DREAM BATTLE
The moment he was at it, the door opened for Xander. Unlike with Buffy however, Xander did not rush in as he saw the danger that was assaulting Willow in her dreams. He came to an immediate stop, something only capable in dream worlds, and cartoons.
Rather than the Bronze, Willow's dream was a…white place. At the center of it was what had made Xander stop. Not even a full second after he did, Ron, and then Kes, had caught up with Xander.
"Xander, what's wrong? Why aren't you entering to help your friend?" Kes asked. In reply, Xander just pointed.
In the exact center of the whiteness, were three Willows. One, obviously the dreamer, was in the center, sitting, no, tied to a chair, wearing a plaid green dress with a trim and proper white blouse, her hair straight and made her look even more geekish than the outfit did. The second, which seemed to be dominating what was happening here, had neck-length red hair, a style that Xander had never really imagined Willow wanting. This second Willow was also dressed to the nines in a business suit, for women. Xander also noted that she had far paler skin than the seated Willow.
The third made all three gods stare, and an uneasy feeling settle in all their stomachs. This Willow, with the same short hair, seemed to have taken up dream-Cordy's fashion sense, wearing tight black leather all over, including a corset and leather bellbottoms. She also looked to be the most dangerous of the three, as she was displaying a rigid wrinkled brow, demonic yellow eyes, and far sharper teeth than the other two Willows had.
"What the hell is she?" Kes asked about the third.
"Vampire," Xander and Ron both hissed in anger and fear.
"My experience is that the moment I step in, the dream starts playing." Xander explained his stop. "Is there anyway to keep the dream frozen and still interact with it?"
Ron immediately shook his head 'no'. "Believe me, I've tried," he further conveyed. Xander just grimly nodded his head. "Then move fast and hit hard. Whatever the one in the suit is, I don't trust that she's just human. And Will never mentioned anything about having dreams about vampires before."
"Did something happen today that might have changed that?" Ron asked, both he and Kes getting ready to 'run' into the dream. Xander just shook his head. "Not that I can think of. Just your typical Saturday."
Ron sighed and nodded. "Ready?"
Kes nodded, "Ready."
"One, two," Xander counted, just before he said the next number, both gods notice him tense, and tensed themselves, "THREE!"
Just like that, three identical blurs sped into the dream…and then hit a barrier ten feet away from the Willows inside it. From the way it flashed after they hit it, it looked like prison bars, or those cages you see on cartoons a lot.
"What the—?!" Xander shouted as he recovered from being knocked back. All three were still on their feet, which was somewhat surprising to him, but not as much as what had happened.
"XANDER!" the bound Willow cried in relief and love. "Help me!"
"I already told you doll," the business clad Willow said in a dark voice that sent shivers up and down everyone's spine, except maybe the vampire's, "You can dream up all the 'saviors' you want, but they'll just appear outside the cage and none of them can get in."
Then the two short-haired Willows glared at the interlopers, "Although, I must compliment you on your taste. The girl is rather yummy looking if I do say to myself."
"Xander looks like he did when he was alive," the leather-clad Willow, VampWillow, cooed, making the very words sound like a sexual caress. "Can I keep him? I wanna see if this one will let me ride him like a pony."
"Not now sweet face," the business Willow, BadWill, said offhandedly. "Now where were we?" she asked as she leaned down and licked the side of bound-Willow's face. "Oh yeah, I remember now."
"Wills, you have got to work out these issues," Xander commented as he tried to run the barrier again. The same thing happened.
BadWill looked up, annoyed, and said back to the real Willow, "Persistent aren't you? What? You don't like getting licked? We'll have to change that. Trust me, there's nothing like a good tongue between your legs…"
"Well, I know of something," VampWillow said dreamily, staring at Xander.
BadWill smiled demurely at the vampire, "Well I wouldn't know about that, my lover and sire being Buffy and all."
*That* made everyone stop and stare at her. Suddenly, Ron snapped his fingers, inspiration dawning on him. "Of course!" he shouted. "They aren't figments of Willow's dream, they're real! They're dream walkers. Like us."
The last sentence got both dark Willow's to look up and stare at the trio, uncomprehending.
"But…if they aren't a part of Willow's dream…how could they construct the cage, or know what it does even?" Xander asked in a rush.
"They constructed it using their own power. It must be demonic energy, considering one of them is a vampire," Ron stated logically.
"How do you figure that?" Kes asked.
"LATER!" Xander shouted. "That wall is coming down now!" With that he raced forward again, but rather than just running into the cage, he punched it, his fist starting a chain reaction of flashing energy, that lit up the entire cage, some sparks even flying between the bars.
BadWill looked at what she thought a construct of Xander made by the captive consciousness before her. "That's impossible!" she exclaimed. "She doesn't have that much power. Hell, barely enough to even have potential. There's no way she could have that much energy to do that much damage!"
