Buffy and I were walking along a wooded path of the campus at night. Buffy was telling me about her roommate.

"So you had trouble getting past Kathy?" I asked.

"Yep," Buffy answered. "She made big with the questions."

"And you thought your days of sneaking out of your room were over," I told her.

"No such luck," Buffy told me. "Kathy's nice and all, but, she's... she's sort of... I don't know, like 'mini-mom of Momdonia'." I chuckled. "You know, at least in a few days, I'll be out of that room, and into yours, with you and Willow. Who knew that doing things official-like could take so long?"

I raised my hand. "Uh, I did."

Buffy stopped, looking around. "Wait. Did you just hear something?"

"No," I answered.

We started to walk again.

"Darn, I could use a little play tonight," Buffy told me. "Listening to the best of VH-1 all day sort of put me on edge."

"Oh, Kathy's still spinning the divas?" I asked.

Buffy used a perky-Kathy voice. 'Cause it's the fun-est!' And when she sharpens her pencils, she measures them with a ruler to make sure they're all the same size."

"Well, no big," I told her. "You'll be rooming with me and Will in no time."

"Right," Buffy agreed.

"Come on, hunting," I told her. "Bring us some monsters."

Buffy chuckled. "I know. What are they waiting for?"

I shrugged. "Well, maybe they're not stupid and don't want fight us because they know they're gonna die."

Buffy sighed. "Yeah."

Buffy and I exchanged a smile, continuing on, coming up dry.

  ••••

Buffy and I walked along a path.

"Maybe we should split up?" Buffy suggested.

"You remember what happened last time we split up?" I asked.

"Right," Buffy agreed. "Don't want to get caught in a nest all by our lonesome." I looked away, nodding. Buffy turned to face me. "I know you're still pretty hard on yourself for that, but..."

"But I'm still learning and moving on," I finished. "Yeah, I get it, Buff. Besides, how many times have you gotten caught in something like that?"

"A lot, actually," Buffy answered. "Remember, I had to burn down a school gym just to take down a nest. And that's what sent me here."

I smiled. "Yeah, I guess you could say that I got off lucky."

"No, see, I call that skill," Buffy told me.

I nodded. "Oh, yeah. We're skillful."

"And don't you forget it," Buffy told me. We smiled, hearing a noise further off, looking around. "All right, why don't you quit hiding and come out and face us like a... thing?"

Two orange skinned, black robed, green-glowing eyed demons ran closer.

Demon 1 swung a club at Buffy. Buffy caught its arm, breaking its hold, using it to hit him in the head and flip backward to the ground.

Demon 2 tried to punch me twice. I blocked both times, punching him three times in the face. Demon 2 tried to punch me. I ducked, leg sweeping his legs out from under him, making him fall to the ground.

Buffy took the club off the ground, looking between the two demons.

The two demons stood, running off, leaving.

Buffy and I exchanged a confused look.

"Like I said," I told her. "Maybe they're smart and don't wanna die."

Buffy looked at the club in her hand. "We should talk to Giles in the morning."

I nodded. "Yeah. Giles. Been a long time since anyone's talked to him, huh?"

Buffy nodded.

    ••••    

The next morning, Buffy and I were in the courtyard outside of Giles' apartment.

Buffy was sitting in a chair at a table.

I was going through Giles' mail, pacing. "Boring... boring... bill... bill..."

Giles came running down the stairs wearing workout clothes, breathing heavily. "Hello."

"You run?" Buffy asked.

"And jump," Giles answered. "And bend. And, occasionally, frolic."

"Okay, and, uh..." I trailed off, holding up a magazine. "What's with the Motorbike and Scooter magazine?"

Giles took the mail from me. "Congratulations. You've found me out. I'm a mod jogger."

"Okay, you're not having one of those mid-life things, are you?" I asked. "'Cause I'm still going 'ick' from the last time you tried to recapture your youth."

