A/N : A few more shocks and surprises for you...
(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 10 - Facing Fears

"Bloody hell!" Spike cursed, scrambling to his feet and facing the space where the front door had once been. He pulled Dawn and Joyce behind him and both look petrified as a small blonde woman they all knew now as Glory stepped into the house and smiled.

"Hey, sorry to just barge in on the family gathering" she said, sounding all sweetness and light for a moment, "but I need to talk to that pesky Slayer girl who didn't disappear like she was supposed to, and still has my Key!" she said, getting more and more frustrated, angry, and crazy-looking as she went on.

"Disappear?" Spike frowned, wondering what the Hell-God meant by that. She didn't seem the type to mince her words. If she meant she wanted the Slayer dead then she would've said so. Disappear suggested actual vanishing, disintegrating, or... being pulled out of this world into another perhaps?

"Seems your little dimension jumpin' plan didn't go so well then" Spike smirked, liking the fact he knew more than this skank did right now. She seemed to think her spell or whatever had done no good at all when in fact it had done something in seemingly trading one Buffy for another across dimensions.

"Like it matters" Glory laughed, rolling her eyes, "Boys, take care of this pesky vampire with the radioactive head" she instructed them with a wave of her hand as a flock of minions appeared from beyond the door, all rushing at Spike. A couple also went for Joyce and Dawn, but Spike protected them as he knew Buffy would want him to, despatching them easily. Unfortunately the twenty or so that followed over-powered him and held him tight. Another pair picked up the coffee table, smashing it on the floor til one lone minion stood before Spike, a shard of wood in his hand.

"Ooh, look how feisty he is" Glory said with glee, clapping her hands like an excited child as she watched her minions attempt to dust Spike who was constantly fighting back, making it impossible for Jinx to take proper aim at his heart with the make-shift stake. Dawn screamed and cried as her friend, the vampire, was beaten and almost killed. Joyce tried to shield her from the violence and found even she herself could not bear to watch as they huddled in the corner.

"Stop!" a voice from the stairs caught everyone's attention and they all looked up to see Buffy descending the stairs, "Let him go!"

"Oh, look, little Miss High-and-Mighty Slayer thinks she can tell me what to do?" Glory snapped, "Not a chance, sweetie. Not unless you give me my Key!"

"Your Key?" she scoffed, and Spike stopped struggling against his would-be captors, who seemed to have forgotten about him for the moment anyway, and stared up at the Slayer with a frown on his face. She looked and sounded like his Buffy, the one that belonged here, more so now than she had all day today or yesterday. He doubted they'd been switched back so suddenly, and yet the original change over must've been pretty fast.

"Yes, my Key, you idiot girl!" Glory snapped, becoming agitated once again, "Now, where is it? You tell me or I swear I get with the killing. Starting with your boyfriend here" she said with a smirk as she took the stake from Jinx's hand and aimed it at Spike's chest. She'd seen the look that passed between Slayer and vampire as Buffy had appeared on the stairs. Very touching if you were the sappy kind, very twisted in reality given their true natures, but ultimately it worked to Glory's advantage.

"No" Buffy gasped, her faked bravado slipping when she realised just how serious her apparent enemy was about despatching Spike, "Let him go!" she urged the other blonde, who grinned. She loved the panic she could see and smell coming off the Slayer in great tidal waves.

"What's he worth to you, Slayer?" Glory asked, reaching out a hand to Spike's face and walking her fingers down his cheek, "He's kinda hot, for a cold-blooded" she considered, "but he won't be, in precisely ten seconds if I don't get my Key!" she suddenly snapped and Buffy fought to keep her emotions in check as Spike winced at the feeling of the stake pressed against his breast-bone.

"I don't have it here, but I can get it" the Slayer said quickly, "The Key, I'll get it for you, if you let Spike go" she said bravely as Dawn shook violently, crying in her mothers arms.

"Making deals now, huh?" Glory smirked, "Fine. I'll play" she agreed easily, "but the vampire comes with us until I get my Key"

Buffy looked first relieved then shocked and upset as she watched the scruffy little minions drag her lover away. Okay, so this Spike wasn't really hers to claim but he was the closest thing she had here in this world, and the thought he might die at the hands of some Hell Goddess frightened the life out of her. She knew there was nothing she could do to change this though as Glory followed her tribe of demon helpers to the door and turned back to look at the clearly rattled Summers family.

"You have until sunrise to bring me my Key" she said with an evil smile, "Or BleachBoy fries, and I come back for the rest of your sorry little band of wannabes, Slayer" she said simply before she was suddenly gone.

"Mom" Dawn whimpered, "What do we do?"

"I don't know, honey" she admitted, looking to Buffy for an answer as she held her younger daughter close, stroking her hair.

"Oh my God" the blonde exclaimed as she made it off the bottom of the stairs at last, running her hands over her face and then back through her hair as she paced the room apparently in shock, "Oh God, what do I do?"

