--
The first thing Dawn noticed when she blearily opened her eyes was the smiling face of April leaning over her.
“Um...good morning,” Dawn said warily wondering what Willow had programmed into the bot last night and if it would be harmful to her health.
April gave a glorious, bright smile.
“Good morning Dawn! I made you breakfast.”
Dawn glanced over April’s shoulder and saw twelve blueberry muffins stacked in a pyramid on top of her desk.
“Thanks. What time is it?”
“7:03,” April said, reading her internal clock.
Dawn winced; she had another hour to go before school began and she knew she couldn’t get back to sleep now that she had woken up. Then Dawn noticed something.
“Is that my shirt?”
April nodded emphatically.
“Okay then...definitely going to talk to Willow about that one,” Dawn mumbled as she edged out of her bed sideways to avoid the robot that was invading her personal space.
--= * =-- --= * =-- --= * =--
After dressing, and showering, and brushing, and eating, and other numerous morning tasks, Dawn still had fifteen minutes to kill.
“April? Do you know if Buffy’s working tonight?”
April looked up from dissembling the toaster.
“No. She did not tell me. Should I find out?”
“No. I’ll go ask her. What are you doing?”
“Yesterday morning Buffy exclaimed that the toaster was broken after she burnt three pieces of toast.”
Dawn snickered.
“That may have just been my sister’s inability to cook.”
“I don’t know how to respond to that. But thank you for saying it.”
She then went back to her project. Dawn shook her head in amusement and walked upstairs to her sister’s room.
Dawn put her hand on the doorknob but froze when she heard someone moaning and what sounded like a large piece of furniture banging against the wall. She swallowed and her eyes widened.
“Oh...”
She turned and speed-walked down the hallway without looking back.
--= * =-- --= * =-- --= * =--
That evening, as she walked up the path to her house, Dawn already knew that no one was home.
Sure enough, she found a note from Buffy with a twenty for pizza attached on the refrigerator.
Same thing every evening: Buffy’s working, Willow and Tara are at classes, Spike’s off doing whatever Spike does when he’s not doing Buffy. And Dawn was there alone with April---who was oftentimes switched off---until around nine or even ten sometimes.
Dawn walked in her front door, her eyes on her shoes. She missed the times when she and Buffy had been close. They could talk to each other about anything. Then they just became more and more distant after Buffy’s calling as the Slayer. And now Dawn barely saw her. Not just because of the nocturnal issue. She was always either working or fucking her boyfriend. Not that she didn’t love Spike, but she wanted sister time too.
Dawn sat down on the couch miserably. At least she got to see Buffy when they went patrolling, but that was only for two or three hours once a week.
Sometimes she wished she could just forget everything, never out loud of course; Dawn wasn’t stupid.
She tried to think of ways to lighten her mood and eventually settled on going patrolling. She had never gone by herself before but she was confident in her abilities, which had improved greatly over the last few months. And she’d only visit one or two cemeteries. Dawn gave a small smile. She’d leave a note for Buffy. Let /her/ come home to a piece of paper and an android for a change.
--= * =-- --= * =-- --= * =--
Willow and Tara had been catching up on some homework in the campus library when Buffy had called Willow’s cell phone, ordering a search party for her missing sister, who hadn’t returned home in hours.
So now, half an hour later, the two witches were desperately trying to spot the teenager in the crowds milling about at the Bronze.
“Do you think she's here?” Tara yelled over the music.
“What?” Willow screamed back.
“Do you think Dawn might have come here?”
“It's where I'd be if I were fifteen and on the lam.”
They began to walk around, dodging people while trying to catch a glimpse of Dawn.
“Really?”
Willow gave a short laugh.
“Well, not me at fifteen, 'cause, hello, spaz.”
“You?”
Tara had never seen Willow act all that shy. As a matter of fact, she was more the dominant one. Tara smiled at that thought.
“Yeah. Hard to believe such a hot mama-yama came from humble, geek-infested roots?” Willow said as she began climbing the stairs to the balcony.
“Infested roots, trying to turn me on?” Tara said, following her.
