Disclaimer: Joss Whedon stopped playing with his characters, but it doesn't mean that I can't play.

Author's Note: Again, sorry! I will try to post another chapter tomorrow. I'm not posting the beta'd chapters, because that is why they have been taking too long and I'm ready to post the whole story. I will edit them at a later time, so no complaints about grammar or nothing! I apologize for the long wait. Here is the next chapter.

Chapter 8: The Past Bites:

Every one of the Scoobies was sitting paying close attention to Oz as he told everyone the situation. The teens had been called home, and some of the more mature and experienced slayers have been brought in on the situation.

"I was just talking to Willow, and there was a flash of orange and then she is gone." Oz looked down as he remembered.

"I bet you had something to do with this. Everything was just fine until you showed up." Kennedy spat out. She was disgusted by the wolves. How many more of the people that they were forced to work with were evil? It didn't matter if they had it under control, there was no gray, Kennedy just saw the black.

Giles started flipping through the texts he had brought with him. "Now is not the time. Oz and Nina had nothing to do with this. Now if you can get over your simple petty jealousy issues, we might be able to learn something out besides the already known fact that you are a bratty snob." Not once did Giles ever look up from his book, it was almost as if he unknowingly said aloud what he was thinking.

Everyone just stared with their mouths open. Some tried to suppress a giggle, which would have turned into raging laughter, while others were in shock. None of them have ever really heard Giles say something like that before, and they were so glad he did because if he didn't, no one would have said what they all wanted to. Kennedy looked as if she was ready to explode.

"Fine. I will just find her myself then!!!" With that Kennedy stormed out of the apartment.

"Is she always like that?" Nina looked at the recently slammed door, and as an answer received unison of yes's.

"Now if we can get on with it. It appears that Willow has been abducted by Elenya, and because of the lack of response from Buffy, Spike, Gunn, and Xander, we have to assume that they have been taken as well. I have done research and I haven't been able to add much more to the information we received from Illyria. Now as I come to understand it, Elenya sends out the weaker of her soldiers first, to target little fears or past regrets. It says in one text that she sends her victims into a parallel dimension; these dimensions are of her own creation. She creates them using the memories of her victims to create the location and those who they must face there."

"Does it say how we can get them back because; the only one who could even help us with it on the magic's is there?" Dawn asked and yet part of her knew that she wasn't going to like the answer.

Giles rummaged around some books, grabbed a very old and worn book and started to flip through the pages." It says here that 'Those who have been taken will remain there trapped in the location that the dimension has taken form of. It is one specific location and cannot change until the desired task or tasks have been carried out."

"So are you saying that there are trials and tests that they have to pass?" Wood questioned.

"In a fashion. The tasks are either…dear lord." Giles put down the text and started to clean his glasses. "It appears that they and their opponents are the tasks. Neither can leave until the other's existence on that particular plane has deceased. In which, case the remaining character is sent back to this dimension usually to home or wherever Elenya specified."

Faith perked up, "That means that any nasty that defeats any of us in these places, is set free if we die and have free reign on this plane. Damn."

"They are as real as they once were to us, but they are smarter, stronger, and more powerful than ever before."

Faith raised her hand." Then my vote is for the 'Let's Not Die' side."

Giles looked at the five new girls in the group. They were the most qualified and showed the most potential out of the new recruits. "I need each of you to do something for me. Carlie. I need you and Vanessa to wake up the remaining slayers and set up patrol units around the town. Don't stop until the others return. Take shifts if you must." The two twin blondes nodded their heads and briskly walked out the door. "Alyssa, Reagan." A small brunette and red head, both about the age of 17 looked up. "I need you to go wake up the watchers and alert them of all that has happened, tell them to alert the rest of the Head Council, I want everyone everywhere on research and patrol." Lastly an older Asian girl with beautiful black hair remained. " Kimmie. I need you to alert the coven and ask them to help track down these new planes. When you're done patrol with the others." Like the rest she too went out the door.

Vi looked around at all the others. "What should we do?"

"The rest of us should look at the texts I have brought and wait for reports and the others returns." Everyone looked grim and tired yet they each grabbed a book and got to work.


"Jessie?"

"Well, Well, Well. Looks like you remember me. It must have been easy for you. With the loss of your best friend, you gain a hot new slayer." Jesse's smile faded as he spit his words out like venom. "I watched you. Watched as I was never mentioned again, watched as you forgot. Forgot me. Forgot your past. And now isn't this fortunate, because now we are both back."

Xander looked taken aback. He was looking into the eyes, even though cold, they were still the eyes of his best friend he had lost so many years ago. He had looked back from time to time, looking back at memories, but told himself not to dwell on the past, and come to accept the new changes in his life. Xander went to Jessie's funeral, not many people were there. He was never the most popular. Xander watched as they lowered the empty coffin into the grave, and as they did Xander took out the handful of dust he had scooped up from the Bronze floor and released it into the grave. "I know you're not him. You are just one of Elenya's toys to mess with our minds."

