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Chapter 4

Buffy walked back into the library in a daze. What Anne had told her about Spike ... no, Anne was calling him William now, was hard for the young Slayer to swallow. Giles and Angel had always assured her that a vampire couldn't love because they were soulless, but if Anne was telling the truth they had both lied to her. Buffy was unsure about what to do with this knowledge. Her thoughts drifted back over her encounters with the blond vampire. His devotion to Drusilla was apparent when Buffy had held a stake to her heart a few months before, and his total dedication to healing said vampiress was pretty telling, too.

"Buffy! Buffy!" Giles called her name several times before he got her attention, "You talked to Anne. Did you find out anything interesting?"

"He has his soul," Buffy told Giles. She felt like she was trying to speak to him from the bottom of a well. "Spike ... William." She inhaled very deeply. "He loves her so much he went and sought it out for her."

"Do you think she's lying?" Willow asked.

"No, I don't think she's lying. I also think she would be with him even if he didn't have it," Buffy said blandly as she plopped down in a chair.

"I bet it's all a lie, and they are all evil," Xander sputtered, "They're just here to lull us into trusting them. Then, they'll strike and kill us all." He pointedly ignored the dirty looks he received from the others.

"Shut up, Xander," Giles admonished the boy, "Take my advice, and leave them alone. Please don't meddle in things that aren't any of your business."

~~~~~~~~

A week later, all of the Scoobies except the Watcher hadn't seen much of the other Buffy, her vampire, her sister or the demonic Giles. The four of them kept to themselves most of the time. Willow and Oz had caught a glimpse Anne and William at the Bronze as the couple stood on the upper level watching the crowd. Willow was amazed at how comfortable the pair appeared together.

That's why they were all surprised when a bored Dawn waltzed into the school library and plopped herself into a chair at the table. She groaned a heaving sigh.

"God, I'm glad they kept their affair a secret." The girl widened her eyes and shook her head gently. "I've gotta tell you, it wasn't being ripped from heaven, the double shifts at the Doublemeat Palace, or the patrolling that made her such a zombie. It was the 8 hour shag sessions and the nightmares that did it."

"Shag?" Willow asked timidly.

"Nightmares?" Buffy asked at the same time.

Dawn looked back and forth at the now younger girls. "Shag means sex, Wills, in English speak. Didn't you guys go see Austin Powers? Of course Spike says Austin Powers is a 'bloody poofter'." Dawn rolled her eyes.

"The nightmares?" Buffy urged Dawn now that she had answered Willow's question.

"You remember last year when your biggest nightmare came true, and you had to dig yourself out of your grave?" Dawn questioned the young Slayer.

"Of course, I had nightmares about being buried for months," Buffy replied. She shuddered as she remembered the dreams of dirt falling down on her and filling her mouth.

Dawn's eyes darted back and forth between Buffy and Willow. "When Willow resurrected Anne, she and the gang left her in her coffin. She had to dig her way out."

The room sat in stunned silence for a few moments. Suddenly Willow pushed her chair back, and she rushed from the room in tears. Oz and Buffy jumped up to follow her. Xander trailed behind them He threw dirty looks over his shoulder at Dawn, for upsetting the others.

"I didn't mean to hurt anyone's feelings." Dawn sighed heavily. "It's just that we danced around so many subjects then. Buffy came back from heaven, and the only person she was comfortable with was a chipped vampire who was desperately in love with her. Everyone wanted her to be 'normal' again, but she wasn't. She was broken, and the only one that noticed was Spike." Dawn's voice trailed off into a whisper.

"So what can you tell me about the fashions in the future?"

Dawn's head jerked up, and she stared at Cordelia for a few moments. Then, she began to chuckle. Soon, it was a full belly laugh.

"What? What's so funny?" Cordelia asked in a confused voice. She looked at Giles, then back at Dawn.

"You're a higher being, Cordy," Dawn continued to chuckle, "You don't really care about clothes."

"I seriously doubt that," Cordelia said haughtily, "I'm sure I'm teaching all the other higher beings how to accessorize." She went back to filing her nails.

