She dropped through a long dark tunnel until she landed face down in sand. Quickly she bounced to her feet and spun to look around. Bright sun beat down on her and sand stretched out to the horizon. Behind her rocks climbed to a high ridge. For long moments her mind blanked at the oddity of her location, then it came slamming back, just as the dark woman sprang from behind a rock. 'Not this again,' She thought. Deftly she spun, dodging the high kick the First Slayer threw. They jumped, rolled, and threw each other across the sand. In a brief moment of respite Buffy screamed, "What do you want?"

In a different moment the First Slayer growled. It danced around her, then darted forward and threw her down. A back flip brought her face to face with it again. It mimicked her every move. Once, when they paused again, it tilted its head and looked at her curiously. Then it leapt to the attack again. It grabbed her arm in an iron grip and for just a moment energy exploded in Buffy's arm.

Buffy leapt back from the First Slayer and tilted her head. The Slayer backed away as well and they stood for long moments, staring intently at each other. She dodged sideways as it leapt again, then reached and grabbed it as it flashed past. "Oh no you don't, not this time." Buffy snarled as she reached out and grabbed the woman. She shoved the fingers of her left hand into its head, stopping it where it stood. As she plunged her right fingers in as well she commented, "You are me, I am you. This time I accept it. You will accept love and friendship, I will accept the slaying."

It howled as images of Angel, Dracula, and Spike flew through its mind. It shoved its hands deep into Buffy's head and she shrieked as the cascade of dead flowed past her, millennia of them. For a moment they stood locked in torment, screaming to the heavens, as they sought reconciliation. Then slowly, so slowly at first that time seemed to pause, they began to flow into one another until, at last, only one stood on the trackless desert sand. Energy pulsed through the body on the table burning the drugs away as if no more substantial than a morning mist. Resisting an urge to sit up she slitted her eyes and carefully scanned the room.

Buffy saw a single medical person setting things on a stainless steel tray. Above her hung an operating lamp, as yet unlit. Monitors waited nearby to be attached to her when the operation began. She was about to move when she saw the camera mounted on the wall pointed directly at the table. The Slayer ached for action as Buffy urged it to wait. Once again she scanned the room then rolled off the table and launched herself at the door. The startled medical person paused long enough for her to clear the door and land in the hall.

Cold air drafted up the open back of the hospital gown as she darted down the corridor. At the first intersection she randomly picked left and headed toward the door at the end of the passage. As she neared it her hearing picked up two male voices on the other side. Frustrated she dashed back down the passage to the original one and ducked around the corner. Straining her hearing she identified Travers voice as the door opened. "Doctor, here is the device. It should give us total control over the subject."

Another sound snapped her head around as the medical person stepped into the hall. "You, stop!" The woman shouted, causing Travers to pause. Buffy spun and raced down the hall, crashing through the door on the end she landed in a stairwell. Up she ran until she had cleared two landings. She slowed and listened then slipped through a door into a well-decorated hallway. Glancing quickly around she found herself in the hall between her room and the dining hall.

Inside her room she grabbed the first clothing she could find, stuffed her things into her bag and hurried to the window. Slayer strength allowed her to snap the lock and wrestle the window open. She clambered out onto a narrow ledge two floors above the manicured lawns. Slipping along the ledge to a dark section of the yard she dropped her bag and then jumped after. Moments later she made it to the street, seconds before powerful floodlights lit up the yard and building.

Walking swiftly from the scene she tried to blend into the sparse foot traffic on the street. She remembered seeing a tube station on the way to the club she had been at the night before. Once inside she studied the map until she found the Camden Town station, the one she hoped would be close enough to Giles place to find him.