She watched as the portal whirled away. Intellectually she knew that she was falling, and not the portal, but it felt like the portal was moving away from her. Where was it going? Or was she going? Buffy shook her head. Trying to think about this was not a good idea. She decided to just watch the whirling and swirling portal. It was kind of pretty actually.

Then she suddenly realized she should be scared. Right? She was probably dying, leaving behind everything and everyone she loved. But she was curious where she was gonna end up. Would she go to heaven? She deserved heaven, right? But this was some sort of demonic portal, so she could end up in hell. Or in some other dimension all together.

Finally there came an end to all the whirling. Or, the whirling stepped from the portal and crept into her. Was she the one who was whirling all along, and was the portal the thing that stood still after all?

Anyway, she was whirling. Dancing round and round, and it felt good. Buffy couldn't remember the last time she had felt this free. She closed her eyes to just feel this moment.

Suddenly she felt someone around her.

"Hi, pretty," came a definite feminine voice from behind her.

The shock forced Buffy's eyes open and she turned around to see a brunette with a big smile. She was holding something Buffy couldn't place, but it looked like a part of an engine or something.

"Whatcha doing here?"

Buffy just looked at her, completely in shock. Who was this girl? Why was she calling her 'pretty'? Where did she end up? It was only then that she turned to look at her surroundings, which she didn't recognize at all. Was this heaven?

"Where am I?" she asked tentatively to the woman.

"Who are you?" she added, wanting to know who her guide in this place would be.

"I'm Kaylee," the other woman said. "And you're on Persephone. Are you feeling okay?"

Buffy shook her head. "Is this heaven?"

Kaylee laughed out loud. "Heaven? Not very likely. Have you hit your head? Will you come with me, so Simon can check you out? He's our doctor."

Buffy let herself be led to… to what exactly? She looked shell-shocked at the thing before her. Was that a spaceship? Buffy laughed at her ridiculous assumption, but just to be sure, she asked Kaylee what year it was.

"It's 2520. How come you don't know that?"

But Buffy had fainted before she could answer Kaylee's question.

When Buffy opened her eyes, she saw a white room and a lot of people standing around her.

"Simon, she's waking up," she heard Kaylee say. Someone in a lab coat, probably Simon, bended over her.

"Hi, how are you feeling?"

Buffy was so dumbstruck by everything that was happening, that it was difficult to speak. She just looked at all the people around her, trying to recall what had happened. Then, remembering what Kaylee had said to her just before she passed out, she asked again: "What year is it?"

Kaylee whispered something to Simon, who said: "It's 2520."

Buffy shook her head. "This can't be," she whispered. "This can't be." But there was this little voice in the back of her head asking her: "Why can't it be? If there exists a universe with a vampire Willow, who can cross over to your universe, why couldn't you end up in 2520?"

She noticed everyone looking worried at her and only then realized Simon had asked her a question. "Sorry, what?"

"Can you remember your name?"

"Of course I can, I'm not stupid. My name is Buffy."

"Well, Buffy, I think you bumped your head. Kaylee told me you didn't know you were on Persephone and by now you have asked twice what year it is. Do you know where your family lives?"

"Sure, in Sunnydale."

Everyone looked at her with question marks in her eyes.

"You know, in California? The United States? The most important country on Earth?"

Now they were actually gaping at her. She heard the woman with curly hair whisper to the man beside her: "To ma duh, did she just say Earth?"

A tiny voice floated into the room. "She's not real, she's like a ghost, dancing on the stars."

The people in the room looked at each other and back to Buffy. One by one they seemed to be asking themselves what to do with the stranger on the ship. The girl with the tiny voice walked gracefully to the hospital bed Buffy was lying on.

"Just a ghost, just a ghost, twirling round and round until she floats back to the ground."

Buffy looked at her. "You creep me out."

She then turned to the rest of the crew. "She creeps me out."

A man with short dark brown hair stepped forward. "I'm Mal, the captain here. I think you should get some rest now."

Hastily, like they were scared of her somehow, everyone left the room. Only Kaylee lingered a little longer. "You'll be okay. Simon's a great doctor. Don't you mind River. She can be a little crazy sometimes. You rest now, okay?"