"Stop calling me a she!" Xander snarled, a dark and dangerous look passing over his face.
Even VampWillow took a step back at that look. "Xander's angry," she whimpered. She never liked her sweety when he got that angry. It wasn't safe for human or vamp to be around him when he did.
"Big whoop!" BadWill shouted sarcastically, then turned back to the bound-Willow. "Take him away or I start getting painful rather than persuasive. Believe me, I have the practice. And get rid of the Buffy and Giles constructs too."
"But…I-I-I didn't make anything happen! I-I s-swear!" the geeky Willow stuttered.
BadWill frowned and then turned around, and looked at Xander. The dark look he'd had before could have been passed off as a flash of annoyance compared to the one he bore now. To her credit, she actually looked him back in the eye without flinching.
"Big mistake. You do not threaten my friends," Xander growled as he slammed his fists into the cage over and over, each hit causing the same reaction, and then getting worse as the effects of each hit started to overlap each other.
Pretty soon, the speed Xander had used in running was now directed into his arms as they became like twin jackhammers against the cage. Even the arrogant BadWill began to feel the fear the others already felt at Xander's actions.
Not meant to undergo such force, it was not very long before the cage finally became solidified energy, and Xander threw one last punch at it, and it shattered like so much glass. Not skipping a beat, Xander flashed forward, nothing but a blur to everyone's eyes, and hit first BadWill with a kick to the chest and then VampWillow with a punch to the stomach. Each hit sent both evil Willows flying backwards from the bound Willow.
"Xan-Xander?" Willow stuttered.
"Help her," Xander ordered, and then he went after the two people that had threatened his friend's dreams.
"I thought you said nothing could break that thing," VampWillow growled to her partner.
"That is IMPOSSIBLE!!" BadWill screeched, briefly throwing a tantrum. "I don't know what the hell you are Xander-clone, but you are about to cease existing in the next few seconds!" And with that, BadWill changed her every appearance. Instead of a business skirt and jacket, she had on black leather pants tighter than the ones VampWillow was wearing, and a black vinyl vest with steel clasps that actually looked smaller than the corset as well. Other than boots and a vamp face, she wasn't wearing anything else.
"You-you're a vampire too?" Xander hesitated in continuing his attack when he noticed this fact.
"What? Surprised?" BadWill drawled. "It's no big deal. Buffy got careless one night, and the first thing she does is come and turn me. We've been together ever since. About fifty years from my perspective. I picked up this little beauty," she gestured at VampWillow, "in another dreamscape, one actually from an erased timeline I had thought, but it turned out there really was a universe where Buffy never came to Sunnydale."
"Well, that only confirms my theory," Ron announced as he and Kes finished freeing the real Willow.
"What theory?" Xander growled, not looking away from the two vampires.
"They are and aren't Willow. They're alternate versions of what she could have become in either parallel or alternate universes. Somehow, I think the one that's talking so much figured out how to navigate the Inbetween and crossed dimensions in it. Possibly to try and ensure more versions of her occur. Demons, unlike normals, the more of their kind there is, the more powerful they become, whereas humans have to share an energy…"
"Lecture later Ron, we got two vamps to dust!" Xander shouted just before he rushed the more powerful of the two vampires, BadWill.
Too surprised at the turn of events, the vampire didn't move as Xander hit her full force in the chest again, and much to hers and everyone else's surprise, she flew back a great distance, and when she landed, it took her half a minute to even get to her knees. By then, Xander was busy with the other vampire Willow, who was actually ready for him, unlike her counterpart.
Xander ran straight at her, but rather than stand still and let him hit her, the vampire moved with the same speed she had in reality, dodging Xander's hit. Unfortunate for her, Xander, in the dream, was still moving faster.
He adjusted his motion so that his elbow slammed into the side of her head, where she had dodged to and then moving at the same speed, spun around and landed a flawless roundhouse kick against the other side of the vampire's head. She flew back more than twice as far as the first one had. She, however, was up a whole lot quicker.
"I don't know how you did that, but it really doesn't matter," a dark and sinister voice said directly behind the young god. "My dream, my rules, and my world." Before he could turn fully around, BadWill started a lethal combination of punches, kicks, and knees to the ribs on Xander's unguarded form. Finally, she just shot a powerful roundhouse to his head, knocking him back some ten feet. Not nearly as far as she had gone though.
"Xander!" the real Willow cried for her friend. And then, to hers and the other Willows amazement, Xander just picked himself up off the ground, dusted off his clothing, and turned and faced BadWill, absolutely no sign of injury on him.
Xander then looked over at the real Willow and smiled in a way that let her know that he was the real Xander. "Willow, this is all a dream. Your dream. Not hers, not theirs. Not mine even. Yours. If you could put Cordy in a maid outfit complete with corset and g-string, and Buffy in a drop dead gorgeous nightgown, and get me to proclaim "my love" for you, then I know you can control your dreams when you really want to. Fight them. Fight them with me Willow. Here, both of us can be the Slayer."
