Chapter 2
"Mom? Family?" Buffy heard her mother wonder. Her mother then turned her gaze to her, and asked the same question with her eyes.
"Mom, meet Dawn. Apparently she's some kind of time-traveler who ended up in the wrong universe or something. She's also your daughter. Dawn, meet our mom." Now that sounded weird. Who could have guessed that something like this would happen? Especially as they were only supposed to be watching the house. Well, hanging out in a big room without anyone around to bother them actually, but it came down to the same thing. Her mom didn't seem to have quite grasped what was going on though.
"Daughter?" her mother wondered, before almost being attacked by an exuberant Dawn who had apparently decided that the hurt of not being recognized wasn't equal to the joy of seeing her mother alive.
"You're alive. You're alive. Alive. Alive," Dawn murmured as she stood there with her arms around their mother. "You didn't die. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I missed you so."
"Ehm, it's good to meet you too," Joyce said, but from the questioning look it was obvious to Buffy that her mother had no idea of how to handle this situation. Not that Buffy thought she could help much. She was pretty much baffled herself on how to deal with the new sister who'd come from nowhere.
A sister who wasn't exactly human to boot. Well, she wasn't a demon either, so that at least was a good thing. Although, if what she'd seen so far was any indication, she had no doubt that the other Buffy must have felt differently at times. Demons after all, could be killed when they started being annoying. When it came to little sisters, even ones crushing on a friend of yours, the solution wasn't that simple.
Dawn suddenly let their mother go, and taking a step back she looked her mother over with a critical look. "Are you alright? Have they checked for the tumor yet? Has it been removed? Are you in any danger of dying?"
"I'm fine, the tumor has been removed and there is nothing else wrong with me."
"Thank you. Thank you," Dawn sniffed as she once again threw her arms around her mother. "I missed you so much."
"Sshh, there now. I'm here, you can relax now."
"Mommy," Dawn sniffed again, and for a moment she turned her head in such a way that Buffy had a clear look of her face.
It was in that moment, that single instant in time, that Buffy realized that the girl had been telling the truth. Sure, maybe she had embellished her own part in the story she'd told so far, but the naked pain and happiness expressed so clearly on her face couldn't possibly be faked. Dawn really was her sister. The daughter of Hank and Joyce Summers. She had a sister.
Great. She didn't know anyone else who was burdened with something like that so she was left with a couple of questions.
How did you handle having a sister? What were you supposed to do with one? Okay, there was the sibling rivalry stuff, but what else was there? You got more presents for your birthday and Christmas, but had to buy more as well. So, that wasn't much of an advantage. Especially with a younger sister who couldn't afford the same stuff.
Ah, she could figure it out later. Oh wait, the sibling rivalry stuff. That was important. How was that supposed to work? Did that come naturally or were you supposed to simply start it? And how did it work when one side had such an obvious advantage? Dawn already knew everything about her, or at least the things that were the same, but she had no idea of what embarrassing things Dawn had done.
This was difficult. But now she should first pay attention to her mother and sister again. Sister. How weird was that?
"Sshh," her mother continued to calm Dawn while stroking her on the head. From the look on her face, it was obvious that her mother had already taken the girl to her heart, and that wasn't something that Buffy could be sure was a good thing. The girl wanted to go back to her own time, universe, whatever, and this way her mother would feel the pain of loss. Losing a daughter she'd only had for such a short time. But then again, Dawn hadn't had much time with her real mother so this wasn't all that bad.
No, it wasn't bad at all. Both of them deserved a measure of happiness, and judging by the big grin on Tara's face, it was obvious that they were happy. Probably almost blinding Tara with the glare of their auras. If that was possible, after all it wasn't as if she had any idea of how auras really worked. Still, the love and joy coming from the pair could even be recognized by her, so it had to be really obvious to Tara.
"I missed you so much," Dawn murmured once again, before letting go and taking a step back.
"Did I die in your universe?" Joyce asked softly, trying not to scare Dawn away with the question.
"Yes, the tumor... They thought they'd removed it, but it came back and one day when I got back from school you were lying on the ground, and-" Dawn burst into tears again, and threw her arms around her mother for the second time. An action that Buffy now understood much better. Having to discover her mother lying dead on the floor was one of the recurring nightmares she'd had ever since she became a Slayer.
"I'm sorry I asked honey, it's alright now. I'm alive."
"Mom," Dawn once again murmured from where she was ensconced in the loving arms of their mother. It wasn't long though before she once again stood back, and tried to act like the worldly time-traveler she had seemed at first instead of the little lost girl she now appeared to be. It was at that time that she first noticed Allan. Someone she obviously didn't know. "Who's that?"
The hostility was obvious, though hidden as much as possible, and it reminded Buffy of when she'd first found out about Allan and her mom. Not that her opinion had changed since that time, but after having had to deal with Ted, and knowing that Allan had worked for the mayor, she felt that she was very much justified in her suspicions.
