Mel's dream...
It's the same nightmare she has most nights.
It's her and Harth running on the rooftops.
She's calling him "Scaredy" and telling her brother to catch up when he shows up.
Mel tries to fight him but all she gets for her trouble is to be tossed over the edge of the building as the lurk begins to feed off her brother.
This time? Somebody catches her.
"You have no idea what you are."
"We've kind of covered that haven't we?" Mel said pushing Urkonn away and brushing herself off.
"You still don't know what you are," the demon growled.
"There's nothing I can do about that," Mel scowled. "Now are you going to help me or what?"
"You can learn. Before you fail to save anyone."
From the rooftop came the sound of a quieter scuffle than one would expect from someone fighting for his life.
Mel tilted her head and looked at Urkonn strangely. "Aren't you supposed to be dead?"
"Would I be here if I was?" Urkonn replied.
"But if you're not-"
A small girl with one arm and a milky white eye ran up to Mel. "Mel! Guess what! I kicked the ball and it bounced of Mr Ugly man so I asked him for candy and he said he didn't have any but he'd show me something neat because he said you needed motivation which I think is silly because you're only the coolest person I know and you don't need to be motivated 'cause you'll save us all."
Mel looked back at Urkonn. "It didn't happen. I can still stop him."
"Stop who?" Harth asked, walking up to Mel. "And why would you want to?"
Mel looked away. "You know why."
"Oh Mel, Mel, Mel..." Harth replied, looking scornful. "You can't protect anyone. Haven't you learned that by now? Or did you think by running away to a new school and having fun with your little friends changed all that?"
From behind Mel there's a crunching noise followed by the soft thud of someone's body hitting the ground.
Mel shuddered and turned around to see...
Zuko standing there holding two twin babies. "Honey, could you take baby Erin? She needs to be changed."
Zuko handed her the baby who had a burn mark on one eye. The baby looked at her and cooed. "Momma?"
That's when Mel began to scream.
It wasn't possible to say the tall, rail-thin man standing by the edge of the roof appeared; it seemed more as if he had been there all the time unseen.
"Melaka Fray?" he asked, tone almost mild.
Mel jumped a bit at the voice as the baby in her arm cooed at her. "Who are you?"
"Dream of the Endless," Dream answered. "My brother Destiny wishes me to give you some information, Slayer."
He cast his dark not-eyes at the baby. "You want a child."
"I want a what?" Mel said looking at her arms only to find nothing there.
"Look freak, I don't know who you are but I know how to handle people like you," Mel said reaching for her scythe.
Only when she pulled it out it was a fish.
"What the-?"
If Dream laughed, he would be laughing at her.
"Perhaps later," he amended. "You think you can fight one of the Endless in his realm? You overestimate your strength."
Absently, he raised a hand, making Mel dangle with her toes brushing the ground before dropping her.
Mel tumbled to the ground and scowled at the stranger. "Ok. Fine Mysterio. What the frak is an endless?"
"Mysterio?" Dream asked. "The Endless cannot be explained, they can only be sensed." He sighed. "Apparently you feel nothing?"
"I'm feeling a little annoyed at the moment," Mel replied crossly.
Dream folded his arms. "I too have more important demands on my time," he said.
Mel didn't look impressed. "You're the one to came to me Freakshow. I was having a nice little nightmare until you showed up. So you want to stop playing Mr. Cryptic and let me know what's going on?"
"As you wish," Dream said.
The landscape around them dissolved; a moment later, they were in the desert. A girl dressed in rags was doing battle with a monster.
"You see what you are," he said. "This is why I am here."
They watched as a small girl approached the creature with a basket of food and talked to her but the girl's voice was too quiet to be heard.
"The first slayer," Mel whispered quietly as she stared at the scene before her.
"There is power in you, in your dreams" Dream said. "Too much, to be in such a small place on the edges of the Dreaming. And your displacement from your own time, and Miss Summers' from hers, has angered the First Slayer.
"I never had these dreams," Mel said softly. "The Watchers from my time sent me here to find the connection that I don't have."
Mel turned and looked at Dream. "The link between me and the previous slayers was... lost."
"The link went to another," Dream agreed. "That, perhaps, is why you are here."
A bald man in glasses stepped in front of Mel holding a can of spray cheese. "Despite what it says on the label? This is not cheese."
