Chapter 25: Nightmares Part 3

Paige paced on top of the tallest tower of the Golden Gate bridge as she waited for someone to orb in.

"Hello, Paige."

Paige turned to see Roland, and Elder, and Ashley, a Whitelighter, standing before her. "I need to …"

"We know why you are here," Roland interrupted. "The Cleaners have been busy trying to keep ahead of what is happening in Sunnydale. Are exposure on a big scale."

"Billy," Ashley said, "is my charge. I don't know how he ended up in a coma. But his power is running rampant now."

"And we have no idea how," Roland said. "Nothing like this should even be possible for someone able to astral project."

"Could it be, because of the Hellmouth?" Paige asked.

"It is possible, that it influenced his powers," Roland said with a nod. "The mystical energies that emanate from it, could have seeped into the boy, expanding his powers beyond what he is capable of."

"So how do we …" Paige started.

"We don't know," Ashley said.

"The Cleaners are so focused on the problem," Roland said. "That they can't do anything about the source. Which means you, Buffy, Dawn and their friends will have to deal with the source, with Billy." He looked to Ashley. "If he can be woken up …"

"I'm in agreement," Ashley said. "His powers should be bound while I try and teach him how to control them."

"We'll do it," Paige said. "I'll have Piper brew binding and unbinding potions. We'll give him the binding potion, and leave the unbinding potion with Joyce till you're ready to unbind them."

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Buffy stumbled out of one of the buildings of Sunnydale High as she continued to look for The Ugly Man. Not paying much attention she nearly collided into Billy. "Billy—" she said as she grabbed his arm.

"I'm sorry, I can't help it—" Billy said.

"Billy, who is he?" Buffy asked.

"He's The Ugly Man," he replied.

Buffy looked back the way she had come. "I can't fight him. I can fight anything but I can't fight him. He's too strong. We've got to find my friends. They can help."

"We have to hide," Billy argued.

"He'll find us," Buffy said.

Billy nodded. "Yes, but first we have to hide. That's how it happens. We hide, and then he comes."

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Dawn sighed as she closed the Book. "I've looked through it, read your page on astral projection twice. There is nothing on someone with astral projection being able to make the nightmare world come to life."

Piper sighed and nodded just as Paige orbed in. "I have good and bad news," Paige said. "Good news is Billy is a witch. Bad news is they don't know how to fix it. They already have the Cleaners going after every nightmare that appears, but that's taking their time. They can't deal with Billy, so its up to us to deal with Billy."

"How?" Piper asked. "We've looked in the book and there is nothing about this."

"I don't know. I do know this. I met Billy's Whitelighter. If we can wake him, we can then bind his powers," Paige said. "She will then teach him control without the worry his powers getting out of control again. But the problem stems that he is in a coma, and as long as he is in a coma his power will remain uncontrolled."

"So we have to find out what is keeping him in a coma," Dawn said. "Since he is not only projecting the nightmares of everyone into the real world, he is projecting him as well. So we can ask him what happened. Right?"

"That is possible," Piper said. "You two return to Sunnydale. I'll work on a binding potion."

"Work on a binding potion and an unbinding potion," Paige said. "We'll leave the unbinding potion with Joyce. That way when his Whitelighter is ready she can go to Joyce and get the unbinding potion to use on him."

"Alright," Piper said as Paige moved beside Dawn and they orbed out.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Buffy and Billy walked out a door of the school, looking around.

"I was sure this led to the library," Buffy said to herself as they approached a baseball diamond where several kids were playing.

Billy stopped as he looked to the field.

"They're just playing ... what is it, what's scaring you?" Buffy asked.

"Baseball... when you lose, it's bad," Billy said.

"Did you lose your Kiddie League game last week?" she wondered.

Billy nodded. "It was my fault."

"Why was it your fault?"

"I should have caught the ball, I missed it," he told her.

"You missed a ball and the whole game's your fault?" Buffy asked confused. "What, you were the only one playing, there weren't eight other kids on your team?"

Billy looked up at Buffy. "He said it was my fault."

"Who said?" Buffy asked, but got no response from Billy. "Did he ... hurt you after the game?"

Billy backed away from the field. "Can't we go another way to see your friends?"

