A/N: Finally some answers! And yes you're getting a Sunday update, as I actually have today off. Don't know what I did to deserve that.

Chap. 18: Hope on the Horizon- April 05

This time Buffy called all of the Scoobies to what had become their meeting place, the research library. She waited out of sight until she was sure everyone was in there before she herself entered.

Seven sets of eyes all turned to watch her as she made her way through the doorway, knowing she was the one that had called them all here.

"So what's up, Buff?" Xander asked.

"Faith is alive, that's what," Buffy responded with an edge to her voice, daring any of them to question her.

"Buffy," Willow started compassionately.

"No!" Buffy interrupted. "You will listen to me this time."

Several eyes turned to look at Willow. "What does she mean 'this time,' Willow?" Tara asked her wife.

Willow and Giles both had the decency to look a little guilty. They had decided to keep Buffy's suspicions to themselves until it either blew over, or they had proof one way or the other.

"I tried to tell these two," Buffy said gesturing to Giles and Willow, "yesterday, that I believed Faith was alive and neither of them would believe me. She kept trying to remind me that we buried Faith. But I'm here to tell you today that we didn't in fact bury Faith."

Willow opened her mouth to speak, but the Slayer held her ground. "No, let me finish. I mean we didn't bury our Faith. I don't know if it was a doppelganger or a clone or something, but I know it wasn't my wife."

"How did you come to this conclusion?" Giles asked, truthfully curious now.

"Her tattoo, there was no tattoo on the body we buried. I was so distraught over her death to realize it at the time, but last night I was looking at a picture of us on the beach, she was in a bikini and it stood out. It was then that I realized it was missing."

"Her scar," Willow whispered, almost to herself.

"What was that, Willow?" Tara asked, even sitting next to her, she only knew Willow had said something but she didn't know what.

Willow looked up at her best friend, apology in her eyes as she now realized the truth. "The scar on her stomach, it was missing too." She remembered as if it was yesterday, standing over the brunette's body, trying to magically heal the wound with no success.

"But didn't Tarzar stab her in just about the same place?" Anya asked curiously.

"He did," Willow admitted truthfully. "But his sword had a much skinnier blade, so even if he'd have gotten it in the exact same spot, we would have been able to see the edges of her scar."

The entire room went silent, letting that information absorb into their brains.

"So what do we do now?" Dawn finally asked, breaking the silence.

"Same as we always do, crack the books," Xander replied, lightly slapping Dawn's shoulder from his place next to her on the long couch. The groan in his voice wasn't lost on anyone.

"Actually, Xander, I have another job for you," Willow shot out, already up and moving to her desk, and opening her laptop.

"No books for me. Yay!" he said excitedly.

"Don't get too happy yet. I need you to go to Faith's grave and dig it up," Willow told him a little too excitedly, the science nerd about to come out in her.

"Why on earth for?" Giles asked.

"Because I'd like to test her DNA, and compare it to Nevaeh's as well. It could tell us a lot," Willow replied, not even bothering to look up from the computer. To busy cross checking what they already had in the classrooms on site with what she would need, and ordering it to be delivered immediately.

"Why would you need to compare it to Nevaeh's?" Buffy asked, clearly confused as well.

Sometimes she wished she wasn't the only one good with science in the room. For once, she'd love it if people knew exactly where she was going with her train of thought. "If Faith had an identical twin out there we didn't know about, then a DNA test would come back as she was Nevaeh's mother, Faith and a twin would have the same DNA. So then we'd know Tarzar somehow found her here."

"And if it doesn't come back that way?" Buffy asked.

"Then it's likely she's a doppelganger. It will help us in determining how much work Tarzar put into his planning."

"But wouldn't a doppelganger come back the same as a twin, she's still Faith after all?"

With Buffy's question, Giles now understood where Willow was going with this. "Actually, no, she wouldn't. Even other dimensions that closely resemble our own have a different energy to them. So the energy in our bodies would have a slight variance to them that would affect our DNA."

The witch looked at him, impressed that he knew what she was thinking. "Exactly."

"You said they have different energy, would that affect the air?" Buffy asked, something Faith said to her coming back.

"Yes it would," Giles admitted.

"Faith told me where she was the air was thicker, heavier."

"What else did she say?" Giles asked, going into full on question and research mode. Grabbing a pen and paper he waited for her to answer.

"It was always dark, except when he came. She thought she was in a cave, but she wasn't sure. That's really all. We didn't really get a lot of time together. She wasn't herself though. She was more passive, scared," Buffy admitted sadly. As much as she enjoyed seeing her wife, she was sad to see how the woman had already changed from her long captivity. She was afraid of what Faith would be like when, not if, they got her back.

"I think it's pretty safe to assume Tarzar took her back to his dimension," Giles told them all.

"But why go to all this trouble?" Xander asked curiously.

"That's what we need to figure out," was all Giles had to say. Xander was sent out shortly after that to begin the digging process, while the rest of the group began researching and theorizing what really happened.

~BF~

Two days later they were only beginning to finally make headway. All the equipment was finally in that Willow needed, and she began testing the samples she'd taken from the body they had buried. The results came in, and Buffy was slightly relieved to know it wasn't a twin. She'd be sad if they learned Faith had a sister but then was taken from them. She was in fact from another dimension.

"I believe, that this Faith likely wasn't a Slayer. Made her an easy target for him to abduct from her dimension and replace with ours," Giles theorized.

