A/N: A big thank you to everyone still anxiously waiting for new chapters to this story. The action's really going to pick up now! An even bigger thank you to everyone who has supported my venture into original fiction. Date Night is currently #52 on Amazon's best-selling Lesbian Fiction because of you!

Chapter 6: Jumper

"This can't be possible." Willow stared at the pink and white covered book.

"That's what I thought," Faith agreed, "but here it is."

Willow shook her head. "This is…remarkable."

Faith, Willow, and Kennedy sat around a wooden table at the Magic Shop. In the center of the table was the personal object Faith had brought with her to help with the tracking spell – Buffy's "Belly Book."

Kennedy grabbed the book and thumbed through the notebook. "If it really was a spell blocking out our memories," she posed, "why would this thing still exist?"

"If it wasn't meant to be a permanent spell, the affects could be fading," Willow hypothesized. She looked momentarily thoughtful. "Or, because we've started to believe Buffy, that could be inherently weakening the spell, and our memories and proof of Buffy's pregnancy like this book would start to come back."

Faith clenched and unclenched her jaw. "Who would do this to her?" She knew she'd been wrong not to believe Buffy from the very beginning. But she was determined to do right now. She would help Buffy and punish whoever had made her suffer.

"You want a list?" Willow cocked an eyebrow. "We just looked through a whole library of demons the other day who'd want to mess with her just for the bragging rights."

Kennedy rubbed her hands together. "Let's stop gabbing and get down to the magic, huh?"

Willow nodded and began the spell. She pulled out a map of the city and laid it flat on the table. She sprinkled a white power over the map, creating a light, almost invisible dusting of the unidentifiable substance. She took the "Belly Book" from Kennedy and held the object over the map. She mumbled an incantation under her breath and the book shook slightly in her hand. The dusting on the map lifted a few inches off the table and began to glow a vibrant green color. The neon light floated back down to the map and shifted into a variety of shapes and patterns before settling down.

"Where is she, Will?" Kennedy peered over her girlfriend's shoulder at the map. "The anticipation is killing me."

"I'm not…I'm not sure," the Wiccan slowly admitted. Her teeth pulled at her lower lip and her eyebrows crunched together. The map in front of them didn't make any sense.

Faith peered at the enchanted map as well. "Did your spell not work? I thought this was supposed to be kids stuff for you."

Willow looked mildly annoyed. "The spell worked just fine," she huffed. "But Buffy's not showing up for some reason."

"Like, she's not in Cleveland anymore?" Faith's voice wavered. "But she doesn't have an driver's license. And why wouldn't she leave a note behind if she were leaving the city? Do you think she ran away? Did we fuck up so badly that she left?"

"Faith, calm down," Willow soothed. "That's not what happened. Look," she said, tapping at the Cleveland map. "The map shows her leaving her house here. And this green line is where she went next," she stated, tracing her finger along a faint green glowing line. "Now normally the green line ends with a larger green circle, like the X on a Treasure Map, that would show Buffy's current position." She tapped her fingertip where Buffy's travels abruptly stopped.

"So where is she?" Faith asked, still not understanding how the tracking spell was supposed to work. "Where's her green glob?"

Willow shook her head. "That's what doesn't make any sense. It's like she just disappeared or something."

Faith made a startled noise as she inhaled sharply. "As in, she's dead?"

"No. No. There'd still be the green mark where her body was," Willow clarified. "That's not what's happened."

Kennedy looked confused. "So you're saying her body is gone?"

"I don't know what I'm saying!" Willow's voice raised in frustration. She hated being the only Wiccan in the room. She missed Giles.

Faith abruptly stood up and her chair scratched roughly against the tiled floor. "Grab your stuff, you two," she ordered. "Hanging out here, staring at this useless map, isn't gonna help us find her. We gotta retrace her steps," she said, her finger shadowing the thin, green line. "And hopefully by the time we get here," she said, tapping where the trail ended," we'll have more answers."

Willow's eyes hadn't left the map during Faith's orders. Her eyes narrowed in thought. "Wait a minute," she murmured. She stood, as if in a trance, and wandered over to a bookshelf where various magic supplies were displayed.

"C'mon, Red," Faith said impatiently. She shifted her weight from one foot to the next, impatient with the inaction. "We don't have time for more magic. It didn't work."

"I said it worked just fine," Willow retorted over her shoulder.

"Then where is Buffy?" Faith glowered.

"Watch it, Lehane," Kennedy scowled. "She's doing the best she can."