Buffy nodded. "Sure we can. We can go around behind the cafeteria ..." She led him in another direction, away from the field and saw The Ugly Man about thirty feet in front of them. "... bad idea. Come on!"

They took off running toward a hedge as The Ugly Man lumbered after them. Buffy looked back at him as Billy grabbed her hand pulling her through the hedge and into a cemetery.

"What just happened?" Buffy asked as she noticed they were now in a cemetery and that it was suddenly night.

"Is this where your friends are?" Billy asked.

"No. It's not," Buffy said as she looked around. She then peered back through the hedge, obviously spooked. "Well, I don't see the Ugly Guy ... I also don't see where the sun and the rest of the world went ..."

"Hey, look at this ..." Billy said as he stood next to a freshly dug grave. "Guess they're gonna bury somebody."

Buffy nodded not liking the look of this.

"I wonder who died ..." he said.

"Nobody died ..."

The Master appeared out of the shadows as Billy instinctively backed away from him.

Buffy turned, slowly, true dread creeping onto her face.

"What's the fun in burying someone who's already dead?" The Master asked.

"You ..." Buffy said.

The Master smiled. "So this is the Slayer. You're prettier than the last one."

"This isn't real ... you can't be free," she said.

The Master laughed and shook his head. "You still don't understand, do you? I am free because you fear it. Because you fear it, the world is crumbling. You nightmares are made flesh. You have Billy to thank for that."

Buffy turned to look at Billy, but found him gone. She turned back to find The Master inches from her. It's all too much for her, as her fears paralyze her, bringing her almost to tears. "This is a dream ..." she said.

"A dream is a wish your heart makes," The Master said as he grabbed her throat, lightning quick. "This is the real world." She grabbed his arm but she couldn't budge it as she began to choke. "Come on, Slayer ... What are you afraid of?" He hurled her into the open grave.

Buffy landed in the coffin and the lid slammed shut.

The Master grabbed a shovel and started shoveling dirt into the grave. "How about being buried alive?" he asked with a laugh.

Buffy screamed and pounded on the coffin as she heard the sound of the dirt burying her alive. "Nooooo! PAIGE!"

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

In the school a door opened as Willow, dressed in a kimono stumbled out shutting the door behind her. She moved down the hall in a daze as she passed the basement access door. It flew open as Xander poured out, he slammed it shut as he ran toward her. "Did you find Buffy?" he asked.

"I had to sing. Very bad. To sing," Willow told him.

"Willow, come on. We gotta find the others," Xander said.

"What happened to you?" Willow asked as she shook of her stupor.

"Remember my sixth birthday party?" he wondered.

Willow nodded. "Oh yeah! When the clown chased you and you got so scared that you ... had ... oh."

Suddenly a clown bursts out of the basement door, grinning with murderous intent as he makes a beeline for Xander.

Xander and Willow turn to run and bump right into Giles! A brief shriek and they start dragging him off.

"No sign of Buffy?" Giles asked.

"Come on!" Xander said as they reached the end of the hall. Xander looked over his shoulder but saw that the clown was gaining. He turned and smashed the clown in the face, knocking it on its ass. "You were a lousy clown! And your balloon animals were crap! Everyone can make the giraffe."

Willow drags him off and the three pour out the quad. "I feel good, I feel liberated," Xander said.

"You seem to be the only one," Giles said as Paige and Dawn orbed in.

"We didn't learn much," Paige told them. "We have to wake up Billy. Once he is awake then we can bind his powers and this will all stop."

"The question is how do we wake him?" Willow wondered.

"That's the million dollar question," Dawn said. "We need to find Buffy, though."

"Agreed," Paige said.

"Paige, can you take us to her?" Giles asked.

Paige tried to sense Buffy and frowned. "I can't sense her."

"Concentrate Paige," Dawn said. "It's part of the same nightmare where you and Buffy couldn't see each other."

"Excuse me," Willow said before Paige could try sensing Buffy again, "when did they put a cemetery in across the street?"

Everyone followed her gaze to the cemetery across the street.

"And when did they make it night over there?" Xander asked as they all walked into the cemetery, increasingly concerned. "Okay, whose nightmare is this?"

