Disclaimer: I don't own BTVS or Ats or...any of the characters. That makes me sad sometimes, but...hey...what can I do about it?

Pairings: B/A!

A/N: Hey guys! I apologize for not updating for soooo long. It has been months, I know. And I can't even blame it on my computer, because my computer has been working pretty well for quite some time now...I just have to blame it on my inspiration. The lack of it, to be specific. But I'm back now. So please don't be mad...Thanks for all the wonderful reviews btw. It's nice to know you guys appreciate this story and my writing. It also motivates me to write more, so...that's all good. Anyway, enjoy! Please review!

Chapter 10

"Where's Cordy's room?" Buffy asked.

"On the other end of the hall" Angel told Buffy.

"Alright...well...we should hurry up, before they start to get suspicious."

They started to walk through the empty hallway, all wondering how long it would last until they would run into someone. That wouldn't be the end of the world, but it all depended on who they would run into. When they had reached Cordy's room, they all looked at each other.

"Do you hear anything?" Faith asked Angel.

Angel shook his head.

"No, but that doesn't really say anything. She might be asleep or something...."

Fred took a knife out of her pocket.

"If she's in there, someone just needs to make a small cut in the palm of her hand or something. Same goes for all of you. Then your blood has to touch hers...It's easy in theory"

Faith took the knife from Fred .

"I'll go in first" she decided.

She stood still in front of the door and looked at the others.

"Should I....knock first?" she asked, hesitantly.

"That would be the polite thing to do" Fred said.

"But on the other hand, we're not here to be polite" Xander said.

"That's true" Fred agreed.

"So no knocking?" Faith asked to be sure.

"No knocking" Buffy decided.

Faith looked at the others one more time, then she opened the door and went inside. She closed the door behind her.

The others that were still standing in the hallway, looked at each other. All they could do was wait. Xander sat down on the floor with his back against one of the doors. Fred followed his example. Angel was using his vampire hearing to find out what was going on in the room. Buffy sighed. She was afraid this was never going to work out. There were too many things that could go wrong. Suddenly she felt a little light in the head. She reached out for the wall next to her and brought her other hand to her head. This was really weird.

"Everything okay, Buff?" Xander asked, looking up at her.

Buffy tried to answer, but she couldn't open her mouth, let alone form words. She knew she had to sit down, otherwise she was going to fall down. She was slowly dropping herself on her knees, when she saw white flashes in front of her eyes. She tried to turn her head away, because the flashes were giving her a headache. It didn't help, the flashes were all around her. She tried to close her eyes, but it didn't stop the flashes. It was better than keeping her eyes open though.

"Buffy?"

She heard Angel's voice coming from somewhere far away...Very far away. She felt as if she was floating, but she couldn't tell for sure, since everything she saw were the flashes. She felt as light as a feather. Then all of a sudden the flashes stopped. Buffy kept her eyes closed for another minute or so, until she was sure that everything was okay again. When she eventually opened her eyes, she was surprised to find herself really sitting on her knees. She hadn't realized that she had actually fell down on her knees. She was still in the hallway of the hotel. In the same spot. Yet, everything was different. The walls seemed to be a different shade of red and so did the carpet on the floor. The weirdest thing was that she was all alone. Everyone was gone. She slowly helped herself up to her feet again. She was still a little dizzy and blamed the flashes.

"Angel?" she softly called out.

"No, luv. It's just me"

Buffy immediately turned around and was greeted by the familiar features of the vampire with a soul who wasn't Angel.

"Spike?"

She heard herself saying his name, but didn't realize she had really said it. She was too...shocked. Spike walked up to her, an amused look in his eyes.

"You look like you've seen a ghost" he joked.

Buffy knew how lame that sounded, but it seemed to be very appropriate at this moment.

"How is...I mean, where....wh-what is....You...You're..." Buffy tried to form a sentence.

"Dead? Yeah, this time in the literal sense of the word."

Buffy didn't know why, but all of a sudden everything seemed to make perfect sense. As shocked as she had been only minutes ago, so normal everything seemed now. She just wanted to ask the right questions and get the right answers.

"What is going on?"