"Zoey," Giles told me.

"Sorry," I told him.

Buffy chuckled. "Demons. Last night. Made with the pummeling, but they got away."

"What sort of demons?" Giles asked, walking toward the fountain, sitting on its outer ledge.

"Um, had a cloak on, and glowing green eyes, and skin had a, like, super-bad fake rub-on tan," Buffy answered.

"Translate?" Giles asked.

"Orange-y," I answered.

"Thank you," Giles told us. "Anything else?"

"No," I answered.

"From what you described, I--I'm not familiar with the creature, but I--I'll look into it and give you a ring when I've found something," Giles told us, standing, walking toward his apartment.

"Okay, we'll just be rushing off as usual," I told him. Giles nodded, opening the door. "Thank you!"

Giles nodded to us, closing the door.

I looked at Buffy, smiling a small smile.

      ••••     

At the university dining hall called the Rocket Cafe, Willow, Oz, Xander and I were sitting at a table. 

Willow saw Buffy standing in line next to an older guy, waving her over.

Buffy held up a finger, talking to the guy, saying goodbye, walking over.

"Hey, say hi to non-college guy," Xander told her.

"Not that I mind, but don't non-college guys usually populate the non-campus?" Buffy asked.

"Usually," Xander answered. "I just thought I'd come around and check on my girls."

Xander patted Oz to include him without insult.

"And eat off my plate," Willow told him. 

"What's the deal, Xand?" Buffy asked. "Parents not feeding you?"

"Sure they do," Xander answered. "For a price."

Willow looked at Buffy. "So, spill." She gestured to the guy seated across the room. "What was that all about, with the cutie patootie?"

"I don't know," Buffy told us. "Nothing big. I think. Just random adorableness."

"Oh, a technique I know well," Xander told us. "Hit the girl with your best shot, then hasta."

"Gotta respect the drive-by," Oz told us.

"Low rejection, fond memories," Xander told us.

"It looked like more than that to me," Willow told us. "He got all googly-eyed."

"That's because he got hit by the Buffinator," Xander told us. "Now he's powerless."

"You think?" Buffy asked.

"No question," Oz told her. "He'll be back."

Buffy smiled.

"So, what is up with the Buff and Zo?" Xander asked. "Any vamp action?"

"We did get jumped by demons of non-specific origin last night," I told them.

"Yeah?" Xander asked. "Something Apocalypse-y? Do we need to assemble the Scooby Gang?"

I smiled. "No, but thank you for asking."

"I just got way too excited, didn't I?" Xander asked.

"You just need to get out of the basement a little more there, Xand," I told him.

Kathy walked closer, setting her tray on the table. "Hi, everybody." She got a chair from another table, moving it over. "Squeeze in."

Kathy sat down.

"You all know my roomie, Kathy," Buffy told us.

"Hi," Willow told her.

"Hey, Kath," I told her.

Buffy noticed Kathy's shirt. "Is that my sweater?"

"I didn't think you'd mind," Kathy told her. "It's not a problem, is it? I mean, I figured we're almost like sisters now, living together and everything."

"No, it's... it's fine," Buffy told her. "I just wished you'd asked."

"So, where're you from, Kathy?" Xander asked.

Kathy shrugged. "Nebraska, originally."

Kathy picked up a big, sloppy Jo hamburger from her tray.

"Ah, yes," Xander told us. "Big sky country."

Kathy took a bite.

Buffy looked at the blob of Sloppy Jo oozing out of the hamburger, watching as it dropped onto her sweater, narrowing her eyes.

      ••••     

There had been a party that night, and of course I had been there, but now, I was lying in my dorm room alone, tossing and turning, having a nightmare.

One of the demons from the other night, he was pinning me down, pouring blood into my mouth, putting a scorpion onto my bare skin.  He opened our mouths, drawing a light, gossamer substance out of my mouth and into his own.

