Spike was fuming, as he was dragged across the field, helpless, in his net. What was the point of the Gem of Amara if it couldn’t stop this sort of thing from happening? This capture had obviously been well thought out; however hard he struggled, he couldn’t get free. All he could do was watch, as he was dragged to an almost identical house, to the one he shared with Lily and her father, in his own dimension.

As he was bumped down the stone steps, to the cellar, Spike couldn’t help but be curious. He was finally going to meet the infamous Lilith. Hated and feared, even by her own kind, she was, by all accounts, worse than Angelus. He couldn’t imagine what circumstances would lead to him siring such a monster…

He couldn’t speak for the Spike in this dimension but he didn’t go around siring people. After the first time, he never had - he didn’t count the ones that The First had tricked him into doing - he hadn’t even done that treacherous friend of Buffy’s. Knowing Buffy would stake the boy, when he rose and because Spike always kept his word, he had got one of the minions to do it; the same with ‘skanky school girl’, when he had first come to Sunnydale.

Spike had long ago vowed never to turn anyone, ever again.

He could feel a wave of energy, getting closer; the unmistakable signature of the most powerful master vampire he had ever felt. Evil so thick in the air that he could taste it.

“Well, if it isn’t my little prince.”

Spike looked up and swore, softly under his breath, as he realized. Lilith, the very pinnacle of vampiric evil, was…

His mother. In this dimension, he hadn’t dusted her. Like him, she had renamed herself.

He should have realized.

“Look at you, all grown up.” She sniffed the air, “And fucking the slayer.” She looked at him, through the netting. “All dirty with your soul, too. How ever did that happen?”

Spike gazed at her, in horror. She looked the same as she had, when she had first risen; beautiful, glowing… She was…so….

“Wake up.” The voice was familiar. “Wake up, William.”

Spike blinked. Lilith was gone and he was out of the net, sitting on the floor in a tiny stone cell and bound to the wall with some very sturdy chains.

“Name’s Spike.” He said, looking around to see where he was and who was talking to him.

“I know, I was trying to get your attention. Over here.”

Spike’s gaze fell on the far wall of his cell, where there was a metal grating. Looking at him, through the grating was a very familiar face.

“Master William, presumably?”

“You’ve heard of me?” William sounded surprised.

“Dalton mentioned you. Can you get me out of here?”

“Oh, Spike, I can’t even get myself out of here.” William said, with a despairing sigh.

“How long have you been a prisoner?”

“Since the beginning.”

“Why didn’t you kill her?”

“The way that you did? I had the worst of all luck. The two of us struggled, like the two of you but in my reality, Drusilla came in and started laughing, she distracted me and Mother staked her.

“I was already weak, from siring Mother and losing my sire… well, it just about finished me. While I was unconscious, she got me into a carriage and brought me here. By the time I woke up, I was in this cell. I’ve been in it ever since.”

“What about Uncle Henry…?” Spike asked.

“Mother wiped them all out. Only cousin Julian survived; he was away, at school.”

“And then?” Spike prompted.

“Two vampires came. Angelus and Darla. Angelus was so angry over Drusilla’s death. Mother thralled and killed them both. She has a talent for it.”

“That’s how she got me in here.” Spike said, disgusted with himself.

“Yes. You just walked in and held out your wrists for the manacles. Don’t feel bad. She can do it to anyone. Except me and that’s just because I sired her.”

“She didn’t kill you.” Spike murmured. In one way, he was glad he hadn’t struggled, if he had, Lilith might have found the Gem of Amara, invisible but still tangible, on his finger. He inwardly shuddered at the thought of her with that much power.

“She’s afraid to. After what happened to me when Drusilla died, she won’t risk the same thing happening to her. Who knows, while she is weakened by my death, someone might take the opportunity to finish her off. Besides, she likes to torment me.”

“How do you know what happened in my reality?” Spike asked.