Having dealt with her however, Allan didn't have a lot of problems with Dawn and he smiled brightly. "Yes, I can see the resemblance now. You really are a lot like your sister." Holding out his hand, he then introduced himself.
"Allan Finch?" Dawn almost screeched in surprise. "You mean the one who go-"
While she cut off the words, Buffy couldn't help but noticed the quick look that was sent at Faith. A look of such surprise, and surprisingly gratitude, that it seemed to confirm a lot more of her story. In particular the part about Faith being in jail. Who knew what could have happened if Xander hadn't warned them about Finch being in the alley? If Faith had actually plunged the stake in Allan's heart, instead of only scaring the man?
Faith too seemed to understand the look, and while it probably wasn't very noticeable to anyone but Buffy, and Xander, she softened her stance towards Dawn. It was probably a bit hard to hate someone who had ensured that you wouldn't go down the dark path. Could there have been other things as well that concerned Faith? Xander had been very adamant in the beginning that they should include Faith in what they were doing. That hadn't seemed out of character for Xander, but it was possible that Dawn's letter had something to do with it as well.
Dawn had gotten over her initial surprise now, and accepting Allan's hand she smiled back. "I'm Dawn Summers. Ehm, no offense or anything, I only just arrived here, but what are you doing here?"
"I'm seeing your mother," Allan replied truthfully.
"Seeing my mother? What, as in dating?"
"Yes."
"Ew, that's like. Ew, yuck. Now you've mentally scarred me for the rest of my life. Ew. You're not actually ha- Ew. I don't even want to think about THAT," Dawn shivered before turning to Buffy. "How could you let this happen? Don't you remember Ted?"
"Hey, I'm not any more happy about this than you are. It was their own choice though, and he's safe."
"Yeah well, say that again when we've suddenly got a little brother or sister. Ew! They're ancient. It's disgusting to even think about."
"Ancient?" her mother asked, and from the way Dawn's eyes suddenly grew it was pretty obvious that Dawn recognized that particular tone of voice as well.
"Ehm, well-preserved? Not the youngest? Very nice, and never angry at your youngest daughter? Even if you didn't know you had one until today?"
"Do you really believe that's going to work?"
"Well, I can't use my usual excuse," Dawn shrugged at their mother's comment.
"Really? And what would that be?"
Shuffling a bit with her feet, Dawn tried to look as innocent as possible. "Buffy did it?"
What? How could she do that? Oh, that was just so unfair and Buffy had no intention of simply letting that go. "How many times have you used that when it wasn't true!"
"Not that often," Dawn muttered.
"And more specifically? You know in actual numbers perhaps?"
"Once, maybe twice."
"A week?" Because if Dawn thought even for a moment that she'd believe that was in their entire life she was pretty much mistaken.
"A day," Dawn smiled back, looking more cheeky than even while she was obsessed with Xander. And why was her own sister obsessed with her best male friend anyway? Couldn't she have picked some random stranger to moon over? While thinking about her sister having sex might not be quite as bad as the thought of her mo- Ew! That was something she absolutely shared with Dawn. But the thought of her sister was probably only not that bad because of how they'd met. Which of course wasn't exactly the normal way for sisters to meet.
First, back to being angry at her sister. "Every day! How can you do that to me?"
"Oh relax, it wasn't as if mom actually noticed the difference between what you actually did and the little I added."
What? Looking at her mother for support, Buffy noticed that her mother was trying to hold in her laughter. Trying not to laugh! How could she do that? To her? Her favorite, although no longer only, daughter? "Mo-o-o-o-m!"
"I'm sorry Buffy," her mother said after having calmed down a little. "But she has a point there."
Now that was just unfair. "Yeah well, just wait until she comes complaining about the noise when you and Allan are, you know, reacquainting."
"Oh. Ew! Buffy! Was that really necessary? I really can't handle thinking about that! That's just gross. It's bad enough to know that it's theoretically possible, but to know for sure that it actually happens. With sound effects! No, that's just... EW!"
"Well, if I hadn't believed you're Buffy's sister before, I certainly would now," Allan spoke up. Not that he seemed bothered by Dawn's outburst. In fact, he appeared amused by it. Amused, as if it was something that he could laugh about.
"Really? Well, I would have liked a better way to prove it. To think that the two of you are doing what only Xander and I should be doing is no-"
"Xander?" their mother interrupted. "You're having sex with Xander? Aren't you a bit young for that?"
Buffy wasn't entirely sure who that last comment was directed at, and neither did the two people it concerned as they both spoke up. "I haven't touched her!"
"I'm not too young."
As expected, those answers confused her mother. "Which is it? Did you, or did you not, have sex with my daughter? Especially when you already have a girlfriend."
"Not recently," Xander said, which of course was pretty much the wrong answer.
"Not recently?" Ow, now that sounded cold. Mom was in total protective mode, not that Dawn seemed happy about it.
