***

The door to Giles House burst open and Spike came barreling through. The others sprang from various positions of rest.

"Is it the sun?" Xander shouted

"Are you hurt?" Willow asked worriedly.

"These two are heavy." Spike shouted as he tossed his heavy burden on the recently vacated coach. Buffy and Sonja remained unconscious.

Xander went to the fireplace and retrieved an axe. Thusly armed he moved in the direction of Sonja.

"What do you think you're playing at Harris." Spike grabbed the ax away from him tossing it onto the dining room table the loud bang-brought Giles from the Kitchen.

"I thought I might save Buffy, Which usually seems like a good idea when she is in danger."

"You can't kill Sonja, not when she is like this."

"Why not?"

"Spike's right." Willow nodded "In this state both of their sprits are absent from their bodies if something happens to Sonja she might try to take over Buffy's body."

"The Slayer may know her fighting skills in the real world but I don't think she's ever fought anywhere like the Place between Worlds. The rules that apply here are nothing in that realm."

"You've fought there before."

"Well not exactly fought…more like ah…shagging actually. Dru and me used to … while we where doing it in the real world. It was like…

"It was something we don't need to know about. You don't hear me going on and on about how great the sex is with Anya."

"No, he doesn't have to. I am more then willing to brag about his great skills and his big…"

"Anya!"

"…I was going to say your big loving heart"

"Thank you!"

"Although your thick pen…"

Giles interrupted. "Yes well, even though I would love to hear where this I going, could we attend to the matter at hand?"

Willow nodded "Tara and I have been reading and it is possible to …hmm I am not sure how to say this, piggy-back into whatever dream reality Sonja and Buffy are fighting in."

"How do we know that Buffy is still alive in there?" Xander said worriedly.

"If she has survived this long there is every reason to think that she will still be alive when we get her out." Anya said honestly.

"Aren't we kind of taking a big risk, I mean this is the Blue Woman. Wasn't Spike running scared for his life from this girl not too long ago." Tara pointed out

"Back then she was the most dangerous person in Sunnydale. If Giles is right and Antonio is doing major voodoo in town then Sonja will need our help stopping him. I can guarantee she may be the only hope The Slayer has of betting him."

"How would this work?" Xander Asked.

"Well I would send my spirit in the dreamscape find them break them up and guide their minds back to the waking world." Willow watched for the explosion on Xander's face. She was not disappointed.

"This getting too dangerous; Willis are you nuts?" Xander was so far past being objective he couldn't remember what it looked like when he'd passed it.

"Xander I can do this, more important I have to do this, if we don't do anything Buffy could die"

"She might beat Sonja."

"Yes she might, and when she gets back to the real world the most powerful potential ally in all of this could be lying at our feet. If I pull this off, both of them will be alive."

***

The hallways were familiar, but the clothing she was wearing was not. It was Sunnydale High much as she remembered it (before it had become a smoking crater). She was wearing Jeans, a Circle Jerks T-shirt, and a leather jacket. She had to admit that as camouflage it was perfect. This ensemble was standard for the rebel. In the fifties, the sixties, Hell even in this glorious Year of Our Lord 2000 you still did not look too out of place with a T-shirt, a leather jacket and a pair of jeans.

"I know where this is going." she muttered to herself. She headed down the hallway. If she remembered, the Library was on the other side of the gym. She could cut through there. Buffy strode through the gym doors and found it empty save for a lone cheerleader stretching on the floor she walked toward her then stopped.

She had been wearing James Dean-like garb now she was clothed in the yellow of the Sunnydale cheer squad.

She moved across the gym floor and approached the girl. "Sonja?"

"Actually, I'm Denise, All that's left of the girl that became Sonja."

"Buffy…"

"The Vampire Slayer yes, I have been watching. You seem nice."

"I have to say this is not what I expected at all."

You are not what I expected. Destiny called and you answered. No hesitation or looking back. It is not like me. I was forced into this life."

"I saw, You have nothing to be ashamed about, you survived where a lot of others wouldn't have. Even my friend Angel gave in to the darkness eventually. By the way, you're wrong about not looking back. I have looked back many times. More times then I care to remember. It's my friends who make this life and the burden that comes with it, easier to bare."

"I'll try to explain to your friends that it wasn't personal."