Willow looked back with a smile.
“I have to try now?”
They shared a brief kiss and continued up the stairs.
“Come on, let's look over here,” Willow said, cutting around a couple who appeared to be drunk.
“Do you see her?” Tara asked.
“No, there's too many people.”
“Maybe we can have security---”
“No, that'll take too long,” Willow said frustrated.
They climbed another partial set of stairs to the second balcony level and Willow immediately headed over to the railing to look down on the people dancing. She began to chant.
“One among many, many fade to one---”
Tara’s eyes widened and she grabbed her girlfriend’s hand.
“What are you doing? Will?”
“I'm just gonna clear the crowd,” Willow explained patiently, like she would to a child.
“How?” Tara asked; she didn’t like the sound of this.
“I'll just shift everyone who isn't a fifteen-year-old girl into an alternate dimension,” Willow said with an eager smile as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.
“What?” Tara said incredulous and horrified.
“No, it'll be for like a fraction of a second. They won't even notice.”
“Will, no, you can't!” Tara was frantic. So many things could go wrong with a spell of that nature, and so many of those things could be lethal, and there were so many people that could get hurt.
“Why?” Willow said confused. Didn’t Tara want to find Dawn?
“Well, what if something went wrong?”
“Well, it won't!” Willow said with confidence that was turning quietly to irritation.
“But w-what would Giles say?” Tara stuttered out.
Willow frowned disbelieving, and turned toward the dancing crowd below.
“Sukut!”
The crowd noises all vanished away, leaving the entire club silent; although the people continued to dance and the band kept playing like nothing was out of the ordinary.
Willow turned to Tara with a gaze that was a mix between a glare and hurt look.
“Are you taking his side now?”
Tara sighed, wondering how Willow could be so powerful yet so childish.
“This isn't about sides.”
“You two have been talking about me behind my back. You know how that makes me feel?” Willow said, still convinced she was the victim.
Tara finally got out exactly what she felt.
“Willow, you are using too much magic. What do you want me to do, just, just sit back and keep my mouth shut?”
“Well, that'd be a good start,” Willow sneered.
Tara looked at her girlfriend, speechless for a few seconds before saying:
“If I didn't love you so damn much I would!”
She turned and stormed away, trying to fight the tears that were beginning to form in her eyes.
“Takulum,” Willow said offhandedly, restoring the sound, as she stared at Tara’s back, which was fading into the crowds.
“Tara!” She yelled frustrated. She debated going after her or not. In the end, Willow didn’t move. She knew she could set this right. Already, she had begun piecing together an idea.
--= * =-- --= * =-- --= * =--
Willow knew she should continue searching for Dawn but her argument with Tara had thrown her concentration off. The only thing she was focusing on was getting home quickly to do the spell she was sure would help. Tara would no longer be mad at her, and while she was at it, she would help relieve Dawn of some teenage misery.
The entire house was empty, which was to be expected, seeing as everyone was out looking for Dawn; Willow unlocked the front door and made a bee line for the bookshelf where she kept a bag of emergency herbs behind Joyce’s old books.
She picked a large sprig of Lethe’s bramble from the bag as she knelt down by the fireplace.
“For Dawn and Tara, this I char,” she chanted.
She struck a match and set the twig and flowers on fire.
“Let Lethe's Bramble do its chore. Purge their minds of memories grim, of pains from recent slights and sins.”
She took out a clear crystal a small pouch on her belt and held it in the flames.
“When the fire goes out, when the crystal turns black, the spell will be cast.”
She swiftly pulled the crystal back and concentrated intently on what she wanted her friends to forget. She met a slight obstacle when she realized (with some guilt) that she hadn’t paid enough attention to Dawn lately to know what it was that she wanted to forget. Thinking quickly to keep the spell’s flow, she set the magick to take away memories that Dawn herself actually wanted to forget.
“Tabula rasa. Tabula rasa. Tabula rasa.”
She returned the crystal to her belt-pouch with a smile.
--= * =-- --= * =-- --= * =--
The girl frowned as she began to wake up. She was definitely not in a bed and not comfortable either. She was on...grass?
