Chapter 4

"That's none of you're bloody business. Me an' the bird heard this place was where things happened, and went here looking for some fun." Spike stared defiantly at the Master, but inside he tensely awaited his reaction, and to his relief the older vampire nodded and almost-smiled.

"Then you're at the right place, young Spike," he said. "This is where all of the power is, and there is much to do here. And if you want us to put you're human into a good place where she'll be looked after and thought some manners we can arrange that."

Behind him Spike could hear Buffy shift and he could almost feel her eyes burning a hole in his neck. Even though locking her in might be fun for a while, he knew she'd make him regret it afterwards, so he quickly shook his head no before she had time to do or say anything that would put them in trouble.

"Don't think so, mate" he said, putting a hint of dilemma in his tone. "I like to have her close by."

He could see the other vampires looking at him in agreement and with some envy, and turned around to see what Buffy's reaction might be. Of course she was fuming with rage. Several times she opened her mouth as if to say something, but then thought better of it.

"Then it'll be so," the Master said. "I'll send some of my human's over to fix up your rooms."

Spike stared at him in surprise.

"My rooms?" he asked, completely baffled by this.

Behind him Vin chuckled.

"Yes, you're rooms. I don't want you going around telling other's what a bad host I am," the Master said, the amused tone sounding strange and unnatural coming from him. "They will be ready in no time. Until then you can go down and get some refreshments." He looked at the vampires on each side of him and they immediately opened a door that had been hidden by thick, blood red curtains. "Now if you excuse me, I have some business to take care of."

But before he left he paused and looked at Spike with a cold glint in his eyes. "And one more thing, don't even think of causing trouble, young Spike. That would make me very disappointed. I'd hate it if I had to hurt you. Or worse."

Then he walked out with his two servants --or bodyguards -- following him and the tension slowly left the ones still in the room. When the door had closed Buffy stormed up to Spike and pushed him into the near by wall.

"How do you dare treating me as a-as a--." She fought to find the words, but when she couldn't find the ones she was looking for, she settled with giving him a deadly glare. Around them the other vampires watched them curiously.

"At least I didn't let them lock you in, pet. You should thank me," Spike answered her. Buffy scowled at him and pushed him into the wall one last time before letting him go.

"You let her speak to you like that?" one of the vampires, Spike thought his name was Brock, asked incredulously.

Buffy snorted and answered in his stead.

"There's not a question of 'letting' me do anything. I do and say whatever I want. And he's the last person I'd listen to." She didn't notice how her blonde companion looked away with a blank expression, his jaws clenched.

Vin exchanged amused looks with his friends and then walked up to the blond Slayer.

"That might be how things work where you come from, but around here we expect our humans to treat us with some respect."

"Did you say 'our' humans?" Buffy asked, her voice quivering with anger. "I don't belong to anyone, especially not him!" she said and pointed at Spike, who at the time seemed to be deep in thought.

There was a spark of interest in Brock's eyes, and he tilted his head to the side to get a better look at her.

"So you're saying you don't have an owner?" he asked her curiously, his eyes not leaving her.

"No!" she exclaimed coldly and hoped he'd stop staring at her.

Brock and the other vampire whose name hadn't been revealed yet exchanged smiles as they started moving towards the blonde woman. There was something in their yellow eyes that gave her the chills. It was like she was their prey, and since she knew that that was actually the fact, she reached for her stake. But before she had time to do anything Spike walked up and positioned himself between her and the two vampires. Without showing any emotions at all he turned to Vin.

"Me and the bird need to have a chat," he said to the larger vampire. Vin grinned and pointed at the door.

"I would do the same if I were you," he said amusedly. "If you just go two floors down there's a room where you can sit down. I doubt anyone else is there at this time, so you should be undisturbed."

Spike nodded and dragged Buffy after him without a word. The minute they were out of the room she pushed him away and stared at him angrily.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" she asked furious. "You're acting like you're some kind of boss over me, and I won't take that!"

He rolled let his game face go and rolled his eyes, then stared back at her in annoyance.

