Disclaimer: I don't own Buffy the Vampire Slayer; it belongs to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. I profit from and own nothing.

There are Spoilers for the episode Nightmares. Hope you enjoy the read.

Realities Nightmare

The Master sits smiling in his layer contemplating all that had gone down the last few months. If someone had told him weeks ago that he would be thanking his new enemy for her meddling presence in his life, he would have torn them limb from limb and boiled them alive. However, know he thanked her for all that she had done. If she had not come and changed things as she had done or took away his allies and his precious Darla, he would not have the gift of sight that he has. When he took her and turned her, he would find ways to show his gratitude for giving him the power over his enemies.

The Masters smile swells at the thought of the utter cluelessness of the white hats. Didn't they realize when you change things you mess with the balance of things and balance fights hard to get every back to order? One girl would pay for the disruption of balance she set off with her very life. that is if the Master had any say in the matter.

His new gift gave him new insights to what was coming. The Master could feel the nightmare world and reality melding together. This would be his chance to kill two birds with one stone so to speak. The Master looks up from his prison and breaths in deeply, he can smell his freedom coming with his friend death close behind. A change was coming to Sunnydale he smiles to himself, a change for the worse.

"I'm coming for you Jessica Trish Cine and your little slayer too," He proclaims in a joy-filled voice.

~%~

A young man looks from the window as his classmates slowly shuffle in before class starts. His mind was on things other than school.

"Hello, dufus, you're in my light," Cordelia rolls her eyes at the boy and then continues to refresh her makeup. The boy looks at her with disdain.

"Wendell what is wrong with you? Don't you know that she is the center of the universe, and the rest of us merely revolve around her?" Xander mocks Cordelia's outburst.

Cordelia smiles at what she considers nothing but the truth. "Why don't you revolve yourselves out of my light," Xander and Wendell walk away in unbelief to Cordelia's big head.

Willow, Buffy and Jessica walk into the class just as the bell rings and Xander and Wendell approaches them. "Wendell was in Cordelia's light."

Wendell rolls his eyes and smirks at the four of them. "I'm so ashamed."

"That's allright Wendell you did her a service, cause if Cordelia gets too much sunlight she might burst into flames, with her being a creature that sucks the joy out of everyone she meets," Jessica said a little too loudly and the class burst into laughter. Cordelia glares at her.

"Why is she so Avita like?" Willow asks in bewilderment to Cordelia's attitude towards those she considers beneath her.

Buffy studies Cordelia as she ponders the answer to that question. "I think it's the hair."

Willow and Jessica smile at Buffy's brilliant deducting skills. "Weighs heavy on the cerebral cortex."

"Nah, I think it's the fumes from all the bottles of hairspray she uses. That can really mess with brain cells, kind of like sniffing glue," Jessica smirks as Buffy looks at her as though she's a complete idiot.

Cordelia had enough; she gets up and gets into Jessica's face. "Listen you poor excuse for a girl, at least I have actual hair unlike that brillo pad that sits atop your head."

Willow and Buffy freeze in place as they fill a showdown about to happen. Jessica just smiles at Cordelia, if she thought a comment like that would bring her to her knees she had another thing coming. She was from the chi for goodness sake and this rich little California girl had nothing on her when it came to putting someone in their place. However, before she could say anything else, the teacher made them all sit so she could start her class. Jessica gave Cordelia a look that said that this was not over by a long shot at she takes a sit.

Xander briefly tried to get a quick review of the class homework before the teacher starts and Wendell, Willow, Buffy and Jessica give him the cliff notes version and then he turns and sucks up to the teacher pretending that he had read the homework.

As the teacher continues her lecture Buffy drops her pencil, she bends down to pick it up and in the corner of her eye, she notices a little boy standing in the doorway. The teacher asks Wendell to read from the book they were studying, as Buffy senses something off about the little boy. Wendell opens the book and several tarantulas jump from the pages, and the class goes into a screaming frenzy as the spiders begin to crawl all over Wendell as he screeches for them to get off him. Jessica Trish Cine bolts from the classroom and completely out of the school.

The little boy stands there as if his dreaming all this. "Sorry about that," the little boy replies listlessly.

