Chapter Nine: Rude Awakenings

(Yeah, okay. I knew I was going to piss some people off. Sorry!Thanks again for everything. Queen, you made my week!)


Buffy stood up. She wasn't going to sit here and pity herself. Her friends still needed her. She had to stop this apocalypse. She walked out of the school, into the light and back into reality. She gasped, waking with a start. That dream, that nightmare, was, awful. She sat up, pushing her bedcovers aside. She rubbed her temples, her head hurt like she had been crying. She got up and looked in the mirror. Ooh, yuck, her eyes were all red and puffy too. She must've been crying in her sleep, she hated that.

As she was fixing herself in the vanity mirror she spied a pile of dust on her bed. Feeling like she was experiencing a Deja Vu, she sifted her fingers through it and fished out a silver lighter. Spike's lighter. Disbelieving what she saw, she fled downstairs, hoping for another dream, but ran right into an all out brawl. Willow punched Giles sending him tumbling over Anya. Anya, with her game face on, attacked Willow with full force, pummeling her in the stomach over and over.

"Stop!" Buffy shouted. The fight stopped, Anya and Willow staring at the fully-conscious Buffy. "What the hell is going on?"

Willow flew at Buffy, but she grabbed her arm and twisted it behind her back, hearing the bones snap. "Bu-buffy," Giles said, Anya helping him get to his feet. "You're awake."

"Yeah," Buffy replied still holding Willow the vampire. "Now tell me, what's happening?"

Just then a blast of light exploded in the room. They all shielded their eyes, it dimmed, revealing he last person Willow thought she'd ever see.

"Tara?" she whispered. Her face changed from vamp mode back to her own face.

"Get back," Buffy ordered. "It not really her."

"No," Willow said walking to her. "It is Tara. I can tell." They all watched as the two lovers embrace each other. "I thought... I'd never..." Willow couldn't even get the sentence out with out dissolving into sobs. They held one another for a few minutes.

"So, it wasn't you in my dream?" Buffy asked after they broke free.

Tara shook her head no. "It was me, at first. You did need guidance, Buffy." Everyone stood there trying to comprehend the situation.

"Okay, so Buffy's awake. That mean everything should go back to normal, right?" Dawn asked.

Buffy looked for Dawn in the room, but all she saw was a bulb of light hovering nervously overhead. "Dawn? Willow? It was all real?" She said starting to sit on the couch. She jumped up before she almost sat on Xander. "Xander? Is he...?"

"He's dead," Anya said flatly. "He bled to death."

"Bled to death?" Buffy echoed. Willow was a vampire, Dawn was a ball of light, Xander was dead, Spike was... "Oh God," she covered her mouth. "What have I done?"

"You did this?" Giles asked. "I thought it was the First."

She nodded. "I dreamt that Dawn was the Key, that I didn't save Willow when she was attacked by vampires, that I... I killed Xander because he killed Spike, and I killed Spike... the night... the night... we first met."

"Spike?" Dawn's voice warbled. "He's dead?"

"So change it," Anya demanded. "Change it all. Bring Xander back."

Buffy looked at Anya, "I... I don't know how."
Tara cleared her throat. "Yes you do. You know how to change it, just tell them all why you dreamt all this."

Buffy glanced at everyone in the room. Willow, Anya, Giles and Dawn all eyed her bewilderedly. Buffy knew what to say, she inhaled, tears welling fast. "I'm sorry about dragging you all into this. I wish I wasn't in your lives because then, maybe then, you all wouldn't have to go through all this." She closed her eyes. Dawn changed back into her sixteen year old self. She changed mid air and fell to the floor. Xander's eyes flashed open as he gasped for air.

"Oh, Xander!" Anya cried out throwing herself on him.

"Oomph!" Xander said. "Hi, Anya."

Willow changed into her vampire face then back into her regular face. She reached up to feel her neck, the bite marks were gone. "Whoa, that was weird." She turned to her former girlfriend, who smiled at her.

"I have to go now," Tara replied.

Willow nodded, tears cascading down her cheeks. "I know."

"I love you."

"I love you." They kissed and Tara evanesced, leaving Willow shaking as Dawn reached over and held her tight.

During the gang's whole transformation back into normal-dom, Buffy slipped upstairs. She shuddered as she opened her door. Praying that Spike would be sitting on her bed with his signature smirk, she as greeted rudely. He wasn't there, just the mass of dust that was her former lover. She knelt beside her bed, trembling. Big, salty tears rolled down her cheeks and off her nose. She set her head down on her knees. Maybe Spike didn't come back because he wasn't in the room when she bared her soul.

"God damnit, Spike," she whispered hoarsely. She grieved in silence when she heard a groan. She swiveled around and gasped, clocking the newly risen vampire in the face.

"Balls!" He exclaimed. "Always the nose, slayer."

"Spike!" Buffy gasped. "Oh, I'm so sorry."

"No worries, Buff. I'm all right." He said checking his nose for blood. He looked up at her tear-stained face. "Buffy, you all right?"

She shook her head. "No. I'm not. But I'm better now."

He looked at her puzzled, but she grabbed him and held onto him, leaving him even more confused, but enveloped her in his arms.