"It was six years ago!" While the truth, this probably wouldn't endear him to her mother either.
"Six years?" her mother sounded shocked, and turned to look at Dawn. Oh no, as expected she'd drawn the wrong conclusion. "How old were you then Dawn? Eleven?"
"What? No! It was when I went back in time, and I seduced him. He was younger than me at that time so it would've been my fault." Really? The girl who moments ago showed how easily she blamed her totally innocent sister was now willing to take the fall for someone else? Well, she obviously wasn't as self-centered as B uffy had started to suspect her to be.
"Went back in time?" her mother asked in surprise.
"I already said that, didn't I?" Buffy spoke up. Why weren't the others helping? They'd been quiet for far too long now. "She came from now, went back in time, made a mistake and when she got back it was all different."
"That's impossible," Allan said.
"Why?"
"Time travel can't be done. Even Wilkins didn't believe that was possible."
"You seemed to believe it before," Willow pointed out. Finally some help!
Allan shook his head. "No, I believe she's not from here but from a world with a different time line. I thought that's what you meant by time travel. Because interdimensional travel is possible, that's what the Hellmouth is based on after all, but not going back in time."
"It's true though," Dawn stated. "Ask Xander. How can you explain what I did to him if I couldn't have traveled back in time?"
"I don't know. Maybe you thought you traveled back in time, but instead went to a different dimension?"
"Then how did I end up here? Knowing what happened during my travel? Wouldn't I have returned to my own, or even another, dimension if that was the case?" Dawn asked.
Allan shook his head though. "No. I admit that there are some things that appear to point in the direction of time-travel, but there probably is an explanation that doesn't involve it. Because that would simply require too much power for anyone to have. Human or demon."
"Yes, that's what we thought as well when Xander mentioned time travel. The only thing we could come up with that might help was buying a DeLorean. And we refrained from doing that as well."
"So, how did you end up back in the past then?" Faith asked. And as Buffy had expected, her friend now sounded a lot warmer while talking to Dawn. Well, less cold was a more accurate description.
"We started out thinking about how to get the amulet from wherever it was hidden in our own time."
"What amulet?" their mother asked, and Dawn quickly explained how she and the others from that universe had been looking for an amulet that would close the Hellmouth and thereby stop the First.
"The First?" Allan interrupted, while his eyes went wide. "You've fought the First?"
"Not directly, what with him being all intangible and all. But yeah, we fought his minions. Now, would you mind letting me explain? It's been a long day for me, and I'd really like to finish before I fall down."
"Oh, sure. That can come tomorrow. I'm sure that Rupert will want to hear it as well."
"Rupert?" Dawn asked, before realizing who was probably meant. "Oh, Giles! Yeah, he'll want to know. Okay then, where was I? Ah, of course. Anyway, we were looking to see if we could find out where the amulet was hidden, but we couldn't figure it out. We even contacted Angel to see if he knew if the lawyers from hell had it, but he couldn't help us either."
"The lawyers from hell?" Buffy wanted to know.
Dawn looked a bit strangely at that question, but answered nonetheless. "Wolfram and Hart. You know, the evil lawyers from LA?"
"Oh them, sorry I've never heard them mentioned like that and thought it might be something else. Go on."
"Right. Now, while we'd been looking for it in our time, Willow had decided that she might as well look for a way to travel through time while she was at it. Of course, anybody else would have failed at both tasks, but she actually found a text that claimed it was possible to travel through time. Based around the fact that it was actually similar to traveling to another dimension.
"The only thing that was needed for it was something of nearly unlimited power, and something capable of making it easier to cross those boundaries. Which is where it became a bit of a problem."
"A bit of a problem?" Allan asked. "If that's a bit, what is a big problem?"
"A goddess trying to kill you," Dawn sighed, "but that's unimportant for this story. Anyway, while we actually knew that we had what was needed for the spell, we didn't know how to actually use it."
"You had something like that? What was it?"
This time Dawn turned to Buffy again, asking her silently if she could trust the man who was dating their mother. A question that she reluctantly had to answer positively to. Why couldn't Allan be more like Ted had been? Evil to the core of his artificial heart? That way she could have gotten rid of him without anyone feeling bad about it. Of course, it wasn't as if she wanted her mother to be unhappy, she just thought that it should be possible for her mother to be happy without another man in the house.
Even after she had nodded that Allan could be trusted, Dawn hesitated before answering. Not too long though as she eventually explained it to Allan and her mother. "Me. The thing of nearly unlimited power that is capable of easily crossing dimensional borders is me."
"That doesn't make much sense," Allan said. Of course, Buffy had to agree with that, but she also understood that the original explanation had probably come from Willow. Which meant that it was probably too complicated for her to understand anyway. After the summary that is. Because that part she did understand.
Sorta.
"I didn't exist until about three years ago. Which is when the Key, some sort of interdimensional energy thing, was trapped by a group of monks inside a body. That body was given a life, a history, thoughts, everything that makes someone human. The name that body received was Dawn Summers. A real breathing, living, human being."
