A/N: This ficlet's purpose is two fold. It was partly written as a response to the Twisting the Hellmouth's Fic-For-All challenge pairing: Buffy/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin). It also serves as a sequel to Vault M2J's Chapter 95: YAHF: Secret Sorcerer. This is also my first attempt at writing a Slayer Dream.

Let me know if this is Good, Bad or Ugly!

Chapter Title: The Once and Future...

Buffy had no idea what was going on as she stepped into a pure white room.

First, she spotted Xander or rather the hermit he had dressed as on Halloween. When he turned to look at her, however, he shifted into his regular self, albeit one dressed in court jester clothing. He began to juggle and make funny faces and began to make all of their friends, who each had dour expressions on their faces, smile.

Once he was done, he left the room. Buffy was quick to follow. Once she cleared the corner, she saw that Xander had changed again. Now that he was away from the others, he was dressed in brown pants and matching leather jacket, with a blue shirt and a red neckerchief. He appeared to be sneaking around and every now and then someone else would appear, but they would be oblivious to him.

What was more unsettling was when the landscape shifted. They were suddenly in a graveyard and she saw everyone but Xander, who was still creeping around, fighting, including herself. She saw a vampire sneaking up on her- however, Xander raised his hand and his eyes glowed gold. A tree branch fell and tripped the vampire, bringing it to her attention, allowing her to stake it.

Another vampire got close to Xander. His eyes glowed and the vampire was pulled towards him. Then Xander seemingly stumbled- though it looked fake to her from her perspective and staked the vampire. She then saw Xander fake a head injury, his clothing having shifted back into the court jester regalia as his actions had caught everyone's attention, completely fooling everyone, including the version of her that he'd saved, albeit covertly. The one person, she noticed, who did not look at Xander in scorn was Faith, who watched them all berate and belittle Xander sadly.

Everything disappeared as a shroud of darkness engulfed them all except Faith. She saw Faith dressing in a tattered black dress, he hair a mess, with a wild look of insanity in her eyes. All around Faith were dead bodies- demon and human. She saw Xander reach out to her, clad in the clothes he wore when he saved her without her knowing, only to see Faith kiss and stab Xander. However, as they pulled away from each other, Buffy had noticed that Xander had stabbed Faith as well. She couldn't help but feel a great, bittersweet sadness as they died in each other's arms.

A noise caught her attention behind her and she spun around to see what it was. She saw a giant wall with portraits. The center of the wall had a circle with a silhouette of a person that was completely blacked out. Underneath the portrait was a name: ALEXANDER.

Spreading out from the circle were lines that connected to other circles. Xander's was in the center. She saw one that was hers, another that was Willow's and Giles' and there were even ones for Cordelia, Oz, an unnamed blonde girl, Angel (though his continually shifted between the visage of Angel and Angelus), her mother and another unnamed girl with brown hair that looked familiar, but wasn't. It was then that she found another circle, this one also held only a simple silhouette, only the name on this one was different. Instinctively, Buffy already knew the name that she would find before she read the plaque underneath the portrait: FAITH.

Suddenly, there was a crack in the wall, followed by another and another. Then it exploded outwards as a horde of demons rushed through overwhelming everything in sight, ravaging everything in their path. She barely had time to cover her face with her arms as the horde swept through her.

Just as abruptly as it all started, it ended. A sense of peace overcame her and she lowered her arms and opened her eyes. She sucked in a deep breath as she looked all around her. The landscape was beautiful and off in the distance she could see a majestic castle. Though she had never seen it before, she knew exactly what it was that she was looking at and couldn't contain the feeling of awe that she saw it in the here and now; a place out of legend from one of the greatest tales ever told.

Camelot, home of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere, Sir Lancelot, the Knights of the Round Table and the greatest magic user of all time: Merlin.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" asked a familiar, but not, male voice.

Buffy turned to face a well built blond man wearing chain mail armor that bore the same golden dragon on a field of red on his tabbard that was on the castle standard. Though she'd never seen, spoken or interacted with this man, she instantly knew him as if she'd known him all her life. She whispered his name. "Arthur."

"King Arthur," he corrected her with an easy smile.

Buffy rolled her eyes. She then noticed the boulder next to him. "Is that...?"

Arthur's smile morphed into a smirk. His gaze cut over to the boulder that had a glinting and powerful feeling sword sticking out of it. "It is."

"Wow," Buffy gasped softly. She wanted to reach out and touch it, but didn't feel worthy enough to even try.

"My reaction wasn't much different from yours, to be honest," Arthur told her. "Especially when Merlin came up to me with that bogus story of a legend of how that sword was meant for the One True King of Camelot. He was a good friend- a great friend. One who was far better than I deserved."

"I think I have one of those too," Buffy commented with a slight smile.

"At least you see it," Arthur told her. "Merlin... He saved the day in more ways than one. When everything went bad, he could always be counted on to do his absolute best and even if things didn't turn out exactly perfect, you could still count on him saying or doing the right thing- even if no one else knew what was truly going on. And all the time he was there for us, either as the secret sorcerer or the bumbling fool, we often took him for granted. We didn't bother to see passed the walls he put up to protect both him and us."

"That was just as much his fault as yours. You might not have seen passed what he showed you, but he hid who and what he was from us," Buffy pointed out.

"He was afraid," Arthur argued.

"We're his friends!" Buffy countered vehemently. "He shouldn't be afraid of us!"

"But he is. You and the others... You're not a part of his world, you ARE his world," Arthur pointed out. "If he were to lose you, or you him, the world will fall to darkness."

"I... I don't understand..." Buffy replied.

"You will, in time," Arthur told her with a warm smile.

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Thanks, care to vague that up a bit more?"

"Was it fate or happenstance that caused Alexander to dress as he did on that Halloween? Destiny or coincidence?" Arthur asked. "Alexander is the key to everything. The Once and Future Kingdom will rise, though not in a way he or anyone else could have expected."

"And I'm understanding less and less," Buffy commented.

"The dead have no truths or counsel to give," Arthur told her. "We are simply what once was and what might be again. You will understand, in time."

"And what am I supposed to do until then?" Buffy complained.

Arthur stepped aside. "Prove yourself worthy."

Buffy looked at him in shock. "I... I couldn't... I..."

"Go ahead," Arthur encouraged her.

Buffy took a hesitant step towards the Sword in the Stone, the legendary blade Excalibur. She gulped nervously as she shakily reached for the pommel of the sword. Once she griped it, she felt a surge of warmth spread through her body. She began to pull. She felt a bit of resistance, but it moved.

She pulled it out no more than an inch when she suddenly opened her eyes and sat up suddenly in her bed, gasping for air.