Chapter 3
What's In a Dream
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By. Diana Zhou
Author's note: I want to say thank you to Angela who bravely volunteered
to beta this story. I also want to clear up any confusion with the
timeline of the story. This story in the Buffy universe takes place
soon after the summer of season one. Though Buffy and Angel are attracted
to each other, then have not acted too much on those feelings. There
fore Buffy was still unaware of Angle's vampirism. Buffy haven't
celebrated her birthday yet, so she is still 15. This can be considered
an alternate universe story. I'll try to keep it as close to original
plot and time as close as possible but the changes in character personalities
and behavior might very well occur.
-----------------------------
'The morning after patrol, how much more excitement does a girl need.' Buff thought grimly. As Buffy retrieve the necessary books for her morning classes from her locker, she contemplates last nights nightmares. She had dreamt nightmares all night long. It hadn't been enough that she had been late to the Bronz - her sleep had to be troubled too.
The dreams were just a kaleidoscope of images. The nightmares had the sense of 'Prophetic Slayer Dream' stamped all over them. Unfortunately, Buffy couldn't remember much of them. The few images she did remember did not make any sense. A vampire standing in sunlight but not burning to ashes - that one Buffy had attributed to stress. A majestic city where a sleeping blue dragon lay - that one she attributed to too many Chinese Kong-fu movies with Xander. And finally, a blond haired man with cold blue eye and weird symbol on his forehead. Weird as the guy was, Buffy couldn't help but to think 'what a hotty!' She knows, on a subconscious level, that all the dreams are related to the news Angel brought last night. But her consciousness rejected that idea in favor of stress induced nightmares. Of course, being plagued with nightmares was not the end to her troubles. Because of the nightmares, Buffy slept right through her alarm clock causing her to be late for school.
Buffy woke from her thoughts when her best buds Willow and Xander walked up beside her. She smiled at them and temporarily forgot about Angel, the dreams, and the usual worries of being the Slayer - lack of boyfriend, soon to be apocalypse, lack of smooches...
At the end of the too long school day, the Scooby Gang congregated at the school library as dictated by habit. During the day, Buffy was able to blissfully forget about the 'abnormal' problems in her life and concentrate on the 'normal' problems of being a teenager: teachers, tests, Snider, etc. But upon entering the school library, all of her worries and apprehensions returns with a vengeance. Buffy was not looking forward to the recap with Giles. The warning would only send him over the edge with "sacred duty" kick. Not only would the coming problem be bad for the health of the world, it's also a killer to a girl's social life. . . not that her social life was all that lively. But after this, it was going to be more active at the cemetery. 'Oh well,' Buffy thought despairingly 'duty calls. As much as it sucked, a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.'
As expected, Giles immediately insisted on more patrol time, more training, and the ever popular research party. 'Oh joy. It was going to be a long couple of days.'
***
"You know, you guys don't have to come with me." Buffy said to Willow and Xander as they made their way to the patrol ground. " Not that I'm not happy that you guys are here, it's just you probably have better things to do than boogy with the undead."
"Yeah, research parties with Giles have so much appeal." Xander replied. Willow also voiced her ulterior motive for tagging along "Besides, I want to hear all about your meeting with tall, dark, and very sexy last night. Was there lots of smooching? At least there was hand holding, right?"
"Sorry Will. It's still no go. Right at this moment, Angel is still tall, dark, very sexy and very out dated. He quoted Star Wars to me last night." Buffy replied gloomily.
"Poor Buffy." Willow sympathized with her friend. She understood the feelings Buffy was having. Because, like Buffy, the crush of her life, Xander, was not responding to anything short of a beating to the head. Willow was just too soft hearted to do that.
Xander, feeling left out, voiced again his dislike and mistrust of Angel. As the friends quietly bantered on, they failed at first to notice the presence of another being in the near by area. But within minutes, the Slayer senses tingled and Buffy became aware of a non-human presence within the park. She hurriedly hushed Willow and Xander as she listened carefully to the sounds of the night for anything out of ordinary. Her vigilance was soon awarded with the sound of soft footsteps padding on wet grass.
Quicker than a dumb joke, Buffy raced toward the sound with a stake in hand and her friends trying their best to keep up.
***
Back in the Sunnydale High School Library, Rupert Giles, Watcher and Librarian, was busy researching the vampire known as Shadow Snake. So far, his research had turned up nothing. A big fat zero. At times like this, all he wanted was a nice cup of tea. But he had to settle for the American version of coffee. Horrible abomination.
