dawn couldn't see her pushing her thumb against her fingers. She didn't know how much of Dawn remained, but given that the real Dawn knew exactly why Claudia made that gesture it was better not to show it. "Yeah, it's fine. You coming?"

Dawn sat perfectly still for a moment before shrugging and saying "Sure."

~*~

Claudia didn't know how much Dawn suspected. She hoped that she didn't expect anything, but she couldn't tell. She knew Dawn better than anyone, but this wasn't Dawn, no matter how much she might look the same. Oh, the mannerisms were there (fake-Dawn even chewed her hair) but Claudia couldn't tell whether they meant the same thing as they did when real-Dawn made them.

Still, it didn't matter a great deal. The casino chip had shown the real Dawn, which meant that Claudia would succeed.

On the other hand, given that only Dawn had been in the vision, Claudia didn't know whether someone else was hurt as a result.

~*~

Claudia took Dawn to the Dark Vault as quickly as possible, rushing so that there was as little opportunity as possible for an artefact to react to fake-Dawn's aura. That would just make everything more complicated, and, if Dawn reacted to the artefacts locked away in the vault, potentially extremely dangerous.

She couldn't help it, but with every step closer to the Vault Claudia found that she was getting ever tenser. She also noticed that Dawn wasn't.

Claudia almost jumped out of her skin when Dawn suddenly stopped and said "I know what you're doing, you know. You don't have to be so secretive."

Claudia swallowed. "You - you do?"

Dawn spread her hands. "Sure. It's obvious. You want your friend back. Quite understandable, really." She smiled.

"Oh." Claudia replied. She didn't know what else to say.

The smile dropped from Dawn's face. "Only, you don't know what it's like. That - that little human crawling around inside me, polluting me with its fear and rage and boredom. Such a horrific concept, boredom. Do you know, I never knew what it was like to be bored before those Warehouse agents stuffed that girl into me?"

"Oh." Claudia said again. There wasn't anything else to say.

"Dawn was - she's a holiday, I suppose you'd call it." Dawn said wistfully. "But, if it's over, it's over. I'm not going to fight you."

"You're not?" Claudia said, surprised. "But what about all that stuff you just said?"

"Oh, I don't want to go back. But I know how you feel about your friend. How the others do, too. I've never felt anything like that, before. The girl can't feel anything like that. She's damaged, that one." Dawn said, sighing. "Anyway, I don't want to destroy that emotion."

Claudia decided not to protest the fact that the mirror had called Alice "damaged". Having been a mental patient, she took offence at that kind of thing, but she guessed that now wouldn't be the best time to make a big issue about it. Not when her best friend was possessed by an empathetic mirror.

And just like that, Claudia had a solution. One that would make the mirror happy (as far as such a thing could be called happy).

The mirror had been stuck with a murderer for its entire "life". Then it had been shut away in the Warehouse, far away from anyone - and more important, far away from anyone's emotions. No wonder it had jumped at the chance to take a holiday in Dawn's body.

"I'll visit you." Claudia said impulsively, before she had time to reconsider. "You can read my emotions, or whatever it is that you do. You won't be alone. You won't have just Alice for company."

An expression appeared on Dawn's face, one that Claudia had seen before - when Claudia had hugged her after Buffy had visited her in the psych hospital to tell Dawn that their parents were being divorced. The expression of surprise that someone would comfort her. Seeing it now, on Dawn's face but knowing it wasn't really Dawn, was more painful than Claudia could bear. Even as Claudia looked away, a lump in her throat, she knew she was doing the right thing.

"You'd do that?" fake-Dawn said, surprised. "Why?"

Claudia shrugged awkwardly. "I care for people. It's what I do. Even if they're, you know, artefacts."

Fake-Dawn stretched out a hand and clasped Claudia's. "Thank you."

~*~

It wasn't long after that that the pair stood in front of the mirror. Claudia had brought a camera with an over-powerful flash that she'd rigged up, but it turned out that she didn't need it.

Fake-Dawn just laid a hand on the mirror's frame, froze for several seconds, and then backed away.

She was Dawn, now. Claudia could see it. She waited expectantly for Dawn to say something.

Dawn didn't. She looked around, eyes drinking in everything that she saw. She stretched and ran her fingers through her hair, luxuriating in the tactile sensation after so long without it.

Then, eventually, without looking at Claudia, she said "How long?". Dawn's voice was harsh and cracked the first time, so she cleared her throat and repeated herself.

"About a week."

Dawn nodded once, birdlike. Then, without another word, she set off, heading out of the Warehouse. Claudia nearly had to run to keep up with her.

~*~

Naturally, given Claudia's luck, the pair were accosted by Artie just as they were about to leave the Warehouse. Claudia didn't really want to explain to him that for the last week, Dawn literally hadn't been herself. She thought that, if Artie knew that Dawn could react to artefacts like that, he'd be sure to send her away.

"What are you two doing here?" Artie asked brusquely, but he continued talking before either of them could say anything. "Never mind that. Pete and Myka are back. They've got something to tell us. Something bad, by the sound of it."

