Disclaimer: Joss, not me, owns Dawn, Buffy, Xander, Willow, their mothers, their cousins, they're half-brothers, their mom's sister's boyfriend's mother, and Spike.(despite my wishes to the contrary) Reviews: please Distribution: Just tell me

Dawn woke up in an unfamiliar room. Crap, she thought. Why couldn't it be a bad dream? But noooooo. just had to be real. It's OK Summers. Another day, another dollar. Not that that relates to this situation WHATSOEVER. But that doesn't matter. At this very moment, Buffy and everyone are working very hard to get me home.

"Have you found anything?!" Buffy yelled at Willow, who was looking furiously at an old book.

"Just this," the witch said, patient with Buffy. She understood her frustration. Dawn had been gone for hours. She had disappeared right in front of them. The First or any sorts of things could have her. "This is a book on unnatural travel. Dawn disappeared into a white light. Most dimension portals have a characteristic color. The white indicates that there wasn't a change in dimension, just time."

"What do you mean?" Buffy said. "She's in a different time?"

"Well," Willow said, turning back to her book, "that's what I found."

"Great. That really narrows down the field," Spike said sarcastically. It would be a mistake to misconstrue his calmness for patience. He was exceptionally quiet, afraid he'd be forced to take out his frustrations on an unsuspecting passer-by that was irritating the unlife out him...not to name any names. (Andrew, Anya, Potentials) He may have a soul, but Dawn was at risk here, after all. NO one messed with her, he didn't care if he had to tear the throat out of the First himself, it WOULD pay, he vowed that. It could torture him, kill potentials, whatever, but NO one touched the Nibblet.

"Do you think it was the first?" Buffy asked Willow.

"Yes," Giles said, walking in the house with something under his arm. He sat it on the table.

"Fabulous ball," Spike huffed, shifting against the doorframe impatiently. What Giles put on the table looked like something he'd see Lady Cleo have in front of her. Just then, it started to glow, which peaked his interest. "What's that mean? Great things come to those who wait?" he said, refusing to show intrigue.

"No, it means Dawn has been here." All eyebrows furrowed at that point.

"What do you mean?" Buffy asked. "She's still."

"The Key." He finished. "More powerful than we thought, evidently." He sat down, cleaning his glasses. "Dawn was formed into human flesh by the monks. That's where I found that thing, by the way, where they made her. I found text as to what would happen in the event that Dawn lived." He paused, replacing his glasses, taking a breath. "After Glory had her cut, her power didn't disappear, it came to the surface. Only she can use it, it's under her power, she just didn't know."

"So does the First have her. Will said she might be in another time in this world." Giles turned to Willow, who nodded her head. "All roads point to that," she confirmed. Giles thought for a moment.

"Yes," he said. "That would make sense. The First can't use her power, so I guess it wanted to make sure we couldn't either. She sent her somewhere to be killed. Or at least kept"

"Not that this isn't a good thing," Xander said, "but why not just kill her? Why send her to a different time?"

"Killing her itself would be to kill itself. Whoever takes the lifeblood of the key takes the power. But that comes with a territory. The power is pure, and good. To take it would be to put all of the goodness and responsibility on your shoulders. Dawn hold the good in the world together as The First holds the evil together. She was to soon accept her responsibility since she's now sixteen and old enough to handle it. That explains the First's timing."

"It says all that in that book?" Xander asked off-handedly.

"We need Dawn, Buffy. She is the only one that can kill the First."

"But she's just a kid," Buffy said.

"In case you haven't noticed, slayer, she's far from a kid. She's held it together a lot better than some others." Buffy had to agree with that.

"We don't even know where to start," Buffy said back to Giles. "It could have put her anywhere."

"We need to figure out how to get her first, then we'll get her." Spike all of the sudden, closed his eyes, remembering something that hadn't been there before.

London 1880:

"Ah, William!" she said. "Your home." She came down the stairs, a young woman trailing behind her.