Joyce's scream brought Buffy racing in and skidding to a halt beside her mother.

"Mom? I'm okay, see I just cut my finger." Buffy stared at the girl calling her mother, Mom.

"Who are you?" Buffy stepped in front of her mother. "How did you get in here?"

The girl looked confused. "Buffy, it's me, Dawn." Buffy didn't see her mother flinch as the girl identified herself as Dawn.

"Who?"

"Buffy, this isn't funny! Especially right now, with Willow and Oz missing! Stop joking around!"

"Willow and Oz are missing?" Buffy looked suspiciously at the girl. "Did Angel send you?"

"You're the one who said they were missing! Lost in the National Forest, remember? They didn't know they'd become werewolves and Xander traced them to the Forest?"

"Xander traced them? How?"

"With Magic, of course! Buffy, why are you acting like you don't know any of this?"

"Sweetie," Joyce said to the obviously confused little girl. "Magic and werewolves aren't real, they're made up stories."

"They are too real! Buffy and Xander and Willow and Cordelia and Ms. Calendar explained it to us after they stopped Ted! They showed us proof! Don't you remember, Mom?"

"Ted, the guy I was dating? How did you know about him?" Joyce stared at the little girl. "He escaped before the police could catch him when bodies were found in his basement."

"Duh! By Xander and Willow and Cordelia, after they figured out he was drugging the food he made us! He wanted to marry you and keep you prisoner in his basement until you died! You would have been wife number five if they hadn't figured it out! Why don't you remember?" The girl looked scared.

"You got some things right and some things wrong." Buffy glared at the girl. "One more time, did Angel send you?"

"Who's Angel?" Joyce asked.

"He's her way too old for her vampire boyfriend." Dawn answered. "Or he was until Xander made him human and he left town 'cause he couldn't handle being human, Mom. You weren't happy when you found out Buffy was dating a real old guy."

"Well, I really wouldn't be, if I knew she was dating him, that is. Buffy?"

"Now's not the time, Mom. We need to figure this out."

"Sweetie," Joyce let it go for now, but they would be revisiting that topic. "where do you live?"

"Upstairs! Mom, my room is right next to yours! It's been my room since we moved here from Los Angeles. Why don't you remember?" Dawn was crying now. "Xander! Xander can figure it out! Maybe someone used Magic on you guys, like whoever did Magic on Buffy and Mr. Giles before."

"How would Xander figure that out?" Buffy asked, confused.

"Because he does Magic! Ms. Calendar is teaching him, he's real good too. He gave Mom a warp cloak, so she could teleport if she was in danger and a Magic ring that can make me invisible, it's so cool! He could figure out what's going on with you guys. Just call him, okay." Dawn begged, certain Xander could figure this out.

"Xander doesn't do Magic." Buffy tried to reason with the girl. "Who did Magic on us before?"

"But he can! He's real good!" Dawn cried harder, feeling lost and confused. "And I don't know, it was a whole big set up thing, to make you like Angel."

"What's your name?" Joyce asked, as Buffy stared at the girl, frozen.

"Dawn Arlene Summers! I'm ten years old, Buffy was six when I was born and she promised to help take care of me! Why don't you remember?!"

Joyce moved to hold the little girl and rocked her. "Call your friends, Buffy, we're going to figure this out."

"Mom, you don't believe her, do you?"

"There was a Dawn Arlene Summers once." Joyce said softly. "Something else for us to talk about. Just call your friends so we can figure this out." Feeling just as lost and confused as the little girl was, Buffy went to call her friends. "Buffy, she appeared out of nowhere, something is going on."

"Better not call Mr. Giles though." Dawn suggested. "Mom really doesn't like him."

"Who's Mr. Giles and why don't I like him?" Joyce asked as Buffy tensed, her hand on the phone.

"He's Buffy's Watcher, he made her fight vampires and stuff 'cause she's a Slayer. You were real mad about him making her keep it a secret from you."

"Buffy," Joyce knew her daughter and she knew from Buffy's body language that this Dawn had revealed something Buffy had been hiding. "call your friends now. I want answers, something is going on, you've been shutting me out of your life for God knows how long and I'm sick of it! I want to know what's going on!"

"She already told you what's going, Mom, but you thought she was crazy. She's not, it's all real, they proved it to us." Dawn swiped at her tears. "I need to talk to Xander, I think it's like the comics. I'm somewhere else. Somewhere where there's no me, right?" She looked at her Mom, who wasn't her Mom. She smelled like her Mom, hugged like her Mom, but wasn't her Mom. Because there was no her here.

"You're sure I should call Ms. Calendar and not Giles?" Buffy asked softly. "I'm not really talking to her right now."

"She's not the problem, Buffy." Dawn insisted. "Just call her, okay? And the others, I want to go home."

Buffy began calling her friends and Ms. Calendar. For now, she didn't call Giles. She wanted answers too.