"How does this come about, Dawn?" Giles asked. He grabbed his journal and pen, and he jotted down notes as she spoke.

"Hmm. I know Cordy goes to L.A. after graduation where she hooks up with Angel." Dawn chewed on her lip as she tried to remember what news filtered in from Los Angeles from that time period. "It's not like tall, dark and forehead communicated with us much, you know."

"Please, Dawn," Giles muttered.

"Okay, okay, Giles. Geez." The teenager rolled her eyes. "Cordy became a Seer, then a demon and then a higher being. William said that she died a few months ago in our dimension. Sorry, Cordy."

"I'm dead?"

"Well, that kind of goes hand in hand with being a higher being, you know," Dawn replied. Before she could continue, Buffy, Willow and Oz returned from where ever they had disappeared to. Dawn jumped to her feet. "Anne told me to be nice. Please don't tell on me."

"You're over 18," Cordelia said, "Don't tell me you're afraid of your 'little' sister?"

"True, but she's stronger than me," Dawn affirmed, "Not to mention, William told me he would 'rip my head off one-handed and drink from my brainstem', but he's been saying that to me since I met him." Dawn huffed prettily, and she plopped down in her chair.

"When did you meet him?" Buffy asked. Her eyes drifted up to the upper stacks, and she smiled.

Dawn turned to see that Angel had entered the library, and she turned back to the young Slayer. "Well, the monk-made memories say that William saved me from Angelus after he had Dru kidnap Giles and me."

"Why would he do that?" Angel growled, "The Spike I know would be just as likely to drain you as he would be to look at you."

"What is it with you?" Dawn cried, and she leapt to her feet, "Why do you insist that Spike is stupid because he's impulsive?" In her anger, Dawn forgot that she was calling her Spike William now. "He knew damned well that Buffy would never accept his help if I was dead."

Dawn's tirade was interrupted by a scream followed by an anguished howl from the hallway. William burst through the door carrying a bleeding Anne in his arms. She had a metal bar stuck through one of her shoulders, and she had tears tumbling down her cheeks. William rushed over to the research table and gently sat Anne down. He reached down into his boot and grabbed a pocketknife he had there. William flipped the knife open, and he carefully cut Anne's jacket away from her body.

Anne circled William's waist with the arm from her uninjured side. She shivered in pain as he grasped the end of the rod sticking out the front of her shoulder. Her scream echoed off the library walls when he applied light pressure against her flesh. "It's stuck. It's stuck," she screamed.

"Bloody hell," William grumbled. He rubbed his hand over his face as he concentrated. The bang of the library doors caught the vampire's attention. He turned his glare at Xander, who looked a little green around the gills. Spike spoke to the younger Slayer, "Keep that pillock away from us, or I'll forget he's your friend."

"Spike," Anne whimpered.

"I know, luv. It's the only way," William reassured his mate. He picked the knife up off the table from where he had thrown it down before. William cut the back of Anne's shirt open to expose her back. He placed one hand around the rod, and he pushed against the flesh.

The others gasped in astonishment as they watched a beautiful snow white wing being unfolded from the elder Slayer's uninjured shoulder blade. It was almost as tall as the petite Slayer was herself, and it flexed out as it visibly shook from pain.

"Carefully start to let the other one out, luv," William whispered. He kept his hand around the metal bar. William snapped his fingers at Dawn when he noticed the front of the rod easing into Anne's flesh. He didn't even look at whatever Dawn put into his hands. He just pushed it up against the bleeding hole in the Slayer's shoulder.

Anne's second wing slowly unfolded itself, and it brought the metal rod through her shoulder with it. She smiled wearily at Dawn when the young girl took over wound-pressing duties from William, and the vampire moved behind her. "Dawnie," she whispered.

"Shhh, the rod's out and it's already healing," Dawn whispered back. She tenderly peeled back the cloth to expose the totally healed wound.

Behind Anne, William tended to the injured wing. He had removed the rod carefully, and he was flexing the wing to make sure it hadn't been injured too badly. If we had been alone, I would have licked your wounds clean for you, luv, William projected with a smirk and a naughty picture of exactly what all else he would have licked for her.