~%~

The next day Jessica walks with Buffy, Willow and Xander as they all head to the library to get some answers to the incredibly appearing tarantula incident. I mean spiders just don't hop from the pages of a book to terrorize the students, that had to be hellmouthy stuff.

Jessica was having a hard time coping with what she saw and she was frantically rubbing herself down as vision of spiders dance in her mind. Buffy had other things on her mind though, namely spending quality time with her mostly absentee father and she hopes that he would not stand her up.

Willow looks to Buffy hoping she had some answers to all the craziness. "How about the spiders, did you talk to Giles about," Xanders interrupts.

"Uhhh, the spiders, Willow and Jessica have been kind of uhm. What's the word I'm looking for? Insane about what happened yesterday," Xander said in exasperation.

On cue to emphasize Xander's statement Jessica shivers from head to toe, frantically brushing the imaginary spider off her shoulder and she screams aloud, causing Willow to jump and Xander to look at her funny. Buffy just laughs at the three of them.

Willow hits Jessica for scaring the crap out of her and continues her conversation. "I don't like spiders okay, their furry bodies and their sticky webs," Jessica becomes ashen and her shivers increase as Willow describes one of her worst fears. Not noticing her dismay Willow plows on. "What do they need all those legs for anyway? I'll tell you, for crawling across your face in the middle of the night, EEEHHH."

Jessica grabs Willow by her shoulders and forcefully turns her around to face her. "Willow I beg you, for the love of all things holy please STOP!" she squeals as her mind vividly visualizes everything that Willow so brilliantly describes in detail no less.

Willow gave her an apologetic look, forgetting that Jessica's fear ran ten times deeper than her own did. She then turns to look at an amused Xander and is bewildered by his lack of fear.

"How do they not ruffle you," she asks as Jessica covers her ears and runs into the library leaving them to their conversation.

"I'm sorry I'm unruffled by spiders. Now a bunch of Nazi's running across my face," he trails off to let that scary thought sink into their brains.

Buffy comes to Willow's defense having a healthy fear of spiders herself but not as bad as Willow's and nowhere near as neurotic as Jessica's. "It was pretty intense."

"Thank you," Willow says to Buffy as she gives Xander an I told you so glare.

"Well the hellmouth, the center of mystical convergence, supernatural monsters, been there." Xander said in a bored tone.

"A little blasé aren't you?" Buffy asks completely dumbfounded as Xander slaps Murphy's Law in the face.

"If there's something bad out there, we'll find it, you'll slay, we'll party," Xander said with no worries.

"Thanks for all your confidence in me," Buffy laughs.

The trio walks into the library wondering if they might have to find a therapist for Jessica's issues. However, when they enter she was nowhere to be seen.

"Giles, Jessica?" Buffy calls out to them.

"Maybe his in the faculty room," Willow says as she looks around the library.

"Yeah but where's Jessica?" Xander asks wondering if the girl had run out of the school again.

At that moment, Giles and Jessica come running from the stacks looking harried and mislaid. The trio raises their eyebrows simultaneously wondering what the hell the two were up to in the library stacks.

Buffy steps forward to tease them a little, "Hey Giles, wakey wakey, you know teacher's usually get in trouble for that sort of thing."

Giles chose to ignore her innuendo and began to explain the situation. "I was in the stacks, lost," He looks to Jessica not knowing how to explain their predicament further.

"Yeah when I came in I heard him yelling and went to find him, I was ready to poke fun when I realize that we were both lost in the freaking stacks. It was like one of those stupid dreams where you seemingly know where you are but still can't find your way home. This town is starting to drive me insane." Jessica starts down the stairs and sits in a chair trying to shake the hibby jibbies that ran down her spine.

"Did you find any theories on spiders coming out of books, big harry crawly," Xander jokingly starts to run his fingers over Willow's shoulder and she turns around and hits him and he jumps. Then he yelps as a book flies past his head and he glances over to see a seething Jessica glaring at him.

"It's funny if you're me," he looks taken aback by their anger.

"I didn't find anything particularly illuminating. I think perhaps you best have a chat with Wendell himself," Giles still seem quite flummoxed over his previous predicament.

"Okay, if he can still talk," Buffy walks out of the library with her friends all the while worrying about her watcher.

The four of them go to talk to Wendell about his spider incident and he was explaining how he didn't hate spiders when Cordelia came past with the most horrid outfit on. Jessica couldn't resist the urge that was forming deep within her gut.