"But still, the question is why," Kennedy spoke, looking menacing at the stack of useless books in front of them, almost regretting that she'd been allowed into the inner circle. Too much research made her brain hurt.

"Probably so that we'd believe she was dead and wouldn't come looking for her. This supports the idea that she's alive, and whatever he's using her for, he needs her alive."

"But what about the prophecy?" Tara asked this time.

"I believe I can answer that," Anya announced, entering the room at the perfect moment. "I've gone through every contact I could find from my demon days, and finally found someone who knew more about Tarzar, as he is originally from Mictlan himself."

Anya continued on to fill them in on all she had discovered. Tarzar is a traveler by definition. He can't just hop through dimensions, but time as well. He wrote the prophecy and then planted it in the past, to help further the illusion that Faith was dead. "The reason we didn't find the prophecy earlier, is before that, it didn't exist."

"I'm so confused. If he planted it in the past, then why couldn't we find it earlier?" Buffy muttered rolling her head back.

"Time traveling is confusing, but I believe I understand. He wanted us to believe it, so he placed it in the past so that it would age and look authentic. But essentially before the time in which he traveled back, it didn't exist, so we couldn't find it, until he had done so."

"I'm with Buffy, this hurts my head," Dawn announced.

"Why do we need to know all this anyway?" Kennedy asked. "We're positive he took her back to Mictlan, so why aren't we going there and rescuing her?"

"By understanding why and how, it can help us in planning any mission," Giles told her in his Watcher tone. "Going there guns blazing could just get us all killed."

"As much as I understand that, I'm with Kennedy. I just want my wife back."

"I know, Buffy," Giles said with regret, placing a fatherly hand on her shoulder. "We'll get her back, I promise." Turning to look at Anya. "Did your contact have any information on what we might be going into."

"Yes, actually. We were right in believing he only looked human here. But that's why he needed Faith. It's the blood of a Slayer that will keep him looking human back in Mictlan. It is believed over there that humans are the most God like creatures."

"And if he looks like a God, he'll be treated as such," Willow said in understanding. It was still about his campaign to rule. That part hadn't changed.

"Yes, exactly," Anya agreed. "There's a catch. While in our dimension he's able to retain his powers, which are many, he's accumulated more than can be counted through his travels. But in his dimension, so long as he retains the human façade, while still powerful, he's also prone to human vulnerabilities."

"That is what I like to hear!" Xander all but shouted. This information meant that they'd have a better chance going up against him on his own turf.

"Let's gear up the army and get in there!" Kennedy said, sharing Xander's excitement.

"Now I'm sure I can open a portal, but it'll take a while to get everything together and perform the spell. And we still don't know what we'd be getting ourselves into. Just because he's vulnerable, doesn't mean he doesn't have followers that will protect him," Willow pointed out.

"Normally, I'd suggest sending in a couple girls to scout the area. But I don't think such a plan would be a good idea when we're sending them into another dimension," Giles paused, trying to figure out what to do. "I think in this case, I'm going to have to agree with Kennedy. We'll gather all the girls available to go and just hope it's enough." This earned a loud, "YES!" from the younger Slayer. "How long do you think it'll be before a portal can be opened?"

Thinking about it for a minute. "Shouldn't be more than a day. I have most of the ingredients I need for the spell."

"Alright then, we'll plan to send the girls out tomorrow night after dinner." With that, the party broke up, and everyone went their separate ways to prepare for the following day.

Buffy made her way over to Carrie and Michelle's dorm. The two girls had become Nevaeh's favorite baby-sitters when one of the gang couldn't do it. The two Summers women then made their way home.

Buffy spent the remainder of the night with her daughter, cherishing the time they had together. She didn't know what the next couple of days would bring for their family, but she felt hopeful that everything would be alright.

~BF~

The next night, everyone congregated together by the back wall that enclosed the compound. Willow sat in the middle of a circle, working the ingredients together before she could start the spell. She wouldn't be able to hold it open for long, so if they were gone to long, she'd prepared Xander to open one back on the other side.

"Alright girls, plan is simple. Get in, find Faith, and get out as quickly as possible. But we also don't want to leave Tarzar alive. We don't want him trying this again. Understood?" Giles asked, receiving nods in return. "Kennedy, you're in charge. You know what to do."

"Um, experienced Slayer here," Buffy said disbelieving what she'd just heard from Giles' mouth.

"You're not going," the older man told her gently.

"Like hell I'm not! That's my wife they are going after."

Giles tried again to convince Buffy she needed to stay behind, but when it was proving useless, he signaled to the others. Xander moved behind Buffy and caught her as Willow used a magical whammy to knock the blonde out. They knew this would happen, and discussed it the night before. They were going to have one angry Slayer on their hands when she woke up, but they had their reasons.

Willow believed that moving through the dimensions could harm the baby Buffy was carrying. They had decided not to tell her though, because they knew it would be a no win situation for their friend. She'd always feel guilty if she chose the baby and the other Slayers didn't rescue Faith, or if she went and they got Faith back, but the baby didn't make it. So instead, they'd simply take the blame, and hope everything turned out well.

A few minutes later, Willow began to chant. Slowly the space in front of them began to turn greenish, and the more she chanted the more solid the green became, until it took on the shape of a doorway.

"Good luck," Giles told the girls, as one by one they filed through the portal, Xander taking the rear. The goofy guy turned and gave them all a wave and a minute later he was completely out of sight.