He couldn't understand why. He has looked through the Cones, various watcher journals and multitudes of European reference books. "Maybe he kept quite enough in his undead life to escape notice." Giles thought wistfully, "or maybe I'm just searching in the wrong area." with that thought in mind, he hurried into the East Asia section of the library.
***
"Come back here and fight like a man, you coward!" A very angry slayer shouted towards the back of the fleeing vampire as she gave chase.
"No way, you blond bimbo. I have more important things to do than kick your ass right now." The vampire shouted back to the now seething and infuriated Slayer.
Indeed, the vampire had plans to take over the world. Well, two worlds, actually. He couldn't be bothered with one little Slayer. As he ran from the petite blond, he also noticed the heartbeats of two others following close behind.
'Oh, great.' he though to himself. 'Here comes the dreaded Scooby Gang.' anybody who knew anybody in the demon world knew of them. They also knew that they were more often annoying than threatening. But strange as it turned out, their distractions provided just enough of an advantage for the Slayer to over come each of her enemies.
This particular Slayer was also famous in the demonic world for being unconventional. She had friends, family, and a life outside of slaying. Maybe she wasn't such a boring bitch after all. She even had friends who cared enough to help with her sacred duties. Sheesh, what did a vampire has to do to take over the world anymore? In the time it had taken the vampire to complete those thoughts, the Slayer had become uncomfortably close.
'Desperate times called for desperate measures.' With that quote in mind, he took out a thin foreign book. As he opened the book, Buffy, Xander, and Willow all arrived at the clearing. When he chanted out loud in a strange language, both Buffy and Xander simultaneously reached for him. He quickly finished his chant and a black aura appeared around him. Just as suddenly, a bright blue light enveloped Buffy. Seeing his friend and crush was in danger, Xander reached out his other hand toward Buffy as the two auras clashed in an explosion of cosmic forces. Buffy, Xander and the unnamed vampire all disappeared. When the aftershock of the explosion wore off, only an unconscious Willow and a lately arrived, bewildered Angle were left in the clearing.
***
Buffy woke up to the disoriented feeling that she was not in Kansas, no, Sunnydale anymore. She turned her head to find Xander lying on the ground next to her face in the dirt. His blue striped polo shirt was all rumpled from the strange encounter. Much of how Xander and she had gotten to wherever they were was a blur. Blinding blue lights and flashes of red. The emptiness of space and vastness of eternity. Those were the impressions Buffy received from that unplanned trip. From the little she could remember of their trip to the Twilight Zone, Buffy knew that she was afraid. Afraid for Xander. Afraid for herself. Afraid for the world.
During the firework show at the park with the vampire, Buffy felt the cold aura of the vampire when his spell flared to life. The pain of his aura became torturous when she became trapped within the spell. When the pain became unbearable she reached for the closest source of comfort. Apparently, that source of comfort had been Xander. And obviously, because of Buffy, Xander got dragged along for the unplanned vacation. As Buffy looked around her, she noticed it's already morning and there were definitely too many maple trees for them to be in California anymore. Also, apparently the vampire had been transported to a different place than she and Xander - either that or he got dusted. But since there were no piles of ash on the ground, the safer conclusion was that he landed in a different area.
'I guess it's too much to hope that he lands on a large stake. Humm... I wonder if it's safe to say that was Snake What's-his-name?' Buffy mused. 'He needs better lines and a whole new wardrobe.'
As Buffy looked closely at her surroundings, she noticed that Xander and she had landed in a farming community. The houses looked to be a few centuries out of date. The people were dressed in, what Buffy imagined to be, stone age fashion. The patched knee was way 80s. Before the ex-prom queen in Buffy could awaken further, Xander groaned and tried to raise his face above dirt level. After several tries, gravity finally let go of Xander's face and allowed him to remove it from the dirt road. On the third attempt, Xander was able to lever his body into a sitting position.
"Are you okay Xander?" Buffy asks worriedly.
"Yeah, just tell the trees to stop spinning and I'll be fine." Xander replied with a groan and an attempt to shake his mind clear, reminding him, yet again, that it only works in the movies and with dogs. Laughing quietly at his terrible joke, Buffy walked over to her friend and helped him off the ground.
"Where are we?" Xander asked as he looks at the surrounding area.
"I don't know. But we are definitely not in Sunnydale anymore. Shadow Snake probably created that spell to escape. I think when we grabbed onto him we got dragged into it too." Buffy answered.