Dawn looked at Claudia for the first time, her expression clearly asking "What's going on?"

Unfortunately, Claudia couldn't tell her, not with Artie right there. Fake-Dawn had known about the crisis with Myka's parents and Poe's pen, so the real Dawn would have to pretend that she did, too.

~*~

Artie was right. It was bad news. It turned out that MacPherson had engineered the entire situation with Poe's notebook and Myka's father so that he didn't have to make the effort of recovering Poe's pen and notebook himself.

Of course, Dawn hadn't the faintest idea of what Poe's pen did, or what the situation with Myka's father was. So Claudia decided to clue her friend in - as much as she could in the present circumstances. "Oh, great. So MacPherson's got an artefact that allows whatever he writes to come true. As if having an absurdly sharp sword wasn't enough."

At that, Dawn stood up so quickly that her chair fell over backwards. Dawn left the room almost before it hit the floor.

There was a moment of silence before Myka said. "Damn. She seemed to be doing so well lately."

That statement almost made Claudia cry. "I, uh, I'd better see if she's alright."

"Are you sure that's a good idea? You know how she gets. She might just need some space." Pete said gently.

"No, it's - it's not like that. It's important. I have to see her." Claudia said thickly. She left before anyone could convince her that it might not be the best of ideas.

~*~

Claudia didn't bother to knock on Dawn's door. She knew full well that Dawn wouldn't answer. So she just went in.

She was somewhat surprised to see Dawn was taking all her clothes out of her wardrobe and was piling them into a heap on the floor. "What are you doing, Dawn?" Claudia asked cautiously.

"What does it look like I'm doing?" Dawn said so quickly that she began speaking almost before Claudia stopped. "Or do you need a week to figure it out?"

"Okay. I can see what you're doing. But why are you doing it?" Claudia asked in what she hoped was a conciliatory tone.

Dawn closed the distance between her and Claudia so quickly that it almost seemed as though she didn't move through the intervening space. She stood so close to Claudia that Dawn's face filled her entire field of vision.

"Because that - that thing wore my clothes. It's everywhere. In my bed, in my life. It took everything. It even took you. I don't want my clothes, I don't want my bed. They're not mine. It took you a week to get me. And it turns out, while I was gone, you lost an artefact that could help me. Imagine that. I'd only have to write four letters. And now it's gone. So you can get out." Dawn said in a soft voice, with no particular intonation.

This is what Claudia had seen, thanks to the casino chip. What she'd seen the first time, and the second time, when she'd used it again hoping to see something different, and the third time, out of a kind of morbid fascination. Claudia had kept on watching it until the pain from the chip's burns was too much for her to bear.

Now that it was real, Claudia didn't feel the sense of sickening abandonment that she'd felt every time the chip had shown her this scene.

Dawn and Claudia didn't argue. The closest they'd ever come was when Dawn had refused to leave the psych hospital to help Claudia to save Joshua. Although that had ended with Claudia trying to hang herself, it hadn't been argument. Claudia had realised the hopelessness of her predicament when even a schizophrenic girl who was the closest thing she had to family refused to help.

This situation was different. This was an actual argument.

Claudia, to her surprise, felt angry.

"Do you know what, Dawn? You can go to hell." Claudia said coldly.

Dawn took a step backwards in surprise. "What did you say?"

"I don't think I've ever met someone as selfish as you. You've got people who care for you. People who care. And you shut us out, lock yourself up here. I should've known you'd push me away sooner or later. You tried to before. Well, Dawn, maybe someday you'll realise that we're here for you. Maybe you'll eventually realise that shutting us out is a bad move."

Dawn began chewing her hair. "You're there for me? Really? So you were there when I was trapped in the cold and the dark with a psychopath, then. You were there when I begged the Abomination to kill me, because I had no other options. You were there when I was cutting myself. You were there when I was literally going out of my mind trying to decide whether I should I stay or not. You were there for all that, were you?" Dawn said conversationally. The casual tone only made everything worse.

"Dawn-"

"Because you did an amazing job, if you were. See, if you were there, you must've maneuvered me so that I thought that it was me trying to deal with all of that. By myself. But you were there helping, were you? Funny, I never noticed you." Dawn said, sarcasm dripping from every word.

Claudia had known that Dawn was struggling. She'd seen it. But she hadn't done anything about it, because she didn't know how. Claudia didn't see how she could help Dawn, if Dawn wouldn't tell her what was wrong. Claudia was barely nineteen, she didn't know how to broach the topic with her friend. She had no experience with that kind of thing. She could only help Dawn if Dawn sought her help.

"Dawn-"

"I've had enough of your help. Get out."

"Dawn-"

"Get out get out get out!" Dawn screamed.

Claudia flinched, and left. She didn't turn back, even when Dawn smashed her window and threw all her clothes out of it. She just walked to her room, shut the door, sank down to the floor and began to cry.

Meanwhile, Dawn found a pen and began to scrawl calculations on her wall. She didn't stop when her eyes began to well up. She just blinked her tears away.