Groaning slightly, she opened her eyes and picked herself up. She looked around at her surroundings, growing more confused by the minute.
She was in a cemetery. At night. By herself.
Maybe she had fallen asleep and would remember why in a few minutes. Only thing is, she didn’t feel sleepy. She wasn’t yawning and her eyes were wide- open.
Maybe she had tripped and hit her head. She tenderly felt around her skull for a wound. Finding none, worried thoughts joined the confused.
She then realized that she was clutching something in her hand. Opening her hand slowly, she then gave an incredulous look to the wooden stake she held.
“Huh?”
*Vampires maybe?* she thought to herself before quickly climbing to her feet.
Turning to leave, she found herself face to face with someone. She let out a frightened yelp, jumped backwards, and held up her stake.
The woman didn’t flinch but continued to watch the girl with fervent eyes that kept flickering around, like she wasn’t truly focused on the girl in front of her.
The girl’s first thought was that the woman was a vampire. But...she had never heard of beautiful vampires before. Vampires had fangs and could fly...she thought anyway.
The pale woman finally fixed her stare into the girl’s eyes, and the girl found herself frozen in place.
“Oh dear heart. Alice has forgotten Wonderland,” the woman said in a breathless voice, reaching out to stroke the girl’s cheek.
The girl finally found her voice.
“A-Alice? Am I Alice? Is that who I am?”
The woman grew rigid in her movements and merely peered at the girl.
“Please,” the girl pleaded in a quiet, desperate voice. “I don’t know. I don’t know who I am. Who are you? Where am I?”
The woman drew back and her hands flew to her head. She tangled them in her own hair and pulled.
The girl watched with uncertainty as the beautiful woman began to utter things that didn’t make sense.
“Names on chains are covered by the witch’s shadow and she doesn’t know she’s standing in the light. But she won’t. She won’t? And now the baby’s sweet key...forgotten like her lock.”
The woman opened her eyes and the girl saw them glisten when the woman fell to her knees slowly and look up to the stars.
“But will she still follow the white rabbit?”
Once again, the girl found herself under the watchful, dark eyes of the woman. Abruptly, the woman stood up and then seemed to sway in the breeze for a moment. The girl stared back intently, trying to find something, anything familiar in this puzzling stranger.
The woman began to walk away. To the girl, it looked as though she were dancing but didn’t know the music: graceful but not focused. The woman stopped when she realized the girl was not following.
“Come sweet Alice. Let Drusilla lead you through this Wonderland.”
She held out her hand to Alice, who hesitated but then quickly scampered over and slipped her hand in the offered one.
--= * =-- --= * =-- --= * =--
“We can use her,” Tara said.
Buffy frowned and looked over at the robot, who looked interested and enthusiastic as usual.
“How?”
“Willow told me that April has a search engine.”
“Like Google?” Xander asked, knowing it was a dumb remark but had felt like saying it anyway.
Everyone looked to the door as Willow entered the Magic Box.
“Hey guys. She wasn’t at the house. Hi April. Hey, did you know she has a search engine?”
“Yeah,” Buffy said as Willow ambled over to stand next to Tara. “How do we tell her to fetch?”
“Easy. April...”
April looked over at Willow expectantly.
“...find Dawn. Uh...please,” she added as an after-thought.
“Yes Willow,” the android said obediently and then turned to walk out of the shop.
--= * =-- --= * =-- --= * =--
The gang sans Giles and Anya, who had remained to man and close the Magic Box, half-walked half-jogged after April, who was strolling through the cemetery at a brisk pace.
“I feel...kinda bad...we only ever use April for chore stuff...like when we need her for work,” Tara said slightly out of breath as she speed-walked alongside Willow.
“Aww...want me to make her more humany?” Willow said. She was in a good mood; her spell was working flawlessly.
“You can do that?”
“Sure...all it takes is some more...easy-as-pie-yet-very-complicated programming.”
“Like...she could be a Scooby member...and actually have...her own life?”
“Well...that might take...some time...but yeah.”