"Shut up!" BadWill cursed and started attacking Xander again. This time, he actually put up a fight, blocking, almost anticipating her every move, and landing some attacks of his own. Unfortunately, that's when VampWillow decided to join in on the fun. Against one vampire Willow, Xander could barely hold his own, against two, he was quickly overwhelmed, but his desire and conviction to protect his friend kept him going.
"I…I…I don't know what's going on!" Willow whined to Kes and Ron. "Can you help him?"
"We can, but there is little more that we can do," Ron said cryptically. "We can only fight them, maybe even drive them off, but there's nothing to stop them from coming back later. Only you can actually win this fight Willow. Remember what Xander just told you, this is a dream."
"Yeah, and how did he know about Cor…uh, I mean, how can he, or any of you really be in my dream? This is my dream, right?"
"It is," Kes answered assuredly, "But we can't explain that right now. But I will tell you this. If those two vampires kill Xander, even in your dream rather than his, the real Xander will die. Only you, by taking back control of your dream, can save him."
Willow didn't hear the rest after the words 'will die'. "Xander…" she whimpered a final time. Then a steeled resolve entered her face and the same darkness that had been on Xander's face earlier entered her eyes.
The geek dress seemed to literally dissolve off her and was replaced by a dark denim ensemble, a light green tank top underneath the denim jacket. The wind seemed to pick up suddenly, casting Willow's long read hair about around her face. Then the really weird stuff started to happen.
"I won't let you kill Xander," Willow gritted out between clenched teeth at the fighting vampires.
Willow knew of only two ways to kill vampires. She summoned them both into her dream. The white place suddenly seemed a whole lot brighter, and warmer. What had happened became known when both vampires' skin began to smoke.
"The sun!" VampWillow screeched, hissing in pain.
"It's not real!" BadWill scolded her, her punch at Xander's head missing. "It's her!" she pointed at the suddenly changed Willow. "And it's not enough to get us to leave."
"No, but maybe this will be," Willow said, and though far away, her voice was heard quite clearly by all. She raised her hands and gestured at the walls, if there were any, of the white place.
Literally, and suddenly, out of nowhere, *Buffys* started appearing, dressing in the same outfit Willow herself was wearing, except a black tank top underneath the denim outfit. Each bore an expression of outrage and anger, and they were all carrying wooden stakes, and the moment they were fully there, every one ran straight for and started attacking the two vampires.
"OK, color me impressed," BadWill said sarcastically as she almost casually flipped three Buffys trying to tackle her into a half dozen more. "You don't have the knowledge or the skill to put the real threat of a Slayer behind these pitiful constructs."
"Speak for yourself!" VampWillow cried out as the sheer numbers of the dream-Slayers overwhelmed her.
"Way to go Will!" Xander crowed and started to help the Buffys and attacking, with his full dream strength, the two vampires, who were still smoking, but unfortunately not flaming yet.
"She can't destroy them Xander!" Kes shouted, suddenly appearing by his side as she said it, and helping the Buffys attack VampWillow while Xander focused on BadWill. "She can only hold them off. Only once they're gone can we help her construct a shield that will keep others like them out of her dreams."
"So how do we do that?" Xander shouted back, landing a good kick in BadWill's side, but it didn't have too much effect.
"Well, having the real Slayer here, would definitely help," Kes replied sarcastically.
But for some reason, Xander always managed to turn sarcastic comments into plans of great action. Or maybe great plans of action, one of those.
Taking a total chance at looking like a fool, as though he weren't already for wearing pajamas while fighting two dream vampires that were alternate versions of his best and longest friend, Xander took a step back and let the Buffys take care of BadWill for the moment, before focusing his mind and taking a deep breath. Then he shouted with his whole heart, mind, and lungs.
"*BUFFFFFFFFFFYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY*!!!!!!"
Summers' Residence CouchBuffy had finally fallen asleep after maybe ten minutes of staring at the dark ceiling, wondering about the comments that Xander had let slip throughout the day and just before bed. She vividly remembered her dream. It was one that she had been having ever since she had gotten to Sunnydale. Each time, the dream would reveal just a little bit more…and then Xander showed up, and they had an actual conversation in her dream.
And then…
And then she had kissed him. Willingly. Passionately. At least as far as her kisses go anyway. But…Willow was in love with Xander. Deeply. She couldn't be like the vixen Madonna and all traipse into Willow's life and without even trying take the boy that she wanted to be with more than anything. It would be too noir of her, not to mention that while Xander was a great friend, he wasn't exactly her type.
So why did she have to go and kiss him? All right, it was in a dream, but…why did she have to go and kiss him?