"I'm sorry luv if I stopped you from getting killed," he said in a hushed but cold voice. The woman in front of him frowned and looked at him strangely.

"What do you mean; get killed? I can take care of myself. And what's up with the Master? Shouldn't he be dead?"

He snorted and started making his way down the staircase without waiting to see if she was following. But after a couple of seconds he could hear the sound of footsteps behind him. He wondered how long it'd take her to get it.

"This is an alternate reality, pet," Spike said calmly after a couple of moments. "It doesn't matter that he's dead back in our dimension, thing's has developed differently here. And one of those things seems to be that the power position's has changed quite a bit. I acted the way I did so they wouldn't suspect anything was wrong. You didn't notice how they spoke of their human servants, and how they seemed to be surprised when you said you didn't belong to anyone?"

Buffy kept quiet, and for quite a long time they walked in silence. Then out of the blue she reached out and grabbed Spike's arm to make him stop.

"So you're saying that the vampire's rule over everything here, including all of the people, and that the Master is some kind of big boss and all of the humans work for him?"

He shrugged and started walking again.

"Seems like it. I'm surprised you haven't seen it. It's pretty obvious to me."

She kept quiet once again, and not until they reached the room Vin had been talking about did they even look at each other. The second they Buffy opened the doors Spike's eyes widened in bafflement and Buffy looked away in disgust.

"What is this place?" she muttered and wished she could wash away the images she'd just seen with soap. A huge painting covered the wall on the opposite side of the room; or maybe it was some kind of wallpaper? On it was the center of Sunnydale with people lying on the street and leaning against the house walls with blood pouring out of their severed necks. Here and there living humans stood, their faces masks of terror and with vampires closing in on them. There was blood everywhere, and the blood red wallpaper that seemed to be in every room didn't soften the feeling of disgust and horror that hit Buffy.

Next to her Spike watched the same thing, but the room didn't have the same effect on him as it had on her. Part of him wished he'd been there to experience the carnage, but other, much more confusing ones, felt guilty. He knew Buffy was horrified about it, and probably quite angry, her eyes alone spoke of her fury and disgust.

"I guess we should go in then," she said with an emotionless voice, and her eyes were fixed at the soft-looking sofas in the center of the room. It took them just four or five seconds to walk up to them. After they'd sat down they both kept quiet, deep in thought.

Buffy's mind was desperately trying to come up with a way of getting back home to Dawn and her friends, and away from this hell-place. The entire thing scared the hell out of her, even though she refused to admit any such thing to Spike. His presence was another thing she thought about. She really didn't want to spend any more time alone with him, no matter how her feelings towards him had changed since she'd come back. He was still a vampire, and there was no doubt in her mind that he was enjoying this immensely.

Spike on the other hand, wasn't thinking nearly as much about going home. His eyes were set on Buffy, even though he tried to hide it from her. The entire situation was like something from a dream. He had the opportunity to spend lots of time alone with her, for who knew how long, and without her having to keep up a front for her friends. He knew she was still troubled by the fact that she'd been brought back to life after going to heaven, and he knew keeping it from her friends was hard. She constantly had to act happy and untroubled, when she really wasn't.

When she started noticing his eyes upon her the silence grew tense, and both struggled to find something to say to break the uncomfortable situation.

"I think we need to talk," he finally said with a sigh. In stead of just shrugging and dismissing him like he'd feared she'd do, she nodded and straightened up like she was waiting for him to continue. 'That's a first,' he thought. 'She actually want to hear what I have to say.' "I think we both agree that this place isn't the Sunnydale we're used to, or the world we're used to," he continued. When she didn't say anything he kept on. "This is what I believe has happened; when we got sucked into the portal we got transported to this dimension where the vampires somehow managed to defeat the Slayer and take control over the humans."

"If there even was a Slayer here," Buffy said sadly and glanced over to the gruesome painting. "I'd thought they would've figured out who I was by now, I mean, with my 'unnatural' strength and all."