“I’ve made a study of the other dimensions. You killed Mother, as did all the other versions of us. It was only I who messed it up. You killed Mother and then spent a century in thrall to Drusilla, while you waited for our soul mate to be born.”

“Soul mate?” Spike asked but wasn’t sure if he wanted to know the answer. As for being in thrall to Dru, well it would be a lovely cop-out but he didn’t think it was true…

“Buffy. The one girl in all the world who is perfect for us. Once she was born, Drusilla began to lose her hold on you.”

“Us?”

“All of us, across all the dimensions where we exist. Drusilla saw, before she sired us. Don’t you remember what she said? ‘You, walk in worlds the others can’t begin to imagine.’ and in all of those worlds, we were meant to be with Buffy.”

“What about you?”

My Buffy died. Obviously, I never met her; I was stuck in this cell. She led a similar life to your Buffy, although she never met me, or Angelus. She still died twice, was torn out of heaven…”

“How did she finally die?” Spike asked, wanting to know and not wanting to know.

“She spontaneously combusted, while compelled to dance. No one could stop her and, to tell you the truth, she didn’t really want them to. Her sister is queen of a demon dimension, now.”

“My Nibblet had to marry that…that..” Spike roared, pulling at his chains.

“Yes. Well, my Nibblet. Even though I never had the pleasure of meeting Buffy, those monks still made Dawn out of the two of us, just as they made your Nibblet out of you and your Buffy. The Key had to be protected, she needed two strong parents; who better than the greatest slayer the world had ever seen and her soul mate.”

Tears were rolling down Spike’s face, now, as he tried to deal with this new information. Buffy had said it, that Dawn was made from her but if she was only made from Buffy, she would be Buffy’s clone. Obviously, she had a second parent, why had Spike never wondered about that? He closed his eyes and visualized Dawn, her beautiful blue eyes looking up at him, as if he was her big brother and her hero. He couldn’t remember a time when he didn’t love her, even before the chip… no, that wasn’t right, before the chip, she hadn’t existed but he remembered… even without the chip he couldn’t have harmed her.

The logistics made his head hurt.

“Spike?”

“Yeah. I’m OK.” Spike replied, grinding the heels of his hands into his eyes, scrubbing the tears away. ‘I’ve had a daughter, all this time…’

“Against what you and I might believe, she’s happy.”

“What?”

My Dawn. He treats her well, loves her and she’s happy.”

“But, he killed Buffy..”

That Buffy was glad to go, the dancing is a form of suicide. Dawn knows that.”

“How do you know all this stuff?”

“I have had little else to do. Lilith indulges me. Within reason, she’ll bring me whatever I want. It started with a scrying glass. I learned to use it, first to study the past; all the years I’d missed, locked in, down here. Then, I discovered that if I soaked it in my own blood, I could follow other versions of myself, see how various decisions played out, over the years..”

“How many of us have our soul?”

“A few and not all for the same reason. You’d be surprised.”

“Buffy wouldn’t want us without it.”

“Not so. There are realities where neither of you thought it necessary.”

“I don’t understand how that can happen.”

“Tiny things can cause big changes. The butterfly effect, I believe they call it. For instance: In Sunnydale, Buffy is thrown out of her home. She goes to another house, where you, later, find her.”

“One of the best nights of my life.”

“In your reality. In another, Buffy died, from a gun shot - some over-zealous person, protecting their property - before she ever reached the other house. You found her body and faced the sunrise. In another, she couldn’t sleep, you lit a lamp and the two of you made love. While you slept, two vampires saw your light, walked into the house and drained Buffy. From that, two futures - in one, Buffy dies and you face the sunrise. In the other, you sire her, take her to Africa and win her her soul. Of course, there’s also a version where you didn’t win her soul, where you staked her and then yourself. Oh, and one where the two vampires kill you as well.”

“Busy night. Buffy’s really a vampire, somewhere?”