These thoughts, and many similar ones, were all on her mind when she finally fell asleep. Five minutes later, her eyes started shifting rapidly beneath their lids and her vitals reached the level known as REM sleep.
Suddenly, about ten seconds after Willow whimpered something that sounded like a cry of pain, "Xander," Buffy's entire body twitched and her face grimaced. Shortly after, there was a sigh from Willow and another twitch from Buffy, only her left arm this time. After that, their forms were undisturbed for the rest of the night.
Inbetween Buffy's dream worldBuffy had wound up back in the same park that she had dragged Xander to after they had escaped the cavern. Standing before her were Xander and her kissing, just as they had been the night before in her dream.
Before Buffy could begin to ask herself what she was thinking all over again, she heard a distant cry that she would recognize no matter what, and a sense of urgency that accompanied it.
"Xander…" she whispered as she recognized him calling her. Then she frowned, grimaced really, and muttered to herself, "Willow? What…?"
Without another thought, Buffy knew what she had to do, although neither knowing or questioning how she knew or precisely what she knew. She stepped up to the place where she had seen Xander both appear and disappear from. If she could drag him back in, maybe she could even step out entirely…
Taking a deep breath, Buffy reached out with her left arm at the space, closed her eyes, and prayed that she wouldn't be too late to save her friends. Her only friends.
Willow's dream worldAs good as things had gotten for Willow's defenders, they were not getting any better. Ron had remained by the real Willow's side, defending her when either of the vampires managed to slip past Kes or Xander, and the dreaming redhead was trying to bring forth as many Buffy's as she could, infusing them with more and more fighting skill that she observed just from watching the vampires defeat them. They also got continuously stronger and faster, but the vampires and the gods were always faster.
Kes, Xander was surprised, was actually better than Buffy as far as fighting skill went, but she looked like she was holding back. At least, every time that he hit BadWill she still went flying back the same distance and took the same amount of time to get back up. VampWillow was not flying back.
"Something wrong Kes?" Xander asked casually, after he had a thirty second break from sending BadWill flying again.
"What makes you say that?" Kes asked as she ducked under a sloppy punch from the vampire and followed through with a kick to the stomach and a tiger strike to the demon's face.
"Oh, maybe cause I'm the new guy to this and I'm tossing Miss control freak around like an uppity rag doll, and you aren't even using that sword on your back!" Xander shouted as BadWill came back for more and he raced forward to give it to her.
"I can't exactly get any better Xander!" Kes shot back at him.
"You could stop holding back!" Xander emphasized his sentence by getting a punch through BadWill's defenses and once again knocking her back over twenty feet where immediately the Buffys tackled her and started to beat on her.
"And run out of energy like you are? In case you hadn't noticed, she's playing with you. She knows you can't or don't know how to banish her, so she's letting you waste your energy on her. At this rate, Willow will be defenseless in twenty minutes!" Kes scolded him.
Xander grimaced and then he frowned as he saw something in the distance, at the edge of the dream. 'Is that what I think it is?' he asked himself as he stared.
Willow suddenly faltered, and Ron immediately caught her and asked what was wrong. "Ooooo…I feel funky weird…" Willow drawled, as though she were drunk.
A loud growling could suddenly be heard and all heads, even VampWillow's, turned to look at BadWill. She was still covered by the dream-Slayers, until all of a sudden, all of the Buffys were cast off of her in an explosion of power, BadWill now floating a meter off the ground, her eyes now solid black with red pupils, and demonic energy crackling around her clawed fists.
"You think you can beat me! You think that some petty vampire powers are all that I have! I discovered the dreamscape, I found the passage to others dreams and other realities through them! You have no idea the depth to my power!" her voice echoed with said power as she spoke.
"Actually," Xander mock-whispered to Kes, "I was trying to distract her."
Kes looked at him, bewildered. "From what?!" she almost shrieked.
"From that," he then pointed behind Kes and VampWillow, and everyone in the dream looked to what he was pointing at.
"What is that?" Willow asked Ron, still kinda out of it. From the moment that BadWill had tossed them off of her, all the dream-Slayers had vanished, even the ones attacking VampWillow.
Out of the whiteness, a hole had appeared, a crack in the perfect white of the dream. It was actually a vortex of some kind, flashing occasionally with an unknown energy, and a bright gold in color with a faint blue at the center/end of it.
It was Ron who had figured it out first, remembering Xander calling out for his other friend, the Slayer, in the middle of the fight. Kes was right on the edge of understanding as well when she asked Ron, "Isn't that where the dream door used to be?" The older god just smiled and nodded.
Before another word could be uttered, some…thing came out of the vortex, and going about twice as fast as Xander and the others had been going. The gold hued blur didn't even pause when it entered the white place, it just raced straight for the floating BadWill.