Giles then noticed a headstone and he pales considerably. "It's mine."

Paige, Dawn, Xander and Willow followed his gaze to the headstone and read: BUFFY SUMMERS REST IN PEACE

"It may be yours," Paige said. "But it is also mine. I didn't tell anyone this. But the Elders told me last week that the seer that told them of mine and Buffy's destinies. That she was destined to die."

"That's why they steered you two together," Giles said. "The reason they made you each other's rewards? Expected you to fall in love? So you could prevent this death?"

"Yes," Paige said with a nod. "They knew if I loved her, that I would stand by her side through all of it. They were right about all of it. I did fall in love with her and now …" she knelt down in front of the grave as tears came to her eyes. "I failed you, Buffy." She laid a hand on the ground. "Forgive me."

Suddenly a hand shot out of the grave and grabbed Paige's wrist as everyone screamed. Startled Paige orbed out and back in as they all backed away from the hand.

The hand pulled the rest of the person out of the grave and they realize it was Buffy, but with one difference, she was a vampire.

"Buffy?" Dawn asked.

"I thought I was dead ..." Buffy said.

"Buffy, your face ..." Willow said.

Buffy brought her hands to her face and felt the vampiric features. "Oh, God, no ... no ..."

Paige reached out a sympathetic hand. Buffy snarled at her and turned away. "Don't look at me ..."

"This was your nightmare wasn't it," Paige said softly, "of dying and becoming a vampire." Buffy nodded. "Oh, Buffy." She touched Buffy's cheek and pulled Buffy around to face her. She planted her lips on Buffy's as she kissed Buffy passionately. "We can fix this. We have to wake Billy. Once that is done everything should return to normal."

Buffy nodded. "He's afraid."

"Yes, he is," Paige agreed. "And that is what is holding him in the coma. And with the added effect of the Hellmouth is what is causing the nightmare world to come into ours. We wake him, the Cleaners can do their jobs and erase all of this. And what they don't erase will return to normal on its own."

"We'd better hurry then. I'm getting hungry," Buffy told them as they headed for the cemetery's exit.

"That was a joke, right?" Xander asked.

Buffy looked to Paige. "I tried calling for you."

"I didn't hear you, I couldn't even sense you," Paige said with a sigh. "For me it's part of the same nightmare as the one where we couldn't see each other. Losing you is my nightmare, Buffy, and I don't want to lose you, ever."

Buffy smiled at Paige.

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Buffy, Paige, Dawn, Giles, Willow and Xander made their way down the hospital corridor toward Billy's room passing several animated corpses.

"Doctor!" Giles said as they passed Billy's doctor. "Is the boy Billy still –"

The doctor stared blankly at Giles, who stopped and saw that the doctor's hands were useless, twisted inhuman claws. Giles turned and followed the others down the hall and into Billy's room.

Giles went over to Billy and looked down at him.

"What now?" Dawn wondered.

"Um ..." Giles said as he leaned down and said into Billy's ear. "Billy?"

Astral Billy looked over the bed next to Giles. "That won't work."

"Billy! Billy you've got to wake up," Paige said as she moved next to Giles.

Astral Billy looked toward Buffy. "No. I told her. I have to hide."

"Why? From what?" Giles asked.

"From him," Buffy said having spotted The Ugly Man coming down the hospital corridor.

"What do we do?" Giles asked.

"I think I know," Buffy said.

"Whatever it is, it better be soon," Willow said looking out the window, where she saw giant insects flying toward town.

Paige stepped up beside Buffy. "Be careful," she said as she gave Buffy a quick peck.

"I intend to," Buffy said as she stepped out into the hall to face off with The Ugly Man. "I'm glad you showed up. You see, I'm having a really bad day."

"Lucky nineteen," The Ugly Man said.

"Scary," Buffy said with a smirk. "I'll tell you something though. There's a lot scarier things out there than you. And now, I'm one of them."

The Ugly Man actually hesitated as Buffy leapt at him, snarling. She took him to the ground in a second, landing on top of him as she punched him repeatedly.

He managed to get a hit in as he knocked Buffy off. As they both come up, she kicked him hard in the gut.

The Ugly Man swung is club arm at her and she grabbed it in mid swing and broke it in two over her knee causing him to stagger back away from Buffy.