      ••••     

The next day, Giles, Buffy, Willow, Oz and I were sitting in one of student lounges.

"So, then, after the scorpion, the demon opened my mouth and sucked some kind of weird light out of me," I told them.

"Are you sure it was you?" Giles asked.

"Well, no," I answered. "I never actually seen a face, but by the way that it felt... It felt like it had been me."

"Seems to me you've had your first prophecy dream," Giles told me.

"I don't like prophecy dreams," I told them.

"Yeah, I know," Buffy told me. "They're the worst."

Kathy walked up behind Giles.

"Perhaps it would be more productive to examine your dream, um, determine the meaning," Giles told me.

"You can read dreams?" Kathy asked. "Neat."

"Giles, Kathy," Buffy told him. "Kathy, Giles."

"He's our grown up friend," Willow told her. "N--not in a creepy way."

"Nice to meet you, Kathy," Giles told her.

"Ditto," Kathy told us.

"I'm guessing that you need to be on your way to class," Buffy told her. "Right, Kath?"

"Hmm, sounds like somebody woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning," Kathy told her.

"Mm-hmm," Buffy answered. "And guess what? You were next to it."

"You know, I do need to dash," Kathy told us. "My whole schedule is off because someone kept me up all night. Well, it's been fun. Toodles."

"Toodles," Buffy told her.

Kathy walked away, leaving.

Giles cleared his throat. "You know what this means."

Buffy nodded. "Yes. Not only does she take my sweater, but now she has to horn in on Scooby Gang meetings. She is the most ever mooch... Oh, I haven't even gotten to the floss."

"Buffy, focus, please," Giles told her. He looked at me. "If this dream of yours is really a prophecy..."

"We need to figure out if this ritual she's dreaming about has some special use, or meaning," Willow finished.

Buffy stood, gathering her things. "Cool. You guys can do the brain thing. I'm gonna go to class."

"Which could also be construed as the brain thing," Oz told her.

"Not when you're minoring in 'Napping 101'," Buffy told us, walking away, leaving.

"Okay, so that was the evil twin, right?" I asked. "'Cause she was bordering on Cordelia-esque."

"Well, she's definitely pushing the stress meter on this Kathy thing," Oz told us.

"I concur she's not, uh, herself, but, you know, uh, learning to live with someone can be a challenge," Giles told us.

"A--and she hasn't been sleeping," Willow told us.

"Right, then," Giles told us, standing.

Willow and I stood.

I looked at Willow. "Just hopefully this whole you-two-moving-to-my-room gets approved soon. Wow. So many rhyming words in that sentence."

"Nothing to get to concerned about," Giles told us. "Still, let me know if she, um..."

"Hits the red zone?" Oz finished.

Giles nodded. "Yes."

      ••••     

Oz and I were walking along a path of campus after dark.

"You're worried about me?" I asked.

"What kind of demon runs around putting blood dreams into people's heads?" Oz asked. "It's not right."

"And I'm very against it," I told him. "It was so weird. And Buffy's completely being not herself. And we're going patrolling, and that's when I can do the listening, girly best friend thing."

"So, what you're saying, is that you'll braid each other's hair and hang with her, watch for signs she's going over the edge?" Oz asked.

I turned to face Oz, smirking. "Ha ha." We kissed for a moment, pulling away, smiling small smiles. "Bye."

"See you," Oz told me.

I started to back away, not letting go of his hand until necessary, smiling, turning around, walking away, leaving.

      ••••     

Buffy and I were walking along the woods, patrolling.

"So, then Kathy's like, 'It's share time'," Buffy told me. "And I'm like, 'Oh, yeah? Share this!'"

Buffy punched the air.

"So, either you hit her, or you did your wacky mime routine for her," I told her.

"Well, I didn't do either, actually," Buffy answered. "But she deserves it, don't you think?"

"Nobody deserves a mime, Buffy," I told her.