"I told you I would never really leave you"

Buffy knew that was true. He actually did promise her that. It's the reason she gave him the amulet.

"Yeah well, I didn't think you would take it this literally"

Spike smiled.

"Haven't lost your sense of humour, I see."

"Or my sense of style. Unlike some of us. Didn't anyone ever tell you white just isn't your color?" Buffy said, while observing his clothes.

Spike looked down at his whiter than white pants and his white blouse.

"Where's the matching hat?" she added.

"No hat. Just one of the bloody rules of bloody heaven. You should know."

Buffy looked at him. Did he say heaven? Had he gone to heaven? Spike noticed the surprise looked on Buffy's face.

"Yeah, I was kinda surprised myself. Always thought of myself as quite a badass."

"It's nice, isn't it?" Buffy found herself asking.

Memories of the time she had spent in heaven filled her mind.

"It's nice and peaceful. Little boring, sometimes." Spike said and he grinned.

"So why are you here? Or why am I here?"

"They send me with a message"

"They?"

"You don't wanna know. You probably wouldn't understand. I'm not even sure I understand. It's above everyone's understanding....Explains their arrogance. Think they're special and all"

"What's the message?"

Spike put his hands in his pockets and looked at the woman standing in front of him.

"Her name"

Buffy frowned.

"Whose name?"

"Beats me. That's the message: Her name. Her name is the answer to the problem.

Buffy thought about his words. Her name. Her name was the answer to the problem. Whose name? And what problem? The only problem she could think of was Jasmine. And to call her a problem was a bit of an understatement. Was that what the message meant? No, it couldn't be. Jasmine already had a name. Right?

"Do you know what it means?" Spike asked.

Buffy looked up at him.

"Do you know anything more?"

Spike shook his head.

"Are you sure? This could be very important, Spike. I need you to tell me everything you know."

"I already have. They did ask me to give you something though"

Buffy gave him a questioning look as Spike got something out of his pocket. He held out his hand. A blue, shiny orb was in it.

"What's that?"

"I'm pretty sure it's some sort of portal to another dimension. Don't know much about it though, except humans can't survive there. I also heard something about a name-keeper. That's all I know"

Buffy reached out with a trembling head and took the orb from Spike. When her hand touched his, she looked up. He knew what she meant.

"Don't know why that is. It's like I have a circulation. I have a heart-beat now too. Ironic, considering I didn't have one when I was still alive...more or less."

Buffy smiled. She reached out her other hand and brought it up to his chest. When she felt the heart-beat underneath her hand, her smile grew wider. She looked up at him.

"It's a good heart-beat."

Spike smiled at her and Buffy took her hand back.

"You have to go now" Spike said.

Buffy nodded and looked down at the orb. She had to force herself to look up again. It was hard to say goodbye...Again.

"Well...maybe I'll see you again"

"Maybe you will" Spike assured her.

She tried to smile.

"Thank you. For the orb...and for being here"

"I'm just a messenger-boy" Spike shrugged.

"Well, if it helps...You're more than that to me."

"That does help"

"Good" Buffy whispered and once again looked down.

When she looked up again, Spike was gone. She smiled a little. This time, when the white flashes returned, she didn't close her eyes. She kept staring at the spot where Spike had been standing only seconds ago. Suddenly the hallway dissapeared. Now all she saw was black. It took her a few minutes to realize that she saw the black, because she had her eyes closed. Even though she was pretty sure she hadn't even closed her eyes. For a while, she wasn't sure she wanted to wake up, but then she realized she didn't have much of a choice. She opened her eyes and found herself lying in a bed. Xander was sitting next to the bed, looking at her.

"Hey" Buffy softly said.

Xander smiled.

A/N: This wasn't the longest chapter, I know, but I felt like I had to end the chapter here. I'll try to update asap though....although that might not be very soon, since I'm pretty busy with school and such. I'll do my best though. And you know what you guys could do to help? I think you do....Yep, exactly. Just click the little button that says: Go. And leave some kind words. Or not of course. Depends on what you thought of this chapter. Okay...well...I'll leave you and the little 'Go' button alone now. Have fun!

Steffanie (a.k.a Nice-one)