"I don't know, or care what the hell you are," she growled, the energy around her becoming greater and more volatile, "but I am getting bored with these interruptions. So LEAVE!"
The floating redhead vampire shot a blast of the demonic energy from her fingertips at the oncoming blur emphasized the final word. A second before the blast would have hit it dead on, the blur just sidestepped and went around the blast without slowing down for an instant.
"What!" BadWill exclaimed just as the gold blur hit her full force head on and finally stopped, the demon Willow thrown back, gold and lightning blue energy lancing up and down her body, obviously causing her more pain than all of Xander's hits.
Now that it was not longer moving, everyone could easily see what it was that had come out of the vortex. Buffy Summers, or rather the soul of, imbued with all of the supernatural power of the Slayer stood before her friends and the gods, and one seriously outnumbered and outmatched vampire. Rather than look real as the dream Buffys had, Buffy seemed to be made out of gold energy, and her eyes were the same shade of blue as the center of the vortex. Xander also casually noted that she too was wearing her pajamas, despite them being a glowing gold.
"Hey guys, did I miss the party?" Buffy asked with a smile.
Xander smiled back at the Slayer, the real Slayer. "Nope, right on time Buff, as usual. Nice trick with the Bad Will there. You want the VampWillow or do you want us to take care of her?"
Buffy turned and looked at said VampWillow, and grinned. "Oh, I never get to have any fun in my dreams anymore, I think I'll take her. Although, technically speaking this is Willow's dream…"
"Don't go there Buff," Xander warned, "It's a migraine just waiting to happen."
Buffy nodded gratefully at her Xander-shaped friend. Then frowned. "We've still got to talk about that kiss mister. As soon as this is over, hightail it over to my dreams, or get ready for a major butt-whooping in the morning."
"Ma'am, yes ma'am!" Xander saluted with a sloppy grin on his face. That grin instantly fell when he heard a shrill voice behind him squeak out, "Kiss?!"
"Uh, Will, it's not what you're probably thinking…" Xander spun around to face his friend.
He was rewarded with exactly what Willow was thinking as an image of him and Buffy in a passionate, total tongue, groping kiss appeared out of the whiteness. "OK, it is DEFINTELY not what you are thinking," Xander said firmly. The image quickly disappeared.
"I saved Buffy from a nightmare, and she said something about giving me one happy dream or something and I swear it was only in her dream…uh, world, and there was NO tongue. None, zip, nada, no tongue at all." Xander adamantly confirmed.
"Aw, there had to be a little tongue," VampWillow whined.
"Would you shut up!" Buffy then held up her left arm and a stake appeared there. She didn't even waste time in throwing it, it just shot out of her hand and into the vampire's chest. "But…" was all she could get out before crumbling to dust and the dust being sucked into a vortex that had opened at the vampire's feet, red and black in color, which immediately closed as soon as all the dust was gone.
Unfortunately, as soon as the vampire Willow was gone, another bolt of demonic energy hit Buffy's still upraised arm. She cried out in pain, and for just a moment, her entire body flickered, which made a kind of sense since she seemed to be made out of supernatural energy.
Xander didn't waste time on the psychological, he reacted faster than he ever had, or very likely ever would in the real world. He became a racing blur once again, and despite the three bolts of demonic energy fired at him, he didn't stop until he had BadWill by the throat and torn from the air.
"I told you," he grated in a deathly cold tone, "Don't. Threaten. My. Friends." At each word, his grip just got tighter and tighter, his strength dramatically increased not only by his awakening, but the dream world itself empowering his dream form according to his will. (Not a lowercase spelling for Willow, I mean mind over matter 'will', not "Heya Will!")
BadWill couldn't believe what was happening to her. No 'Xander' could ever be this powerful, not even in the dreamscape, which is what she called it. And yet here he was, dream walking, using mental powers in the dream that normally takes months to learn, and his hand was actually tearing into her neck. BadWill knew that if she died in this dreamscape universe that she would never be able to return and certainly not to this alternate of her. And she wanted to return, increase the number of 'hers' there were in the omniverse and then combine them all into one uber-vamp form for her to control.
Too bad that wasn't gonna happen, as with one last burst of raging strength, Xander's fist around BadWill's neck closed tight, nothing but dust between the fingers as the vampire's head rolled away. Shortly after, as with the other, a red and black vortex opened and absorbed every particle of the vampire's dust. Xander made a show of dusting off his hands and clothes before turning back to the others.
"Xan-xan-Xander…?" Willow stuttered as he walked back to the group that had gathered once the last of the evil Willows were gone.
"Yeah Will?" he asked, suddenly being right in front of her.