"You watch it, brat," Faith retorted. "You're not too big I can't put you down whenever I want."

Kennedy hopped to her feet and sneered. "Yeah, I'd just like to see you try."

Faith leaned into Kennedy's personal bubble.

"Stop it, you two!" Willow ordered. She scanned the bookcase until she found what she was looking for. "I have an idea, and you two beating your chests is distracting me." She snatched a small box off the eye-level shelf and returned to the table.

Faith was the first to pull back. Kennedy reluctantly retreated as well.

Unspeaking, Willow opened the lid of the box and produced a small amount of what looked like sawdust. She placed a pinch of the substance in the palm of her hand. She muttered a few quiet words in Latin and then blew on the dust, displacing it from her hand, so it scattered in the air and fluttered to land on the Cleveland map. The air surrounding the map shimmered, and the green line that showed Buffy's most recent whereabouts turned a teal color.

"What did you do?" Faith questioned.

"There!" Willow crowed. She jabbed her finger at the end of the new, blue line. A blue orb punctuated the end of the trail.

"So you found her?" The relief in Faith's tone was palpable.

The look of victory on Willow's face immediately vanished. "Not exactly."

Faith looked ready to punch something or at least tear out her hair. She hated magic. It seemed unpredictable and unreliable – two words she normally would have ascribed to herself. But that wasn't who she was anymore and now anything that reminded her of her former self caused nothing but anger and misgivings.

"Willow," Faith said, slowly, trying to recall those anger management sessions she'd had to sit through in prison. She wished she'd taken them more seriously. "I can't handle anymore wishy-washy answers. Where. Is. Buffy?"

The Wiccan worried her bottom lip. "I'm sorry, Faith. But I don't think she's in our dimension anymore."

Faith sat down, not trusting her legs to keep her upright. "How can that just happen?" She looked deflated.

Willow shook her head. "I can't tell. What I do know is who was responsible for the magic that did it. Every witch leaves behind his or her own marker." She touched the blue orb on the map and the air shifted. "Her name is Aimee."

"Amy as in Evil Amy?" Kennedy interjected. "The witch who turned you into Warren, Amy?"

Willow shook her head. "No. At least I don't think so. I've heard a little bit about this Aimee; she's a local Wicca who runs a used bookstore that she uses as a front for magical services."

"How do we know this girl isn't the Amy from Sunnydale?" Faith countered. "From what I've heard about that nut-job she could have very well kidnapped Buffy to another dimension." The more she thought about it, the more her stomach felt uneasy.

"Because this is clean energy," Willow noted, swirling her hand near the enchanted map. A light blue shimmer was created wherever her fingers touched. "So unless our Amy has suddenly turned to squeaky-clean white magic, the name is just a coincidence."

Kennedy cracked her knuckles. "Well? What are we waiting for? Let's go find ourselves a witch."

Buffy winced. She tried to stand up, but her knees buckled and she became light-headed. Trans-dimensional travel had always been unkind, but this journey felt unusually cruel. She bent over and immediately emptied the contents of her stomach into a nearby pile of wooden crates in the narrow alley she now found herself. Tears sprung to her eyes, momentarily blinding her.

The sound of a metal door screeching open filled her ears, followed by a concerned voice. "Hey, are you okay?"

She spun when she felt a hand in the small of her back. Despite the feelings of disorientation, her slayer senses were tingling. Demon they warned her.

She grabbed onto the wrist of whomever had touched her and violently twisted until the creature's arm was pinned high behind its back. It squealed, a high-pitched, pig-like noise of surprise.

"Where am I?" Buffy's throat felt like it was on fire. "What is this place?" She wretched the red, rough-skinned demon's arm upward, no doubt pulling uncomfortably at tender elbow and shoulder tendons.

"Please," the demon wheezed. "I'll give you everything in my wallet."

Buffy dropped the demon's arm and pushed it stumbling away a few feet. "I'm not a mugger!" she protested with wide eyes.

The demon looked unconvinced. It held its hands up in front of its broad body. "I've got 5 spawn at home," it whimpered. "Please don't hurt me."

"I'm not going to hurt you," Buffy repeated. She shook her head and rolled her eyes. "I may be a slayer, but I'm not going to hurt you."

"S-s-s-s-slayer?!" The demon took a step backwards and looked both ways. "What is a slayer doing here?"

"I'm not here to cause any problems," Buffy said as gently as she could. "I'm just looking for my –."

