Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer, or Stargate SG-1.

A/N:I decided to give you guys a look back at what happened with Dawn and the Scoobies just after Dawn was taken. You guys will get some of the answers you're anxious for, but it's still pretty vague, and in the Scooby part you only see things from their point of view, so there is a lot left unanswered still. Next chapter we will go back to Sam and Dawn in the 'Present,' and see what's going on there. Review please!

18 Months Earlier

Dawn had lasted 3 hours before it became too much for her. They were cutting, and prodding, and electrocuting her. They did a pelvic exam, and didn't even drape her lower half. There had been almost a dozen people in the room watching curiously as she was heinously violated. They might not think it was a big deal to do an exam on an unwilling woman, but to Dawn she felt like she was violated over and over with the tools and hands that touched her against her wishes.

After 3 hours, and many and varied tortures, Dawn finally decided she couldn't take it anymore. She had tried so hard to be brave and endure until Buffy came to save her, but there wouldn't be anything left to save if she was subjected to any more of this agony.

Her head had been so badly injured that she wasn't able to connect to the Earth and chant the spell to help Willow find her. She was having a hard time concentrating, but finally she decided to try deep meditation to separate her awareness from what was happening to her body. Willow would be able to tell what she had done when the Scoobies found her, and pull her out of the trance.

It took what seemed a long amount of time, but she couldn't be sure how long. It could have been minutes, or days before she finally found her inner focus, and pulled inside herself blocking out the rest of the world. When she was done, she was walled away in a corner of her mind, with her mental shields around her. She concentrated for a long time on building the walls as high and thick as possible. She didn't want anything to do with the outside world until Willow came into her mind to get her.

After she felt she was protected sufficiently, she started to build a sanctuary in her corner. Somewhere where she could be comfortable until help arrived. She ended up building a small study, with plush comfortable chairs, a big blazing fireplace, and walls lined with books. Dawn figured she could try and better herself whilst she waited. The books were memories, and she decided to review some of them, like martial arts training and various research parties, and see if she could learn anything new. She had nothing else to do, and maybe she would even look at some of her happiest memories to help he get through this ordeal.

Dawn settled into her own little world, and waited for help to arrive.

When Buffy got the call that a Slayer was dead, and Dawn was missing, she was in Milan. She had just found the cutest pair of boots ever, and was in the process of buying them, when her phone rang.

It was Faith who called her. Faith was stationed in Cleveland, and Dawn was there most of the time, but had gone to Denver to help with Watchery stuff. Faith had gotten the call only minutes before that Dawn was missing, and Anna, a fifteen year old Slayer from England, was dead. After getting all the pertinent details, Faith had immediately called Buffy, while she ordered people around her to call the rest of the Scoobies.

Buffy immediately grabbed her shopping bags, and hightailed it to her hotel to pack, and wait for Willow pop in to pick her up.

When Buffy, Faith, Willow and Kennedy arrived at the Denver Slayer House everyone there was crying. The house was mostly empty because most of them were scouring the city looking for Dawn, and whoever had murdered Anna. The Head Watcher pulled herself together quickly to give a report.

"They went out for coffee, and donuts," the woman, Constance, explained in a rush. "When they weren't back after an hour and a half, we called them. Their phones both went directly to voicemail, like they were turned off. But we never turn off our cell phones, in case of an emergency, especially when we are facing a direct threat like we are right now. We knew something was wrong, so I got together a team of five Slayers and walked the regular route to the donut place to try and find them."

Buffy interrupted, "Was it this demon Dawn was here to help research?"

Constance shook her head, "No," she said. "It was humans. It had to be. None of the Slayers sensed anything supernatural about the scene at all."

Buffy didn't know whether to get madder that it was humans, or not. Either way Dawn was in danger. And it wasn't even Tuesday. She nodded at Constance to continue her report.

"We made it almost all the way to the donut shop, just a couple blocks from it, when we found Anna," here Constance's voice hitched slightly. "There was so much blood. She was just lying there on the sidewalk, a knife in each hand, looking out to the street next to her. There were shell casings everywhere, the coffee and donuts were mixed in with everything else on the ground, she was shot at least six or seven times, and we could tell that she fought to her last breath."

Rage was bubbling in the eyes of the Slayers listening. Shooting a Slayer was an insult not to be borne.

"And Dawn," Constance continued with a deep breath. "She wasn't there. We knew she would never abandon Anna in a fight, so we knew something had taken her. Her dagger was just lying there beside Anna, and there was so much blood! I called the house, and had every able body start a search immediately. I called in the emergency to Cleveland, and then we brought Anna back here. We noticed a couple of surveillance cameras in the area where the confrontation took place, and I've put in a call to our FBI liaison in DC to arrange acquiring the tapes. They should be here any time now."

Buffy turned to Willow, and nodded to her.

"Where's your spell room?" Willow asked Constance. "I also need to see the room Dawn was staying in to get something to search with."