She almost startled, but remembered it was a dream and therefore distance had no real meaning here. Especially since it was her dream. "Uh…um, thanks. F-for-for coming to the rescue. I…I don't know what would have happened if you hadn't gotten here in t-time…"
Xander saw that his friend was about to break down and start crying, the stress of what she had just gone through finally ramming into her full force now that it was over. He embraced her without thought and softly rocked her back and forth, making comforting sounds. "Shhh, it's ok Will, it's over now. Don't even think about what those two dust-bitches were doing here. They're gone now, so you don't ever have to worry about them coming back again." Xander cast a look at Ron, who just smiled and nodded back, understanding what Xander was silently asking. No, the two vampires would not be coming back, and therefore yes, Xander was telling the truth.
Xander smiled back at his two new friends, and when he felt her quiet, Xander stepped back to appreciate his best friends. "Thanks for coming to our rescue Buffy," he said to the energy made Slayer.
Buffy just shrugged and grinned the way she did. "It was no big. Anything for our Wills, right Xan? I'm serious about our talk Mr. Harris. I'll expect you in my dream as soon as you're done here." She cast one last loving friendship look at Willow, and then in a way that made her entire form blur, she dissolved back into the still open vortex, and only upon the moment that it had collected all of 'Buffy' did it shrink back and disappear, leaving only the undisturbed white place of Willow's dream.
Before either of the gods knew it though, the white place turned into the Bronze, and Xander recognized a particular table at the center of the dance floor. He turned back to see Willow, now in the same red dress he had seen her in, in the last dream of hers he'd visited.
"Will, you look beautiful…but please don't turn me into a sap again, it was almost embarrassing the last time I saw the way I acted," Xander almost begged.
Willow smiled at him and stepped forward. Then she slapped him, hard, across the cheek. "That's for invading my private dreams. Next time, even if you just "stumble" into them, wait for an invitation, not an open door, to come into my dreams Xander. Oh, and as a parting memory," Willow in the red dress snapped her fingers and instantly, at her heels, complete with leash, was the new "puppy dog" in Willow's dream; Xander in nothing but a black latex Speedo, the collar, and the leash.
At a wolf whistle from Kes, Xander looked up to see the two gods giggling at his expense. Xander, despite his flaming red face, just smirked as his response to Willow's jibe at him, and then it intensified as he said back calmly, "Just for that Will, I won't tell you how I can actually go into your dreams…whenever I want. Now if you don't mind, I have an appointment with a Slayer in Buffy's dreams." Then, with more confidence and suaveness than he'd ever had in his whole life, imagined or otherwise, Xander walked past the S/D couple and to the dream door. Just before he opened it, he turned and looked back at Kes and Ron and asked casually, "You two coming?"
Surprised at Xander's lack of reaction, the two gods just shrugged, still grinning, at each other and followed Xander out of Willow's dream. The moment the three gods were gone, puppy-Xander was instantly replaced with Maid-Cordy, still kneeling and leashed, and pouted to herself. "Damn! What will it take for him to notice me! Other than evil alternate me's invading my dreams and trying to make me evil, that is."
Left with nothing but dreams now, Willow turned and walked back to the table, where the cool and in-love-with-only-her Xander in the tuxedo waited.
The Inbetween"She'll forget that, right?" Xander asked Ron as soon as the dream door was closed.
"What? The you in the slave outfit? I doubt she'd want to," Ron laughed loudly.
"Not that!" Xander, blushing again, shouted. "The other stuff. The…bad stuff. I don't want her to be traumatized by whatever that was about back there."
"Oh, the vamps?" Ron clarified. "Don't worry, she'll definitely forget. Unless you wake up in the middle of them, you always forget traumatic dreams. And she'll probably get caught up in the making you pay for that last comment dreams to have a chance at remembering the vamps."
Xander chuckled. "Yeah, she probably will. Thanks for the backup guys, I really appreciate it."
"No prob 'Xan'," Ron copied what Buffy had called him. "I'll catch you later. I'd like to get back to my own dreams, thank you very much. I was only here as part of that whole responsibility thing. Oh, and remember that path that appeared when you said Willow's name? Just say my name and you'll get another path that will lead you straight to mine, if you ever need my help. Kes, I'm sure, is the same way. See you later Xan!" And with that, the older god disappeared into the mists, despite the numerous 'objects' Xander could now see, the mist was still there.
"Mind if I hang with you for a bit?" Kes asked Xander. "This is the most excitement I've had in years. I mean it! Vampires, helping you save a friend, the Hellmouth… Last time I had this much action was back during World War 2."
Xander gawked at her. She noticed his look, seemed to be uncomfortable for a moment before asking indignantly, "What?"
"Uh…nothing," Xander had to remind himself about the whole immortal deal.
Remembering what Ron had told him, Xander turned and said aloud to the air, while imagining his friend at the same time, "Buffy." Instantly, an amber gold path, lined with bright blue along the edges, appeared at the young god's feet and lead off into the distance, around a corner of a wall.
"Come on," Xander invited Kes along and they both started to tread the path.
