Dark Dreaming

Dawn was searching furiously through Buffy's things, looking for her sister's paperweight. It wasn't anything special, just a black globe. Although Dawn would swear on her moth... on her own life that when she shook it she could see white particles swirling around, like a snowglobe gone wrong.

Dawn had her suspicions though. She was sure she'd seen a snowglobe of around this size in Giles' apartment, before all that stuff with the bat-faced vampires, not that they had bat faces, just a bat-tattoo across the eyes.. but that's not the point. Dawn had first seen this paperweight in Buffy and Willows dorm just after all that, and she was sure that she'd heard Willow talking about making something gold and how Buffy had told her the secret that Willow had told her. She just couldn't remember, but she'd touched it, and she remembered that it sorta vibrated when she'd picked it up, and then Buffy had snatched it off her and told her not to touch her things. Not that she could do that now.

It still seemed strange to Dawn that all this stuff she remembered had never really happened. In a way it had, she supposed, but without her being there. But as she sat in Buffy's room, the bot on the bed charging up, she realised that it didn't really matter. Buffy was gone now, after giving up her own life to save Dawn, and as she realised this, the last remaining member of the Summer's family in Sunnydale started to weep.

She started searching for a tissue, delving into Buffy's dresser drawers, and she found it - the paperweight. The shock of finding it in so unexpected a place stopped the tears, and hiding it under her arm she slipped back into her own room.

She'd already got all the stuff from The Magic Box, she figured that Giles wouldn't notice in his grief. She had to know what was going to happen. Willow had gotten all bossy, taking over, which okay - super-witch and Buffy-bot repair-gal, kinda made sense. But Dawn could sense something else in the red-haired witch, she was keeping something back. Dawn wasn't sure what... but she had a feeling that it wasn't going to be good.

Okay, so candles lit, salt circle laid... cast... whatever it was, incense burning, it seemed everything was ready. She put the paperweight in the centre of the circle, to focus on.

She'd wasn't risking a raise the dead spell, not after the last time... that had gone so wrong. She just wanted to try to contact Buffy... or maybe her Mom. She'd heard about the others summoning that Slayer ghost... Lucy was it?... She figured that if she could just contact someone on the other side they could find Buffy for her.

Dawn sat down in the circle, being careful not to scuff the salt. "Great Spirits of the Ether," she intoned. "I summon ye... um... to bring before me the Slayer, Buffy Summers."

Wind started blowing, forming a tornado within the circle. Alarmed, Dawn glanced down at the paperweight and with consternation realised that the inside seemed to be swirling. As she looked closer she saw that the paperweight was a snowglobe, the glitter swirling and the black substance forming a tornado... Oh my God, outside the globe... This was bad.

Dawn watched in horror as the blackness formed... a shape... really just a blob. Dawn was petrified, but although inexperienced at Magick, she knew she had to stay in the circle otherwise the... thing would get out.

Who is it that releases me from my prison?

The thing spoke. It's voice hoarse and gravelly, but something told Dawn that it's owner was female... a female what Dawn had no idea, but a female.

"Who... who are you?"

I reveal my name to no-one, to know the name of something is to have power over it. Dawn thought she heard the thing smile. You may refer to me as Prophet. Why have you summoned me?

"I... I didn't mean to." Dawn stammered. "I was trying to contact the Ghost Roads, to speak to my sister."

Your sister was the Slayer! It wasn't a question. I cannot speak to the dead. But I sense you would like to know what is to become of you without her. This I can show you.

"You can?" In her wonder at the thing seeming to know her mind, Dawn flung all caution to the winds. "Well, how, when.... I mean, what's going to happen?"

I can show you. But I must touch you first.

Dawn inwardly shuddered at the thought of the slimy thing before her actually making contact. But controlling her revulsion she took a deep breath and spoke in a voice more confident than she felt. "Go ahead!"

The thing touched her, and Dawn felt as though she'd been ripped from her body, spinning though misty darkness. She saw Buffy again, alive, she knew it wasn't the bot, and Willow, but with black hair, and worse, Tara - dead. It was if she was being thrust through time. She kept catching glimpses. Xander's eyes bleeding, Faith., a great hole in the ground where Sunnydale had been. She stopped, she could see herself, and Buffy, Willow and Xander. Giles and Faith were there, but no Anya. Odd, she and Xander had seemed a lot closer since... since the night with Glory on the tower, and then there was the girls... many girls... but they weren't ordinary. Dawn could sense they were different... They were Slayers... all of them... but how?

Suddenly she felt a jolt just below her belly button, as if she were being pulled back in time. What she saw cause her to gasp in horror and surprise. Buffy was there, only it wasn't just Buffy, now it looked like Kendra, and now another girl, and then something that looked like it could have been that creepy First Slayer who once tried to kill Buffy, Xander, Willow and Giles in their dreams after they'd defeated Adam.

"Let her go!" The ever-changing multi-Slayer spirit spoke, addressing the slimy black thing which now seemed to have more form. It was a mass of voices, not all of them speaking english, but somehow, through the cacophony, she could pick out Buffy's voice.

Why should I, Slayer. You could not kill me last time, only trap me, and now I am free again.

"But now I'm the same as you, Zotzilaha. A spirit." The Slayers spoke with a shrug, reminding Dawn painfully of her older sister. "And considering I killed the old man, I'd watch out if I were you."

The spirit seemed to shrink. Camatotz is dead? You hold more power than I thought, Slayer! So, I must perish?

"No!" The Slayer spoke with decision. "Dying would be no punishment. You're going to go back into the globe." The spirit turned. "Dawn, get Will or Tara to put a barrier spell on the globe, one that can't be broken!" She turned back to Zozzelus, whatever the spirit was called. "Now go!"

The spirit didn't move, however. Why should I, why do you protect this girl? Now you are dead surely physical matters do not concern you?

"We are Slayers!" The voices united once again, Buffy's voice fading into the chorus. "We will always protect the innocent, and none are more innocent than this girl, trying to find comfort in her grief. NOW GO!"

The tornado started swirling again, carrying Zillahah back into the snowglobe. To her horror Dawn felt herself being pulled back into her body. "Buffy, I don't want to leave you. I miss you."

Buffy turned to her, and it was really Buffy this time. "I know Dawn. But I can't stay. I have to go." Buffy smiled. "Remember I always love you, and be strong."

Dawn was only just starting to nod when she slammed back into her body. The force caused her to fall backward, thumping her head on the floor.

A few seconds passed before the door was pushed open, revealing Tara. "Are you okay, Dawnie?" the blonde haired witch asked. "I heard something hit the floor in here."

Dawn nodded, forcing herself to take deep breath so that she could speak calmly. "I was... um... meditating on Buffy's paperweight. I thought it might... ya know... ease the pain. But something was trapped in there and it tried to get me. I managed to banish it back into the paperweight. But could you maybe put a barrier round it?" Dawn smiled up at Tara, not liking having to lie, but wanting to keep to herself what she had seen.

"Oh sure Sweetie." Tara replied, taking the snowglobe-cum-paperweight from Dawn. She sat down next to the younger girl. "So did it?"

"What?" Dawn asked, startled.

"Ease the pain." Tara smiled, knowing in some ways how Dawn must feel.

Dawn nodded. "A little. One thing I do know though. Buffy's happy now."