"Hey, Cordelia nice outfit, did you borrow that from your moms pet poodle," Jessica eyes her less than stellar outfit and shakes her head; she really was an eye sore.

Cordelia chooses to ignore Jessica completely and asks them if they were ready for the history test today. Buffy blanches at the thought of a test she didn't know about. Jessica is confused at the whole thing, since when has Cordelia Chase care about them being ready for anything especially a history test. She shakes her head as Buffy runs off to take the test. Can this day get more bizarre?

Wendell continues his story of how he had a collection of spiders that his brother accidently killed while he was away at camp and every since then he had nightmares of how they would come after him in school. He told them he almost thought it was his nightmare until everyone else started screaming too. Xander, Willow and Jessica look quite perplexed at the thought of nightmares becoming reality.

Buffy was in the middle of a class nightmare herself when she notices that the little boy from earlier was back he walks off leaving her to her failed history test. He notices one of the young girls go into the boiler room to have a smoke and shakes his head.

"You shouldn't go in there," his says. Meanwhile the girl is getting beat up by an ugly mangled looking creature with a club arm while calling her lucky 19.

~%~

Jessica, Xander and Willow walked to class together talking about a possible connection between Wendell's nightmare come to life and the beating of their schoolmate; they look on as the school was getting quite weird as the cool guy of the school mother came in kissing, hugging and babying him in front of the entire student body. The three of them walk into class and everyone starts to laugh hysterically.

Willow and Jessica start to back out slowly thinking that they were the reason for all the laughter until they both turn and notice the nakedness that was Xander Harris. Willow looks completely horrified for him while Jessica quickly covers a smile that reveals how much she did not hate the sight of Xander in the buff.

"Xander what happened to your clothes?" Willow cried out.

"I don't know was uhhhh, dressed a minute ago," He spat out, as he frantically looks around at all the laughing girls. "It's a dream, it's got to be a dream," he looks on the verge of tears as he pinches himself. "Ouch, wake up," he pinches again. "Ouch, got to wake up."

Xander panics as he looks around the room almost hyperventilating and then he lets out an agonizing scream and bolts from the classroom.

Jessica smirks at Willow. "Damn, I didn't know Xander was that hot," Willow glares at her as they both go after him.

~%~

Giles and Buffy discussed the possibilities of the supernatural happening. In addition, had made the connection to the Boy in the coma and the boy Buffy had been seeing in school after the Wendell incident. Before they could get into further discovers Buffy's father Hank came in looking for her.

"There you are, I've been looking everywhere for you. Why aren't you in class?" Hank asks.

Buffy tentatively walks up to him wondering why he would be coming for her this early. "Dad what are you doing here? You're not supposed to be picking me up till after school," Then she panics. "Is something wrong?"

He explains that he needs to talk to her about something and the look on his face does nothing to assuage her fears. "Something is wrong, is it mom?"

Hank tells her that that was not the case at hand and request that he speak with her once again. She agrees although unsettled by the whole thing. She then introduces Giles to her father. They greet one another and then Buffy whisks her dad off so they could have that little talk.

Buffy and Hank walk the school grounds as he begins to get a few things off his chest about his and Joyce's relationship and the true reason that it broke apart. Buffy oblivious to what he was trying to say asks if it was someone else and was confused when he said that it wasn't. She became nervous as she asks him what it was that broke them apart.

Hank looks down at his first born with little compassion as he said his next words. "It was you."

Buffy is shaken by his bluntness and tries to swallow the lump forming in her throat, "Me?"

Hank rambles on about how having, seeing and raising her every day was nothing less than an unbelievable chore. Buffy cannot believe what she was hearing and the ache in her heart rapidly increases tenfold as her father tries to rip it from her chest and stump upon it.

She began to cry as he endlessly rattles off a list of things that he did not like about her. Buffy's gaze falters as she could not stand to look at the man she had put on a pedestal as he told her in no uncertain terms that she was not a bright girl and that she should have seen this coming a long time ago.

He ended his conversation with her telling her that the little weekend visits with each other should end because he got nothing out of them. Hank Summer's pats his daughter's leg and get's up to walk out of her life.

