Author's Note: Next up, "Mirror Vision"!

There was something that looked like a giant jeweled flower, in the center of the room they took Aurentia to. But it was also squishy and gooey, and Aurentia was starting to feel scared, again. She didn't want to be in something squishy and gooey. She wanted to run around outside and play.

There was someone else in the goo.

A normal person, like Aurentia was used to seeing, back when she was home — before she'd been snatched away and brought here. The familiar brown fur and small slit eyes. The familiar snout and three arms, antennae dangling above the person's head.

But the body was wrinkled and old and feeble.

The fur discolored and patchy. Antennae drooping with age.

"You will take the Dreamer's place," said the Dream Stealers. They shoved her towards the goo.

But Aurentia struggled against them.

"I can't be like Buffy in there!" Aurentia insisted. "Buffy fought and punched and hit things that were evil. In there, I'll just be… gooey!"

The Dream Stealers didn't care what she thought.

She couldn't fight them, as they wound themselves around her. Dragging her into the goo, sealing her inside, not caring about her screams or shouts or calls for help…

Then the goo grabbed her. Sucked her down into its depths.

Silence.

Except… in her mind.

Colors! So many colors and bright lights, swirling around. Aurentia could see things beyond her own eyes, like she was listening to a million stories at once and could absorb them all. She watched the monsters that Buffy had called Daleks, as they destroyed this hell dimension, killed everyone inside it. And she felt the minds of all those dreamless people out there, screaming out as they died from Dalek weapons.

More than that.

Aurentia felt the dreams of every person that had ever come here. Their hopes and desires and goals — drained from their minds — now all floating around with her, giving her strength and inspiration.

One packet of dreams… she recognized.

A mother's need to save her child. No matter what. No matter how many layers of hell she had to fight through, no matter how many monsters she had to face. That daughter would be saved.

"Buffy's dreams!" Aurentia tried to say.

But the goo swallowed her words.

She began to place bits of Buffy's stories into the minds of the Dream Stealers. Inspiring them to fight back against the Daleks, and defeat evil from their world.

And, while she did that, she used everything left of her brain and her imagination to focus on sending that one packet of dreams straight back to its original owner…

Buffy stumbled, as something burned through her.

Something she thought she'd lost forever.

A need. A desire. A purpose.

"Seo!" Buffy said. Oh, God, how'd she managed to stop fighting for that? How'd she forgotten that this was the most important thing in the whole infinity of creation? "She might still be alive out there. She could be in danger. I've got to get back to her!"

She could already feel the ring on her finger glowing, faintly. Directing her towards one part of the fortress. She must be close to the way out!

But she couldn't leave yet.

One stop, first.

Buffy focused her mind, and spun herself down another corridor.

It hurt.

Feeling all those Dream Stealer minds, with her dreams inside of them, being extinguished by the Daleks — it sent searing pain through Aurentia, with every death. She tried to cry out, but the goo absorbed all words. She couldn't move. Could only think and dream, and let the others leach off her thoughts.

The Daleks were smart, like Buffy said.

Every time Aurentia thought of something, and that thought was plucked from her goo-home and used by the Dream Stealers, the Daleks found a way to counter it. The slaves were all dead — except for Buffy — and the Dream Stealers soon would be.

As they struggled to defend the area of the fortress where Aurentia was being kept.

Then Aurentia felt something new.

Could watch it through the minds of the Dream Stealers. Approaching the chamber where Aurentia was imprisoned, via the left corridor, a blur appeared in the Dream Stealer guards' vision. And a surge of hope and determination in the air.

The blur resolved itself into Buffy.

Before she attacked them, every move precise and graceful, kicking and punching and flipping until she could knock them out — and Aurentia felt their minds go blank.

Aurentia tried to call out to Buffy. As her own eyes saw — past the goo and into the room that imprisoned her — Buffy finally breaking through the left hand door of the chamber. But this was Buffy as Aurentia had never seen her before, the Buffy of stories. Full of hope and determination. Ready to fight for what she believed in!

At the same moment that Buffy entered, an explosion at the other end of the room blew the right hand door down. And through that other door, the Daleks entered, creeping forwards, gun stalks twitching and spouting out bright searing light, as they chorused, "EXTERMINATE!"