"Hmm, Kathy does," Buffy told me. "She deserves to be locked in an invisible box and blown away by an imaginary wind and... and..."

"Forced to wear a binding unitard?" I asked sarcastically.

"Yeah, the itchy kind," Buffy told me. "It's perfect. So, then, I go into the refrigerator, right? And the label queen has managed to put..."

"Just a--Just a thought, Buff, but do you think all this ranting is scaring away potential demons?" I asked.

We stopped walking.

"You're right," Buffy told me. "Oh! She's even affecting my work now. She's the Titanic. She's a crawling black cancer." She kicked up and kicked down on a bench in front of us, breaking the wood completely. "She's other really bad things."

"On the plus side, you've killed the bench, which was looking shifty," I told her.

"This isn't funny, Zoey," Buffy told me. "Something has to be done."

Buffy walked away determinedly.

I hesitated. "Agreed."

I followed Buffy.

      ••••     

I had another dream again that night. It was of painting symbols in blood on bare skin, the demon drawing the light, gossamer substance out of a mouth and into it's own. A scorpion on bare skin.

I finally saw a face of the victim in the ritual. It was Buffy.

      ••••     

Willow and I were talking in the library, at a table.

"So, Buffy's talking like a crazy person about how Kathy's evil, and I think she's feeling a little... insane," Willow told me.

"Bitchy crazy?" I asked.

"No, more like homicidal maniac crazy," Willow answered. "So I told her to go to Giles. The boys are getting Buffy under control. I'm gonna go head over there. You go keep an eye on Kathy, okay?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Of course."

      ••••     

I knocked on Buffy and Kathy's dorm room door.

Kathy opened it.

"Can I come in?" I asked.

"Sure," Kathy answered, letting me in, closing the door behind me. "Where's Buffy?"

"I don't know, exactly," I told her. "But, uh, I just wanted to tell you that both Willow and Buffy got the green light to move into my dorm room after my roommates took off, so..."

"Oh, thank God," Kathy told me. "I don't know if I could have taken it for one more day, having to live with someone who's obviously troubled, someone who so clearly needs to be in a house, not in a dorm."

"I don't know about that," I told her. "Uh, Buffy's going through something, yes, but..."

"I wouldn't put it past her to drop out, or take off or something," Kathy told me. "Do something horrible to herself."

"Herself?" I repeated.

"Or worse," Kathy told me. "She's capable of it, you know? You can see it in those shifty little eyes of hers. One of these days, she might even push somebody too far."

I looked at Kathy cautiously. "Right. Well, anyway, that's why I came by. To tell you that Buffy won't be trouble to you anymore. I'm gonna go get my room ready, and we'll be by later to get her things. Okay?"

Kathy smiled. "Okay."

I nodded awkwardly, walking out, leaving.

      ••••     

I stood in my own dorm room, on the phone with Giles. "I finally saw who was in the dream, Giles. It wasn't me involved with the ritual. It was Buffy."

"Did you see the face of the demon?"

"No. I mean, the only thing I could tell was that they seriously needed Clearasil. And I think the weird light thing from the dream is Buffy's soul."

"'The ritual of Mok'tagar, a race of trans-dimensional demons, involves the forced ingestion of animal blood while the victim slumbers. But while the Mok'tagar can assume many forms and guises, including human, they can always be recognized by others of their kind due to the lack of a soul. When they come looking, they'll take the one without a soul.'"

"A finish to the explanation any time, Giles."

"The toenails that Buffy took from Kathy? Not only do they keep growing after they've been cut, but they actually regenerate after they've been destroyed."

"And that's a demon thing?"

"Oh, unequivocally, yes. I've looked up all known regenerating demons. Only one species practices the ritual you've been seeing in your sleep. It's used to steal the soul from a human body."

"W--wait. Are you saying that Buffy's been doing a Linda Blair on us because Kathy's been sucking her soul?"

"I believe so, yes."