“Yes and you’re extremely happy, together.”

“So, why’s my Buffy shacked up with the bleedin’ Immortal?”

* * * * *

Buffy was dreaming. In the dream, it was the night before the final battle with The First. She and Spike had just made love, in her basement. They’d fallen asleep, cuddled together, on the narrow cot. That had been real; in this dream version, Buffy had woken up. She realized that she was no longer in Spike’s arms. The arm around her belonged to a young, dark-haired woman. Slayer. Somehow, Buffy knew she was a slayer.

She gazed into Buffy’s face with such tenderness and gently pushed a stray hair out of Buffy’s eye.

“I remember how it felt; to love you.” She said, softly.

“Who are you?” Buffy asked.

“When the call comes, follow your heart.” Was her only reply.

Buffy woke up.

* * * * *

“What do you mean, she’s not? I was in Rome, I saw her. She was in a night club, dancing with that poxy Immortal. As soon as she sensed me, she ran off…” Spike explained.

“She was putting on an act. It was all about Angel, she wanted him to leave her alone and The Immortal was helping. They’re friends, that’s all. She‘d no more sleep with him than she would Xander!”

“But, she knew I was there…”

“She sensed you, thought it was your ghost or her guilt. She doesn’t know that you’re still alive. No one bothered to tell her.” William explained, patiently. “Actually, that’s not quite true… Of the people that know that you’re not dead, most of them are keeping the knowledge from her, deliberately. Only one, hasn’t bothered to tell her. Why is that, Spike?”

“I thought she’d be better off, not knowing. I went out, all heroic like, she’s better off remembering me like that…”

Better off? She loves you, you stupid man. She’s alive but she’s not living, she’s just existing. She’s like me, she knows that the only person she can truly be happy with, is dead and gone and she‘s facing the rest of her life, alone.” William was close to tears, now and Spike wondered what it must be like, for him, to have sat in his stone cell for all of these years.

Scrying. Spike knew how much time that took to master. It involved meditation techniques, patience; how bored had William been to get to the point where he watched other dimensions the way Spike watched telly?

“Why us?” Spike asked, suddenly.

“Why us, what?”

“Soul mate to Buffy, protector of the key… why us?”

“I can’t say with any certainty… but, I’ve watched our pasts, all the way across dimensions. The past is easy to watch because it has already happened. The future? Never certain. I can watch the possibilities but I can’t tell which decision will be made by which of us. Our beginnings were all the same, though. Mother conceived us, on her wedding night, on the Rune Stone.”

“Seriously?” Spike didn’t quite know how to take this new information. “Mother, did it outdoors?”

“She had her wedding, here. Uncle Henry threw her a big party. He was always so fond of his little sister. She was rather tipsy from the champagne and took Father to see the stone circle. It was a warm night… she lost her virginity and conceived us, on the centre stone.”

“Blood’s the thing, isn’t it? Those vampires threw blood in my face, before they dragged me across to here. Slayer blood.”

“Yes, The Seven Maidens respond to slayer blood. That’s why no one from your dimension has come over here, accidentally. Not even the boy who opened it on your side. A slayer can, some demons can; vampires need to have slayer blood on them but not us. We have a connection to the stone, we can cross anytime.”

“Why here?”

“How do you mean?” William asked, puzzled.

“There’s so many dimensions, how do we know where we’re going to end up?”

“Oh that’s easy, there are only two open. Seven slayers have to spill blood on the Rune stone on seven consecutive full moons. Do you realize how hard that is?”

“In your world, maybe.”

“Exactly. It was easy, in your world, with so many slayers. It was a lot harder in mine but Lilith managed it. She just loves slayers. They are all that she drinks, she opened the portal to try for another dimension‘s Buffy. You can‘t imagine her rage when she found that her minions couldn‘t pass through the portal, until it was opened somewhere else, as well.”

“So, who…”

Shush!” William said, abruptly. “She’s coming.”






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