Legolas stared down at the bed. Dawn was sound asleep in her room in Minas Tirith. She looked young and innocent in her rest. Legolas stood at the side of the bed. He had no idea why he'd done it, but he'd snuck into her room long after the rest of the city had gone to sleep, just to see her.

And considering she still wouldn't let him near her when she was awake, now had to be the time. He watched as her face suddenly hardened with anger. For a second he worried that she had woken and he had been discovered, but she tossed her head a little and Legolas realised she was dreaming.

Gandalf stood outside Dawn's window unnoticed, watching the Elf watching the girl. He silently willed Legolas to reach out and touch her, a small smile creasing his features.

As if propelled by some unseen force, Legolas found himself reaching down. He laid a hand on Dawn's forehead. Gandalf's smile deepened and he raised his staff a little.

*Flash*

Legolas blinked and looked around him. Wherever he was, it was like no place he'd ever seen before. It was an empty room, completely white, cold and sterile. At one end of the room was a door. He smiled. Dawn was next to him, dressed in strange clothing. She was wearing all black, leather pants and a tank top, and her hair hung in loose curls about her shoulders. He then looked down at himself, he too was wearing all black- simple leggings and a tunic.

To the delight of both, Dawn smiled back at Legolas. For whatever reason, she didn't have to be angry with him here. He took her outstretched hand and they turned to the door, stepping through together.

*Flash*

Dawn grimaced to herself. Something told her this little dream trip of theirs would be a painful walk down memory lane. She and Legolas were standing in the Summers' backyard in the bushes. They were watching a fourteen year old girl in dark jeans and a green shirt with three quarter length sleeves climbing down the trellis. The girl turned around, and Legolas gasped.

Dawn. Younger Dawn had turned and suppressed a squeal as she'd nearly run smack bang into one lurking vampire.

"Ugh! Geez- lurk much," she squeaked.

"Wasn't lurkin', I was standin' about, it's a whole different vibe," Spike responded with a scowl.

As younger Dawn and Spike traded barbs back and forth, Legolas peered at her intently. It was amazing, he noted. In four years she had changed so little, and so much. One thing was definitely different, he noted. The skin of her left wrist was smooth and flawless. She had not been scarred yet... so she mustn't yet know she is the Key, he realised.

"Wanna come steal some stuff?" younger Dawn asked the vampire nonchalantly.

"Yeah, all right," Spike replied, just as coolly.

They went to the Magic Box, Legolas in awe of everything around him. Dawn's world was amazing. She found Giles' notes and began to read through them. For the first time, eighteen year-old Dawn noticed, as did Legolas, that Spike had tried to pick up Olaf's troll hammer, and failed miserably. They giggled quietly to each other.

Spike wandered over and took the book from younger Dawn. Older Dawn watched herself as she began to figure it out, what she was, remembering the crazy people, and the snake-like demon that had all reacted strangely to her.

"... so they sent the Key to her in human form. In the form of a sister. Huh, I guess that's you, Nibblet."

In four years, no, wait, nearly five, older Dawn realised with a start, she'd never forgotten those words. The instant her life had changed forever. She watched her younger self reacting, remembering the counfusion, and the pain. She felt Legolas take her hand and squeezed his fingers.

They were in the Summers' kitchen. Younger Dawn was alone. In the background, they could all hear Buffy chattering with her friends about something called greeting card silence, which Legolas did not understand. He tuned them out, watching, transfixed, as younger Dawn pulled a knife from a drawer.

The childlike figure ignored the tears streaming down her cheeks as she sliced the blade over her left wrist. The bright crimson blood oozed over her white skin and she watched it for a minute. She turned towards to sound of the voices.

Older Dawn and Legolas followed. Tara was the first to notice younger Dawn. "Oh my God."

Younger Dawn stood in the doorway, wrist bleeding, bloody knife held limply in her right hand. "Is this blood?" she asked. Her voice sounded far away, almost as if she was in a daze.

"Oh, baby," Joyce breathed, rushing to her youngest daughter's side.

Legolas regarded the woman who could only have been Dawn's mother warmly. He smiled to the young woman next to him. "She was beautiful," he murmured.

"I know," older Dawn responded with a sad smile.

"What did you do?" Buffy demanded, storming over, her eyes wide.

"This is blood, isn't it?" younger Dawn asked. "It can't be me. I'm not a Key.... I'm not a *thing*."

"Oh, sweetie, no. Wh-what is this all about?" Joyce stammered.

"What am I? Am I real? Am I anything?" The girl pleaded with them for answers, breaking down in tears.

Immediately, Joyce hugged her hard, rocking her back and forth in soothing motions. Older Dawn had to restrain herself from actually reaching out to try and touch her mother. Something told her that wouldn't work.

They jumped forward in time a day. They were in a large, sterile building of some sort, Legolas noted. It smelled strange.

"Hospital smell," Dawn commented absently as she watched her former self desparately asking questions to a crazy man. She now knew he was one of the Knights of Byzantium.

"Please? What am I?" younger Dawn stammered.

"Destroyer!" the insane Knight cried out, reaching for her in vain. "The Key is the link, the link must be severed. Such is the will of God."

Younger Dawn fled the room, only to run into a young man with strange blue clothing on.

"Ben," older Dawn breathed beside Legolas as the intern took younger Dawn into a locker room and made her hot chocolate.

They stood off to the side as younger Dawn burst out in her confusion, telling Ben that she was the Key.

Ben reacted badly, immediately going into a panic and insisting Dawn leave. Legolas understood why a moment later when the young man suddenly morphed into what looked like a young woman. But Legolas could feel the evil power emanating from the being in front of them.