Buffy finishes him off quickly with a couple of well-placed punches and kicks. The Ugly Man hit the wall and slid to the floor.

"Is he dead?" Astral Billy asked.

Buffy walked over to The Ugly Man. "Come here, Billy."

"But I don't –"

Dawn smiled as she moved next to her sister, getting what Buffy was doing. Billy had to unmask The Ugly Man himself for him to wake up. "No more hiding," she told him.

"What's he doing?" Willow asked not getting it.

"I get it ..." Xander said as he realized what Dawn had.

Astral Billy walked up next to the Summers sisters.

"You're got to do the rest," Paige said as she placed an arm around Buffy.

Astral Billy looked from the Summers sisters and Paige to The Ugly Man. He leaned in, grabbed the edge of The Ugly Man's hideous face and pulled!

For a moment no one could see a thing, when their vision cleared things had reverted to normal. Buffy was no longer a vampire and Willow and Xander were once again in their street clothes.

As they all look at each other they hear Billy's machines start pinging and they turn to see that Billy was finally waking up.

"Hey, he's waking up," Xander said.

"I had the strangest dream," Billy said, "and you were in it, and you and you ... who are you people?"

Giles smiled. "Best get a doctor," he said as he moved toward the door. He is greeted by Billy's Kiddie League Coach.

"Oh, Billy's got company. I'm his Kiddie League coach. I come by every day, just hoping against hope he might wake up... He's my lucky nineteen. How is he?" the coach said.

Everyone realized that the coach was what Billy had been hiding from. And the nightmare Ugly Man was meant to represent him.

"Awake ..." Paige said as she moved aside so the coach could see Billy.

"What?" the coach said somewhat thrown by the fact. He looked at the bed where Billy was now siting up, staring at him.

"You blamed him for losing the game. So you caught up with him afterwards," Buffy said.

"What are you talkin' about?" the coach asked.

"You said it was my fault we lost –" Billy said as the coach bolted for the door. Xander and Giles grabbed him before he could make a run for it, "— wasn't my fault, there's eight other players on the team, you know?"

Buffy looked to Billy and smiled. "Nice goin'."

0 – 0 – 0 – 0 – 0

Later that day Dawn, Paige, Xander, Willow and Buffy move away from the main building as school let out.

"Hard to believe a Kiddie League Coach would do something like that," Buffy said with a sigh.

"Not if you played Kiddie League," Xander told her. "I'm surprised it wasn't one of the Parents."

"I'm just glad he's behind bars where he belongs," Willow said.

Dawn smiled at Xander. "That was kinda heroic, Xander, grabbing him and all."

"Hey, I just did what anybody would have ... if people want to label it heroic –"

Dawn noticed Hank approaching and nudged Buffy who nodded. "Have a killer weekend, guys," she said as she and Buffy ran over to Hank who embraced them. "Hi sweethearts," he said. "I'm got about a million things planned for us this weekend. It's going to mean spending a lot of quality time and money together."

"Before we do that," Buffy said as the three of them stopped and Hank looked at her. "There is something I need to tell you. Everyone said we should wait till after I turned eighteen, so you wouldn't cut off my child support payments for mom. But you have a right to know, I'm not your daughter."

Hank let out a sigh as he looked at Buffy and Dawn. "I know. I kind of guessed it when you were little, you don't really share any of my features. But it was last year when you had burned down the gym to kill those vampires when I finally found out for sure."

"You know Buffy was telling the truth about the vampires," Dawn said shocked.

"I didn't know when I had you committed, Buffy," he looked at his eldest daughter, "during the week you were in there I got a visit from Leo Wyatt, he told me he was your birth father. That neither you nor your mother knew that fact to protect the both of you, that his bosses had a strict rule about a Whitelighter and their Charge being in a relationship let alone having a child together. Showed me what he was and explained to me that what you had said was true. I rushed back to the institution immediately after he left, but by that time you had already recanted your story about fighting vampires."

"So?" Buffy wondered.

"You may not be my daughter, biologically, Buffy," Hank said. "But you are my daughter; I raised you, cared for you. Nothing will ever take that away."

Buffy smiled as both she and Dawn hugged Hank.