CHAPTER 10

"So...let me get this straight, Red - we haven't moved dimensions after all?"

"Uh huh."

 Stirring the fire that he'd lit when the suns had gone down, Spike glanced up at Willow

once more. "Sorry, Red, I still don't get it - you're going to have to go over all that

again."

Well, you see it is not us that have moved dimensions but the dimensions themselves that

have moved," Willow explained eagerly, her eyes shining as she went into 'lecture mode'.

"Ah well, that's all explained, then," Spike muttered sarcastically, shaking his head in

exasperation. "Now everything has become as clear...as mud!"

"Okaaay," Willow sighed. "Let me put it another way. Once upon a time, long, long

ago..."

"Oh bloody hell, not again," moaned Spike.

"What! What did I say?" asked a bewildered Willow.

"Let's just say that we've heard that line one too many times this week already," Buffy

dryly informed her. "Pay no attention to the complaining vampire, Willow, explain away"

"Um, well, yes," muttered Willow. "Well, as I was saying... long, long time ago, our

dimension didn't exist. Instead, our dimension was a part of a larger, demonic reality.

Then, for reasons unknown, the powers that be cut that dimension in half and created our

reality from one of the pieces."

For a moment, Buffy's mind flitted back to the 'panther' in the white room and what he

had told him about the origins of their reality. "Okay, I've heard a rather longwinded

version of this story before, so you don't have to go into details, Willow," she said aloud. 

"What I wanna know is what has that got to do with here."  

"'Here' is that reality, Buffy," Willow said softly. "Or it is that dimension if it had never

been split apart. Someone, or something, has warped reality so that the two halves have

become one again...why, I don't know."

"A test," Spike muttered under his breath.

"Hmmm?"

"I said that it is a bloody test, Willow," Spike told her tiredly.

"I don't understand..." began Willow.

"It's the 'Powers That Be', luv," Spike interrupted. "Apparently, we've been bold little

children and now we're going to have to prove that we're worthy of getting our old lives

back - lovely, innit?" Silence reigned in the night as Spike's words sank in.

"Oooh, this could be bad," Willow eventually said, her voice small, as she hugged her

knees. "We're going to have to find the others quickly."

"The others?" Buffy's head snapped up. "What others?" she asked sharply.

"Oh, didn't I already mention that," Willow said, looking away from the slayer's narrow

gaze. "Well, you see, when whatever happened...happened, I figured out that something

big was in the offing. I mean, the earth actually groaned, Buffy. I've never felt anything

like it, the power was..."

"Willooow!" The warning tone in Buffy's voice brought her back onto the subject.

"Sorry," she muttered. "Well, I wasn't sure exactly what was going to happen so I didn't

know how to go about stopping it, all I knew was that it was going to be something big,

so I did the only thing that came to mind. I cast the most powerful protection spell that I

knew so as to isolate us from what was going to happen - it worked too," she added

excitably. "While everything changed around us, everything inside my barrier was

unaffected. That's why I'm here; I managed to prevent us from being subsumed by the

changes."

"You said 'us', Willow," observed Buffy. "Where is everybody else?"

"Um, you see..."

"Spit it out, Red," Spike grumbled impatiently. "I know I'm immortal and all but there is

only so long I'm willing to wait."

"Well, something kinda happened as we made the final transition into this reality," Willow

reluctantly admitted. "I'm not exactly sure what, exactly. I had those protection barriers

as solid as I could make them, but at the moment final moment, when we phased into this

reality, parts of the barrier began to crumble and break away. I...I...couldn't hold

everybody together. As far as I know, they've been scattered all over this continent..."

 "It's going to be okay, Willow," Buffy said softly. "We'll find them, everything will be

fine."

Spike didn't look so sure, however. "A continent is a lot of ground to cover, luv," he

said. "And this world isn't exactly what you would call people friendly..."

Buffy glanced up sharply and glared at him warningly. "We'll find them," she bit out.

"And everything will be fine!"

Spike raised his hands up in surrender, looking at Willows bowed head and with a

mixture of wary commiseration and impatience. "Whatever you say, luv," he muttered,

leaning back onto his elbows.

"It's not as bad as all that," Willow eventually mumbled. "I did a locator spell and I

actually got a couple of hits - that's how I found you," she added.

"See," Buffy said brightly. "We've already got a game-plan, Willow can point out where

everybody is, that way we don't have to waste time covering ground we don't need to."

"Or I could translocate them here," Willow suggested. "I was thinking of doing something

along those lines before I found you."

"That sounds good too, Willow," Buffy said comfortingly. "We'll start on that first thing in

the morning."

Spike frowned but kept his mouth shut as Buffy threw him another warning glance.

Muttering under his breath, he leaned forward and gave the fire another stir.

"Anybody hungry?" Willow suddenly piped up. "Coz my stomach has suddenly gone all

grumbly...I could whip us up some sandwiches...and maybe a cup of blood, too."

"Bloody hell!" Spike said, perking up. "I never thought of that. You could manifest a

three course meal if we wanted, couldn't you, Red?"

"Well...yes," Willow replied hesitantly. "But I wouldn't want to conjure up anything too

overboard...I have to do all those translocation spells tomorrow and I'll need a lot of my

strength for that."

