Part 3

Buffy was beginning to feel ill, although she suspected that the feeling was all in her mind. As well, she did not seem to have a body in this strange dream world. Nevertheless, she was feeling distinctly ill, with the universe rushing past her in bright streaks of dreams. She wished desperately for a moment that Willow were there to help her with this strange universe. Her Wiccan friend would no doubt know all about this dimension she had ended up in and would be able to help her. The feeling of nausea returned twice as strong when her motion stopped completely.
"How did I...?" Buffy wondered aloud, not letting herself contemplate if she was really speaking with no mouth or hearing her voice with no real ears to hear. Stopping her disturbing train of thought, Buffy glanced around to get her bearings.
Nothing had changed, to the Slayer's eyes. The universe was still black as pitch and filled with the writhing stars Buffy had concluded were dreams. One of the dreams piqued her interest, and she willed herself closer for a better look.
The star was exactly the shape of the rest, about the size of a basketball, as far as Buffy could reason. It glowed warmly, swirling shades of red pulsing like a heartbeat. But something was wrong with it. Occasional greasy-looking flecks of black would swirl with the red, coming out of the depths of the dream to reveal themselves to Buffy's eyes. The black spots seemed foreign on the dream, something unnatural and ominous. The red star did not draw Buffy as had the dreams of Spike and Dawn, but the Slayer still felt a connection with the diseased star. It seemed familiar to her somehow and the oily black floating in it worried her greatly.
"Buffy?" The whisper came from behind her as the star popped like a bubble and disappeared. Before emotion could register, she spun to answer the voice.
"W-Willow?" Buffy stuttered, barely recognizing the form before her. The figure was shadowy, as though she wasn't really in the realm. Her form looked like Willow, except for a few disturbing differences. Her hair was a brighter red that the witch would ever color it and her skin was a bloodless white. It was her eyes that most disturbed Buffy. They were completely black, cold and lifeless.
"Oh, my God!" Willow's voice echoed as though she was speaking from a tunnel. Her face did not move and Buffy willed herself to float slowly backward from the disturbing countenance of her friend. "It really is you, isn't it?" Willow babbled, seemingly oblivious of Buffy's unease.
"Yeah, I'm really me." Buffy answered, trying to sound as cheerful as Willow. She was unsure if it really was Willow before her and was desperately afraid that it wasn't.
"I can't believe I finally found you. We've been searching for weeks. You can finally come back now! Won't that be great?!-" Willow babbled on enough that Buffy became convinced that it was really her friend talking to her. A strong sense of relief washed through her.
"Will?" Buffy attempted to stop Willow from running off at the mouth. Her first attempt had no luck.
"-and it was so amazing! I just thought that you might not be really dead because of all the worlds you must have passed through so Giles had you put on life-support and we researched for weeks and weeks and finally I figured it out because I heard Spike and Dawn talking about some super-realistic dreams they kept having about you. Then I kinda talked to Anya about dream worlds and she told me about this place and I cast this spell to sense your presence if you ever came near my dream and here you are and it worked!"
"I'm dead?" Buffy felt nauseous again. Her head spun and she found it difficult to register anything beyond a thundering sound in her non-existent ears.
"No!" Willow exclaimed, realizing that she had talked too much again. "No, you're just temporarily separated from your body. We'll get you back."
A large, oily black spot oozed from behind Willow and floated leisurely slid from her shoulder down her chest. Willow didn't seem to notice it.
"Will?" Buffy whispered, feeling very much like she had when Glory took Dawn.
"It'll be ok, Buffy." Willow's voice contained a smile, but her body was still expressionless, and now oozed with a few more black spots. "I have to go now, but I can find you here again. Don't enter anyone's dreams! They can be dangerous." Her voice and form faded slowly, oozing with more and more of the greasy black stuff. "We'll get you back!" Willow called in a voice echoing from oblivion. Covered completely in black, she faded into the atmosphere and disappeared.
Buffy barely noticed the return of the red star as she tried to digest all the information Willow had imparted. She idly watched the warm glow or the red star, wondering if it was Willow's spell or if it was truly the dream of her friend. Buffy hoped that Willow was ok as she watched the red star ooze with the same black stuff that had crawled over Willow.
"And then there was one." Buffy commented to herself in a frightened voice as Willow's red star was covered completely in black.