Chapter 3

Alexa and Spike followed the trail of demon blood and bodies through eerily silent and empty streets, until they spot one body that isn't a demon. Alexa's eyes widened, and she bit her lip.

"Shit." Her voice was a whisper, and Spike gave her an odd look.

"What?"

She nodded towards the body. "Gunn..."

"How did you know his name?" Spike looked at her again, sharply.

Alexa drew in a deep breath. "A friend of mine from my dimension is Charles Gunn. He's a marine. One of the five of us with the barbed wire dipped in blood on our arm." She touched her right hand to the black and red tattoo on her left bicep. "One cluster for each of us." She closed her eyes briefly, before moving on, her eyes searching for Shannon.

They found Angel and Shannon leaning against a wall, trying to catch their breath. The dark vampire looked up as they approached, then closed his eyes again, letting his head rest against the wall again. "The dragon took off after you."

"So it did." Spike dropped Shannon's duffel at her feet, and Alexa followed him, crouching beside her friend as Shannon slid down the wall.

"How did the blades work out?" Alexa nodded to the nightstick-style blades still held against Shannon's arms.

"Very well. I'm still in one piece, aren't I?" Shannon opened one eye to look at Alexa. "And you?"

"Fought a dragon, discovered just how fast I can run flat out when trying to get away from aforementioned beast. Found out one of my friends has a counterpart in this universe, only dead."

"Which one?"

"Gunn." Alexa shook her head, her right hand straying up to touch the barbed-wire tattoo again. "Gotta remember he's back home, on his honeymoon."

Angel was listening to the two women talk, and took that moment to interrupt their converesation. "How did you two get here? Other than falling about ten feet to the pavement."

Alexa chuckled. "We did do that, didn't we?"

"I still have bruises to prove it," Shannon quipped, shooting a brief glare at her friend.

Alexa shrugged. "Better bruises than glass cuts." She looked up at Angel, an innocent look on her face. "Do you want the quick and easy answer, or the long and technical version?"

"Quick and easy," Spike piped up. "We can get the long and technical later."

"A dimensional portal. One very large sheet of glass, several miles of wire, and some pretty sophisticated technology." Alexa shrugged. "No way back."

Angel looked as dubious as Shannon had when Alexa had been preparing the equipment before they left. "You planned on coming here?"

Alexa shrugged. "Seemed like a good idea at the time."

"Before the demons, the dragons, and the near-death experience." Shannon stood, switching one sword to the other hand so she could toss her duffel over her shoulder. "Can we find someplace where I can clean up?"

Angel indicated the way back they had come. "The hotel has running water, you can clean up there."

"Thank you." Shannon smiled gratefully at Angel, and the four of them trooped back to the hotel, Angel directing the two women to unoccupied rooms to clean up as he ducked into his room to do the same.

Alexa collapsed onto the bed in the room she'd been given after she'd washed the blood from her body, her clothing laying crumpled on the floor of the bathroom. She ignored the fact there were no sheets on the matress, soon falling asleep, exausted.

The next morning, Alexa wandered downstairs, dressed in another pair of black jeans and a tank top, her normal headscarf keeping her hair out of her face. She yawned as she stepped into the lobby, rolling her neck. "Morning."

"Morning, sleepyhead." Shannon looked up from the breakfast she'd scrounged up, offering a slice of toast to the other woman. "It's almost eleven."

"And you're just getting breakfast," Alexa observed, taking the toast. "I don't see the blond bloodsucker or the brooding one. Do you suppose they're up yet?"

Shannon snorted. "You would notice their absence. No, I haven't seen them myself. But they might be up, for all I know. Besides, they have names."

Alexa shrugged, poking around the lobby, munching on the slice of toast. "And?"

Shannon rolled her eyes, spotting one of the vampires coming down the stairs, swollowing her mouthful of food. "Morning."

"Morning." Angel nodded to Shannon. "I didn't get your names last night. I'm Angel"

Alexa chuckled. "We know. I'm Alexa Savage, she's Shannon Morgan."

"You knew?"

"Um..." Alexa looked over to Shannon for some support, and the other woman snickered, waving her to continue digging the hole deeper on her own. "Well... yourethetitlecharacterofashowbackhome," she mumbled rapidly, stringing all the words together into one.

"What?" Angel looked confused.

"There's a T.V. show back home called Angel. You're the star character. Spike comes in in season 5, and we made the jump to correspond with the end of the show. I think." Shannon looked over at Alexa, raising an eyebrow.

"That was the theory, anyway. I don't think it quite worked the way James or I thought it would. But that's why it was theory, not fact." Alexa smiled sheepishly. "But I can add to the notes, now, with some actual data on how the theory stands up to reality."

Angel walked away as the two women started debating the merit of taking notes on dimensional travel when they wouldn't get to put them to use, shaking his head. Spike came down a short while later, into the middle of an arguement that had managed to change subject somewhere in the middle.

"Did I miss something?" He joined Angel over to one side, shooting an odd look at the two women.

"Just some techno babble about how they got here, and an arguement over blowing up a house."