"You're not real?" their mother asked a bit confused.
"I'm real!" Dawn immediately bit back, obviously frustrated about that. "Everybody had memories of me, and there was never any question about it that I was related to you. Every bloodtest, DNA test, and whatever you can think of will prove that. To quote a certain annoying kid: I'm a real person, and my name is Dawn Summers."
"I'm sorry honey, I didn't mean to hurt you like that," their mother soothed Dawn. "It just came as a bit of a shock, that's all."
"I hate it," Dawn pouted. "Every time I'm reminded of it, I hate it more. I hate not being normal, and I don't even have any cool powers to go with it. I'm just the side-kick who gets kidnapped every other week, and has to be saved by her hero sister."
"Ssh," their mother said while getting up, walking over to Dawn, and gathering her in her arms. "I know that you're real. I may not have any memories of you, but I know that you're my daughter and you're more than welcome here. You'll never have to doubt my love."
"Thank you," Dawn whispered back while snuggling in her mothers arms a bit. She then let out a sigh, and continued speaking again. "But I need to explain the rest now. I'm not entirely sure of what Willow did, although I know which books she used, but in the end she found what was needed. The whole ritual involved far too much for me to want to remember, but eventually we set up a stable portal to the past and stepped through."
"That's it?" Willow asked. "That's all you're going to say? What about how you determined how far back you had to go?"
"We knew the last date that the amulet had been seen, and we went back to the next day."
"Okay, but how did you go back? How did you say 'that is when we need to go, and we do it like this'? And how did you go back? And how-"
"Woah Red," Faith interrupted just before Buffy could do so herself. "Shouldn't you give the kid some time to answer the questions before you keep on coming up with new ones?"
"Oh, yes. Maybe you're right. Ehm, Dawn? Could you answer those questions?"
"Willow did all that, I don't know how it worked!" Dawn said in a panicked voice. "Does that mean I can't go back? Because I really should have listened to Willow when she said that we shouldn't do anything that could change the time-line. But I thought it wasn't really a problem, that Xander would forget the night, and that the letter didn't count."
"I don't know," Willow admitted. "We'll have to see, but don't you know how you got back either? Did the other me have to do the whole ritual again when you went back to your own time?"
"No, I had to be there, but no ritual. She said that I already had some sort of connection to our time, and that it didn't need to be set up again. Willow only needed a drop of blood for the focus. Just the drop of blood would probably have been enough for them to return anyway."
"Does that mean you also have a connection to six years ago? That would make it easier to go back. Well, less difficult probably. I still don't know how to do it, but you knew what books the other me had read?"
Listening to the conversation, Buffy wondered exactly when the decision had been made that they were going to help Dawn. Not that she didn't want to help, but in her opinion that whole world didn't sound like it was worth going back to. Her mom was dead, one of her best friends was a killer locked up in a jail somewhere, and while she didn't like him dating her mother she didn't want to see Allan dead either.
And while all of that seemed pretty bad, she had a feeling it was just the tip of the iceberg. That goddess that Dawn had mentioned didn't sound like fun, and the First sounded like a far too big problem as well. Which meant it was time for her to raise a couple of points. "Okay, what happens if we go back in time? Do we die? Do the other usses live on happily, or unhappily, ever after? I kinda like my life, and, no offense Dawn, if helping my new sister means that I'll no longer exist I don't know if I want to do that."
"You won't cease to exist," Dawn was quick to point out, "you'll just turn into the other you again."
"And mom?"
That was something Dawn obviously didn't have an answer too. Unfortunately, Willow did. "It's not like that at all. According to the many-worlds theory we live in a different universe from Dawn's Buffy. Which means that if we help her she will go back to them, but we'll still exist."
Buffy wasn't too sure about that, but decided not to try to argue with Willow about it. A discussion like that would only serve to confuse her, and wouldn't be of any use anyway. Willow was the one who knew about stuff like that.
"Does that mean that Buffy and the others got back home, and don't know where I am?" Dawn asked in a horrified voice. "That they're worried about me?"
"Only if we can't get you back there at the same time as them. Which we should. If we knew how to do the whole time-traveling thing."
Her mother was the next to speak. "Are you sure that you want to go back there Dawn? It sounds like a dangerous place. You would be safer here."
"I can't abandon the others mom, I just can't. They need everybody to defeat the First, and they'll be worried about me as well. My friends won't know what happened to me, and I'll miss them too, and..." Dawn trailed off. She probably had a hundred different reasons to go back, and none really to stay here.
The girl was also her sister. The fact that she wasn't from this world, or had even been born as a human didn't matter to her. The only thing that actually did matter was that her sister needed her help. And Buffy Summers would help her sister, even if she still doubted that everything would work out as fine as Willow said it would. Was time travel always this confusing?