April suddenly jolted to a stop and everyone followed suit. She looked around, searching for something and then turned to face Willow.
“We look like a bunch of joggers out for their graveyard run,” Xander said, panting slightly.
Buffy nodded her head.
“I am sorry Willow. I have encountered a disruption in my locating program. You may need to fix me,” April said, looking concerned.
“Maybe not. There may just be a lot of magick floating around. That sometimes throws off electrical tracers,” the redhead said.
“So now what?” Buffy asked.
“Now we do this the old fashioned way,” Spike said and slipped into his demon features. Buffy got the idea and mimicked him.
--= * =-- --= * =-- --= * =--
Alice sat on the stone steps of the interior of a particularly large mausoleum. She was cold, confused, lost, and getting hungry.
Her companion, whom Alice had learned was called Drusilla, lay on her back on the top step, still as the dead. *Which she might be*, Alice reminded herself.
Drusilla tilted her head back so that she was looking at the girl upside down.
“Such a warm, pretty little thing,” Drusilla said with a giggle and stretched her arms above her.
Alice suddenly began to worry if she had made a wrong choice. After all, she didn’t have any experience to fall back on, none she could rely on anyway. She didn’t know this pale woman but she did have a few memories. One featured a girl with golden blond hair pushing her on the swing. Alice thought that she looked younger and she recalled that they were both laughing.
Coming out of her reverie, she looked sharply at Drusilla, who was now kneeling near her.
“Does your blood glow green too? Does it taste green?” She asked with wide, curious eyes while her hands pawed around Alice’s shoulders and neck.
“I-I don’t know,” Alice said and her companion made a high-pitched sound of disappointment in the back of her throat at not getting an answer to her questions.
Drusilla shifted on her knees, so she was now behind Alice.
“Please don’t hurt me,” Alice said in a small voice.
She felt Drusilla’s cold fingers wind their way gently into her hair and tensed.
“I would never hurt you, Glory’s girl,” she said with sincerity and began twisting Alice’s long hair into two plaits. “No...never hurt the Baby’s key. Because the Baby now belongs to Spike and they need to know...need to know...”
“Need to know what?”
Drusilla had completed one braid with expertise and care and was about to begin the other when she paused. Leaning forward, she whispered into Alice’s ear.
“Bad bad things are coming. Bad for all. But the clock ticks in the distance and the pixies will not visit my ashes, which lie in a swept pile near the clock.”
“But what does that mean?”
Drusilla took a shaky breath and sat back on her feet. Her eyes caught sight of the piece of hair that wasn’t plaited and she deftly continued her work.
“Bad bad things...Baby must know...the Baby can end it...but she cannot stop it from beginning.”
--= * =-- --= * =-- --= * =--
After wandering around the cemetery for ten minutes and after Xander’s fifth joke comparing vampires to bloodhound dogs (get it?), Buffy found Dawn’s scent; and at the exact time, Spike discovered Drusilla’s.
Buffy followed the scent trail to wear Spike stood. She looked in surprise at Spike when she discovered Drusilla’s. They both realized that the trails went in the same direction.
“Would she hurt her?”
“I don’t know, pet. There’s no blood; so maybe not.”
Buffy turned to face the Scoobies, who were lounging on and around a group of headstones.
“We found her.”
--= * =-- --= * =-- --= * =--
Alice was cradled comfortably in Drusilla’s arms when she heard someone.
“Dawn!”
Alice looked up at the sound and Drusilla’s eyes rolled to the door of the mausoleum.
“Dawn?” A female voice said as she ducked inside through the half-closed stone doors.
Alice watched as the face of the girl from her clearest memory erupted into a relieved and happy smile. The smile didn’t waver when her eyes settled on Drusilla.
Alice sat up slowly.
“Am I Dawn?”
“What?”
“I said, am I Dawn? I kinda don’t know who I am. Dru’s been taking care of me.”
“Oh Dawnie.”
“The baby’s here,” Drusilla said happily.
“Buffy?” Spike said as he entered the crypt, followed by Willow, Xander, and Tara.
“Holy---Drusilla!” Xander said, taking a step back.