"Okay, but I'm assuming he's dead now, right? While I'm lying defenseless on the ground, you kicked his Oriental ass all the way across the International Date Line, right?" Xander asked anxiously. But as he looked around him, he noticed a distinct lack of vampire ash on the ground. Plenty of dirt on the road, but no ashes.
"Sorry to disappoint you, Xander, but I think he is still alive. Do you remember what happened when that light appeared? I let go of the vamp when we started to fall. I remember grabbing on to you, though. Maybe that's why we ended up at the same place and the vamp landed somewhere else."
After a moment of consideration, Xander replied "I hope he lands on a sharp stick. Wait. . . we have to find him and make him take us home first before you dust him." Xander started to get hysterical.
"Xander, calm down! We will find a way to get back. He can't be far from here. Let's head into the city and take a look around."
"What city?" Xander asked as he looked around. "Oh, that city." He breathed when he spotted the enormous city.
It was a quite a sight to see. The city wall were made of red bricks and lined with sky blue tiles. The entrance to the city was guarded by an enormous bronze double door. From the view on the hill, Xander could see a city within the city. The Inner city was even more breathtaking than the city that surrounded it. The enormous statues inside that city could be seen clearly even from the hill. In the very center, the biggest building rose above all others on a pedestal of grand staircases leading up to the entrance facing their direction. In a word, the city was magnificent.
"Yeah, now if you are done gaping, can we go?" Buffy asked impatiently.
"Umm, oh..." for a lack of better expression, Xander finally gave up trying to sound intelligent and nodded his head in agreement.
***
They passed through the gates with no more than a spare glance from the guards for their strange clothing and the blond color of Buffy's hair. Though they didn't want any trouble, they expected it from the city guards when they realize Buffy and Xander were foreigners. But trouble did not find them until they were well inside the city. In a quiet back ally, a gang of thugs cornered Buffy and Xander.
"Hey little lady, wanna show us a good time?" the leader, Buffy assumed, leered down at her across the tip of his nose. The men behind him gave the moron the courage to withstand the glare of daggers Buffy was sending his way. Obviously they thought that because their prey was out numbered with a ratio of three to one, this was going to be easy pickings. They seemed more weary of Xander than of Buffy. Buffy was not even considered a threat by the 'macho' men because she was a girl.
"Sorry, as a rule I don't hang with losers. You guys just aren't my type." Buffy replied flippantly.
"Ummm Buffy, I don't think antagonizing them is such a good idea. I mean there are six of them only two of us. They have weapons, and, did I mention we are out-numbered?" Xander observed nervously.
"That's right sweet cheeks. Come along quietly and we'll show you a good time. Who knows, you might even enjoy it." The leader bellowed.
At that point, Buffy was just too cranky to care anymore about hitting 'normal' humans. They have been searching for hours already and they still did not have any clue as to where the vamp could be, where they were, or how they were able to understand the language. And, on top of all the trouble with the thugs, they were now hungry. It had been almost 12 hours since Buffy's last meal and half an hour since Xander's last candy bar.
"Sorry guys. I'm just not in the mood to deal with you losers." Buffy replied tiredly.
The boss' face contorted into a mask of fury. "What you don't get little girl, is that you have NO choice. Get'em!"
***(30 seconds later)***
Four of the thugs were lying on the ground with broken nose or aching muscles. The rest of the thugs were huddling against each other hoping their ball of flesh would keep them safe. The leader had been the first of the group to go down after Buffy had landed a punch to his nose. The rest had followed like flies.
As Buffy advanced towards the men for Round Two of 'stress relief,' a new voice suddenly boomed "Halt!"
The figure that the voice belonged to closed the distance between himself and the pile of unconscious men. From Buffy's vantage point, his light blond hair could be seen before any other characteristics could be distinguished. The man was tall, not as tall as Angel but tall enough to tower over Buffy. He was wearing armor with blue dragons etched into the plates and helmet and spikes protruding from the shoulder plate. His piercing blue eyes made a sweep of the scene in front of him as he sat calmly on top of his horse. The trio of guards behind him were standing ready for danger or any order the man might issue. When his eyes made contact with Buffy's, he paused for a brief moment as if in recognition.
"What happened, my lady?" He asked Buffy when his finally spoke again.
Buffy defiantly looked straight into the man's eyes and demands "Who the hell are you and why should I tell you?"
"I am the general of Kotou. First of your seshi miko-sama. I am called Nakago."
End Chapter 3