"So, Buffy was right all along. Later on, big remorse."

"Now, I've found a spell that should revere the soul transfer procedure immediately. Willow and I will perform it at once."

"Leaving me to help Buffy in the flesh."

"Yes. But listen to me very carefully, Zoey. The only way to return Buffy's soul back where it belongs, with the help of the spell, is for you to get them in the position they were in your dreams."

"Got it."

I put down the phone without hanging up, running out of my dorm room down the hallway, out of my building toward the building across from mine, running inside, upstairs toward Buffy and Kathy's dorm room, inside.

I was about to go inside.

A student down the hall looked at me. "Do you mind? People are trying to study."

I rolled my eyes, waiting for him to go back into his room to burst into Buffy and Kathy's dorm room.

Kathy threw Buffy onto the windowsill, shattering the glass. "The window's open. Happy?"

Kathy tried to grab Buffy. I grabbed Kathy, pushing her off, away from Buffy, grabbing Buffy, pulling her off of the windowsill, pushing her to the floor.

Buffy groaned in pain.

"Don't move," I told her. I looked at Kathy, realizing that the skin of her face had been ripped off, revealing that she looked like the other demons. "Ew."

Kathy roared, running toward me. I grabbed Kathy by her shoulders, throwing her against the bed. Kathy stood. I kicked her in the stomach. Kathy ran toward me. I leaned forward to flip her to the floor in front of Buffy by standing straight. Kathy tried to stand.

 I kicked her in the face, grabbing Kathy by her shoulders, pulling her up from the floor, restraining her from behind, holding her above Buffy, struggling to keep her restrained and opening her mouth. "Open up."

I nodded to Buffy.

Buffy nodded understandingly, opening her mouth, helping me restrain Kathy where she was between us.

Buffy's soul drew itself out of Kathy's mouth into Buffy's, meaning Giles and Willow finished the reversal ritual.

I pushed Kathy aside to the floor.

Kathy looked at us in confusion. "How did you do..."

With a flash of light, what looked like a vortex briefly appeared, a demon stepping through the portal into the room. The vortex closed behind him.

The demon and Kathy both spoke to each other in another language that Buffy and I couldn't understand.

The demon waved a hand.

A vortex formed in the floor.

I instantly backed away toward the other side of the bed. Buffy crawled around to the other side of the bed, next to me.

Kathy was sucked into the portal, screaming.

The demon stepped into the portal.

The vortex closed, leaving the floor unblemished.

Buffy and I looked at each other speechlessly.

"Please tell me we got approved," Buffy told me.

I nodded. "Oh, yeah. We got approved."

      ••••     

The next morning, Willow and Buffy were moving into my dorm room, boxes around the room.

Willow and Buffy were eating sandwiches, saucers in their hands.

I hung up a 'Dingoes Ate My Baby' poster. "How's that?"

"Uh-uh," Willow told me. "A little to the left." I moved the poster slightly. "There. Perfect."

I finished hanging it up, turning to face them. "I'm so glad you guys are here. I can already feel all that bad-roommate-drama just draining away."

Willow looked at me. "About that. I'm really sorry about Skylar and Madison. I mean, I know you barely got time to know them, but... still." I nodded, looking down. Willow looked at Buffy. "And the Kathy thing? I'm sorry we doubted you."

Willow moved things from a box into one of the drawers in the dresser.

"You're completely forgiven," Buffy told us. "I mean, you had reason to doubt. Except for the soul sucking thing, I bet Kathy was pretty regular, as far as roomies go."

"That's a pretty big 'except'," I told them.

"I guess," Buffy agreed. "I'm just glad that it was Kathy's demon-y ways making me no-fun Buffy. I always thought I was pretty easy going, you know? It's not like I have the big issues. You know, burn incense, or..."

Willow took Buffy's sandwich. "You gonna finish this?"

Willow bit into it.

Buffy watched intensely, narrowing her eyes.