THIS TAKES PLACE VERY EARLY IN SEASON 5, SOMETIME AFTER DRACULA, BUT BEFORE BUFFY MEETS GLORY (FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO WERE WONDERING WHAT'S UP WITH THE SUPER-STRONG CHICK WHO CAN WIPE THE FLOOR WITH BUFFY). ALSO, THE GANG IS STILL CONVENING AT GILES' HOUSE, SO HE HASN'T BOUGHT THE MAGIC BOX YET.
Part 1
She stood in the sand, very still, allowing the tide to bring sand in softly over her toes, then insteps, then ankles. She was puzzled, unmoving for fear of disturbing something precious, or perhaps something frightening.
"Precious or frightening?" she asked herself, almost without moving her lips.
Midnight at the shoreline, or was it midday? The southern sky seemed to suggest the former, the northern sky the latter. In the middle was a grey haze that brought the light and the dark into one. It was impossible to tell what time it was, where she was, or how she got there. She remembered going to sleep in her bed at her mother's house, and then being here – that was all.
She looked to her left, and saw a full moon, hovering high amid the constellations. She looked to her right and saw the sun, hanging in a blue, cloudless sky. Then she looked to her left again, then back.
"Midnight or midday?" she asked herself, a second question muttered aloud, for no one but the waves to hear.
But someone did hear.
"Precious or frightening," a voice said. "Midnight or midday? What difference does it make, in the end?"
Buffy turned her head to the left to see who was speaking. There was something different about this voice, distinctive. The quality of the voice was feminine, earthly, and not supernatural – just unique. Then, a girl of approximately Buffy's own age stepped up beside her. The girl did not look at her, only stared at the sea.
"It's all the same, light and dark. The sun and the moon are two sides of the same coin, as are good and evil," the girl said, still staring. "We come from the same place. We are daughters. And in the end, we die in the same way. But there is life beyond."
The girl then turned to look at her. She was lovely, with soft strawberry blonde hair that played in the moonlight, and a heart-shaped mouth with rosy red lips. Buffy could not ascertain the color of her eyes, as the darkness shrouded them from a clear viewing. The girl's lips began to pull slowly at the corners, and by the time Buffy awoke from this dream, in her own bed in her mother's house, the strawberry blonde girl's expression was one of primal glee, as well as kindred knowing.