Sweet Dreams
Chapter Three: Real

"Let's just say… I'm a friend."
"Yeah, well, maybe I don't want a friend."
"I didn't say I was yours."

"I love you. I try not to, but I can't stop."
"Me - me, too. I can't either."

"…Was I not good?"
"You were great. Really. I thought you were a pro."

"I love you."
"Close your eyes."

"I'm trying to do what's right here, ok? I'm trying to think with my head instead of my heart."
"Heart? You have a heart? It isn't even beating!"
"Don't."
"Don't what? Don't love you? I'm sorry. You know what? I didn't know I got a choice in that. I'm never gonna change. I can't change. I want my life to be with you."
"I don't."
"You don't want to be with me? I can't believe you're breaking up with me."

"I think horrible is still coming. Right now, it's worse. Right now, I'm just trying to keep from dying."

"Shit!" Vicky screamed as she sat up in bed, grabbed her alarm clock and through it at the wall. She twisted her fingers into her hair and rested her forehead against her knees, as Alicia looked at her, eyes bleary with sleep.

"Jeez, girl," she muttered, "you're getting your uptight self all wound up."

"Shut up!" Vicky snapped as she jumped out of bed.

Alicia shrugged and rolled over, soon her soft snoring filled the room. Vicky paced the space at the foot of the bed. She couldn't take anymore. A whole night of "The Greatest Love Story Ever Told," Vicky thought, fantastic. She rubbed her bare arms, trying to push the feelings way. Feelings of love, disappointment and pain.

"Always with the pain," she muttered.

She glanced at the shattered remains of her clock and sighed as she gathered them together. The sunlight had only just started to filter through the curtains and her roommate's snoring grew. With another sigh, Vicky decided to get dressed and go shopping.

Willow frowned at the Buffybot who carried on grinning at her.

"Where's Dawn?" it asked brightly. "She's my sister!"

"Yeah, well, she's at home. Uh, why were you so late getting back last night?"

"I'm the Slayer," the 'bot informed her. "I have to kill evil and save the world."

"And that's what you were doing?"

"Yep!"

"Can you clear her out?" Anya asked, as she swept past them with a broom.

"Sure, I'll get her home."

Willow stood up and began to usher the 'bot toward the door.

"Willow?"

She paused and turned around, waiting for Anya to continue. It was obviously about something major because she hesitated and came over to Willow, glancing back nervously.

"I think I've found the urn," she whispered.

Willow's heart leapt. She had been dwelling on those preparation spells ever since Tara brought them up, but now, with the urn within reach - which meant that Buffy was almost home - they faded into insignificance.

Buffy was going to be all right.

They were all going to be all right.

"Ok," Willow nodded. "You can get it soon?"

"Yeah, it's on its way, it might be a couple of weeks."

"That's ok," Willow grinned, her first real grin since she lost her best friend.

Anya just smiled. Just because the rest of them thought she hadn't been that affected, it didn't mean she didn't miss Buffy. She had that weird feeling she had had when Joyce died; only it was worse. She was glad Buffy would be back. She knew it was wrong, messing with life and death like they were going to, but if someone like Tara was going along with it, it was ok, right?

Willow paused at the door and glanced back at Anya.

"Anya?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you," Willow looked her in the eye, her voice totally sincere.

Vicky tossed the empty paper cup into the trashcan. She looked at the row of shops, trying to decide which she would hit first. Saturday shopping was just what she needed to make herself feel -

"No," she murmured when her eyes froze on one shop in particular.

The Magic Box.

This is so not happening. Her feet carried her forward without her even realising she was moving. She pushed through the door and walked calmly through the shop. It was all so familiar.

The bell over the door.

The step down into the main shop.

The table.

The counter with - oh God, Rupert Giles.

"Hey, Giles…?"

Vicky looked to her left and saw a petite redhead get up and approach him, only briefly looking up from the book she held.

Vicky turned sharply and stared intently at the books. She felt the panic rise like bile in her throat. This wasn't real, how could it be? Dreams were not real. Dreams were the products of overactive imaginations and she knew she had one of those. They just could not be real. If this was real - the shop, the people - if this was real, then it all was. The vampires, the demons, the White Hats and Black Hats. If this was real, then the death was, and the pain. That would mean that a young girl had sacrificed herself to save the world. To save a world where no one knew, where no one would ever know.

If this was real, then it could stop.

She turned sharply and strode towards the counter. She knew she didn't look like the average girl of twenty-one. Her light blonde hair was elegantly cut and layered, hanging perfectly to frame her heart shaped faced. Her make-up was sophisticated, the green of her eyes carefully accentuated through years of practice. She wore casual jeans with a white blouse and a knee length black jacket, tailored around the waist. Her boots had high heels and the toes were pointed almost painfully. She had long ago been taught that to look like a lady, you had to endure a few hardships. She scoffed at that now; she had never known the meaning of the word.

"Rupert Giles," she began, her voice authoritative, her accent ringing.

Giles glanced up, frowning at her as though trying to place her.

"I'm sorry," he said. "Do I know you?"

"No," she said and pulled her wallet from her black leather bag. With slightly shaking fingers, she removed a wad of notes and slid them across the glass counter towards him. Her voice was low now, shaking slightly. "Make it stop. I don't care how much it costs, just make it stop. I can't take it anymore."

"I'm not quite with you," Giles answered. "If you could just explain…"

In exasperation, Vicky turned to a confused Willow.

"Willow," she said, the pleading evident in her voice. "You can make it stop, you're a witch. Please make it stop, just make it stop!"

"Make what stop?" Willow asked, taking Vicky's hands in an effort to calm her down.

"The - " the bell over the door rang and there was a vague buzzing and sparking as the Buffybot walked in.

"Willow," she said. "I tried to make toast," her head twitched to the side. "I missed with the knife."

Vicky's eyes widened as she stared at the Buffybot who had sat down at the table and was waiting patiently with a bright smile on her face.

"But you're…" Vicky started before dropping to the floor in a dead faint.

"And she knew who you were?" Xander asked, eyeing the blonde they were crowded around.

"Well, yes," Giles said. "She seemed to."

"Weird," Dawn offered.

Anya glanced at the window at the front of the shop then down at the girl on the floor.

"She'd better wake up soon," she stated irritably. "I can't keep the shop closed forever."

"Oh, Heaven forbid," Giles muttered.

There was a groan and the blonde put her hand to her head. Her eyes fluttered open and travelled around the group. All of the faces were familiar. Giles, Willow, Xander, Anya, Dawn. Dawn, she thought, remembering the look of horror on her face when she realised what her sister was going to do.

She struggled up, Xander's hand instinctively reaching out to help her. She stood; swaying slightly and the situation crashed down on her like a ton of bricks.

"I have uh… I have to go," she stuttered and backed out of the centre of the group and ran across the shop.

They looked on as she unlocked the door and fled out onto the sunlit street.

"Was it something we said?" Xander called, knowing full well she couldn't hear her.

"Willow," Giles started, his gaze fixed on the path the girl had taken. "Do you think you could track her down?"

"Sure," Willow agreed.