Glory changed into a red satin dress, twisted the neck of a security guard almost clean off and forced her captive into a more secluded room.

Legolas watched the Hell-God interrogating younger Dawn and felt a twinge of pride when she used Glory's arrogance against her, tricking Glory into giving Dawn some of the information about her heritage as the Key in the clever guise of pretending to answer the other's questions.

But all too soon Glory discovered the game. "I smell a fox in my henhouse! Has somebody been playing sugar and spice with Uncle Ben, trying to get a peek at Glory's unmentionables?"

"No-" the young girl tried to protest, but was quickly interrupted by a ranting Hell-God.

"Shh- I kinda wanna hear me talking right now. Me talking! And you know what I'm starting to think? I'm thinking that maybe you," - Dawn whimpred as Glory got in her face for a second- "don't have any idea where my Key is!"

Younger Dawn let out a sigh of relief. She hadn't been discovered.

But Glory wasn't finished. "Do you have any idea how annoying that is? Very irritating, irrational- know what I mean tiny snap dragon? Like bugs under my skin. Say.... I'm feeling a low...." Glory trailled off.

"What's wrong with you?"

Glory perked up again. "Hey! This doesn't have to be a complete waste of my precious time. I've been meaning to send the Slayer a message, and I could use a little pick-me-up. Two birds, one stone, and BOOM"- she clapped her hands together, almost taking the terrified girl's nose off- "You have yummy dead birds."

Younger Dawn shrank away from Glory as Buffy burst in, Slayerettes in tow.

"Hey, we were just talking about you," Glory crowed, as if she was pleased to see Buffy.

"Conversation's over, Hell-Bitch," Buffy retorted. Younger Dawn sprinted past her to cower against the far wall.

They watched as Buffy fought with Glory, with Spike, Giles and Xander all trying to help, but failing dismally.

Glory had relieved Xander of the crowbar he had adopted as a weapon and pointed it at each of the Scoobies in turn. "Time to start the dyin'. Start with the whelp."

She threw the sharp end of the crowbar at younger Dawn like a spear, but Buffy, crying her sister's name, dived in front of the terrified girl and took the blow just below her shoulder.

"Is that the best you little crap-gnats could muster? Coz I gotta tell ya, so not impressed," Glory scoffed, advancing on Buffy.

Then Willow and Tara threw some sort of magic dust over the Hell-God, and Willow clapped, loudly saying "Discede."

Glory disappeared. Buffy scrambled over to younger Dawn.

"Are you ok?"

"Why do you care?" she returned, her voice thick with tears and bitterness.

"Because I love you. You're my sister!"

"No I'm not," the bitter voice retorted.

"Yes, you are," Buffy insisted. "It doesn't matter where you came from. Or- or how you got here, you are my sister. No way you could annoy me so much if you weren't," she joked lamely. She pressed her hand against her fresh wound, wincing from the pain.

Buffy grabbed her younger sister's hand and indicated the blood oozing down it from where younger Dawn had cut herself. "Look- it's blood. It's Summers blood. It's just like mine."

Legolas watched, fascinated, as the two sisters' hands pressed together, making them eternal blood sisters.

*Flash*

They were at school. Younger Dawn was walking past them with another girl. Her eyes were the tiniest bit red, Legolas could barely detect it, but she'd been crying only moments ago. A blond stopped them in the hall.

"Hey Dawn. Howya doin? You ok?" the girl asked with fake concern in her voice.

"I'm good, thanks for asking," younger Dawn replied coolly as she kept walking.

"Bi-atch," both Dawns said together. Legolas smiled a little.

They stood at the window and watched as younger Dawn and her friend went into an art class and began to draw.

Older Dawn shook her head at the memory of her girlish nerves as a good looking young boy next to her turned and began to speak to her.

Legolas unconcsciously put an arm about older Dawn's waist, as if to claim her from this young boy. Older Dawn shook her head and giggled as her friend held up a sign behind the boy, Kevin's back. In plain view of the window, it read 'he wants you'.

Younger Dawn squealed under her breath for her friend to take the sign away. Legolas looked bemused. Older Dawn laughed and shrugged to her companion. It was funny now. "He wanted me," she said confidently.

She sobered and bit her lip as she caught a flash of red from the corner of her eye. It wasn't like she would ever be able to forget what happened next. Buffy walked into the classroom, unnoticed by younger Dawn. She reached her sister and asked her to come with her. Younger Dawn followed reluctantly.

"What's going on? Something's going on," younger Dawn said as they came out the door.

"Can we please go outside?" Buffy asked.

"No! Tell me what's going on," Dawn demanded loudly, drawing the attention of the other girls still in the hall, including the one whom Dawn had called a 'bi-atch' earlier.

Buffy stammered a little, trying but failing to get Dawn to leave the building with her first.

"Where's Mom?"

"Mom.... had an accident," Buffy said softly. "Or... something went wrong... from the tumour."

When Buffy finally said the two worst words Dawn had ever heard in her entire existence, "Mom's dead", the fourteen-year-old refused to accept them. Even as the tears weeled up in her eyes and spilled down her cheeks, she crossed her arms and shook her head vigorously.

"No, no, no, no. You're lying!" she screeched, oblivious to the attentions of everyone else in the hall, and the classroom she'd just left. "She's alive! She's not dead! You're lying!"

Older Dawn leaned her head against Legolas' shoulder as her younger self collapsed in a heap on the ground. Buffy sank down beside her, on her knees, but could do nothing to ease her sister's pain.