"What do you mean, I thought we understood each other?"

"Like the song says Buffy, no here gets out alive Just because you and I have connected doesn't mean anything to My Darker half "

"Sonja?"

"Sonja is not a problem she's more like me then she likes to admit. Or maybe She is what I would have become without the silver spoon in my mouth, I don't know."

"The Other"

"There is no compromise with something that treats everything it can't eat or dominate as something it has to kill."

"I can beat it. Get us both out of here."

The girl looked at Buffy and shook her head violently. Buffy thought she was just disagreeing. Then she stopped, her hair had changed and her eyes were now mirrored spheres.

"Buffy, I have been fighting the other for over thirty years and I haven't beat it how are you supposed to do it."

"She's not!"

The doors to the gym exploded inward. Buffy and Denise/Sonja, thrown to the floor, marveled at what they saw. Standing in what used to be the doorway to the gym was a creature. The arms were long, almost simian in appearance. Its hair was tangled and tortured. From the depths of the wild nest of hair, two blood red eyes stared. To Buffy, it was like looking at a melded photo of Sonja and a Neanderthal.

"Well surprise, surprise here we are in the middle of mental combat against someone powerful and instead of helping me take the bitch down you want to have a lovely girl bonding moment with the person we need to off." The voice is like fingernails on chalkboard.

Minutes ago this would have been an easy fight for Buffy. Kill the bad guy. Now that she knew what The Other was, would she kill Sonja and Denise by hurting this nightmare?

The Other crossing the floor in a heart beat moved to cut Buffy off from her two sisters (when did Sonja & Denise separate?) Buffy rose to meet the challenge avoiding the first few blows and deflecting the rest. Then, obviously tired of playing games The Other grabbed Buffy around her throat. She lifted the struggling girl high and brought her closer.

"You know Buffy I've been thinking, I need to expand my circle of friends and you have so many I could play with. Your little friends and me will have such fun. Then I could find your friend Angel an have fun with him too."

The hand clamped on Buffy's throat squeezed tighter. Denise shrieked from the side.

"Don't give up, everyone has something inside them you have to find and use it danmit."

Buffy opened her mouth to scream but no sound emerged. A fist did. It smashed into The Other's face like a locomotive, sending her sailing through the air. The teenager hit the deck and began throwing up. Out of the mess rose a form, sleek and dark with tribal marking all over its face and body. Sonja thought it was Buffy's version of The Other. Buffy knew it by another name, The First Slayer.

The Other was unimpressed and said so. "What the hell do you want?"

"To give you a gift" The voice was like ashes crackling on a fire.

"What do you want to give me." The Other sneered

"Death."

The pair clashed madly like terriers with no food. There was no quarter asked or granted. During the fight, the First Slayer hauled a wickedly sharp bone from somewhere. She hurled it at the dark creature in front of her. The Other caught the bone spur and hurled it back at The First Slayer. She dodged as though it was moving slowly. The bone continued onward toward the teenage Denise. She was surprised when a hand grabbed the bone out of the air inches from her face.

"Willow what the hell are you doing here." Buffy was surprised at how glad she was to see her friend.

"I'm being the sidekick; last minute arrival, tipping the odds in the hero's favour." Willow said brightly as she discarded the pointed weapon.

"Willow we need to stop those two by any means." Buffy shouted.

Willow nodded as she stepped forward. She was dressed in flowing black. Her eyes darkened and she gestured.

"Let this contest be ended; let this dream disperse." Wind rushed through the gym, hauling the two fighters apart and hurled them to opposite sides of the gym. The group was just adjusting to the death match being over when the ceiling ripped away. Above their heads a whirling vortex spun in the heavens.

"Willow I thought you were getting us out of here."

"She is, that is the way out." Sonja called out loudly.

"Up there? I'm a Vampire Slayer, not Wonder Woman."

"Haven't you realized yet, your only limitation in this world is your mind. As the movie says, free your mind.

Sonja grabbed Denise and they flew upwards toward the rift in the world. Willow grabbed Buffy and together their feet left the ground as the world collapsed. Amid the chaos behind them, she could still hear The Other and the First Slayer cursing and screaming for release.

"Willow what bout them?"

"Once we are out of here, they'll be fine."

Then there was only light.

***