"Your friends are probably around in this world as well," Xander suddenly spoke up. Wow, he'd been so quiet that she'd almost forgotten he was here as well. "And I know that you're more than welcome here."
"Yeah D," Faith said, using a normal—well normal for Faith—nickname for Dawn for the very first time. "As long as you don't try to fuck the X-man again you can probably stay around."
"Faith!"
"Oops, sorry Mrs. S." Only her mom could get an apology from Faith for something like that. Not that it prevented Faith from saying it in the first place, but she did apologize for it.
"You mean I'm not allowed to do the very thing that got me into this mess?" Dawn asked. "Then what's the use of staying here?"
It was a weak attempt at a joke, but to Buffy it was obvious that Dawn tried to bridge the gap between her and Faith as well. "Hah, nobody's stopping you from finding your own stud to ride."
"Faith," her mother sighed.
"Sorry."
"What if I don't want to ride any other stud? What if I want to have my wicked way with Xander, and spend a couple of days in bed with him. Doing nothing but riding him long and hard."
"DAWN!"
"Sorry mom." Dawn seemed a bit surprised. Whether it was at the admonishment from her mother or her own comment, Buffy couldn't tell. It just didn't sound like anything she'd expect her little sister to say.
"You're pretty open about sex, D, not nearly as uptight as your sister. What's up with that?"
"Anya," Dawn shrugged. "She obviously isn't around here, but nobody could possibly stay innocent around her for long."
"Well, she sounds like fun. I wish I could meet her," Faith drawled. Which wasn't a prospect Buffy liked. To have another Faith-like person here would probably drive her mother crazy. And not just her mother either. Dawn's reaction was very interesting though.
"Don't say that!"
"Say what?" Buffy asked confused. Faith hadn't said anything wrong, had she?
Dawn obviously thought different about that. "The W word. I told you what happened when Cordelia said that, didn't I?"
"Well, that was purely coincidence. There's no reason to believe anything like that will happen here as well."
"Why not? There are a lot of vengeance demons and they can look just like us and change the past, and..." Dawn suddenly trailed off as she realized the same thing Buffy did. "I'm not one! If I was I wouldn't have to ask you to help me get back."
"Are you sure? Because every time I imagined what it would be like to have a sister I thought it would be hell."
"Ha. Ha. Very funny Buffy, but remember, you're the lucky one. I'm the one who has to put up with you."
"I think this has gone on for long enough now," her mother interrupted before Buffy could deliver her own stinging reply. "Dawn looks like she will fall of her feet any moment now-"
"I do not," Dawn immediately interrupted.
Not that their mother cared about that. "And I think that the rest of this discussion can best wait until Rupert and Jenny are here as well. They'll be able to help, and when you're all wide awake it will go better anyway."
"But-" Buffy tried before being cut off by her mother.
"I know that you're old enough to make those decisions for yourself, but Dawn isn't."
"Mom! I so am old enough."
"No young lady, you're not, and that's final. You can sleep in Buffy's old room. Are you staying as well?" That question was aimed at her, and Buffy nodded in acknowledgment. There was no way that she'd let someone she wasn't entirely certain about stay in the same house as her mother while she wasn't there. "Alright, I'll set up a bed for Dawn then. That should give you another ten minutes to finish up your tale for tonight. The rest will have to wait until tomorrow." Having said that, her mother got to her feet and walked up the stairs.
After staring at her mother with an incredulous expression, Dawn turned back to face them and suddenly frowned. "Wait a minute, did she just say Jenny? As in Miss Calendar?"
"No, as in Mrs. Giles actually."
….…
Waking up was strange. Not because she didn't do so on a regular basis, or because there had never been anyone in her room when she did, but because the other person in the room was someone from out of this world. Her little sister. She had a sister. A little sister with whom she could share stuff, and talk to about all sorts of things.
Of course, considering her luck it made sense that the moment she got a sister that sister was already at a difficult age. Even in those few short hours that she'd known Dawn it had already become clear that her sister didn't really listen to what she said. Well, it was more a case of listening and not paying any attention to it, but that was practically the same thing. Nevertheless it was probably really nice to have a sister. Even if that sister had only gotten here because of the magical work of some monks, a bit of time travel, and the Dawn messing up during that time traveling.
Which didn't make her any stranger than for example Angel, and she'd loved him even after finding out he was a vampire. Of course, the annoying curse had been in the way of their happiness and eventually he'd left for Los Angeles.
Turning on her side so that she had a better view, Buffy studied the sleeping face of her little sister. She obviously didn't dye her hair, instead choosing to leave it in its natural color. It looked really pretty though, and with a pang of regret Buffy realized that she'd missed a whole bunch of moments where they could have done each other's hair. That was the kind of thing you did with a sister, wasn't it? The whole tea party thing wasn't something she missed, but those comfortable times where it would just be the two of them... they could have been so much fun.