"Help!" the demon shrieked loudly, cutting her off. "Slayer! Slayer! Slayer!"

Buffy's shoulders hunched and she held her hands tight against her ears. The demon's voice had reached an inhumane level and pitch.

She looked up again when she felt the presence of multiple demons. Three more had arrived. The original red demon pointed a long, out-stretched arm in her direction. "She's a Slayer!" it cried. "She attacked me!"

Buffy looked warily at the new demons. All three were substantially larger than herself and she had brought no weapons with her besides her own body. She carefully pulled herself to her full height and kept her eyes trained on all four monsters.

"Well I didn't plan on hurting anyone, but that doesn't mean I won't."

She lunged for the closest demon and her fist connected with its beak-like mouth. Its head snapped backwards and it collapsed to the ground, rendered unconscious with a single uppercut.

The remaining demons hollered in unison and scampered away, each screaming, "Slayer! Slayer!"

Buffy ran out of the alley, chasing the gaggle of monsters. "Come back!" she yelled futilely.

She came to a halt as she turned a corner. Her senses were suddenly overwhelmed and she staggered forward a few steps, swallowing down a second bout of sickness. Her eyes tears up and she snapped her head toward the sky when her ears filled with murmurs of concern and fear.

Everywhere she looked, she saw demons. Demons of all shapes, sizes, and colors.

The ground seemed to quiver beneath her feet. Her eyes widened at the size of the demon lumbering toward her. Its stony face was unreadable. Its voice rumbled through the air. "Buffy Summers."

Her body tensed. "Yes?" She hated the way her voice cracked.

"We've been waiting for you."

Buffy opened her mouth, a snarky quip ready. But she was unprepared when the bulky beast lifted its arm and pointed a black, gun-shaped device in her direction. It pulled the trigger and Buffy flinched, expecting the worst. A small barb flew out, attached to a thin line. The metal clip attached painlessly to her collarbone.

"What the?"

And then came the pain. White, hot pain. She lost control of her body and crumpled to the ground.

Despite the electrical current that continued to zap through her limbs, she was aware of her surroundings just enough to notice the small white shoes cautiously shuffling toward her and the slight, shadowy silhouette hovering above her.

And then she slipped out of consciousness.

"You." Faith stormed through the main entrance of the used bookstore and pointed a finger at a startled looking shop employee. "Are you Aimee?"

The brunette's eyes widened. "Uh, y-y-yes?" She looked around the shop nervously.

"What did you do with my girlfriend?" Faith slammed her fist down on the front counter, causing the items on its surface to jump and rattle. The young Wicca looked rattled as well.

She swallowed hard. "And who might your girlfriend be?" she asked timidly.

Kennedy strode up alongside the other brunette slayer. "Buffy Summers," she said, narrowing her eyes menacingly. "Does that name ring a bell?" Kennedy wasn't so concerned about Buffy's disappearance, but she jumped at the opportunity to be intimidating.

The woman's eyes darted back and forth between the two aggressively posed women. When her gaze fell on the redhead trailing behind, she jumped up from her seat so quickly, she nearly toppled the stool over. "Willow Rosenberg." The name fell from her lips like an uttered prayer.

Willow came to stand next to her slayer girlfriend. "Um, yes?"

"I-I'm s-s-s-sorry," the young Wicca stammered. "I'm just such a fan."

Kennedy and Faith both looked in Willow's direction. "Fan?"

Aimee, the shop clerk, looked flustered. "Well of course I'm a fan," she blustered. "She's only like, the most powerful Wicca in North America."

Willow cast her eyes to the floor, blushing nearly the color of her hair. "Oh, um, I don't know about that."

Kennedy snagged onto Willow's elbow. "Yeah, well she's my girlfriend," she snarled possessively. "So don't get any ideas."

Aimee's eyes grew wide. "Please don't break my face," she squeaked. "It's the only one I have."

"Guys, back to Buffy?" Faith refocused the trajectory of the conversation.

"Right." Willow straightened. "We're looking for our friend and we think she may have come here."

Aimee winced. "Pretty blonde girl, hazel eyes, about so high?" She held up her hand just barely shorter than her own petite frame.

The group collectively nodded.

"Uh, she was in here this morning, asking a lot of questions about magic," Aimee admitted. "I was really surprised because normally the, uh, things that come asking about a way to another world don't look so…"

"Blonde?" Willow tried.

"Annoying and puny?" Kennedy supplied.

Aimee shook her head. "No. Human."