"Ah, Xander, Xander, Xander. That my friend is where you are mistaken. I am just as real as you are, I am him. I have every memory, every scar, and every trait he had, those when he was both alive and what he became. Now here is the true test, Harris. Can you kill me? Can you kill the guy you once called your best friend?" Jesse snickered as he started to circle Xander like a predator stalks its prey.

"You are not him. You don't have a soul, everything that was Jessie, is gone. All that is left is the demon. And if I recall correctly, I did kill you."

"NO! You didn't Harris! You couldn't kill me. You tried, but you couldn't. You got lucky when that human at the Bronze ran into you and sent the stake straight into my unseating heart. You would have never been able to. You were always weak Xander. Hell, even little non-Wicca Willow, was stronger than you. And hell of a lot smarter. Has the years taught you nothing? Jessie is still in me, suppressed, but he still lies within the surface. I am surprised you are still sticking to that idea, especially after everything with Spike and Angel. You really were as dense as you looked."

"Shut up." Xander started getting angry, and at the same time, fear started to fill his senses. Not the fear of facing a vampire, but the fear of facing his friend, who in a twisted way, was telling the truth that Xander had been trying to deny. In one quick move Jessie had Xander pinned against the same exact wooden raining he had been staked on, and it started it crack under the force. Xander was starting to feel dizzy, but it was after he realized the fangs in his neck that the dizziness was not coming from the blow.


"Well, Illyria looks like everything is going to plan with the insolent boy. He is already on schedule, but now let's checks on the other's progress." Elenya's gaze moved from one glowing orb to another, which contained the slayer. Another's gaze moved from one orb to another. Illyria was no longer in the cage, but paralyzed forced to watch everything Elenya was doing or whatever she was about to.


Buffy immediately tensed up and got into a battle stance. Luckily for her, the stake that she had placed him her back pocket was still existent, and she reached for it, only to see Ford move so quickly, and grab it before she even got a chance to grab.

"Why end it so soon, again. Is it so much to ask for a bit of time to talk with an old friend? I mean with you it is always stake first ask questions later. Though I must admit you are getting better. And the only reason why that is, is that you keep fucking around with these vampires. Maybe you just are waiting to replace the one you got again after he got his soul and all. You are worse than they are. That is my theory that is why you always fall for the most dangerous and cut throat. That's how you pick them so that next one will be even more of a monster than you."

Buffy sent a punch flying at his nose, which Ford easily dodged and flung her straight into a wall. "Oops! Did I hit a sore spot? Why are you trying this old crap with me? Do some new moves or something; your act is getting old. It always got old. Like in fifth grade when you fawned over me for months at a time. "Ford stalked over to where Buffy was on the floor and through her into another wall. " This time everything is different. You are the weak one. And I am ten times stronger than you. When I kill you I think I'll turn you, I've been wondering what a vampire Buffy would be like. Though I will find out soon enough when she finishes off your boy toy." A smirk formed at the edges of his mouth.

"Spike." Terror clouded Buffy's vision as her fear took control. Giving her already weakened state and her mind focus on the fate of her undead lover, she never saw as Ford's fangs leant in toward her neck.


Spike stared into the yellow eyes of his undead lover. "What is this? This never happened."

"Oh, but Spikey it did. Once upon a hellmouth, a watcher had a nightmare that his slayer was a vampire, and all the little nightmares came to life. That is where I come into that fairytale. You like fairytales don't you Spike. Especially the ones where the beast turns into a handsome prince in the end, but life's not a fairytale, and you will be nothing more than a beast. I see that, she sees that, everyone sees that. Including you. You think a soul changes everything, but people with souls murder and ravage. One day you are going to be pushed too far and SNAP! I stop being make believe and become a reality. "

"I get it. Elenya's trying to ruffle me up a bit. Get me quakin in my boots. Well, it isn't working. Now, let's stop with the talk and get to the fighting shall we."

And so it began. Spike pulled a kick to the vampire's chest sending her into a tombstone, yet she quickly jumped back up.

"That's right Spike. Kick me. Hurt me. You know you have been dying to sink your teeth into my precious neck." Vampire Buffy walked over and tilted her neck running a long finger down it shedding her vampire face, trading it for the young slayers. "All that blood always pumping through my veins. Just one taste or just one little bite, and that is all you need to get the sweet elixir that you've been craving since you first saw me dancing at the Bronze." The vampire's finger that had been tracing up and down her neck had started to cut the flesh, releasing drops of blood, and emitting the metallic scent into the air. She circled him, and his eyes followed hungrily as he watched each gush of blood glisten on her neck. "I saw you, you know. That day at the Bronze. I danced for you and you eyed me just like you are now. I bet you can still hear my heart beat that day, rising the longer you watched, just begging you to take me."