What else could she determine from the girl's face? Obviously she was pretty, and Buffy could more or less understand why Xander had fallen for Dawn during that night six years ago. And, while it could probably be seen as a sign of an overgrown ego, the fact that Dawn did look a bit like her had probably helped in that regard as well.
Maybe she should switch subject though. Thinking about Dawn and Xander doing the things Faith couldn't stop talking about just didn't sit well with her. It was bad enough that she had to hear about those things from her friends, but her own sister? No thank you.
Which meant... ah! Personality. The one thing that Dawn didn't seem to be able to be persistent in. And if you weren't persistent in personality you weren't in anything you talked about either. In that regard it surprised her that despite all the signs she'd gotten last night she had no trouble at all accepting Dawn as her sister. Well, that little scene with her mother had undoubtedly helped in that regard, but there were still some inconsistencies in her behavior. Of course, they could be explained away without much trouble.
The undeclared war between Dawn and Faith where it concerned Xander's affection had been a great influence on how Dawn had behaved last night. First there had been the overconfident Dawn who tried to show everybody how important she was to the other Scoobies, and when Faith had scoffed at that she had become a far more realistic influence on the other Buffy and friends.
Of course, once Faith and Xander had started doing their thing Dawn had decided that she wanted a piece of the action as well. Which led to her turning into some kind of sex-obsessed teenage girl. Probably the most realistic impression if her own memories of that age were any indication. But then mom had come home.
Even now the naked relief and happiness that she'd seen on Dawn's face caused a lump in her throat. How long had it been since Dawn had last seen her mother alive? It was hard to say, but as she hadn't seemed affected by the loss when she had been talking about the time travel stuff it was probably more than a year. Maybe even two or three years. Buffy doubted it was much longer as the doctors had saved her mother three years ago.
Saved. Because Xander had told her that it might be a good idea for her mother to have a brainscan. Because he'd collected brochures and booklets depicting worst-case scenarios. And while she herself had only been half-convinced at the time she'd convinced her mother to have a scan anyway. She had been pretty grateful for Xander's insistence back then, but now that she knew what would have happened her gratitude had increased tenfold.
She really should thank Xander for how he'd saved her mother. Unfortunately, figuring out how she could thank him was a bit more difficult. What could possibly be an adequate thanks for saving someone's life? Of course, his reasons for saving her mother had as much to do with receiving gratitude as her reasons for slaying did. Absolutely nothing.
"What are you thinking about?"
What? She had been so deep in thought that she hadn't even realized Dawn had awoken. "Are you awake already? Shouldn't you get some more sleep?"
"Nah, I can handle this, and I really should start working on getting back home. Not that I don't like it here, what with mom being alive and all, but you know..."
"Yeah," Buffy said, and she did understand. No matter how much Dawn might like this time-line, there were people waiting for her in the other world. People who would be worried. "You have a life already."
"Right," Dawn agreed. "Although it's one without mom, an evil Faith, and a Xander who I nev-"
"Let's skip the thing about Xander, okay?" Buffy interrupted. "There are some things I really don't need to know about my friends, and the details of what he did to my sister or how good he can use his tongue are definitely out."
"His tongue? Really? I told him he might want to practice that, but we didn't have much time that night. So, you must've heard something. Please tell me?"
Buffy was horrified, and desperately wishing she'd kept her big mouth shut. Fortunately she was resistant to the way Dawn adopted a puppy-dog look and could turn the conversation to another subject. "The other me, is she dating anyone?"
Dawn didn't appear to want to answer the question, and countered it with a question of her own. "Why do you want to know?"
"Why are you evading the question? Last night you couldn't stop talking about the other usses, and now you're being difficult? That doesn't make much sense to me."
"Maybe I shouldn't have been telling so much about them. I know it hurt mom, and Faith as well. Is she really nice here? Even before she'd gone evil she was a bit wild back home. Which was pretty cool of course, but it wasn't very good for teamwork and stuff."
"Faith is one of my best friends, and while she was a bit wild and reckless she has calmed down since she started dating Xander. They make quite a cute couple." Buffy said, before suddenly realizing something. "Hey! You're trying to change the subject. Come on little sister, I just want to hear a yes or no."
"How would you know if I'm telling the truth? Do you even want to hear the truth?" Dawn hedged.
Why did she keep dancing around it? Was it so terrible? It couldn't really be any worse than being single was, could it? "Just tell me okay."
For a moment it seemed Dawn was trying to give another evading answer, but rolling over to stare at the ceiling she gave a simple yes.
"Really? Is he cute?"
"Yes, she is."
"She!" Buffy almost screamed, before noticing the grin on Dawn's face. Picking up her pillow, she threw it at her sister. "Oh you. Just tell me the truth."
"Okay," Dawn sighed. "You're not really dating, but you are sleeping with someone who used to be evil. He did some things that I only heard about shortly before we left, and that was the reason I wrote to Xander that he should stake him."
"Stake him?" Buffy wondered before she suddenly remembered that Xander had told her why he had staked a certain vampire. "SPIKE?"
