Restless
She was at the Zoo, watching the striped cat. It was lounging on a stone behind the bars, watching her cautiously. "Hi," Buffy said, holding out a hand. The cat hesitated, then it came up to the bars and sniffed her hand.
"If I open the cage are you going to, like, attack and eat people?"
The cat looked at her with big yellow eyes and slowly shook its head. Something moved behind it, too quickly for Buffy to see properly.
"You have to promise, or the pom poms will get you."
The cat nodded and lifted a paw up towards the bars.
Buffy reached up to open the lock and then she was laying brick upon brick.
"Are you sure about this, dear?" Joyce asked her concernedly. She was getting bricked into the wall.
"You'll be safer like this."
"There isn't a tv in here. I won't be able to get the news."
"Nothing happens anyway," said Buffy and was punched in the face. Buffy spun around to face her attacker. A pretty young black girl was eyeing her, fists raised for her next attack.
"This is not proper," she informed Buffy, before striking again. "You must go back."
"Go back where?" Buffy asked, bewildered, dancing out of the way. Then she spotted the stake in the other girl's hand. "Hey, what are--"
The girl charged her, stake held high. "GO!"
Buffy rolled with her and when she got up again, the girl was gone, and Buffy was in her old living room. It was exactly as she remembered it, mom's antiques on the walls, dad's state of the art home entertainment set, which had always puzzled her because it wasn't as though he was ever at home to enjoy it. The only thing out of place were the two little girls staring solemnly up at her.
She kneeled down in front of the girls. "Hey, what's your name?"
"I'm Buffy," the biggest one with the braids said. She cuddled the baby. "This is my baby sister, Dawn. I have to take good care of her, because she's special."
"That can't be Dawn," Buffy protested. "She's much bigger than that!"
Little Buffy gave her a disgusted look. She hoisted her sister up, and stalked out of the room. Buffy followed her into the gym.
"GO! FIGHT! WIN!" the cheerleaders chanted. River was dancing around the room, punching and kicking people. Every time someone went down, the cheerleaders cheered. A blanket was following her around, tentacles waving out from underneath. It looked like Bertie was trying to stop her.
"WHAT ARE WE FIGHTING FOR?" Buffy yelled, turning to smile brightly at the audience.
"BLOOD!" the audience and the cheerleaders yelled back. Mel waved a big scythe thing at her enthusiastically. Blood was dripping from the edge. Someone in the back of the audience moved, getting closer to Buffy.
"Cheese! Get your cheese here!" A man popped up in front of Buffy, holding up yellow cheese at her. "They're sliced and lovely!" He moved on, and Buffy stared after him, confused.
Cheese?
She was blinded by a camera flash.
When she could see again, she was standing in a photographer's studio. Seely and Sam were standing on a fake beach complete with painted backdrop. They were making out leisurely, while Jaye circled them with her camera, calling out encouragement. "Very good! Put some more feeling into it! Give me some tongue!"
The sand for the fake beach was making a path to a doorway. Buffy followed it curiously. The cat showed up and padded into the desert ahead of her. When Buffy remained where she was, it turned its head to give her a curious look.
"This is wrong," Buffy tried to explain. She frowned at the sunlight. "There's something out there. I don't think it should be there."
The cat seemed to think about this, then nodded.
The stake she got from Mel on her birthday was suddenly clenched in her hand, and she was wearing a sundress. She looked down at the sensation of sand between her toes. And no shoes. Okay.
"All right," Buffy said, taking a deep breath. "Who's out there? Show yourself!"
Suddenly Mel was walking by in her Fandom High Cheerleader outfit. "OH EM GEE! Buffy! How can you be out here without any sunscreen?! Double-ewe Tee Eff! Moisturizer! Ever hear of it? Oh! Did you see who Alec was with last night? GAG! I'll text you with details later! MWAH!"
Buffy blinked as Mel skipped off. "Okay, yeah, that? Was creepifying."
"Creepifying?" the tall, pale rake-thin man asked. "It seemed mild enough to me."
"You clearly haven't met Mel before," Buffy said, tilting her head to study the man. He didn't look like anyone else in her dream. She blinked and then she was standing next to him. "You're not in my dream."
"I would not be," Dream agreed. "Things here are ... out of alignment. My appearance is a bit of housekeeping. I may not be in your dream, but you are in my world."
Buffy looked around the desert. "This is your world?"
Something was approaching her from behind, she could see it in the corner of her eye. She didn't move. "I think it's got my friends."
"My realm," Dream affirmed.
He eyed the shadowy thing. "It does. You can free them."
The shadowy thing popped out in front of Buffy, revealing itself to be a girl not much older than Buffy. She was dressed in rags and her face was painted in white and mud. She shook her head at Buffy, possibly at Dream's words.
Buffy tilted her head. "Who are you?"
"I am myself," Dream said, watching the girl. "As she is herself, and you are yourself."
"Are you being cryptic on purpose?" Buffy eyed him.
The girl slashed at the air in front of Buffy's face, trying to get her attention back.
"Speaking is what we do in polite society," Buffy told the girl.
Dream sighed. "I am called Dream, or Lord Morpheus, or any number of things," he said. "Your adversary is more important than my identity."
"My adversary?" Buffy repeated. She turned to the girl. "Are you evil?"
The girl in rags shook her head again. There was something primal and frightening about her, even when all she was doing was watch Buffy.
Buffy turned to the man with all the names. "She says she's not evil. Explain."
"She is not," he conceded. "She lives in action, in blood, in the final wound and the crumbling to dust. She is the only one, and she is very alone."
Buffy stared. "The Slayer." Then she shook her head. "I am not alone. I walk. I talk. I shop. I cheer. There's trees in the desert since you moved out. And I don't sleep on a bed of bones." She straightened and looked directly at the other slayer. "Give me back my friends."
Dream's soulders sagged in relief; he knew this would work.
With a tiny nod of approval, he backed away from the slayers,still watching them keenly.
"No.. friends..!" the First Slayer said, voice low and growling. "Just... Us!" She hammered her chest with her fist. "One!"
Buffy rolled her eyes. "Yeah, tried that. Wasn't a big success. I like what I have now. I think I'll keep it."
The First Slayer growled with fury at her dismissal and jumped her. Buffy toppled over onto the ground, and the First Slayer tried to bash her head in.
"This has been fun, and let's do it again, oh, say, never," Buffy said, looking up at her calmly. "I'm waking up now."
Dream turned, satisfied with this, and faded away as he walked back into the Dreaming.
Buffy heaved and rolled, getting away from the First Slayer. She had started walking away, when the First Slayer grabbed her and sent them tumbling down a sand hill. Buffy could see nothing but sand and rags, and then she was on her back on Xander's floor.
The First Slayer staked her through the heart.
Buffy rolled her eyes up at her. "Seriously, give it a rest already."
The First Slayer backed off, frowning in confusion.
Buffy got up and walked back to her seat. She settled down, and turned back to her ancestor of sorts. "Also, you should really do something about that hair. You have to tell yourself, what kind of work place impression am I---"
Restless Table of Contents
Where it all begins
Willow's Dream
Xander's Dream
Bridge's Dream
River's Dream
Izzy's Dream
Nadia's Dream
Alec's Dream
Dawn's Dream
Sam's Dream
Mel's Dream
Buffy's Dream
Where it all ends