"I sure thought you'd turn out differently," He disappears behind the school as Buffy sat distraught over what her father had just said to her. Her recurring nightmare of her father truly abandoning her had come to life.

Buffy's mind was numb as she tried to make sense of what just happened and that's when she notices little Billy coma boy looking at her sadly and she slowly reels in her heartache to go after him.

~%~

"Red alert, where's Buffy?" Xander, Willow and Jessica come barreling into the library to speak with Giles.

"She just stepped out, her father came by, h-h he needed to talk to her," Giles stutters, as he seems to be searching for words to say. He then looks at Xander wondering why he was clad in the school's gym uniform. "Where are your other clothes," he asks as he prepares himself a cup of tea.

"Oh don't I wish I knew the answer to that question," Xander said in an annoyed voice.

"Xander kind of found himself in front of our class not wearing much of anything," Willow informs Giles.

Xander smiles and turns to Giles frustration evident on his face. "Except my underwear."

Willow got giddy not being able to hold back her joy of the moment any longer. "Yeah it was really," she trailed off at seeing the watch what you say glare on Xander's face but Jessica decides to finish for her.

"Hot and steamy," Willow elbows Jess in the ribs as Xander covers his face with his hands.

"Bad, it was a bad thing," Willow tried to offset Xander's embarrassment while Giles and Jessica seem quite amused.

"Bad thing, I was naked. Bad thing doesn't cover it." Xander corrects her.

Then Willow sobers as she realizes the gravity of the situation. "With everyone staring, I would hate to have everyone staring and paying attention to me like that."

"With nudity, it was a total nightmare," Xander said.

"Well I'm sure you have nothing to worry about Xander, with a body like that you're sure to get a few offers at best," Jessica smirks and then flinches as Xander reaches over Willow and pinches her, Hard. "Ouch, Xander that hurt."

"Then keep quiet pervert," Xander gave her a pointed glare.

"Oh, that's rich Alexander Lavelle Harris calling me a pervert," she flinches again as Xander pinches her harder.

"How did you know my middle name," He gives Willow a murderous glower, but she shakes her head vehemently to let him know that she did not betray their trust.

"Wait, Xander, it- it's your nightmare," Willow came back to the subject at hand.

"Except for the part for me waking up going it's all a dream, it happened," Xander said furiously as he continues to glare at Jessica.

Then Willow made the connection. "Like it happened to Wendell, that thing with the spiders Wendell had a recurring dream about that."

"I dreamt that I got lost in the stacks and I couldn't…. of course!" Giles stamped his floor vehemently.

"Our dreams are coming true," Xander said.

"Dreams! That would be a musical comedy version of this, nightmares our nightmares are coming true,"

Jessica raises an eyebrow as she thought of some of her nightmares and nearly laughed aloud. The one she had about Darth Vader chasing her down the streets of Chicago would be particularly funny to see not to mention her recurring one about Gary Coleman being Dracula, that one was a riot. However, she also had a feeling that it would be the darker nightmares that would come to life and that thought gave her pause.

"Anyone up for going home and crawling under the bed for the rest of the day," Jessica raises her hand and waits for more volunteers. She sighs when they completely ignore her. "Staying and dealing it is then."

"So why is this happening?" Willow asks.

"Billy," Giles said as if they should have known the answer, but Willow and Xander just look at him as if he'd lost his mind and Jessica stifles a burst of laughter making her sound as if she had hiccupped and sneezed at the same time.

"Well that explanation was shorter than usual; it's Billy, who's Billy?" Xander asks.

Giles went on to tell them what Buffy had found out in the papers and of the little boy she'd seen around the school and the connection with him and the nightmare world.

"Well we have to stop it," Xander said as he glances down at his attire.

Giles looks to the trio and went into his creepy watcher speech once again. "Soon, or else everyone in Sunnydale is going to be facing their own worst nightmares,"

"Okay have I told you that I hate it with a passion when you talk like that? It's really creepy and you sound worse than Rod Serling in the beginning of every Twilight Zone episode," Giles frowns at her and goes about trying to figure out how to get them out of this nightmarish mess before it was too late.

To be continued.

I have a lot planned for this particular episode and decided to put it into two parts hope you like the first, The second will be up fairly soon. Thanks for all that read and review you are the nourishment for my plot bunnies. )