"Told you you wouldn't like it."
"Hey, there's a difference between having to hear that I'm single there as well and being told that I'm dating Fangface Junior."
"Fangface Junior? What? Did Faith come up with that?"
"Yes, because he's Angel's grandchilde and stuff. You know about that, don't you?"
"I know."
Well, this would be the perfect time for a question that she'd been wondering about as well. "How is Angel in your world?"
"He's doing as well as he can. I don't really ask about him, you—the other you I mean—never really talked about him after he left."
"He left? For Los Angeles? That's what he did here. He's doing the whole detective thing there now."
"Yeah, he's doing that back home as well. But, like I said, I don't know much more."
Somehow Buffy had a feeling that Dawn wasn't telling the entire truth about this, but this time around she wasn't going to ask about it. The Spike thing was bad enough; she had no intention of hearing anything similar about her former love.
"Okay, so tell me a bit more about yourself. I want to know more about the little sister I never knew I had."
"Sure. Obviously I'm the more intelligent and better looking of the Summers sisters."
"Oh please," Buffy immediately decided to bury that notion. "There's no way that that's true, so you can stop lying."
"Me? Lying? Well if that's the case, how come you're the one who'll have to wait for the shower until I'm finished?"
"What?" Buffy asked a bit confused, but Dawn had already slipped out of the bed and was out of the bedroom within moments.
Okay, so that hadn't been part of the plan. Still, it wasn't as if a shower really mattered in the great scheme of things. Nevertheless, Buffy decided she had to get back at her sister for that, and all she needed for that was an idea of what she could do. Surely she should be able to come up with something?
Had the situation been different she might have been able to use Dawn's infatuation with Xander. Hah! Infatuation, now who was the cleverer of the two? Anyway, that wasn't really possible now because it wouldn't be any fun to tease Dawn if Xander actually reciprocated the feelings. Not that she thought he did: he had always been faithful to his girlfriends. Both times he'd actually dated anyone that is.
She kept trying to come up with a plan until finally, after far too long, the shower shut off and it was her turn. Even while standing under the warm running water of the shower the thoughts of revenge didn't leave her. Was this what all that sibling rivalry stuff was about? Always trying to come up with a way to pay back the latest insult? And trying to be one step ahead of your sister?
Well, real sibling rivalry probably didn't require nearly as much conscious thought. But unlike other sisters she didn't really know where to start in this regard. While Dawn had been talking for most of the evening, she hadn't actually talked told a lot about herself—apart from some of the facts concerning where she came from and a couple of random comments concerning the other thems, usses, whatever.
Which, Buffy realized, didn't give her a lot to play with. Still, she thought while soaping herself down, there had to be a way. Another thought struck her then though. Spike. In the other world she was dating Spike. Or maybe not dating, she wasn't exactly too sure about what Dawn had meant. Aside from the far too uncomfortable fact that he regularly moved his cold and blooded hands over her body.
No! Other thoughts! Quick! Turning her face into the streaming water, she tried to banish the thought of how disgusting that must have been. No vampire would get to touch her like that, not even Angel had done so and he was the only one for whom she might have made an exception. Putting a hand before her mouth, she tried desperately to restrain her suddenly mutinous body from throwing up.
How screwed up was the other her that she didn't mind something like that? The world couldn't possibly be bad enough to warrant something like that, could it? Sure, from what little she'd gathered from Dawn she understood it wasn't nearly as good a world as her own, but still...
Having calmed down again, Buffy quickly rinsed the remainder of the soap away and got out of the shower. Taking her big fluffy towel, she started to dry herself while desperately turning her attention away from the thoughts of how that filthy vampire might have been touching her in all her intimate places. Naturally, this meant that she once again turned to the subject of Dawn. And this time she did manage to come up with a plan. Too bad that plan could only be carried out if she managed to convince Dawn to stay.
But why would Dawn want to go back to that other world anyway? It wasn't as if there was anything interesting for her there. Okay, so everybody already knew her. That would be the case here soon enough, and this world didn't have any vampires who believed they could touch people where they really shouldn't.
This time she wasn't fast enough to swallow down the bile that rose in her throat, but she did manage to reach the toilet instead of throwing up in the middle of the bathroom.
….…
"Which means that it should be possible for us to go back in time as well," Willow finished her explanation. An explanation that Buffy really hadn't understood very well, but was more than willing to accept.
"I think that between the four of us it should indeed be possible to create a stable enough portal. But you said that the Willow from your world was capable of doing this on her own?" Giles asked Dawn.
Dawn nodded at that. "Yes, she's very powerful."
"Quite," Giles agreed. "If she really has tampered with our minds, without us even noticing anything was amiss during all that time, her power must be beyond anything I've ever seen. How is she dealing with that?"
"Truthfully?" Dawn asked, obviously preparing for yet another explanation that they wouldn't like. "She's getting better again."