Spike leaned in closer, unaware of the thrall and its true effect on him, the smell of her blood clouding his senses, blurring the image between the vampire and his slayer. Unaware of the wooden stake gripped tightly behind the girl's back.


"Looks like you've seen a ghost? Didn't you miss me while I was gone?"

Gunn's face hardened. "I know it isn't you, I knew that a long time ago, right when I struck you with that stake."

"You mean this one." Alonna revealed the stake that was hanging on her waist. "I am faster and stronger than before. You on the other hand, sat behind a desk and signed papers, and the first real good fight you had, you almost bled to death. You're rusty. I am not. Your aging I'm not. The favors are not on your side, big bro. Why don't you just give in to what you denied all those years ago, right before you took my life away from me. You like to do that don't you. Take other's lives away. You did it to Fred."

"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Gunn was filled with rage as he punched through vampire sending her sprawling to the floor. "You don't get to talk about them that way! YOU ARE NOTHING!"

Alonna stumbled forward with a bleeding lick which she quickly licked. " That is it. Let it all out. All the pain you caused a family, by taking the life of their daughter, the one your friend loved. Even though you had your heart ripped out hundreds of times, the pain didn't compare to the aching feeling of your marked soul. Or wait. What about the professor. Her professor. You killed him too. Whatever happened to the mission. I think you were corrupted long before you stepped a foot into that law office. And it all started with me. Now I think it is about time you let me finish what I have started."

Alonna smashed Gunn's head into a wall and slipped her fangs into the protruding vein on his neck.


"Didn't expect to see me again did you?" The vampire look just like she did years ago, though as did Willow, she aged mirroring the exact look of the older redhead.

"Well, truthfully no. Do you need to get back again, I could do a spell. A lot better than I go awhile back." As she said this the doppelganger walked forward causing her to timidly step back.

"No I don't need a spell to get out this time. Well….it is a spell all in itself. See if you die, I am free."

"Adstringo." Willow waited for something to happen, but nothing did. Willow's eyes widened as she tried to run, but was quickly caught by the vampire who held Willow's hands behind her back.

"Not so fast puppy. I haven't even started playing. Magic is funny isn't it. If a place is completely created from magic, old , dark magic. The rest of the dark magic simply disappear, leaving you helpless." The vampire pulled back Willow's hair to the side and licked her neck.

Willow's last thought was a shocking one, even with the fear and threat of dying right in front of her, she thought of the most amusing thing, the doppelganger had done a good thing for her. She helped her figure out she could be gay. With that Vampire Willows fangs slipped into her skin.


Illyria started struggling thrashing her head violently, trying to gain feeling back into her lower limbs. "Well, looks like everything is going faster than usual. I thought they were supposed to be strong, and yet they were so easily defeated? My reign has just begun and know I have knowledge on how to handle them next. Intriguing. " Elenya left the room turning her back on the multiple orbs that faded back to a black abyss signaling the end of the dimension and the life of one of its occupants.


"Giles, they have been gone for three hours! We can't just sit here and sift through these books!" Dawn slammed the book back on the table and everyone looked up. "We have to do something a spell or something. We have to get there. Who knows what they are doing or what is happening to them."

Andrew walked over and placed a hand on the young brunette's shoulder. " There is nothing else we can do but help look through the texts. . They are all strong and can take care of themselves. I am afraid if it were me I wouldn't be so lucky. They can take care of themselves.'

An orange glow filled the room, as it faded five figure were standing in the middle of the room gazing at their surroundings.

"I've really got to stop poppin out of now where into a bloody room full of people."


Before:

Xander was struggling as he felt the life slowly drain out of him drop by drop. He might only have one eye, but he could clearly see that he was in a dire situation and knew he needed to escape. The line running through his head was ' remember Jessie' over and over again. Somehow he was the key.

"Turn me…" Xander barley choked it out of his mouth, but the pressure on his neck lessened as he felt the fangs emerge.

"What?" The vampire was truly shocked at this request. He had been given the memories of his friend, and he had treated with such hostility and disgust, and yet here he was asking to become the one thing he despises most in this world.

Xander was gaining some blood back, yet he couldn't get enough he needed. All he had to do was keep him distracted. " I said turn me. You said I forgot. I passed off your death, but I didn't. I remembered I remembered every day. Every day I remembered you. I remembered you as a reason to keep fighting, a reason to help. I know you're not really him, but if you are going to kill me, I wanted to get that off my chest and say it." Xander was now able to stand without leaning on the cracked wooden railing. " And most importantly I just wanted to say that, so you know that I killed you because I loved you. You were my best friend."

"But you've never killed—" Xander mustered up his remaining strength and pushed against his friend and showed him into the broken railing watching once again as his friend turn to dust. And the rest faded to black.