Mel turned and looked at Dream. "What the frak was that?"
"One of my ... lesser projects. He's not relevant," Dream said with a sigh.
As he spoke the scene dissolved, and the crackle of a pyre warmed their faces, and horrible shouts filled their ears as they watched a young blonde be burned for being a witch.
"Not an enlightened moment for your kind," Dream said.
He turned fully to face Mel. "You know this is affecting the others. The First Slayer's anger is great."
Mel watched the fire for a long time before turning her head away. "What do you mean this is affecting the others?" Mel asked. "And why are you showing me these things?"
>Dream gestured, scattering pools of water on the soil. In each, one of Mel's friends was reflected, each engaged in their own private battle. "Because the slayer cannot reach you she is lashing out at those she has visited before and those who have a link to my realm. Unless the link is restored or the slayer is pacified, this will continue. My brother believes that by showing you what was the link can begin to be reforged.
The scene around them was blurring, dissolving, and they were in the chaos of Kristallnacht. "That girl, with the braids," he pointed."She too is a slayer. She too was confused about the morals of her world."
Mel watched as the girl attacked soldiers, human soldiers who were gathering up other humans to take to the death camps. "So these are the dreams I was supposed to inherit," Mel said softly. "No wonder Buffy didn't want them."
She turned and saw that the dream scenery had changed to that of a subway car where a vampire with spiky blond hair and an African-American slayer with a leather duster were doing battle.
"They were always alone. Weren't they?" Mel asked as she watched the vampire murder the slayer and take her coat. "Just like me."
He shook his head slowly. "Not always. Some -- one -- had friends."
Mel blinked and suddenly she was outside a brightly lit school.
Buffy stood in front of the school sucking on a lollipop and talking to a portly man dressed in tweed.
Mel blinked again and suddenly she was in a cavern. Buffy was lying dead in pool of water. Mel tried to race toward only to be frozen to the spot she was in. Suddenly Xander and some guy with funky hair who looked liked Seely raced in and pulled her out. Just as Xander leaned over to touch his lips to hers...
The scene changed again and Buffy was comforting Seely as a funnel-like portal appeared behind him. Buffy leaned over to kiss him and then drove a sword through Seely's chest
The room spun and now Mel watched from the ground as Buffy hugged Dawn on top of a strange tower and then dove off into another weird looking portal.
The world spun again and Buffy was talking to an old lady in a weird looking room.
It wasn't until Mel got her bearings that she realized that Buffy was holding her scythe.
"HEY! What is she doing with-"
Dream silenced Mel with a gesture. "Listen."
"...it was put to use right here to kill the last pure demon that walked upon the Earth. The rest were already driven under. And then there were men here, and then there were monks. And then there was a town, and now there was you. And the scythe remained hidden," the old lady said.
Mel was about to open her mouth to say something when the room melted away until she was standing in the desert watching a city crumble to the ground and a bus come screeching to halt.
"Okay. Somehow I'm thinking that's not the Buffy I know."
"She has not yet seen what she is, what's to come. She's hardly begun her path."
The scene changed again and Mel and Dream appeared in the middle of a demonic battle ground. Demons were everywhere as a girl armed with the scythe and a stake dove into the battle.
"I know about this," Mel replied. "Urkonn said something about-"
Mel tried to see who the girl was but something happened and the demons and the girl were pulled into some portal and disappeared in a flash of light.
"And that," Dream supplied, "Was the final slayer. With her sacrifice she ended all magic and banished demons from her world."
"Until me. Until they came back," Mel said quietly. She then turned to see that she was back on the rooftop in Versi.
And the figure known as Dream was gone. But she wasn't alone.
A figure with a smirk on his face called out from on top of the ledge.
"Back for more little sis?"
"No. We're finished," Mel said turning away
Only to find her brother standing front of her. His features changed.
"You think this is over?" Harth laughed as he slowly embraced his sister. "When I'm done Mel, everyone you love is going to die screaming."
Mel shuddered as she felt his arms pull her close to his body and gasped as she felt his teeth pierce her skin.
"Didn't you hear me the first time?" Harth asked as he began to drink from her.
"You'll never guess what's coming next."
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
[ooc: Big thanks to game_of_you and onceaking for their assistance in playing multiple roles. No interaction unless you are inside Mel's head. Which you aren't. OOC comments are welcome]