A/N: The Spuffy will come, I promise.:) I have to set the stage first, and well, there's quite a bit of setting up to do! Thanks for your patience.

Thank you once again to slaymesoftly for being such an awesome beta.

~*~

Sunnydale, 2001

It took Buffy longer than she would have liked to get to Glory’s place. As anxious as she was about locating Jeffery, she was more concerned about doing something that would upset the chain of events, and possibly change the future. So, she stayed off main roads, and clear of places where she could run into people who knew her, all of which served to slow her down.

As luck would have it, just as she reached her destination, and had yet to figure out her next move, she saw one of Glory’s minions making his way to the backdoor. She moved quickly and stealthily and crouched behind a bush lining the walkway. From her position behind the bush and close to the door, she watched him unlock and push open the door. Before he could enter, however, Buffy hurled a mid-sized rock in the direction of the adjoining lawn, away from her location. The rock landed with an audible thud, catching his attention. The minute he turned around and walked in the direction of the sound, she slid out from behind the bush, and crept into the house through the open door.

Luck was still with her, and the hallway in which she found herself was empty. She ducked behind a pillar just as the minion entered. Once he was out of sight, she made her way through the mansion searching for some indication of Jeffery’s presence.

Buffy peeked into several rooms and found no trace of Glory or Jeffery. All she saw was more minions. So, she decided to change tactics and focus on them in the hope that they would lead her to Glory or drop some clue regarding Jeffery. Luck found her a third time. She heard one of them tell another that he had news for Glory….something about ingredients for the transmogrification spell. The snake! Glory is going to transwhatever the monster snake and she’s going to go to the Magic Box to get the ingredients. Briefly, Buffy entertained the idea of foiling Glory’s plans before reminding herself of the danger of time-tampering.

She waited until the minion had walked up the staircase, before following him. She had only just reached the top, when she saw him disappear into the far left room at the end of the hallway. Glancing around to ensure that the coast was clear, she then darted towards the door. From her position outside, she heard muffled voices, one of which she was positive was Glory’s. Tentatively, she turned doorknob, and pushed the door ajar very slightly. She listened to Glory tell the servants in attendance about her plan to use the snake to seek the Key. No sign of Jeffery. What the hell am I going to do now?

Her mental dialogue was cut short by the sound of approaching footsteps. She quickly took cover behind a large ornate statue not ten feet away from the door. Once the minion had entered Glory’s room, Buffy moved towards one of the windows. She decided that exiting via the window would be less risky, and quicker than retracing her steps. Her slayer strength and agility allowed her to scale down the side of the mansion effortlessly. Minutes later she was running silently across the back lawn and onto the street.

~*~

Scotland, 2009 – Slayer Command Central

Willow, Dawn, and Spike were mulling over how best they could determine what had happened to Buffy and Jeffery. Spike was raring to go after Buffy, which didn’t surprise the two women in the least.

“Spike, I want to find her as much as you do, believe me, I do,” Willow said to him. “But creating a time-portal is not as easy as they make it look in the movies. The ingredients are rare, I told you, and Jeffery took most of them. I have to get more and we still need…..” she trailed off, giving Dawn an uncomfortable look.

“You still need my blood,” Dawn stated in a matter-of-fact voice. “So, what’s the problem?”

Spike frowned slightly, not at all pleased at the idea of using Dawn’s blood. One look at her face, however, assured him that she was not going to be talked out of it - even by him. Besides, Buffy’s life could be at stake. He gave her grateful, though somewhat troubled smile.

“The problem is, we don’t know where they are,” Willow replied, her brow furrowed as she pondered the ways in which she could determine their location.

“Can’t you do some spell?” Spike asked.

Willow shook her head. “It’s not that easy. It’s not like I can do a locator spell, and poof, there’s Buffy!”

“It wouldn’t hurt to try, right?” Dawn suggested hopefully, to which Willow responded with a small sigh. “No, I guess it wouldn’t.”

“Right then. You work on that while I figure out what that wanker was up to. That might give us some clue about their whereabouts,” Spike told her.

“Bit, ‘s your hand alright?” He gestured to Dawn’s bandaged wrist. Dawn smiled and nodded.