That thought hadn't even occurred to him, but it seemed to make sense. He could see Buffy didn't like it, but he found it to be quite relieving. If the Master and his minions had no idea what a Slayer was, which meant that they wasn't going to suspect who Buffy was, they wouldn't think of her as a threat. Hopefully they'd be left alone until they found a way to get back, or else they'd have to blend in as much as possible; there was no way that the two of them could take on all of the vampires in Sunnydale alone.

Another thought that kept nagging in the back of his mind was the possibility of staying. That way he might once again be thought of as a real vampire, for no one knew of his chip. And then there was the question of whether or not the chip really worked in this dimension. He didn't think that Buffy had given it any thought, she'd just assumed that it was working, but he couldn't keep himself from hoping. If the chip didn't work he could be his old self again, killing and wreaking havoc. But then Buffy would do everything she could to stop him, maybe even kill him.

That wasn't something he wanted.

He decided to wait and see what happened and take it from there.

"We should ask around, discretely of course," he told her. "Find out more about what's going on, and where all the people's at." He paused to look around the room once more, this time his eyes landed on the table in the corner that he somehow had managed to miss before. It was filed to the brim with glasses, plates, knifes, forks, and most importantly; a large bowl filled with something that looked suspiciously like blood. He drew in a deep breath and realized that it was, that scent couldn't be mistaken. Too his surprise he also saw that on a smaller table beside it there was some 'human' food, mostly fruit and vegetables. Apparently the humans residing in the building was vegetarians, or on a very strict diet. Buffy turned around as well and saw the same thing as he, but instead of the pleased look that was on his face; she frowned and wrinkled her nose.

"Care for some nutrition, pet? I'm feeling a bit peckish."

She snorted and was about to say something, but then she sighed and kept quiet. Her eyes lingered indecisively on the smaller table, and after several seconds she got up and accompanied Spike over to the corner. But while he engulfed as much as he could, she took only a rather small red apple and a glass of water. He wanted to tell her to eat while she had the chance, but deciding it wasn't the time. Besides, she was a big girl and could take care of herself. If she wanted to starve that was her problem.

Unless she collapsed in the middle of a fight, then it would be his problem as well.

"So you're basically saying that all of the humans are under the vampires control, which means that I'm expected to be too, so I'll have to act all weak and helpless?" she suddenly said out of the blue. When he didn't immediately answer she continued. "And then you're supposed to be like my owner or something? Because that's so not going to happen."

"Might now have much of a choice, luv," he said with a smirk. "We don't want to attract too much attention to ourselves, and if you're going to go around all free and ownerless that might be hard." He tilted his head to the said and gave her his most innocent look. "And besides, what's so bad about being owned by me?"

"It's not going to happen, forget it."

"You'd rather be controlled by Vin? Or maybe Brock?"

"Of course not! Over my dead body."

"That might actually happen unless you come to you're senses and do what you have to do."

"Not if we get out of here, Willow and the others are probably doing all they can to get us back." She paused. "Well, get me back at least."

He was about to reply when there was a soft knock on the door and a timid young woman walked in. She looked pale and scared when she looked at the two blondes arguing.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, sir, but I'm here to show you to you're rooms."

Both Buffy and Spike stared at her in surprise. She was the first human they'd seen since they went through the portal, and her weak and frightened appearance brought out waves of sympathy from Buffy. She couldn't imagine what she and the other survivors must have gone trough.

"Thank you," Buffy said softly and received an odd look from the woman. She had clearly expected it to be Spike who answered. "Just give us a minute."

She didn't move from the spot until Spike realized what she was waiting for.

"Leave us. Well be right out," he said with a commanding voice, and the girl hurried out. As soon as the door was closed he turned to Buffy. "I think that tells us our assumptions were right, don't you think?"

Buffy nodded and wished she were someplace else.

A/N: Thanks for the reviews, they aren't many but greatly appreciated! I know that the updates are coming pretty far apart, but I only have a computer on the weekends, and my schedule is kinda full. But I'm writing as quickly as I can, and as soon as I have a chapter finished, I'll post it. Oh, and review, review, review! It makes me writ faster. :)