Part 2

There was no way to tell if time passed in the starry void. Buffy had managed to calm herself somewhat after being flung unceremoniously from Spike's dream. She wondered idly how he had managed to control her actions like that. Buffy was torn on the issue, but she still felt rage that Spike had somehow controlled her enough that she had been about to blurt out a love for him that didn't quite exist. Floating in a sea of stars tends to give you lots of time to think.
Without warning, Buffy felt another magnetic presence. She looked around the stars, searching for the dull gray star that was somehow Spike. It had disappeared when she left it. The magnetic pull grew stronger and Buffy was amazed to see the stars begin to move. Or was she moving? Blurs of light streaked past her in every color imaginable. Just as the beauty of it registered in her still-fogged mind, the light stopped moving. Floating in the black void before her was a star larger than all the rest. It was a bright green swirling shimmer, pulsing with untold energies. Buffy felt pulled towards the green star as she had felt pulled to what she had come to think of as Spike's star. Suddenly, it all made sense. Buffy plunged happily toward the green energies before her with a smile she reserved only for her sister.

*****

"Dawn?" Buffy called out as she strolled into her house. It felt wonderful to be home, but where was her sister?
"Upstairs!" Dawn's reply floated eerily down the stairs. She sounded muffled, as though wrapped in cotton balls. Buffy smiled happily; she was going to see her sister! Bounding up the stairs, Buffy rounded a corner and walked straight into a Hollywood movie set.
"Buffy, baby, you're late." Dawn's voice floated down from overhead. Buffy looked up to see her sister lounging in a director's chair labeled "The Key" in large letters. The chair was on a platform high enough to see all the action.
"Action?" Buffy murmured to herself wondering where the stray thought had come from. She was late. She still had to get into costume.
"Hey, sweetheart, I say that word."
"Yes, Dawn." Buffy mumbled as she fled towards the set, dressed as she had been on the night she had gone to fight... "Glory?" Buffy asked herself again as she climbed to the top of the tall tower on set, wondering why she was having such a hard time remembering. "Remembering what? I have a picture to make." Shaking all odd thoughts from her head, Buffy finished her ascent and stood on the platform, waiting for her co-star.
"Took you long enough." Spike complained as he too ascended to the top of the tower.
"Spike?" Buffy asked, thoroughly confused. The script didn't call for him to be here today. "What are you doing here?"
"Re-write, love." Spike explained. "I'm supposed to save you now."
"READY?" Dawn's voice boomed around them from strategically positioned speakers. "ACTION!"
Buffy ran towards the end of the platform, feeling a distinct sense of deja vous. Just as she was about to fling herself from the edge of the platform, Spike grabbed her from behind and dragged her away.
"I told you, we won't let you die again!" He cried out over the fake wind that suddenly arose to dramatically whip her hair around her face.
"GOOD, GOOD! KEEP IT UP!" Dawn's disembodied voice floated around the couple.
"But how do we close the portal?" The words marched out of Buffy's mouth and she blinked in surprise. That wasn't what she had wanted to say.
"Like this," Spike held her tightly and his mouth descended towards hers.
"But..." Buffy protested. This wasn't how it should go.
"Relax, love. This is a movie. Dawn'll add the CGI later and everything will work out fine." Spike explained, quieting any further protest with a deep kiss. Buffy sighed into Spike's mouth and returned the kiss with equal fervor, all thoughts of how and why again fleeing from her mind.
"BRAVO!!" Dawn's voice screamed into the suddenly quiet studio.
"See? This is how it should be." Dawn explained from her new position on the couch in the living room.
"What?" Buffy broke her kiss from Spike and looked around, amazed at what she saw. She was curled up on Spike's lap in the comfy chair of her living room. Dawn was sprawled out on the couch.
"This is how it should be." Spike repeated, drawing Buffy towards him for another kiss. She complied.
"See, Buffy," Dawn lectured, hopping up from the couch to pace in front of the kissing couple. "You weren't supposed to die. I was. And now things are really crazy. Spike and I are both really messed up. We miss you so much. You should be here."
"I am here, Dawnie." Buffy managed to break away from Spike long enough to comfort her sister. Dawn did not stop her pacing, but she smiled gratefully.
"No, you're not really." Dawn's smile fell from her face. "You're dead."
"Dead?" Buffy asked, struggling to stand. Spike held her tight and she couldn't get enough leverage to push herself from his lap.
"...as a doornail." Spike commented.
"And who said you'd never seen Interview?" Dawn questioned Spike in a teasing voice. They smiled at each other before returning concentration to the distraught Slayer.
"D-dead?" Buffy stuttered, "But... I'm right here. We're right here! How can I be dead?"
"I'm dreaming." Dawn explained simply.
"I've heard that before." Buffy commented, vague memories of another, more intimate dream flitting through her head. This was almost making sense. If only...
BZZZ! BZZZ! BZZZ!

*****

Blinking in confusion at the mass of stars floating before her, not a one of them gray or swirling green, Buffy wondered to herself what the hell was going on. She wondered if it was specifically Spike and Dawn whose dreams she had been able to enter, or if she could choose a random star and peek into the dreams of a total stranger. Feeling no magnetic pull towards any other of the magnificent orbs pulsing around her, Buffy tried to move through the starry expanse.
Nothing happened.
She could neither walk, fly nor swim. Floating in the starry void, she wondered how she had traveled before when she had felt the pull of first Spike and then her sister. Finally giving up on trying to feel magnetic, Buffy scrunched up her eyes and wished to move very hard. It was worth a try.
Her eyes flew open as the world lurched and stars flew past eyes attached to a brain finally coherent enough to understand the beauty of it.