“Good. Are you up for helpin’ me, then? Unless Red, here, needs you?” He looked at Willow questioningly.

“No, you guys go ahead. I’m good. The locator spell is a one-witch job.”

It didn’t take Spike and Dawn long to ascertain that Jeffery was obsessed with Glory. His many scribblings detailing the events of Glory’s brief stint in Sunnydale, were strewn across his quarters. They returned to Willow’s room to find her drawing a circle on the floor, with ash-coloured sand.

She shook her head apologetically at Spike’s raised eyebrow and unspoken question. “It didn’t work, but I did save us a whole lot of time by calling in a favour.” She gestured proudly at the ingredients on her desk. “Did you guys have any luck?”

Dawn nodded excitedly. “Yeah, he’s got a thing for Glory. I’m talking completely cuckoo.” She plopped down on the divan. “You should see his place. I mean, all that’s missing are posters of the bitch!” she said, rolling her eyes in a gesture very characteristic of her sister. Watching Dawn, Spike felt a pang of loneliness pierce his unbeating heart. His mate had only been separated from him for some hours, but it may as well have been eternity.

“Bet the bloody wanker’s gone after the hellbitch” Spike added, pushing the pain away with some difficulty, to focus on the crisis at hand. “Don’t give a damn why - unless it helps us find Buffy.”

“So, they’re back in Sunnydale? In 2001?” Willow asked. Dawn nodded and Spike shrugged. “Unless you’ve got another idea,” he said.

Willow started pacing excitedly. For the first time since Buffy disappeared she was feeling optimistic. “No, I think we’re on the right track. I mean, it makes sense, right? The guy is obsessed with a Hellgod, so what does he do? He goes back to the time when she was trapped on earth in human form.” She paused in her pacing and asked them whether Jeffery had left any clue as to which point in time he was travelling to. Spike and Dawn shook their heads simultaneously.

Dawn gave a sudden start. “Wait, if they went back in time, doesn’t that mean they could change the future?”

Willow nodded. “Yeah, that’s the reason witches don’t do the whole time-travel thing – one wrong move and you could wipe out your own existence, not to mention history - ” she frowned, “or the future, depending on how you look at it.”

“An’ since we’re still standin’ here, right as rain, means they haven’t done anything yet,” Spike stated with a small sigh of relief.

Willow started to agree when another possibility occurred to her. “Or, we have an even bigger problem.”

At their questioning looks she explained. “There’re a lot of theories out there, both in the Wiccan and non-Wiccan world, about the paradoxes of time-travel. According to one very popular one that gets around the problems of time-paradoxes, altering an event either in the past or the future actually creates an alternate timeline – well, actually, there’s a debate whether it’s an alternate timeline or another dimension existing in the same time……” Willow’s voiced trailed off as she registered the confusion on her audience’s faces. “What I’m saying is, that it is possible that Buffy and Jeffery are no longer in our timeline.”

She flinched instinctively when Spike growled in frustration, although she knew his ire wasn’t directed at her. “So, what you’re sayin’ is that she could be in some other dimension? How can we be sure?!” he demanded heatedly.

Dawn, who had been absorbing this latest bit of information, volunteered an answer. “Maybe the fact that you can’t sense her means she’s in a different dimension.” She looked at Willow for confirmation. “It could be, right?”

“I don’t know, Dawnie. Spike lost his connection when the portal closed, which means nothing had happened to create an alternate dimension….” Willow frowned, “…unless the act of going back in time itself is capable of causing a branch,” she mused. “Or maybe going to a different time is sufficient to break the bond.”

“The bond is not broken,” Spike interjected. “Just gone. There’s a difference,” he stressed with a sigh. He was getting impatient with all the talk and theorizing. He was more a man of action than words, although his inner William would have begged to differ. “Look, can your spell find this dimension or not?” he asked.

Willow bit her bottom lip as she considered his question. Could it? “I could open a different kind of portal, kinda like a gateway between dimensions – a very small gateway, more like a tiny hole; but we still need to pinpoint Buffy’s dimension and time.”

Spike’s frustrated frown gave way to a hopeful smile at the Wicca’s last words. “I know how to find her.”