"William, how did you know about the wings?" Dawn asked suspiciously. She eyeballed her 'brother-in-law', and she thoughtfully watched his reactions.

"Slayer showed 'em to me before," the vampire admitted. He refused to look at Dawn, and he turned a pleading look at Anne.

"Before when?" Dawn asked. She couldn't seem to help herself. Her intuition told her something more was going on here. Dawn stared hard at the vampire. "You're jealous of her wings, aren't you?"

"Why would he be jealous?" Anne questioned Dawn, "He's got his own."

"What?" Several voices filled the air, but Dawn's was the loudest. All eyes turned on the clearly embarrassed vampire. His eyes shot daggers at the Slayer.

"Can I see? Please," Dawn nagged, "Please? Please?" The girl wasn't above using the Summers pout on William.

"I'll get you back for this one, Slayer," William growled. He whipped off his shirt, and he smirked when he heard the gasps of appreciation from the teenage girls, including the younger Slayer.

"Good Lord," Giles exclaimed. He whipped off his glasses, and he polished them on his shirt tail.

Everyone, except Anne, stared at the handsome jet black wings that unfolded from the vampire's shoulder blades. The vampire spread the wings wide, and he flapped them just enough to cause a small breeze. Then, William folded the wings in so that they disappeared from where they came from. He grabbed his shirt, and he roughly pulled it back on.

"Wouldn't have had to show you wankers if the Whelp hadn't tried to kill me." William scowled at Xander. "Slayer jumped in the way, and the stupid git stabbed her." He went back to Anne where he rechecked her wounds to make sure they were healed up. William watched her solemnly as she folded up her wings and hid them away.

"Can you please explain to me what exactly we are seeing here?" Giles demanded. He grabbed his journal and pen again. He had a feeling that he better keep both within close reach while the transdimensional visitors were around. "And then I think Xander had better explain his actions."

"Look here, Watcher," William drawled, "We came by to find out what you lot had found out about the prophecy. We also came to tell the little Slayer about the robot her mum's dating when your boy over there attacked us. We didn't come to tell you all our secrets."

"As true at that may be," Giles acknowledged, "This secret was inadvertantly revealed, and I think it's of great importance."

Anne laid her hand on William's arm. "We can't tell you much about it, Giles, because we don't know ourselves. We accidently discovered mine when William revealed his soul to me by hanging himself on a cross. They just kinda popped out on me."

"Bloody scared her half to death, it did." William chuckled with the memory.

"You hanging yourself on a cross or her sprouting wings?" Dawn asked, "Why didn't you say anything?"

"About the cross or the wings?" Anne questioned back, "It wasn't like you cared about William at the time, and I wasn't sure what to say about the wings." Her eyes locked with William's. "It explains the cellular sunburn and the chip's non-reaction though."

"I did care," Dawn cried, "I was just too young and stupid to understand things." She noticed the rapt audience. Dawn quickly changed the subject, and she rounded her attentions on someone else. "What is your problem, Alexander Lavelle Harris? Can't you keep your prejudices to your own dimension?"

"I was just trying to protect us from them. They're evil," Xander argued, "I was shown the true path of things." He rushed out of the library leaving an entire group of flabbergasted friends behind.

"Bloody Hell. I think the Whelp's someone's bug eating butt monkey, again," William muttered. He led Anne over to the stairs where he sat down and, he pulled her down on his lap. He didn't care what any of the others thought.

"That was new," Anne said from her position on William's lap. "The only things we had to worry about until Drusilla put the Judge together were Ted the robot and the Bazor demon with its eggs. Well, and the Gorch brothers showed up thinking they could take me."

"Crap, and we needed Xander to get the bazooka," Dawn sputtered.

"Won't need it if we can get one piece of the Judge before it gets to Dru," William said, "Shouldn't be a problem if the parts are all in the same place they were in our dimension."





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