"Nervous?" Kes asked with a lopsided smile on her face.
"Wouldn't you be? I mean the girl that I have been in love with from the moment I first saw her, who does not return my feelings in any way that I can define, I rescue from one of her own dreams, she then kisses me as reward and tonight I drag her into our other best friend's dream to save her from two vampire alternates trying to take over her dream world, and then tells me in a tone that does not broke for argument, let alone hesitation, to meet her in her dreams so we can "talk". No, of course I'm not nervous."
Kes just giggled.
"You aren't helping," Xander bit out in annoyance.
"I know," Kes giggled again.
It wasn't too much longer before the path ended and they were at Buffy's dream door, which was behind a domed laser grid of supernatural energy, which Kes identified for Xander. Taking a deep breath, Xander, as he had the night before, placed his hand, palm first, against the laser grid/door. Immediately upon his touch, the entire grid disappeared in a wave of energy, leaving only the door, which soon opened.
Xander frowned when he saw nothing but complete darkness in the dream. "Buffy?" he tried calling out, and a moment later realized how foolish that was, since she would be frozen in her dream.
Xander looked back to Kes, who was also looking on with a mask of concern on her face. "Go on. I'll wait out here. Besides, I always hated being the third wheel in a lover's quarrel."
"What the—HEY!" Xander shouted when Kes pushed him through the open portal and waved bye-bye. Xander figured out why in the next second, as he started falling down the very deep black pit.
Ten seconds later, he landed. On a rocky outcropping in a disturbingly familiar cavern, complete with pasty-faced demon. "Oh good, he's arrived," the Master said easily to the twelve-year-old boy turned Anointed One vampire.
"Do we get to keep him?" the Anointed One asked greedily.
"Oh no, this is just a warning," the Master admonished. "Maybe after the Slayer's dream comes to pass, minus the boy's interference that is, you can have him, but for now, this is just a warning."
"A warning for who you albino freak reject!" Xander grated as he got to his feet, his whole body aching like a dozen vamps had just given him a beating.
"What a good idea!" the Master suddenly exclaimed, and just like that, a dozen vamps came out of the shadows and started to beat on him. That is if they had actually reached him they would have.
Xander struck out as soon as he saw them coming at him. Moving with the superior speed and strength he had found himself to have in dreams, the vamps were easily no match as Xander knocked them back and away, almost all of them luckily landing on sharpened pieces of wood through the chest. The last two however, Xander tossed one onto a torch and it quickly burned away, and the last, looking right into the red eyes of the Master, tore its head off with his bare hands. Xander then repeated the same show of dusting off his hands and clothes.
"Impressive," the Master said, indeed sounding impressed. Xander wasn't.
"Warning for who you Chaplin-wannabe-reject? Me? I don't think so. This is the second time that I've seen you in Buffy's dreams. I don't want to even hear about you being back, or I'll give you nightmares." Xander said coldly, feeling empowered in the dream world. The dream world of a friend, he reminded himself.
"See how unstable these mortals can get?" the Master whispered conspiratorially to the Anointed One.
"Who said I was mortal?" Xander inserted, drawing attention back to him. Before the Master had turned his head back though, Xander was right in front of the vampire/demon. "I'm more powerful than you can imagine albino boy, and I've got some equally powerful friends who can help me keep my promise about your nightmares if I hear that you're in Buffy's anymore. Now get out of here…because I've already torn the heads off of two vampires tonight, I really don't mind doubling that."
The Master just stood there, trying to intimidate the boy, what he saw as a boy, with his demonic glare and visage. Xander didn't blink, he just stared cold death right back up at the red-eyed demon. Finally, the Master just snarled, snorted and turned around, drawing Colin to him with a wave of his arm. Then they, and the cavern, disappeared completely.
Leaving Xander in the park, sunlight raining down, and Buffy in a sundress smiling at him from the sandbox. "Thanks, though it really wasn't needed," she said as way of greeting.
Xander shrugged. "I'm feeling confident after the whole debacle with Willow."
"I'm sure," Buffy said demurely. "You do remember this is all a dream. As weird as things can get, as much like reality as they can seem some times, it's still just a dream. Fantasy."
"Vampires are supposed to be fantasy Buff," Xander said as he walked over next to some swings, leaning against the metal pole.
"But they're not," Buffy shot back.
"So…maybe some dreams aren't either," his tone gave Buffy all the clues about what he was really after.
"I shouldn't have done that," Buffy stood up quickly and turned her back on him, "I shouldn't have kissed you."
"Why not?" Xander demanded to know.
"Because I don't have the feelings to back up what it could mean Xander!" she shouted at him. "I…I don't…feel that way about you, that you do about me. And Willow…"
"What about Willow?"
"She's in love with you Xander, she has been for a long time, you just refuse to see it," Buffy told him.