Everyone split up to continue working. Willow and Kennedy went to the basement to work on location spells, and Buffy and Faith headed out with a mini Slayer to get a look at the scene.

12 hours later found Buffy sitting on the couch in the living room staring into space with tears cascading down her face. They couldn't find Dawn anywhere. Willow said she was being blocked somehow.

The surveillance tapes had shown men in black military outfits were the ones responsible. Their liaison in Washington DC, Major Paul Davis, said there had been no sanctioned missions of this sort. He thought it was an independent security company that did this. The van was a dead end. It had been stolen the day before the attack, and was found burned out near an abandoned airfield.

The surveillance tapes had also shown...

Buffy had a hard time even thinking about it. Anna had fought bravely, and the cowards had shot her nine times. Dawn had been a sight as well, the way she moved was as close to a Slayer as you could get without being one. It was a fierce dance of death, as she showed no mercy to the men that had attacked a Slayer in her care. There was even a point where Dawn was in a low spin and had slashed up into a man's femoral artery, and Buffy was pretty sure Dawn had castrated the bastard in the process. Buffy had smiled a tiny bit in pride at the vicious move, but the mild smirk didn't last long.

One of the tapes they had gotten from a surveillance camera had been corrupted, and they couldn't make anything out on it. Kennedy had tried to watch it in the other room when they were in the living room watching the other tape on the big screen TV again, and said she wasn't able to see anything. When Willow examined the tape, she found all the data had been corrupted beyond retrieval.

The tape they were able to view was bad enough. It gave every indication that Dawn had been killed, and her body was then taken by her murderers. After Anna had finally been taken down by the ninth bullet to hit her, the camera showed a man pointing a gun at Dawn's head and firing. It was a side view with both in profile, and after the man fired, Dawn's head had jerked back as if shot before collapsing to the ground. She didn't move again.

Everyone who saw the tape concurred that Dawn was dead, and that this was a recovery now instead of a rescue. Everyone but Buffy, Xander, Faith, and Willow that is. Xander had to take a series of flights from Africa all the way to Denver because Willow needed all of her power to search for Dawn. He stood by his girls, and wouldn't give up on Dawn for anything. They couldn't believe that she was dead. They couldn't just give up on her. Dawn was made from Buffy, and Buffy was sure that she would know, would feel it, if she had died. Xander, Faith and Willow just wouldn't give up until the saw her body for themselves.

Eventually Buffy and co had to return to Cleveland to fight off another apocalypse. They kept searching whenever they could. Kennedy got angry that Willow wouldn't just give up, and go back to Brazil with her, but Willow wouldn't leave Buffy's side for anything. Even for her girlfriend. Xander had to return to Africa to continue his work, but still did whatever he could to help the cause.

As time passed, everyone had to go back to their duties, but they never forgot. They never stopped looking. Willow came up with an idea to keep up a constant location spell for Dawn. If whatever was blocking them came down, even for a millisecond, they would know, and they would have her location. She placed the spell on five crystals that she made into necklaces, so they would know if the spell found Dawn. It took many weeks, and a good deal of energy to give the crystals enough mojo juice to keep up the constant spell on their own, but Willow never gave up; Never wavered in her quest. Buffy, Xander, Faith, Giles, and Willow each had a crystal, and they wore it 24/7. The crystals were supposed to light up with a green glow if they found Dawn, and warm up and vibrate to get the wearers attention.

Giles had been in Washington DC for four months using every trick at his disposal to find out who had taken Dawn. The US government insisted that it had no knowledge of the attack in Denver. Giles was even able to use a truth spell (under very strict regulation of course) to confirm that Major Davis, President Hayes, and several Joint Chiefs had no knowledge of the attack on Dawn.

When Giles had no leads left to go on, he had to head back to England, and continue his search from London. He appointed a team to investigate the US and other governments to find out who could have done this. Everyone was most cooperative with the SWCI, as they didn't want this to blow back on their country. No one investigated could believe the stupidity of the morons who did this, and they didn't want anything to do with the inevitable, devastating, consequences.

The SWCI had to find out who was responsible before they could unleash hell on the dumb asshats. But when they had a target, Heaven and Hell wouldn't be able to stop the fallout.

As the months went by, hope was all but lost that they would ever find Dawn alive. Buffy, Xander, Faith, and Willow were the only ones who really believed that she was still out there somewhere, but even they had their moments of despair, thinking that the others might be right after all. They never took off the crystals though. Even Giles kept his, though he had despaired of ever seeing his daughter alive again.

It was more than 18 months after the incident where they lost Dawn when their gamble paid off, and all five crystals shone green at once.

Disclaimer #2 : The spell with the crystals is inspired by a BtVS/ SGA fic I read called 'Keys to Pegasus' by Hermionetobe on TTH. In that fic, starting at the end of Chapter 26, Willow had a crystal set up to set off an alarm if Dawn returns to Earth. I don't own the original idea, though I altered it to fit my purposes. All the credit for the crystal idea goes to Hermionetobe.