"Okay, Dawnie's catnapping thing is becoming an issue fast." Xander said seriously as the Scoobies gathered around. "And no one's blaming you, Dawn, this is not something you have any control over and right now I don't see a way for you to get control. Just having powers is energy intensive, you combine that with normal puberty which you're just starting and have years to look forward to and all that entails -."
"Normal teenagers are capable of sleeping for twenty four hours just recovering their own energy expenditure from puberty." Joyce pointed out. "And eating massive amounts of food, all before you add superpowers to the mix. People joke about lazy teenagers, but that's because they've forgotten or convinced themselves it wasn't that bad. But it can be, there's something's I can do to help, making sure you eat a healthy mix of protein and carbs and not sugar, which only gives a short, fast burst of energy and then leaves you even more drained. Xander may love the brownies and cookies I can make, but I limit how much of those he can have and shove apples into his hands every chance I get. Fruits are a better source of energy. But that's only one thing that can help. It doesn't address your need for sleep. Early bedtimes and letting you sleep until a hour before you need to be in school will help a little and you have to meet me half way on this, Dawn, no arguing about it, okay? I promise you, I know it's not going to be easy and it's going be a few years maybe of it, but it will hopefully cut down on the catnapping."
"Which has happened twice now." Xander added. "And both times you portaled accidentally, in your sleep. If I needed proof that your power is mystical, that would do it. Magic answers to the spoken and the unspoken, you've ended up in four different Sunnydale's and part of that may be because you've expressed the desire to meet another you and Sunnydale is where you, personally, expect to find another you."
"But it's not the only place you've ended up, as evidenced by you meeting the Munsters." Willow reminded her. "The Stargate thing probably was because your portal and their wormhole crossed paths and that could happen again, they're already aware of multiple realities where their Stargate Program exists. But you could also end up in radically different from us realities."
"And as last night's little jaunt proved," Cordelia reminded her. "potentially dangerous other realities."
"So we need to be more proactive in protecting you." Giles took up the conversation. "Which is why Xander and Jenny were up most of the night working on your Chime of Ktido. A most interesting magical item." Xander having decided to trust Giles with some information, had told him he had left over knowledge of magical crafting in his head from Halloween. It wasn't so much Giles he didn't trust as the unknown Watchers Council and just how far Giles' loyalty to them extended. The Sanctum was too dangerous to let someone who might have an agenda know about it. And the Watchers Council was somehow responsible for Slayers and Potentials, to what extent, none of them knew. Better to err on the side of caution and not say anything that might come back and haunt them later.
"What have you done to my Chime?" Dawn asked, she loved the little necklace Xander had glamoured it as and like all his gifts had a magical protection on it that only she could use it, to prevent the possibility of it being used against them, hopefully.
"I think we've managed to rig it so it alerts automatically if you portal." Jenny told her. "We won't know for sure until you actually do, but we're hopeful we've figure out how to make it do that. If you doze off in class, here in Sunnydale, most people are going to blink and ignore it, but we wouldn't know about it ourselves unless you activated the Chime on purpose, which would both alert and act as a homing beacon. But if you're asleep, you can't activate it, so we think we've managed to make it so the portal itself activates the Chime, not just you."
"That way we can get to you fast and get you out of whatever situation you might have landed in. Not that you didn't handle yourself just fine last night." Xander grinned at her. "Seriously, you thought on your feet and used your power to protect yourself and you did it within seconds of waking up. You did damn good, Dawnie! Definitely have the makings of a Scooby."
Dawn beamed at the compliment, how could she not, Scoobies fought monsters and she'd done it herself just last night, fought monsters. Well, okay, she'd sent them to another reality and hopefully no one got hurt - oh damn, Dawn dimmed as she realized. "I sent them to another reality, Xander. Someone could get hurt and it will be my fault, because I sent them there." She crumbled in on herself as Joyce surged forward and held on tight to her.
"Oh, Dawn," She said softly. "this is something else Scoobies have to deal with, that in hindsight a choice might not have been a good one, just the best one you could make under the circumstances and that you can't save everyone. You can just do your best."
The sober group known as the Scoobies gathered around their youngest member as she absorbed a lesson they'd hoped to put off her learning for a long time, one they themselves had to learn far too soon as well.
Like burning down a gym full of vampires that used to be your classmates or sticking a stake into the chest of a monster wearing the face of a brother-friend.
You can't save everyone and you will make mistakes, but you never stop trying.