Willow gave Aimee a hard look. Fan-girl or not, this other witch was responsible for the disappearance of her best friend. "Did you cast a spell for her?"

"Am I in some kind of trouble?" Aimee held up her hands in retreat. "She told me she'd lost something and needed to get it back. I gave her a spell to help her find it, that's all."

Willow blanched. "She was still looking for her…" she trailed off. "Why didn't you tell us she was still looking?" she demanded of Faith.

"Did you really think she was going to give up after a week, Willow?" Faith snapped back.

"I thought she was fine," Willow growled back. "A little sad maybe and pissed off at us, but I didn't think she'd go dimension jumping."

"Well apparently she was so fine that she's stuck in another dimension now!" Faith hotly pointed out.

"Oh, she's not stuck," Aimee piped up.

The group of women turned to regard the other Wicca.

"I don't sell one-way tickets in case people change their mind," Aimee supplied meekly. "She's got a counter-spell that will bring her back."

"So she can come back whenever she wants?" Kennedy asked.

The brunette witch nodded. "Yup."

Faith frowned, deep in thought and self-doubt. "But what if she found what she was looking for and doesn't want to come back?"

Willow laid a reassuring hand on Faith's shoulder, her earlier anger forgotten. "Of course she'd want to come back."

"If you want, I can teleport you to where her portal opened, but there's no guarantee she's anywhere near that location anymore," Aimee offered with a slight shrug. "Time works differently on other planes of existence. It could be years later by now."

"Or seconds," Willow noted helpfully.

Aimee nodded. "That's true. But that's a risk you'd have to be willing to take."

"I have no other options," Faith stated.

"Wait, Faith. You can't just jump into a portal by herself and chase after her," Willow protested.

"Why not?" Faith challenged.

"We should do research. We should gather our resources," Willow said pragmatically with a curt nod of her head. "We come up with a plan."

"You heard the lady," Faith said, shaking her head. "It could be years later by now. I'm not going to leave Buffy in another world to fend for herself."

"I'm with Faith on this one, babe," Kennedy supplied. "If you were in another dimension, I'd go portal hopping to get you back home safe, too."

Willow sighed, her shoulders sagging. "I was afraid you'd say that."

"So once I do this thing, how do I get back?" Faith asked nervously. "Click my heels three times and say 'There's No Place Like Home?'"

Aimee produced a small glass vial filled with a thick liquid so purple, it almost looked black, and handed it to Faith. "Smash this jar against any surface and another portal will appear," she instructed." She pressed a small slip of paper about the size of a fortune cookie fortune into Faith's palm. "This incantation will set the portal's coordinates and bring you back here. Be careful with the pronunciation though," she warned. "Say it wrong and you could be sent someplace else."

Faith nodded solemnly.

Willow grasped Faith's forearm. "Are you sure you want to go in there alone?"

Faith set her jaw. "You need to stay here, Willow," she said gruffly. "If something goes wrong, I'm gonna need someone I trust to find a way to bring us both back.

Willow released Faith's arm and silently nodded her understanding. She knew her job. Slayers jumped headfirst into the fray. Her job was always the safety net. "Be careful and bring our girl back."

Faith hesitated, just for a moment. "I will," she acknowledged. She sucked in a sharp breath. "If she wants to come back."

The dark-haired slayer flashed a look in Aimee's direction. "I'm ready," she announced. "Let's do this."

Aimee nodded somberly. In her decade of practicing magic, she'd opened hundreds of portals before – it was her livelihood. But something about this felt more important and imperative than anything she'd ever done before. She carefully rolled up her sleeved shirt to her elbows and summoned her magic around her.

Faith couldn't make out the words, but she could see the brunette witch's lips moving. Her eyes seemed fixed on a faraway spot. A sharp crack echoed in the air like a thunderbolt, and a dark rift appeared on a wall close to Faith.

"On the other side of this vortex you'll find a world very similar to our own," Aimee began. It was the same speech she gave to all her clients when they wanted to jump dimensions. "But don't let that lull you into false comfort. You'll be an outsider, a visitor to that world, and that's never a good thing."

Faith nodded. "I understand."

Pocketing the small vial and the slip of paper, her only way home, she strode over to the swirling portal. She glanced once more in the direction of her friends. Aimee looked grave, Willow wrung her hands, and even Kennedy, who gave her a tense head nod, looked worried.

Faith looked back to the swirling, magical doorway. "Here goes nothing," she muttered to herself.

Summoning her courage, she took a step forward and jumped.

TBC