"Says who?" Xander almost screeched. In response, Buffy just rolled her eyes.
"I mean who says I refuse to see it?" Xander elaborated. "Willow has been my friend for a long time, and I know how she wants to feel about me, if anything the dreams of hers that I've seen have proven that, but Buffy that's not the whole picture."
"I'm…oh darn what's the term…?" Xander asked the sky, then suddenly several clouds spelled out the term he was trying to think of. "Uh, thanks," he told the sky.
"I'm basically just one big crush for Wills Buff," he turned the conversation back to Buffy, "I'm the focus of all her adolescent emotional roller coaster rides. I'm a nice guy, even you have to admit that Buffster, and I take care of my friends, and that makes me a knight in shining armor compared to every other guy that Willow knows. Just because I'm the only one that she has consciously admitted having feelings for does not mean that I'm the only person on the planet that she does have feelings for."
"Oh, and who else does Willow love like she loves you?" Buffy asked, her face red from either anger or frustration Xander couldn't tell.
"Well, there's you," Xander stated honestly, damning himself for the whole 'nothing but the truth, the whole truth, so help himself' when in the dream worlds.
Buffy took a step back, her face falling. "Wh-wh-what d-d-do you m-mean?" she stuttered.
Before Xander could answer, the entire park changed half into the Bronze, and the half behind Buffy stayed the park, but without as much sunlight and more clouds. The half that Xander stood behind shown the final scenes of Willow's dream that he had seen the night before. Buffy in a beautiful silk white gown sitting down to join the Willow in the Red Dress, who was being necked by a, safe, Xander in a tuxedo, and her feet getting kissed and worshiped by a Cordelia that took a wrong turn in a bondage magazine.
Ten seconds after it became clear that the 'date' between Xander and Willow had turned into a 'date' between Willow and Buffy, the park returned in full, but the clouds were still overcast.
"Whoa boy," Buffy mumbled, sitting down on the edge of the sandbox again.
"I've known that she's been dealing with this issue since we were thirteen. That's why I've done my hardest to ignore her advances, and that's why we never started 'dating' again. Jesse, as far as I knew, didn't have a clue, but he was more my friend than Willow's, so he wouldn't have noticed." Xander confessed, joining her at the sandbox.
"How…how…?" Buffy couldn't get the question out.
"How did I find out?" Xander finished for her. He shrugged. "At first I thought the swimsuit magazines were the whole, 'I wanna look like that when I grow up', but then you get into the single issue of Playboy, in the garbage mind you, followed by an accidental sneak peak at her diary, where within lies a single page of the full spread from said tossed out Playboy, that's sayin' a whole lot more. Willow is confused right now Buff, and she doesn't need me messing up what's going on in her head, because I only love her like a sister. I can't give her what she needs, and I'd probably end up turning her off of guys all together when we broke up. Note I said when."
Buffy sighed. "I so don't want to remember that when I wake up," she said, mentioning the image Xander had unwittingly shown her.
Xander shrugged. "Ron says that so long as you don't wake up in the middle of them, you don't remember traumatic dreams."
"Says him," Buffy stuck her tongue out at Xander.
Xander smiled friendly at the Slayer but didn't really rise to the bait. For some reason he felt tired.
"Xander…the kiss was just a heated way of saying thank you," Buffy explained. "There was no…I don't feel the feelings for you Xan, just like you don't for Will. I'm sorry."
"You felt something though," Xander accused, controlling his anger remarkably.
"What does yellow mean again?" Buffy asked, calmly understanding and shooting down his anger.
Xander deflated as quickly as he'd gotten angry. "Friendship," he answered quietly. Buffy nodded.
"See you in the morning Xander," Buffy said as he started to fade away.
"Night Buff," he said just before he, and the dream itself, vanished.
Summers' HomeXander let out a long, slow sigh as he returned to his own mind and started to dream normally. His mind still new to this and needing to adapt still to all the changes it was still going through. They had all been asleep for less than ten minutes.
Buffy suddenly started awake on the couch. She didn't cry out, but looked wildly around, remembering where she was, and then remembering what she could about the dream she'd just had. She didn't remember anything about what had happened on the other side of the vortex (Willow's dream), or what had happened between stepping into it and suddenly being in the sunlit park again with Xander. She did remember her conversation with him, and his revelation about Willow that she never would have guessed in a million years. Then her mind dredged up that "article" that everybody knew about that said 80% of all women in this day and age may harbor bi-sexual feelings, or at the least has "experimented" before they're thirty. Thankfully her mother was pushing forty.
Buffy took a deep breath and lay back down on the couch. She looked over and noticed that both Xander and Willow were still sound asleep. Funny, considering what had been happening in the dream realm so far tonight. Buffy just lay there, looking up at the ceiling for the rest of the night. She didn't get much sleep.
-
End of Chapter 1