"Better? Again?" Willow asked in a trembling voice, causing Buffy's heart to go out to her.
Dawn looked at her with an expression of sorrow, clearly feeling the same shame that her friend had to face a revelation as well. Wasn't there anyone on that other world who had remained alright? Even Giles had apparently abandoned her last year.
Xander. Yes, she nodded to herself, Xander was always safe. He didn't make that kind of mistake. Dawn loved him after all, and would she love him if he'd done something bad as well?
Dawn loved her too, an irritating inner voice whispered, and she clearly cares about Willow despite whatever had happened.
Which meant absolutely nothing. No, nothing of it mattered. Nothing at all. In each world there were probably good and bad things, and just because Dawn's original world might have had more than its share of the bad stuff didn't mean that the entire world was dark and evil. So, Buffy forced herself to listen to Dawn's short summary of how Willow in her grief had tried to destroy the world.
"Let's get back to business, shall we?" Buffy asked once she'd believed the silence after Dawn's explanation had lasted long enough.
"Y-yes," Willow answered. "I want this spell to work so that I can talk to her."
"What?"
"I want to know what made her do it. Nothing is worth destroying the world: not even losing Tara."
While it sounded a bit morbid, Buffy was more than happy to see Tara agree with that statement. Not that she'd expected Tara to react in any other way, but it was always good to know she'd judged her friend correctly.
"Are you sure that's a good idea though?" Xander asked. "Shouldn't we simply get Dawn home and not mess with the time-line any further?"
"It's alright," Willow said. "This won't affect the time-line as we're both from the future; just different versions of it. In fact it might be a good idea if we all talked to our counterparts, maybe we'd learn some things from them that we can use."
Talk to the other her? The one who slept with Spike? Could she actually handle that? It sounded pretty bad, but maybe Willow was right and they could learn something from each other. Buffy wasn't exactly sure how the other Buffy could help her, but she already knew the first thing she'd say to her own counterpart. And the words 'stake Spike' weren't all that hard to remember either.
"Okay, let me get this straight," Xander started. "Instead of only sending Dawn back in time, so that she can fix her part of the time-line and travel back to her own future, we'll be traveling into the past with her so that we can talk to our counterparts from the other time-line who are also in our past, which is also their past, so that we can learn from each other?"
"Yes."
"Apart from the fact that I can't believe I actually spoke a sentence like that, do you know how ridiculous that sounds? I mean if you came to Hollywood with a script like that they would laugh you out of their office."
"Well, you know how they say that life is stranger than fiction."
"Yeah, but I kinda figured that whoever had come up with a stupid quote like that actually knew about vampires."
"What about those of us who don't have a counterpart? Because she is in jail?" Faith wanted to know.
"Or dead," Jenny added.
Now those were loaded questions. "You'll come too of course. I'm sure they'll be happy to see you."
Faith snorted at that. "Right. Maybe Blondie and Mrs Tweed, but not me. If D's reaction is anything like theirs they'll probably try to kill me on sight."
"We'll tell them that you're not evil," Willow tried to comfort Faith, before turning to Dawn. "They would believe that, wouldn't they?"
"Where it concerns Faith?" Dawn asked. "I'm not sure, most of it was pretty long ago and Buffy might have forgiven some of it, but she's still pretty pissed at her."
"They'll understand she's not your Faith, won't they? Because I don't want anyone to kill Faith, she's my friend."
"That's sweet Red, but be careful you don't make Blondie jealous."
"I would nev-" Willow turned to Tara, but was cut off when her girlfriend put her finger on her mouth.
"I know, Faith was just teasing."
"Right, I knew that."
"Quite," Giles spoke up. "I believe that if we really want to go there it might be useful if we actually started looking at the books. Are you sure these books contain the information we need?"
"Or the one you asked the Council to send over," Dawn confirmed.
"I see, well let's get to work then."
"Not me," Buffy piped up. "It's time to go slaying. Are you coming Faith?"
"You know me B. While it's hard to resist a good research party, I'm willing to sacrifice that time just to deal some boring, mindless, violence to those who deserve it. It's the curse of being a Slayer." Faith answered. Amazingly enough she actually kept her face straight during the short speech. Of course, only Dawn was actually fooled for even a moment by the act as the others knew exactly how much both of them hated having to do the reading.
Still, Dawn only shrugged before asking if she could come as well.
"Why? Isn't it important for you to know everything you can about the travel thing, just in case it goes wrong again?"
"They're only looking for it, and I've been sitting still for the whole day already. I want to go outside."
"I don-"
"Let her come B," Faith interrupted. "That way she can see how a real woman fights."
Oh no, they were going to do the whole Xander thing again. Casting a longing glance at the table, Buffy wondered if she wouldn't be able to stay here after all.
Post-fic comments:
Allen Pitt, dogbertcarroll, charmedloverloes, and Darklight. Thank you all for the feedback. There isn't much I can say in reply to them so I'll just keep it to a heartfelt thank you.