Willow frowned and edged closer to Tara, who looked nonplussed at the presence of the stranger.
“Hey Dru,” Spike said in a sociable tone.
“Do you remember anything?” Buffy said to Dawn.
“Not much...nothing specific or present-day anyway.”
“Did you hit your head?”
“Hello?! Am I the only one who’s noticed the crazy evil lady?” said Xander.
Drusilla leaned forward conspiringly.
“No bumps on her pretty head,” she said and then snapped her head sideways to lay her piercing eyes over Willow.
Willow took a step back in disbelief. *She knows.*
“The little witch knows why doesn’t she? All scrabbling through twigs and crystals.”
Willow own eyes widened.
“Willow did this?” Spike asked.
“I-I didn’t mean to...for it to go like this,” Willow stuttered.
“Can we talk about this when we’re not in a creepy stone house?” Xander asked.
Buffy nodded.
Willow looked at Tara who quickly avoided her eyes.
Drusilla began to hum a tuneless song.
“What are you doing here Dru?” Buffy asked, a little impatient.
“Bad things far far far away in the distance mangle themselves into our family,” she said with a sigh and then looked at Buffy like a mother whose child had won first prize in a contest.
“Our Baby will be the only lady in our family then and the Baby must know...you can end it...but you cannot stop it from beginning.”
“When will this happen?” Spike asked; he had the theme of her vision already deciphered.
“Not long after I am cold, chewy dust and ashes.”
She gnashed her teeth together.
“Not until the ground floor becomes you’re only haven.”
--= * =-- --= * =-- --= * =--
Willow lay in her bed wide awake, replaying the events of the evening in her head.
Try as she might, she couldn’t find the strength to reach over and turn off the desk lamp, she couldn’t stop seeing Tara’s betrayed look.
Damn Drusilla for seeing her spell! Willow was positive that everything would have gone smoothly if it hadn’t been for her. Except for Dawn. She had muddled up that part of the spell. But how was she to know that the teenager had wanted to forget everything?
That was another thing that had been bugging Willow. Why hadn’t Buffy staked Drusilla? Sure they were related through Spike and she hadn’t hurt Dawn but still...
Willow rolled over in an attempt to get comfortable without Tara next to her. This was going to be a long night.
--= * =-- --= * =-- --= * =--
“So Tara’s just...not going to be living here anymore?” Dawn said.
“Yeah,” Buffy said quietly; she was facing the refrigerator.
“But I can still see her, right? I mean...she’s still our friend.”
Buffy glanced over her shoulder.
“Of course she’s still our friend Dawnie,” she said comfortingly as she turned around clutching to her chest two huge bowls, each containing a mountain of ice-cream. She closed the freezer door with a bump of her shoulder and then sat next to Dawn, setting their desserts down as she did so.
“She and Willow just have some issues they need to work through. When someone in a relationship needs space---which happens a lot---it’s always wicked exaggerated when they live together,” Still talking, Buffy got up and walked over to the fridge again.
“That why Spike spends some nights at his crypt?” Dawn chuckled.
“Yes,” Buffy said while digging out a packet of blood. “Plus he knows we need girly time. And he doesn’t really want to be part of girly time.”
She then transferred the liquid to a mug and popped it in the microwave.
“But you love him right?” Dawn said through mouthfuls of ice-cream.
Buffy smiled.
“Yes, I love him Dawnie.”
Dawn returned the smile.
“Think Tara and Willow will get back together?” she said as the microwave beeped.
“I don’t know. It’s kind of hard to say.”
Sitting back down next to Dawn, she dribbled some blood over her heap of vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate.
Dawn had become immune to most of Buffy’s newly acquired and odd food habits, but once in a while, a case came up where Dawn just couldn’t find the strength to ignore it. This was one of those times. She wrinkled up her nose.
Buffy noticed her sister’s reaction and gave a short laugh. Then taking a big spoonful of ice-cream, hot fudge, and blood, she stuck her tongue out at Dawn and plunged it all into her mouth.
“Eww...”
“Hey, it’s good. And at least now I know you won’t steal any of mine.”
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