Chapter 4: In Which Everything Gets More Peculiar "Wow. I'm sorry. Did I fall asleep? Where's Spike?" "Spike's not here right now. But you need to go find Dawn." "Dawn. Oh dear. She's my sister. Right Gay Willow?" Willow rolled her eyes. "Buffy. Try to think where she would go if she was alone. Go find her. Go girl!" Willow clapped her hands like she was talking to a dog and sent the robot outside. "That was a very good idea Willow." Tara nodded. "Thanks. So have you done the scrying spell yet?" Willow wiped her hands off, having just come from the back room. "Yes. It didn't work. The crystal began and then it kinda exploded." "Again? What's with it?" "I"m not sure. It worries me. It means we might have to do some interdimensional scrying." Tara and Willow looked at each other. Anya didn't understand. "Anything for Buffy." If they had only known. They wouldn't find her on any dimension they looked. They needed to look into the fantasy dimension. The one where reality and illusion meet. Somewhere across town was Dawn. She was sitting at The Expresso Pump at a table in the back. Glaring at the world around her she sipped from a hot chocolate. She was unsure how she felt about being forgotten. She was kind of mad but she was also happy because for once she wasn't being babysat and she could do whatever she wanted. On the other hand she knew it was really dangerous out. She wondered if anyone missed her. "Hey you." "Me?" the young guy looked at Dawn surprised. "Yeah. You're friends with my sister Buffy aren't you?" "Sort of." He shrugged. "Feel like sitting down? I'll buy you a drink." He smiled. "You don't have too. But I'll sit down. I'm Jonathan." "Dawn." "How come you're all alone?" "They forgot about me. They usually always worry. It's strange." "People always forget about me." Jonathan nodded in sympathy. "They don't care about me as a person." "I'm sure that's not true. You have to believe that somebody does." "Thanks." she shrugged. "Want to get out of here? We could go to the arcade or something?" "That would be great. "Dawn jumped up and they left the cafe. Still Somewhere Else in Sunnydale... "There's no hope Buffy and Spike took her somewhere?" "If only. Buffy wouldn't dream of it. Then there was the spell." "Well Glory still doesn't know. It isn't that bad." "She would kill her. That's plenty bad. She's a threat Xander. Not just to the world, but to us personally." "Getting that. But Dawn knows to avoid Glory. And every other time she ran away, nothing to terrible happened. What? She hung out with Spike?" "But Spike isn't here. He can't protect her." "What about the mall. Don't teenage girls love the mall?" "She's not your normal teenage girl Xander." "Oh yeah. Forgot. She wouldn't go back to talk to Ben would she?" "I don't think so." "Well she's not in the park. I have no clue." Xander looked around. They were on the main drag in Sunnydale which didn't consist of much. "Would she go to the movies?" "Why look who it is." Xander's heart almost leaped from his chest. "Glory. So not good to see you." Xander gulped and turned around. "Don't goad her Xander." Giles said sharply. "Yeah. You wouldn't want to make me mad. I might suck your brains out. But lucky for you I'm full right now." "Lucky for us. You'll only just maim us." "Xander." "Sorry. It's my reaction. You know that Giles. Danger equals lots of sarcastic nervous remarks." "Not really in the mood to maim or kill either." Glory shrugged and looked at her perfectly manicured nails. "Then what do you want?" Xander ventured. "What any girl wants." She pouted. "Oh no." "You and me are going on a date." "I have a steady girlfriend. "Xander protested. "Oh. You're very drunk." She yanked him off the ground with a flinch of her wrist. "Don't think you have much of a choice." "Neither do I." "Sorry Giles." Glory dragged Xander away and Giles sprinted back towards the magic shop. The bad night had just turned a lot worse. Chapter 5