"At this moment, luv, bread and water would seem like a feast," he told her. "As long as

you remember that mug of blood while you're at it," he hurriedly added, after a moment's

consideration.

"I think I can manage something a bit tastier than that," Willow said with a small smile as

she waved her hand and muttered under her breath. At her feet a small platter of

sandwiches and three mugs, two filled with orange juice and one filled with blood,

appeared out of thin air.

"Food," sighed Buffy, grabbing a sandwich with one hand as she picked up a mug of

orange juice with the other.  Spike closed his eyes in appreciation as he leaned back

against a boulder and took gulp of blood. For a split moment, he relaxed.

"I wonder what the test is?"

Spike eyes snapped open and studied Willow's thoughtful face. Watching her frown into

her mug, he realised that she didn't know she had spoken aloud. "I would have thought

that surviving this bloody place was enough of a test for anybody," he growled, ignoring

her startled face. He knew he had been acting like an absolute ponce all evening but he

couldn't seem to help himself, the last time he had been this much on edge was when he'd

been newly turned and was still living under the same roof as Darla and Angelus. A sharp

dig in the ribs pulled him out of his memories and he turned to look at Buffy's frowning

face.

"Could you take it down a few notches, Spike," she warned him. "What has gotten into

you anyway?" Unable to come up with an answer, Spike shrugged and turned away,

glaring into the fire silently. Pursing her lips in disapproval, Buffy glanced over at Willow,

who seemed to be a million miles away. "What was it that you were going to say,

Willow?" she asked gently.

"I was just thinking aloud, really," Willow admitted. "It's just that...well...I know that

this world is bad and everything but it's not exactly a test, is it?" she mused. "Somehow, I

think there is more to it...I think this dimension is merely a stage," she said, spreading her

arms to gesture at the landscape. "It's like a really big, very dangerous arena..."

"...And we're the gladiators," Spike glumly finished her sentence for her; it did make a

horrible kind of sense. "Great, I can't wait to see the lions."

"Maybe we already have," Buffy piped up. "I mean, there are those uber-thingies

roaming about."

"There are uber-vamps here?" asked Willow, her eyes widening nervously as she peered

into the darkness around her.

"Relax, luv, they only come out in the daylight hereabouts, not in the darkness," Spike

told her. "Personally, I don't blame 'em, that night sky is enough to put anybody off their

food..."

Buffy snorted as she helped herself to another sandwich. "It doesn't seem to have curbed

your appetite," she said, pointing at his empty mug.

"That's different, I was bloody fading away with the hunger here," he protested.

"So was the uber-vamp," Buffy replied smugly. "But you don't see them trawling around

in the dark, looking for a meal..." Buffy's voice trailed away as her words sunk in. "Hey,

why aren't they hunting for food at night?" she asked. "I mean, I know that they can

travel during the day here but all the same, that vamp was really malnourished looking. I

doubt it had eaten for at least a week. If food is that scarce here, I somehow don't see

them giving up the hunt merely because the sun had gone down. It doesn't make any

sense.

"Unless they know something we don't," Spike suggested, as he sat up straight and eyed

the darkness suspiciously.

Willow looked nervously around. "You mean, like something bigger and meaner than an

uber- vamp?"

"Willow..." Buffy interrupted gently.

 "Something that can only come out at night and is so terrifying that it would send a

Turuk-han scurrying for cover?

"Willow..."

 Something..."

"Alright Red, we've got the picture," Spike snapped, getting to his feet. "Damn, why

didn't I see it before? We've even lit a bloody beacon for it. From this hill the bloody fire

can probably be seen for miles around. We might as well have rung a bloody dinner bell."

As quickly as he could, he smothered the fire with dirt, ignoring Buffy's and Willow's

protests. "We've gotta get out of here," he said, folding his arms as he glared at them.

"We need to put as much distance as possible between us and this campfire before

whatever the bloody hell is out there comes looking."

"Why?" demanded Buffy, getting to her feet to meet his glare. "If this is the thing we have

to beat in order to pass the test, why should we run?"

"Because we're not ready!" he roared in frustration. "Because that bloody thing in the

white room was fully aware of how powerful you are yet seemed perfectly confident that

he could beat you!" Grabbing her by the arms, he pulled her closer, his voice lowering as

he whispered urgently into her ear. "Listen to me, luv, I know that we can beat this thing.

We've always won before and I don't believe for a second this time is going to be any

different. But we're not going to win like this; we need to know what we're up against

before we strike. Slayer...Buffy...trust me..."

"Okay, Spike, I'll wait a few days, but you know as well as I that sometimes there is no

such thing as being properly prepared," she muttered softly, relaxing in his grip before 

pulling away to look at Willow. "You said that you had more than one result when you

performed that locator spell, Willow. Which direction would we have to travel to get to

the nearest one?"

Willow pointed west. "As far as I could make out, the nearest one is that way."

"West it is, then," Silently, Buffy slipped her hand into Spike's. Glancing sideways to

study his face, she tilted her head questioningly, a small smile on her lips.

Squeezing her hand in his, he smiled back, hoping that his fear wasn't showing on his

face.

TBC...