"Sweetheart, you do have a plan, don't you?" her mother prompted, "To save Spike, without handing over the Key?"

"Uh, the Key, yeah" she echoed, suddenly looking at her mother with a strange expression, "I can't give her the Key, I don't even know what it is!" she admitted.

"It's me, Buffy" Dawn gulped, her tears starting to run dry by now, "I'm the Key"

The Slayer stared at the girl she'd learnt was her little sister in this world, wondering what all this meant and how she was supposed to cope with it. The choice before her seemed to be sacrifice her sister to a demon woman, or let the alternate version of her lover die at the hands of the same enemy.

"I can't do this" she said shaking her head, "I'm not supposed to do this, this is Faith's job, I just..." she came close to tears and Joyce interrupted.

"It's okay, honey" she assured her, not really believing it, but knowing somehow she had to hold it together, even when nobody else seemed able, "I'll call Rupert, he'll know what to do" she suggested, hoping she was right as she let go of her still shaking daughter and headed for the phone.

"I don't know how to deal with this" Buffy shook her head, "How to be the hero. It's not me"

"You're wrong" Dawn corrected her, sniffing still, "The other Buffy, she knows how to do this, which means you do too, you just never had to where you're from, cos you always had Faith and Spike to help you"

"You think I can save you and Spike and everybody from that... that demon-woman who can blow open doors without even trying?!" she checked, wondering if this Key girl was in fact insane.

"I know you can" she nodded her head, "I believe in you, Buffy. You're my sister, no matter what world you're from, and I know you can do this"

The Slayer herself appreciated the sentiment but she wasn't so sure.

"I feel a little bad, making you sleep down here" Buffy said guiltily as Spike laid out on the couch for the night once again.

After many hours of pounding the books, Wes had several theories about alternate realities but as yet no concrete way for Buffy to dimension jump back to where she came from. In the meantime, it seemed this version of Miss Summers was stuck where she was, with an alternate Spike who was much friendlier than the one from her own world.

"That an invite to come share with you now is it pet?" the vampire asked, head tilted to one side as he stared at her with a suggestive smirk on her lips.

"You wish" she rolled her eyes, not half so offended by his remark as she might've been in her own reality, faced with what she considered to be the real Spike.

"Not denying it, luv" he admitted, and watched her face fall, "Sorry, Slayer, not fair of me"

"It's okay" she shrugged, "You're suffering in this just as much as I am. I miss the versions of my family and friends that I know, and you miss your version of, well, me"

"That I do, pet" he nodded as she sat down in the armchair, watching him as he laid on the couch with his arm behind his head, staring at the ceiling, recounting memories, "She means bloody everything to me, has since the first day I laid my soddin' eyes on her" he smiled to himself, "I was a fool for love. Gave up the world I knew, my black goddess, Drusilla, the reputation I'd worked so bloody hard for. None of it meant a damn thing anymore. I was head over heels for Buffy Summers, latest Slayer, and there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it"

"I fell for someone like that once" Buffy sighed, staring at her hands in her lap, "I'd've given up everything for him, but Angel..." she trailed off when she realised this wasn't the time or place to be sharing, and certainly the wrong person to be telling this to.

"But Angel...?" Spike urged her, much to her surprise, "Go on, pet"

"I guess he didn't love me the way I loved him" she sighed, "He said that he did but I could never have walked away from him, the way he walked away from me. No matter how much us being together hurt us and others around us, it was worse when he left" her voice shook with tears and Spike nodded that he understood, after all he was suffering a little of that pain right now. Despite the fact he was sitting here, not three feet from the girl he loved, it wasn't really her at all, and it hurt his heart to think this could potentially be the best things ever got. There were no guarantees they'd be able to change the two versions of Buffy back.

"'S a bugger, unrequited love" he said softly, swinging his legs off the couch and coming to sit beside her, handing a tissue to the Slayer, from the box on the coffee table, "'S not the easiest of things even when you're both feelin' it either"

"Tell me about it" Buffy agreed with half a smile, "Y'know in my world, you still... well, the other Spike, he says he loves me" she admitted, not really sure why she was doing so and yet it didn't feel so bad to say it out loud right now.

"But you don't feel the same?" he asked curiously, also wondering why he even wanted to know, but feeling he needed to somehow.

"He's not like you" she shook her head, "Sometimes he helps out but he's still mostly evil, despite the chip and everything"

"Chip?" Spike frowned, not understanding.

"It's complicated" Buffy sighed, not hugely surprised that this alterna-Spike didn't need the behavioural modification technology that controlled the same vampire in her own dimension, after all this version was just so much nicer, "Point is, you're not such a nice guy in my world as you are here" she said softly as she turned to look at him, his face just inches from her own.

"'S a funny thing" he said, just as quietly, "Cos 'I'm the boss' vibe not withstanding" he smirked, pushing her hair behind her ear as his eyes studied every feature of her face, "You're just the same, just as beautiful, you are..." he said, words trailing away as his hand slipped behind her head and his lips descended onto her own.

To Be Continued...