Buffy darted towards the equipment containing Aurentia, crouching down in hiding, as the Daleks began to massacre the Dream Stealers guarding that chamber, one by one.

Aurentia wanted to scream with pain, as she felt those minds destroyed.

But there was no comfort in the goo, nothing but…

The goo shifted.

And Aurentia felt hands wrap around her fur. Felt someone lift her free, the strange visions and colors fading from her mind and the room coming back into sharp focus. Aurentia found herself looking straight into the eyes of Buffy Summers.

Aurentia opened her mouth to speak.

But found herself coughing up goo, instead.

Buffy shushed her. Glanced around them. Then swooped Aurentia up in her arms, and carried her out the back door, racing faster than Aurentia had ever run before.

The Daleks spotted them.

Swiveled their eyestalks around, shouted, "HALT! HALT! OR YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!"

"And if we halt, you'll exterminate us anyways," Buffy muttered, sprinting even faster. "Who do you think you're kidding?"

Aurentia couldn't stop coughing.

She felt as if she were about to melt. The goo had left her weak and tired, and she was glad Buffy was carrying her, or she thought she might never be able to get away.

There was a band of metal on Buffy's finger.

It glowed, brighter and brighter, as Buffy continued to run.

"What's that?" Aurentia asked, through fits of coughing, pointing at the glowing metal.

"Our way out," Buffy said. Darting along another corridor, past a group of Daleks, who spilled out into the hall and began firing at them. A near miss seared past Aurentia's head. "You're coming with me. I'm not leaving you behind in hell — not for another second."

"Will you take me home?" Aurentia asked. "I miss my home."

Buffy hesitated.

"I… guess I can try…" Buffy started.

Her speech cut off, abruptly, as a swarm of Daleks cut her off, just ahead. Buffy slowed, and stopped. Cursing, as she looked down at the glowing metal band on her finger.

"Maybe it's bright enough," Buffy hissed, through her teeth. "Maybe, if I just focus, really hard…"

"EXTERMINATE!" the Daleks shouted.

Something shifted, around them. Their world going out of focus, like they were lurching.

Then Aurentia's vision went white. As the Dalek beams struck her. She screamed, feeling a jolt of the worst pain she'd ever imagined run through her. Every nerve in her body burned and blazed until she felt she might go up in flames like the brightest star.

Then she felt nothing.

As she slipped away.

Buffy appeared in the next hell dimension. Aurentia still in her arms.

The girl was dead.

Struck by a Dalek beam, as Buffy had been trying to move them both away from that hell dimension. Maybe the transfer had been slower for Aurentia than for Buffy — who wore the ring herself. Or maybe Aurentia had been struck before Buffy had gotten the chance to activate the ring.

But Aurentia was dead.

And Buffy was in yet another Hell.

Buffy buried Aurentia's body before the demons arrested her and dragged her off to their torments. Another hell, another place to get through so she could find her daughter.

She'd let Aurentia die.

She wouldn't let that happen to Seo. She couldn't.

Buffy sat down, that evening, when she got a chance. Stole some writing utensils and paper from her captors, and wrote.

Just like Aurentia had said.

Dear Seo,

I'm writing this letter to remind myself that someday, I'll be able to give it to you. Because you're still alive. You have to be. You're too smart to let yourself just be… killed by Elizabeth.

Keep yourself alive.

Because I'm coming home for you.

And I love you. I miss you. I want to see you bouncing up to me again and offering me chocolate because I've spent all day in monster-guts and you're trying to make me feel better. I want to hear your voice again, even if you're just saying something to wind me up because I won't let you do something stupid. I want to hold you and never let you go.

I will see you again. Alive and well. And happy.

I have to believe that.

You might even have gone and done the impossible, escaped and then defeated Elizabeth all on your own, while I've been away. I wouldn't put it past you. My beautiful, impossible little girl…

But just in case I get all exterminated before I get home, and you somehow mysteriously get this letter, just remember that what happened with Elizabeth wasn't your fault. She set up the trap — if anyone's to blame, it's her. You did nothing wrong, Seo.

I blame you for nothing.

And if you go all self-blamey like your father always did, beating yourself up because you "caused my death" or whatever — I'm so going to come back as a ghost and haunt you until you snap out of it!

Love you forever,

Mom.