Sweet Dreams
Chapter One: Sacrifice

The realisation was calm, the thought not frightening in the least. The love she felt for the young brunette was complete. As she glanced at the portal, the brunette realised and terror bloomed in her eyes as she shook her head vehemently.

"Buffy… No!" she cried.

"Dawnie, I have to."

"No!"

"Listen to me. Please, there's not a lot of time, listen…"

And the words were sweet, loving, the sort of things your dying words should be. But it was not the words that mattered; it was the feeling that could not be expressed in words alone.

"… I will always love you. But this is the work I have to do…"

If one thing in the world could have stopped her, it would have been her sister's face as she said the words. But as long as she did this, that expression would fade in time and her sister could live happily, knowing her sister loved her. She wasn't scared, there was an anticipation about it. But loss underlined it, knowing she would never see her friends again.

"… You have to take care of them…"

There would be no jokes, no tears, no research parties, no nights at the Bronze. There would be no Willow and Xander, the best friends she'd ever had. There would be no Anya, irritating yet somehow loveable. There would be no Tara, sweet and gentle. No Giles, the man she looked upon as her father, the man that looked after her and helped her. No Spike to dislike and half-heartedly pretend to hate, to look at her so lovingly, for her to try to figure out.

And there would be no Dawn, no beautiful, annoying, stop-touching-my-things! Dawn

And she would miss them so much.

"… You have to be strong. Be brave. Live… for me."

And then she ran. She left the world of love and hardship behind. And she met the portal, the energy tearing at her, yet she knew she was saving her friends the only way she knew how. And this was her job.

She never saw Tara hold Willow upright as she buckled under the guilt that she wasn't strong enough to do something, that she never got to say goodbye.

She never saw Anya's head fall back on Xander or his hand tighten around her as he stared at his friend's body. She never saw Anya kiss his neck gently in reassurance.

She never saw Giles's face crease in the moment of realising his Slayer, his adopted daughter was gone.

She never saw her sister - sobbing and clutching her bleeding sides - coax the broken-hearted and physically crushed vampire away from the sunlight, knowing the only way she was going to live was by doing this and not looking at the body of the fallen hero she had known only as Buffy, her sister.

Buffy Summers; Slayer, Friend, Lover, Hero. She saw none of it.

Vicky Noble; student, virgin, loner. She saw it all and awoke with a wild gasp.