Though as the fangs descended towards the slayer's neck , she thought about her undead lover, and waited for the opportune moment, as he leaned in she grabbed the back of his neck and slammed it against the wall. Spike had taught her this, well he didn't know it but he did. It was a little over a year ago, when he was teaching the potentials about a vampires' attack.

"Vi, what do you do if a vampire is leaning in to bite your neck?" Spike walked in front of the dozen of potentials and looked each one in the eyes. Buffy was standing behind him watching him as he moved, as he enjoyed teaching them, yet only she could see how it affected him by the way he moved or the way he looked. She knew him.

Vi stuttered," You fight or-or-or scream.."

"No. You wait and let him touch your neck."

Buffy's eyes had widened in surprise, but did not act. Curiosity got the best of her. Many of the potentials gripped their stakes a little tighter.

Spike moved over towards Buffy in game face, and leaned in towards her as he explained." At this point, a vampire believes they won, and the bloodlust consumes them so much so that they are unaware of the victim's actions. This is when you attack. Any farther away, and a vampire can feel your body tense, and sense your actions, but when their right here," Spike leaned in closer to Buffy's neck, unaware of the quickening of her pulse or his unnecessary breathing sending shivers up her back. " They are oblivious to everything including the reactions or movements of the person in their grasp."

She pulled back the stake she had stole while Ford was leaning in , and staked the consumed vampire watching as the dust settled and blackness engulfed her.


Spike reacted within a second pulling the vampire Buffy so that their chests were touching, and that is when he pushed back and drove the stake through him and into the girl's heart. Spike had lived with Drusilla most of his undead life, thrall had never worked on him because he learned to reflect it. Dru had quite a few times uses it on him and each time it got easier to loosen the pull until it was almost non-existent. Watching the face of the woman he loved turn to dust, broke his heart. Spike knew it wasn't her, but the vampire's words still floated in his brain. All it took was one second of relapse one moment of getting lost , and that could be her fate. That burned him up inside, as he watched his vision faded to black.

Gunn didn't react. He didn't move. Part of him wanted to given, more so than it had those years ago. He truly believed that this is what he deserved, for all the pain he caused, for all the mistakes he made. He wanted it all to end.

But, the other part, showed Alonna, running along the roof top at the age of 5, with Gunn chasing after her to make sure she didn't fall. Alonna was basked in sunlight, that glowed around her to make her silhouette glow like a fallen angel. Gunn had never been happier seeing her free spirit even through the life that they both lived. That was the day he made a vow to himself to be her protector.

Gunn remembered that promise. All the insecurity and guilt of the day she died passed like a storm, and the light shown through again, and he saw her , the silhouette of his fallen angel. Gunn reached out and grabbed the stake that he had put through the heart of his sister years ago, and Gunn protected his sister, and released the demon sending it back to dust, and watched as the falling angel returned back home. Gunn protected her that day, he did the right thing. As he did today, he protected the memory of his sister . The last thing Gunn saw was the pile of ashes on the floor, being blown as everything faded to the darkness.


Willow's hair turned a bright shade of white as the pure power flowed through her veins into that of the doppelganger. She was unique, and the vampire reminded her of the one who made her that way. The one that changed her world and showed her a new one, and only part of that was her orientation.

"Everything has a balance. Did you know that even a world made up of evil has one?" Tara rubbed tiny circles on the redheads back as her lover flipped through a book.

"How, if the only force is evil how is it balanced without the good." Willow looked up in Tara's eyes awaiting her answer.

"That is the balance. It is balanced because there is no pureness, if there was to be too much good exposed into the dimension, the balance would be broken destroying the evil that came in contact with the good. It works the same way in opposite dimensions. If there is too much good, and a dark force were to unbalance it, it would undo the good. That is the reason why the good want to maintain a balance of good and evil. When one tips the other disintegrates, which could end the populations of demon and humans both. Not all demons are bad and not all humans are good, so we all carry a little bit of the other. If one force were to tip, everything would disappear except the pure."

"It must take a lot of power to do that though I mean a whole world."

"I think you could do that." Tara smiled.

"No, Me? Maybe you but I am not that special." Willow shook her head. Never would she have that much power.

"But you are."

The vampire Willow's ashes swirled in the room as the white light engulfed the library, and faded as everything turned to black.


The five figures stood in the middle of the living room gazing at everything, looking at it in a new light because of the knowledge they gained and the internal struggles they faced. All, but one took in everything freshly. He gained the knowledge of what would be the result if anything were to happen if he got lost from his path even for a second. One moment of anger or pain, or even happiness could do more harm. Spike gazed into the eye's of Buffy, and saw the beautiful green orbs, and in a mere second, he knew what he had to do, because in her eyes he lost himself, and everything around him. Spike only saw her, and now the haunting image of what could be if he got too close.

TBC