"Dawn."
"Coming Wills."

Dawn stands from her position at the window. A small group of people step out of her path as she makes her way towards them. They cautiously watch as she passes them by on her way to Willow's bedroom. Those who have traveled with them the longest, know to make way for her. Most out of respect for keeping them alive and away from the soldiers. But others out of pure fear. They all know not to cross her or they'll not live to see morning. A sixteen year old girl, as all outward appearences would tell you, but inside lay a demon. Anyone who would defy her, pays with their blood.

Dawn pulls back the make-shift curtains that hung in Willow's doorway. She steps into the room, letting the curtain fall back for privacy. "You're suppossed to be sleeping. You need your rest to heal; we won't be safe here for long."
"Heard a cry. And I think I'm doing good with the healing spells and all. I only hit the wall with my shoulder in that explosion, I told you, I'd be fine. Is everything okay out there?"
Dawn nods "For now." She walks over to the bed and reclines next to Willow. "So you're feelin' okay thenWills?"
"Eh.. Been better. Been younger." She laughs lightly at her own joke. Dawn never laughs anymore. The only time Willow ever sees her smile anymore, is during battle. The more destruction she can cause, the better the mood she'll be in. She shivers.

"You cold?" Dawn asks.
"A little; nice warm fire would be nice right about now."
"If we start a fire, they'll see the smoke; you know that."
"I know."
"If you want, I can get you another blanket or something."
"No I'll be fine for the time being."

"So, this what you called me in here for?" Dawn asks glancing at the book lain open in front of Willow.
"Yeah, I've been doing a little research and I think I might've found something usefull here." She picks up the book from her lap, and holds it out for Dawn.
She sits up on the bed and takes the book from Willow. Confused, she skims over the writing on the pages that Willow left open. "Teleportation?"
"Yep."
She looks at Willow questioningly. "But, you already know how to do that Will."
"I know, but look here." She leans over to point out a particular passage at the bottom of the page. "It says that, depending on the witches level and strength, she can choose the exact location AND TIME she wishes to arrive."

"Time? What, like an hour or day or what?"
Willow nods and smiles brightly. "Exactly!" She picks up the notebook from her lap and hands it to Dawn. "I've been working through some different ways to sorta tweek the spell so that I think I might be able do it."
"Hold up; do what exactly? What are we talkin' about here?"
"Time-Travel! Back in time."
"So what, you're thinkin' you can pinpoint a certain date, and just like pop up in the past or something?" Dawn asks, still not understanding.
"No; You! I'm talking about me sending you back to before all this started so you can stop it!"
Dawn shakes her head. "That's not possible. Time is linear, period. You can't change things that have already happened."

"That's what I thought too, but this could just be a loop."
"A loop? I have a feeling this could get complicated. Explain in simple terms, please."
"Well, let's see..." Willow pulls a length of loose thread off her blanket and pulls it taught between both hands "Okay, say this is a timeline. Hold out your finger here, on the string." Dawn holds a finger out to the middle of the string. Willow loops the string around Dawn's finger once.(1) "Okay, now say that down at the bottom where the lines cross is the branching point. See we are the ones who broke off of the real timeline and are at the top of the loop, we have to get back to the time where the lines cross and fix things so that the time can continue in the line that it should have taken."
Dawn pulls her hand back "And how do you know all this? How do you know that this isn't the way things are supposed to be."
"Because it just can't be!" Willow says through gritted teeth; trying her hardest not to cry. She turns her face away from Dawn, taking deep breaths to calm herself down. "I can't just lie here and die believing that this can not be stopped. I have to fix this. I have to try."

Dawn sighs, tossing the book aside. She stands with her back to Willow.
"Dawn, listen, this may be our only way to keep more people from dying; to keep everyone who has been killed by Adam's soldiors from dying in the first place. It will take a lot out of me, but I know it will be worth it."
"I really don't know. This just sounds too far out there, even for us."

Willow sighs, "Dawnie, think about it; you could stop Angelus too." At Dawn's look of curiosity she continues. "I'll send you back to 2000 and you can keep all of this from happening and you becoming a vampire!"
"Don't get too excited." Dawn paces the room thinking over all of what Willow had said. "I mean, no offense or anything, but you're looking a little fragile Will. That last attack left you in pretty bad shape, and like the book says; it takes a lot to pull this kind of thing off. I don't think you have enough strengh for something like that right now."
"But, I'm okay now. Besides, this takes mental concentration. Just cause I'm stuck in this bed doesn't make mea dunce who can't focus."
"I know that. I just think you need more rest before you go jumping into this head first."
"And I think if I got anymore rest, I'd make Sleeping Beauty look like she was just taking a nap!" she snaps, irritated by Dawn's lack of confidence in her abilities.
"What if you can't do it?" She asks frustrated."You said, it's going to take a lot out of you, but this could completely drain you; Will, this could kill you."
"I also said I have to try. I know the risks, Dawn and hey, I aint gettin any younger here."

Dawn stops and turns to look at Willow. Seeing how determined she is, Dawn nods in understanding. "I'll keep it in mind, but probably as last resort only. Just... work on it some more, okay?"
"We'll need to do this as soon as possible, while the coast is clear."
"I just don't want you to overlook anything." She walks back over to Willow to sit on the edge of the bed. "We've probably only got one shot at this, so let's not take a chance at screwing it up."
"Fine. I'll keep going over all the details. Work out any kinks if I find 'em and do a few test runs."

"This still sounds a little iffy to me. Something you aren't telling me?" Dawn asks a little unsure.
"Well, there is always that slight, you know, minuscule chance that you could end up floating in space somewhere. Well, that is, if my calculations are off. Which they wont be of course."
"Yeah.., that's reassuring." she says; her voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Hey, you know I wouldn't suggest a spell like this to you if I thought there was a major chance of it getting you killed."
Dawn shrugs, "Okay." She stands looking down at Willow. "Go ahead and make a list of everything you need to experiment with and I'll send someone to get the supplies."
"Thanks, Dawnie."

Dawn walks towards the doorway and reaches for the curtain. "Oh, and Dawn..."
"Yeah Wills?" She turns back around to face Willow.
"If this does work, you'll be in a time before you came into existance. No one will know who you are."
She turns back to the curtain "Good," she says to herself before walking out of the room.

(1) ------O------: this is the best I can do to show you what Willow was talkin' 'bout. Just try to picture it as a single line (the line is actually supposed to be below the O, but the QuickEdit wont let me do that) and follow it from left to right. At the O, the line goes up (on the right side) and at the top is where Willow performs the spell, sending Dawn back down (the left side) and overlapping the original curve point to put the things back on their correct course (right). It's a continual loop in time.

It's difficult to explain the inner workings of my brain and when I try, it tends to drive people madder than a Malkavian.