"So…um, what now?" Buffy asked, her eyes darting to Spike and away again, flushing when he met her gaze with a quirked eyebrow. "I mean…you said all these things about defeating Twilight, with the dramatic voice, and the spaceship, and the blue-haired woman in the really tight suit-" She stopped abruptly, reddening even more and wrapping her arms around herself. "Um. How are we supposed to stop it?"

He smirked at her, shrugging away the way the look in her eyes still made his heart ache. Damn, but he still loved her, regardless of what he'd decided. And that wouldn't be a factor in the here and now, but to be so close to her and still keep a distance was quickly becoming a hell far worse than any pain he'd endured before. "You need to have sex with me," he announced nonchalantly.

"What?"

"Spike…" Angel ground out from somewhere behind him.

He rolled his eyes. "No, my dear lovebirds. Sex is not the answer. Now, I don't know if you remember this, but you two and sex? Never a good mix."

"Enough, Spike," Willow said reprovingly, but her eyes were dancing with an almost spiteful mirth. The two girls behind her both fidgeted. The first one, a much older and more put together Dawn, arched a brow at him playfully. And the second, a Japanese slayer he'd never seen before…

…She looked devastated and furious, all at once. And gods, but he knew that look.

He tore his eyes away from her to look back at Buffy and Giles. "Right. What happened is, Illyria and I took a gander at the future as it was destined and all that rot. S'not pretty."

"You visited the future?" Willow asked, interested. "Not-"

"Fray," Buffy put in, white-faced. "You went to Fray's time."

"Yeah." He nodded to the ship. "Met her for a bit. She helped us steal the ship. Turns out that you two play Adam and Eve, create a whole new world with no slayers and destroy the old world."

"But there was a slayer," Willow pointed out. "There was Fray and her brother."

"Because the so-called gods of the world were finally killed, and with their deaths, a new slayer was finally called." Spike tossed Willow a sidelong glance. "They called the killer the Mad Woman."

Buffy let out a little gasp. Willow sat back heavily. "Ah."

"But it won't happen like that now," Faith said, frowning thoughtfully. "Buffy came back here."

"So did I, you know," Angel mumbled. They all ignored him.

"No." Giles spoke for the first time, his face grave. "It will. How else could Spike's craft still exist?"

"It's inevitable," Angel murmured, and flinched when they all turned to glare at him. "Giles agrees with me!" he said defensively.

Spike shrugged. "Way I see it, the world and the slayer line is safe only once we defeat Twilight. And that hasn't happened yet."

"Can I talk to you? Alone?" Buffy said stiffly, rising suddenly to stand in front of him.

He blinked. "Yeah, sure."

She followed him back toward the ship, and it was out of courtesy for her position at the head of her troops that he waited until they were out of hearing range to ask, "Don't you think the reunion chat can wait?"

Buffy smacked him on the arm. "The world doesn't revolve around you, Spike. This isn't about…us." She sighed. "The Mad Woman…it's Will. Under the influence of dark magic."

He nodded. "I know."

She was silent for a moment, leaning against the side of the ship with sudden weariness. "Please don't let them bring me back this time."

"Buffy?" The name rolled off his tongue so easily that it was hard to believe that he hadn't spoken it in over a year. She met his eyes, and Spike saw the sorrowful acceptance in her eyes, the understanding of the only way they really could win this. "No," he said firmly, a hand moving almost of its own power to her arm and giving it a comforting little squeeze. "There's going to be another way. You're not going to die."

"It's not like it sticks anymore, anyway," she murmured, giving him a sad smile. "How long have you been back?"

"You didn't know, then," he concluded, a bit relieved. Yeah, the fact that she'd never contacted him had been good for him. But wondering if she'd known, and if she'd just decided that he wasn't worth the bother…it had nearly killed him to consider it.

"How could I?" she said, her eyes flashing with sudden anger. "You never told me! You never called or wrote- or anything! You had time to go time-travelling with the Smurf-girl, and never a minute to stop by and say, 'Hey, remember me? I'm still with the walking dead, just thought I'd let you know!'"

"I thought that Andrew told you-"

"Andrew?" she repeated disbelievingly. "You were counting on Andrew?" Her voice softened to a pained whisper as she reached over to cup his cheek. "How could you possibly think that I wouldn't come to you the instant I found out you were alive?"

He closed his eyes and reached over to gently guide her hand away from his. "Buffy…"

She shook her head. "It's the blue girl, isn't it? You've moved on. I get it."

"No, it's not that." He shoved his hands into the pockets of his duster, fiddling with a packet of smokes with his left hand. "Buffy, I've spent the past few years figuring out who I am. When I first got the soul, I defined myself by just one word- yours. And now I'm trying to be more, to understand what I can be on my own." She held his gaze, and the understanding that he could see in her eyes heartened him. "William was a useless ponce. Soulless me was just a demon. Now I'm something else entirely, and I need to be that person first, but when you're around, you strip it all away and make me want to just be your lapdog again. I can't do that anymore." He considered and felt obliged to say, "Not to mention that a few hours ago, you were fucking the unliving daylights out of my sire."

She flushed. "I don't- there was this glow-" She fell silent, wringing her hands together in shame and despair, and there was a tense silence.

Spike was immensely grateful when Illyria emerged from the ship with a limp purple fish in her hand. "This one no longer holds any amusement for me, Spike," she informed him. "You will find me a more befitting sea creature. I will have a shark next."

He tossed off a lazy salute in her direction. "Whatever you say, Blue."

Buffy caught his arm before he could move away. "Thank you," she said finally. "For coming to help us."

He fidgeted, suddenly uncomfortable. He'd expected to arrive while Angel and Buffy were ascending their heavenly thrones together, to just see Giles and help him take them down. He hadn't wanted to see her, hadn't wanted to speak to her, not when it reawakened these old feelings in him. And now she was here regardless of how things should have been and gazing at him with a look he'd so rarely seen from her before, offering something he couldn't take. "You know me," he said, trying to sound flippant. It came out as an utterance of a prayer. "Saving the world…it's sort of a hobby of mine."

She flashed him a wry smile as they turned to face the expectant crowd of slayers and watchers. "That makes two of us."